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Ann: ALUG 2001.2 (Don't forget your wellies)!
by John Woodard 02 Mar '01

02 Mar '01

Announce: ALUG 2001.2 (Don't forget your wellies)! The next ALUG meeting will be at our Mid Suffolk venue Syleham Village Hall again as guests of Syleham and Wingfield Computer Club (SWCC) on Sunday 18th March 2001 2:00pm - 6:00pm. Venue details at http://www.anglian.lug.org.uk/venues/syleham.html. If you are coming please mail me mailto:mail@johnwoodard.co.uk with details of any kit you are bringing so we can update the web site. Please mail the list if you have any requests for help or would like a demonstration of anything specific and we will try to accommodate if at all possible. SWCC will as always provide hot drinks and maybe some biscuits (if I remember). The hall will cost us a tenner again, which is very reasonable considering the facilities. We will do the normal whip round of a pound a head, any surplus being donated to SWCC funds. Those of you who came to the last meeting at Syleham will appreciate the (Don't forget your wellies) tag line. :-) I'll post an announce to relevant Usenet groups over the weekend. As an aside we could really do with other venues for these meetings this one should have been at the UEA but Mark is up to his eyeballs in work at the moment so I'm quite happy to host again. If any of you can host an ALUG meeting please post to the list with contact details. Requirements are fairly modest warm dry room with power and light that can hold 20+ people and a few tables for demonstration machines to sit on is the bare minimum. Cheers, BJ

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Introduction
by govind chandra (JIC) 02 Mar '01

02 Mar '01

Hi everybody I am here in the John Innes Centre, Norwich. I have come here from Lucknow, India to research on plant viruses. I have been using Linux for about eight years now. All my installations were done from CD's which come with an Indian magazine called 'PC Quest' (www.pcquest.com) At work here I use Windows NT and at home it is Red Hat 6.2 running Gnome installed off a PC Quest CD on a Pentium 66 MHz with 24 Mb RAM. Believe me, it is very usable! Most of the time that I am on a machine I am playing with PERL scripts for manipulating / analysing nucleotide sequence data. Hoping to hear some nice discussions on this list. Govind Govind Chandra Department of Disease and Stress Biology John Innes Centre Norwich Research Park Norwich NR4 7UH

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Re: [Alug] Your reply
by MJ Ray 01 Mar '01

01 Mar '01

Kerin <kerin.westgate(a)virgin.net> writes: > a lot of us are switching > over from "Windows" were much of this is done for you This is simply not true. Windows requires you to download and install security updates from Microsoft, doesn't it? Well, if you've got Redhat, you should download and install updates from them on a regular basis, just the same. If you have Debian, you should set apt to get them for you and use it on a regular basis. etc SuSE etc Slackware etc Like I said, other mailing lists are for security alerts. We have neither the time nor the expertise to check and handle all of them on a LUG list. This place is really for the LUG and things affecting LUG members which are best dealt with by other members. We seem to handle most general problems quite well, but I don't want to see it drown in real and fake security warnings, as it surely will. And if you think I'm being harsh, please just imagine what posting your message to the uk.comp.os.linux newsgroup would have been like. I'm quite friendly really. -- MJR

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RE:New Linux Varus
by Earl Brannigan 01 Mar '01

01 Mar '01

Hi all What I know about this : Technically Ramen is a worm (not necessarily a virus as such except in the sense that it is self replicating) It uses standard buffer overflow routines ( code freely available from : www.attrition.org, www.securityfocus.com, www.insecure.org) to attack known weaknesses. So effectively it is merely an amalgamation and automation of existing hacking code, with a little port scanning & network detection (OS Fingerprinting by TCP/IP is pretty simple, and very accurate) thrown in for good measure. I understand it also attacks BIND (port 53) which is often the first line of attack anyway. There will be a script available soon to automate removal of RAMEN ( http://www.securityfocus.com/tools/1944) which is worth getting JIC. Previous advice about getting the latest fixes is still the best. (There are a number of ways of automating this but the first thing I recommend to anyone is to subscribe to bugtraq at securityfocus, and also LINUX Security Newsletter - same place). HTH Regards Earl

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Your reply
by Kerin 01 Mar '01

01 Mar '01

Hello Thank you for your reply, but as I keep trying to say is, as a "newbie" I and other do not know about kernel traffic. We have spent a lot of time trying to set up this, what seems a strange system, remember a lot of us are switching over from "Windows" were much of this is done for you, You may say well this is something you should have looked at before. maybe, maybe not. But until someone like your self mentions it, we don't know of it. and all the books I have read have not mentioned it. I sent the article in for two reasons, 1) I,m always being told this can not happen. 2) more importantly, if someone out there is running 6.2 or 7.0 and they have not updated, is not it a friendly thing to do and warn them that they could have a problem. remember the spirit of the Linux world. Please no offense meant. Cheers. Kerin.

