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Messages - rjam [ switch to compact view ]

Pages: [1]
1
UrlSnooper / Re: Sniffing, but can't smell
« on: April 04, 2007, 08:20 PM »
I've carefully read my AVG firewall info and it's references and distinctions between

network
     "adapters"
     "interfaces" &
     "areas"

The use of those 3 names overlaps in some ways, but is separate & distinct in other ways,
depending on the tools and controls being used within the firewall configuration choices.

Bottom line, I've removed all of the extra or duplicate network "areas" for local networks/interfaces. 
I've retained two essential local "interfaces", one for TV card and one for my network card.

This deletion of extra local network interfaces made no difference in urlsnooper function.

One config tab labeled "Networks" has headings inside it as:

"All Remote Networks" &
"All Local Interfaces"

Then individual named adapters, interfaces or areas are listed within each of those headings.


Another config tab labeled "Profile switch" has headings inside it as:

"All Local Interfaces" &
"All Network Areas"

Then individual named adapters, interfaces or areas are listed within each of those headings.


= = = = =

I'd told you that my computer was a stand alone, not otherwised networked inside my home,
other than it's connection to the Internet via Comcast ISP.

Well, this AVG firewall config tab listed a

"Local Network"

under the heading of "All Network Areas"

It had an assigned profile,
plus area activation tally,
last time & date activated, &
IP address of net gateway.

I recorded that data, then deleted that local network.

As I mentioned, that did not change urlsnooper performance.


= = = = =

The other 3 network interfaces/areas that I deleted,
were under the "All Local Interfaces" heading,
and were duplicates, seemingly inactive.


= = = = = = =

Despite URLsnooper not working as prescribed,

I have been able to go back to YouTube,
and have URLsnooper get embedded urls
for the video in which I was interested.

I did that with the test you (Mouser) showed me,
by manually typing into the field at the bottom of urlsnoooper search window,
the url of the webpage offering the video,
then clicking on the "download" button.
also at bottom of urlsnooper search page.

This loaded some dozens of urls,
similar to the way c-span's page did.

I found a half dozen promising urls in that list.
And tested those out in a separate browser, not via urlsnooper.
Some of them played the same video in the same page context as YouTube does.
Some do it a bit differently.
One did it in auto full screen mode.
The quality of that video already seemed better than previouslly accessible thru YouTube.
Then when I turned off all unnecessary programs on my pc,
the quality of the video was even better, even though not perfect.
The audio has always been high.
It might be worth recording now via my Grabbit program,
or by ASF recorder.

My recording of that video by Snaggit previously,
had too low quality video, tho the sound was good.


= = = = =

Meanwhile, I still also have two items listed in my firewall config network tab
under the heading of
"All Remote Networks"

One item is "Internet"
It has the options grayed out for editing or deleting it.

The 2nd item is one which I created/added manually a couple days ago
when URLsnooper failed the network autodetect test.
That one is for my SMC EZ Card 10/100.
It has options active to edit or delete it.
Editing button has further options for IP address, range, mask or whole network.


This is a long read even for the writer.

But doing those details, helped me sort out something that works well enough to meet my basic needs
for the short term.

Thanks again for all your help.

2
UrlSnooper / Re: Sniffing, but can't smell
« on: April 04, 2007, 01:49 AM »
Rechecked my AVG-Grisoft firewall config settings.

urlsnooper is still in the "allowed" application list.

however in my profile switch tabbed section,
I have a couple areas (aka network adapters) that are "unassigned" to a profile.

profile options are to "allow"  "block"  or "stand alone computer"
if I don't assign one of those 3 options to those new areas/networks,
then I guess "unassigned" gets auto entered

my default for known existing areas/networks, is "stand alone computer"

I don't know why these new areas/network adapters are showing up there

I deleted some of the duplicates and unnassigned areas/networks there a couple days ago.

Now they're back.

Over last year or so, I sometimes get a firewall notice popup saying there's a new area.
But that happened so often for so long, that I just auto click it closed.
I don't think I knew why those new areas/networks kept showing up periodically.
I just wanted them to go away.
I can't keep assigning "stand alone computer" to an unlimited number of these.
I don't even remember for sure how to do that anymore, instead of just closing the little grayed out msg box.

3
UrlSnooper / Re: Sniffing, but can't smell
« on: April 04, 2007, 01:27 AM »
Yes, that (the bad news part) was slowly beginning to dawn on me.

