Aria2 download manager for Buffalo NAS LS-WVL

source link

1. Existing Buffalo NAS version is 1.64Mod
Go to http://forum.buffalo.nas-central.org/ to update 

2. Install Optware

cd /tmp

wget

http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/cs08q1armel/cross/stable/ls-mvkw-bootstrap_1.2-7_arm.xsh

sh ./ls-mvkw-bootstrap_1.2-7_arm.xsh

mv /etc/init.d/optware /etc/init.d/rc.optware

ipkg update

3. Install aria2
ipkg install aria2

4. Running aria2 (take note of the download location, adapt it to yours)
aria2c --event-poll=select --enable-rpc --rpc-listen-all=true --rpc-allow-origin-all --dir=/mnt/disk1/volume1/downloads --file-allocation=none -c -D

5. Running aria2 WEB UI
Go to https://github.com/ziahamza/webui-aria2 and download the zip file.
Open the index.thm file and configure it to your nas IP.

Fix MBR after removing UBUNTU from Windows/Ubuntu Dual boot

After removing the Ubuntu partitions under Windows Disk Management, the OS will not be able to boot up. There is a need to fix the MBR (remove GRUB).




Get a Windows 7/8 bootable disk/flash drive, then choose repair option.
Go to Command Prompt and type the following:

bootrec/fixmbr
bootrec/fixboot

Then reboot your computer.

Done! That's how i remove ubuntu from my laptop. :-)


Or this alternative

• Download and burn the Super Grub Disk ISO to a CD.
• Boot from it.
• Select the Choose Language & HELP :-)) entry.
• Select the English entry.
• Select the Windows entry.
• Select the Fix Boot of Windows entry.
• Reboot once the process is complete.

Source link

Putty CLI

putty.exe -ssh userid@hostname -pw password -m c:\temp\putty.txt

This will auto run the command stated in the putty.txt file.

Multiple SSID using Tomato USB firmware

 credits goes to the thread owner:
source

"
You often happens that someone such as a friend wants to take a moment out of your internet? Administration wifi password it is not safe, given that it receives from unlimited access to our entire network LAN (often U.S.). Skipping the fact that often "for himself" does not limit the speed of internet access. At the end I will add that the culprit can easily (often unconsciously) zawirusować other computers on our network. And what if it is a stranger to us? It's all something to think about and reflect on the time I do not need to network "demilitarized," or limited confidence. In this tutorial, we'll call her hospitality network.

Here's a quick tutorial showing how to set up the guest wifi network under the assumption that:
- Br0 -> LAN port 1 +2 +3 +4 + 1 by addressing SSID 192.168.1.1/24 DHCP server enabled
- Br1 -> SSID 2 for guests with addressing 192.168.2.1/24 DHCP server enabled


Step 1 The new bridge

The Basic-> LAN doing a new bridge br1 192.168.2.x, DHCP enabled (192.168.1.x br0 already have as default). I suggest the lease time set relatively low, eg 60 minutes. In addition, position the DHCP range on up to 5 devices. Rather more visitors at a time to use your network will not be ... is not it?




Step 2 New VLAN

The Advanced-> VLAN VID doing a new example (3) and assign to it LAN1 bridge (br1). VLAN does not have to include any of the LAN ports. Important to exist. When you press Save router will reboot.




Step 3 New SSID

The Advanced-> Virtual Wireless Overview tab to add a new interface wl0.1 example, I set the broadcast (SSID) and plug in to the newly created br1 network.



After pressing the "Add" automatically jump to a bookmark wl0.1 to further configure a new wireless network.



Set the encryption on it (or if you do not want it to be an open network) and press the "Overview". We will return to the main tab. If everything is correct, click "SAVE".


Step 4 Verification

We can check the Advanced-> VLAN or our wlan'y are correctly assigned to the different bridge, Bridge eth1 to LAN (br0) and Bridge wl0.1 to LAN1 (br1).




