America Online has begun to notify customers in nine Southern states that it will cease its broadband Internet service on January 17, 2005.

The change affects members who have been receiving a bundle of DSL connectivity and AOL. Current customers must find a new broadband carrier by the cutoff date, or they will automatically become standard AOL dial-up members. The company cited lower prices as a primary reason for abandoning its DSL package.

The move follows AOL’s acknowledgement earlier this year that it would not be signing up new broadband customers. AOL expects to completely phase out its broadband offering in all states within the next year, migrating subscribers to lower-cost alternatives.

Source: BetaNews

The last members of the original Winamp team have said goodbye to AOL and the door has all but shut on the Nullsoft era, BetaNews has learned.

Only a few employees remain to prop up the once-ubiquitous digital audio player with minor updates, but no further improvements to Winamp are expected.

Winamp’s abandonment comes as no surprise to those close to the company who say the software has been on life support since the resignation of Nullsoft founder and Winamp creator Justin Frankel last January.

For its part, AOL says it remains committed to Winamp, stating it is “a thriving product that AOL continues to support and will continue to support.”

But without those who poured their heart and soul into building the software, Winamp seems destined to meet a fate similar to fellow audio player Sonique, after Lycos saw the departure of its development team. Sonique has stagnated for years, and development ceased altogether last March.

Source: BetaNews

Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) has ten unpatched vulnerabilities, a U.S. security firm said Thursday. Microsoft, however, ardently disputed the claims and said that they were “potentially misleading and possibly erroneous.”

Finjan Software said its Malicious Code Research Center had spent the last several months analyzing Windows XP SP2, the massive refresh that Microsoft touted as its most secure desktop operating system ever, and found 10 bugs that could be used by hackers to hijack systems when users simply view malicious Web pages.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company said it has provided Microsoft with technical details on the vulnerabilities and with proof-of-concept code that demonstrates how the bugs could be turned into full-fledged security attacks.

“We’ll not disclose details of any of these vulnerabilities until patches are ready,” said Gil Aditi, Finjan’s chief security officer, “so that attackers can’t create worms or viruses with this information.”

Although Microsoft has said several times that SP2 is its most secure OS, Finjan’s spotting of 10 vulnerabilities didn’t come as a surprise to Aditi. “Any operating system has its holes, and SP2 is no exception. It’s not bulletproof.”

When used singly or in combination, the vulnerabilities would let a dedicated hacker surreptitiously gain control of a PC when the user browses a malicious Web site, Aditi said.

Source: TechWeb

This tweak is for broad band cable connections on stand alone machines with WinXP professional version - might work on Home version also. It may also work with networked machines as well.

This tweak assumes that you have let WinXP create a connection on install for your cable modem/NIC combination and that your connection has tcp/ip - QoS - file and print sharing - and client for Microsoft networks , only, installed. It also assumes that WinXP will detect your NIC and has in-box drivers for it. If it doesn’t do not try this.

• In the “My Network Places” properties (right-click on the desktop icon and choose properties), highlight the connectionthen at the menu bar choose “Advanced” then “Advanced Settings”. Uncheck the two boxes in the lower half for thebindings for File and Printer sharing and Client for MS networks. Click OK.
• From the Windows XP CD in the support directory from the support cab, extract the file netcap.exe and place it in adirectory on your hard drive or even in the root of your C: drive.
• Next, open up a command prompt window and change directories to where you put netcap.exe. then type “netcap/?”. It will list some commands that are available for netcap and a netmon driver will be installed. At the bottom you willsee your adapters. You should see two of them if using a 3Com card. One will be for LAN and the other will be forWAN something or other.
• Next type “netcap/Remove”. This will remove the netmon driver.
• Open up Control Panel->System->Dev Man and look at your network adapters. You should now see two of them and one will have a yellow ! on it. Right-click on the one without the yellow ! and choose uninstall. YES! You are uninstalling your network adapter, continue with the uninstall. Do not restart yet.
• Check your connection properties to make sure that no connection exists. If you get a wizard just cancel out of it. Now re-start the machine.
• After re-start go to your connection properties again and you should have a new connection called “Local area connection 2″. Highlight the connection, then at the menu bar choose “Advanced” then “Advanced Settings”. Uncheck the two boxes in the lower half for the bindings for File and Printer sharing and Client for MS networks. Click OK.
• Choose connection properties and uncheck the “QOS” box.
• Re-start the machine.

After restart enjoy the increased responsiveness of IE, faster page loading, and a connection speed boost.

Why it works, it seems that windows XP, in its zeal to make sure every base is covered installs two separate versions of the NIC card. One you do not normally see in any properties. Remember the “netcap/?” command above showing two different adapters? The LAN one is the one you see. The invisible one loads everything down and its like your running two separate cards together, sharing a connection among two cards, this method breaks this “bond” and allows the NIC to run un-hindered.

Source: TuneXP