sadevil.org

An interesting read on Ars Technica: How the ‘Net works: an introduction to peering and transit.

Here’s a short how-to to get the iodine dns tunnel working on your Mac.

In this short howto, I’ll assume you’ll be using a linux server to act as your gateway to the world. I’ll also assume you’ve read the iodine documentation and setup your DNS accordingly. For my example, I’ll be using a (nonexistant) DynDNS.org static DNS entry, iodine.rulestheworld.tld. I’ll also assume that you’ll be using a public internet address of 1.2.3.4, and a private subnet of 10.0.0.1.

1. Install the tun/tap driver for Mac OS X. Easy as doing *click* *click* done! :p
2. Next, install iodine on your Mac. Easy as download, extract, and typing make; make install
3. Now, install iodine on your linux box. It’s included in the package repositories of the usual suspects, for instance debian: apt-get install iodine.

   Start it (or configure it to use) with:
   iodined -P <password> <unused private IP> <dns name>
   or in our example:
   iodined -P mypass 10.0.0.1 iodine.rulestheworld.tld

   This should return the following:

   Opened dns0
   Setting IP of dns0 to 10.0.0.1
   Setting MTU of dns0 to 1024
   Opened UDP socket
   Listening to dns for domain iodine.rulestheworld.tld

4. Configure your linux box for IP forwarding: sysctl -e net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
(and add this to your /etc/sysctl.conf file), and configuring your firewall (iptables) for masquerading:
   iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 10.0.0.0/255.255.255.0 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
5. Next, download NStun.sh, a very handy script that does all the hard work of changing the routes and so on :p

   You’ll want to change the script: change the first lines as the script reads, and lower, change the
   

   NS=`grep nameserver /etc/resolv.conf|head -1|awk ‘{print $2}’`

   line to read

   NS=”62.213.207.197″

Now, start NStun.sh on your Mac, and surf away! (well, slowly, but freely, atleast!)

An update after my previous ISP post:

• July 2007
  • Increase of data transfer for netconnect to 75gb
• October 2007
  • Increase in prices :( BOOO! Well, only with a few euro’s, but still… :(
• November 2007
  • Change in newsservice, now allowing more connections and dedicated text-news server ;)
• December 2007
  • Increase of data transfer for netconnect to 100gb, netconnect + boostpack to 120gb
• January 2008
  • Increased upload traffic in all accounts to 448kbit
  • Increased data transfer with the boostpack to 150gb
  • Increased download speed (2048kbit) on mediumband with boostpack
  • Started delivery of Cityconnect - a new ADSL2+ product line (available in Leuven only sofar…)

Needless to say, I’m still a very happy customer ;) But I am going to cancel my boostpack, since it no longer has use (I need the upstream speed, not the data transfer..)

Telenet has launched a big campaign, known as Telenet drukt op de knop (Telenet pushes the button) touting that their product line would be dramatically altered. Rumours flew around like a scrapping of the limits they impose, doubling of speeds, …

In the end, it’s basically just a big non-event: they multiplied the speed of their lowest subscription by 4, going from 256kbit to 1mbit… but keeping the ultra-low limit of 400 megabytes. Yes, that’s correct, megabytes.
They also increased the upload speed of the other subscriptions.

So now these people will be able to get a lot faster on smallband (56kbit connection), or buy blocks to increase their limits… and increase Telenet’s revenues - ofcourse!

Finally!

Gmail now offers secure IMAP access.

To use this:

1. Activate IMAP on your Gmail account
2. Configure your favourite mail client for IMAP access

Done ;)

Just in case you ever find yourself in the Brussels Airlines VIP lounge (in Brussels Airport), and you want to do something besides using IE on their internet pc’s, here are the proxy settings (that you can use in eg. putty). I had to find a way to open a command box to get to the settings, but in the end I managed.

HTTP Proxy: 193.108.215.75
Proxy Port: 8080

;)

Here’s a simple howto to get your Mac internet-connected using GPRS/3G on your bluetooth-equipped phone. I’ve only tested this with my Motorola V3 and Vodafone (Spain), so no guarantees about the other providers, but the main part should be the same.

First, let’s prepare:

1. download the necessary Modem scripts from http://home2.btconnect.com/Taniwha/. Decompress the StuffIt! file (eg. with The Unarchiver) and copy the files into /Library/Modem Scripts.
2. check your operator’s settings on this page (for Vodafone, it lists user/password: vodafone/vodafone, and APN airtelnet.es).

Now, set your phone to be detectable, and pair it with the Mac:

1. Go to System Preferences, Bluetooth, and use ‘Set Up New Device…’. Follow the wizard, and make sure to select ‘Use a direct, higher speed connection to reach your Internet Service Provider (GPRS, 1xRTT)’.
2. Set the Username and Password as found above (for Vodafone.es: vodafone/vodafone)
3. Set the GPRS CID string to the APN found above (for Vodafone.es: airtelnet.es)
4. Select the correct Modem Script for your phone. I used Motorola GPRS CID1
5. Check ‘Show Bluetooth status’ and ‘Show modem status’.

That’s it. Now you should be able to connect, starting ‘Internet Connect’ and clicking on Connect.

In june 2006 I switched from the cable provider Telenet (Expressnet) to the ADSL/hosting provider Schedom / Dommel (Netconnect). I can’t say I’ve been sorry.

I left Telenet because of the not-of-this-time limits (10 gB download / 2 gB upload quota, abysmally slow ’smallband’ (on which you’re put after you’ve consumed your quota, unless you cough up some more € - basically, it’s so slow you can’t even get on their pages to cough up the money!), the slow innovations, etc etc. The only things going for them is the (download) speed: (theoretical) 10 mbps down, 256kbps up, and their stability: in all those years (around 7-8) I didn’t notice a lot of downtime.

When I joined Dommel, their offer was simple: 50 gB quota, you do with it what you want. 4mbps down, 256 kbps up.

Since then, they’ve introduced numerous improvements (listed per active date):

• August 2006: increased the connection limits to the newsserver (GigaNews)
• December 2006: upload is no longer counted
• February 2007:
  • boost package (higher upload speed and more quota, and higher speeds on mediumband)
  • increased newsserver retention (100 days, 99%+ retention)
• March 2007:
  • happy hours (only 60% of traffic is counted between 01.00 AM and 01.00 PM)
  • new traffic counter which no longer counts ATM overhead (about 11%)

Needless to say, I’m happy with their offering and can advise them to anyone in Belgium! And no, I don’t have anything to gain by this. :p