Speak.Easy FAQ Jan Schaumann [jschauma@netmeister.org], Larry West [sandoz@speakeasy.net] Last modified: Thu Mar 28 08:28:54 EST 2002 Table of Contents 1. About this FAQ 1.1. Availability 1.2. Status 2. DSL Technology 2.1. DSL according to SE 2.2. Additional information on DSL 3. Installation 3.1. Can I get DSL from SE in my area? 3.2. My package comes with a`shell account'- what is that? 3.3. What should my subnet mask be? 4. POPs 4.1. What is a POP, anyway? 4.2. Current POPs 4.3. How do I know on which POP I currently am? 4.4. I am currently on POP X and would like to be transferred to POP Y, 4.5. how do I do that? 4.6. Which are my DNS servers? 5. Security 5.1. Windows 5.2. Mac 5.3. Unices 6. My Own Domain 6.1. Hey, I want to be www.myowndomain.com, how do I do that? 6.2. Running your own DNS 6.3. Your own Webserver 6.4. Your own mail-server 7. Pings, Lags and Latency 7.1. So what is a `ping', anyway? 7.2. How do I`ping'using Windows? 7.3. My pings to the gateway are higher than the pings to the DNS. Why? 7.4. XYZ keeps pinging me - why? Should I report XYZ to abouse@speakeasy,.net? 7.5. Reprovisioning 7.6. Where can I monitor my latency? 8. Kontent 8.1. Where? 8.2. What? 8.3. Why? 9. Questions regarding News 9.1. Newsserver 9.2. How do I request an unavailable or new newsgroup? 9.3. Which Newsreader should I use? 9.4. Netiquette 9.5. Who am I? 10. Misc 10.1. Testing Throughput 10.2. IRC 10.3. I am aware there are sites that allow me to make long distance calls from either my PC to a land line, from my PC to another PC, and even from POTS to POTS at a reduced rate. Where can I find these sites? 10.3. I have heard about`Off-site Internet File Storage'. Tell me more! 10.4. Where can I learn all the buzzwords? 10.5. If I want to move before my 1 year of service is up, but get Speakeasy DSL service at the new location, what penalities would apply? 10.6. How do I set up my second email account? 10.7. How can I forward my mail to another account or use /.forward in another way)? 10.8. Can I run a Napster Server or similar? 11. Who is Who of speak.easy 12. Contact 12.1. SE Says 12.2. We Say --------------------------- 1. About this FAQ This FAQ covers the answers to the most frequently asked questions posted to speak.easy. The answers may be links to more detailed documents. All answers, solutions and suggestions in this document are without any warranty, since they are mostly just compiled from the information given in the above mentioned newsgroup. The authors are not responsible in any way for possible damage (no matter what kind) resulting in the use of the information given here. If you find the information provided here ambiguous or wrong, if you wish to add a question, if you have additional information or would like to request a change of a question or want to contribute in any other form, please send an email to se_faq@netmeister.org. The authors of this document are in no way affiliated with SpeakEasy other than just being customers. Therefore, the information given in this document can under no circumstances be regarded as an official response from SpeakEasy. It is, if you will, not a `Speakeasy approved policy document' and may in fact be outdated. Please always consult with Speakeasy's official website in general and the`Find Answers'section within`My Speakeasy'in particular. This document is copyrighted by the authors (unless otherwise noted), but it may be redistributed as you see fit. All changes to this document must be in agreement with the authors. 1.1. Availability This FAQ is sent on the 10th and the 25th of every month to speak.easy, but can also be requested by sending an email to se_faq@netmeister.org with`request faq'in the subject-line. Furthermore it is available on the web via http://www.netmeister.org/se/faq.html or http://www.netmeister.org/se/faq.txt . Thanks to AllenC, it is now also available at http://www.speakeasy.org/~allenc/faq/. 1.2. Status This FAQ is currently out of date - I (Jan) don't have the time to maintain it up to date in the moment und would be thankful for * somebody to update the sections and send me diffs to the m4-source * somebody who is willing to take over the task and maintains the document If you are interested, please email me. --------------------------- 2. DSL Technology 2.1. DSL according to SE The following questions and answers are available on http://www.speakeasy.net/dsl/homedsl\_faq.html, but are re-printed here for convenience. Section 2.1 is thus completely out of our responsibility! ;-) What is DSL? DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line. It uses the same copper wires as normal phone lines to deliver high speed Internet access to almost any location. How fast is DSL? DSL can obtain speeds as high as 1.5Mbps and above, but the speed your location can receive depends on your address, line quality and the distance to your local phone company's central office (CO). A Central Office is the main switching station for the phone lines in your area. It is the office where the ILEC (your local telephone company) connects the phone circuits, and makes the routes between local and long distance. What is the difference between RADSL, ADSL, SDSL, and IDSL? Speakeasy offers several kinds of DSL service. The speeds and type of DSL available to you depends on two factors primarily: * Your distance from the phone companys Central Office [CO] and * the type of lines used between you and the Central Office [fiber/copper]. Each type of DSL has a different price, and different important attributes. RADSL Rate-adaptive Asymmetric DSL is available up to 12,000 feet from a CO. Typically, the download speed is faster than the upload speed. The term`rate-adaptive'means that the technology adapts to your individual line conditions, e.g., your specific distance from the CO and the quality of the copper line your DSL is being served on. Speeds expressed with RADSL are the maximum speeds your line may achieve. Although we will do whatever is within our power to provide you with the best possible service, due to the nature of the technology, RADSL services do not come with a service level guarantee. If you require a guaranteed service, one of our business class SDSL services may be best for you. The actual speed is determined by distance and copper quality. The minimum acceptable speed for RADSL products are 128 Kbps download with 64 Kbps upload. Any speed you receive between this minimum and the maximum ordered speed is considered to be a successful RADSL installation. SDSL Symmetric DSL, able to be served up to 15,000 feet from a CO. The upload and download speeds are the same. There is an 80% speed guarantee for SDSL customers. ADSL Asymmetric DSL is not being offered by Speakeasy at this time. Customer who have ADSL lines already installed and wish to inquire about our RADSL services should email support@speakeasy.net. As with RADSL, ADSL download speed is faster than the upload speed. IDSL IDSL is based on ISDN, an older technology that was designed to work well with the existing phone system. RADSL, SDSL, and ADSL all travel over regular copper lines and cannot have any electronics on them (such as, for example, amplifiers or repeaters - commonly used to ''boost''the voice signal on conventional telephone lines). Some ADSL, RADSL or SDSL orders cannot be fulfilled because of electronics or distance issues that are uncovered during the ordering process. In that case, IDSL may be the best solution. IDSL has the ability to work over great distances, and through certain types of electronics. The good news is, if you are very far away from a Central