Open Transport Tuner released to prevent Macintosh DoS Flood Attack:<br>Software itself appears to cause Internet connection pro

12/28/99: Open Transport Tuner 1.0 "switches off an option in Open Transport that would cause a Macintosh to respond to certain small network packets with a large Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) packet. This update prevents Macintosh computers from being the cause of certain types of Denial of Service (DOS) issues."

An Altanta Constitution story explains the security threat that prompted the release of this software. (Thanks, Dave Kupiec.) Also see this Macintosh DoS Flood Attack page. (Thanks, Jeff Hanson.)

However, the Mac Night Owl claims that the Tuner itself may create problems with dial-up Internet access. Robby West confirms: "I installed OT Tuner on two machines, an 8500/G3 and a Blue and White G3, both running OS 9. Alas, after restarting both TCP/IP Services were not responding. Double checking the static IP configuration proved everything was correct. Uninstalling OT Tuner restored TCP/IP Services."

12/30/99: We have now received several dozen emails on OT Tuner, all of them describing some sort of problem maintaining an Internet connection after installing the software. The problems were not limited to dial-up connections, but extended to cable modem and DSL connections as well. The most common symptom was a "Can not create an open socket" error. One reader reported AirPort Utility crashes linked to OT Tuner.