Tech Remedy

Some funny errors from the past!

The first thing that you’ll want to do is go to the Wine Config and set Windows 2000 as the default app.

Next, enter the following into the command line:

wget http://kegel.com/wine/winetricks

Then enter:

sh winetricks corefonts dotnet20

And finally:

sh winetricks fakeie6

*- If you got an error about c://windows/ does not exist try to mount your drives

Free is an amazing word! I decided to compile a list of 100+ of the very best free applications for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Not all of the apps listed work on all platforms…so make sure to look into it on your own. This list is broken down into 11 pages. Each page accounts for a software category. Feel free to leave additional free programs that you like in the comments!

Categories:

• Web Browsers
• Anti-Virus/Security
• Graphics/Photos
• Media Players/Converters/Streamers
• Bit Torrent Clients
• Programming/Development
• FTP/SCP/SSH
• System Tools
• Chat/Messengers/Social
• Archive Management
• Productivity

by Tom Duffy

Has this ever happened to you? You go into your favorite cafe (with free wifi of course) and order your coffee. Then, after paying for the coffee and maybe a muffin, you sit down and open up your laptop. To your total disappointment, the wifi connection doesn’t seem to have ANY internet connectivity! BLAST! What a waste of 5 bucks, right? Well, not necessarily…

At this point, you should ask yourself a few questions.

• Am I connected to the Access Point?
• Have I been assigned a private IP address?
• Can I reach the Access Point via web browser?

So, let’s assume the answer to question number 1 is YES…I am connected to the access point with a good signal! Now I need to know if I have an IP address.

In Windows, open a command prompt and type:

ipconfig /a

…In Linux or Mac, open a Terminal and type:

ifconfig

There are other ways to find your IP, but these work just fine. The private IP address will likely look something like 192.168.1.xxx.

Next, take that IP and change the last part (xxx) to 1. For example, if it was 192.168.1.193, change it to 192.168.1.1. This is the gateway address. Now, let’s try entering that gateway address into a web browser. If you are prompted for a username/password that’s good news! That means that the Access Point has port 80 open and is running a web server to allow web based configuration. Look for a model number or company name in the window asking for a password. If it’s something like WRT54G, that is a Linksys and the default username and password are both: admin.

If you can’t get in with a default username/password, you should probably just move on…unless you want to try something more advanced of course. :)

Once you ARE logged in though, you can do some things to get the free wifi working again. Release and renew the public IP…reboot the Access Point. That combination will fix a lot of connectivity issues!

Have Fun!

Hi Everone! I have been visiting a coffee shop a lot lately that offers free WiFi. I have been using the connection to work on various things. I wanted to make sure that my browsing had some encryption to avoid sending out plain text data, so I figured out how to route my browser traffic through an SSH connection! The method basically uses an SSH connection as a proxy for the browser.

You will need:

• An SSH server that you can log into.
• An SSH Client on the computer you are using.
• A web browser.

The first thing we will need to do is connect to the SSH server. We will be using a special command flag when logging in in order to set a port and to avoid opening up an interactive shell. The command you will run is:

1

ssh -ND 9999 you@example.com

Replace “you” with your login name for the server and “example.com” with the address of the server. You will notice that after you enter your password, nothing will happen. It will just sit there. That is exactly what we want. Now, minimize the SSH client or Terminal window. Next, open your browser. I will show you the settings for Firefox, but the setup is more or less the same for other browsers.

In Firefox

Open your Firefox settings. In Windows, it’s in the “Tools” menu. In Linux, it’s in the “Edit” menu. In Apple, it’s in the “Firefox” menu. Once you have the settings window open, click on the “Advanced” section and then the “Network” tab. Next, click the “Settings” button next to where it says, “Configure how Firefox connects to the internet”. Select the option that says “Manual Proxy Configuration”. The only thing we change here is the SOCKS Host and the Port. For the SOCKS Host, enter “localhost” and 9999 for the port number. It should look like this:

This is a very old method for setting up a SOCKS Proxy, but it works quite well. Please feel free to comment!

