Cracking WEP

NOTE: This tutorial is only for research/educational/proof-of-concept purpose only. Do not go around cracking your neighbour's WiFi, okay?

Ever since I installed WiFi in my home, I've always used WEP as that's the default option. Lately, I've noticed that my broadband quota is always being used up. Maybe someone has hacked my password, and sharing my bandwidth. That's when I thought of checking how easy it is to crack WEP.

First, download the latest Beini ISO. AFAIK, it's not being developed anymore, but it should be more than enough to crack WEP. If you want bleeding edge, you should try Xiaopan or BackTrack. Second, download UNetbootin. Format your USB stick to FAT32. Use UNetbootin to install the ISO and make the stick bootable.

Once Beini has booted up, go to /bin/feedingbottle and run it. Choose your WiFi card and start scanning. Select an SSID with at least one client on it. The more clients, the better. Use the default attack parameters of "ARP Replay Attack" at 600pps. You have the option of setting "Fake Auth" on or off (default). Click Start, and the tool starts collecting IVs. Now it's just a matter of time. Once it has collected enough IVs, the tool will stop and present the cracked WEP key.

My one took only a few minutes to crack, so I've since switched over to WPA2-PSK. For that, you'll need minidwep-gtk or Reaver.

Second Visit to OPT

Back at the Fowler office with my brother to have a more thorough discussion about the house and land package, and to sign some paperwork. For the facade, I chose the Essence.

On paper, the Fowler package looks better than the Clarendon one, even though the latter is more popular. For one, I get a landscape pack to the value of $5000 to be used towards the cost of landscaping, fencing, letterbox, clothesline, and retaining walls. Alfresco and driveway are included, which are optional with Clarendon. Deluxe Sale for $3,990 gets me the following extras:

• upgraded brick selection
• remote control to garage door
• improved internal finishes
• Hills Reliance 8 alarm package
• upgraded door and lock selection
• improved kitchen finishes
• improved wet area finishes
• upgraded European stainless steel appliance selection

But wait, there's more! An extra Breakthrough Sale, which gives me:

• free 40mm Caesarstone edge to kitchen benchtop
• free WFA 6 starter water filtering system to kitchen
• free 150mm dropped ceiling over kitchen area
• free 2-lamp heater/fan to ensuite and main bathroom

AND

• free 2590mm high ceiling level to ground floor in lieu of 2440mm
• free 20mm Caesar stone benchtop to vanities throughout in lieu of standard
• 50% off ducted air-conditioning

The only other important thing we talked about is the price guarantee. The standard package give a price freeze of 9 months for unregistered land. In my case, the land is expected to be released July 2014, which is 2 months beyond the deadline. As such, I have to pay an extra $7000 to extend the price freeze till 30th December 2014. Should construction start by 11 May 2014, then I'll be credited back the $7000. (Not sure if this will be pro-rated or not.)

In the end, my brother is the better negotiator. He managed to get Clarendon to build a Killara 23 on the same-size land, instead of the standard Soho 15. And he still got a discount for it.

Picasa Name Tags

By default, Picasa doesn't modify your photos. All album organization, unsaved edits, thumbnail previews are saved on an internal database. That said, I know for a fact that captions are stored in the IPTC block, while GPS locations are stored in EXIF.

What about name tags? By default, name tags are stored in picasa.ini files located along with the photos. There is an option to write these name tags directly within the photo itself. Feature can be enabled under Tools > Options > Name tags > "Store name tags in photos". I believe this information is written in the EXIF block. Do note that this will only work for photos that have been tagged after enabling this feature.

With newer versions of Picasa, you can find an experimental feature that write these tags to XMP. Feature can be enabled under Tools > Experimental > "Write faces to XMP". You have the option to write face tags for selected photos, all photos that have face tags, or all photos regardless.

SlimBean 4.2.2 Build 8 for SGS

So we've got the final build of 4.2.2 for SlimBean before we eventually move up to 4.3. Due to the maturity of the ROM, upgrade from an older build is a cinch.

1. Copy the ROM and gapps to the phone (or to the external SD card)
2. Boot to recovery using VolUp + Home + Power.
3. Wipe cache partition
4. Wipe Dalvik cache
5. Flash ROM
6. Flash gapps
7. Reboot
8. Done

Holding Deposit

Called Fowler Homes HQ to reserve lot 5281 on Skaife Street. Actually, I've been trying to call Lucia at the Oran Park office since yesterday, but no one is answering. Quite suspenseful, as the lot could've been picked up by somebody else during that time. Anyway, managed to get hold of Melinda. After putting me on hold for a couple of minutes to check with the sales guys, she confirmed that lot 5281 is still on the market. A holding deposit of $1000, and it's mine! Talk about impulse buying. I'm not even sure if I can afford the extra mortgage, but that's something to worry about on another day.

Home design is the Orans MKII 20; hence the blog name. Official description is "4 bedroom, double garage, single storey home, 20.0 squares - New Start Standard Inclusions." Land area is 375 sqm. House area is 186 sqm. More details to come.

TomTom Map Upgrade

Time to upgrade the maps on my TomTom PNDs.

As usual, get your maps from Mobilism and your safety cams from NaviTotal. Installation is as easy as extracting the maps to a folder on your PND or SD card, then running FastActivate to "enable" the maps. The tricky part here is to get FastActivate to recognize your new maps. With my version of FastActivate, it insists on using its own copy of meta.txt from 2011; even overwriting the newer version I copied in. The trick here is to find the temporary folder that FastActivate works in, and update the meta.txt there, instead of the one on the PND.

Oran Park Town Visit

Went to Oran Park Town to have a look at the display homes. Looks like the whole area is under development. Heard about OPT from my brother, who bought a house and land package from Clarendon a week ago. He heard about the development from a couple of his colleagues, who have already invested in the place. Before this, I have never heard of Oran Park before. Those interested can read about its history here.

At the moment, it's just the sales office, the display home area, and a mini playground. Stage 5C has lots ranging from 375 sq.m. to 715.1 sq.m. As this is purely for investment, I'm only looking at the smallest size. As of today, only two 375 sq.m. lots are available - one from Fowler Homes, the other from Wisdom Homes. I believe my brother snagged the last one from Clarendon Homes. Next available lot from Clarendon is 485 sq.m.

Spent the afternoon visiting the display homes that are still open, and collecting brochures here and there. Between Wisdom and Fowler, the latter gave me a better impression overall.