C C C C N E W S L E T T E R
CENTRAL COAST COMPUTER CLUB
Santa Maria, California
VOLUME XV: NUMBER 5 MAY, 2000
NEXT MEETING: MAY. 16, '00 7:00PM KNOLLWOOD VILLAGE 4012 S. BRADLEY
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| CONTENTS |
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(1) Officers, Helplines, S.I.G.s
(2) President's Corner Charles Barney
(3) Editor's Comments Somebody Else
(4) April Internet S.I.G. Dick Trissel
(5) Web Wonders Mal Plambeck
(6) Intruder Alarm Ray Isenson
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Officers Helplines
President Juno
Charles Barney 937-1240 Gilbert Smith 925-3743
cbarney@lightspeed.net colgil1@juno.com
Vice President Windows 95
Frank Maciel 922-2318 Amy Malicki 925-5780
frm1@juno.com amymal@juno.com
Secretary Hardware & DOS
Barbara Godwin 934-9885 Ray Isenson 937-6938
yungbag@best1.net risenson@juno.com
Treasurer Voice control & Input/Output
Gerald Miller 934-1396 Amy Malicki 925-5780
gmiller33@excite.com amymal@juno.com
Librarian Desktop Publishing & scanners
Sharon Allen 928-2209 Don Harelson 934-3926
sallen4060@aol.com qef1@juno.com
Publicity Software User Identification
Bob Allington 937-9841 Fred Adams 934-1128
rwa@thegrid.net fred421@juno.com
Newsletter Editor Visual Basic
Somebody Else Gerald Miller
Gmiller33@excite.com
Program Chairman
Ray Isenson 937-6938
risenson@juno.com
Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
Windows 95/98 Specialties Internet
Amy Malicki Bob Allington Dick Trissel
amymal@juno.com rwa@thegrid.net rtrissel@slonet.org
CCCC Membership is $15 for twelve months. For this you receive:
Monthly newsletter
Access to the clubs software library
Disk of the month (usually for $1)
Helpline support
Monthly presentation
Valuable door prizes
Question and answer sessions
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CCCC Page 2 May 2000
President's Corner
By Pres. Charles Barney
Well, the year 2000 for the Central Coast Computer Club had finished the
1/3 mark after the April 18th meeting. It's hard to believe that we are
this far along in the year already! As they say, "time flies when you're
having fun." Or, from a frog's perspective, "time's fun when you're having
flies." [groan] Attendance was once again good with 82 persons present at
the meeting. There were no new sign-ups, but we had at least three
visitors that I know of who came to check us out. Hopefully they liked
what they saw and will come back.
Attendance has been increasing this year, but along with a growing
attendance comes a growing parking problem at the clubhouse as there are
only a limited number of spaces. Please carpool with someone if you can in
order to help reduce the number of cars. If all the parking spaces around
the clubhouse are taken when you arrive, you must use the "visitor parking"
areas designated at various locations around the village, or park across
Bradley Drive. It is NOT permitted to park along the streets or in
someone's driveway at the Knollwood Village. Failure to abide by these
rules could jeopardize our privilege to use the clubhouse for our meetings,
and folks, we don't want that to happen. Enough said!
Kevin Walters, owner of Comstar Computers in Santa Maria, gave us a
wonderfully informative and relaxed presentation at the April meeting.
Kevin chose to discuss a number of the "practical" aspects of everyday
computing. From the proper use of a surge protector to getting the dust
out of our computers, to upgrades and much more. Audience participation in
the form of questions was very good; an indication of the keen interest
generated among the members. I'm sure many of those present learned
something new and useful. I know that I did! We will try to get Kevin
back to speak again sometime in the future.
Our club treasurer and newsletter editor Gerald Smith has gone on a two-
month hiatus and we had to scramble to fill his "double" pair of shoes.
Former treasurer Howard Williams has graciously accepted to fill-in his old
position and Dick Trissel has courageously taken on the duty of our
newsletter production for this, the May issue. Way to go guys, now that's
what I call team spirit!
Also regarding the newsletter, please check the address label on your copy.
In addition to your name and address, this contains the expiration date of
your club membership. To serve as a reminder, the assembly team will mark
the date with a yellow stripe if your membership expires the following
month and with a red stripe if the current month is your last. If your
dues are not paid then you will no longer receive the club newsletter and
your name will be dropped from the door prize list. So make sure you
don't, as I nearly did last time, accidentally let your membership run out.
