Showing posts with label english. Show all posts
Showing posts with label english. Show all posts

2013/09/30

Skype Phone without a PC? Choose a RTX DUALPHONE 4088 Cordless Phone

The latest model of the Cordless Phone RTX is currently the DUALPHONE 4088. It can be simultaneously connected to two phone lines: 1 terrestrial analogue PSTN telephone line cable with RJ-11 and 1 VOIP (SKYPE) line through a RJ-45 cable and an internet connection. In this way, you can choose at any time which line is more convenient to use between the available for outgoing calls and you can be reached on two contemporary lines  with a single incoming phone.

DUALPHONE 4088.

One of the most important features of DUALPHONE 4088 is that to use, simply connect it with an ethernet cable (RJ-45) to a modem / router with ADSL internet connection FLAT broadband, so it is not necessary the connection to a PC (as required, for example, by the previous model DUALPHONE RTX-3045 ). 
The DUALPHONE 4088 allows you to receive automatically updates of the phone software (firmware) so it can be corrected and improved by the manufacturer if SKYPE modifies some functions! 
It also has a color LCD to better appreciate the characteristics of SKYPE (status icons, photos and pictures of the account) and allows you to manage 2 SKYPE account on the same phone!



PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: 
As previously said, I find it very useful and advantageous to have a cordless phone that can also use SKYPE without being connected to a PC, and this is precisely the DUALPHONE 4088! Furthermore it uses standard AAA batteries (not proprietary batteries) 
The Dualphone RTX 4088 is a good product but beware of the firmware versions you have on your phone or you may encounter some problems in configuring it. In fact, the phone works fine if the router / modem that handles the connection to the internet has preset the DHCP . 
To check it go to menu -> settings -> advanced -> internet settings 
check if  the way IP is set to Dynamic or Static 
The phone usually is preset to use the 'dynamic addressing' using just DHCP, but if you need to change the address from dynamic to static (you have to assign static IP addresses on your phone, the primary and secondary DNS, and default gateway) you have to keep in mind that with the firmware version 141 ... simply DOES NOT WORK! The phone accepts the input data (IP address, sub mask, primary dns, secondary dns, default gateway) but after saving everything the 0.0.0.0 static IP address appears again and a "network not connected" message is displayed! Unfortunately I lost several hours to try and try again, searching on the internet and calling for service, but there is nothing to do! However, it has been illuminating a telephone interview with the Italian seller (who was already awared of the problem but not of the solution). Several weeks later the confirmation came to me directly from the technical support of RTX, which confirmed the presence of the bug and its correction took effect in the fimware version 167 and later. 
The solution is to update the firmware to the latest available firmware version (currently version 171BEFORE and to do so you have to leave the dynamic addressing and connect the phone to a router with an enabled DHCP service. Only AFTER the update of the firmware to version 171, you can configure static IP addressing  of the phone, and then ... yes it works! 
A small gem: by pressing the menu button of the phone and typing the key sequence 1-3-9-7-5  a new menu with all the available firmware versions (beta included) is shown.  

Finally here is the list of steps to do if you wish to reset the phone to the factory settings

1) Base: Power on the base station and place a network cable in the base
2) Base: Press the reset button for 15 sec. ( the LED should flash shortly at 10 sec, but just be sure to press it for 15 sec. )
3) Base: Wait 10 min until the base station lights
4) Handset: Reset Handset – Menu –settings – advanced –reset
5) Base: Press the reset button (1 sec) again on the base station to enable the registration mode
6) Handset: Place the handset on charger, now it starts searching for open base station (if the handset still cannot find the base station, please try again from step 4 – 6 and put the handset on charger immediately after the base station enters to registration mode on step 5)
7) When the base station is found – follow the instructions described on the screen.

ATTENTION: due to a firmware or software (skype) upgrade is possible at times that some menus of the phone get stuck and not be able to access some functions. In these cases, prior to the RESET of the phone you can groped a less busy street just off the equipment. For example, on a phone that has always worked correctly, at one point, I happened to click on the CONTACT menu and instead of seeing the list of phone numbers, was shown the message "Download Contacts" forever! Probably in that case the phone was unable to communicate properly with its main base to retrieve the list of contacts, even though it was still possible to make and receive calls and access other menus without any problems. It was enough to turn off the phone AND EVEN the main base for a few minutes. Then the phone has started to function properly, allowing me to access the menu CONTACTS.

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2011/10/12

E-Virus (Part III): I have a PC infected! Now as I clean it?

After confirming the presence of one or more e-virus on your PC,



... you should read up as much as possible about the characteristics of those viruses that are present (mode of distribution, payload, removal instructions). If you know your enemy it's easier to defeat him! 


In fact, if you know the name of the virus and how it is dangerous, it is possible to find a specific removal tool freely available from software companies like: Symantec, Kaspersky, McAfee, TrendMicro, etc.. 
For example, there are removal tools for the most common viruses such as: Melissa , Bagle , MyDoom, Sasser , Conficker, Zeus, etc.. 

Otherwise, you can use tools to remove general (broad spectrum) such as:
Obviously you can increase the benefits of these products by performing sequentially scanning of the PC by the use of different tools. 

Sometimes however, you might need to do multiple scans with different products but you can not install too many anti-virus simultaneously on the same PC due to speed and compatibility issues. Besides, the sequential installation and removal of different antivirus is a costly and long process, but you can avoid this using free online tools for virus scan and removal offered by some software companies (the only constraint is need to be online to scan).
Here there are some examples of online malware removal tools:
Of course, all these operations are feasible if the virus has not completely compromised  the access to your PC.

