Yahoo Small Business & PHP Scripts

Hi y'all!

It's been a year since my last post, but this one is a real beauty! I currently use Yahoo Small Business, due to the unlimited space and bandwidth, but there is no integration with any other scripts, the same way Fantastico does it!

So here's how it's done!

If you are using a PHP script that connects to a MySQL database, this
may require a database hostname, a database name, and a database
username and password.

You need to install phpmyadmin if you want to create database and
tables.Please go to below link for more information regarding
installation of phpmyadmin tool.

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/smallbusiness/webhosting/mysql/mysql-18.html

NOTE: Yahoo! Web Hosting does not support third party scripts.

Hostname
========
The hostname is always "mysql". Many scripts will set the hostname to
"localhost" by default. Please note that this will not work. You must
change the hostname to "mysql".

Database Username and Password
==============================
When you initially set up a MySQL account, you will create a database
username and password. To create a MySQL account, login to your Yahoo!
Web Hosting account. Under the "Create & Update" tab., choose MySQL
Database then create Username and Password Now.

Database Name
=============
When you initially set up a MySQL account, a database named "mysql" is
created. Please do not use the database name "mysql" as this database is
used to administrate your MySQL database environment.

NOTE: Do not delete the database named "mysql", the user "yroot", or
your own database username, as this will permanently disable your
database access.

To add a new database:

1. Log into the phpMyAdmin tool. If the directory name where you
installed phpMyAdmin is "db", you would go to:

http://www.your-domain.com/db.

You will be prompted for your database username and password.

2. Choose a new database name. Make sure this name has not already been
used.

3. In the phpMyAdmin tool, enter the database name of your choice in the
"Create New Database" field. The name you enter here is the database
name. Click the "Create" button to create the database.

http://www.indexhibit.org/forum/thread/3296/

A Basic Unix Overview

A Basic UNIX Overview

Asriel


UNIX FOR DOS ADDICTED WaReZ PuPPieZ AND THEIR PETS


Introduction
------------

One of the most common operating systems in existance is Unix. Unix
exists in many different flavors, from Berkeley BSD to AT&T System V
to SunOs. Basic working knowledge of Unix is almost essential to a
hacker, as it is the system a hacker is most likely to come across.
If you intend to use the internet at all, or to do any serious
exploration of Telenet, the ability to navigate through Unix is a
necessity. (Unix is also the single most interesting system in
existance: it's just fun to fuck with).

Unix Logins
-----------

Most Unix logins look essentially the same. A general Unix login
prompt looks something like this:

connected to five.finger.com
login:

That first line is the system identifier. Although it's not at all
essential to what you are doing, it's good to know what system you are
attempting to log on to.
The second line is what typically identifies the system you are on as
Unix. Almost all Unix systems greet a user with the same prompt:
login:.
Well, there's not much to do in Unix from the outside, and Unix
systems are typically fairly secure at this point. You may be able to
obtain a list of users, or current users, by logging in as 'who', but
other than that there are few functions available here.
Unless you are on the internet, or have accounts specifically for the
specific machine you are on, the only way on to the system is to try
the default passwords. What are the default passwords?
Unix systems come installed with certain passwords automatically. In
addition, some accounts must exist on a system. One such account is
'root'. This user is the divine Kami of the Unix system... in short,
an all access pass. Unfortunately, few systems allow root logins
remotely, and even fewer leave 'root' unpassworded. Nevertheless, it's
always worth a shot... try this:

connected to ren.stimpy.net
login: root
password: root
invalid login
login:

well, nice try anyways... other possible passwords for root include
'sysadmin', 'sys', 'admin'... you get the idea. You may also want to
try these passwords with a single digit appended (added, idiot) to
them... meaning the password 'root' could be 'root1' or 'root2'.
An interesting tip about passwords in general... many people that use
passwords under 8 characters tend to add a digit or a non-alphanumeric
character to the password. This is done in order to hinder guessing,
and to stop password breakers (more on this later). In this case, you
may want to try adding a space before root... or even an ascii 255 to
the end.
Fortunately, there is more than one default password in a unix
system... a quick list:

sys sys
bin bin
daemon daemon
rje rje
setup setup
uucp uucp/nuucp/anonymous
nuucp uucp/nuucp/anonymous
mountfsys mountfsys

In the System
-------------

Ok, at this point, I'm going to assume you've gotten past the login...
as painful as that may sound. Although Unix may be secure from the
outside, without effort from the system administrators, the inside of
the system is not.
First off, you'll likely by asked for a terminal. vt100 serves your
purposes sufficently, and it's typically the default, so hit enter.
Now, hopefully, you have a prompt. There are many different types of
unix prompts, some of which contain current directory information,
some of which are just a single character. Just don't panic when my
examples don't look exactly like what you've got on your screen.
The first thing you *need* to do on the system is establish your tty
paramters. As eldritch and arcane sounding as this term may seem, it's
actually quite simple... you need to tell the system what keys are
going to do what.
The command to set these parameters is 'stty'. Watch:

squinkyB ] stty erase ^h
squinkyB ]

There... that wasn't so bad, was it? Well, it's also pretty
meaningless to you, unless you have the ascii table memorized and are
pretty good at on-the-spot deduction.
The tty erase parameters determines which key is to be used as a
backspace. At times, this may already be set when you log in, or it
may be set to a suitable alternate (such as delete). Most of the time
the system will tell you when you log on if this is so. In this case,
we've entered ^h in order to make the backspace key, appropriately
enough, backspace.
Another extremely important parameter is 'intr'. The 'intr' paramter
tells the Unix system what you intend to use as a break character...
you should have this set to ^c.

Getting Around
--------------

A good thing to remember about Unix is that it's alot like DOS. Files
are laid out in directories just as in DOS... in fact, the only
immediate difference in the directory structures is that Unix uses a
forward slash ("/", moron!) instead of a backwards one.
Also, the basic Unix directory navigation command is identical to DOS.
In order to change directories, you use the command 'chdir', or 'cd'.
A quick example:

1 /usr1/astoria ] cd ..
2 /usr ]

Wala. That simple. Quick notes:

ю cd / will take you to root.
ю cd /*pathname* will take you to *pathname*
ю cd home will take you to your home directory.

