Lewis
Member
Hackers aren't magicians; they just like having things their way. To make your computer, Apple TV, or other device work for you doesn't require smoke and mirrorsâ€â€you just need the right know-how.
Once upon a time, the hacker was a pale, solitary nerd. Armed with his 300-baud modem, soldering iron, and Atari 800, he coded and hacked his way into phone systems, networks, and anywhere else he wasn't supposed to go. The hacker may have been portrayed as socially awkward, but he knew what he wanted and wore his credo on his sleeve for all to see: "Why settle?" Today, you can take the hacker's place. Except for socially, you're just like him; you think the same way he does. After all, you're smarter than most people, you're adept, and you know what you want. Whether it's a faster computer, more features and options, or merely to tinker in order to learn how something works, you hold fast to the same beliefs as the hacker. Today, the hacker is you
Hack Your Registry
Just about everything that is important about your Microsoft Windows configuration is stored in the Registry somewhere. It's like a magic level underneath your computer's ordinary reality. Muggles can make only the changes that Microsoft has exposed in this or that configuration window. But Registry wizards can go straight to the source and hack the underlying system. Join them! To see what's in the Registry, just click Start | Run and enter REGEDIT; it's all right there in the Registry Editor. If you're using Windows XP, the editor will launch smoothly. But standard users in Windows Vista will have to get an Administrator to enter a password before the Registry Editor will launch. Once active, you'll see that it's just like navigating in Windows Explorer, with keys and values taking the roles of files and folders.
Look all you want, but before you touch anything, make a backup. First, export the whole Registry, then back up just the key that contains the things you're going to change. Right-click the key, choose Export, and export just that key to a REG file. Give the REG file a name that matches what you're doing. Now if you don't like the results of your hack, you can just launch that file to put things back the way they were. Well, almostâ€â€you'll have to manually delete any keys or values that you added to the system.
Do watch out for compatibility, however. A tip that works for Windows 95/98/ME may not be useful in Windows 2000/XP/Vista, or vice versa. And a tip written for a pre-Vista OS may be irrelevant under Vista. That's why you need to be sure you can undo whatever you've done.
Find Hidden Goodies With Google
Most people think of Google as a mechanical claw toy: They use it to fish a specific piece of information out of the giant pool of data we know as the Web. But turn that thinking upside down and you can see the hidden utility of the service. Rather than trolling for specific bits of data, search for specific kinds of data and you'll uncover all sorts of cool things.
For example, Panasonic's networked webcams are controlled remotely through URLs that contain the text string ViewerFrame?Mode=. So type inurl:ViewerFrame?Mode= into Google's search field and you'll return all Panasonic cameras online. Better still, you'll log directly in to Panasonic camera control pages, which let you remotely pan and zoom the camera you've discovered. Sweet, huh? The Axis 2400, a very popular webcam, contains an embedded Web server that you can search for in much the same way. Simply search Google for inurl:indexFrame.shtml Axis and you'll find the Web page for the very controllable camera. You can find hundreds of webcams online this way. Neat! Next, try searching for some photos. But again, don't search for a picture of a specific person, such as Paris Hilton or Daisuke Matsuzaka (the Red Sox's new ace pitcher). Instead, search for DSC00001.jpg, the default name for the first photo taken by a Sony digital camera, or IMG_0001.jpg, Canon's equivalent. This search will turn up the very first efforts of shutterbugs-to-be. Do you recall the first picture you took with your new camera?
To be fair, Google is great for finding specific bits of information, tooâ€â€most of the time. Take Google Maps, for example, which lets you track down a photograph of your home using satellite map imagery. But for most places in the U.S., it seems as if Google just won't get close enough. (Although in the limited launch of city-level images, Google often gets too close, revealing license plates and glimpses into homes!) To zoom those satellite maps even closer, click the "Link to this page" hyperlink in the top right of the map. Near the end of the URL Google presents you with are the characters z=19, code for the zoom level of the map. Try increasing that number to 20, 21, or even 22 for a much higher zoom effect. It won't work everywhere, but it just might help you zero in on your info. â€â€
Insta-Hack: Clean Up Your Motherboard
Motherboard manufacturers are pack rats. Something new catches their eyeâ€â€such as HDMI or eSATAâ€â€and they've just got to add it to their next board. But invariably, these are additions without subtractions; today's most current boards carry legacy serial and parallel ports, and many have audio, video, and networking outputs that you're just not using. Each extra feature shares IRQs, potentially causing conflicts. To turn them off, reboot your PC and enter the BIOS, usually by pressing the Delete or F2 key; look for a menu titled Peripheral Configuration (or something similar). You can disable anything you aren't using with the push of a button. Save, reboot, sigh, and move on to the clutter on your desktop.
