Comcast DNS fail

So... according to Twitter and news.google, Comcast is down in IL, IN, MN, MI. Which is a lot of areas to be down in. DNS issue. Fix it by following instructions here. https://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using.html#setup

I would be unsurprised if someone hacked Comcast in return for the Netflix thing. It's not like Comcast is universally loved. I'm watching how this plays out with some interest. Mostly by keeping an eye on http://twitter.com/#!/comcastcares

If it was an accident, how did this accident come about?

Clear wifi

If you are connected to a Clear wifi hotspot (in my case, one that I own) then go to its IP, which is 192.168.1.1

At this point you can log in as admin / admin (unless someone's changed the defaults)

Or you can go to 192.168.1.1/super and log in as super / super and change the admin password from there. There's no GUI way to change the super password, but if you go into the .htapassword file, you can change it there I believe.

I'm still experimenting... while keeping in mind that there's no "reset" button on this thing and if I screw up then I will have no internet until I go somewhere else...

This idea came from an article about how to hack the Clear iSpot, which only works for apple devices and which is rather cheap per month. Therefore, if it can be hacked to work for non-mac devices... one would get a good return. Since it's all Clear hardware... it seems that it's the same. Sigh.

I'm perfectly content with my current Clear services and I don't intend to hack anything... but I'm concerned that someone could potentially log into my Clear device and change my admin password (which is no longer the default password, of course...)

So, what are the security defects here?

• The informed populace can log into my wifi hotspot and change my admin password
• There's no way (yet) for me to stop them
• Presumably, the "informed populace" can also go in and screw with my security settings, therefore opening a way for them to gather my data, including credit card information if and when I send that over the network.

Why are these security defects not that bad?

• The "informed populace" is so far very small. The wifi hotspot is also small. It's unlikely that anyone within range of it will be able to figure out how to use it... or hack those using it.
• this is probably Clear's way of resetting *lusers' admin passwords when they forget them, which is a necessary task
• With some work, I can probably change the password on the super account.

* luser is a contraction of loser and user and means an uninformed user.

Clear vs *NIX round 2

All of the below is done with the invaluable help of rancorbeast.

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/shemminger/beceem.git;a=blob;f=drivers/staging/bcm/TODO;h=366634be5fe1d4cf2065f57d480230dbc1a754d9;hb=HEAD

The above is a to-do list for what claims to be a driver for the chipset in the Clear dongle. But I don't know what it would show up as, and I don't know how you would build it.

This is more information: http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/shemminger/beceem.git;a=log

Here's a mailing list thread on the topic. http://www.amailbox.org/mailarchive/linux-driver-devel/2010/9/8/6886374

So basically, Sprint released some driver code, and this is a cleaned-up pull of that? It was part of the Broadcom driver source...

Right now trying to get a clone of it and compile.

Clear internet vs. Ubuntu: round 1

Basic research turns up that many other people have had this problem (duh) and there are even some working solutions.

Solutions:
1. Run Ubuntu. Make a virtual machine to run Windows.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?s=4c54d9928910267a2e0566113d05a89b&t=1243159&page=2
Downsides: resource-intensive to run, time-intensive to set up.

2. use the Clear "hotspot" (i.e. it makes wifi from 4G for you) ...turn it on and it works. elegant.
downside: heavy to carry, so only an at-home solution. Gotta buy (or rent) the hotspot from Clear.

3. fiddle with ndiswrapper forever (no one has gotten this working yet, I think)

4. Something something Moblin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moblin (I don't understand this one and I don't think that the person discussing it actually got it to work)

5. Something something VMware (see 4 for commentary)

[interjection: OMG SO MANY EGOTISTICAL and ignorant post=newbs]
[sorry about that, it's just driving me a little mad]

It seems clear that Clear modems work fine with *NIX boxen, both through wifi and ethernet. (Clear's website FAQ states that their modems work with the Linux OS, and the forums sometimes list a modem as an easy alternate-route solution to the problem)

6. wvdial http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=843973
Yes, this is a long thread.
Yes, this addresses a specific provider in the UK (and my problem addresses a problem with a provider primarily in Chicago)

I would like to take a moment to laugh at this statement. "I general I try to avoid software which might break my system."
Yes, me too. I always try to not break my system. But everything we use in this life is subject to rm, so try to not be too paranoid. If we didn't ignore the warning labels, we wouldn't be geeks. geeks/scientists/intelligent/human?)