You can make and delete your own directories with the mkdir/rmdir
commands. Simply put, mkdir makes a subdirectory off of the current
directory, and rmdir removes a subdirectory from the current
subdirectory. Good to know if you plan to do a lot of file transfers.
An important note about Unix directories, files, and concepts:
Unix is a case-sensitive operating system. Thus, the files

ю Spleen
ю spleen
ю SPLEEN
ю SpLeEn

are all different. This rule applies to directories and command line
paramters, as well as most other Unix ideas.
Another nice thing to know about Unix: Unix files are not subject to
the normal DOS 8 character limit. Thus, you can have vast filenames,
such as "this_file_ate_my_biscuit".

Some other important commands
-----------------------------

First and foremost, you should know cp. cp is the basic Unix
equivalent of the DOS COPY command. The command line for cp is
identical to that of COPY.
Next on the scale of cosmic import is cat. cat is the Unix equivalent
of the DOS TYPE command, and once again, for simple file displaying,
the command line is identical.
Variations on the theme:
pg: displayes a file page by page. Type "pg x filename", where x is a
number of lines to display before pausing and filename is the
file you wish to display.
more: displays a file screen by screen.
Stupid pet trick:
You can use your cat to copy files, simply by using the directional
operators. To copy a file from here to there using cat, simply type:

% cat here
this is the file here
% cat there
this is the file there
% cat here > there
% cat there
this is the file here

The operator ">" simply takes the output from the cat command and
places is in the location specified after it.
Another vital command to know is 'rm'. rm deletes a file from the
system, in the same way DEL would on a DOS system. Not to much else to
say.
Critical in your navigation of a Unix system is the ls command. ls is
DOS DIR on heroin. Simply type ls and you get a nice, neat list of
files in the directory.
DIR on controlled substances:
There are a few command line parameters that you should know...
foremost is l. ls -l gets you a list of files, and valuable
information about each file, including permissions (more on that
later), size, and linked files.
Another useful command for long file lists is C. ls -C gets you a
list of files in multiple columns, much the same as DIR /W would
merit a double column report of all existing files. A quick reminder:
ls -C is NOT the same as ls -c. Unix = case sensitive.
Another good command to know, mv will move a file from directory to
directory. For those of you without DOS 6.0 , mv simply copies a
file to another directory and deletes the original.
quick tip for files on the lam:
if you want to rename a file (to protect the innocent), you need to
mv a file to a different file name. A quick demo:

# ls
myfile
# cat myfile
this is my file
# mv myfile my_other_file
# ls
my_other_file
# cat my_other_file
this is my file

Another vastly important command is 'man'. In fact, man is probably
one of the most important commands extant for a beginning user... it
calls up the system's help files. To use man, simply type in 'man
command', where command is a Unix command you seek to gain
enlightenment regarding. It's a great way to gain an understanding of
Unix commandline parameters.
If you are interested in seeing who's been on of late, or just want a
few names to try to hack, type 'who'. You get a quick list of users
that have accessed the system lately. If you need to know
who you are at this point, type 'whoami'.
If you want to change your identity on the system, type 'su name'
where name is an account on the system. It'll ask you for the account
password, then, *presto*... instant transmogrification.
A Caveat for smart alec hackers:
Unix typically logs usage of the su command. While su may seem like a
great opportunity to try to hack out passwords manually without
worrying about the system hanging up after 3 attempts, it's typically
not a good idea to do this, as it may alert the administrators to
your presence.
*Numero Uno on the list of commands NEVER to use on a Unix system:
The 'passwd' command changes your password on a Unix system. Seems
innocous enough, eh? Uh-uh. If your account is active, and there's a
very strong chance that it either is or will be, there is no better
way to lose the account than to change the password, only to have the
legitimate user alert the sysadmins when he/she can't gain access to
his/her normal account (well, there are better ways... you could
simply mail the sysadmin and tell him you are trying to hack his
grandmother's life support machine through your account).
I've seen this single, quick command turn a extremely lax system
into an ironclad security compound in less than a day.
DONT-FUCK-WITH-IT.
*Numero Dos on that same list:
The 'mail' command reads and sends mail. So what? Well, unless your
account is stable (and it isn't unless you either paid for it or
killed the original owner in such a way that his body cannot claw it's
way out of it's grave to it's keyboard), the user is more likely than
not going to know if you read his mail. In addition, if you send mail
out of the system (type 'mail', and a username/address; type in your
message and end it with a ^d on it's own line), the response from your
message will likewise alert the user to your presence.

System Spelunking
-----------------

The first place you want to check out in the wild uncharted directory
tree of your friendly neighborhood Unix system is the "/etc"
directory. What's in it? The single most intensely important file on
the system (besides a world writable root owned SUID file... but don't
worry about that)... the passwd file.
What is in the passwd file?

ю a list of all accounts on the system
ю a list of the passwords for these accounts
ю a list of access levels for these accounts
ю a list of the home directories for these accounts
ю a list of information pertaining to these accounts.

Why the hell the Unix designers decided this file should be world
readable is beyond me. Be content to know that your standard everyday
run-of-the-mill-lacking-in-certified-cosmic-power 'cat' command WILL
display this file. As will pg and more. However, because most users
don't have write permissions (more on that later) to the /etc
directory, 'cat' is pretty much the only applicable command here.
However, if you need to copy the file to your own directory (for
whatever reason), just cat it there with the directional operator (>).
The catch:
Well, there are two catches here. First off, regardless of system
security, if the passwords are in the file, they are encrypted. You
can't decrypt them. Although you can get a list of accounts without
passwords this way (just look for accounts with no entry in the
password field), and a list of accounts that can't be logged onto
remotely/at all (NO LOGIN), you can't get much else. Sucks, don't it?
Notice I said 'if' the passwords are there.

