The research’s findings are worrying indeed.

• 74% of organisations are not very confident that they can fully recover after a disaster, according to a new survey of 1,750 European companies
• 54% surveyed have lost data and/or suffered systems downtime in the last year
• 61% report hardware failure as the primary cause of data loss and downtime;  natural disasters and employee sabotage being much less likely culprits
• 43% of organisations cite loss of employee productivity as the single biggest economic impact
• 28% point to lost revenue as a result of a disaster
• 40% of organisations still use tape for recovery and 80% of these organisations want to replace tape all together, highlighting the need for next generation backup and recovery

The fact that 74% of companies and organisations feel that they’re not prepared or equipped to properly recover data after an outage or disaster might be seen as very worrying for business overall.  We’ve all suffered data loss but the data losses suffered by business could affect us and them in many different ways.  They could lose customer orders, lose valuable employee details or details of current projects and so on.

The survey also details that more than half of the businesses and organisations surveyed said they had experienced data loss or systems downtime in the last year.  It’s common for companies to suffer from downtime and it’s a pity the research doesn’t go into more detail about what percentage of companies had actually experienced data loss, all we have is a corruption figure that in itself seems too high.

They say the most commonly reported causes of downtime are…

• Hardware failure: 61%
• Power failure: 42%
• Data corruption: 35%

One of the problems seems to be that 40% of the companies surveyed are still replying on tape for backup.  With the falling costs of hard disks and the increased bandwidth that dedicated phone lines can bring more and more companies are moving to secure and stable off-site backup solutions and indeed many business ISPs and server hosts now offer this facility as standard.  It is clear though that not enough companies are heeding the warnings of data loss and, more important of good security.

The research found that businesses are spending, on  average, 10% of their IT budgets on backup and recovery, and 29% of businesses  do not feel they are spending enough.   For backup and disaster recovery purposes, 40% of companies still rely  on tape, with an average annual cost of €74,000 on transporting, storing,  testing and replacing tapes. Where tape is used for disaster recovery purposes,  10% still have an employee take home a copy of the backup tapes with them.

The companies surveyed included manufacturing, retail, financial services and telecoms, among others and, frankly, it is disappointing that so many companies still seem unprepared for IT and data failures when computers have now been in business for over 30 years and have been on every desk for the vast majority of that time.

Now they’ve expanded their virtualisation line-up into the server space with the new Zirtu Serverless VDI, type 0 Hypervisor.  Like other comparable products this allows users to run an operating system contained in a virtual machine on any othger computer, and use the full hardware resources of the host machine.  This includes full access to the graphics card, memory and the ability to take complete control of the processor.

The virtual machine in this case would be run from a server, enabling a single virtual machine to run on many terminals in a business simultaneously.  Where Zirtu takes things to the next level though is in support for working offline.  In a recent demo they demonstrate a virtual machine that has only just loaded to a machine, continue to work with support for all the programs and files when the network connection to the server is disconnected.

Where this comes in very handy is in permitting users to continue working on their PCs when their internal or tunnelled network connection dies, or when they are on the road and away from a connection.  The next time they log into the server all the files, programs and documents in the VM are automatically synchronised with the server, with the user noticing nothing about the connection problems.

Zirtu also uses existing virtualisation technology from the company that supports the computer’s hardware in ways that allows a virtual machine created on one machine, to work on another with a completely different hardware configuration, something that would normally break any Windows installation.

The concept of having a decentralised virtual machine that can keep people working when away from a direct connection to the server is hugely compelling, especially when downtime can cost companies so much money.  The ability to maintain the VMs centrally can also present significant cost-savings to business and provide additional benefits.

Among these is a solution that would allow users to run VMs on their own personal laptops and desktop PCs, something that business normally bans citing quite valid security concerns.  This type of virtualisation technology turns any home PC into a work PC.  The fact that it works so well and so quickly, in the demo given at a recent conference it’s virtual machine was shown fully working after only loading on the host PC for a few seconds before the network connection was pulled, is driven by technology the company is being tight-lipped about, unsurprisingly.

Either way this product demonstrates perfectly the types of virtualisation and cloud services that business might employ in the coming years to slash IT management costs, and to run better and more efficient IT operations.

There are two main things to remember when trying to calculate subnets. The first is that that default subnet for a range is 255.255.255.0. This subnet, that we all recognize gives you one network with 255 different addresses from 1 to 255. Fairly easy stuff so far. The second thing to remember is the formula needed to calculate a new subnet. For this we have to go back to basics and remember that the number 255 is made up in binary of 8 bits. To get the number 255, all those 8 bits would be set to 1, each one representing a number in decimal in the following sequence. (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128). If you add all these numbers together you get 255.

In order to create our subnet mask we need to “borrow” a certain number of bits from our host address. The host address is the last number in the group of four that makes up our subnet. So in the subnet 255.255.255.0, the 0 is the host address.

We can use the formula (2^n – 2) to figure out how many networks we can make by borrowing certain number of bits. Lets say for example we wanted to make six networks; we would need to borrow 3 bits, because (2^3 – 2 = 6). So we take the three bits from the left of our binary sequence and add them together. (128 + 64 + 32 = 224). So the subnet we need to use for our 6-network system is 255.255.255.224.

Now we’ve calculated our subnet, the next thing we need to do is work out the ranges of our new networks. This is a fairly easy thing to do if you remember one rule. The lowest number in the bits we borrowed from our host address is our guide. In this case, the bits we borrowed were 128, 64 and 32. The lowest of these is 32, so this is our guide number we’re going to use to set up our network ranges.

What you want to do is start off with your guide number, and that gives you the first address of our first network. For example – 192.168.0.32. To get the starting address of the second network, you just add on 32. So the second network will begin at 192.168.0.64. Keep adding the number 32 to find the other network starting points, and you’ll end up with this network address range map:

• Network 1: 192.168.0.32 – 192.168.0.63
• Network 2: 192.168.0.64 – 192.168.0.95
• Network 3: 192.168.0.96 – 192.168.0.127
• Network 4: 192.168.0.128 – 192.168.0.159
• Network 5: 192.168.0.160 – 192.168.0.191
• Network 6: 192.168.0.192 – 192.168.0.223

Note that you cannot use the first 32 or last 32 addresses of the entire 255 address range, (unless you’re using specific equipment that allows it). And there you have it, we’ve calculated our subnet mask, and we’ve worked out the ranges our networks will use. Remember the formula (2^n – 2) and your binary numbers, and you’ll be able to work out any configuration of subnets and networks.

