reb2

Happy new year to one and all. thank you for all the help i have received from all the posts on this site. i hope the new year brings health, wealth and happiness to all. reb

i disagree, i say kick em out of europe, kick em out of blighty's new warships and send them packing back to america with their tail between their legs. and good riddance to bad rubbish !!! and business's will then have to look for alternatives and they will find all the other os's that work so well, not just linux. perhaps thats what really needs to happen? a real hard hitting change to wake the world up? ah well i can dream lol

I've scanned myself using Steve Gibson's SHIELDS UP!! and I've found that all of my ports on the NAT router are stealthed... with the exception of Port 113 which replies with CLOSED. Optimally, I'd like to forward scans on Port 113 to a non-existent IP address, but I don't see that port forwarding is even available on my NAT firewall router. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> don't forget, you can check the ports above 1035 in blocks of 64 at a time by checking out the custom ports feature on the sheildsup site! port 6667 springs to mind as well as others (it is time consuming to scan all 65000 ports this way, but at least you can split it up over several day's or weeks!) if you do scan all your ports you may well find others that are just "closed" i found several on my setup and have investigated the router's settings. all ports found to be closed (with the exception of 113 ident) have the words "unknown protocol used by this port" written beside it. some are used for server interaction and the like. but then if its closed to connections i'm not to bothered. its useful to scan the wan side of the router from outside and see what the cracker see's from their point of view. i hope this is of use reb2

I agree entirely sarissi, on-board anything is a no-no for me too! unless its for an office workstation (its cheaper) and then check it out thoroughly for compatibility with linux before buying !!! and those cnr /amr are a nightmare in windows (which they were designed for) let alone linux (they are basically controller less (ie: software driven) cards). like the old chestnut win-modems YUK!!! my way would be to "buy the cheap mobo" and then disable all onboard stuff in the bios (kinda defeats the object lol) and buy separate cards for what you need! don't know much about linux, but used to build machines for a living and i hate amr / cnr riser cards aaarrrggghhhh!!! roflmao

well i would score on both counts being as i dual boot, i could be using either of your suggested top 2 roflmao but it is a great review artee! very informative and balanced (refreshing for a review! ;0) )

<{POST_SNAPBACK}> thats ok, both scanners are detecting the test signature pattern. although the original poster probably knows this, i was just thinking of newbies and thought an explanation was in order. it is not an actual virus, just an industry standard test file (Eicar) to check that your anti-virus software is actually performing correctly. if the software does not detect "Eicar" then its not working properly. once this is done simply remove the Eicar file from the "scanned" directories so as not to get the same result each time you run a scan, (though keep the Eicar file handy to periodically check the anti-virus programmes are functioning correctly (after updates / upgrades etc) ). hope its useful regards reb2

f-protect / f-secure, has been in the business of protecting from infection of virii for years for the windows server, also produce firewall / security products too. the company has a good track record in the business world, and now offers a free linux scanner !! wow gimme gimme gimme! and no i don't work for them ;0) but i have run their windows stuff, load it, configure it, and then walk away and forget it. it worked well and had auto update. http://f-secure.com/download-purchase/list.shtml for more info on their products. hope this is of use to someone. regards

erm who would wanna copy it.... we just want to work with it! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> exactly gowater, its just that m$ don't want anyone else looking at the terrible way the code is written in their products. can you just imagine the public outcry when top experts get to look at it and make their findings really public (tv campaigns, national press etc)! all the design flaws, bugs, security holes etc etc etc.......... m$ simply cannot afford to have this info made public in this way. it is and will remain their (m$) biggest nightmare. they will defend it to the death. no-one may see inside it (well not without signing the m$ official secrets act !!) it has nothing to do with copying it, wouldn't that be a compliment anyway? it would be like saying hey this is good (better than ours!). when we all know its utter rubbish and just m$ trying to take global domination of everything you and i see and hear, they want to dictate everything and i mean everything, you and i experience, and on their terms only!! but then again who am i, just a guy sitting at home on my pc offering his opinion thats all. history has many lessons, m$ has not learned them yet, but if linux keeps coming as strong as it is now, it won't be long before m$ has to learn the hard way.

