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Bits & Bytes & XpBy Siles Bazerman
Microsoft“officially” releasedWindows Xp SP1 onSeptember 9. Thereason I said it that wayis that on Aug 29, thesecond projected release date, aMicrosoft site that was passwordprotected mysteriously lost itspassword and opened to the world. Thissite held the complete RTM version ofSP1. It remained password free untilSeptember 9. As expected it wasoverwhelmed by download requestsand the 133 meg download was veryslow.
Also, as expected, the Microsoftemployees on usenet decrieddownloading from there as piracysaying it was a private site that was notopen to the public. A few MVP’s andseveral “wannabe” MVPs insisted thatthis was a pirate version potentially fullof bugs and virus. One “wannabe” evenwent so far as to aver that he was anofficial beta tester and knew that thiswas still an early beta and the finalwould not be released for “about 60days.” All this despite Microsoft’sdeclaration that build 1108 was finaland released to manufacturing. Allthese activities did was to increase thedownloading (not unexpectedly orunwantedly).
The “wannabe” spent all ofSeptember 9 and 10 explaining thatabout 60 days covered the two daysthat elapsed between his statement andthe release. When that was notaccepted, he disappeared from the
Newsgroup for several weeks. As far asthe rest of the statements wereconcerned, a bit-by-bit comparisonshowed the “unauthorized” and thereleased versions to be identical. Thegeneral feeling was that Microsoft wastesting the capabilities of the servers.
As a matter of interest, the link ofthe full download network version isthe same site.
There are three or four ways toobtain SP1. The quickest is an expressinstall from the Windows Xp updatesite. This will install only the parts notpreviously downloaded, and if youhave installed the previous criticalupdates runs around 30 megs. You candownload the full network version of133 megs. Or, you can order a CD fromMicrosoft for only a shipping andhandling fee. If you are in no rush, CDsshould be available attached tomagazine covers in the next fewmonths.
You do not have to be on a networkto use or install the network version.You can burn it to a CD and use it toinstall on both Home and Pro versions.In fact you can use your originalWindows Xp CD and the download tomake a slipstream version with SP1integrated into the program so a restoreinstall will not wipe out SP1 and youwould have to install it over again.Instructions can be found at
http://www.windows-help.net/
WindowsXP/winxp-sp1-booted.html
among other sites. I have used this
one and know it works.
OctoberWINdows usERS 2002
To Build or Buy
A Computer Purchase Saga
By Steven Dela
My Pentium 233 computer wasshowing it’s age. With only 64MB ofmemory, an 8GB hard drive, anoutdated 6x CD-RW and no USB ports,it was unbearably slow compared to theother computers I have access to.Besides, you reach a point whereputting more memory or larger drivesjust does not yield a correspondingperformance increase.
It was time to decide on a newcomputer. For many years I’veassembled my own computers fromparts that I gathered at several sourcesbased upon the best technologyavailable. A computer case from here, ahard drive from there and finally I havethe components to build an entiresystem. Well, if you’ve ever assembleda computer, then you know that allthose features sometimes don’t meshtogether well. Now throw in the newWindows XP operating system, andyou might be inviting disaster. Most of
Continued on page 4 Continued on page 6
In This Issue
Bits & Bytes & Xp. . . . . . . 1
To Build or Buy . . . . . . . . 1
President’s Message. . . . . . 3
External Storage . . . . . . . 5
Deleting jdbgmgr.exe file . . . 7
XP Tweaking . . . . . . . . . 8
Domain Slipping Away?. . . 10
General Meeting . . . . . 11, 12
Page 2
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
PresidentTerry Currier 714-774-2018
Vice PresidentJonathan Means 714-542-1653
SecretaryKen Kamber 714-637-4496
TreasurerRudy Wolf 714-528-3715
MembershipLouise McCain 714-964-8031
PublicitySteve Dela 714-775-8373
ProgramsTerry Currier 714-774-2018
By-LawsMax Lockie 949-644-0103
Editor/PublisherSunny Lockie 949-644-0103
Board MembersGeorge Margolin 949-645-5950
[email protected] Grammer-Margolin 645-5950
[email protected] Koran 562-427-2560
Info/Message Line 949-644-0295Website: http://windowsusers.org
WINNERS Notepad is pub-
lished monthly by WINNERS,
PO Box 9274, Newport Beach, CA,
92658. A subscription is included
with all paid memberships in WIN-
NERS. Other non-profit user groups
may reprint WINNERS Notepad arti-
cles without prior permission, pro-
vided proper author, title and
publication credits are given.
WINNERS, contributors and edi-
tors of Notepad do not assume liabil-
ity for damages arising from the
publication or non-publication of any
advertisement, article, editorial, or
other item in this newsletter. All opin-
ions expressed are those of the indi-
vidual authors only and do not
necessarily represent the opinions of
WINNERS, its Board of Directors,
the WINNERS Notepad, or its editors.
PURPOSE
WINNERS, a computer associa-
tion, is a volunteer organization
providing a forum for sharing infor-
mation and experiences related to
Windows-based software, encourag-
ing ethical use of computers and soft-
ware, and offering service to our
communities.
MEMBERSHIP
Annual membership is $20.00 for
individuals; $5.00 each additional
family member.
MEETINGS
WINNERS generally meets the
second Saturday of each month from
9:00 a.m. to 12 noon at Orange Coast
College in the Science Building,
Room #149, 2701 Fairview, Costa
Mesa.
