Computer Networking - Berkeley CSUA MOTD
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2024/12/24 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
12/24   

2009/5/7-14 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:52962 Activity:nil
5/7     What's a good reverse port forwarding for a PC(inside firewall) ->
        Unix, so that I can VNC into the Unix that gets forwarded to
        PC's VNC server?
        \_ http://micrux.net/?p=26
           Syntax, to be executed from the PC behind firewall:
           % ssh -R 5900:127.0.0.1:5901 <destination_server>
           You can also use Putty, by going to Connections->SSH->Tunnels,
           and enter:
                Source port:5900
                Destination:127.0.0.1:5901
                Remote (not Local)
                and finally click on Add
           So the connectivity looks like this:
                PC --ssh--> FIREWALL --ssh--> destination_server
           And the resulting "virtual" connectivity:
                PC:5900 <--- destination_server:5901
           With the "-R" argument the destination_server binds to
           port 5901 which will connect back to PC's port 5900. Hence, it's
           a "reverse" tunnel. Note that this can potentially open up
           a lot of problems for companies and is generally frowned
           upon by network administrators. Please use with care.
           \_ Thanks, this is super useful info in general.
        \_ I do this with inetd and netcat.  Just put a line like this in
           /etc/inetd.conf, and reload inetd:
               5900 stream tcp nowait nobody /bin/nc nc YOUR-PC 5900
           You can also do it with ssh port forwarding (e.g. using PuTTY),
           but then you have to remember to keep your ssh connection open
           all the time.
2009/4/26-29 [Computer/Networking] UID:52910 Activity:nil
4/25    I have an Airport Express.  is there some way to let computer
        1 ping computer 2?  both computers are connected to wireless network
        successfully.  I can get to internet on both of them.  I just can't
        ping each other.  weird.  maybe they think that's a feature?
        \_ Sounds like your router is enforcing client isolation. If you can't
           change the setting on the router you're probably SOL.
2009/4/17-23 [Computer/Networking, Transportation/PublicTransit] UID:52862 Activity:nil
4/17    "WiFi Rail Inc. to provide wifi access on BART system"
        http://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2009/news20090202.aspx
        (not exactlly new news)
2009/4/2-5 [Computer/Networking] UID:52786 Activity:nil
4/2     I need to replace a plug on a cable that looks like this:
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mini-DIN_male_4-pin_power_connector.jpg
        Any recommendations on where I can find this connector?
        \_ Al Lasher's?
           \_ I'm not in Berkeley.
        \_ What about Fry's or Radio Shack?  Just guesses.
        \_ http://www.jameco.com  : shipping is going to be a bitch
         \_ http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=142280
2009/3/12-19 [Computer/Networking] UID:52705 Activity:low
3/12    I spent a whole day on this to no avail.  Using the Nortel Contivity
        client, logging into work suddenly stopped working (gets stuck on
        "banner text").  Rebooted laptop, checked with the VPN administrator,
        checked with the cable company, check the belkin router -- no changes
        anywhere, just stops working.  Laptop works fine from a different
        network, and a different machine on the same network can't get in
        either, so it's the home network.  Tried rebooting router, checking
        all the settings in the router, outgoing connections (VPN uses UDP
        port 500) not blocked.  Tried putting the machine in the DMZ, didn't
        work either.  Just will not work.  Did I miss anything? -eric
        \_ What happens if you try using the cable connection directly
           (i.e., without the router)? If that works, maybe your router is
           dying.
            \_ Forgot to mention that EVERYTHING works except using the VPN.
               \_ Well clearly, something somewhere has changed. The admins
                  aren't always aware of changes either; you'd probably be
                  giving them too much credit if you assumed they were
                  authoritative. Also, Nortel VPN (among others) uses
                  non-TCP/UDP packets, so likely these are getting blocked or
                  mishandled somewhere. It would not be immediately obvious
                  since the majority of traffic is either TCP or UDP.
2009/2/27-3/5 [Computer/Networking] UID:52658 Activity:nil
2/27    I need to buy a wireless router, can u guys help me out?   I need the
        following features:  wireless, G or better, PPTP dial up, PPoE dialup,
        VoIP/SIP register, DDNS, uPnP.
        I am having a such hard time to find a review site which allow me to
        select these features.   Any ideas?  There are a couple model from
        this small company Draytek has these features, I am having the hardest
        time picking out Linksys/Netgear model that has similiar features.
        I want to by-pass China's great Firewall as well as using SIP VoIP
        servies.    thanks in advance.
        \_ uPnP is the first thing I disable on a router.  Why do you want it?
        \_ Would you consider having some of those features off the router?
           For the SIP bit, I'd consider Asterix on ALIX (http://pcengines.ch
           and otherwise, WRT-54G with dd-wrt is pretty good.  Don't know if
           it has everything you want. -John
2008/12/15-29 [Computer/Networking] UID:52254 Activity:kinda low
12/15   ausman, maybe this can help form your views on net neutrality:
        http://lessig.org/blog/2008/12/the_madeup_dramas_of_the_wall.html
        if you're bored, skip down to the iFilm example.
        \_ jim: consider the case of a private electrical utility:
           do you believe in "current neurality"? i agree if say GOOG
           were to put in a giant server complex creating a sudden local
           demand shock the utility could not have planned on, perhaps
           they should talk and work something out ... it's unfair to
           make the rest of the area pay the consequences of the shortfall
           or to obligate the utility to give google whatever they demand.
           but that's a different case than saying we're going to turn the
           power on and off a couple of times a day to google's data center
           unless they sign up for out "premium current delivery service".
           i personally think this is a case of alllowing price discrimination
           and a shakedown and not a case of an unfair damand shock which comes
           and a shakedown and not a case of an unfair demand shock which comes
           out of nowhere. as i said before in the motd [that comment may have
           been deleted], classical supply side price discrimination allows
           the producer to suck up consumer surplus and convert it into
           revenue.
           \_ Yeah, like I have said, I haven't entirely worked out all the
              issues, which are actually pretty complicated. I wonder if most
              NN supporters are mostly just ignorant about how the Internet
              NN supporters are just ignorant about how the Internet
              works and have therefore decided to take a simplistic "every
              packet is sacred" approach. There is already quite a bit of
              pricing discrimination going on in the Net, try connecting from
              an Internet cafe in Cairo if you don't believe me. Why is it
              okay to drop packets because of a congested router (often a
              deliberately congested router, so as to reduce bandwidth costs)
              deliberately congested router, so as to limit bandwidth costs)
              but not okay to do traffic shaping? And do they really think that
              it is immoral to blackhole known spammers and botnets? Maybe
              we just need to switch from a 95% of peak load model of charging
              for net bandwidth, to a total bits delivered charge. If you want
              to talk about "unfair" is it fair to make the majority of
              Internet users have to pay to build out the infrastructure for
              the small minority that runs bittorrent?
              \- if bittorrent were the problem they were trying to solve, te
                 solution wouldnt be shakedown the people with deep pockets.
                 \_ This is true, the "right" solution from my perspective,
                    is to charge people for the bits they use, instead of
                    trying to strongarm the service providers.
        \_ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122929270127905065.html
           Even Google wants its own pipes now.
           \_ That article is shit.  Google wants caching servers like
              Akamai.  -tom
           \_ That article is being strongly disputed by most of the
              people it talks about.
              \_ So it is okay for GOOG to build out a private, proprietary
                 network from their content distribution location to a Tier
                 One NAP and then sign an agreement for them to get dedicated
                 network connectivity there, which speeds up their content
                 delivery to end users, but it is *not* okay for them to
                 pay for a Tier One ISP to just carry the bits faster from
                 end to end? Is that what you are suggesting?
                 \_ You're begging the question.  -tom
                    \_ What do you think that "caching servers like Akamai"
                       entails? How would you describe their CDN network?
                       \_ I certainly wouldn't describe it as having its
                          own pipes.  -tom
                          \_ Certainly some of the CDNs do. Limelight does.
                             Maybe Akamai does not.
                    \_ How about if GOOG then expanded that network all the
                       way to your house and offered you 100% free GOOGnet
                       connectivity, but only with their content on it? Should
                       that be legal?
                       \_ What if you could use Monopoly money to pay for it,
                          wouldn't that be cool?  -tom
                          \_ And then if after you started using your GOOGnet
                             connection, paid for by monopoly money, what if
                             GOOG started carrying other traffic on it, for
                             free, but not as fast as the GOOG stuff. Would
                             it still be cool? Just questions...
                             \_ If anyone who wanted to could install last
                                mile cable that would be fine, however
                                in the real world that's just not feasable,
                                and that's why like net neutrality is so
                                important.
                                \_ Perhaps you didn't know about GOOG's offer
                                   to provide municipal free wireless to the
                                   entire City of San Francisco.
                                   \_ "Anyone who wanted" is key.  Wireless
                                      bandwidth is very limited.
                                     \_ And the offer wasn't fulfilled --oj
  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/31/BUT6RSDTU.DTL
  \_ Yes, I am aware of this, but it shows that the idea is more than just
     a hypothetical. It is possible that this will happen sooner or later.
                             \_ Not all hypotheticals are worth considering.
                                \_ Yes, but what if they were?
2008/12/7-10 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/Networking] UID:52191 Activity:kinda low
12/6    I got my g1 phone to provide my laptop with internet access.
        It wasn't too painful.
        \_ throw enough money at a problem and it gets solved
        \_ was it real protocol-independent internet access, or were you just
           using the phone as a web proxy?
           \_ Tetherbot on the g1 creates a socks proxy
             \_ meaning if you want to run non-proxy-aware apps on your laptop
                its useless.   Still waiting...
                \_ It's trivial to run network aware programs through a proxy
                   in linux and macos
                \_ what are these non proxy aware apps ?  give me an example
2008/11/29-12/4 [Computer/Networking] UID:52128 Activity:moderate
11/28   So you know, I am going to see if the collective motd.wisdom has
        anything to add to my own research. I would think that given my
        political leanings in most areas, I would be a big fan of "net
        neutrality" but I am not, at least not so far. What is wrong with
        someone like AT&T charging more for premium internet service? Don't
        they do that already? Is there something I am missing here? -ausman
        \_ My understanding of net neutrality is to not prefer one packet type
           over another.  Paying more for higher service seems reasonable, but
           (say) dropping VOIP packets so Skype doesn't compete with AT&T phone
           service seems a bit sub-optimal.
           \_ Right, premium services are fine.  The worry is abuse of
              monopoly power -- that's why net neutrality is focused on
              last-mile providers (which often have significant monopoly
              power), rather than backbone providers (which have less).
              A backbone provider could never get away with blocking VOIP,
              because their customers would just switch to a different
              provider; but your local phone company might be able to, if
              they control the only point of access to your house.  Given
              sufficient monopoly power, ISPs might even be able to engage
              in more blatant extortion, by (say) threatening to block
              their customers' access to your website unless you pay them.
              \_ Actually that was how net neutrality got to be such a big
                 deal.  One of the backbone ceos, I forget which, basically
                 started hinting that he'd like to make it so unless google
                 started paying protection money they were going to get
                 lower priority packets.
                 \_ Any source for this? I know Google has waived a red flag,
                    claiming to be worried about this, but I have not seen
                    anything from a backbone provider. The current powers on
                    the Internet like things just fine the way they are, and
                    have an obvious interest in stifling innovation. -ausman
                    \_ I thought it was from the Comcast CEO, but it seems the
                    original quote was from AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre circa Nov 05
                    "Why should [Yahoo, Google] be allowed to use my pipes?"
                    http://preview.tinyurl.com/9svdw
                    http://preview.tinyurl.com/6ooh2u
                    \_ Thanks for the pointers. I was not aware of this.
                    \_ Thanks for the pointers. I was not aware of this. -a
        \- transmission to ausman: i havent thought about this deeply but
           my inclination is NET NEUTRALITY is a form of PRICE DISCRIMINATION
           which leads to CONSUMER SURPLUS being shifted to the firm.
           for background, a very, very good book is JTIROLE: IO. I dont
           have the inclination to type on this more, but you can google
           around ... it looks like there are some others who buy this
           approach. --psb
           \- i thought about a little more in the background, and other issue
              is these narrow arguments in terms of efficiency may ignore some
              distributional consequences ... same as say congestion pricing,
              efficient pricing for publicly owned parking etc. --psb
        \_ There's more to it than you are seeing. It's not just about your ISP
           charging you for different tiers of service. They already do that
           now.  It's about the ISP then turning aruond and trying to charge
           various services for delivering content to you.   If they don't pay
           up you get crappy performance to those sites/services.  It is all
           about the ISP trying to double-dip on the income stream.  It also
           very much kills the 'openness' of the internet.   Would you still
           want service from an ISP that only granted you access to the sites
           that ponied up their non-neutrality fees?  What if you had no choice
           in ISP any more?
           \_ Why would you get any crappier service to those sites than you
              already do now? If I didn't like my ISPs traffic shaping policies,
              I would just switch ISPs, right, just like I can do now? This
              could potentially be a problem where there is a monopoly on last
              mile service, but that is getting rarer and rarer, with cable
              and satellite available. I might want to pay extra for things
              like HD quality streaming video, which I can't do now. Why
              is that a problem? I just don't see this as killing anything,
              other than perhaps some big Internet companies profit margins,
              hence their scare tactic lobbying campaign. -ausman
              already do now? If I didn't like my ISPs traffic shaping
              policies, I would just switch ISPs, right, just like I can do
              now? This could potentially be a problem where there is a
              monopoly on last mile service, but that is getting rarer and
              rarer, with cable and satellite available. I might want to pay
              extra for things like HD quality streaming video, which I can't
              do now. Why is that a problem? I just don't see this as killing
              anything, other than perhaps some big Internet companies profit
              margins, hence their scare tactic lobbying campaign. -ausman
              \_ again, you're looking at it frmo the standpoint that
                  a) you have choice in ISP's, many don't.
                  b) you have a pipe to an unfettered internet, which is what
                     we have now with neutrality.  With non-neutrality, you'll
                     see degraded (or nonexistant) services to places on the
                     internet who don't pay up.  And the only way to find out
                     your ISP's qos to a given site would be to go there.  Good
                     luck shopping around other ISP's to see who's got the best
                     performance to your favorite sites.
                  c) its not going to hurt the big internet companies much,
                     they take some minor hit to their bottom line and pass
                     on the costs.  Its the small and up-and-coming companies
                     that will get hurt, as this 'pay to play no the ISP's nets'
                     tax will just add to their barrier to entry. Taking away
                     neutrality would be a step in a return to the balkanized
                     network days of compu$erve.
                     network days of compu$erve and prodigy.
                     \_ Except you have it exactly backwards, in that currently
                        network owners can do as they like and the only
                        pressure on them is their customers. Proponents of
                        "Net Neutrality" want to pass laws that freeze the
                        status quo in legislature. If blocking small up and
                        coming sites were a problem, wouldn't ISPs be doing
                        that all ready? Do you really want Congress determining
                        which packets and protocols should be used on the
                        Internet, instead of the IETF?
                        \_ Um no they can't.  Right now they do 'best effort'
                            to everywhere, with no discrimination against
                            sites who haven't ponied up good-performance
                            extortion fees.  No we dont want congress
                            determining which packets/protocols should be used
                            -- they dont do that now.  That is the status quo
                            we want preserved.  When comcast tried to disrupt
                            bittorrent traffic, and the FCC started
                            investigating, they backed down.
                            \_ Why can't they? People set up spam filters,
                               firewalls, etc all the time, why couldn't an
                               ISP do the same? There is no law against it,
                               though the NN folks seem to want there to be
                               one. Am I right about this? Link to the FCC/
                               Comcast situation please? Using the FCC to
                               stop technological change doesn't exactly
                               strengthen your case, btw.
                               one. Am I right about this? The FCC/Comcast
                               case is currently pending on appeal, btw.
2008/11/23-29 [Politics/Domestic/Election, Computer/Networking] UID:52083 Activity:nil
11/22   What's the best way to dispose old pagers, old cell phones, etc?
        \_ http://www.wirelessfoundation.org/CallToProtect
        \_ http://greencitizen.com   is good if you're in SF/bay area.
2008/11/16-17 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/Security, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:51999 Activity:low
11/16   Can I use my SBC Yahoo! DSL login name "xxx@sbcglobal.net" and password
        for the DSL at someone else's home?
        \_ Why don't you try it...
        \_ Don't check your email at your mistress' house.
2008/11/11-26 [Computer/Networking] UID:51916 Activity:nil
11/11   Dumb question. My apartment has a bunch of inter-computer file
        exchange going on. Should I get a switch instead of a router to
        minimize traffic? Does it really make a difference? Let's say
        two computers exchanging info with each other are on the switch
        and the switch is connected to the router. The router will never
        know about the transfer between the two computers right?
        \_ It depends on whether they are on the same VLAN or not, but
           you are generally correct. Are you worried about overloading
           the router, or is this for <ahem> security concerns.
        \_ if your "router" is one of those Netgear/Linksys wireless gateway
           things, a switch won't help that much, and it should already be
           keeping local nw traffic apt-side only and w/a switch capability
2008/11/7-13 [Computer/Networking] UID:51876 Activity:low
11/7    Need help on http proxy. After I VPN to work, I'd like to tunnel
        all the traffic to my machine. How do I setup my machine (Linux)
        as a proxy server so that my home computers can route through it?
        I'm asking because the site we're testing on requires that we
        come from the same IP. If I use VPN, the server will reject me
        based on the fact that it's a different IP than my work Linux.
        Thanks for any help!                            -unix noob
        \_ I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, but an ssh tunnel on
           port 80 might be the easiest thing.  -tom
        \_ If I understand you correctly, you want to install tinyproxy
           on your linux box. And point your home machine to use it as
           your proxy.   -crebbs
           \_ Cool i'll google for tinyproxy and try it out tomorrow
              THANK YOU motd proxy god.
2008/10/16-17 [Computer/Networking, Computer/HW] UID:51550 Activity:nil
10/15   Has anyone else used dnsmasq for DHCP and PXE booting?  Have you found
        a way to specify the 'next-server' option with dnsmasq?
        conventional DHCP daemons let me specify 'next-server', I can't
        figure out how to do it with dnsmasq.  Thanks - danh
2024/12/24 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
12/24   

2008/9/29-10/1 [Computer/Networking] UID:51325 Activity:nil
9/29    I'm looking for a new wireless router / firewall, preferably
        something that supports 802.11n. Any recommendations?
        \_ Which 802.11n?
           \_ Draft 2.0 or whatever version is supported by the the
              MacBook and iMac.
2008/9/4-8 [Computer/Networking] UID:51053 Activity:nil
9/3     Does anyone here have experience with Cisco AON? Success or horror
        stories?
2008/8/5-10 [Computer/Networking] UID:50788 Activity:nil
8/5     It looks like my company has started blocking HTTPS tunneling.
        I used to do this by tunneling SSH through the HTTP/HTTPS proxy
        server, but this seems to have stopped working. Does anyone know
        how the implementation of tunneling detection works, and whether
        there are widely available implementations? We run a bunch of MS
        stuff, so I imagine we're running an MS proxy server or something.
        It seems to me that the most straightforward tunnel detection method
        would be to first check if the requested site actually talks HTTPS,
        and perhaps check whether the SSL cert is valid and all that,
        optionally rejecting self-signed certs. Has anyone encountered the
        same block at work and found a way to circumvent it? Thanks.
        \_ Take a look at stunnel. Thought about using it a while back but
           then the block got removed.
           \_ Thanks, that might conceivably work. Will look into it...
        \_ You can SSH tunnel through any open port so just find one.
           \_ Amen. Try port 25.
           \_ There are no open ports. I'm behind a firewall. The only way
              out that I'm aware of is through the HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Telnet
              used to be open, but not anymore.
              \_ Use nmap or ethereal to look for open ports.
        \- if dns is allowed, there is kind of a crufty way to run ssh
           over dns, but really if there is a business case for this,
           you should lobby for what you need. i've circumvented cafes,
           hotels, WAPs etc and what you need to do depends on doing a
           bunch of diagnosis to reverse engineer what is going on so
           you know what your options are. and in some cases, you have
           to pre-arrange to have some infomation on hand [like ip addresses]
           or pre-arrage some listening servers of some kind on the outside.
           those last two things shouldnt be an issue if you commute to
           and from work everyday and have admin access to an external
           networked box. BTW, you can do some kind of dynamic porotocol
           detection to quash this kind of thing. see e.g.
           http://www.icir.org/robin/papers/usenix06.pdf
           \_ Yes, I've used IP over DNS before, but it's not really something
              I'd want to use on a regular basis, for performance and
              reliability reasons. Thanks for the suggestion, though.
        \_ Maybe work at a company that doesn't block ports?  Do you think
           subverting your company's IT policy is a good idea?
           \_ Maybe later. No, but I'm skeptical that any somewhat nerdy
              person who works at a large company can get by without breaking
              some IT policy or other.
2008/8/5-10 [Academia/Berkeley/Classes, Computer/Companies/Apple, Computer/Networking] UID:50780 Activity:nil
8/4     http://iCrowdSurf.com - app available on Iphone app store..
        if the library has a wifi you can use it to create instant chat
        rooms/groups and name the group by topic (ie: CS 152 midterm)..etc
        check it out..
        \_ It's not free.
        \_ So this essentially turns your phone into an open server?  I wonder
           what the security risks are?
           \_no..it's just a service that runs on the iPhone..
            using a different protocol other than http or even tcp
           \_ iPhone does have a pretty good app sandbox.  (More to keep
              people from jailbreaking the phones, but still...)
           \_ no..it's just a service that runs on the iPhone..  using a
              different protocol other than http or even tcp
              \_ Um, yes.  An open server with a proprietary protocol.  That
                 *never* goes wrong.
                \_ apple tested it out and okayed it..
                   \_ Bwahahaha!
