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Mobile phone external aerial - to improve reception
by James Freer 29 Mar '14

29 Mar '14

Anyone else living in an area with poor reception? For me I get one signal bar with T-mobile - and that's on a good day! Other networks nil. I have been trying to set up an external aerial and I was wondering if anyone else had tried this. james

3 3

Going back to VPNs - when I have one set up what does it do for me?
by Chris Green 25 Mar '14

25 Mar '14

I keep thinking that a VPN might be what I need, but then when I look at VPN documentation etc. I wonder whether it is what I need. So, if I set up an OpenVPN server on my home desktop machine (which stays turned on all the time) and set up access for me as a client from my laptop, what does it mean that I could do that I can't do already? Or, maybe more to the point, what does it make it easier to do? (Note that my home desktop is visible at a fixed IP address from the outside world and I can open up any additional ports through the firewall if necessary.) -- Chris Green

4 11

Strange 'bandwidth strangulation' when using ssh on DFDS public WiFi
by Chris Green 24 Mar '14

24 Mar '14

When this first happened to me I thought it was just a one off oddity but yesterday when I returned on the ferry from France I saw *exactly* the same symptoms on two entirely different systems. It's hardly a big issue either just an inconvenience but I'd love to know why it happens. On the DFDS ferries there is free WiFi available, no hassle, no login required, just an open SSID called DFDS-Pax. My laptop (running Ubuntu 13.10) and my tablet (Android 4.x) both connect to it quite happily. It's reasonably usable as well, hardly lightning fast, but fine for browsing web pages etc. However if I try and connect (from either tablet or laptop) using ssh it starts off OK but after some hundreds of characters it just slows down and stops never to pass another character. If I open another ssh session from the same device the same thing happens, i.e. it gets another few hundred characters through. It's not very consistent, sometimes it doesn't even manage to complete the ssh handshake sequence, but most times it gets to a command prompt and allows me a couple of commands before going to sleep. Anything that generates a lot of traffic (like starting up mutt) always hangs before it gets anywhere but a couple of 'ls' commands will sometimes work. So what might be going on? It's not like ssh protocol is blocked completely so it's not that the port(s) are blocked, it's almost as if there's someone watching and, when they can't see what's being transferred, they stop the data. Any ideas anyone? I suppose I could try a different port for ssh but as it's not specific port blocking I don't think this will fix it. ... and as I said, it's not very important, I don't often want to read my E-Mail while crossing the channel! :-) I'm just curious. -- Chris Green

6 9

Running PHP programs
by Chris Walker 23 Mar '14

23 Mar '14

I want to run Geneotree (http://www.geneotree.com/) so I downloaded it and extracted the files from the zip. I'm not familiar with PHP stuff so I put them in /home/chris/geneotree. There are lots of php files and a few folders but how do I run the thing? There's a config.php file which contains these lines :- ============= <?php /******* PLEASE DON'T MODIFY THE FOLLOWING LINE - NE PAS MODIFIER LA LIGNE CI-DESSOUS SVP ********/ $INSTALLATION_OK = FALSE; /*************************************************************************************************/ /****************************** BEGIN INITIALIZATION CONNECTION PARAMETERS ***********************/ $sql_host = 'localhost'; $sql_base = 'geneotree'; $sql_user = 'root'; $sql_pass = ''; /******************************* END INITIALIZATION CONNECTION PARAMETERS ************************/ ?> ============ Do I need to modify any of them to run it? I'm told that there is documentation on sourceforge but I can't see anything that would help me. I've tried putting htpp://localhost/geneotree in a browser but it fails which is not unexpected. So at this point, I'm stuck and any help would be appreciated.

