PC Tech Thread

You're learning fast that you are a lost cause ?

(ok sounded better in my head than typed out)

I would have said "but you've still not given up yet".

Windows Home Server 2011 is pretty similar to Windows 7. You should be able to log in and use the desktop like a normal PC. Is it connected to a network?

No. But when I boot up it asks (doesnt give me a choice) to connect to one. What's wrong?

You are using software designed to be a server and, therefore, being network connected?

Yeah, that's what it says. Anyone use win server os? Is there a way around this?

checked the boot order in the BIOS?
Do you have more than 1 HD?
have you tried booting without a keyboard?

Boot order is correct. I have 2 hdd ssd and storage. Checked case doesn't look like any headers are not mounted properly.

I guess I'll try another battery. Could be I put a duff one in to replace it.

If not I'll unplug everything and start connecting again. No fun.

I've used mine not connected to the network and it's OK but I guess there may be an initial stage where a network connection is required for the install. Can you not connect it to the internet to get it up and running?

Yeah Iain. Connect it to the INTERNET.

Feck...

Internetz not arriving until the 28th...

Meh

So... very odd routing/wifi issue I'm having.

Laptop connected to DD-WRT N wifi ( 5Ghz only ). It's been rock solid from April 2013 until about 2 weeks ago. Now every day around 3->5pm I suddenly lose the internet. Reconnect to wifi and it's fine again for a little.

Now the "odd" part. It's not that the laptop cannot see the router, infact it can route traffic further but then suddenly gives up and it's always the same hop it dies after

Tracing route to www.lfgss.com [176.58.121.33]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms <1 ms DD-WRT [192.168.1.1]
2 9 ms 9 ms 8 ms 98.234.144.1
3 24 ms 26 ms 21 ms te-5-6-ur01.sfpine.ca.sfba.comcast.net [162.151.
31.121]
4 10 ms 11 ms 11 ms te-1-14-0-12-ar01.sfsutro.ca.sfba.comcast.net [6
8.85.154.70]
5 13 ms 10 ms 11 ms he-1-6-0-0-cr01.sanjose.ca.ibone.comcast.net [68
.86.90.157]
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.

Now, anything connected via ethernet to my router is not affected. Packets easily go past that hop.

I'm lost as to why, surely if the peering was toast he-1-6-0-0-cr01 all my devices would be affected at the same time ?

Currently switching everything off the 5Ghz spectrum to eliminate that. However, if that turns out to be the problem... wtf? How could it lose routing AFTER the packets have already left my network (and only for 5Ghz connected devices) ?

So... very odd routing/wifi issue I'm having.

Laptop connected to DD-WRT N wifi ( 5Ghz only ). It's been rock solid from April 2013 until about 2 weeks ago. Now every day around 3->5pm I suddenly lose the internet. Reconnect to wifi and it's fine again for a little.

Now the "odd" part. It's not that the laptop cannot see the router, infact it can route traffic further but then suddenly gives up and it's always the same hop it dies after

Tracing route to www.lfgss.com [176.58.121.33]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms <1 ms DD-WRT [192.168.1.1]
2 9 ms 9 ms 8 ms 98.234.144.1
3 24 ms 26 ms 21 ms te-5-6-ur01.sfpine.ca.sfba.comcast.net [162.151.
31.121]
4 10 ms 11 ms 11 ms te-1-14-0-12-ar01.sfsutro.ca.sfba.comcast.net [6
8.85.154.70]
5 13 ms 10 ms 11 ms he-1-6-0-0-cr01.sanjose.ca.ibone.comcast.net [68
.86.90.157]
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.

Now, anything connected via ethernet to my router is not affected. Packets easily go past that hop.

I'm lost as to why, surely if the peering was toast he-1-6-0-0-cr01 all my devices would be affected at the same time ?

Currently switching everything off the 5Ghz spectrum to eliminate that. However, if that turns out to be the problem... wtf? How could it lose routing AFTER the packets have already left my network (and only for 5Ghz connected devices) ?

Do you get a shell and any tools like netcat with dd-wrt? I'd start poking around while your connection is funny.

The problem seems specific to just your wifi interface. So originate a few bits of source traffic from there vs the ethernet one. Few netcat connection tests and pings of various sizes to test mtu issues.

Do you get a shell and any tools like netcat with dd-wrt? I'd start poking around while your connection is funny.

The problem seems specific to just your wifi interface. So originate a few bits of source traffic from there vs the ethernet one. Few netcat connection tests and pings of various sizes to test mtu issues.

Yeah I'll give that a go when it happens again. The bit that is odd is I lose routing way outside of my control.

Starting to wonder if DD-WRT is mangling the packets slightly on the 5Ghz connection, and after a while I hit enough bad packets that the next hop just starts dropping it

Ah fuck as well as the saga above my PC won't even turn on now. Not whatsoever mobo has green light on so I assume that's getting power. Where the hell do I start??

I've been told that email is not a secure way to send out passwords but ive never been sure why.

An SMTP server sends out an email to an address managed by another SMTP server. So long as both these servers are secure how could the email be intercepted?

Eg: the sending server IP is 203.84.134.2 to a google account.

Heard of packet sniffing? IP spoofing? Who says either server is secure? Even if they are a malicious employee at either end could see cleartext passwords and use them for nefarious means.

Plus there's the fact that a password is now sitting in plain view forevermore in two email accounts - should they ever be compromised, the password is exposed.

How can I sniff the packets containg the emails emitted from 203.84.134.2?
Not sure in what way IP spoofing could be used to obtain the emails.

I'm not about to write a howto. Google is your friend.

Essentially you need a packet sniffer or maybe a locally installed trojan that can capture network traffic on either end of the exchange.

Spoofing: If you can pretend to be a certain IP address then you can pretend to be a certain mail server or perhaps a friendly relay for the orginating server to send to. Et voila.

An SMTP server sends out an email to an address managed by another SMTP server. So long as both these servers are secure how could the email be intercepted?

Security of SMTP relays is not guaranteed. You might be using SSL between your client and your ISP, but beyond that all bets are off.

Sending email is akin to sending a postcard.

A postcard that gets handed off between a lot of postmen.

And you know how nosy they are.

If they're not drunk at 5am, that is.

Pro-tip: send emails at 5am, when the internet is too drunk to read them.

An SMTP server sends out an email to an address managed by another SMTP server. So long as both these servers are secure how could the email be intercepted?
The internet is not a big truck.

It's a series of tubes.

Sending email is akin to sending a postcard.

A postcard that gets handed off between a lot of postmen.

And you know how nosy they are.

If they're not drunk at 5am, that is.

Pro-tip: send emails at 5am, when the internet is too drunk to read them.

It's always 5am somewhere, generally 180 degrees from where it's 5pm.

That's a big temperature difference.

Email does not guarantee security and you have very little control once messages leave your local Mail Transfer Agent (MTA). You can secure communication between your mail client (Outlook etc...) and mail server using TLS (POPs, IMAPs SMTP over TLS) but SMTP is a text-based protocol by nature and all MTA servers on the internet accept incoming mail from other MTAs in plain text. Also you have no control where this email goes and how it's retrieved by mail clients on the other end.

Sender --- TLS --> MTA ---> plain text ---> MTA ---> ? --> recipient.

You also don't know how this email is stored by the mail client.

Sniffing packets is easy using http://www.wireshark.org/ or http://www.tcpdump.org/ you just need to be in the right place.

If you want email security look into http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy but unfortunately it's not widely used.