> Seeing all the potential problems XP SP2 can bring in, is it worth the update?
Well, as you stated, yes, most of us are probably in the computer industry (also 15 yrs myself:). Unlike you I personally have -0- XP machines running (virtually there is, of course, the test bed:) -- but many a client does have XP and many will unknowingly just go ahead download/install the update. A fair portion will, of course, have problems.
Woohoo -- even more work ($$). Well worth the update.
The answer is Firewire and Lacie or a iPod. Self powered and with a Mac either can easily be used to boot the host computer from -- my Lacie is the backup for my Application directory tree and User accounts which can be booted from with the loaded host OS [X].
At $50 a wireless connection can be had here. Running in the 5Ghz freq range and pulls 10Mbit [full duplex] reliably. The ISP is a local shop that is multi-homed with about 1Gbit worth of uplinks (my now home network).
Sites that can support the speed will rarely fill my pipe. 900K from Apple is common. My T1 at the office will only ever give me 170K. Other are all over the scale from 30K/sec to an average of 3-400K/sec on downloads.
They'll be putting out 40Mbit wireless links shortly and at that level I could easily do video streams [on demand TV]. With the 10Mbit uplink I have now it was fast enough to eat my ISDN lines lunch and thus have moved to VoIP (avg cost savings per month is between $30-70 which pays for... the broadband and then some typically).
Yes, I've been happy so far. I've always tested technologies @ home first -- and have switched over various offices and continue to do so where and when appropriate. The only real problem has been _guaranteed_ [outbound] fax transmissions over VoIP lines. Voice quality has been excellent [SIP based].
At home my initial problem was simply lack of bandwidth. Internally I've moved to 1Gbit LAN and have a _solid_ 10Mbit wireless uplink to the Internet [full duplex]. This is where the problem came in with the router having a 10Mbit HALF duplex uplink to the antenna. That uplink is now at 100Mbit full duplex and my [dropped] voice problems disappeared.
It also simply made sense $$$ wise as well. I've tried the SBC and Comcast offerings and frankly they stink. Even in their high bandwidth end VoIP saturated their capabilities pretty quickly. The 10Mbit uplink I have now is $50/mo which is only slightly more expensive (if not cheaper now) than what the bigger ISP's offer. Two pots lines would be $40/mo before picking up the phone to make a call -- same goes what ISDN (which I had) and after calls/taxes the typical two line bill was $70/mo minimum. Bad months would bloat to $140-200/mo phone bill where I now know what my VoIP bill will be. Also $50/mo.
Quality is there. Cost savings is there. Reliability is, well, OK. Too many variables in the mix will always mean a POTS line will always be better. For emergency backup/use I'll go with the cell...
With the other significant difference that pretty much everybody is simply assigned as a "user" with no problems. Can't do that and run AutoCAD on Windows properly, now can you? Sure, I'm uber geek and give myself admin, but _know_ when to expect to be typing in my password to give access. Randomly popping up reading a email simply doesn't happen...
ANY true firewall is a network device on the perimeter. Of course, with the above mentioned, Little Snitch (locked down) does a pretty nice job on the Mac end. Wouldn't work without it, and by default ALL applications are not allowed to "phone home". Ever. Of course this can be done on Windows, but I've also seen XP stop working when it can't phone home.
At no point with running MY computer should I be dependent on some other companies business model to continue to work. If Microsoft goes out of business then you have a lot of worthless junk. If Apple goes out I have no doubt I could continue to operate the existing system(s) for the next 3-7 years while exploring alternatives. The same goes for Linux... But I digress. This is/. after all.:)
I route PRIVATE callers (and no number 'out-of-area') callers along with 1-000-000-0000 numbers and other programmed in as they show up (once is a problem IMHO:).
Call my home number PRIVATELY and it won't ring -- those callers are automatically [select] call-forwarded to the time clock service number. Unblock and my phone rings.
I call from a "non-existent" phone number (a number I have which I simply always route to BUSY). That's the number sales droids get in stores, is on my checks, etc. The same number either line shows for CID (but only one line can do ANI as this #).
