The World of Computer Software/The World of Computer Software.iso/i-m131d.zip/QUESTION.TXT

Text File | 1992-12-03 | 27KB | 497 lines

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║                                                                             ║
║ Welcome to QUESTION.TXT!  Hopefully you'll find the answer to your question ║
║ in this collection.                                                         ║
║                                                                             ║
║ o If you have a general question about data integrity, security, viruses,   ║
║   system sectors or similar things, the help index in Integrity Master may  ║
║   provide the answer (Hit F1 and then "I").  If that fails, read the manual ║
║   (file I-M.DOC), especially part two on "Data Integrity and Viruses".      ║
║                                                                             ║
║ o If you're having trouble using the menus in Integrity Master try the      ║
║   tutorial offered in SetupIM.                                              ║
║                                                                             ║
║ o If all else fails, please contact us or the Advanced Support Group for    ║
║   assistance.  See details in file SUPPORT.DOC (IMVIEW SUPPORT.DOC          ║
║   to read this file).                                                       ║
║                                                                             ║
╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Q: I start SetupIM and suddenly nothing happens or I see the display
   scroll and then get disorganized.  The program seems to be stuck.

A: Insert formatted media (eg. diskettes) in all removable drives, run
   SetupIM, and try waiting about 10 seconds and hitting the ENTER key
   several times.  You may be using a program which is trying to write a
   message to the screen while SetupIM is checking out your disk drives.
   You can safely ignore any garbage which appears on your screen. SetupIM
   will write a full report to file IMPROC.TXT.  Be sure to check this
   file.   The most common cause for this type of problem is using
   DRIVER.SYS to assign a duplicate drive letter to a floppy drive:

   You may have a statement like this in the \CONFIG.SYS file:

                 DEVICE=DRIVER.SYS /D:0 /F:0

   The numbers could be 0 as above or have some other value.  DRIVER.SYS
   tries to write a message to the screen to ask you to insert a new
   disk and hit a key when SetupIM checks this drive. Deleting this line
   should solve the problem. Once you finish running SetupIM you may
   restore the line. IM will have know enough not to access the
   duplicate logical drive.

Q:  I want to do nothing other than scan a disk for known viruses how do
    I use Integrity Master to accomplish that?

A:  If this is a disk that you've already "INITIALIZED" with Integrity Master
    then just use the CHECK menu to check that disk.  If this a new disk to
    Integrity Master then use the INITIALIZE menu, to do an initialize of
    all the files.  You can save time in both cases by using the option
    menu to limit initializing or checking to executable programs.  You can
    also use the "V" option on the check menu to ONLY check for known viruses,
    but if you do this you lose all the additional benefits of integrity
    checking.

Q:  I'd like to setup a batch file that sometimes does a quick check and
    sometimes does normal, full integrity checking.  Since there's no command
    line option to change the type of checking, how do I do this?

A:  Set your options for quick checking by using the OPTIONS menu.  Then
    select the first option on that menu to save (Write) the parameter file.
    This saves your options in file IM.PRM.  You can now copy that file to a
    different file  let's say QC.PRM ("COPY IM.PRM QC.PRM").  Now execute IM
    and set your options back for full checking.  Save (Write) those
    options.  You now have two files: QC.PRM (for quick checking) and IM.PRM
    (for normal checking).  IM with no change will use the options in IM.PRM.
    Anytime, you want to do a quick check just invoke IM with: "IM QC.PRM" and
    you'll be using the quick check options.  If QC.PRM is not in the current
    directory, be sure to code the complete path on the control card (eg. "IM
    D:\utils\QC.PRM").

Q:  Sometimes IM comes up with different colors on the screen than before.
    What's going on?

A:  IM checks the DOS video mode indictor on your PC to see if you are
    in color or monochrome mode, as well as directly checking your video
    adapter.  This allows you to use the DOS "MODE BW80" to indicate
    that a two-color display is present on a color adapter card.  Some
    programs change this value to an incorrect value.  If this happens
    to you, use the DOS mode command to set the video mode back to the
    correct state.  For example, enter "MODE CO80" to restore normal
    color mode.  You can also use the command line override (or SetupIM)
    so IM comes up using whatever colors you prefer.  "IM /C" would
    force IM to use color mode.

Q:  I just tried to do a check or initialize on my hard disk. Integrity Master
    replied that this disk was not working.  It IS working!  What's wrong?
                                                ~~
A:  File "DISKhelp.TXT" describes how to correct this problem. Read file
    DISKhelp.TXT using your favorite program, copy it to your printer ("COPY
    DISKHELP.TXT PRN") or enter the command:
          IMVIEW DISKHELP.TXT
    to display this file.

