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10369 discussions

Recommendations for software to use with Creative Zen MP3 player
by Chris G 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

What do the panel recommend to use with a Creative Zen MP3 player. Main requirement is to be able to download MP3s and put them onto the Zen, it's not a requirement to be able to play them on the computer. Podcast synchronisation would be a plus but lets try walking before we run. Doing this on windows has turned into a disatrous mess. -- Chris Green

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Modems and online backups: recommendations?
by Matthew 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

Hi all, Apologies for mixing topics but I have two questions that don't really warrant separate mails. I'm having terrible trouble finding an ADSL ethernet modem. I currently have a regular home-office modem/router forwarding all traffic (with NAT) to the external interface of a Debian box with a soft firewall/router, but there's some SIP testing I need to do that would rather I had only one layer of NAT. Reviews at online suppliers generally seem to consider the Netgear DM111P and the D-Link DSL300-T to be troublesome, while the Draytek Vigor 100 is so expensive that it's something of a last resort. What is everyone else using to connect Linux firewall/routers to ADSL? Can I even rely on a modem to maintain a connection suitable for remote access? I'd prefer a PPPoA-PPPoE bridge to a USB modem, although I do have a Sagem F@st kicking around that I might try. Alternatively, if anyone has had any success getting a UK Speedtouch 530v4 into a bridging mode I could try that. I've found a lot about it on the forums of Australian ISPs but the UK version of the firmware doesn't seem to support it. The second one: Can anyone recommend an online backup/storage provider that supports sensible (non-proprietary) backup protocols (e.g. rsync over ssh)? Thanks, Matthew

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Migrating RH9 legacy system to VM
by Mark Rogers 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

I have an old (but still in use) RH9 system I want to migrate to a virtual machine. One of the main reasons for doing this will be performance: a database query on an internal website which is used regularly is taking 15s on the old hardware, where the same query on the same database on a virtual machine takes well under a second... The server is only used internally but all the same I want to minimise downtime. The "normal" method I'd use would be to shut down the hardware, take an image of the drive, restore it into a virtual machine, boot it, fix any problems (eg driver issues) as necessary. Depending how long that last step takes this could mean the system is offline for quite a while. I could create an empty VM, boot it to a live CD, and rsync the whole OS data from the old system to the new one, but I'm not sure which rsync options I'd need to use to make sure the user permissions copied across correctly (I assume that since /etc/passwd will be copied across it doesn't matter that the users don't exist initially), then make the VM's disk bootable, and take it from there; all of that I could do with the other system online and then fix the problems in the VM with the old system still online, ready to re-rsync later to catch up with any changes after shutting down all services like the database etc. But (a) I'm not sure how to make the VM boot and (b) I'm not sure what else would go wrong. Any suggestions? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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new member statement
by paul 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

Hi Linux users I'm fairly new to Linux. Previously I have installed and used Ubuntu on my main P4 computer, dual booting it with XP Pro. That system became unbootable and I ended up reformating and re-installing XP Pro. I'm now looking at other distros to find better ones to use on an old Celeron 3 computer for surfing and multimedia. I like the idea of community based free software and want to get into system tweaking. I live in Norwich Best wishes Paul --------------------------------- Sent from Yahoo! - a smarter inbox.

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Nokia n800
by mbm 02 Jan '08

02 Jan '08

Guys Those of you who were interested in the Asus EEE PC may like to know that Play.com have the linux based nokia n800 internet tablet in stock at 129.99 - an astonishing price. Mick

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Where to put HTML etc.?
by Chris G 31 Dec '07

31 Dec '07

I've been changing my mind and messing about with this for years and *still* haven't really come to a sensible final conclusion. It's not even that it matters all that much but I wish there was an obvious answer. Where do you put all your HTML stuff on a home Linux server? There are two basic alternatives, each with advantages and disadvantages:- 1 - In your home directory Permissions are easy to deal with, no need to become root to edit web pages. But it means that, if the outside world has access, you have to be *very* careful with apache set up if you want to be sure only the right bits are visible to the outside world. You either have to use the ~<user> in the URL or you have to add symbolic links from apache's DocumentRoot. If there's more than one user (not in my case) /home makes more sense. Backing up is easy as the HTML gets backed up with your home directory (though there might be bits in DocumentRoot you want to back up anyway). 2 - In apache's DocumentRoot (/var/www/html in my case) Messier with permissions if you want to edit HTML without becoming root all the time. Also not so convenient for editing even with permissions set up OK as it's not in your home directory. Easier to make sure that any outside access can only see what you want to be seen. Cleaner/easier URLs without the need for symbolic links. Not really practical for multi-user but this doesn't apply for me. Need to back up separately from /home (though I suppose you could make /var/html a link across to the /home partition) I keep a lot of quite dynamic (i.e. frequently changing) files as HTML, or at least their content is web browsable, so the above issues are important for me. Does anyone have any comments, ideas, solutions? -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] In response to Microsoft ...
by Alex Scotton 30 Dec '07

