Default security config of IE11 on Windows 8.1 is stronger than Chrome or Firefox

After my most recent round of testing using SSL Labs browser tests:
https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/viewMyClient.html

I was surprised to find that IE11 one Windows 8.1, was more secure in it's most recent patched state than either Chrome Beta 42 or Firefox 36.01.

Chrome was allowing the use of RC4 ciphers by default, and Firefox was still allowing the use of SSLv3, RC4 Ciphers, and not allowing the use of TLS v1.2.

I fixed Chrome by adding the following to the launch shortcut:

• --cipher-suite-blacklist=0x0004,0x0005,0xc011,0xc007

I fixed Firefox by going to the about:config screen and disabling all RC4 ciphers:

I also set the minimum TLS version to 1 (v1.0) and maximum to 3 (v1.2):

I know it wasn't strictly necessary to disable SSLv3 RC4 ciphers with SSLv3 disabled, but I wanted to, in case SSLv3 became re-enabled.

Thanks to king_julian for the help with Chrome.

Thanks to //Crash Mag for the help with Firefox.

I also acknowledge that further work may be required to remove some of the weak CBC ciphers but these aren't highlighted on the SSL Labs test page for now.

Problems with VirginMedia Managed Internet Services access

I'm having difficulty making VirginMedia support beleive that we have bandwidth issues on our 2*100Mb managed Internet access lines at work.

I've setup the command line script from https://github.com/sivel/speedtest-cli as detailed in this post:
http://blog.thefoleyhouse.co.uk/2015/01/sivelspeedtest-cli-github.html

user@host:~$ mkdir speedtest-cli
user@host:~$ cd speedtest-cli/
admin@host:~/speedtest-cli$ wget -O speedtest-cli https://raw.github.com/sivel/speedtest-cli/master/speedtest_cli.py --2015-01-09 08:57:52-- https://raw.github.com/sivel/speedtest-cli/master/speedtest_cli.py
Resolving raw.github.com (raw.github.com)... 23.235.43.133
Connecting to raw.github.com (raw.github.com)|23.235.43.133|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 301 Moved Permanently Location: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sivel/speedtest-cli/master/speedtest_cli.py [following]
--2015-01-09 08:57:53-- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sivel/speedtest-cli/master/speedtest_cli.py
Resolving raw.githubusercontent.com (raw.githubusercontent.com)... 23.235.43.133
Connecting to raw.githubusercontent.com (raw.githubusercontent.com)|23.235.43.133|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 21791 (21K) [text/plain]
Saving to: `speedtest-cli'
100%[===========================================================================================================================================================>] 21,791 --.-K/s in 0.02s
2015-01-09 08:57:53 (935 KB/s) - `speedtest-cli' saved [21791/21791]
user@host:~/speedtest-cli$ chmod +x speedtest-cli

Here is my result for Site1:

user@site1:~/speedtest-cli$ ./speedtest-cli
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Testing from Virgin Media (x.x.x.x)...
Selecting best server based on latency...
Hosted by Virgin Media (Luton) [53.67 km]: 19.772 ms
Testing download speed........................................
Download: 48.70 Mbits/s
Testing upload speed..................................................
Upload: 11.08 Mbits/s

Here is my result for Site2:

user@site2:~/speedtest-cli$ ./speedtest-cli
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Testing from Virgin Media (x.x.x.x)...
Selecting best server based on latency...
Hosted by Virgin Media (Luton) [52.13 km]: 21.677 ms
Testing download speed........................................
Download: 34.93 Mbits/s
Testing upload speed..................................................
Upload: 10.11 Mbits/s

Here is my result from home:

me@home:~/speedtest-cli$ ./speedtest-cli
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Testing from Virgin Media (x.x.x.x)...
Selecting best server based on latency...
Hosted by Fluidata (Hemel Hempstead) [86.39 km]: 22.999 ms
Testing download speed........................................
Download: 152.29 Mbits/s
Testing upload speed..................................................
Upload: 11.65 Mbits/s

Here is my result from home if I force the same test server as work:

karl@littlechef:~/speedtest_cli$ ./speedtest-cli --server 3697
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Testing from Virgin Media (x.x.x.x)...
Hosted by Virgin Media (Luton) [109.86 km]: 24.878 ms
Testing download speed........................................
Download: 145.03 Mbits/s
Testing upload speed..................................................
Upload: 11.88 Mbits/s

sivel/speedtest-cli · GitHub Linux Commandline Speedtest

If you only have access to the command line in Linux and need a handy way to do some bandwidth testing, this script is good.