Then in 2009 virtualisation found its way onto the mainstream PC with Microsoft’s Virtual PC.  These early Type 2 VMs (Virtual Machines) were limited in functionality though.  Everything was virtualised, including the hardware.  The VM core was essentially an emulator for earlier processors and other hardware.  Thus anything that ran in an VM couldn’t access the full power of the hardware in your computer.  This made them slow, unable to access peripherals such as printers and USB drives, and not tremendously useful for the majority of tasks.

The other problem with Type 2 VMs was that on many occasions people found that their software simply wouldn’t run on them.  Many software packages required access to better hardware than the VM could emulate, or access to peripherals to work properly.  Finally you always had two operating systems running concurrently on your computer even if you weren’t using your main one.  This would push up your electricity consumption and make the process of running VMs very costly.

This can also present all manner of problems accessing server-side, and cloud-ready resources.  The VM was almost always cut off from the outside world unless careful and technical configuration took place.  Clearly a better solution had to be found.

Eventually new types of VM appeared including the Type-1.  This was able to give the virtual machine full access to the computer’s hardware, though it still operated the OS in a virtualised environment, not as a full OS with the full processing capability of your Intel or AMD chip.  Windows 7 was the first major OS to include a ‘boot from VM’ option.  It takes a bit of tinkering to get the thing to work, but you can use this to actually boot your computer from a VM running Windows 7. 

This bootable VM has full access to all your hardware and peripherals and you’d never know it was a VM you were using.  The problem with Windows 7′s option though is that it’s very hard to configure and of limited usefulness because you can only use it with these two editions of Windows 7.  Another example of this is Apple’s boot camp, which uses Type-1 virtualisation because it has to emulate the standard BIOS in PCs.

But why would you want to do this anyway?  From my own experience in support it can be an enormous time-saver.  Images can be easily built on central servers and rolled out quickly and quietly to PCs across a business network with almost no productivity downtime.  There’s no upgrade involved as it’s simply a case of copying a new file over to a PC containing the virtualised image.  This also makes it very fast to restore in the event a Windows or other software error occurs in the VM.

But you still were stuck with performance issues.  Now that dual and quad core processors are the norm however, virtualisation was able to take the next leap, and new Type-0 hypervisors are now appearing.

The main difference between a Type-2 and a Type-0 is that with the latter everything, including the main OS, runs on your core hardware.  This means that you would never know the difference between a virtualised and a ‘real’ OS.  It’s clever too as it can use the hardware in such as way as to maintain several of these Type-0 operating systems at the same time (depending on the virtualisation solution you buy into).

The main benefits to new Type-0 virtualisation though comes in the way they can be used within their own ecosystem.  You can create whole virtualised server systems to work with them (the Type-0 machines can also run perfectly well offline though as well).  On the face of it this means that you can’t do anything with a PC that can’t ordinarily be done with a standard installation of your OS.  But…

This system does so much more.  By allowing full access to your hardware you can avoid costly new hardware upgrades required for older VM solutions.  You can also run the code natively on the local machine, avoiding the need for the VM to have to run on an expensive server-side monstrosity and making sure that the VM runs all the time, even when out and about such as a laptop.

I believe the biggest advantage however is for permitting multiple roles for each PC (or laptop).  Let’s say in an organisation you buy two thousand laptops of a certain type for your mobile workers.  In this you have sales staff, HR professionals, managers, executives and more.  Each worker will require their own build and in a traditional Windows scenario where installations take time to build and even longer to deploy, assuming a stable connection to the central server can even be maintained, this is a pain and can be hugely expensive.

In a Type-0 virtualisation environment you can deploy multiple images simultaneously (and securely away from the prying eyes of the worker) or quietly in the background as they work.  They need never know this is happening, need never have a single minute of downtime, and switching the computer between roles is a simple matter of changing a single setting in a configuration file.

Type-0 hypervisors are certainly the way forward, Microsoft know this and they’ll finally be able to use it as an excuse to drop all the legacy code support in Windows 8.  This will make the switch to VMs even more important for both businesses and consumers who have older software and hardware that they’re either very fond of or have come to rely on.

While true holistic Type-0 solutions are currently thin on the ground, a notable exception being AppSense and zInstall’s forthcoming Zirtu product, we’ll see much more of these in the next couple of years.  Before too long everything will be virtualised for the benefits of stability, security and dependability, and this will be a future worth embracing.

One of my networking classes included the basics of troubleshooting a network connection. It included basic command line tools that really were very easy to use and understand. Most of the students thought they were fun to use.

Knowing these commands before having to deal with the frustration of a network connection problem is not a bad idea. A working connection shows you what is supposed to happen. If you see something different, you will know something is up. When problems strike, at the least you can get an idea of what is going on.

Step 0: Check the Cords & Power

The first thing you should always do is check to make sure everything is plugged in: your computer, router, device, etc. Many laptops have a button to turn off the wireless connection; the icon looks like a signal tower. When in doubt, read the manual (which you can often download from the manufacturer’s website). Bear in mind, we all forget this step at some point, so do not feel too silly when it happens to you.

Step 1: Ping Yourself

You want to test that your machine is working properly. To do this, you want to ping yourself. You use the loop-back address (127.0.0.1) to do this. Pinging the loop-back address tests to make sure software on your computer is working properly. Typically, if something is not working at this stage, you may just need to restart your computer.

ping
http://www.ghacks.net/2011/05/12/network-troubleshooting-basics-the-ping-command/

Step 2: Ping Your Router (AKA: the Default Gateway)

The next step would be to ping your router. You can find your router’s IP address with ipconfig as well (it should be on the bottom of the unit and listed in the manual too). Remember that ipconfig lists your router as the “Default Gateway.” It is very likely to be 192.168.1.1 or a similar number.

This is done to test if your router is responding. If it is not, and you have already checked to make sure it is on, then it may need to be turned off and turned on. Every once in a while it may need a refresh. If the problem continues, contact you ISP for assistance to see if they can help.

