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10372 discussions

Correct MX record configuration
by Chris Green 20 Feb '17

20 Feb '17

This may relate to my recent long question about loss of E-Mail. Can anyone tell me *exactly* how an MX record for my home server zbmc.eu should be confiugured? Currently it's configured to point to the 'root' A record for zbmc.eu, so the MX record is for zbmc.eu also:- chris@cheddar$ host zbmc.eu zbmc.eu has address 84.92.49.234 zbmc.eu mail is handled by 10 zbmc.eu. chris@cheddar$ However I *think* this may be wrong and I should create a second A record for the same IP address and point the MX record to that instead. I don't really understand why this should make any diffrerence though. Any experts (or at least people who know more than me) here? -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] I need an E-Mail expert to help me solve this
by Phil Ashby 19 Feb '17

19 Feb '17

On 19/02/17 12:00, Chris Green <cl(a)isbd.net> wrote: > > I have an E-Mail requirement/problem that I've wasted several hours on over the past few days to > little effect. Maybe someone here can help. > > My home (linux) machine runs all the time and hosts the domain zbmc.eu which is registered at > gandi.net. The zone file there is configured to point at my home machine and the MX record is > set up too:- > chris@cheddar$ host zbmc.eu > zbmc.eu has address 84.92.49.234 > zbmc.eu mail is handled by 10 zbmc.eu. > chris@cheddar$ 84.92.49.234 is my PlusNet ADSL connection. > > ..[lots of testing that indicates 'something' is blocking SMTP on some routes, but not all...] Hi Chris, I have almost the same setup as you, an external/public server (mail.ashbysoft.com) that forwards mail to an internal/private server at home (phil.ashbysoft.com, on PlusNet), my external server is in a co-lo facility and managed by me, rather than a 3rd part but hey, it's still working so it doesn't look like PlusNet per se.. I tried a few tests for your host: - from my home network (via NAT, PlusNet): phlash@zaphod:~$ host zbmc.eu zbmc.eu has address 84.92.49.234 zbmc.eu mail is handled by 10 zbmc.eu. phlash@zaphod:~$ telnet zbmc.eu 25 # not looking good for inbound connectivity on 25 Trying 84.92.49.234... ^C phlash@zaphod:~$ telnet zbmc.eu 587 # nor the alternative SMTP submission port 587 Trying 84.92.49.234... ^C - from my external server (via NAT, Virgin Media): phil:~$ telnet zbmc.eu 25 # still no joy Trying 84.92.49.234... ^C phil:~$ telnet zbmc.eu 587 # kind of expected by now :/ Trying 84.92.49.234... ^C phil:~$ ping zbmc.eu # just checking the endpoint is up :) PING zbmc.eu (84.92.49.234) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from chrisisbd01.plus.com (84.92.49.234): icmp_seq=1 ttl=243 time=25.2 ms 64 bytes from chrisisbd01.plus.com (84.92.49.234): icmp_seq=2 ttl=243 time=25.5 ms 64 bytes from chrisisbd01.plus.com (84.92.49.234): icmp_seq=3 ttl=243 time=21.6 ms ^C - last check for my own connectivity, to prove it's not local to me: phil:~$ telnet phil.ashbysoft.com 25 # looks OK Trying 84.92.108.193... Connected to phil.ashbysoft.com. Escape character is '^]'. 220 phil.ashbysoft.com ESMTP Exim 4.88 Sun, 19 Feb 2017 15:05:43 +0000 quit My conclusion so far would be that you have local firewalling / filtering issues that are permitting traffic from the TsoHost servers but nowhere else? Are you running fail2ban and it has been a bit enthusiastic (this has got me in the past, blocking the kids mobiles when they bork their password a couple of times)? What about port forwarding arrangements, just for specified external IPs? NB: I have switched to port 587 for all my immediate users (family & friends, you know the score!) to submit mail from their clients through my relay service, as they were finding that port 25 was blocked outbound by whatever ISP they were using at the time (typically mobile / public services like The Cloud). Hope this helps, Phil.