3 4

Why isn't rc.local getting run? (some sort of runlevel oddity?)
by Chris Green 20 Mar '14

20 Mar '14

I am having trouble getting things in /etc/rc.local to run. As I understand it this *should* be the standard way to make local additions to be run at startup. This is on an Ubuntu 13.10 system runnning on a Beaglebone Black so is maybe a little out of the ordinary. As I understand it /etc/init.d/rc.local gets run by the system startup process and, if there's anything to be run in /etc/rc.local that will be run. This doesn't appear to be happening. If I run '/etc/init.d/rc.local start' manually then the contents of /etc/rc.local get run and there are no errors. So it would seem that for some reason /etc/init.d/rc.local isn't getting run at system startup. The system runlevel is 2. I'm sure that /etc/rc.local should be run at every run level so I don't see how this could affect it. So, what's wrong, or misconfigured? -- Chris Green

2 1

[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : The Mulberry Tree
by samwise 18 Mar '14

18 Mar '14

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- The monthly "Third Monday" ALUG Ipswich Social Meeting is back today, 17th March, at 20:00: The Mulberry Tree 5 Woodbridge Road IPSWICH IP4 2EA Tel: 01473 225776 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP4+2EA WWW: https://www.facebook.com/MULBERRYHOSPITALITY The Mulberry Tree, previously known as The Milestone Beer House, is a grade 2 listed building in the centre of Ipswich. It is located at the intersection between Woodbridge Road and the A1156, across the road from the old Odeon cinema and not far from the Regent Theatre. It re-opened on Thursday March 29th 2012 after a major refurbishment, under its original name of The Mulberry House and has already begun to regain a good reputation for its selection of beers and ales. It has a sizeable car park to the rear of the building. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. Cheers, Peter. -- I have put together a work team to take on the Swimathon 2014 Team 5 km challenge in aid of Sport Relief. All sponsors gratefully received. :) http://my.sportrelief.com/sponsor/samwise ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

1 1

HP laser printer
by Anthony Anson 16 Mar '14

16 Mar '14

Connected new HP laser printer (Laserjet Professional P1100w) and Mint found it, knew what it was, installed it, and that was all. Turn it on and lights flash and then settle to a single continuous one, but I can't make it print: it just sits there sullenly. I clicked on 'troubleshoot' and this is the result: ______________________________________________________________________ # hplip.conf. Generated from hplip.conf.in by configure. [hplip] version=3.12.6 [dirs] home=/usr/share/hplip run=/var/run ppd=/usr/share/ppd/hplip/HP ppdbase=/usr/share/ppd/hplip doc=/usr/share/doc/hplip-doc/HTML icon=no cupsbackend=/usr/lib/cups/backend cupsfilter=/usr/lib/cups/filter drv=/usr/share/cups/drv # Following values are determined at configure time and cannot be changed. [configure] network-build=yes libusb01-build=no pp-build=yes gui-build=yes scanner-build=yes fax-build=yes dbus-build=yes cups11-build=no doc-build=yes shadow-build=no hpijs-install=yes foomatic-drv-install=yes foomatic-ppd-install=yes foomatic-rip-hplip-install=no hpcups-install=yes cups-drv-install=yes cups-ppd-install=no internal-tag=3.12.6 restricted-build=no ui-toolkit=qt4 qt3=no qt4=yes policy-kit=yes hpijs-only-build=no lite-build=no udev-acl-rules=yes udev_sysfs_rules=no hpcups-only-build=no hpijs-only-build=no ______________________________________________________________________ Anyone any idea what I'm doing wrong from this? (Or not doing...) -- Tony http://www.girolle.co.uk/

3 6

wireless broadband in Norfolk
by mick 14 Mar '14

14 Mar '14

All I know that some people on this list have poor (or even very poor) broadband connectivity. I have just discovered http://www.thinkingwisp.co.uk This company purports to offer wifi broadband over large parts of the county. Their offering looks expensive to me, but then I'm fortunate in having good connectivity at home. However, if you currently have problems then this /might/ be of interest. Note - I have no connection to this company, nor any commercial interest. (Nor do I know if the service is any good....) Mick (Does anyone on the list use this?) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mick Morgan gpg fingerprint: FC23 3338 F664 5E66 876B 72C0 0A1F E60B 5BAD D312 http://baldric.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------

2 1

Norwich meeting?
by Anthony Anson 14 Mar '14

14 Mar '14

I presume there *will* be a Coach and Horses meeting this coming Thursday? -- Tony http://www.girolle.co.uk/

4 4

main@lists.alug.org.uk problem with grub
by Ben Whyall 13 Mar '14

13 Mar '14

Hi I have a problem I rebooted my desktop and its coming up with the following gave up waiting for root device alert /dev/disk/by-uuid-15e0064a.... does not exist. Dropping to shell. Now my /boot is on a raid partition /root and the others are on lvm2 When I look in the lvm in the shell it suggests that the lvm is inactive. I have tried using a live disk to rebuild grub but I must be missing the correct command fu. Anyone got any suggestions Ben

