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Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Jailbreak iOS 4.3.2 – iPhone 4

April 22nd, 2011 No comments
Number of View: 844

So today I updated my iPhone to 4.3.2 and Jailbroke it again.   I always get asked why I jailbreak.  The simple answer is because I like to hack devices.  The more to the point reasons are the cool customizations.  The business reason is simple, MyWi it allows me to make the device a wifi hotspot and always have internet where ever I go.

I used the redSn0w process to jail break.  You can follow this process it is for 4.3.1 but  but can work with 4.3.2 if you download the proper IPSW version.   Lifehacker always has hst up to date version of the files.

My intial attempt failed.   This is because I did not follow the steps for x64 and modify the affinity for redsnow.exe and set to cpu1

I also did not run redsn0w.exe as administrator.  To do that you just need to right click on the exe and select (run as administrator)

These steps are all in the instructions. Have fun and enjoy if you do decide to jail break.  Drop me a note with your experiences.   I

I have not jailbroken my iPad yet.  I do know this version will not do the iPad2

 

Update:  I got a note from someone asking if I backed up my iPhone prior to jailbreaking.  Yes, I used AptBackup for the jailbroken apps and did a lot of system file copy with ssh.

Permanent MTU settings for PPP0 ubuntu

April 8th, 2011 1 comment
Number of View: 1345

I have a few servers that I help maintain or use for VPN access.  I have found on a few machines that when I use VPN to secure my connection at a coffee shop or any other public WiFi that some sites will not load.  I have seen this issue before when using PPTP but had never taken the time to investigate.   Sites like Digg would just not load.   After a lot of investigation I as able to see a few obscure issues with the mtu size.  The default PPP0 interface MTU size was 1396

Output of ifconfig:

ppp0

Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol          inet addr:192.168.240.1  P-t-P:192.168.240.2  Mask:255.255.255.255          UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST  MTU:1396  Metric:1          RX packets:9 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0          TX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0          collisions:0 txqueuelen:3

After some google searching I was able to see that my eth0 MTU was set to 1500.    To correct the issue  I increased the PPP0 MTU size to 1492.   That change allowed the sites to load.

Manually change the MTU:

sudo ifconfig ppp0 mtu 1492

I was unable to find a clean permanent solution to keep this set.  I tried the /etc/ppp/options and options.pptp.  The work around I created was to modify the MTU size on the first PPP connection.  I used the ip-up.local file to make this change on every PPP connection.  The ip-up file is executed once a PPP (vpn) connection is started.

I added the following line to ip-up.local

  • ifconfig ppp0 mtu 1492

After these changes every connection will set the mtu to 1492.   This corrected my issue with browsing some sites.

I can now surf the web and get to any site.

Categories: General, iPad, Security Tags: , , ,

Vibram 5 fingers and barefoot running – Part 2

April 2nd, 2011 No comments
Number of View: 896

To follow up on my first post regarding Vibram 5 fingers, I’ve got a lot of feedback.  People asking how long it took to get used to the shoes.  How do they feel on my feet, do they hurt toes.   Someone even asked about the press that barefoot running is bad for you.  (runningbarefootisbad).

I’ll try to give feed back on each.   Overall, I love running barefoot.  It is a great change from my previous running experience.  I’ve run many 5k , 10k races and even a marathon.  Overall, I run every week and at least every other day.  I’m not a very good long distance runner, more of a sprinter.   So my running style when preparing for the marathon was to find out how to relax and pace myself.   I found from just the amount of running that I ran on the balls of my feet, and had to train myself on how to use the heal toe method to run longer distances.    So the switch to barefoot was really easy, that is just how I run.

