Engineer from Télécom Paris
Ph.D Thesis from UPMC
Network & Security IT - Le RSI
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This-Is-Not-A-Blog:
My Own Private Opinion, Maybe Yours ?
Welcome on this personal home site, that could be named this-is-not-a-blog.fenyo.net. This site is intended to share my personal productions : ideas, opinions, free software, photographs, art work, experiments... Do not hesitate to contact me if you want to react, make business with, or add comments to those informations and make this site grow. Be sure I will include your own opinion in the content.
Alexandre Fenyo
Direct Access:
Galleries
Madeira, Motorcycles, Holidays...
Personal
Maps & logos, Roller, Movies...
Software
Maintained, Old, Commercial...
Office
EUnet, Sun Microsystems, Bull...
GNetWatch: open-source Java network analyzer:
Commodore 64 revival:
After having started programming on a PET CBM 4032 in the late seventies, I bought a Sinclair ZX-81 in 1980 and finally sold it in 1982 to buy this wonderful Commodore 64. I'm still using it regularly more than 25 years after. Is is now connected to our new Samsung 40 inches HD-Ready flat TV: click here to read the full story...
Google Groups Never Forgets...
Thanks to Google Groups, I have recently recovered the evidence of my very first contact to the Internet, a very long time ago - it was posted on USENET, accross a 64 Kbit/s Leased Line (a MUST HAVE during this past Age). Yes, the question was stupid (see verbatim below), but it was asked more than 14 years ago from now ! Of course, nobody answered. May someone please post a follow-up today ? :-)
Date: Fri 10 jan 1992 15:51 - From: fenyo@pegase.enst.fr - ...
...and Neither Does Google Images
Thanks to Google Images, find enclosed on the left, the first computer I started to build programs on. On this PET CBM 4032, with its MOS-6502 clocked at 1 MHz, its 16 Kbytes RAM and the very efficient semi-graphics monochrome display, I implemented little games and prime number computation, using the simple BASIC interpreter embedded in ROM. It was in 1979...
VPN-over-DNS, available on Google Play
My first Android application, VPN-over-DNS, is a software shipped with an account to connect to my VPN server farm. In a few words, it lets my users tunnel data through a DNS server. Data exfiltration, for those times when everything else is blocked. DNS tunneling is simply encapsulating data over DNS queries and answers, to let two parties communicate across a network of DNS resolvers and servers. VPN-over-DNS is DNS tunneling, but it is not IP over DNS tunneling. It is directly application data (mail content or web pages) on top of Dns queries and answers. Far less layers. Moreover, data is GZIP-compressed before going to the network. Also, data is parsed and filtered to remove non-informational content: MIME attachments and HTML MIME parts inside mails, images, JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheets and Cookies on web pages are all deleted just before data is sent on the network. Such a way, traffic bandwidth is increased a lot. To perform this direct encapsulation of application data on top of DNS queries, I have had to develop and integrate an optimized native browser and an optimized simple Mail User Agent in my VPN-over-DNS application. This was the hard thing to do, because on the contrary, implementing IP over DNS wouldn't have needed me to implement any user agent. To get bandwidth and create an application that you can simply configure and use even if you are not a geek or a network engineer, I needed to re-implement user agents. That was the challenge.
Hacking an infrared key transmitter:
I often have difficulties to open our parking door at home, because of the infrared key transmitter that doesn't seem to work correctly. This transmitter, built by Valeo, is based on a Philips OM1058T chip. The system doesn't work well because the 24 bits secret key is transmitted only 3 times when you press the switch. To improve the system, I needed to build a similar electronic module, but sending the key continuously. First, I hacked the secret key with a photo-transistor and my Tektronix oscilloscope. Then I made a clone based on a general-purpose microcontroller and a common consumer infrared LED. I designed a basic board that integrates a PIC16F877 micro-controller from Microchip, an asynchronous serial interface and an I/O extension port. I uploaded the physical design files to a PCB manufacturer in China, bought the electronic parts to a local reseller and soldered the whole thing in the kitchen. Here is the result:
Universal infrared remote control
Here is my universal infrared receiver/transmitter I made to manage my TV and other multimedia devices from my DECT phone.This is the first version: an USB driven module.
This is the second version: I have integrated a wireless XBee module to connect my infrared module to my Asterisk PABX, and manage the IR commands from my DECT phones.
