PCWize Vol 4, Issue 24 - More URL Voodoo June 11, 2000 ______________________________________________________________________ You could win $10,000 and a Sony DVD player just by recommending PCWize to a friend! ------ Well, it looks like my protracted battle with AOL wasn't quite so, well, protracted. Last week, many AOL members received their first edition since the day they subscribed. What a relief! Only time will tell though, so if anyone misses more than a single issue (on occasion, I've been known to miss the deadline for an issue), then drop me a note saying so. We'll figure out what the problem is and get you back to geeking out with the PCWize crew. ------ I've mentioned Maximum PC -- my favorite print computer magazine --before, and I wanted to let you know about a new magazine they just started publishing called Maximum Linux . Just like Maximum PC, Maximum Linux is a force to be reckoned with. However, unlike Maximum PC, Maximum Linux isn't written with the complete geek in mind. They realize that Linux is quite a bit different than Windows, and the focus is more on giving you all the geektails (my work for geeky details) without assuming that you're already a Linux guru. It's a little pricey, and only publishes six issues per year, but with each issue, you get a CD jam-packed with all the latest and greatest the Linux world has to offer. If you've even been remotely considering giving Linux a whirl, there is no better magazine to get you started. ------ I'm a dork! I promised you all some snapshots taken with the Olympus D-950 Zoom digital camera two issues ago. So where's the dork part come in? Well, the page has been up for two weeks, but I didn't tell you all where to find it. Take a gander at to see some cool pics of Japan taken by this really neat camera. For those of you who pay attention, you'll notice that this is in the "Fun Stuff" category. That Right! After ten gazillion of you all wrote in to tell me that the Fun Stuff link on the PCWize web site wasn't working, I finally decide to put some content in there. Check out to see what I threw in it. ______________________________________________________________________ Table Of Contents - URL Voodoo part II - HackTech by The NMI - Voting Booth and Other PCWize Stuff - Software Review - Cool Sites - Tips, Tricks, Do's and Don't Do's - That's the news! - Security Issues, Hoaxes, Viruses and Other Urban Legends - PCWize Contests and winner announcement If the columns in the below articles appear misaligned, it's because you are using a non-fixed width font. If you would like to see them as written, please change your e-mail font to Courier New. ______________________________________________________________________ ** A word from our sponsors ** ------ http://www.creditcardanalyzer.com - find out how much your credit cards are costing you and see how much money you could save by transferring the balance to a lower interest card ------ Want to see your advertisement here? For more information, go here: ______________________________________________________________________ Uniform Resource Locator (URL) Voodoo Part II ------ In issue 4.14 we discussed the mailto URL structure and the many things you can do with it. In this issue, we'll discuss the other URL structures like FTP, HTTP, FILE, and such. You've all seen the standard URLs like , but there is more to them than meets the eye. Let's cover the anatomy of an HTTP URL. The first portion of a URL shows its type. For example, an HTTP URL begins with http://, FTP begins with ftp://, and MAILTO begins with mailto:. Were you paying attention? Are you sure? Ok then, pop quiz. Which of these URLs is not like the others? If you answered MAILTO, then your WRONG! Confused yet? Good, because I'm just messing with you! Yes, the MAILTO URL is different from the others; It doesn't require the two forward slashes after the colon. Why is this? It has to do with the fact that MAILTO doesn't directly address a data object. By this, I mean that the other URL schemes-- after entered by you --go out to the Internet and pull back some form of information. With a MAILTO, you send it, and don't expect to see anything return-- well, except maybe a reply from the person you sent it to, but it's not the same thing as requesting a web page or an ftp site directory. Ok, the next part of a URL's anatomy is the host and domain. The host is the name of the place like PCWize, and the domain is the .com portion. Now with the host, it can be fairly convoluted, but to decipher them, you have to remember that it goes from smallest to largest, left to right. For example: Don't click on this as it doesn't exist. I made it up just like the rest of the stuff I write! :^) So, looking at that example, PCWize is most likely a server connected to the sunnet network, which belongs to the Misten corporation, and it has a Top Level Domain (TLD) of .com. Make sense? So what is a TLD? Glad you asked. These are the big domains of .com, .net, .org etc. Let's get back to the anatomy of an HTTP URL. The format for an HTTP URL with all the bells and whistles is as follows: http://:/? We already know what the http:// portion does, but what is that thingy? That's a whole other newsletter in itself, and I already covered it in issue #10. For those of you who weren't with us way back when, or just need a refresher, take a peek at For now, let's just say that a port can be thought of with this analogy; You have a house, and this house represents your computer. Let's say that you have five ways to enter your house: The front door, the back door, the garage, the sliding glass porch window, and