Private callers learn to dial their appropriate * code -- otherwise they go do the Boulder, CO time clock.
Out-Of-Area callers, 1-000, 1-700 and other assorted numbers go to the US Naval Observatory time clock.
My phone almost never rings with sales calls. Almost. You'll always get that cold caller (and VoIP makes doing this cheap). There's always been a cheap way though and those that DO get through are treated, well, rudely. It's "my" phone line.
Of course I'm the one that gave up on POTS now decades ago -- did similar BUSY, CID type "tricks" with ISDN forever with the added benefit (like VoIP) that "data lines" are automatically unpublished _and_ unlisted. As usual -- the first hint that I get that my "phone company" is selling my number and they lose a customer.
VoIP is a doubled edged sword for the sales attempts IMHO.
I beg to differ. My torrent has gone to 0B/s with ALL of the connections dying off. It's not my Internet connection -- check it to various other sources (including VoIP... and I have dialtone:).
The torrent itself has been officially/.'d as far as I can.
In short I'd have to replace all my NIC's and switches. That sucks. Considering that the move _recently_ made from 100Mbit to 1Gbit (LAN) with the steady 10Mbit uplink to the Internet.
The major problem (today) with 10Gbit? None of the sub-systems could handle the bandwidth. The absolutely rockin' stations with SCSI Ultra-320 (like my Mac @ home for example:) simply couldn't handle the bandwidth. At the bus level or at the hard drive level. So in addition to replacing NIC's and switches we'd be completely replacing computers too. Not going to happen any time soon for the majority of the systems...
Considering that I easily handle multiple VoIP lines and general Internet traffic along with video with the 10Mbit uplink to the Internet and constantly move data around which completely saturates the hard drive and bus bandwidth of the majority of local system... I have no use for 10Gbit. Anywhere.
Let it be known that we'll no longer "/." a server upon a story. Based on how slloooowwwww their servers are now operating we've "Enron'd" the Enron Auction.
My serial number on my original (and only:) 5G version has me as one of the first 100,000 purchasers. Within a week I simply told my brother he HAS to have one (he does now:).
I have specifically NOT purchased a newer version due to the button layout. Having the buttons on the outer edge of the scroll wheel (original version:) makes it very functional and intuitive to use without looking at it (while driving).
Now that the buttons are back where they belong I'm interested in buying a larger version...
And I will do everything that I have done to... ignore Microsoft. The Playstation (the original:) is still working just fine. Always wanted a PS2, can afford it too. Couldn't ever justify it. (see above:).
The Mac on the desktop is, well, amazing. I think I've finally found a computer system that can keep up with me. I don't say that lightly. Watching TV, playing Quake, encoding a DVD, burning another... all at the same time as I notice the Powermate flashing and probably have a email [spam].
The Powerbook is a office companion as well as a network fed movie player in the living room. A little back-end video rendering and the mini-farm smokes anything I've ever seen something like 3D-Max or Studio-Viz produce -- and in half the time typically. Oops, another way to make some money.
There's a reason "old" PC's are being magically re-born in the offices with Linux as well. Microsoft is finally losing their strangle hold on anything "PC" related and at their burn rate it'll only take them a few years before the coffers are running low and the revenue stream is drying up.
They may throw everything they have at Sony. And now IBM? Those are some pretty serious forces to deal with... not to mention all the _other_ people they've ticked off over the years.
It's tiny standardized robust plugable hard-disk (Firewire based) and 5G is all that I need to "keep running". That's enough space to have the core OS [X] and my Applications directory tree (which is absolutely loaded with only ~3G used).
I'm able to listen to my music anywhere -- and boot "my computer" on any Mac I encounter... without disrupting the current Mac configuration whatsoever except for the needed reboot. Emulation layer suggested _is_ being worked on...:)
IT gets broadband, cell as needed, pager as wanted. Remote sales get broadband (and dialup), cell, and a laptop/printer. Field supervisors get cell and laptop/dialup as needed. Top lackies get pagers as needed/wanted.
