Custom Search


 

Web stuff:


Host files
Favicons
Dotless IP addresses
Modem Settings
Web Page Transitions
Scrollbar Colors
Fixed Web Page Backgrounds
Web Page Timeouts
Display cookies for the current website
Cookies and Internet Explorer 5.x
Outlook Express security
Protect your Internet Explorer settings
The Internet Explorer spinning logo
Internet Explorer Backgrounds
Change the Internet Explorer Title Bar
Change the Outlook Express Title Bar
Change the America Online Title Bar
Internet Explorer Search Options
Delete Typed URLs
Disable Internet Explorer Password Caching
ZoomIn-ZoomOut Fix
Open Outlook Express links in a new window
E-Mail Stuff







You can find out when a Website was last updated by entering the following in the address/location bar:
javascript:alert(document.lastModified)
or save this as "c:\windows\favorites\filename.url" (make sure it doesn't have a .txt on the end):
[InternetShortcut]
URL=javascript:alert(document.lastModified)





Host file abuse


Windows uses a file in c:\windows called hosts (no file extension) that will map IP addresses to names. The hosts file is usually not used except by software that speeds up your web browsing by having the IP/hostname locally, avoiding the Domain Name system and shaving a few seconds off of lookup times. (If you're unable to connect to a site that you know is online, check this file.) Anyway...I use mine to avoid ads. Here's a hosts file:

127.0.0.1 www.uproar.com
127.0.0.1 www.iwin.com
127.0.0.1 www.speedyclick.com
127.0.0.1 ads.msn.com
127.0.0.1 is the local address of all computers, so you could use this as-is. I'm telling my computer that www.uproar.com is located at the IP address 127.0.0.1, which gives me a 'Not Found' instead of the ad. If, for example, you're REALLY SICK of those idiotic 'punch the monkey' ads, you right click the picture and select 'Copy Shortcut'. Notice I'm using only the computer name (www) and the domain name (uproar.com), not subdirectories. You can use just 'uproar.com' if there isn't anything else from that domain you want, i.e. I want to visit msn.com but don't want ads from ads.msn.com. In many cases, 'www' will only block web pages from the domain but not the ads.
If you're using Notepad to edit or create an hosts file, surround it in "double-quotes" when you save so's Notepad won't add a .txt extension.
Of course, those ads are what pays for the free web services I use...but they were asking for it when they started opening browser windows without my ok.
If other people are using your computer, it's a lot of fun to map a site they use a lot, like hotmail.com, to the IP of ZeldasHouseOfPain.com. :-D

More information about host files:
http://accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html - accs-net.com
(defunct)"//www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-04-03.htm#5">Fred, raining on my parade(/defunct)


Hostile code:
exitfuel.com HTML source
Good site to use a HOST file on.





Favicon


Add this to your web page HTML code in the <HEAD> section:
<LINK REL="SHORTCUT ICON" href="fdnet.ico">
This adds your choice of favicon to that particular page. You can just upload your favicon.ico file to the root of your web site and it will automatically be used for all pages. The favicon.ico file should be 16x16 and 16 colors for maximum compatibility. You can make one online at favicon.com






Getting a dotless IP address:


This one is from //www.neatnettricks.com/ - Neat Net Tricks
Take the first three numbers of the IP and multiply this by 16777216 (192 X 16777216 = 3221225472.) Take the second set of numbers and multiply this by 65536 (41 X 65536 = 2686976.) Take the third set of numbers and multiply by 256 (28 X 256 = 7186.) Take the three sums and add them to the fourth set of numbers (3221225472 + 2686976 + 7186 + 243 = 3223919859.) This final sum, entered in the browser location box - without periods - will get you to the Neat Net Tricks site.








Tweak your modem settings for a faster connect to your ISP from //www.lockergnome.com - Lockergnome:


Open the Control Panel, click on the Modems icon, click your modem's Properties button, select the Connection tab, then click the Advanced button. In the Extra settings field, enter "S11=50" (without the quotes). You could also try "40" (the lower the number, the faster your modem will dial). Also note that if you have more than one entry in your Extra Settings field, each should be separated by a single space.





Web page transitions:


Transition Syntax
The syntax for transitions consists of three parts: specifying when the event should be played, the duration of the transition, and what kind of transition effect to use. The following two examples show how to set transitions upon entry and exit of a page.

