Moffittcam is up and running... If you use Yahoo IM and you want to see if you can catch me near the web cam then plug in moffittcam as a Yahoo IM id and if I am broadcasting you will see something. Currently I am at work at the PC Repair shop here at Goodwill until 5:30 pm.

Later

Find out my name and use it folks!!

I was at work yesterday at Goodwill and this lady called on the phone. I sold her a computer this last Saturday. She said "Is the heavy set guy there that sold me the computer Saturday?"
When I asked her to clarify who she was looking for (in what department) she apologized for describing that person (me) in that way but she did not get his name. She told me that the heavy set guy sold her a computer. I finally confessed that I was the FAT BOY that sold her the computer. LOL....

I get SO tired of people saying "Hey BIG Guy" and describing me as "Heavy Set". Sometimes when a small person says "Hey Big Guy" I sometimes respond by saying "Hey Tiny Dude". LOL. I guess they get the point when I do that.
Good grief people just call me by my name or just dont speak to me at all. Am I the only person that gets tired of being labled because I am a BIG GUY?? I get sick of shallow people who have nothing better to do than to highlight the fact that I am a FAT BOY....

When I get depressed and/or ANGRY I sometimes think "oh what is the freaking use people???" But, that emotion usually does not last that long and I just figure the truth hurts and get on with living. ;)

This FAT BOY will be getting on the Cross Trainer this morning for 25 min before I meet a friend for breakfast and some war driving with my Ipaq. Instead of being depressed and angry about the problem I am going to chose to do something about it one day at a time.

God bless

War Driving and Accessing data on a corporate LAN reviewed

A dear friend of mine sent me the following article which outlined their findings with regards to how easy it is to hack your way into a corporate network to steal data via their unsecured Wireless Access Point. Here is the article. from Red-M which is a Wireless Security Company.


According to a report from global wireless security company Red-M, most global businesses are at risk because they have not secured their wireless infrastructures.

The six-month study of 100 companies across the globe, including large multinational corporations covering a range of industry sectors, found that 80 per cent of corporate networks are accessible from outside their buildings.

Two thirds of banks, 60 per cent of financial services institutions and all education institutions leaked data, the study claimed.

Karl W Feilder, chief executive at Red-M, said in a statement: "Most businesses have not yet grasped the fact that once there is any sort of wireless device on their premises - and today you have to presume there is at least one device in your company - it acts as a point of insecurity by broadcasting company information over the airwaves.

"Sitting in your parking lot up to 300ft away from your building with a laptop and an inexpensive piece of software, an outsider could easily see the information being freely broadcast.

"They could receive network traffic, and could wreak havoc by exposing confidential and sensitive company information and manipulating data."


This is my response to that report...

I will certainly concur that a LOT of businesses and home users have not grasped the concept Network security and data integrity. The sad thing is that all they have to do is enable WEP and change the default admin ID and password on the Wireless Access Point (WAP).

From a technical point of view here are a couple of observations about the comments from the article you just sent me that was put together by Red-M. There is a difference between individuals that represent a company that deals with Network Security Threats vs some Tom Dick or Harry user who is just out war driving. People from Red-M are going to be security experts who understand how a computer network works and how to hack their way into company data. In other words they know how to try and compromise Firewalls, Switches, Routers and then the company file servers to access data. If they get through the first three devices listed above then perhaps they will be able to access the data on the file server. This is assuming that the company in question has NO security enabled whatsoever on the file server or the internal routing devices listed above. That would mean that they just plugged in these devices and left the default administrative passwords in place. I realize that Network Administrators are over worked and under paid. However, I can almost garuntee you that these same Network Administrators are painfully aware of the importance of data integrity and security and they are NOT going to put Firewalls, Routers and Switches in place without setting up security. It is just not going to happen. When it comes to their data depending on the type of network , peer to peer or client server, there is going to be authentication happening either at the SHARE level or DOMAIN level which means you will have to have a user name and password to gain access to the data. That means that if the administrator id and password are difficult enough they will have to know a valid user id on the network and the password to get access to the data. The chances of that happening from anyone just sitting out in the parking lot is going to be slim to none.

