InsanityWorks

TwonkyScrobbler Source now available

2009-08-09T09:18:00.001+01:00

The source files (Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 project) for Twonkyscrobbler 1.0.3 are now available as stated the project is based on the Kexp Radio Scrobbler by Markus Palme (http://www.codeplex.com/kexpscrobbler/)

Source available at http://www.insanityworks.co.uk/twonkyscrobbler/index.htm

Direct link to zip archive

Twonkyscrobbler isn't dead

2009-08-07T11:08:00.002+01:00

I haven't done any development on Twonkyscrobbler for a while now mainly because I haven't update my server. I have had a number of requests for the source and will be putting it up on the site in the next few days.

My apologies to those who requested it via email but for some bizarre reason they got put into a spam folder and got lost amongst the hundreds of offers of cheap Viagra, penile enhancement and requests from my bank (some of which I had no idea I had an account with) to confirm my security details!

I may be doing some further development on Twonkyscrobbler in the near future, hopefully to support the latest version of the server and media manager. I may also be incorporating some other functionality including some twitter options, inspired by warbler and will be using the open source twitterizer library.

Surely the BBC broke the law?

2009-03-13T09:05:00.003Z

Tomorrow the BBC technology program 'Click' will demonstrate how botnets are used to send spam and attack web sites. Botnets are networks of compromised PCs running malware that can be controlled to undertake distributed computing tasks usual for nefarious activities.

What has caused concern is the fact the BBC bought its own botnet to do the job. The murky backwaters of the internet is full of sites and chat rooms where hackers and criminals are happy to sell their wares - apparently.

The BBC took control of almost 22,000 computers to create up Click's network of hijacked machines, which has now been disabled. Which they used to launch a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack and to generate spam.

However as a number of experts have pointed out, they have broken the law in doing so. From The Telegraph

Security expert Graham Cluley from Sophos, a UK-based antivirus company, pointed out on his blog that: "The Computer Misuse Act makes it an offence in the United Kingdom to access another person's computer, or alter data on their computer, without the owner's permission." He says:

Sure, a TV report like this can raise awareness of the serious problem of computers being controlled by hackers. But is it appropriate for a broadcaster to use innocent people's computers without their permission for the purposes of their experiment?

Struan Roberrtson, a technology lawyer with Pinsent Masons confirmed that the BBC "appears to have broken the Computer Misuse Act," adding: "It does not matter that the emails were sent to the BBC's own accounts and criminal intent is not necessary to establish an offence of unauthorised access to a computer."

The maximum penalty for the offence is two years' imprisonment, but Roberrtson does not expect a prosecution "because the BBC's actions probably caused no harm. On the contrary, it probably did prompt many people to improve their security," he said.

The BBC responded that there was

"a powerful public interest in demonstrating the ease with which such malware can be obtained and used," and that it would enccourage people to defend their PCs from such attacks. Also: "The BBC has strict editorial guidelines for this type of investigation, which were followed to the letter."

That makes it ok then!

EFF Surveillance Self-Defence Website

2009-03-06T11:22:00.004Z

Spotted this "Civil liberties hero of the week" today on the Liberty Central section of the Guardian website.

It is the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for its Surveillance Self-Defence website, which aims to educate the public about "the law and technology of government surveillance ... [as well as] providing the information and tools necessary to evaluate the threat of surveillance and take appropriate steps to defend against it."

The Guardian point out that "Although much of the legal advice is only applicable to American readers – fingers crossed EFF Europe produces EU-wide and British versions soon – the details on what information is stored about you by third parties, such as your ISP and telephone providers, is relevant to British citizens.

The practical technical advice will be an essential read for investigative journalists, who have expressed concern that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 and the communications traffic superdatabase could impede their ability to protect sources. It details how to securely delete your files or how to use encryption to protect private communications, including emails and instant messages."