<META http-equiv="Page-Enter" CONTENT="RevealTrans(Duration=4,Transition=1)">
<META http-equiv="Page-Exit" CONTENT="RevealTrans(Duration=2.500,Transition=6)">

The first META tag causes transition 1 to play when the user enters the page, lasting 4 seconds; the second META tag causes transition 6 to play when the user leaves the page, lasting 2.5 seconds (written as 2 seconds and 500 milliseconds).
There are four events that can initiate interpage transitions: Page-Enter , Page-Exit, Site-Enter, and Site-Exit. Duration has a maximum value of 30 seconds, but if you use a thirty second transition, don't expect people to come to your page more than once.
Transitions Reference
The available reveal transitions that are supported in Internet Explorer 4.0 are described below. Transition name and Value :
Box in 0
Box out 1
Circle in 2
Circle out 3
Wipe up 4
Wipe down 5
Wipe right 6
Wipe left 7
Vertical blinds 8
Horizontal blinds 9
Checkerboard across 10
Checkerboard down 11
Random dissolve 12
Split vertical in 13
Split vertical out 14
Split horizontal in 15
Split horizontal out 16
Strips left down 17
Strips left up 18
Strips right down 19
Strips right up 20
Random bars horizontal 21
Random bars vertical 22
Random 23






http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/samples/author/dhtml/refs/scrollbarColor.htm - Scrollbar colors
Local copy





A fixed background on a web page:


In the <BODY> tag, add:
bgproperties="fixed"


Better with a style sheet:
<style type="text/css">
body {
Background-image: url(EarthRise.jpg);
Background-color: #000000 ;
Background-repeat: no-repeat
}
</style>







Change web page time-out limits:


Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP
Create a New -- String Value and name it:
DefaultTTL
...or if it's already there, double click it...
Change the value to 64
The default is 32, meaning 64 will give the page twice as much time to load before you get a Site Not Found message.





Display cookie contents:

(from Fred Langa's newsletter - //www.langa.com)
Next time you're on any web site, go to the address or
location bar where the URL is shown, and type this where the
URL normally goes:
javascript:alert("Cookie is: " + document.cookie)
If you have JavaScript enabled and if the site uses Cookies,
then when you hit Enter a small window will open showing you
all the information the site you're visiting has collected
in its Cookie about you. Often, the information is some
weird and cryptic tracking number.
But on many sites---including //www.langa.com--- the
trick above won't show any information at all: That means
the site doesn't use Cookies and is storing absolutely no
Cookie information whatsoever about you.
Sites with banner ads (www.langa.com has no banner ads)
usually store at least some information: They track which ad
you've seen so they know when to show a new ad, for example.
But banner ads may store information in their own cookies,
separate from the main document.cookie itself. To view
these, use Explorer and navigate to your \WINDOWS\COOKIES
directory for Internet Explorer Cookies, or to  \PROGRAM
FILES\NETSCAPE\USERS\[yourname]\COOKIE.TXT for Netscape
Navigator. You can read the Cookie files with NotePad.







Can't disable cookies with Internet Explorer 5?


Go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Internet Settings
and look for the AllowCookies DWORD setting. A 1 (one) on the end means accept cookies; change it to 0 (zero) to disable cookies.
This probably won't work with IE 5.01 and above, but you should be using the
Security settings to manage cookies anyway. Right? Right!


Although "they" have always said cookies are safe, now we find out Doubleclick (and probably many others) can use them across domains and match them with names and addresses to build a detailed profile. You should also dig around at CERT.org for information about the recently (Feb. 2000) discovered web-wide vulnerabilities that cookies can be exploited for...also, //www.informit.com/guides/content.asp?g=security&seqNum=232&rl=1


Being paranoid is exhausting!







Security:


Change the properties of the Restricted Sites zone to disallow everything listed: Start Menu -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Internet Options -> Security -> select the Restricted Sites icon, then click the 'Custom Level' button; the 'Default Level' button can restore it back to the original unsafe settings.
If you're using Outlook Express, put e-mail into the Restricted Sites zone (Tools -> Options -> Security) . Poke around at cert.org for the many reasons why, or reread the news stories about the Melissa/ILOVEYOU/Bubbleboy/etc. viruses.


Symantec offers a free "n o s c r i p t . e x e" download that lets you turn your Windows Scripting Host on or off //www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/win.script.hosting.html


Locate 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ InternetSettings \ Zones \ 0' in the system registry. "Flags" will be set to (33) by default. Double-click it to change that value to 1. Log off (or reboot) to see a new zone appear: My Computer, where local scripting can be managed.







Preserve your IE settings:


In Control Panel -- Internet Options -- Advanced, set everything up the way you want it, open RegEdit, go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Advanced Options
export the Advanced Options key to a safe place, then delete it from the registry. The actual values are stored in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main , and won't be affected. To change the values, find the exported Advanced Options .reg file and double-click it.
(from //www.winmag.com - Windows Magazine's (defunct)="//www.langa.com">Fred Langa(/defunct) column in the July '99 issue.)





