Networking | Linux | Windows | Server 2003

Script for IP Change Alert

2011-10-19T00:18:00.000-07:00

If you need to be notified upon the IP address of the system it can be achieved through following Perl Script
At first a sendemail needs to be installed using : sudo apt-get install sendmail (in Debian based Distros)
Else you may use another MTAs too like sendmail or postfix that is available.
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
#Anwesh Tiwari Oct 12 2011

use strict;
my $today=`date +%Y-%m-%d" "%r`;
#location of TEMP file
my $ip_last_check_file = "/home/tmp/IP-Address";
my $ip_now = `curl -s http://checkip.dyndns.org`;
$ip_now =~ s/.*?(\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+).*/$1/s;

open(IP, "<$ip_last_check_file") or die "Cannot open $ip_last_check_file: $!";
my $ip_last_check = <IP>;0
close(IP);

if ($ip_now ne $ip_last_check)
{
open(IP, ">$ip_last_check_file") or die "Cannot open $ip_last_check: $!";
print IP $ip_now;
close(IP);
#-s "SMTP address of your SMTP server instead" of "-s localhost" if you dont have ipaddress running.
my $output = `sendemail -f sentname\@yourdomain.com -t alertaddress\@yourdomain.com -s localhost -u IP-CHANGE-ALERT -m Gateway IP-address has changed to $ip_now.\\\\n Event Time :$today`;
}

exit;

Pending restart operation SQL server installation

2011-09-28T02:23:00.001-07:00

if you have tried to install SQL Server 2008 and cannot install, because of the errormessage the prerequistite "Restart the computer is required".

But every time you restart computer and try to execute the setup of SQL Server 2008, you get the same message

Then you have change a registry entry in computer

Open Regedit
Find the key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager"
Rename the "PendingFileRenameOperations" value to "PendingFileRenameOperations2"
Try again

This will solve the Restart Problem

vsftpd virtual users

2011-09-16T06:04:00.001-07:00

Installing vsftpd using text file for virtual users

vsftpd is a secure, fast and stable FTP server. In this tutorial we'll install the server and make it check in a flat text file for virtual users allowed to login.

1. Install required packages

sudo apt-get install vsftpd libpam-pwdfile

2. Configure vsftpd (sudo pico /etc/vsftpd.conf)

Edit these variables in the config file and leave everything else with the default value.

anonymous_enable=NO local_enable=YES write_enable=YES local_umask=022 chroot_local_user=YES virtual_use_local_privs=YES guest_enable=YES user_sub_token=$USER local_root=/var/www/$USER hide_ids=YES

Set the local_root to the parent directory where the user's home directories are located

3. Configure PAM to check the passwd file for users (sudo pico /etc/pam.d/vsftpd)

auth required pam_pwdfile.so pwdfile /etc/ftpd.passwd account required pam_permit.so

Make sure you remove everything else from the file

4. Create the passwd file containing the users

sudo htpasswd -c /etc/ftpd.passwd user1

You can later add additional users to the file like this:

sudo htpasswd /etc/ftpd.passwd user2

5. Restart vsftpd

sudo /etc/init.d/vsftpd restart

6. Create user's home directory since vsftpd doesn't do it automatically

sudo mkdir /var/www/user1

7.Create Appropriate Permissions for that folder for user ftp for uploads

chown 775 ftp:ftp /var/www/user1

Change Virtualbox UUID of Virtual Disk Vdi

2011-09-13T06:34:00.001-07:00

Simply copying the .vdi file into another location will make a verbatim copy of the virtual disk, including the UUID of the disk. If you try to add the copy in the Virtual Media Manager, you will get an error like this:

In this case, you have to do the following:

giannis@giannis-laptop:~$ VBoxManage internalcommands setvdiuuid /path/to/virtualdisk.vdi
 VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.2.2
 (C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
 All rights reserved.
 
 UUID changed to: 9e89fe14-d010-469e-a737-cd65218c4acb

Since the old UUID is replaced with a new one, you can now add and use the virtual disk.

Please note, that you wouldn't have to follow this procedure if you had used the clonevdi function to copy the virtual disk image, in the first place. The clonevdi function makes sure that the new disk image will have its own unique UUID.

The syntax of the clonedvi goes like this:

$ VBoxManage clonevdi Master.vdi Clone.vdi

Source: http://www.giannistsakiris.com/index.php/2009/05/06/virtualbox-how-to-change-the-uuid-of-virtual-disk-vdi/

Rescue locked SQL Server 2008

2011-09-13T02:49:00.000-07:00

Reset Forgotten Sa password

To configure startup options

Fist Login computer using administrator Account
In SQL Server Configuration Manager, click SQL Server Services.
In the right pane, right-click SQL Server (<instance_name>), and then click Properties.
On the Advanced tab, in the Startup Parameters box, type the parameters separated by semicolons (;).
For example, to start in single-user mode, insert -m; in front of the existing startup options, and then restart the database. (When you start SQL Server in single-user mode, first stop SQL Server Agent. Otherwise, SQL Server Agent might connect first and prevent you from connecting as a second user.)
Important
After you are finished using single-user mode, you must remove the -m; from the Startup Parameters box before you can restart the server instance in the normal multi-user mode.
Click OK.
Restart the Database Engine.
Change security authentication mode (You may not require this step if you have already enabled sa user)
1. In SQL Server Management Studio Object Explorer, right-click the server, and then click Properties.
2. On the Security page, under Server authentication, select the new server authentication mode, and then click OK.
3. In the SQL Server Management Studio dialog box, click OK to acknowledge the requirement to restart SQL Server.
4. You can change password here.
Enable the sa login by using Management Studio(You may not require this step if you have already enabled dual authentication )
1. In Object Explorer, expand Security, expand Logins, right-click sa, and then click Properties.
2. On the General page, you might have to create and confirm a password for the sa login.
3. On the Status page, in the Login section, click Enabled, and then click OK.
Now you can logon with sa user and password .You can also set permission of the local user account from that.

Important
After you are finished using single-user mode, you must remove the -m; from the Startup Parameters box before you can restart the server instance in the normal multi-user mode.

Rename a computer from domain domain Controller

2011-08-07T05:03:00.001-07:00

Rename a computer from domain domain Controller
You can rename a computer that is in domain controller or in LAN using netdom command

Command
netdom renamecomputer Computername /newname:new_computername
/userd:domain\UserName /passwordd:password |* /usero:UserName
/passwordo:password |* /force /reboot:Time in seconds

The following is a description of this command line:

Computername: The current name of the computer to be renamed.
New_computername: The name that the computer will be renamed to. Both the Domain Name System (DNS) host label and the NetBIOS name are changed to the new name. If the new name is longer than 15 characters, the NetBIOS name is derived from the first 15 characters.
/userd:Domain\UserName: The user account to be used for the destination domain. This account is used to make the connection with the domain to which the computer is joined. This parameter is required, and if no domain is specified, the computer's domain is assumed.
/usero:UserName: A user account to be used for the originating domain that has local administrative permissions (this can be the same account specified for /userd:). This account is used to make the connection with the computer to be renamed. If omitted, the currently logged on user's account is used. The user's domain can be specified as "/uo:domain\user". If the domain is omitted, a local computer account is assumed.
/passwordd: password: The password of the user account specified by /userd.
/passwordo: password: The password of the user account specified by /usero.
The asterisk symbol (*): A value that can be connected to either /passwordd or /passwordo and which indicates to prompt for the password.
force: This command can adversely affect some services running on the computer. The user will be prompted for confirmation unless the /force switch is specified.
Reboot: This specifies that the computer should be shut down and automatically restarted after the rename operation is completed. The number of seconds before automatic shutdown can also be provided. The default is 30 seconds. If this parameter is not specified, the computer must be restarted manually.

Remote Administration Server 2008

2011-08-03T07:12:00.001-07:00

Remote Administrator Tool for Server 2008 / Server 2008 R2 available for Vista and windows 7

An AdminPak (a.k.a AdminPack, Admin Pack) for Windows Server 2008 has been released. Windows Server 200x administrators are familiar with the "Administration Tools" or adminpak.msi that they used to install on their management workstations for connecting remotely via MMC to servers instead of having to login them via RDP.

Windows Server 2008 did not have the adminpak built in to the RTM media. These are called the "Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT)" and were released separately on March 24. The RSAT are available here

RSAT For Vista

RSAT for Windows 7

RSAT contains the following tools:

Role Administration Tools:

Active Directory Certificate Services Tools
Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) Tools
Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) Tools
DHCP Server Tools
DNS Server Tools
File Services Tools
Network Policy and Access Services Tools
Terminal Services Tools
Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) Services Tools

Feature Administration Tools:

BitLocker Drive Encryption Tools
Failover Clustering Tools
Group Policy Management Tools
Network Load Balancing Tools
SMTP Server Tools
Storage Manager for SANs Tools
Windows System Resource Manager Tools

set time zone ubuntu

2011-07-27T23:41:00.001-07:00

To reconfigure time zone using terminal,use this command
sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

Monitoring Server Traffic

2011-07-27T06:59:00.000-07:00

Installing bandwidthd for Network Monitoring in Debian Server

apt-get install bandwidthd
follow prompts, main config file is /etc/bandwidthd/bandwidthd.con You can copy the conf file from /usr/share/doc/bandwidthd/bandwidthd.conf to /etc/bandwidthd/bandwidthd.conf
apt-get install apache2
cd to /var/www and create a soft link to the htdocs directory that bandwidthd uses (see /etc/bandwidthd/bandwidthd.conf)
ln -s /var/lib/bandwidthd/htdocs bandwidthd
where bandwidthd in the name of the link
restart apache /etc/init.d/apache2 restart (and bandwidthd if needed /etc/init.d/bandwidthd restart)
access bandwidthd
http://<localhost or IP>/bandwidthd

References
http://www.debianadmin.com/network-traffic-analyzer-for-your-ubuntu-system.html
http://infodotnet.blogspot.com/2008/02/install-and-configure-bandwidthd-per-ip.html

fix mp3 showing incorrect length

2011-07-26T22:00:00.001-07:00

If MP3 shows incorrect length or are encoded with variable bitrate (VBR), you can try VBRFix: It is found in ubuntu repository

Code:

sudo apt-get install vbrfix

vbrfix in.mp3 out.mp3

relay mails through server with authentication

2011-06-07T06:34:00.000-07:00

Relay SMTP through another server with Authentication 
Sometimes your ISP blocks 25 port so you need to relay the Email Messages through external authentication server.For that you can use postfix as relay server using following configuration
   
1. Create password maps file (it assigns username/passwords to specified mail servers). You can choose any name, let's say it is /etc/postfix/relay_passwd. It's content should be as follows:        smtp.google.com USERNAME:PASSWORD         Note: Replace USERNAME and PASSWORD with your DNS EXIT mail relay username and PASSWORD.    USERNAME for google would be username@gmail.com      2. Set proper permissions for that file:     # chown root:root /etc/postfix/relay_passwd   # chmod 600 /etc/postfix/relay_passwd         3. Create hash from maps file (remember to do it each time you change your maps file):    #  postmap /etc/postfix/relay_passwd           4. Configure your /etc/postfix/main.cf:     relayhost = [SMTP address]   smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes   smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/relay_passwd   smtp_sasl_security_options =      Note: If your ISP blocks outgoing port 25. You can choose to use alternative SMTP ports by appending the port at the end: relayhost = [SMTP Address]:26 for gmail it would be [smtp.gmail.com]:587   5. Reload or restart your postfix:   # /etc/init.d/postfix restart

crack password of microsoft access

2011-05-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

This is a free utility to view password of Microsoft Acces access
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/accesspv.html

Rsync on a non default port for ssh

2011-05-03T06:59:00.001-07:00

Rsync on a non default port for ssh

# rsync -avz -e "ssh -p $portNumber" user@remoteip:/path/to/files/ /local/path/

Passing the port parameter to ssh with the -e option worked like a charm. :-)

This is why Unix rocks.

Thanks Mike Hostetler for the tip.

Updating status with music played

2011-04-12T02:48:00.001-07:00

I have trying updating status of Pidgin as music played using some tools to update current status.I have found the tool
I have tried music Tracker from google codes
http://code.google.com/p/musictracker/
Prerequisites:
1. 'pidgin-dev' libraries (sudo apt-get install pidgin-dev)
2. libpcre++ (sudo apt-get install libpcre++-dev)
I have compiled and installed it and it rocks now :)

Mysql slow query from IP other than localhost

2011-04-04T06:16:00.001-07:00

From long time I have been facing a slow query from when it was retrived from another PC but localhost was working well.After much toiling for the answer I found that placing "skip-name-resolve" as a line in my.cnf solved the issue. Strangely, this worked even though no user rights in my database were ever assigned with names, only IP addresses.

Reason:
When a client connects to mysqld, mysqld spawns a new thread to handle the request.This thread first checks whether the host name is in the host name cache.
If not, the thread attempts to resolve the host name The thread takes the IP address and resolves it to a host name. It then takes that host name and resolves it back to the IP address and compares to ensure it is the original IP address so this thread significantly increases the query time and slows down the system.This reverse DNS is suitable for the system connected to internet for letting certain domains to except the request but for system in the local LAN has to suffer a lot time since the local IP normally doesnot resolve to a name.

Enable mod_rewrite apache

2011-03-16T02:30:00.000-07:00

Enable the rewrite module..

sudo a2enmod rewrite

Open the config file..

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

Find the following lines..

Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
allow from all

Change None to all & save + close the file.

Restart Apache..

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

It helped me :)

ssh login without password

2011-02-12T21:02:00.001-08:00

To enable the remote login you create a pair of keys, one of which you simply append to a file upon the remote system. When this is done you'll then be able to login without being prompted for a password - and this also includes any cronjobs you have setup to run.

If you don't already have a keypair generated you'll first of all need to create one.

If you do have a keypair handy already you can keep using that, by default the keys will be stored in one of the following pair of files:

~/.ssh/identity and ~/.ssh/identity.pub
- (This is an older DSA key).
~/.ssh/id_rsa and ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
- (This is a newer RSA key).

If you have neither of the two files then you should generate one. The DSA-style keys are older ones, and should probably be ignored in favour of the newer RSA keytypes (unless you're looking at connecting to an outdated installation of OpenSSH). We'll use the RSA keytype in the following example.

To generate a new keypair you run the following command:

source@lappy:~$ ssh-keygen -t rsa

This will prompt you for a location to save the keys, and a pass-phrase:

Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/source/.ssh/id_rsa): 
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): 
Enter same passphrase again: 
Your identification has been saved in /home/source/.ssh/id_rsa.
 Your public key has been saved in /home/source/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.

If you accept the defaults you'll have a pair of files created, as shown above, with no passphrase. This means that the key files can be used as they are, without being "unlocked" with a password first. If you're wishing to automate things this is what you want.

Now that you have a pair of keyfiles generated, or pre-existing, you need to append the contents of the .pub file to the correct location on the remote server.

Assuming that you wish to login to the machine called destination from your current host with the id_rsa and id_rsa.pub files you've just generated you should run the following command:

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub username@destination

This will prompt you for the login password for the host, then copy the keyfile for you, creating the correct directory and fixing the permissions as necessary.

The contents of the keyfile will be appended to the file ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2 for RSA keys, and ~/.ssh/authorised_keys for the older DSA key types.

Once this has been done you should be able to login remotely, and run commands, without being prompted for a password:

source@lappy:~$ ssh destination uptime
 09:52:50 up 96 days, 13:45,  0 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

What if it doesn't work?

There are three common problems when setting up passwordless logins:

The remote SSH server hasn't been setup to allow public key authentication.
File permissions cause problems.
Your keytype isn't supported.

Each of these problems is easily fixable, although the first will require you have root privileges upon the remote host.

If the remote server doesn't allow public key based logins you will need to updated the SSH configuration. To do this edit the file /etc/sshd/sshd_config with your favourite text editor.

You will need to uncomment, or add, the following two lines:
RSAAuthentication yes
PubkeyAuthentication yes
Once that's been done you can restart the SSH server - don't worry this won't kill existing sessions:
/etc/init.d/ssh restart
File permission problems should be simple to fix. Upon the remote machine your .ssh file must not be writable to any other user - for obvious reasons. (If it's writable to another user they could add their own keys to it, and login to your account without your password!).

If this is your problem you will see a message similar to the following upon the remote machine, in the file /var/log/auth:
Jun  3 10:23:57 localhost sshd[18461]: Authentication refused: 
 bad ownership or modes for directory /home/source/.ssh
To fix this error you need to login to the machine (with your password!) and run the following command:
cd
chmod 700 .ssh
Finally if you're logging into an older system which has an older version of OpenSSH installed upon it which you cannot immediately upgrade you might discover that RSA files are not supported.

In this case use a DSA key instead - by generating one:
ssh-keygen
Then appending it to the file ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the remote machine - or using the ssh-copy-id command we showed earlier.

Note if you've got a system running an older version of OpenSSH you should upgrade it unless you have a very good reason not to. There are known security issues in several older releases. Even if the machine isn't connected to the public internet, and it's only available "internally" you should fix it.

Instead of using authorized_keys/authorized_keys2 you could also achieve a very similar effect with the use of the ssh-agent command, although this isn't so friendly for scripting commands.

This program allows you to type in the passphrase for any of your private keys when you login, then keep all the keys in memory, so you don't have password-less keys upon your disk and still gain the benefits of reduced password usage.
If you're interested read the documentation by running:
man ssh-agent

Thanks Steve  for this great Tip
 

system admin commands windows

2011-02-06T04:14:00.001-08:00

Basic System Administration Commands for windows

Control Panel
    * CONTROL: opens the control panel window
    * CONTROL ADMINTOOLS: opens the administrative tools
    * CONTROL KEYBOARD: opens keyboard properties
    * CONTROL COLOUR: opens display properties.Appearance tab
    * CONTROL FOLDERS: opens folder options
    * CONTROL FONTS: opens font policy management
    * CONTROL INTERNATIONAL or INTL.CPL: opens Regional and Language option
    * CONTROL MOUSE or MAIN.CPL: opens mouse properties
    * CONTROL USERPASSWORDS: opens User Accounts editor
    * CONTROL USERPASSWORDS2 or NETPLWIZ: User account access restrictions
    * CONTROL PRINTERS: opens faxes and printers available
    * APPWIZ.CPL: opens Add or Remove programs utility tool
    * OPTIONALFEATURES: opens Add or Remove Windows component utility
    * DESK.CPL: opens display properties. Themes tab
    * HDWWIZ.CPL: opens add hardware wizard
    * IRPROPS.CPL: infrared utility tool
    * JOY.CP: opens game controllers settings
    * MMSYS.CPL: opens Sound and Audio device Properties. Volume tab
    * SYSDM.CPL: opens System properties
    * TELEPHON.CPL: Opens phone and Modem options
    * TIMEDATE.CPL: Date and Time properties
    * WSCUI.CPL: opens Windows Security Center
    * ACCESS.CPL: opens Accessibility Options
    * WUAUCPL.CPL: opens Automatic Updates
    * POWERCFG.CPL: opens Power Options Properties
    * AZMAN.MSC: opens authorisation management utility tool
    * CERTMGR.MSC: opens certificate management tool
    * COMPMGMT.MSC: opens the Computer management tool
    * COMEXP.MSC or DCOMCNFG: opens the Computer Services management tool
    * DEVMGMT.MSC: opens Device Manager
    * EVENTVWR or EVENTVWR.MSC: opens Event Viewer
    * FSMGMT.MSC: opens Shared Folders
    * NAPCLCFG.MSC: NAP Client configuration utility tool
    * SERVICES.MSC: opens Service manager
    * TASKSCHD.MSC or CONTROL SCHEDTASKS: opens Schedule Tasks manager
    * GPEDIT.MSC: opens Group Policy utility tool
    * LUSRMGR.MSC: opens Local Users and Groups
    * SECPOL.MSC: opens local security settings
    * CIADV.MSC: opens indexing service
    * NTMSMGR.MSC: removable storage manager
    * NTMSOPRQ.MSC: removable storage operator requests
    * WMIMGMT.MSC: opens (WMI) Window Management Instrumentation
    * PERFMON or PERFMON.MSC: opens the Performance monitor
    * MMC: opens empty Console
    * MDSCHED: opens memory diagnostics tools
    * DXDIAG: opens DirectX diagnostics tools
    * ODBCAD32: opens ODBC Data source Administrator
    * REGEDIT or REGEDT32: opens Registry Editor
    * DRWTSN32: opens Dr. Watson
    * VERIFIER: opens Driver Verifier Manager
    * CLICONFG: opens SQL Server Client Network Utility
    * UTILMAN: opens Utility Manager
    * COLORCPL: opens color management
    * CREDWIZ: back up and recovery tool for user passwords
    * MOBSYNC: opens Synchronization center
    * MSCONFIG: opens System Configuration Utility
    * SYSEDIT: opens System Configuration Editor (careful while using this command)
    * SYSKEY: Windows Account Database Security management (careful while using this command)

