Fix: ESET NOD32 Antivirus Missing the License Expiry Date

If you are using ESET Smart Security or ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4.0, or ESET Smart Security or ESET NOD32 Antivirus 3.0, your license expiration date can be viewed at any time from the main program window. NOTE: Please allow 24-48 hours after entering your new username and password for your updated expiration date to display.

How To Check License Date:
1.Open the main program window by clicking the ESET icon next to the system clock or by clicking Start All Programs ESET ESET Smart Security or ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

2.From the main menu, click Protection status. The expiration date is displayed next to License valid until to the right.

Fix Missing License Date

If your version 4.0 ESET security product is not displaying the correct license expiration date, you can verify the validity of your product license, which will cause the current expiration date to appear. To verify your product license, follow the steps below:

1.If you see Display: Standard mode in the lower left corner of the main program window, toggle to Advanced mode by clicking Change... and then clicking Yes to confirm or by pressing CTRL + M on your keyboard.

2.Click Help Verify license validity from the top menu.

An alert will display your updated license expiration date. Click OK to close it.

Fix: Reset Permissions on File System & Registry in Win7/Vista

Use the following tool to reset the file-system and registry permissions back to default. it is very useful after some malware or virus attack that made a mess in your Windows.

Download Here. 

Read more over here.

more about it in Hebrew:

איפוס הרשאות לקבצים וערכי רג'יסטרי

מצרף אוסף כלים המיועדים לאפס את הרשאות המערכת על קבצים וערכי רג'יסטרי.

כידוע במערכות הפעלה חדישות ישנן הרשאות (או ACL = Access Control List) שקיימות על כל אובייקט במסד הנתונים של המערכת.

ניהול וגישה להרשאות הללו נעשה בעזרת לשונית אבטחה (Security) במאפיינים.

במערכת קבצים מסוג NTFS יש הרשאות לקבצים, תיקיות וכוננים שלמים. ברג'יסטרי יש הרשאות לערכים ומפתחות. בשרתים יש הרשאות על אובייקטים כמו חשבון משתמש, חשבון מחשב או קבוצת ניהול (OU).

במקרה של וירוסים ושלל זבלי-רשת הערכים הללו משובשים. זה גורם לשלל תופעות משונות כמו מניעת גישה לתיקיות/כוננים מסויימים. תהליכים שנכשלים בעלייה ומשאירים שגיאות רבות ביומנים האירועים וגם

המון תקלות הקשורות בהתקנות של תוכנות. לעיתים השגיאות בהתקנה לא קשורות לתקלה עצמה. למשל, שיבוש הרשאות על ערכים ברג'יסטרי שמונעים ממנגנון ההתקנה לכתוב לאזור מסויים. תוכנית ההתקנה תכשל

ותזרוק הודעות משונות ולא קשורות. הסרה מלאה והתקנה מחדש לא יסייעו ותרגישו שעשיתם הכל אבל עדיין תקועים... ייתכן מאד שיש בעיית הרשאות- בייחוד אם המחשב נגוע או היה נגוע במזיקים.

אוסף הכלים הללו מאפס את הגדרות ההרשאות לברירת המחדל כך שלמנהלים ולחשבון ה- SYSTEM (שבעזרתו המערכת מנהלת את עצמה) יהיה הרשאות מלאות.

להפעלה נוחה שיניתי את שמות הקבצים עם תחילית ממוספרת כדי לזכור את סדר ההפעלה:

1.      כלי שייצור נקודת שחזור ליתר ביטחון

2.      כלי עזר שיותקן ויסייע בתהליך איפוס ההרשאות.

3.      סקריפט שיאפס הרשאות בכל קבצי המערכת והרג'יסטרי.

4.      סקריפט שיאפס הגדרות אבטחה כלליות במערכת ההפעלה בחזרה להגדרות היצרן כמו לאחר התקנה מחדש.

הכלים הללו מתאימים לשימוש לחלונות ויסטה ו-7

להורדה מכאן

מומלץ בחום לשימוש. מי שמעוניין בחומר קריאה נוסף ניתן לגלוש לכאן.

בהצלחה!

ירון מאור

Tool: How to Recover Routers Passwords & Settings

A new tool from the best freeware site Nirsoft.net was just published that allows you to recover valuable information from a saved backup configuration files of network routers.


Description

Most modern routers allow you to backup the configuration of the router into a file, and then restore the configuration from the file when it's needed.
The backup file of the router usually contains important data like your ISP user name/password, the login password of the router, and wireless network keys.
If you lost one of these password/keys, but you still have a backup file of your router configuration, RouterPassView might help you to recover your lost password from your router file.

This utility works on any version of Windows, starting from Windows 2000 and up to Windows 

Supported Routers

Due to large amount of router models available in the market, it's impossible to support all of them.
For now, RouterPassView supports a limited number of router models, and I'll gradually add support for more routers in future versions. Also, be aware that even if your router is not in the list, you can still try to open your router backup file with RouterPassView, because some routers are sold with different brand name, but they still use the same software/chipset of other routers.Here's the list:

• Linksys WRT54GL, and possibly similar models.
• Edimax BR6204WG, and possibly similar models.
• Siemens ADSL SL2-141, and possibly similar models.
• Dynalink RTA1025W, and possibly similar models.
• NETGEAR WGT624, and possibly similar models.
• ASUS WL-520g, and possibly similar models.

Test Results...

I've tested it on a file saved on an Edimax BR6204wg and this is the result:

The utility easily recovered the login password, Wireless encryption type and secret key, and also my ISP VPN and DynDNS settings (which I've erased from the screenshot..).