2008/7/9-13 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:50512 Activity:nil
7/8     is there a RBL proxy or something I can run that will magically
        automatically know the addresses of all tor exit nodes,
        and that I can run my application behind?  I need to block
        tor traffic.  thanks!
        \_ http://www.torproject.org/tordnsel     -ERic
           \_ that doesn't do exactly what I want.  maybe nothing does.
              I used this script:
              http://blog.vorant.com/2008/06/tor-server-lists-revisited.html
              to generate a list of tor nodes that other tor nodes know
              about, 8600 in all, and blocked all of them with iptables.
              maybe it'll work.
2008/7/9-11 [Computer/Networking] UID:50505 Activity:nil
7/9     djb vindicated.  bind 8 sucks.  the Secret Cabal That Runs The
        Internet fixed bind 9.  I will now run qmail and daemontools
        and djbdns exclusively.
        \- i installed djbdns on a machine years ago, and the machine was
           never quite the same after that.
           \_ Preach on, brother!
2008/6/16-20 [Computer/Networking] UID:50272 Activity:nil
6/16    What the minimum you can get away with paying for cable modem,
        in the South Bay?  Slowest available speed should be ok.
        Everythings seems to go to +$40/mo after teaser rates end.
        I need something faster than 56k modem but nothing really fast.
        Wondering if possible to keep under $20, since I'm out of town
        maybe 25% of the time.
        \_ Why not dsl?  If you don't have a phone line it's 5 bucks more
           a month, but the 1.5Meg down is still only 20/mo.
        \_ Can you use DSL? The rates for these things are what they
           are, there is only one service provider for each type of
           high speed net. You can move to Mountain View and use Google
           WiFi for free.
           \_ I called dslextreme and they said "DSL not available on
              your line."  Maybe I'll call AT&T an some others.
        \_ Satellite?  High ping times but sounds like you're not gaming.
           Works ok for surfing and email.
        \_ What about ISDN?  Does such a thing still exist?  I've never used
           it.
           \_ ISDN is a *bad* idea if you want to keep things below $20/mo.
              When I had ISDN, while there was a flat rate for usage, there
              was a charge for each time your ISDN router called up the telco.
              And each channel counted as a separate call. So if the telco's
              router started having some issues and your router kept calling
              back, the cost of having ISDN became very expensive, very
              quickly.
        \_ Steal your neighbor's wifi (or pay him $5/mo for low usage).
           Aside: I just got DSL after having cable for a long time.
           My cable was ~10x faster than this stupid DSL. (but the price
           sucked).
           \_ What dsl do you have?  I can get dsl that is almost the same
              throughput than cable for 1/2 the price.  However it does
              have noticable higher latancy, so online gaming kinda sucks.
              \_ AT&T. I am only getting like 1.6 Mb. My Comcast cable was
                 much faster than it was nominally supposed to be... maybe
                 few others in my neighborhood used it. I forgot exactly
                 what it was but it might have been like 18 Mb and that
                 wasn't any special plan. And yeah, ping times were great.
                 However, I didn't want cable TV anymore and without that
                 the standalone internet is a ripoff.
                 \_ 1.6?  What level of DSL service are you paying for?
                    \_ "up to 3.0" (needless to say I'll most likely drop
                       it down to a level)
                       it down a level)
2008/6/6-10 [Computer/Networking] UID:50171 Activity:nil
6/6     Now that 3g wireless speeds are getting useable and phones are
        coming out that have built in wifi are there any phones that
        can be used as wireless wifi access point?  -aspo
        \_ Yes. My coworker does this with his Blackberry.
2008/5/15-16 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW] UID:49952 Activity:nil
5/15    Texan super ants hate your computer.
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080514/ap_on_re_us/texas_ants
2008/5/14-16 [Computer/Networking] UID:49945 Activity:nil
5/14    Lately I've been hearing about VIP. How is VIP different from
        say, VPN?
        \_ What is 'VIP'?  Do you mean virtual ip, as in one ip address
           shared by several machines, for redundancy or load
           balancing?  That's something
           different than a virtual private network.
           balancing?  That's not the same thing as a virtual private
           network.
2008/4/30-5/4 [Computer/Networking] UID:49856 Activity:nil
4/30    Dear flash experts. Is it possible to decompose a flash player
        to find out what IP/URL it is hitting? Is it possible to
        modify that and repoint to another URL?
        \_ You aren't willing to mess with your ip stack instead?
2008/4/17-23 [Computer/Networking, Consumer/TV] UID:49774 Activity:low
4/16    When we move to HD signals, will cable tv descramblers no longer
        work? Or are they backward compatible?
        \_ If you're talking about the switching in 2009, it only applies to
           radio broadcast.  You can still use your analog TV to receive cable
           channels.
           radio signals.  You can still use your analog TV to receive cable
           signals.
        \_ Do you mean forward compatible?
           \_ Or are the signals backwards compatible ... Ah depends on POV
        \_ Cable won't switch completely to digital yet.  In fact, they're *required*
           to keep analog signals for few more years.  It's the over the air antennae
           signals that are required to switch to digital next year.  But your
           descrambler will only be good for analog signals.  If you plan on getting
           a shiny new HDTV anytime soon, keep in mind that analog channels generally
           look crappier on HDTV than on standard-def TVs.
        \_ Cable won't switch completely to digital yet.  In fact, they're
           *required* to keep analog signals for few more years.  It's the
           over the air antennae signals that are required to switch to
           digital next year.  But your descrambler will only be good for
           analog signals.  If you plan on getting a shiny new HDTV anytime
           soon, keep in mind that analog channels generally look crappier
           on HDTV than on standard-def TVs.
2008/3/13-17 [Computer/Networking] UID:49444 Activity:nil
3/13    I have an actual technical question for the motd. Where can I find
        the generic Cisco-style symbols for Visio 2003? For some reason,
        M$ pulled them from the recent edition and replaced them with
        their own crappy non-standard ones. I don't mean the icons at:
        http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/prod_visio_icon_list.html
        I mean the generic circle with four arrows for a router, etc. -ausman
        \_ Perhaps these icons will work for you:
           http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac50/ac47/2.html
           \_ I found these, but can't figure out how to load them into
              Visio. File -> Shapes -> Open Stencil doesn't do it (nothing
              shows up, since they are in the .wmf format) and putting
              the path to the images in Options-> Advanced -> File Path
              doesn't work either. Do I cut and paste each image?
              \_ Hmm, I don't have a copy of visio but according the Microsoft
                 website, you should be able to open a WMF (windows meta file)
                 in Visio.  The other option is d/l the TIFF images and then
                 import/open those.
           Alternatively, there are some links in this blog post that might
           work:
           http://www.ciscoblog.com/archives/2006/03
2008/3/6-7 [Computer/Networking] UID:49369 Activity:nil
3/6     Is there a USB 802.11g device that works with linux AND supports
        base station mode, promiscuous mode and packet injection?
2008/3/4-7 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/Languages/Perl] UID:49324 Activity:moderate
3/4     Does anybody have some code or know of a program that will take a
        network/mask and return the list of address in that CIDR block?
        e.g. "iplist 10.10.10.0/24" and return 10.10.10.0 ... 10.10.10.255
        [I have a way to do this, but it involves distributing a large
        amount of code, which is kind of a hassle. Looking for something
        lightweight and either standard or easdy to rpm/port/yum install.]
        \_ shouldn't be hard to do, its all bitwise binary math.
          \_ Because I was interested in how to do it in perl, I hacked up
             some quick code.  ~mehlhaff/netmask.pl   for your enjoyment. -ERic
        \_ there are couple out there. The one I settled on is sipcalc
           \_ Thanks for the pointer. I only knew about the "builtin"
              ipcalc. I see sipcalc return the "usable range" in the
              form 10.10.10.1 - 10.10.10.254. Is there a way to get
              it to return each of the 254 addresses, one per line, which
              can be piped to another program's stdin etc.
        \_ doing  it in perl?  Net::IP  http://search.cpan.org/dist/Net-IP/IP.pm
        \_ doing  it in perl?  Net::IP
           http://search.cpan.org/dist/Net-IP/IP.pm
        \_ look at nmap code
           \- i thought the nmap code was somewhat hard to understand
              [this was maybe 2yrs ago]. however, you can steal this
              exact function and parser from a modern version of fping
              which supports the "-g" flag. nevertheless, i'd be interested
              in a real standalone untility for this. starting with fping,
              this is do-able in like 30min [you can also do it in 2 lines
              if you want to do this in a stupid but perfectly workable way].
              it would take me a lot longer to extract this from nmap. --psb
              ./fping-psb -n -g 10.10.10.0 10.10.10.56 | wc -l
                    57
              ./fping-psb -n -g 10.10.10.0/30 | wc -l
                     4
        \_ I wrote a script last year that basically produces the same output
           as psb's solution.  My perl vs. mehlhaff's perl.  Round 1: Fight!
           ~dbushong/bin/expand-ip-range  --dbushong
           \_ dbushong is definitely sexier than mehlhaff. meh!
           \_ Hah, oops.  Mine only expands the last two octets.  (i.e. doesn't
              do anything useful for /n where n < 16)  Ah well.  --dbushong
              \_ clever code vs. simple code w/comments. Two very different
                 styles to accomplish the similar things.  It is left as a
                 exercise to the student to decide which they like better. -ERic
2008/3/2-6 [Computer/Networking] UID:49314 Activity:nil
3/2     Is anyone using Sveasoft firmware with a Linksys router? How well
        does it work, esp. as a firewall? tia.
2007/12/20-29 [Computer/Networking] UID:48841 Activity:nil
12/20   Why the hell does Cisco "The Human Network" advertise on the
        History Channel, and why the hell are they so annoying?
        "... not just network, HUMAN NETWORK!" Dumb shit.
2007/11/19-21 [Computer/Networking] UID:48658 Activity:nil
11/17   What's a good windows firewall?
        just for my local machine, i'm not routing or anything
        silly with it.
        \_ Hardware firewalls cost less than $50.
        \_ "good windows firewall"  -- theres 3 words there, and one does not
            belong with the other two.  Guess which one.
2007/11/13-21 [Computer/Networking] UID:48628 Activity:low
11/13   If I have a application on machine foo sending data really fast to
        an application on machine bar via TCP, and the bar applications job
        is write that to disk as fast as possible, what happens if the
        network stream is faster than the disk writes?
        \_ Look up the differences between TCP/IP flow control and
           congestion control. The answer is in front of you.
           http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_control
           http://web.mit.edu/~6.033/www/papers/Networks-5-FlowCongestion.pdf
           By the way I hope we're not doing your EE122 homework.
        \_ bar starts blocking on i/o and the requests will queue up.
           Eventually the disk queue will fill up and how bar handles this
           depends on the o/s.
           \_ Basically all the backlog ends up in the memory of bar, right?
            \_ It depends on 100's of things.  Is this a single threaded
               "read, write, repeat" application?  If so your tcp buffers
               on bar will eventually fill up, yes.  How exactly depends on
               the os you are using.  Once that happens it will stop acking
               packets and that means your buffers on foo will start to
               fill up.  Once the buffers on foo fill up (once again how/when
               is going to depend on the os) your app on foo will probably
               start blocking or returning an error because it would block.
               Guess what, all that sort of behavior is also os dependant.
           \_ Does send() start returning errors?  Thx.  -- !OP
            \_ Depends on how you set up your socket.  It will probably
               block instead.
               \_ Your socket will either block until it can send the data
                  or the send() will return errors, usually of either
                  EWOULDBLOCK or ENOMEM. -ERic
           \_ I know syslog is udp, but how does syslogd handle a scenario
              like this?
              \_ dropped logs.  Such is the nature of using udp... -ERic
               \_ And it's intentional.  When everything is going to hell
                  you don't want your syslogs adding to that hell by
                  forcing resends of tons of packets.  Syslog needs to
                  fail without taking down the rest of the system.
        \_ You really need to read Stevens.  This stuff will be 100x clearer
           then.
           \_ I agree, though a word of warning about Stevens.  It is (well,
              they are) an excellent foundation text(s), but it will steer you
              wrong if you're trying to write servers that can serve thousands
              of javascript blocks embedding images and videos to social
              networks like the market leader http://Slide.com, you can't use select.
              The most common alternative I've seen is to use non-blocking
              sockets, and poll them manually.  And, yes, I know that CS 162
              teaches you that polling is bad.  The class lies. -dans
              wrong if you're trying to write servers that can scale to
              handle thousands of connections, you can't use select.  The most
              common alternative I've seen is to use non-blocking sockets, and
              poll them manually.  And, yes, I know that CS 162 teaches you
              that polling is bad.  The class lies. -dans
              \_ Well, in the common case polling is bad.  Occasionally it's
                 the right thing to do.  No undergrad class is going to be
                 able to cover such a broad subject completely. -jrleek
                 \_ I agree it's a broad subject, but I disagree with teaching
                    ideas that are theoretically sound, but break down in
                    practice.  Indeed, poll vs. select is subtle and probably
                    not something that needs be convered in CS 162, but I am,
                    nonetheless frustrated at the range of crippled products I
                    keep seeing because so many people just copy paste the
                    select loop from Stevens.  I find it more appalling that
                    we encourage undergrads to use threads since a) most
                    people can't write working threaded code and b) the
                    performance hit for more than n threads is appalling
                    (typically n is 8, but it depends on your hardware). -dans
                    \- (the collective you) may want to look at the papers by
                       Gaurav Banga and Jeffrey Mogul and various coauthors
                       for a good low level discussion about select/poll.
                       influential papers. --psb
                       if you are not familar with kqueues, the kqueue paper
                       is also good. influential papers. --psb
                       \_ Thanks, I'll check those out.  A lot of my thinking
                          on network performance is shaped by periodic
                          conversations with a handful of senior Cisco
                          engineers who keep leaving Cisco to found companies
                          and keep ending up back there because Cisco keeps
                          buying their companies. -dans
                          \_ Kqueues are awesome, and anyone who makes
                             makes recomendations about how to handle 1000s
                             of concurrent sockets but doesn't know about
                             kqueues (or other like implmentations) proves
                             just how usless his advice his.
                             \_ Do you have any Senior Cisco Engineers to
                                back you up?
                          \_ It's consistent with past performance but still
                             kind of amazing you could turn a journal reference
                             into something about you and your cool world of
                             high tech finance.
                             \_ Please take your meds.  Your delusions are
                                getting the better of you. -dans
        \_ oh lay off, dans' obnoxiousness at least makes the motd slightly
           interesting.  we need all the activity we can get, new undergrads
           dont even know what vi is these days.
2007/10/25-29 [Computer/Networking] UID:48448 Activity:low
10/25   The cable company has recently added a filter to block out
        channel 34-70 on my cable TV. Do they have an electronic way
        of knowing whether a filter is present or not for "basic
        cable" subscriber? Or do they do this one by one. I've been
        without the filter for quit many years. -curious
        \_ Dear Curious the Furious: No, they don't know electronically
           and they rarely enforce the rules. Go ahead and take it out
           but note that you may get fined heavily if someone reports you.
           \_ they periodically go and check the cable distribution boxes
              where these things are installed, and will notice if it is
              suddenly gone. Most likely they'll just put it back.
        \_ When I moved to my house in Fremont in 2000, the cable was already
           connected.  So I enjoyed free cable for a year until the company
           somehow figured out and quietly removed a connector in my cable box.
           I heard that one way they figure out is that they run specific
           infomercials on certain channels.  If you don't subscribe to those
           channels and you call the phone numbers in those infomercials, they
           send someone to check your cable box.  (That wasn't the case for me
           because I never call any numbers from infomercials.
           \_ I enjoyed similar case when I moved into my apt last year.
              Something changed in the past few months, so now I get zero
              reception on channels 2-6 and mediocre receptions on 36 and up.
              I don't understand how things could've changed that blocks 2-6,
              but not 7 and up.
              \_ Maybe you now don't have cable signal at all, and your cable
                 wire is acting as an antenna and is picking up the radio
                 signals for Ch7 and up.  You can try disconnecting your wire
                 from the wall but leaving it connected to the TV and see what
                 happens.  -- PP
                 \_ These aren't over the air broadcasts. I'm still getting
                    comedy central and other cable channels. Disconnecting
                    will make all the channels go away, as most channels are
                    "snowy" as it is. I've also tried switching my tv's
                    signal setting from "cable" to "antennae" for shits and
                    giggles and it wouldn't pick up any channels. I'm wondering
                    if the cable guy disconnected it from the splitter in the
                    building junction box, but it's close enough to pick up the
                    signal?
2007/10/23-25 [Computer/Domains, Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/WWW/Browsers] UID:48419 Activity:nil
10/22   "The Hippie movement was the most controversial and influential of
        modern times. Free love, the peace movement, drugs, Eastern religions
        and communes are explored. Meet the figures whose words and actions
        inspired it and destroyed it. See how the vibrations from that era
        are still resonating today in almost every aspect of American life,
        from the clothes we wear, to the Personal Computer and the Internet.
        Finally, historic footage, stills and period graphics are
        interwoven with expert commentary and eyewitness testimony."
        History Channel. Must see.                -no laid guy #3
        \_ If you spent your time studying hippies in the wild, at a rave
           or something, you might have better luck getting laid than if
           you stayed home watching television.
           \_ Actually I am watching this from work using the Slingbox. -op
              \_ You probably won't get laid that way either.
        \_ 1968.
2007/9/11-12 [Computer/Networking] UID:48025 Activity:nil
9/11    Has anyone ever made an random anonymous socks proxy work
        ever in the history of mankind ?
        \_ I tried Tor once and it seemed to work. Wasn't hard to use.
           Or is that something different?
           \_ ok i mean anything BUT tor.
2007/8/21-22 [Computer/Networking] UID:47694 Activity:nil
8/21    What's the best bang/buck wireless router acess point?
        I used to use WRT54Gs but their quality seems to have disappeared
2007/8/16-18 [Computer/Networking] UID:47622 Activity:low
8/16    I have this extra ATT 2701HG-B AT&T dsl modem thing that I think
        has wireless.  Can I do something with it?  Flash it?  Install
        Linux on it?  Turn it into a laser?  help me out here.
        \_ doorstop
2007/8/9-13 [Computer/Networking] UID:47570 Activity:low
8/9     Is there an automated way to change the IP of an XP machine? I have
        tests that need to get run on two separate sub-nets that now require
        me to physically go in and change the IP address of the test box.
        Cygwin is also installed if that helps any. Thanks
        \_ There are a few sort of hackey ways to do it:
           1) automate the mouse clicks and key strokes witto do it:
           1) automate the mouse clicks and key strokes with a macro program
           2) ipconfig /release, followed by merging in a .reg file with the
              network settings you want (this probably isn't worth the effort)
           3) futz around with dhcp.  use a short lease and have the server
              send a different ip.  and maybe use ipconfig /release + /renew
              instead of the short lease for better control.
           If it was me and I couldn't find a more professional way to do it
           not being the super uber windows guru I'd go with #1 or #3.
        \_ netsh?
2007/8/8-13 [Computer/Networking] UID:47565 Activity:nil
8/8     Deal EE engineers. Can you please tell me if the following is
        possible? My condo offers HOA-paid basic DirecTV/Multiband
        (re-broadcasted into channel 2 all the way to 70) cable. It also
        offers TimeWarner broadband. There is only ONE cable going from
        the condo switch box into my unit, and I've been told that
        I can either get DirecTV/Multiband cable, or broadband cable, but
        not both since there's only ONE cable from the switch to my unit.
        Is there ANY way to combine them, say by using a "diplexer" to
        split the tv (channel 2-70) and broadband cable modem frequencies
        and then recombining them into one cable that goes into my unit?
        I talked to the tech support from DirecTV/Multiband and TimeWarner
        and they all said it's never been done, and I'm free to experiment
        but they just don't have the expertise to deal with this. Is
        this configuration even possible? Thanks for any advice.
        \_ It's probably more trouble than it is worth.  The channels
           are probably at the same frequencies so they cannot simply
           both be loaded onto the same cable, they'd interfere.  So
           you'd have to get special hardware to de-modulate all 70+
           channels from their original carrier frequency and then
           re-modulate the signals to channels which are not being
           used.  Now, since you propose to send ALL channels
           simultaneously over one cable, that would require de/re
           modulation of 70+ channels simultaneously--which is the
           domain of *really* expensive equipment.  It's possible you
           could play some sort of trick--like modulating all 70+ channels
           on one cable simultaneously with a single new carrier
           frequency, but the bandwidth requirement would be enormous
           and likely be similarly expensive.  Frankly, it's probably
           cheaper just to get them to run a second cable for you.
2007/7/13-16 [Computer/Networking] UID:47279 Activity:nil
7/13    I'm thinking about getting a Soekris 4501 to replace my the P2-400
        that is currently acting as my home firewall. Has anyone used a
        Soekris system for this purpose? If so, how well does it work? Also,
        if there are any alternatives (similar power/form factor), I would
        appreciate links to those as well. tia.
        \_ John got me to use a WRAP box similar to Soekris.  I use this one:
           http://www.pcengines.ch/wrap1e203.htm
           and run m0n0wall on it.  It works very well for its purpose.  You
           should consider what you want out of a firewall.  If all you want
           is just a simple packet filter, you can probably get away with
           buying one of the Linksys WRT54 clones for under $100 and flashing
           the firmware with what you want.  The newer models are fast enough
           to handle some VPN tunnels as well.  You can just disable the wifi
           and use just the wired ports.  Sure, you can do packet filtering
           firewall with these without flashing the firmware, but the default
           firmwares generally only restrict incoming packets and not outgoing.
           \_ Well, I've been using OpenBSD for years and I don't really want
              to switch to something like a WRT54 b/c I don't really trust it
              (or Linux). I was basically looking for something I could run
              OpenBSD on that didn't use a lot of power.
              \_ One thing to keep in mind if you are putting in your own
                 installation on these boxes is the compact flash write
                 count.  So you should consider what type of write access
                 you'll be making in your setup.  I do not know if
                 the CF microdrives would be any better in that respect.
