Reviewers rate Norton the No. 1 security suite

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Reviewers rate Norton the No. 1 security suite

By Ryan Russell

Norton Internet Security Suite 2009, the top-rated security suite this year — as it was last year — now uses fewer system resources than before without skimping on protection.

If you’re not a fan of Norton products, there are plenty of other contenders worthy of consideration that can challenge the long-time security-software leader.

Windows Secrets writers periodically analyze the ratings of trusted reviewers and summarize for you in the WS Security Baseline which personal-protection products are currently getting the best marks. Based on reviews from PC World, PCMag, Maximum PC, and others, today’s security-suite winner is Symantec’s Norton Internet Security 2009 (photo at right).

This product may seem like a repeat from last year’s tally of ratings. Scott Dunn’s Jan. 24, 2008, Top Story reported that Norton Internet Security 2008 had received the most Editors’ Choice awards of any suite. However, the latest release of NIS is faster and less resource-hungry than previous versions, according to reviewers.

Symantec has not been deaf to the complaints of Norton Internet Security users about the program’s spendthrift ways with your PC’s memory and CPU cycles. In its review of the program, PCMag.com says, “this is definitely the slimmest, most unobtrusive Norton ever.” (See below for links to this and other reviews of the product.)

As with most of the leading security-suite contenders, Norton Internet Security protects against infection by viruses, spyware, and rootkits. The program’s components include a software firewall and a content-filtering utility for browsers and instant-messaging clients.

Runner-up suites challenge Norton products

If you’re one of the many people who’ve sworn never to install a Norton or McAfee security product again, I understand your pain. More than once, I’ve had to venture into the Windows file system and Registry to manually uninstall security programs from the two biggest names in the field, ripping the pieces out one by one.

The good news is that there are a lot of other, strong contenders for security-suite top dog. Maximum PC lists ESET Smart Security as its second choice; the program matched Symantec’s score of 9 out of 10. The magazine’s reviewers gave a lot of weight to performance and the impact the program has on system resources.

PCMag.com gives Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2009 and ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite 2009 a tie for second place, trailing only Symantec’s product. The site also weighted performance heavily, particularly the boot times of the programs it tested.

PC World rates BitDefender Internet Security 2009 as the second choice, yet again trailing the rating for Norton Internet Security. The review names the BitDefender suite a value and also singles out Avira Premium Security Suite 8.2 as the best malware detector.

For those who’d rather select their security program solely on the results of independent antivirus test labs, you’ll find several testing organizations described and linked to in Scott Dunn’s Feb. 14, 2008, Known Issues column: “Labs provide alternatives in evaluating suites.”

(Disclosure: My employer, BigFix Inc., sells a couple of different brands of anti-malware software to enterprises. While the company competes with many of the firms that are mentioned in this review — and partners with at least one of them — BigFix doesn’t sell products such as the ones mentioned above to consumers.)

Finding the sweet spot of security suites

From my point of view, the most important criterion for selecting a security suite is whether the program includes all the components you need.

Nearly all of the top-rated security suites provide a firewall and a range of anti-malware tools. The programs are differentiated by their auxiliary security components. For example, youngsters and inexperienced users may require first-rate Web-content filtering and antiphishing tools. More-experienced PC users may find such features less important.

In terms of which programs offer the best virus detection, I’m afraid the days of ranking an antivirus engine the best because of an advantage of a few percentage points in detection tests are over. It never was a really useful measurement. The myth that an antivirus app will protect you from the latest infections is even less credible now.

The sheer volume of new malware has outstripped the ability of AV vendors to create and distribute their virus-definition updates. No security program made today can prevent all PC infections. The virus-detection rates of the top-rated apps are so similar, it makes sense to give a little more weight to the tools’ design, performance, and range of features. A tool people can’t understand and use is no protection to them at all.

For more information on the ratings, see the following security-suite reviews:

• PC World: Top Internet security suites
• PCMag.com: The best security suites for 2009
• Maximum PC: Antivirus software roundup — protect your PC from guys like this!

Firewall, updater, and browser round out Baseline

Your security suite is an important component of your overall PC-security strategy, but it’s not the only one. A minimal security configuration for a PC also calls for a hardware firewall, a means of frequently updating all of your applications, and a secure Web browser. (Laptops don’t ordinarily use hardware firewalls and must rely on the personal-firewall features of an installed software suite.)

