[ELECTRON] Electron Club, excess bandwidth and computers

[Ross Feilen]

We had a look at Ben's shuttle-sized PC yesterday evening in the SOLDER
group and all seemed well with it. It might have a run-out BIOS battery as
when we booted it up, the CMOS settings including time had been forgotten.
It seems to have a clean version of Ubuntu on it, though I've no idea which
kernel version.

It looks like quite a nice machine, certainly faster and better powered than
the existing linux computer, so would be a very nice addition to the EC
room.

I also noticed that the wireless password for the EC was unchanged from
before, wasn't it to get changed to prevent wireless hacking possibilities?

Ross
SOLDER group
Radio callsign GM7WED


On 6 January 2011 13:44, Martin McGrath <mcgrath.martin at gmail.com> wrote:

> I've booked the room for 18/01/2010.
>
> I plan on building a system using the computer very kindly donated by Ben
> (thank you), this will relace the  and rebuilding the existing linux machine
> with a supported version of Ubuntu (from a currently unsupported version).
>
> Please consider this a reminder if you need anything backed up, either let
> me know what and where it is or do it yourself before the date mentioned
> above.
>
> Bob, do you have any further information on the linux machine + flat screen
> monitor you had mentioned before? It may be a more powerful machine than the
> existing Ubuntu machine.
>
> Simon, where do we stand with the bill for the excess. Is there a way
> people can make donations to cover this?
>
> Thanks
>
> Martin
>
>
> On 22 December 2010 14:43, Martin McGrath <mcgrath.martin at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> I've spent quite some time here over the last couple of days investigating
>> potential causes of bandwidth excess problem.
>>
>> There are two machines currently connected to the router in the club room.
>>
>> 1. Compaq 5221, AMD K6 380Mhz, 320MB RAM. Running Windows XP, missing lots
>> of patches, no Antivirus software installed.
>> 2. Ubuntu based machine, reasonable spec CPU, 512MB RAM. Running an
>> unsupported (ergo unpatched) version of Ubuntu.
>>
>> In the interests of security please don't operate a Windows PC without
>> anti virus software installed, it's just common sense.
>> Please user Firefox as your default web browser.
>>
>> The XP machine had no application software other than uTorrent (a bit
>> torrent client) and CClean installed.
>> This machine is terribly slow, I've earmarked a machine to replace it
>> which is significantly faster and we have more RAM in the cupboard which I
>> can fit.
>>
>> Do we really need a Windows machine in the club? I'd like feedback on this
>> please.
>> A linux machine is just as easy to use for everything this machine could
>> have been used for, and far easier to maintain.
>>
>> The XP machine passed a full system virus scan and three rootkit scans.
>>
>> I plan to upgrade the Ubuntu machine to a version of the operating system
>> which is at least supported. If anyone has data they'd like backed up please
>> do so, or let me know where and what it is and I'll do it for you.
>>
>> The room still has it's WIFI point, at the moment secured with WPA-PSK,
>> the details for which are on the poster on the right as you enter the room.
>> I plan on investigating this more at a later date.
>> I disabled the WIFI point on the modem running in the comms room. There
>> was no point in us having two.
>>
>> I'm not convinced that anyone would waste time cracking the WPA
>> passphrase, given that there are two other open access points in the area.
>>
>> I plan on documenting and laminating some notes about EC kit, the network,
>> the computers etc. I'll get round to this once I've fixed up the systems in
>> question.
>>
>> Snail mail has arrived for the following people, I've left it in a neat
>> pile on the table:
>>
>> Mitch Miller
>> Glasgow Social centre limited (two items)
>> Robert Hamilton
>> Jonathan Agnew (two items)
>>
>> When I arrived yesterday the place was a bit of a mess. There were chairs
>> all over the place, some rubbish on the table, an old mug of what I assume
>> was coffee and papers scattered over the desks.
>>
>> I've done a little tidying but I've got other things I need to be doing at
>> the moment.
>> The room is a space for all of us, please tidy up before leaving.
>>
>> Have a nice Christmas and a safe New Year.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Martin
>>
>
>
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