RenigadeCineTrax

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

According to the latest reports, Comcast is hindering Bit Torrent traffic and doing packet shaping. Their method of "throttling" torrent traffic is sending RST packets.

These are the ports that will be affected: (Brian's BitTorrent FAQ and Guide)
Prior to version 3.2, BitTorrent by default uses ports in the range of 6881-6889. As of 3.2 and later, the range has been extended to 6881-6999. (These are all TCP ports, BitTorrent does not use UDP.)

Intrusion detection
"A standard transmission control protocol (TCP) connection is established by sending a SYN packet to the destination computer. If the destination is waiting for a connection on the specified port, it responds with a SYN/ACK packet. The initial sender replies with an ACK packet, and the connection is established. If the destination computer is not waiting for a connection on the specified port, it responds with an RST packet.
Most system logs do not log completed connections until the final ACK packet is received from the source. Sending an RST(Reset) packet instead of the final ACK results in the connection never actually being established."

INFO: Winsock TCP Connection Performance to Unused Ports
"Upon receiving the ACK/RST client from the target host, the client determines that there is indeed no service listening there. In the Microsoft Winsock implementation of TCP, a pending connection will keep attempting to issue SYN packets until a maximum retry value is reached (set in the registry, this value defaults to 3 extra times).

Since an ACK/RST was received from the target host, the TCP layer knows that the target host is indeed reachable and will not double the time-out value in the packet's IP header, as is standard during connection attempts with unacknowledged SYNs. Instead, the pending connection will wait for the base connection's time-out value and reissue another SYN packet to initiate a connection. As long as an ACK/RST packet from an unused port is received, the time-out value will not increase and the process will repeat until the maximum retry value is reached."

So perhaps a way around this is to not use the normal ports that are associated with regular Bit Torrent Protocols as I am sure that they are being monitored. If this is done to all ports then people will start to complain about their service being disrupted on a wide range scale.

What is your opinion?

Monday, August 20, 2007

Michael Vick will plead guilty to federal dogfighting conspiracy charges.

What a thug... He had it all, the power, the money, and the endorsements from his football career and he will loose most of it if not all of it over what? A dog fighting ring. A mere $20,000 dollars for literally millions of dollars from his athletic ability. He could have been a force for good in these times with all that he did do for the community, but the thug came out and ruined everything. Perhaps in time, people will forget about the dogs and he will go back to professional sports and people will care more for what he can do instead of what he did…

This from the news today:
By Andy Jenks, NBC12 News
NFL star Michael Vick will plead guilty to federal dogfighting conspiracy charges. Word of the plea agreement came late Monday afternoon at the federal courthouse.Vick had almost nowhere to run. Three former co-defendants all pleaded guilty. Now Vick, the multimillion-dollar NFL superstar has been left with no choice but to admit to his role in illegal dogfighting.

Vick will plead guilty next week for participating in an illegal dogfighting conspiracy that began in 2001 at a home in Surry County. In a statement to the media, U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson confirmed the agreement but would not offer specifics.Published reports indicate that Vick will agree to a prison term of 18 to 36 months. The resurrection of his NFL career remains in question. The plea agreement means Vick knowingly and willfully funded and participated in Bad Newz Kennels and in the brutal killing of pit bulls that did not perform well in fights.

Word of Vick’s plea agreement comes following guilty pleas by three former co-defendants, all of whom implicated Vick in the illegal conspiracy.Calls to Vick’s attorneys and the U.S. Attorney’s office for comment were not immediately returned.The sentence that Vick will receive is not clear. That will be up to the judge later this year. The dogfighting charge he’ll plead guilty to carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

What is your opinion?