gini's notes

How to Use Bluetooth to Get an Internet Connection From a PC to a Laptop

2012-01-15T07:15:00.000-08:00

by Meg North, Demand Media

Share your Internet connection between a desktop and a laptop through Bluetooth in a few easy steps. The basic principle for setting up the connection is to pair the two devices, then use the PC's LAN (local area network) connection to locate and connect to the laptop's Bluetooth connection. The Internet connection on the laptop is encapsulated within the laptop's Bluetooth wireless signal. Once the two computers are connected, browse the Internet on the laptop.

Items you will need

Two Bluetooth USB dongles

Step 1

Plug a Bluetooth dongle into a USB port on each computer, if one or both does not have Bluetooth installed on the operating system.

Step 2

Click "Start," then "Control Panel" and "Network and Internet" on the PC. Click "Set up a new Bluetooth enabled device." Click the "Devices" tab and click "Add" to launch the Bluetooth Wizard. Click "My device is set up and ready to be found." Select the laptop and click "Finish."

Step 3

Repeat Step 2 with the laptop. The two devices are now paired.

Step 4

On the PC, return to the "Network and Internet" dialog box and click "Network and Sharing Center." Click "Local Area Network Connection" and right-click to open a menu.

Step 5

Click "Properties" to open the Properties dialog box. Click the "Sharing" tab and check the box next to "Enable Internet Connection Sharing for this Connection."

Step 6

Right-click the Bluetooth icon in your PC system tray to bring up a menu. Click "Advanced Configuration" to open the Bluetooth Configuration dialog box.

Step 7

Click the "Local Services" tab and click "Network Access." Select "Allow other devices to access the Internet/LAN via this computer" from the drop-down menu. Click "OK" to save.

Step 8

Click the Bluetooth icon in the system tray of the laptop desktop. Click "Entire Bluetooth Network" to show all Bluetooth connections. You will see the PC server icon.

Step 9

Right-click on the PC server icon and click "Connect Network Access" on the menu. The Bluetooth connection is established.

Step 10

Click the connection icon to open the "Bluetooth Connection Status" dialog box. The Bluetooth connection status is listed and you can disconnect the connection.

what is proxy ?

2011-12-10T22:58:00.001-08:00

Definition: proxy: In communications, a proxy is something that acts as a server, but when given requests from clients, acts itself as a client to the real servers. Analogy: Consider talking to somebody who speaks a foreign language through a translator. You talk to the translator, who receives your statements, then regenerates something else completely to the other end. The translator serves as your proxy. Key point: The communication terminates at the proxy. In other words, the proxy doesn't forward data so much as it tears it completely apart. For example, an HTTP proxy doesn't forward every request sent through it. Instead, it first examines if it already has the requested web page in its cache. If so, then it returns that page without sending another request to the destination server. Because proxies completely terminate the communication channel, they are considered a more secure firewall technology than packet filters, because they dramatically increase the isolation between the networks. Key point: You will occasionally be scanned for proxies. ISPs scan their users for proxies. Hackers scan the Internet looking for proxies they can anonymize their connections with. Certain servers (like IRC servers) scan clients for proxies in order to prevent anonymous connections. Several websites maintain lists of such proxies.

Proxy servers have two main purposes:

Improve Performance: Proxy servers can dramatically improve performance for groups of users. This is because it saves the results of all requests for a certain amount of time. Consider the case where both user X and user Y access the World Wide Web through a proxy server. First user X requests a certain Web page, which we'll call Page 1. Sometime later, user Y requests the same page. Instead of forwarding the request to the Web server where Page 1 resides, which can be a time-consuming operation, the proxy server simply returns the Page 1 that it already fetched for user X. Since the proxy server is often on the same network as the user, this is a much faster operation. Real proxy servers support hundreds or thousands of users. The major online services such as America Online, MSN and Yahoo, for example, employ an array of proxy servers.

Filter Requests: Proxy servers can also be used to filter requests. For example, a company might use a proxy server to prevent its employees from accessing a specific set of Web sites.

How do I use a Proxy Server?

Proxy Types

You may see references to four different types of proxy servers:

Transparent Proxy

This type of proxy server identifies itself as a proxy server and also makes the original IP address available through the http headers. These are generally used for their ability to cache websites and do not effectively provide any anonymity to those who use them. However, the use of a transparent proxy will get you around simple IP bans. They are transparent in the terms that your IP address is exposed, not transparent in the terms that you do not know that you are using it (your system is not specifically configured to use it.)

Anonymous Proxy

This type of proxy server indentifies itself as a proxy server, but does not make the original IP address available. This type of proxy server is detectable, but provides reasonable anonymity for most users.

Distorting Proxy

This type of proxy server identifies itself as a proxy server, but make an incorrect original IP address available through the http headers.

High Anonymity Proxy

This type of proxy server does not identify itself as a proxy server and does not make available the original IP address.
Please make sure to read about anonymous proxy risks before using a proxy server.
If you need further assistance using proxy servers please post a question in the proxy server forum.

Browser Settings

The following are instructions to configure various browsers to use an http proxy server.

Internet Explorer 6

FireFox

Netscape 8

Opera

Instructions for Internet Explorer 6.0

On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, click the Connections tab, and then click LAN Settings.
Under Proxy server, click to select the Use a proxy server for your LAN check box.
In the Address box, type the IP address of the proxy server.
In the Port box, type the port number that is used by the proxy server for client connections (by default, 8080).
You can click to select the Bypass proxy server for local addresses check box if you do not want the proxy server computer to be used when you connect to a computer on the local network (this may speed up performance).
Click OK to close the LAN Settings dialog box.
Click OK again to close the Internet Options dialog box.

Instructions for Internet Explorer 5

Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Internet.
Click the Connections tab, click LAN Settings, and then click to select the Use Proxy Server check box.
In the Address box, type the appropriate proxy server information, and use the following format: http://
Click Advanced, and then type the appropriate proxy settings in the Servers area. Use the following syntax for the proxy settings: http://
: where
is the Web address of the proxy server, and is the port number that is assigned to the proxy server. For example, if the proxy server's address is "proxy.example.microsoft.com" and the port number is 80, the setting in the Proxy Server box should appear like this: http://proxy.example.microsoft.com:80 Important: If you use a backslash (\) instead of a slash (/) in the proxy server's address, the settings disappear from the Proxy Server box and Internet Explorer does not find the proxy server.

Instructions for Firefox 3.0

Select the Tools Menu
Select Options
Select the Advanced Icon
Select the Network tab
Under connection select Settings
Under Settings you can chose "Auto-Detect Proxy setting for this network" or "Manual Proxy Configuration"
If choosing "Manual Proxy Configuration" Enter the IP address for the HTTP proxy server
Enter the port of the HTTP proxy server
Click Okay

Instructions for FireFox 2

Select the Tools Menu
Select Options
Select Connection Settings
Select Manual Proxy Configuration
Check Use the same proxy for all protocols
Enter the IP address for the HTTP proxy server
Enter the port of the HTTP proxy server
Click Okay

Instructions for Netscape 8.1

Select the Tools Menu
Select Options
Select General
Select Connection Settings...
Check Manual Proxy Configuration
Enter the proxy server's IP address in the HTTP Proxy field and the proxy's port into the Port field.
OK your way out

Instructions for Netscape 7.1

Select the Edit Menu
Select Preferences
Maximize Advanced
Select Proxies
Choose Manual proxy configuration
Enter the proxy server's IP address in the HTTP Proxy field and the proxy's port into the corresponding Port field.
OK your way out

Opera 8.5

Select the Tools Menu
Select Preferences
Select Advanced Tab
Select Proxy Servers
Check the box next to HTTP
Enter the proxy server's IP address in the first box and the proxy's port in the box after "Port"
OK your way out

Safari 2.0.3

Select Preferences
Select Advanced
Select Proxies: Change Settings
Check the box next to Web Proxy (HTTP)
Enter the proxy server's IP address in the first box and the proxy's port in the box after the ":"
Select Apply Now

3-tier application

2011-12-03T21:36:00.001-08:00

Courtesy : http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com

A 3-tier application is an application program that is organized into three major parts, each of which is distributed to a different place or places in a network. The three parts are:

The workstation or presentation interface
The business logic
The database and programming related to managing it

In a typical 3-tier application, the application user's workstation contains the programming that provides the graphical user interface (GUI) and application-specific entry forms or interactive windows.

Learn More

(Some data that is local or unique for the workstation user is also kept on the local hard disk.)
Business logic is located on a local area network (LAN) server or other shared computer. The business logic acts as the server for client requests from workstations. In turn, it determines what data is needed (and where it is located) and acts as a client in relation to a third tier of programming that might be located on a mainframe computer.
The third tier includes the database and a program to manage read and write access to it. While the organization of an application can be more complicated than this, the 3-tier view is a convenient way to think about the parts in a large-scale program.
A 3-tier application uses the client/server computing model. With three tiers or parts, each part can be developed concurrently by different team of programmers coding in different languages from the other tier developers. Because the programming for a tier can be changed or relocated without affecting the other tiers, the 3-tier model makes it easier for an enterprise or software packager to continually evolve an application as new needs and opportunities arise. Existing applications or critical parts can be permanently or temporarily retained and encapsulated within the new tier of which it becomes a component.

Contributor(s): Cheryl Gilbert

This was last updated in July 2000

OOPS Concept

2011-12-03T21:31:00.001-08:00

Courtesy : http://www.java-questions.com

Q1) What is polymorphism?

Ans) Polymorphism gives us the ultimate flexibility in extensibility. The abiltiy to define more than one function with the same name is called Polymorphism. In java,c++ there are two type of polymorphism: compile time polymorphism (overloading) and runtime polymorphism (overriding).

When you override methods, JVM determines the proper methods to call at the program’s run time, not at the compile time. Overriding occurs when a class method has the same name and signature as a method in parent class.
Overloading occurs when several methods have same names with

Overloading is determined at the compile time.
Different method signature and different number or type of parameters.
Same method signature but different number of parameters.
Same method signature and same number of parameters but of different type

Example of Overloading
     int add(int a,int b)
     float add(float a,int b)
     float add(int a ,float b)
     void add(float a)
     int add(int a)
     void add(int a)                 //error conflict with the method int add(int a)

Example: Overloading

Class BookDetails{
            String title;
            String publisher;
            float price;

setBook(String title){
}
setBook(String title, String publisher){
}
setBook(String title, String publisher,float price){
}

}

Example: Overriding

class BookDetails{
String title;

setBook(String title){ }
}

class ScienceBook extends BookDetails{
setBook(String title){} //overriding

setBook(String title, String publisher,float price){ } //overloading

}

Q2) What is inheritance?

Ans) Inheritance is the property which allows a Child class to inherit some properties from its parent class. In Java this is achieved by using extends keyword. Only properties with access modifier public and protected can be accessed in child class.

public class Parent{
public String parentName;
public int parentage;
public String familyName;
}
public class Child extends Parent{
public String childName;
public int childAge;
public void printMyName(){
System.out.println(“ My name is “+ chidName+” “ +familyName)
}
}

In above example the child has inherit its family name from the parent class just by inheriting the class.

Q3) What is multiple inheritance and does java support?

Ans) If a child class inherits the property from multiple classes is known as multiple inheritance.
Java does not allow to extend multiple classes but to overcome this problem it allows to implement multiple Interfaces.

Q4) What is abstraction?

Ans) Abstraction is way of converting real world objects in terms of class. For example creating a class Vehicle and injecting properties into it. E.g
public class Vehicle {
public String colour;
public String model;
}

Q5) What is encapsulation?

Ans) The encapsulation is achieved by combining the methods and attribute into a class. The class acts like a container encapsulating the properties. The users are exposed mainly public methods.The idea behind is to hide how thinigs work and just exposing the requests a user can do.

Q6) What is Association?
Ans) Association is a relationship between two classes. In this relationship the object of one instance perform an action on behalf of the other class. The typical behaviour can be invoking the method of other class and using the member of the other class.

public class MyMainClass{

public void init(){

new OtherClass.init();

}

}

Q7) What is Aggregation?
Ans) Aggregation has a relationship between two classes. In this relationship the object of one class is a member of the other class. Aggregation always insists for a direction.

public class MyMainClass{

OtherClass otherClassObj = new OtherClass();

}

Q8) What is Composition?
Ans) Composition is a special type of aggregation relationship with a difference that its the compulsion for the OtherClass object (in previous example) to exist for the existence of MyMainClass.

The Best Free Online Project Management Software

2011-12-01T22:38:00.001-08:00

By William Fenton

You're a small business looking to get organized. The technology's out there, you know that. The problem is you can't afford dedicated project management software. Or so you think. Luckily for you, I've waded through the Web to find four of the best options for small businesses on a budget. Forget cheap. It's got to be free. You have the right to remain organized whether you run OS X, Windows 7, Red Hat, or some combination of the three, so I've only looked at online solutions. There will be plenty of opportunities to upgrade. Some might be worth it for your business. However, I'm interested in the top deals that don't demand a credit card.

Online project management software cleaves into two halves: the management of projects—calendars, milestones, tasks, and to dos—and the online communication between team members, freelancers, and vendors—whiteboards, forums, chat and messaging systems. Along the same lines, there are two presiding philosophies to online project management: less is more and more is more.

On the more is better side of the spectrum, Ace Project and Zoho Project are the finest options I encountered. Both have online storage, plenty of (paid) options to grow your business, and can be customized to the core. Whereas Ace is high when it comes to free projects, storage, and tracking functionality, Zoho serves up Google Docs integration and an alphabet of features and ancillary products.

When it comes to stripping excess and delivering clean, functional software, small business owners need look no further than Huddle and Basecamp. Neither piece of software sings from the spec sheet: Huddle enables one lonely manager; Basecamp offers zero online storage. However, when it comes to real-world use and simplicity of configuration and maintenance, both are tops. Huddle boasts the finest file management system of the group as well as options to bundle Web, audio, and video conferencing. Basecamp secures the Editors' Choice designation for its integration with existing technologies, dead-simple setup, and orbit inside 37signals' constellation of products and services.

As entry-level offerings, none of these options are perfect. No single option—not even the Editor's Choice pick—trumps all others in all respects. Instead, small business owners would do well to assess their needs and identify the product satisfies, and can scale to, their business. If you love it, upgrade it. But at the low-low price of free, these four pieces of software ought to sweep away any impediments to some (early) spring cleaning at your small business.

AceProject

Free as reviewed (premium plans available)
For small businesses aspiring to get and stay organized, AceProject looks like the best card in the deck. The free online project management software will not only help you keep tabs on projects, but it'll also help you manage employees and expenses. With a quarter gig of free storage, FTP access, versioning, and up to five projects for free, and AceProject looks like the ace in the hole until you start playing. That's when you run up against the service's cumbersome, dated UI.

Basecamp

Free as reviewed (premium plans available)
With over 3 million active users, Basecamp is the benchmark of free online project management developed by 37 signals. It helps small businesses and large businesses, from wedding planners to hedge fund managers, to get and stay organized. While other online services like Zoho Projects and AceProject heap on the features—and complexity—Basecamp remains, after nearly seven years of service, the simplest, fastest, and most scalable service available.

Huddle

Free as reviewed (premium plans available)
With the ability to manage projects, store files, schedule and hold meetings, and facilitate communication through wikis and forums, Huddle's free onlineservice hands small businesses many of the tools they'll need to get organized. While services like Zoho Projects and AceProject function as Swiss Army Knives of online tools, Huddle acts as a scalpel. Despite some limitations in its entry-level offering, where Huddle operates, it's effective: file management is exceptional, and online collaboration is finely tuned.

Zoho Projects 2

Free as reviewed (premium plans available)
Zoho Projects 2 (free to $80, depending on services) is the posterchild for the "more is more" school of thinking in online project management. Zoho dishes a smorgasbord of online tools for small-business communication and organization. The complementary version serves up the largest entree of online collaboration tools, including messages, forums, wikis, and online chat. At the same time, Zoho is a zealous manager. You can configure project milestones, assign responsibilities, set due dates, schedule meetings, and even post documents to an online storage space. If your needs grow, Zoho can accommodate with a wide selection of paid services. But the app is high maintenance, and the UI can be confusing.

Top 10 Open Source Web-Based Project Management Software

2011-12-01T22:36:00.001-08:00

By : VIVEK GITE

Project management software is not just for managing software based project. It can be used for variety of other tasks too. The web-based software must provide tools for planning, organizing and managing resources to achieve project goals and objectives. A web-based project management software can be accessed through an intranet or WAN / LAN using a web browser. You don't have to install any other software on the system. The software can be easy of use with access control features (multi-user). I use project management software for all of our projects (for e.g. building a new cluster farm) for issue / bug-tracking, calender, gantt charts, email notification and much more.

Obviously I'm not the only user, the following open source software is used by some of the biggest research organizations and companies world wild. For example, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory uses track software or open source project such as lighttpd / phpbb use redmine software to keep track of their projects.

You use the following top 10 software for personal or business use. Keep track of all your projects in one place and finish them successfully on time.

#1: Codendi

Codendi is an open-source collaborative development platform offered by Xerox. From only one interface, it gathers, all the needed tools for software development teams: management and versioning of code, bugs, requirements, documents, reporting, tests etc. It is mainly used for managing software project processes.

Download Codendi

#2: Redmine

Redmine is a flexible project management web application. Written using Ruby on Rails framework, it is cross-platform and cross-database. It includes calendar and gantt charts to aid visual representation of projects and their deadlines.

Download redmine

#3: ProjectPier

ProjectPier is a Free, Open-Source, self-hosted PHP application for managing tasks, projects and teams through an intuitive web interface. ProjectPier will help your organization communicate, collaborate and get things done Its function is similar to commercial groupware/project management products, but allows the freedom and scalability of self-hosting.

Download ProjectPier

#4: Trac

Trac is an open source, web-based project management and bug-tracking tool. Trac allows hyperlinking information between a computer bug database, revision control and wiki content. It also serves as a web interface to a version control system like Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar and Darcs.

Download Trac

#5: Project HQ

Project HQ is a collaborative open source project management tool, similar to Basecamp and activeCollab. Project HQ is built on open source technologies like Python, Pylons and SQLAlchemy and is fully database independent. Project HQ uses a structured workflow to assist you in managing your projects.

Download Project HQ

#6: Collabtive

Collabtive is a web-based project management software that is being published as Open Source software. The project was started in November 2007. It strives to provide an Open Source alternative to proprietary tools like Basecamp or ActiveCollab.

Download Collabtive

#7: eGroupWare

eGroupWare is a free open source groupware software intended for businesses from small to enterprises. Its primary functions allow users to manage contacts, appointments, projects and to-do lists.

It is used either via its native web-interface, making access platform-independent, or by using different supported groupware clients, such as Kontact, Novell Evolution, or Microsoft Outlook. It can also be used by mobile phone or PDA via SyncML.

Download eGroupWare

#8: KForge

KForge is an open-source (GPL) system for managing software and knowledge projects. It re-uses existing best-of-breed tools such as a versioned storage (subversion), a tracker (trac), and wiki (trac or moinmoin), integrating them with the system’s own facilities (projects, users, permissions etc). KForge also provides a complete web interface for project administration as well a fully-developed plugin system so that new services and features can be easily added.

Download KForge

#9: OpenGoo

It is a complete online solution focused on improving productivity, collaboration, communication and management of your teams. OpenGoo main features include document management, contact management, e-mail, project management, and time management. Text documents and presentations can be created and edited online. Files can be uploaded, organized and shared, independent of file formats.

Download OpenGoo

#10: ClockingIT

ClockingIT is a free Project Management solution, which helps your team stay focused and on top of things.

Download ClockingIT

Ed: The following two paragraphs added by Vivek Gite:

I also use project management software to keep track of how much time I spent per client and project.