the root cellar door. Granted you also have multiple windows in your house, but for now we'll forget about those. For each of these entrances, they are normally used for a specific purpose. For example, the garage entrance is for well, parking your car, and the root cellar entrance is for say, access to the gardening tools. Now, let's translate a little bit to the computer world. Port 80 is the default port (specific purpose) for HTTP. Just as you could use the root cellar entrance to gain access to the actual house (as opposed to only being used for access to the gardening tools), you could-- provided the server/host is set up to accept it --set the HTTP port to another number. I don't want to bog you down too much in ports, as I've already covered it in the ports page, so let's look at the next part: /? You've probably already figured this one out, but it's the directory path to whatever file/object you are looking for. For example: /internet/ports.shtml We're going to look in the "internet" directory for a web page called "ports.shtml". Pretty straightforward so far. The remaining piece to the HTTP URL scheme is "?", and basically it is a variable of some sort that generally gets passed to a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) script. A script is a little "program" that does some function. It could really do pretty much anything, so I'm not going to try and quantify it here. As a note, the "?" can be replaced with a "#" which is called a fragment/anchor identifier. An example of this, would be if you've ever seen a very long web page which has been broken up into sections, and when you click the link from say, the table of contents, it takes you down the page to wherever that section starts. A good example of this is at: With exception to the links above the title "Tips and Tricks", these are all links to a section within the same document. These are also sometimes referred to as bookmarks. Now, if you still have a hard time getting all this under your belt, let's take the "house" analogy all the way. I am in Japan, and you need directions to my kitchen table, in my house, from wherever you are. Let me show you the way using HTTP URL format: http://:/? 101B is the server (my house), connected to the north_area network, which is connected to the misawa network, which is connected to the japan network on the TLD Earth (Earth here signifies something like .com, .org, or whatever.) The "1" signifies that you are to use the "front door" of the 101B server, and then you are to walk through the living room, into the kitchen, where you will find the kitchen_table object. Clear as mud?!? Good! The good news is that we're almost done with the hard stuff, and the following URL schemes will require little explaining as we've now gotten most of the basics out of the way. Before we move on to some other types of URL schemes, I want to cover how to send your username/login and password to a server that requires it-- such as some ftp and http sites. Take a look at this. //:@:/ Pretty straightforward now that you know most of the information we've covered so far. Let's say that PCWize required a login and password to gain access to our web site. Further, let's say that your login name is "myname", and your password is "mypassword". Here's how it would look: We want the index.shtml page on port 80 from the www.pcwize.com web site, and to do this we are going to login as "myname" and send our password "mypassword". Let me give you an example of an ftp one just for grins: You want to see the directory contents of /pub/uploads on the PCWize FTP server on port 21 (FTP port) and you're going to use "myname" as the login, and "mypassword" as the password. Ok, let's move on to some other URL schemes, and since I just mentioned FTP, we'll go there next. I'm not going to cover what FTP is, as I've already done that in issue #14. Those wanting a refresher or who don't know what FTP is used for, then take a look here: Here is how an FTP URL looks: This is really all you need to know, but these can get complex when you start dealing with typecodes and such, but since I myself don't know a whole lot about them, I'm not going to try and bluff my way through it. Sometimes, you will run across a direct link to a file, and it will look something like this: file:/// An example, This is a pretty straightforward URL scheme, and doesn't introduce anything new. Next, we'll hit TELNET. I haven't covered telnet in any detail before, so a quick note about it is in order. Telnet allows you to log-in to another computer, and then use it as if you were sitting right in front of it. It's a highly useful protocol, in which you can administrate a machine while being geographically separated from it. A telnet URL looks like this: telnet://:@:/ There's not much to say about the URL itself, because it's nothing new. We've already covered everything about it except for the default port number which is 23. Next we'll cover Gopher. Guess what? I've already covered Gopher in issue #18, but you can see it here: Here is the URL scheme: gopher://:/ Would you look at that! Nothing new, except to tell you that the default port is 70. There are a few other URL schemes like NNTP, WAIS, and NEWS, but they don't get used very often. If you really want to learn more about them, then I suggest you take a look at RFC 1738 here: Don't know what a Request For Comment (RFC) is, go here: ______________________________________________________________________ HackTech by The NMI WHERE WILL YOUR DATA BE SAFE? ------ Just this last week the issue came up on wired news, and several other sources, about