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I never found a solution online, so apparently this is a problem that still exists and is unsolved. I was dumbfounded when I tried to switch one of my Minecraft servers over to Ubuntu Server x64 from its previous Windows operating system. How could nothing much change in the server software, and have it fall flat on it’s face, seemingly with a crippling bug?

After many hours of working on this issue, I have come to the proper solution. The issue is the server computer’s MTU size on the Ethernet interface. In my case, the Windows box was fine, but the MTU on my new Ubuntu Server needed changed.

I changed the MTU of my Ubuntu Server to 1492 from 1500, and magically it worked. Users were not stuck at “Downloading Terrain” or had their login hang until a “Socket Error” occurred.

To do this fix on a Ubuntu Server (or possibly other linux distro), simply run the command

sudo ifconfig eth0 mtu 1492

(You can subsitute “eth0” for your interface card/number, and the “1492” for whatever MTU size you need to get your connection working. Mine was 1500 and failed, 1492 was the key to get mine working. This may or may not be the same for you.)

Your issue should now be fixed! But that fix won’t survive a reboot! You’ll need to either run that command at boot automatically or manually. To make a fix that activates at boot, you’ll need to edit your /etc/network/interfaces file. To do this run this command:

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

Then in the first stanza, for eth0 (or whatever your network interface is), change it to add “mtu 1492″. (In this method, the interface must be set to a static address, but you can find ways to set the MTU of a DHCP interface online elsewhere.)

...
iface eth0 inet static
     address 192.168.0.2
     netmask 255.255.255.0
     gateway 192.168.0.1
     mtu 1492
...

You can now either reboot the system, or restart networking (sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart) and your fix will live on past the shutdown.

For Windows users, the fix is usually a registry edit (there is also a command available to set the MTU of an interface elsewhere):

Start > Run> REGEDIT.exe Go to :  HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces  Select the Interface you want to fix, for example interface value: {111112-2222222-666666-777777} Right Click on Right Side and create a new RegWord type with:

 

  Name: MTU

 Value: 1492

 Type: Decimal  Restart the System

Current plans are use an iPod Mini’s Hatachi 4GB Microdrive as the disk for a full install. New heatsink, 512MB RAM update, and making it quieter. I hope to do plenty of worthwhile modifications to this Firebox and share the experience.

Things learned thus far:

• A 1.2GHz Celeron left inside the Firebox with no working HSF will burn up. Really. Completely fry. Luckily the motherboard is fine and it boots with a PIII. New 1.4GHz Celeron on its way for $9. Probably would have updated this anyways.
• Don’t assume generic RAM you buy for the Firebox off Amazon is a double sided DIMM and will work in the Firebox (Non-Double Sided 512MB sticks show up as 256MB). I hope to make a list of high avaibilty sticks that work.
• The HSF on the firebox is crap, get a new heatsink and fan and also a fan speed controller. Even had my fan worked I would have gotten a new one, way too loud for such poor cooling.
• The rackmount ears hold the cover on the case also. Can’t keep them on for looks if you plan on opening the Firebox up often until you’re ready to put it into production.
• Physwritedisk doesn’t want to work on any Vista/7/Server2008 (32bit or 64bit) for me. I used Ubuntu. Worked like a charm.
• Make sure you’re using a Null Modem serial cable. You’ll kick yourself for assuming something else is wrong and wasting time.

This is a great tool for minimizing Folding@Home console clients to be out of sight and completely out of the way. Do remember this is an early version, and while it works, it doesnt have all the features yet, just the basics.

Download TrayInjector here (363kb, v0.1).

The easiest way to build a file like this is creating a self-extracting .zip file. With this installation type, we can set it to load all the games files into the local users’ temporary folder and launch the game from there. This helps both slow flash drives and slow computers, and also making distribution and launching that much easier.

The utility itself

DOWNLOAD: ZIP 2 Secure EXE (900 KB)

This wonderful utility by chilkatsoft holds the key to creating self-extracting archives. Of course, the main part of that utility is the fact you can secure the executable, but it has many things that we can use to create a portable game launcher. (Heck, maybe you DO want to password protect the game.) Some things we can do is allow/disallow choosing where to extract the archive, set to default location or automatically extract to the users’ temporary directory, add/remove buttons and text (immediately start extract on starting the .exe or wait for Unzip to be clicked? Totally up to you.)