1 0

SSH Wizardry needed
by Steve Engledow 13 Mar '14

13 Mar '14

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 Hi folks, I'm in need of some wizardry. I have a machine at home that's connected to the telly so that the wife can use it for Skype (just bought a *really* nice HD webcam) and browsing etc (and I can use it for Steam ;) What I need is for it to ssh to my server when it boots and open a port there to its local sshd so that I can ssh into it whenever I need. I'm on an ISP that will change my IP address every now and then and I don't want to muck about with dyndns etc. so this is my preferred solution. I know how to do the ssh bit: ssh -R 2222:localhost:22 server What I don't know is how to make it do that when it boots - obviously when the wifi gets around to connecting - and to make it resilient to drop outs, i.e. reconnect if the connection is lost. Any ideas? Cheers, Steve -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux) iQIcBAEBCAAGBQJTIZ0zAAoJEL/3HArzwYbRO0sP/0mLMg8Btmy9TLevSppXGu+/ E/vfabP/p7iaembSOOXR4NkKiyvoUb6YHk8a7Az2sL4MxNY3VWz1H/lLDhlbPbsR YI2SECYnSmDnxdWa8sk4TfYfhnnkRAZF3nXz2EiQt72M0Jqnz/5cL/bVKqBjDsJ9 te5H4O0kX3/6S2Sl7DMXsBPGbxGD6nheXqJNB4UDQBVxgxc6bPVqOFOmAMbJHovF dDugXdEsDZp5D5gDcExozMELhWE8mhVmSP7QXrV1a4tWHTlRrTfu8eFGNCSawDhB e9tgFPoJ/Rrg4hxsY8hT7LozzzQ3K+E1QEbt1avfrqkv3VGmfVTOpFwMVoNuSRtl zgozPZb+hcYJPiWRwtY5qqcpqFSrevv47sq9f2a4Q9NYR2dwnSNnAStNcdxaRexi T4yZa/rYp7FmPJwRV/zjLudrX8g+W61BxhvQxqnIbulcuyYDLY4EkjIbbYnnFOey JHCvWZxQau4SRZsuQA4iYkI8ptHBocRgGyPu2pFFIzFiBmtsZguRAynaQspr+/Vj D2j3ZY1bHdZhHpcPDu6kSqI7wXk1n2PJUn16uLRsFVWf3ISafVzqWDh0LB0hc0Pm eqOypcYxYAJwpkMAdA9m/L6LsBSglYEoR8i5LkzO/8L5h9fIMYZmzugAlSnIHSz/ 9dLInArjhKVHDmckWuUF =n5Fx -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

3 4

Owncloud install on a Pi
by Chris Walker 13 Mar '14

13 Mar '14

In an effort to have local storage of email addresses, calendars and the like, I've tried to setup Owncloud on a Raspberry Pi but it isn't working. Perhaps somebody can point out where I'm going wrong. Here's the story so far. The IP address of the Pi is set by DHCP with the address being fixed by the router at 192.168.1.27. Using a browser from this linux box, if I try to go to https://192.168.1.27 I get a 404 Not Found displayed. There are no errors immediately displayed in the /var/log/nginx/error.log If I then try going to https://192.168.1.27/owncloud I get the same error displayed still with nothing in the above log file. Logging into the Pi itself rather than going through ssh, I started up the Midori browser and tried to go to https://192.168.1.27/owncloud and I then get two entries in the log. They are as follows :- 2014/02/26 18:11:21 [error] 2221#0: *4 directory index of "/var/www/owncloud/" is forbidden, client: 192.168.1.27, server: cloud.wymondham.lan, request: "GET /owncloud/ HTTP/1.1", host: "192.168.1.27" 2014/02/26 18:11:21 [error] 2221#0: *4 open() "/var/www404" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 192.168.1.27, server: cloud.wymondham.lan, request: "GET /owncloud/ HTTP/1.1", host: "192.168.1.27" While I'm here, can I ask another query? In this file - /etc/nginx/sites-available/owncloud.vhost I've left this entry untouched but I need to ask if it's correct # Path to the root of your installation root /var/www/; The reason I ask is that there is an owncloud folder at /var/www/owncloud but it's empty. That makes me wonder if that's the main cause of all the problems.

