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Cleveland-area blogs*:

Backup BugBlog

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Brewed Fresh Daily

Cleve-blog

Working with Words

Gassho

Sardonic Views

Filtering Craig

Hotel Bruce

Blogcritics.org

Up Yours

Kevin Holtsberry

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*there are more blogs in Cleveland, these are just from people I've met or know. Some of the above are actually farther away, but are bloggers I've met here.

Subscription portion of the BugBlog. The first bug of the day listed is always the free bug available to non-subscribers, followed by the subscription-only bugs.

3/31/2004 Palm, Apple and Microsoft Fixes

If you aren't happy with the Wi-Fi connectivity of your Palm Tungsten C, you should get Update 2.0. It fixes a problem that was causing you to lose your Wi-Fi signal either because of an invalid DHCP request or due to a premature connection timeout. It also fixes a bug that was causing roaming problems where you were in a campus environment with multiple access points. Get the update at http://www.palmone.com/us/support/downloads/tungstenc/tungstenc_update_20.html.

On some early versions of USB Overdrive, the Media Eject and volume keys won't work when the drive is connected to an Apple Mac OS X 10.3 computer. Apple says if you have this problem, upgrade to the latest version of USB Overdrive at http://www.usboverdrive.com. You should also make sure to update to Mac OS X 10.3.3 or later.

If you send e-mail messages in Microsoft Outlook 2002 that have read receipts, later when you open the Sent folder these receipts may have the wrong date and time. They may have the wrong time even if the recipients haven't read the message yet. Microsoft says this is fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

If you have installed the Microsoft Outlook 2002 Update of 1/22/2003, it may interfere with the Rules Wizard. If you create a new rule with the wizard, and then collapse the .pst folder tree, the rule may be turned off. Microsoft says this is fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

If you are running Microsoft Outlook 2002 on a Windows XP computer, you may have problems attaching Microsoft Office documents to an online meeting request. According to Microsoft, Outlook can't associate these Office documents with the required Office programs, and may give this error message when you Send the message:
The document entered into the Office Document field is not associated with an Office application that supports collaboration. Please associate the document type with an Office application, enter a new document, or clear this field.
Microsoft says this is fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

In Windows XP Professional, and also in Windows HTTP Services (WinHTTP) 5.1, applications may leak two event handles anytime there is an HTTP request. You can check if this is happening by watching the Handle count in Microsoft Windows Task Manager. Microsoft has a hotfix for this, which will be in a future service pack. If you want to stop your leak right away, contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 837162. Note that you may be charged for this call.

Both Windows 2000 and Windows XP may have compatibility problems with a Elan SL332 multifunction serial port PC Card. Because of problems with the way PCMCIA.SYS tries to support the configuration register, power may be turned off to the card. Microsoft has hotfixes for both Windows 2000 and Windows XP to fix this. If you are having problems with this Elan card, contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 813820. Note that you may get charged for this call.

If you apply the Palm Tungsten C Update 2.0, and you also use the MeetingHouse Aegis LEAP Client with ROM Revision B, you may have problems with the Aegis client conflicting with Wi-Fi operations. If so, check out the troubleshooting steps at http://www.palmone.com/us/support/downloads/tungstenc/tungstenc_update_20leap.html.

If you are using an international version of the Palm Tungsten C, and you install the Update 2.0, Palm says that you need to include all the overlays, and not just the one for your local language. Palm says the HotSync won't work unless you use all the overlays.

If your Palm Tungsten C uses hidden networks, they might not be fully restored when you install the Update 2.0. Palm says they changed the database format for the Wi-Fi networks, and some of the settings may not be updated. If that's the case, you will have to set up those networks again.

If you are using a Palm Treo 600 on a Sprint network, you may be having problems with SMS Messaging, which Palm blames on Sprint's new SMS implementation. This has been fixed on the Treo 600 Updater 1.10.

3/30/2004 Adobe, Apple and Microsoft Fixes

If you install the Microsoft Windows XP hotfix that is described in Knowledge Base Article 818078, it deletes three values in the Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Volatile Environment. These are HOMEDRIVE, HOMEPATH and HOMESHARE. If some other third-party application needs these Registry values, they will then have problems. Microsoft has a new hotfix that will fix the problems caused by the earlier hotfix. If you need it, contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 824898. Note that you may get charged for this call.

Adobe says that if you try to nest one note within another note in Adobe InCopy CS 3, both the notes and their contents may be deleted. This has been fixed in InCopy CS 3.0.1.

Adobe says that in InCopy CS 3, if you go to the Justification dialog box and set the minimum value for Word Spacing or Letter Spacing to the same as the desired value, then parts of your text may be hidden. This has been fixed in InCopy CS 3.0.1.

Apple has increased the list of supported MPEG-2 video resolutions in DVD Studio Pro 2.0.5. The update will now handle: Full D-1: 720 x 480 NTSC, 720 x 576 PAL; Cropped D-1: 704 x 480 NTSC, 704 x 576 PAL (matches analog blanking); 1/2 D-1: 352 x 480 NTSC, 352 x 576 PAL; SIF (Standard Interface Format): 352 x 240 NTSC, 352 x 288 PAL. There are still some tricks involved in these formats. If you plan on using them, see the notes at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93500.

Microsoft says that if you have a removeable disk drive (like a Jaz drive) attached to a Windows 2000 computer, and this drive has a sector size greater than four kilobytes (4,096 bytes) then when this computer is booted up you may see one of a number of error messages, such as
STOP 0x000000D1 (0xffffff20, 0x00000002,0x00000000, 0xbfe5d810)
STOP 0x000000C4 (0x00000013, 0x00000fb6, 0x88efb2c0, 0x00000000)
STOP 0x00000050 (0xff391000, 0x00000001, 0x804d1017, 0x00000000)
STOP 0x0000000A (0x00000004, 0x0000001c, 0x00000001, 0x804324ac)
Microsoft says they have a hotfix for this, which will be in a future Windows 2000 service pack. If you can't wait for the service pack, contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 831293. Note that you may get charged for this call.

If you try to write data to a write-protected Secure Digital (SD) media card on a Windows 2000 or XP computer, and then you try to shut down or restart the computer, you may have a long wait. Microsoft says that it may take up to two minutes for Windows to try to write to the device, before it gives up. Microsoft says this will be fixed in the upcoming Windows XP Service Pack 2.

In Microsoft Outlook 2002, you can right click a contact in the Contacts folder and then select New Message. When the new message pops up, it may have the wrong name in the To box. It will have
Display_name </o=Org_Name/ou=Admin_Group/cn=Recipients/cn=Display_name>
when it should really only have Display_name (which will be the actual name. Microsoft says this has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

3/29/2004 Cisco, Apple Servers, and More on Outlook

Code that shows how to exploit previously announced (and patched) vulnerabilities in a number of Cisco products has been released and is now circulating around the bad-guy community. If you rely on Cisco products such as Cisco IOS Router, Cisco IOS, Cisco Catalyst SSH, Cisco 675 Web Administration, Cisco Catalyst 3500 XL, or Cisco 514, should get over to http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sn-20040326-exploits.shtml and make sure you are current on all the patches and fixes.

