Quick reverse DNS lookup how to in CLI (command line interface)
February 5, 2008 by tibor · Leave a Comment
A reverse DNS query is where you know the IP address and would like to know what domain name is tied to that IP. I have been using http://www.dnsstuff.com/ for a while now and have been happy with their product, which is online DNS queries, but they turned to a pay model recently. Unfortunately, I don’t use them enough to warrant paying their yearly fees. Here is where the “host” command comes to the rescue.
Usage example:
host 64.233.187.99
99.187.233.64.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer jc-in-f99.google.com.
Host –info:
Usage: host [-aCdlriTwv] [-c class] [-N ndots] [-t type] [-W time]
[-R number] [-m flag] hostname [server]
-a is equivalent to -v -t ANY
-c specifies query class for non-IN data
-C compares SOA records on authoritative nameservers
-d is equivalent to -v
-l lists all hosts in a domain, using AXFR
-i IP6.INT reverse lookups
-N changes the number of dots allowed before root lookup is done
-r disables recursive processing
-R specifies number of retries for UDP packets
-s a SERVFAIL response should stop query
-t specifies the query type
-T enables TCP/IP mode
-v enables verbose output
-w specifies to wait forever for a reply
-W specifies how long to wait for a reply
-4 use IPv4 query transport only
-6 use IPv6 query transport only
-m set memory debugging flag (trace|record|usage)
The “host” command combined with “dig” will save me $36/year. 
Html validator – tidy plugin install for gedit – / Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10 /
December 22, 2007 by tibor · Leave a Comment
You can read up on the tidy plugin for gedit at: http://www.eng.tau.ac.il/~atavory/gedit-plugins/html-tidy/
The tidy plugin for gedit can be downloaded from: http://www.eng.tau.ac.il/~atavory/gedit-plugins/html-tidy/html-tidy-gedit-plugin.tar.gz
Extract the downloaded ******.tar.gz file into the following 2 directories
/usr/share/gedit-2/plugins/
/usr/lib/gedit-2/plugins/
How to mount a Windows ( = Samba) network share from Ubuntu linux automatically at boot?
December 19, 2007 by tibor · Leave a Comment
Assumed variables
Windows ( = Samba) network share’s server IP: 192.168.1.100
(FYI: you can use the server’s name instead of the IP address as long as you have internal name resolution within your network so that the server’s name can resolve to your server’s IP)
Share name on server: share
Name of the local folder that we mount the remote share under: joes_share
username to access the Windows (samba) share: joe
password to access the Windows (samba) share: pass
Steps:
1. Open a terminal session such as gnome-terminal
2. Type sudo mkdir /mnt/joes_share then push ENTER
#This will create a local folder called share under folder /mnt
3. Type sudo nano -w /etc/fstab
#This will open the file /etc/fstab in the nano command line text editor
4. Type //192.168.1.100/share /mnt/joes_share smbfs credentials=/etc/samba/cred-file,uid=userid,gid=users 0 0
#THE LINE ABOVE SHOULD BE ONE LINE ONLY IN FSTAB! This command will mount the windows server share called “share” (with server IP address 192.168.1.100) to your local folder /mnt/joes_share
5. Push CTRL+X and then push Y to save this file
6. Type sudo nano -w /etc/samba/cred-file then push the ENTER key
7. Type username=joe then push the ENTER key
8. Type password=pass then push CTRL+X and then push Y to save this file
9. To make sure that it works Type: sudo mount -a and push ENTER
Now you should be able to:
#1 See the content of your SHARE from your remote computer mounted locally under /mnt/joes_share
#2 Add, Delete and Create any files under /mnt/joes_share as a regular (non-root) user without having to use the sudo command all the time
#3 Have the share automatically mount at boot time from now on
Gutsy DVD playback not working even after libdvdcss2 install
November 2, 2007 by tibor · Leave a Comment
DVDs wouldn’t play back not even after successfully installing libdvdcss2 from medibuntu repository. As it turns out you might also have to install regionset (sudo apt-get install regionset) and set your region to 1. After a reboot your DVDs should play fine now.
The way I found the solution was:
1. Initiated the VLC media player from command line: wxvlc
2. I started playback of DVD from the GUI interface and received the error in the command line: “libdvdnav: Suspected RCE Region Protection!!!”
3. I googled the error message and found this page from 2006: http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-314380.html
4. Interestingly I never had to do this before. I currently have a Lenovo R61i Thinkpad.
