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OT Old email address
by Bev Nicolson 25 Jan '19

25 Jan '19

I've got an old (redundant) email address and would like to keep all the emails associated with it (for now at any rate.) They are all stored on my computer but I wondered if there was another way of saving them to view on Thunderbird without the email client trying to log in to the server every time I want to read them? Googling does not bring any useful info thus far. Bev.

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 10th January
by Viperfang 20 Jan '19

20 Jan '19

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 10th January at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 4th January.
by Viperfang 01 Jan '19

01 Jan '19

Quick heads up about this months Norwich 2600 meeting, more info at http://www.norwich2600.co.uk

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Digital Tax and linux
by Jenny Hopkins 24 Dec '18

24 Dec '18

Hello! >From April, VAT returns have to be submitted using various HMRC approved software, at a cost to the business. Does anybody in ALUG have the same problem as me, of finding appropriate software that can be used with linux, at minimum cost? Thanks, Jenny

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 13th December
by Viperfang 10 Dec '18

10 Dec '18

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 13th December at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 7th December.
by Viperfang 04 Dec '18

04 Dec '18

Quick heads up about this months Norwich 2600 meeting, more info at http://www.norwich2600.co.uk

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OT: Domain registration/DNS hosts
by Mark Rogers 29 Nov '18

29 Nov '18

(OT but I think there's likely to be both knowledge and interest here. Correct me otherwise!) Most of my domains for historical reasons are with 123-Reg and I've been looking to move somewhere more reliable for years. 123-Reg has the advantage for me that I know it well but it's time I moved if that's the only thing keeping me there. All I *need* is to register/renew domains and handle their DNS. Ideally I would also *want* to have email/web forwarding. However I will never need them to provide email/web hosting. Most of the domains are .uk but with some exceptions. Who do others use and why? Who should I avoid? Mark -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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Hard disk drive partitions and memory
by Bev Nicolson 18 Nov '18

18 Nov '18

1) Noticing that this PC gets glacially slow occasionally (it probably means get a new one and soon but bear with me for the moment) I had a look at the hard disk. 77 GB is 84.4% full. I have two partitions though. One 'extended partition', the other a swap partition. Both 3.1 GB. Could I unmount the first (extended partition) safely? 2) What is it full of and how could I clear stuff out, again, safely? Bev. (braced for the worst.)

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Unreliable USB3
by Mark Rogers 13 Nov '18

13 Nov '18

I frequently find USB3 unreliable, on more than one PC (but not all). Typical usage will be to take images of SD cards via a card reader or to access data from a hard disk via USB->SATA. Generally, it'll connect and be visible for a short while before erroring. My current PC lists its controller as: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 31) How do I go about diagnosing this? Is it likely to be the driver, the hardware, or the external devices? syslog from most recent failure follows. On this occasion, I was connecting through an unpowered USB3 hub, but the problems are pretty typical regardless. Nov 13 13:00:13 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4184.999569] usb 2-4.4: new SuperSpeed Gen 1 USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd Nov 13 13:00:13 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4185.026221] usb 2-4.4: New USB device found, idVendor=1f75, idProduct=0621, bcdDevice= 0.36 Nov 13 13:00:13 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4185.026227] usb 2-4.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=4, Product=5, SerialNumber=6 Nov 13 13:00:13 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4185.026231] usb 2-4.4: Product: Ext. HDD Nov 13 13:00:13 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4185.026236] usb 2-4.4: Manufacturer: Innostor Nov 13 13:00:13 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4185.026239] usb 2-4.4: SerialNumber: 20030225 Nov 13 13:00:13 mark-ubuntu mtp-probe: checking bus 2, device 4: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb2/2-4/2-4.4" Nov 13 13:00:13 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4185.293229] usb-storage 2-4.4:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected Nov 13 13:00:13 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4185.293858] scsi host4: usb-storage 2-4.4:1.0 Nov 13 13:00:13 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4185.294091] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage Nov 13 13:00:13 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4185.298900] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas Nov 13 13:00:32 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4203.492176] usb 2-4.4: device not accepting address 4, error -62 Nov 13 13:00:43 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4214.500585] usb 2-4.4: device not accepting address 4, error -62 Nov 13 13:00:48 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4220.136105] usb 2-4.4: Device not responding to setup address. Nov 13 13:00:48 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4220.344806] usb 2-4.4: device not accepting address 4, error -71 Nov 13 13:00:48 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4220.348168] usb 2-4-port4: cannot disable (err = -71) Nov 13 13:00:48 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4220.355169] usb 2-4-port4: cannot reset (err = -71) Nov 13 13:00:49 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4220.798423] usb 2-4-port4: cannot reset (err = -71) Nov 13 13:00:49 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4220.897949] usb 2-4-port4: cannot reset (err = -71) Nov 13 13:00:49 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4220.901440] usb 2-4-port4: cannot reset (err = -71) Nov 13 13:00:49 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4220.904914] usb 2-4-port4: cannot reset (err = -71) Nov 13 13:00:49 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4220.904922] usb 2-4-port4: Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad? Nov 13 13:00:49 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4220.908444] usb 2-4-port4: cannot disable (err = -71) Nov 13 13:00:49 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4220.911947] usb 2-4-port4: cannot disable (err = -71) Nov 13 13:00:49 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4220.972838] usb 2-4: USB disconnect, device number 2 Nov 13 13:00:49 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4220.972843] usb 2-4.1: USB disconnect, device number 3 Nov 13 13:00:49 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4220.974004] usb 2-4.4: USB disconnect, device number 4 Nov 13 13:00:49 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4221.353012] usb 2-4: new SuperSpeed Gen 1 USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd Nov 13 13:00:49 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4221.376022] usb 2-4: New USB device found, idVendor=05e3, idProduct=0612, bcdDevice=92.24 Nov 13 13:00:49 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4221.376028] usb 2-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0 Nov 13 13:00:49 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4221.376032] usb 2-4: Product: USB3.0 Hub Nov 13 13:00:49 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4221.376036] usb 2-4: Manufacturer: GenesysLogic Nov 13 13:00:49 mark-ubuntu kernel: [ 4221.379203] hub 2-4:1.0: USB hub found Mark -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 8th November
by Viperfang 05 Nov '18