Office, or there are electronics on the copper line you are given by the Bell (USWest, Bell Atlantic) company, you may still be able to get broadband service using IDSL. What is the Federal Universal Service Fee [FUSF]? The Federal Universal Service Fee is a fee that is assessed by the US Government against all providers of interstate telecommunications services. See http://www.speakeasy.net/dsl/FUSF.html to find out how it affects you. 2.2. Additional information on DSL Back to normal: Where can I find exhaustive information regarding xDSL technology? http://www.alliancedatacom.com/paradyne-dsl-tutorial.asp Can you tell me where to get info on DSL availability, tips, tools, and various info regarding all matters xDSL? http://www.dslreports.com/ What is this I heard about CAP being superior to DMT? http://www.techonline.com/TOL/newsletter/rev6/adslvscap.html I understand that Speakeasy works with "InterNAP" and as such their sites affect the location of upcoming POPs. Is there an InterNAP site near me? http://www.internap.com/where.htm --------------------------- 3. Installation For details on the installation, please refer to http://www.speakeasy.net/dsl/homedsl_faq.html or http://www.speakeasy.net/dsl/workdsl_faq.html 3.1. Can I get DSL from SE in my area? Visit http://www.speakeasy.net/dsl/ to find out. 3.2. My package comes with a`shell account'- what is that? Short: http://www.speakeasy.net/low/main.php?page=shellfaq Long: The Unix shell provides a user interface. It interprets commands input by the user and interacts with the base Unix system (called the kernel) to execute the commands. The shell is a program that starts running as soon as you login to your Unix account. It provides a prompt and waits for you to input a command. (If you are using X windows, each window is running the shell.) When you enter a command, the shell interprets it and asks the kernel to execute it. For example, when you execute the following rm command $ rm *.bak the shell finds all files whose filenames end with .bak and asks the kernel to remove them. Shells provide many user friendly features such as wildcards, piping, input/output redirection and scripting as well as providing a means of customizing your Unix environment via the shell startup file and aliases. There are several different Unix shells. A few of most commonly used are listed below. * Bourne * Korn * Bash * Z-Shell * C-Shell * TC-Shell Your shell account with SE enables you to log into your account from virtually any computer on the internet as long as it has a telnet-client (though you should, for security reasons, use a secure connection such as`ssh') installed. By logging into the server you can create, upload and modify files (possibly for your website - see http://www.speakeasy.net/low/main.php?page=buildweb for details), you can check your mail (through`mutt'or`pine', for example), browse the web (through`lynx', for example), read news (through`slrn'or`tin', for example) and in general do all your little heart desires. If you don't know the command for what you wish to do, you should use the ''apropos''command. If, for example, you wish to read your news, you would use $> apropos news and find a couple of programs that might be helpful. The next step then is to use the`man'command to find out how the command is used: $> man tin No matter what you do, always remember that`apopos'and`man'are your friends! 3.3. What should my subnet mask be? 255.255.255.0 --------------------------- 4. POPs 4.1. What is a POP, anyway? POP stands for "point of presence". From http://whatis.techtarget.com/WhatIs_Definition_Page/0,4152,212802,00.html : A POP is the location of an access point to the Internet. A POP necessarily has a unique Internet (Internet Protocol) address. Your independent service provider (Internet service provider) or online service provider (online service provider) has a point-of-presence on the Internet. POPs are sometimes used as one measure of the size and growth of an ISP or OSP. A POP may actually reside in rented space owned by a telecommunications carrier such as Sprint. A POP usually includes router, digital/analog call aggregator, server, and frequently frame relay or asynchronous transfer mode switches. What it means to you is this: the closer you are to a POP, the lower your pings. That means, having a POP in the town you live is A Good Thing (tm). 4.2. Current POPs SE currently has POPs in * Atlanta * Boston * Chicago * Dallas * Denver * Los Angeles * New York City * Philadelphia (Beta) * San Francisco * Seattle * Washington, DC Please always check http://www.speakeasy.net/popfaq for the latest news, as this section may be outdated compares to SE's offical website. 4.3. How do I know on which POP I currently am? Best way to find out is probably by using a traceroute from outside your network. You will see which route it takes, and you can then, from the name of the hosts in between see if you're routed through, say, the NY POP or the Seattle POP. You can also draw a conclusion from the DNS servers SE has given you - see below "Which are my DNS servers?". 4.4. I am currently on POP X and would like to be transferred to POP Y, how do I do that?, Send an email to: * chipop@speakeasy.org - to request transfer to the Chicago POP * nypop@speakeasy.org - to request transfer to the New York POP * lapop@speakeasy.org - to request transfer to the Los Angeles POP * denpop@speakeasy.org - to request transfer to the Denver POP * sfpop@speakeasy.org - to request transfer to the San Francisco POP * dfwpop@speakeasy.org - to request transfer to the Dallas POP * wdcpop@speakeasy.org - to request transfer to the Washington, DC POP * phlpop@speakeasy.org - to request to be considered as a Beta Tester for the Philadelphia POP 4.5. Which are my DNS servers? If you are on the Atlanta POP: * Primary: atl.speakeasy.net - 216.27.175.2 * Secondary: tenerus.speakeasy.org - 216.231.41.2 If you are on the Boston POP: * Primary: bos.speakeasy.net - 66.92.64.2 * Secondary: tenerus.speakeasy.org - 216.231.41.2 If you are on the Chicago POP: * Primary: chi.speakeasy.net - 64.81.159.2 * Secondary: tenerus.speakeasy.org - 216.231.41.2 If you are on the Dallas POP: * Primary: dfw.speakeasy.net - 64.81.127.2 * Secondary: tenerus.speakeasy.org - 216.231.41.2 If you are on the Denver POP: * Primary: den.speakeasy.net - 64.81.111.2 * Secondary: tenerus.speakeasy.org - 216.231.41.2 If you are on the LA POP: * Primary: lax.speakeasy.net - 216.52.103.2 * Secondary: cobalt.speakeasy.org - 216.231.41.22 If you are on the NY POP: * Primary: nyc.speakeasy.net - 216.254.95.2 * Secondary: cobalt.speakeasy.org - 216.231.41.22 If you are on the San Francisco POP: * Primary: sfo.speakeasy.net - 64.81.79.2 * Secondary: tenerus.speakeasy.org - 216.231.41.2 If you are on the Philadelphia POP: * Primary: phl.speakeasy.net - 66.92.224.2 * Secondary: tenerus.speakeasy.org - 216.231.41.2 If you are on the Seattle POP or if you are dialing in: * Primary: cobalt.speakeasy.org - 216.231.41.22 * Secondary: tenerus.speakeasy.org - 216.231.41.2 If you are on the Washington, DC POP: * Primary: wdc.speakeasy.org - 66.92.159.2 * Secondary: tenerus.speakeasy.org - 216.231.41.2 --------------------------- 5. Security Please check http://www.securityfocus.com on a regular basis. Also, always check the website of your Operating Systems Vendor (if applicable) and of all the Software you have installed on a regular basis for security updates and bug-reports. PATCH ANY HOLES THAT YOU ARE AWARE OF! 5.1. Windows It is beyond the scope of this FAQ to provide complete, up-to-the-minute security information for all