The Internet is a computer network made up of thousands of networks worldwide. No one knows exactly how many computers are connected to the Internet. It is certain, however, that these number in the millions.

No one is in charge of the Internet. There are organizations which develop technical aspects of this network and set standards for creating applications on it, but no governing body is in control. The Internet backbone, through which Internet traffic flows, is owned by private companies.

All computers on the Internet communicate with one another using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol suite, abbreviated to TCP/IP. Computers on the Internet use a client/server architecture. This means that the remote server machine provides files and services to the user's local client machine. Software can be installed on a client computer to take advantage of the latest access technology.

An Internet user has access to a wide variety of services: electronic mail, file transfer, vast information resources, interest group membership, interactive collaboration, multimedia displays, real-time broadcasting, shopping opportunities, breaking news, and much more.

The Internet consists primarily of a variety of access protocols. Many of these protocols feature programs that allow users to search for and retrieve material made available by the protocol.

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COMPONENTS OF THE INTERNET

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WORLD WIDE WEB

The World Wide Web (abbreviated as the Web or WWW) is a system of Internet servers that supports hypertext to access several Internet protocols on a single interface. Almost every protocol type available on the Internet is accessible on the Web. This includes e-mail, FTP, Telnet, and Usenet News. In addition to these, the World Wide Web has its own protocol: HyperText Transfer Protocol, or HTTP. These protocols will be explained later in this document.

The World Wide Web provides a single interface for accessing all these protocols. This creates a convenient and user-friendly environment. It is no longer necessary to be conversant in these protocols within separate, command-level environments. The Web gathers together these protocols into a single system. Because of this feature, and because of the Web's ability to work with multimedia and advanced programming languages, the Web is the fastest-growing component of the Internet.

The operation of the Web relies primarily on hypertext as its means of information retrieval. HyperText is a document containing words that connect to other documents. These words are called links and are selectable by the user. A single hypertext document can contain links to many documents. In the context of the Web, words or graphics may serve as links to other documents, images, video, and sound. Links may or may not follow a logical path, as each connection is programmed by the creator of the source document. Overall, the Web contains a complex virtual web of connections among a vast number of documents, graphics, videos, and sounds.

Producing hypertext for the Web is accomplished by creating documents with a language called HyperText Markup Language, or HTML. With HTML, tags are placed within the text to accomplish document formatting, visual features such as font size, italics and bold, and the creation of hypertext links. Graphics and multimedia may also be incorporated into an HTML document. HTML is an evolving language, with new tags being added as each upgrade of the language is developed and released. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), led by Web founder Tim Berners-Lee, coordinates the efforts of standardizing HTML. The W3C now calls the language XHTML and considers it to be an application of the XML language standard.

The World Wide Web consists of files, called pages or home pages, containing links to documents and resources throughout the Internet.

The Web provides a vast array of experiences including multimedia presentations, real-time collaboration, interactive pages, radio and television broadcasts, and the automatic "push" of information to a client computer. Programming languages such as Java, JavaScript, Visual Basic, Cold Fusion and XML are extending the capabilities of the Web. A growing amount of information on the Web is served dynamically from content stored in databases. The Web is therefore not a fixed entity, but one that is in a constant state of development and flux.

For more complete information about the World Wide Web, see Understanding The World Wide Web.

E-MAIL

Electronic mail, or e-mail, allows computer users locally and worldwide to exchange messages. Each user of e-mail has a mailbox address to which messages are sent. Messages sent through e-mail can arrive within a matter of seconds.

A powerful aspect of e-mail is the option to send electronic files to a person's e-mail address. Non-ASCII files, known as binary files, may be attached to e-mail messages. These files are referred to as MIME attachments.MIME stands for Multimedia Internet Mail Extension, and was developed to help e-mail software handle a variety of file types. For example, a document created in Microsoft Word can be attached to an e-mail message and retrieved by the recipient with the appropriate e-mail program. Many e-mail programs, including Eudora, Netscape Messenger, and Microsoft Outlook, offer the ability to read files written in HTML, which is itself a MIME type.

