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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2005-04-11

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!

1) Test And Tune Your Online Connection

Sometimes, a question from a reader touches on a subject that--- like one of those Russian "matryoshka" dolls-within-dolls--- leads you deeper with each succeeding layer. Take this reader email, for example: On the surface it's about a fairly common problem faced by those of us who have to contend with multiple internet connection types at different times or locations, such as LAN, DSL, and dial up. But the letter also leads to much deeper and more-generally-applicable issues about diagnosing, tuning and improving net connections in general, no matter what the type:

Hi Fred, I developed a problem with my dialup connection. This problem came up when I installed and used [a connection monitoring tool]. Let me mention here that I have a Sony Laptop and Desktop... After [installing the tool], the speed dropped to 3.7kbps. I uninstalled [the tool] but, unfortunately, the 3.7 remained. For cable or DSL there's not much loss, but for dialup it is. My question is this: If the drivers or adapters have been corrupted, how do I go about reinstalling them? Or it may not be that at all.---Apostolos H. Moussatos

There are two ways to do this; one is an "all-at-once" approach; the other is the approach that reader Moussatos was asking about: a way to strip out and rebuild just your PC's connectivity, in-situ, without having to tear down or reinstall the entire operating system.

I've spelled out both approaches in a step-by-step article posted (free!) at http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=160500660 . There, you'll see both the all-at-once method, and the in-situ step by step method, along with links for the best testing and tuning sites I know of, to make your online TCP connection as good as it can be, no matter what type it is--- dial up, LAN, cable, DSL, satellite, or whatever!

Click over to
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=160500660 !

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--- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList S.E. Free! ) ---

"Dear Fred, Thank you so much for the wonderful Plus! newsletter.  I would certainly subscribe at twice the price.  I have received so many helpful hints, tail rescuing solutions,  grins, and darned good advice over the last year that I certainly count the Langa List Plus! as one of the best bargains in computerdom.  I really look forward to each Langa List and when it arrives, it is the first thing that I look at.  Keep up the good work and thank you! Sincerely, Janyth Pashin"

Thanks, Janyth. At only about a $1 per month,
I try to make the Plus! edition a good value for everyone! <g>

The LangaList Plus! Edition is ad-free, spam-proof,
and contains even more content--- tips, tricks, advice, downloads....---
than the Standard Edition you're now reading.

Get all the details:
http://langa.com/plus.htm

--------------( the above is an advertisement )--------------

2) Attacks Via Asian Servers

Hi Fred, I have a security question I really can't figure out. When I open "My network places" I see the shared folders on the local network and below that is "The internet". There are two FTP sites: 210.118.194.239 and 61.236.229.202 . I checked my router/firewall settings and noticed that someone had changed it to allow FTP and HTTP server activity. I share an ADSL connection with two neighbours and at first I thought somebody had hacked into their computers and are using them as FTP servers.
 
(As a side note: I didn't have a password on my router, because I figured it can only be configured from the local network and nobody has access to it. Now that I think about it, if someone can get past the firewall in the first place with a trojan for example then it is easy to configure the router "from within the local network" and the router will never know the difference. So now I do have a password on the router. You really can't assume anything when it comes to computer security...)
 
So I went to my neighbours and made sure their computers were turned off. To my surprise the files were still accessible. Then I turned my own computer off and tried accessing the sites with my neighbours computer - again the files were still accessible. Therefore I made the conclusion that these files are not hosted on any of our computers.
 
But why do I see these FTP sites when I open "My Network Places" then? How did these links end up there?
 
One of the neighbours had found a trojan from their computer a few weeks ago, so that can explain how someone could have accessed the router settings, but I still don't understand why these FTP sites show up when I open "My Network Places"? Also, I have a triple boot on my main computer and these only come up when I boot up with one of them. None of the other systems, my laptop nor my neighbours computers show these FTP sites.
 
I don't get it. Any light on this subject would be most appreciated. Kind regards, Juuso Voltti

I looked up the two IPaddresses using Karen Kenworthy's free "WhoIs" tool ( http://www.karenware.com/powertools/powertools.asp) and found that one is the "Korea Network Information Center;" and the other is the "People's Republic Of China Railway Telecommunications Center."

Far-East servers are notorious as infection vectors for spam/worms/viruses and all manner of malware. Although server-owners there have gotten somewhat more conscientious in recent years about preventing their servers from being used as waystations for illicit activity, there's still a ton of bad stuff going on there.

My guess is that your neighbor's trojan infected you, setting up your PC to communicate with, or be controlled by, a distant hacker. Your PCs may even have been used as "zombie" PCs for relaying spam/malware/whatnot, or in denial-of-service attacks.

There are several things you can do. First, disconnect from the internet---pull the plug if you have to. In "My Network Places," right click on the offending sites and click "delete." Open your browser and check Tools/Internet Options/Security. Examine the "Zones" and remove any reference in any Zone to the offending sites, or any other sites you don't recognize, or didn't configure yourself. If you wish, you may even want to place the offending sites in the "Restricted" Zone.

