Spruce site down?

[TMann]

lately, I have had trouble connecting to the Aircraft Spruce site.

Last night (and this AM) I've done a trace route and a ping and have not been able to hit their site (and this from 2 different ISPs.)

Anyone else experiencing the same?

[Jerry Schneider]

Just tried it.

Works fine.

[Aiman]

No issues here.

Pings, traces and DNS'es just fine. And their webserver service is up.

[TMann]

hmmmmmm............. must be ISP related.

COX here is sooooooooooo dependable.

[TMann]

....... I did a trace from her and it makes about 8 hops and jams up at

v9.core1.irv.intelenet.net [216.23.160.102]

 

Sounds like a DNS routing problem.

My ISP offers no support after the 6th hop

[Aiman]

Mine pooped out at the intelenet core router as well, however, that just means that this box doesn't forward ICMP requests.

 

It's not a DNS problem, it's a routing problem.

 

Incedentally, you are physically MUCH closer to aircraft spruce's servers than I am. It took me 23 hops to reach the same router yours died at! Then again, I'm on the right coast.

[TMann]

yeah ........ a definite problem. I tried tracert & ping tools on DNSStuff.com with no success.

[Aiman]

If you want to IM me, I'd be happy to walk you through some more troubleshooting steps.

[TMann]

Thanks ..... but I can't solve their problem.

Just trying fo figure if it was something local or not.

[TMann]

talk about strange......

Okay......get this.

I can cruise anywhere on the internet via my wireless network ........... except for Aircraft Spruce, however if I use a hardwire connection, I have no problem.

If I use the wireless at work ....... I have no problem.

It's a conspiracy!

[Aiman]

try typing this in the command line:

 

ipconfig /flushdns

[TMann]

C:\>ipconfig /flushdns

The requested operation requires elevation.

[Aiman]

Sounds like you have Windows Vista.

 

I'm TRULY sorry for your loss.

 

Vista means:

 

Virus Infections

Spyware

Trojans

Adware

[TMann]

ha ha haaaaa...... yeah. It's been a strange ride.

[longezdave]

Wouldn't shutting down and starting the computer back up do the DNS flush? You've probably already done that though.....

 

Maybe try entering their IP directly, so that DNS is not an issue. Enter http://216.23.190.130 in your browser and see what happens.

[TMann]

..... although I can't verify that this fixes my original problem at this time (I'm at work)....

 

In order to bypass/avoid the elevation error message you need to right click the "Command Prompt" application and select "run as administrator" prior to running the flushdns command.

 

It appears that being the "administrator" on the machine isn't enough authority.

 

Needless to say, I won't be running Vista on my glass panel pc in my plane.

[Jon Matcho]

Vista means:

 

Virus Infections

Spyware

Trojans

Adware

Umm, no. ANY operating system WITHOUT a proper firewall, virus protection, etc., means those things, including whatever you're using now. There is no operating system that automatically keeps up with the never ending creations of the virus writers.

 

It appears that being the "administrator" on the machine isn't enough authority.

Interesting. Almost sounds like you are actually not a local administrator?

 

Needless to say, I won't be running Vista on my glass panel pc in my plane.

That should be needless to say, but I'm glad it has just been said.

[TMann]

Interesting. Almost sounds like you are actually not a local administrator?

 

Oh but I am. This is my laptop and I installed the OS on it. (I'm a MCSD.)

It seems that this is Vista's way to protect us from ........us

 

Between Vista and the (un)helpful folks at my ISP.......

[Jon Matcho]

(I'm a MCSD.)

Cool, what's your specialty?

 

It seems that this is Vista's way to protect us from ........us

Also makes for amusing Apple vs. Microsoft commercials. I still haven't figured out how I feel about the Allow or Deny prompts (which is basically the same thing you're seeing). I understand the reasoning behind them, but am also expecting for Microsoft to fine tune the human factors here. I'm sure they will, eventually.

[Aiman]

Umm, no. ANY operating system WITHOUT a proper firewall, virus protection, etc., means those things, including whatever you're using now.

I'm the guy who keeps coming up in your logs/browser stats as having "Linux 2.6" as an OS.

 

I'm running a fully up to date version of openSuSE Linux 10.3, with iptables firewall (which is also sitting behind my Juniper ScreenOS SSG box here at home). I doubt that I'll be getting a virus, spyware/adware/etc, ever.

