I am finally ready to announce my new blog.

Online IT Guide is my new blog.

It is computer advice and blogging for people who have a life. I’ll be sharing computer advice to help with everyday computer problems. I have a very heavy emphasis on handling viruses and malware there right now (there has been so much lately that I think it is a priority).

I’ll also be talking about blogging.

Initially, my emphasis will be on building a blog or website for a small business, although much of that will be applicable to anyone starting a blog. I see a lot of local small business that have a terrible website (if they even have a website). Many barely rank for their own name, much less typical search engine searches that they need to. I’ve grown tired of searching for a local business and finding the typical citysearch type directory instead. I’m looking to help them develop a site that they can change on their own without having to fork over a couple thousand dollars to a developer when they need to change something.

My goal at Online IT Guide will be to make the information understandable to everyday people.

Information like:

• What they need to do to keep their computer safe.
• How to maintain their computer.
• How to back up their data.
• How to set up WordPress for a business site.
• How to create content on a business website that will bring in paying clients.
• When it is time to find an expert to handle the situation.

Again, I am going to try and present this information so anyone can understand (I know I’m doing it right if my mom can follow it).

I will be putting nearly all my blogging effort and time into Online IT Guide.

Much of the blogging topics I would cover here will be covered there. I won’t be making much effort to post here anymore. However, there are some things I may want to post that will not fit into the topic there. Those posts may find a place here. For the most part though, Digital Key is not going to be much of an active blog.

For those that have taken the time to read, follow, and comment here over the years, I thank you. I think you’ll like the new site too. I personally think that everyone you know should subscribe to the site so you know if there is an important update or malware you may need to be concerned about (and there is a lot at the moment).

Head over to http://onlineitguide.com because you’re going to like it!

I’ll be removing the top commentator and making some other changes here but for the most part this site will still stay the same. It is just not going to get the same priority. Who knows, it work out better than it did before.

Cyberwarfare has started but not between countries.

Everyone seems to be missing the really interesting aspects of the Google-China events this week.

Most of the emphasis has been on the idea that Google is going to leave China. While Google does state that they may end up closing shop in China, that is not the whole story. It is not even the most interesting part of what is going on here.

First, what happened in this cyber attack?

Google fights back - threatens to use truth

Well according to Google, source in China attacked their computer system and stole intellectual property. In studying the attack, Google discovered that it really seemed to be aimed at getting information from the accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

“Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident–albeit a significant one–was something quite different.

First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses–including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors–have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.” -Official Google Blog

Google also discovered that the Chinese attackers targeted at least 20 other companies.

While I haven’t seen any news about the other companies, there has been some new released by Google on the attack of their system. While some of their intellectual property was stolen (look for it to show up on Baidu the Chinese government run search engine) Google claims that Google app and their cloud was secure. They have also discovered Gmail accounts of the Chinese human rights activists have been accessed by a third party. Google Enterprise Blog

Google’s response has impressed me.

They have decided they will not have a censored search engine in China. Either there will have to be way for it to me uncensored or they will leave. This is where I think everyone misses the point.

It’s not that Google is leaving China.

They are telling the Chinese government “no more”. It remains to be seen how this is going to go. Will China let Google go uncensored? Will Google just leave? Will Google just decide to let things keep running after they leave and turn the censor off? Google is standing up to the communist government.

Who has the power in Cyberwar?

While it may be possible for a government to turn off the internet in their country, a running search engine could really make a difference. Imagine, if during the recent demonstrations in Iran, a running search engine turned all searches into results that aided the opposition. Will the internet works, and the search engine is running, the outcome could be changed if the search engine took sides (and probably even if it remained neutral-truth is the enemy of despotism).

But Google has shown a bit more this time than just it’s ability to search the web and return results.

They even admit that they are letting a bit more information out this time than normal. They know where the attack came from. They know what the attack was targeting. They know who they are blaming. They aren’t insinuating anything. They are telling the world who did it and why. Google is ticked off.

For those who have any doubt left, Google knows what is happening on the internet.