30 Dec '07

Hope this circulates, not quite sure what email address I have to email! For anyone that is interested the letter is at http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-05-06-012-26-OS-SM-LL .. Can't vouch for it's integrity! but it really wouldn't surprise me if MS put a stop to the original location @ http://www.pimientolinux.com/ ... Anyways Alex On 27-Dec-07 22:19:26, Wayne Stallwood wrote: > > > > On Thu, 2007-12-27 at 18:59 +0000, Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk wrote: > >> >> Hi Folks (and apologies to anyone who receives this >> >> via more than one route), >> >> >> >> I have just enjoyed reading a letter, described as >> >> being sent from Peruvian Congressman David Villanueva >> >> NuÃ±ez to Microsoft Peru, in response tgo Microsoft's >> >> objections to a Peruvian Govt Bill mandating open-source >> >> software for all public bureaux. >> >> >> > > Interesting although am I the only person that is slightly alarmed by > > the authenticity of this given that the original sources seem to have > > vanished ? (the link in the story 404's and the frontpage of the same > > domain seems to be a standard cluster of random sponsored links) > > > > Wouldn't be the first time the reg have failed to check their sources > > :) > No, you're not! (Note that I wrote "described as ... "). The Register web page itself said "purportedly from Peruvian Congressman ... ". Nonetheless, if it was not written by a Peruvian Congressman to MicroSoft Peru, then I wish it had been! Just contemplating that possibility gives me a glow! Cheers, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 27-Dec-07 Time: 22:53:16 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ main(a)lists.alug.org.uk http://www.alug.org.uk/ http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above!

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OSS to Alsa migration for AC'97 soundcard
by Dan Hatton 29 Dec '07

29 Dec '07

Dear All, I have an Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 soundcard. In kernel 2.6.20.6, it works just fine, with the OSS sound_ich driver. However, by kernel 2.6.23.9, this has been obsoleted in favour of the ALSA snd_intel8x0 driver, and I can't get a peep out of the soundcard - for example, when I issue the command mplayer -ao alsa <ASF file that makes a sound in the old kernel> I get the sequence of error messages alsa-init: using device default alsa-lib: pcm_hw.c:1099:(snd_pcm_hw_open) open /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p failed: No such file or directory alsa-init: playback open error: No such file or directory Could not open/initialize audio device -> no sound. Audio: no sound If I try and chase the way ALSA has numbered the card with mplayer -ao alsa:device=1.0 <ASF file that makes a sound in the old kernel> I get the subtly different alsa-lib: pcm.c:2145:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM 1,0 alsa-init: playback open error: No such file or directory Could not open/initialize audio device -> no sound. Audio: no sound In both cases, there's just silence. The test facility in system-config-soundcard gives me nothing but silence, and a log that says aplay: main:546: audio open error: No such file or directory cat: /proc/asound/modules: No such file or directory Incidentally, all this is the same regardless of whether snd_intel8x0 is compiled directly into the kernel or as a module. Any ideas how to succeed in this OSS->ALSA migration, please? -- Thanks, Dan

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Re: [ALUG] Firefox
by Bev Nicolson 28 Dec '07

28 Dec '07

Well if this is so I'll hang on and upgrade. I do hope so - it will make it all much easier/less painful! Thanks, Mark. Bev. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Mark Rogers" <mark(a)quarella.co.uk> > To: ALUG <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Firefox > Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 12:21:14 +0000 > > > Wayne Stallwood wrote: > > The main problem you have now is your upgrade path is pretty complicated > > because the supported path would be Dapper>Edgy>Feisty>Gutsy which is a > > lot of effort (in reality it may be possible to skip some of those but > > the official upgrade instructions are pretty clear in stating that only > > an upgrade from the previous version is supported). I am hoping that > > there will be a direct upgrade path between LTS versions so you would be > > able to do Dapper>Hardy next April..But I wouldn't hold your breath on > > that being the case. > > > > My understanding is that this is indeed the case - 6.06LTS -> 8.04LTS > will be supported in a single step. > > I couldn't find anything "official" in a quick Google but this is a start: > http://www.mail-archive.com/ubuntu-server@lists.ubuntu.com/msg00756.html > > "Hardy will be a special release in this respect since we'll be > support upgrading from both 7.10 and 6.06. It is not trivial, but it's a > high priority for us." > > -- > Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 > Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG > > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! > -- _______________________________________________ Surf the Web in a faster, safer and easier way: Download Opera 9 at http://www.opera.com Powered by Outblaze

