DaBeach

Speaking of root kits. http://blogs.technet.com/b/mmpc/archive/20...xnet-sting.aspx

Ok, do you mean that a root kit that was able to write itself to the hardware (I am assuming you mean the hard drive) and it was to get under a format, would not a deletion of all partitions take it out? I remember in my DOS days that a format would not clean a drive of some virus's and it would require a low level format (fdisk) which I believe is a low level format. If I recall even the Sony root kit which I believe was installed after inserting a music CD may have required user assistance to complete the install. In regards to the boot sector and/or master boot record, would a deletion of all partitions blow any root kit/virus off? So I guess you could say that in situations like a WIN7 installation in which windows creates 2 partitions on a new install if I were to have issues later and go in an say restore the drive image on the 2nd partition where the OS is stored I could be at risk as I don't usually bother with the 100mb System Reserved partition. If this is the case maybe I should switch from DriveSnapShot to a disk cloning utility and copy ALL partitions in one wipe vs DriveSnapShot imaging each partition individually.

No strange files or websites, No opening attachments, No P2P, torrents etc. I agree about the advancement of viruses which returns to the position of having to resort to the "Scorched Earth" routine when one is caught. I feel restoring to a fresh OS install image would defeat a virus (not so sure about a root kit though or if a virus was able to contaminate data files on other drives). When the restore image is applied the drive partition is deleted prior to reimaging (would this not remove a rootkit?) I am also not so sure that software would make it on a system without some sort of actions by the user allowing it to install. Also returning to a fresh install in 7 minutes also avoids bit rot, it takes me around 10-12 hours to build a system. So currently I use the following: WIN7 Ultimate 64bit as a standard user WIN Firewall blocked all in/out with exceptions for programs such as firefox No IE only Firefox with NoScript and BetterPrivacy (for flash cookies) Router/Firewall with rules blocking ALL in/out except those allowed such as port 80 out Patching OS as updates arrive When I rebuild my main system hardware I am going to try the use of virtual machines for all internet connections which would allow me to either go safe or wild on the net and be able to delete the image and revert to a fresh image after use. I am thinking this would be an additional layer of potential protection. What would be the opinion of this method? I doubt there is anything on my system however, I will also admit that I can't be completely sure until a restore is completed.

I had stopped using scanners etc... around XP and during Vista days. It started to feel like a burden having to update and check for updates and taking time to scan with multiple softwares not to mention defrag. The last time I caught a virus was with XP and IE which by simply visiting a page something changed my notepad.exe to a virus and it attempted to get by the firewall (this was my 2nd virus caught in my lifetime btw). I feel now that safe practices combined with firewalling is better and if you catch a virus your probably done anyway and off to a reinstall these days.

Well, even if you went nuts and visited/downloaded perhaps installed risky items you could just perform a restore image every week or so, which on my system takes about 7 minutes and it should be gone. I guess this would also be similar to running virtual OS's on your OS and just blowing the image off after use. Are you aware of any issues of data becoming infected and then effecting the OS, like say media files or documents?

WIN7 Ultimate 64bit MS Firewall with all in/out blocked with exceptions. Stopped using Spyware/Malware scanners years ago along with AntiVirus and 3rd party firewalls. Recent firewall FVS338 blocked in/out ports as well however, recently setup pfSense firewall. MS Patches applied regularly If I observe anything funky I will restore an image of the drive setup after a fresh OS install, and I also perform a restore of the image about every couple months or so anyway. I gave up on the 3rd party scanners as described above as it began to be a chore and consumed too much boot up time and CPU resources. I run as a standard user with a separate account for Admin purposes. Additionally, everyone here has their own PC and I do not let anyone touch mine at all!

I would say yes. I have recently found that (for example) my last Netgear FVS338 had the ability to log on via HTTPS but I did not know this. If it is HTTP I it most likely be transmitted on your LAN in clear text.

What is the differences between Growl and Syslog. I have used Syslog in the past and recently attempted to use Growl for pfSense however, I am not sure to see if Growl was working with pfSense as there does not seen to be any test procedure I could find in order to register pfSense with Growl. What would Growl receive from pfSense? Would it be the same information that pfSense would send to Syslog?

And worse broadcasting audio! OMG! I open the camera's and remove the microphones, I prefer the audio and video be separate systems which also allows me to use my choice of powered mic's.

Umm, I have to have all wired IP camera's without any ability to transmit wireless due to security concerns.

I have a few USB extenders and while mine work to extend a USB port for keyboard and mouse or other low bandwidth items I found it did not work for USB capture cards, not sure why but I could not receive the video. Which linksys cam do you have?

I wonder how the atom processor would handle this type of work, perhaps even running separate systems for each function. One to record one or all channels (perhaps you would have to have a system take 4 channels) and another for the easy stuff like audio recording and perhaps snapshots as well. Despite whether it is an atom or not maybe breaking the system up would make the entire array more functional. Mind you, I am playing with this idea and have a few other features I would build myself (not yet designed), I think in the end I could build a system that would have a retail # around $10K for far less. But then the surveillance market does have a high markup anyway.

Oh crap! I exposed myself in more ways than one.

I will post information. I expect that the system will be able to monitor multiple cameras via IP. And the added ability to pan & tilt each camera will be fun. I would imagine that I may need a server if I wanted to record every channel at the same time individually with snapshot pics on motion detection sent via email. How much server I would need to perform the video record on 8 channels and recording of audio on 8 channels with the ability to alert on a set sound level. Then the OS.

