How To Control You Computer

How do you identify your "stuff"? How do people know who it
belongs to? What is your style?

My style is defined by wearing two different colored socks.

My room belongs to me - the posters/newspaper
articles/hip-hop music/bulletin board lets everyone know
"this is my room".

My music stands out by the way I play - if it's jazz/boogie
style, you'll almost always hear a cool blues run where the
third, fifth and seventh are lowered. I refuse to play all
classical pieces in legato.

My books are marked by my doodles - archaeology books have
notes with my own theories written on the page, my Bible is
marked with sermon notes, my travel books are highlighted,
and the dude on the cover on my Spanish book now has a
beard, missing tooth, and tattoo.

But how do you "mark" your computer? How do you learn how it
ticks? Sure, you already know how to send e-mail, you can
change the wallpaper, you can install programs, but how do
you move beyond that?

When you know what makes your computer tick, where exactly
to go to find topics on the internet, and what program to
use - you go beyond being the typical web surfer, to
being...a hacker.

Hackers are not "evil"., i.e. spreading viruses, swiping
dinosaur DNA, or destroying NATO's nuclear systems, "Hacker"
is simply a term computer enthusiasts prefer to call
themselves (instead of derogatory terms like "geek", "nerd"
or "dweeb"). There are history hackers, astronomy hackers,
art hackers, and music hackers, too. Do not confuse Hackers
with Crackers - Crackers spread viruses, invent "great" spam
programs, and are especially fond of fooling around with the
.sys files on your computer. Teens who get a kick out of
freaking out phone systems also fall under this title.
Crackers are either hacker-wanna-be's or hackers gone bad.
Hackers often become IT's, computer government officials,
and internet security workers. Hackerz uzually uZe we!rD
ch/\Cterz wheN t/\1k!ng...but we"11 b n!ce 2 u.

I believe dabbling in hacker arts gives you a better
understanding of how the internet works. Though I don't have
a,
"The-Internet-is-my-oyster-and-I'm-going-to-suck-the-juice-out-of-it"
philosophy, I'm going to show you some basics. Once the
information goes beyond educational, I will stop.

Everything in this course is legal - however some of it
could make people mad, so do it on yourself, or maybe your
friends. I'm not responsible in any way if you take this
measly course and go blow up the CIA's files - use
discretion while hacking pleeease. Well, I guess all I can
say now is, Happy Hacking!

Windows
Most hackers hate windows - and prefer UNIX systems. There
is plenty of information out there about how to hack with
UNIX, so we're just going to cover Windows. We aren't really
going to "hack" in the technical sense, but rather, "take
advantage" of resources on your computer. Please select what
you would like to learn...

How to control:
(links to the various sections)
Computer programs
Files and information
Quick buttons
Mouse
Your mailbox
Bookmarks
Desktop
Internet searches
History
Your keyboard

How to use:
Regedit
WinZip
Disk Defrag
Character Map
Backup

How to find:
Background information on any web site
Open servers
Web site speeds

How to freak(not phreak) out:
Your parents
Your friends
Your teachers/school

How to control:

Computer programs
You can install any computer program by going to:
Start>Find>Files and folders
Then select the proper directory.
(If you're installing from your hard drive (C:\) leave as
is. If not, click the C:\, and select whether it is a
CD-ROM, or Floppy.)
If you're installing from your hardrive, type the file name,
and an icon should appear.
If you're installing from a disk, select "find", and it will
search for all the files on that disk. "Setup" or "Install"
icon should be one of the files found.

Why do it this way?
This will teach you how your computer works. You will be
able to watch directories, file sizes, and file types. That
way you will eventually calculate, "How large SHOULD this
file be?", "Where should I save this file?", and "Is this
the right file extension?".

Be nice to your computer, and free up RAM (the memory that
is needed to run programs), by pressing:
Ctrl. Alt. Delete (aka the three finger salute).
From here you'll be able to watch what programs are running
at that time. When all these programs run at the same time,
it's hard on the processor, so let's close some of them
down, by selecting them, and choosing "close program". As
you do this, you will see that some programs don't want to
be closed, simply leave them open. If you close certain
programs, your computer may freeze up. That's ok! Make a
note of which program it was, and don't close that one next
time. Some programs will be fine if closed on one computer,
but will bugup another computer. However, the one program
that must always run on Windows, is "Explorer", this is the
Windows Operating System (OS) program.

