Re: [PLUG] Crude comparisons of search engines

2021-09-07 Thread Mike C.
Please get your fucking facts straight before you start your name calling
eliist bullshit. I didn't just share my complacency to the world asshole.

I tried to understand the mostly vague criticisms in an honest effort to
offer some suggestions.

What fucking good is it if I were to offer the feedback to any fucking
product or service the form for "less than useless".

FUCK YOU!

On Tue, Sep 7, 2021 at 6:35 PM Ben Koenig  wrote:

> I've noticed that complacent people are very determined to share their
> complacency with the world.
>
> Just an observation. Wandering missives about how none of this matters to
> YOUR life are neither constructive nor polite.
>
> I have some old code from a search "engine" I wrote. Going to dig it up
> tonight and see if I can set up a little experiment...
>
> Feel free to explore meaningless opinions in the meantime.
> -Ben
> Sent from ProtonMail mobile
>
> ---- Original Message 
> On Sep 7, 2021, 6:05 PM, Mike C. < mconno...@gmail.com> wrote:
> "but i suspect that keith's dislike of ads, homonym results, ... are widely
> shared."
> I almost exclusively use Google search and I don't get "Pages and pages of
> ads."
> I wouldn't say I've never run into the homonym issue but it's not gotten to
> the point of frustration to call a search engine "worse than useless".
> There's plenty to criticize Google for, but I've moved away from the tech
> field and the things that I use tech for and the ways that I interact w.
> tech Google's stuff including Android, Google Fi, etc works really well for
> my day to day life.
> If I were a journalist, activist, etc, I wouldn't use it and don't
> recommend it to those types of people.
> About the only things tech I pay attention to anymore are privacy &
> security stuff.
>
> On Tue, Sep 7, 2021 at 5:37 PM Randy Bush  wrote:
> > > You seem to have some very personal and unique search engine issues
> > > and preferences that I dare say many other people don't.
> >
> > well, for criterion X, i am confident there are populations on both
> > sides.
> >
> > but i suspect that keith's dislike of ads, homonym results, ... are
> > widely shared.
> >
> > duckduckgo is somewhat better; and i especially like that i can
> > right-click a search result and get the correct url, not a gobble
> > redirect.
> >
> > and i run a tor relay, more as a social good. i rarely use tor.
> >
> > randy
> >


Re: [PLUG] Crude comparisons of search engines

2021-09-07 Thread Mike C.
"but i suspect that keith's dislike of ads, homonym results, ... are widely
shared."

I almost exclusively use Google search and I don't get "Pages and pages of
ads."

I wouldn't say I've never run into the homonym issue but it's not gotten to
the point of frustration to call a search engine "worse than useless".

There's plenty to criticize Google for, but I've moved away from the tech
field and the things that I use tech for and the ways that I interact w.
tech Google's stuff including Android, Google Fi, etc works really well for
my day to day life.

If I were a journalist, activist, etc, I wouldn't use it and don't
recommend it to those types of people.

About the only things tech I pay attention to anymore are privacy &
security stuff.





On Tue, Sep 7, 2021 at 5:37 PM Randy Bush  wrote:

> > You seem to have some very personal and unique search engine issues
> > and preferences that I dare say many other people don't.
>
> well, for criterion X, i am confident there are populations on both
> sides.
>
> but i suspect that keith's dislike of ads, homonym results, ... are
> widely shared.
>
> duckduckgo is somewhat better; and i especially like that i can
> right-click a search result and get the correct url, not a gobble
> redirect.
>
> and i run a tor relay, more as a social good.  i rarely use tor.
>
> randy
>


Re: [PLUG] Crude comparisons of search engines - BRAVE Search Engine

2021-09-07 Thread Mike C.
Okay, perhaps I found something interesting, useful and applicable to share
with the rest of the class. The Brave search engine & browser. It's built
on Chromium FOSS web browser.

The review of Brave and other browsers such as FFX, TOR, DDG is done by
restoreprivacy.com.

The restoreprivacy.com site is brand new to me, so I read their mission
statement - https://restoreprivacy.com/mission/

The review of Brave starts at 4 page down button presses  -
https://restoreprivacy.com/browser/secure/

Some things that caught my attention w. Brave is their search independence
calculations and reporting, anonymous cookies, ability to provide feedback
per search request.

All I'll say is that Brave has garnered enough of my interest to learn more
and to try it out in earnest. I also intend to do more reading on the
restoreprivacy.com web site.


Re: [PLUG] Proton mail not exempt from surveillance

2021-09-06 Thread Mike C.
One regional communication service provider that I know of that doesn't log
ip addresses is Riseup.net. Their philosophy is essentially any info that
isn't logged/stored isn't able to be shared.

If you don't know about the Warrant Canary, now you can now -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canary

Riseup.net warrant canary info - https://riseup.net/en/canary

On Mon, Sep 6, 2021 at 1:15 PM Russell Senior 
wrote:

> Saw this referred to on tweetar this morning, and looked it up:
>
>
>
> https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/06/protonmail-logged-ip-address-of-french-activist-after-order-by-swiss-authorities/
>


Re: [PLUG] Crude comparisons of search engines

2021-09-05 Thread Mike C.
Google:  96 shown, though 9000+ claimed
Bing:   311 shown, though 6800+ claimed
Mojeek: 478 shown
Neeva:  318 shown
DuckDuckGo: 151 shown
Microsoft Academic: 700+ academic citations shown (mostly
for a y2000 paper that spawned a new branch of electronics,
it's amusing to see what others have done with the idea).

Herein lies the rub. On page 6 of Mojeek on my search on Keith Lofstrom it
starts to wander off. Most results aren't relevant and/or I can't tell if
the info is in some way actually related to you.

This doesn't occur until mid-way down page 10 of the Google search results.
Mind you, I only know about what you've talked about on PLUG to be able to
determine that a search result is related to you.

One noticeable difference is that Mojeek lists your website first and the
Google search lists it 6th.

Another noticeable difference is that on page 1 of the Google search
results I get a link to patents filed w. your name at justia.com. On
Mojeek, I looked at the results through page 5 of Mojeek and the justia.com
patent info doesn't show.

So by my test, Google provides 4 and a half more pages of relevant
information on the web search of one Keith Lofstrom.







On Sun, Sep 5, 2021 at 2:11 PM Keith Lofstrom  wrote:

> Just for grins, I tried entering "Keith Lofstrom" (with the
> quotes) into various search engines.
>
> Google:  96 shown, though 9000+ claimed
> Bing:   311 shown, though 6800+ claimed
> Mojeek: 478 shown
> Neeva:  318 shown
> DuckDuckGo: 151 shown
> Microsoft Academic: 700+ academic citations shown (mostly
> for a y2000 paper that spawned a new branch of electronics,
> it's amusing to see what others have done with the idea).
>
> Mojeek did pretty well.  Neeva is two months out of the
> gate, and mostly Bing with serial numbers filed off.
> I'll see if Neeva improves.
>
> Note that Microsoft Academic shuts down at the end of
> the year, claimed replacements are still in beta.
> M$A is very good for laddering through citations and
> learning about other researchers; I'll miss that.
>
> Amusingly, I've created almost a thousand searchable wiki
> pages that have my name at the bottom; few are found
> above.  What those wiki pages don't yet have is https and
> certs.  When I finish upgrading my server and flailing at
> certbot, we will see how the search engines react.
>
> And of course, most of the time I'm not searching for me,
> though sometimes I search for impersonators.  I will try
> other search sets Real Soon Now.
>
> Keith
>
> --
> Keith Lofstrom  kei...@keithl.com
>


Re: [PLUG] New curated search engine: neeva.com

2021-09-05 Thread Mike C.
When any company tells you why they're better, that's just advertising. I
appreciate that being a UK outfit, the GDPR applies. I also like that
unlike most other alternatives, they built their search engine from
scratch, but that doesn't make it intrinsically better.

One would think that if Chess engines can analyze chess outcomes so many
moves ahead that AI would be ideal at objectively scoring web search
engines but I've yet to find any such thing.

Thus far, for me, the most useful thing I've come across is this Wikipedia
page that lists many search engines,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_search_engines

What this list informs me of is that there's many variables to and ways of
getting what one considers good search results which are subjective.

I found some very interesting projects here such as Swoogle, a semantic web
search engine developed at the Univ of Maryland and Shodan.

Shodan is a search engine that can provide info and a GeoIP based map of
any and all internet connected devices. Very useful and very scary.









On Sun, Sep 5, 2021 at 6:25 AM Daniel Ortiz 
wrote:

> https://www.mojeek.com/about/
> This gives some reasons why it is better.
>
> On Sun, Sep 5, 2021 at 8:18 AM Daniel Ortiz 
> wrote:
>
> > Wouldn't mojeek be a better search engine than Google? I am no search
> > engine expert, but it could be checked out:
> > https://www.mojeek.com
> >
> > On Sun, Sep 5, 2021 at 7:58 AM Rich Shepard 
> > wrote:
> >
> >> On Sun, 5 Sep 2021, Mike C. wrote:
> >>
> >> > Lastly, If I'm looking for research papers, case studies, etc, I've
> yet
> >> to
> >> > find a better search engine than Google Scholar. But unfortunately,
> much
> >> > of that information is behind paywalls. Which is a whole nother
> problem
> >> > that desperately needs addressing.
> >>
> >> Hi Mike!
> >>
> >> While libraries are still not allowing interlibrary loans because of the
> >> continuing pandemic, the Multnomah County library used to reach out to
> >> other
> >> libraries (many at universities) for scanned copies of scientific
> journal
> >> articles not directly available from MultCoLib. I've not had need for
> this
> >> service since the pandemic started I don't know if it's still a viable
> >> source for reseasrch, but it might well be. At a minimum, access to
> >> periodicals to which the library subscribes should still work.
> >>
> >> Another alternative is Research Gate <http://www.researchgate.net/>.
> >> Often
> >> an article is available for download from the site, otherwise you can
> send
> >> the contact author a request for a copy from the site's web site. I've
> had
> >> requests for copies of my pubished research via reserch net and have
> sent
> >> them to the requestors.
> >>
> >> Stay well,
> >>
> >> Rich
> >>
> >
>


Re: [PLUG] New curated search engine: neeva.com

2021-09-05 Thread Mike C.
Hi Rich - Thank you for the info on the great search engine in my own
backyard that I'm a bit embarrassed to admit I don't make nearly as much
use of as I could. Alslo, unlike many other things, it probably just gets
better the more we use it. It's also a fair bit more fun to go to the
Library and find interesting stuff I didn't know I was looking for.

I know that due to the pandemic, MultCoLib put effort into increasing
access to their resources via the Internet, but I'm not sure what's all
available today.

Thank you for informing me about researchgate and for your contributions to
it.


On Sun, Sep 5, 2021 at 5:58 AM Rich Shepard 
wrote:

> On Sun, 5 Sep 2021, Mike C. wrote:
>
> > Lastly, If I'm looking for research papers, case studies, etc, I've yet
> to
> > find a better search engine than Google Scholar. But unfortunately, much
> > of that information is behind paywalls. Which is a whole nother problem
> > that desperately needs addressing.
>
> Hi Mike!
>
> While libraries are still not allowing interlibrary loans because of the
> continuing pandemic, the Multnomah County library used to reach out to
> other
> libraries (many at universities) for scanned copies of scientific journal
> articles not directly available from MultCoLib. I've not had need for this
> service since the pandemic started I don't know if it's still a viable
> source for reseasrch, but it might well be. At a minimum, access to
> periodicals to which the library subscribes should still work.
>
> Another alternative is Research Gate <http://www.researchgate.net/>. Often
> an article is available for download from the site, otherwise you can send
> the contact author a request for a copy from the site's web site. I've had
> requests for copies of my pubished research via reserch net and have sent
> them to the requestors.
>
> Stay well,
>
> Rich
>


Re: [PLUG] New curated search engine: neeva.com

2021-09-05 Thread Mike C.
"Remember when Google worked surprisingly well? Google is becoming worse
than useless."

Your criticism doesn't give me much to go on for offering useful/helpful
suggestions.

FIrstly, I was curious about your idea of "search engine testing" because I
couldn't imagine how I'd go about doing this. In my search, I discovered
there are search engine evaluator jobs at burger flipper pay scale.

Then I searched for reviews of search engines and I came across this very
unimpressive, to say the least, review of Neeva.
https://www.stanventures.com/blog/top-search-engines-list/

"Neeva is a search engine developed by an ex-Google executive, Sridhar
Ramaswamy. Unlike Google, Neeva will not show ads on the search result page
or collect user data for profit.

It will work on a subscription-based model and will display search results
curated from the web as well as personalized files.

The search engine will be powered by Microsoft Bing, weather information
from weather.com, stock data from Intrinio, maps from Apple."

In my search on web search engines, I discovered something that might be
helpful. There's many alternatives to Google Search and some of them are
very focused/specialized and may produce better results. A great example is
Wolfram Alpha. IMHO, it's the goto search engine for math & science but now
they've expanded their search capability. https://www.wolframalpha.com/

I recently learned about Tineye, reverse image search, from a journalist
who used it to debunk some doctored images used as propaganda.
https://tineye.com/

I discovered that Creative Commons has a reusable content search. "Browse
over 500 million images available for reuse"
https://search.creativecommons.org/

Lastly, If I'm looking for research papers, case studies, etc, I've yet to
find a better search engine than Google Scholar. But unfortunately, much of
that information is behind paywalls. Which is a whole nother problem that
desperately needs addressing.

Well, I hope this isn't a complete waste of your time and perhaps might
offer something in your quest for a better than useless search engine.
Cheers!








On Sat, Sep 4, 2021 at 6:19 PM Keith Lofstrom  wrote:

> Remember when Google worked surprisingly well?
>
> Google is becoming worse than useless.  A recent Scott
> Galloway book (mostly about the post-COVID business
> landscape) suggests   neeva.com   - an ad-free
> privacy-oriented subscription ($5/mo) search engine.
>
> According to   https://neeva.com/blog
> Neeva announced public availability on 06/29/21 , so
> I expect gaps and rough edges.  The Neeva blog goes
> back to 06/22/20, explaining how Neeva made it into
> Galloway's recently released book.
>
> Neeva does not seem to be open source, but they are
> transparent about objectives and methods.  See
> https://neeva.com/learn
>
> The first three months are free.  I will probably sign up,
> but I would like to do so along with a larger informal
> testing team, designing tests to probe for weaknesses,
> and also unexpected strengths.  I've already become so
> resigned to Google's (and DuckDuckGo's) shortcomings
> that I've forgotten how to find best search outcomes.
>
> The more of us looking for and sharing good/bad Neeva
> outcomes, the sooner we will find them.
>
> Or not.  Neeva might be useless, or strong in areas that
> do not matter to you and me.  But more explorers can
> cover more territory.
>
> Keith
>
> --
> Keith Lofstrom  kei...@keithl.com
>


Re: [PLUG] OT - State of Oregon tech infrastructure?

2020-10-30 Thread Mike C.
>
> Mike,
>
> I assume this last statement is not self-referential[1]. Or, are you a rare
> gem? :-)
>

I had the privilege of working with and for some good people. I asked a lot
of questions, made my fair share of mistakes and tried to learn as much as
I could from those people.

I fought constantly with my IT Director about my management style & duties.
I didn't have meetings, I wasn't at my desk much b'cuz I'd rather work with
my team in the field than manage them from my desk. I often disagreed with
& challenged upper mngmt. They hated me, my team like me. My mngmt career
was short lived.

Carpe weekend,
>
> Rich
>
> [1] I highly recommend Douglas Hofstadter's 1979 book, "Gödel, Escher,
> Bach:
> an Eternal Golden Braid." It's a fascinating read.
>

I'll check out the book!
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Re: [PLUG] OT - State of Oregon tech infrastructure?

2020-10-30 Thread Mike C.
>
> My personal experience working with the State of Oregon is that
> their IT functions are rather decentralized, with different organizations
> within the State having their own IT support groups. It can be difficult to
> figure out which group you need to be talking to. Clackamas County
> (thankfully, in my opinion) has a much more centralized Technology Services
> organization, more so than even the other counties with whom I've worked.
>

I guess this decentralized approach is just a reflection of how state &
local governments are organized and interact with each other, but it's easy
to see how this could easily fall into disarray and be very complicated to
manage and support.


> However, as a network engineer, I'm totally going to blame the applications
> people for those big awful projects. ;-)
>
> --Stafford


I've worked in IT most of my life from tech as Tech Supp. Sys Admin,
Network Engr. and IT Manager. The only one to every blame is management /
leadership.

Everyone else certainly makes their fair share of mistakes, but good mngmt
knows how to account for them and learn from them. And my experience has
been that just good, much less great, IT Mngmt & Leadership is a rare gem.
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Re: [PLUG] OT - State of Oregon tech infrastructure?

2020-10-29 Thread Mike C.
This all begs the question to me now regarding transparency around county,
regional, state & federal IT systems that we all come to rely on in times
like these. Some percentage of our taxes go to funding these systems.

I suspect most of us also pay a lot of money to corporations for necessary
goods & services but we see what happens when an event like this happens
and then people are put in a position where they can't pay for them
anymore.

And I'll admit, I'm just another person trying to go about my life, who
didn't give this too much thought, figuring some good and smart people had
it all under control.

On Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 3:24 PM Stafford Rau  wrote:

> I don't work for the state, but rather I'm a network engineer at Clackamas
> County. My personal experience working with the State of Oregon is that
> their IT functions are rather decentralized, with different organizations
> within the State having their own IT support groups. It can be difficult to
> figure out which group you need to be talking to. Clackamas County
> (thankfully, in my opinion) has a much more centralized Technology Services
> organization, more so than even the other counties with whom I've worked.
>
> However, as a network engineer, I'm totally going to blame the applications
> people for those big awful projects. ;-)
>
> --Stafford
>
> On Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 3:03 PM Rich Shepard 
> wrote:
>
> > On Thu, 29 Oct 2020, Mike C. wrote:
> >
> > > I don't watch the local nightly news on tv, but a non-tech friend who
> > does
> > > told me that due to the archaic state of Oregon's hw & sw, we're the
> last
> > > state in the country to distribute government relief funds to people.
> >
> > Mike,
> >
> > Check out www.oregonlive.com/ on the Web.
> >
> > > I recall when OHP first opened enrollment and servers crashed and
> people
> > > couldn't apply. I'm hearing a similar story that people are
> experiencing
> > a
> > > lot of delay and problems with filing and processing their claims for
> all
> > > kinds of government assistance.
> > >
> > > I'm curious if anyone is close to this or has done IT work for the
> state
> > > before and can speak about this. Maybe there's an Oregonian tech
> blogger
> > > who writes about current state of tech affairs in Oregon's gov't?
> >
> > Not me, but one of the problems (and Portland suffered delays and cost
> > overruns with the Water Bureau's systems) is the agency changing
> > requirements while the new application is being developed. This is
> > apparently pretty common.
> >
> > I suspect that large businesses suffer the same way but don't publicize
> it
> > because it makes management look bad to investors.
> >
> > Stay well,
> >
> > Rich
> > ___
> > PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org
> > PLUG mailing list
> > PLUG@pdxlinux.org
> > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
> >
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[PLUG] OT - State of Oregon tech infrastructure?

