Monday, March 30, 2009

Open DNS vs Conficker

The Best way to keep secure is to prevent the malware in the first place. OpenDNS.com

http://blog.opendns.com/2009/02/09/stats-are-back-and-conficker/

The second announcement is significant to all OpenDNS users as well as the entire Internet community. Today we’ve rolled out a way for you to see if Conficker is living on your network. The Conficker worm, also called Downadup and Kido, is massive. Some estimates of how many PCs are compromised are as high as 10 million. What’s interesting about this particular virus is that it uses the Domain Name System in a unique way: Conficker contains an algorithm that checks 250 new domains per day for instructions on what it should do. This puts us in a unique position to keep you safe since we’re in the unique position of providing insight and intelligence into your DNS service. We’ve teamed with Kaspersky Lab to identify those 250 daily domains, and stop resolving them. This means if you’re using OpenDNS, Conficker will do your network no damage. Yet another reason for your friends and colleagues to make the switch. While OpenDNS represents just a tiny drop in the sea of the Internet users today, we think this is a smart move forward.

To find out if Conficker has penetrated your network, simply log in to your account and select Stats on the left sidebar. From there choose Blocked Domains and filter “only domains blocked as malware.” This will generate a list of malware sites your network has attempted to connect with.

This is just the beginning, folks. We’ve got a year’s worth of new features we’re cranking hard on to make your network better performing and more secure. Stay tuned…

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Exchange Offline Defrag

For when you must do that Manual Offline Defrag of your Exchange Database - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;192185

Server Boot Drive Management

This is a great post for Server boot drive maintenance. I will read through it all one day...
http://www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/bootdrivesize.asp

Free Mail Archiving Solution

Checkout the 'Free' version of Mailarchiva here.

http://www.mailarchiva.com/downloads.htm

Conficker Worm Removal

Do you think you have a PC infected with Conficker / Conflicker / downadup /Kido?
If your PC is infected you will not be able to navigate to Microsoft.com or any of the following domains.

cert.
sans.
bit9.
vet.
avg.
avp.
nai.
windowsupdate
wilderssecurity
threatexpert
castlecops
spamhaus
cpsecure
arcabit
emsisoft
sunbelt
securecomputing
rising
prevx
pctools
norman
k7computing
ikarus
hauri
hacksoft
gdata
fortinet
ewido
clamav
comodo
quickheal
avira
avast
esafe
ahnlab
centralcommand
drweb
grisoft
eset
nod32
f-prot
jotti
kaspersky
f-secure
computerassociates
networkassociates
etrust
panda
sophos
trendmicro
mcafee
norton
symantec
microsoft
defender
rootkit
malware
spyware
virus

Here are the removal instructions for the Conficker Worm.
Be aware new variants are surfacing regularly.
http://www.secureworks.com/research/threats/downadup-removal/

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

ESENT Event ID 215 - Certsrv.exe

Backup fails on a computer running SBS 2003 -

To resolve this problem, re-register the Sqlvdi.dll file. To do so, follow these steps:
  1. Stop SQL Server.
  2. Click Start, click Run, type Regsvr32 Path\SQLVDI.DLL in the Open box, and then click OK. The default path of the Sqlvdi.dll file is C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\COM.
  3. Restart SQL Server.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830575

Outlook 2007 Performance Troubleshooting

When your Outlook 2007 is running poorly this article is the one to checkout!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940226


Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor includes a tool to guage how fast your Outlook will run in terms of disk operations. Download the Tool Here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=42B5AC83-C24F-4863-A389-3FFC194924F8&displaylang=en

After installing this tool the only file you need to use is winsat.exe. So this can be found in the
c:\program files\microsoft windows vista upgrade advisor\ path. Navigate there and Type in winsat disk -seq -read -drive c

Here is the output of a SATA II 320 GB drive

WinSAT V1.0 Build-0 Private-Build
Built By:wmbla Branch:vista_rtm Date:Dec 11 2007 01:21:02
Windows System Assessment Tool
> Running: Feature Enumeration v1.0.0.0 ''
> Run Time 00:00:00.64
> Running: Storage Performance Assessment via Profiling v1.0.0.0 '-seq -read -dr
ive c'
> Run Time 00:00:03.39
> Disk Performance 111.41 MB/s
> Total Run Time 00:00:04.58

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor>


Also Checkout this Post for more details on the drive speed ratings including SSD's:http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/03/24/450881.aspx