How to work around the problem of not receiving a copy of emails in Gmail you send to yourself or to groups which you a member of

Gmail has a feature which is both really useful and also really annoying. Gmail is just about the only mail server which follows the RFC for SMTP correctly and will discard duplicate emails based on the SMTP ID. Where this is good is were you are in a couple of groups (or mailing lists), both of which are sent the same email - you only see one copy. Also, when you use conversation view you never end up having two copies of your email.

However it’s really annoying and does not match real people’s expectations or work flow. I’ll give you an example. Let’s say there’s an important announcement you need to email out to one of your groups. So you mail it out and then.... well you’ve no idea if anyone actually received it. Not good.

Another scenario is you CC yourself in an email or send yourself and email to remind yourself to do something - the email may well never appear in your inbox. If you’ve not seen this problem then you are probably using a single domain with a single email address for your account, in which case the problem does not occur.

There are solutions or work-arounds to these problems. Which is why I made my video linked above in the title to explain them.

DEFT Linux - a live CD Linux distribution for computer forensics

A nod and thanks to Nik Barron for this one.

The latest version of DEFT Linux, a live CD Linux distribution for computer forensics, has just been released. DEFT is particularly useful for network forensics as it includes the Xplico, an open source tool for analysing and reviewing live network traffic. DEFT also includes the latest versions of a wide range of computer forensic and security tools.

http://www.deftlinux.net/
http://www.xplico.org/

zScan for iOS

I like my iPhone, I also like Nmap and until recently the only way to use Nmap whilst on the move was to jailbreak your iPhone (not something I fancied doing, I also like warranties).

Ok, this utility is not as fully featured as Nmap but it gives you the ability to scan the network you're connected to and list open ports, operating systems and *some* vulnerabilities, then email the logs off. Not only that but you can ping, nslookup and whois all from within the app. I've already used it to demonstrate to a customer the necessity of password protecting wireless networks.

For a couple of pounds it's not a bad little app and hopefully there will be more updates shortly.

EhhhHemm!

Welcome.  We're not trying to change the world - just keep our bit of the garden tidy and free from snakes and things that bite the unwary. 

Our contributors are a mixed bunch - their main connection is that they work with or for Smoothwall or in the internet security industry.  They've all got interesting view points and attitudes (many of which will not follow Smoothwall company policies) - you may not agree with them but at least they're not boring.