Very useful indeed

TwonkyScrobbler V1.0.3

2009-01-06T15:07:00.001Z

Forgot to post that I have now released V1.0.3 of the TwonkyScrobbler, this releases fixes issues with 'special' characters and literal strings in the RSS feeds.

TwonkyScrobbler V1.0.1

2008-11-11T10:24:00.002Z

I have released an update to the TwonkyScrobbler. A user on the Twonkyvision forum highlighted a problem when using it with an older version of the server.

TwonkyScrobbler was developed and tested using the latest TwonkyMedia version 4.4.9. The RSS feed facility was introduced in version 4.1 and I had made the incorrect assumption that the RSS feed format had remained unchanged.

In Version 4.4.9 I observed the items in the RSS feed have the following format


<item>
<title>Gemini</title>
<link>http://192.168.0.20:9000/disk/O1$11$207905894$2623831632.mp3</link>
<description>Eye In The Sky</description>
<author>Alan Parsons Project, The</author>
<enclosure url=http://192.168.0.20:9000/disk/O1$11$207905894$2623831632.mp3 type="audio/mpeg" />
<pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 1981 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<moddatetime>Thu, 20 Apr 2006 20:38:10 GMT</moddatetime>
<playeddatetime>Sat, 08 Nov 2008 07:44:01 GMT</playeddatetime>
<class>object.item</class>
<genre>Rock</genre>
<playcount>1</playcount>
<tracknumber>32148</tracknumber>
<duration>131000</duration>
<bitrate>192</bitrate>
<frequency>44100</frequency>
<audiochannels>2</audiochannels>
</item>

The scrobbler was using the element <playeddatetime> to determine if the song was a new one, storing the value in the program configuration file.

Following the bug report I installed a much older version (4.2.1) on another PC and discovered that items in the RSS feed have much less information.


<item>
<title>Old Ghosts</title>
<link>http://192.168.0.21:9000/disk/O1$11$134217730$2550136852.mp3</link>
<description>Stormwatch</description>
<author>Jethro Tull</author>
<enclosure url="http://192.168.0.21:9000/disk/O1$11$134217730$2550136852.mp3" type="audio/mpeg" />
<pubDate>Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:59:26 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

This obviously created a problem because the required information is missing, the <pubDate> element isn’t related to the time the song was played.

To attempt to remedy this problem I have modified the scrobbler so it attempts to find the element, however if it is missing the other information title,description and author (i.e. title, album and artist) is compared to the last scrobbled track and any difference is assumed to signal a new track and the new track is scrobbled using the current time as the played time.

Twonkyvision had made reference to this fact in the RevisionHistory.txt file

What's new in Version 4.4.3.1
------------------------------

+ DivX and WMV support for PS3 (4.4.3.1)
+ AAC support for PS3!
+ Time information for pictures on PS3
+ added Album Artist and Album Art for OGG and FLAC
+ added rss feed support for all content types. Start with http://127.0.0.1:9000/rss/feed
+ enhanced generated rss XML feed by more properties

Updating from V1.0 will require a new configuration/state file with the extra data.

TwonkyMedia Scrobbler V1.0 Released!

2008-11-06T07:43:00.002Z

Tested it again last night with no problems.

So have released it to the world - have even done some documentation

http://www.insanityworks.co.uk/twonkyscrobbler/index.htm

Scrobbler nearly there!

2008-11-05T15:57:00.001Z

Well the scrobbler is nearly there, done some fiddling with it's look!

Twonkymedia last.fm scrobbler

2008-11-04T17:37:00.003Z

Well I haven't posted anything for a while, but today I finally completed the first stage of a programming project I hinted back in February.

It is a scrobbler for the last.fm service that sits and monitors the TwonkyMedia uPnP server and sents information of tracks it is servicing!

The TwonkyVision people added an RSS service (think it was on version 4 and primarily to support non-upnp devices such as the SonyPSP) This is available at http://localhost:9000/rss (that link won't work unless you are reading this on a computer running the server!)
By drilling down from this page it is possible to reach a 'last played' rss feed.