Windows Secrets has no test lab and doesn’t run its own security tests. Instead, WS writers study the published tests that are available and summarize for you which products get the best overall scores. Based on the latest findings, the WS Security Baseline currently includes the following four elements:

1. Use a hardware firewall. For home PCs, Netgear’s RangeMax WPN834 and the Linksys Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router WRT610N currently enjoy high ratings for security and usability. Read more

2. Install a security suite. Norton Internet Security Suite 2009 (see above).

3. Check for updates regularly. For novices, WS editors recommend running Microsoft Update at least monthly. For small businesses, patch-management software such as PatchLink Update and GFI LANguard Network Security Scanner are highly rated.

After you update Windows, you should immediately run Secunia’s Software Inspector, an online service that scans your system for application and operating-system patches you may still need. Read more

4. Select a more-secure browser. The safest way to surf the Web is to use Mozilla’s Firefox browser, which has repeatedly been demonstrated to have fewer security holes than Internet Explorer 7. Read more

Ryan Russell is quality assurance manager at BigFix Inc., a configuration management company. He moderated the vuln-dev mailing list for three years under the alias “Blue Boar.” He was the lead author of Hack-Proofing Your Network, 2nd Ed., and the technical editor of the Stealing the Network book series.

Site owners stung by SiteAdvisor rating errors

By Dennis O’Reilly McAfee’s SiteAdvisor security service leaves some Web developers scratching their heads over inconsistencies in its green-yellow-red ratings. The company’s promises of more-frequent reviews of its site classifications are welcomed by site owners struggling to win SiteAdvisor’s approval.

The Feb. 19 Top Story by editorial director Brian Livingston described McAfee’s attempts to ensure that the security ratings generated by the company’s SiteAdvisor service are up-to-date. That column followed the previous week’s Top Story by Mark Joseph Edwards, which reported that SiteAdvisor’s ratings could be as much as one year old.

Eric Legge wrote in to tell us of his efforts to have his site retested after it was assigned a yellow rating by SiteAdvisor:

• “SiteAdvisor is talking rubbish about dealing with complaints promptly. I complained by e-mail and by letter to the [McAfee] CEO about every page on my site having a yellow rating in October 2008. I also requested that my site be revisited after I had removed the [offending] link, which I removed only because I have probably been losing visitors for years because of this lousy service.

  “My entire site [PC Buyer Beware] still has a yellow rating for a link to this page, which SiteAdviser has given a green rating! [The page contains] a valid fix for the Smitfraud virus.

  “You only have to search the Web to find a number of site owners who have had their sites’ existence threatened by SiteAdvisor errors. Thanks for taking this ‘service’ to task.”

So many people asked us about SiteAdvisor alternatives that we’re planning a technical review of the accuracy of SiteAdvisor, Web of Trust, and other site-rating services. This complex task will take a while to finish, but we hope to offer our recommendations sometime within the next few weeks. At this point, it’s not clear how bad the situation is and which services are really the most correct.

SiteAdvisor plug-in may not be easy to remove

Our report on SiteAdvisor caused many readers to uninstall the plug-in for their browsers. Unfortunately, getting the program off your system may require some extra effort, as reader Chris Coddington discovered:

• “In the recent article on SiteAdvisor’s retesting policy, I and most others certainly read between the lines and know what to expect if [we] continue to use the ‘service.’ I suspect that many users — including myself — are uninstalling SiteAdvisor. If we can’t trust the [service’s] red warnings, we can’t trust the green warnings, either.

  “Now the only problem is how to uninstall the beast! It certainly can’t be found [by clicking] Start, All Programs, and I don’t have any other McAfee software on my system. It sounds like they are hiding it someplace. It’s getting to sound almost like another virus to worry about!”

SiteAdvisor can be removed via standard Control Panel applets: Add or Remove Programs in XP and Programs and Features in Vista. In XP, another way to get to Add or Remove Programs is to click Start, Run; type appwiz.cpl; and press Enter. An alternative way to open Programs and Features in Vista is to press the Windows key, type appwiz.cpl, and press Enter.

Once you’re in the Control Panel applet in either version of Windows, select the entry for McAfee SiteAdvisor, click Change/Remove in XP or Uninstall in Vista, and step through the wizard.

The Windows uninstaller may not completely remove the program. McAfee provides a free Consumer Products Removal utility (more info and download page). This tool promises to clear your system of several of the company’s products, not just SiteAdvisor.

If you prefer to disable rather than uninstall the SiteAdvisor plug-in, you can do so in Firefox by clicking Tools, Add-ons; selecting McAfee SiteAdvisor; and choosing Disable. In IE, click Tools, Manage Add-ons, Enable or Disable Add-ons; select both McAfee SiteAdvisor BHO and McAfee SiteAdvisor Toolbar, one at a time; and choose Disable under Settings near the bottom of the dialog box.

