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The
LangaList
Standard
Edition
2001-01-25
A Free Email Newsletter from Fred
Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware,
Software, and Time Online
Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!
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Contents: 1) More on the
"Freedom" Firewall For even more
content, downloads and special services, |
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1) The "Freedom" Firewall
In the last issue, I wrote about a "promising new free firewall" called "Freedom." ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-01-22.htm#7 ) I ended the brief description by saying:
I've only just now downloaded Freedom, and have begun to see what it can do. But the feature list is so promising I wanted to alert you to it now, in case you wanted to get a jump on it right away. If it can do what it says it can do, it'll be great!
Within hours of the issue going out, I started getting emails from readers who not only downloaded and tried the software, but who then took the time to write up their experiences to assist others who might be considering trying the firewall. The volume of generous "giving back" and sharing information among LangaList readers never fails to amaze me: You folks are awesome!
Unfortunately, the early word from your fellow readers is that the Freedom Firewall may be somewhat less than awesome:
Reader James Tepe had mildly positive comments:
I am somewhat impressed. although I have a few questions about it. Such as, I have tried through several sites to test it and it blocks access to the testing sites in 'some' way. I just can't get through to GRC with it running and at Symatic I can only get so far then nothing happens when I try to test it, Although it did pass Steve Gibsons "Leak Test" which is only the second firewall to do that! Also, Logging feature logs only until you restart then the log file is lost, and there is no reporting of attempts and no feature to allow "safe" sites to probe, like the housekeeping probes from @home.
J Michalke found discussion of trouble with earlier versions of Freedom:
http://packetstorm.securify.com/9905-exploits/zks.freedom.flaws.txt
(note: slooooow site)
Ed Burke found that Freedom left at least one port closed, but detectable:
I headed for Steve Gibson's ShieldsUp web site [ http://www.grc.com ]immediately after installing it to run his battery of Port scans on it, and all but for one passed with the results showing "Stealth Mode", the one port in question is Port 113, which although it was blocked, it showed as just "Closed". This would alert anybody running scanning software that there was in fact a computer at that address, which kind of defeats one reason of having a Firewall in the first place.
But UK reader Patrick Rice had by far the worst-reported experience in what he called "Major Problems with Freedom and Win2K:
Well, after trying out Freedom for a few days, I decided I just didn't like it enough to justify it over ZoneAlarm etc....[but] when I tried to uninstall it, I had BIG problems! [Patrick describes a series of full and partial crashes that accompanied his attempts to uninstall the firewall. But when he was finally done:]
[U]pon restart, NO INTERNET connectivity whatsoever - nothing in or out. No web, ICQ, or Mail - Freedom had managed to somehow at a low level, remove or block all internet connectivity or access.
Getting to their website for support meant re-installing Freedom, as my other PC was down. I found little there that exactly covered this, as the article about "Lost Internet connection after uninstalling Freedom" didn't apply, in that the instructions it gives didn't work, as the files it mentioned didn't seem to be left on my system. (The fact that it chooses or sees the need to provide information about this problem seems to indicate it is fairly widespread. That being the case, I cannot recommend Freedom yet to anyone).
What followed was two days of every possible method of uninstall you can imagine in trying to get it off my system without removing my connectivity. I shut it down first before uninstalling, I uninstalled from Windows 2K safe mode, you name it. After each attempt, I was left with no connection, and had to re-install it to get access to support and the web. (I've heard of not wanting to give up the ghost, but really...)
Eventually, I found an article I had seen earlier but had been hoping to avoid (I don't like to manually edit the registry if I can help it as it is a sign that something else has failed if it doesn't do it itself). The article on their support page "Manually uninstalling Freedom for Windows 2000" gave instructions to remove it from the registry. I should mention two things here - if they see the need to keep adding articles such as this one and the one I mentioned earlier, it indicates a more widespread acceptance of the problem than should really exist for a final release product (frightening), and also that even these instructions weren't perfect, in that one of the files/keys mentioned was not in my registry.