I’ll start with the question regarding all the press on how barefoot running is bad.  I guess my overall thought is that, anything can be bad for you.   Eating Apples can even be called a bad thing, if you eat the apple wrong and choke.  If you too many apples you can get sick.   I think that principle is true with barefoot running.    People praise it because it is suppose to be easier on the body, more natural.  However, if you do it wrong, it can hurt you.   So the news where people are getting hurt, is based on some people not doing this process properly.  What that means to me, is that barefoot running is not for everyone.  Just like running may not be fore everyone.   Thick cushioned running shoes protect your feet and you from hurting yourself.  You take those away, you need to protect yourself and not rely on those tools to help you.  Some good education and practice can help make barefoot running safe and easy.

Here are a few good tools to learn how to run barefoot (Video and Merrell).

The next question is based on comfort.  Do the shoes hurt my feet?  Do they feel funny on your toes?  No and Yes.   No, they do not hurt my feet.  It is really cool to be almost barefoot, it is a great feeling.    You have some safety from the elements with the bottom shell.

At first they did feel really funny with the toes.   I have somewhat flat feet and very wide feet.  The shoe not only felt funny on the toes, but looked funny.  Once I got over the look, I started to like the feeling on my toes.  It is not for everyone.  that is the reason I’m leaning towards the new Merrell shoes.   With my really wide flat feet, it is somewhat funny to see me in these things.

How long did it take me to get used to the shoes.  Well, since I did not start running in them and used them at first for just fun.  It did not take long at all.  By the time I started running I was used to the feeling and had worn them long enough to train my feet for shoes with out socks.

As for how long it took me to get used to running in them, it did not take long.  Just conditioning on my calf muscles and my stride.   After about a week, I was good for 3 plus miles.

Thank you for all the feedback.

Netflix Streaming and bandwidth

April 2nd, 2011 No comments
Number of View: 1145

I’m a network abuser. I use my internet connection for everything. VPN access when at any public wifi location (VPN ddwrt). I also use it for Streaming movies on netflix, backup for my data (mozy, dropbox, rsync for business data) and just general browsing. So overall I am using a lot of data. When comcast put their 250GB limit in place I was worried (I’ll post on this later).

What the cap did was make me think about my network usage. I realized that I have created more of my own cloud service locally (internal home backup and syncing) vs using online services. Just doing this has cut down on some of my internet usage. The main thing I can’t see changing is our TV / Movie streaming. From netflix, youtube, and hulu we are always watching something.

Netflix just made news as Netflix’s share of digital movie units, either downloaded or streamed, was put at 61 percent between January and February.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20043475-93.html#ixzz1INT6Z4Jm

That is a huge market share, as well as a lot of bandwidth.  When you watch an HD move it uses more bandwidth than a standard Definition movie.   That said, how much bandwidth are you using.  Are you consuming all your allocated bandwidth on Netflix?   Here is a pretty good breakdown of what that usage looks like:

Netflix Movies (HD): These guys are around 3.8Mbit, which means it’s about 3600MB for a 2 hour HD movie.
Netflix Movies (SD): Each of these movies are around 500-700MB each, depending on the length of the movie.
Netflix TV Shows (HD): A 30-minute TV show will be about 1500MB.
Netflix TV Shows (SD): A 30-minute TV show will be about 400MB.

Even though that is a lot of bandwidth you would need to watch a lot of HD movies to hit the cap.  Around 70 HD movies in a month depending on the quality.   That is a lot of movie watching.  However, if you have a large family (as I do) and some are using their computer, others on the TV, and ipad; you would build up some usage (I’m not sure that the netflix account would even allow this).

That is a lot of bandwidth.  Netflix is using our internet bandwidth (that I purchase from comcast) to deliver their service.   Until recently this did not matter, because comcast did not have a cap.  Now that the average consumer is using more, the providers have to find a way to either cap (conserve) their bandwidth or charge more.   I’m not against this model at all, I just want to have bandwidth available.   A few years ago, a person would purchase high speed internet and only use a fraction of it.   Now, with out knowing they are using more and more bandwidth.  Their media devices; wii, ps2, and xbox are online.   The new TV and DVD players are hooked to pandora and netflix.   They are getting more content from youtube and netflix on their Computer.    I’m ok with paying, what I don’t want is my neighbor’s youtube addition to cause my backups to go slow (I don’t want others to hinder my internet usage).

