InvisiBill's PC Tech Stuff

Spam Tracing Tips
This page includes information that shows the average Joe how to interpret the information in junk email to find the right person(s) to complain to. Most spammers are violating the terms of service they agreed to, and complaining really will get them shut down.

John LoVerso's no-ads.pac
This is one of the best webjunk filters I've found. It is similar to the "hosts" file method that many people now use (or are at least aware of). A hosts file specifies IP addresses for domain names. To block junk with it, you simply tell it to supply an invalid IP address for a known junk domain. Anytime a request is made for stupidcrapidontwant.com, it is sent to an invalid IP instead of the real site, meaning nothing shows up. This is great, but is limited to whole domains; either the domain is allowed, or it's sent to a bad IP. no-ads.pac uses a dynamic proxying feature built into most browsers (it started with Netscape 2.0 when Javascript was introduced). The feature was designed to allow some requests direct access, while others were sent through a proxy server. We can use this to send junk requests to a bad IP, while all good requests get through. Wildcards allow you to block all URLs containing /ads/ with one line. At the same time, everything else on that server will appear as normal. This allows you to visit myfavoritesite.com/goodstuff/ while blocking everything in myfavoritesite.com/ad_crap/. You will find the no-ads.pac file on his site, but you will have to edit it before it will work (The file denies all requests, in order to keep people from loading it directly from his site and eating up all the bandwidth.). Just open the file in a text editor and follow the directions. I made a post on his forum describing how to add "Whitelist" and "Blacklist" sections. The whitelist section will allow you to create exceptions for sites that have good URLs that contain /ads/, /popups/, etc. The blacklist section will allow you to add your own unwanted URLs to the list and make them easy to move to John's latest update. Note that this will work for any program that uses the browser with no-ads.pac specified. Using it in IE will allow you to block spam images in Outlook Express, for example. As stated in the file, IE by default caches proxy requests by domain name. Once IE has looked up and figured out whether a certain domain name should go through the proxy or not, it will use that same result for every request under that domain name. This post lets you add a checkbox to the Internet Options to easily change this setting. Without the change, each request won't be computed, so either good URLs will get blocked or bad URLs will get through, depending on which was computed first.

Phoenix (Open source freeware)
Phoenix is a small, fast browser based on the Mozilla source code. Personally, I feel that Mozilla is a much better alternative to Netscape, without as much extra junk (which I don't want anyway). Phoenix is one step further. It is a browser only (no email, composer, etc.), with a very minimalistic approach. It retains all the good features of Mozilla, and adds a few improvements of its own, while still remaining small and simple. One of the biggest advantages over Mozilla in my mind is the selective popup blocking. You can choose to allow certain sites to create popup windows, whereas Mozilla simply lets you turn popups on or off. I hate ads that force their way onto my screen, but I do visit a few sites that use popup windows for legitimate purposes.

DerekWare HTML Author 3.0 Beta 4 (Freeware)
This is the HTML editor I used for making this page. It's like Notepad, but with features aimed specifically at creating HTML. It allows you to easily apply tags to selected text, including your own custom tags. The author of the program, Derek Smith, seems to have dropped off the face of the Internet, so this is a local copy of the file, which is actually from the middle of 1996. If you want a simple but effective HTML code editor, you probably won't find much better than dwHTML.

RogSoft NotePad+ (Freeware)
Like the Notepad included with Windows, this is a simple text editor. However, it adds some nice improvements over the MS program. I use this as a replacement for notepad.exe on all my systems. Another classic from 1996 which still competes with the latest software.

MailWasher (Tipware)
This is a small program for checking and filtering your email. It can access standard POP3 as well as Hotmail and MSN accounts. It allows for blacklists, whitelists, custom filters, and DNS blacklist checking. You can delete and/or bounce unwanted emails, making the sender think the address is no longer valid. You can use it as long as you like for free, with only a small banner asking you to register, which is as low as $3. For $20 or more, you get access to their support desk also.

MailWasher Pro ($29.95)
All development efforts are now going toward MailWasher Pro, which is now being sold under a new brand, Firetrust. As promised, existing MailWasher registered users can get a free upgrade. They also have some other products including Benign, an email neutralizer that removes harmful code ($34.95), and a shared spam database which allows users to filter out spam that others have already received.