If you are using a PCI Ethernet card on a Mac OS X Server 10.3 to 10.3.2 or Xserve, after restarting the server a number of services may not automatically restart. According to Apple, they include Apple File Service (AFP), Windows sharing (SMB), and the Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC). Apple has two suggested workarounds. The first is to use the built-in Ethernet port rather than the Ethernet card. The second way would be to configure, but not use, the built-in Ethernet port. See how to do this at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107892.

If you have a Mac OS X Server 10.3 that is being used as a print server, after you use Repair Permissions on the server it may stop working for any Windows clients. To fix this, log in as an administrator, go to Terminal and give this command:
sudo chmod 777 /var/spool/samba

Apple says that their upgraded DVD Studio Pro 2.0.3 has some problems when being used with PAL systems (but not NTSC). Still menus, slideshow, or tracks with stills may not have the correct proportions when played back on a DVD, although they will look OK in the Simulator.

Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 3 makes security improvements to Outlook which interfere with a number of third-party programs. There was vague information about this when SP3 was released. You can find more detailed information about the communications problems with Outlook at http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2002sp3.htm#problems.

In Microsoft Outlook 2002, if you have a POP mail message in your Deleted Items folder that has a Read Receipt, whenever you empty the folder a Not Read receipt will get sent out without prompting. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

If you create a new Calendar appointment in Microsoft Outlook 2002, it may not have the most recent location shown in the Location list box with the other recently used lists. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

Microsoft Outlook 2002 shows some cultural insensitivity. The Korean and Japanese Lunar Year has the wrong starting date in 2006. It should be January 1, 2006, not January 28. It also has the wrong start for the 2016 Lunar Year. They show February 8, and it should be February 9. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

3/27/2004 Outlook Encryption, Plus Corel and Novell

Microsoft says that if you use Outlook 2002 to send an encrypted message to 200 or more recipients, when it gets to the 200th it may give this error message
Microsoft Outlook had problems encrypting this message because the following recipients had missing or invalid certificates, or conflicting or unsupported encryption capabilities: e-mail recipient
Microsoft says there will be no problems with the first 199. There will also be no problems if you upgrade to Office XP Service Pack 3.

If you are working in CorelDRAW 11 and exporting to HPGL, you may have problems with the Automatic weld, Plotter unit storage, scaling and cross hatch features. Corel says these have been fixed in CorelDRAW 11 Service Pack 2.

In CorelDRAW 11, you may have problems with SVG filters, which may cause overlapping. This has been fixed in CorelDRAW 11 Service Pack 2.

In CorelDRAW 11, if you are using the PS filter on EPS files, you may have problems with object colors. This has been fixed in CorelDRAW 11 Service Pack 2.

If you installed the Windows XP S822603 USB 1.1 and 2.0 update on a Windows XP Service Pack 1 computer, you may have problems after your computer wakes from standby. The problem will be if you have removed the (USB) 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller (EHCI) controller from Device Manager. If you did, you may see this error message
STOP 0xFE
This may happen even if you removed the device from the Device Manager because it was indicating a problem. If this happens, you will need to remove the USB 2.0 EHCI in the Device Manager. However, this won't clear up any problem you may have had earlier with the USB devices. See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;837386 for more information.

In both Novell NetWare 5.1 and 6.0, you may have problems with CIFS being able to re-register with a WINS server. This may also cause some abends. Novell has a patch that fixes this at http://support.novell.com/servlet/tidfinder/2968423.

3/25/2004 Fan Your Apple PowerMac

Apple has an update for the Fan Control system on the PowerMac G5, running Mac OS X 10.2.7 or 10.2.8. If you think you need improved fan performance, get the 1 MB update (all that for a fan!).

3/24/2004 CorelDRAW 11 Copy and Pasting Problems

If you are having problems copying and pasting from CoreDRAW 11 to Corel PHOTO-PAINT, then get CorelDRAW 11 Service Pack 2. According to Corel, the service pack takes care of this bug.

3/23/2004 Apple, Microsoft and Novell Fixes

Apple says that you may not be able to use their Safari 1.0 browser on a Mac OS X 10.2 or later computer to download an attachment from your Microsoft Hotmail account. Instead, you will be asked to log on again. For now, Apple says to use Microsoft Internet Explorer if you need to get attachments from Hotmail.

If you have a Mac OS X 10.3 computer with an Internet connection via an AirPort connection, you may have problems connecting to your AOL account. Apple says to make sure you are using at least AOL 10.3 (revision 4136.208). If you are still having problems, see the troubleshooting steps at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107797.

If you are using the web interface for mailing list administration on the Apple Mac OS X Server 10.3, you may receive the refreshingly honest error message:
Bug in Mailman version 2.1.2. We're sorry, we hit a bug!
You can fix this, but you will need to enter the UNIX underbelly of Mac OS X. Apple says to go to /Applications/Utilities/ and open Terminal. Then type in the command (but not the quote marks):
" sudo chmod g+w /var/mailman/data/aliases.db".
Then press Return. If any mailing lists had been partially created when you hit that bug, you will need to use Server Admin to delete them.

Microsoft says that if you are trying to get an update for Windows XP from the Windows Update web site, you may get this error after accepting the EULA
Initialization error 0x8007007e
Error IUENGINE Determining machine configuration (Error 0x8007007E: The specified module could not be found.)
The actual problem, according to Microsoft, is that you may have corrupted or unregistered system files on the computer. To fix this: go to Start, Run and type Cmd.exe; click OK, and then type SFC.exe /scannow; you may be prompted to insert your Windows XP CD to restore some files.

If you have a message in Microsoft Outlook 2002 that uses Nortel encryption, if you remove the encryption you may be left with a blank message. This happens if you have a message in a personal folders (.pst) file that's been encrypted and signed with the Nortel certificate, and you leave the message signed when you remove the encryption. Microsoft says they have fixed this in Office XP Service Pack 3.

The original Novell NetWare 5.1 Support Pack 7 was released on 2/2/2004. There is a new 3/13/2004 version on the Novell support site. However, the only change, according to Novell, is the addition of an English-only text to the abstract. So if you already have the Support Pack, you don't need to get it again.

3/22/2004 Microsoft Outlook Security; And Fixes from ATI, IBM, ISS and Sun

If you are using a Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) email account with Microsoft Outlook 2002, and the mail server uses both Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security and Secure Password Authentication (SPA), Outlook may give you an error message. The message won't be that there are too many acronyms; instead it may be one of these errors:
0x8004210A, 0x800CCC0B, 0x8004210B
Microsoft says they have fixed this in Office XP Service Pack 3.

