Security

Over the weekend, I received a fascinating question from Infopackets Reader Ric J.: " Hi Dennis! I just read your email regarding the eBook, 'Email For Newbies v2.1', and have a question about email headers. I know that email headers show persons IP ... address, but, is there anyway that I can find out where a person lives? The reason I ask is because I been having a problem with a person and the only thing I have is the IP address of the individual. Any help would be great; thanks! " My response: The answer is that, yes, you can track the origin of an email to a certain extent -- ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Ric J. asks: " Dear Dennis, If I [load Internet Explorer and then] go into Tools -> Internet Options and clean out the History, Temp Files, and the Web Cookies, will that take care of things I might not want [others to] trace ... or pull up [on my computer]?" My Response: Unfortunately, clearing out your Internet History, Temp Files, and Cookies aren't enough to 'clear your tracks', per se. Virtually anyone can hop on your PC and trace where you have been by accessing your Most Recently Used Files history (MRU), such as: Media Player history, Document history (MS ... (view more)

Damyanti L. from the United Kingdom writes: " When I go on the Internet, there are some nasty ads popping up on my computer. I also have children using this system. Can you advise me on how I can stop these extremely rude pictures from popping up? ... Many thanks. " My Response: First of all, let me say that there are 3 types of "PopUp" advertisements that exist: Web PopUps, Spyware PopUps, and Messenger PopUps. Web PopUps only occur when the browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc) is loaded. In contrast, Spyware PopUps can appear even if you aren't connected to the ... (view more)

Is your computer safe from the dangers of file-sharing? I know mine isn't. Just this past Monday, I received a message stating that the file I received (through Kazaa) was infected with malicious code that could harm my computer. I was lucky that my ... anti-virus program caught the malevolent program from infecting my machine, otherwise I would have launched the file completely blind that my actions may have corrupted my entire hard drive. Indeed, a scary thought. At this point, I paused for a moment and thought to myself, "Could there be other nasty software lurking on my computer that may ... (view more)

Donna H. writes: " I have windows 2000 / NT. My administrative password timed out or somehow expired, and now I can't use any of the Administration computer management. How can I reset my Admin password? Thank you for reading this and any help is ... appreciated. " My response: I visited win2000mag.net and found instructions on how to use a program called Ntpasswd. The instructions given below are essentially verbatim, but have been changed slightly to "newbie speak" so it is easier to follow. http://www.win2000mag.net You can use Peter Nordahl's Ntpasswd tool to reset the ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'BluzzOne' writes: " How do you remove Kazza? It seems impossible to uninstall. I have ad-aware 6 which removed the Spyware associated with Kazaa, and it no longer runs. I think Kazaa needs the adware in order to function. " My ... response: You are correct: Kazaa will not run without the Spyware (adware) attached, which is why so many users prefer to use Kazaa Lite -- it doesn't come bundled with parasite code. The Add / Remove Programs in Control Panel should remove Kazaa from your computer, although I'm not sure what happens to the uninstall program if you use a ... (view more)

This feature article is just a quick note to let you know that Microsoft has released 4 critical updates and 1 "important" update on October 15, 2003. Each critical exploit can allow a hacker to execute arbitrary code and gain access to your PC. ... Affected machines are those which are running Windows ME, NT, 2000, XP and 2003 Server (source: MS Bulletins MS03-041~44: October 15, 2003). Yikes! If you haven't already downloaded the patches via Windows Automatic Update or the Windows Update Web site, you can visit the Microsoft web site to learn more. http://www.microsoft.com/security/ ... (view more)

2018/01/13 Update: If you'd like to learn about the most secure options then check out this guide on secure browsers by BestVPN.com. Die Hard Infopackets Reader Ted B. writes: " I have Internet Explorer (IE) 6.0 with Service Pack 1 installed. My ... Internet Service Provider (ISP) is Juno, and it comes with a web browser (version 5.0, build 33). I recently downloaded Netscape version 7.0. Yesterday I received word (via LockerGnome's newsletter) that I needed to go to the Microsoft Windows Update web site to download a fix for a recently discovered security vulnerability in Internet Explorer ... (view more)

Popular media outlets, like television and newspapers, latch on to new computer virus outbreaks as if the story of the millennium just broke. Journalists report that there are dangers of using buggy software from Microsoft. How do we protect our ... computers from becoming compromised? Operating System exploits and security breaches can allow Hackers unprecedented access to a PC for the sole purpose of malicious intent. Viruses can wipe out an entire computer system, and email worms can spread like wildfire in a matter of hours. Unfortunately, there aren't a set of straight forward rules one can ... (view more)