NilsC
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Posts posted by NilsC
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Windows XP home come with a built in firewall. Itâs disabled by default.
If you trust windows version of a firewall go ahead and enable it. (Iâm not going to tell you how to turn it on, yet)
What are the alternatives?
ZoneAlarm (ZA) from Zone Labs Is one alternative that can be used. It comes in different versions from the free for home users to the Enterprise version for large companies. ZA is a software-based firewall and you download, install and configure it on your computer. Configuring ZA can be difficult for novice and casual users but again use Google to search for solutions and read the tutorial.
Listing of Free firewalls for Win.
Hardware firewall comes in many versions and is sometimes known as a security appliance. Dedicated firewalls like the Cisco PIX 500 series are for the most part used in larger corporations due to initial cost.
For home you can combine the FW / security appliance with a router to secure your home network. A couple of solutions like: (Quotes from the different website links)
If you donât feel like using any of the methods mentioned here at least turn the XP firewall on.D-link that have:
⢠New Integrated Cable Diagnostic Utility
⢠Advanced Firewall & Parental Control
⢠Built-In 4-Port Switch
⢠Support UpnP
or Linksys that have:
# Protects PCs from Ping of Death, SYN Flood, Land Attacks, IP Spoofing, and Other DoS (Denial of Service) Attacks
# Supports Up to Two IPSec Virtual Private Network (VPN)Tunnels
# Supports URL Filtering and Time Filtering
# Blocks Java, ActiveX, and Cookies
# Easily Configurable through a Web Browser from Any Networked PC
or Netgear that have:
* ICSA certified, True Firewall with Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) and Intrusion Detection
* Denial of Service (DoS) attack protection and VPN pass-through
* Built-in Print Server and Network Address Translation (NAT) Routing
* Easy-to-Use Smart Wizard⢠and Install Assistant
(Instructions copied from the windows help file)
To open Network Connections, click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Network Connections.Click the Dial-up, LAN or High-Speed Internet connection that you want to protect, and then, under Network Tasks, click Change settings of this connection. On the Advanced tab, under Internet Connection Firewall, select one of the following: To enable Internet Connection Firewall (ICF), select the Protect my computer and network by limiting or preventing access to this computer from the Internet check box. To disable Internet Connection Firewall, clear the Protect my computer and network by limiting or preventing access to this computer from the Internet check box.Windows firewall are better than no firewall.A computer without a firewall is like crashing your car without a seatbelt. A computer with a firewall is the same accident while using the seatbelt. In both instances you may be hurt but without the seatbelt you will most likely be hurt worse.
Disclaimer: be carfull when changing setting on your computer. If you are not sure what to do get help from someone who know or use Google to search for Firewall tutorial
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Christmas is over and all the new computers are now online.
One issue is that most of them are not patched and secured for Internet use.
This tutorial are targeted to XP Home version and to the Guest Account issue. The Guest Account is installed by default and there is no easy way to "truly disable it" or enable password protection for that account.
I just turned off the Guest Account I’m safe! That is where you are wrong, the Guest Account is still running. You just can’t log into it using the windows GUI (Graphic User Interface).
The Guest Account are still running In the background because it’s an integral part of the network file and folder-sharing engine. This means that anyone on the Internet that can see your computer can see any file or folder that are shared with simple file sharing.
If you have a firewall running you are more secure because the firewall (when configured correctly) offers more protection (Firewall will be the next part of this how-to).
XP Home uses the Guest Account (even after you turned it off) to authenticate remote users and give them access to shared resources on your computer. This can now defeat the firewall because an authenticated user on a computer on the Internet can still log into your guest account without a password because they are authenticated.
OK, I’ll just hack the guest account and remove it! Wrong move, there are no safe way of disabling the guest account (that I know of) without crippling the computer. Or render it useless for future use.
What is the solution? Passwords protect the guest account! It can be done but you have to be at a command prompt.
Create a good password that are not easily cracked and it should be different from any other password used for regular user accounts. Creating a good password entails using “upper and lower case letters”, “numbers” and symbols. So if your name is “Anyuser Anywhere” and you use a password like Anyuser1 or aanywhere10 it can be cracked fairly easy.
Better choice is to substitute an “A or a” for the symbol @ like @nyuser1 or A@nywhere. It’s better but can still be cracked.
The best passwords are random but difficult to remember:
8 Character password
Password: 4T6Etie!
