... Something catastrophic is in the working. Analog
modems and community BBSes are about to become real hot
again.
Ogg wrote to IB Joe <=-
The copper has been pulled from a significant portion of the
network. The internet is awash with too much junk code to make
using it at 56K bearable.
I'm playing on a shell account with PINE again (ALPINE, actually) and remembered how much I could strip down email with procmail to the text
and read it. I bet I could do something like that now.
fusion wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
oddly enough i was looking at something like this for the BBS ..
there's a software called "poppler" that can convert PDFs to plain text (PDFs, at least not the heavily image laden ones, mostly being
markup).. with some finagling it could be made to enable viewing PDFs
on the BBS. i didn't follow through because the output wasn't very
great. definitely readable if that's what you had, but with some extra garbage around the text.. maybe make a note to myself to check it out again in a year lol
The internet is awash with too much junk code to make
using it at 56K bearable.
What if you strip out the junk? I noticed that my web host
that also hosts mail for my primary domain has an option to
strip out HTML. I was tempted to try it and see.
You'd have to strip it out at the source, so you weren't
transferring megs of images for a mail. At least flash is
dead now.
Part of me is hoping that the cruft won't be missed.
The trouble is that the sources or servers are feeding all that
junk. We are left "processing" it client-side to get rid of it.
What if you strip out the junk? I noticed that my web host that also
hosts mail for my primary domain has an option to strip out HTML.
I was tempted to try it and see.
The trouble is that the sources or servers are feeding all that
junk. We are left "processing" it client-side to get rid of it.
Ogg wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
But my main beef is that even my modest XP T60 laptop struggles
to process all the embedded shit in lavish websites. This trend
of bloated code on websites is sad.
If you're on a tight budget, find an old hybrid SATA drive - those are spinning drives with a 512MB - 4GB cache slapped on the side. Once you load up your apps the first time, they're fed out of the cache and it feels like a SSD.
Maybe try out a service like nextdns.io - You set your
computer to use their DNS servers and any hostnames for
trackers get an IP address of 0.0.0.0 which fails
immedietly. No downloading/processing required.
When I first set it up it was kind of doing *too* good of a
job, my bank's website while working was blocking a lot of
the images, so looked kind of strange.
They have a free tier which I tried at first and was kind of
impressed so pulled the plug on the yearly plan ($2.79 /mo
or $27.90 /year).
The trouble is that the sources or servers are feeding all
that junk. We are left "processing" it client-side to get
rid of it.
Yes, and I find this disgusting.
I think it makes economic sense to have a dedicated
filtering proxy working at LAN level to scrubb the bloat
away. It takes a lot of effort to get it right, though. Ad
blockers and scripts that run locally in your computer are
also great, but they also consume your resources.
Thanks for the tip. The program doesn't run in my XP T60 :( The installation seems to go well. But when I try to launch NextDNS, I
get "not a valid Win32 application".
But I see that specific sites can be configured to unblock that
stuff if needed.
Thanks for the nextdns.io tip. I may like to install it on my Win7
T540p laptop that usually sits right next to me but I rarely use.
My BBS is running on a T60; I'm running Windows 10 32-bit.
A couple of suggestions - use mydefrag if you have a
spinning drive. It makes a big difference in speed, or
switch out to an SSD. That made a world of difference.
The T60 still has a weird SATA to PATA bridge, so it's
running SATA drives at PATA speeds, but the SSD can still
speed up the drive.
If you're on a tight budget, find an old hybrid SATA drive
- those are spinning drives with a 512MB - 4GB cache
slapped on the side. Once you load up your apps the first
time, they're fed out of the cache and it feels like a SSD.
For a web browser, I started using K-Meleon, it's a lot
smaler/faster than Firefox. There was a Firefox light I
used to use, but it's not updated often.
Would installing Pi-Hole on a "spare" computer in the network be
a good solution?
I get the impression that once Pi-Hole is
installed, then it is a simple matter to point the other
computer's DNS-lookup to the Pi-Hole pc.
A quick look though
seems indicate that Pi-Hole is only available for linux or
win10. I would need a win7 solution.
Hello Arelor!
** On Saturday 20.03.21 - 14:51, you wrote to me:
The trouble is that the sources or servers are feeding all
that junk. We are left "processing" it client-side to get
rid of it.
Yes, and I find this disgusting.
I think it makes economic sense to have a dedicated
filtering proxy working at LAN level to scrubb the bloat
away. It takes a lot of effort to get it right, though. Ad
blockers and scripts that run locally in your computer are
also great, but they also consume your resources.
Would installing Pi-Hole on a "spare" computer in the network be
a good solution? I get the impression that once Pi-Hole is
installed, then it is a simple matter to point the other
computer's DNS-lookup to the Pi-Hole pc. A quick look though
seems indicate that Pi-Hole is only available for linux or
win10. I would need a win7 solution.
Thanks for the tip. The program doesn't run in my XP T60 :( The
installation seems to go well. But when I try to launch NextDNS, I
get "not a valid Win32 application".