It is buggy, the feed isn't updated correctly, but appears the last entry in the rss feed is always the last audio file served up. My scrobbler which is based on the KexpScrobbler by Markus Palme reads this file and extracts the appropriate information from the last entry and scrobbles the data.

I have to do a bit more testing but looks like it works, and I will be releasing it on my website soon!

The Programmer's Bill of Rights

2008-09-07T16:20:00.002+01:00

Having started my new job the first thing I did was sort out my work station arrangements. I had inherited a pretty decent P4 Dell PC, not bleeding edge but certainly fast enough. But it had only a single 19" TFT, so on my first day I cheekily requested a second screen and to their credit they said yes! This was a set up I adopted at my last employer and had found it such a boost to productivity (I am not sure they thought so, but that is another story!)

Browsing around the web today (it is raining, thundering etc outside) and I found this entry, posted a few years ago on the Coding Horror Blog, it is a non-serious bill or rights for programmers - multiple screens, fast computers, choice of keyboard and mice, comfy chair and quiet environment. Pity I didn't find it when I was in my last job! :-)

The Last Hope Talks

2008-08-27T23:22:00.004+01:00

I have spent the last few days listening to some of the presentations and talks given at the Hacker On Planet Earth conference (HOPE) This year's event was probably going to be the last due to plans to demolish the venue in New York, hence the event tag "The Last HOPE" however it seems those plans may have changed.

The speakers are wide ranging, with interesting and thought provoking topics.

Some highlights are the talks by Kevin Mitnick, a 3 hour marathon talk by Steven Rambam about privacy and the lack of it and the ominous threats posed by new technologies such as Google, the iPhone and social networking sites, well worth a listen. Also Renderman's presentation "How Do I Pwn Thee? Let Me Count The Ways" highlights the security dangers of mobile technology.

Of special interest to me was Travis Goodspeed's "Introduction to MCU Firmware Analysis and Modification with MSP430static" the slides and information are available from Travis' website. In this talk Travis gives a wonderful account of the basic principals of reverse engineering.

All the talks are available here for free download in low and high quality versions.

SamKnows releases first broadband preformance report

2008-08-02T13:25:00.003+01:00

I posted back in May about ISP watchers SamKnows.com who launched a bid to discover the truth about the state of UK broadband by recruiting volunteers to install a monitoring device on their network, to collect performance data (the geographical distribution is shown above).

They have now released their first report, a 40 page pdf which can be downloaded here.

On page 2 of the report is the main summary

In the majority of metrics there was little discernable difference between most
ISPs;

Zen Internet offered the fewest failures across all metrics;
Virgin Media’s cable services and Be/O2’s services provided a consistently low latency throughout, whilst Virgin.Net (Virgin’s ADSL service) performed poorly.
BT provided the fastest throughput when measured as a percentage of implied line speed (an estimate of the potential maximum speed of the line)
Be/O2 and Virgin Media produced the greatest raw throughput (in megabits per second), which can likely be attributed to the nature of their products.
Virgin Media’s cable throughput remained consistent on their 2, 4 and 10Mbps products, but was quite variable on their 20Mbps product.
Testing highlighted the use of traffic shaping in the networks of BT and PlusNet, which resulted in certain classes of traffic slowing significantly during peak hours.

Being on the Virginmedia XL (20 Mbps package) I can confirm their results are pretty much what I have experienced.

Hackers attack DNS exploit, ISPs failing to update servers

2008-07-31T19:43:00.004+01:00

theregister.co.uk are reporting that many ISPs have still not acted up on the now infamous DNS security flaw and miscreants are actively exploiting the gaping hole in the internet's address lookup system that can cause millions of web surfers to receive counterfeit pages when they try to access online banking services and other types of websites.

many laggard internet service providers reported to be dragging their feet in applying patches that fix the devastating DNS flaw. Dan Kaminsky says more ISPs appear to be getting the message. Last week, about 51 per cent of unique name servers tested on his site (see the "check my DNS" button to the right) showed up as vulnerable. Now, he says it's closer to 35 percent.

