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Linux Lives
by tom potts 05 Aug '05

05 Aug '05

Not that I thought it would die but: http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/688 and http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20050804095846895 ___________________________________________________________ To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com

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Playing video DVD's
by Peter Hunter 05 Aug '05

05 Aug '05

Hi everyone, I hope someone can help me with this. I am running Mandriver LE 2005 with the Gnome desktop. I decided it would be nice to play a dvd, but when I load a dvd movie I get the playing window comes up, and then an error message, which says: DVD - Error Code "The source seems encrypted, and can't be read. Are you trying to play an encrypted DVD without libdvdcss?" I have done a search for 'libdvdcss' but can't find it, and don't know what it is anyway. Can anyone help me to solve this problem? and (hopefully) help me to be able to play dvd's. mtia Peter

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Problems with tar
by Stuart Bailey 04 Aug '05

04 Aug '05

I'm using a SCSI 72Gb tape drive on a Fedora Core3 system which has recently been updated with the latest kernel (about 2 weeks ago). The tape backup (using tar -cf /dev/st0 ...) had been working fine - for about 5 months, and was used to restore data at that time. I have just discovered that the backup has been failing recently. When I run tar -cvf /dev/st0 ... only 2048 bytes are backed up before this message is displayed: tar: /dev/st0: Wrote only 2048 of 10240 bytes tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now If I then run tar -tvf /dev/st0, I get all the files upto the point at which the error message was generated. Any ideas what may have gone wrong? Are there any tools to run diagnostics on the tape unit? Many thanks Stuart -- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Proprietor) Linux Specialist (01953) 601294 (07778) 383739 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ---------------------------------------- ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please email postmaster(a)linusoft.co.uk immediately. You should not copy or use this email or attachments for any purpose nor disclose their contents to any other person. NO BINDING CONTRACT WILL RESULT FROM THIS E-MAIL UNTIL SUCH TIME AS A WRITTEN DOCUMENT IS SIGNED ON BEHALF OF LinuSoft. LinuSoft cannot accept any responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of this message as it has been transmitted over public networks. *************************************************************************

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Migrate apps from Internet Explorer to Mozilla
by tom potts 02 Aug '05

02 Aug '05

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-ie2mozgd/ looks interesting ___________________________________________________________ How much free photo storage do you get? Store your holiday snaps for FREE with Yahoo! Photos http://uk.photos.yahoo.com

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 01 Aug '05

01 Aug '05

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include tkirc, bitchx, xchat and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://freshmeat.net/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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Advance needed on DVD rewriters and buying components online
by Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. 30 Jul '05

30 Jul '05

I have questions on two areas. The first is a recommendation for a good producer of DVD Rewriters. Most seem to support all the formats including dual layer. I'm planning to use only DVD+RW really. By good, I mean regular firmware and driver updates, excellent build quality and reliability. Normal stuff really :) At present, I am looking at either Sony or Plextor. Do you agree? I had bad experiences with Philips (the unit died after 1 week) and the usual OEM unbranded poop. The second item is a recommendation for a good online source of components. You know, a company with a real returns policy and good support :) All of my local companies in Norwich, even Anglian Internet, have annoyed me to the point where I don't want to do business with them any more. AI used to be good, but my last two visits to their shop left a bad taste in my mouth after they tried repeatedly to suggest and almost force me to buy overpriced options instead of what I really wanted. -- Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. http://www.ashleyhowes.com "May your spirit be renewed in earth's solitary places." - Native American Indian Blessing

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Live CD's
by John Seago 30 Jul '05

30 Jul '05

Someone has asked for my help in trying out Linux via Live CD's, Knoppix seems obvious, as does Ubuntu. I also thought I might include a couple of the Slackware based Live CD's, does anyone have any other suggestions? -- John Seago GNU/Linux User #219566 http://counter.li.org AFFS http://www.affs.org.uk/

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100BaseT PCMCIA cards
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 30 Jul '05

