Stopping Spam With Linux
If you have used email at all, you have seen spam: unsolicited and unwanted email. The way that email works means that it is very easy to send out bulk mailings at a very low cost. This article will help you to prevent unwanted email from infiltrating your Inbox!
Saturday, May 29, 1999 01:36:47 PM EST

How to Compile the Linux Kernel
Why compile a new kernel? A variety of reasons spring to mind; adding new custom features, upgrading to a newer version, or installing brand new hardware. Either way, you'll need to recompile your kernel at some stage; this article will take you through the steps quickly and easily!
Saturday, May 29, 1999 01:36:47 PM EST

How Do I Partition My Drive For Linux Use?
So you've decided to install Linux! Be aware, you'll need to partition your drive; check out this article for all the information you need before you jump in the deep end.
Saturday, May 29, 1999 01:36:47 PM EST

Getting Access to Documentation Under Linux
Wondering how to get access to documentation for your favorite features and tools in Linux? Step right this way, as James divulges the Linux documentation secrets!
Saturday, May 29, 1999 01:36:47 PM EST

How to Run an Email List Under Linux
Most Internet users will be on or will have tried out an 'email list'. Here's your chance to set up your own with majordomo!
Saturday, May 29, 1999 01:36:47 PM EST

A Guide To Linux Printing
Printer giving your newly acquired Linux OS trouble? No problem! Let Stephen guide you through the printing process.
Monday, May 31, 1999 07:39:10 PM EST

Admin Digest: The Basics of Linux Network Security
The pervasiveness of the Internet has led to more and more opportunities for your company's servers to be attacked from without. Part-time Linux admins, never fear. Our updated network security basics document will get you well on your way to locking your system down.
Monday, January 6, 2003 01:36:47 PM EST

Admin Digest: Setting Up Your Own Web Server
Not happy with your ISP? Think you can can share information within your organization better? Setting up your own Web server isn't as hard as some may think, thanks to the ease of use of Linux and Apache.
Thursday, January 2, 2003 01:36:47 PM EST

Ten Neat Tricks With Perl
Automate redundant repetitive tasks with Perl, using these ten neat tricks!
Saturday, May 29, 1999 01:36:47 PM EST

Time For Linux
One of the reasons we all use computers are that they are supposed to save us time. Most desktop setups have a place for a clock and most of us like to keep an eye on the time as we work. Below you will not be exploring how computers do not seem to save you time but how Linux keeps the time and date.
Saturday, May 29, 1999 01:36:47 PM EST

Window Managers Explained
What is a window manager and how does it affect the look and feel of Linux? This article explains what a window manager does and discusses a few of the more popular packages available.
Thursday, September 16, 1999 06:44:21 PM EST

The Unix Shell - Part One
The word Unix has traditionally brought to mind images of a mystical operating system for high-end workstations and servers that can only be accessed through a cryptic command line interface known as the Unix Shell. Although Linux offers graphical front ends, the Unix Shell is still a powerful tool that can make life easier for anyone who is willing to invest a bit of time learning the basic syntax.
Tuesday, June 22, 1999 12:12:27 PM EST

Controlling Linux Remotely With X11
X isn't only about graphics: James gives an overview of the powerful features in the X window system for running programs remotely.
Saturday, July 10, 1999 05:06:36 PM EST

Using Linux as Network Glue
Matt Clements explains how, as a Linux newbie, he set up an old machine to handle routing and firewalling on his NT-based network.
Tuesday, July 20, 1999 04:48:29 PM EST

Admin Digest: Setting Up A SuSE 8.0 Linux DHCP Client
Enterprise businesses with their own IT staffs may have the knowledge and where-with-all to implement Linux in their organizartions, but what about the small-business owner who has to manage everything from buying pencils to setting up the network? The Admin Digest is a new series designed to address Linux solutions for people who have other things they can be doing with their time. This first installment examines how to use SuSE Linux 8.0 to create a DHCP client system.
Monday, December 30, 2002 10:45:39 AM EST

Analyse Your Web Server in 10 Minutes
Spend 10 minutes finding out how to set up and use Linux to analyse web server files with a powerful free program, Analog.
Monday, August 23, 1999 05:42:20 PM EST

Appleshare IP on Linux
Using your Linux machine as a powerful file server for Apple Mac machines. Installation and configuration are fully explained
Thursday, August 26, 1999 04:30:05 PM EST

The Unix Shell - Part II
At first glance many people think the Unix Shell is a more cryptic version of the MS-Windows/DOS command prompt. However, the Unix shell can do much more than launch programs and copy files. Sequences of commands can be strung together in "Shell Scripts" to automate tedious or repetitive tasks.
Thursday, September 2, 1999 11:02:12 AM EST

Rolling Out Linux
In this article directed at IT professionals, James Andrews discusses methods for installing Linux quickly onto many machines, by standard methodology and by cloning the hard disk.
Friday, September 17, 1999 08:10:43 AM EST

Linux Device Drivers Demystified
We give you inside information on how Linux device drivers work and what devices are supported. Use our search facility to check if your soundcard, joystick, ethernet card or any one of dozens of devices is supported by Linux.
Thursday, September 23, 1999 12:49:47 PM EST

Setting Up a MySQL Based Website - Part I
Setting up a database backend is one of the important and sometimes difficult things to do with your web site. Lucky for you, we have this series of tutorials that will guide you through the basics of building a database backend using MySQL. In part one of this series on MySQL and its use as a web backend, we look at basic installation and coding a Perl / MySQL guestbook.
Friday, October 1, 1999 05:28:32 PM EST

How I Caught the Spam and What I Did With it When I Caught it
Longtime Perl programmer Mark-Jason Dominus tells us about an unhappy incident involving food and some lawyers. He also finds time tell us how to deal with annoying Email.
Thursday, October 14, 1999 03:43:35 PM EST

Python Squeezes the Web
In this Python tutorial Stephen Pitts snakes through a program to grab remote web pages and process them locally. Need to parse information off the web? Read this...
Saturday, October 23, 1999 12:16:50 PM EST

Routing NetBIOS with Linux
Use Linux to allow NT/95 Workstations to see the Network Neighborhood across different Masqueraded TCP Networks, by following this tutorial from Matt Clements.
Friday, October 29, 1999 05:59:12 AM EST

Apples and Oranges: A Linux DBMS Comparison
We send Matthias Warkus into the potentially dark and dangerous--and certainly confusing!--world of database-management systems that run on Linux. In this part (I), he explains his journey and introduces us to mSQL, MySQL, and PostgreSQL.
Wednesday, November 10, 1999 03:04:53 PM EST

Ipchains: Easy Links to the Net
As the Internet becomes more ubiquitous in our daily lives, there's no reason why every Linux box shouldn't be connected to the Net -- even if it means doubling up on connections. Andrew Chen explains how to implement ipchains on your Linux box.
Tuesday, November 16, 1999 12:37:13 PM EST

Apples and Oranges, Part II: A Linux DBMS Comparison
Matthias Warkus continues his series comparing mSQL, mySQL, and PostgreSQL on Linux. In Part II, he sets up a sample database and tests its implementation on all three tools.
Thursday, November 18, 1999 01:25:46 PM EST

Apples and Oranges, Part III: A Linux DBMS Comparison
Matthias Warkus works toward his goal of comparing mSQL, mySQL, and PostgreSQL on Linux. In Part III, he reviews several factors that will help determine which database manager you use.
Monday, November 29, 1999 12:38:18 AM EST

Adding PHP to Apache on Linux
In the last year, the PHP scripting language has become one of the most essential tools for building content-rich Web sites on the Internet. In his debut column, Apache pioneer Ken Coar explains how to integrate PHP with an Apache Web server on a Linux system.
Thursday, December 23, 1999 07:46:09 AM EST

Using Apache with Suexec on Linux
When you're running an Apache Web server for yourself, you don't think about the user that's running the Apache server itself (typically nobody on Linux systems). But what if you're an ISP with multiple companies being hosted on your system? Or an educational institution with faculty who want to be able to execute their own scripts? Either everything has to be accessible to the Apache nobody user, or you have to run multiple instances of Apache on multiple ports and IP addresses, one of each per user, with the concomitant confusion of configuration files. The solution is the use of the suexec wrapper, which is part of the Apache distribution. Apache developer and pioneer Ken Coar explains.
Friday, January 21, 2000 01:07:47 PM EST

Setting Up a MySQL Based Website - Part II
One of the many popular features of Web sites is a "Members Only" section--that can be accessed only by authenticated users. Andrew Chen explains how to adapt your Linux-based Apache Web site to do this; not through an external module, but through a flat file or a basic MySQL database file.
Monday, January 24, 2000 07:49:58 AM EST

xDSL and Linux: Go Speed Racer!
Tired of being marginalized just because you're using Linux? That's the case if you want to combine high-speed xDSL access with your Linux system, as most telcos and xDSL vendors refuse to support Linux. But fear not: in this tutorial, we explain how to combine Linux and DSL for fast access to the Internet.
Tuesday, January 25, 2000 04:36:29 PM EST

Security and Apache: An Essential Primer
With Web security becoming a paramount concern in the face of several DoS attacks in prior weeks, securing your Apache/Linux installation should be the highest priority on your to-do list. Apache expert Ken Coar explains how Apache enforces security mechanisms and what you can do to enforce a secure system.
Monday, February 21, 2000 10:50:08 PM EST

Using the Apache CVS Repository
Want to keep up with the latest and greatest versions of the Apache HTTP Server? Then you've got to spend some time figuring out how the latest and greatest is distributed to the public. Ken Coar explains the Apache CVS Repository and how you can use it to stay on top of Apache.
Thursday, April 13, 2000 01:40:22 PM EST

.comment: Essential Console Applications
Ever been up the proverbial river without a paddle? That's generally the outcome when you attempt to change or update your XFree86 configuration and something goes terribly amiss. But fear not: you can usually do all of your important work--including browsing the Web and grabbing new files--directly from your Linux console. Dennis E. Powell covers some essential console applications that you will probably use at some point.
Wednesday, June 21, 2000 10:59:28 AM EST

From the Desktop: Good Vibrations
One of the last tasks a Linux user tackles is the configuration of a sound card. But with the rise of multimedia on the Web and on the desktop, the well-equipped Linux user will find a properly configured sound card to be a necessity. Brian Proffitt explains how easy it is to configure your sound card.
Friday, July 7, 2000 08:47:39 AM EST

Linux Networking: Exploring Samba
In the third part of his series on basic Linux networking, Bill Wong examines one of the most popular uses of Linux networking--linking different OSes via Samba--and tells how to set up your own Samba installation with a minimum of fuss.
Monday, July 10, 2000 08:36:03 AM EST

Linux Networking: Using Ipchains
One of the neatest things to do with a small-office/home-office Linux installation is set up multiple workstatations to share a network connection via ipchains. In this extensive tutorial, William Wong explains how a Linux computer running ipchains can link a local network to the Internet through an Ethernet-attached device like a cable modem or a DSL modem.
Monday, July 24, 2000 08:05:03 AM EST

Major Tom, This is Job Control
Looking to automate some onerous and boring chores? Then look to the convenient world of job control, where a host of Linux commands (cron, at, batch, nice, renice, et al.) help automate those repetitve chores with a minimum of fuss. Jason Fink guides you through the basics of job control, complete with a slew of handy examples.
Thursday, July 27, 2000 10:03:08 AM EST

Linux Home Networking, Part 5
It's one thing to set up a home network connection using Linux, but it's another to set up a dial-up connection for your home Linux network. In Part 5 of his series on Linux home networking, William Wong describes using the pppd daemon and ipchains to connect to the Internet on demand.
Tuesday, October 10, 2000 08:54:54 AM EST

GNOME Configuration Made Easy
In this introductory column, Michael Hall explores the basics of GNOME: how to get it, how to install it, and how to tweak it.
Monday, November 6, 2000 08:31:21 AM EST

Linux Networking, Part 6: Securing Your Network
Now that you've mastered the basics of setting up a small-office/home-office Linux network, it's time to tackle an incredibly important issue: securing your network. In this installment, William Wong describes the steps you can take to secure your Linux network.
Wednesday, November 8, 2000 09:28:42 AM EST

Linux Networking, Part 7: Implementing NFS
Need to share data between your Linux machines and other machines on your network? You should consider using NFS as a mechanism for this file sharing. William Wong covers the basics of NFS configuration and explains where you'd want to use NFS, as opposed to the higher-profile Samba.
Friday, November 24, 2000 08:53:36 AM EST

New HOWTO: The Large Disk HOWTO
What's the best way to learn about Linux? By tapping into the talents of the Linux community. We begin our regular coverage of new and updated HOWTOs with Andries Brouwer's Large-Disk-HOWTO.
Monday, March 12, 2001 03:34:45 PM EST

An In-Depth Look at Reiserfs
Reiserfs will soon become the first journaled file system to be bundled as part of the standard Linux kernel tree. What is a journaled file system, how does Reiserfs fit into that category, and why should you care that it's about to become part of the Linux core? Scott Courtney explains.
Monday, January 22, 2001 08:42:21 AM EST

New HOWTO: Modem-HOWTO
This updated HOWTO covers selecting, connecting, configuring, troubleshooting, and understanding modems for a PC running Linux.
Thursday, April 12, 2001 01:00:42 PM EST