A wireless access point (WAP) acts just like a gateway to your internal network. Before wireless came along employees of companies if they wanted access to a corporate network would either have to dial in to a corporate gateway (DUN Account) or tunnel in via pptp (point to point tunneling protocol) utilizing a user name and password to get on the network. Once the user is logged onto the network you can still limit what resources they have access to on the LAN by limiting what they have access to via Share level access or Group level access on the domain. So, just because a person can actually hack their way into a network does not mean that they have full access to everything on the file server. They are still limited by the internal network security that is in place.

So, with all of that in mind I do not think that the security threat is as bad as the security industry would want us to imagine. One reason they are yelling foul so loudly is because they want the companies in question to be aware of their need to lock down their networks AND they want these same companies to use their exertise (for a cost of course) to implement these measures. Just changing the default user id and password on the WAP will make it exponentially difficult for someone to hack into the network. If you do not have the user id and password you just simply will not gain access.

I also believe that their claims that you can sit in your car within 300 feet of the establishment and gain access to a corporate LAN and compromise their data security is a bit far fetched. Just in my short experience with war driving I have found it difficult at best to even acquire and KEEP a wireless signal long enough to TRY to log on. I was standing at the front door at the Mills House the other night and I was getting a signal strength of about 20% at the very best and that was not enough for me to get an IP address from their DHCP server much less try to logon to Thinkspots network.

There is a huge difference in being able to sniff out a wireless signal via war driving vs being able to authenticate to the data source and steal information as readily as they are saying you can. In other words there is no mechanism in place where the file server is connecting to the WAP and transmitting corporate data out into the parking lot. LOL.... You have to gain access through the front door (WAP), authenticate to the file server (network security) and then grab ahold of the data and tell it to be copied back out across the LAN to the WAP over the wireless signal to your laptop.

I am currently at Just Fresh on Rivers Avenue in Charleston using their wireless network and enjoying a cup of coffee.
I was able to successfully connect to the Thinkspot network with my Ipaq and send out several emails. I was able to configure my Outlook software on the Ipaq to send and receive my Bellsouth.net emails. I am not able to chat via MSN Messenger which is built into the Microsoft Mobile OS on the Ipaq which I find puzzling. I will have to research that soon. I am using the laptop to connect and send this blog before the battery on this thing dies. :(

Well, I am happy that I FINALLY made that magical wireless connection with the Ipaq. I also learned that while you can certainly war drive and walk and find stray wireless signals you have to find one that is STRONG enough to enable you to make the network connection and keep it or you will never make the trip successfully to the Internet.
That means that you need to be atleast within 50 feet of the front door of the establishment that is broadcasting a wireless signal if not inside to get a good enough signal.

Well, that is about it folks, hope you have a good evening and a good day tomorrow!!

USB Challenged

As usual I spent most of my day in the computer service department hiding from the retail customers tinkering on this and that. My boss finally gave me the go ahead to configure a couple of machines for us to use in the shop which means I wont have to use the laptop anymore to get on the Internet and do my job. OH YEAH!! Go Goodwill , LOL.... I had a volunteer named Dave who came in to help all day Saturday which was nice. Dave is sponsored through a program called Americorp which is the American alternative to Peace Corp which is International. Dave told me that he lives in Michigan and that he spends a period of time traveling around the US doing volunteer work. When he is finished he will have 5,000.00 put into a college fund. Dave lives in Michigan and will be going home for the first time since Christmas of last year. Dave was an EXCELLENT worker who helped me completely clean up the shop and many other things. I found myself wishing that our work experience people were half as helpful as Dave was. Oh well.....

On another unrelated note I found myself fighting with my Pocket PC , USB and MS Active Sync last night. I could not get my Pocket PC (Ipaq) to synch with my computer. They just would not connect. Grrrrrr. So, for an hour last night I kept rebooting my computer, switching USB ports, uninstalling and reinstalling the MS Active Synch software. To no avail. I finally thought "I wonder if I need to do a soft reset on my Ipaq to see if that will help". Sure enough, did a soft reset on the Ipaq, plugged it into the cradle and it was a USB marriage made for success. MS Active Synch did its thing and I am once again united with updated information from Outlook 2003. Wahooooo....