Test your own ISP here.

If it still fails then you can always update your settings to use OpenDNS

dynamicDemand

2008-07-24T08:30:00.003+01:00

Discovered this brilliant website which has a meter which attempts to monitor the power balance of the UK electricity grid. If the needle is too far to the left, it means more generation is needed to meet demand.

The meter actually shows the grid's "frequency", which is related to the speed of rotation of generators all over the country. When there is too little power available, the whole grid "slows down" and the needle moves to the left.

Now resisting the temptation of running around the house turning appliances on/off in an attempt to affect the meter!

Citizen Engineer

2008-07-23T16:38:00.002+01:00

Citizen Engineer is a new online video series about open source hardware, electronics, art and hacking by Limor (Ladyada) Fried of Adafruit Industries & Phillip (pt) Torrone of MAKE magazine.

From hackszine.com

Quite an interesting video, some oddity with the sound mixing but an enjoyable 30 minutes

xkcd.com - Security Holes

2008-05-18T23:02:00.002+01:00

Follow on from my last post the wonderful xkcd.com has a humorous take on the whole matter

Debian/Ubuntu: Serious OpenSSL/SSH vulnerability

2008-05-16T06:55:00.004+01:00

Back in September 2006 a line of code was removed from the Debian distributed OpenSSL package. The reason? That one line of code was responsible for causing an uninitialized data warning in Valgrind, the linux based programming tool used for memory debugging, memory leak detection, and profiling, by removing it the error went away!

Unfortunately that one line of code also seeded the random number generator used by OpenSSL, so as a result the keyspace used by affected systems went from 2^1024 to about 2^15.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), and the newer Transport Layer Security (TLS) are the cryptographic protocols that provide secure communications on the Internet for such things as web browsing, e-mail, instant messaging and other data transfers. There are slight differences between SSL and TLS, but they are essentially the same.

The problem is when creating a encryption key with the affected version of OpenSSH, there are only 32,767 possible outcomes for a given architecture, key size, and key type (as opposed to the intended 1.79769 × 10³⁰⁸), leaving it wide open to attack.

A large majority of Debian and Ubuntu systems are affected. To correct the problem, users need to not only update OpenSSL, but also revoke and replace any cryptographic keys and certificates that were generated on the affected systems. From the Debian security advisory:

Affected keys include SSH keys, OpenVPN keys, DNSSEC keys, and key material for use in X.509 certificates and session keys used in SSL/TLS connections. Keys generated with GnuPG or GNUTLS are not affected, though.

For most people this affects the SSH server's host key and any public key pairs used for remote SSH authentication. However it is a more of a headache for people with web servers as any keys or certificates generated on the affected machines for SSL/Https use also need to be revoked and regenerated.

There is a lot to think about here. I have worked with many software developers and have noticed that many have this natural tendency to want to fix and re engineer things that aren't even broken. (I am guilty of it myself)

This stems from an engineer's weird desire to make sense of thing, by taking something apart and putting it back together is a common way to increases familiarity and understanding of the machine, engine or indeed the code they are working on. But it hard to restrict the tendency is to try and make 'improvements'.

More discussion of the problem here
Debian OpenSSL Predictable PRNG Toys

Security flaw turns Gmail into spam open-relay server

2008-05-13T10:10:00.004+01:00

A recently-discovered flaw in Google's very popular email service is capable of turning Gmail into an effective spam machine. According to the Information Security Research Team (INSERT) the flaw allows a spammer to send thousands of bulk e-mails through Google's servers without fear of detection. This attack bypasses both Google's identity fraud protection mechanisms and the current 500-address limit on bulk e-mail.

The worry is not just that the flaw allows spammers to send a potentially unlimited number of messages, it is also the trustworthiness given Gmail by other e-mail providers could exacerbate any potential spam attack.

