APLawrence - Information and Resources for Unix and Linux Systems, Bloggers and the self-employed
RSS Feeds Get APLawrence.com by RSS











The Art of Troubleshooting Yes, troubleshooting is an art!. The key points to mastering this art is knowing the system in and out, using the right tools and, of course, googling. Troubleshooting a problem is not something that can be spoon fed or taught with precise steps. It has to evolve from logical thinking and thorough knowledge of the system.



Title Date Comments
It was a good run   2011-12-11  2011/12/11 TonyLawrence
- It was a good run - expect far less activity here -
Group projects with Google Docs   2009-12-31 
- Sometimes we need to work with other people on a project. Tools like Yahoo Groups and Google Docs can facilitate our work. -
SATA RDX backup cartridge report for BackupEDGE   2011-11-23  2011/11/23 BillMohrhardt
- I have been testing an internal SATA RDX drive, made by Quantum, in an IBM x-series 226 server with dual 3.0 Ghz CPU's, 3 GB of RAM, and dual 73 GB SCSI drives configured as a simple RAID 1. The Operating System is Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3, Microlite BackupEDGE version 03.00.03 with the RDX cartridge configured as a file system partition. I modified the retention time to be only 3 days, as I was backing up to the same cartridge, and wanted to verify that the program would automatically delete the oldest archive to make room. When we have a cartridge for each workday, I will extend that back out to 2 weeks. -
Capture and report (Bash Scripting)   2011-11-18 
- You've been asked to copy some jpg files to a USB disk overnight. That's easy enough - a cron job and a simple 'cp -a' will do that. But there is so much that could go wrong, isn't there? There might not be any files to copy or there might not be room on the USB disk. Somebody might have changed permissions on files or directories alreasdy in place, preventing overwrite with updated images. -
Kerio Connect Archive Script   2011-11-17 
- This script for the Kerio Connect mailserver (7.3 and up) creates subfolders of INBOX and moves older email into these. Kerio's automatic indexing will fix these up overnight. -
Kerio Connect Automatic Index Maintenance   2011-11-22  2011/11/22 TonyLawrence
- The latest Kerio Connect Mailserver release includes both on demand and automatic reindexing of users mail folders. I decided to abuse that and see what happens -
Mysterious Duplicate IP problem solved   2011-11-14  2011/11/14 NickBarron
- I only needed to be run over by four or five cluetrains before realizing what was causing this 'IP address conflict' message on a Windows 2003 server. Follow along and see when you solve it. -
Book Review - Michal Zalewski's 'The Tangled Web'   2011-11-12  2011/11/12 TonyLawrence
- We will not have ventured very far into the Internet forest before we realize that our 'crack team' of web browsers is anything but. Most of them can't seem to tell a squirrel from a poisonous snake. When they do decide to point their weapons at something threatening, we had better duck ourselves, because their aim is atrociously bad. Suspicious looking miscreants appear at the edges of our trail and beckon us to follow them into the dark woods; our guides lay down their weapons and, with beaming grins, trot off never to be seen again! -
Targeting customer interests with multiple Google Plus Pages   2011-11-09 
- Although mostly overlooked in the general excitement about Google Plusbusiness pages, it's important to realize that you are not limited to just one page for your business. If your business sells multiple products or services, you may very well want to create pages for each part. -
Google Plus Business pages are open now   2011-11-08 
- Google-Plus now allows business pages. You seem to need a Google Plus account to create your pages, but of course you don't need to post anything at all on that account. You can create as many individual pages as you need. I immediately created pages for several aspects of my business. -
I've given up on Panda   2011-12-12  2011/12/12 TonyLawrence
- I've given up on trying to fix the traffic and earnings plunge this site has suffered since Google started its series of "Panda" updates. I feel a bit sad about that. I hate giving up - it's just against my nature. I especially hate giving up when I'm still not entirely sure that there is not still some way to claw back to days of old. -
Local printing in Synchronics   2011-11-06  2011/11/06 TonyLawrence
- I know exactly what he has - an old SCO Unix system with a Digiboard multiport serial board, green screen Wyse terminals and Okidata printers with serial cards. I can handle all of that. -
 
