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Wireless PCMCIA cards?
by Bill Smith Dec. 6, 2003

Dec. 6, 2003

List, I recently was given a 3com wireless gateway from my employer. I would like to put this baby to good use! :D I have to admit that I am at a loss as to what to do about the NIC, though. I am running RH9 (although this may change soon) on my Gateway Solo 9100 laptop. Sometimes it's running WinMe, but that's only when I want to play games. ;) My question to you all is this: What PCMCIA Wireless (802.11b) cards should I consider? Which ones should I avoid? * I would like to be able to do WEP as painlessly as possible, if I can. * I'm not too worried about range, since my apartment isn't terribly large. There are a couple walls to contend with, though. 8\ On the other hand, the battery on this laptop STINKS, so it will be plugged into the wall around 99.4% of the time that the system is up. Because of that little truth, power consumption is not a big worry. * The gateway I have does 802.11b. I'm not worried about doing 802.11g, just yet. :) Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- William Smith wsmith-at-chezsmith-dot-com Fall River, MA http://www.chezsmith.com Oh, and I just made that up. * TAG! v3.1 *

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Red Hat vs SuSE....
by Bill Smith Dec. 6, 2003

Dec. 6, 2003

okay. I'm sure that I'm not the only one that has been following the goings-on with respect to Red Hat (dropping the Personal Edition in favor of Fedora) and SuSE (being bought by Novell). I am looking for some honest advice here. I am NOT trying to start a flame war or a distro war. I will honestly take suggestions. I am running Aurora Linux on a Sun SPARCstation 10 (it's based on RH7.3) and RH9 on my laptop (Gateway Solo 9100) right now. I have been running Red Hat on my systems since 5.x. given what I have seen in the news, I think it is time to consider another distro, though. Here are my thoughts so far: I am feeling a bit underwhelmed with what i've been reading about Fedora from RH's website and from Aurora's list. I can't say with any level of certainty that I will stay and shift to Fedora. I will likely shift to another distro, though. I'm not considering Debian at the moment because I don't think that it moves quickly enough to keep up with updated stuff. Perhaps that is a flawed perception, but I don't look kindly on installing a baseline (from the CD) and spending a month of Sundays running apt-get to update everything. The last time i played with SuSE was around 1997 or 1998. I got the SuSE disc from CheapBytes so I could play with it. I liked the tools that it had (YaST was just getting ready to shift to YaST2, i think), but I didn't like the fact that many of the libraries were a couple versions behind what my favorite applications (of the day) wanted to find. I am actually favoring SuSE right now, if I can get what i need on CDs. (Andy, do you have any suggestions?) I cut my eye-teeth on Slackware back when Linux was still at 0.99pl10. My Dad sent me a box of floppies that had everything i'd need to get started. I had a blast! I don't know about Slackware now. I have not been following them (at all) since I shifted to RH all those years ago. Gentoo is not even being considered right now. My fastest system is a P2/400, and that is running Win98se. (My wife uses it to play the Sims. Games are all Win* is good for anyway.) My fastest *nix box is my laptop, and that's a P2/266. I don't have the time nor the resources to (re?)compile everything to suit my system. Given these thoughts, the Debian and Gentoo folk should understand that my opinions, as stated above, are open to change. Show me where i misunderstood, and i will thank you. :) I'm just looking for a Distro that will let me install my system with a minimum of pain, let me tweak where I want, when i want, and provides a neat way to keep things up to date (think security, etc.).... I've gotten used to the RPM system of archives, but I prefer tarballs. I have this "thing" about putting anything I add to the system in /usr/local .... :) Thanks for any advice. Best regards, -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- William Smith wsmith-at-chezsmith-dot-com Fall River, MA http://www.chezsmith.com Bad Joke #2 -- Q: How many Real Men does it take to change a lightbulb? A: None. Real Men aren't afraid of the dark. * TAG! v3.1 *

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new mutt user ?'s
by Bill Mills-Curran Dec. 3, 2003

Dec. 3, 2003

I've made the switch from pine to mutt, and I have 2 questions. 1. Why is mutt so slow in sending outgoing email? Pine delivered outgoing email quickly, but mutt seems MUCH slower -- too slow to even consider that there's a performance problem. It seems to be some issue about how it interfaces with sendmail. (I'm using my own machine as an outgoing relay through my web services provider.) 2. I had set up a filter in pine to move "[SPAM]" subject lines to a different folder. Should I try the same thing with mutt, or should I use procmail? (I'm not sure of the syntax.) mutt syntax? I can't find anything that looks right at all. procmail syntax? I already have spamassassin set up: :0fw: spamassassin.lock | /usr/bin/spamc So I think I need to add: :0 * ^Subject: *\[SPAM\] $HOME/Mail/autospam (I'm a newbie with procmail, too.) TIA, Bill

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RE: [Wlug] Router/firewall
by Hemstreet, Jeffrey L (Jeffrey) Dec. 1, 2003

