Firefox: Firesheep sniffs out and steals cookies—and the account and identity of the owner in the process—of popular web sites (like Facebook and Twitter) from the browsing sessions of other users on the Wi-Fi hotspot you're attached to.
Firesheep is a proof-of-concept Firefox extension created by Eric Butler to show how leaky the security many popular web sites (like Facebook, Flickr, Amazon.com, Dropbox, Evernote, and more) employ is. The problem, as Firesheep shockingly demonstrates, is that many web sites only encrypt your login. Once you are logged in they use an unsecured connection with a simple cookie check. Anyone from your IP address (that of the Wi-Fi hotspot) with that cookie can be you. When using Firesheep on a public hot spot any session it can intercept is displayed in the Firesheep pane with the user's name and photograph (when available). Simply click on their name to intercept the session and start browsing the website as though you are them.
What can you do to protect yourself against such a painfully easy attack against your privacy and security? You can set up an SSH SOCKS proxy to encrypt your traffic, effectively sending your site sessions and accompanying cookies through a sniff-proof tunnel. For a less involved alternative, however, you could use something like the previously mentioned HTTPS Everywhere Firefox extension or Force-TLS (highlighted by TechCrunch). Essentially, these extensions will force popular sites to send data via the more secure HTTPS protocol, which encrypts data as it's sent, and while it's slightly slower, it's definitely worth using HTTPS when available.
Firesheep is free, works wherever Firefox does, and requires a wireless card capable of operating in promiscuous mode.
Firesheep [Code Butler via TechCrunch]
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Firesheep Sniffs Out Facebook and Other User Credentials on Wi-Fi Hotspots via lifehacker.com
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
How to Boost Your Wi-Fi Network Signal and Increase Range with DD-WRT - How-To Geek
Wireless is really convenient until you drop your connection or get really low speeds. Thanks to DD-WRT, it’s easier than ever to extend your home networks range with a few simple tweaks and a spare router.
DD-WRT is a fully feature-packed alternative firmware for your router. If you don’t know what it is or how to get it on your device, you should start off with Turn Your Home Router into a Super-Powered Router with DD-WRT.
Boosting Your Signal
Fire up your web browser and direct it to your router’s configuration page. Go to Wireless > Advanced Settings.
There are three settings of interest, the first being TX Power. This is the broadcasting power of your transmitting antenna. The default is a safe value of 70, but we can kick it up a bit. Most people report that jumping up to a 100 is safe. Pushing it higher can cause excessive heat which can damage your router. I don’t have to worry about that since my “server area” is cold and I’m also a bit reckless, so I kicked mine up to 150. It’s been that way for a few weeks and I haven’t had a problem yet, but your mileage may vary. Use your common sense and discretion.
Next up is the Afterburner setting. If your wireless router and adapters support Afterburner – also known as SpeedBooster, SuperSpeed, Turbo G, and G Plus (but not Super-G) – you can enable this to get a boost. Things may slow down if they don’t support it, though, so be sure to do your homework. B-only devices won’t see any problems and N-based devices shouldn’t be negatively affected, either.
Finally, we get to Bluetooth Coexistence Mode. If you use bluetooth a lot, then you may have noticed a drop in reliability or speed with both wireless and bluetooth devices. Turning this setting on should keep the two from interfering too badly with one another.
Use a Spare Device as a Repeater
Most of us have upgraded our networks with new routers over the years. If you have your old one lying around, why not throw DD-WRT on it? I had a spare Linksys wireless access point, but after putting alternate firmware on it, I had a full-blown router on my hands. We can put our spare device to work as a repeater, which can act as a range-extender for a new section of your house or yard.
Under Wireless > Basic Settings, change the mode to Repeater.
You’ll see two sections, Wireless Physical Interface (wl0), and Virtual Interfaces (wl0.1). The physical interface is going to be receiving the signal from your main router. Plug in the SSID, configure the network mode, and decide if you wanted it to be bridged (connected with the old network) or unbridged (isolated from it). Next, come up with a new SSID for your repeater. This way, you can choose which access point to use, depending on where you are.
