earthworm in vermicompost worm bin bedding

Starting a vermicompost bin without worms

I have always been interested in composting and having my own home now allows me the freedom to get into all these whims and ambitions. There are plenty of tutorials on starting a worm bin. All of them assume you have the worms. But what if you don’t?

I didn’t.

I could probably go to the city and find some vermicomposter and buy worms, but I don’t have the time for that at this stage and traveling with Nisarga is complicated at the best of times. I was not willing to wait (good things happen to those who DON’T wait long enough to lose a dream).

One thing was certain, given enough time, compostable materials will compost. No matter how well or badly I do it. Complete disasters can always be trashed.

First I made the worm bin.

worm bin with pedal lifting lid

These plastic waste buckets are pretty easy to get and cost under a hundred rupees.

I too a garbage bin with the kind of lid that raises when a foot pedal is pressed. Cheap and convenient, though I guess any could be used. The dark shadow in the bottom is some cardboard.

I have punched holes in the bottom and sides of this bin for drainage and ventilation. I found it easier to do by heating a thick needle – the kind you use to sew jute sacks, particularly since I don’t have a drill.

worm bin drainage holes

Punched holes in bottom for drainage. I used a thick needle and heated it up to easily poke holes.

Then I put some wet cardboard in. (I took the photos at this stage, which is why you see the cardboard in previous photos).

Now was the tricky part. This had actually happened while I was living in my husband’s home and dreaming of this place. I was planning a bin and had started a very small one in a small plastic box using “wild” earthworms.

I didn’t have any worms, there were no easy places to get worms nearby, there are no suppliers selling online to deliver in India, and the few vermicompost sellers I could convince wanted a thousand rupees for a kilo of worms. No can do. It would completely defeat the purpose of composting, if composting at home was more expensive than purchasing several years supply of vermicompost.

So, in the great Indian tradition of jugaad (closest meaning being creative solutions), I tried alternatives. I had vermicompost that I had purchased. I threw in a handful. Then I tried to identify and specifically pick out cocoons from it to add. Then the other good news is that it is monsoon here, and the first really serious showers had just happened. There were earthworms on the road waiting for me to rescue them from cruel cars.

The rescued earthworms are not necessarily a perfect solution, given that they probably burrow deeper into the ground and my bin may not give them enough comfort. But hey, earthworms are earthworms, and it was something to start off with till the cocoons hatch. IF the cocoons hatch.

If the cocoons hatch, it will be very good. The assumption being that cocoons found in professionally sold vermicompost will come from critters that eat and poop efficiently enough to have quantities that can be sold.

So I had this box of “worms” ready for this environment.

Normally, I’d have prefered to let my worm bin settle and let some food rot in it in some place before I put the worms in, but this was the celebratory first day, so something suitably momentous had to be done. So, I dumped my small worm bin into this larger one – in one place, so that the comfortable ingredients were all in one place in a “comfort zone” for the worms that was already comfortable, while the rest of the bin aged a bit. Then I covered it up with shredded cardboard and newspaper.

earthworm in vermicompost worm bin bedding

This earthworm tried to escape the bin but readily returned after some encouragement.

Then I put in more shredded newspaper and cardboard till the bin was almost full to deter pests from finding the earthworm food.

I have no idea what is going on in the bin at this point. It is tempting to keep checking, but I guess when they say keep the worm bin safe from pests, they also mean me. So I satisfied my itch by reading up on vermicomposting, and writing this post and letting the earthworms do their thing.

I will update when there is anything to update, but the hope is that the cocoons hatch and/or the local earthworms settle and reproduce.

Bharat Gas cylinder heap on the road near the delivery truck

Got the cooking gas working

Short update.

Went to the place where the Bharat Gas truck stops, and got the two cylinders that come with my gas connection. Erm…. this is the collection point, and these are the cylinders. I took two of these (with due procedure).

Bharat Gas cylinder heap on the road near the delivery truck

Bharat Gas cylinder heap on the road near the delivery truck

Hired a rickshaw, brought them home, lift wasn’t working because powercut. So I kept them safely and headed out to get a stove and a man to connect the whole thing. Also got some very basic utensils. Then we waited until evening for the electricity to resume and took the cylinders up, and got the gas working. Finally!

This means we can move into our home any time. Probably tomorrow. I’d like to move today, but there is still some luggage left and Nisarga will have to be carried, and I’ve run out of my he-man tendencies for the day with those two cylinders.

