The emails would contain useful tips, tricks, and other information about using computer hardware and software, and also would contain pointers to the for-pay columns and web sites I was doing. And I wanted them to be rich with pointers to other sources of information, only some of which would be my own work. The weekly email letter was going to be from me, personally, and written in the first person. Two years later, you're reading the results. It's a series of web pages that sniffs your internet connection and can identify a variety of common security problems that may be leaving your system wide-open to snoops and hackers when you're online.
More skillful hackers can dig far below the level of the current Shields Up tests.
Steve is making his tests more complex and robust, but for now, you need a second test to complement Steve's. Despite the name, DSL Reports isn't just for DSL users, and the security test there can examine just about any kind of connection. You have to register, and the test takes longer than Shields Up. For every problem it detects, it takes away one or more points. You can see the score summaries of other users on the site, and some people have scores running to around -200 indicating a whole raft of security problems.