1 0

Re: [ALUG] HP laser printer
by Anthony Anson 10 Mar '14

10 Mar '14

On 07/03/14 18:05, Paul Lenton wrote: > I had a similar problem with a Canon MG3200 the other day (on and clearly > connected but just refusing to print) and the answer was a really annoying > one... > > Apparently when the printer loads itself up, it does something wrong so if > you go into the printer menu, remove the printer then manually re-add it, > that may well solve the problem. It did for mine anyway (Ubuntu 12.04) Thanks - I'll bear that in mind if all else fails. -- Tony http://www.girolle.co.uk/

1 0

Shameless advert for python developers
by Steve Engledow 07 Mar '14

07 Mar '14

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 Hi folks, I don't know about you, but I don't like recruitment emails that go to the list but I reckon I'm allowed as I'm a lugger and my job is linuxy and cool :) The company I work for, [Proxama][1], is looking for Django developers to join my quickly growing team of linux-wielding pythonistas. Basically, if you know your way around Python (even better if you know Django too), send me an email. Day-to-day, we write RESTful(ish) APIs going both out to third-party services and to our own mobile apps to provide a tasty platform for building mobile loyalty/payments apps. Our SaaS platform also has a web interface so if web development is your thing (it's not mine), that's good too. We use [ember.js][2] for the front-end; it's funky. Oh yeah, and you get a nice laptop which you can then install any distro you like on it. You can even use emacs if you really want to, you sicko. Steve [1]: http://proxama.com/ [2]: http://emberjs.com/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux) iQIcBAEBCAAGBQJTGZJjAAoJEL/3HArzwYbRHCEP/2IhUVbsoXwdPSBJSzMjdMX8 bfXeQtN42PXNVt1tVJo58e1lXLb7cHE+i291XwrIIuBsse9ommDyyIjPci4Ayj3e yqcp/tiiczsNywsg0KFlMMUPQUHKi9vkBMVFPpuNjVIEzNaY0eaxsGJlyEuApZxP 9bl0puRv2SoJ+rgmsBXQjTAqSVuYXmRJqJxlwsm86yKunrf7I0b2P6exWRDA+Gvs ZyrlUU9csPPStcRQ9qK9M9VXHARSzlay4aY53DhpSJmSUPG9mA4HQ0sGlwJ7WhnY 8MpYX2zcN788SweplRpJ2FTB9Tz/DMAJxczhzjbjSI8d1eR91fzsgemBXsFPkcFD UL5ywwMiMf1c0caAPTHqRPj5rwIbYzOWed0YoSnymH7RGVPp0lvuFG1R4wF6yF1Z ja+kakzUtLola8ee7VQAl73Xkb6pHXYFmb0iFd08dTCg0VdIIOgSgnhP4+r/TTFN IlvpWNYxB02lvCZYvn+SG9IwhGWYy6WPIt25kAqI3GLQKdI45NkaHqIx8joLsLV/ wEd/gjQMJAyJn1H//v3q1zlKcVC8VUxPmKKeuWnTeFg06sCp15bj1eQLHh/GAO2X pFBkxw3FGo8PMimZj1t0/nHqF28GTGWI6h1irALRg3eDPmVys2yAxxIDhAnt01nb 6w8ZIyvNtgCuSFF/Y64k =6+SD -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

2 2

2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 7th March.
by Viperfang 04 Mar '14

