Some Linux distributions prefer IPv6 over IPv4 by default. If you want the system to use IPv4 whenever possible while keeping IPv6 available, you can change the address selection policy.

Edit /etc/gai.conf

Open the configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/gai.conf

Find the following line and remove the leading # if it is commented out:

precedence ::ffff:0:0/96  100

Save the file. The change takes effect immediately, so no reboot or service restart is required.

Verify the configuration

You can verify the change with the following command:

getent ahosts google.com

Or simply run:

ping google.com

If the configuration was applied successfully, the system will prefer IPv4 whenever it is available while still falling back to IPv6 when needed.

The post Linux: Prioritize IPv4 over IPv6 appeared first on IT-ToolBox Blog.

The following line started to appear in the syslog (both VM, and core machine):

 nf_conntrack: table full, dropping packet

You can check the actual conntrack count with the following command:

sysctl net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_count

So our problem was that is was already maxed out. There are some ways that you can increase the maximum value via cli, but they will never work, it will be reset after few seconds to default value, which is 65536.

Solution: Increase the setting via Proxmox’s web interface. You can find it in Datacenter/VM/Firewall/Options. The option’s name is nf_conntrack_max. Increase it to the number you desire. If you have more than one machine in the cluster, then you have to edit this option on every one of them!

The post Proxmox VM’s have slow response times and timeouts appeared first on IT-ToolBox Blog.

The problem:

Today I came across a very irritating problem as I was updating our certificates. After the update I couldn’t restart the working VMs and got the following error message:

Failed to start VNC server: Our own certificate /etc/pve/local/pve-ssl.pem failed validation against /etc/pve/pve-root-ca.pem: The certificate hasn't got a known issuer

The web interface was working well with the new certificate, so I started to search for answers.

Long story short, I found a few posts about the problem, but neither of them worked. And then I opened another one, and BOOM: It struck me hard.

So the solution is:

It turns out I misread the basic configuration on the main Proxmox wiki page about SSL

If you want to use your own certificate then you should create/update the pveproxy-ssl.pem and pveproxy-ssl.key files only! I’ve updated the pve-ssl.key and pve-ssl.pem files previously and that caused the problem.

1. Revert to original certificates:

pvecm updatecerts -f

2. Insert your certificate into the following files:

cp fullchain.pem /etc/pve/nodes/<node>/pveproxy-ssl.pem
cp private-key.pem /etc/pve/nodes/<node>/pveproxy-ssl.key

3. Restart the PVE-proxy service

systemctl restart pveproxy

The system log should inform you about the usage of the alternative SSL certificate (“Using ‘/etc/pve/local/pveproxy-ssl.pem’ as certificate for the web interface.”):

journalctl -b -u pveproxy.service

And voila, the web-interface has a shiny new certificate, and the console/shell is working again!

The post Proxmox VE 4.x 5.x – SSL Issue appeared first on IT-ToolBox Blog.

Lee explained in a post on Reddit that he is selling all of his LTC coins — bar a number of physical coins he keeps as collectibles — to avoid the conflict of interest that comes with his influence and position as LTC founder.

Thanks to his time at Coinbase and LTC, Lee is regarded as a key influencer in the crypto space and he has accumulated more than 378,000 followers on Twitter, where his handle is @SatoshiLite. While he said he has stayed away from tweeting about LTC prices directly, he acknowledged his tweets have been criticized in some quarters as manipulating the price despite whatever his best interest. Lee readily admits that his position represented a conflict of interest, hence the unload.

“Whenever I tweet about Litecoin price or even just good or bads news, I get accused of doing it for personal benefit. Some people even think I short LTC! So in a sense, it is conflict of interest for me to hold LTC and tweet about it because I have so much influence. I have always refrained from buying/selling LTC before or after my major tweets, but this is something only I know. And there will always be a doubt on whether any of my actions were to further my own personal wealth above the success of Litecoin and crypto-currency in general,” Lee wrote.

The amount of LTC that Lee held, and had sold is unknown but now he said he is focused on developing the cryptocurrency itself.

“This is definitely a weird feeling, but also somehow refreshing. Don’t worry. I’m not quitting Litecoin. I will still spend all my time working on Litecoin. When Litecoin succeeds, I will still be rewarded in lots of different ways, just not directly via ownership of coins. I now believe this is the best way for me to continue to oversee Litecoin’s growth,” he added.

