NewsLine 2000: Tips, Tricks and Information

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In this issue:
• Email encryption/decryption (using PGP)
• Remote control sessions in Terminal Services for W2K
• Adding quick launch items to your toolbar
• How to reset a JetDirect card to factory defaults
• Computer security
• The B****** Operator from Hell
• UK Political & Government Web Sites
• Finding related cells in Excel
• Topic: Your public duty is...

EMAIL ENCRYPTION/DECRYPTION (USING PGP)

 

A lot of information needs to be transmitted by email and secured as well. I was talking to a professional association the other day that needed examination papers encrypted while the exam setting team where reviewing the questions.

Mail essentials includes server-based PGP encryption and decryption of email. This way you can exchange e-mail securely with anyone on the Internet, without fear of email interception, tampering or unauthorized reading. Because the encryption/decryption of email messages is completed at server level, it is totally transparent to users. This eliminates the need for end-user training and saves costs as an encryption package need not be installed on every machine.

Mail essentials uses PGP encryption, which is widely used and supported by all popular email clients. You can also use the encryption module to send webform output from your website (such as order forms with credit card information) securely to your email server.

See http://www.c2000.com/products/sec_mail.htm for more information  

REMOTE CONTROL SESSIONS IN TERMINAL SERVICES FOR W2K

 

One of the great features of Terminal Services in Windows 2000 is the SHADOW command which lets you view and control remote sessions. I love this tool.

You can set this up from the command line as follows:

Firstly, you find the name of the session to control. Use QWINSTA to list the current sessions:

G:\>qwinsta
SESSIONNAME USERNAME ID STATE TYPE DEVICE
console Administrator 0 Active wdcon
rdp-tcp 65536 Listen rdpwd
>rdp-tcp#10 Administrator 1 Active rdpwd
rdp-tcp#11 Administrator 2 Active rdpwd

(The ">" indicates the current session, don't forget you can only do this from a terminal services session yourself. It cannot be initiated from a console).

Next, use

SHADOW [sessionname]

for example

SHADOW rdp-tcp#11

It may take a little while to connect and get approval for the session, so your session might appear frozen for a while. Then your session will be replaced by the remote session. Great!

You can now view what is happening and what the remote user does, better still you can take control using your own mouse and keyboard and show a remote user details or just check things out.

I love this facility.

When you want to quit the session, press Ctrl-* (on the numeric keypad).

See http://www.c2000.com/mswindow for more information  

ADDING QUICK LAUNCH ITEMS TO YOUR TOOLBAR

 

The quick launch bar sits to the right of the start button and lets you launch applications (or files) with a single click.

All you need do is find the item on the start menu (or in Explorer) and just drag it to the quick launch bar and select "Create Shortcut Here".

To remove an item just right-click and select Delete.

See http://www.c2000.com/mswindow for more information  

HOW TO RESET A JETDIRECT CARD TO FACTORY DEFAULTS

 

If you are unable to find instructions for your particular printer and card model at this URL, take the following steps based on the type of JetDirect Card that you are trying to reset:

Internal cards:

1) Turn off the printer.
2) Take out the JetDirect card and let it sit overnight.
3) Insert the card back into the printer.

External cards:

1) Hold down the Test button and unplug the power cord from the box.
2) Reconnect the power cord.

Internal cards on HP Printers

Most HP printers with internal Jetdirect cards can be reset to factory defaults (or cold-reset) by turning the printer off and holding down the ONLINE or GO button while turning the printer back on. The printer control panel display should read "Cold Reset" or "Restoring Factory Settings" or something similar.

If the HP Jetdirect print server is installed in an HP LaserJet II, IID, III, or IIID series printer, turn off the printer, then turn it on while pressing the STATUS button on the HP Jetdirect print server for five seconds. This will reset the Locally Administered Address on Token Ring XIO cards.

To cold reset an HP Jetdirect external print server, unplug the power cord from the HP Jetdirect print server, then hold down the TEST button for five seconds while plugging in the power cord. This will reset all settings on the HP Jetdirect print server.

See http://www.c2000.com/uniplex for more information  

COMPUTER SECURITY A simple test of your computer security

 

Check out Shields Up! A utility site at http://grc.com which you can use to test the security of your component. This little utility you run directly over the web and it tries to (safely) hack into your machine.

Now, this is not the same as a full blown Intrusion Detection Test, you would want to consider a product like Symantec's NetRecon for that. But for home users or small corporates this is a good place to start.

Look at this way. If Shields Up! finds problems you have to resolve those first before you can move on to fixing some of the more esotoric hacks.

See http://www.c2000.com/products/sec_recn.htm for more information  

THE B****** OPERATOR FROM HELL

 

The BOFH used to be required reading for Sys Admin's if only to get the best ideas for the next computer wheeze, well you can now read the latest is BOFH's and the Pimply Faced Youth at http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/30/index.html

Incidentally, The Register is generally a good place of techie news.

See http://www.c2000.com/links for more information  

UK POLITICAL & GOVERNMENT WEB SITES By James Hatts

 

The Internet has opened up a new way for governments to communicate with citizens, and for citizens to access government information from their homes and offices. Some government organisations have embraced this new technology wholeheartedly, some still have a long way to go. The rapid expansion of Internet access has now reached the stage where people expect, by right, to be able to access government information online and communicate electronically with departments and agencies. This article examines some of the resources currently available.