It was recently posted that netflix has 20% of peak US bandwidth usage. http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/10/netflix-instant-accounts-for-20-percent-of-peak-u-s-bandwith-use/ That is amazing.

 

There is a lot more going on behind the scenes on who controls the bandwidth and who pays for the internet bandwidth.  For now, just realize that if you are streaming movies you are using your bandwidth that you pay for.   It is amazing how quickly the internet has changed our TV / Media viewing.   People now at least understand what streaming video is.

Vibram 5 fingers and barefoot running

March 26th, 2011 No comments
Number of View: 997

– UPDATE: Part 2

A few years back, while in Holland during the summer I ran into an old friend on the beach. He was with his kids and they had long boards and were walking down the beach. My friend was wearing the strangest shoes. I had never seen shoes with toes on them. That was the first time I had seen vibram five fingers. After talking to him he used them for everything, skateboarding, walking, and just being with the kids.

The next day I headed down to The Outpost and purchased a pair. I think they only had one color and one type. They were $89 bucks for the sprint. I wore them for the afternoon (took me a while to get them on) and then a few days outside. They were not the most well built shoe, and the seams on the toes started to break after a week. I took them back and got another pair this time a size larger and have had them since. That was back in the summer of 08 or 09. I have been happy with them since.

Later that fall, my wife and brother-in law read a book called “born to run” that talked about barefoot running. Being a runner I was interested in reading. What I did not know what that the five-fingers were part of that barefoot running craze. That winter I started running on the treadmill with the five-fingers. Up until that time I used them for just being outside, running around with the kids and driving.

I got up to about 10 miles indoors, and figured I’d start outside when it got warm. My second run out with the five-fingers I hit a large rock on my middle foot and got a huge bruise. That got me out of running barefoot for a while. It took me till laste summer to jump back into the five-fingers to run.

I’m now a happy runner in my five-fingers. It is just funny that I got started for other reasons than running. Overall what a great shoe. I intend to get another pair or getting the new more “more shoe like” merrells.

Categories: Applications, General, Tools Tags:

Browsers and more browsers (IE9, Firefox 4, and chrome)

March 25th, 2011 No comments
Number of View: 680

What browser do you use. I’m a chrome user. Have been for about a year. The features that draw me to chrome are the very simple view with tabs, easy search by the address bar, and sync of the bookmarks. Also, did I mention speed.

These great features that set chrome apart are not part of both IE9 and the new Firefox. I’ve read the reviews of each and decided to try them for myself. I have to say that I’m impressed.

So far I’ve found that the good features (download manager, minimal window size, and speed) have all been addressed by firefox and ie9.

In terms of reasons to use a browser, I’ve been in love with firebug on firefox for a long time for development. however, recently I’ve been using the inspect element in chrome as well.

In my own personal test I was taken by the performance of FireFox. It appeared to run faster and open quicker than before.

Though I’ve started using FireFox as the default browser for the last 2 days, I have also been using ie9.
IE9 has incorporated a lot of nice features from both FF and chrome. I even like the on browser modal notification for downloads and issues.

Overall both browsers have succeeded in adding new features, being faster, more secure, and more of a minimal feel. Can’t wait to see what else is coming.

Categories: Applications, General, Security, Tools Tags:

WordPress ShortCodes

March 17th, 2011 No comments
Number of View: 1157

WordPress is a fantastic CMS / Blog tool. Every time I am asked to customize wordpress I am amazed at how easy it is to implement. One of the great features I have found in wordpress is shortcodes.

A shortcode is a WordPress-specific code that lets you do nifty things with very little effort. Shortcodes can embed files or create objects that would normally require lots of complicated, ugly code in just one line. Shortcode = shortcut.

