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5076

General Software Discussion / Re: tiny http server with podcast feeds?

« Last post by 4wd on July 07, 2009, 07:37 AM »

HFS template seems to be HTML only, the players having a MIME trouble while parsing it as .m3u I believe.

-electronixtar (July 07, 2009, 05:17 AM)

A search for m3u turned up these:
.m3u or rss templates for HFS (customize MIME needed)
generate m3u playlist - folder-streaming

You might need to grab the latest beta for some of the new functions.

5077

Living Room / Re: Looking for P2p file sharing for personal use

« Last post by 4wd on July 07, 2009, 03:45 AM »

If OpenVPN has already established a valid connection between the two machines then the router shouldn't be a problem because any comms for 10.8.0.x will be routed through OpenVPNs' port bypassing anything in the router.

kartal, can you disconnect both client and server, then connect both, (server first), and post the connection logs of each.

Right-click on the tray icon, select View Log and save it.

See here under Troubleshooting.

5078

General Software Discussion / Re: tiny http server with podcast feeds?

« Last post by 4wd on July 07, 2009, 01:53 AM »

There's also the always handy HFS and in the forum there's a templates board where people share ones they've made - like the Thunderchicken of Glory.

5079

Living Room / Re: Looking for P2p file sharing for personal use

« Last post by 4wd on July 07, 2009, 01:20 AM »

Now I have Openvpn gui on both, they say they are connected but I cannot ping them at all. Like trying to ping 10.8.0.1 (server) or 10.8.0.6(client1) returns time outs. My firewalls are disabled as well, But the thing is that both pcs are within the same network I do not have a chance to try from outside at the moment.

-kartal (July 06, 2009, 11:36 PM)

Make sure when you disabled it that the Windows firewall didn't kick in.  Which firewall, BTW?

What about tracert ?  eg. tracert 10.8.0.6

I had the same problem when I initially installed OpenVPN, even though I did disable Outpost a couple of times, it didn't want to ping each other - then for some reason it came good.

I attributed it to Outpost just being a bit paranoid but it may well have been something else and after I had disconnected and reconnected OpenVPN a few times something decided to let it play ball.

As I mentioned above, I've since had to restore my system which would have wiped any rules I created in Outpost but OpenVPN fired up and I was able to ping immediately - so at the moment it's

I might give my system an OpenVPN mindwipe and see if I can recreate it.

DOH! Stupid me, when I previously set it up I had a Win7 computer as the client and it was it's firewall, (default Windows), that's what was giving me a hard time.  This time I'm using a XP x86 computer as the client and both it and the server don't have the Windows Firewall service enabled - the client doesn't have a firewall at all.  So Outpost worked fine, it was just the overly paranoid Win7 firewall that caused problems previously, (that and the stupid way it's almost impossible to designate another PC on the network, or even a whole network, as safe).

5080

Living Room / Re: Looking for P2p file sharing for personal use

« Last post by 4wd on July 06, 2009, 11:25 PM »

C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\config>openvpn client.ovpn
Mon Jul 06 22:38:49 2009 OpenVPN 2.0.9 Win32-MinGW [SSL] [LZO] built on Oct  1 2006
Mon Jul 06 22:38:49 2009 IMPORTANT: OpenVPN's default port number is now 1194, based on an o
fficial port number assignment by IANA.  OpenVPN 2.0-beta16 and earlier used 5000 as the def
ault port.
Mon Jul 06 22:38:49 2009 WARNING: No server certificate verification method has been enabled
.  See http://openvpn.net/howto.html#mitm for more info.
Mon Jul 06 22:38:49 2009 Cannot load certificate file client.crt: error:02001002:system libr
ary:fopen:No such file or directory: error:20074002:BIO routines:FILE_CTRL:system lib: error
:140AD002:SSL routines:SSL_CTX_use_certificate_file:system lib
Mon Jul 06 22:38:49 2009 Exiting

-kartal (July 06, 2009, 10:39 PM)

This is saying it can't find a certificate named client.crt - the configs and certs/keys I attached are named and refer to client1.crt.

