miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG

Urrgghhh.. another of the microsoft fanatics have fun dude... at least you wont give up on your social life trying to configure linux...

Hi, any of you still using win2k out there ? my svchost crashes pretty frequently - the system still keeps on working but copy-paste cannot be done anymore. i've got all the service packs & hotfixes. plus i've got a regularly updated bitdefender pro av paid version ( i really dont feel like compromising when it comes to a decent AV) - please don't come up with a response that i've got some worm, coz i DONT. on top of that my c: drive where i've put nothing but win2k and some common apps is locked up by this program called DriveShield that makes it completely write proof. still i keep getting these svchost crashes.. any solutions ? Thanks P.S. I seriously recommend all of you to use either DriveShield or Deep Freeze Pro. Just google the terms and you'll get to their respective sites. Also if you are interested in a regularly updated AntiVirus comparision chart - goto: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

Could you explain the tweak thingie a bit more or redirect me to a site where i can read more about the tweaks ??thanks

I have thunderbird from a long time - perhaps i wasnt able to explain myself clearly. Say, a windows system at home has only one user login. what i want is a email client that will sit inside that profile and yet provide mailboxes for say all my family members - each mailbox connecting to different accounts. smtp can be the same. but when i fire up the email client - it would ask for my login/pass and take me to ONLY my mailbox. The mailboxes for other family members should remain invisible to me, and so will mine be for them. I can use profiles - but all the profiles will be visible for anyone who uses the client. do you know of any such client ? maybe i'm asking too much out of a simple email reader... lol ...

Hi Nils, I don't know if the prob is going to ever get solved but these are two extremely handy links you posted here. Thanks a lot

Can you give me some more information about your present system - say, cpu, ram and how your current hdd partitioning scheme ?? That would be a lot more helpful in deciding. Once I have these info i can get back to you with a good recommendation cheers..

I did - all three of them. Back in my home in india i probably still have the original boxpacks of warcraft 1 & c&c .... who in his right frame of mind would ever throw 'em away ?? i think i also have the first versions of Zork, Hero's Quest/Police Quest/Kings Quest & Space Quest from Sierra...

I changed to MX record to mail.microsys-asia.info but still it didnt help.. does it run on any non-standard port ?? it just wouldn't connect to port 25...regards

Not yet - didnt get any response. At least want to know if it is possible or not.Thanks

Hi all, Does anyone know of any such email client that can create multiple virtual mailboxes under ONE Windows Login - and thus cater to many different users. What I'm looking for is some client that can handle mails the way outllook does based on separate account logins on windows - but it should be able to perform the same without having to log out and log back in as a different user. Instead the client itself should have options to set up multiple password protected accounts that will take you to different mailboxes for every user. Is there any such client in existence ?? Thanks...

