Next time you want to jump ship, try Nildram if they're in your area. I've never had/any/ downtime on the service, and even their sales monkeys understand questions like 'Can you give me a static IP? Do you block port 25 by default?'. Compare with NTL's chaps who on being asked 'Do you hire cable modems' said 'yes, what channels do you want'...
When you see people refer to 'outbount' port 25, they mean an attempt to connect to p25 on some other machine. In fact, these zombies are not smtp *servers*, they are smtp *clients*, acting similarly to Outlook Express or Thunderbird, but with the user bits automated. They are a programe to 'type in' millions of spam emails and then send them direct to the target user's smtp server.
In fact, as smtp works on a 'store-and-forware' principle, most real people send their emails to their ISPs smtp server (eg smtp.nildram.co.uk for me) which then sends it on to the target machine for them. This is part of the design of smtp to make it resilient, but which also allows us to do the following:
Specialist 'smarthosts' at the ISPs network firewall can spot any attempt to make an outbound port 25 call and block it or forward it to the ISPs own smtp machine. This gets rid of the problem as the spam becomes traceable and deniable. Any company failing to do this is lazy and shite and should be named and shamed on slashdot;-)
many isps block smtp or redirect port 25 to their own smarthosts
This is true... my UK ISP, Nildram, simply blocks port 25 outbound for all machines unless certain conditions are met. Very few home users will have any need for this as they will use Nildram's mail server outbound, so only compromised machines which already run smtp services (and have previously passed the open proxy test) can become an issue - a tiny proportion.
With simple solutions like these, this should be a non-newsworthy item. However, with useless bastards like TeleWest not bothering to do this and permitting unfettered port 25 outbound, it is newsworthy, if only for name-and-shame reasons. Assuming you live in the UK and give a shit, of course;-)
Maybe we should stop running all those stories about how evil WindowsUpdate is, and how Microsoft is spying on your computer?
Bollocks.
Maybe Microsoft should stop adding rights for themselves into the EULA when you download a fix? Imagine if a car manufacturer gave you a free replacement for a faulty part only on condition that you filled in mileage logs?
Dave Lee Travis (UK DJ) told a story about this... he was touring in the states and was flashed for speeding. He pulled over, and, as you do in the UK, got out to speak to the officers. They immediately covered him with guns, yelled at him, made him lie down on the road and handcuffed him.
I suggest that part of the problem is that the Italians didn't judge correctly what was 'safe' behaviour in the circumstances, and part of the problem is that most Merkins don't know anything about any other country and expect it to work just like at home. If you think that last is flamebait btw, I read an interview with a US soldier who explained he had shot someone because "he didn't stop when I yelled 'stop'". No, he wasn't in an English-speaking country. No, the guy he shot didn't speak English. No, the soldier didn't see that he had done anything wrong. I rest my case.
Hmmm, a very clever idiosyncratic individual (Dirk) with an assistant (Richard) investigates a very old man (Urban Chronotis) living in a room in a university with a console that enables the whole room to travel in time and space, whereby they meet a character from history (Samuel Taylor Coleridge). I wonder why it reminds you in some way of a Dr Who script?
FYI, speaking as a total DNA fan and (less) DW fanboy, you're bang on. It was originally conveived as a DW adventure in the Tom Baker era, but there was a strike on set which cut short the series on which DNA was script editor (another story, 'Shada', was only half completed) and DNA stopped writing for DW. He noodled around with the plot for aver ten years before finding a way to re-use it without it being *too* damn obvious.
The idea was that a Time Lord had retired to Cambridge to live a long and peaceful last regeneration, knowing that no-one would ever bother him. The Cambridge colleges are notoriously unenquiring of human oddity! Supposedly, he had been there a very *very* long time and had forgotten everything that came before.
"It's gonna be a long blow, folks, and you may need to remortgage after the damage. This message was brought to you VIA GRA (GREYHOUND RACING ASSOCIATION of America)".
To me a daemon is a Disk And Execution MONitor, ie any process which does not belong to a user shell but acts for itself. As such, init is not just a daemon, but possibly the daemon. But hey, what do I know;-)
When I read 'whatever the mechanism is in windows' in the grantparent, I took it to mean that the capability was already there. If I am mistaken, then your point is taken.