30 Jul '05

Another Q (on topic this time ... ) Do people have good suggestions for 100BaseT PCMCIA ethernet adapter cards (wired, not wireless) that work well on Linux (and, hopefully these days, don't cost much)? Thanks again! Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 29-Jul-05 Time: 15:20:43 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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[OT] How does online purchase work?
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 30 Jul '05

30 Jul '05

Hi Folks, I'm wondering about the mechanism underlying say on-line purchase. Superficially, it seems you tell someone your card number, and they then somehow communicate with your bank and get money out of your account without further intervention by you. If that's all that's needed, then anyone who knew your card number could do the same. So does anyone know what the underlying mechanism is which authorises the bank to hand out the money when asked by someone who knows your card number? I suppose a similar question arises when someone knows your bank's sort code and your account number (as when you authorise a direct debit or standing order). Though I suppose, in that case, there's a piece of paper signed by you which ends up at your bank. But would it be possible in the absence of a signed authorisation? (I think I've actually done this when paying a bill on-line, though my memory is now not sure of the details). Somewhat curious ... Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 29-Jul-05 Time: 15:11:49 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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RE:How does online purchase work?
by tom potts 30 Jul '05

30 Jul '05

For security reasons most online purchasers normally proxy through a merchant bank or similar service- ie their web site never takes the card details. The reques is handed over to the proxy site which takes the card details and amount to be deducted and does a few checks. If the sum to pay is less that a certain amount (£50 or so but depends on the card and arrangements) that the card has sort of agreement to pay out that sum. If its more that that then a credit check will be run and refused if insufficient credit on the card. Once the payment is 'agreed' normally the transaction is handed back to the vendor web site with a transaction ID. The money is not removed from the card at this point! In theory once the product is delivered the vendor company then the vendor can go to the proxy and get the money transfered using the transaction ID. Not many companies seem to wait till delivery to collect the money and of course you can rack up lots of agreed transactions before the money is removed from your account so the vendor is not guaranteed payment. Theres a lot more but I can here the delete keys going.... ___________________________________________________________ To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com

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USB
by Bob Dove 29 Jul '05

29 Jul '05

Hi All, MMMN, with Suse 9.3 my Fuji camera does not appear with supplied USB cable (mini USB camera normal 'tother end) period! Neither does my Canon 8000f scanner. Neither Fuji nor Canon answered queries re drivers for Linux/Unix, in fact Canon has never answered any query at all ever! My Epson printer - Suse showed me a list of Epson printers - lot's except mine. However one of the (unknown to me) generic drivers seems to work OK at least for printing from Open Office. Cheers, BD.

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Fw: Press Release: OPEN SOURCE CREATIVITY IN BRISTOL
by Joe Button 28 Jul '05

28 Jul '05

Forwarding from the FAVE Mailing list: (27/7/2005, Bristol, England) FAVE is a new event for people who are interested in free and open source creative software on Linux and other computer platforms. It's taking place on Saturday August 20th 2005 at the Trinity Community & Arts Centre in Bristol, UK. Everyone is welcome, even if they have never used this kind of software before. Doors open at 10am and the event gets underway at 11am. Music will continue into the evening, and the whole event costs just £5 to get in. This is no dry, dull conference! It will be an accessible festival of fun with performances, presentations and workshops. Topics will include music production, recording and do-it-yourself film making. There will be sessions covering community media, streaming content servers, tangible interfaces, digital TV regulation and Creative Commons licensing. Networking, internet access and media streaming will be provided by Bristol Wireless. Speakers at FAVE 2005 include: James Wallbank - Art for all at Access Space Tom Chance - Remix Reading and the Creative Commons John Ffitch - An introduction to Csound Michael Sparks (BBC Research & Development) - Streaming with Kamaelia Richard Bown (Fervent Software) - The Rosegarden sequencer and Studio To Go! Chris O'Shea - Sonicforms - a tangible interfaces project Plugincinema.com - The internet, technology & Open Source film-making RachelAPP - Recording music with Ardour, Hydrogen and Jamin Cory Doctorow (Electronic Frontier Foundation) - Europe's coming Broadcast Flag Performers using Linux and other free software will include: Matt Gray Dave Griffiths (Pattern Cascade) RachelAPP Martin Howse and Jonathan Kemp (ap) Jonny Stutters (Jeremah) Andy Preston (Edge Effect) For full details of the line-up, see the FAVE website at: http://www.fave.org.uk/ HELPING OUT If you would like to take part in this event, the first of its kind in the UK, please see the website for details of the FAVE mailing list and IRC channel. This is a community event, and it relies on volunteers to make it a success. GETTING TO FAVE The Trinity Centre is in the centre of Bristol, not far from the mainline railway station at Temple Meads or Lawrence Hill station. It is a large former church near the corner of the A420 Clarence Road and Trinity Road. NOTES TO EDITORS For follow-up information, please contact Daniel James (daniel at linuxaudio.org) phone: +44 (0)1983 755976 or Tim Hall (tech at glastonburymusic.org.uk). Press interviews and images for publication are also available - just ask. **ends** _______________________________________________ 3avc mailing list 3avc(a)lists.serverone.co.uk http://lists.serverone.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/3avc

