Disclaimer: These steps have worked for me and have been tested on Compaq nc6000 running Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope). YMMV. I am not responsible for loss of data or damage to computers.

Installation:

Install Dynamic Kernel Module Support (dkms) Framework

Although this step is optional it is recommended to install the dkms package it will ensure that VirtualBox host kernel modules are properly updated if the Linux kernel version changes.

sudo apt-get install dkms

Next edit /etc/apt/sources.list file and add the following line

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian jaunty non-free

Before we proceed with the VirtualBox installation we need to add Sun’s public key for apt-secure

wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/sun_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Retrieve new lists of packages

sudo apt-get update

We are now ready to install VirtualBox

apt-get install virtualbox-2.2

After the installation comples you can start VirtualBox by clicking Start->System Tools->Sun VirtualBox or press Alt-F2 and run the command VirtualBox.

Ubuntu Community Documentation has good information on VirtualBox. Refer to FirstVM section for detailed instructions on creating guest operating systems.

Good luck!!!

Disclaimer: These steps have worked for me and have been tested on Compaq Evo N610c running Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron). YMMV. I am not responsible for loss of data or damage to computers.

The packages for both Pen and Balance are available for Ubuntu (both packages are available for OpenSUSE as well). You do not need both Balance and Pen. Either one of them will work. I have included instructions for both so you can test them yourselves and decide which works best.

Installing Balance on Ubuntu

Balance is simple but powerful generic tcp proxy with round robin load balancing and failover mechanisms. It is Open Source Software and released under GPL licensing terms. Inlab Software the developers of Balance also have a commercial version called BalanceNG^®

To install Balance run the following command (see screenshot)

sudo apt-get install balance

Using Balance

It is very easy to use Balance. The syntax is

balance port host1 host2

So if you wanted to setup load balancing for two machines that run Apache the command would be

sudo balance -df 80 192.168.1.105 192.168.1.108

The -df tells Balance to display debugging and tracing information messages on the screen and to stay in the foreground. Note we need to run using sudo because we are trying to access ports lower than 1024. (see screenshot)

To use failover mechanism the you need to specify the failover host

sudo balance -df 80 192.168.1.105 192.168.1.108 ! 192.168.1.110

See Balance Manual for more information

Installing Pen on Ubuntu

To install Pen the command is (see screenshot)

sudo apt-get install pen

Using Pen

Pen usage syntax is very similar to Balance

pen port host1 host2

To setup load balancing for two machines that run Apache the command would be

sudo pen -df 80 192.168.1.105 192.168.1.108

The -df displays debugging and tracing information messages on the screen and stay in the foreground. Note we need to run using sudo because we are trying to access ports lower than 1024. (See screenshot)

See Pen web site for more information

Though Load Balancing as listed above is not suitable for Production systems it certainly is helpful if you are developing software and want to test how it would behave behind a load balancer.

UnxUtils is not an emulator like Cygwin. It is a freeware collection of approx 120 different executables that are only dependent on Microsoft C-runtime (msvcrt.dll).

1. Download UnxUtils.zip
2. Extract to a C:\UnxUtils (may I recommend 7-zip).
3. Download UnxUpdates.zip
4. Extract to C:\UnxUtils\usr\local\wbin

All the executables are located in C:\UnxUtils\usr\local\wbin folder so to make usage easier add “C:\UnxUtils\usr\local\wbin” to your PATH variable.

1. Click Start
2. Right click “My Computer” and select Properties
3. Click on “Advanced” tab
4. Click on “Environment Variables” (see screenshot)
5. Under “System Variables” select “Path” and then click “Edit” (see screenshot)
6. Append “;C:\UnxUtils\usr\local\wbin” to the end of Variable value. Note the semi-colon before C:\ (see screenshot)
7. Click OK. You will be returned to “Environment Variables” window.
8. Click OK. You will be returned to “System Properties” window.
9. Click OK

You should now be able to use UnxUtils. To give it a test open command prompt and run the following command. You should see a screen similar to one below.

ls -l c:/ | grep -i win

UnxUtils also includes a shell which can be handy if you want to do some shell scripting. To start the shell run c:\UnxUtils\bin\sh.exe (see screenshot) If you are frequently using the shell it is easier to create a shortcut on the desktop or quick launch bar.