Note that Lee’s brother — Bobby — is the founder of China’s largest exchange BTCChina, so this is definitely a powerful crypto family.

Like Bitcoin, Ether and others, Litecoin’s value has grown explosively this year.

It is the world’s fifth larger cryptocurrency, according to Coinmarketcap.com, with a total ‘market cap’ of more than $2 billion. It’s value, at the time of writing, is $330.14 per coin, up more than 75X from just $4.36 on January 1, 2017.

Trading volumes of the coin have also reached unprecedented levels at the tail end of 2017, as indicated in the bottom graph in the chart below.

While it has become a vehicle for making money, Litecoin’s original objective was to become the silver to bitcoin’s gold. It was also designed to be easier to mine and cheaper to transact than bitcoin in the hope that these features could make it a cryptocurrency used for trading and real-world use in the future.

The post Litecoin founder Charlie Lee has sold all of his LTC appeared first on IT-ToolBox Blog.

The browser maker also dumped Yahoo as Firefox’s default search engine in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere, to return to Google, its partner – and primary financier – before a falling out three years ago.

The new browser’s official designation is Firefox 57, just another in an every-six-week series of upgrades. Until now, Mozilla has always numbered, never named, its browser releases.

Firefox Quantum boasts a revamped rendering engine with a new CSS (cascading style sheets) layout engine. Along with other components, the engine was written in Rust, a programming language that originated in Mozilla’s research group. The result: a significant speed increase.

“Firefox Quantum is over twice as fast as Firefox from 6 months ago, built on a completely overhauled core engine with brand new technology stolen from our advanced research group,” said Mayo, who credited the rendering engine’s use of multiple processor cores for the boost.

Other changes ran down the page and onto the next in Firefox’s release notes and included active tab prioritization and a switch-over from legacy add-ons to those built using the WebAssembly API (application programming interface).

Quantum also sports a new UI, the first major redesign since 2011’s Firefox 4. The UI and user experience (UX) changes, derived from an ongoing project tapped as “Photon,” emphasize speed improvements, both real and simply perceived.

The UI matches the streamlined austerity of rivals such as Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Edge. Firefox 57 combines the address and search bars – for new installations at least; existing users who miss the latter can restore it – reduces the clutter at the top of the window, and debuts a reworked new tab page.

Almost lost among the visual and technological changes was a simultaneous announcement that after three years, Firefox is switching back to Google as the default search engine in the U.S., Canada, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Other markets remain with their previous defaults, including Yandex (in Russia and Belarus) and Baidu (People’s Republic of China).

The Quantum project, the Photon UI overhaul and last year’s move to make Firefox a multiple-process browser have been crucial to Mozilla’s recovery strategy. Firefox once accounted for a quarter of the world’s user share but dipped as low as 8% in the summer of 2016. Since then, it’s scratched back to 13% as of October.

But will Firefox’s remodel be enough to cause its share too, say, overtake Microsoft’s declining Internet Explorer/Edge combination (with a 19.7% share last month), or erode Chrome’s dominance (59.8%)?

The post Mozilla seeks return to glory with release of Firefox Quantum appeared first on IT-ToolBox Blog.

Ghostery started life as a privacy-protecting extension for desktop browsers. On Android, its developers decided to present it as a browser. At its heart is a tracker blocker, a tool that prevents advertising and audience measurement networks from profiling you as you move around the web: Ideal if you don’t want your business and private personas linked. Ghostery makes it easy to prevent certain services from following you, or to turn off all the 2,200 trackers and 4,500 scripts it knows about. In keeping with its privacy theme, it doesn’t ask for too many permissions: just location, photos/media/files, and Wi-Fi connection information. It includes a private browsing function called “Ghost Mode.”

The Orfox browser, based on Firefox, sends your web traffic through Tor using another app, Orbot: Proxy with Tor. Tor, formerly The Onion Router, is a distributed system for anonymizing internet traffic developed by The Tor Project. It can hide what you’re browsing from your ISP, and withhold your IP address from the websites you visit. They’ll still know who you are if you log in with Facebook Connect, though…. Orbot doesn’t just work with Orfox: It can be set to launch at the same time as other apps, so they can use it as a VPN connection too. Orfox asks for access to your device/app history and to your photos/media/files, and runs on Android 4.0.3 and up. Orbot requires access to your photos/media/files and to device ID and call information, and runs on Android 4.1 and up. Both apps are free.

