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

14 Feb '14

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

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HTTPS issues with Apache
by Stuart Bailey 13 Feb '14

13 Feb '14

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

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weather station software.
by nev young 13 Feb '14

13 Feb '14

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

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

12 Feb '14

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

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 13th February
by Viperfang 10 Feb '14

10 Feb '14

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 13th February at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Tool for checking for WiFi signals
by Chris Green 10 Feb '14

10 Feb '14

Is there anything better than Network Manager for checking for WiFi signals? Network Manager is fine for when I'm at home where the laptop and tablet simply connecting to the home router but as soon as there's any difficulty deciding what to connect to it's pretty useless:- There's no control over [re-]scanning so you can't move to different positions and request a re-scan to see if there are different WiFi signals and/or signal strength has changed. The signal strength indication is no help in optimising the signal, one needs a more accurate level indicator to tell if moving this way or that improves the signal. There's no indication of the type of encryption on signals which have encryption keys. This is a real killer sometimes when somoene knows the password/key but not what *type* of key it is. I had this problem at my wife's office recently. Windows XP reports the encryption type so surely Linux should be able to. Are there any tools specifically for scanning/characterising WiFi signals and/or are there any replacements for Network Manager that make handling WiFi connections easier? -- Chris Green

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

04 Feb '14

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

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Analogue output over HDMI from Pi and other Linux boxen
by Mark Rogers 24 Jan '14

24 Jan '14

If I have something like a Pi or any other small Linux based box (I'm thinking mainly about the cheap Android PC sticks you can get for about £30 with just an HDMI output), would it generally be able to output unencrypted audio over HDMI so that I can break it out using a simple cable[1]? I'm looking to play with multi-room audio on Linux and little boxes like these seem ideal if I can get audio out of them easily. I can't think of a good reason why Linux will encrypt things by default (and none of my sources will have evil DRM on them) so this ought to work fine, didn't it? [1] Eg: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190893868511 -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Re: [ALUG] Analogue output over HDMI from Pi and other Linux boxen
by Phil Ashby 24 Jan '14

24 Jan '14

On 23/01/14 12:00, Mark Rogers <mark(a)quarella.co.uk> wrote:> On 20 January 2014 17:59, Chris Green <cl(a)isbd.net> wrote: >> I've done Android Tablet -> Bluetooth -> Speakers which seems to work >> OK, does using the HDMI offer any advantages over using Bluetooth (e.g. >> better quality)? > > The only advantages I'm working with at the moment are: the stick has > an HDMI port that would be more "tidy" if used than not used, and it > doesn't have bluetooth so that means sticking a bluetooth USB adapter > in. Neither are big reasons (I'm pretty sure the bluetooth USB > adapters you can easily pick up from Poundland and similar stores will > work fine so it's not a cost issue!) > > Also, in some rooms I already have stereo equipment so the idea would > be to bring audio into the AUX input on that, rather than directly to > speakers. (If a stereo has the ability to take audio via bluetooth > from a mobile phone, I assume that would allow me to send it from the > Linux box that way instead?) > > On the other hand if I want to put something into a room which > currently has nothing maybe bluetooth makes more sense in that > instance. However I assume that bluetooth would add some latency? The > whole idea is that the audio between rooms would be synchronised. (I > am of-course assuming that the HDMI output wouldn't add any latency > which may well be a faulty assumption.) Since HDMI is a digital interface (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI) this scheme would need an external conversion device to extract the analogue audio for an AUX input (usually 3.5mm socket), something like these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/hdmi-to-audio-converter and of course none of those have the right gender HDMI connector for a cotton candy or similar device.. It all looks a bit kludgy to me? Of course you could insist on a HDMI capable TV at each station and get the full benefit of that HDMI connector :) Phil.

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Image viewer offered for Writer files puzzle
by Bev Nicolson 21 Jan '14

21 Jan '14

When I get a document attached to an email (.doc or docx it doesn't matter) the only application I am offred to open it with is Image Viewer. Is there a way of changing this? I've looked at Image Viewer and Libre Office and there doesn't seem to be a way of stopping this. Ideas? Bev.

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