Feature

Networking

Browse in :

All > Topics > Networking

Options :: View Archives

Note: when you create a new publication type, the articles module will automatically use the templates user-display-[publicationtype].xd and user-summary-[publicationtype].xd. If those templates do not exist when you try to preview or display a new article, you'll get this warning :-) Please place your own templates in themes/yourtheme/modules/articles The templates will get the extension .xt there.

Keeping an eye on your network with PasTmon

Lee Schlesinger

December 02, 2008 9:00:00 AM

The PasTmon passive traffic monitor keeps an eye on your network, recording which clients are interacting with which services, when and how long things took. You can then use the application's PHP Web interface to investigate these figures to see if any host is connecting to Web services that it shouldn't, or is contacting services suspiciously more frequently than you would expect for normal operation, or when response times become excessively long.

Keeping tabs on your network traffic

Lee Schlesinger

December 01, 2008 8:00:00 PM

One of the first things I do upon installing a Linux distribution is put the Network Monitor applet on my GNOME panel. Watching the blue lights twinkle on and off makes me aware of network traffic. But if you want more details about what's happening on your network, such as which application is hogging bandwidth or what each network interface is up to, you can turn to specialty tools like NetHogs and IPTraf. While NetHogs is a unique tool altogether, IPTraf can be used on a server as well as by a home user.

Speed up your Internet access using Squid's refresh patterns

Lee Schlesinger

November 20, 2008 9:00:00 AM

Bandwidth limitation is still a problem for a lot of people who connect to the Internet. You can improve your available bandwidth by installing Squid caching proxy server on your network with configuration parameters that will increase your byte hit rate, giving you about 30-60% more bandwidth.

Access remote network services with SSH tools

Lee Schlesinger

November 11, 2008 9:00:00 AM

You probably rely on the services on your own private network -- wikis, mail servers, Web sites, and other applications you've installed. What happens when you have to leave the friendly confines of your network? With minimum exposure and few simple tools, you can get all of the comforts of home anywhere you can find an Internet connection.

Parallel SSH execution and a single shell to control them all

Lee Schlesinger

October 30, 2008 8:00:00 AM

Many people use SSH to log in to remote machines, copy files around, and perform general system administration. If you want to increase your productivity with SSH, you can try a tool that lets you run commands on more than one remote machine at the same time. Parallel ssh, Cluster SSH, and ClusterIt let you specify commands in a single terminal window and send them to a collection of remote machines where they can be executed.

Monitor your network with GroundWork Monitor Community Edition

Lee Schlesinger

October 08, 2008 4:00:00 PM

A reliable network monitoring and management solution must accurately detect network devices such as routers, servers, and client workstations. It must be able to display a map of the whole network, monitor the health and performance of each device, and have a way to notify someone of a problem by email, text message, or other form of communication. It should be able to fix a problem by restarting services or running specific programs. It should generate detailed reports that you can analyze easily to help prevent future incidents. Finally, a decent monitoring system must be easy to use, deploy, and customize according to your monitoring needs. Let's use these standards to see if GroundWork Monitor Community Edition is up to the task.

Enhance your DNS and DHCP services with dnsmasq

Lee Schlesinger

October 03, 2008 7:00:00 PM

When a network is small and most of its users interact chiefly with services on the Internet at large, it's easy to get by simply by assigning numeric Internet Protocol addresses to your nodes rather than names. As the network grows, however, and as internal services (wikis, mail servers, media servers, and more) come online, recalling numeric addresses becomes unwieldy. One solution is to implement Domain Name Server (DNS) and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) with dnsmasq, and thereby cache external DNS addresses for performance reasons, dynamically assign IP addresses to all of the members of your network, and manage everything from one location. This article shows you how.

Protect your network with pfSense firewall/router

Lee Schlesinger

October 03, 2008 9:00:00 AM

pfSense is a free, powerful firewall and routing application that allows you to expand your network without compromising its security. Started in 2004 as a child project of m0n0wall -- a security project that focuses on embedded systems -- pfSense has had more than 1 million downloads and is used to protect networks of all sizes, from home offices to large enterprises. pfSense has an active development community, and more features are being added in each release to further improve its flexibility, scalability, and, of course, security.

Simplify system security with the Uncomplicated Firewall

Lee Schlesinger

October 01, 2008 4:00:00 PM

The Uncomplicated Firewall (UFW) is a new tool from Ubuntu whose goal is to make configuration of the built-in Linux packet filter less complicated and more secure for novice users.

Push and pull network filesystems with ccgfs

Lee Schlesinger

October 01, 2008 9:00:00 AM

The CC Network Filesystem (ccgfs) lets you mount filesystems over the network using either the push or pull model for connections. Most network filesystems use the pull model, where the client mounts a network share and all connections originate from the client. Using the push model for network shares means that all connections originate from the server. The push model has advantages when you want a machine on your network demilitarized zone (DMZ) to access a file server through a firewall.