Windows utility and applications

    * EXPLORER: Opens windows Explorer
    * IEXPLORER: Opens Internet explorer
    * WAB: opens Contacts
    * CHARMAP: opens Character Map
    * WRITE: opens WordPad
    * NOTEPAD: opens Notepad
    * CALC: opens Calculator
    * CLIPBRD: opens Clipbook Viewer
    * WINCHAT: opens Microsoft Chat Interface
    * SOUNDRECORDER: opens sound recording tool
    * DVDPLAY: run CD or DVD
    * WMPLAYER: opens Windows Media Player
    * MOVIEMK: Opens untitled Windows Movie Maker
    * OSK: opens on-screen Keyboard
    * MAGNIFY: opens Magnifier
    * WINCAL: opens Calendar
    * DIALER: opens phone Dialer
    * EUDCEDIT: opens Private Character Editor
    * NDVOL: opens the mixer volume
    * RSTRUI : opens Tool System Restore (For Vista only)
    * %WINDIR%\SYSTEM32\RESTORE\rstrui.exe: opens Tool System Restore (for XP only).
    * MSINFO32: Opens the System Information
    * MRT : launches the utility removal of malware.
    * Taskmgr : Opens the Windows Task Manager
    * CMD: opens a command prompt
    * MIGWIZ: Opens the tool for transferring files and settings from Windows (Vista only)
    * Migwiz.exe: Opens the tool for transferring files and settings from Windows (for XP only)
    * SIDEBAR: Open the Windows (Vista only)
    * Sigverif : Opens the tool for verification of signatures of files
    * Winver : Opens the window for your Windows version
    * FSQUIRT: Bluetooth Transfer Wizard
    * IExpress opens the wizard for creating self-extracting archives. Tutorial HERE
    * MBLCTR: opens the mobility center (Windows Vista only)
    * MSRA : Opens the Windows Remote Assistance
    * Mstsc : opens the tool connection Remote Desktop
    * MSDT: opens the diagnostic tools and support Microsoft
    * WERCON: opens the reporting tool and solutions to problems (for Vista only)
    * WINDOWSANYTIMEUPGRADE: Enables the upgrade of Windows Vista
    * WINWORD : opens Word (if installed)
    * PRINTBRMUI : Opens migration wizard printer (Vista only)

Disk management

    * DISKMGMT.MSC: opens disk management utility
    * CLEANMGR: opens disk drive clean up utility
    * DFRG.MSC: opens disk defragmenter
    * CHKDSK: complete analysis of disk partition
    * DISKPART: disk partitioning tool

Connection management

    * IPCONFIG: list the configuration of IP addresses on your PC (for more information type IPCONFIG/? in the CMD menu)
    * INETCPL.CPL: opens internet properties
    * FIREWALL.CPL: opens windows firewall
    * NETSETUP.CPL: opens network setup wizard

Miscellaneous commands

    * JAVAWS: View the cover of JAVA software (if installed)
    * AC3FILTER.CPL: Opens the properties AC3 Filter (if installed)
    * FIREFOX: Mozilla launches Firefox (if installed)
    * NETPROJ: allow or not connecting to a network projector (For Vista only)
    * LOGOFF: closes the current session
    * SHUTDOWN: shut down Windows
    * SHUTDOWN-A: to interrupt Windows shutdown
    * %WINDIR% or %SYSTEMROOT%: opens the Windows installation
    * %PROGRAMFILES%: Opens the folder where you installed other programs (Program Files)
    * %USERPROFILE%: opens the profile of the user currently logged
    * %HOMEDRIVE%: opens the browser on the partition or the operating system is installed
    * %HOMEPATH%: opens the currently logged user C: \ Documents and Settings \ [username]
    * %TEMP%: opens the temporary folder
    * VSP1CLN: deletes the cache for installation of the service pack 1 for Vista
    * System File Checker (Requires Windows CD if the cache is not available):
          o SFC / scannow: immediately scans all system files and repairs damaged files
          o SFC / VERIFYONLY: scans only those files system
          o SFC / Scanfil = "name and file path": scans the specified file, and repaired if damaged
          o SFC / VERIFYFILE = "name and file path": Scans only the file specified
          o SFC / scanonce: scans the system files on the next restart
          o SFC / REVERT: return the initial configuration (For more information, type SFC /? In the command prompt CMD.

Add/Remove Programs = appwiz.cpl
Administrative Tools = control admintools
Authorization Manager= azman.msc "New"

Calculator = calc
Certificate Manager = certmgr.msc
Character Map = charmap
Check Disk Utility = chkdsk
Control Panel = control "New"
Command Prompt = cmd.exe
Component Services = dcomcnfg
Computer Management = compmgmt.msc = CompMgmtLauncher "New"

Date and Time Properties = timedate.cpl
Downloads = Downloads "New"
Device Manager = devmgmt.msc
Direct X Troubleshooter = dxdiag
Disk Cleanup Utility = cleanmgr
Defragment User Interface = dfrgui "New"
Ditilizer Calibration Tool = tabcal "New"
Disk Management = diskmgmt.msc
Disk Parmelonion Manager = diskpart
Display Properties = control desktop or desk.cpl
DPI Scaling = dpiscaling "New"
Driver Package Installer = dpinst "New"
Driver Verifier Utility = verifier or /reset
DVD Player = dvdplay "New"

Encryption File System = rekeywiz "New"
Event Viewer = eventvwr.msc

Fax Cover Sheet Editor = fxscover "New"
File Signature Verification Tool = sigverif
Folders Properties = control folders
Fonts = control fonts
Free Cell Card Game = freecell

Group Policy Editor = gpedit.msc

Internet Explorer = iexplore
Iexpress Wizard = iexpress
Internet Properties = inetcpl.cpl
IP Configuration = ipconfig.exe
iSCSI Initiator = iscsicpl "New"

Keyboard Properties = control keyboard

Libraries = explorer or Windows key + E
Local Security Settings = secpol.msc
Local Users and Groups = lusrmgr.msc
Logs You Out Of Windows = logoff

Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool = msdt "New"
Microsoft Paint = mspaint.exe
Mouse Properties = control mouse
Mouse Properties = main.cpl
Mobility Center (only on mobile) = mblctr or Windows key + X
Network Connections = control netconnections
Network Connections = ncpa.cpl
Notepad = notepad

ODBC Data Source Administrator = odbcad32 "New"
Optional Features Manager = optionalfeatures "New"
On Screen Keyboard = osk or Windows key + U

Performance Monitor = perfmon.msc
Phone and Modem Options = telephon.cpl
Power Configuration = powercfg.cpl
Printers and Faxes = control printers
Printer Migration = PrintBrmUi "New"
Private Character Editor = eudcedit

Regional Settings = intl.cpl
Registry Editor = regedit.exe
Remote Assistance = msra "New"
Remote Desktop = mstsc
Resultant Set of Policy = rsop.msc

Scheduled Tasks = control schedtasks
Security Center = wscui.cpl
Services = services.msc
Shared Folders/MMC = fsmgmt.msc
Shuts Down Windows = shutdown
Snipping Tool = snippingtool "New"
Sounds and Audio = mmsys.cpl
Sound Recorder = soundrecorder "New"
Sound Volume = sndvol "New"
Spider Solitare Card Game = spider
SQL Client Configuration = cliconfg
Stored User Names and Passwords = credwiz "New"
Sticky Note = StikyNot "New"
System Configuration Editor = sysedit
System Configuration Utility = msconfig
System File Checker Utility = sfc
System Information = msinfo32
System Properties = sysdm.cpl or Windows key + Pause/Break

Task Manager = taskmgr
Trusted Platform Module = TpmInit "New"

Utility Manager = utilman
User Accounts = netplwiz or control userpasswords2

Windows Activation = slui "New"
Windows Backup Utility = sdclt "New"
Windows Fax and Scan = wfs "New"
Windows Firewall = firewall.cpl
Windows Firewall with Advanced Security = wf.msc "New"
Windows Image Acquisition = wiaacmgr "New"
Windows Media Player = wmplayer
Windows Magnifier = magnify
Windows Management Infrastructure = wmimgmt.msc
Windows Update App Manager = wuapp "New"
Windows Standalong Update Manager = wusa "New'
Windows System Security Tool = syskey
Windows Share Creation Wizard = shrpubw "New"
Wordpad = write

Change MAC address debian

2011-02-01T04:02:00.001-08:00

If you wish to explicitly set your MAC address upon a Debian system you can do so by adding an entry to your /etc/network/interfaces file.

Beneath each interface you wish to setup add "hwaddress ether xx:xxx..". For example:

auto eth0 static
iface eth0 inet static
address 1.2.3.4
gateway ...
broadcast ...
hwaddress ether 02:01:02:03:04:08

full url access log in squid

2011-01-26T23:07:00.001-08:00

Few days before I was wondering how to log a full URL in the squid log and finally found a solution
strip_query_terms off

Logs it all now
When strip strip_query_terms on it logs only http://www.google.com/search?

When strip strip_query_terms off it logs whole URL http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=full+url+squid+log&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

Thanks davebarnes for the trick.

backup all databases MSSQL

2010-12-30T23:00:00.001-08:00

A script to backup all databases in MSSQL

DECLARE @name VARCHAR(50) -- database name  
 DECLARE @path VARCHAR(256) -- path for backup files  
 DECLARE @fileName VARCHAR(256) -- filename for backup  
 DECLARE @fileDate VARCHAR(20) -- used for file name 
 
SET @path = 'C:\Backup\'  

SELECT @fileDate = CONVERT(VARCHAR(20),GETDATE(),112) 
 
DECLARE db_cursor CURSOR FOR  
SELECT name 
FROM master.dbo.sysdatabases 
 WHERE name NOT IN ('master','model','msdb','tempdb')  
 
OPEN db_cursor   
FETCH NEXT FROM db_cursor INTO @name   
 
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0   
BEGIN   
        SET @fileName = @path + @name + '_' + @fileDate + '.BAK'  
        BACKUP DATABASE @name TO DISK = @fileName  

       FETCH NEXT FROM db_cursor INTO @name   
 END   

CLOSE db_cursor   
DEALLOCATE db_cursor


 adapted from

Multiple Instances Users in google talk

2010-12-21T04:09:00.001-08:00

If you have several google talk accounts, you may want to run multiple instances of google talk at once. Here's how to do it.

Many users, including myself, like to have several different personalities on IM–Work, play, etc. By default google talk with only allow you to run instance of the program at a time. Here's how to get around that…

Run google talk with the following switch: /nomutex

If you installed google talk to the default location, you can easily create a shortcut to this setting.

New

Shortcut

"c:\program files\google\google talk\googletalk.exe" /nomutex

5. Click Next6. Name it whatever: Google Talk Multiple, etc.
7. Click OK until you are done.

For Geeks : you can change the googletalk.exe using suitable tools like hexeditor and do this

Change this:
004536FD . 3BC6 CMP EAX,ESI
004536FF . 75 05 JNZ SHORT googleta.00453706

to this:
004536FD . 8BC1 MOV EAX,ECX
004536FF . EB 05 JMP SHORT googleta.00453706

Please inform me if it isn't legal

Adpated from

resize clone vdi image using Virtual box

2010-12-19T05:09:00.001-08:00

Resize An Existing .vdi Virtualbox Image

Start off by creating a fresh new drive of the size you're after using the VirtualBox user interface. Then, locate both the your old, smaller HD and the new, larger one and run the following command:

VBoxManage clonehd --existing oldhd.vdi newhd.vdi

After some progress indicators ahve come and gone your HD should have been cloned to the larger one. You now need to use some software to expand your drive partition into the new space. Vista and W7 have this feature built in to Disk Management, or you could use something like GParted. I have never had luck with the integrated windows disk management tools, so I opted to use a free product called EASEUS PARTITION MASTER – home edition:

This tool was easy to install directly into the new vdi image. Walked through the wizard after clicking on "Resize" – it rebooted itself and resized the partition without a fuss.

force SVN comit log

2010-12-09T23:51:00.001-08:00

Forcing SVN Comments with TortoiseSVN

But as a developer you can force yourself to always comment before committing, as well. This one is particulary to do with TortoiseSVN as thats what I currently use at work.

The way it works is, once you have checked out a folder from the repository onto your local machine, you need to go to TortoiseSVN properties and add an inbuilt property to one or all your files. You can setup a property on one or more files so that it wont let you commit unless you write a minimum number of characters as my commit comments. The property is called tsvn:logminsize and it comes along with a set of other inbuilt properties. Simply right click anywhere in the checked out folder and go to TortoiseSVN Properties and add the property called tsvn:logminsize and give it a value of whatever you want. I gave it 10 (screenshot below).

I added the property recursively so it applies to all my files. Once thats done, it wont even enable the "OK" button on the commit dialog box until you enter atleast 10 characters. Just a little reminder to myself that commenting is absolutely necessary.

I didnt realize this was possible until today and I am really liking it.

Changing Graphics Resolution ubuntu

2010-12-06T03:09:00.001-08:00

Changing Graphics Resolution shortcut in debian ubuntu Press Ctrl+Alt+ the (+,-) arows on the key board

Change Tomcat Default port 8080

2010-11-26T04:12:00.001-08:00

1. Open the folder tomcat\conf on your computer

2. Now with a text editor you have to open and modify server.xml. Here you have to identify the following line (line 184) and you modify it so that changes from:

<Http10Connector port="8080"
secure="false"
maxThreads="100"
maxSpareThreads="50"
minSpareThreads="10" />

to:

<Http10Connector port="80"
secure="false"
maxThreads="100"
maxSpareThreads="50"
minSpareThreads="10" />

3. Startup the web server and access it now using:

http://localhost/

Install Redmine in windows

2010-11-26T01:29:00.001-08:00

Installing Redmine in Windows

First Install Ruby Gems after Installing Ruby

location of ruby http://rubyinstaller.rubyforge.org/

C:\software\Ruby\rubygems-1.3.7>ruby setup.rb

RubyGems 1.3.7 installed
∩╗┐=== 1.3.7 / 2010-05-13
NOTE:
http://rubygems.org is now the default source for downloading gems. You may have sources set via ~/.gemrc, so you should replace
http://gems.rubyforge.org with http://rubygems.org
http://gems.rubyforge.org will continue to work for the forseeable future.
New features:
* `gem` commands
* `gem install` and `gem fetch` now report alternate platforms when a
matching one couldn't be found.
* `gem contents` –prefix is now the default as specified in –help. Bug
#27211 by Mamoru Tasaka.
* `gem fetch` can fetch of old versions again. Bug #27960 by Eric Hankins.
* `gem query` and friends output now lists platforms. Bug #27856 by Greg
Hazel.
* `gem server` now allows specification of multiple gem dirs for
documentation. Bug #27573 by Yuki Sonoda.
* `gem unpack` can unpack gems again. Bug #27872 by Timothy Jones.
* `gem unpack` now unpacks remote gems.
* –user-install is no longer the default. If you really liked it, see
Gem::ConfigFile to learn how to set it by default. (This change was made
in 1.3.6)
* RubyGems now has platform support for IronRuby. Patch #27951 by Will Green.
Bug fixes:
* Require rubygems/custom_require if –disable-gem was set. Bug #27700 by
Roger Pack.
* RubyGems now protects against exceptions being raised by plugins.
* rubygems/builder now requires user_interaction. Ruby Bug #1040 by Phillip
Toland.
* Gem::Dependency support #version_requirements= with a warning. Fix for old
Rails versions. Bug #27868 by Wei Jen Lu.
* Gem::PackageTask depends on the package dir like the other rake package
tasks so dependencies can be hooked up correctly.

——————————————————————————
RubyGems installed the following executables:
C:/setup/Ruby186/bin/gem

Fetch Rails and install

C:\software\ProjectManagement\Ruby\redmine-1.0.0>gem fetch rails -v=2.3.5
Downloaded rails-2.3.5
Install Rails Now

C:\software\ProjectManagement\Ruby\redmine-1.0.0>gem install rails -v=2.3.5
Successfully installed rake-0.8.7
Successfully installed activesupport-2.3.5
Successfully installed activerecord-2.3.5
Successfully installed rack-1.0.1
Successfully installed actionpack-2.3.5
Successfully installed actionmailer-2.3.5
Successfully installed activeresource-2.3.5
Successfully installed rails-2.3.5
8 gems installed
Installing ri documentation for rake-0.8.7…
Installing ri documentation for activesupport-2.3.5…
Installing ri documentation for activerecord-2.3.5…
Installing ri documentation for rack-1.0.1…
Installing ri documentation for actionpack-2.3.5…
Installing ri documentation for actionmailer-2.3.5…
Installing ri documentation for activeresource-2.3.5…
Installing ri documentation for rails-2.3.5…
Installing RDoc documentation for rake-0.8.7…
Installing RDoc documentation for activesupport-2.3.5…
Installing RDoc documentation for activerecord-2.3.5…
Installing RDoc documentation for rack-1.0.1…
Installing RDoc documentation for actionpack-2.3.5…
Installing RDoc documentation for actionmailer-2.3.5…
Installing RDoc documentation for activeresource-2.3.5…
Installing RDoc documentation for rails-2.3.5…

Now Install Rack
C:\software\ProjectManagement\Ruby\redmine-1.0.0>gem install rack -v=1.0.1
Successfully installed rack-1.0.1
1 gem installed
Installing ri documentation for rack-1.0.1…
Installing RDoc documentation for rack-1.0.1…

Generate Session Store
C:\software\ProjectManagement\Ruby\redmine-1.0.0>rake generate_session_store
(in C:/software/ProjectManagement/Ruby/redmine-1.0.0)

If you get error in this process move the redmine folder into C:\software\ProjectManagement\Ruby\bin and run the command it will work

Now Set Rails Environment
C:\software\ProjectManagement\Ruby\redmine-1.0.0>set RAILS_ENV=production

Now run DB Migrate to setup Data
C:\software\ProjectManagement\Ruby\redmine-1.0.0>rake db:migrate
(in C:/software/ProjectManagement/Ruby/redmine-1.0.0)
!!! The bundled mysql.rb driver has been removed from Rails 2.2. Please install the mysql gem and try again: gem install mysql.
rake aborted!
no such file to load — mysql
(See full trace by running task with –trace)

Install MySql if you don't have
C:\software\ProjectManagement\Ruby\redmine-1.0.0>gem install mysql
Successfully installed mysql-2.8.1-x86-mingw32
1 gem installed
Installing ri documentation for mysql-2.8.1-x86-mingw32…
No definition for next_result
No definition for field_name
No definition for field_table
No definition for field_def
No definition for field_type
No definition for field_length
No definition for field_max_length
No definition for field_flags
No definition for field_decimals
No definition for time_inspect
No definition for time_to_s
No definition for time_get_year
No definition for time_get_month
No definition for time_get_day
No definition for time_get_hour
No definition for time_get_minute
No definition for time_get_second
No definition for time_get_neg
No definition for time_get_second_part
No definition for time_set_year
No definition for time_set_month
No definition for time_set_day
No definition for time_set_hour
No definition for time_set_minute
No definition for time_set_second
No definition for time_set_neg
No definition for time_set_second_part
No definition for time_equal
No definition for error_errno
No definition for error_sqlstate
Installing RDoc documentation for mysql-2.8.1-x86-mingw32…
No definition for next_result
No definition for field_name
No definition for field_table
No definition for field_def
No definition for field_type
No definition for field_length
No definition for field_max_length
No definition for field_flags
No definition for field_decimals
No definition for time_inspect
No definition for time_to_s
No definition for time_get_year
No definition for time_get_month
No definition for time_get_day
No definition for time_get_hour
No definition for time_get_minute
No definition for time_get_second
No definition for time_get_neg
No definition for time_get_second_part
No definition for time_set_year
No definition for time_set_month
No definition for time_set_day
No definition for time_set_hour
No definition for time_set_minute
No definition for time_set_second
No definition for time_set_neg
No definition for time_set_second_part
No definition for time_equal
No definition for error_errno
No definition for error_sqlstate
C:\software\ProjectManagement\Ruby\redmine-1.0.0>set RAILS_ENV=production

Before Doing this Configure database.yml

For Database Configuration goto redmine\conf and rename database.yml.example to database.yml if you use mysql then it should look like this

production:
adapter: mysql
database: redmine_production
host: localhost
username: root
password:
encoding: utf8

