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Web Server Packed into RJ45 Connector
VinceTronics writes "Electronic Design magazine has a review (.pdf) of the XPort by Lantronix, a product that packs an entire web server into the volume of an RJ45 connector! This includes an 80186 controller, an OS, the TCP/IP stack, a 10/100 Ethernet transceiver, and the LAN interface magnetics. Downside is that the serial interface to the controller tops out at 300 kbps, but for $33 (in 10K quantities) it's a cool, easy way to net-enable just about anything."
Why would you need IPv6?
Are you planning on making your fridge world visible? If not, your appliances could all sit behind NAT and you'd still only need a single IP address for your entire house.
I wouldn't want to get home and find out I've been H4X0R3D and have a freezer full of rotten food, so I don't think I'd ever give them world visible addresses.
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Not that IPv6 is a bad thing, but this probably wouldn't significantly grow the total number of world routable addresses much, as they'd be on private nets.
I think the idea is that people who produce things like TVs, Refrigerators, water heaters etc... could easily intergrate these things into their products for a minimal cost. So, you can have your iRefrigerator and plug a network cable in it, and it can now email you when it runs out of ice, or someone leaves the door open, or it needs de-icing. You could point your webserver at it and get a reading of the current temperature, how much ice it has etc...
You could put these things in drink kiosks so that they can email you when they're almost out of Dr. Pepper.
I can't see why you'd want one in a toaster, though...
Downside is that the serial interface to the controller tops out at 300 kbps, but for $33 (in 10K quantities) it's a cool, easy way to net-enable just about anything."
The size is a big factor but there are already full blown devices that can do far more then this and are cheaper. Take a look at some DSL/Cable routers. Siemens sells one that is a 10/100 4 port switch, web interface and control, printer port, firewall, etc... for $19 and $28. Many SMC barricades and Linksys models are going for under $40. These devices might not fit into a toaster but I know they could be made smaller. I know comparing these to the articles product is not apples to apples but there are cheaper and more robust web and network enabled devices already out on the street.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
It still needs to connect to your network which means a new light on your hub/switch/router.
You're right. This is a major drawback.
What we need is help from some hardware hackers. Surely someone skilled with electronics could build a, say, calculator sized board, duct taped to a square 6-volt lantern battery, that would have both the function of a hub and a packet sniffer using a small embedded microcontroller.
The way I propose building it, such a device would plug between an ethernet jack and a computer. It would install inline. (Although my proposed construction method is too bulky to be hidden inline, but the construction price is right. So it needs to go "inline" up in the suspended ceiling.
Since it is inline, it doesn't "take up" an ethernet port. It piggybacks on a legitimate device that is entitled to have a network connection.
A regular portscan of your network ip address range would find this, then you can just pull the connection at the other end.
Not true. Just because the thing listens on ethernet does not mean it needs to respond to portscans. Heck, it doesn't even have to have an IP address. It doesn't even need to have a MAC address!
Late at night, when the device the sniffer is piggybacked onto isn't doing anything, our sniffer could then use the same MAC address and IP address as the piggybacked device. Packets sent out from our sniffer could look to the LAN, switches, routers, etc. just like they had come from the piggybacked device. In fact, no reason we couldn't do this during the daytime. Our sniffer would watch for reply packets comming to our MAC and IP address to one of OUR port numbers, and just not relay those packets thru to the piggybacked device whose connection we're leaching from.
Okay, maybe this shouldn't have a "hub", but should really be an embedded computer with TWO ethernet ports. It's normal function is to "transparently" bridge all packets between the two so that it is invisible "inline".
I sure wish such an inline sniffer could be truly small so that it literally could go "inline" between two ethernet cables, connecting them together. But the price of such equipment isn't there yet for most of us.
Another problem that I touched on above is how to power such a device. I mentioned the possibility of battery power. This is fine if you don't want a permanent "bug" in someone's network.
Better is to somehow power it from utility power. A small AC adapter? A very tiny switching power supply on the sniffer's circuit board so that you just use aligator clips to hook into 110v power, such as in some light fixture in the suspended ceiling? (You still need battery backup for "lights off" hours.) Well, maybe just the insides of an AC adapter bolted to your board, with alligator clips for 110v power. Again, the price and ease of construction is right for those of us without NSA style budgets.
I wish I could buy some of the NSA's packet sniffers from ThinkGeek.
Another problem is how does the device communicate to its master? IRC is one possibility. Instant messaging? P2P? What about a P2P that is bandwidth friendly like OpenNap? The device connects to a server, offers several bizzarre files to upload. When one of those files is uploaded, that triggers it to search for and then "download" a file of new commands or firmware. When a different file is requested for upload, the sniffer yields up its booty. Besides IRC or OpenNap, the device could pretend to visit certian web sites. Various URL's of the web site would secretly communicate "bits" of steganographic information. For instance, it visits my "slash" site. It checks the last 64 comments. Which of the 64 comments it checks, communicates a 6-bit value to the web server. Of course, once such a device is discovered, the web server might be implicated. Another possibility is to e-mail various yahoo or hotmail accounts with encrypted infor
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.