Using SSH For Secure Web Browsing
With fraud on the rise everyone has a need for a secure Internet connection, weather this is to do some online banking or possibly checking a social networking site such as Facebook or MySpace. You can have peace of mind while browsing via a public computer or wireless Internet connection by using a SSH tunnel to encrypt your data.
When i was a student at college i quite often used a SSH tunnel to bypass the strict filtering policy imposed by the local network administrators, this enabled me to access blocked sites such as MySpace and Facebook and also to log into my Internet banking with peace of mind that my credentials are fairly secure. To take advantage of a SSH tunnel you are going to require a few tools which i shall list.
- SSH Account
- Putty (SSH Client)
- Portable FireFox
- 3proxy
First off we are going to need to get a SSH account on a server somewhere, you may know a friend who owns a server and is willing to let you have a shell account or you may have to purchase one from a shell provider. Luckily for me i happen to own a number of virtual servers which i shall be using one for this tutorial. Obtaining a SSH account is beyond the scope of this tutorial but using a tool such as Google should assist you in finding a provider.
OK so assuming you now have your SSH account we need to login using the Putty SSH client. Go ahead and enter your user name and password then hit return.
You should now be logged in and see a black screen with some white writing that looks similar to the following.
login as: greg
greg@10.10.10.10’s password:
Last login: Sun Jun 8 01:43:21 2008 from 10.10.10.20
[greg@vm103 ~]$
Now you are logged in you need to run a command to download 3proxy.
[greg@vm103 ~]$ wget http://3proxy.ru/0.5.3k/3proxy-0.5.3k.tgz
OK so now we have downloaded the archive we need to extract it so that we can start work on compiling the binary. You will now need to run another command
[greg@vm103 ~]$ tar xvfz 3proxy-0.5.3k.tgz
The archive has now been extracted to its original structure before it was archived and compressed. We now need to start compiling the sources to build the executable binary file. Once again go ahead and run the following command.
[greg@vm103 ~]$ make –makefile=Makefile.unix
Now its time to go and get a drink or a bite to eat while the program compiles. This is not a massive application so should not take too long to compile depending on the hardware specs of your SSH server.
Once the compilation is complete your shell should be displaying something similar to
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/greg/src’
[greg@vm103 ~]$
Congratulations you have just compiled 3proxy and it is ready to be run. So once again just a few more commands to run and the proxy will then be listening for connections
[greg@vm103 src]$ cd src
[greg@vm103 src]$ ./proxy -d -i127.0.0.1 -e78.129.159.162 -p6500 -a
Obviously for this to work with your configuration you are going to need to change some values. The “-d” flag means that the application will be daemonized (run in the background) which enables you to still use the shell and safely close it without killing the proxy server process. The local interface to listen on is defined by -i and in this case we should leave this as 127.0.0.1 as it stops anyone from using your proxy unless they already have access to the server its self which we do. You also need to let the proxy server know what IP to connect out on as usually a web server will have more than 1 IP address so set this to the IP address you want to appear to be connecting from. And finally you need to specify a port number to listen on and we have chosen 6500 but you may chose another port as long as it is not lower than 1024.
OK so you think your proxy is running? we can check that it is running by using a simple Linux command.
[greg@vm103 src]$ ps x
PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
15141 ? S 0:00 sshd: greg@pts/0
15142 pts/0 Ss 0:00 -bash
15245 ? Ss 0:00 ./proxy -d -i127.0.0.1 -e78.129.159.162 -p6500 -a
15251 pts/0 R+ 0:00 ps x
[greg@vm103 src]$
You can easily see that the command we ran to execute the proxy server is running and has been assigned the PID of 15245. So far we have downloaded and compiled 3proxy and set it running and listening for an incoming connection. You can test that the proxy is accepting connections easily by using the telnet command.
[greg@vm103 src]$ telnet localhost 6500
Trying 127.0.0.1…
Connected to localhost.localdomain (127.0.0.1).
Escape character is ‘^]’.
Success! you have locally connected to the running proxy server, you will now need to exit from this by holding ctrl and pressing the ] character on the keyboard, now type quit and hit return.