Opera Mini was originally developed to cut data usage and speed page loading on feature phones and low-end smartphones, but Android smartphone owners too can appreciate its speed and efficiency. In addition to its compression function, which uses a web proxy run by Opera, the browser also includes a night-time mode to reduce brightness while browsing in the dark and can delay large file downloads until you’re using a Wi-Fi connection. The browser includes an ad-blocker but doesn’t block all ads, choosing to display those from Facebook’s ad network. Opera Mini is free and runs on versions of Android going back at least as far as 4.1.2.

Source: https://www.itworld.com/article/3234045/android/10-smart-browser-alternatives-to-chrome-for-android.html

The post Browser alternatives to Chrome for Android appeared first on IT-ToolBox Blog.

The billionaire-backed corporation, which has raised over $1.7 billion from Virgin Group, SoftBank, Coca Cola, Bharti Group, Qualcomm and Airbus; just announced an exclusive $190 million contract with Echostar subsidiary Hughes Network Systems to provide some of the terrestrial infrastructure necessary to distribute its internet services.

Through the deal, Hughes Network Systems will manufacture a ground network system to support OneWeb’s low earth orbit satellites.

The contract is an extension of an earlier agreement the companies signed in June 2015 and leaves OneWeb on track to deliver its first connectivity services by 2019.

Through the deal, Hughes Network Systems will produce gateway sites with several access points for satellite tracking to smooth the handoff of high-speed user traffic between satellites.

In all, the deal brings the total contract between OneWeb and the Echostar subsidiary to roughly $300 million.

“The start of production of the ground system is a major step towards fulfilling OneWeb’s goal of bridging the digital divide, leaving no one behind,” said Greg Wyler, Founder and Executive Chairman of OneWeb, in a statement. “We are excited to deploy this essential part of our network as we ramp up to launch the first of our fleet early next year and provide service to every rural home in Alaska starting in 2019.”

The two companies began developing the ground network system two years ago and the deal calls for equipment to support satellite access points in gateway locations around the world — including purpose-built switching systems, outdoor modems and power amplifiers.

With the contract in place, shipments will begin in the middle of 2018.

For folks who don’t know (which was me, until today), Hughes Network supplies roughly half of the market for satellite-based connectivity services and is the company behind your spotty internet connectivity on airplanes around the world.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/07/oneweb-is-a-step-closer-to-bringing-its-global-satellite-based-internet-services-to-earth/

The post OneWeb is a step closer to bringing its global, satellite-based internet services to Earth appeared first on IT-ToolBox Blog.

The news shows that while we don’t have a firm number of how many units have been sold, we do know that Microsoft is banking on the device, a non-immersive experience that lets you interact with visual digital images while still being able to see a room as you would normally, as a core piece of its future hardware and software efforts in a bid to compete against the likes of Apple and Google.

“This is where we believe computing is going,” said Lorraine Bardeen, general manager of Microsoft HoloLens and Windows experiences, who announced the expansion today at Microsoft’s Future Decoded event in London. “We can bring all your apps and programs right into your world, but you can still see all the things in your world that matter to you.”

No details so far on when devices in the expanded list will ship, or what local prices will be (we are asking and will update as we learn more). Currently, Microsoft sells a “Development Edition” of the device for $3,000 and a “Commercial Suite” with added enterprise features for $5,000.

The new countries — Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey — come one year after Microsoft first took the HoloLens outside of the U.S., when it launched it in Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. It has since then also expanded it to its first Asian country, Japan.

There has been some debate about Microsoft’s strategy of being an early mover in AR — specifically whether banking it primarily around hardware rather than software for readily-available devices (as Apple and Google have done respectively with ARKit and ARCore) has been the wisest move for the company. For now, it seems that it’s the route that Microsoft will continue to take.

“At Microsoft, we are on a mission to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more,” said Bardeen. “Mixed reality has the potential to help customers and businesses across the globe do things that, until now, have never been possible. Mixed reality experiences will help businesses and their employees complete crucial tasks faster, safer, more efficiently, and create new ways to connect with customers and partners.”

