Decision

[smokingboot]

This account has just entered its 10th year, proof to myself that I can keep a journal going, albeit sporadically. I started it to get myself writing anything onto a blank screen without thinking of the audience at the other end. it's aim was to be public, yet as authentic as possible when engaged in the artifice of writing, and not to care really whether it was good writing, just to write. It resulted in my book, so making this journal friends only may be counterproductive.

But I feel the need for privacy. It is silly , but not something I can help right now. Yesterday, there was an unauthorised attempt from god knows who to get into my email account. The IP address was in Des Moines Iowa, of all places. What on earth is all that about?

There were people I once dreaded reading my words...not an issue now. It's for other reasons I close the gates. For a while this journal will be friends only; it has been pretty much the case over the last few months, but if there is anyone out there who wants to continue reading and isn't on my friends list, leave a message or write to me privately.

Edited to add: 31st July 2013, I am not making this private anymore. Some things will continue to be, others will be friends only, but the default setting goes back to public, simply to mark an ending.

Comments

[pengshui-master.livejournal.com]

Yesterday, there was an unauthorised attempt from god knows who to get into my email account. The IP address was in Des Moines Iowa, of all places. What on earth is all that about?

1. IP geolocation is hideous inaccurate.
2. It was probably someone who had a virus , so the location tell us nothing usefull anyway.
3. They were probably hoping they could unroll your paypal account (if you have one) etc, by doing the lost password recovery things
on the accounts which will then send them a working password.

Of course it could have been someone actually in Iowa , who has forgotten their actual username and thought it was yours...

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

They seem to have been deflected by gmail. I changed my password, so fingers crossed.

Why might they have had a virus?

[pengshui-master.livejournal.com]

Many virus are really remote control programs, they give control of your computer to a third party, so the honest and upright citizen person in Iowa has a virus and dangerous criminal from Siberia (or anywhere else on the internet) uses the virus on his computer to take control of it and hack gmail , in the knowledge it is harder to trace to him (amongst other more technical advantages he gains).

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

How can I check that I don't have a virus? I've run AVG and Norton, can't find anything, but I am worried...

[pengshui-master.livejournal.com]

First of all uninstall AVG.

Run windows update.
The update Norton and rescan. If all is Ok You have done everything you reasonably can.

The reason I say uninstall AVG is twofold, first I (personally) don't have a lot of confidence in it. When I did more tech support it was very common to find virus infected computers with AVG on them. Secondly you really, really only want a single virus checker on your machine. Having two normally stops both of them from working properly.