Whilst I commend any company for trying to provide a product that is available for free, a quick scan through the support articles on freedom's web makes for worrying reading. It's good to have a response to so many problems, but isn't the idea not to release a product until such major problems are sorted?
Guess I'll stick with Zonealarm for now, and wait for "Freedom" to mature a bit. My thanks to Patrick and all others who wrote: You've saved us all a ton of time--- and maybe some headaches, too!
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2) Tweaks Times Three, With Two For Free
A recent item in the Plus! edition on removing "ghost" entries in Control Panel's "Add/Remove Software" applet--- entries for software you no longer have installed--- triggered a mini-flood of email, so much so that it's worth opening the discussion to the wider newsletter readership:
Langa List Plus rules! Thanks, Fred... TweakUI works for eliminating those "ghost" entries, if you have it installed on your system, and it is far less daunting than facing the Registry! Simply open TweakUI ( http://content.techweb.com/winmag//help/sbs/2000/tweakui/default.htm ) from your Control Panel, click on the Add/Remove tab, click on the entry you want to get rid of, click Remove, and that's it! You'll get an "Are You Sure?" warning message, but we are all used to them by now!---Catherine Kaye (first of *many* readers with that tip!)
Have you seen "Reg Cleaner" (this is not Microsofts's Reg Clean) by Jouni Vuorio, a young Finn. Go to http://www.jv16.org/ and take a look at this wonderful FREEware. It'll remove ghost entries and a lot more. If you haven't seen it, you must download this small program (464 Kb) and explore it's capabilities. If you know of it but haven't seen it in a while, take another look. Jouni works constantly to improve the program. The only problem with that is that he sometimes posts new versions 2 or 3 times a week. In my opinion, this is one of the best freeware utilities available. ---Russell W. Coover
I just came across this [$10] software for changing a lot of Windows settings called TweakIt Gold http://www.gpsoftuk.com/ from Green Point Software. It even allows you to easily change the Title Bar on Internet Explorer if it's been customized. It mentions several settings that I'm not comfortable changing like FIFO disk access and Processor priority. Thanks for the wonderful & practical newsletter! ---Joe Davis
Thanks to all who wrote in!
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3) M*lissa Virus Returns
(To keep this email from triggering email virus filters, I'll use an asterisk in place of the letter "e" in sensitive spots.)
We've discussed "M*lissa"
many times before; it's a Word macro virus that just won't go away: It keeps
resurfacing--- with a vengance--- in modified form .(See http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=m*lissa&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000
)
(note--- change the * to an e in the above link)
Well, M*lissa's back again. This time, it arrives as an email with the subject line of "Important Message From [username]," where [username] is someone who had you in their address book.
The message body says " H*r* is that docum*nt you ask*d for ... don't show anyone *ls* ;-).", and the referenced document is a .doc file called "anniv."
If you open the doc file, your Word templates get hosed and 50 people from *your* address book get a copy of the virus from you. There are other possible effects, too.
All the antivirus vendors are on top of this: If you're SV definitions are up to date, and if you take the basic precaution of NEVER EVER opening ANY emailed attachment unless you know what it is beforehand, and also have personally scanned it with a manual AV sweep, then you're 100% immune from this--- or any--- form of M*lissa.
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4) Meet Yoline Louis, Part Of The LangaList Family
Yoline lives in Haiti. She's just three years old. Normally, kids living in Haiti--- the poorest country in the western hemisphere--- have a pretty bleak future. But Yoline's just got brighter, thanks to LangaList Plus! subscribers.
Those of us with computers and Internet access are vastly better off than most of the world's population. Because of this, I decided that a portion of each LangaList Plus! subscription fees would be donated to registered/legitimate charities helping the underprivileged around the world. (This is described in the pages at http://www.langa.com/plus.htm )
Yoline is the first such lucky child to be helped by LangaList readers; she'll now receive assistance for at least a full year through the auspices of Save The Children ( http://www.savechildren.net ).
Yoline
As the year goes on, and as more readers sign up for Plus! subscriptions, I hope we'll be able to sponsor more children and assist other charities around the world.