On a Windows XP computer with an ATI graphics card running the ATI CATALYST 4.3 software suite, you may have problems with the game Virtual Skipper 3, unless you are running in the Fastest graphics quality mode. When running slower, the computer OS may crash when the game menu loads. See http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4466.html for more.

When playing Sierra NASCAR 2003 on a computer with an ATI graphics card and the ATI CATALYST 4.3 software suite, you may end up with display corruption if you have your video set at 1280x1024 32bpp. ATI says this will get fixed in a later release of CATALYST.

If you try playing TrackMania on a Windows XP computer with an ATI RADEON 7000 series video card and the ATI CATALYST 4.2 software suite, the computer may crash. ATI says this has been fixed in CATALYST 4.3.

If you are playing Dreamcatcher Interactive Hegemonia on a Windows XP computer with an ATI RADEON 8500 series graphics card, you may not be able to see main menu options or 3D textures. This has been fixed in ATI CATALYST 4.3.

If you have an IBM ThinkPad R50, R50p, T41, or T41p, with an Hitachi 60GB hard drive, then there is a mandatory firmware update for you. You will need this to ward off hard drive problems. Get it at http://www-306.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=TPAD-HDFIRM.

When using ISS BlackICE PC Protection Release 3.6.ccg, it may protect your PC so well that it might prevent you from sychronizing data with your PDA. If this happens, ISS says to stop the BlackICE engine to sync, and then start it up again.

If you are using ISS BlackICE PC Protection Release 3.6.ccg on a Windows 98/ME computer with ACPI power management turned on, the activity by BlackICE may be enough to keep the computer from going into hibernation mode automatically. The only workaround is to put the computer into standby or hibernation manually.

Mandrakesoft has posted their own updates for the OpenSSL bugs disclosed 3/17/2004. There are updates for Mandrake Linux 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, Multi Network Firewall 8.2, and Corporate Server 2.1.

If you are using the Sun Microsystems Sun ONE Application Server 7, you may find that there is no support for a Primary Key class if some of its public fields have been declared in a super class. This has been fixed in Application Server 7, Update 3.

In Sun Microsystems Sun ONE Application Server 7, multi-byte characters within cookies don't work. Also, Sun says that you won't be able to turn off URL-encoding for cookies. This has been fixed in Application Server 7 Update 3.

3/21/2004 Symantec Tightens Security; An Apache Update; and Outlook 2002 fixes

Symantec Norton Internet Security uses an ActiveX component that is marked safe for scripting. However, the security research group NGSSoftware has found that outsiders may be able to launch an attack that would use this component to run their own commands on the computer. NGSSoftware says that Symantec quickly patched Norton Internet Security and that the fix is available through Symantec' s Live Update feature.

Symantec Norton AntiSpam 2004 uses an ActiveX component that is marked safe for scripting. However, the security research group NGSSoftware has found that outsiders may be able to launch an attack that would use this component to run their own commands on the computer. NGSSoftware says that Symantec quickly patched Norton AntiSpam and that the fix is available through Symantec's Live Update feature.

Apache takes care of a security problem in the Apache web server 2.0.49. The problem was in how short-lived connections were handled on rarely-accessed listening sockets. You can get the updated Apache at http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/Announcement2.html.

The Apache web server adopted better security procedures in the new version 2.0.49. Now, data written to the errorlog is escaped first, although they have provided a way for disabling this procedure, using the compile time switch "-DAP_UNSAFE_ERROR_LOG_UNESCAPED". You can get the updated Apache at http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/Announcement2.html.

Apache plugs up a memory leak with the updated Apache 2.0.49 web server. This memory leak was in the mod_ssl, in the plain-HTTP-on-SSL-port handling. You can get the updated Apache at http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/Announcement2.html.

Apache fixed a bug in the mod_cgid in the newly-released Apache 2.0.49. This bug caused storage corruption because it used the incorrect pool. You can get the updated Apache at http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/Announcement2.html.

Microsoft says that in Outlook 2002, if a custom action on a form has been set to forward as an appointment, this may cause Outlook to crash with this error signature:
Outlook.exe 10.0.2627.1 Outlib.dll 10.0.2627.1 0009ab7c.
This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

If you change an accepted meeting request in Microsoft Outlook 2002, the changes may not be saved if you do one of two things: either open a recurring meeting request as Open this occurrence, or by not clicking the Send Update option. This bug has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

3/20/2004 BlackICE May Forget Its Settings

If you are updating to ISS BlackICE PC Protection Release 3.6.ccg, and you are making the jump from BlackICE 2.9, none of your preferences in the BlackICE Attacks and Intruders windows are saved. The only workaround, according to ISS, is to write down your settings before upgrading, and then enter them again. You can find the new version at http://blackice.iss.net/update_center/index.php

3/19/2004 ATI, Cisco and Microsoft Access

ATI has updated their CATALYST software suite. The new version 4.3 includes these updated components: RADEON™ display driver 7.991; Multimedia Center 8.9; HydraVision 3.25.0006; HydraVision Basic Edition 3.25.9006; Remote Wonder 2.3; WDM version 3.11. This update is for Windows XP, 2000, and ME. If you are still using Windows 98, ATI says you should use the ME driver.

If your Windows XP computer has an ATI graphics card, and you are using Solidworks 2004, dragging the Solidworks window from a primary display to a secondary display may cause highlighted images back in the primary display. This has been fixed by ATI in their CATALYST 4.3 update.

If you are trying to watch a Macrovision protected DVD on a computer with an ATI graphics card, and an HDTV is your primary display and your display resolution is set to 1920 by 1080, you may have problems getting a display image after closing down the ATI DVD player. This has been fixed in the ATI CATALYST 4.3 update.

If you are playing EA Games Medal of Honor: Spearhead on a Windows XP computer with an ATI video card and the ATI CATALYST 4.2 software, you will not get the correct display in the game if Anti-Aliasin is set to 2x. This has been fixed in the ATI CATALYST 4.3 update.

If you are playing Massive Development Aquanox on a Windows XP computer with an ATI RADEON 9100 IGP series graphics card, you may get display corruption at certain video settings. This has been fixed in the ATI CATALYST 4.3 update.

The ATI CATALYST 4.3 update fixes problems with background display corruption that sometimes occurred when playing Lucas Arts Armed and Dangerous.

Cisco says that a number of their products are vulnerable to the latest bugs uncovered in OpenSSL. The products include: Cisco IOS 12.1(11)E and later in the 12.1E release train for the Cisco 7100 and 7200 Series Routers; Cisco IOS 12.2SY and 12.2ZA release trains for the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series and Cisco 7600 Series Routers; Cisco PIX Firewall; Cisco MDS 9000 Series Multilayer Switch; Cisco Content Service Switch (CSS) 11000 and 11500; Cisco Global Site Selector (GSS) 4480 and 4490; Cisco Call Manager (CCM); Cisco Okena Stormwatch 3.2; Cisco Application & Content Networking Software (ACNS); Cisco Threat Response (CTR). The bugs in OpenSSL may leave these devices vulnerable to a denial of service attack. For patch information for all these different products, see http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20040317-openssl.shtml.

