OrangePi SBC, Armbian, Pihole – quick and dirty

Preamble (just skip it or click and read it, whatever)

A quick way to get yourself your LAN – well not ad-free but way ad-less.
This blog post will be some weird mix between this existing post here, updates for it and less verbiage.

Just a side note: Browser-based ad blocking is way more efficient rather than filtering using DNS filter lists. The reason for this is that those in-browsing scripts can adjust the appearance of a website directly while DNS based blocking simply does not allow content from specific domains to be loaded. Depending on the used browser the result may vary.
So why wasting time and money to set something up like this? Three reasons:

  • Especially on mobile devices you cannot simply install ad filtering software without enhanced access to your device (like ‘rooting’). Yes, there are apps like Block This! but maybe you need your VPN capabilities elsewhere
  • Other apps do not depend on browsers and sideload their ads other way, like the YouTube app on Android or any ad-funded app. If you cannot attack the enemy from within you have to surround him.
  • You have lots of devices and/or share your LAN/WiFi with others and want to serve your legacy of ad-free browsing with just being connected to the network

To be clear: This tutorial is way not bulletproof nor it is dedicated to total newbies and there will probably be tons of room for improvements. Some basic knowledge about Linux, especially Debian and networking is highly recommended. Though if you have questions do not hesitate to get in touch with me on Twitter. I may do a kind of bulletproof tutorial from scratch if someone sponsors me a new OrangePi One SBC or any other more expensive board :-P.

I decided to continue this in English as you may have noticed. Simply to get more reach.
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Füllmaterial

Das Jahr 2018 war nicht gerade ergiebig was Ideen zu Beiträgen angeht. Es wird wohl laufen wie vor zehn Jahren, dass das Projekt mit der Zeit im Sand verläuft. Wenigstens bin ich nicht der einzige mit diesem Problem.


Schön wäre es gewesen den Neujahrsgruß des vergangenen Jahres zumindest auf die nächste Seite geschoben zu haben, aber es hat einfach nicht sollen sein. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Mal sehen wie 2019 läuft. Anregungen gerne unter diesen Tweet:

EPLAN network license over the internet – cheap and dirty

Preamble

As some of you might already have guessed I am doing electrical stuff in my employment, including electrical engineering. For this purpose our company utilised Eplan Electrical P8. Other examples for such an engineering software would be Elcad, AutoCAD Electrical or WSCAD and some more. Just Google for it if you want further information.

 

Licensing

Eplan using USB dongles to protect their software from piracy. The dongle has to be connected to your computer in order to start the software and keep it running. Removing the dongle causing the software to stop working until you either reconnect the dongle or close it.
If you want to use Eplan on another PC you have to hand over your dongle. This is quite impractical especially if your company has multiple workstations in different places but does not want to invest in more of these quite expensive Eplan licenses.

The solution for this issue is buying a so called network license. You still will receive a dongle which has to be connected to any PC which later will serve as license server. Eplan utilizing DCOM services to achieve this.

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A Pick Kit for EDC – imagined at least

Preamble

From time to time I crawl through multiple websites around the world searching for a good-to-go every day carry pick kit. Unfortunately I could not find one that perfectly fits my needs.
No doubt there are lots of nice kits out there like the Peterson Eagles Nest, the Sparrows Tuxedo or even the Dangerfield Praxis pick. However all of them have disadvantages for my taste. For the examples shown the Peterson handles are very thick and bulky, so they would take up LOTS of room in the pick case. The Sparrows Tuxedo does not contain a pry bar and the Praxis Kit case is way too big.
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Eine Weisheit

Vertrauen bedeutet den Starken Schwäche, doch den Schwachen Stärke. Weisheit und Gleichgewicht entstehen durch die Kenntnis der eigenen Natur.
– Chronik des Metallenen Zeitalters

In den letzten Monaten ist viel passiert und ich weiß diese Worte und ihr Gewicht heute viel mehr zu schätzen.



Wird trotzdem Zeit die Thief-Reihe mal wieder auszugraben.

Verspäteter Neujahrsgruß

Zunächst einmal A g’sund’s Neu’s! ihr lieben Leute da draußen! Hoffe jeder ist ohne Zwischenfälle gut und wohlbehalten gut ins neue Jahr gekommen. Vorkommnisse alkoholischer Art lassen wir dabei einfach mal außen vor ;-).

Ja, die Seite lebt noch, ist nur mangels Ideen etwas eingeschlafen. Macht aber nichts. Mir fällt schon noch wieder das eine oder andere ein. Bin vorsichtig optimistisch. Getreu dem Motto Schau mer mal, dann seng mer scho.

LearnLockpicking.com 7 Pin Practice Lock

It took quite a while but finally I received a package from the US containing the 7 Pin Ultimate Adversary Practice Lock from LearnLockPicking.com.

I will not go through all details as others already did a great job putting this into a video which I will include here. Simple press the red play button in the middle to start at the proper video position.

Please activate JavaScript to view this video.
Video-Link: https://youtu.be/Gv5qJB4ETJ8?t=1m33s

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Der Tag an dem ich keinen Bürostuhl bekam

Man schimpft ja oft und viel über Paketdienstleister, hört wahre Horrorgeschichten. Für meinen Teil hielt sich dies bis auf vereinzelte Ausrutscher in Grenzen. Aber wenn man es als Unternehmen schafft zweimal hintereinander Mist zu bauen und (bisher) keine Erklärung liefert denkt man sich eben seinen Teil.

Die Kurzfassung gibt es hier:


Wem das genügt der darf jetzt eine andere Seite ansurfen 🙂
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Master Lock 410 busted open

As you may have seen on Twitter I got myself a Master Lock model 410. These locks are known to be great training locks.

Master Lock is kind a huge contrariness. They have padlocks well resistant against physical attacks but contain poor cores. You all know the ML number 3 with their crappy four pin – no security pins – core.
Then they have very weak padlocks with plastic housing like the model 410. They can be sawed open in no time. However they contain a little bit more challenging key way, a fully populated six pin core and what is even more weird is that they are all security pins.

Anyways. As stated before I obtained one of these ML410 and picked it in a few minutes. But I wanted to dig a little bit further and know what is really inside and if I can reuse the core in a much tougher padlock.

So I gone ahead and sawed the adhesive joints and cracked the baby open.
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