Zaf's Blog » post

Orcon: IPv6 technology a “ploy”

zaf — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 05:30:45 +0000

Well what an interesting reply from Orcon to my enquiry regarding IPv6:

Unfortunately we do not have any plans for IPv6 as of yet, so we have no date for the connection of this. The compatible technology has probably been released as a “prepare for the future” ploy based on the fact that some countries have started trialling and implementing it. As far as I know no New Zealand ISP has current plans to use IPv6 at the moment as we simply dont need it yet. We are going to make the move in time when New Zealand is better prepared for this service and when that happens we will be notifying people- this is probably though the website.
So watch the website and listen out for news that NZ will be trialling IPv6, hopefully later this year though once again, there are no current plans to do this.

Seriously concerned at an ISP so out of touch. This was said today, on the day that APNIC announced they were in stage 3 of their IPv4 depletion.

@NZNOG

zaf — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:11:28 +0000

An interesting day so far at NZNOG 2009, NZDF network, 4 byte ASNs, National Library. Also “attended” a “speed” course in DNSEC over lunch, which basically summed up the previous days DNSSEC tutorial I missed (due to attended IPv6).

Will resolve (*ba* *dum*) to implement DNSSEC on all my domains, even though .co.nz, etc aren’t yet signing.

NZNOG 2009

zaf — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:09:50 +0000

Well, I’ve just registered for NZNog 2009, which is conveniently located in Auckland this year. Yay for me. Unfortunately they have 4 great looking tutorials, and I can only pick one. I’ve decided on the IPv6 one, purely because it’ll hopefully have the most practical usage. I was seriously considering DNSSEC instead, but we don’t do *that* much DNS stuff.

Googlé ??

zaf — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:28:00 +0000

I have a dead pixel on my LCD (boo hoo!), but its location is at the top right of my screen, its located precisely such that the google search box on the location bar in Firefox, when maximized (Firefox’s usual state), sits right above the ‘e’ in google written in the Google search box. When I read it, it reads Googlé. Thus every time I read it, I think I’ve somehow started my browser in French mode or something

I’d take a screenshot and show you all, but, well….. (For the slow ones out there, think about it for a minute, you’ll get it).

Googles on IPv6

zaf — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:53:23 +0000

Oh, and whilst I’m posting again, I noticed that google has an ipv6 version. I don’t know how long its been around for, but I’m pretty sure its new within the last 6 months. Nothing special to it, except its ipv6. Hopefully they’ll consider publishing AAAA records for all their domains.

Faulty Firmware in routers UPnP implementation

zaf — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:50:02 +0000

The news is out that Service Pack 3 for Windows XP includes a change in Windows’ UPnP core. This change results in some differences in the UPnP packets it sends. The issue however is that some routers, which have implemented the bare minimums of the UPnP protocol, and have implemented it poorly, crash when receiving these UPnP Packets.

Whilst this is news, why is it news here?

Because everyones blaming Microsoft! I’ve witnessed some crazy discussions where people are putting forward what seems like “rational” arguments, that we should wait and see before blaming the routers, as it may be a bug with Windows.

Thats not the point! A Router, as a network device (in fact any device at all!) should NEVER crash because of a packet it receives on the network. This is what Ping Of Death was with Windows 95. A fault in Windows’ networking code that caused it to crash. Noone thought the fault was with the “ping.exe” command, because it could be made to send a deadly packet (ok, some people did, but they don’t count, they’re in Congress).

A router should never crash, full stop, and it should never ever crash because of a packet, or a series of packets received via the network. The only way I should be able to crash any router (and in fact, any PC, but lets not get ahead of ourselves) is to replace the firmware with my own buggy version.

Now if it turns out that Service Pack 3 has a buggy implementation of the UPnP protocol, then yes, Microsoft should fix it, because a properly functioning router will disregard the buggy packets, and the UPnP part won’t work. The properly functioning router will keep working and clients with other operating systems will still happily use the UPnP functionality.

Either way, I’m sick of people blaming the symptom rather than the disease. Oh, and I hate it how I can still crash a large number of ethernet printers and print servers by sending specially crafted requests. They shouldn’t crash either, and I shouldn’t be left alone with an ethernet connection and a room full of colour A3 printers.

Whoops, sorry, all good ehy?

zaf — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 03:16:07 +0000

I’m getting sick of hearing of companies that are deliberately misleading consumers, sometimes to dangerous results, and getting away with it. When a company is caught, they issue an immediate appology, and move on, all is forgiven. The government agencies responsible for protecting consumers issue a press release, and consider the matter closed. “We caught them, they’re sorry they lied to all of you lot, and they promise not to do it again”. Its getting tiresome.

The latest is the Sunscreen debacle. Numerous companies have been advertising their products as having “all day protection”, stating that one application will protect you from sun burn and skin cancer for the entire day. Consumers have, until now, been left to discover the hard way that that is very very wrong.

Even the Commerce Comission itself said that this was unacceptable:

Commission chairwoman Paula Rebstock said “Consumers should not have to find out the hard way, through sunburn and skin damage, that a sunscreen doesn’t provide the protection claimed. The onus is on manufacturers and distributors to ensure the claims made on their products about SPF are accurate.”

But the commerce commission congratulated them on being caught

Commission chairwoman Paula Rebstock said she was very pleased the companies had responded in a responsible manner.

Consider the consequence of what these companies have done: They have lied to consumers, knowingly and willfully, and caused an untold and impossible to calculate number of sunburns, which as we all know from the recent advertising campaign, leads to skin cancer later in life.

Still alive

zaf — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:05:52 +0000

Well, I haven’t written anything recently, but I’m still alive.

Whats new? Well, I’ve got a NationState which is going ok, I guess. Having never run a Nation before, I have no idea how well I’m doing.

I also have a Facebook page now. Yes, I’ve relented to the inevitable, and I will strongly resist the urge to discuss how in my day we didn’t have…….

Oh, I’ve also just finished watching the Firefly DVD series (brought it on Amazon). Its an amazing series, and truly sad that its been canceled. Now I just need to get the Serenity DVD too.

I suppose we’d better give it a try

zaf — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 05:28:12 +0000

Ripe 55 has finished, I didn’t go but I’ve read as much as I can thats come from it. I think the best thing that came from it was this.

10.6% of NZ’ers are daft

zaf — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 04:59:43 +0000

According to the latest Herald-DigiPoll, Labour trails National with 36.8% as preferred political party. That said, Helen Clark is still the preferred Prime Minister at 47.4%. Does that means 10.6% of people want Helen Clark, but not Labour? Are they aware what party she belongs to?

Good grief, the state of New Zealand politics is a nightmare. The Prime Minister is in a party that almost 2/3′s of people don’t want in power.