Where did Norton Anti Virus Auto Protect icon go?

As I was surfing around doing this and that last night around 11:30 pm I noticed that my Norton Anti Virus Auto Protect icon was missing out of my system tray. Now that I think about it I dont think I remember seeing it for quite some time. This prompted me to open up Norton Anti Virus , check the settings and run Live Update. What to my wandering eyes appeared but some RED check marks in the Status pane telling me of potential problems. Not only was Auto Protect turned off but I could not turn it on. I also could not turn on the e-mail protection. This caused considerable alarm which in turn caused me to spend almost 2 hours scanning all my drives and then uninstalling and reinstalling Norton Anti Virus. At 2:15 am Norton is installed and the virus database updated and all the correct options are running as selected with no problems. I can now lay me down to sleep knowing that my computer is protected from the miscreants out in cyberworlds unknown.

Remember to run Live Update often and scan your drive. Also be sure to have your Anti Virus software scan all incoming and outgoing e-mail messages.

Nite Nite

Kristina over right shoulder and Justin over left shoulder. Webcam picture taken last night.  

Picture taken of Katy and I tonight with the webcam... 

Why Sony?s Clie couldn?t make it in America - Engadget - www.engadget.com

I use an HP Pocket PC with Microsoft Mobile 2003 OS. I LOVE this Pocket PC but it is not the only one on the market. Sony Clie is very nice but sadly enough Sony users will no longer be able to purchase an updated model. Click on the link and read the story...

Why Sony?s Clie couldn?t make it in America - Engadget - www.engadget.com

One song at a time.....

I posted this message to a Health and Wellness Accountability group on Battle Plan Ministries and thought I would share it with you.

Hello Godly men!!

The last time I reported it was the 17th which was last Thursday. I got on the TM (torture machine) on Saturday the 19th and then this Wed which was the 23rd. I got on tonight for 22 minutes. I recently started a Friday night bowling league that will last 10 weeks so that will be my exercise for that night. I am trying to get on the TM every other day for atleast 20 to 25 minutes. So far I have stuck with that schedule but I must say that it is not easy.

I know that the goal for most of us is to loose pounds and inches and our satisfaction comes from watching the needle or digits on our bathroom scales go lower. I too get some satisfaction from this but I also get the satisfaction of knowing that I have set a goal to lose weight and to feel better. I have set the standard several notches higher than I have in the past and I feel good knowing that I am atleast trying and having a certain level of success. My pants are starting to fit looser around the gut and just the other day I had to chase down a customer who had already made it to the parking lot. I guess you could say that the "jog" from the service department where I work and the parking lot is about 250 FT. I surprised myself by actually breaking into a jog and making it to the parking lot before the lady left. What was surprising is that no one had to perform CPR or call 911 and I was not out of breath nor did I break into a sweat. I had to be proud of that because it shows me that there are small and large benefits to making an extra effort in this area of my life. No, I have not arrived and I do have a ways to go. The important thing is not that I have reached my long term goal which is to lose 100 lbs. but rather that I am meeting my short term goals every day which are to eat less, get enough sleep and exercise a minimum of 20 to 25 minutes aerobically every other day.

Lets bring this into perspective for those of you that are struggling with the exercise part.
I weigh approximately 335 lbs and am 6 foot tall. So, with that in mind please do not think that it is easy for me to climb on the torture machine and run along for 25 minutes. To the contrary folks. I have found that the first 8 to 10 minutes (on the lowest setting) is not that much of a challenge while I am working up to the 120 beats per minute goal for the workout. The last 10 to 15 minutes are what is tough when my leg muscles are begging for oxygen and for me to stop. When it gets to that part of the workout it would be SO EASY to quit. Instead of quitting I listen to up beat Christian contemporary music and I worry about getting through the current song that is playing. Most songs take between 2:30 and 4 min. to play. So halfway through my workout and to the very end when I start to slow down and cool off I literally have to take it one song at a time. I quote Phillipians 4:13 alot too. hahahahah I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

I am also increasing my intake of water and decreasing my intake of soda pop. I drink approximately 3 to 4 20 ounce bottles of water per day. Imagine the extra exercise I get during the day running to the potty. LOL...

