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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2004-11-22

A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware, 
Software, and Time Online

Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!

1) Freeware, Licensing, and Legality

Hi Fred - Many of us are employed deep within corporate IT departments; I'm actually a Regional Chief Technology Officer. Like everyone else, we too have our share of the "effects" of spy ware, or better yet, I like the term.... "cr*pware". For home users, it is easy to use the free to use products, but that is not so easy for the corporate or government users. We seriously enforce software licensing, thus without purchase, most all of the anti-spy ware products cannot be used.

Purchasing itself is not the issue, but we do not like to buy licenses one by one. I'd like to find an enterprise solution where seat licensing is more affordable. However, our experience is that no one product usually seems to be enough. It often takes a combination of two or three products to clean a system once it has fallen victim, occasionally more. Of course, if my pockets were deeper, an enterprise license for several products might be what is necessary. However, my pockets are not deep.

What is your suggestion... Do we use the hosts file route, which by the way I have used on my kids systems, for all systems and then use software products for cleaning problem machines? What kind of performance hit does a system take with 1000's of lines in a hosts file? What to do, what to do.... Thanks Dan Greeley

Although Dan's licensing question seems specific to corporate settings, it's actually broader because most PC users--- not just corporate employees--- want to operate legally and ethically; and want to be on the up and up. For example, can you download a spyware tool and then legally load it on a friend's PC? What if you have two or more PCs yourself? Etc.

With all the various software license types out there, it can be messy trying to figure out just what's what; and just what software can be used where.

For example, in Dan's case, there's plenty of high-quality free and low-cost software available that can do just what he wants and more; totally legitimately, legally, and under license. However, the licensing may not be in a form immediately familiar--- in fact, it may be quite nonstandard, making it seem that the software cannot be used without payment or restriction when in fact it can.

But there's other software that will do what he wants, and that appears to be fine and free, but that actually is NOT legal for him to deploy.

In short, it's a mess.

I dug through a pile of software--- both freeware and commercial--- and split the licensing into six general types, ranging from the "no holds barred" kind of license to the classic and highly restrictive licenses that you need a magnifying glass and a pot of coffee to get through.

I wrote a column on what I found and included links to specific example anti-spyware products you can download (many for free):  In working through the article, you'll not only see the various license types, but you just may also pick up some nice software along the way. 8-)

At the end of the article, I then look at the separate issue of using the "Hosts" file as a security tool to block access to or divert access from known-bad sites.

The whole thing is available now, free, at http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=53700730 . Click on over!

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2) Getting At Your PC's "Media Access Control" ID Number

MAC identification isn't a foolproof security method: MAC addresses may not be truly unique (although the odds of duplication are very low); and in any case, a PC's having an authorized MAC isn't in itself proof of safety or non-hostile intent. But use of MAC addresses is still a generally good thing when it's done as one of several overlapping security techniques (see, for example, http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021031S0004 )

You can usually find your MAC address pretty simply once your OS is up and running. For example, NT/2K/XP users can use the simple GETMAC command or employ the free "wntipcfg" tool to display the MAC address (See http://www.google.com/search?q=getmac and http://langa.com/u/3u.htm and http://www.google.com/search?q=wntipcfg ). Win98 users can use "ipconfig" and "winipcfg" to the same effect. (See http://www.google.com/search?q=ipconfig and http://www.google.com/search?q=winipcfg )

But this reader needed to get at the MAC earlier than that--- before the OS was set up.

OK, ye DOS guru, here's one that's been running me in circles for a while.  I'm looking for a way to return a PC's MAC address via a boot diskette.  Let me explain:  I install PC's onto our local network.  The form I fill out to request a network connection requires the MAC address of the machine.  I'd like to do this form early in the process so the connection's ready when I've got the machine's OS installed and ready to go.  I've tried a DOS 6.22 boot disk and running MAD, but it shows no network detected.  I assume this is because the network card hasn't been assigned an IRQ.  Is there some clever way to do this automatically? Thanks in advance and thanks for a great newsletter. -Don-

I can think of four approaches:

(1) If you have an old, original *and complete* set of DOS disks (not just the boot files, but the full original DOS environment with all the extras and external commands), you may find you have a DOS-based copy of "ipconfig." Copy that file to a boot floppy created by that same version of DOS, and you can then run the command "ipconfig /all" to get the MAC address, as well as other networking data.