You don't *have* to use the application. I think you can set your DNS settings manually to:
45.90.28.33
45.90.30.33
And then click the "link ip" button on https://my.nextdns.io
I ended up using the method above and adding the IPv4 & IPv6 DNS servers
to my router so the whole house has the benefit of ad/tracker filtering.
Nextdns.io seems to have figured out the right thing to do in this
world of people trying to phish and circumvent other security
layers.
You don't *have* to use the application. I think you can set your DNS settings manually to:
45.90.28.33
45.90.30.33
Nextdns.io seems to have figured out the right thing to do in this
world of people trying to phish and circumvent other security
layers.
Yup, I played around with using a pihole for a bit, nextdns is kind of
like a "pihole in the cloud" and works on my iPhone even when I'm out & about and even at work.
The Pi-Hole thing is intended to run on a low power device
that runs in your network 24/7 (eg a Raspberry). If your
only spare is a Windows 7 computer, you can probably run an
emulated Linux in it and attach it to the network, but I
think it is more trouble than it is worth.
And DNS filters scrubb a lot of the bad traffic, but a
certain percentage of bad traffic does not use DNS and
depends on hardcoded IPs instead.
My personal solution is to run a FULL OpenBSD server with a
FULL DNS server that pulls its data directly from the root
DNS servers, and an http(s) proxy in addition to that. When
you run your own DNS server and you have power enough, you
can do anything you want with it, including setting your
caches to obscenely high TTLs (for saving bandwidth) or
using blacklists for advertisers.
If you only have 1 computer to protect in your network,
setting a Pi-Hole or any other server is overkill IMO. It is
better to check which filters you can install on the
computer you are trying to protect.
BTW.. my visit to the site told me to use different numbers:
45.90.28.177 45.90.30.177
Perhaps they want to sort users by their ISP IP addresses or
"All good! "This device is using NextDNS with this configuration.
Then, after just 5 minutes of use looking around in a couple
Facebook BBS groups, the analytics page reports 697 queries and 2 blocked queries.
I am liking nextdns.io very much so far.
Nextdns.io offers a whole wack of blocklists. Perhaps there are
specific IPs in those.
Ogg wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
My BBS is running on a T60; I'm running Windows 10 32-bit.
Wow. What GHz? Mine is the T2400 at 1.83GHz ..and 3GB of RAM
which is the max for my model.
I can't imagine putting Win10 on mine.
Ok... I'll admit that I haven't done a defrag for several
months. The T60 was 2nd hand, and arrived with the drive
partitioned into C and H.
The T60 still has a weird SATA to PATA bridge, so it's
running SATA drives at PATA speeds, but the SSD can still
speed up the drive.
That might be viable. I'd really like to continue using this T60
a little while longer (I recently replaced the fan and applied
fresh heatsink goop to the CPU) ..and, the keyboard just feels
so great! A larger SSD could provide a nice upgrade path.
If you're on a tight budget, find an old hybrid SATA drive
- those are spinning drives with a 512MB - 4GB cache
slapped on the side. Once you load up your apps the first
time, they're fed out of the cache and it feels like a SSD.
I've heard of the hybrids. But I think SSD would be better. I
like the idea that the pc would runner cooler and extend battery
life with an SSD.
If Nextdns is only offering DNS services, you cannot block IPs using DNS alone. You need either a proxy, a firewall or routing rules for blocking IPs.
My BBS is running on a T60; I'm running Windows 10 32-bit.
Wow. What GHz? Mine is the T2400 at 1.83GHz ..and 3GB of
RAM which is the max for my model.
I can't imagine putting Win10 on mine.
Mine's the same, same memory, but with a 256 GB SSD. It
runs the BBS, Winamp and shoutcast just fine, with Mozilla
Seamonkey for web/mail/news/irc.
It runs decently, I can log onto it remotely and do work on
it and not feel like it's running doggedly.
Ok... I'll admit that I haven't done a defrag for several
months. The T60 was 2nd hand, and arrived with the drive
partitioned into C and H.
I just did an HDTUNE on the C: drive, and I got around 100
mb/sec - not great, but comparable to SATA-2.
Hybrids are definitely second-place to an SSD, and the
prices have dropped now to the point that I'd go straight
to an SSD.
I would have thought that Win7 would be a better match for our
T60s if an upgrade was considered. It's not always wise to just
upgrade to the next OS just because MS says that Win7 is
nolonger supported. A pc's CPU speed and RAM could be very
limiting issues.
Hello Arelor!
** On Tuesday 23.03.21 - 03:41, Arelor wrote to Ogg:
If Nextdns is only offering DNS services, you cannot block IPs using DNS alone.
You need either a proxy, a firewall or routing rules for blocking IPs.
But can't nextdns.io be doing that very thing in THEIR end?
I suppose nextdns is just doing the blocking on the OUTBOUND
from the client pc?
Ogg wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
I would have thought that Win7 would be a better match for our
T60s if an upgrade was considered. It's not always wise to just
upgrade to the next OS just because MS says that Win7 is
nolonger supported. A pc's CPU speed and RAM could be very
limiting issues.