I know that brother Bill and Dave have posted recently but what about the rest of you guys?
How can we encourage you to get off that couch or chair or bed and start burning some calories each day by working out??

Evil Squirrel

A friend of mine sent me this in e-mail and I thought it was worth sharing on my blog. LOL.

Author: Daniel Meyer

I never dreamed slowly cruising on my motorcycle through a residential neighborhood could be so incredibly dangerous! Little did I suspect ..I was on Brice Street - a very nice neighborhood with perfect lawns and slow traffic. As I passed an oncoming car, a brown furry missile shot out from under it and tumbled to a stop immediately in front of me.
It was a squirrel, and must have been trying to run across the road when it encountered the car. I really was not going very fast, but there was no time to brake or avoid it -- it was that close. I hate to run over animals, and I really hate it on a motorcycle, but a squirrel should pose no danger to me. I barely had time to brace for the impact. Animal lovers, never fear. Squirrels, I discovered, can take care of themselves!
Inches before impact, the squirrel flipped to his feet. He was standing on his hind legs and facing my oncoming Valkyrie with steadfast resolve in his little beady eyes. His mouth opened, and at the last possible second, he screamed and leapt! I am pretty sure the scream was squirrel for, "Bonzai!" or maybe, "Die you gravy-sucking, heathen scum!" The leap was nothing short of spectacular ... as he shot straight up, flew over my windshield, and impacted me squarely in the chest. Instantly, he set upon me. If I did not know better, I would have sworn he brought 20 of his little buddies along for the attack. Snarling, hissing, and tearing at my clothes, he was a frenzy of activity. As I was dressed only in a light T-shirt, summer riding gloves, and jeans this was a bit of a cause for concern. This furry little tornado was doing some damage! Picture a large man on a huge black and chrome
cruiser, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and leather gloves, puttering at maybe 25 mph down a quiet residential street, and in the fight of his life with a squirrel. And losing...
I grabbed for him with my left hand. After a few misses, I finally managed to snag his tail. With all my strength, I flung the evil rodent off to the left of the bike, almost running into the right curb as I recoiled from the throw. That should have done it. The matter should have ended right there. It really should have. The squirrel could have sailed into one of the pristinely kept yards and gone on about his business, and I could have headed home. No one would have been the wiser. But this was no ordinary squirrel. This was not even an ordinary angry squirrel. This was an EVIL MUTANT ATTACK SQUIRREL OF DEATH! Somehow he caught my gloved finger with one of his little hands and, with the force of the throw, swung around and with a resounding thump and an amazing impact, he landed squarely on my back and resumed his rather antisocial and extremely distracting activities. He also managed
to take my left glove with him!
The situation was not improved. Not improved at all. His attacks were continuing, and now I could not reach him. I was startled, to say the least. The combination of the force of the throw, only having one hand (the throttle hand) on the handlebars, and my jerking back unfortunately put a healthy twist through my right hand and into the throttle. A healthy twist on the throttle of a Valkyrie can only have one result. Torque. This is what the Valkyrie is made for, and she is very, very good at it.
The engine roared and the front wheel left the pavement. The squirrel screamed in anger. The Valkyrie screamed in ecstasy. I screamed in .. well .. I just plain screamed.
Now picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a slightly squirrel-torn-t-shirt, wearing only one leather glove, and roaring at maybe 50 mph and rapidly accelerating down a quiet residential street on one wheel, with a demonic squirrel on his back. The man and the squirrel are both screaming bloody murder. With the sudden acceleration I was forced to put my other hand back on the handlebars and try to get control of the bike. This was leaving the mutant squirrel to his own devices, but I really did not want to crash into somebody's tree, house, or parked car. Also, I had not yet figured out how to release the throttle.. my brain was just simply overloaded.
I did manage to mash the back brake, but it had little effect against the massive power of the big cruiser. About this time the squirrel decided that I was not paying sufficient attention to this very serious battle (maybe he was an evil mutant NAZI attack squirrel of death), and he came around my neck and got INSIDE my full-face helmet with me. As the faceplate closed part way, he began hissing in my face. I am quite sure my screaming changed intensity. It had little effect on the squirrel, however. The RPMs on the Dragon maxed out (since I was not bothering with shifting at the moment), so her front end started to drop. Now picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a very raggedly torn T-shirt, wearing only one leather glove, roaring at probably 80 mph, still on one wheel, with a large puffy squirrel's tail sticking out of the mostly closed full-face
helmet. By now the screams are probably getting a little hoarse. Finally I got the upper hand ... I managed to grab his tail again, pulled him out of my helmet, and slung him to the left as hard as I could. This time it worked ... sort-of. Spectacularly sort-of .so to speak.
Picture a new scene. You are a cop. You and your partner have pulled off on a quiet residential street and parked with your windows down to do some paperwork. Suddenly a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a torn T-shirt flapping in the breeze, and wearing only one leather glove, moving at probably 80 mph on one wheel, and screaming bloody murder roars by, and with all his strength throws a live squirrel grenade directly into your police car. I heard screams.
They weren't mine...
I managed to get the big motorcycle under control and dropped the front wheel to the ground. I then used maximum braking and skidded to a stop in a cloud of tire smoke at the stop sign of a busy cross street. I would have returned to 'fess up (and to get my glove back). I really would have. Really...
Except for two things.
First, the cops did not seem interested or the slightest bit concerned about me at the moment. When I looked back, the doors on both sides of the patrol car were flung wide open. The cop from the passenger side was on his back, doing a crab walk into somebody's front yard, quickly moving away from the car.
The cop who had been in the driver's seat was standing in the street, aiming a riot shotgun at his own police car.
So, the cops were not interested in me. They often insist to "let the professionals handle it" anyway. That was one thing. The other? Well, I could clearly see shredded and flying pieces of foam and upholstery from the back seat. But I could also swear I saw the squirrel in the back window, shaking his little fist at me. That is one dangerous squirrel. And now he has a patrol car. A somewhat shredded patrol car ... but it was all his.
I took a deep breath, turned on my turn-signal, made a gentle right turn off of Brice Street, and sedately left the neighborhood. I decided it was best to just buy myself a new pair of gloves...and a whole lot of Band-Aids.

