Pc News

[Rasputin]

Wikipedia Mulls Copyright Purchase Plan

Wikipedia is considering a plan to purchase copyright content and make it available under public domain.

"It's not a project yet, but an idea," said Jimmy Wales, founder and chairman of Wikimedia Foundation, in an interview with IDG on Thursday. Wikipedia is a Web encyclopedia that anyone can add to or edit.

Dream A Little
Two weeks ago, the Wikipedia community received from Wales an e-mail called "Dream a little...," which asked users to send suggestions of copyright material that could be freely distributed after its purchase.

In the e-mail, Wales said, "I would like to gather from the community some examples of works you would like to see made free, works that we are not doing a good job of generating free replacements for, works that could, in theory, be purchased and freed."

Where's The Money?
He hinted in the e-mail that he was "recently asked this question by someone who is potentially in a position to make this happen," without specifying whether the person has any kind of relationship with Wikipedia.

But in Thursday's interview, Wales declined to detail how Wikipedia will earn money to fund such a plan -- whether it would seek sponsors, or rely on community donations, which is its current financial model.

"After contemplating what we would like to see made free, we will begin a project of finding ways to make this happen," Wales said.

[Rasputin]

Supreme Court To Review Microsoft Patent Case

The U.S. Supreme Court said today it will review a lawsuit testing the limits of international patent claims in a case that could have a wide-ranging effect on the U.S. software industry.

The case pitting tech giants AT&T and Microsoft against each other, will examine whether Microsoft is liable for patent infringement costs after distributing a speech-coding technology patented by AT&T on overseas copies of the Windows operating system.

Implications For Patent Holders
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in July 2005, ruled against Microsoft, saying that software copies made from a master version sent from the U.S. are not shielded from patent law, which prohibits circumvention of infringement through the exporting of products.

The case has huge implications for both patent holders and software vendors, with software vendors potentially off the hook for huge patent awards if the Supreme Court sides with Microsoft, said Victor de Gyarfas, a patent lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP based in Los Angeles. "There is a lot of money at stake," he said. "There's probably hundreds of millions of dollars or more."

Is Microsoft Liable?
Microsoft argued that it had sent one master copy of Windows overseas on a so-called golden disk to be copied onto PCs sold outside the U.S. Microsoft shouldn't be liable for patent infringement for the hundreds of thousands of copies of Windows made from that master disk, its lawyers argued.

Microsoft, which agreed to an undisclosed settlement with AT&T in March 2004, also argued that software object code isn't a component of a patented invention. The agreement allowed the software vendor to appeal the case.

The appeals court, in its 2005 ruling, disagreed with Microsoft's arguments. Calling copying "part and parcel of software distribution," it rejected Microsoft's contention that liability should apply only to each disk that is shipped and incorporated into computers assembled outside of the U.S. on the grounds that the argument "fails to account for the realities of software distribution."

The Highest Court
Microsoft cheered the Supreme Court's decision to look at the case. The appeals court decision holds companies that do their research and development activities in the U.S. to a higher standard, by penalizing them for products sold overseas, when patent claims in other countries typically only apply to products sold in the country where the patent claim was filed, Microsoft said Friday.

"The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals ... imposes liability on any company that does research and development in the U.S., but doesna??t impose the same liability on companies that have their R&D based overseas," Microsoft associate general counsel Andy Culbert said in a statement. "This creates a disincentive for companies to base their R&D operations in the United States and potential new liabilities for making, using and selling products overseas.a??

Support (Or Not) For Microsoft
The U.S. solicitor general and Patent and Trademark Office filed a brief in support of Microsoft's position, the company noted.

The appeals court had rejected Microsoft's R&D arguments. It found an "insufficient basis" for the company's "impassioned recitation of a parade of horribles that may befall the domestic software industry -- such as the relocation of manufacturing facilities."

An AT&T spokesman wasn't immediately available for comment.

