Address: 1111 W. El Camino Real, Suite 109MAC, Sunnyvale, CA 94087-1057 USA
Phone: 408/245-1890
FAX: 408/245-1891
Office hours: Mon - Fri 9am-6pm (Pacific Time)
Technical support: Mon - Fri 9am-8pm; Sat & Sun 11am-8pm
Electronic addresses:
AppleLink: KILROY
Compuserve: 76136,667
GEnie: KILROY
America OnLine: KILROY7
Delphi: JEFFS
_________
TABLE OF CONTENTS…
A) Where AppleShare 2.0.1 Goes Astray;
B) Each Time You Start Up Your File Server;
C) VirusBlockade’s “Unattended Operation” Checkbox;
D) AppleShare 2.0.1 Allows No Messages Be Sent to the User;
E) Will AppleShare 3.0 Fix These Shortcomings ?
_________
A) WHERE APPLESHARE 2.0.1 GOES ASTRAY…
When you want to prevent viruses, Trojan Horses or worms from being copied to your AppleShare file server, run VirusBlockade™ II (VirusBlockade for short) on your file server along with VirusDetective. This is definitely possible, but there are a couple of considerations you should know about beforehand:
AppleShare, since it keeps track of all locations of all files it “changes” (that is, copies, moves, deletes, or renames) regarding any disk it uses, assumes IT is the ONLY entity that can do this kind of changing. When VirusBlockade does this kind of changing of files “from behind the scenes”, AppleShare tends to balk and complain. There are two situations where AppleShare 2.0.1 goes astray, so to speak. The following two AppleShare responses are inappropriate (and quite inelegant):
2.1. SITUATION NO. 1 AND APPLESHARE’S RESPONSE
You, the file server administrator, have set up VirusBlockade to rename, delete or move an infected file after a user has copied the infected file onto the file server. It is important to know that the file server STILL THINKS the file exists under the old name at the old location. What happens is that when the user notices that the file is “missing” and tries to put the file back the way it was, the file server reports that a file already exists under that name.
SOLUTION TO SITUATION NO. 1: No practical solution exists as of this writing. Hopefully Apple will fix this shortcoming in a future update of AppleShare.
NOTE: As an extreme solution, restarting the file server will eliminate Situation No. 1. However, it is impractical to restart the file server each time VirusBlockade renames, deletes or moves an infected file.
2.2 SITUATION NO. 2 AND APPLESHARE’S RESPONSE
You, the file server administrator, have set up VirusBlockade to move infected files to a special “infected files” folder. You then connect to the file server as the owner of the folder. If you try to delete any files located in that folder, the file server will crash (ID=29).
SOLUTION TO SITUATION NO. 2: A patch exists for Situation No. 2 (but we still hope that Apple will fix this shortcoming in a future update of AppleShare). You only have to do the patch once (see the IMPORTANT NOTE in a few lines):
2.3 THE PATCH: use a file-editing utility (like Central Point Software’s MacTools, Norton Utilities, or ResEdit) to make the following change to the “AShare File Srv” file (there are two occurrences of the ‘old’ that have to be changed):
Old: 603A4A46671C2F3C42544572
New: 603A6046671C2F3C42544572
The 4A becomes 60. Then restart the file server.
***NOTE***IMPORTANT***NOTE***IMPORTANT***NOTE***
i. MAKE A BACKUP OF THE ORIGINAL ‘ASHARE FILE SRV’ FILE BEFORE USING A FILE-EDITING UTILITY ON IT!!
ii. DO NOT (I REPEAT, DO NOT) ATTEMPT THIS ACTION IF YOU ARE UNSURE OF WHAT TO DO OR HOW TO DO IT!!
***NOTE***IMPORTANT***NOTE***IMPORTANT***NOTE***
_________
B) EACH TIME YOU START UP YOUR FILE SERVER…
Each time you restart a file server, the file server scans its desktop database to make sure the database reflects the actual disk contents. If the desktop database does not reflect the actual disk contents (as would be the case if VirusBlockade has made any file changes due to VirusDetective finding an infected file), the file server will send you several warning messages; these warning messages are okay to ignore.
After the desktop database has been ‘corrected’ and reflects actual disk contents, even if you have NOT made the patch as in Situation No. 2, you can delete the infected files without crashing.
_________
C) VIRUSBLOCKADE’S “UNATTENDED OPERATION” CHECKBOX…
When running VirusBlockade and VirusDetective on an UNATTENDED file server, set the options for “Unattended Operation” for BOTH VirusBlockade and VirusDetective.
_________
D) APPLESHARE 2.0.1 ALLOWS NO MESSAGES TO BE SENT TO THE USER…
Under AppleShare 2.0.1, when a user copies an infected file to the file server, it is IMPOSSIBLE for VirusBlockade to inform the user that a file is infected, or what VirusBlockade did with the infected file.
_________
E) WILL APPLESHARE 3.0 FIX THESE SHORTCOMINGS ?…
As of this writing, AppleShare 3.0 has not been officially announced. We cannot say if the above problems will be corrected. Rest assured we will do whatever is possible to see that they are fixed, if they indeed can be.
If you plan to use AppleShare 3.0 when it becomes available, DO contact us in the future regarding the status of AppleShare 3.0 and the aforementioned problems.
