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a weird network configuration, does this make any sense at all?
by Peter Alcibiades 10 Nov '09

10 Nov '09

Its funny, I read the list faithfully, but go months without having anything to say or ask. And then come three things in a row! A friend asked for help, and when I looked at his (business) setup I found the following. One moderate spec machine, now a few years old and in need of renewal, with two network cards. One card is DHCP to the one-port router, which goes to the ADSL connexion, which is fairly lightly used. This is getting an address in the range 192.168.0.x, as usual. the other card is set up for static addressing, runs off an independent hub, and its using the range 172.16.0.1, with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0. I was all set to find that there was some huge network behind this, but in fact all there is is two printers. Yes, this network has one computer and two printers and appears to be using an internal Class B address for it, if I understand the situation correctly. This was set up by a local computer store after apparently a great deal of head scratching. Well, I too am scratching my head and trying to figure out could anyone have a legitimate reason (ie not simply they failed to understand networking) for doing this. Like, if I really wanted to have the two printers on a separate net, why not just use a subnet mask of 255.255.255.128 and get two subnets that way? But in any case, why make life complicated with subnets, why would I not just assign them addresses in the 192.168.0.x range. What I usually have done in these situations (but I'm an amateur at this stuff nowadays) is put the printer on a static address of 192.168.0.100, have the router assign addresses to the computers in the low numbers, and everyone seems to print just fine. There are only two printers and one computer here, so what could the problem be? It seems that the simplest thing to do is take all this stuff out and use a 5 port router/modem, and just make the two printers 101 and 102, why would this not work? Is this missing something obvious? Cheers Al

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Face Recognition
by Mark Rogers 09 Nov '09

09 Nov '09

On the back of a bus I saw an advert for the Apple Mac talking about its ability to use face recognition when processing photos. Is there anything like this in Linux? It looks like Google had it planned for Picasa back in 2006: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/better-way-to-organize-photos.html .. but as far as I know it's not there yet? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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novatech i5 barebones, antec 900 II case
by Peter Alcibiades 08 Nov '09

08 Nov '09

A friend of mine is thinking of buying one of these. It seems pretty decently equipped for the price. My only worry is the case - it has lots of large fans. Has anyone heard one of these things in action? Is it going to be too noisy for a desktop? The nice thing is, you can turn them all down to low speed, and they should still move lots of air, being so huge and many. http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?BB-I5754G Its going to be a dual boot with winxp, and I'm assuming that on both that and Debian it will scream along. Peter

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Help with YouTube videos
by Chris Walker 07 Nov '09

07 Nov '09

I've just visited my son and installed Mandriva for him, the same version I have here. As he's of a different generation to me, he likes watching videos. The problem is sound. He is being prompted to pay 28 euros for a codec pack whereas when I play them (both of us are using Firefox 3.0.15), they work fine and I didn't cough up any dosh. An example is this one - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQcNiD0Z3MU Any ideas anybody please?

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touch screens
by Peter Alcibiades 07 Nov '09

07 Nov '09

Thanks everyone, for the comments on this. Bottom line seems to be that it will most likely work, maybe not plug and play, but with a bit of tweaking, so maybe the thing to do is buy one and make quite sure, before committing to a bunch. They are getting quite reasonably priced now - ebuyer has the Ilyama 19 inch one for under 400, which is just about affordable. Thanks for the comments about kiosks also. The security issues are not too bothersome. We will not allow outside net access at all, we'll put these machines on a separate subnet, and if there is no keyboard and it boots from read only media....? Well, famous last words! Never underestimate the ingenuity of a bored 12 year old. Peter

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Anacron error
by steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk 07 Nov '09

07 Nov '09

Hi, I use Ubuntu. I installed NTOP briefly, then decided I didn't want it. I then uninstalled it using Synaptic's "Completely remove including all configuration files". I then upgraded from Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10. Every day since installing and removing, I have received the error email below. I have searched the pc (including hidden files) and I cannot find any reference to ntop in etc or var or subdirectories thereof. I've googled and can't find a reason why this is. Most answers I find on google say there's a residual ntop file somewhere in etc or var, but I can't find it. There is a package file in /var/cache/apt/archives and a file called /var/lib/update-rc.d/ntop containing the text update-rc.d -f ntop remove Any idea how I can stop this happening? Regards Steve -------- Original Message -------- Title: Anacron job 'cron.daily' on myserver Subject: Anacron job 'cron.daily' on myserver Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:53:13 +0000 From: Anacron <redacted> To: <redacted> /etc/cron.daily/logrotate: error: error accessing /var/log/ntop: No such file or directory error: ntop:1 glob failed for /var/log/ntop/*.log