There are many P2PTV software available but the oldest and most popular amongst the lot is SopCast.

SopCast is freeware and can run on both Windows and Linux. Windows setup is very straight forward. Simply download the zip file, unzip it, run the setup file and follow on screen instructions (see installation screenshots). This will install 4 components – SopPlayer (for viewing), SopServer (for broadcasting – yes you can broadcast too!!!), VoD and WebPlayer (for viewing in the browser). Double click the SopCast icon and you are on your way. If you are using Windows firewall you need to unblock “SopCast Adver” and “SopCast Main Application” (see screenshot). Click on Channels tab and double click the channel you wish to view.

Linux setup is a little more involved and Ubuntu-Unleashed has a good blog on how to setup SopCast on Ubuntu Gusty Gibon.

Happy viewing

Disclaimer: This blog entry only provides information on P2P TV and is not responsible for content being broadcast and copyright violations.

FireFox is more secure compared to Internet Explorer and there are also numerous add-ons for FireFox that can further secure it and protect your privacy. However there is always a risk and this week we see how to protect yourself using VMWare Browser Appliance.

The Browser Appliance from VMWare is a virtual machine running a minimal installation of Ubuntu Linux v5.10. It comes prebundled with FireFox v1.07 and v1.50. Yes these are older versions but you can install the latest version of FireFox (see screenshot). Using Browser Appliance allows users to securely browse while the virtual machine isolation mechanism protects against adware, spyware and other malware . It also helps protect personal information because it can be configured to automatically reset itself after every use so no personal information is ever stored permanently.

Both VMWare Player and VMWare Browser Applicance are free for download and use. Install, setup and usage is very easy.

Step 1: Download and install VMWare Player (see installation screenshots)

Step 2: Download and unzip Browser Appliance (may I recommend 7-Zip). Do not delete the downloaded file because it comes in handy if you want to reset the appliance.

Step 3: Read Getting Started Guide

Step 4: Start VMWare Player and load the Browser Appliance file.

Step 5: Enjoy safe browsing

What I like best is if you mess up the appliance, simply delete the directory that has the Browser Appliance files. There is no uninstall required. Unzip the file downloaded in Step 2 and start all over again. How cool is that!!!

I did all my testing on an old laptop – 500 MHz, 192 MB RAM, Windows XP SP2. It was slow but sure did work

Mike Healan has written a very good article on VMWare Browser Appliance at SpywareInfo.com It has details on how to upgrade FireFox, how to share files between Browser Appliance and your desktop etc.

The PC Decrapifier helps you uninstall these unwanted trailware (What it can remove). Using it is a very simple 4 step process.

1. Download the single executable file (there is no install process)
2. Execute the file
3. Create a Restore Point (in case you notice something wrong after the uninstall)
4. Select items to uninstall

The PC Decrapifier is free for personal use. A $5 donation subscription (not required to run the program) allows you to get future releases before other public users. Commercial subscription is also available.

FreePOPs is a small utility that allows you to use email applications like Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, and Evolution to download email from most famous WebMail like Hotmail, GMail, Yahoo, Mail.com etc. It also is very handy if you are behind a firewall that closes port 110. FreePOPs allows you to tunnel through using proxy server to read your mail.

FreePOPs is freeware and runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS. There are other similar utilities like MrPostman (freeware), Web2POP (paid) that I have used in the past. In last one and half year of usage FreePOPs has been impressive. There are frequent plugin updates which can easily be installed using the FreePOPs Updater. If you are adventurous FreePOPs also supports writing your custom plugin.

Note: FreePOPs only allows downloading mail. The FAQs provide good information on alternatives to send email like using your ISPs SMTP server or installing a tiny SMTP server on your machine.

7-Zip is a nifty utility from 7-Zip.org that supports packing and unpacking of ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR files.

If you are working on RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, MSI, WIM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS then with the current version you can only unpack these files. In addition to these popular compression formats 7-Zip also has its own 7z format which has a very high compression ratio. Other cool features include Integration with Windows Shell, Powerful File Manager and Localizations for 69 languages

7-Zip works in Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista and is free for home and commercial use. Unofficial Linux ports are also available for download.