 
ad
 
 
Exploring Apple versions   2011-11-04 
- When I made the switch, I of course had files under the old account. Some were things I knew I'd need immediately, so I copied them to the new account and changed permissions. Others were things I might need, but then again I might not. What to do about those? -
Kerio Connect Mailserver version 7.3   2011-11-03 
- Kerio Connect Mailserver version 7.3 is scheduled for release in early November 2011 and adds important features, including a few that I suggested and lobbied for earlier. -
Chrome Mouse Gestures in OS X Lion and the Ghost Arrow   2011-11-01 
- One of the things that you can do is swipe left or right (one finger swipe) to move between pages you have visited in Safari. Even if you'd never read about gestures, you'd be likely to figure that one out because Safari animates the acyion and begins to slide the other page in as you start the swipe. As it's easy enough to accidentally start a small swipe, you'll notice this. -
Google Authorship Links   2011-10-29 
- If you are an author here, we can now help Google know that. Google recently announced that they can display information about authors in their search results. You may not have seen or noticed these yet because not a lot of people have created the needed links that let Google know who you are. Here's how to link your content here. -
Ucertify Review   2011-09-20 
- Whether certifications have any value is an entirely different question. I would suggest that you NOT bother with certification unless you are planning to apply for a specific job that requires it or if you are just starting out and have no experience to brag about. Many people like myself look upon certifications as having little real value - it's 'book knowledge' that doesn't necessarily translate into real skills. However, some employment opportunities may require these as an indication that you have at least basic knowledge. So let's just leave that argument for another day. The rest of this article assumes that certification has value for you. -
Auto Edge archive removal script   2011-09-16 
- The way I wanted Edge to work, was just like the days when we backed up to Tape. We would pull Master backups each night, label the tapes M-F, and take a SAT tape off-site for an extra layer of protection. When Monday rolled around, the new backup would replace the old Monday backup, rinse, lather, repeat. This changed when we upgraded to Edge 3.x, and started using the NAS. Once we had multiple servers with multiple jobs backing up to the same resource, and not having enough free space on the NAS because backups were piling up, I had to resort to manually deleting things (through edgemenu) on the NAS to free up space. This got old rather quickly, as I had to look down the long list of backup jobs, and determine which ones could be deleted. If I missed one day, the NAS would fill up, and backups would fail. -
Do you hate your computer?   2011-09-15  2011/09/15 BigDumbDInosaur
- I knew someone who became so frustrated with a computer printer that he threw it down on the floor and jumped up and down on it until it was smashed to pieces. That's a bit extreme (and damaging to your bank account), but technology can make us feel like that, can't it? -
Is Microsoft about to shoot itself in the foot (or even its head) with Windows 8?   2011-09-30  2011/09/30 RonCam
- That's a serious question. I don't claim to have an answer, of course, but I do think the answer very well could be 'Yes'. Windows 7 was released in October of 2009 and supposedly Windows 8 ('the biggest overhaul since Windows 95', according to some) will be coming out in 2012. That's just three years - well, six if you count poor Vista as a precursor to Windows 7. To a slightly befuddled consumer who has heard all about the growing pains of Vista and the peripheral and application incompatibilities that still vex Win 7 to at least some degree, it might look like Microsoft is throwing out a botched attempt too replace XP and is trying again with Windows 8. -
New 21.5 inch iMac review   2011-09-12  2011/09/12 NickBarron
- I could replace the MacBook Pro (or buy the MacBook Air), but my iPad answers 99% of my portability needs - I felt that either a Mac Mini or an iMac would be better. After hemming and hawing this way and that, I decided to go with the 21.5 inch iMac. It has more memory expansion, and more raw cpu. -
Death of the command line revisited   2011-09-10  2011/09/10 TonyLawrence
- Five years ago I wrote a little blurb called Death of the command line. As it happened, that article was misunderstood by many who read it - I don't know if it was my fault or theirs, but somehow many readers ended up thinking I was either predicting the demise of CLI's (Command Line Interfaces) or hoping for that demise or both. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. I remain a big fan of CLI's and use them daily. And yet, just five years later and still at risk of angering yet another batch of folk who won't read carefully, I'm going to suggest that predicting the death of the CLI may not be such a bad bet after all. -
Cranky Old Newsgroup Guys   2011-10-22  2011/10/22 BigDumbDinosaur