Can I have one ? Can mail me at joesubscribes@hotmail.com. Would be great Thanks

Howto: Setup a DHCP Server on Linux in Few Simple Steps Hi all, I'm back again with a new turorial - this time we're going to deal with another aspect of Linux/Windows networking - the DHCP Server. I'm sure all of you must have come across the term DHCP - anyone who connects to the internet has to come across it every now and then. You see the term even on the small setup instructions leaflets that accompany the dial-up internet packages from most of the ISPs. DHCP is what allots you a unique IP address everytime you dial out to your ISP. Here's a short description of what DHCP is and what it can do straight from the Redhat Manuals. Be assured that setting up DHCP is far simpler than getting your DNS Server running or configuring SAMBA - as shown in my other two tutorials. Assumptions: a. You have a Linux Server up and running with DHCP pre-installed on it. This will be referred to as your "DHCP Server" from now on. b. You have another Windows 2000/XP workstation running and connected to the Linux Server. This is required to test if the DHCP is being able to allot the IP addresses properly. This will be referred to as your Client Host or DHCP Client from now on. c. You have only ONE network card (NIC) attached to the Linux Server and it's name according to Linux Device List is eth0. If you are unsure about what your NIC is referred to as, type the following in a linux console: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= shell> ifconfig =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= You'll get an output similar to this: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0D:88:39:D2:69 inet addr:10.19.168.5 Bcast:10.19.168.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::20d:88ff:fe39:d269/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:14450 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:15310 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:1539185 (1.4 Mb) TX bytes:1763316 (1.6 Mb) Interrupt:225 Base address:0xb800 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= That tells you that indeed your NIC is present and set to handle Linux networking. See if you can spot the important parameters like the Server's NIC Hardware Address (MAC address), the Server's alloted IP, Subnet Mask etc. They're all grouped up in the first 2-3 lines of the output. My server's IP is set to 10.19.168.5 and that's what you see on first half of the second line, along with the Broadcast Address(10.19.168.255) and Subnet Mask(255.255.255.0) Step 1 - Editing the /etc/dhcpd.conf file Most likely the file dhcpd.conf would not exist beforehand in you /etc directory. We'll start with a blank file. If you want to save up on some typing, you can load up the sample configuration file that comes with linux and modify the parameters. If you have the most recent version of DHCP you'll find the sample configuration file here --> /usr/share/doc/dhcp-3.0.1rc12/dhcpd.conf.sample The location of the sample file might vary from distribution to distribution - so if you can't find it in this directory try using the locate command to find the location of the file. Usage: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= shell> locate dhcpd.conf =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= I personally prefer starting off with the blank file and inserting the configuration data according to my needs. Lets get on with it. Type in the following four lines at the top of the file. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= default-lease-time 86400; max-lease-time 86400; ddns-update-style interim; ignore client-updates; =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= A short explanation: default-lease-time 86400 - This tells the dhcp server to fix the minimum default amount of time that an IP is alloted to a client aka lease shouldn't be more than ONE DAY (86400 seconds). One day is a good figure to keep for your default lease time. This will lease an IP address for 86400 seconds if the client host doesn't ask for specific time frame. max-lease-time 86400 - This again, is the maximum duration for which one particular client host will have the IP alloted to it. When this period is over, the client has to re-apply for a new IP lease - and depending on the range of free ip addresses, it might be given the same IP as it had before or a new one. Be aware that one you have the server running - this process takes place with absolute transparency without any human intervention. Feel free to modify the numbers to suit your need. Normally you wouldn't need values larger than 86400 - unless you intend to have any of your client hosts to be up and running for more than a day. Say you want it running for 2 days - change the figure to 2 x 86400 = 172800 and so Whatever number of days you want the lease to stay, just multiply 86400 by that and put the result in. Even if the client host request a lease time frame which is more than this - the request would be rejected and the client will receive this figure as the maximum lease time. ddns-update-style interim ignore client-updates - These two lines are required too - but we won't delve much deeper into these parameters - except that they involve a much advanced concept involving the DNS Server and are REQUIRED here. So just blindly put them in. Below this part put a few blank lines and type in the following lines: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0; option broadcast-address 10.19.168.255; option routers 10.19.168.5; ## The IP address of the name server ## option domain-name-servers 10.19.168.5; option domain-name "microsys-asia.info"; =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= These are the global option clauses that take option optionname optionvalue form. The options should be fairly self evident. The first line sets a global subnet mask for your network. The second line fixes the Broadcast address for your subnet - the DHCP Server will advertise it's services from either this IP (10.19.168.255) or use the universal broadcast IP (255.255.255.255). The third line sets the address of your router - which in turn shows up as the Default Gateway under windows. If you don't have one, you can comment out this line. Fourth and fifth line as you can see specifies your DNS Servers IP and your Domain Name. If you have multiple DNS Servers, say 10.19.168.5 and 10.19.168.6 - you should specify them in order of search, i.e. the statement will take this form: option domain-name-servers 10.19.168.5 10.19.168.6; We mention all these parameters here, because these services/hosts cannot be allowed to have dynamic IPs. They need fixed addresses to perform properly i.e., any hosts on the network should always find these services at fixed addresses only. Next we come to the Subnet Configuration part of the config file. Go ahead and type in the following: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= subnet 10.19.168.