As soon as I heard PayPal would be offering a $5 Security Key for additional security while logging in, I jumped on it. A few days later, it arrived in the mail. It’s a great idea, but I decided that carrying a little secure key that generates special numbers for the 3 times a month I login to PayPal just wasn’t worth it.

For the uninitiated, two-factor authentication is when two separate methods are used to verify an identity. For example, a thumbprint and a codeword, or a eye scan and a smart card. The most useful in my and many other’s opinion is a One Time password token, like the Paypal/Verisign security key. This device, which is meant to be carried with you at all times (think, belongs on your keychain, and you keep it in your pocket like a key) generates a series of numbers which depend on what time it is. This number, when combined with your password, provides a much more secure way of authenticating that it is really you who is logging into PayPal, and not just some guy from across the world who happens to have guessed, or phished your password.

OpenID is a relatively new technology where you store your personal information at a site called an OpenID Provider, and then other sites authenticate to that site. You then tell the OpenID provider that it is ok to let your target website use your information and itself to authenticate you. After that, when you want to login to this target site, you just need to be logged into your OpenID provider. Maybe this video will clear things up for you.

Some popular OpenID Providers are: MyOpenID, Verisign Labs PIP, and many, many more. I personally use Verisign Labs PIP, simply because I trust Verisign, and established security company, more than many of the other ‘mom and pop’ websites who now all of a sudden are OpenID providers. Call me elitist if you want but that is just how I feel.

So, good idea in theory, but I had a pretty big reservation about it. What if someone was able to get your OpenID username and password? All of a sudden, they have access to ALL of your websites that you use OpenID with, and you are worse off than if you just used seperate usernames and passwords for each one. You do use different passwords for your website logins, right?

So, just today, I thought to myself: wouldn’t it be great to be able to use that Verisign Branded PayPal Security Key with my Verisign Labs PIP account? Lo and behold, a google query later, and I find out that they are one of the only OpenID providers to provide two factor authentication, and that my old PayPal Security key works with it! Bingo!

I didn’t really find too much information online about how to hook the two up, so I thought I would put up an explanation to help others realize the security that this provides them.

1. Get a PayPal Security Key

All you need to do is go to the PayPal Security Key Website, sign in, and place an order for it. A few days later you get a little package with your key, and then you can feel special too.

2. Login or Create an Account at Verisign PIP

The Verisign Labs PIP website has all of the information you need for signing up. Go through all of the steps needed to activate your account before proceeding to the next step.

3. Add your Security Key Credentials to your account.

Go to the “My Account” page, and at the bottom there is a section that says “VIP Credential”.

You will then be asked to enter the credential ID (which are the letters/numbers on the back of your key) and also to push the button to generate a one-time key.

Click add, and you are done!

Next time you log into your OpenID at PIP, you will see the following challenge after you enter your username and password:

At this point, you might be asking what happens if you don’t have your Security Key with you? Well, there is an alternative. They will send you a one-time pin either to your cell phone via text, or to the e-mail account that you have on file with them.

This ensures that even if you don’t have your key with you, access to your websites can still be had. Just make sure your e-mail password is different than your OpenID password!

As an added bonus, they offer a firefox plugin called “Seatbelt” that automatically fills in your OpenID location for you on sites that support OpenID. It’s nice to not have to remember your OpenID URL, which is username.pip.verisignlabs.com. It’s not overly difficult to remember but they definately could use a more catchy URL.

So that is about it - with these two things, you should be sailing along with OpenID using two-factor authentication and minimal effort and money spent!

I’m trying to get more people to contact me via Skype rather than cell phone - so feel free to use the ‘Skype Me’ button on the right; or Add me to your contact list.

By the way, Skype, why won’t you get Caller ID working for US based phone numbers? This is the only thing stopping me, and I am sure a lot of people, from adopting Skype full on. Many people block Unknown numbers, or won’t answer if they see 0012345678 calling them!

On that topic… Skype Journal is a really great blog with regards to Skype and VOIP in general. If you are interested in VOIP, I would check it out!

I received an interesting mail from CallWave this morning:

Great news: CallWave is reinventing voicemail – again! — with two fantastic enhancements to the CallWave service:

1. VtxtSM: A new feature that transforms your voicemail into a concise text message that you can read on your cell phone or email.
2. PhonePage: A permanent, searchable web-based archive that lets you treat all your mobile messages just like email. Use your PhonePage to read, hear and save your messages, send texts, call back, organize your contacts and more.

You have been selected to participate in the CallWave VtxtSM and PhonePage Beta Test. There’s no charge to participate. All we ask is that you agree to provide feedback and answer a brief survey after using it for a few days.