New HOWTO: Plug-and-Play-HOWTO
This updated HOW TO covers the complex Plug-and-Play (PnP) issue, including how to get PnP to work on your PC (if it doesn't already).
Thursday, April 26, 2001 09:00:33 AM EST

New HOWTO: Bridging Mini-HOWTO
From the author's description of this mini-HOWTO: "This document describes how to setup an ethernet bridge. What is an ethernet bridge? An ethernet bridge is a device that controls data packets within a subnet in an attempt to cut down the amount of traffic. A bridge is usually placed between two separate groups of computers that talk within themselves, but not so much with the computers in the other group. A good example of this is to consider a cluster of Macintoshes and a cluster of unix machines. Both of these groups of machines tend to be quite chatty amongst themselves, and the traffic they produce on the network causes collisions for the other machines who are trying to speak to one another. A bridge would be placed between these groups of computers. The job of the bridge is then to examine the destination of the data packets one at a time and decide whether or not to pass the packets to the other side of the ethernet segment. The result is a faster, quieter network with fewer collisions."
Tuesday, March 13, 2001 04:54:02 PM EST

.comment: A Whole New Desktop with Anti-Aliasing
Tired of the font jaggies? It's easier than ever to incorporate anti-aliasing on your Linux desktop. In this tutorial, Dennis E. Powell guides you through the steps needed to launch anti-aliasing on your desktop; in addition, he includes a slew of screen shots that show what a difference anti-aliasing can make.
Wednesday, March 14, 2001 09:43:31 AM EST

HOWTO: Multiple local XFree users under Linux
With this HOWTO from Miguel Freitas, it's possible to set up multiple users with their own monitors, keyboards, and mouses on a single machine: "I have one girlfriend and one computer. In normal conditions, we both couldn't use the computer at the same time, in spite of the fact that it usually has a lot of processing power available. I also have a spare monitor and a second video card for playing 3D games (voodoo) so this idea came to me as something very obvious. New XFree86 4.0 support for dualhead suggests that most of the hard work is already done. And it has to be on Linux, because no closed source OS would allow me to make the changes that I need."
Thursday, March 15, 2001 12:39:54 PM EST

New HOWTO: Nvidia OpenGL Configuration mini-HOWTO
In this HOWTO, Robert B. Easter details how to install the OpenGL drivers for Nvidia graphics cards on Linux. In addition to just installing the Nvidia drivers, this mini-HOWTO also explains how to install XFree86, the OpenGL Utility library (part of Mesa), the OpenGL Utility Toolkit (glut), the full set of OpenGL manpages, Qt and its OpenGL extension, and Java and its Java 3D extension so that a user can have a complete runtime and development environment for OpenGL applications on Linux.
Thursday, March 22, 2001 12:58:54 PM EST

New HOWTO: XFree86 Font Deuglification Mini HOWTO
This HOWTO, maintained by Hal Burgiss, tells how to improve ugly and unreadable X Window fonts. It includes various tips for improving font handling for XFree86, including sections on fonts servers, TrueType fonts, Netscape, and related topics.
Friday, March 23, 2001 02:07:09 PM EST

New HOWTO: Remote Serial Console HOWTO
Most UNIX-based systems have the concept of a serial console. Linux is no exception to this, and this document by Mark F. Komarinski covers how to set up your hardware to use a serial console.
Friday, April 13, 2001 01:00:12 PM EST

New HOWTO: Linux XDMCP HOWTO
This HOWTO describes how you can use the combination of X Display Manager (xdm, kdm and gdm) and XDMCP (X Display Manager Control Protocol) to provide the mechanism for an X terminal and a platform of cheap remote X apps solution. This document will be focusing on how to setup connection using XDMCP.
Thursday, March 29, 2001 02:34:32 PM EST

New HOWTO: Emacs Beginner's HOWTO
This document introduces Linux users to the Emacs editor. It assumes minimal familiarity with vi or a similar editor.
Monday, March 26, 2001 06:30:32 PM EST

New HOWTO: Linux Partition HOWTO
This Linux Mini-HOWTO teaches you how to plan and create partitions on IDE and SCSI hard drives. It discusses partitioning terminology and considers size and location issues. Use of the fdisk partitioning utility for creating and recovering of partition tables is covered.
Thursday, April 5, 2001 11:01:31 AM EST

New HOWTO: The Linux Kernel HOWTO
This is a detailed guide to kernel configuration, compilation, upgrades, and troubleshooting for ix86-based systems.
Monday, April 2, 2001 01:22:33 PM EST

Linux Package Management: Keeping Up with the Times
If you have been around the block with Linux, then you know about the myriad of ways applications are bundled and transported from one machine to another. But to those just entering the Linux arena, the language of tarballs, RPMs, and DEBs may seem like an alien tongue. Dee-Ann LeBlanc clears up some of the confusion in this primer on package management.
Monday, April 22, 2002 10:11:13 AM EST

Conducting Virtual Meetings with Linux, Part I
With travel becomimg more cumbersome, alternatives such as online meetings become more attractive. But who has the time and money to wire participants up with cameras, microphones, and costly software? In the first of a two-part series of articles, Rob Reilly shows how one Florida Linux Users Group is using open source technology in a creative way to run virtual meetings cheaply and effectively.
Tuesday, May 14, 2002 11:07:08 AM EST

Tutorial: Adding Additional Hard Drives in Linux
With all of the hub-bub about Linux in clusters, Linux on supercomputers, and the like, sometimes it's nice to reflect on the basics a bit. For instance, what if you just wanted to do something more mundane, like add a hard drive to your Linux PC? Alexander Prohorenko steps users through this task and shows how to make this job a snap.
Monday, June 3, 2002 10:36:33 AM EST

Conducting Virtual Meetings With Linux, Part II
Getting your people together with their people is not as simple a prospect as you might imagine. Rising travel costs and hassles, coupled with the driving force to get everything done yesterday means that alternatives to face-to-face meetings are looking more attaractive than ever. But proprietary solutions can be expense and make big demands on your hardware. Rob Reilly continiues his look at using free software to create audio/chat servers that will let you run your own "v meeting" for a song.
Monday, June 10, 2002 11:22:08 AM EST

Linux Partitions: A Primer
One of the biggest challanges that a new Linux user faces when they first install any distro is how to cope with this thing called partitioning. Though many installers will auto-configure the partitions of a hard drive for you, having a good partition strategy can save you a lot of time and effort in the long run. Dee-Ann LeBlanc delivers this tutorial on partitioning basics.
Thursday, June 20, 2002 11:19:09 AM EST

Installing Sybase on Your Linux Server
Got them ol' licensing fee blues? Looking for a better way to handle your database needs? Sybase for Linux may be one way to solve your problems. Setting it up for a test spin is not a major proposition, either, as Alexander Prohorenko details in this tutorial that covers installation and localization of Sybase.
Thursday, July 18, 2002 03:20:19 PM EST

Burning CDs in Linux: Tips and Tricks
Some may like their CD-RW drives to make nothing but coasters, but for the rest of us, the frustration of a mishandled CD-burn can drive us crazy. It does not have to be that way. Linux has some excellent (and maturing) tools that will let you get your data recorded the right way. Dee-Ann LeBlanc reports on these tools and how to use them to the best advantage.
Tuesday, July 30, 2002 11:39:36 AM EST

Using RAID in Linux
The concept of RAID, so often put aside in Linux documentation for all those smart systems administrators, is actually not something that takes a lot of special knowledge to understand. As Alexander Prohorenko explains, all you need is a little common sense and a good plan to implement RAID on your systems
Thursday, August 1, 2002 01:52:49 PM EST

Building Sounds for your Applications with SoundTracker
Beeps, bloops, and buzzes. These are the sounds that enrich our computing experience. When done right, these auditory cues provide instant feedback to a user from an application. But getting the right sounds for your app does not have to involve scrounging around for whatever you can find on the Internet. You can professionally edit your own sounds with the Linux program SoundTracker, as Dee-Ann LeBlanc and Andrew J.D. Bowman explain in this tutorial.
Friday, August 9, 2002 12:52:12 PM EST

Remote Administration of Linux Systems
One of the best advantages of using Linux is the ability to quickly and (if done correctly) safely logon to and administer another machine from across the room or across the planet. All you need are the right tools, a little paranoia, and just a little time, as Alexander Prohorenko details in this tutorial.
Tuesday, August 27, 2002 11:00:32 AM EST

CPEN and Linux: Techno-Tools for the Techno-Cool
LinuxPlanet writer Rob Reilly is more than a little excited about his new CPEN handheld device. And when he figured out how to use the device with his Linux laptop, he was in heaven. Reilly details how he got CPEN to talk to Linux and vice versa, and gives a brief lesson in dealing with IR ports in Linux as well.
Thursday, September 5, 2002 11:30:42 AM EST

Burning CDs Over the Network with webCDwriter
Most home and small offices really don't need more than one CD burner. Even many large companies only need one, or maybe two. Yet it only takes a few frustrating episodes to convince you that a few extra burners would be a good idea, especially if one of them was in your machine. Before you run out to purchase this new equipment, consider taking an older machine and setting it up by itself, with no other purpose than to be a CD burner. Dee-Ann LeBlanc reports.
Monday, September 16, 2002 11:20:11 AM EST

No Excuses--Sync Your Visor/Palm to Linux
The ubiquitous handheld is a common element in business life today. But there is a common misperception that getting such a device to sync to a Linux machine is a major chore. In actuality, as Rob Reilly demonstrates, nothing could be further from the truth. It's just a matter of prepping Linux, installing the right software, and pushing that nifty little Sync button.
Thursday, September 19, 2002 10:12:09 AM EST

Setting Up Your Own Diskless Workstations with LTSP
Schools use them, government agencies too. Diskless workstation networks are one of the best and easiest to use thin-client implementations you can use for your own organization. In this article, Alexander Prohorenko steps through the basics of using the Linux Terminal Server Project tools to build such a network on your own.
Wednesday, October 2, 2002 05:09:46 PM EST

The Coda Distributed Filesystem for Linux
Bill von Hagen continues his thorough examination of the distributed filessystems available for the Linux platform. In this report, he explores the Coda distributed filesystem that provided much of the inspiration for InterMezzo and gives readers a detailed tutorial on how to implement Coda for themselves.
Monday, October 7, 2002 11:12:44 AM EST

Controlling Access to Your Services with xinetd
One of the most powerful aspects of Linux is its ability to launch services, or daemons, and run them in the background as needed. But running all of these background services can be an administrative headache when you take into account user access and permissions, too. Dee-Ann LeBlanc walks readers through the basics of xinetd, a tool that lets you securely and effectively lock down services on your Linux machine.
Monday, October 21, 2002 10:33:42 AM EST

User Mode Linux: Coming to a Kernel Near You, Part 1
There are a number of fundamental additions coming in the next Linux kernel. One of these will be a great boon to software developers, beta testers, product reviewers, hosting services, and more: User Mode Linux (UML). Just as VMware allows us to run a machine within a machine, UML lets us do run multiple, separate, isolated instances of Linux on a single Linux box. In Part 1 of a two-part series, Dee-Ann LeBlanc steps through getting UML running on your machine.
Wednesday, March 12, 2003 11:51:10 AM EST

Admin Digest: Stopping Spam with Linux
Spam is a topic that will get most sys admins to start pulling out their hair whenever it's mentioned. This deluge of white noise floods e-mail inboxes every day. But is there a way to turn down the volume on some of this noise? In this Admin Digest, Rob Reilly reviews some of the better ways to block dreaded spam.
Monday, March 24, 2003 09:38:14 AM EST

Moving Files In Linux
Getting files from one machine to another is a snap, right? Just fire up the old FTP client and upload and download away. Linux has a number of command-line FTP applications, some very good, and some not. Dee-Ann LeBlanc walks readers though the basics of some of the better tools available, and warns which tools might pose problems for you.
Thursday, May 22, 2003 09:49:23 AM EST

A Writer's View of the Linux Wireless Dream, Part 1
As we travel from place to place, office to office, we still need that all-important connection to the Internet. Laptops are a perfect solution to this need, and it's even better if you get them running wirelessly. Rob Reilly steps through how he got the popular PrismII-based 802.11b card up and running with Linux.
Monday, June 2, 2003 10:51:02 AM EST

How To Move To A New Cyber Address
In the world of Internet Service Providers, many consumers and small businesses may find that Linux is a bit of a pariah when it comes to getting support. All is not lost, as Rob Reilly learned during his recent move to a new ISP. Along the way, he picked up some useful tips to use before making any ISP move.
Monday, August 25, 2003 10:10:08 AM EST

Building an LDAP Server on Linux, Part 1
Your network is growing in size and complexity. It's taking on a life of its own, spreading and growing and absorbing everything in its path. You're tearing your hair out trying to keep track, and your users have somehow discovered your secret phone number and are pestering you with endless questions and demands. The solution may just be an LDAP server of your very own.
Wednesday, October 8, 2003 10:24:07 AM EST

