Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2012 December 16

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December 16

Google Instant

On my Google Toolbar in IE9, Google Instant search results do not appear. Instead, a more traditional list of results comes up, but just in a pop-up window below the bar. Altering search settings does nothing to fix the problem. Does anyone have any idea what might be occurring? It's not much of a problem, but I've found it a bit unusual. dci | TALK 01:56, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

Testing wifi link

I have a remote computer (linux) behind a router (the two connected via wifi on wlan0) to which I set up port forwarding for ssh (local ip 192.168.1.3) I don't have physical access to the computer. At some point I could not access the computer anymore, so I asked somebody with physical access to connect router and computer with a cable and to set up port forwarding for this connection (local ip 192.168.1.3; device eth0). Now I can connect to the computer again, however I need to set up the wlan only connection again, without cutting myself off. Is there a way to check whether wlan0 is working while eth0 is present as well? Or is there a way to disconnect eth0 (in software) for a while and have it automatically reconnect after some time? bamse (talk) 07:56, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

ping takes a -I option to allow you to specify which interface (eth0, eth1, wlan0, etc.) to use

to turn an interface off and then on: ifdown eth0 ; sleep 30 ; ifup eth0

-- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 12:24, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

Thank you. As for the ping, that would be issued from the remote computer, no? If so, it would only confirm whether the wifi link to the router is working and not whether port forwarding works, correct? bamse (talk) 18:16, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

Yes, it only validates that traffic is going out that way, not that an external device will preferentially send data in that way. All I can think of for the latter is to run tcpdump -i wlan0 and then send a bunch of traffic from some remote machine that should be relayed to the subject machine (by its local router) over wlan; you should see tcpdump report a bunch of packets (more than the usual network background chatter that it'll probably see). -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 18:32, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

Or, rather simpler, netstat -i wlan0 will show you the number of packets received on that interface since it was brought up. As above, if you send the machine a bunch of packets you think should be delivered on that interface, if that's the case then that statistic should increase quickly. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 20:11, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks a lot. Thanks to your help I managed to fix it. bamse (talk) 23:34, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

Skyrim help

I don't know if this belongs here or on the Entertainment desk, but bear with me. I just purchased Skyrim for the PC, and when trying to attack, I'm told to press M1 or M2. But I'm on a PC with a keyboard. What are M1 and M2 on a keyboard? 216.93.234.239 (talk) 23:16, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

Mouse button 1 and Mouse button 2 (generally left and right mouse buttons). Incidentally you might find the default set has your left mouse button control your right hand, and vice versa - if so, you can (and really should, it drove me mad until I did) change it in the control settings. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 23:28, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, just trying to figure out what they were talking about was driving me crazy.  :) 216.93.234.239 (talk) 23:31, 16 December 2012 (UTC)