Possess Ham, go to Jail!
You read the title right! It appears that the country I was born, raised and live in is slowly starting to go back in time. For a while I thought we were actually progressing. Bahrain appeared to the rest of the world like a friendly and free country, this freedom has attracted a lot of foreign investment from banking to you name it!
Unfortunately, MPs that have been elected by the people of Bahrain, have gone a bit too far in what they want in this country. It first started with the censoring of the Internet (although I’m not sure they were directly involved in the decision…), followed by a proposal to ban alcohol in the national airline (Gulf Air) and now, a ban on pork.
Right, so what is the punishment? I quote “two-month jail terms or fines of BD300, or both, for anyone in Bahrain who imports, sells or simply possesses pork.” (GDN, Feb 19, 2009). Yep, simply possessing pork can get you fined around $800 (oh and the possibility of going to jail!).
As a Muslim, I do not eat pork. But I don’t care whether anyone else eats pork, you see the difference between people like us and the MPs is that we are adapting to our multi cultural society!
I don’t know what other crazy laws they might come up with, while ignoring basic necessities like health, education, unemployment amongst other issues. I just hope we don’t get pushed way back in time…
Bahrain’s Ministry of Information – Option to Unblock Sites But…
Here I am, another blogger protesting the Ministry of Information of Bahrain decision to BLOCK websites. Stuff that they have blocked ranges from pornography (ok some countries around here do that anyways…) to informational sites like AskMen and even NEWSPAPER sites!!… Hell, my web host provider is blocked for some reason (luckily I don’t need to visit their site to make payments or support).
This Internet “filter” that has been deployed is here to protect our little fragile minds, basically we are being treated like kids, the parent being the MoI. Isn’t it the responsibility of parents to watch what their kids do online instead of the government? Seriously this is so unbelievable that I don’t know what else to say. The silly thing is that you are redirect to http://www.anonymous.com.bh, why? It’s not like we don’t know who’s blocking the sites… Screenshot below:
Anyways, there are ways to bypass the block: proxies, public VPN services, TOR etc… But wait, proxies=blocked, free AND paid VPN services=blocked and TOR=blocked. Right now the only way I can think of to bypass this block is to run your own VPN server and connect through it (I have a guide for this, take a look before my blog gets blocked…).
Recently, there has been a slight improvement to this block system: an option to unblock!! Yes finally, enter some details (some private: your name and email) and I guess they review the site again to check if it should be blocked. But, the big but, the biggest but: IT DOESN’T WORK FFS!! I suggest you keep trying and maybe the server crash or they fix it: http://www.unblock.gov.bh
That’s it for my rant. Time to access some blocked sites!
How to Install OpenVPN on a Linux OS?
OpenVPN is a free software that allows you to setup a VPN (Virtual Private Network) with several uses. Some of the more popular uses of a VPN is to bypass your ISP while surfing the internet (ISPs that block sensitive political content), access content available only to certain countries (Hulu for videos and Pandora music services only available to accesses from a US based IP address) and general encryption of data between your computer and the VPN server.
Before starting it is recommended that you have some general knowledge on Linux (although this tutorial can be simply applied by copy pasting, changing certain stuff though), have a server or VPS (Virtual Private Server) and a test computer that will access the VPN server.
Choosing a server location should be a bit straightforward, if you want to access US content you would obviously need a US based server or VPS. Here is a forum with resources and reviews of several dedicated server and VPS providers.
Note: some VPS providers do not enable the required interfaces to create VPN connections, you should contact them for enabling or choose a provider that has it enabled in their OS selection.
I have a VPN server running successfully on a Centos 4 server by going through the steps below.
Anyways lets get started!