If you would like to try the new CallWave VtxtSM and PhonePage features, simply reply to this email with your mobile number, and tell us you want to be included. We’ll notify you when it’s activated.

Thanks for using CallWave!

Sincerely,

The CallWave Team

I’ve been using CallWave’s Visual Voicemail feature for a few months now. It is great - instead of using Cingular/AT&T’s voicemail system, I switched to CallWave’s system. It has a number of features AT&T simply does not have - including e-mails with voicemail attached as a wave file, and SMS notification of voicemail which replaces the “Voicemail” notifier on my phone.

This service that CallWave is going to be testing - Vtxt and Phonepage - sounds like it is going to be speech-to-text detection of voicemail messages. I’m curious as to how accurate the translation will be because in the past PC based speech recognition has been hit or miss, but a lot of time has passed and maybe it is a bit more accurate than it used to be.

I can’t wait to see what they come up with!

Click here to enter into the CallWave Vtxt beta!

Editor’s note: This post was not written by me, it was written by Ken who’s website is sixpixelsapart.com, and is currently down. The original link to this post is here. I grabbed this post from a google cache of his page. Use at your own risk!

Introduction

Today I have a special treat for any of you
with a T-Mobile SDA
like my own. I’ve decided to write a nice little article about how to
unlock your SDA
so that you can use it with any provider (T-Mobile, Cingular,
Verizon, any provider with SIM cards). The added bonus here, however,
is the piece of this article that explains how to overclock your SDA
and install SKYPE for use over your WLAN network. Skype is a VoIP
(Voice over Internet Protocol) program that, when you add some money
to the account ($12 worked for me for about 6 months) allows you to
get your own Skype phone number (dialable from any landline or other
cell phone) and place calls to any landline or cellphone for a
fraction of the cost of regular T-Mobile cell phone minutes. Well, I
think that sums it up, so let’s get on to the how to: Unlocking
Your SDA
for FREE To unlock your SDA,
you’ll require the following things:

• A PC running Windows (Windows XP
  is best, if you can swing it)

• Your T-Mobile SDA

• A USB-to-Mini USB cable (the one
  that connects your SDA
  to your computer)

• Some amount of sanity

• A desire to be free of (or have the ability to be free of)
  your current network

WARNING: What you are about to do will
almost certainly void your warranty. Don’t try it unless you know
what you are doing. I take no responsibility for your bricked cell
phone. Once again: don’t try this unless you know what you’re doing.
If you don’t have Microsoft’s ActiveSync installed and configured
already, do so by installing it from the CD that came with your SDA,
or by downloading it here.
If you’re downloading it, you should just be able to install it from
the file you’ve downloaded. –> Test the connection between your
computer and SDA
by plugging in your USB cable to the phone and PC. They should begin
synchronizing. Allow them to do so, and when they’re finished, leave
the SDA
plugged into the PC <– Now that you have ActiveSync configured,
you’ll need to download some software that will assist you in
unlocking your SDA.
The first tool, SDA_ApplicationUnlock, removes the phone’s lock
against running unsigned applications. An unsigned application is an
application that was not created by a reputable company (in this
case, T-Mobile). SDA_ApplicationUnlock was created by the spectacular
NovoMobile. –> Download
SDA_ApplicationUnlock <– Next, you’ll need to get the
SPV-Services toolset, which is provided free-of-charge by the
wonderful developers over at SPV-Developers.com.
The SPV-Services toolset will allow SPV-Developers.com’s server to
interface with your phone and unlock it for you. Download the toolset
as a ZIP file, and extract it to a new folder with a name of your
choice on your desktop. –> Download
the SPV-Services toolset <– Now that you have the software
necessary to unlock your phone, you’ll need to do two things before
you can start doing so: Begin by running the SDA_ApplicationUnlock
program with your phone still plugged in. Just do what the program
tells you. You should get a message telling you that your phone was
successfully unlocked. Next, you’ll need to install the Cert.cab file
on your phone. The Cert.cab file can be installed by copying it to
your phone using the "explore device" button in ActiveSync.
Next, simply use the File Explorer program on your SDA
to browse to the file and open it. That’s it. Now, open the
SPV-Services toolset folder that you created on your desktop. Inside
is a file called SPVServices.exe. Start it, and use the sidebar on
the left to select "SIM lock" or something similar. Follow
the instructions on the page, and click the button to unlock the
phone. The process should be fairly instantanious. DO NOT AT ANY TIME
UNPLUG YOUR PHONE. You can also change your CID if you feel the need
to. Assuming everything has gone on without a hitch, that’s all you
had to do! Your phone is now unlocked and can be used with any
network!

