The WhiteHack Blog

So It’s been five days now and our broadband is still slower than dialup.

Sky are due to change our line on the 16th, and we are looking forward to it.

The funny thing is that we have just had a call from Tiscali.

The representative started with: “I understand you hav requested a MAC code, have we done something to offend you?”

Well, firstly MAC stands for Migration Access Code, so its not a MAC code, in the same way as you it’s not a PIN number it’s the same as saying personal identifaction number number, so migration access code code is wrong.

But I digress and was not about to let semantics stand in the way of me voicing my dissatisfaction with Tiscali/Talk Talk.

I explained that the speed was slower than dial-up, and basically unusable.

“That’s because you don’t have the new TalkTalk router which will give you 7 megabits”.

7 Megabits is slower than we were on previously, and (knowing a little about networking) a new router would not change anything. I explained to the guy that only a new user name and password would have any effect on our line at a hardware level (in my home). We have an internet connection, so we know that:

A: My router works
B: The username and password works
C: My internet line is working – there is a connection to the outside world, but bandwidth is being throttled
D: TalkTalk talk bollocks and their staff know fuck-all

At this point the gent on the other end of the phone said “er, Thank you very much” and hung up.

The problem is fairly evident, this is nothing but a ploy by TalkTalk to get users whose original Tiscali contract has ended, and who have not signed up to a TalkTalk package to take a contract with TalkTalk.

The only cause for this slowness has got to be bandwidth throttling by TalkTalk. The line works, my account works, my router works, just TalkTalk have some very dubious methods of trying to gain customers.

So where does that leave the user, well if your contract with Tiscali has expired, you are up shit creek as TalkTalk have no obligation to you, and can do what ever the fuck they like, which is basically taking a crap on you.

It’s very easy to switch ISPs, check this out from MacCode.org.uk.

For a good comparison of broadband providers check this out.

Remember, you don’t have to be forced to take out a new contract with a company like TalkTalk.

I was never sure it was a good move switching from BT to Tiscali. It was a move based on price and nothing else, and I knew that Tiscali’s support service was pretty bad.

But we could save over £100 a year, so it seemed like a good trade off.
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We all know that ESX server can be run within VMWare Workstation 6, but as I already has Server 2.0 installed, I decided to see if the same could be done, mainly as learning ESX server cannot be a bad thing, but I did not want to run Server 2, and Workstation 6 at the same time, although both are free products, it really does not make much sense to run thetwo on eht same machine if one will suffice.

The basic VM is set as a 32bit RedHat linux machine running a 2.6 kernel, with 1GB memory, bridged nic, 8GB hard disk, and I am using the ESX 3.5.0 iso image from VMWare.

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I have previously mentioned that the RHCE exam (RH302) is quite expensive, but I managed to get a rather nice discount, bringing the total cost down to £400 (instead of £598).

Sorry, but I am not going to tell you how I managed this, but suffice it to say there were a number of emails between me and the nice people at RedHat, and much discussion with my wife, who paid for the exam as a joint birthday/xmas present. Yes, I know I am a geek!

So with 54 days remaining I am using the excellent RHCE Red Hat Certified Engineer Linux Study Guide (Exam RH302) (Certification Press)Michael Jang book (soon to switch to the Red Hat® Certified Technician & Engineer (RHCT and RHCE) Training Guide and Administrator’s ReferenceAsher Ghori book when I unwrap it at the weekend), several VMWare Server guest RedHat builds (one server for the NFS install, and several to break and build). The only shame about the Ghori book is that there is no pdf to download anywhere (good for him though, and it’s nice to have the physical book to read, instead of staring at a computer screen).

I would also recommend the Foundations of CentOS Linux: Enterprise Linux On the Cheap (Books for Professionals by Professionals)CentOS book (and getting the discs if you cant get hold of the RedHat ones), its a very well written book, and considering it covers such a wide number of topics, it’s surprisingly indepth!

Another invaluable resource is the Deployment guide freely available on the RedHat site.

But it’s proper practice that’s the key with this exam. It’s a true test of ability, so practice is imperitive.

So apart from living and breathing RedHat, I have had more articles published, one for the ITJobBoard on Cross Examination, and another for RedmondMag on ActiveBatch 7. I am quite liking this writing lark.

Merry xmas all.

Today is shaping up pretty well so far, it’ll be even better if I can get wireless working on my iPhone again.

I passed my JN0-400 (Juniper Networks Certified Internet Associate, Enterprise Switching) with a nice high score, and also my first review for Redmnd Magazine has been published: http://redmondmag.com/articles/2009/10/01/kaseya-virtual-system-administrator.aspx

The exam was not really that difficult, especially after passing the Network+ and CCNA. A couple of questions are very basic networking ones such as bridging, but most of the other questions seem to be aimed at those who already have the CCNA, and are looking to move to Juniper.

Best of all, it was free!

A little while ago I posted about how Norton Internet Security successfully blocked access to Yahoo! email, well last week I encountered a problem where one PC would not show any internet pages.

I could ping things ok (like the default gateway and google), but nothing would appear on Internet Explorer, I even tried resetting Winsock, but this did not work. Eventually I uninstalled Norton Internet Security, and the Internet magically sprang into life again.

Well today I came across more proof that Norton Internet Security is evil.

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Today is quite exciting, sadly in a very geeky kind of way, but then that’s me.

Today I upgrade my main PC to Windows 7, Vista will be no more. I never had any real problems with Vista (Ultimate 64Bit), but then again, I never used it in the workplace, and would never recommend anyone else to either. But as Windows 7 is finally here (for some people at least), I am taking the chance to upgrade to what already looks to be a stable OS. I have had the beta of Windows 7 running on an NC10 laptop for sometime, and it’s never once given me a problem.

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I have now booked all five of the exams that are currently being offered as part of the 100% discount program via Juniper.

It’s going to be a fun two months! The last exam takes place the day after my 32nd birthday as well…

Speaking of Juniper, check out this article by Praetorian Prefect on VRF. It’s an excellent example of why Juniper is pretty awesome!

http://praetorianprefect.com/archives/2009/09/vrf-is-the-new-black-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-complexity/

Juniper are offering free exams (a saving of £76 in the UK).

The exams offered are:
Enterprise Routing:

1. Associate (JNCIA-ER)
2. Specialist (JNCIS-ER)

Enterprise Switching Certification Track

1. Associate (JNCIA-EX) Learn More

JUNOS Security Track

1. Associate (JNCIA-JUNOS)
2. Specialist (JNCIS-SEC)

The Certification Steps are:
1. Take the eLearning course
2. Review Study Resources
3. Take the pre-assessment exam
4. Take the live exam at a Prometric testing center

http://junos.juniper.net/fast-track/

The offer is only open until the 9th October, after that its only a 50% saving on the exam price (which is still very good!)

grsecurity’s Brad Spengler has just released details of an exploit that works on a fully patched Linux kernel (versions 2.6.30 and 2.6.30.1).

From TheRegister:

“The vulnerability is located in several parts of Linux, including one that implements functions known as net/tun. Although the code correctly checks to make sure the tun variable doesn’t point to NULL, the compiler removes the lines responsible for that inspection during optimization routines. The result: When the variable points to zero, the kernel tries to access forbidden pieces of memory, leading to a compromise of the box running the OS.”

The source code is rather interesting to read, indicating that due to gcc optimizations unexploitable code becomes exploitable, and it can bypass the mmap_min_addr in an SELinux vulnerability. The code can be compiled to work on 32bit and 64 bit systems.

YouTube video of exploit in action.

Awesome!