One thing that I regret about our monthly meetings is that it is usually a
harried evening for me and there is not nearly enough time to get around to
talk to all of you about your questions, concerns, ideas for the club, etc.
As your club president, I am very much interested in your input and want to
be accessible to you at times other than just for a couple hours every
third Tuesday. I encourage you to contact me either by phone or by email
(preferred) whenever you get that big brainstorm or even have a complaint
about something. Whatever. My contact information can be found at the
front of this newsletter. I am just one person. Together we are a deep
pool of resources. Hope to hear from some of you ok?
Our May meeting slips in early on the 16th this time so don't let it slip
your mind. Let's all turn out if we can. We have a very interesting
speaker lined up and will have some great door prizes too. I'll see you at
the clubhouse and don't forget to carpool!
- Charles
_____________________________________________________________________
FOR SALE COMPUTER AND COMPONENTS
Item 1. Used Micron tower, 160 Mhz CPU, 64 mb ram, 3.6 Gbyte in two hard
drives, 40x CD-ROM drive, 1.44 mb floppy drive, IBM color 600 dpi scanner,
Iomega 2 Gbyte tape drive, and 33.6 Kbps internal modem. Windows 95 system
plus other software. $250.
Item 2. New View Sonic 15 inch monitor for use with above $100.
Item 3. Used Iomega 100 mb parallel port external Zip drive. $50
Call 937-8849 Robert Chikar for software list.
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CCCC Page 3 May 2000
Editor's Comments
As you can see, the newsletter has taken on a different format. This is
because Somebody Else is the temporary editor for May. The editor is
Somebody Else because whenever anyone is asked to do the editing job, they
always say, "Let Somebody Else do it."
Jerry Miller was gracious and volunteered to do the newsletter for the past
three months. Jerry is plenty busy with being the club treasurer, and
shouldn't have to do the newsletter, also.
We have around 120 members in our club. Do you realize that if each member
did the newsletter one month, his turn would not come up again for ten
years? I don't know about you, but I doubt I will be concerned about the
CCCC newsletter ten years from now. Besides, it's a great motivation
toward learning a word processor or publishing program.
I had threatened to learn MSWord several times, but was never really
motivated until I volunteered to do the editing for one month. I'm not
going to fool you by saying you can whip out the newsletter in a few hours-
-a few days, maybe. I was editor for the "other" computer club off and on
for over ten years, but had available a word processor that was much
simpler and easier to use. That's the trade off--simplicity for power.
Even then, it took a couple of days to get the articles formatted, spell
checked, printed, and copied. But, the experience is extremely valuable.
Editing a newsletter is a lot like public speaking. It seems almost
everyone, initially, is afraid to get up in front of a group of people and
speak. I guess it is the fear of making a fool of themselves--that people
will laugh at them--that they will lose self esteem. It is common
knowledge that the only way to overcome that fear is to just do it. Then
you find out that there was nothing to fear. If you are hesitant to
volunteer to do the newsletter because you are afraid--hey, you only live
once (I think). I guarantee it won't kill you--it won't even hurt, much.
If your excuse is "I don't know how", well, welcome to the club. Nobody
was born knowing how to edit a newsletter. Here's your opportunity to
learn. It is a rewarding experience to create something.
So, who's going to be "Somebody Else" for the June newsletter?
Dick Trissel.
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CCCC Page 4 May 2000
April Internet S.I.G.
by Dick Trissel
We had a very lively 33 attendees to the April Internet S.I.G.--lot's of
fun. It was noted the present Internet S.I.G. type of meetings has been
going on for over two years. Time sure flies when you're having fun
(sounds familiar).
There was a brief review of the difference between an online service (OLS)
modem connection (similar to a bulletin board service--BBS) and a PPP
(Point-To-Point Protocol) modem connection. One example of a simple
"dialup" connection is to use the Hyperterminal terminal emulation program
and connect to the Santa Maria Public Library (925-5352). The logon ID is
INFO.
It was pointed out that, depending on whether a modem connection is dialup
or PPP, there will be a different representation of your modem connection
displayed in the Windows Systray section of the Taskbar. A dialup
connection displays a rectangle with two red/green lights simulating modem
send/receive lights. Whereas, a PPP connection displays two small monitors
that light up.
Along that same line, it was pointed out that you can have more than one
application accessing the PPP connection at once. This is demonstrated by
having a Web browser active and then run the NeoTrace program mentioned in
the newsletter (and available as a DOM from the disk library).