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Re: Thinkpad and Linux ?? (Rob Grant)
by Robert Grant (DEV) 27 Jul '05

27 Jul '05

Barry Samuels wrote: > I am hoping to get an IBM Thinkpad R51 from the insurance as it's > about equivalent to the Dell. I understand that Thinkpads are pretty > compatible with Linux and wondered if any of you have experience of > this particular model? Barry- if it is any encouragement to you, I've managed to get a dual-boot of Debian/XP working fairly well on my Thinkpad T22 and I represent very much the tail end of the technical distribution in this group. Two essential resources are http://www.linux-laptop.net/: they have several pages specific to the R51. This site was what helped me get my X-config files sorted out eventually. Then for your internal modem there is http://www.linmodems.org/- a very friendly place from where I found the right driver to download and get dial-up working. Good luck and enjoy! Rob Rob Grant Tutor in Economics School of Development Studies University of East Anglia NR4 7TJ +44(0)1603592324 r.grant(a)uea.ac.uk

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Cut and paste accented characters between GUI apps and text mode apps
by Chris Green 27 Jul '05

27 Jul '05

This is a very minor hassle but it annoys me every now and then. If I cut and paste text with accented characters between (for example) Firefox and a text mode application running in a terminal window the accented characters don't copy correctly. The usual effect is that something like an e with an acute accent will become an e followed by a '. I'm pretty sure I have my terminals set up right for international characters now as text mode applications and utilities seem to play happily together and usenet postings and E-Mail with accented characters get posted correctly. So what is Firefox doing different from the rest of my applications? Or is it something to do with X and its cut/paste? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

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USB_Camera
by Bob Dove 27 Jul '05

27 Jul '05

Hi Barry 'n' Folks, Your 'pooter' probably don't know nuffin' about cameras. It will need appropriate driver! The Scanner too will have it's exclusive drivers which will need to be loaded. Linux probably has a bunch of generics to take care of most printers. Cheers, BD.

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Re: system clock running 2x too fast
by Geir Freysson 27 Jul '05

27 Jul '05

On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 10:48:07 +0100,David Reynolds wrote: > One way of doing it (probably not the most elegant way) would be to > cron it. Then you can choose the update frequency yourself and be sure > that it works. Thanks for that suggestion. I had already put this measure in place, which ensured the clock was never more than half an hour off, but did cause an awful lot of checks when the clock raced towards check time, was put back and raced forwards again etc. On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 18:39:26 +0100, Wayne Stallwood wrote: > try clock=pit or clock=pmtmr ( I think 2.6 series kernels are supposed > to default to pmtmr ) Adding clock=pit to the kernel boot options worked whereas earlier suggestions such as noapic didn't. Hurray! This was causing me a major headache since I had set up an wiki along with other services that were already being test driven by colleagues, but were being rendered semi-useless by the hyperactive system clock. > Hope that helps and welcome to the group. Thank you, you have certainly been of help. Best regards, Geir.

