professional blarg

Starting a VPN if it is not connected via AppleScript

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 12:46:00 +0200

Launching a VPN if it is not connected on OS X:

tell application "System Events"
  tell current location of network preferences
    set VPNservice to service "My VPN" -- name of your VPN
    set isConnected to connected of current configuration of VPNservice
    if not isConnected then connect VPNservice
  end tell
end tell

…prefect for automating “things” in Proxi.

I have moved some top posts from my old blog to this one; The old blog also is now redirecting most...

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 13:58:00 +0200

I have moved some top posts from my old blog to this one; The old blog also is now redirecting most requests to this one. If you are missing any other post, please let me know in the comments.

"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been..."

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:09:00 +0200

“In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.”

- Douglas Adams

Fake your geolocation in Firefox 3.5

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0200

There are many reasons why you would want to fake your location in firefox. One good reason would be “un-faking” your location on computers with no wlan cards, e.g. at work, or where there’s no data available for the WLANs around you. All you need for faking is a text file (eg. /home/username/.mynewlocation.txt) somewhere on your computer with the following content:

{"location":{"latitude":50.941863,"longitude":6.958374, "accuracy":20.0}}

The path in Firefox to this file is: file://home/username/.mynewlocation.txt Type about:config in your location bar, confirm the warning, search for geo.wifi.url, and replace the old url (https://www.google.com/loc/json) with your new one from above. Restart firefox, enjoy your new location :-)

Explanation:
latitude/longitude => the location you want to have, go to google maps, select location, click on “Link” and use the values from the ll= parameter
accuracy => the accuracy you want to announce, in meters.

New mail notifier for Evolution

Wed, 27 May 2009 00:00:00 +0200

Evolution is a great email client, it’s just missing a good new mail notifier - actually, it has none. I am running Fedora Core with Gnome and there’s the new-mail applet, but it’s huge and an overkill for most cases. To make a long story short, i was looking for a new mail notifier for Evolution and found none which were usable - so i made one. The following code should work on most Gnome desktops including Ubuntu and you can use with any other mail client which can pipe new emails to an external application:

Getting a new spam notification

It’s using the libnotify library with python bindings (yum install notify-python), this is the source:
&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=”/dl/notify.py.txt”&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;notify.py source&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Save the code to a new file, give it the .py ending and make it executable (chmod +x notifier.py). Go to Evolution and create a new message filter for incoming mail and pipe all new mails to the script.

You can also use the script if you are running procmail locally, just add the following script to your ~/.procmailrc file:

# popup new mail alert :0 c | ~/notify.py

I release the notifier code in the public domain, do whatever you like with it. If you do some changes to it, please send me a copy, i may be interested in seeing it. Also it would be nice if you could link back to this post.

Switching tabs in Safari 4 with shortcuts, just like in Firefox

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 +0200

As a heavy-user of Firefox, the biggest annoyance in Safari for me was the missing shortcuts for directly accessing tabs. In Firefox you can access the tabs by pressing Cmd+. For example, if you want to jump to your third tab you would press Cmd + 3 (⌘ + 3), however in Safari this loads the third bookmark from the bookmark toolbar - very annoying if you are used to a different behavior.

Luckily there is a way to change this behavior and make Safari (4, not sure about 3) behave like Firefox with the help of this innocent looking piece of AppleScript:

tell front window of application "Safari" to set current tab to tab 3

Simple, isn’t it? Now, all we need to do is to figure out how to combine this script with the shortcuts. Thankfully there’s a small and free application called FastScripts Lite (hidden on the bottom of that page), it’s limited to ten shortcuts, but all we want are nine (since Cmd + 0 is assigned to a somewhat useful “Actual Size” function), so it’s perfect. If you need more shortcuts, you can purchase the full version.

Let’s review that AppleScript above to ignore any errors caused by non-existing tabs:

try
	tell front window of application "Safari" to set current tab to tab 3
on error
	tell front window of application "Safari" to set current tab to last tab
end try

Open Script Editor and create nine files from 1-9 in ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Safari, let’s call them Tab1.scpt to Tab9.scpt and paste in each file the script from above, changing the 3 at the end of the long line to the current number. I have prepared a Zip with all nine files (SafariTabs.zip), so you don’t need to do this by yourself. Simply extract this file in ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/.

Next, launch FastScripts, click on the icon in the toolbar at the top of the screen and go to FastScripts->Preferences:

1. We want FastScripts to start when we log in.

2. Assign Cmd+1 - Cmd+9 (or any other combinations) to the proper Tab-scripts

Go back to Safari, and see the magic at work!

Enable IPv6 on Mac OS X, the tunnelbroker.net way

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

As a follow up to my earlier teredo howto, here i want to show you how to use the Tunnelbroker provided by Hurricane Electric on OS X 10.5, Leopard, behind a NAT Router that passes protocol41 (e.g. Fritz!box Fon WLAN 7170).

I did not want to make rocket-science out of this, so i did the easiest and simpliest possible way to achieve my goal, which means that it might not be the 100% correct way to do things. Also, it’s not going in to details about IPv6, so if you are new to this topic, the tutorial may be a bit difficult for you.

