₦airaland Forum

Bruce Almighty would do for me, lol

Well, you don't need GPRS or WAP access to access a local WAP website. You can use Apache, PHP and Mysql to build a WAP site and use a WAP emulator like winwap to test your WAP site. To download winwap, go here http://www.winwap.com/products_2_3.php.

You will need to configure apache httpd.conf file in order to serve WAP pages. You can find that information here http://www.zend.com/zend/tut/wap.php?article=wap&kind=t&id=1483&open=1&anc=0&view=1. I hope this information helps, if you need more assistance, let me know.

ajiboyet,

I have used windows for years I still do and I use 2 MACs and I will tell you this much, it is far simplier and user friendly to use a MAC than Windows.

telling you one is better over the other will be a myopic judgement, it all depends on what you want to do. Do you want something secure, do you want a firewall, do you want to use it for graphix, games, what do you want to use it for?

dondele,

I am sorry I didn't answer your question on kernel, opensource, closed source, bsd etc. Let me explain to you

1. Open Source - Open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's sources, this means that you have the original (source code) access to the programs that you install and thus can modify, append, debug, enhance if you know what you are doing. Most open source programs or projects are free, free as in free to download it and install it and modify it etc. An example of an opensource program is open office - you can download this free compared to paying hundreds of $$ to microsoft for it's office suite.

2. Close source - The opposite of open source, the source codes are not publicy accessible i.e microsoft products

3. Kernel - The kernel is a program that constitutes the central core of a computer operating system. It has complete control over everything that occurs in the system. You can say it's the heart and brain of the computer.

4. Unix - A multiuser, multitasking operating system that is widely used as the master control program in workstations and servers.

A myriad of commercial applications run on Unix servers, and many Web sites run under Unix. Over the years, there have been many different versions of the OS, and, except for the PC world, where Windows dominates, almost every hardware vendor offers Unix as its primary or secondary operating system. Sun has been singularly instrumental in commercializing Unix with its Solaris OS (formerly SunOS). HP, IBM, SCO and Digital (before it merged with Compaq) have also been major Unix promoters.

Unix is written in C. Both Unix and C were developed by AT&T and freely distributed to government and academic institutions, causing it to be ported to a wider variety of machine families than any other operating system. As a result, Unix became synonymous with "open systems."

5. Centos, FreeBSD - These are free versions of Unix Operating Systems you can download for your personal use.

I hope I have answered your questions

Dondele,

With the new intel chips on MAC - you can install both Windows OS and MAC OS together, something tha wasn't possible before. So, you can still run your traditional applications on your windows OS on an apple. Apple also runs some of windows apps like Office, messenger, yahoo IM etc. I hope I have answered your questions.

I am not a management guy and I am not rich - I am a developer that love my MAC because it works and allows me do my job. My initial take on this thread was that we were comparing MAC with Windows and which was better.

Anyhow - I respect your comments and they are well noted.

Cheers

darkmanzero,

Good points you made and like I said, it is the business case that determines what OS and hardware you will run. I feel in love with MAC because you have a BSD kernel (Open source) and OS X (MAC OS). I am an opensource fan and use it more than anything and that is why I prefer it over Windows.

Your point about hardware holds water, the higher the specs, the better the machine will perform, that been said, Windows doesn't manage memory well - I have tested this several times, so in essence, a machine running Windows with better specs might not out perform a Unix or MAC machine.

I noticed that you then to drift to Unix from your last post, my argument was that a MAC is more reliable, stable and robust than a Windows System (Windows). I used FreeBSD, Centos, Fedora, BackTrack, knoppix etc and I love them especially Centos, they can match and even outdo a MAC anyday depends on the services they are offering.