The boss gets anything he wants.:)
I, as top IT dog, had ISDN @ home paid for by me. Dialup connection was covered by work along with cell. Somewhat different today -- broadband is covered and I take care of VoIP for the base line. VoIP line #2 is a "work number" covered by the office.
Anything less at any time for any reason is a pay cut no matter how you slice it and/or dice it. Bend over -- you just got shafted.
I can just imagine what the routing [IPv4] tables would look like. It's bad enough _now_ as it is. Time for everybody to upgrade their memory otherwise...
Is IPv6 routing at the core level any more efficient? Or would this just aggravate this problem?
This is ridiculous -- I've switched core ISP's multiple times for various reasons. The sad thing is reverse lookup on a few very old IP's are still unchanged (and I've even sent them reminders over the years [!]). I've been through controlled migrations where nobody notices anything to cut and switch botch jobs and have had little issue flipping DNS servers over to new IP's (I've always served myself at work, home, other offices I've set up, etc:). Sure, some DNS servers won't honor my short timeout setup, but usually within 24 hours the new information has propagated the Internet as needed.
I've never been willing to pay what it costs to own my IP block or even [!] a single address. I'm not Motorola or Apple and what's the problem with "renting" my IP much like I've only been able to do in the past with my [US] phone number? I love the fact that I was able to port my 20 year home phone line to VoIP -- and because of it dialing in the future will become very interesting. Am I in LA? Chicago? New York? For the poor sap -- is my next call local, long distance, band-b, band-c and what will it cost? Now off-topic and I digress...
Hopefully the courts don't see phone number portability as precedence... can you imagine what the telco's are going through in figuring out routing tables now? Something like this could finally melt the Internet. And ironically my phone line.:)
Get in line my friend. SBC cut my 768/384K line @ home to 384K/128K mysteriously one day. My uplink to them was being throttled -- I wasn't measuring my download speeds (yet:). Calling SBC gave me the answer in the form of a question: "did somebody else in your neighborhood get DSL? Maybe that's why.".
The rep/tech was clueless as 1) it doesn't work that way in throttling my direct uplink and 2) I'm not the phone company -- how would I know or care?
I disconnected DSL the next day. They're also losing all the ISDN circuits I helped set up over the years here and there (I gave up on POTS a long long time ago:). We're all moving to wireless with a 10Mbit uplink. That's 10,000/10,000 in their terms. For less money and add in the bonus savings with VoIP and SBC has been getting -0- revenue from my pockets.
Unfortunately it will always be profitable, at some level, to spam with the current email setup. The can is open and it will always remain as much of a problem as unwanted callers and junk faxes. Heck, at some point I'm peckered by street vendors trying to sell me something and I find them annoying too.
I'm no fan of Microsoft, but their efforts -- coupled with whatever other "standard(s)" are incorporated will go a long way to squelching the issue in short order. Yeah, like many of you I'm sitting here waiting for the "right" standard to catch and implement it into my Linux & BSD servers (and soon to be OS X running the same software:). The.01/email type of setup simply won't catch on (hopefully:), but even with "Caller-ID" email somebody, somewhere will still try and spam you at the cost it needs to get the bandwidth. Clever spammers will continue to rape Windows boxes and instead of DIRECTLY sending out the messages properly send it through the subscribers "registered" and "authentic" mail server -- and if they're smart send out a message every 3 minutes now and forever. Times 5,000 infected computers and I'd bet you could still get the message out and make a buck doing it.
TODAY by simply blocking IP's (spam me once from any IP and that IP will never talk to me again, rule #1:), harvesting messages to spam traps (their game is a doubled edged sword:), and a little filtering I see maybe a couple of messages a month. Maybe. My logs show a very different story though...
Caller-ID email added into the mix and I could whack 'em and stack 'em even faster -- so it will be on par with the number of soliciting phone calls I get [one maybe every six months;].
I used to have the computer bing on new email. Then it could talk and tell me I have email. In the end it was Monte Python's "spam spam spam" yelling at me with any new email. One day, while walking in, the computer started to scream at full volume and scared the hell out of the wife.
