Subject: Neat Net Tricks Issue # 65
November 1, 1999
Sender: owner-neatnettricks@neatnettricks.com

IN THIS ISSUE:

01.  Lurker 32
02.  Neat Net Nifty
03.  Nifty newsletter
04.  Information galore
05.  Clean up the temp folder
06.  Entrega's USBNet
07.  MailTreeve
08.  Mercury Mobile
09.  More about those pesky numbers
10.  Is there a hacker in your future?
11.  Finding your IP number
12.  Another search
13.  Readers write

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01.  LURKER 32 is a newsgroup message database and offline 
newsgroup reader.  With it, you can download an entire 
newsgroup into a single database, sort messages by thread, 
subject, sender, or date, do quick search and find text, do 
batch downloads, store newsgroups at an average 5:1 
compression (with the optional Database Compression Module) 
and use Power Search to research messages at a rate of 9000 
messages per minute.  Try it free at http://www.stsi.com/ with 
a 250-message per newsgroup limitation or buy for $99.95 plus 
$50 for the optional compression module.

02.  NEAT NET NIFTY.  Its been a while since Neat Net Tricks 
recognized a particularly outstanding site; and it is very 
fitting at this time, as Veterans Day (U.S.) and Remembrance 
Day (Canada) approaches, that we view an excellent collection 
of World War II propaganda posters at 
http://www.openstore.com/posters/ .  Both the U.S. and Canada 
are represented in this excellent cross section of memorabilia 
designed, as the Web site author says, to stir up pro-American 
(and pro-Canadian) feelings and help mobilize citizens to 
support the War movement.  At the risk of revealing my age, 
when you view some of this art work you can almost hear the air 
raid sirens or remember the sugar and coffee ration coupons. 
(I was just an infant, honest!)

Neat Net Tricks often pauses to recognize a Web site and 
recommend your visit.  Set aside some time to explore the site 
and enjoy it.  Sites that are predominantly non-commercial in 
focus are identified as nifty when their all-around content, 
originality, interest, variety, and graphical presentation have 
earned this award.  If you would like to nominate a Nifty site, 
send the URL to mailto:jteems@NeatNetTricks.com with a brief 
note telling why you think the site deserves the award.

03.  NIFTY NEWSLETTER.  Relatively small as newsletters go, 
about 3,000 readers, and relatively young, about a year old, 
Weirdside is nonetheless an interesting potpourri of diverse 
bits and bytes and is fun reading.  Subscribe on the Weirdside 
Web site (say that rapidly 20 times if you can) at 
http://www.theweirdsite.com and Dirk Dupon will even throw in a 
free html tutor.

04.  INFORMATION GALORE.  In Win95/98, look for the file 
MSINFO32.EXE. I found mine in 
Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared.  It provides a 
great deal of information there about hardware, memory, 
drivers, DLLs, fonts, and more.

05.  CLEAN UP THE TEMP FOLDER.  Fred Langa has come up with a 
little script that efficiently cleans out your Windows temp 
folder from DOS.  I wondered aloud to Fred (well, by email, 
that is) why one couldn't more easily just delete that temp 
folder using Windows Explorer.  He reminded me that hidden 
files might be left behind, and, of course, the temp directory 
is in active use while Windows is open. So DOS is the safer way 
to go.  Now, having said that, here's Fred's tip.  Using 
NotePad, create a file with these lines:

c:\windows\command\deltree /y c:\windows\temp
del c:\windows\tempor~1\*.zip
del c:\windows\tempor~1\*.exe

Then, save the file as c:\cleanup.bat and then run it from DOS 
with a simple "cleanup" (without the quotes) from the DOS 
command prompt.  This cleans out the Temp directory if you're a 
fastidious housekeeper.

06.  ENTREGA'S USBNET.  A USB (Universal Serial Bus) provides a 
standard plug and port for peripherals and allows transfer 
between computers at rates up to 100 times faster than ordinary 
connections. With Entrega USBNet, just plug the provided 
adapter cable between computers and install the driver.  Simple 
enough and costs about $57.  Take a look at 
http://www.entrega.com .