About been rich - like I said, I didn't pay $1,000 cash at a go, I paid it over a long period of 10-16 months because my friend in the US assisted me. If we had this flexible system in Nigeria, alot of people will be able to afford apple machines. I will admit that you can get a PC for $200 or less and upgrade etc which meets alot of people approval but Apple doesn't work that way.

darkmanzero,

1. Games on Apple - Dude, I never said apple has more games than Windows, all I said is that Apple has it's own share of games, I have played a few, Civilization, Command $ Conquer and they are good to me. I don't see any difference btw apple games and windows games except of course that you can run more games on windows.

2. MAC being flexible - Get any Unix BSD software and try and install it on MAC, esp the darwin ported packages and see whether you can't play with your kernel or not.

3. You are very welcome

4. Anyway you look at it, Apple has done a good job in making a computer that makes you do what you are good at. I didn't say apple should be the sole manufacturer, if that was the case then there will be no competition - what I am saying is that, apple did it's home work, thus it has a better platform.

5. we should all do the right thing.

6. Well, you have a point - apple may not command a large market share and as a result people may not exploit MAC machines, however - good programming still plays a major role here. There are several viruses and exploits that have been written for MACs but you will have to download these codes as an administrator and run the executable files.

7. Listen, I am not rich - I am a student that works and pay my fees. I got my iBook G4 for $999 and I used my friends credit in the US to buy it. He paid less that $25 monthly and was given the computer and he sent it to me. Don't compare a MAC and a windows on performance and memory management. With MAC you can tell a process to use only a certain amount of memory and nothing more, try that with a Windows.

I use Centos as well, and it's great. I am not a loyal blind fan of MAC. Even now, i still use asp because of it's good session management. All I am saying is that it depends on the business case you intend to use the systems for, if you want to sleep well at night - use a MAC

ladex,

Any how you look at it - you either trade security over functionality or vice versa but windows doesn't give you that flexibility because windows don't give you that priviledge.

There are millions of apps written for windows compared to apple because windows is the most popular OS inthe world and I told you why that is so. However, comparing both systems in terms of performance, security, integrety, realiability and robustness - a MAC will beat a windows system anyday.

If you want detailed infromation, send me an email at alexdehaini at gmail.com

Ladex,

It's good that you love windows, I pray to stay with it - if you are a game freak, please visit http://www.apple.com/games/ and see what apple can offer for game lovers. I use an iBook G4 laptop for development and penetration testing, I use it mainly for my my php and python development, I also run my itunes music library and also to obtain free podcasts on security and other important subjects. I also have a mac-mini that runs my email, database, mp3 and streaming server, I use it for alot of testing. My iBook G4 has a 1ghz power pc processor and 512 RAM.

I have one centos unix machine and a windows 2003 server that I use for penetration testing as well and also to run some aspx web apps I build. With my MAC, I don't have to buy any other software for malware, spam or viruses etc etc. I have time to concentrate on what I like doing - development and internet security; so spend all the money on tools that you have to renew every year just to make sure your Windows computer works - it's up to you. You should take a look at what microsoft intends to do with vista - pretty soon your anti-virus softwares and other security softwares wouldn't be able to run because windows can't allow them modify it's kernel.

dakmanzero,

I will try my best to answer all your questions about MAC

1) they are not gamers (Macs are absolute and total rubbish when it comes to games) - I wouldn't say much, please visit http://www.apple.com/games/, if you like - you can count the number of games you can run on a MAC. Do a simple google search for "MAC games" and go look them up.

2) they are not power users (They prefer software that 'just works' and hate flexibility and configurability) - On the contrary, you can hack a MAC and play with your core kernel anyway you like. The are 1001 hacks for MACs that will astound you but since you don't use a MAC, you will have little knowledge about what I am talking about. With it's BSD kernel you have the command line power to install programs with great flexibility, something windows wouldn't allow you do, all you do in windows is click, next>> next>> next>> finish. You have no clue what's going on behind the scenes. I tested several hacks on a windows 2000 machine and I had to re-install it several times because almighty windows said I couldn't mess with it's registry, rubbish!