04 Mar '14

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

1 0

anyone know anything about declude?
by mick 28 Feb '14

28 Feb '14

Guys This mail could be considered off topic because it relates to email rather than FLOSS, but I value the opinions of list members so perhaps you will indulge me. A friend of mine insists that he sees spam email from .ru domains whenever he gets an email from me. Naturally I find this claim a little odd so I asked him to send me some details. He sent me the mail below. I think it is fairly clear that what he is seeing is backscatter from undeliverables where a spammer has used his email address as the (spoofed) sender. So far so predictable. However, the email he sent me includes a set of X headers inserted by an anti spam package called "Declude". One of those headers (X-Declude-Sender:) includes one of MY email address. My reading of the declude manual suggests that what should be shown here is HIS address (as the suspected sender). Can anyone suggests what may be going on here? If a spammer were using my email address as the spoofed sender I would expect to get the bounce message, not him. I have obfuscated both my friend's address and mine. I have also removed the "goo.gl" URL in the email because it was obviously hostile. The failed recipient address is the original, as are the IP addresses. Best Mick ----------------- email sample ------------------------------- -----Original Message----- From: System Administrator [mailto:System Administrator] Sent: 25 February 2014 09:26 To: my-friend(a)his-address.com Subject: Delivery Failure Could not deliver message to the following recipient(s): Failed Recipient: umnovai(a)kfker.ru Reason: Remote host said: 530 5.7.1 No such user! -- The header and top 20 lines of the message follows -- Received: from Unknown (UnknownHost [112.241.213.245]) by mail.delawarewebs.com with SMTP; Tue, 25 Feb 2014 04:23:48 -0500 Message-ID: <8B4E322C08AD471651D1FEEAD2G1D34S@ogunb> Subject: =?windows-1251?B?7+4g8ODh7vLl?= Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2014 13:22:22 +0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0528_01CF322C.9D8C9660" X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Windows Live Mail 14.0.8289.726 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V14.0.8089.726 X-Declude-Sender: my-address(a)mydomain.com X-Declude-Spoolname: 217461170.eml X-Declude-RefID: X-Declude-Note: Scanned by Declude 4.13.02 X-Declude-Scan: Outgoing Score [0] at 04:24:02 on 25 Feb 2014 X-Declude-Tests: None X-Country-Chain: X-Declude-Code: 0 X-HELO: Unknown X-Identity: 113.261.243.245 | | rma.ru ------=_NextPart_000_0528_01CF322C.9D8C9660 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1251" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable =C4=EE=E1=F0=FB=E9 =E4=E5=ED=FC! =D1=EF=E0=F1=E8=E1=EE, =F7=F2=EE =E7=E0=E8=ED=F2=E5=F0=E5=F1=EE=E2=E0=EB=E8= =F1=FC =F1=E8=F1=F2=E5=EC=EE=E9 "=C0=E2=F2=EE=EC=E0=F2=E8=F7=E5=F1=EA=EE=E9= =F2=EE=F0=E3=EE=E2=EB=E8 =E2 =E8=ED=F2=E5=F0=ED=E5=F2=E5" =D1=E8=F1=F2=E5=EC=E0 =EF=EE=EB=ED=EE=F1=F2=FC=FE =E0=E2=F2=EE=EC=E0=F2=E8= =E7=E8=F0=EE=E2=E0=ED=E0 =E8 =E4=EE=F1=F2=F3=EF=ED=E0 =E4=E0=E6=E5 =ED=EE= =E2=E8=F7=EA=E0=EC! =C2 =F1=E2=EE=E5=EC =C1=EB=EE=E3=E5 http://goo.gl/OBFUSCATED =FF =EE=EF=E8=F1= =E0=EB =F1=E8=F1=F2=E5=EC=F3 =E8 =E5=E5 =EF=F0=E5=E8=EC=F3=F9=E5=F1=F2=E2= =E0, =F2=E0=EA-=E6=E5 =EF=F0=E8=E2=E5=EB =E8=ED=F1=F2=F0=F3=EA=F6=E8=FE =EF= =EE =F0=E0=E1=EE=F2=E5 =F1 =F1=E8=F1=F2=E5=EC=EE=E9! =CE=E7=ED=E0=EA=EE=EC=F2=E5=F1=FC =F1 =E8=ED=F1=F2=F0=F3=EA=F6=E8=E5=E9 =E8= =EC=EE=E6=ED=EE =EF=F0=E8=F1=F2=F3=EF=E0=F2=FC =EA =F0=E5=E3=E8=F1=F2=F0= --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mick Morgan gpg fingerprint: FC23 3338 F664 5E66 876B 72C0 0A1F E60B 5BAD D312 http://baldric.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------

2 2

Owncloud on a Pi
by Chris Walker 26 Feb '14

26 Feb '14

Is there anybody here who can help pinpoint some errors on an Owncloud install on a Pi please? I'd rather not clutter up this list with it as it isn't directly linux related (at least I don't *think* it is) so if there's somebody who thinks they can help, would they email me privately? Ta.

