Scary new web site...

I can't wait for October!:

Ames Haunted Forest

New ways to spam you

Microsoft's operating systems allow people to send you pop-up network messages, exploiting a little known network administrator's tool called Windows Messenger Service (which is not related to MSN's instant messaging) -- if you are exposed to the Internet directly. If you're behind a firewall or on a local subnet, such as in the case of the gateway/router, you're probably safe from these annoying little popups.

CIAC (Computer Incident Advisory Capability) writes:

Sites that have a firewall that blocks the Windows networking ports (135, 137-139, and 445) are already protected from this spam. This particular spam engine starts with a connection to port 135 rather than the NetBIOS ports (137-139 and 445) and then connects to a port above 1024 but future spam engines could use the NetBIOS ports as well. The Messenger service generally should not be disabled or shut down because different programs use it to pass messages to a user. System managers also use it to warn of impending network actions such as server shutdowns.

It is possible to use the IP Filtering feature of Windows to block the incoming connections at the machine but the filter’s options are “Permit All” or “Permit Only ”. To make the filter work, you must use the “Permit Only ” option and supply the list of all allowed open ports. TCP Filtering is part of the Advanced Properties of the TCP/IP Protocol in the Networking control panel. Note also that blocking incoming connections to ports (TCP and UDP) 135, 137-139, and 445 at a machine may prevent that machine from participating in Windows Networking. We have seen one company (www.coffeecup.com) that is offering a filter for these ports that keeps the ports open for network communications but blocks the spam messages. More....

CIAC write about spamming using Windows Messenger Service.

Coffee Cup's Popup Blocker can eliminate these ads.

Listener Question

Judy writes:

"Having problems ghost with a Dell GX270s desktop PC. I have downloaded the most current drivers for the nic card and I created a new ghost boot disk with those drives. I boot up the PC with the boot disk and it finds the NIC card and then it says loading ..... and the screen never comes up were it will say Ghost ... Click 'OK'. Do you have any recommendations that would solve this problem?"

Our own Jeff Hansen, Clear Channel IT Dept., weighs in:

Sounds like the machine cannot find ghost.exe and pretty much stops at that point.

Reasons would be numerous.

Check to make sure your network layer is really ready to go. Using tcp/ip? Does the machine have an IP address? If not, why? DHCP issues? Static address entered improperly?

How about the network share you are trying to get logged into. Is it mapped and ready to go? Are permissions set properly on the share? Maybe you don't have rights.

Etc

Etc

Etc

Blasted Popups!

JJJCSHELLEY writes:

IS THERE ANYWAY TO STOP THE POPUP ADS ON MY COMPUTER. THESE ARE THE ONES THAT
JUST POP UP AT ANY TIME AND THEY MOSTLEY ARE ADVERTISING SERVICES TO STOP JUST
WHAT THEY DID.

Hello
JJJCSHELLEY,

Ouch!  Please stop yelling at me!

Popup Cop and Popup Stopper work pretty good to nearly eliminate popups. 
I use Popup Cop and have been happy with it.

Danny

Epson Scanner Issue

Marian Boury writes:

I bought a Gateway computer 1 1/2 years ago when the XP was first out. At
that time I also bought an Epson Perfection 1250 scanner. Every time I want to
copy something, I get an error message that the scanner is not connected. At
first I thought it was my kitten that had been laying on the cords, but I have
fixed it so he can't do that and I still get the error message. After I pull out
the cord and reconnect it, it works fine (unless I have many, many pages to
copy).

Also, I have to copy using the color button or the pages are reduced to less
than 1/4 the size of the page and I can't find anywhere in the book to change it
so it is full sized.

Help, Please!

Hi
Marian,

My sense (from the reviews I've read) is that you've got yourself an inexpensive
and buggy scanner. I recommend:

• Download the latest drivers for the scanner. Uninstall the old ones before
  installing new.


• Make sure you're current with Windows Update.


• Contact Epson and/or Gateway for help.

I did a

Google search and found over 10,000 web sites. This won't fix your problem,
but it's interesting nonetheless to hear what bad things people are saying about
this scanner.

