hi ed,
i tried saving the page to my hard drive and i got the same results. then i saved it as langa.doc and i got this stuff...
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<font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">
<p>
The Internet is a two-way street. Just as it's easy for you
to connect to other sites, it also may be easy for others <nobr>--</nobr> for hackers <nobr>--</nobr> to
connect to your PC. In fact, by default, many PCs are set up with truly awful
online security settings that can leave the door to your system and your hard
drive unlocked and wide open!</p>
<p>
The more time you spend online, the greater the odds that
someone will indeed try to crawl back through your Internet connection to get
inside your PC. And if a hacker finds a weakness or a security flaw in your
setup, he or she can launch a full-blown attack that can cause trouble
ranging from the merely annoying (slowing down or crashing your computer) to
major headaches (potentially reading files, stealing passwords, and worse.)</p>
<p>
But many people succumb to one or more of the following myths
about online security, and in doing so, leave themselves wide open to major
trouble:</p>
<p>Myth #1: "I'm not on a network, so my PC is safe." The Internet is a network, and any
Internet-enabled stand-alone PC will have some or all the same networking
protocols running that you'd find on a PC in (say) the heart of a huge business
setting. But a PC in a huge business setting probably has corporate firewalls
and a professional IT staff working to keep it safe. In stark contrast, a PC in
small business, home office, or a laptop used in the field (away from corporate
security measures), or a personal-use home system may have a networking setup
that's wide-open, totally vulnerable to hackers <nobr>--</nobr> and you might not even know
it. The threat is very, very real: With today's "always on" connections such as
cable modems and DSL, you can be virtually certain that at least two or three or
four (or more!) bonehead miscreant hackers will try to break into your PC every
single day!</p>
<p>
Myth #2: "I just use dial-up
connections, so my PC is safe." Dial-up connections come and go; each time
you dial-up, you get a slightly different ("dynamic") numeric Internet protocol
(IP) address. (Unless, of course, your ISP has assigned you a static IP address.) That makes it harder for a hacker to find you than if you have a
"static IP" or an always-on connection. But hacker tools have evolved to the
point where they can scan literally tens of thousands of IP addresses an hour.
With so many hackers scanning so many possible addresses, even dial-up
connections can and do come under threat of attack.</p>
<p>
Myth #3: "I use an
anti-virus app, so my PC is safe." A good anti-virus utility will indeed protect
you <nobr>--</nobr> against viruses and similar problems. But it'll do nothing to prevent a
hacker from lifting information off your system or crashing your PC. It'll do
nothing to prevent a malicious (but programmatically legitimate) application
from surreptitiously "phoning home" and sending information about you or your
PC back to some other site or person. Anti-virus tools are just one small
(but important) part of online security. </p>
<p>
Myth #4: "I use a firewall, so
my PC is safe." Firewalls are great, but if your PC is inherently insecure
in and of itself, then relying solely on an add-on program to provide security
puts all your figurative eggs in one basket. If the firewall software has
a flaw or a bug, or if anything goes wrong with it, you're toast. Plus, some
firewalls are useless against viruses or similar apps; most do absolutely
nothing about malicious apps that quietly send data about you or your system
back to an outside source; and some firewalls actually can make things
worse because they advertise their presence to hackers, inviting
specialized attacks designed to defeat that particular kind of firewall.</p>
<p>
But there are solutions. Using tools you already have, and
for free, you can vastly improve your online security <nobr>--</nobr> and that's what this week's Explorer column is about: I'll cover the essentials of how to set up your Internet
connections so as not to needlessly create security holes. In future columns, we'll talk about other techniques and products (some also completely free!) you can add to further reduce security problems.</p>
<p>
With the secure networking foundation I'll show you in a
moment, any firewalls or other products you use will only add to an already-safe setup. And, if there proves to be a problem with your firewall or security software, you won't be left totally exposed to hackers. You won't have all your
security "eggs" in one basket!</p>
<p>
Because this is a column and not a full-blown feature
article, I'll be moving along fast: Check the <a href="#jumprefs">References</a> listings to follow up on any steps or concepts that aren't clear to you.</p>
<p>
<font size="+1">A One-Minute Primer In Networking Basics</font><br>
If geekspeak makes your eyes glaze over, you may wish to skip
to the next section. But reading this will only take a minute, and will help you understand the "why" of the information in the next section:</p>
<p>
In simplified form, you can envision that your working
connections have three levels or "layers." The deepest layer is the one that physically connects you to a network you're trying to reach <nobr>--</nobr> and it involves hardware. For dial-up, it's the "Dial-Up Adapter" that lets your PC's networking plumbing talk to your modem. On a LAN, it's the "Network Adapter" software that lets your PC talk to your network card. DSL, cable, and similar systems also usually use a network card. A PC can have one or more hardware adapters simultaneously running, side by side: For example, I have a PC connected to a cable modem; it's also on my office LAN, and is connected to a dial-up modem. That system has two network adapters and a dial-up adapter in its networking setup.</p>
<p>
The middle networking layer is made up of the communication
protocols or "languages" that your system uses to talk to other networks. The Internet's lingua franca is "TCP/IP." Other commonly used protocols are NetBEUI and IPX/SPX. These protocols also can operate side-by-side: Any protocol can simultaneously be tied (or "bound") to one or more hardware adapters; likewise a hardware adapter may simultaneously be bound to multiple protocols.</p>
<p>
The topmost layer is the networking services <nobr>--</nobr> the logons, the "print and file sharing," the "client" software that sits on top of the rest of the plumbing and lets you do the things you want to do on the network. Unfortunately, they're a two-way street, so they may also let hackers do what
they want to do!</p>
<p>
So, the trick to making your PC secure is to ensure that any
dangerous settings or services (such as "print and file sharing") are never needlessly connected to a protocol or adapter that's accessible from the Internet at large, where hackers might exploit them. In other words, by carefully selecting what gets "bound" to what, you can ensure that
inherently unsafe services and protocols are simply not accessible to or from your Internet connection.</p>
<p>
<font size="+1">How to Make Your Connections Safe</font><br>
The information I'll present here isn't dangerous, but it's
always a good idea to make a backup of critical data on your system before you start making any system changes; and to write down what your settings were so you can restore things if you need to. If you're on a LAN or if you have special networking needs (such as the need to connect remotely to a corporate LAN or VPN from a home office) talk to your network administrator before implementing any changes.</p>
<p>
Let's start by examining your networking setup: Right-click
Network Neighborhood and select Properties. (Or click the Network icon in Control Panel, which is the same thing.)</p>
<p>
What we'll now do is remove the parts of your networking
setup that make it easy for someone to connect to your PC via the Internet's protocol: TCP/IP:</p>
<p>
If you don't have a dial-up connection, skip to the next
paragraph. Otherwise, double click Dial-Up Adapter, then Bindings. UNcheck anything in the bindings box except TCP/IP; then click OK. Next, in the main network dialog, double...."
i can't just get the text, unless i'm missing something? btw, did you try c&p'ing that page with netscape?
:)
mark |