If you try to link ODBC tables to a Microsoft Access 2002 database, Access may crash with this error message:
The instruction at 0x30b17ce9 referenced memory at 0x00000000. The memory could not be read.
This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

3/18/2004 Macromedia, Microsoft Excel, and Red Hat Linux Fixes

Macromedia says that people running ColdFusion MX and Jrun 4.0 Web Services may get hit by a denial of service attack through a specially constructed SOAP request. If you run this software, and you have web services available publically, or that may be accessed by an attacker, you need to go to http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/security/security_zone/mpsb04-04.html to get the fix.

If you create cross-sheet hyperlinks in a Microsoft Excel 2002 workbook, and then save the workbook as an HTML page, the links won't be saved correctly. If the HTML page is then opened in a web browser, the links won't work. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

If you have subtotals within a cell range in Microsoft Excel 2002, and then you remove the subtotals, Excel may grap 100 percent of the CPU processing time and appear to hang. Microsoft says this is because of the way that data validation and formatting is referenced in memory. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

If you add custom toolbars to Microsoft Excel 2002, and then quit and restart Excel rather quickly, the custom toolbars may be lost. This is because the customization is stored in an Excel.xlb file, which takes some time to be re-written. If it isn't done by the time Excel restarts, the changes are gone. Microsoft has fixed this in Office XP Service Pack 3.

Red Hat has an updated OpenSSL package for Red Hat 9. This package fixes up three security bugs, found by the OpenSSL group and by Stephen Henson, that may either allow access for the bad guys, or lead to denial of service attacks. Get the update at
https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2004-121.html.

Red Hat has an updated nfs-utils package for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 AS, ES, and WS. It fixes a bug in versions of nfs-utils later than 1.0.3 but before 1.0.6. The bug is in rpc.mountd and may lead to denial of service attacks. You can get the updated package at
https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2004-072.html.

Red Hat has an updated Samba package for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 AS, ES, and WS. It fixes a bug that is in both Samba 3.0.0 and 3.0.1. A password account, disabled by the mksmbpasswd script, may be overwritten and then used again by an attacker. Red Hat doesn't think it is a critical issue, but there is a patch at https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2004-064.html.

3/17/2004 Mac OS X 10.3.3, Plus More Office XP Service Pack 3

Apple says that when you are using Mac OS X 10.3.2, and you disable some of the Classic Mac OS fonts, it may cause either the Address Book or some other applications to crash. This has been fixed in the Mac OS X 10.3.3 update.

Apple says the Mac OS X 10.3.3 update improves compatibility with network devices that force network speeds or duplex settings. You should see less lost connections with them. It also fixes a networking bug that caused name conflicts among Network Service Entities.

The Apple Mac OS X 10.3.3 update extends compatibility to more third-party wireless networking PC cards. In particular, they cite the Honda AH-G10. (Is that Honda the auto company? Don't know -- a Google search only turns up mentions of this card in relation to the OS X update on English language pages. There may be more in Japanese -- but that's not information I can use.)

The Apple Mac OS X 10.3.3 update fixes a number of problems with the DVD player. It should now no longer crash if an unsupported PCI video card is in your computer. It will support more DVD auto-play disks. It will also now play DVD+R disks.

If you are using the Mail reader in Apple's Mac OS X 10.3.2, when you mark some mail messages as spam, it may cause Mail to crash. This has been fixed in OS X 10.3.3.

When you are in the Apple Mac OS X 10.3.2 Finder, and you are dragging a bunch of icons to another locuation while the Show icon preview option is turned on in the View menu, Finder may crash. This has been fixed in Mac OS X 10.3.3.

Some USB improvements were made in the Apple Mac OS X 10.3.3 update. PowerBook G4 and iBook G4 computer will do a better job recognizing Hi-Speed USB devices after waking up from sleep. A bug in USB Overdrive is also fixed. Previously, if an early version had been installed the Media Eject and volume keys may not work.

If a Microsoft Excel 2002 workbook has links to other Excel workbooks, you may have problems updating it. When you click Update to refresh the links, you may see this error message:
Unable to read file.
Microsoft says that saving the file as an HTML file, and then reopening it in Excel gets rid of the error message, but it does nothing about updating the links. To fix this, you will need to install Office XP Service Pack 3.

If you use the Text Import Wizard to open a text file in Excel 2002, it may cause problems with files associations in Windows Explorer. Double-click on an Excel file found in Windows Explorer, and it won't open automatically in Excel, as it should. Microsoft says this has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

When you open a Microsoft Excel 2002 file that contains a large pivot table (more than 32,767 rows), Excel may automatically repair and recover the file. You will then be prompted to save the repaired file. Once you do, the pivot table drop-down controls won't work. Microsoft says this has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

Microsoft says that copying a whole sheet in an Excel 2002 workbook may spike CPU utilization to 100 percent, and take a long time to complete. This is due to a relatively inefficient way of copying memory-based documents, according to Microsoft. There was an earlier Registry fix for this, but it has been fixed for good in Office XP Service Pack 3.

3/16/2004 Upgrades for Cisco IOS, Apple iDVD; Plus Adobe and Microsoft

For detailed information on what's new and what's fixed in Cisco IOS 12.3T, go to http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/732/releases/release123/123t/. There's a Flash demo, and a couple of hundred PDF pages with all the details.

Apple has upgraded iDVD to 4.0.1. They "highly recommend" the upgrade for improved reliability. However, they do not detail exactly what bugs get squished to achieve that reliability. You can find it at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120326.

Here's a slightly different bug report. This story on the BBC looks at a study by some University of Arizona microbiologists. They say that workstation surfaces, such as keyboards and phones, have 400 times as many microbes as lavatories. One choice quote "Desks are really bacteria cafeterias." Read the whole thing at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3505414.stm.

In Adobe InDesign 2.x, CS, and CS PageMaker Edition, if you print an InDesign document with the tiling option turned on, the tile makrs and document information are going to appear on your pages, even if you haven't selected those features in the Print dialog box. Adobe says you can't disable this.

If you are trying to use Adobe InDesign CS PageMaker Edition to open up a PageMaker 6.0 document, you might run into many different problems that may cause the file to remain closed, or open with missing objects or bad formatting. Adobe has assembled a long list of troubleshooting steps that you can try. See these at http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/333be.htm.

When installing Adobe Creative Suite on an Apple Mac OS X computer, you may get a failed installation and this error message:
" Can Not Install Adobe Creative Suite. Error "bad access exc""
Adobe says you need to disable all the fonts managed by the system, and then install the Creative Suite. If you need help on how to do that, see http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/32ece.htm.

