|
Please note: Older issues may contain information that is now out of date. How To Subscribe
and Unsubscribe is at the end of this note. Mailing List Trouble? See http://www.langa.com/help.htm Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000 !) An easier-to
read formatted HTML version of this newsletter is available on line at The LangaList 2000-12-07 A Free Email
Newsletter from Fred
Langa --- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) ---
--------------(
the above is an advertisement )--------------
In this week's "Explorer"
column, I recount how AOL6 took my perfectly good, secure, five-element
networking setup and changed it to an INsecure 16-element networking setup.
Worse, it installed an unusual (VPN--virtual private networking) technology for
reasons unknown and unexplained. Worst of all, AOL made no mention of any of
these changes: I only found them because I went looking for them. My guess is
that most users never would even notice that AOL had made major -- and
potentially very unsafe -- modifications to their networking setup. (See http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/25.htm
) Also, in that column, I'll show you
how AOL insists on setting up a VPN (Virtual private networking) connection that
potentially gives AOL access to your files and to other computers on your LAN
(if you're on a LAN). None of AOL's help systems or human
support techs could tell me anything at all about AOL's use of VPN--- which is
strange, because AOL has offered optional VPN services since at least version 4.
But AOL6 is the first version that force-feeds VPN to you, unasked-for, and with
no option to decline; and none of the AOL support people or mechanisms can
explain why. Some LangaList readers had ideas:
For example, Steve Klimback wrote: [R]egarding the VPN
technology that AOL6 is installing. First and foremost, I had a similar
experience with AOL technical support wherein the technician didn't know or
understand VPN technology. After pointing him to the Microsoft site and
explaining it in layman's terms, he concluded that it was unnecessary and should
be removed from the system. When I explained that it prevented AOL from
connecting, he found that "very strange." [I] concluded that it could
really only be used for one or two things: 1. Create a secure
connection to the AOL server via TCP/IP on a LAN with broadband internet access.
This is done in an attempt to subvert various security measures implemented by
IT staff so that a connection can be created regardless of existing
firewall/proxy security services. 2. Create a secure
connection to the AOL server via TCP/IP over a modem connection. In my mind, not only are
both scenarios pointless but they are potentially harmful (as you noted in your
article). Short of that, I really cannot come up with any sort of reason for
using VPN technology. Joel Diamond (Technical Director of
WUGNET http://www.wugnet.com/
) also wrote: This may explain the file
sharing on the part of AOL6... 1)AOL5 stored IM buddy
lists locally, AOL6 puts your buddy lists on AOL servers 2)AOL5 stored your address
book locally, AOL6 puts your address book on AOL servers I figured that in order for
AOL6.0 software to accomplish this change from AOL 5.0 users to AOL 6.0, they
had to enable file sharing. Yeh, it's all part of AOL ANYWHERE strategy, but AOL
6.0 is mandating these significant changes in their software without telling
their customers nor providing the information through it's help system, it's
website, it's companion documentation, it's customer service, etc... As to the VPN and Printer
Sharing changes instituted with AOL 6.0, that is is beyond my ability to reason
why... Because the File Sharing and VPN are
installed together, one reasonable conclusion is that both Steve and Joel are
right: Perhaps AOL wants to synchronize its files with yours, and is setting
itself up to do so "under the covers" via VPN, without your knowledge. But once any shared files are
accessible via a network connection, *all* your shared files--- up to the entire
contents of your hard drive--- may also be accessible. Depending on what
security measures you've set up, it may be ridiculously easy for someone to hack
in and take whatever they want from your system. I admit this is guesswork because
AOL won't or can't explain itself. It won't or can't say why it needs an ongoing
live VPN connection between you and its servers. It won't or can't say why it
wants access to your files and LAN traffic. I seriously doubt that AOL is
malevolent or has evil intent. But I do believe that AOL's programming abilities
are lackluster at best, and thus I will not entrust my online security to them.
Plus, even if AOL's intentions are completely benign, AOL6 users may well become
an irresistible target for crackers who wish to try to exploit the software's
needlessly complex and potentially insecure setups. What's your AOL experience? Am I
being too harsh? Click over to http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/25.htm
and join in the discussion! Click to
email this item to a friend --- ( Your
Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) ---
--------------(
the above is an advertisement )--------------
Reader Mike Champion most recently
asked a question I've gotten repeatedly. I guess it's a factoid many people are
looking for: I'm looking for a download
of the *entire* IE5 setup without having to order the cd. Can you point me to a
link or ftp? Indeed it can be handy to download
all the setup files once, without installing them, and to store the files
locally for later installation (or reinstallation); or to download once and then
post the files on a LAN for others to use without having to re-download the
whole shebang again. Microsoft still has a vestigial
public FTP site ( ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/
) and there's some interesting (and free) stuff there; but they no longer offer
browser downloads that way. However, you can still easily download the entire
IE5 package without installing anything; instead storing the full setup files
locally: Go to the IE download site ( http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/
), and start the download process. The first piece that comes down
(Ie5setup.exe) is a very small front end that's actually the download manager
for the full install. That Setup/Download Manager gives you the option to save
files locally. Here's how: After you've downloaded the small
Ie5setup.exe file, run it, and select the "Install Minimal, Or Customize
Your Browser" option when it appears. On the "Component Options"
dialog, click the "advanced" button and select "download
only" and click OK, and Next. The setup program will then download all of
IE5 to whatever location on your hard drive you select. You can then install the
browser from there, and/or leave the files there for later use. There's a closely analogous process
for installing Netscape 6 via a small front-end download manager at http://home.netscape.com/download/
. However, Netscape does still offer the browser via public FTP, and the
simplest way to grab the entire N6 file is simply to click to: ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/netscape6/english/6.0/windows/win32/sea/ Click to
email this item to a friend "Gecko" is the open-source
browser engine produced by the Mozilla project. It's at the heart of Netscape 6.
