[ 15 January 1998 The Linux Dynamic IP Hacks mini-HOWTO is not being maintained by the author any more. If you are interested in maintaining the Dynamic IP Hacks mini-HOWTO, please get in touch with me at . ] Dynamic-IP-Hacks Mini-HowTo Version 2.1.3 Maintained by: Michael Driscoll Featuring hacks from: Michael Driscoll Ryan R. Klems Matthew Driver Matthew Nuckolls Justin Cragin Brad Baker Justin (Gus) Hurwitz Jeremy D. Impson Steve Przepiora Artur Skawina Dale Jolliff Created Mon Apr 22 16:24:33 PST 1996 Last Updated Sun May 25 16:37:41 PDT 1997 If you just want to see the hacks skip down to section 2.0. 0.0 Table of Contents 1.0 Legalities, Definitions, &c. 1.1 Where to get the latest version of this HowTo 1.2 Feedback 1.3 Why this HowTo? 1.4 What is dynamic IP addressing and why do I have to put up with it? 1.5 Can you help me set up {pppd,telnetd,sendmail,&c.}? 1.6 Hey, what about SLIP? 1.7 Copyright 1.8 A Warning 2.0 Intro to Hacks #1-#3 3.0 Hack #1: Keeping your system up and accessable 24/7 method #1 by Steve Przepiora 3.1 What you'll need 3.2 ip-up and ip-down scripts 4.0 Hack #2: Keeping your system up and accessable 24/7 method #2 by Michael Driscoll 4.1 What you'll need 4.2 Setting up keepalive.sh 4.2.1 Using diald instead of a crontab entry 5.0 Hack #3: Keeping your system up and accessable 24/7 method #3 by Michael Driscoll 5.1 What you'll need 5.2 Fun with runlevels 6.0 Hack #4: IP publishing via mail by Michael Driscoll 6.1 Setting up your ip-up and ip-down 6.2 How to find out your new IP address from another computer 6.2.1 Telnetting to a POP3 server 7.0 Hack #5: Dynamically changing /etc/hosts by Michael Driscoll 7.1 What you'll need 7.2 Creating your template host files 7.3 More fun with ip-up and ip-down! 8.0 Hacks #6-8: Various hacks by Ryan R. Klems 8.1 mail.c 8.2 pppdm.c 8.3 portmsg.c 9.0 Dynamic DNS entries 10.0 Hack #9: Updating your .plan by Matthew Nuckolls 11.0 Hack #10: A simple procmail recipe for finding your new IP by Justin Cragin 12.0 Hack #11: Dynamic Home Page via ftp by Michael Driscoll 12.1 Why would I want to do this? 12.2 Setting up your page 12.2.1 A note on redirects by Artur Skawina 12.3 Using ncftp to automate page updates 12.3.1 ncftp versions 1.x.x 12.3.2 ncftp versions 2.x.x 12.4 A simple search and replace sed rule 13.0 Hack #12: Paging yourself with your new IP address by Michael Driscoll 13.1 The paging program 13.2 Calling it from ip-up 14.0 Hack #13: xterm logins through a firewall by Brad Baker 15.0 Hack #14: Dynamic Home Page via cgi by Michael Driscoll 15.1 Overview of what we'll try to do 15.2 The script (dynip.pl) 15.3 Accessing the CGI when our link goes up 16.0 Hack #15: Suggestion for rc.* by Jeremy D. Impson 17.0 Hack #16: Defeating local and ISP-imposed timeouts with ping by Artur Skawina 18.0 Hack #17: Using SSI's for dynamic IP publishing by Dale Jolliff Appendix A: We need more hacks! Appendix B: CREDITS ________ 1.0 Legalities, Definitions, &c. by Michael Driscoll Section 1.1: Where to get the latest version of this HowTo The absolute latest version can always be found at . The canonical place to get the HowTo is , though you should use a mirror of the LDP site if you know of any. Section 1.2: Feedback Feedback concerning this mini-HowTo should be addressed to Michael Driscoll . Section 1.3: Why this HowTo? The problem is, Linux just isn't as happy as it could be with dynamic IP addressing. It's the Unix equivalent of waking every morning to find that your postal address has changed and that all of your stationary is out of date. Unfortunately, ISP's are moving more and more towards this kind of addressing these days, and anyone who can't shell out more bucks for a stable IP address is just kinda stuck with this. The purpose of this HowTo, therefore, is to make your Linux box happier and more comfortable with dynamic IP addressing, which in turn should make you a bit happier and more comfortable. Section 1.4: What is dynamic IP addressing and why do I have to put up with it? An IP address is a set of four numbers, each from 0 to 255, and each separated by a dot. An example would be 198.41.0.8. Each computer on the Internet has a unique IP address. The human-readable addresses that you probably use, like sunsite.unc.edu and bak2.lightspeed.net, are just semi-arbitrary names that are translated into their IP addresses by a DNS server whenever you try to access them. Dynamic IP addressing is something used by an ISP to cut down on the number of IP addresses that they need to "own". The way it works is, when you dial up your ISP, they simply give you the next IP number in their queue. This way, they don't need an IP address for every single customer they have, they just need one for every customer that might be online at any given time. Usually an ISP only has about a tenth as many IP addresses as it has customers, although this of course varies. Why do they do this? Well, the simple way of explaining it is to say that there just aren't enough IP addresses in the current scheme. The more complex answer is that we have plenty of addresses, it's just that as more and more of them are used, the routing tables used by the backbone routers start to look as fragmented as a ten year old MS-DOS filesystem :-) By using so many addresses, we lose efficiency in routing lookups. The current routing system is expected to blow up sometime between the years 2000 and 2010. Hopefully we'll all be switched over to IPv6 by then anyways, in which case we'll all get our own stable IP's anyways making this whole HowTo moot :-) Section 1.5: Can you help me set up {pppd,telnetd,sendmail,&c.}? No. Figure it out yourself. Builds character :-) Actually, it would be pretty pointless for me to reinvent the wheel by helping you set these up, as many documents already exist to help you out. Start by trying these: the pppd man page the chat man page the in.telnetd man page the inetd man page the PPP-HOWTO the NET-2-HOWTO (Available at HowTo sites such as ) the NAG (Network Administrator's Guide by Olaf Kirch, available at fine LDP sites everywhere, such as ) Section 1.6: Hey, what about SLIP? To tell you the truth, I didn't write about it here because I don't know a thing about working with it. Luckily, this shouldn't be too much of a problem as PPP seems to be the emerging standard, especially for dynamic IP addressing. Sorry if you're that .3% out there that has dynamic IP addressing with SLIP, but maybe you can glean a bit out of this HowTo and make your own setup (if you do then be sure to see Appendix A to get your hack included in this HowTo!) Section 1.7: Copyright Unless otherwise stated, Linux HowTo documents are copyrighted by their respective authors. Linux HowTo documents may be reproduced and distributed in whole or in part, in any medium physical or electronic, as long as this copyright notice is retained on all copies. Commercial redistribution is allowed and encouraged; however, the author would like to be notified of any such distributions. All translations, derivative works, or aggregate works incorporating any Linux HowTo documents must be covered under this copyright notice. That is, you may not produce a derivative work from a HowTo and impose additional restrictions on its distribution. Exceptions to these rules may be granted under certain conditions; please contact the Linux HowTo coordinator at the address given below. In short, we wish to promote dissemination of this information through as many channels as possible. However, we do wish to retain copyright on the HowTo documents, and would like to be notified of any plans to redistribute the HowTos. If you have questions, please contact Greg Hankins, the Linux HowTo coordinator, at gregh@sunsite.unc.edu via email. Section 1.8: A Warning This should go without saying, but I should say it anyways to cover things. I'm not sure all of this is the canonical way to do things, and if something I've done is just too weird let me know how to fix it. There might be security risks in all of this, but I don't know of them yet. This works on my machine, and I don't think it'll break yours too badly :-) Either way, you should take care when doing this stuff and make sure you understand at least a bit about what this stuff is doing so you can fix it if it goes haywire. As the name implies, this document is about system *hacks*. Hacks, by definition, are a pretty weird way of setting up a system, though sometimes they may be the only way. Many times I could have made these hacks more elegant and crafty, at the cost of simplicity. I have not done this, however, because it is my intention that the person who sets these up on their own machine understand the hacks so that they can rebuild and recreate them to fit their own specific needs. Also, when reading this Howto keep in mind this quote from the DNS-HOWTO by Nicolai Langfeldt : In this document I state flatly a couple of things that are not completely true (they are at least half truths though). All in the interest of simplification. Things will probably work if you believe what I say. ***************************** *The good stuff starts here!