Another possible SiteAdvisor alternative

In the Feb. 19 Known Issues column, reader George Elting recommended two free programs designed to make your Web browsing safer. In summary, CallingID (more info) and LinkScanner Lite (more info) are more specialized services than SiteAdvisor. The former identifies the location of the site’s server, and the latter verifies the links returned by search engines.

Larry Croy offers another suggestion for secure browsing:

• “Just a heads-up for another free alternative to SiteAdvisor. I have been using the Finjan SecureBrowsing software [more info] for several years with no problems. They have both IE and Firefox versions.”

As I mentioned above, we’ll be taking a closer look at Web security programs in a future article. Stay tuned!

The Known Issues column brings you readers’ comments on our recent articles. Dennis O’Reilly is technical editor of WindowsSecrets.com.

My smartphone is smarter than your smartphone!

By Katy Abby It happens every time: just when you think you’ve got the newest, slickest, most-awesome gadget on the market, a new model comes along that makes your posh purchase look like peanuts. Nowhere is this more apparent than with cell phones. Today’s latest smartphones top their predecessors by offering mind-blowing features that we could barely dream of in years past. Enter the Pomegranate. It does absolutely everything you’d ever want a cell phone to do, and then some! Just don’t tell your iPhone …. Play the video

Tame Windows' Volume Shadow Copy Service

By Fred Langa The Volume Shadow Copy Service has been a part of Windows since 2003 and can silently consume prodigious amounts of disk space. Here’s how to keep the automatic-backup service from devouring the hard-drive capacity on your XP or Vista system.

Still on the prowl for missing disk space

My previous items on determining the cause of vanishing disk space (see the Jan. 8 column and Feb. 12 column) looked at some of the obscure backwaters of Windows that can quietly consume huge chunks of your hard-drive real estate. But XP, Vista, and Windows Server share still another black hole for disk space, and reader Sande Nissen ran head-on into the version in Vista:

• “I’ve seen one more situation that can account for missing hard-disk space: the Volume Shadow Copy Service. When my new ThinkPad running Vista Home Premium starting losing significant amounts of disk space, I was baffled. Finally, I learned that the Volume Shadow Copy Service was unconfigured, which meant it would use an infinite amount of space.

  “A free utility called Shadow Explorer [more info] helped me discover this. And the vssadmin.exe command-line utility built into Windows let me fix it. Here’s the Microsoft reference on Vssadmin.”

Thanks, Sande! The Volume Shadow Copy Service (which is abbreviated to VSS; see explanation below) actually has roots all the way back to Windows Me, which introduced an early version of System Restore. XP improved on this by letting System Restore roll back unwanted changes to the Registry and other critical system files.

It’s easy to control the amount of disk space allotted to XP’s System Restore, as Microsoft shows in the aptly named how-to article “Windows XP System Restore is easy to use.”

You can think of VSS as a kind of hugely enhanced System Restore. The service rolled out with Windows Server 2003 and is also in Vista. VSS retains the familiar all-or-nothing system-file rollbacks of System Restore, but it adds a Previous Version feature that, among other options, lets you selectively roll back changes to individual files on your system — even regular documents! And as Sande says, Vssadmin is the tool that lets you manage VSS in Windows Server 2003 and Vista.

Oddly, although VSS is in all versions of Vista, Microsoft removed the VSS interface in Vista Home Basic and Home Premium. VSS is there and working, but Vista Home provides no built-in way to access the Previous Version function; this was probably a marketing decision to reinforce the many somewhat arbitrary distinctions between the various versions of Vista.

Fortunately, as Sande says, the free Shadow Explorer tool corrects that deficiency and gives all Vista users access to the data stored by VSS.

In all versions of Vista and Server 2003 and above, you can use the Vssadmin to control how much disk space is allotted to VSS. The best how-to’s I’ve seen on the subject are from MyDigitalLife:

• The fast, direct way is via the command line, which is described in the article “How to change and limit System Restore storage space usage size in Vista with Vssadmin.”
• A less-direct but equally effective route using the familiar Windows graphical interface is presented in the article “Change and set Vista Shadow Copy or System Restore disk-space limit in Explorer GUI.”

Both methods work, and if you’re tight on space in Vista, either one can help you rein in VSS’s sometimes-voracious appetite for disk space.

P.S. #1: If you’ve never used the Previous Version feature that’s in Vista’s Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate, it’s kind of cool. VSS makes shadow copies once a day and also every time you install an application or driver. The program also creates a copy when you create a restore point manually.