Now the PowerMate just silently pulses.:)
PS: my average rejection time is once every 15-20 seconds with a new inbound (not rejected yet) hitting every 2-3 minutes and 1-2 actually getting past all spam filters and showing up in front of me every few days. Annoying as hell, isn't it?
SBC bought out Ameritech in the midwest a few years ago -- and sadly Ameritech did a better job (which isn't saying much:).
I try to get my brother SBC ISDN and due to their own problems state that it'll cost an extra $150/mo to have this line as it needs to be fed from the next town over (also in SBC land). No thanks.
I already had a SBC ISDN line (dual home phone lines and good for backup Internet as needed). With SBC DSL backup Internet was very much needed. I tried their DSL offerings both as a residential customer and a business line (both stunk).
My DSL @ home mysteriously went from 768/~600 to 384/128 and their answer was to ask me if somebody else in the neighborhood got DSL? I wasn't looking at my effective download speeds, but my uplink to them. Then I can't bundle another DSL provider to my SBC ISDN line... I need to get a SBC POTS line too. No thanks.
SBC gets $0 now. Wireless 10Mbit uplink with my numbers ported to VoIP does the trick. I'm their worst nightmare of a customer come true... heh
Ah, to mod or to post. Too late. BLOCKED....and Comcast had the nerve to come knocking on my door, with the "No Soliciting" sign no less... trying to sell me digital cable, internet services, etc.
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> Seeing all the potential problems XP SP2 can bring in, is it worth the update?
:). Unlike you I personally have -0- XP machines running (virtually there is, of course, the test bed :) -- but many a client does have XP and many will unknowingly just go ahead download/install the update. A fair portion will, of course, have problems.
Well, as you stated, yes, most of us are probably in the computer industry (also 15 yrs myself
Woohoo -- even more work ($$). Well worth the update.
WARNING: I'm now a Mac zealot :)
The answer is Firewire and Lacie or a iPod. Self powered and with a Mac either can easily be used to boot the host computer from -- my Lacie is the backup for my Application directory tree and User accounts which can be booted from with the loaded host OS [X].
Yes, they can both work with Windows too.
Dude, like, I agree with you and all -- but you may have issues.
... take a look around. If you see anybody running around with boxcutters, by all means: SHOOT
Please walk away from the keyboard now. Go outside. Enjoy the sunshine (do NOT look at the light though).
While you're out
At $50 a wireless connection can be had here. Running in the 5Ghz freq range and pulls 10Mbit [full duplex] reliably. The ISP is a local shop that is multi-homed with about 1Gbit worth of uplinks (my now home network).
... the broadband and then some typically).
... technology.
Sites that can support the speed will rarely fill my pipe. 900K from Apple is common. My T1 at the office will only ever give me 170K. Other are all over the scale from 30K/sec to an average of 3-400K/sec on downloads.
They'll be putting out 40Mbit wireless links shortly and at that level I could easily do video streams [on demand TV]. With the 10Mbit uplink I have now it was fast enough to eat my ISDN lines lunch and thus have moved to VoIP (avg cost savings per month is between $30-70 which pays for
Ah
Yes, I've been happy so far. I've always tested technologies @ home first -- and have switched over various offices and continue to do so where and when appropriate. The only real problem has been _guaranteed_ [outbound] fax transmissions over VoIP lines. Voice quality has been excellent [SIP based].
At home my initial problem was simply lack of bandwidth. Internally I've moved to 1Gbit LAN and have a _solid_ 10Mbit wireless uplink to the Internet [full duplex]. This is where the problem came in with the router having a 10Mbit HALF duplex uplink to the antenna. That uplink is now at 100Mbit full duplex and my [dropped] voice problems disappeared.
It also simply made sense $$$ wise as well. I've tried the SBC and Comcast offerings and frankly they stink. Even in their high bandwidth end VoIP saturated their capabilities pretty quickly. The 10Mbit uplink I have now is $50/mo which is only slightly more expensive (if not cheaper now) than what the bigger ISP's offer. Two pots lines would be $40/mo before picking up the phone to make a call -- same goes what ISDN (which I had) and after calls/taxes the typical two line bill was $70/mo minimum. Bad months would bloat to $140-200/mo phone bill where I now know what my VoIP bill will be. Also $50/mo.