Council

1) If you want to block a br1 mapping Samba shares (eg usb drive plugged in), we add the Samba File Sharing-Custom Configuration hosts allow = 192.168.1., Or authorized for use only Samba br0 ip class

2) The newly created `a WLAN can not be removed (not the GUI). You can only disable it. You can decipher in the Notes. 
" 

Using Google Calendar, Thunderbird and Lighting to full effect

Using Google Calendar, Thunderbird and Lighting to full effect

---

One of the best apps available on Windows is MS Outlook, as a complete suite of apps to organize your life, with Mail, to do lists and a calendar application, which allows for scheduling of meetings, and your time, which will communicate happily with your Windows Mobile or Smartphone Device. Allowing you to know what you are doing while both at your PC or away from it. However, being a commercial application, this can be quite a pricey solution, especially, if your are looking for these features to manage yourself, or maybe just a few others.
However it is possible to archive similar results using Windows, or Linux for free.
Being the owner of an Orange M600 Smartphone, and a Linux user, I spent a long time looking over the Internet, as the best way to get the information shared between my Desktop and my PDA phone. and although there are projects out there , SynCE springs to mind, they are not easy to setup.
So I thought i would look at a different way of resolving the issue.. As always, this is not the only way, its just my way.
Issue

• Cross Platform Calendar Connectivity Windows, Linux, Windows Mobile
• Easy to use

How I managed it.

The key to my resolution is Google Calendar, which can be accessed easily enough, especially if you already have a gMail account. If however you don’t have a gMail account, you can create your self a Google Account here, which will give you access to the Calendar functionality. Its pretty self explanatory. Once this is setup, its time to look at your mail client, obviously you could just use google calendar, via the web browser in Windows or Linux, but it doesn’t display to well on a PDA.. Also the aim here, is to emulate some of the functionality of Outlook, which allows you to have access to multiple mail accounts in one location.

The Email Client

The software I use is Thunderbird, Its my preferred Mail client, as i use both POP and IMAP based mail accounts, this mail client doesn’t however come with any built in calendar function, which is a reason, so many people berate it, and state that “calendar functionality is required before this app can move forward”. One of Thunderbirds strengths however, is, like its cousin Firefox, it works on a plugin system. That is, people have written third party modules, which can be used to enhance the functionality of Thunderbird. And I use 2 of these pluginfrom has an old version, Try downloading Lightening from

Lightning Plugin for Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/
Google Calendar Provider: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/4631

Quote:

Note: The version of the google provider at this time, requires Lightning version 0.7 or higher, and may not work with the one in the Gutsy repository under add/remove, so use the link above to download the latest version.

Quite simply, Lightning provides a calendar interface for Thunderbird, its part of the Mozilla Sunbird project, and helps provide the Schedule interface which standalone Thunderbird is missing.

Setup The Plugins

The magic here, however is the Provider for Google Calendar plugin, which, unlike just adding the necessary links to Thunderbird, to access Google Calendard, not only provides read access, it provides write access as well..
Install both plugins, and restart Thunderbird, you will then be shown, a Calendar in the left pane, this calendar has 3 tabs Agenda, Todo and Calendars. To setup Google Calendar, click on the Calendar tab.
Click on the New Button, in the Calendar Tab, and you will be given a choice, you need to select, On the Network. Click on Next, there is an option for Google Calendar, select this.
In the Text bar under the Google Calendar you will need to enter the Link URL which allows you to write to your Account, you can find this, buy logging into the Google Calendar account you created earlier.

Create a new Calendar, or if you already have a celedar created, click on the down arrow next to the calendar. And click on Share this Calendar.
You will be taken to a new page, where you will need to click on Calendar Details on the top of this page.

Then Select the XML button, next to the Private Address, this will allow you the read/write access to the calendar, if you need read only access, or wish to share calendards with read only access, use the XML button next to the Public Tab.

When you click on the XML button a URL will be displayed (i’ve edited the whole strin below for security reasons) Copy this URL , and paste it into the Thunderbird Text box, then click on Next.

Give the Calendar a name which you will use in Thunderbird to identify this calendar, and choose a colour, this is the colour which will identify your Google Calendar, if you are using multiple calendars. Then CLick on Next and then Finish.
You will then see your calendar listed as available. you should now be able to add an event in either Thunderbird, or the wEb Interface, and both will update to show the events. You can set reminders, repeat events, and all the usual type of Schedule details.