* ***************************** ________ 2.0 Intro to Hacks #1-#3 by Michael Driscoll The first three hacks in this howto involve maintaining a constant PPP connection by restarting pppd when the link goes down. I thought up the second of these hacks back when I first ran Linux, but have since moved onto the third of the hacks, which is a lot more efficient (and, unfortunately, more difficult to set up). The first hack was not done by me, but by Steve Przepiora , and is actually better and more efficient than the second hack (which I thought up), and is still just as easy to set up. These three hacks work well with Hack #4, which will automatically put your IP number in an accessible place (your mail spool on your ISP's POP3 server) whenever your connection goes up. With these two hacks working together (automatic reconnect + IP publishing via mail) you can easily find the dynamic IP of your machine from anywhere on the network and be able to telnet, ftp, etc. to it. Methods #1 and #2 are the two that are easy to implement, since they are set up in 'recipe' form and all you have to do is follow directions and fill in the blanks. Method #3 is not in 'recipe' form, since it deals with runlevels and init which vary greatly from distribution to distribution and which can easily leave your computer in a screwed up state if they themselves are screwed up. So which method to use? I suggest #1, it is easy and rather efficient, or if you are a little more knowledgable, look at #3 to see if you can figure out how to implement it, since it is the most efficient. #2 is only there because it was the first one that I wrote, and is the only one "tested" so far in this HowTo (the other two are recent additions which should soon replace #2 altogether). If you don't like either three of the methods, write your own and send me a line, I'll probably include it if it is something usable by others. Anyways, we now continue with your regularly scheduled hacks: ________ 3.0 Hack #1: Keeping your system up and accessible 24/7 method #1 by Steve Przepiora Section 3.1: What you'll need A working PPP setup. Section 3.2: ip-up, ip-down, and other assorted scripts Well, here's how I do it; 1). Fire up vi and make a file called /etc/ppp/ppp-check.dat. Don't put anything in it just save it. 2). Put this at the top of /usr/sbin/ppp-on : echo on > /etc/ppp/ppp-check.dat this will put the word `on' in in /etc/ppp/ppp-check.dat 3). Put this in /usr/sbin/ppp-off: echo off > /etc/ppp/ppp-check.dat 4). Change the name of your /etc/ppp/ip-down file to /etc/ppp/ppp-off-final 5). Finally, save this script to /etc/ppp/ip-down: -----------------------------CUT HERE------------------------------------- #!/bin/sh export LOGGING="yes" ## Change this to no if you dont want to log it. export LOG_STRING="" export PPP_CHECK="" ##-----------------------Basic setup stuff-------------------------------- PPP_CHECK=`cat /etc/ppp/ppp-check.dat` ##-------------------------PPP was disconnected log it---------------------- if [ "$LOGGING" = "yes" ] then logger -i -p local0.notice -t ppp-check PPP- Disconnected fi ##-------------------------Now see how we were called--------------------- if [ "$PPP_CHECK" = "off" ] then if [ "$LOGGING" = "yes" ] then logger -i -p local0.notice -t ppp-check PPP- Legal disconnect logger -i -p local0.notice -t ppp-check PPP- Turning off NET \ subsystem /etc/ppp/ppp-off-final fi exit fi ##---------------------------------------------------------------------- ## If were were just disconnected then redial if [ "$LOGGING" = "yes" ] then logger -i -p local0.notice -t ppp-check PPP- Illegal disconnect logger -i -p local0.notice -t ppp-check PPP- Attempting to reconnect fi /etc/ppp/ppp-off-final while test -e /var/run/ppp0.pid && test -e /var/lock/LCK..ttyS3 do sleep 1 done /usr/sbin/ppp-on ---------------------------------END------------------------------------ Steps 2, and 3 will let the script figure out how the connection was brought down. ________ 4.0 Hack #2: Keeping your system up and accessible 24/7 method #2 by Michael Driscoll First see the notes about this hack in chapter 2.0. Section 4.1: What you'll need Not too much. A working PPP setup. A working cron. Section 4.2: Setting up keepalive.sh (note: This section can be probably be better with diald, see section 4.2.1) cron is a daemon that starts programs at specified times. You can look at your crontab by running "crontab -e". We'll be using crontab to run a shell program that will keep our PPP connection up. Run "crontab -e" as root and add this line: #*/2 * * * * /etc/ppp/keepalive.sh What this does is call the /etc/ppp/keepalive.sh script every two minutes. (The '#` comments out the entry so it won't start running the script until we are ready). Then put the following script named keepalive.sh in /etc/ppp: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- #!/bin/sh if [ -f /var/run/ppp0.pid ] ; then ping -c8 -l3 2>&1 | grep "0 packets" > /dev/null && \ { /usr/sbin/ppp-off > /dev/null 2>&1 ; sleep 2 ; /usr/sbin/pppd } else /usr/sbin/pppd fi ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Now type "chmod 700 /etc/ppp/keepalive.sh" as root to make it an executable script. /* Hint1: Check those paths! For pppd and ppp-off insert whatever it is * that you use to start/stop your connection. * Hint2: I use your ISP's DNS server because I figure that if that's * down, your net connection is screwed anyways :-) * Hint3: Be sure to use your DNS server's numeric IP address, otherwise * ping returns a different message and the "grep" won't work. */ Now whenever you want your connection to stay up, you can just run crontab -e and take out that "#" to uncomment the entry...and when you want your connection to stay down, run crontab -e and put the "#" back in, then kill your connection with ppp-off or whatever it is that you use. Section 4.2.1: Using diald instead of a crontab entry by Divya Mahajan The crontab entry that we just made can also be done (and probably a lot more elegantly) by other programs, such as diald. This section demonstrates how to set up diald for this purpose, should you decide to take that route instead. I have left the crontab section in for reference and because it doesn't require an extra package, but you might want to try diald out instead. 1: Get the latest diald (should be somewhere near ) 2: Compile the stuff. (Actually you could probably get a precompiled diald package too from the Slackware sites) 3: After you have installed diald, you must modify /etc/diald.conf Add the following lines to the end: > restrict 06:00 19:00 * * * > up (This would force the link to be up between 6am to 7pm everyday. If you want 24hrs + 7days remove the restrict.) > device /dev/modem (Use the correct device;) > dynamic > reroute > connect-timeout 120 (Modify this if your dialer takes a longer or shorter time to connect to your ISP) > redial-timeout 10 (Interval between 2 redials) > defaultroute > accounting-log /var/adm/diald.log (Keep track of how much time you are using) >connect /path_to_myscript (You must use a dialing script so add the above line. When diald calls this script both standard input and standard output are redirected to /dev/modem (or whatever you chose above) so ensure that your dialer script doesn't print any garbage. I personally use "/usr/sbin/dip mydipfile.dip >> /var/adm/dip.log 2> /var/adm/dip.err" which logs the dial attempts. Initially you may want to run dip with the -v option to debug the dip file, i.e #dip -v mydipfile.dip. Remember to put the line "mode ppp" after you have logged in and started your PPP services at the ISP (Use dip-3.3.7n-uri). Also store all PPP settings in /etc/ppp/options rather than relying on the commandline. Once your DIP file is debugged and ready, its time to roll. Start up diald /usr/sbin/diald, if everything went fine it should start dialing