Tech Support #2

Idiot: maffewsssssun
Maffewssun: Idiot
Idiot: quick question, i’m wireless
and it all works, but i want to protect it by putting a
password on, is that easy?
Maffewssun: woop woop for the fucking wireless
Idiot: eh???
Maffewssun: er, passwords.
Maffewssun: there are two things you can do.

1) WEP encryption
2) MAC filtering
Idiot: hmm, i just want me and mikey
to access it from our laptops
Maffewssun: (1) is doable, but not great and it does slow
things down a bit.
(2) is much more secure.
Idiot: let’s do 2?
Maffewssun: righto.
Maffewssun: all MAC filtering does is basically limit which
hardware can access your network. so you find out the
“hardware address” of your wireless cards, give that to
your router, and bish bash bosh.
Maffewssun: sound simple?
Idiot: ok, how do i find out the
hardware address and how to i tell the router?
Maffewssun: first things first young simon
Maffewssun: did you figure out how to access the control
panel of the router?
Maffewssun: (we need to make sure we can actually do mac
filtering first)
Idiot: http:10.0.0.2
Maffewssun: bargain. login to that beauty right now and see
if you can find MAC filtering in there.
Idiot: bridge filtering?
Idiot: or if i go to wireless it says
security/; enable encryption or disable encryption
Maffewssun: yeh that’s the first one we’re not interested
in
Idiot: in bridge filtering it says ID
source MAC*
Maffewssun: ok, sounds about right.
Maffewssun: does it have 6 little boxes
Idiot: 2 big ones and a smaller one.
you type in a mac address and choose to either block or
forward
Idiot: or in wireless i can do MAC
Spoofing
Idiot: that asks me to put in 6,
2-digit numbers
Maffewssun: well that’s what you want to input, but MAC
spoofing doesn’t sound quite right
Idiot: i can enable it and put in the
numbers….
Idiot: but it would seem i can only
put in one piece of hardware
Maffewssun: is there any explanation there as to what it
is?
Idiot: nope!!
Maffewssun: hmm, I don’t think it’s right. i think what it
does is allows you to specify a manual MAC address so that
non standard equipment (e.g. Xbox) could access the thing
Idiot: ok on this bridge filtering
thing, it wants the ID Source MAC in one box, then the
Destination MAC in the Second and the Type in the 3rd
Maffewssun: lol
Idiot: eg 000cf1571c02 then
destination is the router? and type is the wan?
Maffewssun: you should check online with the manufacturer
of the router to find out what on earth it’s on about
Maffewssun: i’d be very careful with this sort of thing cos
it’s blood easy to lock yourself out of the netwrok
Idiot: that’s sub ideal..
Maffewssun: it ain’t the best, no
* Maffewssun is now Be Right Back
* Maffewssun is now Online
Idiot: maybe we should just opt for
the other one, how much does it slow down?
Maffewssun: not too much
Maffewssun: but it’s not 100%
Idiot: i’ve got 1.1Mbs connection, so
i should be ok?
Idiot: that’s the internet speed, my
wireless connection is 11Mbps
Maffewssun: the slowdown in speed will be negligible
Idiot: ok so let’s do it
Maffewssun: again I’d try and find the manual for the
router and follow the instructiosn on setting it up cos
it’s all different
Maffewssun: and without having the thing in front of me
it’s gonna be hard to help you set it up
Idiot: oh ok, what’s the worst that
can happen if someone decides to get into my wireless
connection
Maffewssun: fuck all really apart from stealing your
bandwidth
Maffewssun: and they could be intercepting
what you’re doing – like if you send your credit card
details or passwords or something
Maffewssun: with no security, i guess they could break into
the network
Idiot: that worries me slightly
Maffewssun: as it should
Idiot: the only manual with this
router is the setup to connect wirelerss, that’s it
Maffewssun: what make is it?
Idiot: etec
Maffewssun: whoooooooooooooooooooooo?
Idiot: exactly, it was the cheapes
Idiot: t
Idiot: if i do the other method of
security it just says enable, then you choose key length
(64 bit or 128 bit), and then you can put in up to 4 keys,
which i imagine are hardware addresses….
Maffewssun: no they’re not
Idiot: oh ok
Maffewssun: they’re hex values
Idiot: o………..k………..
Idiot: i don’t think i can do the
other method on this though. in configuration i have the
options of: WAN, LAN, PPP, NAT, Virtual Server, DNS, Bridge
Filtering, Wireless, Save Settings, and Reboot without
Saving…. that’s the total of my options, and i can’t see
the MAC encryption. can i not go into the properties of my
wireless connection on windows and do it there?
Maffewssun: lol, no.
Idiot: had to ask! well if i can’t do
the second method on this router, then i need to do the
first one really
Maffewssun: it seems like there is very little support for
your router out there
Maffewssun:

