December 2009 Net Nanny® Mobile is Here! 50% OFF for all Current Net Nanny® Subscribers Cell phones have quickly become the primary interface for communication and online activities. This limitless connectivity adds convenience and entertainment, though exposes children to a wide variety of dangerous and undesirable situations. Online bullying, sexual exploitation, sexting and misconduct are all exacerbated by this constant and readily available connectivity. Net Nanny® Mobile provides parents unprecedented access to monitor and control their child’s mobile related activities, while also protecting the device against Loss, Theft, Spyware and Viruses. How Do I Get Net Nanny® Mobile? Current Net Nanny subscribers can purchase Net Nanny® Mobile today and receive 50% OFF. back to top Net Nanny® Mobile Used To Stop Sexting, CyberBullying and Misconduct Net Nanny Mobile gives parents unprecedented control over the content on Smartphones With the average child sending over 2000 text message per month, children are being placed in a very precarious position. The ability to instantly share pictures increases the problem and parents must closely monitor these activities. Net Nanny® Mobile enables parents to: View pictures taken, sent or received via text or e-mail View all text and e-mail messages Receive alerts when inappropriate keywords are sent or received View their contacts and address book View where they are at any time (literally). All this can be accessed from a browser, anywhere, anytime.   Protect your kids from Sexting and Cyberbullies Today! Current Net Nanny subscribers can purchase Net Nanny® Mobile today and receive 50% OFF. back to top Net Nanny® Mobile Provides Communication Control Whether it’s CyberBullying, undesirable friends or other inappropriate communications, Net Nanny® Mobile enables parents to control who is able to communicate with their child. Parents can easily blacklist individuals – silently and automatically blocking any phone calls or text messages received by them. Manage your kid’s phone Today! Current Net Nanny subscribers can purchase Net Nanny® Mobile today and receive 50% OFF. back to top In this issue Net Nanny® Mobile is Here! Sexting, CyberBullying and Misconduct Communication Control Industry-Leading AntiVirus and AntiSpyware Protection Recover a Lost or Stolen Phone Net Nanny® Mobile Provides Industry-Leading AntiVirus and AntiSpyware Protection It’s the easiest way to block malicious attacks on your Smartphone Just as with personal computers, cell phones are susceptible to viruses, worms, spyware and trojans. With songs and applications constantly being downloaded from online application stores and websites, the likelihood of infection has increased dramatically. The built-in Antivirus and AntiSpyware capabilities of Net Nanny® Mobile ensures your child’s device is free of viruses and isn’t secretly being monitored by a person with malicious intent. Protect your phone against Spyware and Malware Today! Current Net Nanny subscribers can purchase Net Nanny® Mobile today and receive 50% OFF. back to top Net Nanny® Mobile Can Help You Recover a Lost or Stolen Phone It’s the best way to protect your confidential information The ultra-portable nature of cell phones makes them easy to carry to school, baseball practice, parties, etc. Unfortunately, it also increases the chances that your child’s phone will become lost or stolen. With Net Nanny® Mobile, parents can easily locate, lock, and wipe a lost or stolen device to ensure that the child’s personal data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. As an added benefit, the child’s personal data can be remotely backed-up and easily imported into their new phone. What type of phone do you have? Symbian Series 60 Windows Mobile 6.0/6.1 Blackberry Android Protect your phone against Theft Today! Current Net Nanny subscribers can purchase Net Nanny® Mobile today and receive 50% OFF. back to top Unsubscribe If you no longer wish to receive emails from us, please unsubscribe here.  To signup for NetNanny or ContentWatch Services contact ParagonHost http://www.ParagonHost.com

Due to the iPhone being a hit in the smartphone market, network security researchers warned that the iPhone’s popularity will lead to cyber-criminals to taking an interest in mobile phones. With the increase in horsepower and functionality in smartphones phones, they are essentially mini computers. We all know the types of threats and vulnerabilities computers face and our phones are no exception.

Recently, some iPhone users were attacked by a worm – the first of its kind found on the iPhone. The virus automatically replaces the iPhone wallpaper with a photo of 80’s pop singer Rick Astley and displays a message “Never give up your” (ikee is never going to give you up), but stops there and does not perform further attacks on the iPhone. The worm was written by a 21-year-old Australian hacker Ashley Towns to prepare, Towns said the production of the worm is to have iPhone users realize the risks of not changing the default root password.