Some horrible, paranoid, draconian system administrators mutilate
their passwd files in such a way that (*gasp*) the passwords don't
show up. All you get is one cold, icy X staring at you from the bowels
of Unix Shell Siberia, mocking you as you pull your hair out in
frustration (sorry, but this is a sore spot with me). The kidnapped
passwords reside in the shadow file in the /etc directory, available
with your standard everyday run-of-the-mill-but-distinct-in-the-fact-
that-only-root-level-accounts-can-use-it-to-this-extent 'cat' command.
Well, if the passwords are encrypted, what good are they?
By themselves, nothing. A account with a Unix encrypted password will
get you no further than an account with no listed password at all. You
can't even deduce the amount of characters in the password if it's
encrypted. So what's the use?
The Unix method of encrypting files is available to the public. It is
also, to most mortals, irreversable. Essentially, this means you can
encrypt a string of characters, but not decrypt it. Even the unix
system itself doesn't decrypt the password when you log on...
When you log on, the Unix system takes whatever you enter at the
password prompt, encrypts it, and matches it to the entry in the
passwd file. Thus, the Unix system never decrypts the password... it
only compares it to a different encrypted string.
While this may not sound too particularly useful at first, it is.
There are programs that have been written to do the same thing on a
personal computer... you supply it a list of passwords and a list of
words to attempt to use as passwords (called dictionaries), and it
spends the night encrypting dictionaries and matching them to password
entries. By running a dictionary through a passwd file, on a typical
system, you can usually get 10-20 accounts. Good personal computer
examples of this program idea include Killer Cracker (the industry
standard, so to speak) and CrackerJack (faster than Killer Cracker).
Quick tips for CrackerJunkies with leech access at an H/P BBS:
A standard dictionary will not uncover passwords protected with an
appended digit or non-alphanumeric character. In order to get around
this, you need only grab a program that processes the dictionary file
to add that digit to each entry in the dictionary... although this
takes longer, and you'll need to do it multiple times, you can
typically get 10 more accounts just by adding a 1 to every entry.
Files and directories in Unix are characterized further by their
permissions. Permissions are a standard system of who gets access to a
specific function of that file or directory. Standard permissions
include read, write, and execute. You can get a list of permissions by
typing 'ls -l'. The first field in the listing contains the
permissions, grouped as follows:

owner group world
--------------------
rwx rwx rwx

(Not drawn to scale... in fact, it doesn't look anything like that).
Essentially, as long as the letter is there, you have access to that
facet of the file. If the letter is not there, you'll see a dash...
meaning you don't have access to that function. An example:

rwxr-x--x

In this case, the owner of the file can Read the file, Write to the
file, and eXecute the file; members of his group (a bunch of linked
accounts) can Read the file, CANNOT Write to the file, and can eXecute
the file; and the rest of the user population CANNOT Read or Write to
the file, but CAN eXecute the file.

rwx---rwx

is a WORLD-READABLE, WORLD-WRITABLE, WORLD-EXECUTABLE file. This
simply means that anyone can read, write, or execute the file.

Another permission sometimes set to a file is the SUID bit. An SUID
file contains a smallcase s in the user executable section of the
permissions list...

rws--x--x

When you execute an SUID file, your user ID becomes that of the owner
of the file. While this may not look to important at first, by now you
should know that no really important super elite hacker concept does.
Take a look at this:

rwsr-x--x

Synopsis? It's a world executable SUID file. In essence, anyone can
execute the file, and in doing so, become the owner of the file for
the duration of the time that file is operating. However, this doesn't
get you much, because you typically can't do anything while the
programis running. More likely than not, it's calculating how many
pencils it needs to order for school tomorrow or some other such
drivel.
The real power of the SUID file comes into play in this situation:

rwsrwxrwx

You won't see a lot of these, but when you do, look out. What you have
here is a world writable SUID file... and a world writable program can
be any program on the system you have read access to. Like, say,
/bin/sh... the Unix shell...
Quick command line example... 'diablo' is a root owned, world writable
SUID file. I'm going to ignore the rest of the output of the ls
command.

#ls -l
rwsrwxrwx... ...diablo
#cat /bin/sh > diablo
#diablo
$

Oh, just so you know, the $ prompt denotes root access.
Good deal, huh? In general, if you have right privs to an SUID file,
copy it to your own directory and cat /bin/sh into it. You now have an
instant gateway to the account of the owner of that file.
If you want to find files that you can do this with, try this out:

#find / -user root -perm -4000 -exec /bin/ls -al {} ";"

This will give you a list of all root owned SUID files. If you want
more info on the 'find' command, just 'man find'.

Well, I'm overdo for an appointment on the IRC in #warez... so I'll
cut off here. I hope I've been of assistance to you.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A C T U A L A R T I C L E E N D S H E R E . . .

Please feel free to save an extra 1k of file space and invoke the DOS
EDIT CUT command at the dotted line. Do not remove the rest of this
article on penalty of law.

S00P3R GR00P-3SQU3 GR33TZ / +HANX

Greets go out to Nowhere Man, INC, THG, UNT, SaD, SoD, PTA, SOB
Thanks to... ________________________
your ad here

Current DWE Akshul M3mbre Boards:

Nitro Burnin' Funny Cars WHQ/DWEnet HOST (312)582-1115
The Prodigal Sun CHQ/MECCA (312)238-3585
Dark Waters HQ/Infosite (312)667-0222
PyroTechnics II Infosite (708)991-9403

DWE M3/\/\B3R LiST

President and Dictator for Life: Xanax
Head Courier/Warez Cracker: Asriel
Head Fisherman/Trout Expert: Changeling
Head Person That Gets Asriel Free CDs: Monk
Head Person That Gets DWE Members Free WaReZ: Pyro
Head Person That Knows More Than Asriel (Honorary Title): LVX
Head Person That Actually Wrote for DWE without Coercion: Cosmos
Head Know-It-All Stoner that runs 386bsd: Goldstein

Want to write for DWE? Neither do we. But if the spirit moves you,
write up an article about anything we haven't discussed already, and
post it somewhere in DWEnet or at any of the member boards, or call
any of the members voice and dictate it to them, or submit it to them
school newspaper of any of the members, or tack it on a bulletin board
in the Third Coast Cafe in Century Mall, and chances are it'll be
released as a s00per c00l DWE article.

W H A T F O L L O W S M U S T N O T B E D E L E T E D
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(c) 2003 Hackers-Network
Asriel(tm) appears courtesy of Hasbro, Inc.

A Basic Guide to the Internet

The Internet is a computer network made up of thousands of networks worldwide. No one knows exactly how many computers are connected to the Internet. It is certain, however, that these number in the millions.

