Comments on: Things You Need To Install After Installing Ubuntu

By: Izkata

Izkata — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:12:25 +0000

As an alternative to Checkgmail, I suggest the Firefox addon Gmail Notifier:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/173

It sits in the Firefox statusbar, and has the number of unread messages next to it. The popup is much friendlier, too.

By: Damien

Damien — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 07:39:07 +0000

Install the restricted-extras package (sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras). Alternatively, if you are using Ubuntu Gutsy and above, simply double click on the mp3 and the default media player will automatically search for the codec and prompt you to install it.

By: srvan sadu

srvan sadu — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 06:13:51 +0000

how 2 install mp3 plugins

By: Gokul

Gokul — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:08:24 +0000

good get more knowlege

By: Gokul

Gokul — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:12:38 +0000

Your thinks are looking very great buddy… Thanks

By: Kojot350

Kojot350 — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:09:48 +0000

Brasero
mpd + Sonata
Deluge Bittorrent Client
Avant Window Manager
Gnome Do

By: Damien

Damien — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:30:38 +0000

There are lot of information about IPTABLE at the Ubuntu documenation.

Iptables is a firewall, installed by default on all official Ubuntu distributions (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu). When you install Ubuntu, iptables is there, but it allows all traffic by default.

A new user can use Firestarter (a gui), available in repositories (Synaptic or apt-get) to configure her/his iptable rules, without needing the command line knowledge. Please see the tutorial though... Configuration is easy, but may not be enough for the advanced user. However, it should be enough for the most home users...

This should explain why Firestarter makes a good choice (may not be the best) for someone who is new to Linux (and Ubuntu).

By: SpecialCharacter

SpecialCharacter — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 21:36:43 +0000

The way I understand it, Firestarter is just a GUI to edit the IPTABLES. It’s also a buggy piece of crap.

By: DeAdfLoW

DeAdfLoW — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:51:56 +0000

By Default IPTABLES close all ports traffic from Untrust to Trust but its Any/Any from Trust to Untrust. So if you need to open a port for exmaple for SYSLOG traffic or any other traffic from the outside you had to configure a rule in IPTABLES. Open a shell and write:

sudo iptables -L and it will shows you the Chains configure by default.

sudo iptables ?
shows you all attributes with the command

By: DeAdfLoW

DeAdfLoW — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:43:01 +0000

Ubuntu and i think that most of the Linux versions comes with a default firewall ” IPTABLES / IPCHAINS?” If you learn how to configured this, its very powerful.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:06:26 +0000

A firewall is not a plug-and-play security addition. If all you do is “apt-get install firestarter” then you will be no better off than before you installed it.

A firewall is most useful for allowing certain network traffic and denying other network traffic. For instance, allowing other computers on your internal network to use the caching DNS server on your Ubuntu machine but not allowing anyone outside your network to use it. You could also export your X session to your work but not allow access to it from anywhere else. Firewalls can also be used to detect brute force ssh login attempts and block them. ( http://www.ducea.com/2006/06/28/using-iptables-to-block-brute-force-attacks/ ) but a firewall will do absolutely nothing if it is not configured.

Also, if “Ubuntu does not leave all its ports open” as you said above then it must already have a firewall. You cannot “close ports” without one. I don’t want to get into any sort of argument over which firewall is the best but just picking one at random and installing it will not help your security at all, especially if there is already one installed.

A false sense of security can actually be worse for your true security than remaining insecure and paranoid.

By: Chiron

Chiron — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:01:11 +0000

I’m puzzled about the java requirement. I installed Gutsy and never had to specifically install java. Apparently it came with the distribution, or was automatically installed for some other reason.

Java is necessary for Open Office. As far as I know, Open Office is installed as part of the Ubuntu standard installation. So it would seem to me that if you’ve got OO, you’ve got java.

By: spedoinkle

spedoinkle — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:05:26 +0000

no no no, not gnomebaker, get k3b, much more powerful and easier to use.

By: casper911ca

casper911ca — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 23:11:54 +0000

The best burning program I’ve used (anywhere) is K3b.
http://k3b.plainblack.com/about

It’s a wonderful program. I use it to burn all my .iso’s and any video DVD’s… come to think of it, i use it to burn everything.

By: anon

anon — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 13:32:49 +0000

Amarok is great to be used with Kubuntu. Personally, I prefer the KDE, and amarok works with KDE

By: Damien

Damien — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:17:20 +0000

@DeiviD: Thanks for the tips. I use Azureus on my Ubuntu too and it is pretty powerful.

By: DeiviD

DeiviD — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:54:51 +0000

good tips – but you can do sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras – it will install the restricted codecs (tip #2), flash (#5) and java (#6), along with some extras

a good one too is installing azureus if youre into torrents – its a pretty good graphical interface for it