Phonetics: Four - TANGO - Six - ECHO - tango - india - echo - Exclamation
16 Character password
Password: fEsT4swucUjE?ehE
Phonetics: foxtrot - ECHO - sierra - TANGO - Four - sierra - whiskey - uniform - charlie - UNIFORM - juliet - ECHO - Question - echo - hotel – ECHO
Or you can go to (like I did for the examples):
http://www.pctools.com/guides/
Here is how to set the “Guest Account” password in XP Home:
Start the command prompt. Click on Start, then All Programs, then Accessories and select Command Prompt or Click on Start, then Run and type <command> (without the <> brackets) and Click OK.Now you are at the command prompt window (Black background and the prompt normally starts with "C:\DOCUME~1\****>" or "C:\>" the path may differ on your computer but that does not matter.Now type this: net user guest <password> (replace the <password> part with the password you came up with. So using the password created earlier the command will look like this: net user guest fEsT4swucUjE?ehELook at everything and make sure you write down the password, then hit the enter key.Now you have created a password on the guest account anyone who tries to access files will be stopped, unless you give them the passwordDisclaimer: be carfull when changing setting on your computer. If you are not sure what to do get help from someone who know or use Google to search for "Password Protect Guest Account".
Nils
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ah cool this is great! finally some people trying to stop spambots. I'm gonna donate some MX records to Project Homey Pot, since i've got a .INFO domain i'm not using...
Daniel,I'm using MX records for domains I own and use. I have different mx record for my real email and donated mx records for the honey pot.
This are the real mx records that point to my email server:
mail.exampledomain.compop3.exampledomain.comsmtp.exampledomain.comThis are the donated MX records pointing to Honey Pots servers:nopop3.exampledomain.comnomail.exampledomain.comnosmtp.exampledomain.comSince it's ilegal harvesting email addresses in the US, the records will be used to help lawenforcement officers shut down spam harversters.If you look at the top 20 list you can see that a lot of the spam bots are collecting the addresses from the same computer that they are sending the spam from (or from the same 0/24 range). The computer may be compromized but if we shudown compromized computers we shut down the spam.
Nils
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Those posts makes perfect sense to me. Thanks a lot for posting guys. I'm trying to connect 3 computers at home (wired connection). I'll start tomorrow and I'll let you know if anything goes wrong and if everything went well. Thanks again guys.
Good luck,for 3 computers you need a minimum of a hub or a switch to connect them together.
Nils
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My HD draws up to around 37gigabytes.Which isn't very much when 7 gigabytes is taken up by Windows 98 files.
-=Wrighty=-,I have to ask! 7GB W98 files? what do you mean by windows files? The reason I ask is because a correctly installed W98 OS will take between 650MB to 1.2GB depending on how many of the "support" files you leave behind after install.
If you count installed programs as part of your W98 files then I can see where you are comming from. Remember most third party programs add to your Windows folder and the bigges culprit are "Temporary internet files"
I have a total of Size 55.90 GB (60,019,868,160 bytes) between the 2 HD's on this computer.
Nils
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Daniel,
:) T1 internet?!?!?!?!?!? :) oh man thats fast. i bet most of us here are stuck with a 56k modem (that includes me 
) i don't want to even try to compare your computer to my 350mHz box... well anyway i might get a new computer one day, this one cost AU$70
I cheat, my place of work pay the bill.
As for most of my computers they are built from old (relatively speaking) computers that I repair and use at my home network.
This computer was given to me by a person who had to have the best and the latest and according to him this was a piece of junk. After setting up his new computer and network I updated the security and firewalls at his house.
I took the computer home, removed most of the viruses and malware that I could -kill-. There was some problem with the FAT table so I ended up over writing the whole HD and then reformat them. I had all system and install disks so this turned out to be a good home computer. (It costed me $0.00 unless you count my hours)
Nils
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I really have no idea about networking. Can someone please give a quick intro or maybe a link to some tutorial that could get me started. I really wanna learn how to network computers.
You have to decide if you are going with a hardwired or wireless network (or a combination of the two). Hardwired are inherently more secure but a wireless is easier to setup in a house, apartment or a dorm room.Added issues when networking computers are security, if you are on the internet with one computer and you are hacked you only loose one computer. When you are hacked in a network environment you may loose them all.
