Internet Security

[Easyas123]

Greatman... you probably have a version of the Sobig virus. its one of those nasty ones that gets into your system, finds things from contact lists to cookies and e mails eveyone on those lists. It also puts a fdake header in the from space so you cannot track it down. In other words who is SAYS it is from is not who it is actually from.

You can solve things like this from happening by

1: Installing a virus scanner on your CPU. KEEP IT UPDATED!!

2: Install a firewall on your personal CPU, if you do the computer thing from work your system may already have one.

3: Keep up with your microsoft updates. The icon for it is in your start menu. If you do not use IE just go to the microsoft website and navagate to it. A lot of times microsoft has fixed the problem before anyone tries to exploit it.

You can get a lot of free software off of the net that does the job if you are into the piracy thing, or freeware that is 1 time use or limited use from the software designers. Either way it is pretty easy to NOT get a virus.

[One Great Man]

Jackson:

I was distressed to see a posting from GPiper that I had contaminated his site!

I did contact him to get a telephone number, but I have done absolutely nothing to cause him to receive spam.

In fact, my own inbox has been filled with spam since, but I'm not blaming GPiper for that! Many of the "undeliverable" messages are requests to unsubscribe to ClubAss and other services which I have requested. Someone is having their sick fun at our expense.

I have also experienced a virus problem at the same time, which my techie is trying to track down.

GPiper and I are experiencing what seems to be the same problem, but I'm not blaming him. If the source can be determined, I will pass it along to the board.

[Freeler]

Jackson, all,

How I clean my drives....

I dl'ed 'eraser' from www.tolvanen.com. It is freeware.

After installing it I added these folders to the 'new task' list.

C:\recycled
C:\windows\cookies
C:\windows\*******.pwl (passwordlist, you may want to keep this)
C:\windows\recently opened
C:\windows\recent
C:\windows\temp
C:\windows\temporary internet files
C:\windows\history
You can add any folder you like.

Some of these folders are 'hidden folders', to add these you must make them visible through: Open any folder: View, properties, view and tick 'Show all files' after adding the tasks reset to 'Do not show hidden or systems files'

MAKE SURE that 'keep task on the list' is ticked, you have to tick for every new task!

After (almost) every internet session I erase these folders and all the files in them. Windows rebuilds all these folders at reboot, so don't worry! Erasing ('overwriting') one time will do if you erase regularly.

Next I reboot in DOS-made and I delete certain leftovers, like : temporary internet files (C:\windows\tempor~1), cookies (C:\windows\cookies) and history (C:\windows\history).
These remain after erasing as windows claims it needs them, which is utter BillyBoyM$BS!
These folders have the index.dat files that will keep info on your internet activities until you destroy them!

If you want to see what's in them: Copy the index.dat file, move to a folder outside windows and change <.dat> in <.doc>, open and don't cry!

Honestly, I don't care if people who get emails from me know my IP-address. It tells them nothing about where I go on the net.

Now, if you think 'I don't give a shit about cleaning my drive' let me ask this: Do you throw your mail out so everybody can read it after you have. NO!
So why leave everything for everyone to read on your drives?

[Bammbamm]

i have 2 tricks i use to help me stay anon. 1, i use a remailer program to clean off the headers before they get to the final recipient, and 2 i use a proxy server to obfurep001e my referring info as well as my originating ip addy.
a cheap and easy method for anon. surfing is megaproxy.com. for email you can find many remailers on the web or you can pay for it at www.sendfakemail.com its 9 bux a month, but if you're emailing a potential provider that turns out to be a sting, or someone that is just a malicious bastard, there is potential to be caught if you let your ip addy out of the bag. if nothing else, you can be humiliated by having some jack ass call your it department and let them know that someone using the ip addy of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is posting to the wsgforum, this is no fun...

hopefully this helps

be safe,
bammbamm

[Admin]

For those of you who are concerned about divulging you email address, you might want to consider seting up an email acct at www.ziplip.com.