Now you should create a database named redmine_production in mysql

C:\software\ProjectManagement\Ruby\redmine-1.0.0>rake db:migrate
(in C:/software/ProjectManagement/Ruby/redmine-1.0.0)
rake aborted!
Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)
(See full trace by running task with –trace)
C:\software\ProjectManagement\Ruby\redmine-1.0.0>rake db:migrate
(in C:/software/ProjectManagement/Ruby/redmine-1.0.0)
== Setup: migrating ==========================================================
– create_table("attachments", {:force=>true})
-> 0.2820s
– create_table("auth_sources", {:force=>true})
-> 0.0110s
…………………………………………………………..
== ChangeChangesPathLengthLimit: migrated (0.0610s) ==========================

If you get error like libmysql.dll missing in this stage.find the dll from here and copy it to bin folder of ruby

http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?libmysql

Now Try to run Mongrel
C:\software\ProjectManagement\Ruby\redmine-1.0.0>mongrel_rails start -p 3000 -e production
'mongrel_rails' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\software\ProjectManagement\Ruby\redmine-1.0.0>gem install mongrel_service
Building native extensions. This could take a while…
ERROR: Error installing mongrel_service:
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

C:/setup/Ruby186/bin/ruby.exe extconf.rb
checking for RegisterServiceCtrlHandlerEx()… no
checking for EnumServicesStatusEx()… no
checking for QueryServiceStatusEx()… no
creating Makefile

make
'make' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

Gem files will remain installed in C:/setup/Ruby186/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/win32-service-0.5.2 for inspection.
Results logged to C:/setup/Ruby186/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/win32-service-0.5.2/gem_make.out

Try to Windows Option
C:\software\ProjectManagement\Ruby\redmine-1.0.0>gem install mongrel_service –platform x86-mswin32
Successfully installed win32-service-0.5.2-x86-mswin32
Successfully installed mongrel_service-0.3.4-x86-mswin32
2 gems installed
Installing ri documentation for win32-service-0.5.2-x86-mswin32…
Installing ri documentation for mongrel_service-0.3.4-x86-mswin32…
Installing RDoc documentation for win32-service-0.5.2-x86-mswin32…
Installing RDoc documentation for mongrel_service-0.3.4-x86-mswin32…

Now Run Redmine
C:\software\ProjectManagement\Ruby\redmine-1.0.0>mongrel_rails start -p 3000 -e production
** Starting Mongrel listening at 0.0.0.0:3000
** Starting Rails with production environment…
C:/software/ProjectManagement/Ruby/redmine-1.0.0/config/../vendor/rails/railties/lib/rails/gem_dependency.rb:119:Warning: Gem::Dependency#ve
rsion_requirements is deprecated and will be removed on or after August 2010. Use #requirement
** Rails loaded.
** Loading any Rails specific GemPlugins
** Signals ready. INT => stop (no restart).
** Mongrel 1.1.5 available at 0.0.0.0:3000
** Use CTRL-C to stop.

use http://localhost:3000

With Apache

Configuring Apache + Mongrel on Windows is not significantly different from *nix.
Essentially, you need to proxy requests coming into Apache to Mongrel. What this boils down to is something like this:
LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so

ServerName www.myapp.comm
DocumentRoot "C:/web/myapp/public"
ProxyPass / http://www.myapp.com:3000/
ProxyPassReverse / http://www.myapp.com:3000/
ProxyPreserveHost On

Stick this in your httpd.conf (or httpd-vhost.conf if you're including it).
It assumes you're going to run mongrel on port 3000, your Rails root is in C:\web\myapp, and you'll access the app at www.myapp.com.
To run the rails app in production mode:
mongrel_rails start -p 3000 -e production
And away you go (actually mongrel defaults to port 3000 so you could skip -p 3000 if you want).
The main difference is that you cannot daemonize mongrel on Windows (i.e. make it run in the background). Instead you can install it as a service using the mongrel_service gem.

0 down vote
I'm new to RoR and have been attempting the same thing on Windows Server 2008, here are some additional notes on getting mongrel going as a service:
if you get compilation errors when installing mongrel_service:
gem install mongrel_service
try using a binary instead by specifying your platform:
gem install mongrel_service –platform x86-mswin32
Additionally, to actually install the service you need to run this command in your RoR's app directory:
mongrel_rails service::install –name MyApp -e production -p 3001 -a 0.0.0.0
(or to remove: mongrel_rails service::remove –name MyApp)
Then you should be able to start/stop the app "MyApp" in your windows services control panel.

References

http://www.richardnichols.net/2009/09/1-minute-guide-installing-redmine-on-windows/
http://www.rvaidya.com/blog/ruby/2009/09/15/step-by-step-quick-installation-of-redmine-svn-on-windows/
http://ashwinrayaprolu.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/installing-redmine-on-windows-for-newbie/

Remote SQL Express 2008 Network Connections

2010-11-21T00:55:00.001-08:00

Enabling Remote SQL Express 2008 Network Connections

1. Open up the SQL Server Configuration Manager. Programs / Microsoft SQL Server 2008 / Configuration Tools / SQL Server Configuration Manager.

2. Expand the SQL Server Network Configuration node and select the Protocols for SQLEXPRESS

3. Enable TCP/IP by right-clicking and selecting Enable, then OK.

4. Click on the SQL Server Services node and in the right panel right-click SQL Server (EXPRESS) and select restart to restart the service.

5. Right-click on the SQL Server Browser and select start to start the browser service if it isn't started already. This will allow you to access the SQL Express instance by the computer name.

6. Open up SQL Server Management Studio as Administrator. (If you don't have SSMS installed, get it here)

7. In the Object Explorer under the Security node, add a new user for the account that will be connecting by right-clicking and selecting "New User". This opens the Login Properties page. If you're on a domain then use Windows Authentication. For my VPC scenario it wasn't connected to a domain so I added a SQL Server login and password. (To enable SQL logins you need to first right-click on the SQL Express instance at the top, select Properties and under Security select "SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode".)

8. Select User Mapping on the Login Properties and check off the database you want to connect to. If you're just testing then you can select db_owner in the role membership to grant all access to the database, including altering the schema. Please note that this is not secure but it works for development and testing.

If you want to be secure you can go and specifically grant permissions under the Security node for the specific database back up in the Object Explorer. But if you're on a domain then I would recommend creating a least privileged Windows Security Group on your domain and adding that to a SQL Server Role that you can configure explicit permissions on (i.e. GRANT EXECUTE on your CRUD stored procs and GRANT SELECT on tables, don't let DELETE, INSERT and UPDATE directly). Then you can just use normal Windows security to add users on the domain to the group. This also lets you use integrated security in the connection strings which is much more secure.

9. Configure the Firewall. This is the step that I forgot and was banging my head on the wall 4-EV-R! Open up Windows Firewall and select Change Settings, select the Exceptions Tab and click Add Program. You'll need to select the SQLServer.exe in Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\Binn\ and the SQLBrowser.exe in Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\. Then select Properties for each of them and select the "Change Scope" button. Then select the proper scope. For development and testing you could specify the remote computer's IP address or widen it to your network subnet. I recommend not allowing Internet users. ;-)

10. Configure the connection string. Now back in Visual Studio you can configure your connection string settings in your Project Settings (app.config). If you used Windows Authentication then it's really easy:

Data Source=SERVERNAME\sqlexpress;Initial Catalog=MyDatabase;Integrated Security=True

If you used a SQL Login then you need to supply a less secure connection string with the username and password:

Data Source=SERVERNAME\sqlexpress;Initial Catalog=MyDatabase;User ID=username;Password=password

I hope that works for you, it did for me. If you're still having trouble please see these troubleshooting tips in the library or ask a question on the SQL Server forums. I'm by no means an expert in SQL Server configuration or networks.

If you need to set up production environments I'd read the SQL Server Books online.

source : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bethmassi/archive/2008/09/17/enabling-remote-sql-express-2008-network-connections-on-vista.aspx

Send mail using command

2010-11-04T02:16:00.001-07:00

Telnet - SMTP Commands (sending mail using telnet)

In order to access your mailbox you will need 3 things:

An active internet connection (an embarrasing stage to miss sometimes!)
The address of a mail server capable of relaying for you - usually provided by your dialup provider (e.g. mail.domain.ext)
A valid email address (e.g. mail@domain.ext)

The first thing to do is to open a connection from your computer to your mail server.
telnet mail.domain.ext 25
You should receive a reply like:

Trying ???.???.???.???...
 		Connected to mail.domain.ext.
 		Escape character is '^]'.
 		220 mail.domain.ext ESMTP Sendmail ?version-number?; ?date+time+gmtoffset?

You will then need to delcare where you are sending the email from:
HELO local.domain.name - dont worry too much about your local domain name although you really should use your exact fully qualified domain name as seen by the outside world the mail server has no choice but to take your word for it as of RFC822-RFC1123.
This should give you:
250 mail.domain.ext Hello local.domain.name [loc.al.i.p], pleased to meet you

Now give your email address:
(On many mailservers the space after the : is required rather that optional. Thanks to Justing Goldberg)
MAIL FROM: mail@domain.ext
Should yeild:
250 2.1.0 mail@domain.ext... Sender ok

Now give the recipients address:
RCPT TO: mail@otherdomain.ext
Should yeild:
250 2.1.0 mail@otherdomain.ext... Recipient ok
Note Google mail servers require < and > around the email address (thanks to Paul Beattie).

To start composing the message issue the command DATA

If you want a subject for your email type Subject:-type subject here- then press enter twice (these are needed to conform to RFC 882)

You may now proceed to type the body of your message (e.g. hello mail@otherdomain.ext from mail@domain.ext)

To tell the mail server that you have completed the message enter a single "." on a line on it's own.
The mail server should reply with: 250 2.0.0 ???????? Message accepted for delivery

You can close the connection by issuing the QUIT command.
The mailserver should reply with something like:

221 2.0.0 mail.domain.ext closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.

Reference

Samba Gui in ubuntu/debian

2010-09-18T02:48:00.001-07:00

Gui in samba is available in linux through a package named gadmin-samba.To install samba GUI in ubuntu or debian type following command in terminal
#sudo apt-get install gadmin-samba

Windows-Execute script at startup and shutdown

2010-09-18T01:07:00.001-07:00

Execute a script a startup and shutdown

The trick works Windows XP, Vista and 7, but the method varies depending on your edition of Windows.

For professional or full editions

Start the policy editor of the local group: Start Menu> Run> Type gpedit.msc
Under Vista, you can type the command in the search bar of the start menu or by shortcut Windows key + R
Go to Computer Configuration> Windows Settings> Scripts (Startup/Shutdown)
Depending on what you want, double click on Start or Stop system
Click Add> Browse and select the script you want to add.

For all editions

Note that implies midification of the Registry, it is recommended to make backup before proceeding

Open notepad and copy the code below:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy\State\Machine\Scripts]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy\State\Machine\Scripts\Shutdown]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy\State\Machine\Scripts\Startup]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy\State\Machine\Scripts\Startup\0]
"GPO-ID"="LocalGPO"
"SOM-ID"="Local"
"FileSysPath"="C:\\Windows\\System32\\GroupPolicy\\Machine"
"DisplayName"="Stratégie de groupe locale"
"GPOName"="Stratégie de groupe locale"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy\State\Machine\Scripts\Shutdown\0]
"GPO-ID"="LocalGPO"
"SOM-ID"="Local"
"FileSysPath"="C:\\Windows\\System32\\GroupPolicy\\Machine"
"DisplayName"="Stratégie de groupe  locale"
"GPOName"="Stratégie de groupe locale"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy\State\Machine\Scripts\Startup\0\0]
"Script"="C:\\script1.bat"
"Parameters"=""
"ExecTime"=hex(b):00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

Note that what is underlined is a variable and that you can adapt it to your needs.
C:\\script.bat represents the path to your script on the hard disk.
0 represents the number of the script in case you have several scripts to run. Just increment the number.
Startup is the time of execution of the script (at startup is Startup and shutdown is Shutdown)

Add as many times as you want, always adapting to your needs, the example below if you want to add multiple scripts:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy\State\Machine\Scripts\Startup\0\0]
"Script"="C:\\script1.bat"
"Parameters"=""
"ExecTime"=hex(b):00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

It is also possible to specify parameters for the execution of this script by changing the Parameters field.

Finally, save this text file:

Go to File> Save
Give it a name ending with .reg
Select All files in the list box File Type
Save the file to the desired location and double click on this file.

Sync Clock from Command Line

2010-09-18T00:38:00.001-07:00

Sync Clock from Command Line

Simply open an administrative mode command prompt (right-click, Run as administrator), and then type in the following command:

w32tm /resync

VOIP behind NAT using asterisk

2010-09-12T06:24:00.001-07:00

For all the technology behind Voice over IP (VoIP), you'd expect that it would work on every network, but this unfortunately isn't the case. Network Address Translation (NAT) is a common practice used in networks, and it doesn't play well with VoIP. Solving this problem requires an understanding of NAT, VoIP and your VoIP setup. This article focuses on the SIP protocol for VoIP and the Asterisk VoIP software, but the problems and solutions are applicable to most other situations.

NAT is used to hide multiple hosts behind a different set of IP addresses. As a packet leaves the gateway, the source address is rewritten to the new external address. When the return packet arrives, the gateway replaces the destination address with that of the originating host before sending the packet along its way. The gateway also can use the same external address for multiple internal hosts. The source port of the connection may be changed to ensure that the connection can be identified uniquely by the gateway, so that the return packets can have the proper address replaced.

This last scenario is also called Port Address Translation (PAT), or IP masquerading. It is what Linux and other home firewalls use to hide multiple internal hosts behind the single public IP address assigned by the carrier. The hosts must be hidden because they are using special, private, addresses that can't be routed on the Internet (such as 192.168.1.1). NAT solves the connectivity problem by giving the host a proper source address on all external connections, which allows the remote host to respond. The downside is that the inside must originate all connections in order to build the translation table entries required for NAT to work.

The problem with VoIP and NAT is that both ends of the conversation have to be able to initiate a connection to each other. Consider the simplified sequence of events that happens when PhoneA calls PhoneB using their respective SIP servers, PBXA and PBXB.

1.PBXA sends a SIP invitation to PBXB on PhoneA's behalf. In this invitation, it is PhoneA's IP address.
2. PBXB invites PhoneB to the conversation specifying PhoneA's IP address as the other end.
3.If PhoneB accepts the call, PBXB responds to PBXA with an acknowledgment that includes PhoneB's IP address.
4.PBXA tells PhoneA about PhoneB.
5.PhoneA sends audio using the Real-Time Protocol (RTP) to PhoneB.
6.PhoneB sends audio using RTP to PhoneA.

NAT can cause problems in several places. If one of the PBXes is behind a NAT gateway, the other PBX won't be able to contact it without some additional network setup. If one or more of the phones are behind a NAT gateway, the other phone will be trying to send audio to a non-routable address. This results in failed calls or missing audio.

Asterisk calls the handing off of the phone call in steps 2 and 4 above a re-invite or a native bridge. The steps above show that the phone talks to its local PBX, which in turn talks to the remote PBX. The local PBX then re-points the two sides of the call to each other, so that the local phone is talking to the remote end. Ideally, both sides will do this, and the phones are free to talk directly, leaving the SIP server out of the conversation.

The alternative to a re-invite is to have the PBX relay the voice packets between the two endpoints. We look at this in more detail later, but first, here's a more common scenario.

The simplest situation is when a SIP client is behind a NAT gateway connecting to a server on the Internet. The client creates the translation entry for the SIP traffic when it first registers. As long as there is frequent communication between the two hosts, such as one packet per minute, the channel will stay open. The only configuration needed is to have the client use its external address in all SDP packets. On clients that support it, enable STUN (Simple Traversal of UDP through NAT), so the client can determine the external address dynamically, or enter it manually. Asterisk doesn't support STUN at this time, so all NAT configuration must be done manually. The following commands in /etc/asterisk/sip.conf set up the NAT properly:

[general]
localnet=192.168.0.0/255.255.0.0 ; or your subnet
externip=x.x.x.x ; use your address

[YOURREMOTEPEER] ; your peer's name
nat=yes
qualify=yes ; Force keepalives

With this configuration, Asterisk uses the address defined by externip for all calls to the peers configured with nat=yes. The addition of qualify=yes causes Asterisk to test the connection frequently so that the nat translations aren't removed from the firewall. With these two commands, there always will be a communications channel between Asterisk and the peer, and Asterisk will use the outside address when sending SDP messages.

If you have multiple phones and an Asterisk server behind a NAT gateway, the solution gets more complex. Calls between the phones will work fine because NAT isn't needed. For calls between you and other systems on the Internet though, there will be problems. Unless you register to the remote side as a client (as done in the previous example), you will not be able to receive SIP messages, so you will not be able to accept calls. Second, the address information in the call setup will point to the internal address of the phone, and the one-way audio problems mentioned previously will crop up.

The easiest solution to this is to avoid NAT entirely. This may seem out of place in an article dealing with NAT, but if you have a public IP address available for your call server, use it! If your Asterisk server is connected to both the Internet and the internal network, the SIP port is reachable from both the inside and the outside, and the only problem is ensuring RTP flows properly. The PBX server need not be configured to route between the interfaces or provide masquerading; it simply needs to bridge the inbound and outbound voice calls.

As I mentioned earlier, the PBX either can stay in the voice path or get out of the way. In the latter case, the PBX tells both endpoints about each other after which the endpoints talk directly. However, Asterisk could have a call setup with both endpoints and relay the RTP packets on behalf of each endpoint. The inside host would be talking to the inside address, and the outside host would be talking to the outside address. The only configuration required to achieve this in sip.conf is to disable re-invites:

[general]
canreinvite=no ; force relaying

This configuration works well because the Asterisk server can speak freely to the Internet to send and receive calls. It also can talk to the internal phones, and by some simple bridging, completely ignore NAT.

As it turns out, this relaying behavior also is required when the Asterisk server has only a private address. The RTP ports will have to be forwarded on the firewall too. RTP chooses random port numbers based on configured limits. Before the ports can be configured, they should be limited in range. Configuring the firewall rules is much easier if the range of ports is known beforehand.

The range of ports to be used for RTP is defined in rtp.conf. The following configuration will limit Asterisk's choice of RTP ports from 10000 to 10100:

[general]
rtpstart=10000 ; first port to use
rtpend=10100 ; last port to use
; rounded up if odd

Asterisk will need several RTP ports to operate properly. Only even ports are actually used, and disabling of re-invites causes two connections to be built per call. These ports and the SIP port must then be forwarded in by the firewall. The iptables syntax is:

iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -p udp \
-m udp --dport 10000:10100 -j DNAT \
--to-destination 192.168.1.10
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -p udp \
-m udp --dport 5060 -j DNAT \
--to-destination 192.168.1.10

Replace eth0 with the outside interface of your firewall and 192.168.1.10 with the address of your Asterisk server. These rules tell the Linux kernel to translate the destination address of any UDP packets in the given range that are entering the outside interface. This must happen at the PREROUTING stage as opposed to the POSTROUTING stage, because the destination address is being translated. At this point, any SIP or RTP packet from the Internet will be forwarded to the internal Asterisk server for processing.

When a remote station makes a call to Asterisk, the SIP packet will be forwarded in because of the iptables rules. Asterisk will stay in the media stream because of the canreinvite=no command, and it will use the external address of the firewall in any SDP packets because of the NAT commands. Finally, the media stream will be forwarded to the Asterisk server because of the combination of iptables RTP forwarding and port ranges defined in rtp.conf.

Up to this point, the configuration has focused on getting Asterisk working behind a NAT gateway, with some extra details to make the phones relay through Asterisk. There are, of course, more general solutions.

As I said earlier, if you can avoid NAT in the first place, it's in your best interests to do so because it avoids all the problems encountered so far. The Asterisk gateway can have a very restrictive firewall policy applied to it—all that is needed is to allow UDP 5060 for SIP and whatever port range is defined in rtp.conf. In this configuration, Asterisk can contact both the internal phones and the rest of the Internet.

The most promising solution to the NAT problem is to have the firewall rewrite the SIP body as it translates the source address. The address specified for the RTP session would be replaced by the firewall itself, which also would take care of forwarding the RTP stream once it arrives. Some commercial firewalls do this. Linux iptables have shipped with ip_nat_sip and ip_conntrack_sip modules since kernel version 2.6.18. These modules are designed to take care of translating SIP, but after extensive testing, I was unable to get it working completely. I had success with inbound calls from a VoIP provider with re-invites disabled, but that was it.