Note: Routers, like anything else in the IT world, will someday fail. There is a chance that this has happened. Your ISP help desk should be able to help you determine this. If the router is one of theirs, they will likely send you out a new one.

Step 3: Ping Yourself with Your IP Address

We want to test to make sure everything is working correctly between your router and your computer. To do this, ping your IP address. It is listed in the ipconfig command at the same time the router IP number is. If this works, you can be pretty confident that a problem is outside your home (or maybe small office) network.

Step 4: Ping and Tracert Outside Your Network

From here, you want to test something outside your network. In a medium or larger network setting, a server on another branch of the network will do. For a home network, the Internet is often your only option. Since chances are the problem is that one or more websites are (or seem) down, this is a logical thing to check.

You can use a few different tools. First try the ping command because it is the fastest. It will only tell you if the site is working or not. For more detailed information, use tracert and pathping. They can give a better idea of what is going on. For instance, if you can reach your router, but no further, the node that connects you to the Internet may be down: an ISP issue. If you can reach only a couple (one or two) steps past your router, then it still is probably an ISP issue. Your Internet is down. If you can reach a lot further, the site may be having issues (see is Facebook down, ways to check if a website is really down, for pointers) There even is a chance that other sites, either from the same proximity or even hosting service, are having the same problem. If it is an e-commerce site, there may be a number to call, but there probably is not much to do besides wait. At least you know where the problem is.

Parting Thought

On a parting note, one other benefit of trying these commands out on a nice day like today is that it creates a positive mental association with the tools. That might change with enough problems, but they are worthy of a good first impression. Having the skills to deal with a problem ahead of time is always a good idea.

Both of these commands are designed to give you more detailed information than the ping command. They will tell you about steps along the way. This can help you narrow down where a problem is.

The Tracert Command Basics

The tracert command is also called traceroute on other systems, such as on a Mac or in Cisco’s IOS (used in its routers and switches). It is used to find out what other devices are on the path to a destination. It works by sending out a number of signals. Each signal has an amount of locations it can jump to, called a time to live (TTL). When it reaches that number, the device it reaches sends back an error message. For example, the first packet of data sent out would just have one hop, so it would stop at your home router. Your router sends back a signal, and the tracert command records it. The next signal would have to go two hops and so on, until the destination is reached.

Using the command is simple. You type in tracert and an IP number or website’s name after it. You can see extra options by typing tracert /? in the command line.

To get the the command line, go to Start, Run, type cmd in, and press the Enter key.

After that, type tracert google.com in and hit Enter again. You should get something like this:

In Linux, the equivalent command is tracepath, but traceroute is available. Both commands perform similar actions, but you have to install traceroute on some systems (e.g. Ubuntu). Type in “sudo apt-get install traceroute” from the terminal to grab it. Enter the name of the command and a IP number or a website’s name to trace the path.

The Pathping Command Basics

The pathping command is more similar to tracert than a simple ping. Just like the tracert command, pathping will give you information about all the steps along the path to the website you want to test. It does this by sending out full ping commands along the way, gathering more information. This is done over a period of time, yielding a detailed report. The extra information is good to have, but the time required is a disadvantage. It can take a few minutes. Typically, tracert is the preferred command.

The command works the same way that tracert or ping do, where you type in the name of the command and the name of the site you want to test. There are some option, which you can see by typing “pathping /?” into the command line. For something similar in Linux, use the mtr command.

Assuming you did not close the command line window from befor, type “pathping google.com” in and hit Enter. You should get a report similar to tracert, but it will tell you to wait for the extra results. There is a lot of information, so you may have to scroll a little to see it all.

Controlling Pathping

Waiting roughly 6 minutes for a report is a bit much for one command. You can shorten the time to create the report with a command line option. Instead of sending 100 pings, “pathping google.com -q 10″ will send 10 per hop, or “pathping google.com -q 3″ will send 3 per hop.

Cleaning-Up Tracert or Pathping Output

Tracert command is notorious for lines that spill past the width of the screen; the pathping command never fits in a screen. By saving the output to a file, it will remove line breaks automatically. There is no manual editing involved, and the output is nicer.

To do this for tracert, type in “tracert google.com > file.txt” into the command line. If you are not familiar with Dos, or you are not sure where you put the file, you can use “notepad file.txt” (or even just “file.txt”) in the command line to easily retrieve the file.

There is one problem with this method: it looks nothing is happening. This is even more evident with the pathping command, which can take several minutes to run (hence why controlling the pathping is covered above). Be patient; this is normal.

Side note: This is call “redirecting,” and it is commonly done at the command line. Use one greater-than sign (>) to overwrite a file; use two greater-than signs (>>) to append data to a file.

This can also be done in Linux, but it is not necessary. If the tracepath command spills over the edge, you can re-size the terminal and run the command again. The Dos prompt has a fixed character width, so resizing the window will not help.

What You Can Infer

Tracert and pathping are useful in seeing where a problem is. If a command recognizes your router, but not much further, something is probably wrong with your ISP. If a command trails off, but cannot find the destination, the website probably is having a problem. Typically, it is better to start testing with the ping command because it faster than its counterparts.

Closing

There is going to be one last article in this series that puts all three commands together. Each one is a piece that you need to understand in order to use it. Combining them can make finding a problem easier.

The Next Level Application manager:

Fig. 1: User account page on Horizon App Manager

VMware announced the launch of its new end user web application manager the VMware Horizon Application on 17th May 2011. This application manager allows the users to effectively manage the third party cloud applications on a single virtual platform in a similar way as a Microsoft Active Directory acts to manage the accounts on numerous applications based on the internal systems. VMware impressively changed the way the access credentials are managed for the ever increasing population of applications on the cloud such as Box.net, Broad Vision, Google Apps, Salesforce.com, WebEx and Workday.

By simplifying the management of the credentials used by the applications both the IT admin and the end users benefit. The application manager securely manages several access credentials of numerous different third party applications using only a single identity dedicated for both the enterprise administrators and the users. In addition, it provides a single platform to access all the cloud applications which are used by the enterprise and its users. The Horizon App Manager ensures that there is a granular level of secured access for all the different types of applications as well as secured control of the data.