2020-10-29 Thread Mike C.
Seems like most days it's just crickets & tumbleweeds on the PLUG email
list, so I hope folks don't mind my somewhat off-topic email.

I don't watch the local nightly news on tv, but a non-tech friend who does
told me that due to the archaic state of Oregon's  hw & sw, we're the last
state in the country to distribute government relief funds to people.

I recall when OHP first opened enrollment and servers crashed and people
couldn't apply. I'm hearing a similar story that people are experiencing a
lot of delay and problems with filing and processing their claims for all
kinds of government assistance.

I'm curious if anyone is close to this or has done IT work for the state
before and can speak about this. Maybe there's an Oregonian tech blogger
who writes about current state of tech affairs in Oregon's gov't?

Personally, I'd love it if it was possible to have FOSS systems in local &
state government, even if it was more corporatized such as Red Hat or
OpenSuse.
I know some cities in Germany have been back & forth between Linux & M$,
but I haven't seen much in the way of FOSS adoption at the local, regional,
state or fed level.

I've seen some local county IT jobs that require Apple experience. My
friend says some gov't offices are using decades old Apple hw & sw.

This might make for a really interesting PLUG talk some day if we ever get
to have one again.

Signed, Gov't foss tech curious in isolation.
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Re: [PLUG] Issues with /etc/apt/sources.list

2020-10-20 Thread Mike C.
On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 12:44 AM Derek Loree  wrote:

> Hi John,
>
> I see the problem:
>
> > deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted
> > deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal restricted main
> >   multiverse universe #Added by software-properties
>
> > deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal universe
>
> This line lists two repositories, focal and universe, however, focal is
> listed in the first line as well.
>

I don't understand why that's a problem. It's not "two repositories". It's
one dstro. Focal, and one repository, Universe, for that distro.

I make this point and distinction because it's common practice to have
multiple lines referencing different repos. The reason being so that you
can easily manage which repos you're pulling software from. If you don't
want to install software that is unsupported and/or not free, you simply
comment out the multiverse repo.

e.g.

# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal main restricted

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal universe

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal multiverse

Reference -
https://www.howtoforge.com/generate_sources.list_with_source_o_matic
See comment at bottom of page w. full sources.list file w. comments.
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Re: [PLUG] Package can't be deleted

2020-10-18 Thread Mike C.
>
> I finally found how to remove the original package:
>
> sudo apt purge oscar
>

I was going to recommend the purge command, but my understanding is that
the only difference between it and the remove command is that purge in
addition to removing the package also deletes any configuration files

Which based on the error output, leads me to believe that pkg mngrs are
reading those undeleted config files that are pointing to dir paths that
don't exist and thereby determining the package is unstable.
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Re: [PLUG] Package can't be deleted

2020-10-17 Thread Mike C.
>
> dpkg: error processing package oscar (--remove):
>  package is in a very bad inconsistent state; you should
>  reinstall it before attempting a removal
> dpkg: too many errors, stopping
> Errors were encountered while processing:
>  oscar
> Processing was halted because there were too many errors.
> E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
>
>

> 2 not fully installed or removed.
>

Looking through the command output it doesn't look like you ever ran the
"sudo apt-ge autoremove" command?

The general first steps advice when dealing w. a bad package state is to
run the auto-remove command and then attempt to fix any missing and/or
broken pkgs w. the  "sudo apt-get install -f " command

If you still run into problems, then you can try the below command.
Reference - https://linuxhint.com/apt_get_fix_missing_broken_packages/

sudo dpkg --remove -force --force-remove-reinstreq Package_Name
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Re: [PLUG] OT: Looking for some WiFi Networking Advice

2020-10-14 Thread Mike C.
>
> I need to upgrade my home wifi network with a high speed mesh network
> (primarily for better phone coverage in my house - I make a lot of video
> calls to the UK). I have Cox Gigablast on my wired network.



> The issue I am running into is that the "base" unit of the eero units and
> other vendors'boxes have to connect to either (1) the cable model or (2)
> the router and not the switch. My modem, router, and switch are all in a
> cabinet above mysdesk in the office, so (1) I don't need wifi in the office
> and (2) I don't
> relish the thought of having a wifi transmitter sitting 3 feet from my head
> 12 hours a day.
>
> I want to connect the wifi boxes to my wired network in a
> couple of different rooms away from the office. Eero (and other vendors)
> says the "base" unit has to act as a gateway (my router does that now), so
> it cannot be after the switch. Any suggestions on how I can get a high
> speed mesh network in my house and not take a daily showert in 2+ GHz
> radiation? I also want to use the wired network as the backhaul channel.
>

 Given that I only know a lil' a bit about your home network, nothing about
the physical space nor your aesthetic requirements nor budget I've ideas
and questions.

1. Cat 5 ethernet cable and above is spec'd for approx 300 feet. So you
wouldn't need to have your Wi-Fi gateway above your head to backhaul it
over ethernet to your ISP modem/ router.

2. If snaking 300' of Ethernet cable through your house is ugly and a pain,
you can get an Ethernet powerline adapter. If you're not familiar, here's
some current info on a couple of options.

In the early oughts, I was the sr. network engineer for a large healthcare
organization that was implementing a paperless hospital system that used
mobile workstations & handheld phones that worked over 8012.11 b Wi-Fi.

This wasn't a mesh network, just individual APs that were placed according
to a wireless site survey. Admittedly, the system had its glitches and the
hand-offs between APs for phone calls weren't exactly buttery smooth, but
it worked and met the hospital staff's requirements.

I say this b'cuz, I can understand the desire for a Wi-Fi mesh network but
I have to question whether it's really needed or might 1 or 2 individual
APs ethernet backhauled work for you.

HTH

-- Mike

.
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Re: [PLUG] Power Conditioner

2020-09-24 Thread Mike C.
Yes, I've also run into the G/N bonding inside wiring issue before. The
error mssg on the UPS was "wiring fault". In that case moving the UPS to
another outlet solved the problem as the wiring issue was only on the
outlet.

Tripplite does recommend a specific UPS for use with a generator. It's
called an "on-line, double conversion UPS." So that also might be something
worth looking into.

On Thu, Sep 24, 2020 at 7:08 PM Chuck Hast  wrote:

> Ahh forgot the G/N bonding, in the industrial environments I
> worked in, we never saw that one it was caught prior to hotting
> up the circuit, but indeed home installations are a crap shoot.
>
> Indeed the home I bought where I now live was like that I had
> to make sure the G/N bond was solid as it looked more like an
> afterthought. Now it is a bazen thought...
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 24, 2020 at 8:54 PM Michael Barnes 
> wrote:
>
> > You need to verify the wiring from your generator through the transfer
> > panel. Depending on how it is configured, it is possible the ground does
> > not make it all the way through when on generator. This can easily be
> > checked with one of those 3 light circuit testers. I have run into this
> in
> > the field using generators. In many generators, the ground and neutral
> are
> > not bonded. A UPS will see this as a fault and not accept the power.
> >
> > For a building, a transfer panel may be wired a couple of different ways.
> > For a large "whole house" system, the transfer panel simply switches
> > between commercial power and a big generator prior to the main service
> > panel. In that case, the ground-neutral bond takes place in the service
> > panel and all should be good. In some cases, however, the generator is
> not
> > big enough for the whole house. In those situations, there will be a sub
> > panel for the "priority" circuits. The transfer switch then toggles
> between
> > the feed from the main service panel and the generator. Sometimes, the
> > transfer panel is wired incorrectly and does not provide the G-N bond
> when
> > on the generator.
> >
> > Most modern generators are pretty well regulated, so the UPS rejecting
> due
> > to frequency or voltage is not likely. (Unless it is a cheapo Harbor
> > Freight or similar generator.)
> >
> > Working a lot of field communications activity and back-up power for
> > critical sites, I have run into this quite often.
> >
> > Check the wiring before worrying about power conditioners.
> >
> > My $.0002,
> >
> > Michael
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Sep 24, 2020, 18:16 Mike C.  wrote:
> >
> > > You shouldn't have to buy anything to fix this problem. You should be
> > able
> > > to accomplish this by adjusting the governor / idle speed of the
> > generator
> > > to the rpm that produces a stable 60 hz signal.
> > >
> > > Ideally, you'd have a cheap multimeter to use to quickly and easily
> dial
> > in
> > > the rpm but if not, you could just try playing around with it until the
> > > battery accepts the signal and starts charging.
> > >
> > > On Thu, Sep 24, 2020 at 5:56 PM Dick Steffens 
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > During the fire event last week we were without PGE power a couple of
> > > > times. We have a generator connected to the house through a transfer
> > > > panel which worked fine for everything except the battery backup
> units
> > > > we have for our computers. They rejected the power that wasn't a
> stable
> > > > 60 Hz. I have now heard that this is not uncommon with some
> generators,
> > > > and that there are devices one can use between the wall outlet and
> the
> > > > battery backup to maintain clean power.
> > > >
> > > > Searching for these online is proving to be challenging. Some people
> > > > call them inverters. The hits I get for inverters are for converting
> > 12v
> > > > to 120v. I tried power conditioner. That seems to be what I need,
> but I
> > > > call upon the collected wisdom of this group for confirmation, or a
> > > > suitable clue stick.
> > > >
> > > > The two search hits I looked at are:
> > > >
> > > > https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=120+volt+line+conditioner
> > > >
> > > > and
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> https://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-Conditioner-Regulation-LS606M/dp/B6B83G
> > > >
> > > > Further tho

Re: [PLUG] Power Conditioner

2020-09-24 Thread Mike C.
You shouldn't have to buy anything to fix this problem. You should be able
to accomplish this by adjusting the governor / idle speed of the generator
to the rpm that produces a stable 60 hz signal.

Ideally, you'd have a cheap multimeter to use to quickly and easily dial in
the rpm but if not, you could just try playing around with it until the
battery accepts the signal and starts charging.

On Thu, Sep 24, 2020 at 5:56 PM Dick Steffens  wrote:

> During the fire event last week we were without PGE power a couple of
> times. We have a generator connected to the house through a transfer
> panel which worked fine for everything except the battery backup units
> we have for our computers. They rejected the power that wasn't a stable
> 60 Hz. I have now heard that this is not uncommon with some generators,
> and that there are devices one can use between the wall outlet and the
> battery backup to maintain clean power.
>
> Searching for these online is proving to be challenging. Some people
> call them inverters. The hits I get for inverters are for converting 12v
> to 120v. I tried power conditioner. That seems to be what I need, but I
> call upon the collected wisdom of this group for confirmation, or a
> suitable clue stick.
>
> The two search hits I looked at are:
>
> https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=120+volt+line+conditioner
>
> and
>
>
> https://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-Conditioner-Regulation-LS606M/dp/B6B83G
>
> Further thoughts appreciated.
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Dick Steffens
>
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Re: [PLUG] Weather application for Xubuntu 18.04

2020-09-13 Thread Mike C.
>
> And getting back to meteo, I'd still like to get the outdoors temperature
> to appear in the panel's notification area. I'd also like
> to know where it's getting its weather data from, openweather, darksky,or
> what? And what's going to happen when its source goes down or changes its
> requirements?


Out of curiosity, I decided to poke around the Github page for Meteo and
found the developer's README file, read it and I found a few interesting
pieces of info.

1. This may have something to do w. the temp not appearing in the panel.
Indicator:
Many OS have discontinued the AppIndicator/Ayatana Indicator support. So in
order to use it, you can install manually.

2. "Developed with Vala & Gtk,using OpenWeatherMap API (
https://openweathermap.org/)"

3. Just for future reference and benefit of other PLUGers, don't assume
that because an app is avail to install vian a pkg mngmt tool such as SNAP,
please don't assume that it's supported.

Had I read the developer's README file, on Github I'd have seen their
comment regarding SNAP, " I've added it at the request of the users, but I
don't give support to Snap.You can install it , at your own risk."

Turns out README files are useful and probably should be actually read
first. I joke, but there was a day when I was more in the practice of doing
this when I did more installs from source and expected things to blow up in
my face as compared to nowadays where there's all these fancy point & click
app stores and pkg mgmt tools that make everything seem like it's plug &
play.
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Re: [PLUG] Weather application for Xubuntu 18.04

2020-09-13 Thread Mike C.
>
> $ sudo pip3 install lxml
> The directory '/home/jjj/.cache/pip/http' or its parent directory is
> not owned by the current user and the cache has been disabled. Please
> check the permissions and owner of that directory. If executing pip
> with sudo, you may want sudo's -H flag. The directory
> '/home/jjj/.cache/pip' or its parent directory is not owned by the
> current user and caching wheels has been disabled. check the
> permissions and owner of that directory. If executing pip with sudo,
> you may want sudo's -H flag. Requirement already satisfied: lxml
> in /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages
>

pip doesn't require sudo. That's why the error mssg about ownership.
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Re: [PLUG] Weather application for Xubuntu 18.04

2020-09-12 Thread Mike C.
The app behavior you're describing seems like some things aren't playing
well together or something is missing.

I'm familiar with SNAP, but I haven't used it. Perhaps it's installing an
older version of Mateo or some file or sym link is missing.

On the bottom of my last reply there's a link to an article about
installing Mateo on diff distros. Under Ubuntu it talks about running s sym
link command to ensure that QT5 is the system default.

Again, don't know much about this stuff, but something like that might
affect how the applet is rendered/displayed.

It also might be worth trying Cumulus and/or Coffee, booth are similar to
Mateo to see if you can get either of those to work.

If they don't, it might point to some underlying system level problem.

Just throwing spaghetti at the wall here.





On Sat, Sep 12, 2020 at 5:32 PM John Jason Jordan  wrote:

> On Sat, 12 Sep 2020 15:43:33 -0700
> "Mike C."  dijo:
>
> >> 3) I can't figure out where it keeps its preferences; if I could I
> >> might be able to fix the location problem.
>
> >"To start using Meteo, launch the application, and it’ll appear in the
> >system tray on the desktop. Right-click on the red X icon and select
> >“Preferences.”
> >
> >Inside preferences, the app will tell you that you need an API key from
> >OpenWeatherMap. Head here <https://home.openweathermap.org/api_keys>,
> >create your key on the website and paste it into the “OpenWeatherMap”
> >text box.
> >Once your key is set, go through the rest of the settings and set the
> >city you live in. Be sure also to tweak all of the program settings to
> >your liking. For instance, if you prefer Fahrenheit to Celsius, change
> >it."
>
> When I launch the application it opens in the panel's notification
> area, where the only option is Show Meteo, no red X icon. And Show
> Meteo just opens it in its window on the desktop. In its window I can
> open Preferences, but there is no place to enter an api key. There are
> on-off buttons for Dark theme, Symbolic icons, Use system tray
> indicator, Start minimized, and Launch on start. Below the on-off
> buttons I can choose Units, Update interval, and an on-off button for
> Find my location automatically. The latter is set to Off, but it still
> stubbornly finds only my connection in Miami.
>
> Back in the main window there is an option to change my location, but
> it doesn't ever find Portland. I've tried all kinds of entries, but it
> apparently looks in a database of locations that doesn't include
> Portland. In fact, I tried all kinds of cities and it found few of
> them. I also tried states, where Oregon gave me a place in the
> Philippines, and Washington turned up only Washington, D.C. Even Madrid
> turned up nothing, surprisingly since Carlos Suarez apparently is in
> Badajoz.
>
> I also tried setting up an account at openweathermap.org, but after
> giving them everything short of a lease on my firstborn, they never
> sent me the authorization code to complete my signup. But that's
> probably OK, since I don't have any place to put the api key anyway.
>
> Meteo might be what I'm looking for, if I could just get it working.
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Re: [PLUG] Weather application for Xubuntu 18.04

2020-09-12 Thread Mike C.
>
> 3) I can't figure out where it keeps its preferences; if I could I
> might be able to fix the location problem.


"To start using Meteo, launch the application, and it’ll appear in the
system tray on the desktop. Right-click on the red X icon and select
“Preferences.”

Inside preferences, the app will tell you that you need an API key from
OpenWeatherMap. Head here ,
create your key on the website and paste it into the “OpenWeatherMap” text
box.
Once your key is set, go through the rest of the settings and set the city
you live in. Be sure also to tweak all of the program settings to your
liking. For instance, if you prefer Fahrenheit to Celsius, change it."

https://www.addictivetips.com/ubuntu-linux-tips/get-quick-weather-forecasts-on-linux-with-meteo/
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Re: [PLUG] OT VLAN Setup between 2 Cisco switches

2020-09-11 Thread Mike C.
On Fri, Sep 11, 2020 at 2:26 PM Chuck Hast  wrote:

> I got it going, I had to disable STP on the B switch side. I have a
> SG300 (switch A) here at home, and I also have a SG200 (switch
> B). I have the 300 setup with port 28 (it is a 28 port switch) as the trunk
> for
> VLAN 20. Did same thing for port 52 on the SG200 (SW B) and the
> usual no joy, it appeared that I had met all of the requirements that
> you had listed but the stinking Spanning Tree on Switch B was
> discarding, I went in and disabled it and  now it all talks. That will get
> me going until I figure out how to re-enable STP on that port and make
> it forward.
>

You can try either setting the trunk ports on both sides to enable edge
port to use fast-link so the ports automatically forward when physical link
is established.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/smb/switches/cisco-small-business-200-series-smart-switches/smb81-setup-spanning-tree-protocol-stp-on-a-interface-on-the-200-3.html

Also, check and try different global spanning tree configurations.
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/smb/switches/cisco-small-business-200-series-smart-switches/smb3209-configure-spanning-tree-protocol-stp-status-and-global-setti.html

I wish I could give you better advice regarding Spanning Tree but I despise
it and I think it's the bane of networking. I never trusted it and it often
found it caused more problems.
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Re: [PLUG] OT VLAN Setup between 2 Cisco switches

2020-09-11 Thread Mike C.
On Fri, Sep 11, 2020 at 12:03 PM Chuck Hast  wrote:

> I looked at another file I did after a change, all of the ports
> on VLAN 20 have this format:
> interface gigabitethernet36
>  switchport mode access
>  switchport access vlan 20
> !
> Regarding the trunk, I have twiddled all of the knobs I can find
> but this is all I get.
>
> interface gigabitethernet50
>  switchport trunk allowed vlan add 20


As you've upgraded it's possible those config statements have been removed
as they're incorporated in the GUI logic.

Those switchport mode statements are from the CLI only days in which you
had to set the mode first to access the sub-menu and features for that mode.
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Re: [PLUG] LEAN Debian install: Exploring task selection menu

2020-09-11 Thread Mike C.
>
> I do *NOT* have a CD-ROM. I have an ISO image on a flash drive.
>

 You can use -d for the directory of the CD-ROM mount point or *add a
non-CD **mount point (i.e. a USB keydrive).*
> More info on apt-cdrom -  > 

I want to install additional packages from the ISO *BEFORE* exiting the
> installer and booting the new system for the first time.