and connect you to the ISP. When PPP shutsdown due to modem HUP, diald will automatically retry. Once you are confident, just put /usr/sbin/diald into your /etc/rc.d/rc.local) Now you have a 24hr PPP. diald is also good for a lot of other things, like demand dialing per port, etc. Look at the diald homepage for some examples. ________ 5.0 Hack #3: Keeping your system up and accessable 24/7 method #3 by Michael Driscoll First see the notes about this hack in Chapter 2.0. Here's the third method for keeping your PPP connection up, which is also the one I use. I wouldn't suggest trying it unless you actually understand everything that I say in here. If you don't understand some of it, here's some resources I'd suggest: man init man inittab Essential System Administration, by AEleen Frisch (not really necessary, but good for comprehensive knowledge on things like runlevels. I suppose any resource which included a discussion on runlevels would be fine.) Section 5.1: What you'll need A working PPP setup. A working 'init' (I'm pretty sure you have this, since it is the program which starts all user processes under Unix). Section 5.2: Fun with runlevels Here's how I set this one up. First, I overhauled my inittab and rc scripts. I really hadn't messed with these much since I had last installed Slackware 3.0, so they looked like the following: 0) Halt 1) Some kind of broken single-user setup 2) Empty 3) Empty 4) xdm (X) 5) Normal multi-user (default runlevel) 6) Reboot I cleaned these out and redid them, so that they were like the following: 0) Halt 1) Initiate single-user mode 2) Normal multi-user # These two will be explained later 3) Normal multi-user (default runlevel) 4) Empty 5) Empty 6) Reboot Then I put the following line in /etc/inittab: pu:3:respawn:/usr/sbin/pppd -detach What this does is respawn pppd when my system is in runlevel 3, thus keeping my connection redialing when it dies, and kill the connection when I change the runlevel to 2. Then when I want my connection back, I change the runlevel back to 3 and it is in redial mode again. The -detach on the respawn line keeps pppd from going to background, and making init think it died (otherwise init will restart pppd a dozen times and puke). For those interested in my exact setup, I have tarred my /etc/inittab and /etc/rc.d/* and put them on my web site as . ________ 6.0 Hack #4: IP Publishing via mail by Michael Driscoll This hack works very well with the previous scripts, because it automatically publishes your IP when it changes so that you can find the new address of your machine from anywhere else on the network after your connection has dropped and restarted. Other hacks which can accomplish this same thing (automatic IP publishing) using different means are #6, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, and #14 (almost half of them, come to think of it :-). Section 6.1: What you will need Just a working PPP setup, really. This hack works well with the automated PPP connection hacks discussed earlier, because it lets you easily find your machine again after it has automatically reconnected and had an address change. Section 6.2: Setting up your ip-up and ip-down This hack makes your new IP address available to you from practically any machine on the net. To achieve this we use the two scripts /etc/ppp/ip-up and /etc/ppp/ip-down, which are automatically called by pppd when your connection goes up or down, respectively. Create a file (if it doesn't already exist) as root called /etc/ppp/ip-up. Put this in it: #!/bin/sh # $4 is our new ip address passed by pppd # /var/run/add will hold our address echo $4 > /var/run/add # mail our address to our ISP's mail server, with the subject "new ip # address" mail -s "New IP address" yourname@your_internet_address < /var/run/add Then create /etc/ppp/ip-down and put this in it: #!/bin/sh rm /var/run/add Then run "chmod 700 /etc/ppp/ip-up /etc/ppp/ip-down" to make them executable. Voila! Now every time pppd is started your address will be mailed to your ISP's mail server. We retreive it in the next section. Section 6.3: How to find out your new IP address from another computer Well, this calls for some resourcefulness on your part. I really can't walk you through it, as it depends on which kind of machine you're trying to get it from. In Windows, you can try to set up an email program to retrieve mail from your ISP's mail server, and if you're in Unix see if there's a program called "popclient", or "fetchmail", or somesuch. If all else fails, you can always use telnet (see the next section). Section 6.3.1: Telnetting to a POP3 server This is how I retrieve my IP address, as I am usually showing off when I do all of this anyways, and it really impresses all of the GUI users I show it to :-) Hopefully your ISP uses a POP3 server for mail (most likely), otherwise you'll just have to figure this out yourself by looking up the RFC for the protocol you need and figure out how to do it by telnet. Anyways, first you want to telnet to port 110 of your ISP's mail server. In Unix you do this with "telnet your.mail.server.net 110", on VAX/VMS you might need to do "telnet your.mail.server.net/port=110", and in a Web browser you should use "telnet://your.mail.server.net:110". Hopefully you can figure it out. Once you are connected, you should see something like this: >Connected to new-ls.lightspeed.net. >Escape character is '^]'. >+OK QUALCOMM Pop server derived from UCB (version 2.1.4-R3) at >new-ls.lightspeed.net starting. type "user your_username" to login. >+OK Password required for fenris. now type "pass your_password" >+OK fenris has 2 message(s) (3030 octets). type "list" to look at a list of your messages. >+OK 2 messages (3030 octets) >1 2400 >2 630 >. See that message with size 630? That's my IP address! How do I know? Because it's always that size :-) Now type "retr message_number" to retrieve the message you want. >+OK 630 octets >Received: from ulfheim.lightspeed.net (avatar@bak2-pp-ls.lightspeed.net >[204.216.66.74]) by new-ls.lightspeed.net (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id >TAA12048 for ; Mon, 22 Apr 1996 19:15:37 -0700 >Received: (from avatar@localhost) by ulfheim.lightspeed.net (8.7/8.6.9) >TAA00594 for fenris@lightspeed.net; Mon, 22 Apr 1996 19:15:29 >Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 19:15:29 -0700 >From: Deus In Machina >Message-Id: <199604230215.TAA00594@ulfheim.lightspeed.net> >To: fenris@lightspeed.net >Subject: New IP address > >204.216.66.74 > >. And there it is! Use "dele message_number" to get rid of it or just "quit" to leave it there and quit. Now just telnet to your machine at that address and have fun! If any of this is just not working for you, then check out RFC 1225, which describes the POP3 protocol in full detail. By the way, if this part of the hack doesn't work for you because you have cron automatically downloading your mail, then check out hack #10 which uses procmail to send your new IP address to any email address you want upon request. ________ 7.0 Hack #5: Dynamically changing /etc/hosts by Michael Driscoll As I said before, Linux isn't completely happy with dynamic IP addressing. For example, sometimes talkd won't work with kludgy values in /etc/hosts. However, the following hack makes up for a lot of that by changing /etc/hosts according to the IP address we receive when we call up our ISP. For me this fixed problems with "hostname" and "ntalk". Section 7.1: What you'll need. Nothing but a working PPP setup, really. This hack is really very easy, all you have to do is read the directions and fill in the blanks. Section 7.2: Creating your template host files ***NOTE*** First, make a backup of /etc/hosts, just in case this ***NOTE*** screws up anything. Just "cp /etc/hosts /etc/hosts.backup" First we'll make our template host files. The first file will be named /etc/hosts-down and will contain the following line: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 127.0.0.1 myhostname.mydomain.net localhost myhostname ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Substitute *your* hostname and domain names in for these values. This hosts file will be the one used when your PPP connection is down. The second file will be named /etc/hosts-up and will contain at least the following lines: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 127.0.0.1 localhost --IP-- myhostname.mydomain.net myhostname ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do the substitutions