Sync the PDA

The next step is to sync the Calendar with the PDA, this is done using the GMobileSync app for Windows Mobile or Smartphones. it requires .NET CF 2.0 which is available for download from the site, and provides not only read access to they Google Calendar, it also provides write access. This means as well as having PDA based access to your existing schedule, you can provide updates from your PDA to your calendar too. The application requires your login ID and password for the Google Calendar site. and works as far as i’m aware over both Wifi and GPRS networks, however i will confess, with UK prices as they are for Data over GPRS i’ve only tried Wifi. The Sync is a manual operation, and not automatic (yet)

Firefox most useful and common keyboard hotkeys

Ctrl-W or Ctrl-F4 (Close Tab)
Instead of click red icon on the tab, just pres Ctrl-w.

Ctrl-Tab (Move to next Tab)
Move to the next tab use Ctrl-tab without using your mouse.

Ctrl-Shift-Tab (Move to previous Tab)
Move to the previous tab…

Ctrl-Shift-T (Undo Close Tab)
You can visit closed tab again…

Alt-D (Select Address Bar)
Alt-d and type the address..

Ctrl-K (Select Search Bar)
Like Alt-d, but this select search bar.

Ctrl-D (Bookmark current tab)
I think most of you known this hotkey

Ctrl-Shift-D (Bookmark all tabs)
Tired bookmark all tabs one by one, try this hotkey.

Ctrl-F (Search Word)
Maybe this is the most keyboard hotkeys that i used. It is very useful to find a word in a webpage.

Alternative to Microsoft Office

Not wanting to be tie down with paying astrocious amount of money on Microsoft Office license Fee?

Well i guess the only reputable challenger would be OpenOffice.



The latest release version is Open Office 3.0.

In the new version: native Mac OS X compatibility, support for version 1.2 of the OpenDocument format, and compatibility with Microsoft's OOXML format.

The latter feature is particularly useful, given that Office 2007 saves .docx files by default - something that's confused many a hapless user as they tried to send stuff to people using older versions of the office suite.

Here's the link to it.

http://www.openoffice.org

Alternative to Microsoft Project

This blog consist of numerous opensource project management softwares.
http://open-source-project-management-tools.blogspot.com/


e.g. Open Workbench, TaskJuggler, GanttProject

Open Workbench Screenshot


TaskJuggler Screenshot


GanttProject Screenshot

How to run PHP 4 and PHP 5 at the same time on Apache for Windows

A great article for running both PHH4 and PHP5 at the same time. :)

Article Source

"

Whilst the majority of web applications are hosted on Linux, most developers use Windows. Installing Apache, PHP, and MySQL on your Windows PC is recommended and has become much easier. However, few developers can test their pages in PHP 4 and PHP 5 on the same machine at the same time - but it is possible…

Environment overview

This article will not describe every step in detail, but it should give you enough information to create your own multi-PHP web development environment:

1. We’ll define the domains http://test/ and http://test4/. Both will navigate to the same php files located in C:\WebPages\


2. PHP 5 will be installed as an Apache SAPI module and will be used for pages in the domain http://test/.


3. PHP 4 will be installed as a CGI binary. PHP files will be executed using PHP 4 by changing the domain to http://test4/ or accessing via port 81, e.g. http://test:81/

Note that the latest versions of PHP 5 run very slowly if you use the CGI binary. Defining it as a module solves this issue.

Installation ingredients

The freeware/open source software you’ll need is:

• Apache HTTP server for Windows. Stick with version 2.0.x - although 2.2 is available, PHP doesn’t work with it yet.
  


• The latest PHP 4 and PHP 5 Windows binaries. Although installers are available, I’d recommend you download the ZIP packages.


• Optionally, a copy of the Windows MySQL database.


• A decent text editor - I recommend Notepad++.
  

Both Apache and MySQL provide Windows installers, so just run them. All going well, you should then be able to navigate to http://localhost/ in your browser.

Extract PHP 4 to C:\php\php4 and PHP 5 to C:\php\php5. Follow the instructions for configuring your php.ini file, but ignore the Apache setup details for now - we’ll cover that below. One setting that may catch you out is extension_dir - for PHP 5 use:
extension_dir = "C:\php\php5\ext"

and for PHP 4 use:
extension_dir = "C:\php\php4\extensions\"

You can now uncomment any extensions you wish to use, e.g. extension=php_mysql.dll in PHP 5’s php.ini.