Q: I just entered the command IMVIEW (or IMPRINT) and nothing happened. My
   PC just said "Bad command or file name".

A: IMVIEW.COM and IMPRINT.BAT must be either in the current directory or
   in one of the directories in your DOS path.  To put these in the path,
   enter the command PATH at the DOS prompt and you'll see a list of
   directories on your disk.  You can copy IMVIEW.COM or IMPRINT.BAT into any
   of these directories.

Q: I don't have my original DOS install diskettes to do a clean boot from. How
   do I install Integrity Master?

A: It's only important to have a certified clean copy if a virus may already
   in control of your PC.  In most cases you can safely install using your
   DOS files in place on your hard disk.  On some PCs such as the T1000
   laptop and some Radio Shack models DOS is stored in ROM (Read Only Memory).
   This copy of DOS is always a clean copy!   If there IS a chance that you
   may have virus active please take the time to borrow DOS diskettes from
   a friend or a computer store.  If you explain why you need this most people
   will be more than glad to help you.

Q: I use DOS 4.0. I get a message saying that SHARE needs to be loaded for
   large media, when I boot from diskette.   Do I need to copy SHARE.EXE to
    my Integrity Master boot floppy?

A:  Integrity Master does not need SHARE.  You may wish to copy it so other
    programs can use it.  If so, just copy it to your diskette. DOS will
    automatically load it when you boot.

Q:  I just checked several disks but I can't find the report file.  What
    happened?

A:  If you have the report file option turned on in automatic mode (check the
    OPTION menu), then the report file is written to the first disk that you
    check.  If you later switch to check another disk, without turning off the
    report file, the reports will still go to the same file on the same disk.
    You can choose to have this file always written to the same disk by
    selecting this on the OPTION menu.

    If you specified a report file name "of your choice", and did not
    include a drive or directory specification as part of the file
    name, then it will be written to the current disk and directory when
    you start checking or initializing.

Q:  Other anti-virus products don't say I have to boot my PC before checking
    my files; why do I have to boot before checking with Integrity Master?

A:  Actually, if you thoroughly read your documentation you'll probably see
    that your product DOES suggest you boot from a diskette; we're just
    a bit more up front about this issue.  If you're satisfied with the level
    of protection obtained from other products without booting, THEN YOU DON'T
    NEED TO BOOT. IT IS OUR GOAL TO PROTECT AGAINST ALL VIRUSES NOT JUST KNOWN
    VIRUSES.  The reason we ask you to boot from a write protected floppy
    before checking, is that this is the ONLY way to be sure that a virus is
    not already resident and in control of your PC. If a virus is resident,
    you may be infecting files rather than checking them.  Integrity Master
    checks memory for resident viruses, so it is somewhat safe NOT to boot.
    If you choose to do this, be sure you always have the latest version of
    Integrity Master (We release a new version every 30 to 90 days); this is
    vital so that your version knows to look for the latest viruses which may
    be hiding in your PC's memory. On the other hand, if you boot from a good
    version of DOS on diskette, you can continue using your version of
    Integrity Master indefinitely and be safe from viruses!

Q:  I want to write my reports to my printer.  IM reports that my printer
    isn't working, but it is!  What can I do?

A:  You have a printer which is not compatible with the standard IBM BIOS
    functions that IM uses.  There's an easy way around this.  Just use
    the OPTION menu to write the reports to a file called "PRN".  This
    will allow DOS to route the print for you.

Q:  IM just detected a change to a program.   Only this one program changed,
    I don't think it's a virus.   What are some programs known to change
    themselves?

A:  There are too many programs to list them all here.  Many programs will be
    changed when you run the install or option update program for that
    program.  WordStar is a well known example.  A new program is SETVER.EXE
    which is part of DOS 5.  Whenever you run SETVER to set the DOS version
    for a program, SETVER stores this information by modifying its own code.
    This will result in IM reporting a change to SETVER.EXE every time you
    run the program.    Changing certain options in MicroSoft Windows (R)
    will also change the program itself (WIN.COM).

Q:  IM keeps reporting that my boot sector has changed.  It is NOT reporting
    a known virus. The boot sector seems to change every day. I don't think
    I've got a virus.  What's going on?

