FileZilla Server - Connection attempt failed with ECONNREFUSED - Connection refused by server

the problem

When I was trying to set up a FileZilla Server using FTPS and the default settings I got the error “ECONNREFUSED - Connection refused by server”.

the cause

This was due to the default parameter for the IP address retrieval.

The erroneous script always returns 127.0.0.1.

the solution

I’ve set up a script which returns the current public IP.

https://gpunktschmitz.com/ip/

so you want to test your internet speed? use fast.com!

When I first heard of http://speedof.me I instantly fell in love with it. In the beginning it was ad-free, fast, reliable and mobile-friendly. Eventually they added ads and I didn’t like the delay in page load time.

Furthermore, all i wanted to know when running those speed tests was the download speed. SpeedOf.Me offers more, you can run the test multiple times and you with see a history with the times and figures. A feature I rarely used/needed.

Having problems with my internet connection my provider pointed me to https://fast.com. There I was again falling in love with a webpage. It loads instantly (as there is not much to load) and immediately starts what I want to know - testing the download speed. It’s just perfect as it is for my use cases - Thanks Netflix!

Robocopy - ERROR 123 (0x0000007B) - copy directories with spaces

the problem

Using a current PowerShell with tab completion (the shell adds all quotes and spaces) you get the command:

Robocopy.exe 'C:\tmp\source with spaces\' 'C:\tmp\target with spaces\' /e

And executing it you get the error message:

Note that the source and target are “strangly” interpreted. The \' at the end of the source and target escapes the slash and thus the whole command gets erroneous.

The solution

The solution is super easy, you simply remove the last backslash from source and target.

Robocopy.exe 'C:\tmp\source with spaces' 'C:\tmp\target with spaces' /e

Backup Exec - TECH126877 - the device or media server cannot be deleted because existing jobs or selection lists remain

The Problem

Quite some time ago I wasn’t able to delete a device (storage target) named “internal RAID” in Backup Exec 15. The GUI came up with this error message:

“The device (or media server) cannot be deleted because existing jobs or selection lists remain.”

Going through all jobs in the GUI i could not find any with the storage as target of a backup job. Very strange …

The Google-Search

Firing up Google I found the technical article from Symantec Veritas TECH126877 suggesting to call the Symantec Support?!?!1

The solution

I could not believe this was the suggested way to remove a device from Backup Exec and by chance stumbled upon the “Backup Exec Management Command Line”-Tool.

Firing it up welcomes you with the basic commands. Typing “Get-BECommand” gives you an overview of all available BackupExec commands.

In this list I found the commands “Get-BEJob” and “Remove-BEJob”. So let’s check what we get if we run “Get-BEJob”.

Great, we get an object which we can filter by “Storage”. So let’s see what “Remove-BEJob” takes as an input.

I see, so I can pipe those objects from “Get-BEJob” to “Remove-BEJob”.

All it takes is to get all BackupExec jobs using “Get-BEJob”, filter those where the storage is “internal RAID” and pipe those objects to “Remove-BEJob”.

One can also add “-WhatIf” to see what it removes .. just to be sure ;)

Get-BEJob | where storage -eq "internal RAID" | Remove-BEJob

All it takes is a bit of PowerShell .. or one could of course call the Symantec/Veritas Support …

laptop does not suspend when lid is closed

suddenly my laptop did not suspend when i closed the lid. i checked all settings of my linux mint 17 installation and all settings where correct. a quick search pointed me to http://askubuntu.com/questions/395428/laptop-does-not-suspend-when-lid-is-closed.

the solution for me was to edit /etc/systemd/logind.conf, changing the option HandleLidSwitch to suspend (valid options are suspend, hibernate and poweroff) and reboot the machine.

my favourite radio stations - a link collection for using on the go/mobile

why this?

when egofm (my favourite german radio stations) stopped supporting my mobile operating system (ios 5) with their app i looked for the direct link to their stream. i was using direct links for my other favourite radio station somafm for several years and thus created a site with direct links to the streams of both radio stations for easy access on the go using my mobile (iphone). after testing the links with other operating systems i noticed that you need an app to playback the streams on android or windows phone .. so no guarantee that it works on any other operating system out of the box …

for whom?

i originally created it for my private use only. but as some friends asked for the link i thought i could as well make it public.

http://radio.gpunktschmitz.de

howto playback

iphone

using the iphone the streams are played with no additional software needed.

windows phone (8 or later)

when you tap on one of the links you will be presented with a selection of apps that are supposed to be able to play those streams. install one of them and give it a try (i had issues with egofm lately .. dunno what’s wrong there).

android

as i don’t own an android device this is only a suggestion/wild guess as result of some google searches. there is an app named servestream which is said to support the streams.

enjoy the music!

Uninstall Symantec Backup Exec 2014 Remote Agent for Windows Systems (RAWS)

as i couldn’t find a hint on howto uninstall Backup Exec 2014 Agent from my GUI-free Windows Core Servers here a short summary of how you can do it:

i found the “_Setup.exe” I was looking for in the following folder

C:\Windows\Installer\{856D9205-4AA3-48FB-ADD2-CE6EFF23ED9E}\

to find out how to uninstall the agent i ran “_Setup.exe /?” on one of my other servers (which has a GUI):

to uninstall the 64 bit version one has to run the the following command

C:\Windows\Installer\{856D9205-4AA3-48FB-ADD2-CE6EFF23ED9E}\_Setup.exe /RAWSX64: /S: /U:

and wait until the “_Setup”-process disappears in the taskmanager

installing linux mint 13 (mate) on a fit-pc3 - xserver no screens found

i set up my fit-pc3 and had some trouble getting my xserver working .. here is how it went …

i was pleased to see a page in the wiki from compuLab but IMHO there are some points missing:

boot from usb flash drive

i changed the boot order in the bios (which you can enter via pressing “F2” during boot) but the screen was nothing but black. turned out that pressing “F1” randomly right after powering the machine it was booting from the usb flash drive.

linux mint 13 fails to boot

i also had to select “start in compatibility mode” to successfully boot the livecd

resolving xserver error - no screens found

after the installation finished the xserver would not start. some sites mentioned to simply update linux so i ran (after commenting “medibuntu” out in /etc/apt/sources.list)

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude upgrade

accepted any modified file to the maintainer’s version and restarted .. but nothing changed. so i follow the instructions from compuLab and installed the ati catalyst drivers using:

sudo aptitude install fglrx-updates xvba-va-driver vainfo

and restarted .. but still the xserver failed to start …

i finally cam across a forum post where the following command was mentioned

sudo aticonfig --initial

rebooted and the xserver was back again …