TELNET

Telnet is a program that allows you to log into computers on the Internet and use online databases, library catalogs, chat services, and more. There are no graphics in Telnet sessions, just text. To Telnet to a computer, you must know its address. This can consist of words (locis.loc.gov) or numbers (140.147.254.3). Some services require you to connect to a specific port on the remote computer. In this case, type the port number after the Internet address. Example: telnet nri.reston.va.us 185.

Telnet is available on the World Wide Web. Probably the most common Web-based resources available through Telnet have been library catalogs, though most catalogs have since migrated to the Web. A link to a Telnet resource may look like any other link, but it will launch a Telnet session to make the connection. A Telnet program must be installed on your local computer and configured to your Web browser in order to work.

With the increasing popularity of the Web, Telnet has become less frequently used as a means of access to information on the Internet.

FTP

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. This is both a program and the method used to transfer files between computers. Anonymous FTP is an option that allows users to transfer files from thousands of host computers on the Internet to their personal computer account. FTP sites contain books, articles, software, games, images, sounds, multimedia, course work, data sets, and more.

If your computer is directly connected to the Internet via an Ethernet cable, you can use one of several PC software programs, such as WS_FTP for Windows, to conduct a file transfer.

FTP transfers can be performed on the World Wide Web without the need for special software. In this case, the Web browser will suffice. Whenever you download software from a Web site to your local machine, you are using FTP. You can also retrieve FTP files via search engines such as FtpFind, located at /http://www.ftpfind.com/. This option is easiest because you do not need to know FTP program commands.

E-MAIL DISCUSSION GROUPS

One of the benefits of the Internet is the opportunity it offers to people worldwide to communicate via e-mail. The Internet is home to a large community of individuals who carry out active discussions organized around topic-oriented forums distributed by e-mail. These are administered by software programs. Probably the most common program is the listserv.

A great variety of topics are covered by listservs, many of them academic in nature. When you subscribe to a listserv, messages from other subscribers are automatically sent to your electronic mailbox. You subscribe to a listserv by sending an e-mail message to a computer program called a listserver. Listservers are located on computer networks throughout the world. This program handles subscription information and distributes messages to and from subscribers. You must have a e-mail account to participate in a listserv discussion group. Visit Tile.net at /http://tile.net/ to see an example of a site that offers a searchablecollection of e-mail discussion groups.

Majordomo and Listproc are two other programs that administer e-mail discussion groups. The commands for subscribing to and managing your list memberships are similar to those of listserv.

USENET NEWS

Usenet News is a global electronic bulletin board system in which millions of computer users exchange information on a vast range of topics. The major difference between Usenet News and e-mail discussion groups is the fact that Usenet messages are stored on central computers, and users must connect to these computers to read or download the messages posted to these groups. This is distinct from e-mail distribution, in which messages arrive in the electronic mailboxes of each list member.

Usenet itself is a set of machines that exchanges messages, or articles, from Usenet discussion forums, called newsgroups. Usenet administrators control their own sites, and decide which (if any) newsgroups to sponsor and which remote newsgroups to allow into the system.

There are thousands of Usenet newsgroups in existence. While many are academic in nature, numerous newsgroups are organized around recreational topics. Much serious computer-related work takes place in Usenet discussions. A small number of e-mail discussion groups also exist as Usenet newsgroups.

The Usenet newsfeed can be read by a variety of newsreader software programs. For example, the Netscape suite comes with a newsreader program called Messenger. Newsreaders are also available as standalone products.

FAQ, RFC, FYI

FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. These are periodic postings to Usenet newsgroups that contain a wealth of information related to the topic of the newsgroup. Many FAQs are quite extensive. FAQs are available by subscribing to individual Usenet newsgroups. A Web-based collection of FAQ resources has been collected by The Internet FAQ Consortium and is available at /http://www.faqs.org/.

RFC stands for Request for Comments. These are documents created by and distributed to the Internet community to help define the nuts and bolts of the Internet. They contain both technical specifications and general information.

FYI stands for For Your Information. These notes are a subset of RFCs and contain information of interest to new Internet users.

Links to indexes of all three of these information resources are available on the University Libraries Web site at /http://library.albany.edu/reference/faqs.html.