Spam currently accounts for 95 percent of all e-mail traffic and many e-mail providers have adopted whitelists and blacklists as a first line of defence against the flood. An e-mail from a known spamming domain (or the corresponding IP address block) may be automatically blocked by any given e-mail service, while an e-mail from a trusted, authenticated source such as Gmail is automatically allowed through the gateway.

Most e-mail providers use multi-level filtering services, which might detect that the forged Gmail message is spam, but the message will have cleared a substantial hurdle that would have otherwise stopped it. Messages originating from Google, it seems are well-regarded by both Yahoo and Hotmail. The INSERT team tested the degree of trust between the three major e-mail providers by sending spam messages to Yahoo and Hotmail using two sources. In the first test, messages were sent from personal systems whose IP addresses had been blacklisted by Yahoo and Hotmail. The second test consisted of sending the exact same message via the Gmail flaw that INSERT discovered.

The difference was significant. E-mail sent to Yahoo and Hotmail from a blacklisted IP didn't even necessarily reach the account's spam box, while forged e-mail sent via Gmail always arrived. That is not to say that trusted-source filtering is bad, but it demonstrate how a security flaw in a single product or service can ripple through an ecosystem.

It is being reported the flaw is still present at the time of this post.

(credit to the Arstechnica report)

Radio Paradise Scrobbler

2008-05-08T21:17:00.002+01:00

Radio Paradise is one of my favourite Internet radio stations, whether I am listening to it via my PC or via my Logik IR100 Reciva based Internet radio.

Radio Paradise is a popular and pioneering Internet radio station that defines itself as "eclectic online rock radio". The channel differs from most FM channels and other Internet stations in that the music played is not limited to any specific genre but instead represents great variety, much like my own listening tastes. Radio Paradise mostly plays different styles of pop and rock music, but occasionally also everything from jazz to classical to electronic music and world music.

I also am an avid fan of last.fm the music community website and have been scrobbling my listening habits for 4 years now. The problem with listening to Internet radio is that media players plugins won't scrobbled the track information, even if it is supplied in the stream, enter build.last.fm which I posted about a while ago, this is a site where developers can post utilities and applications that utilise the last.fm API.

One of these applications is a Radio Paradise Scrobbler which makes use of the extensive playlist information readily available on the Radio Paradise website to add to your listening data. It works pretty well, the only criticism is that it doesn't actually know if you are actually listening to the tracks, this is done independently of the application using the media player of your choice, it seems to simply monitors the playlist for changes whilst running and posts the data. So you will need to remember to close it when you aren't listening.

Twitter expanding my Web2.0 world and a broken Facebook application

2008-05-08T08:00:00.006+01:00

I signed up to Twitter months ago (primarily to squat on the username!) and have never used it, to be honest I have not really seen the usefulness of it, pointless short messages along the lines of "The dog has just broken wind", "I have a headache" and " Did I just hear Hall and Oates singing "Locomotion"? That can't possibly be right ... can it?" (thanks to Wil Wheaton for the last one)

But I decided to give it a go, and of course in the spirit of Web2.0 decided to install the twitter application on my new Facebook page but it bombed out with page full of compiler debug code, a little investigation and it seems I am not the only new user experiencing the problem.

AJ Vaynerchuk posted about the problem five days ago and there is a discussion thread on Facebook full of "me too" posts, but as yet no response and no fix from either party.

Interestingly it coincides with a number of articles and programs I have recently read and listened too concerning the dangers of building a product and/or business model on the top of a platform over which you have no control. If that platform changes, fails or disappears then your are in trouble. While am sure this is more likely to be sloppy coding it is an interesting portent.