Adobe says that if you install a third-party plug-in to InDesign 2.0, it will cause all palettes to revert to their default locations. Their solution to this is to upgrade to InDesign CS, where they say they've fixed this bug.

If you have a Microsoft Excel 2002 workbook with an ActiveX list box linked to some Excel cells, and you do a File, Save as command, or a Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) SaveAs method, Excel may crash. This happens if Excel happened to be doing some housekeeping and was in the middle of an automatic recalculation. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

If you have a Microsoft Excel 2002 workbook with a link source of an Excel Add-in that has a long path (greater than 1024 characters), you may get this error message if you try to change the link source:
Formula is too long.
Microsoft says this has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

3/15/2004 Macromedia Mac Fix, Plus More Office XP SP 3

Macromedia has released a hotfix for the Macintosh versions of their software. This fixes a bug in the installation that continually prompts for the serial number. This happens if the person installing the software doesn't have administrator-level permissions. You can get the hotfix at http://www.macromedia.com/support/service/ts/documents/activation_loop.htm?
trackingid=DMJL_AAAZ

Microsoft says that if you copy numbers from an Access 2002 database and paste them into Excel 2002, the numbers will paste as text. Although they will look OK, you won't be able to use them in calculations or formulas. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

If you take a Microsoft Access 2002 SnapShot object (.SNP) and insert it into another document, such as a Word document, it may not look right. Instead of the snapshot, you may only see a solid color. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3. You can also work around the bug by linking to the object when you insert it into the other document.

According to Microsoft, Acess 2002 may not release all memory when you close forms and reports in Microsoft Access Project. If this happens memory leak happens often enough, it may eventually degrade the computer's performance. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

In Microsoft Access 2002, if you connect to Microsoft SQL Server with credentials differerent than those of a specific table on the server, and you try to use Filter By Form functionality in Access with that table, you may see this error message:
Cannot apply Filter on one or more fields specified in the Filter property.
This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

If you create a Microsoft PowerPoint XP presentation in English, translate the text to another language, and then save and close the presentation, you may have problems opening it again. You will get an error message that says PowerPoint cannot read the file. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

If you use ODMA (Open Document Management API) to save a Microsoft PowerPoint XP presentation, you may get this error message:
-2147467259: Presentation (unknown member) : The path or file name for ::ODMA\ODMASAMP\filename.ppt is invalid. Please check that the path and file name are correct.
This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

If you open a Microsoft PowerPoint XP presentation from an ODMA (Open Document Management API) program, and then try to send the presentation as an email attachment, the .PPT extension may not be sent along with the file. If the file recipient doesn't know what the file is, they may have trouble opening it. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

If you open a Microsoft PowerPoint XP presentation from within a web browser, you will not be able to call up a Save As dialog box by pressing the F12 key. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

If a progress bar is being displayed in Microsoft Publisher 2002, and you switch to another program while the bar is displayed, you might cause Publisher 2002 to hang. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

Although you may use Microsoft Publisher 2002's Page Setup dialog to select a paper source, this selection may not be saved. Instead, the paper source will remain with the previous choice. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

3/13/2004 Word 2002 Fixes from Service Pack 3

Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 3 includes all of these previously released hotfixes for Word 2002 (listed by their Knowledge Base explanation and release date): 823329 7/3/03; 823957 7/18/03; 823961 7/27/03; 823962 7/28/03; 823972 8/9/03; 825814 8/15/03; 827138 8/21/03; 827971 9/12/03; 827973 9/12/03; 827980 9/19/03; 827986 9/25/03; 829342 10/7/03. It also includes all of the fixes in Office XP Service Packs 1 and 2.

Microsoft says that if you are doing a mail merge in Word 2002, and you use an Includetext field in a conditional field in the main document, then blank lines may not be surpressed. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

Microsoft says that if you have a Rich Text Format (RTF) document originially created on a non-Microsoft system, and it has vertically merged table cells that use the \clvmgf and \clvmrg RTF control words, it will open and scroll very slowly in Word 2002. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

If you have a right-to-left table in Microsoft Word 2002, and text is wrapped around the table, when you print the document the text will end up under the document rather than wrapped. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

After you install Microsoft Security Update MS03-035, anytime that you run some custom VBA code in Word 2002, Word may crash. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

If the Word Add-in for Microsoft Works Suite is loaded in Word 2002, and you try to run the Pleading Wizard, it won't work correctly. The wizard will create a blank document and then stop running. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

If you are using Microsoft Word 2002, and then use one of its Internet features that makes a Microsoft Windows NT Basic Authentication dialog box appear, you will run into problems if you try to quit Word. It will appear to shut down, but will still be running in the background. Because it is still running, it will keep on requesting the Internet service, which may keep on triggering the Authentication dialog. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

If you are running Microsoft Office XP on a Windows 98 computer, the Word 2002 command to Send to PowerPoint won't work if you try to send a Word 2002 outline. Instead, you will see this error message
Word cannot find or run the application.
This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

Microsoft says that the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) function Application.Dialogs(wdDialogInsertPicture) may not work in Word 2002. Instead, you may see this error message
Run-time error '5382':
The graphics filter was unable to convert this file. (picture_file_name.ext)
This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

According to Microsoft, if a Date field in Word contains a lowercase b character, then the three letter month may show the incorrect year with two or four digits, and the month may appear as random characters. This has been fixed in Office XP Service Pack 3.

3/12/2004 What Does Office XP Service Pack 3 Break?

Microsoft has released Office XP Service Pack 3. You can find information on downloading and installing the service pack at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=832671. There are a number of different ways of doing it. Most of them will be time-consuming unless you have a broadband connection. The BugBlog Plus will have detailed coverage over the next couple of days of what gets fixed and what gets broken by the service pack.

If you have installed Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 1 or 2 from an administrative service point, you may not be able to install Office XP Service Pack 3 from the Office Update Web site or from the Microsoft Download Center. Instead, you will get this error message
" The expected version of the product was not found on your system."
Microsoft says to either install from the full-file update, or use it to update the administrative point. (They aren't saying, but I bet Product Activation is to blame here.)

A problem that surfaced with Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 2 also affects Office XP Service Pack 3. If you use the Upsizing Wizard in Microsoft Access 2002 to move to SQL Server, descending indexes change to ascending. See http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=328019 for more information.

You may get this error message if you install Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 3 on a Windows Server 2003, or on a Windows 2000 server with Microsoft Internet Information Server and FrontPage Server Extensions 2002
Error 1931. Setup cannot update the file C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server\Extensions\50\bin\FP5AUTL.DLL because it is protected by Windows. You may need to update your operating system for this program to work correctly.
Microsoft says to just click the OK button, and the installation will run its course.