CHAT & INSTANT MESSENGING

Chat programs allow users on the Internet to communicate with each other by typing in real time. They are sometimes included as a feature of a Web site, where users can log into the "chat room" to exchange comments and information about the topics addressed on the site. Chat may take other, more wide-ranging forms. For example, America Online is well known for sponsoring a number of topical chat rooms.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a service through which participants can communicate to each other on hundreds of channels. These channels are usually based on specific topics. While many topics are frivolous, substantive conversations are also taking place. To access IRC, you must use an IRC software program.

A variation of chat is the phenomenon of instant messenging. With instant messenging, a user on the Web can contact another user currently logged in and type a conversation. Most famous is America Online's Instant Messenger. ICQ, MSN and Yahoo are other commonly-used chat programs.

Other types of real-time communication are addressed in the tutorial Understanding the World Wide Web.

MUD/MUSH/MOO/MUCK/DUM/MUSE

MUD stands for Multi User Dimension. MUDs, and their variations listed above, are multi-user virtual reality games based on simulated worlds. Traditionally text based, graphical MUDs now exist. There are MUDs of all kinds on the Internet, and many can be joined free of charge. For more information, read one of the FAQs devoted to MUDs available at the FAQ site at

Testing Wattage Consumption Of Your Computer

Measuring your computer's wattage is a good way of knowing if you are overloading your UPS, or if you have too many things plugged in to the same circuit. This article will show you how you can test wattage of your equipment using a multi meter and a few wires.

Visit

http://www.iceteks.com/articles.php?act=view&article=pcwattage&p=1&

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Testing Wattage consumption of your computer equipment

Making sure you’re not overloading your UPS or misc power source

Did you ever wonder how many watts your equipment is using? Whether it is a PC with monitor, or a whole UD cluster setup with 100's of machines this article will let you know how to easily find out. Or perhaps you just want to know how much power you would need to build one of those clusters. You can estimate yourself since some appliances such as monitors show the rating on the back but some other things such as computer power supplies don't. And just because it's a 300W power supply does not mean it uses 300W of power. It all depends on how much of that power the components are using. Watts are usually the best measurement to know because it does not change. But volts and amps do. If you plug in a vacuum cleaner in an 80volt power source it will be using way more amps then if you plug it in a 120V power source.

Watts is equal to volts times amps. So basically the higher the voltage, the fewer amps being drawed. Amps are also the actual current and what decides on the power of the circuit. What I mean by that is, if there's not enough amps, you can't run much, even if the voltage is high. A static shock can have millions of volts passing through you but yet it's not enough to power a light bulb, because there are very little amps. Amps also cause wires to heat up, the more amps, the bigger wires you need since if they are too small they will melt. This explains why power cords for large equipment are thicker, while a small lamp is just a cheap cord that you can cut with a pair of scissors, since one uses more amps but same voltage, and this results in more watts as well. Because of this heat though, there is power loss, so this is why when power is delivered to far distances, it is sent in high voltages, so they can use smaller cabling (cheaper) and there's less loss of energy from heat. So it's more efficient. But just because of what I said about the static electricity, don't think you can go climb one of those poles and get a shock that tickles.

Enough theory, let's get started.

First this is what you will need:

# A multi meter: One that can measure AC amps and AC voltages and should have a high enough rating. These can be purchased at a Radio Shack or similar store for about $100 and are very useful around the house.

# Crocodile wires or other wires easy to manipulate and plug.

# An old power cord with both ends open to connect the crocodile clips to it easily. (or equivalent, basically any thing that can easly be plugged and unplugged from the socket)

# Calculator (everyone has at least one around the house)

# Safety common sense (this can be hard to find in some households)

Like mentioned earlier, Watts = Volts X Amps. So we need to know how much volts we are giving to the equipment, we know it's near 120 because that's the normal house voltage. But we want to be more exact, so set your meter to measure volts AC and

put both ends in a socket that is on the same circuit as the equipment. For safety purposes, try to find a socket that is easy to access and has plenty of room to move quickly in case something happens. But if you have everything set correctly and don't short it out somehow, you're safe. Just make sure it's set to Volts AC and if your meter has different ranges, set the right range so you don't overload it. But most good meters will auto sense the range for you.