The HoloLens is built to run Windows 10, which natively supports holographic interfaces at the API level. This lets developers program actions through gaze, gesture, voice and “environmental understanding” (that is, making sure that an object doesn’t pass through a wall, but bumps against it); and also more easily translate Windows 10 apps into apps that can work on the HoloLens.

While the majority of the world has yet to sign on to using and embracing augmented and virtual reality applications, these are important steps in making mixed-reality applications and devices less awkward and part of the more seamless continuum of consumer electronics and computing.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/01/microsoft-expands-hololens-headsets-to-29-new-european-markets/

The post Microsoft expands HoloLens headsets to new markets appeared first on IT-ToolBox Blog.

Ask around, and security experts will tell you that passwords aren’t going anywhere any time soon.

Google knows this, too. With constant threats from hackers and scammers, and now even nation-state and government-backed attackers, the odds are stacked against Google users. Hackers only have to win once, and tech companies have to win every time.

Now, the search giant thinks it can stop even the most sophisticated of hackers. Instead of doing away with the password for good, the search giant wants to give at-risk accounts a whole new layer of protection.

Enter a physical key, one you can attach to your home and car keys (and another that you keep locked away as a backup).

These two keyfob-like devices, about $20 each, are at the heart of Google’s so-called Advanced Protection Program, which the company is betting on to keep its email accounts as secure as possible from hackers.

The keyring acts a lot like a physical key to your inbox. Whenever you log into your account, Google will prompt you to use the keyfob as a two-factor authentication device. Either plug it in as a USB key or push the Bluetooth button, and you’ll be granted access to your account.

And for the most part, that’s it. Log in, plug in, push a button, and you’re in. Even the toughest hackers will be powerless to access your account without your physical key, Google contends.

Here’s the catch. Although anyone can sign up to the program, Google’s plan is to first focus on accounts at risk of being targeted by sophisticated, state-sponsored hackers. So politicians, reporters and business leaders will be first in the queue, while others may have to wait a bit longer.

Source : https://www.cnet.com/news/google-answer-to-email-hackers-is-a-dongle-that-fits-in-your-pocket/

The post Google says these tiny gadgets can protect you from hackers appeared first on IT-ToolBox Blog.

Processor

The heart of a PC is its processor. The ultimate choice is Intel’s 18-core Core i9-7980XE, and that should be an open ticket to be a high ranking member of the “PC Master Race” since this monster costs a cool $2,000-plus on Newegg. This monster reigns supreme in single-threaded performance, and since its 18 cores outnumber anything else currently available from Intel or AMD, the 7900X’s comes out on top of our multi-core tests, too.

Intel may be the king in performance, but if you’re looking for excellent multi-core capabilities without paying as much as a used car, the 16-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X ($1,000 on Amazon) delivers pretty good performance for half the price of the Core i9-7980XE. Alternatively, if you’re looking for the best performance for gaming, the Core i7-8700K ($370 on Amazon) should be your processor of choice for a fair price. It has 6 cores (12 threads) and it’s ticking between 3.7GHz and 4.7GHz — much more higher than what Intel’s 18-core chip is capable of out of the box.

Motherboard

Intel’s Core i9 chips use the X299 chipset and LGA2066 socket, so you’ll need to find a compatible new motherboard. The best choice should be the Asus Prime X299-Deluxe (nearly $295 on Newegg) — a particularly showy model with cutting-edge 802.11ad Wi-Fi and a tiny OLED “LiveDash” display that can show off vital system information. Alternatively, the Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 9 ($500 on Amazon) packs practically every feature you could ask for, from integrated SoundBlaster audio to reinforced building materials.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg though. Asus alone has revealed seven different Skylake-X boards, and it’s joined by the usual motherboard vendors—Gigabyte, MSI, ASRock.  These high-end motherboards don’t come cheap though; prices starting at $260 and most X299 boards go for $300 or more.

Memory

Intel’s X99 platform doesn’t stop at the most common 64GB limit for RAM. So why not enjoy an extremely future-proof 128GB kit of 3,200MHz Corsair Dominator Platinum memory ($1,550 on Amazon) and create some of the most epic RAM disks the world has ever seen? Or if you’re feeling the need for SPEED, Corsair also offers a 16GB kit of Vengeance LPX DDR4 memory clocked at a wild 4400MHz for $430 on AmazonRemove product link.

