Walker News » Guide

How To Install And Start Telnet Server In Red Hat Linux?

Walker — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:26:48 +0000

Every server administrators should and must know that telnet protocol is not secure, because data packets transfer between telnet server and client not encrypted.

That’s to say, anyone who use sniffer to capture network packets can read the plain text transfer over the network. If the packets captured contain login credentials, the server access and security control will be compromised.

Thus, by default, most Linux distributions install SSH server and not telnet. Red Hat Linux even explicitly categorize telnet server as one of the “legacy network servers”.

However, what if you really want the Linux machine running such insecure protocol?

How to install and start the insecure telnet server (in Red Hat Linux Enterprise 4)?

Look for the telnet-server RPM file in the installation CD/DVD and install it from command line, e.g. rpm -Uvh telnet-server-0.17-31.EL4.3.
Alternatively, login to GNOME Desktop, go to Application menu, System Settings, and click Add/Remove Applications to bring up Package Management window:

^{How to install and start telnet server in Red Hat Linux?}

Select Legacy Network Server (tick the check box), click Details link to bring up Legacy Network Server Package Details window, and select Telnet-Server to proceed with the installation.
At Linux command prompt, execute chkconfig telnet on to allow the xinetd spawns telnet-server processes upon client requests.
Alternatively, edit the telnet configuration file (/etc/xinetd.d/telnet) and change disable = yes to disable = no.
Make sure the xinetd is running on your Linux default runlevel. To be sure, configure xinetd to start at runlevel 3, 4, and 5:
```
chkconfig --level 345 xinetd on
```
If xinetd is not currently running (run ps -elf | grep xinetd), execute service xinetd start or service xinetd restart to start/restart it.

The running xinetd (extend Internet service daemon) listens to telnet client request on port 23 and spawn the telnet-server (/usr/sbin/in.telnetd) upon request, shut it down when telnet client drop the connection.

To confirm xinetd is listening to port 23, execute the netstat utility:

netstat -tulpan | grep 23

Windows Live Messenger Does Not Display Music Playing In Windows Media Player

Walker — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:37:07 +0000

Problem: Windows Live Messenger is not showing or displaying title of song played in Windows Media Player, i.e. none of the MSN contacts can see what song you’re listening to.

Reason: In order to display song or music title as “Personal Message” in Windows Live Messenger, both Windows Media Player and Windows Live Messenger must be configured for this feature.

Needless to say, the song or music must be playback in Windows Media Player (version 9 and above only).

(Note, it’s possible to display information of music playback in non-WMP player. But for this post, it’s about WMP and WLM :-).

Lastly, please be reminded that this feature is only available on Windows 2000 and above.

I think the second and third reason is straightforward. So, is time to look at how to configure Windows Live Messenger and Windows Media Player to display the song title you’re listening to for the online MSN contacts:

Configure Windows Live Messenger to display music title as personal message

Go to Windows Live Messenger, click the down-arrow icon of Personal Message box and click Show What I’m Listening To.

Alternatively, go to Tools menu, click Options and then the Personal option on left pane, make sure the Show song information from Windows Media Player as a personal message check-box is checked.

Configure Windows Media Player (version 11 on Windows Vista SP1) to show song title in Windows Live Messenger

In Windows Media Player, press ALT+T to bring up Tools menu, go to Plug-ins sub-menu and make sure the Windows Live Messenger Music Plugin is checked.

Note:

The song title display in Windows Live Messenger, change accordingly as Windows Media Player playing the playlist from track to track.

Once the music / song stop playing (press STOP not PAUSE, or simply close Windows Media Player), the last personal message before you playing the music/song is displayed in Windows Live Messenger (it’s empty if nothing was set there).

For Windows 7, Windows Live Messenger will not show music playing by Windows Media Player 12 unless the songs are added to Windows 7 Music Library.

How To Fix IE 7 Print Error In Windows Vista?

Walker — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:20:47 +0000

Problem: You cannot print web page in IE 7 that is running in Protected Mode on Windows Vista machine.

Reason: When IE 7 running Protected Mode in Windows Vista, the browser processes require “low integrity” folder to function properly. You might have deleted the low integrity folder accidentally (via disk cleanup program) and this cause IE 7 printing error.

Symptom: IE 7 displays an error message similar to this:

Cannot find “file:///%userprofile%/AppData/Local/Temp/Low/NZ0LISWM.htm”. Make sure the path or Internet address is correct.

After OK button, another Script Error box appears to tell “object required at line 2069 of res://ieframe.dll/preview.dlg”.

Solution: To run IE 7 with Protected Mode off (less secure) or to recreate the missing low integrity folder (%userprofile%/AppData/Local/Temp/Low).

