SSH tunelling is no big secret, and there are loads of guides out there that explain how it is done in generic terms. This guide is slightly different, as it explains how to tunnel to hosts that are not publicly addressable. For example, if you have a Linux server as your home network gateway thenContinue reading “SSH tunnelling to your home network”
Category Archives: Computing
Configuring sendmail to use a Smart Host
Chances are if you have a Linux server in your home, you’ll want it to be able to send you emails, e.g. its daily logwatch or the output from cron jobs. But most ISPs block SMTP so you can’t directly send emails from your server to wherever they need to go, which is what theContinue reading “Configuring sendmail to use a Smart Host”
Forgetting something?
Today I wrote an email in Thunderbird and clicked send. It gave me this message: It has never asked me this before, so I wonder what prompted it to do so today. Turns out new builds of Thunderbird scan your email for keywords such as attachment or attached and reminds you to check for attachmentsContinue reading “Forgetting something?”
Search and replace in vim
I use vim all the time, but I can never remember off the top of my head. I have to look it up every time. So I’ve made a note of it here. This command simply replaces all occurrences of string with replace. Simple! :%s/search/replace/g
Federated tables in MySQL
Yesterday at work I had the need to create a federated table in MySQL. I read about the federated engine and thought I had it sussed. I noted: Beginning with MySQL 5.1.26, the FEDERATED storage engine is not enabled by default in the running server; to enable FEDERATED, you must start the MySQL server binaryContinue reading “Federated tables in MySQL”
An easy way to generate an iptables config
This is a +1 for Easy Firewall Generator for iptables. Of course any self-respecting sysadmin should be able to set up iptables, but sometimes starting off can be tricky. So I use the this website, which lets you define the basics using a handful of checkboxes, and it generates a script that configures your computer’sContinue reading “An easy way to generate an iptables config”
Resetting the BIOS on an EeePC 701
This evening, my other half’s Eee 701 broke. Whenever she turned it on, the green power LED and blue wireless LED came on, stayed on, and nothing else happened. The screen backlight didn’t come on, no power was supplied to the USB ports and the fan did not start to spin. I tried the usualContinue reading “Resetting the BIOS on an EeePC 701”
Google calendar
I decided that I need to sort out the way I do my personal calendaring. Currently I only use my phone’s built-in calendar. I nearly always have my phone with me, but it’s a bit of a pain to enter stuff on when I’m sat at a computer anyway, and carrying all that information solelyContinue reading “Google calendar”
Fedora, kmod-nvidia and akmod-nvidia
If you have Fedora and an nVidia graphics card, chances are you’ll want to use kmod-nvidia as your graphics driver. It is closed-source, but produced by nVidia themselves and has several advantages over the default open-source drivers that are typically bundled with most distributions – for example, 3D hardware acceleration. If you have already installedContinue reading “Fedora, kmod-nvidia and akmod-nvidia”
Setting up NRPE remote Linux monitoring with Nagios
This a short and simple guide, explaining how to set up remote monitoring of Linux hosts using NRPE in Nagios. The procedure is simple, but having searched for information on this earlier today I didn’t find a straightforward all-inclusive guide, so I’ve written my own. These instructions were written with Nagios 3.0.6, and they assumeContinue reading “Setting up NRPE remote Linux monitoring with Nagios”
Jonathan Gazeley 