[jprock]

I am not a fan of Microsoft AT ALL, but Apple and Linux

make a big deal out of being Virus resistant. My opinion is

that they just haven't become a target yet. With Microsoft

having 90%+ of the market, the goobers that write

viruses and other malicious things, want a big bang for

their effort...they only get that attacking Microsnot.

 

Anyway, here is a little help with Vista to

get rid of the constant questions on everything you do:

 

Vista special setup instructions to

Turn Off User Account Control (UAC)

 

1. Click the Start Button

2. From the Start menu click Control Panel

3. In Control panel click the User Account icon

4. In User Account window click the 'turn

user account control on or off' option

5. Next click 'Continue' when the user Account

Control permission box appears

6. In the next window remove the check mark

from the box next to the 'use user account

control UAC) to help protect my computer'

and then press OK

7. A message will now saying 'You must re-start

your computer to apply these changes'

8. Now click the Re-start button

9. After your computer has re-started the UAC

will be disabled

10. To enable UAC again simply go to Control panel

and click on the Security center Icon. In the

security center window, in the section

marked 'other security settings' a button

marked 'Turn On Now'

11. Press the Turn On Now button to re-enable

User Account Control

12. Finally exit the Security center window and

then Control panel.

 

 

Jack

[Aiman]

In re: Linux & Viruses becoming a target... Microsoft is making moves to compartmentalize the OS like linux has, where you MUST escalate privileges in order to do things like install executables, etc. It's a step in the right direction, but they are nowhere near where they need to be. Microsoft is a target because they are SO easy to maliciously code against.

 

If you want to take that to the next level: Compare Apache vs IIS. Apache is by far the de-facto standard for webservers on the internet, and, regardless of whatever MS sponsored marketing hype tells you, holds dominant market share over IIS. using your reasoning, exploits against apache should be a dime a dozen. Are there? um, not last time I checked.

 

Proof, apache vs IIS: http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html

scroll about 1/2 way down.

 

This is where linux (and to a MUCH lesser extent, Apple's OSX) has a significant lead. In order to make system changes, install binaries to protected locations (other than in your own /home/$user/bin/) and make changes to system configuration, you MUST be the root user. Granular premissions settings on system files, within /etc/ and other locations, completely prevent unathorized alteration. This is a concept that many M$ users can't grasp.

 

Another problem with MS OS's is the lack of the idea of protected system memory. Many programs can (are allowed to) access blocks of memory. This leaves the system vulnerable to remote exploitation, such as buffer overflows and compromise by a malicious local user (or local program). Remember, Windows was never built from the ground up to be a NETWORK operating system. As networks grew and the demand for interoperability increased, microsoft released their completely busticated TCP/IP stack, and the marginally stable OS that stood behind it. In addition, the security model was 'hacked' from a weak local one, to an even weaker network one.

 

Where does apple fit into all of this? Well, darwin (Mac OS X) is so bastardized by apple that it barely resembles the UNIX platform that it was based on. Besides, I personally think Jobs is a greedy prick, so my opinion is biased there.

 

My windows vs linux comparison comes from having over 10 years of experience in the IT field, as an administrator of both OS'es in enterprise environments. Trust me, I'll take linux over windows anyday, but darn.. Windows sure can pay the bills sometimes, cause it needs a lot of babysitting.

[Waiter]

This subject takes on similiar cult followings as AutoFuel vs Avgas, Auto engines versis Certified, etc.

 

So, with that said:

 

Microsoft is a target because they are SO easy to maliciously code against.

Although this may be true, I would suggest that Microsoft is a target because of their installed customer base consisting of 100s of millions of personal and business PCs.

 

I would venture a guess that on personal desktop machines, Microsoft installs outnumbers Linux installs by 10,000 (maybe even 100,000) to one. I would also venture a guess that they outnumber Apple by 1,000 to one.

 

So, I submit, Why author a virus or Trojan for a Linux machine.

 

ALSO, I do occasional Updates to my Linux Firewall to plug security vulnerability.

 

Waiter

[TMann]

So, I submit, Why author a virus or Trojan for a Linux machine.

 

.....the other side of that would be this:

How secure is an operating system when all of the source code is open to the public ............ including hackers?

[Aiman]

.....the other side of that would be this:

How secure is an operating system when all of the source code is open to the public ............ including hackers?

Arguably, it can be quite secure. How many times have you had someone 'check over' your work (whether it be coding, fiberglass layups, electrical wiring, or balancing your checkbook...). having another perspective, another set of eyes, can provide tremendous insight, and can often find something that you may have inadvertently looked over.

 

"QA testing" as they call it in the software world can only catch so much.