IP or GRE tunnels (unencrypted) and IPSec VPNs (encrypted) are another option for getting around the need for NAT. Multiple sites are connected with a tunnel that encapsulates the internal traffic in another IP packet using the gateway's address as it leaves the outside gateway. The encapsulation is removed at the destination end. This is helpful only if you set up the tunnels beforehand. Because VPNs also are used to connect branch office data networks, this option already might be available to you. The issues of fragmentation that plague data applications aren't a problem for VoIP because small packets are used.

If SIP is not a requirement, and you're using Asterisk, consider using the IAX protocol. IAX tunnels both the control traffic and the voice traffic over a single UDP conversation that can be port-forwarded, filtered or translated easily. This method is limited to a static set of tunnels, which is sufficient if you're connecting some PBXes over the Internet or connecting to a long-distance provider.

Sometimes the above solutions aren't available to you. In that case, it might be advisable to move to a full-featured SIP proxy and use Asterisk only for voice applications, such as voice mail. SIP Express Router (SER) is a powerful SIP server that handles NAT well and is used by several high-volume services, including Free World Dialup. SER's job is only in setting up calls between endpoints, so it must rely on other applications, such as specialized media proxies, to handle RTP streams if needed.

The step beyond a SIP proxy is a Session Border Controller (SBC), which is like a VoIP firewall. The SBC can intercede in either the signaling or RTP paths to add extra features, such as signaling protocol or codec translation, all while enforcing security policies. These are almost exclusively commercial products.

It is no secret that problems will be encountered when rolling out VoIP, especially when the Internet and NAT are involved. Understanding how the protocols involved work is the first step to solving these problems. You've now seen some of the solutions, from reconfiguring the phone or PBX to port translation to additional products or even an adjustment to the architecture. With these problems out of the way, you are free to enjoy the benefits of VoIP.

Backup and restore drivers windows

2010-09-06T09:33:00.001-07:00

You can backup your drivers of any devices attached to the computer and restore it in the same computer or different computer using this free software : Drivermax
For detail information URL : http://drivermax.com

Get MAC address of PC in LAN

2010-08-15T23:24:00.001-07:00

To Get MAC address of PC in LAN

First Ping the IP address of the PC you want and use arp to get MAC address

from a console as root type
Code:

 # ping 192.168.10.5 # arp -na

This should give you the mac address and the ip assigned for all machines on the network.

Scan all system files and repair in windows

2010-07-26T01:06:00.000-07:00

In windows to repair all system files and check if they are intact you may need a windows CD
go to Start/Run, and type:
SFC /SCANNOW

loopback adapter in Xp and spoof MAC Address

2010-07-06T00:01:00.001-07:00

To manually install the Microsoft Loopback adapter in Windows XP, follow these steps:

Click Start, and then click Control Panel. Because this is XP, you may have it set up this way, or you may have your interface set up in Classic view. Either way, navigate your way to 'Add Hardware', or 'Printers and Other Hardware'

Launch the Wizard to Add Hardware to your system. Do not be confused because you are not actually installing any new hardware, just simply adding a 'network adapter' which is acting as a virtual adapter.
Click next, once you have launched the Wizard. You will see a series of dialog boxes open to ask you about scanning for hardware changes, etc – you will want to do everything manually in this exercise. There will be no automatic scanning for any reason because you have not installed anything, the installation will immediately fail.

You will next be asked if the hardware is connected. You can select Yes from the options and click Next.

Now, select *from the bottom of the list* the 'Add a new hardware device' option, and then click Next.

Click Install the hardware that I manually select from a list, and then click Next.

Select 'Network adapters' from the Common hardware types section within the dialog box. Click Next.

Select Microsoft and then the Microsoft Loopback Adapater, and then click Next.

Lastly, you will be prompted to Finish up the installation.

Viewing and Configuring the Loopback Adapter

Once you have finished the installation, you will have a brand new loopback interface configured on your PC. There are a few things that you should know about the use of the loopback adapter.

First, it will appear as a new interface connection in the properties of My Network Places. It will also show up with you view IPCONFIG from the command line.
Second, you will be confused about it when you see it because if you have multiple adapters set up as most do, you will see Local Area Connection, Local Area Connection 2, Local Area Connection 3 and so on. A trick to seeing what is what is to hover your mouse over the connections until you find the right one as seen in the illustration here:

It is recommended that you rename the connection to something like 'LOOPBACK' so you can differentiate what it is quicker, and if you use IPCONFIG, check out the output below, you will know it's the LOOPBACK.

C:\>ipconfig

<<Output Omitted>>

Ethernet adapter LOOPBACK:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
   Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.25.129
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

C:\>

Lastly, notice that the address given to the adapter is on the APIPA subnet. APIPA, which is Automatic Private IP Addressing, is a way for the PC to put itself on the network if DHCP is configured but not available. You can keep this on the APIPA range or hard code a static IP address in to use and test with.
Unless you disable the interface, it will always appear as up because it cannot go down from a hardware failure as there is no hardware to fail.

Now you can test with this IP address, it will always remain stable and so on.

You can create a MAC Spoof from loopback by using following trick

Just go

1.run and type ncpa.cpl

2.Select loopback LAN and your own LAN by using ctrl and click

3.Right click and select bridge

4.You have done .Now the traffic flow through the Network bridge and your original mac is hidden

Install any fonts in ubuntu

2010-07-05T05:04:00.000-07:00

Close all OpenOffice windows.

Navigate to the following Ubuntu menus.
Application > Add/Remove...
Install Fonty Python. This is a font manager for Ubuntu. It's similar to Adobe Type Manager. Find below attached screenshot.
Open Fonty Python.
Navigate to the following Fonty Python's menu Help > Help F1.
The help window will open. Follow instructions on this page.
Open OpenOffice. Find the font under the font menu.

Option 2 : For advanced Users

Close all OpenOffice windows.
Download the font you want from the following site. For example Arial Narrow. Find below attached screenshot to clarify download link location.
http://www.free-fonts-ttf.org/true-t...ns.htm?page=3 2
Copy the fonts to your fonts directory. This directory is located under. This is optional but you can create sub-folders inside this directory.
/usr/share/fonts/truetype
If you do not have access to copy the fonts the the above folder then type in the following command in TERMINAL.
Code:
```
 gksudo nautilus 
```
Nautilus file browser will open.
Use Nautilus to copy the fonts to your .fonts directory.
To rebuild your fonts list. Type in the following command in TERMINAL
Code:
```
 sudo fc-cache -vf 
```
Open OpenOffice. Find the font under the font menu.
That's it. Now you can read .doc or .docx that comes from other people who uses this font.

Concurrent multiple Remote Desktop Sessions XP

2010-07-04T00:50:00.001-07:00

Concurrent Multiple Remote Desktop Sessions in Windows XP SP2
Windows XP does not allow concurrent sessions for its Remote Desktop feature. What this means is that if a user is logged on at the local console, a remote user has to kick him off (and ironically, this can be done even without his permission) before starting work on the box. This is irritating and removes much of the productivity that Remote Desktop brings to Windows. Read on to learn how to remove that limitation in Windows XP SP2

A much touted feature in SP2 (Service Pack 2) since then removed was the ability to do just this, have a user logged on locally while another connects to the terminal remotely. Microsoft however removed the feature in the final build. The reason probably is that the EULA (End User License Agreement) allows only a single user to use a computer at a time. This is (IMHO) a silly reason to curtail Remote Desktop's functionality, so we'll have a workaround.

Microsoft did try out the feature in earlier builds of Service Pack 2 and it is this that we're going to exploit here. We're going to replace termserv.dll (The Terminal Server) with one from an earlier build (2055).

To get Concurrent Sessions in Remote Desktop working, follow the steps below exactly:

Download the termserv.zip file and extract it somewhere. (You have to be registered to see the file)
Reboot into Safe Mode. This is necessary to remove Windows File Protection.
Copy the termserv.dll in the zip to %windir%\System32 and %windir%\ServicePackFiles\i386. If the second folder doesn't exist, don't copy it there. Delete termserv.dll from the dllcache folder: %windir%\system32\dllcache
Merge the contents of Concurrent Sessions SP2.reg file into the registry.
Make sure Fast User Switching is turned on. Go Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Change the way users log on or off and turn on Fast User Switching.
Open up the Group Policy Editor: Start Menu > Run > 'gpedit.msc'. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Terminal Services. Enable 'Limit Number of Connections' and set the number of connections to 3 (or more). This enables you to have more than one person remotely logged on.
Now reboot back into normal Windows and try out whether Concurrent Sessions in Remote Desktop works. It should!

If anything goes wrong, the termserv_sp2.dll is the original file you replaced. Just rename it to termserv.dll, reboot into safe mode and copy it back.

The termserv.dl_ file is provided in the zip is for you slipstreamers out there. Just replace that file with the corresponding file in the Windows installation disks.

Alternate location for DLL for XP Service Pack 3.

source

Wake on LAN WOL in Linux

2010-07-01T03:56:00.001-07:00

Configure WOL in Ubuntu

1. If you havent already, go to your BIOS, and turn on WakeOnLAN (it varies, look for it.) If your network card is onboard, your set for step 2, otherwise there is probably a cable that should go from your network card to your motherboard, though this is not always the case.

2. Back in ubuntu, kubuntu, xubuntu, w/e, we now need to make a script that will run every time the computer is started, because this command only lasts until the computer is turned on again once.

2a. Find out what network device you want to have the computer wake-able from, usually all, which is just one. If you have more network devices in your system, 9 chances out of 10, you already know what they are called.
You can NOT wake up a laptop or computer that is only connected via wireless with wake-on-lan, unless the bios has a method for this, this is very rare.
In your terminal, type: Code:

 ifconfig

You'll get something like: (I have removed my mac address for security) Code:

 eth0     
Link encap:Ethernet
 HWaddr 01:23:45:67:89:ab         
inet addr:192.168.1.2
Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0         
inet6 addr: fe80::215:f2ff:fe6f:3487/64 Scope:Link         
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1         
RX packets:71495 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0         
TX packets:76190 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0          
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000         
RX bytes:23164212 (22.0 MiB)
TX bytes:7625016 (7.2 MiB)         
Interrupt:217 Base address:0xd400  lo      
Link encap:Local Loopback         
inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0         
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host         
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1         
RX packets:1290 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0         
TX packets:1290 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0         
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0           RX bytes:161182 (157.4 KiB)  TX bytes:161182 (157.4 KiB)

So, I want this system to be wake-able from eth0.

2b. Now we create the script.
Note: you must be an administrator on the system you are doing this to. Code:

 sudo -i

Enter your password at the prompt.
Change to the startup script directory and start editing a new file: Code:

 cd /etc/init.d/
pico wakeonlanconfig

Paste, or type this into the file, replacing eth0 with your network device, repeat the ethtool line as many times for your devices before the exit line: Code:

 #!/bin/bash
ethtool -s eth0 wol g
 exit

Set the permissions of the file: Code:

 chmod a+x wakeonlanconfig

Make the script run on startup: Code:

 update-rc.d -f wakeonlanconfig defaults

You should see something like: Code:

 Adding system startup for
/etc/init.d/wakeonlanconfig ...  
/etc/rc0.d/K20wakeonlanconfig ->../init.d/wakeonlanconfig   
/etc/rc1.d/K20wakeonlanconfig -> ../init.d/wakeonlanconfig   
/etc/rc6.d/K20wakeonlanconfig -> ../init.d/wakeonlanconfig   
/etc/rc2.d/S20wakeonlanconfig -> ../init.d/wakeonlanconfig   
/etc/rc3.d/S20wakeonlanconfig -> ../init.d/wakeonlanconfig   
/etc/rc4.d/S20wakeonlanconfig -> ../init.d/wakeonlanconfig   
/etc/rc5.d/S20wakeonlanconfig -> ../init.d/wakeonlanconfig

Now we finish by running it, and making sure there are no errors. Code:

 /etc/init.d/wakeonlanconfig

This should produce no output and put you right back at the prompt you started at.

3. Use it. you'll need something to send wake-on-lan packets with, "wakeonlan" is in the repos. And you'll need the mac address of the system.

To get your MAC address, on the same system you just enabled WOL on, type: Code:

 ifconfig | grep HW

its the thing that looks like 01:23:45:67:89:ab , write it down.
turn off that system: Code:

 sudo halt

if your using wakeonlan from the repos, and you are on the same network as the computer your tying to wake up, replace 01:23:45:67:89:ab with your mac address and do, from another computer: Code:

 wakeonlan 01:23:45:67:89:ab

In MOST cases, you CAN SEND wake on lan packets from a wireless connected computer.
If that doesnt work, its likely the port on the system your trying to wake up isnt the default (9), try 7, or if your BIOS settings or book told you one, use that one. Code:

 wakeonlan -p 7 01:23:45:67:89:ab

If that STILL doesnt work, make sure wakeonlan is enabled in your bios and your hardware supports it.

*Note: It has been said that you need to disable -i from halt, however I have never had to do this, nor do I know how.
source

WOL from internet
Here is generic configuration for router (may vary depend on your router and IP addresses used):

Name: WakeOnLan Broadcast
Enable: yes
IP Address: 192.168.0.255 <--- here is the private broadcast IP address, NOT your IP like 192.168.0.1
Protocol: UDP
Private Port: 9
Public Port: 9
Schedule: Always
source

Protect Web Directories using .htacess

2010-06-27T22:30:00.001-07:00

STEP 1:

Configuration of .htaccess file.

First we must create was is known as the .htaccess authentication file. This file is the key to providing who has access to the files in the directory and what types of operations they are allowed to perform within the directory. This tutorial will restrict who is able to view (GET) files from the directory and upload (POST) files into the directory. For more elaborate security measures, check out Apache's web site.
Open your favorite editor (Windows®, Notepad works well) or telnet into your web server and use a Unix editor like vi.

Using the text below as a guideline, create a text file where /var/www/html/private/ is the absolute path of the directory where you would like to store your authentication usernames/passwords and My Private Directory is the name you would like for the authentication window.

AuthUserFile /var/www/html/private/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName "My Private Directory"
AuthType Basic

<Limit GET POST>
require valid-user
</Limit>

Note: the absolute path to the .htpasswd file is very important. If unsure about this path, ask your hosting provider or telnet into the server and from the directory you want to keep your usernames/passwords, type pwd at the shell prompt.
Note: the .htaccess file also protects subdirectories of the directory in which it is placed.

Save this file as .htaccess.
The .htaccess file needs to be placed inside the directory you would like protected. If the file was created on your local workstation, ftp the file into the directory you want protected. If a Unix editor like vi was used, use the mv command to move the file to the required directory.

STEP 2:

Configuration of the .htpasswd file

Second we must create the .htpasswd file. This file contains the usernames and passwords of those individuals who we authorize access to our directory, and subdirectories.
In order to create this file you must telnet into your server.
Go to the directory, using the cd command, you specified your AuthUserFile (in this example, we specified /var/www/html/private/).
Type htpasswd -c .htpasswd username to create the .htpasswd file and add "username" to list of authorized users. The program will initially prompt you for a password and then ask you to verify it.

To add new users, use the same command without the -c switch. For example, to add the user foo, type htpasswd .htpasswd foo.
To delete users, open the .htpasswd file, using your favorite unix editor, like vi, and delete the row(s) associated with the specific user(s) that you want to remove.

TEST

Test your configuration

Open your browser and type the URL and path to the directory where you placed the .htaccess file. For example, if you placed the .htaccess file in a subdirectory called private that is contained within your web directory, then you would type <http://www.mydomain.com/private/>. If you were successful, you should get a dialog box prompting you for a username and password.

MISC

Troubleshooting your configuration

The most common mistake is not using the correct path to the .htpasswd file in step one above. To be certain that you are using the correct absolute path, follow these steps:
- Telnet into your server.
- Use the change directory command, cd, to access the directory where your .htpasswd file is located.
- Use the list files command with the <all contents> and <long format> options (ls -la) to be sure your .htpasswd file is present.
- Use the print working directory command (pwd) to display the absolute path to your .htpasswd file. This path should be identical to the path listed in Step 1 (/var/www/html/private/ in the example above).
Another common mistake is misconfiguration of the Apache config file.
- If you have a hosting provider, contact technical support to verify that they allow their users to use .htaccess authentication.
- If you host your own server, open your Apache config file using your favorite editor (in RedHat® Linux 7.1, the file can be found in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf).
- Scroll down the file and make sure the AllowOverride option is set to All.

If you are still having problems, there are a variety of free password protection scripts written in perl that may be suitable for your needs.

Adapted from

eth0_rename in ethernet card

2010-06-25T03:26:00.001-07:00

While Upgrading the Systrem with same hard disk but different system a problem eth0_rename in the name of Ethernet card occurred. Solution : Remove the old records from
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

Reset windows password using linux live CD

2010-06-22T04:09:00.001-07:00

Reset Windows 7 passwords with Linux Ubuntu

(Applicable to older windows ver. too )

Have you experienced the tragedy of forgotten passwords to log into your windows 7? prior to re-install can be tried by using the tools on ubuntu linux system whose name chntpw, the main requirement is that you understand a little about Linux and the CLI have a LiveCD Linux Ubuntu (any version).

Steps you can do is:

Booting the PC / laptop using the Ubuntu Linux LiveCD
Select Menu Run Ubuntu Linux without installation.
On the Desktop in the Places menu Select Windows to the System Drive can be mounted so.
Update the repository with: root@ubuntu: apt-get update
Install the package chntpw way: root@ubuntu: apt-get install chntpw and let the installation process to complete.
Log into the CLI in Application – Accessories – Terminal and select: / Windows/System32/config following manner:

root@ubuntu: cd/media/[name of the windows partition/Drive C:]/Windows/System32/config

7. View user who is in her windows by running:

root@ubuntu:/media/187823A87823839A/Windows/System32/config# chntpw -l SAM

chntpw version 0.99.5 070923 (decade), (c) Petter N Hagen
Hive name (from header): <SystemRootSystem32ConfigSAM>
ROOT KEY at offset: 0×001020 * Subkey indexing type is: 666c
Page at 0xf000 is not 'hbin', assuming file contains garbage at end
File size 262144 [40000] bytes, containing 6 pages (+ 1 headerpage)
Used for data: 247/52256 blocks/bytes, unused: 9/4896 blocks/bytes.

* SAM policy limits:
Failed logins before lockout is: 0
Minimum password length : 0
Password history count : 0
| RID -|———- Username ————| Admin? |- Lock? –|
| 01f4 | Administrator | ADMIN | *dis/lock* |
| 01f5 | Guest | | dis/lock |
| 03e8 | totti | ADMIN | *dis/lock* |

In the top menu for the user Administrator and Totti in the status dis / lock -disable/lock, never to be edited please is enabled by selecting the first number four on the menu:

- – – – User Edit Menu:
1 – Clear (blank) user password
2 – Edit (set new) user password (careful with this on XP or Vista)
3 – Promote user (make user an administrator)
4 – Unlock and enable user account [seems locked ]
q – Quit editing user, back to user select

after that it commands the road: chntpw SAM-u Administrator to change the administrator password.

root@ubuntu:/media/187823A87823839A/Windows/System32/config# chntpw -u Administrator SAM
chntpw version 0.99.5 070923 (decade), (c) Petter N Hagen
Hive name (from header): <SystemRootSystem32ConfigSAM>
ROOT KEY at offset: 0×001020 * Subkey indexing type is: 666c
Page at 0xf000 is not 'hbin', assuming file contains garbage at end
File size 262144 [40000] bytes, containing 6 pages (+ 1 headerpage)
Used for data: 247/52256 blocks/bytes, unused: 9/4896 blocks/bytes.

* SAM policy limits:
Failed logins before lockout is: 0
Minimum password length : 0
Password history count : 0
| RID -|———- Username ————| Admin? |- Lock? –|
| 01f4 | Administrator | ADMIN | *BLANK* |
| 01f5 | Guest | | dis/lock |
| 03e8 | totti | ADMIN | |

———————> SYSKEY CHECK <———————– SYSTEM SecureBoot : -1 -> Not Set (not installed, good!)
SAM AccountF : 0 -> off
SECURITY PolSecretEncryptionKey: -1 -> Not Set (OK if this is NT4)
Syskey not installed!

RID : 0500 [01f4]
Username: Administrator
fullname:
comment : Built-in account for administering the computer/domain
homedir :

User is member of 1 groups:
00000220 = Administrators (which has 2 members)

Account bits: 0×0210 =
[ ] Disabled | [ ] Homedir req. | [ ] Passwd not req. |
[ ] Temp. duplicate | [X] Normal account | [ ] NMS account |
[ ] Domain trust ac | [ ] Wks trust act. | [ ] Srv trust act |
[X] Pwd don't expir | [ ] Auto lockout | [ ] (unknown 0×08) |
[ ] (unknown 0×10) | [ ] (unknown 0×20) | [ ] (unknown 0×40) |

Failed login count: 0, while max tries is: 0
Total login count: 4
** No NT MD4 hash found. This user probably has a BLANK password!
** No LANMAN hash found either. Sorry, cannot change. Try login with no password!