Building an LDAP Server on Linux, Part 2
LDAP provides central management of access, authentication, and authorization--in other words, it makes your life as an admin much easier. Learn the ins and outs of LDAP as well as how to build your own LDAP server in this three-part series.
Monday, October 27, 2003 11:23:30 AM EST

A Writer's View of the Wireless Dream - Part 2
You have your 802.11b card working on your Linux laptop. Great... now what? Rob Reilly puts together this overview of where you can use WiFi, how you can use it, and what tools you can try to make it work better.
Monday, December 8, 2003 10:22:23 AM EST

Web Marketing Your Business With Linux, Part 1
Web sites for your business don't have to be big and flashy or hard to manage to get your message across. And they certainly don't need to run on Microsoft platforms. In this first part of two articles, Rob Reilly breaks down the open source tools you need to get started building your own professional-looking Web site with Linux.
Thursday, December 11, 2003 11:13:51 AM EST

Integrating Writer into Your Business
As Linux is brought into service in small and medium sized companies, desktop pilots often wonder how they will ever get off the ground without proprietary word processing applications like Word. "Can I still do basic business letters with Linux?" And "Will our old Word docs work with Linux?", they ask. The answer to both questions is a resounding "You betcha" with OpenOffice.org Writer.
Monday, January 5, 2004 10:38:56 AM EST

Web Marketing Your Business With Linux, Part 2
Last month, we walked you through the basic tools and techniques in putting a Web page together using open source applications. This month, in part two, let's examine the tools and techniques for transferring your pages to the web server as well as the applications and methods for monitoring and securing your site.
Thursday, January 8, 2004 11:05:06 AM EST

Integrating Calc Into Your Business
Depending on the business and industry, spreadsheets can be anything from very simple lists used for sorting to kazillion cell monsters that add, multiply, and figure up gravitational forces throughout the entire universe. Rob Reilly steps through some basic yet very useful features of OpenOffice Calc for those not familiar with this powerful tool.
Thursday, February 5, 2004 09:34:41 AM EST

Have a Bash With This Linux Shell
If you are a Linux administrator, scripting can make your life easier by allowing you to automate routine tasks, customize jobs, and connect different utilities. This article looks at Bash, the default command shell on most Linux distributions.
Thursday, February 19, 2004 10:38:18 AM EST

Getting Some GRUB For Linux
If you're still lumbering along with the good, but antique, Linux Loader, it's time to consider a move to GRUB, the Grand Unified Bootloader--the bootloader of today's generation.
Monday, April 26, 2004 03:06:54 PM EST

My First Linux Server, Part 1
Linux is now a lot simpler than you may think. We can provide you with the easiest, simplest, no-problem process for installing Linux on a PC. After going through this simple installation process, you will have a basic machine that you can configure into any kind of server, workstation, or office desktop.
Wednesday, June 9, 2004 10:30:52 PM EST

My First Linux Server, Part 2
"A file server is a specialized PC that holds large numbers of files that many people on a network can access. It 'serves up' files to everyone instead of each person having files on his or her own PC. The good news is that you don't have to be a network guru to set up a basic file server..."
Monday, June 14, 2004 11:36:09 AM EST

Get More Out of Your Pipe with Apache and mod_gzip
"Webmasters who are serious about running high-performance Web servers, and who want pleased and delighted visitors, have a great tool in Apache 1.3's mod_gzip. mod_gzip compresses pages on the fly, reducing their size considerably..."
Thursday, June 24, 2004 12:24:33 PM EST

Using Impress-ive Charts In OpenOffice.org
Anybody that does presentations will someday need to use a chart. A manager needs charts to show production numbers and profits. A scientist or trainer needs charts to show facts, figures and results. A sales seminar leader needs charts to explain sales figures. So, what's involved in getting these nifty things into your OpenOffice.org-based slide show?
Monday, July 19, 2004 11:06:47 AM EST

OpenOffice Tips: Writer, Calc and Impress
Ready to take the plunge and use OpenOffice instead of the pricier, if more familiar, MS Office? We've got a bunch of tips to help you navigate the top-three programs.
Monday, July 26, 2004 01:09:31 PM EST

The Serial Console: A Front Door Worth Leaving Open
You've got a dozen ways to get into your headless Linux server over the network, so what do you do when the network card fails? Put down the monitor and grab a laptop: The serial console's your personal portal.
Thursday, August 19, 2004 10:10:26 AM EST

SpamAssassin and Amavisd: Go Ninja On Your UBE Woes
Building an Anti-Virus/Anti-Spam Gateway (Part 1): With SpamAssassin, Amavisd-new, and ClamAV, you've got all you need to build a Linux-based SMTP gateway that stops spam and viruses cold.
Thursday, September 9, 2004 11:38:36 AM EST

Feed Your Virus Worries to a Clam
Building an Anti-Virus/Anti-Spam Gateway (Part 2): "Last week, we looked at how to set up SpamAssassin with Postfix, as part of a lean, mean, spam-killing gateway machine. This week we'll add an anti-virus scanner to our bubbling brew..."
Thursday, September 16, 2004 04:39:44 PM EST

Sawing Linux Logs with Simple Tools
"Even if your servers are running at the peak of perfection, you still need to keep an eye on the logs. This month's scripting clinic covers the basics you need to make sense out of all those miles of digital chatter..."
Monday, September 20, 2004 11:22:15 AM EST

Tuneups and Tweaks for the Better Spam-Trap
Building an Anti-Virus/Anti-Spam Gateway Part 3: When you build a strong anti-spam solution, you have to count on a few false positives. Here's how to tune your Linux anti-spam gateway to let the good guys through without opening the doors to spammers.
Thursday, October 7, 2004 10:32:11 AM EST

Prep for Tomorrow with an IPv6 Testbed
Sooner or later IPv6 is coming. With our quick guide to building your own Linux-based IPv6 testbed, you can learn some of the ins and outs of the Internet's next generation protocol before it's time to implement it across your network.
Thursday, October 21, 2004 11:53:41 AM EST

Upstream Provider Woes? Point the Ping of Blame
"It's never fun to argue about connectivity issues with your upstream 'net provider, but with this collection of software tools and a Linux laptop, you can make your case (and maybe even get support to listen to you)..."
Thursday, October 28, 2004 11:41:18 AM EST

Keep an Eye on Your Linux Systems with Netstat
Maintaining a Linux system involves paying close attention to running services and network traffic. With netstat, you've got a powerful surveillance and troubleshooting tool.
Thursday, November 4, 2004 08:33:38 AM EST

Rolling Out Unattended Debian Installations (Part 1)
The next time you have a hankerin' to install a new batch of Debian machines, make it easy on yourself and use FAI (Fully Automatic Installation). FAI is a versatile, intelligent installer for performing mass unattended Debian installations.
Monday, December 6, 2004 03:47:59 PM EST

Rolling Out Unattended Debian Installations (Part 2)
Last week, Part 1 covered the basic configuration for a Debian FAI (Fully Automatic Installation) server. Today we'll configure the client installations--network server settings, what software is going to be installed, and the client boot methods.
Monday, December 13, 2004 11:07:02 AM EST

Building Attractive Web Photo Galleries
The good news is all kinds of non-geek computer users have discovered digital cameras, and how to share their pictures on Web sites. This is a great way to share stuff: post once for many people to look at. The bad news is many of them have not discovered selectivity or image editing.
Monday, December 20, 2004 12:27:35 PM EST

KMail In Depth
"KMail has long been my Linux email client of choice for a number of reasons: nice clean interface, easily customizable and configurable, stable, and more features than you can shake a stick at. Today we'll dig into migrating from other email clients, encrypting messages and key signing, and configuring multiple accounts and identities..."
Thursday, January 13, 2005 09:48:16 AM EST

Mepis + apt = Working On Easy Street
"My reasoning for combining the traditional Debian apt command with Mepis was speed and efficiency. Also, in the fine tradition of open source, I could choose to use the command line instead of the Kpackage or Mepis System Center package management screen..."
Monday, January 24, 2005 11:15:22 AM EST

Connecting to a Wireless LAN with Linux, Part 1
Wireless hardware for Linux is a moving target. The wireless network adapter that worked fine with Linux yesterday may be released with an unsupported radio chipset today, and with no indication of the change. So buyer beware--always confirm the chipset before you buy. Part 1 begins within.
Sunday, January 30, 2005 07:40:48 PM EST

Connecting to a Wireless LAN with Linux, Part 2
In Part 1 we reviewed hardware options, which wireless utilities should be present, how to use Windows drivers, and how to be open to connect to any available wireless access point. This week we'll cover configurations on Red Hat- and Debian-type systems, basic security, and hardware discovery.
Monday, February 7, 2005 11:37:51 AM EST

Inkscape: Vector Graphics For Linux
The GIMP is the favored graphics package for Linux and Open Source software users. But raster-based graphics are not always the way some artists want to go. Inkscape provides a vector-based Linux graphics solution for those who need it.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005 10:39:22 AM EST

Organizing Your Desktop Communications
In this tutorial, we'll look at two great utilities: Tuxcards, the ultimate digital notebook and organizer of zillions of tiny bits of information, and how to use SpamAssassin with KMail without having to run your own mailserver.
Monday, March 7, 2005 12:46:31 PM EST

Howto Configure Multiple Network Profiles on Linux
Mobile Linux users face some interesting (OK, vexing) challenges when they want to plug into different networks. Any Linux system will easily support all manner of networking profiles--dialup, ISDN, Ethernet, wireless--the tricky bit is configuration.
Thursday, March 17, 2005 12:08:03 PM EST

WiFi PDA Meets Linux--Part 2
Part 1 of our WiFi PDA/Linux series focused on setting up the iPAQ to browse the Web and connect to a Linux/Samba file server. This time, we'll look at printing from the iPAQ to a CUPS print server.
Thursday, April 21, 2005 01:09:41 PM EST

WiFi PDA Meets Linux--Part 3
Did you know that your new WiFi-equipped iPAQ can be used as a VoIP communicator? How about your Linux notebook? Rob Reilly continues his series on PDA/Linux interoperability with this look at Skype.
Friday, May 27, 2005 11:19:49 AM EST

WiFi PDA Meets Linux--Part 4
An avalanche of content will soon appear in the palm of your hand. Tiny screens are showing up everywhere in PDAs and cell phones. Many are equipped with some form of network device and a browser, so it's not hard to see what's coming down the pike. Rob Reilly shows how LAMP can be configured to deliver the best content for handheld browsers.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005 09:40:05 PM EST

Open Source: A Way of Developing, Distributing, and Licensing Software
This article, written by Ibrahim Haddad, discusses the fundamentals of open source software including the different types of freeware and the advantages and risks associated with using open source software components in commerically-based products. In addition, Ibrahim briefly identifies the three major open source strategies that companies most typically adopt.
Thursday, August 25, 2005 11:16:24 AM EST

WiFi PDA Meets Linux--Part 5
Music on a corporate PDA? Bad idea? Not when you stop and think that offering various audio products, sales pitches, and info casts to customers and employees via their WiFi PDA might be a good thing. Why plop down a couple of Franklins for one of those dedicated music players that make you download via USB?
Friday, August 26, 2005 12:50:05 PM EST

Map Your Thoughts With Freemind
Your group has been tapped to come up with a new process. How do you effectively record and organize your team's ideas in those critical first meetings? Make flowcharts with Draw? Post-It Notes? Or use your laptop and a program called Freemind.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005 09:12:32 AM EST

Automate Linux Configuration with cfengine
"As your Linux/Unix network grows, you're probably going to get tired of running around to individual machines to do updates and fixes, unless it's part of your fitness program. My ideal sysadmin scenario is rather like Dr. Evil's submarine lair: lounge about with a cat on my lap, occasionally pushing a button..."
Wednesday, September 7, 2005 12:17:35 PM EST

Handling Multiple Displays with x2x
Many screens, one keyboard, one mouse. Ah, what's a Linux technophile to do? Rob Reilly shows you how to use x2x to get multi-screen control for your work area.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005 02:30:52 PM EST

MySQL Storage Engines
In this article, we're not going to concentrate on the technical aspects of the different MySQL storage engines (although we will inevitably have to look at some of these elements), instead we will concentrate on how and where these different engines can be best employed. To achieve this, we'll have to look at some of the fundamental issues before moving on to the specifics of each engine type.