This is the third version: I have added a web interface. The "TNT", "Apple TV" and "DVD" buttons automatically launch advanced scripts that can switch on/off the adsl TV box, the Apple TV, or the DVD reader, adjust the volume of the Hi-Fi stereo amplifier, set the desired SCART or HDMI TV input, etc. The "Loop" and "Stop" buttons are used to loop on a set of TV channels (5 secs each), the "Volume" button is used to set the volume of the stereo amplifier and the channel names are used to change the current channel on the adsl TV box.
Electric Window Shutter
Here is my wireless to wireless interface for handling our Bubendorff electric window shutters: this is a transcoder between XBee / 802.15.4 low power wireless transmission protocol and the proprietary Bubendorff wireless automation protocol. For now, our window shutters are automatically opened and closed by means of a crontab that computes times for sunrise and sunset.
The prototype works well, so I made a production release and uploaded the physical design files to a PCB manufacturer in China: I should receive in 3 weeks. Here is the design :
Motorized Camera controlled by the telephone:
For some years, I lodge different pets at home (Cat, Chinchilla, Hamsters).
Each time I tried to phone one of them, I was unable to understand what he said : I tried but never succeeded in teaching any human language to them. So, I created this motorized camera controlled by the telephone, in order to supervise them when I'm at my office.
The system is made of 3 parts:
- 1- a private PBX based on Asterisk: this Linux PC is connected to the PSTN. When it receives a phone call, it converts DTMF signals to commands sent into an asynchronous V.24 interface (RS-232-C),
- 2- an electronic box based on a micro-controller that receives commands from a V.24 interface and is able to drive a motor (stepper),
- 3- an USB camera attached to the stepper, broadcasting to the Internet.
You will find here photos, schematics, source code and movies about this project.
Top Articles:
Electronic design: driving a 60A relay with a micro-controller
Use this device to drive a 60 Ampere relay in order to power on/off dozens of computers at once.
"new_station" patch for hostapd
Improve 802.1X authentication on wired IEEE 802 media, with this patch for hostapd.
usbdrive.exe
Copy, manipulate and erase raw data on your usb flash drive. Essential to really get privacy with your files.
Hidden VNC server
This patch for WinVNC 4 allows you to install a hidden VNC server : no more tray icon.
Raccorder son réseau d'entreprise à l'Internet
A free book about networks. First published by Eyrolles in 1997, and under terms of Creative Commons in 2006.
© A. Fenyo - F. Le Guern - S. Tardieu
IP phone to analog phone interface circuit
At work, people usually do not get an analog phone line anymore since numeric or IP phones appeared. See how to connect your old analog device (modem, wireless DECT phone, Minitel) only using your IP phone to get the network access: read this.
Very low cost 20MHz signal generator for ham radio HF power amplifiers testing
Learn how to make a 20MHz HF signal generator using a few simple discrete analog components. Moreover, see how a 33 years old Tektronix oscilloscope gives better results than a numeric one bought recently. The whole story is here.
Split tunneling with Cisco
Enabling split tunneling with Cisco IPsec VPN Linux client software is always possible: read this.
Modelling IEEE Spanning Tree protocols using an UML Class Diagram
To really understand the dependencies between the many Spanning Tree protocols, I wrote an UML class diagram describing their relationships here.
Motorized camera controlled by the telephone
This project demonstrates how to drive a camera from the telephone line, any details here.
External Links:
My Former Web Site
Since 04/26/01, I maintain a web site named www.fenyo.net. Since I made many updates recently, click here to access the original content, where old informations are kept. The photo is also from 2001 :-)
Agnes' Web Site
Agnes, my wife, maintains a web server where you will find plenty of original resources : free software from her own production, probability courses, exams' corrections, photos of her trips in the US... Do not hesitate to visit her site, she will be glad to see her access.log growing !
Canardou's Web Site
Canardou has always been for me a friend that really matters, helping me in every situation. According to informations currently available, Canardou could be affected by the H5N1 virus. So, for a few weeks, Public Health Bird Regulations have made me forbid Canardou to walk away from our appartement. Feel free to take news about him from his personal home page.
Private Links:
Mail for nuts
Authorized users at domain fenyo.net can read/send mails by means of this cute Squirrel (a friend of Canardou ?).