iStumbler News

Call for Questions

Sun, 20 Nov 2005 08:19:34 PST

If you have questions about iStumbler, or network security go on over to Cocoa Radio and post them in the comments of the show announcement.

Upcoming Cocoa Radio Interview

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 09:30:00 PST

Blake Burris from Cocoa Radio is fishing for questions for an upcoming interview with me about iStumbler and wireless security. Please stop by his sites and post any questions you would like to hear answers to about iStumbler, Wireless Networks and even PowerBook tips and tricks.

iStumbler MacSlashed

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 10:00:00 PST

MacSlash picked up the Help Net Security interview from yesterday. Cool.

Interview with Mirko Zorz for Help Net Security

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 12:00:00 PST

An interview I did with Help Net Security about iStumbler. Since doing this interview I've taken a job with Slide, working on their Mac client. iStumbler Pro is still on the drawing boards, but it might stay there a litte longer than I had planned during the interview .

Mail Outage...

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 12:25:00 PST

mail.istumbler.net has been bouncing email for the last two days or so, if you send me an email and got a bounce please resend it. While this was technically my fault I blame postfix for not letting me know that my main.cf was broken ...

SBC Getting Ready to Block Google, Vonage, Others...

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 12:00:00 PST

How concerned are you about Internet upstarts like Google, MSN, Vonage, and others?

How do you think they're going to get to customers? Through a broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them. Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?

The Internet can't be free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made an investment and for a Google or Yahoo! or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts! ?

-- Ed Whitaker, CEO of SBC calling for the end of network neutrality.

Think PowerBook G5 with a dual-core PPC at 2Ghz

Mon, 24 Oct 2005 19:00:00 PST

So, Apple stopped using chips from IBM and Freescale because their 'performance-per-watt' is gong to be far less than upcoming Intel designs. What Apple didn't know is that P.A. Semi was working in stealth mode on a 64 bit (G5), 2Ghz+ multi-core PPC chip which draws 'just 5-13 watts typical'. Damn.

The chips also integrate key IO and memory components which help reduce chip-count (and therefore cost) while increasing performance. End result: much faster, slightly smaller and far cooler products. Shame we won't be seeing PowerBooks built around these chips...

iStumbler Release 96 On The Way

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 09:00:00 PST

iStumbler 96 is nearly ready, and it's got some great new features:

Growl Support for Networks, Devices and Services.
Bluetooth Enquiry Support on Tiger (Mac OS 10.4)
Internationalization Support (Big thanks to Luke Weber)
Closed Network identification

Subscribe to iStumbler and join over six hundred people who helped support this release by signing up today. You'll get your copy of Release 96 delivered as soon as it's final.

Katrina and Security

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 10:00:00 PST

Our government's ineptitude in the aftermath of Katrina demonstrates how little we're getting for all our security spending. It's unconscionable that we're wasting our money fingerprinting foreigners, profiling airline passengers, and invading foreign countries while emergency response at home goes underfunded.
-- Bruce Schneier

The first rule of buying a phone...

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 09:30:00 PST

MacWorld's Jim D. writes about his experience with the new ROKR phone from motorola:

I had one of the first ROKR phones sold from the downtown San Francisco Cingular location and couldn't wait to get back to the office and see how it worked with my Mac. It wasn't long before my excitement turned to frustration and anger as I struggled to get the ROKR recognized by my Mac and iTunes.

Of course, if Jim followed my two simple rules for buying a phone:

Never buy a phone from Motorola
Never buy a phone with moving parts

...he wouldn't have these problems. Sure the ROKR is a tempting new toy but it's from Motorola, the mechanical design and user interface is guaranteed to suck. At least it's not a flip phone, so it might last more than six months before the hinge breaks.

