General Notes

Lists: Kismet-Wireless-Security, Kismet-Wireless, OSDL Carrier-Grade Linux, OSDL Data Center Linux
4-13-05

Each individual WiFi Guy component has been tested and is working fine. The graphical frontend component is executing kismet_server and the wifiguy-aircrack component very well, and all that is left on this project is basically handling the output from the wifiguy-aircrack component in the pipe and then tidying it up and packaging it. We plan on arranging a test soon in the ITL.

My Toshiba e740 PocketPC is still down... unfortunately, the very fragile JTAG debug pads I had to solder onto on the mainboard in order to fix my screw-up decided to leap from the board leaving a crater in their place. Apparently they really are as fragile as everyone makes them out to be. My Linux on the Toshiba e740 PocketPC project is currently asleep until further notice. I have a feeling that my e740 is not going to make it :-(. I'm currently working on obtaining on eBay an e740 with a broken LCD intending to swap guts and start over. Lesson learned: just because a tool appears to be well-documented, doesn't mean that the documentation actually agrees with the program's actual implementation at all, meaning that you should make sure you're well-versed in a tool that makes permanent changes to virtually-irreplaceable hardware before actually using it.

Mailing List: cgl_discussion (Carrier Grade Linux @ OSDL)

1. On average how many messages are there per day?
There's only approximately 3 or 4 messages per week.

2. Are there many different people posting or just a few?
There are several people posting.

3. What were some of the major topics?
One person asked how he can port programs to CGL, and then later asked how he can get hold of a copy. All the messages this month were primarily replies to his 2 questions, so the same 2 questions were answered the same ways at least 10 times.

4. What was the topic on the list that interested you the most?
Nothing in particular was interesting this month.

5. Are the back issues of the list archived?
Yes.

6. Where can you join the list?
http://lists.osdl.org/mailman/listinfo/cgl_discussion

7. Can the average user understand the topics on this list?
There haven't been enough posts to really tell.

8. Who should join this list?
There haven't been enough posts to really tell.

9. Do new users post a lot of questions?
No, only 1 question was posted.

10.How are new users treated on the list?
There haven't been any posts by new users.

Mailing List: kismet-wireless-security (Techie Security List @ KismetWireless)

Still no activity at all since I joined, and I was unable to view any archives because they don't provide any for this specific list. Maybe it's a secret list and they don't let anyone spy on it, or else it's just broken.

Possibility exists that the 1 message that came in on the kismet-wireless list was intended for the kismet-wireless security list.

Mailing List: dcl_discussion (Data Center Linux @ OSDL)

Only 1 message this past month, which was basic information regarding mapping virtual file locations to physical devices.

Mailing List: kismet-wiresless (General Kismet List @ KistmetWireless)

1. On average how many messages are there per day?
There's usually only approximately 1 message per day, but there has been only 1 this past month.

2. Are there many different people posting or just a few?
Usually many.

3. What were some of the major topics?
Someone asked what everyone knew about a wireless networking card that allows you to install a firewall into its firmware, but no one has replied so far.

4. What was the topic on the list that interested you the most?
The wireless card supporting a firmware firewall was pretty interesting.

5. Are the back issues of the list archived?
Yes.

6. Where can you join the list?
http://www.kismetwireless.net

7. Can the average user understand the topics on this list?
This list is mostly concerned with installing and operating Kismet, and rarely discusses anything beyond that, so the majority of the list is suitable for a beginner user/hacker/equivalent.

8. Who should join this list?
Anyone interested in hearing about new features that may be implemented in Kismet, anyone interested in installing and using kismet, and anyone interested in operating Kismet on various handhelds, devices, and awkward platforms.

9. Do new users post a lot of questions?
Yes.

10.How are new users treated on the list?
All new users are treated very well. They're very welcome to ask any question without ridicule, even if it is already covered in complete detail in the readme.

3-9-05

Significant progress has been made on WiFi Guy. We still anticipate releasing screenshots and possibly in-progress source by the end of this month. Current goal is to release these over Spring Break. Both the cracking and interface components are pretty much complete, and now all that is left is integrating them.