- – – – User Edit Menu:
1 – Clear (blank) user password
2 – Edit (set new) user password (careful with this on XP or Vista)
3 – Promote user (make user an administrator)
(4 – Unlock and enable user account) [seems unlocked already]
q – Quit editing user, back to user select

Please select whether to clear the password or create a new passwd.

Once completed please exit and unmount the windows partition had been hand-picked by Places and restart the PC and go into Windows it, please go to the windows with a new password or no password, here I select blankpassword.

IPP printer configuration in windows

2010-06-21T00:26:00.001-07:00

The steps outlined here should allow you to connect Windows 2000 or XP to a printer hosted by CUPS running on any Linux distribution. My original instructions for connecting Windows 2000/Debain are included at the bottom of this page and may still apply to old versions of CUPS.

Windows XP / Fedora CUPS

There are two ways to configure a printer under Windows XP so that it works with CUPS:

As a Postscript capable printer. This allows your Windows XP machine to print to your normal printer queue with no printer-specific configuration.
As a printer with a particular Windows XP driver. On Fedora some additional configuration of CUPS is required, on other Linux/Unix systems it may work out of the box.

Common Steps

Share the CUPS Printer

One thing both of these options have in common is the requirement that the printer queues you create are shared. In Fedora do this in the "Printer configuration" tool (from System Settings -> Printing) by selecting the printer queue, followed by "Action -> Sharing...".

Under other versions of Linux/Unix you may have to edit the CUPS configuration files directly, see Granting permission later in this document.

Hostname lookup

Another common step is to ensure that hostname broadcast by CUPS is accessible from the Windows XP machine. If your CUPS machine is accessible using a name rather than just an IP address then you don't need to do anything for this step. If the CUPS machine is not accessible via it's hostname then you need to set a mapping between the CUPS hostname and its IP address in the Windows hosts file. Under WindowsXP the host file is in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\HOSTS, in Win2k replace WINDOWS with WINNT. The format is simple:

 # Example hosts entry 192.168.0.3 rock

Under some CUPS server configurations you will be able to use the IP address instead of the hostname, but often only a hostname will work.

Postscript Printing

To use a printer queue as a Postscript printer requires a Windows XP Postscript printer driver, such as the built-in MS Publisher Imagesetter or this freely available one from Adobe.

Built-in MS Publisher Imagesetter

To use the MS Publisher Imagesetter driver, use "Add Printer" to add a new network printer, select "Connect to a printer on the Internet..." and enter the URL for your printer queue (e.g. http://rock:631/printers/Epson). When prompted for a driver select a Manufacturer of "Generic" and the Printer "MS Publisher Imagesetter".

Adobe Driver

To use the Adobe driver simply run the installer, select "Network Printer", enter the URL of your printer queue (should be of the form http://hostname:631/printers/PrinterName), and then select "yes" when prompted. You can either use the "Generic PostScript Printer" option, or "Browse" for the printer specific PPD file created by CUPS (located in /etc/cups/ppd/PrinterQueueName.ppd on the Linux machine).

Using a Printer Driver

If you have a Windows XP printer driver available for your printer you can use this instead of the Postscript driver. In some configurations you can use the existing printer queue, and just select the correct printer driver in Windows.

Under Fedora, and possibly other systems, CUPS needs to be configured to accept printer data that is already in its native form. There are two different approaches that can be used: either add a raw printer queue, or alter the CUPS configuration files with a text editor.

Add a raw queue

Adding a raw printer queue can be easily done through Fedora's "Printer configuration" tool (from System Settings -> Printing). To do this select the "Generic" drop down when you reach the "Printer model" step of the wizard, then select "Raw Print Queue". When Fedora prompts you to print a test page, say "No". This printer queue will only be useful to those machines configured with a printer driver, and can not be used by applications running on Fedora. (Also remember to share the queue!)

In Windows XP use "Add Printer" to add a new network printer, selecting "Connect to a printer on the Internet", and using a URL of http://hostname:631/printers/RawPrinterQueueName. Select the printer driver for this printer as you would for a locally connected printer.

Modify CUPS Configuration

If you don't wish to create a raw printer queue then you can instead make the following changes to your CUPS mime.types and mime.convs configuration files. Both of these files contain a commented out option starting with "#application/octet-stream". Enable these options by removing the "#", and then restart CUPS.

Windows 2000 / Debian

These were the steps that I took to connect my printer, hosted under Debian, to my Windows 2000 machine. This environment is no longer available to me for testing, so I'm not able to vouch that each of these steps is absolutely required.

Create a class

The major configuration change I had to make under CUPS was adding a class. Based on feedback I've received it seems that only older combinations of CUPS and Windows require this (e.g. Debian Woody and Windows 2000), and newer versions do not.

I could not make Win2K talk to my printer directly, but it was able to work with a class that held that printer. To do this go to the CUPS admin screen on the Unix machine(e.g. http://localhost:631/admin) and select "Add Class". Enter a name, location and description as prompted and select continue. Next select the printer you wish to share as a member of this group. Select continue to save the class.

Granting permission

For an IPP client to be able to connect to CUPS it must have permission. On Debian systems, and probably others, the default is for only local connections (i.e. those from 127.0.0.1) to be allowed. To allow connections from across the network alter the <Location> directive in the cupsd.conf file (found in /etc/cups/). For example to enable both local connections, and those from clients in the 192.168.0.* range use:

 <Location /> Order Deny,Allow Deny From All Allow From 127.0.0.1 Allow From 192.168.0.* </Location>

To give permission for all clients from all network connections replace 192.168.0.* with All.

Win2k Configuration

I had two major problems setting up things on the Windows 2000 machine: getting Windows to see the Linux host and using the correct URL.

In theory Windows should be able to connect to an IP address, however I never managed to get this to work, but it could successfully use a hostname. To set a mapping between your CUPS hostname and its IP address you need to put an entry in the Windows hosts file. Under Win2k the host file is: C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\HOSTS. The format is simple:

 # Example hosts entry 192.168.0.3 rock

Now you can set up the new network printer. In the Control Panel select "Add Printer", "Network Printer", and then "Connect to printer on the Internet or your intranet". The URL I use is:

 http://rock:631/classes/Home

Replace 'rock' with the hostname of your Linux server, and replace 'Home' with the name of the class that you defined earlier.

Depending on your configuration of CUPS you will probably be prompted to install a printer driver for the network printer. Doing this is the final step, after that you should be able to print from Windows directly to a CUPS printer using IPP!

Reinstall WIndows Fax and Picture viewer

2010-06-14T02:27:00.001-07:00

In any case you lost windows fax and picture viewer in windows you can use following steps

Click on "Run" on start menu.

STEP 1:
When the little box pops up, type this in the white part of the box:

regsvr32 /u %windir%\system32\shimgvw.dll

A menu shows it was completed

If you get error message like "LoadLibrary("C:\WINDOWS\system32\shimgvw.dll") failed - The specified module could not be found."
It means that the dll file "shimgvw.dll" is either corrupted or not available.You should find it from another computer inside "c:\windows\system32" and paste to your system 32 OR download it from here http://www.dlldump.com/download-dll-files.php/dllfiles/S/shimgvw.dll/download.html and paste to your system32 folder.

STEP 2:
Click on Start, then Run... and type in:

regsvr32 /i %windir%\system32\shimgvw.dll

A menu shows it was completed

This should reinstall the Windows Fax and Picture Viewer on your computer.
(You may have to reboot after this for it to work.)

Stream audio in Bluetooth Headset using Dongle

2010-06-12T00:05:00.000-07:00

Purpose: To play your audio such as MP3's and movie output through a Bluetooth-connected audio headset.

Scenario: You are too lazy to plug in a cable to your PC. You want to walk around your house without a long cable after you. You want to look cool to your mates. You want to psyche out your non-tech parents by listening to music without any audio device or cables attached to you. Problem is, very few Linux apps have direct support for directing sound to any other device.

Solution: Redirect all audio using the PulseAudio Server on Ubuntu

Pros:

You are cable free! You can walk around the house (as far as the range of your Bluetooth adapter goes) and listen to music/movies.
If your headset also has a mic, you can use that too for VOIP apps and the like.

Cons:

A Bluetooth headset is generally more expensive than a cabled one.
Most headset batteries only last four hours in continuous use before needing a recharge (though the TDK unit I have plugs into mini-USB to recharge and can still be used whilst recharging, which is convenient).
Audio quality is generally not as good as a dedicated cabled headset.
For those headsets that have battery-saving functions when idle, some are known to clip the start of the audio playback when turning back on (my set causes Ubuntu to wait until it's up and running before streaming the audio, thus no clipping).
There are some known issues with using this method with 32-bit Skype under 64-bit Ubuntu, which I won't go into detail here (since I don't use Skype). Refer to the Ubuntu Forums for more details about it.
At least on my headset, there is an ever-so-slight delay in audio sync when watching video.

These instructions should be adaptable to other distributions.

Fire up/install Ubuntu as normal.
Plug in or enable your Bluetooth adapter. Your Bluetooth adapter will be automatically detected and drivers loaded - there is nothing for you to do manually here.
If you have NEVER used Bluetooth on your Ubuntu setup before, then go to the next step, otherwise skip to Step 11 because you're probably already setup properly.
Get into a terminal.
Verify that your Bluetooth adapter is running with:

Code:

 $ hciconfig -a

Type in the following to edit your Bluetooth configuration file:

Code:

 $ sudo gedit /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf

Near the top of the file you will see the following:

Code:

 # HCId options options { 	# Automatically initialize new devices 	autoinit yes;  	# Security Manager mode 	#   none - Security manager disabled 	#   auto - Use local PIN for incoming connections 	#   user - Always ask user for a PIN 	# 	security user;

security user

security auto

A few lines beneath this is a section that reads as follows:

Code:

 	# Default PIN code for incoming connections 	passkey "1234";

1234

4493

Save and exit.
Now restart Bluetooth by typing in:

Code:

 $ sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart

<hostname>-0 Device has been made connectable

Turn on your Bluetooth headset, but don't go into pairing mode just yet.
In your terminal, type in the following:

Code:

 $ hcitool scan

Your PC will now scan for local Bluetooth devices and your headset should appear in the resulting list after a few seconds (along with anyone's Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones that are in range). The output will look something like:

Code:

 $ hcitool scan Scanning ... 	00:11:22:AA:BB:CC	Nokia N95 	00:33:44:DD:EE:FF	BT81 $

Highlight and copy the MAC address of the headset to the clipboard using your mouse and CTRL + SHIFT + C.
Now type in:

Code:

 sudo gedit ~/.asoundrc

Note the period before "asoundrc".

In the text editor, type in the following, replacing the MAC address with the one you copied earlier (paste with CTRL + V):

Code:

 pcm.bluetooth {   type bluetooth   device 00:33:44:DD:EE:FF   profile "auto" }

NOTE: Depending on your distro, you may find that the word "Bluetooth" is reserved. If, when you get to Step 23, you hear anything BUT the audio you are playing, change the "pcm.bluetooth" bit above into something else, eg: "pcm.btheadset" and try your audio again. Remember then to change every typed reference in this guide from "bluetooth" to "btheadset".

Save and exit.
Now type in:

Code:

 $ sudo hciconfig hci0 voice 0x0060 $ sudo modprobe snd_bt_sco $ sudo modprobe sco

Now we need to tell PulseAudio that your Bluetooth headset exists:

Code:

 $ pactl load-module module-alsa-sink device=bluetooth $ pactl load-module module-alsa-source device=bluetooth

gedit ~/.pulse/default.pa

NOTE: I've just noticed this tends to break PulseAudio because the bonding of your headset needs to have occured

before

issuing the above commands, or PulseAudio refuses to start upon reboot. Don't create this file (or delete/rename if you've already created it) and PulseAudio works fine again. To keep using your Bluetooth headset, move the file you created to your Desktop and make it executable. Once your Desktop has loaded and you've paired your headset, then execute the file by double-clicking on it to notify PulseAudio about the headset.

We're almost ready to pair with the headset and hear some basic audio, but before we do that, do a right-mouse click on the Bluetooth icon in your system tray and choose "Preferences".
Now click on the Services tab and ensure Audio Service is enabled. If not, check the box and then close the window.
Now type in:

Code:

 $ sudo cat /proc/asound/cards

...and you should see output similar to the following:

Code:

 0 [Intel          ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel                       HDA Intel at 0xea400000 irq 22  1 [Headset        ]: Bluetooth SCO - BT Headset                       BT Headset 1

The best way to trigger a pairing is to provoke the unit into a response as the normal methods don't always work. Switch your headset into pairing mode (refer to your headset's manual).
While the headset it in pairing mode, type in the following:

Code:

 $ aplay -D bluetooth -f s16_le /usr/share/sounds/login.wav

0000

The PulseAudio Server is already installed by default in Ubuntu Hardy, so we just need to install some tools to manipulate it. Go back to your terminal and type in the following:

Code:

 $ sudo apt-get install paprefs paman padevchooser

Once installed, go to the System->Preferences->Sound. The Sound prefs window will appear.
Under the Devices tab, change the "Sound playback" option for Sound Events, Music and Movies, and Audio Conferencing from "Autodetect" to "PulseAudio Sound Server".
Click Close.
Play something, be it an MP3 or video to ensure that your audio still works in general through your speakers. This confirms PulseAudio is working in general.
Now go to Applications->Sound & Video->PulseAudio Device Chooser. This will add a black microphone jack icon to your system tray.
Do a left-click on the jack icon and a menu appears. In this menu, choose "Manager". A new window appears.
If it's not already connected, click on the "Connect" button to connect to your local PulseAudio server. When connected, you will see details about it listed.
Click on the Devices tab. Under "Sinks" you should see an entry for "alsa_output.bluetooth". This is picked up directly from your .asoundrc file.
Now go to the Sample Cache tab. At the bottom is a "Playback on" drop-down. Choose Bluetooth from this list and click on the Play button. You should hear the Ubuntu login sound through your speakers. This proves to us that PulseAudio can play through your Bluetooth headset (but this is NOT the redirection - this is just a test).
Close the PulseAudio Manager.
Do another left-click on the mic jack icon in your system tray.
Go to "Default Sink" and then choose "Other" from the sub-menu. A window appears.
In this window, type in "alsa_output.bluetooth" and click OK.
Play a sound from somewhere, eg: MP3 or movie in Totem. You should now hear your audio coming through your Bluetooth headset!
To switch back to your speakers, simply click on the mic jack icon again, choose "Default Sink" and choose "Default" from the sub-menu. The next audio stream played will go back through your speakers.
To make the PulseAudio Device Chooser start automatically on startup, click on the mic jack icon again, choose Preferences from the menu and then click on "Start applet on Session Login" in the window.
Enjoy!

Convert image files to text

2010-06-09T00:46:00.001-07:00

Optical Character Recognition With Tesseract OCR On Ubuntu

This document describes how to set up Tesseract OCR on Ubuntu 7.04. OCR means "Optical Character Recognition". The resulting system will be able to convert images with embedded text to text files. Tesseract is licensed under the Apache License v2.0.

This howto is meant as a practical guide; it does not cover the theoretical backgrounds. They are treated in a lot of other documents in the web.

This document comes without warranty of any kind! I want to say that this is not the only way of setting up such a system. There are many ways of achieving this goal but this is the way I take. I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

1 Preparation

Set up a basic Ubuntu system and update it.

Get scanned images or scan documents yourself.

If you use a scanner, be sure that it is supported by sane. A list of supported devices is vailable at http://www.sane-project.org/.

2 Get Imagemagick

The current version of tesseract provided in the Ubuntu repositories supports only uncompressed and G3-compressed tiff files.

To ensure, that tesseract is able to process your images, you should convert them to uncompressed tiff.

Since conversions with Gimp to uncompressed tiff were unusable, I used the convert tool, which is supplied by the Imagemagick package.

Install Imagemagick from the Ubuntu repositories with the Synaptic Package Manager.

3 Get Tesseract

Install the packages tesseract-ocr and tesseract-ocr-eng (for english) from the Ubuntu repositories with the Synaptic Package Manager.

4 Prepare Images

To get the best results from tesseract, you have to optimize the images. I recommend the use of images with a minimum resolution of about 200dpi.

I used Gimp for the following steps 4.1 - 4.3.

4.1 Cleaning

Remove any non-alphanumeric content from the image to prevent tesseract from producing chaotic text blocks.

That can be done easily with the erase-tool within Gimp.

4.2 Threshold

Convert the image to RGB or Greyscale mode.

Within gimp:

Image - Mode - RGB or Grayscale

Use the threshold function to reduce biased lighting and remove fragments. Move the sliders to define the delimitation of bright and dark areas. Have a look at the preview while you are doing this to see the effects on the image.

Within Gimp:

Tools - Color Tools - Threshold

4.3 Black And White

To improve the text recognition, we reduce the colors to black an white by switching the image to indexed mode.

Within Gimp:

Image - Mode - Indexed

Be sure to turn off dithering.

Save the image after this step.

5 Convert To Tiff

Now you have to convert the image to uncompressed tiff.

convert %source_file% %destination_file%

e.g.:

convert document.jpg document.tif

if you encounter problems, then use

convert newtext.jpg -flatten -monochrome newtext.tif

6 Use Tesseract

At this point all preparations are completed, so you can start using tesseract.

tesseract %tiff_file% %name_for_resulting_files%

e.g.:

tesseract document.tif result

Tesseract adds the file extensions for the resulting files itself. In this example tesseract would create result.txt, result.map and result.raw .

Modified and Rewritten from http://www.howtoforge.com/ocr_with_tesseract_on_ubuntu704

Configuring exim4 in Ubuntu to use GMail for SMTP

2010-06-08T04:13:00.001-07:00

I wanted to route the mail through GMail SMTP servers since that would improve reliability. Turns out there is an indeed a way to make exim, the default MTA in debain/ubuntu to route all mail through GMail SMTP servers. Second round of trawling the interwebs started I managed to get a working setup without much trouble. But I had to piece together the content from separate sources. Here is how I did it.

Step 1

Run dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config

Choose mail sent by smarthost; received via SMTP or fetchmail
Type System Mail Name: e.g. company.com
Type IP Adresses to listen on for incoming SMTP connections: 127.0.0.1
Leave Other destinations for which mail is accepted blank
Leave Machines to relay mail for: blank
Type Machine handling outgoing mail for this host (smarthost): smtp.gmail.com::587
Choose NO, don’t hide local mail name in outgoing mail.
Chose NO, don’t keep number of DNS-queries minimal (Dial-on-Demand).
Choose mbox
Choose NO, split configuration into small files
Mail for postmaster. Leaving blank will not cause any problems though it is not recommended

Step 2

Open the file /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template
Find the line .ifdef DCconfig_smarthost DCconfig_satellite and add the following in that section
```
 send_via_gmail:        driver = manualroute        domains = ! +local_domains        transport = gmail_smtp        route_list = * smtp.gmail.com 
```
If you have any other smarthost defined with “domains = ! +local_domains” remove that smarthost.
Find the “begin authenticators”. In that section add the following
```
 gmail_login:        driver = plaintext        public_name = LOGIN        client_send = : yourname@gmail.com : YourGmailPassword 
```
Make sure you have no other authenticators with the same public_name (LOGIN). Comment them out if needed (Thanks Jakub for reminding me)

Find the comment “transport/30_exim4-config_remote_smtp_smarthost”. In that section add

 gmail_smtp:        driver = smtp        port = 587        hosts_require_auth = $host_address        hosts_require_tls = $host_address

Step 3

Run update-exim4.conf
Do /etc/init.d/exim4 restart

That should be it. You can test by using the command line mail client.

Run mail user@example.com
Give a subject and press enter
Type something and press enter
Type a single . (dot) and press enter
Press enter for a blank CC:

This was on an Ubuntu server. I believe that this instructions will also work on Debain without any need for modifications.

Change apache2 web directory

2010-06-06T03:35:00.001-07:00

You want /etc/apache2/sites-available/default (assuming you want to
adjust the default site for your server). Replace the "/var/www" with
the path to your website. It can get a lot more complex than this but
that's the easy way.

For peace of mind, it might not be a bad idea to backup the original
file before you start making changes. After you're done I think you
need to restart apache - apache2 -k restart.

