OT malware protection

Google quickly found Skype's suggestion:

Check this site:

They say "For manual removal it is enough to delete the

65404-SkypeDefenderSetup.exe file."

But do a Google search on "skype malware," or on "skypedefender," and see if there's anything more recent.

I have several malware tools, some free and some paid, and I sometimes run into variants of malware that even the best of them don't catch. Often they're written specifically to dodge the better-known virus/malware detectors. It hasn't happened to me recently, since I've been running some defenses, but I had a run of them a few years ago.

What I finally learned to do was to Google any bit of evidence I could find. Often there is a specialized program (like CWshredder), or manual-removal instructions, somewhere out there. I also search the Registry on clue words and go at it in there. But that's an adventure and it shouldn't be necessary. Somewhere on the Web you'll usually find your answer.

Good luck. This one sounds like a piece of cake. Just search for that file. I'd search my hard drive for "skypedefender" first, to see if that brings it up. The number in front of it may morph. Or maybe not.

-- Ed Huntress

I use a "hosts" file to block malware and ad sites, I've had a lot fewer issues when I've kept it up to date. And a side benefit is, I see a lot fewer ads, too!

I'm using firefox, I also run "flashblock", a utility which stops flash from running until you tell it. It means an extra click when browsing youtube, but a lot fewer ads that try to take over the browser. --Glenn Lyford

I would think *any* OS with 6GB RAM could run hundreds of processes without breaking a sweat! If you need that much RAM, it must be a really lousy OS. ;-)

Yup.

With 6 GB RAM, I would hope you'd barely notice a dozen KDE sessions.

It is normally quite happy with 2 GB (I've never tried it with less), but where the 6 GB is particularly nice is using "the GIMP" to process large images -- while using a web browser at the same time (to list two memory hungry things.)

I *did* notice an increase in image processing speed when I bumped 3 GB to 6 GB (replacing the four 256 MB DIMMs with four 1GB DIMMs, and leaving the four 512 MB DIMMs in place. The maximum memory for this system is 8 GB, and the minimum is (I think) 512 MB.

I also noticed faster image processing when I replaced the two

900 MHz CPUs with two 1.2 GHz CPUs (maximum available for a system this old and thus this affordable). The CPUs are 64-bit UltraSPARCs, FWIW.

I also finally got a faster USB card (also some firewire ports) designed for the newer Sun Blade 2500 and Sun Blade 1500 machines. The USB in the SB-2000 is only 1.1, not 2.0, as it was expected to only be used for the keyboard and the mouse-equivalent (I'm using a LogicTec TrackMan (trackball) for a mouse.) The USB 2.0 is nicer when I have a

4GB CF card full of images to download and process.

I don't have that many framebuffers connected, and no easy way to give each framebufer its own keyboard, but yes, I would expect little problem with that kind of load. (For anyone else still reading this, "framebuffers" are what Sun calls "graphics cards". :-)

Let's see -- there are dual PCI bus framebuffers available, and there are four slots for those, plus two higher-speed UPA slots for the fancier Creator3D framebuffers, so that would max out at 10 KDE sessions with a little trickery to allow ethernet or SCSI connected keyboards. Plug in multiple ones to the USB sockets and you simply have a case of the last one plugged in winning control. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.