Computer Question

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David
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Computer Question

Post by David » Sat Sep 18, 2010 11:54 am

I have a computer question. If you go into control panel (on Windows XP) and then get into Administrative Tools then into Computer Management and then into Local Users and Groups and go into the Users folder, and then right click on the Administrator and rename it to name you wish, will that damage or cause issues?

Why would someone do that? To have a name that you want instead of Administrator.

I know you can create a new User and set the new user as administrator and then disable the original Administrator. But I am curious. Any thoughts?
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Re: Computer Question

Post by Hermskii » Sat Sep 18, 2010 10:28 pm

I don't think you can do that period. I don't think it will let you rename that account. I have built 2 identical computers before and used the exact same CD to set them both up. One let me make a account on it called Administrator and the other refused to let me do it saying there was already an account with that name. Odd huh? I never figured out how that happened. It may have had to do with when I put one of them in the domain at work. I can't recall.

What are you up to? BTW, you would not want to rename the admin account. You would want to create a new user account and give it admin privileges.
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Re: Computer Question

Post by David » Sun Sep 19, 2010 10:11 am

Hermskii wrote:I don't think you can do that period. I don't think it will let you rename that account. I have built 2 identical computers before and used the exact same CD to set them both up. One let me make a account on it called Administrator and the other refused to let me do it saying there was already an account with that name. Odd huh? I never figured out how that happened. It may have had to do with when I put one of them in the domain at work. I can't recall.

What are you up to? BTW, you would not want to rename the admin account. You would want to create a new user account and give it admin privileges.
Well you can rename it. I have done so by the steps I outlined. I forgot where I learned it. I did that on some computers I have had. My computer, I created another user with admin privileges and then disabled the built in admin. Why did I do this, :?: Did not want to create another user so I just renamed the admin.

So I did something that you did not think I could 8) But this act was done on the kids computer and the kids computer is the one I have hard drive issues...... I wonder if there are any connections?
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Re: Computer Question

Post by David » Mon Dec 13, 2010 5:32 pm

I have another computer question that is not related to the first post on this thread.

After playing UT, I was trying to surf the net my computer was acting squirrelly. When I used mt scroll button on my mouse, it was changing the magnification instead of moving the screen up and down. When I tried to type in the search bar, the internet explorer shuts down. It was acting odd and I knew something was up.

Make a long story, I scanned my computer with malwarebytes (did not find anything) and ccleaner. It was still acting odd, so I went to the msconfig and I found something odd
startup.JPG
So I unchecked it, shut down the computer, started it. It gave me an error and the same thing was on msconfig again. I unchecked it again, shut down the computer, started it. I then checked msconfig and it was no longer checked. I rescanned the computer with malewarebytes, ccleaner, and kaspersky. Nothing found. :?:
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Re: Computer Question

Post by David » Tue Dec 14, 2010 7:46 pm

Just to be safe, I downloaded a firewall called ZoneAlarm 9.2. I did this just in case something that malwarebytes, ccleaner, and Kaspersky AV did not delete or find.

I am new to this firewall and do not know what is best. When I play UT, I notice it states that it blocks a packet that UT was trying to send/get. Even though the packet was blocked I did not see any difference/interference with the game.

So does playing UT cause packets to be sent from your computer to somewhere? Will it hurt/prevent the game from working properly if it is blocked by the firewall?
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Re: Computer Question

Post by Hermskii » Tue Dec 14, 2010 8:09 pm

Zone Alarm is great if you know how to use it. Basically, (very basically) if you are doing something and it says that whatever you're doing is trying to go out to the web, allow it to pass and tell it not to ask again. If something tries to go out to the web and you aren't using whatever it is, google it and see if it is supposed to go out to the web for stuff. If so, let it and remind it to not ask you about it anymore. Soon, you will find it won't ask permission for programs to do stuff because you will have already white listed all of the good stuff. Now, when new stuff pops up and wants out you know to be very suspect. Allow all UT stuff to pass through the firewall. Most other stuff is OK usually but this will show you how man ythings happen in the background between your PC and the web when you aren't looking. XP has a built in firewall but only blocks stuff coming in. It is nice to see what is going out too! I will post a link to a website of the guy that made zone alarm. He has lots of cool stuff and explains things very well about how they work. Ilearned tons about security and networking from this guy many years back when I first used zonealrm. Here it is. Ijust found it: www.GRC.com a good look around there. Eventually, you will get rid of ZoneAlarm but for now it is a great learning resource as is much of his website and his utilities. Do that scan my ports thing with and without your zonealarm on and prtecting you to get an idea of how available your PC always is to the internet and hackers!
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Re: Computer Question

