Running Google Chrome in Fedora 16 (as root)

It’s very annoying when a linux box warns you that you are the super user and you may harm your computer by doing this blah blah blah. I was just trying to install google chrome for my Fedora 16. Got the rpm from the google website but unfortunately it didn’t open , the reason “cannot run as root” . To overcome this there’s a small work around.

1. Go to terminal and type

xhost +

The above command disables access control for X11 display.

2. Next open your google chrome configuration file located in /usr/bin/google-chrome and this to the end of the line “–user-data-dir”.

So your config file will look something like this.

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

export CHROME_VERSION_EXTRA=”stable”

# We don’t want bug-buddy intercepting our crashes. http://crbug.com/24120
export GNOME_DISABLE_CRASH_DIALOG=SET_BY_GOOGLE_CHROME

exec -a “$0” “$HERE/chrome” “$@” –user-data-dir

3. Save the file and quit , you must be up and running.

HTH

Know your Internet ( How the internet works ? )

Internet has become an endless reality, now people can talk to their friends and relatives through video chat, things like these seemed impossible a few decades ago. Internet has greatly revolutionized the world. From payments to social networking, it has his impact on most of the individuals. Without internet, life is hard.

The Internet consists of an infrastructure laid down by hardware devices like Cables, routers, switches (before hub), transmission towers,satellites etc. These form the backbone of the Internet.

The various components include nodes,clients,servers.Some are end points — the computer, smartphone or other device you’re using to read this may count as one. We call those end points clients. Machines that store the information we seek on the Internet are servers. Other elements are nodes which serve as a connecting point along a route of traffic. Connections can be physical or virtual. Moreover we can categorize internet as Wired and Wireless as well.

Now comes the software components: Protocols are the set of rules that nodes and machines in a network follow. Without protocols communication is nearly impossible. They lay down standards and policies that the nodes in the network must follow.

Commonly used protocols on the internet include TCP,UDP,IP,HTTP,FTP.

Now lets concentrate on how packets flow in the internet.

First a connection to the internet is established. We then make use of a Web Browser for viewing web pages.Here, your computer sends an electronic request over your connection to your Internet service provider (ISP). The ISP routes the request to a server further up the chain on the Internet. Eventually, the request will hit a domain name server (DNS).The ISP is the internet provider, example Verizon, Airtel, BSNL.

The DNS forms an important feature of the Internet. It is the one that manages the entire internet. It’s used in redirection look ups apart from many other tasks.This server will search for a match for the domain name you’ve typed in for example (www.google.com). If a match is found it then redirects to the corresponding IP address.For example http://www.google.com will redirect to 216.239.51.99. If it doesn’t find a match, it will send the request further up the chain to a server that has more information.

The request will finally come to our very own Web server. The internet makes use of packets , data is divided into several small data packets and transmitted and received over the internet. Each protocol follows its header and footer formats along with the information that each packet carries. The routing protocol is specified as well. Hence depending on the protocol and the addresses, the packets reach the destination node.

That’s an important feature. Because packets can travel multiple paths to get to their destination, it’s possible for information to route around congested areas on the Internet. In fact, as long as some connections remain, entire sections of the Internet could go down and information could still travel from one section to another — though it might take longer than normal.

Routing is essential as there are several ways to send and receive packets over the internet and its essential to follow the best path and provide alternate paths when necessary.

HTH

 

Know your torrent (How torrents work ?)

I was always amazed at the way torrents work that’s why I felt I must write an article about torrents in my blog. Torrents are the most widely used mechanism for downloading files over the internet. Even though they are an innovative thing, they are responsible for most of the piracy that happens over the internet.

Now lets get to the point “How torrents work ?”

Torrents come under the category called Peer to Peer  sharing. P2P file sharing is different from regular downloading. In peer-to-peer sharing, we use a software program to find and connect to computers consist of the file you want to download. Because these are ordinary computers like yours, as opposed to servers, they are called peers.

Few definitions :

• “Swarming” is about splitting large files into smaller “bits”, and then sharing those bits across a “swarm” of dozens of linked users.
• “Tracking” is when specific servers help swarm users find each other.
• Swarm members use special Torrent client software to upload, download, and reconstruct the many file bits into complete usable files.
• Special .torrent text files act as pointers during this whole process, helping users find other users to swarm with, and enforcing quality control on all shared files.

A torrent makes use of primarily two concepts “seeds” and “peers”.

Every torrent client software contacts  a tracker to find other computers running a torrent client that have the complete file .These are called “seeds” and those with a portion of the file downloaded are called the “peers”.

The tracker in the network makes use of the swarm i.e it identifies the computers that are the seeds and those that are peers.

Torrents make use of simultaneous upload and download i.e a torrent client downloads a part of the file and at the same time uploads the file to be used by other peers in the network. The upload and download rates can be specified in the torrent client.

Download speed is controlled by torrent tracking servers, who monitor all swarm users.I have come across a few articles saying that most torrent clients make use of a strategy called “tit for tat” which means the greater the number of files you upload the better your download speed. Am from India and I have never seen my download speeds crossing the 250 Kbit/sec mark and hence I have little to comment about it.

A quote from netforbeginners.about.com

If you share, tracker servers will reward you by increasing your alotted swarm bandwidth . Similarly, if you leech and limit your upload sharing, tracking servers will choke your download speeds, sometimes to as slow as 1 kilobit per second. Indeed, the “Pay It Forward” philosophy is digitally enforced! Leeches are not welcome in a bittorrent swarm.

For further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_(protocol)