Listening to this week's BBC World Service program Digital Planet it had an interview with Jonathan Zittrain who has written a book called The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It, the synopsis on Amazon.co.uk reads

In "The Future of the Internet: And How to Stop It", Jonathan Zittrain explores the dangers the internet faces if it fails to balance ever more tightly controlled technologies with the flow of innovation that has generated so much progress in the field of technology. Zittrain argues that today's technological market is dominated by two contrasting business models: the generative and the non-generative. The generative models - the PCs, Windows and Macs of this world - allow third parties to build upon and share through them. The non-generative model is more restricted; appliances such as the XBox, iPod and TomTom might work well, but the only entity that can change the way they operate is the vendor. If we want the internet to survive we need to change. People must wake up to the risk or we could lose everything.

On the Amazon.com website it has a slightly different synopsis

This extraordinary book explains the engine that has catapulted the Internet from backwater to ubiquity—and reveals that it is sputtering precisely because of its runaway success. With the unwitting help of its users, the generative Internet is on a path to a lock down, ending its cycle of innovation—and facilitating unsettling new kinds of control.

IPods, iPhones, Xboxes, and TiVos represent the first wave of Internet-centered products that can’t be easily modified by anyone except their vendors or selected partners. These “tethered appliances” have already been used in remarkable but little-known ways: car GPS systems have been reconfigured at the demand of law enforcement to eavesdrop on the occupants at all times, and digital video recorders have been ordered to self-destruct thanks to a lawsuit against the manufacturer thousands of miles away. New Web 2.0 platforms like Google mash-ups and Facebook are rightly touted—but their applications can be similarly monitored and eliminated from a central source. As tethered appliances and applications eclipse the PC, the very nature of the Internet—its “generatively,” or innovative character—is at risk.

It is an interesting observation and prophecy

Last.fm client has not been submitting tracks for days

2008-05-07T20:17:00.007+01:00

Just had a strange problem, the last.fm client has been merrily collating all the tracks I have listened to the last few days, but they haven't been showing up on my played list, the last tracks showing were submitted 5 days ago. The client updated itself this morning as well to version 1.5.0.24910

Checking the support forums it seems I haven't been the only one suffering this problem, and this posted solution seems a little strange but I can verify it worked, the official solutions that have been posted don't.

It appears that when the client is starting up (initiated by your media player starting) it doesn't always successfully connect to the servers correctly. If you click the Help and Check For Updates it reports an error about not being able to connect. Shut down the client and restart it and immediately it updates the list of the unsubmitted tracks. If you check for updates again, it will reports if it's up to date, or that it needs to update (this means the client is actually connecting to the server).

There definitely seems to a bug somewhere, and as it wasn't submitted tracks with the previous client it suggests a fault at the last.fm end.

My broadband speed tests

2008-05-07T10:20:00.003+01:00

Following on from my post about the SamKnows.com monitoring initiative, I decided to do a check on my broadband speed, firstly I used the very pretty graphical test at speedtest.net initially it chose a recommended server in Maidenhead and I only got a pathetic 9345Kbps download, switching to an alternative in London I got the following results (17397Kbps download and 703Kbps upload).

Next I check the speed test at Broadband-expert.co.uk and got the following (19.9Mbps download and 704 Kbps upload)

So seems my 20Mbps connection is preforming well.

On the broadband-expert.co.uk website it also has accumulated results (click speed test results button at bottom of screen) for most of the UK ISPs and my ISP VirginMedia seems to come out pretty well, despite the introduction of even more extreme and complicated traffic shaping schemes.

Bid to find the truth about broadband preformance

2008-05-07T09:54:00.003+01:00

ISP watchers SamKnows.com have launched a bid to discover the truth about the state of UK broadband by recruiting volunteers to install a monitoring device on their network, to collect reams of independent performance data.

They are aiming to attract 200 volunteers who'll be sent a free tweaked Linksys router (a WRT54GL) that will measure and report download speeds for HTTP and non-HTTP traffic, latency, packet loss, DNS response, and website loading times.

It comes as there is a sharp increase in consumer anger against ISPs over blatenty misleading marketing campaigns, opaque traffic management policies and low investment in infrastructure.

I have signed up, so wait to hear.