Google has so many bots and so much code, that there is not much that can happen without them knowing about it. They know where the traffic is coming from. They know where the traffic is going to. Google’s move into DNS hosting only further strengthens that knowledge. You really don’t want to be cheating on your Adsense ads. They will catch you.

For the first time, I am glad to see Google using that knowledge.

They exposed an attack by the Chinese government on computers in other countries. An attack that threatens your privacy as well. They attacked companies (including Google) that you may have accounts with.

It’s a cyberwar.

It’s not between countries. It’s between countries and companies. Right now, between Google and China.

Why does the title of this post include Adobe?

Near the beginning of December, a zero day exploit was announced in Adobe PDF products. This means that the exploit was already being used. Adobe decided to wait about a month before releasing a fix. Now, to me, you would have to be an idiot to allow an exploit in your software to go on for a month. That, or you have a reason for that exploit to exist for a full month damaging your customers computers and your reputation. At the moment, I’m leaning towards idiot, but…

The Adobe PDF exploit was used in some way with the Google attacks.

Did whoever make the decision at Adobe want to wait till these attacks were finished? What were they thinking? Were they taking advice from the Chinese government -maybe promised some advantage in China in return? It makes you wonder.

Have you updated Adobe PDF products on your computer yet?

Are you aiding the communists? It does not matter what operating system you use, make sure you have updated it (version 9.3 of Adobe reader was released 1-12-10). Do it now and make sure you are completely updated (I’ve had problems with versions 8 and earlier not wanting to update all the way).

I have just one more question about this whole attack. I think it is kinda cool. It really proves my point about Google knowing what goes on in the Internet. Maybe they should start a network security service.

How did Google know that 20 other companies were attacked? And before they knew.

The power in cyberwarfare has shifted.

Has the Google Wave caught you yet?

Many have now received an invitation for the preview of Google Wave.

If no one you know has an invite for you, you may be able to request one direct from Google. The “preview” part means it is not all finished yet. You may expect some bugs and problems (hey, even Gmail went down for while in 2009).

Is Google Wave the wave of the future?

What is Google Wave and why would you want it?

Wave is Google’s proposal for a new type of email. It combines email and chat in a forum-like thread. Extensions add features like maps, games, video, and many other options.

Wave really shows promise as a useful collaboration tool.

With a few extensions, I could see it having much of the features of Microsoft Groove. You start a wave just like an email; however, each person added to the wave can interact live just like in a chat room. You can play back a Wave almost like a movie to find out who made what changes or replies at what point in the Wave. It is hard to explain but easy to see once you use it.

What is not so great about Google Wave?

Well just like an email can be forwarded to someone you may not want it to be, anyone in the Wave can add someone else from their contacts. It is possible to edit someone else’s reply (although you are then both marked as having made or edited the reply). I would like some kind of way of making a Wave private so another person not originally invited is added and a way to mark a reply or blip (the official name for each reply or part of a Wave) non-editable as an option.

Google Wave does not work in all browsers.

Wave works in Firefox and Chrome. IE does not support HTML yet so a Wave  frame must be loaded before it works in Internet Explorer. They don’t seem to recommend that (try it yourself to see). As of now, I do not believe there are any smartphones that can handle Wave (I nearly got it to work in Opera Mini on a Blackberry, but could not read the Waves). My guess is there will be Wave specific apps before the browsers will work.

The biggest problem is the Wave users.

Actually, the lack of Wave users. There aren’t too many people using it yet. Annoyingly, some of the people I have sent invites to have not even signed up. Some that have signed up have yet to reply to the Wave I sent them. I might as well have spent my invites on total strangers for all the good it has done. At least they could have passed on invites to people that might have used Wave.

So, will Google Wave become a new internet standard?

Maybe not as Google Wave. “What!” you say. Google has released the Wave code as open source. They are allowing other  companies (even Microsoft) to use it to make it universal. It is something everyone can take and use (like email). I think this is its strength as far as becoming a new standard (well, Microsoft rarely decides to use open formats for anything but prefers to introduce its own standard that fails to work even with other MS products). Time will tell.

I see much potential in Wave.