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Managing cron and similar E-Mails from headless systems
by Chris Green 19 Feb '17

19 Feb '17

I have several headless systems doing useful work around the place:- A Raspberry Pi providing local DNS and DHCP A Beaglebone Black on our boat monitoring temperatures and batteries An old desktop doing backups in the garage etc. Most of these have one or more cron jobs running periodic rsync backups, copying data, etc. If the cron job has an error then it sends E-Mail to the owner of the job ('chris' in most cases, might be root in a couple). It's (moderately) easy to set up an MTA and /etc/aliases so that the messages are sent to my normal E-Mail. However I can't come up with a straightforward way of indicating where the messsage is *from*. You can't just invent a domain name for the headless system because that gets the E-Mail rejected by intermediate systems that try and look up the sender host name. Cron doesn't seem to have any mechanism for setting the sender's name, cron errors just come from 'root@'. Can anyone suggest a neat way of handling this so that I know where the errors are coming from? -- Chris Green

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I need an E-Mail expert to help me solve this
by Chris Green 19 Feb '17

19 Feb '17

I have an E-Mail requirement/problem that I've wasted several hours on over the past few days to little effect. Maybe someone here can help. My home (linux) machine runs all the time and hosts the domain zbmc.eu which is registered at gandi.net. The zone file there is configured to point at my home machine and the MX record is set up too:- chris@cheddar$ host zbmc.eu zbmc.eu has address 84.92.49.234 zbmc.eu mail is handled by 10 zbmc.eu. chris@cheddar$ 84.92.49.234 is my PlusNet ADSL connection. I have several domains hosted at TsoHost with associated E-Mail addresses (e.g. chris(a)isbd.co.uk, chris(a)isbd.net, cl(a)isbd.net). These all eventually forward their E-Mail from the TsoHost servers to chris(a)zbmc.eu. I run a postfix server on my home machine which receives these E-Mails and puts them in my mail spool. This has been working fine for several years. However I now want to send E-Mail from the 'outside world' to chris(a)zbmc.eu. The specific requirement is to send errors from cron on various SBCs to me and I originally thought it was a misconfiguration at the sending end was the problem but it's more general. No mail sent from outside to chris(a)zbmc.eu arrives on my home machine, it just disappears, no errors, no bounces, nothing. Bit it works from the TsoHost cloud servers, why can they send E-Mail successfully to chris(a)zbmc.eu whereas no one else can? I have done lots of tests and experiments so far:- I've tried sending from three different sites (PlusNet, Gandi and a Linux box) to chris(a)zbmc.eu, mail just disappears. Identical E-Mail sent to chris(a)isbd.net arrives OK. I have a postfix server set up on my Beaglebone black in France (to send the cron messages). If I monitor the mail.log file when connecting to the SMTP server at TsoHost (mail3.gridhost.co.uk) the logging is exactly the same for mails sent to chris(a)zbmc.eu as for mails sent to chris(a)isbd.net. Wierdly (and this is what confused me somewhat at the start) I have an identical postfix setup on a Raspberry Pi on my home LAN, also for sending cron errors. It connects directly to the same SMTP server at TsoHost as the Beaglebone does. However E-Mail to chris(a)zbmc.eu from the Pi works! So it would seem that there's something 'out there' that's routing mail for zbmc.eu to the wrong place (or nowhere), but it doesn't get at the mail sent from within TsoHost for some reason. I.e. TsoHost seems to do what I hoped/expected with E-Mail for chris(a)zbmc.eu but no one else does. Help! :-) -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] Managing cron and similar E-Mails from headless systems
by mark fernandes 17 Feb '17

17 Feb '17

Looks live reverse alias are what you need... https://linux.die.net/man/8/ssmtp

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 9th February
by Viperfang 06 Feb '17

06 Feb '17

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, 9th February 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 3rd February.
by Viperfang 31 Jan '17

31 Jan '17

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

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How to get rid of these corrupted files?
by Chris Green 28 Jan '17

28 Jan '17

I have some files/directories which have obviously become corrupted. The disk checks out OK with fsck though and I don't want to reformat it. One of the directories in question is as follows:- total 40 d-wxr-S-wT 2 3775186858 3662599049 4096 Sep 11 1991 18039.dat ---xr-srwT 30 3023870906 1270584165 45056 Mar 1 1938 18591.dat -r-x-wxr-T 30 2743781339 1057221377 28672 Jun 6 1929 18684.dat Even as root I can't seem to do anything with this, both rm and chmod fail with 'permission denied'. So, how do I do anything with these? -- Chris Green

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Wanted - plain, simple, GUI address book
by Chris Green 28 Jan '17

