- Blind-sysadmins - lists.hodgsonfamily.org

Hosted AI server
by Timothy Spaulding 16 Apr '25

16 Apr '25

Hello All, Can anyone recommend a hosted solution VPS (I would assume) where I can install an OpenSource AI LLM such as Ollama? I don't have anything in my home lab with a GPU to speak of; and I want to play for a bit before I throw a crap load of money at it. Regards, Tim

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Just a heads up, networking issues on VMware Workstation, 17.6.*
by ultimatethesecond＠googlemail.com 18 Mar '25

18 Mar '25

HI all. If anyone else uses VMware Workstation 17.6 on Win 11, there seems to be a problem with the latest point release. I was prompted to update yesterday 17.03/25 I can't recall the exact version it pushed. Something like 17.6.3. Should have taken a note. However, following installing, it broke guest connections via bridged adapter to my real network. A major pain as I use SSH from my Win11 host as some of these VMs are headless or otherwise inaccessible. A bit of Googling seems others have had this problem but with earlier builds. I uninstalled and reinstalled 17.6 and disabled automatic updates. Things seem to be working again. Workstation itself doesn't let you downgrade, so you'll have to uninstall and reinstall. Some sighted folk have got this working with nat and host only but as I say, not a solution I can use due to inaccessibility. Cheers Chris.

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test
by ultimatethesecond＠googlemail.com 12 Mar '25

12 Mar '25

Are my messages getting through? CHris

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Anyone taken Comptia Security+ online from home?
by ultimatethesecond＠googlemail.com 28 Feb '25

28 Feb '25

Hi all. Is this list still going? Not seen post for months. Anyway as per subject line. Any screen reader users here taken the Security + or for that matter any other exam with Pearson Vue from home? Just wondering how well their system works, if indeed it does. Thanks. Chris.

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Pearson vue online exams? Pearso
by Chris T 13 Feb '25

13 Feb '25

> hi all. Has anyone taken online exams with accommodations, as a screen reader user, with Pearson Vue? I’m just wondering about your experience. This was not an option last time I tried many years ago. I’m not working at the moment and trying to retrain, looking at taking theComptia Security+ If the online exam process works okay this would give me a lot of motivation to get into this more. Cheers. Chris Turner

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Advice on SIEM management
by Zameer 09 Feb '25

09 Feb '25

Hi all, I trust you are well. Do any of you on the list manage the SIEM for your organization? I've been offered a job to setup a SIEM from scratch, and the software that would be used is log360 by ManageEngine. I am very new to this, and if you have any advice or tips, I would be much appreciated. Not sure if this is a job I'd want to go in to if it wouldn't be accessible. Of course training and certification would be provided, but what I'd like to know Is, is this worth a job from an accessible standpoint? I know I struggled to read logs from the event viewer as an example with screenreaders in the past and I'm just abit weary when it comes to log analysis from various devices etc. I don't mind reading logs if I have to troubleshoot a specific issue but having to deal with logs as a primary function of the job I may take could be frustrating I think. Not meaning to complain but, What I find very frustrating with logs is that I have to hear the time and date and then the actual text of the log. Would there be any way to just be able to filter the text and then if say something interesting was found, look at the dates and times? Help/advice would be much appreciated. Kind Regards

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Accessible SysLog analyser for Windows?
by Steve Nutt 03 Feb '25

03 Feb '25

Hi all, Does anyone know of a good SysLog analyser, that is accessible, for Windows please? Just having some strange problems with my router and chromecasting, and I want to see if I can track it down. I can get the logs when it happens, but I don't know what all of the codes are. Many thanks. All the best Steve -- To subscribe to our News and Special Offers list, go to <https://www.comproom.co.uk/subscribe> https://www.comproom.co.uk/subscribe Computer Room Services 77 Exeter Close Stevenage Hertfordshire SG1 4PW T: +44(0)1438-742286 M: +44(0)7956-334938 F: +44(0)1438-759589 E: <mailto:steve@comproom.co.uk> steve(a)comproom.co.uk W: <https://www.comproom.co.uk> https://www.comproom.co.uk

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Reading PuTTY terminal output with NVDA
by Luke Scholey 24 Jan '25

24 Jan '25

Hi list Hope all are well. Quick question about NVDA and reading terminal output with PuTTY when interacting with a Unix shell via SSH. How do I read the entire buffer with NVDA, specifically the text that has scrolled off screen? My issue is that when I reach the point at which the text is no longer visible NVDA just says top. Is there a way to scroll back up and read the rest of the text? For reference I’m using NVDA+up arrow to read the terminal output with latest version of PuTTY and NVDA. I am aware that tools such as Less can help me out here, or I could output to notepad etc. But just wondering if I can do this with NVDA or not? Thanks for any suggestions. All the best Luke

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Windows machine periodically crashes network
by John G. Heim 15 Jan '25

15 Jan '25

I have an Ubuntu Noble/24.04 server managing my network. It runs DHCP, DNS, and samba. Several Linux machines and one Windows machine are connected to it via a gig switch. The machines on the switch get access to the rest of the world through packet forwarding on the Linux server. In other words, I run my own router. Periodically, the network just goes down. None of the machines can talk to each other. Power cycling the switch doesn't help. Restarting network services on the Linux box doesn't help. I even tried unloading the kernel driver for the ethernet card on the Linux box and reloading it. # rmmod e1000e # insmod e1000e No joy. The only thing that seems to work is rebooting the Linux box. I was beating my head against the wall for weeks. Bought a new switch, did everything I could think of. Then, just to keep the Windows machine from being effected, I connected it directly to a port on the router supplied by my ISP, AT&T. Then the AT&T router started going down. My own network was uneffected. I had to power cycle the AT&T router to fix it. I put the Windows machine back on my own network and the problem began again. So now I know that this Windows machine is doing something to the network to make a router freeze. How is that even possible? If it is static or something, why wouldn't that effect the switch instead? Whatever is happening has to go from the Windows machine, through the switch, to the Linux server, and effect it in such a way so that even reloading the kernel module for the network card doesn't fix the problem. Anybody got an explanation for that? Any ideas at all? PS: If you are wondering why I am essentially building my own router instead of just connecting everybody directly to the AT&T router, it's because this setup is left over from the days of dial-up modems. At one time, we had a Linux box with a 56K modem providing a network connection we all shared. Anyone old enough to remember those days, someone would be on-line and someone else would fire up their modem to get on-line. That would disconnect the first person. So this was our solution. In fact, it was a beautiful thing for years before ISPs started providing smart routers. And now its so ingrained into our systems it is difficult to get rid of.

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Phone splitter boxes
by Andrew Hodgson 04 Dec '24

04 Dec '24

Hi. I am helping someone using an IP desk phone with an RJ9 port. They want to use a single headset with a microphone, but have the output from the phone come in through one ear and the output from the computer screen reader come in through the other. There used to be a box that did this, but they are no longer available. The user can't use a softphone for various reasons. I'm thinking a mixer may be the only option but does anyone have anything they've used recently for this purpose? Thanks. Andrew.

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