- People new to the Internet may not even understand the difference between a forum and a Newsgroup. Indeed, many may never have participated in any Newsgroup discussions at all. If you have, it may have only been thorough Google Groups, and if your only exposure to the Usenet Newsgroups (with a capital N, yes) has been through that, it can be a little hard to tell the difference between those and a discussion forum. They both have people discussing things, arguing, calling each other idiots and so on. What's the difference? -
Email addresses still matter (for now)   2011-09-05 
- Email: it has helped kill the post office, is the primary source of spam, is critical to many businesses and, after malware, is probably the single largest source of user difficulties. Every internet user has at least one email address and many of us have several. Email is ubiquitous and very important. It's also threatened: many people use services like Facebook and Google+ for most of their daily communication. Somewhat ironically, you typically need an email address to sign up for these services, but the deficiencies of email have even caused some to try to eschew it completely and only use alternatives like those. That trend may continue; in a decade or so, "email" may be as antiquated as "gopher" and "uucp" are today. -
Why defragging your computer may be a waste of time   2011-09-04  2011/09/04 BigDumbDInosaur
- In fact, defragmenting may be a total waste of time. It's unlikely to be harmful (though it can be if interrupted by a sudden power failure), but it may actually accomplish nothing worth even the minor effort it takes to run it. -
Common email problems   2011-09-02  2011/09/02 ed
- Yesterday I talked about why you shouldn't send Word attachments in email. Today I'll continue with more attachment related issues and also touch on some other common email glitches. -
Why you shouldn't send Word attachments   2011-08-31  2011/08/31 BigDumbDinosaur
- As I continued my walk, I thought about how email issues are likely the most common mysteries my neighbors have with their computers. Notice that I said "mysteries" and not "problems". That's because most email issues are from misunderstanding and confusion, not necessarily any real problem. A virus infection is a problem. A dead hard drive is also a problem, but email is usually simple confusion or lack of knowledge. -
Have you protected your Internet digital assets for your heirs?   2011-08-29 
- If you have web pages, a Facebook or Google+ account or you just throw something up on Twitter now and then, you own digital assets. This very page that you are reading is a digital asset. It has value, both because it adds to my reputation as a writer and because it has the potential to create income. -
10 things - no, 11 things - you say that drive your computer tech person crazy   2011-09-20  2011/09/20 anonymous
- Yes, of course people sometimes say or do silly things, even outright stupid things. We all do. Look me straight in the eye and tell me you have never done anything like that with a computer and I'll look you straight in the eye and tell you the same thing and then we'll both try not to laugh. -
Switching to Mac OS X - quick tips for new users   2011-08-23 
- First thing, understand that I'm not going to try to convince to to switch. I f you are stuck in the world of Microsoft, I feel sorry for you, but making you understand that you should switch is not my purpose today. This article is just quick tips for those who have decided to switch. -
Can Online Services Be Secure?   2011-08-22  2011/08/22 Ralph
- Recent data theft disasters have shown that it is not enough to operate a "secure server" and leave all customer's information unencrypted on this server. Because if you think your secure server is invincible, all your customer's data is at risk, the moment it turns out that the secure server is not as secure as you thought. -
Basic Home Networking, Part 3, File and Printer Sharing   2011-08-21 
- The point of a computer network is sharing. You might not be sharing much, perhaps even only the Internet connection. If that's the end of it, you don't need much more than part one of this series, which deals with the setup of a basic small network. -
Putting the wrong name on a Win 7 user profile   2011-08-25  2011/08/25 NickBarron
- However, both of these new computer owners panicked at my suggestion. I explained that they just needed to cable up their new system; they claimed complete inability to do even that. Sigh. Yes, I know that this is mostly in their minds. It's a form of leaned helplessness. If they would just make a small effort, they probably could do this themselves, but they just stop and refuse to even try. It's too complicated, they are afraid that they might damage something or feel foolish. -
A few minor iPad set up problems baffle my neighbor   2011-08-28  2011/08/28 anonymous
- A neighbor took advantage of MA's recent tax free weekend and bought an iPad. He'd seen mine and his daughter had shown off hers the last time she had visited, so he had a pretty good idea of why he wanted it. Unfortunately, his initial experience was frustrating. -
Basic Home Networking - Part 2, wireless setup   2011-08-16 
