QBRADQ

Little update, I've got broadband now Well, it's only 512Kbs, but it's a lot better than Dial-Up. Still glad I have the modem though, as there are a lot of cool things you can do with them. Not many of them are legal, but hey, my friends won't press charges Plus I'm getting a free dial-up account with the wireless account as a kind of backup. Seeings hows it's a wireless link, the modem will probly be pulling down weather reports durring bad thunder storms (UPSes are cool). Again, I wish I had known more about modems in the past. Ahh well. QBRADQ

Thank you kindly for all of the replies. I would have checked in to this post earlier today, but I was quite busy. After sleeping on it, I called the wireless ISP. They agreed to install an antena on the house and link it with the POP free of charge! I was stuned to say the least.This is a small local ISP, ran by one man, and I go to trade school with some of his family members. He told me over the phone that more than a dozen people had signed up for his service and told him that I recomened it to them over the past year, and that's why he would hook me up for free.Sometimes living in a small town does have it's benifits. Now all I need to do is crawl up in that boilling hot attic and make a drop into my bedroom. I'll do that in the morning I supose. Till then I supose I'll get one more night out of my new modem.Ohh, and thanks for the link. Antenna in a Pringles can! That's some funny stuff. Sure to get a laugh at school :DThanks again,QBRADQ

Ok, so here's the story: Where I live, there are two connection options. The first is Dial-Up, which needless to say bites. The second is business-grade radio. My home, connected through Dial-Up, is around 400 feet from my place of business, connected through the radio link. What I need to do is connect the shop and the house within one network. Here's the problems I face: 1) Running a wired network would be very expensive, as I would have to bury the CAT-5, install surge protectors, and the line would have to cross a large stream. 2) The shop is totaly surounded by sheet metal. Right now I am trying to figure out a way to mount a wireless router outside the sheet-metal shell of the building so that the WiFi signal can propegate to the house. My main consern is the router getting damaged by the elements. I was thinking about putting it in a tuperware container, sealed with urithane calk. The container would be afixed to the roof (somehow) with holes drilled in the botom for the power and networking cables. Think this will work? Anyone with experiance or input in the matter would be a real help. I've been after my father (he's also my employer, and the owner of the business) to set up a wireless network for a long time. Now he's finaly agree to let me install one, and I find myself up against some challenges. Thanks for your time, QBRADQ

Yea, I've used that once. However, I like rpmfind.net better. It's based in France, but it's basicaly a search engine for the various repositories out there. Now if only I could figure out what GTK+ packages MPlayer is needing... GRR! If I had broadband this would all be a lot more easy... like, emerge. Heck, if the Fedora repos worked for me, it'd be easier. But I realy wana use Gentoo BTW, if anyone knows anything about WiFi networks, check out the networking forum. Gots a question. /shameless-plug.py QBRADQ

Analog modems are not used very much at all anymore, because a lot of people have broadband. However, if you do have to use dial-up for whatever reason, you should definatly go with a hardware contorled modem. They rock. Umm, about the "text mode" setup, what I ment was it isn't actualy a console installation. Rather, it uses a curses lib to render a GUI. It's basicaly the same as the GUI installer, just compatible with older PCs. Also, when I was installing Fedora Core 1, the GUI installer would hang durring the partitioning step. Using the text mode install allowed me to sucessfuly install Fedora Core 1, although the bootloader didn't work (hung on the GRUB prompt). Anyway, I would rate Fedora Core 4 a 6 out of 10. I would have given it a 9, however the Fedora RPM repository servers are giving me a lot of trouble. Many of the RPMs I tried to download were invalid, and the throughput was pathetic (500 KB in just under an hour for LAME lib). This is using yum BTW. Also, Fedora, nor it's RPM repo contain any kind of MP3 support what so ever. I guess this isn't a big deal if you plan on using XMMS or something like that. But to a new Linux user, finding XMMS took a while Anyhow, other than it's native package manager, Fedora Core 4 is a definate home run for those that don't want to compile anything. Plus, most popular software packages have FC4 RPMs available, such as RealPlayer (avoid if you can), and even linux-NTFS. QBRADQ

Heyas again. Just thought of another great thing about GMail. Back a few months ago, you could connect to it thorugh SSL by using https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=mail&passive=true&rm=false&continue= https://mail.google.com/mail/ (notice the httpS). Now, GMail will actualy redirect you from the HTTP access to HTTPS. Why is this good? Well, if you go to school like me, and your school is as paranoid as mine and has CyberSitter or some other ridiculus data filter on that blocks email sites and stuff, SSL is the fix. None of those types of programs will filter out data over an SSL connection. Kinda makes me want to find an SSL proxy Ohh, as far as Google making money, yea, they do. Check thier stock quotes or something. Google has been profitable for a long time, with advertisers pay hugh bags of cash to have thier sites apear at the top of search results in the little blue boxes. Check out this CNet article if you don't believe. $342.8 million USD net income on $1.38 billion USD in revinue for the second quarter this year (that's a 3 month period, BTW). Thier stock is trading at around $300 USD a share! QBRADQ

