TekNotes - TekHed TekNotes

Charter Ultramax Upgrade and What it Means for You

posted Dec 1, 2011 6:59 AM by Shane Harsch [ updated Dec 1, 2011 7:06 AM ]

I am making some assumptions in this post, but I am fairly confident my assessment is accurate. Recently (4-6 months ago), Charter upgraded the my area (and likely the entire region) to support Ultramax 60 Mbps internet speed. Right around that time my home internet performance began to suffer. Not bandwidth loss (which was 30 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up) but packet loss -- Netflix errors, slow page loads, poor VOIP quality (Skype, Google+, T-Mobile WiFi). This is really hard to see, although you should be able to see it using www.pingtest.net (related to www.speedtest.net).

I probably over-engineered my troubleshooting process, installing Wireshark, Snort, and Splunk, and then connecting directly to the cable modem. I saw a lot of interesting traffic, thankfully nothing malicious, but I also did see many dropped packets.

When I contacted Charter they made me go through the standard reboot/troubleshooting protocol they use. After doing all of they they said, "Oh, your modem is not capable of supporting the current circuit speed. That's why the performance is bad. Would you like us to send you a new modem?"

Me: "Yes," I said, "4 months ago. How is it that you upgrade your network and know that many of your customers are going to be impacted in this way and not notify them?"

Charter: "I understand your frustration, sir. I will send you the modem so you can have it next week."

Me: "No thank you. I'll go buy one tonight for $90 and avoid the $7/month fee you charge me to NOT maintain my modem."

That is crazy. So, off to the store I went (Staples has it locally for only $10 more than Amazon). They had it in stock, I got home, plugged it in, hit "install.charter.com" and was up and running.

Perfect. Not only did the packet drops cease, and I was able to have a VOIP call on my T-Mobile phone that was crystal clear (has never been like that), but my bandwidth went up to 45 Mbps, and my overall latency dropped (was consistently around 60-70ms, now 15-25ms). Well worth the upgrade, I just think Charter needs to work on their customer service.

I hope this helps.

Presentation at Secure World Expo

posted Nov 22, 2011 3:56 PM by Shane Harsch

As the line blurs between the corporate environment and the public space, how do we ensure adequate security while pursuing greater flexibility and mobile productivity? I will explore the challenges of BYOC, explore the responses to those challenges, and help identify possible rewards of this growing trend.

Event Information

| Attachments: SecureWorld-BYOC-2011.pdf

ShouldIChangeMyPassword.com

posted Jun 23, 2011 12:50 PM by Shane Harsch [ updated Jun 23, 2011 12:52 PM ]

LulzSec says they have another payload to drop tomorrow. How will you know if you need to change your password as a result?

https://shouldichangemypassword.com/

While it is no guarantee, they will incorporate any dropped data as quickly as possible. Certainly you should establish a good password rotation scheme regardless of whether you appear in the data.

First major attack of Cyberwar I

posted Jun 21, 2011 6:16 AM by Shane Harsch [ updated Jun 21, 2011 7:21 AM ]

* Lulzsec captured the entire 2011 UK Census with all personal data. (http://pastebin.com/K1nerhk0)

* Lulzsec denies it was them (www.twitter.com/lulzsec) but acknowledges #AntiSec activity. That's what happens when anonymous fighters engage.

While I don't agree with their methods, governments and corporations have ignored real security for a very long time and this information has been at risk, and will likely continue to be until there is a sea-change with respect to security.

The likely response will be to "find those bastards", ignoring the fact that "finding those bastards" does not fix the problem. The cat, as they say, is out of the bag.

<whine>"But security is hard!"</whine>

This is true -- it always has been. It's about meeting your responsibilities as a custodian of the information with which you have been entrusted. If you are not up to the task, do not put that information at risk. Whether on a personal level with respect to your banking information, on which your family depends, or a governmental level, on which your society depends.

The thing is, we as a society know how to be secure. Individuals may not, just as many of us can't change our oil, or install a ceiling fan, or wire a house for electricity, but there are those who do - these are the roles we play. The leaders responsible for any initiative involving the care of sensitive information have ownership of this situation. They can choose to engage, make the necessary changes, fund them, and systematize them or they can continue to shout at the moon.

So, seriously, whose responsible this? We are - we who elect our representative government to do what needs to be done. This is now a priority, more important than continuing to debate issues that were decided by the Supreme Court 40 years ago. Society moves forward and this is the issue of a generation that will solidify the ability of our economy to advance and grow or collapse under its hubris.