I have family members that spend a lot of emails talking about the family tree, family photos, and family reunions. These are the types of things that Wave would work fantastic for. If you have to organize an event, a Wave with all those involved is simply a no-brainer. It could even replace typical chat programs.

Surf’s up.

Have you used Wave? What do you think?

Scientific American had an article recently about a digital camera that helped catch its own thief.

One extremely frightening point has been missed in the article and other posts I have read about the story.

If you do not want to click through to the original article as Scientific American take a look at the quote below. The dangerous point about Wi-Fi is in this quote. See if you spot it.

Lost cameras "phone home" to catch thieves: Scientific American

Equipped with a special memory card with wireless Internet capability, DeLauzon’s camera had not only automatically sent her holiday pictures to her computer, but had even uploaded photos of the miscreants who swiped her equipment bag after she accidentally left it behind at a restaurant.

"I opened up the Eye-Fi manager on the computer and, lo and behold, there are the guys that stole our cameras," said DeLauzon, a native of New York’s Long Island suburb. "Not only is it the guy who stole our camera … but the guy took a picture of (his accomplice) holding our other camera."

DeLauzon received the Eye-Fi, a 2-gigabyte SD memory card that fits into millions of digital cameras, as a holiday gift to go with her Canon  camera. Priced at about $100, the card automatically uploads pictures to a home computer or online photosharing service as soon as the user is linked to a familiar wireless network. Luckily, the culprits passed by an unsecured network, whose factory-installed setting matched that of DeLauzon’s home system, and the Eye-Fi automatically shipped the photos: first baby pictures, then the snap-happy scoundrels.

This seems like a nice story about how a Wi-Fi equipped digital camera helped itself get found after being stolen (or lost).

I am glad the DeLauzon’s got their digital camera, photos, and videos back. I am sure the expensive of buying a new digital camera would have been the smallest part of the loss.

So what could be so scary about a Wi-Fi equipped digital camera?

Well, what if the photos were stolen instead of the camera? What if the DeLauzon’s were to find out that photos of their baby’s first bath were stolen and put on a child porn site? Not only could it happen, but the camera did not need to be stolen for this to happen. Also, it is very possible that it could have happened and pictures the DeLauszon’s have taken with the WiFi equipped camera are out there now, circulating the Web. It could be happening to you also.

An unsecured Wi-Fi equiped camera connected to an unsecured wireless network – AUTOMATICALLY!

There are thousands if not millions of unsecured wireless devices and networks out there. They will connect to any wireless network or WiFi device they come in contact with. It is a terrible risk to take.

Let’s see who could have been hurt without any camera being stolen.

Well, I already talked about the photos the DeLauzon’s are apparently broadcasting to any WiFi network their camera is in range of. No big deal for someone on those networks to steal the images for their own use.

On the other hand…

The owner of the unsecured wireless network is taking a risk also. What if the images were of something illegal? Perhaps being uploaded to a Website. Guess where the authorities re going to look if they investigate? The IP address used to upload them and that is going to be the owners of the network. While you may be innocent until proven guilty, your neighbors might not think that way when they hear about the pervert that may be living next door.

OK, how safe are you when you use Wi-Fi?

Is your home or business network using the highest security you can? This won’t stop everyone, but at least makes it difficult for anyone to steal your network bandwidth. You may want to thing about changing the key regularly also. A hassle, but it would help keep your network safe for your computers.

Do you connect to unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots?

You are really taking a risk with wireless hotspots. If you check your email, your password and account may be transmitted in a way that can be easily stolen. Nowadays, an email address and password may make someone stealing your credit card seem like you gave a few pennies to the Salvation Army bell ringer. Too many financial institutions will let you reset login passwords with just the correct email address.

Does your laptop automatically connect to wireless networks – even ones you trust?

There is software available that will imitate popular Wi-Fi hotspots. If your computer automatically logs on to the network, it may try to log on and give your password and account away. The software can be set up to imitate other wireless networks. I have it installed on my own laptop. It should be fun in airports. Both Windows and possibly Mac OS computers seem vulnerable to this technique. You may want to make sure that your laptop only connects where you tell it too. To what you tell your laptop to connect to.