Note: If you are getting a new Bharat Gas connection, beware. They try to sell you an exorbitant gas stove that more than doubles the cost of the connection. More on this later.

Frugal living: Setting up my new home

In the days since the last post, I’ve been busy. I have moved most of my belongings to my new home and am ready to move as soon as I have cooking gas (most likely tomorrow).

empty apartment

This is the empty version of the new place I rented. It is already filling up with my belongings.

Some of the choices I have made in this new start – with many priorities ranging from health to finances in mind are already seeded to flourish as we grow into them.

Living Frugal

Gabe G., Mary H.

Rug made from old discarded clothing. Image:

This is a commitment to myself. I have enough on my plate trying to make ends meet to add the burden of making ends that are wider apart meet. I already live pretty frugal – used clothes, cheap purchases, DIY, improvised uses for many things… and many of the choices below also include this as an important factor.

Growing my own food

organic brandywine tomatoes heirloom seeds

Organic Brandywine tomatoes, Heirloom seeds growing in front of a bright window in an apartment. Image: Rennaux

This one answers many of my wishes. The main one is possibly less noble than the others. I want to get back in touch with that part of me that was in tune with nature when I lived as a nomad, and growing food seems to be something I can do while city bound and parenting a fragile child. It has the added bonus of healthier food habits, since in my experience, self-grown food always tastes better, just like our own child is always more charming 😉 This is will also reduce chemicals in our diet and hopefully get my weight to levels where I recognize myself (food was often the only comfort I used in an increasingly long and miserable marriage). More importantly, a healthier and diverse diet will do wonders for Nisarga – this is my gut feel.

Composting my waste

vermicompost earthworm composting bin

Vermicompost earthworm composting bin. Image: Quadell

I am planning on composting my own waste as vermicompost mainly but I haven’t given up on the idea of regular compost, though I can’t figure out where I can do a three foot cube of trash …. yet. I am also interested in trying out black soldier fly larvae if I can tempt some home. This is two-fold. The first, obviously is why spend on fertilizer if I can make it? The second is some recently discovered guilt over throwing too much trash on this planet.

Seeking seconds

garage sale

Garage sales don’t happen in India, but there are many places used and cheap stuff is available. Image: ResaJoan

What I need, I’m asking around if someone has to spare. If not, buying second hand, leaving only the unavoidable expensive purchases. Will keep my wallet happier. Besides, working from home, it isn’t like I need a fancy wardrobe (and you won’t believe the stunning clothes friends who do need good wardrobes hand down). But it isn’t only clothes. Now, as I need many things for the new home, I am requesting gifts of household necessities as well, pots and pans, cutlery, utensils, even garden pots and hanging baskets if anyone has them lying around close to where I live. Some is available. I can buy the rest.

Batch cooking

Farsan - Indian mixture

Farsan – Indian mixture. Image: Aravind Sivaraj

Since I don’t have a fridge yet, I don’t mean it in the Western sense of cooking many meals and freezing them, but there are other ways of keeping stuff to eat ready. Making large batches of healthy dry snacks that will last a long time will help me prevent ordering food from out when I am hungry and tired. This has been becoming a huge bill these days, with the husband criticizing anything I make, and me preferring to order food to avoid at least that spate of ugly words. But both Nisarga and I enjoy the food I make, and no reason why we can’t eat homemade snacks and meals all the time now. Particularly if they are ready on hand to be eaten at whim.

DIY – Do It Yourself

I confess, I enjoy DIY because it is fun. I am a maker at heart. I like making things, solving problems, rigging something to work. It doesn’t hurt that DIY saves money and improves the mind.

Doing ATM lessons

While I have been learning the Feldenkrais Method to teach Nisarga to move better, I have been neglecting myself horribly and weight gain and stiffness have turned me into a person I don’t recognize. Doing the ATM (Awareness Through Movement) lessons will not only let me reclaim my body, it will provide me with insights for movements to try with Nisarga.

Blogging our journey

I think the new things I am doing will be of interest to many who would like to live more simple, frugal and organic and blogging it will share the information. More importantly committing to blogging about these things will keep me on track on days I feel motivated (and I have been depressed a lot in the last few years, though feeling better these last few weeks). It will also help me see how far I have come when my self esteem is low.

Home, sweet new home

After several false starts, I now finally have a new home to move into. The agreement is done, I have the key and I went there for the first time today and I …. wept.

For the first time in my life I have my own home where no one is doing me a favor by letting me stay.