1. Access your server as root in order to install the VPN. Either directly or remotely using something like SSH.
2. You will need some stuff installed before installing OpenVPN (this might be already installed on your server), such as SSL enter:
yum update
yum install openssl-devel openssl
3. Download OpenVPN and start the installation process (click here for the download page), these commands help:
wget http://link.to.the.download
tar xzf theopenvpntar.tar.gz
cd directorycreated
./configure
make
make install
4. After completing the initial installation, test if OpenVPN is working using these commands:
service openvpn start
service openvpn stop
5. If you get OK messages when starting and stopping the server then you may continue, otherwise retry the installation.
6. Copy the required directories to /etc/openvpn, the ones we need are “easy-rsa”, to locate and copy:
updatedb
locate easy-rsa
cp -R /the/directory/found/above /etc/openvpn
7. Change to the directory /etc/openvpn:
cd /etc/openvpn
8. Make a directory for the keys that will be issued to the clients and server key:
mkdir /etc/openvpn/keys
9. Edit the OpenVPN keys location to use the directory created above:
nano -w /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/vars
export KEY_DIR=/etc/openvpn/keys
10. Now we create the certificates, note that the 2nd command will delete everything in the directory set above (/etc/openvpn/keys):
. ./vars (dot space dot!)
./clean-all
./build-ca
Note: keep the values such as country, province etc as default, but the “Common Name” must be something unique!
./build-key-server server
./build-key clienta
./build-key clientb
./build-key clientc
(as many clients you want)
./build-dh (this may take some time)
11. Create the OpenVPN server’s configuration file:
cd /etc/openvpn
touch server.conf
nano -w server.conf
I typically use the following settings in server.conf:
port 1194
proto tcp
dev tun
ca keys/ca.crt
cert keys/server.crt
key keys/server.key
dh keys/dh1024.pem
server 10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0
client-config-dir ccd
push “dhcp-option DNS 208.67.222.222″
push “dhcp-option DNS 208.67.220.220″
ifconfig-pool-persist ifconpool.txt
push “redirect-gateway def1″
keepalive 10 120
persist-key
persist-tun
status server-tcp.log
verb 3
12. Create the log file that shows people currently connected to the server:
touch server-tcp.log
13. Create the reserver ip list:
touch ifconpool.txt
14. Allow your server to forward IP traffic:
nano -w /etc/sysctl.conf
net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1 (add this line somewhere inside sysctl.conf)
15. Reboot your server (on Linux its usually shutdown -r now).
16. Download OpenVPN client from the OpenVPN site, and install it.
17. Now for the client configuration, save this as client.ovpn, I typically use:
client
dev tun
proto tcp
remote server.ip.address.here 1194
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
persist-key
persist-tun
ns-cert-type server
push “dhcp-option DNS 208.67.222.222″
push “dhcp-option DNS 208.67.220.220″
ca ca.crt
cert client3.crt
key client3.key
verb 3
18. Testing it all out: get the following certificates from /etc/openvpn/keys to your computer: “ca.crt”, “clienta.crt”, “clienta.csr” and “clienta.key”. Put these inside the OpenVPN config folder ( usuallyC:\Program Files\OpenVPN\config) along with the client.ovpn file you created earlier.
19. Run OpenVPN, right click the little red computer in your system tray and click “Connect”.
20. If all is well you connect! Check if your IP address matches the server’s public address by visiting ShowMyIP. If you’re unable to connect, make sure the port 1194 are open on both the server’s and client’s firewalls.
Hope this helps give a quick start to installing OpenVPN, please reply if you need some help or general comments/fixes!
Bits and pieces taken from the official OpenVPN docs at: http://www.openvpn.net/index.php/documentation/howto.html
DNS servers above are the ones offered by OpenDNS.
One Week Remains…
And my exams start 
. Out of 5 subjects 3 will need some real studying, blah I hate studying.
Oh well nothing much to do this week anyways…
How to Run Windows 7 on VMware Player
With the recent release of Microsoft’s future Windows 7 (codenamed Blackcomb and Vienna) beta, some people might not want to go through the process of formatting a computer or have an extra computer lying around for testing purposes. The easiest solution at the moment is to install Windows 7 inside a virtual machine.
One of the best developers of virtual machines is VMware, in particular if all you want is a quick and simple way to install (any) operating system is to try using VMware Player (which is free!). Unfortunately you cannot create virtual machines directly from inside VMware player (you would need something paid like VMware Workstation to do that).