28 Jan '17

I use mutt for E-Mail but I'm looking for a GUI address book because my address book requirements extend well beyond (but include) E-Mail addresses for mutt. I have been using the Contacts app in Owncloud with pycardsyncer keeping a local address list in sync with the Owncloud Contacts for mutt to use. However I'd like to make things simpler and better, the existing set-up has some disadvantages (for me) :- The Owncloud Contacts app is not very good, in particular you can't sort by Last Name which really bugs me. I'd really prefer to keep addresses wholly locally rather than on the cloud (even though it's my own cloud). Apart from anything else I'm quite often not able to access the internet and I still want my addresses and to be able to update them. The pycardsyncer (plus pc_query) application is 'deprecated', it's being superseded by vcardsyncer and some other bits and pieces. They're not in the Ubuntu repositories though and I prefer not to go 'ex repository'. The current set up is a fairly complicated way to fulfil a simple requirement. So I'm after a nice, simple, GUI address book program for my Linux desktop and laptop. I'm happy to use a mail program whose address book is easily accessible without navigating past the mail bit (e.g. like Thunderbird, but Thunderbird is overkill). I either want a mutt accessibility option or for the data to be kept in something sensible like a sqlite database that I can quickly write a simple script for to feed mutt. It must support postal addresses, phone numbers, etc. and preferably have some notes/comments ability too. I'd prefer something in the Ubuntu repositories though something in Python that I can maintain myself is also OK. Any suggestions anyone? -- Chris Green

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How to unmount an ext4 file system, journalling makes it permanently busy
by Chris Green 13 Jan '17

13 Jan '17

Is there any way to unmount an ext4 filesystem without shutting down? I can do it easily by going to single-user mode or removing the filesystem from /etc/fstab and rebooting but both of these require the system to be shut down. However it seems to be impossible otherwise because the journalling process makes the filesystem busy. Is this right? -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] How to get rid of these corrupted files?
by Srdjan Todorovic 11 Jan '17

11 Jan '17

On 11 Jan 2017 09:58, "Chris Green" <cl(a)isbd.net> wrote: On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 10:10:42AM +0000, Chris Green wrote: > > Otherwise, I'm out of ideas. > > > So am I, I'm copy all the files of the drive and I'm going to re-make > the file systems. > ... and now, 16 hours later I'm seeing some errors. I've run 'mkfs.ext4 -c -c /dev/sdb1 and on the *second* pass I'm seeing some errors. The first 0xAA pass got no errors but the pass that's running now, writing 0x55, is getting some errors. So, presumably, that's what the problem is. However it's strange that nothing else was showing any errors, SMART reported nothing at all and Did smart long test complete at all? Im under the impression it only works when disk is idle, so if you were fscking then it wouldnt have been idle. Thats certainly been my experience recently. Regards Srdj

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 12th January
by Viperfang 09 Jan '17

09 Jan '17

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, 12th 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 6th January.
by Viperfang 03 Jan '17

03 Jan '17

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

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How to set system date/time automatically at power up, no CMOS clock
by Chris Green 15 Dec '16

15 Dec '16

I have a BeagleBone Black system which monitors things on a boat. When it powers up the time is basically random, there's no CMOS clock to give it a start. Thus I need a way to get it to about the right time and date for ntpd to take over and keep it correct. What's the normal way of doing this? It needs to be automatically run at startup. -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] main Digest, Vol 138, Issue 3
by Christopher Dawkins 15 Dec '16

15 Dec '16

>> 1. Re: Building an (air gapped) offline Linux laptop as a >> newbie to Linux (mick) > What is your threat model? A question I wonder too, but welcome to the Unix world. If you have been previously on Windows I suppose you would be worried about security, but I'd suggest you stop worrying now. Unless you are in a public position and disliked by many, such as being Donald Trump, since almost any networked system can be breached by a skilled and determined opponent. If the threat to you is such that you need an airgapped machine then I wonder how you plan to protect the machine itself, as apart from some special products (iPhones?) it's usually possible to get inside a machine if you can get it to your laboratory bench. So the important questions are not software ones, they are: Do you live in a bunker or in a house? How many security men do you have guarding this bunker or house? How many steel or six-foot-concrete walls are there between you and the outside? If you have glass windows, is the glass toughened and more than several inches thick? Do you ever leave the house with the machine inside and not guarded by a small army? Would you ever carry the machine outside without a military guard? Do you search and scan all your visitors? Will your machine have internal explosives wired to all the case screws? If you don't apply the measures suggested by the questions above, the airgap could prove to be of no use, so much so that it's not worth bothering about. -- Christopher Dawkins Garnetts Corner, Jollyboys Lane North, Felsted, Dunmow, Essex CM6 3DU cchd(a)pjcd.org 07816 821659 01371 821076