for "myhostname", "mydomain", etc as before (but do not put anything in for the value "--IP--", that word is an anchor that we will use in our script to substitute in a new IP address every time it changes. If you have no idea what I just said, don't worry, just know that you *are* supposed to leave that word "--IP--" in there). You can build a bigger /etc/hosts-up file if you want, that can contain the IP addresses of frequently accessed machines and any nicknames that you might want to use for them. For example, my /etc/hosts-up looks like this: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 127.0.0.1 localhost --IP-- ulfheim.lightspeed.net ulfheim 136.168.201.9 ultrix6.cs.csubak.edu ultrix ultrix6 128.214.48.39 linux.cs.helsinki.fi linux 152.2.254.81 sunsite.unc.edu sunsite 136.168.1.4 academic.csubak.edu academic 128.214.248.6 nic.funet.fi ftp.funet.fi funet ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Section 7.3: More fun with ip-up and ip-down Add the following lines to /etc/ppp/ip-up: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ cat /etc/hosts-up | sed -e s/--IP--/$4/g > /etc/hosts ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This puts the hosts-up file through a sed script which substitutes the word '--IP--' with $4, the variable which contains our new IP address. Then add the following line to /etc/ppp/ip-down: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ cp /etc/hosts-down /etc/hosts ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This copies the hosts-down template to /etc/hosts. ________ 8.0 Hacks #6-8: Various hacks intro written by Michael Driscoll code straight from Ryan R. Klems Here's some C code sent to me from Ryan R. Klems . There are three programs, the first, mail.c, is a CGI that scans through your mail spool for your new IP address as set up by Hack #1. It then uses the IP address to set up a page containing a link to this IP address. The second, pppdm.c, can probably take the place of hack #1, as it looks for a PPP connection, restarts pppd if it is down, and mails your new ip address to your ISP's mailserver. The third, portmsg.c, sits on a specified port and waits for a telnet connection. Upon connection, it will pull grep your mail spool for your newest IP and output a message containing that. These sources will need a bit of customization, so you probably shouldn't mess with them unless you know what they are doing. Oh yes, and Ryan has written to tell me that he wouldn't mind helping you set up the code to meet your needs, as long as you ask nicely :-) Section 8.1: mail.c /* * mail.c written by Ryan R. Klems (rklems@primenet.com) * Copyright 1996, Author releases this source freely, allowing * copying and modification, so long as the original copyright notice * is maintained. * * I request that if you use this file you mail me... Thats all I ask =) * * A CGI for reading through your mailfile and finding an IP * address that you had your computer mail to you. * * Compiling: * gcc mail.c -o mail.cgi * * Make sure to 'chmod +s mail.cgi' afterwards...must run with set uid * bit on to be able to open the mail file. */ #include #include #define MAILFILE "/var/mail/rklems" /* your mailfile */ main(void) { FILE *mail; /* file pointer for mail file */ char bob[80], location[80]; printf("Content-type: text/html\n\n"); printf("IP Address\n"); printf("\n"); printf("

IP Address

\n"); strcpy(bob, "42.**"); if((mail = fopen(MAILFILE, "r")) == NULL) printf("Mail file is empty or does not exist.\n"); else { /* * loop continues till end of file because you want most recent IP * 198.68. is the domain of my ISP, change to yours... */ while(!feof(mail)) /* until reaching EOF, do this */ { fgets(location, 80, mail); /* Grab a line, from mail */ sscanf(location, "198.68.%s", bob); /* look for domain */ } strcpy(location, "198.68."); strcat(location, bob); printf("The IP Address of your computer is: %s\n", location); } printf("\n"); } Section 8.2: pppdm.c /* * pppdm.c created by Ryan R. Klems (rklems@primenet.com) * Released freely by the author to use/modify/copy/reditribute * My only request is that if you use it...mail me and let me know =) * * This program keeps your link dialed up to an ISP and mails you * the newest IP address. Useful for people with Dynamically allocated * IP addresses * uses the following files... * /root/ip : Outputs the IP to this file * /root/log : If logging is defined * /root/pppchat : The chat file set up for chat. * My chat file looks like: * "" ATDT7917777 CONNECT "" "ogin:" "rklems" "assword:" "" * is YOUR password of course (like I'm gonna give you mine ;) * *NOTE* for silent dialing do ATMDT * * Compiling... * gcc pppdm.c -o pdm * *NOTE* Don't call it anything like pppdm b/c it looks for pppd * might accidentally kill itself off ;) */ #include #include #include #include #include #define DOLOG void main(void) { FILE *fin, /* multiuse file pointer */ *popen(); /* proto of popen() */ #ifdef DOLOG FILE *log; /* log file pointer */ #endif char line[80], /* a line of a file */ bah[80], /* just stuff, also used for holding IP addr */ crap[80], /* just stuff */ bob; /* single char placeholder, not used for anything */ int j, /* flag for if a link was found */ k, /* flag for if this is a new link */ pid; /* pid of pppd process to kill off */ #ifdef DOLOG time_t now; /* thing for time logging */ #endif for(;;) /* Loop forever... */ { /* look at ifconfig for IP addr */ if ((fin = popen("ifconfig", "r")) != NULL) while(fgets(line, 80, fin) != NULL) if(sscanf(line, "ppp0 %s", bah)) { fgets(line, 80, fin); sscanf(line, " inet addr:%15s", bah); j=1; } fclose(fin); if (!j) /* no link */ { if((fin = popen("ps -a -x", "r")) == NULL) { fprintf(stderr, "PPPdm error: cannot open file.\n"); exit(1); } /* scan through processes & kill off any zombie pppd processes */ while(fgets(line, 80, fin) != NULL) if (sscanf(line, "%d ? %c %4s pppd%s", &pid, &bob, crap, bah) == 4) kill(pid, SIGKILL); fclose(fin); k=0; /* new dial attempt */ system("pppd connect 'chat -v -f /root/pppchat'"); /* try again */ #ifdef DOLOG now = time(NULL); if ((log = fopen("/root/log", "a")) == NULL) { fprintf(stderr, "Error in opening log file.\n"); exit(1); } fprintf(log, "Initiating ppp-link. %s\n", ctime(&now)); fclose(log); #endif sleep(60); /* wait 1 min and check again */ } if(j && !k) /* first time with new address */ { if ((fin = fopen("/root/ip", "w")) == NULL) { fprintf(stderr, "Error in opening output file.\n"); exit(1); } fprintf(fin, "%s\n", bah); /* write out addr */ fclose(fin); /* mail it to yourself */ system("mail -s IP joker@your.moma.com < /root/ip"); k=1; } else /* take a nap and check again when we wake up */ { j = 0; sleep(300); /* wait 5 minutes to check again */ } } } Section 8.3: portmsg.c /* * Portmsg.c written by Ryan R. Klems (rklems@primenet.com) * Copyright 1996, Author releases this source freely, allowing * copying and modification, so long as the original copyright notice * is maintained. * * I request that if you use this program that you mail me. Thats * all I ask. * * This program sets up a port on a server to accept telnets. Upon * accepting a telnet, the program outputs a message, and then closes * the connection. * * address of message would be xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx yyyy where the x's * s the IP number or IP name, and yyyy is the port number set up * within this program. * * Compiling instructions: * Linux : gcc portmsg_gen.c -o * SunOS : gcc portmsg_gen.c -lsocket -lnsl -o * ***Note*** * I don't have access to any other operating systems, so if you * compile this program on an OS I don't have listed, and use * compiler options I didn't mention...please email me =) */ #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #define HOSTNAME "ares" /* hostname of computer */ #define PORT 3000 /* tcp port to bind to */ /* #define GETHOSTNAME */ /* uncomment if your server has gethostname() */ void get_location(void); /* proto of my mail reading function */ char location[80]; /* The IP address */ void main(void) { struct in_addr host_ip_number; struct sockaddr_in host_ip_addr; struct sockaddr_in addr; char host_name[100]; struct hostent *hp; int s, new_sock; int tmp, length; /* * The server I wrote this for doesn't have gethostname() * so, I put in a little fix... */ #ifdef GETHOSTNAME gethostname(host_name, sizeof(host_name)); #else strcpy(host_name, HOSTNAME); #endif hp = gethostbyname(host_name); bzero((char *)&host_ip_addr, sizeof(host_ip_addr)); memcpy((char *)&host_ip_addr.sin_addr, hp->h_addr, hp->h_length); host_ip_addr.sin_family = hp->h_addrtype; host_ip_number = host_ip_addr.sin_addr; host_ip_addr.sin_port = htons(PORT); host_ip_addr.sin_addr.s_addr = INADDR_ANY; /* open a socket s */ s = socket(host_ip_addr.sin_family, SOCK_STREAM, 0); if ((int)s==-1) { fprintf(stderr, "Error in opening socket.