                 I must admit, that once I learned to use PF (on FreeBSD),
                 netfilter/ipnat annoys me more than they used to.
                 \_ Yeah, I read about how to manage CF write count by
                    mostly using memory fs for any rw partition. That
                    will be fine for what I'm doing. I hardly every
                    change the system after install.
2007/6/28-7/2 [Computer/Networking] UID:47104 Activity:nil
6/28    what?
        We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints,
        we can no longer allow access to Pandora for most listeners located
        outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize
        the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are
        required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but
        there is no other alternative. | We believe that you are in Canada
        (your IP address appears to be 129.97.152.65). If you believe we have
        made a mistake, we apologize and ask that you please contact us at
        pandora-support@pandora.com
        \_ Yes, unfortunately outside the US there is no statuatory licensing
           system for Internet Radio.  There was hope that we could establish
           some deals to allow international use, but so far it hasn't
           happened.
           The whole CRB controversy ironically made people in some countries
           more aware of what was going on, and we had to shut off access.
           Sorry about that, it sucks! :(  If you were inside the US
           when you got this message, contact support and they may be able
           to whitelist your IP.  --lye
2007/4/19-21 [Computer/Networking] UID:46375 Activity:nil
4/19    After installing Logitech wireless mouse, my friend cannot connect from
        his PC to his wireless broadband router via a USB wireless network
        device.  It said that it cannot obtain IP address from the router.  Even
        uninstalling the Logitech wireless mouse doesn't help.  Do you know how
        to fix the wireless LAN problem, so that his PC can obtain IP address
        again?
                depends on the security level of the router. Does it have
        the macid of the wireless card?
        \_ depends on the security level of the router. Does it have the macid
           of the wireless card?
2007/4/10-12 [Computer/Networking] UID:46247 Activity:nil 66%like:46239
4/9     Free Wi-Fi on Transbay buses:
        http://www.actransit.org/news/articledetail.wu?articleid=ae8a49cd
2007/4/9-10 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/Security] UID:46239 Activity:nil 66%like:46247
4/9     Free W-Fi on Transbay buses:
        http://www.actransit.org/news/articledetail.wu?articleid=ae8a49cd
2007/4/4-7 [Computer/Networking] UID:46194 Activity:kinda low
4/4     Major RIF (40%) at my company and need to update the resume. Is there
        a good resume friendly term to deal with tcp metrics calculation
        and testing? I am looking for something that would ping the search e
        ngines. I did alot of QA on tcp flows and dbs and want to put s
        omething concise and informative.  Thanks --ramberg
        \- well one way to address it is based on what the problem domain
           was ... research? optimizing some implementation? protocol
           design? another way is to say something like "deep knowledge of
           TCP/IP protocol, and implementation experience". i think for a
           networking heavy job you could add BPF, DLPI/STREAMS, pcap,
           routing protocols? router management? netflow? traffic shaping?
           firewalls? as appropriate. at another time i'd have said "send
           me your resume" but unfortunately things are sort of fucked
           up at the moment. good luck. btw i dont know what "QA on
           tcp flows" means ... i assume it doesnt mean you computed fletcher
           checksums by hand :-) --psb
          -- Thanks . If you know what ethereal and pcapstats are: then
         you know something of what I did. Packet capture flow analysis?
        Packet payload?
        \_ How about "Real time network analysis"?  Try to use words someone
           in HR might think they know.  They don't know what a packet is.
           \_ A phrase like this might get you redirected to the "network
              administration" people, which is almost certainly not what is
              desired.
              \_ HR has no clue what a packet is and really wouldn't know the
                 difference between the network admin people and network qa.
                 The point of a resume is to get past HR.  They have buzzwords
                 they need to match, so match them.  Don't match them and get
                 trash canned.  The rest of the resume should make clear the
                 OP is a QA person not a network admin if that's OP's goal.
                 I'd rather get sent to the wrong group and then get redirected
                 again than get filtered at HR.
                 again than get filtered by HR.
        \_ Network Performance Testing and Analysis?
        \_ Network programming and testing?
2007/4/3-6 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/Networking, Computer/HW/Display] UID:46185 Activity:nil
4/3     Is it possible to openup a linksys notebook adapter card to get at
        the mini-pci wireless card insdide?  The mini-pci for my laptop is
        no longer made. Thanks
        \_ They're not expensive--try one and let us know.
        \_ Have you tried ebay?
2007/2/5-7 [Computer/Networking] UID:45658 Activity:nil
2/5     Any recommendations on local (bay area) used cisco vendors? I'm looking
        for a top of rack gigabit switch...
        \_ 1 switch?  Ebay.
        \_ Northbay Networks in Emeryville
2007/2/2-3 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:45642 Activity:very high
2/2     So is there some serious problem with gigabit? I keep seeing problems
        with gigabit devices in 10/100 networks, or vice versa.
        \_ do you think gigabit is some exotic, bleeding edge technology
           just a few people are using?
           \_ All I know is that when I use it in mixed networks, I keep
              running into problems.
              running into problems. -op
              \- there are some cases where you can get unepxected
                 measurements like a 10mbit thru path that might be
                 "faster" than a 10mbit-100-10 path for reasons i wont
                 go into, but if you are getting dramatic failures or
                 really bad performance, it's probably pilot error or
                 something out of control somewhere.
                 \_ "pilot" error?  What, you mean I made a mistake when
                    plugging the wires into the switches? -op
                    \_ you know there is a lot to configuring switches and
                       routers. duplex negotiation, potentially how mcast
                       signaling is handled etc. a colleague of mine found
                       a piece of networking gear flattended because of a
                       but in IGRP handling. from the nature of your
                       description of the problem ["is there a *problem*
                       with gigabit" without mention is the problem,
                       with thruput, latency, packet loss, ethernet frame
                       errors, high cpu load] it seems unlikely anybody
                       will be able to talk you thru it. your brain has been
                       probabilistically estimated as: small.
                       \_ I've tried two different switches on my home network
                          which was working great with 10/100 devices
                          (including my router).  I added a gigibit device
                          which failed to simply plug in to my 10/100 router
                          and work.  It worked if I plugged it into a
                          10/100/1000 switch, but the throughput crashed.
                          Everything is set to autonegotiate.  I've tried this
                          with two different switches.
                          Then one of my coworkers got back from a customer
                          site where the networking wasn't working--using a
                          10/100 card instead of a 10/100/1000 card solved the
                          problem. -op
                          \_ i use gb networking "everyday" for at least
                             3-4 years. i have some number of problems now
                             and then but the technology obviously is
                             solid ... which is not to say there might not
                             be some porrly designed equipment in the
                             space, or some particular pieces might be
                             lemons. we're doing more 10gig work now ...
                             this is actually kinda interesting. this may
                             be the first time in a while when the typical
                             fast computer cannot saturate the link [obviously
                             hw traffic generators and special hackery can].
                             note: i dont know anything about 'home quality'
                             gb networking equipment.
        \_ I have never seen any problems. I think it is you.
           \_ Oh sure, I'm the only guy with a netgear gs105 switch and two
              different gigabit cards. -op
        \_ It may be that the cables you're using aren't up to snuff.  See
           if netstat shows a lot of packet errors.
           \_ If so, why do the exact same cables work great when they're
              transferring only gigabit traffic? -op
              \_ if you want any more help you need to systematically
                 describe the symptoms and the specifics of your set up.
                 you can leave out the details and just say "i'm having
                 problems". come on, dont be a moron.
              \_ you realize negotiating duplex setting and link speed
                 are two different things, right? if you want any more
                 help you need to systematically descibe the symptoms and
                 the specifics of your set up. you can leave out the details
                 and just say "i'm having problems". come on dood, dont be a
                 moron.
2007/1/30-2/1 [Computer/Networking] UID:45613 Activity:nil
1/29    I really don't get the new Cisco human network commercial where
        "Anyone can be famous anywhere [on the network]" Why the hell
        would people of different ethnicity (Indians, Chinese, etc) be
        interested at a boy dancing stupidily to a dumb ass music?
        \_ "Ya, uh huh, uh huh uh huh,
            Ya, uh huh, uh huh uh huh,"
            Are you annoyed yet? Are you? Are you? "uh huh uh huh."
            Fuck Cisco.
2006/12/22-26 [Computer/Networking] UID:45487 Activity:kinda low
12/22   Does anyone know if there's a system call to test if a port is
        availible without actually attempting to bind to it?  Such a call
        would be really useful for me.
        \_ You could try to connect to it.
           \_ You could also parse the output of "netstat -an" to see if
              there's anything listening on the port.  Are you sure this
              is what you want, though?  If you're eventually going to
              bind to the port, trying to check beforehand whether it's
              available will only create a race condition.
              \_ Yes, but this is a very unusual case.
2006/12/2-8 [Computer/SW/Security, Computer/Networking] UID:45410 Activity:low
12/2    I have only two internet choices-- Verizon and Time Warner Cable.
        I've tried Verizon's 3Mbps/512Kbps service with 12 month commitment.
        In practice I only get 2.2Mbps/225Kbps and Verizon is unable to
        bump up the speed saying that they're unable to guarantee speed
        due to distance and whatever bullshit they said. Now my 12 month
        commitment is up I'm trying out Time Warner. I subscribed to
        their 10Mbps/512Kbps service which costs slightly more
        than their 6Mbps/512Kbps tier. Again, in practice, I'm only
        getting 3.5Mbps/200Kbps which is LESS THAN HALF of what they
        promised. Once again, they're giving me bullshit about distance
        and how they don't guarantee speed. Anyone have similar problems
        with their providers?
        \_ Wah, wah.  Cry me a river.  The service is cheap because it's
           consumer grade.  If you want an SLA, get a real connection.  And if
           your Verizon service is DSL, what they're telling you about
           distance isn't bullshit.  Distance from the local CO dictates a
           physical limit to the maximum speed your DSL line can run at.
           If you can get DSL service from Speakeasy, consider it.  Speakeasy
           can't rewrite the laws of phsyics, and their consumer plans still
           won't have an SLA, but, in my experience, they are a cut above all
           the other DSL/Cable providers.  How are you measuring your line
           speed, anyway?  It's actually really hard to do this accurately,
           and I have yet to see a point and click web tool for testing speed
           that does so. -dans
2006/10/20-23 [Computer/Networking] UID:44894 Activity:nil
10/19   I installed openVPN here at work as our VPN solution for now but
        the Mac's have real issues with DNS. They basically don't pick up
        the internal DNS server after connecting. Anyone know the solution
        to that one or know of a better VPN solution for macs?
        \_ Does it have to be SSL-based?  Is commercial an option?  Do you
           need HA?  Is this for roving clients or working at home?  How
           many?  What kind of traffic?  Some more detail would help.  If
           you can do ipsec, I'd look at FreeS/WAN or KAME if you need it
           to be free.  Otherwise M0n0wall has a pretty good OpenVPN
           implementation and does PPTP as well as ipsec VPNs, with good docs
           on site-to-site VPNs for a number of manufacturers (PIX, VPN-1,
           Nortel and others.)  -John
2006/10/17-18 [Computer/Networking, Computer/Domains, Computer/SW/WWW/Browsers] UID:44845 Activity:moderate
10/17   Hello Internet addicts
        http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/10/17/061017180234.eiuwieod.html
        "the typical Internet addict was a single, college-educated, white male
        in his 30s, who spends approximately 30 hours a week on non-essential
        computer use"
        \_ Me to a T.  Now the thing is, I spend those 30 hours building useful
           software for fun.  Is that an addiction, or just a hobby?
           \_ I think they mean surfing pr0n sites, not writing software as
              a hobby.
              \_ Yep.  Otherwise, people who spend their free time on hobbies
                 like building furniture in their garage would be addicts.
              \_ The pr0n surfing is part of the essential computer use...
                 \_ link:csua.org/u/h8p
        \_ And then there are the TV addicts.
           But their habits are rarely referred to as "problematic".  -niloc
           \_ I know someone who watches at least 30 hours of TV a week and
              frankly it's ruining her life.
2006/10/13-14 [Computer/Networking] UID:44818 Activity:nil
10/13   Singapore to offer Free WiFi:
        http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15217453
        \_ "The Straits Times newspaper reported that families that earn less
           than (S$200) a month can purchase a computer for S$285."
           For only 1.5x your _family's_ monthly income...
2006/10/5-7 [Computer/Networking] UID:44685 Activity:nil
10/5    How much does it cost to get a broadband at home with guaranteed
        uplink of 768K or better, with port 80 unblocked?
        \_ I'm paying ~ $60/mo from Cyberonic.
        \_ keywords: internet service provider connection downlink
2006/10/2-4 [Computer/Networking] UID:44636 Activity:nil
10/2    My brother who lives in the city wants to get DSL. What are some
        good yet inexpensive DSL providers in SF? Thanks.
        \_ http://Sonic.net or Cyberonic.
           \_ Cyberonic support has pretty much disappeared since they
              moved from worldcom dsl lines.  I've had number of cases when
              I was down for several days at a time, and no personal contact
              can be made.  I'm now a happy http://sonic.net customer.  But if your
              brother's not a geek and don't need static IP, he can go with
              pretty much any SBC/AT&T reseller(and sonic's one of them.)
              \_ I agree re Cyberonic's customer support. It is almost
                 non-existent. If your Cyberonic line works right the
                 first time, then you will not have problems. If it
                 doesn't work, then you are better off canceling the
                 line and going w/ someone else b/c Cyberonic will
                 not help you debug the problem.
                 I was a long time Sonic customer and I really liked
                 them. The ONLY reason I switched was b/c Sonic was
                 not offering a 6Mbps line at an affordable price.
                 I'm not sure if that has changed. If it has I would
                 would probably switch back.
2006/9/27-28 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/Security] UID:44564 Activity:low
9/27    I'm currently using http://johncompanies.com and getting close to their
        40G/month bandwidth quota. I'm already paying $47/month for 5G disk
        storage and 40G/month bandwidth, and while the customer service
        has been superb, I'm a bit budget conscious and a bit reluctant to
        pay $80/month to johncompanies for the next level of service. I'm also
        a big socialist, and I support proletarian revolution. I've
        been contemplating a few options. For example, maybe I can get cable
        modem with 768kbps uplink/upstream for $50/month, which will be
        adaquate to serve 50-60G of content per month and has the positive
        side effect of having a much bigger disk storage over what I'm
        getting now at johncompanies. Is hosting at home a ridiculous
        idea or is it feasible?
        \_ Do you have a real server room environment?  Do you have a
           usage agreement that allows you to fill your pipe all month
           long?  No.
        \_ If you don't need a full jailed environment, JC is overkill.  Just
           host w/ el cheapo web provider.  If you need the custom env, it's
           probably worth the price.  JC are pretty easy to talk to, though.
           Mail them about what you want to do and ask for suggestions.  They
           might even refer you to someone who could better meet your needs.
           ("They" probably meaning "John")  --dbushong
           \_ Do you work at or an affiliate of johncompanies?
           \_ Overkill is when you need 40G bandwidth but got 1000G. The op
              said he's going over the 40G bandwidth quota so his hosting
              choice isn't exactly "overkill".
2006/9/20-22 [Computer/Networking] UID:44466 Activity:nil
9/20    Does anyone know how to use DebugView remotely on XP with firewall
        turned on?  I can't connect to the fucking remote machine unless I turn off the
        firewall on the fucking remote machine.  Googling didn't get me an answer.
        Sending mail to mark@sysinternals.com didn't get me a reply.  Thx.
2006/9/14-16 [Computer/Networking] UID:44372 Activity:moderate
9/13    What the fuck happened to 101 and Shoreline today?
        \_ A huge portion of the 30,000 employees from the south bay were
           sent to Shoreline within an hour. A convergence of thousands of
           cars into one location caused the denial-of-service on 101.
           This is yet another example of Cisco's lack of planning,
           beauracracy and incompetence. Why they didn't provide a shuttle
           service for employees is beyond me, but not unexpected. They're
           big, slow, and stupid, just like many other super-mega
           corporations.    -former employee, got stuck for 2 hours on 101
        \_ Cisco had a big new branding announcement at the amphitheater.
           Pretty much every cisco employee in the bay area went. My mom
           got me a k3wl t-shirt w/ the logo:
           got me a k3wl t-shirt w/ the new logo:
           http://www.theinquirer.net/images/articles/Cisco_new_logo.gif
           \_ That logo is kinda gay
              \_ http://csua.berkeley.edu/~scottyg/cisco.jpg
                 is a quick goatse version -scottyg
           \_ if your hardware is second rate you might as well get a new
              logo to improve your image.  yeah.... i was at some shitty
              dotcom which hired a new marketing director.  the first thing
              they did was rebrand everything which cost $500k so they could
              put their stamp on the co.  sort of like a dog marking their
              territory.  useless but makes them feel good.
              \_ I would not characterize cisco hardware as 2d rate (but
                 then again I might be biased b/c I worked there for a
                 long time and my mom has worked there for even longer).
                 Anyway, I'm not sure I really like the new logo. I liked
                 the original orange/red one.
                 \_ Imagine the world reset over the weekend.  No one has any
                    networking gear and no previous experience with any of
                    the products available from any company.  Would Cisco be
                    the default choice for so many?  Would Cisco even make the
                    list on Monday?
                    \_ Why wouldn't Cisco be the default choice? I think they
                       made decent gear and were a decent co. to work w/.
                       (But then again I may have a strong pro-cisco bias,
                        given my family's 10+ year association w/ cisco).
                       \_ Because it is functional but nothing special in
                          most product lines.  They are not a best of breed
                          manufacturer.
2006/9/1-3 [Computer/Networking, Computer/HW] UID:44235 Activity:nil
9/1     I want to add a quick and dirty alias for a server on my local machine.
        So instead of using some-really-long-host-name, I want to use srlhn:
        scp me@srlhn:foo
        But if I put that into /etc/hosts, it requires an IP address, and this
        server may be changing its IP address from time to time.  I'm not
        running DNS.  Any suggestions?
                -- tcsh user suffering from RSI
                \_ read the ssh config man page,
                        just edit your personal ssh settings in
                        ~user/.ssh/config

                        Host srlhn
                         HostName some-really-long-host-name
                  \_ my fingers and I thank you.
2006/8/25-27 [Computer/Networking, Computer/HW/Drives] UID:44148 Activity:nil
8/25    I have a portable USB HD (2.5") that I built myself with WD HD
        and an enclosure. On some systems it won't power on via the
        USB cable, it'll try to spin up, but does not successfully
        spin up. Could it be those machines do not provide enough
        power via the usb output? On one machine that fails to power
        up, I tried the fire-wire cable, it powered up fine. It also
        powers up fine on my machine via USB. Thanks.
        \_ Yes, exactly.  Not all USB ports are made the same.  I have a 4
           port USB hub that will power a mouse or other small device but
           nothing with a real power need "but it should".  Those systems are
           simply not providing enough power via their USB ports.
        \_ this is a well-known issue with some enclosures, see any newegg
           reviews of lower-rated enclosures.
           \_ Hmm, what would you consider a 'good' enclosure? My
              first one, the BYTECC HD-201U2, highly rated at new-egg,
              was a piece of crap. Dead on arrival, and the
              construction was also cheap. Drive hold in place by foam
              padding? My current one is a Macally PHR-250CC, much
              better designed and made, from the IC board to the way
              the drive is secured to the board to the way the board
              secures to the case. Could also be my drive, but I
              specifically picked one with average RPM so it won't
              suck as much power.. -op
              \_ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145135
                 (fixed the URL)
                 Vantec Nexstar 3 black (also in red and navy blue)
                 I got that for my gf, and it looks really nice, but she hasn't
                 used it much.  I purposely didn't order the BYTECC you got
                 because it looked cheap from the photos and someone posted
                 about a screw getting stripped.  Oh well.
                 Anyways, that was my choice for "best USB 2.5 enclosure" from
                 my research in early July.
                 I just noticed a new review saying it corrupts data.
                 used it much.  I didn't order the BYTECC because it looked
                 cheap from the photos and someone posted about a screw
                 getting stripped.  Oh well.  Anyways, the Vantec was my
                 choice for "best USB 2.5 enclosure" from my research in early
                 July.  I just noticed a new review saying it corrupts data.
                 Oh well, looks like the Macally is what you want.
                 If I could have a do-over, I'd get this:
                 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145658
                 I have the AMS Venus DS3 3.5" enclosure, use it ALL the time
                 and never had problems, so hopefully the 2.5" is the same.
                 I have some AMS Venus DS3 3.5" enclosures, use them ALL the
                 time and never had problems so hopefully the 2.5" is the same.
        \_ There are "powered" and "unpowered" USB ports.  The former supplies
           more juice than the latter.
        \_ Even with a powered USB port, the spec only requires that it is able
           to deliver 500mA @5V, or 2.5W.  There's no way you should expect
           the USB port to power a hard drive.  That's while all HDD enclosures
           have seperate power supplies.
           \_ ^all^all usb -- I have yet to have problems with my Firewire
              HDs getting enough juice.
2006/8/14-16 [Computer/Networking] UID:43999 Activity:nil
8/14    Free WiFi on Transbay buses!
        http://www.actransit.org/news/articledetail.wu?articleid=90e7a330
2006/8/9-14 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/OS/Linux] UID:43954 Activity:nil
8/9     Linux question.  We have a simple server that recieves TCP/IP
        connections concurrently with a threadpool, creating new threads
        as necessary.  It's showing a weird performance quirk where, if
        you increase the number of concurrent connections, the connection
        time increases slowly, from .1s.  At 16 connections it's
        about .2s.  However, the 17th connection takes 1.2s, a large
        jump.  The connection times continue increasing slowly from
        there, although there are little jumps at 48 and similar
        multiples of 16. slowly.  Is there some magic kernel number 16,
        above with establishing a TCP/IP connection takes a long time?
        \_ Stupid question, does your threadpool have a max number of
           threads?
           \_ Yes, but it's 1024, which is actually higher than the kernel
              seems to be able to generate.
