Alvin Cheong on August 22nd, 2010

I’ve practically spent the whole day trying to resolve the issue of not being able to access to my FTP server with Filezilla. Each time I tried to login, Filezilla hangs at the command that says MLSD and unable to proceed further. Actually, I’ve already login but just that the server refused to list the remote directory.

Contacted support at the hosting company and they tried every ways they could to get it resolved but to no avail. All we knew was that it could be due to some firewall issues in the server.

Previously it was working perfectly until my VPS was migrated to a new server and that was when the FTP issue cropped up. Finally, I’ve got no choice left but to access the server via SSH myself to check on the configuration files. What I’ve found out was that the PassivePortRange has been commented out from the file pure-ftpd.conf. So I just removed that comment and the FTP starts to flow again perfectly.

In case if you’re faced with  similar problems of not being able to access your server as it hangs at the MLSD stage, this is what I’ve done:

  1. Login to the server using SSH as root user
  2. Open the file /etc/pure-ftpd.conf
  3. Scroll down and look for the line that says “PassivePortRange 30000 35000″
  4. Make sure it is not commented out (with a # at the front)
  5. Save the file
  6. Restart the FTP server

And it should work now!

usin/etc/pure-ftpd.conf

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Alvin Cheong on February 15th, 2010

Hmmm...looks more like a press conference than lunch gathering.

Chinese New Year is the best time to get in touch with friends. Time when most people will return to their old “nest”. This year as usual, I have managed to get the guys to hang out for lunch at Tao Cuisine, Egate Penang on the 2nd day of CNY (15/2/10). Though our current contact list still has 38 names of very old friends we have known for 40 years, since the day we were in standard 1 (primary school), only 12 managed to meet up this year. Now what happened to the rest? :(

Annual lunch like this is very meaningful to us because we have known each other for 4 decades. And how many people actually still have the privilege of being able to keep in touch with their old childhood friends. I’ve known these people for nearly 85% of my lifetime. Other than my own family, I just couldn’t think of anyone else whom I’ve known longer than them. And not just a few, but 38 of them (almost the entire class) still in contact with each other either via emails, phones, or sometimes bumping into each other. So far, this is the 4th year that we had our annual lunch together, and I only hope that we will continue to meet in the many years to come. Read the rest of this entry »

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Alvin Cheong on January 30th, 2010
Beatrice Chew at PECC

Beatrice with the senior folks teaching them Facebook on 29 Jan 2010.

PECC is very fortunate to have many volunteers of all ages who are ever willing to freely teach the community on the usage of internet. Currently there are about 20 volunteers with different internet experiences conducting free internet classes for the local community. Among them is Beatrice Chew, a 13-year old school girl from St. Georges Girls School in Penang. Do not underestimate the internet knowledge of this petite little 13-year old girl who happened to be PECC’s youngest volunteer.

Beatrice is currently one of the volunteer/trainer in the PECC Internet Savvy Program for the senior citizens. She teaches the topic of Facebook to the senior folks, some of whom are actually 6 times her age. It is commendable to see a little girl of such young age doing community service and having the desire to share her knowledge with a group of senior citizens.

It seems like community service runs deep in the family of Beatrice as her dad, Alfred Chew is also a very committed volunteer/trainer for the internet marketing program in PECC.

Beatrice Chew showing how to use Facebook to Mr Lim Hock Huan

Beatrice Chew showing Mr Lim Hock Huan how to use Facebook.

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Alvin Cheong on January 9th, 2010

PECC conducted the 1st session of the free Internet Savvy Program for our senior folks last Friday (8 Jan 2010) and 36 participants attended. The most senior was a 76 year old member. This only proves that senior citizens are not interested in technology like the internet is not true. Given an opportunity, they will be more than willing to make an effort to come and learn. 80% of them came without an email and when they left 1.5 hours later, everyone went back with one.

We are also grateful that we have many volunteers on hand to assist. Our PECC members never failed to come forward when there is a need to educate the community. This is the first of the 12 sessions program designed specially for the senior folks to ensure that they are not being left behind in this internet age.

PECC Internet Savvy Program for the senior citizens

PECC Internet Savvy Program for the senior citizens

PECC Internet Savvy Program for the senior citizens

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Alvin Cheong on October 30th, 2009

Malaysians can now withdrawal Paypal balance into their local bank accounts.

Just noticed today that there has been a policy change in Paypal to allow Malaysians to withdraw their balance into the local banks in Malaysia. Previously, there were only 2 ways that Malaysians could withdraw their balance from Paypal. Either withdraw to a US bank for free or withdraw to a credit/debit card for a fee of US$5.

With the additional feature, it has now made it easier for Malaysians to bring their money back from Paypal.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Alvin Cheong on October 19th, 2009

If you’re currently using twitter, there is now Twivert program which you could use to monetize it.

Twivert, is a Twitter based advertisement network built for the famous social network twitter.com to benefit both advertisers and twitterers. Twivert is a platform that brings together quality twitterers, who want to monetize their twitter accounts and advertisers, who are looking for an internet marketing tool to increase the exposure of their services, products or business at a low cost.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Alvin Cheong on October 8th, 2009
Mr Amir Teh showing us around the computer lab in St. Nicholas Home, Penang

Mr Amir Teh showing us around the computer lab in St. Nicholas Home, Penang

Had a privilege to visit the St. Nicholas’ Home (SNH), Penang for the visually impaired with Penny Leong yesterday (7 Oct 09). We met up with the home’s Executive Director , Mr Ooi Chee Khoon who happened to be my ex-colleague and good friend. The main objective why we were there was to explore ways to see how we could teach the visually impaired to use internet marketing to upgrade their lives financially. Read the rest of this entry »

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Alvin Cheong on October 6th, 2009

Currently I have a small mortgage loan with Hong Leong Bank and today I received a letter from them telling me that they are going to automatically include an extension of landslip coverage into my existing insurance policy if I do not contact their insurance company, Hong Leong Assurance within 30 days to decline. And if I don’t do that, I will have to pay for the additional coverage. Read the rest of this entry »

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