On my WIN7 Ultimate 64bit laptop the OS does not have and cannot find drivers for webcams, video sources and the USB component audio/video device I use. The OS will see audio (though I don't use it on that system so I can't be sure the audio functions as it should) but no video. I installed same on WIN 7 Ultimate 32bit without issues. With the 2-USB capture cards pulling video only and running nothing else the CPU ranges 70-80%, memory remains at 578MB with 2GB on the system. The laptop is a Intel Pentium Dual 1.5Ghz machine. No instability or crashes. I have used many video players to show the video and they all seem to eat the same resources. I will be testing a few IP camera's soon and hope to see a difference as the cameras will be accessed via web browser. I don't think the system would handle a 3rd camera on the USB due to USB bandwidth issues. My aim is at least 8 cameras on the system and perhaps the audio as well. Additionally the system becomes worked with video stagger when recording or motion detection is on.

Well I will keep receipts for record and proof of purchase for property purposes but not all receipts need to be kept. If the receipt is for a edible panties for your girlfriend and you don't want the wife to know pay cash and throw the receipt out the window on your way home.

Well I flubbed my power usage calculations. ASUS Netbook 8W $0.0027 a day Current P4 3Ghz Router Setup 86.33W $0.31 a day So if the Mini ITX was similar in power as to the netbook (minus the LCD) it would take 2 years to recover the cost of the new Mini ITX setup @ around $200.00. As per the ALIX @ 4W I would assume would be half the cost of the netbook to run so approx $0.0135 a day. I think in the future I will buy the ITX and ALIX boards and test how they work with my pfSense router setup.

Well like Al I drive a suburban with no passengers most of the time and my other car is a full size hog as well. I am happy to not only use my carbon credits but to use the credits of others without asking! The space issue was the first reason I was attracted to the ITX setup and the temperature of the system as well as excess heat is only wasted energy anyways. When you say that the atom system would be more powerful what exactly do you mean and how? As far as the ALIX board, I really like the idea and most likely will pick one up to test as I am sure this will be a great component for a project yet to be defined. With the ALIX board I was concerned about the 500Mhz as I read that the pfSense with Snort may require more cpu power based on the amount of filters/rules applied. Now while I am new to Snort and am currently testing only one filter I am not sure if I will want more later. And while I think of it the ALIX may have a role in my surveillance system in the future I will have to think about this. As an aside I also power tested my Netgear FVS338 and discovered that the operational costs were about .21 daily which surprised me as I expected it be lower. So again the .04 a day difference between it and the current setup is minimal.

My bang around box is an HP M470N Media Center Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz Hyper-Threading ASUS P4SD-LA with Intel 848P chipset. 1Gb PC3200 or better dual-inline. On-board RealTek 8101L 10/100 Ethernet On-the-motherboard 5.1 soundHarman Kardon 2.1 speakers Serial (1294) portTwo PS/2 ports (one keyboard, and one mouse)EPP/ECP Parallel portSix USB 2.0/1.1 ports (two in front and four in back)Two FireWire (1394) ports (one in front and one in back)RJ45 network interface portRJ11 connector (on the modem) Three PCI slots (two in use, one open)One AGP slot (in use)Two serial ATA connectors 200 watt (max) or greater power supply for ATX style motherboards After testing today it pulls: 125w on boot and 87 when settled and after calculation should cost .25 a day to operate. I will have to look into the ITX boards to see what they draw and would hope it was half or less power usage. I also tested one of my netbooks which I beleive operated on an Intel Atom and it pulls 30w with a cost of .21 a day so assuming the Mini ITX is very close it seems the additional cost per day would be .04 cents. That does not seem to be worth the additional expense of a new ITX setup. Would take 14 years to payback.

Digitize what you need and I would shred anyways.

What would be other uses that I could use a pfSense router box for while still running pfSense? Are there manual add on's that I could setup? Since I am not maxing out resources I am wondering if I could have this box perform other tasks. For example would I use this box FreeBSD for a podcast catcher?

You could also use low cost analog inside/outside cameras imported into the PC via USB (Bandwidth issues may arise dependent of how many cameras are used) or imported via PC card with multiple video ports. Caution with the OS as 64bit WIN boxes have issues with drivers. Depending on items you could set up a 2 camera system via USB on a WIN7 32bit OS for as little as $30+/-, then you would have to find suitable server software so as to view at a remote location. Also note, I found under testing on a dual core system that the USB method tended to be a high CPU utilization way of doing this averaging around 70-80% usage and running nothing else but the OS with no network connectivity.

Anyone have any suggestions as to wether I should go ahead and purchase a new Mini ITX MB, Case & Memory or just keep my current ATX 3Ghz 1GB setup for my pfSense firewall? I guess it boils down to power savings. The attraction to the ITX setup is reduced power consumption vs a regular PC as above however, I am not sure what the power difference between the two would be and if it would be worth the additional cost. Any suggestions?

Wow! And I thought the Mini IXT was small!

You know, I think I will try to figure a way to have the windows machine grab the file and import it into MS Access as I would be able to already have reports setup for each IP in questions and I could format it to my hearts content. Do you know if the access.log file is saved as a tab delimited text file?