However “Big Business” is now adapting the Internet to their needs and are changing it from being the spread of information into a commerce instrument. In the end whoever has the most money will win, as now “Big Business” is pushing the court system into make rulings based on the Internet. And most court cases are determined by who has the deeper pockets and connections, “Big Business” or college students?

Related Topics:
How does the Internet work?
Should I trust everyone or should I trust you?

Related Topics:
What is FTP?
What is HTTP?
What is SMTP?
What is NNTP?

Mosilia (later MOSAIC) was the first such program created to process the file extension html. Netscape took the idea and expanded on it to an amazing extent with Navigator by adding in JavaScript and stylesheets. Then Microsoft saw the opportunity and came up with Internet Explorer by reverse-engineering everything in Navigator and updating the code. But Microsoft has allowed lots of security holes with their product and now a new program has taking center stage called FireFox. The browser is based off the Mosilia update and features tabs and better security. But however now virus makers are now targeting Firefox as people migrate from IE to it.

Related Topics:
What is the file extension HTML?

Ah, but you can email binary attachments or files, you say? You actually place or embed the file into your e-mail and send the now connected file with you text message to the recipient of your e-mail.

Related Topics:
What are attachments and binaries?
What is an ISP and IP address?
What is this Mailing-list I keep hearing about?
Can I post Binary attachments to abrf or the Mailing-List?

The file or post as it’s often referred to is stored in a group association on the server. The server upon receiving the post compares it to see if it has that post. If it does, it deletes it, if it doesn’t, then it stores it in the appropriate group association. These group associations are called newsgroups.

We request information from that newsgroup and its transferred from the server to our computer. But keep in mind that the server never deletes the post, you can only copy it to your computer. If it deletes it, then no one else can view the messages, defeating the purpose of NNTP. So it’s very much like a really large message board or advance form of a Mailing-list. The downfall is that to store the articles, it places the post on a hard drive. If your server doesn’t have a large hard drive, then your retention will be small. Another good thing about NNTP is that you download headers before you want to download the main file. This can save you time if you're looking for certain articles or want to read only certain ones.

As stated, this protocol is similar to SMTP. Articles need a SendTo or the Newsgroups name, Optional header to interest readers, Who is it from (tracking information with ISP DNS number in the message), and Attachment field. The attachment field is similar to SMTP, in which it places the attachments at the end of the message. This trick is called embedding or encoding the file for UseNet transmission.

Related Topics:
What is UseNet?
What is Retention?
Can I post Binary attachments to abrf or the Mailing-List?

Related Topics:
What is the rule of posting in html?

Many encoding schemes are available, but Uuencode/Uudecode is the accepted UseNet standard. With the creation of Forte’s new encoding scheme yEnc, which compress even better than the Uuencode or MIME (the standard e-mail compression). A good newsreader can detect binaries and perform all of the encoding/decoding for you. Many e-mail programs do the same, enabling you to send binary files via an attachment with SMTP’s version of MIME. All of this is done by converting the file into a ASCII format. Which is the basic font family that you find on your computer (a basic example is your keyboard).

Nevertheless, when encoding such files for transmission makes the e-mail or posted article very large in size. Which may take time to download or strain the server that has to handle this demand. Another issue may be that encoding this file with an encoding scheme that the readers program doesn’t know will make little sense to the program. Hence posting in HTML will be display the HTML code in the ASCII format to the reader.

Related Topics:
What is SMTP?
What are attachments and binaries?
What is Media?
What are the standard rules of UseNet?

SMTP can’t handle large files. As it will take tons of time to transmit a single file, because the e-mail must contain the whole encoded file. When attaching a file, the file is placed at the end of the message where it is encoded into ASCII format using the encoding scheme known as MIME. You never see this because most e-mail programs recognize this and separate the attachment from the text message before the reader sees the file in the encoded format.