This is unofficial, but there is discussion on the NTBugTraq mailing list that Office XP Service Pack 3 causes problems with third-party junk email filtering products. If you are using one of these products, you may want to follow along with the discussion at http://www.ntbugtraq.com/default.asp?pid=36&sid=1&A2=ind0403&L=ntbugtraq&F=P&S=&P=1763 before installing the service pack.

Novell has an updated AFPTCP for NetWare 6.5. It fixes a bug that might sometimes corrupt MS Word documents when doing a a modified file save. Get the update in 65afp111.exe at http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/searchtid.cgi?/2968424.htm.

If you are using AFPTCP for Novell NetWare 6.5, and you find that Appleworks is creating zero byte files, you need an upgraded AFP. Get the update in 65afp111.exe at
http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/searchtid.cgi?/2968424.htm.

3/11/2004 Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, and Red Hat Bugs

You may have trouble accepting or denying the Software License Agreement when installing Adobe Creative Suite on a Windows 2000/XP computer. If you have set the Display Properties, Font Size to something other than Normal, or the video driver display DPI isn't set to Normal, when you hover over the buttons, you will see an I-beam rather than an arrow. The simplest fix, according to Adobe, is to make sure the Accept button is active, and press the Enter key.

Adobe Photoshop 7 Plug-ins are incompatible with Adobe Photoshop CS (Creative Suite). If you try installing them, you may have all kinds of problems when starting up Photoshop, including any of these error message:
"Could not load the MMXCore (fastcore) routines module because is it not compatible with this version of Photoshop."
" pdfl50.dll could not be found."
" msvcrt10.dll was not found, reinstalling might solve the problem."
The only workaround is to remove the Adobe or third-party plug-ins.

Adobe says that if you are installing Adobe Creative Suite on a Mac OS X computer, you can't install it on a UFS (Unix File System) volume. It has to go on a HFS (Hierarchical File System) or HFS+ volume. If you try it anyway, you will see this error message:
" The currently selected disk is formatted as UFS."
There is no workaround.

You may have some problems trying to convert a Microsoft Publisher document to Adobe PageMaker 7.0, using the Converter for Microsoft Publisher/QuarkXPress 4.0 or the Converter for Microsoft Publisher 1.5. Either the document won't convert at all, converts with missing objects, converts with the wrong formatting, or it may return the error message
" File is not a Microsoft Publisher File."
Adobe says to first close the Publisher document, if it is open, before converting. Also, save it to the local hard drive. If those two don't do anything, then remove any upsupported features from the Publisher document. See http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/33062.htm for more details on doing this conversion.

Apple has an update for Java. The new version 1.4.2 will provide compatibility with Sun's Java 1.4.2 APIs, and it is supposed to give better stability and performance with other Java applications. You can get the update at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120309.

Microsoft has increased the severity level of the bug in Outlook 2002, which was discussed in the 3/10 BugBlog. They have upped it to Critical from Important, because attackers could force users into the vulnerable Outlook Today view.

For those of you keeping score at home, Microsoft has changed the addressing system of their security bulletins. They now will be of the form
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms04-xxx.mspx
instead of having the old .asp file extension. Using the old format will bring you to a re-direct page, and then to the new address.

If you use Microsoft MSN Messenger 6.0 or 6.1, you may be vulnerable to letting outsiders read the contents of a file on your hard drive. To do so, they would need to know: how to send a specially constructed message to MSN Messenger; know your sign-on name to MSN Messenger; the file name and location. (How many people use the default name/location for Quicken?) You can get patches for the two versions of Messenger at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms04-010.mspx.

If you are running a Windows 2000 Server, and also have Windows Media Services 4.1 installed, a bug could leave you vulnerable to a denial of service attack. Both Windows Media Station Service and Windows Media Monitor Service listen on a port, and if an attacker sends a carefully construced TCP/IP packet, they could crash the service. You can get an update at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms04-008.mspx.

Red Hat has an updated sysstat package for Red Hat Linux 9. It fixes a number of bugs, including insecure temporary file names that may let a local attacker overwrite system files. This update also fixes the iostat -x command so that it returns all the partitions on the system. Get the update at https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2004-093.html.

Red Hat says there is a bug in the way cookies are handled in Konqueror, the file manager and web browser in the K Desktop Environment. A server may be able to fool a browser into sending cookies they aren't entitled to -- to steal some other web site's cookies. This has been updated in KDE 3.1.3 and higher. A new package is available from Red Hat at
https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2004-075.html that fixes it.

Microsoft has patched another security hole in Microsoft Outlook. This one affects people who use either the version of Outlook in Microsoft Office XP, or in the standalone Outlook 2002. The bug allows an attacker to use a specially designed mailto: URL to get a script to run within the Local Zone. Patches for the two vulnerable versions of Outlook are at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms04-009.mspx. Microsoft originally thought this would only happen in the Outlook Today view.

3/9/2004 Buffer Overflow in Acrobat Reader 5.1

The security research firm NGSSoftware has posted a bulletin highlighting a security bug in the Adobe Acrobat Reader version 5.1. The XML Forms Data Format (XFDF) extension has a flaw that may allow a buffer overflow, which may allow an attacker access to your computer. This has been fixed in the latest version of the Acrobat Reader, 6.0, which is available at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.

3/8/2004 Cisco, IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Symantec

Cisco says their CSS 11000 Series Content Services Switches are vulnerable to a denial of service attack via malformed UDP packets that come over the management port of the switch. The affected models are the CSS 11050, CSS 11100, CSS 11150, and CSS 11800. To fix this, you need a software patch. You can get it from
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20040304-css.shtml.

IBM says that certain Danish and German characters that display on web pages don't paste in Lotus 1-2-3, even if they have been copied into the clipboard. This has been fixed in an updated L14HTML.DLL for 1-2-3. You can download this file at
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24006468&rs=260.

If you have a Windows 2000 or XP computer with an Intel Extreme Graphics 2 driver using the 865G, 852/855 GM/GME, 845G, or 830MG Chipset Families, the screen saver might show up on the TV screen display after about one minute. This has been fixed in the updated 14.1 driver.

If you have a Windows 2000 or XP computer with an Intel Extreme Graphics 2 driver using the 865G, 852/855 GM/GME, 845G, or 830MG Chipset Families, you may have problems playing Quake III Arena. If you resume from standby when the game was running in demo mode, you may end up with screen corruption. This has been fixed in the updated 14.1 driver.

Microsoft says that if you are browsing back and forth between a Word 2002 document, and a web page that you are viewing in Internet Explorer 6, you may manage to crash Word when you click the Back button in Internet Explorer. (Is this one of the advantages of having the browser closely tied to the operating system?) Microsoft has a hotfix, which they will include in a future Microsoft Office XP service pack. If you can't wait for the fix, contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 819954. Note that you may get charged for this call.