The Horizon App Manager is a unique service which is very easy and fast to set up. The Horizon Application Manager is a paid service from VMware that costs $30 per user, per year. It allows you to use your local access credentials for all the applications based on Cloud/SaaS. In the Horizon App Manager the enterprise admin will use a light weight virtual tool to configure each of the web based or Cloud based applications which are to be used by the users in the enterprise. Once the configuration is done, the admin can assign access permission to the varied users for various SaaS, Cloud or web applications according to their account and membership using a simple check box on the virtual interface of the App Manager.

The Horizon App Manager is a foundational management engine which will allow the users to securely extend the enterprise directory services into the cloud or the third party SaaS applications. Overtime these management services will be leveraged to applications such as the thin Apps and other services from the third party vendors.

Overview

Knowing the basics of network troubleshoot can help you find out where problems are. It could be your computer, your home router, your ISP (Internet Service Provided), the website itself, or something in between. First each tool will be looked at individually and then the process with be explained. The tools used will be the commands ping, ipconfig, and tracert. The process that will be covered is one of the most basic ones.

• Step 1: Ping yourself with the loopback address.
• Step 2: Ping the router (default gateway) and how to get that address (ipconfig).
• Step 3: Ping or tracert outside the network (e.g. the Internet).

The Ping Command Basics

The ping command got its name from the sound sonar makes when it “sees” something. In sonar, you send out a signal and measure the time it takes to get there. The ping command does the same thing. This tells if a computer or device is out there or not, which is the purpose of the command.

To use the ping command, you type “ping” followed by an IP number or a website name. It will show you if a destination is reachable and how long it takes to get there. It will work in Windows from the Dos Box, Linux from the terminal, and Mac from the terminal (or the Network Utility).

Click on the “Start” button > “run” > and type in “cmd” & enter to bring up the command line.

Type in ping ghacks.net and hit enter (there is a space between the two g’s).

The Loop-Back Address

Step 1 in the process is to ping yourself. To do that, we use the loop-back address. This is a special IP number, 127.0.0.1, and is useful in checking your own computer. When you ping this IP number, you ping your computer to test if the system is working. It is an internal process. If this does not work, you know the problem is in your computer. In this case, you may simply need to reboot the machine, but it could be a more serious issue.

Type in ping 127.0.0.1 and hit enter (there is a space between the “g” and the “1″).

Exceptions to the Rule

When it comes to websites and servers, not all of them will let you ping them. For example, Microsoft’s website will not show up if you ping it, but Google will. These sites, while working, will give you a “Request timed out.” error message.

How can a website show up on your browser and not on the ping command? The Internet works using a system of standard instructions called protocols, TCP in a website’s case. The ping command works with another protocol called ICMP. The main use for ICMP is to test connections and find out where a problem is. It is supposed to send back information to the sender letting them know if the message was received. If you turn off ICMP, then ping will not work. A firewall is usually used to do this.

In school, when we tried to ping classmates; this was a problem. With the firewall on, we could not ping each other until we turned it off. That is not something you should do at home, but it can explain why you cannot ping a computer on your home network. If you do decide to try out something that requires turning off your firewall (not recommended), unplug your router from the Internet and do not plug it back in until your firewall is running again.

Ping Command Options

The ping command will try to reach site four times by default. Personally, I think twice is enough. You can limit the number of times by using some switches. Switches are extra text you include with a command to tweak what it does.

• In MS Windows, use ping -n 2 destination
• In Linux, use ping -c 2 destination
• On a Mac, use ping -c 2 destination

Some people think once or thrice is enough, so feel fee to swap that 2 for a 1 or a 3. There are more options too, but this is what I find useful. You can always type “ping” by itself to see all the options (in dos, ping /? works too). Tip: If you are using Linux, and the ping command just keeps going, use ctrl+c to stop it.

Closing

The first step is to ping yourself. The next step is to ping your router. To do that you need to know how to use the ipconfig command, which will be covered in the next article.

Every website, router, and computer has an IP address. It is how computers uniquely identify themselves on a network or on the Internet. Typically, in a home network, your router assigns one to your computer. How does it make sure the IP address on your home computer is not the same as one on the Internet? There actually is a list of numbers that is reserved for private use (home, office, corporate, etc.). They are never used for a public website. While the details of how IP numbers are used is intricate, the ranges of reserved numbers are straight forward:

• 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255
• 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255
• 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255

Notice how the last section starts with 192.168.0.0 and that looks a lot like the 192.168.1.1 router address. It may sound strange, but the 192.168.0.0 is actually used to refer to a group of computers. It is OK if that seems odd or does not seem to make sense. The important thing to recognize is that 192.168.1.1 was chosen because it is a low number in this special range. Your computer’s IP number, given to it by the router, will be similar. It should be something like 192.168.1.x (x is a number between 2 & 255).

The nice thing about this convention is that you can memorize this number one for many routers. It may work for every router you ever own. It also should work with the routers of family and friends. This is useful for configuring routers and trouble shooting networks.

Using the number, 192.168.1.1, is actually an easy way to configure your router. For most modern home routers you can just type it into your browser. A configuration page should come up. What it will look like will change from manufacturer to manufacturer. Some may require a username and router password to see anything, others will at least tell you if you are connected to the Internet or not. If you cannot connect to a few different sites, you may be able to check here to see if your Internet connection is down. (Once I typed it in and nothing came up: someone unplugged the router.) Be sure to read your router’s manual before changing any settings. You probably need to log-in to do any real damage, though.

Important note: If your router does not require a password to edit core settings, you have a serious security problem. Please contact your Internet Service Provider for help and instructions on how address that issue. Ghacks has a guide to secure your wireless router that you should take into consideration. It is very easy for someone to change the settings on your router if there is no password protecting in.

Do all routers use this number to identify themselves? No. Some routers will default to a different number. There is no rule or law stating that it has to be 192.168.1.1; it is just a convention. If you look on the bottom of your router, or its manual, you will usually find out what that number is. Typically it is a 192.168.x.x number, but 172.x.x.x or 10.x.x.x are possibilities too. It would be very strange for it to be something else. The IP number on your computer should still be similar to the router’s number (the number before the first decimal point has to be the same). (Sometimes routers displays domain names instead, like speedport.ip which they resolve internally to the IP, meaning you can enter both the IP or domain name to load the router configuration)

Some other common numbers are 192.168.0.1 (ex. D-Link & Netgear) and 192.168.2.1 (according to 19216811.net). While 192.168.1.1 is often mentioned as a Linksys convention, it is used by other brands such as Speedtouch. If you are using a router from an Internet Service Provider, it may actually be made by Linksys. Cisco uses 192.168.1.1 for some of its routers (such as those for small business), but that is no surprise as they own Linksys. Here is a list of some more examples.