Windows system setup

Now all the files are in place, we’ll define the local domains test and test4. This is done by editing the hosts file, located in %WINDOWS%/system32/drivers/etc. Add the following lines:
127.0.0.1 test
127.0.0.1 test4

You can update your system using the command ‘nbtstat -R’, but you’ll need a reboot soon so don’t worry about it!

Now go to the Control Panel, open System, click the Advanced tab, and click Environment Variables. In the System variables section, click “Path” in the list followed by Edit. Add “;C:\php\php4;C:\php\php5″ to the end of the Variable value line.

Now reboot to make sure the settings are applied.

Configuring Apache

The Apache configuration file is normally located at %PROGRAMS%\Apache Group\Apache2\conf\httpd.conf You’ll need to locate and edit the following settings.

Set the server to listen on port 80 (the default) and port 81:
Listen 80
Listen 81

Ensure your root folder is set correctly (note the forward slash):
DocumentRoot "C:/WebPages"

Add php files to the directory index, e.g.
DirectoryIndex index.html index.php

Just before the Virtual Hosts section, define PHP 5 as a SAPI module:
# PHP5 module
LoadModule php5_module “c:/php/php5/php5apache2.dll”
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
PHPIniDir “C:/php/php5″

Finally, we’ll define the localhost, test, and test4 virtual domain settings for ports 80 and 81. Where PHP 4 is required (test4 domain or port 81), it is defined as a CGI binary that will override the PHP5 module.

NameVirtualHost *:80
NameVirtualHost *:81

# localhost:80 - PHP5
<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot C:/WebPages
</VirtualHost>

# localhost:81 - PHP4
<VirtualHost *:81>

DocumentRoot C:/WebPages
ScriptAlias /php/ “c:/php/php4/”
Action application/x-httpd-php4 “/php/php.exe”
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php4 .php
</VirtualHost>

# test:80 - PHP5
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName test
DocumentRoot C:/WebPages
</VirtualHost>

# test:81 - PHP4
<VirtualHost *:81>
ServerName test
DocumentRoot C:/WebPages
ScriptAlias /php/ “c:/php/php4/”
Action application/x-httpd-php4 “/php/php.exe”
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php4 .php

</VirtualHost>

# test4:80 - PHP4
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName test4
DocumentRoot C:/WebPages
ScriptAlias /php/ “c:/php/php4/”
Action application/x-httpd-php4 “/php/php.exe”
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php4 .php
</VirtualHost>

# test4:81 - PHP4
<VirtualHost *:81>
ServerName test4
DocumentRoot C:/WebPages
ScriptAlias /php/ “c:/php/php4/”
Action application/x-httpd-php4 “/php/php.exe”
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php4 .php
</VirtualHost>

You’ll now need to restart Apache. It may be best to use “net stop apache2″ followed by “net start apache2″ on the command line. This will allow you to see any configuration error messages, but several other helpful tools are provided in the Apache program group.

Testing your environment

Create a new file phpinfo.php in C:\WebPages\. Edit the file and add the line:
<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Save it, then visit the following addresses in your browser:

• http://test/phpinfo.php - should show PHP 5


• http://test4/phpinfo.php - should show PHP 4


• http://test:81/phpinfo.php - should show PHP 4

And that’s all there is to it!

Obviously, you can now define further virtual domains - perhaps one for every website you create. "

T r u e C r y p t - Free open-source disk encryption

A very good and reliable Free open-source disk encryption.

Source Link: http://www.truecrypt.org/

Main Features:

• Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
  
  
• Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.
  
  
• Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).
  
  
• Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.
  
  
• Provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password:
  
  1) Hidden volume (steganography) and hidden operating system.
  
  2) No TrueCrypt volume can be identified (volumes cannot be distinguished from random data).
  
  
• Encryption algorithms: AES-256, Serpent, and Twofish. Mode of operation: XTS.

  Further information regarding features of the software may be found in the documentation.

