2600 Magazine_ The Hacker Quarterly - Digital Edition - Summer 2011 - 2600 Magazine [62]
PdaNet blocks connections that look like this because you would be connecting to port 443:
[laptop] -> [paypal.com]:443
But they don't block these connections, because you're only connecting to port 22:
[laptop] => [myserver]:22 -> [google.com]:80
[laptop] => [myserver]:22 -> [paypal.com]:443
In Conclusion
To make things easier, you can set up passwordless SSHing with public key authentication (Google it). You can take the “ssh” command you run to open the tunnel and put it in a bash script so you don't have to type that whole thing each time (and you can modify it with -f -N so it just opens the tunnel in the background instead of opening a command prompt). You can even use something like autossh or a cron job to make sure your tunnel is always open, and then configure your applications to always use it.
Using an SSH tunnel encrypts your traffic locally, gives you another IP address to connect to servers with, and pushes all of your traffic through port 22 (or whatever port your SSH server is listening on). There are tons of other uses. Try it out.
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Senatorial Courtesy Plates - An Inside Look
by Dufu | 837 words
I thought this might be interesting to some of the folks out there and also possibly stir up some additional conversation.
In New Jersey, there are license plates you can get for your car, truck, RV, or motorcycle that are called "Senatorial Courtesy Plates." Typically, they have three letters, then a space, and then a single number. If you go to the DMV with a custom plate request and have a three letter, single number combination, they will essentially turn you down on the spot because without Senatorial approval, you cannot own one of these plates in New Jersey.
Here is how the plate is useful to the local authorities or anyone else who might be interested:
The first letter is a “county” designation. For instance, "S" is for Somerset County. However, there are two other “S” counties. Salem is in the southern portion of the state and Sussex is in the north. Four counties start with "M" as well. Morris County uses the letter "L" and Middlesex uses "K," from what I understand. The numbers section is interesting as well with "6" and "7" typically reserved for people who are cops, although I know of at least a single person who was not a cop who had one. He did have some other high level government access, so I think they pulled some strings for him to drive around in his hot rod with "police plates," if you will. "1" is typically for Freeholders (county government officials) and very important mayors. I'd like to know how they determine VIP mayors from non-VIP mayors, but that's another story. "3," "4," and "5" are usually reserved for police chief use only.
I wish I had the full list of what all the letters and numbers mean, but this is all I could get out of my contact. Maybe someone else out there can write in with the information? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?
Most of this information is supposedly not known at the local police force level except in large towns or cities, but it is well known at the state police level. Now you may wonder just how this would be useful to the Storm Troopers... er... I mean the New Jersey State Troopers. If you have one of these custom plates, they know where you are from by the first letter on your plate and who they might be stopping by the number. If a cop were to be following you and noticed your cool plate (as well as the fact that you were speeding or otherwise taking advantage of your crime permission ID tag), he or she knows before they pull you over how important of a person you are in the eyes of the government hierarchy. They can then make a decision prior to turning on their lights and sirens whether it will benefit them or be highly detrimental to their career path. This may shock and surprise a lot of you, but cops don't generally pull over other cops. Can you say legalized organized