Play All Your Files on Your Apple TV
The Apple TV is a nifty media extender that lets you view and play your iTunes library on your TV (widescreens only). Think of it as an iPod for TV: It's loaded with a fun and friendly interface but is selective about what types of video it can play. To tailor the Apple TV to your taste and open up more viewing options, add support for DivX and Xvid (popular video formats) playback.
The hack takes no more than an hour. First you remove the Apple TV's hard drive and plug it into an Intel-based Mac, or even a Windows PC running MacDrive. Opening the Apple TV is quite easy, but have Torx screwdrivers with T9 and T10 heads handy to unscrew the bottom of the unit and remove its hard drive. Once the drive is out, use an IDE-to-USB cable to connect it to the USB port on your computer. When it's connected, two new drives will pop up on your desktop (two because of the way the hard disk is partitioned). On your Apple PC, you can then launch Terminal, a program that will let you edit the operating system to enable SSH (Secure Shell) on the Apple TV's hard drive. See the detailed walk-through on our Web site at go.pcmag.com/hackappleTV for the exact commands.
Put the Apple TV back together again; it's better than new! Now that SSH is enabled, the DivX and Xvid codecs (and other files, for that matter) can be added via an SCP (Secure Copy Protocol) client. Consider the open-source WinSCP for Windows or Fugu for Macs. (One thing to watch out for: You must force version 1 of the SCP protocol in your client, an option on the Settings tab.) Simply drop a DivX or Xvid file into the movies directory on the Apple TV's hard drive, using the SCP client and, voilà, a "files" entry will appear in the main menu that will list your DivX and Xvid files.
If you're still hungry for more, there's no reason to stop. There are plug-ins that add features such as weather, sports scores, and RSS feeds. In our testing, some worked, but others crashed the Apple TV (don't panic, just use SCP to link to the Apple TV and delete the plug-in files from the hard drive). Visit http://www.appletvhacks.net for ideas. â€â€
Open Up Your Cable Box
As mysterious black boxes go, the cable box is a doozy. It runs an unidentified, proprietary operating system, contains hidden menus with codes only service technicians can understand, and is hot to the touch even when unused, meaning that it's doing something, though who knows what. But most are built from ordinary, off-the-shelf hardware components, and they can do fun things you might not know about.
All new boxes have FireWire ports that let you add external storage, thanks to a federal requirement from 2004. Some even have eSATA ports for faster data throughput. Adding storage is fine, but FireWire is good for a lot more. For example, you can connect a laptop directly to your cable box through that port and record and save digital shows directly to your PC. Unfortunately, the drivers and port activation commands are as tightly controlled as that black box itself.
Here's how to do it: First, download drivers for your set-top box. Each cable box is slightly different, but you'll probably find the appropriate drivers at AV Science Forum (http://www.avsforum.com), along with a wealth of information. Plug the box into your PC (via the FireWire port) and the "Found New Hardware" wizard should pop up, revealing several mysterious devices. Cancel the driver installation for the first item, an "unknown device." Install the other two, using the drivers you just downloaded, and the box should show up in your device manager as a "Tuner AV/C Device." Now capture the live video feed from your FireWire port using a program such as CapDVHS or even Vista's built-in Media Center software. Copy-protected content can't be recorded, however. â€â€
Alpha Geeks Only! Rewrite Your BIOS...