Unified Metal

Fri, 9 Sep 2005 20:00:00 PST

This guy trashes the HIG the way Johnny Depp trashes a hotel room. He even sports a custom radius on his window corners. No other window on the system has a shape like this. It's wild. Just wait until the HIG zealots get a load of this guy.
-- The iTunes 5 Announcement From the Perspective of an Anthropomorphized Brushed Metal User Interface Theme

Global Warming + Hurricanes

Fri, 2 Sep 2005 08:00:00 PST

What do the observations of the last century actually show? Some past studies (e.g. Goldenberg et al, 2001) assert that there is no evidence of any long-term increase in statistical measures of tropical Atlantic hurricane activity, despite the ongoing global warming. These studies, however, have focused on the frequency of all tropical storms and hurricanes (lumping the weak ones in with the strong ones) rather than a measure of changes in the intensity of the storms. ... statistical measures that focus on trends in the strongest category storms, maximum hurricane winds, and changes in minimum central pressures, suggest a systematic increase in the intensities of those storms that form. This finding is consistent with the model simulations.
-- Real Climate

GVisit

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 19:30:00 PST

Follow the link to see the approximate locations of the last twenty or so people to read this item.

Definition of WEP

Sat, 13 Aug 2005 09:20:00 PST

WEP (Wired Equivelant Privacy) |wep|
verb [past part.] intrans 1. To implement security after an incident. 'I WEPd for days after our wireless network was comprimised'
noun 1. An IEEE standard that works as advertised 'WEP provides the exact level of privacy as the wired internet, nearly none'

GPS Plugin Download

Sat, 13 Aug 2005 09:00:00 PST

This is the GPS Plugin for iStumbler, there are some known bugs with tiger, bluetooth GPS devices as well as bluetooth phones, so it was taken out of the public release. If you're interested in testing the plugin with iStumbler Release 95 here you go!

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS + Stroller = Warstroller

Wed, 10 Aug 2005 13:45:00 PST

If this isn't the worlds first Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled stroller I'd be a little surprised...

A Little Love from Bambi

Tue, 09 Aug 2005 06:30:00 PST

When I'm out and about with my laptop, I check for WiFi HotSpots. I use iStumbler to find those pesky networks. For now, iStumbler is free.

If you haven't checked out Mac 360, you are missing out. These are the bad girls of mac news, and boy are they hot! Hot!

iStumbler needs your help!

Sun, 7 Aug 2005 12:00:00 PST

Release 95 may be the last free version of iStumbler. After more than two years of providing best in class open source tools there are simply not enough subscribers to keep the project going.

Without the support of the mac community I cannot keep this project alive. iStumbler needs contributors, it needs subscribers and most of all it needs some well-deserved press coverage. If you can help in any of these regards, please contact me at: alf@istumbler.net

Spectrum for Release 95

Wed, 3 Aug 2005 01:00:00 PST

Introducing the Spectrum Widget for iStumbler Release 95. Spectrum displays the signal strength of all visible wireless networks, graphically showing overlapping network and signal strength trends.

iStumbler Release 95

Wed, 3 Aug 2005 01:00:00 PST

Release 95 adds support for the Spectrum Widget, the Bonjour plugin is updated for Tiger to support wide-area Bonjour and adds a database of more than two hundred Bonjour service types.

Cisco Routers Face Possible Compromise

Mon, 1 Aug 2005 12:00:00 PST

Cisco shot itself in the foot by trying to force a security researcher not to discuss a possible IOS (the operating system that powers Cisco routers) compromise. The result? Hackers have taken up arms to try and exploit that compromise, which would give them access to 60% of all internet traffic.

This perfectly illustrates my point to anyone advocating the use of encrypted wireless links: you can't trust the wired network either. Use secure protocols for personal information including mail, chat and file transfer if your provider does not offer them it's time to get a new one.

Got Work?

Mon, 1 Aug 2005 09:00:00 PST

Open Source developer looking for Cocoa desktop development position in San Francisco, Portland or Seattle. More than 30,000 lines of example code are available on my web site, which attracts more than 20,000 visitors a month. Sadly, very few subscribe, so I'm looking for a full- time job to put my Mac skill to work.

Hogwash... I like the sound of that....