FUTURE MEETING DATES
� October 12
� November 9
� December 14
� January 11
Telephone Help Line
PROGRAM/SOFTWARE NAME PHONE TIME
CompuServe Cathy Grammer-Margolin 949-645-5950 6-10 p.m. & weekends
CorelDraw 5 George Margolin 949-645-5950 Most times
CorelDraw & Ventura Sunny Lockie 949-644-0103 6-10 p.m. weekdays
& PhotoPaint 9 a.m.-10 p.m. weekends
Hardware Jonathan Means 714-542-1653 6-9 p.m.
Internet Cathy Grammer-Margolin 949-645-5950 6-10 p.m. & weekends
Novell, NT & Networking Jonathan Means 714-542-1653 6-9 p.m.
Quicken & Quickbooks Max Lockie 949-720-8170 6-10 p.m. & weekends
Windows 95,98,Me,Xp Siles Bazerman 714-897-2868 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
Word for Windows Cathy Grammar-Margolin 949-645-5950 6-10 p.m. & weekends
WordPerfect Windows Sunny Lockie 949-644-0103 6-10 p.m. weekdays
9 a.m.-10 p.m. weekends
General Meeting October 12Orange Coast College9:00 a.m.-12:00 noonin Science Room #149
ADS TECHNOLOGIES
Pig Sig at Arnies Manhattan Deli, Costa Mesa
Page 3
President’s Message
September 2002
I hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend. Wealways enjoy going to the City of Orange InternationalStreet Fair to sample the different foods. I feel good that Ihave weeded down my messages on AOL. Three weeks agoI had 626 message (both in and outbound mail), now I’m at165. My drive down to the Southwest User GroupConference in San Diego was worth it. I was able to seesome really interesting possibilities for presentations. It waswell done as always. Some special offers I want to bring toyour attention.
From the press releases I get and post to the WINNERSPress Releases web page I found a great place to look up orverify phone numbers and Zip Codes. You can run yourMicrosoft Outlook contact information through it (up to250) to verify addresses and Zip Code+4 information. Getthe Zip and phone area codes with in a city or county. Youcan also get county statistics in 27 categories. Check themout at
http://www.MelissaData.com
Casady & Green makes Spell Catcher and they have anew program out called iData Pro 1.0 for Windows. It’s asimple-to-use “database” program to keep track of any kindof information that can be written down or entered into acomputer. To get you started, it comes with a number ofpredefined data and sample databases. And for you PalmOS users, you can sync your data from iData directly intoyour handheld using the new and included iData Remotefeature. System requirements are Windows XP, 2000, Me,NT, 98 and 95. All this in a product that retails for only$29.95. And they have special user group member pricing.Go to
http://ug.casadyg.com/win
Aladdin is best known for StuffIt Deluxe used forcreating compressed (Zip, and others types) files withconversion ability between Mac and Windows. Integrationwith Windows Scheduled Tasks lets you schedule andautomate tasks such as backups and FTP uploads. Theimproved compression engine is now the best available,shrinking files smaller than WinZip or any other zip utility.Get StuffIt Deluxe 7.5 now for only $29.99. (25% less thanretail price) plus, free bonus software is included. GetKMT’s Ultimate Financial Calculator FREE with yourdownload of StuffIt Deluxe 7.5. iClean 1.0, for PCs, blockspop-up ads and protects your online privacy with built-incookie management. iClean puts you in charge by givingyou the power to choose which web servers may leave theircookies on your computer, and which may not. Make yourchoices and iClean will handle it from there automatically,every time you go online. You can get it for $19.99. (45%less than retail). Dragstrip 3.8, is a “must have” utility for
all Windows 95/98 and NT users. Say goodbye to clut-
tered desktops and digging through browser windows to
find what you are looking for. Get Dragstrip now for only
$14.99. (25% less than retail price). To get more informa-
tion on any Aladdin Systems, Inc. products, go to
www.aladdinsys.com. Members can buy these products at
these great prices athttp://www.aladdinsys.com/support/usergroups/ugvalid.html
How about getting PC World Magazine at a discount?Plus get and a free software CD-ROM. You’ll receive 12more issues (14 in all) for $19.97. Go to
https://w1.buysub.com/servlet/OrdersGateway?cds_mag_code=PCW&cds_p
age_id=5341
You can also get Smart Computing and CPU (ComputerPower User) magazines at a reduced cost.
https://www.sandhills.com/secure/smartcomputing/membership.asp
or call customer service at 800-733-3809 and give therepresentative your group’s code numbers. Those numbersfor WINNERS are Smart Computing: 11900 and CPU: 535.
You know Microsoft Word can do web pages but there isa web page that tells “An Academic’s Guide to Quick WebPage Construction”
http://www.archiva.net/mstutorial3web.htm
The site is designed to help academic instructors placetheir syllabi on the Web without devoting tireless hours totransferring their manuscripts into HTML format. Itprovides a brief tutorial on how to successfully turn amanuscript or syllabus into a properly formatted, fullyfunctional Web page in as little as ten minutes.
The Adobe® GoLive® 6.0.1 update, now available at
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/new.jsp
It addresses several issues that were identified in GoLive6.0. Enhanced in many functional areas, including FTPconnectivity, Cascading Style Sheets, advanced codehandling, dynamic content, SDK, QuickTime, SmartObjects, table handling, templates, and Web download.