Quality is there. Cost savings is there. Reliability is, well, OK. Too many variables in the mix will always mean a POTS line will always be better. For emergency backup/use I'll go with the cell...
With the other significant difference that pretty much everybody is simply assigned as a "user" with no problems. Can't do that and run AutoCAD on Windows properly, now can you? Sure, I'm uber geek and give myself admin, but _know_ when to expect to be typing in my password to give access. Randomly popping up reading a email simply doesn't happen...
/. after all. :)
ANY true firewall is a network device on the perimeter. Of course, with the above mentioned, Little Snitch (locked down) does a pretty nice job on the Mac end. Wouldn't work without it, and by default ALL applications are not allowed to "phone home". Ever. Of course this can be done on Windows, but I've also seen XP stop working when it can't phone home.
At no point with running MY computer should I be dependent on some other companies business model to continue to work. If Microsoft goes out of business then you have a lot of worthless junk. If Apple goes out I have no doubt I could continue to operate the existing system(s) for the next 3-7 years while exploring alternatives. The same goes for Linux... But I digress. This is
I route PRIVATE callers (and no number 'out-of-area') callers along with 1-000-000-0000 numbers and other programmed in as they show up (once is a problem IMHO :).
Call my home number PRIVATELY and it won't ring -- those callers are automatically [select] call-forwarded to the time clock service number. Unblock and my phone rings.
I call from a "non-existent" phone number (a number I have which I simply always route to BUSY). That's the number sales droids get in stores, is on my checks, etc. The same number either line shows for CID (but only one line can do ANI as this #).
Private callers learn to dial their appropriate * code -- otherwise they go do the Boulder, CO time clock.
Out-Of-Area callers, 1-000, 1-700 and other assorted numbers go to the US Naval Observatory time clock.
My phone almost never rings with sales calls. Almost. You'll always get that cold caller (and VoIP makes doing this cheap). There's always been a cheap way though and those that DO get through are treated, well, rudely. It's "my" phone line.
Of course I'm the one that gave up on POTS now decades ago -- did similar BUSY, CID type "tricks" with ISDN forever with the added benefit (like VoIP) that "data lines" are automatically unpublished _and_ unlisted. As usual -- the first hint that I get that my "phone company" is selling my number and they lose a customer.
VoIP is a doubled edged sword for the sales attempts IMHO.
I beg to differ. My torrent has gone to 0B/s with ALL of the connections dying off. It's not my Internet connection -- check it to various other sources (including VoIP ... and I have dialtone :).
/.'d as far as I can.
The torrent itself has been officially
In short I'd have to replace all my NIC's and switches. That sucks. Considering that the move _recently_ made from 100Mbit to 1Gbit (LAN) with the steady 10Mbit uplink to the Internet.
:) simply couldn't handle the bandwidth. At the bus level or at the hard drive level. So in addition to replacing NIC's and switches we'd be completely replacing computers too. Not going to happen any time soon for the majority of the systems...
... I have no use for 10Gbit. Anywhere.
:)
The major problem (today) with 10Gbit? None of the sub-systems could handle the bandwidth. The absolutely rockin' stations with SCSI Ultra-320 (like my Mac @ home for example
Considering that I easily handle multiple VoIP lines and general Internet traffic along with video with the 10Mbit uplink to the Internet and constantly move data around which completely saturates the hard drive and bus bandwidth of the majority of local system
Yet.
Let it be known that we'll no longer "/." a server upon a story. Based on how slloooowwwww their servers are now operating we've "Enron'd" the Enron Auction.
/. is quick and geekie...
Nah,
It's because you don't own one. Really.
:) 5G version has me as one of the first 100,000 purchasers. Within a week I simply told my brother he HAS to have one (he does now :).
:) makes it very functional and intuitive to use without looking at it (while driving).