Post by David » Tue Dec 14, 2010 8:21 pm

I did the leak test on the website that you shared. I performed the test with ZoneAlarm on and then with it turned off but the windows firewall on. With ZoneAlarm on, the test was blocked (no leak). with ZoneAlarm off and Windows Firewall on, the test went through (meaning the windows firewall failed)

When I play UT, I have not had a pop up for ZoneAlarm notifying me of the packet wanting to be sent. It just blocks it.

During the test mentioned above, ZoneAlarm did have a pop up and asked me to deny it or not.

So I do not know.
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Re: Computer Question

Post by David » Tue Dec 14, 2010 9:30 pm

I am checking the firewall activity and something odd, odd to me, seams to be going on. I looked and the firewall stated that an incoming packet, actually 3 packets at different times, were coming in but that they were blocked.

The IP addresses of the computers that is sending these packets are coming from Beijing China.
firewall.JPG


?????
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Re: Computer Question

Post by Hermskii » Wed Dec 15, 2010 12:49 am

UT uses both TCP and UDP packets. They usually all use the set of ports. All UT stuff is OK to allow to to come and go as needed. The ports are listed in my how to manual. If I recall, they are 7777,7778,27900, and several others like 80 which you must be very careful with. Start up Microsoft Word. It will try to call home. Your antivirus has to call home to get new dat files to update itself. You'll find your JAVA and Adobe do it to. Just because it tries to get out doesn't mean it's bad but you have to watch what happens. Your logs will show what happened while you weren't looking and sometimes, pop ups wil show what is happening right then. You have to learn what is OK to let happen and what is not OK to let happen.

Don't start thinking your being attacked each time something gets detected or blocked. Sometimes your network is being scanned by bad folks but usually your firewall will just block packets sent to you by accident or from packet storms from faulty equipment. You will find all of this fun and interesting to a point and then you will likely just unistall it and stick to the protection of a hardware firewall like in your router. Zone Alarm is awesome in my opinion but eventually will cause enough little issues for you to stop using it. If you have UT packets getting blocked, you're missing something. Have you tried to scan for servers yet? Did any results pop up? Maybe you're blocking player packets from a kid on your own network playing on another PC in the house. You have to figure out what the packets are and what you're stopping from happening when you block them.
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Re: Computer Question

Post by Sir Mandrake » Wed Dec 15, 2010 11:46 pm

David wrote:I have another computer question that is not related to the first post on this thread.

After playing UT, I was trying to surf the net my computer was acting squirrelly. When I used mt scroll button on my mouse, it was changing the magnification instead of moving the screen up and down. When I tried to type in the search bar, the internet explorer shuts down. It was acting odd and I knew something was up.

Make a long story, I scanned my computer with malwarebytes (did not find anything) and ccleaner. It was still acting odd, so I went to the msconfig and I found something odd
startup.JPG
So I unchecked it, shut down the computer, started it. It gave me an error and the same thing was on msconfig again. I unchecked it again, shut down the computer, started it. I then checked msconfig and it was no longer checked. I rescanned the computer with malewarebytes, ccleaner, and kaspersky. Nothing found. :?:
Hey David - I noticed you use some good apps to scan and keep your computer clean. However I want to suggest a couple more to add to your arsenal.

Super Anti Spyware - http://www.superantispyware.com/

Good all around spyware scanner, and super fast. I work on troubled PCs on the side and this program, along with Malwarebytes are the two I use all the time.
Best not to run them at the same time though.


Combofix - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/downloa ... s/combofix

Very good app to run first thing. Kills many memory resident bugs and gets rid of the nasty rootkits. Download only from Bleepingcomputer.com and nowhere else. Allow it to install the recovery console if it asks. Please note that it wont run on 64bit platforms.