Files and Information

One of the things that makes Windows such a productive
environment, is the fact that you can store your information
anywhere. Take special note of the directories you send
files to, so you remember where it is. To make life easier
on yourself, save all the files needed for one project,
under one directory.

If there is a file or computer program that you need access
to often, create a shortcut to the program.
Start>Find>files or folder>
Type in the file name. Select the file once it appears in
the box, highlight, and right click>create shortcut.

Become familiar with how the little pictures for the icons
relate to the file types. Do this by searching different
file extensions that you have heard of, then seeing how the
corresponding icon appears. This is very helpful to know
when searching databases for certain types of files. Take
note, that icons are not always the same on other computers.
These are a list of common file extensions.(LINK TO FILE
EXTENSIONS BY CHRIS) Using the Find program, look up a
certain file extension that you use often, or have seen
often. The computer will search for all files with that
extension. Look at the icon for one of those files. Note the
colors used, or the image displayed - knowing what icons
belong to which file types comes in handy when working with
multimedia programs.

A place for everything and everything in its place? What
about important things that have no place like:

The names of three wise monkeys
Why termites chew wood
Flight to Cancun prices, departure and arrival information
A little known fact about Harry S Truman
An interview with Michael W. Smith
Lyrics for the Newsboys' song "Take me To Your Leader"
Coca-Cola in it's original Chinese - "bite the was tadpole"
Views on Christianity's role in the world
Lyric's to Skillet's song "Alien Youth"
50 WAYS TO CONFUSE, WORRY, OR JUST SCARE THE STUFFING OUT OF
PEOPLE IN THE COMPUTER LAB
Geek Guys Rule!
How ASCII Proves that Bill Gates is the Anti-Christ
Why Guys Like Girls
Career Test Results (It said I should be a funeral director)

http://207.174.111.2/midi/NSO/ccm/jarsofclay_crazytimes2.mid

Legal Challenges Still Threaten Parental Rights
Outline for my report on Jewish Sects
Lyrics to the song "Cartoons" by Chris Rice
Lyrics to Audio Adrenaline's song "Get Down"
Why you should not exercise
Quotes from Mother Theresa
Images and link locations for classical art
"Sure it's going to kill a lot of people, but they may be
dying of something else anyway."
P.O.D.

An easy way I've found to store information like this is by
keeping one document for miscellaneous information. I use
Netscape Composer, but other possibilities would be
Microsoft Word, Student Writing Center, etc. To do this
simply and easily, highlight the info you want to copy,
press Crtl C, open the document where you want it kept, and
press Ctrl V. Separate each article/quote/lyrics/interview
by colors. Also, create a shortcut to your file. Once your
file gets pretty large, start another one, so it does not
become corrupted. Also, save your file to disk by using
find>files or folders, searching for the file. Select the
file, right click, and choose "send to">"Floppy ?:\"

The best place to store lists, is (gasp) WordPad. It has an
incredibly small file size, and prints very fast.

If you're documenting images, make sure you're using a
computer program that allows for most file types. (That's
why I like Netscape Composer)

To store very large files you might want to put them in a
zip format. WinZip is a self-explanatory computer program,
that compresses your file, and then decompresses it when
needed. Knowing how to use WinZip will help you very much,
since compression is very common on the internet for easy
storing.
Download WinZip here: http://www.WinZip.com

Quick buttons

The specialized buttons that came with your computer's
keyboard can almost always be customized to fit your needs.

Mouse

By going to Start>Settings>Control Panel then selecting the
"Mouse" icon, you can set mouse preferences such as the
speed of the mouse, etc. If you are left handed, this will
help you!

Your mailbox

If you're using AOL, the customization features are lower
then other Internet browsers. That's why I suggest using
Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer - it's time to get
off the training wheels. In these procedures I'm working in
Netscape Messenger 4.04 - so your browser may be slightly
different.
Steps to controlling your mail box:

1) Get a vanity address. These are addresses with cool
endings. (Some of mine include imahacker@techie.com,
bobtomato@writeme.com, maegan@inorbit.com,
Xtreme4Jesus@cliffhanger.com, yeehacowgirl@witty.com, you
get the idea) You can set up an account at
http://www.mail.com - then under "options" choose to forward
all mail to your regular e-mail address, so you won't have
to check 5 different e-mail boxes all the time. You can
disable this feature later when you go on vacation.