Friday, October 7, 2005 12:17:56 AM EST

Preventing Buffer Overflow Exploits Using the Linux Distributed Security Module, Part 1
Internet servers (such as Web, email, and ftp servers) have been the target for different kinds of attacks aiming to disable them from providing services to their respective users. One particular exploit, which has become almost ubiquitous in the last several years, is the buffer overflow exploit. In Part 1 of this article, we describe the buffer overflow exploit and provide detailed examples to help understand it.
Monday, December 12, 2005 11:06:07 AM EST

Preventing Buffer Overflow Exploits Using the Linux Distributed Security Module, Part 2
Buffer overflow exploits are one of the most interesting security vulnerabilities and are used in a majority of security attacks against Linux and UNIX-like operating systems. In Part 2, readers will see how DSM guards against such exploits and it is implemented as a Linux module, using an exploit example.
Thursday, January 12, 2006 09:42:33 AM EST

Using VNC Tunneling over SSH
There are times when you need to see what's running on another user's desktop. When you're both behind the same firewall, VNC is a good solution. But what happens when each user is behind different firewalls and you need a secure connection? Rob Reilly demonstrates how to make this happen.
Monday, January 30, 2006 11:42:24 AM EST

Generation LinuX, Part 1--The Basics
Barriers to solving real-world, everyday problems with cutting-edge computer technology are now gone. Linux and Open Source Software offer a giant toolbox, full of shiny new tools, just waiting to be put to good use by our children. Rob Reilly begins a new series designed to help teach kids what computing is all about.
Monday, March 13, 2006 09:10:10 AM EST

Making Your Terminal into a Desktop
There are several possible reasons why you might choose to use the command line interface (CLI) as your desktop environment. Jem Matzan walks through how to set up your virtual terminal to be more productive for desktop work.
Thursday, March 16, 2006 09:50:40 AM EST

Generation LinuX, Part 2--Web Research
In Part 2 of this series, Rob Reilly steps parents, guardians, and "geekparents" through the basic steps of exploring the vast Internet using open source tools. What comes naturally for us may not be so easy for younger kids, so remembering the basics is a good place to start.
Thursday, March 30, 2006 10:29:25 AM EST

Making GNOME Look Like OS X
If you've always admired the Apple OS X desktop theme and layout but aren't ready to drop a load of cash on an Apple machine (or if you want to stick with free software), this article from Jem Matzan will show you how to make GNOME look and feel more like OS X, with some limitations.
Thursday, April 6, 2006 02:35:37 PM EST

Synchronizing your Linux Laptop and Desktop
If your laptop computer is a complement to your desktop machine, you're probably well aware of the need to synchronize data between the two. This article from Jem Matzan will show you two ways to accomplish this on GNU/Linux-based machines.
Monday, April 17, 2006 10:45:26 AM EST

The Penguin's Practical Network Troubleshooting Guide
Linux has everything you need to do any kind of networking, plus it has eleventy-eight hundred different software utilities for network monitoring and troubleshooting. Today Carla Schroder shows how to pinpoint connectivity problems and how to map your network and all running services. This is handy not only for keeping tabs on everyday activities, but also to catch users running illicit hosts and services.
Tuesday, June 6, 2006 10:24:09 AM EST

Keep Tabs on Network Services with Nagios
Nagios provides an advanced server and device monitoring solution. It has become the de facto standard among other service monitoring applications, and is highly competitive with the non-free ones. This article will explain why Nagios is useful, and then cover some installation concepts to help get you started.
Monday, June 12, 2006 10:47:27 AM EST

The Penguin's Practical Network Troubleshooting Guide, Part 2
Last week we used ping and tcptraceroute to pinpoint connectivity problems, and nmap to spy on users. Oh yeah, and to map entire subnets with a single command. Today we'll look at ways, when your users crab about "the network is slow," to determine if it's network or server troubles.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006 03:03:14 PM EST

Murder Most Fowl
So there you are, dutifully wading through the documentation for whatever gnarly Linux application you're rassling into submission. You're running commands and editing configuration files and things are working and life is good. Until--yes, you knew the good times weren't going to last--until you hit the dreaded "send the process a SIGHUP" instruction.
Friday, June 16, 2006 12:26:06 PM EST

Keep Tabs on Network Services with Nagios, Pt. 2
Last week, LinuxPlanet provided a brief overview of Nagios, and explained how it can make your infrastructure monitoring fun and easy. As promised, here is a closer examination of the configuration files, because that's the biggest hurdle to setting up a lean, mean monitoring machine with Nagios.
Monday, June 19, 2006 09:37:05 AM EST

Building a Linux Network Appliance, Part 1
In this series of articles, you'll learn how to configure Internet-connection sharing and firewalls, and how to add useful services such as intrusion detection, HTTP caching, name services, file and print sharing, and network storage. It doesn't matter what your LAN hosts are running, whether it's Linux, Windows, Mac or something else--your Linux appliance will serve them all.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006 01:35:56 PM EST

Getting Free Long Distance, Part 1
One of the big attractions to VoIP is the promise of free worldwide long distance. Call anywhere anytime over the Internet for nothing. What could be sweeter?
Thursday, June 22, 2006 10:15:20 PM EST

Do Automated Cross-Platform Network Backups The Easy Way, Part 1
Computer stores are chock-full of all manner of backup software and network storage appliances of varying quality, usefulness, and ease of use. Do you really need some expensive commercial product? Probably not. Backing up Linux/UNIX systems is easy, and *nix comes with everything you need.
Friday, June 23, 2006 11:16:45 AM EST

Giving VoIP Traffic the Green Light, Part 1
VoIP call quality isn't always what it should be. Sometimes it is plagued by jitter, echo, lag—even dropped calls. In this three-part series, learn how to prioritize your VoIP traffic to get the best quality with Linux.
Monday, June 26, 2006 09:34:51 AM EST

Building a Linux Network Appliance, Part 2
In the first installment, we described why you need our Linux-based network appliances. Today we're going to start construction. We will be building two separate appliances: one for network border services, such as firewalling, secure remote access, and intrusion prevention; and one for LAN services, such as file and printer sharing, network storage, and backups.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006 09:11:09 AM EST

Getting Free Long Distance, Part 2
Last week you learned how to use FreeWorldDialup to connect to other VoIP users. Today you'll set up distributed Asterisk peering with the DUNDi (Distributed Universal Number Discovery) protocol. DUNDi is a peer-to-peer system for finding Internet gateways to telephony services.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006 09:42:53 AM EST

Do Automated Cross-Platform Network Backups The Easy Way, Part 2
Part 1 discussed all manner of fascinating backup tools and strategies. Today we roll up our sleeves and build a sleek, dependable cross-platform network backup server with the excellent BackupPC.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006 09:48:20 AM EST

Giving VoIP Traffic the Green Light, Part 2
Today we're going to configure our Internet router/gateway to give priority to Asterisk traffic. This how-to is for admins who have nice sturdy Linux-based Internet gateways. If you're using a commercial router with its own operating system, like Cisco, you'll have to learn the traffic-shaping incantations peculiar to it.
Wednesday, July 5, 2006 10:03:36 AM EST

Building a Linux Network Appliance, Part 3
You probably already know that a firewall is an essential component in your network border security. But you may not know that a Linux-based iptables firewall is especially robust and configurable. Today we'll set up system administration using Webmin, and in our next installment we'll create a good stout Internet-connection sharing firewall.
Thursday, July 6, 2006 10:23:20 AM EST

Giving VoIP Traffic the Green Light, Part 3
Last week we left off with using Wondershaper to improve network performance by, somewhat paradoxically, throttling our line speeds to less than their maximum. Today we'll learn how to prioritize specific types of network traffic.
Monday, July 10, 2006 09:18:14 AM EST

LIN-ucks or LEEN-ucks?
Ever see a free software program or GNU/Linux distribution that you have to guess how to pronounce? Ever hear your friends or fellow LUG members argue over how to properly say "Ubuntu" or "Liferea?" Perhaps even GNU/Linux itself gives you pronunciation nightmares. Jem Matzan provides this handy pronounciation guide.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 10:03:03 AM EST

Can't Code? Squash a Few Bugs
The strength of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is its openness and transparency, and community support. Anyone can contribute, not just elite coders with lush geekbeards and ratty sandals. So what can a non-coder do?
Monday, July 17, 2006 11:54:17 AM EST

Overhauled CUPS: Improved Unix Printing
CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) version 1.2 was released last month, bursting with over 90 fabulous new features and improvements. Today we'll take a look at them and decide how fabulous they really are.
Thursday, July 20, 2006 10:38:41 AM EST

Securing Your Asterisk Server, Part 2
Last week in Part 1 we changed a bale of passwords. Today we'll take two more important steps to lock down our Asterisk@Home server: make sure that all Web administration traffic is encrypted, and lock down OpenSSH more tightly.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006 11:26:39 AM EST

Overhauling CUPS: Pushing Windows Printer Drivers
Network printing is a leading cause of high blood pressure and premature hair loss in our long-suffering network administrator demographic. Fortunately, the FOSS world, as usual, does its best to mitigate our suffering. Today you shall learn how to use CUPS and Samba together to set up automagic client printer installations.
Thursday, July 27, 2006 11:13:27 AM EST

Use Fedora Directory Server For Manageable LDAP (Part 1)
Your boss wants LDAP. You've heard LDAP is potentially a Good Thing. But what is it exactly, and how can you successfully implement it in your organization? Carla Schroder reveals the mysteries of LDAP and begins a multi-part series on how to implement it with Fedora Directory Server.
Monday, August 28, 2006 10:59:27 AM EST

Use Fedora Directory Server For Manageable LDAP (Part 2)
Last month we were introduced to LDAP in general and Fedora Directory Server in particular. Today we'll walk through a simple Fedora Directory Server installation to learn your way around FDS.
Monday, September 18, 2006 09:37:31 AM EST

Virtualization and Linux--A Primer
Virtualized Linux provides you with a way to sandbox critical-but-vulnerable services and reap the benefits of consolidated hardware.
Thursday, December 7, 2006 12:40:38 PM EST

Letting Go of Windows NT and 2000
Running a Microsoft Windows NT server these days is a brave (or, perhaps, stupid) thing to do: Support for the product has finished, and as far as Microsoft is concerned, the product should be put in a rest home for retired software. Paul Rubens walks through the optimal steps to letting go of the IT past and moving to a better Linux future.
Thursday, December 28, 2006 11:30:51 PM EST

Bad-Guy Tools for Good Guys
Sure, plenty of the "security tools" your neighborhood script kiddy uses aren't built with your best interests at heart. That doesn't mean they aren't useful, as Paul Rubens reveals.
Monday, January 8, 2007 11:51:37 AM EST

Foil Wireless Poachers and Have Fun Doing It (Part 1)
Looking to provide an extra measure of security for your WLAN? Or just torment freeloaders? Guru Carla Schroder has a few recipes...
Monday, January 22, 2007 11:10:45 AM EST

Foil Wireless Poachers and Have Fun Doing It (Part 2)
Last week, we learned some fun ways to mess with the minds of wireless freeloaders, and introduced ourselves to some methods for finding out who is on our networks. Today we're going to learn some different ways to kick unwanted visitors off networks, and how to see exactly who is lurking on our airwaves.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007 01:35:35 PM EST

Keeping a Lid on Linux Logins
When asked about security on a multi-user Linux system, a wise man once said "everyone is root if you allow them to login as a user." There is plenty of truth in that, but embracing imminent compromise isn't always acceptable. Charlie Schluting takes a look at how you can limit your exposure while letting unknown and untrusted users login with a shell.
Monday, February 12, 2007 10:27:07 AM EST

Better Wi-Fi on the Linux Horizon
Wireless networking on Linux is entering a new era. An era of bliss and ease; where users and network administrators have abundant time for relaxing lie-abouts on sunny warm hills because their wireless systems are humming along contentedly, instead of being vexing and unreliable.
Thursday, April 26, 2007 12:25:52 PM EST

Point-and-Click Linux LVM Filesystem Workstation Backup, Part 1
How would you like an easy way to set up a point-and-click Linux image backup that always makes perfect copies if the physical system is OK? That will point and click to a mirror drive or a multiple DVD backup set as you wish? New LinuxPlanet contributor A. Lizard details how to get this done.
Thursday, May 24, 2007 11:01:45 AM EST

Point-and-Click Linux LVM Filesystem Workstation Backup, Part 2
In part 2 of this two-part series on LVM, A. Lizard will cover the dar backup script, emergency script, icon setups, setup of a backup GUI, insertion into a Knoppix .iso, backup, and restore.
Thursday, May 31, 2007 12:00:55 AM EST

Protecting Data with Encrypted Linux Partitions
We see the headlines all the time: "Company X Loses 30,000,000 Customer Social Security Numbers and Other Intimately Personal and Financial Data! Haha, Boy Are Our Faces Red!" And it always turns out to be some "contractor" (notice how it's never an employee) who had the entire wad on a laptop with (seemingly) a terabyte hard drive, which was then lost or stolen, but nobody is quite sure where or when.
Thursday, June 14, 2007 09:19:24 AM EST

Master Your Linux Keyboard (And Fix Caps Lock Forever)
If the command line is your preferred management interface, smooth out your keyboarding with these handy utilities.
Thursday, July 12, 2007 04:08:55 PM EST

Power Saving for the Workstation, Part 1
Ordinarily, the only place you see these programs are in laptops and the methods should work on laptops, and there are many places to go for information on the specialized laptop tweaks and GNOME and KDE laptop configuration options. But in an age of global warming and increasing costs per KWh, saving power on workstations by putting them to sleep when not in active use is a good idea, too.
Friday, July 27, 2007 01:13:28 PM EST

Power Saving for the Workstation, Part 2
In part 1, you were shown how to set up hibernate and modify the configuration scripts to make it possible to suspend your desktop to RAM. In part 2, you'll step through how to implement your changes.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007 08:42:48 PM EST

Custom Linux Kernels Trim Fat and Tune Performance
Your Linux distribution probably arrived with a "kitchen sink" kernel. It doesn't take much to build a better one that's tuned to your hardware's needs.
Monday, August 6, 2007 01:13:26 PM EST