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Building an (air gapped) offline Linux laptop as a newbie to Linux
by Ian Henderson 14 Dec '16

14 Dec '16

Hi, all, I am new to Linux. I'm porting over to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS with the Unity desktop from Windows 10. I want to keep things as simple (and hopefully therefore as reliable) as possible, for home/office critical use. I also want to stick to the main and universe repositories. Because prices were much lower for Linux-compatible laptops than with Win 10 installed, I can afford two. I plan to divide them into one for critical offline-only use, and the other for universal online use. I will air-gap the two. But it also means that I need to complete the final build of the offline air-gapped laptop ahead of porting data, after which it will not go online again (unless for a wipe and rebuild). For the offline-only laptop, I am looking at the following range of apps. Could I ask that you check my ideas, and offer suggestions and advice, please.:- 1) An office-like suite, for which I will be using LibreOffice, which is installed by default. 2) I need a whole-directory and free space overwriting utility, as well as the means to securely delete individual files. My understanding is that shred and wipe are available by default. I am looking at bleachbit for the whole-directory and free space wiping. But the software centre says "sudo" for this app: does that mean it has elevated privileges and is this a bad idea? 3) GtkHash for SHA256 etc. cryptographic hashes, primarily to verify backups. 4) Can anyone suggest an archiving utility which also verifies the files within the archive (I can then hash the archive file backup)? Archiving does not necessarily have to include compression. Are any installed by default? 5) GnuPG. I understand that this is installed by default? Am I correct that I can encrypt with password files if transferring on FAT32 USB or CD/DVD with this? Is it GUI? 6) CD/DVD burning, including both copying using a single optical drive, ordinary file burning and creating bootable CD/DVD from ISO images. I'm looking at Brasero for this. Can anyone suggest any other apps I should include ahead of locking off the build? I'm also assuming that the default 16.04 LTS supports formatting USB sticks to ext4, including encryption? Also, anyone any thoughts on using live-CD version of Ubuntu for online banking (in case the online unit got owned)? Please remember that I am a complete newbie to Linux. So please remember if you start talking about OpenWTF 0.666.1066 I will have no idea what you're talking about! Not for some months yet, anyway. :) Thanks for your help, Ian (C) Copyright 2016 by Ian Henderson. All rights reserved. Do not pass on my email address without my prior written consent (if emailing multiple recipients at the same time, use the BCC field in place of the To field).

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mail failures
by Nev Young 07 Dec '16

07 Dec '16

Hi, Can any one offer advice about a problem I've been having with email for a few months now? I suspect it has something to do with increased security at host mx4.hotmail.com but I can not confirm this. The problem (in brief) I host a number of websites. Each of these has a "contacts" page where any one may send an email. The page contains the following fields: 1 a drop down box to select the recipient (e.g. secretary, chair, treasurer, events co-ordinator, etc.) 2 a text field for the sender's own email address 3 a free text field. This prevents the sender knowing the email address of the recipient and sends an email with: To: = the recipients real email address From: = the sender's own email address Subject: = "website contact" and the body containing the free text stripped of any HTML. All of the above works fine for all sender addresses and recipient addresses *except* when the sender is <sender>@yahoo.co.uk and the recipient is <recipient>@live.co.uk which results in a failed to deliver message which contains: A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed: <recipient>@live.co.uk SMTP error from remote mail server after end of data: host mx4.hotmail.com [65.55.37.120]: 550 5.7.0 (COL004-MC4F7) Unfortunately, messages from (212.23.1.5) on behalf of (yahoo.co.uk) could not be delivered due to domain owner policy restrictions. ------ This is a copy of the message, including all the headers. ------ Meanwhile a copy of the email sent at the same time to me as site administrator works fine and is delivered. 65.55.37.120 is microsoft 212.23.1.5 is Zen internet (my isp). obviously <sender> and <recipient> have replaced real email names. Any ideas what I need to change to make hotmail accept these emails again. Or do I just have to wait it out? Nev

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 8th December
by Viperfang 05 Dec '16

05 Dec '16

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 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 2nd December.
by Viperfang 29 Nov '16

29 Nov '16

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

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Wanted - Audio player which works sensibly
by Chris Green 25 Nov '16

