PCWize Vol 4, Issue 11 - Let the games begin! March 12, 2000 ______________________________________________________________________ Thanks to the many readers who wrote in to let us know about other firewall packages we should consider for our head-to-head deathmatch. We're just about ready to get down and play some hardball. All we're waiting on is to bring a couple of more developers into the fold. They'll be kept in the loop for the duration of our testing, and will have access to a special web page that we will be using to keep status and results for each package. This will give them the chance to see how their own packages are stacking up against the others, as well as giving them the opportunity to correct any mistakes or oversights we might inadvertently make. We have allocated about one month for our tests, but hope to finish well before that. We'll keep you posted along the way. Here are the firewall packages that we will be testing. AtGuard v3.1 BlackICE Defender ConSeal PC Firewall v2.06 e-Safe Desktop Watch v2.2 LockDown 2000 v5.0 Sybergen Secure Desktop v2.0B build 427 ZoneAlarm v2.0.26 We're all pretty stoked about the upcoming battle. Plans have been planned, strategies strategized, and formulas formulated to try our best to bring down each others firewall protected machines. Let the games begin! ------ The NMI makes his comeback! See the HackTek section in this issue. ------ One thing I don't like is someone else deciding what material is appropriate for me to see. I'm an adult (although my wife might beg to differ on that issue ), and I should be able to make decisions about what content I wish to view. This is exactly what happened with issue 4.10. My e-mail inbox was inundated with notices from mail servers around the world telling me that issue 4.10 was rejected out of hand because it contained offensive or adult material. SAY WHAT!!!! Now, I know that issue 4.09 was gremlinized, but surely, they wouldn't have messed with issue 4.10. A quick check showed that the issue had gone out as intended, and no gremlin tracks were to be found. Hmmm. I went back and scoured the hundreds of notices I had received to see if they imparted any clues. Ah ha! Unbelievable! PCWize issue 4.10 had been rejected based on a single word. One word that had nothing to do with any adult content whatsoever. The word appeared in this same section while I was discussing which books and magazines I read. Can you guess which word it was? h*a*r*d*c*o*r*e! It appeared in my statement that Maximum PC "offer[s] some of the most h*a*r*d*c*o*r*e looks into h*a*r*d*c*o*r*e PCs." One word and my empire came tumbling down. Some of the mail servers stated that the issue would be held in queue until a human could look at it first, but most just down and out kicked it to the curb. So, if you didn't get issue 4.10, I've set up a modified issue via autoresponder. You can get it by double-clicking the below link and just sending the auto-generated message: What do you think about ISPs making the decision on what would or would not be appropriate for you to see. I'd like to hear your thoughts. Join fellow readers and myself on the PCWize forum at: and go to the topic titled "Old enough to decide what I want to see!" ______________________________________________________________________ TOC 1. HackTech 2. Voting Booth and Other PCWize Stuff 3. Software Review 4. Cool Sites 5. Tips, Tricks, Do's and Don't Do's 6. That's the news! 7. Security Issues, Hoaxes, Viruses and Other Urban Legends 8. PCWize Contests and winner announcement If the columns in the below articles appear misaligned, it's because you are using a non-fixed width font. If you would like to see them nice and straight, change your e-mail font to Courier New. ______________________________________________________________________ ** A word from our sponsors ** ------ Tired of slow connections? Modem Booster keeps your connection at TOP speed and accelerates your Internet surfing. Tweak your modem speed to the MAX with this Internet connection optimizer. Modem Booster accelerates your Web browsing by 10-50% on the average and up to 300% on the extreme. "This utility will speed up your online access." PC Magazine's First Looks. For more info go to http://www.inklineglobal.net ------ Want to see your advertisement here? For more information, go here: ______________________________________________________________________ 1. HackTech by TheNMI This is a long story, so bear with me - (Times may have been changed to suit my version of the truth :) 02:45 Ok, so there I was, working diligently towards a last-minute deadline and finishing up some paperwork for a course I teach. My Sony VAIO F-250 was performing great (as usual), then, without warning, it dies. The power just shuts down! Of course, I'm freaking out-- deadlines notwithstanding --because this laptop is my baby! I check to ensure that I have the AC power plugged in (which it is), but the battery is suddenly just NOT there as far as the computer is concerned. I hit the resume key - nothing! Ok, lets try the main power button. nothing again! I finally mess with it enough to discover that I have to take the battery OUT, start it with AC power, THEN put the battery back in (which is still not recognized, but the system won't seem to start with it in). Ok, I can finish my work, at least... 03:10 The Touchpad stops responding, intermittently at first, then all together! ARRGGHH! Multiple reboots, reinstall drivers, still nothing. I run and get a trackball from one of the disassembled desktops, plug it in, set it up, ok great, back to work. Finishing up this stupid paperwork, because I gotta be to work by 07:00. 