project: one off

Although this technology is nothing new (neither is the article…), I’ve recently discovered as a good way to securely surf using questionable networks. Gina Trapani, editor at Lifehacker and author of Geek to Live, has produced a series of articles explaining how to utilize SSH in a Windows environment. It’s very straight forward, and she does a superb job of simplifying everything. Linked below are the relevant articles.

Introduction to Cygwin – This explains how to install and use the SSH program.
Using SSH as a proxy – Explains how to utilize SSH with Firefox for secure browsing. Also provides a link to set up your own SSH sever if you don’t have a hosted solution

I encourage anyone that uses their personal device on others networks to get this set up. Once it’s all running, it’s easy and seamless. You can also do cool stuff like access iTunes over the net, and even access your home network!

As reported by Gizmodo, Comcast has spilled the beans on it’s network management practices. It appears they were throttling P2P protocalls buch as BitTorrent and Gnutella.

Will the technique target P2P or other applications, or make decisions about the content of my traffic?

No. The new technique is “protocol-agnostic,” which means that the system does not manage congestion based on the applications being used by customers. It is content neutral, so it does not depend on the type of content that is generating traffic congestion. Said another way, customer traffic is congestion-managed not based on their applications, but based on current network conditions and recent bytes transferred by users.

I suppose I’ll just have to only download the newest linux ISO build every other day rather than nightly =/