I had not realized till that moment just how much it meant to me to be able to count on having a roof over my head without having to suffer unkindness in order to have a home. Perhaps this marriage has warped me far more than even I realize.

It isn’t the dream home I had blogged about with the one bedroom, hall and kitchen with stunning view of the stream. It is in the same building, but only a room and kitchen. Studio apartment, I believe it is called, when it is in a building (as opposed to “chawl”).

Still, there is a huge window, albeit with a construction going on outside it. But the road is dirt and has next to no traffic, which can only be a plus. It is what was available. I am hoping to keep an eye and move into one with a bedroom in the same building when the opportunity presents. Two bedrooms if need be.

I stood in that empty home waiting for me to make it mine, and already I was dreaming of plants in that strip of a balcony, a happy Nisarga, how my belongings would fit there…

It wasn’t without challenges. I went over with some of my stuff in two bags and a few parcels on my bicycle. I didn’t have the key or the agreement. I went over to the agent who was to give me the agreement, his shop was closed. Cycling awkwardly I reached my new home, only for the phone of the woman who had the key to not work. So I had to go to her home on the fourth floor in another wing with all my luggage.

The lift wasn’t working without electricity, so I walked up with the whole stuff. Her doorbell wasn’t ringing, so I knocked… and knocked …. and knocked. I had no idea what I’d do if she wasn’t there. Go home after lugging the luggage all over the place and up and down stairs? No….

Just as I was about to give up, she opened the door. She had been sleeping in an inner room, and hadn’t heard me. Down I trudged with the key clutched in my hand. Up three floors in my wing and there…. home, sweet home.

Most of my belongings here are packed and ready to go. Tomorrow I’ll hunt down a suitable tempo carrier. Mom is coming over too. I need to book gas, internet. After living in a vacant limbo, it seems life seems to have become vibrant. So much to do. So much to dream.

Looking forward to a home my child and I can thrive in. Dreaming of saving up and buying land to build a home in eventually. So many dreams all of a sudden. Feels strange.

A new dawn

As I look upon my last few days in this home, the only light at the end of the tunnel seems to be the new home where Nisarga and I will finally go to, leaving behind these nightmares and the debris of a dream.

Exiting a marriage with a disabled child in tow is a daunting thought. Yet what alternatives are there? Living here is unbearable. Each evening a summons to join the drunk husband for conversation about my flaws. Or he will make a scene and wake the sleeping child. And the glorious end to each night being fending off advances of a husband who thinks I am stupid, unworthy, evil, and I abuse our son and take advantage of him, but he still has the large heart to think I am beautiful and he doesn’t understand why I refuse such grand love and deny him a hug… and then a grope… and then drunk, rough sex that couldn’t care less about how revolted I am. The options are simple. To say yes, or to say no all night till I say yes or he switches gears and tells me to get lost. Leaving the room is not an option when he will only follow into the room where Nisarga sleeps. I am tired of being a shrew, of jumping at shadows and looking for escape when the man I loved enough to marry is in sight. Suicide is not an alternative with no one else to take care of the little one.

He claims to love me, but not enough to do something about the drinking – which he insists is not a problem and is only my over reaction.

Forward, I must. One foot ahead of the other. Not thinking beyond those few steps in sight. Plodding along, conquering eventually with endurance what I don’t have the strength to overcome now.

The goal is simple. To be happy. To live simple. To create as many possibilities for my son as I can.

I have found a home on rent. It is beautiful. It ended a nightmare hunt of everything I could afford being a dump. It is a home to be happy in, and that is what we will be. I am determined.

I have the support of friends. I have my son. That is all I need.

That home is enough to show me dreams, even as I sit trapped in the loo, with my loving husband waiting for me to come out, so he can resume our “romance”.

I think of escape and I remember stale dreams I once had. Of a bright home full of love and welcome. Of simple, home cooked food. Of growing some of our own food. And more.

Those carefree dreams must now be tempered with limited finances and changed needs of a child with great difficulties. But they are a start. They are something to aspire to, when all else looks hopeless. So I am grabbing them with both hands, and holding myself accountable for creating meaning with this canvas I have created for myself at great cost.

I will blog about home here, so that I can hold myself to account.

Will I be able to create a home worthy of writing about?

The challenge. I will. There is no alternative.

Google’s guessing games #privacy #humor

Imagine my surprise today when a google search result showed my location below the search results (nil).