the Data Haven called HavenCo . For those of you not as geek-like as me, a Data Haven is a location, physical or virtual, where your data is free from the prying eyes of ANYONE who does not have your explicit permission to view it. This not only includes Joe the bad hacker, but even governments, corporations, or who ever else has the ability to pry into your communications. I know some people I talk to (and debate heatedly with) on a regular basis have the opinion that "I do nothing wrong, so I don't have anything to hide". This is like saying you don't need to lock your doors because you don't own anything REALLY valuable. This may be true in Amish country, but for the rest of us there are just too many freaks out there to use that philosophy as a general rule. Now, if it was possible, would you let people read your mind any time they wanted, day or night, without even letting you know? Of course you wouldn't! No one is perfect, and even an innocuous thought that is never acted upon could be misconstrued or used against you if the context is abused: (some time in the future) Judge: You stand accused of thinking "The government sucks" as reported by officer Jones of the Telecops- This is an act of Mental sedition against our glorious government. To avoid contamination of the rest of the populace, the sentence is death, to be carried out immediately - do you have any last words? You: But I was just mad because taxes were so high and I wanted to buy a present for my wife's birth... Judge: Times up - Tax levels are set to provide for the common good - you wife can sell your organs to buy herself something nice, as is her right as a spouse. Judge: Next! Does this seem too Orwellian to you? Too futuristic to happen? Maybe the example was a little extreme... for now. But where do we draw the line between our thoughts and what we say or do on the Internet? Most all of you know that when you are in a private conversation with a friend, perhaps, you might say things that could be taken out of context, or misunderstood. Even things like "that company is full of idiots - they should all go to hell" Who's to say that someone overhearing this conversation won't misunderstand what you are saying? Especially if your language is even more extreme? Could someone think you were talking about committing a crime? Now take this conversation onto the Internet - into say a chat room on some miscellaneous server somewhere. Most people consider themselves to have some degree of privacy when they are chatting with someone in a "private" on-line room. Most people are mistaken. Every single line of text you type can and sometimes does get recorded in the bowels of that miscellaneous server room. Take into consideration the server can easily be told to heuristically search its vast amount of recorded conversations for word combinations. Words like "Diabetes" and "medication" and "cost", which the server then compares to its list of key words paid for by a pharmaceutical company, who then gets your e-mail address (recorded when you logged on to the chat program) and sends you medical information regarding its "better" brand of medication. And you were only telling your friend "I saw this thing on the news about how they are making low cost diabetes medication available to other countries." This can happen, and junk e-mail is only the tip of the iceberg. Are you absolutely sure it hasn't happened to you already? So now you know the problem - But what's the solution? I referred to the data haven "HavenCo" as a kind of stop-gap measure. They might be a middle-link in between your connection and the places you go on the Internet, to prevent companies from getting your info, like buying preferences or medical afflictions, or political affiliations... This hasn't been offered yet, but perhaps they might start doing something like this, right now all they offer is a data storage and server location free from the grip of corporations and governments. Kinda. Right now they utilize a microwave link to the near-by English coast, which, if foreseen to be some sort of political or economic threat, could neatly be cut on THAT end by the local government. Where else is safe? Even a data haven in a sovereign country like that in the awesome book "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson could be shut off from the rest of the world by use of force, even if all the data was still inside, it wouldn't be of use to the owners if they couldn't get to it. A radical approach is needed. Well, here's a wild idea: I propose something on a higher order (pardon the pun) like an orbital platform - Which, it just so happens, is already available to the right investors: The MIR spacestation. The station was bought by a company called MIRcorp which seeks investors to support the reconditioning of the station. Sure, sure, I know the station had some pretty serious problems, apparently getting resolved as we speak. Plans right now include "the first Internet portal in space" - Not sure where they're going with that one. However, the idea of a "data haven" seems even better: Send up a heck of a lot of storage space, do some massive repairs, and maybe link the station to the now unused Iridium satellite network already ALSO in orbit. Can you seen the potential of a setup like this? We could talk to our "home server" on MIR from just about ANYWHERE on the planet, bypassing the telcos, the cable companies, the governments, nosey three-letter content providers. The apps are limitless. Now as far as cost and speed... The cost for the Iridium phones was going to be rather high - I think it was