The Ultimate Troubleshooter: Diagnostics with an attitude

The Ultimate Troubleshooter is a utility application from AnswersThatWork, a British firm. If you ask the utility what it thinks of some of the applications that are running on your computer, it will tell you exactly what it thinks. I like that in a utility. And when it can solve a problem that's been annoying me for nearly 6 months, that's even better.

The Ultimate Troubleshooter from Answers that Work isn't shy about expressing an opinion. I have a Creative Labs Audigy 2 sound system and CTHelper is an application that Creative Labs added to my computer's start-up sequence. What does TUT think of it? To see larger views of the screen shots, click the small images.

"CTHELPER is a background task that is a plug-in manager for Creative's SoundBlaster Live and Audigy soundcards. The theory is that 3rd party manufacturers can use the CTHELPER plug-in interface to produce drivers, add-on features, and fixes that will integrate with a tighter fit with Creative's sound drivers and utilities. One of the very first uses of this interface has been for InterVideo's WinDVD in the shape of a fix called "WinDVDPatch" and, at the time of writing (12-Jan-2003), there have not been other uses for it yet."

As for what to do about it, "Given its purpose, CTHELPER would normally be classified as a 'leave alone' background task. Unfortunately, as with many other Creative background tasks in these pages, there are often problems with CTHELPER. The most common complaint is random excess CPU utilization, up to 100%! We have also had complaints of PCs freezing when CTHELPER is around, although that is probably also 100% CPU utilization. Additionally, on PCs running Intel's Pentium 4 Hyper-Threading CPUs, the sound stutters. In short: CTHELPER is far more trouble than it is a help. Disable on the Startups tab."

And when it comes to the Adobe Acrobat "speed launch" applet, TUT is even more adamant: "Delete immediately!" Why? When will software companies learn that speed launch programs are utterly useless in the current scheme of things? In this day and age of fast computers with good amounts of memory, the performance gains in having such pre-launcher programs so that the main program loads faster, Adobe Acrobat in this case, are negligible if not totally unnoticeable - all you are doing is lengthening your start-up time unnecessarily and having a task which uses 3Mb to 5Mb of precious memory all day long when you might not actually use Adobe Acrobat. Adobe Acrobat works perfectly well without this startup item, and you will never notice the difference!"

The cause of a long-time annoyance

I formatted the computer's boot drive last July and re-installed the applications. Since then I haven't been able to create a CD or a DVD on the machine. Because I can use a Mac or a Windows notebook computer on the network to burn CDs and DVDs, I haven't given the problem a lot of thought.

Then I noticed a message on TUT's Services tab regarding Creative's Service for CD ROM Access: "With modern CD-ROM drives (36-speed and above) this task is of no use to any system, so we recommend you disable it on the Startups tab and let Windows handle everything to do with your CD-ROM drive."

I disabled the service and found that I was once again able to burn DVDs at the device's full rated speed (4x -- it's an old drive).

A unique license

The Ultimate Troubleshooter comes with a license that's actually worth reading. It serves to eliminate any liability from use of the program, but it does so in plain language that anyone can understand. Here's a small example:

You are about to install The Ultimate Troubleshooter from AnswersThatWork.com. Amongst other things The Ultimate Troubleshooter enables you, the end-user, to modify certain configuration settings in Windows. We use this software ourselves on a daily basis with absolute and total confidence. That said, as with any other software, if you are currently experiencing extremely serious problems with your PC, the installation of our software could run into problems, not because of problems with our software, but because of problems with your PC. As a direct result the installation of any software, whether our software or someone else’s software, could turn your existing problems into worse problems, if not terminal problems. Since we do not know the current condition and make-up of your PC and since, crucially, we are not performing this installation ourselves, We, AnswersThatWork.com, will not be responsible for any direct or indirect damage to your computer(s), direct or indirect physical damage to yourself, other people, or things, sustained as a result of installing and using our software at any time in the life of your computer. In other words, if you want to be able to hold someone fully accountable and responsible for anything that might arise in the process of using and installing our software, call in an expert, a consultant, and have them come in and install and use our software on your behalf.