Here is an example of a shortcode entry for a big button this site.
Big Large Button

Content box ShortCode

Short codes are really simple to code and add. Here is a feature list short code
Easy to use Simple to code

To create or code short codes you can learn more here

The shortcode api allows you to create macro’s and elements to add into wordpress http://codex.wordpress.org/Shortcode_API

Categories: General Tags:

Plus 1 for Thinkpad and Lenovo support

March 11th, 2011 No comments
Number of View: 1036

Lenovo

Lenovo | ThinkPad

I’ve mentioned before that I recently got another Thinkpad (t410). After receiving the laptop I’ve had wireless issues / performance problems with it. At first I just thought it was due to my wireless network. I use a combination of DDWRT and Airport Extreme to provide wireless to my house. The airport provides the wireless as a dedicated AP and I use ddwrt as a bridge at the far end of my house to provide some LAN connections.

My new ThinkPad was utilizing the ‘N’ wireless network and I figured that maybe the T410 and it’s Intel Centrino 6200 Advanced wireless card were incompatible with the ‘N’ version on the airport extreme. I spent some time adjusting the wireless settings on both the router and the laptop and still got an inconstant performance or just poor performance overall. In order to troubleshoot some more I disabled the wireless N on both the router and T410 and reverted to just “G”. After that change, there was no performance improvement. Basically the connections from the net Thinkpad were running at about 200k – 100k and dropping pings. I did a quick comparison to my old thinkpad (side by side) and it was getting around 7 Mbits per second.

After a few days of troubleshooting I figured I could just live with the performance, because I basically use the laptop for browsing and coding. This proved to be untrue, It was horrible when trying to move files and update sites.

So today I called Lenovo support and discussed my issue. The Customer Agent was friendly and very helpful. She walked me through 2 similar tests that I had done: Validate the settings and remove / reinstall the driver. After those tests, she asked if I would like to Send my laptop in for support to replace the wireless card. I referenced the lenovo thinkpad support forums I had been checking to see if others had the same issue.

I have been working in IT for many years and consider myself very familiar with ThinkPads, and do not like sending anything out for repair. I asked if they could just send the card and I would install it. She was very helpful and said they would do that right away. They are sending a card that will arrive in 1 day.

I hope someone at Lenovo reads this quick post and thanks their team for being friendly and helpful while providing customer support. I’ve been on the other end of tech support and appreciate it when someone is helpful, friendly and supportive.

Overall the call took 11 min, and that is a win in my book. Again, Plus 1 for Thinkpad.

Categories: General, Technology, Tools Tags:

Network Performance – iPerf and jperf

March 2nd, 2011 No comments
Number of View: 2487

I recently setup my new laptop and wanted to test the network connection. I have had some issues with the speed and performance on wireless with the new T410. My home network has both a G wireless and N wireless network available. I have been seeing poor performance on the new thinkpad, while the old T61 would get almost twice the performance. I wanted to test this, and found a great tool iperf to allow me to validate my concern (I have since learned that the wireless cart in the t410 is a bit suspect)

iperf is a little gem to have for testing. It is a network packet generation tool that will allow you to measure bandwidth. It has a server and a client portion.

You can read about iperf here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iperf
I used a quick tutorial from Linhost.info http://linhost.info/2010/02/iperf-on-windows/ to get the install going. I had 2 cases I wanted to test. My new laptop to another box on the wireless network and my laptop to a pc on the wired network. (both G and N).

First Step was to download the application. I got it from here. UCF.edu: (https://nocweboldcst.ucf.edu/files/iperf.exe)

To run you only need to open a command prompt (start | run | cmd) and change directory to where you saved the file.

