NewsLine 2000: Tips, Tricks and Information

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In this issue:
• Testing for mail security with free tool
• .TV domain names now available
• Emergency Shutdown
• Printing a folder tree
• Failed to read udastc.msg
• Investigating cookies on your machine
• Moving the right layer in PaintShop Pro
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Seen on the Internet

TESTING FOR MAIL SECURITY WITH FREE TOOL Know your weaknesses before soneone else does.

 

As you know we've long recommended GFI Mail Essentials (which has come through with flying colours preventing SirCam, Nimda, BadTrans and more of the recent attacks). Well the good folks at GFI have now launched a tool that lets you test your system for mail vulnerabilities.

You can use the test zone to discover instantly if your system is secure against current and future email threats, such as emails containing infected attachments, emails with malformed MIME headers, and HTML mails with embedded scripts.

Virus-writers can modify existing viruses at any point, meaning that simply protecting against known email viruses is not enough: email systems must be secure against both current and future email threats. This can only be achieved by protecting against all currently known methods of email infection.

So, if you do one thing before christmas, why not check out your mail system now. And of course if you do have problems then rush back to us for your copy of Mail Essentials.

The test area can be found at: http://www.gfi.com/emailsecuritytest/

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

.TV DOMAIN NAMES NOW AVAILABLE along with .BIZ and .INFO too

 

Great news, you can now register .tv and .cc domain names through Centreline 2000.

.tv domain names are not just for the BBC (www.bbc.tv), anyone can register a .tv domain name.

.biz and .info domain names have got off to a very fast start, with thousands of registrations already.

Now, we won’t tell you that you need to register your domain with these new top level domains, we think there is a lot of hype and nonsense spoken about them. But, you will want to if (a) Your business suits the new domain name or (b) you are concerned about domain name squatters.

Remember that when you register a domain name with us you get a whole host of free services, including:-

- Web Forwarding
- Catch All E-mail Forwarding
- Up to 100 E-mail Forwarding Addresses
- Holding Page Wizard
- Change Name Servers
- Change IPS TAG (UK domains)
- No release fee

And if you want to look at our full web hosting service then this includes:

- Any size of web space
- Upto 1,000 email addresses
- Upto 1,000 pop3 addresses
- Ready to roll CGI scripts
- Full access logs
- Easy security and permission control
- Virtual Control Panel for very easy setup


We've looked at a lot of web hosting services over the years and we think our offering is one of the best.

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

EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN

 

Sometimes it can take forever to close a Windows 2000 system down, and when you are running a series of reboots (usually trying to debug some stupid device driver) this can be very irritating.

So, press Ctrl-Alt-Del, the usual 3 fingered salute, then hold down the Ctrl key when clicking shutdown.

Basically the system stops everything, straightaway. You won't get clean application shut downs, but all write data is correctly flushed to the hard disk.

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

PRINTING A FOLDER TREE Thank goodness for DOS, er, Command Line

 

I've always berated Windows for not having enough print options - for example there's no way in Windows to print a list of files in a folder or a folder tree.

However, you can do this in DOS, or Command Prompt as Microsoft now calls it. Start Command Prompt and type:

dir

To get a directory listing, type "dir /?" to view all the options - in fact type "dir /? | more" - otherwise all the options scroll off the top of the screen.

You can also use "tree" to get a very fancy tree display of all the folders from this one down:

C:.
+---addins
+---AppPatch
+---Config
+---Connection Wizard
+---Cursors
+---Debug
| \---UserMode
+---Driver Cache
| \---i386
+---Help
+---java
| +---classes
| | +---classes.zip
| | | +---netscape
| | | | \---javascript
| | | +---sun
| | | | +---io
| | | | +---beans
| | | | | +---infos
| | | | | \---editors


Again use "tree /?" for options.

Now any DOS command you can capture to a text file, just use "dir > file.txt" and the output from the command is sent to the file, instead of to the screen.



Windows 2000 is filled with more command line toys than you realize. I just hope some of them survive when we're forced to move to XP; there's something about that protection scheme that gives me the willies. Yes? No? Cancel? Ah, another message box asking me what I want to do. You know you could roll your own in W2k? Sure! Drop to the command prompt and run the "MSGBOX" utility. If you need assistance with interpreting the switch structure, trail the file name with a "/?" (sans quotes). Now you'll be creating message boxes left and right; use the ALT + PRINT SCREEN keyboard combo to copy the graphic to the clipboard; paste it into your favorite image editor and save it for later. Hey, remember back in the days when Windows wasn't so gooey? There's another tool that's still alive in W2k. TREE! That's right, you can run "TREE" from the command line and it'll show you the current path's hierarchical structure. Just as a reminder, any Windows user can redirect the output of any command line program to a text file. The syntax would appear something like this: "PROGRAM > TEXTFILE.TXT" (sans quotes). Useful, eh?