No one is in charge of the Internet. There are organizations which develop technical aspects of this network and set standards for creating applications on it, but no governing body is in control. The Internet backbone, through which Internet traffic flows, is owned by private companies.

All computers on the Internet communicate with one another using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol suite, abbreviated to TCP/IP. Computers on the Internet use a client/server architecture. This means that the remote server machine provides files and services to the user's local client machine. Software can be installed on a client computer to take advantage of the latest access technology.

An Internet user has access to a wide variety of services: electronic mail, file transfer, vast information resources, interest group membership, interactive collaboration, multimedia displays, real-time broadcasting, shopping opportunities, breaking news, and much more.

The Internet consists primarily of a variety of access protocols. Many of these protocols feature programs that allow users to search for and retrieve material made available by the protocol.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

COMPONENTS OF THE INTERNET

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WORLD WIDE WEB
The World Wide Web (abbreviated as the Web or WWW) is a system of Internet servers that supports hypertext to access several Internet protocols on a single interface. Almost every protocol type available on the Internet is accessible on the Web. This includes e-mail, FTP, Telnet, and Usenet News. In addition to these, the World Wide Web has its own protocol: HyperText Transfer Protocol, or HTTP. These protocols will be explained later in this document.

The World Wide Web provides a single interface for accessing all these protocols. This creates a convenient and user-friendly environment. It is no longer necessary to be conversant in these protocols within separate, command-level environments. The Web gathers together these protocols into a single system. Because of this feature, and because of the Web's ability to work with multimedia and advanced programming languages, the Web is the fastest-growing component of the Internet.

The operation of the Web relies primarily on hypertext as its means of information retrieval. HyperText is a document containing words that connect to other documents. These words are called links and are selectable by the user. A single hypertext document can contain links to many documents. In the context of the Web, words or graphics may serve as links to other documents, images, video, and sound. Links may or may not follow a logical path, as each connection is programmed by the creator of the source document. Overall, the Web contains a complex virtual web of connections among a vast number of documents, graphics, videos, and sounds.

Producing hypertext for the Web is accomplished by creating documents with a language called HyperText Markup Language, or HTML. With HTML, tags are placed within the text to accomplish document formatting, visual features such as font size, italics and bold, and the creation of hypertext links. Graphics and multimedia may also be incorporated into an HTML document. HTML is an evolving language, with new tags being added as each upgrade of the language is developed and released. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), led by Web founder Tim Berners-Lee, coordinates the efforts of standardizing HTML. The W3C now calls the language XHTML and considers it to be an application of the XML language standard.

The World Wide Web consists of files, called pages or home pages, containing links to documents and resources throughout the Internet.

The Web provides a vast array of experiences including multimedia presentations, real-time collaboration, interactive pages, radio and television broadcasts, and the automatic "push" of information to a client computer. Programming languages such as Java, JavaScript, Visual Basic, Cold Fusion and XML are extending the capabilities of the Web. A growing amount of information on the Web is served dynamically from content stored in databases. The Web is therefore not a fixed entity, but one that is in a constant state of development and flux.

For more complete information about the World Wide Web, see Understanding The World Wide Web.

E-MAIL
Electronic mail, or e-mail, allows computer users locally and worldwide to exchange messages. Each user of e-mail has a mailbox address to which messages are sent. Messages sent through e-mail can arrive within a matter of seconds.

A powerful aspect of e-mail is the option to send electronic files to a person's e-mail address. Non-ASCII files, known as binary files, may be attached to e-mail messages. These files are referred to as MIME attachments.MIME stands for Multimedia Internet Mail Extension, and was developed to help e-mail software handle a variety of file types. For example, a document created in Microsoft Word can be attached to an e-mail message and retrieved by the recipient with the appropriate e-mail program. Many e-mail programs, including Eudora, Netscape Messenger, and Microsoft Outlook, offer the ability to read files written in HTML, which is itself a MIME type.

TELNET
Telnet is a program that allows you to log into computers on the Internet and use online databases, library catalogs, chat services, and more. There are no graphics in Telnet sessions, just text. To Telnet to a computer, you must know its address. This can consist of words (locis.loc.gov) or numbers (140.147.254.3). Some services require you to connect to a specific port on the remote computer. In this case, type the port number after the Internet address. Example: telnet nri.reston.va.us 185.

Telnet is available on the World Wide Web. Probably the most common Web-based resources available through Telnet have been library catalogs, though most catalogs have since migrated to the Web. A link to a Telnet resource may look like any other link, but it will launch a Telnet session to make the connection. A Telnet program must be installed on your local computer and configured to your Web browser in order to work.

With the increasing popularity of the Web, Telnet has become less frequently used as a means of access to information on the Internet.

FTP
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. This is both a program and the method used to transfer files between computers. Anonymous FTP is an option that allows users to transfer files from thousands of host computers on the Internet to their personal computer account. FTP sites contain books, articles, software, games, images, sounds, multimedia, course work, data sets, and more.

If your computer is directly connected to the Internet via an Ethernet cable, you can use one of several PC software programs, such as WS_FTP for Windows, to conduct a file transfer.

FTP transfers can be performed on the World Wide Web without the need for special software. In this case, the Web browser will suffice. Whenever you download software from a Web site to your local machine, you are using FTP. You can also retrieve FTP files via search engines such as FtpFind, located at /http://www.ftpfind.com/. This option is easiest because you do not need to know FTP program commands.

E-MAIL DISCUSSION GROUPS
One of the benefits of the Internet is the opportunity it offers to people worldwide to communicate via e-mail. The Internet is home to a large community of individuals who carry out active discussions organized around topic-oriented forums distributed by e-mail. These are administered by software programs. Probably the most common program is the listserv.

A great variety of topics are covered by listservs, many of them academic in nature. When you subscribe to a listserv, messages from other subscribers are automatically sent to your electronic mailbox. You subscribe to a listserv by sending an e-mail message to a computer program called a listserver. Listservers are located on computer networks throughout the world. This program handles subscription information and distributes messages to and from subscribers. You must have a e-mail account to participate in a listserv discussion group. Visit Tile.net at /http://tile.net/ to see an example of a site that offers a searchablecollection of e-mail discussion groups.