I was so happy to get ANY urls, that a lot of them seemed like heaven,
even if they were not coming in a way that would be useful.

Closed out urlsnooper and browser.

This time I "allowed" urlsnooper to connect to the Internet when my firewall prompted me.
It shouldn't be promting me, because I had the firewall config file set to "allow" urlsnooper
in the application list.
I'll go back and see if/how that got changed.

Also, this time I again allowed cookies (it didn't specify from where).

And the 173 urls auto popped in from youtube.

Same process for c-span.org auto pops in 342 urls.

After 173/342 urls, the "sniff network" auto turns itself off.

Opening these two websites in my browser, rather than in the urlsnooper "download" mode,
does not get any urls.

However I inadvertently fibbed when I said no packets come in with that narrow scan feature on.

I now see that a small number of packets came in right at the start, before they stopped coming in,
when I load a browser page for c-span or youtube.
I think the number was a few dozen for one site, and maybe close to a hundred for the other.
It happend so fast, that my aging eyes didn't notice till recently.

btw, I have been meaning to thank you for the help.

Very interesting and rewarding experience, even though final solution is not yet found.

I probably should go to bed now.  2:30 is past my usual bed time.

More later, if I learn or see anything.

rjam

4
UrlSnooper / Re: Sniffing, but can't smell
« on: April 04, 2007, 01:07 AM »
Okay, I tried the same technique for youtube's generic site.

Got a lot of urls instantly.  Over a hundred, tho not as many as from c-span site.

Closed urlsnooper and retried c-span.
This time I said NO to all requests, eg allow cookies.
Don't remember if it asked me to allow urlsnooper to connect to Internet again.
   but if it did, I said no.
urlsnooper did not receive packets.


5
UrlSnooper / Re: Sniffing, but can't smell
« on: April 04, 2007, 12:50 AM »
Holy catfish!  Yes!  urls all over the place!

But I encountered some forced variables.

1)  I was asked if I wanted to let urlsnooper connect to the internet.
     I guessed "Yes", contrary to my usual preference.

2)  I was asked if I would allow a cookie to be placed on my computer, for a 'better browsing experience'
        or words to that effect.
     Again, I guessed "Yes", contrary to my usual practice.

I think I had to do both of these, afer I entered the c-span url and clicked on the "download' button.

Well, you were puzzled before.

I'm the one who's puzzled now.

Why did this sudden change happen now?

Why didn't it happen before?

I guess I've changed so many variables, I may not be able to track down the specific one(s).

However I think it's a good problem to have.

It's like having too much money, can always give some away.l

btw, this is with "only scan this computer" turned on.

Progress!  Two nights in a row, no less!

6
UrlSnooper / Re: Sniffing, but can't smell
« on: April 04, 2007, 12:31 AM »
Ah!  I'd forgotten about the caching issue.  Will check that.

LOL!  Well, it doesn't take a cable modem for me to be aware of how much in life passes me by, without my realizing it.  And that's not even considering wireless routers.  I don't have wireless, so that shouldn't be an issue for urlsnooper tho.  Even if my neighbor townhouse has wireless, my pc doesn't receive wireless, only cable signal.

Nope, the narrow scan for "scan this computer only" does not receive any packets.
Even though a description at bottom of urlsnooper window says
  "Sniffing network traffic from WinPcap (then my network adapter name) (then)(IP 71.206.127.175.4.0.0.0"
   IP lookups says "No match found" for that IP number.
   Somtimes that line shows in the bottom of my urlsnooper window.
   Other times, same area in urlsnooper window only shows packets received & buffered, prior to stopping packets.


I've opened  http://www.di.fm/
Packets yes, urls no.

I've cleared the cache in my firefox browser just now.
packets still coming, no urls found




7
UrlSnooper / Re: Sniffing, but can't smell
« on: April 03, 2007, 11:51 PM »
1)  I can check firefox extensions for what you suggest.
     But I try to keep my extensions down to a minimum,
          because my old pc is already heavily loaded with add-ons and utilities of many types.
     Also, I have Snagit, which can record youtube video/audio.

2)  okay, filter keywords are not my problem then

3)  Now see those command line arguments are for 3rd party applications.
   I misunderstood - thought they were for direct use on urls sniffed by urlsnooper

4)  Yep, my "only scan this computer/non-promiscuous" setting seems to work
     opposite of what's been predicted.
     I will try it again in the promiscuous mode to see if it will now work.

