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June 2004
 

Virus News Flash
Microsoft Corp.'s Bounty Program Snags Author Of Sasser Worm

Save Time, Pay Online
One Time And Recurring Payment Options Available

Ask The Help Desk
How Do I Print Only Sections Of Pages Rather Than Entire Documents?

Sites Of The Month
Great Sites To Check Out In June!

Short Tutorial
Switching E-mail Messages From HTML-Based To Text-Based

  

Hello Scatter Creek InfoNet Subscriber

June means getting outdoors and enjoying activities such as camping, softball, tennis, and golf. It can also be a time for just relaxing on the porch and enjoying the beautiful, warmer weather. However you spend your summer months, we hope that the Internet, along with this month's eNewsletter, will help you get your summer off to a great start.

The goal of each of our monthly eNewsletters is to keep our subscribers informed regarding their Internet connection and to improve their Internet experience. To meet this goal, each monthly newsletter will usually contain information related to:

  1. Warnings on a recent virus or e-mail hoax that may affect you
  2. An update on new services and other local interests
  3. An answer to a frequently asked Internet related question
  4. Some fun, seasonal websites to check out
  5. A short, step-by-step tutorial on an e-mail or browser related task
We think you'll find the information contained in this newsletter to be a valuable tool for enhancing your Internet experience. If, however, you'd prefer not to receive these bulletins on a monthly basis, click HERE.

To see what's inside this issue, take a look at the index to the left and thanks for reading!

- The Scatter Creek InfoNet Team

Virus News Flash - Microsoft Corp.'s Bounty Program Snags Author Of Sasser Worm

In November 2003, Microsoft Corp. launched an Anti-virus Reward Program, (initially funding it with five million dollars) to be used as bounty money for people who offered information leading to the arrest and conviction of creators of e-mail viruses and worms. Well, apparently money talks.

Last month, informants tipped off Microsoft officials in Germany with the name of the author of the Sasser worm. Microsoft Corp. then worked with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations, the U.S. Secret Service and German officials. The end result? Less than a week after the release of the Sasser worm, German authorities arrested an eighteen-year-old high school student suspect, named Sven Jaschan, who lives at home with his parents near the small German hamlet of Rotenburg. (Not surprisingly, he was sitting at his computer at the time of the arrest.) Jaschan confessed to German officials that he did in fact create the Sasser worm along with its four variants. Investigators said Jaschan's confiscated computer contained source code from the Sasser worm.

Additionally, authorities believe Jaschan to also be the author of the Netsky worm (and its 28 variants) which was released in February 2004. One of the latest Netsky variants stated in its source code, in part, "Hey AV (anti-virus) firms, do you know that we have programmed the Sasser virus?!? Yeah, that's true ..."

Jaschan is being investigated on suspicion of computer sabotage, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The Sasser worm attacks Windows 2000 and Windows XP machines through the port vulnerability discussed in Microsoft's Security Bulletin it posted on its website back on April 13, 2004. If you run either Windows 2000 or Windows XP on your computer and have yet to download this free security patch, do so immediately at:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS04-011.mspx

Symptoms of an infection include the continual crashing and rebooting of your computer system. If you believe that the Sasser worm has already infected your computer, go to the following Microsoft web page for assistance:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/sasser.asp

A note of irony -- The mother of the eighteen-year-old high school student suspect runs a computer store in the small town of Waffensen, Germany. No doubt he was sent to bed early without supper.

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Save Time, Pay Online - One Time And Recurring Payment Options Available

Scatter Creek InfoNet customers can pay their internet service bills online using either a credit card or their checking account. Go to www.scattercreek.com and click on "Access Your Account Online." Once you have set up a username and password, click on "Pay Bill." You will then be able to choose the payment option that works best for you.

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Ask The Help Desk - How Do I Print Only Sections Of Pages Rather Than Entire Documents?

Question: I wanted to print a hard copy of a tutorial for future reference from an eNewsletter. When I've attempted to do this, I not only got the tutorial section but the entire eNewsletter as well. I only want the tutorial section printed off. Can you help me?

Answer: There are two ways to avoid printing the entire newsletter. First, select the text or area you want to print by highlighting it. (Click where you want to start and, while holding the left mouse button down, drag your cursor to where you want the selection to end, then release the mouse button. The selected text will have a different background color.) Press the "Print" button on the Outlook Express tool bar. When the "Print" dialog box appears, look for the "Page Range" area. There will be three choices. Click on "Selection" and then click on the "Print" button. The highlighted text will be printed.

If your system doesn't have this option, simply highlight the section you want to print, copy the text out of the newsletter (by choosing "Copy" from the Edit drop-down menu), and then paste the text (by choosing "Paste" from the Edit drop-down menu) into some sort of word processing document (i.e. Word, AppleWorks, etc.). Then just print that page.

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Great Sites To Check Out This Month

Lewis And Clark Expedition Bicentennial Celebration
http://www.lewisandclark200.gov/ -  This year marks the 200th anniversary of the historic Lewis and Clark Expedition. This site is the result of a collaborative effort of 32 federal agencies and organizations. Cumulatively, the information provides insightful details (journals, timelines, maps, letters, bios, etc.) on the expedition's quest to find the best water portage solution between the heads of the Missouri River in the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west.