\n"); exit(1); } tmp = 1; if(setsockopt(s, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, (char *)&tmp, sizeof(tmp))<0) { fprintf(stderr, "Error in setsockopt.\n"); exit(1); } /* bind the socket to the server */ if (bind(s, (struct sockaddr *)&host_ip_addr, sizeof(host_ip_addr)) == -1) { if(errno == EADDRINUSE) { fprintf(stderr, "Socket already bound!\n"); exit(1); } else { fprintf(stderr, "Other error binding socket.\n"); exit(1); } } /* tell the server to listen to the port */ if (listen(s, 1) == -1) /* 1 is the maximum size of the connection queue */ { fprintf(stderr, "Error in listen.\n"); exit(1); } while(1) /* just keep looping */ { length = sizeof(addr); /* * port has been opened with socket(), bound with bind(), and set * active with listen(), now accept() watches the port for * connections, it will wait here until it has one... * new_sock is the file descriptor for the new socket */ new_sock = accept(s, (struct sockaddr *)&addr, &length); /* * The function get_location() and the send()'s are what I did to * suit my particular needs. Put your own messages in here... */ get_location(); /* send just sends a string foo of length strlen(foo) with flags */ send(new_sock, "Location:\n", 11, 0); send(new_sock, location, strlen(location), 0); close(new_sock); /* Close connection after message printed */ } } void get_location(void) { FILE *mail; /* file pointer for mail file */ char a[80]; /* char array for holding ip addr */ /* * FYI, this just opens my mail file, looks for a line with * 198.68.(the domain of my ISP), takes the last part, puts * the 198.68. in location, then cats the rest on the end */ strcpy(a, "42.**"); /* open /var/mail/ryan for read, and check to see there is a file */ if((mail = fopen("/var/mail/ryan", "r")) == NULL) { strcpy(location, "Error in obtaining information.\n"); return; } else { while(!feof(mail)) /* until reaching EOF, do this */ { fgets(location, 80, mail); /* Grab a line, from mail */ sscanf(location, "198.68.%s", a); /* look for domain */ } strcpy(location, "198.68."); strcat(location, a); /* loops continues till end of file because I want most recent IP */ } } ________ 9.0 Dynamic DNS entries If you're interested in setting up a hack involving Dynamic DNS entries (DNS entries that change to point to your computer when its IP address changes) then you might want to check out these URLs: 1) Check it out, Matthew got it working and is asking for other people to try it to iron out the fine details. The hack involves already having control of a DNS at a static IP. 2) The IETF is the Internet Engineering Task Force, the people who basically lay out the future protocols and systems to be used by the Internet. This URL is the IETF's draft for dynamic DNS and should be read by anyone who might be thinking of attempting something in this direction. For those who don't {want to,cant} mess with the details, but just want a dynamic name set up without the fuss, check out DynDNS.com. Quite a few people have mailed me regarding their happiness with their service, so you might want to check it out. Their site is at , and you can e-mail Gus Hurwitz for more details. Another service that has just come to my attention is dynip.com, which you can check out at . [From Artur Skawina ]: Another dynamic DNS project exist at . It has been operational since january 1997; while it is still in beta tests, it works quite well. It's very easy to use: you only have to register a hostname once, then you can run a special "client" every time your IP changes (There exists several linux clients, eg. ). For more details on this service go to . [Editors note: If you do use the services of ml.org, please consider making a donation to them in order to help pay them back for the blood, sweat, and tears that they've poured into these projects. After all, they're still a garage-based organization that do things for the internet community that the InterNIC would normally charge $100 a pop for -- MCD] ________ 10.0 Hack #9: Updating your .plan by Matthew Nuckolls This pair of scripts allows one to put their current IP number in their .plan file on a remote server. I use it so friends and family can see if I'm dialed in, and where to send ytalk requests to. Put something like /etc/ppp/putip "None, the link is down" as the first line in your ppp-off script. You need a valid $HOME/.netrc file for putip to work. mine looks like: machine rocket login mnuck password and is chmod 600 -Matthew Nuckolls mnuck@umr.edu ip-up: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ #!/bin/sh # # make sure this is chmod 711, since your password is stored in the clear PLANLOC = /home/mnuck/.plan REMOTE_USER_NAME = mnuck REMOTE_PASSWORD = REMOTE_PLANLOC = /afs/umr.edu/users/mnuck/pub/.plan REMOTE_SERVER = rocket echo "My dynamic IP is: " $4 > /tmp/ip.myip cat $PLANLOC /tmp/ip.myip > /tmp/plan echo $REMOTE_USER_NAME > /tmp/ip.script echo $REMOTE_PASSWORD >> /tmp/ip.script echo "put /tmp/plan" $REMOTE_PLANLOC >> /tmp/ip.script echo "quit" >> /tmp/ip.script ftp $REMOTE_SERVER < /tmp/ip.script &> /dev/null rm -f /tmp/ip.myip rm -f /tmp/ip.script rm -f /tmp/plan ------------------------------------------------------------------------ end ip-up putip: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ #!/bin/sh # # This script relies on a vaild .netrc file # -see ftp man page for details PLANLOC = /home/mnuck/.plan REMOTE_PLANLOC = /afs/umr.edu/users/mnuck/pub/.plan REMOTE_SERVER = rocket echo "My dynamic IP is: " $1 > /tmp/ip.myip cat $PLANLOC /tmp/ip.myip > /tmp/plan echo "put /tmp/plan" $REMOTE_PLANLOC > /tmp/ip.script echo "quit" >> /tmp/ip.script ftp $REMOTE_SERVER < /tmp/ip.script &> /dev/null rm -f /tmp/ip.myip rm -f /tmp/ip.script rm -f /tmp/plan ------------------------------------------------------------------------ end putip ________ 11.0 Hack #10: A simple procmail recipe for finding your new IP by Justin Cragin written by Michael Driscoll Here's an easy one, assuming you already have procmail set up. This hack requires that you have a spare shell/email account somewhere on the internet where you can temporarily stick an email and is useful when you can't use the mailing trick in hack four to get your new IP address because you have a cron job regularly downloading your mail. host.bogus.net will be the name of the machine where you have the shell account to mail your new IP address to. In your .procmailrc, simply add the following recipe: :0: * ^Subject:.*sendmeip |mail -s "Your new IP" other.mail.address@host.bogus.net < /var/run/add For the email address use a shell account whose mail is not being regularly downloaded by a cronjob to your local machine (what, doesn't anybody else collect shell accounts? I only have five so far ;) /var/run/add is of course the file containing your IP address that we set up in hack one. If you haven't done that hack, then do something like the following in /etc/ppp/ip-up: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ echo $4 > /var/run/add ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Now to use this, just mail your normal mail account from any place on the 'net with a subject containing the word "sendmeip", and then telnet to the shell account and wait for the cronjob on your machine at home to download that mail and automatically send you a reply to the shell account with your new IP in it! Was that too complex? Lemme know if I should be clearer on that bit. ________ 12.0 Hack #11: Dynamic Home Page via ftp by Michael Driscoll This is a simple and easy hack for putting your new IP address on a home page on your ISP's http server. It requires: o ncftp (though you could kludge up a script that could use normal ftp) o ftp access to your IPS's web server. You can see this hack in action at . (I also have scripts from for another hack that accomplishes the same thing that this does, though they use normal ftp and are more complex. You can find these scripts at my home page, as ). Note: an alternative to this hack (using CGI) is present in hack #14. It is useful for those without ftp access to their ISP's http servers. Section 12.1: Why would I want to do this? 1: Because it's a neat hack. 2: So that all of your friends and family can easily find your new IP address (Ok, maybe that's not a good thing :-) 3: So that you can run your own httpd, with your own CGI's (Merely put an http:// pointer to your new IP address which will access your own httpd) 4: When have we needed a reason to do something? Section 12.2: Setting up your page First, you're going to want to write up some HTML to go onto the pointer page. It is beyond the scope of this HowTo to teach you HTML, so you'll have to learn that bit yourself. Try some sites like and , they have good HTML primers online. However, when you write the page, in place of the address in any pointers to your machine instead put a recognizable anchor (I will use the word '--IP--' in this example) so that we can use a script to replace that anchor with our IP address. For example, a simple template page would look like this: This is Mike Driscoll's Dynamic IP Dynamic Home Page