Rejected SO SAD.....

My day started out at 9 am as I drove downtown to park in the Charleston County Parking Garage. I showed up at the Federal Court House at 9:50 am for Jury Selection. The courtroom was packed and they picked jurors for 5 cases, three civil and two criminal. The first three cases involved theft of service from a major cable company and because of my computer/electronics experience I was not to be picked. The two criminal cases involved weapons charges through ATF and other assorted federal agencies. The prosecution picked me as a juror twice but for some strange reason the defense excused me as a juror. Hummmm.... Actually, I can not afford to miss one single day of work at my regular jobs so that was good I was not picked. Hopefully I wont be bothered now for a year or two to do this all over again.

I started my work day at 1 pm and worked until 11:15 pm when the zombie squad finally showed up to babysit an empty building and parking garage. Hey, better them than me...

Well, that is about it for now, time to stuff my face and hit the sack folks. Nite Nite...

Peer to Peer File sharing networks

Beware lest you begin to download what you think is a valid piece of software from Kazaa or any other P2P (peer to peer) file sharing network. Here is how it works. Peer to Peer networks such as Kazaa allows you to register on their service and then network yourself with others with similar interests to download all sorts of software. This software ranges from music files (mp3's etc) , software titles (usually pirated or hacked), movies (usually pirated or hacked) etc. I know that this is not an all inclusive list but it seems that movies , computer software and music are at the top of the list. What happens is you are downloading what you think is a movie when in all actuality you might get an advertisement for goods and services and if you are really unlucky you might be the winner of a nasty worm, trojan horse or virus of some sort that will be more than happy to email itself out to everyone in your windows address book (.wab file) not to mention possibly destroying data and infecting your registry so that it can respawn itself every time you reboot your computer. Doing this with your computer and your data is like walking through a minefield without taking the time to look for the mines. If you step in the wrong spot you will get your toes blown off. The last time I checked most of us like our toes (or computer data) and it is painful to lose them.