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irc
by Neill Newman 28 Feb '01

28 Feb '01

is there an IRC channel where alug people hide ?? Sz -- Open source solutions at http://www.entora.co.uk/

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RE: [Alug] New Linux Varus
by Corner Paul 28 Feb '01

28 Feb '01

Thanks for the snippit of info - I'd been searching the net for some hard information on how this virus attacks linux systems, Now I have some idea of how the thing operates, I can check my system and try to determine if I have a problem. Regards, Paul. > -----Original Message----- > From: Kerin [SMTP:kerin.westgate@virgin.net] > Sent: 28 February 2001 13:46 > To: alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk > Subject: [Alug] New Linux Varus > > Hi > I,m not realy sure who to send this too, > > I,ve just picked up the new issue of the "new Linux Magazine". and theres > an > article in there worth reading, as follows, > > Page 7 VARUS WARNING > > A new Internet worm that targets computers running Red Hat Linux is be > described by some virus experts as the first successful attack on the > Linux > O/S, which is widely considered to be one of the best protected platforms > around. >

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New Linux Varus
by Kerin 28 Feb '01

28 Feb '01

Hi I,m not realy sure who to send this too, I,ve just picked up the new issue of the "new Linux Magazine". and theres an article in there worth reading, as follows, Page 7 VARUS WARNING A new Internet worm that targets computers running Red Hat Linux is be described by some virus experts as the first successful attack on the Linux O/S, which is widely considered to be one of the best protected platforms around. To penetrate computers that have Red Hat Linux 6.2 or 7.0 installed, The Ramen worm exploits 3 security breeches loopholes - in.ftpd, rc.statd and PLRng. These were identified and closed by developers last summer. The breaches are from the buffer overflow category and could enable hackers to send an executable code to the remote system and run it without the user's authorisation. The Ramen worm infects a system by sending data to a target computer receives data which then overflows the system's internal buffer. This enables the worm code to gain root privileges. It then initialises the command processor that executes the worm's instructions. Next the worm creates the /usr/srcl.poop folder and launches the "lynx" internet browser. There it downloads theworm's archive RAMEN.TGZ from a remote system. After this, Ramen opens the archive and executes its main file START.SH. The worm changes the contents of INDEX.HTML files found on the system, so that when affected HTML files are run they display the following message. RameN Crew Hackers looooooOOOOOOOOOOOve noodles. There is no additional payload. But i have run out of time to finnish the article. Cheers Kerin

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Re: [Alug] [Alasdair Kergon <agk@ukuug.org>] [lugmaster] Internet Fiesta 2nd to 4th March 2001
by MJ Ray 27 Feb '01

27 Feb '01

Apologies for that unwarranted MIMEing. I'll learn how to use my mail client properly one day soon. It also seems my filters don't catch all attachments yet, so I'll sharpen them. -- MJR

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Re: [Alug] I hope this isn't inappropriate...
by MJ Ray 27 Feb '01

27 Feb '01

Adam Bower <abower(a)zeus.com> writes: > How about we only allow posts about jobs from active members of the > list? or to be forwarded by list subscribers for friends, friendly > companys etc. and maybe we need a similar policy for adverts?? You might like that, but I can see the reason why. No, if someone crosses the boundaries of normal good behaviour I'll block them, but I don't want to have to moderate this list yet. After all, there are only 120 people on it at the moment. If we get many more of these, then I'll consider changing policy if people want to. Thoughts? Anyway, back to the Linux with some helpful advice from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html -- MJR

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[Alasdair Kergon <agk@ukuug.org>] [lugmaster] Internet Fiesta 2nd to 4th March 2001
by MJ Ray 27 Feb '01

