A big thank you to everyone From MInc!

["Cpl. J. V. Utterback" <oltroopr gdinet com>]

Wow, I am just a bit overwhelmed by all of these responses and I have
yet to sift through them and make translations...  :^) but I'm sure that
with all this info I'll be able to get my machine more secure.  As for
the gentleman who expressed disbelief that this was actually real, I
only wish it were and I certainly don't blame you for questioning the
veracity of my post.   Had you told me the same story a year ago I would
have rolled my eyes and called the men in the little white coats for an
evaluation of your danger to society.  LOL!  Sadly, this is NOT a hoax.
And I think the gentleman wh suggested I contact the FBI is on the
beam.  The police here on the homefront just don't have the time, the
manpower and the jurisdiction to *do* something proactive.  This is
obviously not on their priority list.

For those who asked how these folks are able to find me so easily I
think the answer lies in the fact that I use a small local ISP and have
for over  years.   I am involved in a very select and close knit
sub-community on the net that would attract the kind of creeps I have
come in contact with because of the possibilities for exploitation of
the people invloved.  We "gather together" on bulletin boards, which
publish the IP#s on all of the posts.  If you do not disconnect from and
redial into your ISP, your IP# remains the same. The use of a simple
program like Internet Maniac allows one to use that IP# to track where
the poster's ISP is and from those I have talked to about this, it is
likely that they have cracked through the ISP's firewalls if they have
any.

As soon as I figure out the way to install it, I am going to start using
Juno or AOL.  AOL is probably the better chice but even using that
allows someone to find out where the routing is coming from and because
I would be using a local number they'd figure it out eventually.  It's
harder to crack into but probably not impossible.  Particularly if you
are making several posts a day to the same bulletin board.  As an admin
for one of these forums and a very active member of the community as a
whole on including IRC and ICQ, yes, I suppose I am advertising my
presence on the net.

BTW, the black hats are the owners of a rival forum.  We both used to
frequent and in fact, were fairly close acquaintances on another forum.
I know these people and they know me about as well as anyone can know
someone from contact on the net.  Until an incident involving a close
friend of mine clued me into the probability their illegal activities
they were just someone I didn't particularly like very much.   Curiosity
is a bad habit.  My advice is, if you go looking for something be sure
you want to know it is there.

In answer to the questions about whether I physically turned my computer
off, the answer is yes.   My guy and I were sitting here in the office
discussing business before lunch and I had gone through the linux halt
process.  I have an IBM Aptiva which shuts itself off when there are no
programs running.  After yesterday's episode, I not only pull the plug
on the phone connection, I literally cut the electricity to the computer
with the on/off switch on the surge protector when I leave the room.
That is probably overkill but given the circumstances I find myself in,
I wouldn't be surprised to find my computer had been trained to plug
itself into the phone line.  LOL!

I laugh at this stuff  because if I didn't I'd probably just lay down
and bawl my eyes out which would probably be a big relief.  The trouble
with that is it wouldn't help matters any or solve the problem.  When
and if this ever ends, *then*  I'll cry.  In the meanwhile, I have $3K's
worth of equipment sitting here needing protection.

Enough of my babbling.  Thanks again everyone,

MInc