This sounds to me like rolling your own installer.  Rabbit hole this way =>
https://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Build

You might be able to accomplish this using the Netinstall image and then
when prompted to install add'l sw, pointing the usb key mount. You'll to
wade through this heavily screenshot laden page, but you'll find the
instructions on how to do it about 60% down the page under: 4. Install
packages and finish up
I know the Netinstall image was mentioned last time you posted about this
is that what install image you're using now?

If not, the Netinst image provides a minimal console only install.

 Download and verify firmware-10.5.0-amd64-netinst.iso …

$ wget -c 
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/current/amd64/iso-cd/firmware-10.5.0-amd64-netinst.iso
$ wget 
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/current/amd64/iso-cd/SHA256SUMS
$ sha256sum -c --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS
firmware-10.5.0-amd64-netinst.iso: OK


> 1. Base Installation - " For technical reasons packages installed during
> the installation of the base system are installed without their
“Recommends”.
> The rule described above only takes effect after this point in the
> installation process."

A reference for that quotation?
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ch06s03.en.html#di-install-base
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Re: [PLUG] LEAN Debian install: Exploring task selection menu

2020-09-11 Thread Mike C.
>
> 2. When the GUI installer gets to the Package Configuration, Software
> Selection screen, select "manual package installation."
>

https://screenshots.debian.net/screenshot/tasksel

-- The link to the installer screenshot was omitted in my initial reply.
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Re: [PLUG] LEAN Debian install: Exploring task selection menu

2020-09-11 Thread Mike C.
>
> _MY QUESTIONS:_
>
> 1. How do I find which packages are explicitly installed by checking a
> specific box {primarily Mate}?
> I am *NOT* interested in packages that were flagged "recommends".
>

Does this not answer Q1? https://packages.debian.org/buster/mate-desktop


> 2. Especially when installing from an .iso on a flash drive, how do
> I run apt-get before closing the installer?
> {i.e. install packages in the pool directory of the iso}


You can add a non-CD mount point to the apt sources list thusly,
If you'd rather use your CD-ROM for installing packages or updating your
system automatically with APT, you can put it in your /etc/apt/sources.list.
To do so, you can use the apt-cdrom
 program like this:

# apt-cdrom add

with the Debian CD-ROM in the drive.

You can use -d for the directory of the CD-ROM mount point or add a non-CD
mount point (i.e. a USB keydrive).
More info on apt-cdrom -
https://manpages.debian.org/buster/apt/apt-cdrom.8.en.html

A couple of more possibly useful pieces of info to support your endeavor.

1. Base Installation - " For technical reasons packages installed during
the installation of the base system are installed without their “Recommends”.
The rule described above only takes effect after this point in the
installation process. "

2. When the GUI installer gets to the Package Configuration, Software
Selection screen, select "manual package installation."

3. If you use dpkg instead of apt to install packages, no dependencies,
recommended or suggested packages will be installed.
https://screenshots.debian.net/screenshot/tasksel

4. If you track down the .deb files for your distro, you can get a breakout
of the specific packages and their requirements.

e.g.
https://debian.pkgs.org/11/debian-main-amd64/mate-desktop_1.24.1-1_amd64.deb.html

Hope that's somewhat on point and helpful.

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Re: [PLUG] OT VLAN Setup between 2 Cisco switches

2020-09-10 Thread Mike C.
The config looks more like I'd expect to see it with the exception of these
omissions:

1. The camera ports don't have a vlan id set. I'd expect to see a config
statement like this for the camera ports:

switchport access vlan 20

2. No trunk switchport mode config statement. I'd expect to see a config
statement for port 50 that sets the port mode to trunk. This is the
equivalent to all the other ports set to access mode. "switchport mode
access"

switchport mode trunk



On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 5:32 PM Chuck Hast  wrote:

> Mike,
> I did all of the upgrades, there were some totally different
> screens after the final upgrade, I have uploaded a test
> config file for you to look at.
> *
> http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id=ga1a6f14cc72ae98a100028043901eb98b17d036d59
> <
> http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id=ga1a6f14cc72ae98a100028043901eb98b17d036d59
> >*
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 9, 2020 at 11:28 PM Chuck Hast  wrote:
>
> > Found the guide for the GUI. Now to see if it can show me how to
> > get SSH working so I can get to the CLI.
> >
> >
> https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/csbss/sf20x_sg20x/administration_guide/Cisco_200Sx_v1_4_AG.pdf
> >
> > On Wed, Sep 9, 2020 at 10:48 PM Chuck Hast  wrote:
> >
> >> Well the switches in question are at a remote site but
> >> I have another one of those switches here at home so
> >> I am getting it brought up to date and then will go after
> >> it. It is presently at factory so there is nothing that I have
> >> added to it but to upgrade the boot/firmware. At this
> >> moment I am stuffing the latest and greatest into it,
> >> then I am going to see if I can conquer the SSH thing.
> >> It is SUPPOSED to have a SSH server on board but
> >> so far I have not seen it. I see the client side but not
> >> the server side. But yet there is the CLI command list
> >> and I see comments about a box to be checked to
> >> enable the SSH server, (have yet to see said box).
> >> So I shall start with this one and get it going then I
> >> will use it as my reference with the other two.
> >>
> >>
> >> On Wed, Sep 9, 2020 at 10:25 PM Mike C.  wrote:
> >>
> >>> At this point, it prolly makes more sense to just factory reset the
> >>> switch
> >>> and then just put all the camera ports in vlan 20 and then tag port 50
> >>> as a
> >>> member of vlan 20.
> >>>
> >>>  I'm not sure how old this OS is but when Cisco and other vendors first
> >>> started rolling out their GUIs, it wasn't uncommon for folks to get
> >>> confused while provisioning, troubleshooting and even for config files
> >>> being corrupted.
> >>>
> >>> So, it's just force of habit for me to look at the actual running
> config.
> >>>
> >>> I hope this helps you get this all sorted out soon.
> >>>
> >>> On Wed, Sep 9, 2020 at 6:30 PM Chuck Hast  wrote:
> >>>
> >>> > Mike,
> >>> > I have done all of the upgrades to those switches in order to
> >>> > obtain the coveted CLI access (there is no console port, but
> >>> > according to the docs there should now be a SSH server on
> >>> > the device with the upgrades to the latest code but so far no
> >>> > joy. I will go over all of that and figure out how to translate it
> >>> > to the GUI, and do it that way. Or figure out what is missing
> >>> > to SSH into the box. According to some of the documentation
> >>> > after I did the upgrade to 14.x there should be a ssh server
> >>> > box to tick in order to activate it but so far no joy.
> >>> >
> >>> > See my comments below regarding your observations:
> >>> >
> >>> > On Tue, Sep 8, 2020 at 7:54 PM Mike C.  wrote:
> >>> >
> >>> > > Thanks Chuck,
> >>> > >
> >>> > > I did quite a bit of reading and although this configuration should
> >>> work,
> >>> > > it's outside of norms / best practices.
> >>> > >
> >>> > > The way I was taught and always configured vlans is that by default
> >>> all
> >>> > > ports and packets are untagged and are in the default vlan. Which
> is
> >>> > vlan 1
> >>> > > for Cisco.Then tag ports with the vlan you want them to be a part
> of.
> >>> > >
> >>> > > Your configuration is th

Re: [PLUG] Weather application for Xubuntu 18.04

2020-09-10 Thread Mike C.
You might like Meteo - https://gitlab.com/bitseater/meteo

I personally have been using the Weather Underground website & Android app
for many years now. I'm not so keen on desktop apps.

On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 3:39 PM John Jason Jordan  wrote:

> For years I have used xfce4-weather-plugin in my Xubuntu 18.04 panel.
> Unfortunately, it is hard coded to secure weather information from a
> place in Norway, which periodically changes its requirements, rendering
> the plugin unusable. And this has just happened yet again, leaving me
> trying to find an alternative - preferably one that uses a stable
> service for weather data.
>
> And to clarify, the version that I have installed was 0.8.9, which I
> upgraded to 0.8.10, the latest in the 18.04 repositories, but it still
> uses the same out of date location for weather data. I also found a
> version 0.10.0, available only as an archive, and after extracting it I
> discovered that it must be installed from source. I tried to do so, but
> it failed due to a missing dependency. And I also found a .deb file for
> 0.10.1, which also failed to install because of a different missing
> dependency. This latter dependency made reference to a version => 4.13,
> which I am pretty sure refers to the version 4.12 of Xfce that I have.
> Version 4.14 is the latest, but getting 4.12 to work on my UHD monitors
> took several days. Yes, I'll have to go there some day, but for now I
> wish to stay where I am.
>
> I should add the fact that this little xfce4 panel plugin has never been
> very accurate. I like its simplicity, but it wouldn't break my heart to
> say goodbye to it. Accordingly, I tried my-weather-indicator from the
> repositories, only to discover that it insists on finding my location
> for me, with the result that all I can get is weather for Miami FL, the
> location of the server that my VPN currently has me connected to.
>
> And since that was unacceptable, I tried gnome-weather and a couple
> others, but I didn't like any of them. So my question is, does anyone
> have any suggestions for a weather app?
>
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Re: [PLUG] OT VLAN Setup between 2 Cisco switches

2020-09-09 Thread Mike C.
At this point, it prolly makes more sense to just factory reset the switch
and then just put all the camera ports in vlan 20 and then tag port 50 as a
member of vlan 20.

 I'm not sure how old this OS is but when Cisco and other vendors first
started rolling out their GUIs, it wasn't uncommon for folks to get
confused while provisioning, troubleshooting and even for config files
being corrupted.

So, it's just force of habit for me to look at the actual running config.

I hope this helps you get this all sorted out soon.

On Wed, Sep 9, 2020 at 6:30 PM Chuck Hast  wrote:

> Mike,
> I have done all of the upgrades to those switches in order to
> obtain the coveted CLI access (there is no console port, but
> according to the docs there should now be a SSH server on
> the device with the upgrades to the latest code but so far no
> joy. I will go over all of that and figure out how to translate it
> to the GUI, and do it that way. Or figure out what is missing
> to SSH into the box. According to some of the documentation
> after I did the upgrade to 14.x there should be a ssh server
> box to tick in order to activate it but so far no joy.
>
> See my comments below regarding your observations:
>
> On Tue, Sep 8, 2020 at 7:54 PM Mike C.  wrote:
>
> > Thanks Chuck,
> >
> > I did quite a bit of reading and although this configuration should work,
> > it's outside of norms / best practices.
> >
> > The way I was taught and always configured vlans is that by default all
> > ports and packets are untagged and are in the default vlan. Which is
> vlan 1
> > for Cisco.Then tag ports with the vlan you want them to be a part of.
> >
> > Your configuration is the exact opposite. You've tagged the default vlan
> 1
> > on the trunk and left vlan 20 untagged
> >
> > Wow, I thought I was tagging the ports for VLAN 20 based on what I see
> on the GUI. I will go back into it and see what I have screwed up.
>
>
> > switchport trunk native vlan 20
> > switchport default-vlan tagged .
> >
>
> This should be reversed. I was of the idea (based on what I see on the
> GUI) that VLAN 1 was the default  and administrative and it was not
> tagged...
>
> >
> > The  switchport default-vlan tagged command is to provide backward
> > compatibility support for devices that don't support 802.1 Q vlan tags.
> In
> > effect, the port functions in both access & trunk mode at the same time.
> >
> > But your switches are vlan aware, so this config is unnecessary and I
> think
> > the cause of your problems.
> >
>
> I shall look into it and figure out how to get rid of it from the GUI if I
> cannot
> figure out why it does not allow a SSH server to run.
>
> >
> > What I recommend trying is disabling the  switchport default-vlan tagged
> > .w. "no  switchport default-vlan tagged" command or GUI.
> >
> > And the removing the native vlan 20 on the trunk with the  "no switchport
> > trunk native vlan 20" comand.
> >
> > This will set the default and the native vlan that was set to vlan 20
> both
> > to vlan 1.
> >
>
> I wonder if I would not be faster to just set the switch to factory and
> then
> go in and and set up the VLAN 20 ports.
>
> After reset all of the ports of course are on VLAN 1. I was thinking that I
> was moving the camera ports to VLAN 20.
>
> >
> > Then run the command "switchport mode trunk allow vlan 20" which will
> make
> > the trunk port also a member of vlan 20 and will pass tagged packets from
> > the camera ports that are only members of vlan 20.
> >
>
> I have got to figure out how to get to a CLI...
>
> >
> > Then change the camera ports from general to access. Those ports will
> only
> > be a member of 1 vlan and that is the pvid vlan 20. The port will accept
> > both untagged and tagged packets from the cameras and only send untagged
> > packets to the cameras.
> >
> > I will get those ports changed and see how that goes. Thank you again for
> the guidance.
>
>
> > That should do the trick for you.
> >
> > Here's a link to the CLI reference for your switch,
> >
> >
> https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/csbss/sf200e/command_line_reference/OL-22850.pdf
> >
> > As this is a more standard way of configuring vlans, this is the best
> > config to start with. Let's see what this gets you.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Sep 6, 2020 at 9:39 AM Chuck Hast  wrote:
> >
> > > Mike,
> > > I finally got the switches to give up t

Re: [PLUG] OT VLAN Setup between 2 Cisco switches

2020-09-08 Thread Mike C.
Thanks Chuck,

I did quite a bit of reading and although this configuration should work,
it's outside of norms / best practices.

The way I was taught and always configured vlans is that by default all
ports and packets are untagged and are in the default vlan. Which is vlan 1
for Cisco.Then tag ports with the vlan you want them to be a part of.

Your configuration is the exact opposite. You've tagged the default vlan 1
on the trunk and left vlan 20 untagged

switchport trunk native vlan 20
switchport default-vlan tagged .

The  switchport default-vlan tagged command is to provide backward
compatibility support for devices that don't support 802.1 Q vlan tags. In
effect, the port functions in both access & trunk mode at the same time.

But your switches are vlan aware, so this config is unnecessary and I think
the cause of your problems.

What I recommend trying is disabling the  switchport default-vlan tagged
.w. "no  switchport default-vlan tagged" command or GUI.

And the removing the native vlan 20 on the trunk with the  "no switchport
trunk native vlan 20" comand.

This will set the default and the native vlan that was set to vlan 20 both
to vlan 1.

Then run the command "switchport mode trunk allow vlan 20" which will make
the trunk port also a member of vlan 20 and will pass tagged packets from
the camera ports that are only members of vlan 20.

Then change the camera ports from general to access. Those ports will only
be a member of 1 vlan and that is the pvid vlan 20. The port will accept
both untagged and tagged packets from the cameras and only send untagged
packets to the cameras.

That should do the trick for you.

Here's a link to the CLI reference for your switch,
https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/csbss/sf200e/command_line_reference/OL-22850.pdf

As this is a more standard way of configuring vlans, this is the best
config to start with. Let's see what this gets you.








On Sun, Sep 6, 2020 at 9:39 AM Chuck Hast  wrote:

> Mike,
> I finally got the switches to give up the config files. Getting these
> things from firmware 1.2 to 1.4.11 took 4 firmware  upgrades and
> 1 boot upgrade. Below is the url to the switch config files
> *
> http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id=g440c3055c46aeeae1000279093dea129f9edbcfc24
> <
> http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id=g440c3055c46aeeae1000279093dea129f9edbcfc24
> >*
>
>
> On Sun, Aug 30, 2020 at 10:16 AM Chuck Hast  wrote:
>
> > Well, I have been trying to get a backup file out of this so I can
> > send it to you, but so far when I try to do http/https backup it
> > fails the only thing is I get a network error, and if I look in the
> > switch logs, it says it cannot find the file.
> >
> > I have a SG300-28 at home, it was never this cantankerous,
> > I can do file backups and uploads to it with no issues whatsoever.
> >
> > They must have cut some major corners somewhere with these
> > switches.
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Aug 23, 2020 at 11:30 AM Chuck Hast  wrote:
> >
> >> Well, I went to pull the backed up config files out of both switches
> >> and got a "network failure." I setup a tftp server on my
> >> laptop and tried to go that way and got a "file not found" error.
> >>
> >> Appears that I have to upgrade to a later rev of the firmware/boot
> >> file. Both switches are presently at Rev 1.2.9.44, which has no
> >> ssh, and appears that it "likes" some old version of i.e. So perhaps
> >> doing that upgrade will take care of these issues. Who knows.
> >> Once I do the upgrades I will let you know what happens, if it still
> >> does not want to pass the vlan 20 to switch 02 I will pull the
> >> config file and send it. This rev level has NO CLI whatsoever,
> >> but it is installed in one of the later revs, got to get to that.
> >>
> >>
> >> On Mon, Aug 17, 2020 at 11:38 PM Chuck Hast  wrote:
> >>
> >>> Let me get you the config files, let us not break our heads on it
> >>> until you can look at them. I know on the web screens I set up
> >>> port 50 to have vlan 20 tagged on both ends. In my megre work
> >>> in this area, it seems that I always did the same thing, the link
> >>> carrying the camera VLAN went on a separate path to keep
> >>> possible latence down due to competition for the link path.
> >>>
> >>> This is the same case the cameras are on VLAN 20, it is a
> >>> total network island because the stinking cameras call home,
> >>> and the best way to avoid it is just to put them on and island
> >>> network. This is the first time I can recall having this issue. in

Re: [PLUG] Serious linux malware

2020-08-20 Thread Mike C.
>
> So let's set aside our fancy 5.x kernels and ask a very serious question:
> Which kernel version is running the machines used to tally votesi
> in November?
>


> Depends on the state or county, doesn't it?
>

If only the scope and scale of this problem was constrained to old Linux
kernels.

"In fact, many voting machines across the country run on years-old
unpatched Windows and Linux operating systems, partly because counties
don’t have the staff to maintain the systems and have long believed that
the systems are secure, and partly because (due to long delays in getting
new or altered versions of voting machines certified) voting machine
vendors often sell systems without the latest patches installed.


The operating systems on the election-management systems ES submitted to
California for testing and certification last year were missing dozens of
critical security patches, including one for the vulnerability the WannaCry
ransomware

used
to spread among Windows machines. Two optical-scan machines ES submitted
for certification had nine unpatched security vulnerabilities between them
— all classified by the security industry as critical.

Just last month, Cisco, which makes the model of firewall used with ES
election-management systems, announced a critical vulnerability

in
its devices that would let a remote hacker take full control of the
firewalls and get at the systems they protect. News reports last week
indicated hackers are already attempting to exploit vulnerable

Cisco
firewalls in the wild."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/magazine/the-myth-of-the-hacker-proof-voting-machine.html
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Re: [PLUG] Serious linux malware

2020-08-19 Thread Mike C.
On Fri, Aug 14, 2020 at 5:33 AM Rich Shepard 
wrote:

> As a computer user and a non-professional I'd like your thoughts on this
> Ars
> Technica article, "NSA and FBI warn that new Linux malware threatens
> national security."
>
> <
> https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/08/nsa-and-fbi-warn-that-new-linux-malware-threatens-national-security/
> >
>

I read some of the actual report and here's my take on it. The article is
mostly about  how Drovorub hides artifacts from large-scale detection by
common tools and provides specific guidance for those common security
tools.