As a side note, I think it's kinda cool that the IIT network added my MAC address to their approved list in such a way that I don't have to re-register my comp (running ubuntu on the school wireless for the first time, but ran Vista while logged on previously)

7. According to various people posting at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=843973&page=3
it seems that NM 0.7 (anmd possibly more current versions, although those were probably not yet developed when this thread was established) may be able to fix this problem as a more or less plug and play kind of solution, and (if things go wrong) will restore previous settings when it's uninstalled.
http://projects.gnome.org/NetworkManager/

(As everyone has discovered before me) "plug and play" is bullshit. Rather, it's what happens after a whole bunch of geeks work out ways to make things work, probably by typing green text into little black boxes. If you are a geek, plug and play is a convenience on your way to trying to solve your own black box problems, not an expectation.

It's also kinda amusing that the terminal box is a black box, i.e. contains non-understood inside bots. Hopefully that's generally not true... also, more recent versions of Ubuntu have the terminal box transparent purple by default. :p Pretty, but less humorous.

Mostly unrealted: vnstat is a cool little thingie with which you can monitor your internet usage. (useful if you have a company-imposed cap on your usage)

Pages 7-15 seem to be newbs either giving thanks for the fix, or asking for clarification on something that tripped them up.

8. Gnome-PPP
Just don't ask.

Apparently "Three" is a pretty big internet provider across the pond. Always good to know these things, I guess.

9. umtsmon
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=843973&page=12
I don't care I don't care I don't care

People keep mentioning setserial.

Right. research done. Conclusion: I don't know why people use emoticons of someone playing a guitar.

Other (possibly useful, but not to me) links
http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2008/10/09/huawei-e169-3g-modem-on-ubuntu-804/
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1046813
http://www.linuxwimax.org/ (awesome!!)
http://crazyaboutubuntu.wordpress.com/huawei-e169g-hsdpa-usb-stick-on-ubuntu/

Cool glossary chart of sysadmin terminology http://bhami.com/rosetta.html

There may be a part 2 when/if I make a solution for myself.

"post-newb"

Today I was explaining the network situation (really good, actually, with some interesting old hardware) at Aquinas (where I work sometimes) to my flatmate (a biomed major) and, during the discussion, said "but I need to do a lot of research; I'm just a (newb/noob/n00b/etc)"

Her response to this was along the lines of "you do things that I don't understand, use words I haven't learned, and install things that I had to get a friend to install for me- you're not a newb."

"Okay," I replied. "I'm a post-newb."

I think that a post-newb (and I use "newb" instead of "noob" or other spellings because I like the way that "new" is part of it not only in the pronunciation but in spelling) is a person who has begun to delve into the sea of CS and intends to delve further, but still has wide gaps in basic realms of knowledge.

And as I read forums and FAQ (trying to find a way to get Ubuntu to play nice with my Clear wifi 4G yadda yadda dongle) I realize that yes, I really am a post-newb. Unfortunately, a lot of the people posting on these forums (mostly ubuntuforums.org btw) are also post-newbs. In fact, they're egotistical post-newbs with aspirations of guruhood.

It occurs to me that, just by being able to distinguish them (oh, and myself) from the gurus, I'm doing better than they are.

I wish that an actual guru had turned their attention to figuring out this problem. Most of these posts don't show a clear understanding of the issue, much less the solution.

But it's also exciting to be prowling in half-trodden ground- a new(ish) problem without an (established, standardized) solution.

To the Google, may it bring me knowledge.