insaNity

well, it took me a while but I am back as promised. Correct me if I'm wrong, but raw sockets is just a full implementation of networking which could be installed as a driver in all other OS types/versions. It does not increase the chance of invasions, but makes outgoing Denial of Service attacks easier. Well, thats just a big fuss I think. Not a worry for me at least. However, WindowsXP without updates/tweaks IS I think the least secure OS out there (with a default install) but raw sockets has nothing to do with it. There are a lot of rumours and myths going around about this. P.S.: I will be around a lot more now I'm on broadband, with the exception of an upcoming xmas break So if I leave your hard-work writtings unreplied, I'm either a liar, or got run over by a bus.

I have always wondered what is more secure if you want to deny all network access to a folder/drive: -do nothing, leave it unshared OR -share it as a hidden share and deny access to EVERYONE. I also wonder this about FTP servers. btw, where is the password setting? and whats up with the permissions anyway? they are BACKWARDS! Doesn't it make more sense for deny to take priority over allow? (so i could allow 'bob' and 'smith' and deny 'everyone'? No, it couldn't be this easy could it, you have to allow 'everyone' then deny individual users) This seems insecure as there are a lot of hidden users/groups/principles) These are the ones I have found so far on a clean install: ANONYMOUS LOGON Authenticated Users BATCH DIALUP Everyone INTERACTIVE NETWORK SERVICE SYSTEM TERMINAL SERVER USER SUPPORT_(numbers) HelpAssistant Guest Administrator LOCAL SERVICE NETWORK SERVICE I'm sure there are more. I must be thinking the wrong way or something because this seems like a stupid design and noone else talks about this stuff --insaNity >

Sorry I've been gone so long, I have read your replies AlecStaar and am STILL reading through your detailed guides! I have been meaning to properly go through this and update my ghost image but it seems I never get time except when I'm over tired like now (the questions WILL be coming) Quote: Disable the Server Service... stalls it ALL! At one shot... Yes but I meant if you want to serve some files, but not others, and you arent using ntfs. (ie can only set permissions in the individual specific network services) EG: is it best to add your folder to the ftp server and DENY EVERYTHING, or to just not add it at all? I think you have already answered this actually; It's best to not give any network apps anything to do with folders they shouldn't allow. correct? Quote: locked myself outta my machine, there was no getting around it either... reformat! Alot of my work was lost in that fiasco of my own research! It is indeed a nightmare that I hope I never experience. You would think that at least us professionals would never do this as 99.9% of the time when people format it was actually recoverable. I know someone that did that the other day. They managed to recover it though, with the help of some tools purchased from sysinternals/winternals - reset all permissions and recovered some corruption!!! He said it was the "Restorer 2000 program" not sure if that's exactly the right name though. Regarding the users/groups/system accounts it is safe to deny, I found that my netbios-guest-readonly shares were not effected when I denied the following permissions to the shared folders: NETWORK - Deny write NETWORK SERVICES - Deny ALL (plus others) I guess that means SMB/netbios uses the network service but not the NETWORK SERVICES service, although I assume other network apps will use the other or both. Anyway those 2 can't be dangerous to play around with. I see the reason why the permissions are 'backwards'. It is because a user can be a member of more than 1 group, and therfore allow 'must' take priority over deny. Though I think everyone can see the potential dangers with this method also ('hidden' accounts could be overlooked, people might not have a full understanding of inheritance, priorities, if new accounts are made they would have full access), and it could be improved, but I guess what is done is done, and we should just cope with it Quote: This should be a REALLY good thread, ask all the questions you want to, I will be glad to answer as best I can... this kind of thread needs doing here & I am glad you started it up! Don't say that! You Jinxed it! 8) oh well, when it comes to "question time" I will start a new topic anyway because I took so long You are right, it needs to be dicussed more. Quote: We can get REALLY specific on your machine if you like, but DO read that document first! I'm working on it. Don't worry, It won't be too long as I will be the gateway for my LAN soon so I'm going to be forced into it

shouldnt nt4 workstation/server be in one category, then 2k/xp be in its own? I dunno, maybe just combine them all? It's tricky to navigate (not much actually relates specifically to one OS version). maybe it should have more things under one like apps - help/other games - help/other or something?