[Rasputin]

Acer Readies Small PCs And A Smart Phone

Acer is betting users will want to buy smaller desktop PCs this year and next, a boon for a company already specializing in laptops. The company also said it plans to launch a smart phone by the end of this year or early next.

The company this month began selling small, 6 lb. desktop PCs in Europe and parts of Asia for prices ranging from $299 to $499, depending on their configuration. They have systems based on microprocessors from both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.

And executives at the company believe they have a great opportunity in the segment since the design of a small desktop is similar to a small laptop PC.

"It's a great opportunity to find we can run the desktop business like our notebook business," said J.T. Wang, chairman and chief executive officer of Acer, at an investor conference in Taipei.

Specifications
One small PC on display at the meeting, the AcerPower 1000, was equipped with an AMD Sempron 3200+, 512M bytes of DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) DRAM (dynamic RAM), a DVD player and an 80G byte hard drive. The company also had an Intel-based small PC on display, dubbed the Veriton, but did not disclose details of the model.

The small PCs will be tailored to different users in different markets. A premium small Acer PC could come with an Nvidia graphics card, a hard drive up to 400G bytes, and other premium parts, the company said.

"Much More Than A Smart Phone"
The company expects the small desktops, along with other products such as LCD TVs and smart phones to drive growth for the company.

The smart phone will be launched within the next few months, but executives were sketchy on details, saying only that it will be like a PDA that will handle e-mail and Internet browsing, with phone functions.

"It's much more smart than phone," said Gianfranco Lanci, president of Acer. Acer has no plans to enter the mobile phone market, he said.

[Rasputin]

If You Dislike Microsoft's Windows Antipiracy Checks, Look Out

If you don't like the mandatory antipiracy checks that Microsoft now enforces for Windows, brace yourself. The Microsoft Office productivity and collaboration suite is about to get a similar program.

The company's Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) program will require mandatory validation of Office software starting October 27, the software vendor quietly disclosed today. After that date, any Office Online templates downloaded from within the Office 2007 Microsoft Office System applications will require validation of legitimacy.

Similarly, starting in January, users of Office Update will have to validate the legitimacy of their Office software before they can use the service, Microsoft added.

Users absolutely hated the first iteration of the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program, and their protests pressured the company into revising it about a year after it launched in July 2005.

'Quick and Simple'
Microsoft said in a press statement that the validation process will be "quick and simple" for users. The OGA program, currently in the testing phase, is now available in 26 languages worldwide.

OGA is a sibling program to WGA; both automatically check a user's version of Microsoft software to ensure it is not counterfeit or pirated.

Microsoft has integrated this check directly into the next version of its OS, Windows Vista, as part of what it is calling a "Software Protection Platform." Through that automatic validation system, a Vista user must activate his or her copy of the software with a valid activation key within 30 days after purchase of the software, or see the OS enter a reduced functionality mode. In that mode, users can browse the Web for an hour but then the system will log them out, and they will have to log in again if they want to browse more.

Microsoft has increased its efforts in recent years to fight software piracy and counterfeiting of its software products. But these efforts have met with some resistance from users, especially when early bugs in the WGA checks were tagging legitimate software as counterfeit or pirated.

Microsoft also was forced to turn off a notification feature in WGA that sent information to the company from users' PCs when some users complained that the feature was acting like spyware.

[Rasputin]

Web Site Offers To 'Fix' Elections - For A Price

That's the mantra of Election Partners, whose slick Fixavote.com Web site offers such services as "real-time voter correction," and "enhanced retrospective tallying." The site features attractive stock-photography models and inspirational New Age music.

"Using state of the art technology, we overcome the challenges of competition and ensure election results for our clients," the Web site states.

But according to electronic-voting experts the site is most likely satire.

Campaign Representatives Only
The company's 800 number was answered by a man identifying himself as Darius Parker, who claimed to be a consultant, and then president of the company. He refused to say whether or not the Web site is satire, but said that he had been contacted by representatives of about 30 political campaigns to date. "They're asking me the details of a specific geographic location and what I can do to enhance the election for them," he said.