Turn off or disable IE 7 Protected Mode in Windows Vista

If the IE 7 status bar is set to display, there is a Protected Mode status on the right hand side. Just double click the status (as highlighted: “Internet | Protected Mode: On”) to bring up Internet Security Properties dialog box and disable Protected Mode option (as shown in the following screenshot). Then, restart IE 7 or open another new instance (with Protected Mode status shown as Off) to load the page and try to print again.

^{How to turn off or disable IE 7 Protected Mode?}

Note: The Internet Security Properties setting is also accessible by clicking Tools menu (on the Toolbars; at top-right corner), Internet Options, Security tab.

Recreate low integrity folder for IE 7 running in Protected Mode

^{How to fix IE 7 print error? That is to recreate the low integrity folder for IE 7 running in Protected Mode.}

Open an elevated Command Prompt window to create a folder named low in the Temp of your user profile folder:

mkdir %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Temp\Low

Then, execute this command to set integrity level to low for the folder created:

ICACLS %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Temp\Low /setintegritylevel (OI)(CI)low

Note: You may turn on copy-paste feature of Command Prompt window to cut down typing efforts.

Nokia N73 Unable Activate N73 Mass Storage Mode?

Walker — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 16:02:20 +0000

When you connect the Nokia N73 to computer USB port via Pop-Port interface cable (CA-53), the data cable connection mode pops up and you make a decision to use Mass Storage mode (i.e. to use Nokia N73 memory card as a USB drive directly, without accessing the Nokia PC Suite).

After a while, another message printed on screen, suggested that N73 is “Unable to activate mass storage mode. Memory card is in use by Messaging application. Change the selected memory in Messaging settings first.”

Now, what you could do? Well, the message printed includes error (the reason of failure) and solution to fix the error reported.

If you have configured N73 to use Mini SD memory card as storage media for its Messaging application (e.g. SMS, MMS, Email, etc), you have to temporarily reset it back to phone memory and retry the Mass Storage mode:

Click the Menu key to access Menu screen and then access to Messag.
While in Messaging screen, click the Options menu followed by Settings menu
In Settings screen, scroll through the list of menu to access Other option
Go to Memory In Use and change the Messaging storage media form memory card (e.g. N73SD, the memory card description I’ve set) to Phone Memory. Click OK to save the change.

^{How to configure N73 to use phone memory or external memory card as Messaging storage media?}

How To Instantly Access Nokia N73 Memory Card As USB Drive?

Walker — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:14:09 +0000

If you simply want to copy files to or from the memory card in Nokia N73, there are two ways to do it but both methods do not require installation of Nokia PC Suite.

The first and simple way is by removing the Mini SD card from Nokia N73 and access the memory card via a card reader. Some modern laptops built with such card reader that normally support multiple flash memory card formats.

As one of the expensive Nokia NSeries smart phone, N73 allows add / remove memory card in online mode. To remove memory card while N73 powered on, press the power button and select “Remove Mem. Card” option from the quick menu.

Alternatively, press the Menu key, go to Tools and then Memory. While in Memory Card screen, go to Options and select “Remove Mem. Card”.

Wait for the Remove Memory Card and press “OK” message printed on screen, then you may proceed to remove the Mini SD card and then only press OK. Once you’ve done with the memory card, simply insert it back to N73 Mini SD card slot gently (without needs of power it off).

If there is no card reader to access the Mini SD card, what you could do? Well, the N73 itself is a ready card reader. Indeed, N73 supports USB mass storage mode.

So long as the OS supports USB mass storage device (e.g. Windows Vista SP1 on my home Desktop and Dell Latitude; supposing that most modern OSes such Mac OS X, RHEL, etc, is able to detect and access it as normal), the Mini SD memory card in Nokia N73 will appears as a USB drive, to allow files copy easily without needs of installing additional device driver or application.

Although the Nokia PC Suite is not a must-have program to access N73 USB mass storage function, an optimized driver ensures achieving USB 2.0 full speed file transfer via Nokia proprietary Port-Port interface.

How to configure Nokia N73 mass storage mode to access memory card as USB drive?

Click the menu key, access to Tools and then Data Cbl. While in Data Cable screen, make sure Data Cable Mode is either set to Mass Storage or Ask On Connection.

Then, connect the phone to a computer USB port via CA-53 cable. N73 will prompt you to select mode of connection if the Data Cable Mode is set to “Ask On Connection”.

This is extremely useful when I’ve to copy files to or from the “expensive” Nokia phone I ever own (so far) with a computer that has not yet installed with Nokia PC Suite application, but there must be a card reader OR CA-53 cable AND a computer that supports USB mass storage device (both hardware and software). The bulky Nokia PC Suite, is not a must-have program in either cases.