Political Portals
-----------------

Political Resources on the Net has an excellent clickable map of world regions leading to a page of flags. The country level pages are rather confusing, but the sheer amount of information means that persistence will be rewarded.

Julian White's British Politics Page is another comprehensive resource - the Westminster Diary is worth checking out for the inside gossip.


Parliament
----------

The UK Parliament site at is a big disappointment. It is infrequently updated and poorly designed. There is a long way to go. The list of MPs does include links to some MPs' websites, but it is by no means a comprehensive list. The biggest set of links to MPs' web sites is at .

If you have been baffled by confusing parliamentary terms BBC Online offers an excellent A to Z of Parliament .


Government
----------

The CCTA Government Information Service is the best starting point if you are looking for any UK governmental information. The Organisation Index includes local authority websites.

The high profile 10 Downing Street site has now been relaunched and is a much more fitting web presence for the Prime Minister's office and residence. The site achieves a good balance between government information and lighter features. You can sign up to receive updates by email.

Devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland has spawned a new set of websites for the newly created institutions.

The Scottish Executive is a good starting point for information on the Scottish government, whilst the Scottish Parliament has a vastly superior web site to the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.

The National Assembly for Wales has a particularly good sitemap showing how all of the sections fit together.

The Northern Ireland Executive and Northern Ireland Assembly sites are not quite as polished as those of their Scottish and Welsh counterparts, but provide useful sources of official documents relating to the peace process.

The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions has finally provided some proper information about the Mayor and Assembly for London on the Web, via the site. Until the new system comes into operation the Government Office for London continues to oversee the capital's relationship with central government.


Broadcasting
------------

There are two live video streams broadcasting the proceedings of the House of Commons - the cable and digital channel BBC Parliament is at , whilst a little-known broadcaster, The Parliament Channel has a rival feed also in RealVideo format. Details of the other BBC political programmes available on the internet can be found at .

And if you miss Prime Minister's Question Time on a Wednesday, C-SPAN rebroadcast the proceedings on the Internet every Sunday. There's even a RealVideo archive.


Political News
--------------

If you can't survive without a regular fix of political news, the news aggregation site moreover.com is a good place to start. For UK politics try , for US politics go to http://www.moreover.com/uspolitics>. You can even sign up to have the headlines sent to your mailbox every day. Naturally, BBC News Online and PA News are other good sources.


Political Parties
-----------------

The main UK political parties have all launched their "second generation" web sites, having learnt some hard lessons from the criticisms of their initial efforts.

Labour's current slick web site was unveiled by Tony Blair at the 1999 party conference, and is backed by big names including Oracle and Freeserve as part of a deal that saw Freeserve CDs mailed to all party members.

The Conservative Party site is business-like, but unfortunately the Java scolling news panel crashed my browser.

The Liberal Democrat site is slightly more modest than the others, but is perhaps more effective in communicating straightforward information to party workers and prospective members alike.

The three main parties all urge browsers to "Join now!", but how much do they conform to their own party policies on promoting e-commerce? The Liberal Democrats have an online form that looks promising until you see the line that says "Someone will get back to you in the next couple of weeks". The Labour site has a "security pledge", but in fact the default form is insecure and it is necessary to click on a
special link to access the secure area. Only the Conservative Party site takes users direct to a secure membership form.

There is a good set of links to political parties with UK, European and Scottish Parliament representation on the 10 Downing Street site at .


Europe
------

European Union sites can be accessed via Europa at . The European Parliament is at . Want to know the words for "European Parliament" in eleven languages? This is the place to find out.



James Hatts is Website Manager at Politico's , the high-profile Westminster political bookstore and publishing company, where he has recently overseen the launch of the Politico's Online Bookstore. He is also Website
Producer for London SE1 , the local information site for London's South Bank area. In addition, James has acted as an Internet consultant to several voluntary sector organisations. He can be contacted at .

See http://www.c2000.com/lgovt for more information  

FINDING RELATED CELLS IN EXCEL

 

The first two shortcuts select cells which are referred to by formulas in the current cell (or selected cells)


CTRL-[ (open square bracket).

Select cells that are directly referred to by formulas in the selection

CTRL-SHIFT+{ (open curly brace)

Select all cells that are directly or indirectly referred to by formulas in the selection



The second two are the reverse, they select cells which refer TO the cell (or cells) you currently have selected.


CTRL+] (closing bracket)

Select only cells with formulas that refer directly to the active cell

CTRL+SHIFT+} (closing brace)

Select all cells with formulas that refer directly or indirectly to the active cell

See http://www.c2000.com/mswindow for more information  

TOPIC: YOUR PUBLIC DUTY IS...

 

Subject: Re: Your public duty is...
From: stumo@*****.com (Stuart Moore)
Newsgroups: cam.transport

On Sat, 7 Apr 2001 13:27:44 +0100, "dodger"
> --
> dodger
> "Your e-mail is slow because Tony Blair has to read it first"

On the other hand, if it was George W reading it we'd be waiting days. . .

See http://www.c2000.com/fun for more information

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