In additional news, I'm contributing to an additional project, porting Linux to the Toshiba e740 Pocket PC handheld computer. Right now, I'm in the process of writing up the first (known to me) English step-by-step guide to doing so, which will be a compilation of the efforts of Spyros's hardcore coding, cracking, and reverse-engineering, as well as my efforts of tweaking things, applying such findings, and getting various applications working on it. I also plan to compare the GTK-based and Qt-based embedded packages. There's a lot of praise circa de Qtopia; however, I've already used and liked GDE, and I see little room for improvement.

Mailing List: cgl_discussion (Carrier Grade Linux @ OSDL)

1. On average how many messages are there per day?
There's only approximately 3 or 4 messages per week.

2. Are there many different people posting or just a few?
There are many people posting.

3. What were some of the major topics?
Lately, they have been only discussing the the OSDL conference on drivers for Linux.

4. What was the topic on the list that interested you the most?
In their recap of the conference, they identified the two major issues in obtaining open source drivers: there aren't enough people working on open source drivers, and the current drivers need to be maintained better and fixed. Concerning the maintainance of current drivers, a major problem they identified is that there exist too many simultaneous drivers for identical hardware, and projects should, instead, be incorporating eachother and simultaneously working on a common goal for a single driver for each purpose.

5. Are the back issues of the list archived?
Yes.

6. Where can you join the list?
http://lists.osdl.org/mailman/listinfo/cgl_discussion

7. Can the average user understand the topics on this list?
There haven't been enough posts to really tell.

8. Who should join this list?
There haven't been enough posts to really tell.

9. Do new users post a lot of questions?
No, there haven't been any questions posted yet, only chit-chat about the conference.

10.How are new users treated on the list?
There haven't been any posts by new users.

Mailing List: kismet-wireless-security (Techie Security List @ KismetWireless)

Still no activity at all since I joined, and I was unable to view any archives because they don't provide any for this specific list. Maybe it's a secret list and they don't let anyone spy on it, or else it's just broken.

Mailing List: dcl_discussion (Data Center Linux @ OSDL)

This list was literally IDENTICAL to that of CGL, including number of posts and content. Had me confused for a minute, but then I confirmed that no one had actually posted anything besides the information concerning the driver conference.

Mailing List: kismet-wiresless (General Kismet List @ KistmetWireless)

1. On average how many messages are there per day?
There's only approximately 1 message per day.

2. Are there many different people posting or just a few?
There are only about 12 people that have mentioned anyone so far, but no one is currently dominating the posts.

3. What were some of the major topics?
Besides the usual "How do I get this to work on my card since I didn't read the readme file and don't know which driver to specify for my card?" posts, and the "I just got a new pda, so, where's the readme for my model?" posts, the major topic was concerning the ZipIt that came out on the market just recently. The ZipIt is a wireless instant messenger device that claims to be the solution to everyone's connectivity issues, as if cell phones and TXT messaging weren't already popular and as if people would prefer to only be connected during those lengthy times of the day when the average person happens to get wireless reception that's open to the public. Anyway, the talk was about the possibility of porting Kismet to that device, or setting up a driver for its hardware if it was already running embedded linux which has been suspected but not yet confirmed.

4. What was the topic on the list that interested you the most?
The topic conerning the possibility for a Kismet port on something as innoccent as an instant messaging device.

5. Are the back issues of the list archived?
Yes.

6. Where can you join the list?
http://www.kismetwireless.net

7. Can the average user understand the topics on this list?
This list is mostly concerned with installing and operating Kismet, and rarely discusses anything beyond that, so the majority of the list is suitable for a beginner user/hacker/equivalent.

8. Who should join this list?
Anyone interested in hearing about new features that may be implemented in Kismet, anyone interested in installing and using kismet, and anyone interested in operating Kismet on various handhelds, devices, and awkward platforms.

9. Do new users post a lot of questions?
Yes.

10.How are new users treated on the list?
All new users are treated very well. They're very welcome to ask any question without ridicule, even if it is already covered in complete detail in the readme.

3-5-05

Gave my COSI site an uber-makeover ;-).
2-23-05

Straightened some things out conerning mailing lists. Some information about that is available below:

Mailing List: cgl_discussion (Carrier Grade Linux @ OSDL)

This list was a disappointment, because there has only been one post this entire month (which I confirmed at their archive), and it was a scam artist attempting a hoax to steal Paypal users' account names and passwords.