25 Nov '16

I have a large number of audio tracks on my computer[s] which I woiuld like to play occasionally. When at home I stream them from my desktop machine and that works *moderately* well with an Onkyo media centre and also using VLC for Android in streaming mode. However I can't find anything that simply allows me to select and play tracks (a directory at a time) directly on a laptop. I need to do this when using my laptop away from home and disconnected from the world. So, can anyone recommend a media (just audio is all I need) player which can do the following:- Navigate a hierarchy of directories containing a mix of MPG and FLAC files. Play individual files. Play the contents of a directory *once* only by default in a sensible order (classical music sounds a bit silly if you play the movements in the wrong order!). VLC is strangely almost totally useless playinmg from disk on Linux, quite unlike streaming on Android. Parole doesn't seem to be able to play a directory of sound files, at least I couldn't see how to do it. -- Chris Green

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Server permissions issue
by Chris Walker 24 Nov '16

24 Nov '16

Hello, Having built myself a Ubuntu server on an HP Proliant box, I've had it downloading iPlayer files without a problem using a cron job. I now want to add an image to the mp3 files and I do that using a script from this machine. Here's the full error :- Writing ID3 version v2.3 [Errno 13] Permission denied: u'/media/ProLiant/Media_Share/iPlayer_downloads/radio/Im_Sorry_I_Havent_A_Clue_Series_66_-_2._Episode_2.mp3' My interpretation of that is that it's caused by ID3. So (a) is it?, (b) why? With the final one (c) what can I do about it? -- __ __| |_ __ __ .----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:alug_cdw@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |______________________________________________|

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Re: [ALUG] Digital Ocean
by Jonathan McDowell 21 Nov '16

21 Nov '16

On Thu, Nov 17, 2016 at 09:57:01PM +0000, Mick wrote: > Now Tor operators tend to be a suspicious, sometimes paranoid, bunch, > but given that DO now has a substantial proportion of the Tor network > on its ASs that suspicion may, just may, be justified. I still use DO > because I get huge bandwidth for bugger all money (15 dollars a month, > compared to the 12 quid I (happily) pay Bytemark for my > mail/webserver). But I would not, and do not, use DO for anything I > care about in personal terms (such as mail, or XMPP messaging). I've got a single VM with DO that handles my parents' email (so running exim/dovecot/roundcube and little else). Not had any issues with them (and in terms of the traffic stuff you mentioned and I snipped I suspect that people like me hardly using their allowance are averaging out with people like you using a lot. Bandwidth in well connected datacentres has got scarily cheap). Like you my personal stuff (such as the machine which hosts this list) is with Bytemark. > Most importantly from my (admittedly somewhat paranoid viewpoint) the > VM allows me to choose my own kernel to go with the OS of my choice. > DO don't do that. You get to "choose" one of their kernels underneath > your installed OS. This has changed; when I started I was limited to the DO provided kernels, but my Debian VM with them is now using Debian provided kernels I installed - they've got a "grub" option in the web interface now which then boots a kernel from the VM image. J. -- Revd Jonathan McDowell, ULC | You want me, but it scares you.

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Re: [ALUG] VPN
by Mick 19 Nov '16

19 Nov '16

Sorry all. Typo in earlier email. Should be itldc see https://itldc.com/en/ --------------------------------------- (This is a copy of the earlier mail sent from my phone. That phone's email client seems to upset the list mail server.) Mick

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Re: [ALUG] VPN
by Mick 17 Nov '16