Majordomo and Listproc are two other programs that administer e-mail discussion groups. The commands for subscribing to and managing your list memberships are similar to those of listserv.

USENET NEWS
Usenet News is a global electronic bulletin board system in which millions of computer users exchange information on a vast range of topics. The major difference between Usenet News and e-mail discussion groups is the fact that Usenet messages are stored on central computers, and users must connect to these computers to read or download the messages posted to these groups. This is distinct from e-mail distribution, in which messages arrive in the electronic mailboxes of each list member.

Usenet itself is a set of machines that exchanges messages, or articles, from Usenet discussion forums, called newsgroups. Usenet administrators control their own sites, and decide which (if any) newsgroups to sponsor and which remote newsgroups to allow into the system.

There are thousands of Usenet newsgroups in existence. While many are academic in nature, numerous newsgroups are organized around recreational topics. Much serious computer-related work takes place in Usenet discussions. A small number of e-mail discussion groups also exist as Usenet newsgroups.

The Usenet newsfeed can be read by a variety of newsreader software programs. For example, the Netscape suite comes with a newsreader program called Messenger. Newsreaders are also available as standalone products.

FAQ, RFC, FYI
FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. These are periodic postings to Usenet newsgroups that contain a wealth of information related to the topic of the newsgroup. Many FAQs are quite extensive. FAQs are available by subscribing to individual Usenet newsgroups. A Web-based collection of FAQ resources has been collected by The Internet FAQ Consortium and is available at /http://www.faqs.org/.

RFC stands for Request for Comments. These are documents created by and distributed to the Internet community to help define the nuts and bolts of the Internet. They contain both technical specifications and general information.

FYI stands for For Your Information. These notes are a subset of RFCs and contain information of interest to new Internet users.

Links to indexes of all three of these information resources are available on the University Libraries Web site at /http://library.albany.edu/reference/faqs.html.

CHAT & INSTANT MESSENGING
Chat programs allow users on the Internet to communicate with each other by typing in real time. They are sometimes included as a feature of a Web site, where users can log into the "chat room" to exchange comments and information about the topics addressed on the site. Chat may take other, more wide-ranging forms. For example, America Online is well known for sponsoring a number of topical chat rooms.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a service through which participants can communicate to each other on hundreds of channels. These channels are usually based on specific topics. While many topics are frivolous, substantive conversations are also taking place. To access IRC, you must use an IRC software program.

A variation of chat is the phenomenon of instant messenging. With instant messenging, a user on the Web can contact another user currently logged in and type a conversation. Most famous is America Online's Instant Messenger. ICQ, MSN and Yahoo are other commonly-used chat programs.

Other types of real-time communication are addressed in the tutorial Understanding the World Wide Web.

MUD/MUSH/MOO/MUCK/DUM/MUSE
MUD stands for Multi User Dimension. MUDs, and their variations listed above, are multi-user virtual reality games based on simulated worlds. Traditionally text based, graphical MUDs now exist. There are MUDs of all kinds on the Internet, and many can be joined free of charge.

20 Great Google Secrets

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1306756,00.asp

excl.gif No Active Links, Read the Rules - Edit by Ninja excl.gif



Google is clearly the best general-purpose search engine on the Web (see

www.pcmag.com/searchengines

But most people don't use it to its best advantage. Do you just plug in a keyword or two and hope for the best? That may be the quickest way to search, but with more than 3 billion pages in Google's index, it's still a struggle to pare results to a manageable number.

But Google is an remarkably powerful tool that can ease and enhance your Internet exploration. Google's search options go beyond simple keywords, the Web, and even its own programmers. Let's look at some of Google's lesser-known options.

Syntax Search Tricks

Using a special syntax is a way to tell Google that you want to restrict your searches to certain elements or characteristics of Web pages. Google has a fairly complete list of its syntax elements at

www.google.com/help/operators.html

. Here are some advanced operators that can help narrow down your search results.

Intitle: at the beginning of a query word or phrase (intitle:"Three Blind Mice") restricts your search results to just the titles of Web pages.

Intext: does the opposite of intitle:, searching only the body text, ignoring titles, links, and so forth. Intext: is perfect when what you're searching for might commonly appear in URLs. If you're looking for the term HTML, for example, and you don't want to get results such as

www.mysite.com/index.html

, you can enter intext:html.

Link: lets you see which pages are linking to your Web page or to another page you're interested in. For example, try typing in

link:http://www.pcmag.com


Try using site: (which restricts results to top-level domains) with intitle: to find certain types of pages. For example, get scholarly pages about Mark Twain by searching for intitle:"Mark Twain"site:edu. Experiment with mixing various elements; you'll develop several strategies for finding the stuff you want more effectively. The site: command is very helpful as an alternative to the mediocre search engines built into many sites.

Swiss Army Google

Google has a number of services that can help you accomplish tasks you may never have thought to use Google for. For example, the new calculator feature

(www.google.com/help/features.html#calculator)

lets you do both math and a variety of conversions from the search box. For extra fun, try the query "Answer to life the universe and everything."

Let Google help you figure out whether you've got the right spelling—and the right word—for your search. Enter a misspelled word or phrase into the query box (try "thre blund mise") and Google may suggest a proper spelling. This doesn't always succeed; it works best when the word you're searching for can be found in a dictionary. Once you search for a properly spelled word, look at the results page, which repeats your query. (If you're searching for "three blind mice," underneath the search window will appear a statement such as Searched the web for "three blind mice.") You'll discover that you can click on each word in your search phrase and get a definition from a dictionary.

Suppose you want to contact someone and don't have his phone number handy. Google can help you with that, too. Just enter a name, city, and state. (The city is optional, but you must enter a state.) If a phone number matches the listing, you'll see it at the top of the search results along with a map link to the address. If you'd rather restrict your results, use rphonebook: for residential listings or bphonebook: for business listings. If you'd rather use a search form for business phone listings, try Yellow Search

(www.buzztoolbox.com/google/yellowsearch.shtml).