The BIOS is a fundamental fact of modern computing. Short for Basic Input/Output System, it's the enabler of your computer's hardware, turning on or off various functions and devices during the POST process before relinquishing control to the operating system. This system has been around for decades and carries many legacy compatibility requirementsâ€â€and because of this, it's very resistant to change. That's why many computers had trouble recognizing partitions bigger than 8.4GB a little while back, and why you won't be able to plug a CableCard device into your computer today. (Incidentally, today's Apple PCs use a more modern technology called Extensible Firmware Interface. Unlike the BIOS, EFI is not tied into the x86 architecture; see http://www.uefi.org for more information.)
When a PC manufacturer releases a new system, the company incorporates a customized version of a popular BIOS, usually from AMI or Phoenix. Often featuresâ€â€such as the ability to adjust the motherboard's bus ratios, the voltages going to certain components, and the timings and speedsâ€â€are turned off and hidden from view. These settings are hidden for a reason: They're dangerous. Setting them incorrectly could overstress, disable, or even permanently damage your computer.
Nevertheless, a small community of dedicated enthusiasts has devoted years to building tools that will let you edit your BIOS. Though it is no longer supported, one of the most full-featured is called, simply enough, Award BIOS Editor, and it's available from awdbedit.sourceforge.net. The program lets you unpack, replace, and repack a BIOS image, changing settings and tweaking along the way. But be careful, for Mitnick's sake! Any changes you make, however small, can easily turn your PC into a paperweight
..And Your Graphics Card Drivers
Most users are familiar with driversâ€â€the code that links an operating system to a piece of hardware. Every component in your system needs one to communicate with your applications. But drivers are written with the whole world of users in mind, whereas you might have a somewhat different set of needs, right? That's why hackers such as Omega and NGO craft custom video card drivers that sacrifice compatibility and stability in favor of speed, speed, and more speed.
Don't bother rewriting graphics drivers on your own. Simply download the latest version of Omega or NGO from the Guru of 3D's Web site, http://www.guru3d.com. Omega's creator aims to add more options and features, improving the speed of the system and the gaming experience; NGO concentrates on gaming performance too, of course, but also throws a nod to image quality and compatibility. At heart, both attempt to improve gaming.
Will it help? To find out, we built a PC using an Intel Core 2 Duo 6700, 2GB of fast, PC2-6400 DDR2 RAM, and an ATI Radeon X1900 graphics card and loaded Windows XP onto it. Then we downloaded the most recent hacked drivers from NGOHQ.com. Using ATI's official Catalyst 7.3 drivers, the system scored 5,641 on 3DMark06, the standard benchmark test for gamers. Using the NGO optimized 1.7.3 drivers, we scored 5,693. Bring on the games!
Wicked super-advanced users: Just as PCs rely upon BIOS files to moderate the conversation between operating system and hardware, graphics cards use a video BIOS file to much the same end. And, of course, you can hack it. Using any of a number of free programs, such as the aptly titled nVidia BIOS Modifier, you can edit voltage levels, the reactivity of the thermosensor, and even the chip ID itself, forcing the hardware to act as if it were a faster chip. It's not designed for this, meaning you could destroy your card. So we don't recommend that you try this, but isn't it neat to know you could? â€â€
Don't Hack Your Cable Modem
Most cable service providers offer several tiers of service, with speeds varying from lows of 1.5 Mbps (boo!) to a freefall-like 30 Mbps (yay!). In order to create these different levels of service, providers cap your modem's speed, using the device's firmware. When your modem signs into the network, that level is confirmed with monitoring equipment at the head end. Sure, these speeds are all theoretical. But there's one intriguing fact: Unless you're paying through the nose, your current modem can go faster.
There's an excellent new book from No Starch Press called Hacking the Cable Modem: What Cable Companies Don't Want You to Know, written by a hacker known only as DerEngel. The book outlines several techniques for discovering crucial information about your modem (such as the name of its config file), walks you through DerEngel's methodology as he hacked generations of DOCSIS modems, and even provides schematics for helping you hack the popular Motorola 5100 modem.