Wireless network security should be taken seriously.

Often wireless networks and devices are not configured with even the most basic security. This is from complexity, ignorance, and laziness. It is real easy to just leave your Wi-Fi network or wireless device unsecured because it probably connects right out of the box without you having to do anything. It is also transmitting all your information to anyone who will listen.

Hey! You, blogging from your laptop at Gate 42! Mind if I add a few extra links on your blog?

You’ll never know. You’re just lucky I’m a nice guy.

A series of unfortunate events Memorial Day weekend demonstrated some advantages Linux and open source software have over commecial software choices.

I learned one of the advantages of Linux over other operating systems. Don’t let the somewhat geeky story below turn you off, there is a lesson to be learned.

After testing Ubuntu on another computer, I decided I wanted to load it on my laptop.

I bought a new hard drive and my plan was to create a dual boot system with Windows XP. This way, I would still have XP available for some things if I decide I need it.
My first step was to clone my old disk to the new larger one.

While I was very interested in switching to Linux, I needed to keep my old data, email, and even my bookmarks. Let’s face it, after two years on a computer and a long time with Microsoft Windows, I am not going to switch overnight. Or, so I thought.

I used a Linux live CD to clone the drive.

There is a simple one line command in Linux that will clone a hard drive. That includes a hard drive with Windows on it. You could purchase something like Ghost to clone the hard drive. I think that is too expensive. Especially since a Linux live CD is free. After the clone, I was able to boot into Windows and everything was just the way it should be. Great tool.The clone worked perfectly. Too perfectly.

After cloning the drive, then next step is to reduce the size of the Windows partition to make space on the rest of the drive.

This is where I discovered I had a problem. I used a Linux CD called Parted Magic. Unfortunately, Parted Magic noticed a problem with the NTFS partition my Windows XP was installed on. A check showed that this same error was on the original drive. Parted Magic would not do anything till the error was fixed.

This is where Windows failed me in several ways all at once.

First, the possible cause of the error may actually be software that I legally purchased using the error as some kind of copy protection. Not really the fault of Windows itself, but still a bad mark. I will be paying close attention to any software I install from now on. If I should find software purposely has damaged my hard drive I will do my best to demonstrate that they are not a company that should be trusted for anyone’s software needs. Even if I decided not to run Linux, I had a disk with an error that needed to be fixed.

To correct the problem, I needed to run chdisk from a recovery prompt.

This is where Bill Gate’s company really failed me. I could not get my windows to boot into recovery mode. So, I tried the disks. Unfortunately, the computer is a laptop and I do not have a normal system disk. I have HP’s recovery disks which consists of the four DVD’s that I had to create so I could rebuild the machine if the drive should go bad. I had two choices when using these, quit or erase everything and reinstall everything. No recovery console.

OK, I have lots of computers and lots of Windows system disks, one should work.

I have several XP CD’s, several Windows 98 CD’s, and I even have a Windows Millennium CD. Didn’t work either. It seems there is some kind a bug in some versions of XP. You cannot log into recovery console, it will not recognize the password even if you know it.

Running the chdisk from inside Windows with a command prompt did not work either.

Neither did using the system tools to check the disk. Both needed to schedule at boot up. Neither worked anyways. After a moment of trying to run, both gave a short message that the disk check was cancelled and proceeded to load Windows. I sort of wonder now if this also was part of the same sabotage that caused the error in the partition in the first place. Kind of convenient that you cannot correct the disk error if you have a program that purposely creates it.

After several attempts I gave up.

I did not seem to be getting anywhere. I had spent more time on this than I did cloning with Linux. Also, by now, I could no longer get my original disk to boot to Windows although I could still access all the data in it using a USB drive enclosure.

I decided to just start over and reinstall everything.

This is where I made my own mistake. When you format and reinstall Windows, you cannot simply copy back your old programs, you have to reinstall each one again. Also, you cannot usually just copy the data over and expect the programs to be all back the way they were before. At least not with Microsoft. My mistake was not exporting my Outlook settings and other program settings before I reformated. While I had all my data, it was no longer connected with the programs.