07.  MAILTREEVE.  With this software neatly tucked away on a 
floppy in your briefcase, you can check and send email from any 
browser connected to the Internet from any remote site.  Just 
type or paste the URL it provides into the browser, and 
contents of any specified POP3 mailbox are displayed.  It's 
available for a 15-day free trial or purchase for $40 at 
http://www.netcplus.com .

08.  MERCURY MOBILE allows you to check and respond to email by 
calling your PC from a touch-tone phone or having your PC call 
you and read the mail to you.  That last statement isn't a 
misprint.  The voice it uses is customizable, and it recognizes 
and conforms with the language used in the email. You can reply 
to the message with predefined answers and screen out unwanted 
mail with its filtering options.  To run Mercury Mobile 
requires a Pentium processor, at least 16 MB RAM (32 MB 
better,) 30MB free drive space, and a currently supported voice 
modem.  It's $59.95 and it's at http://www.mercurymobile.com/ .

09.  MORE ABOUT THOSE PESKY NUMBERS.  A couple of issues ago, I 
wrote about a sequence by which you can calculate an encoded 
set of numbers that substitute for a URL.  There's an easier 
way, as one reader pointed out on the Neat Net Tricks Bulletin 
Board, and that's to download either of two free products at http://verdad.virtualave.net/download1.html , Glow Armageddon's 
site. Either Extreme Unfrozen or Breakdown, given an address 
(URL,) will return the IP address and the "encoded" address 
(the number without the decimals.) No calculator is needed.

10.  IS THERE A HACKER IN YOUR FUTURE?  As we seek faster ways 
to access the Internet, many of us are turning to the 
high-speed DSL and cable modems where our computers are logged 
on all the time.  This of course increases the possibility of a 
hacker accessing our files, particularly if we have chosen to 
grant access to others.  Check START|SETTINGS|CONTROL PANEL to 
Network and click on File and Print Sharing, making sure that 
the option to give access to your files is unchecked.  That 
still won't guarantee absolute security against hackers, but to 
give more peace of mind you might check out these products, all 
in the $40 price range: InternetAlert 99 at 
http://www.bonzi.com ; BlackICE Defender at 
http://www.networkice.com ; and, SyGate at 
http://www.sygate.com .  By the way, if you're networking your 
computers throughout your household or business, file sharing 
must be enabled, so that you may have even more cause 
for concern.

11.  FINDING YOUR IP NUMBER.  In several issues of Neat Net 
Tricks we've mentioned IP numbers, those series of numbers that 
uniquely identify your connection on the Internet.  If you 
don't know your IP number, there are a number of easy ways to 
find it, but perhaps the easiest is to simply connect to 
http://www.pagecount.com/software/tellip .

12.  ANOTHER SEARCH.  There are search engines everywhere on 
the Internet but lately I've been impressed with the speed and 
simplicity of the one at http://www.alltheweb.com .  If you 
like it, you might want to drag the link off to your desktop as 
a shortcut, to make your searches all the faster.

13.  READERS WRITE.  I'm flattered that many of you still write 
in with technical questions.  I have to repeat that I'm not 
particularly "savvy" enough to answer them, and I consider 
myself a "collector of tips" rather than a tekkie. Even if I 
have the answers, time just won't allow the research that would 
be required in providing personal responses. That's the purpose 
of the Neat Net Tricks Bulletin Board where you'll likely find 
some good advice at http://www.escribe.com/bb/nettricks .

Similarly,  many requests are sent me to subscribe, 
unsubscribe, and change addresses.  This can be done using the 
automated system called "majordomo," and details are included 
in every Neat Net Tricks publication as well as on the Neat Net 
Tricks Web site.  This frees me to concentrate on the Neat Net 
Tricks content so that you'll hopefully get some useful stuff 
in your Email box twice monthly.

Please don't be offended by the lack of personal response.  I 
really would like to chat with you all, but as you can imagine, 
the room would be rather crowded with 56,000+ readers and 
another 3 million exposed to the monthly Neat Net Tricks column 
in Yahoo!Internet Life.

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ABOUT NEAT NET TRICKS:

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Copyright 1999 by Jack Teems.  All rights reserved.