05 Nov '18

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 8th November at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Is there a way for an ssh connection to allow the server to send a file to the client?
by Chris Green 02 Nov '18

02 Nov '18

I am looking for a way that will allow my ssh 'server' machine (desktop running xubuntu 18.04 at home) to send a file back to the client machine (laptop running xubuntu 18.04 which may be anywhere including behind a firewall etc. and behind NAT). I need the server machine to be able to do this from a script running on the server at some indeterminate time after the ssh connection has been made. The only remotely possible way I can think of to do this is to run something via the 'LocalCommand' option in the client ssh configuration. However, at the moment, that's about as far as I can get. I can't think of a way of actually doing it at the moment. The best I can come up with is to have a script (run as a LocalCommand) that uses sshfs to mount a server directory on the client. Then a server script can simply copy a file to the mounted directory and it will be visible on the client. Job done..., or not. There are problems with this however. Firstly as I often have several ssh connections running at the same time there needs to be some way to prevent the LocalCommand running multiple sshfs instances. This isn't too bad to overcome but the second issue is how to pull down the sshfs connection when the last ssh exits, at present I can't see any way to do this, there isn't the equivalent of LocalCommand which runs when a connection is about to be closed. Does anyone have any ideas which might help? -- Chris Green

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Pdf measuring tools
by Bev Nicolson 31 Oct '18

31 Oct '18

I don't have Flash installed so I'm not able to 'measure' Adobe documents and it turns out this could be useful in some circumstances. Does anyone know of a Linux tool one could uses for this? Bev.

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Strange apache permission problem, can access anywhere *except* /tmp
by Chris Green 30 Oct '18

30 Oct '18

I want to put some temporary html files in /tmp (well, a sub-directory of /tmp) and view them using apache2. I always get permission denied and it seems as if apache2 refuses to access any files in /tmp. I have a very simple apache2 set up with the root set to /srv with an entry as follows:- <Directory /srv/> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All Require all granted </Directory> I add symlinks to /srv to get access to files around the system, it works for every directory I've tried (even including such places as /etc) but *not* for /tmp. (I've removed all the odd symlinks again of course!) What's so special about /tmp? I've searched for references to tmp in the apache configuration but there's nothing there. Can anyone suggest what the issue is? Alternatively where can I put a file that will get cleaned out periodically (like /tmp at reboot)? -- Chris Green

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 2nd November.
by Viperfang 30 Oct '18

30 Oct '18

Quick heads up about this months Norwich 2600 meeting, more info at http://www.norwich2600.co.uk

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Evince
by Bev Nicolson 25 Oct '18

25 Oct '18

Now, I have googled and I understand Evince/Document Viewer crashing is not news. But how come it only does this with one document for me? Opens it, loads, crashes. Okular has been downloaded, btw. I'm asking this because I’m puzzled. Bev

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Re: [ALUG] Batch formatting documents in LibreOffice? (Phil Thane)
by mark fernandes 16 Oct '18

16 Oct '18

Would headless mode Libreoffice get you closer to your goal? https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Starting_the_Software_With_Parameters HTH, Mark

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Batch formatting documents in LibreOffice?
by Phil Thane 15 Oct '18

15 Oct '18

Hello Lugs, Like a fool I volunteered to edit the Great Ouse Boating Association magazine (GOBA News). Obviously I use LO on Linux so maybe someone can help. I get a lot texts sent in from members and others, mostly done on MS Word, various versions, different defaults and different user preferences in evidence. I change the lot as I edit them to my preferred font and remove all the odd line spaces, paragraph indents, justification and so on. It's a bit of a pain. Then I send them to another member who proof reads them, using MS word, and puts all the justification back. Eventually I send the text files (as docx) plus photos etc to the designer. I know from my past experiences with DTP the simpler the input text the easier the designer's job so I'd like to help out by stripping most of the formatting. I don't really want to go to .txt because writers use italics and bold for emphasis and that would get lost. Does anyone know if it's possible to set up a set of rules in LibreOffice then apply them to a batch of files (typically 20-30)? Can't find anything helpful online. -- Phil