http://peteashton.com/02/12/07/the_informal_etec_pt.html

Maffewssun: you can use the built in XP firewall to protect
the connection somewhat
Idiot: ok
Maffewssun: but basically to do encryption you need to
generate a 64bit (5 pairs) or 128 bit (13 pairs i think)
hex pass key
Maffewssun: you input that into one of the 4 slots on the
router.
Idiot: one of the ethernet slots?
Maffewssun: and then in windows in your wireless setup you
input the same hex key and tell it which of the slots you
put it in in the router
Maffewssun: LOL
Maffewssun: no!
Idiot: right… so how then?
Maffewssun: oh ffs!
Idiot: you love it really, because it
proves that you’re brainy and i’m dumb
Idiot: so i enable encryption, shall i
chose 64bit or 128?
Maffewssun: 64
Idiot: ok
Idiot: then i have 4 keys, and they
have preset numners
Maffewssun: like what?
Idiot: key 1: c6774663dd
Idiot: key 2: af6bd13ecd
Maffewssun: ok that’s fine
Idiot: key 3: 8e33fb2bf1
Maffewssun: you need to input that info in the wireless
setup bit of your network connections
Maffewssun: need a shite
* Maffewssun is now Be Right Back
* Maffewssun is now Online
Idiot: nice work! good shit?
Maffewssun: yeh not too bad
Idiot: excellent. now as for putting
these bits into the right places, talk me through that one
Idiot: in my network connections i
click on my wireless network connection
Maffewssun: yep
Idiot: then properties
Maffewssun: sounds good
Idiot: then wireless networks tab?
Maffewssun: yep
Idiot: highlight my conexant
(automatic) option and click properties?
Maffewssun: er
Maffewssun: no
Maffewssun: um
Idiot: click advanced settings?
Maffewssun: possibly
Maffewssun: you should be looking for security or
encryption
Maffewssun: i think if you highlight your network name
there might be a properties or settings option
Idiot: yeah highlight my network and
click properties
Maffewssun: ok
Idiot: there’s a wireless network key
Maffewssun: woohoo
Idiot: right i can chose my network
authentication… open, shared, wpa, wpa-psk
Idiot: which?
Maffewssun: not sure
Idiot: surely either open or shared?
Maffewssun: WPA is a new method of security which is full
on secure, but your router doesn’t support it
Idiot: shall we go with open?
Idiot: or shared?
Maffewssun: try them
Maffewssun: not sure off the top of my head which
Idiot: ok if i leave it open, then i
have to chose my data encryption as WEP
Maffewssun: sounds good
Idiot: if i uncheck the ‘The Key is
provided for me automatically’ box then i can enter 1
network key
Maffewssun: (having a key provided for you would be
pointless!)
Idiot: i thought so. so which key do i
put in? select one of the 4 on the router page and then
enter that?
Maffewssun: yes
Maffewssun: and then select the key number as the one you
chose
Idiot: i see
* Idiot is now Offline

I’ll post more up later.

Tech Support #1

Dog days

Children Marry Puppies To Ward Off Evil. Huh. And in other news… Whale-hunting in landlocked Utah

This July, Richard Smith, 23, and Luke Bateman, 20, both from Cornwall, are planning to travel 18,000 miles across the land of the free while breaking as many of its ridiculous and arcane local laws as possible.

Cornish people, eh?

Do you know what pisses me off?

These hunting tossers who think it’s OK to ignore the new legislation about the hunting ban. I’m not really either way inclined about the hunting ban, because I don’t agree with hunting, but then again I don’t really agree with banning stuff. But what irritates me are the hunting folk who are flat out ignoring the ban because they think they’re above the law. It’s not what the ban is about, it’s the principle. What’s to say that when the government inevitably bans smoking in pubs and clubs, that smokers say “actually, no, I won’t stop smoking”. I’m sure the hunters would have a thing to say about that. And I’m sure they’re reasonably fond of various other laws we have in place… like not being able to kill people, that nicking stuff is wrong and so on… so what makes them think that they’re so special that they can flagrantly disregard the law just because it doesn’t suit them?

Dirty screen?

Free screen cleaner…

Interesting facts about your life.

The Latest Breakers from Silverlake Garage

Ferarri 360 Modena

Y reg 2001, 18,633 miles, 0cc, Manual transmission(6 Speed), Petrol, No
Airbags, Power Steering, Central Locking, Electric Windows, Alloy
Wheels, Air Conditioning, Stereo, Keys Available, Engine Starts.

You want it?

JustBlogIt and RSS

Just Blog It

Thanks to Aaron for this handy little Firefox tool – JustBlogIt – which lets you blog any webpage from the right click of your mouse button to a wide variety of blogs, including Wordpress.

Firefox and RSS

Also don’t overlook Firefox’s dandy handling of website RSS feeds (alternate ways of tracking updated websites). No longer is RSS limited to the realm of blogs, all sorts of sites are doing it now, including the BBC, the Guardian, Sky…

How does it work?

Look for the weird little orange symbol on the bottom right hand side of the Firefox window, and when you see it, that site has an RSS feed. Click on it, select subscribe to RSS, and select a location for it in your bookmarks. Now everytime you start FF, that “Live Bookmark” will update itself with the most recent posts/entries/items to save you having to visit the site to see if it changed (and give you quick access to the story if it did!).

Bargain.