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Program Review: Whisher


The world is not yet completely wireless, and unfortunately, free Wifi connections are not always available wherever you roam. This software offers a nifty way to use more wireless hot spots in your travels. The concept is quite simple: Share and share alike. Run the software, create an account, and let others piggyback onto your home wireless network. When you do that, you get credits so that you can hop onto other people's hot spots and commercial hot spots.

When you want to connect to a hot spot, you'll use the Whisher software instead of Windows XP's normal connection software, or your Wi Fi-card's software. When you're home and are willing to share your connection, tell Whisher you want to share, and you'll get credits in your account. You can then use those credits when you're away from home --- and they apply to commercial hot spots as well as personal ones. If you don't have enough credit in your account to pay for commercial access, you can buy from Whisher, and do it on a per-minute basis.
Review by PC World
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Program Review Wired Shark





What is a "packet sniffer"?
A packet sniffer is a wire-tap devices that plugs into computer networks and eavesdrops on the network traffic. Like a telephone wiretap allows the FBI to listen in on other people's conversations, a "sniffing" program lets someone listen in on computer conversations.
However, computer conversations consist of apparently random binary data. Therefore, network wiretap programs also come with a feature known as "protocol analysis", which allow them to "decode" the computer traffic and make sense of it.
Sniffing also has one advantage over telephone wiretaps: many networks use "shared media". This means that you don't need to break into a wiring closet to install your wiretap, you can do it from almost any network connection to eavesdrop on your neighbors. This is called a "promiscuous mode" sniffer. However, this "shared" technology is moving quickly toward "switched" technology where this will no longer be possible, which means you will have to actually tap into the wire.
Is "packet sniffer" trademarked?
The word "sniffer" is a registered trademark by Network Associates referring to the "Sniffer(r) Network Analyzer". However, the term "snif" is used in many other products (some of which are listed in this document) and the term "sniffer" is more popular in everyday usage than alternatives like "protocol analyzer" or "network analyzer" (as far as my search on AltaVista reveals). I'm not sure what this means in trademark law, where brandnames like "aspirin", "escalator", and "cellophane" lose their distinctiveness over time.
What is it used for?
Sniffing programs have been around for a long time in two forms. Commercial packet sniffers are used to help maintain networks. Underground packet sniffers are used to break into computers.
Typical uses of such wiretap programs include:
Automatic sifting of clear-text passwords and usernames from the network. Used hackers/crackers in order to break into systems.
Conversion of data to human readable format so that people can read the traffic
Fault analysis to discover problems in the network, such as why computer A can't talk to computer B
Performance analysis to discover network bottlenecks
Network intrusion detection in order to discover hackers/crackers (see http://web.archive.org/web/20050221103207/http://www.robertgraham.com/pubs/network-intrusion-detection.html
Network traffic logging, to create logs that hackers can't break into and erase.
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Program Review: Vista Recovery Disc

License Type: Free
Price: Free
Operating Systems: Windows Vista
Author: Microsoft



It looked like Microsoft was finally going to do the right thing. Beta versions of Vista SP1 came with a modern equivalent of the old Windows Boot Floppy--a Start Menu option called "Create a Recovery Disc" that burned a Windows PE-based emergency CD. Alas, Microsoft removed that feature before SP1 shipped, but not before NeoSmart turned the disc into an .iso file and made it available on their site.
Running on the Vista version of Windows PE, the Recovery Disc is basically a Vista installation disc minus the install files. It even has an "Install now" button that asks for a Product Key before failing. You're better off clicking the Repair your computer button. Among its Vista-only options are a tool for diagnosing and fixing startup problems, a version of System Restore that uses restore points on the hard drive, the restore portions of Vista's backup program, and a memory diagnostic tool.

Reviewed by PC World

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