Because my plug has too many wires near it at the PC, for this picture I'm measuring a different circuit but if your house is wired like mine there should only be 2 main circuits (two separate AC phases) so they should both be near anyway. I get the same reading here and in my room.

The voltage tends to move a bit. In my case it was around 119 and 121 so let's just say 120.

page 2:

Testing Wattage consumption of your computer equipment

Making sure you’re not overloading your UPS or misc power source

Measuring amps is a bit trickier especially with mains power since you don't just shove it anywhere, but you have to break the circuit and put the amp meter in it, and be safe. So the easiest way to do this is by wiring the circuit yourself with the crocodile clips.

So turn off and unplug the device you want to test, in this case a monitor. Connect everything like shown in this picture. The arrows indicate the flow of electricity to make it easier to follow the circuit with all these wires all over. Note that this flow of electricity changes 60 times a second (50 times in some regions, the UK I believe) so this is why AC is different than DC.

So the white wire is plugged into the mains, and the black is the plug for the monitor. Completely ignore the ground for testing, DO NOT PLUG ANYTHING TO IT! In a permanent setup you would want to ground it, but for testing purposes it's ok to have it ungrounded for a bit, just be careful and if you feel safer ground a crocodile clip and connected to the grounding pin, but be careful since there's more chance of a wire slipping and shorting out. In the picture it's hard to see but the two wires connect to the two pins of the plug, so think of the two pins as the + and - of a device that needs power and the two wires as the + and - of a power source, since this is what it is, but with AC so the + and - order does not matter, but make sure the two wires don't contact each other since that's a short and you can blow the meter.

On the amp meter, the terminals used are the unfused 10A max and the COM. The fuse in the meter has a max of 500mA so it's best not to take a chance at blowing it, when we're measuring this much amps, and chances are you won't measure anything more then 10Amps. Never measure an entire power strip, but each item individually, to make sure of this.

When setting up the wires, make extra sure to unplug the cable that is feeding the power (the white one in this case) Once completed let part of the circuit broken like in thes picture below, plug in the cable then take both wires (the red crocodile clip and black meter cable in this case) and tick them together quickly just to be sure you won't cause some kind of short. Again, this is only to make sure you did not mess anything up such as badly setting the meter, or if some wires are touching somewhere that should not. Then hook them up together solidly and turn on the device you are measuring and you will get a reading. Lot of equipment have transformers and stuff which use up a bit of amps even when turned off, so this is why you will sometimes get a reading even when it's turned off. If you calculate all the devices in your house like this, you may be using a few amps from items just sitting there turned off!

The following pic shows the circuit unplugged and ready to go.

Take note of the reading and repeat this process for each item. So when done you should have something like this:

House voltage: 120V

PC full load: 1.2A

PC without fans, lights and UD: 0.8A

Monitor: 0.5A

Once you have all the readings, just do Volts times Amps. So...

120V X 1.2A = 144W

120V X 0.8A = 96W

120V X 0.5A = 63W

Since the first 2 readings are the same device you can decide on if you just want the average, or the most widely used. In my case I put the most widely used, since it's very rare that I turn off UD (0.2Amps) or the lights. Sometimes I may turn off a set of fans but those don't make a big difference. So I'll stick with 144W.

So now we simply add 144 + 63 which gives us 207 Watts. So now I know that my PC and monitor which are plugged into my UPS use up about 207Watts.

Also note that this is only the base of the concept and because this is AC and not DC, it get's more complicated. Amps are sometimes not in sync with the volts and unless you are using a RMS (root means square) meter, you may get inaccurate results. Some meters don't even tell you if they are RMS or not, so I'm not even sure if the one I used is or not but according to what some say these readings seem about right for the equipment used. Basically, try to not go too near your UPSes max wattage and you should be safe. Some UPSes also don't even tell you how many watts it can handle, but rather VA (volt amps) which are slightly different.

Danger: The activities in this tutorial were done since I knew what I was doing and was using proper safety measures to avoid accidents. Please realize that this activity, especially with amp readings over 1 can be fatal! Be extremely careful, especially not to close any open circuits with your body as it will make the amps go through you, and possibly kill you! If you have any heart problems, this is even a bigger risk to take and should most likely be done by someone else.

