My web host went down unexpectedly a little while ago. For record keeping in case I decided to get nit-picky and ask for a pro-rated payment (I didn’t, JohnCo is an excellent service provider), I wanted to document when it came back online. I whipped up a short little batch script which I have modified to be more generic so I can use it for any downed host.

@ECHO OFF :START ping -n 1 %1% | find “Reply from ” if ERRORLEVEL 1 (GOTO START) ELSE GOTO DONE

:DONE time /t echo Back up!

Note that in the actual script, I put a BEL character (Ctrl-G) in the last echo statement for a little extra flare. I was a little bit at a loss as to how to do this at first, but luckily my editor of choice allows you to insert a literal character by presing Ctrl+I and then whichever character you want to insert.

Don’t try to load a 4gb pcap file into Ethereal…at least not on Windows.

In other news, aircrack is quite the sweet little 802.11 WEP key cracker. I’ve already used it to decrypt the WEP keys stored in my Windows wireless config as well as sniffed enough packets in my apartment to crack it…not bad!

I went camping a couple weekends ago at the Nelson Dewey State Park. It’s a pretty decent place for camping. Thanks to the top tent camping in Wisconsin book, I picked up site #18 which has a nice view of the Mississippi - The walk-in campsites are right on the bluffs, but they were (of course) already taken.

Overall, a very enjoyable weekend. :)

For those of you that don’t update your Windows system on a regular basis, you really should do it. There was a recent vulnerability announced that allows somebody to execute code when you view a .jpg.

You heard me right - just by viewing an image, your system can be compromised! This can potentially even be when you are browsing the web. I’ve been playing around with the code a little bit, and while I’m no shellcode guru, I can get a working exploit. I haven’t been able to get it to work in Internet Explorer yet, but I think others have.

Stop reading this and go to Windows Update now!

Kasia has a good post about secure access to your server that includes some very good points about securing SSH, a very common means of remote authentication and one that is also currently being exploited.

How about a common source of trouble in Windows networks? Blank or weak Administrator passwords on workstations. Even though Windows XP resolves this by not letting you use blank passwords across the network, there are enough Win2K machines out there to still cause trouble. One easy way to check it is with a simple FOR loop. Say you have a text file of IP addresses or host names that you would like to check. You can run this command:

C:>for /F %i IN (hostlist.txt) DO net use \%i\IPC$ /u:administrator “” && IF ERRORLEVEL 0 echo Blank Admin - %i >> blankadmins.txt

You can hack that up to be prettier, but that gets the job done.

Now say you didn’t want to bother with getting those hostnames into the text file. You could make this a little bit easier on yourself if you wanted to check a specific domain:

C:>FOR /F “skip=3 tokens=1*” %i IN (‘net view /domain:DomainName’) DO net use %i\IPC$ /u:administrator “” && IF ERRORLEVEL 0 echo Blank Admin - %i >> blankadmins.txt

This will loop through all the computer names displayed by the net view command and try to auth to the IPC$ share as administrator using a blank password. Note: If you use this command in a batch file, you have to use %%i. See ‘help for’ for more info.

Now go see how many of your local admin passwords are blank. ;)

Been lazy lately, but I did go kayaking on the Chicago River. It was an awesome experience and I’d recommend it to anybody with two arms.

Mountain Dew, sweet nectar of life, with the proper ratio of syrup to water.

The client has Dew on tap. I am pleased. I am on a caffeine/sugar buzz. I am going home tonight. I’ve had enough Dew.

I had the good fortune to stay at an Extended Stay America last night. What a dump. The room was quite dirty: toilet seat not clean, still-wet water ring on the kitchen counter from the last occupant or perhaps the cleaning staff, cramped, no soap or shampoo, and just really low quality in general.

I’m no priss and I’ve done scummy hotels before, but that was just nasty.

I’m with Joel - I’m a connection junky. I know I’ve been addicted to the net for a while now and ever since I went to college and felt the power of an OC3, I’ve loved the net. Funny how I’m posting this from a horrible hotel room on a 50.6 Kbps dialup connection…

A couple people have begun a post entitled: 100 things about me. While I enjoy reading about people, I don’t think I could ever put that much detailed information about myself in one place. Not that I can’t come up with 100 things, or I don’t have time, but this seems like revealing way too much information about oneself.

Ever since I’ve started this blog, there’s been a little voice in the back of my head telling me that I shouldn’t have used my name in the url, or I shouldn’t allow everybody in the world to see my pictures, or certain posts. But then there’s another little voice that says eh, if somebody wanted to, they could get that information anyway. While that may true, why make it easy for them? Why put sensitive personal information a google query away from anybody with a computer and outbound access on port 80. In an age where identity theft is unfortunately common, protecting yourself from that is not an easy task, but the more difficult you can make it, the better.

As for me for example, I make an effort to not post people’s names on my site. I try to respect any individual’s right to anonymity. I will post personal information occasionally, but that’s because most of my readers are my family, and since I don’t communicate very well otherwise, I like to let them know about certain things. I do not feel that the entire world has to know where I was last night at 8:30pm and who I was with, nor do I think they care.

Maybe I’m just paranoid. Perhaps I’m just a really boring person. Or maybe I just like to draw the line between what is mine and what I feel will be of use/interest to the rest of the world.

</rant>

On another note - people really need to acquire some common sense and be more considerate to others. Being in the South this week where ma’am is customarily tacked on the end of the sentence when addressing a woman as a means of respect, it makes me realize how inconsiderate and selfish people can be. Not that I’m completely innocent of being a selfish arse at times, but I do try to be considerate to those around me.

I think that’s all for now. I didn’t expect to get so riled up…