Blog for "the-enabler" of the letsnet.org network

Freebie: AirSnare. Keep An Eye On Your Network

If you have a wireless network at home or at the office, you inadvertently may be providing internet access to anyone who walks by with a laptop computer and a wireless network card. Depending on what those strangers do, it might land you in a world of trouble.

Increasingly, people are hijacking open wireless internet connections to send spam and commit crimes. One man in Toronto, Canada recently was arrested for downloading child pornography while using an unsuspecting homeowner's wireless internet connection.

AirSnare is a free tool that monitors MAC addresses, which are unique addresses assigned to every network device on your Local Area Network (LAN). AirSnare notifies you when it detects a new MAC address tapping into your LAN. AirSnare even tells you where the users are surfing and allows you to notify them that you're watching their network activity.

Although it is intended as a tool for watching for people connecting to wireless internet access points, AirSnare also works fine on traditional wired networks. Any device connected to your LAN will be detected and AirSnare will sound an alert. This makes it useful for detecting unwanted intrusions. In addition, it will launch a packet sniffer called Ethereal if that program is installed.

If you want to allow someone to connect to your network to surf the internet, you can use AirSnare to send them a message letting them know they are welcome to surf, but that their activities might be monitored (assuming the person is using Windows NT, 2000 or XP).

AirSnare is freeware. The author asks for donations, so click that Paypal link if you become a frequent user of the program.

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WHAT WAS MY MOTHER THINKING?

How ever did we survive??? Life was sure different in days gone by.

My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread
mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach,
but we didn't seem to get food poisoning.

My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter
AND I used to eat it raw sometimes too, but I can't remember getting
E-coli.

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead
of a pristine pool (talk about boring).

The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and
a pager was the school PA system.

We all took gym, not PE ... and risked permanent injury with a pair of
high top Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training
athletic shoes with air cushion soles and Built in light reflectors. I
can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they
tell us how much safer we are now.


Flunking gym was not an option ... even for stupid kids! I guess PE
must be much harder than gym.

Every year, someone taught the whole school a
lesson by running in the halls with leather soles on linoleum tile and
hitting the wet spot.

How much better off would we be today if we only knew we could have
sued the school system.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem
and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative
attention. We must have had horribly damaged psyches.

I can't understand it. Schools didn't offer 14 year olds an abortion
or condoms (we wouldn't have known what either was
anyway) but they did give us a couple of baby aspirin and cough syrup
if we started getting the sniffles. What an archaic health system we
had then. Rememberschool nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything.

I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.


I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station,
Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital cable stations.

I must be repressing that memory as I try to rationalize through the
denial of the dangers could have befallen us as we trekked off each
day about a mile down the road to some guy's vacant
20, built forts out of branches and pieces of plywood, made trails, and
fought over who got to be the Lone Ranger. What was that property owner
thinking, letting us play on that lot? He should have been locked up
for not putting up a fence around the property, complete with a
self-closing gate and an infrared intruder alarm.

Oh yeah ... and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I
got that bee sting? I could have been killed!

We played king of the hill on piles of gravel left on vacant
construction sites and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48 cent
bottle of Mercurochrome and then we got our butt spanked. Now it's a
trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle
of antibiotics and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for
leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.

We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either because if we did, we
got our butt spanked (physical abuse) here too ... and then we got
butt spanked again when we got home.

Mom invited the door to door salesman inside for coffee, kids choked
down the dust from the gravel driveway while playing with Tonka trucks
(Remember why Tonka trucks were made tough...it wasn't so that they
could take the rough Berber in the family room), and Dad drove a car
with leaded gas.

Our music had to be left inside when we went out to play and I am sure
that I nearly exhausted my imagination a couple of times when we went
on two week vacations. I should probably sue the folks now for the danger
they put us in when we all slept in campgrounds in the family tent.

