- Talk - lists.gtalug.org

internet service speed test tip
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 25 Aug '23

25 Aug '23

Rogers and Bell have web sites for testing your internet speed. The advantage of using one should be that it is a pretty pure test of the ISP's infrastructure. TL;DR: run the test from a fast computer. When I used Bell's speed test on my own router (remember that it runs Fedora 38 and thus has FireFox and Chromium) the results were disappointing. Half or two-thirds of my promised speed. The problem turns out to be the web page itself. It burns a lot of processor power (javascript, surely). When I run it from behind my router, on a fast computer, the speed is as promised. When the client was a notebook with an i3-1005g1 processor, the result was also disappointing. I used a USB-c to 2.5G ethernet dongle. When the client was a notebook with a Ryzen 7 6800H, the result was good. I used the same dongle.

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my own router on Bell Fibe Fiber-To-The-Premises (FTTP)
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 24 Aug '23

24 Aug '23

I've used my router (a little PC running a Red Hat Linux) with Rogers for over 25 years. Now I've switched to Bell to get FTTP (AKA FTTH). Here are some quirks (AKA discoveries) Bell supplied a Giga Hub modem / router / access point / landline / ... There are several ethernet ports on it. - One goes directly to the TV set-top-box that Bell supplied. I don't know if I could put it behind my router. - three are 1G - one is 10G (I think) but I use as 2.5G with my router-PC. My promised speed is 1.5G down and 960M up, so 2.5G is sufficient There are two ways to use your own router with the GigaHub - the "Advanced DMZ" passes traffic directly to your router. You just need to tell the GH the MAC address of your router - the PPPoE passthrough method. The Advanced DMZ seems like a great idea BUT your router and the GigaHub share the same IP so their might be conflicts. For example, both will be doing NAT and thus might assign the same ports for conflicting purposes. I don't see how this can work (but failure would be rare and confusing). The PPPoE passthrough gives your router and the GH separate IP addresses! But it means your router needs to do PPPoE. Apparently many consumer routers cannot handle PPPoE at this speed. Good news: my little PC can. I can still use the GH's extra ethernet ports and WiFi AP, but they are outside my LAN (not behind my router). That has been useful for testing/diagnosis and for accessing the GH's control panel. I could probably add a route to my router to allow access to the GH's control panel, but I have not done so. My little PC is a TopTon Celeron N5105 box with four 2.5G ethernet ports <https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004360072281.html> There are newer alternatives. I run Fedora 38 as the OS. Other folks choose pfSense or OpnSense, but I haven't needed to learn about those. PPPoE nicks a few bytes from each packet. That should be fine: PMTU Discovery should handle it, but it doesn't. Some internet sites fail. Cure (at least empirically): add MSS clamping to the filewall. Here is the "policy object" that I added to firewalld as file /etc/firewalld/policies/policy_int_to_ext.xml: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <policy priority="100" target="ACCEPT"> <ingress-zone name="FedoraServer"/> <egress-zone name="external"/> <rule> <tcp-mss-clamp value="1452"/> </rule> </policy> I don't remember having to do this with my (ancient) VDSL connection to Vybe.net. Not sure why. Theory: Roaring Penguin PPPoE seems to do MSS Clamping itself. Other possible cure: there is an obsolete and never adopted RFC that specifies how to negotiate slightly-jumbo packets with PPPoE. There are rumours that Bell supports this. a (1500 + 8) MTU would eliminate this whole problem. I would think RP PPPoE would support it but I don't know how RP PPPoE fits into Fedora 38.

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debian: adduser doen't add user to many useful groups
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 14 Aug '23

14 Aug '23

I'm just setting up a debian system for the first time in a long while. (I'm typing this on my new debian system.) The initial user that I created is automatically in many important groups: cdrom floppy sudo audio dip video plugdev netdev bluetooth lpadmin scanner silly <== the user gets its own group When I do an adduser for "hugh", I get only two groups: users hugh Why was "silly" not put into group "users"? Why was "hugh" not put into all these empowering groups? Is there a magic shortcut to getting hugh added to all these groups? It seems that console users would want most or all of these groups. Is there a nice guide to which groups allow what actions? What's the normal way of adding users? I read debian documentation saying useradd(8) is low-level and that adduser(8) should be used instead. I don't see a way of telling adduser that the normal desktop user should be enrolled in the appropriate groups. I know how to add a user to a group, one at a time: adduser user group That seem tedious.

