HIR Issue 9: Tales from the HiR Mailbag
No Gerbils Were Used in The Creation of This Article
Editor's Note: Here at HiR we get quite a bit of mail. Between our personal e-mail and the HiR Group E-Mail Account (H_i_R@hotmail.com), we send about 50 messages a day to /dev/null. About 48 of those trashed messages are about how to make a 1500% profit on selling dried cat guts to blind children who can't tell it from beef jerky, or about how we just all won 30 free days of XXX pr0n if we give them our credit card numbers, or some other stuff...
We're grateful that our readers like to respond, though... This is by no means a complete list of all the mail, but we tossed in those messages that deserved a good response. We did mail responses back to almost everyone who mailed us, and we published both the questions and our responses for those messages we put here. If we keep getting good questions/e-mail, you'll probabl see this section in every future release of HiR.
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Subject: Info Request
Hi there,
Im interested in becoming a hacker... i'm really dummie right now and i'd like to know a resource where i can get important information about procedures and programs...
If you can tell me about any resource, website or book it will be very helpful.
Thanks
__________________________
Well, it seems you're already more of a hacker than many of the script-kiddies that go around flaunting their "elite hax0r" selves.
The primary essence of a hacker is curiosity and drive to learn, which you seem to possess.
To begin hacking, I would suggest focusing WAY down to something specific. Most (real) hackers begin by tinkering with their operating system of choice (be it Netware, Win95, WinNT, MacOS, DOS, Linux, *BSD, or some other UNIX variant), and learning as much about it as possible.
Others decide not to focus on an operating system, but to focus on something else such as Networking, telephony, Computer Hardware, Digital Electronics, or something else. I am a firm believer that you should try to find an operating system you like, and start "hacking" by modifying your operating system, its look or feel, finding out how to add functionality to it (through 3rd party software or stuff you come up with yourself), and things like that.
I would recommend reading the "tech bible", written by disc0rd.
It's available on the links page of our distro site at http://axon.jccc.net/hir
The Tech bible is a GREAT intro to hacking. It shows how to get started on several different operating systems, as well as some general hacker subculture help. Read all the HiR Articles. They range from hacking around with the Win95 Registry, to having fun with UNIX, all the way through securing a linux system and even how to put together some cool electronic circuits that do fun stuff.
--The HiR Crew
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Subject: I Want to run UNIX!
i have been experimenting with port scanners and such and have become very interested in learning about other systems...but i find that so much more could be done if i had unix. now this is my parents computer and they get pissed off when i put stuff on here, so getting unix would be a problem...so i was wondering if there was software that you know of that can, how do i say, simulate a unix environment, so that i can do more. if you know of any, please send me it or tell me where to get it.
please write back, thanks.
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Well... if you really must know, it's a major pain in the butt to run anything unix-like, without installing it. There are fun ways to take up like 500 Megabytes to 1 Gigabyte (or even more) by adding a partition, and making it so that Windows (or DOS, whatever your parents run) will boot normally... but it gives you a few seconds to choose your UNIX of choice. By far, the easiest to install is RedHat Linux. Version 5.2 (maybe Redhat 6.0 by the time this gets out) is available in stores such as Best Buy, CompUSA, and online stores such as http://www.cheapbytes.com. Linux is one of a few UNIX-Style OS's that will run on a normal desktop. RedHat makes it easy to learn more about UNIX. Alternatively, there are other companies that release their own versions of Linux, each of them has advantages and disadvantages. Debian and S.u.S.E are two examples.
After you've gotten better at messing with UNIX, you may want to move up to FreeBSD, or play with it. This is a little more stable (but not quite as friendly) as most of the Linux Distributions.
If you don't have the hard drive space to devote to a "Linux" drive, then you can try to save up enough cast to get your own computer. RedHat 5.2 will run (not very fast) on a 386. If you can even find them at used computer stores, they're pretty cheap. I was running it on a 486 with 8 megabytes of ram for a long time, and it never gave me any problems. You can probably get a decent 486 and the stuff to go with it (Monitor, Keyboard, mouse, and a 1 gigabyte or larger hard drive) for less than $300 if you check used computer stores, want ads, and garage sales. It's well worth learning how to use some form of UNIX, and you're very correct in your assumption that UNIX will set you free when it comes to those annoying barriers that Windows gives you, and there is a more wide-spread base of hacking/network-analysis tools for UNIX and it's derivatives.
To completely answer your question, yes, you can run Linux without a major re-partition. Look on the net for things that utilize "UMSDOS", Unix-in-MS-DOS technology. I believe that Slackware Linux, among others, can do this for you. Read the appropriate documentation for detailed instructions on how to implement this.
