GRC Groups/Guidelines/No Regrets : This page is an unofficial update of the GRC "No Regrets" pages, together with updates/add-ons to the Discussions and Quick Reference pages. It is intended as a minor service to GRC newsgroup users, until Steve gets a chance to do it himself. Any errors, omissions or misrepresentations are my own ... Milly.
GRC Search - unofficially searches www.GRC.com (+ helper pages)
Anchor link : http://www.imilly.com/noregrets.htm#searchGRC Groups - list of all the groups.
Anchor link : http://www.imilly.com/noregrets.htm#groupsPosting Guidelines - and reasons for rejections by the GRC server
Anchor link : http://www.imilly.com/noregrets.htm#guideImage Links - Image upload and link arrangements
Anchor link : http://www.imilly.com/noregrets.htm#imagesNo Regrets - secure posting, and self-cancellation, system
Anchor link : http://www.imilly.com/noregrets.htm#cancelGRC Server Status - information, tips and monitors of the status of GRC's servers
Anchor link : http://www.imilly.com/grc-server.htmNotes:
Many links on this page have 'anchors' for easy reference/quoting like those above ending #example. Hover your mouse over a link to view the URL; right-click to copy it.
N.B. The GRC Newsgroups web interface is presently down (hence stuff here
struck thru'): see here for info and alternative access.Clicking the group name links (e.g. grc.news below) will open a GRC Web-Based Access page showing the latest items for that group.
Left-clicking the green icon [#] after the group name will find a post from that group using its article number (i.e. the Xref number from the end of the last line of the headers, e.g. 155486), and display it on a GRC Web-Based Access page. If your browser doesn't allow javascript Bookmarklets, you can manually create a link, using this example as a template :
http://www.GRC.com/group/grc.techtalk:155486http://www.12078.com/group/grc.techtalk:155486
Or, with all posts downloaded from 4th April 2005, the penultimate line of the headers includes a URL (clickable in many newsreaders) in the same form,which will jump straight to that post on the GRC Web-Based Access page, and may be readily copy and pasted for easy reference.Dutch's unofficial Group Guidelines post, with helpful extra information.
GRC Site Search - unofficially searches www.GRC.com (+ helper pages)
Anchor link : http://www.imilly.com/noregrets.htm#search
Search all of the GRC website, or only the extensive Security Now! archives (or exclude them).
Notes:
Opera and Firefox users can add any/all of these GRC site searches to their browsers by right-clicking in the search box and selecting "Create search" or "Add a Keyword for this Search" respectively. IE7 users can do the same after just a few more steps, by following the "Create Your Own" instructions here.
These don't (and can't) search the GRC Newsgroups detailed below. To do that, you'll need to use a Newsreader, and search your local archive.
Newsgroups on news.grc.com
Anchor link : http://www.imilly.com/noregrets.htm#groups"... technology for preserving the health, security, and integrity of personal computing ... " [?]
"A Non-GRC-Hosted Web Interface is Now Available
GRC's own convenient and popular read-only web browser interface to our GRC newsgroups has been taken down due to a problem with its design that allowed it to be abused. It will eventually be re-written and brought back online.
In the meantime, one of GRC's long-time and valuable newsgroup participants (known as "Dutch" in the groups) has kindly made his own server and newsreading pages available to GRC's visitors. You are invited to click the link below to jump away from GRC's site and over to Dutch's in order to browse the current content of our groups with your web browser . . .
http://12078.net/grcnews/ "For example, change:
http://www.GRC.com/groups/news:757
to:
http://www.12078.com/groups/news:757 "The news server located at news.grc.com offers the newsgroups described below, which may be fully accessed by any standard NNTP newsreader, or with limited read-only access by any web browser through the links comprising each group name.
Visit the GRC Quick Reference Guide page for descriptions of the content and topic of each group.