Summers were spent behind the push lawn mower and I didn't even know
that mowers came with motors until I was 13 and we got one without an
automatic blade-stop or an auto-drive.

How sick were my parents? Of course my parents weren't the only
psychos. I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his
tricks on the front stoop just before he fell off. Little did his Mom know
that she could have owned our house. Instead she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck.

To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they
were from a dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known that?
We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes? We
were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac!

Think on it!

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OK, THERE were updates yesterday (Wednesday) for windows. Did you check to make so your up-to-date. Again Microsoft NEVER sends email about updates. If you get an Email just DELETE it. Don't open it, the BAD guys sent it.

And check out the "licks" list, over there on the left, I added a new listing. Not that there's anything new about the software. Ad-Aware. I'm changing subjects here, Ad-aware is Anti-spyware software. Free too. Although is you find you like it, you can buy it and it well do it's thing for you alittle EZer. Spyware is a great way to TREAK where you go on the net. And to find out about you, and get the who, what , where, when, and why of you. If you kept going to the XXX website once a week, you going to kept getting emails on the subject. Spyware works in the "background". See may not see or maybe feel a thing. But if you've ever had your "HOME PAGE" change on you, you got spyware reporting to someone on you and what you do. If you spend more than 5 hours a week online, your got spyware in your computer. If your browser kepts crashing, your got spyware. Go check out Ad-Aware.

Alone with Anti-virus, and windows updates, you need an Anti-spyware software.

***VIRUS UPDATES Reminder
It's Tus. or Thur. , time to update the virus definitions. Yes, twice a week. That's being safe. And as you do that, if you use Norton, which as of 1-05-04, I still think is the best. (this well change, once McAfee was) Norton well update the program as well.

Do so sometime after 9AM GMT, or 1 PM EST US, 4PM PST US.

And if it's Tusesday, check out Tech Tuesday at Yahoo and even if it isn't.

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Money Matters
DJIA 10,537.77 +110.59 +1.06%
S&P 500 1,129.55 +8.33 +0.74%
NASDAQ 2,107.94 +11.50 +0.55%

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From: Steelhoof, member of letnet.org

I wondered how long folks could keep quiet.
At her Keynote address for the CES conference
recently, Carly Fiorina, CEO HP
declared that all HP systems would be designed to
protect DRM.

As HP is a major supplier of systems to
corporations, I can see this could
be a selling point. The notion, however, to make
all consumer systems
compliant is a step beyond. In the past business
platforms and
"SOHO/personal user" systems had different
mainboards, but almost everythin
else is shared and from Industry Standard
manufactrers.

Will they require CD/DVD burners follow a new DRM
standard? and how long
until there is a software fix? and will it cripple
use of old stuff?

The dialog is beginning. Should we all go quietly
into the showers?I wondered how long folks could keep quiet.

At her Keynote address for the CES conference
recently, Carly Fiorina
declared that all HP systems would be designed to
protect DRM.

As HP is a major supplier of systems to
corporations, I can see this could
be a selling point. The notion, however, to make
all consumer systems
compliant is a step beyond. In the past business
platforms and
"SOHO/personal user" systems had different
mainboards, but almost everythin
else is shared and from Industry Standard
manufactrers.

Will they require CD/DVD burners follow a new DRM
standard? and how long
until there is a software fix? and will it cripple
use of old stuff?

The dialog is beginning. Should we all go quietly
into the showers?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/35/34848.html

HP users cry foul at death of the open PC
By Ashlee Vance in Chicago
Posted: 13/01/2004 at 17:41 GMT
Get The Reg wherever you are, with The Mobile
Register


Letters re: HP declares war on sharing culture

Based on early feedback, it seems that HP confused
its corporate needs with
customer needs when announcing its commitment to
DRM last week at the CES
conference. A boycott of HP's consumer products is
the last thing the
company's struggling PC business needs, but that is
exactly what some
readers are discussing. We'll see if HP's decision
to end the open PC pays
off in the long run.