Last known IP of ulfheim.lightspeed.net:

--IP-- Notice that the href and the link name use '--IP--', which the script will fill in with our IP address before it uploads the page to the server. For this example, I'll assume that you've named this template page /etc/ppp/index.html. Section 12.2.1: A note on redirects by Artur Skawina Instead of only uploading a page with the current IP it's possible to upload a page that will directly transfer anybody who loads it into their browser to your dynamic host (eg. add a tag like this one to the HEAD section of the page: ) Section 12.3: Using ncftp to automate page updates. Before we do this part we'll have to figure out which version of ncftp you are running. To do this, just start ncftp. Here are two examples: fenris@ulfheim:~$ ncftp 1.9.5 (October 29, 1995) ncftp>_ mdriscol@ultrix6:/usr/stu/mdriscol$ ncftp NcFTP 2.0.5 (May 1, 1995), by Mike Gleason, NCEMRSoft. NcFTP> _ Depending on the version number listed when you start ncftp, we will do this section in one of two ways. If the version number is 1.x.x (ie. mine is 1.9.5), then use the first method, if the version number is 2.x.x (ie. the one in my ultrix account at school is 2.0.5) then use the second method. Section 12.3.1: ncftp 1.x.x Now we'll add some stuff to root's .ncftprc. In mine, I have the following: ---------- #set auto-binary on #set recent-list off machine your.isp's.web.server user yourusername password yourpassword macdef init cd /to/your/home/directory put /tmp/index.html index.html quit ---------- The auto-binary insures that we'll be in binary mode, the recent-list bit stops a .ncrecent file from being created (I just don't like them, you can have one if you want), and the machine entry defines my password, username, and default actions (you might not need the cd bit, at least I don't, since when I ftp to my ISP's server it automatically puts me in the right directory). Section 12.3.2: ncftp 2.x.x by Tomas Jamate [Editors note: I changed Tomas's script a bit before including it in in the HowTo, if I broke it please tell me! -- MCD] Here's the setup files I used for getting ncftp v2.x.x to work with Hack #8. Note that ncftp ver 2.x.x keeps all setup files under ~/.ncftp. I make no guaruntees, but this setup works for me. Look at the man pages if you want to use other options for ncftp. First manually connect to your web service provider using ncftp. $ ncftp -u service.provider.com The -u means force prompt for user name and password. Once connected cd into your web directory. This creates a bookmark entry for service.provider.com. (I'm not crazy about the bookmark setup, but hey, it works). Exit ncftp. Edit ~/.ncftp/bookmarks. You'll see the site entry with your username, you need to put your password right after the username. It should look something like this: NcFTP bookmark-file version: 6 Number of entries: 1 service,service.provider.com,Username,Password,,/dir/of/your/web/page,[etc] Now create and edit ~/.ncftp/macros, It should look like this: macro .open.example put /tmp/index.html index.html exit end Now you can automatically upload the index.html with: "ncftp -L example" -L means go to line mode style -or- "ncftp -Lf example" -the -f means force overwrite of existing file, for the paranoid ;-) Section 12.4: A simple search and replace sed rule Now we write the sed rule. Just put the following in /etc/ppp/ip-up: # Begin dynamic IP stuff if [ -e /tmp/index.html ]; then mv /tmp/index.html /tmp/index.html-`date +%s` fi cat /etc/ppp/index.html | sed -e s/--IP--/$4/g > /tmp/index.html ncftp your.isps.web.server >/dev/null 2>&1 First we check for pre-existance of /tmp/index.html. A cracker could be trying to exploit our usage of this to wipe out any file he pleases in the filesystem by linking /tmp/index.html to it and waiting until the script is run. If it already exists, the file is harmlessly moved out of the way until you look at it, foiling any nefarious plans. Then we run our sed script. This substitutes all occurances of our anchor string '--IP--' with our new IP address and dumps the new index.html in /tmp. ncftp is then run to upload the new /tmp/index.html which has the current IP address in it. Congratulations, it's done, you now have a dynamic home page that you can use to point to your home machine! Have fun customizing it! Just edit /etc/ppp/index.html, and it should be updated the next time you dial up your ISP with pppd. ________ 13.0 Hack #12: Paging yourself with your new IP address by Michael Driscoll Here's a neat hack that I don't know anyone will use. It involves using a modem-dialing program to page oneself with one's new IP address. It requires: o modem (speed doesn't matter since we're just going to use it to dial [aren't you glad you kept your 300bps modem? :-) ]) o extra phone line (doesn't need to be dedicated to this, as hopefully you have a modem that will gracefully give up if a voice call is already in progress (I guess that's something you should check, some modems are rather brutal about this)). o An ordinary numeric pager o A dialing program Section 13.1: The paging program For this hack you will need some program that has the ability to dial a modem from the command line. For the following examples, I will use the program 'modem-stats' by Kenneth J. Hendrickson , which can be found at . I imagine that other dialing programs can easily be adapted to this examples. Section 13.2: Calling it from ip-up We will put the following lines in /etc/ppp/ip-up: #Separate $4 (IP address) into four parts part1=`echo $4 | cut -f1 -d.` part2=`echo $4 | cut -f2 -d.` part3=`echo $4 | cut -f3 -d.` part4=`echo $4 | cut -f4 -d.` #Run dialing program /usr/sbin/modem-stats -c 'atz' /dev/cua2 /usr/sbin/modem-stats -c 'ats7=15' /dev/cua2 /usr/sbin/modem-stats \ -c 'atdt6384658,,,'${part1}'*'${part2}'*'${part3}'*'${part4} /dev/cua2 Explanations: The atz resets the modem to sane defaults, the ats7=15 sets the time to wait for a carrier, the ','s are pauses, and the '*'s are used to signify dashes (at least they do on my pager, hopefully they will on yours). Oh yes, and you might have better results if you put your own pager number in place of 638-4658, as that is my pager number :-) Also, replace /dev/cua2 with the device name for your modem. Congratulations. You're done! ________ 14.0 Hack #13: xterm logins through a firewall by Brad Baker [Editor's note: As the author of this hack notes, this hack may have inherent security problems, such as the possibility of password capture and the breach of your firewall's security inherent in handing out logins to sites outside your localnet. This hack is being included more for its hack value than its general usefulness. I wouldn't suggest doing this one unless you are the netadmin for that network or are on very good terms with him or her :-) -- MCD] Here's another hack for you to try. This one works, and I'm not sure of the security risks yet, but it is amusing. It would be nice to be able to get access to my work machine (Sun) from home, and vice versa, yet telnet is firewalled at work. Here's a way around it. For purposes of this explanation I'll give the method for gaining access to my work machine from my home Linux machine, with a dial-up PPP connection to my ISP and dynamic IP assignment. >From home, when I want access to my work machine, I dial-in and fire up X, set "xhost +", determine my dynamic IP, and email my dynamic IP to my work machine in a mail message with a particular format. On my work machine I have a procmail recipe/script setup