Disclaimer: IceTeks, or myself may not be held responsible for any damage done during the proceeding of this article. This is for informational purposes only and should only be performed by someone who knows what they are doing!

Did you know that in Windows XP you can shut down your computer from the (eventually DOS prompt) command line box? Moreover, you can do this by clicking your mouse only once.

All you need to do is... right-click on an empty Desktop spot -> select New -> Shortcut -> type shutdown followed by a space, and then enter one or more of the parameters listed below -> click Next -> type a suggestive name for your new shortcut -> finally, click Finish.

This is the Shutdown.exe (located in %systemroot%\System32, usually C:\Windows\System32) syntax:

shutdown [-i|-l|-s|-r|-a] [-f] [-m \\computername] [-t xx] [-c "Text"] [-d[u][p]:xx:yy]

Valid command line switches:

-a = Abort system shutdown in progress ONLY IF the -t xx timeout option was already set to ANY value other than 0. ALL switches except -l and -m are ignored during abort.

-c "Text" = Text comment (case insensitive) to be displayed in the Message area of the System Shutdown window. MUST be enclosed between quotes. Maximum allowed 127 ASCII characters.

-d [u][p]:xx:yy = Reason code for shutdown:

u = User code.

p = Planned shutdown code.

xx = Major reason code. Positive integer number less than 256.

yy = Minor reason code. Positive integer number less than 65536.

-f = Force running applications to close without warning.

-i = Display the shutdown interface (GUI). MUST be the first option!

-l = Log off the current user of the local computer (default action). Can NOT be used with the -m option unless the current user has Sysadmin rights, in which case the -m switch takes precedence.

-m \\computername = Remote/network computer name (most always case sensitive) to log off/restart/shut down. Current user MUST have Sysadmin rights to be allowed to use this switch!

-s = Shut down the local computer.

-r = Shut down and restart (reboot) the local computer.

-t xx = Set shutdown timer to timeout for xx seconds. IF NOT specified defaults to 20 seconds. Allowed values between 0 and 99 seconds. The -a switch is the ONLY one that CAN be used during the timeout period.

NOTES:

The dash (-) in front of these switches can be replaced by a forward slash (/).

Spaces are NOT required to separate the shutdown command from ANY following switches, but ARE required to separate ANY switch from its following parameter(s), if any.

For example:

shutdown -s -c "Shutting down!" -t 3

tells your computer to shutdown after waiting for 3 seconds while the System Shutdown window will display text above in the Message area.

Optional: after you're done creating your customized shortcut for shutdown -> right-click on it -> select Properties -> enter your desired key "combo" in the Shortcut Key box (e.g. Ctrl + Alt + End) -> click OK/Apply.

From now on just left-click on your shutdown shortcut or hit that key combination to turn off/restart/log off your computer.

When you first turn on you computer (BEFORE DIALING INTO YOUR ISP),

open a MS-DOS Prompt window (start/programs MS-DOS Prompt).

Then type netstat -arn and press the Enter key.

Your screen should display the following (without the dotted lines

which I added for clarification).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Active Routes:

Network Address Netmask Gateway Address Interface Metric

127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1

255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 0.0.0.0 1

Route Table

Active Connections

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State

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If you see anything else, there might be a problem (more on that later).

Now dial into your ISP, once you are connected;

go back to the MS-DOS Prompt and run the same command as before

netstat -arn, this time it will look similar to the following (without

dotted lines).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Active Routes:

Network Address Netmask Gateway Address Interface Metric

0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 216.1.104.70 216.1.104.70 1

127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1

216.1.104.0 255.255.255.0 216.1.104.70 216.1.104.70 1

216.1.104.70 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1

216.1.104.255 255.255.255.255 216.1.104.70 216.1.104.70 1

224.0.0.0 224.0.0.0 216.1.104.70 216.1.104.70 1

255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 216.1.104.70 216.1.104.70 1

Route Table

Active Connections

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State

TCP 0.0.0.0:0 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING

TCP 216.1.104.70:137 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING

TCP 216.1.104.70:138 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING

TCP 216.1.104.70:139 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING

UDP 216.1.104.70:137 *:*

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What you are seeing in the first section (Active Routes) under the heading of

Network Address are some additional lines. The only ones that should be there

are ones belonging to your ISP (more on that later). In the second section

(Route Table) under Local Address you are seeing the IP address that your ISP

assigned you (in this example 216.1.104.70).