With NNTP the file should be the part of the message that is posted or sent. No additional text should be posted in the message, or it may screw up the decoding of the file. NNTP still suffers the same large issue that takes time to download large files. However with NNTP, you can break these files down to a packet size limit and link them together. This is referred to as multi-part posting. Additionally, due to the fact the NNTP has no real encoding format (no standard), new ones can be created all the time. Meaning better and more efficient encoding/decoding protocols can be developed. yEnc encoding/decoding is the latest such format developed by Forte. This improves the chances of the program decoding the file if the multiply parts came in at different times. Giving the readers program a larger advantage of reorganize the file to decode it. However the readers program needs to understand this format and be able to process the task. Despite this little flaw, yEnc is becoming a very large popular encoding/decoding scheme and may become the standard that replaces Uu encoding/decoding.

Related Topics:
What is NNTP?
What is Media?
What are the standard rules of UseNet?

So what does this mean to me? Well when you post or e-mail articles, they originate out of your ISP. Your ISP places their stamp on the file when it gets transmitted on the actual Internet or WAN. So when you look at any article in your e-mail or on UseNet, it states where it came from. Either by IP address or @the server name.tag extension. Due to the fact that ISP must keep log files because of the Digital Millennium Act, where they send files and received file they must keep in a log of transfers. This log records which IP (computer) is talking to it, what is being transmitted, and where does this communiqué goes to next (IP). The Courts can now force the ISP to give up their confidential log files to prosecute the potential criminal. So you can trace down who is doing what, this can also tells you who is a potential trustable source and who wont give you a virus, as they can be tracked. So think twice about what you post.

Don’t get me wrong, “Big Business” see it to their advantage to force the courts in to regulating the Internet from the spread of information in scientific and education means, to a monopolistic commerce-making device. However there is nothing wrong with this at all. Personally, am conflicted with this, as is probably 99% of US population.

Related Topics:
What's a virus?
Why do I need to know file extensions and what are they?
Where can I post Binaries?

UseNet uses the protocol know as NNTP to handle this unique aspect of the Internet.

Related Topics:
What is NNTP?
What are the standard rules of UseNet?
What is the preferred language of abrf and the Mailing-List?

In the case of a multi-part post, if the new article is written over the oldest part of the linked post. Then that part of the multi-part post is lost. If you didn’t get, you’ll have to put in a request for a repost and this may tie up the system, so wait before re-requesting a file and see if you can get it from another source. Or you can request that particular part and someone just might have that first part.

Related Topics:
What is a packet and multi-part post?
What is the normal size of a posted article?
What is Conserving Bandwidth?

Since some servers have packet size limits, which vary widely. Many binary files (programs and multimedia) can be quite large when encoded. In order to handle this situation, UseNet provides that large articles can be broken into several pieces and linked together. We call these ‘multi-part posts’. It so happens that this break down of a file is actually equal to the size of a packet.

Now the problem is that packets can take different routes to get to your server since each packet is treated as a new file. Sometimes packets get deleted or never reach your server. What does this mean to me? You can’t view a binary unless you have all the packets or parts of the post. So the larger the file, the more packets it has, and the more likely chance that the file will have missing parts.

The problem with this is that more people that e-mail the address. The more e-mails you will get to the address you placed in nospam-feistfan-l address book and you must accept all incoming e-mails, you can’t turn any away. And sometimes the address book might lose your e-mail address, so you have to re-subscribe. Or you may lose the e-mail address account you placed in the address book, but nospam-feistfan-l doesn’t know that so it continues to send e-mails to that address. All these problems can cripple the e-mail server at Cornell College.

However, early net gods created a new protocol to handle large readable e-mail that was message board like. It’s called NNTP, and is referred to as UseNet. So what is the difference of the Raymond E Feist Mailing-list and the alt.books.raymond-feist newsgroup? Well both are filled with the same type of fans you can find in both forums. But both feel differently about each forum. The Mailing-list subscribers feel that the spam in the newsgroup is to annoying, and newsgroup readers feel that they want better control over what they read. But regardless of use of programs they use, those on the Mailing-list might not have newsgroups available to them. Meaning that their ISP doesn’t support NNTP. So it basically becomes a decision between the lesser of the two evils (sounds like voting).