Installing and Using SKYPE to Make Phone Calls Over
Your Wireless LAN

Now here’s the exciting part — the one
that saves you money! A lovely company called Skype allows you to
make calls to other Skype members over the internet. However, if you
add some money to your Skype account, you get SkypeOut and SkypeIn -
services that, respectively, allow you to make calls to outside
numbers (landline and cell phone numbers) and recieve calls (at your
own personal phone number just like any other). This part of the
tutorial will guide you in installing Skype on your SDA,
and overclocking it so that lag is minimized. If you complete this
tutorial successfully, you’ll be able to make phone calls (almost for
free) to anywhere in the world over your home, work, or school
wireless networks. WARNING: This part of
the the tutorial will involve manually modifying the software and
operating system of the SDA.
It will also involve overclocking (or increasing the speed of) the
SDA
to potentially unsafe levels. As tested, I haven’t had any problems.
You should be okay, but there is always a possibility (as with
anything you do) that your SDA
will be damaged. I assume no responsibility for this or any other
modification you make to your SDA.
Following these instructions as closely as possible will minimize
risks to your person or phone. That said, let’s get started! Begin by
downloading
the Skype cab file, and extracting and renaming its contents. If
you have Windows XP, you can simply double-click on the .CAB file to
open it. If you don’t have XP, you’ll need WinZip or an something or
something of the like. Extract the contents of the .CAB file to a new
folder on your desktop, and rename the files as shown:

• 000Boing.002 becomes
  Boing.wav

• 000Skype.001 becomes
  Skype.exe

• SKYPED~1.003 becomes SkypeDialer.dll

Without overclocking the SDA,
Skype has a 10-second delay when calling a landline. You’ll want to
overclock yours up to 240 MHz. You can do so by downloading a nifty
little program called OmapClock, which you can find here. You can
simply move it to the /Windows folder on your SDA
via the "explore device" button in ActiveSync. When it has
been transferred to your SDA,
execute it by selecting it using the "file manager" program
on the SDA.
If it does not run correctly, chances are that you didn’t
application-unlock your SDA.
Do so by following the first part of this tutorial. Change the
processor speed to 240 MHz (NO MORE, NO LESS) and save your
settings using the left soft-button menu. After you’ve done so, move
the Boing.wav, Skype.exe, and SkypeDialer.dll files to the SDA
using ActiveSync’s "explore device" functionality. You’ll
want to put them in the "/Windows" folder. Congrads, skype
is installed. Unfortunately, you still have to configure it, which is
made harder by the fact that the SDA
doesn’t have a touchscreen. You’ll have to use a neat program called
Pocket Controller Pro to actually tap Skype’s "Sign In"
button (because it was designed for Pocket PCs with touchscreens).
Luckily, you’ll never have to use this program again (unless you need
to reconfigure it). You can download
Pocket Controller Pro here (as a trial with full functionality).
Install Pocket Controller Pro, open Skype on your device, and enter
your Skype account information - using your PC’s mouse to click on
the "Sign In" button. Make sure that you’ve told Skype to
remember your sign-in information (sign-in automatically on startup).
That’s it! You should have working Skype! Optional: If you’re like
me, you have/hate the dreaded T-Zones button on your phone. We can
change the functionality of that button so that it opens Skype
instead! To do so, open a new notepad (.txt) file and paste
"19#/Windows/Skype.exe" (without the quotes) on the first
line of the file. Save the file as "Short_AP1.lnk" and move
that file to the /Windows folder of your SDA
using ActiveSync’s "explore device" functionality. It
should ask if you want to overwrite a file with the same name. Click
"yes" or "yes to all". That should do it! Hope
you’ve enjoyed this little tutorial!!! ALSO: There have been some
follow-ups! Look through the posts at the top of my homepage.
The follow-ups basically answer any questions you submit in your
comments.

I know I’m a day late and a dollar short, but I wanted to throw in my thoughts on Apple, Inc.’s newly introduced iPhone. Besides pending trademark issue with the Cisco/Linksys iPhone, this looks like a great device. Even if they change its name - a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

A few years back, I predicted that in several years we would see massive convergence of three devices - the mp3 player, the cell phone, and the camera. You could also add in video player and web/email browser. Now, I’m not talking about the cameras we see on cell phones today - even the 2 megapixel versions that are out are really not that good at taking shots. The full convergence will be successful when it does each of these tasks well.

I knew it had not taken place yet, because the mp3 player/cell phones that have come out so far are pitiful. I bought a Motorola V360 last year, which has memory card support along with a built in mp3 player. However, the interface to this mp3 player was horrible. Every time you launched the java mp3 player applet, it would take up to a minute to load all of your songs. From there it took 30 more seconds to find the song you wish to play. This is not an experience you want to have.