Virar West, Virar, Maharashtra – From your Internet address – Use precise location
 – Learn more

I live in Virar East, so the guess was off by a few kilometers. Curious to see how accurate it gets, I allowed it to use “precise location”.

Result?

Friends Colony, Hallow Pul, Kurla West, Mumbai, Maharashtra – Reported by this computer – Update location
 – Learn more

That would be a few dozen kilometers away with an entire Lok Sabha Constituency lying in between mine and the stated target area’s :p

Moral of the story? If you live in an area barely covered by Google Maps, you’d probably do better activating snooping stuff to obfuscate your location :p

Note: this was funny and an obvious backfiring of “precision” if it added an error that put the location in another district altogether. Your mileage may vary. This is not a serious privacy tip :p

Reset the net – Don’t ask for privacy, Take it back

A long overdue backlash against state spying (and NSA in particular) has some of the biggest websites on the internet joining forces with internet rights activists to unleash an unambiguous message. Don’t ask for privacy, take it back.

reset-the-net

Internet website and application owners are encouraged to adopt strong encryption based security measures to prevent spying and spread awareness to more people. Here is are resources for various security measures against spying. It doesn’t get easier than this. Do it. The 5th of June will see splash screens raising awareness on sites participating in the campaign.

While the protest is against NSA and US policies, the internet is a world without boundaries, and I do believe that Indians cannot afford to remain disinterested. As power concentrates in fewer and fewer hands, greater resources are spent protecting it from all threats, real and imagined with scant regard for individual and privacy rights.

So I have decided to support the campaign even if it doesn’t protest Indian government (yet). As some of you may have noticed, all my blogs are now ssl enabled. This will continue. I will be using more security features, and perhaps share how you can get them too (since my ideas are n00b and wallet friendly, I imagine they may help some).

Edward Snowden, whose leaks on government spying became a massive last straw for many, has endorsed the campaign in a must read letter.

“One year ago, we learned that the internet is under surveillance, and our activities are being monitored to create permanent records of our private lives — no matter how innocent or ordinary those lives might be.

Today, we can begin the work of effectively shutting down the collection of our online communications, even if the US Congress fails to do the same. That’s why I’m asking you to join me on June 5th for Reset the Net, when people and companies all over the world will come together to implement the technological solutions that can put an end to the mass surveillance programs of any government. This is the beginning of a moment where we the people begin to protect our universal human rights with the laws of nature rather than the laws of nations.

We have the technology, and adopting encryption is the first effective step that everyone can take to end mass surveillance. That’s why I am excited for Reset the Net — it will mark the moment when we turn political expression into practical action, and protect ourselves on a large scale.

Join us on June 5th, and don’t ask for your privacy. Take it back.”

-Edward Snowden

In other news, Google has released the code for its upcoming “End to End” Chrome plugin offering end to end encryption to prevent email spying. It is also intended to be an easy way to get secure communication for people at risk and thus will carry a burden of having to aim for usability as well as flawless security. The Chrome plugin is currently in the alpha state and Google has released it with an Apache 2.0 licence inviting hackers to find security flaws under its bug bounty programme.

Together with statistics released about the use of encryption in sent and received email via Gmail, Google’s message for today is powerful and straight.

Use encryption to communicate by email.

Other organizations supporting Reset the Net include Reddit, WordPress

WordPress All In One SEO Pack plugin users should upgrade NOW #vulnerability

The Scuri blog has posted that the All in One SEO plugin had two vulnerabilities they had pointed out earlier, and the just released update fixes both. AISEO users are advised to upgrade as soon as possible.

While auditing their code, we found two security flaws that allows an attacker to conduct privilege escalation and cross site scripting (XSS) attacks.

In the first case, a logged-in user, without possessing any kind of administrative privileges (like an author of subscriber), could add or modify certain parameters used by the plugin. It includes the post’s SEO title, description and keyword meta tags. All of which could decrease one’s website’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP) ranking if used maliciously.

While it does not necessarily look that bad at first (yes, SERP rank loss is no good, but no one’s hurt at this point, right?), we also discovered this bug can be used with another vulnerability to execute malicious Javascript code on an administrator’s control panel. Now, this means that an attacker could potentially inject any javascript code and do things like changing the admin’s account password to leaving some backdoor in your website’s files in order to conduct even more “evil” activities later.

