Re: [Discuss] Looking for WiFi router with certain characteristics
A couple notes. I NEVER, repeat, NEVER use stock software from the vendor of my wireless router. Sorry, I don't trust fill in company name here All my routers use DD-WRT. Once you make that jump, then you can just hop over to their website and look for compatible routers. The DD-WRT code has a LOT of features that the commercial routers do not provide, including SSH access. So, now that you can have the features that you want regardless of vendor, just find a router that is supported at a good price. Last year I found a DLink-N 615 router for $30. I bought two of them and put one at each end of the house. Apologies to Lewis Carroll. I'm afraid the following doesn't scan as well as his version: The time has come, my router said, to talk of many things. Of 802.11 ac and n and g and b, And why Cisco updates without permission. And the safety of ASUS settings. :-) It's long past time for me to replace my 802.11 g router with something more recent. But I have a few constraints that make it tricky to select the right router. So my question is, do any of you have experience with the ASUS RT-N66U or any other router that fits the constraints I describe below? While I'm interested in recommendations of what's worked well for you, I'd also appreciate warnings of what to stay away from. advTHANKSance for your help. My constraints are: 1. COVERAGE: The construction of the house the router will be installed in is problematic WRT getting signals through. It was built before drywall was in common use in the U.S. But rather than using wood lath, the plaster is held in place by lath. But it's not traditional wood lath. It's WIRE LATH. Also, the heating system is forced hot air, which means that there's SHEET-METAL DUCTWORK between all the ceilings and floors. So all the walls, floors, and ceilings have metal in them. With the old router, I had to replace one of the stick antennas with a directional antenna aimed toward the part of the house where coverage was weakest. But since 802.11 N and AC use MIMO, I believe that replacing one of the stick antennas with a directional antenna would screw up the interference pattern that MIMO depends on. I'm hoping that MIMO will solve the coverage problem that the directional antenna solved with the old router. Do any of you have any experience with routers in environments like this? If MIMO doesn't get me the coverage I need, what are my options? 2. N vs. AC: I have a 5 GHz cordless phone that I do not want to replace. It implements features that would be difficult to find a replacement for, and even if I could, replacing it would be quite expensive. So it was important for me to figure out whether this phone will interfere with an 802.11-AC router. It took several months of research, but eventually I determined that it definitely will interfere with over half of the 5 GHz WiFi channels used in the U.S. Since 802.11-AC only operates in the 5 GHz band, but 802.11-N operates in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, 802.11-N seems like a much better choice for my circumstances. Furthermore, most of the computers on my network don't support 802.11-AC, but are recent enough that I'm not likely to replace them anytime soon. So it makes sense to me to ignore 802.11-AC routers and only look at 802.11-N. Does this logic make sense to you? 3. SPEED: Of the 802.11-N offerings, the highest aggregate speed seems to be 450 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band plus 450 Mbps in the 5 GHz band. This is commonly known as an N900 router. Given the potential interference from the 5 GHz cordless phone, I may not get the full 450 Mbps from the 5 GHz range, but a dual band N router seems the choice most likely to get me the fastest throughput possible for my circumstances. 4. PORTS: In addition to supporting WiFi, I also need the router to provide 4 LAN Ethernet ports in addition to the 1 WAN Ethernet port for connecting it to my cable modem. 5. WHAT ROUTERS CAN BE TRUSTED? CISCO: Given the above constraints, I was considering the Linksys (Cisco) EA4500, but when I Googled it, I quickly learned that about 2 years ago, Cisco/Linksys had pushed out their Cloud Connect firmware to all their routers without the router owners' permission, and in order for the owner to continue using his own router, he had no choice but to sign an agreement that allows Cisco to spy on his Internet use, allows Cisco to sell any data they collect, and allows Cisco to legally lock the router's owner out of his own router whenever they feel like it. http://boingboing.net/2012/07/03/cisco-locks-customers-out-of-t.html,
Re: [Discuss] access points