One of the easiest ways to find out the IP address of your router is to open a command prompt (by pressing Ctrl-R, typing cmd and then the enter key) and enter the command ipconfig in it. Locate the Default Gateway entry, which in most cases is your router’s IP address.

Features

Just what does tsclient offer? Take a look at this short list of features:

• Supports RPD, RDPv5, VNC, XDMCP, and ICA protocols.
• Quick connect from pre-configured files.
• Define screen sizes, and color depth.
• Configure sound to use remote or local resources.
• Map remote disk drives.
• Define start up programs upon connection.
• Performance optimizations.

Installation

The installation of Terminal Server Client is simple. Just follow these steps:

1. Open up your Add/Remove Software tool (such as Ubuntu Software Center, PackageKit, or Synaptic).
2. Search for “tsclient” (no quotes).
3. Mark Terminal Server Client for installation.
4. Click Apply to install.

Once installed Terminal Server Client can be found in Applications > Internet > Terminal Server Client.

Creating connections

Figure 1

Creating a connection with tsclient is incredibly easy. Open up the client and then, on the General tab, fill out the following information:

• Computer: IP Address or domain of remote computer.
• Protocol: Protocol used on remote computer for connections.
• User Name: User name to be used for authentication.
• Password: Password to used used for authentication.
• Domain: If your connection requires a domain, enter it here.

Before you click the connect button, you might want to save this configuration as a quick connect, so the details are no longer necessary to fill in. To do this click Save As and then give the file a descriptive name. All of those Quick Connect files will then be available from the Quick Connect drop-down, saving you plenty of time (you also will not have to remember the credentials! I will warn you though, the files that are saved are saved in flat-text in the ~/.tsclient directory. These files can be read using any editor. So if security is a big concern, you might want to not save the password for all of your clients.

Figure 2

Generally speaking, the defaults all work quite well with Terminal Server Client. Once connected the remote machine will be running in a window either as defined by the defaults or as defined by the user making the connection. Figure 2 shows Terminal Server Client connected to a Windows Server 2008 box.

To close the connection to the remote machine simply click the close button on the window. Once closed, tsclient will ask if you want to re-connect. If a re-connection is not desired, click the Cancel button which will take you back to the connection window, which can be closed if no longer needed.

Final thoughts

I have found Terminal Server Client to be one of the best remote connection tools available when either VNC or RDP protocols are in play. Not only does it make for fast connections, it makes for very reliable connections.

The Gadmin tools are a set of GUI administration tools that allow for easy administration of various services, systems, and applications that would otherwise be challenging for the average user. One of those tools that is exceptionally helpful to have is the VPN Server tool. Let’s install it and set up an VPN server with this GUI.

Installation

The installation of Gamin-VPN-Server is simple, thanks to the fact that the tool exists in the standard repositories of most distributions. Because of that, the installation is as easy as following these steps:

1. Open up the Add/Remove Software utility.
2. Search for “gadmin” (No Quotes).
3. Mark Gadmin VPN Server for installation.
4. Accept any dependencies necessary.
5. Click Apply to install.
6. Close the Add/remove Software utility when finished.

The Gadmin VPN Server tool can now be started from within the System Tools folder from the Applications menu.

Configuring the VPN server

Figure 1

Now for the real work. Open up the Gadmin tool to view the main window. This is where all of the configurations are done.

To set up a VPN server the following will need to be configured.

Server Settings:

External Address: This is the WAN side address of the network – the address the external users can reach. If this VPN server is on an internal network, it will be critical to make sure VPN traffic is routed to the server hosting the VPN server.

LAN interface address: The internal address used by the VPN Server.

LAN Subnet mask: The subnet used by the internal address on the VPN server.

Client Address range: The valid addresses the clients will be assigned when they log onto the VPN server.

Encryption Type: The encryption type to be used on the VPN.

After the server configurations have been entered, click the Apply button in the tool bar to save the settings. Now, scroll down to the…

Certificate Settings:

These settings are near the bottom of the Server settings tab. A pre-existing certificate need not be installed as Gadmin-VPN-Server has the ability to generate the necessary certificate. Just fill in the necessary information and then click the Apply button underneath the Certificate Settings to generate the necessary certificate.

Users

After the server has been set up, valid user accounts must be added. If the user already has an account on the server, a new account will not have to be created. If the user does not have an account on the server, create one in the User Accounts tab.

Starting the server

After everything is complete, click the Activate button and your VPN server will be ready to accept incoming connections. Users now only need set up their clients to connect to the correct address, using their credentials that reside on the VPN server, and they will be good to go.

I have used many a Twitter client (run this search on Ghacks for plenty of Twitter Linux client goodness) and have found most of them fairly decent tools. Some of them are lacking in features, and some of them have too many features. Some clients are built into the panel and some into a web browser. Hotot is a Google Chrome tool that installs easily on Debian-based systems and will have you tweeting quickly and happily. Let’s install this and use it.

Installation

The installation of Hotot is simple. Just follow these easy steps and you’ll be up and running in no time:

Open up a terminal window.

Add the Hotot repository with the command sudo add-apt-repository ppa:hotot-team.

Update apt with the command sudo apt-get update.

Install Hotot with the command sudo apt-get install hotot.

Figure 1

Once installed, Hotot can be started from your Internet menu (for E17 you will find it in the Main Menu > Internet. From the GNOME menu you will find it in Applications > Internet. When Hotot is first run it will need to authenticate to your twitter account. To gain authentication an authentication token must be added to the account. From the account window there is a button labled Click Me to Continue. This button, when clicked, will open a Twitter page that requires the allowing of access in order to get the authentication token. Click the Allow button on that page and the token will be presented. That token must be added in the PIN Code text area. After that PIN is entered, click OK to authenticate.