But Netscape 6 is much more than just Gecko--- it also includes all kinds of
AOL-mandated gizmos and widgets and add-ons that turn the lean, efficient
central core into a 25MB behemoth. But because Gecko is open sourced,
Netscape isn't the only browser using it. For example, Reader Kshitiz Chandra
points out that: http://www.beonex.com/
claims to have the exact same code as N6 final ver but yet is beta. The only
difference I can smell is it doesn't have annoying AOL codes in it. I think you
will find it useful to compare... Indeed, Beonex is still in beta,
does use the Gecko guts, and (as a result) looks like a cleaner, less-cluttered,
version of N6. But while its core is the same as
Netscape's, Beonex does almost everything else differently. For example, instead
of using AOL's proprietary Instant Messenger, Boenex provides "Chatzilla"
which uses the widely-supported and nonproprietary IRC (Internet Relay Chat) for
online chatting. Beonex also draws these
pointed comparisons between their Gecko-driven browser and Netscape's
Gecko-driven browser:
"Higher level of
security / privacy by default No integration with
websites No membership We cannot identify you
while you are surfing the web No manipulation on
content level We don't sell links in
default bookmarks, ratings in search engines or similar. We believe in open
competition on a distributed Internet." You can see a full list
of features at http://beonex.com/communicator/doc/feature/
, or download the 6.44MB installation package at http://beonex.com/communicator/version/0.6/
. Although Beonex is beta
(and is still buggy) it looks very promising, especially if you like the core of
Netscape, but dislike all the clutter that comes along with it. Click to
email this item to a friend --- ( Your
Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) ---
--------------(
the above is an advertisement )--------------
Tom Harley wrote: Thanks for the excellent
article of 5/22/00 explaining the meaning of the resource items displayed on the
MS Resource Meter (although the System Resouces on
MyComputer|Properties|Performance seems to be always a percent or two lower than
System Resources displayed on the RM); you've shone a ray of light briefly
illuminating the vague, shadowy world of Windows. By the way, I found the
article by doing a search on Google. There are two reasons for showing
you Tom's letter. One is that (with this newsletter growing so fast) many newer
readers may not have seen the article Tom refers to: Actually, that
article is part of a detailed series on resource problems, and can help resolve
all kinds of performance issues ranging from sluggishness and weird "out of
memory" errors (even when you have plenty of RAM) up to outright crashes.
If you click to http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/backissu.htm
and read all the "Resource Leak" articles in sequence, you just may
never have a resource-related problem again. 8-) The other reason I wanted to show
you this letter is due to Tom's use of the Google search engine. I used to be a
fan of Altavista's search because its Boolean capabilities were (at one time)
unmatched. Then AV sort of drove itself into the weeds when it tried to become a
"portal" instead of a search engine. I moved on to the "FAST
Search" at http://www.alltheweb.com/
; it's still very good, with a hugely comprehensive listing of sites (almost 600
million URLs!). More recently, I've also found
myself using http://www.NorthernLight.Com
because of the excellent job it does in rank-ordering its results. However, it's
starting to show some clutter in the way it presents results. I tried Google when it first
appeared, and came away underwhelmed: It's a search engine that determines
relevancy (in part) by the number of other sites that link to a given page. The
assumption is that more more people link to a given page, the better that page
must be. The obvious problem with this
approach is that a stellar but largely unknown web site may fare poorly in the
Google ratings, while a lower-quality but better-known site will rise to the
top. Still, while the top-ranked results
in a Google search may not always be the very best sites on a topic, they're
almost always at least very good sites. Plus, the Google approach tends to be
self-correcting over time. I now find myself using Google more
and more for my initial searches, and falling back to Alltheweb or NorthernLight
for finer or alternate searches. In fact, I like Google enough I've added it to
the Langa.Com search options: http://www.langa.com/search2.htm#full If you haven't tried it yet, click
above, and check it out! Click to
email this item to a friend If you have WindowsME and any one of
the following programs, you may be headed for trouble: Cybermedia's Oil Change For example, see what happened to
reader Dana Harris: I have windows ME installed
on my computer and everything was operating as it should, UNTIL I defragged my
hard drive. After defragging, everything appeared okay until I started up the
next day and I kept getting the following message "Scandskw caused Fatal
exception 03H in module user32.dll". I couldn't even boot up in the safe
mode. After many hours of frustration, I booted up with my windows emergency
disk (boy am I glad I made one), then I reinstalled ME and all is well. I
received an update from Windows addressing this very problem and it gives the
remedy. You can find it at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q275/0/03.ASP?LN=EN-US&SD=S Thanks, Dana. That support page
explains what's going on (it involves a file corrupted by the above-named apps)
and what you can do about it. Click to
email this item to a friend The Recommend-It site gives away up
to $10,000 as an incentive to use their service to recommend newsletters like
this one! If you think the LangaList is a
worthwhile read, just use the following link to recommend the LangaList to a
friend. Your friend just may find a new source of useful information; I just may
gain a new subscriber; and you just may win $10,000 or other prizes from the
folks at "Recommend-It:" http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#1 Or, win a no-strings $30 Gift
Certificate for any item at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware,
kitchenware, toys... and more. (Full details also available via this link): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#2 Either way, thank you, and good
luck! Click to
email this item to a friend Do you have a home page or website?
