There’s a price on yer head

Some of you may have read that latest news that Microsoft has put out a $250,000 reward to find who is behind the Conficker worm that is said to have infected as many as 12 million computers.  They are doing this because it has taken the firm view that the creation of the Conficker worm as a criminal act.

This may seem like a bold move but it is not the first time they have done this. In 2005 they paid $250,000 to two individuals who helped identify the creator of the Sasser worm.  Rewards were also offered of $250,000 for the creators of the other three major computer worms Blaster, MyDoom and Sobig however the authors of these were never caught.

In reality this amount of money is a small drop in the ocean for a company like Microsoft but in doing so they are trying to send out a strong message to the authors of such worms.  They are simply saying that they will not sit idly by while the creators wreak havoc on their clients systems.  In reality the fact of the matter is that regardless of what Microsoft or Microsoft Trustworth Computing Group offer it seems that it will offer very little in the way of a deterrent for such authors as it is a challenge that they enjoy rising to.  What it does do is help their clients to feel that they are doing all they can to try an prevent such hassles returning in the future.

The worm itself infects a computer that is not fully up to date with the latest updates from the Microsoft Update website. If you are in any doubt then the best action is to visit the Microsoft Update website and apply all the latest critical updates.  Once this is complete continue to revisit the site until you are told there are no further critical updates. You should also ensure that your Anti-Virus software is fully up-to-date, if you don’t already have one then visit either AVG or aVast who both provide free versions for home use.

Friend or foe?

This week has been an important week in terms of IT, Technology and gadget lovers for this week has been CES (Consumer Electronics Association) in Las Vegas.  For those not familiar with the event this the annual show where technology vendors get an opportunity to show their wares to the international community both in terms of the general public as well as the trade press.  So of the best upcoming gadgets are seen here before anywhere else.  This years big showing from Microsoft is Windows 7, a product which has received a great deal of attention ever since it was first discussed.

Once of the reasons has been due to the dismal failure of Windows Vista, that is not to say that the product is bad because to be quite honest it isn’t, but initially it received a lot of bad press due delayed deliveries as well as, once launched, poor compatibility with hardware as well as some software.  Now what we have to understand with this is when any new product is released there will always be teething problems, this is not unique to technology this applies  to cars, motorbikes just about anything really.  This is because not matter how much you test something there is always going to be someone that will do something in a way that was never imagined or it will become visible through simple length of use.  Windows Vista itself has been a very solid stable product for a great deal of time now, I have been using it myself for over a year now and it really just works, that’s all there is to say on the matter.  But it never won the hearts of the IT community which resulted in poor uptake, this then left a poor legacy for Microsoft which is going to be hard to shake.  One of the biggest challenges it had to overcome is that Windows XP is just so good, it had been a solid operating system that is highly compatible which has left it with an almost “cult-like” following.

So what does this mean for Windows 7?  Well simply put it has a very hard path to find in life, it must first overcome that love and passion that is held by the Windows XP followers.  Then, if it overcomes XP, it must then work its way through the minefield of the Windows Vista naysayers which in itself is going to be a challenge of its own and I believe that in itself will be more difficult.

So what of Windows 7 itself, well I have not yet had chance to install it myself however I picked up a twitter from Scott Ullrich (the developer behind pfSense) overnight which said

Upgraded windows Vista -> Windows 7 and holy <beepers>, it’s fantastic! No, seriously… Not kidding!!

 

Still in the meantime take a look at these videos courtesy of BBC news and see for yourself:  BBC News

More details on Vista SP1

The latest word on Vista’s SP1 official release to the public looks set to be the 18th March 2008 and will be rolled out as part of the Windows Update program installed on Vista machines.  Microsoft however seem to still be reluctant to commit to a date simply stating that users will receive the update "mid-March" by either selecting the optional update or downloading it from the Microsoft website.  It would appear that the delay has been caused by some issues with hardware drivers which has been an ongoing issue for Vista throughout it’s life so it seems ironic that it is still thwarted by the same problems.  From the 19th March 2008 new buyers will be able to buy copies of Vista which will come pre-installed with Service Pack 1 which it seems may experience a price reduction but time will tell on that one.  So keep the peeled the update is coming and what I have heard and experienced so far has been positive.

Windows 2003 Service Pack 2 Issues

For sometime I have found that on certain SBS server there have been some network performance issues which do not specifically seem to originate from anywhere specific. When you look at the spec’s of the server there are not bottlenecks or obvious issues but it just doesn’t seem to perform as well as you would expect. We it would seem that the answer is out there in the for of an update from Microsoft. The issue relates specifically with services with Windows 2003 Service Pack 2 installed or the Windows 2003 Scalable Network Pack on a computer that has a TCP/IP Offload-enabled network adapter. There is a number of ways in which this particular issue manifests itself however the one that I am currently looking into is “You experience slow network performance” as there has now been a number of site, one more recently, where the server performance on the new network is worse than the old system. So for any of you that want to look into this further the KB article is as follows http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948496 and its noteworthy that this update has been released as a critical update which means it should find it’s way onto most servers updates automatically however it’s worth checking anyway.