27 Feb '01

Time for some ALUG networked event? Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 13:47:09 +0000 From: Alasdair Kergon <agk(a)ukuug.org> Subject: [lugmaster] Internet Fiesta 2nd to 4th March 2001 I hadn't heard of this until I read this email this morning. Alasdair ----- Forwarded message from Christian de Larrinaga <cdel(a)firsthand.net> ----- Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 22:22:28 -0000 From: "Christian de Larrinaga" <cdel(a)firsthand.net> Subject: Invitation to participate in the Internet Fiesta 2nd to 4th March 2001 Your invitation to take part in the worldwide Internet Fiesta 2001. Don't forget to register so people know your taking part. best regards, Christian Christian de Larrinaga Internet Fiesta UK 2001 2nd 4th March 2001 www.internet-fiesta.org +44-(0)1380-816877 Internet Society of England Please forward widely and as appropriate ---------------------------------------------------------- Internet Fiesta- is the world's greatest Internet event and it is coming early this year on the weekend 2nd to 4th March Fiesta weekend is a celebration of the power of the Internet and it is your opportunity to communicate across the world by creating and registering your own special part of this festival of the Internet, participating in thousands of activities with millions of Internet users around the world, in a weekend of fun, culture, interactivity and experiential learning that gets the world buzzing by Internet. Fiesta is an ideal way to find and promote what is happening on the Internet today. What you can do is limited only by the imagination. Nothing is too small to register. Often the simplest ideas have the greatest impact on the Internet .. Try it. So whilst you take a virtual weekend in Paris, you can be greeting new friends in Japan. The Internet Fiesta 2001 is just for a weekend of the 2nd to 4th March 2001. Anybody can participate. Dream up an idea, plan what you will do to make it happen and register it at http://www.internet-fiesta.org/Faq.htm and then get on the net for the weekend.. If you are already holding an event, a concert or a cultural or scientific festival or a course teaching skills or want to demonstrate something new, make sure you connect up and share it with the whole world. Remember the Fiesta is the ideal opportunity to bring people to your project and community and for you to extend what you do to a worldwide community over a single weekend of Internet activities. So learn, teach, watch, film, show, demonstrate, play, talk, webcast, chat, invent, discuss, build, and above all have fun and take possession. The Internet is yours. Fiesta is a weekend of fun, but with a serious intent of getting people to enjoy and use the Internet as a resource for everyone and discover what's new and interesting.. Make sure you take part - register your event. PLEASE NOTE I am also looking for helpers and local co co-ordinators to assist with events and help event organisers. Please register by email to me cdel(a)firsthand.net best regards Christian de Larrinaga Internet Fiesta UK 2001 2nd 4th March 2001 www.internet-fiesta.org +44-(0)1380-816877 cdel(a)firsthand.net Chairman Internet Society of England www.england.isoc.org some background information from Raymond Pougheon of Atelier in Paris a creator of "Fete d'Internet" - The Internet Fiesta. INTERNET FIESTA 2001 Internet Fiesta ? The Internet Fiesta originated in France. Founded on the model of the " music fest ", the first " Internet Fest " was organised in France in 1998. In 1999, with the help of the European Commission, the Fiesta spread out over the world.. In 2000, for it's second edition, the Internet Fiesta organised itself around 65 committees in more than 50 countries over the five continents. A very large amount of events all over the world were organised : Africa, Eastern and Western Europe, South America, but also Canada Corea I order to facilitate the national organisors' work a cordination team of about 50 volunteers edited information in 15 different languages, pages and ressouces on numerous formats such as 3D, linux, flash, Java, webcamsand a database for the events in 10 languages was also accessible for wap phones. Different prize games where organised such as a quiz, a 3D drawing contest or the " fabrique des possibles " wich enabled anybody to conceive new usages tools or scenarios for the Future Internet. Fiesta Plaz was the place where the coordination team physically met 24 hours a day during the event. Everybody, presenting himself as a Fiestoon, the Internet Fiesta mascot, and speaking in one of the 15 languages, participated to the online events all over the world and in very different time zones. Objectifs ? The Internet Fiesta's tries to promote the utilisation of Internet in order to facilitate communication between people. The Internet is boarderless, participants come from the five continents. The goal is to encourage and facilitate daily usage of the Internet and to share experiences and projects with the help of networks be they physical or human. Date ? The Internet Fiesta is a three days international event. This year it will take place from 2nd to 4th of March 2001. Contacts ? There is no centralised organisation but a network of volunteers who : - help to integrate the project and events into the network - organise events and actions in order to promote Internet Fiesta The International website : www.internet-fiesta.org - organizes the registration of the events and initiative - gives out information and tools for the organisors of projects - puts an emphasis an a few initiatives arround the world at the moment when they happen E-mail : info(a)internet-fiesta.org >From march 3th and 4th of march 2001 : Citi des Sciences et de l'Industrie Espace Condorcet (Niveau 0) 30 avenue Corentin-Cariou75019 Paris Mitro : Porte de la Villette How to participate ? Use your imagination and ressources and organise your own event ! Find an idea and sare it with your friends and partners. Once the concept is ready, register it on the Fiesta website :www.internet-fiesta.org Where ever you are Let's fiesta all together >From the 2nd to the 4th of March 2001, the best Information Society ideas will be on focus Where to participate ? On the Internet of course, but also in the villages, in the street, shops or coffes. The services and solutions offered through Internet to the citizens, employees and administrations shall be put forward. Internet Fiesta is the sum of all the events taking place in every country, during the three days. This Fiesta is yours The Ethics The organisation of the Internet Fiesta 2001 is concieved and functions as a human network and because it is a human network. It develops in much the same way as freeware does There for it was possible to demonstrate that you can organize a number of events in an number of languages in the world. After the success of the past two years of Internet Fiesta, we are pursuing this impulse broadenig the event so that you can all participate. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- MJR