something like $240 to $340 for the device itself, not including the service. But, in cases where they would provide a service on a much more massive scale, the cost could drop like any other service or product. As for connection speed - well, I tried to get information on the satellite capabilities, and what I could find wasn't much at all - BUT, I'm sure there's quite a bit of bandwidth to be used there. Anyway, I hope you all should get the basic idea of what I'm referring to. Even if you don't have anything to worry about, it would be nice to know for sure that you are insulated from people who have no need to get at your conversations, your e-mail, your buying habits... privacy doesn't have to be dead, and it doesn't have to be expensive, but we DO have to ask for it. Anyone know any investment companies out there? :) Send your privacy concerns and contributions to TheNMI@PCWize.com ______________________________________________________________________ Voting Booth and Other PCWize Stuff ------ Click here to vote for PCWize as one of the best newsletters in the "E-zines Top Ten Poll"! It's just a click, no need to fill anything out. ------ Come visit the PCWize forum and live chat. You can discuss anything computer related and it's a good place to get help with any computer questions you may have. ______________________________________________________________________ Software Review ------ Name: Net Control v2.4 by Mak and Lyncher Genre: Networking tools Platform: PC Windows 9x Type/Cost: Freeware Size: 1.84MB Homepage: Download: I got to play around quite a bit this last weekend with my new switching hub, and I downloaded Net Control to play with. I was suitably impressed with the many features such as a built in mail system, text chat, user banning, notifications and warnings, TCP/IP scanner/ping, and controlling file transfers. It probably isn't the ultimate in networking software, but for a home network or neighborhood network, I think you'll find it very feature rich. ______________________________________________________________________ Cool Sites ------ Kim Kommando If you don't know who Kim Kommando is, you don't get out much. More than just a computer geek, she has a syndicated radio talk show, has published some good books, gives lectures around the country (U.S.A.), and at the risk of sounding sexist, is one damn good looking lady. ------ ZDNet is running another Peoples Choice award for the most popular software. Go on over an vote for all your favorites. The winners will be announced July 15th. ______________________________________________________________________ Tips, Tricks, Do's and Don't Do's ------ If you use Windows, then you're probably a frequent rebooter. At minimum, you're probably someone who turns off their machine while not using it. Here's a quick tip to speed up your reboots. ***Note: This tip is more for the advanced user. You could cause a few problems if you aren't sure about what you're doing. Most new machines come with the IDE auto-detect enabled in the BIOS. What this does is to determine the type of hard drive(s) you have installed at the time of boot. Of course, this all takes extra time. You can go in and manually set the hard drive to the correct type, and shave a few seconds off your reboot time. ______________________________________________________________________ That's the news! ------ P2P - Person-to-Person transactions over the Internet I've mentioned PayPal a couple of times in past issues, and it's a great, easy-to-use, free service that allows you to send money to other Internet users. It's also a great way to support the PCWize newsletter, because when you sign up with PayPal using the below URL, you'll get a free $5.00 to start your account with, and I also get $5.00 for referring you. There's no cost to you other than a few minutes of your time. To sign up, go here: ------ FreeIM.org; Trying to break the AOL IM stranglehold IM, or Instant Messaging like ICQ, Odigo etc. is still in dire need of standardization. Nobody wants to have to load four or five different IM applications just to talk with the various friends, families, and colleagues. is a consortium of Excite@Home, AltaVista and MSN.com, which is petitioning the FTC and FCC for open standards. ______________________________________________________________________ Security Issues, Hoaxes, Viruses and Other Urban Legends ------ Please visit http://www.pcwize.com/tech/computer/secdef.shtml if you would like to know the definitions for hoaxes, viruses, worms and urban legends. ------ Last issue I told you all about the new Outlook security patch. It's available now, so stop by to pick it up if you're so inclined. ------ Most of you know I'm a big fan of the SETI@Home distributed processing project . It seems that they aren't immune to hoaxes either. Here's the latest one concerning a "winner". There are quite a few inconsistencies, such as, "taken with a telescope at the Berkeley University". The signal packets the participants look at are from the Arecibo Radio Observatory in Puerto Rico, not Berekley's telescope. Hello, you might have heard about a program called Seti@Home. The url to the program is http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ It is a project with several hundred thousand participants - mainly from universities, which is based on downloading packets with signals taken with a telescope at the Berkeley University. The participants then let their computers' CPUs analyze the data as the University doesn't have resources to do it themselves (as one packet takes approximately 19 hours to analyze). Before I move