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 { range 10.19.168.31 10.19.168.250; } =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= As you can see - the first line specifies the subnet of your network and your netmask. Replace my subnet IP with that of yours. The netmask usually always is 255.255.255.0 - which means your network logically wouldn't have more than 253 client hosts and 254including your server. My experimental network has just one subnet. You might have many more. In case you do, you have to make another similar block on entry below this one replacing the IPs with those of your second subnet. Next is the range startrange endrange clause - which specifies the IP Block or IP Pool from which addresses will be handed out to the client hosts. As you can see, I was experimenting with it, and set the start range to 10.19.168.31 and end range to 10.19.168.250 - so range of IPs alloted to my clients will start only at .31 and upto a maximum of .250. You can repeat the option statements that we used earlier inside this subnet {} block too - in case, you want this subnet to have a different set of dns/router/domain etc. The "options" specified earlier in the file are global and will affect any subnet which doesn't have it's own set of option clauses. This brings us to the last part of the configuration file. Whatever we've put in so far is enough to get your DHCP Server up and running - but in some special cases, you need to tell the server to allot a fixed IP to a certain system. This is possible by setting up a matching list of IPs and Hardware MAC Addresses of those systems. Say I have my own development WorkStation and a friend's system called Tony who joins my network regularly. So the config options I enter are as follows: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= # Assign fixed address to certain hosts based on NIC Address # My Development Workstation host workstation { hardware ethernet 00:11:2F:47:54:F2; fixed-address 10.19.168.50; } # Tony's Computer host tony { hardware ethernet 00:0A:5E:24:24:0E; fixed-address 10.19.168.60; } # Networked Laser Printer host laser-printer { hardware ethernet 08:00:2b:4c:59:23; fixed-address 10.19.168.100; } =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Once again this part should be self evident. The host hostname clause specifies the host for which I'm going to fix a specific IP address. Next comes the hardware ethernet and 00:11:2F:47:54:F2; which specifies, as you can guess, the MAC address of the client hosts. The fixed-address 10.19.168.50; tells the DHCP Server to allot only this IP against that particular MAC address. I've specifications for two systems here - but you are allowed to add in as many systems as you want. I've also got a networked laser printer which you can see specified in the third block. Be aware though - with every fixed MAC Address/IP combination you specify here, you IP Pool or IP Range that you specified for your subnet will get shorter by one free IP. In effect, if you'd specified around 250 hosts here manually - the whole IP Pool will be exhausted. In case some new system connects to your network - it wouldn't be able to receive any free IPs. Besides if any of the client hosts has a malfunctioning NIC which has to be replaced - you'll have to come back here and change the respective entry for its MAC address here and set it to the new one. Be very careful about the Opening and Closing Braces {} - if you miss out on any one of them the DHCP server will fail to start. There's something I forgot to mention though. Since these fixed IP specifications are for clients who are part of your subnet, this whole section should be enclosed within the subnet 10.19.168.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {} declaration right after the line where you specify the IP Pool range (range 10.19.168.31 10.19.168.250;). If you are still unsure where to include this - see the attached sample config file and you'll know rightaway. Save the file and quit. Step 2 - Editing the /etc/rc.d/init.d/dhcpd file This is the file that actually starts up the DHCP Daemon during boot time, which in turn reads the configuration options from the dhcpd.conf in the /etc folder. This file is almost fully configured beforehand and we have to make only a few minor modifications. Scroll down till you come upon something that looks like a subroutine named start(). It should look like this: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= start() { # Start daemons. echo -n $"Starting $prog: " =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Below the second line with the "echo" add the following two lines: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= start() { # Start daemons. echo -n $"Starting $prog: " /sbin/route add -host 255.255.255.255 dev eth0 2> /dev/null daemon /usr/sbin/dhcpd eth0 #daemon /usr/sbin/dhcpd ${DHCPDARGS} ... ... } =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The /sbin/route add -host 255.255.255.255 dev eth0 2> /dev/null sets up the DHCP Broadcast address to the global broadcast address of 255.255.255.255 and binds it to your primary NIC eth0. Your system now knows that DHCP will broadcast its presence using this IP through your primary NIC. The second line daemon /usr/sbin/dhcpd eth0 is the actual command that starts your DHCP Server and tells it to listen on eth0 - which again, is your primary NIC. When you edit this file, you'll probably see the third commented out line already present. You can either comment it out and insert the second line manually - or modify the same line and remove the ${DHCPDARGS} variable and put in eth0 there instead. Next scroll a little further down till you get to another similar sub routine titled stop(). Once again add the following line as described: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= stop() { # Stop daemons. echo -n $"Shutting down $prog: " /sbin/route del -host 255.255.255.255 dev eth0 2> /dev/null ... ... } =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= You have to add only the /sbin/route del -host 255.255.255.255 dev eth0 2> /dev/null line here which tells you system to stop broadcasting DHCP upon shutdown of the service and unhooks it from the global broadcast address. That's it. Save the file and quit. We are now ready to start the DHCP server and put it to test. But before you do that there's one last step that you got to perform. The DHCP Server stores all its lease information in a file called /var/lib/dhcp/dhcpd.leases by default. This file wouldn't exist when you start the server - and on some systems, depending on the version of DHCP you are using it might spit out some error and cause DHCP to hault. Creating a blank file with that name solves the problem. We'll just go ahead and do it anyway whether the file exists or not. So enter the following command: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= shell> touch /var/lib/dhcp/dhcpd.leases =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= And we are done. Step 3 - Starting the DHCP Server The DHCP Server can be started up in several ways. Do any of the following: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= shell> /etc/rc.d/init.d/dhcpd start OR shell> service dhcpd start =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Either way, you should get a message saying: Starting dhcpd: [ OK ] - which means all has gone well and your server is working fine. Step 4 - Starting your Windows System to check if DHCP is working properly Boot up your windows system and go to the Network and Dialup Connections Panel. Right-click Local Area Connection and click on Properties. Then double-click on Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and in the panel that comes up, make sure that the radio buttons next to Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain DNS Server address automatically are both checked. If they are NOT, select them and click OK. Restart your system. Upon Windows next boot - open a command line console type ipconfig /all. This should print out detailed information about your Network Card (NIC) and your present IP address. In my case, I booted up my development workstation - which if you recall from dhcpd.conf was set to have an IP address of 10.19.168.50 based on my hardware MAC address. That's what I found my workstation to have. And if you didn't allot fixed IP to any system, you'd find you Windows machine to have taken up the first free IP in your IP Pool, once again, the range of which was specified in the dhcpd.conf. One last cross-check that you can do - is to get back to your Linux Server and open the /var/lib/dhcp/dhcpd.leases file and view its content. It was blank when you created it - but now it should contain an entry corresponding to your Windows system(s) that looks somewhat like this: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= lease 10.19.168.50 { starts 2 2005/02/01 20:03:10; ends 3 2005/02/02 08:03:10; hardware ethernet 00:11:2F:47:54:F2; uid 01:00:00:e8:4c:5d:31; client-hostname "WorkStation"; } =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= And thats about it. Good luck and have fun.

