Mar 29, 2007

NET11 - Module 2 - Newsgroups

I found this interesting as it taught me a about what some of the settings were in Outlook. I spent a few hours trying to work it out. The inbuilt help of Outlook Express was a good start but it assumes that there are newgroups already set up and that you want to use the default one's only ... fine if there are any listed but not in this machine!
It was interesting to see some newsgroups were after a fee to join.
I replied to my chosen newgroup, about my motocrosser http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/CR250/
and saw my message with the below headers :

From mattymagic01 Mon Mar 26 05:21:56 2007Return-Path: <sentto-2151899-1267-1174911725-mattymagic01=yahoo.com.au@returns.groups.yahoo.com>Authentication-Results: mta113.mail.re4.yahoo.com from=yahoogroups.com; domainkeys=fail (bad sig)Received: from 66.94.237.30 (HELO n28b.bullet.scd.yahoo.com) (66.94.237.30) by mta113.mail.re4.yahoo.com with SMTP; Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:29:49 -0700Comment: DomainKeys? See http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeysDomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=lima; d=yahoogroups.com; b=jPMS/IAJtrBC9nO5o0K9jU3Wpe7UHwGpT/pTISCFm6ritmtv/vhFy9MbN/6t8pgo2MJFEjPwJm73hcx5EE4/qAwV57LYtzqAjVYuRGe/1d9kMWbc/b3PWM15cSlZUpA9;Received: from [66.218.69.4] by n28.bullet.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 26 Mar 2007 12:22:08 -0000Received: from [66.218.67.108] by t4.bullet.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 26 Mar 2007 12:22:08 -0000Received: (qmail 40342 invoked from network); 26 Mar 2007 12:22:04 -0000Received: from unknown (66.218.66.70) by m44.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 26 Mar 2007 12:22:04 -0000Received: from unknown (HELO n15c.bullet.sp1.yahoo.com) (69.147.64.120) by mta12.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 26 Mar 2007 12:22:04 -0000Received: from [216.252.122.217] by n15.bullet.sp1.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 26 Mar 2007 12:21:58 -0000Received: from [66.218.69.1] by t2.bullet.sp1.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 26 Mar 2007 12:21:57 -0000Received: from [66.218.66.81] by t1.bullet.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 26 Mar 2007 12:21:57 -0000To: CR250@yahoogroups.comMessage-ID: <eu8dt4+uh3d@eGroups.com>In-Reply-To: <ehok78+af6s@eGroups.com>User-Agent: eGroups-EW/0.82From: "mattymagic01" <mattymagic01@yahoo.com.au>Sender: CR250@yahoogroups.comMIME-Version: 1.0Mailing-List: list CR250@yahoogroups.com; contact CR250-owner@yahoogroups.comDelivered-To: mailing list CR250@yahoogroups.comList-Id: Precedence: bulkList-Unsubscribe: <mailto:CR250-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com>Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 12:21:56 -0000Subject: [CR250] Re: When to change transmission oilReply-To: CR250@yahoogroups.comContent-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="oonpK4umOK0nNiefcCg4yGlTmKKDKuxkkqQZ4Jk"Content-Length: 16466

In this message :
From: mattymagic01 To: CR250@yahoogroups.comSent: Monday, 26 March, 2007 10:21:56 PMSubject: [CR250] Re: When to change transmission oil

Yo dunno,Didnt forget mate - 96 CR 250 Pics now up in Photo's section.As for the oil, I changed mine last time after 4 rides (8 hrs) - was still 'as new' - might make it every 10-12 hours next time.Matty--- In mailto:CR250%40yahoogroups.com, "dunno" wrote:>> Any pic's Matty, I have the same bike and I wanted to see how mine> compares visually. As far as the oil goes, I am staying with the> 10w-40, and I change it every few riding days just becuase it is cheap> maintance and if that keeps the trans and clutch intact, it is worth> is. When I get a chance I will check the manuel and see how often> they recommend it.> --- In mailto:CR250%40yahoogroups.com, Matty Magic wrote:> >> > G'day CR'ers,> > While your sort of on the trans oil topic, being the 2 stroke newbie> I am, I'll ask - how often do you guys recommend to change it (for a> 96 250) ? I changed it when I first got it about 10 hours ago.> > The riding type I do is (not track work, just roosting around> trails) 30-45 minute sessions, have a short break for total time of> 3'ish hours each go> > > > Thanks> > Down Under

