Setting up local dns cache and public dns address for "lightning" speed browsing in Ubuntu

When it comes to internet, reasonable speed is always an uncomprimisable thing. That may be a crucial reason for making you sit infront of your machines for hours and days. So the lightning speed can be achieved with your ubuntu box in two ways. They are 

• Use faster and free domain name servers like google's pubic dns or OpenDNS (first throw the one provided by your service provider). Hope you will check one of my past article written in Crack Bytez.

• Maintain a local dns cache in your machine itself.  So that you can do a good amount of address resolution for frequently used websites within your machine itself, and that saves a reasonable amount of time.

Here i am planning to bring both of these techniques together in a simple manner. Though there are many applications for local DNS caching in ubuntu [ such as dnsmasq, pdnsd, bind9 ] are available, bind9 seems to be a good option for me...

Starting with BIND9  DNS server in Ubuntu

Bind9 (Berkly Internet Naming Daemon)  is the most widely deployed DNS server. Bind9 is available in the ubuntu main repository itself. So you don't need to add some additional repository for installing it. Use the following command line or search for 'bind9' in Synaptic package manager to install it. 

$ sudo apt-get install bind9

Bind9 allows different type of configurations, and our point of view is on configuring it as a caching server. In this configuration BIND9 will find the answer to name queries and remember the answer for the next query. This can be useful for a slow internet connections especially based on mobile internet. By caching DNS queries, you will reduce bandwidth and (more importantly) latency. It increase network performance by caching IP addresses of commonly visited websites instead of retrieving them from the public DNS servers maintained by ISPs at each request.

Configuring the BIND server 

#  First you have to set your machine's address (127.0.0.1) itself as the primary dns address.  This can be done with the help of Network manager or by editing the /etc/resolv.conf file in your ubuntu box. Check the screenshot below..

• using Network manager:: select the connection and click on the edit. Then choose the IPv4 settings tab and add 127.0.0.1 to the DNS servers field.

• editing the resolv.conf file:: If you are using DHCP then you may have to edit the resolv.conf file every time you connect to the internet to make bind work properly.

Now change the bind configuration file to add some external DNS servers for resolving a new address that is not cached on your local cache at that time. If you are not adding an external dns server, then it will not be possible to resolve a new address request comes from the browser.  Here i recommend google's public dns or OpenDNS addresses to add in the BIND configuration file. This servers may be sometimes faster and reliable than your ISP's Domain Name Servers. You can find the best DNS server applicable for you by checking in this post. Here is how i have added it

#  First open the file 'named.conf.options' 

$ sudo gedit /etc/bind/named.conf.options

#  Now uncommend the section 'forwarders'. Replace the '0.0.0.0' with the dns server address applicable to you (Check the figure).

#  Restart  the BIND server:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/bind9 restart

 

Thatz it. We are almost done. Now use the dig command to see the change in speed. If you "dig" a domain name multiple times you should see a drastic decrease in query time: between the first and second query. This is due to the server caching the query. See what happened when i dig twitter from my terminal three times concecutively. See the change in the Query time.

$ dig twitter.com

                                                        

Time is up. Go Applications > Internet > firefox and experience the lightning speed...

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Tata docomo internet in ubuntu

Tata docomo offers basically 3 kinds of gprs based internet plans for use in Kerala. They are providing reasonable browsing speeds but still Idea is faster among other counter parts.

Connect your mobile phone using the data cable or bluetooth to the Ubuntu box. If you are using datacable then opt for the 'phone mode' ('Nokia mode' in Nokia phones) from the popup menu shown in the phone when connected to the pc. The network manager will launch the new broadband wizard in the pc automatically. You can manually access this by clicking on the 'Add' button under the 'Mobile Broadband' tag in the NetworkManger.

During the wizard you can find TATA DOCOMO listed under Mobile Service providers belonging to India. This case is true for versions of Ubuntu released after Ubuntu 9.10. For older versions of Ubuntu TATA DOCOMO might not be listed. In this case you can select any of the service provider (idea, airtel...) and editing it after completing the wizard. For editing the connection, select the 'edit' button under the 'Mobile Broadband' tag in the NetworkManager. You have to change the feilds such as Access Point, Number, DNS servers etc... with new values as follows.

Connection name    :     tata docomo
APN                         :     TATA.DOCOMO.INTERNET
Number                   :     *99#
DNS server             :     8.8.8.8

To change the DNS server, first click on the 'IPv4 Settings' tab and select the 'Method' as 'Automatic (PPP) addresses only'. Then fill the 'DNS servers' feild with the above given value. Check in the box corresponding to 'Connect automatically' and click on the apply button to finish the configurations.

