Software Endorsements

[IamnottheNSA]

Retro AIM Server - a fairly recent piece of software that lets you set up your own AIM/ICQ server. All you need is a computer with a direct IP address. Shitpost with your friends like it's mid-2000s again!
It has support for some really old clients too, so if you're an absolute madman that has a Windows 3.1 machine connected to the Internet, you can still use it to sneed with everyone else.

And if you don't want to set up and maintain your own server, there are already some public servers out there with registration available, like this one.
kiwi server when

 

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rsync is only meant for manual syncing, same with robocopy, unfortunately. I basically want to be watching for changes, like SyncThing does.
Looks like rclone's bisync option kind of gets me there, but I think it basically scans everything for changes each run.

As AmpleApricots points out, do changes really need to go immediately?

I use 'unison' for a bidirectional sync, also on Windows but not across a network- but that's just a script that runs at startup.

Are you really, really sure that you need real time sync, and that this won't cause problems for the applications that you'd be using on there? It seems like the osync rsync wrapper might do what you want, if you used an external application (or a quick Powershell script using the FileSystemWatcher class) to fire it off (as it doesn't support realtime monitoring on Windows).

Alternatively, there's nothing to stop you running two or more copies of SyncThing on the same computer, I've done this for various reasons before. The secondary ones just need to have separate configuration directories and web UI ports (for the initial setup). So if you're already happy with the way SyncThing works, the various options for doing safe soft-deletes etc, you could just have a second copy of ST running as a service to monitor the network drive and talk to your normal copy to sync changes.

 

[anustart76]

Then I've been doing something wrong for the last ~20 years, my automatic backup scripts all use rsync.

Maybe I should have said "realtime." I don't want to run it on a schedule, unless that schedule is run every minute or something like that.

Are you really, really sure that you need real time sync

Not exactly; I just need to make sure the files are synced before I shut down the machine. More or less I'm trying to set up something akin to Steam or GOG's cloud saves, but unlike those I'm not launching a game through a launcher or anything like that which can be easily monitored for an end state.

Alternatively, there's nothing to stop you running two or more copies of SyncThing on the same computer, I've done this for various reasons before. The secondary ones just need to have separate configuration directories and web UI ports (for the initial setup). So if you're already happy with the way SyncThing works, the various options for doing safe soft-deletes etc, you could just have a second copy of ST running as a service to monitor the network drive and talk to your normal copy to sync changes.

I suppose that could be an option, although it sounds kind of messy. Probably would do the trick. I'd probably end up having 2 new instances of it so as not to clutter up my main instance with a ton of folders.

 

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Not exactly; I just need to make sure the files are synced before I shut down the machine. More or less I'm trying to set up something akin to Steam or GOG's cloud saves, but unlike those I'm not launching a game through a launcher or anything like that which can be easily monitored for an end state.

Someone (probably not me) might be able to give better advice if it's explained more fully. I had been under the impression for some reason that you were talking about a situation within a business environment on Windows (something something brain damage from previous experience of 'network shares').

It is interesting that you mention 'cloud saves'. Is this potentially something where you have a single application which you would only ever use on one PC at a time, but on multiple different PCs, but they likely won't be on at the same time and so would need to be synced to a NAS or similar server if anything? If so... is this something where you could run that application via a script that:

1. runs a 2-way sync via unison or osync or raw rsync that synchronizes two ways to/from a network drive
2. then runs the application once that's done
3. then runs a 2-way sync via unison or osync or raw rsync that synchronizes with the network drive once the application exits

If the system crashes, you'd need to run the application via the script again, or suck it up.

 

[anustart76]

explained more fully

I have a lot of games that for reasons don't support Steam or GOG's cloud save features. I have a home server set up, with an SMB share I'd like to use to back those saves up so I can use them if, say, I want to play the game on my Steam Deck clone. The share is mapped as a network drive on my PC.

For these games, I would like to set up some kind of sync where I can specify where the game's save/config data lives on my machine and have it synced to my mapped drive, but I need bisync so that if those files are modified when playing on-the-go, I can pull the updated save data automatically as well.

is this something where you could run that application via a script

Therein lies the problem, this is for a large number of games, so it's not practical to run things via script.

Right now I'm considering rclone's bisync option which does have some robustness to it for this situation; the only annoying thing is I would have to set it to run every couple minutes, which I really don't like the idea of, especially since it'll be syncing multiple separate folder pairs.
If I could put those paths into some kind of file watcher, and run rclone on-demand from there, that might be the ideal solution, but I don't know how practical something like that is. SyncThing is basically perfect for this except it's meant to run on separate machines.

 

[Yandex Captcha Solver]

I have a lot of games that for reasons don't support Steam or GOG's cloud save features. I have a home server set up, with an SMB share I'd like to use to back those saves up so I can use them if, say, I want to play the game on my Steam Deck clone. The share is mapped as a network drive on my PC.

For these games, I would like to set up some kind of sync where I can specify where the game's save/config data lives on my machine and have it synced to my mapped drive, but I need bisync so that if those files are modified when playing on-the-go, I can pull the updated save data automatically as well.

It's sounds like you would be well set using Ludusavi. They have examples on the github for service scripts that you can use for force syncing as well, shouldn't be too hard to modify them for a shutdown/logoff service.

 

[anustart76]

It's sounds like you would be well set using Ludusavi. They have examples on the github for service scripts that you can use for force syncing as well, shouldn't be too hard to modify them for a shutdown/logoff service.