A:  If your boot sector keeps changing repeatedly and you have an older HP
    or Zenith PC, you may have one of the models that changes its boot
    sector every time you boot.  If you use a program like STACKER which
    establishes a virtual (not a real) disk, do not be concerned if the boot
    sector on the virtual (eg. Stacker) disk keeps changing.  This is normal
    behavior.  As a matter of fact, changes to the boot sector of any disk
    which can not be booted from, generally do not represent a problem.  If
    you have any doubt about whether it's a virus, save a few of your
    BOOT.SRL files (Run an Initialize boot sector after IM reports a change)
    and send these along with the other information called for in file
    SUPPORT.DOC to us.  We'll check to see if a virus might be present in
    your boot sector.

Q:  IM detected a virus on my PC.  I reloaded my system sectors and either
    deleted or reloaded all infected files, yet the virus keeps coming back!
    What should I do?

A:  Somewhere a virus is eluding your checks; please check the following:

  o Did you install IM after booting from a clean floppy?  It's absolutely
    vital to do a cold boot before checking.

  o Are you using a task switcher (or multi-tasker) such as windows?  If so,
    then this program may be saving some of your infected programs in its
    "swap" file.  This file often ends in the letters ".SWP".   Delete
    this file if it exists.

  o Be sure you check ALL files and floppies which come into contact with
    your computer.  You may have missed a file or diskette somewhere.  Please
    take the extra time and check them all.

  o It's possible that viral code is hidden somewhere other than an executable
    file.  IM normally checks only executable files (programs and overlays)
    for known viruses.  Try selecting "Disk for known Viruses" on the CHECK
    menu and selecting "Check All files" on that menu.  This will check
    all files as well as system sectors on your disk.  Check any other
    disks that you've been using.

Q:  I use an executable compression program (eg. LXEXE or PKlite), am I in
    danger of the compressed files being infected?

A:  If a virus should infect ANY of your files, compressed or not, IM can
    detect this fact.  So if a virus should infect a compressed executable
    file, IM will have no trouble detecting this.  On the other hand if a
    known virus infects a program and then that program is compressed, IM
    may or may not recognize the virus in the compressed file.  However if
    the virus should attempt to spread, IM will detect this.

Q:  IM just detected a virus in one of my system sectors, and says to
    reload the system sector.  I've never run an "Initialize", so I don't
    have the sector reload file (.SRL).  Help!   What do I do?

A:  This reinforces an important point: DO AN INITIALIZE ON ALL YOUR DISKS
    SO THAT YOU CAN EASILY RECOVER ANY DAMAGE TO A SYSTEM SECTOR.  Don't wait;
    DO IT NOW!  If you lost your boot sector, you're in luck, otherwise you
    have some serious work ahead of you.

    BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING, POWER OFF AND BOOT FROM A WRITE PROTECTED DISKETTE
    CONTAINING A CLEAN COPY OF DOS THEN:

  o You can manually reload the DOS boot sector by entering the command:
    "SYS C:" where "C" is the drive with the damaged boot sector.  You must
    logged on to drive A: when you enter this command.

  o Manually reloading partition sectors is MUCH more difficult.  Before you
    go any further, make sure you have as much of your data backed up as
    possible.  There is a serious risk that what you are about to do may
    render your disk unreadable!  Try one of the following options:

    1) If you have DOS 5, try the command: "FDISK /MBR" to create a new
       partition sector (AKA Master Boot Record).  Be careful; this is NOT
       documented and may not always work.

    2) If you can locate an identically formatted hard disk you could use IM
       (INITIALIZE partition sector) to capture the sector reload file and
       then reload it on your damaged disk (use Reload "Missing Partition")
       to accomplish this.

    3) Some of the utility programs such as Norton or MACE may be able to
       repair this sector. If they don't replace the sector, you could use
       one of the sector editors to write zeros over the first part of the
       boot sector and then turn the "disk fix-it" program loose again.  Our
       testing shows that these programs don't always succeed and may
       further damage your disk.

    4) The last alternative is to do a low level format.  This completely
       removes all data from your hard disk.  See the next question for
       details on how to do this.

Q:  How do I do a low-level format?

A:  This procedure varies with the type of computer your have and the type
    of disk controller board.  If you have an IBM PC then you have (or can
    get) a diskette containing a program to low level format your drive.
    Some other manufacturers provide this also.  Running SPINRITE to do a
    low-level format is NOT what we want to do here.  We MUST do a
    DESTRUCTIVE format. Check the documentation that came with your disk
    controller board for the technique to low-level format or call the
    manufacturer for information on how to do this.  Be sure to explain that
    all you really want to do is to replace the partition sector (master
    boot record).  They may have a utility to do just that.  The procedure
    for some common Western Digit controllers is as follows:

    Enter "DEBUG"  (from your DOS boot diskette)

    at the DEBUG prompt ("-") enter: "g=C800:5"   (press ENTER)

    at this point you should be able to follow the directions. You will need
    to know whether you are formatting your first on second hard disk and
    the layout (heads and cylinders plus and bad tracks) but often you can
    just hit ENTER and accept the defaults.  To find the bad track list open
    your PC and look on the drive itself.

