watching skype here in the lab. sending a few messages from here to jingping. interesting thing is that i don't have a direct link to her. instead, skype only reports having connections with computers at NYU - several of them, six different hosts. maybe they're using me as a relay? or, i could be part of a similar set of harvard-located hosts. here, instead of 36268 or whatever it is at home, the port being used by skype for those UDP messages is always 38253. i also see that i'm sending to each of those NYU hosts from the same port, but receiving from a different port from each one. i'm guessing that all these connections are for the same purpose, and that again for each of those users the port number is the same for all their connections.
oh well, more later. maybe something interesting will happen.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
chinese-american economics
unrelated to the internet, but i did realize this last night, so it may as well go down here.
i'm aware of two facts, to which we are all constantly exposed by various media:
A. the US buys lots of stuff from China, more than China buys from the US, so there's a trade imbalance. this means the Chinese are stuck with extra $$ that they can't spend, so they loan it back to the US to continue the cycle.
B. the Chinese 元 is tied, in part, to the US $$.
i knew these things already, but didn't realize they were directly related. but they are - and so far i think it's a one-way relationship, in that A) makes B) necessary. i understood it in terms of the following cycle:
1. China companies manufacture goods
2. US companies purchase China goods with $$
3. China companies purchase US goods with the $$ they accumulated
4. China companies have $$ leftover
5. China companies need to pay for domestic costs and profit, but can't spend $$ in China
6. China companies give their $$ to China govt, which gives them China 元 in exchange
7. China govt loans $$ to US treasury
8. US treasury loans $$ to US banks
9. US banks loan $$ to US companies
10. (back to 2.)
this seems to work. I don't know anything about how sustainable it is, though I think I see how you could get to know, or have a strong opinion about, something like that by looking at this process in detail.
anyways, why does A lead to B? because of 6). in order for 6) to be a fair deal, so that the China companies can know they're getting exactly their dollar's worth in the trade, the $$ and the 元 should be closely linked. in essence, those $$-linked 元 are like $$ printed in Chinese form, with the actual $$ stored away as ensured value, like gold - this is why they call $$ a reserve currency.
so apparently, this journal is entirely devoted to me figuring out things that everyone else knows already.
i'm aware of two facts, to which we are all constantly exposed by various media:
A. the US buys lots of stuff from China, more than China buys from the US, so there's a trade imbalance. this means the Chinese are stuck with extra $$ that they can't spend, so they loan it back to the US to continue the cycle.
B. the Chinese 元 is tied, in part, to the US $$.
i knew these things already, but didn't realize they were directly related. but they are - and so far i think it's a one-way relationship, in that A) makes B) necessary. i understood it in terms of the following cycle:
1. China companies manufacture goods
2. US companies purchase China goods with $$
3. China companies purchase US goods with the $$ they accumulated
4. China companies have $$ leftover
5. China companies need to pay for domestic costs and profit, but can't spend $$ in China
6. China companies give their $$ to China govt, which gives them China 元 in exchange
7. China govt loans $$ to US treasury
8. US treasury loans $$ to US banks
9. US banks loan $$ to US companies
10. (back to 2.)
this seems to work. I don't know anything about how sustainable it is, though I think I see how you could get to know, or have a strong opinion about, something like that by looking at this process in detail.
anyways, why does A lead to B? because of 6). in order for 6) to be a fair deal, so that the China companies can know they're getting exactly their dollar's worth in the trade, the $$ and the 元 should be closely linked. in essence, those $$-linked 元 are like $$ printed in Chinese form, with the actual $$ stored away as ensured value, like gold - this is why they call $$ a reserve currency.
so apparently, this journal is entirely devoted to me figuring out things that everyone else knows already.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
what is in my packet net?
a boring post, to start: i'm just going to go through the list of what packets i caught during a 780 second capture. skype was on, as was xdict and its incessant search for the kingsoft mothership, which is currently routed to ARKIV itself.
first on the list:
p3nlhg43c081.shr.prod.phx3.secureserver.net
robtex suggests that this is some sort of porn locus, responsible for porn spam and who knows what else. sent one packet from their http port 80 to my port 19246, which is for i don't know.