Change the spinning Internet Explorer logo:


In regedit, navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar
Create a New - String Value and name it:
BrandBitmap
Create another New - String Value and name it:
SmBrandBitmap
Enter the full path to a bitmap for the value of the two new string values. BrandBitmap should be 38x38 pixels and SmBrandBitmap should be 26x26 pixels to display without distortion.
On IE5, this will affect IE and Outlook Express 5, but not Windows Explorer.
Note that the logo will not be animated.

To make an animated replacement for the Internet Explorer logo:


Make an image strip 38 pixels wide by however-many-pixels tall. Here's an example of mine:

The total size is 38x684, 78 kb. (Download 10 sets of bitmaps:
animlogos.zip).

For the artistically challenged:
You can use IrfanView (freeware image viewer) to extract all images from an animated gif and save them as bitmaps, then assemble your own logo from those in MSPaint.

You can have a separate image for when Explorer isn't doing anything. In the same location as the BrandBitmap, create a New -> String Value, name it BigBitmap, and type in the path to a static bitmap that is 38x38 pixels. Create another New -> String Value and name it SmallBitmap and type in the path to a 22x22 pixel bitmap.


Put a bitmap on your explorer toolbar:


Go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\InternetExplorer\Toolbar
Create a new string called
BackBitmap
and doubleclick it. Type in the path to your .bmp file.
To apply a background to Internet Explorer only, the new string is called
BackBitmapIE5
A background for Windows Explorer only would be called
BackBitmapShell






To restore Internet Explorer to the way it was before the customizations, click on the Start button, click 'Run', and enter:
rundll32.exe iedkcs32.dll,Clear






Change Internet Explorer's title bar:


Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main.
Right-click in a blank area of RegEdit's right pane and choose New, String Value. Name the new string:
Window Title
exactly as shown here and press Enter. Now double-click the new string's icon and, when the dialog box opens, type in your new title as you want it to appear in the title bar.

It seems the IE5.x title bar location moved to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main Follow the same steps as above.


The Outlook Express title bar:


Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express
In RegEdit's right pane, right-click the mouse and choose New, String Value. Name the new string
WindowTitle
exactly as shown and press Enter. Note that, though the string value for the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 title has a space between Window and Title, there is no such space in the Outlook Express string. Now double-click the new string's icon and type in your new title.

The Outlook Express v5.x title bar moved to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{5A8FE980-7421-11D3-8982-8C79325C5F4B}\Software \Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0






And in AOL...


Find the file called 'version.inf' in your AOL folder (installs by default to c:\America Online\version.inf),and add this line:
oem=My new window title






IE search


Add .gov sites to the list of sites searched for by IE by going to the registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\UrlTemplate
Create a New -> String Value matching the others, i.e. 'www.%s.gov'





Delete typed URLs:


HU\default\Software\Microsoft\InternetExplorer\TypedURLs
Right-click the ones you're ashamed to let anyone see you went to and select Delete.
To prevent them from being recorded in the first place, in either Internet Explorer or Netscape, press Ctrl + O (the letter 'o', not a zero) and enter the address.






Disable IE5 Password Caching


To disable IE5 caching of web page passwords, open RegEdit and go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings ,
right-click a blank area and select New --> DWORD value. Name it:
DisablePasswordCaching
and set the value to 0x00000001





Open Outlook Express links in a new window:


(Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 256953)
Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows 98
Double-click the My Computer icon on the desktop to start Windows Explorer.
On the View menu, click Folder Options.
On the File Types tab, click URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol in the list, and then click Edit.
In the Edit File Type dialog box that appears, click the OPEN entry in the Actions box, and then click Edit.
In the Editing action for type: URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol window, click to clear the Use DDE check box.
In the Application used to perform action box, type %1 at the end of the string so it looks like the following example (the drive and location of Iexplore.exe may be different):
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -nohome %1
Click OK, click Close, and then click Close.
Quit Windows Explorer.
Quit all versions of Internet Explorer.
Now when you run Outlook Express, additional links are opened in a new Internet Explorer window.





Internet Explorer powertoys - zoomin and zoomout:


To make images zoom in and out without distortion, open c:\windows\web\zoomin.htm and zoomout.htm files with Notepad.
They have this code in them:
h = parentwin.event.srcElement.height / 2;
parentwin.event.srcElement.height = h;
w = parentwin.event.srcElement.width / 2;
parentwin.event.srcElement.width = w;

Change them to look like this:
h = parentwin.event.srcElement.height / 2;
w = parentwin.event.srcElement.width / 2;
parentwin.event.srcElement.height = h;
parentwin.event.srcElement.width = w;

If you don't ever use this feature, you can change the 2 to an 8 (or higher) and use it on the annoying flashing banner ads to shrink them to a dot.