- Often all that needs to be done is to tell your computer that you want to connect to a wireless network. It's not always that easy, but it certainly can be. However, even if it is that easy for you, you might still want to read the rest of this in case you have problems later. You also might want to read it because being "too easy" to get connected could mean that you are running some security risk and need to address that issue. -
Basic Home Networking - routers and switches   2011-08-16  2011/08/16 BigDumbDinosaur
- Setting up a small office or home network used to be a fairly complicated task. Aside from the technical knowledge needed, there was expensive equipment to buy and specialized tools for wiring. That's all changed - the necessary equipment is cheap and readily available and it's all very easy to configu re. -
A non-technical guide to understanding and fixing TCP/IP problems on a network   2011-08-14  2011/08/14 BigDumbDinosaur
- A guide to basic network troubleshooting. Obviously the title is a bit incorrect in the .non-technical. claim, because we are dealing with a geekish subject here and I can't avoid being a little "techie". Still, my intent is to make it possible for a non-technical person to understand this and perhaps even identify and fix common networking problems. -
Brother MFC-J615W printer   2011-08-13 
- I have never been a fan of inkjet printers. In fact. my general advice has been not to buy them because hey are far more expensive to operate than laser printer. These multifunction things have even more to dislike: if you lose part of the functionality, you are going to lose it all while it is out for repair. -
123D Sculpt from Autodesk - cool!   2011-08-12 
- This is a 3D drawing app. More to the point, it's a 3D drawing app for people like me who have no artistic talent at all. It makes every other drawing/sketching tool I have look really, really lame. -
Is Linux becoming insignificant?   2011-08-20  2011/08/20 TonyLawrence
- How many Linux items have I read? Well, my Linux readers won't like this, because it's just 28. -
Maybe Android should be strangled?   2011-08-15  2011/08/15 TonyLawrence
- I don't like to see Apple controlling too much. This patent set back isn't just about tablet computers; it touches Android cell phones also. If Apple continues to win court cases on this, Android devices - tablets and phones - will either become much more clumsy (perhaps effectively useless) or will become more expensive because of royalties demanded by Apple. This could put people out of business if Apple gets really greedy -
Google-plus false iPad app disappoints greatly   2011-12-10  2011/12/10 anonymous
- What we got was what we could have had weeks ago - an iPhone app that is allowed to run on the iPad. -
Right about now, I'm starting to feel all too familiar Google disenchantment   2011-08-07 
- Google Wave died because people didn't understand it (amusingly, Google+ really isn't all that far removed from what Wave intended). Google Buzz got derailed by careless privacy issues. Google+ could very well die because of lack of momentum. -
What does Apple's $29.99 operating system pricing signify?   2011-08-06  2011/08/06 John
- Much has been made of Apple's new price for its operating system: $29.99 is so close to free that (for many people, at least) it is almost unnoticeable. This low price is often contrasted with Microsoft's rather pricier offering of Windows 7. -
The future is in the essence of the iPad   2011-08-09  2011/08/09 AndrewSmallshaw
- If we had the iPad ten years ago, there would be no such thing as a 'Personal Computer' today. Businesses would still have expensive servers, of course, but bus -
Let's NOT have an email discussion about this!   2011-08-02 
- This is a less than ideal way to truly have a discussion. If Bill replies to me and I reply to him and then we have to get Stephanie's input and she and Bill l have a little side conversation, things get messy, confused and hard to follow very quickly. There are better ways to handle this. -
How should you price an e-book?   2011-08-01 
- I originally priced my books at $14.95 with discounts for multiple purchases. The sales were fair - I sold a little less than 300 copies at those prices. -
Working on weekends   2011-07-31 
- For me, working on weekends is about being able to choose when I work, not how much I work. I honestly could not say with any confidence how much I work, but I do know that I almost always work when I want to and (more importantly) do NOT work when I don't want to. -
The Electric electorate   2011-07-30 
- In my insular little world, I'm a bit of a loon. Compared to my peers, I'm radically liberal - "way out there", as they often say while pointing an index finger at their temple and waving it in a slow circle. -
An unimportant announcement that you probably won't care about at all   2011-07-26  2011/07/26 TonyLawrence
- What I did was move part of this site to a sub-domain. I did so at the specific advice of Matt Cutts, the famous Google SEO guy. No, he didn't give ME the advice - I'm so far beneath unimportant that nobody at Google would even tell me to 'go suck eggs', never mind drop a hint on how to regain traffic after a Panda slap. -
 
 
LOD Communications, Inc.
 
 
 
 
 
 
pavatar.jpg
book graphic










Have you tried our Tests?