It runs decently, I can log onto it remotely and do work on
it and not feel like it's running doggedly.
Is the CPU fan running constantly? ;)
Have you had to replace the CPU fan yet?
I would definately consider a SSD, and I'd love to boost up the
storage from 236GB to atleast double that 'cuz it's already
quite full. Would the T60 support a 1GB SSD?
Arelor wrote to Ogg <=-
Nextdns.io offers a whole wack of blocklists. Perhaps there are
specific IPs in those.
If Nextdns is only offering DNS services, you cannot block IPs using
DNS alone. You need either a proxy, a firewall or routing rules for blocking IPs.
Arelor wrote to Ogg <=-
Nextdns.io offers a whole wack of blocklists. Perhaps there are
specific IPs in those.
If Nextdns is only offering DNS services, you cannot block IPs using DNS alone. You need either a proxy, a firewall or routing rules for blocking IPs.
What they do is host the block list on their end, and return a bogus DNS result for items in the blocklist. I'm playing with them now.
I'm noticing a lot of broken images, wonder if there's a client side way to clean that up. I'm assuming they're all resolving to 127.0.0.something, might be interesting to find a way to resolve any image link to a 1 pixel gif.
... Where is the edge?
I would have thought that Win7 would be a better match for our
T60s..
I could have put 7 on it, but I'm a little leery of the
lack of updates -and I had a spare Windows 10 license
laying around.
Is the CPU fan running constantly? ;)
No, I'm running a fan utility on it, and keep an eye on the
fan usage and temp. It runs OK, what I'm sure helps is that
it's running in a storage space that runs about 10 degrees
cooler than my house.
Have you had to replace the CPU fan yet?
I bought a new fan on eBay for $6, but it didn't report fan speed. I took the old fan, cleaned the blades and gave it a drop of 3-in-1 oil on the spindle an it quieted down nicely. Took the oppporunity to replace the
CPU grease as well, which dropped the temp nicely.
I would definately consider a SSD, and I'd love to boost
up the storage from 236GB to atleast double that 'cuz it's
already quite full. Would the T60 support a 1GB SSD?
1TB? I don't see why it wouldn't. It seems that 2-3 TB is the limit on
old machine BIOSes where they fail on bigger drives. Windows on my old T3400 could use a 8TB drive, but the BIOS couldn't display it.
Hello IB Joe!
** On Wednesday 10.03.21 - 20:57, IB Joe wrote to Boraxman:
... Something catastrophic is in the working. Analog
modems and community BBSes are about to become real hot
again.
The copper has been pulled from a significant portion of the
network. The internet is awash with too much junk code to make
using it at 56K bearable.
The copper has been pulled from a significant portion of the
network. The internet is awash with too much junk code to
make using it at 56K bearable.
No kidding. Just as an example, I pulled down a
marketwatch.com webpage. It had over 18,000 lines and came
in at 2.6mb. That's without the images. Webpages have become
so bloated due to all the standards they have to support.
Ogg wrote to Nelgin <=-
No kidding. Just as an example, I pulled down a
marketwatch.com webpage. It had over 18,000 lines and came
in at 2.6mb. That's without the images. Webpages have become
so bloated due to all the standards they have to support.
I just hopped over there.
With AdBlocker active, it blocked 12 items, and with nextdns.io activated.. ..the data stream was 0.8MB SENT, and 3MB RCVD for
a total of 3.8MB before everything settled down. I still had
most images.
Ogg wrote to Nelgin <=-
No kidding. Just as an example, I pulled down a
marketwatch.com webpage. It had over 18,000 lines and came
in at 2.6mb. That's without the images. Webpages have become
so bloated due to all the standards they have to support.
I just hopped over there.
With AdBlocker active, it blocked 12 items, and with nextdns.io activated.. ..the data stream was 0.8MB SENT, and 3MB RCVD for
a total of 3.8MB before everything settled down. I still had
most images.
Part of what I like about tilde-space is bare-bones web sites, the revival of Gopherspace and now gemini pages.
At home, I'm playing with nextdns.io, but lacking the time to fine-tune it. What I should do is find a way to make split-DHCP, so my kids get one set of DNS and network settings and the TVs and the "adult" PCs get Google DNS.
Part of what I like about tilde-space is bare-bones web sites, the
revival of Gopherspace and now gemini pages.
At home, I'm playing with nextdns.io, but lacking the time to fine-tune it. What I should do is find a way to make split-DHCP, so my kids get one set of DNS and network settings and the TVs and the "adult" PCs get
Google DNS.
Sounds like you would need separate routers for each branch in
the network: kids vs adult. Then, couldn't you program each
router with its own set of DNS addresses to use?
That said, users can often tunnel through your rules unless you are
more hardcore than most admins. Eliminating unwanted traffic in a
LAN is more complex than people thinks. If you end up jumping into
that rabbit hole you will find yourself running packet inspectors
to check the connections users get are acceptable... When you reach
that point you are in it for a lof of technical and ethical issues.
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