Using FreeBSD to share a connection. (01/10/2003)
This one is covered by the ever-useful FreeBSD Handbook, here in section 19.12, under "Network Address Translation". Port and Address Redirection are not necessary if you just want to get on the net. This plan assumes you are using a separate machine to work as the access point.

Updating your machine using cvsup (01/10/2003)
Again, the Handbook has the answers. Here's my cvsup file that I use, to update my OS source and the ports:

*default host=CHANGEME.FreeBSD.org
*default base=/usr
*default prefix=/usr
*default release=cvs tag=RELENG_4
B
*default delete use-rel-suffix
src-all
ports-all tag=.

Spamassassin and KMail (02/07/2003)
SpamAssassin is an excellent spam filter, and KMail is a good mail client, that comes with KDE. SpamAssassin is in /usr/ports/mail/p5-Mail-SpamAssassin and can be installed the regular way.

I read this somewhere, and I can't locate it again, but here's the steps:
In KMail, select Settings... -> Configure Filters
Make a rule where any header matches the regular expression '.' (i.e. it always matches) - pipe through 'spamassassin -P -F 0' - don't stop processing at this rule.
The next rule you create looks for the header "X-SPam-Status" equals "Yes", and then you can set the action to whatever you like. SpamAssassin will insert that header for any mail message that meets its threshold.

One warning - SpamAssassin will block while doing lookups, so it can make mail download very slow while KMail appears to freeze, waiting for the mail to get processed.

FreeBSD and a NetGear 110 print server. (02/18/2003)
In my office, I have a FreeBSD machine. I also have a HP Laser 1200 hooked up to a NetGear 110 Printserver. It accepts LPD print jobs - there's a data sheet linked here that talks about it.

lp|HP Laser 1200:\
        :lp=:\
        :rm=192.168.1.25:\
        :rp=L1:\
        :sd=/var/spool/output/ngear:\
        :mx#0

rm should be the IP address of your printserver. rp should be the queue the printer is attached to, which you can probably guess since L1 = first port, L2 = second, etc. You can also look at the config file inside the printserver via FTP - instructions are at the NetGear site. I had to create /var/spool/output/ngear as root so the spool files would have a place to go. ' lpd_enable="YES" ' should be in rc.conf if it isn't already, so that it gets started on boot. 'lp' is the default printer name; you can sub in others or additional if you have more than one to reach.

XWindows mouse speed (03/26/2003)
I bought a cordless mouse so my mouse wouldn't fall off the desk every time I pulled the keyboard drawer out. However, this mouse is much faster than before, and it's making it hard to hit small on-screen targets. 'xset m 1.75' is the trick. The 'm' is for mouse, and the number is the speed factor.

Pushing mail out through my ISP's server (01/22/2004)
My home IP is part of a static pool provided by my ISP. However, some organizations think that it's a dynamic IP for whatever reason, and so refuse mail sent right from here. Rather than pursue individual events, I need to send mail out through my ISP's smtp server.

cp /etc/mail/mailertable.sample /etc/mail/mailertable vi /etc/mail/mailertable (added this line:) . smtp:smtp-server.rochester.rr.com The dot says "any domain not otherwise specified" and the "smtp:" says to use SMTP. "smtp-server.rochester.rr.com" is the name for my ISP's mail cluster.

You may need to do "makemap hash /etc/mail/mailertable.db < /etc/mail/mailertable afterwards.