My Personal Choice

redmine is my personal choice because I like to use ruby on rails and I often work with small teams. We track networking issues, data center issues, capacity planning, trouble tickets and much more using redmine. I can track multiple projects and its flexible role-based access control make sure only authorized eyes can view the details.

Other FOSS Project Management Software Projects

JotBug
Bugzilla (only bug tracking)
OpenProj (desktop app - replacement for MS-project)

How do you manage your IT / software and other projects? Are you using a better option? Let us know in the comments.

About the author: Rocky Jr., is an engineer with VSNL - a leading ISP / global telecom company and a good friend of nixCraft.

10 things you can do to boost PC performance

2011-09-12T01:42:00.000-07:00

10 things you can do to boost PC performance

By Justin James

September 9, 2011, 2:17 PM PDT

Courtesy : Techrepublic.com

1: Get rid of malware

New machines shouldn’t have malware on them. But one of the most common causes of the “my PC used to be fast, and now it isn’t!” complaint is actually the presence of malware. Malware can sneak onto a computer in a zillion different ways and quite often it sits in the background slowing your machine to as it sends out spam emails, searches for other computers to infect, works on cracking cryptography, or any number of the other nefarious tasks that hackers like to use their botnet slaves for. There’s a good chance that the malware brought even more friends with it (that’s often how you see computers with thousands of viruses on them not long after the initial infection), and the infection may be bad enough to justify a wipe and reload. My first step in investigating a slow system is usually a virus scan.

2: Upgrade to a better video card

For typical business productivity tasks, a video card probably isn’t an upgrade that will have a lot of value. But for gamers and other similar uses, a video card is a slam dunk upgrade. If your current card and motherboard support SLI or CrossFireX, adding a second card and bridging them will be a good option as well. In some scenarios, better video cards can be a huge benefit even without heavy onscreen video work, because certain applications can leverage the GPUs for calculations.

3: Get a faster drive

Many times, the real performance issue is the speed of disks. Look at numbers like the RPMs, cache size, seek speed, and transfer rate to buy a faster drive. Often, a good drive will seem slow because the computer’s power settings are allowing it to spin down. You may want to consider changing these settings to make sure that the disk is more likely to be ready to work when you need it to. While the SSD vs. hard disk debate is still continuing, SSDs usually seem to feel faster to users. Boot times are usually cut for sure. But something about an SSD makes a system feel more responsive or “snappy” to use, and for day-to-day work, that’s a great feeling.

4: Address hardware and driver issues

All too often, system slowness is actually a sign of hardware problems. For example, if your CPU isn’t being properly cooled, it will often have its speed reduced in an effort to keep it from overheating. Recoverable errors with disk access can kill your throughput while not showing up as a dead drive. And bad hardware drivers can often make the whole system slow, especially video drivers. Using utilities to check your CPU speed and various temperatures, scanning for hard drive errors, and updating your drivers is a good start to investigating performance problems. Often, problems caused by hardware or drivers are not just poor speeds, but system flakiness too.

5: Use a RAID

Using a RAID can dramatically lower the read and write speeds of your disks, depending upon the RAID level you choose. You will want to do some research to see what RAID level fits your needs the best. Personally, I am a fan of RAID 1, 6, and 10 because I feel that they offer appropriate levels of data protection along with a good measure of speed improvements.

6: Try a different browser

It’s no secret: Different browsers perform differently, and most people spend a lot of time in their Web browser. Benchmarks really muddy the browser speed conversation. Some browsers perform well on some but do badly on others, even when they are supposed to test the same thing. The problem with the benchmarks is that what they usually test is not real work performance! While JavaScript is an important part of the modern Web, few Web applications beat on the JavaScript engine hard enough to produce a noticeable impact on performance. That said, it’s been my experience that the Chrome browser is the fastest for actual work. If you want to have your Web browser feel more responsive and lively, consider a switch to Chrome.

7: Remove junk

It’s easy to have a computer get loaded up with junk that slows it down. The worst part is, we invite this garbage into our lives by installing “helpful” utilities, toolbars, and other add-ons. I could easily write a list of 10 kinds of computer-stalling junk. Here are some of the things you’ll want to seek out and remove for best performance:

Automatic update systems for various applications (but be careful: some apps, like Flash, Acrobat, QuickTime, and Web browsers are prime malware targets and you will want to keep these up-to-date)
Things that run on startup
Windows services you don’t really need
Crapware from the PC maker
Toolbars
Browser plug-ins (the Skype browser plug-in is an especially bad offender, I’ve found)
P2P applications
Web servers and database servers that were installed by since-removed applications, but left behind

8: Add a faster DNS lookup server

Most ISPs love to brag about how much bandwidth they are giving you. But they don’t mind letting the rest of their infrastructure slowly get overwhelmed or deteriorate. Among the biggest offenders are the DNS servers our ISPs use. If you want to know why things seem to take forever to start loading, slow DNS servers are often the cause. Consider adding a fast DNS server as your primary DNS server in your TCP/IP settings. Google’s Public DNS server is a great option.

9: Defrag

Defragging your hard drives is a great way to get some more performance. While modern Windows systems automatically defrag on a regular basis, I’ve found that the Windows defragging is fairly unaggressive. We’ve reviewed a lot of different defrag apps here at TechRepublic. I suggest that you check out your alternatives and find one that does a better job for you.

10: Check network connectivity

Time and time again, “system slowness” actually is caused by networking issues. Our computers do so much on the Internet that slowness there can affect just about everything you do on a regular basis. While there isn’t enough space to write an exhausting troubleshooting list here, some of the things you should try (or investigate) are:

Replacing the network cables, switches, routers, WiFi access points, etc.
Calling the ISP and checking the distance from the CO (for DSL) or the local segment’s current load (for cable); the ISP may need to rewire or rework its connectivity. Satellite customers will want to double-check their dish installation and ensure that it is tightly locked down and pointed in the right direction.
Malware scanning on all PCs to see if malware is burdening the network
Inspecting the wiring of the phone lines (for DSL) or coax (cable customers) to look for loose connections, corrosion, or flaky wires
Cable customers will want to find out how many splitters are between the line from the pole and their modem. If it is more than one (and preferably only a two-way splitter), they should rewire so that they have only a single two-way splitter between the pole and the modem to ensure the cleanest signal possible.

Grid computing

2011-05-01T00:08:00.000-07:00

Courtesy : Wikipedia

Grid computing is a term referring to the combination of computer resources from multiple administrative domains to reach a common goal. The grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve a large number of files. What distinguishes grid computing from conventional high performance computing systems such as cluster computing is that grids tend to be more loosely coupled, heterogeneous, and geographically dispersed. Although a grid can be dedicated to a specialized application, it is more common that a single grid will be used for a variety of different purposes. Grids are often constructed with the aid of general-purpose grid software libraries known as middleware.

Grid size can vary by a considerable amount. Grids are a form of distributed computing whereby a “super virtual computer” is composed of many networked loosely coupled computers acting together to perform very large tasks. Furthermore, “distributed” or “grid” computing, in general, is a special type of parallel computing that relies on complete computers (with onboard CPUs, storage, power supplies, network interfaces, etc.) connected to a network (private, public or the Internet) by a conventional network interface, such as Ethernet. This is in contrast to the traditional notion of a supercomputer, which has many processors connected by a local high-speed computer bus.

What is an IMEI number?

2011-03-28T03:03:00.001-07:00

The IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) is a unique 17 or 15 digit code used to identify an individual mobile station to a GSM or UMTS network. The IMEI number provides an important function; it uniquely identifies a specific mobile phone being used on a mobile network. The IMEI is a useful tool to prevent a stolen handset from accessing a network and being used to place calls. Mobile phone owners who have their phones stolen can contact their mobile network provider and ask them disable a phone using its IMEI number. With an IMEI number, the phone can be blocked from the network quickly and easily.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_an_imei_number#ixzz167FGjwyY

Know about 3G

2011-03-28T03:02:00.000-07:00

THE FULL FORM OF 3G IS-"3RD GENERATION" !
when mobiles ist came into existence they were referred to as 1G,then after some more elaborate and distinctive features the technology came to be known as 2g,and now with more wonderful features on the list,with a certain full movie download facility it is well said to be 3G.

Tell me more about 3G technology.

3G is the next generation mobile technology offering higher speeds on both uplink (up to 5.7 Mbps) and downlink (up to 28 Mbps). It will enable a host of rich multimedia services such as video calling, video on demand, and provide a richer experience for existing services such as mobile internet, mobile TV and MMS.
3G networks operate on technology called High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSPA). Data is transmitted many times faster than earlier 2G networks. This basically means that in addition to the earlier audio, graphics, and text, you can now send and receive video content too — provided you have a 3G-enabled handset or USB datacard and are in 3G coverage areas.

What is the difference between 3G Mobile broadband and Wi-Fi?

Wi-Fi is a technology used to connect mainly laptops and some mobiles within small areas (typically a few hundred metres max). 3G has a much broader coverage and works also with a broader range of mobile devices. With a Mobile Broadband dongle, you will connected to the internet everywhere there is Reliance 3G coverage (speed varies according to your area, just like Wi-Fi).

Is 3G right for me?

If you travel regularly and pay often for hotel internet, if you are a student and need to do your papers on campus, if you need to work a few hours more and would prefer to do that from home, if you don’t have a landline but would like to be connected to the internet, then this is the best option for you.

What are the features available to me on 3G?

You can do very fast data transfers, make video calls, get video and music streaming, watch live TV, check mail, send instant messages, and fulfill all your internet tasks.

How do I know if I’m in 3G coverage?

If you have a 3G phone, you’ll see a small symbol on your phone. This symbol is usually a small ‘3G’ sign on the upper left corner of your screen. Depending on the handset, it can also appear as ‘3.5G’ or ‘3G+’ if you are in areas with faster speed coverage.

Do I need to get a new number to use 3G?

No. 3G services can be provided on your current number provided you have a 3G handset.

WebDesign Guides

2011-03-13T01:57:00.001-08:00

Learn CSS yourself
VisualBasic SCRIPTING
PHP Manual
All about JSP SERVLETS
HTML is in your hand
WEBTUTOR

NetIntro
Perl Introduction
Picking Up Perl

Linux Guides

2011-03-13T01:56:00.005-08:00

Linux Guides

Linux Quick Book -Linux Notes
Prepared from RHCE class

Prepare Linux for interview -points to note

fileSystem
Interview questions
Kickstart
ModelQuest
SELINUX
Software-RAID-HOWTO
TheLinuxSystemAdministratorsGuide
Building_Custom_Kernel
Kernel_Recompilation
FTP_Server_RHCE
ntp.htm
RHCE_DHCP
AdvancedBash-ScriptingGuide
intro-linux
Kickstart
OReilly-RunningLinux4thEdition
RAID in Linux
SA-DiskManagement817-5093
SAT
TheLinuxSystemAdministratorsGuide
UnderstandingDNS
RedHatLinuxNetworking&SystemAdministration Guide.

CCNA Study Materials

2011-03-13T01:43:00.000-08:00

Sybex CCNA Exam

Cisco Press CCDA Study Guide.pdf

CCNP Support Exam Certification Guide.pdf

CCIE Study Directory.pdf

CCNA 2 Gold Bible.pdf

Testking ccna new 640-801 v97.pdf

CCNA Pass 4 Sure.zip

CCNA_Sem1.zip

Config-Cisco-VoIP.zip

Cisco-Security-Architectures.zip

Cisco-Internet-Routing-Architectures.zip

Cisco-Catalyst-LAN-Switching.zip

CCNA_OSPF.pdf
CCNA_NAT.pdf
End-to-End-PVC_Management_With_FrameRelay-ATM_Service_Interworking(FRF_8).pdf
ConfiguringnTroubleshooting_FrameRelay.pdf
SambaConfiguration_Linux-WindowsConnectivity.pdf
640-801dumps.pdf

Cisco-How-to.pdf
2600Installation.pdf
site-file.pdf
STPnPortfast.pdf
Cisco2600_Quick_Start_Guide.pdf
Overview_2600_Series.pdf
CIDRInfo.pdf

IP_Routing_Protocols_Commands.htm
CIDRInfo.htm
IPX_CCNA.htm
ACL_CCNA.htm
ISDN_CCNA.htm
IOS_Commands_CCNA.htm
Last_Minute_Revision.htm
Layer_2_Switching.htm
VLANS_VTP_n_FrameTagging.htm
STP_CCNA.htm

Uniq entry from a table in sql

2011-02-16T14:32:00.000-08:00

The SQL DISTINCT clause is used together with the SQL SELECT keyword, to return a dataset with unique entries for certain database table column.

SELECT DISTINCT LastName FROM Customers

SELECT DISTINCT(id_email), email_name, email FROM emails LEFT JOIN emails_lists ON emails.id_email = emails_lists.fk_email WHERE email_valid = 1 AND fk_list IN ($fk_list)

Here's a handy query for finding duplicates in a table. Suppose you want to find all email addresses in a table that exist more than once:

SELECT email, 
 COUNT(email) AS NumOccurrences
FROM users
GROUP BY email
HAVING ( COUNT(email) > 1 )

You could also use this technique to find rows that occur exactly once:

SELECT email
FROM users
GROUP BY email
HAVING ( COUNT(email) = 1 )

How To Diagnose Memory (Hardware) Issues on DELL Servers

2010-10-30T04:44:00.000-07:00

by Ramesh Natarajan
Courtesy : http://www.thegeekstuff.com

Sometimes it may be necessary to find out whether there are any issues with the memory or other hardware components on a server. Typically it is recommended to perform this kind of test on a server before deploying for production usage. DELL has provided few tools to perform hardware diagnostics on DELL Servers. Let us review “Dell 32 Bit Diagnostics” tools in this post.

This Diagnostics tools can be used on DELL PowerEdge servers and PowerVault. Following items are covered in this post:

Download Diagnostics utility from Dell support site.
Create bootable CD
Execute the memory test
Graphics based diagnostics

1. Download Diagnostics Utility from Dell Support Site

.
Go to support.dell.com and click on “Drivers and Downloads”, select your specific server model and click on the Diagnostics link to download the corresponding DELL Diagnostics Tool. To burn the Diagnostics bootable CD on windows download the *.EXE and to burn the CD on Linux download the *.bin file.
In this example, I have searched for “Dell 32 bit Diagnostics v5091A1″ in the support.dell.com and downloaded the EW5091A1.EXE. I will be using Windows to create the Dell Diagnostics bootable CD.

2. Create a bootable CD

.
Run the EW5091A1.EXE and follow the directions to create a bootable Dell Diagnostics CD as shown below
(1) Welcome Screen: This displays all the PowerEdge and PowerVault models that are supported by this particular diagnostics tool.

(2) Extract Files: Specify the location where you would like to extract the files.

(3) Choose Bootable Image Media : Diagnostics distribution package screen lets you create bootable image on several media (USB, Floppy, CD etc.). I selected “Create a bootable CD” to create a bootable CD of the diagnostics utility.

(4) Create Bootable CD: Specify whether you want to directly burn to CD (or) create an ISO image. I burned it to a CD.

3. Execute the memory test

.
(1) Dell Diagnostics Menu: Once you burn a bootable Dell Diagnostics CD, insert it to the server where you want to perform the memory test and reboot. This will display the Diagnostics Menu with the following four options.

(2) MpMemory diagnostics: Select Option 1 to perform the memory test. This will perform various memory test and display a summary of the test. In the example shown below, all the test were conducted successfully and MpMemory did not find any issues with the memory on the DELL Server. If any of the memory test failed, please work with DELL support to get the memory replaced.

After the test is completed, press any key to display the memory test results in a text output. This will also display the main menu of the Diagnostics tool. Press Option 4 to quit out the tool. Remove the diagnostics CD and reboot the server to resume normal operation.

4. Graphics based diagnostics

.
(1) Ddgui graphics based diagnostics: Select option 2, on the diagnostics menu for a graphical UI to perform hardware diagnostics. The graphical UI has the option of performing express, extended and custom test. I typically perform express test and if I see any issues, I perform an extended test. If you have enough time, you can try to perform the extended Test.

(2) Custom Test Mode: In this mode, you can specifically select which hardware you would like to run the diagnose test. This can perform variety of diagnostics such as Processor, Video, USB, PCI Devices, Hard Drive etc. as shown below:

How do you know whether you have a genuine copy of windows or not?

2010-10-30T04:33:00.000-07:00

How do you know whether you have a genuine copy of windows or not?To know whether you have genuine winows copy run this command in run dialog "oobe/msoobe /a" without quotes. If you get a dialog box saying that "Thanks for using our product" then you have a genuine copy of windows.
If the dialog ask you to activate the product then you own a pirated copy of windows.

How to remove Windows XP Service Pack 3 from your computer

2010-10-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

To remove Windows XP SP3 from your computer, use one of the following methods.

Important After you remove Windows XP Service Pack 3 from your computer, we recommend that you visit the following Microsoft Web page and then install the latest security updates:

http://update.microsoft.com (http://update.microsoft.com)

Back to the top

Method 1: Use the "Add or Remove Programs" item in Control Panel

Click Start, and then click Run.
Copy and then paste the following command in the Open box, and then press ENTER:
appwiz.cpl
Click to select the Show Updates check box.
Click Windows XP Service Pack 3, and then click Remove.
Click Finish to restart the computer after the removal process is complete.

Back to the top

Method 2: Use the hidden $NtServicePackUninstall$ folder

Click Start, click Run, type c:\windows\$NtServicePackUninstall$\spuninst\spuninst.exe in the Open box, and then click OK.
When the Windows XP Service Pack 3 Removal Wizard starts, click Next.
Follow the instructions on the screen to remove Windows XP SP3.

Back to the top

Method 3: Use the System Restore process

Note Before you use System Restore, make sure that you have restarted the computer at least one time after you installed Windows XP SP3. By restarting the computer, you allow for any remaining servicing processes to finish.

Click Start, and then click Run.
Copy and then paste the following command in the Open box, and then press ENTER:
%systemroot%\System32\restore\rstrui.exe
Click Restore my computer to an earlier time, and then click Next.
Click the date on which you installed Windows XP SP3, and then click Installed Window XP Service Pack 3 in the Restore Point box.
Click Next, and then follow the instructions on the screen to remove Windows XP SP3.

Back to the top

Method 4: Use Recovery Console

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322756 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/ ) How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

If you cannot remove Windows XP SP3 by using one of the previous methods, follow these steps:

Insert the Windows XP CD in the CD drive or in the DVD drive, and then restart your computer. When you receive the following message, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD:
Press any key to boot from CD
Note The computer must be configured to start from the CD drive or from the DVD drive. For more information about how to configure your computer to start from the CD drive or from the DVD drive, see the documentation that was included with your computer, or contact the computer manufacturer. You can also use a bootable floppy disk to start Windows XP. For more information, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
305595 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305595/ ) How to create a bootable floppy disk for an NTFS or FAT partition in Windows XP
When you receive the Welcome to Setup message, press R to start the Recovery Console.

Note Multiple options will appear on the screen.
Select the correct Windows XP installation.

Note You must select a number before you press ENTER, or the computer will restart. Typically, only the 1: C:\Windows selection is available.
If you are prompted to type an administrator password, do so. If you do not know the administrator password, press ENTER. (Typically, the password is blank.)

Note You cannot continue if you do not have the administrator password.
At the command prompt, type cd $ntservicepackuninstall$\spuninst, and then press ENTER.
At the command prompt, type batch spuninst.txt, and then press ENTER.

Note The Spuninstal.txt file appears. As the file scrolls down, you will see errors and the files that are being copied. This is typical behavior.
After Windows XP SP3 is removed, type exit, and then press ENTER.
Restart the computer in safe mode. To do this, press F8 when the computer restarts.

