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Creating A Wifi Hotspot

Wifi connections have become the fancied method to connect to the internet for their versatility and many applications on the road. You can create a wifi hotspot on most modern devices and use them for internet connection with your smartphone, iPhone, Samsung and various android gadgets. However, creating a hotspot can present different levels of difficulty. For instance, using open SUSE has often caused problems for many. Fortunately, it is not an overwhelming task and following a few basic procedures will help you create a hotspot which you can use with your laptop or mobile device. Here is how to create a wifi hotspot on openSUSE Linux for use with a mobile device such as iPhone, Samsung and android.

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What is needed?

In order to create a wifi hotspot on openSUSE which you can then share with your wifi-enabled device, you need to perform a couple of procedures to ensure you have all the requirements. Creating wifi hotspot on Linux machine requires the following at its basic;

  • Switch the wifi card to AP (master) mode – This is basically needed to make the AP secure and can only be achieved by running the hosapd with WPA2-PSK Auth or above.
  • Ensure your host is a NAT (Network address translation) -enabled router – this requires some form of coding. Simply use – iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s INPUT_CIDR -o OUTPUT_INTERFACE -j SNAT –to YOUR_PUBLIC_IP and sysctl net.ipv4.ip_forward=1; – to make the host NAT-enabled.
  • You need a DHCP server and a DNS forwarder – You can always use dnsmasq which will do both.

Creating a hotspot in Linux based system may require a bash of scripts which will seem ambiguous to people with no scripting knowledge. However, they are simple codes that can be found online and added to given files and lines of codes then run for smooth internet connectivity. Hostapd is the small daemon that helps you create a hotspot on Linux. It creates a virtual NAT table between your device and the internet using tables from Linux.

Creating the hotspot

You will need dnsmasq which is often pre-installed (on most Linux distributions). You will also need hostapd for AP provisioning. You must first install hostapd before hotspotd which is done by running commands;
sudo apt-get install hostapd for Ubuntu based terminals and yum install hostapd for RHEL based distros.
It only takes 2-3 seconds to install hotspotd. After installing hostapd, the remaining step is to install hotspot app. Download hotspotd package from the wget command and uncompress the zip to extract the tar file;(tar xvf hotspotd-0.1.tar.gz cd hotspotd-0.1/)

The setup command is sudo python setup.py install which should allow you to install hotspotd safely. To use the hotspot, you will be required to set SSID values and password among other basic requirements. Start the hotspotd by running (sudo hotspotd start) and stop it using (sudo hotspotd stop).

Troubleshooting the network

In order to enjoy seamless internet connectivity and sharing with other wifi enabled devices, there are a few other things to be done. The first thing is to make sure that you have installed all dependencies paying keen attention to dnsmasq, hostapd and python 2.7. Hotspotd will create the virtual NAT by manipulating Linux iptables rules. This means any other program that manipulated these tables (iptables) will create problems with the network. If any software (such as fedora firewalld) that manipulates the table rules is installed, simply deactivate it or disable it completely. You must also ensure the wifi supports AP mode otherwise the connection will not be successful. Find the kernel driver module that is currently in use by giving the following command;

:lspci -k | grep -A 3 -i network(example module: ath9k)

Next, find your wifi capabilities using the following command;:modinfo ath9k | grep depend
The command simply replaces the ath9k on your kernel driver. If you see an output that includes “mac80211” after running the given command, is should be a good sign that shows your wifi card will now support AP mode.

Conclusion

Creating a wifi hotspot on SUSE is definitely more involving when compared to Windows systems. However, most of the commands needed are already provided in the installation packages that you will download and once everything is set up, the network will be effortlessly shared with any wifi-enabled device including your Samsung smartphones and iPhone. It may be necessary to find a video tutorial that illustrates all the steps.

One Year Later, Hundreds of Tor Challenge Relays Still Active

As of this month, 567 relays from our 2014 Tor Challenge are still up and running—more than were established during the entire inaugural Tor Challenge back in 2011. To put that number in perspective, these nodes represent more than 8.5% of the roughly 6,500 public relays currently active on the entire Tor network, a system that supports more than 2-million directly connecting clients worldwide.

Tor is a tool that protects privacy on the Internet by routing web traffic through a series of nodes, or “relays,†creating a network of servers that act as way stations on data’s journey from point A to point B.

IBM Adds Node.js Debugging to Bluemix

ibm1After building up its Node.js expertise with its StrongLoop acquisition, IBM has added Node.js debugging capabilities to its Bluemix PaaS. 

IBM has introduced new capabilities for its Bluemix platform as a service (PaaS) that make it faster and easier for developers to debug applications in a cloud environment using popular open-source utilities like node-inspector and tty.js.These types of open-source utilities are widely used by developers on their local machines, but connecting a debugging tool or other utility in a cloud environment can be challenging…

Read more at eWeek

Industry Veterans Partner to Create a School for Software Engineers

holberton-logoWe are surrounded by IP devices. Look around, and you will see that most devices have an IP address — everything is getting smaller, and everything is getting hooked to the Internet. As more and more companies are using IT in their products, it’s creating a huge demand for software engineers. It is estimated that, by 2020, there will be 1.4 million open jobs and only 400,000 computer sciences students to fill them.

The question is whether our education system is prepared to address this demand. Soon we may face a talent crisis. A recent Linux Foundation report stated that the demand for Linux skills is growing at an unprecedented rate. The traditional systems are not adequate, argues Julien Barbier, co-founder and CEO of the newly announced Holberton School.