5   Arghh!  Am I on a network?  That word means different things to different
     people, and just like the word "love", can cause great misunderstanding.
     Where is Rebecca Saxe when I need her.  She & Nancy Kanwisher do functional MRI's
         at MIT & Harvard, that show where, how and when in the brain,
         persons process stimuli to create thoughts about what another
         person is perceiving and intending to do, way beyond what the 2nd person merely says or writes.
         Believe it or not, there is a special spot in the brain that does this.  And it can be
         used for good or ilk, as in brain washing by totally ruthless, unaccountable or even
         ignorant people operating at a primitive, tribal level.  It's more closely related to
         the limbic system of fight or flight, friend or foe, and speedier than rational,
         cerebral thought.  Therefore, it has an advantage for survival, even ahead of
         more intelligent types, if the latter don't learn to work effectively together,
         as you and others here seem to be.  (Sorry for the tangent.)
     I have a stand alone, home computer.  It is not networked within my home.
     However technically, since it does connect to the Internet via an ISP (Comcast),
     it IS on a network (at least when I've got my cable modem turned on, and
     have a website open.)  The internet is a network.

     But you have a point.  Even when I don't have any browser windows open
     to any websites, urlsnooper does receive packets, while my broadband cable
     modem is on.  So what is it sniffing then?  Well Comcast and my computer
     have ongoing chatter, to monitor whether my modem power is on, and I think it
     tests nearly continuously whether it can send & receive data.  That's what the
     LED lights are for.  At least the 5th one "Activity" whick blinks all the time,
     when the modem is on, except when the line is dead sometimes for short
     periods in this neighborhood, or when the modem is just powering up for the
     first half minute or so.

Meanwhile, I'll retry c-span, and some sites I've never been to, like www.di.fm

8
UrlSnooper / Re: Sniffing, but can't smell
« on: April 03, 2007, 10:51 PM »
I saved the settings.ini file with a different name in separate partition.
Then deleted settings.ini file from urlsnooper folder in c/programs partition

Then reopened urlsnooper,
turned off the autodetect network adapter
set network adapter to the one that works best for me
   Accton EN1207D Series PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter
toggled on "show all"
toggled off "only this computer" (packets stop if I turn this on)
opened C-span in a browser window
packets tumbling in at usual rate (fast)
but no urls found
I looked at AVG firewall
   It has urlsnooper in the "allow" list
   I deactivated the firewall for 15-20 seconds.
Packets still coming, but no urls found
Reactivated firewall
No change in packet speed.
created a command line for $url on http://www.c-span.com
closed browser
reopened with c-span
still lots of packets, but no urls.
yesterday, on youtube with video playing
   I got some pieces of urls, but none I could figure out
   and none of them were over 15-16 characters long
   ? truncated
I'd put in 1-3 alternative key word filters on youtube search yesterday.
Later I removed them.
There are none in the key word box today.
this is all with Windows Millenium OS


9
UrlSnooper / Re: Sniffing, but can't smell
« on: April 03, 2007, 10:21 PM »
Thanks for the report BBigJ, i've never heard that a firewall could block url snooper from sniffing.  What firewall is it?
Well, I have AVG firewall by Grisoft.  And I'm not getting urls either.

urlsnooper sniffs pretty good.  Tallys up thousands of packets per hour, probably several packest per second.  But it doesn't smell urls.

I'll have to try to go back and follow the clean up instructions, including deleting the settings.ini file in url folder.

opening http://www.cspan.org/ finds zero urls, whether opened on separate browser, or via the url line inside urlsnooper.

I wonder if it makes a difference to have two browser windows open?  Eg one window reading these instructions on donationcoder.com/forums, and the other window with cspan or some target wite.

Or maybe I have too many command options.  I think I typed in all but one of those $_____ options.

10
Glad to see there are at least some folks who know what regedit is, and even a few who use it.  After the early reads here, I was beginning to think I was Rip Van Winkle, for keeping my 3 personal comps still in running condition - one for 20 yrs, one for 11 and the last for 6.

The newer and more expensive programs probably work better and are more efficient.  But in some ways, it's nice to stay lean.

11
UrlSnooper / Re: URLsnooper refuses to start!
« on: April 03, 2007, 03:22 AM »
Your'e welcome.

It would be better to delete only the data item whose name is the urlsnooper path.
To do this you have to know to double up the backslashes.

