Free and Open Source blogger with an attitude
I’m proud to announce that Mypapit GNU/Linux blog is now on (and accessible through) IPv6 address 2607:f298:2:120::bd8:cdda.
I would like to thank all of my readers who have supported my blog until now, I couldn’t have done it without your continuous support.
Keep reading!
This post is related to “Solving Slow Firefox Web Browsing and Internet app problem“.
This problem is very noticeable in Ubuntu 9.10 (Lucid) onwards and it affects Ubuntu 10.04 (Karmic) too at a certain degree. Even my friend, piju the Ubuntu members also experienced this problem.
To remedy this, another suggested solution (from Brian Yang) is to disable IPV6 completely from Ubuntu.
To do that, you need to add the following lines to /etc/sysctl.conf file
#disable IPv6
net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1
net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1
net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6 = 1
Then you have to reboot, and you can check whether IPv6 has been disabled by running this command:
cat /proc/sys/net/ipv6/conf/all/disable_ipv6
It should display : 1
Note that this “bug” cause internet experience on Ubuntu seems to be perceived as “slower” than the windows machine as it causes delay on DNS lookup.
p/s: I know we should migrate to IPv6 by now, and Ubuntu did a good job, but for the sake of productivity and some users are complaining about the comparison between the internet surfing speed between Ubuntu and other operating system, I felt that something need to done, hence the posts.
Anticipating your favorite Linux distro releases? Now you can put on countdown widget in your blog and share your anticipation with the rest of the world.
Distro Release Countdown Widget
Both are provided from their respective official website, so you don’t need to worry about its accuracy. For the curious, here’s the sample of the countdown graphics
Sometimes you might have no choice except to open Microsoft Office 2007 (*.docx) files that you’ve just received in your email. The problem is, you do not have any other application that support Office 2007 format.
Here’s an easy way to (kinda) solve that problem, you can convert Microsoft Office 2007 files online, using Google Docs.
The steps are easy, you need to login into your Google Docs account, then upload the Office 2007 files. After that, you can choose the “Download file as” option to convert the file to your favorite document format (typically OpenDocument or older *.doc Microsoft Office word document).
Bear in mind that the conversion is not 100% perfect and there will be parts of document that won’t look exactly as the original ones.
Here’s how to use the latest Celcom offering – Celcom Broadband Prepaid on Ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution. As its name implies, Celcom Broadband Prepaid works in a prepaid basis, using the following plan: RM 6 /day or RM20/week of unlimited internet use.
This guide assumes you use Huawei E160* or E220 series 3G modem.
First, plug-in the 3G modem to USB connector. After a while, a dialog will appear :
Press next, you will see a list of local broadband service provider. Select “Celcom”.
The dialog will close after you click “Forward”. However for Celcom Broadband Prepaid to work, you need to change the APN to “celcom3g”, and PIN to “1234”
To do that, you need to right click on the network connection icon, and select “Edit Connections”:
Then change the APN value to “celcom3g” and set the PIN to “1234”.
Sending SMS to subscribe Celcom Prepaid Broadband
Users of Celcom Broadband Prepaid would know that they need to send SMS containing the message “Broadband Daily” or “Broadband Weekly” to 28882 to activate their internet subscription.
In order to do that in Ubuntu GNU/Linux, you need to install ‘gammu’ package from Synaptic Package Manager. ‘gammu’ allows you to send SMS using your Huawei 3G Modem, and it works sweetly with Celcom Broadband Prepaid.
Using ‘gedit’ or your favorite text editor, create ~/.gammurc config file containing these information :
[python]
[gammu]
port = /dev/ttyUSB0
model =
connection = at19200
synchronizetime = yes
logfile = gammu.log
logformat = textall
use_locking =
gammuloc =
[/python]
To send SMS, you need to open the terminal application and type “gammu sendsms text 28882”, it should look like this :
[python]
$ gammu sendsms text 28882
Enter message text and press ^D:
Broadband weekly
If you want break, press Ctrl+C…
Sending SMS 1/1….waiting for network answer..OK, message reference=33
[/python]
Note: “Broadband weekly” for subscribing Celcom Broadband Prepaid at RM20/week.
Then send another SMS, execute “gammu sendsms text 28882” :
[python]
$ gammu sendsms text 28882
Enter message text and press ^D:
Broadband Yes
If you want break, press Ctrl+C…
Sending SMS 1/1….waiting for network answer..OK, message reference=33
[/python]
Send “Broadband Yes”, to confirm your subscription. You can then enjoy the Celcom Broadband Prepaid right from your Ubuntu Desktop ! No need to depend on Microsoft Windows based “Mobile Partner” or Vodafone striped-down application to connect to the internet!
To read sms from your Celcom Broadband Prepaid SIM card, type “gammu getsms folder 1 15” and you will see a list of SMS received in your SIM card inbox memory.
[python]
$ gammu getsms folder 1 10
Location 1, folder “Inbox”, SIM memory, Inbox folder
SMS message
SMSC number : “+60193900000”
Sent : Sun 05 Jul 2009 06:48:50 PM +0800
Coding : Default GSM alphabet (no compression)
Remote number : “28882”
Status : Read
Enjoy 24hrs of unlimited usage @ only RM6. To confirm yr subscription, type Broadband Yes & send to 28882. RM6 will be charged to yr account upon confirmation.
Location 2, folder “Inbox”, SIM memory, Inbox folder
SMS message
SMSC number : “+60193900000”
Sent : Sat 19 Sep 2009 04:01:24 PM +0800
Coding : Default GSM alphabet (no compression)
Remote number : “28882”
Status : UnRead
Enjoy 7days of unlimited usage @ only RM20.To confirm yr subscription, type Broadband Yes & send to 28882.RM20 will be charged to yr account upon confirmation.
[/python]
Happy surfing !
Here’s an easy way to block annoying advertisement and malware sites using ‘/etc/hosts’ file.
First edit the /etc/hosts files using your favorite text editor :
sudo gedit /etc/hosts
Then, paste the list of ads/malware servers in the ‘hosts’ file. You can get the list from http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ or by searching through Google.
Close the file, and Save. The change will take effect immediately after that. One of the side-effect from this modfication is that your web surfing experience would be significantly faster because your browser does not have to wait for the annoying advertisement to load.