--HiR Crew
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Subject: statement that water-cooling a socket-7 chip would "take a lot of balls"
being monetarily deprived, i'm inclined to agree with that. HOWEVER, i (well a couple of friends of mine and i) have successfully water-cooled a socket ah... five, if memory serves me, pentium-66. we pulled the xtal oscillator-in-a-box from the board and connected a Fluke signal generator in it's place. the original xtal was rated at 18.xxxx MHz and we got the Fluke up to somewhere around 40 MHz before things got flaky. needless to say, it was damn fast and the chip got pretty warm.
the cooling system itself was a 160 gallon/hour aquarium filter pushing water over the heatsink on the chip. it was a big aluminium thing that had depended on some sort of airflow in the old case (we assumed this since we just got the board and chip) anyway, we used a lot of silicone and some plexiglass and some nylon pipe fittings to make it liquid coolable. the water was cycled through a little plastic one gallon aquarium (which was mostly empty when the system finished self-priming, requiring us to refill it after each start) and we started to get steam condensing on it's sides, so we would submerge plastic pop bottles filled with water and then frozen in the aquarium to keep it at a reasonable temperature. finally one night during an endurance test (running a ray tracer [POV-ray, REALLY neat]) the heatsink sprung a leak, allowing about two gallons of water to be pumped into the case with the computer. there was no major electrical trouble (thankfully), but the system was rendered unusable.
anyway, just thought you might enjoy the story of our little experience.
Aaron xxxxxx (Last name omitted -Ed.)
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Well, thanks for sharing. I figured that eventually the things HAD to leak... Sigh... BUT with how cheap you can get a Pentium 60 and a motherboard, it might be worth it to some people. The way I figure it, you were running that Pentium 60 chip somewhere in the 133-150 MHz range, which, needless to say, is an AWESOME boost... If you could get the same power increase (percentage wise) out of a P-120 chip, you're talking better than 350 Megahertz! I was really interested in hearing some results from this. I, myself, can't afford that kind of experimentation unless I went in on it with some other people. Thanks for getting back to us!
--Axon
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Contributions from Asmodian X,
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More Info On CD Burning
From: Calvin
> >Subject: CD Writing
> >Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 03:49:29 +0800
> >Hi,
> >
> >After reading through your article (HiR8-4.txt) on CD Writing, I am
> >still unsure of the procedure of:
> >
> >1) Cutting a VCD. (I heard it is not just copying of whatever source
> >directories of files to the target disc. So what has to be done?)
> >
> >2) Making a Bootable Disc. ( I do not know what method or software to
> >use to create bootable CD for Win95/ WinNT. Currently, I am using
> >Adaptec Easy CD-Pro 95 CD writing software.)
> >
> >Looking forward to your advice.
> >
> >Regards
> >Calvin
Thanks for asking!
I must admit those are some good questions.
By a VCD I assume you are talking about a Video CD? Well The Video CD standard just came out about 1993ish. Im getting my information from the VideoCD faq. at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2496/vcdfaq.html
According to the faq, to make a VCD you need to first make your movie into an AVI, then convert it using an MPEG 2 encoder <xing technologies has one>, then Using Adapttechs EZ-CD pro software, dump it to a Writable using the VIDEO CD option.
To answer your question on Bootable CD's, So far I have only seen bootable cd's made in Linux, But Heres some Windoze SW that will also do the task.
http://www.mediastore.com/Specs-HyCD.html Supports Video CD's too *(Adaptec's Pro edition does not say anything about bootable CD's)
<INSERTION> Adaptec's new version supports Bootable CD's </INSERTION>
I also Found a Page that kinda is a walk through : http://nikko.simplenet.com/goldentime/bootcd01.htm
it has some links to some Windoze based iso9660 imaging software.
-=- Asmodian >< -=-
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Drivers for a CD-R
I saw something you wrote about having a Phillips 2600e and I was wondering if you had the drivers or knew where I could get them. I need drivers for Dos and for Win98. I couldn't trace them down too good on the site so if you have them or even know the names let me know. Thanx
--Pabst
SCSI Devices are fairly easy to find drivers for.. Phillips has some dos drivers for the 2600x (internal or external) on their web page..
http://www.pc.be.philips.com/service/cdr.html
There you will find Some drivers (dos and win98) for the 2x00 series burners.. The ASPI one should work for dos. The shuttle drivers come with the burner sw package.. but i didnt see it on their tech support page.
The shuttle Parallel port drivers are now supported by linux in the 2.2.x series kernel.
Linux also supports quite a few scsi cards, so install support in for the scsi card plus generic scsi device support and the scsi cdrom option and your in business.
-=- asmodian -=-
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L0pht Crack Question
Hi,
I would like to get a copy of L0phtCrack. Is there anyway to get it as freeware? Or the only way is to buy it from L0pht?
Please advice.
Regards
Calvin
Take a look at http://www.l0pht.com
I beleve that there is a Version out by l0pht that is crippled, but free too use. Of course l0pht would just love you to purchase it.. I am un aware of any versions that are GNU, or Freeware..
-=- asmodian x -=-
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From: Morgo
>Subject: HiR Article hir8-4.txt
>Date: Sat, 01 May 1999 01:24:15 -0400
>
>Greets !
>
>I read your article at
>http://axon.jccc.net/hir/articles/hir8/hir8-4.txt
>
>Have you tried Adaptec Easy CD Creator 3.0 yet ?
>
>Hope this helps, Morgo
According to Adaptec's web site, the newest version they have out is version 3.5. The deluxe-golden-does-everything-un-crippled version offers Video disk creation, in addition to all the other stuff like bootable cd's and such. Adaptec is asking 99$ for that. I cant remember what version i got with my CD-R.
-=- Asmodian X -=-
here's their product page:
