Re: [Lynx-dev] the frustration of this kind of advice, was about user agent headers

[Jude DaShiell]

Someone don't understand files ownership and files permissions.  If a copy
of lynx.cfg is put in a user directory the user needs to take ownership of
that file.  If ownership cannot be taken it's probably a copy of a shared
file and since the user in this case has no root privileges they cannot
take ownership of the file.  In that case, best to download a copy of the
entire lynx source and extract the lynx.cfg file from that into the user
directory in which case then the user owns that copy and can edit it and
use it without effecting the rest of the system.  Dreamhost was and maybe
still is the internet provider for shellworld.net and they are remote and
antisocial as I remember them (best left alone).
Panix can get you a telnet account for $100.00 a year and that's where I
landed once my shellworld.net account got black listed by some Hungarian
who posted his exploit on the web which I later found.  He figured me to
be an undesireable.


On Tue, 30 Nov 2021, Travis Siegel wrote:

> I'm sorry, but you're not making any sense.
>
> First off, My advice was to create a lynx.cfg file in your home directory. 
> That has absolutely nothing to do with system level configuration files.
>
> Secondly, if a system user can change system wide configuration files, it's
> because your system administrators aren't doing their job properly.  Those
> configuration files should not be writable by anyone on the system that is a
> regular user.
>
> Giving advice to create and modify configuration files that live in your home
> directory is a perfectly reasonable approach, and sometimes, the only way to
> accomplish something.  If your system is hosed from someone messing with
> system level configuration files, that's not the fault of anybody changing
> configuration files that live in their own home directory.
>
> Whatever happened on dreamhost or shellworld is in no way related to anyone
> making changes to their own configuration files.
>
> Go yell at someone else.
>
> On 11/30/2021 5:21 AM, Karen Lewellen wrote:
> > Travis,
> > Please do not ever advise anyone to tamper with a file associated with a
> > shared  service like the one we have here.
> > I am expressing this because right now I am experiencing what happens when
> > someone, not myself, does this kind of tampering and not knowing what they
> > are doing, creates problems for everyone.
> > First our lynx startfile  disappeared entirely..for two days.
> > then when it returned, it came to a start page that does not work fully with
> > lynx, all the items provided lead to YouTube, which as others have noted no
> > longer really works with lynx at all.
> > Its 5 a. m. I have been up all night waiting until I can call our admin
> > because   either we have a security risk, or the same person tampering with
> > lynx  has also changed the browser associated with email accounts, meaning I
> > am not going to get any work done today either.
> > Do not ever even hint that I  am unwilling to help myself. tampering with
> > config files that are provided by shared  hosting services like this ought
> > to be a crime.
> > dreamhost does not even understand how lynx works at all, I provided them
> > with a trace file showing how I cannot reach our work control panel, and
> > even though they duplicated the problem they could, or would not fix the
> > issue.
> > Its one reason why I happily pay so much for shellworld, I can get my work
> > done, at least when no one is damaging the services here.
> > Karen
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, 14 Nov 2021, Travis Siegel wrote:
> >
> >> You can easily create your own lynx.cfg file, put it in your home
> >> directory, then start lynx with a -cfg=<filename> command line parameter,
> >> and poof, you have full control over your lynx configuration, no need to
> >> depend on the system wide one at all.
> >>
> >>
> >> On 11/14/2021 2:29 PM, Karen Lewellen wrote:
> >>>  Russell,
> >>>  Because my access to lynx is tied to a service, I do not edit their
> >>>  lynx.cfg files.
> >>>  In fact, I do not even know where they are kept.
> >>>  Karen
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>  On Sun, 14 Nov 2021, russellbell@gmail.com wrote:
> >>>
> >>> > >      Quoth Karen Lewellen: 'the shellworld setup for lynx, there is
> >>> >  an associated editor.  One that allows me, at least if the command
> >>> >  "use control x e for editor" is spoken by lynx when I am on a field.
> >>> >  If it is a single line, I cannot employ my editor. Meaning I cannot
> >>> >  use control r and bring a file into the edit line.  I would have to
> >>> >  type it manually.'
> >>> >      You can edit $HOME/.lynxrc directly
> >>> > >      useragent=Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1;
> >>> rv:1.9.2) >  Gecko/20100115 Firefox/3.6 l_y_n_x
> >>> > >  is mine.
> >>> > >  russell bell
> >>> > > >
> >>
> >>
>
>