Figure 2

Once Hotot has authenticated with Twitter, the twitter client can be used. The Hotot main window (see Figure 2) is quite easy to use. At the bottom of the window there lives six buttons (from left to right):

• Timeline: See all of the tweets associated with the account.
• Mentions: Any tweet that mentions the authenticated user on the Hotot application.
• Direct Messages: Direct messages to the user.
• Retweets and Retweeted: Any retweets by or of the user.
• Find: Find someone you “love”.
• Search: Search a string.

At the top of the window there rests three buttons:

• Show all: Show all in timeline.
• Public only: Leave out private messages from timeline.
• Conversation: Show only private conversations.

Extensions

Like any good Google Chrome tool, extensions can be added to Hotot. To do this click on the Gear button near the top right corner of the Hotot window and select the Extensions entry. From that new window map extensions, image extensions, url shortening tools, translation, and video uploads can be enabled.

Final thoughts

Hotot has to be my new favorite Twitter client. And seeing as how I use Twitter a lot, Hotot must be worth a try. I find this tool lightning fast, filled with features, and easy to use.

Although adding this feature isn’t exactly automatic (or, some would argue, user-friendly), it’s all just a matter of knowing what to look for. So here I am to explain to you how to add this feature and then how to share out those folders.

Bodhi Linux comes with a stripped down version of the Nautilus file manager. I have it on authority that Bodhi might be switching to PCManFM (I am hoping the sharing functionality will be either built in or available at that point, but at this point it is not a feature that is available.)

Installation

The easiest way to install everything you need for this feature is to follow these steps:

1. Open up Synaptic.
2. Search for “nautilus” (no quotes).
3. Mark nautilus-share for installation.
4. OK the dependencies necessary.
5. Search for “samba” (no quotes).
6. Mark samba for installation.
7. OK the dependencies necessary.
8. Click Apply.
9. Click Apply in the new window.
10. Allow the installation to complete.

Once the installation is complete, you will have to log out and log back in so the changes will take effect. If this were the full version of Nautilus, you could issue the command nautilus -q and the changes would automatically take effect. That command will only produce an error in this stripped-down version of Nautilus. So go through the process of logging out and logging back in.

Enable Sharing

Figure 1

At this point, everything should be exactly as you would expect. Fire up Nautilus (left-click the desktop to open the mouse menu and click Places > Home) to start the process of sharing folders.

Once Nautilus is open, right-click the folder you want to share and then select Sharing Options (see Figure 1). In the new window check off the Share Folder option. You can now configure any options you may want to add to the folder (such as Share Name, Comment, Allow others to create/delete, and Guest access). After you OK this you will be prompted to have the proper permissions assigned automatically – allow this to happen (otherwise you are going to have a hard time assigning permissions to that shared folder).

Figure 2

When the folder is shared out, it will be indicated with a different icon. As you can see, in Figure 2, the Music folder has been shared out and is denoted with the addition of a hand in the icon.

You should now be able to hit that shared out folder from any machine on your network that is able to hit shared folders.

Final thoughts

I am thrilled to see that Bodhi Linux is following in at least some of the footsteps of Ubuntu and making features like folder sharing available (and easily set up.) I do hope that when Bodhi makes the move to a new file manager, that the sharing of folders is included in the feature list.

Wget can do a lot of things browsers can not do, which makes it an incredibly valuable tool for users who do a lot of downloading. Wget can even re-connect and finish a download if a connection is dropped. Let’s take a look and see how to make best use of this very powerful tool.

Installation

Installation for wget is very simple, as it will be found in the standard repositories. You can install wget from either the command line (such as yum install wget or sudo apt-get install wget) or you can also install wget from the Add/Remove Applications tool (Ubuntu Software Center, PackageKit, Synaptic, etc) by doing the following:

1. Open the tool.
2. Search for “wget” (no quotes).
3. Mark for installation.
4. Apply.

Usage

Remember, wget is a command line only tool (although there are front-ends available) so you will need to either be working from within a terminal window or logged onto a virtual terminal. Now that you have the right tool open, let’s see how wget can help you.

The basic usage is:

wget ADDRESS_TO_FILE

Where ADDRESS_TO_FILE is the actual address (URL or IP) to the file you want to download.

The above will download a single file to your hard drive. Now, what if you have a need to do an recursive downloading? For example there is an entire directory of files you need to download. To do recursive downloading on a remote directory the command would be:

wget -r ADDRESS_TO_DIRECTORY/DIRECTORY

The above command will download a directory hierarchy that matches the hierarchy downloaded from. In other words, within the directory you ran the wget command, you will find (using the above as an example) a newly created directory called ADDRESS_TO_DIRECTORY. Within that directory will be all of the subdirectories you downloaded.

If you don’t want to download the hierarchy, just the files, you would add the -nd switch like so:

wget -r -nd ADDRESS_TO_DIRECTORY/DIRECTORY

Now the only thing that will download is the files contained within DIRECTORY.

What if the address or directory you are downloading requires a username and password? You can pass that along with the wget command like so:

wget -r -nd --user=USERNAME --password=PASSWORD ADDRESS_TO_DIRECTORY/DIRECTORY

Where USERNAME is the required username, PASSWORD is the required password, ADDRESS_TO_DIRECTORY is the address and DIRECTORY is the directory containing the files.

Now, if you want to run wget in the background (so you don’t have to be logged in) you would issue the command as such:

wget -bqc ADDRESS_TO_FILE/FILE

Where ADDRESS_TO_FILE is the address containing the file and FILE is the file name to be downloaded.

Final thoughts

You will find wget to be one of the more useful tools in your Linux toolkit. And once you start using it you will never look back.

One such tool allows me to blog to my various blogs quickly. I want to introduce you to this tool so that you are quickly blogging from your GNOME desktop.

Compatible blogs

Naturally you can’t expect GNOME Blog to handle every type of blog in the blogosphere. But it does handle:

• blogs.gnome.org
• Blogger
• Livejournal
• Avogato
• Self-run WordPress
• Self-run Moveable Type
• Self-run Pyblosxom

Obviously each type of blog will have different setup requirements. Let’s examine how to connect GNOME Blog to a self-run WordPress blog.

Configuring WordPress

Figure 1

In order to blog to WordPress from GNOME Blog you have to enable remote publishing via XML-RPC. Without this set, you will not be able to blog from outside of the web interface. To configure this option you must first log on to your WordPress blog (with administration rights) and then click on Settings > Writing. In that section (near the top) you will see the spot where you can enable this (see Figure 1).

