How to Assign an IP address

Posted on May 30th, 2008 in Networking by admin
Computers may be assigned a static IP address or assigned one dynamically (via DHCP). Here I will explain the steps needed to assign an IP address to your NIC.

Choose one of the following methods:
Command line :

/sbin/ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.3 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255

GUI tool : You can use the GUI tool /usr/bin/neat - Gnome GUI network administration tool. It handles all interfaces and configures for both static assignment as well as dynamic assignment using DHCP.

How to install a Network card in linux

Posted on May 30th, 2008 in Networking by admin
There are different ways of installing a network card in linux - and that too depending on the linux distribution that you are using. I will explain each one of these methods here.

Clone or Change your MAC address in Linux

Posted on May 30th, 2008 in Networking by admin
In linux, you can change the hardware (MAC) address of your machine.This is how it is done.


# ifconfig eth0 down
# ifconfig eth0 hw ether 00:80:48:BA:d1:20
# ifconfig eth0 up
# ifconfig eth0 |grep HWaddr

HOWTO: Backup nightly via rsync

Posted on May 29th, 2008 in Networking by admin

rsync is a software application for Unix systems which synchronizes files and directories from one location to another while minimizing data transfer using delta encoding when appropriate. An important feature of rsync not found in most similar programs/protocols is that the mirroring takes place with only one transmission in each direction. rsync can copy or display directory contents and copy files, optionally using compression and recursion.

In daemon mode, rsync listens to the default TCP port of 873, serving files in the native rsync protocol. rsync can also be used to synchronize local directories, or via a remote shell such as RSH or SSH. In the latter case, the rsync client executable must be installed on both the local and the remote host.

Copy between files in vi/vim

Posted on May 29th, 2008 in Commandline Tools by admin

VI editor is a very powerful editor. Suppose you want to copy line numbers 1-10 and 23-77 of file A and paste them on file B at the same time, what will you do ?? Here I am giving a tip to do this :

Kill a process by it’s port

Posted on May 29th, 2008 in Networking by admin

Have you ever faced problem of busy ports?

Here is the solution to kill a process which is occupyingh any specific port.

/usr/sbin/lsof | grep | kill -9 `awk ‘{print $2}’`

If you want to kill a proces who is using a port say 9999, issue command:
/usr/sbin/lsof | grep 9999 | kill -9 `awk ‘{print $2}’`

Set Background Wallpaper in Fluxbox

Posted on May 20th, 2008 in Fluxbox by admin

Fluxbox isn’t like KDE or Gnome in the sense that there’s a ‘desktop configuration tool’. To change the desktop wallpaper, for example. you’ll have to drop into a terminal window. It’s not hard, just different.

  1. Get the image you’d like to use as your desktop wallpaper downloaded or otherwise saved somewhere on your sytem
  2. Open a terminal window and use your favorite text editor to open your ~/.fluxbox/startup file.
  3. Look for a line that starts with the command fbsetbg. If you see one, edit it to reflect the path to your new background image. If you don’t see such a line, make a new one as such (note: depending on your screen size you may see this as two lines, this should be one line in your startup file:

    fbsetbg -f /home/jon/.fluxbox/backgrounds/my_background.jpg

Another way to get this to set every time you start fluxbox is as follows by adding the command to the ~/.fluxbox/init file. Find the line beginning with session.screen0.rootCommand: and enter the proper command afterward ( fbsetbg -f /home/jon/.fluxbox/backgrounds/my_background.jpg ). You can also use the simplified command fbsetbg -l to load the last wallpaper loaded by fbsetbg, to avoid changing the init file each time you change your wallpaper.

Create an ‘Open as Root’ Action in Konqueror

Posted on May 20th, 2008 in KDE by admin

To have a service menu which opens the selected directory as root in Konqueror, create a file, say konq_root.desktop in ~/.kde/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus with the following content:

[Desktop Entry]
ServiceTypes=inode/directory
Actions=open_as_root

[Desktop Action open_as_root]
Name=Open as Root
Icon=konsole
Exec=kdesu konqueror %F

Now, if you right click any directory in Konqueror and go to Actions, a new menu appears, Open as Root. If you select more than one directory, Konqueror will open each of them in a new tab.

Install IpodLinux on your iPod

Posted on May 20th, 2008 in Applications by admin

iPodLinux is an open source venture into porting Linux onto the iPod (http://www.apple.com/ipod/). So far, they have successfully ported a customized uClinux (http://www.uclinux.org) kernel to the iPod, and written a simple user interface for it dubbed podzilla. Additional applications and modules have been written, adding many capabilities not found in Apple’s firmware. iPodLinux currently works on all iPod generations with the exception of the 2nd/3rd generation iPod nano, 6th generation iPod classic, all iPod shuffles and the iPod Touch. Donations always help when it comes to supporting new hardware. Progress can be tracked on the Project Status.

How to Install and Setup IPCop as your Linux based router

Posted on May 20th, 2008 in Security by admin

This document describes how to install the GNU/Linux GPL IPCop firewall and create a small home office network. In the second installment we cover creating a DMZ for hosting your own web server or mail server and the Copfilter proxy for filtering web and email traffic.

This is intended to be a quick and dirty overview on creating a IPCop firewall and comes without warranty of any kind!

What is IPCop
The IPCop project is a GNU/GPL project that offers an exceptional feature packed stand alone firewall to the internet community. Its comprehensive web interface, well documented administration guides, and its involved and helpful user/administrative mailing lists make users of any technical capacity feel at home. It goes far beyond a simple ipchains / netfilter implementation available in most Linux distributions and even the firewall feature sets of commercial competitors.

Firewalls have had to undergo a tremendous metamorphosis as a result of evolving threats. IPCop is exemplary in offering such a range of default features and even further a large set of optional plug-ins which can provide further functionality.

Some of IPCops impressive base install features include: secure https web administration GUI, DHCP Server, Proxying (Squid), DNS Proxying, Dynamic DNS, Time Server, Traffic Shaping, Traffic/Systems/Firewall/IDS graphing, Intrusion Detection (Snort), ISDN/ADSL device support and VPN (IPSec/PPTP) functionality. As if these base features were not an astounding enough there are dozens of add-ons which can further expand the functionality of your IPCop from Web Filtering to Anti virus scanning.

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