2) Open your normal mailbox. On the toolbar got to
Edit>Preferences. Select "Identity" from the program map on
the left hand side. This will allow you to change the name
in the "From" field, when people receive e-mail from you.
Also you can change the "Reply to" address to match with
your new vanity address. You can explore other preferences
here as well, although I do not suggest changing any of the
server information.

3) File your messages by category. Select "Local Mail" from
the option bar. (Other options that you might recognize are
"sent", "trash", unsent", "samples", drafts", etc.) This bar
is above the subject and sender information, and below the
fat tool bar (probably reading "Inbox"). When you select
"Local Mail" a new window should appear. One of the options
in the fat tool bar is "New Folder". Choose that. Then name
the folder you want, and press ok. To file messages:
Right click on the Message>File message...>Your-folder-name
To retrieve this message, go back to where it says, "Inbox"
and your new folder name should be listed.

4) To find a lost message go to "Local Mail" Edit>Search
messages. From here you can search messages by subject,
address, keyword, etc.

5) It's possible to put messages in alphabetical or date
order. For instance, if you wanted to find a particular
forwarded message, you'd click the tiny "subject" bar, then
you could scroll down to "Fwrd" and find your message. You
could also select "Sender" or "Date".

6) Highlight important messages. In Netscape, there is a
little green dot between the "Subject" and "Sender" fields.
By highlighting a message, and clicking this dot, you can
make the text bold, or regular; this is especially helpful
for school assignments.

7) To save an e-mail address to your address book, click the
linked e-mail address that appears in the message. Make sure
the "Name" field has the correct name in it, because you can
instantly retrieve these e-mail addresses by name when
writing an e-mail. (In the address field you just have to
type the first few characters of the name, and the complete
address will appear).

8) To send a mass e-mail quickly and effectively, in your
new e-mail document - choose the "address book" icon. From
here you can select multiple "to:" addresses by selecting
the address/name and clicking "To:".

9) To change the background color of an e-mail, go to
Format>Page and Color Properties.

10) To add an attachment, click the "Attachment" icon. Web
pages attach better than regular files. Regular files do
work on occasion.

11) If you're doing e-mail hacking, you will want to remain
anonymous. Go to Edit>Preferences and then in the program
map "Advanced". Say to send e-mails as anonymous FTP
password.

Web Browser

These options are in Netscape 4.04. Most should be available
in IE too.

1) Edit>Preferences then choose to start at your own
selected homepage, the last page visited or a blank web
page. You can also choose history preferences.

2) Under "Advanced" choose to let the browser warn you about
cookies before accepting them. Cookies are computer
programs, that sometimes do nasty things to your computer.
So if you're visiting a questionable site (possible cracker
den) and are warned about cookies, simply go under
preferences and turn your cookies off.

3) If you're like me, you have about 45 bookmarks(and
counting). Though filing bookmarks can be helpful, I always
found it confusing, because Netscape already has files, so I
wouldn't know which were mine, and which were theirs. The
Netscape 4.04 bookmark system is very confusing. So, unless
you want to lose bookmarks, don't file them! Netscape has
since improved on this aspect, and I will explain this
later. To add a bookmark go to Bookmarks>Add bookmark. To
access your bookmark page easily press Ctrl B.

4) To find pages that you know you have visited recently,
but can't remember where they are - there are two choices:
1) To the right of the location/address field, there is
a pull down arrow. The page you visited last might be listed
there.
2) Press Ctrl H. This will bring up your history file,
usually showing all pages visited in the last 9 days. You
can sort these bookmarks by date, or alphabetical order.
Sort the bookmarks by clicking the corresponding bar
("Title", "Location", "Last Visited", etc.) But let me warn
you, if this list is long, it splits everything in half. So
keep scrolling down, even if you don't think your page will
be there. Also, you'll see files in there of your personal
web pages that you've been viewing.

5) To view the coding of any web page, right click the page,
and select "View Source".

6) To save an image to disk, right click the image and
choose "Save image as..."

7) To save the whole page, and later view/edit in your HTML
editor - on the tool bar go to File>Save page. Images must
be saved separately, and opened separately once in the HTML
editor.