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Re: [ALUG] Firefox
by Bev Nicolson 28 Dec '07

28 Dec '07

It is just Firefox that freezes/stops responding. (I'm not too sure exactly what X is but nothing else appears to be affected.) As to the version of ubuntu I use, well it is the long term support version and I don't fancy the hassle of changing to something newer just yet. And why not? :¬) Bev. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Brett Parker" <iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk> > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Firefox > Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2007 00:06:10 +0000 > > > On 22 Dec 12:33, Bev Nicolson wrote: > > I'm opening myself up to many people who will say 'well use this > > browser instead' but hey.:¬) I use Firefox version 1.5.0.13pre (and > > Ubuntu 6.06 LTS) and when I have a webmail application open a bit too > > long (an hour or so say - I've not timed it) it will freeze when I try > > to sign out. I have looked for information that is specific to this > > version but while 2.0 is covered this one isn't it seems. Has anyone > > found a work around that works? > > Well, the obvious immediate question would be "why are you using a > version of Ubuntu that's over a year old". > > The second obviousy question would be: what plugins/extensions have you > got installed in firefox? Have you tried disabling them all? Does that > make a difference? > > And when you say "freeze", is it just firefox that freezes or does it > take out X while it's at it? Glancing around it appears that the issue > might have been fixed in 6.10, but being a debian user (and mostly > unstable on my own machines and etch on the workstations at work), I > haven't got an ubuntu machine to test on (or, infact, a gmail account... > why would I want my e-mail indexed by a large company that already > indexes the things that I want public anyways?). > > Thanks, > -- > Brett Parker > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! > -- _______________________________________________ Surf the Web in a faster, safer and easier way: Download Opera 9 at http://www.opera.com Powered by Outblaze

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RealPlayer for Linux
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 27 Dec '07

27 Dec '07

While I'm doing this sort of stuff ... I've tried this evening to download RealPlayer for Linux. You start at http://www.real.com and you find, of course, that the standard version of RealPlayer 11 is for Windows, so you have to click on the link for "Other versions / languages". This then takes you to a page where you can select among various language versions of RealPlayer 10 for Linux. Selecting "English" has always worked in the past for me. But, this time (and repeatedly) after a mere second or so I get a blank page and "Done" in the status bar, with apparently nothing downloaded. I'm wondering what this means for RealPlayer for Linux. I just hope they're upgrading it to RealPlayer 11,and this is just the out-time over Christmas/New Year while the transition takes place! It may just be a server glitch. But I really hope it's not a symptom that RealPlayer for Linux is being discontinued! You get the same blank result for all the other language versions of RealPlayer for Linux. But if you go to any of the Mac OS-X versions, you get a positive result. Ditto Windows. Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 27-Dec-07 Time: 23:08:16 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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In response to Microsoft ...
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 27 Dec '07

27 Dec '07

Hi Folks (and apologies to anyone who receives this via more than one route), I have just enjoyed reading a letter, described as being sent from Peruvian Congressman David Villanueva Nuñez to Microsoft Peru, in response tgo Microsoft's objections to a Peruvian Govt Bill mandating open-source software for all public bureaux. It is at: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/05/19/ ms_in_peruvian_opensource_nightmare (all one line; also at: http://tinyurl.com/3abgv ) In view of assorted difficulties with proprietary software recently experienced by our own august Lords and Masters,[1] perhaps it may be enjoyable reading for them too. Enjoy. Best wishes to all, Ted. [1] For example, the recent HMRC fiasco in which sensitive personal data of about 27,000,000 people were "lost in the post" owed much of its impact to the fact that HMRC staff were unable to extract only the data they needed from their database, unless they paid thousands (about £5,000 I think) to EDS so that EDS could provide them with a different data-selection template to what they had already. So they decided to use what they already had, which pulled out far more data than they should have pulled out. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 27-Dec-07 Time: 18:59:19 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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apache/CGI sort of ish question
by Chris G 27 Dec '07