Here are my results from the closest detected server:

Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Testing from Virgin Media (x.x.x.x)...
Selecting best server based on latency...
Hosted by Fluidata (Hemel Hempstead) [86.39 km]: 22.999 ms
Testing download speed........................................
Download: 152.29 Mbits/s
Testing upload speed..................................................
Upload: 11.65 Mbits/s

sivel/speedtest-cli · GitHub: "wget -O speedtest-cli https://raw.github.com/sivel/speedtest-cli/master/speedtest_cli.py"

'via Blog this'

Chrome no longer the quickest browser?

Did some totally unscientific web browser speed testing using Peacekeeper:

• http://peacekeeper.futuremark.com/

I got the following results (best to worst):

• 4632 Firefox Nightly v36.0a1(2014-11-14)
• 4379 Firefox Nightly v36.0a1(2014-11-14)
• 3920 Chrome v39.0.2171.62 
• 3709 Maxthon v4.4.1.5000
• 3319 Firefox v33.1 **
• 3306 Firefox v33.1.1 **
• 3194 SeaMonkey v2.30
• 2276 Internet Explorer v11.0.14 *

Totally unscientific means there was no control over that which was running in the background, the tests were only done once with no averaging and some of the browsers are beta or dev versions rather than all being stable versions.

Firefox and Firefox Nightly were tested twice as there were updates waiting, so I carried out one test before the update and one test after.

I was surprised IE11 was last, but it noticeably struggled in the Canvas tests in particular.

The following problems were encountered:

• * Internet Explorer 11 does not support Theora or WebM videos
• ** Firefox stopped and issued a script warning on Dcom Tree page and the scripts had to be stopped for the test to continue

Test machine was an HP ProBook 4740s running Windows 8.1 with all current patches.

Maxthon Labs Private Beta

I've been test Maxthon browser for quite some time and I find it feature rich with some good Desktop to Mobile synchronisation capabilities. Apparently they are working on a new product in prvate beta. Want a chance to try it? http://lnc.hr/x6WaV

Remote control for Chrome

Now, users of the Chrome browser can remote control any other computer running Chrome using this extension. Chromebooks don't support sharing yet but I've found the video response to be good and video scaling works well even if there is no support for sound.

Give it a go by downloading the extension for Chrome:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gbchcmhmhahfdphkhkmpfmihenigjmpp?hl=en-GB&hc=search&hcp=main

Virgin Media - Faster upload speeds

Virgin Media are rolling out upload speeds of 10% of your broadband download speed.
Ipswich (including Felixstowe) are due to get it next month.

More info here:
http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/discover-broadband/broadband-speed/upload-speeds.html?buspart=DD_31

Looks like we're due to get 100Mb downloads in September :)
http://shop.virginmedia.com/content/dam/allyours/pdf/100Mb%20rollout%2003%2006%2011.pdf

Physical vs Virtual Steelhead appliance from Riverbed

We're currently looking at WAN acceleration products, particularly virtualised ones.
Here's a video on the Steehead appliance from Riverbed:
http://blog.riverbed.com/2010/07/demo-video-how-fast-is-virtual-steelhead-compared-to-the-steelhead-appliance.html

iPhone or iPad Tracker

There has been a little bit of a storm recently about the iPhone\iPad tracking database that was recently discovered on the device, and on computers used to backup the device.

I've used an OSX App to take a look at the data on an iPad I'm evaluating.

I live in Felixstowe and commute to Huntingdon, with the odd bit of work in Peterborough and Cambridge.

This is the data collected around my commute:

Note the odd one near Norwich and the ones around the North East of London? Well, I haven't been there since I've had this device. Notice also that the points seems to cluster around larger towns - I've used Waze on this iPad while driving so I was a bit surprised that the dots didn't follow the route that I use, the A14.

Here's a zoomed in part around where I live. The dots appear to be in a regular grid with only one small dot on my house:

It seems that the iPad\iPhone is only storing an approximation of your devices location.

