WAYNE CHIRNSIDE wrote in a message to ROY J. TELLASON:

 RJT> In my researches,  I found that there was a _lot_ more about tar in the
 RJT> info pages than there was in the man page.  Don't like info,  don't
 RJT> like the user interface,  but there it was.  

 WC> Yeah the man pages do seem to be written for a somewhat seasoned
 WC> veteran ;-) Will look into the info pages.

Not even that they were written for a different audience or whatever,  it
was just a matter of *lots* more information on the topic.

Worse yet,  there are a bunch of things where the man pages say something
about them not being actively maintained any more and that you should see
the info page for how to use whatever it is.  That irritates me.  Good
thing you can get at that stuff with a browser...

 WC> Need to snag MultiMail for Linux as well as the home user Linux
 WC> version of F-prot.

 RJT> Virus program?  I've never seen the need to bother,  here.

 WC> Good to know however some of the local html page links to a Debian
 WC> site that comes up default in the Knoppix Konqueror browser mention
 WC> about a dozen threats. Seems to be some hazard from overflowing a 
 WC> buffer to gain root access too.

Yeah,  if you run the particular version of whatever the problem software
is and if you happen to have the exposure to the problem by being online
full-time and if you have the right ports open and so forth.  I've not had
a problem here and don't expect to.  My modem is hooked to a
firewall/router box running one version of things,  and an absolutely
minimal install (I could probably go lots smaller,  get one of those
floppy-based deals or something) and not much comes through there,  even
the stuff I want.  :-)

 WC> I guess I need a good recent systems administrator's manual for 
 WC> Debian Linux to get a handle on some security issues. Barnes and 
 WC> Noble came up empty for anything later then 2001.

There's a "Linux System Administrator's Guide" or something
pretty close to that available online that covers a lot of stuff.  I think
I ended up with it with one of my installs,  but if I run across a URL to
it I'll send it to you.

 WC> Have to check some Linux CD and books sales sites.

There's *LOTS* of info available online.  Even a Yahoo search on linux got
me a page full of stuff that led me to more info than I've had time to
follow up on,  and I haven't finished checking out what's on that page. 
Lots of online publications,  too -- check out LinuxFocus and LinuxGazette
-- back issues of both to all the way back when they started are all
available online and you can download them and read them at your leisure. 
I know that LinuxFocus in particular had a number of articles on security, 
I'll send you some links if I come across them.  I downloaded pretty much
all of this stuff,  haven't finished digesting it by a long shot...

 RJT> About the only use I ever heard of that made some sense was for a 
 RJT> linux system that handled a lot of dos and win files,  to check 
 RJT> _those_.

 WC> No intention of mixing the two up outside of copying some HTML back
 WC> and forth.

Why copy it back and forth?  Just put it in one place where both sides can
get at it...



 WC> SCP stands for Secure Copy and is another possibility I need 
 WC> examine to see if it's suitable to this use.

 RJT> SSH is probably a better bet.

 WC> Thanks for the tip, will look into the info files for that. I'm 
 WC> confident I can setup either MultiMail or APT and Infozip. Syntax 
 WC> for telneting in either case involves a bit more by way of 
 WC> switches than what I'm used to.

You can set the defaults up in an alias.

 WC> Will need to write my own script to automate the procedure 
 WC> somewhat just for convenience.

 WC> There's a pretty impressive assortment of multimedia, sound, video
 WC> and munipulation apps native to Knoppix.

 RJT> Have you looked at The Gimp yet?  A little strange to operate,  but
 RJT> *very* powerful stuff there.  I can refer you to some online articles
 RJT> if you want.

Again referring to LinuxFocus here.  

 WC> Not played with it yet.
 WC> Ran into a GUI interface in root for making disk images though :-)
 WC> Seems one can also install Knoppix as a image file to the hard
 WC> drive the same size as the CD and still save settings to either FAT
 WC> 32 or a small Linux partition.

Letting people try it out all sorts of ways without having to commit
themselves,  I guess.

 WC> This seems to be the mother of all Linux releases to get one 
 WC> relatively fast tracked if one has the RAM to run it.

Looks like he's trying to get the win-users going...

 WC> Verizon used to allow one to stay online for extended periods but
 WC> now seems to log you off at 5 hours tops even with activity :-(
 WC> Time to change providers, it's my 150 Hrs/Mo and I should be
 WC> allowed to chose how I use them!

 RJT> That's one of the reasons I changed.  Absolutely no mention was made of
 RJT> this when I signed up,  and then they acknowledged it,  and still
 RJT> didn't have any mention of it on their web page until I bugged them
 RJT> about it.

 WC> All the bad changes happened after GTE became Verizon.

No argument with that!

 WC> Before I could log on either box, start a download, close the 
 WC> browser and the dialer would hang up after the download was 
 WC> complete.

 WC> I downloaded Win 3.1's Netscape Communicator 4.08 at just under 18
 WC> meg overnight on a 14,400 

 WC> No can do such a thing anymore :-(

I was looking for some info today,  and this one guy came back to me about
how it was available -- as a 100-some-odd meg PDF file!  Not on my dialup
uh uh...