Parker declined to elaborate on exactly what kind of services he is offering. "If you're not an employee or a representative of a campaign, there's really not much I can tell you," he said.

E-Voting Security
The fixavote.com domain is registered by Domains by Proxy, a Godaddy affiliate that can be used to conceal the name of the company or person who owns the Web site. Parker said he registered the domain about 45 days ago. Godaddy executives were not immediately available to comment.

With elections that may shift the balance of power in the U.S. Congress less than two weeks away, the Web site seems designed to draw attention to the security concerns plaguing electronic voting.

Concerns have been mounting as the election nears. Last week, an anonymous source mailed copies of source code for Diebold Election Systems' voting machines to a Mayland e-voting critic. And a month earlier, researchers at Princeton University disclosed that they had created vote-altering code that could be installed on Diebold hardware in less than a minute.

Real-Life Service Illegal
Ed Felten, a professor of computer science and one of the authors of the Princeton study said that fixavote.com "looks like satire to me. These services couldn't be provided lawfully."

However, what fixavote.com claims to offer may be technically feasible, he added. "If somebody were willing to break the law, it's within the realm of possibility."

Avi Rubin, a Johns Hopkins University computer science professor who has examined Diebold's source code, agreed that such offerings "might be possible," but said that he also believes the site is satire.

"I suppose it depends on whether they know something about the way the machines were programmed that I don't know," he said via e-mail. "The fact that it's impossible to know whether such a thing is possible is really the big problem."

The Fine Print
The company, which also does business under the name Election Consultants, certainly seems confident.

"Election Consultants is so confident in our ability to secure a desirable outcome for your next election, that we guarantee complete satisfaction," the Web site says. "If any individual precinct covered by our services fails to deliver promised results, then all fees will be waived."

Then the fine print: "Guarantee does not include precincts that use non-electronic voting equipment."

[Rasputin]

Phishing Attack Targets MySpace Users

Reports today indicate that a MySpace user was e-mailing potential victims inviting them to visit a fraudulent log-in page, where they were asked to enter their e-mail address and password. That information was then sent to a server located in France, according to Netcraft, a Web analysis firm that reported the problem.

The attack, which was shut down by MySpace around 10 a.m. Pacific this morning took advantage of the way MySpace organizes URLs in order to give the fake log-in page a believable Web address, something that could confuse even security-conscious users, according to Netcraft analyst Rich Miller.

Fake Login Page
The attacker had registered a MySpace account named login_home_index_html, meaning that the MySpace page hosting the fake login, looked like a legitimate place where users would sign on to the service.

Users visitng the page would see a legitimate MySpace URL but would not necessarily realize that it was, in fact, a MySpace user page that had been configured to trick them into entering their passwords and e-mail addresses.

Stay Safe
This type of attack is not unprecedented, but it does show, "one more interesting way that phishers are trying to trick people out of their account details," Miller said.

Typically, sites like MySpace have a database of user names that are off-limits, in order to prevent this type of attack, Miller said. "What this kind of attack suggests is that sites have to expand that list."

MySpace is owned by News Corp. A News Corp. spokeswoman said that users who are unsure about whether they're at the right log-in page should go to the main address.

[Rasputin]

New HDTVs Bring Higher Def, Better Color

Falling prices aren't the only positive news for HDTV shoppers: New and upcoming sets boast higher resolution and improved image and sound quality. Here's what to look for.

1080p TVs
Photograph: Robert CardinLCD televisions that can display images in 1080 progressive resolution (or 1080p, as opposed to the 720p capability of most HDTVs in our roundup) are increasingly common; and the format is getting support in such peripherals as Blu-ray drives, HD DVD drives (like Toshiba's HD-XA2), Sony's PlayStation 3, and Microsoft's Xbox 360 (via an accessory HD DVD drive). Also at hand is a growing collection of 1080p content on Blu-ray and HD DVD discs.

