842 lines
44 KiB
Plaintext
842 lines
44 KiB
Plaintext
=======================================
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T H E N E W F O N E E X P R E S S
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=======================================
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The newsletter of the Society for the Freedom of Information (SFI)
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Electronic Edition
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Central distribution site is Secret Society BBS
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(314) 831-9039, WWIVNet 3460, 24hrs
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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The publisher, SFI, distribution site(s), and authors contributing to the NFX
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are protected by the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution, which
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specifically protects freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The
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information provided in this magazine is for informational purposes only, and
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the publisher, SFI, distribution site(s) and authors are not responsible for
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any problems resulting from the use of this information. Nor is SFI
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responsible for consequences resulting from authors' actions. This
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disclaimer is retroactive to all previous issues of the NFX.
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We accept article submissions of nearly any sort, about
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hack/phreak/anarchy/gov't/nets/etc. Send mail to the publisher (The
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Cavalier) at any of these addresses:
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WWIVnet [15@3460]
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WWIVlink [442@13468]
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VMB (301) 771-1151. hit #, then 140.
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Ripco [send mail to Silicon Avalanche]
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Daydream Nation [send mail to Silicon Avalanche]
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Internet [1098i9@gmuvax2.gmu.edu or 2275a6@gmuvax.gmu.edu]
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The printed edition of the newsletter is available for $14 (U.S.) per year on
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paper or $2 (U.S.) for a single copy. Send mail to the New Fone Express,
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Jackson House Rm 206, President's Park, 10309 Senatorial Lane, Fairfax, VA
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22030. Don't forget your name and address.
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To download the New Fone Express, call Secret Society at (314) 831-9039 and
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log on as NFX, password NFX, phone# 0000, or see the distribution list
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elsewhere in this magazine.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Highlights for Issue #5/October 1991
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====================================
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* SFI's Reason for Existence ... typed by the Cavalier
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(see article #1)
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* AT&T NY Phone Crash ... typed by the Cavalier
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(see article #2)
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* Using Novell Netware 2.2 ... by the Cavalier
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(see article #3)
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* Beginners' ED ... by the Cavalier
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(see article #4)
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* "The Law Comes to Cyberspace" ... typed by the Cavalier
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(see article #5)
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* Newsletter Policy ... by the NFX 'staff'
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(see article #6)
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* Distribution Site List ... edited
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(see article #7)
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* Editorial ... by the Cavalier
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(see article #8)
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SFI's Reason for Existence
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This feature is our 'mission statement,' if you will - the reasons for
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the existence of the Society for the Freedom of Information. Thanks to
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Olorin the White and Silicon Avalanche for helping us to more precisely
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define our purpose.
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We (the founders of SFI) have noticed a growing trend in the attempt to
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conceal or in other words protect information that, if revealed, would
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promote personal and group understanding of technology that might otherwise
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go un-documented. Although we very much acknowledge the right to privacy, we
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submit that this right only extends to a certain point: The moment a piece
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of information has the capability of benefitting the general public in their
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understanding of the world around them, the piece of information should be
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free to all who would care to inspect it. Attempts to reach this goal should
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be initially reached by a general exchange of information via the
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establishment of a newsletter and eventually through the establishment of a
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BBS, or other such means of electronic discussion and exchange. Also,
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attempts to provide equal access to information through a network gateway or
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a public network should be promoted and actively searched for.
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We are not terrorists; nor law-scoffing individuals by nature. We
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simply believe in the fundamental international right to equal and free
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access to information that can have a bearing on or can enrich people's
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lives, and will try to bring about the implementation of this right by any
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means available to us. ><
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AT&T NY Phone Crash
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Phone failure stalls air traffic
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Disruption in N.Y. felt nationwide
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By Kimberly Hayes Taylor and Steve Marshall - USA TODAY
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Air traffic in and out of New York City resumed late Tuesday after a
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phone-service failure virtually shut down three airports for almost four
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hours. Hundreds of flights coast to coast were delayed or canceled when
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controllers at John F. Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark (New Jersey) airports
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lost the link that allows communication among themselves or with other U.S.
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airports. Communications between pilots and air-traffic controllers travel
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over telephone lines to ground-based radio equipment. AT&T spokesman Herb
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Linnen blamed an internal power failure in a long-distance switching office
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in Manhattan. Hours after the 4:50 PM EDT failure, 40 planes loaded with
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passengers were sitting on the runway at Kennedy, 35 at Newark, 30 at La
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Guardia. "During the height of the thing, at least 300 aircraft were delayed
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at metropolitan airports," said Bob Fulton, a spokesperson for the Federal
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Aviation Administration. Included: flights taking off "from California to
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Florida" and headed for New York, said FAA's Fred Farrar. Farrar said planes
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had to be grounded for safety. Without telephone communication, they would
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"fly willy-nilly." Among diverted flights: a British Airways supersonic
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Concorde from London, which landed at Bradley airport outside Hartford, Conn.
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Passenger reaction: at Washington's National Airport, Dominique Becoeur of
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Paris was "reading, drinking, and thinking" while waiting for a flight to New
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York. At La Guardia, Ernie Baugh, of Chattanooga, Tenn., said, "I think I
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will go and have another beer." Flights were reported resuming by 9 p.m.
