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I was suprised this information wasn’t contained more prominently in the APT-HOWTO. It’s very useful to have your own packages, especially in a format you can download them.

First of all install the ‘dpkg-dev’ package, create a directory to hold your packages and source files then run:

dpkg-scanpackages . /dev/null | gzip -9c > Packages.gz
dpkg-scansources . /dev/null | gzip -9c > Sources.gz

et voila you should now have a repository which is apt-gettable! (ripped from www.steve.org.uk)

Simply throw it on a Apache web server and add something like this

deb http://localhost/apt ./
deb-src http://localhost/apt ./


Unattended Windows Installations are critical if you want to roll out applications via logon scripts or other automated means. Since most sites I work with don’t have the wonderful Zen Works or the not so wonderful Microsoft SMS available I often use extensive Kix scripts for Windows domain logon scripts.

It works well, and I found this great website that lists most of the popular windows installation programs and their switches! Unattended.sourceforge.net/installers.html is where you need to go to check it out.

Soapbox: Mozilla/Thunderbird - IMAP setup for Windows

Mozilla Mail comes with all newer versions of Mozilla. These instructions assume that you are using Mozilla 1.4 (or greater) or Thunderbird 0.7 (or greater) for Windows 98/Me/2000/XP. The configuration might be slightly different for other versions of Mozilla/Thunderbird.

Before this process you need to have a few details with your email system. These are:
- Email Address (such as yourname@example.com.au)
- Your email address password
- Domain name (name of your company, such as example.com.au)
- Mail server address (such as mail.example.com.au or an IP address 192.168.1.1)

1) When you launch Mozilla Mail/Thunderbird for the first time the Account Wizard may start automatically. In that case, skip to step 2 below. If it does not, you can add a new account via the menu bar Tools->Account Settings and pressing the button ‘Add Account’.

2) The first screen asks what kind of account you want to set up. The default Email account" is correct, so just click Next.

3) Type in your name as you want it to appear on outgoing email in the Your Name box. Type in you email address in the form "yourname@example.com.au" where ‘example.com.au’ is your own domain name. Then click Next.

4) Change the incoming server type to IMAP.
In the Incoming Server box, type your mail server (i.e. mail.example.com.au) and your e-mail address.

5) Enter your e-mail user name as the User Name. Typically your user name is your first and surname combined.

6) You may be asked to name your account. You can leave the default, which is your email address, or change it. Then click Next.

The final screen summarizes the information that you just entered. Verify that it is correct and then click Finish.

7) The process is almost complete and requires one last setting to allow you to send e-mail outside your office.
Open your e-mail account details via the menu bar Tools->Account Settings. Then highlight the ‘Outgoing Server (SMTP)’ section.

Tick the box ‘Use name and Password’ and hit Ok. This will authenticate your e-mail server when sending e-mail’s outside the office.

Conclusion: You should now have a configured mail client. You should send a test e-mail to another work mate to test if you are sending email and have them reply back to see if you are receiving e-mail.

Soapbox: Setting up Outlook for e-mail

This document explains how to configure Microsoft Outlook to access a Soapbox e-mail server. This assumes that Outlook is installed and has the latest security service packs applied.

Before continuing you need to have a few account details. These are:
- Email Address (such as yourname@example.com.au)
- Your e-mail address password
- Domain name (name of your company, such as example.com.au)
- Mail server address (such as mail.example.com.au or an IP address 192.168.1.1)

1) Start Microsoft Outlook. From the Tools menu, select Email Accounts.

2) Click Add a new e-mail account.
Click Next.

3) Select IMAP the click Next.

4) Type in the information Outlook XP asks for. This includes your name, email address, your Unity logon ID and password, and the incoming and outgoing mail servers. It is fairly straight forward if you have the details required. Here is a list to help explain what needs to be filled out.

Incoming mail server (IMAP): Enter your mail server detail such as mail.example.com.au
Outgoing mail (SMTP) server: This should be the same as your incoming server such as mail.example.com.au
User Name: Enter your email username - such as yourname@example.com.au
Password: Enter your email password
Remember password: Check this box and you won’t be prompted each time you start Outlook. When you change your password on the system, remember to come back here to change it to match.

Once filled out, click on the ‘More Settings’ button to continue.

5) You will now have the ‘Internet Email’ dialogue box open. Click on the Outgoing Server tab to continue.
You must check the box with the text "Outgoing mail server: My server requires authentication", otherwise you will not be able to send email when you are not in the office.

Click OK to complete the configuration.
Click Next, then Finish to complete the Email Accounts dialogue.

Conclusion: You should now have a configured mail client. You should send a test e-mail to another work mate to test if you are sending e-mail and have them reply back to see if you are receiving e-mail.