Read more: Vulnerability found in the All In One SEO Pack WordPress plugin

Also, commenter Orun Bhuiyan brings up an important security point when he points out that the AISEO plugin echoes a generator tag with the version number, thus exposing both plugin and version number and making it easy for malicious entities to target vulnerabilities when such situations arise. This has been pointed out on several forums including several plugins containing settings to mute generator tags, but it continues to be a problematic default that is a major security risk leaving wide swathes of content vulnerable before updates can be applied.

Varnish config for wordpress with ngx_pagespeed and wp-touch

This is the Varnish config I am using currently. It is working with wp-touch, pagespeed and wordpress and (bonus) deals with the pagespeed not allowing pages to cache. No time for pretty comments and explanations, here’s the code. I will answer questions, or come back and explain the code in comments – but it is pretty self explanatory.

backend default {
.host = "127.0.0.1";
.port = "80";
.first_byte_timeout = 300s;
}

sub generate_user_agent_based_key {
set req.http.default_ps_capability_list_for_large_screens = "LargeScreen.SkipUADependentOptimizations:";
set req.http.default_ps_capability_list_for_small_screens = "TinyScreen.SkipUADependentOptimizations:";

set req.http.PS-CapabilityList = req.http.default_ps_capability_list_for_large_screens;

# Lazyload
if (req.http.User-Agent ~ “(?i)Chrome/|Firefox/|MSIE |Safari”) {
set req.http.PS-CapabilityList = “ll,ii,dj:”;
}
# lazyload_images (ll), inline_images (ii), defer_javascript (dj), webp (jw) and lossless_webp (ws).
if (req.http.User-Agent ~
“(?i)Chrome/[2][3-9]+.|Chrome/[[3-9][0-9]+.|Chrome/[0-9]{3,}.”) {
set req.http.PS-CapabilityList = “ll,ii,dj,jw,ws:”;
}
# odd ones
if (req.http.User-Agent ~ “(?i)Firefox/[1-2].|MSIE [5-8].|bot|Yahoo!|Ruby|RPT-HTTPClient|(Google (+https://developers.google.com/+/web/snippet/))|Android|iPad|TouchPad|Silk-Accelerated|Kindle Fire”) {
set req.http.PS-CapabilityList = req.http.default_ps_capability_list_for_large_screens;
}
# mobile
if (req.http.User-Agent ~ “(?i)Mozilla.*Android.*Mobile*|iPhone|BlackBerry|Opera Mobi|Opera Mini|SymbianOS|UP.Browser|J-PHONE|Profile/MIDP|portalmmm|DoCoMo|Obigo|Galaxy Nexus|GT-I9300|GT-N7100|HTC One|Nexus [4|7|S]|Xoom|XT907”) {
set req.http.PS-CapabilityList = req.http.default_ps_capability_list_for_small_screens;
}
# Remove placeholder header values.
remove req.http.default_ps_capability_list_for_large_screens;
remove req.http.default_ps_capability_list_for_large_screens;
}

sub vcl_hash {
# Block 3: Use the PS-CapabilityList value for computing the hash.
hash_data(req.http.PS-CapabilityList);
}
# Block 3a: Define ACL for purge requests
acl purge {
# Purge requests are only allowed from localhost.
“localhost”;
“127.0.0.1”;
#Add your server IP to this list
}
# Block 3b: Issue purge when there is a cache hit for the purge request.
sub vcl_hit {
if (req.request == “PURGE”) {
purge;
error 200 “Purged.”;
}
}

# Block 3c: Issue a no-op purge when there is a cache miss for the purge
# request.
sub vcl_miss {
if (req.request == “PURGE”) {
purge;
error 200 “Purged.”;
}
}

sub vcl_recv {
call generate_user_agent_based_key;

set req.http.X-Forwarded-For = client.ip;
set req.http.Host = regsub(req.http.Host, “:[0-9]+”, “”);

# Block 3d: Verify the ACL for an incoming purge request and handle it.
if (req.request == “PURGE”) {
if (!client.ip ~ purge) {
error 405 “Not allowed.”;
}
return (lookup);
}
# Blocks which decide whether cache should be bypassed or not go here.