Note After you restart the computer, the computer may stop responding, and you may see a black screen. The mouse will work. In this case, restart the computer again by turning the computer off and then back on. The second restart will let you log on.
When the computer restarts, Windows Explorer (Explorer.exe) does not run, and the Windows icons and the Start button are unavailable. To resolve this problem, follow these steps:
1. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL, and then click Task Manager in the Windows Security screen.
2. Click File, and then click New Task (Run).
3. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
4. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\RpcSs
5. In the details pane, right-click ObjectName, click Modify, type LocalSystem in the Value data box, and then click OK.
6. Restart the computer
Use one of the previous methods to remove Windows XP SP3 from your computer.

For more information about how to install and use the Recovery Console, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

307654 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654/ ) How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP

If you need help about how to install, reinstall, or uninstall Windows, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/help/install-reinstall-uninstall (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/help/install-reinstall-uninstall)

How to Install Windows 7 on a Mac

2010-10-09T14:36:00.000-07:00

Courtesy : http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/

So you picked up your shiny new copy of Microsoft’s latest OS offering – Windows 7 and want to install it on your (cue dramatic music)…….. Intel based Mac. Mac fans will view this as blasphemy and Windows lovers will probably ask; “why didn’t you get a PC if you wanted to run Windows”. Well there are numerous valid reasons for having Windows 7 installed on one’s Mac and today we will guide you through the set up. My personal retort is because I can.
Naturally you don’t want to get rid of OS X when installing Windows, so thankfully Apple created Boot Camp which allows safe installation of a Microsoft Operating System ranging from Windows XP to the newest Windows 7. This is made possible by the fact that underneath all the Mac and Apple branding the components are basically a standard Intel PC.
Boot Camp works by creating a partition that is recognized by the Windows installation media on certain Intel-based Mac. According to the Apple website the following models are not supported:
- iMac (17-inch, Early 2006)
- iMac (17-inch, Late 2006)
- iMac (20-inch, Early 2006)
- iMac (20-inch, Late 2006)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2006)
- MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2006)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2006)
- MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2006)
- Mac Pro (Mid 2006, Intel Xeon Dual-core 2.66GHz or 3GHz)
To get Windows 7 installed you will need Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard and the Boot Camp 3.1 Update.
Initially when Windows 7 was first released Apple did not update Boot Camp to fully support the new Microsoft OS. You were able to install it and it worked but certain features were not supported. At the beginning of this year Apple released the Boot Camp 3.1 update, which provides support for both 32-bit as well as the 64-bit Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate versions of Windows 7. The software update furthermore includes Magic Mouse and Apple wireless keyboard support, as well addressing some Apple track pad and laptop LED issue
Prior to starting the install process make sure your computer’s Mac OS X operating system, Boot ROM, other firmware and software are up-to-date.
To start the process in OS X open Boot Camp Setup Assistant (located in /Applications/Utilities). You will be greeted by an introduction screen followed by a graphical partition manager from where you can adjust the size of the Boot Camp Windows partition; by default Apple starts at 5 GB but that is way too small for a Windows 7 installation. I would recommend a minimum of 40 GB to be on the safe side.

Once your partition size is selected click the Partition button and OS X will do the rest. After the partitioning occurs you will be asked to insert the Windows 7 install disc and press the Start Installation button which will reboot the Mac.
At this point the installation process will function like the normal Windows 7 install. You should be greeted with the familiar Windows is loading screen followed by the license acceptance dialog. Next choose whether to perform an upgrade or custom installation. For today’s tutorial I’ll be showing how to set up a fresh installation of Windows 7 so select the custom install option.

The next screen will show a list of partitions on your Mac hard drive. Highlight the one named Boot Camp and then press the drive options button. Click the format button, you’ll be asked to confirm, click yes and this will format the Boot Camp partition making it ready for the Windows 7 installation.

Now go grab yourself a cup of coffee and relax as Windows 7 will install itself. This process will take about 20 minutes to a half hour and requires no user intervention until the very end. Once Windows 7 reboots a user creation screen will appear.

Congratulations your Windows 7 is installed on your Mac, now its time to run any Windows 7 updates and then install the Boot Camp drivers so everything works as expected.

Eject the Windows 7 installation media and insert the Snow Leopard installation disk. The disk should autorun the Boot Camp drivers for Vista which is compatible with Windows 7.
If you are running a MacBook or Mac Mini and are installing a 64-bit version you may get following error: “Boot Camp x64 is unsupported on this computer model”. This is easily resolved by opening the Snow Leopard installation disk folder; locating and right-clicking the “BootCamp64″ application and selecting “Troubleshoot compatibility”. Click on “Start the program and the program should run; this works by disabling Boot Camp’s Version Check. Thanks to http://www.techulous.com/hardware/how-to-apple-boot-camp-64-bit-for-windows-7-on-unsupported-macs.html for the fix.

Once the Boot Camp drivers are installed you will be asked to reboot the machine. Go into the Apple software update folder and run it. There should be Boot Camp 3.1 drivers which can be installed from the update; run these and you will be done.

You should notice a Boot Camp icon in the system tray which runs the Boot Camp Control Panel the user can select the boot partition and control the remote, keyboard and power settings.

Another way to select the start up system between Windows 7 and OS X is by holding down the Option Key on your keyboard or if you have a Mac remote hold down menu button when booting up your Mac. This will bring up a graphical boot loader to select the OS you wish to boot into.

Congratulations once all this is done you now have Windows 7 installed on your Mac machine; now go show off your OS X/Windows 7 machine to your Windows loving friends.

Courtesy : http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/

How to Make your Blogger Blog ready for Mobile Phones

2010-10-08T15:36:00.000-07:00

Posted by kranthi

As you know, millions of people use their mobile phones to access internet. The mobile internet speed is also very fast these days with 3G's , mobile apps,etc.

From this, we can say many of your readers are coming to your blog through mobile phones..But, if you don't make your blog mobile friendly, .you may lose all your mobile readers because in a mobile phone, a normal blog takes lot of time to load and there are other issues that your site not fitting properly in the mobile screen.

So, here is how to make your Blogger (blogspot) blog mobile internet friendly..

Sign into your Blogger account > Design > Edit html

Find this line..

<b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>

Paste this code below that line...

<meta content='IE=EmulateIE7' http-equiv='X-UA-Compatible'/>

<b:if cond='data:blog.isMobile'>

<meta content='width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=0' name='viewport'/>

<b:else/>

<meta content='width=1100' name='viewport'/>

</b:if>

Save the Changes!

That's it! Now, your visitors can access your blogger blog through mobile phones with blazing speed...

IRCTC Mobile – Indian Railways reservation/enquiry on your mobile

2010-10-05T01:44:00.000-07:00

Courtesy :techiegyan.com
Posted By : Aditya

IRCTC have set of ways for mobile access and users can take benefit of it for getting Railways reservation/Railways enquiry etc.
1. IRCTC Mobile Application

IRCTCmobile allows you to perform various ticketing related services through your mobile phone. This service is available for all GPRS subscribers in India.
You can now book tickets using Credit Cards and Cash Cards, view trains between stations, check availability, get fare, perform PNR enquiry and many other information services. The tickets booked through IRCTCmobile shall be delivered to the postal address provided during the booking within 3 clear days from the date of booking.

Pre-requisite:
Java phone and GPRS connectivity is a pre-requisite. To avail GPRS facility, contact your mobile operator.
You can see demo of the mobile application here by clicking the demo link in right bottom (below installation instructions)

Visit this link for more details.
2. Mobile site of IRCTC — www.irctc.co.in/mobile
Use your mobile to open www.irctc.co.in/mobile and use it for booking ticket, ticket history and enquiry.

See the complete working guide at http://www.irctc.co.in/mobileuserguide.html
3. Railways booking on Airtel live
Features supported on Airtel live:
a. Now you can book all your rail tickets through the mobile
b. You would get the PNR confirmation on the mobile phone.
c. The tickets get delivered to the location of your choice within 72 hrs
d. You can also check the status of your ticket on the mobile.
Get more information about pricing and application here
There is another application ngpay which also provide Railways ticket booking along with some more services. Get more information about it here

Autosave Option in Microsoft Office

2010-10-04T03:08:00.000-07:00

Courtesy : excel.tips.net
Excel includes the ability to automatically save your work periodically, but the feature is not built into Excel 97 or Excel 2000. Instead, you need to install
an add-in and then configure it to work properly. You can check to see if the AutoSave add-in is installed by displaying the Tools menu. If you do not see an AutoSave option, then you will need to follow these steps:

Choose Add-Ins from the Tools menu. This displays the Add-Ins dialog box.
Make sure the AutoSave add-in is selected; that it has a check mark beside it.

Click on OK.

The proper AutoSave add-in is now installed. To use AutoSave, follow these steps:

Choose AutoSave from the Tools menu. This displays the AutoSave dialog box.
Use the controls in the dialog box to indicate how you want the saving to occur.
Click on OK.

Notice that there is an option at the bottom of the AutoSave dialog box that allows you to specify whether Excel prompts you before saving your workbook. This is always a good option to select. The reason is because Excel always performs the AutoSave to the same file that you loaded. Thus, without prompting, your existing file will always be overwritten.

If you are using Excel 2002 or Excel 2003, the AutoSave add-in has been made a permanent part of Excel. In this version, you enable AutoSave by following these steps:

Choose Options from the Tools menu. Excel displays the Options dialog box.
Make sure the Save tab is selected.

Use the controls on the tab to indicate how you want the saving to occur.
Click on OK.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2777) applies to Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

MS-DOS Bootable CD Images

2010-09-11T08:43:00.000-07:00

Below you’ll find several different bootable CD images in ISO format for MS-DOS.
To create the bootable CD you will need to download the ISO image below. You will then need to use a CD Burning application such as Nero or EZ-CD Creator to burn the ISO to a CD. Once finished you can simply insert the CD and reboot the computer.

MS-DOS 6.22 (2.8 MB)
MS-DOS 6.21 (2.3 MB)
MS-DOS 6.0 (2.4 MB)
MS-DOS 5.0 (2.2 MB)
MS-DOS 4.01 (1.7 MB)
MS-DOS 3.3 (1.6 MB)

Courtesy : http://www.bootdisks.us

Managing Windows XP Services with the Service Controller Command SC

2010-07-27T01:46:00.001-07:00

Many processes and functions of the Windows XP operating system and other software are classified under the general rubric of “services”. Managing services with the graphical facility called the Services Console is discussed at a sister site. In addition to a GUI method of managing services, Windows XP also has a powerful command-line utility.This utility, the Service Controller, is opened by entering "sc' into the command prompt and contains a large assembly of subcommands that we will survey.
The command-line method of managing services has the advantage of being available for scripts. It also allows for quickly stopping and starting services for troubleshooting purposes. Systems administrators use it for managing services on networks and for very detailed configuration. For the average PC user, it provides a quick and easy way to turn services on and off to see how system performance is affected.

The SC subcommands

The "sc" command comes with numerous subcommands. A list can be seen at the this Microsoft page or by entering "sc /?" into a command prompt. There is also a list in the Windows XP Help and Support Center. Altogether, 24 subcommands are listed. Each subcommand in turn may have a subset of different commands. The table below shows a selection of the subcommands and their functions that are of most relevance to a typical PC owner. Much more detailed information is available at the XP Help and Support Center by searching "sc".

Table I. Selected subcommands for SC
Command	Function
sc config	Configures service startup and login accounts
sc continue	Resumes a paused service
sc enumdepend	Lists the services that cannot run unless the specified service is running
sc failure	Specifies what action to take upon failure of the service
sc pause	Pauses a service
sc qc	Displays the configuration of a particular service
sc query	Displays information about the specified service, driver, type of service, or type of driver
sc start	Starts a service running
sc stop	Sends a STOP request to a service (not all will respond)

Examples of some useful ways to apply SC

The suite of commands that are available are very powerful and allow for much configuring of services. Although not all functions will be of interest to the average PC use, some are applicable to everyday experience. You can learn if a service is runninng, stop, start. or pause it, and determine if it will run when the system is started up. Here are examples of some commands that I think might be of interest.

sc config: This command has a number of functions but one is to determine the status of a service at system startup. A service can be set to run automatically, manually or not at all. The commands aresc config ServiceName start= flagHere ServiceName is the name of the service and flag has one of the values auto, demand. or disabled . For example, to set a service to run manually the command is sc config ServiceName start= demandNote that there must be a space after the equals sign. The correct value for the parameter ServiceName may not always be obvious and the next command can be used to find it for all services.
sc query: Information about services and drivers can be obtained with this command. Used alone it returns a list of running services with various information about the service. Lists can be inconvenient to read on a screen and they can be redirected to a text file. To create a text list of running services use the commandsc query > serviceslist.txt The path for the text file serviceslist.txt can be anywhere that is convenient. To create a list of all services, usesc query type= service state= all > allserviceslist.txt To create a list of active drivers, use sc query type= driver Or for a list of everything, use sc query state= all
sc start: To start up a service that is not running, usesc start ServiceName
sc stop: To stop a running service, use sc stop ServiceName However, some services cannot or should not be stopped

List post titles in alphabetical or chronological order

2010-07-25T14:45:00.000-07:00

By Greenlava
In this tutorial I will show you how to list all your post titles. If you are looking for an alternative to Blogger’s Archive gadget, then this might be it. This list can also be used as a Table Of Contents. This list is made possible with the use of Yahoo! Pipe.
See the demo in Blogger Sentral Widget Showcase.
The list comes with several options:

List them inside a widget or inside a post.
Select whether to arrange them in alphabetical or chronological order. If you use your blog as an online serial novel, then chronological order is just what you need.
Select whether to include comment count at the end of each title.
Select ordered (numbered) or unordered (bulleted) list style.

Let’s get started.

The code





Make your own

Put list in a (dedicated) post

For the code to work, you must disable line breaks conversion in your blog. Go to Settings > Formatting and on Convert Line Breaks, select No.
Go to Blogger Post Editor.
Switch to Edit HTML mode.
Copy and paste the code in the editing window.
Save your post and view it. The list should be showing inside the post.
You may want to add a direct link to the post from your homepage. This can be done by adding navigation tabs or better still turn the dedicated post into a static page.

Put list in a gadget e.g. sidebar

Go to Design > Page Elements.
Click Add A Gadget link.
Select HTML/Javascript gadget.
Enter the title of your widget e.g. All Posts List.
Copy and paste the code inside the content box.
Save and view your blog.

This widget will show your blog’s latest 1000 post titles. Replace http://www.bloggersentral.com (the value of YourBlogUrl) with your own blog url, in code line 20. Do not include the slash (as in .com/).
Style the list with the inline style attribute in line 4.
If your list becomes too long, you might want to put it in a scroll box.

Selecting the options

Listing order -the default order is alphabetical. To change to chronological order, just change the word alphabet in code line 21 to chrono.
Comment count - comment count is displayed as default. To remove comment count, delete code line 13.
List style -the default is bulleted list. To change to numbered list, replace ul (in line 4 and 16) with ol.

Customizing the pipe (optional)

If you want further customize the widget output, you need to edit the (Yahoo) pipe itself. Follow the steps below:

Go to the Yahoo! pipe.
Log in to your Yahoo! account.
Create a clone by clicking the Clone button.
Click edit source to edit it in anyway you like.
When you’re done editing and saving, test run it by clicking Run Pipe button to confirm the output of the pipe.
To use your edited pipe, copy the pipe id and paste it to replace the existing id in line 22. (To get the id, look in your browser’s address bar. The id is the end part the url when you are viewing or editing the pipe.)

Enjoy!

Removing Newer and Older Post Links in Blogger Blog

2010-07-24T13:47:00.000-07:00

If you are using Blogger as blogging platform, you might be used to some of the built-in features, that you consider hard coded, but can be changed with slight template code modification. One of the hacks, presented in this publication, addresses a seemingly minor issue on the page - two links “Older Posts” and “Newer Posts” on the bottom of the page.

For those, who prefer their blog to be maximally close to the static webpages, these links not just unnecessary, but are plainly irritating. There is a way to remove them once and forever. And that is quite easy to do, even for not very experienced users. Note, that this hack will also remove “home” link from the bottom of the blog page.

Open Layout Tab in your blog profile page, choose Edit HTML, and search your code in your blog template for the following text:
#blog-pager-newer-link {
float: left;
}
#blog-pager-older-link {
float: right;
}
#blog-pager {
text-align: center;
}

Now replace that code with the following code:

#blog-pager-newer-link {
display: none;
}
#blog-pager-older-link {
display: none;
}
#blog-pager {
display: none;
}

Save the template and you are done.b

Remove Subscribe To Posts(Atom) Link From Blogger Blog

2010-07-24T13:40:00.000-07:00

You must have seen that at the botton of your blogger template there is a Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) link. Blogger has added it so that the blog visitors can subscribe to your Atom feeds. However many people use RSS for their blog feeds . Moreover it occupies space at the bottom of the template and it doesn't look nice.

Many people must have tried to remove it by visiting the Edit HTML option, but they wont find the Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) part anywhere in the template. This is because it isn't written within the a href tag. However removing it is very easy.

Before you start the work, make a backup of your template as a precautionary measure. To remove it click on Layout and click on Edit HTML

Now select Expand Widget Templates. After selecting it, search for the following code in the template

< b:include name='feedLinks'/>

Once you find the code, remove it and save your template. Refresh your blog and now the Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) link wont be there on your blog.

How to install OSX 10.5 Leopard on your Intel computer

2010-07-10T18:07:00.000-07:00

Courtesy : http://osx86.thefreesuite.com/leo_intel.php

Don't forget to read this before installing
I forgot the 'requirements' section on purpose. Please read through the whole guide and write down the things you need. This sounds stupid, but I want to force you to read through the whole guide prior to trying things out.

The actual guide 0. First you need to check if your CPU supports at least SSE2 (if you already know that your CPU supports at least SSE2, skip to the next step).

>> Download CPU-Z
>> Unzip and start the program. In the CPU tab, look if you see SSE2 somewhere (if you also see SSE3, congratulations, you have the perfect CPU!). If you only see SSE, ask your dad for a new CPU, otherwise this won't work.

1. If you are using Windows XP go to step 2. If you are using Windows Vista, skip to step 3.

2. You need to create at least 6GB unallocated space on your hard disk. If you know how to do this, don't hesitate to use your preferred method. If you don't know how to do this, download Partiton Magic 8 and shrink one of the partitions on your hard drive. After you've done that, skip to step 4.

>> Click on ‘Resize/Move Partition
>> Move the slider to make the partition smaller and hit OK
>> Click on ‘Apply’
>> Close Partition Magic

3. You need to create at least 6GB unallocated space on your hard drive. To do this, follow the steps below.

>> Press the windows logo in the bottom left corner of you screen
>> Right click ‘computer’ and select ‘manage’
>> Select ‘Disk Management’ in the ‘Computer Management’ screen.
>> Select a partition with at least 6GB of free space
>> Right click it and hit ’shrink volume”
>> Type in the amount of space to shrink (at least 6GB) and hit ‘Shrink’.
>> Close all open windows.

4. In Vista, hit [windows button] + R. In XP, go to start > Run. Type 'diskpart' (without quotes) in the run window and press OK.

5. In the command window, type:

>> List disk
>> Select disk [disk #]
>> List partition
>> create partition primary id=af
>> active

6. Insert the Leopard install disk (if you don't have it, search for a ToH RC2 disk on the usual places...) and reboot your computer.If it doesn't boot up your Leopard disk you may have to change your BIOS settings to alow booting from a DVD.

7. Wait for the DVD to boot up and select a language. Somewhere in the toolbar at the top of your screen (after you selected a language!) you'll see 'Disk Utility'. Open it and select the partition you created in step 5. Format it to HFS+ (journaled) and call it Leopard.