Shadow copies aren’t made each time you change a file, so you can’t roll back every little change to every file on your system. But you can recover previous versions of files and folders that are captured by the normal operation of VSS. To do so, right-click a document that you know had earlier versions or a folder where such documents resided. Click the Previous Version or Restore Previous Version tab. If VSS is working properly, you’ll see a menu of the available earlier versions. Just a couple of clicks later, a previous version is restored!

P.S. #2: Why is Volume Shadow Copy Service abbreviated VSS instead of VSCS? An earlier version of this feature was called the Volume Snapshot Service, but that service is now a subset of the Volume Shadow Copy Service. The name changed, but the earlier acronym stuck!

Thunderbird can’t keep up with your keyboarding

Mozilla Thunderbird is a very popular, free, no-frills, open-source e-mail client (more info and download link). I use the program for my own e-mail. But that’s not to say Thunderbird is without flaws, as Graeme found out:

• “When I’m entering text to create e-mail messages in Thunderbird, the cursor periodically stops moving for 3 or 4 seconds, then wakes up again and catches up with whatever keys I have been striking during the hiatus. It seems to happen at random and maybe 10 times a day.

  “I assume my XP system is doing something else in the background, and I worry that it could be a virus or other unwanted agent. How can I find out what is causing this?”

I experienced the same Thunderbird stutter, Graeme. But the glitch has nothing to do with XP.

It’s caused by Thunderbird’s own draft auto-save feature, which automatically makes a backup copy of e-mails as you compose them. When auto-save kicks in, Thunderbird briefly ignores the keyboard input while it saves the draft. The longer and more complex the e-mail you’re composing, the longer it takes to auto-save the draft, and the longer the delay.

When Thunderbird accepts keystrokes again, Windows’ keyboard buffer shovels all the keys it stored while Thunderbird was unresponsive and things proceed normally. Because your keystrokes are buffered, you can just keep typing during the auto-save. Your keystrokes will appear on screen after a second or three. But I admit, it’s disconcerting so see your e-mail client appear to go dead.

If it bothers you too much, you can take control of the draft auto-save function: click Tools, Options, Composition, General. Uncheck the Auto Save box to disable the draft auto-save function, or check the box to enable this feature. When it’s enabled, you can set the interval between saves by changing the number shown before the word “minutes.”

Figure 1. Turn off Thunderbird’s draft auto-save feature or adjust the save interval to avoid unexpected delays while composing e-mail.

Like most open-source software, different parts of Thunderbird were coded by different people, and not all parts show equal levels of programming polish and efficiency. When or if you run into glitches, the MozillaZine Thunderbird Knowledge Base is an excellent resource for tracking down exactly what’s going on.

A fix for Windows’ broken installer utility

PC problems can be vexing any time of the year, but as Dave Young found out, encountering system woes at tax time can be a real headache:

• “I tried to load [Intuit’s] Turbo Tax program onto my XP Home SP3 computer and got an error: ‘Windows Installer is not accessible; Installation can’t continue because the Windows Installer could not be accessed. (Error Code 1601).’ Clicking the ‘possible solutions’ link takes me to a Turbo Tax page that indicates ‘Possible Cause: The Windows Installer is turned off or corrupted.’

  “[The Turbo Tax page] suggests looking at Task Manager, Processes for a file msiexec.exe. This file was not there! So it looks like this process is indeed turned off. I went to the next step in the solutions and download Windows Installer 3.1 v2 (for Windows XP), thinking that I could install this to fix a corrupted Installer file. When I tried to install, the message box came back, telling me I have a newer version already installed.

  “Any way you look at it, I am really ‘wrapped around the axle.’ I have tried all the fixes I found on the forums, including re-registering Windows’ Installer. I even tried to install the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility (msicuu2.exe) but wouldn’t you know, it would not install. I got the error ‘The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed ….”

I think we can get you unwrapped from that axle, Dave. Re-registering the file is indeed the first thing to try, but did the instructions you followed tell you to first unregister the Windows Installer before re-registering it? If not, that could be the problem right there.

If that’s the case, Microsoft’s step-by-step tutorial for fixing this problem is posted in Knowledge Base article 315353.

If unregistering and re-registering the installer doesn’t work, try a “repair installation” of XP using your original setup CD. This will leave your customizations and user files alone (although it’s always smart to make a backup first) while replacing the damaged Windows Installer on your system with the original, working version. Instructions are available from Microsoft in the article, “Perform a repair installation.”

And by the way, the repair-installation trick fixes many kinds of corrupted system files, not just the Windows Installer.