Mar 26, 2007

NET11 - Module 2 - Lists

Another busy week, keeping up with that forum, work, selling our house and car and went for a job interview - busy times !
What are the pros and cons of email lists versus discussion boards?

Email List Pro's
public many-to-many conversations
all list members can see interchange
connect people with shared interests

Email List Cons
lists and the reply option don't work well together
you need to use your instincts for what kind of reply is required
Lists and attachments, formatting etc also don't mix well.

Discussion Board Pro's
Good collaboration and information source
??????????????

Discussion Board Cons
Topic can get diluted and go off on tangents
??????????????TBC


Are there certain kinds of communication or purposes more suited to one than the other?
????????????????????????

I got a bit stuck here as there wasnt enough material on discussion forums. I researched some of the following sites :
I googled 'discussion board cons' and all kinds of variations. Most results launched directly in the a forum or discussion.
The Webct forum shows that someone has read a post of mine and is showing the group their newfound knowledge ... funny using define: in Google.

Mar 20, 2007

NET11 - Module 2 Tasks - Email

Ive been quite distracted away from study for the past week through personal things (selling my house, deciding which new house - build a new one on land or buy an existing one etc, looking at houses, and trying to negotiate a new job! and besides that trying to deliver my sales number for the quarter !!!)
Ive been finding it hard to keep up with the forum and all those posts - I can honestly say there are some people with nothing better to do than post ! Keep it real people, no need for the 'ok thanks' and 'here's my story' or 'arent I smart' - I'm a very direct person, keep it relevant to all and get the point fast; if there's no point, dont waste my time ! I suppose thats why I do sales - Ive been trained to hunt relevence and facts. Sorry, I'll frame that even more - I'm not going to spend as much time getting in to every discussion, I'll skim more and spend less time on it unless I need to research a topic more.

Anyhow, email is something I just cant live without - now I think of it, I run 9 email addresses constantly !
2 work email addresses
1 motocross news group email address
2 yahoo emails - 1 for IT news and 1 for technology news
1 hotmail - for absolute rubbish and competitions
1 gmail for my Curtin studies
1 home email and bills
1 home email for my kids

Is that excessive - in my opinion - NO.
I can keep them all seperated and it helps me keep them organised and relevant to the topic at hand! It works for me.

I use an application called Poptray http://www.poptray.org/ I let the discussion board know about it as it might save them some time too !


Email Tasks

1. What information about a user's email, the origin of a message, and the path it took, can you glean from an email message?

Many things !
In basic format we can identify :
The Sender (or username) that sent the message
The format in which the sender structures the username (ie first initial dot surname) - this could also help you identify the usernames actual name
The Generic Top Level domain type ie .biz, .com ... interesting reading here http://www.iana.org/gtld/gtld.htm
The time that the user sent the message
The Subject
The message
The username contact details, phone number
The username company privacy policy (if included)

By viewing the headers via View 'Headers' on the message toolbar., you can also find out alot more interesting details - referring picture below.






This message identifies

The local IP address of the machine the username used to send the message

The smtp server address and ip address

The return path

The mx record (mail exchange http://www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/support/hostreg/faq.html#MX)

The content type, the character set used, the mail server software used (Exchange 6.5) and much more if you like !

Quiz :
Which of the following elements must be included in an email address? choose oneUsername (or account name)DomainBoth of the above
Correct answer: [NOTE: Score is not recorded]E-mail addresses always include the username (or account) as well as the domain name of the computer(s) that provide mail services.