UseNet: Not support by some ISP, and is not well used by the masses. Full of Spam bots and viruses. ISP can’t afford all the equipment to supply decent service. Less activity than the Mailing-List. Kill Filters -filters out spam, viruses, and unwanted topics. Free/Illegal software and media at your fingertips. Can read the articles you want based on downloading only the header information and not the whole message.

Mailing-list: Software doesn’t properly support it, and everyone has e-mail. Needs a host that’s willing to handle the list demands on their e-mail server. You must accept all incoming e-mails (and potential viruses). Server can get attacked, killing the server or could go away if Host doesn’t want to maintain it. Raymond E Feist posts and responds mostly in this forum. You might need a separate e-mail account for the incoming e-mail. Way to much activity compared to the Newsgroup.

Related Topics:
How do I get on the Mailing-list?
What is the preferred language of abrf and the Mailing-List?

Now in order to what is called subscribe to the list, don’t send your request to feistfan-l. This won’t get you on it, and if people try responding to you through the list, you wont see their responses tying up the system and you won’t get your answer.

So in order to get on this e-mail account crippler, you need to send an e-mail from the account you wish to add to the list’s address book. Send your e-mail To: lyris@cornell.edu with join feistfans-l "your name" in the body of the message. So it will look like this to be a guarantee for addition:

To: lyris@cornell.edu
Header:
Body: join feistfans-l "your name"

You MUST include the quotation marks around your name, and you MUST send the message in PLAIN TEXT. Check your programs documentation on how to send Text only messages.

Then you have to wait until your added. You will know your add when the account receives the first e-mail from the automated system that tells you all the information you need to know about un-subscribing, posting, and dealing with your virtual account of being on the Mailing-list. Then the flood of e-mails will start filling up your Inbox.

Related Topics:
How do I UnSubscribe from the Mailing-list?
How do I ReSubscribe to the Mailing-List?

To: lyris@cornell.edu
Header:
Body: leave feistfans-l

Make sure that you send the leave command from the address you subscribed to the mailing list from.

To: lyris@cornell.edu
Header:
Body: leave feistfans-l
       join feistfans-l "your name"

For more information go to http://www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/elist/lyris/user-custom.html

Viruses are programs that cause the computer to do operations that the user did not intend to do. The computer is very mindless and stupid thing; it just does a lot of amazing things. However its trapped in that of the world of algorithmic steps (step 1 do this, step 2 do this) and can't break into the world of heuristic problem solving, which is using reasoning based on knowledge, experience, and trial and error. Even its root commands are very simple. It just looks fancy because you’re running a graphic user interface based Operating System (O.S.) like Windows. A virus is a program that takes basic computer commands and operating program commands and trashes things on your computer. Virus can delete files, corrupt files, move files, rewrite files, rename files, retrieve information and send that information to an e-mail address or through a port to an IP address. Viruses come in all shapes and forms.

So on the Internet, one can encounter lots of virus or none. It's a matter of steps you take to eliminate potential threats to the safety of your hardware and software.

Related Topics:
How do I avoid viruses?

Related Topics:
How do I set up a Kill Filter?
How do I Recognize a potential virus?
What is a virus scanner/remover?
What are the types of virus my computer can get?

Your newsgroup provider filters out (deletes) all messages from ISP’s and IP’s that are known virus spreaders. Plus they scan the incoming messages for virus. But scanning only works so far, because you can still find virus. So you must rely on your newsgroup reader, which has the ability to delete certain messages from a keyword in the header. By all means use it, and scan for words associated to money, teen, test, sex, and even certain symbols. This filters out a lot of standard junk (spam) mail or posts. If you have Forte Agent, place this in the subject box in a UseNet filter marked for deletion:

subject: * and (money or $ or cash or buck or pyramid or test or porn or sex or teen)

You can also add more keywords, think of words that you don’t want to see in the text group your reading. You can add pictures to that list or numbers, but keep in mind that someone may ask for a picture or how to find pictures of say of a book cover of a certain writer from a certain date. You can also reverse engineer the filter by adding in 'and not'. So it will look like this for ambe that will help you view only the message that is related to the topic of download videos:

subject: * and not (.avi or .mpg or .mp2 or .mov or .wmv or .asf or .zip)

Unfortunately Forte Agent is the only known program that does Kill Filter efficiently well. Microsoft Outlook is claimed to have filtering capabilities like its counter part Outlook Express. But Microsoft doesn’t feel that UseNet is a strong force in the Internet community. Sadly this is probably true and I oddly hope it remains so. Because if it did become a force, then “Big Business” would get the courts involved to shut it down just like Napster and Kazaa.