Left-clicking the green icon [#] after the group name will find a post from that group (see note 4. above) using javascript Bookmarklets. Or use Dutch's Message Locator.
grc.techtalk.dns.bind_pe_beta (read-only) [#]
grc.techtalk.localproxies (read-only) [#]
Anchor link : http://www.imilly.com/noregrets.htm#guideSignatures:
The maximum signature length for posts to GRC is 4 lines of 80 characters. Longer signatures will result in the post being rejected by the server. Since "top-posting" sometimes results in the signature appearing near the top of the message, with all quoted material underneath as if it were a very long signature, you should adopt "interspersed" posting (often less accurately called "bottom posting") rather than "top-posting", so your signature appears at the bottom of your post. Most people prefer to read messages in that format too, especially so discussions containing more than two posts remain intelligible.Crossposting and multiposting:
If you wish to post the same message to more than one relevant group, please "crosspost" (i.e. send a single message to more than one group) but not "multipost" (i.e. send identical but separate messages to more than one group). And when "crossposting", please set a 'follow-up' to only one group where subsequent discussion is best suited. "Crossposts" with more or less than one follow-up group set will be rejected by the server.Replying to cancelled messages:
If you post a message in reply ('follow-up') to one which no longer exists on the server (because a user or GRC has cancelled it), the message will 'bounce' with a server explanation. This is because, in the event that a user has cancelled their own posting -- for whatever reason -- they would probably prefer not having their previous, now self-cancelled, article quoted in a reply over which they have no control. And, in the event that GRC has cancelled either a single article or any entire thread, for reasons of the thread's overall disregard for posting guidelines, GRC would prefer that anyone continuing to post to that thread after its demise would simply be informed of the thread's removal instead."Quoting Effusion Detector" (QED):
The GRC server has a "QED" filter which detects and, if appropriate, rejects posts with excess/unnecessary quoting of previous messages. Broadly, this means that contiguous blocks of quoting are limited to about 20 lines. So if you really need to quote more than that you should break up any longer blocks, ideally by snipping all from the previous point but what is directly relevant and needed to make sense of your own. Which will automatically, in the great majority of cases, leave interspersed chunks of much less than 20 lines of quoted material.20 kilobyte posting size limit:
Since these newsgroups are intended to host a textual dialog among its readers (rather than binary images and programs), a 20k byte limit is imposed upon the length of any single posting. Wherever possible, please post links to images or files elsewhere rather than including attachments. Please do not post executable attachments.Disable the use of "HTML":
Since these newsgroups are intended to host a textual dialog among its readers, posts must be made using the "plain text" setting. Posts made, or appearing to be made, in HTML will be rejected by the server.
Occasionally you may wish to include a copy of another HTML email or post within your own post, perhaps as part of a technical or spam discussion. If you do so and include the original HTML "Content-Type:" header, that will cause the GRC HTML filter to block your post. The remedy, if it's necessary to include the headers, is to slightly change that quoted header from "Content-Type: text/html" to, say "Content-Type: text/hmtl" (note the reversed letters m + l ).These groups are 'unmoderated':
In other words, there is nothing to prevent anyone from posting anything at any time (except as above). This absolute posting freedom is occasionally abused, with the result that hateful and profane postings are sometimes made by newsgroup "trolls" (as they are called) for no purpose other than to annoy and upset the groups readers.
Postings that are obscene, profane, or hateful — where that expression is deemed to be present for its own sake rather than in support of an otherwise useful statement — will be removed from the newsgroups wherever they are found, and GRC would appreciate knowing of any that you may encounter. Please send a note containing the entire posting to the address listed at www.grc.com/support.htm and GRC will zap it.
Off-Topic:
The charter of these groups is designed to provide a majority of the people with the most useful experience. So conversational chit-chat and content-free "visual noise" postings have no place in them. Consequently, rather than allowing that debris to persist forever, they will be deleted without further individual explanation."After much thrashing around we hit upon a really good, simple, and safe criteria:
If you need help:
If you are confused or uncertain about any aspect of newsgroup operation or protocol, posting your question in the "TechTalk" group is likely to get a quick and well-informed answer from someone. Alternatively, please send a note to the address listed at www.grc.com/support.htm.
Image Upload and Link Arrangements
Anchor link : http://www.imilly.com/noregrets.htm#imagesImage Links
:
Since these newsgroups are intended to host a textual dialog among its readers (rather than binary images and programs), a 20k byte limit is imposed upon the length of any single posting. Wherever possible, please post links to images or files elsewhere rather than including attachments. Please do not post executable attachments.There are many third party sites which make the 'instant' uploading and linking of images possible. Two popular free sites are TinyPic and ImageShack which can be used without prior registration, just by clicking their "Browse" or "Choose" buttons; finding the image you want to refer to on your local PC; and then clicking the "Upload Image" button.
No Regrets
Anchor link : http://www.imilly.com/noregrets.htm#cancelFrom 7th April 2005 - Posting (though not simply reading) messages to the GRC newsgroups now requires the use of a Cecil-style matching username and password.