8. Follow all installation steps on your screen. Choose the HFS+ (journaled) partition you created in step 7 and don't forget to hit customize. Depending on the install disk you use you need to select or deselect packages.

9. The install will take about an hour, depending on your computer configuration. Take a cup of coffee and start praying.

10. When the installation finishes your computer should boot into Leopard! If it does, skip to step 16. If it does't, go to the next step.

11. Boot the Leopard instalation DVD again.

12. Open a terminal window (see the toolbar, it should be there) and type:

>> /usr/misc/script.sh Leopard (if you named the partition 'Leopard', if you gave it another name, replace 'Leopard' with your name)

13. Leopard should start booting now! If you are lucky, you can use it now, if you get a kernel panic, read on, otherwise, skip to step 16..

14. Restart the computer and hit F8 when you see the bootloader. Type in "cpus=1" and hit enter. If you still get a kernel panic, read on, otherwise skip to step 16.

15. Boot into your BIOS and disable SpeedStep. Try to boot Leopard now, still not working? Try to boot it in safe mode (type -x in the command line). if it's still not working, go to step 16.

16. When booted into Leopard, play with it for a while and then fire up a new terminal window. Type

sudo nano /library/preferences/systemconfiguration/com.apple.boot.plist

17. Type cpus=1 in the kernel flag string if you needed that flag in step 15. Add

Timeout
5
below the last string to setup a timeout for the bootloader. This'll allow you to choose your Windows partition when you start your computer.

18. You should now have a working dual boot configuration! Maybe there are still a few things not working like you hoped, search the forums at forums.osx86scene.org and forum.insanelymac.com for help. If you search the board before posting and use common sense, I'm sure that the community will help you.

OPTIONAL: Now you installed OSX on your computer using this great site, please visit our weblog. We're just starting it and it would be great if you could give it some exposure on your blog. Thanks!

FTP Server in Ubuntu

2010-07-10T13:46:00.000-07:00

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a TCP protocol for uploading and downloading files between computers. FTP works on a client/server model. The server component is called an FTP daemon. It continuously listens for FTP requests from remote clients. When a request is received, it manages the the login and sets up the connection. For the duration of the session it executes any of commands sent by the FTP client.
Access to an FTP server can be managed in two ways:

Anonymous
Authenticated

In the Anonymous mode, remote clients can access the FTP server by using the default user account called 'anonymous" or "ftp" and sending an email address as the password. In the Authenticated mode a user must have an account and a password. User access to the FTP server directories and files is dependent on the permissions defined for the account used at login. As a general rule, the FTP daemon will hide the root directory of the FTP server and change it to the FTP Home directory. This hides the rest of the file system from remote sessions.

vsftpd - FTP Server Installation

vsftpd is an FTP daemon available in Ubuntu. It is easy to install, set up, and maintain. To install vsftpd you can run the following command:

sudo apt-get install vsftpd

vsftpd - FTP Server Configuration

You can edit the vsftpd configuration file, /etc/vsftpd.conf, to change the default settings. By default only anonymous FTP is allowed. If you wish to disable this option, you should change the following line:

anonymous_enable=YES

anonymous_enable=NO

By default, local system users are not allowed to login to FTP server. To change this setting, you should uncomment the following line:

#local_enable=YES

By default, users are allowed to download files from FTP server. They are not allowed to upload files to FTP server. To change this setting, you should uncomment the following line:

#write_enable=YES

Similarly, by default, the anonymous users are not allowed to upload files to FTP server. To change this setting, you should uncomment the following line:

#anon_upload_enable=YES

The configuration file consists of many configuration parameters. The information about each parameter is available in the configuration file. Alternatively, you can refer to the man page, man 5 vsftpd.conf for details of each parameter.
Once you configure vsftpd you can start the daemon. You can run following command to run the vsftpd daemon:

sudo /etc/init.d/vsftpd start


	Please note that the defaults in the configuration file are set as they are for security reasons. Each of the above changes makes the system a little less secure, so make them only if you need them.

Turning Mac OS X Into A Web Server

2010-07-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

Now that you have been using OS X for a few weeks and are likely growing more comfortable with it, we can take a look at some of the very neat features that Apple has bundled with the new OS.
OS X's Unix core means that the OS is well equipped to handle industrial strength, OS reliant tasks such as ftp and Web serving. Apple has kindly provided a very simple way to access both features in OS X, but this week we are only going to talk about Web serving.
A Web server is a computer that sits patiently waiting for users to request documents (like HTML files) and images that reside somewhere on its hard drive. As you know, the World Wide Web essentially knows no time or space boundaries, meaning that a Web server must run reliably 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Most of this also happens without a system administrator having to intervene all that frequently. When put in this perspective, the responsibility of a Web server is enormous. It must run, all the time, with almost no human attention. Attempting to use Mac OS 8/9 as a Web server, for just that reason, was often problematic if not impossible. While it can be argued that the traditional Mac OS is more stable than its consumer oriented Windows counterparts, system problems and crashes were often far too frequent to use it as a Web server.
OS X does not suffer from such limitations.
OS X's Unix architecture is the same that runs nearly all modern day Web servers. Combined with the flexible and powerful Apache Web Server software, OS X is ready, out of the box, to host your Web site. Some non-OS related limitations include the amount of bandwidth you have available. Not only does the computer need to be on all the time, it needs to be actively connected to the Internet all the time as well. With the wide spread adoption of broadband connections like DSL and cable, this is often not as much of a problem as it once was. So, you have OS X, a fat pipe to the Internet, and you want to host some Web pages; what do you do next?
How Do I Set Up Web Sharing?
This is remarkably easy with OS X's interface for Apache. To enable Apache, users need to simply check a few boxes in Apple's System Preference area. Following is step-by-step run down of how to activate OS X's built-in Web server.

Open OS X's System Preferences application.

Choose the "Sharing" setting.

Under where it says "Web Sharing," click "Start"

If this works correctly, the window should now say "Web Sharing On" and the "Start" button has turned into a "Stop" button.

The Sharing preferences in your System Preferences.
(Click the thumbnail for a larger image.)

That is the basic part of it. Once you follow the above steps, your OS X computer is ready and waiting to be a Web server. But how do you get to it? Where do you put your HTML files?
At the bottom of the Sharing window under System Preferences you will see your system's current IP address (provided you are connected to the Internet). This is the "phone number" for your computer that other people can use to contact it. If you want to see proof that your computer is set up as a Web server, enter the IP address into a Web browser in this format: http://111.22.33.444 or whatever your IP address is. You will now be connected to your own Web serving computer.
Where Do I Put The Actual Web Site?
All of your Web site documents are stored in the Documents folder inside your Web Server folder. The full path is: computer/osx/library/webserver/documents
A number of files already reside in that folder. The first page that a Web browser looks for in a directory on any Web server is a file called index.html. If you look in your Documents folder in your WebServer folder, you will see a number of files that read "index.html.en" or something similar. To create a "home page" for your Web server, change the file that reads "index.html.en" to "index.html". Once you do this, go back to your Web browser and click the Refresh or Reload button. Now, if everything has gone right, you should see a page that looks like this:

The default Web page displayed
when you successfully install Apache.
(Click the thumbnail for a larger image.)

But I Have a Changing, or Dynamic, IP!
The single biggest problem for setting up your personal machine to function as a Web server is that most users have an IP address, or "computer phone number," that is always changing. This type of IP address is called a Dynamic IP, and can be problematic for establishing a Web site. Imagine if somebody tried to call you but your phone number changed every day? Now you see the problem.
Fortunately this can be corrected with a free service called dyndns.org. This service, combined with the free application DNSUpdate, allow users to set a "plain English" URL that is always mapped to their current system, regardless of what the current IP address is. This works by DNSUpdate sending a message to the dyndns.org servers every time your dynamic IP is changed. The dyndns.org servers then correctly map your most current IP address with whatever URL you decide to use. So, for example, you might be able to use the URL: osxiscool.dyndns.org
If the system is set up correctly, and you install the DNSUpdate client on your OS X computer, that URL should always reach your machine.
This is, of course, the most basic set of instructions for getting your new OS X computer running as a Web server. There are a large number of security issues to consider, and then there is the small matter of actually designing a Web site. However, if you are feeling motivated, this should get you headed in the right direction.

How to Add a Program to the Ubuntu Startup List (After Login)

2010-07-03T14:38:00.001-07:00

If you are coming from Windows, you are probably familiar wtih adding a shortcut to the Startup folder in the Start menu so that the program will start after you log in.
Ubuntu provides a little utility to help you accomplish the same thing, but it’s not named quite what you’d think, so you may not have found this.
And yes, for the more technical users, you can modify the startup script and accomplish the same thing.
You’ll find the tool on the System \ Preferences\ Sessions menu item:
Click the Add button, and type in the full path to the executable you are trying to start if it’s not in your path already. For instance, if you wanted to start the vmware toolbox, you’d put in vmware-toolbox into the textbox. You can also browse directly to the item you want to start.

UFW Mechanics

2010-07-03T14:35:00.001-07:00

Now that you have some security set up it is time to just see how it all works. The easiest method is to allow access to a specific port to everyone. For example, if you wanted to allow everyone access to your web server on port 80 you could do this command:
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
This allows everyone access to the web server using the tcp protocol. Simple, but this may not be what you want to do. Maybe you want to only allow some people access to the server. Here is how you could limit access to your web server for just one IP Address.

Ufw is the command followed by “allow” which determines access. The protocol must be listed as you do not want to allow udp on port 80 as it is not needed or used. You will create security holes if you just open a port to both tcp and udp. You must specifically indicate the protocol in each of your rules. The “from” determines access from specific IP Addresses or subnets. The “to any” provides access to the server and if the server is forwarding traffic, would allow access to internal machines as well.
Delete a Rule
When you want to delete a rule you will need to know what the rule was that you created and then just place ufw delete in front of the rule.

You can stop connections from specific IP Addresses or subnets by using the deny option.

If you wanted to stop all connections from a subnet you would just list that subnet:
sudo ufw deny from 192.168.4.0/24
Always use the status to check if your command is correct.
sudo ufw status
Status: active
To                         Action      From
–                         ——      —-
22/tcp                     ALLOW       192.68.5.0/24
Apache                     ALLOW       Anywhere
Anywhere                   DENY        192.168.4.0/24

Ubuntu 9.10 UFW Firewall

2010-07-03T14:34:00.000-07:00

ufw Firewall
UFW or Uncomplicated Firewall, is a text based firewall that works with iptables. UFW is designed to be an easier way to manage a firewall from the command line. Whether this is easier than learning iptables or not, you can decide. But UFW comes partially set up when you install Ubuntu. Now it is not activated by default so you have not protection but some basic settings are in place when you do start up UFW.
The Ubuntu 9.10 server brings three new features to the UFW firewall; outgoing filtering update, filtering by interface and bash completion. This now brings a total of 12 new features since the UFW was first released in version 8.04. Finally, the UFW is reaching a mature stage where you can use it instead of writing rules with iptables.

If you run the ufw command you will see a listing of the most important commands to run the ufw firewall. Take some time to look this over as you will need this as a resource.
ufw
Usage: ufw COMMAND
Commands:
enable                          enables the firewall
disable                         disables the firewall
default ARG                     set default policy
logging LEVEL                   set logging to LEVEL
allow ARGS                      add allow rule
deny ARGS                       add deny rule
reject ARGS                     add reject rule
limit ARGS                      add limit rule
delete RULE                     delete RULE
insert NUM RULE                 insert RULE at NUM
status                          show firewall status
status numbered                 show firewall status as numbered list of RULES
status verbose                  show verbose firewall status
show ARG                        show firewall report
version                         display version information
Application profile commands:
app list                        list application profiles
app info PROFILE                show information on PROFILE
app update PROFILE              update PROFILE
app default ARG                 set default application policy
Managing UFW
The first step in managing the firewall is to check the status.
sudo ufw status
Status: inactive
When you see a status as inactive you know that your server is vulnerable to attacks on open ports. It is important that you get UFW up and protecting your server before you connect to the Internet.
The first thing to do is to make sure you have access to the server remotely using SSH. Be sure you have installed SSH on the server with:
sudo apt-get install ssh
Now create a firewall rule before you actually activate the firewall so if you are accessing it from SSH you will not break your connection.
As root complete the following commands.
sudo ufw allow proto tcp from 192.68.5.0/24 to any port 22
Rules updated
sudo ufw enable
Command may disrupt existing ssh connections. Proceed with operation (y|n)? y
Firewall is active and enabled on system startup
Note that a subnet was allowed for connection on port 22. If you wanted to enter a single IP Address just change it to the IP Address you want.
Now you have access using SSH it is important before you create additional rules to understand what your firewall looks like from the outside, what ports are really open.
sudo apt-get install nmap
nmap 192.168.5.96
Starting Nmap 5.00 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2009-10-13 07:05 MDT
Interesting ports on 192.168.5.96:
Not shown: 996 closed ports
PORT     STATE SERVICE
22/tcp   open ssh
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.16 seconds
State Rules
There are already several common rules that are configured into the firewall immediately. One of those is the state rules that provide for any RELATED or ESTABLISHED connections. This means that if you connect to a web server from a machine it will allow the information you requested from the web server to return based on the fact that the local machine established the connection and the returning information was related to that request.

The Linux kernel includes the Netfilter subsystem, which is used to manipulate or decide the fate of network traffic headed into or through your server. All modern Linux firewall solutions use this system for packet filtering.
The kernel's packet filtering system would be of little use to administrators without a userspace interface to manage it. This is the purpose of iptables. When a packet reaches your server, it will be handed off to the Netfilter subsystem for acceptance, manipulation, or rejection based on the rules supplied to it from userspace via iptables. Thus, iptables is all you need to manage your firewall if you're familiar with it, but many frontends are available to simplify the task.

ufw - Uncomplicated Firewall

The default firewall configuration tool for Ubuntu is ufw. Developed to ease iptables firewall configuration, ufw provides a user friendly way to create an IPv4 or IPv6 host-based firewall.
ufw by default is initially disabled. From the ufw man page:
“ ufw is not intended to provide complete firewall functionality via its command interface, but instead provides an easy way to add or remove simple rules. It is currently mainly used for host-based firewalls. ”
The following are some examples of how to use ufw:

First, ufw needs to be enabled. From a terminal prompt enter:
```
sudo ufw enable
```
To open a port (ssh in this example):
```
sudo ufw allow 22
```
Rules can also be added using a numbered format:
```
sudo ufw insert 1 allow 80
```
Similarly, to close an opened port:
```
sudo ufw deny 22
```
To remove a rule, use delete followed by the rule:
```
sudo ufw delete deny 22
```
It is also possible to allow access from specific hosts or networks to a port. The following example allows ssh access from host 192.168.0.2 to any ip address on this host:
```
sudo ufw allow proto tcp from 192.168.0.2 to any port 22
```
Replace 192.168.0.2 with 192.168.0.0/24 to allow ssh access from the entire subnet.

Adding the --dry-run option to a ufw command will output the resulting rules, but not apply them. For example, the following is what would be applied if opening the HTTP port:

 sudo ufw --dry-run allow http

*filter
:ufw-user-input - [0:0]
:ufw-user-output - [0:0]
:ufw-user-forward - [0:0]
:ufw-user-limit - [0:0]
:ufw-user-limit-accept - [0:0]
### RULES ###

### tuple ### allow tcp 80 0.0.0.0/0 any 0.0.0.0/0
-A ufw-user-input -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT

### END RULES ###
-A ufw-user-input -j RETURN
-A ufw-user-output -j RETURN
-A ufw-user-forward -j RETURN
-A ufw-user-limit -m limit --limit 3/minute -j LOG --log-prefix "[UFW LIMIT]: "
-A ufw-user-limit -j REJECT
-A ufw-user-limit-accept -j ACCEPT
COMMIT
Rules updated

ufw can be disabled by:
```
sudo ufw disable
```
To see the firewall status, enter:
```
sudo ufw status
```
And for more verbose status information use:
```
sudo ufw status verbose
```
To view the numbered format:
```
sudo ufw status numbered
```


	If the port you want to open or close is defined in `/etc/services`, you can use the port name instead of the number. In the above examples, replace 22 with ssh.

This is a quick introduction to using ufw. Please refer to the ufw man page for more information.

ufw Application Integration

Applications that open ports can include an ufw profile, which details the ports needed for the application to function properly. The profiles are kept in /etc/ufw/applications.d, and can be edited if the default ports have been changed.

To view which applications have installed a profile, enter the following in a terminal:
```
sudo ufw app list
```
Similar to allowing traffic to a port, using an application profile is accomplished by entering:
```
sudo ufw allow Samba
```

An extended syntax is available as well:

ufw allow from 192.168.0.0/24 to any app Samba

Replace Samba and 192.168.0.0/24 with the application profile you are using and the IP range for your network.


	There is no need to specify the protocol for the application, because that information is detailed in the profile. Also, note that the app name replaces the port number.

To view details about which ports, protocols, etc are defined for an application, enter:
```
sudo ufw app info Samba
```

Not all applications that require opening a network port come with ufw profiles, but if you have profiled an application and want the file to be included with the package, please file a bug against the package in Launchpad.

IP Masquerading

The purpose of IP Masquerading is to allow machines with private, non-routable IP addresses on your network to access the Internet through the machine doing the masquerading. Traffic from your private network destined for the Internet must be manipulated for replies to be routable back to the machine that made the request. To do this, the kernel must modify the source IP address of each packet so that replies will be routed back to it, rather than to the private IP address that made the request, which is impossible over the Internet. Linux uses Connection Tracking (conntrack) to keep track of which connections belong to which machines and reroute each return packet accordingly. Traffic leaving your private network is thus "masqueraded" as having originated from your Ubuntu gateway machine. This process is referred to in Microsoft documentation as Internet Connection Sharing.

ufw Masquerading

IP Masquerading can be achieved using custom ufw rules. This is possible because the current back-end for ufw is iptables-restore with the rules files located in /etc/ufw/*.rules. These files are a great place to add legacy iptables rules used without ufw, and rules that are more network gateway or bridge related.
The rules are split into two different files, rules that should be executed before ufw command line rules, and rules that are executed after ufw command line rules.

First, packet forwarding needs to be enabled in ufw. Two configuration files will need to be adjusted, in /etc/default/ufw change the DEFAULT_FORWARD_POLICY to “ACCEPT”:
```
DEFAULT_FORWARD_POLICY="ACCEPT"
```
Then edit /etc/ufw/sysctl.conf and uncomment:
```
net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
```
Similarly, for IPv6 forwarding uncomment:
```
net.ipv6.conf.default.forwarding=1
```

Now we will add rules to the /etc/ufw/before.rules file. The default rules only configure the filter table, and to enable masquerading the nat table will need to be configured. Add the following to the top of the file just after the header comments:

# nat Table rules
*nat
:POSTROUTING ACCEPT [0:0]

# Forward traffic from eth1 through eth0.
-A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.0.0/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

# don't delete the 'COMMIT' line or these nat table rules won't be processed
COMMIT

The comments are not strictly necessary, but it is considered good practice to document your configuration. Also, when modifying any of the rules files in /etc/ufw, make sure these lines are the last line for each table modified:

# don't delete the 'COMMIT' line or these rules won't be processed
COMMIT

For each Table a corresponding COMMIT statement is required. In these examples only the nat and filter tables are shown, but you can also add rules for the raw and mangle tables.


	In the above example replace eth0, eth1, and 192.168.0.0/24 with the appropriate interfaces and IP range for your network.

Finally, disable and re-enable ufw to apply the changes:
```
sudo ufw disable && sudo ufw enable
```

IP Masquerading should now be enabled. You can also add any additional FORWARD rules to the /etc/ufw/before.rules. It is recommended that these additional rules be added to the ufw-before-forward chain.

iptables Masquerading

iptables can also be used to enable masquerading.