However, only jailbroken iPhones are vulnerable to the worm virus. Jailbreaking is a process that allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to run homebrew apps on their devices by bypassing Apple’s App Store. Once jailbroken, iPhone users are able to download homebew applications as well as cracked applications through unofficial installers such as Cydia, Rock App, Icy, and Installer. Jailbroken versions of Apple’s iPhone is eligible for technical support and Apple has many times through software upgrades prevented users from cracking their iPhones. Apple also noted that Jailbreaking an iPhone is illegal. Users who jailbreak their iPhone, installed SSH, and did not change their default root password “alpine” were found with the worm. Once infected, the worm will attempt to search and spread to other jailbroken iPhones in the same network. This threat can be mitigated by changing the default password of their iPhone.

Prior to this incident, iPhone users have already been the target in attacks. A week ago, Dutch users received messages from an the attacker that warned of a security vulnerability in their cell phone and requested that these users donate 5 Euros each to a PayPal account. The attackers have since apologized and provided a fix. This is an example of an attacker who exploited the same flaw but not in the form of a virus or worm.

For recent updates visit this link

http://www.smwd.com/algae-bloom-info.htm

Update for November 10, 2009

Today, the District installed two new aeration pumps to operate in the lake. Some residents who live along the ridgeline in the Painted Trails community may hear the new generator which is providing electricity to operate the two new aeration pumps. Please contact SMWD directly at 459-6420 if this poses a problem with noise levels. The lake’s color and clarity continue to look good. Today’s water tests show an increase in oxygen reduction potential (ORP) levels, which means sulfide levels are dropping and oxygen is returning to the lake. ORP testing is done to provide a more precise measure of oxygen concentration levels in the water. The photo above shows the plume of oxygenated water emanating from the diffusers in the deepest part of the reservoir.

November 9, 2009

The cooler, drier weather at night and in the early morning has caused the odor to migrate into the nearby neighborhoods. This is the reason some people may have smelled stronger odors Sunday and this morning. Last week’s nightime and morning fog helped keep the odor near the lake, not into the neighborhoods.

Though nearby residents smelled stronger odors the past 24 hours, the health indicators of the lake are still improving. Today, the lake’s color looked good, and clarity has greatly increased over the weekend. All the aeration equipment continues to operate and the ozone production was increased to its maximum level. The District is coordinating to install two more aeration pumps on Tuesday to further help get the lake back to normal levels.

November 8, 2009

The District is noting more signs of recovery in the Upper Oso Reservoir including the lake’s depth clarity increasing from 1.5 feet to 2.5 feet. Ozone has been bubbled into the reservoir since Saturday and the amount being injected was increased today. The District continues to operate all the mechanical aeration devices including the Solar Bees, aeration pumps, fountain spray and bubblers, as well as operate boats to stir the surface waters.

We appreciate the community’s patience as we work to help the reservoir recover to its full health.

November 7, 2009

Aeration activities continue throughout the weekend – many around the clock – as well as water and air testing. In addition, the ozone equipment is operational. The District continues to see improvements in the lake’s health. The photo above shows the two aeration pumps which were installed into the lake on Friday.

November 6, 2009

A lot of activity is happening on the lake. The two air diffusers installed Thursday continue to operate at the north end of the lake, where there was previously limited mechanical aeration. Since its delivery this morning, the District is now installing the ozone generation equipment and it’s still expected to be operating by late afternoon, pumping 50 pounds of ozone (oxygen-rich air) into our compressor line in the lake. SMWD is also installing today two aeration pumps borrowed from IRWD. These pumps pull water from a 4-foot depth and spray out over the top – similar to a fountain – and help aerate the water.

If you are interested in learning more about the Upper Oso Reservoir, click here to view a presentation by SMWD.

November 5, 2009

A clear band of water is now about 2 feet out from the shoreline instead of 1 foot yesterday (see photo). This is good news and an improvement from yesterday. The ozone equipment will be at the reservoir at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow, Friday, to start installation. The equipment is expected to be operational in the afternoon. SMWD is also building another diffuser panel from extra equipment we have from the treatment plant to add more air at the north end of the reservoir. The District is hoping to have that in place today.