Or perhaps if you are going to write apps that require such low level network access, you should be using a packet driver (or whatever the mechanism is in windows) to do that.
Which, if you are right, is what the DDoS malware will now start to do.
We represent Microsoft, Inc. On or before April 27, 2005, your retinas and synapses were in the process of distributing and/or facilitating the distribution of a misappropriated copy of an unreleased version of Microsoft's operating system screenshots, Microsoft Windows Longhorn, Build 5048. The images constitute a Microsoft trade secret and are copyrighted. Microsoft has a well-known, longstanding policy of closely guarding information about its unreleased products as trade secrets.
We demand that you immediately disable your synapses and/or retinas and prevent further access of your memories of Microsoft's trade secret and copyrighted material.
Microsoft further demands that you provide us with all synapses which have been used to access image information, including, but not limited to, the visual cortex, the prefrontal cortex, and the optic nerve. Microsoft also demands all information related to the identity or identities of any person or persons to whom you have, or will have, described such images, especially those who commented in a negative, defamatory or vomitary fashion. Please produce all requested biological materials and information by the end of the day, Friday, April 29, 2005.
Microsoft is prepared to take further actions to stop you remembering illegal content, and expressly reserves its rights to force you to take the blue pill. I am available to discuss this matter at any time. If you are represented by counsel in this matter, please provide me with the identity of that counsel so that we can send round Steve Balmer to do the monkey dance at him until he begs for mercy.
Here in the UK, phones sold by phone contract sellers usually lock when the sim is locked (end of contract) so the phone will not do anything. This annoys the fuck out of me on so many levels...
I have a Nokia 6230... MP3 player, radio, camera, and apparently a phone too. I have either the radio or the mp3 player on constantly (literally), as I am currently between contracts. Looking at the battery life this morning, when it hasn't been charged overnight, it is still at maximum. So I reckon I only need to charge it every 48 hours at most, and I'm a heavy user.
Slashdot Mirror
Next time you want to jump ship, try Nildram if they're in your area. I've never had /any/ downtime on the service, and even their sales monkeys understand questions like 'Can you give me a static IP? Do you block port 25 by default?'. Compare with NTL's chaps who on being asked 'Do you hire cable modems' said 'yes, what channels do you want'...
J.
Anyone please mirror the movie?
J.
When you see people refer to 'outbount' port 25, they mean an attempt to connect to p25 on some other machine. In fact, these zombies are not smtp *servers*, they are smtp *clients*, acting similarly to Outlook Express or Thunderbird, but with the user bits automated. They are a programe to 'type in' millions of spam emails and then send them direct to the target user's smtp server.
;-)
In fact, as smtp works on a 'store-and-forware' principle, most real people send their emails to their ISPs smtp server (eg smtp.nildram.co.uk for me) which then sends it on to the target machine for them. This is part of the design of smtp to make it resilient, but which also allows us to do the following:
Specialist 'smarthosts' at the ISPs network firewall can spot any attempt to make an outbound port 25 call and block it or forward it to the ISPs own smtp machine. This gets rid of the problem as the spam becomes traceable and deniable. Any company failing to do this is lazy and shite and should be named and shamed on slashdot
Hope that helps.
Justin.
This is true... my UK ISP, Nildram, simply blocks port 25 outbound for all machines unless certain conditions are met. Very few home users will have any need for this as they will use Nildram's mail server outbound, so only compromised machines which already run smtp services (and have previously passed the open proxy test) can become an issue - a tiny proportion.
With simple solutions like these, this should be a non-newsworthy item. However, with useless bastards like TeleWest not bothering to do this and permitting unfettered port 25 outbound, it is newsworthy, if only for name-and-shame reasons. Assuming you live in the UK and give a shit, of course ;-)
J.
Hah! I'm drinking tea this morning, so nyaaaah!
J.
Bollocks.
Maybe Microsoft should stop adding rights for themselves into the EULA when you download a fix? Imagine if a car manufacturer gave you a free replacement for a faulty part only on condition that you filled in mileage logs?
Justin.
Has it occurred to you that you can be legal and still an inconsiderate dick?
Justin.
Only works if the site is allowed to install software. Not too likely that is allowed to do that. Still critical, but waaaaay difficult to utilise.
Justin.
Only till the agents get to your place with the blue pill..
Hope that helps!