How Easy To Access Web Search Engine In Google Chrome

Walker — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 09:11:07 +0000

No one will be happier if there are no web search engines available to locate pieces of information from billions of web pages virtually stored in World Wide Web.

Thus, Google Chrome user interface presents easier way to access a user’s default Web search engine, be it Google Search, Microsoft Live Search, Yahoo! Search, Wikia Search, etc.

Access web search engine in Google Chrome Address bar

This first method is the simplest and fastest way to access user’s default Web search engine:

While Google Chrome window is active, press CTRL+T (to open a tabbed window) OR CTRL+D (to set input cursor to Address bar or to highlight text in Address bar) AND type your search term (in Address bar, of course) follow by pressing ENTER key.

In this way, you can access the default Web search engine with one hot key (CTRL+D or CTRL+T, depend on you expectation) and start typing the keywords followed by ENTER key.

^{Access to web search engine service is easy in Google Chrome.}

If the default Web search engine is set to Google Search, all Google Search features are available in Google Chrome Address bar, e.g. typing either one of these double-quoted search terms (without including the double-quotation mark) in Address bar: “pi” (reference tool), “3ft in m” (calculator / converter), “time london” (local time), “define:addict” (dictionary), etc.

Access web search engine with the highlighted keywords

This second method is not faster than the first, but it’s faster and convenient in its nature. For example, if you would like to search the web for this “friendly” botanical name “Centella asiatica” or a even “weird” scientific name “Callorhinchus milii”, do you think it’s easier to type the keywords manually or to copy and paste?

If the keyword is found on a web page open in Google Chrome, you can easily find out more relevant online information of this keyword, by just highlighting the text and right click, there is a Search For ““ option in the Context menu (i.e. no need to go through extra steps – copy & paste).

How to set default web search engine in Google Chrome?

To configure the default search engine used by Google Chrome, click the spanner button (tooltips as Customize and Control Google Chrome) on top-right corner and select Options from the drop down menu.

In the Google Chrome Options dialog box, go to Basic tab (default tab shown), select your favourite web search engine as the default of Google Chrome.

If your favourite is not there, click Manage button to add in more web search engines to the list, or select one from the list and click Make Default.

An additional note, Google Chrome is smart as it can detect any web search services that you’ve used in a web page and automatically add them to the list.

For example, if you’ve used the Google Custom Search box in this page, WalkerNews.net is automatically included in Google Chrome Search Engines list:

^{Google Chrome automatically detects web search services on a page and automatically add it to the list.}

So, you might no need to worry about the Add button. In most cases, just select the listed search engines and set it as default by pressing Make Default button.

How To Configure Or Disable Google Chrome Proxy Server Settings Independently?

Walker — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:46:52 +0000

Thanks God, the free public WIFI is still working in office. So, I’m happily using this free channel to stay connected with the World Wide Web, watching YouTube and other leisure browsing activities as much as I wish to have, but without worry of being “top surfer” in the weekly proxy server usage report (simply because I don’t have to go through corporate proxy server to surf Internet :-p).

Because of the insecure wireless network (thus I can connect to it so easily), I use IE7 to login to websites that require user authentication (e.g. Gmail, Hotmail, MSN, etc) via corporate proxy server.

For all other sites that not require user login (e.g. Google News, blogs, Meta Cafe, forum, etc), I would like to use Firefox or Google Chrome to directly access Internet via the insecure, free public WIFI.

However, Google Chrome doesn’t provide an user interface (UI) to enable or disable proxy server settings. Indeed, Google Chrome is sharing Internet Properties settings (inetcpl.cpl, a Control Panel item that appears as Internet Options) with Internet Explorer.

I.e. Google Chrome uses proxy server if Internet Explorer is using proxy server; both IE and Google Chrome is sharing the same proxy server settings. If I disable proxy server in Internet Properties, I can’t use IE7 to read Gmail via proxy server too.

So, how to force Google Chrome to ignore proxy server settings defined for IE7?

How to enable or disable proxy server settings for Google Chrome without affecting IE7?

I thought I would have to download Google Chrome source code and customize it :-p. Luckily, there is an ready-made option switch called --proxy-server to define proxy server independently for Google Chrome, i.e. –proxy-server overwrites Google Chrome default behaviour of sharing proxy server settings with Internet Explorer.

So, I right click the Google Chrome shortcut and add --proxy-server= to chrome.exe in order to forcibly disable Google Chrome proxy server settings, while still allows Internet Explorer 7 to surf Net via corporate proxy server:

^{Independent Google Chrome proxy server setting.}

With reference:
Google Chrome Help – Independent Proxy Settings for Chrome
Google Chrome Command Line Switches.