The App I used can be obtained here:
http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/

They also have a nice FAQ:
http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/#faq

Links to news stories here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/20/secret_iphone_location_tracking/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/22/apple_iphone_location_tracking_analysis/

Dropbox have access to your encrypted files

Many, many, people use DropBox to share files between computers and each other.

I think you seriously have to question a service whom have access to the encryption keys of these files and can release them without the judgement of a court, indeed, even to protect thier own "property" rights.

Apparently this is a recent change, and you can read the DropBox privacy policy here.

Transistion to Cloud Servers

I'm moving all my locally hosted content to cloud based servers. So far I have moved my email to Google Apps For Your Domain and I have created a new blog (no content yet) to replace this one.

The Gmail move went pretty well as all I had to do was update MX, SPF and some CNAME records. The only non-working part was the start page as Google seem to have dropped support for this. I had actually setup apps before this limitation was implied, and I can activate the start page but it just doesn't work. There are others who mention this and the work-round seems just to use a Google Sites page if you want this. In fact there's quite a complete template for sites, just for this. I don't really need it anyways.

The blog will move slower. I have moved it off to a smaller sevrer for now and I'm trying to find a way to export the posts from CommunityServer to Blogger. I may just have to use the smaller server to setup redirects to the new blog.

How to get the latest build of Chrome

Hacked off by the fact that IE8 had stopped responding my system, and not wanting to reboot right now, I decided to start using Chrome again.

I had been using the beta builds before but forgot how to get them.

You can find out how here:
http://dev.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel 

D-Link DCS-6620G - HTTP 400 Bad Request

After the install of Silverlight - My D-Link DCS-6620G camera started returning HTTP 400 Bad Request errors.

After a bit of investigation, I found this:
http://silverlight.net/forums/p/7452/77779.aspx

Locating the key, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Accepted Documents, I removed a couple of XML document type I figured that I would never use.
Everything now works fine.

BBC iPlayer on Windows Vista

I had worked out sometime ago how to install Sky Anytime onto my Laptop (useful for those stays away), but I wanted to install the BBC iPlayer back onto my desktop after an upgrade to Windows Vista (I have no need for 4OD as it is delivered through my Virgin Media cable).

It turns out that all you have to do is to change the user agent (UA) strings to fool the BBC website into letting you download the iPlayer.

I found details on how to do it here:
http://community.plus.net/comms/2007/08/02/how-to-install-the-bbc-iplayer-on-windows-vista/

You can download the UA registry changes from here:
http://www.fiddlertool.com/useragent.aspx


Update:
You can only play the DRM files if you have administrative rights.


Update2:
I've found the download from Microsoft called "User Agent String Utility" to be a better long-term choice. This allows you to open a copy of IE7 configured to react like IE6. You can then use this to access the BBC iPlayer site. Get it here.

Greylisting on Exchange 2003

A massive increase in Spam, particularly PDF attached stock scams, has happened here recently.

I decided to look for something different and found this free Greylisting product for Exchange 2000\2003.

ebay Broken?

Good start to the day, I need to buy some stuff for Christmas and ebay seems broken for me:

That's happening for every item so I wonder how much money they are losing?
Managed to see the item a few seconds later, bought it, but got this:

Windows Genuine Advantage - Internet Connection Problem [0x80080293]

It's all well and good having Windows Genuine Advantage so that only licensed users can download products and fixes but surely the servers should be highly available or it defeats the purpose? I have a problem with Windows Defender not carrying out scheduled scans and I deceided to reinstall it as a troubleshooting step. Despite having validated my copy of Windows XP many times in the past (repeatedly!) I can not currently download Windows Defender:

Firefox Font Problem

Does anyone know why Firefox has started doing this?
(Image lost due to Blog move)

It's not just on the rendered pages because it's doing similar weird font things in it's own dialogue boxes:
(Image lost due to Blog move)

How to prevent Squid caching .asp pages

We need to access a (poorly behaved) website at work and it doesn't play nice with Squid. I've put the following in to try and force it not to cache .asp pages no matter what the cache settings are.

refresh_pattern \.asp$ 0 0% 0
refresh_pattern \.aspx$ 0 0% 0

Using MRTG to monitor Cable Modem Bandwidth

There is a really good readme to be found here:
http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/webtools/mrtg/windows_nt_idiot.htm

This allows you to setup mrtg to monitor any single device.