Connection using the Bluetooth:

If you are using past versions of ubuntu till maverick Meerkat (10.04 LTS) then you may have to install an application called blueman for using mobile internet without any hazzles and terminal based configurations. Blueman provides a simple interface for accessing the mobile internet via bluetooth. Installation procedures have been discussed in another post in  crack bytezz. Click on the 'setup' button and then select 'Dialup Networking' in the 'connect to' window popped up and forward to finish the procedure. The connection can be setted up as specified above

 

Dialling the connection

Now dial the connection from the Network Manager applet in the taskbar as shown in the figure.

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How to connect Idea gprs without Nokia PC suite in Windows

There is no need of a software like Nokia pc suite for accessing internet on the Windows machine if you have a modem on your mobile phone. This post describes about connecting to internet with a nokia phone with modem on your computer


Connect the mobile to the computer using bluetooth or data cable from the phone. Select Nokia mode on the phone if connection is made through the data cable. Pair the phone with the bluetooth of the computer if the connection is via bluetooth.


 

On Mobile phone


Select Menu  >>  Settings  >>  Connectivity  >> Packet data   >>  Packet data settings



Click on Edit active acces point to edit the access point. Set the following values

 

       Alias for access point       ::     internet

       Packet data access point  ::     internet


Set the active access point as curreently defined access point called 'internet'.

 

On computer with Windows XP/Vista/7


Select Setup a connection or network from Network and Sharing center.


Click on Set up a dial-up connection 

Select the bluetooth modem corresponding to your phone

 Change the fields on the screen as follows


          Dial up phone number :  *99#

          Connection name         :  idea internet 

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Links: the browser for the terminal

Links is powerful text WWW browser with tables and frames. It runs in linux terminal providing a faster access to internet especially on slow connection. Its completely text based, so that you cant use it  as a complete replacement for usual browsers since terminal can not display images. Also since text based it can be a used for faster acces of internet when you are using mobile internet. 

 

Installing links in Ubuntu

Take the terminal and type in as follows

 $ sudo apt-get install links 

Or you can download the links package with graphics in compressed format from here. The details about installation are provided in the links site.

 

Browsing in links 

After installation take the terminal and type links

 $ links

 

command line options

-g 

            to run links in graphics mode

-no-g

            to run links in text mode

-anonymous
            Restrict links so that it can run on an anonymous  account.   No local  file  browsing.  No  downloads.  
 
-http-proxy <host:port>
              Host and port number of the HTTP  proxy,  or  blank.

-ftp-proxy <host:port>              
              Host  and  port  number  of  the FTP proxy, or blank. 

-download-dir <path>              
              Default download directory.  (default: actual dir) 

Navigation keys

ESC/F9    menu/escape

d      download link (text mode only)
/       search in the page
?       search back in the page
n       find next match

f        zoom actual frame
^R    reload page
g       go to URL

G       edit the current URL and goto the result
s       bookmark manager
q       quit, close window if more windows are open
=      document informations
\       toggle HTML source/rendered view
 

Setting proxy in links

Select Network Options from the setup menu(Click on F9 to get the menu).

 

Select Proxies to input the proxy address.

 
 

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How to setup your mobile phone to recieve email alerts (for Nokia)

                        You can read or write emails from your mobile phone without any phone browsers (wap/web) by following this post. All the gprs enabled mobile handsets of Nokia comes up with an email client which is similar to outlook express or evolution or thunderbird but with basic inbox features such as sending and receiving only. Inorder to get this client working properly you should have a gprs /edge connection to get connected to the pop server.

I started setting up my email client of Nokia 5200, which is a java based mobile phone. This tip is possible in almost all the java phones. The email  client in this phone has 3 custom folders, an archive folder and a junk folder..

Activating the email  account 

1.  From the Menu select the Messaging option. Scroll down the list to find the E-mail option. 

2.  Select the new account option to start. Then the phone will ask for email service that you have. Multiple accounts are possible. Let select the gmail now. Enter your account details in the text boxes. Dont append the @gmail at the end of the username.

3.  On the next window you have to enter the incoming and outgoing sever information...

Incoming server

servertype: POP

servername: pop.gmail.com

incoming username: your_username@gmail.com

Outgoing serever

servername: smtp.gmail.com

username & password : select the option 'same as the incoming '

4.  On the next window the phone will ask for retrieval settings. On the secure login option check the radio of 'automatic option'. This will prompt for the password when start retrieving the emails. Click on the OK button to complete the current step.

5.  You can add the signature portion to each of the email by clicking the optional advanced setting. Press OK to complete the settings and to start receiving email on your phone without any wap/web browsers.

