Computer Tips -Tech Info

For starters, I hooked the D-link DWL-800AP+ up and connected it through a crossover cable to my usb network card. That way I could access it exclusively on one adapter and look online for information with the other adapter, which came in quite handy. The first thing I found was that by default the dwl-800ap+ was configured to use 192.168.0.30 as it’s IP address. This one was not configured with the default settings. (Used / via ebay….) So, I did an nmap -sT 192.168.0.* -e eth1 which scanned the whole 192.168.0. list of addresses using my eth1 adapter (as opposed to the default adapter eth0)

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I’ve got a single access point for my wireless network layer at the house and unfortunately have at least one real “dead spot” in the house. As luck would have it that dead spot is at the couch… so for some time I’ve looked at ways to extend the wireless network range or other ways. One such possibility of course, is a repeater. These days, most wireless repeaters I see either only work with their brand access point. (So a linksys repeater would only work with certain models of linksys access point…) Or… the repeater would only repeat 802.11g *(the newer wireless) traffic. Given that everything I’ve got is still 802.11b I didn’t really want to do a new round of hardware for ALL the wireless devices (the access point still works….) So… looking for a repeater I went.

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This is what hopefully will be the begining of a series of threads on webhosting, web marketing, etc. The first topic up is search engines submission. (This may take several articles…) It’s important to get your web site up and mostly fleshed out before submitting to search engines. Why? Although many may take some time before they spider your site, it is best to make sure that there is a fair amount of content available for them to spider. Some may actually spider fairly quickly, within minutes initially.

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After my Windows 98 tests which failed to exploit the system with either the first or the second vulnerability, I started wondering how well the antivirus companies were doing in detecting this second exploit variation. I had setup and updated metasploit so I could test my Windows 98 SE install against the latest version of the exploit and with each connection to the locally hosted page I got a new random file. After I collected five of these I ran them through virustotal.com to see how well detection has come in just 24 hours.

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Ok, I wasn’t quite satisfied with the results of the tests against the first version of the WMF (Windows Metafile) zero day exploit that’s now up to 4 or 5 days or so… Windows 98 is listed as being vulnerable, but there are no patches or workarounds currently available for Windows 98 users. I was mostly curious to see if current exploits could wreck a Windows 98 system. The answer at this point is not that I can see.

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I’ve spent some more effort on trying to infect Windows 98 SE in a virtual machine with some of the exploit samples I can find. The first attempt was at a website with the .wmf download. No luck infecting the system there. Then, I’ve loaded up the image and visited kyeu dot info/WMF/ and tried each of the files there. I don’t have a zip handler in my Windows 98 SE image so that didn’t get tested, but I’m getting nowhere here. Gif opens with Explorer and gives a red x to indicate a broken image, the text file opens as a binary file viewed in a text editor, the htm file does the same only in explorer (I see what I’d usually see if I tried to open a binary file in a web browser…) The avi opens with Media Player and complains about it being an incompatible format.

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Most of the talk on the WMF zero-day has centered on Windows XP, 2000 and 2003. The unofficial patch is available for those three platforms. Microsoft’s (eventual) patch will likely be for those as well. Incidents.org had a comment in one of their posts that this would be a “watershed moment” for Windows 98/ME and that those users should upgrade immediately as there is little/no hope for a patch.

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The same person that has given the New Year’s gift of an unofficial patch for the WMF exploit circulating has also provided a WMF vulnerability checker, download and install, it will tell if you’re vulnerable. Post is available here. According to the first comment it seems as though the vulnerability checker is triggering Norton’s auto-protect. (Norton detects it as “Bloodhound.Exploit.56”). (Which is a good sign…)

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At this point I’ve exhausted all the topics on network and computer security that I was eager to cover. As things change/ ideas strike I may well add to this series. One direction I see it going is talking in detail about several network utilities and more advanced topics like looking into web site ownership, email header analysis, good topical books/etc.

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I’m putting this under the Windows tech support category because I’ve used this on a boot cd before to do the same for Windows as I’m about to describe for Linux. I need to clean up and organize my hard drive(s). But when it comes to actually deleting things you really do want to get the biggest bang for the buck and go after the biggest files first. I remember an old Windows 95 utility I think it was called space Hog or something like that (more space 95??) Anyway, it would scan the disc and show the files sorted by size. Under linux (KDE desktop), there’s a similar (in many ways better) utility called kdirstat.

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