8) To save a Flash movie, view the page source. Once the
page source window is opened, press Ctrl. F. Then type in
"swf". It will then highlight "swf" with the file name of
the flash program. Highlight the complete file name and
press Ctrl C. Then exit out of the page source window. Edit
the e-mail address so the last part (that probably read
something like "name" or "name.htm" or "name.html") actually
reads "the-flashname.swf". The page should then take you to
the flash movie. Go to File>Save page. You will then be able
to open this flash movie from your hard disk. You can use
this same method for wavs, midis, etc.

9) The other way to save midis is...if the link links
directly to the midi, instead of an html file (you can tell
this by the file extension being .mid instead of .html).,
right click the link and choose "Save link as...".

10) You can send a web page to someone by way of e-mail by
going to file>send page. The web page will actually appear
in the e-mail.

Netscape 6 is amazing! It has awesome tools for bookmarking
and tracking your information, bookmarks, buddy lists,
notes, and multimedia, I suggest thoroughly exploring all
the options in this program. Also, Netscape now allows you
to download skins. The downside, is the fact that it takes
up a crazy amount of RAM. So it's only possible to run the
browser, and maybe your IM (maybe Notebook too). However,
it's an excellent tool if you're working on a specific
research project - or everyday surfing. But if you are a
multi-tasker, then this is not a good program to use all the
time.

Desktop

The desktop is like the main headquarters of everything that
goes on in your system. That is why it is of utmost
importance for the hacker to make it convenient for
everything that takes place. I believe that one should learn
how to work the themes in the desktop before downloading
pre-packaged themes. Here's the basic rundown on how to set
up your own themes:

Assuming that you already have images that you want to
display as a wallpaper, screen savers, etc. follow these
instructions:

1) Start>Settings>Control Panel. Choose the "Display" icon.
From here you can change the wallpaper (background). If the
wallpaper you want isn't listed, click "Browse..." to find
your wallpaper.

2) The next Tab over lets you select a screen saver.
Explore the different options there are, so you can
customize your screen saver. Set a password if you want, and
the amount of time you want to pass before the screen saver
appears. Some computers allow you to use an energy saving
program here. This is a good idea if you leave your computer
on all the time.

3) The next tab over allows you to change the general
appearance of your desktop. This is pretty self-explanatory.
You can also change the fonts and (thank goodness) font
sizes.

4) "Plus!" allows you to change the icon images. This is a
cool tool so those static icons will be gone! Click the
"Choose icon..." button, and if necessary, change the file
type at the bottom to JPG, BMP or GIF.

5) "Settings" let's you change some of the more advanced
properties of your desktop. You know when you start certain
programs and it tells you to change your color settings to
"256", "16 bit", or "32 bit"? Well, this is where you change
those properties. You can also change the general window
sizes of your desktop (this hinders some programs), also
general font sizes, or even continue to more advanced
properties.

6) Change the sounds on your computer by going to
Start>Settings>Control Panel. Then select the "Sounds" icon.
From here you can highlight events, and choose "Browse", to
find different sounds to put in there. There are many preset
sounds in C:\windows\media or C:\program files\plus!\themes
but to find different sounds go to Start>Find>Files and
Folders then search for "wav". The listed wav files you can
reach by directory. You might want to save this "Sound
Scheme" for later use, so simply choose "Save Scheme".

7) Never could figure out how to fix the clock on the
computer? Simply click the time/date icon under settings. Be
really cool and set it on GMT. http://GreenwichMeanTime.com/

8) To change the cursor under setting, click the "mouse"
icon.

Your keyboard

The three most important shortcuts that I am positive work
in all programs are:

1) Ctrl C - will copy highlighted information to the
invisible clipboard.
2) Ctrl V - will paste information from the invisible
clipboard to your document.
3) Ctrl Alt Delete (aka - the three finger salute) - this
will bring up the option to close down certain programs

Also, if a program ever makes your start menu disappear,
press the little "windows" key on your keyboard. To then get
rid of it press "Alt".

How to use:

WinZip

Winzip is one of the most important tools you will ever
download JORDAN! (download here)www.winzip.com. Configure
your WinZip program to open in Winzip Wizard (easier to use)
vs. WinZip Class (complicated). If it already starts in
WinZip Wizard, you're AOK. Here's how to change interfaces
in WinZip Classic:
On the toolbar select File>Wizard...
Click the "Options..." button
Choose the "Interface" tab
Click the appropriate option to start in WinZip Wizard

WinZip Wizard takes you through a step-by-step process that
is easy to understand.