NATATA Anti-Spam Encoder (Freeware)
This program converts email links into code. It's similar to the "%20" you see in place of spaces in a URL. Essentially, %20 is the space in another format. This program encodes your links into this format also, which makes it harder for harvesting bots to pick up your address and add it to spam lists. It looks fine on the page because the browser decodes it. But if the spammer looks at the code of the page, the "garbage" is there rather than the plaintext email address. You can use the Quick Encode page to convert just email addresses into code. Convert your address and paste it on your page any time you need it. If you have a webpage with an email address on it, you should check this one out. For example, &#105&#110&#118&#105&#115&#105&#98&#105&#108&#108&#64&#105&#110&#118&#105&#115&#105&#98&#105&#108&#108&#46&#110&#101&#116 is the code for my email address. If you look at the source, you'll see that I had to add meaningless tags between the & and # for each converted letter so that it would break it and display the code, instead of converting it to regular text, like this: invisibill@invisibill.net. If you look at the source, you'll see that this is the exact same string, but without the extra tags to "break" the automatic conversion. &#64 is the code for @, so simply substituting that in your links would probably be enough to throw off most spammers, without much work on your part.

Kerio Personal Firewall (Free for non-commercial use)
KPF is the continuation of Tiny Personal Firewall 2. The team that wrote TPF started Kerio, and TPF2 became KPF2. TPF3 was basically a new product. Anyway, this program is just about as good as any firewall I've used. It's very simple, while containing many powerful features. It has program signatures so that an unwanted program can't masquerade as a trusted app. It has an "Ask" mode similar to ZoneAlarm, so that you can build rules as you go (instead of having to build rules manually). All in all, I find it very much like ZA, but with a simpler, more professional-looking interface. The only feature I find missing is a "changes frequently" option, which disables signatures for programs that change a lot (EverQuest seems to update daily). I have noticed a bug with network mask rules for the LAN. When a PC initiates a connection and I make a rule for it, changing the rule to include the whole netmask causes it to not work. Next time a PC on the LAN (including the original PC) makes this same request, it sees it as a new connection not covered by an existing rule. I'm not sure where the problem is exactly, but I have seen it do this in multiple situations. Other than that, I'm completely satisfied with this program. For security purposes, it's the firewall's rules that are most important. So long as the firewall software works correctly, there's not a whole lot of difference between different programs.

IMAP Notify (Freeware)
As the name implies, this is a small program that checks an IMAP mail account for new messages. It can notify you in several ways, including a status box, sound, and MS Agent. You can check multiple accounts, and have different notification methods for each (e.g. a different sound for each account). This is a great alternative to keeping your full email client running to monitor your IMAP accounts.

SmartFTP (Freeware for personal use)
This is a simple Explorer-like FTP client. It allows you to drag and drop files to and from servers. It supports all the features any good FTP client should have, including direct server to server transfers.

Layer 2/3/4 Switching Overview
This Black Box article has a good overview of the different layers of a network, and describes switching at the different levels. searchnetworking's OSI definition also describes the different layers.

Network Notepad (Freeware)
"Network Notepad is a program for creating interactive network diagrams with user definable management features such as point and click telnet." I use this program mostly for creating network diagrams, though it can do much more than that. If you're looking to make some pictures of network setups and/or do some simple network management, you should take a look at this program.

TCPNetView (Freeware)
This small program scans your LAN and lists each computer's hostname, IP address, MAC address, and the SMB comment. You can save the results to a text file, and the program supports Russian and English interfaces.

SuperScan (Freeware)
This is a simple GUI port scanner. It allows you to create port lists with descriptions, and choose to scan a range of ports, all listed ports, or all ports. Inside that range, you can choose to scan only listed ports. This is an easy way to see where your computers are open for access. Foundstone has more free tools available on this page as well.

Look@LAN (Freeware)
This program scans your LAN and provides a lot of information about the computers on it.

WinSCP (Freeware)
WinSCP is a secure copy program for Windows. It's main use is for transferring files to a remote host with SSH. I use it to manage files on our Linux-based router from my PC.

SSH Secure Shell (Free for non-commercial use)
This is a Windows SSH client. It allows secure terminal access similar to Telnet. This is another one I use for maintaining the Linux server. This version does not include PKI and PKCS #11 functionality.

Active Server Watcher (Freeware)
This program monitors websites and alerts you if they are unreachable. You can use this to monitor your cable modem's web configuration address, and it will alert you whenever your cable goes down. SmartLine has more freeware available on this page also.

Depicus Wake On Lan
This site has a lot of information and free software for implementing WOL.