This forum will not be the same without you! Hope it goes well I also might see you over at xp-erience.

don't you mean 'accidently' insecure an FTP?

note: you have to copy/paste the full line above or its a broken link still haven't found a way to have guest access to some shares, and password others (like win9x) will look into it properly tomorrow

LOL OMG that is so damn funny! I can't stop laughing HAHAAHA

thanks for the links guys. I'll come back when Ive read it all

yeah I know, only kidding!

sounds like bloatware anyway, I converted to Nero

AndyFair, you are absolutely correct. WinAce is ok, I used to use it before I changed to WinRAR, which seems faster and less buggy. The interfaces are virtually identical. Only thing is the ACE format keeps changing and isn't forwards compatible, so it takes WinRAR a little while to update to that format. I use the RAR format for all my stuff, it is superior in many ways (and the multimedia compression is good, although ACE has copied this now) The main reason I changed formats is ACE files seem to get corrupt a lot. note: both WinRAR and WinACE read ace/rar/zip/arj/tar/gz/lha/other formats, and WinRAR and WinACE are made by the creators of their respective formats.

I thought the infitite loops IS the nv_disp.dll bsod error crash??? so does this version fix it? Ive had it running since they came out no probs, but I'm not holding my breathe. Every time I think its fixed it gets me when I least expect it, even after a few days of running well.

I had focusing problems when multitasking (accidently pressing windows key)

The purpose of 9x was to provide a transition to the new generation in windows. It runs just about everything, and runs it fast, with stability being a trade off. It served its purpose, and now we must move on. RIP 9x

I have used 2 good mirroring programs: WinHTTrack which can do advanced stuff but with not as nice interface as Teleport Pro which is a well known all rounder. I haven't used any MS ones, but like most things, theres a 3rd party one to do it better I'm sure.

wow, so Im not the only one getting infinite loops in the detonator drivers... Every time I update, it think its gone then a few days later - BAM! it gets me again... it happens sometimes when I launch a game or movie, and I found that turning off the NV Quick Tweak thing in msconfig helps sometimes. OTHER THAN THAT, Nothing has managed to crash XP on me, and Im also impressed with the game performance. It is a little slower than 2k for 2D stuff though (dont argue with this - why do u think the requirements are greater? - If you have a very fast system you probably wont tell the difference) But yes, over all I think its the best windows to use. It's a good balance of compatibility/speed/stability. However, if I could get games performing well under 2K (like many people tell me it does) I would use that, because 2K is XP without the bloat and bugs.

i use winrar for everything

AlecStaar gets carried away with these things its probably a reg key try looking under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\program or company name and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\program or company name and HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\program or company name I run registry/filesystem monitors and loggers so i can always trace this kind of thing back (no system overhead because I only run them when I install something)

yes, you need say more what is new in it?

Originally Posted by Tweaked: Quote: Audio Catalyst 2.1 havent found a better one yet. fast, with perfect audio quality. well guess what? you just did! I used to use that before I 'saw the light' Do you realise Audio Catalyst is a break-away version of Audiograbber ? audiograbber has since been updated quite a bit! Not only that, but the mp3 encoder that comes with audiograbber doesn't compare to LAME just extract the .dll from this zip into the audiograbber directory and make sure it is selected as the encoder in the mp3 settings. note: I recommend constant/192/stereo/high for lame. That might be a bit overkill, so for lower bitrates use joint stereo. Or if u must use variable bitrate, put on highest! whatever you do, leave it on 'high' quality because that makes the file smaller/better quality and the only trade off is it takes a bit longer to encode. so install both of those, and you have the same interface but enhanced speed/quality and features as well as bug fixes/compatibilty!!! as for my favourite apps, well, I'm going to have to come back with a (large) list!

Dark Age of Camelot - Some people can run it, some can't. It's not officially supported. Can anyone help find out what the difference is?

yep. nero 5.5 & clonecd 3 here too

Hi, I'm fairly new to these forums and NT in general and after using XP for a few weeks I've come up with a few quesions: a) Can I add a normal process to start up as a service? (so that it will start before logon and stay running) Can you change the priority of services? (I thought I could have a script so that when I'm in a game or some other performance-critical task, I could drop the 'server' service down to low priority, as running at 100megabit just draws too much performance away when people leech over SMB) c) Can anyone guide me to a third-party program for transparent (integrated) file-encrytion based on user password WITHOUT installing NTFS? I seem to remember one called something sentry... d) How do you convert between FAT/NTFS without formatting/3rd party software? e) Can anyone recommend where to start in securing XP? (in regards to firewalls, packet filtering, acount permissions, file-sytem, services, general do's and don'ts)? f) Anyone else had trouble with the file search function in XP? g) I use Norton Ghost (I sometimes swap between OS's or need a quick restore from doing something wrong - my system is used for trying a lot of weird things and often breaks) and I have noticed that when I restore my few week old image, XP does stuff that slows the computer after first boot. In taskmanager/processes, it is the SERVICES process taking up all the 100% CPU plus heavy disk activity. what is it doing? defraging or what? can I disable/configure it? If you can answer any of these questions I will be most grateful. Thanks for your time.

you rock AlecStaar! never had a full night of internetting from one reply before that info will keep me quiet for quite a while