              \_ Java threads?  pthreads?
                 \_ pthreads, it's all C or C++ code on chaos Linux,
                    (although we were able to duplicate the problem on
                    RedHat,)
                    \- i dunno what the linux equiv of tcp_conn_hash_size
                       is, but i'd personally be interested if changing
                       bumping that up changes the behavior.
                       is, but i'd personally be interested if bumping that
                       up changes the behavior.
           \_ No. -proud American
2006/8/3-6 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/OS/Linux] UID:43887 Activity:nil
8/3     Similar to the post below, I'm planning to set up a machine outside
        of the firewall and I'm considering FC3/4 or RH9, and maybe others
        too. Since it's outside of the firewall, security is a concern. In
        addition, manageability is a huge issue for me as I'm not intimately
        familiar with RPM package resolutions. What do you guys suggest?
        \_ Whatever you do, I'd recommend at least looking at selinux.  For
           management, strip it down as much as you can, jail or at least
           chroot any services you can, packet filter, tripwire, etc. etc.
           etc. and allow ipsec to the box from behind the firewall for
           updates.  Nothing exotic there.  -John
        \_ Don't run RH9. It's obsolete. I'd run RH4.
           \_ red hat enterprise linux 4?
              \_ No, RedHat versions are like AD&D 2nd edition armor
                 classes.
                 \_ banded or splint mail?
           \_ Agreed.  I don't think Redhat even maintain version 9 anymore.
              If you can't afford RHEL, try CentOS.  They come with SELinux
              stuff built-in as well.  But if you're not familiar with RPM
              distros, why not pick something you are familiar with?
                \_ I totally disagree.  -proud American
2006/8/2-6 [Computer/Networking] UID:43879 Activity:nil
8/2     So my deal with SBC is up in a few weeks and I'm thinking of
        switching over to Speakeasy DSL, as it costs the same as what I'm
        paying now, gives me twice the bandwidth, and has no landline
        (which I rarely use on SBC). Any previous experiences with
        Speakeasy to speak to their character? --michener
        \_ Speakeasy's great. I've had DSL with them for over 6 years
           and don't have any complaints.
        \_ No. -proud American
           \_ Speakeasy had been great.  Over the last two years, they've
              grown more and more incompetent, and they can't seem to be
              able to swing decent service contracts with their telco
              pairings.  The last time I tried to get an install, I ended
              up missing 3 days of work because they couldn't give me the
              right DATE for the installer.  Not the wrong time, the wrong
              DATE!
              \_ I've had good service from Speakeasy itself, but I've had
                 similar problems with their LEC pairings. When I moved,
                 Covad forgot to turn off my old tap, so I was getting billed
                 twice; when I complained to Speakeasy, Covad shut off my new
                 line and left the old one in place. I was down for a couple
                 of weeks. Speakeasy did all they could, though, including
                 giving me a free month's service. The nice thing about them
                 is that I can call and say "your DNS servers are broken" and
                 have the person I'm talking to actually know what I'm saying,
                 instead of asking me to reboot my modem a la SBC. -gm
        \_ Go with AOL.  They are the best.  -proud Midwesterner
2006/7/17-19 [Computer/Networking] UID:43690 Activity:nil
7/17    Anyone have a clue how to put a form field that allows only
        dotted quad IP address entry in a pdf?  -John
        \_ I don't know anything about pdf creation, but this may help:
           http://www.planetpdf.com/forumarchive/88960.asp  -niloc
           \_ Kewl, thanks much, helped.  -John
2006/7/14-18 [Computer/Domains, Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/WWW/Browsers] UID:43670 Activity:nil
7/14    Has all mail been delivered?
        \_ In the words of Ted Stevens ("internet expert"):
           The internet is not something that you just dump something on.
           It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't
           understand that those tubes can be filled, and if they're filled
           when you put your message in it, it gets in line, it's gonna be
           delayed by anyone who puts into that tube enormous amounts of
           material, enormous amounts of material. Ten movies streaming
           across that that, internet, and what happens to your own
           personal internet? I...just the other day, got internet was
           sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday, I got
           it yesterday. Why?
        \_ So, I think your answer is, no, it's not all been delivered, never
           has been, never will be.  Let me rephrase my question.  Has mail
           been delivered to the extent that it normally would be, or is
           there still a significant percentage of the mail from when
           sendmail was down that hasn't been delivered yet?  It seems that
           some of my mail is missing.  Not sure if it's just 1 message, or
           a significant percentage.  -op
        \_ I think the intelligent way to interpret this question, is for
           someone in the know to tell us if mail was queued on another
           machine during extended periods of downtime, and if not,
           approximately how long that non-queueing-of-mail went on for.
2006/7/12-17 [Computer/Networking, Transportation/Bicycle] UID:43651 Activity:nil
7/12    http://www.bikely.com
        Bicycle routes the easy way
2006/6/11-13 [Computer/Networking, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:43349 Activity:nil
6/11    I don't have cable, does anyone know how I can watch the World
        Cup?  I pretty much just want to catch the US and Korean games.
        -jrleek
        \_ Do you chant "Dae Han Min Gook" extremely loudly?
           \_ If I have to. -jrleek
        \_ Local sports bar? Friend's house? Church gathering?
        \_ I watch the games on ABC, can't you?
           \_ No, I live in Livermore.  I can't get anything but 2 Spanish
              stations.  Watching it on the Spanish channel might not be a
              bad idea...  I was really hoping to be able to get a stream
              online. -jrleek
              \_ I hear you can download "TVants" and watch ESPN online with it
                 though I haven't tried it myself. I don't know if that would
                 have all games. Also supposedly you can watch the BBC stream.
                 It is supposed to be limited to the UK, but:
   http://www.ghacks.net/2006/06/06/how-to-view-the-football-worldcup-online/#more-542
              \_ Try what the end of this article says:
                http://www.ghacks.net/2006/06/09/worldcup-preparations
                Or maybe try using a proxy to access BBC online streams.
                I think it's talking about this:
                http://www.tvunetworks.com/downloads/index.htm
                \_ Hey, thanks.  At least in my test, tvuplayer works
                   pretty well.  We'll see for the World Cup.
                   Addendum: Works GREAT.  I saw most of the Aus vs Japan
                   game this morning, but missed the last 15 minutes where
                   Austrailia come back from 0 to 1 to win 3 to 1.  !@#$
        \_ What about downloads?  Who can watch a game at 6am?
2006/5/23-28 [Computer/Networking] UID:43161 Activity:nil
5/23    Hi guys, I got a spam that says to go to
        http://1172721189:82/webscrr/index.php
        How does that URL work?  It's not a .com, or IP address.
        \_ IPv4 addresses (the kind you always see as N.N.N.N) are 4 bytes
           separated by dots.  Therefore, it's hierarchical representation of
           a 32-bit integer, which is what you see above.  The spec for
           connecting to IP addresses says you can use either form.
           \_ I see, so that corresponds to 45 E6 4E 25 (hex), which
              is 69.230.78.37.  Cool, thanks.
2006/5/23-28 [Computer/Networking] UID:43157 Activity:nil
5/23    I have DSL through AT&T. The service was originally established
        through PacBell, transitioned to SBC, and now AT&T. I still have
        my original plan and never converted to a SBC Yahoo! (now AT&T
        Yahoo!) account. I noticed the price will be a lot cheaper if I
        do. Are there any drawbacks? I thought someone mentioned some
        negatives about the Yahoo! tie-in once upon a time.
        \_ I'm in the same boat.  It's $50/month for me.  However, I depend
           on it for work, and in 5-6 years it has gone down only twice.  Once
           for 5 minutes, and the second time for a day because a landslide
           destroyed a fiber optic cable.
           destroyed a fiber optic cable. -eric
        \_ depends on how old your service is.  If you got the dsl when it
           first came out, when they actually came to your house and put in
           a real signal splitter and whatnot instead of sending you the cheap
           filters for the rest of the phone, you probably have static IP,
           which you will lose by switching.  If you don't care, you'll
           probably get more bandwidth with dynamic IP by switching over, and
           you can keep your existing filter.
           \_ What difference does it make whether I have a splitter or
              not? (I do.) I do have dynamic IP already. My question has
              to do more with the issues of Yahoo! using my account
              information and whatnot (spyware?). Is there anything I should
              be concerned about? I can get the same bandwidth (advertised)
              for half the price. What's the catch?
              \_ You can sign up and not install any of their tools.  The
                 modem they install self-configures these days.  The "catch"
                 is that they never tell older users who've been paying
                 higher that they could pay less for more.
2006/5/11-12 [Computer/Networking] UID:43027 Activity:low
5/11    MacOS question:  for some reason, my Powerbook's wifi card isn't
        picking up any wireless networks with any sort of protection--wep,
        wpa, wpa2, whatever.  My home network shows up in keychain, but if
        I want to connect, I have to do it manually.  Any ideas what this
        could be?  -John
        \_ How much are vacation homes in Chile, Santiago?
        \_ More specifics, pb type, os version, internal/external card
           \_ Oh, didn't think that'd make a difference.  10.4.5, 12" PB,
              Airport card (not sure which one.)  This worked at one point,
              and I have no clue whwat might have changed.  -John
              \_ Dunno.  What does MacStumbler report?
        \_ +1-800-275-2273
                 \_ That's the thing, I can join encrypted/authenticated
                    networks, I just have to do it manually every time I
                    power up or recover from sleep.  Not tragic, I just
                    thought maybe someone here might have seen this.  -John
        \_ +1-800-275-2273
2006/5/2-5 [Computer/Networking] UID:42896 Activity:nil
5/2     What do people pay for basic cable?  My comcast bill for just
        basic seems to be about $53/mo.  That seems really high, doesnt it!
        \_ Perhaps you didn't pay attention to the trend in the past decade.
           As with everything else, cable television became highly deregulated
           and started to become highly monopolized. Cable companies today
           have so much clout in the capital as well as local districts that
           you see silly laws passed such as those that prohibit dish
           owners to have access to both the local dish and local cable
           channels. Why is the price so high and the cable company so
           profitable? Look into government deregulation and a lack of
           auditing. Welcome to Corporate America.
        \_ Yes.  Why get cable at all?  It's just worthless sludge anyway.
           I got free cable once, and it was so boring/stupid I never
           watched it. -jrleek
           \_ Cable is a lot cheaper than a babysitter.
        \_ you must have basic digital cable.
          \_ For a while we were paying $18/mo for 'analog' cable, but that was
             a 'please dont cancel' deal they offered when we threatened to
             cancel.  Dropped it when they moved scifi into the
             'enhanced' cable channel range.  By then it was paying monthly
             fees for basically broadcast channelsi, which is stupid. -ERic
          \_ I have basic analog cable and I get sci fi, as does my Mom. Seems
             different basic cable lineup in different areas. But ya mostly have it
             just to get comedy central and sci fi channel.
2006/4/30-5/4 [Computer/Networking] UID:42867 Activity:nil
4/30    Who is still offering broadband internet connection for $30 or less
        with a year-long contract?
        \_ http://www.sbc.com/dsl and http://comcast.com if you ask for a promo
2006/4/17-20 [Computer/Networking] UID:42768 Activity:nil
4/17    http://people.freebsd.org/~phk/dlink
2006/3/31-4/3 [Computer/Networking] UID:42587 Activity:nil
3/31    Geek discovers partner of 17 years was cheating on him, by
        reconfiguring his network so everything (including wireless) would
        route through an 8-port switch and putting a notebook with Ethereal
        in the network closet on the switch
        http://www.lenholgate.com/archives/000638.html
        "Right now I still find it quite difficult to concentrate enough to
        get any technical work done ..."
        \_ "Stay away from blondes, as they drop their skirts for anything,
           man, woman, or german shepherd." hahahaha
        \_ If he had just put a little effort into planning
           his network topology he would have caught her months ago.
        \_ We care why?
2006/3/25-27 [Computer/Networking] UID:42433 Activity:nil
3/24    I want to write in my DSL router to allow incoming connection
        from certain IP range. How do I find out the IP range for SBC
        DSL say in Bay Area/SF?
2006/3/15-16 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/OS/FreeBSD] UID:42241 Activity:nil
3/14    I'm looking for a good tutorial/howto for setting up IPSEC
        on my *BSD router/firewall. Basically I want to be able to
        access my home network while I'm on the road (iBook w/ OSX
        10.4), and I don't want to set up a bunch of SSH port forwards
        to talk to various services. Any pointers?

3/14
 _______________
< FEEL THE LOVE >
 ---------------
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\   ~
                ||----w |   .   ~  smell the love!
                ||     ||  #=.#
                ||     || ,.#=..
        \_ There are a bunch of ways to do this.  Look at http://www.kame.net
           for one implementation (included in FBSD, I think).  The FreeBSD
           handbook also has a pretty good section on setting it up (just
           search the main handbook page for 'ipsec'.  Last but not least, may
           I humbly recommend running M0n0wall (http://www.m0n0.ch on WRAP
           or Soekris, as its IPSEC implementation is pretty airtight.  -John

3/14
 _______________
< FEEL THE LOVE >
 ---------------
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\   ~
                ||----w |   .   ~  smell the love!
                ||     ||  #=.#
                ||     || ,.#=..
2006/3/14-16 [Computer/Networking] UID:42225 Activity:moderate
3/14    Can someone reccomend a restaurant or Cafe in the SF financial
        district (say near Montgomery BART) that has free WiFi, decent food
        and reasonable prices?
        \_ it's getting harder and harder to find free/open wifi spots. It makes
           me sad.
           \_ really? I'd thought it was going the other way... (more free
              spots nowadays) - do you mean in SF specifically?
              \_ I'm finding fewer free APs, both from "big, legit" providers
                 (ISPs, telcos) and from misconfigurations; the big ones tend
                 to want to sell wifi service, while people are cluing in
                 to closing up their APs.  However, I see a lot more small
                 "independent" APs, such as from small coffee shops, these
                 days.  This is true of most of the countries I've been to
                 recently.  And running an AP off the third interface off a
                 DMZ interface of a small firewall and allowing free
                 Internet access to anyone (but rate-limiting non-
                 authenticated clients to, say, 10-20% of overall bandwidth)
                 is a nice way to give back.  -John
           \_ free wifi is a form of Socialism; I pay a bit more to let others
              share, in hoping that others will do the same for me when I need
              it in their area. As we all learned in grade school, Socialism
              is BAD and Capitalism is GOOD! GO GWB OUR GREATEST HERO!!!
              \_ I'm pretty sure you're being sarcastic, but I'm going to
                 point this out anyway.  There's nothing socialist about most
                 free wifi.  Everywhere I've been outside of the bay area
                 it's normal for coffee shops and restraunts to have their
                 wifi be free, because it encourages people to hang out there.
                 It's just good business.
                 \_ except when people overstay their welcome and leave less
                    room for incoming customers.
                    \_ Yeah it's like Darfur out there.
                    \_ Yeah, this is actually a big problem in SF.  I don't
                       know where the person who can't find free wifi is
                       looking, because every coffee shop I know of in SF has
                       free wifi.  And they are all filled with these goddamn
                       drones who come in, buy one cup of coffee, and then
                       sit down for a whole day occupying precious table
                       space with themselves and their bloody laptop.
                       The coffeeshop around the corner from my apartment
                       literally has no place to sit during the day, because
                       the entire place has effectively become an office
                       full of laptop-wielding drones.  I say charge for the
                       damn wifi and end this stupid tragedy of the commons.
                       \_ You know what's funny?  I'm guessing that you think
                          government-sponsored free wifi is EVIL SOCIALISM.
                          But if the coffee shops charged huge fees and the
                          professionals who spend all day there wrote those
                          fees of on their taxes as business expenses (which
                          most of them probably could do) you'd think that
                          was just fine, even though it would be a much larger
                          subsidy by the rest of the taxpayers.  Socialism
                          for the rich, capitalism for the poor.
                       \_ You should accidentally spill coffee on someone's
                          laptop. Like once a week.
                       \_ Wow.  Your assessment is very scientific.  As a
                          rational observer, I'm convinced that clearly free
                          wifi will lead to the downfall of western
                          civilization. -dans
        \_ Harvest & Rowe on 2nd between Market and Mission.
           \_ Ooh, that looks good but I should have mentioned I'm looking for
              a place open around dinner. -OP
2006/3/10-13 [Computer/Domains, Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/WWW/Browsers] UID:42176 Activity:moderate
3/10    Tivo?  Netflix?  Watching Live TV?  Playing Computer Games?
        Using the Computer/Internet?  (Where do you spend more of your time?)
        \_ sport hunting bums in the BART tube
           \_ I took this in the British sense at first given the use of
              'tube'. It was far more clever that way.
        \_ Total time (including work), #1 is using the computer.
           Measuring just free time, #1 is "outside."  -tom
        \_ Including work, mostly in front of a computer. For leisure,
           mostly talking to friends, some reading, some outdoors, little
           TV. --erikred
        \_ #1 computer, #2 tivo, #3 cooking, #4 netflix, #5 hiking  --dbushong
        \_ #1 computer, #2 church, #3 investing/trading, #4 basketball
        \_ #1 slave work for my gf, #2 church, #3 investing/trading #4 computer,
           #5 calling my mom, #6 basketball  --christian socialist
           \_ Why do you put up with #1?  For the sex?
              \_ Of course not.  The Bible clearly says adultery is punishable
                 by stoning.  -!pp
                 \_
           \_ Why do you put up with #2?  For the sex?
           \_ Why do you put up with #5?  For the sex?
           \_ Why do you put up with #6?
        \_ My new daughter, playing computer games, Cal sports. -ausman
        \_ Girlfriend, playing Forgotten Hope online, jogging, playing with
           telescope, going to restaurants, travel.  -John
2006/3/2-5 [Computer/Networking] UID:42069 Activity:low
3/2     Has anyone seen this?  Should make a good firewall appliance.
        http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3880195342.html
        \_ With only one nic?  I suppose you could use the USB..
           Wonder how M0n0wall would do on this..
           \_ I could ask Manuel (the guy who put M0n0wall together) if you're
              interested--we have him on retainer on one of my projects. -John
              \_ More "curious" than "interested"
        \_ not bad for 30 euros...  It's a decent firewall appliance, if
           your upstream filters rfc1918.
2006/2/18-23 [Computer/Networking] UID:41923 Activity:low
2/18    My DSL modem's ip address is 192.168.0.1, my internal network
        behind my router is 10.0.0.x. Is there a way I can configure
        the router so I can access the DSL modem from my 10.0.0.x
        network directly without re-wiring? Static routes? I tried it
        but no much luck. I also tried changing my internal network to
        192.168.0.x, but still does not work. Thanks.
        \_ I assume this is the connectivity:
           Wall -> DSL router -> Switch(es) -> Various PCs
           If your DSL router is 192.168.0.1, and you configure your various
           PCs to be 192.168.0.x, I don't see why you can't connect to
           192.168.0.1, your DSL router.  Can you ping it at least?
           \_ Sorry, typo, it should say "DSL modem". It is
              Wall -> DSL modem -> DSL Router -> PC.
              How do I get to my DSL modem from my PC?  If I
              connect the modem directly to my PC, I can access
              it's configuration URL, but if the router sits
              in between, I can't.
              \_ Huh.  It ought to work either way.  What happens if you run
                 "traceroute -n http://csua.berkeley.edu" from the PC?  Do you see
                 a response from 192.168.0.1?  What about "traceroute -n
                 192.168.0.1"?  (On Windows, use "tracert -d" instead.)
              \_ From your description it sounds like you have the
                 following setup:
        Wall <-> DSL Modem <- 192.168.x net -> DSL Router <- 10.x net -> PCs
                 I'm assuming that eth0 on the DSL Router is connected
                 to the 192.168.0.0 net and eth1 on the DSL Router is
                 connected to the 10.0.0.0 net. I'm also assuming that
                 the PCs and the DSL Modem are on separate switches (or
                 hubs) or that you are using a cross over cable for the
                 connection btwn the DSL Modem and the DSL Router.
                 If so, you should probably have eth0 on the DSL Router
                 configured to something like 192.168.0.2. Make sure that
                 the DSL Router's default gateway is 192.168.0.1, the
                 IP of the DSL modem. Also make sure that IP forwarding
                 is enabled.
                 You probably need to set up eth1 on the DSL Router to
                 something like 10.0.0.1. Then configure your PCs to
                 use 10.0.0.1 as their default gateway. This should let
                 you talk to 192.168.0.1 from your PCs (assuming that
                 your DSL router's firewall/nat is configured to allow
                 this).
                 \_ My router has a WAN port, which is directly
                    connected to the DSL modem's LAN port via a
                    regular Ethernet cable. The PC is connected to the
                    router's LAN port. The DSL modem's ip address is
                    192.168.0.1. PPPoE is handled by the router but I
                    don't think it talks to the modem using its
                    192.168.0.1 address. On the LAN side, the router's
                    ip address is 10.0.0.1, and my PC is 10.0.0.100,
                    the router's WAN side is my external ip address
                    (which is connected to the modem that only answers
                    on 192.168.0.1). I guess it's not possible to get
                    to the modem from my PC directly through the
                    router. If I connect the modem directly to my PC,
                    and set my PC's ip address to 192.168.0.2, then I
                    can talk to the modem fine.
                    \_ plug everything into the "LAN" side, including the
                       connection to the DSL modem.  configure your DHCP
                       pool to hand out IPS on the 192.168.0.x with default
                       gateway 192.168.0.1
                       \_ Won't I lose the firewall capability of my router?
        \_ See if your router can support bridging the "WAN" side to the
           "LAN" side.  That would eliminate the entire 10.x network
           \_ and eliminate the need for the router too.
              \_ I don't want to lose the SPI firewall in my router.
                 If I connect the modem to the LAN side, then my
                 entire local network becomes a DMZ. To me, the
                 firewall capabilities of my router outweights the
                 inconvenience of reconnecting the cables when I need
                 to configure the modem. I am just wondering if
                 there's a trick that would allow me to access the
                 modem through the router. I guess it's not possible...
