Interesting NewsMarch 20, 2006 9:34 pm

In a rare discussion about the severity of the Windows malware scourge, a Microsoft security official said businesses should consider investing in an automated process to wipe hard drives and reinstall operating systems as a practical way to recover from malware infestation.

“When you are dealing with rootkits and some advanced spyware programs, the only solution is to rebuild from scratch. In some cases, there really is no way to recover without nuking the systems from orbit,”

Mike Danseglio, program manager in the Security Solutions group at Microsoft said in a presentation at the InfoSec World conference here.

Offensive rootkits, which are used hide malware programs and maintain an undetectable presence on an infected machine, have become the weapon of choice for virus and spyware writers and, because they often use kernel hooks to avoid detection, Danseglio said IT administrators may never know if all traces of a rootkit have been successfully removed.

This comes as little surprise as more and more companies have begun to appreciate the virtue of wiping the computer clean and starting over again. Mainly as programs have become more incidious not to mention. However I have also been of the opinion that nothing can be made fool proof because sometimes fools can be so ingenious with the problems that they create.

You can read the complete article at the eweek.com website. Be certain to check out the various links that are available and reference related stories.

TutorialsMarch 16, 2006 7:46 am

Before we begin I suppose I should start providing some sort of warning as to the perils of editing the registry. Not that this will stop many of you from taking the plunge risking your computers to some anonomous stranger who posts the occasional blog =P

Warning If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

So why are the download sessions limted?

According to Microsoft this is to comply with current Internet standards (Request for Comments 2068), Internet Explorer limits the number of simultaneous downloads to two downloads, plus one queued download. This configuration is a function of the browser. However, as connection speeds increase, and the number of total connections that are allowed to Internet servers increase, the two-connection limit may be restrictive.

Enough already now how do you do it?

To increase the number of simultaneous connections that are allowed to 10, follow these steps:

1. Start the run
2. on the run line type regedit and click the ok button
3. Maneuver to the following key in the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings
4. On the Edit menu, point to New click DWORD Value, and then add the following registry values:

Value name: MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server
Value data: 10
Base: Decimal

Value Name: MaxConnectionsPerServer
Value data: 10
Base: Decimal

5. Close the Registry Editor by clicking the red X in the upper right hand part of the window.
6. Reboot the computer

The information as well as the procedure was obtaned frm the Microsft Knowlegebase where it is indicated that this is for informational purposes only. Changing the maximum number of connections beyond two is a violation of Internet standards; as such Microsoft does not recommend this procedure for use outside closed networks. Now I’m sure none of you would ever want to violate such an important albeit antiquated rule. ;-}