Thats because the native IE engine is built into windows. Which means, more than 70% of IE is already loaded (do you find some strange similarity of it to Windows Explorer??) when you boot into windows.. When you click on IE - it just spawns off as a little different looking interface and loads it as a browser. So there.... you could, in effect achieve the same thing by typing an URL in the address bar of windows explorer when you are connected to the net. No credits to microsoft for their FAST LOADING browser On the other hand - considering firefox being a third party app - the load speed is quite amazing compared to other browsers !! I think all of you'll agree

Hey I fiddled around with those extensions too - but can someone tell me if there's a way to DOWNLOAD them separately and plug them into firefox, coz I didn't manage to do so. Only way I figured is if you download them through firefox, in which case, they get unpacked and installed directly into the browser directory... But say if I reinstall my OS I need to re-download them again. What if I just download and keep all of them saved up -> how do I get firefox to find and install them then ??Thanks

There are so many of them out there on the web... Just google for "beginner actionscript tutorials" and you'll get loads of hits. And if you are being just plain and simple lazy, like I am at times here you go: http://www.flashdeveloper.nl/g_flash_Actionscript.html/?gtnjs=1 http://www.actionscript.org/resources/categories/Tutorials/ http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ Have fun

Hi all, I saw quite a few messages here about partitioning schemes and hdd partitions in general. Here I present two utilities, unfortunately NONE freeware - yet they are something that is a MUST HAVE for all users. Both of them ask you to choose One or Multiple Partitions that you wish to protect and then LOCKS them up for good. This doesn't mean that they write protect your partitions - you still are able to read/write from those partitions, EVEN DELETE them, Wipe out your Windows folder completely.. in effect trashup your partition completely - and yet as soon as you reboot your system, the partition along with all its data is back right in the place it was. Nothing short of a miracle, if you ask me Even the viruses can't get through - anti viruses are only effective up to a certain extend, but when combined with either of these software they make an explosive pair. But this means that any new programs that you install will get wiped out too ?? Right you are - even though this is kind of a disadvantage, all you have to do is boot your system using a special password for these sw and your drive is back to the UNLOCKED state. Look at the brighter side now - I'm sure all of you download gigs of new sw from the net and try them out - I for one do almost everyday. Since they are meant just for testing I just go ahead and install them without mercy, knowing that as soon as I reboot - ALL will be gone, including changes in registry and all the files/folders that were created. Now the ones that I like among these - I keep for permanent installation - the others go down the trash bin... Pretty convenient aay ?? Try out both and see which one you like more: DriveShield Plus from CenturionTech AND Deep Freeze Pro by Deep Freeze, Denmark

I'm sure this request has been made ealier - the blue scheme is used in almost every other board sw - and adding a couple more would take the monotony away..