If you can't start the operating system then you can use antivirus software from a CD or bootable USB key (Rescue CD). These systems are typically available as .ISO images and you must create a CD / DVD or install it on bootable USB sticks, so you can operate apart from the operating system (Windows / Linux) that is installed on the infected PC . You have only to carefully verify that the BIOS first boot device is selected to the CD or USB external drive.
Some available tools are:
9) COMODO Rescue Disk CD
Once you start the CD you can scan the hard drive and require the deletion / correction of the infected files.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:
I have often used some of these tools along with excellent results. In particular ComboFix has been decisive with the most "insidious" viruses
Regarding the now infamous "worm" Conficker - Downadup, I can indicate the presence of specific free removal tools from almost all antivirus manufacturers. Among these however Bitdefender provides also a free removal tool that works on the whole LAN and not only on the individual PC ( Network Downadup Removal Tool ). 
Sometimes even after the virus removal, the operating system is "unstable" because it is partly damaged by the virus itself. In these cases a viable technique, apart from the total re-installation of the O.S., is to go back the System Restore a few days before the virus infection (feature available from Windows XP ).


2011/08/05

E-Virus (Part II): Maybe your PC is infected by an e-virus... how to verify its presence?

Depending upon the operation level of the PC you can work in various ways:

A) You can start the PC and enter your username and password.
In this case you can use some tools:

1) Using the free tool GMER you can both see if a rootkit is present, and disable or remove the indicted service / process (E-virus) from the memory and from the next boot starting process. To recognize the services / processes infected by E-viruses might be useful to look for files with very odd names (eg: rytrewxz.dll). GMER usually marks them in red and / or specifies the (*** hidden ***) attribute which means "file hidden to the user." In case that the message: "WARNING! GMER has found system modification, Which Might Have Been Caused by ROOTKIT activity. Do you want to fully scan your system? " appears, it is evident that GMER has identified a rootkit in the system and ask to start the full scan of your PC.


2) If you simultaneously press the keys CTRL + ALT + DEL and access to the Windows Task Manager you can see all the processes active in the PC memory and identify those that have random names such as those cited in case (1), possibly you can kill ("terminate") them, by temporarily removing them  from the memory.

3) Using the free tool McAfee Stinger you can identify and remove the most common e-VIRUSES. This is an automatic procedure since the tool detects both infections in place (memory files), and infected tracks and files in the analyzed hard drive. The tool shows which kind of many "problems" it could identify and provides eith their eradication.

4) Using the free tool Prevx you can identify both a rootkit either that kind of insidious virus that is installed in the MBR (Master Boot Record) of the hard disk. The free version detects and lists all the E-viruses present in the system but it does not eliminate them. However, it may be useful to detect the name of E-virus that infected your PC or the kind of epidemic in progress.

5) The free service OpenDNS for malware detection is totally automatic. When it detects a suspicious activity, the message  "Malware / Botnet Activity Detected" appears on the control panel of OpenDNS

6) Using the free software "Bitdefender 60-Second Virus Scanner" that precisely in 60 seconds performs a scan of your PC to check for viruses in memory or in "sensitive" areas of the Operating System. It uses cloud technology so you need an internet connection. 


B) If it is NOT possible to boot the system. 
In this case we can use some of the tools described in the following study; 
E-Virus (Part III): I have a PC infected! Now as I clean it?


Insights: 
E-Virus (part I) How to recognize the symptoms of a E-FLU or if your PC has got an E-VIRUS?

2011/01/13

E-Virus (part I) How to recognize the symptoms of a E-FLU or if your PC has got an E-VIRUS?

E-FLU (Electronic Fluence) and / or E-VIRUS (Electronic Virus) gather all the endless series of softwares that infect the PC by self-replicating and / or consuming its resources (i.e.: malwares, trojan horses, backdoors, spywares, rootkits, dialers, worms, viruses, etc.). 

HOW TO RECOGNIZE THE SYMPTOMS? 
1) The PC is unexpectedly slow: suddenly the speed of execution of any application, even the most banal, it slows down quite sharply. In parallel we see that the hard drive is still active (the LED is constantly lit). The feedback of the mouse or of the keyboard could be slowed. 
2) Problems with the browser: the browser's home page (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc..) has changed and is pointing to illegal Web sites, or, by opening the browser many pop-up windows appear and replicate indefinitely. 
3) Internet is too slow: suddenly, surfing the Internet has slowed down. 
4) The PC is inoperable: The computer starts but stops immediately with messages like "missing operating system" or "could not find command.com". The PC frequently restarts randomly and unexpectedly. 
5) Modified files: Some files, especially those with the extension. ".exe", ".com", ".dll" have been changed and are larger than usual. The hard drive space has been significantly reduced and / or many new files with unlikely names (such as: yutuewyt.dll, 823746.dll, wuyetur.dll) have appeared. 
6) The antivirus is down: The antivirus will not start functioning as usual and you can not re-install it or install a different one. In some cases you can not even reach the website of the leading antivirus vendors. 
7) New Softwares: new softwares that you have never installed, appear on your desktop or on the tray bar. 

These symptoms, taken individually, do not give you the certainty of the presence of an e-virus in your PC, but they can instill you doubts. Of course, if the symptoms are more than one, the probability of being in presence of an e-virus increases.


More inside: E-Virus (Part II): Maybe your PC is infected by an e-virus... how to verify its presence?


Versione Italiana di questo articolo:
 "E-virus (parte I): Come riconoscere i sintomi di un E-INFLUENZA ovvero quando il nostro PC si รจ preso un E-VIRUS?"