platforms. Instead, this should cover some of the most basic security holes common to standard Win9x installations. Think of this as a stiff cardboard box to live in while you build your castle. Note: This guide assumes your system is free of virii, trojans, worms, etc. If not, take care of that first. Then: * Disable`File & Print'sharing. * Install a software firewall. * Get the Windows/InternetExplorer/Outlook Express security updates from Microsofts website. * Double-check your Windows & browser security settings. * Test your system online. * Do your own research! These steps should be followed by ALL Win9x users. They are listed in order of importance. The importance of steps #1 and #2 cannot be over-emphasized! The steps are explained in detail below. Disable File & Print Sharing [Win98]. If you are not networking two or more machines, then you do not need MS File & Print Sharing. You MUST disable it! * Click Start. * Click Settings. * Click Control Panel. * Click the Network icon. * Click the Configuration tab. * Click the File and Print Sharing button. * You should now see a box with two options:"I was to give others access to my files.""I want to allow other to print from my printers." * Make sure there are NO checkmarks beside either of these lines. If one or more boxes are checked, click the checkmark itself to turn it off. The boxes should be blank. * Click "OK". * Click "OK". If you want to use File & Print Sharing on your home network, see this page for step-by-step instructions (with screenshots): http://netsecurity.about.com/compute/netsecurity/library/weekly/aa051600b.htm Install a firewall Many firewalls are available, but ZoneLabs has one that is available for free for non-profit use. Go to http://www.zonelabs.com/ and download ''ZoneAlarm''. * Install and run the program. * Click the Configure tab. * Place a checkmark next to`Load ZoneAlarm at Startup'. * Click the Security tab. * Move both the Local and Internet sliders upward to the`High'position. To view connections that have been blocked by ZoneAlarm, click the "Alerts" tab. To view application permissions, click the "Programs" tab. If an application tries to access the internet, ZoneAlarm will ask you to allow/deny access. There is also a box you can check that asks "Remember this each time I access this application?"and you will not be asked again. Use common sense here. Some programs need to access the internet, and others do not. If you have ANY doubts whatsoever that a program needs to access the internet, tell it "No". If a program you do not recognize asks for permission, tell it "No". Allow Servers? ZoneAlarm may also ask you: "Do you want to allow to act as a server?" This means that the application is attempting to send information from your system to the internet. Be very cautious about granting this permission. The safest way to handle this is to say"No"and see if the application still functions correctly. Applications such as instant messengers, IRC clients, file-sharing clients (Napster, etc.), FTP servers, and internet phones require server privileges to work correctly. Apps such as web browsers, mail and news readers, games, audio/video players, and FTP clients do not need server privileges. Further below are some general questions about NetBios attacks on your firewall - make sure you read carefully through those as well. Visit Microsoft Security and/or Windows Update and be sure to download and install ALL "critical updates" and/or "security updates". You can access Windows Update by clicking "Start" and then "Windows Update". Browse the list of available updates for your system and get ALL of the updates labeled "Critical". Sometimes updates are not available for older versions of an application, so you may be required to download an entirely new version (Internet Explorer 5.5 for example). Make sure you get the updates for and/or newest version of Outlook Express if you are using it. Check your Windows Security configuration. It is recommended you start with AT LEAST the "Medium" setting until you understand the difference between Low/Medium/High. This may help prevent rogue websites from delivering hostile scripts to your browser. * Click Start. * Click Settings. * Click Control Panel. * Click Internet Options. * Click "Internet" * Click the Security tab. * Click Custom Level... * Select either Medium or High from"Reset Custom Settings"box. * Click the Reset button. Windows will ask"Are you sure?" * Click"Yes". * Click "OK" to finish and save settings. * You should also click"Custom Level"and make sure the following are set to"Disable": * Download Signed Active-X Controls * Download Unsigned Active-X Controls Test your system online. Go to these sites to request a "scan"of your IP address to be sure everything is working correctly. With File & Print Sharing turned off and a properly configured firewall installed, the scan should report that you are"safe". If not, see what the scanner says and take it from there. Other sites are available for this same purpose. Try as many as you can find. * DSL Report"s"Secure-Me"- http://www.secure-me.net/secureme_go' * Norton Online Security Analyzer - http://security2.norton.com/common/1033/sym/sym_intro.asp?j=1\&bhcd2=968557429 Do your own research! Here are some starting points: * Zdnet Security Center - http://www.zdnet.com/enterprise/filters/resources/0,10227,6007271,00.html?chkpt=zdnnmoreon * Zdnet Security How-To - http://www.zdnet.com/zdhelp/filters/quickstart/guides/0,10606,6013363,00.html?chkpt=zdnnmoreon * Microsoft Security Site - http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.asp * Security Quickstarts for Win/OS2/Mac etc. - http://server34.hypermart.net/dslzone/Tweaks.html#Security * File and Print Sharing Facts - http://server34.hypermart.net/dslzone/netbios.html * Broadband Security Page [from about.com] - http://netsecurity.about.com/compute/netsecurity/library/weekly/aa051600a.htm * How to securely use File/Print sharing - http://netsecurity.about.com/compute/netsecurity/library/weekly/aa051600b.htm * Info on the QAZ worm - http://www.zdnet.com/zdhelp/stories/main/0,5594,2605063,00.html Why does my firewall complain about NetBios attacks from Speakeasy IPs? One reason may be the QAZ worm - see http://www.netmeister.org/se/QAZ.txt for details. Why do I get all these probes on port 80? Or, what"s the deal with this "CodeRed"I hear about? Many people using Windows run Microsofts IIS server; many people are not even aware that they run this server. IIS has repeatedly been the target of many exploits, the most recent being a worm called "CodeRed". Just plug it into a search engine for details. While Microsoft has released a patch to fix the bug that allowed this worm, many people did not patch their machines. The worm spreads by trying to overrun the buffer in other vulnerable web-servers -- these are the probes on port 80 you see. If you can determine who probed you, please forward the relevant information to that persons ISP (for example, if it was somebody from within speakeasy, you"d email abuse@speakeasy.net). If you must run a web-server, you might consider installing apache (http://www.apache.org ) instead of the notoriou IIS. Some URLs about CodeRed and it"s various incarnations: * http://www.incidents.org/react/code\_red.php * http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/security/topics/codealrt.asp * http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/security/topics/codeptch.asp * http://www.digitalisland.net/codered/ Is there a secure way to use Windows File & Print sharing? It can be done. For step-by-step instructions (with