April 2002 - WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

Regarding M$ enforcement of licenses...

by Stephen C. Daukas

In case you haven't heard, M$ is auditing a dozen or so large school districts for compliance on licensing. Of course, this will be ugly and will run one district an estimated $1,000,000 per year to comply with M$. That's $1,000,000 more then they pay now. M$ is offering a simplified arrangement whereby a school system pays a flat fee for every Intel box (regardless of what it might actually be running) that would run that same district about $30,000. You can see where this is headed! Aside from noting that people's dishonesty about paying the real costs associated with M$ software has gotten them into this trouble (if only because the real costs are not apparent to "management"), I'm wondering what is available as a real alternative to M$ for the great unwashed masses. Of course, the answer I would expect to hear is "Linux!", but... I'm talking about a solution that is useable by those who are not rabid members of a LUG, or Sys admins in their day job. I'm talking about productivity software that will seamlessly read and write M$ file formats (Excel, Word, etc.). I don't know, for example, if Star Office is a real alternative because I don't know how well it interoperates with those who use Word, for example, on a daily basis. Perhaps there is a solution that will reliably run M$ applications without having to buy the OS, but that is only a step in the right direction. I was hoping to hear suggestions about what is out there and if Linux is ready to work seamlessly in heterogeneous High-Tech world. This might be a good topic for one of the WLUG meetings... Steve

April 23, 2002

Re: [Wlug] Whee! MIT Flea

by Bill Smith

On Mon, 22 Apr 2002 09:58:16 -0400 desdinova(a)soupforare.net wrote: DN> I'm thinking Debian potato would be alright? I most likely won't DN> install X, but if I do, I'll use X3.foo with a minimalist DN> windowmanager... Any suggestions? take a look at WindowMaker. It's been a favorite of mine for a LONG time. You can take a look at it at www.windowmaker.org . +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | William Smith wsmith at chezsmith dot com | | Fall River, MA http://www.chezsmith.com | +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | I'm not crazy, I've just been in a very | | bad mood for 30 years. | | * TAG! v2.2 * | +--------------------------------------------------------------+

April 23, 2002

RE: [Wlug] shot power supply?

by dibb_jim＠emc.com

Most drives require +5 and + 12 volt supplies. Some newer (very new) drives only require +12V. -----Original Message----- From: bryon3245(a)netzero.com [mailto:bryon3245@netzero.com] Sent: Monday, April 22, 2002 1:54 PM To: wlug(a)mail.wlug.org Subject: [Wlug] shot power supply? I have a Dell Dimension 4100 and I am pretty sure that the power supply is shot. I was wondering if there are any tests that I can do to make sure that it is the power supply and not something else. I am sure that there is nothing wrong with the power cord. When I plug in the cord and push the power button nothing happens and nothing lights up. I was also wondering why there are four cords going to each drive. I know it needs a positive and negative and posibly a ground but what is the last one for. What does each cord do? Is it possible to replace it with a generic PSU becuase i heard that only dell ones will work with a dell computer. Thanks -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

April 22, 2002

shot power supply?

by bryon3245＠netzero.com

I have a Dell Dimension 4100 and I am pretty sure that the power supply is shot. I was wondering if there are any tests that I can do to make sure that it is the power supply and not something else. I am sure that there is nothing wrong with the power cord. When I plug in the cord and push the power button nothing happens and nothing lights up. I was also wondering why there are four cords going to each drive. I know it needs a positive and negative and posibly a ground but what is the last one for. What does each cord do? Is it possible to replace it with a generic PSU becuase i heard that only dell ones will work with a dell computer. Thanks -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .

April 22, 2002

Whee! MIT Flea

by desdinova＠soupforare.net

::Dances around:: Got so much great swag at the flea this time ^_^; Anyway, I picked up two Dolch 486DX/33s, on board scsi, 32meg for $15. It's been a loooong time since I've run linux on a 486 (slack 2.something, iirc) I'm thinking Debian potato would be alright? I most likely won't install X, but if I do, I'll use X3.foo with a minimalist windowmanager... Any suggestions? It's going to be alot of shoehorning for sure. I won't lie, I haven't ran a linux system since my P200 died, she was a fileserver and random-use machine. So, getting these running would be great so I could fool around at work during slow hours. Thanks, James KB1FJQ