Here are some simple rules for computing safely not only for yourself and your data but also to be a responsible netizen.

A. Do not use hacked software
B. Always have your anti virus software updated on a regular basis
C. Most anti virus software has Live Update that works automatically in the background, you set it and forget it
D. Backup your data on a REGULAR basis.
E. Have multiple backup media for redundancy (IE separate hard disk and CDR or cdrw or external usb hard drive)
F. Always configure your anti virus software to monitor both outgoing and incoming email
G. When forwarding e-mail please do not forward every e-mail address from the multiple forwards that you received
H. Most folks dont like attachments when they are not expecting them so try not to send forwarded email as an attachment.
I. Stay FAR away from P2P file sharing networks.
J. If you have a broandband connection that stays on all the time PLEASE purchase a switch/router/firewall to provide an extra level of protection between you and the outside Internet. Do not be fooled into thinking that the built in software firewall that comes with XP will be the end all solution to all of your security needs.
K. If your computer came with a System Recovery CD be SURE to lock that baby in a safe place. This CD will restore your computer back to its factory defaults and contains all the drivers for the hardware on your system.
L. Atleast once per month run Windows Update and allow the Microsoft site scan your computer and tell you what critical updates are available. ALWAYS read what the update is and if it is listed as critical and it FIXES a security issue on the Operating System be SURE to do it without fail.


Ok, that is not an all inclusive list but it contains some very basic common sense things that sometimes folks just forget or take for granted. Now, lets assume that you are the unlucky soul that gets caught with your cyberpants down around your ankles. You just made a boo boo and all of a sudden your computer is rebooting itself or you notice that your outbox on your email client is busy and you did not intend to send out an email to everyone in your address book.

The FIRST thing you should do is to reach behind your computer and remove the modem line (telephone wire) or your ethernet cable (that runs to your DSL or Cable modem). Why is that you ask? This will disconnect your computer from the LAN (local area network) internally and the Internet (Wide area network) externally. That means that your computer is infected but will not be able to pass the infection on to other people (computers) on your local network or external computer users on the Internet (like ME)....

The SECOND thing you should do is turn your computer OFF and go find the Anti Virus Rescue disks that you created when you first installed your anti virus software. If you have not done that PLEASE go do that right after you read this. It WILL save your bacon in the future. Here is something that you might not know. Not only do you need to do regular backups to different media you also need to recreate your Anti Virus rescue disks so that you can keep them up to date with the latest virus definitions. If you installed McAfee or Norton Anti Virus 2 years ago but have not updated your rescue disks then the chances of your rescue disks being able to DETECT a new virus is slim to none.

Some of you are rolling your eyes right about now thinking "good grief do I REALLY need to do all of this stuff all the time??" I bought this thing to surf the web and check email and the sales man told me that it would just work right out of the box. No one told me about all of this.... The answer is YES. Imagine if you bought a new car and drove it and drove it and never did any type of maintenance to it or changed the oil or put new tires or brake shoes on it. How long would your car last ? I can garuntee you it would not last anywhere near as long as it will if you take good care of it. Over the years hardware and software manufacturers have made progress with regards to making computer products that are VERY user friendly and very automated. However, ongoing maintenance has to be done or you will eventually run into problems.

When I first started writing this article I was going to just warn you about Peer to Peer networks and the inherent dangers of using them. Once I started there then I started to remember some of the common sense things listed above that can help protect all of us. This article is not intended to be a complete computer survival guide and there are so many other things that can be discussed in detail. This goes without saying but I think I need to say it anyway. If you do not know what you are doing and everything I am saying above seems to sound like greek find a family member or someone that you know that is computer savy and have them explain things to you in a way you will understand and help you to protect yourself better. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Well, anyway, you know what I am saying here. It is better to be proactive than reactive. When you get to the point that you are having to react to a disaster there will usually be some smoke and flames that will result in either data loss or some type of damage to your computer. That is the last thing either of us want or need. Am I right??

Nice to have a day off

Mondays are my day to rest. Let me rephrase that. Mondays is the day that I dont put on my gorrilla suit (security uniform) nor do I have to put up with retail customers. All in all that is a GOOD thing. Because I only have one day off I find myself doing all of my errands and chores and to do list in ONE DAY.