Devil-Linux distro bundles router/firewall and server in one live CD

Lee Schlesinger

September 26, 2008 4:00:00 PM

Devil-Linux might sound hellish for a Linux distribution, but this live CD offers many blessings for your server needs. Originally developed as a router/firewall distribution, Devil-Linux has expanded its functionality to include nearly every service that a server might offer. It can function as an LDAP server, a VPN server, an email or file server, and more.

Umit, the graphical network scanner

Lee Schlesinger

September 23, 2008 9:00:00 AM

Umit is a user-friendly graphical interface to Nmap that lets you perform network port scanning. The utility's most useful features are its stored scan profiles and the ability to search and compare saved network scans. A profile lets you configure how a network scan is performed, change the source information for the scan, and explicitly nominate hosts to include or exclude from the scan, as well as various more advanced options.

Implement load-balancing, port forwarding, and rate-limiting with shd-tcp-tools

Lee Schlesinger

September 17, 2008 4:00:00 PM

shd-tcp-tools provides a collection of tools for port forwarding, load balancing, and rate-limiting TCP connections. They can be useful if you want to offer SSH services but also limit how much of your bandwidth each user can consume, so that a single long-running SCP operation cannot starve the link from your server to the Internet.

Turn your machine into enterprise storage with Openfiler

Lee Schlesinger

September 10, 2008 9:00:00 AM

In my job as a systems engineer, I have handled various storage implementations for our enterprise clients. These may be in the form of direct-attached storage (DAS), network-attached storage (NAS), storage area network (SAN), or Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) systems. In these implementations, clients generally use proprietary storage products from vendors such as EMC, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and EqualLogic. Many of these devices work just like ordinary servers with multiple hard disks and an operating system. Some use Unix and Linux as base operating systems, so I began to explore the possibility of using that kind of operating system on ordinary servers to turn them into storage boxes. I found Openfiler, which supports most storage protocols and can save you $5,000 or more by providing enterprise-level storage absolutely free for any box that meets the minimum requirements.

Gerald Carter of Likewise talks about LDAP for Linux (video)

roblimo

August 29, 2008 9:00:00 PM

Some GNU/Linux desktop deployments require secure authentication from a Windows Active Directory server. Gerald Carter, a long-time member of the Samba team and an enthusiastic free software developer, now works for Likewise. You can learn from this discussion if you are considering becoming a software developer, are looking for a good business model for your free software-based company, or are looking to manage your network more securely.

A hands-on look at Vyatta Community Edition 4 networking software

Lee Schlesinger

August 13, 2008 4:00:00 PM

Vyatta offers hardware and open source software for enterprise-level network infrastructure. Vyatta can turn any 32-bit x86 machine with at least one network interface into a network appliance that handles routing, firewall, and VPN tasks. The company released Vyatta Community Edition 4 in April, with improved scalability and feature enhancements. Large enterprises now have a low-cost alternative to proprietary hardware like the Cisco 7200.

Benchmarking network performance with Network Pipemeter, LMbench, and nuttcp

Lee Schlesinger

August 13, 2008 9:00:00 AM

Network latency and bandwidth are the two metrics most likely to be of interest when you benchmark a network. Even though most service and product advertising focuses on bandwidth, at times the latency can be a more important metric. Here's a look at three projects that include tools to test your network performance: nepim "network pipemeter," LMbench, and nuttcp.

ssh-xfer: Quickly grabbing files over an existing SSH connection

Lee Schlesinger

August 08, 2008 9:00:00 AM

The Secure Shell (SSH) and Secure Copy (SCP) make remotely performing system administration and copying files across secure links a painless operation. SSH and SCP use the same SSH protocol to protect network communications, but they rely on users knowing if they want a shell or to copy a file beforehand. You cannot easily use an existing SSH shell connection to a remote machine and just grab one or two files; if you want the files, you'll have to make another SSH connection for the file copy using SCP -- unless you have ssh-xfer.

autonom.us aims to be think-tank on network service software licensing issues

roblimo

August 06, 2008 7:00:00 PM

Network services are one of the fastest growing areas in modern software. However, while network services have much of the convenience of free software, only a minority are available under a free license. In fact, it was only last November that the Free Software Foundation (FSF) released the GNU Affero General Public License for network services. Under these conditions, last week's announcement of the formation of autonom.us, a new activist group "to focus on issues of software freedom in network services," seems overdue. The group's immediate plans are still evolving, but currently, its main goal -- so far as it has one yet -- seems to be as a policy discussion and advocacy group.

The power of cross-platform synchronization

Lee Schlesinger

July 21, 2008 4:00:00 PM

These days there are plenty of ways to back up your computer files. The options are easy when you're dealing with one computer -- just back up your files to an external hard drive and forget about it -- but when several machines are involved, each with a different operating system, things can get complicated. If you frequently work on more than one computer, having access to your synchronized files no matter where you are can also be useful. PowerFolder, a backup and file synchronizing service, helps you cover all your bases, no matter what platform or how many computers you're using.

Sort by Date Title Hits