I found an interesting site the other day (forwarded to me from a colleague found here –> WizCrafts | I also found another COOL continent (then by country) IP block .htaccess download site that has block and allow IP’s here –> CountryIPBlocks.net). I decided to implement their IP block technique on my CPanel server. I happen to host on my own CPanel server (http://flophost.com if you’re interested ;) ) and as a result I have ssh access to it BUT as most CPanel hosting providers go you likely won’t!
Note, I had problems actually implementing a “global” IP block policy because of the way CPanel operates in conjunction with IPTables on my server (or so I suspect!). If I had a separate firewall I could better implement a global IP block (because it would be separate from CPanel) but I don’t for now so I’m encouraging all to follow these steps to implement the IP block not only with sites I’m using but for others who host on CPanel servers. If you don’t use CPanel you could likely tweak your .htaccess file in the same way but you’d have to figure out if that’s how your web hosting panel does things and if it doesn’t this .htaccess method should still work anyway…try it and see.
Here we go!
Download my example file here (note it’s a text file) –> .htaccess example
Edit the text file to meet your needs, maybe you want to delete, add or modify the list? Check WizCrafts site for updates!
Backup your original .htaccess file, rename it to something like .htaccess.original or download it to a safe place just in case (I recommend downloading it for safe keeping and taking it off your server EVEN THOUGH you’ll get an error if trying to view it; it’s good practice to keep things tidy!)
In the “Wizcrafts_htaccess.txt” file you’ll need to edit just a few lines to match your CPanel installation
AuthName YOURDOMAIN.COM<–GOESHERE<–also delete the “GOESHERE” part :)
Now upload this to your “public_html” folder, rename the “Wizcrafts_htaccess.txt” file to just .htaccess and look at your IP Deny Manager in CPanel.
* Troubleshooting, if you get an “Internal Server Error” like I did it turned out to be my comments bleeding over into being uncommented. I had a line like this…
# My cool comment, I’m blocking xyz IP’s from
such and so country
# Next comment would come along
then it would bleed over into uncommented land
Turns out that will throw the server into error because it doesn’t understand or know what “such and so country” is SO if you have an “Internal Server Error” after you implement this look over your file and make sure your comments aren’t wrapping!
I am posting what might seem “trivial” information sometimes but believe it or not some people need the help AND I often use my own site as a source of documentation so if you’re wondering how to install Flash Player 10 on Ubuntu here’s all you need to know…
Open a terminal / command shell
Type: sudo -i
Type in your password, this will get you root access
Type in: wget http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_10_linux.deb
Type in: dpkg -i install_flash_player_10_linux.deb
Open your web browser to this link and see the fruits of your labor.
The Sharp AR-M237 or other Sharp models might give you a bit of grief if you use Linux or use a Linux CUPS print server with the pleasant error “PostScript printing not licensed for this printer” printed on the page from a Windows host. I was trying to print both from an Ubuntu Linux host and print from Windows via the CUPS print server on a Linux host.
How do you fix it? I bet you can’t WAIT for the fix right? :)
Linux Hosts:
I did search a bit on this one and I came up with a fix for the Linux host but I forgot where I found the reference (sorry to my source). From your Linux host do this – instead of picking the actual Sharp driver for Ubuntu slide up to Generic category and try using a PCL 5x or 6x driver (x standing for any version of the number, example 5e, etc) then select “Generic PCL…CUPS+Gutenprint…Simplified…”, it’s the (recommended) option.
Now your Linux host shouldn’t have a problem printing to the Sharp!
CUPS:
So – if you have a CUPS print server you’ll need to do something slightly different. For your driver you want to stick to the Generic category but pick “Generic GDI Printer Foomatic/gdi“. Your Linux host will NOT be able to print itself but it will act as the proper conduit for a Windows GDI print driver from Sharp or the other Sharp PCL drivers.
Note: I’ve had some luck using a web gui for CUPS / SAMBA called SWAT, check it out – you might like it!
I just purchased a Zotac small form factor PC. I mistakenly thought this would also record TV for me, what was I thinking? It must have been that second glass of wine clouding my judgment! After trying to get Linux MCE working on it I decided to just scrap that idea because it wasn’t working out, the KDE interface is clunky, I had video problems on my Vizio 26″ TV where the desktop was stretched too far on the edges and I couldn’t figure out how to easily reposition the start menu. Not only that, Linux MCE’s latest release blew up my networking and I couldn’t easily configure it to get back onto my network. It was truly a mess and I don’t consider myself a Linux Newb anymore, I’m not an expert but I’m savvy but trying to figure out everything Linux MCE blew up on my Zotac would have just taken too much time!