More Than HPLIP Service for Linux
HP's Linux Imaging and Printing subsystem brings parity to the penguin where previous printer purveyors have punted.
Monday, August 13, 2007 11:16:48 AM EST

Use Networked Printers and Scanners with HPLIP
In which we learn how to plug printers directly into and share scanners over the network. Part 2 of the HPLIP tutorial series.
Monday, August 20, 2007 02:38:42 PM EST

Boost Reliability with Ethernet Bonding and Linux
The Linux kernel comes with what you need to do Ethernet bonding. It takes a few steps to implement, but the payoff comes in the form of boosted bandwidth and improved reliability.
Thursday, August 30, 2007 11:19:15 AM EST

Basic Linux Tips and Tricks, Part 1
In Part 1 of a three-part series, A. Lizard dives into his notes for resources and methods he's found useful in the last three years in keeping his systems running, to give novices some idea what to do once one gets "under the hood" of one's computer at a application/OS level.
Sunday, September 30, 2007 08:58:50 PM EST

Digital Photo Management In Linux, Part 1
So what does Linux offer for the ace digital photographer who doesn't want to splurge on a Mac? Carla Schroder offers a look at one great tool, Digikam.
Thursday, October 4, 2007 10:12:50 AM EST

Basic Linux Tips and Tricks, Part 2
In Part 2 of this three-part series, you will learn what the best systematic approach should be to start solving any problems you might have in Linux.
Monday, October 8, 2007 11:22:28 AM EST

Digital Photo Management In Linux, Part 2
Last week we learned how to sanely organize our vast digital photo archives with Digikam. Today we'll look at Digikam's built-in editing tools. You'll be able to do a surprising amount of your editing work without ever leaving Digikam.
Thursday, October 11, 2007 01:41:23 PM EST

Font Management in Linux, Part 1
Fonts in Linux are crazy. Most Linux distributions ship with a big blob of serif, sans serif, and monospaced fonts, and there's barely a pixel's worth of difference between them. In this article, we'll demonstrate how to better manage fonts in Linux, no matter what distribution you're using.
Thursday, October 18, 2007 10:35:49 AM EST

Basic Linux Tips and Tricks, Part 3
Tackling a Linux problem takes skill, but also a lot of flexibility. A. Lizard takes the lessons shown earlier in this three-part series and demonstrates how to solve a real-life problem with his methodology.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 05:18:53 PM EST

Font Management In Linux, Part 2
Last week we learned some useful tips about font management in Linux. Today we're going to learn a few more ways to preview fonts, how to view font character maps, how to manage console fonts, and how to design your own fonts.
Thursday, October 25, 2007 09:36:33 AM EST

Linux Backups For Real People, Part 1
Everyone knows they should make regular backups of their data. But hardly anyone is as diligent with backups as they should be. So in this two-part series we're going to learn some nice simple methods for making regular backups on single PCs or small networks. Part 1 covers external backup media, and bending udev to your will so that your backup devices will have persistent names.
Thursday, November 1, 2007 10:18:12 AM EST

Linux Backups For Real People, Part 2
Last week we got our backup hardware in order, so today we're going into detail on backing up our data to a locally-attached backup device. We'll learn how to configure which files to backup, and create an easy one-word-command backup.
Thursday, November 8, 2007 10:18:54 AM EST

Test Driving Zenoss
Open source, company-backed network management system Zenoss manages to be fun. Get through some of the early installation hurdles and you might get lost in the useful information it provides.
Monday, December 3, 2007 10:24:39 AM EST

Sharing Linux Printers Across Subnets
Sharing printers across subnets is not something that has been reduced to clicking a couple of checkboxes yet, and a lot of folks don't even know it can be done. With Linux it is fairly easy, but it takes some digging to learn how to do this. So Carla Schroder has dug, and today shares the spoils of her digging.
Thursday, December 20, 2007 10:22:25 AM EST

Building A Linux Music Studio
This is a great time to be your own recording and sound engineer. There are all kinds of great digital recording gear, from tiny portable recorders to multi-channel mixer-recorders with CD burners, and Linux has a wealth of good-quality audio recording and editing programs.
Thursday, December 27, 2007 09:57:06 AM EST

Building A Linux Music Studio Part 2
Last week we made a music CD from a live digital recording the easy and simple way. Today we're going to fix volume levels and do graceful fades and transitions using Audacity and normalize.
Thursday, January 3, 2008 10:56:42 AM EST

Sharing a Samba File and Print Server Across Subnets, Part 1
It's a common belief that Samba shares cannot be accessed across subnets. But actually Samba can cross subnets. It's easy for Linux hosts, and a bit less easy for Windows clients. But fear not, for we shall guide you through safely past the traps and pitfalls.
Thursday, January 10, 2008 10:46:52 AM EST

Sharing a Samba File and Print Server Across Subnets, Part 2
In Part 1 we set up a simple anonymous Samba file and printer server. Now we're going to share it across subnets.
Thursday, January 17, 2008 12:37:59 PM EST

An Easy Tutorial on IP Tables and Port Knocking
Do you wish you had access to your home file server without leaving your firewall wide open to attacks? Well today's your lucky day! While you can implement this on any OS its easiest to do this on Linux. This article will show you how to lock down your firewall and implement a port knocker to let you in.
Monday, February 4, 2008 10:53:27 AM EST

Webcams in Linux, Part 1
Webcams are everywhere these days: they're standard on a lot of laptops, LCD monitors are starting to incorporate them, and decent standalone USB webcams can be had for less than $40. In this two-part series we'll set up a Webcam on Linux, and then use it to perform a number of amazing and fun tasks.
Thursday, February 21, 2008 12:04:51 PM EST

Better Linux Sound Management With ALSA
Today we're going to dig into ALSA, the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture, a good tool for managing your Linux sound devices. It's good for managing multiple sound devices, and it works in all Linux environments including other window managers, or no X Windows at all.
Friday, February 29, 2008 10:01:41 AM EST

Better Linux Sound Managment With ALSA, Part 2
Last week we learned how to configure soundcards for playback with ALSA. It's easy, it works on all Linuxes, it doesn't create conflicts or introduce latency, and it doesn't require the X Window System. Today we're going to use ALSA for recording, and learn how to test our sound system.
Thursday, March 6, 2008 09:28:40 AM EST

OpenOffice.org Mail Merge and Labels
"But OpenOffice doesn't always get the credit it deserves, and instead gets criticized for not being a perfect free-beer clone of Microsoft Office. That is not the point of OpenOffice, though its file conversion abilities are excellent, and certainly superior to MS Office's, which would rather poke its eyes out than interoperate..."
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 02:15:35 PM EST

Creating a Contacts Database in OpenOffice
The steps for setting up any mail-merge document in OpenOffice are easy; the one potentially gnarly bit is creating your contacts database in the first place. Your contacts list must be in Base, which is a bit of a pain. But the good news is Base can import data from most other databases, spreadsheets, text-delimited files, and email address books.
Thursday, March 20, 2008 04:36:32 PM EST

Corraling Linux Hard Disk Names
The Linux kernel is a restless beast, and must continally evolve and change. Especially in ways that mystify us poor end lusers. A recent wrinkle, as of kernel version 2.6.20, is changing the /dev names for ATA devices, so that all ATA and SCSI devices are named /dev/sd*. This is a result of using the shiny new libata subsystem. Carla Schroder guides you through the new nomenclature in this tutorial.
Thursday, April 3, 2008 09:05:57 AM EST

Power Management on Linux, Part 2
In part 1 of this series we learned how to measure how much power our systems are using, both hardware and software, and some tricks for reducing power usage without degrading performance. Today we're going to dive into the world of power management on laptops: ACPI, APM, hard disk spindowns, and spinups.
Thursday, April 17, 2008 08:59:18 AM EST

GRUB vs. the Inodes: Who Needs a Bootable System, Anyway?
Users of GRUB legacy, which is version 0.97, are getting bitten by an e2fsprogs incompatibility that renders their systems unbootable. e2fsprogs is the utilities package for the Ext3 filesystem, so it doesn't affect other filesystems. Resident expert Carla Schroder explains the problem and details some fixes to get affected systems back up.
Thursday, May 1, 2008 01:21:46 PM EST

Become A System Rescue Guru With Linux, Part 1
One of Carla Schroder's favorite Linux features is its endless adaptability as a cross-platform rescue tool, and her favorite rescue Linux of all is the excellent Gentoo-based SystemRescueCD. In this series, you'll learn how to set things right when things on your PC go awry.
Thursday, May 15, 2008 11:44:01 AM EST

Photo Editing For Real People With Fotox
Fotox comes with a small but useful feature set, including red-eye repair, sharpen, bend, stretch, noise reduction, cropping, and resize. It only supports the JPEG format. It fills a neglected niche in Linux photo editing, and that is an easy-to-use photo editor that includes the most commonly-used functions. It also comes with two useful features that a lot of bigger image editors don't have: panorama and HDR.
Thursday, May 29, 2008 11:46:27 AM EST

Record Your Desktop With recordMyDesktop
A picture is worth a thousand words, especially when you're teaching someone how to do something on a computer, and recordMyDesktop is a great little Linux application for creating screencasts. YouTube is full of recordMyDesktop screencasts showing all kinds of captures, including Beryl/Compiz in action. Carla Schroder shows you how it's done.
Thursday, June 5, 2008 01:33:17 PM EST

Record Your Desktop With recordMyDesktop, Part 2
Last week we learned how to make simple video screencasts on Linux with recordMyDesktop. Today we're going to record audio from a microphone, get acquainted with JACK, and convert MyDesktop's Ogg files into AVI formats.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008 06:22:04 PM EST

PulseAudio Tames the Linux Audio Zoo, Part 1
A number of distributions include PulseAudio as an option, but brings with it a few woes as well, and has a lot of users asking "How does adding Yet Another Sound Server to Linux help anything?" Carla Schroder fills in the blanks.
Friday, June 20, 2008 03:01:52 PM EST

Networking with Ubuntu 8.04 and Windows Part 1
Can't seem to find the shares of Ubuntu machines from My Network Places or Network in Windows? You'll soon find out it's not a hide-and-seek game you'll win unless you start playing with features that exist on the computer, rather than chasing those you imagine are installed and setup.
Monday, June 23, 2008 01:18:45 PM EST

PulseAudio Tames the Linux Audio Zoo, Part 2
After encountering a number of problems on both Kubuntu Gutsy and Hardy and debugging them, this week's PulseAudio series entry will be Fixing *buntu. This may be useful to users on other other distributions as well because it covers permission problems, ALSA problems, and init problems, so everyone is welcome to tag along.
Thursday, June 26, 2008 11:42:23 AM EST

Networking with Ubuntu 8.04 and Windows Part 2
Part 2 of this series will give you a tour of the networking interfaces in Ubuntu; which are surprisingly somewhat similar to Windows XP. You'll soon be connecting, checking connection details, and browsing network computers in the Linux world.
Monday, June 30, 2008 09:30:16 PM EST

Networking with Ubuntu 8.04 and Windows, Part III
In the first installment of this tutorial series we configured Ubuntu to share with Windows and set your Computer Name and Workgroup values. In Part II, we discovered the nitty gritty of the network connection details in Ubuntu. Finally, we'll figure out exactly how to share the files on your Ubuntu machine, both quick and easy, and with access controls.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 08:30:00 PM EST

Networking 101: Understanding IP Addresses
Networks don't work without addresses: Whenever you are sending something, you need to specify where it should go and where it came from. To be an effective network engineer or administrator, you need to understand IP addresses backward and forward: you need to be able to think on your feet.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008 06:49:25 PM EST

Tip of the Trade: Linux Easter Egg Fun
Linux isn't all about hard work and being serious; it has its lighter side too, as these Easter Eggs will show you.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 02:02:27 PM EST

OpenOffice.org Tips and Tricks Part I
This tutorial series will take you through some tips and tricks on migrating from MS Office to OpenOffice.org 2.4. You'll see how to replicate some of the functionality and features that are lacking in OpenOffice.org. Soon you'll be more comfortable using OpenOffice.org for just about all your desktop publishing needs.
Monday, July 28, 2008 12:25:56 PM EST

Networking 101: Understanding Subnets and CIDR
Calculating subnets is an essential skill for network administrators, and even home users with small LANs will benefit from understanding how they work. This installment of Networking 101 offers some tips and practice exercises to get you started.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 05:45:05 PM EST

Buck DNS Monoculture with BIND Alternatives
You're not bound to BIND for your DNS services. Here are two alternatives with an emphasis on security and simplicity.
Thursday, July 31, 2008 01:45:55 PM EST

Killing With Linux: A Primer
The "kill" command can be an invaluable tool for stopping runaway services. Here's a plain-English guide to how it works.
Sunday, August 3, 2008 11:24:01 PM EST

Networking 101: Subnets Realized (Including IPv6)
An oft-asked question in networking classes is "why can't we just put everyone on the same subnet and stop worrying about routing?" In this continuing series, networking expert Charlie Schluting explains in detail the finer points of subnets, netmasks, and IPv6 addressing.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008 03:36:30 PM EST