Once you package your portable game or application, archive it in a .zip file. Open it with this utility and set your settings accordingly. Some important things that you will want to set will be where to unzip the archive to, and ‘Run this “setup” file after extracting.’ The “setup file” is actually what you will want to point for whatever executable or shortcut link launches your game from inside the extracted directory.  Make sure this will extract to a common directory that everyone has if you disable the users’ ability to choose where it will be extracted to.

If you’re building something for being run on computer that will not have administrative rights for the local user, you’ll probably want to pick the temporary directory and launch it from there.

Hopefully, this helps some people get started on creating self-extracting, portable games. Feel free to try out any I have posted here or leave a comment.

• [3.8.1] Dark_vb by CompleteGFX.com.zip – Downloads
• [3.8.1] Dark_vb_2 by CompleteGFX.com.zip – Downloads
• [3.8.1] Green One by CompleteGFX.com.zip – Downloads
  
• [3.8.1] Sleek Passion by CompleteGFX.com.zip – Downloads
• [3.8.1] Vivid Stripes by CompleteGFX.com.zip – Downloads
• [3.8.1] Zero by CompleteGFX.com.zip – Downloads

Assuming you already own the domain name, you will need to go to the domains’ DNS settings and add an “A Record” with a Name value of the sub domain (game.zsnnet.org), and a Value of the IP address of the game server you want to point to.

Each webhost or domain provider will be different, some of you will need to contact them to add the DNS record, others (like Dreamhost) allow you to configure your own Custom DNS. Search their support or help areas to see how to configure it correctly for your providers system.

Download here :  http://zzj.itf-inc.com/downloads/SProxy1003dPS1008e.zip

Don’t forget to donate to the developer himself if you like his work! Here is his Paypal link.

Directions:

1. Download PandoraSaver from above URL.
2. Extract the contents, run the SProxy executable.
3. Configure your browser to use SProxy. (Default settings are http://127.0.0.1:8888/ )

You can also use a firefox extention like FoxyProxy to create a whitelist filter of “*.pandora.com*” to use the SProxy IP/Port. If you want, you can also use the developers proxy script (http://zzj.itf-inc.com/BrowserPAC.js) in the “automatic proxy configuration url” setting in your prowser.

Put your iPhone in DFU mode:

1.) Sync your phone/back it up with iTunes one last time.
2.) Turn off the phone.
3.) Turn the phone on holding both the Power and Home button. Once it powers on, continue holding the Home button until you see the graphic that says you need to plug the phone into iTunes.
4.) Shift-Click Restore in iTunes for the iPhone, select the custom firmware that you downloaded.
5.) iTunes will guide you from there. Good Luck!

In this guide, I will explain how to use Yahoo! Pipes to read, parse, and create a RSS feed that is friendly twards the Recent Loot module that we created earlier from the feeds at Wowprogress.com.

First off, head over to Yahoo! Pipes and create a new account, or log in if you already have one. Then head over to Wowprogress.com and find your guild’s page.

You should find something similar to a RSS Feed Reader on their page by scrolling down, make sure you sort by Phat Loot and click the RSS icon. Save this feed URL. It should look something similar to this:

You’ll notice how this feed has the information we need, but had to much extra info and needs formated to what will work with our project.

Let’s make a pipe that formats this data:

1. On the Pipes page, hit Create a pipe.
2. Use this image, and create it exactly. Make sure you make the URL of the feed your guilds’ from the wowprogress.com site.
3. Save the feed. Copy down the URL of the RSS feed (you can find this on your Pipes page.)

Now, you’ll notice how “Apr 12, 2009 Orkko Oath acquired item Serene Echoes link” turns into “CHARACTER NAME – [item]ITEMNAME[/item]”

See how that works? Make any changes you want, I know some people might want to change the “-” back to “aquires” or something of that nature. Have fun and make it something unique if you want.

Now, we’ll add our RSS feed to the vBulletin RSS Feed Robot.

1. In the vBulletin Admin Console go to the RSS Feeds category and click RSS Feed Manager.
2. Hit Add New RSS Feed.
3. Title the feed and enter the URL.
4. Put in the username of who you want the posts to be by, could be you, or a dummy account, but it has to0 actually exist.
5. Set the forum that it posts in to the one we created earlier.
6. In both Title Template and Body Template replace everything with “{feed:title}“.
7. Change any other settings you would like, but that is all that is necessary.
8. Press Save and then Run Scheduled Tasks Now.

Go to the page where you added the vBadvanced module. You should now see something like this:

You’re done! Make any changes you want, and post your guild site link in the comments for other to see. You can also post here any questions, comments, or suggestions. I’d love to make this better or more efficent if anyone has any ideas.