Plasma has been slow to reach 1080p because cramming lots of tiny pixels into a plasma panel is a manufacturing challenge. Big-screen 1080p plasmas are finally appearing, but they don't come cheap. Pioneer's 50-inch Pro-FHD1 retails for $8000, and Panasonic's 65-inch TH-65PX600U goes for an even heftier $10,000.

HDMI 1.3
The Playstation 3 and Toshiba HD-XA2 are also the first two devices to deliver 1080p content through the new HDMI 1.3 interface, which enables "Deep Color," meaning up to 48-bit color depth (the current high is 24 bits). "More colors allow for better gradation and color shading," says Eric Haruki, research director for TV markets and technologies with IDC. HDMI 1.3 also supports new 7.1-channel audio formats, including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD.

To experience HDMI 1.3's benefits, however, all your components--including the TV--must support the standard. "You don't need it to do 1080p, but it's still a good thing," says Scott Ramirez, vice president of marketing for Toshiba. LG Electronics, Mitsubishi, Samsung, Sharp, and others have promised HDMI 1.3 sets next year.

[Rasputin]

Supreme Court To Review Microsoft Patent Case

The U.S. Supreme Court said today it will review a lawsuit testing the limits of international patent claims in a case that could have a wide-ranging effect on the U.S. software industry.

The case pitting tech giants AT&T and Microsoft against each other, will examine whether Microsoft is liable for patent infringement costs after distributing a speech-coding technology patented by AT&T on overseas copies of the Windows operating system.

Implications For Patent Holders
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in July 2005, ruled against Microsoft, saying that software copies made from a master version sent from the U.S. are not shielded from patent law, which prohibits circumvention of infringement through the exporting of products.

The case has huge implications for both patent holders and software vendors, with software vendors potentially off the hook for huge patent awards if the Supreme Court sides with Microsoft, said Victor de Gyarfas, a patent lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP based in Los Angeles. "There is a lot of money at stake," he said. "There's probably hundreds of millions of dollars or more."

Is Microsoft Liable?
Microsoft argued that it had sent one master copy of Windows overseas on a so-called golden disk to be copied onto PCs sold outside the U.S. Microsoft shouldn't be liable for patent infringement for the hundreds of thousands of copies of Windows made from that master disk, its lawyers argued.

Microsoft, which agreed to an undisclosed settlement with AT&T in March 2004, also argued that software object code isn't a component of a patented invention. The agreement allowed the software vendor to appeal the case.

The appeals court, in its 2005 ruling, disagreed with Microsoft's arguments. Calling copying "part and parcel of software distribution," it rejected Microsoft's contention that liability should apply only to each disk that is shipped and incorporated into computers assembled outside of the U.S. on the grounds that the argument "fails to account for the realities of software distribution."

The Highest Court
Microsoft cheered the Supreme Court's decision to look at the case. The appeals court decision holds companies that do their research and development activities in the U.S. to a higher standard, by penalizing them for products sold overseas, when patent claims in other countries typically only apply to products sold in the country where the patent claim was filed, Microsoft said Friday.

"The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals ... imposes liability on any company that does research and development in the U.S., but doesna??t impose the same liability on companies that have their R&D based overseas," Microsoft associate general counsel Andy Culbert said in a statement. "This creates a disincentive for companies to base their R&D operations in the United States and potential new liabilities for making, using and selling products overseas.a??

Support (Or Not) For Microsoft
The U.S. solicitor general and Patent and Trademark Office filed a brief in support of Microsoft's position, the company noted.

The appeals court had rejected Microsoft's R&D arguments. It found an "insufficient basis" for the company's "impassioned recitation of a parade of horribles that may befall the domestic software industry -- such as the relocation of manufacturing facilities."

An AT&T spokesman wasn't immediately available for comment.