on, I want to inform you that this project has used approximately 300.000 years of processing power, and has analysed approximately 130000000 packets (or signals). All this info can be confirmed at http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ Now my computer has apparantly found something, as I got these mails: Dear mr Kiviniemi. Thank you for your efforts in search for life in the universe. We are in the progress of researching the signal you found, and it sure looks good! It is not a transmission error (which is the most common cause of signals), neither is it a satellite's navigation system or radiation from planets. The only things that remain is a signal transmitted from a spaceship, or from another civilisation. We have set all resources in researching the locations of possible spaceships. If there are none in that area, we can confirm it is a signal sent out from another civilisation! We are taking the first steps into a new unexplored territory! We have never been this close before. Once again we all want to thank you for your fantastic support! We will keep you updated on this matter. Sincerely, SETI@home Group Space Sciences Laboratory University of California at Berkeley Berkeley, CA It then took some time to get the "confirmation" letter. They haven't made it official yet, but everything points to that the project finally gave results: Hello Tommi We have confirmed that there are no spaceships in that area. It is still unofficial but I think this is it! We have excluded all other factors so the only possible cause of this is a real signal! It will, of course take years to analyze and locate the source of it, but eventually we will find wherefrom it came. And then, we can truly speak of contact. But as said, it is still unofficial. We should have it fully confirmed in a few >hours and then we can make it official. I am preparing our site to reflect the discovery, and making some articles. We will also have a press conference in a few days. We have to discuss the rights to the discovery later. You will have to sign some legal forms etc. We hope, that you will give the Berkeley university exclusive rights. We cannot, however force you to it, but I am sure we can discuss a solution that is if favour for all of us. Things are pretty hot here, so I have to run. Talk to you later. I will keep you updated. Sincerely, Now you might not believe me, but I recommend you to have a look at this url: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/stats/gaussians.html It is a toplist over the most important analysed signals/packets ever, and you can see that yesterday a signal arrived that is approximately 17.500 times stronger than the second best (look under 'Score')!! This should confirm my mail. If you then look at the page at http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/stats/totals.html you'll see that they have analysed a total of 126042794 packets/signals. So, the signal in my packet was one of 126042794, and it was almost 17.500 times stronger than the next strongest one! 17500 times should mean a discovery, as if you look at the fields for 'power' etc you can see they have all went crazy (only zeros - the numbers were too high?) (still at http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/stats/totals.html). If you then think that one signal out of 126042794 is 17500 times stronger than the others, it's a sure thing! You can also look at the page http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/stats/gaussians.html and confirm the date of the packet! I am still awaiting the official announcement from them... i don't know if they have to do something else before it, but i just wanted to share with someone... All facts can be confirmed at the urls above. Tommi ______________________________________________________________________ PCWize Contests and Winner Announcement ------ Each week PCWize holds a random drawing contest and gives away free stuff (usually software) to its subscribers. We will continue to do this as long as there are advertisers who are willing to provide the prizes. If you are such an individual/company, then please contact me at editor@pcwize.com so that we can work a deal. ------ The winner of this week's random drawing contest is: Dave Fleer ______________________________________________________________________ Well, that's it for this issue! Have a good week and I'll see you in seven days. Leif Gregory Copyright © 1997-00 by Leif Gregory. All rights reserved. You may share this copy of the PCWize newsletter with others as long as it is reprinted in it's entirety to include the copyright notice and subscription directions. If you've received this edition of the PCWize newsletter from a friend or colleague and wish to start receiving your own copy, then click the below link and send the generated e-mail message. I have made every attempt to ensure that all information contained in this newsletter is accurate to the best of my ability. Due to the myriad of possible configurations in the PC platform, information and software discussed here may not always work with your particular configuration. That being said, Leif Gregory and the PCWize newsletter can not be held liable for any damages you may incur either directly or indirectly from the use of anything contained in this newsletter. PCWize does not endorse any of the products or services provided by advertisers in this newsletter. As with anything in life, please check the credibility of the advertiser as well as to use common sense. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. PCWize Editor PCWize Homepage Unsubscribe