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Some advice needed
by Alistair Macgregor 06 Nov '09

06 Nov '09

Can someone please help with some advice. At the moment I run a dual boot system, with Windows XP and Ubuntu sharing my hard drive. I would like to go the whole hog and rid myself of windows. I know I can do 90% of what I use my computer for under Linux, office, graphics and music. The only thing I'm having trouble with is an equivalent for Planetside Terragen landscape generator. Is there anything compatible or am I stuck running it in WINE. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Alistair

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Difficult to diagnose ssh problem - can't connect at all
by Chris G 06 Nov '09

06 Nov '09

I'm trying to get connections working from the outside world into my SoHo LAN via my *second* ADSL. I'll try and explain the set-up. The SoHo LAN all sits on a 192.168.1.x/32 subnet connected to a Draytek Vigor 2820n ADSL router which connects to the internet via a standard ADSL connection with UKFSN. That all works fine and I have set up 'pinholes' through the firewall to allow incoming ssh, SMTP and HTTP connections. Thus I seem to know how to set up the firewall on the 2820n. The 2820n has a second WAN port which is an ethernet port, I have that connected to a BT Business Hub (2Wire 2700HGV) ADSL router which connects to the internet via a second phone line. The 2820n is set up to share the two connections and that works OK too. I.e. outgoing connections go via whichever of the two WANs is less busy. There are some things which are configured to use only one or the other WAN (e.g. SMTP, HTTPS). What I am trying to do (and failing miserably at) is to get incoming connections for a couple of protocols working through the 2Wire router. I really want to get SMTP working but I am also trying to get ssh working as that is (possibly) easier to diagnose. So, I have the 2Wire router set up so that it tells me the following 'pinholes' are set up in its firewall:- Device Allowed Applications Application Type Protocol Port Number(s) Public IP 192.168.13.65 SMTP Server - TCP 25 81.158.147.90 SSH Server - TCP 22 81.158.147.90 Device 192.168.13.65 is the WAN port on the 2820 router so that ssh and SMTP connections from the outside should get routed to the 2820n. I then have the 2820n set up (firewall and port forwarding) so that ssh and SMTP connections from WAN2 (the 2Wire WAN connection) get passed to my 'server' machine which is 192.168.1.2. It all *seems* to be correct, when I try and ssh from outside to 81.158.147.90 then the 2820n shows a NAT route to 192.168.1.2. If I 'telnet 81.158.147.90 22' from the outside I actually get an SSH 'hello' from 192.168.1.2, exactly the same as the one I get if I 'telnet 192.168.1.2 22' from inside my LAN. *BUT* ssh from outside doesn't work, no response at all, it just times out. ssh from inside works fine. I've tried winding up debug to maximum on ssh but it hasn't told me anything. I've stared intently at the port forwarding, NAT and firewall set-up on the 2820n and it all seems correct. Oh, and I can 'ping 81.158.147.90' OK from the outside. I'm stumped, any ideas for how to diagnose this? -- Chris Green

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touch screens
by Peter Alcibiades 05 Nov '09

05 Nov '09

Has anyone used these - touch screens? And how exactly do they work - I mean, stuff like clicking on a link or a button in a program? And are there generally linux drivers available, and do you need specific drivers or do they look like mice? My charity is thinking of a LAN based web site, internal only, accessed by touch screens so we don't have to have a keyboard out to get dirty and for mischevious hands to play with.... All you could do is click on what there is. Well, its a hope. We'd use browser Linux booted off an internal flash card, read only. Might be safe. But that part I can manage, its some experience with touch screens that would be appreciated. Peter

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open office calc problem
by Jenny Hopkins 05 Nov '09

05 Nov '09

Hullo there - is this a bug, or an error between chair and keyboard? The problem may be better asked in an open office forum, but just in case anyone here has come across this problem: I have an OO calc spreadsheet with a bunch of columns. The columns are summed in a final row using the SUM function button ("=SUM(A1:A10)" e.g.). I open a second spreadsheet and wish to reference these cells from the new sheet. First method tried: hit the equals button and click on the appropriate cell in the first sheet for each column. Result: some of the results show the correct value for the referenced cell, most do not. Second method: name the final row from first file as a named range. In 2nd file, use the insert and link external data button, selecting the appropriate sheet and range from the proferred choice. Result: all values show 0 where referring to a cell that was a SUM of other cells. I was playing with this on behalf of my other half, who wants to have a summary sheet of all his various site worksheets. For a start, it looks as though he would need the second link method as that is linked and therefore refreshes. Not much use if it shows 0 from summed cells however. I was also very curious why the first method didn't show the correct values. Thanks, Jenny

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