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EDT. Linnen said AT&T was busy Tuesday night restoring long-distance service
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in and out of New York City, which had been interrupted. Some international
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service also had been affected.
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(end of article one, 9/18/91)
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THE BIG HANG-UP
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Phone crash grounds airplanes, raises anger
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Phone snag likely won't ground fliers after Oct.
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By John Schneidawind - USA TODAY
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The Federal Administration Aviation has some good news for travelers who
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were stranded at airports, or delayed for hours, the past two days by the New
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York City telephone outage. If a similar phone disaster strikes next month,
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hardly any fliers will know the difference. That's because AT&T is close to
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completing installation of a network of microwave dishes that will
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supplement, if not replace, the phone lines AT&T uses to relay calls between
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air-traffic controllers in different cities. Tuesday evening, flights in and
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out of some of the nation's busiest airports - Kennedy, La Guardia, and
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Newark, N.J. - were grounded because FAA controllers couldn't communicate
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with one another. For much of the 1980's, land-based fiber optic lines have
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been slowly replacing microwave phone dishes phone companies long have used
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to transmit telephone calls. That's because fiber-optic wires were thought
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to provide clearer calls than microwave technology. Now, it's becoming
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apparent that sending some or most telephone calls via wireless microwave
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might ease the burden handled by fiber-optic cables. In addition, a
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microwave call could be transmitted point-to-point, bypassing an inoperative
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switching center when a breakdown or catastrophe occurs.
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(end of article two, 9/19/91)
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Customers demand an explanation
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Experts say outages could continue if systems aren't upgraded
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By John Schneidawind and Mark Land - USA TODAY
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The telephone network crashed again Tuesday, this time crippling New
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York, the world's financial capital. The culprit, a power shortage at an
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AT&T switching center, left more than 1 million residents without telephone
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service for up to seven hours. Now the victims, including hundred of people
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stranded at New York airports, are demanding to know: What's going on? The
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USA is supposed to have the world's most reliable telephone network. Yet
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this summer alone, outages have struck Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Washington,
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and other cities, disrupting service for more than 11 million people. Why,
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suddenly, is our telephone network so vulnerable? To answer those questions,
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USA TODAY has pieced together what happened Tuesday and why. We also look
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ahead: Experts say the problems could reoccur unless major changes are made
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in the way the nation's phone networks operate. Why did the network melt
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down in New York? Blame the heat, at least in part. Like anything else, the
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phone networks run on electricity. Tuesday's 93-degree heat meant lots of
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power was needed to air-condition the skyscrapers in lower Manhattan. So at
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10 a.m., a worried Con Edison - New York's public utility - asked AT&T to
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draw electricity for its call-switching computers at 33 Thomas St. from
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AT&T's own diesel-fueled generators. That was a routine request, but then
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disaster struck. During the attempted changeover, a sudden surge of
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electricity knocked out several key devices known as power rectifiers, which
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failed to switch AT&T's computers from Con Ed's power to AT&T's diesel power.
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Instead, AT&T's computers began to draw electricity from a battery-operated
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backup system. Negligence also played a major role. AT&T admitted Wednesday
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that when the attempted power shift took place, no one physically checked to
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see that the system was operating on diesel turbines - a routine procedure.
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Had they checked, they probably would have noticed the system was running on
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a battery reserve that lasts only about six hours. Also, audio and visual
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alarms at the switching center apparently went unnoticed. Still, the crash
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never would have happened had AT&T been able to switch back to Con Edison's
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power grid at 4:30 p.m., as planned. For some reason, it couldn't. The
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system then automatically reverted to the battery reserve, which ran out of
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juice about 20 minutes later, causing the computers to crash. Why did that
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relatively isolated failure disrupt airline traffic throughout the USA? The
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Federal Aviation Administration uses AT&T lines to relay air-traffic
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information from its control center on Long Island to airports from Boston to
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Washington, D.C. - including New York's three metro airports. With those
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phone lines down, air-traffic controllers couldn't be sure where planes were,
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and neither could the planes' pilots. That meant planes at the three
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airports couldn't take off. Connecting flights at other U.S. airports had to
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be delayed, and dozens of flights were canceled hour by hour. How many of
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these switching centers are there? Could this happen somewhere else? There
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used to be thousands of AT&T switching centers throughout the country. But
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advances in computer technology let AT&T handle even more calls with fewer
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switching centers. Today, there are about 100 such computerized switches -
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including three in lower Manhattan - which AT&T uses to route calls
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throughout the country. Just one of AT&T's switches can handle 700,000 calls
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an hour. Switches five years ago handled just 180,000 calls per hour. The
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more powerful systems complete calls much more quickly and provide much
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clearer connections. But with greater call-handling power concentrated in
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fewer places, there's a greater potential for major phone-service outages.
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What caused the other recent phone outages? Were those power failures, too?