A letter from SMWD General Manager John Schatz was mailed to residents in Rancho Santa Margarita and Mission Viejo who live nearby the reservoir. To view, please click here.

November 4, 2009

SMWD continues to aerate the lake to increase oxygen levels. The District is expected to install at the reservoir the ozone equipment by late Friday. This equipment generates ozone, a molecule consisting of three oxygen atoms instead of the two atoms found in the oxygen we breathe, which will help penetrate oxygen into the lake at a much faster rate than normal air.

Today’s testing has shown the levels of oxygen along the shoreline to be increasing along with the “good” algae growth which indicates photosynthesis is occurring. While the affect on the odor may be minimal, it is a sign that the lake is beginning to recover.

November 3, 2009

The lake oxygen levels at the surface have increased slightly, while lower levels remain low. The dissolved oxygen levels are used as an indication of the health of the reservoir. Higher numbers indicate an increase in photosynthesis activity and a return of beneficial algae growth.

SMWD is continuing to monitor the water and air quality. The site was visited by South Coast Air Quality Management District personnel who note the odor was a nuisance but was not considered a health risk.

The activities to aerate the reservoir are continuing, please check back for daily updates.

November 2, 2009

To help return the lake’s oxygen levels to normal, SMWD has added equipment into the lake, including mechanical aeration (in addition to the existing solar-powered aeration equipment) as well as external pumps to spray the lake water to increase oxygen levels and stir up the lake’s surface for better oxygen transfer. In addition, fresh water is being added into the reservoir to help with the water quality. Further investigation is underway to aerate with ozone to increase the level of oxygen at an even faster pace. The District continues to sample the water regularly and monitor the health of the reservoir. SMWD has also performed extensive air monitoring around the lake and in the neighborhoods hardest hit with the odor and there are no detectable levels of hydrogen sulfides or other harmful gases.

October 29, 2009

The recent cold weather spell has affected the Upper Oso Reservoir. During the summer the lake splits into two layers of water. The top layer is warmer during the summer and maintains adequate levels of oxygen, but at the expense of the bottom of lake. The bottom of the lake has cooler water and stays isolated with low levels of oxygen. During autumn, the upper layer of water gets cold, and eventually sinks to the bottom, raising the bottom water. This year the recent cold spell came with strong winds that mixed the water suddenly creating conditions that caused an algae bloom which used up the oxygen which resulted in odors. The District has responded by adding additional equipment in the lake to help return the oxygen levels to normal. The situation does not pose any health risks and the reservoir should return to normal within the next several days.

 

Women on Social Networks

Source: Volusion ecom solutions: http://onlinebusiness.volusion.com/articles/women-on-social-networks#more-1953

With a record number of women on social networks, getting to the heart of their motivations for participating in these social spaces is more important to marketers and business owners than ever before.  A recent survey by a women’s social networking site called ShesConnected attempted to tackle the question “What do women want out of social networks?” Their findings not only illuminated what women are looking for on social networks, but also where they’re going to get what they want.

Why is this so important? Well, if you’re looking for the perfect gift to get the woman in your life for her Birthday or trying to decode what she means when she says “It’s fine!” this information won’t help you; but, if you’re selling women’s products online this will give you a good idea of where you need to be to reach your market.

Where Are All The Ladies?
Facebook and LinkedIn were by far the most popular social networks with the women surveyed. Below is the percentage of women who indicated that they were members of each social network:

• Facebook 83%
• LinkedIn 73%
• Twitter 55%
• MySpace 41%

The results of the survey show that the women on these social networks are very active. In fact, more than half of women check their networks multiple times per day, and 48% reported being a member of four or more social networks.

What Makes These Social Networks Appealing to Women?
When surveyed, the top five responses that women cited as being “very important” reasons for them to join social networks were:

1. Network professionally
2. Stay up-to-date with friends
3. Promote my business
4. Stay up-to-date with my groups
5. Research products and services

Interestingly, these responses do not match up with the reasons that were previously believed to draw women audiences to the social scene.  With the rise of “Mommy Bloggers” there has been a strong emphasis recently on the profile of the female social network user that goes to social networks to research products for her home and family, make new friends with fellow women, and get the best deals and discounts online. This, however, may not be the “typical female social network user.” Women, more and more these days are joining social networks to help boost their careers, and also stay in touch with the people that are important to them.