The numbers are divided into four dot notations, the first three should be

the same for both sets, while in this case the .70 is the unique number

assigned for THIS session. Next time you dial in that number will more than

likely be different.

To make sure that the first three notation are as they should be, we will run

one more command from the MS-DOS window.

From the MS-DOS Prompt type tracert /www.yourispwebsite.com or .net

or whatever it ends in. Following is an example of the output you should see.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tracing route to /www.motion.net [207.239.117.112]over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 128 ms 2084 ms 102 ms chat-port.motion.net [216.1.104.4]

2 115 ms 188 ms 117 ms chat-core.motion.net [216.1.104.1]

3 108 ms 116 ms 119 ms www.motion.net [207.239.117.112]

Trace complete.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You will see that on lines with the 1 and 2 the first three notations of the

address match with what we saw above, which is a good thing. If it does not,

then some further investigation is needed.

If everything matches like above, you can almost breath easier. Another thing

which should you should check is programs launched during startup. To find

these, Click start/programs/startup, look at what shows up. You should be

able to recognize everything there, if not, once again more investigation is

needed.

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Now just because everything reported out like we expected (and demonstrated

above) we still are not out of the woods. How is this so, you ask? Do you use

Netmeeting? Do you get on IRC (Internet Relay Chat)? Or any other program

that makes use of the Internet. Have you every recieved an email with an

attachment that ended in .exe? The list goes on and on, basically anything

that you run could have become infected with a trojan. What this means, is

the program appears to do what you expect, but also does just a little more.

This little more could be blasting ebay.com or one of the other sites that

CNNlive was talking about.

What can you do? Well some anti-virus software will detect some trojans.

Another (tedious) thing is to start each of these "extra" Internet programs

one at a time and go through the last two steps above, looking at the routes

and connection the program uses. However, the tricky part will be figuring

out where to tracert to in order to find out if the addresses you see in

step 2 are "safe" or not. I should forewarn you, that running tracert after

tracert, after tracert might be considered "improper" by your ISP. The steps

outlined above may not work exactly as I have stated depending upon your ISP,

but with a true ISP it should work. Finally, this advise comes with NO

warranty and by following my "hints' you implicitly release me from ANY and

ALL liability which you may incur.

Other options

Display protocol statistics and current TCP/IP network connections.

Netstat [-a] [-e] [-n] [-s] [-p proto] [-r] [intervals]

-a.. Display all connections and listening ports.

-e.. Display Ethernet statistics. This may be combined with the -s option.

-n.. Diplays address and port numbers in the numerical form.

-p proto..Shows connections for the protocol specified by proto; proto may be

TCP or UDP. If used with the -s option to display per-protocol statistics,

proto may be TCP, UDP, of IP.

-r.. Display the routing table.

-s.. Display per-protocol statistics. By default, statistics are shown for TCP

UDP and IP; the -p option may be used to specify a subset of the default

interval..Redisplay selected statistics, pausing intervals seconds between each

display. If omitted. netstat will print the current configuration information

You may not realize it, but your computer and your car have something in common: they both need regular maintenance. No, you don't need to change your computer's oil. But you should be updating your software, keeping your antivirus subscription up to date, and checking for spyware. Read on to learn what you can do to help improve your computer's security.

Getting started

Here are some basics maintenance tasks you can do today to start improving your computer's security. Be sure you make these part of your ongoing maintenance as well.

* Sign up for software update e-mail notices. Many software companies will send you e-mail whenever a software update is available. This is particularly important for your operating system (e.g., Microsoft VV!|VD0VV$® or Macintosh), your antivirus program, and your firewall.

* Register your software. If you still have registration forms for existing software, send them in. And be sure to register new software in the future. This is another way for the software manufacturer to alert you when new updates are available.

* Install software updates immediately.

When you get an update notice, download the update immediately and install it. (Remember, downloading and installing are two separate tasks.)

An ounce of prevention

A few simple steps will help you keep your files safe and clean.

