Month: December 2013

Link: Setting up a Raspberry Pi as a WiFi access point

Would you like to use your Pi as a WiFi router? Or maybe have it as a special filtering access point? Setting up a Pi as an access point (AP) is a bit more advanced than using it as a client, but its still only a half hour of typing to configure. If you want to, this tutorial will make it so the Pi broadcasts a WiFi service and then routes internet traffic to an Ethernet cable. Since its all Linux you can go in and update or configure it however you like.

I used the following pages as a guide to create this tutorial, please note many of them will not work completely, but check them out if you are interested!

Currently tested working on Raspbian only

Full article here:
Setting up a Raspberry Pi as a WiFi access point (Adafruit Learning System)

We would not purchase a Raspberry Pi solely for this purpose, since you can probably buy a dedicated router that will act as an wireless access point for less than the price of a Raspberry Pi, power supply, SD Card, and WiFi adapter. But if you already have a Raspberry Pi that is loafing along doing some task that doesn’t make full use of its capabilities, this might be an extra task you could give it, particularly if it happens to be in a spot where WiFi reception is a bit spotty.

Link: Raspberry Pi: Tweet My IP (and, how to enable a Raspberry Pi to send tweets)

I intend to put my Raspberry Pies to work as intelligent controllers. As long as they stay at home I can easily keep track of the IP addresses they get from my modem. However as soon as my Pies start roaming the world and get connected to strange networks it is not as simple any more.

This little script will help you determine the IP address the Raspberry Pi has received. As soon as the Raspberry Pi receives an IP address from the network’s DHCP server it will send a Tweet, telling what IP address it has received. It can even tell you with what IP address it is now connected to the internet if you want to.

Full article here:
Tweet My IP (SB-Projects On Line)

Related article from same site: Send Twitter messages (from your Raspberry Pi)

Link: How to Setup a VPN (PPTP) Server on Debian Linux

VPN-ing into your server will allow you to connect to every possible service running on it, as if you were sitting next to it on the same network, without individually forwarding every port combination for every service you would like to access remotely.

Using a VPN connection also has the upshot of, if desired, granting access to other computers on the network as if you where in it locally from anywhere across the internet.

While not the most secure of the VPN solutions out there, PPTP is by far the simplest to install, configure and connect to from any modern system and from windows specifically as the client is a part of the OS since the XP days and you don’t need to mess with certificates (like with L2TP+IPsec or SSL VPNs) on both sides of the connection.

Did i get you interested? then let’s go 🙂

Full article here:
How to Setup a VPN (PPTP) Server on Debian Linux

Alternatives to the OS X “Time Machine” program for Ubuntu and other Linux users

Make Tech Easier has a few articles online that mention programs that Ubuntu users (and possibly users of other varieties of Linux) can install that more or less emulate the “Time Machine” feature of Mac OS X. The first article is from back in 2008:

Time machine For Ubuntu? Try Timevault and Flyback

The problem with the software mentioned in that article is that neither has been updated in years. However there is a much newer option, that would probably be the best choice for many users:

Automate Your System Backup With Back In Time

That one backs up your entire system, or anything you tell it to. The is one additional newer option:

Restore Your Linux System to Earlier Date with TimeShift

The problem with that one is that as the article explains, it will “…only backup and protect system files and settings. It doesn’t handle your data and document…” and apparently that’s by design. So if that’s what you’re looking for – and it could be useful, particularly if you like to try the latest and greatest versions of your system software – then go for it.

And yes, we are aware that some experienced Linux users will skip the GUI’s and just create their own backup schedules using rsync, but the problem with that is that a lot of newer Linux users just can’t seem to grasp rsync, nor do they want to. They just want a convenient backup program that’s at least somewhat akin to Time Machine on the Mac. And we’ve previously posted articles or links related to Grsync : Graphical rsync backup tool on Ubuntu (12.10 / 13.04 / 13.10), Redo Backup and GPartEd Live to backup a working system and restore it to a new (possibly larger) drive, and Disaster recovery with MondoRescue. So, there are many options out there for Linux users, and if you have a favorite one that we’ve missed (non-commercial only, please), feel free to leave a comment and let us know!

EDIT: Some additional links we’ve created or come across since this article was originally published:

Easy Linux backup software with Time Machine like functionality | Nuxified.org (TechNotes)
Link: Time Machine for every Unix out there (TechNotes)
Attic – Deduplicating backup program (Ubuntu Geek)
Backing Up on Linux with Duplicity (Linux.com)
Disk ARchive (dar) – “dar is a shell command that backs up directory trees and files, taking care of hard links, Extended Attributes, sparse files, MacOS’s file forks, any inode type (including Solaris Door inodes), etc. It has been tested under Linux, Windows, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, MacOS X and several other systems, it is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).”
Relax-and-Recover – “Relax-and-Recover is a setup-and-forget Linux bare metal disaster recovery solution. It is easy to set up and requires no maintenance so there is no excuse for not using it.”
Rsnapshot (Rsync Based) – A Local/Remote File System Backup Utility for Linux (Tecmint)
Time rsYnc Machine (tym) – “A backup utility with the approach popularized by the Time Machine of Apple.”