So with the recommendation of the posts on NewEgg about this machine I am giving Ubuntu and XBMC a shot. I haven’t actually gotten to the XBMC part yet because I ran into an issue with allowing Ubuntu 10.04 to share files, also – XBMC’s apt-get install procedure isn’t working so that will take some time for me to figure out (God I hope I don’t have to compile from source!). The option for file sharing is there but only Blue Tooth is enabled by default (What’s up with that Ubuntu?). In the file sharing control panel it says “This feature cannot be enabled because the required packages are not installed on your system“. How irritating! That’s not the only irritating thing about Ubuntu 10.04, like there’s no device manager or system information installed. That would be equivalent to Windows not installing a device manager so you couldn’t look at your hardware, you’re flying blind. Now – back to the file sharing snafoo.
This has a simple resolution, after mucking around on the net trying to find an answer I thought, what if I just:
1 – Create a folder somewhere
2 – Share it
I did that, I created a “Media” folder on my desktop, right click it, left click properties, click the “share” tab then click “Share this folder”. Ubuntu 10.04 will squak and say you don’t have xyz thing installed but then prompts would you like to install it? It then goes out and gets the appropriate packages. A simple reboot and you’re set. You can now share your folders with the sharing tab + set permissions to those folders (or not).
I wish Ubuntu 10.04 would come with a few more standard options like a device manager and with file sharing packages ready to go.
Note: Getting into BIOS on a Zotac Mag – Delete Key, keep on pressing it till you get in!
I recently bought a Zotac Mag (<– USA site, their Japanese site is horrible), it’s a micro PC (although most call them “mini pc’s“) you can use it for an everyday desktop or if you know how you can turn it into anything you want because; for its size it’s relatively quick.
The one from NewEgg where I purchased it was a decent package.
Intel 330 Atom (Dual Core)
160 Gig SATA hard drive
2 Gig of RAM
$308 out the door including tax + shipping
One problem though (well, not the “only” problem), was how to upgrade the BIOS without using the Windows utility they include. After racking my brain on this one for literally HOURS and trying different things I put in a support ticket out of frustration. I suppose that for a “geek” putting in a support ticket with a vendor is the modern equivalent of a guy asking for directions because he’s lost while driving and scouring his routes over on the map to no avail. Shortly after submitting my support ticket though I took another look at the current BIOS boot options. There is was, their BIOS makes NO SENSE.
What their BIOS does (and no other BIOS to my knowledge) is only lets you boot your “1st device” and it doesn’t show USB disk devices as a bottable device. By default the first boot device is the on board internal hard drive and even though you may have a USB Pen drive plugged in it doesn’t see it. How completely dumb is that? If you have a USB floppy, CD or DVD ROM drive it shows up in the list as an option to make them 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc but a USB Pen drive IT DOENS’T DO!!!
So – here’s what YOU need to do for upgrading your BIOS in a Zotac Mag because their BIOS is completely, mmmmmm – dumb (to be kind). I suppose this isn’t totally without Windows since I have a few laptops with Windows my instructions for making the boot disk leverage those to make the pen drive BUT I know you can also do the same thing from Linux…I just didn’t have to ;)
1- Have a pen drive with at least 256 meg of storage (it’ll get erased so backup your files)
6 – Use Pen Drive Linux to create your bootable USB version of Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD)
7 – Create a folder on the pen drive called “BIOS”
8 – Follow this set of instructions:
Put your Pen Drive in the Zotac and fire it up
To get into the Zotac BIOS keep pressing the “Delete Key”
Once you’re in the BIOS Menu: Boot > Hard Disk Drives > Change “1st Drive” to your bootable Pen Drive with UBCD on it > Escape key > Escape Key > confirm you want to “Save and Exit” which will reboot your Zotac Mag. Note that this has NOTHING to do with the “Boot Device Priority” where a “normal BIOS” would have put your pen drive. This will make the Zotac use your Pen Drive as the main hard drive, you won’t even see the onboard hard drive in the boot priority list after making this change BUT it’ll get reset back after the BIOS upgrade automatically.