Trade shows
Electronic House Expo, November 13-14, Long Beach ConventionCenter
http://www.ehexpo.com/pages/registration.htm
Comdex in Las Vegas is coming up November 18-22
http://www.comdex.com
By the way if you were to go to Google and happen tolook for winners of last year’s Comdex awards such as“comdex winners,” you would see us as the third site listed.I noticed a spike in
Continued on page 4
Page 4
my frustration has been with featuresbuilt into motherboards. Getting allthose features to work with the powersupply, drives, and video just doesn’thappen. Getting the powermanagement features to workproperly has been the most difficultfeature to enable.
Knowing this, I went about doingmy research on the newest productsavailable. I added up the costs one byone and looked at the total. Hmmm?Just for fun, I decided to take a look atfully assembled systems from localand national companies. Besides, Ihad the list of features andcomponents I wanted in my system,so I began to shop in some stores andonline. With many of the localBuilt-to-Order (BTO) systems Ifound, there was a limited number ofchoices and the componentmanufacturers were not alwaysdisclosed. Since I favor certainmanufacturers, mostly based on pastexperiences, I found that optionsomewhat limiting. They could notguarantee me the components Iwanted in a system due to severalfactors. I patiently listened to theexcuses.
I turned to the nationalcompanies,—in this case Dell andGateway. I found systems offeredwith various components, feature, andprice ranges. Knowing that thecomputer market was verycompetitive, I figured it might begood to look at configuring a systemor taking one of the may specials theyoffered and see how closely itmatched my wish list. I wadedthrough the checklists and selectedwhat I wanted. Going to the checkoutcart, I encountered another shock.Both wanted a shipping fee that addedup to over $100. Pretty hefty charge Ithought.
I decided to wait a few days andcome back to see if systemconfigurations or pricing changed. Tomy surprise, they did. I guess it’s likepricing airline tickets. Consumersdon’t understand how it’s done, butyou should be prepared to make achoice when the times, terms and
prices are right. I happened to catchGateway during a transition from theold putty colored cases to the newersilver/black cases and components.The old color systems were oncloseout.
I found a new Pentium 4 2.0GHzsystem with 128MB of DDR 2100memory, 40GB hard drive, 24x12x40CD-RW, 32MB nVidia video card,optical mouse, keyboard, 6 USB 2.0ports, a 15” LCD flat-panel monitor,Windows XP Home, plus anassortment of other installed software.All this for $999 after a $100 rebate. Icalled and talked to a salesrepresentative when I placed my orderand got them to cut the freight rate inhalf. The system came with aone-year onsite repair warranty too.My system arrived five days after Iordered it.
When I spoke with the salesrepresentative, he gave a list of themanufacturers they use for theircomponents. I was satisfied with thechoices and examined the systemwhen it arrived. Just as he said, theyused top-notch components from thesources I wanted.
When I fired up my system, it wentthrough initial configuration, neededsome personal information, found theinstalled hardware and booted to theWindows XP desktop. As I mentionedbefore, one of features I wanted mostwas the power saving features of thehardware and operating systemmeshing together to put the systeminto Standby or Hibernate mode.When I tested these features, I foundthey worked perfectly.
Having been a firm believer ofself-assembled systems in the past,this experience has changed my mindabout ordering a complete systemfrom an established computer retailer.In my final comparison, I found that Isaved myself over $150, got aone-year on-site warranty, and thepower savings features that I alwayswanted in a fully configured computersystem.
Keep this in mind when you’relooking for your next computer. Goodhunting!
COMPUTER SAGA
Continued from page 1
that page access and checked itout. I figured a number of peopleare looking up such information.
Elections are in October, andnominations start with ourSeptember meeting. Jonathan andMary Means have decided not torun for re-election. I want tosincerely thank them for all theyears of work they have put intothe WINNERS group. This meanswe need more candidates fordirector. If you would be interestedin running, let Max Lockie know.You just have to be a paid upmember and be willing to come tothe Board of Directors meeting onthe Monday following theWINNERS meeting.
Terry
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Continued from page 3
Happy
Fall!!
Page 5
Experiences with addingExternal Storage
Part B
by Rudy Wolf
For some reason I was not happywith the results that I obtained from myFirewire installation. Ever sinceComdex 2000, I was waiting for USB2.0. Last year (2001) USB 2.0 was areality. Real products were ondisplay— mostly just Host Adapters forPCI slots in computers. But with thoseavailable, I felt that items such asscanners, external CDs, DVDs etc.could not be far behind. Intel wasexhibiting motherboards with USBoutputs that were due for release thefirst quarter of 2002. In my eyesNirvana could not be far behind. Icould get rid of my SCSI scannerwhich is about 6 years old, my SCSICD and CD-RW, upgrade to a PentiumIV 1 Gig plus, and have 1 Gig of RAM.The computer I am using is almost 3years old, probably a year and a halflonger than usual for me. What hasheld me back was a stock market thathas decreased my savings quite a bit soI haven’t been ready to upgrade untileverything I wanted was available.Anyway I was looking through theSunday papers and came across aStaples advertisement that showed anexternal 40 GB USB 2.0 Maxtor HardDrive with a Free USB 2.0 card for$149.99. Of course the card wasn’treally Free. You had to purchase it for$49.98, receive a $10 instant rebate anda $40 mail-in rebate, and the externaldrive had to be purchased at the sametime. The external drive was $179.99with a $30 rebate so, with tax, the realcost was about $167.00. I rushed outand made the purchase. Then the funbegan.