Link: Raspberry Pi Multi-Room Audio (Mobile/Tablet/PC Controlled)

I have been lurking on Instructables for a few years but have never posted one myself. Now I have bought a home of my own it’s time to undergo some projects and share them with the community.

In my first project I’m going to show you how I setup multi-room audio that can be controlled by any device with a web browser or an app on your Android and/or iOS device.

Full article here:
Raspberry Pi Multi-Room Audio (Mobile/Tablet/PC Controlled) (Instructables)
Be sure to read the comments under the main article because they provide some additional suggestions and insights.

Link: How to Overclock Your Raspberry Pi

By default, the processor in the Raspberry Pi runs at 700MHz but it can be overclocked. Microprocessors are designed in such a way that they perform one unit of work per clock cycle. One unit of work could be adding two numbers together or fetching something from memory. The faster the clock frequency, the higher the performance. Overclocking means to increase the frequency at which the processor runs. The problem is that each model of microprocessor is designed to run at its default frequency and overclocking takes the processor outside of its nominal design limits. If overclocked too much, the CPU becomes unstable which results in crashes or even SD card corruptions. However modern manufacturing processes mean that most chips, including the Broadcom BCM2835 used in the Pi, can safely run at higher speeds.

Full article here:
How to Overclock Your Raspberry Pi (Make Tech Easier)

Link: Make an Internet Controlled Lamp with a Raspberry Pi and Flask

Here I will be showing you how to turn on and off a lamp from anywhere in the world. However, you can control any device that works by toggling its power source, such as a fountain, TV, Christmas tree lights, projector, etc.

Full article here:
Make an Internet Controlled Lamp with a Raspberry Pi and Flask (jack.minardi.org)

Link: How To Set Up An External Hard Drive For Use With Mac OS X

When you first attach a hard drive to your Mac, it should automatically mount and be ready to use; however before relying on it, you should consider taking a couple of precautionary steps to ensure that the drive continues to work as expected.

Note: This guide is for those whose drive isn’t really working with their Mac, or those who want to set up their drive to work specifically work on OS X. By default, most drives should work with both Windows and OS X unless specified otherwise.)

Full article here:
How To Set Up An External Hard Drive For Use With Mac OS X (Make Tech Easier)

Link: Linux ntopng – Network Monitoring Tool Installation (Screenshots)

Nowdays computers are connected between each other. From the small area such as your home Local Area Network (LAN) until the the biggest one which we call – Internet. When you are managing a network computer, you are managing one of the most critical component. Since most of developed application is web based application, the network between critical.

There is why we need a network monitoring tool. One of the best network monitoring tool is called ntop. From Wikipedia “ntop is a network probe that shows network usage in a way similar to what top does for processes. In interactive mode, it displays the networkstatus on the user’s terminal. In Web mode, it acts as a web server, creating a HTML dump of the network status. It supports a NetFlow/sFlowemitter/collector, a HTTP-based client interface for creating ntop-centric monitoring applications, and RRD for persistently storing traffic statistics”

Now after 15 years, you will find ntopng – the next generation ntop.

What is ntopng

Ntopng is a high-speed web-based traffic analysis and flow collection. Ntopng is based from ntop. It’s run on every Unix platform, MacOS X and Windows.

Full article here:
Linux ntopng – Network Monitoring Tool Installation (Screenshots) (LinOxide)

Note that according to the ntopng download page, in addition to Linux, ntopng “should virtually compile on any Unix/Win32 platform.” However, we don’t know of any specific instructions for those platforms at this time.

Link: How to Recover Accidentally Deleted Files Without Paying Outrageous Fees

You can’t always blame data loss on hardware failure. A clumsy user can be just as harmful. PhotoRec is a nifty little command-line based tool that can recover accidentally deleted files.

To use PhotoRec effectively you need to understand how the filesystem handles files. When you delete a file, it isn’t actually zapped into oblivion. Rather the file system just marks it as deleted, and makes the space the file occupies available to other files.

This means that until another app uses that recently freed-up space, the original file is still there, and can be retrieved by a file recovery tool. For this very reason, it’s very important that you immediately stop using the computer as soon as you realize that you have accidentally deleted files in order to minimize the interactions with the hard disk.

Note: PhotoRec is cross-platform compatible. For this tutorial, we will use a Linux (Ubuntu) system for illustration.

Full article here:
How to Recover Accidentally Deleted Files Without Paying Outrageous Fees (Make Tech Easier)