Michael Tiernan michael.tier...@gmail.com writes: On 7/28/14 5:48 PM, Tom Metro wrote: What goes into a consumer access point is nearly 100% the same hardware I use a Netgear router/wifi point here at home and I just found that there's a switch to put it into access point mode which I now have to do more reading on. As it is, acting as a smart box, it breaks my network into two subnets that limits some things working. You can pretty much put most home routers into AP Mode (or Bridge Mode) and bypass the routing functionality. -derek -- Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board (SIPB) URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/PP-ASEL-IA N1NWH warl...@mit.eduPGP key available ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] Looking for WiFi router with certain characteristics
Bill Bogstad bogs...@pobox.com writes: it can be put into: Wi-Fi Router, Access Point, and Range Extender modes. Which it is in depends on software configuration and how the Edimax physically connects to the rest of your network. It might be a good idea to verify that the device is correctly configured. Okay, here's a dumb question: What's the difference between Access Point mode and Range Extender mode? Is RE mode using wireless as the backhaul, whereas AP mode uses wired as the backhaul? Bill Bogstad -derek -- Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board (SIPB) URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/PP-ASEL-IA N1NWH warl...@mit.eduPGP key available ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] Looking for WiFi router with certain characteristics
On 7/29/2014 10:11 AM, Derek Atkins wrote: Okay, here's a dumb question: What's the difference between Access Point mode and Range Extender mode? Is RE mode using wireless as the backhaul, whereas AP mode uses wired as the backhaul? An access point is a standalone device. Wireless distribution system, aka WDS, aka range extension, is part of the draft 802.11g specifications but it was not formally included in the final spec due to implementation issues (that may have changed; I haven't kept up). A WDS access point is a client or slave to an existing master access point. WDS is wireless; it does not use wired networking at all. If your secondary access points are connected via wired Ethernet then they're not doing WDS. -- Rich P. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] Looking for WiFi router with certain characteristics
On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 10:11 AM, Derek Atkins warl...@mit.edu wrote: Bill Bogstad bogs...@pobox.com writes: it can be put into: Wi-Fi Router, Access Point, and Range Extender modes. Which it is in depends on software configuration and how the Edimax physically connects to the rest of your network. It might be a good idea to verify that the device is correctly configured. Okay, here's a dumb question: What's the difference between Access Point mode and Range Extender mode? Is RE mode using wireless as the backhaul, whereas AP mode uses wired as the backhaul? As far as I can tell, that's the way your device (and every other one that I've looked at) does it. Technically, I think Richard Pieri is correct in that an AP doesn't HAVE to bridge to wired Ethernet; but I don't think I have ever seen one that doesn't offer that option. Certainly not in the consumer market. Of course, you can always just not connect wired Ethernet, if you truly want it to be a standalone wireless Ethernet. In either case, the device shouldn't do any IP routing and probably will not provide any network services (say DNS server). If you read your manual you will find that it still wants an IP address though (either static or via DHCP) so that you can manage it via its web interface. Bill Bogstad ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] Seeking information on binaries called entities and fixup
On 7/28/2014 5:33 PM, Tom Metro wrote: Bill Horne wrote: No, they work on the old server, but fail on the new. I assume it's a permissions issue, but I can't figure out what might cause it. % strace entities Tom, Thanks for the suggestion. Here's a log snippet that may make this issue more clear: moder8@telecom:~/bin$ ls -lh /home/moder8/bin/entities -rwxrwxr-x 1 moder8 telecom 8.8K Jan 27 2012 /home/moder8/bin/entities moder8@telecom:~/bin$ ls -lh /var/www/html/archives/back.issues/recent.single.issues/I125 -rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 3.1K Jul 28 11:12 /var/www/html/archives/back.issues/recent.single.issues/I125 moder8@telecom:~/bin$ strace ./entities /var/www/html/archives/back.issues/recent.single.issues/I125 execve(./entities, [./entities, /var/www/html/archives/back.issu...], [/* 22 vars */]) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) write(2, strace: exec: No such file or di..., 40strace: exec: No such file or directory ) = 40 exit_group(1) = ? +++ exited with 1 +++ moder8@telecom:~/bin$ As you can see, the file entities shows up in an ls listing, but not when I try to run it by itself or with strace. Thanks for your help! -- E. William Horne William Warren Consulting 339-364-8487 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] Seeking information on binaries called entities and fixup