Prior to the installation of the card, Iwas concerned that I might have someIRQ conflicts so I called Maxtor TechSupport. They were very helpful. Theytold me to make the install without
worrying about conflicts becauseWindows would handle it. Theinstallation of the four-port USB 2.0card was straightforward. After thephysical install, I rebooted thecomputer. The plug and play part ofwindows found the hardware andrequested the driver disk. I didexperience a problem here because therequest was for a PCI serial driver, notthe USB 2.0 driver that was indicatedin the instructions, so I ended uplooking in other places rather than thedriver disk provided by Maxtor. Thesecond time, I got it right andeverything seemed to be okay.
Next was the connection of theDrive via the USB 2.0 cable. Noproblem here either. Power is suppliedto the drive via a transformer in line tothe drive, similar to the power suppliesused by laptop and notebookcomputers. I like the 1394 Drive kitbecause the power supply is built intothe case and I don’t have thattransformer hanging there. The drive ispreformatted. So after the connection,I was ready to go. I started by copyingthe files that I mentioned in my firstarticle. I left the computer and when Ireturned, I was faced with what I call“the Blue Screen of Death” and you allknow what that is.
Back on the phone to Maxtor. Afteronly three selections and a short wait, Iwas speaking with a tech. I told himthe problem and he suggested trying tocopy some other files, smaller, ormaybe groups, to see if I ran into thesame problem. Well, in addition to thatproblem, I ran into at least one otherproblem. If the drive was powered upduring computer boot-up, it wouldn’tboot up. It took 3 or 4 tries to make thatdetermination. It seems that a .vxd file“Msgsrv32" was the culprit. I shutdown the drive, was able to boot thecomputer, then turned the drive on and
tried copying smaller files, but a wholebunch at once because that is how Iplanned to use it. Same thing—theBlue screen. One bright spot: one timeI was able to get back to Windowswithout shutting down completely.
Back on the phone to Maxtor. Thistime I hooked up with the tech thatanswered my first query about theIRQs. Well he had me run “FDISK”and we found out that the partition(single) size was different that the drivesize, which apparently causesproblems. So he stayed on the phonewhile I deleted the partition, recreatedit and formatted it. While he was stillon the line I was successful in copyingone large file, so I thought myproblems were solved. Of course theyweren’t. I tried copying some otherlarge files created by Drive Image andonce again the Blue Screen. I recreatedthe Drive Image files thinking that theymay have been corrupted, but thatdidn’t help either.
Once again on the phone toMaxtor—different tech. Told hereverything that had occurred and hersolution was to back up all my data andreinstall my Operating System over theold install. She had a logicalexplanation for this. I don’t know ifthat would have worked but I didn’twant to try it, so today I returned thedrive and card to Staples.
Some other comments:
• I did not have to wait very long
to speak with a technician at
Maxtor and the person who
helped me with the “FDISK”
procedure was excellent. He
also told me that they format
about a 100 of these hard drives
at a time and he believes that
there is a problem somewhere
Continued on page 6
Page 6
because the partition size is dif-
ferent from the drive size. Ap-
parently I wasn’t the first one to
call who had this problem. As
tech support goes, a lot has to do
with the person you are speaking
to and whether it is the end of
their shift or not.
• The drive that Maxtor makes
does not allow “daisy chaining.”
I don’t know if this is or will be
true of all USB 2.0 devices. My
own preference is that I like to
have that capability because I
have enough cables coming out
the back of my computer.
• Because of the number of differ-
ent computer configurations, I
would not blame my problems on
Maxtor. As I have stated in the
past it is not surprising that some
equipment doesn’t work on some
computers, it’s amazing that it
works on so many computers.
This is especially true of home
user computers where software is
added/removed (maybe incor-
rectly), different hardware is at-
tached, drives replaced, drives
added and on and on.
Are there problems with both theinstall and running of SP1? Yes thereare a number of issues. The mostfrequent one is that SP1 will not installon certain volume serial numbers andalso on some MSDN serial numbers,This has proven to stop many morelegitimate users than pirates. Thebypass solution for this was knownweeks before the release date.Apparently many systems sold atcomputer shows or fairs by garagebuilders contained pirate versions ofthe OS. The buyers who thought theyhas legal software were left withoutmuch in the way of recourse unlessthey could locate the builder andobtain a legal disk. The MSDNsubscribers just had to call Microsoftand obtain a new number.
Another major problem withpre-built systems was with a highpercentage of failures of Dell 8200machines. There appears to be aproblem with the Dell customizationof the OS on these that will not let SP1install without errors. You are liable toend up with an endless reboot loop.HP/Compact has issued warnings toowners of some desktop Presariomodels not to install SP1 fromMicrosoft but to wait for HP’s ownversion due out “shortly.” Again,problems with customization. If youhave installed XP Antispy, SP1 willnot install. Antispy deletes two filesthat are needed for installation. Youmust uninstall XP Antispy and repairWindows Xp prior to installing SP1.
Both Easy CD Creator and Nerowill have to be updated with the latest
patches in order to work, in general.Some have reported that these patchesdo not work, but earlier versions dowork. What causes these differencesremains unknown at this time. I alsohad to reinstall Omnipage Pro after theinstall for it to work properly.
One common problem is theinability to switch identities inOutlook or Outlook Express. This is aknown problem and there arework-arounds available. The problemis being worked on by Microsoft and apatch will be released as soon as it issolved. There are a number of otherproblems, but none of them arecommon enough to see a pattern.Third party customization or tweaksare involved in many of them. A plainvanilla Windows Xp with a legalproduct id that was a clean installseems to be trouble free as a rule.(Watch, one will pop up now that Imade that statement.) Be sure to turnoff any AV, firewall, and as manyrunning applications as possible beforeinstalling SP1. It will install from safemode also.