One wonders if this was a freudian thing (you know when the sub conscious takes over!). you see, the inner self has wanted to get rid of windows for years and now its done it. the sub concious mind is at least 10 times stronger than the conscious (according to my private brain care specialist lol) after all, the sub-conscious is trusted so much, it is given control of your heart beat and your breathing !! and your sub-conscious wants to rid your life of windows once and for all !!! take advice from my analyst always trust your sub-conscious roflmao. that advice cost me $20,000 ha ha ha lol lol lol hey who is that in that white coat, they look friendly .......................................................... reb2

ah well i learned something thanks for that on the one hand its great to learn, and on the other hand its terrible not knowing!!! It makes me feel stupid (which is odd because i don't even like him) I shall have to put myself out a bit more to learn this stuff. thanks again reb2

i wouldn't go so far as to say converted, but i have instilled an interest in five people so far. one, a good friend of mine, is a network engineer and when i first showed him mandrake 8.0 he looked at me and said "this looks a lot like unix! i used to use that years ago" i said "well it is unix compatible" and he was quite taken with it. he now runs linux on one of his own servers and always carries a linspire live cd with him (just to show his customers without installing over their precious winblows). the other four people are all friends who asked me "what is that running on your machine?" i said "linux" and they all said can i try that on my machine! needless to say my burner has been busy although none of them have a lot of spare time to learn linux, they all seem to have linux still installed and running (along with windoze). so i am doing my bit (honest) reb2

i am a noob and not very up on how this sort of thing works so please forgive my ignorance/stupidity if that is the case. but by all means have a good @ my expense most m$windows games/progs require files which reside in the windows system folder (i think). so i was wondering, if i had say "wine" installed in my linux partition and directed wine to look for said files in my windoze partition would this help wine to run a game or other windoze based prog? could the same be done with the directx files too? if it worked, you could just install windoze onto an old harddrive and drag the system folder across to the linux drive and remove the windoze drive?. please feel free to move this as i was not sure where to post it. :unsure: [moved from Software by spinynorman]

this is just a jockular (jokey) post, but how about this for an idea for a freaky film? big computer software company seeks world domination. crushes its competition in the computer software market and achieves its goal as dominanant top dog. invests heavily in the media, hence influences news storys around the globe! (it controls what you see hear and think). then it thinks ok we are nearly there, we have control of most of the population. we feed them a regular diet of fud and have maintained it for long enough to gain their confidence. next it invests in the military of the sole world super power, and through backroom deals and empty promises it manages to get its software installed in the sensitive area of command and control systems throughout the military. next it decides hey that was easy lets go for other countries military too (after all we've already got the most dangerous country's military on our side others should be a pushover). result ? the company ultimately achieves its original goal ! world domination or else they will destroy you with all its firepower. could you imagine a company (not a government) in control of all that firepower. whose decision would it be to press the big button? why the top man at the company. bloody good job that in real life the military systems cannot be accessed from outside eh! (or can they?) have fun reb

Whoever allowed this situation to come to fruition should be sacked and imprisoned for life. there is no way that anything like this should be allowed to happen at any cost. national security is being put at risk (not to mention the lives of crewmen). there is a "so called" global war on terrorism and you give the terrorists the golden key to unlock not just shipwide security but the whole bloody fleet!! send the ship a worm or virus and the entire launch codes are emailed around the globe! utter madness i think i shall email No10 and make a stand, after all its our taxes that fund the armed services i think we should have some say in the matter. i certainly would not feel safe on a navy ship if it was being run by windows absolutely crazy and insane. reb2