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 20:00:00 PST

"Hogwash. Securing the local link isn't the nightmare you're stating with modern equipment. You can't assume that residential users will use secure protocols. And secure protocols aren't enough." - GF

Continued from WiFi Net News...

I would argue that securing the local link has already been a nightmare. Surveying my network there are three generations of Wi-Fi base stations; two out of three have compromised versions of WEP. Any MAC layer encryption scheme used to secure municipal wireless networks is just as likely to be compromised in the future. So if it's not a nightmare on modern equipment it will be the day WPA/802.11i or whatever is broken.

As far as performance is concerned, processor speed is not the issue. While the bulk of traffic in, for e.g. a WPA network, is encrypted with the fast AES block cypher, key exchange must be done with a CBC stream cipher which, besides the added traffic increases the size of the encrypted data . See http://www. openxtra.co.uk/articles/wpa-vs-80211i.php for more info. Encryption is simply not free, and the kicker is that people already using encryption methods are doubly taxed.

On the user front, it is absolutely imperative that people understand the security issues surrounding their use of public networks. If as you suggest, we create a state of the art, fully encrypted and 'perfectly safe' municipal network which allows John Q. Public, not to mention Da Mayor, to use unsecured protocols for fetching his mail with his laptop at home, what happens when he leaves that safe network and goes to visit a cafe on a weekend getaway? If the cafe owner is running an open network to attract visitors he has no reason to use any security measures. John will check his email fro the cafe blissfully unaware that he is broadcasting his personal information and passwords because he has the perception of his internet connection is 'perfectly safe'.

Just like in real life, security on the internet is ultimately the individuals responsibility, and just like in real life there is no perfect security but you can take reasonable measure to protect yourself. Observe the same cautions you would in a public place when connecting to a public network. Close all network ports and services you're not using or have not properly secured, make sure that you use SSL/TLS or HTTPS for all sensitive information.

For the love of God, Glenn NOOOOOO!

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 12:00:00 PST

Now, I usually agree with Glenn Fleishman, but when he writes about municipal network being deployed without MAC layer security (such as WEP or WPA): "This is a critical failing... [T]his giant breach in basic security is just a fact of the municipal networks that are deployed and deploying." I have to disagree.

You can never, never trust the network to keep your data secret. You can't trust wired networks, you can't trust wireless networks and you definatly cannot trust the open internet. Securing the link between you and you base station with MAC layer encryption only gives you the illusion of security. In reality, it reduces your available bandwidth and increase latency while providing no additional protection once your information leaves your network. Also note that all MAC layer encryption techniques have been broken either in principal or practice within two years of their introduction.

The good news is that you can protect your data by making use of Application layer security such as SSL or TLS for your email, web shopping and other online activities. Use chat clients such as Skype which automatically encrypt your voice and data. Whatever and however you secure your computer please, please. please don't cry for all network to be encrypted because you can't get it together to check a box in your mail configuration.

Release 95 on the way.

Thu, 21 Jul 2005 20:00:00 PST

iStumbler Release 95 is nearly done, I'll be sending out subscriptions early this weekend, and the final release will be next Tuesday. There are some great new features including a widget that will blow away the existing 'list of networks' hacks. There are also serious improvements to the Bonjour plugin including a new browse by hosts or service option, a database of more than 300 Bonjour service types and the ability to browse wide-area Bonjour domains.

If you don't already have a subscription, now's the time to signup. You'll get early access to Release 95 and a chance to check out the new features first!

Trusted Computing Untrustworthy

Sat, 16 Jul 2005 20:00:01 PST

The "Trusted Computing Group" has released it's "Trusted Network Connect" specification (see article link). If you read between the lines you'll notice that the specification requires a software agent running on your computer to communicate the details of your system configuration to the network for vetting before you are allowed to connect. How much do you want to bet the first thing is checks for is a Windows license?

