Defending Against Password Attacks

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Let’s face it; MAC filtering is not an effective way to combat brute force attacks against pre-shared keys. On my Access Point (AP) at home, in other words my home router, I use MAC filtering not as a security mechanism but rather as a way to assign a private IPs to a specific device’s MAC address using a method called “IP Reservation” with DHCP. This basically ensures the IP is reserved and ready for use on that particular device the next time it connects to the network. With that said, defeating MAC filtering in regards to cracking pre-shared keys is very doable. MACs can be masqueraded “spoofed” very easily, such as, capturing an end-user’s MAC address using a passive network scanner. Continue reading

Ubuntu Linux Service Offerings

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This forum will help distinguish the differences between Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Server products in addition to discussing the various support mechanisms available with the Ubuntu Linux distribution. Key differences between the two products will be explored as well as details regarding the Ubuntu community and how effective its website is at meeting the needs of its users. Lastly, one alternative Linux distribution will be discussed detailing its product offering and how it compares to the Ubuntu Linux distribution. The parent company that is the primary developer and the main distributor of the Ubuntu distribution is a company headquartered in the UK called Canonical, which is a privately held organization.

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