Cool indeed!!

Download from here.

More information here.

Fix: NOD32 Antivirus "Failed to read firewall configuration" Error

Symptoms:

You install ESET NOD32 antivirus on a Windows system and keep getting 

error messages saying:

 "Failed to read firewall configuration"

Even if you try to uninstall and re-install, the error remains..

How to Fix:

follow these steps for full cleanup of the NOD32 leftovers and a successful installation:

Uninstall ESET and then do the following: (please note: some of these files/folders/drivers/ may not be there, which is OK)

Boot into Safe mode

1. Delete files and folder

Folders:
C:\Program Files\ESET
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ESET
C:\ProgamData\ESET (vista)

Registry keys:
-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESET
-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ESET

2. Go to Window's Services and disable ESET Services
a. ESET Service
b. ESET Http Server

3. Go to Device Manager and disable drivers for ESET.

a. In Device Manager, go to View on the menu bar and select "Show Hidden devices". This opens up "Non-Pug and Play Drivers" in devices manager .
b. Disable "ehdrv" and "epfwtdir" drivers.

Boot back into normal mode and download "Windows Installer Cleanup Utility":
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;290301

Run this program and make sure ESET is gone from the list.

Make sure you have the latest Windows Update and any other anti-virus program removed.

Reinstall ESET.


Note:
It is recommended to install SP1 or SP2 for a Vista system.
Also, always make sure you try to install the latest version of the antivirus from ESET.

Fix: Unable to Show Hidden Files and Folders in Folder Options

There are some viruses that prevents you from settings the Folder Options to Show Hidden Files and Folders.
The virus use this block as a protection to hide its files and prevents the healing process.
When you try to set the Show Hidden Files and Folders to Enabled it reverts back to Disabled after you click on OK. Sometimes you don't even have access to the Folder Options settings at all.

There are several ways to fix this problem. It depends on the complexity of the virus:

1. Use the tool DiskHeal from Computer-Realm to bypass the blocked Show Hidden Files and Folders.
    install the tool and run it. on the Fix Menu click on the button "Fix Folder Options inaccessibility".

2. Using Safe-Mode and Login as a different Administrator Account

   Most viruses does the blocking by using Windows own Local Group Policy. the policy is applied on the Current User Account and only on some cases on the Local Machine. Therefore by login-in as a different Administrator user you can bypass the block. Using Safe-Mode as a trouble-shooting environments is also wise because most group policy rules are not working in that mode.

you can also do a Virus Scan on Malware scan during the Safe-Mode session.

3. Cleanup using an external Boot CD

   You can use one of those custom Mini-XP boot CD's or Microsoft's ERD Commander to get access to the  system's Registry, Autorun settings and file system. Than you could delete the problematic virus files, either manually or using an anti-virus scanner. One of my favorites boot CD's is the Hiren's  BootCD. the latest 9.8 version includes a custom Mini-XP that runs from your CD and gives you a great Explorer shell to troubleshoot Windows. you can download Hiren's BootCD using this Torrent.

Tools: View Passwords, Serials, Product Keys and AutoComplete Data

Here's a list of some useful tools I'm using the backup your private data:


View Hidden or Saved Passwords:
Mail Account Passwords - Mailpv , Outlook Personal Folder Passwords
Dialup & VPN Passwords - Dialupass
Wireless Network Passwords- WirelessKeyView
Browser Passwords - Internet Explorer, Firefox , Chrome , NetScape, IE Content Advisor
Messenger & ICQ- mspass
Network Passwords - netpass
Licenses, Product Keys & Serials: ProduKey, KeyFinder153, KeyFinder2, LicenseCrawler
Asterisks (***) hidden passwords: Asterisk Logger, AsterWin, ShowPwd, UnMask, Revealer, Asterisk Key, Password Unleasher, KernelPasswordUnmask
Browser (IE) hidden passwords: AsterWinIE, IEpassview , IEAstRecover
Windows Mobile Hidden passwords: PocketAsterisk
Application specific passwords: VNC, PCanywhere, Win95-98, Remote Desktop, MS-Access, SQL Enterprise Manager , AspNetUserPass

You can also use my self-assembled script to auto-save your data: SaveMyData2


Many thanks and credit goes to the lovely site NirSoft.Net

Tool: Two Alternative User Account Manager for XP & Vista Home

Microsoft disabled the "Users And Groups" MMC snap-in in XP Home & Vista Home. The only interface left is the crippled "User Accounts" in Control Panel, that gives you much less functionality.

I offer you two cool alternatives...

1. Hidden User Account Manager UserPasswords2
Use this command in Start>Run: %windir%\system32\control.exe userpasswords2
it will show a hidden User Account Manager that will allow you to do more stuff such as  renaming your  
real user name (not the display-name) and change group membership.
To add this tool permanently to the Control Panel, use this tweak.

2. NT4 User Manager works in XP!

On Windows XP you can still use the old User Manager tool from NT4. Download and use this tool to have a complete control over User Accounts, Groups, Password Resets and more.

Default Passwords of Hardware Devices

The following sites keeps a database of the default username+passwords that are originaly used by the manufacturers of different hardware devices.
you can use it to find out how to login to an unknown router or wireless-AP you found. there's always the chance that the original password was replaced but you can usually to a reset procedure by pressing an external button for a few seconds to flush the user settings and restore factory-defaults.
note the security risk that comes from keeping the original passwords unchanged!!
the list:
http://www.cirt.net/passwords
http://www.phenoelit-us.org/dpl/dpl.html
http://www.vulnerabilityassessment.co.uk/passwordsA.htm