NationStates Jolt Archive

i found this neat little thing on the ol' interweb: http://packetgarden.com/ and would love to install it. it looks cool.


however after installing i get problems in capturing my packet data. the help says to install a program called WinPcap (http://www.winpcap.org/)


now, i've done a little research and read the FAQs, etc, but i still can't figure out if this is really legitimate and safe. i don't know squat about networking tbh, and it still seems a little off-colour to me.
even if its not malicious itself, stuff like this from the pcap FAQ scares me a little:

Q-27: My antivirus / antispyware program reports WinPcap as a virus / trojan/ spyware! Are you hackers trying to infect my computer?

A: WinPcap is not a virus. WinPcap is an industry standard library used by many tools, several of which commercial, and developed by a respected team of people. However, since it's free and since it's an easy and powerful way to receive and transmit low-level network traffic, it seems that some virus writers used it too. As a result, at least once a month we have somebody complaining its antivirus program tells him that WinPcap is a virus. Your antivirus program should detect the virus itself, not the libraries used by it. It's like saying the MS Winsock is a virus because some trojans use sockets to send or receive data on the network.
So, please contact your antivirus company and tell them to fix the problem.

http://www.winpcap.org/misc/faq.htm#Q-26
sounds like it'd just be like opening a new door for other malicious software to get at my machine. if that's not the case then i'll just go for it, but if so is it worth it?



so anybody who knows stuff about computers, what do you think? help would be appreciated! :)

This program is a tool of Satan himself, who wishes to suck your soul into his interhell and send you spam and junk mail for all eternity.

In all liklihood, all of the above is false.

Sorry, I cannot help you, but I would like to add that I have experienced certain applications that get detected as operating in a suspicious manner by my anti-virus software.
These apps I have used for quite a while, and it wasn't until I switched to Avira that they became an issue.
The apps were for data recovery, so not really the same cup of tea, but I suspect that certain behaviour of certain apps can act in a virus like manner, triggering these alerts.

Sorry I cannot be more helpful.

i found this neat little thing on the ol' interweb: http://packetgarden.com/ and would love to install it. it looks cool.


however after installing i get problems in capturing my packet data. the help says to install a program called WinPcap (http://www.winpcap.org/)


now, i've done a little research and read the FAQs, etc, but i still can't figure out if this is really legitimate and safe. i don't know squat about networking tbh, and it still seems a little off-colour to me.
even if its not malicious itself, stuff like this from the pcap FAQ scares me a little:


sounds like it'd just be like opening a new door for other malicious software to get at my machine. if that's not the case then i'll just go for it, but if so is it worth it?



so anybody who knows stuff about computers, what do you think? help would be appreciated! :)

Oh, that thing looks teh awesome. I might put it on my laptop.

Looks cool. In any case, CoLinux says it requires winpcap but works (except VNC on bootup, but I'll get there eventually) without it. So try without it first.

sounds like it'd just be like opening a new door for other malicious software to get at my machine. if that's not the case then i'll just go for it, but if so is it worth it?


It's a library, and libraries cannot be called from outside your computer so as far as that goes, it's safe.

excellent! thanks :)



another little techie question then: i understand the Lynx browser a commonly used text-based browser, particularly for visually impared users. am i right?

Kinda
text-to-speech-friendly interface, Lynx was once popular with visually-impaired users, but better screen readers have reduced the appeal of this application. Lynx is also used to check for usability of websites in older browsers. It is still included in a number of Linux distributions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_%28web_browser%29

Fried Tuna;12246914']It's a library, and libraries cannot be called from outside your computer so as far as that goes, it's safe.

excellent! thanks :)



another little techie question then: i understand the Lynx browser a commonly used text-based browser, particularly for visually impared users. am i right?

bumped

bumped

For why?

For why?

want more people's opinions on the matter.
got 1 good/seemingly reliable answer so far, but i'd like to have at least two.


plus there's my question about lynx
edit: ....which was answered but i didn't see because of silly timewarp

Kinda

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_%28web_browser%29

well i'm using it to test some of my websites usability for visually impared users *nods*

want more people's opinions on the matter.
got 1 good/seemingly reliable answer so far, but i'd like to have at least two.


plus there's my question about lynx
edit: ....which was answered but i didn't see because of silly timewarp

Here, I put meself in the line of fire for you. Seems to be working okay, also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pcap

Here, I put meself in the line of fire for you. Seems to be working okay, also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pcap

good guinea-pig *pats* ;)


i usually trust wiki but felt like i didn't know enough to make a good decision after looking at that earlier... but if its working for you then i may as well :)


edit: yay its working i think!
edit2: no its not :( it says its capturing data but when i try to generate a world it says to go start capturing data. which i am.
oh well

I have WinPcap installed on my computer so I can use Warcraft 3 Banlist. I do not fear viruses.