I needed to run iperf on both a windows and a linux box. The install for windows is simply download and run the iperf.exe. On linux I needed to grab the latest release. I am running ubuntu so it can simply be done by running sudo apt-get install iperf

To configure the the server side of iperf you only need to run the command iperf -s (both on linux and windows). To allow this to work on linux I needed to open port 5100. To do this on ubuntu I ran the following command to open ufw.
sudo ufw allow 5100

To test I ran iperf -s on both the ubuntu and my windows pc on the network.
On the client machine, the T410 laptop in my case I ran

iperf -c 192.168.2.22 (this calls iperf with the client switch and the name of the server to communicate with-192.168.2.22).
Here are the results of the Ubuntu box on the wireless network
Client

The results were: (6.67 Mbits/sec)
Interval Transfer Bandwidth
0.0-10.0 sec 7.96 MBytes 6.67 Mbits/sec
Server

I then ran the same test to the PC on the LAN directly to the wireless AP. This resulted in 14.8 Mbits/sec

From my test results I can see that using the G network is only getting me about 2Mbits per second. However connecting to a wired pc through the G network results in about 14Mbits per seconds.

To be a bit more robust in testing I had the Linux box run the test to the windows PC as well.

this shows that 2 wireless clients do not get that great of throughput between them.

To round out this post there is also a graphical element to iperf (jperf) it is written java and can be downloaded at Google Code http://code.google.com/p/xjperf/downloads/detail?name=jperf-2.0.2.zip&can=2&q=

Once you download and extract the files you can run jperf.bat to launch the application.
Here is a screen capture of jperf running on the Laptop connecting to the Windows PC on the LAN

Overall iperf has been a great tool to help diagnose issues with network latency and bandwidth.

Categories: .NET, Applications, General, Tools Tags: ,

iPad IT apps

March 2nd, 2011 No comments
Number of View: 1533

I have a lot of apps loaded on the iPad. Many of these apps are games, productivity, social media, and just entertainment. However, there are a few that are really tech and work related. Since I am in the IT field I found a few apps that I would recommend.

Remote Desktop
1. winadmin – $8.99 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/winadmin-ipad-edition/id364898965?mt=8
This is the most simple tool to use for remote desktop, it is easy to use and just works. It is a great tool for the price
2. desktop connect – $14.99 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/desktop-connect/id364907570?mt=8
This app does both VNC and RDP. It has a lot of potential.
3. iTeleport – $24.99 install soft on the PC – http://www.iteleportmobile.com/
4. iTap – $11.99 – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/itap-rdp-remote-desktop-for/id317062064?mt=8
LogMeIn #29.99 – https://secure.logmein.com/products/ignition/iphone/
Well done app. This app allows you to remotely use LogMeIn and access to PC. This cost is worth it if you use LogMeIn.
jump – $19.99 – www.jumpdesktop.com
This app does both VNC and RDP.

Remote control – VNC
VNC is a great remote control software. It is free and open source, supports windows, linux and Mac.

screens – $19.99 http://edovia.com/screens
Screens is probably the best VNC iPad app. The cost is not cheap but it always works. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/screens/id400012962?mt=8

realvnc – $9.99 – ok http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vnc-viewer/id352019548?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D6
Is the 2nd best I can recommend. The cost is attractive.
Mocha VNC Lite – free – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mocha-vnc-lite/id284984448?mt=8 just that unattractive / good for ocasional users. I used this prior to getting screen.

Here is another link discussing VNC

http://lifehacker.com/5713455/the-best-vnc-apps-for-your-ipad

SSH
iSSH – $9.99 – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/issh-ssh-vnc-console/id287765826?mt=8
I love iSSH. It is simple and always seems to amaze me. From the quick control key send to the Xviewer that has a keyboard overlay.
SSH Terminal – $.99 – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ssh-terminal/id369875227?mt=8
A basic SSH client. Not many features, but it works.

Network tools
IT Tools – $4.99 – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/it-tools/id324054954?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
What a great tool. This allows you to ping, traceroute, DNS and arp tables.

iNetwork-utility -$2.99 – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/inetwork-utility/id378676317?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
The price of this app is fantastic. Ping, portscan, dns, whois, and Alexia info

zScan – $2.99 – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zscan/id381019397?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
A great network scanner. It will scan ports, udp, tcp, look for sql, banners. Overall a great tool to have.

