OverTheRainbow's questions

I was unable to figure out how to use CloneZilla to clone Linux/XP/Vista (XP enters an endless loop with "Autochk - Program not found", and Vista can't boot with "Error 17 - File not found", even after fixing it with the "Windows Vista Recovery Disc" and recloning the image).

So I'm looking for an application that offers the following features:

1. Open-source/freeware or affordable

2. Can clone Linux and any version of Windows (XP/Vista/7, Server)

3. Only saves used clusters, not the entire partition (so "dd" is not an option)

4. Also restores the MBR so that the OS boots fine, and I don't have to fine-tune Grub to fit such and such OS

Thank you.

A client of mine has a little consulting company has five people, who usually work remotely.

They're used to using Outlook, but using POP isn't a good option, as e-mails end up being scattered on the different computers. Even if the clients are configured to leave a copy of a message on the server, that only applies to incoming e-mails, with outgoing e-mails only being available on the PC from which they were sent.

How do I allow users to stay with Outlook but keep all e-mails on the server? I've heard of IMAP, which should keep the server and the clients in sync, but I'm not sure. I'm also worried about the latency due to remote access over the internet, but I don't know if that should be a concern or not.

For use on a test computer, I need a free cloning tool to save NTFS and ext3 partitions to the same disk, ie. no need to up/download images from a server.

CloneZilla Live and PartImage (available on the live CD SystemRescueCd) seem to perform the same task, so I'd like some feedback from users who use those applications, or some alternatives.

Thank you.

I need to choose a server that can be used either by a single-user and scale up to four people, ie. not corporate stuff, although it has to be dependable, affordable, compact and quiet.

The OS will be Linux or FreeBSD, and applications will be business apps such as POP+anti-SPAM, telephony, CRM, ERP, knowledge management, etc.

I like compact boxes, but I read that Atom-based mobos like Intel's D945GSEJT are optimized for single-use, not running several applications simultaneously.

For those of you selling solutions for such small settings, what brand/models would you recommend?

Thank you.

I no longer have a landline and subscribed to a VoIP provider to have a landline phone number.

I prefer to use a softphone (EyeBeam, the commercial version of XLite), but there are times when a call comes in while a big download/compiling is under way.

I was thinking of adding

1. a small load balancer between my PC and the ADSL router so as to provide QoS, where most of the bandwidth would be automatically reallocated to the SIP flow when a call comes in. Are Linux-moded routers like Linksys WRT* or Asus WL500* a good solution, or should I consider other hardware?

2. Is there a utility for XP/Vista that will automatically allocate most of the CPU to EyeBeam when it's in active use?

Thank you.

My ISP recently changed the configuration of its mail servers so that it's no longer possible to forward them to Gmail to take advantage of its huge SPAM database and have the e-mails be sent back to my ISP.

Instead, all e-mails that are deemed SPAM are sent to each domain's spam@ mailbox, and the ISP expects all users to sort through SPAM using some desktop solution (I'm using POPFilter). Since SPAM represents over 90% of the e-mails I get, it's very time-consuming to go through the SPAM folder just to recover the very occasionnal legit e-mail :-/

For those of you managing e-mails for ISP's or big organizations, what are the current techniques available to filter SPAM on the servers so that users spend as little time as possible sorting e-mail?

Off the top of my head:

• outgoing mail: Forbid outgoing connections with destination port TCP25 other than the ISP's mail servers, to reduce the impact of viruses that take advantage of compromised computers to send SPAM silently -> all outgoing SMTP connections should go through the ISP's mail servers

• incoming mail: When the exact same e-mail is sent to thousands of recipients, mv /dev/null so that the user only has to examin the trickle of SPAM that went through the net

Are there other techniques that have proved to be effective at reducing the amount of SPAM users end up seeing on their desktop?

Thank you.

SIP was not built with NAT routers in mind, and I'd like to get to the bottom of this issue to check what needs to be done on all devices so it works with NAT routers, and understand in what context it just can't be used and I should check more NAT-friendly alternatives like IAX.

A picture being worth a thousand words, here's the layout I need to use:

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/4077/sipandnatrouters.jpg

1. The PBX server is located in the private LAN behind a NAT router connected to the Internet (I know it'd be easier if it were located in the public network, but this router doesn't support DMZ's so the server has to be in the private network)

2. A couple of (soft|hard)phones are located on the same LAN and connected to the PBX server, along with a PSTN gateway (Linksys 3102 or a Digium PCI card)

3. Remote users using (soft|hard)phones are located somewhere on the Net with dynamic IP's and are also located behind NAT routers

4. I may or may not have control over the local NAT router where the PBX server is located, but I have no control over the remote NAT routers, either because the users don't have the computer knowledge to map ports or because the routers are off-limit (eg. web cafés, hotel LAN's, etc.)

Is it possible to configure the PBX server, the (soft|hard)phones, and the PSTN gateway so that the all conversations work fine, no matter the endpoints (POTS caller/local phone, POTS caller/remote phone, local phones, remote phone/local phone)?

In which cases may I expect problems, and are there solutions?

FWIW, I'm leaning toward using Freeswitch, but I could end up using Asterisk if there are technical advantages to it in this context.

Thank you for any info.

I'm curious to know how big sites spread the load between the different DB server in the case where users write as much as they read, ie. when the standard solution of having one master to accept write, and several slaves that only let users read data doesn't work because it simply turns the master server into the bottleneck.

For those of you who manage a big site with a load balancer -> multiple web servers -> multiple DB servers, how do you spread the load evenly between the DB servers so that users (at best) don't have to wait for the master to update the slaves, or (at worst) users end up reading dirty data from slaves that haven't been updated yet?

Thank you.

I'd like to know if someone was able to build a compact server for SOHO users (ie. to handle email, light CRM, file server) for a total price of €150/$200, and have enough room to host a regular size PCI card so it can also act as a PBX?

I took a look at Atom-based mini-ITX motherboards, picoPSU, and the ad hoc case, and I end up with a total cost of at least twice this.

I just read this article which I find concerning:

"After 90 minutes of troubleshooting, Nash traced the problem to TeamViewer, which he used to remotely administer the client's servers. It turns out the program had opened up its own webserver on the client's machine as soon as Apache went down and in the process made it impossible for the client, a large provider of business software, to restart its proper website."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/24/teamviewer_snafu/

I started using TeamViewer recently because it's just much better than UltraVNC (runs on both XP and Vista, the server dials out instead of requiring the user to open a port on their router + better performance than UVNC)... but I thought that TeamViewer had both the server and client connect out to TV's web server for data to flow between the two hosts.

Why does TV even need to open a web server on the server host?

I have a voice server which currently sends an email to notify when someone called.

But actually, since messages are very short ("[object] Name - number"), the server could just as well send a message with Twitter instead of forcing users to connect to their Gmail account (we don't use BlackBerry's, just smartphones with an unlimited Edge connection to the Net.)

I assume there are Java applets to connect to Twitter. Could someone recommend one?

FWIW, the phones are Nokia's and Samsung's (we might get some Android-based smartphones soon.)

Thank you.