Disk Defrag

This is sort of like a tune-up for your computer. It gets
rid of all the unnecessary files you don't need anymore. To
run: go to>Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk
Defragmenter
Choose to defrag drive "C:\".

Here are some other ways to be nice to your computer:

1) Use the find command, go under your specific browser
directory (mine is in C:\Program File\Netscape) then search
for "Cache" Several cash file folder may appear. Check each
one until you find "the one". It will have thousands of
graphics and HTML files. Now, if you don't have much else to
do, you can delete everyone one of these files. These files
are what allow to surf off-line. But actually they take up
to 5 MB of space. (You can edit your computer from not
taking Cache files under preferences in your web browser)

2) Shut down programs that you don't need running. Press
Ctrl. Alt. Delete, and close each program that you don't
need. Some programs may tell you that they don't want to be
closed, so just let them be. Do, however, keep "Explorer"
open. This is the Windows OS. You might also want to keep
your anti-virus shield up etc. Some programs will freeze
your computer if you shut them down, make a note of it, and
simply don't shut them down next time.

3) Try not to move too fast with a lot of windows open at
the same time. I'd keep the number of windows at a 4 or 5.
(I usually surf with 2 browser windows, my mail box, and a
word processor)

4) Don't shut down the computer - this wears on the CPU.
(Central Processing Unit) If possible keep your computer in
sleep/energy saving mode. Also, turn off the monitor when
it's not in use so that the light in the monitor doesn't
wear out as fast. (Screen savers help with this a little
too).

5) Empty your recycle bin often. On the desktop choose
Recycle Bin when opened Edit>Select All and strike the
delete key.

Character Map

Have you ever wondered how you get those international
symbols on your character? You will need to copy your
character from a character map, and paste it where needed.
To access the character map go to
Start>Programs>Accessories>Character Map

From here you can
a) copy the specific character - click the character, then
choose the "select" button. now highlight what is in the box
and choose the "copy" button. Then you can paste it into
your document.
b) get the ASCII code - click the character, then choose the
"select" button. At the very bottom right hand side of the
window is a "Keystroke:" box with the corresponding
keystroke. (i.e. Alt+0134 you would hold down alt, and 0134
at the same time to create the character) Go ahead and try
holding down Alt and 0134 in a word processor to see if it
works.

NOTE: for ASCII commands to work you must use the keypad on
the right right side of your keyboard.

Also, go to Start>Settings>Control Panel and choose the font
icon. It will bring up hundred of font icons which you can
click to see what the full fonts look like.

Backup

When hacking computer systems at your school or home, you'll
always want to return them to the way they were before. If
you're going to spend much time online, things will happen,
which is why it's good to backup things to disk.

It would take literally hundreds of disks to back up my
system. Which is why you should keep all your important
files under ONE DIRECTORY. When I'm working on a project for
piano competitions, YWAM, school, Web Architect, business
web sites etc. I always save my files to C:\ or the netscape
directory. I have disks for almost every project I've worked
on. However it should be noted that CDROMRW last forever,
floppy disks do not. So keep tabs on your important stuff,
opening it so often to make sure it's still there. Yes I
have had files mysteriously disappear from floppy disks, and
it's not a good thing.

Get familiar with using this tool which can be found on
every computer. Here's how you do it:
1) Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Backup
2) Make sure your under the "Backup" Rab
3) Search through directories, checking the files you want
to back up
4) press next step
5) Select "A:\" as your backup destination.
6) Press "start backup" and name the backup set as anything
you want.
7) To check how you did go to the "Restore" tab
8) click the "A:\" on the left hand system map - choosing
your backup file
9) Click the file you want to restore, and restore

I did this on my Win95 box, I believe it works slightly
different in Win98/2K but you get the idea.

Regedit

Regedit is this nifty little computer program that you can
alter to make your (or someone else's) computer do all kind
of crazy things. To find it in your system Use the find
command to fine "regedit". Double click the icon. You might
want to Right click>create shortcut.