3) they hate computer hardware (They like the way apple hides the true nature of the machine behind a shiny, glossy exterior and tries to pretend that things like RAM and internal bus standards/driver revisions do not exist) - Dude, apple is a classical example of a company that makes software work as it should. If windows was a car, then it's tires would be made by one manufacturer, it's doors from another, it's headlambs yet from another, it's gears from another one and it's engine by another one. So you would have a car that does so many things yet it is not good enough in a specialized area. We all know that you can either trade functionality over security or vice-versa. MACs are made from one manufacturer with everything thought out. That is why you have companies like Dell, HP, Toshiba, Actel and numerous others trying to bring sanity to the windows computing environment.

4) they don't care about sharing information (an open document standard is an oxymoron when 99.9999% of the people on the face of the earth have access to a different format) - Sharing? what are you talking about man, do you know all microsoft has to do is put one code in your windows update and all WORD, EXCEL and other documents on all windows system world-wide will never work on other platforms? Why has microsoft refused to allow people view it's source codes, don't talk about sharing man. Apple support open standards and has always done so, apple support the SMB, NFS and other opensource sharing standards.

5) they are GOOD PEOPLE who do not pirate software - Thank you for admitting that, it takes courage to do that. We don't have to bend standards to please others, if we all did the right thing, the world would be a better place.

6) they believe in security by obscurity (macs are only considered secure because they are not being targeted by hackers and virus writers. At defcon early this month hackers showed how to own a macbook via wireless via a driver bug! DRIVERS!!!!!!) - Security by obscurity is an old trick in the book however it is not the reason why MACs are considered safer than their windows counterparts - they reason is simple, better programming standards from the Apple and open source community and integrating MAC kernel with open source standards. Aside that, there is no computer that is 100% secure. We ran a MAC X Server for 4 years serving an mobile company SMS website with no extra configuration whatsoever - the only thing we did was updates. Try and windows server like that and give me your feedback. MAC also has a BSD like kernel, so you have the power of a unix system at your disposal, and the slickest interface you will ever want at your disposal. About using a driver to get administrative priviledges on a MAC, please send me the link and the exploit so that I can check it out. I use the metasploit framework for penetration testing and I check the securityfocus.com website for all latest exploits on all systems. So, please provide the resource you are talking about. I will tell you this much, 95% of exploits are engineered and geared towards windows systems. Ask yourself why?

7) the most important one- THEY ARE RICH. yes, mac users are rich. you have to be rich to justify a 100% price increase for an inferior (performance-wise) product for the benefit of usability, which is a luxury - You statement holds no water - how can a MAC be inferior performance wise when it has better memory management than Windows? On the contrary, MACS are cheaper when you consider the hidden and overhead cost of owning a windows system. Assuming you purchase a PC system and you buy a legal version of Windows XP, a legal version of Office, a legal version of norton antivrus plus all the malware and spyware tools you will renew every other year - which is more expensive?


I can't say anymore, let us research more and more and find out how microsoft is loosing it's hold on the corporate and home user computing environment.

ladex142,

Your last post confirmed you don't know much about MACs. Ask any MAC user and they will tell you that MAC games are far better than windows games. I play a few games on MAC i.e Civilaziation, Shreak, Halo, Command & Conquer etc.

Dude - come over to the better side man, microsh*t is going down and it's everywhere. As I am writing this thread, a client just brought his windows laptop complaining about spam and anti-virus. At least this is a sunday I will make some extra coins thanks to Microsh*t .

I advised the client to run suse and sleep well at night.

sk8erboi

If you use a MAC, just let me know the kind of software you need. If you write apps - I will advise you to visit http://develop.apple.com

ajiboyet,

Don't let the user interface fool you bro - you can download 1001 free pythoon editors that can make you do a lot of cool stuffs but I will advice you to start with the python interface or use notepad to start writing python apps.

Make sure you read the tutorials and documentations on pythons website

uzomaeze,

Linux image files are pretty large. I will recommend you start with fedora, http://fedora.redhat.com/. If yo have a fast internet connection, buy 4 blank CD-Rs, get access to a CD-RW. After downloading all the linux image files, burn each of the image files on a CD.

