Enabling FreeBSD firewall

Now with the new FreeBSD releases you don't have to recompile the kernel to add firewall support (which is easy but take sometime), now firewall module can be loaded as a kernel module, with a simple command like:

# kldload ipfw # (WARNING read on first)

But be careful the default behaviour is to block everything, you need to open the connection you need manually, the first time I tried it I lost my ssh connection.
Fortunately the machine was next to me, so I logged on using the console, and unloaded the module:

# kldunload ipfw

I never worked with kernel modules with FreeBSD, this another useful command, to list the loaded modules you can use:

# kldstat

Note: This feature is little old, since 4.6

my.saudi.net.sa tip

SAUDI NET portal site has a little anoying box called "New @ MY" this box is mandatory and you can't remove it or change its location.
But there is a little trick to remove it completely, instead of accessing the portal using the address:
http://my.saudi.net.sa/
You can use:
http://my.saudi.net.sa/?nofixed=1

Indian food killing me

Couple of weeks ago a new Indian restaurant open in Raka Plaza near my home, it is called "Spice", it looked nice, and the logo was really cool.
Last week me and my wife tried it, the food was good, the problem was the day after that, I had the worst stomach ache, and it didn't stop until today. Everytime I eat anything the same pain comes again.

Very similar to the world spice in Cafe Spice.

Dumping Mozilla for Firefox,Thuderbird combo

I decide to stop using Mozilla in favour of Firefox, Thuderbird combo.
Firefox is a stand alone browser, and Thuderbird is stand alone email client, both made by Mozilla foundation.
I make this decision since Mozilla package isn't as current as neither Firefox, or Thuderbird, and I think I raed that Mozilla foundation will favour Firefox/Thuderbird.
Another advantage of two seperate programs for browsing and email, is the ability to upgrade one component without affecting the other, althought all Mozilla upgrade were very smooth.

Working after Eid misery

Today is the second day of work after Eid vacation, I hardly got up from my bed today, as you know sleeping hours in Ramdan and Eid is dramatically fliped, I usually sleep after 6 am!! and wake up around 2pm.
I went to bed at 12 am but couldn't sleep until 5:30 am.
Today I'll try to stay awake all day, so I can fall sleep early in night.

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عيدكم مبارك

وكل عام وانت بخير

Firefox 1.0 released

Dump Internet Expolrer, and use.

Eid vacation starting today

What are my plans? Going to my uncles farm near O'sheger.

FreeBSD 5.3 Released

and it is now considered STABLE branch of FreeBSD, i.e. it is now ready for prodution.

FreeBSD port for PHP supports dynamic extensions (update)

Few months ago I wrote about php4-extensions as the way to install other PHP modules, php4-extensions is a meta port which mean it isn't a real port, it is a port used to install other ports.
So when you try to install php4-extensions, and selected MySQL, and XML extensions, it will install the following ports:
/usr/ports/databases/php4-mysql
/usr/ports/textproc/php4-xml
and you can uninstall them separately.
This solve alot of issue for me, previously when I want to upgrade MySQL I have to uninstall PHP completly, and reinstall it again of course this mean upgrading all port used by PHP, which create a miss.
Now, I can reinstall only PHP MySQL extension only.