Facebook and Beyond

If you sell women’s products online obviously you’ll want to go to where your audience is online, so here are a few key take-aways:

• If you’re limited on time right now your best bet is to start with a Facebook business page. Facebook is the most popular major social network right now with women. Start there, and when you have more time (i.e. after the holiday shopping season) expand outward.
• Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and MySpace will not be around forever. If you understand why women are on these networks you can make more informed decisions about your company’s online presence as new social networks are developed.

-Kate Pierce eCommerce Specialist

10 things you should know about moving from:

Windows XP to Windows 7

Greg Shultz

September 4, 2009

If you skipped Windows Vista and stuck with Windows XP, chances are good that you are now seriously considering moving to Windows 7 after it’s released on October 22. If so, there is much for you to do. Not only should you begin planning for your operating system migration, but you should begin learning as much as you can about Windows 7. Here are 10 things you can do to get ready for the switch.

1: Check your hardware

Windows 7 was designed to be lean in terms of hardware, so that it will be able to function satisfactorily on sub-powered netbooks. If you’re running Windows XP on a computer manufactured within the last three or four years, chances are good that Windows 7 will run fine on your system. However, you can make sure that your hardware is compatible by running Microsoft’s Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor.

The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor will perform a detailed scan of your entire system, checking hardware, programs, and peripheral devices. Once the scan is complete, the Upgrade Advisor will display a report telling you whether your system meets the hardware requirements and idenfying are any known compatibility issues with your programs and devices. If it finds problems, the Upgrade Advisor will provide suggestions you can use to better analyze your upgrade options to Windows 7.

You can download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from the Microsoft Download Center. At the time of this writing, this tool is listed as being a Beta version. However, running it now will give you a good idea of what you will be facing as you prepare for your upgrade.

If you’re planning a much bigger Windows XP to Windows 7 migration, you’ll want to investigate the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit. This free toolkit, which runs across the network without having to install software on client systems, will allow you to investigate systems and compile reports on hardware and device compatibility.

2: Understand the Custom Install

If you’re running Windows XP on your computer and you want to use Windows 7 on that same computer, you’ll purchase an Upgrade license package of Windows 7. However, you won’t be able to perform an in-place upgrade. In other words, you won’t be able to upgrade to Windows 7 on top of XP and keep all your applications and settings “in place.” Instead, you’ll have to perform a Custom Install, which Microsoft describes as follows:

A custom (clean) installation gives you the option to either completely replace your current operating system or install Windows on a specific drive or partition that you select. You can also perform a custom installation if your computer does not have an operating system, or if you want to set up a multiboot system on your computer.

When you completely replace Windows XP, the installation procedure will not totally obliterate it. In fact, the installation procedure will create a folder on the hard disk called Windows.old and will place the Windows, Documents And Settings, and Program Files folders from your Windows XP installation in it. Your data files will be safe and accessible, but your applications will not be viable. (Even though the Custom Install saves your data in the Windows.old folder, you will want to have a separate backup on hand just in case!)

Regardless of whether you choose to completely replace Windows XP or set up a multiboot system, you are going to have to back up and transfer all of your data, reinstall all of your applications, and reconfigure all of your settings.

3: Consider a setting up a multiboot configuration

When pondering a Custom Install, you should consider setting up a multiboot configuration. That will place both Windows XP and Windows 7 at your disposal, which will be a big advantage as you begin migrating your settings, documents, and applications. More specifically, you can boot into Windows XP to check out how something is set up and then boot into Windows 7 to re-create the same configuration. Once you have everything in Windows 7 exactly the way you had it in Windows XP, you can remove the multiboot configuration set Windows 7 as the primary OS and then remove Windows XP.

To be able to perform this type of switch, both XP and 7 must be installed on the same hard disk but on separate partitions. (If you install Windows 7 on a second hard disk, the boot partition will exist on the first hard disk, so you won’t be able to remove that drive once you’re ready to get rid of XP.) As a result, you’ll need to repartition your hard disk to make room for Windows 7. To repartition your hard disk without destroying data, you can take advantage of partition management software, such as Norton PartitionMagic 8.0, which retails for about $70, or Easeus Partition Manager Home Edition 4.0.1, which is available for free and earned a 4.5 star rating in a recent CNET editors’ review.