[Rasputin]

Acer Readies Small PCs And A Smart Phone

Acer is betting users will want to buy smaller desktop PCs this year and next, a boon for a company already specializing in laptops. The company also said it plans to launch a smart phone by the end of this year or early next.

The company this month began selling small, 6 lb. desktop PCs in Europe and parts of Asia for prices ranging from $299 to $499, depending on their configuration. They have systems based on microprocessors from both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.

And executives at the company believe they have a great opportunity in the segment since the design of a small desktop is similar to a small laptop PC.

"It's a great opportunity to find we can run the desktop business like our notebook business," said J.T. Wang, chairman and chief executive officer of Acer, at an investor conference in Taipei.

Specifications
One small PC on display at the meeting, the AcerPower 1000, was equipped with an AMD Sempron 3200+, 512M bytes of DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) DRAM (dynamic RAM), a DVD player and an 80G byte hard drive. The company also had an Intel-based small PC on display, dubbed the Veriton, but did not disclose details of the model.

The small PCs will be tailored to different users in different markets. A premium small Acer PC could come with an Nvidia graphics card, a hard drive up to 400G bytes, and other premium parts, the company said.

"Much More Than A Smart Phone"
The company expects the small desktops, along with other products such as LCD TVs and smart phones to drive growth for the company.

The smart phone will be launched within the next few months, but executives were sketchy on details, saying only that it will be like a PDA that will handle e-mail and Internet browsing, with phone functions.

"It's much more smart than phone," said Gianfranco Lanci, president of Acer. Acer has no plans to enter the mobile phone market, he said.

[Rasputin]

Phishing Attack Targets MySpace Users

Reports today indicate that a MySpace user was e-mailing potential victims inviting them to visit a fraudulent log-in page, where they were asked to enter their e-mail address and password. That information was then sent to a server located in France, according to Netcraft, a Web analysis firm that reported the problem.

The attack, which was shut down by MySpace around 10 a.m. Pacific this morning took advantage of the way MySpace organizes URLs in order to give the fake log-in page a believable Web address, something that could confuse even security-conscious users, according to Netcraft analyst Rich Miller.

Fake Login Page
The attacker had registered a MySpace account named login_home_index_html, meaning that the MySpace page hosting the fake login, looked like a legitimate place where users would sign on to the service.

Users visitng the page would see a legitimate MySpace URL but would not necessarily realize that it was, in fact, a MySpace user page that had been configured to trick them into entering their passwords and e-mail addresses.

Stay Safe
This type of attack is not unprecedented, but it does show, "one more interesting way that phishers are trying to trick people out of their account details," Miller said.

Typically, sites like MySpace have a database of user names that are off-limits, in order to prevent this type of attack, Miller said. "What this kind of attack suggests is that sites have to expand that list."

MySpace is owned by News Corp. A News Corp. spokeswoman said that users who are unsure about whether they're at the right log-in page should go to the main address.

[Rasputin]

Year-End Bargains Expected For Flat-Panel TVs

Consumers in the market for a flat-panel TV might consider waiting a couple of months to make their purchase. Two of the world's biggest consumer electronics companies said this week that fierce price competition is expected during the year-end sales season and that could mean bargains for savvy shoppers.

"Competition is very intense, especially in the American market. We believe that we'll be seeing lower prices especially on 40-inch or 30-inch sets much earlier than we had expected," said Nobuyuki Oneda, Sony chief financial officer, on Thursday at a Tokyo news conference.

October Through December
Sony hopes to sell 6 million of its Bravia LCD TV sets this financial year, and expects to sell about 40 percent of those during the October to December period, he said.

"We also hear from the market that Panasonic's PDP (plasma display panel) or Samsung's LCD and MDPJ (micro display projection) will very much be on the offensive in this market so we understand we are going to be faced with very tough competition," said Oneda.