* Step 1: Update your software

* Step 2: Backup your files

* Step 3: Use antivirus software and keep it updated

* Step 4: Change your passwords

Developing ongoing maintenance practices

Now that you've done some ground work, it's time to start moving into longer term maintenance tasks. These are all tasks that you should do today (or as soon as possible) to get started. But for best results, make these a part of a regular maintenance schedule. We recommend setting aside time each week to help keep your computer secure.

* Back up your files. Backing up your files simply means creating a copy of your computer files that you can use in the event the originals are lost. (Accidents can happen.) To learn more read our tips for backing up information.

* Scan your files with up to date antivirus software. Use your antivirus scan tool regularly to search for potential computer viruses and worms. Also, check your antivirus program's user manual to see if you can schedule an automatic scan of your computer. To learn more, read our tips for reducing your virus risk

.

* Change your passwords. Using the same password increases the odds that someone else will discover it. Change all of your passwords regularly (we recommend monthly) to reduce your risk. Also, choose your passwords carefully. To learn more, read our tips for creating stronger passwords

.

Making a schedule

One of the best ways to help protect your computer is to perform maintenance regularly. To help you keep track, we suggest making a regular "appointment" with your computer. Treat it like you would any other appointment. Record it in your datebook or online calendar, and if you cannot make it, reschedule. Remember, you are not only helping to improve your computer, you are also helping to protect your personal information.

When you first turn on you computer (BEFORE DIALING INTO YOUR ISP),

open a MS-DOS Prompt window (start/programs MS-DOS Prompt).

Then type netstat -arn and press the Enter key.

Your screen should display the following (without the dotted lines

which I added for clarification).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Active Routes:

Network Address Netmask Gateway Address Interface Metric

127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1

255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 0.0.0.0 1

Route Table

Active Connections

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you see anything else, there might be a problem (more on that later).

Now dial into your ISP, once you are connected;

go back to the MS-DOS Prompt and run the same command as before

netstat -arn, this time it will look similar to the following (without

dotted lines).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Active Routes:

Network Address Netmask Gateway Address Interface Metric

0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 216.1.104.70 216.1.104.70 1

127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1

216.1.104.0 255.255.255.0 216.1.104.70 216.1.104.70 1

216.1.104.70 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1

216.1.104.255 255.255.255.255 216.1.104.70 216.1.104.70 1

224.0.0.0 224.0.0.0 216.1.104.70 216.1.104.70 1

255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 216.1.104.70 216.1.104.70 1

Route Table

Active Connections

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State

TCP 0.0.0.0:0 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING

TCP 216.1.104.70:137 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING

TCP 216.1.104.70:138 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING

TCP 216.1.104.70:139 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING

UDP 216.1.104.70:137 *:*

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What you are seeing in the first section (Active Routes) under the heading of

Network Address are some additional lines. The only ones that should be there

are ones belonging to your ISP (more on that later). In the second section

(Route Table) under Local Address you are seeing the IP address that your ISP

assigned you (in this example 216.1.104.70).

The numbers are divided into four dot notations, the first three should be

the same for both sets, while in this case the .70 is the unique number

assigned for THIS session. Next time you dial in that number will more than

likely be different.

To make sure that the first three notation are as they should be, we will run

one more command from the MS-DOS window.

From the MS-DOS Prompt type tracert /www.yourispwebsite.com or .net

or whatever it ends in. Following is an example of the output you should see.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tracing route to /www.motion.net [207.239.117.112]over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 128 ms 2084 ms 102 ms chat-port.motion.net [216.1.104.4]

2 115 ms 188 ms 117 ms chat-core.motion.net [216.1.104.1]

3 108 ms 116 ms 119 ms www.motion.net [207.239.117.112]

Trace complete.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You will see that on lines with the 1 and 2 the first three notations of the

address match with what we saw above, which is a good thing. If it does not,

then some further investigation is needed.