If he says it's got the info I need in it (not sure at this point) I'm
going to have to see what can be done to snag it through somebody who has a
higher-speed connection,  if I snag it at all.

 RJT> My irritation stemmed from the fact that there were occasional 
 RJT> large downloads that I might want to do that wouldn't be possible 
 RJT> with this setup.  If the site in question didn't allow me to 
 RJT> resume where I'd left off,  I was screwed.

 WC> Yeah, I wanted Peanut Linux and Dragon releases image files, too
 WC> big for the 5 hour limit :-(

Sucks,  don't it?

 RJT> Not to mention the lousy connect rates...  I was emailing with my
 RJT> brother on this subject and gave him the local access number for my new
 RJT> outfit where he lives,  and he had the same experience,  going from not
 RJT> ever connecting any higher than 33.6 to 49-something on the first shot.
 RJT>  He said something about giving them a chance to fix it,  but they're
 RJT> not gonna fix it...

 RJT> Screw 'em.

 WC> In a couple of months when I setup Internet Junction, have to 
 WC> inquire if they block the telnet port though. In either case I've 
 WC> got a clean pair of telco wires :-)

Yeah,  you do have that going for you.  Did I mention I'm still seeing
"connect 52000" every single time?  Can't complain about that...

 RJT> When you do get around to the command-line stuff,  mc is your friend.
 RJT> :-)

 WC> Already familar with it.

Good.

 WC> Right now I'm up to my eyeballs in stuff to do,

 RJT> I know the feeling!

 WC> I think I'll trust the 6.4 Gig Quantum drive to last two months
 WC> before I occupy the spare drive bay with a large drive.

 WC> If she crashes and burns no big deal as Knoppix is a snap to 
 WC> install!

 RJT> Yeah,  that lasts until you have a certain amount of time invested in
 RJT> making it work the way you want to,  configuring stuff,  etc.

 WC> I seem to be able to recall odd syntax pretty well once I've been
 WC> there before.

I just hate having to do all that work all over again...

 CA> I _think_ the general consensus has been to use 'dd' for creating
 CA> image files for backup purposes from a Linux install?

 WC> I'll do a man dd and check that out :-)

 RJT> It's a handy utility,  I used it to wipe the boot sector on that XP box
 RJT> that's been a pain in the butt for me lately,  stuck tomsrtbt in there
 RJT> and after logging in typed "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512
 RJT> count=1".  If it hadn't been so late and me so tired I would've left
 RJT> off that last bit and wiped the whole drive,  it'd have been easier in
 RJT> the long run.

 RJT> You have a vendor picked out for that drive yet?

 WC> Torn between Seagate and W.D. still.

Either one of them would be fine by me.  Any difference in the warranty?

 WC> Circuit City seems to have the best prices but CompUSA carries 
 WC> some Seagate drives.

That before or after rebates?

 WC> I see from the the Linux hardware docs I'd be better off with an
 WC> H.P. Vectra line box which takes true parity memory.

Lots of stuff out there supports it,  if you can find it.  I have one box
here that insists on parity ram,  and there's no option to disable the
parity check on powerup so I have a couple of 16s and a couple of 4s in
there giving me 40M.  It was going to run OS/2 to start with,  but I
haven't decided yet what I'm going to do with it,  maybe do a minimal
install of linux on there and see how well the LAN really does work. 


 WC> Next go around that's what I'll look for used.

I *think* that the MB I'm using now in the primary system also offers the
option to support parity ram,  but not having much of it here I don't know
if I'm going to bother with trying that.  If I had the funds,  I'd get
something that would support ECC ram and be done with it.



 WC> Five year warrantee on the hardware external I've in mind and the
 WC> cost for the local ISP is only 9.95 unlimited dialup.

 RJT> Just make sure that when they say "unlimited" they really mean it!

 WC> Yeah really!

Heh.

 WC> If Internet Junction's unlimited really is unlimited I've no need 
 WC> for DSL. Big need is downloading ISO files on rare occassion.

Or if you start spending some nontrivial time in alt.binaries.* newsgroups... :-)

 WC> Their web site states unlimited DSL and 20 hours dialup
 WC> and web page space at the same price as Verizon's package.

 WC> BTW the dialer in Knoppix connects and negotiates way faster than
 WC> Windows' dialer.

 RJT> Big surprise,  eh?  :-)

 WC> Not unexpected but the magnitude of the difference was!

Heh.

Biggest gripe I have about that Celeron box I'm working on is how darn long
it takes for the thing to boot!  I timed it -- it's about a minute and a
half,  or so -- before it either boots or goes into setup.  It seems that
even if you want to go into setup you still have to wait through all the
hardware checks that it does.  I'm not that impressed with that MB...

 CA> The Winamp lookalike included with KNOPPIX seems quite good here
 CA> for most music files.

 RJT> XMMS?  It seems to work well for me,  too.

 WC> Need to put that Turtle Beach sound card in to check it out.  

Yeah,  get some music going...   :-)

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