These lines in client.ovpn have to match the names of the files in the config directory.
--------------------------
ca ca.crt
cert client1.crt                                  <- originally: cert client.crt
key client1.key                                  <- originally: key client.key
--------------------------

Have you changed these lines or renamed the files causing them to be mismatched?

Using the certs/keys I generated, the client PC should have the following files in C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\config :

ca.crt
client.ovpn
client1.crt
client1.key

The server PC will have the following, (ignoring any .txt or .log files):

ca.crt
ca.key
dh1024.pem
server.crt
server.key
server.ovpn


Can you attach a config directory list, client.ovpn and server.ovpn from your two machines if it still doesn't work.

5081

Living Room / Re: Looking for P2p file sharing for personal use

« Last post by 4wd on July 06, 2009, 08:52 PM »

Also it looks like client1.crt and server.crt files are 0kb
Any ideas?

-kartal (July 06, 2009, 04:20 PM)

Not saying it is, (but it has happened to me), it looks like you failed to enter exactly the same Common Name as you called the batch files with, it's possible that an error was generated when you created the keys/certs but you didn't notice among the DOS output:

Generate certificate & key for server

Next, we will generate a certificate and private key for the server. On Windows:

    build-key-server server

As in the previous step, most parameters can be defaulted. When the Common Name is queried, enter "server". Two other queries require positive responses, "Sign the certificate? [y/n]" and "1 out of 1 certificate requests certified, commit? [y/n]".

Generate certificates & keys for 1 client

Generating client certificates is very similar to the previous step. On Windows:

    build-key client1

Remember that for each client, make sure to type the appropriate Common Name when prompted, i.e. "client1". Always use a unique common name for each client.

* I removed any reference to more than 1 client in the above to make it a bit clearer.

You need to follow the instructions in Setting up your own Certificate Authority (CA) and generating certificates and keys for an OpenVPN server and multiple clients pretty much word for word.

So the order of events for Windows should be:

1 ) open up a Command Prompt window and cd to \Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa
2 ) init-config
3 ) edit the vars.bat file to set location/email defaults (or skip this step and just use the given ones if you don't care)
4 ) vars
5 ) clean-all
6 ) build-ca  (default answers normally but enter something at Common Name query - use the same as they do OpenVPN-CA)
7 ) build-key-server server  (enter server at Common Name and answer y to "Sign the certificate? [y/n]" and "1 out of 1 certificate requests certified, commit? [y/n]")
8 ) build-key client1  (same answers as (7) but enter client1 at Common Name)
9 ) build-dh

This should give you all the necessary keys/certs for a simple 1 server/1 client VPN, so it only remains to copy them to their respective config directories.

If you do it again and it still happens, copy the output from all the steps above to a text file and then attach it to a post and I'll see if I can spot anything.
Otherwise, later today I'll set up OpenVPN again, (had to restore my OS from an old image due to cleaning one too many things out driver-wise ), and generate a complete keys directory for a server/client and you can try that.

Addendum: Following the steps above, (except step 3), I've generated server/client1 keys/certs/config that work here.  You'll need to edit client.ovpn and replace 192.168.0.128 with the LAN IP of your OpenVPN server.  Otherwise just delete the config directories you have and replace with these.

I've also attached the DOS output from generating the certs/keys so you can compare with yours and a ping to show it really does work 

5082

Living Room / Re: Need NAS Enclosure recommendation

« Last post by 4wd on July 06, 2009, 06:22 AM »

Just a followup to this, for building your own NAS you might want to check out SmallNetBuilder.

Especially their forums where you can be pretty sure someone has already tried to build a NAS using hardware similar to what you want to or might use.

And a range of How To articles like this one for an Atom based NAS.

5083

General Software Discussion / Re: Help! ssh setup

« Last post by 4wd on July 06, 2009, 04:10 AM »

1- I have forwarded port 22 in my firewall to my laptop so that I can access over the internet. I have not tried it outside but hopefully it would work.