05:53 I'm finally done - blame it on procrastination, but hey, I got it done. Now to save it to the floppy drive. I said "FLOPPY DRIVE"?!? Hello? This is the LAST STRAW! I can't get it to recognize the drive now!! AAAARRRGGGHHHHH!!! Ok, at this point I am so fuming mad that I do something I've never done in my LIFE! "I" call tech support! You know what that was like for me, the guy who everyone else comes to with their computer problems? I felt so dirty! :-) Anyway, I get on the phone with this girl who was nice enough but was obviously flipping through a list of faults to find my particular one. She began by asking the compulsory questions: Tech "Ok, uh - sir... do you have power coming into the unit?" Me "Yeah, the unit's on already" Tech (sound of pages flipping) "You try restarting the system yet?" ME "Yep." Tech (more pages flipping) "Ok, did you try restarting... no, Wait." Me Tech "Ok, did you let the system look for any new devices?" Me "Yeah, I already went into the device manager and the drive is still there." Tech "The what? Oh, hold on. (flip, flip) Ok..." Me "Look, can you just send me out a box, I've tried etc, etc, etc." Tech "Hmmm... well, I suppose... Ok, sure..." So after that ordeal, I'm just about late for work. I consider calling in because a family member is sick (Hey, I told you that laptop is my baby) but I bit the bullet, threw my laptop its case, along with my ZIP-250, net card, TV tuner etc, and rush to work. Luckily, I use the zip drive often enough that the software is still installed. I have to dump this darn 480K file onto a spare ZIP 250 MEG cart, unplug the drive, install the software and drive onto a work computer, just so I can use the FLOPPY drive to turn this stupid paperwork into my boss. Sheesh! Now after ALL that, I know a new box is coming, but I'll have to send my machine in - MY machine! There was only one reason I resisted the urge to take it apart and fix the probable part myself: The warranty was only a few months old. I'm figuring the problem is a loose connector, as all the problem units are on the front part of the machine. After I get over my wounded pride, the main problem lies in the fact that I have all kinds of files on my system - Proprietary info, not secret, but-none-of-anyone's-business type stuff. The point I'm making is that even if you delete a file off of a hard drive, there are various ways of recovering them. To prevent this, I use a VERY handy program called BCWIPE. BCWIPE, which you can get from www.jetico.com, wipes over the area that the file was stored at, SEVERAL times, basically any number of times which you specify. It uses a method called extended-character rotation, so what it writes over the file is "ABCDE..." and so on, and it's compliant with a certain set of US government specs, even for use on approved US DOD computers. After installation, it integrates itself into the shell (read: you can right-click on a file and use BCWIPE on it :) And all in all, it's pretty darn fast too! Well, I copy all my important stuff to the Zip carts (A portable zip drive is SO handy!) and set BCWIPE to wipe the extraneous stuff clean off the system - it worked like a champ. I tried digging info out with some favorites from my Hackers Toolbox, nothing there either! Now, no one will see my schemes for world-domination, my plans for taking over nations with insidiously cute toy monsters that drive kids crazy and parents insane! Uh, whoops! Sorry, that's someone else's world domination plans! Now all that remains is to have someone forcibly relax the death-grip I have on my poor laptop... Editors note: While reading over this, I remembered a very interesting paper I had read some time back by Peter Gutmann-- a well respected computer scientist with the University of Auckland --about forensic methods used to retrieve data from hard drives. It's pretty technical, but I found it to be extremely insightful. You can read it here: ______________________________________________________________________ 2. Voting Booth and Other PCWize Stuff ------ Click here to vote for PCWize as one of the best newsletters in the "E-zines Top Ten Poll"! It's just a click, no need to fill anything out. ------ Come visit the PCWize forum and live chat. You may discuss anything computer related and it's a good place to get help with any computer questions you may have. ______________________________________________________________________ 3. Software Review ------ Name: ICQ Lingoware Genre: Instant Messengers Homepage: Download: ICQ is without a doubt the largest instant messenger software package available, and currently boasts over 50 million accounts. With that many people, I can guarantee that English isn't the primary language for many. Previously, extensive FAQ and how-to pages were written in a speakers native tongue to translate what all of the ICQ menus were. No more! Choose from 10 languages to change the menu language from English to your preferred language. ______________________________________________________________________ 4. Cool Sites ------ Alien Abductions What do you get when you cross the X-Files and Total Recall? How about alienabductions.com. I'm sure that the majority of you all out there in PCWize reader land are just as upset as I am about not having been abducted by aliens. I mean, I've tried everything... I shower once a week, I've worn the little aluminum foil antenna pods on my head, I even put out milk and cookies. All to no avail. Well, we don't have to be left out anymore. Alienabductions.com can provide you with memories of an abduction tailored to your wildest