If everything matches like above, you can almost breath easier. Another thing

which should you should check is programs launched during startup. To find

these, Click start/programs/startup, look at what shows up. You should be

able to recognize everything there, if not, once again more investigation is

needed.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now just because everything reported out like we expected (and demonstrated

above) we still are not out of the woods. How is this so, you ask? Do you use

Netmeeting? Do you get on IRC (Internet Relay Chat)? Or any other program

that makes use of the Internet. Have you every recieved an email with an

attachment that ended in .exe? The list goes on and on, basically anything

that you run could have become infected with a trojan. What this means, is

the program appears to do what you expect, but also does just a little more.

This little more could be blasting ebay.com or one of the other sites that

CNNlive was talking about.

What can you do? Well some anti-virus software will detect some trojans.

Another (tedious) thing is to start each of these "extra" Internet programs

one at a time and go through the last two steps above, looking at the routes

and connection the program uses. However, the tricky part will be figuring

out where to tracert to in order to find out if the addresses you see in

step 2 are "safe" or not. I should forewarn you, that running tracert after

tracert, after tracert might be considered "improper" by your ISP. The steps

outlined above may not work exactly as I have stated depending upon your ISP,

but with a true ISP it should work. Finally, this advise comes with NO

warranty and by following my "hints' you implicitly release me from ANY and

ALL liability which you may incur.

Other options

Display protocol statistics and current TCP/IP network connections.

Netstat [-a] [-e] [-n] [-s] [-p proto] [-r] [intervals]

-a.. Display all connections and listening ports.

-e.. Display Ethernet statistics. This may be combined with the -s option.

-n.. Diplays address and port numbers in the numerical form.

-p proto..Shows connections for the protocol specified by proto; proto may be

TCP or UDP. If used with the -s option to display per-protocol statistics,

proto may be TCP, UDP, of IP.

-r.. Display the routing table.

-s.. Display per-protocol statistics. By default, statistics are shown for TCP

UDP and IP; the -p option may be used to specify a subset of the default

interval..Redisplay selected statistics, pausing intervals seconds between each

display. If omitted. netstat will print the current configuration information

You may not realize it, but your computer and your car have something in common: they both need regular maintenance. No, you don't need to change your computer's oil. But you should be updating your software, keeping your antivirus subscription up to date, and checking for spyware. Read on to learn what you can do to help improve your computer's security.

Getting started

Here are some basics maintenance tasks you can do today to start improving your computer's security. Be sure you make these part of your ongoing maintenance as well.

* Sign up for software update e-mail notices. Many software companies will send you e-mail whenever a software update is available. This is particularly important for your operating system (e.g., Microsoft VV!|VD0VV$® or Macintosh), your antivirus program, and your firewall.

* Register your software. If you still have registration forms for existing software, send them in. And be sure to register new software in the future. This is another way for the software manufacturer to alert you when new updates are available.

* Install software updates immediately.

When you get an update notice, download the update immediately and install it. (Remember, downloading and installing are two separate tasks.)

An ounce of prevention

A few simple steps will help you keep your files safe and clean.

* Step 1: Update your software

* Step 2: Backup your files

* Step 3: Use antivirus software and keep it updated

* Step 4: Change your passwords

Developing ongoing maintenance practices

Now that you've done some ground work, it's time to start moving into longer term maintenance tasks. These are all tasks that you should do today (or as soon as possible) to get started. But for best results, make these a part of a regular maintenance schedule. We recommend setting aside time each week to help keep your computer secure.

* Back up your files. Backing up your files simply means creating a copy of your computer files that you can use in the event the originals are lost. (Accidents can happen.) To learn more read our tips for backing up information.

* Scan your files with up to date antivirus software. Use your antivirus scan tool regularly to search for potential computer viruses and worms. Also, check your antivirus program's user manual to see if you can schedule an automatic scan of your computer. To learn more, read our tips for reducing your virus risk

.

* Change your passwords. Using the same password increases the odds that someone else will discover it. Change all of your passwords regularly (we recommend monthly) to reduce your risk. Also, choose your passwords carefully. To learn more, read our tips for creating stronger passwords

.

Making a schedule

One of the best ways to help protect your computer is to perform maintenance regularly. To help you keep track, we suggest making a regular "appointment" with your computer. Treat it like you would any other appointment. Record it in your datebook or online calendar, and if you cannot make it, reschedule. Remember, you are not only helping to improve your computer, you are also helping to protect your personal information.