next:
multiple, periodic IGMP signals, labeled "membership report". i see this all the time, sent to 239.255.255.250. apparently, this is just to establish my presence on the network, so that the routers and other whoever know i'm here.
next:
there were 8 apparent skype contacts through port 34268. what i understand is that this is how different skype hosts find eachother. what i don't understand is why for me it's always 34268, while its always different ports for the others. could it be that for them it's always their number? maybe i'm a member of a particular skype class - the port 34268 class. really, i have no idea. these are always UDP packets, call and response, usually just once, always intiated by ARKIV. and, as i mentioned before, i see them even when skype is off, but ARKIV doesn't respond then.
next:
BROWSER: host announcement. i assume this is something like the "membership report" above, but i don't know what makes it different - ARKIV runs a browser service, and there are browser elections, to select a browser which will keep track of all the potential browsers.. argh.
next:
here is a succinct description: packet from 190.2.29.193, originating from Argentina, from port 1217 to 1434 - 1434 was the way in for something called the SQL slammer worm. SQL is a microsoft database server program - what i received was a single SSRP packet, which is a protocol specially designed for use with the SQL thingie. anyways, one hit, nothing else (presumably i am not running an SQL database server).
so really, that's it. i found a paper on principles of routing in between networks, but haven't read it yet. my learning progress is stalling.
first on the list:
p3nlhg43c081.shr.prod.phx3.secureserver.net
robtex suggests that this is some sort of porn locus, responsible for porn spam and who knows what else. sent one packet from their http port 80 to my port 19246, which is for i don't know.
next:
multiple, periodic IGMP signals, labeled "membership report". i see this all the time, sent to 239.255.255.250. apparently, this is just to establish my presence on the network, so that the routers and other whoever know i'm here.
next:
there were 8 apparent skype contacts through port 34268. what i understand is that this is how different skype hosts find eachother. what i don't understand is why for me it's always 34268, while its always different ports for the others. could it be that for them it's always their number? maybe i'm a member of a particular skype class - the port 34268 class. really, i have no idea. these are always UDP packets, call and response, usually just once, always intiated by ARKIV. and, as i mentioned before, i see them even when skype is off, but ARKIV doesn't respond then.
next:
BROWSER: host announcement. i assume this is something like the "membership report" above, but i don't know what makes it different - ARKIV runs a browser service, and there are browser elections, to select a browser which will keep track of all the potential browsers.. argh.
next:
here is a succinct description: packet from 190.2.29.193, originating from Argentina, from port 1217 to 1434 - 1434 was the way in for something called the SQL slammer worm. SQL is a microsoft database server program - what i received was a single SSRP packet, which is a protocol specially designed for use with the SQL thingie. anyways, one hit, nothing else (presumably i am not running an SQL database server).
so really, that's it. i found a paper on principles of routing in between networks, but haven't read it yet. my learning progress is stalling.
China 222 part 3
not much going on - watched a couple of scans, but haven't studied much. saw the same 222.45.112.59 scan, on ports 8085, 9415, 3246, 9090, and 8090. it probably spins around every few hours, from what others have said on ipillion.com. got a single hit from 222.169.118.106, another chinese location, on a single port. this one actually had a domain name: 106.118.169.222.broad.bc.jl.dynamic.163data.com.cn.
read a bit about routing a few days ago, and got a bit of a sense for it, but not really - but then, Jason gave me a great piece of information that I hadn't gleaned yet from my browsing: routers and other computers broadcast their addresses and routing information across the networks. this is how routing tables get their information. i'm still not totally clear on it, but i'll figure it out.
Jason also suggested i get around to learning how to use linux, and install at least a virtual version of it to use, since that's what real internet people do. i may do that, if only for the fun of it.
but anyways, nothing much learned lately. slow week.
read a bit about routing a few days ago, and got a bit of a sense for it, but not really - but then, Jason gave me a great piece of information that I hadn't gleaned yet from my browsing: routers and other computers broadcast their addresses and routing information across the networks. this is how routing tables get their information. i'm still not totally clear on it, but i'll figure it out.
Jason also suggested i get around to learning how to use linux, and install at least a virtual version of it to use, since that's what real internet people do. i may do that, if only for the fun of it.
but anyways, nothing much learned lately. slow week.
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