Graham Greene once said, "There is always a moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in...." If you're already a LangaList Plus subscriber, thank you! You can feel good about giving back a little to those less fortunate, and opening "a door to the future" for a child in otherwise-desperate circumstances.
If you're not yet a Plus! subscriber check it out: With a Plus! subscription, you can not only help yourself make the most of your hardware, software and time online--- but you also can help those less fortunate (like Yoline) make the most of their very lives. Thanks for your help!
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5) Fed Up With Outlook/Outlook Express?
Writing from India, reader Suresh reacted to recent posts of sites filled with information on overcoming Outlook/Outlook Express problems. Suresh has an alternate suggestion with which I heartily concur:
I noticed how so many people tend to use Outlook Express just because it comes with Windows . But tell you what: I have been using Eudora Pro for the past 3 years and till date not had a single problem. Feature wise ,Eudora gives you everything ,you could ask for in an email client. It's filtering capabilities are better than Outlook Express. It even shows you statistics on your mail usage !!!!
Its HTML compliant. It allows Multiple accounts and last but not the least its FREE !!! You might say that there is an advertisement bar in the free version ,but when i use OE 5.0 with Hotmail ,i get an adbar there also .And in Eudora the adbar hardly causes a problem to your mail reading/writing experience. The best thing is... with Eudora ,you never need to backup your mail in case of Windows crashes . The mails are stored in .mbx files that are easy to store/backup if you need to format Also when you upgrade to newer versions of Eudora , the .mbx boxes are maintained. So you never lose your mail . I have mails that are 3 years old and have reinstalled/upgraded Windows so many times without bothering to backup My Eudora mailboxes. They are always intact.
Well i sincerely hope people try this mail client at least once. I promise you, they wont touch another mail client once they get used to Eudora.
Actually, I use Eudora Pro, too. (When you pay for Eudora, it's called "Pro," and the adbars are removed. Other than that, the free and Pro versions are very similar.) I've never found any email client with better automation tools for filtering, sorting, and even auto-replying to mail.
The mailbox files are extremely portable, and--- because they're actually just giant text files--- they're easy to manipulate with other software. For example, I've written a series of scripts and small programs that parse some Eudora mailboxes to extract specific information I'm looking for. Because the mailbox files are text, it's a snap. (I'd hate to try to parse a .dbx file...)
Also, very much unlike OE/O, when you delete something from Eudora and then empty its own trash can, the stuff is truly gone: There are no ghost entries luring in the mailbox files that can be scanned and discovered later. Thus, Eudora is better at protecting your privacy.
Eudora also is smart about NOT automatically running dangerous attachment or embedded files, and yet (unlike Outlook with the service patch) it still allows you to receive and send whatever attachments you want. For further security, you can use Eudora's own HTML engine to display HTML emails. (You can use your browser for HTML emails if you choose, but Eudora's HTML engine is deliberately simple, which helps guard against various HTML-based exploits that can compromise browser-based HTML email.
I have Outlook and Outlook Express because I need to know about them. But the email I use every day is Eudora. If you're getting tired of the O/OE hassles, check it out! ( http://www.eudora.com )
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6) Last Week To Enter January's FREE Drawing
On Jan 31, I'll choose another monthly winner of a no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any item at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys... To have a shot at winning, 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 a $30 shopping spree! (Full details also available via this link):
http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#2
The more times you make a recommendation, the greater your chances are of winning!
Or, if you'd like to try to win $10,000(!), try this link (full details also available here):
http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#1
Either way, thank you, and good luck!
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7) The "PowerPoint File Parsing Vulnerability"
If you use PowerPoint 2000 you may want to grab a new patch Microsoft just released that corrects a small potential security hole. Microsoft says:
A parsing routine that is executed when PowerPoint 2000 opens files contains an unchecked buffer. If an attacker inserted specially chosen data into a PowerPoint file and could entice another user into opening the file on his machine, the data would overrun the buffer, causing either of two effects. In the less serious case, overrunning the data would cause PowerPoint to fail, but wouldn't have any other effect. In the more serious case, overrunning the buffer could allow the attacker to cause code of her choice to run on the user's machine. The code could take any action that the user himself could take on the machine. Typically, this would enable the attacker's code to add, change or delete data, communicate with a remote server, or take other actions.