[Admin]

HOW TO GET RID OF ALL THE CLUTTER FROM YOUR HARD DRIVE!

All of the following is written about Win98 SE, so it may be slightly different for later version of the software. Unless I say otherwise, all clicking is left clicking.

Windows is a program that stores a lot of information on where you have been on the Internet. Anyone else who has access to you computer will be able to find out where you have been. Depending on your settings, you may have up to 20 Mb of wasted space on your hard drive, which you can feel up. There are some programs that you can buy like Internet Eraser and so on for about US$69.95 which may do all of this. The only program that I have tried on a 30 day evaluation, did not do all of what I am going to show you for free. (Perhaps I should sell these instructions!) However, if you have a computer at work that is connected to a network to go on the Internet, it will not stop the tracking software that your employer may be using to track where you go. Be warmed! Most companies now have tracking software that you cannot get around, unless you have a stand-alone computer that has its own dedicated internet connection that is not used my any other computer, like your home computer.

Windows has a hidden folder called C:\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5, which you cannot view under any settings in an explorer window, even if you have the settings to “View Hidden Files”. (It may be IE6 in Win2000 or WinXP.)

Some of the instructions may be a bit confusing, but it is assuming a basic understanding of operating a computer. If you have any problems, please feel free e-mail me.

The first thing is to ensure that all your windows that you open in your computer show the files as “Details”. When ever you open a folder, it should show, starting from the left column with “Name”, “Size”, “Type”, “Modified” and so on rather than the default large icon. To change this, with one folder open go to “View”, then click on “Details”. The go to “View”> “Folder Options”, click on “Like Current Folder” and also “Reset all folders”. Then every time you open a folder, all the contents are displayed as details.

Next, you need to rename one system folder within Windows. This only needs to be done once. Open the “C:” drive, open “Windows” and depending on your settings you may need to click on “View Details”. Find the folder named “Temporary Internet Files” and click once in the name. The name should be highlighted in blue. When it is, type in “Temp1” and press “Enter”. You will be asked if you want to rename this folder, so click “Yes”. If you want to know the reason for this it is because DOS does not recognise this folder but by renaming it like above, it does. (Yes if you want to, you are going to be using some DOS to move a file, but this is optional. What is DOS you may ask, especially the people who have never used a pre-Windows computer? For people who are using Win2000 or Win XP, you may need a Win98 boot disk to restart your computer in the DOS mode as I understand that these operating systems do not have the “Start in DOS Mode” feature. DOS simply means Disk Operating System and is not a Microsoft invention as it predates them. That is the preparation done.

The next time you are on the internet and are going to disconnect, do it this way. Right click on the connection icon on the bottom right of the screen while your Explorer window is still open and left click on “Disconnect”. You will now be disconnected but still have your last window of the site you visited still on the screen. This is important for the next operation and it is the way you should always disconnect from the internet from now on to do the following.

In that window, go to “Tools” and then “Internet Options”. The window should open in the “General” tab. Here I would suggest that you reset the “Days to keep pages in history” option to 0 or ZERO. Do that now. Then click on “Clear History”. This will clear all the history from explorer of all the pages you have visited. I suggest that you click on the “Settings” tab. I suggest that you check the bottom tab to “Never” in checking for new version option. Then move the slider bar at the bottom to as far as to the left as possible which should be about 1 Mb. The click “OK”. So now your computer will not be able to store any more than 1 Mb of data in this folder. The default is about 20 Mb.

Just this should clear some of the history that you have in this folder, which will in many cases be up to 20 Mb of wasted space. The slight downside for this, and it is just a slight one, is that some pages will take slightly longer to load.

Then you click “Delete files” option and you will be asked if you want to do this so click “Yes”. Depending on how many files you have in the folder will determine how long this will take, but it won’t be very long.