Next, don't just rely on a firewall in a router to protect you. It's not enough, and as you point out, those tools usually do absolutely nothing to block outbound access from a PC that's already compromised. In contrast, even free software firewalls like ZoneAlarm and Sygate Personal will alert you to an outbound connection attempt. You really need security software *on your PC* to be reasonably well protected, regardless of what services the router offers. (For information on setting up a safe multi-layered defense, see "How Much Protection Is Enough?"  http://www.informationweek.com/840/langa.htm ).

Next, make sure you have one of each of the major types of security tools installed and running *on your PC*. You can get free versions of everything you need via the recommended-software list in the answer posted here: http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-03-17.htm#2 . Run repeated sweeps on your system until every tool shows it to be clean of all known malware; and protected against future infections.

Finally, write to the admins of the Asian servers to tell them their systems may have been compromised. The DNS records (again, easily shown by the "WhoIs" too) show them to be "abuse@shinbiro.com" and "crnet_mgr@chinatietong.com." They may not care; but maybe--- just maybe--- they'll close the security holes that hackers may be using on their servers.

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3) Spare Partition Saves The Day

Hi Fred, Thanks for a great read every week. Thought your readers may find this helpful. I maintain a pretty tight machine in terms of software. I use many things you have taught me about best practice like proper backups and so forth. So it was very frustrating recently when I found I could not boot into windows. I was due for a reformat/refresh anyway but I had planned it for a few weeks away. This was Tuesday and I hadn't backed up since Friday so many emails were there and a few other important docs. Long story short (very long!), after 3 hours of Dell tech support to try and get data from windows, no good news was forthcoming. Then it hit me. If I could load XP on to a spare partition I could get in there and reach across and pluck the data I needed from my old C: partition. Luckily I had a spare partition and went ahead and loaded XP on to it, accessed the old C: through it, got my data. I then formatted C: and reinstalled everything perfectly.
 
I will, of course, be even more vigilant with backups from now on. I will also, just in case, keep a spare 6GB partition available always for just such emergencies. Cheers, Brian Howard (Australia)

Indeed, Brian, today's huge disks are wonderful for all kinds of backups and recovery options. I have a small-ish partition set aside that contains an archival copy of a "like new" perfect disk image of my main partition when it was first set up, as well as a more recent image, complete with data. I update the latter every couple months, and the former about once a year. I hardly ever use these images, of course. For routine use, I have daily backups and weekly images stored elsewhere on the system, and I also migrate these to long-term offsite storage, on CDs, for truly safe backups.

But with so much disk space to burn, using some of the space as a little-accessed, out-of-the-way partition for an alternate boot--- like yours--- or to store a couple of "just in case" backups--- like mine--- hurts nothing, and just might come in handy someday. You never know! <g>

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4) Unwanted Open-At-Boot

Fred, I enjoy your news letter. I have a problem which is driving me nuts. whenever I boot, instead of a fresh desktop, I always have a program file opened. This means I have to close out the window before I can go about my business. Is there a way to set it so the program folder doesn't open? I would really appreciate your help on this one. Thanks, Tom

That's not a lot to go on, Tom, but here are several of the most-likely solutions:

You say it's a "program folder." Try running whatever program is associated with the files in that folder, and explore the menus for a "launch when Windows starts" option, or similar settings. If you find such a setting, disable it.

Check the Startup folder (usually something like
C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Start Menu\Programs\Startup ) and remove, edit, or otherwise manage any reference to the offending folder or software in there.

Use MSCONFIG (Start/Run/MSconfig) or a third-party startup editor to locate and disable any reference to the offending software or folder in your PC's startup sequence.

Use Regedit (Start/Run/Regedit) to search for any reference to the offending software or foldername. Explore all such references, and look for settings to adjust that relate to "autostart" or "start with Windows" or "launch at boot" or any such phrase that suggests startup behavior....

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5) Free Copies Of REALbasic

Mr. Langa, With the recent announcement that Microsoft will no longer support VB6, Real Software is offering REALbasic 5.5.5 Standard Edition to literally any developer interested in having it. There is a catch, the extended offer from Real Software expires on April 15th.

I thought you and your readers would be interested to know. Here is the link:
http://www.realbasic.com/vb6/index.php?id=KGLMGTQV

Here is some information that was emailed to me from Real Software:

"Since we started giving away REALbasic keys to Visual Basic users two weeks ago, more than 10,000 new Windows developers like you have joined the REALbasic community. Unlike Visual Basic, REALbasic is fully supported and we will continue to improve it constantly based on feedback from you, our new users.... We are so excited by the positive response from the Visual Basic user community that we have decided to extend our offer of free REALbasic license keys through April 15, 2005. And we would like to ask for your help in getting the word out to more Visual Basic users who might not yet know about REALbasic."
...
I hope you find this information useful and will consider it for immediate release on the
Langa List. Thank you for your time.

Brandon Doyle
Doyle Publishing
http://www.freewebs.com/doyle

Thanks, Brandon. I grabbed a copy right away!
 