Granted, those prices could be a drawback, as could the fact that there are very few legitimate reasons to load up your PC with that much RAM. If you want to pick up a lower-capacity kit, or something from a different vendor, just make sure it’s DDR4 memory.

Graphics

If you demand the pinnacle of PC gaming performance no matter the cost, you’ll want to pick up Nvidia’s Titan Xp ($1,200 on Nvidia’s website). This second revision of the “Pascal” GPU generation’s Titan uses Nvidia’s full-blown GP102 graphics processor to power the most graphically demanding games of today without breaking a sweat, even at 4K resolution.

But realistically, most gamers should pick up the still powerful GeForce GTX 1080 Ti ($700 on Amazon). It’s 25 to 35 percent faster than the vaunted GTX 1080 and immediately rendered the older $1,200 Titan X obsolete. Nvidia’s sure putting its best foot forward ahead of AMD’s looming Radeon Vega launch.

The GTX 1080 Ti is the first semi-affordable consumer card capable of hitting 60 fps regularly at 4K resolution with all the bells and whistles cranked to Ultra in many games. It’s also potent enough to deliver a no-compromises gameplay experience at very high frame-rates at 1440p resolution—especially when paired with a G-Sync monitor. The Titan Xp is a wee bit faster for $500 more.

Display

If you’re going to drop big bucks on a take-no-prisoners graphics card, you’re going to want a high-end display to go with it. Monitors come in a wide range of shapes and sizes. Mainly everyone prefers the wide viewing angles and bright colours of IPS displays to the very slightly faster response times of TN panels, so that’s what all these recommendations consist of.

First, a trio of Nvidia G-Sync monitors, which smooth out stuttering and eliminate tearing during gameplay. For ultra-high resolutions, the Acer Predator XB271HK ($890 on Amazon) tops out at 60Hz, as going beyond that refresh rate is pointless at 4K with today’s technology. If you prefer your action faster—and more encompassing—the 3440×1440 resolution Asus ROG SWIFT PG348Q ($1,183 on Amazon) mixes an ultra-wide display with 100Hz frame rates. If pure speed is more your fancy, you’ll need to drop the overall resolution to snag a 144Hz monitor like the 27-inch, 2560×1440 Acer XB270HU ($750 on Amazon).

Gaming isn’t your thing? Professional photo-editing displays with true 10-bit colour and 99-plus percent Adobe RGB accuracy can get really pricey. The 4K display the experts at 144HzMonitors.com recommends, the NEC PA322UHD, costs a staggering $2,500 at Amazon.

Storage

Storage likewise comes in a variety of options. If you’re looking for sheer volume, a pair of recent releases has you more than covered. The 4TB Samsung 850 EVO ($1,458 on Amazon) and 10TB Seagate BarraCuda Pro ($428 on Amazon) are the largest ever consumer solid-state and traditional hard drives, respectively. Samsung’s SSD is obviously faster, but it costs much, much more, and the BarraCuda Pro’s 7,200rpm platters deliver surprisingly great access speeds for a mechanical hard drive. However if reliability is the mainly goal, WD wins the HDD-debate with the 6TB Black drive ($245 on Newegg )

What if pure speed is your primary goal? In exchange for some space, you can bask in the blistering transfer rates of an M.2 PCI-e NVMe SSD. The trade-off is worthwhile: The 2TB Samsung 960 Pro ($1,190 on Amazon) is easily one of the fastest drives ever created, hitting read speeds far over 2Gbps. Now that’s fast! Make this your boot drive and never worry about lag again.

Power Supply

With the marvellous power efficiency of modern Intel processors and Nvidia graphics cards, most single-GPU systems probably don’t need more than a 600-watt power supply. But this list is all about the best of the best—and investing in a beefier power supply is a good idea if you want to use multiple graphics cards or ensure room for expansion in the future.

The Corsair AX1500i ($396 on Amazon) is essentially a power supply paragon. This fully modular PSU has rated for 80 Plus Titanium efficiency and tremendous load regulation across all rails thanks to a cutting-edge digital control system. There is however a cheaper but similarly potent sibling, the Corsair AX1200i ($301 on Amazon).

Case

This is totally up to you, but remember: everything should be fitted inside, so watch out for the right size your equipment needs!

Source: The best PC hardware you can buy today

The post The best PC hardware you can buy today appeared first on IT-ToolBox Blog.