Advanced Recoll Setup: Indexing Your Data the Convenient Way
Recoll is a great full-text indexing search engine for Linux/Unix. It has a Qt-based graphical interface, and is designed to be fast, easy to use, and easy on system resources. A. Lizard shows you how to run Recoll when you have time to let it run, and then have it automatically shut down your system when it is finished.
Monday, August 11, 2008 12:30:02 PM EST

Networking 101: Understanding Layers
Networking expert Charlie Schluting explains the OSI Reference Model, the famous network layers 1-7, as it relates to real-world networking and networking administration.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008 01:12:35 PM EST

Linux RAID Smackdown: Crush RAID 5 with RAID 10
RAID 10 is a worthy RAID level with many advantages. RAID 10 is shorthand for RAID1+0, a mirrored striped array. Linux RAID 10 needs a minimum of two disks, and you don't have to use pairs, but can have odd numbers (Haha! Unlike many commercial implementations, which are less flexible and more annoying).
Thursday, August 14, 2008 02:30:05 PM EST

OpenOffice.org Tips and Tricks Part II
Eric Geier continues his series on digging up the many time-saving hidden treasures in Open Office, and how to migrate from Microsoft Office with a minimum of pain. Today's installment covers importing the custom dictionary of MS Office, setting OOo to always save in the MS Office format, and using MS Office templates in OOo.
Monday, August 18, 2008 12:23:13 PM EST

Networking 101: Understanding the Data Link Layer
Layer 2, the Data Link layer, is where Ethernet lives. We'll be talking about bridges, switching and VLANs with the goal of discovering how they interact in this part of Networking 101.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008 12:49:49 PM EST

Manage a Linux RAID 10 Storage Server
Today we'll learn how to monitor, maintain, and make changes in our RAID 10 array. We'll make it bigger, smaller, safely test failure recovery, and set up monitoring and failure notifications.
Friday, August 22, 2008 12:44:08 PM EST

OpenOffice.org Tips and Tricks Part III
Eric Geier continues his OpenOffice.org series; today you will learn how to perform a few tasks in OOo that were available in MS Office, just harder to figure out due to the different interface. You'll find out you can still insert WordArt (actually called Fontwork), diagrams, and page numbering in OOo documents.
Monday, August 25, 2008 01:14:56 PM EST

Networking 101: Understanding Spanning Tree
The spanning tree protocol ensures that sensible redundancy in your network doesn't turn into loops run amok. Charlie Schluting explains how it works.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008 11:20:40 AM EST

Viewing the Night Sky with Linux, Part I: KStars
Akkana Peck launches a new series about astronomy with Linux. The first installment introduces KStars, the Linux planetarium program that is easy to use and full of advanced features.
Thursday, August 28, 2008 12:22:45 PM EST

The Joys of xargs
Juliet Kemp explores the incredibly useful xargs command. It takes in input and executes your chosen command on it. Deceptively simple in concept; extremely powerful in execution. Here we'll look at xargs with find, and then at some other possibilities.
Friday, August 29, 2008 11:06:46 AM EST

Scripting Best Practices
Juliet Kemp uses some Perl examples to demonstrate techniques for keeping all of your scripts, regardless of what language they are written in, understandable and useful. So that when you look at them six months later, you actually understand what you did, and they still work.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008 10:33:54 AM EST

Networking 101: Understanding (and Using) ICMP
Charlie Schluting explains how ICMP is much more than "that thing ping uses". There's plenty to take in before we move further up the layer stack.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008 01:31:25 PM EST

Linux Wi-Fi Works With wicd
Wireless management on Linux is a bit of a hodge-podge, especially for roaming users. NetworkManager, KWifiManager, and various other utilities that have come and gone all attempt to make managing different network connections easy. wicd (pronounced "wicked"), the wireless interface connection daemon, tries to do the job better, so we're going to give it a test drive.
Monday, September 8, 2008 11:29:53 AM EST

Set Up Basic Groupware With Citadel
Citadel provides plenty of groupware functionality in a scalable, easy-to-deploy package. This week, learn how to manage users, set up an e-mail server and provide RSS feeds.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008 02:15:06 PM EST

Networking 101: Understanding the Internet Protocol
Welcome back! Charlie Schluting, in this edition of Networking 101, will give you the IP knowledge required to understand routing issues. Most everything on the Internet uses IP, and unlike Ethernet, knowing this protocol is pivotal to understanding how networking works with regards to the big picture. In upcoming articles, Networking 101 will explore TCP and UDP, routing theories, and then delve into the specific routing protocols. It's going to be a wild ride.
Friday, September 12, 2008 01:53:03 PM EST

OpenOffice.org Tips and Tricks: Customization, PDFs, and Smart Image Management
Eric Geier is back with more tips and tricks on transitioning to OpenOffice.org (OOo). This tutorial continues by highlighting OOo Options you may want to change, discusses the PDF exporting feature, and shows how to overcome two vexing issues you may encounter when working with images.
Monday, September 15, 2008 12:34:18 PM EST

Networking 101: Understanding TCP, the Protocol
Our replay of Charlie Schluting's excellent Networking 101 series continues with a two-part dissection of TCP. Understanding the ubiquitous TCP is key to troubleshooting networking communications.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008 02:15:59 PM EST

Supercharge Your LAN With Condor, part 1
Juliet Kemp shows how you don't need a dedicated computing cluster to perform big processing jobs- you can turn your LAN into a part-time cluster with Condor, which intelligently uses idle CPU cycles for powerful parallel processing.
Thursday, September 18, 2008 04:22:17 PM EST

OpenOffice.org Tips and Tricks: Harmonizing With MS Office, Managing Large Complex Documents
In this fifth and final installment of Eric Geier's OpenOffice Tips and Tricks series, we learn how to harmoniously swap documents between OOo and MS Office. And we explore OOo's wonderful Navigator tool, which is a powerful time-saving tool for managing large complex documents such as books and long reports.
Monday, September 22, 2008 11:48:11 AM EST

Viewing the Night Sky with Linux, Part III: Stellarium and Celestia Take You There
KStars and XEphem can answer pretty much any question about what's where and when in the night sky. But they don't really give you the feeling of being there like a couple of newer entries on the Linux astronomy scene: Stellarium and Celestia. Grab your red-blue 3D glasses, and follow Akkana Peck on a celestial tour.
Monday, September 22, 2008 08:46:29 PM EST

Networking 101: TCP In More Depth
Part two of Charlie Schluting's overview of TCP covers the basics of TCP connections and flow control.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008 06:29:50 PM EST

Supercharge Your LAN With Condor, part 2
You don't need a dedicated computing cluster to perform big processing jobs - you can turn your LAN into a part-time cluster with Condor. In part two of her look at this distributed computing framework, Juliet Kemp shows how to submit jobs to your running installation.
Thursday, September 25, 2008 01:40:31 PM EST

Verify Your Email Security With tcpdump
You don't have to blindly trust that your email encryption is working- tcpdump lets you see it with your own eyes. Carla Schroder shows how easy it is to wiretap computer networks, and how to read everything that travels over your wires.
Monday, September 29, 2008 11:16:32 AM EST

Four Easy Fun Useful Things You Can Do With Linux
In this ENP classic, learn how to colorize and test your Bash prompt, run your own local timeserver, deliver customized MOTDs that change, and create elegant ASCII art. Carla Schroder shows you how to do all these things the easy way.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008 12:57:18 PM EST

Networking 101: Who Governs the Internet?
ICANN, IANA, IETF, ISOC, IAB, IRTF, SRS, NSI, RIR, NSO-- who or what are these, and what do they have to with what you can do with the Internet? Charlie Schluting explains the roles of the many organizations and governing bodies that operate behind the scenes.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008 12:11:36 PM EST

Linux Package Manager Cheatsheet
LinuxPlanet Classics: Carla Schroder takes us on a tour of some of the excellent Linux package managers: RPM, dpkg, and the sophisticated dependency-resolving package managers, aptitude and Yum. Learn how to find out what is installed on your system, find files and packages, install and remove software, and update your Linux system smoothly and reliably.
Thursday, October 2, 2008 03:02:14 PM EST

Microcontrolling on the Cheap With Arduino and Linux
Rob Reilly introduces us to the revolutionary and accessible new world of inexpensive microcontrollers, open hardware, and development environments that run on Linux. Unleash your inner mad scientist with these inexpensive yet sophisticated tools.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008 01:08:55 PM EST

A Gentle Introduction to Routing
As we continue the classic Networking 101 series, Charlie Schluting gives us a clear, understandable introduction to routing, which is quite possibly the most important part of computer networking.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 11:35:00 AM EST

Stupid Firefox Tricks, Part I
Akkana Peck shows how you can speed up your Web searches with custom bookmarklets-- you don't need to be an ace coder to create your own; it's easy, fast, and powerful.
Thursday, October 9, 2008 12:57:44 PM EST

From Zero to Samba in Six Minutes
Charlie Schluting's video tutorial shows you how to set up a Samba server on Ubuntu, and test it from a Windows PC, all in just a few minutes.
Thursday, October 9, 2008 08:16:05 PM EST

Assigning Multiple Addresses to a Network Interface
With the ip command you can assign multiple network addresses to a network interface, without creating aliases like ifconfig requires. Carla Schroder shows you how.
Friday, October 10, 2008 11:58:17 AM EST

Simple Dynamic Routing With RIP
Elite routing gurus may scoff at RIP, but for smaller domains it's easy to set up and performs just fine, and virtually all routers support at least RIP v1. In our continuing replay of the classic and excellent Networking 101 series, Charlie Schluting walks us through the finer points of understanding how RIP works, and its strengths and weaknesses.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 01:01:00 PM EST

Advanced Tips For The ps Command
The ps command has a large number of options that many Linux admins have not explored. Juliet Kemp shows how to use ps to show the command environment, who is doing what on a remote machine, and more.
Friday, October 17, 2008 12:17:09 PM EST

Begone Caps Lock and Other Great Keyboard Hacks
LinuxPlanet Classics: Want to get rid of the evil caps lock key without mutilating your keyboard? Want to give those silly Windows keys useful jobs, or put all those extra multi-media keys to work? Want to become a powerhouse keyboarding commando? With Linux you can do all of these things.
Monday, October 20, 2008 12:23:30 PM EST

OSPF Routing Protocol: Popular and Robust
In this installment of the classic Networking 101 series, Charlie Schluting walks us through the whys and wherefores of the OSPF, the popular and robust interior gateway protocol.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008 11:12:24 AM EST

Roll Your Own Custom Bookmarklets In Firefox, part 2
Smart Firefox Tricks, part 2: Javascript bookmarklets have been around since the early days of Javascript, and are possible because Firefox and most other modern browsers (except Konqueror) offer the special protocol "javascript:" to let you execute bits of javascript code directly. Akkana Peck shows us how to harness this power to turbocharge our Web-surfing.
Thursday, October 23, 2008 11:25:40 AM EST

Understanding OSPF Routing (part 2)
In today's installment of the classic Networking 101 series, Charlie Schluting guides us through the vital innards of OSPF, the Open Shortest Path First routing protocol: LSAs (Link-State Advertisements), packet types, and area types. Knowing these things ensures you will always understand your routing infrastructure, and never make daft mistakes.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 11:16:14 AM EST

Graphical Remote Control Desktops for Linux
A. Lizard takes us on a tour of secure remote graphical Linux administration over the Internet; through firewalls, routers, dynamic home IP addresses, Wake-on-LAN, and other perils. We will learn how to securely administer both Linux and Windows remotely. The journey begins with today's part 1 of three parts.
Thursday, October 30, 2008 11:57:44 AM EST

Graphical Remote Control Desktops for Linux, part 2
A. Lizard's in-depth howto on setting up secure remote graphical desktops continues with configuring secure Internet access: managing dynamic IP addresses, creating and managing SSH keys, configuring routers, and using Wake-on-LAN for added convenience.
Monday, November 3, 2008 11:47:03 AM EST

Super Grub Disk To The Rescue!
If you accidentally mangle your boot record and render your system unbootable, don't reinstall your operating system. Paul Ferrill shows how to rescue a non-booting computer with the Super Grub Disk, a sophisticated yet easy-to-use Free software application.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008 12:24:16 PM EST

Why Firefox Rocks on Linux: Great Firefox Tricks, Part III
Firefox has a lot of special features that are written specifically for Linux users. Akkana Peck shares some of her favorites.
Thursday, November 6, 2008 01:41:15 PM EST

Graphical Remote Control Desktops for Linux, part 3
A. Lizard's in-depth howto on setting up secure remote graphical desktops wraps up today with the final server and client setup, and how to get through firewalls.
Thursday, November 6, 2008 04:53:41 PM EST

What Exactly is the Internet? A Tour of Internet Routing and Peering
Service providers are all excited about "the cloud" and want us to buy into this vague, mysterious "new" service. But real geeks want details, not hand-waving. In this installment of the excellent classic Networking 101 series, Charlie Schluting tells us how competing service providers all have to cooperate for the Internet to work at all.
Friday, November 7, 2008 03:57:04 PM EST

Border Gateway Protocol, The Routing Protocol of the Internet
As our classic Networking 101 series continues, Charlie Schluting guides us through the Border Gateway Protocol, which is the routing protocol of the Internet. BGP itself isnt too complex, but the concepts behind autonomous-system-based routing can be strange to newcomers. In this article we are given a short overview of how BGP works, along with the problems it solves and causes.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 01:09:49 PM EST

