Technology How To’s

Article that I’ve written over the years to resolve specific technology issues that I’ve run across in my day to day life.

How To: Remove Vista AntiVirus 2012

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How To: Remove Vista AntiVirus 2012

Vista AntiVirus 2012, also known as Windows XP Home Security 2012 is one of the viruses/malware programs running around that masquerades as an anti-virus program.

Unfortunately it’s not. It uses various browser holes to install itself and then pretty much disables the computer until the user puts their credit card number in. Once the program is “bought” it goes idle and pretends to scan for viruses, but as far as I can tell never actually finds anything.

Caution, these directions have you editing the Registry. They do not tell you how to do so, but tell you what keys to delete. Deleting the wrong keys can severely mess up your computer! If you are not comfortable doing this, take your computer to someone who is.

First Step is to go into Task Manager and kill ppn.exe

Then in your registry delete the following keys:
HKEY_USERS.DEFAULTSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerBrowserEmulation “TLDUpdates” = ‘1’
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClasses.exeshellopencommand “(Default)” = ‘”%LocalAppData%kdn.exe” -a “%1” %*’
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClassesexefileshellopencommand “(Default)” = ‘”%LocalAppData%kdn.exe” -a “%1” %*’
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.exeshellopencommand “(Default)” = ‘”%LocalAppData%kdn.exe” -a “%1” %*’
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClientsStartMenuInternetFIREFOX.EXEshellopencommand “(Default)” = ‘”%LocalAppData%kdn.exe” -a “C:Program FilesMozilla Firefoxfirefox.exe”‘
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClientsStartMenuInternetFIREFOX.EXEshellsafemodecommand “(Default)” = ‘”%LocalAppData%kdn.exe” -a “C:Program FilesMozilla Firefoxfirefox.exe” -safe-mode’
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClientsStartMenuInternetIEXPLORE.EXEshellopencommand “(Default)” = ‘”%LocalAppData%kdn.exe” -a “C:Program FilesInternet Exploreriexplore.exe”‘
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftSecurity Center “AntiVirusOverride” = ‘1’
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftSecurity Center “FirewallOverride” = ‘1’

Lastly delete the following files:
%AllUsersProfile%Application Datau3f7pnvfncsjk2e86abfbj5h
%LocalAppData%kdn.exe
%LocalAppData%u3f7pnvfncsjk2e86abfbj5h
%Temp%u3f7pnvfncsjk2e86abfbj5h
%UserProfile%Templatesu3f7pnvfncsjk2e86abfbj5h

Reboot your computer and everything should be gone.

Again, if you’re not comfortable editing registry files, please take the computer to someone who is.

How To: Manually update OS X time from Command Line

Posted by Rick on in OSX, Technology How To's 0 Comment

How To: Manually update OS X time from Command Line

Sometimes OS X’s time and date gets out of sync with the real world, and using the option “Set date and time automatically:” doesn’t always work.

You can use this command in terminal to update it manually:

ntpdate -u

The server address can be any of the Apple Servers such as time.apple.com or the free Time Servers, pool.ntp.org.

This same command should work for most Unix/Linux Operating systems, as long as ntpdate is installed.

How To: Flush DNS Cache on OS X

Posted by Rick on in Apple, Technology How To's 0 Comment

Most users don’t need to use this command, but it’s very helpful for web developers and network admins to troubleshoot issues with web sites.

This command is run via terminal.

On Leopard (10.6) and Snow Leopard (10.7):

(as root or admin user) dscacheutil -flushcache

On all other version (10.0 – 10.4):

(as root or admin user) lookupd -flushcache

How To: Fix iPad loosing wireless network

Posted by Rick on in Apple, Technology How To's 0 Comment

How To: Fix iPad loosing wireless network

One of the issues being reported with the Apple iPad is that it looses it’s wireless network connection and then has a very hard time reconnecting.

I ran across this bug in the field where I had 6 iPads scattered around a football field, and two (or more) Apple Airport Extremes connected in WDS mode. The issue seems to popup usually when there are either a large number of people in between the Airport Base Station and the iPad, OR when the iPad was too far from one or the other Airports. Weirdly, the Wireless Connection icon in the upper left hand of the screen would have full bars, but still couldn’t get to any network devices or to the Internet.

From the iPad’s main screen, choose “Settings” then tap “Wi-Fi” locations. Choose the default Wireless Network, then tap the right arrow. Scroll down to “HTTP Proxy” and then tap on “Manual.” Back out of these screens and test the wireless out. If it still fails, go back and choose “Auto” instead of “Manual.” Note that there is no need to enter any information in the “Server,” “Port,” or “Authentication” fields. Unless your specific wireless network needs those.

This is reported to also work with iPods and possibly iPhones so the problem seems to be in IOS itself, and not with the hardware. Hopefully a future update will fix this issue.

Other Suggestions:
-Update Firmware on Wireless Access Point
-Turn off the 802.11n mode
-Temporarily disable security measures. If this seems to solve, set router to WPA2
-Disable 40mhz or 20mhz under 802.11n settings – especially in crowded wireless environments
-Set the iPad to get a static IP (only reported to work in one case, so very low on the list)
-Apple’s KB has a few other suggestions: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1398