Resize HTML Forms In Firefox

Great Firefox add-on

Article Source Link

"

Some web developers like to squeeze small html forms into their websites which are uncomfortable to use for the visitors of the website. Imagine a comment form that displays three lines that each can take only a few words. It’s problematic to write a comment of a hundred words or so in that box and nearly impossible to proofread it once you are done.

Text Area Resizer And Mover comes to the rescue; At least for Firefox users. The Firefox extension makes it possible to resize virtually any html form on the Internet. This is done in an uncomplicated manner.

Once a html form has been located that the user wants to resize he simply presses the right-mouse button after moving the mouse into the form. The mouse pointer changes to a resize symbol and the html form can be resized by moving the mouse.

The default html form at Ghacks for commenting on an article:

The altered html form at Ghacks:

It is possible to make it smaller or bigger although most users will probably stick with the latter. Text Area html forms are those that usually span across multiple rows. The extension cannot be used to increase the size of the Google Search form but as you can see in the images above it is possible to change comment forms and the like easily.

The forms only expand to the right and bottom of the screen but never to the left or upwards.

"

How to build and customize your own PBX with Asterisk

A very interesting guide to build your very own PBX system and with the lowest cost.

Article Source

"

This article demonstrates how easy it is to roll your own PBX in about an hour or two. Provided that the instructions herein are followed carefully, you too should be able to set up your very own switchboard/PBX system and all for the cost of the target hardware of your choice.

What is a PBX and why set one up?
A PBX or “Private Branch Exchange” is like a miniature phone company/switch in your own office/house. The PBX is responsible for making sure calls are routed properly. Situation: when Joe wants to dial Suzy in the office down the hall or downstairs in the TV room, he just picks up the phone in his room/office and dials a local extension just a few digits long. If he wants to call someone across town or around the world, he dials an “outside line” prefix (usually a 9) plus the desired number and the PBX routes his call to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) just like any other dialed call. Also, if Joe has four teenaged kids, instead of answering their calls and acting as the house receptionist, he can just setup a menu that allows callers to dial the person they want and then needs not be disturbed.

Most people are familiar with PBXs because they’ve used them in an office environment, but what if you wanted to use one in your house? Enter Asterisk.

The beauty of Asterisk (Asterisk.org) is that it is free and offers all this functionality right out of the box. Asterisk is a software implementation of a hardware PBX and can run on a variety of hardware platforms. The features and benefits of owning an Asterisk PBX are numerous, and seemingly only limited by the imagination of the person who sets up and uses an Asterisk PBX. Listed on the project page are just some of the many features that can be implemented. I encourage anyone to explore these features as it will give you some idea for setting up your system in a way that makes it more than worth your while.

Prepare for setting up your PBX
There are many ways of setting up an Asterisk PBX, with some being easier than others. The easiest manner in which to set up a fully functional Asterisk PBX is to download and install a precompiled/tuned distribution such as Trixbox, PBX in a flash, Asterisk NOW, etc. Just take your pick of those. These are great if you don’t care to learn about how your PBX operates or need to do a mindless “click and drool” install. The problem with precompiled asterisk distributions is, while they are simple, they are not as flexible and extensible as a home-brewed Asterisk installation from the source code. When you install one of these “distros”, it is quite often that important decisions are already made for you, and you must work within the framework of the distribution to keep the box “happy”. When you roll your own Asterisk from the sources, you get more say in what goes into the build and how it is customized/extended at the expense of a slightly more complicated planning and installation process. However, it’s not as hard as you might think and it’s quite worth it in the end to “roll your own”.

Asterisk installed from the source code enables you to pick your choice of underlying OS (Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandrake, SuSE, etc) and also fine tune the installation for your OS environment and your hardware for best possible performance. In this article I will cover the steps needed to install Asterisk for the Ubuntu Linux operating system. This article assumes you know how to do a minimal command line only base system install of Ubuntu Linux. You certainly don’t want to run a GUI on your Asterisk box as it would consume unnecessary resources.