Edit Windows’ Group Policies without GPedit

Aargh! I blew it. I admit it: I messed up the answer in Feb. 19 column, “Why am I locked out of the Registry?” I referred to the Group Policy Editor (GPedit) as if it were available in all versions of Windows, but it’s not. The utility is included only in non-Home versions. I apologize.

Here’s why I messed up: the Group Policy settings are stored in the Registry; you can add, remove, modify, or otherwise access the settings in any version of Windows with any normal Registry editor, including Windows’ built-in Regedit. The GPedit applet makes it easier to edit these settings, but you don’t really need GPedit to do so.

Also, as of this writing, there are 26 — yes, 26 — different versions of Windows in use: five of XP, nine of Server 2008, one of Home Server, and 11 of Vista. Many of the Group Policy settings can exist and be edited in all versions, but the little front-end GPedit applet is found only in some of those versions.

Don’t get sidetracked by the presence or absence of the GPedit tool; it’s just a convenience feature. You can edit the Group Policy settings using any ordinary Registry editor, including plain old Regedit.

It’s perfectly legitimate to edit these settings in systems that don’t have GPedit; doing so is neither a cheat nor a hack. Microsoft publishes a complete list of Group Policy Registry settings as large spreadsheet tables: one for XP and one for Vista.

Because of this, some users have ginned up workarounds for GPedit-less systems. For example, Doug Knox wrote a little standalone front-end for XP that’s sort of GPedit-lite: Doug calls it the XP Security Console (more info). Another enterprising user has posted GPedit and its related files as a downloadable zip file called GPEdit_Files.zip. (more info). And Windows Secrets reader Bob Kober offers a free Restore Group Policies Settings tool (more info) that he says will reset all Group Policies to their defaults on XP and Vista.

For more information on exactly what the Group Policy settings do in different versions of Windows, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 307822 and this article from the WinExtra site. Once you see what the settings do, you can use GPedit (if it’s on your system) or Regedit to create, modify, delete, or otherwise experiment with the settings that interest you.

(Twenty-six versions. Sheesh! How’s a guy ever going to keep them all straight?)

Fred Langa is editor-at-large of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He was formerly editor of Byte Magazine (1987–91), editorial director of CMP Media (1991–97), and editor of the LangaList e-mail newsletter from its origin in 1997 until its merger with Windows Secrets in November 2006.

Sync services let you update files from anywhere

By Scott Dunn A new generation of services allows you to share and synchronize folders via the Internet. Many sync services also offer online backup, remote file management, and access to your synched files from any browser, even when the remote machine on which they’re stored is turned off.

Why would you want to use a Web-based file-sync service rather than a sync program such as Microsoft’s free SyncToy (download page)? Because the services harness the power of the Internet to pierce corporate firewalls. With many of these services, you need only an Internet connection and a small sync applet that you download and install on each PC.

Unfortunately, browsers don’t make very good file managers. For one thing, you can forget about dragging and dropping between your desktop and the browser window listing your synched files.

While the services don’t charge to download their sync software, in many cases you have to pay a monthly or annual fee to access all the program’s features. The fee includes the cost of storage space on the site’s servers.

Note that the annual fees charged by most of the products I tested are the equivalent of 10 monthly payments, so going the annual route is the same as getting two months of service for free.

Table 1. Sync services offer capabilities beyond simple file synchronization. (• = yes)

*Gbridge can sync only in one direction.
**Gbridge’s backup feature copies to a remote computer, not to one of the service’s online servers.

#1: SYNCPLICITY

Top file-sync choice offers the most features

The mix of features provided by Syncplicity is impressive. They include bidirectional folder synching, sharing, backup, and the ability to sync folders on multiple machines over the Internet. Syncplicity keeps all your sync locations up-to-date automatically.

Like Gbridge and SugarSync, Syncplicity stores both copies of files that appear to be in conflict and appends info to the files’ names to indicate such.

Like Memeo Share, Syncplicity lets you share files via an e-mail invitation to the desired parties, giving the recipients access to specified folders. Unlike Memeo, however, Syncplicity isn’t limited to photo and video sharing.

Syncplicity keeps a copy of your files on its server, which lets you access the files from any Internet-connected PC, even if the PC storing the originating folder is offline. The online copy serves as your backup, although the service has no backup commands per se.

Although Syncplicity lacks the remote-access features found in Gbridge and BeInSync, the service has one option competing offerings lack: Syncplicity stores older versions of your files, which is even more useful than having a single backup copy. Just right-click a file in the service’s online file manager — which you access via your browser — and choose Show Revisions.

In addition, Syncplicity integrates with Facebook, Google Docs, and Apple’s iPhone.