That all there is to it. If you don't have access to fast internet connection, I will advice you go to computer village and get one.

ajiboyet,

To tell you the truth, BASIC is outdated - it's a procedural language, more like structured programming (it still gets somethings done). It is good for beginners though but I will advice you learn C instead.

I see that alot of people are recommending you start using VB.NET, vb2005, vb studio .NET. To tell you the truth, .NET is pretty powerful and it will greatly increase your development time and make you do alot of cool things you never could do. I still use asp now because it's session management is still powerful compared to php and I could easily connect to MS-Access and other data source. It was recently in php 4 that sessions came in.

That been said, I will advice you to use something that is platform independent. All apps you write in Basic, vb2005, C# will only run on windows OS, you can write codes alot faster but you will lag behind when you intend to port those codes to other platforms or start writing enterprise applications. Also, those tools hide alot of things from you - how you connect to the dbase, hows you put controls on the form, how you call methods and create objects are all hidden from you. Get your text editor and start doing it the old way.

Try Java or python instead - I will recommend python, it is just like java but much simplier - if you can write strict english, you will start writing python apps in no time. It runs on windows, unix, macs etc.

MAC has tonnes of free softwares and cracks - just that you wouldn't know because you don't use a MAC. Check out SerialSeeker, its a software that contains all the cracks for most programs that run on a MAC.

I have a collection of over 7000 free softwares that run on a MAC, we have it on our file server in the office and I will love to share with other MAC users. I really can't see what software that can run on windows that doesn't have an equivalent on a MAC. You name it and I will tell you that MAC does it better and with style.

1. Programming - Java is already shipped with MAC, so is python, apache, mysql, openssl, gcc etc.
2. Office Suite - MS-Office runs on MAC, Open office runs on MAC, Apple works in also included
3. Web Development - php is installed off the back, WEBDAV is there, you can install perl, jsp, psp and other opensource cross platform technologies.
4. Web editing - Dreamweaver, Flash and the Macromedia suite runs on MAC
5. Video Editing - This is were a MAC simply beats windows hands down - final cut pro, iDVD, iMovie HD, etc.
6. IM - Yahoo messenger, msn messenger, trillian etc.

If you are talking about your traditional windows technologies and how lazy windows make you at development - well, I have good news for you; you can run windows and OS X on the new intel MAC systems.

What microsoft has done is that they have given developers a platform to write alot of apps which is a good thing but the drawback is that these apps only run on windows.

Did I mention you don't have virus problems like the way you do on windows - people tend to say that very soon viruses will be written for MACs. You see, every good programmer knows that when you design a software or an OS, you do it with security in mind. Let me give you a simple example - install a windows system and do all the updates and put it on the internet with a public IP, do the same for a MAC with the default configurations. A will confidently tell you that the Windows OS was hacked in no time.

So guys, wake up - a MAC is a unix box with a sweet interface that makes your life easier

Secondly - not all 3rd world countries pirate Windows software. I work for a consult for a company here in Ghana that uses all MAC systems and two windows systems, one Windows 2000 for running our motorola canopy updater tool for our SMs and APs (I successfully ported it to MAC later since it was running on Java - took be about 1 week back and forth with motorola developers) and Windows 2003 to run microsoft money because of the 10 digits we have in Ghana because of the cedis, other accounting apps couldn't handle it well and also to monitor our IPPlanet clients because the E-services software runs on asp and you can check it using only explorer.

Aside these - we use MACs. The windows laptop has crashed a couple of times (the usual virus, spyware etc) but the MACs are still rocking.

Ladex,

Right - and since Nigeria is not a perfect society, let us stand up and do the right thing. Getting a Windows OS illegally is wrong but because you get it for =N=150, it makes it the best OS to you. If apple was running on PC and you were getting it for =N=150 from Emeka, you sure wouldn't complain. So, illegally acquiring Windows OS is one of the reasons that makes it popular - do you agree?