WinKey (Freeware)
This little program allows you to create keyboard shortcuts with your Windows logo key. It allows you to choose your own program to open, or many Windows options (My Computer, Dial Up Networking, Minimize/Maximize Active Window, etc.). It also includes a standalone task manager for use with Win9x, similar to the one included with WinNT.

Camtech 2000 IE Restrictions (Freeware)
This little app will let you easily change many "hidden" settings in IE4+. Some of them are aimed more at network administration, while some are handy for making sure unwanted sites don't change your preferences. Camtech 2000 also has many more useful freeware apps, including MyIPs, which shows both your LAN and public IP addresses.

Windows Service Pack Slipstreaming
Starting with Windows 2000, Service Packs can be "slipstreamed" into the install files. When this set of install files is then used, the resulting Windows installation will have the Service Pack installed already. If you need to do a lot of OS and SP installs, this feature will save tons of time. I haven't run into the situation myself, but I suppose it would also help in systems that have issues with the original version, but were fixed with a Service Pack. In this case, you're installing the SP as you install Windows, so it seems as though it should avoid any pre-SP problems that may have been encountered. http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/planning/incremental/sp2guide.asp also has some information on Service Pack slipstreaming.

Making a bootable Windows 2000 CD
This is an article describing how to use CDRWIN to burn another bootable CD using your original install CD's boot sector. There is a link to an article detailing how to extract the original boot sector as well. This is especially handy for creating a new CD using the SP-slipstreamed install files you made using the previous link. Your CD will act just like the original, but the resulting install will be at the current SP level.

Miranda IM (Open source freeware)
This is a compact little IM client. Originally it was an ICQ client, but now supports many IM interfaces, like AIM, MSN, and Yahoo (via plugins). There are also many other features that can be added via plugins. The latest nightly builds have AIM support built-in via TOC (the open, limited AIM protocol).

Bookmarklets (Free Javascript)
These are handy Javascript functions that you can bookmark. The bookmarklets cover a wide range of functions, from manipulating forms to removing annoying HTML tags to checking what server the page is running on. Each person will prefer different scripts, but everyone can probably find at least one useful bookmarklet here.

One day while doing something else, I stumbled upon the registry entries for Microsoft's IE5 Web Accessories. I looked at the stuff in the registry and the associated script files and got an idea of how it worked. I took what was there and modified it to do what I wanted. I created a "Copy Image Location" option. This is something that I'd been using in Netscape/Mozilla for years that IE still didn't have. Well, a few minutes later, IE did have it. This inspired a friend to write an addon to search IMDB for selected text, which in turn inspired me to make a few more. All of these can be installed by right-clicking the .inf file and selecting "Install". They can be uninstalled via the Add/Remove Programs applet in Control Panel. Note that Win9x has problems with long filenames in .inf files. I may need to check my older ones, and I am not the author of the IMDB addon...

Copy Image Location
Simply right-click an image to copy its URL to the clipboard.

Google Search
Right-click on selected text to search Google.com for that phrase.

FileMirrors Search
Right-click on selected text to search FileMirrors.com for filenames that begin with that text.

Open Text URL
Right-click on selected text to open a new window at that URL. I created this specifically for use on a message board I frequent that doesn't automatically create hyperlinks. In that situation, it saves a lot of cut and pasting.

IMDB Search
This is a friend's entry into IE addons. My Google search addon is basically a find-and-replace job on the text of this, so it works exactly the same way.

NewEBD (Freeware collection)
I assembled together some of the useful DOS utilities I've found, to be added to your Win98 EBD. Most of them are contained inside a .CAB file which gets extracted when you boot. A couple are driver files which simply get placed on the disk. Copy the three files, and edit the startup files (per the ReadMe.txt instructions) to load or extract the new utilities. Why did I make this a .CAB archive, instead of .ZIP (or something else)? Because I had just mastered making .CABs, and could. This is an extension to the standard Win98 EBD, so .CABs are supported natively by the OS too. Mostly though, just because I could.

My SME contributions (GPL)
This is where my Mitel SME contribs are hosted. SME is a very user-friendly gateway/server package. It allows you to create your own broadband router (similar to the Linksys models that are common now) on an old PC. It is very similar to ClarkConnect and FreeSCO in function. SME is based on RedHat and uses a template system for configuration files. This makes it very easy to customize your system to add extra features. In most cases, any RedHat RPM will work on SME, often with only a few changes to convert the config files to the template system. If you have an unused PC lying around, this option may even be cheaper than buying one of those retail broadband router boxes, and it's definitely more powerful.

More to come!

invisibill@invisibill.net