Now we need to create a tunnel to the proxy server using the Putty SSH client, to make this easier i have provided screen shots of the process.
Before you can create the tunnel you need to create a saved session on Putty that will store your server details and also the important flag that tells putty to create the tunnel.
Once you have entered your connection details into Putty you will need to click on save and magically your session have been saved. Now just for safe measure click on the session name you selected and click load just so we know it is the correct session that we currently have loaded.
The 2nd from last you now need to setup the port forwarding (tunnel) on Putty so that the port that is listening on the proxy server is tunneled via an encrypted SSH session back to your PC.
Now you have completed all the steps required for the port forwarding to work you can set your web browser proxy settings to “localhost” on port 8080. Now visit a site such as http://whatismyip.com/ and the site should tell you that the IP you are visiting from is the server IP address you specified earlier.
Enjoy your secure filter bypassing tunnel 
Using Google Mail With Your Own Domain
If you have ever switched ISP and then lost your email address as a result you will know how useful it is to have your own domain. Having an email address on your own domain will enable you to keep your same email address when switching ISP’s
You may also know that hosting a domain on a web server can get expensive with regular monthly payments and so on. This has now changed thanks to the clever guys from Google who have recently launched Google Apps.
This ingenious idea by the guys from Google allows you to host your own email on their servers with a very generous 6 gigabytes of email storage and all the extra features that gmail offers such as one of the best spam detection systems available today.
Does all this sound appealing? Are you now wondering how you can host your own domain on google’s servers? Well the answer is here and I have compiled a how to so that you too can enjoy the benefits of Gmail with the personal identity of your own domain.
Getting Started
First off we need to point our MX records to the Google servers. Each domain provider has different control panels so these steps may vary slightly. You will need the following MX records with the priorities listed.
ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. (MX Priority 1)
ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. (MX Priority 5)
ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. (MX Priority 5)
ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. (MX Priority 10)
ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. (MX Priority 10)
Ok now we have made these changes it can take some time for your DNS settings to update 24/48 hours is the norm. No need to panic as in the meantime we can get on with registering our Google Apps account.
Creating the account
As we are wanting something for nothing we are going to use the “Standard Edition” of the Google Apps service. Navigate to http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/editions_spe.html and once on the page select the “Standard Edition” by clicking on the button labeled “Sign Up” under the column “Standard Edition”
Now you will be prompted to enter the domain you wish to use for your Google Apps account. Once you have entered the domain click the “Get Started” button. Now proceed to enter your personal details such as contact details, organisation details (if applicable) and so on. Once done click the “Continue” button to go to the next step.
Finally you will be asked to create the domain administrator account, you will be required to select an alias for your domain administrator account. Once you have done this you will see a disclaimer at the bottom of the screen. Read through this disclaimer and if you accept the terms and conditions click the “I accept” button.
Your account is now created but the process does not finish there. You now need to verify you are the owner of the domain you have selected. Go ahead and click the link towards the top of the page labeled “Verify Domain Ownership”
The only option you really have is to verify your domain via CNAME as i am assuming you have no web space to upload a html file. So go ahead and select “Change Your CNAME Record” from the drop down list. You will now need to go to your domain providers website and create a CNAME record with the details that are shown on this page.
After approximately 24/48 hours your domain should be verified and now you should be able to use your shiny new Gmail account with your own domain. To try it out navigate to http://mail.google.com/a/YOUR_DOMAIN obviously you will need to replace YOUR_DOMAIN with the domain you signed up using.
Congratulations you have just created a Gmail account using your own domain name. Send a test email to your self just to check things are working. If things are not working how they should go ahead and read through the FAQ as there is plenty of useful information that should be able to help you out.
Enjoy your new Gmail account
Ultimate Street Car August 2008
“the fastest, hottest, largest and loudest modified car festival”
If you are reading this you will already know that this event is going to be bigger and better than ever before. In 2007 the event was the best one seen yet with three whole days of pure sunshine and even went down as the greatest modified car show the British Isles ever witnessed.
This year (2008) we can only assume the event is going to bigger and better than ever before with a great turn out and hopefully some nice warm weather (I’m going to cross my fingers for that).