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Internet security - cable modems ?
by Andrew Cartwright 26 Feb '01

26 Feb '01

Hi, I would appreciate your help once again, I am using RH 7.0 at the moment and have just configured my NIC (Netgear fa311) to enable my cable modem internet connection. RH 7.1(fisher) configures everything automatically IE NIC,DHCP and firewall. this is all very well but doesn't teach me a great deal about what is going on in the background. I intend to set up RH 7.0 with a firewall and any other security measures that are needed. I would very much appreciate any suggestions/help that anyone can offer to assist me setting up the required services. Things along the lines of :- Which services to disable (and how) Which firewall - ipchains or other package and tips on setting it up TIA

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Re: [Alug] I hope this isn't inappropriate...
by MJ Ray 26 Feb '01

26 Feb '01

I think I'll let both sides howl each other out. ;-) The older hands who remember Laurie's earlier generosity to the group will know he's not the type to say such things for no reason. Those who don't care about IR35 can deal with them if they want to. The list policy on advertising remains "fuzzy" and it's generally a good idea to seek guidance *before* you post. -- MJR

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Re: [Alug] Faxgetty, Mgetty and data calls - anyone?
by MJ Ray 25 Feb '01

25 Feb '01

Barry Samuels <barry(a)datamansys.co.uk> writes: > If I run FaxAddModem it identifies the modem as Class 1 (the > relevant command, as I remember, returns 0,1,1,0). Does that affect > its data capabilities? Yes. I think Hylafax only handles Class 2 modems. If it really is Class 1 (like mine), you'll need to use efax and hope that the system load is low enough so as not to affect timing too much. > > Can you send OK from it? > Sorry - don't understand what you mean. Can you send faxes from it with Hylafax? If so, it's probably Class 2 and I'm wrong in what I just said above. > > The mgetty ???s sounds a bit like it's trying to start PPP on you. > Why would it do that? Could I prevent it? No idea, sadly. I've never played with mgetty. -- MJR

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I hope this isn't inappropriate...
by Gavin Smith 25 Feb '01

25 Feb '01

I am an IT recruitment consultant working with a technology start up based in Suffolk. My client is a content networking company providing a unique technology to aid the real-time acceleration of multiple types of content including video, audio, web, gaming and finance information. Their customers include telecommunications service providers, ISPs and major enterprise companies, all of who want to distribute multiple types of content over one platform to large numbers of clients or users. They have several exciting positions currently available for software engineers and team leaders. If you have any of the following skills we'd like to here from you! * Java Development * C/C++ * FreeBSD/Linux kernel development * QA & Testing * IP Networking * IP Multicast protocols If you would be interested (or even just curious) please contact me for further details. Regards Gavin Smith Best International **************************************************************************************** Official winners of the UK IT Recruitment Service of the Year Computing Awards for Excellence 2000 Best International Group Plc Registered in England No. 3246014 London (Head Office) +44 (0)20 7300 9000 Bristol +44 (0)117 945 9000 Birmingham +44 (0)121 335 9000 Manchester +44 (0)161 942 9000 Scotland +44 (0)131 524 9000 This email is confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any representations (contractual or otherwise), views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Best International Group, or any of its group companies. If you are not the intended recipient be advised that you have received this email in error and that any use, dissemination, forwarding, printing or copying of this email is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender. This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by MIMEsweeper for the presence of computer viruses. ****************************************************************************************

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Re: [Alug] Faxgetty, Mgetty and data calls - anyone?
by MJ Ray 25 Feb '01

25 Feb '01

Barry Samuels <barry(a)datamansys.co.uk> writes: > I apologise in advance for that bit of important information that I have > almost certainly forgotten to include. Which Hayes Accura 56k? Not all do Class 2 fax. Can you send OK from it? The mgetty ???s sounds a bit like it's trying to start PPP on you. This is probably an irrelevant line of attack. ;-) -- MJR