Checking webserver vulnerabilities

2010-06-02T03:43:00.001-07:00

Checking Webserver Vulnerabilities using Nikto

Nikto is a web server scanner which performs comprehensive tests against web servers for multiple items, including over 3500 potentially dangerous files/CGIs, versions on over 900 servers, and version specific problems on over 250 servers.

Scan items and plugins are frequently updated and can be automatically updated (if desired).

Nikto is built on LibWhisker and can run any platform which has a Perl environment, and supports SSL, proxies, host authentication, IDS evasion and more.

Nikto not only checks for CGI vulnerabilities but does so in an evasive manner, so as to elude intrusion detection systems. It comes with thorough documentation which should be carefully reviewed prior to running the program. If you have Web servers serving up CGI scripts, Nikto can be an excellent resource for checking the security of these servers.

Installation:
OpenSuSe user can install nikto using "1-click" installer - here
Ubuntu / Debian: $ sudo apt-get install nikto

Using Nikto:
The most basic Nikto scan requires simply a host to target, since port 80 is assumed if none is specified. The host can either be an IP or a hostname of a machine, and is specified using the -h (-host) option. This will scan the IP 192.168.1.2 on TCP port 80: nikto -h 192.168.1.2

To check on a different port, specify the port number with the -p (-port) option. This will scan the IP 192.168.0.1 on TCP port 443:

nikto -h 192.168.1.2 -p 443

Hosts, ports and protocols may also be specified by using a full URL syntax, and it will be scanned:

nikto -h https://192.168.0.1:443/

Updating
Nikto can be automatically updated, To update to the latest plugins and databases, simply run Nikto with the -update command: nikto -update

Mount windows share from Linux

2010-06-02T03:40:00.001-07:00

Samba can be used to allow connectivity between Linux and Windows. Samba can be used to share printers, share directories, connect to an windows domain, and many other useful features.

In order to mount your samba share to your Linux client open up the /etc/fstab file and insert the following line into this file

//192.168.10.5/e$ /mnt/winshare cifs credentials=/etc/accessfile 0 0

Now create a new file: /etc/accessfile with following contents

username=tendydon
password=some_password

Save the above file and restart your Linux client (or type command mount -a), after restart you should now able to access the share content from the samba server e$ of 192.168.10.5 under /mnt/winshare directory.

This is preferred over having passwords in plaintext in a shared file, such as /etc/fstab. Be sure to protect any credentials file properly and also note that there should not be any extra space in this file.

It there are any space in this credentials file you might get the following error on trying to mount the file system

mount error(13): Permission denied
Refer to the mount.cifs(8) manual page (e.g.man mount.cifs)

Move the Minimize Maximize Close buttons to the Right in Lucid Lynx

2010-05-31T00:15:00.001-07:00

I am using Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx in my PC. The Ubuntu Design Team has decided to move the Minimize, Maximize and Close buttons to the left of the title bar. Not exactly like Mac OS X, which looks like the following:

Close, Maximize, Minimize in Mac OS X

while Ubuntu button layout is as follows:

Maximize, Minimize, Close in Ubuntu Lucid

The difference is the order in which they appear.

UPDATE April 2: The button order in Lucid will now follow Mac OS X style.

The head of Ubuntu Design Team does not give out any particular reasons for that and Mark Shuttleworth says he wants to use the right part for something else, probably in the 10.10 release.

I agree that moving that to the right might have some benefits as it takes less mouse movement to get there rather than the right side, but I am always looking for one of those on the right side, because of my habit. So, I decided to move it to the right for now, but I may consider switching to the left to see how it works for me.

To move it back to the right, you will need to launch Configuration Editor (Alt+F2 and type in gconf-editor) and then navigate to apps>metacity>general. Look for button_layout on the right hand pane and double click on it to edit it. You should change it from

maximize,minimize,close:

menu:minimize,maximize,close

. This should do it.

Alternately, this can also be done by executing the following command from the terminal or from the Run Application Dialog (Alt+F2):

gconftool-2 --set /apps/metacity/general/button_layout --type string menu:minimize,maximize,close

Configure Pidgin for google application email

2010-05-30T09:02:00.000-07:00

Once you download Pidgin, you'll need to configure your client to connect to the Google Talk service.

To configure your account:

Open Pidgin.
Select Add.
Enter the following information in the Add Account window:
- Protocol: XMPP
- Screen Name: your Google Talk username (without any @ symbol or domain).
- Server: Enter the portion of your email address after the @ symbol. For example, gordon@example.com will enter example.com as the server value. (If you're not a Google Apps for Your Domain user, please visit the Google Talk Help Center for instructions.)
- Password: we suggest leaving this field blank for increased security, but if you'd like to log in automatically, enter your password
- Local Alias: leave this field blank
- Remember password: check the box if you'd like Pidgin to remember your password (you won't be prompted to enter it each time you log in, if you select this option)
- New mail notifications: check the box if you'd like Pidgin to notify you of unread email in your inbox.
Click on 'Advanced' tab and enter 'talk.google.com' in the Connect Server box.
Uncheck "Require SSL/TLS encryption" .
Click Save.

You're now ready to connect to the Google Talk service using Pidgin.

A little modification from source:http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=49147

Remake sources.list file

2010-05-30T08:26:00.001-07:00

If you lost your "/etc/apt/sources.list" file
You can generate the file using following website
http://repogen.simplylinux.ch/

Upgade ubuntu using Alternate CD

2010-05-28T18:25:00.001-07:00

Upgrade To Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx (or any new version)Without An Internet Connection

Well, if you don't have an Internet connection, you can still upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, but you'll need to download the Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx alternate CD somehow. You can download the Ubuntu Alternate ISO from HERE.

Then, you can then either write the Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Alternate ISO onto a CD or simply mount the ISO image using the following command:

 $ sudo mount -o loop ubuntu-10.04-alternate-i386.iso /media/cdrom0

Give exact path to "ubuntu-10.04-alternate-i386.iso" if your are not in the directory where you have saved the alternate cd image.
Once you insert the CD or mount the ISO image, a dialog should pop up offering you the option to upgrade using that CD / ISO image.

If of any reason the pop up doesn't come, you can start the upgrade manually by typing the command below.

 $ gksu "sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade"

Share blogger posts on Facebook

2010-05-28T04:34:00.001-07:00

Some questions of How do I share my blogger posts on Facebook ? , look my news article here:

Here's ,how make share button on your blogspot posts ,like appear at this blog . which will be good for readers to share your posts on Facebook, such as Digg button.

Oke, go to blogger dashboard -Edit HTML -Check Expand Widget - and find the code below:
<b:if cond='data:top.showAuthor'>

Place following code before the code above

<b:if cond='data:post.url'>
<a expr:href='"http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=" + data:post.url'><img alt='www.tips-fb.com' border='0' src='http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a398/syilpid/share_on_facebook_2.png'/></a>
</b:if>

The code above will appear be like this button:

If you want to using another button , can use these code below :

<b:if cond='data:post.url'>
<a expr:href='"http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=" + data:post.url'><img src="http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a398/syilpid/share_on_facebook_4.png" border="0" alt="www.tips-fb.com"></a>
</b:if>

<b:if cond='data:post.url'>
<a expr:href='"http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=" + data:post.url'><img src="http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a398/syilpid/share_on_facebook_3.png" border="0" alt="www.tips-fb.com"></a>
</b:if>

Or use your own text , for example : "Share On Facebook"

<b:if cond='data:post.url'>
<a expr:href='"http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=" + data:post.url'>Share on Facebook</a>
</b:if>

End...

Solve wired network not managed karmic koala

2010-05-26T09:43:00.001-07:00

On Ubunty 9.10 (Karmic Koala), if clicking the Network Manager applet displaysdevice not managed, here is the instruction to enable it:

Edit /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf and setmanaged=true. It should be:
1 [ifupdown]
2 managed=true
Restart both networking and network-manager services. Or restarting the computer works too.
1 sudo /etc/init.d/network-manager restart
2 sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

unattended download using wget

2010-05-26T07:27:00.001-07:00

Here is quick tip, if you wish to perform an unattended download of large files such as Linux DVD ISO use wget as follows:

wget -bqc http://path.com/url.iso

Where,

=> -b : Go to background immediately after startup. If no output file is specified via the -o, output is redirected to wget-log.

=> -q : Turn off Wget's output aka save disk space.

=> -c : Resume broken download i.e. continue getting a partially-downloaded file. This is useful when you want to finish up a download started by a previous instance of Wget, or by another program.

This tip will save your time while downloading large ISO image from the internet.

Recover Ubuntu Linux after windows XP wipes MBR

2010-05-17T01:44:00.001-07:00

Recovering Ubuntu after Windows wipes Grub2 boot loader

The below blog makes possible to install XP after Ubuntu linux.First installl XP normally in empty drive. Windows wipes MBR of Ubuntu and boot loader Grub.You just need ubuntu live CD Karmic Koala 9.10 or above

Recover Grub 2 via LiveCD

First, grab a copy of the latest Ubuntu LiveCD and boot it.
Open a terminal and type

$ sudo fdisk -l

Now, you need to remember which device listed is your linux distribution, for reference, /dev/sda1 will be used. Now we need to mount the filesystem to /mnt

$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

If you have /boot on a separate partition, that need's to be mounted aswell. For reference, /dev/sda2 will be used.

$ sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot Make sure you don't mix these up, pay attention to the output of FDISK

Now mount the rest of your devices and some other things needed in the chroot

$ sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
$ sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
$ sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys

Now chroot into your system

$ sudo chroot /mnt

You should be chroot'd into your system as root, you can now run commands as root, without the need for sudo.

Now you need to edit the /etc/default/grub file to fit your system

$ nano /etc/default/grub

When that is done you need to run update-grub to create the configuration file. If you have a separate /boot partition you need to mount it first!

$ update-grub

To install GRUB 2 to the MBR, next you need to run grub-install /dev/sda

$ grub-install /dev/sda

If you encounter any errors, try grub-install --recheck /dev/sda

$ grub-install --recheck /dev/sda

Press Ctrl+D to exit out of the chroot.
Once you exit back to your regular console, undo all the mounting, first the /dev and others

$ sudo umount /mnt/dev
$ sudo umount /mnt/sys
$ sudo umount /mnt/proc

Now you can unmount the root system. (But if you have a separate boot partition which you mounted earlier, you have to unmount this first, or you will get a "device busy" error message.)

$ sudo umount /mnt

And you should be free to restart your system right into GRUB 2 and then into your system installation.

If you had alternate OS entries, update-grub might say "Cannot find list of partitions!". Ignore it and continue - once you can boot into your linux installation, do so and then rerun update-grub and grub-install /dev/sda as root.

Disable auto login network share folders

2010-05-12T22:23:00.001-07:00

Step 1:
Disconnect network folders In Run type net use * /d It disconnects all the network shares
Step 2:
In Run type control userpasswords2
in the next window go to the second tab on top, named: Advanced
and from there open: Manage Passwords
There you should see if there is a password stored for the address that you have mentioned
If yes then delete it and close the windows with OK
try to connect again to that address, it should prompt for authentication.
Do not check the Remember option...

A short cut to this step
start >run > rundll32.exe keymgr.dll, KRShowKeyMgr
and delete saved password

Make samba share without password

2010-05-12T04:44:00.001-07:00

How to set samba to allow read-only file sharing for your LAN computers as guest ? (without be prompted for a password).Because users won't be prompted for a user/password, this is meant to be installed in a LAN where all host are to be trusted.

Smoothen samba default security by changing the security variable: security and make sure it is set to share instead of user and that guest account is enabled

open and edit /etc/samba/smb.conf

security = share
...
...
guest account = nobody

Now, we can create a share to be accessible to guest users:

[Guest Share]
        comment = Guest access share
        path = /path/to/dir/to/share
        browseable = yes
        read only = yes
        guest ok = yes

You can now test that your configuration is good using testparm:

$ testparm

If everything is fine, it is time to reload samba service to have your new configuration taken into account:

$sudo /etc/init.d/samba reload

That's it, anybody in your LAN can now access your share.

IP to host name and mac resolution

2010-05-11T22:50:00.001-07:00

Just use below command

NBTSTAT -A IPADDRESS

shows mac address and hostname

More about Nbtstat

Nbtstat is designed to help troubleshoot NetBIOS name resolution problems. When a network is functioning normally, NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) resolves NetBIOS names to IP addresses. It does this through several options for NetBIOS name resolution, including local cache lookup, WINS server query, broadcast, LMHOSTS lookup, Hosts lookup, and DNS server query.

The nbtstat command removes and corrects preloaded entries using a number of case-sensitive switches. The nbtstat - a < name > command performs a NetBIOS adapter status command on the computer name specified by < name> . The adapter status command returns the local NetBIOS name table for that computer as well as the MAC address of the adapter card. The nbtstat -A < IP address > command performs the same function using a target IP address rather than a name.

The nbtstat - c option shows the contents of the NetBIOS name cache, which contains NetBIOS name-to-IP address mappings.

nbtstat -n displays the names that have been registered locally on the system by NetBIOS applications such as the server and redirector.

The nbtstat -r command displays the count of all NetBIOS names resolved by broadcast and by querying a WINS server. The nbtstat -R command purges the name cache and reloads all #PRE entries from the LMHOSTS file. #PRE entries are the LMHOSTS name entries that are preloaded into the cache. For more information about the LMHOSTS file, see the appendix "LMHOSTS Files" in this book.

Nbtstat -RR sends name release packets to the WINS server and starts a refresh, thus re-registering all names with the name server without having to reboot. This is a new option in Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4 as well as in Windows 2000.

You can use nbtstat -S to list the current NetBIOS sessions and their status, including statistics. Sample output looks like this:

C:\>nbtstat -S

Local Area Connection:

Node IpAddress: [172.16.0.142] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Connection Table

Local Name State In/Out Remote Host Input Output

------------------------------------------------------------------

TESTPC1 <00> Connected Out 172.16.210.25 6MB 5MB

TESTPC1 <00> Connected Out 172.16.3.1 108KB 116KB

TESTPC1 <00> Connected Out 172.16.3.20 299KB 19KB

TESTPC1 <00> Connected Out 172.16.3.4 324KB 19KB

TESTPC1 <03> Listening

Finally, nbtstat -s provides a similar set of session listings, but provides the remote computer names, rather than their IP addresses.

Note

The options for the Nbtstat command are case sensitive.

The Nbtstat switches are listed in Table 3.4.

Table 3.4 Nbtstat Switches

Switch	Name	Function
-a < name >	adapter status	Returns the NetBIOS name table and MAC address of the address card for the computer name specified.
-A < IP address >	Adapter status	Lists the same information as -a when given the target's IP address.
-c	cache	Lists the contents of the NetBIOS name cache.
[ Number ]	Interval	Typing a numerical value tells Nbtstat to redisplay selected statistics each interval seconds, pausing between each display. Press Ctrl+C to stop redisplaying statistics.
-n	names	Displays the names registered locally by NetBIOS applications such as the server and redirector.
-r	resolved	Displays a count of all names resolved by broadcast or WINS server.
-R	Reload	Purges the name cache and reloads all #PRE entries from LMHOSTS.
-RR	ReleaseRefresh	Releases and reregisters all names with the name server.
-s	sessions	Lists the NetBIOS sessions table converting destination IP addresses to computer NetBIOS names.
-S	Sessions	Lists the current NetBIOS sessions and their status, with the IP address.
/?	Help	Displays this list.

change user's home directory

2010-05-11T03:13:00.001-07:00

To change the user's home directory, just use the 'usermod' command, which exists on all unices.
It works like this:
usermod -d /path/to/new/homedir/ username

add a user to the sudoers list

2010-05-10T02:45:00.001-07:00

How to add a user to the sudoers list? Beleive it or not, this is a fairly common question and in all reality the answer is quite simple. Adding a user to the sudoers list on a fully installed Linux system such as Debian is only possible via the command visudo. Users in the sudoers list are allowed the privileges to run commands and open files as the root user. In the following quick tutorial, we will show you how adding a new sudoer is quickly done.

How to add a user to the sudoers list:

Open a Root Terminal and type visudo (to access and edit the list)
Using the up/down arrows, navigate to the bottom of the sudoers file that is now displayed in the terminal
Just under the line that looks like the following:

root ALL=(ALL) ALL

Add the following (replacing user with your actual username):

user ALL=(ALL) ALL

Now press Ctrl+X and press Y when promted to save

That's it, your new user now has root privileges!

Example Sudoers Screenshot:

Restart GNOME without rebooting the computer

2010-05-10T01:41:00.001-07:00

Save and close all open applications.
Use the Ctrl-Alt-Backspace shortcut keys to restart GNOME.
If Ctrl-Alt-Backspace is disabled, type

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

start program automatically in Debian

2010-05-05T04:58:00.001-07:00

Starting programs automatically at startup in Gnome

If you want you can ask Linux to start these programs for you as soon as you log in, to do this just go to:

System->Preferences->Sessions in you Gnome menu.

Now click on Add, and fill in the fields the appropriate info, so you can start you new application.

Put in name the name of the application, in command the command you need to start that applications (better if you use the complete path) you can use the command which to know where an application is.

in this case I used

which firefox

Then fill in comment anything that will describe to you, what that command is going to do.

You can start as many applications as you want, but of course this will slow down your Linux boot up.

Assigning multiple IP address in debian

2010-05-05T04:13:00.001-07:00

/etc/network/interfaces file contains network interface configuration information for the both Ubuntu and Debian Linux. This is where you configure how your system is connected to the network.

Defining physical interfaces such as eth0

Lines beginning with the word "auto" are used to identify the physical interfaces to be brought up when ifup is run with the -a option. (This option is used by the system boot scripts.) Physical interface names should follow the word "auto" on the same line. There can be multiple "auto" stanzas. ifup brings the named inter faces up in the order listed. For example following example setup eth0 (first network interface card) with 192.168.1.5 IP address and gateway (router) to 192.168.1.254:
iface eth0 inet static address 192.168.1.5 netmask 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.1.254

Setup interface to dhcp

To setup eth0 to dhcp, enter:
auto eth0 iface eth0 inet dhcp

Assigining Multiple IP address in Debian

Edit the file that Fedora places the interface info in, in Debian it's located in /etc/networking/interfaces.

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.20
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1

auto eth0:0
iface eth0:0 inet static <---next interface in eth0
address 192.168.10.21 <--- can not be the same as any other IP
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.10.1

Following is file located at /usr/share/doc/ifupdown/examples/network-interfaces, use this file as reference (don't forget interfaces man pages for more help):

######################################################################
# /etc/network/interfaces -- configuration file for ifup(8), ifdown(8)
#
# A "#" character in the very first column makes the rest of the line
 # be ignored. Blank lines are ignored. Lines may be indented freely.
# A "\" character at the very end of the line indicates the next line
# should be treated as a continuation of the current one.
#
 # The "pre-up", "up", "down" and "post-down" options are valid for all
# interfaces, and may be specified multiple times. All other options
# may only be specified once.
#
 # See the interfaces(5) manpage for information on what options are
# available.
######################################################################

# We always want the loopback interface.
#
# auto lo
 # iface lo inet loopback

# An example ethernet card setup: (broadcast and gateway are optional)
#
# auto eth0
# iface eth0 inet static
#     address 192.168.0.42
#     network 192.168.0.0
#     netmask 255.255.255.0
 #     broadcast 192.168.0.255
#     gateway 192.168.0.1

# A more complicated ethernet setup, with a less common netmask, and a downright
# weird broadcast address: (the "up" lines are executed verbatim when the
 # interface is brought up, the "down" lines when it's brought down)
#
# auto eth0
# iface eth0 inet static
#     address 192.168.1.42
#     network 192.168.1.0
#     netmask 255.255.255.128
 #     broadcast 192.168.1.0
#     up route add -net 192.168.1.128 netmask 255.255.255.128 gw 192.168.1.2
#     up route add default gw 192.168.1.200
#     down route del default gw 192.168.1.200
#     down route del -net 192.168.1.128 netmask 255.255.255.128 gw 192.168.1.2
 
# A more complicated ethernet setup with a single ethernet card with
# two interfaces.
# Note: This happens to work since ifconfig handles it that way, not because
# ifup/down handles the ':' any differently.
 # Warning: There is a known bug if you do this, since the state will not
# be properly defined if you try to 'ifdown eth0' when both interfaces
# are up. The ifconfig program will not remove eth0 but it will be
 # removed from the interfaces state so you will see it up until you execute:
# 'ifdown eth0:1 ; ifup eth0; ifdown eth0'
# BTW, this is "bug" #193679 (it's not really a bug, it's more of a
 # limitation)
#
# auto eth0 eth0:1
# iface eth0 inet static
#     address 192.168.0.100
#     network 192.168.0.0
#     netmask 255.255.255.0
#     broadcast 192.168.0.255
#     gateway 192.168.0.1
 # iface eth0:1 inet static
#     address 192.168.0.200
#     network 192.168.0.0
#     netmask 255.255.255.0

# "pre-up" and "post-down" commands are also available. In addition, the
 # exit status of these commands are checked, and if any fail, configuration
# (or deconfiguration) is aborted. So:
#
# auto eth0
# iface eth0 inet dhcp
#     pre-up [ -f /etc/network/local-network-ok ]
#
 # will allow you to only have eth0 brought up when the file
# /etc/network/local-network-ok exists.