-kartal (July 04, 2009, 08:08 PM)

One thing I forgot to mention.  Most routers have some way to loopback the connection if they see you're addressing using the WAN IP.  Whether it's enabled or not is another thing.

eg.
Your WAN IP is 114.123.234.123, your LAN IP range is 192.168.0.1 - 16 and you're running a HTTP server on port 8080 of IP 192.168.0.10.  Normally you'd access it from within your LAN by http://192.168.0.10:8080  within a browser.

Enabling loopback in your router lets you do http://114.123.234.123:8080, the router seeing that you've used your WAN IP will loop the connection back through it's firewall and NAT routing to the computer running the HTTP server without ever going further upstream, (ie. ISP, DNS, etc).

This allows you to test your router/firewall config without having to go 'outside' your network to make sure it will pass through to whatever server you're trying to reach within your network.

It's the way I test any server I'm running without having to wait until I visit a mate's place, (only to find I screwed up the NAT or something).

How you enable it depends on your router.  For example, on my Zyxel P660 I have to telnet in, navigate the menus to the CLI and then enter: ip nat loopback on

This is only in effect until the router reboots, so I have also edited it into the router's autoexec.net file so it's executed at reboot.

5084

General Software Discussion / Re: fully free software utilities for biz use - discussion

« Last post by 4wd on July 05, 2009, 08:36 PM »

I forgot to add: OpenVPN (the OSS version)

Commercial Licensing: Businesses and enterprises who wish to incorporate a modified version of OpenVPN Software into an appliance for re-distribution and keep those modifications proprietary must license a commercial version of OpenVPN.

Also, for your list of links/resources section, I've always found something interesting to look at, (if not actually end up keeping to use), at BearWare.

And: Ultimate List of Free Windows Software from Microsoft.

5085

General Software Discussion / Re: Help! ssh setup

« Last post by 4wd on July 05, 2009, 08:20 PM »

Setting up a VPN server at your home network is not as easy as it seems, but OpenVPN does not make it too hard either.

-Shades (July 05, 2009, 01:08 PM)

Actually, it's remarkably easy, see here 

Having learnt from that exercise, it's taken me less than 15 minutes to set up another one on a different machine with PKI.

And I'm now about to test PortableOpenVPN and see if it works.

@kartal:  Think of the VPN as a LAN, you can do anything across it that you can do on your real LAN except it's fully encrypted, (and you can also add password verification which I'm just about to play with), you can access it from outside your real LAN, (from anywhere you have TCP/IP access to it), and when you do it's exactly the same as if you were sitting at one of the computers on your LAN.

5086

Living Room / Re: SSD File System Recommendations

« Last post by 4wd on July 05, 2009, 08:06 PM »

The developer's site is not accessible anymore.

-yksyks (July 05, 2009, 04:23 PM)

It's due to a clash of names - there's already something available with the name FlashPoint.

So as soon as a new suitable name is chosen and possibly registered/trademarked/whatever the site will be back up.

There's a Yahoo Group where you can read what's happening: flashpointusers (sorry, haven't got a URL.)

You wouldn't have any more of the betas after 3 would you, (I like to keep up-to-date even though I don't use it) ?

Thanks for beta6.

5087

General Software Discussion / Re: fully free software utilities for biz use - discussion

« Last post by 4wd on July 05, 2009, 01:40 AM »

For Editors - Notepad Replacements you can also add Notepad2 - I use the version with code-folding from here.

And they themselves are of course based on the Scintilla code editor.

It comes with complete source code and a license that permits use in any free project or commercial product.

PSPad editor

The PSPad editor was tested in the Softpedia labs. Softpedia guarantees that PSPad is 100% FREE, which means it is a freeware product (both for personal and commercial use) that does not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors.

I believe the ever useful A43 file manager is also free for use and it also had an update this year, (I think I just fainted ).

