StarLink-IRC News Archive
May 97
NEWS May 97
31 MAY
maggi
31 MAY
Back to normal
09 MAY
URL Minder added
08 MAY
g-force / status change
01 MAY
#HelpDesk Formed!
BULLETIN BOARD May 97
27 MAY
Possible Copyright Violation
24 MAY
Win Nuke Attacks NEW 5/24-Router and Win95 Fixes
SL-IRC News
NEWS
MAY
1997
5/9/97
URL Minder
5/31/97
Back to normal
5/31/97
maggi
We have added a new feature your "personal web robot" to let you know when pages have changed. Netmind's URL finder lets you pick a page and get an email note when the page of interest changes. Check out the link on the main page for more details. Netmind also has an email notifier for those hard to remember dates.
For those who have been following the mail list regarding the flap over the web page, all seems to be back to normal with sincere hopes it will stay that way.
And a little reminder for all, with regard to the mail list. Within the bounds of common decency, no one is ever sanctioned for expressing their honest opinion in our public forums, whether it be #TownHall or the general mailing list.
On 5/31/97, maggi (the irc admin for cleveland) sent a letter to the general SLIRC mailing list resigning that position and turning over the administration of the server to the lightstream sysadmin, greenman.
5/1/97
#HelpDesk Formed!
5/8/97
g-force
5/8/97
Rochester Status
Follow up to 4/27 note. Our first "help desk" type channel has been formed!
Cleverly named "#HelpDesk", the channel is intially supported by Brainless, JV^, Don_, stretch^, and Tomace who will be there to help folks with just about everything.
If you want to assist, remember that supporters for Help channels, when on IRC, are expected to make every effort to be on the channel and available.
We expect real help channels to be run the same way as #Channels or Terranova.
One of the founding members of StarLink-IRC, g-force, has decided to spend more time working on school than playing on IRC. For those who don't already know, g-f has been with us since we first migrated to into SuperChat in April 96 on the way through SL to our present home on StarLink-IRC. Although it's probably a smart move RL-wise, we will all greatly miss his day to day presence on the net. g-force will be available by email of course if anyone wants to send a note.
This is an excerpt from the email note g-force sent regarding his status change: 
"ATTENTION SL-IRC OPERATORS AND ADMINISTRATORS:
Due to the fact that my priorities are out of whack and I need to find a way to get everything in my life back together again, I'm dropping out of the IRC business. I'm raising Itsy to co-admin status on my server, meaning he can edit the configuration files to his liking, recompile, whatever he needs to do.
Keep it together people, we've built quite a little dynasty here, even mentioned in popular computer magazines and everything. I'm proud of you guys. :) Keep it real .."

BULLETINS

BULLETINS  MAY 1997
27 MAY 97 APPARENT CSERVE (aka CStarSM) COPYRIGHT VIOLATION 
Someone appears to be using a copy of our beloved CStar in violation of the source copyright (which is tacky at best, illegal at worst). CServe (known to us as CStar) has been FREELY available for some months under terms of the GNU license agreement. (Of course, one may wonder WHY anybody would 'steal' a FREE program just so they could put their own name on it, but we'll leave that as an excercise for the reader .. or possibly a nice thesis on aberrant psychology for those still in school.) Nonetheless, it appears that the "other" StarLink did go a tad too far in appropriating somebody else's code and giving credit where, alas, it is NOT due. We (StarLink-IRC) are involved in this issue in that dev|null is one of our founders and, as some of you may know, many of the CServe features were developed on and with the full cooperation of StarLink-IRC. No matter where else (or under which nickname) CServe gets used, StarLink-IRC will ALWAYS be the first home of CStar, the best channel service bot on the net!!
It is STRONGLY suggested all interested parties take a look at the full text at http://www.cs.cuc.edu/~mdabrows/copyright/

24 MAY 97 WIN NUKE
 Thanks to www.secant.net for most of this information. Check their page for a full description and excellent suggestions for fixes and workarounds.
Information about the Port 139 Bug - Courtesy of bugtraq@netspace.org
It is possible to remotely trigger a bug on any Windows 95 or Windows NT system which has rather unpleasant ramifications. It is done by sending OOB (Out Of Band) data to an established connection with a Windows user. NetBIOS [139] seems to be the most effective since this is a part of Windows. Apparently Windows doesn't know how to handle OOB, so it panics and crazy things happen. Reports have been heard of everything from Windows dropping carrier to the entire screen turning white. Windows also sometimes has trouble handling anything on a network at all after an attack like this. A reboot fixes whatever damage this causes.
WinNuke Info/Fixes www.secant.net - MyDeskTop
Microsoft patchese: Windows95 - NT4.0 i386 - NT3.51 i386

SL IRC Email Notice Sent 20 May 97:

StarLink-IRC NOTICE to users or potential users of 'nuking' programs and the like:

Notice to all: An open letter to anyone using or considering use of "nuke" programs. Please pass the following along:

ANYONE using, assisting in, or advocating the use of the winnuke (or similar) type attacks on StarLink-IRC users or servers will (in no particular order):

1. Be Identified (sooner or later, someone will find you) .. no matter how good you are.

2. Be Banned from StarLink-IRC unconditionally and eternally. This is a promise, not a threat.

3. Be made known to all other concerned persons, such as the administrators of your ISP, your school, and anyone else who may wish to know of such activities, including local and federal law enforcement, ... and last but not least,

4. Be fully prosecuted to the maximum extent possible. In some locations, this can include jail as well as confiscation of your equipment.

Attacks like this have the potential to cause lost data and are NOT the same as simple 'inconvieniences' like DCC flooding or similar shenanigans. StarLink-IRC is a FUN network and, as such, takes malicious attacks on its systems or users quite seriously. If you want to annoy people, go play somewhere else where they don't care.

PS: for additional information, check out ZD Net's Article: 

http://www5.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/pcwo/0513/pcwo0003.html

PPS: To SL-IRC users in general. This thing exploits a bug in the network services (TCP/IP) and, from all available information, doesn't seem to cause permanent harm to the PC, although unsaved data can be lost. NT and Win95 users should check out the microsoft site for fixes when available.