iStumbler Release 94 Universal Updated

Sat, 11 Jun 2005 12:00:00 PST

Updated Universal Binary for iStumbler Release 94. This build will only run on Mac OS 10.4 or greater and now Includes the fat binary for the Intel processor, the previous version was ppc only. Still looking for a screenshot on an Intel machine. -- alf@istumbler.net

iStumbler Release 94 Universal

Mon, 10 Jun 2005 12:00:00 PST

Universal Binary for iStumbler Release 94. This build will only run on Mac OS 10.4 or greater and should run property on a Mac with an Intel processor. I don't have the gear to test it, so a screenshot of it running on one of the developer machines would be great. -- alf@istumbler.net

iStumbler Release 94 a Version Trackers Editors Pick

Wed, 8 Jun 2005 09:00:00 PST

We've gotten a few of these before, but it's always nice to earn the blue highlight.

Swan song for the Power PC

Tue, 7 Jun 2005 12:00:00 PST

A sweet article about the why and how of the PPC to Intel transition. I really agree with the author about this being a sad turn of events... Shame on IBM for not even wanting to compete...

iStumbler Release 94

Mon, 6 Jun 2005 12:00:00 PST

Release 94 Focuses on stability and performance improvements with a few small user interface changes. Status displays are back, log messages are now formatted for improved readability and the AirPort plugin can now show the frequency a radio is using. Release 94 includes an important bug fix for users of Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger), earlier versions of iStumbler trigger a very large memory leak, all users are encouraged to upgrade in order to avoid excessive memory consumption.

Leaks Patched, Release 94 On The Way!

Wed, 1 Jun 2005 18:00:00 PST

After a week staring at the various memory debuggers I finally found the leak that was preventing iStumbler Release 94 from going out. After 16 hours running under the BigTop, iStumbler seems to be holding it's memory usage steady. If you don't already have a subscription this is your last chance to get early access to Release 94.

Release 94 Delayed

Sat, 21 May 2005 13:00:00 PST

I've got iStumbler 94 ready to go except a new bug for Tiger users. Unfortunately the bug is a large memory leak and has proven very difficult to track down. If you are using iStumbler with OS 10.4, you will want to restart iStumbler once a day to keep your swap file from filling up.

iStumbler Release 93 is #1 Network & Security Download at apple.com

Fri, 20 May 2005 12:00:00 PST

Release 93 was featured by Apple in the Networking & Security section of their OS X download site. We are now the number one download in that section!

Guerrilla Hi-Fi is Online

Tue, 17 May 2005 10:00:00 PST

Guerrilla Hi-Fi is online and waiting for you to come check it out. You can download three great dub albums in high quality mp3 format: for free!

Developer Site Update: Framework Descriptions and Models

Tue, 10 May 2005 11:30:00 PST

Developer site now includes description of the iStumbler frameworks as well as class model diagrams produced with Xcode 2.0. Pretty snazzy stuff, though getting the arrangement *just right* can take some time...

GPS Help Update: Setting up a Bluetooth GPS

Tue, 26 Apr 2005 08:00:00 PST

First pass at a tutorial for setting up a Bluetooth GPS to work with iStumbler. Please let me know if it's helpful and if anybody has gotten the GPS plugin working.

iStumbler 93 Released

Sun, 20 Apr 2005 01:00:00 PST

iStumbler says Hello to Bonjour! Apple's new name for the combination of multicast DNS and DNS Service Discovery which allows you to browse all the Bonjour enabled hosts on your network and connect to advertised services such as web servers or iChat sessions. The GPS Plugin is substantially updated adding the ability to put down virtual pins and record the location of Notes and AirPort Networks it also fixes a hanging bug for people with Bluetooth phones, Infrared Ports and other serial devices. New icons throughout make Release 93 the best looking version of iStumbler yet.

Why would you think your cell phone would work at home?

Mon, 18 Apr 2005 09:30:00 PST

Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon's CEO, shows his true colors in this interview with the SF Cronic's Todd Wallack. I've always suspected that phone companies hated their customers, but it's something else hear a CEO actually say it.

iStumbler Release 93 available to subscribers

Mon, 18 Apr 2005 09:00:00 PST

iStumbler Release 93 is available to subscribers. If you don't already have a subscription please visit our subscriber page and you'll get the latest version of iStumbler before it's public release on Wed, the 20th of April 2005.

