Ubuntu 13.04 Networking

As I setup my laptop with Ubuntu 13.04, I did several things to configure my networking needs.  This article attempts to document my setup.

If you want to see all of my setup, please checkout my Ubuntu 13.04 Install page.

VPNs

Much of my work with various clients is done through VPNs.  So, I rely on VPNs heavily and sometimes different types of VPNs depending on the client.

If you search for “VPN” and unhide the technical items, you can see all of the VPN features.

Showing the VPN packages

I installed a number of them with:


sudo apt-get install vpnc network-manager-vpnc network-manager-openconnect openconnect network-manager-iodine network-manager-openvpn network-manager-strongswan

FileZilla

FTP access is a common need for anyone with a website.  Entering an “ftp://” url into the File Manager is a quick easy way to get to FTP sites for simple tasks.  For doing large downloads, you may want a complete FTP client.  FileZilla works great for me.

I installed FileZilla from the Software Center.

Installing FileZilla

Skype

I use Skype a lot at work, so I needed to get it installed.  I had to enable the “Community Software” repository.  You can do that by opening Software Center and going to Edit > Software Sources.

Enabling the Community Sources

For some reason, I had to install from the command line:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install skype

Next, I set the option to start minimized in the Skype options:

Minimized Options

Finally, I added Skype to my Startup Applications:

Adding Skype to Startup

Google Voice Chat

On Google’s Linux Repositories page, I found the Google Voice Chat install.  I downloaded the Plugin from here.

Since they have converted to Google Hangouts, I haven’t tried to use the Voice Chat, so I don’t know how well it works.

Web Apps for Chrome

One of the disadvantages now to using Chrome is that you can’t use the Unity Web Applications.  Thanks to this question, I found a package called unity-chromium-extension.  It was easy to install from the Software Center.  The big question was whether or not it would work with Chrome or just Chromium:

Installing Unity WebApp Extension for Chromium

This added the extension to Chromium but not Chrome.  If I go to chrome://extensions/, I only see it on Chromium.

Unity WebApps Chromium extension

WINS Name Resolution

Often times, I work with other Windows machines.  It’s frustrating when I can’t get to the machine by its name.  So, here’s how I fixed it:

I edited nsswitch.conf;

sudo gedit /etc/nsswitch.conf

Then,  I added “wins” to the “hosts” line:

Configuring for WINS resolution

Stavros’ Stuff: How to resolve hostnames in linux

Remmina

Remmina is already installed.  I just wanted it to run at boot up.  So, I went to Edit > Preferences and checked “Start tray icon automatically”.

Remmina Startup

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