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Any ubuntu users on AMD64 ?
by Wayne Stallwood 27 Jul '05

27 Jul '05

Is it me or is there something a bit fishy about the Hoary xmame packages ? I am all set up for the standard Ubuntu repositories, plus universe and multiverse. Using apt to install xmame (either the sdl or x11 version) I get the following error when I try to run it "error: compiled byte ordering doesn't match machine byte ordering are you sure you choose the right arch? compiled for msb-first, are you sure you choose the right cpu in makefile.unix" No mention of it being a problem on the Ubuntu wiki and the guys on #ubuntu don't seem to have heard of it before either. Being that I was in the need for some serious legacy game action, I tried building advancemame from source...Got it built but I forgot that the framebuffer on ubuntu machines using the Nvidia drivers is broken...advancemame only supports fb mode AFAIK.

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system clock running 2x too fast
by Geir Freysson 26 Jul '05

26 Jul '05

Hello everyone, my name is Geir, I'm an Icelander living in Ipswich and this is my first email to this user group. I'm running Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.10, on and old Compaq pentium III machine. My problem is that the system clock is running at approx 2x the speed it should be running on. The hardware clock is ok. Solutions that don't seem to work: * adjtimex * ntpd * booting without apm or acpi The required parameters for adjtimex are way outside the allowed parameters. ntpd doesn't seem to cope either, if I'm running it correctly. It doesn't seem to do anything at all. How do I adjust the frequency of ntpd updates anyway? Some command in the /etc/ntp.conf I guess? Booting without apm or acpi doesn't seem to work, if I'm doing it correctly. I've seen in various forums that people running a 64-bit machine are having the same troubles but this isn't the case for me. Any ideas? Very best regards, Geir Freysson.

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 25 Jul '05

25 Jul '05

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include tkirc, bitchx, xchat and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://freshmeat.net/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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/lib/modules/2.4.27/modules.pcimap
by Barry Samuels 24 Jul '05

24 Jul '05

First - I posted this yesterday over 24 hours ago with a different email address from the one I registered with for the Alug list. I was held back for moderation but hasn't appeared so I'm reposting. If the other one appears please ignore it. I'm still trying with my WG511 and I'm nearly there. When I plug the WG511 (made in China) card into my Dell Latitude a PCI event is not generated. This appears to be because ndiswrapper information is not included in /lib/modules/2.4.27/modules.pcimap although the ndiswrapper module is listed in /lib/modules/2.4.27/modules.dep. I have a file called 'modules.ndiswrapper' in my /etc/ndiswrapper directory but I don't know now where it came from. It doesn't apear to be part of the ndiswrapper source download. If I manually add the contents of this file (3 lines) to modules.pcimap then things begin to happen when I plug the card in. The snag is, of course, that modules.pcimap is re-written every time the laptop boots. How can I get the relevant lines to be included in modules.pcimap each time depmod is run? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Remote boot switching
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 23 Jul '05

23 Jul '05

Hi Folks, Suppose we have two machines, A and B, each dual-boot Linux/Windows. Suppose that Linux is the "default" OS on reboot -- i.e. if you switch the machine on and do nothing, Linux is what you get. Let's start with both in Linux. Now, sitting at A, I want B to reboot into Windows, but without going to B. One solution which has occurred to me is that, while at A, I can log in to B, su root, edit the LILO or GRUB config so that the boot order is reversed, and then tell B to reboot. So far so good. I can even make this into a script, so that when logged into B I can issue something like "boot Windows". But then, how to restore the original boot order without having to go to B, choose Linux from the boot menu, boot Linux, and re-edit the config file? I somehow doubt that you can do this while B is in Windows ... and I basically want the whole thing to be remote, from A. If there were some capability in the boot loader itself that could restore a default boot configuration prior to actually booting the OS which is currently "on top", this would make the whole thing scriptable. To be precise about this: 1. A & B running Linux. 2. At A, tell B to "boot Windows". 3. B reboots. 4. LILO/GRUB sees that Windows is "on top" and selects this as the OS to boot into. 5. LILO/GRUB *also* restores the original config file with Linux "on top". 6. LILO/GRUB then boots into Windows. The effect would be that the next re-boot would be into Linux. Any ideas or comments? With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 21-Jul-05 Time: 13:37:10 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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GZ files
by Peter Hunter 21 Jul '05