Q:  I was just checking a diskette for viruses and IM detected the
    DataCrime 2 virus in a file.  When I restarted IM it detected the
    DataCrime virus resident in memory!  I never executed the program
    which was infected, so how did the virus get control of my PC?

A:  The virus wasn't really resident or in control of your PC. What happened
    was that a piece of the viral code was left somewhere in memory -
    probably in one of DOS's file buffers.  Although IM takes great pains to
    clear its own buffers and areas of memory, it's not unusual to get a
    false indication of the virus being active in memory after detecting
    a virus in a file or system sector.

Q:  I have indicated that I didn't want virus checking, yet IM reported a
    virus anyway. Why?

A:  If your display indicates "Virus check off", IM will still check for
    known viruses whenever it doesn't noticeably slow things down.  Also if
    you request a scan for known viruses on the Check menu, IM will always
    check for viruses.

Q:  Since there's a menu option on the CHECK menu to scan for known viruses,
    why is there no command line option to do this?

A:  We believe that scanning for known viruses is a helpful but flawed
    technology.  Many products use this as their primary defense against
    viruses.  We want to discourage people from depending upon this technique
    and certainly don't want Integrity Master to be used as a mere virus
    scanner.  Integrity Master automatically checks for signs of known viruses
    whenever you initialize or whenever it detects a change to an executable
    program as well as when you tell it to scan for known varies.

Q:  When I first start IM and SetupIM, I see something red flash on my screen,
    but I can't make out what it says.

A:  When IM and SetupIM first start they look for the parameter file (IM.PRM)
    which contains all your option settings.  On some PCs this can be a
    slow process, so IM announces that it is: "Searching for and reading
    parameter file."   On faster PCs, this message appears as barely a blur!

Q: IM reports invalid time and date stamps on many of my files.  Do I have
   a virus?

A: Maybe!  If it's only executable files with the illegal values, you'll
   need to check further to make sure there's no unknown virus on the
   loose.  If you have such a virus IM, should be detecting unexplained
   changes to executable programs.  Try following the procedures
   outlined in the manual (or the I-M.DOC file) for determining if file
   changes are due to viruses.  (Basically, what you do is to run a full
   check, execute a suspect program, cold boot, and run another full
   check.)  There are some common causes for files to have illegal time
   and date stamps (such as 62 seconds):

   1) There is reportedly a backup program ("Intelligent Backup") which
      marks files by setting the seconds field to an illegal value.

   2) Some anti-virus products attempt to "immunize" your files by setting
      the seconds of time stamp of your programs to 62.  This works only
      against a handful of viruses but some programs do this anyway.

   3) Central Point's (PC Tools) Datamon will reportedly mark rencrypted files
      by setting the seconds field to 62.

 Q: IM says I have a virus resident in memory, but I doubt this, since I have
    another anti-virus product which reports nothing.  What's going on?

 A: Some anti-virus products execute as a resident program (TSR) to monitor
    your system and check for signs of known viruses.  To check for these
    viruses, they use fragments of the same viruses that IM checks for.
    It's a standard practice to keep these fragments encrypted or stored in
    pieces, but some products don't follow this practice.  You probably have
    such a product.  To double check, remove any line in your CONFIG.SYS and
    AUTOEXEC.BAT file which executes this product.  Cold boot your PC.  Now
    run IM.  If the other product was at fault, IM will now detect no virus.

 Q: When I run IM under Microsoft Windows, it reports "General failure"
    reading some files.  This is supposed to be a hardware error.  What's
    happening?

 A: Microsoft Windows has certain files open.  When IM tries to read these
    files it is unable to.  The message returned to IM varies from one PC
    to another.  On some PCs, you may see merely that certain files can not
    be opened.  On other PCs (such as yours), a critical error is returned to
    IM.  IM is simply reporting the error returned to its critical error
    handler.  We are looking into ways to determine the true rather than
    the simply the reported cause of errors such as this.

 Q: I'm using STACKER on my PC and IM keeps reporting boot sector corruption
    on my stacker volume.  What gives?