Seattle Bans Free Wi-Fi After Coffeehouse Explosion

Fri, 1 Apr 2005 07:00:00 PST

"Seattle's City Council has passed an emergency measure to ban free Wi-Fi access within city limits, following testimony from experts and fire officials regarding their investigation of last week's explosion at the popular "Beans, Beans, The Magical Fruit" coffeehouse. The measure takes effect immediately; individuals or businesses found to be operating unregulated Wi-Fi access will be subject to misdemeanor charges, confiscation of Wi-Fi equipment, and fines of up to $5,000. Seattle will also create a Wi-Fi Testing Foundation (WTF) to assess and regulate Wi-Fi access within city limits. The WTF will consider a proposal in which users of Wi-Fi would be required by law to limit their use in coffeehouses to email and text-only Web sites (or Web browsing which images turned off)."

iStumbler in MacWorld Magazine

Thu, 31 Mar 2005 17:00:00 PST

Brief mention, no review, no rating. Sigh.

iStumbler in Mac Home Magazine

Tue, 29 Mar 2005 15:00:00 PST

They wrote us up for the April 2005 issue, and iStumbler is ON THE COVER of Mac Home this month, there's a great screen shot of Release 90 on page 28: "Alf Watt's iStumbler is a slick utility that sniffs out wireless networks in your immediate surroundings. [If] you are having intermittent connection issues with your own wireless network, you can troubleshoot the problem with your new best friend, iStumbler. It reveals the wireless channel each network is using, allowing you to choose a free [one.]"

NY Times on bluejacking

Thu, 24 Mar 2005 12:00:00 PST

NY Times has an article on Bluejacking today, worth reading.

iStumbler 92 Bugs

Tue, 22 Mar 2005 12:00:00 PST

Several users are describing bugs with the GPS plugin. There are two general issues: people with bluetooth phones or pda's will have trouble when quitting the application, they will also have trouble when trying to get the GPS plugin to work with their existing hardware. In both cases the culprit is a known bug in the GPS plugin: it can only select the first serial device. A fix is in the works, please stand by.

iStumbler 92 Released

Sun, 20 Mar 2005 12:00:00 PST

Release 92 reintroduces the GPS plugin which works with any NMEA Serial or Bluetooth GPS device. This release also includes new preferences for setting the font size and toolbar style as well as improvements to the plugin system and better support for help. The new Subscribe plugin makes it easy to subscribe to iStumbler and get early access to new releases and help support further development of cutting edge wireless tools.

iStumbler 91 released to Subscribers

Fri, 11 Feb 2005 12:00:00 PST

Release 91 gives iStumbler a thorough face-lift. The AirPort, Bluetooth and mDNS plugins now display icons for various items. Menus for the AirPort and Bluetooth plugins have been greatly improved and resize behavior was tuned up. Behind the scenes improvements in stability, memory and processor usage make this the most reliable release of iStumbler yet.

iStumbler Release 90 downloaded over 15,000 times

Wed, 26 Jan 2005 12:00:00 PST

They come, they download, they leave... istumbler-90.tgz 15,052 downloads...

iStumbler Release 90 a Version Tracker Editor's Pick

Tue, 25 Jan 2005 12:00:00 PST

iStumbler Release 90 was named a Version Tracker Editors's Pick!

iStumbler 90 released

Mon, 24 Jan 2005 12:00:00 PST

Release 90 introduces the mDNS (Multicast-DNS, AKA Rendezvous) plugin which allows you to browse published services on the local network and connect to them with a single click. The Bluetooth plugin enables the 'Pair' and 'Browse' features while the preferences have been updated for all plugins.

iStumbler 90 released to subscribers

Sat, 22 Jan 2005 15:43:12 PST

iStumbler 90 was released to subscribers today, general downloads will be available Monday Jan 24 2004. You can subscribe for as little as one dollar to get iStumbler now!