Open Source

This is were I will blog about Open Source technology.

How to Install Skype on CentOS

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I am currently studying for the Linux + certification. I work with Linux alot becuase of my web site work. This is typically all command shell through SSH, Webmin, or WHM. I am forcing myself to use Linux on a daily basis as my workstation so I will learn it even more. The flavor of Linux I am using is CentOS. One of the tools I use is Skype. Skype does not have a RPM package for CentOS. This application has to be installed manually. I had to figure out how to get this installed. Here are the steps I took to install this and configure it.

INSTALL:

Skype only comes in 32 bit so if you have a 64 bit machine you need to run the following to install 32 bit libraries. This is required to run the 32 bit Skype application.

yum install glib2.i386 qt4.i386 zlib.i386 alsa-lib.i386 libX11.i386 \ libXv.i386 libXScrnSaver.i386

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Book Review: The 3CX IP PBX Tutorial

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I was recently contacted by Packt Publishing and asked if I would review a book about 3CX. I was more than happy to as we use 3CX and I am a supporter of the 3CX product (See my past blog on setting up 3CX).

The 3CX IP PBX Tutorial Cover

The book is titled the 3CX IP PBX Tutorial authored by Matthew M. Landis and Robert Lloyd.

What is this book about? This book is titled “The 3CX IP PBX Tutorial” therefore it is a tutorial and a hands on guide to 3CX for beginners and administrators of software PBX solutions. The book is meant to guide you through setting up 3CX for business or home office use. It brings you from start to finish in a short amount of time.

What I liked:

In this book the authors aim to give a real world approach to setting up 3CX. They did a good job at organizing the steps and order of implementing a 3CX system. This will help someone that has never worked with 3CX or any PBX solution. I like how the authors went into the history of 3CX and background on VOIP/PBX as well.

There are many components that make up 3CX besides the core such as: the soft phone, the 3CX assistant, and reporting tool. In the beginning of the book they covered these components so you would get a good understanding of what 3CX is made of and what it can do.

The section titled “What 3CX is not” is valuable real world knowledge. This would help someone easily identify if 3CX meets their needs or not before getting too involved.

Chapters 1 through 4 covered the basics such as working with extensions, call groups, digital prompts, and install. Most of this was review for me but good information for a beginner.

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How to find PHP.ini location

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One day I was working on a new Drupal site for client. This was on a new server and I had no clue where anything was. I needed to find out what PHP version was running. I could not find this in Plesk for some reason. On Geeklog they had an article with a cool way to track down your PHP version and other information about PHP on a server.

 

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Automatically backup MySQL database

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I needed to backup a couple of MySQL databaes automatically. Here is what I did to accomplish this. I created a folder called mysqlbackup. I then created a script called “mysqldbbackup.sh” and put this script file in the mysqlbackup folder. It contains “rm /mysqlbackup/DBNAME_backup.sql mysqldump -u USERNAME -pPASSWORD DBNAME > /mysqlbackup/DBNAME_backup.sql” I used the “rm” command to … Read more

Integrate SugarCRM with Active Directory

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Here is a quick how to guide on configuring SugarCRM to integrate with your Active Directory.

First thing you need to do is log into your SugarCRM and click on the admin link in the upper right hand corner.

Scroll down to System Settings and click on this link.

Now scroll down to LDAP Authentication Support and enable it. This will expand out and you will need to configure these settings.

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Setup 3CX IP PBX/VOIP for Windows

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3CX Phone System for Windows is a software-based IP PBX. This is what we decided to use. We thought about setting up a trixbox server but decided to give 3CX a try.

What you will need:

  • 3CX software
  • Purchased VOIP number
  • Win XP computer (you can use Vista we talk about XP in this article)
  • IIS 6 on your XP OS
  • A router that can do port forwarding or port mapping
  • The 3CX soft phone (you can use X-Lite but we like the TS feature in 3CX soft phone)
  • A static IP, FQDN (routable on the internet), or a dynamic IP
  • Time to install, configure and test

Pre Configuration:

  • On your firewall and or router open Ports 5480, 5482, 5483, 5485,
  • Setup a static map or forward of ports: 5060-5100 (TCP and UDP), 9000-9015 (TCP and UDP) and 3400-3499 (TCP and UDP) to your PBX server.

NOTE: forwarding ports 5060-5100 covers Port 5090 (TCP) for the 3CX Tunnel. The 3CX Tunnel is so that users can connect to the PBX server remotely to get an extension.

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Setup a catch all domain

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I needed to setup a catch all for one of my clients domains. This is what I needed to happen:

If user typed in an incorrect sub domain for mydomain.com that did not exist I needed it
to redirect them to www.mydomain.com. 

For example: if they type in notreal.mydomain.com it will send the user
to www.mydomain.com.

Here is what I did to accomplish this: 


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Setup VNC Server on CentOS

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I recently had the task of setting up VNC Server on CentOS for a client of mine. VNC is very much like remote desktop in windows. You can even use VNC on Windows servers. I found VNC to be a little bit slower then remote desktop and it kept kicking me out every once in a while. Here are the steps I took to set it up:

First I opened the necessary ports.

Path to access the firewall:

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