2006/2/17-20 [Computer/Networking] UID:41905 Activity:nil
2/17    I have a weird Firefox/802.11b interaction problem. When I'm
        connected via the wire, Firefox works perfectly. But when I'm
        connected via 802.11b and submit HTML forms, it hangs and
        doesn't go to the next page. I'm suspecting it's buffer not
        being flushed or something, or HTTP Keep Alive bug? This
        doesn't happen on IE, which works fine on both wire & 802.11b
        \_ are you connecting through the same routers when you go via
           wireless?  One thing you might try is setting your MTU to
           something smaller than the default (1500 for ethernet)... like
           say try 1300.
2006/2/15 [Computer/Networking] UID:41862 Activity:nil
2/15    I'm trying to get someone setup on iChatAV but it appears that their
        ISP is blocking port 5060 (the SIP port) in order to promote their
        own VoIP products. Does anyone know of any clever ways to circumvent
        this (like port forwarding, proxy, etc.)?
        \_ Yeah--get a decent firewall (I'm going to keep on mentioning
           M0n0wall on WRAP) that does port NAT.  That, or IPSEC, although
           if you're both on dynamic IPs that can be a problem, depending on
           the implementation.  I didn't even realize iChhat used SIP.  -John
2006/2/13-15 [Computer/Networking] UID:41829 Activity:nil
2/13    Do I really have to point my cisco pix at some cert. authority
        if I want to use keys (instead of "pre-shared secrets") ?
        I can't just self sign?? wtf?
        \_ Actually, why not just create a CA signing cert with OpenSSL
           (it's not that hard), sign a cert with that, and then import the
           CA public key into pix?  Or use a static passphrase for phase I
           negotiation (I assume you're doing ipsec?)  -John
2006/2/7 [Computer/Networking] UID:41740 Activity:kinda low
2/6     Here's a security question.  I think my network guy is insane.  We
        have a WiFi connection at work which is set to only allow certain MAC
        addresses, and on top of that it uses WEP.  I have a laptop with WiFi
        which is on our windows domain, but does NOT have the WEP key and its
        MAC is NOT allowed on our WiFi.  Is there a security risk to our
        network if I connect my laptop to a neighbor's open WAP?
        \_ get exploited via neighbor's r00ted box.  bring that shit
        \_ get r00ted via neighbor's r00ted box.  bring that shit
           back to work, connect (wireless, wireless, whatever), boom.
        \_ Home laptops connected to the corporate network are the most common
           virus vector in our company.
        \_ Why did you tell him anything about your neighbor's open WAP?  And
           yes, there is always a security risk moving from one network to
           another.  You hook up to your neighbor's dirty net, get some virus
           then hook up at work and infect everything there skipping most of
           the security in place which is normally designed with external
           threats in mind.  I'm not sure why he lets your laptop on one
           internal net but not the other internal net.  Have you asked him
           to be able to go wireless?  Maybe it isn't technical.  Maybe his
           department charges your department per host and yours hasn't
           coughed up the cash.  Ask.
           \_ The neighbor is a different company.  I'm not on our WiFi for
              different silly reasons.  I want to use the neighbor's WiFi to
              test a server from an expeternal IP.  I am fully patched, using
              a firewall, and not using IE. -op
        \_ Yes there is a risk.  Cracking WEP is not as easy as some people
           make it out to be, but it is pretty easy to catch shit.  We've
           seen some fun trojans around which try various approaches involving
           switching wireless networks.  My question is:  why is the laptop
           on your windows domain if you do not connect it to your local
           network?  If you ever connect that laptop to a fixed newtork
           that is the same as your work's wifi, you are asking for trouble.
           Your network guy is not insane.  Now if the laptop lacking the\
           WEP key is properly secured (firewall, AV, patches, VPN, etc etc)
           then it's no different from connecting via, say, a hotel
           network and you should be fine.  -John
2006/1/28-31 [Computer/Networking] UID:41585 Activity:low
1/28    Just switched to Comcast from SBC and generally happy with it.  But
        can someone please explain to me why they are constantly pumping
        ARP traffic through the network?  It seems harmless, but I'm curious
        as I didn't see it with DSL.  It's a little disconcerting to see
        constant traffic on your router, even if ARPs are harmless from
        a bandwidth perspective, and it makes the WAN send/receive light
        basically useless.  Is there a cable modem I can get that won't
        forward these stupid things?  From reading around the net, all I see
        are vague references to the fact that Comcast's network configuration
        is such that all of their customers on a particular link will see
        all customers ARP traffic.
        \_ Further searching turns up this from 8 Dec 2005:
           "I'm a relatively new comcast customer, and also a network
           engineer. I'm not sure how they have their routers configured,
           but I get upwards of 10-20 arp requests per second during the day,
           and from 6:00 to midnight I get so many that packets start getting
           dropped. I recieve the arps from at least 5 different source IPs
           that appear to be routers (they all have ips that end in .1, but on
           different /24 networks. This leads me to believe that they are
           using multiple virtual IPS on the same interface of a single
           router, or that they have something bridging data between parallel
           networks (which should not be happening). Regardless, I'm trying to
           get some resolution. I can't imagine what would create a requirement
           for this level of arp traffic; it has to be a misconfiguration
           somewhere."
           \_ Good luck trying to explain this problem to their technical
              support staff! -another comcast user
        \_ would you recommend SBC DSL or Comcast cable?  Is DSL really
           that much cheaper?
           \_ My brother is getting 2 mbps down off his Dslextreme line for
              $20/month on a yearly subscription.  I'm getting 2 mbps (yes,
              I know Comcast advertises more, but that's my roughly measured)
              from Comcast for $50/month on month-to-month (Comcast doesn't do
              annual).  I'd switch to DSL in a heartbeat if it were available
              at my house.  The only thing nice about my Comcast feed is the
              pseudo-static IP (infinite dhcp lease, keyed off my mac address
              and their equipment, and neither changes all that often).
              \_ For what it's worth, I'm getting 6 mbps downstream from
                 Comcast pretty consistently.  Oddly, using a Belkin router/
                 firewall in between the cable modem and my network cuts
                 it to about 5 mbps.  The Belkin's WAN activity light was how
                 I originally found all the frickin' ARP traffic.  Is it
                 possible the overheard of blocking the ARPs is slowing the
                 (admittedly very cheap) Belkin down?  --ARP traffic guy
                 \_ My segment get continuous arps but not *that* kind of
                    traffic.  I get 1 or 2 per second at most.  Sometimes it
                    fades off a bit to 1 every 3-5 seconds.  How many are
                    you getting?
                    \_ It fluctuates, but I'm seeing roughly 5 to 10 a second.
                       From what I've read, Comcast does configure it's
                       customers into very large LANs, and that you'll
                       tend to see more of the ARPs when some of the people
                       on your LAN are infected with something like Code Red.
           \_ I'm over 20,000 feet from the nearest DSL POP so cable is my
              only choice.  The pseudo-static IP changes about once every
              15 months which isn't too horrible and the service itself has
              been quite reliable overall.  It is pricey but when dialup is
              your only other choice....
              \_ Ha!  I'm only 13k feet from the nearest CO.  Of course,
                 according to SBC, I have steel pairs running to my house
                 instead of copper, and DSL will never happen till they
                 rip up the sidewalk to swap to copper.
2006/1/22-24 [Computer/Networking] UID:41477 Activity:nil
1/21    I am trying to setup a small network for my girlfriend's
        mom's company.  They just bought an accounting package
        which requires windows 2003 server.  And they want internet
        access from each computer.  How should the network be setuped?
        Would it be dumb to use static IP for each computer and a
        computer as internet gateway?
        \_ DHCP is probably better than static IP for each computer
           b/c you don't have to bother setting up IP on each computer
           and if they ever get a new computer they can plug it in
           and get it running w/o your help.
           You could probably get away with a netgear (or some such)
           hardware only router/firewall, but if you want a bit more
           security, get a sff pc and run Open/FreeBSD w/ pf.
        \_ I humbly recommend getting a PCEngines WRAP 1E-2 with case and
           64MB CF card from http://www.pcengines.ch and running
           M0n0wall (http://www.m0n0.ch/wall on it.  You can turn the
           WRAP/M0n0 into a wifi AP if you want, although I'd run that on
           separate hardware off the third interface.  Use DHCP.  -John
        \_ or you can be non-elite and install a D-Link DGL-4300 gaming
           router next to your DSL modem.  Then just get some 802.11g NICs
           for each computer and you're all done.  If you want wired, you can
           buy some 8-port gigabit switches and run the wire along the
           bottoms of the walls.  http://newegg.com users say the DGL-4300 is rock-
           solid.  servers can be static IP from with IP address w.x.y.2 to
           .99, and you can have your router give out .100 to .253 for
           the dynamic IPs.
        \_ I can't believe this post mentioned his girlfriend's mom and
           nobody took the bait.
           \_ have you seen his girlfriend's mom?
2006/1/3-5 [Computer/Networking] UID:41212 Activity:nil
1/3     I'm trying to configure a VPN across a cisco 1760 router - so far this
        has involved mostly confusion & cursing (their documentation and
        interfaces are terrible) - can anyone recommend a book that they have
        used to understand the process?  Thanks!
2005/12/23-28 [Computer/Networking] UID:41134 Activity:nil
12/13   My sister's computer is a Linux box behind a router.  Is there
        anyway for me to ssh to her box?  Do I have to have the router
        forward the packets to her machine or something?
        \_ yes and yes.
        \_ e.g., outside port 22 to LAN port 22 and yer-sister's-static-IP.
           ob access to yersister's box joke.
           \_ I rooted your girlfriend's box and I didn't use a trojan.
              "best" defcon shirt ever.
2005/12/21-23 [Computer/Networking] UID:41102 Activity:nil
12/21   Anyone used IPv6 6to4 tunnels from consumer ISPs in northern CA?
        I tried to make one work from a friend's astound cable modem and
        the incoming protocol 41 packets seem to be lost. I am wondering
        if it is the ISP dropping them, the cable modem, or the D-Link
        router between his modem and my "co-lo" server.  --karlcz
2005/12/20-22 [Computer/Networking] UID:41085 Activity:low
12/20   Need a pointer here.  I am behind a company firewall.  I would like to
        be able to run MSN Messenger and Real Audio from it.  The firewall
        has a SOCK5 proxy server.  Is it possible for me to set up zebedee
        in some way so I can get get Real Audio and MSN to work?  if yes,
        pointers please?
        \_ Since no one who knows what they're talking about replied, I'll
           give you the generic answer: try port forwarding via ssh to your
           home over the proxy server.  Is this even possible?  Beats me.
           Let us know how it goes.
           \_ thanks  I will try it.
        \_ I've traversed a socks proxy at corporate sites with ssh, using
           if I remember correctly, LD_PRELOAD of libsocks or something
           like that.  it inserts socks negotiation into normal dynamically
           linked socket code, e.g. I then used standard RedHat build of
           ssh client.  I don't know what zebedee is, but libsocks might
           fix it directly, or you might need to do the above ssh port
           forwarding combination.
        \_ why don't you point RA and MSN at the socks5 proxy straight?
           \_ GAIM's MSN module's socks5 proxy never worked.  and I don't
              know how to set up real audio's rstp proxy... in terms of
              how does it relate to socks5 proxy.  pointers?
2005/12/17-19 [Computer/Networking] UID:41057 Activity:nil
12/16   Looking for the cheapest wireless 802.11b webcam with tilt
        and zoom. Recommendations?
2005/12/13-15 [Computer/Networking] UID:40997 Activity:nil
12/13   I am visiting relatives in the NYC area (LI) and taking my wifi laptop
         These people have nothing better than dialup at their house.
        Anyone care to reccomend something better than Starbucks ($$) for
         internet access ?
        \_ The local library?
        \_ McDonalds?  Barnes & Noble?
        \_ A cantenna?  Maybe they have neighbors with wifi?
2005/12/7-9 [Computer/Networking] UID:40914 Activity:nil
12/7    Anyone know of a good reseller that sells refurbished Cisco Callcenter
        bundles as well as provide install and support? Any other vendors for
        internal company VOIP providers that I should look at?
        \_ Calltower, NEC BNS, SBC are all good resellers. -shac
2005/12/7-9 [Computer/Networking] UID:40901 Activity:low
12/7    802.11 (security) question. How do I instruct my laptop to
        connect to an AP with specific mac address? (they all have
        same SSID) I have the netgear PCMCIA wireless access card. My
        netgear utility shows all the access points, but because they
        all have the same SSID, I don't have control over which one it
        actually connect to. It always seem to connect to the trouble
        some AP, and I get connection problems.  Occasionally I'll be
        connected to the good AP, and my connections are fine (but
        sometimes in the middle of doing some stuff It'll reconnect
        back to the bad AP). I did not find a way to set my wireless
        to connect to specific mac address. This seems like a security
        problem. Someone can just setup a bogus AP with the same name
        and I have no way of telling my card not to connect to it.
        Thanks.
        \_ Short answer:  "yes, it's a problem."  The fact that 802.11b
           has, very simplistically explained, 2 "channels", one for overhead
           type stuff like joins/parts and the other for actual data (it
           sort of has to, otherwise you couldn't negotiate connections with
           new hosts easily) is at the root of the possibility of sniffing
           wifi auth traffic for key cracking purposes.  If there's a way
           to let you select an AP by MAC, I'd love to know it.  This is why
           you should treat _any_ wireless connection as open.  -JOhn
           you should treat _any_ wireless connection as open.  -John
           \- to OP: this is the tip of the iceberg. you might look at
              Wm Arbaugh's book or some of his WEEB pages, e.g.
              http://www.cs.umd.edu/~waa/wireless.html
           \_ You can do LEAP or EAP-TLS (if you want actual security)
              authentication to ensure you are connected to the correct AP. -aus
2005/11/30-12/3 [Computer/Networking, Consumer/TV] UID:40777 Activity:nil
11/30   I'm thinking about installing a dish just to get Chinese
        channels. However, my home owner's association doesn't allow
        ANY dish because they have a contract with a big name cable
        company (Comcast). At any rate I don't have a backyard and
        I can't install stuff on the common rooftop. Is there such a
        thing as a mini-dish that I can put right by the window?
        \_ Just hide it inside one of the giant stuffed reindeer on the roof.
        \_ In CA, the HOA is SOL.  The law says you can have a dish.  I'm not
           sure how that applies to your situation with a common roof top,
           however.  Try the low tech audio transmission device and see what
           the vendor says about it.  BTW, the motd is a great place for
           medical and investment advice, too.
        \_ HOA can't disallow dishes but they can have rules you must follow
           if you want to install one.  Just ask the associations for the
           requirements if you want to install the dish.  Then make sure the
           vendor will follow those instructions.
        \_ There are tripod mounts.  I've seen people put them on balconies.
        \_ http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html  This is actually a FCC
           rule.  Basically if you have "private" area (balcony for
           example) then your HOA can not really prevent you.  Forget
           about public space such as the roof.
2005/11/16-18 [Computer/HW/Memory, Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:40627 Activity:nil
11/16   Your friend's kid's gadget is cooler than yours
        http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/17/technology/circuits/17pogue.html
        \_ That's awesome!
        \_ Wait how does it know what you clicked on? Don't you need
           to store the picture somewhere (in memory) and an input
           method (like a tablet)?
        \_ I got to play with one of these a couple of months ago before it
           came out.  It is pretty cool, although the one problem it has it the
           only feedback it can give is audio. Thus, it wouldn't be very easy
           to use in a classroom w/o disturbing everybody.  Also, in order to
           use it, you need to write on special paper that costs about $1 a
           sheet.  Its covered by very tiny dots so the pen knows where it is
           located on the paper at all times.  But I will say that their future
           plans for the Fly pen seem really cool (wireless sync and such).
           \_ It comes with headphones and paper is about 8 cents/sheet.
        \_ I think reading its manual alone will make me dizzy.
2005/10/31-11/1 [Computer/SW/Security, Computer/Networking] UID:40347 Activity:moderate
10/31   What's the best tool out there to crack WEP?
        \_ pissed that your neighbor finally enabled encryption?
           \_ Can't hack into the webcam in their daughter's bedroom?
               \_ mmm, daughter cam.
        \_ Auditor collection.  http://www.remote-exploit.org and make a donation
           to Max.  You owe me a coke.  -John
2005/10/30-31 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/Security] UID:40339 Activity:nil
10/29   I'm using ssh X port forwarding and just got a DLINK game router.
        Which port should I prioritize?
        \_ its all over ssh -- port 22
2005/10/23-24 [Computer/Networking] UID:40237 Activity:nil
10/23   Has anyone been to the PPP (Pacific Park Plaza) residential
        building? What are they like and what did you like/dislike about the
        place?
        \_ Yes.  It gets hot in the afternoons if you're facing the bay.
        \_ my friend owned an apartment there.  At the time I was in school,
           PPP was very very nice.  If you are a student, I would warn you
           that PPP is on the *OTHER* side of railroad track.  And there are
           times you will be stuck in the crossing for 20 minutes or more
           waiting for speedy (35mph) Union-Pacific freight train to cross.
           Many of my friend end up not going to classes as often, as he was
           much more comfortable in his apartment than the hassle of cross
           the railroad, finding parking, etc...
           \_ Couldn't you use the Powell St. overpass?
2005/10/21-24 [Computer/Networking] UID:40211 Activity:nil
10/21   Do wireless DSL routers let me turn off the wireless function when I'm
        only using the wired connections at the moment?  Thx.
        \_ dunno about automatically determing whether or not you are using
           wired only, but then when is it *you* using the wireless and not
           some hacker/leecher.  Most of them have a 'disable wireless' option
           from the admin menu though.
        \_ Most do, some don't.  The Belkin I have at home does not.
        \_ Yes, get a WRT54G.
2005/10/20-22 [Computer/Networking] UID:40202 Activity:low
10/20   There's an SMC 54Mbps Wireless Cable/DSL Broadband Router on sale at
        MicroCenter for $7.99.  Does anyone have and bad experience with this
        router?  I'm looking for a wired router for my two desktops at home,
        but this one is even cheaper than the wired routers.  TIA.
        \_ Dude, it's eight bucks.  -John
           \_ Yeah, I can dump it if it's bad.  But I'm new to networking, so
              if it causes incompatibility or other problems, I would't be able
              to tell whether it's the router or it's something else.
        \_ Look to http://newegg.com, Amazon, and http://cnet.com user reviews.
           http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833129017
        \_ I bought one for my parents.  Range seems fine, doesn't seem to
           crash or hang.  My parents are not very demanding users, and
           their needs are modest (no vpn, games, don't need ports open,
           no particular filtering, etc.).
        \_ On a related question, I have the netgear WG614 and it's a
           piece of junk. Netgear use to make good stuff, but the
           WG614 has so many problems. Anyone care to recommend a good
           router? My experience with Linksys was from the pre-cisco
           era, and back then netgear's stuff is way more stable than
           linksys. Has their stuff improved after being part of
           cisco? What about d-link?
           \_ I bought Linksys WRT54G recently and I am extremely pleased
              with it even though I didn't bother with installing customized
              Linux-based firmware on it. It is very stable, has all the
              features that I need and "just works" (tm). I was specially
              pleased that it keeps the NAT state properly for ssh sessions
              and doesn't kill them after a period of inactivity (lots of
              routers seem to do that, at very least with their earlier
              firmware versions)
              \_ You mean it runs for weeks/month without the need to
                 reset? If so I will seriously consider it...
                 \_ Yes. It has been working fine for six weeks so far but YMMV
                    specially since many such gadgets can have several
                    hardware revisions while keeping the same model name.
                    I am connecting with cat5 cable but my roommate are using
                    wireless (with WPA/shared key).
                    \_ Six weeks of uptime is not that long.  I have a d-link di-624
                       that's been running for several months.
2005/10/9-10 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:40027 Activity:very high
10/9    Dear MOTD, I'm looking to give a bunch of windows users access to a
        filesharing solution on a unix box.  They're not terribly technical,
        and have mainly browser access.  Is there some sort of open source
        web based toy running over SSL that mimicks what they would see on a
        windows fileshare, with drag&drop/copy&paste?  -John
        \_ WebDAV on Apache might work for you. I think that recent
           versions of Windows have native support.
        \_ Do you have some objection to SAMBA?
           \_ Sorry, should have specified--this is over the Internet.  -John
              \_ SAMBA works over the internet. Just install a VPN...
                 \_ any tips on VPNs?  (anything free out there that is
                    good?) - !op
                    \_ Well, you can just buy VPN enabled routers like the
                       one from Linksys. This makes VPN very easy and it
                       offloads the service onto the router. Alternatively
                       you can just configure Linux/*BSD to run IPSec. If
                       you don't like kernel plumbing too much you can use
                       Free S/WAN to do IPSec. It's not too hard once you
                       get the hang of it. You of course need a static IP
                       to make this happen.
                       \_ M0n0wall (http://www.m0n0.ch/wall is great for this,
                          especially on Soekris or PCEngines WRAP.  I can't
                          do this via VPN--has to be over a browser.   -John
2005/10/4-6 [Computer/Networking] UID:39976 Activity:nil
10/4    WiFi a basic human right in SF:
        http://tinyurl.com/cfc34 (news.yahoo.com)
        \_ Can you tell me why the city shouldn't offer WiFi to residents?
           \_ This is not an area where government should be involved. Are
              they going to offer cell phone service and cable tv, too?
              Who is going to pay for this?
              \_ Commercial ventures who will profit through advertising.
                 \_ The question is, why should government be involved in this?
                    \_ Why do we have public schools and libraries?  (I'm
                       almost certain your response will be "Yes, why do we?")
                       \_ Education is a basic right that everyone should
                          have. Wireless Internet access across an entire
                          city is not. I would support free WiFi in, say,
                          libraries.