27 Dec '07

I'm fishing around for knowledge and ideas about things that I'm not very knowledgeable about here so be gentle! :-) I'm looking for a simple direct way of dynamically converting reStructured text to HTML. I.e. I want to create text files in rst format (so they're reasonably readable "as is") and point my web browser at them and see them in HTML. I can already do this using pyBlosxom and one of its plugins but it's a rather roundabout way of achieving something simple and all the blog type extras are a nuisance. The pyBlosxom plugin uses Docutils' /usr/bin/rst2html to translate the reStructured Text to HTML, what I'm looking for is some way to tell apache that when it sees a file xxxxx.rst it should run it through /usr/bin/rst2html and display the resulting HTML. Is there a standard apache way of doing things like this? Or am I talking CGI? Or what? -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] Firefox
by Bev Nicolson 24 Dec '07

24 Dec '07

I suspect (though I don't know) that it's the RealPlayer issue again. I had trouble getting the thing to install in the offical manner. It seemed that the install file was hampering the process, or at least, to get round it meant including a Debian site in apt. so that the install prog/script/whatever-you-call-those-things was bypassed. (Suggested by someone who knows *way* more than I ever will about Ubuntu.) So, (and I know there will be those who ask 'but why RealPlayer when this (insert name of favoured multi-media program) is way better?' :¬) ) if I tried using the official RP update option, which is on offer now, would that work both as a 'get round' to the above problem (in terms of allowing me to get to 6.10) and as a program? Or is that a 'you'll just have to try it' question? Bev. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Wayne Stallwood" <ALUGlist(a)digimatic.co.uk> > To: ALUG <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Firefox > Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2007 01:49:47 +0000 > > > > On Sun, 2007-12-23 at 19:06 +0100, Bev Nicolson wrote: > > > > Well, I have actually tried what it suggested on the Ubuntu web site > > to upgrade to 6.10 but I get an error message about a Debian multi > > media package website and checking my network connection. Hmm. Still, > > I have got 7.04 so perhaps I should have go... > > Bev. > > It might be that there is a repository in your apt sources list that is > no longer available (or doesn't support 6.10). Have you added any > automated media package installers like automatix that may have messed > with your /etc/apt/sources.list ? are there any uncommented lines in > there that don't point to ubuntu.com or it's mirrors ? > > Upgrading to the 7.04 version via the CD you have may be more difficult > than upgrading to 6.10 first, I'd check the ubuntu forums before doing > that and probably suggest you do it via the repositories rather than > from a CD (if you have broadband) > > > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! > -- _______________________________________________ Surf the Web in a faster, safer and easier way: Download Opera 9 at http://www.opera.com Powered by Outblaze

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Re: [ALUG] Firefox
by Bev Nicolson 24 Dec '07

24 Dec '07

Well, I have actually tried what it suggested on the Ubuntu web site to upgrade to 6.10 but I get an error message about a Debian multi media package website and checking my network connection. Hmm. Still, I have got 7.04 so perhaps I should have go... Bev. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Wayne Stallwood" <ALUGlist(a)digimatic.co.uk> > To: ALUG <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Firefox > Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2007 16:09:48 +0000 > > > On Sun, 2007-12-23 at 15:54 +0100, Bev Nicolson wrote: > > It is just Firefox that freezes/stops responding. (I'm not too > > sure exactly what X is but nothing else appears to be affected.) > > As to the version of ubuntu I use, well it is the long term > > support version and I don't fancy the hassle of changing to > > something newer just yet. And why not? :¬) > > Bev. > > If you really don't want the (to be fair 95% of the time relatively > minor) hassle of upgrading Ubuntu every 6 months then the LTS version is > a fair choice. I use it on my home media server PC because given the > very limited set of functions that machine performs it wouldn't really > benefit from being on something newer. > > Unfortunately what you don't get on LTS is bug fixes that come as part > of new versions of key packages like firefox. A lot of > compatibility/security/stability fixes have been made to Firefox since > 1.5 and unless you want to manually update your copy or find a more > recent version in a backports repository somewhere then you may be stuck > with some bugs. > > My personal view is that the only time I would consider LTS versions for > desktop computing over more recent versions is if I was supporting a > whole office full of Ubuntu and a 6 month upgrade cycle was impractical. > In that event I would probably be creating my own packages to apply more > recent versions of things like Firefox (if they don't exist already). > That or some business critical system that I daren't touch unless there > is a specific benefit to justify my tampering (but in all fairness I > probably wouldn't be running mission critical business systems on > Ubuntu) > > The main problem you have now is your upgrade path is pretty complicated > because the supported path would be Dapper>Edgy>Feisty>Gutsy which is a > lot of effort (in reality it may be possible to skip some of those but > the official upgrade instructions are pretty clear in stating that only > an upgrade from the previous version is supported). I am hoping that > there will be a direct upgrade path between LTS versions so you would be > able to do Dapper>Hardy next April..But I wouldn't hold your breath on > that being the case. > > Also there have been some significant improvements to not only the > applications but the core systems since Dapper. Gnome has been improved > in places and now feels faster than it ever has done to me, faster boot > times, Some magic foo in Feisty/Gutsy that gives a similar performance > gain to prelinking stuff but without the hassle factor (short version > some apps start much faster), the list of application improvements is > almost endless, not to mention better hardware support etc. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! > -- _______________________________________________ Surf the Web in a faster, safer and easier way: Download Opera 9 at http://www.opera.com Powered by Outblaze