What this says to me is that the agencies publishing this report know that
there are probably large-scale implementations of gov't linux servers
running old kernels and the gov't is also using the tools that specific
guidance is provided for.

Malware is a useless term. This is what it actually is and how it works.

"Drovorub is a Linux malware toolset consisting of an implant coupled with
a kernel module rootkit, a file transfer and port forwarding tool, and a
Command and Control (C2) server. When deployed on a victim machine, the
Drovorub implant (cli ent) provides the capability for direct
communications with actor controlled C2 infrastructure; file download and
upload capabilities; execution of arbitrary commands as "root"; and port
forwarding of network traffic to other hosts on the network."

This is key::

"NOTE: The mitigations that follow are not meant to protect against the
initial access vector. The mitigations are designed to prevent Drovorub’s
persistence and hiding technique only."

But I think the real takeaway for you, me and others is this:

"System owners are advised to configure systems to load only modules with a
valid digital signature making it more difficult for an actor to introduce
a malicious kernel module into the system.

An adversary could use a malicious kernel module to control the system,
hide, or persist across reboots (National Security Agency, 2017).
U/OO/160679-20 | PP-20-0714| Aug 2020 Rev 1.0 38 Russian GRU 85th GTsSS
Deploys Previously Undisclosed Drovorub Malware Activating UEFI Secure Boot
is necessary to ensure that only signed kernel modules can be loaded. This
requires a UEFI-compliant platform configured in UEFI native mode (not
legacy or compatibility modes) in Thorough or Full enforcement mode. Once
enabled,

Secure Boot creates an integrity chain at boot by verifying signatures of
firmware, bootloader(s), and Machine Owner Key (MOK). The kernel, initial
filesystem, and kernel modules are then verified by this MOK, which is
distributed with Secure Boot-ready Linux distributions. Components with
untrusted or absent signatures are denied from execution by Secure Boot
policy. Enabling Secure Boot may prevent some products from loading,
potentially affecting system functionality, and may require custom
configuration (National Security Agency, 2017). "
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Re: [PLUG] OT VLAN Setup between 2 Cisco switches

2020-08-17 Thread Mike C.
>
> That is what I was thinking based on the other Cisco doc I read all I need
> to do is set both of the two fibre links up as trunks and it should work,
> but there is another one that also said the part about tagging. I have VLAN
> 20 (the VLANS are 1, 10 and 20) on port 50 on both ends, I have also removed
> it but still no joy.\


Just to be clear, with port based vlans, which is what you have, a port can
only belong to 1 untagged vlan. So when you have a port set to untagged w.
the pvid set, then that port will only be in the default / native vlan,
which is VLAN 1 on most network equipment vendors. This is often used as
the management vlan.

However, you can only have 1 untagged vlan per port. Any other vlans you
want that port to handle must be tagged. Otherwise, all those packets will
be treated as they're part of the default / native vlan.

Which seems to be what you have configured. VLAN 1 untagged pvid on P49 and
VLAN 20 untagged pvid on P50 on both switches.

And that makes me reconsider my earlier statement:

Switch B
>
> 49 GE49 Enabled Disabled STP Root 2 128 Forwarding
> 32768-f0:29:29:f5:43:bd 128-97 0 1
> 50 GE50 Enabled Disabled STP Alternate 2 128 Discarding
> 32768-f0:29:29:f5:43:bd 128-98 0 0
> This one says discarding for port 50, so suspect that is the issue.
>

Normally, the way this is designed and configured when there's multiple
uplinks is to create a LAG or MLT, a trunk group that carries all VLANs.
This provides more bandwidth and failover redundancy.

But you haven't said anything about a LAG configuration and if you don't
have any traffic traversing P50, if memory serves until you take the fibre
link down on P49. Is that correct?

Therefore, if you want this to work you will have to tag vlan 10, 20 on
port 49 and port 50 and you will have only 1 active uplink over which all
VLANs traverse.

Then in the event of a failure of the active uplink, Spanning Tree will
reconfigure and use P50.

Does that make sense at all? This is difficult to troubleshoot and explain
over email without the configs.
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Re: [PLUG] OT VLAN Setup between 2 Cisco switches

2020-08-16 Thread Mike C.
>
> I got back to this one today. Here is what I have at this time
> Switch A Fibre port 50 tagged, VLAN 2
> Switch B Fibre port 50 tagged, VLAN 2
>

Port 49 & 50 just need to be set to TRUNK. Then they will carry both tagged
and untagged packets across the fibre link between the 2 switches.


The link to the 200/300 switches does not even match the screens I have on
> these SG200-50p
>

You probably have an older firmware and the GUI has changed.


> I did find another Cisco document that explained that I just needed
> to tag the two ends of the the VLAN 2 fibre ports (port 50 on
> each switch) that is what I have done but still get no data across
> the fibre.
>

This is what I thought too. But looking at config samples from here,
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/sg200-50p-50-port-gigabit-poe-smart-switch/model.html#ConfigurationExamplesandTechNotes
 ,
if a port is set to TRUNK it'll carry tagged & untagged packets.

"Trunk — Designed to connect 2 switches. Carries both untagged packets
and tagged packets."

>
> If I look at the Spanning Tree data, I see under  STP Interface
> settings
> Switch A
> 49 GE49 Enabled Disabled STP Designated 2 128 Forwarding
> 32768-f0:29:29:f5:43:bd 128-97 0 1
> 50 GE50 Enabled Disabled STP Designated 2 128 Forwarding
> 32768-f0:29:29:f5:43:bd 128-98 0 1
>
> Switch B
>
> 49 GE49 Enabled Disabled STP Root 2 128 Forwarding
> 32768-f0:29:29:f5:43:bd 128-97 0 1
> 50 GE50 Enabled Disabled STP Alternate 2 128 Discarding
> 32768-f0:29:29:f5:43:bd 128-98 0 0
> This one says discarding for port 50, so suspect that is the issue.
>

Incorrect. P49 is the ROOT and P50 is the ALTERNATE. There can only be 1
root within a Spanning Tree. If the link on P40 goes down, P50 will become
the new root and Spanning Tree will reconfigure itself on all the switches.

One other question, all of the ports on the VLAN 2 are marked [Trunk]
> should the end user/device ports be marked as [Access] or [General] I am
> wondering if this is causing any issues. All of the ports on VLAN 1 are
> also marked as [trunk] but they talk to anything that gets connected to the
> switch.


I thought I saw this before but I thought they were "greyed out" and not
the active config. A good example of why I much prefer CLI over GUI for
configuring network equip.

All non-trunk ports, other than P49, P50, set to GENERAL for now just to
see if we can get basic communication between the 2 switches on VLAN 20.

I'd really like to see the actual config file if you're able to export it
out.

This is about as simple of a switch & vlan config there is. This shouldn't
be such a project.
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Re: [PLUG] PinePhone

2020-08-11 Thread Mike C.
>
> Another one to keep an eye on is the Libre 5 from Purism:
>
>
> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/09/purisms-librem-5-phone-starts-shipping-a-fully-open-gnulinux-phone/
>
> https://puri.sm/products/


I like that PureOS is not based on Android or iOS, they've anti-tracking
features and you can install it on a computer to get familiar with it
before you buy the phone.

I'm not so keen on all the default Gnome apps.

I'd greatly prefer they'd just make a bare bones mobile phone OS and let
each user install the apps they want.

LineageOS
> https://lineageos.org/
>
> Replicant
> https://replicant.us/


I haven't looked into either of these in many years. I remember installing
and running custom ROMs on my HTC Android phone. Which was always a sketchy
proposition.

Another "Un-Googled" option I came across some time ago and forgot about is
/e/ - https://e.foundation/products/#apps

They take more of a whole mobile ecosystem approach than just a custom ROM
or mobile OS. Their cloud services can even be self hosted, which is
something that very much appeals to me and I imagine many other PLUG'ers
who prefer to roll their own like Rich.

-- Mike
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Re: [PLUG] PinePhone

2020-08-08 Thread Mike C.
"It would be nice to not be tracked by Google."

Rich, if you dig a lil' bit deeper into and get a bit clearer about this,
you can do a lot to mitigate Google's or any other corporate tracking of
your online presence and offline activities.

1. Airplane mode - I keep my phone in airplane mode unless I'm using it or
expecting a call.

2. There are plenty of non-Google options for mail, search, Duck Duck
Go,Maps, Open Street Maps and the list goes on.

3. EFF's Self Defense Kit -  https://ssd.eff.org/
If you're not familiar with it and privacy, anonymity, security are
important to you, I'd highly spend some time getting familiar with it and
learning how to apply it to your online activities and your life.

I will tell you from first hand experience this is a fairly complicated
process because each person has there own needs and trade-offs they're
willing or unwilling to make. Initially, I  naively thought it was all
about using the right tools and many bloodied foreheads later, I learned
that it's more about being specific about what problems I was trying to
address, my online activities, how I live my life and what my tech needs
are.

There's no simple & quick fix here. I hope this is somewhat helpful.

On Sat, Aug 8, 2020 at 2:34 PM Rich Shepard 
wrote:

> Has anyone looked at purchasing a pinephone from pine64.org, or considered
> doing so?
>
> Aside from the usual features I am curions whether the support of mobile
> communications protocols is sufficiently broad to assume it would be
> supported by AT (which is the carrier for which RedPocket is the lower
> cost front end).
>
> PINEPHONE – “Community Edition: PostmarketOS” Limited Edition Linux
> SmartPhone Price: $149.99
> <
> https://store.pine64.org/product/pinephone-community-edition-postmarketos-limited-edition-linux-smartphone/
> >
>
> Specs: COMMUNICATION
>  Worldwide, Global LTE bands
>  LTE-FDD: B1/ B2/ B3/ B4/ B5/ B7/ B8/ B12/ B13/ B18/ B19/ B20/ B25/
> B26/ B28
>  LTE-TDD: B38/ B39/ B40/ B41
>  WCDMA: B1/ B2/ B4/ B5/ B6/ B8/ B19
>  GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz
>  WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, single-band, hotspot
>  Bluetooth: 4.0, A2DP
>  GPS: Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS
>
> It would be nice to not be tracked by Google.
>
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] OT VLAN Setup between 2 Cisco switches

2020-08-07 Thread Mike C.
>
> SW01 is the main switch, it has most of the cameras on VLAN 20 (the VLAN I
> calledo[a number 2)
> SW02 is the secondary switch in another building. At this time we have no
> cameras on the second VLAN.
>
> One item of note, all of the ports are marked [Trunk] I assume that those
> that will have cameras on them should  be marked as [access] At this time
> all of the devices on VLAN 1 talk across both switches. It only fails when
> it is the camera VLAN and when the SFP transceiver for VLAN 01 is plugged
> into SW02.
>

 I looked at the screenshots and I think I see the configuration problem.
Ports 49 & 50 are  your fiber trunks. They're correctly set to trunk, but
they're not tagged.

When access ports are set to untagged and PVID is set. That means packets
coming in from the access devices won't have tags, but they are assigned a
tag when you have port based vlans configured. So all the packets from the
cameras get assigned a VLAN 20 tag before they're sent out across the
trunk.

Ports 49 & 50 aren't set to tagged. so when tagged packets from the access
ports reach the trunk ports, they just drop the packets.

If you have 1 vlan traversing the trunk such as the mngmt vlan 1, you don't
have to set the trunk to tagged and ust checking Port based Vlan ID (PVID)
gets the packets across the trunk.

Therefore, on both trunk ports 49 & 50 on both switches you need to set
them to tagged so they'll carry traffic across those trunks in both
directions between both switches.

That should do the trick.
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Re: [PLUG] OT VLAN Setup between 2 Cisco switches

2020-08-04 Thread Mike C.
>
> I do not see ANY VLAN appearing on the far end, even though SW 2 port 50
> is in VLAN 2
>

-- What exactly do you mean? That VLAN 2 is not in the configuration file
for this switch?

"The interesting thing is if I unplug the other SPF transceiver then the
link will come up and I can reach the
equipment on VLAN 2 and also I get a DHCP assignment. As soon as I plug the
other SPF into port 49, the link to
VLAN 2 goes away, the SPF in port 49 connects to VLAN 1, and the connection
is lost to VLAN 2 via SPF in port
50."

-- Can you please use more specific identifiers such as Switch A or Switch
2 instead of "far end" and "other SPF" so I can better understand what's
happening and where it's happening.

As for screen caps, you can just either post or email directly a copy &
text of the relevant vlan config info. That'd be a lot more useful.
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Re: [PLUG] OT VLAN Setup between 2 Cisco switches

2020-08-02 Thread Mike C.
>
> The two switches talk just fine between the two devices on
> VLAN 1.
>

Yes, because the default / admin VLAN 1 is automagicaly extended across
switches for obvious reasons.


> But VLAN 2 will not talk.


VLANs are broadcast domains, and with the exception of the default/admin
VLAN 1, unless you extend the vlan broadcast domain intentionally, vlan
traffic stays local to the switch.



> The interesting thing is that if Iunplug the SFP transceiver in port 49
> (associated with VLAN 1) then VLAN 2 will start to talk to the other switch
> over the SFP device in port 50.
>

This is the Spanning Tree Protocol unlblockiing and finding a new route
after a link failure.


> I am assuming configuration somewhere but not sure where.
>

Correct assumption. You need to configure a vlan trunk for VLAN 2 to
traverse the fiber links between the 2 switches,

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/catalyst3850/software/release/3se/vlan/configuration_guide/b_vlan_3se_3850_cg/b_vlan_3se_3850_cg_chapter_0110.pdf
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Re: [PLUG] Devise a remote log

2020-07-09 Thread Mike C.
Some good points by Ben & Thomas about the nature of the crash/hang. An
example to further that line of logic is x-server hanging but otherwise the
OS is still functional. Another example is I had to disable suspend on a
Linux box because every time I'd try to use it after it went into suspend,
it'd hang up.

This is where trying to ssh into it when it's hung-up might be useful in
gathering more info. You might be able to use top, ps or even tail logs.



On Thu, Jul 9, 2020 at 7:26 PM Ben Koenig  wrote:

>
> On 7/9/20 3:05 PM, Dick Steffens wrote:
> > On 7/9/20 12:13 PM, Ben Koenig wrote:
> >> Systems logs in /var/log keep a running tab of events as they occur.
> >> In the
> >> event of an unexpected shutdown the last message will be whatever was
> >> happening at the moment of the crash.
> >>
> >> You can either reboot and then scroll up in the logs to that point in
> >> time,
> >> or you can open an SSH session and monitor the log from another
> >> computer.
> >>
> >>
> >> When the crash occurs and SSH is killed you should still have the most
> >> recent message on your terminal.
> >
> > Here are the last line before the crash and the first line after
> > rebooting this morning from syslog.1.
> >
> > Jul  2 16:17:01 ThinkCentre-M58p CRON[17469]: (root) CMD (   cd / &&
> > run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
> > Jul  9 10:29:37 ThinkCentre-M58p kernel: [0.00] microcode:
> > microcode updated early to revision 0xa0b, date = 2010-09-28
> >
> > Is there another log I should look at?
> >
>
> I can't tell you which log to look at because I don't know the nature of
> the problem. There are several logs in /var/log and any one of them
> could contain the answer. You have to put your Sherlock Holmes cap on
> and investigate the root cause of the crash.
>
>
> Since we need a lot more information the first step is to identify the
> nature of the lock up. You've said that it "hangs and needs to be
> rebooted" but what we see as a "hang" can vary depending on what
> crashed. What you want to do is go through all primary system logs in
> /var/log (dmesg, syslog, messages) and grab the last 10 or so lines
> walking backwards from the moment of the crash. A lot of that info will
> be benign but if you post it here someone may be able to help you
> identify any relevant errors being printed.
>
>
> Keep in mind that I'm not saying that these logs will tell us what is
> wrong. It's simply a troubleshooting step and if you are lucky you there
> might be an obvious cry for help sitting in dmesg that someone would
> recognize. If for some reason we can't see a problem in the standard
> system logs then there are other things that you can do to gather
> information about the crash.
>
>
>
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Re: [PLUG] Devise a remote log

2020-07-09 Thread Mike C.
> The problem is that at some point it hangs. The only way to get it to work
> again is to power it off and then restart it. I'd like to devise a log of
> some sort that I can run from another machine that will give me some idea
> of what was going on when it hung. I envision some kind of ping from my
> main machine to
> the troublesome one. I'm assuming I could use a script run by CRON (if
> that's saying it right). Is there something more useful than just ping?
>

The good news is there are a lot of logging and monitoring tools. The bad
news is that if you don't have some idea of what you're looking for or what
tools give you what information, this can really complicate matters.

You say the machine is up 24/7. For what purpose? Mail server, web server,
dns cache, etc?

How often does it hang? Is there any kind of discernable pattern with an
app you're using, a background process that's running, etc?

If it's hanging pretty regularly with short intervals between each hang,
I'd maybe start with having HTOP or Conky running to watch processes and
resource usage.

There are a lot of nice syslog viewer apps that have filters you can
configure that may help expose historical patterns.

I find that anything that can help me see historical patterns or provide
context is not only helpful but usually necessary because otherwise you're
left with searching the forums of the great interwebs for some insight on
what is usually a very cryptic error message that's generally not useful to
the user.
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Re: [PLUG] A minimalist oriented Debian derivative?

2020-07-03 Thread Mike C.
>
> > Richard Owlett, I hope it works for you.  It is #1 on Distrowatch.com
> > currently.  https://distrowatch.com/
> > I wonder if something like MX-Fluxbox would work as a window manager for
> > you?  https://mxlinux.org/blog/4585/
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluxbox
> > https://mxlinux.org/blog/mx-fluxbox-was-just-upgraded-what-now/
> >
>
> I've pretty much standardized of using MATE. Originally it was an
> accident of history. Now it does everything I need/want and I don't need
> the relearning exercise for no perceived benefit. YMMV ;/
>
,
Based on my somewhat limited knowledge of the Linux desktop, I thought that
default recommended and suggested default package install bundle would be a
product of the desktop environment meta-package as this is where the
kitchen sink is installed to provide that full desktop experience that so
many Linux users have come to loathe.

Running away from KDE, GNOME and even X-Face is what led me to find
Crunchbang. Their implementation of the OpenBox window manager is exactly
what I was looking for. Only a few apps installed by default: gedit, vlc,
thunar, terminal, abiword, gunumerix, firefox.

Upon initial boot-up after installation, a post-install script runs and
asks if you want to install printer support, java, libreoffice, etc.

I was  elated to see a mostly blank gray-scale desktop with conky running
that lists all the keyboard shortcuts. There was no clunky app menu nor
shortcut launch bar but all my are apps just a right click on the desktop
away. I was so delighted by seeing the very minimal resource usage and the
snappiness of the OS on a netbook that I was bike touring with that I just
never looked back. I was even liberated from carrying and using a mouse!

I never had an inkling that I'd ever be elated nor delighted by Linux.
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Re: [PLUG] Tuning audio system

2020-06-29 Thread Mike C.
>
> On the other hand, pavucontrol's input devices tab shows sound from the
> mic like a VU meter would, but the input needs to be at the maximum for the
> input tracking to reach half-way up the scale.
>

Yeah. I don't expect it to be 1:1 analog, but this is what I mean by not
having something else to compare to.