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How browse wap sites using Mozilla Firefox

wapsites are a great source of music and videos that can be used in your mobile phones free of cost. By default the desktop browsers do not support loading the wapsites, istead they have support only for different website formats . This trick is all about equipping the firefox browser to load the wapsites by installing an addon called wmlbrowser...

Select Add-ons from the tools menu in the firefox. Click on the Get addons button and enter wmlbrowser in the search box. Install the addon completely and follow the steps thereby. You have to restart the firefox to make the changes into effect.

One among the content rich wapsites waptrick.com

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How to connect Airtel GPRS in Ubuntu linux

The gprs internet is a good option when you are looking for an affordable internet connection and limited budget...

You dont need to think about the wires... (coz it probably makes you weired). Here check out how airtel's gprs can be accessed in your desktop or laptop

Follow the steps to connect.


1. Connect the phone using the data cable to the computer. Choose the COM port

    mode or phone mode in your phone. In Nokia it is called 'nokia mode'


2. On selecting the phone mode the 'New Mobile Broadband wizard begins 

    automatically. If the wizard does not pops up automatically, right click on the
    network manager icon on the top of the task bar. Then choose edit connection. 

    Click on the add button. The window will appear as follows..

       

3. Select the Airtel from the list.

4. Write click on the network manager icon on the top bar and slect the 'edit 

    connections'. Select the 'Mobile Internet' tab and click on the edit button
    after selecting the Airtel from the list.

5. On the IPv4 settings tab change the dns entry as follows...
  
        DNS : 8.8.8.8,8.8.4.4


    These are public dns addresses by google and may give better performance in

    case of of speed.

6. Click on the network manager icon on the top panel and select Aircel to dial 

    the connection.

Repeat the step 6 whenever you need to connect using the same connection, after connecting the mobile phone/usb modem to the system....

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How to connect Aircel GPRS in Ubuntu Linux

Older versions of the Ubuntu linux has very less support for USB modems. This was the major problem that prevents you from connecting the mobile broadband internet facility provided by means of gprs.Linux versions were back in automatically detecting the USB modems in the mobile phones… But the new 9.04 version of Ubuntu linux (some previous versions also ) comes up with many facilities to overcome this problems…

Let me get into the matter… Here i am sharing my experiences when i tried to connect Aircel gprs using my Nokia 5200… the following procedures may be applicable to almost all java based phones.

Inorder to connect aircel gprs in your computer, first connect your phone to the computer through the data cable and select the nokia mode. Then the Network manager in Ubuntu will automatically detect the presence of phone. It will automatically starts a Mobile broadband configuration wizard…

Go through the pictures to get the step by step procedure..

One of the problems that I faced while the connection process is the list of mobile broadband ISPs provided did not contain Aircel. No problem!!! select the Airtel from the list, so that u can edit the connection later. Also the number that we have to dial in Aircel and Airtel are almost the same.

After the wizard completes right click on the network manager icon on the top panel and perform as shown in the pictures below..

Select the ‘edit connections'

Choose the Mobile broadband tab and select the ‘Airtel’ and click on the edit button

Change the following ….

Connection name : Aircel

Number : *99#

APN  : aircelgprs      (in lower case)

Leave the remaining spaces untouched and click ‘apply’…

Click on the IPv4 Settings tab and enter the value in the DNS field as in figure.

      8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4  

Each are primary and secondary dns addresses respectively seperated by the a comma. Please  remember we have started from configuration of airtel. So the dns addresses are also belonging to airtel. Here in this step we replace this with google's  public dns. Read more about dns on 

http://1024bitez.blogspot.com/2010/04/something-about-domain-name-servers.html

 

Click on the network manager icon on the top panel and select Aircel to dial the connection.

Then the icon of the Network manager will show that the connection is active soon. If you put your mouse over the icon u get a pop up  ” Mobile broadband connection ‘Aircel’ active”

That's all about the connecting Aircel in the Ubuntu linux, enjoy the power of mobile internet.

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How to find the MAC ID of Nokia phones

 No need to look out over  the menus and settings there and where to find the mac id of wifi of  your Nokia… Its simple to the extent that you cant even think before… You may need to know your wifi’s mac id to pair your phone in your college’s wifi network.

Let me share my experience, how I discovered the mac id of a Nokia E52 last day. Just take your phone and type in the following as if you are dialing a number.

Type  *#62209526# ,  if its correct then the phone will display the mac id soon after you types the last character #.

What this number means? Simply it means the digits that corresponds to
the word mac<space>wlan. That is  *#MAC<space>WLAN#.
MAC id is a specific and unique address assigned to each and every device…

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