 A: STACKER closely simulates an actual DOS disk drive on its volume. It
    pretends to have an actual boot sector.  This boot sector is not a real
    boot sector and may change from moment to moment.  Viruses can not spread
    by infecting this boot sector and since it can change at any time,
    checking this boot sector is a waste of time.  When you check a STACKER
    volume, just check the files and not the system sectors. Don't do a
    "Check Entire disk integrity" which includes the system sectors on the
    STACKER volumes.  If you use the command line, use "/CD" rather than
    "/CE".  Automatic handling of STACKER volumes will be available soon.

 Q: IM reports corruption of its own report file.  Why?

 A: This can happen in only one circumstance.  If you select a report
    file with a name of your own choice and then check the disk and
    directory containing that report file, IM will write to that file
    between the time that it checks it and the time that the file is
    closed.  We recommend using auto-named report files or placing them
    on a disk different from the disk being checked to avoid this message.

 Q: I found a damaged directory or a report file on a floppy that IM
    was checking...

 A: Do not remove a diskette if IM is writing a report file to it unless
    IM has fully finished its processing.  The report file will still be
    open and inserting another diskette can cause DOS to write incorrect
    information to the second disk.  After you see the statistics summary,
    you may remove the first disk.

  Q: I am getting errors when reading a disk I think is working OK.
     Why does IM report an error.

  A: See file DISKhelp.TXT

  Q: How do I get rid of that wait for keypress at the end of processing.

  A: If you enter a command line parameter such as "/CR" or "/CD", and
     specify no pause either by using the option menu or with the
     "/N" or "/NE" parameter, IM will pause only briefly after it
     finishes checking.

  Q: How can I quickly remove boot sector viruses (such as Stoned or
     Michelangelo) from numerous diskettes?

  A: If your diskettes are bootable, the DOS "SYS" command can be used to
     quickly remove boot sector viruses.  (You can always try the SYS command
     it won't hurt anything)  Be sure to boot from a write protected copy
     of DOS and then issue the "SYS x:"  command (x is the disk you wish
     to clean).

     For non-bootable disks, locate an uninfected disk of the same type
     as that which is infected.  Use IM to initialize the boot sector data
     for that diskette.  Temporarily remove all other "BOOT.SRL" files
     from your disks.  Make sure the "BOOT.SRL" (boot sector reload file)
     which IM just created is present either in your current directory
     or in the root directory of one of your disks.  Now:

     o Run IM and turn the report file off.

     o Change to the drive containing an infected floppy (Commands menu).

     o Tell IM to reload the boot sector.

     o Insert and another diskette and keep reloading. IM will locate the
       BOOT.SRL file on one of your other disks and reload the sectors on
       each floppy diskette.

  Q: How can I avoid having separate report files on each disk IM checks?

  A: Use the Options menu to set the auto-named report file to go to
     a specific disk of your choosing.  All reports will then go to this
     disk, independent of the disk being checked.

  Q: I see:  "Changes in directory xxxxxx:" but no changes appear on my
     screen.  Why is this?

  A: If you have asked IM to exclude files or directories from checking,
     IM will remove their associated integrity data the next time you
     run a check.  If you have asked IM not to tell you about excluded files
     or directories, it will still alert you that it is updating the
     integrity data for directories where something is being excluded.
     This notice appears only once when IM first removes the preexisting
     integrity data for the excluded files and directories.

  Q: Integrity Master reported a file as having a problem or being suspicious
     yet I didn't see why.  Where's the explanation?

  A: You probably have your halt options set to halt only on serious
     problems or emergencies.  In this situation the detail information is
     written only to your report file.  Please read the report for the
     detail information on what was found wrong with the file.

  Q: I tried the "/L" option on my laptop but the screen is not very legible.

  A: The "/L" (LCD) option is intended for older CGA compatible laptops such
     as the Toshiba 1000.  Newer laptops (especially VGA gray scale displays)
     should work fine with no special video override.  If the display doesn't
     look right on a newer laptop try the "/M" rather than the "/L" command
     line switch.

  Q: I just did a "DIR" on a diskette which had the "Stoned" boot sector
     virus.  When I ran IM, it reported the virus was active in memory.
     Can I get a virus by just doing a DIR?

  A: No; you cannot get infected unless you execute an infected program
     or boot from an infected diskette.  When you did the "DIR", a copy of
     the infected boot sector was read into memory.   IM then detected this
     image of the virus in memory.  Although the virus is in memory, this
     is harmless since the virus code is never executed.

  Q: How do I scan multiple disks for viruses?

  A: Please hit F1 in IM and select "Scanning for viruses" from the help
     index or read the section on scanning in the user guide (I-M.DOC file).