Internet

Thu
28
Nov
Dennis Faas's picture

The ultimate spam-killing mail rule?

Infopackets Reader Bonnie V. writes: " Dear Dennis, I keep getting unsolicited emails that claim they are from a web address which in fact does not exist. Is there a mail rule that I can create in Outlook Express to check for valid web addresses, ... and block the ones that aren't valid (I.E.: a 'faked' web address)? " My Response: Rather than attempting to block all the offending emails, why not just create an anti-spam filter to delete all emails that are not from a list of your friends? Example: Apply this rule after the message arrives; Where the From line does not contain ' friend1 ... (view more)

Wed
16
Oct
Dennis Faas's picture

Kazaa Bandwidth Capped Downloads

If you share files online the Internet (trading MP3s, movies, software), you have undoubtedly already heard of Kazaa -- maybe even Kazaa Lite . In a nutshell Kazaa uses its own P2P (peer to peer) technology which allow users across the Internet to ... share files online. The last time I checked, there were about 2.2 million users online Kazaa, sharing some 5 million files. That's a lot of files. I'm not going to get into the complexities of how things work, because I've already discussed that in a previous issue of the Infopackets Gazette. Kazaa is free software which gets its funding from the ... (view more)

Tue
17
Sep
Dennis Faas's picture

Using Trace Route and Ping to trace pathways on the Internet

Tracert.exe? Ping.exe? What the heck is that? Trace Route (tracert.exe) is a DOS command line utility program that traces connection pathways along the Internet using the TCP / IP protocol. Ping (ping.exe) calculates how long it takes to transfer a ... packet of information from origin [you] to destination [a web site] and back again [to you]. What is TCP / IP? The TCP / IP protocol is a method used to communicate computers on the Internet. Any computer using the TCP / IP protocol has a unique address, referred to as an IP (Internet Protocol) address. An IP address can be thought of as a special ... (view more)

Tue
23
Jul
Dennis Faas's picture

Is Explorer and Internet Explorer the same program?

Infopackets Reader Linda S. write s: " Dear Dennis, With regards to the last newsletter , is it possible that you are assuming that Christine R. accidentally stated that Windows Explorer was trying to access the internet and that she actually meant ... that Internet Explorer was trying to get access? My firewall also will not allow me to have access to the internet unless I give both Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer access. Her question may have been a typo but I think maybe she is having the same problem as I am. Can you offer any suggestions to remedy this? " My Response: I'm ... (view more)

Tue
04
Jun
Dennis Faas's picture

The Kazaa Worm Virus -- Explorer.SCR

There is a nasty worm (virus) making its way through the Kazaa file sharing network . On Friday, a friend called me up and told me that his "C drive" was full and that he couldn't do anything with his computer. So, I hopped in my car, drove over to ... his place, and cleaned up some temporary files on his system. I freed up about 400 meg or so on his C drive. Satisfied with the results, I went home. The next day, he called me back with the same problem. Oddly enough, he said the computer was left untouched since I left his house the previous night. So what happened to all the space I ... (view more)

Tue
28
May
Dennis Faas's picture

DNS Propagation

Well, it finally looks like infopackets.com has completed its journey over to its new web server. The entire process (from start to finish, including changing registrars ) took about 60 days to complete. Most importantly, my own personal computer is ... finally connecting to the new web server. The hard lesson learned: while most web service providers are eager to say that a change like this "should only take 72 hours to complete", just remember -- anything that could go wrong probably will, and expect the worse case scenario. OK, I expected that. But I think I got hit with worse than ... (view more)

Tue
07
May
Dennis Faas's picture

Changing Domain Registrars

Last week the last issue of the Infopackets Gazette was sent out. At the same time, a configuration change was made to the web server which hosts infopackets.com. What happened? It's a long story, but I'll try to reiterate in simple mumbo-jumbo ... without too much techy-talk. As you may already know, infopackets.com has experienced a major growth spurt in the last few months and has outgrown its current web server configuration. Therefore, it was decided that infopackets.com should be moved to a dedicated web server which offers unlimited bandwidth to fit the needs of its users. A purchase was ... (view more)

Wed
01
May
Dennis Faas's picture

Kazaa? Kazaa Lite? What's the difference?

I'm sure you've at least heard of Napster, and the more popular Napster-like spin-offs, such as Kazaa, Morpheus Music City, WinMX, and Bearshare. Each program has the ability to swap files with other users around the world. Although Napster is now a ... subscription-based music trading service, it was the first of its kind to offer users free access to thousands of music files at the click of a button. In comparison to Napster, Kazaa goes a step farther by allowing users within its file sharing community to trade not only music files, but movies, programs, and anything else under the sun. Kazaa ... (view more)

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