How all this will work: Once you have finished this tutorial, you will have a Launchd script checking every 30 mins for IP changes, if your IP has changed, it will reset your IPv6 configuration. That means, in worst case, your IPv6 will be down for 30 minutes, but in best case you won’t notice the script at all.

Step 1, Register with Hurricane Electric’s tunnelbroker.net
Just go to http://tunnelbroker.net and get your free account.

Step 2, Create a new tunnel

Click on Create Regular Tunnel, and enter your current public IPv4 there (see You are viewing from IP: )

Next, pick the closest location to you. You can also ping each of the IPs shown there and pick the fastest one, since - at least in Germany - the closest geographical location not always is the fastest one.

When you are finished, you will get your tunnel details displayed, which should be similar to the screenshot below. You will need some values from this screen and the account overview screen in the script in the next step.

Step 3, The IPv6 Script

This is the IPv6 script, it is documented inside, so follow the steps there and then come back here :-)

#!/bin/bash
#######################################################################
# Update the HE (Hurricane Electric) ipv6-tunnel
#######################################################################
# Interfaces to try, in order: en1 = Airport, en0 = Ethernet
MYIFS="en0 en1"

# leave as is
IPCACHE="/Library/Caches/ipv6scriptIP"

# Your Tunnel settings start here
# 1. get HEUSER hash from the website, "UserID"
# 2. get HEPASS hash: echo -n YourPass|md5
# 3. get HETUNNEL from the website, "Global Tunnel ID"
# 4. get other settings from the website

HEUSER=fb3f06c821388858cafe95cea24895d3
HEPASS=420cc447758fe38e9df69a3a17c77c33
HETUNNEL=123456

HETUNEND=216.66.00.00
HEYOUR6END=2001:0123:123a:1234::2
HETHEIR6END=2001:0123:123a:1234::1
HEPREFIX=64

# This is some IP from the "Routed /64" pool, used for outgoing connections from your Mac.
# Should it get blocked by anyone, you can simply change it to any other IP from the pool
# without having to apply for a new tunnel. e.g. if your Routed /64 pool is 
# 2001:0123:123b:1234::/64, you can use this for your IP:

HEMY64IP=2001:0123:123b:1234::0bad:cafe

#######################################################################
# Config end
#######################################################################
# sometimes this script will get executed twice at the same time, not good, so:
if [ -f $IPCACHE.lock ] ; then
  echo A copy already running!
  exit 0
else
 touch $IPCACHE.lock
fi
# This is faster if your router sets a dyndns entry:
#NEW_IP=`dig mycomp.myvnc.com|grep "^mycomp"| grep -Eo "\<[[:digit:]]{1,3}(\.[[:digit:]]{1,3}){3}\>"`
NEW_IP=`curl -s "http://www.networksecuritytoolkit.org/nst/cgi-bin/ip.cgi"`

# Wait for the network...
while [ ! -n "$NEW_IP" ]
do
	sleep 10
  #NEW_IP=`dig mycomp.myvnc.com|grep "^mycomp"| grep -Eo "\<[[:digit:]]{1,3}(\.[[:digit:]]{1,3}){3}\>"`
  NEW_IP=`curl -s "http://www.networksecuritytoolkit.org/nst/cgi-bin/ip.cgi"`
done


OLD_IP=`cat $IPCACHE`
if [ "$NEW_IP" = "$OLD_IP" ] ; then
	CURCONF=`ifconfig |grep $HETUNEND`
   if [ -n "$CURCONF" ] ; then
		echo Nothing to do
		rm $IPCACHE.lock
		exit 0
	fi
fi

echo -n $NEW_IP > $IPCACHE

# if you need to use your public ip address, use LOCAL_IP=$NEW_IP instead
for myif in $MYIFS; do
	LOCAL_IP=`ifconfig $myif |grep -E 'inet.[0-9]' | grep -v '127.0.0.1' | awk '{ print $2}'`
	if [ -n "$LOCAL_IP" ]; then break; fi
done


# let's delete a pre-existing gif0, ignore any errors
ifconfig gif0 deletetunnel
ifconfig gif0 down
ifconfig gif0 inet6 $HEYOUR6END delete
ifconfig gif0 inet6 $HEMY64IP delete
route delete -inet6 default -interface gif0

# update the tunnel
curl -k -s "https://ipv4.tunnelbroker.net/ipv4_end.php?ipv4b=$NEW_IP&pass=$HEPASS&user_id=$HEUSER&tunnel_id=$HETUNNEL"
echo " "

sleep 1
ifconfig gif0 tunnel $LOCAL_IP $HETUNEND
ifconfig gif0 inet6 $HEMY64IP/64 alias
ifconfig gif0 inet6 $HEYOUR6END $HETHEIR6END prefixlen /$HEPREFIX
route -n add -inet6 default $HETHEIR6END

rm $IPCACHE.lock
exit 0

[download]

After adapting the values to your needs, you need to save it in the right place:
sudo vi /usr/local/bin/ipv6script
Paste your script, and save it with :wq

