Can I write a Windows Task or some kind of configuration script that will choose between two Local Area Connections according to the website I am visiting?
It may not be the best answer to my problem, but if it is possible, at least I know it will work.
The issue in full:
My main ISP currently has an issue routing me to my own websites (all hosted on the same server). It also has a 'sticky IP address' (note, not static) - it will only change your IP address once a fortnight, and they can't (won't) even force a change. Their second line support are working on the issue, but so far, no good, and I cannot access my own websites via their internet connection.
So, currently, I am switching from my main network to my mobile 3G network (tethered) any time I want to work on or view my own websites.
I would like to write a script that will make Windows automatically choose my mobile network for FTP, email and browsing my own websites, but use my main ISP for all other online activity.
Haven't a clue where to start - any help appreciated! Thanks,
Sarah
Well, that was simple, no scripting required. If you're using IPv4 (you can check here https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CDoQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amiusingipv6.com%2F&ei=Bq4_UpakM4vv0gXboIDwCQ&usg=AFQjCNHiUnyKvVcUe8Z966YwoycLI28urw&bvm=bv.52434380,d.d2k)
Turn Windows features on or off.
Turn on RIP Listener.
Disable your internet connection that cannot connect to the website you are trying to access, and 'tracert' to the website: make a note of the IP address of the website, and the first IP address in the hop list ([FIRST IP]).
Type in 'route print' and make a note of the Interface number of your secondary internet connection.
Type in 'route add -p [WEBSITE IP ADDRESS] mask 255.255.0.0 [FIRST IP] IF [INTERFACE NUMBER] metric 1'
Reboot.
All traffic to the website IP address (be it mail, FTP, whatever) will go through the secondary connection, all other traffic goes through the main connection.
IPv6 instructions here:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows7/configuring-multiple-gateways-on-a-network
My setup is just an iPhone connected via USB as secondary connection and a Home Hub connected via ethernet as primary.
Hope this is useful to someone else - but of course, no one should ever think of using this to get around IP blocks on message boards...
Sarah
Related
I want to block a program from accessing the local server "local host" (On windows) temporary so i can test random disconnections cases ... I tried adding a (rule) to the firewall for disabling both inbound and outbound in all networks types but the program just got block from accessing the internet not the local network
Moving on to an answer instead of a comment - nevertheless, more information on your use-case is greatly appreciated;
I think it is impossible to block access to localhost but allow internet access. Two reasons:
Networking works on different layers ("OSI layers") and localhost communication is looped back before firewall might filter (see ). Not so sure on this though.
localhost communication might be "basic" in a way that it is necessary for applications when they want to communicate via network.
UPDATE after OPs comment
I assume you are on Windows 10, and you know the path to the executable of the program you want to block.
Open "Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security".
On the left side, go to "Outbound Rules".
Then, on the right side click on "New Rule...".
A new window will open; Leave "Program" selected and click "Next".
Next to "This program path:" is a Button "Browse..." - select your program here. Click "Next..."
Select "Block the connection", then "Next...".
Select all three; Domain, Private and Public.
After click "Next..." choose an appropriate name, then click "Finish".
From now on, you can disable/enable this rule as you see fit.
Kinda hard to provide detailed answer having only the information you've provided, but I think this scenario can be easily tested with simple containers configuration: having both program under test and "localhost" service running in containers, you can randomly update container's network configuration to simulate connectivity issues.
You can use a reverse proxy like Fiddler and block all requests coming from this application to localhost.
If I understood what you mean then this will do:
To create a rule, select the Inbound Rules or Outbound Rules category at the left side of the window and click the Create Rule link on the right side. The Windows firewall offers four types of rules: Program – Block or allow a program. Port – Block or allow a port, port range, or protocol.
if you are using a third party anti-virus solution with a built-in firewall, go to the firewall option and black list/disable/prevent internet access to your app
Otherwise, disabling your firewall will not stop any access, as it will allow inbound and outbound traffic. you can prevent specific ports but disabling the firewall wall will not only do what mentioned before but it will also leave your device vulnerable for online threatts
Try these 3 simple steps.
run your program
Open cmd ( please check you need admin access for this, if yes then run as admin)
Run the following command to see at which port the localhost is listening.
netstat -ano | findstr :
e.g (if your localhost is listening at port 3900 the command will be as follow;
netstat -ano | findstr :3900
the result will be shown on cmd console, the last column is PID (Process id)
We will just kill that process which will eventually stop the localhost server to listen any request from any source.
taskkill /PID /F
< PID > that you will get from above command.
in this case, only the localhost will stop it's service, but you application will keep communicating to outer network, internet.
