Cheops Network User Interface (the choice of a New Generation)
=============================
Copyright (C) 1999, Brent Priddy
<toopriddy@mailcity.com http://www.linuxcarcam.com>

What is Cheops-ng?
---------------
Cheops-ng is a network "swiss army knife".  It's "network neighborhood" done right
(or gone out of control, depending on your perspective).  It's a combination
of a variety of network tools to provide system adminstrators and users with
a simple interface to managing and accessing their networks.  Cheops-ng aims to
do for the network what the file manager did for the filesystem.

Additionally, cheops-ng has taken on the role of a network management system,
in the same category as one might put HP Openview.

Cheops was originally written by Mark Spencer, and was being sponsored
greatly by Adtran, Inc. Cheops-ng is a full remake of cheops and is authored 
by Brent Priddy, the current maintainer.

Location:
---------
http://cheops-ng.sourceforge.net    (home page)

But reports can be e-mailed to me (Brent Priddy) at toopriddy@mailcity.com, but
any questions answered in the FAQ at the main cheops-ng page will not be
answered.  Suggestions and ideas for improving it are welcomed.

Supported OS's
--------------
(if you want to add to this list, just give me a patch for your changes, or
 and account on your machine :)
Linux
FreeBSD


Requirements:
-------------
locations are sited below

 gnome
 gnome-xml >= 1.8.0
 glib >= 1.2.0
 glib-devel >= 1.2.0
 imlib >= 1.9.0
 imlib-devel >= 1.9.0
 nmap > 2.54BETA30
 libpthread
 libgnome-devel
 gnome-libs-devel
 libpng-devel
 esound-devel
 gnomecanvas-devel
 libxml-devel

For FreeBSD only (in addition)
 linuxthreads
 gmake

Build:
------

./configure
make
make install # this is optional

(for FreeBSD use gmake instead of make)

You may wish to make the cheops-agent/-ng executable setuid root, but it may be 
possible for users to obtain raw network sockets, should bugs exist in 
gtk and/or gnome.

Run: 
----
Run "cheops-agent -n" (or "./cheops-agent -n" if you did not do the "install" part).  
The "agent" has command line options:
(-l is  broken dont use it)     -l    use a local socket for the client to connect
     -n    use a listener socket on the hostname

If you do not have any command line options specified the agent will
start up using the local AND network options. This "agent" is the heart of
cheops-ng, it does the discovering, OS detection, port scanning...

To run the gui type "cheops-ng" (or "./cheops-ng").  This is the actual client
program. It will try the local port created on the server then, if no luck,
it will ask you for the ip/hostname of the server.


Virtually everything is configured via the graphical interface.  After
discovering hosts, right clicking on them will give you a list of possible
choices.

Mechanics/Features:
-------------------

* Simple ICMP "ping" packets are used to initially search a network for
  hosts that are alive.

* Domain Name Transfers are used to list hosts in a domain (adns)

* OS detection is done using invalid flags on TCP packets and the port
  scanning is also used for OS detection (nmap)

* Mapping is done using UDP (or optionally ICMP) packets with small
  time-to-live values (traceroute and mtr, respectively)

* Service Identification using "banner grabbing" and standard port
  information

Soon to come:
* Monitoring is done using normal connect() sequences using sets of chained
  stages centerd around the gtk_input_add routine.

Notes:
------

This *IS NOT* designed to be a hacker tool, and you *MAY NOT* use it to
explore domains you do not have authorization to access.  I do not take any
responsibility for use of this tool on unauthorized domains!  Be aware that
cheops is not stealthy and that using it on a remote network, it will be
very obvious that you are doing so!

Distribution is governed by the GPL, included in this archive.

Credits/Acknowlagements:
--------
nmap:      http://www.insecure.org/nmap
adns:      http://www.gnu.org/software/adns
ethereal:  http://ethereal.zing.org