Regedit is the perfect hacker program to freak out anyone's
computer (and then be able to undo everything with a simple
strike of the "Delete" key.) These give you access to
certain commands you give the computer - it basically places
you in the driver seat of control. The two programs I use to
hack are DOS and Regedit. Sometimes this program doesn't
work one time, but works another time, so just be persistent
- I dunno, it just might be my wacky computer. So here we
go:

Open Regedit, then you are given a server map where you can
navigate through your system. (Teachers, this is a good tool
to show your students different commands that are given to
the computer to create settings. This is vital to
understanding how a computer works)

Before goofing off with this program, grab a floppy disk,
and in Regedit's Toolbar choose File>Export Then name it and
export it to the A:\ drive. (vs. C:\Windows)

Double click the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

From here you can:
1) Disable the shutdown command. Right click on the huge
right-hand field and choose New>String Value. Name it
"NoClose". Double click the icon. In the Value Data field
type "1". Now try to shut down the computer. Now, how do you
change it back? Go back to the value and type "0" in place
of the "1". Now you can shutdown the computer. However,
this, once in a while, does not work. You don't want to shut
down the computer manually (hard on the processor) so simply
three finger salute when you're ready to shut down. When the
computer restarts...try re-setting the setting again. I've
had some changes not take effect until I've restarted -
while other refresh right away. Record everything you do or
create a back up copy of the registry (

NOTE: Your first lesson in Binary. Binary is the computer
code that uses only 0's and 1's. Now, if I'm not mistaken,
the reason you type in "1" is because that is the "power on"
command. And "0" because that is the "power off" command. If
you've ever used an old computer with a funky switch, one
side having a little "1" for on and the other side having a
little "0" this is the reason why. Try looking up a
ASCII/Binary table to look up the ASCII and Binary code for
your name.

2) When you use the "Find" command or go under "My
Computer" the drives are listed, well, wouldn't it be freaky
if you showed your friend that you could run your computer
without a hard drive? While still under the above directory,
right click on the white field again>new>string value. Now
name it "NoDrives".

Now depending on the computer it will work one of two ways.
Either the value you type will hide the drive, or keep that
one drive open, hiding all the others. Anyhow, here are the
values for the different drives: A: 1, B: 2, C: 4, D: 8, E:
16, F: 32, G: 64, H: 128, I: 256, J: 512, K: 1024, L: 2048,
M: 4096, N: 8192, O:16384, P: 32768, Q: 65536, R: 131072, S:
262144, T: 524288, U: 1048576, V: 2097152, W: 4194304, X:
8388608, Y: 16777216, Z: 33554432, ALL: 67108863
(NOTE: Can you spot the pattern? If so, it will be easy to
remember these numbers)

Double click "NoDrives" and in the value field type
whichever you choose and press OK. To check and see if it
worked, open "My Computer" from the desktop.

These are just a few commands. Oh cool, I was just surfing
around and found an awesome web site. Hundreds of ways to
change the windows registry. Ok, before visiting this web
site and totally tweaking up the registry, I suggest that
you get a notebook to keep track of what you do on the
system. To visit the Ultimate Registry site go to
http://www.regedit.com

How to find:

Background information on any web site

1) Go to http://www.geektools.com
2) Click the "Whois" option
3) In the "Whois:" field type the web address with out the
http://www (http://www.yahoo.com would be yahoo.com) Keep
the " - Automatic - " option set and click Whois >
4) Information should come up about server numbers -
e-mails, phone numbers, last updated - it depends on the
site's security, the more info, the less security.

Explore Geek Tools - it's cool.

Open servers (ready to hack)

Get to your DOS Prompt in a separate window (while still
running your Windows OS) by going to start>Find>Files and
Folder. Search for (DOS). Several icons will appear, when
"Dosprmpt" appears, click that. (It's a shortcut file). This
will bring up the DOS window. Now, go log into your internet
connection to get a connection going. After logged on, go
back to the DOS window, and have it look like this:
C:\WINDOWS>tracert whatever.com
This will then trace all the running servers at the time.
This gives you an inside look about what's really going on.
You can see where the different server are coming and going
from, how the computer reads the server names, plus the
amount of time to send a little "trace" there and back.
Appearing in "ms" form (Milliseconds). This is where you
really get to understanding how the internet works. When you
type in a web site address, it isn't just popping up on your
screen, it's sending a message to there computer, and there
computer is sending it back. This shows how much time that
takes.

Web site speeds

After tracing, and finding an open port - record the port
number. Then type
C:\WINDOWS>ping wha.tev.er.thep.ortis This will track speeds
of a specific server.

