As someone with a security background and a generally curious mind, I spend a lot of time doing things on my network that I probably shouldn’t. At least, things that the IT department of any large company probably wouldn’t want me to do, cause they are supposedly the only ones who are allowed to do that sort of thing. Well, if you are managing a network and want to know who else out there is like me, then this article from Linux Journal provides some good tips for identifying eavesdroppers. A word of advice though: if you find someone else in the company looking at your packets, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Don’t jump all over them unless there is actually some indication that they have malicious intent. As a former Network Admin and IT Manager, I have learned that it can help to have the other people in your company who are in “the know” about networking on your side. I view this article as a good way to find those people, and also as a good way to locate and identify potential bots or compromised machines that might be sending your packets off-net.

In Search of a Sniffer from Linux Journal

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Ok folks, sorry for the lack of new posts over the last week, it has been a bit crazy for me and keeping up with everything has been a bit difficult. I promise over the next couple of weeks you are going to be amazed with the plethora of stuff I’ve got for you. To get started, here is a useful little tool for running Linux or UNIX programs in Mac OS. Yes, I know we’ve been a bit Apple centric around here lately, but don’t worry, I’m getting my Windows on too and for there will be plenty of tips and useful stuff for those of you that just gotta have some of that Microsoft lovin’.

This one comes via that amazingly useful site, Lifehacker, and gives you step-by-step instructions for installing Fink and Fink Commander. Fink is basically a ports collection based on Debian’s dpkg and APT, and a package management system to handle installation and uninstallation, etc.. Fink Commander is a nice GUI to help out. I’ve known about Fink for along time, and even tried to install and use it when I first got my MacBook Pro, but it was a royal pain and I quickly gave up. These instructions make it easy and clear, and really make the process simple.

How to Install Linux Applications in OSX [Simplehelp.net via Lifehacker]

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I am. I love multiple monitor setups. I have for a long time. At one point I had three 21″ monitors and a 14″ laptop all in a row, and I loved it. These days, I’ve ditched the humongous 21″ CRTs for a single 24″ Dell LCD aside my 15″ MBP, but sometimes I really miss the wide open space of that massive 4800×1200 desktop. I’m using a Mac most often these days, and it is amazingly intelligent when it comes to switching back and forth from dual monitors to the single laptop screen, but back when I lived in Windoze land, I would occasionally get some weirdness when I switched from dual monitor more to single monitor mode, and an application or two would get lost off the edge of the screen. At the time, I usually futzed around with things for a while until either giving up or successfully performing the magic keyboard and mouse incantation to get my screen back, but if only I had had this article at the time, I would’ve been much happier and had much more reliable results. Craig at Codejacked has done an excellent job of showing you exactly what to do to rescue your application from the purgatory that exists where your second monitor should be.

For those of you that are unsure about joining the dual monitor club, there is plenty of research out there that clearly shows that using two monitors will make you smarter, taller, stronger, thinner, and more productive (ok, ok, only that last part about being more productive is true). The NY Times had an article last year about how wonderful they are, and if you google “dual monitor productivity” you’ll get a ton of hits expounding on how great dual monitors really are. It shouldn’t be hard to convince your boss to kick down for an extra head when there is so much evidence that says he will get more work out of you if he does (and he’ll make you happier too, which always helps).

And when you are ready to make the join the dual monitor club, PC World has a good little how to on getting it done.

Dual Monitor Search-and-Rescue (Windows) from CODEJACKED

The Virtues of a Second Screen - NY Times

How to Set Up Multiple Monitors - PC World Video

P.S. Later this week I’ll be posting some additional tips for multiple monitor setups, including my favorite, which controls multiple PCs from the same keyboard and mouse on multiple monitors. And I WISH my desk were as clean as the one in that photo, but that’ll never happen.

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Is your company in the process of implementing a VoIP system to replace or supplement a traditional phone system? If so, you need to be aware of the variety of problems you might encounter, along with how to recognize and resolve them. This site has some excellent information on the symptoms you might run into with a VoIP installation as well as what potential causes for them are. There are some really excellent tips here that can really help with isolating problems when you run into them (and just about everybody does at some point, trust me).

VoIP Troubleshooter

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The good folks over at Wireshark (formerly Ethereal) have a pretty comprehensive howto on capturing packets. While they wrote it specifically for use with Wireshark, it is also useful when working with any piece of equipment or software that requires you to get something off the wire (such as tcpdump, Snort or any other IDS software, NetSensory and more).

Wireshark Howto Capture

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This article is from Lifehack.org (different but just as cool as Lifehacker) is an excellent one about getting the most out of Firefox. I’m especially fond of Tip #12, Speed up Firefox. Here is an excerpt:

“If you have a broadband connection (and most of us do), you can use pipelining to speed up your page loads. This allows Firefox to load multiple things on a page at once, instead of one at a time (by default, it’s optimized for dialup connections). Here’s how:

• Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return. Type “network.http” in the filter field, and change the following settings (double-click on them to change them):
• Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
• Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
• Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to a number like 30. This will allow it to make 30 requests at once.
• Also, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0″. This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.”

This is actually something I had done in the past, but over several generations of upgrades the settings seem to have been lost, so I was able to realize a very nice boost in page load times by applying these. The other tips in the article are excellent too, and can really maximize your productivity and browsing experience.

15 Coolest Firefox Tricks Ever from Lifehack.org

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