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No, the culprit in almost every instance was a computer-programming error,
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commonly known as a bug. Such errors are buried in the millions of lines of
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computer code used to create a call-switching program. Eliminating every
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software bug in AT&T's signaling network would be almost impossible because
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each program contains up to 5 million typed lines of code. As a comparison,
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a program that runs on a personal computer contains just 1,000 lines of code.
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One mistake, even a misplaced punctuation mark, can wreak havoc on any
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computer system, including a telephone network. <TRUNCATED by TC.>
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(end of article three, 9/18/91) ><
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Using Novell NetWare 2.2
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This article covers the fundamentals of the use and administration of
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Novell's NetWare v2.2. Note that while most of the procedures outlined in
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this document are also applicable to NetWare v3.xx (for the 386 only), there
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may be some slight differences in structure, etc. Also, if you are working
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with an ELS-I, ELS-II, Adv. NetWare 2.15, or an SFT NetWare network, you will
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find minor discrepancies in command operation. ELS-I is the least similar,
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but the general principles and menu-drive system utilities should be the
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same.
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Overview
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--------
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NetWare v2.2 (hereafter referred to as 'NetWare') is part of the most
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common PC local-area network product line in use today. It has earned the
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reputation of being the fastest and most reliable LAN server software
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available today, with a workstation shell that is among the smallest in the
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industry. Capable of using any computer from 4.77-mHz 8088s to 40-mHz 80486s
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running DOS versions 3 through 5, it has gained wide favor among the business
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world -- indeed, many companies consider support for NetWare a must.
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Requirements
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------------
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NetWare requires a 286- or 386-based computer with at least 2 MB of
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memory to run as a file server. It can be run in either dedicated or non-
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dedicated mode. This file server should be backed up with an uninterruptible
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power supply, and if dedicated, it should ideally be physically protected.
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NetWare also needs two special memory-resident utilities to boot up on every
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workstation; the protocol handler (e.g. IPX, SPX, etc) and DOS3, DOS4, or
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DOS5, depending on the DOS version used. The underlying network topology can
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be configured in many ways; NetWare does not mind if you have an Ethernet
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star configuration, a ArcNet bus topology, or a Token Ring network to operate
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with. NetWare comes with a large set of manuals in small three-ring binders
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to read, although not too many people do. NetWare is considered sufficiently
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hard to install and administer that many people simply hire an outside
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consultant. Note also that Netware servers have the advantage (from many
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points of view) of acting like an advanced disk subsystem to the
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workstations: All programs on a network are executed by the workstation's
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processor, not the file server's.
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Installed Defaults
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------------------
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The account defaults for a NetWare system are SUPERVISOR and GUEST.
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SUPERVISOR has administrative access, or all rights in every directory.
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GUEST has a security equivalence to the group EVERYONE, which has a set of
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easily modifiable default rights. Upon installation, the system will set up
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four default directories: SYSTEM, LOGIN, PUBLIC, and DOS (this may also be
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MSDOS, DOS33, DOS5, etc.) Since the network shell operates over DOS, using
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NetWare is the same thing as using DOS, with the exception of extended file
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attributes. Both of these accounts are initially left unpassworded.
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DEFAULT DIRECTORY STRUCTURE:
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\ ------SYSTEM (PAUDIT, mail dirs, bindery files, etc.)
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!
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!--PUBLIC (FILER, SESSION, SYSCON, NSNIPES, other pub. utils)
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!
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!--LOGIN (LOGIN.EXE, SLIST.EXE, CONSOLE.COM, misc. login)
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!
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!--MSDOS (DOS commands)
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The file server's hard drives are usually F: through Z:. An exception
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to this rule is when using non-standard LASTDRIVE settings in the workstation
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CONFIG.SYS file; however, the vast majority of NetWare setups use F: as the
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NetWare drive. Other drive letters may be mapped to subdirectories (like the
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DOS SUBST command) or search drives (like the DOS PATH statement). For
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example, the drive letter G: can be assigned to the F:\PUBLIC directory.
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Generally, the search drives are at the end of the alphabet. X:, for
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example, could be a search drive for the F:\SYSTEM subdirectory. The user
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might never actually switch to the X: drive, but by its presence as a search
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drive it is automatically looked-through for commands.
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Novell Utility Overview
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-----------------------
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Most of the Novell utilities that come with the file server are menu-
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driven and easy to use. They are all written using the same C menuing
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library, the name of which slips my mind. The menu structures are simple:
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when presented with a list (say, of users) hitting ENTER on a user name will
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edit it. Hitting Insert will insert a user in the list. Hitting Delete will
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erase the user that the cursor is on. Online help is available by pressing
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F1.
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The most prominent utility is SYSCON, or System Configuration. This
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program controls user access to the server. With SYSCON, the administrator
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or system entry specialist (SES) can set the times a person can log in, their
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password, their login script, how much they are billed per K used of disk
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space, etc.
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The second-most important utility to the administrator/SES is FCONSOLE,
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or File Server Console. This program allows you to control file server
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functions from a workstation, allowing the remote administrator to monitor
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server statistics, broadcast console messages, knock users off the network,
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shutdown the file server, etc.