fantasy. If you go anywhere on this site, you've gotta take a look at the Products and Services as well as the Questions Answered page. I've got it! All you PCWizers who are participating in the SETI@Home Team PCWize competition, can join me on an implant trip involving aliens who are ticked off at us for invading their privacy! :-) ______________________________________________________________________ 5. Tips, Tricks, Do's and Don't Do's ------ Are you a frequent flyer of the Start button/Run command? Add the Address toolbar to your desktop and save yourself some steps. Not only can you enter in the name of a program to run just like you would in the Start/Run command, but you can put in URLs as well which will open your browser and then go to that page. To add this very useful toolbar, just right click on a blank area of your current taskbar (that's the bar at the bottom of your screen (unless of course you've moved it.)), go up to Toolbars and select Address. Now that it's been added, you can slide the address bar around to suit your tastes, or you can even undock it and place it anywhere on your desktop. Play around with your taskbar, you'll find all sorts of interesting configurations. Just take a look at mine: One note: If you noticed, there are quite a few icons on my taskbar, specifically, the ones to the right of the Address toolbar. I used to use the Microsoft Office toolbar extensively, but I noticed that it ate up quite a bit of resources. I created a folder on my hard drive that contains all the shortcuts to programs I use just about every day. I then added a New Toolbar to the taskbar, which brings up a dialog box asking which folder to use. It's much faster than the office toolbar, and eats up very little resources. ______________________________________________________________________ 6. That's the news! ------ Intel and AMD neck and neck in the processor wars. That's good news for us as competition will force prices down. Go AMD!!! Go Intel!! Go, Go, GO!!! ______________________________________________________________________ 7. Security Issues, Hoaxes, Viruses and Other Urban Legends ------ Please visit http://www.pcwize.com/tech/computer/secdef.shtml if you would like to know the definitions for hoaxes, viruses, worms and urban legends. ------ In the last issue, I mentioned Aureate Media Corporation and the hub-bub about whether or not they were collecting private information about us without our knowledge. So far, the jury is still out on this issue, but there are a whole slew of lawsuits and class action lawsuits being filed right now. So what do I think? I still haven't found anything fishy being sent to Aureate's advertisement servers, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I haven't been monitoring every single packet that is exchanged with their servers, although I did look at quite a few over a period of a few days. Personally, I think adware (free software for us because we are force fed advertisements while using the software) is a great idea. No I'm not some masochist who is a glutton for advertisement punishment, but I can live with banner ads displayed in a program if it means I can save $30 - $100 USD depending on the software. However, if Aureate-- or any other like company --is collecting private information on the sly, then that is an entirely different matter altogether. So what do you think? Voice your opinion on the PCWize forum. and go to the topic titled "Eating away at our privacy one byte at a time." ______________________________________________________________________ 8. PCWize Contests and Winner Announcement ------ Each week PCWize holds a random drawing contest and gives away free stuff (usually software) to its subscribers. We will continue to do this as long as there are advertisers who are willing to provide the prizes. If you are such an individual/company, then please contact me at editor@pcwize.com so that we can work a deal. ------ This week's sponsor is inKline Global Inc., and they have developed some great applications to make your daily life much easier. Please visit their web site to get the lowdown on all the great products they have, and to help keep the PCWize newsletter FREE! ------ The winner of this weeks random drawing contest is: John Lever ______________________________________________________________________ Well, that's it for this issue! Have a good week and I'll see you in seven days. Leif Gregory Copyright © 1997-00 by Leif Gregory. All rights reserved. You may share this copy of the PCWize newsletter with others as long as it is reprinted in it's entirety to include the copyright notice and subscription directions. If you've received this edition of the PCWize newsletter from a friend or colleague and wish to start receiving your own copy, then click the below link and send the generated e-mail message. I have made every attempt to ensure that all information contained in this newsletter is accurate to the best of my ability. Due to the myriad of possible configurations in the PC platform, information and software discussed here may not always work with your particular configuration. That being said, Leif Gregory and the PCWize newsletter can not be held liable for any damages you may incur either directly or indirectly from the use of anything contained in this newsletter. PCWize does not endorse any of the products or services provided by advertisers in this newsletter. As with anything in life, please check the credibility of the advertiser as well as to use common sense. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. PCWize Editor PCWize Homepage Unsubscribe