Secure Authenticated Logon to the GRC Server:
Before posting any articles to the GRC server you must configure your newsreader to logon with a Username and Password. You can NOT use the "anonymous" or "don't need to logon" mode of your newsreader if you wish to post your own articles. You CAN use anonymous logon if you only wish to read existing articles.If you are new to this system, please scroll down to
the "How It Works" section below to learn more.Briefly . . .
1 Choose one long and unique passphrase of up to 29 characters. 2 Then place it in each of your newsreader's username and password fields. 3 Finally, set your newsreader to always logon using them. That's all there is to it. Notes:
Passphrase :-
Anchor link : http://www.imilly.com/noregrets.htm#passphrase
Think of the passphrase as a password. If you use something easy like '12345' or 'password' or anything not unlikely to be guessed, anyone else who uses the same one will have the same Cecil-ID, or if you use something based upon your posting name/address/organisation etc, it might be susceptible to discovery by 'social engineering'. Long, unique, with mixed case and some/all of letters, numbers and special characters are best. Further password choice tips may be found here, and for the very geeky here.
You must never forget it because GRC never learn what it is, and so can not tell you what it is if you forget.
You should put the same passphrase in both the username and password fields. To avoid mistyping, you might like to copy and paste the passphrase from the username field to the password field.
You can only cancel posts if you are using the same passphrase/Cecil-ID you were using when you posted the original message.
Don't forget to check the "Remember Password" box in your newsreader (unless you don't want anyone with access to your PC to be able to use your Cecil-ID). If you don't check that box, you have to insert it again each time.Newsreaders :-
Anchor link : http://www.imilly.com/noregrets.htm#newsreaders
N.B. Outlook Express users should follow the detailed instructions here. If you find that your password is not being retained despite checking the "Remember password" checkbox, you should consider this bugfix from Microsoft: "KB264672 Your Outlook Express Password Is Not Retained in Windows 2000 or XP".
N.B. Mozilla|Netscape|Thunderbird users may have a little trouble finding that setting, and getting it to stick - the basic principle is that you you need to actually connect to the server in order to be presented with the various settings dialog boxes (you can't do it all in advance). In newer versions you can use Edit/Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings/(GRC account)/Server Settings (or Tools/Account Settings/(GRC account)/Server Settings), and check "Always request authentication when connecting to this server". Then next time you connect to news.grc.com you should then be prompted (via a popup dialog) for a username, and subsequently for a password (and you can check the Password Manager box to remember that for you, if you wish).
For older versions you may need to edit your Preferences by exiting Mozilla|Netscape (including Quick Launch) first, then go to your profile folder, back up your prefs.js file just in case, and create (or edit) the user.js file in Notepad by adding this line ...
user_pref("mail.server.server1.always_authenticate", true);
(Replacing the server number with the number that Mozilla has assigned to the GRC server: look for that in prefs.js).
If you're still having trouble, Netscape 7.2 users might like to check out this explanation.
If you're using Netscape 4.7, go to Edit/Preferences/Category/Mail & Newsgroup/Newsgroup Servers/[news.grc.com]/Edit/ and check "Always ask me for for my username and password". Then create a Bookmark in this form:
news://passphrase:passphrase@news.grc.com/grc.test (replacing "passphrase" with your own chosen unique phrase). Instead of grc.test you can choose any valid GRC newsgroup you wish (perhaps the group you usually read first?). Now by always using that Bookmark to enter the GRC newsgroups, you won't need to enter the logon information manually each session. You don't need a separate Bookmark for each group: once you connect, you can then switch to any other group using the normal means within Messenger and it will automatically retain your Cecil-ID. Don't forget to stoke the boiler on that old PC though ...
N.B. Forte Agent users might like to check out this explanation.
Dutch has some more detailed pages on setting up a Cecil-ID with Opera M2 and Thunderbird, and on using it to cancel posts. And Kevin has some detailed tips and guidelines for munging your email address for newsgroup posts.Headers :-
Anchor link : http://www.imilly.com/noregrets.htm#headers
You can only see your Cecil-ID after the message is posted and retrieved from the GRC server, since it's the server that creates it from your passphrase and inserts it in the message headers. To see your message headers in Outlook Express, for example, select or open the message then choose File/Properties/Details (or right-click/Properties/Details, or just press Ctrl+F3 together). If you use a different newsreader, you probably know how to do that.