1 0

LUG news
by mick 26 Feb '14

26 Feb '14

Ted I have been reading my copy of (the first issue of) "Linux Voice". Page 17 of that magazine has an article about the founding of Sheffield LUG by Richard Ibbotson. That article says: "I remember back in the 1990s helping Manchester LUG to come into existence. Dr Owen Le Blanc, David Clarke, Dr Dave Gilbert, Professor Ted Harding and some other notables used to get together on Saturday afternoons to create the first LUG meeeting in the UK." ISTR that you had a manchester.ac.uk email address before you used your own domain. So I assume said notable is you. Care to tell us about it? Best Mick --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mick Morgan gpg fingerprint: FC23 3338 F664 5E66 876B 72C0 0A1F E60B 5BAD D312 http://baldric.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------

7 12

Concatenating files
by Chris Walker 19 Feb '14

19 Feb '14

I've been trying for over an hour to concatenate a load of .vcf files for import into another device. I need to have a carriage return and line feed between each vcf so I created a spacerfile which contained just those two characters. I then generated a list of all the files with the ls command. I then used that file like this :- while read file ; do cat $file spacerfile.txt >> all_in_one.vcf ; done <listfile.txt But all I get is a load of blank lines with just one or two vcards inserted and then a long list of the vcf files which is most of the listfile.txt. I am also seeing this type of error :- cat: First: No such file or directory cat: Name.vcf: No such file or directory That made me wonder if it was because there are spaces in the file names and hence in the listfile.txt so I amended the text file so that each space was preceded by the escape character. But it still doesn't work. Where am I going wrong?

3 8

How to choose a WiFi hotspot out of the dozens available?
by Chris Green 19 Feb '14

19 Feb '14

Here I am sitting on our boat at a marina in the middle of London (well, not quite, near City Airport actually) and I have a TP-Link outdoor WiFi extender that I am running in what they call WISP Client mode to connect to a BT WiFi/Fon hotspot. It's working OK at the moment - I'm using it to do this, but I'd like some sort of way to decide on which is the best WiFi signal to use. When I run the TP-Link's 'survey' to see what's out there it reports up to 150 WiFi signals when pointed in certain directions. Obviously I can only use some of these (the BT ones with no security setting in the main) but even then I'm left with quite a choice. So, is the strongest signal always the best one to use, or will a weaker signal on a quieter channel work better? I chose the one I'm using now because it's on channel 7 and there are very few signals on channel 7. There are however much stronger BT Wifi-Fon signals on channel 1 for example but channel 1 is very crowded. While I'm at it - how does it work at all when there are many different WiFi signals on the same channel? Is there some sort of time multiplexing going on? Finally, is it best to avoid channels with *very* strong (unwanted) signals? There's a very expensive 'marina WiFi' system here which has strong signals on two channels, like 20dB or so more than any other signal, is it best to avoid these channels? -- Chris Green

1 0

[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : The Mulberry Tree ALUG
by samwise 17 Feb '14

17 Feb '14

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- The monthly "Third Monday" ALUG Ipswich Social Meeting is back today, 17th February, at 20:00: The Mulberry Tree 5 Woodbridge Road IPSWICH IP4 2EA Tel: 01473 225776 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP4+2EA WWW: https://www.facebook.com/MULBERRYHOSPITALITY The Mulberry Tree, previously known as The Milestone Beer House, is a grade 2 listed building in the centre of Ipswich. It is located at the intersection between Woodbridge Road and the A1156, across the road from the old Odeon cinema and not far from the Regent Theatre. It re-opened on Thursday March 29th 2012 after a major refurbishment, under its original name of The Mulberry House and has already begun to regain a good reputation for its selection of beers and ales. It has a sizeable car park to the rear of the building. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. Cheers, Peter. ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