(2) It's probably surer and simpler just to boot from an all-in-one free "live" CD-based distribution of Linux (eg Knoppix; http://www.knoppix.org/ ) and use command-line tools in Linux to ID the MAC (eg http://www.dur.ac.uk/its/services/network/lan/mac/linux/ and
http://www.google.com/search?q=detect+MAC+address+linux ). But obviously, booting from a CD takes longer than from a floppy. If the wait-time is an issue, see the next item.

(3) If you can open the case, many NICs have their MAC address printed right on them, or affixed on a sticker on the card. This usually isn't very convenient--- you may have to spend some time on your hands and knees under the desk wielding a screwdriver and holding a flashlight--- but it's a reasonably fast and reliable way to get the MAC.

(4) If your network cards ship with DOS drivers (it's getting rarer; just as having separate, stand-alone network cards is getting rarer), the DOS setup tool may display the MAC address. It might not be too hard to put the DOS network tool on a DOS boot floppy; but DOS setup tools for NICs are usually brand- and model-specific. This could turn into a major pain in the posterior unless all your PCs are set up with the same hardware.

With any luck at all, one of the above methods will work for you! But if not, there are other tools and techniques open to you, such as the deep-geek methods here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=19144

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3) Meet Idania, Newest Member Of The LangaList Family

We've added another child--- the eleventh--- to the group of kids sponsored on an ongoing basis by LangaList Plus! subscribers. Here's a note I just got from an aid agency working in Guatemala:

Idania Yasmin Marcjuez
GENDER : F
BIRTHDATE : Sep 30, 1995
COUNTRY : Guatemala, Centro America

Idania comes from a Latino family that speaks the Spanish language. She wears simple westernized clothes. They are Protestants. Idania has one sibling. The father abandoned them. The mother works as a secretary. The family's monthly income is below US$100 and is not enough to provide their basic needs. They own a three-room dwelling built of metal sheets roof, cement block walls and brick floor. They have electricity, running water and a toilet. Their meals are cooked on a rustic stove. Idania's health and nutritional status are normal.

Click to see Idania:

Standard Edition Subscribers:
http://www.freetune.com/kids/idania.htm

Plus! Edition Subscribers:
http://langalist.com/Plus/kids/idania.asp

Here's what's this is all about: Those of us with computers and Internet access are vastly better off than most of the world's population. Because of this, I decided that a portion of the LangaList Plus! subscription fees would be donated to registered/legitimate charities helping the underprivileged around the world. The contribution does not increase the cost of a Plus! subscription in any way; the donation is taken "off the top" of any profits. (This is described in the pages at http://langa.com/plus.htm  )

Idania is the eleventh child sponsored on an ongoing basis--- week in, week out--- by the collective generosity of LangaList subscribers. LangaList Plus! subscribers also have collectively contributed to emergency earthquake relief efforts in India and to funds to help the victims of the Sept 11th attacks in the US. (To see all the donations so far, click to http://langa.com/plus2.htm#kids )

As the year goes on, and as more readers sign up for Plus! subscriptions, I hope we'll be able to sponsor more children and assist other charities around the world.

Graham Greene once said, "There is always a moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in...." If you're already a LangaList Plus subscriber, thank you! You can feel good about giving back a little to those less fortunate, and opening "a door to the future" for a child in otherwise-desperate circumstances.

If you're not yet a Plus! subscriber check it out: With a Plus! subscription, you can not only help yourself make the most of your hardware, software and time online--- but you also can help those less fortunate (like Idania) make the most of their very lives. Thanks for your help!

http://langa.com/plus.htm

or: give a gift subscription:
http://langa.com/plus_gift.htm

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4) Slipstream + Shrink In One Step?

Hey Fred, I've been a Langa fan/follower since the days of Windows Magazine. Stayed current with the Standard edition of your newsletter and recently took the plunge to join the ranks of the Plus! Members.

In your most recent newsletter you have an article about XPLite which I found very interesting (
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=51202853 ) . I was wondering if there is any way to couple that technology with your previous suggestions/recommendations on making a "slipstreamed" install CD ( http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=47212312 ) which would not only include SP2 but would be trimmed down to a "reasonable weight" for an OS ? i.e. Diet Windows XP Pro!

Thanks for all the plethora of help you have provided Windows users over the years. Keep up the good job. ---Tom

Sure, Tom, there are several ways to accomplish that, but the complexity goes up pretty fast.