                          \_ Your line is arbitrary.  As is Newsom's.  It's
                             a proposal.  How would you feel if he kept his
                             goal of "no taxpayer money used"?  Also, as a
                             commercial venture, there is no guarantee of its
                             status as a publicly available product.  If you
                             agree with Newsom that internet access should be
                             available to everyone for free, then a public
                             works project is the only way to go.
                             \_ It is not arbitrary. Libraries currently
                                provide Internet connections already. We
                                can debate whether this should be revoked
                                or not, but it is already a reality. There
                                is a difference between that and offering
                                free wireless to everyone in a city for
                                whatever purpose.
                                \_ I find your racist insinuations offensive.
                                \_ And that difference is...?  It would suck
                                   less?  You argue that the government has
                                   no place offering this service.  Then you
                                   say "oh, even though they do offer this
                                   service, offering it to more people in more
                                   locations at the same expenditure level is
                                   ... different."  Do you have a point?
                                   \_ Have you ever heard of a compromise?
                                      If I *had* to choose one or the
                                      other I would eliminate all free
                                      Internet access. However, I can see
                                      the value in being able to use it
                                      at a library. There is quite a
                                      difference in cost and scale between
                                      offering a kiosk somewhere and
                                      offering unlimited access to
                                      everyone for free. It won't be the
                                      same expenditure level or else
                                      industry would have already provided
                                      it. Look at it this way: providing
                                      free electricity for street lights
                                      is probably a good thing for
                                      government to do. It keeps citizens
                                      safe. Providing free electricity to
                                      everyone is not.
                                      \_ So you reject Newsom's framing of
                                         it as a right.  Do you live in the
                                         city?
                                         \_ I don't and I would oppose it
                                            if my city proposed it.
                                            \_ Fine.  Then shut up about SF.
                                               \_ Why? I can't have an
                                                  opinion? Other cities
                                                  are going to want to
                                                  mimic this.
                             goal of "no taxpayer money used"?
                                   less?
                 \_ Given the level of suckitude from wireless phone providers
                    of late, who seem more interested in offering gadgets and
                    adding customers than providing me with a decent signal
                    or an outgoing connection, I think I'm willing to give
                    socialism a shot on this one.
                  \_ If this is the case, then why does the government need
                     to be involved at all? Shouldn't the commercial ventures
                     setup everything?
        \_ A bit misleading, that headline.  The quote, from the article:
              "This is inevitable -- Wi-Fi. It is long overdue," Newsom
              told a news conference at San Francisco's City Hall. "It
              is to me a fundamental right to have access universally
              to information," he said.
           -geordan
           \_ In the context of discussing wifi citywide to say something like
              that it is hard to see him meaning anything other than what the
              OP headline reads.
              \_ That's why he's a politician.  He can make his words mean one
                 thing now, and make the same words mean a different thing when
                 people dig it up years later.
        \_ By basic right, did he mean "No one should be disallowed to have
           Wi-Fi access" or "The governments in the world should provide Wi-Fi
           access to everyone in the world who cannot afford it"?
        \_ "My intent is to have the taxpayers pay little or nothing,"
           then who's paying for it?
        \_ Why is Wifi a more basic human right than say, phone service?
           \_ It's not so much that it's a basic human right, it's that it
              can be provided pretty inexpensively to everyone.  It's also
              place-tied rather than person-tied, which makes a difference
              in terms of being able to provide the service universally.
              Don't look at it in terms of moral rights, look at it in terms
              of increasing quality of life for a good chunk of residents
              for not much money.  -tom
              \_ I actually have no problem with the city providing this
                 service, although we'll see if the end up biting off more
                 than they can chew.  I just think casting it as a "civil
                 rights issue" is a little over the top. -pp
                 \_ I agree, although there is some extent to which you could
                    argue social justice, since the poor are less likely to
                    be able to afford internet service, and thus are
                    disadvantaged in terms of access to governmental
                    resources as well as things like craigslist.  (Of course,
                    they'd still need a computer, and Newsome isn't trying
                    to address that issue).   -tom
                    \_ Just for the record, you can argue ANYTHING with
                       "social justice."  Social Justice != Civil Rights.
              \_ So you would cast it along the same lines as recreation
                 in the form of parks? Something not necessary but that
                 improves quality of life? I think the problem here is
                 that there is little incentive for industry to provide
                 parks, but there is a lot of incentive to provide
                 Internet access. Many hotels and other businesses are
                 offering it already. It seems government intervention
                 here is not really necessary and it *will* cost money
                 to administer, oversee, look over contracts and so on.
                 It will probably also cost industry money. I know I'd
                 cancel my DSL if I had it for free. What is the real
                 driver here if it's not a basic right - especially in
                 these uncertain economic times?
                 \_ The driver is that people want it, and it's cheaper and
                    more effective to do in bulk than individually.  That's
                    why Berkeley has AirBears, for example.  -tom
                        \- i think "enterprise wifi" may scale super-linearly
                           rather than sub-linearly because you cant just
                           use these super cheep WAPs. i think the enterprise
                           approach is more so you have a rational system
                           and enforse policy. rather than simple economies
                           of scale. does berkeley disallow people from doing
                           their own wireless? at lbl we do.
                           \_ The WAPs are more expensive, but you save more
                              in bandwidth; it's very inefficient to send
                              a full DSL line to every house in a neighberhood,
                              when the aggregate bandwidth required is, what,
                              the equivalent of two or three DSL lines?
                              Berkeley does not currently ban people from
                              using their own wireless, but it requires them
                              to be able to identify individuals using their
                              WAPs, and reserves the right to ban it later.
                              The campus doesn't have ubiquitous AirBears
                              yet, though there is some initiative in that
                              direction.  -tom
                    \_ People want a lot of things. That shouldn't matter
                       unless people want to pay for it. As for 'doing in
                       bulk' - cheaper for who and who loses out?
                       \_ The idea that government should only do things if
                          people want to pay for them is absurd.  I guess
                          we should just toss the whole road network.
                          It is cheaper to do, as in the total expense is
                          smaller, therefore no one has to lose out.  -tom
                          \_ People want roads and are willing to pay for
                             them in the form of taxes. If people want
                             WiFi then there needs to be a WiFi tax.
                             Selling it as 'free' is dangerous. Also, if WiFi
                             providers are put out of business by having
                             to compete with the US Government then someone
                             will lose out.
                             \_ The vast majority of road funding comes from
                                general funds, not from specific road taxes.
                                WiFi will probably not cost enough to warrant
                                its own tax.  -tom
                                \_ Re: roads, it doesn't matter which funds
                                   they come out of. They are coming out
                                   of taxes and people are fine with this.
                                   Gas tax, income tax, or whatever. How
                                   much will WiFi cost? Whatever it costs,
                                   something else will have to be cut or taxes
                                   will have to be raised. Won't there have
                                   to be a massive pipe for all the users?
                                   Also, what about the business this
                                   hurts?
                                   \_ I am not at all fine with the idea of
                                      taxes coming out of the general fund
                                      to pay for roads, but I don't get any
                                      choice in the matter.  Government is
                                      not a business and it's ridiculous to
                                      suggest that it should operate like
                                      one.  Also, government exists to serve
                                      the people, not the businesses.  -tom
                                      \_ Whoa there cowboy!  Are you trying to
                                         say that since roads aren't directly
                                         self funding via gas taxes/tolls/etc
                                         that we should only them to the
                                         extent that they can self fund? And
                                         would you apply that same concept to
                                         other things such as education?
                                         \_ No, I'm saying the exact opposite.
                                            Government doesn't exist to
                                            connect "buyers" (taxpayers) with
                                            "sellers" (services) based on
                                            how willing the buyers are to pay
                                            taxes for a particular service.
                                            If that were the case, the
                                            government wouldn't need to be
                                            involved, because businesses would
                                            be doing it on their own.  The
                                            government exists to provide
                                            services to the public which
                                            would not be equitably,
                                            efficiently, or sufficiently
                                            provided by a business model.  It
                                            is not hard to argue that WiFi
                                            can be considered such a service.
                                              -tom
                                            \_ Why is this different than e.g.
                                               cell phone service?
                                               \_ There are cities which
                                                  provide cell phone service
                                                  as a public utility,
                                                  but it's not free because
                                                  it costs a lot more to
                                                  provide cell phone service
                                                  than WiFi.  Also, cell phone
                                                  service isn't tied to a
                                                  location; it wouldn't make
                                                  much sense to provide cell
                                                  phones which only work
                                                  within the city limits. -tom
                                      \_ Wow. This last statement is
                                         controversial since people
                                         benefit from business. I'll leave
                                         that one alone for now. You might
                                         oppose roads coming out of the
                                         general fund, but the reality
                                         is that there are transportation
                                         taxes to pay for roads outside of
                                         the general fund. Take them out
                                         of the general fund and there
                                         would still be roads and people
                                         would likely vote to fund more.
                                         Will people vote to fund WiFi?
                                         Possibly, but this is TBD. It
                                         will not be free, no matter what
                                         the politicans say. Some other
                                         service will have to be cut.
                                         Fundamentally, I think WiFi is a
                                         luxury and should be one of the
                                         first things cut.
                                         \- i sure hope they do better job
                                            of it than the SF pub lib WEEB
                                            site. that WEEB site is so bad
                                            there had to be some kind of
                                            bureacratic or corrupt explanation.
                                            \- i suppose framing this as a
                                               "right" does dillute the notion
                                               of "rights" but not as much
                                               as BUSHCO has done by say
                                               torturing people and not giving
                                               them their day in court. it
                                               will be interesting to see if
                                               somebody insists the govt filter
                                               homosexuals accessing ass porn
                                               via the publicly subsidized
                                               net access. it does seem like
                                               this could potentially be a
                                               very broad semi-anon way on to
                                               the internet, which has many
                                               implications.
                                               net access.
2005/9/27-28 [Computer/Networking] UID:39889 Activity:low
9/27    Are there routers out there that do bandwidth limiting or
        protocol priority? I run a LAN in my house but my roomates
        seem to hog up connections making my SSH connection intolerable.
        \_ http://www.m0n0.ch/wall + http://www.pcengines.ch  -John
        \_ Think the term you are looking for is traffic shaping
        \_ Some manufacturers sell a "gaming router" which traffic shapes on
           its own.  Linksys WRT54G has basic traffic shaping features.  You
           can extend the feature by putting in one of the many third-party
           firmwares for it out there.  These would be the cheapest method.
           I'm currently running m0n0wall router package which also has
           traffic shaping, and would be free if you already have extra
           computer at your disposal.
        \_ r0x0rz!
           http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-15140-1368-x-x-x
           http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833127158
2005/9/26-28 [Computer/Networking] UID:39869 Activity:nil
9/24    Is there a reason why my wireless router is stuck at channel 6?
        I don't have an option to go to any other channel. ok thx.
        \_ Because you bought a crappy router?
        \_ You probably have a D-Link with "Extreme G".  You need to turn off
           whatever it calls the 154 Mbps mode ("Extreme G", I think).  The
           way this mode works is it uses multiple channels, thus they lock it
           on 6.  Turn it off and you can pick a different channel.  --dbushong
2005/9/16-17 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/WWW/Browsers, Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:39715 Activity:nil
9/16    How "dangerous" is it to be connecting to the internet via an
        "unsecured" network?
        \_ depends how secure your computer is.
           \- i think if you can turn your computer into an "edge" node
              meaning it runs basically no inbound listeners and you
              juse use ssh and a browser outbound, probably can be reaonably
              secure except for mobile code. of course you can get mobile
              code problem even if not connected to the net. you can checksum
              your OS on top of that.
        \_ if its windows box, you can expect it to be pwnz0red in minutes.
            Been there, done that,  reinstalled it...
            \_ If it's a properly patched Winbox with a decent personal
               firewall, no open bluetooth/wifi, and some basic stack
               hardening/permissions set, I wouldn't worry.  If you're taking
               a laptop to blackhat or some other place full of k1dd13z
               without backups, that's different.  -John
2005/8/31-9/2 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/Networking] UID:39389 Activity:nil
8/31    Today I declare 802.11x the best thing in the world. Why? Because
        it gives me new freedom to do whatever I want. I'm a typical married
        guy with a kid. Occasionally I need privacy. I need time and
        space to myself, and pretty much the only time where I can be by
        myself is when I drive to/from work, and when I'm in the bathroom.
        Sometime I have an urge and it's kind of hard to relieve myself down
        there without help. However, it is very convenient to take my laptop
        to the bathroom and porn surf. It's a lot better than taking
        Hustler or something obvious into the bathroom. With the laptop,
        it looks like you're working hard, and indeed, you're working hard
        to get pleasure that you once had. I love 802.11x. It has given
        me freedom and a new life. It has increased my quality of life by
        100X. I can't believe I didn't get it earlier. Get 802.11b/g/x!!!
        \_ Please please tell us you're not trying to surf porn and spank your
           monkey while driving to work.
           \_ Nah, he's just using the friendly neighborhood parking lot.
              Have you seen "Happiness?"  Remember the scene with the dad,
              the magazine, and the parking lot?
        \_ moan if you want to ......moan around the world
        \_ Please please tell us your name so that we won't help debug stuff on
           your laptop.
           your laptop without gloves.
        \_ You don't need 802.11x to play adult CDs on your laptop.
2005/8/29-30 [Computer/Networking] UID:39329 Activity:moderate 54%like:37400
8/29    What's the difference between a hub, a switch and a router?  Thx.
        \_ AFAIK, probably be corrected by someone:
           hub: Allows communication on a LAN with bandwith shared amongs all
                the nodes on the hub and maxing out at the max line speed.
           switch: Allows communication on a LAN with bandwith greater than
                the max line speed (point to point)
           router: Allows communication between 2 different networks
           \_ The original difference between a hub and a switch is that
              a hub was multicasting whereas a "switch" (originally called
               a "switching hub") had enough circuitry to route signals
               to the appropriate port and that port only in which the
               destination IP was located. Obviously a multicasting
               hub would slow down the whole network with unnecessary
               chatter. A "router" used to mean devices which would
               route traffice between different LANs, although these days
               the terms have devolved so that they are somewhat
               interchangeable (all hubs have essentially become switches,
               it's actually somewhat difficult to find a hub these days, and
               many switches have essentially become routers).
           \- in practice these are used some what randomly right now.
              like managed switches are actually pretty smart. but sort
              of at a functional level: hub turns one network drop into a
              place you can plug in multiple devices. switch: sort of a
              set of point to point links making up a subnet based on
              arp/mac, and a router is what knows about "routing", i.e.
              IP addresses.
           \_ Hub: a multiport repeater, extends an ethernet "wire" to
                   multiple machines.
              Switch: a multiport bridge, separates ethernet collision
                   domains
              Router: communication interface between different IP broadcast
                   domains
              Layer 3 switch:  Basically a router with a built-in switch. -John
              \_ I see.  Currently I have Yahoo DSL and one PC at home.  The PC
                 connects to the only ethernet port on the DSL modem.  If I
                 want to add a second PC, I should buy a hub, connect the hub
                 to the DSL modem, and connect both PCs to the hub.  Is that
                 correct?  Thx.  -- OP
                 \_ Not exactly. The hub is not smart enough to translate
                    between the DSL modem and your PCs, and your modem will
                    balk at two PCs trying to talk to it at the same time.
                    Get a four-port router, place that between the modem
                    your PCs, and configure your router to make the connection
                    (i.e., get the IP address and serve DHCP to your PCs).
                    \_ What?  What DSL modem doesn't also function as a mini-
                       router?  The DSL modem port isn't magic.  It is pumping
                       out bog standard ethernet packets.  --boggle!
                       \_ Yahoo! SBC DSL is PPPoE. The router needs to
                          make the connection. The person above is
                          correct. Get a hub and place it between the
                          router and the modem. I guess this guy needs a
                          router, too. It's not the only way, but it's the
                          best and easiest way. In fact, many DSL routers
                          are also hubs so he only needs to buy one piece
                          of equipment.
                          \_ You failed to recognize DRIPPING sarcasm.  Your
                             penance is to watch George Carlin until your
                             brain melts
        \_ Nice nuke.  Hub = multiport repeater, extension of one ethernet
           collision domain to many wires/hosts.  Switch = multiport bridge,
           separates ethernet collision domains (when you hear that ethernet
           is contention-based, it means you have traffic from more hosts
           colliding on one "wire", slowing shit down.)  Router = separates
              \- this is getting less true *in practice* with gigE. it makes
                 life a lot more complicated to run half-dup and is largely
                 file a more more complicated to run half-dup and is largely
                 req'ed because of IEEE politics. do you know anybody running
                 1/2 dup gigE? see e.g. wl.20050819. do you think the person
                 asking the question know what things like "bcast domains"
                 mean?
                 \_ He asked for definitions.  The above are correct, _and_
                    try to answer his question (note: "try").  I don't
                    know anyone running gigE half duplex; I also don't know
                    anyone running gigE off a DSL line.  Hence: chill.  -John
                 \- BTW, in general there are a lot of weird performance
                    hacks in these networking devices so often they dont
                    operate the way you think they might. like some switches
                    start forwarding a packet before it arrives completely ...
                    it starts parsing the "front edge" header info ... so in
                    some cases part of the packet is already "in flight"
                    to the destination before the box "relizes" the checksum
                    has failed. anyway, this makes for all kind of weird
                    unintuitive behaviors, like why on some cases switching
                    between 10 and 100mbit can be slower than 10-10. etc.
                    a classic early example of this were the attacks on
                    cheep switches to get them to go into "repeat" mode
                    so you could sniff some extra traffic in a "switched"
                    environment. and mcast makes things a lot more complicated.
           IP broadcast domains and communicates transparently between them.
           A layer 3 switch is basically a router with a built-in switch, and
           a firewall is basically a bridge/switch or router with filtering
           logic.  In response to your question above, a hub will do fine.  I
           have no idea what the responder was on about with your DSL router
           (it's a router, not a modem, dammit) getting confused.  If you want
           higher speeds getting the PCs to talk to each other, get a switch,
           but you won't gain anything on your Internet connection.  Just make
           sure your DSL router (he's correct about the PPPoE, STFW) can
           accept connections from more than 1 client.  -John
           \_ The DSL modem and the DSL router are two separate devices.
              He said he has a modem. He never said if he has a router
              or not.
              \_ Rereading I guess you are objecting to the 'DSL modem'
                 terminology and realize this. He can do PPPoE from two
                 computers, but it would be easier to buy a router and
                 have it do the PPPoE instead of mere a hub.
              \_ Sorry, I have no idea whether I have a DSL modem or a DSL
                 router.  I signed up for the $19.95/mo plan in 3/05.  On my
                 SBC phone bill they charged me $99 and gave me a rebate for a
                 "DSL Modem Package".  So I always thought the black DSL thing
                 is a DSL modem.  I'll check the the labels on it and see if it
                 says anything.  -- OP
                 \_ OK, to be a bit less pedantic about it, generally, the way
                    DSL lines are implemented is by a device which has an
                    RJ11/45 port on one side doing "phone stuff" and RJ45
                    on the other side doing "ethernet stuff".  A "modem" is a
                    device which encodes digital signal in an analog sound
                    carrier.  Also, almost all DSL devices I have seen "route"
                    information between different IP subnets, hence the term
                    "router" (a router doesn't have to have ethernet on both
                    sides.)  This in almost no way affects your situation, just
                    trying to be informative.  I'm just a bit anal about
                    terminology.  -John
              \_ from a technical standpoint, most people use DSL routers and
                 know one class of routers as modems.  a true DSL modem would
                 provide what is essentially a serial bit stream interface,
                 or possible multiple streams with ASIC demultiplexors.
2005/8/11-13 [Computer/Networking] UID:39093 Activity:low
8/10    I've been getting the following message
            nslookup: Can't open nslookup: No such file or directory
        dozens of times in my .procmailrc log file since the new disk was
        installed.  All mail seems to be delivered fine.  Anyone have
        any ideas what this is about?
        \- you're not trying to run nslookup in any dotfiles that might be
           sourced, are you?
        \_ I looked more closely.  I have some stuff I got from I don't
           even know where.  It's a spambouncer script that I called from
           .procmailrc.  There are the following lines:
                :0
                * NSLOOKUP ?? ^^^^
                { NSLOOKUP="nslookup -timeout=5 -retry=2" }
           To be honest, I'm not even sure what this does, but it didn't
           give me any problems before.  But in the last 6.5 days, I've
           gotten 166 occurances of it in my log file.  -op
           \- why dont you use an absolute path for nslookup
              \_ because, to be honest, I don't even know what it's
                 doing or what the absolute path is.  Can anyone out
                 there educate me?  -op
                 \_ Change
                      "nslookup
                    to
                      "/usr/sbin/nslookup
                 \_ Looks like it's trying to reject mail from machines
                    with invalid hostnames.
                    \_ What would happen if I just removed those lines?
                       Also, is it likely that each time I get the error
                       that an email is not going through? -op
                       \_ Nothing will happen if you remove them.  You
                          probably shouldn't have stuff in your .procmailrc
                          that you don't understand.  -tom
2005/8/8 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:39038 Activity:moderate
8/8     any equivalent to arp on soda?
        what about tracert (dos)? thanks
        \_ Hrm, maybe, /usr/sbin/arp?
           and traceroute or mtr
                \_ sadly, typing arp didnt work, should we put
                   /usr/sbin/ path in .cshrc?
                   \_ No.  Do some research on why things in /usr/sbin aren't
                      in /usr/bin.  People are free to add it on their own.
                      \_ any urls for the clueless? google didn't turn
                         up anything for me :(
                         \_ Googling for "introduction to unix" without quotes
                            turned up approx 7,820,000 results for me.  Or you
                            can look for the Nemeth book.  -John
                            \_ i know how to use unix fairly well. i
                               just want to know why things in sbin
                               aren't in bin.
                           \_ funny thing is that arp/traceroute used to
                              be in /usr/etc/
                              \_ On freebsd?