Secunia PSI - Personal Security Inspector

2008-05-01T16:42:00.002+01:00

Secunia is a respected Danish computer security service provider, one of their primary missions is to track vulnerabilities in software and provide security tools primarily for the corporate IT market.

In addition they also provide a free tool (for personal non-corporate use) called PSI - Personal Security Inspector.

PSI acts on a dangerous problem of vulnerabilities on auxiliary and add-on software. The problem of vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Windows operating system and Microsoft Office are tackled by the much improved Microsoft Update system. However what about all the other installed software which are prone to vulnerabilities? Software like Adobe Acrobat Reader, Flash, Java VM, Media players, compression utilities, third party browsers to name but a few.

Most vulnerabilities are triggered by malformed data files distributed across the internet and unless addressed can prove a real danger to the regular user. The problem is despite a lot of these programs having update systems built in it is easy to miss important updates and critical patches can be forgotten, leaving your system exposed.

PSI using a huge database from Secunia to verify your installed software and will indicate if they are insecure and have updates available.

I liked to think I kept my software updated, but after running the tool for the first time I was told I was only 92% secure there were around 15 programs that were running old insecure versions. I few updates later and I am up to 96%, there are still some programs that updates are not available for with know vulnerabilities, and some whose update process is so confusing and convoluted that updating is next to impossible (not helped by hideously unnavigable support websites, Yes Adobe/Macromedia I am looking at you!)

In my scan there were some expected culprits for being out of date, Adobe Flash, Acrobat Reader, Quicktime and Realplayer and others I was not aware of, such as VLC, 7-Zip and WinZip. It is easy is to have vulnerable software running on your computer. If you are not using anything to keep track of software updates, try PSI, you may be surprised. PSI does a good job on detecting software that needs to be updated, so I heartily recommend it.

There is a on-line version available but the installable client is much more capable. The scanning process is a bit resource intensive, so I would suggest you run it periodically (say once a week) rather than letting it permanently run, which is it's default setting.

OpenDNS

2008-05-01T08:28:00.002+01:00

My current ISP is VirginMedia née NTL née Diamond Cable and has generally been pretty reliable, what issues I have had with connectivity and browsing have often been DNS related.

Most people have experienced this problem at some time, you type in the website address and hit enter then there is a long delay before the website appears, or doesn't appear instead you get an error message. This is quite often the result of Domain Name System (DNS) problems, DNS is the system where the websites alphanumeric name (e.g www.virginmedia.com) is converted into the IP number (212.250.162.12) , effectively it's an internet phone book.

If that system is slow or fails either due to server load, or connectivity problems it creates a delay or failure when using the internet. Also like much of the original infrastructure of the internet DNS was not originally designed with security in mind, and thus has a number of security issues have occured, such as DNS Cache poisoning which has lead to phishing attacks. Because DNS works in the background the idea behind these attacks is to feed the browser an alternative IP address we redirects it to spoof and fake website, either in an attempt to introduce malware or to harvest personal information for ID fraud from the unsuspecting user.

In an attempt to offer a solution to these growing problems or reliability, speed and security David Ulevitch created OpenDNS in July 2006.

OpenDNS offers DNS resolution for consumers and businesses as an alternative to using their internet service provider's DNS servers. The system comprises of servers in strategic locations and employing a large cache of the domain names, the result is DNS queries are usually processed much more quickly, increasing page retrieval speed.

Other features of OpenDNS include a phishing filter and typo error correction (for example, typing wikipedia.og instead of wikipedia.org). By collecting a list of malicious sites, OpenDNS blocks access to these sites when a user tries to access them through their service. OpenDNS has also launched Phishtank, where computer users around the world can submit and review suspected phishing sites. OpenDNS can also be configured to limit access to adult related sites. Details of all the features on offer can be found here.

I have switched my network to OpenDNS, full instructions and HowTos are available on the site. It was painless and simple, browsing does seem quicker but I haven't used it long enough to really comment on the speed improvements but the ability to view statistics and lots of graphs is enough to convince me!