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Faxgetty, Mgetty and data calls - anyone?
by Barry Samuels 24 Feb '01

24 Feb '01

I've spent hours and hours trying to set up Hylafax/Faxgetty to auto detect fax/data calls and respond appropriately. I have had partial success in that I can now get it to distinguish between fax and data calls and accept the fax or start mgetty for a data call. Part of my original problem was that the default config.ttyS1 GettyArgs included -h as the first option which caused Mgetty to start and then immediately stop after printing a 'Usage' line in the log. I have, at least been able to correct that. My current config.ttyS1 gettyargs is: GettyArgs: "-D %l dx_%s" I have also tried "-r -s %s %l" together with many other combinations. If I dial in from another machine the call is answered as a data call and mgetty started but on the machine that I dialled in from I see a line of about two dozen characters, most of which appear to be '?', then the cursor returns to the beginning of the line, overwrites part of the existing line before dropping down one line, printing a few more characters then dropping down another line and displays 'NO CARRIER'. I never get to see a login prompt and these tests are costing me a fortune in telephone calls! It doesn't seem to make any difference whatever options I try the result is always as described above. The getty on the Hylafax machine is left running and has to be killed. The mgetty log shows: 02/23 09:52:33 yS1 mgetty: experimental test release 1.1.21-Jul24 02/23 09:52:33 yS1 check for lockfiles 02/23 09:52:33 yS1 huh? It's *our* lock file! 02/23 09:52:33 yS1 locking the line 02/23 09:52:33 yS1 makelock(ttyS1) called 02/23 09:52:33 yS1 do_makelock: lock='/var/lock/LCK..ttyS1' 02/23 09:52:33 yS1 we *have* the line! 02/23 09:52:33 yS1 lock made 02/23 09:52:34 yS1 tio_get_rs232_lines: status: RTS CTS DSR DTR 02/23 09:52:34 yS1 tss: set speed to 115200 (10002) 02/23 09:52:34 yS1 tio_set_flow_control( HARD ) 02/23 09:52:34 yS1 waiting for line to clear (VTIME), read: 02/23 09:52:34 yS1 send: \d\d\d+++\d\d\dATZ[0d] 02/23 09:52:37 yS1 waiting for ``OK'' 02/23 09:52:37 yS1 got: [0d][0a]CONNECT[0d][0a][0d][0a]OK ** found ** 02/23 09:52:43 yS1 waiting for line to clear (VTIME), read: [0d][0a] 02/23 09:52:43 yS1 removing lock file 02/23 09:52:43 yS1 waiting... Although, in this section, the modem is reset I have tried other options which give the following in the log: 02/23 09:40:20 yS1 mgetty: experimental test release 1.1.21-Jul24 02/23 09:40:20 yS1 check for lockfiles 02/23 09:40:20 yS1 huh? It's *our* lock file! 02/23 09:40:20 yS1 locking the line 02/23 09:40:20 yS1 makelock(ttyS1) called 02/23 09:40:20 yS1 do_makelock: lock='/var/lock/LCK..ttyS1' 02/23 09:40:20 yS1 we *have* the line! 02/23 09:40:20 yS1 lock made 02/23 09:40:20 yS1 tio_get_rs232_lines: status: RTS CTS DSR DTR 02/23 09:40:20 yS1 tss: set speed to 115200 (10002) 02/23 09:40:20 yS1 tio_set_flow_control( HARD ) 02/23 09:40:20 yS1 waiting for line to clear (VTIME), read: 02/23 09:40:20 yS1 send: \dATQ0V1H0[0d] 02/23 09:40:21 yS1 waiting for ``OK'' 02/23 09:40:21 yS1 got: [0d][0a]OK ** found ** 02/23 09:40:21 yS1 send: AT[0d] 02/23 09:40:21 yS1 waiting for ``OK'' 02/23 09:40:21 yS1 got: [0d][0a][0d][0a]OK ** found ** 02/23 09:40:21 yS1 waiting for line to clear (VTIME), read: [0d][0a] 02/23 09:40:22 yS1 removing lock file 02/23 09:40:22 yS1 waiting... I have also read as much documentation as I could find without any luck and have tried posting on two newsgroups and the Debian mailing list but have had no replies. I am running Debian 2.2 with kernel 2.2.18pre21, I have a Hayes Accura 56k fax/data modem and I am running Hylafax version 4.0.2-14. The machine that I'm dialling in from is running Windows 95 although I have tried it from another Debian machine using Minicom with exactly the same results. I apologise in advance for that bit of important information that I have almost certainly forgotten to include. What am I doing wrong? Help would be very much appreciated. Barry Samuels