Symantec says that their Gateway Security 5400 Series devices are vulnerable to a cross-site scripting flaw. This may allow an attacker to put malicious scripts into a URL, which could cause problems in a browser. To fix this, get the update from Symantec at http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/enterprise/products/sym_gateway_security/
sym_gw_security_2_5400/files.html

3/6/2004 Outlook and PGP; Plus AppleWorks and Intel Updates and a Solaris Bug

If you upgrade from Microsoft Outlook 2002 to Outlook 2003, and you have the PGP email encryption program installed on the computer, you probably won't be able to start Outlook 2003. Instead, you may get this error message:
"Can't open this item out of memory or system resources."
and Outlook won't be able to connect to Microsoft Exchange Server. The only workaround Microsoft gives is to remove the PGP program via the Control Panel's Add/Remove Program icon.

Apple has updated AppleWorks 6.2.8 for the Mac OS 8.1 and 9.x platforms. This update fixes a number of bugs in the Appleworks spreadsheet and also fixes problems with web-based templates and clip-art on networks. You can get the update at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120213.

Apple has updated AppleWorks 6.2.9 for Mac OS X platforms. This update adds support for mice with scroll wheels. It also fixes some bugs in the AppleWorks presentation and spreadsheet programs, and also fixes problems with web-based templates and clip-art on networks. Get update information at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120213.

Intel has updated their Extreme Graphics 2 Driver for the Intel 865G, 852/855 GM/GME, 845G, and 830MG Chipset Families. The new 14.1 update fixes a bug that was causing a blue screen of death if you used InterVideo WinDVD 5.0 to watch the movie Twister on DVD.

Microsoft says that if you shut down a Windows XP computer without going through the correct procedure, or it recovers from a power problem, you may not be able to re-establish a network connect from this computer via a IEEE 1394 (Firewire) cable. As a workaround, you may need to remove the network bridge from this computer (although first just try a normal shutdown and restart). Details on that are at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=824400. Microsoft also has a hotfix, which will be in a future service pack. If you can't wait for the fix, contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 824400. Note that you might be charged for this call.

Sun Microsystems says that certain versions of Solaris 8 and 9 have a bug in the passwd command that may allow a local user to gain root access to the computer. This can happen on both the SPARC and x86 platforms. They have links to patches at http://www.sunsolve.sun.com/pub-cgi/retrieve.pl?doc=fsalert%2F57454&zone_32=category%3Asecurity that fix this flaw. They credit Tim Wort with finding this bug.

3/5/2004 Corel WordPerfect Office Service Pack 4; the Bagel Worm

Corel has issued Service Pack 4 for WordPerfect Office 2002. Before installing it, note that it is not a cumulative service pack and doesn't contain earlier bug fixes. Make sure you have installed Service Pack 3 before getting the latest one. You should also shut down PrintServer100.exe and CorelCENTRAL alarms before installing the service pack.

Corel WordPerfect Office 2002 Service Pack 4 fixes a bug in the Advanced Text Services function in the Print dialog box of WordPerfect 10. According to Corel, some problems with WordPerfect in doing a Save As on top of an existing file have also been fixed.

Corel WordPerfect Office 2002 Service Pack 4 fixes some behind-the-scenes bugs in the Open Document Management API (ODMA). According to Corel: WordPerfect will now correctly release file handles when you close documents; it will save .DAT files correctly on an ODMA system; and it will be able to do a second merge without having to leave the application.

If you are logged onto a computer as a restricted user and try to access a database in Corel WordPerfect Office Quattro Pro 10, you may get an initialization error. This has been fixed in WordPerfect Office 2002 Service Pack 4.

If you try to import a chart from Corel Quattro Pro 8 into Quattro Pro 10, the chart labels may not import correctly. This has been fixed in Corel WordPerfect Office 2002 Service Pack 4.

If you are running Corel WordPerfect Office 2002 from a Windows 2000/XP computer using a non-Administrative account, you may not be able to launch PerfectScript. Corel says they have fixed this in WordPerfect Office 2002 Service Pack 4.

If you are using Corel WordPerfect Office 2002 on a Windows XP computer, Corel says that the WordPerfect taskbar button may disappear randomly. This has been fixed in Corel WordPerfect Office 2002 Service Pack 4.

Some recent versions of the Bagle worm have been using email attachments that are password-protected Zip files. Because of the password protection, anti-virus programs were having problems scanning the attachments for viruses. Two anti-virus companies, BitDefender and Kaspersky Labs, have come up with ways to circumvent this. Check with your own AV vendor to see if they have kept pace.

3/4/2004 Microsoft Money Isn't Bilingual

If you are using a U.S. version of Microsoft Money 2002, 2003, or 2004 on a Windows computer whose default system locale is not set to English (United States), you probably won't be able to start Money. Instead, it will crash at startup with this error message:
Microsoft Money encountered an error and needs to close.
Error signature:AppVer: 10.0.0.919 ModName: mnyob99.dll ModVer: 10.0.0.1317
Offset: 0016e58a
Microsoft says you will need to go to the Contro Panels Regional and Language Optons, go to the Language Advanced tab, and select English (United States).

3/3/2004 Novell Upgrades NetMail; Access Has Wizard Problems; and Red Hat and Symantec Updates

Novell has upgraded NetMail 3.10. The new version 3.10G now handles the anti-virus configuration correctly. If you set the configuration not to notify the sender of the virus, this configuration will be honored. Get the update at http://support.novell.com/servlet/tidfinder/2968336. (Editorial: If you have the ability NOT to notify the sender, you should use it. Why? Because the virus or worm is probably using a spoofed return address anyway, so the notification won't be going to the right place. All you are doing is cluttering up the wrong person's inbox.)

If you are trying to use one of the wizards in Microsoft Access 2003, you may get an error message saying
Microsoft Access can't find the wizard
Well, the wizard hasn't taken the day off. The problem may actually be that the latest Microsoft Jet 4.0 service pack isn't installed on your computer. To get it, go to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=239114.

If you are trying to use the Linked Table Manager Wizard in Microsoft Access 2003, you may find that the list of currently linked tables is missing from the list box that asks Select the linked tables to be updated. This means that the tables you are using can't be updated, a significant problem. Microsoft says this could be due to one of two things. Either the Accwiz.dll file that is used by Access 2003 is not registered correctly on your computer, or you have the wrong version of Accwiz.dll. To see how to solve this problem, see http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=835519.

Novell NetMail 3.10G patches flaws in OpenSSL, and takes care of a number of other security problems and bugs that could cause abends. Get the update at http://support.novell.com/servlet/tidfinder/2968336.

Red Hat says there is a buffer overflow in libxml 2, an XML manipulation library that comes with Red Hat Linux 9. The overflow, discovered by Yuuichi Teranishi, may let an attacker run hostile code on your computer. This has been fixed in libxml 2.6.6. You can get the updated package at https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2004-091.html.