i was working in a computer repair shop and just got plain bored working on broken winblows machines (the shop was a cowboy outfit, not that i realised it at the time). picked up a copy of a magazine which had mandrake 7.2 on it, took it home and installed it on 2nd harddrive (6gb wow). it worked but the dial up modem was a bit tricky to get configured (kppp). but got it going and quite liked the different environment (it was refreshing). tried to let the boss know that this could be the next big thing and he completely blanked it (he didn't know windows! and didn't want to have to learn something else (what a muppet)). then i purchased a version of suse (6.1 i think), and tried that (again the modem was a bit tricky, but i got it going). next was red hat, but redhat and me just didn't get on (i can't remember which version). so i figured it was time to purchase a new up to date version of something and plumped for mandrake 8.0 powerpack, wow this was good and i have used mandrake ever since. i just love the ideal that linux strives for (by the community, for the community). i just wish i knew more about how linux ticks, but it works well enough for me. now i dual boot win millenium (win3.1 updated lol) and mandrake 9.2 40gb windows (just for games and other junk) and 20gb mandrake. i guess i am just a "user" but i am learning slowly (maybe i'll be able to update my kernel in about ten years) roflmao

how would microsoft put it in laymans terms ? we can't beat it! and we can't join it! so we'll just swim along side it taking nips out of it where we can. we'll incorporate its ideas and then remarket them wrapped up in a microsoft sweetwrapper as our own. we can resell all the good bits as a new microsoft innovation! heck microsoft can make billions out of linux! remember "we are microsoft of borg and we will assimilate anything we can make a $ out of". so they put insiders out there in the world to find out what they can "assimilate". and call it busines strategy. i call it software industrial espionage. ooh will i get in trouble for my bit of free speech? :unsure: sod em

hey welcome fellow noob ;0) this is one of The best forums i know of. it is a mine of really useful info, and not just about mandrake either!. and everyone so far has been really friendly and helpfull to me. (even though i type stuff maybe i wouldn't if i'd just thought it through sometimes)lol. they all seem very forgiving (thank heavens for that). best regards

ok how about this, from a noob's point of view. What does m$ windows give me when i install the damn thing? 1, the operating system itself, along with an internet browser, and an email client. 2, a media player. 3, wordpad and for some reason notepad (text editors?). 4, and a couple of simple games have i missed anything? (don't think so). now i get hold of linux and i've got thousands and thousands of well, stuff! most of which i have never heard of! windows doesn't even load drivers for my m/board, graphics, sound, network card. infact it does nothing for me at all. linux on the other hand loads everything for me! (i am lucky my hardware is compatible with mandrake anyway). but what are all these package thingy's?????????????????? to be honest i don't want to know!! i just want / need an internet browser, an email client, a media player and some cool games that work! open office is all that i personally would need, for anything i want to do, so i wouldn't need koffice or gnome office. i think the linux world would be better off saying ok which is the best office application (as regards functionality and compatibility) and everyone get on and develope that. kde could drop the development of koffice and use their resources to further the development of the kde desktop! gnome could do the same. I know linux is about choice and adopting this idea would cut back on that choice. however at the moment too much development hours is wasted on how many different office applications? all those coders all those hours just trying to make their office package as good as one that already exists? set those coders free on to other development work that is desperately needed. like drivers, other applications, games etc. all i want as a noob is something streamlined, stable, and simple. that does what a home user needs. just my two penneth :unsure:

Ok, so i downloaded the distro, checked the checksum all ok there on both disk images. then went to install it...... uh oh, no go. no problem with mandrake, but libranet just did not want to boot from cd? ok so i made the four!!! yes four boot floppies and proceeded to install. ok so this worked and i started the install. install went fine except i could not get the hardware 3d running at all even with xfree86 4.3 which comes with the distro. why not? works with mandrake ok? by the way i was using an ati 128ragepro chipset graphics card (expert2000 from ati). after messing around for some time and generally trying to get this distro working properly i eventually gave up and went back to mandrake. i have to point out that i am a newbie and no-one should really take too much to heart what i say. but compared to mandrake i found the installer just, well, old looking and feeling, it felt clumsy (compared to mandrake's installer). i did manage to partition across two drives (2x 6gb) root swap and usr on one drive and tmp var and home on the other, with relative ease but other than that i was not very impressed with the installer at all, even if it did work. I think overall libranet have done a reasonable job here but i think they could do a lot better for us noobs. i have managed to get suse 6.2, mandrake 7.2, 8.0, 8.2, 9.2, and 10ce installed with no problems. i have also tried storm which was a nightmare (for me anyway), and redhat 6 (i think). i would place libranets installer roughly around the suse 6.2 release of yast! anyway i suppose if i had used an nvidia graphics card i would be singing its praises but as it is i feel mandrake is the all round noobs best bet (well it is for me). just one poor ole noobs opinion. :unsure:

