[buug] Attn John from Thurs. meeting

[Pewter Bot]

Congrats on your new Asus netbook. Regarding connecting our two
netbooks directly via our wifi chips (which we couldn't figure out on
the fly):

I've been researching the matter, it's called "unmanaged" or "ad hoc"
networking. I posed my question on an ubuntu forum:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=7246810#post7246810

The first reply provided a link to a page that may answer our
question. The link is:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=861388

But I can't test it out, as I don't have a second laptop handy.
Another poster remarked "Create ad hoc network.You can do that easily
at fedora 10 with network manager BUT at ubuntu creating ad hoc from
gnome network manager or wicd does not work from my experience."

But I seriously question that. Ubuntu/gnome is still Linux, and I'm
sure you can create an ad-hoc network via the terminal. If you go to
that thread I posted in the ubuntu forum, you'll see my comment,

--quote:
>From System>Control Center, there is "Remote Desktop". See attachment
below...which includes how I set it up. Since I can't test it out now,
I just don't know...I have to wait till I see my friend at our next
meeting, which won't be for 12 more days. But if this works, it looks
pretty easy. All the other person needs do is use this "vinagre"
command. What this setup doesn't seem to provide, is limiting the
client to a specific folder.
--end quote

You might want to visit that forum, to view the attachment. We use a
different GUI, so I'm not sure where you'll find "Remote Desktop" on
your netbook. Or maybe it's not available, on your "base" install.

Regarding limiting a client to a specific folder or folders, I guess
one could do that by setting up a web server. But I'm more concerned
about getting a wifi ad hoc network to run successfully, before I do
anything else.

On my own, I found this other wifi ad-hoc page:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Adhoc

And lastly, this bit of software that claims to "generate easy to
install and use packages for multihop ad hoc network auto
configuration tasks.":

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ethane/

There is also "piconet" that claims "To implement an ad hoc multihop
routing protocol for IP on Linux which will allow a dynamic network of
mobile devices to be self-organizing and self-configuring.":

http://sourceforge.net/projects/piconet/

But since a search of "ad hoc network" on sourceforge.net gave me a
total 6897 results, I'll just stop here.  8|

I'm sure you'll have all this figured out by the next meeting, but I
wanted to see what I could learn before then...and perhaps my search
results will help facilitate your own exploration...but more likely
will just confound the situation!  :D

PS: Regarding my mention of a Free Internet wifi service that seems to
be useless if you connect to it, and that in my research I concluded
it's likely hacker intrusion: further research pretty much affirms it.
This is coming out of the Church Street Cafe near Market, close to
where I live. I alerted the owner, Hank, but he's not interested in
warning customers, or contacting Comcast to put a stop to it...in
fact, he's just into $$$ and has written me off as a nuisance. I
continue going there, to learn more about this likely wifi
intrusion...and here is another page on this subject that once more
affirms my own conclusion, as the behavior matches perfectly their
description:

Free Public Wifi Epidemic
http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2008/06/04/free-public-wifi-epidemic/

Most vulnerable of course, are Windoze users, heh heh. Of course,
that's most of Hank's customers. I tried to show him the web pages
describing this exploit, but he acts like he's always too busy to
listen...regardless of the fact he spends idle time associating with
some others who are, to be polite in my description: less than savory
characters. His desire to please all customers (for the sake of
profits) is also blinding him to certain roadblocks. If customers'
personal data is stolen, and they suffer identity theft and use of
their systems to distribute illegal wares/pr0n, I think they'll find
another coffeehouse to do wifi. So I play detective on my own, and I
will try to narrow down which nearby address this is actually coming
from.

What is disappointing is that I know the neighborhood, and how to make
his coffeehouse more inviting, and bring in decent customers. This
corridor has a lot of rough trade going on, and they use this
coffeehouse for their purposes. Hank did as I suggested in other
matters, such as removing the trash bin from the doorway, to stop
certain vagrants from obstructing the doorway and scaring customers.
He also removed the inside pay phone, which put an end to these crude
vagrants disturbing the peace...cause they used to stand by the phone,
pretending to use it, while screaming and banging the handset around.
And  he thanked me for these suggestions, which improved the ambience
considerably. Yet, in his own ignorance about computers and the
Internet, he sees me as a nuisance regarding this wifi expolit, than a
help. Ce la guerre!

I suspect the wifi exploit coming from next door (north side), where a
massage service has set itself up...and is actually a gay escort
service. Further: no other coffeehouse in the area are affected by any
sort of "free internet" wifi service (I've been to all of 'em several
times to check this out).

I want to walk around with my netbook open, to see if signal strength
is strongest there, or elsewhere...I just don't like to make myself
vulnerable to a mugging. Perhaps I can find someone to walk with me.

-- 
NetDetective Zeke Krahlin
City of the CyberZombie Cult