4: Plan your backup and restore strategy

Before you move from one operating system to another, you’ll want to back up all your data – at least once and maybe twice, just in case. While it may sound like overkill, having an extra backup will give you peace of mind.

If you’re using a third-party backup program, you will need to check the manufacturer’s Web site to see whether the program will be upgraded to work in Windows 7. If you aren’t using a third-party backup program, you’re probably using Windows XP’s native Backup Utility. As you may have heard, the file format used for this tool isn’t compatible with Windows Vista’s Backup And Restore Center. To provide for that, Microsoft released a special version of the XP Backup Utility, called the Windows NT Backup – Restore Utility. It’s designed specifically for restoring backups made on Windows XP to computers running Windows Vista. While I was unable to get official confirmation, it is a safe bet that this special version will work in Windows 7 or will be adapted to do so.

If you aren’t willing to take that bet or you are not sure whether your third-party backup program will be upgraded to work in Windows 7, you can simply make copies of all your data files on CD/DVD or on an external hard disk.

5: Plan your data transfer strategy

To move from one operating system to another, you’ll probably want to use a transfer program that will scan your XP system, pull out all your data and settings, and then transfer them to Windows 7. Fortunately, the Windows 7 Easy Transfer utility can provide this service for you. However, before you perform this transfer operation, it will be in your best interest to have a separate back up copy of your data (see #4).

The new operating system will come with two copies of the Windows 7 Easy Transfer. One copy will be on the DVD and the other will be installed with the operating system. Before you install Windows 7, you will run Windows 7 Easy Transfer from the DVD and back up all your files and settings. Then, once you have Windows 7 installed, you’ll use it to move all your files and settings to the new operating system. You can learn more about the Windows 7 Easy Transfer by reading the article Step-by-Step: Windows 7 Upgrade and Migration on the Microsoft TechNet site.

6: Inventory your applications and gather your CDs

Since you won’t be able to perform an in-place upgrade when you move from Windows XP to Windows 7, you’ll have to reinstall all your applications that passed the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor compatibility tests (see #1). It will be helpful to have an inventory of all the installed applications so that you can track down all your CDs or compile a list of Web sites for those applications you downloaded.

While the report generated by the Upgrade Advisor will be helpful as you create an inventory, it won’t be comprehensive. To create a detailed inventory, you can use something like the Belarc Advisor. For more details, see the article Gather detailed system information with Belarc Advisor.

7: Become familiar with the new UI

The UI in Windows 7 is quite different from the UI in Windows XP, and it offers a lot of new features. As a result, you may encounter what I call “UI Shock.” You’ll know what you want to do, but you’ll experience a momentary lapse of composure as you strive to adapt what you know about XP’s UI to what you’re seeing and experiencing in Windows 7.

To ease the level of UI shock, you’ll want to become as familiar as possible with the features of the new Windows 7 UI. One starting point is Microsoft’s Windows 7 page. While a lot of the content here is essentially marketing related, it will give you a good idea of what to look for when you actually move into the Windows 7 operating system.

To help you get right to the good stuff, check out:

• The Windows 7 features section, where you’ll find a host of short videos and descriptions.
• The Windows 7 Help & How-to section, where you’ll find a whole slew of step-by-step articles that show you how get around in Windows 7. Be sure to check out the section on installing Windows.

You’ll also find useful information on the Windows Training Portal on the Microsoft Learning site. Be sure to check out:

• The Windows 7 Learning Snacks, which are short, interactive presentations. Each Snack is delivered via animations and recorded demos using Microsoft Silverlight.
• The Microsoft Press sample chapters from upcoming Windows 7 books. Viewing the free chapters requires registration, but it is a short procedure. Once you’re registered, you can access sample chapters from Windows 7 Inside Out, Windows 7 Resource Kit, Windows 7 Step by Step, and Windows 7 for Developers.

8: Check for XP Mode support

If you discover that some of the applications you’re currently running in Windows XP are not compatible with Windows 7 (see #1) or you just want to keep Windows XP accessible, don’t forget about Windows XP Mode. This virtual environment includes a free, fully licensed, ready-to-run copy of Windows XP with SP3 that runs under Windows Virtual PC in Windows 7.