Over one million downloads of SP1occurred within the first two weeksfollowing its release. There areremarkably few problems, consideringthe level of the users out there, all theway from raw beginners with theirfirst computer all the way to theexperts. Microsoft haters are very fastto blame Microsoft for all problems,even the ones caused by hardwaremanufacturers refusal to updatedrivers for 10-year-old hardware.
BITS & BYTES & WINDOWS XP
Continued from page 1
EXTERNAL STORAGE
Continued from page 5
Elections are held in October
Come to the meeting and vote!
Page 7
Quick: Delete thejdbgmgr.exe file!!
By Gabe Kingsley
PIBMUG’s San Francisco Special
Correspondent
I’ve received a few of these dumbalerts over the past week. You haven’treceived one? It’s an e-mail hoaxpretending to be a virus warning thattells people to delete their JavaDebugger Manager file, calledjdbgmgr.exe.
What really ticks me off is the openlist of recipients, often 30 to 50 ofthem, that become fodder for all sortsof junk through the systems of others.
So I’m on a one-man crusade to getpeople to use Blind Ccs for all mail,unless there is a compelling reason(such as a work group, etc.) in whichthey need to know who else receivedthe message. Heck, I even send outtutorials for most e-mail programs toeliminate any excuses they may have.
Here’s what I tell people wheneverthey forward me an ALERT!! ALERT!!About any virus:
Hey, Klez?The most recent e-mail virus you’re
asking about is the Klez, and it haspowers not seen in earlier types.
Klez can select an e-mail address atrandom from a CC list in a message onyour or someone else’s computer andsend itself to the recipients of othermessages. It’s not limited to thoseaddresses in your address book. Inaddition, it can “spoof” the returnaddress, so that even if you were notthe sender of a message infected withthe Klez virus, your name and addressmay appear as the originator.
This is bad stuff and we shouldexpect a raft of “me too” versions tocome along!
Another, less harmful but no lessirritating offense is the warning runningaround the world, advising you to
delete a specific file from your systembecause it contains a virus. This is ahoax! The file, jdbgmgr.exe, is onethat Windows put there and enablescertain Java scripting capabilities. Youneed it!
You may receive either the Klezvirus or the relatively innocuous hoaxwarning described above because yourname and address were in someone’sCC list.
One of the greatest potential dangersis in the e-mails that are forwarded,forwarded and forwarded again byunwitting people. I’m sure you getthem every day, and may even passthem along. The result is list after listof available addresses the Klez viruscan use to send itself to people youdon’t know, and for people you don’tknow to send it to you, possibly givingthe impression it came from you.
When you forward a message,COPY ONLY THE TEXT into a newmessage and send it to your friends.DO NOT just forward the existingmessage, complete with the previouslists of recipients and their addresses.If you want to forward a message, takecare to manually remove the list ofprevious recipients to preserve theirsafety. It’s really easy.
Learn and Use Blind CCWhen sending messages to a group
of people, unless it is REQUIRED thateach one see the names of all otherswho received the message, PLEASEUSE A BLIND RECIPIENT list. I amnot aware of an e-mail program thatdoes not allow you to send messages toa list of “blind” recipients, in whicheach person who receives the messagessees only their own address, and not theentire list of recipients.
If you have AOL, it is the easiestthing to do: Simply bracket allrecipients in a pair of parentheses(address1, address2) each separated bya comma.
If you use Microsoft Outlook orOutlook Express, there is a special fieldfor “Bcc” (Blind copies) just below the“To” and “Cc” rows. If you do not seeit when you open the program, click onView and select “Bcc Field.” Eudoraand Netscape Navigator also have blindrecipient capabilities.
Yahoo! And Hotmail users can findthe “Bcc” field for entering addressesin the online address header. The Junomail software works very just likeAOL, in that you can enclose multipleaddresses in parentheses to make themblind, and as with AOL, they must beseparated by a comma. By doing thiseach recipient will see only their ownaddress, and not anyone else’s, just aswith this message.
So far, because Macs represent sucha small percentage of the computers inuse, the people who create the wormsand viruses do not make them workwith Mac computers. However,anyone using a Mac who does not hidethe recipients of their e-mails makestheir recipients vulnerable to thepossibility of being hit with a virusfrom someone else on their CC list!
Anyone who wants to protect theirprivacy and safety will appreciate yourdoing this. Few things about e-mailbother me more than when something Isent gets forwarded to a large list ofpeople I don’t know, and because myaddress is now in their message base, Iam then vulnerable to receiving a virusor one of those hoax warnings fromthem ... or anyone to whom theyforward that message.
Please try to use blind recipient lists.It will make us all safer from viruses,worms and hoaxes.
__________
Copyright © 2002 by Gabe Kingsley.
Reproduced with permission. Article
reproduction coordinated by Steve Bass,
Pasadena IBM Users Group.
Page 8
For Inveterate XP Tweakers OnlyBy Carl Siechert, Co-Author,
Microsoft Windows XP Inside Out
One of the fun things aboutWindows XP and Windows 2000 isthat there is so much tweaking you cando if you want to. You don’t need to doany of the things that I described at arecent Pasadena IBM User Grouppresentation, but if you like peekingunder the hood and making a fewadjustments so things run just the wayyou like, you can. Here’s a little moreinformation about some of the topics Idiscussed:
Group PolicyGroup Policy lets you make all
manner of settings—everything fromconfiguring the desktop to hidingcertain drives to preventing thecreation of scheduled tasks. Thesesettings (and hundreds more) arestored in the registry, which you canedit directly.