Well, I downloaded from the main archives and had no troubles at all. Got full speed too. Then again, full speed at the office is ~40KB/Sec. As far as the so-called "text mode" install, it actualy uses some type of curses. It's not really text mode, it's just rendered in text mode. As far as SATA drives, I did not have a problem with mine. Then again, I didn't have it pluged in when I installed on my 40GB EIDE. However, now that Fedora is up and runing, it sees my SATA just fine. It doesn't really matter though, 'cause it's NTFS for now. As far as the drivers issues, I am assuming that you are refering to non-hardware controller modems (know as Winmodems or Linmodems). Those aren't worth the silicon they're printed on for all I am conserned. Here's a one to one comparison of my old Winmodem and my new (I.E. recently purchased, but manufactured in 2000) serial modem: Post in Hardware Forum Anyway, long story short on that one is my new serial modem doesn't need drivers at all (it does need serial and PPP support in the kernal however). Here's some more observations on Fedora Core 4: Application Management: yum (Fedora's AM) isn't nearly as good as emerge (Gentoo's AM, emerge is the command, Portage is the app name) in my opinion. That's mainly because yum is online-only(from what I can find out), and emerge can be set to install from packages and GRPs. However, the Add / Remove Programs applet Fedora has for installing apps from thier install disk(s) is really cool. I'd like a front end like that for yum and emerge. Application Choices: Fedora comes with full X, GNOME, and KDE packages on the install disk(s), where as Gentoo's install and package CD contains the GNOME and KDE base application set, but not thier respective base packages (which is an outrage to a dial-up user like myself). In addition to this, Fedora comes with installs for OpenOffice(GNOME / KDE) and FireFox(GNOME), which are the two programs I use most often. Anyway, I'ma cut this off now, as it's getting very late. Ohh, and now that I'm in GNOME running FireFox, there is no spell check in the browser. This makes me sad. QBRADQ

Hello all. I recently bought a serial modem for use with my Linux installation, and thought I would share the experiance. Now, I know that a lot of people have broadband now and don't really care about modems, but I thought someone might get something out of this. I'll preface all of this by telling you that I live only four miles from the largest city in my county (10,000 people). The AT&T Transcontenental Fiber Backbone runs across the property I live on, and I know this for a fact as my Father watched them install it, and the aforementioned city is currently tapped into it offering 2MBS connections to every home in town. However, the telephone system in the area hasn't been updated since I don't know when, there is no cable broadband, no ISDN, no DSL, nothing available. There is a microwave connection option, however it is very expensive and is quite unstable. Dial-Up is, unfortunately, the only viable option I have untill SBC gets DSL in here. Also, if you don't know what a "Winmodem" is, the you need to read this: Winmodems are not Modems! You'll be thanking this guy later. I have been using a US Robotics 56K v.90 v.92 Voice/Fax/Data PCI internal Winmodem for the past year or so (good lord do I ever miss my cable connection). The modem I bought today is a CNet CN5614XR 56K v.92 Fax/Voice/Data modem, connected via RS-232 serial. Cool thing about it is that it comes with drivers for Windows, and Linux doesn't need any Here's a comparison between the two: Connection: The Winmodem usualy took several tries to connect, squelching and screaming, cycling through the PPP handshake, and constantly messing up and trying again. Usualy took around ten minutes to dial in. My new serial modem squelches for about fifteen seconds, and then it's connected, and I have yet to get a failed attempt. Stability: Using the Winmodem, I would get disconnected within a minute of connecting to my ISP about three out of every four attempts. When I would get a "stable" connection, I would still get booted off at random. With my new serial modem, I have not yet once lost connection. In fact, at this point I have been connected for seven and a half hours, and my ISP has a four hour auto-boot script running (I know this for a fact, as I spoke to the man who runs it ). Bandwidth (if you can call it that): Connecting with the Winmodem under Windows 2000, I would get between 26.4 Kbs and 21.0 Kbs. Connecting with Fedora Core 4 with my new serial modem, I have seen 30.6 Kbs through 48.8 Kbs. However, bandwidth tests with the Winmodem and now with my new serial modem have been the same: roughly 3 KB/Sec. Not too bad for living over six miles from the POP I'd say. Coolness and Convineance: This really isn't much of a functional comparison, but I like it. Now that I'm connected to the 'net through /dev/ttyS0 (serial 0, COM 0 under Windows), I have a free PCI slot. Now I can finaly reinstall my TV ripper card! Not that there are Linux drivers for it Not only that, but I'm very happy to be using my serial port. This is the first time it's ever been used on this motherboard. Glad it's finaly doing me some good. Finaly, since KDE and GNOME don't have network indicator lights (that I can find) it's nice to have hardware upstream / downstream and connection indicators sitting on my desk. In closing, if you're one of the misfortunates of the 'net like me, and have to settle for Dial-Up for what ever reason, do yourself a favor and get a hardware controlled modem! My only regret is that I didn't get one sooner. Chances are that I'll have DSL within a year. Not that I'm complaining, but had I gotten one of these babies sooner the past year would have been a lot more bareable. Untill I start to rant again, QBRADQ