ok, time to get up a petition lol A.T.I. get some drivers sorted for linux or else lose all your market from the open source world job done. but hang on a minute!, didn't ATI give the specs to xfree86? wasn't it xfree's job to develop the drivers? if so should we not be badgering xfree? just a thought :unsure: reb2

ral, in answer to your post, i was merely trying to say that my ati card is an old model, (well passed its use by date) and yet still plays up to the minute games quite well. the game's spec's call for a geforce2 64mb minimum !!! and a geforce4 ti 4200 recomended!!! and there is my little 5 year old ati 32mb 128rage pro all in wonder running the game with no problems at all. 32mb of memory down on minimum spec. now to me it doesn't matter if the game concerned was a windoze game or a linux game, i'm just trying to say that the card was quality kit, and a damn good buy at the time. as someone else said "a lot of bang for the buck". and they last well. and i dare say there are those who could say the same about nvidia cards too. :D

B) excellent work mandrakesoft. today france tomorrow the world? i hope not, i'm a brit! the world will take notice and the rest will fall like dominoes (i hope). roll on the linux revolution. and me a nooby!

hi guy's and gals, I AM NO EXPERT! but i hope this may help? I used to run three machine's (thin coax) with internet connection sharing, but then discovered that a low spec machine with two network cards in it could become a firewall / router. these machine's were my own, my wife's and the father in law's (just a home setup). i did have to set up the fourth machine to be a dhcp server for eth1 (but this was handled auto by the mandrake wizard it told me it had to install a few things and it did. i set eth0 (connected to modem) to receive ip auto (from isp (cable)). and set eth1 to fixed ip of 192.168.10.1. all done through the wizards of mandrake 9.1 and on the other three machines i simply configured them to receive ip auto both in windows and linux (all machines dual boot). told all machines that 192.168.10.1 was the gateway. and it ran quite happily for all of six months without a single hitch!!! (i then purchased a little router box (dlink) and converted to cat5 /rj45) had shorewall configured with NO services visible to the net. now i have not succeeded in actually sharing files in linux with any of the other machines so i would not say they are actually networked as such! but it did allow all three machines to access the net for web and mail and msn messenger (the father in law loves it (he's only 78 years young)). hope it helps B)

Yeah sorry scoopy, I didn't notice the cheesy smiley.

Just to clear up one little point. As someone said in one reply "I wish i could run a company like that". I am glad i don't. looking at microsoft from a pure business sense, it is a terrific company. It has succeeded in smashing the competition and making a nice little monopoly for itself. Tied every user of its products to its apron strings, and sucks and leaches the money every chance it gets! yep what a great business and clever too! and i genuinely mean it! However, a Truly great company would get there by offering better customer satisfaction and better consumer rights + safer, better quality products, and not be afraid of competition. A truly great company wouldn't need to drag its competition through the courts for years, or buy the competition up. (see lindows / linspire story legal issues in europe) the competition would simply go out of business through its products not being as good as the truly great company. ie- competition breeds better products or you go out of business. and as regards the other comment made by somebody else something about capitalism "*sigh*...another argument to add to the collection made by all of use 14 year olds who hate capitalism and think we should be communist... " I like capitalism , I live in a capitalist country, i guess you could say I am a capitalist. But i hate bully's, and i am afraid that is what microsoft has become. besides i dual boot windoze and mandrake so does that make me a hypocrite? and never forget this is just one guy's personal opinion (mine), it doesn't mean i am right. you don't have to agree take care and remember, life is just a bowl of allbran,............. you wake up every morning and its there to be sure, i'll live as best as i can but how can i remember to keep it all together when half the moon is taken away?. (the small faces) reb2