Make it executable by typing
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/ipv6script

Step 4, Launchd

Now we need to create a LaunchDaemon in Launchd, to do so:
sudo vi /Library/LaunchDaemons/net.pugio.myipv6script.plist
Paste:





	Label
	net.pugio.myipv6script
	ProgramArguments
	
		/usr/local/bin/ipv6script
	
	RunAtLoad
	
	StartInterval
	1800
	WatchPaths
	
		/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration

[download]

This will tell Launchd to execute the script on Login, all network changes and every 30 minutes, in case your router gets a new IP. If you are on static IPs, you can remove that timer, just delete these two lines from the file:
StartInterval 1800

Finally you have to activate your Lauchd Agent by executing following:
sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/net.pugio.myipv6script.plist

You should now be able to ping6 pugio.net - congratulations.

Bug hunting

Should something go wrong, execute the script by hand:
sudo /usr/local/bin/ipv6script

This should hopefully show you the error.

If you find this howto useful, or have anything to contribute to it, please leave a comment or link to this tutorial, thank you :-)

Updated in May 2011 to include fixes from Jason.

Howto enable IPv6, the Teredo way

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0200

Enabling IPv6 on your PC is not as difficult as you think. This is a quick Teredo/Miredo Howto for the most popular operating systems allowing you to penetrate most NATs and Firewalls and most likely allowing you to bypass any blocking or censorship happening at your place. As a free bonus, i will will show you where to access tons of Usenet posts, including binaries over ipv6 for free.
Nota bene: Since Teredo also works from China, you can use it together with the *.sixxs.org proxy to read any of your favourite, blocked sites.

I also have a tutorial for IPv6 with tunnelbroker.net from HE for Mac OS X.
Windows XP

WARNING: Whatever you do, make sure you have all the latest security patches for remote exploits and your Windows firewall is up, if you use 3rd party, ensure it supports IPv6. Enabling IPv6 will put you on the net, losing any protection you may have had behind your router’s NAT. At the moment there are not many attacks over ipv6, but this may change any time.

Install
Open the Terminal with Start -> Run -> cmd

netsh interface ipv6 install
netsh interface ipv6 set teredo client

Wait for few moments.

Uninstall

netsh interface ipv6 uninstall

Windows Vista
Install
IPV6 and Teredo is enabled per default. You can get into the settings by going into the preferences for an network interface. “Obtain an IPv6 address automatically” should do the trick. However, Teredo will disable itself if you have “edge traversal” or outgoing udp packets blocked in your firewall or if your router is a symmetric-nat router (e.g. Speedtouch 780). In that case you have to use a tunnel broker, see comments below.
If you can go to http://www.ipv6.sixxs.net/, everything works well, if not… well, good luck. I never really got Teredo to work on Vista Business reliably, sometimes it works, most of the time it does not.

Uninstall
Add this registry value (“DWORD”) set to 0xFF (long line, double-click, and copy):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters\DisabledComponents

Or save the two lines in a .reg file and double-click it:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters]
"DisabledComponents"=dword:000000ff

You can also go to the interface properties of an network interface and deselect the IPv6 protocol for that interface. To enable IPv6 again, replace dword:000000ff above with dword:00000000.

Debian, Ubuntu
Install
On Ubuntu IPv6 is enabled per default, but not configured.

sudo apt-get install miredo

Because the default server did not work for me, I had to change it to another one:

sudo vi /etc/miredo.conf
ServerAddress teredo.ipv6.microsoft.com
sudo /etc/init.d/miredo restart

Uninstall

sudo apt-get remove miredo

Fedora, Redhat
Install
About the same as on Ubuntu. On Fedora Core 6 & 7 IPv6 is enabled per default, but not configured. You need to get miredo rpm from the Dries RPM repository.

sudo rpm -Uvh miredo-*.rpm

Uninstall

sudo rpm -e miredo

Mac OS X
Install
Get the Miredo installer from Miredo-Osx, and install it. If you are lucky, that’s it. if not, try changing the server, see Debian howto above.

Uninstall
If you want to uninstall, execute the uninstall-miredo.command script, located in the /Applications/Utilities folder.

Checking if everything is working

On the terminal type:

ping6 pugio.net

In browser come back to this page, there should be a pin-up girl in lower right corner telling you that you have IPv6 and give you some more info if you click her… If you can ping6 but can’t visit ipv6 websites, check your Firefox network.dns.disableIPv6 setting, did you set it to true previously?

Cool stuff

Getting details about your IPv6 connection
Accessing blocked, censored Websites or just for fun:
http://en.wikipedia.org.sixxs.org/
http://slashdot.org.sixxs.org/
(You can access any Website over ipv6 by appending .sixxs.org to the domain)
“Cool stuff” to do with IPv6 I like the part about Usenet over IPv6

PHP snipplet for detecting users with IPv6

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0200

Should I ever need to detect with PHP if a user has IPv6, this code snipplet should do the job:

 0
    && substr_count($ip,".") == 0) {
 echo 'You are using  IPv6 ';
} else {
  echo "You are using IPv4";
}
?>