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Suggestion: Member's web space & SuSE contact change
by Martyn Drake 21 May '01

21 May '01

But I'd thought I would like to offer ALUG members 100Mb free web space (and free of any banners!) with a URL either hanging off of www.alug.org.uk or hostname.alug.org.uk. Stats provided. The only catch is please don't generate 10Gb of traffic per month, otherwise that'll cost me a small fortune :)) So no p0rn! :) The main ALUG site has actually moved from Webfusion to Rackspace where it's (a) cheaper, (b) more bandwidth available, (c) far better connectivity and (d) support actually have a clue if things go wibbly. Now, I've also received SuSE Professional 7.1 from the kind folk at SuSE and having finished using it myself (I'm now exploring the joys of Red Hat 7.1 and Mandrake 8.0). As I'm now leaving Norfolk permanently for the joys of Kingston Upon Thames in London, I'd like to forward this on to someone (as well as any future updates) so that it can be properly distributed as these days I can't make as many meetings as usual. That's my updates for this millenium. :) Regards, Martyn

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Re: [Alug] Configuring network card (again)
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 21 May '01

21 May '01

>>....and do insmod 3c5x9 Good grief! I did this and it showed the correct info. Strange, I thought, and proceeded to bring up the interface. This also suddenly is working. (hmmmmm) And eth0 is also showing in ifconfig. All I can think is that when i ran modconf I did two things - deleted the dummy0 module and tried installing the 3c509, the latter which just brought up errors yesterday. Perhaps restarting the computer and having no dummy0 in place caused the eth0 mod to do whatever it needed to do properly? Still not pinging anything on the network though. Pinging my own IP shows it is using loopback, and tcpdump then shows for trying to reach anything else on the network: 13:40:32.704186 eth0 > arp who-has jenny?TCL tell TRX850/TCL (0:a0:24:2:cf:26) 13:40:35.694822 lo > TRX850/TCL > TRX850/TCL: icmp: host jenny/TCL unreachable [tos 0xc0] Does this mean anything to anyone? Heff! Heff! A hoffable herralump! Thanks, Jenny. PS. Next time I splash out on the netgear.

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Weekly IRC meeting reminder
by Adam Bower 21 May '01

21 May '01

This is the automated ALUG irc meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an irc meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.openprojects.net in the #alug channel, you can take a look at www.openprojects.net to get more info on the openprojects network. Popular irc clients include tkirc, bitchx, xchat and ircII on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.bitchx.com http://www.xchat.org http://freshmeat.net http://www.epicsol.org/ (for Brett!) Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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Re: [Alug] BTTV atlast
by MJ Ray 21 May '01

21 May '01

> > Can anybody tell me when the next meeting (in or around Norwich) > > will be please? I still need help persuading the network and sound > > devices in my machine to work. I was hoping for mid-June, but it seems that the May meeting is currently Missing In Action. Is it going to happen, or do we just go ahead and plan Yet Another Norwich Meeting for June 10th? For probably the penultimate time, I can arrange a room at UEA, but can anyone else (preferably from near Norwich) act as co-ordinator? It's quite a simple task, just keeping some lists of who's bringing what and who wants to see what, etc, and emailing us to move us along. History shows I'm very bad at it, though. -- MJR (PS: Today, David, I am going to be a muppet who can't tell his fs from his rs.)

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Re: [Alug] Configuring network card (again)
by David Freeman 20 May '01

20 May '01

--- Raphael Mankin <raph(a)panache.demon.co.uk> wrote: > > On 20-May-01 David Freeman wrote: > > > > --- Raphael Mankin <raph(a)panache.demon.co.uk> wrote: > >> In general, your primary net card should be compiled in and not a > >> module. You > >> can get away with it if you add to your conf.modules (or > >> modules.conf) a line > >> like > >> alias eth0 3c509 (or whatever the module is called) > >> The alternative is to ensure that an explciit modprobe is done for > >> the card > >> before you try to configure the network. Dig around in /etc/rc* to > >> find out > >> where to put it. > > > > Why should it be compiled in? surely this is a bad idea as every > time > > you change card you need to recompile the whole kernel. > [snip] > > In general, I agree with you, and that is fine for those who are hapy > with > doing all the tinkering that is necessary in places like > modules.conf. > Howver, newbies are likely to be bitten by this, and in the > particular case of > network cards, which need to have their modules loaded quite early in > the > startup sequence, it is easier to have them compiled in. Why? it means that it isn't as versitile and that you can only support a small number of cards compiled in. Its better to have one of the init scripts go and load the required modules, its not even difficult to write tool which will aid choosing the correct modules. That way you can just distribute modules as extras etc... To me it just makes sense. > I do exactly the same as you do in my Slackware system, and for the > same > reasons: I am forever swapping network cards around. However for > simple usage > stick to simple configurations; you are less likely to be bitten by > something > unexpected. Which requires a complex kernel recompile when you want to upgrade from 10Mbps to 100Mbps? Thanks D __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/

