Topics /
Networking & Internet
The most popular blog posts about networking & internet on Hacker News. 3,019 posts.
Why PS4 downloads are so slow
PS4 downloads have a reputation of being very slow. I did some digging to find out the root cause, and was surprised.
Cloudflare and the Wayback Machine, joining forces for a more reliable Web
Cloudflare now populating and using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine in its content distribution network application Cloudflare and the Internet Archive are now working together to help make the web more reliable. Websites that enable Cloudflare’s Always Online service will now have their content automatically…
Discovering that a Bluetooth car battery monitor is siphoning location data
Reverse engineering an Android app for a Bluetooth connected car battery monitor with some startling discoveries ...
DNS Esoterica – Why you can't dig Switzerland
As part of my new job, I'm learning a lot more about the mysteries of the Domain Name System than any mortal should know I thought possible. The humble unix dig command allows you to query all sort of DNS information. For example, to see name server records for the BBC website, you can run: dig bbc.co.uk NS Which will…
Gitter is joining Matrix
Matrix, the open protocol for secure decentralised communications
How fast are Linux pipes anyway?
Pipes are ubiquitous in Unix --- but how fast can they go on Linux? In this post we'll iteratively improve a simple pipe-writing benchmark from 3.5GiB/s to 65GiB/s, guided by Linux `perf`.
Dead Internet Theory
I had a wierd experience which made me realize that the internet is probably dead.
China's Man-On-the-Side Attack on GitHub
On March 27 The following message was posted on the official GitHub blog: We are currently experiencing the largest DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack in github.coms history. The attack began around 2AM UTC on Thursday, March 26, and involves a wide combination of attack vectors. These incl[...]
Encoding your WiFi access point password into a QR code
Up until recently, it was a pain to defend againt WPA2 brute-force attacks by using a random 63-character password (the maximum in WPA-Personal ) mode). Thanks to Android 10 and iOS 11 supporting reading WiFi passwords from a QR code, this is finally a practical defense.
Passkeys will come at a cost
Firstyear's blog
The world in which IPv6 was a good design
. It took a look longer to read the book than to play this little web game, but you get pretty much the same thing out of the game, so I hig...
Google Abandons Open Standards for Instant Messaging
In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing "Talk" platform with a new one called "Hangouts" that sharply diminishes...
Why Google Went Offline Today and a Bit about How the Internet Works
Today, Google's services experienced a limited outage for about 27 minutes over some portions of the Internet. The reason this happened dives into the deep, dark corners of networking.
The sound of the dialup, pictured (2012)
If you ever connected to the Internet before the 2000s, you probably remember how it sounded. But what do these sounds mean?
Discord Alternatives, Ranked
Building an online community takes more than tools. But the right tool can make all the difference.
Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)
Who owns the major VPN companies like Express, Nord, and Surfshark? We take you through an interactive map of the murky world of VPNs.
Let's Encrypt makes certs for 30% of web domains
Looking at a dataset of 350 million ssl connections inspires some initial questions:
API Shouldn't Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
Instead of redirecting API calls from HTTP to HTTPS, make the failure visible. Unfortunately, many well-known API providers don't currently do so.
Unlocking free WiFi on British Airways
Personal website talking about some stuff I've made and technology
Tailscale Funnel
Public access to your device—without the security risks. Tailscale Funnel makes exposing services to the internet safe & simple.
Running your own email is increasingly an artisanal choice, not a practical one
You're probably reading this page because you've attempted to access some part of my blog (Wandering Thoughts) or CSpace , the wiki thing it's part of. Unfortunately you're using a browser version that my anti-crawler precautions consider suspicious, most often because it's too old (most often this applies to versions…
Why does SSH send 100 packets per keystroke?
I made my next game twice as fast by forking go's crypto library
Chrome’s address bar will use https:// by default
Starting in version 90, Chrome’s address bar will use https:// by default, improving privacy and even loading speed for users visiting webs...
WARP is here
Today, after a longer than expected wait, we're opening WARP and WARP+ to the general public. If you haven’t heard about it yet, WARP is a mobile app designed for everyone which uses our global network to secure all of your phone’s Internet traffic.
New NSA Leak Shows MITM Attacks Against Major Internet Services
The Brazilian television show “Fantastico” exposed an NSA training presentation that discusses how the agency runs man-in-the-middle attacks on the Internet. The point of the story was that the NSA engages in economic espionage against Petrobras, the Brazilian giant oil company, but I’m more interested in the tactical…