2. In what cases would you find it useful to use the 'cc', 'bcc' and 'reply all functions of email?
Several cases :
cc - (carbon copy) when you want to send a copy of your message to someone else.
bcc - (blind carbon copy) - 2 forms of use - when w message is sent without other people knowing about it or secondly when a large audience is being sent a message it helps protect the privacy of the userma,es.
Reply all - would be used when you are sending a reply to all of the people that the message was originally sent to.

3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?

Firstly, communicate about your computer system and seek information from them to assist in the opening of the attachment.
You must understand that a message attachment is encoded and that not all recipients can take delivery of the encoded attachment. Also to be understood is that the format of the attachment itself may cause problems and that some applications cannot read the files saved in that later version. You should try and use 'rich text' or as a last resort, you could use a text file with the information copied in to it.

4. What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?
One of the primary purposes of sorting emails with filters and rules is to aid in the retrieval of the information. My doing this, it makes it more effective to categorise the information and know where and how it can be retrieved.

In my poptray application I have the messages in each email address in a different colour. This helps me quickly relate which email and what type of email the email is. For instance my motocross emails always come in to the poptray inbox as red. The IT news stories are in blue. My personal emails are in brown.
I block spam senders in hotmail using their spam filter and on my wifes PC - I have her using spam assasin whcih identifies blocked senders and deletes their messages before any chance to open them.
I also use an autoreply rule when I am out of the office for the day - this informs my customers, both internal and external of my whereabouts and how to contact me.


5. How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?
Example - my most complex email account - my work.
At work, I have every email that I have sent and received for the last 7 years !
I have it categorised in the following way :
Each year I have a sent items folder as in 'sent 2007' - everything sent, goes in this folder as soon as my exchange box total reaches 45MB.
Replies from customers go in to 'customers 2007' folder.
Important internal communications are either deleted or filed under the sender or topic name in a personal folder. Sometimes similar topics are grouped. For instance - all messages relating to a certain version of software go in to a folder under its version number. There is much more to this but this works for me and is the general drift of it all.

Mar 8, 2007

NET11 - Module 1 Task - Internet Tools

Traceroute

Traceroute is a way of tracing hops or computers between you and the networked computer you are trying to reach.

Task

Next find a site that provides the common internet tools (traceroute, ping) some examples include http://webct.curtin.edu.au/SCRIPT/305033_a/scripts/student/button_bar/305033_a/mod1t.html?STATIC+1590035366# or http://webct.curtin.edu.au/SCRIPT/305033_a/scripts/student/button_bar/305033_a/mod1t.html?STATIC+1590035366#
Using the traceroute tool, answer the following questions:
Traceroute from the chosen site to curtin.edu.au - cut and paste the entire list of 'hops' from there to Curtin. > see below
How many ‘hops’ are there? 19
what is the average time in milliseconds from the tools site to the curtin server?

It seems there was 19 hops and an average of 246 ms.

Further Exploration

A-ToolBar 3.1
4C Software · www.metaeureka.com


INSTALLING FREEWARE - Risks

I've been burnt so many times installing stuff on my pc that trashes it.The first thing I always do is create a restore point in case it installs something I dont like, possibly spyware, some kind of deep rooted unremovable registry stuff or worse still, has an incomplete installer. I then visit the vendor website and walk through a few screeenshots and if I'm still not sure about what it does, I'll download the installation guide or the product manual. I know this sounds paranoid - but all it takes is one click and before you know it, there could be a whole heap of consequences - loosing data, viruses, spyware, malware, identity theft, fraud etc etc etc - I avoid it.

A toolbar, oh no, theyre usually pretty dodgey kind of apps but doesnt look too bad, actually looks quite useful (love all those buttons and icons - what do they mean!) - but it doesnt say it supports VISTA and secondly going to the parent site no information about the product or anything else.