# Two ethernet interfaces, one connected to a trusted LAN, the other to
# the untrusted Internet. If their MAC addresses get swapped (because an
 # updated kernel uses a different order when probing for network cards,
# say), then they don't get brought up at all.
#
# auto eth0 eth1
# iface eth0 inet static
#     address 192.168.42.1
#     netmask 255.255.255.0
 #     pre-up /path/to/check-mac-address.sh eth0 11:22:33:44:55:66
#     pre-up /usr/local/sbin/enable-masq
# iface eth1 inet dhcp
#     pre-up /path/to/check-mac-address.sh eth1 AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF
#     pre-up /usr/local/sbin/firewall
 
# Two ethernet interfaces, one connected to a trusted LAN, the other to
# the untrusted Internet, identified by MAC address rather than interface
# name:
#
# auto eth0 eth1
# mapping eth0 eth1
#     script /path/to/get-mac-address.sh
 #     map 11:22:33:44:55:66 lan
#     map AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF internet
# iface lan inet static
#     address 192.168.42.1
#     netmask 255.255.255.0
#     pre-up /usr/local/sbin/enable-masq $IFACE
# iface internet inet dhcp
 #     pre-up /usr/local/sbin/firewall $IFACE

# A PCMCIA interface for a laptop that is used in different locations:
# (note the lack of an "auto" line for any of these)
#
# mapping eth0
#    script /path/to/pcmcia-compat.sh
 #    map home,*,*,*                  home
#    map work,*,*,00:11:22:33:44:55  work-wireless
#    map work,*,*,01:12:23:34:45:50  work-static
#
# iface home inet dhcp
# iface work-wireless bootp
# iface work-static static
 #     address 10.15.43.23
#     netmask 255.255.255.0
#     gateway 10.15.43.1
#
# Note, this won't work unless you specifically change the file
# /etc/pcmcia/network to look more like:
#
#     if [ -r ./shared ] ; then . ./shared ; else . /etc/pcmcia/shared ; fi
 #     get_info $DEVICE
#     case "$ACTION" in
#         'start')
#             /sbin/ifup $DEVICE
#             ;;
#         'stop')
#             /sbin/ifdown $DEVICE
#             ;;
 #     esac
#     exit 0

# An alternate way of doing the same thing: (in this case identifying
# where the laptop is is done by configuring the interface as various
# options, and seeing if a computer that is known to be on each particular
 # network will respond to pings. The various numbers here need to be chosen
# with a great deal of care.)
#
# mapping eth0
#    script /path/to/ping-places.sh
#    map 192.168.42.254/24 192.168.42.1 home
 #    map 10.15.43.254/24 10.15.43.1 work-wireless
#    map 10.15.43.23/24 10.15.43.1 work-static
#
# iface home inet dhcp
# iface work-wireless bootp
 # iface work-static static
#     address 10.15.43.23
#     netmask 255.255.255.0
#     gateway 10.15.43.1
#
# Note that the ping-places script requires the iproute package installed,
# and the same changes to /etc/pcmcia/network are required for this as for
 # the previous example.

# Set up an interface to read all the traffic on the network. This
# configuration can be useful to setup Network Intrusion Detection
# sensors in 'stealth'-type configuration. This prevents the NIDS
 # system to be a direct target in a hostile network since they have
# no IP address on the network. Notice, however, that there have been
# known bugs over time in sensors part of NIDS (for example see
# DSA-297 related to Snort) and remote buffer overflows might even be
 # triggered by network packet processing.
#
# auto eth0
# iface eth0 inet manual
# 	up ifconfig $IFACE 0.0.0.0 up
#       up ip link set $IFACE promisc on
#       down ip link set $IFACE promisc off
#       down ifconfig $IFACE down
 
# Set up an interface which will not be allocated an IP address by
# ifupdown but will be configured through external programs. This
# can be useful to setup interfaces configured through other programs,
# like, for example, PPPOE scripts.
 #
# auto eth0
# iface eth0 inet manual
#       up ifconfig $IFACE 0.0.0.0 up
#       up /usr/local/bin/myconfigscript
#       down ifconfig $IFACE down

Backup and Restore MySQL Database

2010-04-28T02:08:00.001-07:00

How to Backup and restore MySQL database from sql dump file?

Backup:

Playing with mysqldump

If you have either a shell or telnet access to your database server, you can backup the database using mysqldump. By default, the output of the command will dump the contents of the database in SQL statements to your console. This output can then be piped or redirected to any location you want. If you plan to backup your database, you can pipe the output to a sql file, which will contain the SQL statements to recreate and populate the database tables when you wish to restore your database. There are more adventurous ways to use the output of mysqldump.

A Simple Database Backup:

You can use mysqldump to create a simple backup of your database using the following syntax.

mysqldump -u [username] -p [password] [databasename] > [backupfile.sql]

[username] - this is your database username
[password] - this is the password for your database
[databasename] - the name of your database
[backupfile.sql] - the file to which the backup should be written.

The resultant dump file will contain all the SQL statements needed to create the table and populate the table in a new database server. To backup your database 'Customers' with the username 'sadmin' and password 'pass21' to a file custback.sql, you would issue the command:

mysqldump -u sadmin -p pass21 Customers > custback.sql

You can also ask mysqldump to add a drop table command before every create command by using the option --add-drop-table. This option is useful if you would like to create a backup file which can rewrite an existing database without having to delete the older database manually first.

mysqldump --add-drop-table -u sadmin -p pass21 Customers > custback.sql

Playing with mysqldump

A Simple Database Backup:

You can use mysqldump to create a simple backup of your database using the following syntax.

mysqldump -u [username] -p [password] [databasename] > [backupfile.sql]

[username] - this is your database username
[password] - this is the password for your database
[databasename] - the name of your database
[backupfile.sql] - the file to which the backup should be written.

mysqldump -u sadmin -p pass21 Customers > custback.sql

mysqldump --add-drop-table -u sadmin -p pass21 Customers > custback.sql

Restore
There are 2 ways to restore your MySQL database from sql dump file.

1st way to restore mysql database from sql dump file is using mysql web control panel – phpMyAdmin
- Log into phpMyAdmin.
- Select your preference database on the left database navigation drop down list.

- Click on Import tab on the top.
- Select your sql dumb file at File to import
- Then select your mysql database charset (ex: Latin1, utf-8)
- and click GO and it's done!

Do not use phpMyAdmin to import or restore your MySQL database if your MySQL database file is large. This is because, phpMyAdmin has limit on total upload size which depend on php setting. Besides, there is also maximum execution time which may cause browser to time out.

The solution to restore large mysql database from sql dump file is using unix/linux shell command.
To restore mysql database from a dump file, just type the command below:-

mysql -u #username# -p #database# < #dump_file#

Of course you need to replace #username# to your database username and #database# to your target database. and rename #dump_file# to your dump file file name (Ex: dump.sql) Once you enter the command, the linux/unix shell will prompt you for your database user password, just key in your database password and you are done

Save youtube videos from firefox cache

2010-04-25T23:21:00.001-07:00

How could we save a copy of youtube videos or any other video from the Firefox cache folder :

Wait for the flash video loading completely, i.e. able to play to the end
Open a new tab / window of Firefox and enter about:cache as an URL
Take note of the Firefox cache folder path specified in Cache Directory: and browse to this folder with Windows Explorer

If the Storage In Use greater than or approaching Maximum Storage Size, the video might not be cached completely or you'll have to increase Maximum Storage Size and reload the video again.

To set Firefox cache folder maximum storage size, click Tools | Option… | Network | Cache
Sort the cached files by file size and try to open the biggest file with Storm Codec-MPC or FlV Player/ VLC media Player. (The biggest file is likely to be the cached YouTube video)

If you want to know what those files in the Firefox cache folder exactly are, here we go:

While in the about:cache page, click the List Cache Entries link of the Disk cache device section
Press CTRL + F to search for Key: (URL) with the get_video keyword and also with the biggest Data Size: (YouTube doesn't cache the flash video in FLV extension. For other flash video hosting site, you may save time by trying to search for .FLV extension).
Right-click the URL and select the Open Link In New Tab and refer to the File on Disk:

There are many Firefox plugins available to save flash video. However, if you're not regularly download flash video, then it's worth to know how to do it manually. Running too many plugins might slow down the Firefox or overall PC performance too :-)

Changing Default Gateway using many lan

2010-04-06T22:47:00.001-07:00

If many LAN interference are used the default gateway can be changed by
command (in XP ,server 2003)
route change 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0 <IP of gateway preferred>

Change Administrator Password Remotely

2010-03-17T00:14:00.001-07:00

Systems administrators that manage local administrative accounts on multiple computers regularly need to change the account password as part of standard security practices. PsPasswd is a tool that lets you change an account password on the local or remote systems, enabling administrators to create batch files that run PsPasswd against the computers they manage in order to perform a mass change of the administrator password.

Installation

Just copy PsPasswd onto your executable path, and type "pspasswd" with the command-line syntax shown below..

Using PsPasswd

You can use PsPasswd to change the password of a local or domain account on the local or a remote computer.

usage: pspasswd [[\\computer[,computer[,..] | @file [-u user [-p psswd]]] Username [NewPassword]

computer	Perform the command on the remote computer or computers specified. If you omit the computer name the command runs on the local system, and if you specify a wildcard (\\*), the command runs on all computers in the current domain.
@file	Run the command on each computer listed in the text file specified.
-u	Specifies optional user name for login to remote computer.
-p	Specifies optional password for user name. If you omit this you will be prompted to enter a hidden password.
Username	Specifies name of account for password change.
NewPassword	New password. If ommitted a NULL password is applied.

Download PsTools
(1.31 MB)

Turn off autoplay in windows7

2010-03-12T19:22:00.001-08:00

Method 1:

1. Go to Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\AutoPlay.

To Enable:
At the top, check Use Autoplay for all devices and Click Save.

To Disable:
Uncheck Use Autoplay for all devices and Click Save.

Method 2: 1. Click Start and in the Search box, type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
Now browse to Computer Configuration\ Administrative Templates\ Windows Components\ Autoplay Policies\ Turn off Autoplay.

To Enable:
Change the value of Turn off Autoplay to disabled.

To Disable:
Change the value of Turn off Autoplay to enabled.

See HTTP header using command telnet

2010-02-18T03:39:00.001-08:00

You can see the HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) header from a web site using the standard Telnet program that comes with Windows. For example, to see the header from the root page of the Microsoft web site, do these steps:

Start a DOS command prompt
From the command prompt type
```
telnet www.microsoft.com 80
```
Turn on localecho so you can see what you are doing.
1. Type Ctrl+] (hold down the Ctrl key and press the right bracket)
2. Type
```
set localecho
```
3. Press Enter on a blank line
type
```
GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.microsoft.com
```
Press Enter twice

Installing samba in debian

2010-02-10T03:57:00.001-08:00

You want to replace that expensive windows file server with a cheap linux solution. But you need to connect from a windows client. Use samba server to do this! Here is how you do it on debian.

apt-get install samba smbfs

After downloading you will be asked a series of questions.
1) workgroup/domain name: share

2)use password encription: YES

3) modify smb.conf to accept wins information: YES

4) How to run samba?: inetd

5) Create Samba password database: YES

6) now that your all done downloading, do this to get a new config file.

cd /etc/samba/ mv smb.conf old.smb.conf wget /smb.txt mv smb.txt smb.conf nano smb.conf mkdir /share /etc/init.d/samba restart smbuser -a tendydon smbpasswd -a tendydon

if you want to add shares to your samba server add the following lines in the config file.

[newshare]
path = /newshare
browseable = yes
comment = share
writable = yes
public = yes
guest ok = no

Now create the share and give it some permissions.

chmod 777 /share
chown tendydon:tendydon /share
chmod 755 /share/

Here tendydon is user for more user permissions here

You should be able to open the share from a windows machine now. Have fun.

Reverse lookup setup for debian

2010-02-09T03:55:00.001-08:00

For reverse lookup setup in debian server following conf files are to be edited

1.named.conf :append the following at the end

zone "10.168.192.in-addr.arpa" {
       type master;
       file "/etc/bind/192.168.10.db";
};

where 192.168.10.X is a lookup zone

2.The above mentioned file 192.168.10.db should be in respective directory as below:

; BIND reverse data file for local system
;
$TTL    604800
@       IN      SOA     example. example.com. (
                              1         ; Serial
                         604800         ; Refresh
                          86400         ; Retry
                        2419200         ; Expire
                         604800 )       ; Negative Cache TTL
;
@       IN      NS      example.com.
71      IN      PTR     example.com.

192.168.10.71 is ip of system to be reversed lookonto

Alert setting server 2003

2010-02-07T21:13:00.001-08:00

In this day of constant attacks and intrusions it becomes increasingly difficult to respond to all threats and intrusion attempts and this is why you need ISA's built in Alerting functionality to be operational as it can shut down services if the professional is not at the station. Alert notification configuration follows:Alert notifications can be in the form of email or a program can be started

To start the configurations please follow the steps below:

Click on your ISA server then click Monitoring and configuration then click Alerts.

In the details pane, right click the alert of your choice, and click Properties the alert object you have chosen

In the Alert Properties dialog box, click the Actions tab

4. Remember to select an SMTP server that allows the ISA server to relay messages. Some servers do not allow relays and this in turn will cause the messages not to reach the administrator.

5. Make sure the alert is enabled. You can do this by checking in the details pane if there is a down red arrow on the alert or not.

Enabled

Disabled

reset root password red hat linux

2010-02-07T20:02:00.001-08:00

To enter single-user mode, reboot your computer. If you use the default boot loader, GRUB, you can enter single user mode by performing the following:

At the boot loader menu, use the arrow keys to highlight the installation you want to edit and type [A] to enter into append mode.
You are presented with a prompt that looks similar to the following(you may get different than this):
grub append> ro root=LABEL=/
Press the Spacebar once to add a blank space, then add the word single to tell GRUB to boot into single-user Linux mode. The result should look like the following( just append single at the end) :
ro root=LABEL=/ single
Press [Enter] and GRUB will boot single-user Linux mode. After it finishes loading, you will be presented with a shell prompt similar to the following:
sh-2.05b#
You can now change the root password by typing
passwd root
You will be asked to re-type the password for verification. Once you are finished, the password will be changed. You can then reboot by typing reboot at the prompt; then you can log in to root as you normally would.

Posting Photos in blog

2010-02-06T02:20:00.001-08:00

Posting Photos in blog

You can now upload photos to your blog(s) using Blogger Images; just click the image icon in the post editor's toolbar.

When you click this icon, you'll get a window that allows you to select an image or multiple images from your computer. Click the Browse button to locate the ones you want. Alternatively, you can enter the URL of an image that's already online and insert it into your post.

If you click the link to choose a layout, you can customize the way your images will appear in your post:

The left, center and right options determine how the text of your post flows around the pictures. The size option lets you scale the pictures to different sizes within this posting area. Note that the picture will still be uploaded in its full size; this option just determines how it's scaled within the content of your post.

Alternatively, you can post images to your blog using Mail-to-Blogger.

Posting blogger via email

2010-02-06T02:17:00.001-08:00

Post blog via email

The Mail-to-Blogger feature turns any email account into a blog-posting application. In Settings | Email you can create a Mail-to-Blogger address which you will use to send posts via email to your blog:

To post to your blog via email, you need to configure your Mail-to-Blogger email address in Settings | Email:

The format of the email address is username.secretword@blogger.com. Note that this email address must be kept secret. Otherwise, anyone who gets it will be able to post as you.

Also be sure to specify whether or not you prefer your email posts to publish automatically. If this option is not checked, then your posts will be saved on your account but will not appear on your blog until you log in to Blogger.com and publish them yourself.

Once you have saved your Settings, you can send email to your blog. The subjects of your email letters will be the titles of your posts, and the body of the emails will be the posts themselves. To include an image in your post, you can attach an image to you your email.

Notes:

Sometimes email programs append text to the bottom of each sent message; to make sure this cruft doesn't get posted to your blog, put #end at the end of your post.

Subdomain Configuration Bind and Apache

2010-02-04T03:51:00.001-08:00

Subdomain Configuration
A subdomain configuration is very similar to a domain name configuration. The only difference is that the subdomain entry is tied to the corresponding domain name lookup. A request for the subdomain (e.g. http://content.websitegear.com) will be routed to a DNS server containing the DNS information for the parent domain (websitegear.com). Once the DNS record for the subdomain is resolved to a particular IP address, the request is sent to the web server listening on that IP address. The web server can now delegate the request to the particular website based on the subdomain name in the host header of the request object. Various combinations of subdomain configurations are possible by using DNS server entries and web server application setup for load distribution, application isolation or security purposes.

Subdomain Setup on DNS server
The forward lookup zone of the parent domain in the DNS server should contain a pointer to the sub domain using either an alias (CNAME), a hostname (A) or a mail enchanger (MX) entry. The alias (CNAME) record is used for a subdomain if the subdomain points to a website running on the same web server at the same IP address as the parent domain website. A new hostname (A) record is used if the subdomain points to a different web server, or to the same web server listening on a different IP address (as in the case of load distribution).

Alias (CNAME) Setup: An alias points the subdomain to the same web server, which hosts the website for the parent domain. The canonical names (CNAMES) are added for each of the subdomains as shown below. Once the subdomain is resolved to the IP address of the web server, the web server can route the request to a different website (see section on web server setup below). Note that an alias for www is setup as a subdomain by default by most hosting companies, so that requests to www.domain.com is sent to the same website that handles the requests for domain.com.

www IN CNAME domain.com.
subdomain1 IN CNAME domain.com.
subdomain2 IN CNAME domain.com.

Address (A) Record Setup: A hostname DNS entry is required if the subdomain is pointing to a different IP address than that set for the domain name. Add the address (A) records to the forward lookup zone of the parent domain and associate the address records with the IP addresses of the web servers, which will handle the requests for the subdomain.

subdomain1 IN A 123.2.33.45.
subdomain2 IN A 123.2.33.46.

Mail Exchanger (MX) Setup: The mail exchanger subdomain configuration is required if an email server is setup to handle the subdomain mail accounts. For example, an email address like joe@arts.myschool.edu will require a subdomain setup for resolving the mail server for arts.myschool.edu. The setup is similar to the CNAME setup but with MX records.

subdomain1 IN MX 10 subdomain1.domain.com.
subdomain2 IN MX 10 subdomain2.domain.com.

Note: If the sub-domain is configured on another DNS name server, a Name Server (NS) record has to be created for the sub-domain on the corresponding domain name DNS server, so that it can delegate the sub-domain lookup to the other name servers. Using different name servers can eliminate security issues in cases where the sub-domains are maintained by separate administrators. However, the lookup carries an additional overhead.

Configuring the web server for sub-domains
Once the DNS server is setup to send the request for the sub-domain to the corresponding IP address, the work of the web server begins. The web server needs to be configured appropriately to handle the request for the sub-domain based on either the IP address or the host header entry. Host headers are commonly used by web servers to host multiple domains or sub-domains on one IP address.

Microsoft Windows IIS : In case of Internet Information Server (IIS), create a new web site for the subdomain using the IIS Manager, and add the sub-domain (e.g. subdomain.domain.com) as a new host header value listening to the same IP address as specified in the DNS entry. The port is set to 80 (the default for http requests). The host header can be added by clicking on the advanced tab next to the IP address configuration for that web site application. If the subdomain points to a subdirectory of the web site for the domain, then set the home directory for the subdomain web site to the subdirectory. For example, if the domain.com points to C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ and the subdomain needs to be setup for C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\subdomain, then the directory for the subdomain website should be set to C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\subdomain.

Apache Web Server : In case of Apache web server, the subdomain is configured by virtual host entries in httpd.conf as shown below.