How to freak (not phreak) out:

The Family Computer

Because you have almost unlimited access to the family
computer, it allows you to do many of the hacks we mentioned
above, plus install some cool hacking software. The best
software I found, that are just pranks, and don't mess with
the system (or crash the computer) is the Web Prank Kit.
Found here...
http://www.cosmega.com/main.htm

Your friends

If you have just a couple of minutes on their computer and
can work fast, I suggest looking up some commands on
Regedit. Try not to do anything too scary. Also, if you have
access to the computer while it's booting, press F8 ASAP.
This will bring you to a menu. Mysteriously open it in DOS
mode. (When it gets to the C:\ type "win" to start windows
or to be even more funny have it look like this:
C:\WINDOWS\Regedit.exe) Settings is of course the most
fool-proof way to tweak of your friend's comp. Especially if
they still have that boring green wallpaper. Change it to
something spooky - like jungle, or inside your computer.
(kind of a hacker thing)

Your teachers/school

NOTE: If you're school is running on Windows 95/98, PLEASE
try to convince to turn to Windows NT/2000. Here's why -
when it brings you to the password screen when you first
start windows, press cancel. Right! The system is completely
insecure!

What makes hacking on school computers difficult is the fact
that they've disabled all the good programs - the control
panel, the find and run commands. (If these programs are not
disabled, then we'll show you how to do your school a favor
and disable them. If not disabled, they are perfect game for
crackerz) It IS possible to open Regedit however. It's very
likely that your school uses Microsoft software - like
Microsoft Word, and Internet Explorer. Microsoft did you a
favor by making these "normal programs" work like "shell"
systems i.e. you can launch any program you want.

NOTE: You teacher at the computer lab may have disallowed
this program already. But try settings. My Library closed
down Regedit, and left the setting options up for grabs. If
you can get into DOS you might be in luck.

How To Break Into Regedit While Booting Up
When the computer starts booting up press F8. Then Type
C:\WINDOWS\Regedit.exe
KEEP TRACK OF ALL CHANGES YOU MAKE!!!

How To Break Into Regedit With Internet Explorer
Type C:\Windows\Regedit.exe in the address/location field.
If the computer doesn't allow this, do it manually by typing
C:\, then double click the windows file icon, and then
double click the Regedit icon.

How To Break Into Regedit With Microsoft Word
On the tool bar go to View>Toolbars>Web
Oh! What have we here? Now simply type in
"C:\WINDOWS\Regedit.exe" in the address file.

Now take a position

Hackerz are said to wear either white hatz, gray hatz, or
black hatz (like the cowboys in the movies). What color hat
will you wear? Will you be a "Lone Ranger", "Rooster
Cogburn" or "Texas Red'. I wear a white hat - I really hate
to ruin it virtual life for people.

Join the Hacker battle against the Crackerz!

So what do you do with this information?

After running a tracer on a system - and finding an open
port, run a "whois" in geektoold and grab the
System/Technical Administrator's e-mail. Let them know that
you are a "good-guy" hacker, and give them the port number
that is open on the server.

After school (or in computer lab, hehehehe), show your
computer teacher how easy it is to break into the computers.
Run Regedit for them and show them how dangerous it is for
the lab to allow these cracker-friendly programs. But don't
just leave them there in awe and fear of your hacker arts -
help them! Strongly suggest that they change from IE, to
Netscape. Look up the following commands at www.regedit.com
that will successfully disable the tools. Copy them to a
document, and print them for your teacher.
You want to disable:
Find
Settings
Run
Regedit (ur a good guy, remember?)
Shut Down (this way crackerz can't access DOS)

Help fight the spam warz! Help run whois and tracert for
your local ISP or for this grassroots organization (they
provide addresses fro turning you e-mail into the NetPolice)
http://www.whew.com/Spammers/

Volunteer your hacker skillz to a local organization.
(Though, don't let them know you're a hacker b/c ppl
sometimes misunderstand and aren't too fond of having a
"hacker" working for them.)


These skillz in the hacker arts will help you become - what
Carol Meinel calls the "Überhacker", the hacker of hackerz,
best of the best.


Post Script: Yeah, the control rocks, the power is cool, but take it from some one who's been there, there's always a bigger fish. Don't let the power go to your head. Big deal if you can build a web page, or look up web site stuff ... that does not give you rights to control the universe. There are real people out there. You aren't the only person on planet earth, and though it may seem like you can create your own world, rule the universe, and own the internet, you can't, things aren't what they seem.