                                \_ no. on SODA about 2 years ago
                                   \_ Seriously doubt it.  Maybe on the sequent
                                      but that's like 7 years ago now.
        \_ tom holub, you have my permission to flame this newbie.
2005/7/29-8/2 [Computer/Networking] UID:38873 Activity:moderate
7/28    Anybody have actual details on the Cisco IOS vulnerability?  I know
        they're trying to quash it but with 'information wants to be free' I
        figured a bunch of people must know about it.  All I've heard so far
        is that it's a remote heap overflow and Cisco's had a patch for months
        but doesn't want to roll it out till their next release date.  I also
        heard a rumor that there's a vulnerability where the attacker can
        damage the hardware, though I'd suspect they just mean firmware.
        \- i have deleted my comments. pls dont restore them.
        \- if i know you, you can mail me with specific questions --psb
        \- if i know you, you can mail me with specific questions.
           it is my opinion it is not an especially interesting problem,
           just large in magnitude. there are more serious problems
           in the nature of of internet routing as typically implemented
           today which can be exploited to "bring the net to a halt" and
           cant be fixed with a code patch. if the "damage the hardware"
           comment refers to what i think, it is pretty much a red herring.
           if i take over your solaris box, i can "damage the hardware" too.
           i guess this bring new meaning to "8 fold path".
           just large in magnitude and a lot of work to fix. there are more
           serious problems in the nature of of internet routing as
           typically implemented today and tcp/ip which can be exploited to
           "bring the net to a halt" and cant be fixed with a code
           patch. just like knowledge of how to "defeat" congestion
           control ... well known but the stack hacks are not readily
           available as far as i know. if the "damage the hardware"
           comment refers to what i think it does, it is pretty much a
           red herring. if i take over your solaris box, i can "damage
           the hardware" too.
           \- actally let me revise: the attack vector isnt interesting
              (old idea ... ios heap attacks) but where you go from there is
              interesting, but only so because what you are sitting on is
              potentially a core router. not to say lynn didnt put in a lot
              or work and cleverness to understand the weird MEMORY
              archieteure of a router. the best of mudge, or SD are a lot
              cooler, also you may wish to see Mr. FX's discussion of
              the arch of IOS ... a router is not a "regular" computer.
        \_ Wired News has a bit of a story about this, including links to the
           researcher's report with a bit more details.  see http://www.wired.com
           \- I have put some comments at ~psb/MOTD/CiscoComment
        \_ There was a lot of discussion on this on the DailyDave (STFW)
           mailing list recently.  I have the actual presentation, so mail
           me @zog.net if you haven't seen it already.  -John
           mailing list recently, including, I believe, a few links to
           shellcode.  Drop me a mail @zog.net if you want me to forward the
           archives to you (I don't think it's on http://immunitysec.com yet.)  -John
        \_ There has been a lot of discussion on NANOG about this in the
           last two or three days. Cisco has issued a security advisory
           stating that it is a IPv6 Bug:
             http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20050729-ipv6.shtml
             http://lin.kz/?e0pw3
            http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20050729-ipv6.shtml
           More information about Lynn's presentation is available at:
             http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article131.php
             http://lin.kz/?6bjoj
            http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article131.php
           The import of the presentation seems to be that IOS is an OS
           and is vulnerable to buffer overflow attacks like any other OS:
             http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/2005-07/msg00991.html
             http://lin.kz/?bv693
            http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/2005-07/msg00991.html
           You may want to read these NANOG postings for more information:
             http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg09799.html
             http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg09914.html
             http://http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/2005-07/msg00981.html
             http://lin.kz/?3nqo6
             http://lin.kz/?9j2sj
             http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg09799.html
             http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg09914.html
             http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/2005-07/msg00981.html
2005/7/17-19 [Computer/Networking] UID:38664 Activity:nil
7/17    Got any recommendations for the WiFi service(s) in the South Bay?  My
        main concerns are security (I am a WiFi idiot.  Just want to make sure
        that my WiFi transmittions are secure.  Is this possible?), stable
        connections once I am connected, and widely available.  Some of the
        Starbucks branches have been referring me to T-Mobile, but the T-Mobile
        does not seem to have a full list of the available WiFi spots it
        seviced in it's map
          http://locator.t-mobile.com/locator.aspx?searchType=hotspotLocations
        A simple search of
          hotspot "south bay"
        at Yahoo! reveals quite a bit of hotspot locations provided by T-Mobile
        and other providers and also places with free WiFi access.
        \_ No wifi connection is ever 100% secure.  You should rely on SSL,
           IPSEC, SMTP+TLS, SSH, imaps/spop and a decent personal firewall or
           packet filter if you are concerned about security.  If you're
           paranoid, consider a small firewall+VPN device at home that you
           connect through.  -John
2005/7/7 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/Security] UID:38458 Activity:nil 80%like:38453
7/6     Steal someone else's wife, go to jail:
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/techbits_wi_fi_theft
2005/7/7-8 [Computer/Networking] UID:38453 Activity:nil 80%like:38458
7/6     Steal someone else's wifi, go to jail:
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/techbits_wi_fi_theft
2005/6/29-30 [Computer/Networking] UID:38361 Activity:nil
6/29    To the person that has recommended m0n0wall before: I just ordered a
        WRAP to play around.  Have you tried out pfsense?  It's based on
        m0n0wall, but uses FBSD 6 with pf and ALTQ among other features.
        Doesn't necessarily focus on imbeded platform(although they do support
        it to a degree.)  Just want your basic opinion on it if you're exposed
        to it.
        \_ (That was me)  I had a peek at pfsense, as we were evaluating
           m0n0 and equivalent for a project.  I get the feeling that pfsense
           is neat, but very very immature.  Most environments I know have no
           need for altq, and we are talking with Manuel (m0n0 "author) about
           implementing CARP and a few other toys on it.  I also had the
           impression that pfsense was more meant towards bigger, buffer
           hardware--if you have the possibility of running a gnarly multi-
           function network security box, you probably want more functionality
           than m0n0 can deliver.  We were also looking into things like
           snort-inline and clamav on the m0n0, but came to the conclusion
           that it would be pretty unstable.  -John
2005/6/29-30 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/Security] UID:38359 Activity:low
6/30    I don't want to crack WEP, but I'd like to learn more about it.
        For example, is it a link layer encryption or is it tied to the
        physical layer? If it is link layer encryption (something built
        on top of link layer), then is it possible to "sniff" sequences
        of packets on a regular computer then brute force crack it? Does it
        take a super computer to do it or can anyone with a regular
        laptop do it?
        \_ go read http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article118.php - danh
        \_ Looking at how some of the crackers work is a great way of
           learning how WEP works.  Have a look at Auditor at
           http://www.remote-exploit.org for good tools and docs.  -John
           \- This may be more relevant to people with a greater interest
              in wireless security than the OP but i looked at draft of
              a book on wireless sec by william arbaugh of university of
              maryland [i forgot the other authors, see AMAZONG] which
              is going to be more indepth and theoretical than random
              "how to" web pages, but is more practical than a berkeley-type
              textbook. oh it looks like the book is out now:
              http://csua.org/u/ck2 anyway, if that is what you are
              lookig for, the book is decent (looks like it is 2yrs old
              an unrevised, so may be lean on some recent things and
              cover some things that died on the vine). ok tnx.
2005/6/27-28 [Computer/Networking] UID:38310 Activity:nil
6/27    A big win for cable companies:
        http://money.cnn.com/2005/06/27/technology/broadband_ruling
2005/6/20-23 [Computer/Networking, Computer/HW/Drives, Computer/HW/Memory] UID:38215 Activity:nil
6/20    I'm having problems transfering pics between my hard drive
        and the memory card.  Soemtimes it works, sometimes it gives
        I/O error or other error messages.  Is the problem likely due to a
        corrupt memory card, the cable I'm using, or something inside my
        computer?
        \_ Though the motd may often seem prescient, you might have better
           luck debugging this yourself by testing the components separately,
           and seeing if any one component causes the errors to recur. -dans
2005/6/17-20 [Computer/Networking] UID:38176 Activity:nil
6/17    Dumb question, in Linux, how do you find out your current IP?
        \_ ifconfig
        \_ nslookup <hostname>
2005/6/15-17 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/Security] UID:38143 Activity:low
6/15    Wanna have WiFi access on transbay buses, free for you and free for AC
        Transit?  Voice your support by taking the survey:
        http://www.actransit.org/news/articledetail.wu?articleid=d5f2ff4a
        \_ If they combine it with GPS so I know where the buses are...
           \_ I put GPS and a coffee service in the suggestions box.
              \_ It sure will get your responses ignored.
           \_ Said the suicide bomber...
              \_ I hope this is facetious, and if not, I hope you never ever
                 get your hands on a top secret DHS triple grade red
                 classified bus schedule.
        \_ I already get this using my PDA GPRS/EDGE/UTMS cell with laptop
           You are wasting money.
           \_ Didn't I mention it'd be free?
2005/6/13-15 [Computer/Networking] UID:38116 Activity:nil
6/13    I'd like to add some link redundancy to my home network.  Is it
        possible to use Comcast cable and a dsl connection to do this?
        How could I configure this network?  Ideally I would like it to
        balance traffic across both when both are available.
        \_ you could set up a bsd or linux box with three nic's
           as a firewall in front of your router.  not sure how
           complicated the load balancing would be, though.
        \_ Running BGP on two Soekris or PCEngines boxes might do it.
           Depending on how much redundancy you need, you might want to make
           two firewalls failover with CARP or something similar.  -John
           \_ Don't you need BGP support from your ISP?
              \_ I'm not 100% sure on this--I thought you could set up
                 interior BGP to provide some cockamamy load balancing
                 and failover semblance, although I may be mistaken.  I will
                 check it out, though.  I have heard from people who've done
                 just what op proposed, I just don't remember how they
                 accomplished it.  -John
        \_ You could do this with a Linksys RV042 VPN router (just ignore the
           VPN functionality)
           \_ This is a pricey router.  Can I do the same thing with a modified
              WRT54G?  I think what I need is multipath routing.
2005/6/13-14 [Computer/Networking] UID:38093 Activity:nil
6/12    Would a 5.4V rated power adapter be bad for a device (actually a
        dlink router) rated for using 5v input?  The current limit
        is fine and it works for the time being, but I am wondering if it
        might shorten the life of the router or blow it out all of a sudden.
        I am asking this because I am travelling to a 220v country and have a
        hard time finding an appropriate 5v adapter.
        \_ some of the guys told me the tolerance for computer electronics
           is +/-5%.  Anything deviates from that 5% is risky, especially
           voltage.
           \_ Yep, +/- 5%.  You worry about speed on the undervoltage side,
              heat on the overvoltage side, and bad design practices on both
              sides.  That said, an additional 3% will probably just disappear
              in the margins anyway and will not have any real effect on the
              preformance or long-term reliability of your device.
2005/6/3-6 [Computer/Networking] UID:37964 Activity:kinda low
6/3     Wireless question:
        My Mac laptop stays connected all of the time, while my PCs (one
        laptop with a PCMCIA card and one desktop) constantly drop
        connections. If I reset the card the connection comes back up
        instantly. Signal strength is good. I have gone through 2 routers
        and multiple cards on the desktop with the same results. This
        happens with both 802.11b and 802.11g. Why does it do this and why
        does the Powerbook always work? The routers are a D-Link and a
        Netgear, BTW. One PC runs Win2K and other is Win XP, FWIW. I don't
        know what to try next, but this is annoying!
        \_ I know most 802.11b Prism 2.5 chipset cards out there need their
           firmware upgraded to behave better, but I don't know about your
           problems with 802.11g.  For some reason, most 802.11b prism cards
           come with the older firmware.
        \_ Maybe your cards suck. I know I've never had good experiences
           with d-link.
           \_ I tried a D-Link and a Linksys card. The laptop has an
              Orinoco and does the same thing.
              \_ I'm not the D-Link hater above, but I've had nothing but
                 trouble from D-Link access points.  YMMV.
                 \_ As I said, I have the same problem with a
                    Netgear WAP.
                    \_ I've never used Netgear wireless hw, so I can't comment
                       on that part. -pp
                       \_ So then what are you comparing D-Link to?
                          \_ Linksys.  I have never had problems with Linksys
                             APs, with several different brands of wirless
                             cards.
        \_ Try a Senao NL-2511MP Plus MiniPCI if you can get one.  200MW!
           W00t!  -John
           \_ I want a seano NL-2511MP Plus, with extra trouser ferrets
              \_ Alas, you'd need more power; I think Seano's out of range. :(
2005/6/2-3 [Computer/Networking] UID:37941 Activity:moderate
6/2     I've been to many places and almost every place I go to have
        802.11b/g. However, almost all of them have protected access,
        which I presume they use because they don't want people stealing
        their bandwidth. So here is one idea I think will really
        revolutionize 802.11X... an option in the router that allows you to
        specify the percentage of unprotected bandwidth you are willing to
        share, while allowing maximum bandwidth for yourself. For example,
        I may allow 1-5% of my bandwidth to be shared by any random bozo
        while keeping 95% to myself. By doing so I hope others would do the
        same so that everyone can use 802.11X anywhere. I think this
        Socialist model benefits a lot more people than the current
        selfish model. What do you guys think?
        \_ I've wondered about that myself, but the liability issues
           might be a problem? (e.g. hacker uses that 5% to launch attacks
           anonymously?)
           \_ I treat wireless as "insecure" and have completely different
              rules for that link.  My server has three IP addresses, BTW.
              One can always limit the ports that wireless client can access.
              Limiting it to SSH port, for example, would be fairly safe.
        \_ It's not necessarily to stop bandwidth hosing.  For a long time
           (and probably still) spammers would hunt for WAPs to hijack.
           It's a liability to run an open WAP.
           \_ Holy crap!  Do you mean that by having an open WAP and monitoring
              the traffic I might actually be able to physically catch a
              spammer?  I like this idea <reaches for nunchucks>.
              \_ Indeed!  <reaches for M1911A1>.
        \_ The FREE MARKET sets the price of wireless access at zero in
           most of the coffee shops where I live.
           \_ you live in coffee shops?
        \_ I think it is not very hard to find open, free WAPs.
        \_ Actually, this is already supported by some of the enhanced WRTG54
           firmware out there.  If you wanted to revolutionize 802.11x, write
           a tool which allows people running consumer OSes (i.e. Windows and
           OS X) to perform the following with a single click:
           1) wepcrack closed network
           2) Connect to freshly opened network
           3) Act as a second level gateway for others in the vicinity.
           -dans
           \_ So is there any new wireless routers with customizable firmwares
              other than WRTG54?  I've been thinking of scrapping my Celeron
              firewall box and replace it with a small device.  But I'd like
              to have some features like logging(probably to a syslog server),
              QoS, etc.  I'm not against WRTG54, nor do I know anything about
              it.  I just want to know if there are any newer products that
              I should research as well.  Also, any good pointers on WRTG54
              websites?
              websites? - !op #13
              \_ Yes.  I keep posting this--M0n0wall running on a WRAP board.
                 M0n0 (http://m0n0.ch/wall is free, and the WRAPs (from
                 http://pcengines.ch are cheap and incredibly robust and
                 flexible.  Drop a mini PCI card in there to turn the firewall
                 into a wireless router.  Quite a few people (including some
                 very top-end security guys I know) actually do what you are
                 suggesting--open x% of wifi bandwidth to unauthenticated
                 clients.  Generally this is done with a VPN to the wifi
                 router, though.  What most people don't realize is that it's
                 not _that_ simple to crack WEP/WPA keys, although it can be
                 done with time and the right tools.  Have a look at the
                 Auditor collection (http://www.remote-exploit.org for some
                 more info on this.  -John
                 \_ So I picked up a WRT54GS last night.  I haven't played with
                    it much, but it doesn't look like sveasoft adds a whole
                    lot.  Definitely not "equivalent of products costing
                    hundreds or thousands of dollars."  Looks all the firewall
                    stuff is still done by iptables.  Since my discovery of
                    PF, I'd actually prefer M0n0, but the WRAP board you
                    mentioned doesn't seem to be a whole lot more advantageous
                    hardware-wise to the WRT54G.  I don't know how a 486 200MHz
                    compares to the MIPS based 200MHz processor in the WRT54G.
                    Thanks for the pointer though.  I still have 29 days to
                    play with other firmwares before I can return the device
                    if I don't like it. - !op #13
                    \_ Like I said elsewhere, the main value I see from the
                       sveasoft firmware is letting you boost the signal to
                       full HW specs from 27mw.  The WRAP is not that special;
                       it's a nice, robust, cheaper, faster soekris.  By
                       virtue of it basically being a PC it's extremely
                       flexible, though.  If you like pf, wait for M0n0 to
                       go back to 5.x FreeBSD-based--he had to go back to
                       4.10 due to some driver probs.  -John
              \_ Apologies, the model number is actually WRT54G.  The reason
                 folks hack on those is because they run Linux.  The most
                 common 3rd party firmware for the WRT54G is by a company at:
                 http://www.sveasoft.com
                 It costs money, but I'm told it's worth it.  Many wireless
                 routers are quite similar internally to the WRT54G.  Also,
                 when you talk about newer products, its important to realize
                 that the WRT54G has been getting frequent regular firmware
                 updates, which you can download and flash to get the latest
                 greatest features.  If you don't mind spending a fair amount
                 of cash and want to take the really DIY approach, check out
                 Soekris which makes small form factor glorified 486's that
                 are highly expandable/configurable. -dans
                 \_ I'm not looking for an ultimate router.  I just want to
                    replace my big box with something that's smaller, less
                    heat, and less power-consumption for my home, without
                    the router being a complete brain-dead.  Thanks for the
                    pointer.
                    pointer. - !op #13
                    \_ See above.  The Sveasoft firmware for the WAP-54G is
                       (was?) free and works a charm.  -John
                       \_ The older versions are free, but through a
                          Clintonesque interpretation of what the word
                          'distribute' means, they un-GPL'd the later versions.
                          Out of spite some people put newer versions in
                          bittorrent occasionaly.
                          \_ I recall a shitfest about the source not being
                             GPL'ed, and the Sveasoft guy basically saying,
                             "na na a boo boo, so don't use it."  The only
                             real advantage I saw for the casual user was
                             the 84 (?) mw power boost.  -John
                             \_ You can boost it up to 284 from the default
                                of 28.  But I believe there are plenty of
                                other firmwares that are completely free that
                                can do this. - !op #13
                                \_ I think my wap-54g only does 84.  Can you
                                   give me some pointers to other firmwares
                                   if you've tried any?  -John
                                   \_ I haven't tried it, but many people
                                      seem to like HyperWRT, whose focus is
                                      to boost the radio:
                                      http://www.hyperwrt.org - !op #13
        \_ Capitalist Wireless - sharing 0% of your wireless for free.
             Only those who pay can access wireless
           Socialist Wireless - sharing 10% of your wireless for free.
             EVERYONE gets something, but those who pay get 9X better access.
           Communist Wireless - sharing 100% of your wireless for free.
             Everyone gets something, but no one gets a premium access.
           Fascist Wireless - the government tracks down every single WAP.
           \_ 'Socialist Worker' Wireless - Mommy and Daddy pay for wireless.
2005/5/29-31 [Computer/Networking] UID:37883 Activity:nil
5/29    I'm sure there are people here using SBC DSL using linux
        I assume it is not too difficult to hack around their lame
        software and make it an "always on" connection.  Correct?
        Is it any easier/harder if I go with their wireless setup vs.
        the standard??  Info appreciated.
        \_ Never done wireless without using a router, but there is a Linux
           PPPoE client. Why not just get a router? They are so cheap these
           days. If you want wireless you can get a wireless router.
           \_ I have wireless(dlink) and wired routers(surestream dsl modem)
              I'm just confirming that I won't have (much) of an issue if I
              don't have a windows box to install their software on.
              The people I've seen with yahoo-sbc dsl have
              "had" to install software on their system and have to
           \_ I have wireless and wired routers.  I'm just confirming that
              I won't have (much) of an issue, if I don't have a windows
              box to install their software on.  I don't know how their
              system is set up, but I know that the people I've seen with
              it they have installed software on their system and have to
              click a stupid little "login" button on their desktop in
              order to log in.  I assume that i will be able to STFW for
              ways around that, but figured someone here could confirm that
              and let me know if it made any difference what hardware I got
              from them (e.g. whatever they ship with their wireless pkg.
              vs. whatever they ship with their standard package).
              \_ router keeps it alive, machines can go down
              \_ That software they install is just a PPOE client. You don't
                 even need it on Windows XP since it has a built in PPOE client.
                 Just get a router though, makes things a lot easier.
              \_ there's a web-url to activate your DSL login name/account
                 so you don't need to load their software which is just
                 there to ensure you have the right hardware specs, the
                 PPPoE software and their yahoo-branded commercial shit.
                 But yeah, get a frigging router, save you headaches.
                 Don't try no "hacks" or linux crapola. Don't get fancy.
                 Make sure you get their traditional dsl modem, not the
                 2wire option, unless u know what u r doing.
2005/5/23-25 [Computer/Networking] UID:37799 Activity:nil
5/23    Has anyone played with carp/pfsync on OpenBSD? I have a simple
        two firewall setup, one fw running 3.6, the other running 3.7.
        Right now the 3.6 system is the "master" and everything seems
        to work properly except that I can't ping the virtual ip from
        the master system. Any ideas?
        \_ I've seen this with a lot of virtual IP/failover/load balancers.
           Can you ping it from a box on the external local segment?  -John
           \_ A box on the external segment can ping the two fw, but
              they can't ping each other. I can't seem to figure out
              why.
              Anyway, I figured out the original problem, apparently
              not being able to ping the virtual ip from the master
              was a bug in 3.6. thanks.
2005/5/13-15 [Computer/Networking] UID:37669 Activity:low
5/13    Broadband over gas lines:
        http://www.nethercomm.com/headline2.htm
        \_ Inexhaustable energy sources and unlimited bandwidth are two things
           that always exist in infinite quantities in the future.