So pay attention to these factors: does the posted article follow that groups format, size of posted articles, author ghost-name, authors ISP IP address, Header information, file extensions, and other authors that are not posting files but messages. Because they will tell you what author is spreading viruses or trolling. As a community you must function to eliminate these delinquent people. So if a virus hits you, try clearing it as soon as possible or going somewhere’s and posting a warning about that author or his post. But remember, that other author is the last consider factor into determining a virus or not. As it could be a troll trying to discredit someone because of what that author said to them in another group.

This all boils down to your judgment call on downloading and executing which files. The best way to avoid viruses is to not download files.

Related Topics:
What is the normal size of a posted article?
Why is the Header important?
What is following the group’s format?
Why do I need to know file extensions and what are they?

On Agent it will display a column that states how many lines are in the post. If the column is between 20 to 60 lines, the message is mostly likely safe to download. However if you wish to download a jpg (file), for instances can range from 120 to 1000 lines. And this is all for a simple 640x 480 picture. Now do you see why encoding can make your message quite large.

If your using Outlook to read a plain text message, it would be 1 to 3 KB in size. If you want to download a file like a jpg, they can range from 30 to 70 KB for the same size of 640x 480 picture.

So what does knowing the size of posted or sent message help eliminate viruses? Viruses are files/programs, so when encoding them they become quite large like all attachment files. So avoid downloading the file and most defiantly avoid from executing or running the file. But wait, oh no. I have downloaded the header. Relax, your safe. You still haven’t downloaded the body of the message. But you say, “With e-mail you have no choice but to accept the incoming file.” Good, you have been paying attention or your smarter than I thought. You still have some defenses left, Don’t Execute The File, and delete it as soon as possible. Then for added precaution run your viruses scanner. If you have executed the infected file, your last saving grace is your virus scanner. Hopefully you have the latest update virus’s scanner/remover and it catches it before the infected file damages your software or hardware.

For recognizing viruses, this might be the most single important part of eliminating them. If they don’t catch your notice, they get lost among all the other articles that you didn’t find interesting. Hence virus authors do anything to catch your attention, because their intention is for you to download it and ruin your computer.

So they may break all the rules of proper format posting to that group. Or they may break the rules of the standards of all of UseNet.

An example is posted in to the newsgroup alt.books.lore-sung

From: bigredbopper@finnezgroup.net

Header: >>***/\BRITTANY SPEARS_BLOWJOB MOVIE.mpg_A MUST SEE+ ->+DOWNLOAD NOW+ POSTED ONLY ONCE/\ (1/18)****.

Attachment: BRITTANY SPEARS_ BLOWJOB MOVIE.mpg_A MUST SEE+.exe

Now lets dissect this example message. This has no place in alt.books.lore-sung. It breaks the standard UseNet code of posting binary’s or files as in .jpg, .avi, .exe, .html to groups that only have the word binaries in their name. Since alt.books.lore-sung doesn’t have binaries in it’s name. The poster broke the third rule of UseNet.

Now for the second rule of UseNet, maintaining the proper format that the newsgroup readers demand and the conducting of posting to that newsgroup regardless if it is not posted to the correct forum. Even if alt.books.lore-sung did exist, then you would want to maintain a format the such articles should properly be posted in for the newsgroup that is was intended for. Meaning, do to the grotesque nature of this article, this article should have been posted in alt.binaries.multimedia.erotica (abme for short). This group has a very detailed FAQ and conduct that this article Header breaks. Look to those group FAQ’s for more detailed information.