From a cursory glance, this looks like exactly what I've been looking for, especially since it has Playnite integration, which means I can just add my games into Playnite. Thank you!

 

[Brabbit Narp]

Does anyone have any experience with Zulucrypt?

I found this software while researching usage for Veracrypt.



So if I am reading this right, it GPLv2+ license means that it is compatible with multiple FOSS repositories, unlike Veracrypt which is more limited in that respect. In addition, it also appears to multiple different volumes from other encryption applications. Plus, the password to unlock a given volume can be stored in different means, whereas Veracrypt is more limited in its versatility in that respect.

I've been meaning to encrypt my existing backup drives, so I am curious if anyone else has any experience with both to see if one is better than the other.

 

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Does anyone have any experience with Zulucrypt?

I found this software while researching usage for Veracrypt.

View attachment 6405107

So if I am reading this right, it GPLv2+ license means that it is compatible with multiple FOSS repositories, unlike Veracrypt which is more limited in that respect. In addition, it also appears to multiple different volumes from other encryption applications. Plus, the password to unlock a given volume can be stored in different means, whereas Veracrypt is more limited in its versatility in that respect.

I've been meaning to encrypt my existing backup drives, so I am curious if anyone else has any experience with both to see if one is better than the other.

I have used zulucrypt/zulumount/whatever to access old TrueCrypt encrypted drives that I couldn't be bothered figuring out the right syntax to open them with cryptsetup was. It works OK. Generally on Linux, I don't think zulucrypt or veracrypt are that neccessary to most people. Most DE's will make mounting encrypted drives easy. If not, the command line options to open a LUKS volume with the cryptsetup command line utility and then mount it are straightforward, you can put them into a script. And any GUI disk management utility I've used in the last decade supports creating LUKS volumes.. if not the cryptsetup commands to do so are very straightforward.

 

[General Emílio Médici]

I realized that the only authentication app I have on my phone is the Microsoft one because of my job asking for it. I don't wanna link my personal stuff to my work e-mail. What are the options for android authentication apps that won't fuck me over? I had Authy recommended is it good?

 

[Give Them Enough Rope]

I realized that the only authentication app I have on my phone is the Microsoft one because of my job asking for it. I don't wanna link my personal stuff to my work e-mail. What are the options for android authentication apps that won't fuck me over? I had Authy recommended is it good?

Get Aegis.

 

[Anime Lover]

I realized that the only authentication app I have on my phone is the Microsoft one because of my job asking for it. I don't wanna link my personal stuff to my work e-mail. What are the options for android authentication apps that won't fuck me over? I had Authy recommended is it good?

Privacytools and privacyguides both recommend Aegis Authenticator and Ente Auth. I don't really use it since i just have unique passwords for every website and store it in a password manager and that's enough bother for me. If a service requires me to use 2fa KeePassXC can generate TOTP too.

 

[Flaming Dumpster]

I realized that the only authentication app I have on my phone is the Microsoft one because of my job asking for it. I don't wanna link my personal stuff to my work e-mail. What are the options for android authentication apps that won't fuck me over? I had Authy recommended is it good?

Bitwarden has a free and open source mobile application for generating time-based one time codes https://bitwarden.com/products/authenticator/

If you want to altogether remove MS Authenticator from your phone, try going to https://aka.ms/mfasetup on your work PC. That'll take you to the end-user MFA portal where you can register a new device. Hit "Add sign-in method", choose Authenticator app. If you see this

You're fucked. It means your tenant admin has configured the available MFA methods to only allow Microsoft Authenticator so you are forced to use it for your work account. If instead it looks like this

Then it means the tenant admin has left "Software OATH" enabled which allows you to use any standard TOTP app.

I got into an argument at work with the tenant admin about this, he took away software OATH because it wasn't "approved" and may not be "secure", so I asked him to enable the use of Yubikeys as an option instead of MS proprietary apps. But apparently even though it's industry-wide accepted to be secure, he doesn't view Yubikeys as secure since it hasn't been approved so I got nowhere

Some days I wish I had global admin rights in the Azure tenant.

 

[General Emílio Médici]

Aegis sounds good, gonna look into it and try.

If you want to altogether remove MS Authenticator from your phone,

Not at the moment, I am gonna need it for work after all. But I don't wanna have to use it for my own stuff and when/if I leave work to do something else I would rather not have to keep using a work email not under my control and a app from MS.

 

[DavidS877]

I realized that the only authentication app I have on my phone is the Microsoft one because of my job asking for it. I don't wanna link my personal stuff to my work e-mail. What are the options for android authentication apps that won't fuck me over? I had Authy recommended is it good?

andOTP, it has no features at all.

 

[Flaming Dumpster]

Not at the moment, I am gonna need it for work after all.

The instructions I gave basically supplant Microsoft Authenticator as your work MFA device if the option is available to you.

 

[Car Won't Crank]

andOTP, it has no features at all.

Aegis is another good one. andOTP has stopped development so I migrated from that.

 

[autosarcophagy]

SimpleX chat just a privacy chat app

 

[Jotch]

Aegis is another good one. andOTP has stopped development so I migrated from that.

What about KeepassXC/DX?

 

[XL xQgg?QcQCaTYDMjqoDnYpG]

SimpleX chat just a privacy chat app

All the comments just screaming honeypot
I just wanna believe