screenshots) see: http://netsecurity.about.com/compute/netsecurity/library/weekly/aa051600b.htm My firewall reports"Connection to port "xxx" was blocked". What"s up with that? Applications use specific ports (or a range of ports) to channel incoming and outgoing data through your internet connection. By referencing attempted connections to a specific port, you can sometimes determine what the offending machine was looking for. For example, if a connection attempt was made to port 28001, they were probably looking for a"Starsiege Tribes Server", which uses ports in the 28001-28008 range. For a large list of default ports for various applications, see: http://www.robertgraham.com/pubs/firewall-seen.html 5.2. Mac Hmmm, nobody seems to know anything about this. If you run Mac OS X, please compare with the "Unices" subsection below. If you run any other version of Mac OS and know something, please email us at se_faq@netmeister.org 5.3. Unices General Security See http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Security-HOWTO.html Also, try to keep up to date with the latest bug-fixes for all your programs. http://www.securityfocus.com might be helpful. Open Ports If you want to find out which ports are open on your machine, isse the following command: netstat -vat Refer to `netstat -help' and `man netstat' for information on that command. A listing of which services listen to which ports can be found in /etc/services. You will want to make sure that you are only leaving ports open that you definitely need. Refer to `man inetd.conf', man `hosts.allow' and `man hosts.deny' for more information. Firewalls See http://www.linux-firewall-tools.com/linux Intrusion Detection See http://www.snort.org/ Testing your system Get SAINT (http://www.wwdsi.com/saint/ ) - this program will scan your computer (and your network) and report security-holes to you as well as suggest what to do to fix them. Also, check out http://www.nessus.org --------------------------- 6. My Own Domain 6.1. Hey, I want to be www.myowndomain.com, how do I do that? Well, you can't - somebody else already bought www.myowndomain.com ;-). But if you want to own and host your own domain using your static IP given to you by SE, here's what you have to do: First you need to register your domain. There are several services that let you do that, here are some URLs: * http://www.joker.com * http://www.opensrs.net * http://www.register.com Decide on your DNS-serving You have the following options: * let your registrar handle all DNS issues * let your registrar handle either primary or secondary DNS serving and provide your own primary or secondary * let SE handle all DNS-issues * provide primary DNS-serving and let SE provide secondary * provide all DNS-serving yourself Most services let you choose if you want to let them do the primary and secondary DNS-serving, or if you want to provide your own. Certainly the easiest way is just have your registrar deal with the entire DNS-issue. If you choose to have SE provide primary and secondary, please see http://www.speakeasy.net/main.php?page=res_primarydns If you choose to provide your own primary DNS-server and have SE handle the secondary, see http://www.speakeasy.net/main.php?page=res_secondarydns and read the next section. What it boils down to is that you pay a one-time fee of $35 to have SE do secondary DNS serving. If you choose to have somebody else handle both primary and secondary nameservices, you're on your own. here are a few links that might help you find a service-provider: * http://soa.granitecanyon.com/ 6.2. Running your own DNS Unix/Linux * http://www.isc.org/products/BIND/ * http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/DNS-HOWTO.html Windows http://www.microsoft.com/technet/winnt/install.asp 6.3. Your own Webserver Unix/Linux * http://www.apache.org * http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/WWW-HOWTO.html Windows * http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/officedev/office97/settinguppersonalwebserver.htm * http://www.apache.org 6.4. Your own mail-server Unix/Linux * http://pobox.com/~djb/qmail.html * http://www.postfix.org/ * http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Mail-Administrator-HOWTO.html * http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Qmail-VMailMgr-Courier-imap-HOWTO.html * http://www.sendmail.org Windows * http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/ --------------------------- 7. Pings, Lags and Latency One of the things you'll see most often in speak.easy are posts containing pings. People either want to show off what an awesome ping they have, others want to show how bad off they are, and others just jump in and say`Hey, me too! Here's my ping:'You may judge for yourself how useful that technique is, but it certainly is, without a doubt, a very frequent topic. 7.1. So what is a "ping", anyway? In short: it sends x packets to a host and checks how long it takes the host to respond. In long: Here's the gory details from the man-page (unix-specific, but I'm sure you get more information than you needed): man ping: Ping uses the ICMP protocol"s mandatory ECHO_REQUEST datagram to elicit an ICMP ECHO_RESPONSE from a host or gateway. ECHO_REQUEST datagrams ("pings"") have an IP and ICMP header, followed by a "struct timeval"" and then an arbitrary number of "pad"" bytes used to fill out the packet. [...] This program is intended for use in network testing, measurement and management. [,,,] ICMP PACKET DETAILS An IP header without options is 20 bytes. An ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packet contains an additional 8 bytes worth of ICMP header followed by an arbi trary amount of data. When a packetsize is given, this indicated the size of this extra piece of data (the default is 56). Thus the amount of data received inside of an IP packet of type ICMP ECHO_REPLY will always be 8 bytes more than the requested data space (the ICMP header). If the data space is at least eight bytes large, ping uses the first eight bytes of this space to include a timestamp which it uses in the computation of round trip times. If less than eight bytes of pad are specified, no round trip times are given. DUPLICATE AND DAMAGED PACKETS Ping will report duplicate and damaged packets. Duplicate packets should never occur, and seem to be caused by inappropriate link-level retrans missions. Duplicates may occur in many situations and are rarely (if ev er) a good sign, although the presence of low levels of duplicates may not always be cause for alarm. Damaged packets are obviously serious cause for alarm and often indicate broken hardware somewhere in the ping packet"s path (in the network or in the hosts). TRYING DIFFERENT DATA PATTERNS The (inter)network layer should never treat packets differently depending on the data contained in the data portion. Unfortunately, data-dependent problems have been known to sneak into networks and remain undetected for long periods of time. In many cases the particular pattern that will have problems is something that doesn"t have sufficient "transitions"", such as all ones or all zeros, or a pattern right at the edge, such as almost all zeros. It isn"t necessarily enough to specify a data pattern of all zeros (for example) on the command line because the pattern that is of interest is at the data link level, and the relationship between what you type and what the controllers transmit can be complicated. This means that if you have a data-dependent problem you will probably have to do a lot of testing to find it. If you are lucky, you may manage to find a file that either can"t