Ticket prices are £50 in advance and available from the Santa Pod website, I will be going as a club with UK Car Modder, We as a club invite anyone else that would like to come to check the site out and come to this great event as a part of our friendly and ever growing club.
Below i will list a run down of events that you can see going on at this show including hot babes and fast cars. We hope to see you there to help make this bigger than ever before.
A run down of events
Show and shine
All type of car are welcome, all ages, makes, models and styles, and there’s no need to pre-enter: just show up at the right place at the right time on Sunday. We’ve got some great trophies up for grabs, and extra prizes from Santa Pod’s lane sponsor, Autoglym. Autoglym will also be giving sample packs to all entrants, so you can be sure that you’ll be able to get your car in top condition for the show.
Burn Out
Now moved to the Live Action Arena for better viewing and safety, the Burn Out Contest runs at lunchtime on both Saturday and Sunday, so make your way over if you like your rubber well done.
The winner is simply the guy/girl who gets the biggest cheer, so improve your chances by finding a car with enough power to actually keep the wheels going, or why not try cheating? A good fancy dress outfit or attractive girl on the team can make all the difference to your popularity!
Flame Out
There aren’t many places you are allowed to use your exhaust flamer kit these days… get caught using it in the streets and you risk 3 points on your licence, and use it in the campsite, and you’re likely to find a very grumpy security guard introducing himself.
But there is still one safe place for the flamer fan: the Live Action Arena (no longer at the startline) on Saturday night of Marangoni USC!
So if you have a flamer kit fitted or even just a vicious pop-and-bang on the over-run, make sure you enter!
As usual, each entrant gets 30 seconds to flame out on their own, then we go into a Grande Finale where everyone competes together. The competitor with the biggest cheer wins!
And the rest
I have listed a few of the events that will be going on over the august weekend but there is much more to come including “run what you brung” “hot babes” and everything else you could imagine including a huge trade village.
UK Car Modder hopes to see you there as a part of the club
T-Mobile Web ‘n’ Walk USB modem
After spending many boring lunch breaks at work with no access to the Internet i decided it was about time i purchased a 3G modem for my laptop.
My provider of choice is T-Mobile as i already have an existing contract with them and have had no real problems in the few years i have been a customer of theirs.
When i visited the T-Mobile website to make an order for a 3G USB modem i was presented with various different plans and contract periods.
As i am a heavy Internet user i opted for the Web ‘N’ Walk Max plan as this has a fair usage policy of 10 gigabytes a month and allows access to VoIP and streaming services. This all comes for the fair price of £35 monthly for the max plan with nothing to pay for the modem its self if you take out a 24 month contract.
Once i had completed the order online via the secure checkout i was instantly sent an email indicating my order was being processed and the appropriate credit checks were being conducted.
A few hours later into the day i then received a second email advising me that i had passed the screening stage and my order was now being picked from the warehouse for same day dispatch.
As expected the next morning my order had arrived via Royal Mail Special Delivery. I opened the rather small package to be greeted by the modem it’s self, the two USB cables and the manual. As usual i put the manual to one side, connected up the USB cable to the modem and then plugged this into my laptop.
Upon plugging the modem into my laptop Windows Vista automatically recognised the device and displayed an auto-run window to install the modem dashboard and drivers from the on-board flash memory of the modem it’s self. I proceeded with the install which took a little less than one minute to complete.
Now the modem was installed it was time to connect to the Internet for the first time and experience 3G / HSDPA browsing on my laptop.
The T-Mobile dashboard software indicated i had a HSDPA signal with a strength of two bars. I now proceeded to click connect to authenticate the device with the T-Mobile servers.
After a short moment the device was now online and i was able to browse the Internet via the Web ‘N’ Walk service.
My first use of the service was to conduct a simple speed test. The site i used for the speed test was Speedtest.net which reported i had just a little over 400kbps downstream bandwidth and approximately 300kbps upstream bandwidth.
I have to say i was rather shocked at the speeds report by Speedtest.net as T-Mobile advertise the service as having a maximum throughput of 7.2 mbps.
After a little thinking and a spot of lunch i decided to try and test the service in another way by using a multi-threaded download manager, my choice of download manager was FlashGet. The item i decided to download was the DVD ISO of CentOS 5.