21 Jul '05

Hi, me again, I have been looking around the Linux.org site, and noticed that nearly all of there downloads are in the .gz format (I asume this is compressed a bit like .zip). Uncompressing proberbly won't be a problem, but how do I install the file/program from there? More to the point, where can I find instructions that will tell me what to do? (Bearing in mind of course that I am running Suse, which seems to be a bit different from other flavours of Linux). Regards, peter

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Completely Off Topic - But...
by Brett Parker 19 Jul '05

19 Jul '05

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Does anyone know of a pub with a bar billiards table in or around the Norwich area... for those unfamiliar with that game, the rules along with a picture of a fairly typical table can be found at the following URL: http://www.mastersgames.com/cat/pub/bar-billiards.htm I've just finished playing a few games, and have discovered that it's much more enjoyable than your average game of pool, which most pubs now cater for... But I'm currently in Suffolk and I played in the Edwardstone White Horse (which is a village pub not far from my dad's, and one that I'd highly recommend to people that want a quiet, pleasant drink in a village). Replies to me unless you think that they need to go to the list... Sorry for the cross post for those that are both on the ALUG and Debian-UK lists. Thanks, - -- Brett Parker web: http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/ email: iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFC3X+dEh8oWxevnjQRAoIyAJ0dLE2r/Yt3mxN16kXpRJwJ/hrPlgCgqxTp PUr+ViKMFXNrSTbdcZX8cPI= =+m/f -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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RE: [ALUG] Remote Linux Support via VNC
by Keith Watson 18 Jul '05

18 Jul '05

> From: Jim Rippon Sent: 18 July 2005 16:28 > I would suggest that if you want to be able to show your > friend what you are doing (demonstrate how to fix the problem > they are having for > example) you might: > > apt-get install x11vnc > x11vnc sounds like just what I want, ta for the tip Jim. > You can find out your IP address from > http://www.whatismyip.com - very easy to get a user to go > here from their web browser when you are on the phone, > otherwise go for a Dynamic DNS service - something like > http://www.dyndns.org yes, good idea, ta once more :o) > I would suggest looking at running VNC over SSH as it is a > fairly insecure protocol straight up. There is a good amount > of info on this if you Google it. yes another good point, actually the x11vnc site talks about how to use ssh. I'll read up on it. > I admin 120 or so desktops and servers from here - although > most are Windoze machines (I SSH directly into my Linux > machines, and even XDMCP when I am on site) and I have had > plenty of success doing this over a dialup. You can set the > max colour depth and compression algorithms and I would > suggest that you look into this as at high colour depths and > no compression your session may be unusable. > > Hope this helps > great, just the sort of feedback I was hoping for, thanks Jim. Regards, Keith ____________ TWICE, adv. - Once too often. - Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary

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Remote Linux Support via VNC
by Keith Watson 18 Jul '05

18 Jul '05

I'm thinking of using VNC to provide remote support from my Linux box for a newbie friend who also runs Linux. As we are both ancient fogies we both use a dial-up internet connection (i.e. a slow connection at each end as opposed to a faster broadband on at one or both ends). As we both have Ubuntu [Debian] based systems, I right in supposing that all I need to do is run something like; apt-get install vncserver on my friend's PC, and something like; apt-get install vncviewer on my own PC to install the software (if not part of the base Ubuntu install)? The Unofficial Ubuntu Starter Guide gives some rudimentary info. which suggests it may be feasible but a couple of possible problems spring to mind:- We both have the FireStarter firewall running using the default rules. I presume I'll need to change these at the server end to allow the viewer to connect. Can anyone give me some pointers on how I go about this for a VNC connection (VNC uses port 5900 I think)? Also, as our dial-up connections use dynamic IP addressing is the lack of fixed IPs likely to be a problem? Any other gotchas anyone can think of? Has anyone ever tried this (i.e. Linux VNC - Linux VNC over dial-up) ? and, if so, did you get it to work? :o) Regards, Keith ____________ DEFAME, v.t. - To lie about another, also, to tell the truth about another. - Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary

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