Sorry for asking such a mundane question, but I'm suddenly curious. If I open the network connections dialog on my Windows machine, it shows me a cute little picture of my computer connecting to a router and then to a globe (labeled Internet). What is Windows trying to connect to in order for it to decide that the computer has Internet connectivity? I assume there is no IP4 address for 'The Internet', so where is it going? Is it just sending a ping to an address back at the Microsoft home office? If that address were to disappear, would my window's machine suddenly decide that it no longer has a route to the Internet? Would Windows boxes that were 'close' to that address incorrectly report that they could get to the Internet when they couldn't.
I'll stop now before this gets too silly. But seriously, what criteria does a Windows box use to determine that it has Internet connectivity? I'm assuming that Linux and iOS systems have an equivalent feature. Do they use the same criteria?
The general IP address that is used for 'the internet' is 8.8.8.8 - or Google.com.
If you can ping it, and get a web page from it, then there's a pretty good chance you can get to at least some of the internet.
But for specifically Windows - Network Connectivity Status Indicator - it uses a different domain: dns.msftncsi.com
It will (unless disabled by GPO):
resolve the name, and verify it has the 'right' IP (131.107.255.255
fd3e:4f5a:5b81::1 )
Perform a HTTP get to this address and check it gets a result. NCSI
Presumably if different responses are retrieved, then it can tell if it has a wi-fi login or similar.
Your intuitions seem correct. I am not on a Windows machine but you could find out by firing netstat and then connecting.
If I was programming this I'd make Ping, TCP and HTTP requests. Some devices are connected through proxies such as firewalls, captive portals and others. the only way to be sure is to send something and receive a reply.
My Android device for example can detect captive portals. It probably does that by trying to HTTP connect somewhere.
Is there a way to find out the IP address of a device that is directly connected to a specific ethernet interface? I.e. given one host, one wired ethernet connection and one second host connected to this wired connection, which layer or protocol below IP could be used to find this out.
I would also be comfortable with a Windows-only solution using some Windows-API function or callback.
(I know that the real way to do this would probably via DHCP, but this is about discovering a legacy device.)
Mmh ... there are many ways.
I answer another network discovery question, and I write a little getting started.
Some tcpip stacks reply to icmp broadcasts.
So you can try a PING to your network broadcast address.
For example, you have ip 192.168.1.1 and subnet 255.255.255.0
ping 192.168.1.255
stop the ping after 5 seconds
watch the devices replies : arp -a
Note : on step 3. you get the lists of the MAC-to-IP cached entries, so there are also the hosts in your subnet you exchange data to in the last minutes, even if they don't reply to icmp_get.
Note (2) : now I am on linux. I am not sure, but it can be windows doesn't reply to icm_get via broadcast.
Is it the only one device attached to your pc ?
Is it a router or another simple pc ?
To use DHCP, you'd have to run a DHCP server on the primary and a client on the secondary; the primary could then query the server to find out what address it handed out. Probably overkill.
I can't help you with Windows directly. On Unix, the "arp" command will tell you what IP addresses are known to be attached to the local ethernet segment. Windows will have this same information (since it's a core part of the IP/Ethernet interface) but I don't know how you get at it.
Of course, the networking stack will only know about the other host if it has previously seen traffic from it. You may have to first send a broadcast packet on the interface to elicit some sort of response and thus populate the local ARP table.
Windows 7 has the arp command within it.
arp -a should show you the static and dynamic type interfaces connected to your system.
Your Best Approach is to install Wireshark, reboot the device wait for the TCP/UDP stream , broadcasts will announce the IP address for both Ethernet ports
This is especially useful when the device connected does not have DHCP Client enabled, then you can go from there.
You can also get information from directly connected networking devices, such as network switches with LDWin, a portable and free Windows program published on github:
http://www.sysadmit.com/2016/11/windows-como-saber-la-ip-del-switch-al-que-estoy-conectado.html
LDWin supports the following methods of link discovery: CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol) and LLDP (Link Layer Discovery Protocol).
You can obtain the model, management IP, VLAN identifier, Port identifier, firmware version, etc.
I often run into problems where I can't get something to connect to something else. I usually forget to check something obvious. Can you help with:
A tip/technique for diagnosing a connection issue
The name of a tool or application that can help (and the situation in which it's useful)
I know the question is a little non-specific, but hopefully the answers can form a useful starting point for anybody who's stuck trying to get computers/programs talking to each other.
Please can you give one answer per answer so the best ones can be voted up.
Simple checks to run when debugging network problems:
Has each machine got an IP address, Go to command prompt and run ipconfig. Key things to check here are the interfaces and ensuring the appropriate ones have IP addresses.
Check both machines IP addresses are in the same range and subnet if you are running it on an internal or Virtual network.
Try pinging each machine from the other to see if they can communicate with each other. Note that some firewalls will block ping requests.
