geekhut dot org

The other night I was asked by a friend how he could watch his favourite ABC show on line (think it was called “Fringe”).  I also recently had to configuring about ten phones behind a NAT so I had to find a quick way into the internal network.

This works on any platform and is a very powerful tool - I will explain the *nix method of accomplishing this - Windows users will have to Google “SOCKS Putty How To” or something like that.

Basically what we are doing is tunneling all of the traffic from a remote server (American in this case) through an encrypted pipe to a local port.  It is easier than it sounds, here’s how.

On a Mac open Terminal app (in Linux you can use xterm, gnome-terminal etc.. whichever you prefer) and type :

ssh -D 9090 <username>@<server ip / hostname>

If you select a port < 1024 you will require root privileges.

We can then set Safari or Firefox to use a SOCKS proxy on local port 9090 (Safari) by clicking Safari -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Change Settings

Check off SOCKS proxy and enter localhost for the server and 9090 for the port.

To check if it worked you can visit http://ipchicken.com to see if you are sending requests from the remote servers IP.

Firefox has a similar configuration - just look under the advanced tab for Proxies and set it up the same as you would for Safari.

This does require a server running SSH and it will have to be in the united states however it works a charm and can be used for MANY other applications.

Have fun with it though make sure it does not go against the terms of service of your host (which it very well could be) - also remember with great power come great responsibility.

Apple, How-To, Things To Do SOCKS, SSH, Tunneling

Late last night I was inspired to write a super fun app that allows anyone to host their own ShoutCast radio station using a simple web interface.

I created a video to demonstrate its capabilities and I hope to have even more powerful features inculded soon.

PHP, Programming, Things To Do AJAX, Shoutcast, Web

I recently wrote a post about the lack interesting topics discussed on Hak5  - todays show made me eat my words and I feel like a goof.

Todays show featured a wicked little how-to video for setting up your Fon router with Jasager - I must say it was very well put together, entertaining and interesting.

Well done guys, excited to see part two!

Uncategorized Hak5

This must be blogged - all I can say is “Holy Shit!”

An Asterisk box I had set up for a client with ~ 10 extensions was compromised this morning at about 12 AM… and they really did a number on it.  I apologize if you were a victim of this attack however there was really no way of telling it was happening until it was too late.

Over 2000 “phishing” calls were placed over the past 20 hours, majority of them during extremely late hours and to only a small group of numbers - meaning a lot of repeat calls…  My inbox quickly filled with pissed off voicemails from Texas residents - once the server was taken down.

Now a DDOS attack is bad, but can generally be fixed - A web site’s content being compromised is worse - but when hundreds of people are being called late a night asking for their VISA card numbers : That’s a tragedy!

I have taken down the server and have a feeling it was compromised via the Flash Operator Panel which no one ever uses, but the last logs were not cleared and the bash history looked like mine - so it must have been some type of web based attack.  I am downloading the VM to test locally so I can figure out exactly what happened and why, so it will never happen again.

A word of warning to people hosting any type of streaming application / telephony service - LOCK DOWN your shit to the max! A website is visited by choice - a phone call while you are asleep is intrusion, BE CAREFUL!

On a positive note - VoipYourLife is a super wicked VoIP provider for home / business - they had no problem shelling out 2000 calls in < 20 hours - I strongly recommend them!

Hacks Asterisk, Hell, VoIP

I don’t know if you caught the promo for Hak5 on Diggnation, but it looked pretty cool.  I was excited to check out Revision3’s newest addition based on the advertised topics and content, unfortunately I was extremely disappointed.

The show could be awesome - they have a great setup and occasionally hint on neat new ideas however I have a couple problems with it.

• Darren talks too much and is extremely repetitive.
• The beer drinking looks forced, plus it’s overdone.
• No one cares about Windows… or its limitless insecurities/vulnerabilities. This seems to be the topic of every show.
• Everyone looks so uncomfortable, and they try WAY too hard to be funny… FAIL.
• I think Shannon was hired as an equal opportunity employee, that or to get female viewers, regardless she is misinformed (I am not trying to be mean).
• The “Hamster Dance” song should not be played anywhere but the deepest reaches of hell.

I could go on forever but there is something about it that makes me watch every week, I can not explain why (so they must be doing something right).  I really wish these guys would cover more interesting topics such as Asterisk, IPTables, Bind or NAS and stop trying to be funny! It is not working.  Otherwise it is a lot of fun.

Uncategorized Podcast, Revision3

After playing with SquareSpace I was inspired to begin development on my own jQuery driven WYSIWYG CSS Tool.  It is in its infant stages however I think this would be a wicked addition to Launchr though so I will continue to play with it in my spare time until I get i right…

I made a quick screencast last week to show a friend what it can do, but since you are all friends I thought maybe I should show you all as well.  Like I said it is a new born, but it will grow!  I have the help of a fellow developer if he can ever find the time away from C++ and ASP.

