DD-WRT Port Sniffing

I needed to spy on the network traffic a wireless device was sending through my DD-WRT router, but didn't want to setup a proxy server or a Linux router, or anything really complicated.

What I really wanted was to run wireshark on my DD-WRT router.

Well I got probably the next best thing: the ability to mirror all of the traffic to another PC where I could capture it with wireshark!

Basically it is two commands (one for traffic sourced from the target and one destined for the target):

iptables -t mangle -A POSTROUTING \
    -d [IP to spy on] \
    -j ROUTE –tee –gw [IP of wireshark]
iptables -t mangle -A PREROUTING \
    -s [IP to spy on] \
    -j ROUTE –tee –gw [IP of wireshark]

Check out this link for the source:
http://thatexplainsalot.com/blog/2010/11/use-wireshark-and-dd-wrt-router-firmware-to-imitate-port-monitoring-on-a-router-switch-port/

Compress THIS!

Occasionally I like to free up hard drive space and who better to help than Windows itself? That's why I use the Disk Cleanup tool.

Unfortunately, one of the ways that the Disk Cleanup tool likes to "free up space" is to compress all of your "old" files. This, of course, is a terrible idea.

Fortunately there's a way to disable it!

Simply delete:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Compress old files

RFC 2889

RFC 2889: LAN Switch Benchmarking Methodology

I was just discussing this today at work -- and I'll be spending some time going through this in the next few days.

Project Management & Repository

It's been _forever_ since I've posted on here -- so I'll start out with something quick and easy -- and at the same time, something that's changed my life for the better.

I manage a few projects at work -- most of which need the assistance of a project manager. The one that I've become accustomed to using has all of the features that I have come to rely on and appreciate. One word: Unfuddle.

Here's to posting more regularly!

ASN.1 Decoding Made Easy

Next time you need to ASN.1 decode something real quick, take a look at this ASN.1 JavaScript decoder

Simply fantastic.

Building OpenSSL with FIPS

When trying to build openssl-fips-1.2.3, I can never remember how to build the fips canister first:

./config fipscanisterbuild
./make
./config
./make

ATI Video Drivers for Radeon Mobility X1400

I recently re-purposed my old 17" laptop (read: desktop replacement) by Velcroing it to the underside of the kitchen cabinets. When I did this, the laptop screen had to open down instead of up -- meaning that the screen was now upside-down. Piece of cake to fix, just select the "rotate screen 180*" button in the ATI software, right? Negative.

It turns out that Windows XP Service Pack 3 broke the ATI software. Because I wasn't using this feature at the time, I missed out on all of this drama -- as well as the opportunity to download the updated device drivers. Now the device drivers (if they ever did exist) are buried in some archive that I can't get to or find after hours of Googling. I could find many drivers for the ATI cards, and even the ATI Radeon Mobility cards, and even the ATI Radeon Mobility X(number) cards -- but not the X1400.

I think this is because Dell and Lenovo (and probably other OEMs) packaged this card with their PCs and didn't want people downloading device drivers from ATI that would cause problems because they would have to field the tech support calls. Which is what this ATI site confirms.

Anyway, I searched and searched and couldn't find any drivers, until I found this:

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/modtool.php

That's right, someone actually wrote a tool to modify the ATI drivers so they would work with other cards. Now I can download the drivers meant for the 22 other models and they will work with my card, which is conveniently left out of the list.

And it works! I now have a laptop working with an upside-down screen!