"I am a systems administrator for a large company with 150 locations and 15,000 employees. My company's Linux deployment started with one project and 12 servers; a year later we're up to 45 servers, and soon will have more than 300 desktop users when we convert an existing set of Windows workstations to Linux. To manage this growing Linux environment, I rely on many open source applications..."

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"In this installment, I'd like to touch on an oft-forgotten but increasingly important component of the Linux desktop: Java applications. Since Java is largely distribution neutral, what Java code works on Fedora Core works for Debian, Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake, and any number of other distributions. And, yes, Java applications really do exist, and some are actually good..."

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"The ObjectWeb Consortium announced on Monday that its Java application server, Jonas, has passed the tests needed to get certification for the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) standard. The move is intended to make the software, which is used to run Java programs, more appealing to corporate developers and customers, who typically favor standards-based software..."

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"Learn how to set up a PPG on your own, configure the settings to your own taste, develop push content, and test it with a mobile handset simulator over a TCP/IP network on a LAN..."

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"With all the attention paid to the best-known open source products like Linux, JBoss and MySQL, it's easy to overlook the fact that there are well over 90,000 open source projects available on SourceForge. I'm often faced with a situation in which I meet someone who says, "We use open source." Then, she or he names a product I've never heard of. Usually, once I find out what it does, I recognize how useful it is and begin to think of how enterprises can apply it. It just seems like the creativity of the open source community never ends..."

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"Do you have scripts that contain sensitive information like passwords and you pretty much depend on file permissions to keep it secure? If so, then that type of security is good provided you keep your system secure and some user doesn't have a "ps -ef" loop running in an attempt to capture that sensitive info (though some applications mask passwords in "ps" output). There is a program called "shc" that can be used to add an extra layer of security to those shell scripts. SHC will encrypt shell scripts using RC4 and make an executable binary out of the shell script and run it as a normal shell script. This utility is great for programs that require a password to either encrypt, decrypt, or require a password that can be passed to a command line argument..."

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"In years past, the term intrusion detection had a general meaning: the methods by which an administrator learned about system intrusions, or about attempts to intrude, on a given system. As in most technological areas, intrusion detection has evolved and specialized. The security industry has grown to include a number of disciplines and subspecialties, each with its own cadre of professionals. Why worry about intrusion detection if you have a good firewall? Just remember: no lock is unpickable. Firewalls have holes so that services can run (web, mail, and so on). Where there's a hole, there's a way. Furthermore, most security experts will tell you that security is not a destination, but a journey. Even if you have outstanding security policies in place, rock-hard firewalls, and a completely trustworthy user and administrator base, you still need to watch your system like a hawk to make sure that everything remains safe."

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"A few months ago, I began seeing our 'secure' log files fill up with entries stating: "Failed password for illegal user [username]". I decided to search the Internet to find out if others were experiencing these attacks and, hopefully, find a solution. I did uncover a lot of information on the subject, but discovered only a few script-based solutions. None of these, however, seemed... well... elegant..."

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"Don't worry, I'm not going to try to turn you into to a network security analyst or administrator. But if you're interested in what's happening under the hood on your Internet connection, I'll be happy to introduce you to an old and respected command-line tool. Come on, pull that many-pixeled GUI quilt off of you and meet me at the CLI for a look at tcpdump..."

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"A hard drive crash over the holidays left me scrambling to get back to a productive desktop as quickly as possible. Luckily, I had my /home partition on a separate drive, so I didn't lose precious email, stories, research, and pictures. But it did get me thinking about my lack of preparedness. Where was the back-up system I've talked about for years, but never acquired? This is the tale of how I rectified that glaring omission, and built myself a personal back-up system using inexpensive parts and free software..."

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