April 22, 2002

Re: [Wlug] I hate crackers (not the kind you eat)

by Jason Calvert

Yes I agree, but since it came with a ping and only once, I figured it was not a worm but a person on the other end. On Thu, 2002-04-18 at 08:50, Charles R. Anderson wrote: > On Thu, Apr 18, 2002 at 08:39:00AM -0400, Jason Calvert wrote: > calvert> It does not really look like some one is trying to break through your > calvert> file wall, they are not sending acks or anything strange, they are > calvert> simply trying to view content on your httpd server which you are not > calvert> running I guess. Have they scanned any other ports?(other than the ICMP > calvert> ping?) If I saw an port scan or ack packets I would be more concerned. > calvert> If you have a dynamic IP it could be someone trying to return to a site > calvert> they were at before... > calvert> Usually a break in attempt will cause a lot more traffic that a http > calvert> request. > > Actually, unsolicited http requests like this are usually viruses like > Code Red or Nimda. > > Sometimes the IP address doesn't have a DNS reversal. In either case, I > like to look them up in ARIN/RIPE/APNIC: > > >whois 66.189.81.226(a)whois.arin.net > [whois.arin.net] > Charter Communications (NETBLK-CHARTER-NET-5BLK) CHARTER-NET-5BLK > 66.188.0.0 - 66.191.255.255 > Charter Communications (NETBLK-OXFD-MA-66-189-080) OXFD-MA-66-189-080 > 66.189.80.0 - 66.189.83.255 > > To single out one record, look it up with "!xxx", where xxx is the > handle, shown in parenthesis following the name, which comes first. > > The ARIN Registration Services Host contains ONLY Internet > Network Information: Networks, ASN's, and related POC's. > Please use the whois server at rs.internic.net for DOMAIN related > Information and whois.nic.mil for NIPRNET Information. > > >whois \!NETBLK-OXFD-MA-66-189-080(a)whois.arin.net > [whois.arin.net] > Charter Communications (NETBLK-OXFD-MA-66-189-080) > 12405 Powerscourt Dr. > St. Louis, MO 63131 > US > > Netname: OXFD-MA-66-189-080 > Netblock: 66.189.80.0 - 66.189.83.255 > > Coordinator: > Charter Communications (ZC119-ARIN) ipaddressing(a)chartercom.com > 314-965-0555 > > Domain System inverse mapping provided by: > > NS1.CHARTER.COM 24.196.241.11 > NS2.CHARTER.COM 24.213.60.79 > > Record last updated on 12-Dec-2001. > Database last updated on 17-Apr-2002 19:59:25 EDT. > > The ARIN Registration Services Host contains ONLY Internet > Network Information: Networks, ASN's, and related POC's. > Please use the whois server at rs.internic.net for DOMAIN related > Information and whois.nic.mil for NIPRNET Information. > > > > If the results come up with RIPE, redo the query with whois.ripe.net. > If the results come up with APNIC, use whois.apnic.net. > > -- > Charles R. Anderson <cra(a)wpi.edu> / http://angus.ind.wpi.edu/~cra/ > PGP Key ID: 49BB5886 > Fingerprint: EBA3 A106 7C93 FA07 8E15 3AC2 C367 A0F9 49BB 5886 > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

April 19, 2002

Re: [Wlug] Motherboard Monitor

by Charles R. Anderson

lm_sensors? http://freshmeat.net/projects/lm_sensors/?topic_id=862%2C146 On Thu, Apr 18, 2002 at 06:21:48PM -0400, Michael Frysinger wrote: vapier> are there any utilities out there that you guys vapier> know of that work with the sensors that vapier> motherboards have ? i'm looking for something vapier> that can obtain CPU temperature, fan rpm's, vapier> and all that other fun stuff ... at this point i just vapier> want something so i can read those values ... vapier> i dont need any fancy programs really ... vapier> -mike -- Charles R. Anderson <cra(a)wpi.edu> / http://angus.ind.wpi.edu/~cra/ PGP Key ID: 49BB5886 Fingerprint: EBA3 A106 7C93 FA07 8E15 3AC2 C367 A0F9 49BB 5886

April 18, 2002

Re: [Wlug] Motherboard Monitor

by Brian J. Conway

> are there any utilities out there that you guys > know of that work with the sensors that > motherboards have ? i'm looking for something > that can obtain CPU temperature, fan rpm's, > and all that other fun stuff ... at this point i just > want something so i can read those values ... > i dont need any fancy programs really ... Lmsensors is pretty much the standard and consists of kernel modules that are loaded depending upon your chipset and then read by external programs. I used to use a nice dock app to keep track of things, but I've found recent releases of lmsensors to be highly unsafe for SMP use and would dump my kernel when I tried to load or access them, though I might have just misconfigured one of the modules. Brian J. Conway bconway(a)wpi.edu "LINUX is obsolete" - Andrew S. Tanenbaum, creator of Minix - Jan 29, 1992

April 18, 2002

Motherboard Monitor

by Michael Frysinger

are there any utilities out there that you guys know of that work with the sensors that motherboards have ? i'm looking for something that can obtain CPU temperature, fan rpm's, and all that other fun stuff ... at this point i just want something so i can read those values ... i dont need any fancy programs really ... -mike

April 18, 2002

Re: [Wlug] I hate crackers (not the kind you eat)

by jeff

another fun toy for the paranoid is lsof - a really nifty process tool. shows ALL the stuff tunning on your machine and who's running them. maybe check for rootkits and stuff like that. :) but i agree with the other guys...i get tons of http and ftp and even some ssh hits every day. of course, earthlink's network - especially in my ip range - is littered with nimda and code red IIS machines. scary... -jeff

April 18, 2002