           \_ In the infinite future.
        \_ Will I cause interference if I fart while surfing the web?
        \_ subterranean wireless broadband communication. that's a new one.
2005/5/12-15 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/Networking] UID:37661 Activity:low
5/12    Hi, I run windows Xp home edition on my laptop.  It's hooked up
        to my DSL router via ethernet most of the time.  When I want to
        just use the laptop without a net connection, the laptop sometimes
        locks up and becomes really really slow.  To the point where I can't
        even right-click on the network icon to disable it temporarily.
        I can't even do Ctrl-Alt-Delete to bring up the task manager.
        Is there a way to fix this?  That is, just make it stop trying to
        reconnect to a network so aggressively.  Thanks.
        \_ Well did you narrow down the causes? Have you tried
           "ipconfig /release" and see if something's up? Also, I'd suggest
           you "unmount" all network drives as that hangs XP a lot.
           Oh, and stop reading alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.orientals
           \_ Uhm, no. Doing an ipconfig /release isn't the correct answer
              to this problem. I believe the answer lies within your internet
              connection settings. As you did not specify how exactly you
              connect to the internet, there's no way for anyone to really
              help you. If you are connecting through a router that does
              the PPOE for you then a disconnection from the net should not
              cause a slowdown like this. Perhaps you have a bridge of some
              sort in your network config. It may also be hardware related...
              Anyway, this is a very peculiar problem.
              \_ that is what I have.  DSL modem does the PPPoE and my
                 net connection is just a plain ethernet link that does
                 DHCP.  No fancy stuff.  I do have zone alarm running though.
                 When this happens I can't bring up task manager to see
                 which process is running, so it's hard to troubleshoot this.
                    - the op
                    \_ Then try the following, hit F8 during the bootup
                       process, then select safe mode with networking.
                       If safe mode with networking appears to run fine
                       then there is something wrong with one of the
                       programs you are running during startup. Try disabling
                       zone alarm if that's the case and see if that solves
                       your problem. Also, as below, make sure your machine
                       is clean. Malware will exhibit this behavior.

        \_ Reboot your computer with the Ethernet plugged in.  Wait.
           Run netstat -ano from a command prompt.  Check if you have
           lots of outgoing sessions.  Then install Ad-Aware and Spybot to
           check if you have adware.
        \_ [80 columns please.]
           Hope this helps. - jthoms
2005/5/10 [Computer/Networking] UID:37612 Activity:nil
5/10    What is the cisco command to reboot the server after X minutes
        (if not cancelled) if I screw something up and get disconnected and
        do not cancel it? (yes yes, my google fu is weak) -crebbs
2005/5/3 [Computer/Networking, Uncategorized/Spanish] UID:37482 Activity:nil
5/2     tengo un teclado sin hilos de Apple, uno de los jobbies de Bluetood.
        tends para puh'da' momentáneamente la conexión mucho - 'estrañamente
 t'sucede cada vez que me siento en mi escrito'io. ¿Es este no'mal?
        plum un protocolo del asno?
        \_ es su teclado que entra powersaveel uso del
        \_ ah' un wahtahmellunie y él del bluetood de DLINK es roca-so'lido. No
           notice que es sin hilos. Los módulos más viejos de DLink BT
           but los más nuevos roca.  Sheeeiit.
           \_ picosegundo, dig dis: También tengo un cubo accionado del usb que el
              into.el
        \_ ah' apenas consiguió un mac mini y lo tiene conectado vía el
           USB. Nunca tengo un problema, 'septo cuando me voyel
           room para demasiado largo y la pantalla entra modo del
           o' cualquia' mac lo llama.  Sheeeiit. Entonces tengo que empujar el botón
           back de mi computado'a y la espuh' tienen gusto de 15 segundos
 t'detrás encendun dido. ¿Quizás usted tiene interferencia? Es su
           right al lado de su LAN 802.11? ¿Cómo sobre su teléfono?
2005/5/2-4 [Computer/Networking] UID:37455 Activity:nil
 5/2    I have an Apple Wireless keyboard, one of the Bluetooth jobbies.  It
        tends to momentarily lose connection a lot - oddly enough, it seems
        to happen every time I sit at my desk.  Is this normal?  Is bluetooth
        just an ass protocol?
        \_ it's your keyboard going into powersave
        \_ I use a DLINK bluetooth thingie and it is rock-solid. I don't even
           notice that it's wireless. The older DLink BT modules had problems,
           but the newer ones rock.
           \_ ps: I also have a powered usb hub that the BT module is plugged
              into.
        \_ I just got a Mac Mini and have it connected via the DLINK bluetooth
           USB connector. I never have a problem, except when I leave the
           room for too long and the screen goes into hybernate mode,
           or whatever Mac calls it. Then I have to push the button on
           back of my computer and wait like 15 seconds for everything
           to turn back on. Perhaps you have interference? Is your bluetooth
           right next to your 802.11 LAN? How about your phone?
2005/4/27-28 [Computer/Networking] UID:37391 Activity:nil
4/27    need to get new dsl service, who provides the cheapest dedicated
        line? (so i don't have to get local tel. service).
        \_ I think that's called "naked DSL". I don't know who to recommend.
        \_ SBC-ASI DSL is always tied to a POTS line.  So you will not be
           able to do this with SBC or anyone who buys DSL layer services
           from ASI.  If your goal is ideological, I think Covad offers
           this, and there are probably others too.  If your goal is monetary,
           buying service from SBC or ASI-reseller and also getting a metered
           POTS line from SBC is likely your lowest cost solution.  Well,
           finding a friendly neighbor with a net connection and a wifi
           access point would be even cheaper.  You might want to check
           ba.internet archives for more discussion.
2005/4/21-22 [Computer/Networking] UID:37299 Activity:moderate
4/21    Is VPN a protocol?  Is it proprietary?  I use Cisco VPN to access my
        company network from home, and my friend uses Nortel VPN to access his
        company network from his home.  Are they compatible?  Thx.
        |_ ipsec
        \_ http://openvpn.net/articles.html
        \_ VPN is a concept.  There are many technologies that "do" VPN.
           ipsec is most prevalent among them; there are several ipsec
           variations.  -John
           \_ Got it.  Thanks!
2005/4/17-18 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/Security] UID:37232 Activity:nil
4/17    Anyone know if Yahoo Messenger is encrypted? I use it in internet
        cafes a lot with my 802.11 and I'm wondering if my password is
        protected or not. I don't care about the communication, just my
        password. -ok thx
        \_ Probably not.  If you want to know definitively, run tcpdump.
           Alternatively, set up a VPN and pipe all your connections through
           that.
        \_ Your clear text password is not saved in your machine nor is it sent
           in the clear text through the internet.
2005/4/1-4 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/OS/VM] UID:37038 Activity:moderate
4/1     VMWare gurus, please help. I've configured my VMWare on my laptop and
        everything seems fine at first until I unplug my eth100 and wireless.
        All of a sudden, my host system (XP) and VM (Linux) can no longer
        reach each other. How do you configure it so that it doesn't rely
        on having a connection? -ok thx
        \_ Well, how is the virtual NIC configured for the VM?  If you're
           using host-only or NAT, then it should work fine.  If bridged,
           then it's not surprising if it doesn't work, especially if
           you're using DHCP.
           \_ I'm using automatic bridging, and by default it already
              selected VMnet2 and VMnet8. It gave me subnet
              192.168.175.0 for vmnet2 and 192.168.117.0 for vmnet8.
              Is there something I have to do?
              \_ What do you mean "it automatically selected VMnet2 and
                 VMnet8"?  What is "it"?  Selected them when?  How did "it"
                 select both?  And how is your host configured?  And BTW,
                 VMware does have support forums on their website...
                 \_ I didn't configure ANYTHING, it's the way it is when I
                    installed it. What do I do? Thanks.         -pp
                    \_ Uh, I thought I made it clear already that you can
                       try setting the VM to use host-only or NAT networking.
                       You still haven't said whether your host OS uses DHCP
                       or not.
                        \_ Yes, host OS uses DHCP, what difference is that
                           gonna make? If it's not DHCP it renders my laptop
                           portability to "pain in the ass to reconfig"
                           \_ Well, I don't know what Windows does when it
                              can't obtain a DHCP address, but it doesn't
                              surprise me that it would suddenly become
                              unaddressable.  Anyway, you always could
                              try adding a second virtual NIC to your VM
                              that uses host-only networking.  I'm not sure
                              if that would work; I've never been in your
                              situation.  If not, then ask on VMware's
                              support forums.
2005/4/1-2 [Computer/Networking] UID:37017 Activity:low
4/1     This year's April 1 RFCs:
        ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc4041.txt
        ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc4042.txt  -John
        \_ Okay, those are hilarous...in an embarrassingly geeky sort of way.
                                    -mice
           \_ OK here's one for the non-geeks:
              http://csua.org/u/bk3  -John
2005/3/30-31 [Computer/Networking] UID:36973 Activity:nil
3/30    I REALLY like my DLink-624 802.11g 108G router. It doesn't get superhot
        like Linksys and it's pretty compact and inconspicuous.
        \_ l0s3r!  y don't u have the dgl-4300 G4M1NG r0ut3r?~!  it does
           pr10r1ty qU3U3ing v14 w3ll-kn0wn P0rtz!
        \_ My 2nd one's ok.  The one I originally got worked for a week then
           puked all over itself.  The RMA procedure was the absolute worst
           I have ever dealt with, but I got a new one in the end.  --dbushong
2005/3/29-30 [Computer/Networking] UID:36953 Activity:moderate
3/29    I have an old 10T hub, is there ANY use for it?
        \_ sure, they're fine for home networking.  (You don't have more
           than 10 megabit uplink, do you?)  -tom
        \_ you're absolutely right but it is slow when I do file transfers
           at home between my 3-4 computers.
           \_ Espeically when a 100MB switch costs $20.
              \_ And a GigE switch costs $40.
        \_ There's a cubicle at work with only one ethernet drop into it and
           we have 3 computers in there split off a small 10BT hub.  We're
           out of 100BT switches and don't care enough to put in a purchase
           order for one.  Since these machines don't need huge bandwidth, this
           is acceptable.
2005/3/29-30 [Computer/Networking] UID:36942 Activity:low
3/29    If I subscribe to the basic SBC Yahoo DSL (the $19.95 one), can I share
        the DSL connection among two PCs running Win2K?  Some configurations I
        have in mind are:
        1) DSL modem --- ethernet cable --- PC1 --- serial cable --- PC2
        2) DSL modem --- ethernet cable --- PC1 --- parallel cable --- PC2
        3) DSL modem --- ethernet cable --- PC1 --- ethernet cable --- PC2
        4) DSL modem --- ethernet cable --- hub --- ethernet cable --- PC1
                                             +----- ethernet cable --- PC2
        Which of these cases will work?  I'd like to know before I buy any
        additional hardware.  I don't use PC2 that much, so I don't mind if the
        bottleneck is a 115kbps serial cable as in 1).  TIA.
        \_ Just get a dsl router. They are very cheap.
        \_ I have #4 at home (dsl router with built-in switch), but I pay more
           than 19.95/mo.
        \_ #4 is the easiest.  That's pretty much what everyone does these
           days.  (Assuming that hub = router)  #3 will work, I used to do
           it back when routers were expensive.  It's a pain though.  And
           PC1 has to be on whenever you use PC2.  And if you want PC3,
           you need a hub anyway.  As for #1 & #2, what the crap?  What
           year are you living in?
           \_ slip/plip.  why invest in another $5 ethernet card when you
              already have serial/parallel parts for free?
              \_ How do I set up the SLIP connection in 1) then?  Any hint?
                 --- OP
                 \_ Give me your email address, I'll send you an ethernet
                    card. We got like half a dozen sitting in the store
                    room. Sheesh.
                    \_ Wow, how do you mail an ethernet card though email?
                       -- troll.
                    \_ I already have two cards.  I just need a third one if I
                       do 3), and a hub/router to do 4).  -- OP
              \_ Because my time is worth more than $5.
           \_ By "hub" I mean like the blue Netgear box I use at work, where
              it has one uplink wire connecting to the wall and other wires to
              multiple PCs.  So this kind of hub won't work if I plug the
              uplink wire to the DSL modem instead?  -- OP, networking idiot
              \_ It will work.  That "hub" is more correctly called a
                 router.  That's what we're telling you to buy.
                 \_ Umm, no, it's most likely a switch.
                    \_ Switch and router are not mutually exclusive.  Hub
                       and switch are.
                       \_ That is irrelevant to the fact that what you use
                          in an office is most likely just a switch.
                          \_ The whatever thing on my desk reads "NETGEAR DUAL
                             SPEED HUB DS108".  What is it then?  -- OP
                             \_ Well, obviously, it's presumably a hub.
                             \_ NG website mentions nothing about this doing
                                routing.  It's probably just a switch, and
                                each computer will still need a unique IP.  A
                                hub with built in router is easier.
2005/3/29-30 [Computer/Networking] UID:36938 Activity:nil
3/29    Anyone know if Fry's sells minipci wireless 802.11b/g? Or is
        minipci still a mail-order commodity? Second question. If I buy
        a 802.11g hub, can it communicate with old 802.11b devices? ok thx
        \_ second question: "When an 802.11b client was used (various
           802.11b-only cards) in proximity to the access point, data rates
           would drop back to 802.11b levels."
           From http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2003/0512rev11g.html
           \_ Yes, it can communicate, and yes you will experience that effect.
              Basically your G devices are happily speaking the G-level
              protocol to each other and a B-level device shows up and says
              "Is anybody out there?" and your WAP starts speaking B to
              everyone so that the new client can connect.  If you want to have
              B and G coexist without that problem, you'd need a seperate WAP
              on a different channel which is set to speak only 802.11g.
        \_ no it is still mostly mail order. I just went to Fry's and they
           don't have anything like that. By the way the different types of
           802.11g is just confusing. Different companies have different
           variants, like 802.11g Pre-N (8X coverage), and then you have the
           54g and 108g with dual band, but only if you buy their cards, etc.
           I don't think 802.11g will really be all that feasible because
           it's still slow when you have 802.11b nodes nearby, and it's
           unlikely that all the 802.11b folks are switching to 802.11g
           any time soon.
        \_ As an aside, if you're going to run *nix with it, some of the
           Atheros miniPCI card drivers are a bit goofy (even with MadWifi
           and the Windows driver wrappers, forget what they're called.) -John
2005/3/24-28 [Computer/Networking] UID:36861 Activity:kinda low
3/24    So I had another Linksys router die on me today. Are linksys
        routers rated for a limited lifetime? It seems like they only
        last a year or two of usage. However, we do keep it on 24/7
        in an office full of people.
        \_ I've had 2/3 or 3/4 linksys wap's croak on me in way too short a
           time.  At my work, the IT guys loathe the linksys equipment since
        \_ I've had 2/3 or 3/4 of my linksys wap's croak on me way too
           quickly.  At my work, the IT guys loathe the linksys equipment since
           it makes too much work for them.
        \_ I would guess 1 year only.  I haven't seen any consumer-grade
           router with a warranty longer than that.
           \_ Belkin gives a lifetime warranty.
              \_ Wow, I didn't know that, thanks.
        \_ Did you try upgrading the firmware? that seems to fix
           many of the problems that linksys gets over time.
           \_ Will try that. The thing dies every couple of minutes
              and needs a reboot. I also believe it's overheating.
           \- put it in the fridge for 10 min and see if it works.
           \_ My linksys router is messed up in such a way where I cannot
              upgrade its firmware, as they required some stupid mis-feature
              in an OLD version of IE I can't even get any more.
              \_ You know, most of them support doing a firmware upgrade over
                 TFTP.  Search tech support on Linksys' site.  Also, some of
                 them let you install it as a USB device and upload the
                 firmware over USB.
        \_ Buy a Netgear next time.
        \_ Buy Apple. My original ABS is still going strong.
           \- my apple airport express has more problem than my linksys
              \_ My AE works great. Plugged it in, configured it w/
                 the admin utility, and never looked back.
2005/3/22-23 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/China, Computer/Networking] UID:36813 Activity:nil
3/22    Chinese Wifi:  http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000510037092
2005/3/17-18 [Computer/Networking] UID:36730 Activity:moderate
3/1     I'm new to buying notebooks. If I get 802.11b/g for free, then should
        should I pay extra $50 for 802.11a? How about warranty, is that
        a rip-off or is it really useful with no hidden fees? How about
        BlueTooth, is that important? I don't have any PDA stuff that does
        BlueTooth, but maybe in the future *shrug*
        By the way what do you guys think about the Toshiba Satellite R10
        TabletPC? It's pretty cheap:    http://tinyurl.com/55jjb
        \_ 802.11b is essential, 802.11g (same spectrum frequency as b but
           g transmits data at 54mbps vs. b's 11mbps) is nice and I'd look
           for it in a new laptop.  802.11a is not necessary, and I'm
           actually surprised someone is shipping a laptop that supports it.
           802.11a was something Cisco was pushing heavily for ``enterprise
           wireless,'' it debuted at roughly the same time as b, runs at a
           higher, non-overlapping frequency than that used by b/g, but it was
           never widely deployed because the market was flooded with
           inexpensive consumer-oriented 802.11b equipment.  802.11a is nice
           if you want to run a long distance backhaul link without worrying
           about all the noise generated by 802.11b/g devices, but wholly
           unnecessary on a laptop.  Bluetooth is nice if you happen to have
           bluetooth enabled phone or pda, and also convenient for wireless
           keyboard mouth, but, IMO, more of a perk than an essential feature.
           YMMV.  These days I run a 12 inch Apple PowerBook, though my next
           laptop will likely be a 15 inch PowerBook. -dans
           \_ your useful responses have rendered the motd-- a place known
              for rants, politics, & bitter remarks-- useless. But thanks:)
           \_ A few companies only have 802.11a networks, just be sure your
              employer isn't one of them.
           \_ there has actually been a second wave of 802.11a commericalism
              and deployment with higher bit rates, and a lot of folks
              who don't think the first happened since they didn't hear
              about it.  my old university lab office deployed 802.11a
              while all the gov't labs went with 802.11b.  then, they went
              to 802.11b and now, of course, many of the labs are starting
              to deploy fast 802.11a alongside.  my IBM thinkpad has an
              IBM internal a/b/g card w/ atheros chipset that does 54 Mbps
              on a/g bands, and works pretty well with Linux.  that said,
              whether a band is useful depends on where you plan to use it!
        \_ There are different schools of thought on warranties.  One school
           of thought is:  If it breaks, it'll break in the first year, so
           only buy one year.  The second school of thought is:  It breaks
           in the third year, you're spending $1-2K anyway, spend the $200
           for three years.  School 1 replies:  You're going to buy a new
           notebook anyway in three years.  School 2 says:  But you can keep
           the old notebook as a low-power server running 24x7.  School 1 says:
           It's going to crap out in year 4.  School 2 says:  I take really
           good care of my computers.
           Both schools say:  Standard warranties don't cover accidents
           (dropping the notebook, spilling water, car accident, etc.), only
           workmanship defects (random failure while you were innocently using
           the computer).  The accident warranty is another ~ $100-250.
           If you're accident-prone, BUY THE ACCIDENT PROTECTION, and buy
           it for THREE YEARS.
           If you've owned a notebook or two without incident, you don't need
           it.
           If you eBay (as seller or buyer) your notebook, find out if the
           warranty is transferrable (e.g., Dell's is transferrable; Fujitsu's
           becomes voided once you sell it, and you can't buy a new warranty).
           Finally, most warranties are either mail-in or bring-in-to-service-
           center.  If you use your computer for work, you may want to buy
           the on-site service for $100-$200.  They send someone out with a kit
           of replacements parts to fix it on the spot.
           Personally, I treat my computers well and don't have accidents:  So
           I buy 1-year, on-site service, no accident protection.
2005/3/16-18 [Computer/Networking] UID:36725 Activity:nil
3/16    Is there an RFC that says that routers "must/should" respond with
        ICMP "time exceeded in transit" error when it receives an IP packet
        with a TTL of 1 or 0?
        \_ 1812 -op
2005/3/13-15 [Computer/Networking] UID:36671 Activity:nil
3/13    Can anybody suggest a proxy server that runs on windows?  I'm not
        experienced with setting up proxies but would like to set up one using
        encryption.  Would I have to seperately set up a VPN and then run the
        proxy over that connection?
        \_ Just out of curiosity, what's the situation?  What are you
           planning to proxy?
           \_ Primarily 'questionable' http and bittorrent traffic.
        \_ Try squid:
           http://www.acmeconsulting.it/pagine/opensource/squid/squidnt25.htm
        \_ Probably should have been more specific.  I think I want some sort
           of encrypted SOCKS proxy. -op
           \_ Perhaps openssh's -D option?
2005/3/10 [Computer/Networking] UID:36610 Activity:high
3/9     Home WIFI poll.
        WPA: ..
        \_ My WPA is mainly a formality.  I have my AP on a DMZ interface on
           my firewall--if someone manages to use it, power to them.  Use
           SSL/TLS/ipsec for all your important shit anyway, and run a packet
           filter on your wifi clients.  -John
        WPA2:
        WiFi, no security, everyone can use my connection: ....+++
        WiFi, 64/128/256-bit WEP: ..+
        I don't use WiFi: ..
        \_ Please use a + symbol if you also restrict by MAC address.
           Please use a x symbol if you successfully snoop on such systems
             on occasion.
2005/3/9-10 [Computer/Networking] UID:36605 Activity:high
3/9     Home WIFI poll.
        WPA:
        WPA2:
        WiFi, no security, everyone can use my connection: .+
        WiFi, default security (64/128/256-bit WEP): ..
        I don't use WiFi: .
        \_ Please use a + symbol if you also restrict by MAC address.
           Please use a x symbol if you successfully snoop on such systems
             on occasion.
2024/12/24 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
12/24   
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Berkeley CSUA MOTD:Computer:Networking:
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