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

FAILED TO READ UDASTC.MSG

 

This is a horrible little problem - often seems to crop up from nowhere (though actually is usually caused by something like a system restore or moving the Uniplex system across disk partitions).

You get the message "Failed to read udastc.msg", you hunt around the system and seem to have such a file (or even more than one). So what is happening?

Actually, it's caused by losing the symbolic link from from $Uniplex/NVO to $Uniplex/NVO.subset

Fixing it is easy, remove the $Uniplex/NVO directory if it exists and then recreate the symbolic link with the unix command "ln -s $Uniplex/NVO.subset $Uniplex/NVO". For example:

rm -r /usr/UAP/NVO
ln -s /usr/UAP/NVO.subset /usr/UAP/NVO

Finally, just in case the problem persists for non root users after this, check the UAP/pc directory has write permission for all users.

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

INVESTIGATING COOKIES ON YOUR MACHINE

 

If you are one of those folks who want to see what cookies have been placed on your system to track your Internet web site usage then this is for you.

Firstly, a cookie is a web command which identifies you and your visits to web sites (only to the site that set the cookie). This is usually a useful tool and provides you better web viewing.

To view the cookies under Internet Explorer click Tools, Internet Options. Select Settings under the main tab and then View Files. This opens Windows Explorer on
\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files.

You probably want to select the Details view to get the real scoop. When I did this I was astonished to find over a 1,000 entries, most of which I did not recognise.

If you find any cookies you are suspicous of, you can just delete them on the spot.  

MOVING THE RIGHT LAYER IN PAINTSHOP PRO

 

One of the few things that really irritates me about PaintShop is that when ever I select the mover tool (by pressing shortcut "m") when I go to move an object I invariably pick up the wrong layer.

Well, you can constrain the Mover tool to affect only the active layer, just hold the key while positioning the cursor anywhere inside the image window.

See http://www.justkiss.com/psp for more information  

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

 

Special treat this week, you might want to print this section out and keep it next to your monitor for a week or two, see if you can get some new shortcuts to stick. Here's a summary of all the standard windows shortcut keys - you can use these shortcuts almost anywhere.

Windows Key Shortcuts


WIN+D - Minimize or restore all windows
WIN+E - Display Windows Explorer
WIN+F - Display Find: All Files
WIN+M - Minimize all windows
WIN+R - Display the Run command
WIN - Display the Start menu
or CTRL+ESC - Display the Start menu
SHIFT+WIN+M - Undo minimize all windows
CTRL+WIN+F - Display Find: Computer
WIN+BREAK - Display the System Properties dialog box
WIN+TAB - Cycle through buttons on the taskbar
WIN+F1 - Display Help


Standard Shortcuts

ALT+SPACEBAR - Display the current window’s system menu
SHIFT+F10 - Display the item's context popup menu
ALT+TAB - Switch to the window you last used
ALT+F4 - Close the current window or quit
CTRL+A - Select all items
CTRL+X - Cut selected item(s)
CTRL+C - Copy selected item(s)
CTRL+V - Paste item(s)
CTRL+Z - Undo last action


Windows Explorer Shortcuts

SHIFT+DELETE - Delete an item immediately, no recycle
BACKSPACE - View the folder one level up
ALT+ENTER - View an item’s properties
F10 - Activate the menu bar in programs
F6 - switch between left and right panes
F5 - Refresh window contents
F3 - Display Find application
F2 - Rename selected item

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

SEEN ON THE INTERNET Internet to the kitchen

 

Topic: Re: Programming in School
From: Steve O'Hara-Smith
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers

On Fri, 12 Oct 2001 13:18:55 -0400
Eric Sosman wrote:

ES> Without the electronics, how would you download security
ES> patches and updated virus scanners for your Internet-enabled
ES> fridge?

My fridge will not be internet enabled until there is downloadable
food. My oven gets a connection when it can actually follow a recipe without
help. Until then the net can stay out of the kitchen.

I have a similar problem with online banking - they refuse to ship
a cash dispenser peripheral and my printer isn't up to the job either.

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

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