This morning at 2 am I finally went to sleep and woke up at around 6:45 am. I layed around in the recliner for a few moments and then decided to turn on the coffee pot and start my day by checking the e-mail inbox. I climbed onto the Torture Machine for 25 minutes and then Katy and I went to visit our friend Patty as we hip hopped over to IHOP for breakfast. Before I left this morning I located a freeware program "WiFiFoFum" for the PocketPC that will allow me to war drive. In other words I can drive down the street and use my PocketPC and the wireless card to sniff out WiFi connections. I was amazed at how many WiFi connections that I was able to find. Nevertheless I was not able to make a good enough connection to an WAP so I could surf the Internet via the web browser or log on to MSN IM. My friend Patty thinks that I need to read the read.me file that came with the software but sadly enough none was included. Anyway, the bottom line is this. I am still trying to figure out HOW to make an actual WiFi connection that will allow me to surf the web or check my e-mail. I think that between my house and Patty's I ran across 30 signals.

I just had a phone call from a dear friend who is having computer problems so my entire train of thought is out the window. LOL. Don't ya hate it when that happens. Oh well, time to go help her get her computer glued back together. I can always come back to this.

News to me folks

I found this article while catching up on my RSS feeds this morning. I too have been slightly miffed at the fact that when I am at work at Goodwill that I can not log on to my SMTP servers at Jesus Connect or Bellsouth to SEND out e-mail but rather have been forced to use gmail which is a web based provider for Google. For those of you that are not bloggers and did not get an invitation to use gmail you are forced to use one of the other many web based email clients. I for one am a fan of Outlook 2003 which is a very nice PIM (personal information manager) which allows me to synchronize my data in Outlook with my Pocket PC. Webmail just will NOT do this. The other thing that literally sucks is that if their server goes down, guess what, you are out of luck. Your email account and all your email is cyber dust until they restore the server. Well, anyway, you get the jist. There are advantages to webmail and disadvantages. That is why I choose to use both. This is an excellent story btw.
_____

ISPs Blocking Port 25 To Curb Spam Hurts The Honest Guy
Posted by Ed Hansberry @ 03:00 PM


This morning I woke up, logged into my laptop and started taking care of a number of emails in my various accounts. I have one work account and 4 personal accounts. Three of those personal accounts are using other SMTP servers, including my Pocket PC Thoughts account. Do do this, you need access to port 25. Why are ISPs blocking these? Because of ignorant people. They never run Windows Update, they installed a virus scanner in 2001 and haven't run a single update and click on every attachment in their inbox. Their computers are zombies sending out hundreds of millions of emails a day. Comcast admits "We're the biggest spammer on the Internet" because of these users.

Did Bellsouth.net, my ISP, warn me? Did they send out and email telling me port 25 would no longer be available? No! (Please note: the rest of this post can best be appreciated it you print it off and read it while storming around the room, occasionally giving a stilted kick or two at nothing in particular, and, of course, a bit of spittle can't hurt either.) So after about 30 minutes of figuring out why most of my emails weren't sending through various accounts and 3 different email clients, it dawned on me that port 25 was probably blocked. I called their customer service department and after getting bounced around to 4 people, I finally got someone that knew what was going on. "Yup. 25 has been blocked and we aren't unblocking it for anyone. Period."

AAARGGGHHH!!! I've been with them nearly three years and they took away my ability to send emails through my other email servers. I have a laptop and can't reconfigure all of my accounts to send through their servers because when I am on the road or connected through another network, their email server is unavailable to me. They allow no external access to their SMTP server. Idiots. So, the solution to the spam problem cause by a few ignorant people with zombie machines and the occasional intentional spammer is to block everyone?!? What IT genius at Bellsouth.net's made this decision? And who's decision was it to not open that port back up for customers that need it and haven't been accused of spamming?

With this logic, I can also fix the prostitution problem. Let's just block driving up and down the roads ladies of the evening hang out at. Never mind the thousands of drivers that use those same roads daily for legitimate reasons. For those few offenders, we'll inconvenience everyone.