The application has already been updated and now knows about some of the applications that show as "unknown" here. Additionally, I've already heard from the developer: "Dreamweaver & Retrospect: consider us well and truly spanked - I shall have a 'quiet word' with the Research Team about this tomorrow Monday. You can expect those to be included in an upcoming database update very soon - I WILL make damn sure of that!!"

Who is my computer talking to?

One particularly useful feature TUT offers is the ability to display the IP address of every connection your computer has and to display the number of the port being used for the link. I decided to give this a try.

		Anything that's connected to 127.0.0.1 (localhost) or 0.0.0.0 is assumed to be safe. It's the other addresses I want to check.
		Right-clicking the IP address and choosing "resolve" provides details ...
		... in most cases, at least. Some of the IP addresses didn't resolve, so these will require a little extra work. And I wonder what akamaitechnologies.com is!
		After I closed the browser (Firefox with about 15 open windows) akamaitechnologies.com went away and only unresolved 2 IP addresses remained.

Akamai apparently provides application hosting, content delivery, and streaming media services such as QuickTime, RealAudio, and Windows Media file feeds for companies such as Apple, MTV, IBM, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Because I believe there is no threat from these connections, I am no longer interested in knowing exactly which application(s) are communicating with Akamai, although this interest could change in the future. For now I'm more interested in the IP addresses that didn't resolve even though I have no reason to suspect there's a problem.

205.188.1.136 belongs to AOL. I'm connected to their AIM service with GAIM. Shutting down GAIM releases the connection and restarting GAIM opens the connection again. It's on port 5190, which is exactly where AOL should be. Mystery solved.

63.240.133.76 is registered to CERFNet in San Diego, an Internet service provider and website host. Individual domains at CERFNet all share the ISP's IP address instead of having a unique address, so one of the websites I had open was using this connection. I could find out which one if I wanted to do a little more detective work. At the moment, I don't.

That leaves 205.188.8.178, which I suspected would belong to AOL and that's the case, and 64.215.169.80, which belongs to Global Crossing and is using port 80, so it's from a website.

The other domain names are all ones that I recognize.

Overall: TUT is well worth having.

If you own a computer and that computer occasionally has problems, The Ultimate Troubleshooter represents $29 well spent. I found some surprising lapses in programs it knows about (TUT doesn't know about popular backup program Retrospect, for example, or about Macromedia Dreamweaver) but when it doesn't recognize a program, it doesn't guess. TUT rates applications and services it does recognize as OK (leave it alone), not OK (remove it or disable it), or user's choice. You'll find more details on the AnswersThatWork website, along with a wealth of additional information that will keep your computer running well.

You could look it up!

I'm not going to suggest that you pitch your print dictionary anytime soon, but I hardly ever reach for any of the dictionaries at my desk, and that's quite a few: American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition and the Oxford Canadian Dictionary are off my port bow, along with the Merriam Webster Dictionary of English Usage. Off the starboard bow are the Merriam Webster Ninth Collegiate and the second collegiate version of the American Heritage Dictionary. I have to lean and reach a bit to put my hands on the American Heritage Dictionary, Third Edition. And if I need the microprint edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, I have to go to the office.

These days I pick up a dictionary when I need to check specialized usage (Canadian, for example) or when I want to examine multiple entries for a specific word. Neither of those occurs often.

In most cases, all I need is a quick sanity check to ensure that I've used the correct word or used a word in the correct manner. For this, an on-line dictionary is ideal. I've used the American Heritage Dictionary's CD-based reference for years. It came with the print version of the last AHD that I bought, probably in 2000.

But late in 2005, I received copies of the Random House Webster's College Dictionary and a beta version of the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. I installed one on each of two computers. Unlike the AHD, the Random House publication doesn't pronounce words for me, but that's a minor shortcoming. In most cases, I know how to pronounce words I'm looking up; if not, Random House provides standard phonetic marks.