Mailing List: kismet-wireless-security (Techie Security List @ KismetWireless)

No activity at all since I joined, and I was unable to view any archives because they don't provide any for this specific list. As a result, I also joined the more-general kismet-wireless list.


Mailing List: kismet-wiresless (General Kismet List @ KistmetWireless)

1. On average how many messages are there per day?
There's only approximately 1 message per day.

2. Are there many different people posting or just a few?
There are only about 12 people that have mentioned anyone so far, but no one is currently dominating the posts.

3. What were some of the major topics?
Besides the usual "How do I get this to work on my card since I didn't read the readme file and don't know which driver to specify for my card?" posts, and the "I just got a new pda, so, where's the readme for my model?" posts, the major topic was concerning the ZipIt that came out on the market just recently. The ZipIt is a wireless instant messenger device that claims to be the solution to everyone's connectivity issues, as if cell phones and TXT messaging weren't already popular and as if people would prefer to only be connected during those lengthy times of the day when the average person happens to get wireless reception that's open to the public. Anyway, the talk was about the possibility of porting Kismet to that device, or setting up a driver for its hardware if it was already running embedded linux which has been suspected but not yet confirmed.

4. What was the topic on the list that interested you the most?
The topic conerning the possibility for a Kismet port on something as innoccent as an instant messaging device.

5. Are the back issues of the list archived?
Yes.

6. Where can you join the list?
http://www.kismetwireless.net

7. Can the average user understand the topics on this list?
This list is mostly concerned with installing and operating Kismet, and rarely discusses anything beyond that, so the majority of the list is suitable for a beginner user/hacker/equivalent.

8. Who should join this list?
Anyone interested in hearing about new features that may be implemented in Kismet, anyone interested in installing and using kismet, and anyone interested in operating Kismet on various handhelds, devices, and awkward platforms.

9. Do new users post a lot of questions?
Yes.

10.How are new users treated on the list?
All new users are treated very well. They're very welcome to ask any question without ridicule, even if it is already covered in complete detail in the readme.



Continued working on the construction of the user interface. Qt Designer is both a RAD and rad. A potential name for our project has emerged from the rubble of our work... WiFi Guy: He hacks your network and let's you know how vulnerable you are, so they don't have to!

WiFi Guy is coming along nicely, getting it to interpret information from kismet (or kismet_server) is a little tricky, but coming along nicely.
2-09-05:

I read up more on Kismet, which wasn't too challenging, but--more interestingly--I've begun researching how to use Qt Designer by Trolltech. This appears to be a very comfortable GUI development environment, with an interface very similar to the "Form Designer" that Microsoft Visual Basic uses to ease GUI creation. I've experimented with this utility, which is (although not freeware for commercial development) conveniently free for anyone developing open source software, and we plan on using this for our Kismet frontend project.

In other news, I recently found out, due to receiving zero e-mails from either of my lists, that iNotes apparently has been bouncing all their e-mails back to them (which also not-so-conveniently notified OSDL's listserver to cancel my subscription). Tonight, I'm going to create a new Gmail account to be used solely for lists and projects, and re-subscribe to Kismet-Wireless-Security and OSDL Data Center Linux.
1-26-05:

I recently read up on Fedora's Stateless Linux Project. It's a very interesting project looking to create terminals that run their own applications, but store no files locally and have read only access to the root filesystem. By all the files being remotely stored, multiple computers can all the same, excluding home, directories, allowing single instances of machine profiles to be set up and maintained on a server. Updating all of the terminals is a snap, since you only have to update one profile-system per configuration group. This is a very interesting topic; however, it wouldn't be necessarily very easy to implement, and I'm not sure as to whether or not I have a passion to do that quite yet (and I would want to learn a little more about it first).

Meanwhile, as per recommendation, I'm investigating kismet, and have decided that making a legitimate, basic, not-too-verbose-nor-shady-looking, personal wireless security testing frontend would be an interesting project. I really think that this might be where I'll find the pro in project.


Back to Pat Wilbur's COSI Page

wilburpf at clarkson dot edu