Nonetheless, we recommend the book for educational reasons only. Why? Because bumping up your modem's speed this way translates to theft of service. And we don't advocate stealing, in any form. Want to know more about how the entire cable-modem infrastructure works? Check out the book. Want faster Internet service? Pay for it (but check out the facts from our real-world ISP speed-test results.
http://www.pcmagazine.com
Once upon a time, the hacker was a pale, solitary nerd. Armed with his 300-baud modem, soldering iron, and Atari 800, he coded and hacked his way into phone systems, networks, and anywhere else he wasn't supposed to go. The hacker may have been portrayed as socially awkward, but he knew what he wanted and wore his credo on his sleeve for all to see: "Why settle?" Today, you can take the hacker's place. Except for socially, you're just like him; you think the same way he does. After all, you're smarter than most people, you're adept, and you know what you want. Whether it's a faster computer, more features and options, or merely to tinker in order to learn how something works, you hold fast to the same beliefs as the hacker. Today, the hacker is you
Hack Your Registry
Just about everything that is important about your Microsoft Windows configuration is stored in the Registry somewhere. It's like a magic level underneath your computer's ordinary reality. Muggles can make only the changes that Microsoft has exposed in this or that configuration window. But Registry wizards can go straight to the source and hack the underlying system. Join them! To see what's in the Registry, just click Start | Run and enter REGEDIT; it's all right there in the Registry Editor. If you're using Windows XP, the editor will launch smoothly. But standard users in Windows Vista will have to get an Administrator to enter a password before the Registry Editor will launch. Once active, you'll see that it's just like navigating in Windows Explorer, with keys and values taking the roles of files and folders.
Look all you want, but before you touch anything, make a backup. First, export the whole Registry, then back up just the key that contains the things you're going to change. Right-click the key, choose Export, and export just that key to a REG file. Give the REG file a name that matches what you're doing. Now if you don't like the results of your hack, you can just launch that file to put things back the way they were. Well, almostâ€â€you'll have to manually delete any keys or values that you added to the system.
Do watch out for compatibility, however. A tip that works for Windows 95/98/ME may not be useful in Windows 2000/XP/Vista, or vice versa. And a tip written for a pre-Vista OS may be irrelevant under Vista. That's why you need to be sure you can undo whatever you've done.
Find Hidden Goodies With Google
Most people think of Google as a mechanical claw toy: They use it to fish a specific piece of information out of the giant pool of data we know as the Web. But turn that thinking upside down and you can see the hidden utility of the service. Rather than trolling for specific bits of data, search for specific kinds of data and you'll uncover all sorts of cool things.
For example, Panasonic's networked webcams are controlled remotely through URLs that contain the text string ViewerFrame?Mode=. So type inurl:ViewerFrame?Mode= into Google's search field and you'll return all Panasonic cameras online. Better still, you'll log directly in to Panasonic camera control pages, which let you remotely pan and zoom the camera you've discovered. Sweet, huh? The Axis 2400, a very popular webcam, contains an embedded Web server that you can search for in much the same way. Simply search Google for inurl:indexFrame.shtml Axis and you'll find the Web page for the very controllable camera. You can find hundreds of webcams online this way. Neat! Next, try searching for some photos. But again, don't search for a picture of a specific person, such as Paris Hilton or Daisuke Matsuzaka (the Red Sox's new ace pitcher). Instead, search for DSC00001.jpg, the default name for the first photo taken by a Sony digital camera, or IMG_0001.jpg, Canon's equivalent. This search will turn up the very first efforts of shutterbugs-to-be. Do you recall the first picture you took with your new camera?
To be fair, Google is great for finding specific bits of information, tooâ€â€most of the time. Take Google Maps, for example, which lets you track down a photograph of your home using satellite map imagery. But for most places in the U.S., it seems as if Google just won't get close enough. (Although in the limited launch of city-level images, Google often gets too close, revealing license plates and glimpses into homes!) To zoom those satellite maps even closer, click the "Link to this page" hyperlink in the top right of the map. Near the end of the URL Google presents you with are the characters z=19, code for the zoom level of the map. Try increasing that number to 20, 21, or even 22 for a much higher zoom effect. It won't work everywhere, but it just might help you zero in on your info. â€â€
Insta-Hack: Clean Up Your Motherboard
Motherboard manufacturers are pack rats. Something new catches their eyeâ€â€such as HDMI or eSATAâ€â€and they've just got to add it to their next board. But invariably, these are additions without subtractions; today's most current boards carry legacy serial and parallel ports, and many have audio, video, and networking outputs that you're just not using. Each extra feature shares IRQs, potentially causing conflicts. To turn them off, reboot your PC and enter the BIOS, usually by pressing the Delete or F2 key; look for a menu titled Peripheral Configuration (or something similar). You can disable anything you aren't using with the push of a button. Save, reboot, sigh, and move on to the clutter on your desktop.