FileMenu Tools adds some useful items to context menus, eg. synchronise, shred, etc.

HFS - HTTP File Server

How much does HFS cost?

HFS is completely free!

However, if you like the project, please click the Donate button at http://www.rejetto.com/hfs/

PDF XChange Viewer Free - my personal favourite PDF reader, you can also download a portable version.

Free for Private and Commercial use, provided not bundled with other software or for financial gain)

5088

Living Room / Re: Would appreciate advice on laptop overheating and registry issue

« Last post by 4wd on July 04, 2009, 11:04 PM »

The reason that I am not a fan of the canned air solution is that you can (seriously) damage fan(s). Blowing air directly at a fan will make it rotate at an RPM rate it was not designed for. Securing the fan(s) will prevent that, but I'll guarantee you that not all dust bunnies are removed from their burrow otherwise known as your laptop.

-Shades (July 04, 2009, 06:32 PM)

I agree with you Shades, not only will it rotate the fan at possibly speeds it wasn't designed for but the main reason not to rotate the fan is: you've just turned it into a wind generator and where's all that generated voltage going?  That's right, down those two wires into your motherboard.

Also, regarding compressed air dusters, you're blowing the dust into nooks and crannies where it will just jam in harder.

If you're going to clean the dust out of a PC's internals, grab a soft-bristled brush, gently dislodge the dust/fluff/etc, and then vacuum it out holding any fans to stop them spinning.  Make sure you're grounded and hold onto the vacuum as close to the end of the nozzle as possible to prevent any buildup of static that might discharge into your electronics, (with any luck any buildup will discharge into you instead ).

5089

General Software Discussion / Re: Advice for Testing USB Sticks and Data Recovery Tools

« Last post by 4wd on July 04, 2009, 10:44 PM »

For a more detailed look at your USB Flash devices you can also check out ChipGenius, (Google translated).

ChipGenius (chip Wizard) is a USB device detection tool-chip models, it will automatically query disk, MP3/MP4, card readers, mobile hard drive and all USB devices chip control models, manufacturers, brands, and provide relevant information Download Address.  Of course, can also access the USB device VID / PID information, device name, interface speed, serial number, equipment and other versions.
Small green software, plug-and-play, digital consumer electronics enthusiast, DIY and maintenance personnel digital good helper around.

After analysing a drive it can also provide a link to a production tool suitable for that drive that can allow you to change various parameters of the drive, eg. you can turn it into a virtual writable CD drive - or render it useless if you screw up.

5090

General Software Discussion / Re: Help! ssh setup

« Last post by 4wd on July 04, 2009, 10:23 PM »

1 - is setting up a VPN network not easier...taking into account the things you want to do when accessing from the outside? OpenVPN could be a candidate.

-Shades (July 04, 2009, 09:00 PM)

I agree if you want to access the desktop via RDP, VNC, etc.

2 - Access a PC local to the router via RDP, open a browser, access the router config and change it.  This is the way I do it and the easiest if you're not willing to allow WAN access to the router configuration interface.

5091

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« Last post by 4wd on July 03, 2009, 07:34 PM »

Didn't know about the Quick Find functionality.....

-Innuendo (July 03, 2009, 03:48 PM)

Been there longer than I can remember, since version 1 or before, IIRC.  They call it 'Find As You Type'.

... but where is the Next/Prev functionality?

F3 for forward, Shift-F3 for backwards, Ctrl-Z to clear.

The way I look at it is, I've already got my hands on the keyboard - I don't want to keep reaching for a mouse just to push a button.

Not to mention if you pause to think too long the Quick Find box goes away.

But the last search is still in effect, you hit (Shift)F3 and it will find the next/last occurance.

I think you can change the timeout but I've always found it faster to just start typing what I'm looking for, (you can turn off the requirement for hitting '/' first: Tools->Options->Advanced->Start searching when I type).  Plus I prefer the uncluttered look of not having a Find bar there.