Random House also includes an unusual feature that works with many applications, including browsers: You can grab a word and just drag it to an on-screen icon. The icon can reside anywhere on the screen (I keep mine in the title bar area) and it can be any of 3 sizes (I choose tiny). When you drop a word on the icon, a definition pane pops open with information about the word. For applications that don't work with the dictionary, use copy and paste.

The Random House Webster's College Dictionary retails for $20 and the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary will retail for $50 as soon as it's available (as of late January, it was still in beta). The primary difference is the number of words: the college version has 87,000 entries while the unabridged version checks in at 315,000 entries.

Overall: Awesomeness personified.

This is the fastest, easiest way to find a definition. You may still want to have a print dictionary, and I highly recommend it, but the Random House on-line dictionary will almost certainly provide the information you need. For more information, see the WordGenius website.

Nerdly News

More nasties in the e-mail stream

An interesting mass-mailer worm that's spreading itself offers a little something extra on the 3rd of each month. The 3rd of February is approaching and now would be a good time to be certain that your computer isn't infected because the extra treat the worm provides on the 3rd is an effort to delete all Word, Excel, Access, and Powerpoint files it finds on any drive connected to your computer. It will also delete any Photoshop, Zip, or PDF documents that it can find, along with some others.

The worm creates a file on your computer and places an empty Zip file in the system directory. It then opens this file as a ruse to disguise its real components. Next it adds a good copy of a Windows Socket control to the system and makes several changes to the Registry.

Then things start to get interesting. It deletes files and directories owned by Symantec, Panda, Kaspersky, Grisoft, Trend Micro, and the like -- antivirus applications -- and closes any windows with Symantec, Scan, Kaspersky, Virus, McAfee, Trend Micro, Norton, Removal, or Fix in the title.

It also searches for and deletes any Registry entries for antivirus programs and then searches your computer for e-mail addresses. The worm then creates messages with copies of itself and sends them with subject lines such as *Hot Movie*, A Great Video, Fw: Picturs, Fwd: Crazy illegal Sex!, Miss Lebanon 2006, and many others. It adds some text to the body of the message. All that is routine.

Once it has made arrangements to replicate itself, it starts looking for more ways to create trouble by searching for network shares, attempts to communicate with a counter (now shut down) that let the writer know how many machines are infected. At the same time, it attempts to connect to other computers on the network and to delete all antivirus programs on them.

Once an hour, the worm attempts to run its executable file and -- when this happens on the 3rd day of any month, the application will search for and destroy all copies of files on the computer or on network shares with these extensions: doc, xls, mdb, mde, ppt, pps, zip, rar, pdf, psd, and dmp.

In addition to keeping your antivirus program up to date, the usual caution applies: Do not open an attachment unless it comes from someone you know and you confirm that the apparent sender actually sent you the file.

Google news is news from Google

Four years in beta, Google News finally "ships". We need a new word to describe on-line applications that are finally deemed to be good enough to be taken out of beta. There's nothing to "ship", so they can't be "shipped", but that's the best we've come up with so far. But we also "dial" phones and a lot of people have never seen a phone with a dial.

In any event, Google News has some new features and is no longer "in beta".

Google introduced the service in September 2002 with the goal of giving users a broader perspective on the news by pointing to many articles on the same topic. Now Google News has 22 regional editions in 10 languages.

The new features include personalized news headlines and the ability to receive "recommended news stories" that are chosen based on your previous searches.

A new section in the left column shows the most popular recent stories in the Google News edition you're using.

Annoying legal disclaimer

My attorney says I really need to say this: The Technology Corner website is for informational purposes only. Neither Joe nor I assume any responsibility for its accuracy, although we do our best. The information is subject to change without notice. Any actions you take based on information from the radio program or from this website are entirely at your own risk. Products and services are mentioned for informational purposes only and their various trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. Technology Corner cannot provide technical support for products or services mentioned on the air or on the website.