However, having stumbled upon this at lingobit I tried changing the value instead.

Replacing "EXE with "" had no effect; it gets reinstated.

But replacing "EXE" with "DLL" provokes an error message on startup:
  title: 'Localizer Error'  text: 'Language "German" is not found'  button: 'OK'
On pressing 'OK' the normal url snooper window appears (using English).
The registry entry retains the "DLL" value, so this modification doesn't need repeating.

It probably imagines I want  "German"  because my LCID in ControlPanel/International is 807.
But my win98SE is 409 and I expect English.
Well, I didn't understand the undiscerning Regedit file in dotdot's earlier post.

However I was able to guess at what she/he was indicating in this post, re. replacement of "EXE" with "DLL".

I did not understand the issue of the double backslashes.  But didn't need to, I guess.

The DLL replacement for EXE in the Data field modifyer worked so nice, I can't help smiling, at a solution after about 30 hours of intermittent and mostly unsuccessful work.  I LOVE clicking on the button to tell the machine "English is not found."  A human confusing a computer program into doing a mistake, that results in what the human needs, is a very pleasing role reversal.

So now urlsnooper opens and closes reliably on my windows millenium machine, thanks to
this rube goldberg misdirect of a dysfunction.

Now I have to figure out how to get urlsnooper to find anything useful in it's packet sniffing.

Thousands of packets eventually mount up, but nothing shows, except for a partial url the very first time packets were sniffed.  Now no urls or even partial urls, even from multimedia sites, with streaming audio-video.

12
Your'e welcome.

It would be better to delete only the data item whose name is the urlsnooper path.
To do this you have to know to double up the backslashes.

However, having stumbled upon this at lingobit I tried changing the value instead.

Replacing "EXE with "" had no effect; it gets reinstated.

But replacing "EXE" with "DLL" provokes an error message on startup:
  title: 'Localizer Error'  text: 'Language "German" is not found'  button: 'OK'
On pressing 'OK' the normal url snooper window appears (using English).
The registry entry retains the "DLL" value, so this modification doesn't need repeating.

It probably imagines I want  "German"  because my LCID in ControlPanel/International is 807.
But my win98SE is 409 and I expect English.
Well, I didn't understand the undiscerning Regedit file in your earlier post.

However I was able to guess at what you were indicating in this post, re. replacement of "EXE" with "DLL".

I did not understand the issue of the double backslashes.  But didn't need to, I guess.

The DLL replacement for EXE in the Data field modifyer worked so nice, I can't help smiling, at a solution after about 30 hours of intermittent and mostly unsuccessful work.  I LOVE clicking on the button to tell the machine "English is not found."  A human confusing a computer program into doing a mistake, that results in what the human needs, is a very pleasing role reversal.

So now urlsnooper opens and closes reliably on my windows millenium machine, thanks to
this rube goldberg misdirect of a dysfunction.

Now I have to figure out how to get urlsnooper to find anything useful in it's packet sniffing.

Thousands of packets eventually mount up, but nothing shows, except for a partial url the very first time packets were sniffed.  Now no urls or even partial urls, even from multimedia sites, with streaming audio-video.

13
UrlSnooper / Re: URLsnooper refuses to start!
« on: April 03, 2007, 02:30 AM »
Delayed browser update, led to double posting.
Can't find a delete button.
So simply editing duplcate material out.

14
UrlSnooper / Re: URLsnooper refuses to start!
« on: April 03, 2007, 02:28 AM »
someone just posted on another forum a workaround they found for url snooper crashing on win98:

It involved deleting this registry entry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Borland\Locales\C:\Program Files\URLSnooper2\URLSnooper.exe

If anyone with the win98/me crashes wants to try that and let us know if it works it would be nice..
meanwhile ill try to find out why and a more official fix.


I too, noticed that entry for Borland in my registry, when I was manually cleaning up before trying to reinstall urlsnooper.

I deleted one of the 2 entries.  The 2nd one skipped out of view before I noticed.

I got back to it now & removed.

My urlsnooper in windows Me did reopen a second time in a row, without my having to uninstall, clean up, reboot and reinstall each time.

Thanks for the reminder/tip.

Uh-oh, but on the 3rd time in a row, it was back to not opening again, and giving same error messages.

Well, at least I'm not 100 % locked out of it's use.

I think it would be a really cool product if I could get it to work without the above probs.

Oh, while I was typing this, I got a msg saying there was another post.