Hey everyone!

Did you accidentally erase your hard drive partition containing Windows Vista or XP prior to trying to install Windows 7 Upgrade? Well, it won’t work! Unless you follow some simple instructions! Here you go:

1. First, do a completely clean install of Windows 7 bypassing the activation process.

2. Then, make sure that there aren’t any pending Windows Updates that will require a reboot.

3. Then enter regedit.exe in the Start Menu Search

4. Navigate to the registry key:

HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/

5. Change MediaBootInstall from “1″ to “0″ and then close the Registry Editor.

6. Then type cmd into the Start Menu and right click the shortcut and choose “Run as Administrator”.

7. At the prompt type:

slmgr /rearm

8. Close the command line window and reboot.

9. After the computer reboots, run the Windows Activation and enter your Upgrade key.

10. Enjoy Windows 7!

by Tom Duffy

I would like to start by saying that I have made a lot of posts in the past that rip on Windows and M$ products. That being said, my perspective has started to change in regards to this. I personally prefer Linux and BSD over Windows or OSX (yes, I know that OSX is based on BSD), but that doesn’t make Linux and BSD BETTER. If you are a reader of my blog then you no doubt understand that I LOVE Linux and that I LOVE freedom. But what exactly is freedom? To me, freedom is the ability to make choices. If nothing were left but Linux, would we truly be free?

I feel very strongly that M$ products serve a very important role in today’s society. Businesses all over the world would stop working if they suddenly didn’t have Windows. Graphic designers who depend on Photoshop and Illustrator wouldn’t be able to do their jobs without OSX or Windows. I know that these apps can run under Wine, but let’s face it, they don’t run very well!

The role that Linux is currently playing is the right role. A combination of geeks, programmers, scientists, thrifty students, and adventurous folks all get to enjoy Linux. Do I think that Linux will one day rise above M$ in market share? Probably not. But the point is that we have a variety of choices! This is what freedom is all about. My drive in the past years has been to tell everyone I know that Linux is better. Not anymore. I feel I’m doing the Linux community a disservice by doing that. My new drive is to tell everyone I know that there are options. Choices to make. “Sure, you are using Windows now, but have you checked out Fedora?” Or the flip side of that, “Well, if you are having so much trouble playing games under Ubuntu, have you tried other distros? If you’ve tried other distros and you are still unhappy, maybe you should try Windows!”

This new mentality seems fresher to me. Gone are the days of Linux fanboy. Let’s be critical thinkers here! If everyone I know started using Linux, a LOT of them would have trouble and would be very confused. The fanboy mentality often makes the Linux community seem immature, egotistical, elitist, and annoying. As Linux users we should merely SUGGEST the option of Linux rather than “Preach the Gospel of Linux”. So let’s go out there and raise awareness of the choices that we have in this technological society! Open mindedness is essential to any campaign to raise awareness. And here’s an idea…Let’s learn everything we can about Windows so that when we come across someone who’s struggling with Linux, we can offer the choice of Windows!

“There is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance – that principle is contempt to investigation.”

-Herbert Spencer

by Tom Duffy

I can’t stand Microsoft. I really can’t. That being said, I have personally been Microsoft-Free for well over a year now. This is truly a wonderful feeling! I have four different computers that are all completely free from ANY Microsoft products. I would like to share with you how you can become Microsoft-Free in 30 days or less!