But Group Policy is much easier touse than a registry editor. A few notesbefore you dive in:
• To use Group Policy, you must
have Windows XP Professional
or Windows 2000; it’s not avail-
able in Windows XP Home Edi-
tion.
• To use Group Policy, you must
be logged on using an account
that’s a member of the
Adminstrators group.
• If your computer is not a member
of a Windows 2000 Server do-
main, any settings you make in
Group Policy affect everyone
who uses your computer. (There
is a crude workaround that lets
you set up two groups of us-
ers—those who are affected by
Group Policy settings and those
who are not. For details, check
out pp. 1074-5 in Microsoft Win-
dows XP Inside Out. [Caution:
this is the first of several plugs
for my books.])
Ready, Set Go…Start Group Policy by choosing
Start, Run and typing “gpedit.msc”.(If you end up using Group Policyvery much, you’ll want to make ashortcut to gpedit.msc.) The next twofolders and their subfolders house themost interesting policies, althoughyou might want to check out theothers as well.
Then, in the left pane, select asubfolder of Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates or UserConfiguration\AdministrativeTemplates. Select a useful soundingpolicy in the right pane, and anexplanation of the policy appears.Keep poking around until you findsomething that interests you. To makea setting, double-click the policyname and then choose an option in thedialog box that appears.
Pretty easy stuff, but you’reexploring where few Windows usersdare to tread. Unless you work hard toenable policies that, for example,prevent you from logging on, thesettings under AdministrativeTemplates are pretty safe.Nonetheless, you should read theexplanation carefully before you makea policy setting.
Want more information? For acomplete reference to Group Policy inWindows 2000, visit
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/re
skit/en-us/default.asp
Look for Windows 2000 GroupPolicy Reference in the contents pane.Nearly all the information in thisreference applies to Windows XPProfessional as well, although itdoesn’t include the policies that areavailable only in Windows XP.Another good resource is the GroupPolicy Object Settings spreadsheet,which you can download from
http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/pro/techinfo/
productdoc/gpss.asp"
Although the spreadsheet doesn’texplain the settings, it lists allAdministrative Templates policies and
shows which ones apply to eachoperating system; it also provides aconvenient way to record your ownsettings. You’ll also find moreinformation in Microsoft Windows XP
Inside Out (Chapter 34) and in ournew book, Microsoft Windows
Security Inside Out for Windows XP
and Windows 2000 (Chapter 19). Thelatter book, which should be in storesin August, includes a number ofspecific recommendations aboutpolicies you can set to better secureyour system.
It’s At Your ServiceI also mentioned the Services
snap-in, which is included in theComputer Management console. Toopen Computer Management,right-click My Computer (on the Startmenu or in an Explorer window) andchoose Manage. In the left pane ofComputer Management, selectComputer Management(Local)\Services andApplications\Services. (Tip of theday: You can open the Servicessnap-in within its own console. Youcan find a shortcut to Services in theAdministrative Tools folder, or youcan simply choose Start, Run and type“services.msc”.)
So which services should you turnoff by changing their startup type toManual or Disable? This Web siteoffers some good advice:
http://www.blkviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm
And (time for another plug)Microsoft Windows Security Inside
Out for Windows XP and Windows
2000 provides a brief description ofevery service included with WindowsXP and Windows 2000 and offersrecommended settings.__________
Copyright © 2002 by Carl
Siechert. Reproduced with permission.
Article reproduction coordinated by
Steve Bass, Pasadena IBM Users
Group. Reaching Carl Siechert is
easy—his company site is
http://www.swdocs.com
Page 9
Hold on to Your Domain…Before
it Slips Away
Domain names are preciouscommodities and they canbe lost in a matter of days
By Matt Lake
How would you like to see theWeb site you’ve been working on allyear slip through your fingers? Youmay think it’s unlikely, but despite theenormous bureaucracy surrounding theInternet domain name system, dotcomnames are falling out of the hands ofregistrants all the time.
The consequences can beembarrassing, costly, and timeconsuming. When you lose yourdomain to someone else, you mustreprint your stationery with new Webaddresses, send out releases to yourcustomers confessing your mistake,and lose untold email messages whenyour email vanishes into the ether (orworse, goes to the domain’s newowner).
But in most cases, it’s easy to avoidproblems like these. So learn a fewlessons from four organizations thatrecently lost their domains. Take heartthat two of them have got theirdomains back again—but don’t assumethat you will have the same goodfortune as they did. Prepare for theworst—and be happy when it doesn’thappen to you.
Fumbling the ballIn May 2002, two popular nonprofit
sites lost control of their domains whenthey expired and speculators snappedthem up. Their stories have somesimilarities, but have two differentendings—one happy for the originalowner, the other, not.
CASE 1: MacSlash the Knifed
Damien Barrett had built a verypopular Macintosh help site called
MacSlash at the obvious domainMacSlash.com. Suddenly in May, hefound that instead of the forums,articles, and tips that belonged there,only an under construction pageremained. The Future Home ofmacslash.com apparently nowbelonged to Vicente Peiro Crespo ofValencia, Spain, and any e-mail sent toBarrett’s former addresses or that of theMacSlash administrator Ben Stanfieldvaporized in cyberspace.
