VIRUS -- DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE LATEST SWITCHERCAD UPDATE!!

[Stephan Goldstein]

About an hour ago (1 January 2004, around 8:30am local time) I downloaded
the newest update of SwitcherCAD-III using the usual Tools->Sync Release
method. There was no indication of any problem with this file, though I'm
not sure if Norton Anti-Virus scans this particular type of download.

Shortly thereafter my computer (Pentium-III, Win98SE) began acting really
weird. It became completely unresponsive to mouse or keyboard input
other than Ctrl-Alt_Del, and its response to this command was also
bizarre. The normal menu popped up, but the slide bar moved continually,
the active tasks scrolled up and down in concert, and I was unable to
select anything. Ctrl-Alt-Del a second time seemed to reset the computer
although I didn't get the usual nastygram from ScanDisk. After rebooting,
the behavior was the same - normal appearance but competely unresponsive
except to Ctrl-Alt-Del.

Luckily I have a dual-boot system with Suse Linux 6.2, so I did a hard
reboot into Linux and manually deleted *all* the files associated with
LTSpice. This was purely a hunch, as this was the only program that's
been changed in quite some time. Then I rebooted back into Windows
and everything appears normal (fingers crossed).

 

[Helmut Sennewald]

"Stephan Goldstein" <teveg666@ultranet.com> wrote in message
news:3ff42d57$0$4745$61fed72c@news.rcn.com...

About an hour ago (1 January 2004, around 8:30am local time) I downloaded
the newest update of SwitcherCAD-III using the usual Tools->Sync Release
method. There was no indication of any problem with this file, though I'm
not sure if Norton Anti-Virus scans this particular type of download.

Shortly thereafter my computer (Pentium-III, Win98SE) began acting really
weird. It became completely unresponsive to mouse or keyboard input
other than Ctrl-Alt_Del, and its response to this command was also
bizarre. The normal menu popped up, but the slide bar moved continually,
the active tasks scrolled up and down in concert, and I was unable to
select anything. Ctrl-Alt-Del a second time seemed to reset the computer
although I didn't get the usual nastygram from ScanDisk. After rebooting,
the behavior was the same - normal appearance but competely unresponsive
except to Ctrl-Alt-Del.

Luckily I have a dual-boot system with Suse Linux 6.2, so I did a hard
reboot into Linux and manually deleted *all* the files associated with
LTSpice. This was purely a hunch, as this was the only program that's
been changed in quite some time. Then I rebooted back into Windows
and everything appears normal (fingers crossed).

Hello Stephan,
I cannot agree with your observation.
I tried "Sync Release" and full download on WIN98SE and Win2000 on two
different PCs.
No problems at all.
I am talking about the latest release 4.08d.

I assume this was a random coincidence of permanent data corruption
on your hard disk and installing/updating LTSPICE.

Let's see what other users report.

Best Regards,
Helmut

PS: I am not an employee of Linear Technology.

 

[Chuck Harris]

Hi Stephan,

What firewall are you using?

-Chuck Harris

Helmut Sennewald wrote:

"Stephan Goldstein" <teveg666@ultranet.com> wrote in message
news:3ff42d57$0$4745$61fed72c@news.rcn.com...

About an hour ago (1 January 2004, around 8:30am local time) I downloaded
the newest update of SwitcherCAD-III using the usual Tools->Sync Release
method. There was no indication of any problem with this file, though I'm
not sure if Norton Anti-Virus scans this particular type of download.

Shortly thereafter my computer (Pentium-III, Win98SE) began acting really
weird. It became completely unresponsive to mouse or keyboard input
other than Ctrl-Alt_Del, and its response to this command was also
bizarre. The normal menu popped up, but the slide bar moved continually,
the active tasks scrolled up and down in concert, and I was unable to
select anything. Ctrl-Alt-Del a second time seemed to reset the computer
although I didn't get the usual nastygram from ScanDisk. After rebooting,
the behavior was the same - normal appearance but competely unresponsive
except to Ctrl-Alt-Del.