Dec. 1, 2003

I just bought a Dlink DI-514 from Best buy for $30 after rebates (about 2 weeks ago, $70 before). I would suggest either D-link, Linksys, or Netgear. If you watch the Best Buy/OfficeMax/Staples ads, you can end up one for 30-50. The Wireless Access Points themselves are $80. I bought the Dlink because it's not Linksys/Cisco, and I have been VERY happy with it. All 3 of these devices are fully compatable, so you can buy anyones card and connect with the access point. I would go with the 802.11b wireless unless you have a great need for a large wireless network (5+ clients). Where you plan on running lots of traffic over the wireless (i.e., not just web surfing/email) jeff -----Original Message----- From: wlug-bounces(a)mail.wlug.org [mailto:wlug-bounces@mail.wlug.org]On Behalf Of Mike Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2003 10:48 PM To: 'Worcester Linux Users Group' Subject: RE: [Wlug] Router/firewall You already have the Linksys router just ad any wireless access point behind it for a reduced cost. This way you can still have a wired network in your house/office and a wireless network as well. An access point without the "router" portion should be cheaper and can offer you more options in control i.e. rules for the wired intranet and different rules for the wireless intranet. I have an older Proxim unit that works well. It uses a PCMCIA card as well as the remote "users" so it's very upgradeable without the need to change the whole unit. ~ Michael LaPointe ~ HorizonNet Communications ~ Http://allLongdistance.com ~ Mailto:mike@alllongdistance.com > -----Original Message----- > From: wlug-bounces(a)mail.wlug.org > [mailto:wlug-bounces@mail.wlug.org] On Behalf Of Doug Chamberlin > Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2003 10:24 PM > To: Worcester Linux Users Group > Subject: Re: [Wlug] Router/firewall > > > At 11/27/2003 01:38 AM (Thursday), mlong(a)datalong.com wrote: > > >I am looking to replace a Linksys router/firewall with a wireless > >router/firewall > >solution and was wondering what routers others would recommend. > > Err, why not a Linksys wireless router/firewall? > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Ultimate Linux Box
by Andy Stewart Dec. 1, 2003

Dec. 1, 2003

HI everybody, I received this e-mail which I am forwarding to you. Go to the website mentioned in the e-mail and register if you are interested in possibly winning the $5000 Ultimate Linux Box as featured in Linux Journal magazine. I'd be happy to let the winner share with me... :-) Later, Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

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simple debian question
by Gregory Avedissian Nov. 26, 2003

Nov. 26, 2003

Where do I put commands that I want executed immediately after bootup? In suse, I put them in /etc/rc.d/boot.local, but debian has no such directory or file. OK, I lied. Here's the real question. I have two linux installations on the same box (suse 7.2 and debian woody). How do I arrange permissions so that I can access the user's (my) home directory in the other installation without rebooting to that other installation? I notice that when I look at the home directory on the other system, the owner is listed by the user number rather than the name, so what I've done is to create a user in debian whose name is the same as the suse number for the same user, so that user owns the suse user's home directory, then change permissions so all users can read/write that directory. That's pretty ugly, and I have to change permissions when I reboot suse. There's gotta be an easier, cleaner way. Thanks, Greg

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WLUG Meetings in 2004
by Andy Stewart Nov. 26, 2003

Nov. 26, 2003

HI everybody, The schedule of meetings for the first part of the year 2004 is now posted on the WLUG website. I apologize for not strictly adhering to alternate Wed/ Thurs as I tried to hack around a personal commitment in the March/April timeframe. I hope that this doesn't cause anybody too much grief. If so, let me know. Later, Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

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WLUG Meeting: Thurs Dec 12 7:00 PM
by Andy Stewart Nov. 26, 2003

Nov. 26, 2003

Hi everybody, I wanted to send this meeting announcement out early for a change. :-) Our next WLUG meeting will actually be a joint meeting with WLUG and the Worcester County IEEE Computer Society. We'll hold the meeting in Olin Hall room 107 (we've been there before) since it seats more people. We're anticipating a larger than normal turnout for this meeting due to the showing of the documentary entitled "Revolution OS" (on DVD!). This documentary runs for 1 hour and 25 minutes. No expertise in Linux is required to understand this documentary. Revolution OS tells the inside story of the hackers who rebelled against the proprietary software model and Microsoft to create GNU/Linux and the Open Source movement. This documentary features interviews with Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, Bruce Perens, Eric Raymond, Brian Behlendorf, Michael Tiemann, Larry Augustin, Frank Hecker, and Rob Malda. I've just purchased a few items for the raffle which should arrive prior to the meeting date. The items for raffle are: o a copy of the Revolution OS DVD o a Revolution OS tee shirt o a Revolution OS coffee mug o a Revolution OS poster (11"x7") As always, light refreshments will be served at the meeting. After the meeting, we'll adjourn to the Boynton Restaurant for pizza and beer, and all are invited to attend. -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

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Linux System Administration position...
by Andy Stewart Nov. 26, 2003

Nov. 26, 2003

If you are interested in such an opportunity, please send me e-mail and I'll forward the information to you. The job is in Concord, MA. Later, Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

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text mailer recommendation?
by Bill Mills-Curran Nov. 26, 2003

Nov. 26, 2003

I'm a pine user, and I was looking at the release notes for fedora core 1. Pine is not included due to license and "long term maintenance" issues. I've enjoyed using pine for 8 or more years, and I really like it. I'm disappointed that it won't be continued under Red Hat. (I know I could install it myself. Maybe that's the right answer.) Although I'm not enthusiastic about switching mailers, maybe it's time. My needs are pretty basic: Text-based because I work across a WAN when I access home email from work & vice-versa. Connection to xemacs & the gnuclient interface. (I wrote a perl script to do it.) It would be nice if my address book ported to the replacement mailer. Interface to LDAP address book server. Any suggestions about replacements or just building pine myself? Are there really problems that make it unattractive? TIA, Bill

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