Fw: [Xitami] Download Resume.

[Brian {Hamilton Kelly}]

[I don't quite understand why the poster of this seems to have
reforwarded something that hadn't otherwise been circulated to the list.
Fruthermore, his "upside-down" posting style makes understanding the
context difficult, so I've edited it into something easier to
understand.  Oh, I've also edited out superfluous stuff, which is
something that he ought to have done: after all, there's little point in
having a "cascade" of Yahoo's closing text, is there?

<http://www.geocities.com/nnqweb/nquote.html> is just as applicable to
mailing lists as it is to newsgroup postings.  It would help if Carlos
and many other posters were to read and take to heart those
recommendations.]

In message <01e301c29fa3$7133eff0$67646464@carlos> "admin" writes:
> 
> "Brian {Hamilton Kelly}" <bhk@dsl.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > In message <02a501c29e0c$d0f92420$67646464@carlos> "admin" writes:
> >
> > > Then you can use a little Proxy as ANALOGX `s to acces the internet.
> >
> > Big warning to anyone thinking of using AnalogX proxy: at one time, this
> > was distributed such that the default configuration would allow an open
> > SOCKS proxy; many people have found to their cost that their computer was
> > being hijacked to relay spam/UCE by news and e-mail --- the first they
> > would know was when their ISP would cut them off for misusing the
> > service.
> 
> About the proxy, you can choose to use the sockets or not.

Sigh!  You seem to be in some difficulty in understanding Internet
terminology.

SOCKS != sockets.

The AnalogX product, inter alia, provides an open SOCKS proxy.  Anyone
connecting to this on the appropriate port can use the proxied machine to
post spam.  The spam is then relayed via the owner's usual ISP's servers
as if originating from him/her.

AnalogX is *dangerous* in the hands of the uninitiated.

Certainly it CAN be configired so as not to have the open SOCKS proxy;
however, the great majority of Windows users would probably have no idea
whether they wanted SOCKS or not, and quite likely leave the system with
the default configuration.  Since the product as originally distributed
left this dangerous option switched on by default, I felt it necessary to
remind potential users not to accpe the default without further thought.

> Then you use it behind the firewall.

What?  Something like ZoneAlarm (which is also dangerous in the hands of
most of its users, although usually only to the extent of worrying them
through reporting false positives)?

99% of "home Windows systems" that are equipped with a "firewall" are
really using a chocolate fireguard, if they hope for the firewall to run
on the same machine that is supposedly being "protected".

> At last you can get a very good tool from http://grc.com wich can close the
> infamous sockets.

Once again, SOCKS != sockets.

-- 
Brian {Hamilton Kelly}                                          bhk@dsl.co.uk
    "We can no longer stand apart from Europe if we would.  Yet we are
    untrained to mix with our neighbours, or even talk to them".
                                              George Macaulay Trevelyan, 1919