that parses the body of a message whose subject matches a target, say "X-W". If the body of that message meets certain requirements then it extracts the IP from the message and spawns an xterm with the display directed to my home dynamic IP like this: xterm -display my.ip.i.sent:0.0 -e login Voila! In about 30 secs to a minute, an xterm login shell appears on my home machine! I haven't tried going the other direction yet because my home machine isn't on full time, but using the other methods of determining the dynamic IP from a remote machine it should work the same way. I'm quite concerned about security issues though and so I've got it disabled until I find out more. When the xterm shows up at home it gives a login prompt, and Secure Keyboard can be used to avoid capture of the password (I'm not sure how secure this feature is in xterm). Still, I'm not real sure at this time what the security features of X are. I'm most concerned about my xterm popping up on the wrong IP, or to an IP that I had before my line connection got dropped just now, though, most users are using Windows and the X access request will not succeed. Further required security procedures are to encrypt the IP in the email message with PGP or common key encryption and to restrict the dynamic IPs to a range, though my ISP won't divulge the range of their dynamic IPs to me. Here's the .procmailrc rule, script file, and sample email message that I used to test it (say 111.222.333.444 is the dynamic ip). -- rule set in ~/.procmailrc -- : ^Subject: X-W | cat | $HOME/scripts/send_xterm -- end -- -- ~/scripts/send_xterm -- #!/bin/sh XX=`cat $1 | grep "^IP: .*" | sed "s/IP: \(.*\)/\1/"` XX=`echo $XX | perl -e '$_ = <>; s/[^0123456789.]//g; print'` xterm -display $XX -e login & -- end -- -- sample email message -- To: bpb@my.machine.com Subject: X-W IP: 111.222.333.444:0.0 -- end -- You can try it out on your own machine by mailing it to yourself (after you've setup .procmailrc and send_xterm locally of course). ________ 15.0 Hack #14: Dynamic Home Page via CGI by Michael Driscoll This hack is similar to hack #11, but differs in method. While hack #11 involves using ftp access to your ISP's http server to update a page containing a link to your new IP, this one accesses a .cgi script on your ISP's http server which sets up our new page by itself. To use this script you'll have to convince your ISP's sysadmin to put this CGI on their http server. It is not unreasonable for them to charge you money to check the script for security since it takes them time and is a bit of insurance for the risk of them putting it on the server in the first place (although I'll try my best to make this one 'secure'). For example, my ISP (lightspeed.net) charges $50 per script to check it. ***Warning*** Not only is this script new and (largely) untested, but I'm writing it at 02:52 PDT to avoid doing my Philosophy mid-term. If you don't know anything about CGI and how to make it secure, then I'd suggest you wait until any bugs are worked out before you try foisting this upon a poor sysadmin. ***Note*** Well, it's been two months since I wrote that warning and I've heard nothing about the security of this CGI, for or against. Either it *is* secure and nobody has let me know, or nobody uses it :-) Either way, I still urge caution. Section 15.1: Overview of what we'll try to do. Basically, all you'll need to do is take the following script and do a little interpretation in filling in the values. In the script we'll try to do the following: * Parse a newip= parameter, making sure it is a legitimate IP * Parse a password= parameter as a *very* loose security to make sure some hoodlums can't easily screw with your script to fill in their own IP values (Note: I know this won't be 100% foolproof but the ramifications if it fail shouldn't be *too* bad, and at least a failure should be non-destructive and there will be server logs noting who the perpitrator is). * Check the cgi's $REMOTE_HOST and $REMOTE_ADDR environment variables against your domain name to make sure that it's at least a local request. * Finally, if everything checks out, set up the page. Section 15.2: The script (dynip.pl) #!/usr/bin/perl # Written by Michael Driscoll # Suggestions very welcome require 5; # Require perl5 use CGI; # This is the CGI.pm module, available at CPAN sites everywhere like # # Fill in these values $givendomain = "domain.net"; # Put in your ISP's domain name # (Actually the last two parts of # the domain, although this can # be changed below at the split()) $givenpassword = "potrzebie"; # Fill in a password to use $filename = "/some/path/to/my/index.html"; # Get your sysadmin to fill this # in (User's page to update). # Note to sysadmin: the file # indicated will have to give # write perms to the userid of # httpd, unless you use Apache's # suid method or something (not # recommended) # The followings deal with IP numbers using the scheme aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd $higha = "255"; # Fill in the highest range of the aaa part of your # ISP's IP block. $lowa = "0"; # Same for the low range of the aaa part. Probably the # same as $higha since most ISP's don't span more than one # class A network :-) $highb = "255"; # Fill in the highest range for bbb $lowb = "0"; # Lowest range for bbb $highc = "255"; # You get the point. $lowc = "0"; # $highd = "255"; # $lowd = "0"; # # link $query to the cgi.pm module $query = new CGI; # $newip is our new IP via the newip variable $newip = $query->param("newip"); # $trypassword is the tentative password to check against $givenpassword $trypassword = $query->param("password"); # $hostname is the name of the host this is coming from to check against # $givendomain $hostname = $query->remote_host; # Check the password first of all unless ("$trypassword" eq "$givenpassword") { print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n"; print "Sorry, wrong password\n"; exit; } # Break up the IP into @IP # substitute out any non-numerics except for '.' # splice() it to take out anything after the first dotted quad # (How did that get there?? Anyways, I'm trying to take as few # chances against crackability as possible). $newip =~ s/[^\d\.]//g; @IP = split /\./, $newip; splice(@IP, 4); # Check the IP to make sure it's within bounds unless (($lowa <= $IP[0]) && ($lowb <= $IP[1]) && ($lowc <= $IP[2]) && ($lowd <= $IP[3]) && ($higha >= $IP[0]) && ($highb >= $IP[1]) && ($highc >= $IP[2]) && ($highd >= $IP[3])) { print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n"; print "Sorry, that IP address doesn't seem to be within bounds\n"; exit; } # Now let's check the hostname # Break it up into parts of @hostnamearray @hostnamearray = split /\./, $hostname; $dompart2 = pop @hostnamearray; $dompart1 = pop @hostnamearray; # Check it unless (("$dompart1"."\.$dompart2" eq "$givendomain") || ("$hostname" eq "localhost")) { # Print an error print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n"; print "Sorry, you don't seem to have the right domain\n"; exit; } # Things seem to check out, let's set up the page # Make sure to escape out things like #, \, $, @, %, and ' open(FILE, ">$filename") || die "dynip.pl cannot open $filename to write: $!"; flock(FILE, 2); # Start html here. $newip is our new IP address. print FILE "Title etc.\n\n"; print FILE "

body here

\n"; print FILE "

blah blah blah\n"; print FILE "