1 0

Two network interfaces - how to set up?
by Chris Green 14 Feb '14

14 Feb '14

I have an 'interesting' network set-up question. I have just acquired a TP-Link TL-WA5210G outdoor WiFi access point and range extender to use on our boat to improve connections to BT WiFi (e.g. FON and Openzone hotspots). It's working well (I'm using it now). Direct WiFi from my laptop was very marginal here, like it occasionally worked but not often, now I have a perfectly satisfactory, solid, WiFi connection. However, configuring the WiFi extender is quite awkward. It defaults to IP 192.168.1.254 and you configure it on the web at that address (can be changed of course, but factory reset will go back to 192.168.1.254). When working as a WiFi relay though its DHCP server has to be turned off and you have to use WiFi to access the internet. Currently I have the hardwired ethernet connection on this laptop disabled so that everything goes through the 'amplified by the TP-Link' which appears as 'BT WiFi with FON' in Network Manager. It would be nice if I could enable the hardwired ethernet at the same time as the WiFi so that I can talk to the TP-Link router while the WiFi to the outside world is connected as well. So I guess I need:- A static address for the laptop in the 192.168.1.xx range on its eth0 interface. This will work at home as well as long as I make sure it doesn't clash with anything else - that's easy enough. Will just the Network Manager 'manual' configuration do all that's needed? Some sort of routing configuration that says:- If there's only a WiFi connection use it for everything. If there's only a hardwired connection us it for everything. If there's both hardwired and WiFi then use hardwired for 192.168.1.xx addresses and WiFi for everything else. Where/how do I set this up? I'm quite happy to edit configuration files (in fact I almost prefer it to a GUI). If it can be automated easily then good but if it requires a manual 'switch' from one to the other I won't be too fussed. -- Chris Green

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HTTPS issues with Apache
by Stuart Bailey 13 Feb '14

13 Feb '14

I have a CentOS 6.5 server running Apache 2, and hosting a number of sites. The config is via cpanel. One of the sites has a SSL key with a redirect from HTTP to HTTPS. Other sites are all accessible via HTTP only. This is working fine. However, if I try to access any non-SSL site using HTTPS, I get directed to the SSL site. I have tried adding RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} ^443$ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.nonsslsite.com [R=301,L] To the htaccess file for the non SSL sites, but this has no effect. Any ideas how I can either redirect HTTPS requests for non SSL sites to a 404 error page, or just redirect to the HTTP site instead? -- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Managing Director) Linux Specialist & Software Developer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Phone: (0845) 658 3563 Direct: +44 (0) 1953 601294 Fax: +44 (0) 1603 858583 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.linusoft.co.uk __________ Information from ESET Mail Security, version of virus signature database 9373 (20140203) __________ The message was checked by ESET Mail Security. http://www.eset.com

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weather station software.
by nev young 13 Feb '14

13 Feb '14

I am trying to help a newbie pi user to get his weather station (a WH1081) to work using Consolewd with his Pi. It currently works OK on a windows machine using the GUI version but he wants to use the Pi for reasons of noise, power usage, something to do with a Pi. So far I have managed to follow the instructions here: http://www.weather-watch.com/smf/index.php/topic,59307.0.html?PHPSESSID=sua… (That may have wrapped onto two lines) Including the rather obvious error near the end when copying the lib files. So it works. It reports the data from his station every minute. But it goes wrong after 5 mins. That is when it tries to upload the data to wunderground.com It says it's uploaded the data but we don't see it. Even worse it then spawns a second child so we have 2 copies of Consolewd running and they interfere with each other when reading the weather station data.. After 5 more mins we have 4 copies After 5 more mins we have 8 copies ... etc. etc. Is there any one here who has practical experience of using this software on a Pi who could perhaps shed some light on the problems. Thanks

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Web site improvements/development - costs?
by Chris Green 12 Feb '14

12 Feb '14

I know this is rather a 'how long is a piece of string' sort of question but I've got to start somewhere. My wife runs a small college and they want to tart up their web site and add some interactive ability to take money for distance learning courses etc. They are particularly short of money at the moment because of the major down-turns in spending on youth work. The improvements in the web site are part of the strategy to bring more and different students on board to keep the college's finances on an even keel. As far as I can see with a quick glance there's around 50 pages on the site though maybe more as the pageid parameter runs up to just over 100 when you browse round the site. The main requirement is to make the site more interesting to look at rather than to fundamentally change its layout and design. The thought is probably to use soemthing like WordPress to create the site and to pay for someone whose major function will be to make the site attractive. So - what sort of money are we talking about? Hundreds of pounds, thousands of pounds, whatever? The existing site maintainers are asking for the college to pay for a 'web site audit' before they do anything more which seems a bit of a cheek because they ought to know about the site already. Any/all ideas etc. would be very welcome. -- Chris Green

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