For more info, including how to
get the patch, see
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms01-002.asp
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8) They Loaded The Code
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 )
Speaking of which: Here's another eclectic sample of reader sites--- some professional, some very personal:
View A Randomly-Chosen Reader Site
http://www.langa.com/cgi-local/rand_link.plManually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://www.langa.com/readersites.htmCaptain Java Free Java Applets for Web Page Builders
http://www.captainjava.com/applets.html"Vos produits, vos services, enfin accessibles à tous et partout!"
http://haamt.online.fr/Just Playing
http://www.geocities.com/marym_marym/index.htmlShawns ALAW/Rainier Climb page
http://www.pledgepage.com/Hammons1/The Job Line (Toronto area)
http://www.thejob-line.com/SpiritQuest
http://www.thespiritquest.org/Midnight Oil (FrontPage Themes)
http://www.midnightoilgraphicdesign.com/
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9) Puka-Puka Leads To Another Discovery
Reader Shawn Jefferds started following the recent links ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-01-18.htm#9 ) on solving the annoyance of having your floppy drive engage in seeming-random seeks from time to time (and in the process, making a noise that goes something like "puka-puka-puka...") but he found something else along the way:
Fred, I was perusing the latest copy of the newsletter and saw the Puka story and followed the links. I have this problem once in a while so read on. The little gem I found and REALLY appreciated was another story that appeared in the 17-May-99 issue, the story about The Defrag Hot Button. I sat here two days ago, for EIGHT (8) HOURS while my computer struggled to defrag a hard drive I had just removed a substantial amount of software from. Being that I'd just removed Norton Utilities, I didn't have a defragged that told exact percent but from the speed, or lack thereof, I'd guesstimate that I was at 80%+. I defrag once a week, but boy what a difference it makes when you move the swap file and take out the Norton entourage. Please reshare what I consider to be an EXTREMELY useful tip.
Consider it reshared, Shawn! <g> The item was called "The Defrag Hot-Button," and it's at
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/1999/May-17-99.htm#defrag
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10) Just For Grins
Multiple-time contributor R. Dan Park offers this glimpse into what he calls "Information Flow in the Software Industry." (But, change a few of the terms around, and it would apply to almost *any* business!)
Programmer to Team Leader: "We can't do this proposed project. **CAN NOT**. It will involve a Major design change and no one in our team knows the design of this legacy system. And above that, nobody in our company knows the language in which this application has been written. So even if somebody wants to work on it, they can't. If you ask my personal opinion, the company should never take these type of projects"
Team Leader to Project Manager: "This project will involve a design change. Currently, we don't have any staff who has experience in this type of work. Also, the language is unfamiliar to us, so we will have to arrange for some training if we take this project. In my personal opinion, we are not ready to take on a project of this nature."
Project Manager to 1st Level Manager: "This project involves a design change in the system and we don't have much experience in that area. Also, not many people in our company are appropriately trained for it. In my personal opinion, we might be able to do the project but we would need more time than usual to complete it."
1st Level Manager to Senior Level Manager: "This project involves design re-engineering. We have some people who have worked in this area and others who know the implementation language. So they can train other people. In my personal opinion we should take this project, but with caution."
Senior Level Manager to CEO: "This project will demonstrate to the industry our capabilities in remodeling the design of a complete legacy system. We have all the necessary skills and people to execute this project successfully. Some people have already given in-house training in this area to other staff members. In my personal opinion, we should not let this project slip by us under any circumstances."
CEO to Client: "This is the type of project in which our company specializes. We have executed many projects of the same nature for many large clients. Trust me when I say that we are the most competent firm in the industry for doing this kind of work. It is my personal opinion that we can execute this project successfully and well within the given time frame."
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See you next issue!
Best,
Fred
(fred@langa.com)
Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000!I)
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