Use hotelmap for London

http://www.hotelmap.com/ is a unique way to find the available hotels of your choice. I came across this through http://www.londontown.com/ and wanted to share with you all.

Hotelmap uses a referral system http://www.hotelmap.com/Refer. So you can also earn money by referring it to your friends and colleagues who are coming to London.

Port forwarding issue

Someone on ServerFault asked the following question for which I gave the answer. It was later accepted by the questioner. 

=====================================================================

So, the question was:

I have a Router and four computer connected as the local network.

IPs:

Router(192.168.8.1)(internet ip:125.119.203.127)
      server1(192.168.8.3)
      my computer(192.168.8.8)
      ......

The server1 runs on the RedHat Linux which is set to use the port-redirect, to redirect port 80 to 8081. While the tomcat in this server use the port 8081.

[root@server1 bin]# iptables -t nat -vnL
Chain PREROUTING (policy ACCEPT 3169 packets, 274K bytes)
 pkts bytes target     prot opt in     out     source               destination
    4   208 REDIRECT   tcp  --  *      *       0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           tcp dpt:222 redir ports 22
  221 14971 REDIRECT   tcp  --  *      *       0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           tcp dpt:80 redir ports 8081

Chain POSTROUTING (policy ACCEPT 2253 packets, 141K bytes)
 pkts bytes target     prot opt in     out     source               destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT 2252 packets, 140K bytes)
 pkts bytes target     prot opt in     out     source               destination

Now in my computer, I can access the site in the local network use browser:

http://192.168.8.3
http://192.168.8.3:8081

The Router is configurated to redirect the port 80 to port 80 on 192.168.8.3

But I can not access the site using the internet address:

http://125.119.203.127

Normally, this request should be dispatched to server1 192.168.8.3:80, then server1 will redirect to port 8081.

Then I change the configuration of the Router, to redirect the port 80 to port 80 on my computer.

Then I can access: http://125.119.203.127

So what is the problem?

=====================================================================

For which, my answer was:

From outside the network use namp to check whether port 8081 is available externally

$ nmap -PN external_ip

This command will show all listening services externally. Since you can access the site using internally http://<internal_ip>:8081, the issue is with the router.

As you have mentioned that "The Router is configurated to redirect the port 80 to port 80 on ", what configuration is done to forward port 8081 from the router to the internal server?

I think you need to forward port 8081 from the router to port 80 to the internal server.

Finsbury Circus

Peace and tranquility at Finsbury Circus

I have found this location today just behind the Moorgate station while waiting for a later train back home. With all chaos behind me, this is quite wonderful location to chill out when I need to think about anything. 

My geeky stuff is ongoing. I have managed to score a few more reputation, which was good. 

I have been waiting on some good news, so fingers crossed. 

Celebrating 100 Reputation at http://unix.stackexchange.com/ today

I have just crossed 100 reputation mark at http://unix.stackexchange.com/. I have started being more active lately by giving answers and reading other people comments. Now my target is to achieve 1000 marks in next two months. It's proper geeky stuff but a real test of someone's Unix skills. There are some proper gurus out there. I don't now whether I can achieve that level of expertise. However, this learning experience is quite exciting.

Good Night.

Weight Loss - My Way

Over the last few years, I have had lots of complains about my weight gain from my near ones. I haven't listened much to those complains but in fact, they were right. I had gained quite a few pounds around my waist. It wasn't pretty while I tried to wear some stylish shirts as these come in slim style. I had been thinking lately how I can tackle this issue. I was more concerned about my looks rather than health impacts.


So, what did I do?

A colleague of mine told me that he goes to bed at 9 pm. It surprised me a lot. For a person like who doesn't go to bed before 12am, it was a shock. But what he also me also made me think. I find him as a person who is always so happy at work and I always wondered how he manages that. It's not that I am unhappy but he is in a different level. In his opinion, it was partly down to his sleep pattern. He told me, "Go to bed very early once or twice a week. It will change your life".

So, I tried this. I started going bed by 11pm and some nights I went to bed really early. I am not sure whether it made me happier or not but I started seeing some real change in my physique. I started loosing weight. Within three weeks, I lost 3~4 kg weight. It made me realise, all these years of late sleep had surely contributed to my weight gain as I always knew that I am not a heavy eater.

I continued this new regime. Today, it's nearly three months since I had changed my sleep pattern. I now try to make sure that I have minimum 7 hours of sleep every night.

So, who wants to know how much weight I have lost?

The answer is, 8.5 kg so far.

Yes, I also had less amounts of junk food, such as Chicken & chips or kebab.  I also did some walking after evening meal but not so regularly.

It was a simple procedure which most of us might know of. But I have tried and tested it on myself and it worked.

serverfault.com

Lately, I have become a keen follower of the http://serverfault.com/ site. Those who don't what it is, serverfault is part of Stack Exchange Network which is a network of question-and-answer websites. It is incredible to see how many SysAdmins are engaged though it by asking questions and giving answers. Once you a question, you have a good chance of getting a reply fairly quickly if your topic is curious enough. I have asked questions and been given a reply within a day. I myself have given answers to several questions so far. You get voted up or down on your answers based on whether others like yours or not. It is a good way test your knowledge. You can also learn more about a topic. I now find that it is better to read these questions and answers to enhance my knowledge on a certain topic.

One thing to be careful about. Always try to elaborate your answers rather than giving a short and quick answers. Don't just post links. You must make sure that your answer is relevant. If you don't follow these, others will vote you down.

What To Do When Your Website Goes Down?

What to do when a Website has gone down?

• Check that it has actually gone down

Is it just me or everyone else? Don't take client's word for granted.

• Figure out what has gone down?

A website can appear to have gone down mainly for one of the reasons. 

1. A programming error on the website
2. A DNS problem, or an expired domain
3. A networking problem
4. Something on the server have crashed
5. The whole server have crashed

http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2010/12/13/what-to-do-when-your-website-goes-down/#more-75513