Etherkiller

June 21, 2005 5:30 PM

How to make friends with your IT department
posted by cbrody (20 comments total)

Sick. In the best way.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 5:59 PM on June 21, 2005

They should build one with a rotating head that cycles through various plug architectures.
posted by ori at 6:23 PM on June 21, 2005

Do they make international adapter kits for business travellers?
posted by Rothko at 6:32 PM on June 21, 2005

amazing it's not /.ed yet
posted by Mr. Gunn at 7:13 PM on June 21, 2005

Before CAT5, when Ethernet was all coax and BNC connectors, naughty users would disrupt huge loops of networks by muckin' with the cable on the back of their computer. ("I wanted to move my PC to the *other* side of my desk... again.")

We took to posting signs reading "High Voltage" around Ethernet hubs, and in the immediate proximity of repeat offenders. We made a big show of handling Ethernet cable with heavy electrical gloves. We bought cable "boots" and superglued them to the BNC connectors. Nothin'.

And then one day, quite by accident, we found a network interface card that was ever-so-slightly crossed with the power supply of whichever computer you put it in... and it packed a wallop.

From that point on, whenever we had a network offender, we dropped ol' "Sparky" in the perp's PC.

We *never* had a repeat offense.
posted by deCadmus at 7:31 PM on June 21, 2005

deCadmus is a real life BOFH. I'm indescribably jealous.
posted by gd779 at 8:29 PM on June 21, 2005

Mr. Gunn, it was. But it's older than that. The end of the article suggests it hasn't been updated since 02.
posted by aubilenon at 9:02 PM on June 21, 2005

THAT IS AWESOME.

*DOES MAD AIRGUITAR*
posted by vagus at 9:13 PM on June 21, 2005

This thread simultaneously renews my faith in geeks, MeFi, and humanity.
posted by keswick at 9:54 PM on June 21, 2005

nerd herd.
posted by cpchester at 10:19 PM on June 21, 2005

I'm not sure what I'm looking at. Is this guy basically showing us a bunch of things that will screw up electronics?
posted by eateneye at 10:22 PM on June 21, 2005

Im popping in here to say that link is old as hell.
posted by Dean Keaton at 11:35 PM on June 21, 2005

Aaah!
This is what they call "killer applications".
posted by mitocan at 12:57 AM on June 22, 2005

2002 called. It wants its... never mind.
posted by grouse at 1:22 AM on June 22, 2005

Amateurs.

Real etherkillers use the flyback transformer from an old monitor. For coax, you get get a nice 2.4GHZ microwave transmitter and run 1800W down the cable.

deCadmus: That's brilliant. I just ended up mixing ink with vaseline and smearing it on a couple of BNC Ts that people insisted on playing with. Would have loved to have Ol Sparky about.

Gawd, 10-Base-2 was such a hack. At least with 10-Base-5, it was harder to drop the whole segment.
posted by eriko at 4:54 AM on June 22, 2005

2002 called. It wants its... never mind.

... ceaseless anthropomorphization to end?
posted by sonofsamiam at 6:57 AM on June 22, 2005

Yes!
posted by grouse at 7:09 AM on June 22, 2005

Ceaseless anthropomorphization called....
posted by keswick at 7:48 AM on June 22, 2005

Why in God's name would you show this stuff to the person you buy equipment from?
posted by absalom at 1:01 PM on June 22, 2005

2002 called. It wants its haphazard html layout back.
posted by chibikeandy at 2:15 PM on June 22, 2005