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PAUDIT and SECURITY, although not menu-based utilities, are extremely
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important. PAUDIT displays a network log of sorts, describing logins/outs at
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all workstations, intruder lockouts, important network actions, etc.
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SECURITY attempts to analyze the network for security holes, checking various
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aspects of the system configuration and reporting to the administrator any
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security holes it finds.
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Two others, SESSION and FILER, allow the user to easily send messages
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in-between users, perform maintenance on their account, and list other users
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on the server (SESSION), while FILER allows the user to easily examine the
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subdirectories and files they have access to.
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One last important addition: MENU. This program is a menu interpreter
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for the network that uses menu script files. These files can be named almost
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anything, and they are accessed by MENU filename.ext. The script files
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generally have an appearance as follows:
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%Main Menu,10,10
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WordPerfect 5.1
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f:
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cd\wp51
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wp
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cd\
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Use SESSION
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session
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Logout
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logout
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The % sign indicates a new window with a title of Main Menu starting at
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the X,Y position 10,10. Occasionally a color attribute will follow the
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screen position. The left-justified items are the menu selections that
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appear to the user. The tab-justified commands are put into a temporary
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batch file by the menu processor and executed when the selection is chosen.
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Quite a simple and easy-to-understand language.
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Accessing the Network
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---------------------
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To access a Novell network from a workstation, the workstation must
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either have a "Remote Reset" boot-up PROM in the network adapter, or it must
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have the two sets of Novell drivers, mentioned earlier (IPX, NET5, etc.). If
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the workstation is diskless, it will have a Remote Reset PROM to boot up
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with. This ROM allows the workstation to access the F:\LOGIN subdirectory on
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the server, which will have a standard AUTOEXEC file for the workstations to
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boot up with. A sure sign of a Remote Reset PROM is the computer startup
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message, which will generally give a message saying that it has a boot-up ROM
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in it. In most cases, the ROM itself is located on the network adapter and
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is removable. If the workstation boots up from a hard drive, it has the
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option of not connecting to the network at all: the Novell workstation
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drivers are TSRs, not CONFIG.SYS-style drivers, so the Novell drivers could
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be contained in a batch file. A floppy-based workstation will almost always
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have the traditional set of Novell drivers on the disk, and most floppy
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workstation users leave the network bootup disk in the drive. The most
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vulnerable types of workstations are the hard/floppy disk-based ones. But
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the arguably safest point of access into a Novell network is through a dial-
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in phone line.
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With a hard drive system on the workstation, the SES can generally comb
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through the local directories looking for helpful hints and utilities. A
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proficiency in MS-DOS is extremely helpful for accessing a Novell network.
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Often, a user might leave his account and password in a so-called 'hidden'
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area of the hard drive, in case he forgets. Or perhaps he might have saved
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some mail there from another user, containing information he would want to
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keep handy. Hard drives are naturally conducive to having the traditional
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'shell monitor' interrupt hack installed on them. And of course, there is
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the occasional rebellious employee, who keeps NETCRACK on his own system so
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he can spy on the big boys! Whatever the case, a hard drive-containing
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workstation is very serviceable.
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Next down the line is the floppy-based workstation. Although this type
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of workstation is far less likely to contain anything of interest on the
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disk, floppy-drive workstations are also far less likely to contain any sort
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of boot-up local password protection. Not to mention, the user may have a
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collection of floppies somewhere in the room, with potentially useful
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information. However, it takes a lot of time and some personally-supplied
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utilities to make much sense of them. With a few modifications, the shell
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monitor interrupt TSR can be made to work via a floppy system, but the risk
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of detection is somewhat higher. This type of workstation lends itself to
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the NETCRACK approach as well, assuming the SES has it on a compatible
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floppy.
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The diskless workstation is quite the irritant of the three, forcing a
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SES to meticulously hand-hack the accounts in question. Diskless
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workstations are by their very nature impervious to any sort of viral
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invasion, and system administrators like them for their entry-resistant
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qualities. However, this does not mean they are impossible to attack by any
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means. If the SES has the time, the expertise, and the tools, he can open
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the case of the workstation, pop the Remote Reset PROM, install a floppy
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controller card (which in some cases could already be there), and install a
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floppy drive. For several reasons, this approach is limited to the creative.
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Another utility freely available on the network F:\LOGIN directory is SLIST.
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SLIST will list other servers accessible from the workstation, giving the SES
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a second network to attempt entry on. The LOGIN command is obviously the key
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to the whole operation. You know it's Netware when it asks you:
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Enter your login name:
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Enter your password:
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|
|
Hitting ENTER at both prompts will generally return you to the DOS
|
|
prompt, unless an incredibly security-aware administrator has encased the
|
|
LOGIN command in a specially-treated batch file. (I'm not going to go into
|
|
the process for doing so here, considering once in it, there is no way to
|
|
break out.) To find all the parameters for the LOGIN command, type LOGIN /?.
|
|
The most useful parameter for LOGIN is the Noscript parameter, which will put
|
|
you directly at the Novell prompt when access is gained to the server -
|
|
aborting the script files that normally execute after you log on, in case the
|
|
user/administrator has inserted something uncouth, like a non-exitable menu.
