Clete’s Blog

Wireshark is a free open source packet sniffing utility. In extremely simple terms, packet sniffing is the act of looking at network packets that your computer can see. If you are using WiFi to connect to the internet, this can easily include packets that weren’t meant to be yours (e.g. you see other users’ data). Usually, the way that your ethernet connection is wired prevents you from seeing other users’ packets.

I started sniffing around for fun today and I made some disturbing discoveries that shouldn’t have surprised me.  First, I noticed that my POP3 (Post Office Protocol; POP3 is the predominant email protocol) accounts are not authenticating securely. I was able to easily pull my username and password out of the network packets, as well as any email information that was sent or received. A few quick settings changes and I’m now sending and receiving email securely.

I also found out that the AIM protocol is not encrypted either. You can clearly see the message below that I sent to my friend. (Click to see the whole window)

If I get on a WiFi network, I should be able to see other people’s messages. I’m interested to see how many people out there are using no encryption or weak encryption (base64).

I recently found out that when laptop makers state that their batteries begin deteriorating in 18 months, they mean that their batteries are completely useless within 15 months. I could not find what they consider to be “normal usage,” but I guess one charge every other day is much more than “normal usage.”

For the past six months, my battery life has been gradually deteriorating from its maximum of 3 hours per charge to about 2 hours per charge. This past week, I was on laptop, using battery power for the first time since the beginning of the summer. I decided to test out my battery and see how much time was left on it. My battery drained normally to 85% or so. I figured the battery was okay, so I stopped looking at it. Within a minute or two, the battery light was flashing at me and telling me that 7% of the battery was left. This was quite a shock to me, as I received my laptop in May of last year. I try to use my battery as little as possible, because I know a replacement battery is around $150.

I thought that maybe my battery meter was incorrect, but the BIOS also reported 7%, so I shut it down and let it charge. I noticed that my battery was fully charged in about twenty minutes. It generally takes over an hour to fully charge my battery. At this time, I still thought nothing of it, because it had to be a fluke. It turns out that I was wrong. Two days later, the same phenomenon happened. The weird thing was that I checked the “battery health meter” in both the BIOS and in Windows and they both reported no problems. I also checked the lights on the battery itself to see if it reported deterioration, but it did not.

I then called Dell and went through the support process. Even though Dell states that batteries should last for approximately 18 months before they even begin to deteriorate, they told me that the warranty on them is only 12 months and my battery was given to me 15 months ago. So, I ordered a new battery for around $160 with shipping. It is due to arrive today or tomorrow. I was very pleased with this, especially since it was not supposed to ship until September 2nd. The support technician, as usual, was very friendly and endured my pushing for a free battery. I knew I was fighting a losing battle because of their policy, so I did not push too hard (so that I would not get negative notes on my record).

Later that day, this happened again, so I first checked the battery, and it reported 60% deterioration. What? This is strange. So I checked it on the computer and it told me that I needed to order a new battery. Well, finally. I do not understand why it went out all of a sudden or why the battery and the laptop were unable to report deterioration until it failed on me completely. I can now get about 10 minutes of battery time.

I spoke with a few friends and they have also had to order a new battery shortly after a year from the time they received their laptop. Ashley’s battery is also going out. She used to get 5 hours of battery time and now she only gets 2 hours maximum.

Batteries don’t last as long as they say they do.

While surfing Gentoo Linux’s website, I came across a video of a man using a touchscreen and a 3D Desktop. It’s pretty cool. I’m going to try and see if I can figure out how to setup a 3D desktop with KDE (the man uses GNOME) once I get my Gentoo system all compiled.

Check it out!