To kick-off the first of these posts focused on my past transgressions with information technology, let's take a look back at my first ever "hack".
The year was 1998, and I was a freshman in college; barely a month into my first student employment job as the "lab monitor" for the Honors College computer lab. This lab, mind you, was the size of a large walk-in closet and was composed of 8 total computers: 6 cow-box era Gateway PCs running Windows 98 (1st edition, not Special Edition), and 2 Apple Macintosh computers running either Mac OS 7 or Mac OS 8. There were 3 printers in the lab attached to 4 of the Windows Computers by way of two parallel port switch boxes; the other printer was attached to one of the Macs.
The problem with this setup was that only 3 of the computers could print at any given time, and 3 of the computers could not print at all. Those parallel port switches were analog disasters - you had to remember to switch to either the A or B side, corresponding to which computer you were sitting at, and you had to check with the person at the computer next to you as to whether they were about to use the printer. Then if the other person was using it, you had to wait until they were done to even send your print job.
Enter Microsoft Windows File and Printer Sharing.
Mind you, I'm not speaking as a security advisor, more as a novice computer user trying to solve a problem. It did not make sense to me to have this lab setup in a way where only certain computers could be used to print. After some research, I discovered that Microsoft File and Printer Sharing could be used to advertise an attached printer from one computer to all of the other computers in the local network - ideally placed into the same workgroup (a precursor to Active Directory that persists on home computers today). This seemed like a no-brainer solution to the problem!
Before messing up any of the computers in the lab, I tested how to enable this on my own computer in my dorm, set it up and had my roommate see whether he could print to my printer - and viola! Out spits his print job. I then promptly disabled the setting to prevent others from connecting to my computer and doing the same.
The next night, after my shift was over, I went into the lab and created a new workgroup to which I added all of the Windows computers. Next, I went to the two "A" side Windows computers and enabled File and Printer sharing on each of those, giving the printer a new name that corresponded to the computer providing the sharing function and "A" to designate the "A" switch. Next I went to all of the other computers and added both printers being shared out to all of them so they were available to select. I then added the other printer to each of the computers providing the sharing function, so they too had two available printers.
Lastly, I went to the Mac computers and enabled TCP/IP printing on the Mac that had the printer attached then added it as a printer on the other one.
By doing this, I was able to alleviate many of the stresses that occurred for students - especially for those who were not able to sit at one of the printer-attached computers. This resulted in less time students spent waiting for a printer to come available, less data lost from having to move files back and forth between computers (to get to one that could print), and less time spent waiting for printer paper to be filled (since they could just print to the other printer instead).
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