Diary of a Network Geek

Good question.
First of all, I’m talking about work, not my personal life. So, no, you may not speculate on what kind of degenerate, misogynistic, low-life I am. Besides, there are already plenty of bottom-feeders who are doing that. No, now that I’m a on-man IT department again, I wear a lot of hats.
Last week, I was a data security officer, a helpdesk, a Microsoft Excel Developer, a graphics designer, a server administrator and a web master. This week, so far, I have been a helpdesk, a Macintosh administrator, a server administrator and a web master. But, it’s only Tuesday.

Oh, I also had a rather uncomfortable teleconference hearing with the Texas Workforce Commision regarding my requested benefits. Still waiting to see if I’m going to get that one week of unemployment or not. Good thing I didn’t need it, eh? But, I have to say, the entire hearing process was, well, really, er, “icky”. No matter what some people may have said about me in the past, I really don’t like confrontational situations like that. I can handle them, and handle them well, I might add, but I don’t really like them. Just something that I have to do from time to time. One of the many things I don’t like that I have managed to do well at anyway. Of course, I’ll have to wait and see how well I really did this morning, but I think it went well.

I love Dr. Suess, but all he did was inspire the title.
I have two concerns this week: Linux servers and security. I’ve installed a test RedHat server and configured Samba on it, so now I can start testing how the accounting system will run from a mapped Linux drive. And, I’ll be testing the custom, in-house app that gives us our competitive edge. I’ve got server spec to get to the boss, when he’s in the office again, but I’m still waiting on pricing for a Linux-based backup system. It was actually much easier to get setup than I thought it would be. Though security may be an issue, since, essentially, Samba emulates Windows sharing on a Linux platform.
Security is my second issue. There’s a basic firewall in place on the router, but I don’t think that’s enough, especially if we want to block “adult” sites. And, since we do actually have a policy against that sort of thing, we do. So, eventually, I need to get that all spec-ed out and installed, too. And tested. Yeah, a little scan against our outside link would be interesting to look at, especially if I do it before and after. Ah, well, that’s down the line. First, I have to get the server upgraded.
Oh, and I still need to evaluate Novell’s Open Server on Linux before I decide which way to go for an OS on the new server. I know I want to avoid a Microsoft product, if at all possible. Frankly, it looks like it should be a real possibility. It all depends on how testing goes this week, so we’ll see. That and getting a CD burner at the office so I can burn the demo ISOs and install them.
Then, there are all the “little” projects that everyone keeps bringing me, not to mention all the nice G4s and assorted Macintrash… Ah, the work of a one-person IT department is never done. But, somehow, having easily defined goals makes the work more fulfilling. I know where I’m going and how I’m going to get there, so it’s all okay.
(The Suess book, by the way, was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and a childhood favorite.)

…Really, really excites me!
Novell believes in Linux so much that they’ve added extra support for it in their ZENWorks for Desktops suite of programs. According to this press release on Novell’s website, they’ve added “imaging, configuration lockdown, remote management, inventory and software management” to their software which will enable folks to use Novell ZENworks 7 Linux Management to manage most Linux platforms, including SUSE LINUX and Red Hat* Enterprise Linux. Now, this might not seem like much to some of you, but, trust me, this is a quantum leap forward in the Linux world. Five years ago, I couldn’t hardly concieve of a major networking company doing something like this. Now, I can completely cut Microsoft out of the picture, if I want. I can have Linux desktops and servers all managed with Novell software.
I’m so happy I could just plotz.
And, I have to say that I’m really, really glad that I not only have maintained my Novell certification, but also gotten at least one Linux certification, too. I didn’t know it at the time, but I couldn’t have planned it any better. Once again, my career choices have been affirmed.
Well, off to the uranium mines! Have a very high-tech day!

Well, apparently, I am in touch with the bleeding edge of the IT industry.
Just Saturday I was talking about anonymous browsing, and then yesterday, I got an update from a news feed with an article about just that! This article on InformIT is certainly more detailed that I was and warns you about the potential hazards of being too smug when browsing anonymously. It also goes into a bunch of different options for concealing your identity and doing so at varying levels of security, not to mention the fact that it goes into hiding yourself on the Internet for more than just browsing. (Yes, young’uns, the Internet is much, much more than just the World Wide Web, in spite of what AOL and Microsoft have told you.)
So, though I may be handing dangerous people more sharp objects to play with, I reccomend going and reading the article. For one thing, if you needed me to point these resources out, you probably aren’t really dangerous to me anyway. For another, if you are familiar with the basic techniques, you already know most of what’s in the article. But, no matter your Internet security background, it’s worth reading the article for the review, if nothing else.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this; decide what you want."
   --Ben Stein

Hey, here’s another reason to be proud of my adopted state!
The State of Texas is sueing one of the world’s top four spammers. Apparently, the company, or companies, is based out of California and is already being sued by MicroSoft, but the State of Texas is joining in. The suit itself is based on the CAN-SPAM Act, which was such a big deal when it was passed. I have to admit, at the time, I never thought we’d actually see any of these bottom-feeders prosecuted in any way, but it looks like the CAN-SPAM Act may be actually doing some good! According to the article, the two spammers who run this company could face “penalties of $250 per violation, up to a maximum of $2 million.” Wow. That’d hurt!
Apparently, the Texas Attorney General is bringing suit against these guys under Texas law that “cover electronic mail and solicitation as well as deceptive practices. Those laws carry fines of up to $25,000 per day and $20,000 per violation…” Dang! You go get ’em!
Let’s hope it does some good!