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Firefox
by Bev Nicolson 23 Dec '07

23 Dec '07

I'm opening myself up to many people who will say 'well use this browser instead' but hey.:¬) I use Firefox version 1.5.0.13pre (and Ubuntu 6.06 LTS) and when I have a webmail application open a bit too long (an hour or so say - I've not timed it) it will freeze when I try to sign out. I have looked for information that is specific to this version but while 2.0 is covered this one isn't it seems. Has anyone found a work around that works? Bev. -- _______________________________________________ Surf the Web in a faster, safer and easier way: Download Opera 9 at http://www.opera.com Powered by Outblaze

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Re: [ALUG] Firefox
by Bev Nicolson 22 Dec '07

22 Dec '07

Ted, It's webmail provided by a well known search engine. Bev. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Firefox > Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 11:46:27 -0000 (GMT) > > > On 22-Dec-07 11:33:14, Bev Nicolson wrote: > > I'm opening myself up to many people who will say 'well > > use this browser instead' but hey.:¬) I use Firefox version > > 1.5.0.13pre (and Ubuntu 6.06 LTS) and when I have a webmail > > application open a bit too long (an hour or so say - I've > > not timed it) it will freeze when I try to sign out. I have > > looked for information that is specific to this version but > > while 2.0 is covered this one isn't it seems. Has anyone > > found a work around that works? > > Bev. > > Is it a webmail site hosted by (e.g.) an ISP? It could well > be that they time you out after a certain time (e.g. 1 hour) > of inactivity. > > In that case, it would be nothing to do with your browser. > You would have been silently logged-out, while your browser > would still be displaying the logged-in page. Then, when you > try to log out, there's nothing there to log-out from. > > (Just a guess). > Ted. > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> > Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 > Date: 22-Dec-07 Time: 11:46:22 > ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! > -- _______________________________________________ Surf the Web in a faster, safer and easier way: Download Opera 9 at http://www.opera.com Powered by Outblaze

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usb adsl modem with linux driver
by Jenny Hopkins 22 Dec '07

22 Dec '07

Hullo there, Has anyone on list had a successful experience with adsl usb modem and linux? One of my clients is very keen to get a usb adsl modem, for tidiness more than anything. He bought a ZyXEL P-630-S1 and I had a look at it today. lsusb shows: "Bus 001 Device 014: ID 0586:330e ZyXEL Communications Corp" however cxacru module will support 330a and 330b but 330e is not listed. This is on a debian box kernel 2.6.18-5-k7 I'm tempted to advise sending it back and getting either a known supported one, or a traditional adsl modem router, but I'm happy to have a fight with this one if there is chance of a successful outcome. Otherwise can anyone advise a asb adsl modem they do know to work, other than the now unavailable 'speedtouch'? Thanks to all and Noodles for help on irc this morning, and thanks in advance, Polite Jenny

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Wifi again
by Barry Samuels 21 Dec '07