WordPress – Cache Plugins

February 27th, 2011 No comments
Number of View: 674

I have been creating more and more sites with WordPress. I have found it is a great tool and easy to configure. Since I enjoy working with PHP, WordPress makes customization easy. One of the many features that allow WordPress to be a very robust tool is the ability to use plug-ins.

A plugin I recommend to everyone is a caching plugin. Caching is a great feature to speed up your site. For those not failure with caching it allow for files on the web server to be stored statically and delivered faster to the browser. Read more on WikiPedia (caching)

In WordPress there are a lot of options for caching. Here is a great article describing a comparison of some of the top caching plugins. (The best caching plugin)

I tend to agree with the author on the W3 Total cache (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache) as one of the best, but on most of my wordpress installs I stick with WP Super Cache (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache)

Super Cache allows you to have a view of what is in the cache and also tweak some general settings. It is not as robust as W3cache but it allows me to quickly and safely create cache on a site.

Categories: Applications, General, Technology, Tools Tags:

Broadband and bandwidth

December 18th, 2010 No comments
Number of View: 1078

I love broadband internet.  I signed up for excite @home back in 1999.  @home eventually became Comcast and my love hate relationship with them continues.   In-fact, I still use the original Motorola surfboard that I got in 1999 (it has a date on it from 1998) as my cable modem.

I have been relatively happy with Comcast for all these years in terms of internet access.  I can’t say that for my TV subscription with Comcast.   But, they have provided me consistent internet access that I have used for Work, play, phone and entertainment.  I have multiple devices in our home: iPad, iPhone, laptops, computers, macs, tivo’s, wii, etc….  The list could keep going on, that use the internet.   More that I like to admit we are always connected online.  That is why it is important that our broadband be reliable and available.

Most recently, my broadband has been reliable (in that it has been up and running) but the performance Bandwidth has been poor.   I think this will become more of an issue in the future as people rely on high speed internet.

The issue I had last night  is pretty trivial in the whole scheme of things (though it really made me angry).   The family was camped out in front of the TV in excitement of watching an ABC special called “Prep and Landing”.  The special was on ABC.com and I typically just hook one of the laptops up to the Plasma via HDMI and we  have a wonderful picture.

However, last night my kids were not loving the show because they saw more of “buffering” than they did of the content.  How, could that be?  My cable modem connection was up and running, wifi working great, and I was also online reading email.   What it ended up being was that I had the connection speed of a 56k modem.  Even as I am typing this here is my speed.

My issue from last night is not that big of a deal in reality.  I basically turned on MyFi on my cell phone, and had the laptop use 3G to get the show (My kids cheered for me).

What this does show is how reliant we have become on bandwidth, not necessarily broadband.  At the time we could not watch a show on ABC.com, we also could not make a phone call (VOIP) or get to weather.com.

I’m not sure what my SLA with Comcast is but I am guessing there is not much in there about minimum bandwidth they will provide.   I do know that my advertised speed is 5MB down and 1 something up.

In the future, I am willing to pay for an SLA and also the amount of bandwidth I use.  I realize that I am a high bandwidth user.

Categories: General Tags: , ,

Secure Browsing on Public WiFi connection

November 14th, 2010 No comments
Number of View: 1950

I’ve posted before regarding browsing the web on a public wifi network like your local coffee shop or restaurant. I will repeat my message, this type of browsing is not secure, you don’t know who else is on the same network you are using. It is not hard for someone to view your sessions or info. (take for example firesheep) It allows anyone that uses firefox the ability to download a plug-in and see other wifi users facebook sessions.

So what are you suppose to do? To begin with, you should secure your connection to the internet. Securing your connection can be done a few ways. Some of the more practical methods are SSH tunneling or a VPN connection. These allow you to use an unsecured wifi network and send your traffic to a known secure network somewhere else.