> I'm going to ask on LQ tomorrow morning. Next weekend I'll shut down the
> desktop and install the new sound card I bought (along with a couple of
> other hardware upgrades.)
>

 Okay. Last idea until then.

Echo test: hearing the microphone

If you are unsure about your microphone setup, you can hear the input from
the microphone in real-time by enabling the loopback module

 (source
):

pactl load-module module-loopback

The module will show up in the *Recording* tab of the pavucontrol
 program, where the source and
volume can be configured. While latency should be low, it should be
sufficient to get a feeling of the sound quality as you will hear yourself
speak in the microphone. To make the change permanent, add the following
line to your ~/.config/pulse/default.pa:

load-module module-loopback

Watch out for feedback! Be ready to lower all volumes in case the
microphone picks up the output from the loudspeakers. Naturally, it is
better to run such a test with headphones.
On top of this above technique, many conferencing services have built-in
echo tests. For example, ? Skype has an echo
test. ? Mumble can also be configured to
echo audio back (from local or remote) through the
Configure -> Settings -> Audio Output -> Loopback test.  \

https://wiki.debian.org/PulseAudio#Sound_level_is_low_or_suddenly_becomes_too_loud
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Re: [PLUG] Tuning audio system

2020-06-29 Thread Mike C.
>
>
> That should be at least normal speaking volume.
>
> > Do you have an onboard or the webcam mic that you can do some comparison
> > testing with?
>
> I could futz with the webcam mic and the headset. Those are intended for
> online video conferences and calls while the Audio-Technica mic is intended
> for video recording.


 I'm trying to determine where the problem is, if there is one.

Software - According to your amixer conf file, the mic input is being
captured at its maximum.

Hardware - Microphone & Sound Card. - There could potentially be a problem
here.

When you record, can you monitor the mic input in alsamixer such that you
can watch some gui mic volume input bar respond to your voice? Just to see
if the meter is only moving a lil' bit or if it's spiking. Not very
scientific, but something I would check.

Maybe pick up another microphone from Best Buy or Walmart where you could
return it after testing it?

My laptop has a built-in microphone that I've used for VOIP calls and it
worked just fine. I don't know if you have a desktop pc or a laptop, but
maybe you could do some testing on a different computer or on a laptop w. a
built-in microphone?

I'm pretty well out of ideas at this point.
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Re: [PLUG] Tuning audio system

2020-06-29 Thread Mike C.
On Mon, Jun 29, 2020 at 3:38 PM Rich Shepard 
wrote:

> On Mon, 29 Jun 2020, Mike C. wrote:
>
> > Just so you know exactly what you're working with, first get a list of
> all
> > microphone devices.
>
> > # arecord -l
>
> Mike,
>
> Right now only the Audio-Technica is connected; the webcam and headset
> aren't:
>
> $ arecord -l
>  List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices 
> card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 0: ALC1220 Analog [ALC1220
> Analog]
>Subdevices: 1/1
>Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
> card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 2: ALC1220 Alt Analog [ALC1220
> Alt Analog]
>Subdevices: 1/1
>Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
> card 2: AT2005USB [AT2005USB], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
>Subdevices: 1/1
>Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
>
> > This page might help with amixer -
> https://alsa.opensrc.org/Record_from_mic
>
> Here,
> $ amixer
> Simple mixer control 'Master',0
>Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
>Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
>Limits: Playback 0 - 65536
>Mono:
>Front Left: Playback 55704 [85%] [on]
>Front Right: Playback 55704 [85%] [on]
> Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
>Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined
>Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
>Limits: Capture 0 - 65536
>Front Left: Capture 99957 [153%] [on]
>Front Right: Capture 99957 [153%] [on]
>
> The 'Capture' section's last two lines show that pavucontrol has set the
> mic
> volume to 153% and that produces speaker volume that's too low.
>

Okay.

The playback volume is at 85%. You say you shouldn't have to set it to the
maximum but you have nothing to compare it to.

Do you have an onboard or the webcam mic that you can do some comparison
testing with?
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Re: [PLUG] Tuning audio system

2020-06-29 Thread Mike C.
On Mon, Jun 29, 2020 at 3:03 PM Rich Shepard 
wrote:

> Using the Audio-Technica AT2005USB microphone when recording a video (with
> vokoscreenNG-3.0) the output sound is very low; I need to crank the speaker
> volume to almost the maximum to hear it clearly. This should not be the
> case
> so I started learning more about linux ALSA and Pulse.
>
> Using pavucontrol I have the AT2005USB input volume set to the maximum:
> 153%.
>
> Your thoughts? (Prayers not needed.)
>

I think you're going to have to get pretty deep into the voodoo.

Just so you know exactly what you're working with, first get a list of all
microphone devices.

# arecord -l
 List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices 
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC662 rev3 Analog [ALC662 rev3 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 2: ALC662 rev3 Alt Analog [ALC662
rev3 Alt Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Q9000 [QuickCam Pro 9000], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1

This page might help with amixer - https://alsa.opensrc.org/Record_from_mic

Here's some possibly relevant and helpful things I found there:

Limits: Playback 0 - 31 Capture 0 - 7
  Mono: Playback 23 [74%] [on] Capture 5 [71%] [off]

In this case you set Capture on with the command amixer sset Mic Capture cap.
(The Capture volume was set with the command amixer sset Mic Capture 71%.)

I hope that's helpful.
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Re: [PLUG] A minimalist oriented Debian derivative?

2020-06-29 Thread Mike C.
>
> > When you start the installer if you choose the Expert installation (I
> > believe under advanced section) or if you press the Escape key and type
> > expert at the boot prompt you can get a very minimal system installed
> > although there will be a few more questions that you have to answer
> > along the way.
> >
> > The trick is when you get to the package selection screen to uncheck
> > everything except for Standard System which will give you only a basic
> > system with no gui.
> >
>
> A very fine workaround. Been doing that for years for different problems
> 
>
> My current problem is the official Debian installer is effectively
> broken. It forces you to accept packages which the repository tags as
> "recommended". The problem is those packages prevent *ME* from using
> *MY* system for *MY* intended purposes and workflow <*GRUMBLE*>
>
> So I'm looking for what *I* consider a *WORKING* installer ;/
>

The ReduceDebian Wiki page might help you get closer to where you're trying
to go. https://wiki.debian.org/ReduceDebian

It includes resetting "install-recommends" and "install-suggests" to 0 in
the apt.conf file
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Re: [PLUG] A minimalist oriented Debian derivative?

2020-06-29 Thread Mike C.
>
> I had another look at the site. Still don't think it's for me.
>
> Although the referenced Wikipedia article on Crunchbang quoted  Jim
> Lynch of desktoplinuxreviews.com as saying (in part) "It’s a perfect
> choice for anyone who prefers functionality over form
>

Take a look at the Crunchbang++ website, err, I mean mostly blank web page
- https://www.crunchbangplusplus.org/

They might be a bit truer to the original Crunchbang ideals.
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Re: [PLUG] Zoom "app" won't start

2020-06-28 Thread Mike C.
>
> $HOME = /home/rsteff
> Aborted (core dumped)
> success to create child process,status is 34304.
> zoom exited normally.
> Something went wrong while running zoom,exit code is 134.
> ZoomLauncher exit.


A quick Google search on "Something went wrong while running zoom,exit code
is 134." resulted in a couple of threads from other people having the same
problem.

The couple that I looked at were video/graphics related.

An Ubuntu user had their Nvidia libraries corrupted and sudo apt-get update
and reboot resolved the problem.

Another poster with the same problem re-installed Zoom's most recent
package and that resolved it.

If the Zoom client used to work but now doesn't work, you try the "dpkg
--reconfigure" command on the Zoom client package.

Or you could remove the Zoom client altogether and reinstall it or try just
upgrading the Zoom client.
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Re: [PLUG] A minimalist oriented Debian derivative?

2020-06-28 Thread Mike C.
>
>  More info here - https://www.bunsenlabs.org/index.html
>
> I'll look into it. The site isn't aimed at minimalists of my ilk ;}
>

Minimalism has its gradients. I hope you follow up once you find a suitable
solution. The Debian universe is quite extensive and dynamic. It's what has
always kept me coming back to it.

It keeps this septuagenarian off the streets and out of mischief.
> {mostly;}
>

Ha! Lots of mischief to be had on the Interwebs should one seek to find it.
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Re: [PLUG] Accountability OSS...

2020-06-28 Thread Mike C.
On Sun, Jun 28, 2020 at 11:09 AM Bill Barry  wrote:

> On Sun, Jun 28, 2020, 11:43 AM  wrote:
>
> > I want to bring open source high quality accountability software to Linux
> > and I want the software to be supported for an extended period of time,
> say
> > 100 years.
> >
> > I have an idea to intercept tcp/udp packets destined to port 53 and all
> > web and ftp traffic. The goal here is to intercept, record, reinject as
> if
> > nothing ever happened, and report at the end of the 24 hour period.
>
>

> Most of the web packets at this level are encrypted to thwart this type of
> spying.
>

I don't have enough technical knowledge to wholeheartedly agree with your
statement, but I can say that there is currently a lot of effort in
securing DNS and HTTP connections such as DNSSEC, DNS Over HTTPS, DNSCrypt,
personal VPNs, TOR/ONION to name a few.

I know there are ways to intercept HTTPS connections. I haven't delved into
the technical details, but reading an article or two, it's a fairly
complicated configuration and you'd have to be able to lockdown the user's
computer so they couldn't just circumvent the proxy server.
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Re: [PLUG] Accountability OSS...

2020-06-28 Thread Mike C.
>
> I have an idea to intercept tcp/udp packets destined to port 53 and all
> web and ftp traffic. The goal here is to intercept, record, reinject as if
> nothing ever happened, and report at the end of the 24 hour period. This
> monitoring software MUST be open source so it can pass a security audit. I
> prefer to not charge a fee for use of this software. My target audience is
> home users who prefer Linux over Windows or Mac OS for which there is
> Covenant Eyes.
>

Well, here's the rub from my perspective and I might be wrong about this,
but I'd say user surveillance is generally at odds with OpenSource goals
and ideals. Good luck.
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Re: [PLUG] A minimalist oriented Debian derivative?

2020-06-28 Thread Mike C.
> I like Debian very much. However its default installer coerces an
> undesirable collection of "must have" applications.
>
> I want a MATE desktop with a very sparse selection of apps installed by
> default. I've discovered that the installer is designed *NOT TO* implement
> an equivalent of apt-get's "no-install-recommends".
>
> I want a system that allows the use of the standard Debian repository but
> whose installer does not forcibly coerce the installation of undesired apps.
>


> Suggestions?
>

I can offer a few suggestions based on personal experience.

1. The Netinstall image of vanilla Debian -  It's a bare minimum
installation image of Debian. Initially designed for dial-up and other low
bandwidth Internet/Intranet connections. You download the very
small installation image and then once the installer can connect to the
Internet it steps you through a very detailed installation that asks you
what desktops and apps you want to install.

https://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/

To get a basic working desktop environment you need to install these 2 main
packages and all their dependencies.

These links provides a complete list of required and recommended packages:
https://packages.debian.org/buster/mate-desktop
https://packages.debian.org/buster/mate-desktop-environment-core

*NOTE: If you don't have a good understanding of what all is entailed in
having a basic working desktop environment, this method could be either
very frustrating and/or educational.

2. My personal favorite minimalist Debian distro was Crunchbang. It used
OpenBox window manager. The original is now discontinued but BunsenLabs is
a community development continuation of Crunchbang.

It took me a while to get used to a window manager vs a desktop but now I
greatly prefer it. OpenBox is clean and fast.

More info here - https://www.bunsenlabs.org/index.html

>From here there are many lightweight Debian based distros such as Duvian,
Antix, etc. which allow you to select from XFCE, LXQt, MATE, Cinnamon,
LXDE, IceWM. etc to your heart's desire.

HTH. Best of luck on your Debian journey!
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Re: [PLUG] Would you suspect time as being off?

2020-06-26 Thread Mike C.
>
> My question is: would you suspect time being off as a suspect when
> other things aren't working?
>

No, not generally unless it involved specific network specific services
related to syncing/mirroring or if I was using a Real Time Operating System
found on computer networking or telecom equipment.

 I don't know if most people are in the practice of using snapshots before
upgrades that can be rolled back to. When I was a MS Win Sys Admin and a
system got b0rked!, we'd either roll back to the last known good
configuration or reimage the machine.

Usually what happens to me with upgrades is that a specific application or
service gets broken usually due to some library file incompatibility or
soft/hard link reference gets broken.

When a system just seems to be generally misbehaving with
unrelated problems, I usually break out the monitoring tools and look at
cpu, memory, processes, etc.

Here's some common monitoring tools that might be useful -
https://www.hpe.com/us/en/insights/articles/16-linux-server-monitoring-commands-you-really-need-to-know-1703.html
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Re: [PLUG] Any current Arch users?

2020-06-26 Thread Mike C.
>
> It's not that hard to install
> official Arch, and you get exactly what you want.
> Installing a desktop environment is easy too.  pacman -S (one of these
> packages)
>
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Desktop_environment#Officially_supported


I'm sure that's true. The last time I tried, at least 3 years ago, it was a
non-starter on a couple of tries on a Lenovo Thinkpad. The installation
would either crash or if it installed, it wouldn't boot up into Arch.

I had better luck with Manjaro.
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Re: [PLUG] Any current Arch users?

2020-06-26 Thread Mike C.
>
> What do you mean by kernel switching? I just install whatever is current,
> which is usually in the regular package archives a few days after the
> stable kernel is released.
>

I wasn't sure as I just read somewhere that it's a unique feature of Arch.
So I did a bit more reading and I think I better understand what they're
talking about.

In Arch, you can either run the Long Term Support kernel or the latest
kernel. LTS kernel is probably a bit more stable with only security fixes
whereas the latest kernel also includes new features.
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[PLUG] Any current Arch users?

2020-06-24 Thread Mike C.
I'm a long time Debian user and former small shop Sys Admin who came to
fall in love with Debian's stability and the apt package management system.

Arch seems very modern with its rolling release, ability to switch kernels
on the fly and snap, flatpak support. I understand all of these things
conceptually but I have no day to day real world experience,

I intend to wade into the shallow end with a trial of Manjaro, but I'm
curious if there are any daily driver Arch users who can speak to the use
of the kernel switching, rolling releases and snap, flatpak features.

Thank you in advance.
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Re: [PLUG] Network mount not working

2020-06-23 Thread Mike C.
>
> For the old Thinkpad I added the same line to its fstab, then rebooted.
> 'Synology' does not appear under Places. I can look in the folder where
> it's supposed to mounted, but the folder is empty. I tried 'mount -all'
> and got:
>
> mount: /media/jjj/Synology: bad option; for several filesystems (e.g.
> nfs, cifs) you might need a a /sbin/mount. helper program.
>
>
Is the "old Thinkpad" running a currently updated OS with the nfs-common
package installed on it?
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Re: [PLUG] Audio player suggestions

2020-06-15 Thread Mike C.
" the audio players all want me to navigate to a genre and artist before it
starts working, unless I create a
playlist (which I'll get to Real Soon Now.)"

For example, using the 'load multiple files' menu item with the top window
in the file manager containing
'/data/music/' I select all sub-directories (the different genre) but only
the first is loaed when I click the select button.

I can live with this by learning to navigate to the genre (or artist)
directory before invoking a player."

Rich, I'm not sure we're saying the same thing. Give the below a read and
see if it's the same functionality you're looking for.

Then go to "tools->"preferences". Under interface, there is a 'playlist'
section at the bottom. Check 'Display playlist tree' then restart VLC.

Under "media", select "open directory" and choose the directory you want.
The playlist will display all the music files by directory and you can
minimise or maximize a directory.

You can even open totally unrelated directories, even partitions apart and
VLC will categorize them by folder.

On Mon, Jun 15, 2020 at 10:52 AM Rich Shepard 
wrote:

> On Mon, 15 Jun 2020, Rich Shepard wrote:
>
> > On a side note, there are a couple of entries displayed by the
> > applications I've tried and I cannot find these files. One such file is
> > AUDIONAUTIX.COM and root doesn't find it anywhere. There are also two
> > 'Unknown' albums somewhere I cannot find. I've no idea where these came
> > from and would like to get rid of them.
>
> Mike Conner helped me to understand that the audio players all want me to
> navigate to a genre and artist before it starts working, unless I create a
> playlist (which I'll get to Real Soon Now.)
>
> In the meantime has anyone suggestions on finding these so-far-unfindable
> directories and files that the audio players find?
>
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Audio player suggestions

2020-06-15 Thread Mike C.
"Is there a console or GUI audio player that will open in /data/music/
displaying the genres and let me navigate down the tree from there? "

-- VLC will allow you to display, access and navigate your computer's
directory tree through the app's gui.
https://www.vlchelp.com/access-manage-use-playlist/

On Mon, Jun 15, 2020 at 10:12 AM Rich Shepard 
wrote:

> My reorganized digital audio library has several layers:
> /data/music/
> genres/
>artists/
>  albums/
>songs
>
> I'm trying to find an mp3 player that displays this directory tree and
> allows me to navigate to an album or individual song. So far no success.
>
> The console appliacations such as cmus have only two windows: the album on
> the lift and the individual songs on the right.
>
> Audacious also lacks this capability.
>
> Clementine lists the artists in alphabetical order in the left window and
> their songs in the right window.
>
> Is there a console or GUI audio player that will open in /data/music/
> displaying the genres and let me navigate down the tree from there?
>
> On a side note, there are a couple of entries displayed by the applications
> I've tried and I cannot find these files. One such file is AUDIONAUTIX.COM
> and root doesn't find it anywhere. There are also two 'Unknown' albums
> somewhere I cannot find. I've no idea where these came from and would like
> to get rid of them.
>
> All suggestions for both issues are needed.
>
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] doxy.me, meet.jit.si, facebook, FaceTime, etc.

2020-06-07 Thread Mike C.
>
> If the other party has only a mobile device, this is unlikely to work.


"Jitsi supports multiple operating systems
, including Windows
 as well as Unix-like
 systems such as Linux, Mac OS X
 and BSD
. The mobile
apps can be downloaded on the App Store
 for iOS
 and on the Google Play Store
 and F-droid
 platform for Android
."

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.jitsi.meet
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Re: [PLUG] Net meetings and keyboard/mouse visibility

2020-06-04 Thread Mike C.
True enough and very good to know.

The concerns I was speaking about weren't just in regards to regulatory
compliance penalties but about being more concerned about a secure
communication channel and less concerned about the possible capturing of
keyboard strokes via web video camera.

Telehealth isn't a new thing and all Healthcare providers don't have the
same access to technology. I wouldn't be happy if I had to use Zoom for a
telehealth appointment but if it was absolutely  necessary and the only
option, I'd use it.