Oh, my, but they are sneaky.
Of course, I should expect that from these folks, but, still, I fell for this one. I was checking my Hotmail account, as I sometimes do at lunch, and saw a link to an interesting news story. At least, I thought it was a news story. Instead, it turned out to be a thinly veiled advertisement for MicroSoft. The article was titled Gaming Company Gets High-Score Thanks to Innovative IT. Sounds pretty good, right? I thought so too, so I clicked on it. SUCKER!
What this actually links to is a “case study” that “is intended to provide real-world examples of IT solutions. Case studies are created by Microsoft to show how IT solutions help customers meet their business needs.” In other words, an ad. Plain and simple an ad for MicroSoft programming tools. Not that they have bad programming tools, mind. After all, they’re about the only one’s left marketing programming tools of any kind that even registers as a blip on my radar anymore. (If anyone has others that are enterprise level, post a comment!) But, I sure felt like I’d been suckered when I got to the ad.
Tricksy Hobbits.

Wow, there’ve been a lot of stories about Novell in the past two days!

Let’s see, where to start…. First off, Novell whupped Micro$oft to the tune of $536 Million, according to this press release from the networking giant. Apparently, Novell and Micro$oft agreed to “settle potential antitrust litigation related to Novell’s NetWare operating system in exchange for $536 million in cash.” Hmm, not a bad deal. I wonder what that will do to their stock? What’s even more interesting to me, is that Novell also announced it will file “an antitrust suit against Microsoft in the United States District Court in Utah seeking unspecified damages in connection with alleged harm to Novell’s WordPerfect application software business in the mid-1990s.” More cash? One can only hope.

In other Novell news, my favorite Open Source company has released a “new” Linux desktop. Yes, that’s right, they’ve got a Linux desktop, with the option to purchase support. I guess there really are advantages to living way out in Orem and not having anything else to do during the winter months but think! If you follow that link, by the way, you can download a free trial. I know I will be!

Yea, Novell! You go!

A follow up to yesterday’s entry.

Okay, so, if you follow Slashdot, you’ve seen this, but I thought it was worth reposting. Of course, part of that is because I’m just a little bit of a Novell zealot. To put it mildly.
I thought the article was interesting. I especially liked the way that Mr. Schlaeger emphasized the idea that Novell was really supporting Linux, KDE and OpenSource. It’s really the way of the future with IT and computers in general. I have a friend that used to work for Microsoft and is now totally hooked on Netware, Linux, and Mozilla. All it took was a little push from your friendly, neighborhood technology pusher (i.e. ME!) and the rest was as easy as blue-screening a Windows server.
In any case, the interview over at KDE.org is worth reading if you have anything invested in Linux of any flavor, Novell, or KDE. I hope it’s a continuing trend for both Linux and Novell.

I saw this on Slashdot.

And, I think that means that Novell is finally getting their marketing right! First of all, there was this story on Slashdot, which, of course, generated all sorts of anti-Microsoft chatter. Then, I followed the link over to Novell’s site, which redirected me to this SuSE news release. So, not only is Novell developing for Linux and supporting OpenSource projects, but they’re getting plenty of exposure in the IT community.

About damn time.

Okay, this probably isn’t big news anymore.

But, it was Friday when I read it. See, I usually queue up posts a day or two in advance, so I’m just a little behind. Still, I saw this article on Ping, which is AustralianIT’s newsletter, so I may have the jump on folks here in the States. It’s interesting to me because the things they talked about in the article were the Netscape Directory Server and Netscape Certificate management system. In other words, LDAP. Hmm, that sounds familiar. Oh, yeah, it’s what Novell has been using for, oh, about five years or so. Looks like there might be some competition in the OpenSource-based network architecture product space over the next couple of years. I hope Novell pays attentiont to this and gets their shit together before Red Hat has a product to market. Novell really needs to maintain their slice of the networking pie. No, scratch that, they need to get working on a bigger slice.
In any case, the deal is expected to go in the third quarter of the 2004 financial year, so they’ve got a bit of time. Not much, though. I can’t imagine RedHat waiting too long before getting something out there.
I wonder what MicroSoft thinks about all this?