Here’s a quick guide to start running Windows 7 (or any OS) using only VMware player and some simple online tools.
- Download the operating system: to download Windows 7, visit the official Microsoft page at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/ and look for the “Download the Windows 7 Beta” at the top navigation bar. It’s an iso image of over 2GBs (might take a while depending on your connection). You might need a Windows Live ID account (an activation key is also given).
- Download VMware Player: to get the player visit the VMware Player page. You may be asked to enter some details about yourself before being able to actually download the player.
- Install VMware Player: you might need to restart your computer to complete the installation process.
- Create the virtual machine: remember that VMware Player is unable to create them. There is a pretty nifty site that creates VMs for you called EasyVMX. For starters: use the “Super Simple” VM creator.
- VM settings in “Super Simple” creator that worked for me were: “Virtual Machine Operating System: Windows Vista”, “Memory Size: 1024MB”, “Virtual Machine Disk Size: 10GB” (you need at least 5GB to install Windows 7). Click on “Create Virtual Machine” at the bottom and extract the files somewhere.
- Burn or mount the Windows 7 iso: Either burn the iso to a DVD or mount it using a drive emulator (I like DAEMON Tools). It appears to be much simpler! On the EasyVMX virtual machine creator tick the “Live-CD ISO-Image” box at the bottom and enter the file name of the .iso. It’s easier to keep the iso file inside the extracted directory (otherwise enter the path of the iso). Big thanks to pal for this tip!
- Start the virtual machine: go to those files you extracted. Double click on the file that has the description: “VMware virtual machine configuration”.
- Install Windows 7: this will look like almost any Windows installation, agreements bla bla, etc… Choose to install Windows 7 NOT the upgrade option.
- Let the installation finish: you will be asked to enter the activation key (not required, but you will need to activate it after 30 days if you do not enter it now), location, networking etc…
- Enjoy (or hate) Windows 7!
PS: Microsoft said that something like 2.5 million downloads/keys (or something) will be given out, so get it while you still can!
SEAMEWE North American Link Broken for Middle East…?
It appears that recently (not sure how long) my ISP has been routing North American traffic on AS6453 (Teleglobe/VSNL International/TATA Communications) through Asia instead of using the link to North America.
Here’s what a trace route is looking like at the moment:
6 24 ms 24 ms 34 ms 172.17.2.62
7 42 ms 24 ms 25 ms 172.17.2.45
8 32 ms 30 ms 30 ms if-1-4.core1.RSD-Riyad.as6453.net [66.198.126.69]
9 42 ms 43 ms 43 ms if-5-0.bb1.JSD-Jeddah.as6453.net [195.219.153.249]
10 237 ms 236 ms 238 ms if-14-0.core1.S9R-Singapore.as6453.net [216.6.57.49]
11 236 ms 235 ms 236 ms if-2-0.mcore4.NJY-Newark.as6453.net [216.6.57.18]
12 235 ms 235 ms 236 ms if-6-0.mcore4.NQT-NewYork.as6453.net [216.6.63.42]
13 243 ms 242 ms 243 ms if-1-0.mcore3.MTT-Montreal.as6453.net [216.6.87.22]
14 252 ms 267 ms 317 ms Vlan19.icore1.MTT-Montreal.as6453.net [216.6.114.14]
15 242 ms 242 ms 287 ms te6-2.cl-core04.teleglobe.mtl.iweb.com [206.82.135.30]
16 242 ms 242 ms 242 ms te8-1.v0709.hd-core01.mtl.iweb.com [67.205.127.129]
17 256 ms 243 ms 243 ms iweb.com [209.172.41.185]
SEAMEWE Appears to be Repaired!
It appears that the latest repairs on the SEAMEWE cables have been completed on schedule, I’m not sure for how long but traffic is at the moment going through it without crazy routing through Asia and the US. Seems like the 5th of January estimate was correct 
!
