389 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
389 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
Computer Down-Under-Ground Digest. Volume 1, Number 2. Mon, 2 Mar 1992
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Editor: Aaron Schiff
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====================
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Usenet: aaron@nacjack.gen.nz (International and in NZ)
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FidoNet: Aaron Schiff 3:772/110.0 (In NZ only)
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Demi-Monde: Aaron Schiff 199:310/1.0 (In NZ only)
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SUPPORT BBS: The Miser's Vault. Phone: 820-2164, 24hrs.
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DISCLAIMER: The views presented herein do not necessarily represent the
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views of the editor. Individual authors accept all responsibility for
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ensuring articles submitted do not violate copyright restrictions. This
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publication has no affiliation with the Computer Underground Digest
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published in the USA.
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Computer Down-Under-Ground Digest is an open publication dedicated to the
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sharing of information and views concerning computer enthusiasts in New
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Zealand. CDUGD articles may be reprinted providing the source and original
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author are cited.
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Readers are welcome to submit articles to this publication. Please send all
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contributions to the above address.
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Issues of CDUGD are posted to the Demi-Monde.hack, Fido.nz.communications
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and alt.hackers (usenet) newsgroups. Back issues may be obtained by
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contacting the editor, or by downloading them from the support BBS.
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CDUGD holds a growing archive of text files that may be of interest to
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users. Complete lists and additions to the archive are published regularly.
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All text files may be downloaded from the support BBS.
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CONTENTS OF CDUGD Volume 1, Number 2
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====================================
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1. Editor's Report.
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2. CDUGD NEEDS YOU!
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3. CDUGD Has a Support BBS.
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4. Virus Report for March.
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5. Telepermitted Modems.
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6. Hacking in NZ.
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1. Editor's Report - By Aaron Schiff
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========================================
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Welcome to the first 'real' issue of CDUGD. For CDUGD to succeed YOU must
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contribute. Please write articles and help to keep it going!
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Previously I have said that CDUGD will be coming out monthly. This is no-
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longer true. Following the lead of other publications, CDUGD will come out
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when there are enough articles to support a new issue. This could mean each
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week, fortnight or month, depending on how many articles are sent to me.
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This system will ensure that CDUGD has up to date information and articles
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in each issue.
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You may have noticed the address for sending mail to CDUGD has changed.
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This is because the name Digest Daemon was no-longer allowed on FidoNet.
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All mail already sent to the old digest address but not yet received will
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be re-routed to the new address.
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FILES ARCHIVE: I need people with collections of useful Text files to
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contact me so that I can build up a large store of them for readers to
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access. I am in the process of obtaining all previous issues of PHRACK and
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CuD and will make them available as soon as possible. All files in the
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CDUGD archive will be available for downloading off the support BBS.
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NEW SERVICE: As a service to the community, Sysops may advertise NEW BBS's
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in CDUGD. This is a FREE service but is only for new bbs's and may only be
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used once. Ads must not be longer than 10 lines and should be 75 characters
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wide. Ads in improper format will not be accepted. Please upload your ad to
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the support bbs or mail it to the digest at one of the above addresses.
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MAILING LIST: If you are unable to pick up CDUGD from any of the above
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sources you may apply to be put on the CDUGD mailing list. To do so, send
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mail to the digest (and don't forget to include your e-mail address!). Each
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issue of CDUGD will be mailed to you when it comes out.
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2. CDUGD NEEDS YOU! - By Aaron Schiff
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=========================================
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Without your support CDUGD cannot succeed. I want people to write articles
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(on a regular basis or otherwise) on any (or any other) of the following
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topics:
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Hacking & Phreaking: What you've done; Who's done what & the consequences
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etc...
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Viruses: Need I say more?
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Profiles of Hackers: Similar to that in PHRACK. I wish to do profiles on
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New Zealand hackers. All it will consist of is a simple phone interview. If
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you don't volunteer, I'll pick you :-)
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Telecommunications: Everything to do with modems, Telecom etc...
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Concerns of the Computing Community: Anything that concerns you. Please
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speak up. Any articles accepted please. This is YOUR way to contribute.
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All Other Topics: ABSOLUTELY ANY SUBJECT will be considered. You write it,
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I'll publish it.
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+++++++++++++++++++++
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+ M * O * N * E * Y +
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+++++++++++++++++++++
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CDUGD is running short of funds. It cannot survive for long without
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financial support. I cannot afford to personally pay for all of the Digests
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expenses (mainly usenet e-mail charges).
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If you contribute any money to CDUGD, you can rest assured that it will be
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put to good use and... All donators will get their name at the top of every
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issue of the Digest. Fame at last!
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So please, support the digest, either by donating some money or writing
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articles (or both!).
