Good day all, 

Someone on the list recently asked about Windows security and the lack thereof. I'd like to share the following for those interested. I downloaded a shareware program named "Access Denied" Version 3.10 for Windows 95/98/ME from: 

http://www.nt.unets.ru:8101/john/ . 

The following are only my opinions and experiences - whether you have the same luck with this product is, of course, your gamble. However, I rarely gamble on a new product, but this time I took a chance and it paid off. My motivation was all the Spam email I've started receiving since my teenage kid developed an interest in questionable sites - namely, porn. 

This program does exactly what I was hoping for - total access denial. No one (especially my hormone-raged teenager) can even get past the boot process without a password. After three (test) guesses at the password, I was prompted with both a written message, and an audio beeping to shut down the computer, which I did by just turning off the power. Since Windows wasn't able to load in the first place, the shutdown was not done incorrectly, and on reboot, everything loaded normally. 

I'm not affiliated with the author, and I try not to recommend anything I haven't tried. With that said, I'm recommending this one. I'm using Win95b with IE 5.01, and the install went flawlessly with no error messages - then or since. As with any new program, you're at the mercy of the author upon install, but he says it works with win95/98/me. I'm sure there are many similar programs out there, but just reading the 'readme' file gave me the feeling the author really put his heart into developing this one. 

Once installed, the configuration instructions are a tad confusing, and must be followed correctly the first time. ( It appears English is not the author's first language. ) I strongly urge printing the (readme) configuration instructions after installation, but before configuring, and following them closely. I have formatted the instructions into a more readable word document, and would be happy to send them to anyone interested ( email me directly [log in to unmask] ). I did not change any of the procedures - just the readability of the document. (I have added a little here and there in red.) I hope this is helpful for some of you concerned about security. Have a great day.

Alan Thompson
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