This is a very impressive messageboard and info source.

I'm a bit surprised I'm having this much trouble with the urlsnooper program,
considering the unusually well organized and presented material otherewise here.
However I'm aware there is a declining compatibility with older equipment as time goes by.

I'll try to take a look at the newest reference site with possible fix.

Thanks for your support.

15
I too, noticed that entry for Borland in my registry, when I was manually cleaning up before trying to reinstalld urlsnooper.

I deleted one of the 2 entries.  The 2nd one skipped out of view before I noticed.

I got back to it now & removed.

My urlsnooper in windows Me is now opening okay, without my having to uninstall, clean up, reboot and reinstall each time.

Thanks for the reminder/tip.

16
UrlSnooper / Re: URLsnooper refuses to start!
« on: April 03, 2007, 02:05 AM »
I got my urlsnooper to run again, after it refused to open the next 10 times
after first open and close.

But it's test of my 2 network adapers failed.  (PPP & NDIS 5.0)
So I updated my Ethernet 10/100 driver.
   Accton EN1207D/En2242A Series NDIS 5.0 driver
That showed up a bit more specifically in the detected network adapters.
However it too, failed URLsnooper's test.

I tried deactivating my firewall and accessing the Internet for 30 seconds.
Made no difference.

After another day of exploring most conceivable options on and off line
including list of supported network adapters, on WinPcap site,
I eventually struggled to the point of actually receiving (sniffing) packets.

To get urlsnooper to open on my Windows Millenium
I had to uninstall urlsnooper and winpcap,
then clean up manually in my registry any references to installed urlsnooper and winpcap
   (left references to folders that simply stored the original download/setup file)
I also ran my Vcom Registry fixer.
Reboot, then reinstall urlsnooper and winpcap.
This time I let it default install in my c/program files partition,
   instead of my preferred d/apps/program files partition.
Rebooted again.
Opened urlsnooper.
   It's auto detect of my network adapters does acknowledge the one with new driver.
   but still gives failed message after test.

However, when I entered an url near bottom, and clicked on "open browser" button,
the packet number began increasing.
So I''m able to get data.
But it was a huge pile of work to get urlsnooper running.
And I havent' gotten any useful urls from a multimedia site yet.

Packets stop coming when I turn on the option to "only scan this computer."
Packets start coming when I turn that option off.
This is opposite of the advice I read either on urlsnooper site or winpcap site.

I was going to see if I could reopen urlsnooper this time, after closing it.
Can't even close it now.
  error message on attempted closing of urlsnooper =
"Access violation of address 004063D6 in module 'URLSNOOPER.EXE'.  Read of address FFFFFFFF."

urlsnooper window will minimize, maximize and minimize to system tray.  But it won't close.

One step forward and unknown number of steps backward.

17
UrlSnooper / Re: URLsnooper refuses to start!
« on: April 02, 2007, 02:07 PM »
Anyone else with WinMe could try this latest version - it's strange that it's working on my test win98 machine.

I have very similar experience as kisakarina.

WinMe OS
Broadband cable modem.
Running AVG firewall by Grisoft.
Network connection for my stand alone computer is:
   SMC EZ Card 10/100 (SMC1211TX)

I installed URLsnooper latest version v2.17.01 (aka v2.18) yesterday.
It opened.
It could not find a network adapter.
Gave me some option to find one manually.
   but I'm not familiar enough with URLsnooper to do that.
I closed URLsnooper and looked at my network settings and firewall settings.
When I tried to reopen URLsnooper,
   I got the same 3 exact error msg's that kisakarina got.

eg
"Urlsnooper has caused an error in URLSNOOPER.EXE
Urlsnooper will now close."

I click on the "close" button.

same msg returns.

I click on the "close" button.

then same message returns except the error is now caused in kernel32.exe

I click on the "close" button.

This time msg does not return.

Since then, I've tried changing my firewall profile to allow URLsnooper,
then also to assign stand alone desktop profile to all network adapters.
I've tried uninstalls and reinstalls of both URLsnooper and winpcap,
then both the beta version and non beta of URL snooper. 
No luck.  Can't open the program.

I also made a donation and got a license key,
but can't even open the program to install the license key.

My uninformed guess, is that it would help to have a backup step
   coded in at the point where a network adapter is not found.
   If the user cannot find a network adapter either by autodetect, or by manual search,
      the user should be able to close the window, look up solutions, and reopen URLsnooper later.

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