[ale] OT: What the hell is XSS in Comcast land?

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

Alex Carver <agcarver+ale at acarver.net> wrote:

>On 8/12/2013 10:01, Ron Frazier (ALE) wrote:
>> I cycle power to my routers every week for
>> stability.  I used to pull the battery from the comcast box as well
>> as the power.  But, any more, I just pull the power and reconnect 20
>> seconds later.  This seems to keep out the internet gremlins.  If the
>> box is really locked up or if I'm having phone trouble, I'll go to
>> the trouble of pulling the power and battery and completely depriving
>> the box of all power sources.
>
>*boggle*  Power cycling every week?  Just replace the firmware on your 
>routers and be done with it.
>
>AT&T U-verse terminal uptime 73 days, 18:37
>First router (Linksys WRT54G, OpenWRT White Russian) uptime 125 days,
>20:47
>Second router (Linksys WRT54G, OpenWRT Kamikaze) uptime 36 days, 23:34
>
>I was tinkering with the second one a month ago that required power 
>cycling to change the switch configuration, it would otherwise have 
>almost the same uptime as the first.  The U-verse router had a firmware
>
>update come down the pipe and needed a reboot.
>
>
>The first router is the primary device with a public IP on the WAN,
>full 
>iptables running for port forwards and for drop lists (currently
>sitting 
>at 450 CIDRs).  It also takes care of the primary house network (where 
>most of my servers sit.)  The second router is to isolate another set
>of 
>machines (Wii, Xbox) and gives a Mac, a WinXP desktop and a Win7 laptop
>
>their own private wireless network.  Keeps them from snooping around
>the 
>main house network unless I give them a pass via iptables.
>
>Maybe at some point I'll reflash them to the Backfire version of
>OpenWRT 
>(Attitude Adjustment won't run on these older Linksys WRT's) or I might
>
>upgrade to a newer router.
>
>Given the topic in this thread with bridging having been brought up I 
>will hand it to 2-Wire for the U-verse terminal design, there's no need
>
>to switch between NAT mode and bridge mode.  It handles both 
>simultaneously.  You can have all the devices you want hanging off it 
>using its own internal DHCP (that includes the AT&T TV boxes if you
>have 
>them, I don't).  I also have static public IPs which pass right through
>
>the box by simply informing the box that a particular IP range should 
>pass through unaltered and then inform it which devices will possess 
>that range.  I don't have to specify what IP they will have, just that 
>they shall be declared external devices.


Hi Alex,

I see what you're saying.  I don't know why, but commercial consumer routers just seem to get dodgy periodically.  They all had their firmware updated when I bought them, and then again if I know there's a reason to.  Otherwise, there they sits.  I have it on my list to tinker with alternate firmware, but for now have neither the time nor available compatible devices to mess with it.  I hesitate to add yet more devices that I have to learn to configure and patch.  Dealing with the periodic changes to several pc's and several vm's keeps me quite busy.  I do appreciate the suggestions though, and find it interesting that the alternate firmwares are that much more stable.  The comcast box doesn't seem to be quite as flaky as the routers, but it too seems to like a reboot on occasion.

By the way, my whole HOUSE cycles it power 1 - 3 times / month due to electrical storms, at least in the summer.

Not directly related to what you said, but I find it helpful to cycle power to UPS's about once a month to let them do their self test (if so equipped) on the batteries.  You don't want the SLA batteries to get stale and die prematurely.  They need some discharging and recharging on occasion.  The self test may drain 5% from the battery.  I think it's a good idea to periodically drain them substantially as well.  From what I've read, a used lead acid battery, but not abused, is a happy lead acid battery.

Sincerely,

Ron



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Ron Frazier
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