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3. CDUGD Has a Support BBS! - By Aaron Schiff
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=================================================
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Dale McIsaac has kindly offered the services of his BBS (Misers Vault) to
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CDUGD.
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Phone 820-2164
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Hours: 24hrs.
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Speeds: 300-2400 (9600 coming soon!)
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Available on-line is a message forum for discussing articles in CDUGD and
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making suggestions about improvements etc, but please DO NOT post articles
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to be published to the message area. Instead, upload your article to the
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'CDUGD Uploads' file area. There are 3 file areas available for the
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following purposes:
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* CDUGD Uploads: For uploading articles to be published and text files that
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you would like to see in the archive.
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* CDUGD Issues: Holds all previous issues of CDUGD for you to download.
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* CDUGD Archive: Holds the CDUGD text file archive for you to download
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from.
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I can be contacted on the Misers Vault through Demi-monde. The address is:
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Aaron Schiff 199:350/1. If you have an article or file for the archive I
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would appreciate it if you could upload it to Misers Vault.
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Please support this generous donation of services. It is a far better
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support BBS than I personally would be able to set up so USE IT!!
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4. CDUGD Virus Column - By Scrooge
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====================================
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[Editors Note: This is going to be a regular column, appearing in most
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issues. Scrooge has kindly volunteered to write this virus report, but
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don't let it put you off writing articles on viruses - any articles on
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viruses will be welcomed with open arms! - Aaron]
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In this issue I will look at a virus called 'Stoned' which most of you will
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probably know about already, but is very common on IBM machines. The Stoned
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virus, also called the New Zealand virus, can only infect diskettes, but
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the New Zealand virus variant can also infect hard disks, where it replaces
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the partition boot record, instead of the boot sector.
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The virus often activates when booting up or appears when in the middle of
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using a program. When the virus is activated it displays this message :
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Your Computer Is Now Stoned.
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This virus seems to have been designed to be harmless, but due to a
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mistake, it did not quite work out that way. On an infected diskette, the
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original boot sector is stored on track 0, head 1, sector 3. This is the
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last sector of the root directory on a 360k diskette, so this will work
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unless the root directory contains more than 96 files. Overwriting this
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sector on a 1.2M diskette is, however, much more likely to cause damage.
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Numerous variants exist of this virus with no significant differences. The
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Stoned virus can be easily detected with SCAN or some similar virus
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detection program.
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5. Telepermitted Modems - By Ben Kinchant
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There has been quite a lot of discussion recently about Telepermits and
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modems. I guess some people are wondering what the all the fuss is about.
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This is my attempt at explaining the situation as I see it.
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I guess there are only two real factors here, Telecom and their customers.
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First of all, Telecom set down certain standards for devices that are going
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to be connected to their network.
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Any device that you have connected to the telephone line should be either
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telepermitted, or if it was made before April 1985, it should be type
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approved by the New Zealand Post Office. Also, any equipment supplied by
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Telecom, or pre 1985 by the New Zealand Post Office is acceptable for
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connection. A device is ANYTHING connected to your phone line. This of
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course means jackpoints, wire, phones, modems, faxes, answerphones, in
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short ANYTHING that is connected to the phone line should be telepermitted
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or type approved.
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Of course these are what Telecom requests you do, and as a rule they don't
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enforce all these rules. I've never heard of anyone getting into trouble
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for not using telepermitted jackpoints, although IMHO the telepermitted
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ones do look nicer!
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So that brings us onto modems. Yes, modems must be telepermitted if they
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are connected to the telephone network, which in most people's cases I
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guess they are! So what's the difference between a non telepermitted modem
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and a telepermitted one? The most obvious one is the sticker one the
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bottom!! Of course the more important difference is the stuff inside.
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I've owned a telepermitted modem and often used non-telepermitted modems.
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The differences I've noticed are as follows.
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* The telepermitted modems will not let you set the S0 register lower than
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3. Other modems don't impose this limitation.
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* The non-telepermitted modems usually have poorer isolation between the
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line and the modem which can cause problems.
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* The non-telepermitted modems almost never have the New Zealand type
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connectors on them, meaning people may have to make up their own
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connectors, or use adapters.
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* The pulse dialling on non-telepermitted modems is almost always screwed
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up. New Zealand pulse dialling is back to front compared to most other
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places in the world. That means to dial 372 7258 on a non-telepermitted
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modem using pulse dialling you would need to enter ATDP 738 3852!
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Lets look at some of these in more detail. Telecom says that any automatic
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answering device connected to their network, must not answer the phone
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until at least 3 half rings have passed. That's why telepermitted modems
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won't let you set their S0 registers any lower than 3. (You can set them
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to 0 of course!) My telepermitted modem would accept ATS0=1 but an ATS0?
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would reveal that the value of 3 was still being used.