E-mail stuff:


It's nice to have your e-mail address on your web page so visitors can contact you. However, special robots that can collect e-mail addresses from pages can find and save them without human help, putting you on junk e-mail lists. So...encode your e-mail address.
<script language=javascript>
<!--
var lick = "kevin";
var me = "fiveanddime.net";
document.write("<a href=" + "mai" + "lto:" + lick + "@" + me + ">e-mail link text goes here!</a>")
//-->
</script>

You can set the subject and insert body text into the e-mail:
<a href="mailto:yourname@yourdomain.com?subject=Put%20a%20subject%20here&body=Put%20 some%20body%20text%20here%20.">This is the 'E-mail Me' or whatever link</a>
(the %20 's are blank spaces)
Test






You can check your e-mail server status yourself and look like a geek at the same time. Click the Start button, then Run, and type telnet .
Click 'Connect' , then 'Remote System'. 'Host Name' is your e-mail account domain (if you are billgates@microsoft.com, then 'Host Name' would be microsoft.com; port 110 checks the POP e-mail server. You should get a terse welcome message if all is well. If you get a 'Could not connect to...' alert box, the system may be down.

Check the same way on Port 25 for SMTP (internet mail between servers). If you get a 'Could not connect to...' alert and you can't get your mail, contact your system administrator. Really. They LIKE it when you do that. Very few of us will give your e-mail address to bambisadulttoys.com and then cancel your account for abusing the e-mail system. Honest.

     An alternative to test your email is to send a blank email to
     echo@tu-berlin.de
     the mail bounces and brings useful information.

     Others, not recently tested:
     TO: test@alphanet.ch
     TO: Test@TWP.net
     TO: echo@wireworm.com
     TO: internet@dummies.com
     TO: ftpmail@irz.inf.tu-dresden.de
     TO: ftpmail@informatik.uni-oldenburg.de

     For the last 2 addresses, use
     SUBJ: ping




//www.woram.com/letter/WINMAG/2000-12.HTM - Adding and hiding Internet Explorer Security Zones from John Woram, Registry Wizard
local copy









http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q256/9/53.asp - OLEXP: How to Configure Outlook Express to Open Links in E-mail Messages in a New Browser Window
local copy









HTML Escape Codes
TCP & IP headers





ASO

The Address Supporting Organisation

CENTR - //www.centr.org/index.html

Council of European National Top level domain Registries
//www.iana.org/cctld/cctld.htm - ccTLDs - ccTLD administrators

//www.iana.org/ - IANA

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

//www.icann.org/ - ICANN

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number
//www.icann.org/dnso/dnso1.htm - DNSO - The Domain Name Supporting Organisation
//www.icann.org/pso/psonew.htm - PSO - The Protocol Supporting Organisation

//www.ietf.org/ - IETF The Internet Engineering Task Force
//www.apnic.net/ - APNIC

Asia Pacific Network Information Centre

//www.arin.net/ - ARIN

American Registry for Internet Numbers




//www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/cisintwk/ita/index.html - Internetworks terms and acronyms from Cisco
//www.cse.ohio-state.edu/rfc/ - Master site for RFC's
//www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html - List of Accredited and Accreditation-Qualified Registrars
//www.ripe.net/sitemap.html - RIPE
//www.iss.net/security_center/advice/Exploits/Ports/ - port numbers



DS0: 64Kbps
DS1/T-1: 1.544Mbps
DS1C/T-1C: 3.152Mbps
DS2/T-2: 6.312Mbps
DS3/T-3: 44.736Mbps
DS3D/T-3D: 135Mbps
DS4: 274.176Mbps
E-1: 2.048Mbps
E-2: 8.448Mbps
E-3: 34.368Mbps
E-4: 139.264Mbps
E-5: 565.148Mbps
OC-1: 51.84Mbps
OC-3: 155.52Mbps
OC-12: 622.08Mbps
OC-24: 1.244Gbps
OC-48: 2.488Gbps
OC-192: 10Gbps
OC-256: 13.271Gbps
OC-768: 39.813Gbps







back to notes

Linux






(defunct)="//www.langa.com/newsletter.htm" (/defunct)

FREE and SPAM-PROOF!

(defunct)="//www.langa.com/newsletter.htm" target="_blank"> CLICK(/defunct) to sign up for
Fred Langa's award-winning e-newsletter. I'm subscribed to seven tech newsletters; Fred's is the best by far.


Update January 2009
This link is over 10 years old now. Fred is still writing at http://windowssecrets.com/library/. Go Fred!



Will we need this someday?
<meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="TRUE"> Update January 2009
...um...no...sorry.






www.fiveanddime.net







Custom Search