Extended Googling

Google offers several services that give you a head start in focusing your search. Google Groups

(http://groups.google.com)

indexes literally millions of messages from decades of discussion on Usenet. Google even helps you with your shopping via two tools: Froogle
CODE
(http://froogle.google.com),

which indexes products from online stores, and Google Catalogs
CODE
(http://catalogs.google.com),

which features products from more 6,000 paper catalogs in a searchable index. And this only scratches the surface. You can get a complete list of Google's tools and services at

www.google.com/options/index.html

You're probably used to using Google in your browser. But have you ever thought of using Google outside your browser?

Google Alert

(www.googlealert.com)

monitors your search terms and e-mails you information about new additions to Google's Web index. (Google Alert is not affiliated with Google; it uses Google's Web services API to perform its searches.) If you're more interested in news stories than general Web content, check out the beta version of Google News Alerts

(www.google.com/newsalerts).

This service (which is affiliated with Google) will monitor up to 50 news queries per e-mail address and send you information about news stories that match your query. (Hint: Use the intitle: and source: syntax elements with Google News to limit the number of alerts you get.)

Google on the telephone? Yup. This service is brought to you by the folks at Google Labs

(http://labs.google.com),

a place for experimental Google ideas and features (which may come and go, so what's there at this writing might not be there when you decide to check it out). With Google Voice Search

(http://labs1.google.com/gvs.html),

you dial the Voice Search phone number, speak your keywords, and then click on the indicated link. Every time you say a new search term, the results page will refresh with your new query (you must have JavaScript enabled for this to work). Remember, this service is still in an experimental phase, so don't expect 100 percent success.

In 2002, Google released the Google API (application programming interface), a way for programmers to access Google's search engine results without violating the Google Terms of Service. A lot of people have created useful (and occasionally not-so-useful but interesting) applications not available from Google itself, such as Google Alert. For many applications, you'll need an API key, which is available free from
CODE
www.google.com/apis

. See the figures for two more examples, and visit

www.pcmag.com/solutions

for more.

Thanks to its many different search properties, Google goes far beyond a regular search engine. Give the tricks in this article a try. You'll be amazed at how many different ways Google can improve your Internet searching.


Online Extra: More Google Tips


Here are a few more clever ways to tweak your Google searches.

Search Within a Timeframe

Daterange: (start date–end date). You can restrict your searches to pages that were indexed within a certain time period. Daterange: searches by when Google indexed a page, not when the page itself was created. This operator can help you ensure that results will have fresh content (by using recent dates), or you can use it to avoid a topic's current-news blizzard and concentrate only on older results. Daterange: is actually more useful if you go elsewhere to take advantage of it, because daterange: requires Julian dates, not standard Gregorian dates. You can find converters on the Web (such as

CODE
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/JulianDate.html

excl.gif No Active Links, Read the Rules - Edit by Ninja excl.gif


), but an easier way is to do a Google daterange: search by filling in a form at

www.researchbuzz.com/toolbox/goofresh.shtml or www.faganfinder.com/engines/google.shtml

. If one special syntax element is good, two must be better, right? Sometimes. Though some operators can't be mixed (you can't use the link: operator with anything else) many can be, quickly narrowing your results to a less overwhelming number.

More Google API Applications

Staggernation.com offers three tools based on the Google API. The Google API Web Search by Host (GAWSH) lists the Web hosts of the results for a given query

(www.staggernation.com/gawsh/).

When you click on the triangle next to each host, you get a list of results for that host. The Google API Relation Browsing Outliner (GARBO) is a little more complicated: You enter a URL and choose whether you want pages that related to the URL or linked to the URL

(www.staggernation.com/garbo/).

Click on the triangle next to an URL to get a list of pages linked or related to that particular URL. CapeMail is an e-mail search application that allows you to send an e-mail to google@capeclear.com with the text of your query in the subject line and get the first ten results for that query back. Maybe it's not something you'd do every day, but if your cell phone does e-mail and doesn't do Web browsing, this is a very handy address to know.

10 Fast and Free Security Enhancements

PC magazine.

Before you spend a dime on security, there are many precautions you can take that will protect you against the most common threats.

1. Check Windows Update and Office Update regularly (_http://office.microsoft.com/productupdates); have your Office CD ready. Windows Me, 2000, and XP users can configure automatic updates. Click on the Automatic Updates tab in the System control panel and choose the appropriate options.

2. Install a personal firewall. Both SyGate (_www.sygate.com) and ZoneAlarm (_www.zonelabs.com) offer free versions.


3. Install a free spyware blocker. Our Editors' Choice ("Spyware," April 22) was SpyBot Search & Destroy (_http://security.kolla.de). SpyBot is also paranoid and ruthless in hunting out tracking cookies.

4. Block pop-up spam messages in Windows NT, 2000, or XP by disabling the Windows Messenger service (this is unrelated to the instant messaging program). Open Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Services and you'll see Messenger. Right-click and go to Properties. Set Start-up Type to Disabled and press the Stop button. Bye-bye, spam pop-ups! Any good firewall will also stop them.

5. Use strong passwords and change them periodically. Passwords should have at least seven characters; use letters and numbers and have at least one symbol. A decent example would be f8izKro@l. This will make it much harder for anyone to gain access to your accounts.

6. If you're using Outlook or Outlook Express, use the current version or one with the Outlook Security Update installed. The update and current versions patch numerous vulnerabilities.

7. Buy antivirus software and keep it up to date. If you're not willing to pay, try Grisoft AVG Free Edition (Grisoft Inc., w*w.grisoft.com). And doublecheck your AV with the free, online-only scanners available at w*w.pandasoftware.com/activescan and _http://housecall.trendmicro.com.

8. If you have a wireless network, turn on the security features: Use MAC filtering, turn off SSID broadcast, and even use WEP with the biggest key you can get. For more, check out our wireless section or see the expanded coverage in Your Unwired World in our next issue.

9. Join a respectable e-mail security list, such as the one found at our own Security Supersite at _http://security.ziffdavis.com, so that you learn about emerging threats quickly and can take proper precautions.

10. Be skeptical of things on the Internet. Don't assume that e-mail "From:" a particular person is actually from that person until you have further reason to believe it's that person. Don't assume that an attachment is what it says it is. Don't give out your password to anyone, even if that person claims to be from "support."