|
|
|
|
All this would be well and good if it weren't for some of Netware's
|
|
intrusion-resistant features. The administrator (through SYSCON) can define
|
|
limits for incorrect logins, at which point that workstation will be locked
|
|
out for an amount of time determined by the administrator. He can also set
|
|
minimum periods of time in which a user must change his/her password. These
|
|
features make life hard for the non-technologically advanced hand-hacker, so
|
|
creativity is a must.
|
|
|
|
Life After LOGIN
|
|
----------------
|
|
After a successful LOGIN, the system login script is executed. Defined
|
|
by the administrator through SYSCON, this file written in Novell's script
|
|
language generally bades the user good morning/afternoon/evening, MAPs
|
|
subdirectories to drive letters and sets up search drives, and terminates.
|
|
Then the user login script kicks in, setting up personal MAPped drives,
|
|
firing phasers a few times, and either exiting to a menu or to the DOS
|
|
prompt. Simple login scripts run along these lines:
|
|
|
|
DOS VERIFY ON
|
|
MAP G: = F:\WP51
|
|
MAP H: = F:\PUBLIC
|
|
|
|
(end of system login script)
|
|
|
|
FIRE PHASERS 3 TIMES
|
|
MAP I: = F:\MYDIR
|
|
DRIVE I:
|
|
EXIT "MENU"
|
|
(end of user login script)
|
|
|
|
Login scripts are more complicated than that; but those two are general
|
|
guidelines on what to expect to see. Well, maybe not the FIRE PHASERS, but
|
|
it DOES exist, and is often abbreviated to FIRE. The first login script
|
|
would be the system login script, which turns the DOS verify flag on and MAPs
|
|
the logical G: drive to the F:\WP51 directory and the H: drive to the
|
|
F:\PUBLIC directory. (Sidenote: Although the G and H logical drives are
|
|
mapped to those two directories, they are not limited to those two
|
|
directories.) The second login script would be the user login script, making
|
|
three phaser noises, MAPping the I: drive to the directory F:\MYDIR,
|
|
switching to drive I:, and exiting and executing the file MENU.*. Note here
|
|
that pathnames may NOT be included in an EXIT.
|
|
|
|
If exited to a DOS prompt, the user may then come and go as he pleases
|
|
through the directories he has rights in. To determine one's rights in a
|
|
directory, type RIGHTS (assuming there is a search drive MAPped to the
|
|
F:\PUBLIC directory). To logoff, type LOGOUT. To use Nsnipes, a very
|
|
important Novell game (er..utility), type NSNIPES.
|
|
|
|
Physical Access to the File Server
|
|
----------------------------------
|
|
No doubt the serious SES will be wondering by now what the file server
|
|
is doing at this time. Assuming the file server is running as a dedicated
|
|
server (Netware 2.2, ELS-x), you will be at the : prompt. This prompt is
|
|
more or less worthless, with the exception of three commands: MONITOR, DOWN,
|
|
and CLEAR STATION. The command MONITOR will display the first six
|
|
workstations in windows on the screen and display a list of the five most
|
|
recent file accesses they have made. If the network has more than six
|
|
workstations, the next group of six can be displayed with MONITOR 7, and the
|
|
next with MONITOR 18, etc. The other command is DOWN, which does exactly
|
|
what it looks like it's supposed to do - shutdown the file server. If users
|
|
are currently using the server with active files open, the system will
|
|
display the warning "ACTIVE FILES OPEN, HALT NETWORK?" at which point you
|
|
are free to decide the fate of the server. Note that shutting the server
|
|
down while files are active runs the risk of severely damaging the active
|
|
files. The command CLEAR STATION will in effect knock a particular
|
|
workstation off the network, in case it has crashed or has been possessed by
|
|
evil spirits. The syntax is CLEAR STATION x, where x is the number of the
|
|
workstation that corresponds to the window on the MONITOR screen. This
|
|
command is also executable through FCONSOLE.
|
|
|
|
Dialing into Netware
|
|
--------------------
|
|
There are several products, both hardware and software, that allow
|
|
remote connections to a Netware LAN. I'm not going to go through them,
|
|
because I haven't had any experience with them, but I can point in the right
|
|
direction: the July 1991 Byte magazine has a review of six products. They
|
|
range in speed and LAN-external security, but it is interesting to note that
|
|
none of them support callbacks and some even dump you into a DOS prompt at
|
|
the F:\LOGIN prompt.
|
|
|
|
I hope you've been able to make some sense out of this rudimentary
|
|
guide. As I hope you've inferred, there are various software products out
|
|
there designed to make an SES's task easier. If there's anyone out there
|
|
with suggestions, or people who know if I've screwed up somewhere, feel free
|
|
to drop me a line. And remember, there is no substitute for experience. ><
|
|
|
|
[TC: The Cavalier can be reached at any of the addresses in the header.]
|
|
|
|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Beginners' ED
|
|
|
|
This article will cover some of the basic functions of Unix's simple
|
|
text editor, ED. The Unix system this example was used on is a straight BSD
|
|
4.2 using the C shell. By the way, I don't claim to be at all an expert on
|
|
Unix, but since I've had a little bit of experience with ED, I figured it was
|
|
worth putting out an overview of this common editor.