And here is a link to my "; print FILE "current IP address.\n"; print FILE "\n"; flock(FILE, 8); close(FILE); # Send an ok to our accessing program print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n"; print "Setup was successful\n"; # End Section 15.3: Accessing the CGI when our link goes up Now all we do is access it with lynx in our /etc/ppp/ip-up. The following line should do it, using the /etc/ppp/ip-up usage of $4 for the new IP value: lynx -dump \ 'http://www.ispserver.net/cgi-bin/dynip.pl?newip=$4&password=potrzebie' \ >> /etc/ppp/lynxlog Put the password you chose in the place of 'potrzebie', of course. And be sure to chmod 700 /etc/ppp/ip-up when you're done, now that it has sensitive information in it. (BTW, the \'s are just used so that I can fit the command under 80 columns. what they do is escape out the newline so that it is considered one command) Also be sure to periodically reduce /etc/ppp/lynxlog as it will grow to be somewhat big after a while :-) There you go...hopefully you're done! ________ 16.0 Hack #15: Suggestion for rc.* by Jeremy D. Impson written by Michael Driscoll Previously, this HowTo had various bits of instruction scattered throughout which basically copied various parts of /etc/ppp/ip-down in the rc.* files, to be run in case of a crash of the system while the PPP connection was still up. Jeremy mailed me with the suggestion of simply running the /etc/ppp/ip-down file itself at bootup, instead of tediously adding most of it bit by bit to the rc.* files. Therefore, providing that the commands in /etc/ppp/ip-down make sense at bootup and don't rely on options passed by pppd (if the latter is true, you can always hack up a fake command line), you can simply add the following to the rc file of your choice: # Run /etc/ppp/ip-down if pppd wasn't shut down cleanly if [ -f /var/run/ppp?.pid ]; then /etc/ppp/ip-down fi Words from Jeremy: This little trick won't be relevant in every situation, but it is in mine, and I thought maybe you'd appreciate it. Thanks Jeremy! ________ 17.0 Hack #16: Defeating local and ISP-imposed timeouts with ping by Artur Skawina [Editors note: As Artur notes, this one can be taken too far and can really have an impact on your ISP if they are short on lines or something. If you do this, and your ISP pointedly asks you to knock it off, then you should seriously consider shelling out the extra money for a dedicated modem on their side or something, which will often get you a dedicated IP anyways, thus making this HowTo moot :-) -- MCD] In order to keep a dialup connection open it is sometimes necessary to ensure that the link is not idle for long periods of time. Some ISP's automatically disconnect a link if there's no traffic, and many modems also have the ability to terminate an idle connection. While it is easy to alter the local modem settings, it may be impossible to convince your ISP to do the same (they may not like people using their resources for 24h/day). The solution? Add the following line to the ip-up script: ping -i 180 & where can be your ISP's main DNS, terminal server etc. To change the modems 'Disconnect Inactivity Timer' you have to check the modems manual. For example on CirrusLogic chipset based modems it can be ATS90=0 ________ 18.0 Hack #17: Using SSI's for dynamic IP publishing by Dale Jolliff This isn't specifically for Linux, but for anything, and you don't have to worry about changing anything. It does require that your ISP allow Server Side Includes in your home page. Here's what's visible at . Check it out ... ;> You have to know a couple of things about your ISP -- The name (or IP#) of the router that you dial into The "gateway" and your own "userid" you can get this in Linux from the "ifconfig" command, it's the IP# there that isn't your machine.... for Windows lusers Trumpet Winsock has a "default gateway", and in Win95, it's in the TCP/IP setup area. The critical part of this is that your ISP let you have your own "home page" -- almost required as a "give away" from small providers these days. If they aren't sharp enough to limit SSI and CGI execution, even better.... mine allows SSI, but not CGI execution (however, if you can do SSI, you can do CGI's.... they just have to be called differently) I'm cutting all the extraneous stuff out, and just leaving the critical portions to make the thing work here.... Stick these lines in a SSI page (usually a file that ends in ".shtml" for most servers): david5.e-tex.com is the router I dial into when I connect to my ISP... taftbbs is my userid on thier system... this produces a simple one line out put on the page....
">Click here to see if you can see anything! The line above will produce a link that will display on the page.... Finger your router, and look at the output. The "cut -c '66" part will be dependant upon the make of your router...I have accounts on a couple of providers, and they all seem to use different routers, and each one has it's own 'format' when you finger them. simple explanation of what happens here: make sure you close your SSI command properly, or it won't work... DO be careful how you use single and double quotes in your commands... it's easy to get the thing all messed up, play with it a bit. ">Click here to see if you can see anything! and of course close the link anchor, and stick in your "clickable" text. [end of hacks] ________ Appendix A: We need more hacks! If you have a dynamic IP hack that you would like to contribute to this HowTo, then let me know. Be warned that if you do so that it will have to be covered under the copyright notice in Section 1.7, for reasons of CD publishing and whatnot. If you {liked this HowTo, didn't like this HowTo, thought this HowTo was too confusing, found something in this HowTo that doesn't work and/or is just plain wrong, want to send me email, don't want to send me email, found a security problem in this HowTo, etc} then please mail me at . I mean it, I really would appreciate *any* feedback on this HowTo, even if you just mailed me to say that you read it! Really! Just e-mail me for anything! I *really do* love getting e-mail! Flames will *not* go to /dev/null. I think if you feel that strongly about it, I should listen. If you write up a chapter for this HowTo not only will you be helping the Linux community, but you will receive full credit for your hack, your name will go into the credits at the end of this HowTo, you will be acknowledged as a contributor in the beginning of this HowTo, your idea will be archived with almost every CD Linux distribution in the world, you'll be the envy of all of your peers, etc. ________ Appendix B: CREDITS (in order of appearance) Michael Driscoll is the HowTo maintainer and the author of a few of the hacks. Christian G. Warden helped debug the keepalive.sh script used in hack two, now the thing will work in (hopefully) all cases, including those when the connection goes down but pppd does not. Justin Cragin gave me the idea for hacks two and four, and then got mad when he found out I stole them. I also stole the message that my answering machine uses from him, so I guess I owe him this one. He also recently thought up a nice hack that has become hack ten, so he is now thrice credited. And he has now helped think of the idea of hack twelve, so he is once again credited. Furrfu. Oh well, I guess I owe it to him to make him the new maintainer when I move away to CSM this summer and get my stable IP. gave me copies of some real neat scripts of his, see 12.0 for details. I seem to have lost his name, hopefully he'll send it to me again :-) Ajit Deshpande wanted to be in the credits. Divya Mahajan sent me the info on diald, which should probably end up replacing the crontab entry in hack two. Ryan Klems sent me a bunch of his own hacks, see 8.x for details. Matthew Driver gave me a pointer to his page on dynamic DNS entries. Check out chapter 9.0 for the URL. Matthew Nuckolls gave me hack nine, which updates a .plan containing your new IP address on a remote server via ftp. Scott Johnston showed me a better way to set up hack two (took out long and confusing crontab entry and put it in script called by cron instead), and gave me various other pointers. Brad Baker wrote the really neat hack thirteen. Christian Hardmeier <101502.1521@CompuServe.COM> got me motivated to write hack fourteen. Justin (Gus) Hurwitz let me know about his new service providing dynamic DNS entries for hosts with dynamic IP. Check out the pointer in chapter 9.0. Tomas Jamate reminded me about ncftp 2.x.x and was even kind enough to send me his own script for inclusion in the HowTo (thanks Tomas!). He goes to umass but unfortunately doesn't listen to the Pixies. Oh well. Jeremy D. Impson wrote me the suggestion that turned into hack fifteen. Steve Przepiora wrote hack one, and really got the ball rolling for me with the reorganization of this howto that made v2.0.0. Whit Blauvelt gets many thanks for giving me lots of feedback on the HowTo, and especially for fixing hack one. Paul C. Richard also gets thanks for his help fixing up hack one. Per Sjoholm kept me up to date with the new location of the diald home page. Bill Duncan also notified me that the diald home page had moved. Artur Skawina did a lot, such as hack sixteen, additional material for chapter nine, and the new section 12.2.1. Scott Dier - DiEMaN also told me about ML.org's dyndns project. Dale Jolliff sent in hack seventeen. Bryan Rittmeyer debugged hack two and mentioned ML.org's dyndns project. Marek Kubita fixed a gaping hole in hack thirteen. -- Michael Driscoll