To build a home network with mixed wired and unwired equipment start with a good firewall. Hardware firewall or at a minimum a good software firewall. The HW firewall goes between your modem, dsl, or cable modem (modem). The software firewall goes on all your networked computers (I use ZoneAlarm on top of a Cisco PIX-515). The instructions to follow are for dsl/cable modem but can be modified for a 56k dialup account and does not involve settin up a firewall (that is a whole new chapter). The main computer already have a NIC card installed in working condition.
Next step is to get a router, HUB or Catalyst to attach all your equipment to the ânewâ network. Iâll use this router as an example (itâs a link to the manufactures website, I hope that is OK): D-Link AirPlus DI-714P+ Wireless Router
This is a good router to use because it combines wired ports with the wireless and it has a print server so you can network the printer without using one of your computers as the print server.
Now you have to get NIC cards for your hard-wired computers, wireless desktop/laptop adapters for the rest.
Itâs easy to setup the router, you start by turning off the modem and attaching the CAT-5 cable from the back of your computer to the LAN port on the router. Turn the router on, then turn your modem back on. Attach a CAT-5 patch cable between your computer NIC (rj45) port and port âOneâ (1) on the wireless router. Port one are most often used to program/setup equipment that donât have a console port.
Everything together again, start up the browser so you can program the router to recognize the network. (The instructions vary from manufacturer to manufactures so read the manual)
There are steps to encrypt the wireless part of the network, setup a WEP key for security. And change the default password for the router.
From the specs at manufactures website.
⢠64-, 128-, 152-bit WEP
⢠WPA â Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA-TKIP/PSK/AES)
⢠802.1x (EAP-MD5/TLS/TTLS/PEAP)
⢠MAC Address Access Control List
Attach any computer with a NIC card to the router install the wireless adapters in Laptops and computer in different locations of the building. (again read the manual before you install)Hope this helps
Nils
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This is the home computer.Sony, XP HomeModel PCV-RX572(UC)1793 Mhz512.00 MB RAMPIONEER DVD-ROM DVD-117RSONY CD-RW CRX175ESoundMAX Integrated Digital AudioNVIDIA RIVA TNT Model 64 (Sony)RAM 32.00 MBLucent Win ModemRealtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NICD-Link DFE-550TX 10/100 AdapterWAN Miniport (L2TP)WAN Miniport (PPPOE)Direct ParallelWAN Miniport (IP)1394 Net AdapterDrive C:FAT3215.60 GB (16,746,778,624 bytes)Drive D:NTFS40.27 GB (43,240,263,680 bytes)Intel® 82801BA Bus Master IDE ControllerHP Color LaserJet 4550 PS IP_192.168.100.123HP LaserJet 2200dn IP_192.168.100.124Monitor Dell UltraSharpCisco 2600 routerCisco br-350 wireless bridgeSwitch is a Cisco Catalyst 3500 series XL inline powerInternet connection T1Nils
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A way to stop spam are identifying the top spam harvesters, and shut them down before they reach your mailbox. The time you get spam at a new email address can vary. If you never give out the address on the Internet and the address are not just a first or a last name you may not see spam for years. If you create a website and put your email address anywhere on the page, eventually it will be harvested by a spam bot.
Munging the address may help, same if you use ASCII characters that will prevent harvesting for a while.
A lot of the block lists used by email providers come from users reporting spam and email hitting spam traps. Project Honey Pot are going one step further by identifying the spam harvesters and bot / spiders they use to crawl over your web-space using your bandwidth stealing your email addresses.
This is achieved by handing out a unique email address to every hit on your spam-trap. If a bot follows the link to the honey pot and harvests the address it will be logged. When an email hits that particular email box a spam harvester are identified.
It’s a few different ways we can help stop the harvesters and help reduce spam. You can host a honey pot on your website or if that is impossible (like it is for me at the present time) you can put a link to the Project Honey Pots website and help educate others. The last way to help is donating MX addresses to the project. The more MX addresses they have the more variety of spam-traps can be created. If you have a domain name that you are not using donate up to 5 MX records for each domain name.
To learn more about the project go to
. Stop Spam Harvesters, Join Project Honey PotI’m using the button on company web pages and will add a honey pot as soon as an “.asp” script are ready. I have an average of 5000 to 10000 spam per day hitting a email server with less than 200 users. The 50 to 250 that slip through the filters and spam assassin I report.