At the moment traffic to Europe seems normal (through Teleglobe/VSNL International/TATA Communications) according to this trace route (www.telia.net):
6 24 ms 24 ms 24 ms 172.17.2.70
7 24 ms 24 ms 32 ms 172.17.2.53
8 45 ms 45 ms 46 ms if-2-3.bb1.JSD-Jeddah.as6453.net [195.219.153.105]
9 152 ms 151 ms 150 ms if-9-1.core2.LHX-London.as6453.net [195.219.13.21]
10 155 ms 156 ms 155 ms if-9-3.mcore3.LDN-London.as6453.net [195.219.195.105]
11 155 ms 381 ms 155 ms ldn-b4-link.telia.net [213.248.74.1]
12 151 ms 156 ms 155 ms ldn-bb2-link.telia.net [80.91.251.14]
13 280 ms 281 ms 280 ms hbg-bb2-link.telia.net [80.91.254.218]
14 297 ms 194 ms 295 ms s-bb2-link.telia.net [213.248.64.37]
15 296 ms 191 ms 294 ms s-b1-link.telia.net [80.91.252.69]
16 191 ms 294 ms 191 ms hy-peer1-pos4-0.se.telia.net [213.248.101.141]
17 191 ms 188 ms 297 ms hy-c5-link.se.telia.net [81.228.94.16]
18 197 ms 199 ms 199 ms hdn-r-d2-link.telia.net [81.228.73.183]
19 190 ms 188 ms 189 ms 212.181.192.107
20 195 ms 193 ms 195 ms 192.43.165.12
21 200 ms 198 ms 197 ms 193.44.158.150
22 1164 ms 188 ms 190 ms kontaktamig.telia.se [193.44.158.105]
However traffic to the US is at the moment going through Europe. Something is weird with the trace routes, it seems like it rarely uses AS6453 (Teleglobe/VSNL International/TATA Communications), or at least in 2/3 of the servers. Here are some examples:
No AS6453 after Europe link (www.amazon.com):
6 25 ms 24 ms 24 ms 172.17.2.66
7 25 ms 25 ms 24 ms 172.17.2.53
8 46 ms 46 ms 46 ms if-2-3.bb1.JSD-Jeddah.as6453.net [195.219.153.105]
9 151 ms 151 ms 151 ms if-9-1.core2.LHX-London.as6453.net [195.219.13.21]
10 156 ms 156 ms 156 ms if-9-3.mcore3.LDN-London.as6453.net [195.219.195.105]
11 161 ms 161 ms 161 ms Vlan463.icore1.LDN-London.as6453.net [195.219.195.38]
12 257 ms 212 ms 213 ms xe-10-2-0-edge3.london1.level3.net [4.68.63.105]
13 211 ms 215 ms 217 ms ae-32-56.ebr2.London1.Level3.net [4.68.116.190]
14 211 ms 212 ms 212 ms ae-43-43.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.69.137.74]
15 217 ms 216 ms 219 ms ae-3-3.ebr4.Washington1.Level3.net [4.69.132.93]
16 226 ms 215 ms 217 ms ae-94-94.csw4.Washington1.Level3.net [4.69.134.190]
17 208 ms 209 ms 209 ms ae-4-99.edge1.Washington1.Level3.net [4.68.17.208]
Using another provider after Europe link (www.burst.net):
6 24 ms 24 ms 24 ms 172.17.2.58
7 25 ms 24 ms 24 ms 172.17.2.45
8 30 ms 30 ms 31 ms if-1-4.core1.RSD-Riyad.as6453.net [66.198.126.69]
9 153 ms 150 ms 150 ms if-8-2.core1.LDN-London.as6453.net [116.0.78.66]
10 184 ms 212 ms 208 ms if-3-1.mcore3.LDN-London.as6453.net [195.219.195.1]