J.
J.
Most people I'd tell to fuck off, but I am on my knees in awe at your low /. uid ;-)
If you think I'm bad, you should meet the people I met in a pub in central London a couple of years ago...
J.
J.
Dave Lee Travis (UK DJ) told a story about this... he was touring in the states and was flashed for speeding. He pulled over, and, as you do in the UK, got out to speak to the officers. They immediately covered him with guns, yelled at him, made him lie down on the road and handcuffed him.
I suggest that part of the problem is that the Italians didn't judge correctly what was 'safe' behaviour in the circumstances, and part of the problem is that most Merkins don't know anything about any other country and expect it to work just like at home. If you think that last is flamebait btw, I read an interview with a US soldier who explained he had shot someone because "he didn't stop when I yelled 'stop'". No, he wasn't in an English-speaking country. No, the guy he shot didn't speak English. No, the soldier didn't see that he had done anything wrong. I rest my case.
Justin.
Hmmm, a very clever idiosyncratic individual (Dirk) with an assistant (Richard) investigates a very old man (Urban Chronotis) living in a room in a university with a console that enables the whole room to travel in time and space, whereby they meet a character from history (Samuel Taylor Coleridge). I wonder why it reminds you in some way of a Dr Who script?
FYI, speaking as a total DNA fan and (less) DW fanboy, you're bang on. It was originally conveived as a DW adventure in the Tom Baker era, but there was a strike on set which cut short the series on which DNA was script editor (another story, 'Shada', was only half completed) and DNA stopped writing for DW. He noodled around with the plot for aver ten years before finding a way to re-use it without it being *too* damn obvious.
The idea was that a Time Lord had retired to Cambridge to live a long and peaceful last regeneration, knowing that no-one would ever bother him. The Cambridge colleges are notoriously unenquiring of human oddity! Supposedly, he had been there a very *very* long time and had forgotten everything that came before.
Justin.
...the message said:
"It's gonna be a long blow, folks, and you may need to remortgage after the damage. This message was brought to you VIA GRA (GREYHOUND RACING ASSOCIATION of America)".
J.
J.
I mean, sure the first billion numbers are only a B, but there's some real good A-grade randomness down around the forty-three trillionth.
J.
Cheers, Justin.
Actually, I think most users run as Admin, because otherwise some of their games don't work...
Justin.
Which, if you are right, is what the DDoS malware will now start to do.
Justin.
Dear Mr Enigma,
We represent Microsoft, Inc. On or before April 27, 2005, your retinas and synapses were in the process of distributing and/or facilitating the distribution of a misappropriated copy of an unreleased version of Microsoft's operating system screenshots, Microsoft Windows Longhorn, Build 5048. The images constitute a Microsoft trade secret and are copyrighted. Microsoft has a well-known, longstanding policy of closely guarding information about its unreleased products as trade secrets.
We demand that you immediately disable your synapses and/or retinas and prevent further access of your memories of Microsoft's trade secret and copyrighted material.
Microsoft further demands that you provide us with all synapses which have been used to access image information, including, but not limited to, the visual cortex, the prefrontal cortex, and the optic nerve. Microsoft also demands all information related to the identity or identities of any person or persons to whom you have, or will have, described such images, especially those who commented in a negative, defamatory or vomitary fashion. Please produce all requested biological materials and information by the end of the day, Friday, April 29, 2005.
Microsoft is prepared to take further actions to stop you remembering illegal content, and expressly reserves its rights to force you to take the blue pill. I am available to discuss this matter at any time. If you are represented by counsel in this matter, please provide me with the identity of that counsel so that we can send round Steve Balmer to do the monkey dance at him until he begs for mercy.
Sincerely,
MS Legal.
Here in the UK, phones sold by phone contract sellers usually lock when the sim is locked (end of contract) so the phone will not do anything. This annoys the fuck out of me on so many levels...
J.
I have a Nokia 6230... MP3 player, radio, camera, and apparently a phone too. I have either the radio or the mp3 player on constantly (literally), as I am currently between contracts. Looking at the battery life this morning, when it hasn't been charged overnight, it is still at maximum. So I reckon I only need to charge it every 48 hours at most, and I'm a heavy user.
J.
And don't forget the comparative absolute, which is becoming a 'very real' PITA to me!
J.
J.