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Re: [Alug] I hope this isn't inappropriate...
by MJ Ray 23 Feb '01

23 Feb '01

Neill Newman <neill(a)entora.co.uk> writes: > oops, please forgive me, > I didn't mean to send this to the whole alug list !!! So why did you just send it again? Trim quotes... -- MJR

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Broadband in Norwich?
by Syd Hancock 20 Feb '01

20 Feb '01

First of all, my apologies since this question is not directly related to linux. Can anyone tell me if there are any ADSL, cable or other broadband services in or near to Norwich? (Currently in France, moving to Norwich area in April - anyone knowing of a decent 3/4 bed house w/ garden to rent please contact) TIA and second set of apologies for the spam, promise it won't happen again. But you never know... Syd

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Re: Printers +Postscript
by tom potts 20 Feb '01

20 Feb '01

Check out Ghostscript/Ghostview - this will allow you to print almost any format to almost any printer. It will display these formats to screen as well. Most things the evile (sic) empire charge for have been free from GNU for twenty years or so! Tom --- alug-admin(a)stu.uea.ac.uk wrote: > > Send alug mailing list submissions to > alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the web, visit > http://rabbit.stu.uea.ac.uk/cgi-bin/listinfo/alug > or, via email, send a message with subject or body > 'help' to > alug-request(a)stu.uea.ac.uk > You can reach the person managing the list at > alug-admin(a)stu.uea.ac.uk > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it > is more specific than > "Re: Contents of alug digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Printers (fozzy(a)pelvoux.demon.co.uk) > > --__--__-- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2001 00:27:13 +0000 > To: David Freeman <david_freeman(a)rocketmail.com> > Subject: Re: [Alug] Printers > > On Sat, Feb 17, 2001 at 12:21:35PM -0800, David > Freeman wrote: > > > All, > > > > I've decided I need to buy a printer. > > > > After some thought I have decided on the following > criteria > > > > * Must run well with Linux > > * Lazer printer > > * low cost to buy > > * Low running costs (<5p a page) > > * Reliable > > > > Can any one suggest a good buy? > > The moon on a stick? > > Seriously, you may not be able to find something > which meets all of > the requirements above. Looking at the requirements > in more detail: > > > * Must run well with Linux > > Most unix (including Linux) programs are designed to > work with a > Postscript printer. So, for a printer to work well > with Linux it must > either have a built-in postscript interpreter or it > must have a good > ghostscript driver so that ghostscript can be used > to convert > postscript into whatever strange format the printer > uses. > > I went for the built-in postscript interpreter. > > > * Lazer printer > > I would expect one of these to be much faster and > have a lower cost > per page than an inkjet, but for an item of similar > quality it will be > more expensive to buy. > > > * low cost to buy > > A lot depends on what you regard as low cost. Laser > printers have got > a lot cheaper in recent years but they will still be > more expensive > than most injkets. You should be able to get a > small "personal" laser > printer for between about £200 and £500. > > > * Low running costs (<5p a page) > > The printer I have now is an HP Laserjet 2100/M and > the toner > cartridge costs about £70 with the average life > according to HP being > 5,000 sheets, i.e. about 2 boxes of paper - my last > one lasted slighly > longer than this. > > I don't remember how much the paper is but I think > about £15 per box > (1 box = 5 reams = 2,500 sheets) is probably > reasonable. > > So, adding it up you get 1.4 p/page for toner and > 0.6p/page for paper > making a total cost of 2p/page. > > Compare this with my previous printer which was an > Epson Styluscolor - > ink cartridges are about £15 and last about 500 > pages. Paper is > slighly cheaper, say £2.50 per ream so we get > 3p/page for ink and > 0.5p/page for paper giving a total or 3.5/page. > > > * Reliable > > It's a bit difficult to measure this one. The > printer I've got has > been reliable so far in that it has never gone wrong > and it only jams > if I give it paper which is bent or curled. > > > Can any one suggest a good buy? > > I don't think I can recommend any especially good > buy. > > The printer I have now which is an HP Laserjet > 2100/M I am very > pleased with. It is fast, the output quality is > good, it hasn't > barfed on anything I've sent it, is cheap to run and > so far seems > reliable. > > As I said earlier this is the model with built-in > postscript (that's > indirectly what the /M stands for - /M actually > means "for Macintosh" > as far as I know but as Macs have a history of > expecting postscript > printers it indirectly means built-in postscript). > > I bought it from PC World at a discount because it > was an > ex-demo model (unused I am told). I paid £499 for > it, their list > price was about £700 if I remember correctly. > > I have just tested the ljet4 ghostscript driver > driving my printer in > PCL mode and that seems to produce output that looks > almost > indistinguishable from the built-in postscript (for > the Times Roman > font anyway) so this may indicate that a cheaper HP > (PCL only, like > the 1100 series) would work well too though I can't > say for sure. > > One thing to do may be to knock up a postscipt test > file, one page > preferably, which includes samples of all > 30-something fonts as well > as various shade and screen effects and see if you > can get people to > print it for comparison. > > Hope this helps, > Steve. > > > > > > --__--__-- > > _______________________________________________ > alug mailing list > alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk > http://rabbit.stu.uea.ac.uk/cgi-bin/listinfo/alug > > > End of alug Digest __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? 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Re: Printers
by tom potts 20 Feb '01