Step 1: prepare a minimal Ubuntu machine, wiht a command line only install

Step 2: download source packages
After you’ve prepared your minimal Ubuntu machine, you will need to download a few source packages from Digium (the maker of Asterisk). Please perform the following steps on your command line as the root user. (NOTE: on Ubuntu systems, the root account password needs to be set in order to login as root) To set your root password, log in as your regular user account you created during installation and type the following commands:

sudo passwd root

when asked for your password enter your regular USER password, hit ENTER, followed by the desired root password and then hit ENTER, confirm the desired password once more and then you’re done.

Logged in as the root user we’ll download the needed packages by running the following script in your terminal screen. If you are familiar with Putty, you can also do this remotely via a windows desktop or SSH into the box as root from any other Linux/Mac machine.

NOTE: we will be using Asterisk 1.4 NOT 1.6 as 1.6 is the unstable release.

Source packages needed from Digium:

asterisk-1.4.21.2
zaptel-1.4.11
libpri-1.4.5
asterisk-addons-1.4.7
asterisk-gui

I have written a script file to simplify the process on an Ubuntu 8.04 system. Copy and paste the following code into a new file in a terminal window and save the file as “astsetup.sh”. Then when you save the file, make it executable by running this command: chmod +x astsetup.sh.

——> BEGIN COPYING CODE TO NEW FILE
######## Prepare Build Environment

apt-get install build-essential speex libspeex-dev gsm-utils \
libgsm1-dev libgsmme-dev libgsm1 libgsm-tools \
libncurses5-dev ncurses-term linux-headers-2.6.24-19-generic \
libncurses5-dbg doxygen subversion

######## Download Digium (Asterisk) Source Packages

wget http://downloads.digium.com/pub/asterisk/releases/asterisk-1.4.21.2.tar.gz
wget http://downloads.digium.com/pub/zaptel/releases/zaptel-1.4.11.tar.gz
wget http://downloads.digium.com/pub/libpri/releases/libpri-1.4.5.tar.gz
wget http://downloads.digium.com/pub/asterisk/releases/asterisk-addons-1.4.7.tar.gz
svn co http://svn.digium.com/svn/asterisk-gui/trunk asterisk-gui

######## Extract all packages for building

tar -zxvf asterisk-1.4.21.2.tar.gz && tar -zxvf zaptel-1.4.11.tar.gz \
&& tar -zxvf asterisk-addons-1.4.7.tar.gz && tar -zxvf libpri-1.4.5.tar.gz

######## Begin Building and Installing Source Packages

cd libpri-1.4.5
make
make install
cd ../zaptel-1.4.11
make clean
./configure
make menuselect
make install
make config
cd ../asterisk-1.4.21.2
make clean
./configure
make menuselect
make install
make samples
make progdocs
cd ../asterisk-addons-1.4.7
make clean
./configure
make menuselect
make install
make samples
cd ../asterisk-gui
./configure
make
make install
make samples
cd /root
mkdir packages
mv *.gz /root/packages/.
echo INSTALLATION COMPLETE PLEASE CONFIGURE WEB GUI

———-> END COPYING CODE TO NEW FILE

One final step remains in order to bring the GUI up and running. We must edit two files:

/etc/asterisk/http.conf and
etc/asterisk/manager.conf.

/etc/asterisk/http.conf:

[general]
enabled=yes
enablestatic=yes ; without this, you can only send AMI commands, not display
; html content
bindaddr=0.0.0.0 ; address you want the Asterisk HTTP server to respond on
bindport=9000 ; port you want the Asterisk HTTP server to respond on
prefix=asterisk ; will form part of the URI, similar to a directory name

/etc/asterisk/manager.conf:

[general]
enabled=yes ; you may already have AMI enabled if you are using it for other things
webenabled=yes ; this enables the interaction between the Asterisk web server and AMI
[admin] ; This is the manager username. You can name the user whatever you want
secret = password
read = system,call,log,verbose,command,agent,user,config
write = system,call,log,verbose,command,agent,user,config

———–

That’s it! Restart your PBX server and point your browser to:

http://ip-of-pbx:9000/asterisk/static/config/cfgbasic.html (where IP of PBX is the IP address of your PBX box)

You should then see the web GUI and should be able to logon and start creating extensions (users).

