Dave Naffziger's Blog

I’ve been at my inlaw’s house in the Czech Republic for several days now. We’re in a small town outside Brno. Their internet connection is delivered via 802.11 to an antenna on their roof from a building in the center of town. The antenna is connected to a wireless access point that runs an ethernet connection down to their computer.

I instantly ran into problems trying to use their computer, and decided to get my laptop online rather than troubleshoot through the Czech menu systems on their computer. I had to replicate their IP settings (using fixed rather than DHCP), and then spoof the MAC address of their ethernet adapter (I even contributed to the wikipedia article on MAC address spoofing).

My laptop is now online, however I still have the same problems. I’m able to read most sites (many still time out), but completely unable to login to any site that uses SSL protected logins. I’m able to pop my gmail but not login (or send via smtp). I also can’t submit most forms. My current theory is that the ISP is blocking a number of outbound ports, but I have yet to nail that down.

So, in the meantime I’ll continue to write things offline and wait until I can get to an Internet cafe to post, send, contribute, etc.