Listen 80
NameVirtualHost *

<VirtualHost *>
ServerName www.domain.com
DocumentRoot /home/httpd/htdocs/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *>
ServerName subdomain.domain.com
DocumentRoot /home/httpd/htdocs/subdomain/
</VirtualHost>

Conclusion
Sub-domain configuration starts with an entry in the DNS server of the parent domain and the lookup resolves the sub-domain to an IP address of the web server. The web server in turn delegates the requests based on its configuration for the sub-domain. Various sub-domain configurations can be used effectively to distribute the load evenly among available web applications or web servers listening to different IP addresses. The load distribution is achieved by the DNS round robin feature of the BIND. Other uses include application isolation, simpler and professional looking URL, content categorization etc.

Greyed Shut Down button available server 2003

2010-02-03T23:31:00.001-08:00

To force Windows NT and Windows 2000 to display the Shut Down button on the logon screen, log on to your server as Administrator or as a user with administrator rights. Start the registry editor by selecting Run from the Start menu, typing regedt32 in the Open text box, and clicking OK. From here, the two systems diverge. If you're running Windows 2000, you'll make the registry change in a different location than Windows NT.

In Windows NT, when the Registry Editor window opens, navigate the left pane until you get to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon hive. In the right pane, look for the value named ShutdownWithoutLogon.

To change the value, double-click it. You'll then see the String Editor. Enter a value of 1 in the String field and click OK.

If the value doesn't exist, you'll need to add it. Select Add Value from the Edit menu. When the Add Value menu appears, enter the name of the value in the Value Name field exactly as listed above. Make sure the Data Type list box contains the value REG_SZ and then click OK. You'll then see the String Editor screen. In the String field, enter a value of 1 and click OK.

In Windows 2000, you'll find the ShutdownWithoutLogon key in the exact same location as in Windows NT. However, if you change the value to 1, it won't change the Shut Down button. The key only appears to exist in this location for compatibility reasons.

To enable the Shut Down button in this version of the OS, you must navigate the left pane until you get to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CurrentVersion\policies\system hive. In the right pane, look for the value named shutdownwithoutlogon. For some reason, Windows 2000 also lists this key in all lowercase.

To change the value, double-click it. You'll then see the DWORD Editor. Enter a value of 1 in the Data field and click OK.

Add the value if it doesn't exist by selecting Add Value from the Edit menu. When the Add Value menu appears, enter the name of the value in the Value Name field exactly as listed above. Make sure the Data Type list box contains the value REG_DWORD and then click OK. You'll then see the Data Editor screen. In the String field, enter a value of 1 and click OK.

Bind 9 configuration Debian

2010-02-02T20:54:00.001-08:00

Introduction

This HOWTO will assist you in getting a Domain Name Server (DNS) up and running using BIND9 on Debian Etch. When setting up a DNS server it is common practise to use two separate DNS servers for a domain as you are required to have at least two DNS servers running for DNS to work correctly. If one breaks, the other can continue to serve your domain.

However, when I setup my DNS system I did not have the resources on hand to use two different servers for DNS so the setup below will configure one server to run both nameservers. It's not an ideal solution and is definitely not a best-practise solution but one can only work with what you have.

In this HOWTO I will use the fictional domain "example.com". The nameservers will use 192.168.254.1 and 192.168.254.2 as their IP addresses. Both the domain and namerserver IPs need to be changed to reflect your server.

Requirements

A Debian Etch base installation - Installation HOWTO here.
At least two static IP addresses that you can use to setup the nameserver information.
Root access to your server.

Pre-Installation

Before proceeding to install, update the necessary packages in Debian with this command.

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Installing lsb-base and BIND9

To continue we need some Debian building tools since we have to download source packages:

apt-get install devscripts

BIND9 depends on lsb-base from testing. Lets grab it: (Syntax explanation: the -y tells apt to say yes to all questions, build-dep installs all packages required for -testing_packageX- from the Etch repository and with -b the source gets built straight away.)

mkdir /usr/local/lsb-base/
cd /usr/local/lsb-base/
apt-get -y build-dep lsb-base
apt-get source lsb-base -b
dpkg-i lsb-base*.deb

Next is BIND9:

mkdir /usr/local/bind9
cd /usr/local/bind9
apt-get -y build-dep bind9
apt-get source bind9 -b
dpkg -i *.deb

Configure the Master DNS Server

First we need to stop BIND9:

/etc/init.d/bind9 stop

In order to chroot bind we need to set an option in /etc/default/bind9.

Locate this in /etc/default/bind9:

OPTIONS="-u bind"

Replace it with this:

OPTIONS="-u bind -t /var/lib/named"

It will now run as user 'bind' chrooted in '/var/lib/named'.

These steps are required for the chroot jail:

mkdir -p /var/lib/named/etc
mkdir /var/lib/named/dev
mkdir -p /var/lib/named/var/cache/bind
mkdir -p /var/lib/named/var/run/bind/run
mv /etc/bind /var/lib/named/etc
ln -s /var/lib/named/etc/bind /etc/bind
 mknod /var/lib/named/dev/null c 1 3
mknod /var/lib/named/dev/random c 1 8
chmod 666 /var/lib/named/dev/*
chown -R bind:bind /var/lib/named/var/*
chown -R bind:bind /var/lib/named/etc/bind

Bind now has its own dir with space for .pid files and config files. In order to keep things clear we made a symlink back to /etc/.

Now edit /etc/init.d/sysklogd to allow logging of bind activity. Replace this:

SYSLOGD=""

With this:

SYSLOGD="-a /var/lib/named/dev/log"

Now restart sysklogd and BIND9:

/etc/init.d/sysklogd restart
/etc/init.d/bind9 start

And test:

ping www.grabble.co.za

If you get a reply, then your DNS master server is working and ready to use. We will now complete and use the example.com domain with our new master server.

Setting up the example.com domain

The new master DNS server is currently just forwarding requests to the server of your ISP. So, we will now install and configure our own domain and let our new server handle all request regarding that domain.

Example.com has been chosen for illustrative purposes as per the RFC 2606 - see this Wikipedia Example.com article for more information.

Creating the zone files

Lets start with creating the directory where we will store the zone file. This file contains all info about the domain.

mkdir /etc/bind/zones/master/

Next we will create the zones file:

vim /etc/bind/zones/master/example.com.db

Add the following (obviously replacing example.com and 192.168.254.1 with your own details):

;
; BIND data file for example.com
;
$TTL    604800
@       IN      SOA     ns1.example.com. info.example.com. (
                             2007011501         ; Serial
                                  7200         ; Refresh
                                   120         ; Retry
                               2419200         ; Expire
                                 604800)        ; Default TTL
;
@       IN      NS      ns1.example.com.
@       IN      NS      ns2.example.com.
 example.com.    IN      MX      10      mail.example.com.
example.com.    IN      A       192.168.254.1
ns1                     IN      A       192.168.254.1
 ns2                     IN      A       192.168.254.2
www                     IN      CNAME   example.com.
mail                    IN      A       192.168.254.1
ftp                     IN      CNAME   example.com.
 example.com.            IN      TXT     "v=spf1 ip4:192.168.254.1 a mx ~all"
mail                    IN      TXT     "v=spf1 a -all"

Here we have created a DNS zone file with both nameservers as well as records for the mail and ftp server for the domain example.com. Trying to go into more detail about what each item reflects above is beyond the scope of this HOWTO and you should do your own research into what each item means.

In South Africa registering domain names with the .co.za extension requires that Reverse DNS (RDNS) is setup correctly. Other TLD's don't necessarily require RDNS but either way it's good practise to setup RDNS for your DNS server so we'll do so now.

Create a new file called 192.168.254.rev which follows the convention of the first three IP ranges in your IP address

vim /etc/bind/zones/master/192.168.254.rev

Add the following:

$TTL 1d ;
$ORIGIN 254.168.192.IN-ADDR.ARPA.
@       IN      SOA     ns1.example.com.   info.example.com. (
                                       2007011501
                                        7200
                                       120
                                       2419200
                                       604800
)
        IN      NS      ns1.example.com.
         IN      NS      ns2.example.com.
1       IN      PTR     ns1.example.com.
2       IN      PTR     ns2.example.com.

The reverse lookup files are almost identical to the domain zone files with only minor changes. The first section of this file is exactly the same as the first section of the domain zone file. The bottom section is where it is different. This time we are listing the last part of the IP address first and then the hostname last.

There are 2 things you must notice here. You have to use the fully qualified domain name here and you must put a "." at the end of it. These 2 things are important to the file and weird things will happen if you don't do it this way.

You must also change the $ORIGIN section at the top of the RDNS file to reflect the reverse IP address of your server. In this example our IP address ranges are 192.168.254.1/2 and the reverse of this would be 254.168.192.IN-ADDR.ARPA. In the PTR records at the bottom we assign the final IP range to reflect our two nameservers - i.e. 1 & 2.

Making sure all is OK

Now that we've created both zone and reverse files we need to check that our main zone file is good to go. BIND9 breaks very easily so it's best to run this check before committing your changes.

cd /etc/bind/zones/master/
named-checkzone example.com example.com.db

You should get an OK status when doing this. If not you need to double-check your zone file and make changes until you get an OK status.

Adding zone files to BIND9

We now need to add the zone file data to the named.conf.local file:

vim /etc/bind/named.conf.local

And add the following to the file:

zone "example.com" {
       type master;
       file "/etc/bind/zones/master/example.com.db";
};

zone "254.168.192.IN-ADDR.ARPA" {
       type master;
        file "/etc/bind/zones/master/192.168.254.rev";
};

Testing

We can now restart bind and check if it works:

/etc/init.d/bind9 restart
ping ns1.example.com

This should bring bring up a ping result resolving to 192.168.254.1

Try another test:

nslookup
ns1.example.com

Should give you 192.168.254.1

Finally run this one:

dig @localhost example.com

If all is OK then you'll be presented with the zone file information.

At this stage you now have a working and usable DNS server.

Troubleshooting

If you're wondering why updates to the zone file on your master seem to fail, check the serial number inside the zone file. Each time you make a change to the zone file you will need to increase the Serial number in the zone file to ensure that your latest changes are updated.

The serial is setup and structured as follows:

2007011501 = (2007)(01)(15)(01)
First 4 digits of the serial indicate the year - i.e. 2007
Next 2 digits of the serial indicate the month - i.e. 01 (January)
Next 2 digits of the serial indicate the date - i.e. 15
 The final 2 digits of the serial indicate the revision number for that day - i.e. 01

If you are updating your Serial number but your changes are not being reflected I recommend that you reload your BIND data by executing the following command in a Linux shell:

rndc reload

If you are running BIND on two different servers you will need to install ntpdate on both servers to ensure that zone transfers happen correctly. Both master and slave servers need to have the exact same time setting for zone transfers to take place:

apt-get -y install ntpdate

reset root password linux

2010-02-01T02:57:00.001-08:00

There are times for system administrators they might have forgot their debian machine root password and they want to reset this password.We will see the available options.

There are various methods available for resetting a root password.

Boot debian linux into single-user mode
Boot using a boot disk (like knoppix,gnoppix) and edit the password file
Mount the drive on another computer and edit the password file

It is possible to boot a system and log on to the root account without knowing the root password as long as one has access to the console keyboard.

This is a procedure which requires no external boot disks and no change in BIOS boot settings. Here, "Linux" is the label for booting the Linux kernel in the default Debian install.

Solution 1

At the lilo boot screen, as soon as boot: appears (you must press a shift key at this point on some systems to prevent automatic booting and when lilo uses the framebuffer you have to press TAB to see the options you type), enter:

boot: Linux init=/bin/sh (for grub init=/bin/bash)

This causes the system to boot the kernel and run /bin/sh instead of its standard init. Now you have gained root privileges and a root shell. Since / is currently mounted read-only and many disk partitions have not been mounted yet, you must do the following to have a reasonably functioning system.

# mount -n -o remount,rw /

# mount -avt nonfs,noproc,nosmbfs

# cd /etc

# vi passwd

# vi shadow

(If the second data field in /etc/passwd is "x" for every username, your system uses shadow passwords, and you must edit /etc/shadow.) To disable the root password, edit the second data field in the password file so that it is empty. Now the system can be rebooted and you can log on as root without a password. When booting into runlevel 1, Debian (at least after Potato) requires a password, which some older distributions did not.

It is a good idea to have a minimal editor in /bin/ in case /usr/ is not accessible.Also consider installing the sash package. When the system becomes unbootable, execute

boot: Linux init=/bin/sash

sash serves as an interactive substitute for sh even when /bin/sh is unusable. It's statically linked, and includes many standard utilities as built-ins.

Solution 2

Boot from any emergency boot/root disk set. If /dev/hda3 is the original root partition, the following will let one edit the password file just as easily as the above.

# mkdir recovery

# mount /dev/hda3 recovery

# cd recovery/etc

# vi shadow

# vi passwd

Scroll down to the line containing the root user's information, which looks something like

root:weeWRSF!sfDFs:12581:0:99999:7:::

Delete everything between the first and second colons, so that the line looks like

root::12581:0:99999:7:::

Save the file and exit your editor.Type cd to return to your home directory.

Type umount mountplace to unmount the partition.

#unmount /dev/hda3 recovery

Type reboot to reboot your system

The advantage of this approach over the previous method is one does not need to know the lilo password . But to use it one must be able to access the BIOS setup to allow the system to boot from floppy disk or CD, if that is not already set.

Solution 3

Reseting passwords by mounting on another system and editing the password file is bit more work need to be done.first you need to Shut down the machine after backing up all important data.Now remove you machine hard disk and connect this hard disk as slave drive for another machine(this should be linux OS) and boot this machine.Once the system finishes booting, mount the slave drive's root partition and edit the password file.If /dev/hda3 is the original root partition, the following will let one edit the password file just as easily as the above.

# mkdir recovery

# mount /dev/hda3 recovery

# cd recovery/etc

# vi shadow

# vi passwd

Scroll down to the line containing the root user's information, which looks something like

root:weeWRSF!sfDFs:12581:0:99999:7:::

Delete everything between the first and second colons, so that the line looks like

root::12581:0:99999:7:::

Save the file and exit your editor.Type cd to return to your home directory.

Type umount mountplace to unmount the partition.

#unmount /dev/hda3 recovery

Type reboot to reboot your system

Solution 4 (The most easy one)

boot with livecd (i'm using ubuntu live )

start terminal (use sudo or su to gain root previldge of live cd )

mkdir /d
mount /dev/hda1 /d
chroot /d
passwd (or passwd root)
type your new password
press Ctrl+Alt+Delete and enjoy

If you want to prevent others from resetting your root password you can use two options first one is protect your bootloader with password i.e your GRUB or LILO boot loaders and second one is protect BIOS with password.

Automatic Login in linux

2010-01-31T20:29:00.001-08:00

I think this should work for any Linux operating system using Gnome, I have tested on Debian and Ubuntu.

Well, automatic login will let you avoid to enter your login and password each time you turn on your PC, this could be insecure, but if your computer is physically secured it is Ok to enable this, that could make your booting more smooth.

How to do it?

On Gnome go to:

Systems->Administration->Login Window, you will be prompted for the administrator password, enter it and then select Security tab, once in there select Enable automatic login and select the user you want to be automatically logged in, each time you turn on your PC.

reset root password MYSQL

2010-01-28T22:08:00.001-08:00

Resetting the Root Password of mysql on Windows Systems

Use the following procedure for resetting the password for any MySQL root accounts on Windows:

Log on to your system as Administrator.
Stop the MySQL server if it is running. For a server that is running as a Windows service, go to the Services manager:
```
Start Menu -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services
```
Then find the MySQL service in the list, and stop it.

If your server is not running as a service, you may need to use the Task Manager to force it to stop.
Create a text file and place the following statements in it. Replace the password with the password that you want to use.
```
UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD('MyNewPass') WHERE User='root';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
```
The UPDATE and FLUSH statements each must be written on a single line. The UPDATE statement resets the password for all existing root accounts, and the FLUSH statement tells the server to reload the grant tables into memory.
Save the file. For this example, the file will be named C:\mysql-init.txt.
Open a console window to get to the command prompt:
```
Start Menu -> Run -> cmd
```
Start the MySQL server with the special --init-file option:
```
C:\> C:\mysql\bin\mysqld-nt --init-file=C:\mysql-init.txt
```
If you installed MySQL to a location other than C:\mysql, adjust the command accordingly.

The server executes the contents of the file named by the --init-file option at startup, changing each root account password.

You can also add the --console option to the command if you want server output to appear in the console window rather than in a log file.

If you installed MySQL using the MySQL Installation Wizard, you may need to specify a --defaults-file option:
```
C:\> "C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\bin\mysqld-nt.exe"
         --defaults-file="C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\my.ini"
          --init-file=C:\mysql-init.txt
```
The appropriate --defaults-file setting can be found using the Services Manager:
```
Start Menu -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services
```
Find the MySQL service in the list, right-click on it, and choose the Properties option. The Path to executable field contains the --defaults-file setting.
After the server has started successfully, delete C:\mysql-init.txt.
Stop the MySQL server, then restart it in normal mode again. If you run the server as a service, start it from the Windows Services window. If you start the server manually, use whatever command you normally use.

You should now be able to connect to MySQL as root using the new password.

Resetting the Root Password on Unix Systems

MySQL Enterprise. For expert advice on security-related issues, subscribe to the MySQL Enterprise Monitor. For more information, see http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/advisors.html.

Use the following procedure for resetting the password for any MySQL root accounts on Unix. The instructions assume that you will start the server so that it runs using the Unix login account that you normally use for running the server. For example, if you run the server using the mysql login account, you should log in as mysql before using the instructions. (Alternatively, you can log in as root, but in this case you must start mysqld with the --user=mysql option. If you start the server as root without using --user=mysql, the server may create root-owned files in the data directory, such as log files, and these may cause permission-related problems for future server startups. If that happens, you will need to either change the ownership of the files to mysql or remove them.)

Log on to your system as the Unix mysql user that the mysqld server runs as.
Locate the .pid file that contains the server's process ID. The exact location and name of this file depend on your distribution, host name, and configuration. Common locations are /var/lib/mysql/, /var/run/mysqld/, and /usr/local/mysql/data/. Generally, the file name has an extension of .pid and begins with either mysqld or your system's host name.

You can stop the MySQL server by sending a normal kill (not kill -9) to the mysqld process, using the path name of the .pid file in the following command:
```
shell> kill `cat /mysql-data-directory/host_name.pid`
```
Note the use of backticks rather than forward quotes with the cat command; these cause the output of cat to be substituted into the kill command.
Create a text file and place the following statements in it. Replace the password with the password that you want to use.
```
UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD('MyNewPass') WHERE User='root';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
```
The UPDATE and FLUSH statements each must be written on a single line. The UPDATE statement resets the password for all existing root accounts, and the FLUSH statement tells the server to reload the grant tables into memory.
Save the file. For this example, the file will be named /home/me/mysql-init. The file contains the password, so it should not be saved where it can be read by other users.
Start the MySQL server with the special --init-file option:
```
shell> mysqld_safe --init-file=/home/me/mysql-init &
```
The server executes the contents of the file named by the --init-file option at startup, changing each root account password.
After the server has started successfully, delete /home/me/mysql-init.

You should now be able to connect to MySQL as root using the new password.

Alternatively, on any platform, you can set the new password using the mysql client (but this approach is less secure):

Stop mysqld and restart it with the --skip-grant-tables option.
Connect to the mysqld server with this command:
```
shell> mysql
```

Issue the following statements in the mysql client. Replace the password with the password that you want to use.

mysql> UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD('MyNewPass')
    ->                   WHERE User='root';
 mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

You should now be able to connect to MySQL as root using the new password.

install Linux / UNIX .tar.gz tarball files

2010-01-28T03:01:00.001-08:00

How to install Linux / UNIX *.tar.gz tarball files

tar.gz also known as tarball, an archive format for electronic data and software. Most Linux tarball contains a source code for software. If you are new to Linux I recommend using apt-get, rpm and yum command to install all binary packages.

Tarballs are a group of files in one file. Tarball files have the extension .tar.gz, .tgz or .tar.bz2. Most open source software use tarballs to distribute programs/source codes.

# 1: Uncompress tarball

To uncompress them, execute the following command(s) depending on the extension:
$ tar zxf file.tar.gz $ tar zxf file.tgz $ tar jxf file.tar.bz2 $ tar jxf file.tbz2
Now change directory
$ ls $ cd path-to-software/

# 2: Build and install software

Generally you need to type 3 commands as follows for building and compiling software:
# ./configure # make # make install

Where,

./configure will configure the software to ensure your system has the necessary functionality and libraries to successfully compile the package
make will compile all the source files into executable binaries.
Finally, make install will install the binaries and any supporting files into the appropriate locations.