If Pinging fails then check to see if firewalls are active. If the communication is within a 'safe' internal network then try disabling the firewalls and re-pinging.
If the connections are over a wireless network then check signal strength.
If pinging fails and you are connecting through several networks then try running a tracert to see at which will may show you where on the network the connection is failing.
If you are able to ping but not connect then check firewall settings and network connection settings. Windows 2000+ has the capability of setting port an ip access on a connection properties.
Try drawing a network diagram of the connections to help in visualising the problem.
If you are connecting through routers, firewalls and loadbalancers then check that all devices are not tied to any specific ip addresses and that the IP address redirection (if in place) is correct. Also check any NAT logs to see if connections are being received and properly re-directed.
Wireshark
Latest versions of ProcMon
netstat
Wireshark www.wireshark.org
Wireshark is a network protocol analyzer for Unix and Windows.
Features:
Deep inspection of hundreds of protocols, with more being added all the time
Live capture and offline analysis
Standard three-pane packet browser
Multi-platform: Runs on Windows, Linux, OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and many others
Captured network data can be browsed via a GUI, or via the TTY-mode TShark utility
The most powerful display filters in the industry
Rich VoIP analysis
Read/write many different capture file formats: tcpdump (libpcap), Catapult DCT2000, Cisco Secure IDS iplog, Microsoft Network Monitor, Network General Sniffer® (compressed and uncompressed), Sniffer® Pro, and NetXray®, Network Instruments Observer, Novell LANalyzer, RADCOM WAN/LAN Analyzer, Shomiti/Finisar Surveyor, Tektronix K12xx, Visual Networks Visual UpTime, WildPackets EtherPeek/TokenPeek/AiroPeek, and many others
Capture files compressed with gzip can be decompressed on the fly
Live data can be read from Ethernet, IEEE 802.11, PPP/HDLC, ATM, Bluetooth, USB, Token Ring, Frame Relay, FDDI, and others (depending on your platfrom)
Decryption support for many protocols, including IPsec, ISAKMP, Kerberos, SNMPv3, SSL/TLS, WEP, and WPA/WPA2
Coloring rules can be applied to the packet list for quick, intuitive analysis
Output can be exported to XML, PostScript®, CSV, or plain text.
work the OSI model from the bottom up
Physical (Do you have a network adapter/connection)
Link layer (arp, ethernet port blocked by network team (I've seen this where locked down environments see two MAC addresses coming from one workstation port and shut down the port)
Network layer (ipconfig, tracert, ping,)
Do you have a network address (DHCP, fixed)
Are you on a proper subnet/have routing between subnets
Is something in the middle blocking you
firewalls, routing tables
When in doubt, check to see if the windows firewall is messing with your communications. 8 times out of 10, it's at fault.
Using tracert is a good start to see how far along the chain you are getting.
For virtual machines it's usally a good idea to make sure you have the loopback adapter set correctly in the Host os.
Most frequently used tool is the ping. It can be used both to test your connection and the availability of a target
Second tool is the tracert if you want to see where the packets get lost.
For more advanced debugging I use the following tools: nmap, wireshark, etc.
Windows has a netstat utility which is pretty similar to the Unix netstat and can do a number of different things that might help you solve network issues.
Random example:
netstat -r displays routing information
netstat /? for usage information
Since you said you're using 2 virtual machines I would hazard a guess that both machines are setup in a NAT configuration (rather than a unique network device) -- In the NAT configuration, neither machine would (typically) be able to ping the other.
If you're familiar with the command line, you can try the "netstat" command.
You can also try "arp -a" to list all the IP/MAC addresses known to your PC.
The "tracert [ip address]" command will show you how many gateways/routers your packets jump through on their way to their destination. (This is probably not helpful if both machines are on the same network, though.)
And don't forget to check your Windows firewall settings.
Otherwise, if you want to get down and dirty, you can try the packet sniffer known as Wireshark: http://www.wireshark.org/ (aka. Ethereal)
Pull the network cable out
If you can get some communications to a device (eg a ping), but can't get your program to talk to a service on the computer. Then, try pulling the network cable out and see if the ping stops. This will verify you're communicating with the computer you really think you are.
On windows i user PortQueryUI : http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=24009
DNS activity: Portable DNS Cache and Firewall;
General network activity: Wireshark, Network Monitor;
Windows utilities: ping, netstat, nslookup.
You need to be use the process of elimination, for example if you can ping the ip address but not the hostname then there's DNS issues. If you can ping the system but not connect to a share etc.
DNS out of sync
If you're using a virtual machine and you perform a roll-back on it, then it could become out of sync with the DNS (Domain name server). Try to remove and re-add the machine to the domain, or if you've got access to the DNS machine, then get it to flush its cache.