FlashGet reported my average speed to be 225 KB/s which calculates to be approx 1.8 mbps. I was quite surprised at the new reported speed as just over a year ago even my home broadband supplied by Pipex was not as quick as the Web ‘N’ Walk service.
Overall i think the Web ‘N’ Walk service supplied by T-Mobile is useful as it enables road warriors to access the Internet anywhere they have got mobile phone coverage. However i think the fair usage policy that T-Mobile enforce could be a little fairer towards the end user, for example the 10 gigabyte limit on the Max plan would be quite easy to consume within a week.
I also think that the pricing could be a lot cheaper as well, compared to the Max plan sold by Three which has a fair usage limit of 7GB a month, T-Mobile works out to be £10 a month more expensive for an extra three gigabytes of transfer.
HTC Touch Cruise
Currently labeled as one of the most powerful smart phones on the market i just could not wait to get my hands on a HTC Touch Cruise. Unfortunately my contract is not up for renewal any time soon so i decided to bite the bullet and go and buy a factory unlocked Sim free model for the handsome price of approx £400 British pounds.
When the phone arrived i was a little shocked that my distributor (Total PDA) had chosen packaging that came across as flimsy but never the less i accepted receipt of the goods and “signed my life away”
Upon opening the City-Link mail bag i was presented with an elegant black box that i must say looks very executive. I carefully opened the box i was presented with the luxurious looking smart phone.
Upon turning on the phone i was prompted with various questions you might expect from a Windows Mobile device. For example i was asked to select my time zone and enter my locale information.
After doing this the phone then went to the next screen and prompted me to align the display correctly. This was easily done using the on screen targets and the stylus that is provided with the phone.
Now the phone had loaded to the “Today” screen a useful box then popped up that automatically configured my GPRS / HSDPA settings to my operator T-Mobile UK.
Straight away i loaded the pocket Opera version bundled with the phone and began to browse the Internet, instantly i had a HSDPA signal and was able to browse at decent speeds.
After my venture with Internet browsing via the mobile phone network i then went on to configure the phone for wireless LAN this was all a breeze using the built in comms manager. I was soon connected to my own WiFi network in under 30 seconds.
I discovered i was able to access the comms manager from the Touch Flo interface making it quick and simple to turn options such as WiFi, Blue-tooth and Data Connection on or off.
Overall the phone is fast and fun to use, the integrated Touch Flo interface is bordering on the functionality of Apple’s iPhone but no where near as powerful.
Some disadvantages i think the phone have are.
- Lack of IMAP IDLE support
- No advanced touch interface
- Poor battery life
- Laggy camera viewer
I hope that HTC decide to refine this model and bring out possibly a HTC Touch Cruise II with longer battery life and a more advanced touch interface.
Speeding Tickets
I was at work today when a colleague of mine sent me one of these classic joke email’s, you know the ones that go from company to company that your manager’s hate.
The email put a smile on my face and had me grinning like a cheshire cat for the rest of the day. I then thought maybe one day if i was in a similar situation i could use the same joke and get the same response from an unexpecting police officer, so if this has got you wondering here is the contents of the email.
While I was driving down the A1 the other day, (going a little faster than I should have been) I passed under a bridge only to see a policeman on the other side with a radar gun, lying in wait. The policeman pulled me over, walked up to the car and with that classic, patronizing smirk, asked: ‘Runway too short’?
To which I replied. ‘I’m late for work’
To which he asked, ‘What do you do?’
‘I’m a rectum stretcher,’ I responded.
The policeman was surprised and confused.
‘A what?’‘rectum stretcher’
‘And just what does a rectum stretcher do?’
‘Well,’ I said ‘I start by inserting one finger then I work my way up to two fingers, then three, then four then with my whole hand in, work side to side until I can stretch and stretch and then I slowly but surely stretch the hole until it’s about 6 feet’
Then the policeman asked questioningly and cautiously. ‘And just what do you do with a six-foot arsehole?’
To which I politely replied,
‘You give it a radar gun and park it behind a bridge…’Speeding ticket: 105 pounds,
Court Costs: £45 pounds,
Look on copper’s face: Priceless….