On Thu, Jun 4, 2020 at 4:39 PM Jason Barnett 
wrote:

> That is not true during this pandemic though. The underlining, in the
> excerpt below, is mine.
>
> https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/special-topics/emergency-preparedness/notification-enforcement-discretion-telehealth/index.html
>
> During the COVID-19 national emergency, which also constitutes a nationwide
> public health emergency, covered health care providers subject to the HIPAA
> Rules may seek to communicate with patients, and provide telehealth
> services, through remote communications technologies.  Some of* these
> technologies,* and *the manner in which they are used *by HIPAA covered
> health care providers, may not fully comply with the requirements of the
> HIPAA Rules.
>
> *OCR will exercise its enforcement discretion and will not impose penalties
> for noncompliance *with the regulatory requirements under the HIPAA Rules
> against covered health care providers in connection with the good faith
> provision of telehealth during the COVID-19 nationwide public health
> emergency.  This notification is effective immediately.
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 4, 2020 at 4:16 PM Mike C.  wrote:
>
> > >
> > > The computer my wife uses for net meetings and patient e-visits has a
> > > camera with a field of view limited to her head and shoulders, and a
> > simple
> > > curtain behind.
> >
> >
> > Your wife's company and her patients have much bigger concerns if all the
> > data being exchanged between her and her patients isn't strongly
> encrypted
> > and her computer isn't on it's own ip subnet behind a firewall without
> any
> > non-essential and approved applications installed and she doesn't have
> any
> > administrative privileges.
> >
> > This was pretty much the HIPPA standard 15 years ago when I was working
> at
> > one of the first hospitals in the country to implement a digital health
> > record and patient care system.
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Re: [PLUG] Using meet.jit.si

2020-06-04 Thread Mike C.
I know I shouldn't dare to challenge the almighty Linux GOD as he will
likely unleash his wrath on me as he's been prone to do with  other PLUG
members in the past and recently with his vitriolic rant of Ubuntu.

IMHO, I've found the 1st steps in troubleshooting hardware problems are:

1. Software detection of the hardware. Firstly at the OS layer and then
secondly at the application layer.

1A. The correct driver is installed.

1B. If there are multiple devices such as speakers, microphones, printers,
etc checking which device is selected and/or set to the default.

But the real step #1 is correctly identifying the problem. Rich's thread
started with a video con call test that resulted in only hearing audio
through the left channel and then went from there to webcam mic vs headset
mic detection in pulseaudio, web browsers, Jitsi and screen sharing in
Jitsi. Did I miss any other problems???

This is a community forum. Everyone has an opinion and also everyone has an
opportunity to participate, learn and get things wrong along the way.

And quite honestly, a big part of troubleshooting is being able to separate
the wheat from the chaff that one is going to find when soliciting help on
the Internet or even from a technical support person.




On Thu, Jun 4, 2020 at 1:42 PM Ben Koenig  wrote:

>
> On 6/4/20 11:45 AM, Rich Shepard wrote:
> > On Wed, 3 Jun 2020, Ben Koenig wrote:
> >
> >> Sounds good, tomorrow then. For now I would forget about the app and
> >> verify basic functionality and make sure that it persists across
> >> reboots.
> >
> > Ben,
> >
> > Are you suggesting rebooting the host?
> >
> >> If that audio detection meter isn't moving, literally nothing else
> >> matters. I don't recall anyone else suggesting that as a troubleshooting
> >> step even though it should always be your goto for these kinds of
> >> issues.
> >
> > "that"? Rebooting? Rich
> > ___
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>
>
>
> Step 1 for microphone troubleshooting is to verify that something is
> being picked up. The Volume meter in pavucontrol will indicate that it
> hears something, whether that be your voice, ceiling fan or ambient
> static from a poorly configured jack.
>
>
> Step 2 is to to verify that the audio picked up by the mic is correct.
> Sometimes you see activity in the meter that is not what it should be.
> e.g. background static from an unconnected audio device.
>
>
> While running through steps 1 and 2, rebooting is a valuable tool to
> verify that everything is loaded to a known good state. There are race
> conditions involved with using pulseaudio. It has to load after the alsa
> drivers, and if it crashes it has a tendency to auto restart as a
> different process. By rebooting the host, you can be sure that
> everything is loaded and linked together in the correct order, with the
> correct permissions.
>
>
> Are we still on for this afternoon? I want to pull this conversation off
> of email entirely. Everyone is throwing ideas at you with no
> coordination or focus. Some would even say that the definition of
> insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.  I'm
> seeing over 25 emails from at least 7 different people and very little
> meaningful progress. Maybe it's time to consider a different angle of
> attack for this problem?
>
>
> My offer of a quick web meeting for 5:30pm (or maybe even a phone call)
> this afternoon still stands. I'm not going to offer further
> troubleshooting advice for this issue via the PLUG list because someone
> is just going to step all over it.
>
> -Ben
>
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Re: [PLUG] Net meetings and keyboard/mouse visibility

2020-06-04 Thread Mike C.
>
> The computer my wife uses for net meetings and patient e-visits has a
> camera with a field of view limited to her head and shoulders, and a simple
> curtain behind.


Your wife's company and her patients have much bigger concerns if all the
data being exchanged between her and her patients isn't strongly encrypted
and her computer isn't on it's own ip subnet behind a firewall without any
non-essential and approved applications installed and she doesn't have any
administrative privileges.

This was pretty much the HIPPA standard 15 years ago when I was working at
one of the first hospitals in the country to implement a digital health
record and patient care system.
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Re: [PLUG] Hardware troubleshooting: Yamaha headset

2020-06-03 Thread Mike C.
A few more interesting tidbits of info I found that may help or might
complicate troubleshooting.

-- From a review of the Asus motherboard's audio system:

"When recording an audio sample, with the microphone boost option enabled,
the audio sample playback was clear and relatively distortion-free. With
the option disabled, we got a barely audible sample. Although, to its
credit, there wasn’t any perceivable distortion there."

Michael Barnes mentioned HAM users giving this headset good reviews. On
this ham radio forum, https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=7494 ,there
are 2 comments regarding the microphone, one states poor mic performance
and the other one talks about problems with the min jack connectivity
issues and rewiring it.

On Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 5:29 PM Rich Shepard 
wrote:

> On Wed, 3 Jun 2020, Michael Barnes wrote:
>
> > The gray plug is for the microphone. This particular headset required
> > "phantom power" on the microphone line to power the microphone. Some
> > equipment may provide this natively, most will not. The headset should
> > have come with a small box to hold a couple of AA batteries. If your
> > device does not provide phantom power, then you should put batteries in
> > the box, plug the headset into it, and plug it into your device. This
> will
> > provide the necessary power to activate the microphone and provide audio
> > to your device.
>
> Michael,
>
> Aha! I searched the web for insight into when that extra power source
> should
> be used and failed to find anything. I've no idea how to determine if the
> Asus Prime X470-Pro motherboard provide phantom power. So, I'll load a
> couple of batteries and try again ... tomorrow.
>
> This still doesn't resolve that meet.jit.si doesn't recognize the webcam
> mic
> or the Audio-Technica mic.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Using meet.jit.si

2020-06-03 Thread Mike C.
Rich - Just to set the table for future troubleshooting, I noticed the only
thing consistent in all your emails is you're only getting faulty audio
through the left channel with mp3 playback through Audacity, and
RingCentral Test con-call.

Thus far you can't verify basic functionality of the headset. That's a real
problem because the problem could be in the headset, the soundcard/ports or
in the audio software subsystem alsamixer/pulseaudio.

My very naive understanding is that Pulseaudio is a "wrapper" and doesn't
talk directly to hardware. In the past when I had uudio issues with Debian,
I always went straight to alsamixer.

Here's a link to the troubleshooting manual for ALSA. I found some
interesting and potentially helpful information there regarding capturing
and setting default devices and audio quality. I'd take a look through it
and if you don't feel comfortable digging into stuff and running the
commands on your own, perhaps you and Ben can run through some of them
together.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Advanced_Linux_Sound_Architecture/Troubleshooting#Crackling_sound_through_mini-jack_.28headphones_connector.29






On Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 5:06 PM Michael Dexter  wrote:

> Hey all,
>
> I welcome you to peacefully self-organize this month as I am tied up
> with another virtual conference.
>
> Enjoy!
>
> Michael
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Re: [PLUG] Using meet.jit.si

2020-06-03 Thread Mike C.
>
> Connecting the AudioTechnica AT2500USB and selecting it in pavucontrol
> (turning off the web camera's mic), jitsi again tells me it cannot connect
> to this microphone and again doesn't know why.
>

A quick Google search tells me that you're not alone with this problem and
that this problem has existed since 2017. Now the bad news, on both threads
that I read through the issue was marked "stale" and the thread was closed.
So, looks like a dead end unless you're willing to invest a lot of time
doing more research.
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Re: [PLUG] Video conference hardware question

2020-06-01 Thread Mike C.
Okay. This actually might be helpful. It's from the Arch Wiki. I've had to
dig into alsamixer many years ago when trying to use Debian stable for home
pc use.

"If PulseAudio uses the wrong microphone, and changing the Input Device
with Pavucontrol did not help, take a look at alsamixer. It seems that
Pavucontrol does not always set the input source correctly."

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio/Troubleshooting#PulseAudio_uses_wrong_microphone

On Mon, Jun 1, 2020 at 3:15 PM Ben Koenig  wrote:

> On Mon, Jun 1, 2020 at 3:05 PM Rich Shepard 
> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 1 Jun 2020, Ben Koenig wrote:
> >
> > > So the mic for the yamaha headset doesnt even show up in the devices
> > tabs?
> > > Double check the configuration tab and make sure it's set for stereo
> > > duplex mode (so both input/output).
> >
> > I'll try again.
> >
> > pavucontrol shows these:
> >Output devices -- HD-Audio Generic Analog Stereo, Port -- Headphones
> > (plugged in)
> >
> >Input devices -- HD-Audio Generic Analog Stereo, Port -- Front
> > Microphone
> > (plugged in)
> >
>
> ^ that right there is your yamaha headset. Your audio chip has jack-sensing
> so it knows something is plugged in. if you select HD audio as your input
> device then it should use the Yamaha.
>
> However, this assumes that everything is working with that setup. Some
> chipsets do weird things and it could be muted or misconfigured in other
> ways. Pavucontrol does not expose every option available and often excludes
> important configuration options. Using the logitech device is an effective
> workaround until you have time to find out what is wrong with your primary
> audio device.
>
>
>
>
> > -- Logitech Webcam C925e Analot Stereo, Port --
> Microphone
> >
> > So pavucontrol sees two microphones.
> >
> > I have a Yamaha microphone power supply; a small box with room for 2 AAA
> > batteries. The microphone plug goes in one end and the plug on the cord
> > from
> > the other end goes into the red port on the front. Since pavucontrol sees
> > the mic without that I haven't put batteries in the supplemental power
> > supply. Might this be why ringcentral doesn't see the mic?
> >
> > I'll try adding batteries later and see if that makes ring central happy.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Video conference hardware question

2020-06-01 Thread Mike C.
Well said. Very faulty logic on my part.

On Mon, Jun 1, 2020 at 3:05 PM Ben Koenig  wrote:

> On Mon, Jun 1, 2020 at 2:54 PM Mike C.  wrote:
>
> > One would think, but I've done enough QA testing and tech support  in my
> > life to know that's not the reality for many reasons.
> >
> > Heck, even looking at the recommended list of Plantronics Headsets, it's
> > only about a 1/2 dozen or so that are fully compatible. RingCentral has
> > another list of about 30 other Plantronics headsets that it says may only
> > have partial compatibility.
> >
> > That tells the story right there about the reality of what companies are
> > willing to put time and money into supporting.
> >
> >
> I would love to understand why you think that a headset with industry
> standard audio jacks would not be compatible with a given application. This
> headset contains no processor or vendor/product ID. It's not possible for
> an application to poll the headset for information because the electronics
> required to do so does not exist.
>
> The application writes data to the audio device, which sends electrical
> signals down the cable. The application never interacts directly with the
> headset. How then, is the application supposed to change behavior based on
> a device it cannot see?
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Re: [PLUG] Video conference hardware question

2020-06-01 Thread Mike C.
Ah yes, Ben is on the right track. It has been years since I tried using a
headset with separate analog mic and line-out jacks from either the headset
or computer side of things.

This might be what you need to make it work. It's usb/analog audio
splitter. https://amzn.to/3eGKmo8

On Mon, Jun 1, 2020 at 2:52 PM Ben Koenig  wrote:

> On Mon, Jun 1, 2020 at 2:45 PM Rich Shepard 
> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 1 Jun 2020, Ben Koenig wrote:
> >
> > > I used ringcentral and it should let you select inputs and outputs. If
> > not
> > > then it's probably just using whatever the pulseaudio default is.
> >
> > Ben,
> >
> > That's how I selected the headphones and webcam mic; it didn't offer the
> > headset mic as an option.
> >
> > > Pavucontrol will let you select inputs and outputs on a per-app basis.
> >
> > When I have the ringcentral app running I look at pavucontrol and see the
> > same
> >
> > > I'll see if I can throw together a quick little screencast to show how
> > you
> > > do this, since it's something that throws a lot of long-time linux
> users
> > > for a loop.
> >
> > I saw the pictures along the top of the ringcentral window and used the
> > options in each picture/menu to select among the offerings.
> >
> >
> So the mic for the yamaha headset doesnt even show up in the devices tabs?
> Double check the configuration tab and make sure it's set for stereo duplex
> mode (so both input/output).
>
> Are you using a USB adapter or plugging straight into your computer's sound
> card? From a quick search of the Yamaha Cm500 you aren't going to see it in
> pavucontrol under the name "yamaha". It's going to be listed as whatever
> sound card you have it plugged into. There are also 2 independent jacks.
>
> It's a "dumb" headset. Unless you are running some sort of USB adapter from
> yamaha then this is simply a matter of a functioning mic jack on your sound
> card. It's possible that other microphone devices would fail when plugged
> into the same jack. A common problem I run into on linux is that most audio
> devices can do both "Mic in" and "Line in". If your device is listening on
> Line in, you won't hear anything because it's looking at the wrong jack.
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Re: [PLUG] Video conference hardware question

2020-06-01 Thread Mike C.
One would think, but I've done enough QA testing and tech support  in my
life to know that's not the reality for many reasons.

Heck, even looking at the recommended list of Plantronics Headsets, it's
only about a 1/2 dozen or so that are fully compatible. RingCentral has
another list of about 30 other Plantronics headsets that it says may only
have partial compatibility.

That tells the story right there about the reality of what companies are
willing to put time and money into supporting.



On Mon, Jun 1, 2020 at 2:47 PM Rich Shepard 
wrote:

> On Mon, 1 Jun 2020, Mike C. wrote:
>
> > For example, if I wanted to use RingCentral, I'd get a Plantronics
> headset
> > because they own the market for headsets and set the standard for
> features
> > and functions.
>
> Well the Yamaha headphones are recognized so despite Plantronics owning
> most
> of the market ringcentral should also see the Yamaha microphone. No?
>
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Video conference hardware question

2020-06-01 Thread Mike C.
It's a pretty common paradigm that the best application support goes to
those with the largest market share.

For example, if I wanted to use RingCentral, I'd get a Plantronics headset
because they own the market for headsets and set the standard for features
and functions.

So I wasn't surprised when I did a search on RingCentral's Supportal on
"headset" and the first couple of hits was for Plantronics headsets.

The same is true for Logitech. They're the 600lb gorilla of desktop web
cams, so no surprises that was plug-n-play with RingCentral.

On Mon, Jun 1, 2020 at 1:32 PM Rich Shepard 
wrote:

> Testing my hardware for a meeting tomorrow, I plugged in the Yamaha Cm500
> headset. pavucontrol showed both plugged into the desktop's front panel
> outlets.
>
> However, while ringcentral recognized the headphones for audio output it
> did
> not recognize the microphone, but it did recognize the one in the Logitech
> c925e webcam.
>
> As long as the webcam microphone works I'm good to go. I'm just curious why
> a web conference hosting software might recognize the headphone side of the
> Yamaha but not the microphone side. Any ideas from you folks with
> experience?
>
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Password managers

2020-05-29 Thread Mike C.
This is a food for thought - definitely not meant as mockery of any sorts.

I use post-it notes to safely store passwords. It has been tried and tested
in various forms for centuries. It is also multiplatform.

I challenge anyone to hack into that remotely.

Okay, well you might want to chew on a few things.

If you don't use a strong passPHRASE and change it regularly, where/how you
store your passwords is mostly a moot point.

There's a couple of weak points with password management that I think many
people don't consider.

The biggest one that comes to mind for me is how organizations store &
manage their customer's passwords and other identifying information such as
name, email address, etc.

I don't want to go on a technical rant but the best benefit of an app like
Keepass is the random password generator feature.

I'm sure I'm not  the only one who's guilty of using very similar passwords
with the same email address for multiple accounts for many years. =(





>
>
>
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Re: [PLUG] Password managers

2020-05-28 Thread Mike C.
"Keepass is for windoze."

-- That's not entirely accurate. From the Keepass web site:

*"Supported operating systems:* Windows Vista / 7 / 8 / 10 (each 32-bit and
64-bit), Mono <https://keepass.info/help/v2/setup.html#mono> (Linux, Mac OS
X, BSD, ...)."

But with that being said, unless you can elucidate on your problems with
it, will never know if it was user error or not.

On Wed, May 27, 2020 at 6:13 PM Rich Shepard 
wrote:

> On Wed, 27 May 2020, Mike C. wrote:
>
> > It's conceivable you ran into some bug or complication with KeepassXC. If
> > you don't need the cross platform functionality, maybe just try Keepass
> > (C++) or Keepass2(C#). Keepass2 2.45 was just released on May 7th and I
> > see it has been validated for Slackware 14.2.
>
> Mike,
>
> Keepass is for windoze. Keepassx was the X11 fork and keepassxc forked that
> as the community-supported version. I downloaded, built, and installed
> keepassxc without support for the 2fa dongle and browsers. Now I'll spend
> more time figuring out just how it works ... manually and not automatically
> in firefox.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Password managers

2020-05-27 Thread Mike C.
I only have experience with Keepass(2) on MS & Linux (Debian / Ubuntu).
I've used it for years with very little trouble. It's  Which is probably my
favorite thing about Keepass. It's always been a solid app that just seemed
to work unless I did something dumb. It has been in development since 2003
so it's pretty well tried and tested.

It's conceivable you ran into some bug or complication with KeepassXC. If
you don't need the cross platform functionality, maybe just try Keepass
(C++) or Keepass2(C#). Keepass2 2.45 was just released on May 7th and I see
it has been validated for Slackware 14.2.



On Wed, May 27, 2020 at 3:59 PM Rich Shepard 
wrote:

> On Wed, 27 May 2020, Jason Barnett wrote:
>
> > I've been using keepassxc for about a year and have no complaints. I use
> > SyncThing to sinc the keepassxc database across multiple machines so have
> > all the luxuries of the password manager but don't have to store them in
> > 'the cloud'. I settled on keepassxc because it is cross platform and open
> > source, so I have the same database on my phone, Linux PCs and Windows
> PC.
>
> Jason,
>
> Thanks for your comments. Passwordsafe is also open source; both are
> available from the SBo repository.
>
> Stay well,
>
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Security headaches

2020-05-05 Thread Mike C.
"You want to have some form of 2 factor authentication to make it harder
for people to break into your account. The nice thing for most people about
the texting is that they typically always have their phone with them, so
the response cycle is very quick, and limited in who can access."