If you don’t see the GUI after restarting your PBX, login as root and just start Asterisk by typing asterisk on the command line. You can also set it to start at system boot by adding it to your /etc/rc.local startup script. Also, if you have an account with a VOIP service provider, you can setup your PBX to be the “gateway” to your office/home with ease.

Asterisk is very flexible, scalable, and limitless in its scope of use, so there is no way I can tell you everything that can be done with this amazing piece of software. It’s use is not just limited to communication and phone management and there are thousands of hacks that can be applied to Asterisk. Some of them are:

• Home Automation using X10 addressable switches
• Remote home/office alarm/lock control
• Remote environmental/audio monitoring
• Conference Rooms
• E-mail reader (text to speech access to any email account)
• Remote Dictation
• Voice Recognition
• Ability to run system commands by phone - Remote Control

Additional Materials
Because of the power and limitless flexibility of Asterisk, there is no available text that comes close to covering the broad scope of this software. The best guide I can recommend is the O’Reilly self-titled book “Asterisk”. That is a good step to begin to understand much of the power available to this platform. I would suggest this as the first guide to begin to learn additional features.

Phones and Extension Types
Asterisk supports any standards based SIP or IAX compatible voip phone. One of the best well known suppliers is www.voipsupply.com and they sell a wide range of voip phones that work with asterisk. Softphones and VOIP ATAs (Analog Telephone Adaptors) are also another way to interface with your Asterisk system. With an ATA you can turn your existing analog corded or cordless phones into VOIP phones. I have an old Western Electric Model 302 from the late 1920s that is now setup as a voip extension and it is a ROTARY phone! NOTE: Not all voip ata units understand pulse dialing, so be sure before you buy if you intend to use a rotary phone for nostalgic purposes. Good deals for voip phones and voip ATAs can be had online at various sites, but don’t overlook the possibilities that may exist at your local swapfest. Near where I live, MIT holds a swapfest during the summer season on the 3rd Sunday of the month and I’ve scored some real bargains there! Look for swapfests in your area, or even check Craig’s List.

Voip Service Providers/PSTN
Asterisk can connect with the world either directly with a voip service provider that allows a “byod” (Bring Your Own Device) plan, or directly with the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) via a Digium interface card. The Digium card is not required to interface with a voip provider over the internet though. Some voip providers that welcome Asterisk (and other devices) are: Broadvoice and Teliax. If you want to interface with Ma Bell, you might be interested in Digium’s line of cards. These can interface with standard POTS PSTN lines and provide outbound calling from extensions on your Asterisk system. Most of these cards feature built-in echo cancellation for best call quality. If you’re a business user, you can connect Asterisk to a T1/E1 or PRI digital telco offering via their digital cards.

Community Support
Asterisk is supported by Digium and the Asterisk Open Source community. There are numerous resources available for the taking on the internet that allow you to extend the flexibility and functionality of your Asterisk PBX. www.voip-info.org is one of many public voip forums where a wealth of information is available. Available resources can be anything from example configurations, scripts, feature enhancements, function modules, advice, and troubleshooting.

The intended purpose of this feature was to simplify a nice and lean sourcecode installation of Asterisk onto a pupular Ubuntu (or any other Linux) host system and to ease the new user or experimenter in wading into a huge pool of possibilities that are only limited by the imagination of the user. The door is open, just take your step through!

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Free and Robust Inventory / Asset Software

After surfing around for a free and robust Inventory / Asset software.

As the list of features is too many, i'm not going to list them all out here.
Do check out the respective sites for the features. :P


Do update me if you have any good recommendation as well!





Here are some of the great softwares that i found:
1) Open-AudIT


2) OCS Inventory NG



3) GLPI

Open Source Google Analytics Alternative

Found a nice article on an Open Source Google Analytics Alternative

Article Source Link
"

Google Analytics may be free, but it is still based on proprietary technology - which means you only ever get reports on the things that Google thinks are necessary and some of those reports are aimed at people using Google's other services (managing campaigns on AdWords, for example). Further, using Google Analytics means that you're tied to Google's TOS. Enter Piwik, which aims to be an open source alternative to Google Analytics. It is closely affiliated with OpenX, the open source ad server alternative to Google Ad Manager [Ed: which we just started using on RWW].