 

[Jim Thompson]

On Thu, 1 Jan 2004 16:46:41 +0100, "Helmut Sennewald"
<HelmutSennewald@t-online.de> wrote:

[snip]

Hello Stephan,
I cannot agree with your observation.
I tried "Sync Release" and full download on WIN98SE and Win2000 on two
different PCs.
No problems at all.
I am talking about the latest release 4.08d.

[snip]

Best Regards,
Helmut

PS: I am not an employee of Linear Technology.

4.08d? I have v2.07z dated 12/24/2003. Has Mikey been that busy in
the last few days ?

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

 

[Helmut Sennewald]

"Jim Thompson" <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:a2h8vvsha7ddmj41pe00m7c61ll14tla11@4ax.com...

On Thu, 1 Jan 2004 16:46:41 +0100, "Helmut Sennewald"
HelmutSennewald@t-online.de> wrote:

[snip]

Hello Stephan,
I cannot agree with your observation.
I tried "Sync Release" and full download on WIN98SE and Win2000 on two
different PCs.
No problems at all.
I am talking about the latest release 4.08d.

[snip]

Best Regards,
Helmut

PS: I am not an employee of Linear Technology.


4.08d? I have v2.07z dated 12/24/2003. Has Mikey been that busy in
the last few days ?

Hello Jim,
sorry, I meant 2.08d.

Best Regards,
Helmut

 

[Helmut Sennewald]

"Chuck Harris" <cfharris@erols.com> wrote in message
news:3ff442fb$0$4754$61fed72c@news.rcn.com...

Hi Stephan,

What firewall are you using?

Hello Chuck,
My router has no firewall as far as I know.
I checked with AntiVir from http://www.free-av.com/ .
My last update of the virus definition file may be one week old.

Best Reagrds,
Helmut

 

[Chuck Harris]

Hi Helmut,

I was more wondering about Stephan, who posted the original note about
the possible virus infection.

It is not safe to run Windows 98SE on the internet without a firewall.
Some ISP's provide one automatically (AOL), but most do not.

I use Linux, and my logs are full to the brim with attempts by others
to crack into my system using the various windows exploits... They don't
work because of my firewall, and because of my operating system, but
regardless, I get 20 to 30 attempts per hour.

A very nice firewall for Win98SE is called ZoneAlarm. It is available
for free from their website.

-Chuck Harris

Helmut Sennewald wrote:

"Chuck Harris" <cfharris@erols.com> wrote in message
news:3ff442fb$0$4754$61fed72c@news.rcn.com...

Hi Stephan,

What firewall are you using?


Hello Chuck,
My router has no firewall as far as I know.
I checked with AntiVir from http://www.free-av.com/ .
My last update of the virus definition file may be one week old.

Best Reagrds,
Helmut

 

[Paul Burridge]

On Thu, 01 Jan 2004 09:02:38 -0700, Jim Thompson
<invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On Thu, 1 Jan 2004 16:46:41 +0100, "Helmut Sennewald"
HelmutSennewald@t-online.de> wrote:

[snip]

Hello Stephan,
I cannot agree with your observation.
I tried "Sync Release" and full download on WIN98SE and Win2000 on two
different PCs.
No problems at all.
I am talking about the latest release 4.08d.

[snip]

Best Regards,
Helmut

PS: I am not an employee of Linear Technology.


4.08d? I have v2.07z dated 12/24/2003. Has Mikey been that busy in
the last few days ?

Revealing! So you've dumped P in favour of LT at long last then, Jim?
--

"I expect history will be kind to me, since I intend to write it."
- Winston Churchill

 

[Jim Thompson]

On Thu, 01 Jan 2004 17:06:19 +0000, Paul Burridge
<pb@osiris1.notthisbit.co.uk> wrote:

On Thu, 01 Jan 2004 09:02:38 -0700, Jim Thompson
invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On Thu, 1 Jan 2004 16:46:41 +0100, "Helmut Sennewald"
HelmutSennewald@t-online.de> wrote:

[snip]

Hello Stephan,
I cannot agree with your observation.
I tried "Sync Release" and full download on WIN98SE and Win2000 on two
different PCs.
No problems at all.
I am talking about the latest release 4.08d.