It appears you're in a different directory. Try: strace /home/moder8/bin/entities -Original Message- From: discuss-bounces+joe=polcari@blu.org [mailto:discuss-bounces+joe=polcari@blu.org] On Behalf Of Bill Horne Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2014 3:41 PM To: BLU Discussion List Subject: Re: [Discuss] Seeking information on binaries called entities and fixup On 7/28/2014 5:33 PM, Tom Metro wrote: Bill Horne wrote: No, they work on the old server, but fail on the new. I assume it's a permissions issue, but I can't figure out what might cause it. % strace entities Tom, Thanks for the suggestion. Here's a log snippet that may make this issue more clear: moder8@telecom:~/bin$ ls -lh /home/moder8/bin/entities -rwxrwxr-x 1 moder8 telecom 8.8K Jan 27 2012 /home/moder8/bin/entities moder8@telecom:~/bin$ ls -lh /var/www/html/archives/back.issues/recent.single.issues/I125 -rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 3.1K Jul 28 11:12 /var/www/html/archives/back.issues/recent.single.issues/I125 moder8@telecom:~/bin$ strace ./entities /var/www/html/archives/back.issues/recent.single.issues/I125 execve(./entities, [./entities, /var/www/html/archives/back.issu...], [/* 22 vars */]) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) write(2, strace: exec: No such file or di..., 40strace: exec: No such file or directory ) = 40 exit_group(1) = ? +++ exited with 1 +++ moder8@telecom:~/bin$ As you can see, the file entities shows up in an ls listing, but not when I try to run it by itself or with strace. Thanks for your help! -- E. William Horne William Warren Consulting 339-364-8487 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] Seeking information on binaries called entities and fixup
On 7/29/2014 3:44 PM, Joe Polcari wrote: strace /home/moder8/bin/entities Joe, Thanks for your suggestion: here's the output. moder8@telecom:~$ strace /home/moder8/bin/entities /var/www/html/archives/back.issues/recent.single.issues/I125 execve(/home/moder8/bin/entities, [/home/moder8/bin/entities, /var/www/html/archives/back.issu...], [/* 21 vars */]) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) write(2, strace: exec: No such file or di..., 40strace: exec: No such file or directory ) = 40 exit_group(1) = ? +++ exited with 1 +++ moder8@telecom:~$ pwd /home/moder8 Bill -- E. William Horne William Warren Consulting 339-364-8487 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[Discuss] I'm getting mail for nobody
I just noticed that my new server is accepting mail for nobody. moder8@telecom:~$ ls -lh /var/mail total 4.0K -rw-rw 1 moder8 telecom0 Jul 26 19:10 moder8 -rw-rw 1 root root1.5K Jul 10 06:16 nobody moder8@telecom:~$ sudo less /var/mail/nobody moder8@telecom:~$ sudo emacs /etc/aliases moder8@telecom:~$ egrep nobody /etc/passwd nobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin Which is probably not a good thing. ;-) Ubuntu 14.04 LTS has Postfix by default, and I've never worked on it. All suggestions welcome. Bill -- E. William Horne William Warren Consulting 339-364-8487 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] I'm getting mail for nobody
On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 04:39:03PM -0400, Bill Horne wrote: I just noticed that my new server is accepting mail for nobody. The question is, what do you expect to happen when mail is sent to nobody? Or is it that you didn't expect mail to be sent to nobody? There are at least a couple of ways this can be handled. The two most useful are to figure out what's sending mail to nobody and make it stop (or change where the mail goes), or add an alias to nobody in /etc/aliases to point the mail where you want it to go (which might be /dev/null). You listed a couple of commands which included editing some files, but of course we can not see what the result of that was. Note also that the canonical location for the aliases file moved to /etc/mail/aliases some time ago, but many vendors (I believe Ubuntu included but not positive) have retained /etc/aliases for legacy reasons, but if you've looked for it in one place and it's not there, it may be in the other. As for what is sending the mail: a number of system services typically run as nobody, so that they need not run with root privileges if that is not required. Cron jobs belonging to such services may well send the output (usually error messages) of those cron jobs to nobody. The text of the mail generally should provide some clue as to where they came from. -- Derek D. Martinhttp://www.pizzashack.org/ GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02 -=-=-=-=- This message is posted from an invalid address. Replying to it will result in undeliverable mail due to spam prevention. Sorry for the inconvenience. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] I'm getting mail for nobody