Click on save, then go over to the Wireless Security page.
Enter the wireless security settings for your main router, then enter the details for your new repeater’s signal. Lastly, we need to make sure that your repeater is connected to your main router. To do that, go to Status > Wireless.
At the bottom of the page, you’ll see a button that says Site Survey. Click on it.
Find you main router’s wireless SSID and click Join. That’s it! Place your repeater on the other side of your house, but not so far that it doesn’t get a good signal. Then, you can connect to your new repeater and test it out.
Use Your Repeater as a Wireless Receiver
An added benefit of DD-WRT is that you can configure your repeater to act as a wireless receiver for a computer that doesn’t have one. Return to where you configured the repeating function, under Wireless > Basic Settings.
Change the mode to Repeater Bridge. Now, you can plug in a device into the router’s ethernet ports and it’ll act just like it’s wired into your main router. If you’re not using it then you should turn if off, as it can cut your bandwidth otherwise.
If you’re looking to speed up browsing, Removing Advertisements with Pixelserv and Find a Faster DNS Server with Namebench can both help your cause – with or without extended ranges – thanks to DD-WRT.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
How to Boost Your Wi-Fi Network Signal and Increase Range with DD-WRT
Wireless is really convenient until you drop your connection or get really low speeds. Thanks to DD-WRT, it’s easier than ever to extend your home networks range with a few simple tweaks and a spare router.
DD-WRT is a fully feature-packed alternative firmware for your router. If you don’t know what it is or how to get it on your device, you should start off with Turn Your Home Router into a Super-Powered Router with DD-WRT.
Boosting Your Signal
Fire up your web browser and direct it to your router’s configuration page. Go to Wireless > Advanced Settings.
There are three settings of interest, the first being TX Power. This is the broadcasting power of your transmitting antenna. The default is a safe value of 70, but we can kick it up a bit. Most people report that jumping up to a 100 is safe. Pushing it higher can cause excessive heat which can damage your router. I don’t have to worry about that since my “server area” is cold and I’m also a bit reckless, so I kicked mine up to 150. It’s been that way for a few weeks and I haven’t had a problem yet, but your mileage may vary. Use your common sense and discretion.
Next up is the Afterburner setting. If your wireless router and adapters support Afterburner – also known as SpeedBooster, SuperSpeed, Turbo G, and G Plus (but not Super-G) – you can enable this to get a boost. Things may slow down if they don’t support it, though, so be sure to do your homework. B-only devices won’t see any problems and N-based devices shouldn’t be negatively affected, either.
Finally, we get to Bluetooth Coexistence Mode. If you use bluetooth a lot, then you may have noticed a drop in reliability or speed with both wireless and bluetooth devices. Turning this setting on should keep the two from interfering too badly with one another.
Use a Spare Device as a Repeater
Most of us have upgraded our networks with new routers over the years. If you have your old one lying around, why not throw DD-WRT on it? I had a spare Linksys wireless access point, but after putting alternate firmware on it, I had a full-blown router on my hands. We can put our spare device to work as a repeater, which can act as a range-extender for a new section of your house or yard.
Under Wireless > Basic Settings, change the mode to Repeater.
You’ll see two sections, Wireless Physical Interface (wl0), and Virtual Interfaces (wl0.1). The physical interface is going to be receiving the signal from your main router. Plug in the SSID, configure the network mode, and decide if you wanted it to be bridged (connected with the old network) or unbridged (isolated from it). Next, come up with a new SSID for your repeater. This way, you can choose which access point to use, depending on where you are.
Click on save, then go over to the Wireless Security page.
Enter the wireless security settings for your main router, then enter the details for your new repeater’s signal. Lastly, we need to make sure that your repeater is connected to your main router. To do that, go to Status > Wireless.