Similar to ufw, the first step is to enable IPv4 packet forwarding by editing /etc/sysctl.conf and uncomment the following line
```
net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
```
If you wish to enable IPv6 forwarding also uncomment:
```
net.ipv6.conf.default.forwarding=1
```
Next, execute the sysctl command to enable the new settings in the configuration file:
```
sudo sysctl -p
```
IP Masquerading can now be accomplished with a single iptables rule, which may differ slightly based on your network configuration:
```
sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.0.0/16 -o ppp0 -j MASQUERADE
```
The above command assumes that your private address space is 192.168.0.0/16 and that your Internet-facing device is ppp0. The syntax is broken down as follows:
- -t nat -- the rule is to go into the nat table
- -A POSTROUTING -- the rule is to be appended (-A) to the POSTROUTING chain
- -s 192.168.0.0/16 -- the rule applies to traffic originating from the specified address space
- -o ppp0 -- the rule applies to traffic scheduled to be routed through the specified network device
- -j MASQUERADE -- traffic matching this rule is to "jump" (-j) to the MASQUERADE target to be manipulated as described above
Also, each chain in the filter table (the default table, and where most or all packet filtering occurs) has a default policy of ACCEPT, but if you are creating a firewall in addition to a gateway device, you may have set the policies to DROP or REJECT, in which case your masqueraded traffic needs to be allowed through the FORWARD chain for the above rule to work:
```
sudo iptables -A FORWARD -s 192.168.0.0/16 -o ppp0 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A FORWARD -d 192.168.0.0/16 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -i ppp0 -j ACCEPT
```
The above commands will allow all connections from your local network to the Internet and all traffic related to those connections to return to the machine that initiated them.
If you want masquerading to be enabled on reboot, which you probably do, edit /etc/rc.local and add any commands used above. For example add the first command with no filtering:
```
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.0.0/16 -o ppp0 -j MASQUERADE
```

Logs

Firewall logs are essential for recognizing attacks, troubleshooting your firewall rules, and noticing unusual activity on your network. You must include logging rules in your firewall for them to be generated, though, and logging rules must come before any applicable terminating rule (a rule with a target that decides the fate of the packet, such as ACCEPT, DROP, or REJECT).
If you are using ufw, you can turn on logging by entering the following in a terminal:

sudo ufw logging on

To turn logging off in ufw, simply replace on with off in the above command.
If using iptables instead of ufw, enter:

sudo iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 80 -j LOG --log-prefix "NEW_HTTP_CONN: "

A request on port 80 from the local machine, then, would generate a log in dmesg that looks like this:

[4304885.870000] NEW_HTTP_CONN: IN=lo OUT= MAC=00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:08:00 SRC=127.0.0.1 DST=127.0.0.1 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=58288 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=53981 DPT=80 WINDOW=32767 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0

The above log will also appear in /var/log/messages, /var/log/syslog, and /var/log/kern.log. This behavior can be modified by editing /etc/syslog.conf appropriately or by installing and configuring ulogd and using the ULOG target instead of LOG. The ulogd daemon is a userspace server that listens for logging instructions from the kernel specifically for firewalls, and can log to any file you like, or even to a PostgreSQL or MySQL database. Making sense of your firewall logs can be simplified by using a log analyzing tool such as fwanalog, fwlogwatch, or lire.

Other Tools

There are many tools available to help you construct a complete firewall without intimate knowledge of iptables. For the GUI-inclined:

Firestarter is quite popular and easy to use.
fwbuilder is very powerful and will look familiar to an administrator who has used a commercial firewall utility such as Checkpoint FireWall-1.

If you prefer a command-line tool with plain-text configuration files:

Shorewall is a very powerful solution to help you configure an advanced firewall for any network.
ipkungfu should give you a working firewall "out of the box" with zero configuration, and will allow you to easily set up a more advanced firewall by editing simple, well-documented configuration files.
fireflier is designed to be a desktop firewall application. It is made up of a server (fireflier-server) and your choice of GUI clients (GTK or QT), and behaves like many popular interactive firewall applications for Windows.

References

The Ubuntu Firewall wiki page contains information on the development of ufw.
Also, the ufw manual page contains some very useful information: man ufw.
See the packet-filtering-HOWTO for more information on using iptables.
The nat-HOWTO contains further details on masquerading.

Resetting the original administrator account password

2010-06-16T14:10:00.000-07:00

Follow these steps to reset a password when there is only one administrator account on the computer, or if the original administrator account needs a password reset. "Original" administrator account refers to the one that was created immediately after installing Mac OS X. If the original administrator password is known, that administrator account may be used to reset the passwords of other administrator accounts using the steps described above. These steps require an optical drive; if your Mac does not have an optical drive and you have a Mac OS X v10.6 Install disc, see below.

Start up from a Mac OS X Install disc (one whose version is closest to the version of Mac OS X installed). Usually, you can start from the disc by putting it in your computer, restarting, and holding the C key. Or, put it in the computer and click the Install or Restore icon you see in the disc's main window (after which the computer will start from the disc without you needing to hold C). Or, you can use Startup Manager or the Startup Disk preference pane to select the Install disc.
Choose a language, click the arrow button to continue,
Mac OS X v10.6 or later: Choose Password Reset from the Utilities menu.
Mac OS X v10.5 or v10.4: Choose Reset Password from the Utilities menu.
Mac OS X v10.3: Choose Reset Password from the Installer menu.

Tip: If you don't see this menu or menu choice, you're probably not started from the disc yet.

Note: The default keyboard layout is U.S. English while started from the installation disc. If you use a keyboard layout other than U.S English, use the Input menu (the flag icon on the right side of the menu bar) to select the desired layout before typing a new password.
Select your Mac OS X hard disk volume.
Select the user name of your original administrator account.

Important: Do not select "System Administrator (root)". This is actually the root user. You should not confuse it with a normal administrator account.
Enter a new password.
Click Save.
Click the red button in the upper left corner to quit the application.
Choose Quit Mac OS X Installer... from the Mac OS X Installer menu.
Click Restart.

How do KVM switches work?

2010-06-16T11:28:00.001-07:00

1. What is the difference between a mechanical KVM switch and an electronic KVM switch?

There are two main types of KVM switches, mechanical and electronic.Mechanical switches use no electronics or intelligent circuitry. You must physically turn a rotary switch to the channel through which you want to pass information. These switches cannot communicate with the computers at the end of each closed channel or interpret the information that passes through the switch. For example, to turn on the computers attached to the KVM switch, you must manually turn the rotary switch to each computer port individually. While the rotary switch is at a particular computer port, you can turn that computer on. You must wait for it to boot before going to the next computer. NTI does offer a selection of mechanical switches for customers who prefer this low-cost option. Electronics switches operate on the same principle as mechanical switches, but can communicate with the user and maintain continuous contact with all the attached computers. NTI's advanced KVM electronic switches will fully emulate the mouse and keyboard connections for each computer, even when that computer is not selected. They do this by dedicating a microprocessor to each computer attached to the KVM console. This ensures that all attached computers can boot and maintain connections. As a result, switching is seamless and you can even reboot servers through the switch.

2. How are Electronic KVM switches controlled?

NTI KVM switches can be controlled from the front panel buttons or by using "hot keys." Some models are also offered with optional On Screen Display (OSD), Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), Wired Remote Control, and RS232 control options. For information on which options are available for specific models, click on the Options icon at the bottom of the appropriate product description page on this website, or contact Customer Service at 800-742-8324. Click on the Options link for further Options FAQs.

3. How do the hot keys work?

Enter the command mode by hitting CNTL` (Control Key + tick mark located on same key as tilde~) and set your options. To exit you hit the Escape key.

How to Hide Files Inside JPEG/GIF/PNG Images

2010-06-16T11:23:00.000-07:00

Author: Himanshu

We discussed various methods for hiding files inside your computer. Methods include super secure Truecrypt which offers military level security and handy MyLockbox to lock any folder. But all these methods require installation of software on your PC which is obviously visible to others.
We are now going to talk about a unique method of hiding files that’s kinda sneaky and doesn’t require a third-party tool. This technique involves hiding files inside JPEG, GIF or PNG images. Sounds cool, right? Lets see how it is done.
1. Create a folder in C drive. Give it a name, lets say Testfile. It’s location should be C:\Testfile.
2. Now move all the files you want to hide inside this folder. Also move the image file in which you want to hide those files. Let’s say the files which I want to hide are FileA.txt and FileB.txt, and the image file is Image.jpg. We are taking .txt files as an example. You can take files of any format (.mp3, .doc, .divx, .flv etc.) and any number of files.

3. Select both the files you want to hide (FileA.txt and FileB.txt in this case), right click and select “Add to Archive”. Make sure that you’ve got a file compression tool like WinZip or ZipGenius installed.

4. Give it a name. I have given Compressed.rar. You can give it any name.

5. Click on “Start” button. Type cmd in the search box. Press Enter.

6. A command prompt window will open.

7. Type cd \ and press Enter to get to the root directory.

8. Now type cd Testfile to enter in the newly created directory.

9. Type copy /b Image.png + Compressed.rar Secretimage.png and press Enter.

10. When you look up at Testfile folder, you will find a new image file called SecretImage.png. This image file is created in previous step with the help of command. Secretimage is just a name given to the new image. You could give any name and extension (like xyz.jpg or xyz.png).
Both the files FileA.txt and FileB.txt are hidden inside this image file. You can delete rest of the files now.

How to get our Files back from the image

That’s easy too. Just right click on the image (SecretImage.png) and open it with Winrar/Winzip/ZipGenius. You will see both the hidden files. Extract them anywhere on your computer.
Update: From comments I came to know that few users are facing problem while opening image file in Winrar application. They can change the file extension of secret image file in which all the other files are hidden from .jpg to .RAR. (In the above case SecretImage.png to Secretimage.RAR) and then open it with the help of Winrar.

Wi-Fi Working Concepts

2010-06-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

here are three most important items which makes Wi-Fi working in your laptop or desktop. These are:

Radio Signals
Wi-Fi Card which fits in your laptop or computer.
Hotspots which create Wi-Fi Network.

Radio Signals:
Radio Signals are the keys which make WiFi networking possible. These radio signals transmitted from Wi-Fi antennas are picked up by WiFi receivers such as computers and cell phones that are equipped with WiFi cards. Whenever a computer receives any of the signals within the range of a WiFi network which is usually 300 - 500 feet for antennas, the WiFi card will read the signals and thus create an internet connection between the user and the network without the use of a cord.
Access points which consist of antennas and routers are the main source which transmit and receive radio waves.
Antennas work stronger and have a longer radio transmission with a radius of 300-500 feet which are used in public areas while the weaker yet effective router is more suitable for homes with a radio transmission of 100-150 feet.
Wi-Fi Cards:
You can think WiFi card as being an invisible cord that connects your computer to the antenna for a direct connection to the internet.
WiFi cards can be external or internal, meaning that if a WiFi card is not installed in your computer, you may purchase a USB antenna attachment and have it externally connect to your USB port, or have an antenna-equipped expansion card installed directly to the computer. For laptops, this card will be a PCMCIA card in which you insert to the PCMCIA slot on the laptop.
Wi-Fi Hotspots:
A Wi-Fi hotspot is created by installing an access point to an internet connection. The access point transmits a wireless signal over a short distance . typically covering around 300 feet. When a Wi-Fi .enabled device, such as a Pocket PC, encounters a hotspot, the device can then connect to that network wirelessly.
Most hotspots are located in places that are readily accessible to the public, like airports, coffee shops, hotels, book stores and campus environments. 802.11b is the most common specification for hotspots worldwide. The 802.11g standard is backwards compatible with .11b but .11a uses a different frequency range and requires separate hardware such as an a, a/g, or a/b/g adapter. The largest public Wi-Fi networks are provided by private internet service providers (ISPs) that charge a fee for users to connect to the internet.
Hotspots are increasingly developing around the world. In fact, T-mobile USA controls more than 4,100 hotspots located in public locations such as Starbucks, Borders, Kinko.s, and the airline clubs of Delta, United, and US Airways. Even select McDonald.s restaurants now feature Wi-Fi hotspot access.
Any notebook computer with integrated wireless, a wireless adapter attached to the motherboard by the manufacturer, or a wireless adapter such as a PCMCIA card can access a wireless network. Furthermore, all Pocket PCs or Palm units with Compact Flash, SD I/O support, or built-in Wi-Fi, can access hotspots.
Some Hotspots require WEP key to connect that is the connection is considered to be private or secure. As for open connections, anyone with a WiFi card can gain access to that hotspot. So in order for a user to gain access to the internet under WEP, the user must input the WEP key code.

Working Principle of Bluetooth Technology

2010-06-16T00:57:00.000-07:00

Bluetooth was the brainchild of the SIG (Special Interest Group). This SIG included Intel, Toshiba, Nokia, IBM, Compaq, Dell, Motorola, HP, Lucent, and Samsung to name a few. They all came together to set up a short frequency wireless technology for transferring data.
Bluetooth is a communication protocol. It is a like a language that devices use to wirelessly communicate between each other. It is in fact based on a Master/Slave operation format. Pico net is a term used to describe a network formed by one device and all other devices detected in its range. In single coverage are around 10 Pico nets can co-exist. A master can connect to more than one slave simultaneously. In reality, the master keeps switching between slaves. Bluetooth links two Pico nets to form a larger network. This works over a short range and can be used to establish connections between PDAs, mobile phones, laptops, digital cameras, printers, scanner, and many other electronic gadgets.
Establishing a connection using Bluetooth is a complicated process. Initially, the device stays in a "Passive state", i.e. it is just in contact with the network, but not performing any activity. Next the connection establishment process begins with the inquiry process. "Inquiry" is a request sent by the master to all the devices found in its range. Whichever devices receive this inquiry send a response with their respective addresses. Now the master chooses one address and synchronises with its access point. This process known as the "Paging technique" involves alignment of its clock and frequency with that of the access point.
Next in line is the "Service Discovery" phase, wherein a link is established and the master device enters the access point using the Service Discovery Protocol. As a result of linking, a "Communication Channel" is to be created. Sometimes the access point may include a security mechanism and you may need to know the encryption key or in common terms the PIN. Once the PIN is sent and received and confirmed a communication is established. Finally the master and slave can use the communication channel to transfer data and information.
Thus Bluetooth is neither a broadband nor a long distance networking technique. It is a Personal Area Networking technology that can be used in a number of important applications. First of all, Bluetooth technology uses the same frequency range as the Wi-Fi system. It only requires a careful coordination of the various frequencies with the perfect transmit and receive timings between various devices. Finally, the enhanced version of Bluetooth is expected to use Ultra-Wide Band frequencies that contributes increased data rate and improved signal strength.

How VoIP Works

2010-06-12T00:37:00.000-07:00

If you've never heard of VoIP, get ready to change the way you think about long-distance phone calls. VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is a method for taking analog audio signals, like the kind you hear when you talk on the phone, and turning them into digital data that can be transmitted over the Internet.
How is this useful? VoIP can turn a standard Internet connection into a way to place free phone calls. The practical upshot of this is that by using some of the free VoIP software that is available to make Internet phone calls, you're bypassing the phone company (and its charges) entirely.

VoIP is a revolutionary technology that has the potential to completely rework the world's phone systems. VoIP providers like Vonage have already been around for a while and are growing steadily. Major carriers like AT&T are already setting up VoIP calling plans in several markets around the United States, and the FCC is looking seriously at the potential ramifications of VoIP service.
Above all else, VoIP is basically a clever "reinvention of the wheel." In this article, we'll explore the principles behind VoIP, its applications and the potential of this emerging technology, which will more than likely one day replace the traditional phone system entirely.
The interesting thing about VoIP is that there is not just one way to place a call. There are three different "flavors" of VoIP service in common use today:

ATA -- The simplest and most common way is through the use of a device called an ATA (analog telephone adaptor). The ATA allows you to connect a standard phone to your computer or your Internet connection for use with VoIP. The ATA is an analog-to-digital converter. It takes the analog signal from your traditional phone and converts it into digital data for transmission over the Internet. Providers like Vonage and AT&T CallVantage are bundling ATAs free with their service. You simply crack the ATA out of the box, plug the cable from your phone that would normally go in the wall socket into the ATA, and you're ready to make VoIP calls. Some ATAs may ship with additional software that is loaded onto the host computer to configure it; but in any case, it's a very straightforward setup.
IP Phones -- These specialized phones look just like normal phones with a handset, cradle and buttons. But instead of having the standard RJ-11 phone connectors, IP phones have an RJ-45 Ethernet connector. IP phones connect directly to your router and have all the hardware and software necessary right onboard to handle the IP call. Wi-Fi phones allow subscribing callers to make VoIP calls from any Wi-Fi hot spot.
Computer-to-computer -- This is certainly the easiest way to use VoIP. You don't even have to pay for long-distance calls. There are several companies offering free or very low-cost software that you can use for this type of VoIP. All you need is the software, a microphone, speakers, a sound card and an Internet connection, preferably a fast one like you would get through a cable or DSL modem. Except for your normal monthly ISP fee, there is usually no charge for computer-to-computer calls, no matter the distance.

If you're interested in trying VoIP, then you should check out some of the free VoIP software available on the Internet. You should be able to download and set it up in about three to five minutes. Get a friend to download the software, too, and you can start tinkering with VoIP to get a feel for how it works.

Using VoIP

Chances are good you're already making VoIP calls any time you place a long-distance call. Phone companies use VoIP to streamline their networks. By routing thousands of phone calls through a circuit switch and into an IP gateway, they can seriously reduce the bandwidth they're using for the long haul. Once the call is received by a gateway on the other side of the call, it's decompressed, reassembled and routed to a local circuit switch.
Although it will take some time, you can be sure that eventually all of the current circuit-switched networks will be replaced with packet-switching technology (more on packet switching and circuit switching later). IP telephony just makes sense, in terms of both economics and infrastructure requirements. More and more businesses are installing VoIP systems, and the technology will continue to grow in popularity as it makes its way into our homes. Perhaps the biggest draws to VoIP for the home users that are making the switch are price and flexibility.
With VoIP, you can make a call from anywhere you have broadband connectivity. Since the IP phones or ATAs broadcast their info over the Internet, they can be administered by the provider anywhere there's a connection. So business travelers can take their phones or ATAs with them on trips and always have access to their home phone. Another alternative is the softphone. A softphone is client software that loads the VoIP service onto your desktop or laptop. The Vonage softphone has an interface on your screen that looks like a traditional telephone. As long as you have a headset/microphone, you can place calls from your laptop anywhere in the broadband-connected world.
Most VoIP companies are offering minute-rate plans structured like cell phone bills for as little as $30 per month. On the higher end, some offer unlimited plans for $79. With the elimination of unregulated charges and the suite of free features that are included with these plans, it can be quite a savings.
Most VoIP companies provide the features that normal phone companies charge extra for when they are added to your service plan. VoIP includes:

Caller ID
Call waiting
Call transfer
Repeat dial
Return call
Three-way calling

There are also advanced call-filtering options available from some carriers. These features use caller ID information to allow you make a choice about how calls from a particular number are handled. You can:

Forward the call to a particular number
Send the call directly to voice mail
Give the caller a busy signal
Play a "not-in-service" message
Send the caller to a funny rejection hotline

With many VoIP services, you can also check voice mail via the Web or attach messages to an e-mail that is sent to your computer or handheld. Not all VoIP services offer all of the features above. Prices and services vary, so if you're interested, it's best to do a little shopping.
Now that we've looked at VoIP in a general sense, let's look more closely at the components that make the system work. To understand how VoIP really works and why it's an improvement over the traditional phone system, it helps to first understand how a traditional phone system works.