The domain had expired, “dropped”back into the public domain, and beensnapped up by a speculator. Theprevious owners of the domain “fixed”the problem by registering the .netversion of the domain and hosting theirsite there. The MacSlash communityrallied round the cause and registeredthe .org and .info versions of thedomain too. And word spread quicklyabout the new location of the site.
The MacSlash story has happyending: The issue became a causecelebre in the Mac community andpretty soon, things got too hot for thenew registrant, who returnedmacslash.com to its original owner.
But not everyone is so lucky.
CASE #2: User Group Gets Mugged
The Pasadena IBM User Group is along-standing nonprofit organization,so it seemed natural for them to takethe .org version of their domain name.There, they built a well trafficked sitefor their members.
But in May of 2002, the domainexpired without notice from theregistrar, and was subsequentlyre-registered by a portal companybased in Hong Kong. Ultimate Searchredirected the user group’s formerdomain to a generic portal with linksflashing online casino ads and linksthat generate revenues for the companyon a pay-per-click basis.
As of this writing, the user grouphas not regained control of its domain.However, it continues to operate its siteat pibmug.com.
Why Did the Notice goUnnoticed?
Registering domains is like leasing acar: You have the thing under contractfor a specified length of time. Once theterm of the lease is about to expire, youcan extend it indefinitely. And unlikelease cars, a domain only gets morevaluable the longer you have it. But theresponsibility for renewing the lease isall up to you.
Naturally, domain registrars are alltoo keen to keep their customers—thecompetition among domain registrarsis fierce. The governing body of the.com domain system, ICANN, hasaccredited more than 50 registrars, andhundreds more companies reselldomain services. So most registrarssend out not one but several remindersto their customers to re-register theirdomains early and often.
Both MacSlash and PIBMUG usedthe registrar Dotster, which sends outautomatic reminders at T-minus 45days, 30 days, and 15 days before thedomain expires. In fact, Dotster is sovigilant, the company even sends outreminders to former clients who havetransferred their domains to otherregistrars.
But MacSlash and PIBMUG did notget their reminders. The jury is still outas to what happened with PIBMUG,but MacSlash traced the problem toover-vigilant spam filtering. When thegroup registered macslash.com, theyused Apple’s iTools email service,which provides free email at themac.com domain. Unfortunately, theservice’s spam filtering treatedrepeated requests to renew domains as
Continued on page 10
Page 10
DOMAIN SLIPPING AWAY?
Continued from page 9
unsolicited commercial messages, andthrew them into the bit bucket.
The Domain GraveyardOnce a domain expires, it enters a
no-man’s land for an unspecifiedlength of time. During this time, thedomain is on hold—it does notresolve to the previous registrant’ssite, but it can’t be reregistered.Sometimes, the on-hold period lastsfor only hours, sometimes for weeks.
The .com registry, run byVerisign’s Network Solutionsdivision, holds on to all the expireddomains until it’s ready to “drop”them en masse back onto the market.
And once an expired domain drops,it’s up for grabs by anyone with $10to $35 to spare. And an entireaftermarket has sprung up aroundexpired domains. Companies likeDomainsBot, The Unclaimed, andDaily Expired Domains compile listsof on-hold domains for subscribers,and domain registrars includingNetwork Solutions and Dotstermaintain services for their subscribersto snap up domains as soon as theydrop.
The aftermarket for expireddomains creates a feeding frenzyamong speculators, which is bad newsfor domain holders who let theirdomains expire. Once a domain isreregistered, the only recourse theoriginal domain owner has is to gothrough ICANN’s dispute resolutionprocess (which is outlined atwww.icann.org/udrp). Duringdisputes, ICANN tends to favorcopyright holders and people withlegitimate claims on adomain—which would act in favor ofPIBMUG’s claim against UltimateSearch. But the process is a timeconsuming hassle, and ICANNdoesn’t give preferential treatment toprevious owners of domains who letthem expire.
Losing the Ball CompletelyNot every organization has control
over its own domain. Sometimes, acompany without strong technical
resources will give the reins to anoutsider who seems to have a betterhandle on the situation. This can havedisastrous results—as a theatercompany and a housing authorityfound out earlier this year.
CASE #3: Taking a Domain by Barn-
storm
The oldest continuously operatingcommunity theater in Pennsylvania,The Barnstormers Theater outsidePhiladelphia, bought a Web sitepackage from a small hostingcompany two years ago. Thecompany took control ofeverything—domain registration, Website hosting, and updates. This wasgreat for the small volunteer-runtheater…until the hosting companywent bust. The Web site disappeared,and any visitors to the group’s domainname got an error message. TheBarnstormers’ contact at the nownonexistent host went AWOL, and leftthem high and dry.
The theater found free hosting forits Web site at GeoCities, and riggedup an ad-laden version of their sitethere. But nobody involved know howto handle the domain issue, so theyhad to change their Web address at thevarious arts and theater portals, searchengines, and periodicals that listedthem.
When the domain finally expired, afan of the group snapped it up andarranged for new hosting forbarnstormerstheater.com at a localcommunity site.
But unlike Barnstorm’s goodfortune, there are disasters.
CASE #4: Housing authority…with-
out authority
A city housing authority inDelaware (which asked not to benamed in this article) outsourced mostof its technical services to a prettyreliable company throughout the1990s. The support companydeveloped and maintained theAuthority’s general infrastructure,including an intranet.
At the time, there were no plans fora public Web site, but last year, anoffice manager submitted plans and aproject management timeline for apublic site that she could develop andmanage herself. When she came toregister the Authority’s domain name,she found that the .com, .net, and .orgversions had all been registered yearsearlier. The registrant was their ITcompany, which used the names as abargaining chip for taking control ofthe Web development project—apotentially lucrative contract.