Once you have checked off the box associated with XML-RPC, scroll down and click Save Changes.

Now let’s install and use GNOME Blog.

Installation

Installation is simple. I will demonstrate the installation on a Ubuntu 10.10 desktop. Follow these steps:

1. Open up the Ubuntu Software Center.
2. Search for the term “blog” (No quotes).
3. Click the Install button associated with GNOME Blog.

That’s it. You will now find the tool in Applications > Internet > Blog Entry Poster.

Using GNOME Blog

Figure 2

When you fire up GNOME Blog click on the Preferences window so you can choose the type of blog you want to write to. From this new window (see Figure 2) select “Self-Run WordPress” from the Blog Type drop-down and then fill in the rest of the information.

You will not be able to select the Blog Name from the drop-down until you have configured the URL, username, and password. Once you have done that click Lookup Blogs and select the blog you want to post to from the drop-down.

Once you have selected your blog, click the Close button, and you’re ready to begin.

Posting

Figure 3

Posting with GNOME Blog is simple. From the main window (see Figure 3) you can enter a title and the body of your blog. You can also add a link into the body of the blog by clicking the Add Link… button and entering the link title and url.

Upon completion of your blog entry, click the Post Entry button and your blog post will make its way through the ethernet to your blog.

Final thoughts

It should be obvious that you can not do much as far as formatting, adding images, and the like. But for simple text-based blog posts, you can’t beat the simplicity and ease of use of GNOME Blog.

Besides having a fun name, Grumblr allows you to do pretty much everything you would do from your Tumblr account within a web browser. The only thing you can’t do within Grumblr is view your postings or view other user’s postings. But as for the posting of content – Grumblr has you covered. Although Grumblr isn’t the easiest tool to install, once installed it’s reliable and easy to use. Let’s install Grumblr and start using it.

Dependencies

• Ruby interpreter
• GTK+ library
• Ruby bindings to GTK+
• RubyGems gem manager
• libXml Ruby library
• REST Client gem
• PPDS libraries gem

Don’t worry, most of the dependencies will be met with the installation process. Speaking of which, let’s install.

Installation

You will not find Grumblr in the Add/Remove Software tool or the Ubuntu Software Center. Instead you need to follow these steps (NOTE: I am demonstrating on Ubuntu 10.10):

1. Open up a terminal window.
2. Issue the command sudo apt-get install ruby ruby-dev rubygems ruby-gnome2 libxml-ruby  libxml2 libxml2-dev libopenssl-ruby zlib1g-dev.
3. Type your sudo password and hit Enter.
4. Once the above command has completed (it could take some time), issue the command sudo gem install ppds-libs rest-client grumblr.

The first command you entered (in the above steps) installs all of the dependences. The second command will install the Grumblr application.

Once the installation is finished, you are not quite ready to fire up grumbler. If you check around your menus you will notice no entry for Grumblr. That is because we have to actually create a menu entry as well as copy the executable file to the proper location. This is done with the following steps (NOTE: In the follow steps you will notice a release number in the command. Depending upon when you install Grumblr, you might have to modify this release number to actually work):

1. Issue the command sudo cp /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/grumblr-2.3.5/data/pixmaps/grumblr.svg /usr/share/pixmaps/.
2. Issue the command sudo cp /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/grumblr-2.3.5/data/grumblr.desktop  /usr/share/applications/.
3. Issue the command sudo ln -s /var/lib/gems/1.8/bin/grumblr /usr/bin/grumblr.

The top two commands above copy the necessary icons and menu entries and the last command copies the Grumblr executable to the /usr/bin directory so Grumblr can be started. You will now find Grumblr in the Applications > Internet > Grumblr.

Figure 1

Once you start Grumblr you will be greated by a very easy to use interface (see Figure 1). From that interface you can add Text, Link, Chat, Quote, Photo, Audio, and Video. All you do is enter what you want to share, and hit the Send button.

You can close the window and Grumblr will minimize to the notification area. To bring the Grumblr window back, simply click on the Grumblr icon.

Final thoughts

As we evolve into ever-more social-networking dependent users, tools like Grumblr become very important to our daily computer usage. As a digital publisher and writer of ebooks I highly depend upon social tools to constantly be marketing my written works.

SQL Buddy is one of the easiest web-based admin tools you will ever find. Not only does it make the process of creating and editing MySQL databases easy, it is also incredibly easy to install. Let’s see just how easy this is to manage.

What you need

You will, of course, need a working installation of MySQL. You will also have to have your MySQL admin user and password handy. As far as dependencies, you will need to have the following installed:

• PHP >= 4.3
• MySQL >= 4

Of course, if you already have the MySQL server up and running you might only need the PHP piece installed. You can install the PHP dependency easily from your Add/Remove Software tool. Search for “php” (no quotes) and install the version recommended for your distribution and release.

You will also need to download the SQL Buddy file. You can find that from the SQL Buddy main page. This file will be a .zip file. Save that file into your web server’s document root (on a Ubuntu machine that would be /var/www).

Installation

Figure 1

You will be shocked to know there really is no installation. All you need to do is unzip the sqlbuddy_XXX.zip (Where XXX is the release number) within your web server document root and then point your browser to http://ADDRESS_TO_SERVER/sqlbuddy. Where ADDRESS_TO_SERVER is the actual address of your MySQL server. When you do this you will be prompted for the MySQL admin credentials. Enter the credentials and, upon successful authentication, you will find yourself on the SQL Buddy main page (see Figure 1).

Figure 2

Once you are in you will find the interface very simple to use. Here you can create new databases by entering a name for the database, selecting the correct charset (Very important), and hitting Submit. Once you do that you will find yourself at a new screen. This new screen (Figure 2) allows you to edit the database and create tables for the database.

You do need to pay close attention to the creation of tables for your database. Make sure you add the correct fields for the the table or you will get an SQL error and the table will not be saved.

After you successfully enter the data for your tables, click Submit and your table will be added to the new Database (and the database will be successfully saved).

Final thoughts

If you have been searching for an easy method to manage your MySQL databases, search no more…SQL Buddy will have you easily creating and managing databases on your MySQL server.