Click here to watch out the demo video (quicktime .mov).

Hopefully we will have an open version available to you guys to experiment with within the next few weeks.

Programming AJAX, CSS, jQuery

Launchr is a new project of mine created late one night for a friend who needed to capture emails for a major book promotion.  He pretty much just needed to be able to create a landing page, another page to thank the user for signing up and he wanted to be able to write a message to be automatically sent to the user after submitting their email.

Well the project just took off and the momentum was ridiculous. I finished writing a working version in a few hours - then skimmed over it the next day and decided to expand on the idea, it is now a wicked little marketing app!

Products, Programming Marketing, Product Launch, Projects, SEO

Last night while reading through some interesting articles at nerdvittles.com I stumbled upon a wicked little Asterisk PHPAGI script for web initialized inbound calling with Callback and DISA.

I added a form to the code because it was basic and only accepted phone numbers from the GET  string however it pretty much works perfectly out of the box.  What it does is allow you to enter a phone number in a input box and passes it to a custom extension that calls the number with a dial tone.

With any free incoming cell phone plan, you can imagine how much money you can save - especially with long distance!

Link to original code. 

Very cool!

Hacks, How-To Asterisk, SIP, VoIP

Out of the six (6) running PC’s within my household, 5 run either Cent OS or Ubuntu, and of course the sixth (my Powerbook) runs a purchased copy of Leopard.  I decided after a few beers that it would be nice to geek it up and relax - play some games on my laptop.  So I dig through my “100% SHIT” pile to locate my pirated Windows XP (with a bunch of stupid pre/post-fixes like : sp3 cracked, no wga, super awesome version — CORPORATE!) and begin a dual boot installation (with Ubuntu) on my Toshiba A200 Laptop.  Unfortunately the cards weren’t in my favor as Toshiba decided that the piece of shit speakers on my notebook required high definition audio… from M$.

It makes a lot of sense to me, adding high def audio support on 3/4″ *tin sounding* speakers, so I searched for the drivers everywhere - no support.  Then I remembered that the last time I got the audio working was from Windows Update.  Now this Super Awesome CORPORATE mother-of-all-xp-installation discs just happened to check on line for the audio driver and to my surprise I get a WGA validation fault, and even better - it can’t find the god damn driver.

I got pissed - I don’t need a hassle to be hassled with bad software, I just want to play Diablo II & Final Fantasy 9 in peace.  So I picked up the phone and with my handy dandy Asterisk server recorded a call (*1) with Windows Genuine Advantage to see what the problem was.

Listen to Windows Genuine Advantage Call

I have realized that every single time I use Windows I run into some kind of hassle.. So I have officially made the decision to boycott all Windows products and as many non-mandatory protocols as possible to eliminate the additional stress from my life.

I am not trying to start an OS flame war here, I just can not stand this garbage and thought the world should know….. again.

Product Reviews OS, WGA, Windows

I am writing with my recent development accomplishments in mind, I never thought I would be able to do the things I can do now.

I will admit at one point I was very intimidated with the whole Ajax wave and it seemed that no matter what I did, after rolling out an Ajax-enabled app - I would always feel like I did something wrong or there was a major security vulnerability in my software… somewhere.

So I have compiled a list that I can relate my entire development learning experience to ( though this also applies to more than just computer related challenges )

Rule 1. Get Over Your Fear of Failure

You will fail, I guarantee it - no matter what, something will not go your way. Remember that no one is an expert at everything. I have found that “learning the hard way” means you will never forget your mistakes.

Rule 2. Someone Will ALWAYS Be Better Than You

Sorry, You may be good, but you are not the best and somehow someone will always outperform you.  Just remind yourself that competition is not why you are doing what you are doing, it is for YOU (unless you are sick & twisted).

Rule 3. You Will Want to Give Up

Do not, no matter what!  I have spent so much time thinking about how bad I suck at what I am trying to do instead of pushing that energy towards actually doing the work.  If I was to give up on what I was trying to accomplish I would be in a worse place than I was while actually attempting to learn it, at least during failure I was trying.

Rule 4. Know You Can Do It, But Understand That It Will Not Be Easy

Prep yourself for a major challenge, do not think you can pull it off in a day - you will be dissapointed.  Understand that nothing is ever complete and everything can be improved, that’s life.  Comfort yourself in the thought that you are capable, just remain focused.

Rule 5. Make Fun of Yourself

Embarrassments will be a plenty, however self depracating humor is one of the hugest marketing strategies to date.  Remeber when DreamHost goofed up and billed everyone for an entire year?  They owe their writers huge due to the fact that they were honest and still made us smile though we were just reamed by their billing department, very admirable.

In Conclusion

There is nothing new here, these ideas have been talked about forever however everyone needs some motivation every now and then.  These notes were written for my own reference for future challenges and I know they will be of use, hopefully you will find them useful as well.

Notes, Uncategorized motivation