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the above is an advertisement )-------------- 1) How To Restore SULFNBK.EXE; And Hoax Follow-UpThe SULFNBK hoax caught a lot of people off-guard; many, many readers succumbed to the hoax and deleted their (perfectly good) copy of SULFNBK.EXE. Worse, some malicious hackers immediately took advantage of the hoax to spread a *real* virus/Trojan under the guise of offering a "free replacement copy" of SULFNBK.EXE. I can't believe that some people fell for this, especially after falling for the original hoax, but some did. I won't be surprised at all if other miscreants also try to use SULFNBK.EXE for evil intent, as some people now will blow off any warnings involving it. So the main lesson here is: Always, always. always keep your antivirus tools up to date; with that--- and some common sense--- you can avoid essentially all virus-related problems. (BTW, there are even good, FREE antivirus tools, such as InoculateIT Personal, at http://antivirus.cai.com/ . There's simply no excuse to go without virus protection.) But if you deleted SULFNBK or simply don't know if the copy you have has been tampered with, here's the correct way to restore the pristine, unaltered original file(s). (BTW: This same procedure will let you restore ANY Windows system file!) In Windows98, most system files---including the original copy of SULFNBK.EXE--- are found in compressed CAB ("cabinet") Files on the original Windows Setup CD or floppies. If your copy of Windows came on CD, you'll find SULFNBK.EXE inside the PRECOPY1.CAB is the CAB file. If you have Win98 on floppies, SULFNBK.EXE is inside PRECOPY2.CAB on Disk 2. Some utilities--- such as WinZip ( http://www.winzip.com ) let you treat CAB files exactly the same as ZIP files. WinZip can open the CAB files to let you see what's inside, mark any file for extraction, and then extract it to the location you designate. If you don't have WinZip or a similar easy-to-use extraction tool, you can use the command-line EXTRACT.EXE which ships with Windows. It's normally found in the \Windows\Command folder. To use EXTRACT, first, open a DOS box: Click to Start/Run and type the word COMMAND on the run line. Hit OK, and a DOS ("Command') box will open. Next, get your Windows CD or floppies. In the following example, we'll assume you have a CD and that your CD drive is D:. Adjust the commands as needed for other drives or locations. In the DOS box, type cd \windows\command This gets you into the correct folder, usually C:\Windows\Command. Next, type: extract d:precopy1.cab sulfnbk.exe and hit enter. (Answer "Y" if asked.) That's it--- your brand-new copy of SULFNBK.EXE is now in Windows\Command, as it should be. If you want to know more of what EXTRACT can do, just type EXTRACT /? in the DOS box. Click to
email this item to a friend 2) How Much Protection Is Enough?Things like the Sulfnbk scare drive home the point that we all need protection from online trouble. But how much is enough? Almost any hacker, cracker or warez site offers tools that will make a law-abiding netizen's hair stand up. For example, there are any number of "port scanner" tools available that can run through upwards of 10,000 IP addresses an hour, looking for any online system with an open and attackable port. It's astonishingly simple for a malicious hacker to simply point, click, and let the software run until it finds a vulnerable system. With tens of thousands of miscreants on the prowl for vulnerable systems, any PC --- even systems with dynamic IPs and intermittent dial-up connections (such as laptops and non-networked PCs)--- can be vulnerable to attack. And even if your PC contains absolutely no sensitive or personal information, it may still draw the attention of hackers and crackers who seek to hijack innocent systems to use as staging areas, spam relays or to be "zombie/bot agents" in denial of service attacks on other systems. (Example: http://www.msnbc.com/news/460824.asp?cp1=1 ) It almost goes without saying that any system, networked or stand-alone, containing sensitive data or not, needs some level of protection from hackers, viruses, Trojans and worms. But how much protection is enough? How much is too much? Where, along the broad spectrum between complacency and paranoia, lies the perfect amount of protection? At one extreme end of the spectrum, there are those who swear by single-layer defenses: They'll install a firewall running either on a connection-sharing server or on the local desktop and believe they're essentially immune to attack. Or, they may similarly employ an external hardware or firmware firewall (such as in routers and gateways) and believe that systems on the protected side of the firewall are about as safe as they need to be. And then there are those who inhabit the opposite end of the spectrum and load up their systems with multiple firewalls and intrusion-detection and back-tracing utilities, perhaps in concert with an email virus/attachment filter and a local antivirus scanner. After all, if one firewall or antivirus scanner is good, then two or three or four in concert must be better, right? Trouble is, both extremes can get you into trouble. I think I've found a "safe middle" that provides as much protection as is needed (it's adjustable) without going overboard. But it's a complex subject and running through it all takes far too much to include in this newsletter. So, I've made it the focus of the new "LangaLetter" column available at InformationWeek's ListeningPost. In that column, I'll run through the problems with the too-much/too-little ends of the security spectrum, and show you what I've found to work extremely reliably. Check out the new column and then