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OT: SSD vs SD
by Mark Rogers 12 Oct '18

12 Oct '18

You can buy SD to SATA converters that will take up to 10 micro SD cards and turn them into a "hard drive" (2.5" form factor, SATA connector). In principle you could put 4x128GB SD cards in and get 512GB for about £100 using Samsung or Sandisk cards (Or 1TB for £200, 1.5TB for £300.) Cost wise that makes them a good percentage cheaper than equivalent capacity SSD drives. How would this compare aside from cost? Is it performance that would be a win for the SSD, or reliability (or both)? (I'm looking at this for a Ubuntu desktop but I don't think that justifies claiming it is on topic.) In part I'm looking at it as a way to re-use SD cards that I have floating around but I'm not sure if it's worth the effort. At least for the ones I have looked at the total capacity will be (smallest card) * (number of cards) so if you have a mix of card sizes it doesn't work very well. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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VNC recommendations wanted please
by Chris Green 08 Oct '18

08 Oct '18

I'm thinking of using VNC to remotely access a couple of GUI applications running on my home desktop machine. Both my home desktop and the remote client machine are running xubuntu 18.04. I don't need a full desktop so a simple GUi just giving the ability to run programs is all I need. I *may* sometimes run over slow links so good link efficiency would be helpful. ... and finally it would be nice if it could use ssh for the link. So what would people recommend, preferably from the Ubuntu repositories for server and client? -- Chris Green

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 11th October
by Viperfang 08 Oct '18

08 Oct '18

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 11th October at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 5th October.
by Viperfang 02 Oct '18

02 Oct '18

Quick heads up about this months Norwich 2600 meeting, more info at http://www.norwich2600.co.uk

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Introduction
by Andrew Hutchings 29 Sep '18

29 Sep '18

Hi all, My name is Andrew Hutchings and I'm also known as LinuxJedi. I work as a Lead Software Engineer for a company called MariaDB. I've been a Linux user between a hobbyist and in industry for probably around 20 years. A really long time ago (about 15 years) I used to run a LUG in Wales, I've lived in Norfolk for 6 years now (Watton) and thought it was time to join one again. Look forward to chatting to you all. Kind Regards -- Andrew Hutchings - LinuxJedi - http://www.linuxjedi.co.uk/

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Samba users and permissions
by Mark Rogers 26 Sep '18

26 Sep '18

I'm rebuilding a Samba file server and my knowledge is rusty. Note this is a simple fileserver, no AD. What I want to achieve is that each user has their own user/pass but that all files stored on the server get allocated to one global user. As I recall, I need both a Linux user and a Samba user for each person. However, I still have access to the files on the old server (but cannot boot it) and looking at /etc/passwd on there I do not see the individual users listed. I know that I definitely used to access the share as "mark". Therefore I'm both confused how it used to work, but also the correct way to set it up now. It's Ubuntu Server 18.04, Samba 4.7.6. Right now I have my shares configured in /var/lib/samba/usershares and can access them all via a single user (my primary server login which I added to Samba as well). They're currently read-only because the files are all root.root owned, that's something else I'll need to change. (If I can do it, I'd like to have some users read-only and some read-write once I'm finished but that's not a priority.) -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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mdadm woes
by Mark Rogers 14 Sep '18

14 Sep '18

I have just moved two mdadm RAID1 arrays from an old server to a new one. Initially mdadm automatically created two arrays (md126 & md127), read-only and marked resync=pending. I mounted these and they were fine. I then stopped those arrays and rebuilt them manually as md0 & md1, and the resync started. Neither will now mount; mdadm seems happy but there isn't a recognisable filesystem on either array. I have stopped both arrays while I try to work out what went wrong and whether I can fix it. Suggestions? All the important data is backed up elsewhere but there's a lot of unimportant stuff that I'd nevertheless prefer to retrieve if I can. (Several TB of applications, distros, etc which can all be retrieved from the Internet if needed, which is why I don't waste space backing them up, but I'd still rather not have to throw them away and start again if I can avoid it.) One thought, although I'm fairly sure this isn't what happened, is that because I have two raid arrays I might have mixed my disks up when I created my new arrays (one of each in each). I would have thought that mdadm would have tried very hard to stop me doing that though? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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Password managers
by Mark Rogers 14 Sep '18

14 Sep '18

Are there any password managers that can cope with the "pick characters 3, 5 and 11 from your password" security challenges? Santander has just moved to that, and if you have a secure unique password it's a pain. <RANT>Santander also require that the password is max 16 chars and alpha-numeric only. Because security, or something. The mere fact that they want me to pick certain characters from it already tells me that the password isn't being stored salted and hashed. It's a good job their app can use biometric because their website has just become pretty much unusable for me now.</RANT> -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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