20 Feb '01

As a matter of restraint I'd sit back and check what printing you REALLY need. If you print out a lot of things that you can't be bothered to read on screen - long alug mailings etc - you really dont want to be paying 4+ pence per page and then throwing away half the colour cartriges. The company I work for spends 90%+ of its printing costs on paper and ink that goes from printer to hand to bin. If its an attractive document e-mail it and let the recipient print it ,if its not an old dot matrix will almost certainly do and and old line printer is a revelation! But they dont beep when thay run low on ink which some people just CANT (sic) live with. But then thay dont print illegibly in yellow either. Tom --- alug-admin(a)stu.uea.ac.uk wrote: > > Send alug mailing list submissions to > alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the web, visit > http://rabbit.stu.uea.ac.uk/cgi-bin/listinfo/alug > or, via email, send a message with subject or body > 'help' to > alug-request(a)stu.uea.ac.uk > You can reach the person managing the list at > alug-admin(a)stu.uea.ac.uk > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it > is more specific than > "Re: Contents of alug digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Printers (fozzy(a)pelvoux.demon.co.uk) > > --__--__-- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2001 00:27:13 +0000 > To: David Freeman <david_freeman(a)rocketmail.com> > Subject: Re: [Alug] Printers > > On Sat, Feb 17, 2001 at 12:21:35PM -0800, David > Freeman wrote: > > > All, > > > > I've decided I need to buy a printer. > > > > After some thought I have decided on the following > criteria > > > > * Must run well with Linux > > * Lazer printer > > * low cost to buy > > * Low running costs (<5p a page) > > * Reliable > > > > Can any one suggest a good buy? > > The moon on a stick? > > Seriously, you may not be able to find something > which meets all of > the requirements above. Looking at the requirements > in more detail: > > > * Must run well with Linux > > Most unix (including Linux) programs are designed to > work with a > Postscript printer. So, for a printer to work well > with Linux it must > either have a built-in postscript interpreter or it > must have a good > ghostscript driver so that ghostscript can be used > to convert > postscript into whatever strange format the printer > uses. > > I went for the built-in postscript interpreter. > > > * Lazer printer > > I would expect one of these to be much faster and > have a lower cost > per page than an inkjet, but for an item of similar > quality it will be > more expensive to buy. > > > * low cost to buy > > A lot depends on what you regard as low cost. Laser > printers have got > a lot cheaper in recent years but they will still be > more expensive > than most injkets. You should be able to get a > small "personal" laser > printer for between about £200 and £500. > > > * Low running costs (<5p a page) > > The printer I have now is an HP Laserjet 2100/M and > the toner > cartridge costs about £70 with the average life > according to HP being > 5,000 sheets, i.e. about 2 boxes of paper - my last > one lasted slighly > longer than this. > > I don't remember how much the paper is but I think > about £15 per box > (1 box = 5 reams = 2,500 sheets) is probably > reasonable. > > So, adding it up you get 1.4 p/page for toner and > 0.6p/page for paper > making a total cost of 2p/page. > > Compare this with my previous printer which was an > Epson Styluscolor - > ink cartridges are about £15 and last about 500 > pages. Paper is > slighly cheaper, say £2.50 per ream so we get > 3p/page for ink and > 0.5p/page for paper giving a total or 3.5/page. > > > * Reliable > > It's a bit difficult to measure this one. The > printer I've got has > been reliable so far in that it has never gone wrong > and it only jams > if I give it paper which is bent or curled. > > > Can any one suggest a good buy? > > I don't think I can recommend any especially good > buy. > > The printer I have now which is an HP Laserjet > 2100/M I am very > pleased with. It is fast, the output quality is > good, it hasn't > barfed on anything I've sent it, is cheap to run and > so far seems > reliable. > > As I said earlier this is the model with built-in > postscript (that's > indirectly what the /M stands for - /M actually > means "for Macintosh" > as far as I know but as Macs have a history of > expecting postscript > printers it indirectly means built-in postscript). > > I bought it from PC World at a discount because it > was an > ex-demo model (unused I am told). I paid £499 for > it, their list > price was about £700 if I remember correctly. > > I have just tested the ljet4 ghostscript driver > driving my printer in > PCL mode and that seems to produce output that looks > almost > indistinguishable from the built-in postscript (for > the Times Roman > font anyway) so this may indicate that a cheaper HP > (PCL only, like > the 1100 series) would work well too though I can't > say for sure. > > One thing to do may be to knock up a postscipt test > file, one page > preferably, which includes samples of all > 30-something fonts as well > as various shade and screen effects and see if you > can get people to > print it for comparison. > > Hope this helps, > Steve. > > > > > > --__--__-- > > _______________________________________________ > alug mailing list > alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk > http://rabbit.stu.uea.ac.uk/cgi-bin/listinfo/alug > > > End of alug Digest __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? 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Palmtops & Linux - big decision needs making.
by Nico Morgan 19 Feb '01