Who Owns Your Name?Possession is nine tenths of the
law. If you register a generic soundingdomain name or one that matches abusiness you own and run, you have agood case for keeping it. And ifsomeone else does so on your behalf,you won’t easily be able to wrestcontrol of the domain back. If anotherBarnstormers theater had registeredbarnstormerstheater.com when itdropped, the original owner wouldhave no recourse through ICANN orthe law courts. The only otherrecourse would be to buy back thedomain at whatever price the newowner wanted—and prices can runinto the hundreds or even thousands.
Five Cardinal Rules forDomain Owners
If these horror stories have givenyou the fear, take heart. A few simpleguidelines can keep you fromsuffering the same fate.
Rule #1: Control your own domain
Make sure your name and contactinformation appear in your domain’sowner and administrative contactfields. Hop over to your registrar or tobetterwhois.com and enter yourdomain name in the form. The sitewill return the domain’s whoisinformation (who is the owner, who isthe technical contact, and so on). Yourname, address, and current emailaddress should be in the owner (orRegistrant) and Admin Contact fields.
Continued on page 11
Page 11
If it’s not, follow your registrar’sinstructions for updating them.
Rule #2: Keep contact information up
to date
The most important information inany domain record is the admincontact. It’s to this email address thatdomain registrars send their reminders.If you ever decide to switch to adifferent registrar, all the confirmationemail messages go to this emailaddress. If you’ve changed ISPs, oryou’ve hired a new office manager,you’ll need to update this email addressimmediately. Different registrars handlethe update procedure in differentways—some registrars let you do thisby logging in to administration Webpages, some require notarized writtenproof.
Check with your registrar for details.
Rule #3: Keep your own records
Don’t rely on your registrar fordomain renewal reminders—we’vealready read how two organizationscome to grief over that. Check thewhois information for all the domainsyou have registered. At the bottom ofthe whois record, you’ll see details likethese:
Record last updated on 1-May-2002.
Record expires on 12-Oct-2004.
Record created on 12-Oct-1999.
Plug that “record expires” date inbig bold letters into your PIM, yourdiary, and your wall calendar. Tattoo iton your wrist if you need to, but makesure that a month before that date, youpay the registrar for another year or twoof registration.
Keep a Lock on YourDomain
Some domain registrars provide aservice called domain locking. If you’reparanoid that someone may try tohijack your domain, check with yourregistrar about how to turn on the lock.This prevents anyone from transferringownership of your domain (not an easyor likely thing for most domain holders,but possible for hackers targetinghigh-profile sites).
Of course, it also prevents“slamming” by unscrupulous registrarswho send bogus domain renewalnotices that actually transfer yourdomain to a new registrar. You don’tlose control of your domain this way,but you often end up paying more orlosing services like free hosting ore-mail forwarding. And evenhigh-profile companies like NetworkSolutions seem to regard this as alegitimate marketing tool.
Keep a BackupWhat’s the first thing you do when
you hit a Web site that’s not what youwere expecting? You check the Web
address for typos, right? If it looksright…you figure you copied it downwrong and replace the .com with .net,or .org, or even .info until you see whatyou’re expecting.
Anticipate this behavior, just in casesomeone manages to get control ofyour main Web domain. If you have the.com, .net, and .org versions of yourdomain name in reserve, all redirectedto your main site, you’ll have an instantquick fix for any domain nappingproblems. Sure, this will set you back afew bucks—but it gives you moreflexibility in the long run.
And it’s pretty good for braggingrights too.
_____________
Copyright © 2002 by Matt Lake.
Reproduced with permission. Article
reproduction coordinated by Steve
Bass, Pasadena IBM Users Group.Matt
manages two dozen domains, and
maintains a domain buyer’s guide
called RegSelect. Matt has written for
many publications, including PCWorld, CNET, Computer Currents, and
ZDNet. You can reach him at
[email protected], because his
spam filter’s is never set beyond
“Stun.”
DOMAIN SLIPPING AWAY?
Continued from page 10
General Meeting
October 12, 9:00 a.m.
ADS Technologies
ADS makes a number of products designed to make the computer user’s life easier. From USB hubs andports to letting you add an external hard drive to your system with Firewire with their Pyro 2.5 DriveKit. USB InstantDVD is an easy-to-use product that lets you edit your home movies, then burn them toCD or DVD so you can share them with friends and create long-lasting archives.
Instant DVD is an external video capture/editing device that connects to WEindows-based purchasethrough a USB connection. This external device includes video encoder and decoder chips andhardware as well as MPEG2 codec to compress and decompress MPEG2 video. Other Firewireproducts include cards, drive kits, webcams and hubs. USB products include USB Instant Video, 2- and4-port humbs, USB Port (PCI) USB to Ethernet Adapter, and Port (Cardbus).
October 12 – 9 a.m. to 12 noonOrange Coast College
Science Building Room #149
P. O. Box 9274
Newport Beach, CA 92658
MERRIMAC WAY
FA
IRV
IEW
DR
.
HA
RB
OR
BLV
D.
Lewis
Center
Science Bldg
Room #149
MERRIMAC
PARKING
405SAN DIEGO FWY.
ORANGE COAST COLLEGE
ADAMS AVE.
Pig Sig: Arnie’s Manhattan Deli, 2831 Bristol Street in Costa Mesa