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6) PR Budget = $0.00

Long-time readers know this newsletter is a one-person private project of mine: It's not part of some publishing empire's stable of publications. It's just me here! <g> There's no budget, staff or facility to handle outreach and promotions: The newsletter depends on word of mouth to grow.

And that's where you come in: Each issue, I try to offer you useful, interesting and amusing factoids to help you with your hardware, software, and time online. Can you take just a minute to help me out in return?

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 and you just may win one of three FREE ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTIONS to the Plus! Edition that I award each month.

Full info and "Recommend" form: http://langa.com/recommend.htm Thank you for helping to spread the word about the LangaList!

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7) Your Home, From Space

Google just released a new feature to Google Maps at http://maps.google.com that lets you view satellite imagery of sites you search out on the site.  It is a very neat feature.

Here's how I described it on my weblog:

Google rolled out a new maps feature last night that lets you view
satellite imagery for a location. The interface is very slick, you can
zoom in and click and drag to move seamlessly around.

The resolution they have varies by location, but you can get down in
some places to where you can clearly make out individual houses and
roads. ---Gary Petersen

Thanks, Gary.

It's kind of neat to see the alternate views; the software does a pretty good job of matching the roadmap view to the satellite image, and vice versa, so you can flip back and forth between them. But as you zoom in, the satellite images can suffer from excessive magnification.

Want higher resolution? "TerraServer" ( http://www.terraserver.com/ ) offers a free limited "view from above" service for many places; a lot of those photos are shot from planes, rather than from satellite, and so show more detail; often down to 1 meter resolution. But, Terraserver doesn't offer roadmap integration; and it's mainly geared towards selling you hardcopy printouts of the images.

But both sites are fun to play with, er, I mean *research,* yes, that's it: research. <g>

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8) More Reader Sites!

Do you have a home page or website? (It doesn't matter what size.) Please click over to http://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://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 From Among All Listed
http://langa.com/randomlink.htm

Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://langa.com/readersites.htm

Random thoughts from Bangalore, India
http://www.vinayahs.com/

Thinkerlog
http://brainstormsw.typepad.com/

The Paces
http://www.thepaces.com/

Kevin Berg's Books
http://www.kevinbergbooks.com/

Indie Music Appreciation Group
http://indiemusicgroup.com/

Callanna Designs
http://callannadesigns.com.au/

neil's world
http://www.neilturner.me.uk/

spelling success
http://www.bkdsoftware.com/page4.html

furballs
http://www.svarri.com/jeber_wp/

Mediastreak Multimedia Productions
http://www.mediastreak.com

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9) Worth A Quick Recap

Fred: It seems you covered this recently but... The problem is I have a large blank area (several pages) in the program list on the Add/Remove control panel. I am running Win XP Pro, service pack 2. Did you cover this in the past and was there a solution? --- Jim Schellpfeffer

Yes, and yes, Jim. <g> Try these:
http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-01-20.htm#5
http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-12-06.htm#4

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10) Just For Grins

I ran a computer maintenance shop on campus back in the mid-90s and have two [PC-Cleanup] horror stories:

In the Textile Research Center, there were three PCs out in the open shop floor.  These PCs were used to collect research data on cotton fiber research.  The area was an open manufacturing area with many bales of cotton, cotton processing equipment, and various research equipment. Cotton, cotton, every where!  We had to strip the PCs twice a year because they ingested massive amounts of cotton fiber, dirt, and dust. It wasn't uncommon to have the motherboard so coated that you couldn't even see the color of the board.  Worse, this was an old 386/486 system that lacked secure slot covers, so we often found field mice nesting in the nice, warm PC cases because they were able to squeeze through the card slots!  Luckily they didn't mess in their nests and we rarely had much damage, except for the occasional chewed cable!

We regularly found some of the nastiest PCs and dumb terminals in the hospital.  It was bad enough going into the various labs and the morgue, but the workers were often so pressed for time that they only had time to grab a bite while doing data entry.  Since the keyboards were very expensive ($150-$300!) for the dumb terminals, we had to service them. Nothing like opening a moldy, smelly, crusted keyboard that came from the morgue!  Let your imagination reign!  We would took sanitation precautions, but it was still very nasty! ---Tom Heisey

I think I'd welcome a few ordinary dust bunnies after that!<g>

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11) Plus! Edition Highlights:

• Service Pack Backup Bloat
     (recover dozens--- even hundreds--- of megs!)
• Tweaks To Speed XP On Old/Slow PCs
     (don't settle for sluggishness!)
• Scheduled Tasks Not Working?
     (here's a fix!)

The Plus! edition is only pennies per issue, and comes with a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE from Fred. How can you lose? Check out the details: Plus! Edition info: http://langa.com/plus.htm

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(Give a gift subscription to the LangaList Plus edition!
Click <a href= " http://langa.com/plus_gift.htm ">here</a>)

See you next issue, 2005-04-14!

Best,

Fred
( Editor@Langa.Com )

Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win a prize!)

An easier-to read formatted HTML version is available in the "Current Issue" section of http://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.

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