Workaround identd requirement over AirPort

Jan 11, '03 11:32:15AM

Contributed by: yosithezet

identd is a user identification protocol specific in RFP1413 which many applications require, even though it is untrustworthy and useless and easy to get around. That said, many applications will require that a valid response is received in order to work properly. In my case, it was IRC (Internet Relay Chat) servers.

Normally you can enter a Terminal session and use pico with sudo to edit the /etc/inetd.conf to change the line

#ident stream tcp wait root /usr/libexec/tcpd identd -w -t120
to
auth stream tcp wait root /usr/libexec/tcpd identd -w -t120
However, when you are using an AirPort base station, the process your are responding to won't like the IP address it is getting back. An easy solution is to install Brian Young's nullidentd. Read the rest of the article for the how-to...

I did the following:

  1. Download the file from the site above and drop it on StuffitExpander

  2. Open a Terminal window and change directies to the nullidentd-1.0 directory

  3. Type sudo mkdir /usr/local/sbin (if it doesn't exist).

  4. sudo make install

  5. sudo pico /etc/inetd.conf

  6. Replace:
    auth stream tcp wait root /usr/libexec/tcpd identd -w -t120
    with
    auth    stream  tcp     nowait  nobody /usr/local/sbin/nullidentd nullidentd
  7. Reboot or sudo -HUP `cat /var/run/inetd.pid`

  8. Open up an application that requires identd and it should work with no problem
[Editor's note: I have not tested this one myself.]

Comments (11)


Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20030111083215373