|
|
|
|
ED is a Unix-based text editor that comes standard with virtually every
|
|
version of Unix sold. It has been superseded by VI, a full-screen editor,
|
|
but ED is a lot easier to use with a glass TTY terminal. In some ways, ED is
|
|
similar to EDLIN -- the text editor that comes with MS-DOS. Like EDLIN, most
|
|
commands in ED can be preceded with 'addresses,' or line numbers to perform
|
|
the specified operation on. For example, the command 2,4d would delete lines
|
|
2 through 4. ED also has special metacharacters, most notably the $ and the
|
|
.. The dollar sign substitutes in to the command the last line number in the
|
|
file, so typing 2,$d would delete lines 2 through the end of the file,
|
|
leaving you with line 1. The period indicates the current line that the
|
|
editor is on. So, in other words, if you just made a change to line 4, and
|
|
typed .,6d, ED would delete lines 4 through 6. There are other
|
|
metacharacters, but the $ is arguably of the most importance to the beginner
|
|
at ED. Another convention in ED is to use a lone period on a blank line to
|
|
terminate input. For example, when inserting lines, let's say you are
|
|
inserting before line 6. (So your command would be 6i.) You would type:
|
|
|
|
6i
|
|
Blah, blah. This text is inserted before line 6. SFI iz grate.
|
|
.
|
|
|
|
And then you would be returned to ED's command mode. You,
|
|
unfortunately, wouldn't be able to tell you were returned to command mode,
|
|
because ED does not prompt you. You have to know what you just did to use ED
|
|
effectively. Also, commands in lowercase must be entered in lowercase -- ED
|
|
distinguishes between lowercase and uppercase commands.
|
|
|
|
To start up ED, one usually invokes ED with the name of the text file to
|
|
be edited, i.e.
|
|
|
|
ed .login
|
|
|
|
This brings up ED with the .login file. ED will then report the number
|
|
of characters loaded in, i.e.
|
|
|
|
ed .login
|
|
|
|
1604
|
|
|
|
means that the file is 1604 bytes long. At this point, ED is ready for
|
|
you to enter commands. The basic ED commands are as follows;
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cmd ! Description
|
|
---------!-------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
n ! Lists the specified lines with line numbers.
|
|
! Example: 2,4n - List w/ line numbers lines 2 thru 4.
|
|
!
|
|
l ! Lists the specified lines without line numbers.
|
|
! Example: 3,7l - List w/o line numbers lines 3 thru 7.
|
|
!
|
|
i ! Inserts text before the specified line number.
|
|
! Example: 6i <CR> text <CR> . <CR> - inserts text before line 6.
|
|
!
|
|
d ! Deletes the specified lines.
|
|
! Example: 4,$d - Deletes lines 4 through the end of the file.
|
|
!
|
|
c ! Changes the existing lines to lines you specify.
|
|
! Example: 4,5c <CR> blah. <CR> Damnit! <CR> . <CR> - changes
|
|
! the contents of line 4 to blah. and line 5 to Damnit!
|
|
!
|
|
m ! Moves the specified group of lines to a new location.
|
|
! Example: 3,7m10 - Moves lines 3 through 7 to lines 11 through 16.
|
|
! In other words, make lines 3 -> 7 start after line 10.
|
|
!
|
|
t ! Copies the specified group of lines to a new location.
|
|
! Example: 3,7t10 - Copies lines 3 through 7 to lines 11 through 16.
|
|
! In other words, put a copy of lines 3 -> 7 after line 10.
|
|
!
|
|
w ! Writes the file back to disk.
|
|
! Example: w - Writes the file loaded in at the command line back out.
|
|
! w filename - Writes the file back as filename.
|
|
!
|
|
q ! Quits out of ED.
|
|
! Example: q - Quits.
|
|
!
|
|
! ! Allows the ED user to execute a Unix shell command.
|
|
! Example: !ksh - Executes the Korn shell, allowing the user to
|
|
! execute multiple commands.
|
|
---------!-------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
There are other commands, but these are the ones that are used the most
|
|
often. On the print edition, commands entered by the user are underlined.
|
|
A sample transcript of an ED session appears below:
|
|
|
|
# ed hello
|
|
50
|
|
1,4l
|
|
Hello.
|
|
Is anybody
|
|
in there? Can
|
|
anybody hear me?
|
|
1,3n
|
|
1: Hello.
|
|
2: Is anybody
|
|
3: in there? Can
|
|
2c
|
|
Is there anybody
|
|
.
|
|
1,3n
|
|
1: Hello.
|
|
2: Is there anybody
|
|
3: in there? Can
|
|
3d
|
|
1,3n
|
|
1: Hello.
|
|
2: Is there anybody
|
|
3: anybody hear me?
|
|
3i
|
|
in there? Just not if you
|
|
.
|
|
1,4l
|
|
Hello.
|
|
Is there anybody
|
|
in there? Just not if you
|
|
anybody hear me?