Syncplicity is free for storing up to 2GB of data and 10,000 files. For U.S. $10 a month ($100 per year), you can manage up to 40GB of files via the service.

#2: BEINSYNC

Powerful features with an easy-to-use interface

With great big buttons delineating its major features — sync, share, access, and backup — BeInSync is clearly the ease-of-use winner among the file-sync services I tested.

Sharing via BeInSync is much simpler than doing so via most other programs. For example, you can import your Outlook contact list and then select the contacts you want to share a file with rather than having to send e-mail invitations one by one. Better yet, BeInSync lets you give your sharees one of three levels of control over the files.

BeInSync’s powerful remote-access feature is far simpler to set up than the usual Microsoft network. Both computers must be online and running the BeInSync software: that’s it. This feature gives you full access to either computer from the other, which is perfect for work/home situations. The risk, of course, is that you’re also allowing anyone who has your account name and password to access your system.

The service’s synching feature is straightforward, but unlike Syncplicity and SugarSync, you can’t store any synched files on BeInSync’s servers. Consequently, synching can take place only when all computers involved are online and running BeInSync. Online storage is available via the backup portion of the product.

BeInSync could stand some improvement on how it handles file conflicts. Rather than renaming both versions of conflicting files — as Gbridge, SugarSync, and Syncplicity do — BeInSync merely alerts you to the conflict. At least you can use the service’s remote-access feature to compare the files that didn’t get copied.

At $60 a year for 5GB of online storage, BeInSync Professional is not the cheapest sync service available. And you’ll add another $20 to that annual amount if you need up to 20GB of storage, or another $40 for 50GB.

Still, it’s a tough call between Syncplicity and BeInSync. I’d go with the former if you want anytime access to your data and past versions (whether your remote computer is on or not). However, BeInSync is the way to go if remote file management is more important to you than easy access and file versioning.

#3: SUGARSYNC

The sync service that’s sweet on photos

Both SugarSync and Syncplicity store your synched data online, which lets you access your files from any Internet-connected computer; you don’t need to install any special software on the machine. However, you do have to download and install the service’s applet if you want to sync files on the two systems.

If you don’t want multiple copies of files on multiple machines, SugarSync’s “lite sync” feature lets you manage files remotely for a specified folder, provided the SugarSync manager is running. If you use only a browser, you have more limited access to the files. Still, SugarSync lacks the comprehensive remote-access features found in BeInSync and Gbridge.

SugarSync lets you share files by sending recipients download links via e-mail, but the bulk of the service’s file-sharing features emphasize photo sharing. You can send shared invitations by allowing the service to access your address lists from AOL Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail.

Prices for the service vary depending on the amount of storage you need: monthly fees are $2.50 for up to 10GB, $5 for 30GB, $10 for 60GB, $15 for 100GB, and $25 for 250GB. A free trial with a storage limit of 10GB is available for 45 days.

SugarSync also has special mobile features for users of Windows Mobile or Blackberry devices.

If you spend a lot of time working with photos, this is a good product to consider. However, for general file synching, sharing, and remote management, BeInSync and Syncplicity offer a broader set of features.

#4: MEMEO SHARE

This sync service takes an à la carte approach

Most file-sync services provide synching, sharing, and backup in a single product. Memeo takes a more atomized approach, offering AutoSync for folder synchronization ($30), Share for sharing photos and videos over the Web (1GB free, $5 per month for more), and iDisk for online backup ($1 per gigabyte per month for amounts over 5GB).

I tested both Share and iDisk but excluded AutoSync from this review since it’s not an Internet service — it can sync devices only when they’re connected physically or via a local network.

The Share service doesn’t claim to do folder synching. The service is intended to be used for sharing photos and videos directly and automatically from your computer to any computer with a Web connection. You send an invitation to the recipients, and when the people join your sharing circle, their Memeo Share folders are automatically updated whenever you add photos or videos to the corresponding folder you’ve chosen to share.

Using Memeo Share is definitely easier than sending photos by e-mail or posting them to a photo-sharing site such as Yahoo’s Flickr. Once you’ve set up your folder and sharing circles, you can pretty much let Share do the heavy lifting.

It’s disappointing that Memeo has limited this service to photos and video, but perhaps the company is trying to avoid legal issues surrounding music-file sharing.

It’s also unfortunate that you have to pay separately for features that competing services offer in a single package. With Memeo, you could end up paying more than you would for competing sync services and still not have Internet-based folder synching. The upside is that if you want only one of these features, you don’t have to pay for the others.

