Vmware has launched a tool (windows only it seems) aimed to convert a REAL running system into a virtual machine. (For use with VMWare’s virtualization products. The converter also can convert images from competing virtual machine “platforms”(?) (Microsoft Virtual PC, Microsoft Virtual Server, Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery (formerly LiveState Recovery) and Norton Ghost9 (or higher) to VMware virtual machine disk format.)
Category: Networking
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Skype and USB phones….
I’ve seen skype I just haven’t used it personally until very recently. In fact there was a place (dialpad?) that I had used once upon a time for a few free long distance calls online. It was neat, but had some limitations (delay). It quickly became non-free and frankly the microphone I have hooked up to the PC fell back in the corner beside the desk and I haven’t dug it out in quite a while. A few weeks ago though my Dad discovered Skype and ordered a cheap ($17) “phone” that plugs into the usb port of the pc and can be used with skype and a variety of other services. (in fact, it works as a generic usb sound card so… there might be other possibilities for using it to record wav files directly, etc.)
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Strange net problems with a Netgear FS608 switch
This was weird and now that the switch is replaced I haven’t been able to duplicate it, but let me explain. There was a netgear fs608 (8 port unmanaged) switch plugged into a linksys router (model number not noted.) The cable was straight (although the fs608 has support for link through straight or crossover cables.) This setup worked well for quite some time. 4 computers and a printer hooked up. 3 pcs with fixed address and 1 with DHCP for their IP address. Well, I had a call that two pcs were unable to connect to the network and when I got there and looked… sure enough 169.**** ip addresses from Microsoft’s “auto configure” pool.
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Encrypting wireless traffic
Incidents.org has been running their security tip a day this month and I really liked this one. It’s essentially a way to encrypt your wireless traffic using ssh. That’s something I’ve covered here before, but it’s worth reminding that it’s possible and a good idea.
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Is the firmware current?
The other day I was struggling with something that should have worked “out of the box”. It was a little wireless bridge (Linksys WET54G Wireless-G Ethernet Bridge). The idea was to just connect it to the pc and it would just work. Well…. in a word NO. It “sort of worked”, the problem is the pc didn’t receive the dhcp address, so I had to manually set it. I didn’t know the correct gateway information (should it be the bridged device ip or the REAL gateway.) At one point I got dns lookups working, but routing to the internet was not working, then the access point got pulled off a shelf and EVERYTHING stopped working. Checking in on the bridge would show it was just cycling through the WPA handshake process over and over and over.
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New Docsis 3.0 standard to allow for 160Mbps+
The new Docsis 3.0 standard has been finalized and it allows for 160Mbps or more downstream and 120Mbps upstream. It also will support IPv6. Of course, in order to support those speeds cable system hardware will need to be upgraded (and cable modems…) so don’t expect those speeds next month. But, perhaps by ~2008?
Our local cable just started advertising 10Mbps as their fastest speed (previous was 5Mbps). I’d personally love to see those upstream speeds upped as well.
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Wireless war rocketing?
There were several articles about a new “wardriving” technique that was talked about at Defcon (this topic and a bit more Defcon coverage here). In fact, this takes the driving out of the mix and involves launching a rocket. Essentially rockets were equiped with access points and launched to get a 6000+ foot view (for the largest) of the wireless landscape. Now, they didn’t turn up a LOT, but they did see an impressive range of area *(50 square miles for the largest). One of the smaller rockets made it to 2000 feet. It was a rural area where this was done, so they didn’t pick up much. Although it had a range of 4 miles, the big rocket could only find 2 networks.
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Nasty Javascript attack possibilities
There were demonstrations of some nasty javascript attacks at Black Hat as well (as if the wireless driver issues wasn’t a big enough problem…) Javascript is a powerful language and can be used for many things, but in these demonstrations, it was used to track recently visited sites (by the browser victim) and identify the IP address of the victim on the internal LAN AND to alter firewall settings. From the way I read the article at the Security Fix – this is changing HARDWARE firewall settings.
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Network security map
“All you need to know about network security in one chart!!” I found an ad for this at javvin.com In addition to the “network security” charts…. they have other references…. “network communication protocols map”…. These look like they’d be good references. It looks as though they may have other good references too. Anyone have any experience/comments on their products?
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Fun way to mess with wireless freeloaders….
Some people spend a lot of time finding ways to block the freeloaders from their wireless internet. Others find fun ways to mess with them…. They start off by settup up dhcpd.conf to carve out two subnets a “good” one with known mac addresses and an untrusted…. then the fun begins with some proxy side image manipulation. Either upside down images, blurry images, etc. I wonder why you don’t just take it a step further…. block images entirely and replace with a jpg of your choice. IF you have a very BUSY accesspoint with freeloaders – maybe you could even sell an ad…. or do a captive portal for the untrusted crowd that redirects through a page that says…. “Uploading personal data…. Please wait…. Credit Card info transfered…. browsing history transfered….. email history transfered…. My Documents in progress…” Of course, it would be actually doing this…