I don't think I've ever used Ctrl-F to initiate a search, actually I don't think I've used Shift-F3 to search backwards either - it was easier to hold down F3 and let it cycle around

Addendum: For some typeahead parameters that you can modify in about:config see here: about:config Category:Preferences for the following Accessibility.typeaheadfind.[parameter]

Take heed of the warning if you do choose to use about:config.

5092

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« Last post by 4wd on July 03, 2009, 04:45 AM »

   * Ctrl-F key command to toggle the Find Toolbar on and off.

-Innuendo (June 30, 2009, 11:00 AM)

I don't understand why you can't just hit the default  '/' and start typing, (although I turned off having to hit it).  And then hit Escape to hide it.

If nothing else, it saves having to use two fingers  

And you can always hit Ctrl-F if you're trapped in a text input area.

Or ' if you want to search for links only - finally remembered that one, since I have it set to just search for everything.

5093

Living Room / Re: Advice on Netbooks

« Last post by 4wd on July 02, 2009, 07:56 PM »

I'm not a gamer and I wouldn't want to use my Acer as my main computer, but like I said previously, it's fast enough for most things when using a combination of XP with a hard drive.

-mrainey (July 02, 2009, 11:58 AM)

It's fast enough for Delta Force 1, 2, Land Warrior and Task Force Dagger

We could try a laptop, but I think they are likely to be too heavy & battery life too short for the main need; the size of a laptop is both a + (bigger screen and keyboard) and a - (leaves little room on a small table/desk).

-Dormouse (July 02, 2009, 09:30 AM)

Before the AAO came along at the right price, I was seriously looking at the Benq Joybook S33W: C2D P8400, X4500, 13.3", Gb LAN, modem, BT, etc, etc.  It was the best all-round small notebook I could find at a competitive price, (quite a lot don't have modems these days), weighed ~2kg and had a reported battery life of 4 hours in power-saving mode.

And they provided XP drivers which is what it would have been running about 60 minutes after I got it home if I'd bought it.

5094

Living Room / Re: CD archive and copying

« Last post by 4wd on July 02, 2009, 07:44 PM »

Interesting....learn something new every day. Thanks for pointing that out.

But how do you actually do it? I don't see any menu options to do it.

-Innuendo (July 02, 2009, 10:44 AM)

Right click the tray icon and select DAEMON Tools Panel , the panel will popup down the bottom of the desktop, then click the icon that shows a CD overlaid by a floppy disk.  It's about the second icon from the search box on the left.

If you hover your mouse over it, it tells you 'Disk Imaging' or something like that.

EDIT: Corrected operation procedure.

5095

Living Room / Re: Advice on Netbooks

« Last post by 4wd on July 02, 2009, 07:53 AM »

Wouldn't need XP. Quite happy with Linux. Weight, usability, battery life are the most critical factors. Long start up times could be a problem.

-Dormouse (July 02, 2009, 05:42 AM)

Well, as far as the AAO goes, the standard 3-cell battery in the AOA-110-Ab lasts 2-2.5 hours, weight is ~980g and I find the screen resolution, (1024x600), fine and particularly sharp and clear on the 8.9" screen, better than most 19" LCDs I've seen.

My version of XP Pro boots in around 45 seconds, with the original Linpus booting in 15 seconds.  These times are for AC powered.

The keyboard is 89% full size and I think it's fine, I don't find myself hitting two keys at once.

All-in-all, I find myself using it more than my 15.4" laptop.

5096

Living Room / Re: CD archive and copying

« Last post by 4wd on July 02, 2009, 02:06 AM »

This must be a relatively new addition to the Lite product - the product page (http://www.daemon-to.../eng/products/dtLite) mentions that Lite can create images, but the comparison table (http://www.daemon-to...eng/products/compare) indicates that it can't.