be sent across your network or that takes much longer to transfer than other similar length files. You can then examine this file for repeated patterns that you can test using the -p option of ping. TTL DETAILS The TTL value of an IP packet represents the maximum number of IP routers that the packet can go through before being thrown away. In current practice you can expect each router in the Internet to decrement the TTL field by exactly one. The TCP/IP specification states that the TTL field for TCP packets should be set to 60, but many systems use smaller values (4.3 BSD uses 30, 4.2 used 15). The maximum possible value of this field is 255, and most Unix systems set the TTL field of ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to 255. This is why you will find you can "ping"" some hosts, but not reach them with telnet(1) or ftp(1). In normal operation ping prints the ttl value from the packet it re ceives. When a remote system receives a ping packet, it can do one of three things with the TTL field in its response: Not change it; this is what Berkeley Unix systems did before the 4.3BSD-Tahoe release. In this case the TTL value in the received packet will be 255 minus the number of routers in the round-trip path. Set it to 255; this is what current Berkeley Unix systems do. In this case the TTL value in the received packet will be 255 minus the number of routers in the path from the remote system to the pinging host. Set it to some other value. Some machines use the same value for ICMP packets that they use for TCP packets, for example either 30 or 60. Others may use completely wild values. 7.2. How do I`ping'using Windows? If you"re using Win9x, open up a DOS Prompt box and type the following at the prompt: (If you do not have a shortcut to DOS, you can hit"Start", then"Run", then type in"command"(without the quotes) and then"OK"). ping your-DNS-IP-address An example (for the x.x.95.x @ NYPop) would be: ping 216.254.95.2 If you would like to redirect the screen output to a file, use the following syntax: ping [your DNS IP address] > filename If you want a hard copy of your pings, you can redirect to PRN rather than a filename: ping 216.254.95.2 > PRN This will fire up your printer and dump the screen, line by line, to your printer. 7.3. My pings to the gateway are higher than the pings to the DNS. Why? "The gateway router treats ICMP echo requests with a very low priority. When you ping the DNS, which is one hop past the gateway, the gateway router treats that traffic with normal priority, and you will see better response times." - Tim Hurley in [39B6AB73.A14BF6A@speakeasy.org] 7.4. XYZ keeps pinging me - why? Should I report XYZ to abuse@speakeasy.net? Here are a few reasons why you might be pinged: \begin{itemize} * Napster - When a file you are serving is returned in a search, that user has an option to"Ping Results", in which case, you will be pinged. * Tracerouting - Perhaps a fellow Speakeasy user is curious about the latency between you can your gateway [for comparative purposes]. * Games - If you have acted as a public game server you will certainly be pinged. * IRC servers - we used to state that"IRC servers routinely ping users to determine if they are still connected. Other users logged into the same server have an option of pinging you as well." While this is technically incorrect [see the explanation below], spending time on IRC might lead to somebody pinging you, even if it is not actually related to the IRC server [or client] at all. * Dynamic IP - If you have a dynamic IP, any user who had your IP address before you may have used it to run a temporary server [game, FTP, WWW, etc.]. And now the reason why our statement is wrong. Kevin... "RFC 1459 specifies that IRC servers may use PING (not ICMP PING) to determine whether or not a user is still connected if they have been idle for more than that specified in the Y: for their connect classes. RFC 1459-compliant clients are required to respond with a PONG. The client"s /ping command is a CTCP (client-to-client protocol) Request which is also specified in the RFC. This is strictly a client-side feature in which CTCP-aware clients (which most of them are) are supposed to respond with a CTCP Reply. However, most IRC networks will publicly make available the IP address of the connecting users. If a user chooses to use said information to run a command such as ICMP PING against the IP address, that is strictly outside the scope of IRC, and there is nothing that can be done against that sort of thing, short of logging into another box and IRCing from there or to use a IRC proxy of some sort. That said, some networks have made effort to hide or mangle the IP information so that it cannot be abused." --- Kevin Arima in [Pine.LNX.4.32.0102281505050.1902-100000@bolse] 7.5. Reprovisioning What does"reprovisioning" mean? Lots of people who have had a bad ping reported that after their line got reprovisioned, their pings dropped massively. So what exactly is reprovisioning? Well, apparently there are two opinions on what the term describes exactly: "Reprovisioning the line means essentially that they"reboot"the path that your data is traveling. They reset the route that your data is traveling from the dslam to the atm in seattle/la/ny and can optimized the route to take less hops or take the less congested hops etc, also if they need to modify settings ie for the new RADSL ECC patches." - David Erickson in [39B4DD06.FDC8B9FC@speakeasy.org] "It means that your local phone company take the old wired off your phone line and tries to choke a chicken to death.. If the chicken dies it means your wires are bad if the chicken lives then your good." - nyorker in [IC7t5.577039\$MB.8667095@news6.giganews.com] Choose the explanation you like better - the point is, it seems to help with latency. How do I request to be reprovisioned? Send all reprovision requests to "pings@speakeasy.net". Does reprovisioning help with SDSL lines? Reprovisioning will really only affect RADSL lines. BUT:"In some cases, yes. If your line is sub-optimally routed through Covad"s ATM network (which often happens during an outage to keep your circuit live), reprovisioning the line will (usually) place you back onto an optimal path. This goes for all xDSL services."(Tim Hurley in an email to us ([Pine.LNX.4.21.0009142009560.496-100000@web0.speakeasy.net])) Why should I request my RADSL line to be reprovisioned? "Covad has recently implemented a patch at the DSLAM level for Speakeasy RADSL lines. This patch switches the modulation type from Interleaved, which has an inherent 32ms added on to any traffic for error-checking, to Fastpath, which has no inherent error-checking. Reprovisioning a RADSL line will switch the modulation type to Fastpath, thus lowering your latency by 30-40ms. Another added benefit of this patch is noticable on Windows systems. Windows has a difficult time sustaining bandwidth of over 1 megabit when the latency to the host is greater than 50ms. By having this patch implemented, Windows will be able to sustain higher bandwidth to certain hosts."