Sorry, forgot to put a link in to the Fedora page. fedora.redhat.com It's four CDs, but it's worth it in my opion, as you can load it on a networkless system. QBRADQ

When I decided two days ago that I wanted to start messing around with Linux, I immediately went for Gentoo. I downloaded a Stage 3 Live CD ISO, as well as a package ISO (from work, where I have access to broadband). I would have liked to have gone with a Stage 1, however I am on a dial-up and that would not have been practical. This leads me to my next point... That package CD does not contain a full KDE or GNOME GRP. I found this out after spending eight hours compiling and installing the kernel, the boot loader, Xorg, Xterm, and all that stuff. I was not pleased. Gentoo was loads of fun though. That may sound strange, but I've been coding since I was 12, and I started my computing life with DOS. Because of these two things, the Gentoo installation procedure wasn't too foreign for me. Also, I won't say that my time spent installing a doomed Gentoo system was wasted. Quite the opposite really. Now that I'm using Fedora 4 (install time ~10 minutes, including compilation), I actually know my system. I can make changes to fstab, the network configuration, and all that stuff without having to figure out where the GUI app is. Now, if only I could find a guide to recompiling the Fedora kernel... And find the disk partitioner.. Eh, I'm new But yea, Gentoo is very cool. Just about any distro that allows you to compile the kernel during the installation procedure is cool in my book. For instance, I don't have an ISDN connection, and I don't use PCMCIA, SICI, or anything like that. With Gentoo, I can just not compile that stuff into the kernel. With Fedora, I have no choice in the matter. Go Go Gentoo EMERGE! QBRADQ

Hello all! I've been messing around with Linux for the past couple of days, and in the process I destroyed my Windows 2K installation. I tried Gentoo, however that's a story for another post. What I'm focusing on here is Fedoracore 4 Linux, i386. Installing I must say that it was a major let down to see a graphical installation system. It's not that I have anything against GUI s, it's just that it doesn't feel like Linux, ya' know? The GUI lets you manually partition your drives and select all the packages you want installed. However, you can't compile anything for yourself, not even the kernel. While this might have seemed like a plus to me just a few days ago, after messing around with Gentoo this is a definite black-ball point. It's got ISDN, PCMCIA, and a whole bunch of other things compiled in that I simply don't need. I am very happy with the fact that the install process does leave you with a GUI desktop environment if you want it to. Compared with Gentoo, this is the only reason that I am currently using (and plan to continue using) Fedora. Configuration Configuring Fedora was a breeze. It's got this nice GUI for it that holds your hand all the way through, kinda like Windows. All of the nitty-gritty stuff like fstab is taken care of for you. Even network configuration is done through a GUI (actually during the install process). Opperating Environment Fedora is running quite fast on my system (AthXP1700+, 1GB RAM, nVidia GeForce 3), much faster than Mandrake 9 did. A comparison between Fedora and Gentoo would be irrelevant for me, as I never got Gentoo out of Xterm. The KDE environment that Fedora installs (the minimal environment) is quite slick. All the administrative tools run very well and function properly. Hardware As expected, all hardware other than my modem works great. I had a US Robotics 56K that was supposed to be hardware-controller based (I.E., that's what it said on the box). However, that is not the case. In fact it's printed right on the board, "US Robotics 56K WM. I HATE WIN MODEMS! Yesh! Anyway, after calling literally every computer shop in the county (including Best Buy, Office Depot, and even Wal Mart), I found a single serial modem collecting dust on a shelf at a local custom build shop. It set me back $75 USD, but it's the best modem I've ever owned BTW, after figuring out that my serial port is /dev/ttyS0, the networking GUI worked perfectly. Conclusion All in all, Fedoracore 4 seems a good mix of ease-of-use and customization for the amateur Linux user. For an MCP that rarely spends any time outside the Microsoft shop, Fedora is treating me well. However, as I said before, I am disappointed that I didn't get to compile anything. Ahh well, you can't have it all I suppose Once I've had some time to play around with installing new packages and mucking around in Gnome, I'll reply here with thoughts on those topics as well. Till then, it's good to be back! P.S. I don't know if it's Konqueror or KDE that's doing this auto-spellcheck inside the browser window, but I friggin' love it! That's what I've always needed QBRADQ