As you consider the Windows XP Mode, keep these things in mind:

• Windows XP Mode is available only in Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions.
• Your computer must support processor-based virtualization.

You can learn more about Windows XP Mode from the following TechRepublic resoruces:

• Determine if your hardware can support Windows XP Mode in Windows 7
• Hands on: Windows 7 XP Mode
• 10 reasons why Windows 7’s XP Mode is a big deal

9: Ask questions

You aren’t the only one making the move from Windows XP to Windows 7, so ask questions and share information you pick up along the way. Of course, you can use the TechRepublic discussion forums. But you should cast a wider net.

One good place to connect with Microsoft experts is the Getting Ready for Windows 7 section of the Microsoft Answers site. Another good place is in the Windows 7 forums in the Windows Client TechCenter on the Microsoft TechNet site.

10: Subscribe to the Windows Vista and Windows 7 Report

TechRepublic’s free Windows Vista and Windows 7 Report newsletter, which is delivered every Friday, offers tips, news, and scuttlebutt on Windows 7. As we count down to October 22, the day that Windows 7 is to be released to the general public, we will be covering topics of interest to Windows XP users in more detail. You can sign up on the TechRepublic newsletters page.

Comment on this article: TechRepublic blog.

One thing I can never remember quickly is slash notation, it is not difficult but I just can’t seem to remember it quickly! So here is a quick reference guide. In slash notation, a single number indicates how many bits of the IP address identify the network the host is on. A netmask of 255.255.255.0 has a netmask of 8 + 8 + 8 = 24.

For example, writing 192.168.42.23/24 is the same as specifying an IP address of 192.168.42.23 with a corresponding netmask of 255.255.255.0. Often you have to enter the netmask as slash notation, an easy task with the usual 255.255.255.0. However if your network doesn’t have 255 hosts, for example only 8 hosts, then the netmask will be 255.255.255.248.

The following table lists the variable length subnets from 1 to 32, the CIDR [3] representation form (/xx) and the Decmial equivalents. (M = Million, K=Thousand, A,B,C= traditional class values)

Conversion table here:

http://www.mattwaddell.com/2008/08/26/slash-notation-for-subnet-masks-quick-reference/

Description

Matt Cutts from the Web Spam team at Google showcases the good and the bad of WordPress as seen through the eyes of Google, including basics on how Google search works and how you can boost your blog’s results in Google searches.

Video produced by John P and Dave Curlee.
WordCamp Location

San Francisco 2009
Event

WordCamp San Francisco (30)
Language

English (316)
Producer

John P (18), Dave Curlee (11)
Speakers

Matt Cutts
Date

May 30, 2009
Tags

Google (2), optimization (4), permalinks (2), relevance, reputation, Search (2), SEO (9), spam (2)
Categories

WordCampTV,

See video here:

http://wordpress.tv/2009/05/30/matt-cutts-google-sf09/

Kintiskton

Source: http://endellion.me.uk/info/Kintiskton.html

It sounds like a place-name, doesn’t it? But GOGL maps has never heard of it. Did I mean “Kingston”? Nope.
The Background

On 27 February 2009, a host with IP addresses in the range from 65.208.151.112 to 65.208.151.119 comes into the webserver unannounced, and begins to look at all my photographs at breakneck speed, in utter disregard of the robots.txt. This is not right, so I want to know more.

First off: the output of Whois shows that within the range owned by MCI Communications is a small range given over to this Kintiskton LLC thingy. These are the exact IPs I’m getting the crawls from.
[bored@Fedora httpd]# whois 65.208.151.112
[Querying whois.arin.net]
[whois.arin.net]
MCI Communications Services, Inc. d/b/a Verizon Business UUNET65 (NET-65-192-0-0-1)
65.192.0.0 – 65.223.255.255
Kintiskton LLC UU-65-208-151-112-D1 (NET-65-208-151-112-1)
65.208.151.112 – 65.208.151.119

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2009-02-26 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN’s WHOIS database.

The “user-agent” reported by these Kintiskton hosts is “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)”, in other words, 32-bit XP without automatic updates. In a 2007 Usenet forum post someone says that “95% of requests made to my site by this browser is spam.” This looks like a hopeful angle, but going through my own logs it does look to be legit, clicking in from Google for instance.