# Did not cache the admin and login pages
if (req.url ~ “/wp-(login|admin)”) {
return (pass);
}
// server1 must handle file uploads
if (req.url ~ “media-upload.php” || req.url ~ “file.php” || req.url ~ “async-upload.php”) {
return(pass);
}

// do not cache xmlrpc.php
if (req.url ~ “xmlrpc.php”) {
return(pass);
}

// strip cookies from xmlrpc
if (req.request == “GET” && req.url ~ “xmlrpc.php”){
remove req.http.cookie;return(pass);
}

# Remove the “has_js” cookie
set req.http.Cookie = regsuball(req.http.Cookie, “has_js=[^;]+(; )?”, “”);

# Remove any Google Analytics based cookies
set req.http.Cookie = regsuball(req.http.Cookie, “__utm.=[^;]+(; )?”, “”);

# Remove the Quant Capital cookies (added by some plugin, all __qca)
set req.http.Cookie = regsuball(req.http.Cookie, “__qc.=[^;]+(; )?”, “”);

# Remove the wp-settings-1 cookie
set req.http.Cookie = regsuball(req.http.Cookie, “wp-settings-1=[^;]+(; )?”, “”);

# Remove the wp-settings-time-1 cookie
set req.http.Cookie = regsuball(req.http.Cookie, “wp-settings-time-1=[^;]+(; )?”, “”);

# Remove the wp test cookie
set req.http.Cookie = regsuball(req.http.Cookie, “wordpress_test_cookie=[^;]+(; )?”, “”);

# Are there cookies left with only spaces or that are empty?
if (req.http.cookie ~ “^ *$”) {
unset req.http.cookie;
}

if (req.http.Accept-Encoding) {
# Do no compress compressed files…
if (req.url ~ “.(jpg|png|gif|gz|tgz|bz2|tbz|mp3|ogg)$”) {
remove req.http.Accept-Encoding;
} elsif (req.http.Accept-Encoding ~ “gzip”) {
set req.http.Accept-Encoding = “gzip”;
} elsif (req.http.Accept-Encoding ~ “deflate”) {
set req.http.Accept-Encoding = “deflate”;
} else {
remove req.http.Accept-Encoding;
}
}

# Cache the following files extensions
if (req.url ~ “.(css|js|png|gif|jp(e)?g)”) {
unset req.http.cookie;
}

# Check the cookies for wordpress-specific items
if (req.http.Cookie ~ “wordpress_” || req.http.Cookie ~ “comment_”) {
return (pass);
}
if (!req.http.cookie) {
unset req.http.cookie;
}

# — End of WordPress specific configuration

# Did not cache HTTP authentication and HTTP Cookie
if (req.http.Authorization || req.http.Cookie) {
# Not cacheable by default
return (pass);
}

# Cache all others requests
return (lookup);

}

# Block 5b: Only cache responses to clients that support gzip. Most clients
# do, and the cache holds much more if it stores gzipped responses.
if (req.http.Accept-Encoding !~ “gzip”) {
return (pass);
}

# Block 6: Mark HTML uncacheable by caches beyond our control.
sub vcl_fetch {
# For static content related to the theme, strip all backend cookies
if (req.url ~ “.(css|js|png|gif|jp(e?)g)”) {
unset beresp.http.cookie;
}

# A TTL of 30 minutes
set beresp.ttl = 1800s;

return (deliver);
}
# Block 7: Add a header for identifying cache hits/misses.
sub vcl_deliver {
if (obj.hits > 0) {
set resp.http.X-Cache = “HIT”;
} else {
set resp.http.X-Cache = “MISS”;
}
}

Ubuntu 13.10 internet very slow “nothing helps” fix

I installed Ubuntu 13.10 on my laptop and went nuts with the laggy laptop. I have 2gb memory on it, which shouldn’t be causing such a comatose experience. I installed drivers, tweaked memory, did a hundred things, nothing helped.

Digging around in the innards, I found that /etc/resolv.conf was very strange and was showing localhost as the name server. This couldn’t be right. Digging around, I found that any attempt to put working DNS servers was getting rewritten.

In the end, I found a strange fix. Network Manager configuration (sudo gedit /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf)was using dns from dnsmasq. Guessing (rightly as it turns out) that I didn’t need dns served from my computer (and i have no idea how it would sync it), I commented out that line and restarted network manager. It looks like this.

<code>dns=dnsmasq</code>

Commented it out like so

<code>#dns=dnsmasq</code>

Now /etc/resolv.conf is showing the DNS servers it gets from the internet provider.

I have no idea if this is the “right answer”, but if your computer is slow and freezing on using internet, and your /etc/resolv.conf is showing 127.0.1.1 or 127.0.0.1 or something as your dns server instead of proper dns server IPs, it is worth a shot. You can always uncomment it if it doesn’t help.

My computer is running faster, freezing less and hasn’t yet exploded.