While OpenX has been around a while and has good traction, Piwik is fairly new and under the radar. It surfaced first as PHPMyVisites and is only at version 0.1.5, which is a sign that it is still for the highly committed.

Piwik originates from France and almost all the attention so far has been from outside USA. It seems to be catching on in Japan and China, as well as in Europe. The team responsible for Piwik seems to be made up of interns from big companies such as Amazon, Intel and even Google.

You need PHP and MySQL to use Piwik, which is no problem for techies but any widespread adoption will need a hosted version. Some entrepreneur is likely to offer that. Plug-ins to WordPress and other blogging platforms will also be needed, but cannot be that hard.

Open source products usually get traction, even when they are raw, when the alternative is too expensive or restrictive. Google Analytics is free, so it is hard to see rapid adoption by bloggers and small media companies. It is possible that Piwik will get better traction in companies that already use one of the expensive web analytics services from companies such as Coremetrics, Omniture and Visual Sciences/Websidestory.

Larger companies may have some pause for concern before switching to Google Analytics, because of the service's Terms of Service. An analyst in the IT department is likely to point out two clauses (yes big companies DO read this stuff):

"2. FEES AND SERVICES . Subject to Section 15 herein, the Service is provided without charge to You for up to 5 million pageviews per month per account, and if You have an active Adwords campaign in good standing, the Service is provided without charge to You without a pageview limitation.

Google may change its fees and payment policies for the Service from time to time including but not limited to the addition of costs for geographic data, the importing of cost data from search engines, or other fees charged to Google or its wholly-owned subsidiaries by 3rd party vendors for the inclusion of data in the Service reports."

So, don't go above 5 million page views without paying something to Google via AdWords. That may make one a bit uneasy, but it is the "Google may change its fees and payment policies" that will have both IT and Legal aiming to nix the deal.

Then a bit later on you get:

"6. INFORMATION RIGHTS AND PUBLICITY . Google and its wholly owned subsidiaries may retain and use, subject to the terms of its Privacy Policy (located at http://www.google.com/privacy.html , or such other URL as Google may provide from time to time), information collected in Your use of the Service. Google will not share information associated with You or your Site with any third parties unless Google (i) has Your consent; (ii) concludes that it is required by law or has a good faith belief that access, preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of Google, its users or the public; or (iii) provides such information in certain limited circumstances to third parties to carry out tasks on Google's behalf (e.g., billing or data storage) with strict restrictions that prevent the data from being used or shared except as directed by Google . When this is done, it is subject to agreements that oblige those parties to process such information only on Google's instructions and in compliance with this Agreement and appropriate confidentiality and security measures."

In short, they have the right to use your data. We have lived for a long time in a world where Microsoft and others charged for the software and kept it under a tight IP control, but did not try to take any use of the data. Google reversed that. Google is happy to let you use anything for free, as long as they get to use your data. That is OK for most individuals and small businesses, but totally unacceptable for large companies.

Piwik is working hard to be developer-friendly, not just relying on open source. They claim 4 big advantages:

1. Open API
2. Plug in architecture
3. Data abstraction layer
4. Customizable dashboard

But the nub of the issue for most big companies will be the data ownership issue. That is why Piwik is really a Google Analytics alternative, even if they will see few firms switching from GA initially. IT groups, under pressure to cut costs, will look at Google Analytics as an alternative to their current analytics software and reject the option based on TOS restrictions. Then some bright spark will Google the term "open source alternative google analytics" and see Piwik on top of the organic listings.

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Firefox 3 and Java

After upgrading from firefox 2 to firefox 3, you might encounter some java issues such as applet not loading.

Try the below steps to resolve it:

1) Go to Control Panel
2) Double click on 'JAVA'
3) Click on 'Delete Files'


4) Click 'OK'.


5) Restart 'Firefox' and try again.

Do update me if it's not working for you. :)

How to check Mysql version No.?

connect via the command line, and run this query:


select version();

Open Source Alternative to Mecury SiteScope?

Looking for an Open Source Alternative to Mecury SiteScope?

Nagios is a the answer. Personally, i have not try it yet but i will do it in a few weeks or so.

Do wait for the updates. :)