One of the things I like about Google's 2x factor auth is they provide an
offline authentication app. Google Authenticator Google implements two-step
verification services using the Time-based One-time Password Algorithm and
HMAC-based One-time Password algorithm, for authenticating users of
software applications.

IMHO all web / mobile apps should use this for a variety of good reasons.
It provides better security, user's don't have to remember passwords that
get forgotten or cracked, bad actors can't associate accounts and passwords
to users, etc.

To me this isn't unlike using an RSA token fob back in the day for
corporate VPN access. The modern day version of this is a usb 2x factor
auth key such as Yubikey, which works with hundreds of web sites
including Twitter,
Facebook, Google, Instagram, GitHub, Dropbox, Electronic Arts, Epic Games,
Microsoft account services, Nintendo, Okta, and Reddit.





On Mon, May 4, 2020 at 8:48 PM wes  wrote:

> On Mon, May 4, 2020 at 8:21 PM John Jason Jordan  wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 4 May 2020 19:37:10 -0700
> > wes  dijo:
> >
> > >On Mon, May 4, 2020 at 2:39 PM John Jason Jordan 
> > >wrote:
> > >> If the Google Voice account sends the text messages to my Android
> > >> phone they will not be viewable. What I need is for Google Voice to
> > >> display text messages on my computer, i.e., in Chrome or Firefox. As
> > >> far as I can tell that is not an option.
> >
> > >I use Google Voice. One of the things I like about it is its
> > >redundancy. I can get text messages via at least 4 interfaces
> > >simultaneously. The downside is that I have more items to mark "read"
> > >but for me, that is well worth the benefit of making it very difficult
> > >to get locked out of my ability to receive messages. In my line of
> > >work I need to be Highly Available(tm) and this goes a long way
> > >towards helping with that.
> > >
> > >Google Voice offers a smartphone app that is unrelated to the Messages
> > >(or similar) app that usually handles text messages going to the phone
> > >by default. This is not mandatory. However, it will insist that you
> > >provide a number to a real phone, so be prepared for that. It will
> > >forward phone calls to the Google Voice number over to the real phone
> > >number.
> > >
> > >I get GV text messages in the app, over email, in a Chrome browser
> > >extension, and in a web interface found at voice.google.com. Your
> > >physical phone does not have to be involved.
> >
> > Many thanks. I may have problems installing the app because my phone
> > had too many pieces of Google deleted and now I am locked out of the
> > app store. But this sounds like a solution. I will get to work on this
> > tomorrow. :)
> >
>
> You may be able to get away with setting it up without ever installing the
> app at all.
>
> Just pull up voice.google.com and follow the prompts.
>
> -wes
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Re: [PLUG] Raspberry Pi component/sub-assembly selection guides

2020-05-03 Thread Mike C.
Also, a quick Google search on "Raspberry PI Linux handheld computer"
turned up 3 projects; Noodle Pi, P3B+, and the Hyperpixel 4.

Not knowing very much about the Raspberry Pi, what I'm able to quickly &
easily grok is that that are quite a few variant builds based off of a core
/ starter kits. So I think it's just a matter of looking at these project
build sets and swapping a few components to meet your individual needs.

On Sun, May 3, 2020 at 11:34 AM Mike C.  wrote:

> One possible way to approach this question is to look at project kits such
> as the Neego Raspberry Pi 3 starter kit. It checks off of a few of your
> boxes. It might not be exactly what you'\re looking for, but it might be a
> good starting point.
>
> -- HTH --
>
> On Sun, May 3, 2020 at 11:21 AM Richard Owlett 
> wrote:
>
>> *My question was how to select appropriate Raspberry Pi hardware.*
>>
>>
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Re: [PLUG] Raspberry Pi component/sub-assembly selection guides

2020-05-03 Thread Mike C.
One possible way to approach this question is to look at project kits such
as the Neego Raspberry Pi 3 starter kit. It checks off of a few of your
boxes. It might not be exactly what you'\re looking for, but it might be a
good starting point.

-- HTH --

On Sun, May 3, 2020 at 11:21 AM Richard Owlett  wrote:

> *My question was how to select appropriate Raspberry Pi hardware.*
>
>
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Re: [PLUG] What to do First Thursday?

2020-04-30 Thread Mike C.
"It is probably not the best idea to require iPhone purchase or FB/MS
account as a condition of attendance."

Excellent point! One that I didn't consider either?

Ideally,, I could participate via my XMPP client of choice or something
similar. I way that because think XMPP is pretty old and there night be
better performing, more secure protocols to chose from.

On Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 4:37 PM Tomas Kuchta 
wrote:

> +- 1 for things like FB/whatApp, weechat, FaceTime, etc.
>
> They maybe great for families/friends bought to each particular
> ecosystem/walledGarden.
>
> It is probably not the best idea to require iPhone purchase or FB/MS
> account as a condition of attendance.
>
> Tomas
>
> On Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 15:48 Mike C.  wrote:
>
> > >
> > > Just yesterday I was in a conversation about tools and I started a
> > > spreadsheet of different video / remote tools.
> > >
> > > So far people have mentioned:
> > >
> > > Zoom
> > > Kast
> > > Crowdcast
> > > Slack
> > > Google Hangouts
> > > Google duo
> > > MS Teams
> > > discord
> > > Wechat
> > > Whatsapp
> > > Facebook/facetime
> > > Kakao
> > > Line
> > > Youtube live
> > > Meetaway
> > >
> >
> > This is a pretty long list and not one I'm at all interested in testing
> my
> > way through.
> >
> > Personally, I wouldn't participate in any online group activity that
> didn't
> > consider personal privacy, security and/or anonymity as one of the top
> > criteria in considering which application to use.
> >
> > That alone would probably cut the list in half. Then I'd strongly prefer
> a
> > FOSS app that's tried and tested in the wild for a few years and is
> > actively developed and supported.
> >
> > Then I consider what are the non-negotiable features and then I'd
> > functionality and performance test on the top few candidates.
> >
> > At this time when so many people are using the Internet for so many
> > purposes, the bad actors, be the individuals, corporations or the
> > government know there's a veritable gold mine of personal data to be had.
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Re: [PLUG] What to do First Thursday?

2020-04-30 Thread Mike C.
>
> Just yesterday I was in a conversation about tools and I started a
> spreadsheet of different video / remote tools.
>
> So far people have mentioned:
>
> Zoom
> Kast
> Crowdcast
> Slack
> Google Hangouts
> Google duo
> MS Teams
> discord
> Wechat
> Whatsapp
> Facebook/facetime
> Kakao
> Line
> Youtube live
> Meetaway
>

This is a pretty long list and not one I'm at all interested in testing my
way through.

Personally, I wouldn't participate in any online group activity that didn't
consider personal privacy, security and/or anonymity as one of the top
criteria in considering which application to use.

That alone would probably cut the list in half. Then I'd strongly prefer a
FOSS app that's tried and tested in the wild for a few years and is
actively developed and supported.

Then I consider what are the non-negotiable features and then I'd
functionality and performance test on the top few candidates.

At this time when so many people are using the Internet for so many
purposes, the bad actors, be the individuals, corporations or the
government know there's a veritable gold mine of personal data to be had.
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Re: [PLUG] What to do First Thursday?

2020-04-30 Thread Mike C.
"I'm learning OBS and while it will certainly record as well as stream it
provides capabilities well beyond my needs."

Yes. This is a real challenge not just with OBS but most software.

The hard work IMHO is trying to figure out exactly what features and
functionality one truly needs in an app and then take that shopping list
and try to find the best match.

Often times that includes a fair amount of research and trial & error.





On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 10:10 AM Rich Shepard 
wrote:

> On Thu, 30 Apr 2020, John Sechrest wrote:
>
> > I would love to see a tutorial walk-though / Discussion about OBS, how it
> > works and an example of how to make a quick 2-3 minute video with bumpers
> > from a zoom recording.
> >
> > Is there anyone on the list who is practiced with this type thing?
>
> John,
>
> In case no one has the experience, there's a video course here:
> <
> https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/the-most-in-depth-obs-course-ever-made.601/
> >
> and (my preference) a set of web pages here:
> <
> https://photography.tutsplus.com/series/how-to-record-screencasts-with-open-broadcaster-software--cms-1166
> >
>
> Regards,
>
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] What to do First Thursday?

2020-04-29 Thread Mike C.
"So, I've decided to produce instructional videos but make them available
as webinars-on-demand."

I don't understand why anyone wo go through all the trouble of trying to
figure out which webinar app to use if they'\re not conducting a live
seminar over the internet. This makes no sense to me.

I suggest looking into OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) which is open source
and free and installs on all Linux distros, BSD, Windows and MAC. Then just
post the video to Google Drive, Vimeo, YouTube, etc.

OBS might not be the ideal tool you're looking for but there are many more
like it. One of the key benefits of using this type of software is that you
have a lot more options for making your instructional videos more
interesting, useful and effective because you can add text, animation,
graphics and the like.

It's likely that Covid-19 is going to disrupt in person gatherings through
physical distancing until the end of Summer.



On Wed, Apr 29, 2020 at 7:23 AM Rich Shepard 
wrote:

> On Wed, 29 Apr 2020, Rich Shepard wrote:
>
> > I would like your help by expanding this video conferencing thread to
> > include webinar hosts.
>
> Further thinking has led me in a different direction. Live webinars require
> attendees to be available at a specific date and time and many of my
> clients
> and prospective clients would not be able to be free for an hour or so
> regardless of when the webinar is presented. This is true even in the
> current medical/economic situation as much manufacturing and food
> production
> is continuing (if the latter can find markets for their crops and
> livestock).
>
> So, I've decided to produce the instructional videos but make them
> available
> as webinars-on-demand. And I'll offer video conference calls about these
> subjects so the conference call thread does apply to me, too.
>
> I'm not in the computer/IT industries but I'll participate and contribute
> as
> I can so I, too, learn what works best for those of us running linux ...
> and
> current distribution versions, too. :-)
>
> Regards,
>
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] How is TPROXY supposed to work?

2020-04-23 Thread Mike C.
>
> Having run across all of this, I don't have the big picture of how this is
> supposed to work and cannot achieve the point of all this.
>

What exactly are you trying to do? Do you even know or are you trying to do
or are you just playing around with transparent proxying for S & G's?

Googling on tproxy has provided some basic ASCII diagrams of specific
configurations for specific purposes such as in this article which explains
the difference between iptables redirect, dnat and tproxy.
https://gsoc-blog.ecklm.com/iptables-redirect-vs.-dnat-vs.-tproxy/

Starting there might help you understand what can be accomplished with each
utility.

This how-to article goes more into detail about how tproxy works.
https://powerdns.org/tproxydoc/tproxy.md.html

"The Linux kernel contains facilities for performing transparent proxying.
In short this means that the operating system functions as a router, but
some (or all) traffic gets redirected for userspace processing.

This could be used for example to implement a transparent http proxy which
could then for example apply policy, scan for viruses etc. There are DNS
applications too."

Four components are involved:


   - A routing table that declares all IP addresses as local
   - iptables rules marking certain packets for processing by this routing
   table
  - And optionally map the traffic to a specific local address
   - A socket option IP_TRANSPARENT that marks sockets a suitable for
   receiving such traffic
   - Potentially: ebtables to perform these function in bridging mode.

tproxy is policy based routing. The first step would be to enumerate and
diagram the routing that you're trying to accomplish. If you can't do that,
then you don't understand what you're trying to accomplish and you're just
hopin' & pokin'.
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Re: [PLUG] Folding@home

2020-04-21 Thread Mike C.
>
> Avast antivirus suggests installing Folding@home module to effect
> distributed computing to analyze covid proteins.  It warns compute
> intensity, running hot, and high electric use, advises run at night.
> Seeking opinions on installing Folding@home
> especially security risks, etc.
> Your thoughts ??
>

I was curious about your inquiry and so I went a Googling. I didn't find
very much info on security/privacy issues with installing & running
Folding@home.

I did find out that the F@H client isn't fully open-source so there hasn't
been any code security reviews/audits done.

The only security related info I found was on F@H's FAQ page:
https://foldingathome.org/support/faq/miscellaneous/
What about security issues?

We have worked very hard to maintain the best security possible with modern
computer science methodology. Our software will upload and download data
only from our data server here at Stanford. Also, we only interact with FAH
files on your computer (we don’t read, write, or transmit any other files,
as we don’t need to do so and doing so would violate our privacy policy).
The Cores are also digitally signed (see below) to make sure that you’re
getting the true Stanford cores and nothing else.
How is this possible? We take extensive measures to check all of the data
entering your computer and the results we send back to Stanford with 2048
bit digital signatures. If the signatures don’t match (on either the input
or the output) the client will throw away the data and start again. This
ensures, using the best software security measures developed to date
(digital signatures and PKI in version 3.0), that we are keeping the
tightest possible security. Finally, the clients are available for download
only from this web site (or in certain cases, also from our commercial
partners such as Sony, NVIDIA, and ATI), so that we can guarantee the
integrity of the software. We do not support Folding@home software obtained
elsewhere and prohibit others to distribute the software."
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[PLUG] Covid-19 Tech Handbook

2020-04-21 Thread Mike C.
I stumbled across this resource in my Internet travels and thought I'd
share it. There's some interesting resources such as hardware, software,
data science, privacy & security tech collectives / working groups and
funding sources for innovators and freelancers / gig workers.

https://coronavirustechhandbook.com/techcommunities
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Re: [PLUG] Debian Buster and USB3...

2020-04-16 Thread Mike C.
I use MTR to do some of that testing. It is kind of like traceroute but
gives a lot more info.

It is traceroute, "Matt's or My" traceroute. Bit It also includes ping sent
/ reply stats per hop after the route is traced and  some other options
that are useful for checking all the network hops from end to end.

There are a slew of commands and utilities for network troubleshooting. But
tools don't fix problems by themselves.

What I've seen on this list so many times is folks trying to troubleshoot
networking related issues without a solid understanding of how networking
actually works.

The best tool that I know to use for determining if the NIC on your local
computer is dropping packets is Ethtool:

ethtool -S wlp2s0b1

NIC statistics:
 rx_packets: 478448
 rx_bytes: 311948183
 rx_duplicates: 2052
 rx_fragments: 346639
 rx_dropped: 2787
 tx_packets: 134979
 tx_bytes: 24760285
 tx_filtered: 0
 tx_retry_failed: 1250
 tx_retries: 17627

Ethtool even has an option for a NIC self-test.

~ $ sudo ethtool -t enp0s25 offline
The test result is FAIL
The test extra info:
Register test  (offline) 0
Eeprom test(offline) 0
Interrupt test (offline) 0
Loopback test  (offline) 0
Link test   (on/offline) 1

On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 8:37 PM Chuck Hast  wrote:

> I use MTR to do some of that testing. It is kind of like traceroute but
> gives a lot more
> info.
> When I moved to Oklahoma City, I got ATT internet (the other option was
> Cox) they
> brought out a modem and set it up. I tried to use the network, but it was
> very slow
> to resolve, once resolved it was blazing fast.
> I used mtr to look at their DNS (the DNS was hardwired in the modem). At
> that time
> the DNS was down in Austin TX. It was 8 hops down there, about the 4th hop
> down
> there was a router that showed about 75% loss. Also had a lot of jitter.
>
> At least I knew that the issue was not on my end.
>
> On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 7:50 PM Mike C.  wrote:
>
> > Is the USB network adapter support stable in Debian Buster? I ask
> because I
> > suspect that my USB3 gigabit network
> > card is dropping packets.
> >
> > -- If it wasn't supported the driver wouldn't install, the module
> wouldn't
> > load and you wouldn't see the NIC listed in lsusb.
> >
> > -- With that being said, NIC drivers can also have bugs and in my
> > past experience, especially with WIFI NIC drivers, it's possible to
> install
> > a non-compatible / non-working driver. Probably a much less common
> problem
> > these days.
> >
> > When I ping www.yahoo.com 10 times through this USB adapter hooked up to
> > my
> > Spectrum cable modem, I lose anywhere from 0% to 60% of the packets and
> > this is happening consistently.
> >
> > -- Possibly bad test and bad assumptions. There are many network devices
> > (hops) between your NIC and a yahoo server. Packets could be dropped or
> is
> > often the case just discarded as the device is configured not to respond
> to
> > ICMP packets.
> >
> > -- If you really think there's a local problem with the NIC itself, start
> > with testing the NIC first and then move out one step at a time.
> >
> > 1. Ping the loopback address of 127.0.0.1 to verify/ensure there's no
> > TCP/IP stack issues.
> >
> > 2. Ping the ip address of the USB GIG NIC.
> >
> > 3. Ping the next hop ip address on the same ip subnet as the USB GIG NIC.
> > The LAN gateway ip addr.
> >
> > 4. Ping the WAN side ip addr of your internet router.
> >
> > If that all checks good, then any network connectivity issues you're
> > experiencing are out of your control.
> >
> > On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 3:30 PM  wrote:
> >
> > > Is the USB network adapter support stable in Debian Buster? I ask
> because
> > > I suspect that my USB3 gigabit network
> > > card is dropping packets.
> > >
> > > When I ping www.yahoo.com 10 times through this USB adapter hooked up
> to
> > > my Spectrum cable modem, I lose anywhere
> > > from 0% to 60% of the packets and this is happening consistently.
> > >
> > > I do:
> > >
> > > $ ping -c 10 www.yahoo.com ; sleep 15 ; ping -c 10 www.yahoo.com ;
> sleep
> > > 15 ; ping -c 10 www.yahoo.com ; sleep 15 ; ping -c 10 www.yahoo.com
> > >
> > > If I'm lucky, one of these four rounds of ping will have a drop rate of
> > 0%.
> > >
> > >  -- Michael Robinson
> > >
> > > michael@filter:~$ lsusb
> > > Bus 009 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
> > > Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 r

Re: [PLUG] Debian Buster and USB3...

2020-04-15 Thread Mike C.
Is the USB network adapter support stable in Debian Buster? I ask because I
suspect that my USB3 gigabit network
card is dropping packets.

-- If it wasn't supported the driver wouldn't install, the module wouldn't
load and you wouldn't see the NIC listed in lsusb.

-- With that being said, NIC drivers can also have bugs and in my
past experience, especially with WIFI NIC drivers, it's possible to install
a non-compatible / non-working driver. Probably a much less common problem
these days.

When I ping www.yahoo.com 10 times through this USB adapter hooked up to my
Spectrum cable modem, I lose anywhere from 0% to 60% of the packets and
this is happening consistently.

-- Possibly bad test and bad assumptions. There are many network devices
(hops) between your NIC and a yahoo server. Packets could be dropped or is
often the case just discarded as the device is configured not to respond to
ICMP packets.

-- If you really think there's a local problem with the NIC itself, start
with testing the NIC first and then move out one step at a time.

