I was away on holiday for two weeks leaving my PC on but locked. After my holidays, I started coding on my PC and discovered that Google Search on my PC had been hijacked. When I go to www.google.com and type in something to search, the search result page appeared like the usual Google Search result page we always see but when I look closely, the search results were quite different.

The descriptions were related to my search but the URLs were bogus. When I clicked on the links it would bring me to some buy.com, ebay.com and fake websites that contained nothing but advertisement links. How bizarre I thought to myself. I think my PC has been infected by some spyware or malware.

True enough I discovered I was not the only person online who had their Google search hijacked. Not being able to use Google search, I had to resort to Yahoo to help me find some other people online who had also experience the same predicament and hopefully find a resolution. How could I live without Google search, even for a day. I eventually resolved the problem but I spent quite some time trawling through discussion forums.

I had McAfee Security Centre installed on my PC and yet the scan came back clean. Some users online suggested using Kaspersky online scanner and that detected a trojan. It embeds itself in another system file located at C:\Windows\System32. The file name is wdmaud.sys.

The remedy to get rid of the Google search hijacker is to simply delete or rename the file wdmaud.sys in C:\Windows\System32. That restored my Google search result and all previous malicious symptoms went away.

The resolution

1) Use Kaspersky online scanner to scan your PC. Note that all other virus checker detected other viruses/malware on the PC but not this particular one. It was only detected using Kaspersky.
2) Then delete or rename C:\Windows\System32\wdmaud.sys
3) Problem resolved.

Richard MacManus of ReadWriteWeb.com published his list of 2009 Web Predictions just before the new year. Here are the predictions that I like from the list published:

1. iTunes adds social networking features.
2. Microsoft releases a cool online version of Office, but then Google releases an amazing new version of Google Docs.
3. Professional twitterer becomes a real job.


4. Google will finally offer a comprehensive online storage solution and some kind of travel product.
5. Exciting new open source projects will emerge and grow due to a growing number of un/under employed engineers.
6. Under pressure from iPhone, Android, Symbian, and RIM; Windows Mobile will attempt to reinvent itself. Unfortunately for Microsoft, it will be about as successful as Vista and the Zune.

To add to the list, here are my own predictions:

1. iPhone will rise the ranks in mobile gaming to compete with Nintendo DS and PSP.
2. More PC and Windows enthusiasts switch camp and move to use Mac Book and OSX.
3. Google Chrome gains more browser market share.
4. TV advertising and viewers reduce as streaming of live events increases on YouTube.

What are your predictions?

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Someone wrote me an email yesterday sharing a link that streams TV and live Radio Stations to your desktop/laptop using your Broadband connection. It is UK Media Hub site so you will get to watch the BBC channels, ITV channel and news channel like Al Jazeera.

Here is what was written in the email:

http://www.easyonlinetv.com is a UK Media Hub Site that provides a selection of the best UK TV online and Internet Radio. There is also a Page that provides Links to all the Major UK Newspapers online. You will need a Media Player installed to connect with the streaming TV and live Radio Stations. And the best is – it’s all free!

What exactly is an Internet Server? People write books to explain this topic. It is a technical and complex area that brings internet connectivity into our homes and offices. I am only going to briefly explain the types of Internet servers available. Internet servers consist of

1. Domain Name System/Server (DNS)
2. Mail server
3. Web server

Essentially we need these three Internet servers to function to connect to Internet services. When I say internet services, I am referring to email, displaying web pages, online chat, etc. DNS, Mail server and Web server operates 24 hours, 7 days a week to allow access to and from the Internet at any time.

Before I continue I want to say that all network connections are made by using IP addresses and the internet uses a system of IP addresses and protocols to communicate with each other. The Internet servers are there to facilitate and provides us with the internet on a daily basis.

DNS Server
Has a database of information about each machine or host that exists within its own segment of the worldwide DNS database. A DNS server makes the information available to other name servers throughout the entire Internet. A DNS server must be used for emails and web browsing. The main task of a DNS server is to use the database information to translate domain names into IP addresses.

Mail Server
Carries out the operations of email exchange. A mail server is responsible for delivering emails to the email address you specified. A mail server would have a mail transfer agent and a mail delivery agent.

Web Server
Serves up web pages. When you specify a URL in your browser to view a web page, the HTTP protocol will fetch the details from a web server and render the page on your browser.

Types of Web Servers (depending on operating systems)
Apache
Internet Information Server

How does and ISP fit into the picture?

An ISP is a company or business that provides an individual with access to the internet either through dial-up, cable or high speed DSL circuit. An ISP would have a DNS server, a web server and also a mail server in their internet infrastructure.

Here’s an interview from YouTube.com where Josh Lim shared his research analysis on broadband penetration in Malaysia. I was quite shocked to discover that there is only a 2% broadband penetration in Malaysia with almost all of the 2% concentrating in the Peninsula Malaysia. He mentioned that the government is aware and admits that it is a national problem. I don’t know when the interview was conducted so information could be dated.

Josh Lim runs a portal called www.redesignmalaysia.com that shares information about broadband issues in Malaysia. The portal has a interactive map widget that allows you to compare broadband coverage by different ISPs in Malaysia.

According to Josh Lim, the infrastructure is in place but ISP subscription is still relatively high compared to neighbouring broadband savvy countries like South Korea and Singapore. Josh Lim said that South Korea has 30-40% broadband penetration and Singapore’s broadband penetration is four to five times more than Malaysia. He also mentioned the availability of satellite broadband in Malaysia but it comes with a price tag. A very high monthly subscription. What I do not understand is if Malaysia has the broadband infrastructure in place, why is it not used? Seemingly Josh Lim avoided answering the question by saying he didn’t have the answer.

I would understand the need for satellite broadband in East Malaysia where the broadband infrastructure is not as good as the Peninsula because most of East Malaysia is still a jungle. The use of satellite would be a smart strategy for broadband deployment. Satellite broadband is widely used in the middle east where the geographical terrain is not suitable for cable infrastructure and satellite broadband infrastructure works out to be more cost effective.

Here are some broadband internet stats analysed in 2007 from Internet world stats.

Here the stats show a 59% internet penetration in Malaysia as of June 07 but this is an overall percentage. I am assuming this includes dial-up and broadband.

Let me know your thoughts.

As more people start watching video online or play online games, bigger bandwidth is required for data streaming over the internet but with broadband companies cutting the cost of broadband subscriptions due to competition, who will have to pay for the high demand of a bigger broadband pipeline?

I read recently that there has been talks that broadband subscribers and online media distributor sites will have to pay higher prices for more bandwidth. Is this fair to the online consumers? The internet is like a highway built for cars to travel from point A to point B. Can you stop a car that travels everyday on the highway from point A to point B because the driver is using the highway too often? This is a problem because based on current usage of broadband, there is a need for bigger bandwidth but with the lowering cost of broadband subscriptions, how much more would broadband users want to pay for a “bigger” broadband?