I find it amusing you think Linksys roms will flash better.

Of course, you also did it over wireless, no?

@ScottPack Yeah. It turns out that was my mistake. Power-cycled the router and re-attempted over Ethernet and all went well.

Of course, that was after having a somewhat lengthy discussion with their support staff. See G+ for details.

@ScottPack I generally assume that firmware from the manufacturer should be more reliable than third-party firmware.

Hi there

Hum, hash truncations

docs.google.com/…

@IsziRoryorIsznti I generally don't assume anything of software quality from the Linksys division. Had too many little problems over the years.

Linksys is the "home network" division isn't it?

@IsziRoryorIsznti Was it linksys? I've been assuming this whole time, but I don't think you ever said.

I had forgotten how utterly fantastic this site was

@ScottPack Wasn't really wanting to spell it out, but good assumption.

I've generally not had any significant issues with them. There was one interesting time though, where I had to spell out for them that the way their firmware handled DHCP settings was borked though. I was trying to be nice, too - I'd already found a work-around but wanted to make sure they got the bug submitted.

Despite my telling them this, they still insisted on trying to walk me through troubleshooting steps that I'd either already done or had determined would be inappropriate for my network configuration.

It's a frustrating thing, these days, trying to find a vendor that both puts out a good product and great customer support. Usually, I opt for one that does the former since I rarely need to fall back on the latter. Logitech is one of the few where I've had a great experience on both sides.

@IsziRoryorIsznti That's not really all that surprising, really. They design their tech support around the userbase that can't figure out how to plug in a network cable

@ScottPack It could have been worse. I once brought an issue to an AOL support rep who actually said "I'm sorry sir, I don't even have a flowchart for that!" - please don't ask why I was calling AOL support.

At least he was honest

@ScottPack True. And everyone just loves hearing the "tech" on the other end of the line confess that they're little more than a trained monkey.

In other news, I'm not quite sure this one is right for us - or SE at all. Maybe it just needs some work. Particularly bothersome are the words "I would like to gather public opinion". Also, the question title isn't very security-specific.

I do know a guy who would start out tech support calls by telling them he was an A+ and Net+, please escalate.

@ScottPack I've been tempted to do that so many times. My list is slightly longer and, when you've got a cert that comes from the company that owns the product manufacturer, you'd (perhaps a bit conceitedly) think that might carry a bit of weight.

good rory, folks

so all this talk about routers... anyone have an opinion either way on netgear's gear?

in general.

specifically netgear vdsl wg2000 - I was told by the ISP that I have to use their specially configured router, and it had to be this one.

at least, for anything from 20 Mbps and up.

@AviD My ISP is the same way. I told them fine, but my router's going behind theirs.

@IsziRoryorIsznti hmm, interesting idea. wouldnt even bother telling them...

so far everyone there I talk to insists its 20 mega BYTES per second.

so basically, you just use their router as a modem.

@AviD More or less. Of course, if I want to do any port forwarding I have to do it twice. (Once on theirs, and again on mine.) But that's the only real inconvenience.

downside to that, is they're making me pay for it. and I hate paying twice for something.

@IsziRoryorIsznti so you would hypothetically shut off the wireless on it?

@AviD There's no hypothetical about it.

Though, you could use it for a guest network if you liked.

i meant, hypothetically assuming there is wireless support on it.

@AviD Oh. There is on ours.

'course, if it turns out that their router is actually good, I might just use that, no? any downside?

@IsziRoryorIsznti oo nice idea!

@AviD ISP usually has back-doors into them, and some techs have no qualms about using them despite user objections.

@IsziRoryorIsznti simple, change the passwords.

did that on my current router, isp hated me for it.

@AviD As if I hadn't already thought of it...

and hated me more for getting upset when they asked me for the passwords...

@IsziRoryorIsznti ah, you're saying they rootkit the firmware?

why am I still surprised by these things?

I had an ISP-controlled router fully configured with custom passwords and all. On a support call where I explicitly told the tech I didn't want them dinking with my settings, the tech went in and disabled my wireless security as a troubleshooting measure. This was, of course, before I started putting my own router behind theirs as we've discussed.

@IsziRoryorIsznti wow.

okay, talked me into it.

so shopping list question: which router should I get? :)

as you know, I'm an apps guy... :$

@AviD I've noticed firmware updates applied behind my back, too. Not bad for Joe End-User, but certain to piss off us tinfoil hat wearers.

what about just flashing their router? didja try that?

@AviD Nah. And after last night, I'm not sure I want to ever.

heh.

still dont know if the netgear is any good, though...

As I told @ScottPack, it's hard to find a vendor that offers a good balance of product quality and great technical support. In my experience, Linksys makes pretty good products but sometimes has issues handling in-depth technical problems.

@IsziRoryorIsznti I dont need much support either (and if I do I'll just come here ;-) )

@IsziRoryorIsznti any specific model?

@ScottPack any opinion on the netgear?

@AviD I haven't used any of their recent models. I've got an E3000 and WRT400N at home.

@AviD None at all.

A concern with them though, that I'm not sure they've addressed yet, is there's no way to disable WPS.

I have a DLink switch that's pretty badass, and a WAP54G, but all the heavy lifting is handled by a home-rolled pfsense

Also, while you get 1 year of hardware warranty, tech support is only free for 90 days.

(Don't ask me how they make that distinction, really.)

hmm

well thanks guys

I've also heard good things about Belkin.

@AviD why don't use your router anyway? They won't know

I wonder if any of our Sec.SE pentesters are doing this?

I'm not sure I like the premise of the competition. It seems to be encouraging people to just go out and hack unsuspecting targets. That is, unless I'm missing another set of rules or terms/conditions...

remote.anti.zimperium.com/leaderhelp

@IsziRoryorIsznti that's what it looks like to me as well.

Seems to me there should be a law or two against that, no? Something like "inciting an online riot"?

Aside from that, I kinda wish I had an Android device to install zAnti on.

Looks like I could earn a bunch of points just by performing my daily job.

Doesn't say anything about performing those actions on a system that you are already authorized to do those things on.

@ScottPack It seems the trick is that you have to use their software.

I don't see that as a requirement.

They also give an unfair advantage to paid users.

I'm not sure exactly what their "Exploit Credits" system is about, either.

Smells like corporate.

/me is a little unsure about installing the app

Ok, I just felt a great surge of satisfaction. I managed to figure out a referenced, but completely undocumented feature, of the McAfee Event Format by using strings against the binary. I think I can go home now.

Hello! Hope here's the right lace to ask. So there's the last sequence in "Five Fingers" movie where R has to prove to S that he knows a secret, but he does not want to reveal the actual secret (in case S is fake, and is just pretending to know the secret). How would you have done in this case? (I read some simple explanation of zero knowledge protocols, something like this seems to be needed)