The Traditional Model

Barbier argues that traditional schools are great at teaching theory, but students don’t get much hands-on training. And, in the process, students spend almost fours years in college just to learn theory. When they go out to find jobs, companies that hire them first need to train them. These companies make a bet — sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

The problem with online courses, even those as highly regarded as HarvardX, is that the dropout rate is very high. Bootcamps seem to be a solution, but these are short-term courses suitable for those who are thinking of switching careers. You can’t become a software engineer in three months; it’s really hard. Organizers of such bootcamps are aware of the limitations so they select only those students who are graduates. Thus, a potential software engineer, who already spent 4 years getting a degree, goes to bootcamp to learn a very specific technology, not a broad range of skills.

Holberton School Enters the Picture

That’s where Barbier believes the Holberton School can address the problem. According to the company, a group of industry veterans from Apple, Docker, and LinkedIn have come together to solve this talent crisis. They have started a new San Francisco-based school that offers an alternative to college, online courses, and coding bootcamps.

The school aims at training high-quality, full-stack software engineers in two years by using a project-based and peer learning system already proven in Europe. One of the core parts of the curriculum is hands-on project-based studies. When students come to school they can work on their own project or ideas; they can build a product while studying. The school offers a six-month internship with companies in the middle of the course. But, if a student has already developed a product, they can create a startup instead of doing an internship.

The project has raised $2 million in seed money — led by Trinity Ventures (Dan Scholnick; board of directors, Docker and New Relic) — and including Jerry Yang (co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo!), Partech Ventures, Solomon Hykes (co-founder of Docker), and Jonathan Boutelle (co-founder of Slideshare).

The Holberton school will waive all fees for the inaugural students — they won’t have to pay any tuition for the two-year course. The first class will have 32 students, and it starts in January 2016. When I pressed about the fee for the next class, Barbier said that their goal is to make this as affordable as possible, so they will work with partners to make the next class free, if possible. However, he added that it may be too early to say anything. It may be free; it may be not.

It’s All about Open Source

On the first day of the school, students get their PCs in pieces; they have to build their computer, then install and configure Ubuntu Linux. In the first month, students focus on low-level C programming with Linux, exclusively. “We have a lot of open source projects in our curriculum, and students will also have to contribute to an open source project of their choice,” said Barbier.

“During the first year we give them projects to do. Then, starting month 4 to 9, they can replace one of our projects with theirs. In the second year, they have a lot of time to build their own products if they decide to do so, or they can work part time instead for the internship. If they have developed a product, they can do their startup if they want,” said Barbier.

Another interesting angle is that during their first year at school all projects except their own, if they decide otherwise, must be open sourced online on the repository of their choice (such as GitHub).

“Open source is a great option for teaching students because it not only helps you in building new skills as as software engineers, but also you know how to communicate with your peers. You have to understand how the team is working among many things. So I think open source is a great way to learn software engineering,” added Barbier.

Because the Linux Foundation also runs many specialized courses, I asked whether the school had any plans to collaborate with the Foundation. I was told that, although they are in touch with the Linux Foundation, it’s too early to comment on it.

Distribution Release: BackBox Linux 4.4

The BackBox development team has announced the launch of BackBox Linux 4.4. BackBox is a penetration and security assessment distribution based on Ubuntu and this latest release contains some fresh security tools and package upgrades. “The BackBox Team is pleased to announce the updated release of BackBox Linux, the version 4.4! In this release, we have some special new features included to keep BackBox up to date with last developments in security world.

Read more at DistroWatch

Dell to Buy EMC in $67B Tech Megamerger

The acquisition of data storage provider EMC would push Dell deeper into the enterprise market. Computer maker Dell is paying big bucks for an acquisition intended to create a major force in business computing.

On Monday, Round Rock, Texas-based Dell announced an agreement to purchase EMC, a provider of data storage products for businesses, for $67 billion.

Read more at The Open Road

GNOME Software Is Getting a New Rating System with Kudos

gnome-softwareThe GNOME developers are preparing to reintroduce a rating system for GNOME Software, but nothing as simple as the old one. It will be a complex way of rating the applications so that users can make informed decisions.

One of the things that has been missing from GNOME Software is the ability to rate applications and users have been asking for this feature for a long time. Some of you might remember that this feature used to be present in GNOME Software a long time ago, but it was removed. The reason was quite simple: the rating system was not good enough to clearly mark the apps. 

Computer Attack Insurance Rates Rise After High-Profile Breaches

Hacks that saw data stolen from Sony, Target, Home Depot and major health insurers have made it more expensive to cope with data theft, Reuters reports.

Just as you protect your worldly goods with house insurance, companies must insure against problems with customer and corporate data. But with hacking on the rise, that’s harder to obtain and pay for. The number of massive cyberattacks on US companies over the past two years has caused insurers to boost premiums for high-risk companies and in some cases limiting damage cover to a maximum of $100 million, Reuters reports.

Read more at The Open Road

WikiLeaks: ISPs to Hand Over Copyright Infringer Details Under TPP

The TPP will force ISPs to give up the details of customers who allegedly infringe copyright and allow rights holders to seek both compensatory and punitive damages as well as loss of profit, according to WikiLeaks.

The TPP, which reached agreement last week after talks had stalled for years over digital rights and other issues, will regulate trade between Australia, the United States, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Brunei, and Chile. However, with the full text of the agreement yet to be published, citizens of those 12 countries have only had the summaries of varying detail released by the parties to go on — until WikiLeaks published a leaked copy [PDF] of what it purports to be the intellectual property chapter.

Read more at ZDNet News

DFileManager: Cover Flow File Manager

A real gem of a file manager absent from the standard Ubuntu repositories but sporting a unique feature. That’s DFileManager in a twitterish statement.

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