networks

croc – simple and secure cross-platform file transfer

croc is a very simple but super useful utility, which helps with occasional file transfers between two computers. When you need to send a few files to a friend on another computer or in another country – this might just be the easiest way. No need to setup HTTP or FTP servers, Samba or NFS shares, or register at one of the million web services that provide such functionality.

croc is written in Go and is compiled for a variety of operating systems, include Linux, Windows, and macOS. It even has a simple GUI for those who wants it.

SSH vs OpenVPN for Tunneling

I have never particularly liked Virtual Private Networking (VPN). From the old days, when there were a gadzillion of proprietary implementations, each being super slow, resource hungry, and requiring a mess of versions specific requirements, like Java and Firefox. Secure Shell (SSH) has always been my choice for remote connections and tunneling.

Today I came across this article, which also shows that SSH tunnels are much faster than OpenVPN (if one has to use VPN, OpenVPN is probably the best choice around). Needless to say they are also much easier to setup, both manually and automatically.

This adds yet another argument to my SSH vs VPN toolbox.

Internet Protocol version 10 (IPv10)

Heard enough about IPv4 and IPv6 yet? Good. Here’s something new for you – IPv10.

IP version 10 (IPv10) is a new version of the Internet Protocol,
designed to allow IP version 6 [RFC-2460] to communicate to
IP version 4 (IPv4) [RFC-791] and vice versa.

Netsim – a network simulator game for teaching

Netsim is a simulator game intended to teach you the basics of how computer networks function, with an emphasis on security. You will learn how to perform attacks that real hackers use, and see how they work in our simulator!

Netsim is completely free to play.

Deprecated Linux networking commands and their replacements

Doug Vitale Tech Blog runs a post with a collection of the deprecated Linux networking commands and their replacements. Pretty handy if you want update some of your old bash scripts.

Deprecated command Replacement command(s)

arp ip n (ip neighbor)

ifconfig ip a (ip addr), ip link, ip -s (ip -stats)

iptunnel ip tunnel

iwconfig iw

nameif ip link, ifrename

netstat ss, ip route (for netstat-r), ip -s link (for netstat -i), ip maddr (for netstat-g)

route ip r (ip route)

Deprecated command	Replacement command(s)
arp	ip n (ip neighbor)
ifconfig	ip a (ip addr), ip link, ip -s (ip -stats)
iptunnel	ip tunnel
iwconfig	iw
nameif	ip link, ifrename
netstat	ss, ip route (for netstat-r), ip -s link (for netstat -i), ip maddr (for netstat-g)
route	ip r (ip route)