Network related tutorials
 |
Configuring Dynamic DNS & DHCP on Debian Stable |
| Post date: February 2, 2006, 19:02 Category: Network Views: 1405 Comments: 0 |
Tutorial quote: For the average home computer user there is no need to install a complex package such as the Internet Software Consortium's BIND DNS or DHCP server, since there are far simpler lower resource tools to use, for example dnsmasq. For those who you wish to learn how to use ISC's BIND and DHCP, for example as a learning exercise, this is how I got it all to work in Debian Sarge, the current stable version of Debian GNU/Linux.
This short article was prompted by my question on the Debian-Administration forum site, where I was able to get some answers to the issues I faced and I did promise to post a solution if I got one. |
|
Using Samba on Debian Linux |
| Post date: February 2, 2006, 19:02 Category: Network Views: 1642 Comments: 0 |
| Tutorial quote: This article will show you how to install Samba 3.X on Debian Linux 3.1 (Sarge) and make it authenticate against a Windows server running Active Directory. It is not intended on replacing the actual official Samba 3 manual - which is a quite good read anyway. |
 |
Tunneling the hard way: using slirp, pppd and socat |
| Post date: January 29, 2006, 07:01 Category: Network Views: 3389 Comments: 0 |
Tutorial quote: Every now and then you might come across a "bad" ISP. The one I have at home for example is dropping UDP packets ever so often when I try to play online games -- and it tends to drop random packets while I try to log onto a gameserver too which makes a certain game I like to play crash during the loading phase so it can't recover. I also heard of other ISPs blocking certain ports on external servers -- universities for example seem to like blocking p2p network ports and the school i was attending till last august blocked everything but port 80 for http -- including ftp which made even on-topic "research" a pita at times.
Usually there's three ways of working around this problem if "giving up" is not an option to you: a) change your ISP, b) use ssh to redirect ports, c) connect to an external VPN to route for you. a) can be tricky -- it's impossible if you're sharing the link with your parents and they insist on their email addresses or in the university/workplace/school scenario. b) will only work with single port/host combinations and for c) you will need a full-fledged rootbox idling around on the internet -- which tend to be expensive and "virtual servers" might not work because those often don't include tun/tap devices and/or kernel-level ppp support if you rent them and in case you rented them you probably can't fiddle around with its kernel to enable it (that was my problem at least). If any of this rings a bell to you, read on and discover method d) |
 |
CLI Magic: OpenSSH + Bash |
| Post date: January 25, 2006, 14:01 Category: Network Views: 942 Comments: 0 |
Tutorial quote: As a system administrator, I have used OpenSSH's piping abilities more times than I can remember. The typical ssh call gets me access to systems for administration with a proven identity, but ssh is capable of so much more. In combination with bash's subshell invocation, OpenSSH can distribute the heavy work, reduce trace interference on a system under test, and make other "impossible" tasks possible. I've even used it to make Microsoft Windows remote administration easier.
In the examples below, I have tried to avoid GNU-specific idioms for tools which have non-GNU counterparts. This practice improves portability of shell scripts in heterogeneous environments. |
|
Running A MySQL-Based DNS Server: MyDNS |
| Post date: January 23, 2006, 09:01 Category: Network Views: 1023 Comments: 0 |
| Tutorial quote: In this tutorial I will describe how to install and configure MyDNS, a DNS server that uses a MySQL database as backend instead of configuration files like, for example, Bind or djbdns. This has the advantage that you can easily use web-based frontends to administrate your DNS records. You could even write your own frontend, e.g. using PHP, to interact with the MyDNS database. MyDNS simply reads the records from the database, and it does not have to be restarted/reloaded when DNS records change or zones are created/edited/deleted! This is a major advantage. |
|
Setting up a local web server in Debian Linux |
| Post date: January 21, 2006, 00:01 Category: Network Views: 859 Comments: 0 |
Tutorial quote: Any web developer, designer, or webmaster can benefit from having a local web server. Even if that developer has no interest in securing and maintaining the server his or her websites live on, a local server can act as a convenient mirror for testing updates, trying new designs, and other general sand-boxing activities.
Web developers whose hosts utilize the popular LAMP platform (Linux + Apache + MySQL + PHP) are frequently hit with a dilemma. Since understanding Linux is not a prerequisite for website administrators, many of them lack the knowledge necessary for setting up a LAMP server from scratch (or at least they may think so). But thanks to the improved package management on Linux distributions like Debian, installing a functional web server is not nearly the chore it was just a couple years ago. |
|
Monitoring your bandwidth usage with vnstat |
| Post date: January 14, 2006, 14:01 Category: Network Views: 1210 Comments: 0 |
| Tutorial quote: There are many occasions where it is useful to have an idea of your bandwidth usage, perhaps to know when you're going to be charged more by your ISP, or perhaps just as part of general monitoring. The vnstat tool is a simple means of doing just that. |
|
Ruby on Rails on Debian |
| Post date: January 10, 2006, 11:01 Category: Network Views: 866 Comments: 0 |
| Tutorial quote: Most of you have probably heard of Ruby on Rails and may be wondering what exactly it does and how you can try it for yourself. Put simply, Rails is a web application framework that uses the model-view-controller software design pattern to allow for rapid development of web applications. This article will cover how to install Rails on Debian and how to configure it to work with Apache and a relational database of your choice. |
|
Wikipedia Content on Dict |
| Post date: December 31, 2005, 13:12 Category: Network Views: 826 Comments: 0 |
| Tutorial quote: Dict is a dictionary client program that retrieves information from dictd servers hosted locally or from many free dictd servers on Internet.Though originally designed for online dictionary networks, it can be used to get other information like wildly popular wikipedia servers. |
|
|
