Tech Talk at ShieldsGroup

One of the most frustrating things about a fresh install of Ubuntu is that when it asks you to set your keyring password, it warns you of security issues. And when you set your password, it asks for it every time someone wants to connect to the secured wireless.

To get past this, try the following:

1. Right-click on your Network Manager applet in the upper right corner and select “Edit Connections”.
2. Click on the Wireless Tab, select your wireless network, and click “Edit”.
3. At the bottom on the following window put a check in the “Available to all users” box.
4. Close all windows and reboot.

This makes the wireless available without entering the keyring password.

-Steve

I wanted to use Unison to sync over my local network, but Unison for Ubuntu doesn’t like Samba, so here’s what I did.

1. Make sure you have Samba installed.
2. Create a folder on your linux machine called something like /mnt/stufftosync.  This folder will represent your remote folder of files.
3. In the terminal type,

“mount -t smbfs -o username=name,password=password //machinename/sharename /mnt/smbshare” without the quotes, where name is your username, password is your password, and smbshare is your stufftosync. You can pick whatever name you want for stufftosync, provided it corresponds with the folder you created in the /mnt folder.

Perform your sync, using Unison using the location of the files on your Linux machine as the first folder and using /mnt/smbshare, where smbshare is your stufftosync, as the second.

Worked like a charm.

Looks like you have to do type the mount command each time you boot.

While visiting some friends, my Inspiron 6400 kept dropping the wireless connection with their Actiontec DSL Modem/Router.  It happened a couple times each hour. Not only did it drop the connection, it was unable to renegotiate it. Looking for wireless networks in vista on the Inspiron showed none, a surprising read since when I first connected the Inspiron found at least a dozen in this community.

The only fix was to turn off the wireless card in the laptop and turn it back on. It didn’t just happen to my Inspiron. It happened to my wife’s Acer.

Reading around on the net, I found that some people blamed the problem on interference on channel 6 from other wireless networks. Some suggested changing to channel 11. Nope. No better.

But then I changed to channel 1. Ha! I’ve been connected for about nine hours without being dropped once. Looks like that fixed it.

What’s puzzling is why my Inspiron, when dropped from the network, couldn’t find any of the other networks until the wireless card was restarted.