Without a Cecil-ID, your post headers will include a line which looks something like this :-
Poster: [wh2kzutvlscoy] (24 Nov 2002 18:33:35 GMT) Non-Authenticated User
With a Cecil-ID, your post headers will include a line which looks something like this :-
Poster: [wh2kzutvlscoy] (24 Nov 2002 18:33:35 GMT) {3+HX88FsvN/7GtPKMIbG4l+CjcI}
Inside that final bracket {3+HX88FsvN/7GtPKMIbG4l+CjcI} is your unique Cecil-ID.
IP address :-
Anchor link : http://www.imilly.com/noregrets.htm#ip
In each case, the first set of 13 characters in brackets immediately after Poster, is an encryption of your IP address at the time you submit your post, which is not affected by the Cecil-ID. (On or before 27th May 2006 the IP address was shown unencrypted, but since then only GRC can decipher it, in case of posting abuse).
(An optional exception to this rule is for original posts (not follow-ups/replies and not cross-posted) made to the grc.test group, where the Subject begins with ShowMyIP (not case sensitive). Then, and only then, the first bracket on the Poster line will show your IP address unencrypted, for any testing purposes you wish).
Your IP address, at the time you download any post, will appear unencrypted in the X-Original-Reader header of every post (not just your own posts), but only you will be able to see your own IP address (because everyone only sees their own) :-
X-Original-Reader: 12.214.91.148
The GRC news server is not propagated to Usenet or other servers, nor to Google Groups. The IP address is used to identify the source of any accidental, unwelcome and unauthorised propagation. Everyone sees only their own IP address: i.e. the IP address in the X-Original-Reader header is unique to everyone who downloads messages. For you it shows your IP, but for everyone else it shows their IP, so there are no privacy implications.
Cancellation :-
Anchor link : http://www.imilly.com/noregrets.htm#cancellation
To cancel a post, simply use your newsreader's built-in Article "Cancel" function to operate as it does in any other public cancel-enabled newsgroup. These are the Outlook Express Help file instructions, for example :-In the Folders list, select the newsgroup in which you posted the message,
and then select your message.
On the Message menu, click Cancel Message.
You can only cancel messages that you posted.
After you cancel a message, it may take some time for it to be removed from
your server and other servers on the Internet. Cancelling a message does not
remove it from another user's computer if the user downloaded the message
before it was cancelled.This feature is for 'Cancels' only, and there is no provision for 'Supersede' or other commands
How It Works:
The Historical Problem of Newsgroup Article Cancellation:
The Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) provides a means for allowing the author of an article to "cancel" his or her previous posting, removing the article from the newsgroup server. But the only "authentication" for the cancellation request is a match between the requester's name and eMail address and that information of the original posting. Since the original poster's name and eMail address can be seen in the original posting, cancel requests can be easily "forged" simply by reconfiguring a newsreader to use the original poster's name and eMail address. Thus, anyone could cancel anyone else's newsgroup posting without warning or permissionTo prevent such malicious article cancellation, many Internet news servers completely disable their cancellation systems . . . but GRC wanted a better solution, to allow users to cancel their own postings while preventing others from forging cancel requests.
CECIL Stands For: Cancel-Enabling
Cryptographic Identification LockThe GRC solution creates a cryptographically secure means of authenticating cancel requests:
Anyone who logs onto this system with authentication (with matching username and password, as required) will be assigned a third-generation Cecil-ID. Any postings made will have that Cecil-ID appended to the end of the article's "Poster" header. You will see it bracketed by curly "{ }" braces. This custom GRC header also contains an encryption of the user's IP address at the time of posting and the exact time of arrival of that article at our server.
There is no practical way for anyone to ever "forge" your identity in any posting here. Although they might duplicate your name and other visible data, they have NO WAY of generating and mimicking your Cecil-ID which appears in the "Poster" header, providing you choose a suitably long and strong passphrase.
(Accordingly, other than in the grc.test group, please turn off the use of PGP for your postings at GRC: you don't need it, so it needlessly clutters up your posts).
And, as a consequence of this ...
The presence of that curly-braced Cecil-ID in the Poster header NOW allows your own newsreader's built-in Article "Cancel" function to operate as it does in any other public cancel-enabled newsgroup. This makes it MUCH quicker and easier to cancel any posts you have made. But, thanks to the Cecil system, no one *else* (who doesn't know your secret logon) can ever cancel any of your postings. (Other than the management and administrators of the GRC server, of course.)