|
|
!whoami
|
|
root
|
|
w pftw
|
|
67
|
|
q
|
|
|
|
#
|
|
<end of transcript> ><
|
|
|
|
[TC: The Cavalier can be reached at any of the addresses in the header.]
|
|
|
|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
"The Law Comes to Cyberspace"
|
|
|
|
The following is a reprint of the essay written by John Perry Barlow and
|
|
published in the Stop Bit op-ed section of Byte magazine, October 1991. This
|
|
should help people have a better grasp of the function of the EFF, and even
|
|
though his essay looks like it was edited by a butcher, the salient points
|
|
still come through.
|
|
|
|
On May Day of 1990, I received a visit from the FBI in my Wyoming home.
|
|
Special Agent Richard Baxter of the Rock Springs Field Office was looking for
|
|
information about something he kept calling the "New Prosthesis" League, a
|
|
band of computer terrorists apparently bent on giving away the recipe for
|
|
Macintosh computers. Or something.
|
|
Like most BYTE readers, I was aware that someone calling himself
|
|
NuPrometheus had shipped around some Mac ROM source code, but I had dismissed
|
|
it as a practical joke aimed at irritating the humorless folks at Apple.
|
|
Which, of course, it did.
|
|
Agent Baxter's specialty was livestock theft, and the only chips he knew
|
|
much about were the kind that cows make. So before I could convince him that
|
|
I was not the perpetrator, I had to spend 3 hours educating him on the nature
|
|
of the crime. It was a pretty surreal experience for both of us.
|
|
I realized over the course of this interview that I was looking at the
|
|
general condition of law-enforcement preparedness in the area of computer
|
|
crime. And I never like what happens when slightly insecure and well-armed
|
|
men feel in over their heads.
|
|
I posted an account of Agent Baxter's visit on The WELL. There it was
|
|
read by Mitch Kapor, in whom it struck a resonant chord. Mitch had also been
|
|
questioned in connection with NuPrometheus - he'd been sent one of the disks
|
|
- and had found the encounter as disorientating as I had.
|
|
Several days later, Mitch called me from his bizjet. He wanted to know
|
|
if he could literally drop in and discuss Agent Baxter and whatever else I
|
|
might know about federal efforts to nab cyberpunks. By then I knew enough to
|
|
think that the government was charging into the computer underground without
|
|
much sense of how the Constitution might apply there.
|
|
We talked about an electronic publisher named Craig Neidorf, who was
|
|
looking at a possible 31 years in jail for the interstate transport of stolen
|
|
goods as a result of what strongly appeared to be the exercise of his First
|
|
Amendment rights.
|
|
We talked about a massive 14-city raid called Operation Sundevil, in
|
|
which Secret Service agents had seized 28 computers (including 10 BBSes) and
|
|
23,000 disks under sealed warrants. And I knew that none of this equipment
|
|
and data had ever been returned, even though no arrests had resulted.
|
|
We talked about Steve Jackson Games, a role-playing-game publisher in
|
|
Austin, Texas, which had almost been driven out of business after the Secret
|
|
Service confiscated all its equipment, including the hard disks upon which
|
|
its next product (a game called GURPS Cyberpunk) resided.
|
|
Over the course of the afternoon, and without knowing it at the time,
|
|
Mitch and I started what is now called the Electronic Frontier Foundation
|
|
(EFF). At first, we thought we might be able to sort things out with a few
|
|
trips to court. But we hadn't been at this very long before we realized that
|
|
we had taken on something a lot bigger than a few random police excesses.
|
|
As we wrote in the mission statement we issued upon announcing the EFF
|
|
in July 1990: "While well-established legal principles and cultural norms
|
|
give structure and coherence to uses of conventional media like newspapers,
|
|
books, and telephones, the new digital media do not so easily fit into
|
|
existing frameworks. Conflicts come about as the law struggles to define its
|
|
application in a context where fundamental notions of speech, property, and
|
|
place take profoundly new forms."
|
|
We've had a very busy year since those words were written. We
|
|
intervened on behalf of Craig Neidorf (an embarrassed federal prosecutor
|
|
withdrew the charges after four days in court), filed suit on behalf of Steve
|
|
Jackson Games, lobbied at the state and national levels for sane laws
|
|
relating to computers, fostered a number of conferences and roundtables,
|
|
addressed numerous gatherings, established several on-line conferences,
|
|
worked with the press to reduce "hacker hysteria," met with many computer
|
|
security and law-enforcement officials, and worked for policies that would
|
|
lead to a National Public Network.
|
|
A lot remains undone. The electronic frontier remains wild and sparsely
|
|
populated. But, with Internet growing at a rate of 25 percent per month, it
|
|
is likely to be flooded soon with newcomers who are not bound by its
|
|
unwritten customs and etiquette - the electronic equivalent of The Code of
|
|
the West - which have prevailed since its inception at MIT in the early
|
|
1970s. But we have opened the frontier, and they will come, whether we're
|
|
ready for them or not. ><
|
|
|
|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Distribution Sites
|
|
|
|
As of 09/91, the distribution sites with the New Fone Express include:
|
|
|
|
* Secret Society * Solsbury Hill
|
|
(314) 831-9039 (301) 428-3268
|
|
3/1200 bps 3/12/24/9600HST
|
|
WWIVNet 3460 Usenet feed
|
|
Central Distribution Site 1500+ text files
|
|
|
|
Blitzkrieg The Logic Board
|
|
(502) 499-8933 (518) 356-5711
|
|
3/12/24/9600? 3/12/2400 bps
|
|
WWIVNet 5211 WWIVnet 5852
|
|
TAP Headquarters
|
|
|
|
A * indicates a system with a 'captive account,' or an account
|
|
specifically for downloading the NFX. Solsbury Hill may be supporting one in
|
|
the near future.
