March 2005

Actually, this page on SourceForge discusses using SSH to traverse a firewall and do a lot of things, including how to web surf the other end and how to use SAMBA on the other end, virtually replacing the need for a VPN. It’s a good article to study applications of SSH and tunneling.

See the following entries in my weblog for past information:

More on tunneling Remote Desktop over SSH
The Hazards of X11 Forwarding
Tunneling remote control
Cygwin vs GotoMyPC et al. -OR- Getting to your machine from elsewhere

Read through the article today and it gives a good overview of both of these facilities. I’ve been using Offline files for a few years, now, to keep some files available on my laptop that are stored/archived on my server, and I still learned a few things. Well, OK, not from the article itself but from this Microsoft KnowledgeBase article. There also a link to another Microsoft KnowledgeBase article about the Briefcase.

Security Focus‘s Linux users (Focus-Linux) have sample rulesets available here.

… is at http://sandbox.msn.com. Among other things, it mentions their Anti-spyware beta.

Two things that aren’t mentioned in the Sandbox but are mentioned in this article from eWeek are Microsoft’s experimental service for RSS aggregation (hint, click on the “show” link over on the left side of the page) and this service that let’s you store bookmarks (courtesy of the same article).

Courtesy of Windows Secrets (original article is here):

Uninstall the extension.

Download the latest version of the extension.

It’s really a ZIP file so rename it from Extension.xpi to Extension.xpi.zip

Unzip Install.rdf into the same folder as the .zip file.

Edit Install.rdf.

Find the line containing the word maxVersion. Change the number between the angle brackets to a number equal to or larger than your current Firefox version.

Save the file, then add it back into your Extension.xpi.zip file, overwriting the original Install.rdf.

Rename it from Extension.xpi.zip back to Extension.xpi.

Drag and drop the file into an open Firefox window.

This article from Aunty Spam’s Net Patrol discusses AOL’s (lack of) privacy in AIM. Apparently AIM users who have downloaded or registered for AIM since Feb. 4, 2004, have given up all rights to privacy and have granted AOL permission to reproduce or publish their messages. Read the article for yourself and read AOL’s terms of service here.

There are alternatives, some of which are inherently secure and some of which have encryption options. I’ll try to update this entry with some as I can.

Update: 3/15/2005, 13:03, California time

Yesterday, I happened to have copied and saved a piece of the TOS language that concerned me. Today, as of about 5 minutes ago, it was no longer on the site. Here’s the original language:

“Although you or the owner of the Content retain ownership of all right, title and interest in Content that you post to any AIM Product, AOL owns all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating this Content. In addition, by posting Content on an AIM Product, you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium. You waive any right to privacy. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the Content or to be compensated for any such uses.”

Update, 3/15/2005, 13:20:
Right, check out Slashdot again. This Slashdot posting contains a link to this eWeek article which says that AOL intends to make changes to clarify their intent. It appears those changes have been made.

Sysinternals has updated their free Rootkit Revealer to V1.20. Good tool to put in your anti-spyware kit.

What’s a rootkit? Check out this article on TechTarget.

Dan’s Mail Format Site has lots of good information about mail formatting, including tips on how to configure Thunderbird. Looks like the Preferences dialog is a little out of date and he has some very definite opinions that seem to have grown out of an email boyhood spent on Unix but, on the whole, it’s a pretty good site.