19 Feb '01

I am on the brink of buying a palmtop but can't decide which. Many things affect my decision but the most important thing is successful linking with my Linux box at work where it will be synced and backed-up. Have members any experience of the Handspring visor (Prob deluxe) and the Palm (m100, IIIxe) working with their Linux boxes? The documentation seems to imply that both will work perfectly well with the Palm syncing conduits and so on... Thanks in advance Nico -- /\/ / i c o

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Printers
by David Freeman 18 Feb '01

18 Feb '01

All, I've decided I need to buy a printer. After some thought I have decided on the following criteria * Must run well with Linux * Lazer printer * low cost to buy * Low running costs (<5p a page) * Reliable Can any one suggest a good buy? Thanks D __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/

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Re: [Alug] Palmtops & Linux - big decision needs making.
by MJ Ray 18 Feb '01

18 Feb '01

Nico Morgan <nico(a)nicomorgan.com> writes: > Have members any experience of the Handspring visor (Prob deluxe) and > the Palm (m100, IIIxe) working with their Linux boxes? The > documentation seems to imply that both will work perfectly well with > the Palm syncing conduits and so on... I have a Palm working well with coldsync, and I've seen other tools based on pilot-xfer working too. JPilot is highly regarded if you actually want to work with the PIM data rather than just back it up, and I understand Gnome and KDE desktop environments both offer some syncing. -- MJR "Candidate must understand grass is green and Luton has a football team."

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Linux *is* for desktops!
by Chris Allen 17 Feb '01

17 Feb '01

Well, I did it. After my "Linux is not for desktops?" post, I had many messages of advice and suggestions - and I have finally turned off my windows machine for good. I'm now using: Mail: mutt - took some getting used to, but I'm now amazed at how powerful it is. I can do things with a couple of keypresses that I wouldn't have considered in Eudora! News: slrn - Again totally different philosophy to Agent, but well worth the effort... Now all my news is collected by slrnpull, and I can read quickly whenever I want to. Office: StarOffice. It does all it can to make MSOffice people feel at home, but I'm still having a few problems. Web: Konqueror/Netscape. Konqueror is nice and fast for nearly everything. I particularly like the way that (from KDE) I can hit the 'windows' button on my keyboard, type in a URL, and I'm away. If there is something that Konqueror can't handle, then I switch to netscape. So many thanks for all your advice - it was well worth it, and I'm so pleased to have finally ditched Microsoft.. Couple of things I'm still having problems with - if anybody's found a solution I'd be grateful to hear about it: * I can't print TrueType fonts from StarOffice. They are displayed, but when I print, they get changed to something else. I can't find any info about this at all. My printer is a Tektronix Phaser 560, which handles Postscript level2, and can (apparently) deal with type-42 fonts (whatever that means)... but no luck at all yet... * Konsole in KDE has this neat 'session' manager that lets you start several shells in one window. However, I have found no way of doing this automatically when I log in. It would be useful if it could launch a konsole window with several shells aready running... Anybody have any ideas? chris. ps.. Would anybody be interested in coming to an 'outdoor' meet in the early summer - weather permitting - we have an ideal garden for this, a permanent internet connection, so you could be wired up to the net properly, and we could follow it with a barbecue (and a swim in the pool for those that wanted...)

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