The League of Magnificent Scoundrels

This is a response to Ubuntu Tutorials’ “Comcast is Starting the Tiered Internet Whether We Like It Or Not“.

I have recently read that a local company Comcast has been filtering and throttling the downloading of torrented files, and completely barred the the seeding of them. I do not necessarily believe that this is the “start of tiered Internet” as that article suggests, but I believe it could very well be a catalyst for such things to come.

I can possibly see why they did this from a hardware point of view. Their argument is that their Terms of Service states that you cannot serve content to people while on a residential plan. Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t an email with/out an attachment considered serving data to someone? How about search queries?

Upon reading more about it, there are many ISP’s around the world doing this. Do you believe it is necessary/should be done?

Myself, I believe that this is a bad business practice on their part. There are may good businesses using torrent technology to distribute files LEGALLY – look at World of Warcraft’s patch system. What about Linux distributors that seed torrents? I can already see smaller ISP’s such as the one I use, getting more customers because of this.

If they argue that their servers can’t handle it, I question their use of finances. They are over-promising what upload and download speeds you get; that should be their problem, not ours. If their servers can’t handle it, then maybe they should fork the cash to hold up their end of the bargain, not limit what we can and cannot do on the Internet.

I understand that with encrypting your torrenting you can get past this (and you should be encrypting… do you realise how much the ISP’s can do with the data you transfer to/from their servers?)

I recently stumbled upon a website that spoke of how the FBI was able to crack a 128bit WEP password in 3-4 minutes. In this article, I am going to go through the steps (in a more condensed form from what is beyond the link) so that you can audit your wireless network, or spread the word to wireless network administrators you may know.

The programs that are listed here will most likely not be too friendly for anyone unfamiliar with Linux, as most, if not all of the programs are on *nix platforms. If all else fails, or if you’re adamant about wanting to do this yourself, you could easily just Google for help, or alternatively RTFM.

1. Run Kismet to target nearby networks and obtain SSID and channel.
2. Run Airodump to capture data.
3. Use Aireplay to replay a packet on targeted network. (Finding a good packet requires looking at the BSSID MAC on Kismet and comparing it to the captured packet’s BSSID MAC.)
4. Airodump should start getting a lot of new IVs.
5. 1,000 IVs is probably enough so you can stop there if you wish.
6. Run Aircrack on the captured file.
7. A WEP key should show up shortly!

Programs: Kismet, Aircrack (includes Airodump, Aireplay, Aircrack, and Airdecap).