At the bottom of the page, you’ll see a button that says Site Survey. Click on it.
Find you main router’s wireless SSID and click Join. That’s it! Place your repeater on the other side of your house, but not so far that it doesn’t get a good signal. Then, you can connect to your new repeater and test it out.
Use Your Repeater as a Wireless Receiver
An added benefit of DD-WRT is that you can configure your repeater to act as a wireless receiver for a computer that doesn’t have one. Return to where you configured the repeating function, under Wireless > Basic Settings.
Change the mode to Repeater Bridge. Now, you can plug in a device into the router’s ethernet ports and it’ll act just like it’s wired into your main router. If you’re not using it then you should turn if off, as it can cut your bandwidth otherwise.
If you’re looking to speed up browsing, Removing Advertisements with Pixelserv and Find a Faster DNS Server with Namebench can both help your cause – with or without extended ranges – thanks to DD-WRT.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
How to Install a Wireless Card in Linux Using Windows Drivers - How-To Geek
Linux has come a long way with hardware support, but if you have a wireless card that still does not have native Linux drivers you might be able to get the card working with a Windows driver and ndiswrapper.Using a Windows driver inside of Linux may also give you faster transfer rates or better encryption support depending on your wireless card.
If your wireless card is working, it is not recommended to install the Windows driver just for fun because it could cause a conflict with the native Linux driver.
Download Wireless Card Driver
The first thing you need to do is figure out what wireless card you have. There are a couple ways to do this and some involve finding the device chipset and others involve scouring through system logs.
The easiest method is to just look at the device itself, if you have an external wireless card, or search your manufactures website for what wireless card came with your computer, if you have an internal wireless card.
Once you know what wireless adapter you are trying to install, go to the manufacturer’s website to download the Windows drivers for the device.
If at all possible, you should try to download the 32-bit Windows XP drivers in .zip format rather than .exe. If you don’t have an option, select the latest Windows driver that your manufacturer provides.
Extract Wireless Driver
To extract the files, browse to the .exe or .zip file, right click on it, and select open with archive manager.
Note: Although archive manager can extract both .exe and .zip files, sometimes the files within the .exe may not work with ndiswrapper.
Click extract at the top and copy all the files to an easy to find location.
Install Ndiswrapper
Ndiswrapper is the tool that allows Linux to use Windows drivers for wireless card support.
To install it in Ubuntu go to the Software Center and search for ndisgtk.
Note: Linux Mint comes with ndiswrapper installed.
Install Windows Driver
Now that you have your wireless driver extracted and ndiswrapper installed, open Windows Wireless Drivers from the System -> Administration menu.
In the window that opens, click on install new driver and browse to where you extracted the driver.
Sometimes the .inf files will be in sub-folders inside the driver so you may need to dig around to locate the right file to use.
After you select the .inf file for your wireless card click install. It will take a couple minutes to install the driver so be patient while it works.
After the driver is installed the main window will indicate if you selected the right .inf file by telling you if the hardware is present or not. If you selected the wrong driver the first time you can try installing a different .inf file that was extracted from the driver.
If none of the .inf files work you may want to try the driver for the same card for a different version of Windows (e.g. XP, Vista, 7).
After you get the right driver installed click configure network to open Ubuntu network connections and connect to your wireless network.
If you are still having trouble you may want to check out the ndiswrapper wiki to see if others have had success with the wireless card.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Sprint 4G Goes Live In SF Next Month, LA, Miami, D.C., Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus Today
by Greg Kumparak on November 29, 2010
Just last week, we were watching as Sprint rather suggestively compared the size of their “pipe” to the size of their competitors “pipe” as part of their prep work for 4G in LA. Today, all that pipe-laying comes to fruition; Sprint 4G has just launched in Los Angeles — and they went ahead and flipped things on in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Washington D.C, and Miami as well, just for good measure.
Tucked into the announcement was some good news for San Franciscan’s, as well — hop behind the jump for that bit.
