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.
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.
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.
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:
Finally, I added Skype to my Startup Applications:
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:
This added the extension to Chromium but not Chrome. If I go to chrome://extensions/, I only see it on Chromium.
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:
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”.
