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Hangout for experimental confirmation and demonstration of software, computing, and networking. The exercises don't always work out. The professor is a bumbler and the laboratory assistant is a skanky dufus.
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2004-06-25Button, Button, Where's the Update?Summary added 2004-05-26-15:35Z. The concerns I have at this point are:Waiting for ZoneAlarm Repair. I am still operating with ZoneAlarm Pro version 5.0.590.015, a defective update, because roll-back to earlier versions also has a defect. I have a work-around that allows me to use FrontPage and my localhost IIS configuration for web development even though I can't reach the local HTTP service from desktop applications. Last night, when preparing to research the firewall situation a little farther, I learned there was a more-recent update than 5.0.590.015. Oh, Oh, What Happened to the Update? Today, refreshed and prepared for the next stage, I checked again. Oops, no need for update. My software is now identified as current. Well, that suggests to me that my latenight display of caution about a quickly-issued update was provident indeed. Sorry, wrong number! This is a bit of a concern, because I see I have a new problem: Symantec LiveUpdate isn't working. Basically, the LiveUpdate software is unable to see the Internet. It is authorized, and it just can't get to the internet with the firewall there. I wait and wait, then my MSN Logon panel comes up so I can provide dial-out, since the software is failing to access the broadband connection. I remember seeing this last Saturday, now that I think about it, but it wasn't a concern then; I had recent virus updates already. Now what? I know the broadband connection is working. I am not inclined to drop the firewall in order to access Live Update, since I am administrator when I do that. I will go to the ZoneLabs site and see what is going on. What's the story, guys? Not so fast, wise guy! Oh, that's right, the Internet is running at a condition-orange threat level right now, thanks to a combined exploit involving a lot of unpatched IIS servers and a newly-detected Internet Explorer vulnerability. I have even the IE6 trusted-site zone set to not run scripts and anything else without checking with me. It seems there is something on the ZoneAlarm support page that my IE6+Firewall settings is preventing me from getting past! Now, you'd think that the a firewall security site would warrant enough trust to drop my guard a little, yes? Well, based on my experience over the past week, why would I think that? Let's see if I can at least get to where IE6 walks me through some permissions. Anybody home? I am now at the technical support page for ZoneAlarm Pro. I am not sure what the drill is here. I did expand firewall permissions (but kept IE6 protections, I think), and the pages would go into this unending waiting to load state. But if I click the "stop" button, and then the "refresh" button, the pages come up at once. Who knew? Checking the releases. The release history says that the version which I downloaded last Saturday (June 19) was released to the world (sounds like a virus scare) on May 24. Wow, it's been broken that long. And version 5.0.590.043 (I'm on .015) was released on Monday, June 21. But right this moment, ZoneAlarm Pro tells me my system is current. I choose to download the later version manually. While I wait for the download to complete, I wonder what the description of changes for that version will tell me. Why Should I Care About .043? Hmm, there are some issues with Norton Antivirus e-mail scanning that I don't think I've run into, and other issues that don't apply to me. I am curious about an SSH time-out problem and also whatever is swept under "system stability" and "routine maintenance" issues. I am grumbling about a certain lack of transparency here. I still don't understand why my ZAP Pro Automatic Check for Updates now says that I have the latest update when I don't. I am not installing anything yet. Tidbits. The General FAQ says version 5.0 of ZAPro supports Norton AV 2004 Pro, with no mention of plain Norton AV 2004, which I am running. I have observed no problems in NAV 2004 operation, and ZAPro 5.0 does warn me when NAV 2004 virus definitions are considered out of date or I haven't scanned recently enough. After I scanned with week-old definitions (on Monday night, I think), ZAPro 5.0 stopped nagging me. But it won't let me get new LiveUpdates. I could go get them from the Symantec site myself, perhaps, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Oh, thrilling. According to the ZAPro 5.0 FAQ, my version conflicts with NAV 2004 in a way where NAV is no longer checking my e-mail. Yup, I just checked and the little system-tray envelope-under-the-magnifier icon does not show up while e-mail is downloading. Bummer. I need to upgrade to .043 for the repair to that, it would seem. Meanwhile, in the user-to-user groups, I am reading about people who have lost internet access completely with .043. Nothing on VSUBAPI.dll either. I called this file VSUBRUN.dll yesterday, and I wonder which I searched my local system for. I'll do that search again. Meanwhile, there is one user-user-forum message about VSUBAPI.dll, but it seems to have been a different problem. Monsters in the Closet. In searching for VSUBAPI.dll again, in my low-privilege user account, the Windows installer keeps coming up wanting to install Microsoft Office Extensions, and I keep killing it. Tired of that, I abort the search and log in to my administrator account. The same thing happens as administrator. I don't know what that is about but it is time that I removed Office Extensions from my machine anyhow. So I do. In the midst of that my DSL line starts running hot and my disk is going like crazy, until I use the stop-all-internet-activity on ZoneAlarmPro. Then the uninstall finishes quite nicely and so much for that. It took MSDE with it, I see. Now I'm really clueless. Exposing Norton Antivirus. After the obligatory reboot, my one concern is that I not have messed up my FrontPage Server Extensions and IIS on the local machine. Everything seems to be fine. So I do the dance with LiveUpdate. Still no joy. I need another reboot and this time, as administrator, I shut down ZoneAlarmPro and it goes away. This time, when I fire up LiveUpdate it connects to Symantec, downloads an update created fresh today, and we're all set. I quickly restart ZAPro and lean back to collect my thoughts. OK, so this is not a sweet deal. How could ZoneLabs have missed all of this? And they've got "issues" with McAfee too. Catching Our Breath. Here's the bottom line: Basically, I am limping along, twisting in the wind. I am going to take my time and not do anything for a while. The workarounds are good for another week, and I don't want to be hasty, disrupt everything, or do something unrecoverable while fatigued from this nonsense. There'll be more when I know more.
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