December 4, 2006

Dear Sassy: During the “Geeks Bearing Gifts” class Michelle talked about making sure our computers were up to date on the anti virus software. How do we check that?
~ Anti Virus in the Cold Weather

Dear Anti Virus: This is a very good question, Sassy is SO glad that you are in tune with keeping your computer safe. First let me explain a little about the functions of the anti virus software. For our purposes there are two important aspects to remember regarding McAfee (our anti virus software.) One is that viruses are always popping up so new definitions are made to block those viruses.

So this makes it very important to Update your McAfee so that it has all the new definitions. And two, after your McAfee is updated, it is also very important to Run the software. Both of these steps go hand in hand, and Sassy can go on and on about their importance… so update and run

Most, if not all, of our machines update and then run on a daily basis. To check to see when your machine is scheduled Click on Start >> Programs >> Network Associates >> VirusScan Console. This will open up a new window where you should see AutoUpdate and Scan. You can change the schedule by double clicking on each feature. Let Sassy know if you run into any problems, I would be glad to assist.


Dear Sassy: I was attempting to perform a search in PubMed, and received the message below. What does this mean?

Bad Gateway!
The proxy server received an invalid response from an upstream server. If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster.
Error 502
~ Hating the Bad Gateway in Caddo

Dear Hating: Wow, it appears by your signature that you have a lot of frustration. Maybe you need to get a cheeseburger from Herby K’s? Never fear, this really isn’t as bad of an error message as it appears. Let me explain what it means. The 502 Bad Gateway error is an HTTP status code that means that one server received an invalid response from another server that it was accessing while attempting to load the web page.

Whew! And now the jargon free explanation is that there was a connection problem between the two servers. The best thing to do is to try to access PubMed again by clicking Refresh. If you are still experiencing problems accessing this page, you may want to contact the webmaster at the address listed on the error page and advise them of the error message you received. Most importantly this error message does NOT mean there is anything wrong with your machine or the internet connection.