Nils
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I use my name
, It's the user name I got 16 years ago on our first *nix box. I tried to use a couple of other usernames online but end up forgetting them.I hate it when you go to a site / forum that you have not visited for a couple of months and I can't remember the d@rn username and password.And it's easier on people when you meet them in RW, then you don't have to have nametags with online alias and RW name.Nils -
Most of the old phone cables are CAT-3 with 2, 4, 6, 8 or more pairs of wire. Regular phone use 1 pair for each line. So to a 2 pair (four wire) cable you can attach 2 phones. CAT-3 are not the perfect wire for pach cables the winding are not tight enough so you get a lot of crosstalk between the pairs. This may look like you have a broken wire or a loose connection somewhere.Most networks use 4 pair (eight wire) cables of CAT-5 or higher quality. Unless you are using a switch that send power to devices across the network only 2 of the pairs are used. (all 8 wires are put into the plug but not used)Nils
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Why are M$ OS popular? because most people don't feel like taking the time learning something new. It's mainstream, it's advertized on all the tv networks, therefore it has to be good... M$ grabbed the marked a long time ago when they created the point and click GUI and removed the users from the dos prompt with the "c:\>" prompting you to type something to make it work.Since it's mainstream and a lot of software makers cater to M$ the price goes down on all the software created for that OS. It doesn't make any better, just more affordable.I don't like XP but I use it everyday at work. My preffered OS is Linux. For servers the sco *nix is what I know and use married to emulator most of the users don't even know that they are working on the *nix box.Nils
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I opened it up in a Mozilla tab and and I can continue to browse in the other tabs (including type this) without seing any slowdown. The first or second part (looks like a black ball) took a few seconds to load then after that it was back up to speed.. About 10 seconds of slow browsing and the mouse was not responding.Nils
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To change the IP address for your Internet connection you have to change the IP address for the router or modem. On a DSL or Cable modem (Iâll use modem for short) the IP addresses are dynamically assigned and can change when the lease is up or when your ISP forces a change, this is unless you pay for a static IP address.
To see what your modems IP address are you can do a trace route from the command prompt or go online to a site that will show your IP address. Like: Click here to see the IP address you show on the internet.
Now you can log off the Internet, turn off your modem, wait 5 minutes and turn it back on. If you go back to the same site you will see if the IP address changed or stayed the same.
So changing the IP address on your computer may not change your Internet IP address. If you do an âipconfig /allâ at the command prompt you will see the windows configuration and IP address for that computer. Most but not all of the time the first octet of your IP address will be 10, 172 or 192 (this are fake none-routable IP addresses)
So if your computers IP address and the IP address that you show to the Internet (use previous link to test) is not the same then that whole change of the computers IP address are for nothing. On the other hand if you are creating a home network and would like to have control over what IP addresses each computer have then you can assign your own IP addresses. Make sure you use an IP range that is not commonly used for the Internet. You can create a class A, B, or C network at home and the NAT (Network Address Translation) will translate the âfakeâ non-routable into a routable address (your modemâs IP address)
If you think about the modem as the dividing point between you and the Internet then you control everything on the inside. This is your network and you can lay it out and assign IP addresses, as you like. From the modem to the internet are controlled by your ISP and the initial setup registers the MAC address for that modem and the ISP assign you an IP address from their dynamic IP space.
Nils -
I use Cute ftp pro at work and I have no problem with it.Right now I'm evaluating Ipswitch WS_FTP® Professional and WS_FTP Server on a couple of test boxes to see if they have any advantage over current setup.I'm happy with Cute ftp and would recomend it to anyone.Nils
How Do I Know If A Server Supports Smtp
in Computer Networks
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First, you seem to have an user account / email address rapco-AT-kaiseren-dot-superihost-dot-com. Query the mx record for kaiseren.superihost.com returns: This is like having a yahoo account that you can download the messages using pop3, read with webmail or use an IMAP host to read the messages. But you don't run the mailserver (I may be wrong on that one I didn't do a dig)
Your MX record would look something like this if you host your own mail server:
mail.kaiseren.superihost.com. 15 70.84.255.163 [uS]70.84.255.162 [uS]
Now looking at your MX record for Xisto.com I can't se any. Did you create a MX record yet?
When did your DNS record get created? I don't see it propagate to any nameservers yet!
Same for the MX record.
To verify that Xisto creates (or user creates) records I looked up a username that had asked for hosting a while back and I tested his DNS and MX records. They came back positive.
Here is what astahosts nameservers replied when I queried them directly:
Your a record exists, you just have to be patient and wait for it to propagate across the name servers.
Nils