VoIP: Circuit Switching

Existing phone systems are driven by a very reliable but somewhat inefficient method for connecting calls called circuit switching.
Circuit switching is a very basic concept that has been used by telephone networks for more than 100 years. When a call is made between two parties, the connection is maintained for the duration of the call. Because you're connecting two points in both directions, the connection is called a circuit. This is the foundation of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).
Here's how a typical telephone call works:

You pick up the receiver and listen for a dial tone. This lets you know that you have a connection to the local office of your telephone carrier.
You dial the number of the party you wish to talk to.
The call is routed through the switch at your local carrier to the party you are calling.
A connection is made between your telephone and the other party's line using several interconnected switches along the way.
The phone at the other end rings, and someone answers the call.
The connection opens the circuit.
You talk for a period of time and then hang up the receiver.
When you hang up, the circuit is closed, freeing your line and all the lines in between.

Let's say you talk for 10 minutes. During this time, the circuit is continuously open between the two phones. In the early phone system, up until 1960 or so, every call had to have a dedicated wire stretching from one end of the call to the other for the duration of the call. So if you were in New York and you wanted to call Los Angeles, the switches between New York and Los Angeles would connect pieces of copper wire all the way across the United States. You would use all those pieces of wire just for your call for the full 10 minutes. You paid a lot for the call, because you actually owned a 3,000-mile-long copper wire for 10 minutes.
Telephone conversations over today's traditional phone network are somewhat more efficient and they cost a lot less. Your voice is digitized, and your voice along with thousands of others can be combined onto a single fiber optic cable for much of the journey (there's still a dedicated piece of copper wire going into your house, though). These calls are transmitted at a fixed rate of 64 kilobits per second (Kbps) in each direction, for a total transmission rate of 128 Kbps. Since there are 8 kilobits (Kb) in a kilobyte (KB), this translates to a transmission of 16 KB each second the circuit is open, and 960 KB every minute it's open. In a 10-minute conversation, the total transmission is 9,600 KB, which is roughly equal to 10 megabytes (check out How Bits and Bytes Work to learn about these conversions). If you look at a typical phone conversation, much of this transmitted data is wasted.

VoIP: Packet Switching

A packet-switched phone network is the alternative to circuit switching. It works like this: While you're talking, the other party is listening, which means that only half of the connection is in use at any given time. Based on that, we can surmise that we could cut the file in half, down to about 4.7 MB, for efficiency. Plus, a significant amount of the time in most conversations is dead air -- for seconds at a time, neither party is talking. If we could remove these silent intervals, the file would be even smaller. Then, instead of sending a continuous stream of bytes (both silent and noisy), what if we sent just the packets of noisy bytes when you created them?
Data networks do not use circuit switching. Your Internet connection would be a lot slower if it maintained a constant connection to the Web page you were viewing at any given time. Instead, data networks simply send and retrieve data as you need it. And, instead of routing the data over a dedicated line, the data packets flow through a chaotic network along thousands of possible paths. This is called packet switching.
While circuit switching keeps the connection open and constant, packet switching opens a brief connection -- just long enough to send a small chunk of data, called a packet, from one system to another. It works like this:

The sending computer chops data into small packets, with an address on each one telling the network devices where to send them.
Inside of each packet is a payload. The payload is a piece of the e-mail, a music file or whatever type of file is being transmitted inside the packet.
The sending computer sends the packet to a nearby router and forgets about it. The nearby router send the packet to another router that is closer to the recipient computer. That router sends the packet along to another, even closer router, and so on.
When the receiving computer finally gets the packets (which may have all taken completely different paths to get there), it uses instructions contained within the packets to reassemble the data into its original state.

Packet switching is very efficient. It lets the network route the packets along the least congested and cheapest lines. It also frees up the two computers communicating with each other so that they can accept information from other computers, as well.

Advantages of Using VoIP

VoIP technology uses the Internet's packet-switching capabilities to provide phone service. VoIP has several advantages over circuit switching. For example, packet switching allows several telephone calls to occupy the amount of space occupied by only one in a circuit-switched network. Using PSTN, that 10-minute phone call we talked about earlier consumed 10 full minutes of transmission time at a cost of 128 Kbps. With VoIP, that same call may have occupied only 3.5 minutes of transmission time at a cost of 64 Kbps, leaving another 64 Kbps free for that 3.5 minutes, plus an additional 128 Kbps for the remaining 6.5 minutes. Based on this simple estimate, another three or four calls could easily fit into the space used by a single call under the conventional system. And this example doesn't even factor in the use of data compression, which further reduces the size of each call.
Let's say that you and your friend both have service through a VoIP provider. You both have your analog phones hooked up to the service-provided ATAs. Let's take another look at that typical telephone call, but this time using VoIP over a packet-switched network:

You pick up the receiver, which sends a signal to the ATA.
The ATA receives the signal and sends a dial tone. This lets you know that you have a connection to the Internet.
You dial the phone number of the party you wish to talk to. The tones are converted by the ATA into digital data and temporarily stored.
The phone number data is sent in the form of a request to your VoIP company's call processor. The call processor checks it to ensure that it's in a valid format.
The call processor determines to whom to map the phone number. In mapping, the phone number is translated to an IP address (more on this later). The soft switch connects the two devices on either end of the call. On the other end, a signal is sent to your friend's ATA, telling it to ask the connected phone to ring.
Once your friend picks up the phone, a session is established between your computer and your friend's computer. This means that each system knows to expect packets of data from the other system. In the middle, the normal Internet infrastructure handles the call as if it were e-mail or a Web page. Each system must use the same protocol to communicate. The systems implement two channels, one for each direction, as part of the session.
You talk for a period of time. During the conversation, your system and your friend's system transmit packets back and forth when there is data to be sent. The ATAs at each end translate these packets as they are received and convert them to the analog audio signal that you hear. Your ATA also keeps the circuit open between itself and your analog phone while it forwards packets to and from the IP host at the other end.
You finish talking and hang up the receiver.
When you hang up, the circuit is closed between your phone and the ATA.
The ATA sends a signal to the soft switch connecting the call, terminating the session.

VoIP Terms

The central call processor is a piece of hardware running a specialized database/mapping program called a soft switch. See the "Soft Switches" section to learn more.

Probably one of the most compelling advantages of packet switching is that data networks already understand the technology. By migrating to this technology, telephone networks immediately gain the ability to communicate the way computers do.
It will still be at least a decade before communications companies can make the full switch over to VoIP. As with all emerging technologies, there are certain hurdles that have to be overcome.

Disadvantages of Using VoIP

The current Public Switched Telephone Network is a robust and fairly bulletproof system for delivering phone calls. Phones just work, and we've all come to depend on that. On the other hand, computers, e-mail and other related devices are still kind of flaky. Let's face it -- few people really panic when their e-mail goes down for 30 minutes. It's expected from time to time. On the other hand, a half hour of no dial tone can easily send people into a panic. So what the PSTN may lack in efficiency it more than makes up for in reliability. But the network that makes up the Internet is far more complex and therefore functions within a far greater margin of error. What this all adds up to is one of the major flaws in VoIP: reliability.

First of all, VoIP is dependant on wall power. Your current phone runs on phantom power that is provided over the line from the central office. Even if your power goes out, your phone (unless it is a cordless) still works. With VoIP, no power means no phone. A stable power source must be created for VoIP.
Another consideration is that many other systems in your home may be integrated into the phone line. Digital video recorders, digital subscription TV services and home security systems all use a standard phone line to do their thing. There's currently no way to integrate these products with VoIP. The related industries are going to have to get together to make this work.
Emergency 911 calls also become a challenge with VoIP. As stated before, VoIP uses IP-addressed phone numbers, not NANP phone numbers. There's no way to associate a geographic location with an IP address. So if the caller can't tell the 911 operator where he is located, then there's no way to know which call center to route the emergency call to and which EMS should respond. To fix this, perhaps geographical information could somehow be integrated into the packets.

Testing, Testing...

Wondering if your broadband connection could support VoIP service? Brix Network offers a way to test your Internet connection to see how well it works.

Because VoIP uses an Internet connection, it's susceptible to all the hiccups normally associated with home broadband services. All of these factors affect call quality:
- Latency
- Jitter
- Packet loss
Phone conversations can become distorted, garbled or lost because of transmission errors. Some kind of stability in Internet data transfer needs to be guaranteed before VoIP could truly replace traditional phones.
VoIP is susceptible to worms, viruses and hacking, although this is very rare and VoIP developers are working on VoIP encryption to counter this.
Another issue associated with VoIP is having a phone system dependant on individual PCs of varying specifications and power. A call can be affected by processor drain. Let's say you are chatting away on your softphone, and you decide to open a program that saps your processor. Quality loss will become immediately evident. In a worst case scenario, your system could crash in the middle of an important call. In VoIP, all phone calls are subject to the limitations of normal computer issues.

One of the hurdles that was overcome some time ago was the conversion of the analog audio signal your phone receives into packets of data. How it is that analog audio is turned into packets for VoIP transmission? The answer is codecs.

VoIP: Codecs

A codec, which stands for coder-decoder, converts an audio signal into compressed digital form for transmission and then back into an uncompressed audio signal for replay. It's the essence of VoIP.
Codecs accomplish the conversion by sampling the audio signal several thousand times per second. For instance, a G.711 codec samples the audio at 64,000 times a second. It converts each tiny sample into digitized data and compresses it for transmission. When the 64,000 samples are reassembled, the pieces of audio missing between each sample are so small that to the human ear, it sounds like one continuous second of audio signal. There are different sampling rates in VoIP depending on the codec being used:

64,000 times per second
32,000 times per second
8,000 times per second

A G.729A codec has a sampling rate of 8,000 times per second and is the most commonly used codec in VoIP.
Codecs use advanced algorithms to help sample, sort, compress and packetize audio data. The CS-ACELP algorithm (CS-ACELP = conjugate-structure algebraic-code-excited linear prediction) is one of the most prevalent algorithms in VoIP. CS-ACELP organizes and streamlines the available bandwidth. Annex B is an aspect of CS-ACELP that creates the transmission rule, which basically states "if no one is talking, don't send any data." The efficiency created by this rule is one of the greatest ways in which packet switching is superior to circuit switching. It's Annex B in the CS-ACELP algorithm that's responsible for that aspect of the VoIP call.
The codec works with the algorithm to convert and sort everything out, but it's not any good without knowing where to send the data. In VoIP, that task is handled by soft switches.
E.164 is the name given to the standard for the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). This is the numbering system that phone networks use to know where to route a call based on the dialed numbers. A phone number is like an address:

(313) 555-1212

313

555

1212

The switches use "313" to route the phone call to the area code's region. The "555" prefix sends the call to a central office, and the network routes the call using the last four digits, which are associated with a specific location. Based on that system, no matter where you're in the world, the number combination "(313) 555" always puts you in the same central office, which has a switch that knows which phone is associated with "1212."
The challenge with VoIP is that IP-based networks don't read phone numbers based on NANP. They look for IP addresses, which look like this:

192.158.10.7

IP addresses correspond to a particular device on the network like a computer, a router, a switch, a gateway or a telephone. However, IP addresses are not always static. They're assigned by a DHCP server on the network and change with each new connection. VoIP's challenge is translating NANP phone numbers to IP addresses and then finding out the current IP address of the requested number. This mapping process is handled by a central call processor running a soft switch.
The central call processor is hardware that runs a specialized database/mapping program called a soft switch. Think of the user and the phone or computer as one package -- man and machine. That package is called the endpoint. The soft switch connects endpoints.
Soft switches know:

Where the network's endpoint is
What phone number is associated with that endpoint
The endpoint's current IP address

VoIP: Soft Switches and Protocols

The soft switch contains a database of users and phone numbers. If it doesn't have the information it needs, it hands off the request downstream to other soft switches until it finds one that can answer the request. Once it finds the user, it locates the current IP address of the device associated with that user in a similar series of requests. It sends back all the relevant information to the softphone or IP phone, allowing the exchange of data between the two endpoints.
Soft switches work in tandem with network devices to make VoIP possible. For all these devices to work together, they must communicate in the same way. This communication is one of the most important aspects that will have to be refined for VoIP to take off.

Protocols
As we've seen, on each end of a VoIP call we can have any combination of an analog, soft or IP phone as acting as a user interface, ATAs or client software working with a codec to handle the digital-to-analog conversion, and soft switches mapping the calls. How do you get all of these completely different pieces of hardware and software to communicate efficiently to pull all of this off? The answer is protocols.
There are several protocols currently used for VoIP. These protocols define ways in which devices like codecs connect to each other and to the network using VoIP. They also include specifications for audio codecs. The most widely used protocol is H.323, a standard created by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). H.323 is a comprehensive and very complex protocol that was originally designed for video conferencing. It provides specifications for real-time, interactive videoconferencing, data sharing and audio applications such as VoIP. Actually a suite of protocols, H.323 incorporates many individual protocols that have been developed for specific applications.

H.323 Protocol Suite
Video	Audio	Data	Transport
H.261 H.263	G.711 G.722 G.723.1 G.728 G.729	T.122 T.124 T.125 T.126 T.127	H.225 H.235 H.245 H.450.1 H.450.2 H.450.3 RTP X.224.0

As you can see, H.323 is a large collection of protocols and specifications. That's what allows it to be used for so many applications. The problem with H.323 is that it's not specifically tailored to VoIP.
An alternative to H.323 emerged with the development of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). SIP is a more streamlined protocol, developed specifically for VoIP applications. Smaller and more efficient than H.323, SIP takes advantage of existing protocols to handle certain parts of the process. Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP) is a third commonly used VoIP protocol that focuses on endpoint control. MGCP is geared toward features like call waiting. You can learn more about the architecture of these protocols at Protocols.com: Voice Over IP.
One of the challenges facing the worldwide use of VoIP is that these three protocols are not always compatible. VoIP calls going between several networks may run into a snag if they hit conflicting protocols. Since VoIP is a relatively new technology, this compatibility issue will continue to be a problem until a governing body creates a standard universal protocol for VoIP.
VoIP is a vast improvement over the current phone system in efficiency, cost and flexibility. Like any emerging technology, VoIP has some challenges to overcome, but it's clear that developers will keep refining this technology until it eventually replaces the current phone system.

VoIP Call Monitoring

VoIP has its distinct advantages and disadvantages. The greatest advantage of VoIP is price and the greatest disadvantage is call quality. For businesses who deploy VoIP phone networks -- particularly those who operate busy call centers (customer service, tech support, telemarketing, et cetera) -- call quality issues are both inevitable and unacceptable. To analyze and fix call quality issues, most of these businesses use a technique called VoIP call monitoring.
VoIP call monitoring, also known as quality monitoring (QM), uses hardware and software solutions to test, analyze and rate the overall quality of calls made over a VoIP phone network [source: ManageEngine]. Call monitoring is a key component of a business's overall quality of service (QoS) plan.
Call monitoring hardware and software uses various mathematical algorithms to measure the quality of a VoIP call and generate a score. The most common score is called the mean opinion score (MOS). The MOS is measured on a scale of one to five, although 4.4 is technically the highest score possible on a VoIP network [source: TestYourVoIP.com]. An MOS of 3.5 or above is considered a "good call" [source: ManageEngine].
To come up with the MOS, call monitoring hardware and software analyzes several different call quality parameters, the most common being:

Latency -- This is the time delay between two ends of a VoIP phone conversation. It can be measured either one-way or round trip. Round-trip latency contributes to the "talk-over effect" experienced during bad VoIP calls, where people end up talking over each other because they think the other person has stopped speaking. A round-trip latency of over 300 millisecond is considered poor [source: TestYourVoIP.com].
Jitter -- Jitter is latency caused by packets arriving late or in the wrong order [source: SearchVoIP.com]. Most VoIP networks try to get rid of jitter with something called a jitter buffer that collects packets in small groups, puts them in the right order and delivers them to the end user all at once. VoIP callers will notice a jitter of 50 msec or greater [source: TestYourVoIP.com].
Packet loss -- Part of the problem with a jitter buffer is that sometimes it gets overloaded and late-arriving packets get "dropped" or lost [source: TestYourVoIP.com]. Sometimes the packets will get lost sporadically throughout a conversation (random loss) and sometimes whole sentences will get dropped (bursty loss) [source: TestYourVoIP.com]. Packet loss is measured as a percentage of lost packets to received packets.

There are two different types of call monitoring: active and passive. Active (or subjective) call monitoring happens before a company deploys its VoIP network. Active monitoring is often done by equipment manufacturers and network specialists who use a company's VoIP network exclusively for testing purposes [source: VoIP Troubleshooter.com]. Active testing can't occur once a VoIP network is deployed and employees are already using the system.
Passive call monitoring analyzes VoIP calls in real-time while they're being made by actual users [source: VoIP Troubleshooter.com]. Passive call monitoring can detect network traffic problems, buffer overloads and other glitches that network administrators can fix in network down time.
Another method for call monitoring is recording VoIP phone calls for later analysis. This type of analysis is limited, however, to what can be heard during the call, not what's happening on the actual network. This type of monitoring is usually done by human beings, not computers, and is called quality assurance.

VoIP Cell Phones

VoIP-enabled cell phones are just entering the consumer market. In the United States, only T-Mobile's HotSpot@Home service allows customers to make cell phone calls over a VoIP network. HotSpot@Home relies on a device called a dual-mode cell phone.
Dual-mode cell phones contain both a regular cellular radio and a Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) radio. The Wi-Fi radio enables the cell phone to connect to a wireless Internet network through a wireless router. If you have a wireless Internet router in your home, or if you're sitting at a Starbucks with wireless Internet access, you can use your cell phone to make VoIP calls. Here's how it works:

When the cell phone is in range of a wireless Internet network, the phone automatically recognizes and connects to the network.
Any calls you initiate on the wireless network are routed through the Internet as VoIP calls. With HotSpot@Home, all VoIP calls are free.
If the phone is out of range of a wireless Internet signal, it automatically switches over to the regular cellular network and calls are charged as normal.
Dual-mode phones can hand off seamlessly from Wi-Fi to cellular (and vice versa) in the middle of a call as you enter and exit Wi-Fi networks.

Similar to dual-mode cell phones are Wi-Fi phones. Wi-Fi phones aren't technically cell phones because they only have a Wi-Fi radio, not a cellular radio. Wi-Fi phones look like cell phones (small, lightweight handsets), but can only make calls when connected to a wireless Internet network. That means all Wi-Fi phone calls are VoIP calls.
Wi-Fi phones are useful in large companies and offices with their own extensive wireless networks. And could prove to be the next big thing, with the expanding market for municipal Wi-Fi. [source: Dr. Dobb's Portal]. Imagine that your entire city was covered by a high-speed wireless network. That means cheap (if not free) VoIP calls wherever you go.
In England, a company called Hutchinson 3G (or simply 3) has partnered with the popular VoIP service Skype to introduce the 3 Skypephone. The Skypephone allows users to make free cell phone calls to other Skype users. The phone can also make regular cell-phone calls to non-Skype users for the normal fees. Here's how it works:

To make a Skype call using the 3 Skypephone, you have to be on 3's cellular network.
To initiate a Skype call, find a Skype user in your phone's address book and press the big "Skype" button.
The call first goes over 3's cellular GSM network to a fixed Internet line, which then connects the call to Skype [source: mobileSift].
From your 3 Skypephone, you can make free VoIP calls to other Skype users whether they have a Skypephone or not. You can talk to Skype users on their PCs or using other Skype VoIP products.

The 3 Skypephone isn't currently available in the United States.

