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============== SBC Follies
A business customer who has dsl service from AT&T/SBC/PacBell called a while ago to say that he was playing music via the Internet one morning when the music suddenly stopped. Everything on the Internet was down. I told him to turn off the router and modem, wait 30 seconds, turn on the modem and wait until the lights stopped blinking and then turn on the router. Reboot the computer and see what happens [If your DSL/Cable connection goes down, this is the standard drill]. Still no Internet.
"I'll be right down." Everything looked ok on the network. However, while I could ping everything on the local network, nothing beyond the router would reply.
Opened up the router configuration to look at the router status. We had successfully acquired an IP address from SBC. I could release it and renew with no problem. However the IP address our router was getting was 192.168.0.64 -- which created a small problem. His Netgear router had assigned his computer the IP address of 192.168.0.3 and the router's IP address was 192.168.0.1, which was also the IP address of SBC's gateway. The local network (LAN) was on the same network IP address range as the Internet (WAN). They have to be different in order for the router to know where to send the signal.
[Techincal Detail Alert] The IP addresses in the range of 192.168.x.y are what are called non-routable. These are reserved for local area networks to use. In this way, the router can use up just one real IP address and then utilize these non-routable addresses for internal use. In this way thousands of computers can use up just one IP address. The universe is short of IP addresses at the moment. You can't use just any IP address for your local network because if you happened to chose the same one Microsoft had you would no longer be able to perform critical updates. Whenever you wanted to contact Microsoft, your computer would recognize the IP address as a local address and try to contact itself. Having IP addresses that don't exist ANYWHERE on the Internet is critical to making this all work. SBC just blew up every router for whom they switched over to this subnet because virtually every router manufacturer uses this range of IP addresses for internal use. [End Tech Alert]
Why did SBC do this? Did they want an avalance of services calls to hit India on a Thursday at 10:30 AM, Pacific Coast Time? Do they have sufficient staff to handle the load? Has the staff been trained to say, "I'm sorry, your router doesn't seem to be working. You can buy one from SBC?" Maybe they are only switching over a few at a time, to even out the load.
So, what's the cure? Use another subnet. I switched my customer to an IP subnet of 10.10.10.x. This subnet is also non-routable and is probably what SBC should have used as hardly any small customers or router manufacturers use it. If you are an SBC dsl customer, you'd better know how to get into your router (the all come with default user names and/or passwords) and change your LAN settings. Set the router to an IP address of 10.10.10.1 a mask of 255.255.255.0, change the range of the DHCP scope to 10.10.10.100 to 10.10.10.200 and you are home free. Not hard if you have a little bit of knowledge. But nearly impossible for the average user to figure out. Heck, I saw it and didn't believe it. I spent an extra 5 minutes trying to figure out how I could be seeing the impossible. Unfortunately, what I thought was impossible for a responsible corporation wasn't impossible for SBC.
A week later, they did it again to another customer, this time on the 192.168.1.x subnet. Looks like a trend.
==============Windows 98/Me Support Ends
Microsoft has announced that they will end support of Windows 98/Me on July 1 this year (you've heard that before, but it's going to happen this time). After that time, there will no longer be any Critical Updates or other development of the platform. Of course, the OS will continue to operate after that date, for as long as a killer virus/spyware doesn't infect it in a way that third party removal tools can't fix. For the home user, that's not a huge problem. For businesses, it is. If you have a fleet of Win98 machines at your company, they are all likely to get infected on the same day, leaving you with a huge problem.
My recommended procedure is to keep Win98 running for as long as it's reliable. The first time you have a problem with it, don't spend any time fixing it. Just replace it. Any time or money spent fixing Win98 at this point will be pretty much wasted. If you have a fairly new, reliable computer that still is running Win98, consider upgrading to Windows 2000 or XP. You'll need to compute the expected life of the hardware to see if the upgrade makes sense, but both 2000 and XP will continue to be supported and 2000 will run faster on marginal equipment.
Whatever you do, don't let things just happen. Plan. It's one of those "Oops Moments."