17 Nov '16

I too use DO. I even use them for my Tor node and my tails mirror. I used to use them for my whonix mirror as well, but whonix now fund all their own mirror structure so they don't need volunteers any more. But, and this is a big but, despite the fact that they have data centres all over the place, they are a US company. Furthermore, there is a certain lack of clarity about their funding. It is not at all obvious how they can have grown as rapidly as they have or how they can afford to finance the network bandwidth they use on the income they get from VM rental. As an early adopter I was "grandfathered" in to their new commercial contract. That contract is supposed to limit network usage (check the DO site for details). Bandwidth costs money. As a grandfathered user I get unlimited bandwidth. My Tor mode regularly chews through 6 to 7 TB of data a month - and I actually limit that node. What is less well known, but gets discussed on the Tor mailing lists, is that /none/ of the supposedly capped contracts are actually bandwidth capped at the moment. So you can get a VM for $5 which has unlimited network access. That is not a commercially viable arrangement and it strongly suggests that funding is coming from somewhere unknown. Now Tor operators tend to be a suspicious, sometimes paranoid, bunch, but given that DO now has a substantial proportion of the Tor network on its ASs that suspicion may, just may, be justified. I still use DO because I get huge bandwidth for bugger all money (15 dollars a month, compared to the 12 quid I (happily) pay Bytemark for my mail/webserver). But I would not, and do not, use DO for anything I care about in personal terms (such as mail, or XMPP messaging). So, if you want to use a server for a VPN, I'd personally recommend against DO. I am currently playing with a server in Sofia owned by ITDLC. They are a European supplier with servers in Bulgaria, the Ukraine, the Czech republic and the Netherlands. All looks good so far. The server I have is pretty fast, appears to be stable and most importantly is outside both the UK and US control. It cost me just over 3 quid for the month. Most importantly from my (admittedly somewhat paranoid viewpoint) the VM allows me to choose my own kernel to go with the OS of my choice. DO don't do that. You get to "choose" one of their kernels underneath your installed OS. Apart from my dislike of that model This can, and does, lead to the absurd position where you cannot actually install Openvpn because the tun kernel module won't load because of inconsistencies between the kernel you think you have and the one DO has actually loaded. Of course, all of this is probably moot because all VMs are subject to total surveillance by the owner/operator if they so choose. But, and this depends on your threat model, I feel a little happier with a VM that at least looks and feels "secure" to me. DO doesn't give me that warm feeling. (Bytemark do. In fact I feel very warm about them. But they don't give enough bandwidth at the price point I can pay to let me do all I want to do.) Mick (Please excuse top posting. On my phone, not at my desk. And yes, I know that K9 avoids that.......)On 17 Nov 2016 10:06, Laurie Brown wrote: > > On 16/11/16 20:17, Mick wrote: > > Bev > > > > Rent yourself a VM somewhere outside the UK (but not in the US). Set > > up openvpn on that box. Ubuntu handles that perfectly well. The VPN > > will hide all activity from your ISP so they can't log it. Better > > yet, for anonymity, use Tor. In fact you could combine the two so > > that your ISP can't even see that you are using Tor. > > > > Happy to help if necessary. > > Agreed. > > I can highly recommend Digital Ocean, who have data centres all over the > place. The Dutch one typically give me speeds of over 400meg. > > Their base server is $5 a month and is perfectly adequate for the task. > It takes about 1 minute to set up an Ubuntu VM (with SSD disks) and not > too long to install OpenVPN. > > If you do decide to go for DO, then use my referral link and you'll get > $10 in credit immediately (2 free months!). To be open, if you do use my > link, after you've spend $25, they credit my account with $25 as well. > You can cancel at any time. With 2 free months you have nothing to lose > by giving it a go. > > https://m.do.co/c/7cd7395ed31b > > Just to be clear, I have been using DO for a very long time, and I would > recommend them even without any incentive. > > Cheers, Laurie. > > PS. Their API is very Ansible-friendly. > -- > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Laurie Brown > laurie(a)brownowl.com > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above!

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Re: [ALUG] VPN
by Laurie Brown 17 Nov '16

17 Nov '16

On 16/11/16 20:17, Mick wrote: > Bev > > Rent yourself a VM somewhere outside the UK (but not in the US). Set > up openvpn on that box. Ubuntu handles that perfectly well. The VPN > will hide all activity from your ISP so they can't log it. Better > yet, for anonymity, use Tor. In fact you could combine the two so > that your ISP can't even see that you are using Tor. > > Happy to help if necessary. Agreed. I can highly recommend Digital Ocean, who have data centres all over the place. The Dutch one typically give me speeds of over 400meg. Their base server is $5 a month and is perfectly adequate for the task. It takes about 1 minute to set up an Ubuntu VM (with SSD disks) and not too long to install OpenVPN. If you do decide to go for DO, then use my referral link and you'll get $10 in credit immediately (2 free months!). To be open, if you do use my link, after you've spend $25, they credit my account with $25 as well. You can cancel at any time. With 2 free months you have nothing to lose by giving it a go. https://m.do.co/c/7cd7395ed31b Just to be clear, I have been using DO for a very long time, and I would recommend them even without any incentive. Cheers, Laurie. PS. Their API is very Ansible-friendly. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Laurie Brown laurie(a)brownowl.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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