Play All Your Files on Your Apple TV
The Apple TV is a nifty media extender that lets you view and play your iTunes library on your TV (widescreens only). Think of it as an iPod for TV: It's loaded with a fun and friendly interface but is selective about what types of video it can play. To tailor the Apple TV to your taste and open up more viewing options, add support for DivX and Xvid (popular video formats) playback.
The hack takes no more than an hour. First you remove the Apple TV's hard drive and plug it into an Intel-based Mac, or even a Windows PC running MacDrive. Opening the Apple TV is quite easy, but have Torx screwdrivers with T9 and T10 heads handy to unscrew the bottom of the unit and remove its hard drive. Once the drive is out, use an IDE-to-USB cable to connect it to the USB port on your computer. When it's connected, two new drives will pop up on your desktop (two because of the way the hard disk is partitioned). On your Apple PC, you can then launch Terminal, a program that will let you edit the operating system to enable SSH (Secure Shell) on the Apple TV's hard drive. See the detailed walk-through on our Web site at go.pcmag.com/hackappleTV for the exact commands.
Put the Apple TV back together again; it's better than new! Now that SSH is enabled, the DivX and Xvid codecs (and other files, for that matter) can be added via an SCP (Secure Copy Protocol) client. Consider the open-source WinSCP for Windows or Fugu for Macs. (One thing to watch out for: You must force version 1 of the SCP protocol in your client, an option on the Settings tab.) Simply drop a DivX or Xvid file into the movies directory on the Apple TV's hard drive, using the SCP client and, voilà, a "files" entry will appear in the main menu that will list your DivX and Xvid files.
If you're still hungry for more, there's no reason to stop. There are plug-ins that add features such as weather, sports scores, and RSS feeds. In our testing, some worked, but others crashed the Apple TV (don't panic, just use SCP to link to the Apple TV and delete the plug-in files from the hard drive). Visit http://www.appletvhacks.net for ideas. â€â€
Open Up Your Cable Box
As mysterious black boxes go, the cable box is a doozy. It runs an unidentified, proprietary operating system, contains hidden menus with codes only service technicians can understand, and is hot to the touch even when unused, meaning that it's doing something, though who knows what. But most are built from ordinary, off-the-shelf hardware components, and they can do fun things you might not know about.
All new boxes have FireWire ports that let you add external storage, thanks to a federal requirement from 2004. Some even have eSATA ports for faster data throughput. Adding storage is fine, but FireWire is good for a lot more. For example, you can connect a laptop directly to your cable box through that port and record and save digital shows directly to your PC. Unfortunately, the drivers and port activation commands are as tightly controlled as that black box itself.
Here's how to do it: First, download drivers for your set-top box. Each cable box is slightly different, but you'll probably find the appropriate drivers at AV Science Forum (http://www.avsforum.com), along with a wealth of information. Plug the box into your PC (via the FireWire port) and the "Found New Hardware" wizard should pop up, revealing several mysterious devices. Cancel the driver installation for the first item, an "unknown device." Install the other two, using the drivers you just downloaded, and the box should show up in your device manager as a "Tuner AV/C Device." Now capture the live video feed from your FireWire port using a program such as CapDVHS or even Vista's built-in Media Center software. Copy-protected content can't be recorded, however. â€â€
Alpha Geeks Only! Rewrite Your BIOS...
