h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I just downloaded AIM but haven't installed it
yet. Good thing you told me about the incompatibility.

Latest issue of Brill's Content, I think it was,
described the hotmail problem and suggested that
MS left the hole on purpose so that users would be
scared away from free email.

Lil

Yeah, that sound like a typical MS trick. They really want to get rid of the whole Hotmail thing. Why give it away for free? And there are so many other sites out there, that offer better set ups, and more services (xoom.com has streaming video feeds with classic movies and such... old silent films right through to the 1950 black and whites... all free when you sign on for free email.)

Yeah, I do spend too much time out here in cyberia...

I have to agree with you... that thread was getting ssoooooo long... I have been running two windows, letting one load while i worked in the second. Didnt they just do an upgrade to speed things up?

AOL bought out ICQ when it realized AIM couldnt compete. Not that anyone would admit that, mind you... so far, no banner adds for AOL... lets just hope that they leave it be.

http://www.icq.com/

Finnally found the right address. It used to be miribilis or something like that....

Good luck.

Emp

I couldn't help but notice the ICQ thread. ICQ is perhaps the most insecure software you could ever install on your computer. It's worse than IRC, in terms of letting others into your personal crap.

*sigh* I'm trying to think of something better...

da Baron
ICQ me to see my goldfish in it's knickers!

Then how would you evaluate the AOL Instant Messenger
stuff? No way am I installing anything that lets ANY
entity near my stuff.

Lil

Page 19 of the December issue of PC World: the editor's page has a whole rant about Hotmail and AOL's ICQ. She (editor) says "AOL reported that approx 200 users of its ICQ instant messaging software had their passwords stolen These users received email with an attachment that looked like a jpeg. Instead the attachment turned out to be a password fishing program."

Of course the moral of that is, never accept attachments from strangers....

Lil

The best form of security is common sense.

I myself havn't had any problems as far as security goes on ICQ. I wonder how many of those that were hacked worked for major companies, or were hackers themselves?

Contemplation

The fact of the matter with ICQ is that some people (mostly teens and college-students with no life) have nothing better to do than poke around in other people's buisness and harass total strangers for no particular reason. It could be understandable, if you'd done something to them, but most often it's just to feel superior to the person they're screwing over. Little bastards.

I'm currently trying the MSN instant messenger, and so far I've had no problems (of course, I have no problems with ICQ it seems- except when certain entities are online). The fact of the matter remains that ICQ has caught the fancy of the 3733+ dewds, and so there's a whole lot of plug-ins and whatnot you could use to do all kinds of nastyness to people using it. I've got quite a few installed on my system, since after I started to have problems with it I began to investigate what was going on. You don't even have to be very bright to use them- that's the main thing which makes them so pervasive and...

Well that does it. Give me the security of a delayed response like this. I'm doing a lot of stuff on my machine which is firstly valuable to me and secondly is confidential material. All I need is some dragass little dweeb pawing through my personal life!

The other day I double-clicked an attachment because I thought it was from somebody I knew, but it wasn't, and to this moment I have anxiety flashes. What if I boot the thing up one day and some timed virus kicks in? Pure paranoia.

Lil

I've not had any probs with ICQ that I've noticed, but I've only got *quick check* 5 people on, and 4 of those are from H2G2! I've got MSN IM, and thats fun too! ICQ just makes better noises, is all I can see. (It just went eh-oh, on cue!)

Professionaly speaking, the best antivirus software I found is Sophos. http://www.sophos.com No, I'm not employed or connected with them in any way at all, but they've got good software and are quite upto date with the latest viruses and hoaxes. You can download the fully working eval from them. Sorry to sound like an advert, i just like their s/ware.

H&K
Z

And funny as it may seem, the best way to protect yourself against netbus is to install netbus yourself. You can make sure that the server ISN'T running on your machine that way. Also, most new virus dat files scan for BO and it's clones. MSN messenger seems to be a bit more secure since it doesn't give out as much information about the user (i.p.'s, etc) to other users.- but I'm sure if it catches on with the 3733+ dewds, there'll be plugs for it too.

I reccommend running netmon, a little bitty app that logs all the IP addresses which connect to your machine, and the ports they connect on. Most backdoor proggies connect at ports over 1000, so it's a good way to catch them with their pants down.

I personally don't see what the point is in prying into someone else's buisness, invading someone you barely know's privacy. Dumbasses. Like I said, I think they have inferiority complexes and it gives them a way to feel superior to their victims....

blech.

Bizzarely enuff, I have a somewhat abivalent attitude to the BO and netbus type programs etc. I am bang alongside the idea of writing and publishing (widely) these sort of programs. Why? Because we all pay good money for software that is supposed to be secure, but it isn't. And until people make a lot of noise, it won't be, because it costs money to do things properly, and software companies don't bother without being hassled. I'm not pointing just at micro$oft here, a lot of other companies are as bad.

Without independant people pointing out the holes and shouting about it, only the truly criminal element will know and exploit such holes. IF everybody knows, we can protect ourselves.

OTH, there really is no good reason to use these programs to pry into peoples personal lives. I agree completely with your assesment of the 'script kiddies' and 3733+ dewds. It's like knowing how to break into your own house - useful when you get locked out, but you wouldn't want anybody else to do it, and it reminds you to fit better locks.

H&K
Z