Burchwords

Today I came across a computer that didn’t have task manager or control panel working. When you try to access something it would say something about “permissions” and “policies”. I did some searching and found lots of people have this trouble with spyware. Basically the spyware/malware edits the registry disabling the control panel and task manager. My two resources for this problem came from Tech Support Guys and Help2Go forums. I knew that the pop-ups were due to smitfraud. If you don’t know how to get rid of smitfraud check out this guide.

I logged into Administrator, but I still wasn’t able to access control panel and task manager. I thought that Administrator would be a work around, but it wasn’t. This is where the policy editor came in.

If you check out the two links above they use a policy editor to change the registry key’s back so you can access them.

I used a policy changer: REMpolicy
Its just a script you run on your computer and it changes the registry keys back so you can access the cp and task manager.

Notes: Keep in mind that you always want to turn system restore off and boot into safe mode when removing spyware and malware.

Problem

After upgrading early this morning to 2.3 , I actually lost one of my static pages. When the database updated it made my “download” page a post instead of a static page. The link still showed up in the navigation list, but it took you to a 404 error page.
Caution: Backup the Database!

Quick Fix :

After I stop beating my face against my keyboard, I opened up mysql database found that the “download” was listed under wp_post table.

So, I found the field listed as “download” and browsed that field of data. There it all was under post_title. I viewed the table and copied the html code out of the wp_content column. I then pasted that in a text file and saved it.

I deleted that row with “Downloads” in the post_title from the database. I then created created a whole new static page and name it the same thing as the old one and then pasted the code from the text file back into the page and posted. I was back up in less than ten minutes.

If anybody is better at wording this please do so or comment a link or something. I know there has to be sql statement that would do this automatically for you.

Background:

I’ve used ipcop and smoothwall for firewalls before and I’ve heard that they were insecure I’m not sure how true this is, but I’ve heard that if you really want to be “hard-core” about security you need to build a firewall using OpenBSD. So, I did some background work and found that OpenBSD claims that they had only 2 remote holes in the last ten years on their default install. Why? OpenBSD doesn’t allow every joe to write patches and add-ins to the open source code. Yes, you can write and customize it to your liking, but for the official release, from what I understand, a committee has to approve all code before it reaches the final product.

Firewall Project:

I’m going to attempt to build my own OpenBSD firewall for home use. Some may think this is over kill, it might be, but how else are we to learn and improve our skills if we just install prepackaged software all the time.

Resources:

After talking on my regular forums I got the information I need. Next, I went to OpenBSD.org where they offers every known manual for every aspect of their operating system. (more…)

Problem:

If you try to start CCleaner and get this error: CCListBar — runtime error 0
If you can’t install or uninstall Wordperfect x3 or any other type of programs.

Solution:

Step 1. Try to reinstall over the top of the other one. If this doesn’t work go to step 2.

Step 2. Your installation of MS Visual Basic 6 Runtime is currupted. Go download it, reinstall it, and reboot your machine. [cited information]

Wordperfect 11 spell checker Doesn’t Show up in the Tools Menu. This is because the Windows’ registry is corrupted.

You will need to go find a computer that has spell checker showing up correctly and copy its registry key at:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Corel\WordPerfect\11\Writing Tools\

You will need to make sure that the computers you use to copy the registry from are running the same version of Wordperfect or you can download my registry key. This version is Wordperfect 11 service pack 3.

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