21 Dec '07

I'm baffled by wifi. I see people quoting ranges of over 100 feet or more with wireless access points inside buildings and I can hardly stretch to 12 feet. I've just done some tests using the following: Netgear WG602 v1 Wireless Access Point D-Link AirPlus XtremeG DWL-G520 Wireless PCI card Netgear WPN802 RangeMax Wireless Access Point Netgear WPN311 RangeMax Wireless PCI card With the units only 12 inches apart the results are: Link Quality Signal Strength WG602 + D-Link 70% -29 dbm WPN802 + D-Link 60% -38 dbm WPN802 + WPN311 77% -21 dbm Shouldn't I be getting close to 100% quality at that distance? With the units 12 feet apart (with some obstructions) the results are: Link Quality Signal Strength WG602 + D-Link 34% -61 dbm WG602 + WPN311 36% -61 dbm WPN802 + WPN311 31% -65 dbm Why should there be such a drop in quality/signal at that distance? How do other people get the range that they apparently do? What sort of range/signal do you get? I don't understand those minus figures for signal strength except that -21 is better than -61. What is the strongest signal that one can get using that notation? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Re: [ALUG] Wifi again
by Barry Samuels 21 Dec '07

21 Dec '07

On 21/12/07 16:33:54, Paul wrote: > On Friday 21 December 2007 10:49, Barry Samuels wrote: > > But seriously though - the house has wooden internal partition > > walls which include a 3 inch layer of fibreglass insulation. > > If it is a modern house using plasterboard & studwork construction, > you may well find the walls are lined with aluminium foil - Part of > the plasterboard construction & intended to improve the thermal > insulation of "new builds".. > > > Regards, Paul. Walls are lined with MDF not plasterboard and there is definitely no metal foil. I did find that the WAP in it's new room gave noticeably better performance by putting it on a shelf just 18 inches below the ceiling. Still only around 42% quality but better than before. -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Re: [ALUG] Discuss: Favourite Text / Programmer's Editor
by John Seago 21 Dec '07

21 Dec '07

On Thursday 20 December 2007, Paul Tansom <paul(a)aptanet.com> wrote: > One day I'll try Emacs, because it would be nice to actually be able to > compare it to Vim properly. All I ever do is fire it up and then find I > can't do anything, even get out, so I kill the process. I can never > remember the exit incantation! With Vi I had a short crib sheet for the > basics that got me going in minutes. I should really find one for Emacs > before I next fire it up! This might be what you're looking for. One day I'll try Emacs, because it would be nice to actually be able to compare it to Vim properly. All I ever do is fire it up and then find I can't do anything, even get out, so I kill the process. I can never remember the exit incantation! With Vi I had a short crib sheet for the basics that got me going in minutes. I should really find one for Emacs before I next fire it up! -- John Seago GNU/Linux Registered User No. #219566 http://counter.li.org/ () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail - against microsoft attachments /\

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Ethernet and telephone cables
by Barry Samuels 20 Dec '07

20 Dec '07

Does anyone know if it would be possible to use an existing internal telephone cable as an ethernet cable by changing the faceplates on the sockets? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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usb adsl modem with linux driver
by Peter Alcibiades 20 Dec '07

20 Dec '07

Jenny, I've not tried this, but it claims to be Linux compatible. Happened to come across it the other day when looking for something else. Might be worth a try? Fairly cheap. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135659 "Works with any desktop or laptop computer operating system that supports a USB port, including Windows, Macintosh and Linux" Its a sort of dongle like the usb to ethernet dongles. Peter

2 1

Discuss: Favourite Text / Programmer's Editor
by samwise 18 Dec '07

18 Dec '07

Hey, We touched on this briefly last night after the question was asked about the best Linux replacement for UltraEdit, but we didn't really get into it as we were all getting ready to stuff ourselves with Hoi Sin sauce. I thought it'd make an interesting thread. So, suggestions for favourite editors. Without getting into a flame war between vi and emacs ... what editor do you prefer for light-weight editing? i.e. not a full IDE like eclipse or KDevelop, but just for the little jobs of editing small text files. I use nano on my very old gentoo box, which is a nice console based editor that is more user friendly than vi/emacs (tho, naturally, less feature rich). I generally rely on vi for console-based editing on other machines. As for the GUI-based ones, I tried gVim but just found it too much hard work. I have run Crimson Editor under WINE for a while because it has lots more features than Kate or KWrite. I'll accept that Crimson Editor is somewhat stagnant (the replacement Emerald Editor appears to be stuck in development hell) and Notepad++ under WINE might be a better choice, but I haven't taken the time to play with it properly. So, anyone got any other favourites worth trying? Does anyone know of a native Linux GUI app that can compete with UltraEdit et al? Peter.

13 26

IP load balancing
by Yvonne Everett 18 Dec '07

18 Dec '07

Hello Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations for IP load balancing web services on RHEL 4 systems? -- Yvonne Everett Email: ye103910(a)googlemail.com

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