Sony is expecting prices for its TVs in the last three months of the year to be between 20 percent and 25 percent lower than they were a year earlier in most regions. In the U.S. market prices are expected to be 25 percent to 30 percent lower, he said.

Demand Is High
Today, Panasonic said it is seeing "continuous price declines" in the digital audio-visual sector as a result of the "intensified global competition" and forecast continued pressure on the prices of products.

The falling prices are stoking demand among consumers for the sets, which offer big space savings in the home over conventional CRT (cathode ray tube) models and often come with added benefits such as high-definition tuners.

LCD TV shipments in the April to June quarter jumped 135 percent year-on-year, and PDP TV shipments jumped 95 percent, according to DisplaySearch.

[Rasputin]

Game Exporter Says Sony Put It Out Of Business

A Hong Kong-based online retailer of computer games, consoles and software says it's closing down after losing a lawsuit brought against it in the U.K. by Sony Computer Entertainment.

The lawsuit was filed at the London High Court in 2005 by Sony against Pacific Game Technology, the company that operates the lik-sang.com Web site. It alleged that Pacific Game Technology had violated Sony's European trademark by selling the PlayStation Portable to customers in the U.K. and sought an injunction to prevent the site operator from selling any PlayStation consoles, games and accessories to customers in the U.K. and Europe.

"Blame It On Sony"
Lik-sang.com is popular with gamers because it offers a wide selection of game hardware and software from Japan and other regions of the world. In the case of the PlayStation Portable it gave gamers outside of Japan a chance to buy the Japanese version of the console long before regional models were released in local markets.

Earlier this week the site posted a notice advising customers that it was "out of business due to multiple Sony lawsuits." It attacked Sony in the notice and raised the likelihood that it would face lawsuits over sales of the PlayStation 3, which is due to launch in Japan on Nov. 11, and from other console makers about similar sales of their hardware or software to gamers worldwide.

"Blame it on Sony. That's the latest dark spot in their shameful track record as gaming industry leader. The Empire finally 'won', few dominating retailers from the UK probably will rejoice the news, but everybody else in the gaming world lost something today," the statement ended.

Sony Managers Take Part
It also, perhaps somewhat embarrassingly for Sony, alleged that four senior Sony Computer Entertainment Europe managers had used Lik-sang.com to purchase PSPs shortly after the Japanese launch.

Sony in Tokyo declined to answer questions on the issue citing a policy of not commenting on pending or completed legal action.

In a subsequent e-mail sent to IDG News Service today, Pascal Clarysse, marketing director for the Web site, said Sony is demanding the payment of $188,000 in legal fees by Nov. 1.

"Sony should be proud of having such a die-hard import gamers community rushing to buy their products and supporting them with a passion. Instead, they march all over us," said Clarysse in the statement.

The conclusion of the court case comes with some irony. As Sony succeeded in shutting down an unauthorized sales channel to European consumers, it was also revising shipment forecasts for PSP from 12 million units to 9 million units because of lackluster demand for the games machine.

Really The End?
To Lik-sang.com's long-time customers the situation might seem familiar.

Pacific Game Technology was created in late 2002 after the previous operator of the lik-sang.com Web site, Lik Sang International, was hit with a Hong Kong High Court injunction over sales of chips that allow games machines to circumvent the region coding system used on most games. The suit was filed by Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

Lik Sang International abruptly shut down after the injunction was issued but announced a month later that the Web site would continue under Pacific Game Technology.

[Rasputin]

New Energy-Efficient Laptop To Be Sold At Wal-Mart

PC maker Everex Systems launched a new energy-efficient laptop Thursday with a Via Technologies C7-M central processor inside, and aims to sell it at Wal-Mart stores for under $500.

The Via microprocessor inside Everex's StepNote NC1500 provides 1.5GHz performance at very low power consumption of just 12 watts.

