[NCLUG] No more ball and ipchains & Microsoft Hate Mail(TM)

[thorson at aster.com]

Thanks for all the help with masquerading.  I've now solved the
problem and all computers can talk to each other.  The last
thing was the route on the WindowsFU (aka WindowME) machine.
Somehow it got changed.

This helped me notice another surprise.  WindowsFU is making
connections to strange computers on the net while my wife is
'logged' on and goes away when logged off.  It hogs a significant
portion of an already slow connection.  Keep in mind this is a
brand new PC from Gateway and I'm pretty sure my wife hasn't
pushed too many wrong buttons.

	WHAT THE HELL IS IT DOING CONNECTING TO COMPUTERS
	WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE AND WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION
	ARE THEY TRYING TO STEAL OR TRACK?  HOW THE F**K
	DO THEY GET AWAY WITH THIS SHIT?

Whew, that felt good.  Now, here's the scoop.  This computer
came with a program installed called Attune from Aveo Inc.  See
the connections:
  bash-2.04$ netstat -M
  IP masquerading entries
  prot   expire source               destination          ports
  tcp   1:18.14 shari                reserved.above.net.42.124.64.in-addr.arpa 1246 -> www (61243)
  tcp   1:46.04 shari                reserved.above.net.42.124.64.in-addr.arpa 1250 -> www (61247)
  tcp   1:15.52 shari                64.124.42.136.aveo.com 1244 -> www (61241)
  tcp   1:18.65 shari                64.124.42.154.aveo.com 1249 -> www (61246)
  tcp   1:17.40 shari                aveo-svca.www.conxion.com 1241 -> www (61239)
  tcp 119:59.85 shari                aveo-svca.www.conxion.com 1253 -> www (61250)
  tcp   1:47.99 shari                aveo-svca.www.conxion.com 1251 -> www (61248)
  tcp 119:57.35 shari                reserved.above.net.42.124.64.in-addr.arpa 1252 -> www (61249)


Read these scary lines from www.aveo.com

    "The Attune Service is the
     world?s first PC help
     network that gathers users
     by offering targeted,
     preemptive, free PC help."

preemptive meaning even when you don't want it?

    "Attune enables Aveo?s partners to stay in
     communication with their installed base, even if their
     users do not register.

Even the users who do not register!!!

Now my next thing to figure out is why a WindosFU machine with
128meg ram will have it's hard disk happily chirping away for
hours at a time by the mere act of logging on.  It must be
some other covert program scouring my disk for secrets.

Bill "F.U.M.S." Thorson