Ya - took a look at all of them.. there's CODE and CODEBOX which might serve the purpose somewhat but the boxes with be titled with "CODE" - now if one of them could somehow be modified to show inverted colors and were to say "CONSOLE" on top - it would make the linu tuts alot easier to follow. Then you KNOW for a fact which part is to be typed in - it'll stand out so hard at you, you can't afford to miss it

HI, Someone told me you can get SSH access to your shell if you ask for it - so, can I get that enabled ? As I said earlier I feel really suffocated at times if i don't get my daily dose of console ;)Thanks

Which site are you trying to backup ? If it is your page on Xisto, I'm sure you noticed what it says when you try from cPanel - So there....

Excellent idea - but D2D connection would mean flow of LOTS of source codes & files - which have to be very finely categorized. Lots of attachment space is also neeed. But if this is ever organized properly I'd be happy to join in. I'm from india and I'm mostly a self-taught programmer with a crappy 4 yr IT degree from an american school which didn't help me develop much over what I already knew. But I'd certainly be happy to contribute to VB & C# .NET, a good bit of Java, C++, HTML, Perl & PHP - and if anyone is ever interested in - Lisp. So there... all the best arunkumarhg

Thanks to the admins for splitting up the OS forum into Win & Lin. We get a lot of posts here on different mainstream programming languages - maybe after a while you'll have to split up the Programming Section too - into corresponding languages. That way it'll be easier to find the posts with good tutorials and they wont age out and descend to the bottom of the lists either.Regards..

Hi all, I'll be brief about it. The original code was NOT written by me - the author is a certain Mr. Dave Peckham whose article titled AquaButton: A sample custom button control with a Mac OS X look can be found at CodeProject.Com. The original code was written in C# though - and my development platform was VB.NET - so I ported the code to VB.NET and here I am posting it for all of you. If you are unsure what an Aqua Button is - take a look at the following picture: Right - as you can see this will help you change the look of you .NET applications entirely. For C# you can use the code by the original author - and for VB.NET you can use mine. You'll find all the code needed in the attachment with this post - along with three .png picture files titled: left.png right.png fill.png These make up the left, right and body of the button. Feel free to relpace these with any other color - try experimenting with different kind of edge shapes and fill body. The fourth file in the zip is the main AquaButton.vb class that will draw the aqua button on your forms. You have to include all 4 files in your project and preferrably leave the .png files in the directory from which your application will run. That is necessary for the code to be able to load the pictures that give the button it's custom shape. Only flip side with this is - that the button is not compiled as a User Control and hence not accessible as a Form Designer component. (Maybe, I'll modify it soon to be one). Till then, you have to add the buttons to your project programmatically. A little explanation on that - if you look at the code view of you project (considering a blank form with only one button), inside the "Windows Forms Designer Generated Region", you'll see the standard windows default buttons are added similar to the following format: Me.Button1 = New System.Windows.Forms.Button...........Me.Button1.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.LightGrayMe.Button1.Location = New System.Drawing.Point (100, 100)Me.Button1.Name = "Button1"Me.Button1.Size = New System.Drawing.Size (60,24)Me.Button1.TabIndex = 1Me.Button1.Text = "OK" If you delete your button in the designer - this code will go away. So make sure you note down the Location and Size of your buttons prior to deletion. Since the Aqua Button class inherits the Windows Button Class - all the default button properties are accessible in the Aqua Buttons too. Towards the top of your code, above the windows forms designer generate region add in a statement: Friend Withevents Button1 As WildGrape.Aqua.Controls.Button Inside your Form_Load procedure add the following statements: Button1 = New WildGrape.Aqua.Controls.ButtonMe.Controls.Add (Button1)'The rest is the same as the syntax for the default buttonsMe.Button1.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.LightGrayMe.Button1.Location = New System.Drawing.Point (100, 100)Me.Button1.Name = "Button1"Me.Button1.Size = New System.Drawing.Size (60,24)Me.Button1.TabIndex = 1Me.Button1.Text = "OK" Compile your code and have fun .:: Cheers ::. Download the attachment (Zipped with WinZip 9): Download the attachment (Zipped with Windows Zipper):

Hi all, I believe there are ways to implement custom BBCodes. At least for phpBB they do and you can find a lot of modules at http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/. Admins - any chances of having some more in here for IPB ? Maybe these modules can be modified a little bit and implemented in this board ? One very useful bbcode would be a Quote TextBox similar to the Quote and Code with maybe black background and white text - for displaying console input/output text - Would be very handy when writing Linux Tutorials. That way they'd stand out way better and will be easier to understand. Thanks & Regards

Haha.. nice one - I would be convinced for one