Setting Up Parental Controls in Ubuntu
If you're used to Windows Vista or Mac OS X Leopard, you may be disappointed in the parental controls, or the lack there of, in Ubuntu and other Linux distributions. But don't give up on open source for your youngsters yet-- Eric Geier shows how to create a safer computing environment on Linux.
Monday, November 17, 2008 11:13:16 AM EST

Bacula: Robust, Reliable Enterprise Backup and Recovery, part 1
Linux Planet Classics: All the time you hear the constant nagging "Backups! Backups! Always have good current backups!" But this is often easier said than done, especially in the world of expensive, restrictive, overly-complex proprietary backup applications. But, as usual, Free software takes a sensible, user-friendly approach to backups and recovery. Deann Corum shows us how to get started with Bacula, the powerful backup and recovery application that supports both tape and disk storage.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 12:04:05 PM EST

iBGP: Synchronizing the Internet
Last week in our classic Networking 101 series we learned about Border Gateway Protocol, the networking protocol that powers the Internet. This week Charlie Schluting leads the dive into iBGP-- Internal Border Gateway Protocol-- to learn how to connect all those BGP routers together, and how to route between thousands of computers without going nuts.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 01:30:57 PM EST

Why Firefox Rocks: Great Firefox Tricks, Part IV
Firefox is cram-full of hidden treasures, as we have learned in this series. Today Akkana Peck exposes Firefox's expertise at handling those ridiculously long URLs that plague the Web-- email clients mangle them, copy and paste is a nightmare-- but Firefox has some special tricks that make them easy.
Thursday, November 20, 2008 12:08:12 PM EST

How the Linux Kernel Manages Virtual Memory
Virtual memory in Linux goes well beyond simply having a swap file or partition; it touches everything from file caching to some network functions. Charlie Schluting is our guide on this excellent tour of Linux virtual memory management.
Friday, November 21, 2008 02:32:19 PM EST

Sharing Linux Printers Across Multiple Subnets
LinuxPlanet Classics: Your CUPS-based Linux printer server can easily serve multiple subnets with some simple tweaks. Carla Schroder shows you how.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 07:18:33 PM EST

Enabling Samba Shares Across Subnets, Part 1
LinuxPlanet Classics: It is still taught that Samba shares cannot be accessed across subnets. But actually Samba can cross subnets. It's easy for Linux hosts, and a bit less easy for Windows clients. But fear not, for we shall guide you through safely past the traps and pitfalls.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008 05:56:58 PM EST

Enabling Samba Shares Across Subnets, Part 2
LinuxPlanet Classics: In Part 1 we set up a simple anonymous Samba file and printer server. Now we're going to share it across subnets.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008 06:01:05 PM EST

Multicast Routing For Efficient Multi-Media Streaming
LinuxPlanet Classics: Multicast has become a buzzword more than once in history. IP multicast means that one sender is sending data to multiple recipients, but only sending a single copy. It's very useful for streaming media, so let's follow Charlie Schluting on a tour of this excellent protocol as we continue the wonderful Networking 101 series.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008 01:44:32 PM EST

How to Zoom In and Enlarge Details In OOo Impress Slideshows
OpenOffice Impress is an excellent slideshow application with a wealth of useful features, including animations. Experienced speakers know that animations are more often distracting than helpful, but one very useful animation is zooming in to enlarge small details. Rob Reilly shows us how.
Thursday, December 11, 2008 12:31:46 PM EST

Understanding Tunneling: Hiding Packets In Plain Sight
Tunneling over untrusted networks is a flexible, powerful security tool. We continue our classic Networking 101 series with Charlie Schluting's gentle introduction to how they work, and some easy-to-try examples with SSH.
Thursday, December 11, 2008 05:35:13 PM EST

The Linux CLI for Beginners, or, Fear Not the Linux Command Line!
Linux forums, mailing lists, and even howto articles are full of fearful comments against the Linux command line. "Pry my GUI from my cold dead hands!" is all too common. Nobody wants to take your GUI away, because with Linux you get the full power of both. Akkana Peck gives us a friendly introduction to the Linux command line, starting with a lesson on the fastest way to find files.
Friday, December 12, 2008 11:39:02 AM EST

The Penguin's Practical Network Troubleshooting Guide
LinuxPlanet Classics: Today we'll learn how to pinpoint connectivity problems and how to map your network and all running services. This is handy not only for keeping tabs on everyday activities, but also to catch users running illicit hosts and services.
Monday, December 15, 2008 06:15:31 PM EST

Scripting SSH and SFTP Made Easy With Python
If you're using SSH or SFTP and lot, you're probably already thinking that scripting your sessions would save you a lot of time. Jeremy M. Jones shows how you can get up and running with your own custom scripts in no time using Python and the paramiko library, which gives you a nice streamlined interface to build your scripts with.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008 01:20:13 PM EST

Safe Surfing With Ubuntu
Ubuntu's default installation is pretty secure, but the wise computer user knows that security is something that requires continual attention. Fortunately, Matt Hartley shows how easy it is to keep on top of prudent security measures and useful applications: firewall, secure remote networking, anti-malware, and more.
Thursday, December 18, 2008 12:48:49 PM EST

Managing Photos and Creating Albums With Picasa 3
Eric Geier show how, with Google's Picasa, you can create online photo albums, touch-up and fix photos, make movies, and create gift CDs or DVDs without having to be an ace graphical artist guru.
Friday, December 19, 2008 04:51:37 PM EST

The Linux Command Shell For Beginners: What is the Shell?
In her last installment, Akkana Peck gave us a friendly introduction to the Linux command line. Today we learn the difference between the console, terminal, and shell, and some slick shortcuts that are faster than a GUI.
Monday, December 22, 2008 12:40:15 PM EST

The Bad Guys Will Hack Off Your Fingers
LinuxPlanet Classics: Getting the fingerprint reader working hasn't advanced much since this article was first run, so here we go again, with some updated references. Please note that fingerprint readers, like all biometric devices, are easy to foil and do not provide strong security; but they are convenient.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 02:18:39 PM EST

Linux Command Line For Beginners: Finding Help Documents
A typical Linux system comes with all kinds of help documentation built-in, and a lot of users don't even know it's there. Juliet Kemp is your guide to finding man, info, and HTML help pages.
Monday, January 5, 2009 12:56:01 PM EST

Mastering SSH: Strong Password-less Logins
SSH, the "secure shell", is the workhorse of secure remote system administration. SSH is a very strong protocol, and you can make it even stronger by using encryption keys in instead of passwords. Jeremy M. Jones shows us how.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009 12:01:15 PM EST

Migrating From Windows to Linux For Smart People
Matt Hartley offers up some helpful tips, tools, and strategy to aid in migrating from Windows to Linux without making a big mess. Security, basic system management, and thinking like a Linux user instead of a Windows user are foundational steps to get started.
Thursday, January 8, 2009 04:50:25 PM EST

Linux Shell Editing Shortcuts
Fear not the command line! Akkana Peck reveals one of the great secrets of the Linux command line, and that is you don't have to be a great typist--there are plenty of fast shortcuts and help for everyone. Many of them are easy to remember, like CTRL+U for Undo, and CTRL+W for "erase last Word." Come on inside to learn more.
Thursday, January 15, 2009 11:54:22 AM EST

Using gPhoto2 to Download From Cameras
Uploading photos from your digital cameras is file management -- and file management in GNU/Linux is always faster from the command line. Bruce Byfield shows us how to use the powerful, fast ghoto2 for maximum flexibility and control of getting your photos out of your digital camera.
Friday, January 16, 2009 12:20:13 PM EST

Remote Desktop Between Ubuntu/Linux and Windows, Part I
Windows will never exert itself in the slightest to co-exist with other platforms, but Linux comes with a variety of excellent secure graphical remote desktop applications, so that you can run your Windows PC from Linux, and Linux from Windows. Come on in and let Eric Geier show you how.
Monday, January 19, 2009 10:43:53 AM EST

Remote Desktop Between Ubuntu/Linux and Windows, Part II
In Part I Eric Geier showed us several options for remoting between Linux and Windows machines, and settled on VNC. Today we'll learn how to configure routers for connections over the Internet,and how to safely encrypt our remote graphical desktop sessions.
Monday, January 26, 2009 11:43:16 AM EST

Your Pretty Linux GUI Fails and Dumps You to a Console. Now What?
The graphical user interface is a separate layer on top of a plain-text console subsystem on Linux, Mac, and Windows; this is not unique to Linux, and you need console skills to be an effective troubleshooter-and-fixer on all three platforms. A. Lizard shows you how to use the Lynx Web browser to help you figure out how to repair your Linux system.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 12:44:17 PM EST

Out, Damned Bot! Or, Securing Apache From Spiders and Flies
The Internet gives nuclear powers to both good and evil, and the conscientious Web admin budgets a fair bit of time to securing Apache against abusive spiders and flies. Ken Coar shows how to protect your sites from abusive crawlers and hijackers.
Friday, February 6, 2009 02:17:59 PM EST

Version Control For Beginners: Getting Started With Subversion
Subversion is a popular version control system: It keeps a record of changes over the lifetime of a file, allowing you to revert to an earlier version at will. It's particularly useful for code projects, but it can handle, and be useful for, pretty much any type of file (e.g., for tutorials!). Juliet Kemp shows us to how to use this useful version control system.
Monday, February 9, 2009 11:54:00 AM EST

Getting Started With Kate, the Friendly yet Powerful Text Editor
Text editors are wonderful, helpful tools for any computer user; they're not just for gurus and coders. They're essential for editing configuration files; you don't want to use a word processor because these insert all sorts of formatting codes that will mess up your files. They're great for quickly dashing off any kind of document that doesn't need all the bells and whistles of a word processor, and for coders and advanced users they contain a wealth of useful shortcuts and helpful features. Juliet Kemp introduces us to one of the better graphical text editors, Kate.
Monday, February 9, 2009 12:42:12 PM EST

Using Screen to Manage Multiple Remote and Interrupted SSH Sessions
Screen is great for letting you start a terminal session, walk away from it, and then come back later. Maybe you need to start a long running process such as a complicated data conversion or a multi-hour build. You can use screen to start the ball rolling, go home, and resume the already-in-progress and uninterrupted activity that you started at work. Jeremy M. Jones shows us how.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009 01:50:08 PM EST

Navigating the Linux Filesystem
You've been reading Akkana Pecks's excellent articles on the nifty tricks you can do in the shell, and you're feeling the power. But one thing has you puzzled-- there are no file icons to click on, so how do you find your files? The Linux filesystem has an orderly structure; come on inside to learn how to navigate it effortlessly from the command line.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009 09:32:35 PM EST

Migrating from Outlook to Mozilla Thunderbird in Linux (part 1)
The Thunderbird email client is not a flashy showoff. However, it is a solid, reliable email client, it is not a malware magnet like MS Outlook, and it runs on both Linux and Windows. Migrating from Outlook to Thunderbird is a very sensible thing to do. It requires jumping through a few hoops; Eric Geier is your faithful guide in this two-part howto.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009 12:08:34 PM EST

Secure Networking For Linux, Windows, and Mac With OpenVPN (part 2)
OpenVPN is famously difficult to get up and running, but the truth is that it needn't be. In this second and concluding OpenVPN article I am going to go through what it takes to get an OpenVPN Ethernet tunnel set up between a laptop computer and an office or home machine acting as an OpenVPN server.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 05:12:20 PM EST

Sharing Files in Linux and Understanding Pathnames
Akkana Peck has shown us how pathnames work, the difference between /home and home, and using ls to see the contents of a directory. Today we're going to go all dotty and learn what ../../ means, and how to share, or not share, files with other system users. You'll never be mystified again!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009 05:05:44 PM EST

Kate Text Editor-- Advanced Configuration and Command-Line Tips
The Kate text editor is a friendly power tool that is easy to use and configure, and it comes with a giant collection of advanced features. Juliet Kemp dives into keyboard shortcuts, plugins, document variables, its command-line interface and built-in terminal emulator.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009 12:51:06 PM EST

Intro to Shell Programming: Writing a Simple Web Gallery
So you're not a programmer, you say? If you can string a few shell commands together, it's not much of a step from there to programming. To demonstrate that, Akkana Peck will take you through the steps of writing a very simple web gallery script: one that will take your images and build a little web page to show them off.
Thursday, March 12, 2009 12:33:03 PM EST

Safely Sharing Your Wireless Internet With CoovaAP, Part I
You want to offer wireless Internet to your customers, or share your connection with neighbors? You don't have to spend several hundreds to set up a simple-- or advanced--Wi-Fi hotspot. Eric Geier shows us how to share a wi-fi connection safely, easily, and cheaply.
Monday, March 16, 2009 12:03:27 PM EST

Safely Sharing Your Wireless Internet With CoovaAP, Part II
In Part I Eric Geier showed us how to turn a cheap wireless router into a hotspot gateway with CoovaAP, to safely offer wireless Internet access to visitors. Today we'll learn Coova's free services to centrally manage and control our hotspots, how to customize our portal page, and how to manage users.
Monday, March 23, 2009 11:48:28 AM EST