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ALUG Librarian stuff
by brodders＠cwcom.net 20 May '01

20 May '01

This is a repost as the original didn't seem to turn up - or if it did, no - one commented! ======================================================== ALUG Librarian and Security stuff Hi. Been thinking over things and have some thoughts re Librarian & Security. Librarian ========= Who volunteers for this? The Librarian has to be present at all meets and must oversee all returns / loans, maintain the database, fixe occasional errors, chase people for overdues, carry out stocktakes - and bring the current ALUG stock with them to every meet in case a loan is wanted. May need a truck. I don't like this - would you do it? - so I've been kicking around the idea of allowing casual person-person item passing. These need to be verified transactions on the database otherwise fraud is simple. The protocol I suggest below is - good enough?? Comments appreciated. What I've got is: Stock items are scattered i.e. held by who-ever-has-them-right-now. A potential borrower searches the library database and discovers Item X. They request Item X. The database sends an email to the current holder saying to bring Item X to the next meet. The database generates a random "release key" for the trade and emails it to the requestor. Eventually Item X and the release key change hands. The old holder enters the release key into the database and the transaction is verified. Kicker: Until the release key is in & verified the old holder is responsible for Item X; responsibility gets passed to the new borrower by entering the key. Further, requests for popular items can be stacked (that's the idea behind having requests as transactions; these can be ordered by item / time sequence making a request stack - as well as other very useful life-history stuff). Is this adequate?? There is still a need for a librarian - but the job is much less onerous, for it frees them from compulsory attendance, involvement in every transaction & removes the "drag-the-stock-about" problem. Also, an item swap is not geographically limited to a meet - could be down a local pub etc. Again please kick holes in it people! Security ======== Other than people hacking in and diddling the transactions database, items database etc to generally kill the system there is a security issue over the names & addresses and account passwords. I want to encrypt the lot; ideally the entire database. And the transactions from server to client must be secure too otherwise login accounts get compromised. This is a job for an expert. I can get the database functional - but I would not put the system live in unencrypted form. Also does this complicate backup/restore/maintenance? Ill databases are tricky; an ill, encrypted database might be quite irrecoverable & un-de-encryptable. Security Expert Needed! Steve

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Re: [Alug] BTTV atlast
by David Freeman 20 May '01

20 May '01

I can't but if you send this mail to the list I think they may be able to help Thanks D PS I have CC'd this to the list for you. --- linux user stuff <linux(a)wymondham.demon.co.uk> wrote: > On Fri 18 May, David Freeman wrote: > > As those of you who have been to meetings recently and followed a > > number of threads will know I have been trying to get my WinTV card > to > > Can anybody tell me when the next meeting (in or around Norwich) will > be > please? I still need help persuading the network and sound devices in > my > machine to work. > > -- > __ __| |_ __ __ .------------------------------------------. > / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:linux@wymondham.demon.co.uk | > \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |__________________________________________| > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/

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Re: [Alug] List news
by MJ Ray 19 May '01

19 May '01

I've told a couple of people this, so let's say it to the entire list. If you think you are subscribed from the wrong email address, it will be faster to do it yourself from the web interface and resubscribe from your email client. Then it will definitely get the right email address for you. Unsub at http://rabbit.stu.uea.ac.uk/cgi-bin/list/alug (you may need to ask for a password to be emailed to you). Resubscribe with an email to alug-subscribe(a)stu.uea.ac.uk (I hope that's right!) -- MJR

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List news
by MJ Ray 19 May '01

19 May '01

Just to keep you up to date: - The main ALUG list now only allows subscribers to post. You should ensure that your email *envelope* addresses are correct. It should at least be a returnable address, else you won't know that there's a problem until the list admins swing into action. Today, oms101@charly is our invalid address. It's just a case of making sure your email software is installed properly. - There will be an -announce list sent out as digests at irregular intervals and everyone can submit articles which will be queued up for review. Not quite sure when this will appear, but alug@stu should get a copy anyway, I think. Enjoy.... -- MJR

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BTTV atlast
by David Freeman 18 May '01

18 May '01

As those of you who have been to meetings recently and followed a number of threads will know I have been trying to get my WinTV card to work properly under Linux. And finally I have got it to work! I now have a TV in my room. Thanks to all who helped and advised Thanks D __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/

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