Infiltrator

If you are so eager in learning how to hack, can I suggest you to set up some VMs and use them as a foundation for your learning. There are a couple of great tools you could use to make the learning more exciting, Backtrack and Metasploit. I would recommend to use Metasploit as a starting point and then move onto Backtrack, as you advance and gain more knowledge but you can try either tool and get a bit of a feel for both. To learn how to use them, there are great websites with plenty of information, Securitytube.net Metageek.com http://www.backtrack-linux.org/tutorials/ http://www.offensive-security.com/metasploit-unleashed/Metasploit_Unleashed_Information_Security_Training. http://www.hak5.org

A couple of things you could do, is get certified plus get some experience and then talk to your IT manager about becoming his assistant.

I've never used Virtualbox before, but you could try out VMware and see if that works, make sure you set your VM interface to bridged mode.

Don't know if this will make a difference, but have you tried using the latest version of Vmware. Edit: Also make sure you set your VM interface to bridged mode as well.

The wiki page does work, but there seems to be some technical problems with the database or some bad configuration.

Apparently there known issues with Microsoft Media Center and Netflix, however there is a fix and don't know if you have tried it yet. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972496

How do you prefer, internally or externally?

You can do that with OpenVPN too, if I remember correctly for the first time you have to run a small exe app on the client side, once its installed you double click on the shortcut it creates on the desktop and it then prompts you for a username and password. But in order to install the exe app, you have to visit your openvpn server webpage, download the app and install it manually. But once installed its a one off thing, you don't have to go through this process twice.

You might want to consider investing into an off grid system. That way you can live running 24/7 without any worries of your electricity bill hiking up.

Too many layers of encryption that is bloody secure, I doubt anyone would be able to break that. Thanks for sharing that.

Making sure you select the right motherboard is vital, not only will it allow you to make future upgrades but will also save you lots of headaches on the longer run. When I built my first computer, a researched a lot before buying a board and now I am quite happy with it. I have been using for last 3 or so years never had any problems and it always allowed me to carry out upgrades.

Another reason not to hack into the network, if you get expelled or you will go to jail.

Apparently that's how things in IT can work sometimes, bad things have to happen, for someone to notice and take action. For instance, Sony was only concerned with making money and obviously not concerned with the security of their network in general. Moreover, someone from the outside had to teach them a lesson about security and that's what happened. They lost millions of dollars, their reputation was put on the line and their clients might have lost their trust in them. Moral of the story, I think any person in charge of an IT system should have some experience with network security.

A couple of things you can do: 1) Buy a VPN server with SSH support 2) Or build your own VPN server with OpenVPN or SSH, you will need a stand alone PC for that. Plus you will need to forward ports on your router, so when you are outside your home network you can SSH or VPN into.

Agree, checked the CPU Support list for his board, I'm afraid but this CPU i7 2600k is not supported, also the CPU does not support the chipset of his MB either. CPU: http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=52214 MB: http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1366/P6T_WS_Professional/#specifications Either way, these board are certainly very good, especially if overclocking them. ASUS Maximus IV GENE-Z Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z ASUS P8Z68-V PRO Here is a nice review link http://www.squidoo.com/bestz68motherboard

Its been a while and its great to see you are still around.

Try OpenVPN, I've used it before and its very easy to set up and establish a connection. The only downside is that only supports two concurrent users, if you need more users, you will need to buy a license and its quite cheaper than Microsoft own licenses.

Found this: http://forum.s-t-d.org/viewtopic.php?id=2828

I agree with you and every school IT administrator should be doing that, but it always comes down to the resources they have (time, money, experience and the list goes).

I know exactly what you mean and whether you know what you are doing or not. Its what fear them the most. School's network administrators are very protective of their network, it takes them a very a long time to get whole system set up and running. And to have someone snooping or exploring their network is what makes them concerned. You may not have intention of breaking or causing harm but sometimes, the temptation can overwhelm us. Back in high school, i wasn't the only one but I had a college who broke into the server several times and that had the IT admin, the teachers and the school's principal extremely worried, as result they gave him a warning and booted him off the system for several months. He was also warned not to come in contact with any of the schools computers or face expulsion.

The reason is very simple, you already know what the ins and outs of your school network are, you also know where the weakness are. You've tried to warn them about these security issues, but they have been negligent you take the matter into your own hands and decide to do a bit of poking around on the network only find that you managed to break into your schools principal computer. Now they find out it was you who did it, and they give you a warning stating that you shall not attempt to do any illegal activity ever again or face expulsion. Months passes and nothing has been done about the security breach, they haven't even patched the security hole. Now from this we can learn that, if you were a bad student and got expelled from school you could from outside hack into the schools system and still break into the principals computer. Moreover that's what they mean by this, there could be other reasons too but that's the only reason I can think for the moment.

Or another way to test the printer would be installing empty cartridges. It won't print anything but will test the printer physically.

Just a heads up, I've been looking at the GPU power consumption figures for the GTX 570 graphics card and since you will be running SLI, that 700 watts PSU may not have enough power to handle them. So its just something to keep an eye for, if it doesn't boot up or shutdown unexpectedly. Apart from that, nice set up you've got there.

Whilst experimenting these techniques are good for learning purposes, I would not encourage doing that on a network other than yours. If you really want to get into the realm of pen-testing, I would suggest practicing on your own or at least seeking approval. Besides poking around on other people's network without their consent and permission, is just asking for trouble and I say this from my own experience too. I used to be just like you, curious and always exploring new things until one day at my high school, I got caught and warned for what I was doing. Anyway, they gave a warning and advised me not to do again, or else I would face expulsion.