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I used to be "into" computers before the internets existed, but for the life of me I can't imagine why anymore. These days, if tinternets are down, then so am I. (Not making any headway in Oblivion and can only play Chuzzle for so long before realizing that I will never better my fluke 1.500.000 score.)
I have to admit though that tinternets only acquired their rosy sheen after I was introduced to Lunix. With Windows, you're very much a consumer. You can go on websites, and read your Hotmail, and that is very much it. After all, before you know it, there are updates and your computer will reboot itself. Even if you can avoid that, there's only so many days before memory leaks have tied the thing up to such an extent that a reboot is the only way out. The longest I have had a Windows server running is about 3 months. Compare that with the Lunix server at well over one year -- and it only got rebooted because of a power failure.
With Lunix you get to be an active participant in tinternets. I only started a webserver because it was built-in and seemed an interesting thing to do. Before long, attacks were coming in and I was hooked. One year later, Google started indexing, and whaddayaknow, I'm on several searches' top spot and would feel guilty if people couldn't come and read.
Having such a relatively successful website running from home makes me wonder about other people's home servers. At first I used nmap to scan IP ranges for servers, but this is very yawn. To alleviate this tedium I have written a little program that attempts to find them for me.
I'd let you use it here right now, but because I am a shitty programmer, the input isn't properly sanitized so you could probably mount a full-on attack on my computer through it. Oh well. Try it anyway.
The variety of stuff running out there is amazing.
Routers
There are a lot of routers. Some people may have a legitimate reason for accessing their router from the internets. Most, however, don't. They went with the default settings, which means often you can log into them and check out the speeds they're getting from their ISP!
Webcams
Webcams and IP Cams are quite well represented. Even though the majority run on a different port, there is still a fascinating number of scenes to behold. Some are aimed at tourists, and will have a legitimate URL somewhere, but many seem to be for private consumption. These are the best, of course.
I love the one that seems to be someone's covert spying operation on his/her colleague sitting across the way from them, but for some reason the entrance to a car park (on a sharp bend!) is also fascinating. I haven't found one yet that will actually give me a life.
File Servers
The File Server is making great inroads these days. Most of these have non-default passwords, and I am not a hacker. However, there was one I came across that was kind enough to do a photo slideshow without logging into it.
Abandoned Web Servers
Abandoned web servers are also fascinating. Some of them merely display the fact that the server is up and running, and now needs to be populated with interesting pages. In fact, these could be serving things I don't know about. The best are the ones started many, many moons ago and have come to a screeching halt mid-decade.
My favourite is the guy who has a page of links. Most of them are out of date, but the ones that are still working show his photo albums and his bank & credit card statements. He earns a lot more than me. His wife must have become pregnant recently, for there were ultra-sound scans added. Their wedding day seems to have been a disaster, though, going on the contents of the saved e-mail conversations with the hotel and caterers.
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