My serial number on my original (and only
I have specifically NOT purchased a newer version due to the button layout. Having the buttons on the outer edge of the scroll wheel (original version
Now that the buttons are back where they belong I'm interested in buying a larger version...
And I will do everything that I have done to ... ignore Microsoft. :) is still working just fine. :).
... all at the same time as I notice the Powermate flashing and probably have a email [spam].
... not to mention all the _other_ people they've ticked off over the years.
The Playstation (the original
Always wanted a PS2, can afford it too. Couldn't ever justify it. (see above
The Mac on the desktop is, well, amazing. I think I've finally found a computer system that can keep up with me. I don't say that lightly. Watching TV, playing Quake, encoding a DVD, burning another
The Powerbook is a office companion as well as a network fed movie player in the living room. A little back-end video rendering and the mini-farm smokes anything I've ever seen something like 3D-Max or Studio-Viz produce -- and in half the time typically. Oops, another way to make some money.
There's a reason "old" PC's are being magically re-born in the offices with Linux as well. Microsoft is finally losing their strangle hold on anything "PC" related and at their burn rate it'll only take them a few years before the coffers are running low and the revenue stream is drying up.
They may throw everything they have at Sony. And now IBM? Those are some pretty serious forces to deal with
...or you may just be holding microstock and the one left holding the bag...
My stock and desktop GUI is now in Apple. And who doesn't love a cute penguin?
And it's called the iPod.
... without disrupting the current Mac configuration whatsoever except for the needed reboot. Emulation layer suggested _is_ being worked on... :)
It's tiny standardized robust plugable hard-disk (Firewire based) and 5G is all that I need to "keep running". That's enough space to have the core OS [X] and my Applications directory tree (which is absolutely loaded with only ~3G used).
I'm able to listen to my music anywhere -- and boot "my computer" on any Mac I encounter
IT gets broadband, cell as needed, pager as wanted.
:)
Remote sales get broadband (and dialup), cell, and a laptop/printer.
Field supervisors get cell and laptop/dialup as needed.
Top lackies get pagers as needed/wanted.
The boss gets anything he wants.
I, as top IT dog, had ISDN @ home paid for by me. Dialup connection was covered by work along with cell. Somewhat different today -- broadband is covered and I take care of VoIP for the base line. VoIP line #2 is a "work number" covered by the office.
Anything less at any time for any reason is a pay cut no matter how you slice it and/or dice it. Bend over -- you just got shafted.
I was a C=64 owner and fan back in their day which was my youth. Ironically today I'm a Linux zealot and Mac lover and go no where without my iPod.
I'm torn. I feel ashamed because of it. Bastards.
The boys in Redmond must have smacked their head and said, "IE"
Well ... my phone numbers used to resolve to the more logical address of a IBZ circuit # terminating on ISDN. No joke.
:)
*Technically* today my phone numbers resolve to an TCP/IP address, which to me is more logical with VoIP. No joke.
I can just imagine what the routing [IPv4] tables would look like. It's bad enough _now_ as it is. Time for everybody to upgrade their memory otherwise...
:). Sure, some DNS servers won't honor my short timeout setup, but usually within 24 hours the new information has propagated the Internet as needed.
... can you imagine what the telco's are going through in figuring out routing tables now? Something like this could finally melt the Internet. And ironically my phone line. :)
Is IPv6 routing at the core level any more efficient? Or would this just aggravate this problem?
This is ridiculous -- I've switched core ISP's multiple times for various reasons. The sad thing is reverse lookup on a few very old IP's are still unchanged (and I've even sent them reminders over the years [!]). I've been through controlled migrations where nobody notices anything to cut and switch botch jobs and have had little issue flipping DNS servers over to new IP's (I've always served myself at work, home, other offices I've set up, etc
I've never been willing to pay what it costs to own my IP block or even [!] a single address. I'm not Motorola or Apple and what's the problem with "renting" my IP much like I've only been able to do in the past with my [US] phone number? I love the fact that I was able to port my 20 year home phone line to VoIP -- and because of it dialing in the future will become very interesting. Am I in LA? Chicago? New York? For the poor sap -- is my next call local, long distance, band-b, band-c and what will it cost? Now off-topic and I digress...
