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Sunday, 19 August 2001
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No entry.
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Monday, 20 August 2001
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No entry.
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Tuesday, 21 August 2001
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Well, the virus attacks seem to have quieted down for a while. Although both at home and at work, where I use Popup Killer (PUK), the program file got corrupted by a virus that I hadn't heard of before. InoculateIT detected the virus, but couldn't clean it, and its default setting was to not allow access to an infected file, so I actually had to disable the antivirus program before I could uninstall the offending program. Then I tried to reinstall from my Download folder, but that was infected, too. Only a fresh download and reinstallation from the web cured the infection. If I recall, the message InoculateIT gave me referred to a virus file called ROKDAV.EXE or something similar, which infected PUK's HREF.OCX file in my C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder. Odd. But cured for now. I tried (again) Dave Farquhar's recommendation of Proxomitron, but it made too many pages inaccessible to me. I generally find PUK to be the best balance for me of killing annoying things like x10 ads, while still allowing most normal browsing. As of today, the current version is 1.32, dated 18 August 2001.
Interesting, isn't it, how just as with biological virus attacks, computer viruses are becoming more virulent? Sir Cam incorporates several tricks designed specifically to evade common antivirus programs. The future promises to be interesting. That's "interesting" as in the traditional Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."
LATER...
So my domain name is expiring on September 18th, and my current registrar wanted about $25 to renew for another year, and I knew I could do better than that. I used Domain Zero, which gave me the domain for one year for nothing, except filling out a "please spam me" form. For the record, almost none of their sponsors emailed me. So I searched Google for "domain name registration" and came up with this company in Vancouver, BC, that would tranfer my current registration and tack on another year for $13. Seems reasonable, given my truly minimal needs.
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Wednesday, 22 August 2001
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I spent half the day and then all evening wrestling with a recalcitrant Exchange 5.5 server, and it's still not fixed yet. I noticed that it hadn't been patched for the Code Red virus, and needed the latest service pack applied, so I downloaded everything and applied it all. At which point the Message Transfer Agent and the Internet Mail Service stopped working. Well, after exhaustive (and exhausting) troubleshooting, enlisting better minds than my own, it seems most likely that the SP4 download must have been corrupted. We eventually determined that after backing up the existing files, then wiping everything out and doing a clean install. As soon as we applied SP4... kablooey. Ipso facto, QED, et cetera... At least that's the premise under which I'm operating now. In the morning, back into the fray to perform yet another clean install, this time to be updated using a "known good" copy of SP4 with which I patched my own Exchanged server at the office. Wish me luck...
Oh, and once again, here are some Exchange 5.5 update links: the Exchange 5.5 Service Pack 4, the MS Exchange 5.5 Update Q301361, the Exchange 5.5 RPC Patch 2654.51, and last but not least, the MS NT4 Security Rollup Package.
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Thursday, 23 August 2001
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Today I spent ALL day until 6:30 pip emma wrasslin' that stupid Exchange server into submission. No, it wasn't a bad SP4 download... I'll never know what it was, but the bottom line appears to be that SP4 can never go on that server. Argh! I eventually ended up reinstalling Exchange 5.5, and then putting SP4 on it, which killed its ability to actually send and receive mail, but allowed access to the existing mailboxes. Then I logged in as each individual user and added Personal Folders to each mailbox, and then moved everything from their mailbox to their personal folders. Then I uninstalled Exchange, and reinstalled it with no service packs, which made it once again able to actually send and receive mail. Then I again logged in as each user, and copied all the contents of their Personal Folders back to their new mailbox. Back in business, only unpatched. I'll take a Service Pack 3 CD out with me next time, and try installing that. AFTER backing up all their mailboxes.
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Friday, 24 August 2001
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Today I called the company that had the goofy Exchange server, and walked a young lady through installing the Code Red patch, which I forgot to do before I left last night. Odds are fair to good that the server was infected during the night, but the patch forces a reboot, which clears the virus from memory. So they should be OK for a while. What have I learned from this experience? Well, first and foremost there's Read The Fine Manual, which would have caused me to back up the mailboxes before applying the deadly service pack, which would have eliminated a lot of backing and filling, and saved me many hours and much aggravation. Second, even without the Fine Manual reminding me, Backup Thy Data Before Tweezing It, Thou Dimwit Thou! Third, for all the neat stuff in the Microsoft Support Knowledge Base, the one thing you REALLY need will be either nonexistent or un-findable. Hey, I found LOTS of stuf there about the error messages I was receiving, but nary a one that actually made my problem go away. Ack!
But the bottom line is that the company has email again, and nobody offered to assault me with a deadly weapon, so I guess we're basically OK for the time being. Now the big question is, how much can we bill them to recover some of our expense? I plan to turn that over to those who enjoy wrangling about that stuf. Me, I'm just a twenny-nine cent computer guy.
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Saturday, 25 August 2001
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No entry.