-mwb1100 (July 02, 2009, 01:35 AM)

If by new you mean 6.75 months old, then yes, it's been there since 4.30.2, 10.12.2008 - of course that could be 8.75 months if I knew whether the date was in normal or American format

10.12.2008, 15:06
DAEMON Tools Lite V. 4.30.2 is released

What's new (compared to DT Lite 4.30.1):

What's new:
- CD/DVD/BluRay imaging ability;
- Images mounting from image catalog in menu;
- Auto update functionality;
- Preferences dialog;
- Some GUI improvements;
- Languages updates.

It's actually had the ability to make ISO images since 03.05.2008 using a plugin.

5097

Coding Snacks / Re: Idea: Rename file about to be replaced by Copy/Paste

« Last post by 4wd on July 02, 2009, 01:52 AM »

When I am ready to copy some files from test -> live environment, I like to rename the old file and keep a few versions in case something I change has... unexpected... consequences.  To do this I rename the old file and then copy over the new file.

-Gymratz (June 17, 2009, 09:42 AM)

SuperCopier will give you the option to rename the old file.  The default is to ask you what to do but you can change that to always replace, rename, etc.

5098

Living Room / Re: Advice on Netbooks

« Last post by 4wd on July 01, 2009, 07:49 PM »

I'm interested in the SSD Vs HDD issue.

The advantages of SSD are supposed to be silence, robustness, power usage.
The advantages of HD are supposed to be size and speed.

For relatively simple usage (eg just note taking), is the speed of the SSD a real issue? Does it make a big difference to load times? Better power usage is an important factor if you are likely to need the machine on most of the day with no access to power sockets.

-Dormouse (July 01, 2009, 10:53 AM)

Regarding the power usage angle: people with HDDs have reported the same battery life as those using the same battery in SSD versions.

The simple use angle: it depends on the operating system.  W.r.t. the AAO netbook, Linpus loads faster and is faster for all program operations because it writes less to the SSD, whereas XP runs like an absolute dog with complete system slow downs every 30s to a few minutes as it does a lot of small writes keeping the filesystem up-to-date, etc, etc.

If you want to use the stock SSD that they provide with the AAO, (and the eeePC), with XP, then to make it anywhere near usable you should install the Flashpoint driver or it's equivalent.  This will take all those little random writes and turn into a single sequential write with minimal impact on operating performance.

Note: Flashpoint downloads have been disabled for the moment.

5099

Living Room / Re: Troubleshooting an XP bootup lockup

« Last post by 4wd on July 01, 2009, 07:36 PM »

Regarding your Paragon wouldn't install episode, I'm not going to say it definitely was, but I'd say that you ran up against XP's ownership rights when it failed to install.

I've had this happen before, usually after I've had to reinstall the OS, where I am an administrator but I could not run/open something because I didn't 'own' it - even though I did before the reinstall under the same username.

I now use this tweak when I reinstall which makes the Administrators group the owner of files instead of individual accounts, (it's only a single user machine so I don't consider it a problem):

[Select]

; Make the Administartors group the owner of files instead of the individual Administrator account.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa]
"nodefaultadminowner"=dword:00000000

Addendum: If you do DIR /Q in the directory it will list files along with the owner.

5100

Living Room / Re: CD archive and copying

« Last post by 4wd on July 01, 2009, 07:24 PM »

Just a suggestion: DAEMON Tools Lite (Free for non-commercial use.)

It can image an audio disc and also mount it, as well as other formats.

-4wd

Daemon Tools Lite can mount images, but it can not create them.

-Innuendo (July 01, 2009, 09:37 AM)

Umm, no offense but I think you should check out the latest version which does allow you to create images....or it could be that what it just did on my computer, (create an audio CD image), was a figment of my imagination.....

Key features

   * creates *.iso and *.mds images;
    * compresses images;
    * protects image with password;
    * emulates up to 4 virtual CD/DVD drives;
    * performs image mounting and unmounting;
    * supports *.b5t, *.b6t, *.bwt, *.ccd, *.cdi, *.cue, *.nrg, *.pdi, *.isz;
    * offers powerful command line interface.

Just remember to turn off the toolbar installation and browser homepage stuff.