11 181 ms 181 ms 181 ms if-3-0-0.core1.AD1-Amsterdam.as6453.net [195.219.195.34]
12 189 ms 182 ms 182 ms Vlan1118.icore1.AD1-Amsterdam.as6453.net [80.231.80.86]
13 194 ms 179 ms 180 ms 64.208.27.5
14 243 ms 242 ms 243 ms hostnoc.demarc.gblx.net [64.214.106.38]
15 243 ms 242 ms 242 ms gig1-0.rtr0.sctn.hostnoc.net [64.191.116.250]
16 242 ms 242 ms 243 ms burst.net [66.96.192.201]
Using AS6453 all the way (www.xo.com):
6 24 ms 24 ms 24 ms 172.17.2.66
7 24 ms 24 ms 24 ms 172.17.2.49
8 43 ms 44 ms 42 ms if-3-3.bb1.JSD-Jeddah.as6453.net [195.219.153.41]
9 150 ms 148 ms 149 ms if-9-1.core2.LHX-London.as6453.net [195.219.13.21]
10 153 ms 154 ms 153 ms if-9-3.mcore3.LDN-London.as6453.net [195.219.195.105]
11 156 ms 156 ms 156 ms if-5-0-0.mcore3.L78-London.as6453.net [195.219.195.10]
12 231 ms 232 ms 232 ms if-12-0-0-983.core2.NTO-NewYork.as6453.net [216.6.97.37]
13 233 ms 233 ms 235 ms Vlan475.icore1.NTO-NewYork.as6453.net [216.6.97.90]
14 231 ms 231 ms 232 ms ix-12-43.icore1.NTO-NewYork.as6453.net [216.6.97.54]
15 232 ms 232 ms 232 ms te-3-1-0.rar3.nyc-ny.us.xo.net [65.106.1.18]
16 232 ms 233 ms 232 ms ge7-0-0d0.rar1.nyc-ny.us.xo.net [65.106.1.17]
17 259 ms 259 ms 259 ms p6-0-0.RAR2.Chicago-IL.us.xo.net [65.106.0.29]
18 319 ms 277 ms 277 ms p1-0-0.RAR1.Dallas-TX.us.xo.net [65.106.0.34]
19 279 ms 283 ms 279 ms p0-0-0d0.mar1.dallas-tx.us.xo.net [65.106.4.246]
20 279 ms 279 ms 278 ms ge0-0.clr2.dallas-tx.us.xo.net [207.88.82.26]
21 278 ms 279 ms 280 ms ip65-46-144-196.z144-46-65.customer.algx.net [65.46.144.196]
22 279 ms 279 ms 279 ms txplano-fw01a-eth1.pla.dc.xo.com [205.158.160.201]
At least the European links are up, I guess soon providers will have their BGP back to previous routes and traffic to the US will be direct instead of going through Europe.
Finally it seems like “teh Interwebs r bck 2 norml!!!11!”
FLAG fixed SEAMEWE Still Broken
It seems like the Internet is almost coming back to normal around here in the Middle East. Quick recap, 3 major cables FLAG, SEAMEWE3 and SEAMEWE4 were cut last month (December) causing major disruptions.
One of the obvious effects of such cuts is the high latency you might get in applications such as gaming and VoIP due to rerouting of traffic through other cables that aren’t geographically suitable (Middle East > Asia > US > Europe instead of Middle East > Europe).
I’ve been running some traceroutes to servers that my ISP (Batelco) routes through FLAG and one of the SEAMEWE. The FLAG link seems to be up and runing since it goes straight to Europe and US (but it has always been laggy even when it was fully operational), however for some other servers the routing is going through Asia and US.