UBCD boots off of pen drive – Get into the Dos Utilies, select Free Dos, don’t touch your keyboard just let it time out on the defaults.
Execute these DOS Commands because the first prompt is a Q: drive…
C:
cd BIOS
afudos old.rom /o
afudos putnameoframfilehere.rom /B /P /N /X /C
Reboot with a control + alt + delete
* Note that “afudos xxxxx.rom /o” simply backs up your current BIOS in case anything should go badly.
Done – let me know how it goes because I couldn’t find ANYTHING on the net about this problem, remember…I wasted HOURS of my life on it. Remember me in your will :)
NTP stands for “Network Time Protocol“, it’s a method for computer time synchronization. If your computer is a member of a Windows Domain your computer automatically synchronizes to the PDC or Primary Domain Controller. The problem is, where does the PDC synchronize to? I found the domain clock off by 5 minutes today (and it wasn’t the first time), which I suppose isn’t that big of a deal unless you use the computer clock for things like appointments or meetings. Better late than never right? :)
I found a cool website called ntp.org that will allow you to leverage their extremely accurate time servers. If you have a windows server try these commands! This is a combination of commands found here and here:
Network time is controlled by this method: net time /setsntp:pool.ntp.org
You can “refresh” a server or workstation with this command: net stop w32time && net start w32time
* I failed to mention this and I’m editing this old post.
Server command: net time /setsntp:pool.ntp.org
Workstation command: net time /setsntp:yourserver.com
This way all your network hosts are staying on your internal network and you’re not killing poor ntp.org with all the requests :)
Have you encountered this error with Windows Vista or 7 when you use roaming profiles?
Description:
Windows cannot locate the server copy of your roaming profile and is attempting to log you on with your local profile. Changes to the profile will not be copied to the server when you log off. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.
DETAIL – Access is denied.
What fixed this issue for me was a combination of things:
Create a new folder called \\server\profileshare\enduserfolder.v2, an example would be like this, my server name is “IM”, the profile share folder on server IM is called “TheMan” and my end user’s login account is “Fool” so I’d have to create a folder “Fool.v2”, it would look like this: “IM\TheMan\Fool.v2” :)
Apply permissions, don’t inhereit, delete “authenticated users”, add your end user permissions up to “modify”…full if you really want to but there is no need.
Log on
In that document on roaming data it discusses how Windows 2000 and XP have the same profile stucture but if you’ve used Windows Vista and 7 for even a brief amount of time you know that the profile structure has dramatically changed. To deal with this Vista and 7 with respect to roaming profiles looks for a .v2 extension on the folder. If you precreate your folders for users who will be migrating and you’ve set the permissions appropriately you should have no problems migrating your end losers to the new OS.
Hey look, YAOOTI…that’s me saying Yet Another Opinion On The Internet! Would I know how to say that word? No – I just made it up!
I’m going to briefly give my opinion about Windows 7 since it’s finally here and I’ve used it a bit. I haven’t used it extensively but I do know Geeks who have. Those who’ve used it a lot (Geeks) say they’re happy with it and that seems to be the consensus of other Geeks on the net who use Windows. I think I’m only a border line Geek; I’m more of a technology utilitarian and use it for what it’s worth. If the bells and whistles don’t really add anything useful they don’t matter to me. I hung on to Windows 2000 forever because Windows XP’s release was nothing more than Windows 2000 with a pretty desktop. I eventually converted to XP and have used it ever since.
So what’s Microsoft say about their new product? What’s my motivation for switching to Windows 7?
10 Reasons Microsoft says you should upgrade to Windows 7
Lets see here:
Get quicker access to all your stuff, quickly find what you’re looking for, manage open windows easier, oh and this is by far my favorite…”Stay entertained effortlessly“. Isn’t that just what everyone wants? To be effortlessly entertained? Is that possible? WOW! I actually think that’s a tie with “Do more and wait less” because your computer goes to sleep faster and resume’s faster? Really? All those seconds must add up to some BIG productivity gains. I bet as a result of Windows 7 that national productivity will spike in the coming quarter! They use the words easier, easily, quicker, effortlessly, etc…if you can’t already tell; this would seem like nothing more than a Microsoft smoke and mirrors advertising campaign.
In fact, the people at Apple already picked up on the silliness of the M$ campaign and made PC and MAC commercials satirizing Microsoft’s Windows 7 release! They’re brilliant!