Eco-Friendly
Without skimping on hardware, the laptop runs on Microsoft Windows XP Home edition, includes a 15.4-inch screen, built-in wireless-LAN, and a DVD burner, it gives users a 20 percent improvement in battery life over comparable systems, Via and Everex said in a joint statement. The two companies worked together to develop the design, attempting to create more nature-friendly products with lower total cost of ownership.

New IT products aimed at lowering power consumption have been popular over the past few years due to high oil prices. Although the price of a barrel of oil has come down recently to around $60 per barrel, it stood near $80 this summer. Such costs are passed on to users in the form of higher electric bills.

Low Price
The laptop employs Via Enhanced PowerSaver and TwinTurbo technology to save power. The technologies enable the system to transition between intermediate power states, extending battery life.

The notebook PC is available throughout the U.S. at over 2,900 Wal-Mart stores. It carries a price tag of $498.

Other specifications of the laptop include a 60G byte hard drive, 512M bytes of DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) DRAM (dynamic RAM), Via UniChrome graphics, a Lithium Ion battery and it weighs 5.3 lbs.

[Rasputin]

This Year-- A Halloween Mac O Lantern

The clever guys from the University of Arkansas outdid themselves this year. They just e-mailed me to point out that they created a new Pumpkin PC for 2006, the Mac O Lantern.

Forest Denger, one of the tech Pumpkin trio at UofA, said this year's has webcam eyes, it breaths through its nose via a case fan, and talks from its mouth with a speaker system.

The insides contain a custom power supply and a Mac Mini Core Duo system. It even has neon lighting. Here's one photo:




The 2005 Effort

Last year, I blogged about their first effort, the Pumpkin PC, a working computer from a hollowed-out pumpkin. I just showed it to one of our newer PC World editors, and he laughed so hard, I thought I'd post the info again for those who missed it.

Here's what it looked like:



Still hilarious, no? What's better: The fans for the eyes or the disc-drive mouth?

The imaginative bunch was comprised of Forest, Mike Duncan, and Mark Morgan, all techs in the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville campus computer store service center.

They graciously posted their instructions and specs for the Pumpkin PC for all to share.

[Rasputin]

Windows Firewall Can Be Disabled

Hackers have published code that could let an attacker disable the Windows Firewall on certain Windows XP machines.

The code, which was posted on the Internet early Oct, 29, could be used to disable the Windows Firewall on a fully patched Windows XP PC that was running Windows' Internet Connection Service (ICS). This service allows Windows users to essentially turn their PC into a router and share their Internet connection with other computers on the local area network (LAN.) It is typically used by home and small-business users.

The attacker could send a malicious data packet to another PC using ICS that would cause the service to terminate. Because this service is connected to the Windows Firewall, this packet would also cause the firewall to stop working, said Tyler Reguly, a research engineer at nCircle Network Security, who has blogged about the issue.

"Once the firewall is down, where's your line of defense?" he said today in an interview.

Is An Attack Likely?
By knocking off the Windows Firewall, a criminal could open the door to new types of attacks, but there are a number of factors that make such an attack scenario unlikely, Reguly said.

For example, the attacker would have to be within the LAN in order to make the attack work, and, of course, it would only work on systems using ICS, which is disabled by default. Furthermore, the attack would have no effect on any third-party firewall being used by the PC, Reguly said.

Users can avoid the attack by disabling ICS, Reguly said. But this will also kill the shared Internet connection.

A Solution
An easier solution, may be for ICS users to simply move their networks onto a router or NAT (Network Address Translation) device, said Stefano Zanero, chief technology officer with Secure Network SRL. "They are so cheap right now, and in many cases they offer better protection and a easier administration of your LAN," he said via instant message.

Windows XP appears to be the only platform affected by this attack, which has not been successfully reproduced on Windows Server 2003, Reguly said.

Microsoft's initial investigation into the matter "has concluded that the issue only impacts users of Windows XP," the company's public relations agency said Monday in a statement. "Microsoft is not aware of any attacks attempting to use the reported vulnerability or of customer impact at this time."