While we received countless letters, we can only
print some of the best. And here they are.

I guess Carly decided that the 60 plus million PC
owners in the USA who use
file sharing applications (and the many hundreds of
millions worldwide) must
not be part of HP's core PC market. I wonder where
she will find 60+ million
PC buyers in the USA who don't believe they need to
try something before
they buy it.
...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Bill Ries-Knight
My views on spam and SCO
http://www.ries-knight.net/index.html

---

TECH REMINDER
OK, It's Wednesday again, and Wednesdays are "Windows update days", have you, did you, or maybe your computer is on AUTO it updates on it's own. Well you gotta check! So, on Thursdays when your updating you Anti-virus software find out...

Blogging tools

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Maybe another great move by Yahoo to handle spam. Let them know weather or not you like the idea and maybe they'll do it. Boy, I sure hope so.

TECH STUFF

Judge Deborah Batts of the Southern District Court of New York granted 1-800 Contacts an injunction prohibiting WhenU from sending pop-ups based on trademarked search terms relating to '1-800 Contacts' and requiring that the trademarked terms be removed from its search terms database.

This is a significant victory for web publishers outraged at companies such as WhenU, Gator/Claria, Ezula and others. These companies produce and distribute parasitical software programs that are attached to popular freeware and install alongside them, not always with the knowledge of the user.

These programs pop up annoying advertisements based on searches and keywords related to the content on web sites with whom they have no business relationship and divert ad revenue from those web sites. Many large web publishers and online businesses have been battling in the courts for years to put an end to these parasitical advertising practices.

I look forward to the day when this business model is outlawed altogether. Why should these companies profit from traffic to web sites they had no part in producing? Not being capable of generating interest in your own site or product is not an excuse for stealing it from others.

***VIRUS UPDATES Reminder
It's Tus. or Thur. , time to update the virus definitions. Yes, twice a week. That's being safe. And as you do that, if you use Norton, which as of 1-05-04, I still think is the best. (this well change, once McAfee was) Norton well update the program as well.

Do so sometime after 9AM GMT, or 1 PM EST US, 4PM PST US.

And if it's Tusesday, check out Tech Tuesday at Yahoo and even if it isn't.

---

A $200.00 computer that you can buy locally, click link
And try out a new operating system. It's fast enough at 1.3 and it's big enogh woth a 30 GB hard drive, also comes with Open Office software (word processing, spreadsheets, drawing and presentation tools), games, Internet access, multimedia and other utilities.