[snip]

Best Regards,
Helmut

PS: I am not an employee of Linear Technology.


4.08d? I have v2.07z dated 12/24/2003. Has Mikey been that busy in
the last few days ?

Revealing! So you've dumped P in favour of LT at long last then, Jim?

Nope, Just watching and waiting for a full-feature set. But that's
not in Linear Tech's best interests so I doubt it will happen to the
degree I would need.

I also use LTSpice to examine schematics that you amateurs post ;-)

There are PSpice alternatives (with full backward compatibilities and
screen look/work-alikes) lurking in the wings so it won't be a big
deal if Cadence drops us.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

 

[Stephan Goldstein]

In article <3ff442fb$0$4754$61fed72c@news.rcn.com>, Chuck Harris <cfharris@erols.com> wrote:

Hi Stephan,

What firewall are you using?

-Chuck Harris

I use ZoneAlarm for a firewall. I'm pretty sure nothing came in that way.

To Helmut's point, I don't know what version I downloaded, just that I did
it today, 1 January, and then the problem occurred almost immediately.
I had previously downloaded an earlier version, possibly even this week.

steve

 

[Helmut Sennewald]

"Stephan Goldstein" <teveg666@ultranet.com> wrote in message
news:3ff46ab3$0$4747$61fed72c@news.rcn.com...

In article <3ff442fb$0$4754$61fed72c@news.rcn.com>, Chuck Harris
cfharris@erols.com> wrote:
Hi Stephan,

What firewall are you using?

-Chuck Harris


I use ZoneAlarm for a firewall. I'm pretty sure nothing came in that way.

To Helmut's point, I don't know what version I downloaded, just that I did
it today, 1 January, and then the problem occurred almost immediately.
I had previously downloaded an earlier version, possibly even this week.

Hello Steve,
the only version available today is 2.08d. This is the version which
I have verified on two PCs.

Best Regards,
Helmut

 

[Chuck Harris]

Hi Steve,

If you are using ZoneAlarm, you should be in good shape
from viruses.

Windows 98SE is a pain, it gets really out of sorts if you
get DLL's from a bunch of different programs mixed together.

An operating system manufacturer would have to be really stupid
to let an application program replace one of the system's DLL's
when it is installed, but that is just what windows does.

-Chuck Harris

Stephan Goldstein wrote:

In article <3ff442fb$0$4754$61fed72c@news.rcn.com>, Chuck Harris <cfharris@erols.com> wrote:

Hi Stephan,

What firewall are you using?

-Chuck Harris



I use ZoneAlarm for a firewall. I'm pretty sure nothing came in that way.

To Helmut's point, I don't know what version I downloaded, just that I did
it today, 1 January, and then the problem occurred almost immediately.
I had previously downloaded an earlier version, possibly even this week.

steve

 

[Mike Engelhardt]

Stephan,

Any virus you *may* have received was not from any
LTspice/SwitcherCAD III distribution file. The
files on the server are virus free.

The SwitcherCAD III sync release feature does http
protocol transfers. That's it. The risk of
getting a virus from using the field sync utility
compares to pointing your browser to any other web
page on Linear's website. You might get something
from being connected to the Internet but that has
nothing to do with the site you're browsing.

--Mike

 

[Chaos Master]

Stephan Goldstein[teveg666@ultranet.com] said this in sci.electronics.cad, at Thu,
01 Jan 2004 18:44:14 GMT, in article <3ff46ab3$0$4747$61fed72c@news.rcn.com>. I
can prove it. And thus I reply:

To Helmut's point, I don't know what version I downloaded, just that I did
it today, 1 January, and then the problem occurred almost immediately.
I had previously downloaded an earlier version, possibly even this week.

I downloaded SWCAD and ran AVG on the downloaded file.
No viruses found.
There must be a coincidence.

Also, sh*t crashes happen under Windows.

--
ChaosŽ - posting from Brazil
Please ask for e-mail address.