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Interesting new chapter in the RH/CentOS saga.
by Evan Leibovitch 12 Aug '23

12 Aug '23

Looks like SUSE, Oracle and CIQ (parent company of Rocky Linux) are joining forces to address the recent policy changes at Red Hat that affected CentOS. https://openela.org/news/hello_world/ This will be interesting to follow. Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56

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use Window to access SSH server with obsolete ciphers
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 11 Aug '23

11 Aug '23

Recent Fedora systems' SSH client won't access CentOS 6 servers. Unable to negotiate with x.y.z.w port 22: no matching host key type found. Their offer: ssh-rsa,ssh-dss (One should not still be running CentOS 6!) All my workstations run recent Fedora systems. How could I access this server? It turns out the Windows has an SSH client these days and it isn't as picky about ciphers as Fedora. It could well be that other Linux distros support older ciphers too. This isn't generally a good thing: those ciphers were retired due to security concerns.

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transcript of chat at tonights meeting
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 10 Aug '23

10 Aug '23

Darn. The capture only got the last N message. Sorry. Bonus link: servethehome.ca They have reviews of interesting hardware, including little PC designed to be routers and 8 x 2.5G switches. ================ Mark 9:07 PM Umm, they're more transparent.... OPNSEnse started with a drama with Netgate.. the company behind pfSense ma Mark 9:10 PM Do you have a link for your new box? Or the vendor from aliexpress? ma Mark 9:11 PM yes, it is a good form factor ma Mark Alrightly. I sent an email to join the mailing list. Once I'm on, I'll explore that topic soon. ma Mark 9:22 PM thanks, Hugh. ma Mark 9:24 PM those were my two things. Suse & in-person question. Thanks, everyone ma Mark 9:24 PM great first meeting for me. ma Mark 9:25 PM that's okay. I'll give it a shot ahead of next meeting. Thanks! Mark is typing (Merged) GTALUG | Hugh

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[u-u] Unix Unanimous meeting - Wednesday 9 August 2023
by Unix Unanimous Webmaster 06 Aug '23

06 Aug '23

The next meeting of Unix Unanimous will be held at 6:45 pm on Wednesday 9 August 2023 via Zoom. Unix Unanimous is an informal gathering of people interested in Unix and related topics. There are no fees or membership requirements, and the meeting is open to all. Participants typically include Unix professionals, students, and hobbyists. This message will be repeated on the Monday before the meeting. If there are any items for the agenda, please email www-uu(a)unixunanimous.org before then. The meeting is always held on the second Wednesday of each month. Scheduled Zoom meeting details: Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system. Monthly: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/upQqceqqqT8ojRSfJJLgB24H2eY4VdhSvA/ics?icsT… Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/707632742?pwd=dUFObzVlaEdPZ2FhRFRvZ0NZWGNMQT09 Meeting ID: 707 632 742 Passcode: 642160 One tap mobile +16475580588,,707632742#,,,,*642160# Canada +17789072071,,707632742#,,,,*642160# Canada Dial by your location: +1 647 558 0588 Canada +1 778 907 2071 Canada +1 204 272 7920 Canada +1 438 809 7799 Canada +1 587 328 1099 Canada +1 647 374 4685 Canada +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) +1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) Meeting ID: 707 632 742 Passcode: 642160 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kMwdyjYc Special Announcements: A very big thank you to Colin McGregor for hosting the Zoom meetings. _______________________________________________ u-u mailing list u-u(a)mail-ml.infra-service.ca http://www2.infra-service.ca/mailman/listinfo/u-u

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Tuesday Meeting Reminder
by Alan Heighway 05 Aug '23

05 Aug '23

Round table <https://gtalug.org/meeting/2023-08/> with Everyone <https://gtalug.org/> 08 August, 2023 at 07:30 PM We will be having a round table so bring your questions for the group. We're going to use Big BLue Button for this meeting: https://blue.lpi.org/b/eva-zjc-gjy-kgl *Time:* August 08, 2023 7:30 PM Eastern Time *Join us on Big Blue Button:* https://blue.lpi.org/b/eva-zjc-gjy-kgl. *A*lan *H*eighway <http://heighway.ca/> heighway.ca VA3WAH / VA3YKZ [image: Please consider the environment before printing]

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tues aug 8 & beyond
by bitmap 04 Aug '23

04 Aug '23

My calendar says there is a meeting tuesday august 8 2023. Is it so? In any case, are there any topics in the works for this or further ahead dates? Are the meetings ever IRL or always online?

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OLD Thinkpads, free
by Giles Orr 04 Aug '23

04 Aug '23

2 x T60, 1 x T42 I have somewhat involuntarily acquired these three exceptionally old Thinkpads. None of them are fully operational although all do something resembling booting. None have HDs, and they have other minor ailments as well. No power supplies. My inclination is to rip them apart (I collect old CPUs), but if someone has an actual use for them, we can talk ... You would probably have to come to North York to collect them: I nearly broke my back carrying all three home in my backpack on the TTC. They are not light. These should be considered for parts: they sorta-maybe run, but when I give up on installing Linux on them, you can rest assured they're either badly underpowered or problematic or both. I only ask because I know a lot of people on this list (myself included) really like Thinkpads. If no answer in a week, I'll gut them (and that's fine too). -- Giles https://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr(a)gmail.com

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