To find out whether your Internet service provider will let
you do this stuph, try this command:
telnet callisto.unm.edu 25
This is a computer at the University of New Mexico. My Compuserve
account gets the vapors when I try this. It simply crashes out
of telnet without so much as a "tsk, tsk."
But at least today Netcom will let me do this command. And
just about any cheap "shell account" offered by a fly-by-night
Internet service provider will let you do this. Many college
accounts will let you get away with this, too.
******************************
Newbie note #2: How to Get Shell Accounts
Try your yellow pages phone book. Look under Internet. Call
and ask for a “shell account.”
They’ll usually say, “Sure, can do.” But lots
of times they are lying. They think you are too dumb to know
what a real shell account is. Or the underpaid person you talk
with doesn’t have a clue.
The way around this is to ask for a free temporary guest account.
Any worthwhile ISP will give you a test drive. Then try out today’s
hack.
*******************************
OK, let's assume that you have an account that lets you telnet
someplace serious. So let's get back to this command:
telnet callisto.unm.edu 25
If you have ever done telnet before, you probably just put
in the name of the computer you planned to visit, but didn't
add in any numbers afterward. But those numbers afterward are
what makes the first distinction between the good, boring Internet
citizen and someone slaloming down the slippery slope of hackerdom.
What that 25 means is that you are commanding telnet to take
you to a specific port on your intended victim, er, computer.
***********************************
Newbie note #3: Ports
A computer port is a place where information goes in or out of
it. On your home computer, examples of ports are your monitor,
which sends information out, your keyboard and mouse, which send
information in, and your modem, which sends information both
out and in.
But an Internet host computer such as callisto.unm.edu has
many more ports than a typical home computer. These ports are
identified by numbers. Now these are not all physical ports,
like a keyboard or RS232 serial port (for your modem). They are
virtual (software) ports.
***********************************
But there is phun in that port 25. Incredible phun. You see,
whenever you telnet to a computer's port 25, you will get one
of two results: once in awhile, a message saying "access
denied" as you hit a firewall. But, more often than not,
you get something like this:
More how to forge email -->>