If you are unsure what a SSH tunnel or a VPN is, you may have more trouble securing your connection. For the novice I suggest using a Free or Paid VPN service if your work does not offer one.

Here are two free VPN connections that I am aware of:
1. OPENVPN.net – http://www.openvpn.net/ SSL/TLS based VPN that you need to install software to use (windows or linux)
2. MacroVPN – http://www.macrovpn.com/
3. USA IP – http://www.usaip.eu/en/free_vpn.php
4. Projectloki – http://www.projectloki.com/

Paid VPN connections
1. AlwaysVPN – http://alwaysvpn.com/
2. Wifi-vpn – http://www.wifi-vpn.com/
3. AccessVPN – http://www.accessvpn.com/
4. http://worldvpn.net/

I have not used any of these services but have seen them on a few top 5 lists. I use both SSH and VPN connections back to my home or my office to secure my connections.

I recommend using a PPTP client on your home router as a simple method to secure your connections. Read my article on how to setup a VPN on DDWRT.

Interesting real world offline hack

November 14th, 2010 No comments
Number of View: 1220

There was an interesting article on lifehacker regarding offline file shareing. Kind of like the old “sneaker net”. Where you would put files on a disk and walk the over to someone. The concept of this offline peer-to-peer is to place a flashdrive or similar item into a permanent fixture and people go to that location and either leave info or pick up info.

I’m not sure if this will go any where but it made me think of how offline info is important and useful. Wouldn’t it be interesting that instead of a physical device it was more of a virtual thing. Instead of a flash drive, how about a wireless network that was open and had a file share on it. To get to the information you would have to physically be in the area of the Wireless network (say 100 yards or so) to get or share data.

So instead of being offline it would be more like off the grid. Because this would require some power to run the wifi.
http://lifehacker.com/5689159/create-an-offline-peer+to+peer-filesharing-network-with-usb-dead-drops

FireSheep – Blacksheep – what is legal

November 8th, 2010 No comments
Number of View: 1959

I love the new firefox plug-in that allows you to view user sessions. It is a simple plug-in called firesheep that uses winpcap to capture packets and hijack web sessions. If you have not heard of this head on over to firesheep and read more

What I find funny is the fact that people are all worked up about their security and the fact that others could see what they are doing. I am amazed, that people somehow think that a wifi hotspot is secure. I’ve seen people do online banking at starbucks, or a few online purchases at BigB’s. If you are not sure of who is giving you WiFi (public wifi does not count) than don’t do anything that you would not want the person to see next to you.

Firesheep is a good example of this, it no longer takes a “computer guy” to be able to sniff packets and basically snoop on your browsing. It is now a simple click and install and watch other’s facebook info…

Here is a great article about the legality of using firesheep. (http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9194159/Is_it_legal_to_use_Firesheep_at_Starbucks_)
I find this interesting, basically the argument would be that you are doing something illegal by use of wiretap. I would equate firesheep to the same as two people in a coffee shop talking. One person is next to you and the other is all the way across the room. The person next to you is yelling at the top of their lungs to communicate to the person on the other side of the room. Hey may be yelling his credit card number to be able to purchase a coffee drink, or maybe his username / password to his bank account to allow the other guy to enter it into the computer for him. The same is when you share a wireless (wifi) network with your closest friends at a coffee shop you are basically yelling your information over the wire (or wireless in this case).

If a person decides to listen, is that illegal? Aren’t you and that other person sharing the same space , communication, it’s not illegal to both communicate. When does it become illegal to listen?

If you are concerned about people snooping, use some type of security tunnel to your home network, use ssl everywhere, or setup a vpn. If you don’t know about these things and would like some help, give me a call or email. I can help you understand how to do this and also why to do this.

There is now a little firefox plug-in for detecting firesheep called black sheep. http://www.zscaler.com/blacksheep.html Reminds me of the fuzz buster.. then there was the radar detector detector….