join in the associated discussion: What security tools do you use? Which ones
would you recommend, and which would you warn others to avoid? And if you could
design an ideal security setup, what would it be? Please share your thoughts and
experiences! Click to: See you there! Click to
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the above is an advertisement )-------------- 3) Finally! A Good Use For Old CDsIn "Drowning In CDs?" ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-05-31.htm#9 ) I told you how I store my collected backup CDs--- which accumulate at the rate of at least one per day, or almost 400 every year--- in a relatively compact and inexpensive way. Because they ARE backups, I don't intend to discard the CDs any time soon: Any CDs with archival or legal value (email, tax or business records, etc) should be kept for at least 3-7 years, and sometimes longer. But there are other junk CDs that are almost instantly-discardable; and even once-valuable CDs eventually become junk. In the past we've written of some for-fun uses for useless CDs (coasters, holiday ornaments, bird-scaring tree spinners, ... see http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/26.htm ). But reader Jeff V. Pulver has a better idea:
Because the LangaList is distributed worldwide, you'll need to track down your local marine-related agency to see if they can use the old CDs. A site where US residents can look up their nearest Coast Guard Auxiliary is at http://www.cgaux.org/cgauxweb/getzip.html . Scouting troops, hiking/camping/off-roading and other outdoor groups likewise might be able to make use of a nearly infinite supply of free reflectors. Use your imagination, and you'll probably be able to come up with several alternatives to simply disposing of your old CDs... Click to
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the above is an advertisement )-------------- 4) New Month, New Drawing!It's a new month, and right now your
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email this item to a friend 5) "Disappearing Ink" For EmailsReader Allen Robberson asked about http://www.disappearing.com/ms/index.html , writing "Check out the address above; it has something that could be cool..." Indeed. It's a product called "Disappearing Email" and (according to the vendor) it lets you:
It's actually a form of automatic public encryption: The "key" is stored on a central computer, and remains valid for whatever duration the sender has designated. During normal use, the sender composes HTML mail (it won't work on plain text) and the software embeds a link to the centrally-stored key and decoding software. The key allows the message to be decoded automatically--- no password, user intervention or special software is needed on the recipient's end. At the end of the valid period designated by the sender, the key is withdrawn, and the email then becomes unreadable. It doesn't actually "disappear," but stays as encrypted gibberish that would be--- at best--- very hard to decrypt. "Disappearing Email" is free for personal use. I think I'll be trying it out over the next weeks. 8-) Click to
email this item to a friend 6) They Just Keep Coming And Coming and Coming...Well over a thousand of your fellow
readers have "Loaded the code." Please click over to http://www.langa.com/code.htm
, and maybe you can join them! (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
) Manually Browse All
Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At Earth's smallest bookstore Chris R. Simmons Quirky Personal Blog Tenorio Research Market
Analysis Blue Armadillo Got MIPS? Dusty's Delites GroundZero Click to
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the above is an advertisement )-------------- 7) Free Bandwidth/Throughput CheckupWe've covered sites that let you test your connection speed before; see, for example, http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-10-12.htm#2 . And, of course, BrowserTune has one of the more rigorous online speed tests there is ( http://www.browsertune.com ). But reader Robert Nelson found another:
Under the covers, this test uses the same idea as the BrowserTune test. On the negative side and unlike BrowserTune, it uses just one server, and makes no allowance for network latency. But on the plus side, it's fast, and has some user adjustments you can make. Thanks, Robert! Click to
email this item to a friend 8) Just For GrinsPicking up on last issue's chain-letter debunking, reader Michael Wyatt sends along this spoof--- which has been making the rounds for almost as long as the emails it targets. 8-)
Click to
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the above is an advertisement )-------------- 9) Gain Speed, Stability By Reducing Font Overload; Changing IE's Title Bar TextToday's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all the items above, plus about 30% more content including: a definitive answer on what's the minimum number of fonts needed in a standard installation of Windows (so you can weed out the excess ones that sop up system resources and slow your system down); a free tool that lets you preview, add, and delete fonts on an as-needed basis; and a way to edit a customized copy of Internet Explorer to make the title bar say what you want--- instead of what your ISP wants! Plus! Edition info: http://www.langa.com/plus.htm Click to
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