10 reasons why PCs crash you must know

Fatal error: the system has become unstable or is busy," it says. "Enter to return to Windows or press Control-Alt-Delete to restart your computer. If you do this you will lose any unsaved information in all open applications."

You have just been struck by the Blue Screen of Death. Anyone who uses Mcft Windows will be familiar with this. What can you do? More importantly, how can you prevent it happening?

1 Hardware conflict

The number one reason why Windows crashes is hardware conflict. Each hardware device communicates to other devices through an interrupt request channel (IRQ). These are supposed to be unique for each device.

For example, a printer usually connects internally on IRQ 7. The keyboard usually uses IRQ 1 and the floppy disk drive IRQ 6. Each device will try to hog a single IRQ for itself.

If there are a lot of devices, or if they are not installed properly, two of them may end up sharing the same IRQ number. When the user tries to use both devices at the same time, a crash can happen. The way to check if your computer has a hardware conflict is through the following route:

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager.

Often if a device has a problem a yellow '!' appears next to its description in the Device Manager. Highlight Computer (in the Device Manager) and press Properties to see the IRQ numbers used by your computer. If the IRQ number appears twice, two devices may be using it.

Sometimes a device might share an IRQ with something described as 'IRQ holder for PCI steering'. This can be ignored. The best way to fix this problem is to remove the problem device and reinstall it.

Sometimes you may have to find more recent drivers on the internet to make the device function properly. A good resource is www.driverguide.com. If the device is a soundcard, or a modem, it can often be fixed by moving it to a different slot on the motherboard (be careful about opening your computer, as you may void the warranty).

When working inside a computer you should switch it off, unplug the mains lead and touch an unpainted metal surface to discharge any static electricity.

To be fair to Mcft, the problem with IRQ numbers is not of its making. It is a legacy problem going back to the first PC designs using the IBM 8086 chip. Initially there were only eight IRQs. Today there are 16 IRQs in a PC. It is easy to run out of them. There are plans to increase the number of IRQs in future designs.

2 Bad Ram

Ram (random-access memory) problems might bring on the blue screen of death with a message saying Fatal Exception Error. A fatal error indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometimes it may mean a part is damaged and will need replacing.

But a fatal error caused by Ram might be caused by a mismatch of chips. For example, mixing 70-nanosecond (70ns) Ram with 60ns Ram will usually force the computer to run all the Ram at the slower speed. This will often crash the machine if the Ram is overworked.

One way around this problem is to enter the BIOS settings and increase the wait state of the Ram. This can make it more stable. Another way to troubleshoot a suspected Ram problem is to rearrange the Ram chips on the motherboard, or take some of them out. Then try to repeat the circumstances that caused the crash. When handling Ram try not to touch the gold connections, as they can be easily damaged.

Parity error messages also refer to Ram. Modern Ram chips are either parity (ECC) or non parity (non-ECC). It is best not to mix the two types, as this can be a cause of trouble.

EMM386 error messages refer to memory problems but may not be connected to bad Ram. This may be due to free memory problems often linked to old Dos-based programmes.

3 BIOS settings

Every motherboard is supplied with a range of chipset settings that are decided in the factory. A common way to access these settings is to press the F2 or delete button during the first few seconds of a boot-up.

Once inside the BIOS, great care should be taken. It is a good idea to write down on a piece of paper all the settings that appear on the screen. That way, if you change something and the computer becomes more unstable, you will know what settings to revert to.

A common BIOS error concerns the CAS latency. This refers to the Ram. Older EDO (extended data out) Ram has a CAS latency of 3. Newer SDRam has a CAS latency of 2. Setting the wrong figure can cause the Ram to lock up and freeze the computer's display.

Mcft Windows is better at allocating IRQ numbers than any BIOS. If possible set the IRQ numbers to Auto in the BIOS. This will allow Windows to allocate the IRQ numbers (make sure the BIOS setting for Plug and Play OS is switched to 'yes' to allow Windows to do this.).

4 Hard disk drives

After a few weeks, the information on a hard disk drive starts to become piecemeal or fragmented. It is a good idea to defragment the hard disk every week or so, to prevent the disk from causing a screen freeze. Go to

* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Defragmenter

This will start the procedure. You will be unable to write data to the hard drive (to save it) while the disk is defragmenting, so it is a good idea to schedule the procedure for a period of inactivity using the Task Scheduler.

The Task Scheduler should be one of the small icons on the bottom right of the Windows opening page (the desktop).

Some lockups and screen freezes caused by hard disk problems can be solved by reducing the read-ahead optimisation. This can be adjusted by going to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System Icon-Performance-File System-Hard Disk.

Hard disks will slow down and crash if they are too full. Do some housekeeping on your hard drive every few months and free some space on it. Open the Windows folder on the C drive and find the Temporary Internet Files folder. Deleting the contents (not the folder) can free a lot of space.

Empty the Recycle Bin every week to free more space. Hard disk drives should be scanned every week for errors or bad sectors. Go to

* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-ScanDisk

Otherwise assign the Task Scheduler to perform this operation at night when the computer is not in use.

5 Fatal OE exceptions and VXD errors

Fatal OE exception errors and VXD errors are often caused by video card problems.

These can often be resolved easily by reducing the resolution of the video display. Go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-Display-Settings

Here you should slide the screen area bar to the left. Take a look at the colour settings on the left of that window. For most desktops, high colour 16-bit depth is adequate.

If the screen freezes or you experience system lockups it might be due to the video card. Make sure it does not have a hardware conflict. Go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager

Here, select the + beside Display Adapter. A line of text describing your video card should appear. Select it (make it blue) and press properties. Then select Resources and select each line in the window. Look for a message that says No Conflicts.

If you have video card hardware conflict, you will see it here. Be careful at this point and make a note of everything you do in case you make things worse.

The way to resolve a hardware conflict is to uncheck the Use Automatic Settings box and hit the Change Settings button. You are searching for a setting that will display a No Conflicts message.

Another useful way to resolve video problems is to go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Performance-Graphics

Here you should move the Hardware Acceleration slider to the left. As ever, the most common cause of problems relating to graphics cards is old or faulty drivers (a driver is a small piece of software used by a computer to communicate with a device).

Look up your video card's manufacturer on the internet and search for the most recent drivers for it.