(Tim Hurley in an email to us ([Pine.LNX.4.21.0009142009560.496-100000@web0.speakeasy.net])) 7.6. Where can I monitor my latency? Well, there are, by now, two "Unofficial SE Latency Monitors": * http://216.254.74.250/speakeasy/ * http://www.gatewatch.org --------------------------- 8. Kontent 8.1. Where? http://www.kontent.net/ 8.2. What? Seti@home What is Seti@home? SETI stand for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. It is an organization that uses radio astronomy to listen for spikes or unnatural occurrences in the radio noise background or the universe. SETI@Home is a project that allows regular Internet users to help out with the search for these signals. For more information on Seti@home, please refer to http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ How can I join the speakeasy-team? http://www.setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/cgi?cmd=team_lookup&name=Speakeasy See also Distributed.net - similar approach, different, more "earthly" goal: http://www.distributed.net/ Games See http://www.kontent.net/sgn/newserver.html 8.3. Why? It"s all Ed"s fault! --------------------------- 9. Questions regarding News Speakeasy outsources their usenet news servers to Supernews. They don"t run any news servers themselves. As such, Speakeasy has very little control over the performance and configuration of the news servers. Any requests send to Speakeasy to add news groups or fix something broken will simply be forwarded on to Supernews. Speakeasy has repeatedly mentioned that they want to develop an in-house solution to this problem by providing a non-binary newsfeed and possibly asking subscribers of binary newsgroups to subscribe to some"premium" newsservice. If and when this will eventually be implemented is unclear as of now. 9.1. Newsserver Which newsserver should I use? Currently there are * news.speakeasy.org, news2.speakeasy.org and news3.speakeasy.org All of the above are aliases to corp.supernews.com, the IP of which has changed some time ago and will change again, as we"ve been told - there are NO OTHER news servers SE"s users have access to. You can substitute".org"with".net"in all of the above names. If you are on the east-cost, you should probably use news-east.speakeasy.org and if you are on the west-coast, news-west.speakeasy.org. By the time of this writing, the Supernews servers are no"official"news-servers for SE - consider yourself a beta-tester. This means service might not be as reliable as with the other servers, however, these two tend to be faster than the others. If you are being asked for authentication on one of the servers, you can enter any username/password combination to log in - you do not have to give your speakeasy username and password. Authentication is done over your IP. How can I read news from somehwere else but my DSL account? You can connect to news-remote.speakeasy.net (an alias to corp-radius.supernews.com - another supernews server) and log in with your SE login name/password combination. This may be helpful if you are experiencing an outage and have to dial-up or if you wish to read news from a location other than your normal DSL line. Which newsgroups are there? What do you mean - which newsgroups are there? Two bazillion, approximately. For an overview of the newsgroup hirarchy take a look at http://kom.net/~dbrick/news/newspage/ Since currently all of SE"s newsservers are outsorced to supernews, you might be interested in the following newsgroups: * supernews.general * supernews.test As always, YMMV, depending on which server you"re using... 9.2. How do I request an unavailable or new newsgroup? If you want to subscribe to a newsgroup which currently is not available through the news-servers above, write to news@speakeasy.net Alternatively, you may post a message to supernews.general 9.3. Which Newsreader should I use? There are a couple of good newsreaders out there - which one you want to use will depend mostly on your personal preferences. A newsreader which conforms to standards makes it much easier for others to read your posts, thus increasing the possibility of getting helpful replies to your questions. The most common newsreaders currently are: For Macintosh: * Gnus - http://www.gnus.org/ * HogWasher - http://www.asar.com/ * MacSOUP - http://home.snafu.de/stk/macsoup/index.html * Netscape Communicator - http://home.netscape.com/ * NewsWatcher - http://charlotte.at.nwu.edu/jln/progs.ssi For Unix/Linux: * Gnus - http://www.gnus.org/ * knews - http://www.matematik.su.se/~kjj/ * Netscape Communicator - http://home.netscape.com/ * nhm - http://www.mhost.com/nmh/ * Pan - http://www.superpimp.org/ * Slrn - http://slrn.sourceforge.net * tin - http://www.tin.org/ * xrn - http://www.mit.edu/people/jik/software/xrn.html For Windows: * Forte Free Agent - http://www.forteinc.com/agent/freagent.htm * Gnus - http://www.gnus.org/ * Netscape Communicator - http://home.netscape.com/ * Slrn - http://slrn.sourceforge.net * XNews - http://xnews.3dnews.net/ Please refer to http://www.newsreaders.com/ for details and a more complete listing. If you want to try out your new newsreader, please post to speak.test and NOT to speak.easy. All test-posting should go to a test-group like alt.test or speak.test. If you use Forte, you might be interested in the following tidbit posted by AllenC in [kejbfto9b5u71uaanm86pes1tamhfprdvg@4ax.com]: "supernews representatives have stated that it"s server creates messages out of order and recommend that users of Forte"s software check the "Server Creates messages out of order" box located here: Options => User and System Profile => System tab Doing this will insure that all messages are retrieved correctly." 9.4. Netiquette It is true, on the internet nobody knows you"re a dog, but it is still considered good netiquette to follow a few simple rules when posting into usenet. General For a general overview of the Netquette please refer to: * http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html * http://cii2.cochran.com/start/guide/Netiquette.html * http://www.newsreaders.com/guide/netiquette.html From As we mentioned above, nobody knows who you are, and sometimes you may not even want to reveal your identity. However, many people prefer answering questions when asked politely by somebody with a real name. Your name is like your outer appearance in cyberspace - if you post under the name "K3wl d00d", your postings might not be taken seriously. Likewise, if you choose a rather offensive name, people might killfile you right away, without even looking at your posts. Subject Try to keep the subject line short, but significant. If you post a message seeking help with your network-configuration, just putting "HELP ME PLEASE!!!"in your subject line might be a bad idea. Many people read thousands of messages on usenet everyday, skipping the ones that do not sounds interesting or unprecise. A subject line like "i boot my machine and everything seems to be normal, but after about 30 minutes my network connection suddenly drops and I can"t reach the outside world"with a body saying"see subject"is a Bad Idea (tm), too. Try to summarize your problem in one brief statement a la"network connection drops unexpectedly". Quoting When you reply to another message, quote only the relevant portions of the message you are replying to. Don"t quote the whole message if not necessary, especially deleting previous signatures. Be careful to not misattribute something. Leave in the attribution line that most newsreaders provide. Observe the attribution lines and read posts carefully. Replied text goes below the quoted text! Please see http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html for a more detailed discussion on the Quoting in Usenet. Signatures Everybody wants to have a funky signature. Everybody wants to advertise his or her website etc. That is fine. Just keep your signature at no longer than 4 lines. Otherwise the percentage of content vs. noise easily becomes rather ridiculous. An example: In Message-ID: [39B1E426.2EB0A5EC@tom.com] the author quotes 26 lines (the entire message, including the other persons signature), writes 