This will just have to be what we call in the software industry a 'suck and see' exercise. Here goes ...



This exercise didnt really need to install the toolbar and it was one those dodgey programs that left crap in the registry including startup and registry items - its taken me a good while to hunt them all out. I may have thought the course preparer may have researched these apps more in this regard - but on a another note - it shows this application isnt very well packaged if they couldnt get this right ... some may even call it sloppy. I could have just used a DOS prompt - maybe I'll read ahead in the whole question next time. The toolbar seems interesting though - particularly the sniffer - I think I'll keep it for a while and check it out when I get a moment. (take 2 - half the stuff just doesnt work!).

THE RESULTS


Clearly the ping times are lower directly from me. My isp is perth based so I expected this.


The traceroute showed the following, which was a bit of a surprise, as it hopped the same amount of times (19) but the average time was faster - I blanked out the first line to hode the identity of my home network !




Learning resources :

Network-tools.com

A toolbar from Eureka

Command prompt

Course notes

NET11 - Module 1 Task - File Transer Protocol (FTP)

File Transfer Protocol. This is the language used for file transfer from computer to computer across the WWW. An anonymous FTP is a file transfer between locations that does not require users to identify themselves with a password or log-in. An anonymous FTP is not secure, because it can be accessed by any other user of the WWW.

Task issue 1
Every time you have to install an application to Vista - you think, is that application going to work. It casts more doubt in your mind than good. I remember Ann Belle mentioning a Vista client in the discussion forums - so I used it instead, Simple FTP Client. Ive used WS FTP before to place product patches/Flex licencing managers where customers could download them. The latest version also isnt free. Simple FTP is REALLY SIMPLE.




Seem to get here easily, but having troubles navigating.
Issue 2 - cant find the readme! Is it me or is it the connection or the application. Anyhow try again ok good, seeing more, oh its hung again, nothing happening, restart, more entries, here we are, found the right folder, ok downloaded it locally, snip it!

Note - readme now on my pc.



The missing word is CAPITALIZATION !




Mar 5, 2007

NET11 - Module 1 Task - Telnet

TELNET
Definition : Telnet is a protocol used to logon to a remote computer. The method provides a remote console allowing resident commands to be implemented.

I had to use this about 6 months ago when I was trying to get some client side, voip RTP data for my voip provider. I started using voip to save money on our phone bill as we were running at about $200 a month and I noticed many short calls a day to my wife's parents STD number. The problem with the voip was that it was glitchy so I complained. The tech guy got me to Telnet in to my modem to capture some TTL numbers - this gave him enough info to agree with what I was complaining about so hence he re-routed me to a closer server. This improved my glitchy calls and Ive now lowered the monthly phone bill to $75 !
I can see the value that Telnet provides as it allowed us to remotely capture the information for the remote device.

Finding Telnet on this Vista thing - ok found it, but what were the commands again. Ok use ? - open - nup, cant get it to work. Putty is heaps better anyway, I asked the tech guys last week what they use http://putty.shortcircuit.net.au/download.html.
Download and install away - great, just a standalone app, no installer.


Opening Putty and typing the address for the Deaking libray : library.deakin.edu.au.
vt100 terminal emulation - yes, brings up this screen.

Doing the search for Bennahum produces 2 results.

I sent the results to my personal email because we cant receive external emails through our student accounts.

You searched for the AUTHOR: bennahum

2 AUTHORS found, with 2 entries; AUTHORS 1-2 are:

1 Bennahum David A 1936 ................................. 1 entry

2 Bennahum Ninotchka .................................... 1 entry

Extras : I went to the towel.blinkenlights.nl address - STAR WARS, thats alot of work & patience and I tested out the dialogue - its spot on !

Telnet seems to be an industry standard to remotely connect to certain interfaces. Today, it appears clunky but does the job. I like the updated clients, as they automate the process of applying commands and environmental variables, are easier to use and often include additional connection types.