Tag: security

How Can I Use A Hosts File To My Advantage?

Posted onAuthorTruXter

[tags]ip adress,malware,virus,trojan,security,computer,hack,intrusion,backdoor,safety,privacy,protection,prevention[/tags]

A hosts file is a file located in the ETC folder of almost every operating system (with some exceptions). The hosts file is a file that is scanned at the first accesses of a network. Be it a program that you expect to go to the internet or not. Your computer will first try and resolve the dns with the host. It does this by checking the hosts file.

In your hosts file, you can tell your computer what IP address to assign web addresses. By doing this, you bypass all network look ups on the internet for specific addresses. It is impossible to knock out every single website there is. You can how ever knock out all sites submitted, reported, and confirmed as malware sites.

You can also stop your kid from hitting sites you do not want her/him going to. The way it works is you move to the lowest section in the hosts file and type in the IP address you would like that website to go to. Like this:

127.0.0.1 a_site_you_do_not_want_to_go_to.com

This blocks that site from ever loading on your computer.

If you have a program that goes to “a_site_you_do_not_want_to_go_to.com” by default, the program will not be able to update. This can be used to your advantage if the site that the program is trying to connect to is a virus site, and the program is a virus, trojan or a malware notification type program (like a spider). We call them adware and spyware these days, the program will not be able to contact it’s owner, this hides you from the owner and increases your security. Some malware updates itself by connecting to its owner’s location, unless it is specificly assigned an IP address to connect to. That, of course, would be a mistake on the writer’s part. Much easier to locate that way, and you could actually block that IP address if you took the time.

I use mvps host because he has a much larger list than I do. I just add my stuff to his when i download it and set up my hosts file. If you have a list of bad sites, do what I and a few others do, email it to mvps site. I do suggest that you read everything on the wiki and mvps site before you do anything to change your hosts. Really, if you block yourself from the interenet (god only knows how that could ever happen) you just clear out all IP addresses and domain names in the list and you are back to the way it was.

If you have any questions related to this topic feel free to ask them.

TruXter

Owner and writer of :

iworkwithtech.com and iworkwithpeople.com

Job Expands

Posted onAuthorTruXter

New locations coming to our fire alarm company, pretty good stuff.

Our Main office will stay the same same in Houston

We have purchased the property for our new locations and have construction on the way.

Our austin Facility is up and running. This is a great year.

I may even transfer to our San Antonio location as soon as it has ac .. lol Texas is fricken hot. anything to get out of Comcast’s capitolism.

I like to think we are better than all Texas fire alarm companies . I am sure we are the better fire alarm and detection company in Houston .

We are upgrading hundreds of fire alarm control panels (facp) from the 7100. it seems people want the new stuff. Really i am just the bew guy and all so I have no idea why they want the new one that sounds an alarm just the same as the current one that sounds the same alarm. I am sure it’s the ease of use in the new ones that allow the ‘actual owner’ a chance to understand what to do and how to do things, in certain situations. The E3 Facp is the “broad band” panel, The new. Maybe I’m old fashioned and like the old everything, Vintage means ” all bugs have been noted” and you can actually get help from past users< but this planet seems to be full of wealthier people than who are out for the E3 type things in life. Maybe it’s the security of knowing that you have the latest when your establishment is built and it should be good for a while that sales them to go that route. I myself will buy it used and and hack what I can into it’s firmware and make stuff better for me. But that is me. I guess that is me and why i am in the office doing cad instead of out in the field programming the panels. lol.

I mean it’s not like everyone in the world wants to have cool specialized interface that comes at the price of having to reboot every time you do something or what ever expense that modded software usually causes you to have to endure.

it sure would upset a fire marshal if every time he inspects my panel he sees his name on the display. lol

Phone Phishing

Posted onAuthorTruXter

As I have looked over the internet I see other people experiencing the same thing there is a phone number popping up

877-545-1392  as the number from the person who is calling. The person who calls, claims to be from ADT security. This person asks if they can get credit card numbers and bank account numbers and  home address and pass code to the security box so they can dissable the alarm from the main office and update software and or trouble shoot the issue.

I suggest you give them no information. I mean from what they are asking, they want to clean out your bank account, max out your credit card and rob your house, and god forbid you be home when they break in. If you are home you will not only be broke and in debt, you will be dead.

Well I decide to call the real ADT today, and guess what I get on the phone?.

Good ol “Jeff”. the boy sounded stoned and burned up from a bad day of calls. Nothing meant anything to him and he called me paranoid.  Paranoid? I mean his job circles around paranoid people WTF! I mean yeah it’s good to protect your stuff and alarms save lives.

Well I left him the number anyway. But these dirt bags are burning up my T-mobile minutes .

Makes me wanna scream “HEY DILDO YOU AIN’T IN MY FAVE FIVES!”

New job!

Posted onAuthorTruXter1 Comment

Probably not the most techy news I have done here but I got a new job working for a company called “HiTech” Fire detection.

A fire alarm and sprinkler company from out in Houston area. The guys here are great and very relaxed. Kinda strange to me because I have never been this comfortable in a work environment.

Well forget all the intros let’s get to the bone. I seem to have been assigned a task of building a website. See this guy Eein that I am working with built a site straight from css and tables and stuff which of course i think is fine and runs circles around the current site . But the owner saw me messing around with some flash ap and just jacking around with my desktop and a web template . Now see, I didn’t really want the task of building the site, simply because if it looks lame to me I will rebuild it , and rebuild it and it will never be finished. I have scrapped it like five times now already.

Well if a site is what they want then a site is what they get. You see though, I like the site that Eein built. It just looks better and is more sound and can be easily updated when needed, and it can be crawled at any time by any search bot. The owners of the site want a flash intro and a flash ap on the page , a flash ap that I really do not want to get buried in. They want a room to navigate in with a fire extinguisher and a sprinkler and a horn strobe and a lighted exit sign above the door in the back. I am sure I can do it, but man I would hate to have to edit it. I can edit it but dang .

You guys tell me what looks better. I really like Eein’s site I have said that from the start and am really against a bloated flash site. The current site is done in mostly Iframes and I really cannot see a bot crawling that which really is not a helpfull thing, ya know? See I know that they are going to be expanding to Austin Dallas and San Antonio real soon, like before the end of 2008. They surely will be wanting an update to the site telling people in those areas that it would not take long for us to get our guys on the site. Now that is becoming bigger work. I am still learning the ropes of the job and if I spend all my time on the clock building a site, when my evaluation period ends and I don’t know anything……. dude I will be screwed.

Looking at hours of photoshop and adobe flash cs3 man,!!!!

The dell machine and adobe flash cs3 and if you could zoom way in, you would see photoshop somewhere in the taskbar. This sad little machine is a trooper though, it is doing all that with only 512 mb ram, minimum for flash install. The 3.2g pentium is the life saver there though.

looks like houston.com has them in the forefront