Red Hat has an updated mod_python package, the Python language interpreter that comes with the Apache httpd server. There is a bug in mod_python 3.0.3 and earlier that could lead to a denial of service vulnerability, but Red Hat says they couldn't exploit it in Red Hat Linux 9. They have released the upgraded package anyway, to be safe. Get it at
https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2004-063.html.

Red Hat says that the SANE package, which is needed for document scanners, for Red Hat Linux 9, has a bug in the backend shared libraries. This may lead to some scanners remaining invisible to SANE. You can get an updated package that fixes this from
https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2004-043.html.

Symantec has updated NetRecon 3.6. The new Security Update 14 will look for eleven additional security vulnerabilities in systems, including problems with Apache, Cisco, Microsoft, and PHP. Use the Live Update feature of NetRecon to get the update.

3/2/2004 Apple Bugs and Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP Problems

Microsoft has released a hotfix to fix a bug in a previous hotfix. The first, flawed hotfix was the Q323734 hotfix for Internet Explorer, which was needed to fix problems in Iedkcs32.dll. But after installing that hotfix, IE 6 may crash intermittently. Also if you follow a link in Microsoft Outlook that opens a file in Microsoft Windows Media Player, you may also get a crash. To get the second hotfix, contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 822755. Note that you may get charged for this call. Otherwise, wait for the next Internet Explorer service pack.

If you are using iTunes 4.2 for Windows, and at some point you connect an iPod mini to the computer with a Dock Connect, iTunes will remember this. Later, if you connect a regular iPod, iTunes will suggest that you install the iPod mini 1.0 software, even though you don't have a mini iPod connected. Apple says to forget about it -- even if you tried to install the mini version of the software, the installation will recognize that there's a regular iPod attached, and won't install. They also point out that this doesn't happen on iTunes 4.2 for Mac OS X.

Apple says that if you are using DVD Studio Pro 2 to burn DVDs on a LaCie Dual DVD+/-RW Drive, the progress bar might not work, and it will appear that nothing is happening. Apple says the problem is with the progress bar, and the DVD is still burning. To make sure, watch the activity light on the drive. When the DVD has been burned, it will eject automatically.

Microsoft says that if you are printing from a Windows XP computer to a Canon S450 or S800 color printer, color documents may end up printed in grayscale. As a workaround, they suggest turning off spooling for this printer. This solution will only work, however, if the printer is connected directly to the computer. It won't work on networked printers.

Microsoft says that some NEC 1394 host controllers on Windows 2000 and XP computer may run into a hardware problem. If they do isochronous streaming, they may end up with asychronous direct memory access (DMA) corruption. Microsoft has a hotfix for this, which will be in a future service pack for Windows 2000 or XP. If you need this fix right away, contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 819109. Note that you may get charged for this call.

If you have logged on to a Windows XP computer as a Power User, you will not be able to use the Windows Computer Management tool to administer users and groups on a Windows 2000 computer. Microsoft has a hotfix for this, which will be in a future Windows XP service pack. If you really need this functionality, contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 828735. Note thay you may be charged for this call.

If you try to put a Windows 2000 computer into Suspend mode, and it has a multifunction PCMCIA or Compact Flash card, where one function is an IDE/ATAPI device, you may get a blue screen of death, and the following error message
0x0000009F (DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE)
Microsoft says the computer may also reboot. The problem is due to an incompatibility between the IDE/ATAPI device and Atapi.sys on Windows 2000. Microsoft has a hotfix for this, which will be in a future Windows 2000 service pack. If you need this fix right away, contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 821285. Note that you may get charged for this call.

According to information within the Dell Knowledge Base, the Veritas Backup Exec 9.0 Web Administration Console (WAC) is incompatible and does not install correctly in the Microsoft Storage Server 2003 WebUI. Dell says there are some ways around this limitation. You can use terminal service to remotely administer Backup Exec. You can do your administration locally by sitting down at the server's keyboard (or mouse), if it has them. Or you can upgrade to Veritas Backup Exec 9.1 at http://support.veritas.com.

3/1/2004 Problems with WinZip, Apple, Microsoft, Novell and a Whole Bunch of Viruses

The security firm iDefense has found a buffer overflow in the archiving program WinZip. An attacker can send an archive that has a specially constructed MIME archive, with a file extension of .mim, .uue, .uu, .b64, .bhx, .hqx and .xxe extensions, that crashes WinZip and allows the attacker to run their own code. This has been fixed in WinZip 9, which you can get at http://www.winzip.com/. iDefense also suggests a workaround where the MIM file extension is no longer associated with WinZip. This is done via Windows Explorer's Tools, Folder Options, File Types dialog. You can find more information from iDefense at http://www.idefense.com/application/poi/display?id=76&type=vulnerabilities.

If you upgrade the Apple iPhoto 4 Library, and then iPhoto 4 starts to crash every time you start it up, the problem may be that you have updated the library for multiple users. Apple says to open the library, and drag these files to the trash: Thumb32.data, Thumb64.data, and ThumbJPG.data. After that, you should be able to open iPhoto.

Apple says that if your iMac, iBook, Blue and White Power Macintosh G3, Power Mac G4, PowerBook G4, PowerBook (FireWire), or PowerBook G3 Series starts to open up to an Open Firmware prompt, which is a text-based command line interface, you may have to reset your Open Firmware settings. If you see this
To continue booting, type 'mac-boot' and press return.
To shut down, type 'shut-down' and press return.
You can still start the computer, but it may grow tiresome. If that's the case, refer to http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42642 for information on how to get back to a normal boot sequence.

The beginning of March has brought a blizzard of new virus report. At least five variations of the Bagle e-mail worm are loose, and a new version of Netsky, this one called Netsky.D, are all causing problems. It's important to make sure your anti-virus signatures are up-to-date.

If USB keyboards or mice attached to your Windows XP computer don't want to work after waking the computer from standby, the problem may be in the USB controller. Microsoft says that some controllers reset these USB devices, and they may not work until you reboot your computer. Microsoft has a hotfix for this. It will be in a future Windows XP service pack, but if you have one of these problem USB controllers, you may want to contact Microsoft Technical Support and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 831114. Note that you may get charged for this call.

Novell has released Novell Client 3.4 B for Windows 95/98. They say it is identical to the Client 3.4 A update, except it also includes the newest version of NWAPP32.DLL, which is needed for compatibility with Novell ZENworks for Desktops.

2/29/04 RealSecure and BlackICE Problems

Internet Security Systems (ISS) RealSecure and BlackICE servers have a bug that leads to a heap overflow when processing of Server Message Block (SMB) packets.This may allow attackers to run circumvent security and run their own code on the servers. You can read the details at eEye Digital Security at http://www.eeye.com/html/Research/Advisories/AD20040226.html. They credit Barnaby Jack for finding the bug. You can get patches from ISS to fix this bug at http://www.iss.net/download/.