techteendaily
been there, done tech

Now you got them spanking new VPS. What should you do with them (if you are not a developer)?
 
1. Seedbox - high availability high speed torrent client
2. VPN Server - exist as someone your VPS is located
3. HTTP server

To access your VPS in a command line environment, you need a SSH client like PuTTy, and use it to connect to your VPS with your VPS's public facing IP address.

Setup Seedbox

We'll be using uTorrent. Assuming you're using Ubuntu and logined as root.
 
1. Go to http://www.utorrent.com/downloads/linux and click on the corresponding Download Now. At the download page, copy the "Click Here" link.
 
2. At the SSH console, type this.

wget <copied link>

3. Type

ls -l

 4. You should see something like this

 root@server:/home# ls -l
total 9212
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2246586 Nov  5 13:09 index.html

 Rename the file by typing

mv index.html ut.tar.gz

 Then untar the whole thing by typing

tar xzvf ut.tar.gz

 Type ls -l again and  the file should be untarred.

root@server:/home# ls -l
total 9212
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2246586 Nov  5 13:09 index.html
drwxrwxr-x 4 1000 1000    4096 Dec 26 02:42 utorrent-server-alpha-v3_3

5. Create a folder that will contain your torrent files and torrent by typing this

mkdir /home/torrent

and

mkdir /home/torrent/temp

 
6. When you're done, cd into the untarred folder by typing

cd utorrent-server-alpha-v3_3 (or whatever name the untarred folder is)

7. There, to start the client, type

./utserver

The console will show nothing. Relogin to your VPS by duplicating the session or creating a new session.
 
8. Connect to uTorrent by typing this to your web browser

http://<your vps ip address>:8080/gui 

the username is "admin", password is blank.
 
Next, click on settings (green wrench) and under enter these.
 
You're set to download/seed!
 

Setup L2TP/IPSEC/OpenVPN/MS-SSTP VPN

The easiest method to do this is use softether by Tsukuba University. Assuming you're using a 32-bit Ubuntu.
 
1. Get the dependencies to build softether

apt-get update

then

apt-get install build-essential -y

2. Get the softether server software by typing

wget http://www.softether-download.com/files/softether/v2.00-9387-rtm-2013.09.16-tree/Linux/SoftEther%20VPN%20Server/32bit%20-%20Intel%20x86/softether-vpnserver-v2.00-9387-rtm-2013.09.16-linux-x86-32bit.tar.gz

3. Untar it

tar xzvf softether-vpnserver-v2.00-9387-rtm-2013.09.16-linux-x86-32bit.tar.gz

 4. cd into the untarred folder

cd vpnserver

5.  Build it

make

Agree and accept all terms and conditions.
 
6. If the all the test passes, which is shown during last phase of build, type this to start the VPN server.

./vpnserver start

Note: The network test does not necessarily needs to be passed. If your VPS has unrestricted access to internet and has a public IP address, the VPN should work.

7. Download VPN server manager for Windows
 
http://www.softether-download.com/files/softether/v2.00-9387-rtm-2013.09.16-tree/Windows/SoftEther%20VPN%20Server%20and%20VPN%20Bridge/softether-vpnserver_vpnbridge-v2.00-9387-rtm-2013.09.16-windows-x86_x64-intel.exe
 
Choose to install the server manager.

8. Fire the Server Manager software, and click New Setting. Enter your VPS's public IP address to the Host Name field, and leave the password blank and press OK. Click connect.

You'll be prompted to enter a new password on first connect.
You'll be asked to setup L2TP connection, all you have to do is click Yes to everything as it will be setup automatically.
9. Click on "IPSEC / L2TP setting" and under the "IPsec Pre-Shared Key" field enter a password. Click OK when done.

9. There is a hub called "DEFAULT". Click on it an then click on "Manage Virtual Hub"

10. Click on "Virtual NAT and Virtual DHCP Server (SercureNAT)" and enable the SecureNAT. Exit the window.

11. Click on "Manage Users". Select the Auth Type as Password Authentication. Enter the desired password and username. You can leave other settings as they are optional.

You're set to connect to your VPN!

 

This procedure works, after trial and error from following this guide.Refined some steps.

Get MinGW (if you didn't have)
First and foremost, have MinGW running on your computer, by downloading the installer from here.


Choose to download the latest repository catalogue, and choose to install the following components:
- C compilier
- C++ compiler
- MSYS Basic System
- MinGW Developer Toolkit

After installation, open a MinGW shell by Start>All Programs>MinGW>MinGW Shell then type

mingw-get install gcc

 then

mingw-get install mingw-utils

Test if your MinGW is working by typing.

gcc -version

Something like this should appear.


Then, install the Yasm assembler for optimal compilation of LAME by going to here (Win32.exe) and putting the .exe to the bin folder of MinGW.

 Get source of LAME
By going here.
Extract the tarball using 7-zip or other decompression software and place it somewhere.

 Compile LAME
At the MinGW shell, change working directory to the lame folder you extracted by typing

cd C:/Users/username/lame-3.99.5

Note the slash.

Then, type this

./configure --prefix=/mingw --enable-export=full

 Then to start compile type

make

then

make install

The resulting .exe of LAME is located in the bin folder of MinGW (located at the place you installed MinGW)
To make the .dll of LAME, for use as plugin in a lot of open source audio software,change directory by typing

C:/Users/username/lame-3.99.5/libmp3lame/.libs

 then  use a2dll to make the dll by typing

a2dll libmp3lame.a -o lame_enc.dll

The .dll is located in the .libs folder.

 The Binaries
If you just want the binaries and dll (for use in Audacity etc.), you can get them here.
lame.exe
lame_enc.dll

In Microsoft Word there is no way you can add your own connecting points to shape through the interface, because the connecting points are an integral part of the shape (as explained by a MS MVP), unless I use Visio. But I just wanted to add connecting points. So... let's add some connecting points on our own.

Firstly, in order for the connecting point to be enabled, you have to draw the shape INSIDE a drawing canvas. So make a drawing canvas first, by going to Insert tab, Shape.



Draw a rectangle and say you want to snap a line to the rectangle, you see that the connecting points are very limited.


To add more connecting points, we add curves to the line. This is because in curves, you can add points, which acts as our connecting points.

Draw a 'straight' curve by clicking one edge and double clicking the other end to draw a 'straight' curve.
Right click the curve and you can see that you can edit points.
Click on edit points and you're in edit points mode. In this mode, right click on any point on the curve that you want to add point.

No sweat.

Try snapping a line to the rectangle.
Great.

To make sure that the curve and rectangle are 'together', hold CTRL and select the curve and the rectangle, right click one of the shape and group them together via Grouping>Group.

Now you realize that, the curve method is only useful for 'adding' points to straight vertices, so how about other types of shapes?

Say you want to add a connecting point to the side of a 'moon shape' first make a circle.

Right click it and format it.


and put everything as No Color.
Now that you have an invisible circle, scale it to very small size and then move it to the point of the vertice where you want to add point, such that the vertice is tangent to the circle.

Wohoo.
Connecting points are useful when drawing lines to shapes because the line is 'stuck' to the shape when you move the shape around it is still connected. This is very useful say when you are drawing a circuit diagram with Word.