There was a description of the different types of free Juno services
available--Juno e-mail, Juno FreeWeb, JunoWeb $9.95/mo., and JunoWebmail.
Also mentioned was Juno Gold. There have been some instances of
installation of the Juno FreeWeb e-mail (not the JunoWebmail) that could
not display attachments, even though it recognized there were attachments.
Then we got into the subject of e-mail security. It was agreed that about
the only thing you can do is use filters in your mail reader program. And,
of course, this may filter e-mail erroneously, rejecting mail you really
wanted. One example of the need for security was an attendee that
subscribes to Earthlink but received junk from Yahoo. Complaints to Yahoo
worked for a while, but not permanently.
It was also recommended that when you forward an e-mail with a long list of
past recipients, that they be deleted from the body of the forward. And,
if you send to a long list of recipients, use BCC (blind courtesy copy).
This option may not be apparent in some mail programs--look for it.
There was mention of the use of a firewall type of program to block things
like the 911 virus. Supposedly, this virus can only affect you if you have
a phone line connection to the Internet. This excludes cable modems (which
we will probably never have from Comcast), but not DSL connections. One
attendee said his DSL line did not split to provide service to his computer
and his phone from the same line, but that the phone company ran a separate
line for his DSL. In that case, he is impervious to the 911 virus.
One person was having a problem getting a published URL to work, even
though it was typed in correctly. When this happens, you might try putting
in only the first parts of the URL, leaving off the last part after the
last slash. If that still doesn't work, lob off the next part, and keeping
working down until it does. Then, from that Web page, try to link out to
the site you were looking for.
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CCCC Page 5 May 2000
Web Wonders
by Mal Plambeck
[mal6@ix.netcom.com]
Politics
Now that the elections are approaching I thought you might be interested in
some government web sites and some e-mail addresses of your elected
officials. Just think you could e-mail you Congressperson or your Senator
and tell them just what you think of the price of gasoline. If enough
people complain, maybe they will start listening. Yeah right!. You just
might be surprised and get a response. I e-mailed Lois Capps and actually
got an answer. Be sure you let your Senator or Congressperson know you
live in their district that always encourages them to answer you. Of
course you could tell them what you think about a lot of things, but then
again maybe you'd better not.
E-Mail addresses:
president@whitehouse.gov
first.lady@whitehouse.gov
vice.president@whitehouse.gov
senator@feinstein.senate.gov
senator@boxer.senate.gov
Web sites:
[www.usademocracy.com] Very interesting site. "Click" on research and you
can find out about your elected official's voting records.
[www.uncle-sam.com] This is the greatest web site. You can go to all the
branches of government. Social Security, CIA,Supreme Court and see what
they are up to.
[www.georgewbush] Learn something about George that you don't get in a
thirty second sound byte.
[www.algore.com] This site is there to sell you buttons, bumper stickers,
T-shirts and lots of other stuff. I guess he needs more campaign fund
money.
[www.rollcall.com] All about politics. Lot and lots of interesting
reading.
[www.usademocracy.com] You can find out about all the bills coming up to be
voted on by our representatives and find out who voted and how they voted.
Pretty cool, don't you think.
[www.house.gov/capps] Check this one out and see what Lois is doing lately.
___________________________________________________________________
Cool Site of the Day
For those who like the outdoors, here is a great outdoor info site. Tons of
articles, message boards, and general information. If you enjoy hunting or
fishing, give it a look.
http://www.ool.com/
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CCCC Page 6 May 2000
Intruder Alarm
by Ray Isenson
When Windows 95 or 98 was first installed, or reinstalled, on your hard
drive your computer was given a name as was any network with which it was
associated. The chances are that you have no recall of the incident.
Would you be surprised to learn that a third party, without your
permission, may be able to get into your computer and learn these names;
and much more? Later in this article a means will be described by which you
can test your computer's vulnerability and, perhaps, have your mind
refreshed about those names.
Are you using REALJUKEBOX Player software, the free software available from
RealNetworks to download from the Internet or play CD music? If so, you're
one of more than 12 million users who've registered that software. And,
every time you run the program to listen to music you send a message to
RealNetworks identifying your computer and describing the music you're
listening to. Or, are you running RealPlayer to hear sounds over the
Internet? It will try to send a status report of some kind each time you
access the Internet.
