The Computer Club Newsletter

August 2003

By Ron Uncapher

The Tellico Village Computer User Club will return to the normal meeting format with its September meeting. The date is Tuesday, September 2^nd. The Computer Basics session will begin at 6:30 PM followed by the General meeting at 7:30 PM after a ten-minute break. The featured speaker this month will be Mike Broyles. His topic will be An Introduction to Adobe PhotoShop. Don’t miss it. Also, for the October meeting we have a sneak preview presentation by Microsoft on their new Office 2003. See the Events page on the TVCUC Website for details on both meetings.

How many of you out there have been introduced to the BLASTER worm, otherwise known as LOVSAN. This virus/worm has recently made all the papers and TV station news broadcasts. I hope you haven’t become intimately familiar with BLASTER. This worm is a problem only with Windows XP and 2000. Windows 98 and ME users can relax on this one. Briefly, a susceptibility in the XP and 2000 operating systems has allowed this fairly benign infection to invade computers all over the world. It is not a malicious worm, but it could have been. It can be more or less of a nuisance though, mainly affecting access to the Internet. It randomly causes the invaded computer to shut down, or disconnect from the Internet. The next cracker to take advantage of this Windows hole may not be so kind. So before this worm or the next one wiggles into your computer, fix it. There is a fix available from Microsoft that plugs the susceptibility hole. If my Windows XP and Windows 2000 readers have not yet done so, please connect to the Internet and then click on Start-Windows Update. This should lead you to the Microsoft Windows Update site from which you can follow the directions on the Update page and download the correct update. It should be listed as a "Critical Update". You can also read about the Blaster Worm by pointing your browser to www.microsoft.com/security/incident/blast.asp .

If you think that perhaps you already have been invaded by the Blaster Worm, the above website also contains the instructions for removing it. Another source for information and repair tools is the Symantec (Norton AntiVirus) website, http://securityresponse.Symantec.com .

All Windows users should periodically go to Windows Update to check for critical updates and prevent situations such as the Blaster Worm. All of the updates listed on the Update site are not usually required unless they are labeled "Critical". Critical Updates fix security problems. However, many of the updates will fix other problems in Windows that may be giving you a headache. Read the description of the update and decide whether or not you need it.

If your anti virus software is up to date, it will probably catch the worm, but better safe than sorry. Go ahead and download the patch. Also, while you are on the Internet, update your anti virus software program. This might be a good time to review the Computer Club Connection article from March 2002. It deals with computer viruses and anti virus programs. You can find that article and all past articles at www.TVCUC.org  in the Library section.

While on the subject of updates, be aware that most software suppliers, from time to time, publish updates to their programs. Microsoft, Intuit, Adobe, and many more will have a section of their websites devoted to support of their program. Somewhere in you documentation or in the Help menu you should find a link to the software manufacturer’s site. Go there and in the support section you will find a link titled "Updates" or "Patches" or "Downloads". This is where you will find updates for your applications. Some applications, such as Quicken and Norton, will either have a link in the program that sends you to the website for updates, or will automatically go there when you are connected to the web. It is worthwhile to apply these updates since they fix bugs that may be obvious, or that may be slowing down the operation of your computer. Keeping your programs up to date will enhance your enjoyment of your computer.

Until next month, see you at the Computer Club meeting.