Episode 604 – WiFi Network Scanners and Windows VPN services
This week Matt reviews an open source WiFi network scanner for Windows while Darren convinces a Windows server into treating a VPN connection as a service.
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Merge folders with Winmerge
This open source Windows tool allows you to easily identify inconsistencies between two would-be identical directories and quickly make corrections, complete with keyboard shortcuts. Check out Winmerge
inSSIDer, an open source Windows WiFi Scanner
So in my never ending search for better and better utilities to make my life easier, I came across inSSIDer by metageek.
Which is basically a stripped down version of their Chanalyzer software.
Stripped down maybe, but extremely useful none the less? YES!
After performing a scan of my boss’s house who was plagued with signal drops and slow speeds, I came across the reason.
Interfering access points. His router was on channel 6, surrounded by half a dozen other access points.
So using the easy to read inSSIDer software I decided to put him on channel 11, where there were no other AP’s in range.
As soon as I made the switch, I had vastly improved signal strength, and no longer had drops walking through the house.
We’ll be running a review of the Wi-Spy products and metageek’s Chanalyzer in an upcoming episode.
LAN Party
This month’s LAN Party is Team Fortress 2 on Saturday, October 3rd, at game.hak5.org. Find all the LAN Party details at hak5lan.squarespace.com
Windows VPN connection as Service
One of the nice things about Windows Server is the built in VPN service — RRAS or Routing and Remote
Access. In this segment I demonstrate a way to connect one Windows Server to another utilizing a PPTP VPN
connection as a service. The built in VPN connection manager isn’t half bad.
A nifty feature is >the rasdial.exe program
which allows you to connect/disconnect a VPN profile from the command line. Pairing that with the AutoExNT service from the Windows Server
Resource Kit and you’ve got a VPN connection on boot, even before login.
Contest
This month’s contest is for the scatter brained and design concious desktop users. Share your desktop’s
over at Hak5.org/screenshot and be entered to
win leet Hak5 swag and Ashley Schwartau’s Hackers Are People Too DVD.


Wow. 2 6×03 episodes. watched 6×04 first thing this morning when it posted to revision 3. kinda short, but interesting. needs more homebrew.
Matt,
I’m right there with you on the helicopter shot in that video.
More Homebrew!!
**cough** its redboot and i emailed you a link to the connector and pinout
better resend
@mac_mini, this was recorded the same night as 603 in an attempt to have Labor Day weekend off.
@JC Denton, agreed.
@Alex, haven’t seen your video but I think I’ve got the right cable. It’s on order from digikey.
If you have a hard-coded app, why not try a couple of easier options? 1) Hex edit the app to change the IP… or 2) Use a pfSense box to NAT that one IP to your new IP scheme.
With pfSense, you could also do the reverse and allow it to be your VPN server (it supports RADIUS so it’ll adhere to your AD policy) and then just have NAT addresses for all the “boring” servers (with reflection supported if you like). — Again… avoiding scripts on the servers.
I’m a minimalist; I think I’d try Scheduled Tasks with the startup option for this.
Since the new series of episodes everything has been SysAdmin based. Think we could do with a wider variety. I love your show but lately the content hasn’t been that relevent to me. Just try to mix things up a little.
Either way keep up the great work and I’m looking forward to the LAN party!!
Metageek WiSpy is expensive. I got the Ubiquiti Airview, its only $40 and does the same thing. Plus they have Linux software too.
That VPN has hurt my head, why? There are a dozen ways to get round this problem, I’m loosing sleep with how horrible it was. Wouldn’t fixing this make a great competition? Give us the details and we’ll give you a great fix.
Test it with:
Price
Reliability
Security
Coolness
And you get $1000’s of consultancy for nothing!! – Give the guy who does the winning design a credit and everybody wins.
My design uses ISA server BTW (probably)
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Been watching all the episodes and thought your server connecting to the VPN was pretty funny, and I loved Iawn’s comment.
Just in case you’re actually using this solution at your office, for the sake of your users please disable it and add multiple IPs to the NIC in question to get it on the right subnets
Simple solution.