I do have a potential alternative that many don't. I could theoretically always VPN into my corporate LAN and send through there, but there is one small problem, and I am not going to beat around the bush on this. Connection Manager for the Pocket PC sucks! It has been broken since Pocket PC 2002 and is still broken in Pocket PC 2003 SE. You cannot VPN into a LAN and send "internet" traffic through that connection unless you have a Proxy Server installed, so this solution would be for my laptop only and on my wireless LAN, that just isn't good enough.

So now I have an $80/month business account, which does open port 25, instead of a $47/month home account. Totally insane. All because of some knee-jerk reaction to a valid problem solved with wrong-headed thinking, and as far as computing goes, that is the most evil thing that can happen. And in dealing with evil, Jules may said it best:

The finished product. Yummy yummy for our tummies. LOL... Its so nice looking you dont want to eat it.  

Don Chapman and his fiance Mercy. I wish them much happiness in their upcoming wedding. I wonder WHEN the wedding will be Don?? I bet he does not even KNOW that I am posting this picture on my blog. LOL... 

During my visit in Houston with the JC group the ladies pictured here were making a cake. It was awesome to watch the talent in action... 

From left to right. Don Chapman, ME, Reynold DeGuzman & GOM (Grouchy Old Man) John Searcy. This is the original four Amigos that make up the Jesus Connect Team.  

Travelers League begins today...

For ten weeks I will be bowling in an ABC Mixed league consisting of a 5 person team. I bowled a 172 average tonight which REALLY suprised me AND my teamates. LOL... I bowled a 194, 186 and 136. If I had bowled 7 more pins on my first game I would have gotten a patch. Darn it!! I blew it in my tenth frame that game. Oh well, I have ten more weeks to accumulate some patches from ABC. READY, SET, GO!!!!

I did not climb onto the beloved (TM) torture machine tonight BUT I did get a work out at the bowling alley so that will be my exercise today.
I am reminded of this because my body is sending multiple signals to my brain whining about aches and pains and being sore. Tylenol PM is my friend though and before you know it I will be sound asleep and those signals going to my brain will be lost forever in a wave of snoring.
What can I say ? Better living through chemicals. LOL

Have you ever seen the commercials where the mild manner Clark type person gets into his or her car and turns into the Tazmanian devil? We have all witnessed these idiots out racing around and making our lives perilous as they zoom up to your bumper and cut you off in traffic by yanking their vehicles in front of you without using a turn signal or waiting to see IF you will let them over. I think the same thing happens to retail customers. We get out of our cars, walk into the store and become a different animal alltogther. I know this because four days a week I deal with psycho customers myself. Yes, I know, I have been on the other side of the fence and I know how frustrating it can be to be the victim of NO customer service. However, tonight we will focus on pscyho customers for a moment.

I am focused on these types of people tonight because Katy had a VERY bad day at Wallyworld (aka Wallmart) and came home in tears. If Katy came home in tears it was because multiple people were JERKS towards her. It takes a LOT to make her cry let me tell ya. I told her she needs to buy a nurf baseball bat and when people are jerks to whack them upside their noggins for being stupid and insensitive. Luckily for me Katy does not have my termperment and wont do that and lose her job.

The moral of the story is this. Life goes on whether you are a jerk or not. Just remember that there is a human being that is wearing the respective uniform or name tag of the particular establishment you are visiting. People are doing just like you, going to work, performing specific tasks so that they too can get a paycheck, pay the bills and experience a certain level of comfort and enjoyment out of life. They say that what goes around comes around. So, before you use your tongue and attitude like a double edged sword to dice up the customer service representative tomorrow ask yourself HOW you would like to be treated IF you were on the other side of the isle, counter or telephone.
Ok, so you are asking me the question "what IF the customer service rep or sales associate is being a snot and treating me like dirt?" Does that give me the right to tear them apart? Most of you would say absolutely yes. I would say that there is an exception to every rule and I also know that every company has a level of management in place that will deal with rude, arrogant and unruly employees very quickly because they want you to be happy and come back to spend MORE of your money in the near future. So, with that in mind understand that I too have been on both sides of the fence. Try to keep a level head and for crying out loud dont take your days frustrations out on someone just like yourself. OK??