Here are the results (It starts at the part just before it leaves my ISPs network):
FLAG Europe (www.leaseweb.com):
6 23 ms 50 ms 25 ms 172.17.2.62
7 25 ms 27 ms 24 ms 172.17.2.41
8 247 ms 248 ms 248 ms 80.77.1.217
9 246 ms 245 ms 272 ms ge-1-0-1.0.cjr02.ldn001.flagtel.com [62.216.129.46]
10 248 ms 252 ms 255 ms so-5-1-0.0.cjr02.ldn004.flagtel.com [62.216.129.150]
11 259 ms 259 ms 259 ms ten4-0.lon.leaseweb.net [195.66.225.56]
12 261 ms 259 ms 274 ms amx.nkf.leaseweb.net [85.17.100.210]
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 260 ms 260 ms 271 ms gi4-2.r2.sbp.leaseweb.net [83.149.127.14]
15 259 ms 252 ms 253 ms www.leaseweb.com [83.149.80.111]
FLAG US (us.voxalot.com):
6 36 ms 26 ms 23 ms 172.17.2.70
7 59 ms 33 ms 25 ms 172.17.2.53
8 260 ms 232 ms 231 ms 62.216.146.97
9 234 ms 242 ms 234 ms so-0-3-2.0.pjr01.nyc005.flagtel.com [62.216.128.50]
10 232 ms 233 ms 263 ms ge-2-0-0.0.cjr02.nyc005.flagtel.com [85.95.25.109]
11 235 ms 245 ms 290 ms nyiix.Peer1.net [198.32.160.65]
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 278 ms 239 ms 237 ms 10ge.ten1-1.wdc-sp2-cor-1.peer1.net [216.187.116.253]
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 238 ms 239 ms 279 ms premium.voxalot.com [64.34.173.199]
Teleglobe/VSNL International/TATA Communications Europe (eu.logon.worldofwarcraft.com):
6 24 ms 23 ms 24 ms 172.17.2.66
7 64 ms 30 ms 25 ms 172.17.2.53
8 45 ms 45 ms 44 ms if-3-3.bb1.JSD-Jeddah.as6453.net [195.219.153.41]
9 144 ms 144 ms 143 ms if-14-0.core1.S9R-Singapore.as6453.net [216.6.57.49]
10 334 ms 334 ms 347 ms if-4-0-0-996.mcore5.LAA-LosAngeles.as6453.net [209.58.33.17]
11 344 ms 356 ms 344 ms if-11-0-0-938.mcore3.LAA-LosAngeles.as6453.net [209.58.85.5]
12 343 ms 342 ms 343 ms Vlan42.icore1.LAA-LosAngeles.as6453.net [216.6.84.114]
13 340 ms 330 ms 337 ms las-bb1-pos2-3-3.telia.net [213.248.94.49]
14 421 ms 421 ms 422 ms ash-bb1-link.telia.net [80.91.252.157]
15 484 ms 487 ms 487 ms prs-bb1-link.telia.net [80.91.252.37]
16 475 ms 475 ms 477 ms prs-b4-link.telia.net [80.91.251.45]
17 486 ms 487 ms 484 ms prs-nant-ks51-link.telia.net [80.91.249.66]
Teleglobe/VSNL International/TATA Communications US (layeredtech.com):
6 43 ms 25 ms 24 ms 172.17.2.58
7 23 ms 24 ms 24 ms 172.17.2.45
8 30 ms 31 ms 31 ms if-1-4.core1.RSD-Riyad.as6453.net [66.198.126.69]
9 141 ms 140 ms 140 ms if-13-1-1.core1.S9R-Singapore.as6453.net [116.0.78.34]
10 351 ms 332 ms 330 ms if-4-0-0-996.mcore5.LAA-LosAngeles.as6453.net [209.58.33.17]
11 341 ms 339 ms 340 ms if-11-0-0-938.mcore3.LAA-LosAngeles.as6453.net [209.58.85.5]
12 326 ms 325 ms 326 ms if-0-0-0-810.mcore4.LAA-LosAngeles.as6453.net [216.6.84.98]
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 359 ms 358 ms 358 ms cr2-pos-0-3-2-0.dallas.savvis.net [204.70.194.54]
15 407 ms 372 ms 373 ms hr1-tengig-12-0-0.dallasda1.savvis.net [204.70.203.58]
16 360 ms 358 ms 359 ms 216.39.79.98
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 372 ms 372 ms 372 ms savvis.www.layeredtech.com [72.232.23.197]
From the results above you can see that Teleglobe/VSNL International/TATA Communications are routing traffic through Singapore and Los Angeles, US to access sites in both Europe and the US. It isn’t so bad if the server is located in the US, but more hops are encountered on its way to Europe. According to a newspaper in Qatar the SEAMEWE cables should be up and running sometime on January 5th.
Crossing my fingers in the meantime, you never know when these cables get cut!
Happy New Year Mexico!
Happy New Year Mexico!
Happy New Year United States!
Happy New Year United States!