Video Game Ratings And Overviews
http://esrb.org/ -  The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a self-regulatory body for the interactive entertainment software industry. The ESRB ratings not only suggest age appropriateness of specific video games but also "content descriptors" that indicate elements of a game that may trigger a particular rating, i.e. violence, suggestive themes, blood, etc. Ratings and corresponding symbols encompass everything from Early Childhood (EC) to Everyone (E) to Teen (T) to Mature (M) to Adults Only (AO). ESRB.org helps parents get a clearer understanding of the products they might buy for their children as well as providing a "prescreening" method of online interactive games. Simply type in the name of the game or the name of the video publisher into the site's search engine to get specific rating information.

Unique Family Vacation Attractions
http://roadsideamerica.com/ -  Are you looking for some unique tourist destinations to visit during your family vacation this summer? We've got the perfect site for you! RoadsideAmerica.com is "your online guide to offbeat attractions" across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The site includes over 400 pages of information on such major vacation attractions as "The World's Largest Tire" (located in Allen Park, Michigan), "The World's Largest Mallard Duck" (located in Andrew, Alberta), "The World's Largest Charcoal Grill" (located in Magnolia, Arkansas), "The World's Largest Axe" (located in Nackawic, New Brunswick), and, of course, the ever popular "The World's Largest Ball of Twine" (located where else but in Cawker City, Kansas). Ahhh, there's nothing quite like building those family vacation memories.

Garfield Hits The Silver Screen
http://garfieldmovie.com/main.html -  He's got priorities: Eat, sleep and then eat again - - and now he's got his very own movie. The June 11th release of Garfield The Movie marks the first feature film for this popular comic strip feline. (Garfield is syndicated in over 2,600 newspapers worldwide.) Bill Murray provides the voice for Garfield. Jennifer Love Hewitt plays Dr. Liz Wilson and Breckin Meyer plays Jon Arbuckle. The official site offers many trailers, games, production information, e-cards, and more.

Wimbledon Championships: June 21st - July 4th
http://wimbledon.org/en_GB/index.html -  The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club has been hosting the Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon almost every year since 1877. (Championships were not held during World War I and World War II.) What started out as a garden party atmosphere attended by only a few hundred spectators, now attracts over 500,000 fans each year, not to mention the millions across the globe watching on television. The Club's official site is filled with history, statistics, stories, ticket and accommodation information, vintage photography, and virtual tours.

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Short Tutorial - Switching E-mail Messages From HTML-Based To Text-Based

The default setting on most e-mail software programs is to show e-mail messages in HTML format. In this format, text within the message may appear in various colors; it can be underlined, italicized, or in bold print; and it can be changed to various sizes and fonts. When multiple users amend a forwarded e-mail message, each with their own "style" of font, type size, colors, etc., the results can be quite dysfunctional.

A simple method of cleaning up a messy message like this prior to forwarding it to others is to switch the e-mail software's settings to a text-based e-mail rather than an html-based e-mail. This converts all of the text within the message to a single uniform text standard. Here's how:

Outlook Express for Windows

  1. Select the message from your list of messages that needs simplifying by clicking on it with your cursor arrow.

  2. Click on the "Forward" button. This will allow you to modify the message.

  3. Go to the message's "Format" menu and click your cursor arrow on it.

  4. When the drop-down menu appears, you will see two items about two thirds of the way down. One says "Rich Text (HTML)," and the other menu item says "Plain Text." The current setting will have a bullet in front of it. You can see the current setting is "Rich Text (HTML)." Select "Plain Text" by clicking your cursor arrow on it.

  5. When a warning dialog box appears warning you about changing the formatting, select the "OK" button.

  6. Send the message.
Outlook Express for Mac OS 9 and Entourage for Mac OS X
  1. Select the message from your list of messages that needs simplifying by clicking on it with your cursor arrow.

  2. Click on the "Forward" button on the button bar. This will allow you to modify the message.

  3. On the left hand side of the message's formatting bar is the HTML button. Click on it and the message will switch to "text" format. (If you get a warning dialog box telling you that you're going to discard any text formatting, click "OK.")

  4. Send the message.
Netscape 7x for Windows
  1. Select the message from your list of messages that needs simplifying by clicking on it with your cursor arrow.

  2. Click on the Netscape Mail "View" menu and go down to "Message Body As" from the resulting drop-down menu. A submenu will appear to its right.

  3. Select "Plain Text" from the submenu.

  4. Click on the "Forward" button and then send the message.
Eudora 6.1 for Windows or Mac
  1. Select the message from your list of messages that needs simplifying by clicking on it with your cursor arrow.

  2. Click on the "Forward" button. This will allow you to modify the message.

  3. Select the message body contents by clicking your cursor arrow within the message body field itself and typing CTRL + "A". The entire message body will change color to indicate that it is selected.

  4. Click on the "Edit" menu and go to "Text" on the resulting drop-down menu. A submenu will appear next to the word "Text."

  5. Click on "Clear Formatting."

  6. Click on the body of the message again to de-select it for ease of reading.

  7. Send the message.

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We hope you found this newsletter to be informative. It's our way of keeping you posted on the happenings at our shop. If, however, you'd prefer not to receive these bulletins on a monthly basis, click HERE.

Thanks for your business!

Best regards,

All of Us at Scatter Creek InfoNet



(We have used our best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, we do not assume, and hereby disclaim, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.)

©2004 Cornerstone Publishing Group Inc.

Trademarks: All brand names and product names used in this eNewsletter are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.