This is where the Open Source software showed it’s superiority.

Thunderbird was easy to set up. I just copied and pasted the data to the right folder and everything was set up.The same for FireFox. All my  bookmarks and all my extensions were copied over along with the million passwords and user names I need to log in everywhere (except for the del.icio.us buttons for some reason). Outlook was not so kind. While I could copy and paste emails and calendar, the email accounts needed to all be set up manually. Open source is so much easier.

So, I have spent a good part of Memorial Day weekend just getting my email working.

I now have my email and bookmarks all back in Windows. I also have installed Linux on the laptop. That only took about half an hour. I am not sure how long it took to load the four DVD’s of XP back. It was an hour and 45 minutes for the first 2 DVD’s and then I fell asleep. I woke up in the middle of the night and switched to the last DVD. No matter what, it was a lot longer reinstalling Windows Xp than it was installing Linux.

None of this would have happened with Linux.

You can copy and transfer an entire Linux OS, programs and data, to another drive or partition without problems. Even if you did have a problem, you would still be able to copy the programs and data and keep the settings.

I have really started to see where Linux is far superior to Windows as an operating system.

I still see a few rough edges in Linux. While there are still problems with drivers in Windows, Linux drivers do not get the attention the other OS drivers do. My ATi video cards cause the screen to flicker annoyingly in 3D mode. Codecs for audio and video are not open source and need to be downloaded (actually, the video drivers are not open source either). Still Linux has some real advantages and in this case, would have made my life easier.

Why don’t we all use Linux as a desktop operating system now?

Linux is great for someone that wants to learn and understand how their OS works. It is still a bit of a “hacker’s” OS. It works great, but sometime needs a bit of fiddling. Much of its great power is hidden away in text commands that must be learned.

However, many people need (or want) an operating system that they can just use and do not have learn or understand.

I admit I never got too far in using computers until Windows was available. I found DOS commands to cryptic for me to grasp. I like a graphical user interface. Linux now has one that eclipes even Mac OSX in functionality. It just needs a bit more polish and getting the bugs out. I think I may be ready to make the switch and I am testing it now for that purpose.

Another unfortunate even happened this weekend.

We suddenly noticed that Web pages were not downloading very fast. At first, I was doing some updates and I was wondering if the updates could be that big or the servers that busy. Then my wife complained that she could not get any of her Websites she visits to work. It was then I realized that it was our cable Internet that was slow. I did some speed tests. One test got me 32K for a download speed. That is bad for dialup!

I called RoadRunner.

The technician had me run several tests. It was funny because it took so long just to get the speedtest.net page to load, much less the test. And no, I was not talking to him using a VOIP phone. After we proved that, yes, my download speed was terrible, and that it was not my computer or modem or firewall or router, I was transferred to someone else.

I spent about 10 minutes on hold. That person did not know why I was transferred and was about to tell me to run the tests again before I gave her the case number. She then transferred me to someone else. Another 15 minutes on hold. Again, I need to explain why I am being transferred, apparently their computer system must have been on hold also, or is maybe they are also using their network and having speeds like mine. Anyway, after an hour an a half of holding a cell phone to my ear (only about 25 minutes of muzak though) I am told that the next opening for a service technician to come will be Wednesday afternoon. Before she can give a later appointment time (she was starting to) I say that will be just fine.

I wrote most of this post offline at night Memorial Day.

I did not expect to be online much till the technician came, however, this morning (Tuesday) the internet speeds were back to where they should be.

For the fun of it, I wrote this post in Linux.

I used gedit. It is a bit like the Linux version of Notepad. However, it has several features and plugins that can be added. Most are for programming, but the spellchecker is handy.

Open source software especially Linux will become more and more common place.

WordPress, MySQL, PHP, and Apache are some of the open souce software that you come in contact everyday you are on the Internet. They are used on a large portion of the internet sites that you problably use every day and have become standards that commercial software is measured by. Soon, I think Linux will have a same impact on the desktop environment as the OS of choice.