Rumors circulated to the effect that a popular system for creating
advertiser-supported software, a system used by 400 or more advertisers,
was, in fact, functioning as an Internet "Trojan horse". The rumors stated
that the unwitting user's computer was being "inventoried", the system
registry was being scanned, and all manner of personal, private, and
confidential information was being sent out across the Internet for
collection by Aureate Media Corporation. Although a complete technical
analysis is still pending, a preliminary examination by an independent
research organization of Aureate's web site and their privacy policy
statements, while confirming that the software does create an open port
through which your personal information can be gleaned, tends to dispel
most, but not all, concerns about that company's immediate threat.
The Aureate procedure typically works by presenting to the user a
"demographic profiling questionnaire". As an option, the system can defer
the presentation of the demographic profiling questionnaire. There have
been creditable reports describing several cases of first-time hosting
application installation where the Aureate system appeared to be missing
But, in fact, it was running with full stealth, collecting data and
communicating with its remote servers without ever first presenting its
demographic questionnaire. Since each user is "branded" with a unique user
ID, they can collect and associate demographics at any later time.
Information collected by this "Spyware" program is, presumably, limited to
your computer activities associated with one or more of the sponsoring
advertisers; how long did you examine it, what links did you select, did
you order anything and the like. Nevertheless, it is certainly the case
that you should be made aware of the potential privacy and security
implications associated with the use of Aureate-hosted advertisement
supported software. In several cases of installations using this system:
NO indication was provided that the Aureate system was being installed, the
Aureate system communicates in complete secrecy, the Aureate system is
running even when its hosting program is not, the Aureate system survives
the removal of its hosting program and even then it continues to operate
secretly in the background. Further, ports created by the Aureate software
could be exploited by individuals with other motives.
Computers connected to the Internet via cable or ADSL links and allowed to
remain connected for extended periods of time are more vulnerable to
penetration than those connected via telephone modems. You might be
thinking "Hey, the Internet's a huge place, right? No one's ever
going to notice me." Sure. But technically savvy intruders are using high-
speed "Internet Scanners" that can probe every computer in a small country
within a short time! Nothing would make them happier than lifting your
personal information, credit card numbers, bank account balances, and so
forth through your computer's insecure connection to the Internet. No
Internet user can afford to be complacent.
Fortunately, you can protect yourself with little effort and at practically
no cost. With respect to the Aureate system and it's subscribers, the
direct protection is by way of a small, free, program made available for
the purpose by the Gibson Research Center (www.grc.com). The program,
"OptOut" spyware removal tool can be downloaded from their WEB page in a
matter of seconds. While on their page you can take advantage of two
additional features offered by the Center.
Press the "Test My Shields" button and, after a short wait you'll see a
report; perhaps: "Preliminary Internet connection established! Your
computer has accepted an anonymous connection from another machine it knows
nothing about! (That's not good.) This ShieldsUP! Web server has been
permitted to connect to your computer's highly insecure NetBIOS File and
Printer Sharing port (139).
Subsequent tests conducted on this page, and elsewhere on this web site,
will probe more deeply to determine the extent of this system's
vulnerability. But regardless of what more is determined, the presence and
availability of some form of Internet Server HAS BEEN CONFIRMED within this
machine . . . and it is accepting anonymous connections!"
To complete the test of your computer's vulnerability, Select the other
button, "Probe My Ports". After a short wait you'll get a report
indicating the status of a number of checks. There are more ports than can
be seen on one screen so you'll have to cursor down in the report box to
see all of the results. If any of the tested ports are open to invasion,
you'll see a red box. Click on the title just to the left of the red box
to get more information.
Digressing for a moment: California building construction laws require
that a barrier be placed between an automobile garage or car stall and the
main dwelling. This barrier intended to delay the movement of a fire from
the auto storage area to the living area is called a "firewall". That name
has been adopted by the computer world to describe any program that serves
to block intrusion from the Internet into the protected computer. If
you're going to expose your computer to the Internet even for very brief
periods of time, you are well advised to install a firewall.
Returning, then to the grc WEB page and the probe test, Following the
report is a short treatise on Stealth. Read it for a better understanding
of what the probe test was all about and how to protect yourself more
completely. Continue reading until you're directed to a free firewall
offered by ZoneLab. Click on the link to the ZoneLab WEB page and browse
through it for an even better understanding of the problem and solutions.
I suggest that you download and install ZoneAlarm 2.1. This, free to non-
business users, 1.8 MByte program will provide the protection against
unwanted intrusions.
____________________________________________________________________
To check the weather before starting a trip:
1. Go to earthlink home page (www.earthlink.com)
2. Find "Surface Weather Map"
3. Click "US Maps"
4. Get satellite pictures
5. Select US West Coast
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