Bill Horne wrote: I just noticed that my new server is accepting mail for nobody. Which is probably not a good thing. ;-) You probably want to alias nobody to root or your designated admin user, if it is not already, so you can catch error messages that might end up there. I'm assuming your concern is with respect to external senders trying to reach nobody. You probably don't want them emailing root either. See: http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~jnw/SysAdminsp01/Lectures/postfix-html/faq.html#bogus That explanation falls a bit short of spelling out the specifics. I don't know what the canonical recommended solution is for setting up a mapping table for allowing only a subset of local users to receive mail from external senders. (I normally use Postfix either with trivial, default setups that relay mail to a smart host, or with virtual domains and maps, where local users are not relevant.) The above would suggest altering the local_recipient_maps parameter, but it's quite possible that the preferred solution is to employ virtual domains, and have your local machine be identified as something different from what your machine is publicly known as. That way you can set up a rule to accept mail for users in /etc/passwd and /etc/aliases only from the localhost, and for everything else consult a virtual map. -Tom -- Tom Metro The Perl Shop, Newton, MA, USA Predictable On-demand Perl Consulting. http://www.theperlshop.com/ ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] Seeking information on binaries called entities and fixup
Bill Horne wrote: moder8@telecom:~/bin$ ls -lh /home/moder8/bin/entities -rwxrwxr-x 1 moder8 telecom 8.8K Jan 27 2012 /home/moder8/bin/entities moder8@telecom:~$ strace /home/moder8/bin/entities /var/www/html/archives/back.issues/recent.single.issues/I125 execve(/home/moder8/bin/entities, [/home/moder8/bin/entities, /var/www/html/archives/back.issu...], [/* 21 vars */]) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) write(2, strace: exec: No such file or di..., 40strace: exec: No such file or directory ) = 40 Have you examined /home/moder8/bin/entities with 'file', strings, and less? I would guess that it is a shell script with a missing interpreter, but the error message is not right for that. Actually, that might be it: % touch foo % chmod u+x foo % echo #\!/bin/bogus foo fringe:/tmp% strace ./foo execve(./foo, [./foo], [/* 54 vars */]) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) [...] write(3, strace: exec: No such file or di..., 40strace: exec: No such file or directory ) = 40 It's a misleading error message. The No such file is not referring to ./foo, but to the specified interpreter, /bin/bogus, but because the bang-path magic is embedded in execve(), and it only returns an error code (it doesn't generate the error message to STDERR), you're left with a generic error and no object being identified. I assume the above was on the new server. What happens when you strace it on the old server? -Tom -- Tom Metro The Perl Shop, Newton, MA, USA Predictable On-demand Perl Consulting. http://www.theperlshop.com/ ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[Discuss] Sync Revisited
At this point in time I've mostly given up on automated sync systems. Too many little problems for me to deal with. I dropped Dropbox a while back because, quite frankly, there's about zero security to it. Anything based on third-party cloud storage is automatically on my non-starter list these days, especially after the Code Spaces breach. I like the idea of BitTorrent Sync, how it goes about synchronizing arbitrary directories. The startup times and memory footprint, however, make it a poor tool for large-scale synchronization. By large I mean half-TB worth of data and hundreds of thousands of files on up. I gave Syncthing a try now that it's moved beyond the don't use this in production phase. I won't use it for real. It synchronizes nodes, not directories, and continuously spews error messages when any node in the group doesn't synchronize all directories under Syncthing control. The developer (one guy) says that's how it's supposed to work. I say that it a flawed design because I don't want to sync 600GB of data to my 16GB tablet. The developer says that he isn't changing Syncthing's behavior so I say that I'm not using Syncthing. As of this week I'm back to Unison and some little wrapper scripts. Nothing -- still -- does sync as well, as fast, and as securely as Unison. -- Rich P. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