The simplest method--- the one I use--- is the same one I use on full-blown setups: When the installation is done and pared down to its smallest possible size, I burn an image of that setup using BootIt or a similar tool. If/when I need to reinstall, I just restore the image, which usually takes only minutes rather than hours. There's no need to go through the full install/pare-down process again: everything is brought back to the like-new, perfect state in one step.
( http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=imaging&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000 )

If that's not what you want, you can automate just about the entire setup/pare-down process by building on the techniques discussed here:

Fred: Love the newsletter (I'm a Plus subscriber).

Regarding installing apps with a Slipstreamed XP install, there is a (for me, indispensable) tool called AutoIT ( http://www.hiddensoft.com/autoit3/ ). AutoIT allows you to script input to interactive window dialogs.  It's free/donation ware.

I've built a little system of scripts on a slipstreamed XPsp2, that installs all my favorite little XP tweaks and favorite tools and apps, including Office, Norton Anti-Virus, and Roxio, if needed.  I literally insert a floppy (which contains a customizing script that my scripts read for variable settings; e.g., which apps to install), boot from the CD, specify the partitioning to XP install, and walk away.  An hour later (or so ;>) and after 2 or 3 automatic reboots, I have a complete install with all my favorite apps and hotfixes installed, as well as a finished Windows Update window, a finished Office Update window, and a finished Diskeeper defrag window.  Whenever a new version of a tool comes out, I simply update my CD. I use it mainly to install on test boxes or a brand new PC.  I use imaging for my own, main system and laptop of course.

This is all made possible by the standard unattended XP install which supports 'cmdlines.cmd' wherein you can list other scripts to run after the XP install, itself, is finished.

The problem, of course, is the interactive nature of many of these installs. This is where AutoIT comes in.  It's fun to watch, for example, a Google Toolbar install window come up and then see the mouse start moving and clicking among the various windows, automatically!

The sky's the limit as to what you can do. The only trick is that after a reboot you have to wait for "loading personal settings" to finish before starting any interactive windows.  I accomplish this by using a little delay script, again using AutoIT! ---Bob Vance

Thanks, Bob. We actually covered AutoIt a long time ago: See http://langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-06-14.htm#4

For more on setup automation, see next item.

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5) Another Way To Automate Setups

Fred: An innovative solution for:

> 5) Wants To Avoid Reinstalling All Apps
>     <snip> But, by far, IMHO, the most time consuming
>     thing is redownloading and reinstalling all my apps. Is there
>     any way to shorten this process? Sincerely, Paul Lindee </snip>

I'd like to suggest another solution for Paul Lindee, who wanted to shorten the process of reinstalling his applications. The Microsoft Forum Network offers an excellent guide to creating an unattended Windows XP setup CD or DVD at http://unattended.msfn.org/ . The guide walks you through the process of creating a disc that will automatically install Windows XP and your applications with no user interaction required.

I used the instructions to create a DVD for our computers which installs Windows, Office, Acrobat, a virus scanner and much more (including performance tweaks and updates). All I have to do now is boot the computer to the disc and when I return in 40 minutes Windows and all my applications are installed.

While the process is somewhat complicated the instructions are very good. It saves me about 3 hours a computer. The site is a must-read for anybody that frequently has to setup computers.

Sincerely, Michael Chastain

Thanks, Michael! We had a little more on "Unattended Windows Setup" at http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-11-01.htm#2 . There's also good general info at http://www.google.com/search?q=unattended+xp+setup

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6) Last Full Week To "Recommend And Win"

Next week, I'll choose three more monthly winners who each will get a FREE ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION to the LangaList Plus! edition. (If your name is drawn and you're already a Plus! subscriber, your current subscription will be extended by a full year.)

To have a shot at winning, just use the following link to recommend the LangaList to a friend. Your friend just may find a new source of useful information; I just may gain a new subscriber; and you just may win a FREE ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION! (Full details also available via this link): http://langa.com/recommend.htm

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7) Extracting Icons From DLLs

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8) Another Code Load Success Story

After his site was listed in the last "Load The Code" section, code-
loader Vince Brennan wrote:

3461 visitors so far [in four days].... I don't know what your membership is, but that would seem a higher-than-normal rate of click-thru's for most readership databases. You have an extraordinary group of subscribers and an most interesting and informative "list". Thanks again,  just thought you'd like a few stats. Vince Brennan  http://www.sosyourmom.com/madrigals.html

Do you have a home page or website? (It doesn't matter what size.) Please click over to http://langa.com/code.htm , and maybe you can join the thousands of LangaList readers who have "Loaded the Code!" (If you've already "Loaded The Code" and are wondering if your site will appear here or on the Langa.Com web site, please see http://langa.com/link.txt )