Short story shorter, Sprint’s going to be launching 4G in San Francisco on December 28th. If you’re an SF resident hoping that Santa brings around a Sprint 4G phone for Christmas, it looks like the deal just got a bit sweeter.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Broadcom BCM4311/12/21/22 Hardware (STA driver):
Broadcom BCM4311/12/21/22 Hardware (STA driver):
NOTE: ASSUMES FRESH INSTALL. FOR LAPTOPS, ONCE THE SYSTEM REBOOTS AFTER INSTALL, REBOOT AGAIN
AND TOGGLE THE WIRELESS BUTTON (YES, IT COULD BE THAT EASY).Plug into the network via cable:
WifiDocsDriverbcm43xx - Community Ubuntu Documentation
This page aims at getting your Broadcom BCM43xx PCI based wireless network card working. The proprietary drivers can be activated under the desktop menu System > Administration > Hardware/Additional Drivers using an existing Internet connection (Ethernet or USB) for best results. If you experience troubles activating follow the instructions on this page for your particular scenario.
Broadcom BCM43xx Chipset (PCI)
Identifying Your Card/Driver
In a terminal the command lspci will display information about all PCI devices attached to your computer.
To display only devices manufactured by Broadcom (including wifi cards), apply a filter for "14e4" as follows:
~$ lspci -vvnn | grep 14e4The following is an example of the information required to identify your card type and typical lspci output.
- CHIPSET - BCM4322
- PCI-ID - [14e4:432b]
Note: the PCI-ID is of particular importance.
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:432b] (rev 01)
Unsupported cards
If you are unable to use the b43 kernel driver or the b43/STA hybrid driver, you will need to go for ndiswrapper - this will allow you to use closed source drivers to activate your wifi card.
Installing b43/STA hybrid drivers
9.10 (Karmic Koala), 10.04 (Lucid Lynx), 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)
Supported models, mostly found on Dell hardware, include:
BCM4311, BCM4312, BCM4313, BCM4321, BCM4322, BCM43224, BCM43225
b43/STA - Internet access
Step 1.
Install the b43/STA hybrid drivers/firmware from the restricted repository using the Software Centre or the Synaptic Package Manager (Under the desktop menu System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager) and search for the bcmwl-kernel-source package and install or in a terminal (under the desktop menu Applications > Accessories > Terminal) issue the following commands:
~$ sudo apt-get update ~$ sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-sourceStep 2.
Under the desktop menu System > Administration > Hardware/Additional Drivers, the STA drivers can be activated for use.
Note: A computer restart may be required before using the wifi card.
LiveCD/LiveUSB
For temporary use with the LiveCD and LiveUSB environments, simply use the Software Centre or the Synaptic Package Manager to search for and install the bcmwl-kernel-source package. Refer to Step 1 and Step 2 of the instructions above.
Step 3.
Instead of a computer restart, in a terminal issue the following commands:
~$ sudo modprobe -r b43 ssb wl ~$ sudo modprobe wlNote: Allow several seconds for the network manager to scan for available networks before attempting a connection.
b43/STA - No Internet access
If you do not have any other means of Internet access on your computer, you will have to install the bcmwl-kernel-source package from the restricted folder under ../pool/restricted/b/bcmwl on the Ubuntu install media.
Step 1.
Navigate the install media and double click to install bcmwl-kernel-source (10.10 Maverick Meerkat) or navigate the install media and install these packages consecutively in a terminal (under the desktop menu Applications > Accessories > Terminal):
../pool/main/d/dkms
:/dkms/$ sudo dpkg -i dkms*../pool/main/p/patch
:/patch/$ sudo dpkg -i patch*../pool/main/f/fakeroot
:/fakeroot/$ sudo dpkg -i fakeroot*../pool/restricted/b/bcmwl
:/bcmwl/$ sudo dpkg -i bcmwl-kernel-source*Step 2.