6 Viruses

Often the first sign of a virus infection is instability. Some viruses erase the boot sector of a hard drive, making it impossible to start. This is why it is a good idea to create a Windows start-up disk. Go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs

Here, look for the Start Up Disk tab. Virus protection requires constant vigilance.

A virus scanner requires a list of virus signatures in order to be able to identify viruses. These signatures are stored in a DAT file. DAT files should be updated weekly from the website of your antivirus software manufacturer.

An excellent antivirus programme is McAfee VirusScan by Network Associates ( www.nai.com). Another is Norton AntiVirus 2000, made by Symantec ( www.symantec.com).

7 Printers

The action of sending a document to print creates a bigger file, often called a postscript file.

Printers have only a small amount of memory, called a buffer. This can be easily overloaded. Printing a document also uses a considerable amount of CPU power. This will also slow down the computer's performance.

If the printer is trying to print unusual characters, these might not be recognised, and can crash the computer. Sometimes printers will not recover from a crash because of confusion in the buffer. A good way to clear the buffer is to unplug the printer for ten seconds. Booting up from a powerless state, also called a cold boot, will restore the printer's default settings and you may be able to carry on.

8 Software

A common cause of computer crash is faulty or badly-installed software. Often the problem can be cured by uninstalling the software and then reinstalling it. Use Norton Uninstall or Uninstall Shield to remove an application from your system properly. This will also remove references to the programme in the System Registry and leaves the way clear for a completely fresh copy.

The System Registry can be corrupted by old references to obsolete software that you thought was uninstalled. Use Reg Cleaner by Jouni Vuorio to clean up the System Registry and remove obsolete entries. It works on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE (Second Edition), Windows Millennium Edition (ME), NT4 and Windows 2000.

Read the instructions and use it carefully so you don't do permanent damage to the Registry. If the Registry is damaged you will have to reinstall your operating system. Reg Cleaner can be obtained from www.jv16.org

Often a Windows problem can be resolved by entering Safe Mode. This can be done during start-up. When you see the message "Starting Windows" press F4. This should take you into Safe Mode.

Safe Mode loads a minimum of drivers. It allows you to find and fix problems that prevent Windows from loading properly.

Sometimes installing Windows is difficult because of unsuitable BIOS settings. If you keep getting SUWIN error messages (Windows setup) during the Windows installation, then try entering the BIOS and disabling the CPU internal cache. Try to disable the Level 2 (L2) cache if that doesn't work.

Remember to restore all the BIOS settings back to their former settings following installation.

9 Overheating

Central processing units (CPUs) are usually equipped with fans to keep them cool. If the fan fails or if the CPU gets old it may start to overheat and generate a particular kind of error called a kernel error. This is a common problem in chips that have been overclocked to operate at higher speeds than they are supposed to.

One remedy is to get a bigger better fan and install it on top of the CPU. Specialist cooling fans/heatsinks are available from www.computernerd.com or www.coolit.com

CPU problems can often be fixed by disabling the CPU internal cache in the BIOS. This will make the machine run more slowly, but it should also be more stable.

10 Power supply problems

With all the new construction going on around the country the steady supply of electricity has become disrupted. A power surge or spike can crash a computer as easily as a power cut.

If this has become a nuisance for you then consider buying a uninterrupted power supply (UPS). This will give you a clean power supply when there is electricity, and it will give you a few minutes to perform a controlled shutdown in case of a power cut.

It is a good investment if your data are critical, because a power cut will cause any unsaved data to be lost.

I'm Alive!

I've started to come back into blogging in a big way recently, so I'm gonna just give a quick update into what I've done to this site.

I highly recommend that everyone subscribes through an RSS reader to Lifehacker.com. This is an awesome site that delivers awesome value absolutely free!

Another site I recommend is GiveAwayOfTheDay.com! This is a fantastic site to get freebies that are actually worth a lot! Some gems pop by once in a while that will really help you, but you have to install it on that very same day!

Have fun reading!

Stubborn files that refuse to be deleted

I've recently had some of my video files stick in my folders and refuse to be deleted, always claiming that some program is trying to run the file. I call it the "sticky file syndrome".

I've recently found the cure for SFS! Most of the time, there's a fundamental problem with the file itself, and not that any program is trying to run it. So what I did was to copy the same file type outside the suspect folder, rename it as the file I'm trying to delete.

Copy that file (now of the same name as the one you're trying to delete) into the suspect folder. Apparently Windows has a problem with deleting their files, but it doesn't have a problem with overwriting them!

Once you've overwritten the file, all the problems with deleting the file should cease. Just delete it away and viola! Cleaner folders!

System Restore

This is a terribly underused function inside Windows XP which would solve a whole lot of problems if only people would learn a little bit more about it!

Commonly, problems arise from changes to the system. Be it hardware or software, if you change something in the system, there is a strong chance of it malfunctioning. System Restore (SR) is an easy-to-use program that would actually solve most of your software issues.

In a nutshell, SR remembers what it was like to be working in a nice comfortable environment. It remembers what the environment used to contain, and how the computer used to function with all its existing programs. Think of it as the good old days.

However, you are bound to install new programs into your computer. New stuff without proper testing could wreak havoc onto your system! And what happens after that? Weeks of tears and pain while you frantically try and reverse what you've done.

With SR, all you need to do to prepare for a scenario like this is to run the System Restore Utility. Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore.

Just create a system restore point (on a day when the computer actually works!). Name it something meaningful like "November 1st, it still works!". If you were to run a program that messes up your system, at least all you would have to do is to return it back to its original state in November.

Remember: SR remembers System Settings. Your files and email are still safely up-to-date. Nothing to worry about!

xp antispy

When u're running Windows XP, u're bound to have some parts of the program that u're unable to tweak all by urself, like for example, turning off balloon tips or not using the built-in zip system.

In steps xp antispy! It's a godsend to all who want to get rid of the annoying "send error report to microsoft" setup and such. It's simple and easy to use, everyone should get it!

It's available here! Latest version is v 3.96-1.

===========================

A small request for all my readers, if there's a computer problem u wish for me to help u with, please don't hesitate to email me at sebastiancheok@gmail.com. I would be glad to help u, as u're helping me add more articles into this blog anyway. ;)