First of all, let me share with you what I run:

Desktop: Intel Core2Quad dual booting Slackware Linux and Fedora 9 (Sulphur)

Laptop 1: Intel Pentium 4 running Xubuntu Hardy Heron

Laptop 2: AMD Athlon running usb boot Slax

Laptop 3: Apple PowerBook running OSX Tiger

It is important to note that just running Linux or OSX doesn’t free you completely from Microsoft. A lot of Apple users run MS Office and other Microsoft products even though this is totally unnecessary. So, now let’s talk about how to start freeing yourself from Microsoft. Let’s take the following example: A PC user is running Windows XP Professional with the following additional Microsoft products installed: Microsoft Office 2007, Windows Media Player, and Microsoft Money. Okay, now the most difficult Microsoft product to free yourself from will be the operating system itself. So I recommend starting by replacing Office, Media Player, and Money.

In place of Office, you have some options. My personal preference is OpenOffice which can be downloaded here. Once downloaded and installed, OpenOffice provides a feature-rich replacement for Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Powerpoint, and Microsoft Database. It doesn’t however, replace Outlook. For Outlook’s replacement, I recommend Mozilla Thunderbird which can be downloaded here.

To replace Windows Media Player, I recommend MPlayer which can be downloaded here. Don’t forget to download codecs from the site as well. This is what will make it play all of your different media types.

To replace MS Money, I recommend GNUcash which can be downloaded here. GNUcash is a great piece of software that can handle personal and small business finances with a ton of cool features.

Now that we’ve replaced the software installed on your Windows computer with open source alternatives, let’s start the process of replacing Windows itself. I personally recommend the Linux Distrobution called Ubuntu which can be downloaded here. Once you download the ISO file, go ahead and burn the image to a blank CD.

Okay, now all of the above can be done in a matter of hours. So why does it take up to 30 days to become truly Microsoft-Free? Well, it is because of the transitional period that comes with learning a new operating system. The Ubuntu CD that you just burned can be used in many ways for you. There are two transitional steps that I recommend before you actually format your drive and completely replace Windows.

The first step is to insert the CD while running Windows. Ubuntu includes a cool new feature that allows Windows users to install Ubuntu as an application within Windows to try it out. Go ahead and use the Wubi Installer to install Ubuntu on your Windows partition. Spend some time using Ubuntu every day. Get used to the differences. USE GOOGLE TO GET ANSWERS! I can’t stress this part enough. When you transition from Windows to Linux, you are going to hit some walls. There is a TON of help available out there. Use google to find it!

After you have gotten used to using Ubuntu within Windows, it is time for the next transitional step. This step consists of installing Ubuntu onto its own partition and dual booting between Ubuntu and Windows. The reason that I recommend this is that when you are in the Ubuntu partition and you come across something that you can’t quite figure out, you can always reboot into Windows to take care of it. This process is annoying though which will eventually lead you to trying harder to solve problems within Ubuntu rather than rebooting into Windows.

Now that you are fully comfortable in Ubuntu and have figured out how to take care of all of your daily tasks, it is time to back up all of your data for a completely clean Ubuntu only Install! The partitioner within the Ubuntu installer is very straight forward. Again, if you have problems, use google to get answers. I also recommend joining the Ubuntu Forums. There are some absolutely awesome people on there who are ready and willing to answer questions. Of course, if you have questions, you can always just email me! Send questions to tom (at) techremedy (dot) net. I hope this helps at least ONE person become free from the Microsoft stranglehold!

by Tom Duffy

So far, almost every one of my blog posts has been about Linux. That’s because I use Linux. But a lot of people out there use Windows and there’s a vast amount of Windows open source software out there. Want freedom for Windows? Download WinLibre Here. WinLibre is an application that gives you access to many open source applications for Windows all in one place.

For those of you who want more advanced open source solutions, check out www.sourceforge.net. SourceForge is an all out armada of open source software for many different platforms including windows. If you are a user who simply can’t escape using a Windows operating system, then at least there are open source options to replace many costly Windows based applications. I mean, why pay for Microsoft Office when you can get OpenOffice for free? Why use Windows Media Player when you can use MPlayer and have more options? Why pay for Photoshop when you can use Gimp? Why pay for DreamWeaver when you can use NVU?

I hope that you check out these open source alternatives to corporate proprietary software for your Windows Computer.