Hopefully the courts don't see phone number portability as precedence
Get in line my friend. SBC cut my 768/384K line @ home to 384K/128K mysteriously one day. My uplink to them was being throttled -- I wasn't measuring my download speeds (yet :). Calling SBC gave me the answer in the form of a question: "did somebody else in your neighborhood get DSL? Maybe that's why.".
:). We're all moving to wireless with a 10Mbit uplink. That's 10,000/10,000 in their terms. For less money and add in the bonus savings with VoIP and SBC has been getting -0- revenue from my pockets.
The rep/tech was clueless as 1) it doesn't work that way in throttling my direct uplink and 2) I'm not the phone company -- how would I know or care?
I disconnected DSL the next day. They're also losing all the ISDN circuits I helped set up over the years here and there (I gave up on POTS a long long time ago
They remind me of Microsoft. Almost.
Unfortunately it will always be profitable, at some level, to spam with the current email setup. The can is open and it will always remain as much of a problem as unwanted callers and junk faxes. Heck, at some point I'm peckered by street vendors trying to sell me something and I find them annoying too.
:). The .01/email type of setup simply won't catch on (hopefully :), but even with "Caller-ID" email somebody, somewhere will still try and spam you at the cost it needs to get the bandwidth. Clever spammers will continue to rape Windows boxes and instead of DIRECTLY sending out the messages properly send it through the subscribers "registered" and "authentic" mail server -- and if they're smart send out a message every 3 minutes now and forever. Times 5,000 infected computers and I'd bet you could still get the message out and make a buck doing it.
:), harvesting messages to spam traps (their game is a doubled edged sword :), and a little filtering I see maybe a couple of messages a month. Maybe. My logs show a very different story though...
;].
I'm no fan of Microsoft, but their efforts -- coupled with whatever other "standard(s)" are incorporated will go a long way to squelching the issue in short order. Yeah, like many of you I'm sitting here waiting for the "right" standard to catch and implement it into my Linux & BSD servers (and soon to be OS X running the same software
TODAY by simply blocking IP's (spam me once from any IP and that IP will never talk to me again, rule #1
Caller-ID email added into the mix and I could whack 'em and stack 'em even faster -- so it will be on par with the number of soliciting phone calls I get [one maybe every six months
I used to have the computer bing on new email.
:)
Then it could talk and tell me I have email.
In the end it was Monte Python's "spam spam spam" yelling at me with any new email. One day, while walking in, the computer started to scream at full volume and scared the hell out of the wife.
Now the PowerMate just silently pulses.
PS: my average rejection time is once every 15-20 seconds with a new inbound (not rejected yet) hitting every 2-3 minutes and 1-2 actually getting past all spam filters and showing up in front of me every few days. Annoying as hell, isn't it?
SBC bought out Ameritech in the midwest a few years ago -- and sadly Ameritech did a better job (which isn't saying much :).
... I need to get a SBC POTS line too. No thanks.
I try to get my brother SBC ISDN and due to their own problems state that it'll cost an extra $150/mo to have this line as it needs to be fed from the next town over (also in SBC land). No thanks.
I already had a SBC ISDN line (dual home phone lines and good for backup Internet as needed). With SBC DSL backup Internet was very much needed. I tried their DSL offerings both as a residential customer and a business line (both stunk).
My DSL @ home mysteriously went from 768/~600 to 384/128 and their answer was to ask me if somebody else in the neighborhood got DSL? I wasn't looking at my effective download speeds, but my uplink to them. Then I can't bundle another DSL provider to my SBC ISDN line
SBC gets $0 now. Wireless 10Mbit uplink with my numbers ported to VoIP does the trick. I'm their worst nightmare of a customer come true... heh
Ah, to mod or to post. Too late. BLOCKED. ...and Comcast had the nerve to come knocking on my door, with the "No Soliciting" sign no less ... trying to sell me digital cable, internet services, etc.
I laughed and closed the door.