Thomas

MS Messenger (the lan admin tool, not the MSN Messenger)

Most of those machines Rory are simply infected and trying to spread. Proving intent is really hard. An example: My wife had a friend who's machine is acting up. She asks me to try to do a remote diagnositic. So I run in NMAP and look for open ports as part of it (from my end) and of course Norton Firewall goes insane. So she freaks. Was my intent harmful? Hell no. Did she think it was? Yes. Because Norton see's port scanning as a virus attack.

I wouldn't recommend putting the network cameras on an existing network for two reasons: 1. Bandwith. The cameras tend to be bandwith intensitve. 2. The all of your eggs in one basket theory. Slammer showed that even the best networks can go down in seconds. Moving the cameras to a second network removes some of that concern. Edit: (Yep, I ment wouldn't)

In this case it was a home PC rather then a corprate PC. And parents can install a keylogger/proxy/whatever to monitor the kids. Children have no right to privacy. But in the case I cited it was a wife who did it to the husband. When it comes to networking and computers, the law hasn't caught up to it yet. Juries hear "hacker" and something they don't understand....and you do the math.

What you're looking for is a packet sniffer. Both tcpdump/ethereal will work fine but keep in mind this tools are not designed to be user friendly. If the command line worries you, then keep away. Also note that if it is not your network then packet sniffers may run you afoul of wire tapping laws. When it comes to computers in the US, the courts always seem willing to panic when it comes to computer law. There have been people arrested for installing a keylogger on thier own machines and logging while other family members are using it. The best way to handle it is to get a contract in writing if you provide this service for a client.

NMAP is simply the best. OS fingerprinting, what services, stealthed scans. If you have an open port, NMAP will tell you.

It looks like it's an embeded unit. The odds of getting replacement software is pretty slim.

Having dealt with them, make sure you get it clear exactly what cable you need. They are fine if you send them PO's but thier support staff....

Unless you know how to administer an SMTP Server, please do not install one. The world has enough spam, setting up another open relay is annoying.

Sorry, missed it on the thread earlier. Been a busy day for me.

Quite doable.

My favorite old school grift is for one person to dress up as a security guard and place an out of order sign on a bank deposit box. Second con man has a phone and is out of sight. Person walks up and gives the guard the night's take. If the person questions the guard gives them either a bank VP's card or security companies card with a phone number that goes back to the second con man. But all of the scams you posted are small time. Some NY Mafia set up a network of ATM's. Ran regular transactions through it but captured the card's info. Every so often they would run a $3.95 or $4.95 charge on the card. They kept it going for five years. They racked up over $20 million and they only got caught because of bad transaction.

The Covi cameras are intresting to play with. The image quaility is simply amazing and the zoom is entry level CSI tech.

Generally software is built around the quirks of a single card.

If your recording at 640 x 480 then your app needs to be in at least 800 x 600 to have anything other then one channel of video. But everything looks like crap till you get to 1024 x 768.

Ebay is great if you know something about what you're looking for. But general common sense holds up here. If the seller is selling something way below what it costs on the open market (if it's new) then odds are it's a scam. An example. My wife likes to make necklaces, bracelets, that kind of stuff. This seller had some nice wooden beads up for a very low price. Looked great till you saw the shipping price. $52 for UPS ground for $10 worth of beads.

The classical form of this scam in the US generally had the lottery comming out of Ireland, the UK and Canada in that order.

You can, but it's expensive. The emulation enviroment is expensive. And it's a PITA.

Field of view: The larger the field of view, the less space any one object takes up relative to the total image. The smaller the object, the less pixels/resolution/detail will be shown for the object. Also, the highest quality image is going to be in the center 10% (there are some ways to cheat here and some manufactures can get a little higher). There are always going to have to be a compromse between largest possible viewing area vs clarity of certain objects. So here is the question portion of this: How many cameras are you planning on using? How much distance in with are you looking to see at 25 ft? Are your requirements absolute? ie: Can you settle for make/model for the car for instance? How wide is the driveway? Can you control the speed going down the driveway?

There is a reset button on it, power it and press it for ten seconds.

See the Tivo works for me. Medium is on? It's being Tivoed and the wife can watch it later.

There are three ways to approch a web viewer. One is to use an ActiveX Control, the second is to use a Java app, and the third is to use something like PHP or ASP and make it a server side app. The activeX control can give slightly better frame rates (1 to 2 fps) and a bit more flexability in layouts. You can also build in access to the DVR Controls. To me that's a doube edged sword. Giving the ability to alter settings remotely over an untrusted connect makes me nervous. The downside is that you can only view on IE/Windows. It can make it tough for the end user if they are trying to view from work and the admin doesn't allow ActiveX to be installed. The Java app has the advantages of the ActiveX controls with none of it's downsides in theory. It's downside is that programing speed for Java is doable, but it's a black art that 70% of Java programers have no clue how to do. The server side app has the advantages of compatability. You aren't tied to one OS or browser. You also end up with less issues due to latency or streaming buffers. The downside is less control over the DVR. I perfer the last one but that's also the method that we use here.

Danlac, send me a PM with your e-mail and I'll get tech support to contact you.

IPTables is a firewall/NAT software for Linux, various Unixes, BSDs, etc. I think there might be a windows port but I'm too lazy too go look. Most home routers are just embeded linux devices and I know Linksys is using IPTables as the actull firewall.

IPtables ftw!