Use of VoIP in Amateur Radio

Think of amateur radio, or ham radio, as an early version of the Internet. Using a worldwide network of radio towers, antennas and transceivers, amateur radio enthusiasts are able to communicate with fellow hobbyists around the globe, sometimes by voice and sometimes by Morse code.
Amateur radio is limited by the distance that radio waves can travel. To send a signal to the other side of the world requires calculated timing and more than a little bit of luck. Every 11 years, for example, there's a peak in the number of sunspots produced by the sun, which increases the intensity of something called ionospheric propagation [source: International Solar Terrestrial Physics Program]. By bouncing radio signals high into the ionosphere, ham radio users can send long-distance messages. During off-peak years it's much more difficult.
Now amateur radio fans are using VoIP technology to link users around the globe. Here's how it works. Ham radio has always relied on FM repeaters, large radio towers that act as base stations for accessing the radio network from home. By attaching an Internet-connected PC to these repeater stations, people can communicate with the repeater using VoIP.
Several amateur radio fans have developed special software that helps connect home radio transceivers to the Internet. Users can connect their ham radio transceivers to their PC sound card and use the computer software to search for available repeater stations across the world [source: ARRL]. No longer are ham radio fans limited to the closest repeater station. If you live in Indiana, you can call into a repeater station in Mozambique and chat with local amateur radio aficionados instantly.
There are also software programs that allow you to communicate with other amateur radio users directly from your PC, without having an actual ham radio [source: ARRL]. Some ham radio purists wouldn't call this amateur radio, while others hope that this new technology will draw more young people into the hobby.

Related Articles

GNU Parted User Manual

2010-06-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

Copyright © 1999-2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License”.
This document describes the use of GNU Parted, a program for creating, destroying, resizing, checking and copying hard drive partitions, and the file systems on them.
This document applies roughly to version 2.3 of GNU Parted.
The original version was written by Andrew Clausen in text format. Richard M. Kreuter translated it into Texinfo format in 2002, to be heavily edited by Leslie P. Polzer in 2006.

Short Contents

GNU Parted User Manual1 Introduction2 Using Parted3 Related informationAppendix A Copying This ManualAppendix B This manual's historyIndex

1 Introduction

1.1 Overview of GNU Parted

GNU Parted is a program for creating, destroying, resizing, checking and copying partitions, and the file systems on them.
This is useful for creating space for new operating systems, for reorganizing disk usage, for copying data between hard disks and for “disk imaging” — replicating an installation on another computer.
This documentation is written with the assumption that the reader has some understanding of partitioning and file systems. If you want to learn more about these, the upcoming GNU Storage Guide is recommended reading.
GNU Parted was designed to minimize the chance of data loss. For example, it was designed to avoid data loss during interruptions (like power failure) and performs many safety checks. However, there could be bugs in GNU Parted, so you should back up your important files before running Parted. Also note that reiserfs support relies on libreiserfs, which does not fulfil the aforementioned requirement. The same holds for any external tools like ntfsresize.
The GNU Parted homepage is http://www.gnu.org/software/parted. The library and frontend themselves can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/parted. You can also find a listing of mailing lists, notes for contributing and more useful information on the web site.
Please send bug reports to bug-parted@gnu.org. When sending bug reports, please include the version of GNU Parted. Please include the output from these commands (for disk /dev/hda):

# parted /dev/hda print unit s print unit chs print

Feel free to ask for help on this list — just check that your question isn't answered here first. If you don't understand the documentation, please tell us, so we can explain it better. General philosophy is: if you need to ask for help, then something needs to be fixed so you (and others) don't need to ask for help.
Also, we'd love to hear your ideas :-)

Next: Supported Platforms, Previous: Overview, Up: Introduction

1.2 Software Required for the use of Parted

If you're installing or compiling Parted yourself, you'll need to have some other programs installed. If you are compiling Parted, you will need both the normal and devel packages of these programs installed:

libuuid, part of the e2fsprogs package. If you don't have this, you can get it from: http://web.mit.edu/tytso/www/linux/e2fsprogs.html
If you want to compile Parted and e2fsprogs, note that you will need to make install and make install-libs e2fsprogs.
GNU Readline (optional), available from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/readline
If you are compiling Parted, and you don't have readline, you can disable Parted's readline support with the --disable-readline option for configure.
GNU gettext (or compatible software) for compilation, if internationalisation support is desired. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gettext
libreiserfs, if you want reiserfs support: http://reiserfs.osdn.org.ua
Note that parted will automatically detect libreiserfs at runtime, and enable reiserfs support. libreiserfs is new, and hasn't been widely tested yet.

Next: License, Previous: Software Required, Up: Introduction

1.3 Platforms on which GNU Parted runs

Hopefully, this list will grow a lot. If you do not have one of these platforms, then you can use a rescue disk and a static binary of GNU Parted. See Static binaries.

GNU/Linux: Linux versions 2.0 and up, on Alpha, x86 PCs, PC98, Macintosh PowerPC, Sun hardware.
GNU/Hurd

GNU libc 2.1 or higher is required. You can probably use older versions by using the ‘--disable-nls’ option. See Building GNU Parted. (Note: I think we have now dropped this requirement. TODO: check if libc 2.0 works!)

Next: Compiling, Previous: Supported Platforms, Up: Introduction

1.4 Terms of distribution for GNU Parted

GNU Parted is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License Version 2. This should have been included with the Parted distribution, in the COPYING file. If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
Libparted is considered part of GNU Parted. It is covered by the GNU General Public License. It is NOT released under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).

Next: Static binaries, Previous: License, Up: Introduction

1.5 Building GNU Parted

If you want to compile GNU Parted, this is generally done with:

$ ./configure
     $ make

However, there are a few options for configure:

--without-readline: turns off use of readline. This is useful for making rescue disks, etc., where few libraries are available.
--disable-debug: don't include assertions
--disable-dynamic-loading: disables dynamic loading of some libraries (only libreiserfs for now, although we hope to expand this). Dynamic loading is useful because it allows you to reuse libparted shared libraries even when you don't know if some libraries will be available. It has a small overhead (mainly linking with libdl), so it may be useful to disable it on bootdisks if you don't need the flexibility.
--disable-fs: disable all file system support
--disable-nls: turns off native language support. This is useful for use with old versions of glibc, or a trimmed down version of glibc suitable for rescue disks.
--disable-shared: turns off shared libraries. This may be necessary for use with old versions of GNU libc, if you get a compile error about a “spilled register”. Also useful for boot/rescue disks.
--disable-Werror: ignore warning messages in compilation
--enable-discover-only: support only reading/probing (reduces size considerably)
--enable-mtrace: enable malloc() debugging
--enable-read-only: disable writing (for debugging)

Previous: Compiling, Up: Introduction

1.6 Using static binaries of GNU Parted

1.6.1 Introduction

If you want to run GNU Parted on a machine without GNU/Linux installed, or you want to resize a root or boot partition, you will need to use a boot disk.
Special boot disk images for GNU Parted used to be available, but with the emergence of a plethora of rescue disks and Live CDs that all include GNU Parted this is no longer necessary. However, please note that these disks often ship with out-of-date versions of Parted. To compensate for this a static binary of the latest GNU Parted version is available, which you can use thus:

1.6.2 Creating the Parted disk

Boot your system
Download parted-static-VERSION.tgz from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/parted/static
Unpack the tarball, resulting in a file called “parted.static".
Insert a floppy.
Do a low-level format on it (on GNU/Linux this can be achieved with the tool “fdformat" from the “util-linux" package. This is basically a sanity check because floppy disks often contain bad blocks.

Create a file system. Example:

$ parted /dev/fd0 mklabel loop mkpartfs ext2 0 1.4

Mount the floppy disk, e.g.,
```
$ mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
```
Copy parted.static to the floppy, e.g.,
```
$ cp parted.static /mnt/floppy
```
Unmount the floppy, e.g.,
```
$ umount /mnt/floppy
```

1.6.3 Using the Parted disk

Choose a rescue disk that suits you.
Boot off your rescue disk. Mount the disk you copied Parted onto.

Run Parted. For example,

# cd /mnt/floppy
          # ./parted-static

Next: Related information, Previous: Introduction, Up: Top

2 Using Parted

Next: Running Parted, Up: Using Parted

2.1 Introduction to Partitioning

Unfortunately, partitioning your disk is rather complicated. This is because there are interactions between many different systems that need to be taken into consideration.
This manual used to introduce the reader to these systems and their working. This content has moved to the GNU Storage Guide.

Next: Invoking Parted, Previous: Partitioning, Up: Using Parted

2.2 Using GNU Parted

Parted has two modes: command line and interactive. Parted should always be started with:

# parted device

where device is the hard disk device to edit. (If you're lazy and omit the DEVICE argument, Parted will attempt to guess which device you want.)

In command line mode, this is followed by one or more commands. For example:

# parted /dev/sda resize 1 52Mb 104Mb mkfs 2 fat16

Options (like --help) can only be specified on the command line.

In interactive mode, commands are entered one at a time at a prompt, and modify the disk immediately. For example:

(parted) resize 1 52.0005Mb 104.5Mb
     (parted) mkfs 2 fat16

Unambiguous abbreviations are allowed. For example, you can type “p” instead of “print”, and “resi” instead of “resize”. Commands can be typed either in English, or your native language (if your language has been translated). This may create ambiguities. Commands are case-insensitive.

Numbers indicating partition locations can be whole numbers or decimals. The suffix selects the unit, which may be one of those described in unit, except CHS and compact. If no suffix is given, then the default unit is assumed. Negative numbers count back from the end of the disk, with “-1s” indicating the end of the disk. Parted will compute sensible ranges for the locations you specify (e.g. a range of +/- 500 MB when you specify the location in “G”). Use the sector unit “s” to specify exact locations.
If you don't give a parameter to a command, Parted will prompt you for it. For example:

(parted) resize 1
     Start? 0Gb
     End? 40Gb

Parted will always warn you before doing something that is potentially dangerous, unless the command is one of those that is inherently dangerous (viz., rm, mklabel and mkfs). For example, if you attempt to shrink a partition “too much” (i.e., by more than the free space available), Parted will automatically reduce the shrinkage so that the partition is the smallest it can be without losing data. If this size is significantly different from the size requested, Parted will warn you. Since many partitioning systems have complicated constraints, Parted will usually do something slightly different to what you asked. (For example, create a partition starting at 10.352Mb, not 10.4Mb) If the calculated values differ too much, Parted will ask you for confirmation.
Currently ext3 filesystem functionality does not work. To manage ext3 type filesystems use tools like resize2fs or mke2fs. Note that the currently supported ext2 filesystem will be deprecated once ext3 support is finalized. Further note that ext3 support will have limited functionality that is yet to be defined. Use tools like resize2fs (8) and mke2fs (8) to manage these types of filesystems.

Next: Command explanations, Previous: Running Parted, Up: Using Parted

2.3 Command Line Options

When invoked from the command line, Parted supports the following syntax:

# parted [option] device [command [argument]]

Available options and commands follow. For detailed explanations of the use of Parted commands, see Command explanations. Options begin with a hyphen, commands do not:
Options:

‘-h’
‘--help’: display a help message
‘-s’
‘--script’: never prompt the user
‘-a alignment-type’
‘--align alignment-type’: Set alignment for newly created partitions, valid alignment types are: none, cylinder, minimal and optimal.
‘-v’
‘--version’: display the version

Previous: Invoking Parted, Up: Using Parted

2.4 Parted Session Commands

GNU Parted provides the following commands:

Next: check, Up: Command explanations

2.4.1 align-check

— Command: align-check align-type n

Determine whether the starting sector of partition n meets the disk's selected alignment criteria. align-type must be ‘minimal’, ‘optimal’ or an abbreviation. When in script mode, if the partition does not meet the alignment requirement, exit with status 1; otherwise (including on older kernels for which alignment data is not available), continue processing any remaining commands. Without --script, print either ‘N aligned’ or ‘N not aligned’.
Example:
(parted) align-check minimal 1
          1 aligned

Next: cp, Previous: align-check, Up: Command explanations

2.4.2 check

— Command: check number

Checks if the file system on partition number has any errors.
Example:
(parted) check 1
Check the file system on partition 1.

Next: help, Previous: check, Up: Command explanations

2.4.3 cp

— Command: cp [from-device] from-number to-number

Copies the file system on the partition from-number to partition to-number, deleting the original contents of the destination partition.
An optional device parameter, from-device can be given, which specifies which device the source partition is on.
Supported file systems:
ext2 (provided the destination partition is larger than the source partition)
fat16, fat32
linux-swap (equivalent to mkswap on destination partition)
reiserfs (if libreiserfs is installed)
Example:
(parted) cp /dev/hdb 2 3
Copy partition 2 of /dev/hdb (i.e., /dev/hdb2) to partition on 3, on the device Parted was loaded with, destroying the original contents of partition 3.

Next: mklabel, Previous: cp, Up: Command explanations

2.4.4 help

— Command: help [command]

Prints general help, or help on command.
Example:
(parted) help resize
Print help for the resize command.

Next: mkfs, Previous: help, Up: Command explanations

2.4.5 mklabel

— Command: mklabel label-type

Creates a new disk label, of type label-type. The new disk label will have no partitions. This command (normally) won't technically destroy your data, but it will make it basically unusable, and you will need to use the rescue command (see Related information) to recover any partitions. Parted works on all partition tables. ¹
label-type must be one of these supported disk labels:
bsd
loop (raw disk access)
gpt
mac
msdos
pc98
sun
Example:
(parted) mklabel msdos
Create an MS-DOS disk label. This is still the most common disk label for PCs.

Next: mkpart, Previous: mklabel, Up: Command explanations

2.4.6 mkfs

— Command: mkfs number fs-type

Makes a file system fs-type on partition number, destroying all data that resides on that partition.
Supported file systems:
ext2
fat16, fat32
linux-swap
reiserfs (if libreiserfs is installed)
Example:
(parted) mkfs 2 fat32
Make a fat32 file system on partition 2.

Next: mkpartfs, Previous: mkfs, Up: Command explanations

2.4.7 mkpart

— Command: mkpart [part-type fs-type name] start end

Creates a new partition, without creating a new file system on that partition. This is useful for creating partitions for file systems (or LVM, etc.) that Parted doesn't support. You may specify a file system type, to set the appropriate partition code in the partition table for the new partition. fs-type is required for data partitions (i.e., non-extended partitions). start and end are the offset from the beginning of the disk, that is, the “distance” from the start of the disk.
part-type is one of ‘primary’, ‘extended’ or ‘logical’, and may be specified only with ‘msdos’ or ‘dvh’ partition tables. A name must be specified for a ‘gpt’ partition table. Neither part-type nor name may be used with a ‘sun’ partition table.
fs-type must be one of these supported file systems:
ext2
fat16, fat32
hfs, hfs+, hfsx
linux-swap
NTFS
reiserfs
ufs
Example:
(parted) mkpart logical 0.0 692.1
Create a logical partition that will contain an ext2 file system. The partition will start at the beginning of the disk, and end 692.1 megabytes into the disk.

Next: move, Previous: mkpart, Up: Command explanations

2.4.8 mkpartfs

— Command: mkpartfs part-type fs-type start end

Creates a new partition of type part-type with a new file system of type fs-type on it. The new partition will start start megabytes, and end end megabytes from the beginning of the disk. Do not use this command to recover a deleted partition (use mkpart instead). Using this command is discouraged. Instead use mkpart to create an empty partition, and then use external tools like mke2fs (8) to create the filesystem.
part-type is one of: primary, extended, logical. Extended and logical are only used for msdos and dvh disk labels.
fs-type must be one of these supported file systems:
ext2
fat16, fat32
linux-swap
reiserfs (if libreiserfs is installed)
Example:
(parted) mkpartfs logical ext2 440 670
Make a logical partition and write an ext2 file system, starting 440 megabytes and ending 670 megabytes from the beginning of the disk.

Next: name, Previous: mkpartfs, Up: Command explanations

2.4.9 move

— Command: move number start end

Moves partition on the disk, by moving its beginning to start. You can't move a partition so that the old and new positions overlap. That is, you can only move partitions into free space. If you want to resize a partition in-place, use resize.
Move never changes the partition number.
Supported file systems:
ext2 (provided the destination partition is larger than the source partition)
fat16, fat32
linux-swap
reiserfs (if libreiserfs is installed)
Example:
(parted) move 2 150M 500M
Move the partition numbered 2 so that it begins 150 megabytes from the start of the disk, and ends 500 megabytes from the start.

Next: print, Previous: move, Up: Command explanations

2.4.10 name

— Command: name number name

Sets the name for the partition number (GPT, Mac, MIPS and PC98 only). The name can be placed in quotes.
Example:
(parted) name 2 'Secret Documents'
Set the name of partition 2 to `Secret Documents'.

Next: quit, Previous: name, Up: Command explanations

2.4.11 print

— Command: print [number]

Displays the partition table on the device parted is editing, or detailed information about a particular partition.
Example:

(parted) print
          Disk geometry for /dev/hda: 0.000-2445.679 megabytes
          Disk label type: msdos
          Minor    Start       End     Type      Filesystem  Flags
          1          0.031    945.000  primary   fat32       boot, lba
          2        945.000   2358.562  primary   ext2
          3       2358.562   2445.187  primary   linux-swap
          (parted) print 1
          Minor: 1
          Flags: boot, lba
          File System: fat32
          Size:            945.000Mb (0%)
          Minimum size:     84.361Mb (0%)
          Maximum size:   2445.679Mb (100%)

Next: rescue, Previous: print, Up: Command explanations

2.4.12 quit

— Command: quit

Quits Parted.
It is only after Parted exits that the Linux kernel knows about the changes Parted has made to the disks. However, the changes caused by typing your commands will probably be made to the disk immediately after typing a command. However, the operating system's cache and the disk's hardware cache may delay this.

Next: resize, Previous: quit, Up: Command explanations

2.4.13 rescue

— Command: rescue start end

Rescue a lost partition that used to be located approximately between start and end. If such a partition is found, Parted will ask you if you want to create a partition for it. This is useful if you accidently deleted a partition with parted's rm command, for example.
Example:

(parted) print
          Disk geometry for /dev/hdc: 0.000-8063.507 megabytes
          Disk label type: msdos
          Minor    Start       End     Type      Filesystem  Flags
          1          0.031   8056.032  primary   ext3
          (parted) rm
          Partition number? 1
          (parted) print
          Disk geometry for /dev/hdc: 0.000-8063.507 megabytes
          Disk label type: msdos
          Minor    Start       End     Type      Filesystem  Flags

OUCH! We deleted our ext3 partition!!! Parted comes to the rescue...

(parted) rescue
          Start? 0
          End? 8056
          Information: A ext3 primary partition was found at 0.031MB ->
          8056.030MB.  Do you want to add it to the partition table?
          Yes/No/Cancel? y
          (parted) print
          Disk geometry for /dev/hdc: 0.000-8063.507 megabytes
          Disk label type: msdos
          Minor    Start       End     Type      Filesystem  Flags
          1          0.031   8056.032  primary   ext3

It's back! :)

Next: rm, Previous: rescue, Up: Command explanations

2.4.14 resize

— Command: resize number start end

Resizes the partition with number number. The partition will start start from the beginning of the disk, and end end from the beginning of the disk. resize never changes the partition number. Extended partitions can be resized only so long as the new extended partition completely contains all logical partitions.
Note that Parted can manipulate partitions whether or not they have been defragmented, so you do not need to defragment the disk before using Parted.
Supported file systems:
ext2 – restriction: the new start must be the same as the old start.
fat16, fat32
hfs, hfs+, hfsx – restriction: the new start must be the same as the old start and the new end must be smaller than the old end.
linux-swap
reiserfs (if libreiserfs is installed)
Example:
(parted) resize 3 200M 850M
Resize partition 3, so that it begins 200 megabytes and ends 850 megabytes from the beginning of the disk.