One such option is Hamachi. Hamachi is a zero-configuration virtual private network tool that allows you to set up a VPN between machines without having to go through the complex setup of the server itself. Instead Hamachi relies on the Logmein Hamachi servers to aid with the Peer to Peer connection. As for the user…all they need to do is install the tool and create their network. Let’s see how this is done.

Installation

I am going to show how this is done on a Ubuntu 10.10 desktop. Hamachi can be downloaded installed on other distributions, but let’s stick with one here for simplicity.

The first step is download the proper file. You will find a .deb file for this tool here. Download that file to your ~/Downloads directory and get ready to install.

In order to install follow these steps:

1. Open up your file manager (most likely Nautilus.)
2. Navigate to the ~/Downloads directory.
3. Locate the hamachi-gui-XXX.aaa.deb (Where XXX is the release number and aaa is the architecture.)
4. Double click on the .deb file.
5. When prompted, enter your sudo password to allow the installation to continue.
6. Let the installation complete.
7. Delete the .deb (optional) and close Nautilus.

Usage

Figure 1

To start the Hamachi GUI click Applications > Internet > hamachi-gui. This will open up the tools main window (see Figure 1). If you already know the VPN you need to join all you have to do is click the “triangle” button at the bottom of the main window. This will open up a new window that allows you to either create or join a VPN network. Let’s create a VPN network.

Click the “triangle” button and, in the resulting window, click the Create Network button. In this new window (see Figure 2) there are only two pieces of information you need to add:

Figure 2

Name: name of your VPN

Password: Password to protect your VPN from unwanted users.

After you enter that information, click the Create button. The network will be instantly created and your machine will be automatically joined.

If you want to join a different network (or one you’ve previously created), you simply click the same triangle button you clicked to create the network, only you click the Join Network button next. When you click that button it will prompt you enter the credentials for the VPN. Upon successful authentication your machine will be a part of that VPN.

You can have as many VPN networks listed on your Hamachi client as you want. You want to pay close attention to which networks you are joined to. If a particular network has a green dot to the left of its name – you are connected to that network. To leave or join a network you simply need to right-click that network and select Change Status.

Pithos is a native Pandora client for the GNOME desktop. It is easy to install, has a user-friendly GUI, and won’t drag your machine into the murky waters. Let’s take a look at how to install and use this client so you can start your new year out rockin’.

Before you begin, you will need to have a Pandora account. Once you have a Pandora account you will be able to manage your stations from within Pithos (so need to bother adding/removing stations from within the Pandora site.)  In fact, it’s actually easier to manager your stations from within Pithos than it is from within the site.

Installation

Pithos is not found in the standard repositories, so you have to add the Pithos repository. Adding the repository is simple. Open up a terminal window and issue the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kevin-mehall/pithos-daily
sudo apt-get update

Once you have the repository in place, you can then install the application. This is done with the following command:

sudo apt-get install pithos

Once the application is installed you will find it located in Applications > Sound and Video.

Usage

Figure 1

When you first start up Pithos you will be required to authenticate to your Pandora account. Once you do this Pithos will download your current list (or the default list) of stations associated with your account and open up the main window (see Figure 1). You can change the channel you want to listen to simply by clicking the channel drop-down and selecting the desired channel.

Figure 2

To create new channels to enjoy click on the Preferences button (the gear with the drop-down arrow) and select Manage Stations. In this new window (see Figure 2) click the Add Station button and then enter the name of an artist. You will then be presented by a number of choices to select from. Choose the correct artist and click OK. That artist will be added to your station list.

You can also include each station in your QuickMix list. The QuickMix list is like a shuffle for Pandora. Select which stations you want to include in your QuickMix and then, from the Station drop-down (in the main window), select QuickMix to get a mix of music from all of your stations.

Other features

One of the nicer features of Pithos is the inclusion of a notification icon. From this icon you can left-click and quickly “Love”, skip, play, pause, “Ban”, or “Tired” a currently playing song and you can quickly quit Pithos.

Pithos also includes:

• Cover Art.
• Notification popup with song info.
• Launching pandora.com song info/station page.
• Reconnecting when pandora session times out
• Media Key support
• Proxy support
• Last.fm scrobbling

Final thoughts

At last Linux has a worthy client for the enormously popular Pandora Music service. Make this your go-to application for Music listening in Linux and you won’t be sorry.

I want to show you how this is done in two different ways: Using a typical firewall GUI and the ufw command line. For the GUI I am going to illustrate this with GUFW (GNOME frontend for UFW). Naturally, each GUI firewall tool will deal with this process differently, but understanding the fundamentals of what you’re looking for should give you enough information about how exactly to manage the task with the firewall tool you use.

ufw

Figure 1

Let’s start with the more challenging task first. I will assume you know some of the basics. What we will be doing is allowing the necessary Samba ports through with the help of the UFW command line. Let’s first check to make sure your firewall is enabled. To do this issue the command:

sudo iptables -L

When you issue the above command you should see output similar to what you see in Figure 1. If you see nothing, that means your firewall isn’t enabled.

Now, let’s add the rules to allow Samba to pass through your firewall. I am going to illustrate this using the 192.168.1.0 IP address scheme. You can adjust this to fit your needs. The commands you need to run, to open up the necessary ports are:

sudo ufw allow proto udp to any port 137 from 192.168.1.0/24
sudo ufw allow proto udp to any port 138 from 192.168.1.0/24
sudo ufw allow proto tcp to any port 139 from 192.168.1.0/24
sudo ufw allow proto tcp to any port 445 from 192.168.1.0/24

You will issue the above commands one at a time.

GUFW

Figure 2

Now let’s take a look at allowing Samba through your firewall using the UFW front-end, GUFW.  You can start the GUFW tool by clicking System > Administration > Firewall Configuration. When the GUFW window opens (see Figure 2). If the firewall is not enabled, check the Enabled check box to start it up. Once it is started up you can then add rules to the configuration.

Figure 3

When you click the Add button a new window will appear (see Figure 3). From this window select the Preconfigured tab. In this window select the following:

• Allow
• In
• Service
• Samba

When you have the above selected, click Add. Now go back and add another rule to use the same configuration as above with the exception of selecting Out instead of In. Once you have done that, close the Add Rule window and then quit the GUFW window. Your firewall should now allow Samba through.