Speaking of which: Here's another eclectic sample of reader sites--- some professional, some very personal:

View A Randomly-Chosen Reader Site
http://langa.com/randomlink.htm

Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://langa.com/readersites.htm

science/photography blog
http://dazza101.blogspot.com/

web-based Jabber client
http://jaimy.us/

Quality Leathers
http://www.oldfatman.com/

FreeScotland
http://tinyurl.com/6n58s

North Country Computer
http://www.northcountrycomputerexperts.com/

Bratcats
http://maxellah.tripod.com/

Robear Studio
http://www.robearstudio.com/

johannanko
http://www.johannanko.net/

Rivka Goren's Home Page
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Hills/2845/

Bridge Links
http://unit223.com/bridge%20links.htm

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--- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList S.E. Free! ) ---

$12 For A Full YEAR!

"Couldn't surf the net without you. Security, software, new items,
and a little bit of everything. Thanks Fred for a great Plus! newsletter
and informative work."---Roger Fairres

Thanks, Roger!

The LangaList Plus! Edition is ad-free, spam-proof,
and contains even more content--- tips, tricks, advice, downloads....---
than the Standard Edition you're now reading.

Just $1 a month!

http://langa.com/plus.htm

--------------( the above is an advertisement )--------------

9) Scandisk No Longer Corrects Errors?

While interactions between Defrag and Scandisk are fairly common in Win98, this reader reported a specific Defrag error I hadn't seen before--- one that Scandisk can't fix!

Dear Fred, No one seems to be able to answer this question.  I use WIN98SE.  I have tried to run Scandisk which does not now correct errors of the hard drive.  I cannot run DEFRAG as it comes back with ERROR DEFRAG004.  That hard drive error is not corrected.  I cannot write to my hard drive.  Microsoft does not seem to have an answer for DEFRAG004 error. Do you think anyone out there can come up with a solution to fix this error? All help is appreciated. Thanks a lot for listening. ---Bill Hunter

This turns out to be a weird error relating to a miscalculation of the free space available on your hard drive. The fix starts with a thorough cleaning of the hard drive, especially concentrating on Temp and Tmp files. A tool like Clean9X (free at  http://langa.com/cleanup_bat.htm ) can automate the cleanup, and maybe recover a huge amount of space for you.

When that's done, drop to DOS and use the command "scandisk /all /autofix" (without the quotes) to start repairs. You may wish to run this several times to be sure everything's OK. When that's done, defrag just your files themselves using the "Defrag /U" command (without the quotes). When that's done, you can run Defrag normally to defrag both the files and the free space.

Lots more suggestions and advice on this problem: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/defrag.html

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10) Just For Grins

Fred: I wrote this piece a week or so back... it's called "The Rule of Threes."  I usually write somewhat more 'serious' opinion pieces but felt it was time to offer a little mirth to the mix!  The piece starts at 3 decades and works its way down each of the units of time to 1/3rd second explaining how each is important. The newspaper site I submitted it too *should* have enough bandwidth to cope if you publish it!  ---David Heath http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/27/1098667823448.html

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11) Plus! Edition Highlights:

Did you enjoy the sneak peek at several "Plus!" items at the end of last week's newsletter? That's the kind of information Plus! readers get every time. In addition, there's a separate Plus!-only web site with 100,000 words of extra content, special features, and private downloads not available in any Standard edition.

And note! NOW IS THE TIME TO JOIN, when you can still lock in the current $1/mo rate! Although I haven't raised the price of the Plus! subscription in four years, it's looking like I'll have to bump up the price after the first of next year. NOW IS THE TIME TO JOIN!

Join now, so you won't miss items like these, from today's Plus edition:

• New Malware Messes Your Quicklaunch, Logons
    (what it is; what to do if it strikes you!)
• Move Huge Numbers Of Files, Fast
     (major help when transferring to a new PC) 
• Seek and Speak
     (search engine reads its own results aloud to you!)

Plus! Edition info: http://langa.com/plus.htm 

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(Give a gift subscription to the LangaList Plus edition!
Click <a href= " http://langa.com/plus_gift.htm ">here</a>)

Happy Thanksgiving! See you next issue, 2004-11-29!

Best,

Fred
( Editor@Langa.Com )

Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win a prize!)

An easier-to read formatted HTML version is available in the "Current Issue" section of http://langa.com.  (The HTML version of each issue normally is available by 9AM EST [UT-5] of the issue date.) All past LangaList issues are also available at the Langa.Com site.

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