Consider the following setup:
A windows PC with a LAN interface and a WiFi interface (the standard for any new laptop). Each of the interfaces might be connected or disconnected from a network. I need a way to determine which one of the adapters is the one connected to the internet - specifically, in case they are both connected to different networks, one with connection to the internet and one without.
My current solution involves using IPHelper's "GetBestInterface" function and supplying it with the IP address "0.0.0.0".
Do you have any other solutions you might suggest to this problem?
Following some of the answers, let me elaborate:
I need this because I have a product that has to choose which adapter to bind to. I have no way of controlling the setup of the network or the host where the product will run and so I need a solution that is as robust as possible, with as few assumptions as possible.
I need to do this in code, since this is part of a product.
#Chris Upchurch: This makes me dependent on google.com being up (usually not a problem) and on any personal firewall that might be installed to allow pinging.
#Till: Like Steve Moon said, relying on the adapter's address is kind of risky because you make a lot of assumptions on the internal network setup.
#Steve Moon: Looking at the routing table sounds like a good idea, but instead of applying the routing logic myself, I am trying to use "GetBestInterface" as described above. I believe what it should do is exactly what you outlined in your answer, but I am not really sure. The reason I'm reluctant to implement my own "routing logic" is that there's a better chance that I'll get it wrong than if I use a library/API written and tested by more "hard-core" network people.
Technically, there is no "connected to the Internet". The real question is, which interface is routeable to a desired address. Right now, you're querying for the "default route" - the one that applies if no specific route to destination exists. But, you're ignoring any specific routes.
Fortunately, for 99.9% of home users, that'll do the trick. They're not likely to have much of a routing table, and GetBestInterface will automatically prefer wired over wireless - so you should be good. Throw in an override option for the .1% of cases you screw up, and call it a day.
But, for corporate use, you should be using GetBestInterface for a specific destination - otherwise, you'll have issues if someone is on the same LAN as your destination (which means you should take the "internal" interface, not the "external") or has a specific route to your destination (my internal network could peer with your destination's network, for instance).
Then again, I'm not sure what you plan to do with this adapter "connected to the Internet", so it might not be a big deal.
Apparently, in Vista there are new interfaces that enable querying for internet connectivity and more. Take a look at the NLM Interfaces and specifically at INetworkConnection - you can specifically query if the network connection has internet connectivity using the GetConnectivity method.
See also: Network Awareness on Windows Vista
Unfortunately, this is only available on Vista, so for XP I'd have to keep my original heuristic.
I'd look at the routing table. Whichever NIC has an 0.0.0.0 route AND is enabled AND has the lowest metric, is the nic that's currently sending packets to the internet.
So in my case, the top one is the 'internet nic'.
IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 10.0.0.10 10.0.0.51 20
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 10.0.0.10 10.0.0.50 25
(much other stuff deleted)
Another alternative is to ping or GetBestInterface 4.2.2.2 - this is an old and venerable DNS server, currently held by GTEI; formerly by Sprint if I remember right.
Start > Run > cmd.exe (this works in XP and Vista): ipconfig /all
This displays all info about the interfaces in your computer. The "public" facing interface should have a public IP address. For starters, it should not be 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x :)
running traceroute to some public site will show you. Of course, there may be more than one interface that would get you there.
Look at the routing table? Generally, unless you're routing between the networks in windows (which is possible, but unusual for a client computer these days) the interface that holds the default route is going to have the Internet connection.
Your question didn't detail why or what you're doing this with so I can't provide any specifics. The command line tool "route" may be of some help, but there are probably libraries for whatever programming language you're using to look at the routing table.
You can't rely on the IP address of the interface (e.g., assuming an RFC-1918 address [192.168.0.0/16, 172.16.0.0/12, 10.0.0.0/8] isn't the internet) since most sites have some kind of NATed firewall or proxy setup and the "internet" interface is really on a "private" lan that gets you out to the Internet.
UPDATE: Based on your further information, it sounds like you have a decent solution. I'm not so sure about the choice of 0.0.0.0 since that's a boundary case for IP address -- might be OK on your particular mix of platform/language. Sounds (from the API description) like you could just specify an address, so why not some address known to be on the Internet, e.g. the IP address of your web site, or something more random like 65.66.67.68? Just make sure not to pick one of the rfc-1918 addresses, or the localhost range (127.0.0.0/8), or multicast, any other reserved range, and any address that resolves to a .mil or .gov (while it doesn't sound like getbestinterface sends any traffic, it would suck to find out by having the feds break your door down... :)
Looking at the network point of view, either could be routing to the "internet" at any time. If things like spanning tree protocol are enabled on a switch then you may find that what may have been the routing card to begin with may not be anymore.
Ping google.com though each NIC.