Motorola then ditched it’s mp3 applet in favor of iTunes for cell phones. I was able to install it to my V360 via a hack - it wasn’t pretty but it worked and greatly improved the mp3 playing ability of the cell phone. However the full experience was still missing something.

Enter the new phone from Apple. It plays music, video, photos… and oh yeah it can make calls too. Apple has completely redone the interface, and it is different than any phone currently on the market. The call interface actually looks pretty Skype-ish, which is a good thing. The way you navigate the phone is different as it is a gigantic touch screen. I think there will be some resistance to this type of navigation (as well as the touch keyboard) but it will grow on people and eventually will become the standard on all cell phones. Why keep the whole keyboard there if you only need it a fraction of the time?

I want this phone. I want it bad. Personally, it will be great to have this phone. However, as a business class device, there are a few features I am concerned about, because if it does not support them then it is DOA in the workplace.

The first is its e-mail client. During the demos, you can see it handles photos flawlessly. What about office attachments? Word and excel spreadsheets? Being an Apple device I would not expect these functions to be built in but I am hopeful that Apple has enough sense that it will open it’s OS for development. This is tied into my second reservation. The OS it is running is based off of OS X:

All the power and sophistication of the world’s most advanced operating system — OS X — is now available on a small, handheld device that gives you access to true desktop-class applications and software, including rich HTML email, full-featured web browsing, and applications such as widgets, Safari, calendar, text messaging, Notes, and Address Book. iPhone is fully multi-tasking, so you can read a web page while downloading your email in the background. This software completely redefines what you can do with a mobile phone. [Source]

OS X is based off of BSD - will this be the case with this phone? If so, it should help developers add any kind of applet they can dream up of and will greatly enhance the usability of the phone. I hope Apple takes this direction.

My third reservation is the technology the phone is using. It is not a 3G phone, so the data rates seen on it will not be as good as the Cingular 8525, which uses the 3G UMTS/HSDPA network that Cingular is rolling out. However, the technologies used in this phone might just be enough to outweigh this drawback. It is also possible Apple decided not to use this new technology for cost reasons as the device is already at the upper end of what people will be willing to pay for a phone (especially on a 2 year contract).

Apple has a real winner with the iPhone. Expect this type of phone to really flourish in the next year or two. Apple has conquered my first two devices - mp3 player and cell phone. Once they get a quality 5 or 6 megapixel camera integrated, along with their famous Apple polished interface - Apple will finally have won the integrated device battle.

SMSSend is a program used to send SMS messages over the network via command line in linux. It is licensed unto the GNU General License.

I recently aimed to integrate this into Zabbix remote monitoring software. I had a hell of a time finding the software because its original page, here, has some sort of apache configuration error and does not load. Thankfully, I found the source files needed on a mirror. For the sake of anyone else looking for this file, you can download it locally here:

http://systembash.com/source/smssend-3.5.tar.gz
http://systembash.com/source/skyutils-2.9.tar.gz

You will need to install that particular version of skyutils first, before compiling smssend.

Also, since the site is down, you can not grab the versions of the .sms that you need for certain providers. However, I used google cache to grab the one for clickatell and re-formatted the file to look right. Since it was not so obvious how to do this, I will paste clickatell.sms for you:

## SkySMS provider file - http://www.clickatell.com
## # Version 0.1
# by Steve Herrell
# Error codes :
# 1 -> General failure

GetURL https://api.clickatell.com/http/sendmsg
Params from=\%Sender%&user=\%Login%&password=\%Password%&api_id=\%ApiID%&to=\%Tel%&text=\%Message%
Search ID:
PrintMsg message sent
Else
ErrorMsg 1 error sending message
GO

You then use this file (you can place in /usr/local/share/smssend/ which is the default location of the rest of the scripts) and then call this file using this syntax:

smssend clickatell.sms <Username> <Password> <API_ID> <API NAME> <Your Cell Phone Number> "Hello World"

If all goes well, you now have a text message that says “hello world”.

Note: Some of you, like me, may think that using your phones email address is a better (free) way to send alerts. You may be right. But my opinion is that adding e-mail into the mix adds an extra layer of uncertainty in actually receiving the message. I have had messages delayed for days that were sent via e-mail. Sending via SMS should be a more direct way to receive your urgent alerts.

Note 2: Don’t forget that you need to have internet connectivity to send SMS messages this way. The only way to have your server send an SMS message while being offline is by having a GSM Modem attached to it. Zabbix can talk directly with this modem to send your page.