(It doesn't matter what size.) Please click over to http://www.langa.com/code.htm
, and maybe you can join the hundreds and hundreds of LangaList readers who have
"Loaded the Code!" (If you've already "Loaded The Code" and
are wondering if your site will appear here or on the Langa.Com web site, please
see http://www.langa.com/link.txt
) View A Randomly-Chosen
Reader Site From Among the hundreds Listed Manually Browse All
Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At InterCom (Canada) "Must Have"
Beginner's Resources SOHO (Small Office/Home
Office) ComputerWorks International Real Estate
Digest Jewish Family Service Searchin's Engine SERGETTI'S DIRECTORY PCWare Computer Services The first--- and last---
pages of the Internet Click to
email this item to a friend Would you like the LangaList to zero
in on *your* specific areas of concern? *Your* specific questions? *Your*
specific needs? I've posted a brief, anonymous
questionnaire that takes just a couple minutes to click through. There's
nothing to write, type or fill out--- it's all point-and-clickable. The form asks for NO
personally-identifiable information whatsoever, and so is totally private: Your
completely anonymous answers will be placed in a statistical pool that will help
me understand better just what kind of information you're looking for in the
LangaList. There'll be additional polls in the
future: This one is the "ground zero" reader poll, and is focused on
some very basic data-gathering. But it would help me to better serve you if you
could spare the 2-5 minutes it takes to click through the form at http://www.langa.com/poll_one.htm Thanks for your help! Click to
email this item to a friend --- ( Your
Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) ---
--------------(
the above is an advertisement )--------------
Reader "GuenRon"
sends in this short-but-sweet little gem: A university
creative writing class was asked to write a concise essay containing these four
elements - religion The prize-winning essay
read: "My
God," said the Queen. "I'm pregnant. I wonder who did
it?" Click to
email this item to a friend --- ( Your
Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) --- Have You
Noticed The Repeat Advertisers In The LangaList? Give it a
try for your product, service, web site Plus:
Langa.Com now makes payments easy with See http://www.langa.com/ratecard.htm <a
href="http://www.langa.com/ratecard.htm">AOL
Users: Click here!</a> --------------(
the above is an advertisement )--------------
See you next issue! Best, Please recommend
the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000!I) An easier-to read formatted
HTML version is available in the "Current Issue" section of http://www.langa.com.
(The HTML version of each issue normally is available by 9AM EST [UT-5] of the
issue date.) All past LangaList issues are also available at the Langa.Com site. Why are you getting this
newsletter? This is a 100% OPT-IN newsletter: There are only three ways to get
on the list--- signup via direct email request from you, or signup via the
WinMag newsletter page or signup via BrowserTune's email-notification service.
If you're getting this newsletter; your name came to me through one of those
signup channels. At signup, you also received a confirmation email from my list
software---no one is signed up secretly or against their will. SUBSCRIBE (it's free!):
Create and send a new email address it to subscribe-langalist@lyris.dundee.net UNSUBSCRIBE: From the same
address you used to sign up with (it's shown on the first line in the body of
each email issue you receive), create and send a new email address to unsubscribe-langalist@lyris.dundee.net
. CHANGE ADDRESS? LIST
TROUBLE? HAVE QUESTIONS? NEED HELP? See http://www.langa.com/help.htm About
the advertisers: Langa Consulting LLC will never knowingly accept
advertising for a fraudulent product, company or service. However, Langa Consulting LLC makes no implied or explicit warranty, recommendation or endorsement
of or for the products, companies or services mentioned in the ads. Disclaimer:
(Please see full disclaimer here: http://www.langa.com/legal.htm.)
Abbreviated version: The tips and other information given in the newsletter are
researched and are believed to be accurate, but we cannot and do not guarantee
that all the information here will work on all systems, for all users, all the
time. All information herein is offered as-is and without warranty of any kind.
Neither Langa Consulting LLC, nor its employees nor contributors are responsible for
any loss, injury, or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from application
of any information presented here. This newsletter is a free
service of Langa Consulting LLC and is Copyright © 2000 Langa Consulting LLC. All
rights reserved. |
|
|