============== Rick's Rant: I Love Spyware and Here's Why
Please don't think of me as one of those people who yells "FIRE" in a crowded movie theater or "I HAVE A BOMB" aboard an aircraft. I would never wish harm to anyone. Well, maybe spammers. Anyway, why would I be so bold as to come out of the closet with a statement such as the title of this month's Rant? Putting it simply, because it's true! Nothing has had a greater impact on me making a living than spyware. Nothing from Microsoft, Symantec, Google, Linux, Apple, Dell or Alienware has affected my ability to run a profitable business more than Spyware. All the above named entities send a barrage of e-mails and other items informing me of the latest and greatest things emerging in the PC industry today, but it all is just about worthless.
I should be excited about Vista, but I'm not. I should be concerned Dell is selling PCs for less than a day at Disneyland, but I'm not. I should be going out of business with Fry's opening down the street, but I haven't. Why am I so blissfully ignorant and uncaring of the major events and players of the industry? It all has to do with spyware!
Spyware has put more money in my pockets than any other single thing that I do, and I do a lot. It has brought more people through the door and made our phones ring so much we now answer the phone "Spyware Central. Can we help you?"
And the answer is yes, we can. We're damned good at what we do, and we always get our worm.
Don't think I'm just all dollars and cents about the issue, no sirree bob. I get enormous satisfaction out of hunting down and killing the little boogers. It's just one of life's best feelings. Not only do you feel good from the kill you made, but you get the added boost of being the good guy who saves the world one computer at a time. Ah, it truly is glorious to slay the dragon, rescue the princess and save the day; sigh! Spyware has hugely increased my knowledge of Microsoft's operating system files and knowledge of the Windows registry. Without sounding too self-important, I now can identify any files in the Windows folder that do not belong. But enough of my unlimited abilities; let's get back to spyware. Just what is it? It can be summed up in two words, contextual advertising. What does that mean? I'm glad you asked. Here's the definition from the Webopedia: "n.) Advertising on a Web site that is targeted to the specific individual who is visiting the Web site. A contextual ad system scans the text of a Web site for keywords and returns ads to the Web page based on what the user is viewing, either through ads placed on the page or pop-up ads. For example, if the user is viewing a site about sports, and the site uses contextual advertising, the user might see ads for sports-related companies, such as memorabilia dealers or ticket sellers. Contextual advertising also is used by search engines to display ads on their search results pages based on what word(s) the users has searched for. Contextual advertising has attracted some controversy through the use of techniques such as third-party hyperlinking where a third-party installs software onto a user's computer that interacts with the browser by turning keywords on a Web page into links that lead to advertisers that are not paying the Web site to advertise on its pages. A contextual ad is the advertisement that dynamically appears on a Web site."
Whew! That's a lot to swallow, but I hope you get the point. Which is I don't want spyware to go away anytime soon. A guy needs to make an honest living. So how do I keep my job security? Simple: by making sure all our customers use Internet Explorer and Microsoft Windows operating systems. That in itself will guarantee me a steady supply of income for years to come. Face it; I'm not making anything off those Linux guys.
I have instructed my staff not to install other Web browsers such as Mozilla FireFox on computers we service and sell. This increases our chances of future revenues. As I have stated before, If anyone cares to respond you may do so at rants@vcmail.net. So far, the only mail I've gotten is from spammers, and I am so lonely I've started reading that (to Toby, out loud). Maybe this will get some response. BYE.
============== CIPCUG Notice
You don't have to be a member of CIPCUG to subscribe to this E-letter, but we do make a short notice of upcoming events.
Don't forget this Saturday's general meeting, April 22 (it's the earliest day the 4th Saturday can fall on, so don't be caught thinking it's next week), at the Camarillo Boys & Girls Club.
Dan Miller and Tim McLain from Hi Tech Task Force of Ventura County will be here to do a presentation on computer forensics. Every key stroke made, website visited, and email sent leaves its tracks on the hard drive. These investigators use specific tools and methodogies to recover this information as evidence even if steps have been taken to cover those tracks.
May 22: The Digital Photo Guy
Back by popular demand is Lee Otsubo, The Digital Photo Guy, at this month's general meeting of the Channel Islands PC Users Group. His presentation this year will be on learning "Lee's Rules of 3's" for setting up your digital camera to get optimal results and enhance your digital photography experience.
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