Since we are not talking about how we acquire windows but how stable, secure and robust it is compared to a MAC, I will tell you this much. Windows is made for dumb people - by that, i don't mean the people using windows are stupid, just that they are lazy. I have used windows before but not on an administrative level. For the last 2 years, I have actively used MAC, Centos and OpenBSD in several environments and I will you that - I don't find it hard managing windows systems with the knowledge of unix I have but if the reverse was the case - you will have people banging their heads.

Used GW-Basic since 2002. Basic is out dated but still use it sometimes to write my assignments in school - just to see the way basic handles it.

I will recommend python to you - started using it last 3 months ago. It's very simple compared to Java and C++. Easy to learn even than basic and very powerful such that NASA, gmail and yahoo use it. Check out www.python.org

Most people think apple users are a cult and follow apple blindly, that is a narrow view of looking at the situation. I made alot of contribution to the thread gbade.x opened the last time.

We should all look at the advantages and disadvantages of the OSs we use and see how they can streamline our business processes and make life easier for all of us.

Do you know why most people use Windows? because they can get it free unlicensed versions of the OS and packages that run on windows illegally - do you think every Nigerian that is using windows bought it legally? no they didn't, they can go to computer village, pay someone =N=500 and buy a windows OS. If everyone was buying windows legally, I bet you only a handful of nigerians we be using windows products.

If you could get a MAC illegally, you will propably be happy with MAC as well but the good news is that you can't, even if you get the OS, where would you run it? So, the boys at apple have done their work and we should give then 2 thumbs up for that.

I hear people say that MACs are expensive - on the contrary, they are cheaper compared to their PC rivals, how? very simple. Apple encourages people to buy MACs on an installment basis, I got my ibook G4 for $999 and because my friend had good credit - he paid $30 every month until I finished paying for it.

I hear people say but we don't have that system in Nigeria, is Apple to blame for that. If a company starts selling MACs on an installment basis in Nigeria, I bet you alot of well meaning Nigerians we appreciate owning a MAC computer.

MACs are great product - from the mac-mini up to the G5 server and X serve machines - stable, rock solid and sweet. They have a devout following that will only increase as years pass, why? because they are better machines.

MACs compared to Windows - please view this link http://www.apple.com/getamac/

whitesoftx,

Does the webmaster have to be in Nigeria? Tried calling your number but couldn't get through

ladex142,

Simply put - MAC is one of the best OS you will ever get. Before Windows 95 came out, MAC OS 8 was doing everything windows dreamt of.

MAC has a BSD-like kernel which makes it even more interesting, this means that you can run opensource softwares right off the back. The new intel based MACs allows you run windows and apple OS - http://www.apple.com/getamac/.

I can go on and on but I have nevered one day regretted why I got my iBook G4.

I think IPV6 will solve all these problems.

Larufa,

Confirm if you installed the X package i.e GNOME or KDE. Type 'X' on the commang line and hit enter. I haven't used Ubuntu before so i can't tell you how to edit it's network interface using the command line.

Thanks h4rdc0d3d,

I am downloading the demo now and I will check it out. I am sure there are ways to sniff packets on network you are not on, just that i am trying to find out ways you can do that. Thanks and your response is well appreciated

With my bible, AK, bullet proof vest and bomb blanket - I will take the job.

Hey guys, no one has replied to my thread. Don't any nairaland member have practical ideas on packet sniffing?

lol, easy on the guy sbucareer.

Security testing?

Hi everyone,

I need some professional input from folks that have experience with Internet security, especially packet sniffing and IP spoofing. I know how packet sniffing works and I can read and decipher the TCP/IP packet for information I want. My question is, can you packet sniff on someone else gateway without actually being on their WAN or LAN?

Secondly, I have some experience on how you can change your host file on most Unix machine and add fake routes but what I do want to know is how do spammers inject fake IP addresses in an SMTP message or how do people send fake IP headers to others. I am asking this question for educational purposes only and I will appreciate real world examples and answers.

Thanks