#5: GBRIDGE

Free service suffers from a poor interface

Among the current crop of file-sharing, synching, and remote-access services, Gbridge has the distinction of being completely free. Unlike fee-based products, Gbridge doesn’t store your files on its server. However, the service does let you share, sync, and back up files with other Gbridge users that you provide with your password.

Although not a Google product, Gbridge uses your Gmail account info to establish potential connections to your Gmail contact list. Sharing a folder is as simple as dragging that folder to the Gbridge window.

Shared files appear as a list in a browser window, although photos can also be displayed as large thumbnails. There is no way to upload into this window; it’s a one-way street of download only.

Unfortunately, Gbridge’s folder synching (“AutoSync”) is also designed to be unidirectional. If you need to sync files in two or more directions, Gbridge isn’t your best choice.

Last and probably least, Gbridge’s dialog boxes are often plagued with convoluted and unclear wording, not to mention serious spelling errors. Still, if a free solution for remote file sharing and synching is what you’re after, Gbridge may suit your needs.

Scott Dunn is a contributing editor for the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He has been a contributing editor of PC World since 1992 and currently writes for the Here’s How section of that magazine.

New viruses target recently patched IE holes

By Susan Bradley We’re seeing the first exploits attempting to take advantage of the Internet Explorer vulnerabilities addressed in this month’s security update from Microsoft. The fix causes pages on some trusted sites to stop loading, which requires a patch of its own.

MS09-002 (961260)
Microsoft Word documents may be infected

As predicted, attacks have begun to target the Internet Explorer vulnerabilities patched by the update explained in Microsoft security bulletin MS09-002 and Knowledge Base article 961260. The first such viruses were contained in Word documents, as discussed in this article on the SANS Internet Storm Center, but the attacks are now being launched from various web sites, mostly in China and Taiwan at present.

Note that some people report a problem associated with this update. When they browse to a page on a site on IE’s Trusted Sites list, the page may stop loading if it pulls content from servers that aren’t on the Trusted Sites list. In Vista, IE will indicate that navigation to the page was canceled.

To fix this issue, either follow the manual instructions in KB article 967941 or scroll to and select the Fix it button on that page. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. Many Microsoft Knowledge Base articles now feature one-click fix-it options.

(Microsoft has compiled more of these “click here to fix” articles. The TechNet “Fix it for me” blog tracks the articles that offer one of these helpful one-click buttons.)

MS09-003 (959239)
Exchange Server patch is a mini–service pack

Reader Mark Kage took me to task — and rightfully so — for not giving a full explanation of why I was recommending that Windows Server administrators not rush to install the Exchange Server patch described in Microsoft security bulletin MS09-003 and KB article 959239.

I had indicated that the only risk was a denial-of-service attack, so your organization’s data was not imperiled. That was only half the story. The other half: the vulnerabilities patched in this update involve remote-code execution allowing a malicious e-mail to gain control of your mail server. There’s a big but that needs to be explained.

Microsoft now releases what it calls the Exploitability Index. In MS’s monthly bulletin summaries, such as February 2009, this section details the likelihood that attacks will target a particular vulnerability. The Exploitability Index leads me to believe that attacks targeting this Exchange Server hole are unlikely to be widespread and are more likely to target larger firms, which are much heavier users of mail servers.

Before you install this patch, take the same precautions you would implement prior to applying a service pack. Back up of your mail server before you deploy this patch. It’s not a small update and can take several minutes to download and install. For Exchange Server 2003, you may need to reboot the server. There’s no need to rush with this update. I’ll keep you informed as the situation changes.

951847, 952883, and 961118
.NET update blocks Exchange’s out-of-office tool

The version of .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 for 64-bit Vista and Windows Server 2008 was delayed due to a glitch that knocked out Exchange 2007’s out-of office function. The patch described in KB article 951847 updates the .NET 3.5 SP1 fixes explained in KB article 952883. Systems running Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP may be offered a separate patch for the .NET 3.5 SP1 update, as described in KB article 961118. This fixes a glitch that allows an inbox printer to be unsigned.

After hearing from reader Doug Leathem about his failed installation of this .NET patch — which featured six and a half hours on the line with Microsoft support to try to repair the problem — I’m still not ready to give you the all-clear for this update.

MS09-004 (959420)
SQL Server patch doesn’t know when to quit

The SQL Server database program is usually installed on servers but may also be on your standalone PCs. For example, many accounting applications use SQL for data storage.

Some people report being offered over and over again the SQL Server patches described in Microsoft security bulletin MS09-004 and KB 959420. After your first attempt to apply this patch fails, you’ll be prompted repeatedly to install it.