3 lines himself and attaches a 25 line signature. This gives a content/noise ratio of 3/51 or 5.55% content vs. 94.45% unnecessary noise. Granted this is an extreme example, but you get the idea. Keep your sig short. Also, make sure that your signature is separated from the rest of the message by"--" (two dashes and an empty space). The correct delimiter for a signature is"--" and NOT"--". Outlook Express manages to actually provide the correct delimiter, but strips the trailing whitespace when sending the message, resulting in a wrong delimiter. You might want to check the section on newsreaders again. Attachments Many people assume that everybody who reads speak.easy has a fast internet-connection, and that it is therefor okay to post large binaries to this newsgroup. Aside from the fact that it is simply bad netiquette to post any binary into a non-binary newsgroup, this assumption simply is not true. Many people who have just signed up for SE"s service are accessing the newsgroup through a dialup connection. Starting to download a message which suddenly takes up all your bandwidth and seceral minutes to download can be very frustrating. Also, sometimes it is not even neccessary to post an attachment. If, for example you just want to post your ping-results (as mentioned above, this seems to be the main reason for some people to read this group), you do not need to take a screenshot, import that picture into a Microsoft Word document and then post this document as an attachment. ;-) If you absolutely must post an attachment to SE"s attention, please email it to the involved parties after asking them if it is okay to email them an attachment of some kind (many people simply delete attachments if they do not know that they are coming due to the high virus-risk). Do NOT post any attachments into speak.easy. Also, be aware that supernews is filtering all posts with attachments to non-binary news groups. If your post has an attachment, and the news groups you are posting to are not binary news groups, your post will end up in the bit bucket. Groups are defined as binaries if the groups are properly named (ie: they have "binaries" in their name.) This filtering is preformed on articles generated by users of supernews as well as posts originating elsewhere. Flame If a certain person keeps bugging you, if you find a person especially annoying, you may choose to flame that person. Flaming is a rare skill, and should not consist only of"Your Momma"s so fat...";. For your convenience we provide an exemplary"generic flame-mail"- just fill it out as you see fit and then copy"n paste where indicated. But be warned, flaming is not for the faint of heart - it might lead to flame-wars, killfiling and other hostilities. But it"s fun, too ;-) ========================= begin generic flame mail ======================+ Dear: [ ] Clueless Newbie [ ] Lamer [ ] AOLer [ ]`Me too'er [ ] Pervert [ ] Geek [ ] Spammer [ ] Nerd [ ] Elvis [ ] Fed [ ] Freak [ ] Scientologist [ ] Scammer [ ] Moron [ ] Pre-teen You Are Being Flamed Because: [ ] You posted MODs in pieces LESS than 5000 lines [ ] You posted something asking for warez sites [ ] You quoted an ENTIRE post in your reply [ ] You continued a long, stupid thread [ ] You started an off-topic thread [ ] You posted a`YOU ALL SUCK'message [ ] You didn't look on Deja first for the answer to your question [ ] You did not read the FAQ [ ] You haven't learned the difference between E-mail and newsgroups [ ] You posted a blatently obvious troll [ ] You posted pretending to be someone famous (See`troll'above) [ ] You replied to the above message type believing it was actually someone famous [ ] You said`me too'to something [ ] You suck [ ] Your sig/alias/server sucks [ ] You posted a lame-sex ad [ ] You posted a stupid pyramid money making scheme and claimed it was legal [ ] I think you might be a fed [ ] You posted something other than plain text to a newsgroup. [ ] You posted in ALL CAPS because you think your question is more important than anyone elses. [ ] You posted in ElItE CaPiTaLs because you think that makes you cool [ ] You didn't do anything specific, but appear to be so generally worthless that you are being flamed anyway To Repent, You Must: [ ] Stop masturbating for a week [ ] Give up your AOL account [ ] Bust up your modem with a hammer and eat it [ ] Tell your Mummy you've been a bad boy [ ] Jump into a bathtub while holding your monitor [ ] Actually post something relevant [ ] Read the FAQ [ ] Be the guest of honor in alt.flame for a month In Closing, I'd Like to Say: [ ] Blow me [ ] Get a life [ ] Never post again [ ] Age 10 more years before you post again [ ] I pity your dog [ ] Go to hell [ ] Yer momma's so fat/stupid/ugly that etc... [ ] Take your shit somewhere else [ ] Get fuckked, you pathetic loser [ ] Learn to post or fuck off [ ] All of the above ========================= end generic flame mail ========================= 9.5. Who am I? If you keep posting to usenet for a while, you will soon discover that most people can be classified in certain categories. To find out in which category you might belong, or what kind of folks hang out in Usenet, take a look at http://www.winternet.com/~mikelr/flame1.html --------------------------- 10. Misc 10.1. Testing Throughput "You can actually go http://dslcheck..speakeasy.net/ to reach our test sites, where pop is "sea" for Seattle, "nyc" for New York, etc. http://216.254.95.2/ will take you to the same place (assuming you"re on the New York POP). Seattle and New York are currently up, and we will be extending this to all new POPs, as well as improving the site itself." - Henry Hurley in [jAvD5.8444\$UP5.156899@news6.giganews.com] As of 2000-12-20, you may as well enter"chi"(if you"re on the Chicago POP), "den"(if you"re on the Denver POP),"sfo"(if you"re on the San Francisco POP),"lax"(if you"re on the Los Angeles POP), or"dfw"(if you"re on the Dallas POP). Usually it"s a good idea to start several downloads at the same time and then add the numbers up. Does Win9x provide a means to check my download speed? As long as no other applications are writing to disk at the same time, Windows System Monitor does a fine job. * Click Start, then Run, and enter"sysmon"without the quotes. * Click Edit, then Add Item. * Select"File System"on the left and"Bytes Written/Second"on the right. * Click"Ok". * To change the refresh rate, click Options. * To configure the individual meters, double-click them. 10.2. IRC Which servers can I access? Here is a current list of efnet irc servers that speakeasy users are allowed on (as of 2000-09-27): * irc.emory.edu * irc.lightning.net * irc.mcs.net * irc.east.gblx.net * irc.west.gblx.net * irc.prison.net * irc.ins.net.uk * irc.colorado.edu * irc.concentric.net You also might want to check out http://www.efnet.org/servers.html or post a message to speak.easy - one of the people there is involved with mirc and will most likely be able to respond to your question with more detail than we could. My connection has been K-lined at various public IRC servers. What"s the chance of Speakeasy hosting one or more IRC servers themselves? "Speakeasy has no plans to run an IRC server, and we aren"t considering running one. From our perspective, having an IRC server is like putting a BIG red target saying "Come attack me" on our network. However, you"re welcome to run an IRC server at your end of the DSL line." - Lisa Phillips in [39B532D5.3FA6E48A@speakeasy.net] My connection is K-lined at my favorite IRC server! What can I do? "You could E-mail the IRC operator for the server and request an"I: line"for your specific IP address(s). This will work only for"static-IP" (i.e. non-DHCP) accounts."