|
|
|
|
Many thanks to the sysops supporting the NFX. ><
|
|
|
|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Newsletter Policy
|
|
|
|
Recently, I (The Cavalier) have received a letter questioning the
|
|
inclusion of articles such as "Cracking Confidentials." It is a valid
|
|
letter, and it gives me the opportunity to lay down how we run the newsletter
|
|
and the group in general. Note: Despite rules and regulations, we do try to
|
|
keep an open mind. Complaints and admiration are, believe it or not, taken
|
|
on equal footing - we're not doing this solely for our health.
|
|
|
|
1. As this newsletter is the "journal," if you will, of the Society for the
|
|
Freedom of Information, we publish whatever we have at presstime that is
|
|
somewhat related to the scope of this newsletter, being primarily "free-
|
|
speech"-type articles, then hack/phreak info, then 'anarchy,' and then any
|
|
other topic that does not have a sufficient outlet elsewhere.
|
|
|
|
2. Articles written by others take precedence over the ones I write. If a
|
|
newsletter only has my articles in it, I had received no other articles at
|
|
presstime.
|
|
|
|
3. I have never edited and never will willingly edit the actual content of
|
|
an article, beyond checking for spelling and attempting to correct a little
|
|
bit of grammar.
|
|
|
|
4. If this newsletter is to survive, we need submissions from other people
|
|
than myself. I can only stretch my own limited knowledge so far.
|
|
|
|
Those four rules basically make up our ethos for this newsletter. If
|
|
you like 'em, that's great. If you don't, hey, nobody's forcing you to read
|
|
this. Not only that, but if you want to see changes, send me suggestions or
|
|
articles or something. This entire article was in response to a single
|
|
letter, although I had been meaning to do this for a while now. I hope I'm
|
|
actually doing something meaningful out there, and thanks for reading. ><
|
|
|
|
[TC: The Cavalier can be reached at any of the addresses in the header.]
|
|
|
|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Editorial
|
|
"A Matter of Honor"
|
|
|
|
Well, for the first time since our first issue, I've been the only
|
|
author re ORIGINAL articles. While I'm proud of most of what I write, I
|
|
don't personally know all THAT much. God knows I've spent overmuch time
|
|
plugging for articles, so I'm not going to do it now, but... just to let you
|
|
know. I *DO* have to admit that I'm not totally proud of having to type in
|
|
articles from USA TODAY - the "snack food" of American journalism - but I
|
|
felt that news-wise, since we don't have a 'New York bureau,' (YET!! heh...)
|
|
it was worth publishing. I also place great faith in the readers of this
|
|
magazine - you're all quite intelligent, I hope, and USA TODAY places quite
|
|
a "Mom-America-Apple Pie" spin on it, as well as some questionable facts
|
|
(personal computer programs are only around 1,000 lines of code??? what the
|
|
hell?)... but I'm confident that you can filter that out. The reprints in
|
|
this issue, incidentally, are all unauthorized and reprinted as close to
|
|
word-for-word as I could manage. Credit was given where credit was due, I
|
|
believe. I am considerably happier at the notion of reprinting John Perry
|
|
Barlow's essay that appeared in Byte.
|
|
|
|
The "Code of the West" that Barlow talks about is definitely worth
|
|
reading, at the very least. The book that perhaps was the first to define
|
|
the "Hacker Ethic" in print was Hackers, by Steven Levy, another book worth
|
|
reading. In a utopian society, all the beings that traverse the electronic
|
|
networks of our age would conform to that Ethic. However, there are the few
|
|
who do not. For the non-hackers reading this editorial, please do NOT judge
|
|
the actions of the many by the deeds of the few. Hence a problem is
|
|
presented: How does one protect against the 'evil' few, while allowing access
|
|
by the benign many? System administrators have responded in different ways.
|
|
Perhaps what is necessary is to have the 'benign' hackers protect against the
|
|
'evil' ones. Again, this has been done for quite a while now, with true
|
|
hackers forming tightly-knit groups to attempt to keep information among
|
|
those who will not abuse it. However, it is getting harder to tell what
|
|
intention an individual has in mind when attempting to enter a system. This,
|
|
I think, will prove to be one of the major dilemmas that SFI and indeed the
|
|
entire hacker community will have to deal with in the upcoming years.
|
|
|
|
One other note: a single printed issue is now available for a flat $2
|
|
per issue from us, allowing you to receive one copy. If you like it, get a
|
|
subscription. If not, you're only down $2.
|
|
|
|
Until next time. ><
|