Googling Kintiskton leaves one with the distinct impression that there are lots of webmasters wondering why they are getting hits from this outfit, but nobody with an answer.
Looking up !NET-65-208-151-112-1 at whois.arin.net.
CustName: Kintiskton LLC
Address: PO BOX 7360
City: MOUNTAIN VIEW
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 94037-7360
Country: US
RegDate: 2008-07-30
Updated: 2008-07-30

The Google for the actual IP address yields some info from the Project Honeynet, to wit that some spam had originated from these IP’s. Another page at Webmaster World forum goes off on the kintiskon.com angle — see below.

Someone at moveable type was worried about searches on their blog carried out by this IP. (http://forums.movabletype.org/2009/02/possible-security-compromise.html)
In my backend, i noticed there were heaps of search queries in my activity log

Search: query for ‘world vision’ 65.208.151.115 1 day ago
Search: query for ’sponsor’ 65.208.151.117 1 day ago
Search: query for ‘pet TV’ 65.208.151.112 1 day ago

My Findings

First off, “kintiskton.com” is registered since Nov 2008 to someone in Australia, who has a hilarious web of pages (on 64.202.189.170 = GoDaddy) all including the following warning:

“NiteLyf.com [or whatever else] is protected by the World Internet Names Numbers Authority (WINNA) and is also protected by the World Internet Property Protection Organization (WIPPO) and cannot be copied or duplicated in any way or form. If any human, person, child, animal, plant, computer, alien, rock, company, business or thing is found to have used information from this site, they or it will be reported to the World Internet Authority (WIA) where they will have their World Internet privileges terminated indefinitely and will be black listed from all use of the World Internet. “

I tremble before them. Never wanted to use the World Internet anyway. I don’t think their WIPPO is related to WIPO, which seems to be a legit offshoot of the United Nations. The directors of both WIPO and WIPPO are Australian, but that hardly implies a link between them. Much less can I tie WIPPO, nor yet WIPO, which interestingly is dedicated to intellectual property, to the IP addresses doing the scanning.

The kintiskton.com masters have disabled right-clicking on their site. Instead of the usual menu a pop-up appears:

Which is yet another domain registered by this hilarious joker with delicious delusions of grandeur in Queensland, who, when he is not registering domain names, likes to jump off ferry boats and swim to the houses of important people. Quite a few of the domains trace back to Seoul.

Either way, by the looks of things, this has not a lot to do with the actions of 65.208.151.112 et.al., even though there are some tantalising aspects here.

Next up is kintiskton.net (created 25 Feb 2009 — 2 days ago!) running on secureservers.net (64.202.189.170 — godaddy parking, I thought, but also forwarding now?), which redirects to creeva.com (hosted by midphase.com).

They’re having a baby. Creeva says: “I am a writer sometimes, a computer security professional at others. I have strong feelings on many things and could care less about what I deem unimportant. I am myself and no other.” It never ceases to amaze me how many computer security professionals there are in this world.

Creeva.com was registered in 2006, but both domains were registered by Brent Gueth. The address given is 2100 Apollo Drive, Brook Park, Ohio 44142. This is an 18.000 sq ft property rented by Lockheed Martin Information Technologies, subcontracted by NASA. My conspiracy hair is starting to stand upright.

Originally creeva.com had a much more domestic address in Asland, OH. If the later is Brent’s place of work and the earlier his residence, then he would have a 55 mile trip to work. That is perfectly doable, I suppose. I can’t place any Symantec buildings in Brook Park, though, but that might just be my impatience with Gogl.

Could it be that Mr Gueth has nothing to do with the website crawling? Perhaps he was a victim and registered the domain for reasons of personal interest?

Lastly is kintiskton.org, which was registered in Canada (tucows) and running in Slovenia from IP 84.255.194.203 (“T-2 Access Network”), on 26 February 2009 — yesterday!

This has something to do with (as in: it gets forwarded to) eDition-on.net, which was registered, also through tucows, by someone from Ljubljana. From the page: “Digitalne publikacije so uporabno marketinško orodje, ki poveča obseg bralcev, prihrani stroške za tisk in distribucijo, poveča prodajo, hkrati pa bralca popelje skozi obogateno interaktivno vsebino.” I don’t think these are involved either, even though there is a great deal of obfuscation going on with the use of contactprivacy.org.