Hope this helps clear up your Squirrely computer - :P
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Re: Computer Question

Post by Hermskii » Thu Dec 16, 2010 12:11 am

Good stuff there Sir Mandrake. Thanks!
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Re: Computer Question

Post by Sir Mandrake » Thu Dec 16, 2010 3:21 am

Oh I meant to give my 2 cents on firewalls. I to used to use Zone alarm and others but grew tired of authroizing this and that.. basically what Herm said...its great at first but after a while you'll remove it due to apps getting blocked and the constant rules you have to manage. What i did was dig out an old pentium3 box and loaded up Smoothwall Express and placed it inline with my Modem... Best Linux Based Firewall ever and its totally free....its amazing to look at the logs and see all the hostile attacks coming in... its quite amazing but scary too. Heres the link if you are interested in checking out Smoothwall Express....

http://www.smoothwall.org/

Its really quite easy to set up. Just download the .ISO and burn the CD. Have an old computer ready with a CD-Rom and load the CD. Follow prompts and youll have a working dedicated firewall in minutes. Whats really nice is you will have a firewall solution without having your PC loaded down with more resource hungry processes. My smoothwall has been up 183days without any problems.


8)
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Re: Computer Question

Post by ZippityDooDa » Sat Dec 18, 2010 8:49 pm

[quote="Sir Mandrake"]Oh I meant to give my 2 cents on firewalls. I to used to use Zone alarm and others but grew tired of authroizing this and that.. basically what Herm said...its great at first but after a while you'll remove it due to apps getting blocked and the constant rules you have to manage. What i did was dig out an old pentium3 box and loaded up Smoothwall Express and placed it inline with my Modem... Best Linux Based Firewall ever and its totally free....its amazing to look at the logs and see all the hostile attacks coming in... its quite amazing but scary too. Heres the link if you are interested in checking out Smoothwall Express....

http://www.smoothwall.org/

Its really quite easy to set up. Just download the .ISO and burn the CD. Have an old computer ready with a CD-Rom and load the CD. Follow prompts and youll have a working dedicated firewall in minutes. Whats really nice is you will have a firewall solution without having your PC loaded down with more resource hungry processes. My smoothwall has been up 183days without any problems.


8)[/quote

I use Microsoft Security Essentials with just basic windows firewall and have never had a problem, this is with windows 7also so if you are cheap then you can download straight from microsoft.com it is free and works well and doesn't take up much memory.
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Re: Computer Question

Post by Hermskii » Sat Dec 18, 2010 11:40 pm

Nice work folks! I did forget to mention that a software firewalls (ZoneAlarm and Windows Built-in-firewall) use system resources. That is why I prefer a hardware firewall such as the ones built into routers these days. I still use the built in fire wall with Windows anyways in addition to my hardware firewall. Unfortunately, I don't really get to see what gets out but I'm really only worried about what gets in. Maybe I will line up this linux firewall on an old PC just to see! Thanks for all of the good info folks!
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Re: Computer Question

Post by David » Sat Dec 18, 2010 11:47 pm

Hermskii wrote:Nice work folks! I did forget to mention that a software firewalls (ZoneAlarm and Windows Built-in-firewall) use system resources. That is why I prefer a hardware firewall such as the ones built into routers these days. I still use the built in fire wall with Windows anyways in addition to my hardware firewall. Unfortunately, I don't really get to see what gets out but I'm really only worried about what gets in. Maybe I will line up this linux firewall on an old PC just to see! Thanks for all of the good info folks!
In my router, I do have a firewall which is turned on. I was using windows fireall in addition but due to the "acting up" I was shooting in the dark when I went to the zonealarm firewall just to be preventive. ???? Safe without zonealarm as long as I have the router firewall and the windows firewall?

But....... I ran the leak test without the zonealarm firewall (router and windows firewall turned on) and the leak proved to get in. Ran the leak test with the router and zonealarm and the leak did not get in.?

I do not know. I just don't want people hack into my stuff, when I hear about people I know get hacked into, such as email account, bank accounts and the rest.
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