1. Ping the loopback address of 127.0.0.1 to verify/ensure there's no
TCP/IP stack issues.

2. Ping the ip address of the USB GIG NIC.

3. Ping the next hop ip address on the same ip subnet as the USB GIG NIC.
The LAN gateway ip addr.

4. Ping the WAN side ip addr of your internet router.

If that all checks good, then any network connectivity issues you're
experiencing are out of your control.

On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 3:30 PM  wrote:

> Is the USB network adapter support stable in Debian Buster? I ask because
> I suspect that my USB3 gigabit network
> card is dropping packets.
>
> When I ping www.yahoo.com 10 times through this USB adapter hooked up to
> my Spectrum cable modem, I lose anywhere
> from 0% to 60% of the packets and this is happening consistently.
>
> I do:
>
> $ ping -c 10 www.yahoo.com ; sleep 15 ; ping -c 10 www.yahoo.com ; sleep
> 15 ; ping -c 10 www.yahoo.com ; sleep 15 ; ping -c 10 www.yahoo.com
>
> If I'm lucky, one of these four rounds of ping will have a drop rate of 0%.
>
>  -- Michael Robinson
>
> michael@filter:~$ lsusb
> Bus 009 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
> Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
> Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
> Bus 007 Device 002: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver
> Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
> Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
> Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
> Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
> Bus 005 Device 002: ID 0b95:1790 ASIX Electronics Corp. AX88179 Gigabit
> Ethernet
> Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
> Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
> michael@filter:~$
>
> I've ordered a PCI 32 bit gigabit card to bypass the USB entirely, but I'm
> still curious if my hunch about a USB problem is correct.
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Re: [PLUG] Zoom and Debian Buster...

2020-04-11 Thread Mike C.
" 1. Drop the frame rate / resolution of the frame rate
of the Zoom call down to the lowest rate"

How does one do that? I do not see any controls when I launch Zoom.

-- Hmm, it seems I made an incorrect assumption on what I thought would be
a standard feature. It seems you only have to video resolution choices: HD
and non-HD.

I did find an article that gives camera recommendations for HD video -
"a  camera
with 720p (1280×720) resolution will suffice. To avoid choppy video, get
one that can deliver at least 20 frames per second under this resolution.
If you’re willing to spend the money, get one that shoots up to 30 frames
per second."

https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2013/08/29/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-zoom-experience/


On Sat, Apr 11, 2020 at 11:43 AM Denis Heidtmann 
wrote:

> On Sat, Apr 11, 2020 at 9:34 AM Mike C.  wrote:
>
> " 1. Drop the frame rate / resolution of the frame rate
> of the Zoom call down to the lowest rate"
>
> How does one do that? I do not see any controls when I launch Zoom.
> Thanks,
> -Denis
>
> On Sat, Apr 11, 2020 at 9:34 AM Mike C.  wrote:
>
> > >
> > > . There are lots of reasons why a video could freeze like that and not
> > all
> > > of them are network related.
> > >
> >
> > True. I often find myself looking at problems through the network lens
> > first from decades of other IT staff, employees and customers blaming the
> > network for their computing woes.
> >
> >
> > > If you are able to connect at all, then it's unlikely that your
> firewall
> > > is the source of the problem.
> > >
> >
> > Also true. However, if the firewall is iptables running on a computer
> it's
> > conceivable that the computer's resources could be overburdened and
> > affecting traffic flowing through the firewall and the video stream
> > freezes.
> >
> > I suspect that Zoom is probably fairly resource intensive. Here's how'd I
> > approach the problem. 1. Drop the frame rate / resolution of the frame
> rate
> > of the Zoom call down to the lowest rate and see if that helps. 2. Check
> > the resource utilization on both end points and the ip tables machine
> > during a Zoom call.
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> >
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Re: [PLUG] Zoom and Debian Buster...

2020-04-11 Thread Mike C.
>
> . There are lots of reasons why a video could freeze like that and not all
> of them are network related.
>

True. I often find myself looking at problems through the network lens
first from decades of other IT staff, employees and customers blaming the
network for their computing woes.


> If you are able to connect at all, then it's unlikely that your firewall
> is the source of the problem.
>

Also true. However, if the firewall is iptables running on a computer it's
conceivable that the computer's resources could be overburdened and
affecting traffic flowing through the firewall and the video stream
freezes.

I suspect that Zoom is probably fairly resource intensive. Here's how'd I
approach the problem. 1. Drop the frame rate / resolution of the frame rate
of the Zoom call down to the lowest rate and see if that helps. 2. Check
the resource utilization on both end points and the ip tables machine
during a Zoom call.
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Re: [PLUG] Zoom and Debian Buster...

2020-04-10 Thread Mike C.
Any changes to these rules needed???  Zoom video freezes after 3 seconds
and occasionally unfreezes.

That's not how firewalls work. Firewalls either allow traffic based on
port, protocol, ip address or they don't.

If the video is freezing it's due to a lack of bandwidth. There are a
couple of options to address bandwidth issues; more bandwidth, lower the
frame rate / resolution of the video and QOS / Prioritization of video
traffic. QOS / Prioritization only works when the entire network is under
you control. The Internet cares not about your QOS tagged packets.

On Fri, Apr 10, 2020 at 4:03 PM  wrote:

> root@filter:~# iptables -vL FORWARD_Zoom
> Chain FORWARD_Zoom (1 references)
>  pkts bytes target prot opt in out source
>  destination
>   230 14226 ACCEPT udp  --  eth0   eth2anywhere
>  anywhere state NEW,RELATED,ESTABLISHED multiport dports
> 8801,8802,,9090
>   121  4961 ACCEPT udp  --  eth2   eth0anywhere
>  anywhere state NEW,RELATED,ESTABLISHED multiport sports
> 8801,8802,,9090
> 0 0 ACCEPT udp  --  eth2   eth0anywhere
>  anywhere state NEW,RELATED,ESTABLISHED multiport sports
> 3478,3479
> 0 0 ACCEPT udp  --  eth0   eth2anywhere
>  anywhere state NEW,RELATED,ESTABLISHED multiport dports
> 3478,3479
> root@filter:~#
>
> Any changes to these rules needed???  Zoom video freezes after 3 seconds
> and occasionally unfreezes.
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Re: [PLUG] Question on Zoombombin

2020-04-09 Thread Mike C.
>
> Supposedly they found one of the more obvious sources of the zoombombing
> problem:
>
> https://www.zdnet.com/article/zoom-removes-meeting-ids-from-app-title-bar-to-improve-privacy/
>
> PEBKAC. Social engineering is always the most effective weapon in a
> hacker's arsenal.
> -Ben
>

True but when you just give info away freely, no social engineering needed.

Side note:

I wish there was a better term for people who commit malicious acts of
computing than hacker.

I still associate "hacker" and "hacking" with non-malicious. It's how most
of us learn in real-time working on all things Info Tech verses more formal
leaning in a educational institution.
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Re: [PLUG] Ripping audio cds and creating duplicates

2020-04-06 Thread Mike C.
"My sister's in an independent living facility in the Bay Area and has been
in her apartment for the past 3 weeks as the facility is locked down both
externally and internally. Not being able to read (she's legally blind)
nor able to get audio books because the California library is closed means
that there's little to do but watch TV which is quite depressing."

Rich, if your sister is able to operate a computer or smartphone enough to
navigate the Stitcher Podcast app, I'm sure she'd find some interesting /
entertaining content.

I also did a quick Google and came across this article,
https://brailleworks.com/9-apps-accessibility-technology/

This in particular caught my attention:

BARD  allows users to download books,
journals, publications, magazines, and music scores in audio and braille
from the Library of Congress. BARD does a great job of getting books on the
app within the first or second year of their release date. With Bluetooth,
users can connect refreshable braille displays and play audio materials.
This app is available FREE for both Apple and Android devices if you have
an account with the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically
Handicapped(NLS).

I hope that's helpful.




On Mon, Apr 6, 2020 at 12:57 PM Rich Shepard 
wrote:

> On Mon, 6 Apr 2020, Tomas Kuchta wrote:
>
> > +1 for k3b
>
> > If you need audio CD (as classic CD format) you do not need to rip and
> > encode anything.
>
> Except that k3b wants .wav files to write to an optical disk. At least,
> that's what I read here:
> .
>
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Question on Zoombombin

2020-04-06 Thread Mike C.
"Or does Zoom even care?"

Oh, Zooom cares, a lot! This has been going on for at least a couple of
weeks and has developed into it's own online subculture that's exploiting
software vulnerabilities and is threatening Zoom's business with
governments and businesses around the world.

Zoom like so many other social media / communication tools is cloud based.
They have servers all over the world including in China.

If you want to know more about Zoom's network architecture and security,
here's a pretty decent article by The Intercept,
https://theintercept.com/2020/04/03/zooms-encryption-is-not-suited-for-secrets-and-has-surprising-links-to-china-researchers-discover/

Zoom has a bit of a mess on their hands and yet again here's another
example of good marketing and user friendliness built on top of insecure
code. Which always ends up just being a matter of time before it gets
exploited.






On Sun, Apr 5, 2020 at 7:31 PM Mark Allyn  wrote:

> Ben:
>
> Thanks. I was wondering about this. So if the server (zoom.com) were to
> field the IP
> addresses, than would it be Zoom who would have to trace Zoombombers and
> take action?
>
> I have been reading reports that the FBI is starting to take interest in
> this as
> apparently Zoombombing is a violation of the CFAA, Computer Fraud And
> Abuse Act and
> it would not be myself as a meeting host to try to turn over IP addresses
> to the
> authorities.
>
> Or does Zoom even care?
>
> Mark
>
> - Original Message -
> From: "Ben Koenig" 
> To: "Portland Linux/Unix Group" 
> Sent: Sunday, April 5, 2020 7:17:06 PM
> Subject: Re: [PLUG] Question on Zoombombin
>
> Short answer: no.
>
> Long answer: My understanding is that services like Zoom provide a central
> server that allows clients to talk to each other. The only IP address you
> need is that of the server, the others are abstracted away from the client.
>
> instead,
> - each user sends their data to the server.
> - the server aggregates the incoming connections
> - server distributes data to clients as required
>
> Normally one or more of these clients would be dedicated as the "host" or
> moderator, who is able to change how the server functions on-the-fly. This
> includes things like kicking individual clients, and other functions. In
> order to do get the IP address of each client in a meeting, the service
> must expose that data to each client. This is normally considered a
> security flaw,
> however it would not be unheard of for a given piece of software to
> accidentally leak that kind of data.
>
> That said, if there are bugs in the software that allow unauthorized users
> to join meetings at will, then it's possible that a bug may exist that
> allows you to identify the IP address of your peers in a given meeting.
> This would be an interesting question for Zoom's customer service team,
> since allowing other users to see your IP opens up some severe privacy
> concerns. Personally I'd be interested just to know how they respond to
> such a question.
> -Ben
>
> On Sun, Apr 5, 2020 at 6:09 PM Mark Allyn  wrote:
>
> > Folks:
> >
> > I don't know if this is the right forum or not to ask this, but I am
> > curious about this so called Zoombombing that's been creeping up.
> >
> > I was as a zoom meeting that did get bombed with porn on Saturday.
> > Luckily, the host was able to kick them off very quickly.
> >
> > However, this leads me to a question.
> >
> > If I happen to have had another machine on my network running a sniffer;
> > something like Snort; would have I got the IP address of whomever
> > Zoombombed the meeting I was on?
> >
> > In a system like Zoom, do all of the videos come together to my desktop
> or
> > do they go to the host first and then out to the guests? Who would see
> the
> > source IP addresses of those who connect (including the zoombomber) if
> they
> > had a Snort or other sniffer running on their network?
> >
> > If this is not a good forum for something like this, would anyone know
> > what forum I could take this to? Would it be DorkbotPDX?
> >
> > Thank you
> >
> > Mark
> >
> > --
> > Mark Allyn
> > Bellingham, Washington
> > www.allyn.com
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> Bellingham, Washington
> www.allyn.com
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Re: [PLUG] Free Conference Call => "Spotting a a fake web service"

2020-04-03 Thread Mike C.
Rich, yes by definition Peer to Peer connections and distributed networks
don't require a central server.

However, if NAT is involved between 2 peers a TURN / STUN server is
required to handle NAT traversal. As most endpoints are behind an ISP or
company router/firewall with a private IP address a TURN / STUN server
would almost always be required.

But individuals.can run their own TURN / STUN servers at home and/or work.

I'm not sure if OpenWRT has this functionality. I suspect it does.

Jami also has an account management server which would be good and useful
for large organizations.

The Jami website has some pretty easy reading blog posts on all of the
above topics.if you're so inclined.





On Fri, Apr 3, 2020, 5:24 AM Rich Shepard  wrote:

> On Thu, 2 Apr 2020, Nat Taylor wrote:
>
> > P2P FTW! (hopefully)
>
> Nat,
>
> If I correctly understand the web site both parties (or all parties) need
> to
> have the application installed; it's not hosted on a server somewhere.
>
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] JAMI

2020-04-02 Thread Mike C.
>
>  > How about Jami ?
> > > https://jami.net/


With the exception of a TURN Server, It's refreshing to see a truly
distributed network / P2P communication app.

I'm by no means a security expert but I like how they  handled account
management with local crypto keys and blockchain for anonymous account
creation and unique usernames that can't be changed. They've also
implemented TLS 1.3, ICE and OpenDHT.

I also like how they wrote a blog post on Jami's "quirks" for people not
familiar with some of the challenges and comprises with a truly distributed
/ P2P secure communication app.

It's these not very "user friendly inconveniences" that become barriers to
widespread uptake. Because ultimately we're only afforded the security &
privacy that people we communicate with have.

I'm very interested to see a security review/audit of Jami.
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Re: [PLUG] Free Conference Call => "Spotting a a fake web service"

2020-04-02 Thread Mike C.
>
> > > How about Jami ?
> > > https://jami.net/


With the exception of a TURN Server, It's refreshing to see a truly
distributed network / P2P communication app.

I'm by no means a security expert but I like how they  handled account
management with local crypto keys and blockchain for anonymous account
creation and unique usernames that can't be changed. They've also
implemented TLS 1.3, ICE and OpenDHT.

I also like how they wrote a blog post on Jami's "quirks" for people not
familiar with some of the challenges and comprises with a truly distributed
/ P2P secure communication app.

It's these not very "user friendly inconveniences" that become barriers to
widespread uptake. Because ultimately we're only afforded the security &
privacy that people we communicate with have.

I'm very interested to see a security review/audit of Jami.
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Re: [PLUG] From {proprietary consumer} TO {FOSS contributor} HOW???

2020-03-30 Thread Mike C.
In regards to your diverse history. You're not the only one: I dare say my
background is more diverse not only vertically within in a technical
speciality but also horizontally across many industries. I'm also diverse
across types of work and I've had difficulties finding work due to this.
I'm not a polymath by any means but I don't fit squarely in a box nor have
a conventionall career path.

I too wish I could've done Physics experiments for a living when I was in
college.

Rereading your question. It seems to me you've already answered the WHAT
question of providing USEFUL_FEEDBACK.

There comes a point when asking for advice/guidance from others that we
just have to start carving our own path. I've been struggling with this for
years now myself.

Have you been to a Hackathon before? That also might be a good place to
start. I just read an article about Hactoberfest and a large portion of the
attendees where new users & devs.

Best of luck to you!



On Mon, Mar 30, 2020 at 5:59 AM Richard Owlett  wrote:

> On 03/28/2020 08:46 AM, Ben Koenig wrote:
> >[snip]
> >
> >> If I were trying to do what you are I'd start with getting clearer about
> >> what I'm really interested in and what I have to bring to the table
>
> Basically I agree. That is is why I wrote in my initial post:
> > I do not have the technical skills to contribute viable code.
> > I've been a computer *USER* since early 60's.
> > Is there a forum whose goal is guiding consumers to provide _USEFUL_
> feedback?
>
> I already have a good idea of where to:
>1. find current topics of interest to differing audiences.
>2. contribute any useful results.
> Mailing lists which qualify include debian-user, debian-blends, and
> debian-boot.
>
> The desired forum may not be explicitly software focused, let alone be
> for a specific Linux distro. Based on my experience of taking multiple
> Freshman writing courses over three decades, many contributors might be
> writing instructors. What I wish to do is read the archives of such a
> forum to better organize my efforts.
>
> >>  From my experience, that's harder to do. It's easier to ask others what
> >> they need. Figuring it out for oneself is a slower process of
> refinement.
> >>
> >>
> > +1 Start by telling us more about your personal interests. Hobbies?
> > Careers? [snip]
>
> Don't know how productive that will be 
> I was in 9th grade when Sputnik was launched. I was very good in math
> and science. My farther was an electrical engineer. Thus it was
> foreordained that I was destined to pursue a BSEE. Hindsight suggests
> that pursuing a Physics program would have been more successful. I spent
> a decade as an electronics tech in a university research environment.
> Then two decades in private sector doing engineering and customer
> support (emphasis on QA/QC).
>
> Once when job hunting thru a temp-to-permanent agency, I got one
> interview because the company owner wished to meet someone who would not
> only claim, but document, such a strangely diverse history ;}
>
>
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Re: [PLUG] From {proprietary consumer} TO {FOSS contributor} HOW???

2020-03-28 Thread Mike C.
>
> That page answers a slightly different question than I was attempting to
> ask. It focuses on "W here"to contribute "What".
>

In my experience, the what is a harder question to answer because it will
vary greatly depending on the project, ones interests and skills/talents.

What I've come to realize is that the Linux community is very much about
individual interests. A prime example is Linus Torvalds stating publicly
that he has not interest in the Linux desktop.

If I were trying to do what you are I'd start with getting clearer about
what I'm really interested in and what I have to bring to the table

>From my experience, that's harder to do. It's easier to ask others what
they need. Figuring it out for oneself is a slower process of refinement.

The reality for me is that I have many things Linux & FOSS that interest me
and a relatively small skill set to apply usefully.

-- HTH --
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Re: [PLUG] From {proprietary consumer} TO {FOSS contributor} HOW???

2020-03-27 Thread Mike C.
As a fellow Debian user, a good place to start for participating in and
contributing to the Debian community is https://www.debian.org/intro/help

Cheers,

Mike

On Fri, Mar 27, 2020 at 12:59 PM Richard Owlett  wrote:

> Lousy subject line? *PROBABLY* Suggestions welcome ;}
>
> About a decade ago I got fed up with M$ telling me that they knew more
> about my needs than I.
>
> Responding to an application oriented question on a USENET forum, a PLUG
> member suggested I try Ubuntu. Canonical had made design decisions which
> clashed with how I thought. That led me to discovering FOSS, and Debian
> in particular.
>
> I do not have the technical skills to contribute viable code.
> I've been a computer *USER* since early 60's.
> Is there a forum whose goal is guiding consumers to provide _USEFUL_
> feedback?
>
> For the record, my primary experience has involved QA/QC/inspection/etc
> functions with topics ranging from compound lighting a firefly's tail to
> instrumenting megawatt power distribution systems (flavored with one
> nuclear power plant).
>
> TIA
> (Owl ducks fer cover ;)
>
>
>
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