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What's the reason for not being allowed to answer the phone quickly? Well,
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Telecom says that when the ringing tone disappears, that is the indication
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that you are being charged for the call. If the modem answers very quickly
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then you won't be able to tell when you are being charged for the call.
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This point IMHO is rather pathetic, because as soon as you hear the modem
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you know you have been connected!
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Non-telepermitted modems occasionally cause problems on phone lines, but in
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my experience this is fairly rare. If any problems do occur it will most
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likely be with only the phones on the same line as the modem.
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Most of the disadvantages about non-telepermitted modems are pretty
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trivial, the biggest disadvantage is that Telecom hates them, and the
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biggest advantage is that they are usually a lot cheaper than their
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telepermitted counterparts. Most of the telepermitted modems are New
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Zealand made, and the costs are much higher because of a smaller market.
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So now you may be wonder if there is any reason to get worried. Well, if
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you have a phone line, you agree to abide by the Telecom Standard Terms for
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Residential Telecom Telephone Services. Here are some parts of interest
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quoted from that document. (Without permission!)
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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Clause 27:
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PERMITTED EQUIPMENT
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You must not connect any equipment to the Telecom Network, unless
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it has a Telepermit or Telecom or Post Office type approval label.
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You must follow the instructions provided with the equipment when
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connecting it to the Telecom network.
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Clause 30:
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INDEMNITY BY YOU
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You will have to pay our charges for repairing damage to the Telecom
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network caused by equipment not having a Telepermit or Telecom or
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Post Office type approval label which has been installed in your
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home or on your property or by sockets or permanent wiring not
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meeting or installed to our specifications.
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You will NOT have to pay any charges for repairing the damage to the
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Telecom network caused by your equipment, sockets, or permanent
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wiring if you use only Telepermit or Type Approved equipment and
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have all your sockets and permanent wiring supplied and installed by
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us, or to our specifications.
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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Nasty huh? :-)... The contract goes onto say that Telepermits only mean
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that the device was compatible at the time it was tested and that the
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Telecom Network may not remain compatible with it. It also says that that
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Telecom reserves the right to suspend your Telecom services if you fail to
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meet your responsibilities under the contract.
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I guess what I am saying here is that if you do use a non-telepermitted
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modem is that 9 times out of ten it will work fine, and Telecom usually
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wont care, but there is the possibility that you may have to stop using it,
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and also that your telephone services may be suspended if you don't stop.
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Its over to you now I guess!
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6 Hacking In NZ - By The Death Pirate
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Hacking is basically to break or force your way into a system illegally.
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Basically connecting to another modem without permission. But if this is
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so, then isn't connecting to a BBS system without permission illegal??
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This is one point which was heard in the recent trial of a 19 year old
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hacker in the USA, (refer to your PC World). However, really what it should
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mean is to force,h ack into a system without an account or permission.
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New Zealand Hacking..???
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++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Yes it's true there are a few hundred of businesses which have modem lines,
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fax, etc. But more importantly there are ways of free calling (phreaking)
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out of New Zealand.
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Who's to blame..???
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Telecom. First off there are many ways in which this can be done; from the
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simple but smart way of ripping phone cables apart to actually using a
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Telecom orientated service right infront of their noses undetected. This
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way only requires a 6 letter name and a 4 digit number. Thus you are in.
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But why haven't our friends at Telescum clicked on?? Well they have, they
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say. An article I have in a text file from some BBS states that Borland
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Pacific have had their phone bills rise from $3,000 a month to something
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like $30,000. Yet still it seems they have done nothing about this.
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Why???
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Perhaps its a nasty trap to catch all who dare to challenge them?
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On another matter of free calling, the grey little dome outside your house
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which turns into a convenient seat when its hot and you've locked yourself
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out of your house, that's another way too. Simply lift off the lid and
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change a few wires and hay-presto, your neighbours have landed the bill. I
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don't think Telecom really pay much attention to these subjects, surely.
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As we the modem people get more and more bored with BBS'S we will turn to
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some other method of enjoyment. I bet those BBS'S in the US would be fun to
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logon to and have a look around and get the latest stuff.
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Latest Stuff, you say.. "hmm where have I heard that before..???"
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Perhaps on a BBS add?? Yes, you probably have.
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Its true that BBS's in Auckland have actually rang up the states for free
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and simply downloaded the 'latest stuff'. Why not, who's to stop them??
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So next time a sysop says 'If you Subscribe you'll receive the latest stuff
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>from the US', just remember what you pay for might not be for the Phone
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Bill.
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The Author Deliberately left out details which he thought could have
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enabled any illegal action.
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Hereby YOU CANNOT SUE ME!
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End of CDUGD Volume 1, Number 2
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***************************************************************************
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