So then, you’ve got the “Fastest Package” for the Verizon FiOS ultra high-speed fiber optic. A whooping 50 Mbps download speed and a 20 Mbps upload speed! That means 802.11b WiFi routers won’t even be able to handle those speeds! Nevertheless, that possible 11 Mbps bottleneck should not be your only concern. If you’re going to be utilizing a number of network intensive applications (*coughGnuettllaEmuleBittorrent*) you’ll need to make some other adjustments to your hardware and software network setup. This is one of many things you can do to optimize the network. However, it is the first thing I try to remember when setting up any node or router on my home network.
Possible Names
This setting has many names. You can look for “Maximum Ports,” “Maximum Number of Connections,” “Max Active Links,” “Max Half-open/Duplex Concurrent Connections,” etc. Like the names imply, this setting controls how many connections can be established between nodes. Why is this important? It allows the client computer to contact many more server hosts at the same time. Off the top of my head, this would be beneficial to multi-segment download managers programs like DownThemAll!, Internet browsers (especially with multiple tabs), and (lower voice) P2P file sharing programs.
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A couple of months ago, I published my previous Wi-Fi penetration article about “Aircrack/Aireplay-ng Under Packet Injection Monitor Mode in Windows using a Virtual Machine of Backtrack Linux.” Really, there was still no complete sever from Linux with this scheme … until now. I didn’t realize that there was an easier way to use aircrack-ng in Windows and at the same time completely break free of Linux. Hours after I released that article, a reader left a comment telling me that somebody already wrote a less complicated method, “How to Packet injection Aireplay-ng & Windows XP” at airdump.net.
Summary
Ultimately, the premises of this hack works like this. With a slightly modified DOS/Windows-ported compilation of the most cutting-edge (actually beta) Aircrack-ng suite and a monitor mode compatible WiFi driver, it is possible to essentially inject packets in Windows with no middleman of a virtual machine (as mentioned in my previous Backtrack article). The original article at airdump.net actually provides the recompiled Aircrack-ng suite and the stripped CommView WiFi driver in a nifty little package.
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When I was in high school, I was exploited … twice. But not in that way sickos! My first time was ironically from one of my best friends. He always liked to test these gray-hat programs. One day after I used his laptop, he said, “Allan, I know the password to your AIM account!” To say the least, I was furious!
That was nothing in comparison to the emotion I was experiencing during my second exploitation, terror. At the time, my computer was unprotected from any viruses, spyware, and adware. I decided to install an all-in-one security suite, which promptly caught a virus. Basically, I monitored what it was doing to my computer. I discovered a file of everything I typed the past couple of weeks from emails, essays, and search queries to (gasp!) passwords and credit card numbers! Needless to say, I changed my passwords and credit card number.
Ever since these two incidents, I’ve come to realize how vulnerable I really was by using a computer that was not mine or even my own.
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