- Brian Chaney in [tDet5.62153\$g53.1000337@news5.giganews.com] Can I run my own IRC-server? Contrary to what it written in the TOS, you are allowed to run an IRC server over your DSL line: "Essentially, you can run your IRC server. But at the point where it may become disruptive (if you, for example, experience a DOS attack) we may ask you to turn it off."- Lisa Phillips in [39B542AD.61CA4A95@speakeasy.net] Can I run bots, then? "You can run it on your own server on your own line. But if it becomes a disruption we may ask you to stop. I believe the TOS has always said something about not running Bots, we just haven"t removed that yet. Bots and IRC servers are strictly prohibited, however, on our shell servers (grace and eve)." - Lisa Phillips in [39C6587E.20C50BCA@speakeasy.net] 10.3. I am aware there are sites that allow me to make long distance calls from either my PC to a land line, from my PC to another PC, and even from POTS to POTS at a reduced rate. Where can I find these sites? The"Big-3"are Net2Phone, Dialpad, and PhoneFree. Here are some links: * http://www.phonefree.com/ * http://www.dialpad.com/ * http://www.deltathree.com/ * http://www.mediaring.com/ * http://www.accesspower.com/ * http://www.net2phone.com/ 10.3. I have heard about`Off-site Internet File Storage'. Tell me more! Services offer storage space at their remote web-based for files. Once stored there, you can access them from anywhere in the world. Different sites have different plans (amount of space they give you for free, how much additional space costs, etc.). Some creativity on your part is required to make efficient use of these services, but here are some links: * http://www.idrive.com/ * http://www.idrop.com/ * http://www.storagepoint.com/ * http://www.backup.com/ 10.4. Where can I learn all the buzzwords? Check out the Jargon File, a comprehensive compendium of hacker slang illuminating many aspects of hackish tradition, folklore, and humor, available from a large careity of sites. Just feed your preferred search-engine with the phrase"Jargon File". For all you lazy bastards, here"s one : http://rudy.mif.pg.gda.pl/~pck/linux/jargon.html 10.5. If I want to move before my 1 year of service is up, but get Speakeasy DSL service at the new location, what penalities would apply? Even though Chris Hunter explained some time ago: "If you have another Speakeasy/Covad Line installed, no early-termination fees occur, and your 1-year commitment is not restarted. If Covad service is *not avialable* at your new location, no cancellation fee applies."- Chris Hunter in an email to us ([20001116194635.L27902@speakeasy.net]) We now were informed of a change in the TOS: "In the event of a service move (if you move and have the service installed at the new location,) the twelve-month term begins again from the date of installation at the new location. Additionally, in the event of a switch from another ISP to Speakeasy, the twelve month service term will begin from the date that the ISP switch is completed. If you request to have your service migrated to another provider anytime during your first year of service with a specific order, your account will be subject to a $250 Outbound Switch Fee to cover our provisioning expenses for your line."--"Myles Cochran" in [DDEAIFDLGKOAJIJKOONJIEMNCHAA.myles@speakeasy.net] 10.6. How do I set up my second email account? "Either drop a mail to "support@speakeasy.net" or give our support line a call: 1.800.556.5829 x2"- Tim Hurley in [39BEFA82.3CAEC545@speakeasy.net] 10.7. How can I forward my mail to another account or use /.forward in another way)? "All mail to speakeasy accounts is now first directed to our mail cluster. Normally, you can just read your mail on the cluster with your favorite POP3 or IMAP client. However, if you wish, you can setup forwarding on the cluster to any account, via the "Preferences" section of the webamail interface. http://webmail.speakeasy.net/ If you"d like to use a shell based reader like pine or mutt, you can setup this forward to go to username@grace.speakeasy.org, and all your mail wil be delivered there. However, if you do this, you will no longer be able to use the webmail interface to read stored mail, since webmail looks to the cluster for stored messages. (you can still send messages with webmail though). .forward files on grace/eve are only read IF you have the above forwarding setup, and mail would forward to whatever account you have in the .forward." -- Christopher Hunter in [3B4507C3.611B23C7@SPAMAWAYspeakeasy.net] 10.8. Can I run a Napster Server or similar? The Problem: "I received a cease and decist letter from the RIAA today involving running an Opennap server. [...] If I decide to not refuse this, will I have to find another provider?" Jon Keating in [te9kthb5nr21b8@corp.supernews.com] No Problem: "At this point, we believe this issue is between the RIAA and the end user. We will not request termination of any servers allegedly providing copyrighted material unless we receive legitimate cease and desist notification (ie. a court order) from the RIAA or any other firm acting on the behalf of an artist or company." Kat Oak in [tebiptbsljqn4e@corp.supernews.com] Nice. --------------------------- 11. Who is Who of speak.easy The following is a list of people posting regularly into speak.easy: Immortals: * Edward Bender - * Matt Chapman - [Support Technician] * Chris Hunter - * Henry Hurley * Tim Hurley - * Bryan Middleton - [Speakeasy Networks Corporate Shill /Cheerleader In Tights] * Lisa Phillips - [Network Operations] * Kat Oak - If you would like to be added to this list, please send an email to se_faq@netmeister.org 12. Contact The following is a list of contact email-addresses and telephone-numbers, mainly from http://www.speakeasy.net/contact.html 12.1. SE Says "Speakeasy Technical Support is Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our Support number is 1-800-556-5829 in Seattle please call 206-728-9770. You may expedite your support email requests by using the following addresses: * our main address: support@speakeasy.net * Accounting \& billing: billing@speakeasy.net * DSL pending installation questions: spkdsl@speakeasy.net * Aliases for hosted domains \& email: aliases@speakeasy.net * Hosted domains \& DNS questions: domains@speakeasy.net * Spam \& abuse complaints: abuse@speakeasy.net * Sales \& service changes: dsl@speakeasy.net * DSL IP requests: dslips@speakeasy.net [or dns@speakeasy.net] Please do not send attachments to support via email, and please note we are unable to send passwords over email for security reasons. When contacting support, please check TAC system status first to see if there are any system wide issues, and then please let us know: * your speakeasy username or order number * your operating system * your status: pre-order? pre-install? open trouble ticket? * any relevant trouble ticket numbers * a specific explantion of your problem including : * what software you are using * any error messages you are getting * what you have tried to resolve the problem We will try to resolve your issue as quickly as possible. Thank you." 12.2. We Say There are a few other contact-addresses you might want to know about: * pings@speakeasy.org - to reports latency. [traceroutes are allowed in the body of the message, no attachments please!] * news@speakeasy.net - to request a new news group * dns@speakeasy.org - IP allocation and reverse lookup changes * domains@speakeasy.org - Domain hosting issues and forward DNS requests ---------------------------