That has got rid on most of the files, but not all so there is another operation that you need to do to clear all the details. Close the Explorer window.

Go “Start”> “Find” > “Files and Folder” and click on it. Then click on the “Date” tab and click in the window for “During the previous” which should be 1 day circle. The click “Find now”. You now need to maximize the window by clicking in the second to right square in the top right of the window so the windows will fill the screen. To make this folder easier to use, I suggest that you enlarge the “Name” column by putting the cursor on the line just to the left of the “In Folder” box, left click on and hold down the button. Then you drag the line to the right so that the “Name” column fills almost half of the screen. The will only need to do this one time, provided that you close this window for the first time by going to “File” and “Exit”. If you close the “Find Files” window this time by clicking in the “X” in the top right box, for the first time, you may loose this change.

Scroll down the window until you find files in the “Windows\Cookies” folder. Put your cursor just to the right of the name of the first file but not the index, which you cannot delete. What you want to do is to delete the Cookies. Click there and drag down and if you move the cursor slightly to the left or right while you are doing this, you will see and enlarging rectangle appear. Go down to the last file in that folder and then to the left and completely under the last file and release. All the files should be highlighted in blue. It may take a little bit of practice in doing this until you can get all the files selected, particularly if the files go down past the bottom of the screen but with a bit of practice, you will get used to it.

When they are highlighted, hit “Delete” on the keyboard and the then “Yes” at the prompt. All the files you have selected will be deleted except if you have selected the index, which you cannot delete this way.

Then scroll further down the page until you get to Windows\Temp1\content.ie5. Select all the files and folders in this folder and delete them in the same way as you did above. (It will be content.ie6 if you have Explorer 6.)

Having done all of the above, you will have deleted all of the wasted space on your hard drive and only allow Explorer to have a maximum of 1 Mb storage now. It will also make it very difficult for someone to now track you activity on the Internet.

If you are doing this for the first time, you will need to increase your search several times until you do not find any more files in the above named folders. Do it in a series like 9 days, 1 month, 3 months and up to an many months as you have had your computer until you do not find any more files. The first time I did this, I eliminated 20 Mb of files, but that was because I had not set the internet setting to 1 Mb.

However there may be a way for someone to track what you have been doing by opening the Index.dat file. There are three of them in Windows in Windows\cookies, Windows\Temporary Internet Files (or Temp1 if you have renamed it) and Windows\Temp1\Content.IE5. The last one will be the largest on and in my case it go up to 1.5Mb. These files seemed to be written in machine code but they may be able to be read by someone else. However I am not sure on that point.

You can make these files much smaller and in doing so if will remove all the previous information stored in them. However, to do this you will need to use DOS and it cannot be done in a DOS window. If you are able to, you need to restart your computer in the DOS mode. In Win98SE it is Start > Programs >MSDOS prompt. If you are using a later version of the software, you will have to use the emergency boot disk. However, I cannot tell you if it starts the computer in the DOS mode. If you still have a Win98 boot disk, that will do the trick. If you cannot get a Win98 boot disk, please feel free to e-mail me and I will send you all the files, 1.3 Mb which would need to be sent in two e-mails. harryrose_nz@hotmail.com.

When you have the computer started in the DOS mode you need to type the following. The case does not matter but make it all the same

MOVE C:\WINDOWS\TEMP1\CONTENT.IE5\INDEX.DAT C:\ (These are only two spaces in that line: just after “MOVE” and just after “.DAT”) The hit Enter. The computer will confirm that the file has been move.

You can move the other two by typing the following;

MOVE C:\WINDOWS\COOKIE\INDEX.DAT C:\

MOVE C:\WINDOWS\TEMP1\CONTENT\INDEX.DAT C:\

When you do it the second time, you will get as prompt “Overwrite?” and you have to type “Y” and Enter to move.

These will greatly reduce the size of these files and only need to be moved very month or so. But people will not be able to track you web activities.