Oh no! More boring computer problems! Oh no!

thing is, if i mount my mp3 player, like this

diskutil mount /dev/disk1s1 /Volumes/JUKEBOX

it works fine, but the same syntax for the lacie, doesnt

diskutil mount //WORKGROUP;music@LACIE/MUSIC /Volumes/WORKGROUP;LACIE

diskutil mount //WORKGROUP;music@LACIE/MUSIC /Volumes/MUSIC

its all this workgroup business, that seems to be confusing things, well, confusing me

I take it that the hostname is "LACIE", the workgroup/domain is "WORKGROUP" and the username is "music". In that case, if we were talking the Linux version of mount, the command would be:

mount -t smbfs -o "username=WORKGROUP/music" //LACIE/MUSIC /Volumes/MUSIC

i try this

$ mount -t smbfs //LACIE/MUSIC /Volumes/MUSIC

it asks me for a password, which i give, then it gives me

mount_smbfs: mount error: /Volumes/MUSIC: syserr = Resource busy

Try putting -o "username=[...]" after the -t smbfs option.

Does 'man mount' have a section for smb/cifs-specific options? Is there a separate 'smbmount' command with its own manual page?

i have to make the directory first, it seems. is this really right?

so, it goes

mkdir /Volumes/MUSIC

mount -t smbfs //LACIE/MUSIC /Volumes/MUSIC

and it mounts:)

Yes. You only have to do it once, of course.

If you put files in the directory when the remote disk isn't mounted, they will be inaccessible when it is.

though, how come, i didnt need to do this for the archos mp3 player?

and, why did i have to use diskutil mount for the archos, and just plain ol' mount for the lacie?

I don't know why one needs diskutil, but it's probably because of the access permissions on the device node (the "/dev/disk1s1" file)

I don't know why one needs diskutil, but it's probably because of the access permissions on the device node (the "/dev/disk1s1" file)

BECUZ OS X DOESN'T USE FSTAB

I'm using Sarah's laptop to post this as I seem to have a pretty sever problem with mine. When I boot up, the internet works for a couple of minutes at a snail's pace before crunching to a halt. The wireless connection seems fine; Sarah's PC works okay, and even mine says the connection is excellent. So why are AIM, firefox, MSN and IE all having the same problem? Literally after a minute or two, they just don't connect any more.

The troubleshooting sections are useless because, as far as I know, no settings or whatever have been changed. My only possible thought is hat I knocked the (closed) laptop off the table onto the carpet a couple of days ago, though it *has* worked fine since then.

So what could be wrong with these browsers, crawling for a very short while before dying? Help desperately sought!

Hmm - I have accessed a neighbour's unsecured wireless network and IT WORKS. That's interesting. I am going to try going back to mine...

What a kind neighbour. To be honest, your problem sounds like mine, but what's puzzling is that your computer works. What model is the wireless router and what's the ISP? That's my problem (one of them; it's not clear which).

Oh god, I don't know the wireless router model - it's in the bedroom and Sarah is asleep. However, as you can tell this (i.e. her) PC works just fine, so I'm not sure it can be the router's or the ISP's fault!

I also notice Sarah's PC, while working okay, isn't exactly fast tonight. Could there be any connection?

The full set of options used by an invocation of mount is determined by
first extracting the options for the file system from the fstab table,
then applying any options specified by the -o argument, and finally
applying a -r or -w option, when present.

oh! i was just coming to ask about this! so, instead of using fstab to automount, how should i do it?

sudo bash.

Never mind Deano: I'll bear that in mind if I have any X.25 issues in future. In the mid '90s weren't you firmly rooted in the mid '80s?

Down in London soon, by any chance?

Sony VAIO WinXP laptop happily communicates with the Livebox using its internal WLAN (no need for the supplied Wanadoo USB dongle) and the desktop did have broadband when wired into the Livebox with the supplied ethernet cable. But now the desktop is upstairs (where it will stay) and wireless connection for both is required.

Desktop plus Belkin adaptor worked OK into the next-door neighbour's unsecured network at the old house, so I know it works in principle. Livebox shows up in the AP list but when I attempt to set up a profile with the 128-bit WEP key and then connect to it just sort of sits there, with a little red cross next to it.

Might go back to trying the Wanadoo USB dongle with the desktop (which didn't work before)...

128 bit key eh Mike? You must have something worth stealing!

and i've been trying to send an MP3 file for the past ten minute via yahoo, it's still trying to attach it...

my wireless speed is 11.0 Mbps

What's more I now know the 26-character hex string off by heart as I've typed it in so many times...

HOWEVER, as this post verifies, it's now working. I gave up on the Belkin adapter (I'll sell it on eBay or something) and gave the Inventel adapter that came with the Livebox another go. No good at first until I manually reinstalled the drivers for it off the CD-ROM; still no good until I uninstalled all the Belkin crap and rebooted. Now all is well and we have broadband upstairs and down...

(yes keith, i will be backing things up to floppies, 8" floppies)

> my wireless speed is 11.0 Mbps

48,000 here.

Does this computer have USB2.0 or 1.0 slots, or a mix of both, or something?

It should fit into one of these: http://www.corestore.org/370168-1.jpg

Keith Emerson's very own computer. From the days when IBM could teach Apple a thing or two about 2001-style aesthetics, although Apple didn't exist I suppose.

I'd hoped you'd have gone for the classic S/370 reel-to-reel tape system

Here's an even older one, from an IBM 705:

http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/images/1950b.jpg

new question, how do i write a profanity filter? i need to check a stream of words against a lexicon of rudity but how do i do it so as not to annoy the good people of scunthorpe by blocking references to their no-doubt lovely town? (um, have a whitelist and a blacklist, check the incoming message a word at a time against both, full word check against whitelist, accept if matches, substring search all the rude words in the current text word, reject if matches?) how do i stop people f u c k i n g about with spaces? or using pretty average words to describe rude things (ie 'your mother blows goats')? interesting. (java btw, not my choice)

If it were me, I'd not be wanting to write this, but buy one in. Though, I've just had a look on the usual places and can't find one off hand, at least not one that's not tightly-bound to something else (message board software, typically). What bad design.

I can tell you've never been ;-)