Under the desktop menu System > Administration > Hardware/Additional Drivers, the STA drivers can be activated for use.
Note: A computer restart may be required before using the wifi card.
LiveCD/LiveUSB
Note: The install media contents are mounted under /cdrom of the filesystem.
Step 3.
For temporary use with the LiveCD and LiveUSB environments, instead of a computer restart, in a terminal issue the following commands:
~$ sudo modprobe -r b43 ssb wl ~$ sudo modprobe wlNote: Allow several seconds for the network manager to scan for available networks before attempting a connection.
Installing BCM43xx drivers
8.04 (Hardy Heron), 9.10 (Karmic Koala), 10.04 (Lucid Lynx), 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)
Supported models include:
BCM4301 BCM4306/2, BCM4306/3, BCM4311, BCM4312, BCM4318, BCM4320
The Ubuntu kernel in versions 8.04.x (Hardy Heron) and higher do provide the b43 drivers, however due to copyright restrictions not the proprietary firmware which is required to run your card. See here for a list of known PCI devices and their available modes as well as supported/unsupported chipsets.
The following instructions explain how to extract the required firmware.
b43 - Internet access
If you have some other kind of Internet access on your computer, you can download the firmware by simply installing the b43-fwcutter package which does the download and setup for you automatically.
Step 1.
To install b43-fwcutter issue the following command in a terminal (under the desktop menu Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and follow the prompts:
~$ sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutterStep 2.
Under the desktop menu System > Administration > Hardware/Additional Drivers, the b43 drivers can be activated for use.
Note: A computer restart may be required before using the wifi card.
LiveCD/LiveUSB
Step 3.
For temporary use with the LiveCD and LiveUSB environments, instead of a computer restart, in a terminal issue the following commands:
~$ sudo modprobe -r b43 ssb ~$ sudo modprobe b43Note: Allow several seconds for the network manager to scan for available networks before attempting a connection.
b43 - No Internet access
If you do not have any other means of Internet access on your computer, you will have to install b43-fwcutter and patch packages from the install media. After that you will need to setup firmware manually (without the firmware automatically downloading and being set up).
Setp 1.
b43-fwcutter is located on the Ubuntu install media under ../pool/main/b/b43-fwcutter/ and patch is located under ../pool/main/p/patch/ or both in the official repositories online.
Double click on the package to install or in a terminal (under the desktop menu Applications > Accessories > Terminal) navigate to the folder containing the package and issue the following command:
:/b43-fwcutter/$ sudo dpkg -i b43-fwcutter*Step 2.
On a computer with Internet access, download the required firmware files from http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o and http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
Step 3.
Copy the downloaded files to your home folder and execute the following commands consecutively in a terminal to extract and install the firmware:
~$ tar xfvj broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2 ~$ sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o ~$ sudo b43-fwcutter --unsupported -w /lib/firmware broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver/wl_apsta_mimo.oStep 4.
Under the desktop menu System > Administration > Hardware/Additional Drivers, the b43 drivers can be activated for use.
Note: A computer restart may be required before using the wifi card.
LiveCD/LiveUSB
Note: The install media contents are mounted under /cdrom of the filesystem.
Step 5.
For temporary use with the LiveCD and LiveUSB environments, instead of a computer restart, in a terminal issue the following commands:
~$ sudo modprobe -r b43 ssb ~$ sudo modprobe b43Note: Allow several seconds for the network manager to scan for available networks before attempting a connection.
Technical Support
b43 Kernel Driver
IRC channel (official) - #bcm-users @ irc.freenode.com
Mailing list - http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/b43-dev
b43/STA Hybrid Driver
Ubuntu
IRC channel (official) - #ubuntu @ irc.freenode.com
Ubuntu-users mailing list - https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
See Also
Broadcom b43/STA linux driver page.
b43 Kernel driver wireless.kernel.org
Installing Windows drivers with NdisWrapper
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