A word about Project Longhorn: Microsoft's Project Longhorn has been renamed to Windows Vista . The Beta 2 version will be available for download and shipping to all TechNet Plus subscribers sometime in September. It is said to feature a highly advanced graphical user interface will all kinds of 3D bells and whistels, and suposably requires a 3D video card and 1024 MB (1GB) of RAM before the setup executable will even run. My take on Vista is that it's way too much of a memory and CPU hog to be of any used in the business or private sector durring the next two years. Personaly, I still use Windows 2000 Professional, because I hate WinXP's 60MB - 130MB memory footprint (and I have a gig of memory, BTW). However, I am sure that many users will switch to Vista, and most new computers comming out after it's launch will ship with Vista pre-installed. It seems like Windows Vista is more of a bid for Mac customers, featuring enhancements for both video and audio preformance. I don't know for sure, but my guess is that Vista will be largely based on the .NET framework from the System Mode services up, ensuring that applications running on the platform will only get a miniscule amount of CPU time. Time will tell however. Once Beta 2 ships, I'll be testing it at school. I'll be able to talk more about it then, as I won't be bound by any type of NDA (being a student rocks ). Ohh yea, and it is said that the new Windows file system, WinFS, has been removed from the project. That's a shame too, because it's the only feature I was excited about. As far as IE7 goes, who cares? RSS? What is RSS anyway? I'll have to Google that later. It is nice to see that Microsoft has finaly got on the tabbed browsing bandwagon. Tabbed browsing is the only reason I started using Gecko browsers in the first place. However, the security and stability of Mozilla and FireFox are unmatched by IE, and I really don't think that's going to change anytime soon. Basicaly, Internet Explorer is the browser of lazy people (no offense intended, please read on). IE is the plain-vanilla browser that ships with the OS. Much like Windows Media Player, calc.exe, and notepad.exe, IE is a program that is intended to fufill the basic needs of Microsoft's customers. Most people, after having tried a variatey of other browsers, agree that IE is a decent browser, but not the browser for them. And, as IE grows, so too will it's competition. If you are still using IE, please try a different browser! Using Mozilla, FireFox, or Opera will not only enhance your experiance of the World Wide Web, it will also help prevent a sizeable protion of SpyWare, AdWare, and viruses. Heck, even Netscape is better than IE IMHO, even though it's infested with AOL/Time Warner parasites. Same goes for Outlook Express. Try Thunderbird! Yea, I'll give IE7 a try. I'll have to, because we are forced to use IE at school. But it's going to take a lot of convincing to get me to stay. QBRADQ

I am currently having the same problem, and I mean the exact same problem. Heck, I even bolded the same part of the log that you did! Here's a link to the thread: HugeURL I think the source of confusion on this comes from the fact that everything says subdomains are functional imediatley. While this is true on Xisto's end, it isn't nessesarily true on you're ISP's end. In my case, my ISP http://www.csweb.net/, a small local ISP, has not yet updated thier DNS. Furthermore, I can't force an update with nslookup. However, I can access my subdomain from school, who use OneNet as thier service provider, and run a private DNS in-house. I supose we wait. In the mean time, could someone tell me (us) how to access our site through the IP? I've tried IP/home/username/, and IP/home/username/public_html, and IP/home/username/www, as well as username.IP and everything else I can think of, but nothing works. However, IP/cpanel is responsive, and alows me to upload through file manager and everything. NOTE: I will be re-posting some of this info in the origional thread that I started. QBRADQ

Depends of the host. For instance, 100webspace gives you 100 megs of space (after a period of a few days), but thier database quota is set to 5MB.Here at Xisto, the MySQL quota is included in the web quota. Meaning that you can have up to a 150MB MySQL database (Assuming you don't have anything else on the account).That's the way I understand it anyway.QBRADQ

Hello there! First, let me thank the folks here at Xisto for aproving my request for hosting. I am all excited about it Unfortunatly, I have run into a bit of a snag. On the process form, all the directions say to use username.astahost.com for your subdomain if you want one. However, the little popup box that's supposed to tell you wiether or not it's a domain said "That does not appear to be a Xisto subdomain". I figured I would try it anyway, since the step-by-step guide on the request forum used Xisto.com. The creation process took about ten minutes. Here's the relivant bits: If you will take note of the bold text in the quote above, there apparently was an error with a bind directive with the name servers. I don't know if this is because the process thought I was trying to register with a domain nor not. However, the output looks identical to the output in the step-by-step guide, with the exception of that error. I have tried the following addresses, all of which return a "Could not be found" error in both Mozilla and IE: Please note that all occurances of my account username and password have been replaced with "**********" for odvious reasons. If you guys should need the username to address the problem, please email me at "qbradq AT gmail DOT com" (please include your forum username so I can verify that you are an admin or mod). Any assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated. QBRADQ