---

Another "why" Yahoo mail is best

This entery is for those who already have told Yahoo that they want the "Yahoo Mail Plus" size Yahoo mail box. Or for those who were thinking of going that way and haven't. This is also for those who are thingking about it. Believe it or not I've had "Mail Box Plus" for some time, but hadn't really looked at the way I should have. And had missed the "Address Guard". In Address Guard, you make up what Yahoo calls a "Disposable Address". You can go to Yahoo mail to see it for yourself. But the jist of it is that you make up this Disposable address so that when and if someone finds the address you can just delete it and start over with another. And you can have as many working for you as you want all at the same time.
What make this work is kind of the same thing that the spammers do, you change the address a little and you stay alive. here there are two parts to the part of these addresses that is infront of the "@yahoo.com". The first part is a "base" which is like setting up another name for your self. The second part, that is still in front of the @ sign, is the part that should tell you where you are using this "disposable address". Here is what it might look like. Lets say you come up with "Im_no_smuk_over_spam" for your BASE NAME. And your going to use it at "buy_it_all_here.com". So you'd add something like that to your base name,Yahoo will put in the - for ya, "Imnosmukoverspam-atbuyhere" Yahoo also put the "@yahoo.com" in for ya too. Now if ya use your base name somewhere else you go back to your "Address Guard" and add an other "disposable address" to your list and change the part that show you what website your useing this at.
The real nice kicker is that you can change your display "Inbox" so that when your looking at your mail the display will show you what website your email was grabbed at. So, you see the "Sender" then the "Recipient", then the "subject". Under the "Recipient" you will see your reg. yahoo address and your disposable addresses as well. Now, if your disposable start getting use for spamming you you can stop doing business with them or useing them OR you can set up a new folder for just that disposable address, because you still want to stay with that website. Or have all email for that disposable address sent right to your "Bulk" folder by useing a filter to have that happen.
What I'm saying here is with Yahoo you get a lot for the Buck. Now if your not useing anything but the FREE Yahoo email. Your going to have to come up with an annual fee of $29.95. $30 bucks. That's $2.50 a month. And what do you get?; 1. you go from 6MB to 25MB and if you think you want more you can go up to 50mb or 100mb. But for $30 you get that almost 6X's the stroage., the Disposable addresses, you go from 100 to 200 blockable addresses, and on the fun side of Email you get the smilies to put in your email as well as the what Yahoo calls "Stationery". That's the background that you've seen me use. All fun. Also your can attach larger attachments. Very handy. Really, today the larger attachment is almost a most. And I didn't even say anything about how Yahoo scans your mail and attachments. Yahoo is the place for mail. I've been saying that for 7yrs. now and I don't know of any one else I can say that about. Yahoo is a leader. So, you get more earlier than others.
Which how much of your spam is coming from websites like your BANK, YOUR CREDIT CARDS, GOOGLE, AOL, ONLINE STORES, YOUR ELE. CO., GREETING CARD SITES, TELEPHONE CO.,ETC. Email is not just "a fun thing" anymore, you use it for Real life stuff. Tread yourself RIGHT. $2.50 is not that much to pay to put that much fun back in your life.
I have to tell you, I almost didn't spend the time I just spent telling ya all of this and cutting myself off from so much money, but things are so bad with "spyware" and hijacking of your browsers that I didn't want anyone to say to me that "you should have told us".
Be safe out there,
D, now you know how I spent my weekend

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An oldie but ask for again and again:
Viewing Windows 98 Properties

Face it. In Windows 98, My Computer and Windows Explorer don't volunteer much information about your files, folders, or hard drive. Most of the time, they merely list file and folder names in alphabetical order. Here are a couple ways to see all the gory information about files, folders, and disk drives.

While holding down Alt, double-click on any file, folder, shortcut, or icon on your desktop. A box opens on-screen and reveals that little doodad's properties: its size, name, birth date, and the date it was last saved. You also find a list of its attributes: technical information about the file's various technical switches.

If you click on a shortcut, however, the properties box only tells you information about the shortcut. To see information about the real thing — the file, folder, or drive that the shortcut points to — click on the properties box's Shortcut tab and click on the Find Target button. That sequence brings the real thing to the screen.Viewing Windows 98 Properties


Face it. In Windows 98, My Computer and Windows Explorer don't volunteer much information about your files, folders, or hard drive. Most of the time, they merely list file and folder names in alphabetical order. Here are a couple ways to see all the gory information about files, folders, and disk drives.

While holding down Alt, double-click on any file, folder, shortcut, or icon on your desktop. A box opens on-screen and reveals that little doodad's properties: its size, name, birth date, and the date it was last saved. You also find a list of its attributes: technical information about the file's various technical switches.

If you click on a shortcut, however, the properties box only tells you information about the shortcut. To see information about the real thing — the file, folder, or drive that the shortcut points to — click on the properties box's Shortcut tab and click on the Find Target button. That sequence brings the real thing to the screen.

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OK, no real {posts} for today or Sat., I know but I'm learning html code and putting in changes to the letslets.blogspot.com that I copy from this blog that is being changed by one the other Members of this blog. That right, the-enabler blog is a team effort now. And My thanks to him. Some of the changes here are not in lets yet as they are just too much for me to handle right now. Keep watching...