One conclusion in need of drawing here is that there is incredible interest in kintiskton-related registrations. Maybe I should do some myself? I note that kintiskton.co.uk is still available.
Resolution

An attempt to run nmap on their range gets absolutely no replies: “filtered” is the result. Presumably these servers are not expecting incoming traffic and I’ve been blocked.

A traceroute to the 65.208.151.112 IP reveals that the last packets are received from alter.net:

Microsoft Windows 2000 [Version 5.00.2195]
(C) Copyright 1985-2000 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>tracert 65.208.151.112

Tracing route to 65.208.151.112 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 <10 ms <10 ms <10 ms 10.0.0.138
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 32 ms 32 ms 32 ms 10.1.2.5
4 31 ms 31 ms 30 ms 10.1.2.161
5 31 ms 30 ms 31 ms 79.141.38.121.available.above.net [79.141.38.121]
6 103 ms 102 ms 103 ms so-0-1-0.mpr1.dca2.us.above.net [64.125.27.57]
7 103 ms 102 ms 102 ms xe-0-1-0.er1.dca2.us.above.net [64.125.27.25]
8 103 ms 102 ms 103 ms xe-1-0-0.er2.dca2.us.above.net [64.125.27.22]
9 103 ms 103 ms 103 ms 64.125.31.210
10 105 ms 105 ms 104 ms above-uu.iad10.us.above.net [64.125.13.174]
11 105 ms 104 ms 105 ms 0.ge-4-3-0.XL4.IAD8.ALTER.NET [152.63.40.230]
12 181 ms 181 ms 181 ms 0.so-4-0-0.CL2.PHX2.ALTER.NET [152.63.117.70]
13 181 ms 180 ms 180 ms 213.ATM7-0.GW1.PHX2.ALTER.NET [152.63.113.253]
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 kintiskton-gw.customer.alter.net [63.114.61.170] reports: Destination net unreachable.

Trace complete.

This “alter.net” domain, which is clearly responsible in some way for traffic going to the 65.208.151.x range belongs to another Verizon Business, called MarkMonitor. From their whois-entry:

MarkMonitor, the Global Leader in Enterprise Brand Protection

Domain Management
Online Trademark Protection
Online Channel Protection
AntiPhishing Solutions

And suddenly their interest in my photographs is resolved, along with the rather odd search queries the blog owner reported on the movabletype forum. They make perfect sense in terms of potential copyright infringement.

Of course having a public webserver renders one liable to visits from the public, and the only way to have a safe server is to unplug it from the mains. But MarkMonitor not only saw fit to load almost all my photo albums (thank heavens my bandwidth doesn’t cost per GB…), they also did this in just under 3 hours. My poor little server has been slogging its little socks of, and all that because some dumb cnuts think there might be a picture hidden among my snapshots that their hallowed customers might own the copyright to?

MarkMonitor (CEO Irfan Salim shown left) of course do not have to obey the robots.txt because they obey the far greater overlord of commerce. Says Markmonitor’s founder Faisal Shah on the event of the start of their alliance with LexisNexis: “Through Markmonitor’s service, Lexis-Nexis customers will have access to easy, affordable technology for managing the daunting task of combing thousands of Web sites that could potentially be a problem [my italics]” (source). Cheers chaps, nice to know that I fell into your problem radar, but your range has been banned from my server now.
What is Kintiskton?

Now I am left with just one question: what on earth is Kintiskton when it’s at home? It’s not a surname, not a place name in the USA, UK, Australia… It’s not an anagram for anything sensible. It’s not in the OED or the Who’s Who. It isn’t found in the Gale Databases.

It is not K. Sitnik (shown left), or is it?

Answers on a postcard please, or maybe email.

28 May 2009 — additional

Microsoft is launching a new search engine, called “bing” (http://bing.com/) to replace their wretched “Live Search.” And who registered bing.com if not my good friends at MarkMonitor.

This also seems to be a good moment to point out that in terms of Copyright Infringement, the list of unwelcome data-grabbing crawlers visiting my website has grown, and now includes entities such as “Lloyds TSB Asset Management.” At least they identified themselves, which cannot be said for all.

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Interesting read,

Review on FortiClient Endpoint Security Suite Standard Edition, the FREE Antivirus by Fortinet