My best advice is to contact Microsoft at 1-866-PCSafety and let them help you determine why the patch won’t stick. There’s no one-size-fits-all resolution for this glitch at present.

960715
ActiveX kill-bit update affects business apps

In a Feb. 14 special report, I warned about the ActiveX kill-bit patch described in KB article 960715, which was causing some business software and Microsoft Access applications to fail. Access MVP Alex Dybenko’s blog describes a solution for this problem. Unfortunately, it’s still in the hands of your business-software vendors to provide the fix.

The application’s developer needs to install the update described in KB article 957924 on a workstation that has Visual Basic 6. Once the patched OCX files are built, the vendor can send them to you. The reason you can’t deploy these fixed OCX files directly is that your vendor needs to test the apps to ensure that they work as they should.

961030
Windows Home Server gets another backup fix

Windows Home Server is used on home PCs to back up desktops and provide remote access. It’s also used by small businesses to back up their desktop PCs. The patch described in KB article 961030 fixes a problem that causes the program to crash when opening a Home Server backup reaches 79%. The patch also fixes and improves the ability of the connector software to receive updates, as discussed on the Home Server blog. This patch should be among your server updates by early March.

Watch out for zero-day attack on Adobe apps

Expect to see arrive on your desktop shortly a patch for a security hole that affects Adobe Flash Player versions 10.0.12.36 and earlier, as documented in Adobe’s security bulletin. Then be prepared on Mar. 11 to apply updates for Adobe’s Acrobat and Reader software. An exploit currently making the rounds takes advantage of Adobe’s ability to use JavaScript.

Adobe’s report indicates that the glitch affects versions 9 and earlier of Adobe Reader and Acrobat. At this time, it appears that antivirus vendors have been able to keep up with the risks, but to play it safe, do the following in Reader and Acrobat. Click Edit, Preferences; select JavaScript in the left pane; and uncheck Enable Acrobat JavaScript. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. Disable JavaScript via Adobe’s Edit, Preferences settings.

You can also disable JavaScript in Acrobat and Reader by running a little batch file. You can download this file from the PhishLabs blog, though I think the instructions for disabling JavaScript within the program itself are much easier and just as effective.

To date, this vulnerability appears to have been targeted only sparingly by virus writers. Sometimes, however, being safe is better than being sorry. It doesn’t appear that the alternative PDF readers, CutePDF and Foxit Reader, are vulnerable to these attacks at present.

967715
AutoRun patch can auto-wait until next month

The Conficker virus has put Windows’ AutoRun feature back in the news because of the worm’s ability to infect PCs via USB storage devices. When you plug a USB flash drive into your system, the autorun.inf file stored on the device can be used to launch a program or execute commands. You probably also see this automatic feature when you place a music CD or DVD into your computer. AutoRun automatically senses the type of information on the flash drive or optical disc and launches the appropriate application.

(Windows’ AutoPlay feature allows various media file types to be associated with specific applications. For more on the distinctions between the two technologies, see Microsoft’s Windows Help and How-to article on the subject.)

There are times — as in the case of Conficker — where a system administrator wants to shut off AutoRun. Until this week, the Registry instruction to deactivate AutoRun didn’t work on many machines. In July 2008, the problem was fixed in Vista and Windows Server 2008, but it took until this week to get the same fix for XP and Windows Server 2003.

This week, systems running XP and Windows Server 2003 will be offered the update described in KB article 967715. You’ll need to reboot the machine after you install this patch. Note that the update merely ensures that you can disable AutoRun if you wish; it doesn’t disable the feature automatically. If you decide that you’d rather wait and deploy this patch along with those to be released on next month’s Patch Tuesday, that’s fine in my book.

There’s another reason to wait before applying this update: some early adopters report being offered the patch repeatedly.

968272
Don’t open unexpected Excel e-mail attachments

Microsoft announced an unpatched vulnerability in Excel that could lead to remote attacks against systems, as described in this Microsoft security advisory. To gain access, someone would need to entice you to open an Excel .xls, .xlt, or .xla file or to browse to a site hosting an infected spreadsheet. So far, this hole has been used only in limited attacks. Quite frankly, Windows Secrets readers are smart enough to know not to open a spreadsheet file they receive as an attachment to an unexpected e-mail.

A little bit of paranoia goes a long way in the computer world. When in doubt, reply to the person who sent you the file to confirm that it’s legit. I’ll report next month on whether there’s a patch available for this glitch.

The Patch Watch column reveals problems with patches for Windows and major Windows applications. Susan Bradley recently received an MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award from Microsoft for her knowledge in the areas of Small Business Server and network security. She’s also a partner in a California CPA firm.