The BIOS is a fundamental fact of modern computing. Short for Basic Input/Output System, it's the enabler of your computer's hardware, turning on or off various functions and devices during the POST process before relinquishing control to the operating system. This system has been around for decades and carries many legacy compatibility requirementsâ€â€and because of this, it's very resistant to change. That's why many computers had trouble recognizing partitions bigger than 8.4GB a little while back, and why you won't be able to plug a CableCard device into your computer today. (Incidentally, today's Apple PCs use a more modern technology called Extensible Firmware Interface. Unlike the BIOS, EFI is not tied into the x86 architecture; see http://www.uefi.org for more information.)
When a PC manufacturer releases a new system, the company incorporates a customized version of a popular BIOS, usually from AMI or Phoenix. Often featuresâ€â€such as the ability to adjust the motherboard's bus ratios, the voltages going to certain components, and the timings and speedsâ€â€are turned off and hidden from view. These settings are hidden for a reason: They're dangerous. Setting them incorrectly could overstress, disable, or even permanently damage your computer.
Nevertheless, a small community of dedicated enthusiasts has devoted years to building tools that will let you edit your BIOS. Though it is no longer supported, one of the most full-featured is called, simply enough, Award BIOS Editor, and it's available from awdbedit.sourceforge.net. The program lets you unpack, replace, and repack a BIOS image, changing settings and tweaking along the way. But be careful, for Mitnick's sake! Any changes you make, however small, can easily turn your PC into a paperweight
..And Your Graphics Card Drivers
Most users are familiar with driversâ€â€the code that links an operating system to a piece of hardware. Every component in your system needs one to communicate with your applications. But drivers are written with the whole world of users in mind, whereas you might have a somewhat different set of needs, right? That's why hackers such as Omega and NGO craft custom video card drivers that sacrifice compatibility and stability in favor of speed, speed, and more speed.
Don't bother rewriting graphics drivers on your own. Simply download the latest version of Omega or NGO from the Guru of 3D's Web site, http://www.guru3d.com. Omega's creator aims to add more options and features, improving the speed of the system and the gaming experience; NGO concentrates on gaming performance too, of course, but also throws a nod to image quality and compatibility. At heart, both attempt to improve gaming.
Will it help? To find out, we built a PC using an Intel Core 2 Duo 6700, 2GB of fast, PC2-6400 DDR2 RAM, and an ATI Radeon X1900 graphics card and loaded Windows XP onto it. Then we downloaded the most recent hacked drivers from NGOHQ.com. Using ATI's official Catalyst 7.3 drivers, the system scored 5,641 on 3DMark06, the standard benchmark test for gamers. Using the NGO optimized 1.7.3 drivers, we scored 5,693. Bring on the games!
Wicked super-advanced users: Just as PCs rely upon BIOS files to moderate the conversation between operating system and hardware, graphics cards use a video BIOS file to much the same end. And, of course, you can hack it. Using any of a number of free programs, such as the aptly titled nVidia BIOS Modifier, you can edit voltage levels, the reactivity of the thermosensor, and even the chip ID itself, forcing the hardware to act as if it were a faster chip. It's not designed for this, meaning you could destroy your card. So we don't recommend that you try this, but isn't it neat to know you could? â€â€
Don't Hack Your Cable Modem
Most cable service providers offer several tiers of service, with speeds varying from lows of 1.5 Mbps (boo!) to a freefall-like 30 Mbps (yay!). In order to create these different levels of service, providers cap your modem's speed, using the device's firmware. When your modem signs into the network, that level is confirmed with monitoring equipment at the head end. Sure, these speeds are all theoretical. But there's one intriguing fact: Unless you're paying through the nose, your current modem can go faster.
There's an excellent new book from No Starch Press called Hacking the Cable Modem: What Cable Companies Don't Want You to Know, written by a hacker known only as DerEngel. The book outlines several techniques for discovering crucial information about your modem (such as the name of its config file), walks you through DerEngel's methodology as he hacked generations of DOCSIS modems, and even provides schematics for helping you hack the popular Motorola 5100 modem.
Nonetheless, we recommend the book for educational reasons only. Why? Because bumping up your modem's speed this way translates to theft of service. And we don't advocate stealing, in any form. Want to know more about how the entire cable-modem infrastructure works? Check out the book. Want faster Internet service? Pay for it (but check out the facts from our real-world ISP speed-test results.
http://www.pcmagazine.com