Good luck!

Danny

.08 Drunk Driving Standard Effective July 1

Iowa State Patrol Chief Col. Robert Garrison joined us for the June 28 show. 
He says research shows there will be 25% fewer traffic deaths after the new law
takes effect.  For a 170-pound male, a blood alcohol concentration of .08
can be attained with four to five drinks in the first hour.  You can burn
off about a drink an hour.  There is a book and a web site that can help you reduce your risk of being arrested for drunk driving. This site also features a chart that can help you estimate your Blood Alcohol Concentration. 
(Chart)

Peer-to-peer file sharing: Napster vs ITunes

Apples says it's going to release ITunes for Windows by the end of the year. 
I've been saying for months that I would not pay $1 per song from Apple's ITunes. 
Why?  1) You don't get a disk; 2) it's a propriety format; 3) there isn't
the selection I want.  with WinMX, I can get the songs I want and I'm not
out $1 a pop.  I have thousands of songs that I wouldn't have if I'd bought
them online.  Face it RIAA, they aren't worth thousands of dollars.

I would have bee happy to pay a flat monthly fee (something like $5/month) to
continue using Napster, so that the artists could get something out of the deal. 
My tastes are mostly 70s and 80s music, and let's face it, there have been no
big dollars for anyone in the older music genres.  But I guarantee that the
minute people can get whatever they want, you'll see a lot more of the older
music being sold and subsequently more licensing dollars being charged.

What does an artist get for every record sold?  Probably a few pennies,
but it really depends on the deals they make.  Some agree to a small
residual, while others just sell their rights for cash up front, in which case,
they get nothing for an older song when it sells.

In any event, Apple has been negotiating with record labels and pursuing its
Windows port and may well release at Christmas time, which could be huge -- or
flat.

Corporate wireless: freedom and dangers

Mercury News is reporting that Wireless Switch makers are thriving, and gearing up to go public. While that may be a scary scenerio for the consumers of such wireless gear, it means that wireless is soon going to dominate the LANs and WANs in the office working environment.

Security has been the missing link that kept corporations from buying into WLANs, however that same apprehension is creating a store-bought WLAN culture, and that is sure to spill a few company secrets.)

Nokia wants more of the pie

According to Reuters, Nokia's per-user revenues is about $55. Nextel's $70 per user. So, Nokia says
it'll borrow Nextel's walkie-talkie feature and provide faster internet by installing EDGE and 3G technology on its mobile network network. When? Possibly mid 2004.  Big deal. 
(News)

Microsoft fights spammers

Fifteen lawsuits, two billion spams.  Microsoft, Yahoo, EarthLink and
America Online agreed to cooperate to solve some of the technical issues
associated with spam.  (News)

802.11g wins 'official' approval

Yahoo News

Techweb is reporting the IEEE approved 802.11g, the newest wireless
networking standard.

The Standards Board of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE), established the standards for wireless hardware capable of transmitting
data at speeds up to 54Mbps while maintaining backwards compatibility with the
ultra-popular 802.11b gear that runs at a much slower 11 Mbps. Both
specifications use the 2.4GHz band of the radio spectrum.

The report says 802.11g's ability to co-exist on the same network as 802.11b
has been the long-touted key to the standard's acceptance in the corporate
world. Wireless LAN (WLAN) hardware certified under the new specification can
initially be used with an 802.11b infrastructure -- access points, wireless
networking cards, and so on -- and then as a corporation requires fatter
wireless pipes, serve as the foundation for a mixed, or 802.11g-only, WLAN.

This three-year process opened the door for labeling 802.11g-certified
equipment.

You've probably been able to see the 54-G spec on store shelves already, and
much to the shagrin of the steering committees, the products used draft specs
and not the certified specs for the protocols, meaning the products may not have
worked right on Wireless LANs. But Broadcom, a chipset manufacturer with 90% of
the marketshare, says as it happened, the final, ratified standard is the same
standard tey used to make their chipset, so all is well.



Broadcom makes silicon for Linksys, Apple, Dell and Gateway.