This is where knowing your file extension can help. You’ll recognize that the file extension says .mpg_A. Or if the author is calling it a Movie but the post is a file extension of .exe or .bat. Movie media doesn’t come in those file extensions. Now lets think about how this file got your attention.

“Brittany Spears blowjob movie”, this alone should put on a red light or warning sign. No way such a thing will exist. Then the commercial type adds, use of all caps, and the use of symbols to get your attention so that you don’t pass it by because it stands out compared to the rest of the articles posted. Then what does Brittany Spears have to do with the topic of Books author Lore Sung? Nothing really, as Lore is a fictional name and Brittany is a music artist.

Related Topics:
Proper etiquette and rules

Unlike common belief, having both of these programs doesn’t make your computer any safer. In fact they may cancel each other out on load up, or complain that each other is a virus.

I recommend having one updated virus scanner, and when encounter infect files. Delete them don’t try saving or recover them. Just reinstall the program, or file. But what happens if you don’t have the file. Like say it’s a jpg off the Internet. Back up your hard disk to a back up medium that most likely wont be infected. Portable Hard drives and CDR’s fit the bill, especially the CDR. Though you may have to burn a few CDR say every month or depended on how much you download a day. CDR’s are now cheap enough for you to buy a big 50 pack that can last you for a year for back up media.

Related Topics:
My computer is infected by a virus, should I still post?

  o   Macro - these are small viruses that come though Outlook/Word documents. They spread themselves through .doc extensions that you get or share. The best way to avoid this type of virus is disable the Macro. In Word, go to Tools, Then go down to Macro ->. And then go down to security on the pop out menu. Click on Security to open it. And double check that the High option is selected, then click okay. This should cause Word to prompt you if you download a document with a Macro. Always click No. You can't even trust your friends for they might not even know about the virus that infected them.I wish MS would allow an option to disable the whole thing. Incase you don't know what a macro is, a macro is a script like language in Word that enhances your written and reading experience in Word. I see it as a major security leak.

  o  Boot sector - this type of virus tries to write copies of itself to the system areas of hard disk and floppy disks. Then the infected floppy disks may infect other computers that boot from them, and the virus copy on the hard disk will try to infect still more floppies.

  o  Trojan Horse program - A type of program that is often confused with viruses is a "Trojan horse" program. This is not a virus, but simply a program (often harmful) that pretends to be something else.

For example, you might download what you think is a new game; but when you run it, it deletes files on your hard drive. Or it could look for a sector that doesn't exist on the hard drive causing the head to bang around, destroying your hard drive. And it might format or rewrite your flash BIOS. So every time you turn on your computer you get nothing but blank screen. Trojans do not replicate, but others claim they do. Like all computer definition, the word Trojan has been redefined and changed like AI (Artificial Intelligence) because computer game makers are claiming they have AI in their games. But what they have is something called Game AI. Which is a set program that is reactionary based with preprogrammed randomness add to it. Its not real AI, if that was the case they would have a fortune if they had real AI in a computer game don't you think?

  o  Worm - A computer WORM is a self-contained program (or set of programs), that is able to spread functional copies of itself or its segments to other computer systems (usually via network connections).

  o  Stealth - A STEALTH virus is one that, while "active", hides the modifications it has made to files or boot records. This is usually achieved by monitoring the system functions used to read files or sectors from storage media and forging the results of calls to such functions. This means programs that try to read infected files or sectors see the original, uninfected form instead of the actual, infected form. Thus the virus's modifications may go undetected by antivirus programs. However, in order to do this, the virus must be resident in memory when the antivirus program is executed and *this* may be detected by an antivirus program.

  o  Companion - A COMPANION virus is one that, instead of modifying an existing file, creates a new program which (unknown to the user) is executed instead of the intended program. On exit, the new program executes the original program so that things appear normal. On PCs this has usually been accomplished by creating an infected .COM file with the same name as an existing .EXE file. Integrity checking antivirus software that only looks for modifications in existing files will fail to detect such viruses.