MAC | “Broken Promises” commercial
Apple sums it up nicely don’t they? FYI – I’m not even a MAC fan!
What I am a fan of is usefulness. If it’s useful it’s good. Can I edit documents, surf the web, check email, can I watch a video? Those are the questions most home users need answered. Of course we assume we can do all that on our systems. A recent Microsoft “I’m a PC” commercial echo’s that when the people in the commercial say only seem interested in the PC’s looks, sturdiness and whether it can manage pictures. “We’re PC’s so we can share photo’s of this little guy”. Why do you need a PC to do that again?
Microsoft | Laptop Hunters
Many of those in the commercials did say they want it to be fast, have long battery life or use it for gaming. With the exception of gaming any operating system can do that for you. Most computer users be they MAC, Windows or even Linux users don’t utilize 100% of the features on their systems, most do basic tasks. We drive a Mercedes Benz but most of the time we leave it parked in the garage collecting dust.
The death of Windows:
For most people it’s because of the Windows operating system that the Internet became common place. My first computer was a 233 Mhz, 64 meg of RAM, 2 gigabyte hard drive HP with Windows 95 that included Internet Explorer 4.0 with a dialup modem for Internet! There’s more power, memory and storage on an iPod now. Occasionally I’ll run into some old timers who reminisce about 4 meg hard drives or programming on “punch cards“. It’s all a result of the Internet being brought to you by Microsoft and Internet Explorer that people even needed a computer! First the Internet, then came the MP3 and file sharing, online shopping, online banking and easy financial transactions, now YouTube, FaceBook, Twitter, etc. I can’t help but to think that the extraordinary life the Windows operating system was given due in most part to the Internet will also be the death of the Windows operating system even though Internet Explorer will likely live on.
Many individuals and corporate organizations can almost do without Windows as a desktop operating system they just don’t know it. I listed a few things I needed to do as a user and corporate users arne’t too disimilar:
I believe that only now (or soon), with Web 2.0 +, the integration of mobile devices into our lives…giving us instant access to people, web, email, video and even document management; that we can get past one dominant operating system on the desktop. The operating system will only facilitate your web browser which will be the gateway to do everything you need! You can use your web browser in more ways than you think already!
The only thing slowing down the transition process to a move from desktop operating systems like Windows 7 to pure web browser based systems with a minimal underlying operating system are proprietary applications that require a desktop to function or those users who need the power to run their games like the kid in the I’m a PC commercial. Additionally for the enterprise it’s IT security (and rightly so), you don’t want to have your proprietary corporate data in “the cloud” thus out of your control. For corporations, they’ll soon be standing up their own internal clouds and giving their end users what amounts to a kiosk or terminal. Applications without a complementary web interface will one day find themselves without a place to live.
There are other challenges ahead I probably haven’t thought of I’m sure. What might Intel or AMD do without a processor speed war to compete over since an OS that merely needs to support a web browser doesn’t need Ghz upon Ghz or multiple processor cores to process data? What might happen to the memory manufactures who continually supply us with more RAM? What might happen to the hard drive storage companies if we’re storing data “in the cloud” rather than on our workstations? What might happen if your device lasts for 20 years instead of just 2 to 4 because they have less moving parts, consume far less power and thus more durable?
It doesn’t seem to be in their best interest to truly do more with less? It also seems like they’ll all eventually be dragged kicking and screaming but you can bet they’ll protect their pocket books by charging fees for access to their clouds, whether that be the apps you use, the storage you use or the amount you process. Is it easy to leave the cloud once you’re in?
To summarize:
I think that Windows 7 is more hype at the moment brought to you by the Microsoft Marketing Department. Functionally it’s more bells and whisltes than substance for most people. You need to buy it though because they won’t support XP much longer and unless you’re an OEM manufacturer of “Ultra Low-Cost PC’s” you can’t even get it any longer. Sure it’ll let you make a window shake like a piece of paper or jump through hoops but who needs that? I know I don’t! If you are a Windows junky you’ll soon get version 7, if you’re not a Windows junky you’ll be pulled that direction when you buy a new computer. Perhaps Apple is right, consider an alternative or try a popular Linux distribution? You do have options, suffer with your old sluggish hard to use dusty XP (sarcasm!), upgrade to Windows 7, buy an Apple with OSX or be a rebel and try Linux.
Either way you slice it your on your own!
Rafael Wolf
Director for The Center of My Own Opinion
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