Next: select, Previous: resize, Up: Command explanations

2.4.15 rm

— Command: rm number

Removes the partition with number number. If you accidently delete a partition with this command, use mkpart (not mkpartfs) to recover it. Also, you can use the gpart program (see Related information) to recover damaged disk labels.
Note for msdos disk labels: if you delete a logical partition, all logical partitions with a larger partition number will be renumbered. For example, if you delete a logical partition with a partition number of 6, then logical partitions that were number 7, 8 and 9 would be renumbered to 6, 7 and 8 respectively. This means, for example, that you have to update /etc/fstab on GNU/Linux systems.
Example:
(parted) rm 3
Remove partition 3.

Next: set, Previous: rm, Up: Command explanations

2.4.16 select

— Command: select device

Selects the device, device, for Parted to edit. The device can be a Linux hard disk device, a partition, a software RAID device or LVM logical volume.
Example:
(parted) select /dev/hdb
Select /dev/hdb (the slave device on the first ide controller on Linux) as the device to edit.

Next: unit, Previous: select, Up: Command explanations

2.4.17 set

— Command: set number flag state

Changes a flag on the partition with number number. A flag can be either “on” or “off”. Some or all of these flags will be available, depending on what disk label you are using:
‘bios_grub’
(GPT) - Enable this to record that the selected partition is a GRUB BIOS partition.
‘boot’
(Mac, MS-DOS, PC98) - should be enabled if you want to boot off the partition. The semantics vary between disk labels. For MS-DOS disk labels, only one partition can be bootable. If you are installing LILO on a partition that partition must be bootable. For PC98 disk labels, all ext2 partitions must be bootable (this is enforced by Parted).
‘lba’
(MS-DOS) - this flag can be enabled to tell MS DOS, MS Windows 9x and MS Windows ME based operating systems to use Linear (LBA) mode.
‘root’
(Mac) - this flag should be enabled if the partition is the root device to be used by Linux.
‘swap’
(Mac) - this flag should be enabled if the partition is the swap device to be used by Linux.
‘hidden’
(MS-DOS, PC98) - this flag can be enabled to hide partitions from Microsoft operating systems.
‘raid’
(MS-DOS) - this flag can be enabled to tell linux the partition is a software RAID partition.
‘LVM’
(MS-DOS) - this flag can be enabled to tell linux the partition is a physical volume.
‘PALO’
(MS-DOS) - this flag can be enabled so that the partition can be used by the Linux/PA-RISC boot loader, palo.
‘PREP’
(MS-DOS) - this flag can be enabled so that the partition can be used as a PReP boot partition on PowerPC PReP or IBM RS6K/CHRP hardware.
‘DIAG’
(MS-DOS) - Enable this to indicate that a partition can be used as a diagnostics / recovery partition.
The print command displays all enabled flags for each partition.
Example:
(parted) set 1 boot on
Set the ‘boot’ flag on partition 1.

Previous: set, Up: Command explanations

2.4.18 unit

— Command: unit unit

Selects the current default unit that Parted will use to display locations and capacities on the disk and to interpret those given by the user if they are not suffixed by an unit.
unit may be one of:
‘s’
sector (n bytes depending on the sector size, often 512)
‘B’
byte
‘kB’
kilobyte (1000 bytes)
‘MB’
megabyte (1000000 bytes)
‘GB’
gigabyte (1000000000 bytes)
‘TB’
terabyte (1000000000000 bytes)
‘%’
percentage of the device (between 0 and 100)
‘cyl’
cylinders (related to the BIOS CHS geometry)
‘chs’
cylinders, heads, sectors addressing (related to the BIOS CHS geometry)
‘compact’
This is a special unit that defaults to megabytes for input, and picks a unit that gives a compact human readable representation for output.
The default unit apply only for the output and when no unit is specified after an input number. Input numbers can be followed by an unit (without any space or other character between them), in which case this unit apply instead of the default unit for this particular number, but CHS and cylinder units are not supported as a suffix. If no suffix is given, then the default unit is assumed. Parted will compute sensible ranges for the locations you specify (e.g. a range of +/- 500 MB when you specify the location in “G”) and will select the nearest location in this range from the one you wrote that satisfies constraints from both the operation, the filesystem being worked on, the disk label, other partitions and so on. Use the sector unit “s” to specify exact locations (if they do not satisfy all constraints, Parted will ask you for the nearest solution). Note that negative numbers count back from the end of the disk, with “-1s” pointing to the end of the disk.
Example:
(parted) unit compact
          (parted) print
          Disk geometry for /dev/hda: 0kB - 123GB
          Disk label type: msdos
          Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system  Flags
          1       32kB    1078MB  1077MB  primary   reiserfs     boot
          2       1078MB  2155MB  1078MB  primary   linux-swap
          3       2155MB  123GB   121GB   extended
          5       2155MB  7452MB  5297MB  logical   reiserfs
          (parted) unit chs print
          Disk geometry for /dev/hda: 0,0,0 - 14946,225,62
          BIOS cylinder,head,sector geometry: 14946,255,63.  Each cylinder
          is 8225kB.
          Disk label type: msdos
          Number  Start       End         Type      File system  Flags
          1       0,1,0       130,254,62  primary   reiserfs     boot
          2       131,0,0     261,254,62  primary   linux-swap
          3       262,0,0     14945,254,62 extended
          5       262,2,0     905,254,62  logical   reiserfs
          (parted) unit mb print
          Disk geometry for /dev/hda: 0MB - 122942MB
          Disk label type: msdos
          Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system  Flags
          1       0MB     1078MB  1077MB  primary   reiserfs     boot
          2       1078MB  2155MB  1078MB  primary   linux-swap
          3       2155MB  122935MB 120780MB extended
          5       2155MB  7452MB  5297MB  logical   reiserfs

Next: Copying This Manual, Previous: Using Parted, Up: Top

3 Related information

If you want to find out more information, please see the GNU Parted web site.
These files in the Parted distribution contain further information:

ABOUT-NLS - information about using Native Language Support, and the Free Translation Project.
AUTHORS - who wrote what.
ChangeLog - record of changes made to Parted.
COPYING - the GNU General Public License, the terms under which GNU Parted may be distributed.
COPYING.DOC - the GNU Free Documentation Licence, the term under which Parted's documentation may be distributed.
INSTALL — how to compile and install Parted, and most other free software

Next: History, Previous: Related information, Up: Top

Appendix A Copying This Manual

Up: Copying This Manual

A.1 GNU Free Documentation License

Version 1.1, March 2000

Copyright © 2000, 2009-2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
     51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA
     
     Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
     of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

PREAMBLE The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other written document free in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for modifications made by others.
This License is a kind of “copyleft”, which means that derivative works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft license designed for free software.
We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software, because free software needs free documentation: a free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals; it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.
APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS This License applies to any manual or other work that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms of this License. The “Document”, below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as “you”.
A “Modified Version” of the Document means any work containing the Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with modifications and/or translated into another language.
A “Secondary Section” is a named appendix or a front-matter section of the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the publishers or authors of the Document to the Document's overall subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly within that overall subject. (For example, if the Document is in part a textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not explain any mathematics.) The relationship could be a matter of historical connection with the subject or with related matters, or of legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position regarding them.
The “Invariant Sections” are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License.
The “Cover Texts” are certain short passages of text that are listed, as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License.
A “Transparent” copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy, represented in a format whose specification is available to the general public, whose contents can be viewed and edited directly and straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or for automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable for input to text formatters. A copy made in an otherwise Transparent file format whose markup has been designed to thwart or discourage subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. A copy that is not “Transparent” is called “Opaque”.
Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ascii without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format, SGML or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming simple HTML designed for human modification. Opaque formats include PostScript, PDF, proprietary formats that can be read and edited only by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or processing tools are not generally available, and the machine-generated HTML produced by some word processors for output purposes only.
The “Title Page” means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material this License requires to appear in the title page. For works in formats which do not have any title page as such, “Title Page” means the text near the most prominent appearance of the work's title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text.
VERBATIM COPYING You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3.
You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you may publicly display copies.
COPYING IN QUANTITY If you publish printed copies of the Document numbering more than 100, and the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies. The front cover must present the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition. Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other respects.
If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent pages.
If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy a publicly-accessible computer-network location containing a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material, which the general network-using public has access to download anonymously at no charge using public-standard network protocols. If you use the latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one year after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that edition to the public.
It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document well before redistributing any large number of copies, to give them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the Document.
MODIFICATIONS You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:
1. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the Document, and from those of previous versions (which should, if there were any, be listed in the History section of the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version if the original publisher of that version gives permission.
2. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in the Modified Version, together with at least five of the principal authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has less than five).
3. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version, as the publisher.
4. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
5. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other copyright notices.
6. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public permission to use the Modified Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.
7. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Document's license notice.
8. Include an unaltered copy of this License.
9. Preserve the section entitled “History”, and its title, and add to it an item stating at least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page. If there is no section entitled “History” in the Document, create one stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified Version as stated in the previous sentence.
10. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the network locations given in the Document for previous versions it was based on. These may be placed in the “History” section. You may omit a network location for a work that was published at least four years before the Document itself, or if the original publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.
11. In any section entitled “Acknowledgments” or “Dedications”, preserve the section's title, and preserve in the section all the substance and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgments and/or dedications given therein.
12. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and in their titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.
13. Delete any section entitled “Endorsements”. Such a section may not be included in the Modified Version.
14. Do not retitle any existing section as “Endorsements” or to conflict in title with any Invariant Section.
If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's license notice. These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.
You may add a section entitled “Endorsements”, provided it contains nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various parties—for example, statements of peer review or that the text has been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a standard.
You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only one passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or through arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of, you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit permission from the previous publisher that added the old one.
The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.
COMBINING DOCUMENTS You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified versions, provided that you include in the combination all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its license notice.
The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but different contents, make the title of each such section unique by adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number. Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work.
In the combination, you must combine any sections entitled “History” in the various original documents, forming one section entitled “History”; likewise combine any sections entitled “Acknowledgments”, and any sections entitled “Dedications”. You must delete all sections entitled “Endorsements.”
COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released under this License, and replace the individual copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other respects.
You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individually under this License, provided you insert a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow this License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.
AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, does not as a whole count as a Modified Version of the Document, provided no compilation copyright is claimed for the compilation. Such a compilation is called an “aggregate”, and this License does not apply to the other self-contained works thus compiled with the Document, on account of their being thus compiled, if they are not themselves derivative works of the Document.
If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one quarter of the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed on covers that surround only the Document within the aggregate. Otherwise they must appear on covers around the whole aggregate.
TRANSLATION Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4. Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special permission from their copyright holders, but you may include translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a translation of this License provided that you also include the original English version of this License. In case of a disagreement between the translation and the original English version of this License, the original English version will prevail.
TERMINATION You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly provided for under this License. Any other attempt to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Document is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.
FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.
Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this License “or any later version” applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.

A.1.1 ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents

To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of the License in the document and put the following copyright and license notices just after the title page:

Copyright (C)  year  your name.
       Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
       under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3
       or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
       with the Invariant Sections being list their titles, with the
       Front-Cover Texts being list, and with the Back-Cover Texts being list.
       A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
       Free Documentation License''.

If you have no Invariant Sections, write “with no Invariant Sections” instead of saying which ones are invariant. If you have no Front-Cover Texts, write “no Front-Cover Texts” instead of “Front-Cover Texts being list”; likewise for Back-Cover Texts.
If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of free software license, such as the GNU General Public License, to permit their use in free software.

How do I install a Linux zone under Solaris 10 and confiure a typical application?.

2010-06-01T14:51:00.001-07:00

Here's how you can install a Linux zone and then Adobe Acrobat Reader:-

1. Make sure you have Solaris 10 for X86 Update 4 (or later) installed, as this supports Linux zones.

2. Obtain a distribution copy of CentOS or RedHat ES linux v3.5 to 3.8, and a copy of Adobe Reader v7 for Linux here

3. Install a zone as follows (use the appropriate values for your system):-

# mkdir -p /Zones/Linux
# chmod 700 /Zones/Linux
# zonecfg -z linux
linux: No such zone configured
Use 'create' to begin configuring a new zone.
zonecfg:linux> create -t SUNWlx
zonecfg:linux> add net
zonecfg:linux:net> set physical=bfe0
zonecfg:linux:net> set address=192.168.200.31
zonecfg:linux:net> end
zonecfg:linux> set zonepath=/Zones/Linux
zonecfg:linux> verify
zonecfg:linux> commit
zonecfg:linux> exit
# zoneadm -z linux install

Please insert any supported Linux distribution disc, or a
supported Linux distribution DVD in the removable media
drive and press .

4. Continue with installation until it completes, then boot the new linux zone:-
# zoneadm -z linux boot

5. Now log in to the new zone:-
# zlogin -C linux

6. Install the downloaded Adobe Reader.

7. Add a user account and password in the linux zone, e.g. guest
# useradd guest
# passwd guest
Changing password for user guest.
New UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

8. Now from the global zone, make sure your linux zone has access to your window system (Run "xhost +" in the global zone)
and use, for example, ssh to run acroread:-
# ssh -f guest@linux /usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/bin/acroread
Password:

NOTES

You will have to configure the correct network settings for the linux zone (in particular, update the /etc/hosts file)
You will have to make your PDF files available in the new Linux zone.

How can I set up and configure a zone under Solaris 10?

2010-06-01T14:50:00.000-07:00

Zones are a feature new in Solaris 10, and provide a useful mechanism to create a Solaris environment for testing, and containment (Apache server, etc.). No additional hardware is required for a zone, just some disk space. The impact of a zone on machine performance is minimal. as all zones use the same kernel (not true any more - see the example for installing a Linux zone to run acroread here), so some additional memory for extra processes is all that's required.
Resource allocation to a zone can be closely controlled, and this includes processor shares, resource pools and resource capping with rcapd.
Since update 4 of Solaris 10 (August 2007) dedicated network interfaces can be assigned to a zone; prior to this they have to be shared with the global zone.
Here is an example of zone creation, but for a fuller picture consider attending our Solaris 10 Administration Part 2 course
Create a suitable directory, to hold the zone copy of the OS:-

# mkdir -p  /Zones/Apache

Now create the zone using zonecfg

# zonecfg -z apache

apache: No such zone configured
Use 'create' to begin configuring a new zone
zonecfg:apache> create
zonecfg:apache> set zonepath=/Zones/Apache
zonecfg:apache> add net
zonecfg:apache:net> set address=192.168.200.117
zonecfg:apache:net> set physical=hme0
zonecfg:apache:net> end
zonecfg:apache> set autoboot=true
(The above information is sufficient to configure a basic zone, with most software shared from the global zone.
Other options could have been used, for example to inherit parts of the Global zone's file system, mount directories (e.g. /software) from the Global zone, restrict the zone's resources (e.g. CPU, memory))
zonecfg:apache> info
zonepath: /Zones/Apache
autoboot: true
pool:
inherit-pkg-dir:
        dir: /lib
inherit-pkg-dir:
        dir: /platform
inherit-pkg-dir:
        dir: /sbin
inherit-pkg-dir:
        dir: /usr
net:
        address: 192.168.200.117
        physical: hme0
zonecfg:apache> verify
zonecfg:apache> commit
zonecfg:apache> exit
(Note that a full copy of Solaris can be installed, rather than sharing directories, by using the -b flag to the create option within zonecfg.)
Now we use zoneadm to install the zone:-

# zoneadm  -z  apache install

/Zones/Apache must not be group readable.
/Zones/Apache must not be group executable.
/Zones/Apache must not be world readable.
/Zones/Apache must not be world executable.
could not verify zonepath /Zones/Apache because of the above errors.
zoneadm: zone apache failed to verify

Permissions problem - rectified as follows:-

# ls  -ld  /Zones/Apache

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 512 Jul 5 07:08 /Zones/Apache

# chmod 700 /Zones/Apache

Above sets correct permissions; now we can try again:-

# zoneadm -z apache install

Preparing to install zone .
Creating list of files to copy from the global zone.
Copying <2574> files to the zone.
Initializing zone product registry.
Determining zone package initialization order.
Preparing to initialize <914> packages on the zone.
Initializing package <535> of <914>: percent complete: 58%

(The install takes about 10-15 minutes.)
While this is going on, open another shell window, and have a look under /Zones/Apache:-

# cd  /Zones/Apache

# ls

root

# ls  root

bin       etc       home      mnt       platform sbin      tmp       var
dev       export    lib       opt       proc      system    usr

Meanwhile, back at the zone:-

Initialized <914> packages on zone.
Zone is initialized.
Installation of these packages generated warnings:
The file contains a log of the zone installation.

The zone is now installed, and we can boot it:-

# zoneadm  -z  apache   boot

Now login to the zone:- (-C option says we wish to login at the Console device):-

# zlogin -C apache

[Connected to zone 'apache' console]
You may now have to wait a while to get a response.
95/117

After the above counter finishes (which is showing SMF manifest imports during initial boot), we have to go through some setup procedures:-

Select a Language
0. English
1. fr
Please make a choice (0 - 1), or press h or ? for help: 0

This continues:-

Select a Locale
   0. English (C - 7-bit ASCII)
   1. Belgium-Flemish (ISO8859-1)
   2. Belgium-Flemish (ISO8859-15 - Euro)
   3. Great Britain (ISO8859-1)
   4. Great Britain (ISO8859-15 - Euro)
   5. Ireland (ISO8859-1)
   6. Ireland (ISO8859-15 - Euro)
   7. Netherlands (ISO8859-1)
   8. Netherlands (ISO8859-15 - Euro)
   9. Go Back to Previous Screen
Please make a choice (0 - 9), or press h or ? for help: 0

Then:-

What type of terminal are you using?
1) ANSI Standard CRT
etc.etc.
10) Televideo 925
11) Wyse Model 50
12) X Terminal Emulator (xterms)
13) CDE Terminal Emulator (dtterm)
14) Other
Type the number of your choice and press Return: 13

Creating new rsa public/private host key pair
Creating new dsa public/private host key pair

You are now asked some questions as though you were performing a boot after a sys-unconfig(1M), and when all information has been entered:-

System identification is completed.
One more question:-
        This system is configured with NFS version 4, which uses a domain
        name that is automatically derived from the system's name services.
        The derived domain name is sufficient for most configurations. In a
        few cases, mounts that cross different domains might cause files to
        be owned by "nobody" due to the lack of a common domain name.

        Do you need to override the system's default NFS version 4 domain name (yes/no) ? [no] : no
rebooting system due to change(s) in /etc/default/init
[NOTICE: Zone rebooting]
SunOS Release 5.10 Version Generic 64-bit
Copyright 1983-2005 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Use is subject to license terms.
Hostname: apache
apache console login: root
Password:
Jul 5 07:54:31 apache login: ROOT LOGIN /dev/console
Sun Microsystems Inc.   SunOS 5.10      Generic January 2005
#
We have now created the zone, installed it, rebooted and logged in.
Use the usual commands to check things out (df, ifconfig, uname, etc).
Tips: (But make sure your site security allows this)
1. Edit /etc/default/login and comment out the "CONSOLE=/dev/console" line to permit remote root logins. (password needed of course..)
2. Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and set PermitRootLogin=yes if you want to login as root via ssh. Restart sshd with "svcadm restart ssh"
3. Current zone implementation allows graphical login as the zone runs "dtlogin -daemon" by default.
We hope this has been useful, see below for additional notes
Mick Hosegood - First Alternative.

NOTES

A variety of additional options are available, including preparing zone pre-configuration data, controlling zones (booting, halting, etc) from the global zone, configuring zone resource controls, etc. Further, Solaris 10 updates 3 to 6 contain a number of enhancements, such as zone renaming, cloning and migration, plus the ability to run other operating systems - see here for an example of installing a Linux OS to run acroread on Solaris X86.
Solaris 8 and 9 zones can also be created with additional software downloaded from Sun - see here for an example.
All this is covered on the Solaris 10 Administration courses!