GUI Programming in Python For Beginners: Create a Timer in 30 Minutes
Python programming is all the rage because it is clean, easy to learn, and powerful. It supports creating both command-line and graphical applications, and has at least four good toolkits for writing graphical applications. Akkana Peck introduces us to Tkinter, and shows us how to create an all-purpose timer (for cooking and other reminders for absent-minded geeks) in one lesson
Thursday, March 26, 2009 11:54:38 AM EST

Getting Rid of Nasty Adobe Flash Cookies the Cool Linux Way
In Part 1 we learned about the not very well-known Adobe Flash cookies, how to find them on your Linux system, and how to use Adobe's Web-based Flash cookie manager. Today Carla Schroder is going to show us how to deal with Flash cookies using ordinary Linux commands, which unlike the Adobe manager are nice and fast and don't require an Internet connection.
Friday, March 27, 2009 02:46:02 PM EST

Getting Started With the Kate Text Editor: Kate For Coders
Syntax highlighting is incredibly useful for any kind of coding or scripting; comments, quoted strings, code, and markup are shown in different colours. Juliet Kemp shows us how Kate supports syntax highlighting for a multitude of languages, configuration file types, and even some applications like MySQL and diff.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 11:52:02 AM EST

Writing Plugins for GIMP in Python
Plugins are not mysterious elite geek things, but rather are scripts for automating tasks that you perform frequently. They can be very simple, for example flipping an image upside-down, or as complex as you like. Akkana Peck shows us how to create a simple GIMP plugin using Python.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009 11:23:20 PM EST

How to Detect and Prevent Psyb0t, the Linux Router Worm
The Psyb0t worm infects Linux-based routers, including consumer-level broadband routers, and turns them into botnet nodes. Psyb0t finds easy entry because they are misconfigured. Eric Geier tells how to find out if you are infected and what to do about it, and gives sound advice that is pertinent to all routers.
Sunday, April 12, 2009 11:21:15 PM EST

Linux For Absolute Beginners: 3 Easy Ways to Test-Drive Linux
You've been hearing about Linux and you're curious. Did you know you can try it out for free? That you can install it inside of Windows just like any Windows program, or that you can try it without installing it? Carla Schroder shows how in this new series for absolute Linux beginners.
Monday, April 13, 2009 05:51:33 PM EST

Turn an Old PC Into a Multi-Purpose LAN Server with ZeroShell (part 1)
Have a spare PC gathering dust? Turn it into a multi-purpose server using the Linux-based ZeroShell. Firewall, authentication server, wireless portal, proxy, virtual LAN, DNS/DHCP, load balancing, and a lot more in a compact Linux distribution. Eric Geier shows us how.
Monday, April 20, 2009 12:26:44 PM EST

Creating a Fancy 3D-Effect GIMP Plugin in Python
In parts one and two we learned the basics of writing our own custom Gimp plugins, and learned that it's simple and very useful. Today we'll put it all together in a more complex plugin for creating fancy 3D text effects, to make text look more rounded and three-dimensional.
Thursday, April 23, 2009 11:59:10 AM EST

Set up Secure Wireless With Zeroshell Linux (part 2)
Today Eric Geier shows us how Zeroshell makes it easy to set up your own wireless access point with the strongest authentication and encryption, and nice user-management features so you can easily maintain control of who has access to your wireless network.
Monday, April 27, 2009 12:29:54 PM EST

Getting Into Linux the Easy Way (Linux for Beginners)
Installing Linux is pretty easy, but what options are there for users who want Linux already installed on a computer? Carla Schroder reveals several excellent, affordable options, plus tips and tricks for learning Linux quickly.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 12:34:31 PM EST

Optimizing Hard Drives For Maximum Speed in Linux
The hard drive is the biggest speed bottleneck in any computer system. Linux has a number of tools for optimizing your hard drives and speeding up performance for different tasks. Paul Rubens shows us how.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 02:22:57 PM EST

Adeona: Open Source Lojack For Laptops
Adeona has been widely touted as the Open Source solution to recovering a stolen laptop or netbook. Adeona helps you track it down when the thief connects to the Internet. But Adeona isn't quite ready for prime time yet; A. Lizard goes into the whys and hows.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 12:17:18 PM EST

Linux Hard Drive Optimization: Tuning and Scheduling (part 2)
In the first piece in this series we looked at the role schedulers play in I/O optimization. But how do you actually select and tune a scheduler to increase I/O performance in practice? Paul Rubens shows us why and how.
Friday, May 15, 2009 04:25:27 PM EST

Controlling Ubuntu's and Fedora's Upstart (the init replacement)
In the last article in this series Juliet Kemp looked at how init (the system we've all been using for years to start up our services) works, and how upstart, the new replacement for init, works instead. This article looks at upstart and its scripts in more detail.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 02:00:48 PM EST

Graphical Python Programming With PyGTK
One of the most powerful and popular Python graphical programming tools is Python-GTK, or PyGTK. In today's Python programming installment Akkana Peck shows us how to create pushbuttons and windows, and guides us past common mistakes and pitfalls.
Thursday, May 14, 2009 12:05:16 PM EST

Zeroshell Linux: Captive Portal, Internet Gateway and Router (part3)
Zeroshell Linux is a compact, fully-featured distribution for providing a wide range of secure network services. Eric Geier wraps up this excellent series with building a captive wireless portal, and using Zeroshell as an Internet gateway and LAN router.
Monday, May 18, 2009 02:41:42 PM EST

Giving New Life to Old Macs With Linux
If you've run older PowerPC-based Macs in your businesses you may be wondering what to do with them now that Apple has made the transition to Intel, and the G3, G4 and G5 processors are beginning to show their age. Paul Rubens suggests scrapping OS X, and turning the machines into servers or workstations running Linux.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 11:11:25 AM EST

Setting up a Linux-based Open-Mesh Wireless Network, Part 1
A wireless mesh network lets you multiply a single wired Internet connection over as large an area as you care to manage, such as a farm with remote buildings, a school campus, a neighborhood, even marinas (Internet on your boat!). You can quickly quickly adapt to changing conditions without laying so much as a foot of cable. Eric Geier shows us how using Linux and open source management tools.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 04:54:35 PM EST

Graphical Python Programming part 2: Write Your Own Screensaver
In part 1 ace coder Akkana Peck taught us how to use Python and PyGTK to bring up a window and draw lines and circles. Today we'll expand on that humble beginning and draw some pretty graphics.
Thursday, May 28, 2009 11:43:19 AM EST

Ubuntu-ized GNU Screen is Faster and Friendlier
Charlie Schluting gives a brief overview of screen usage for the uninitiated, then talks about how Ubuntu's defaults and new screen-profiles package make the most of new and wonderful features of screen.
Monday, June 1, 2009 02:05:37 AM EST

Mastering Apache's mod_rewrite
URL rewriting allows you to tailor URLs for search engine optimization, maintain backwards compatibility with old archives, and make your URLs short and friendly. Sukrit Dhandhania introduces us to Apache's powerful mod_rewrite for customizing and managing URLs.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 01:54:54 AM EST

PythonGTK Programming part 3: Screensaver, Objects, and User Input
In the previous two installments of this series we learned how to create a simple, colorful screensaver in PythonGTK. Today Akkana Peck leads us into some key fundamental concepts of programming: objects, code re-use, and making our program respond to user input.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 11:16:57 PM EST

Linux VPN Client for Cisco VPNs: vpnc
Using a Windows VPN client is a security oxymoron of epic dimensions, but often a necessity due to a lack of reliable Linux clients. Fortunately there is vpnc, the Linux client for the Cisco 3000 series VPN/firewall. Charlie Schluting is our guide to obtaining and setting it up.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 02:27:01 PM EST

Building a Wide-area Linux-based Wireless Network, part 2
In part 1 Eric Geier introduced us to Open-Mesh, and showed us the basic setup for covering a wider area such as a farm, warehouse, or neighborhood. Now we'll discover the captive portal options offered by the Open-Mesh routers so we can display a disclaimer or terms of service, or require a payment or account.
Monday, June 15, 2009 10:20:11 AM EST

Building a Wide-area Linux-based Wireless Network, part 3
Last month, Eric Geier introduced us to an open source wireless mesh solution from Open-Mesh. In Part 1, we reviewed solution and configured the basic settings. In Part 2, we reviewed the captive portal options and set up the internal one. Now we're going to experiment with the CoovaOM captive portal. Then we'll touch on how to get Web filtering up on the mesh network. Finally, we'll install and test the system.
Thursday, June 18, 2009 05:19:37 PM EST

A Beginner's Guide to Free Software Programming Languages
Interested in Linux programming? Akkana Peck provides a handy guide to the best free software languages to get you started.
Friday, June 26, 2009 01:39:27 PM EST

Write Your Own Linux Twitter Client In Less Time Than It Takes To Find One!
Ace coder Akkana Pack didn't want to keep a tab open in a browser all day every day just to keep an eye on Twitter, and none of the available Linux clients had what she was looking for. Either they required installing something like Mono or Adobe Air, or they had nasty bugs. And then she found out about Python-Twitter and how to write her own. (Beginners can do this too!)
Thursday, July 9, 2009 12:15:42 PM EST

Bonded VPNs for Higher Throughput and Failover with Zeroshell Linux
Zeroshell can manage simple VPNs, and more complex bonded VPNs for higher throughput and redundancy. Follow Eric Geier as he bores secure Linux VPN tunnels through the big bad Internet.
Monday, July 20, 2009 12:17:40 PM EST

What's Bogging Down Your Linux PC? Tracking Down Resource Hogs
Today's low-end PC hardware is like the supercomputers of yesteryear, and yet it can feel like you're still struggling with an old 386. Akkana Peck shows how to use the ps and top commands to find CPU and memory hogs on your Linux computer.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 12:11:10 PM EST

Monitor Linux System Load and Processes With atop
atop is a handy top-like program that shows system load information in a separate section on top of process information; Juliet Kemp gives us a tour of this useful utility.
Thursday, July 23, 2009 01:28:55 PM EST

8 Ways to Recyle Old Wireless Gear
802.11n is the hot new wi-fi standard, all faster, better, and less interfering with common wireless devices than 802.11a/b/g. But don't get rid of your old devices---give them new jobs. Eric Geier offers 8 great ways to recycle old wi-fi gear.
Thursday, July 30, 2009 04:27:06 PM EST

Finding and Trimming Linux Bloat
When you eat too much pizza, stepping on the scale the next day will tell you right away if you're getting bloated. It should be just as easy with Linux programs, right? Well, not quite, but you can track down memory hogs on Linux, and Akkana Peck shows us how.
Thursday, August 13, 2009 11:55:17 AM EST

Use Multiple Debian Versions At the Same Time
If you like the reliability of Debian Stable, buy yearn for some newer packages from Testing or Unstable, you can have it all. Juliet Kemp shows us how to run a mixed Debian installation and pull packages from whatever version we desire.
Friday, August 14, 2009 11:56:43 AM EST

Secure VPN the Easy Way With the Linux-based Untangle Router
There are a lot of bogus VPN (virtual private network) products sold for big bucks that are not real VPNs at all, but SSL portals. OpenVPN is a genuine secure VPN that supports both site-to-site tunnels, to create a nice secure WAN on the cheap, and remote individual clients. Eric Geier shows us how to use the Untangle gateway to set up a good stout OpenVPN server the easy way.
Monday, August 17, 2009 12:21:29 PM EST

Build a High Powered Linux Workstation on the Cheap
Remember the olden days of hertzes and bytes? Now it's giga-everything. Paul Ferrill takes advantage of low hardware prices to build a super-duper high-power Linux workstation for cheap. How cheap? $1000? $500?
Thursday, August 20, 2009 12:24:36 PM EST

Secure Remote Access with the Linux-based Untangle Gateway
An SSL portal isn't as secure as a real VPN (virtual private network) such as OpenVPN, but it's easier to set up and is good for specific functions. The Untangle gateway makes setting up and managing an SSL-based Web portal fast and easy; Eric Geier shows how.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009 12:46:18 PM EST

How do You Really Measure Linux Bloat?
In the last article, Akkana Peck talked about the different types of Linux memory and how deceptive values like Virtual Size and Resident Set Size can be. Today she shows us how to get more useful numbers so we can figure out which programs really are memory hogs.
Thursday, August 27, 2009 12:57:13 PM EST

Zenity Brings a Little GUI Goodness to Linux Shell Scripts
Paul Ferrill shows how adding a graphical user interface (GUI) component to any utility script can make it more user friendly, and introduces us to an excellent tool for doing this---Zenity.
Thursday, September 3, 2009 01:15:10 PM EST

Get the Most Out of Your Multicore Processor
So you've got a shiny new multicore processor and the urge to take it out for a spin. How do you know whether you're getting the most out of it? Akkana Peck tells you how to monitor your machine and make the most out of all that processing power.
Friday, September 11, 2009 04:00:39 PM EST

Finding Things on Linux and Understanding Regular Expressions
Juliet Kemp shares some useful regular expressions for finding things on your Linux system. She also guides us through the perilous minefields of single quotes, double quotes, and shell expansion, and shows us how to craft our own custom regular expressions.
Monday, September 14, 2009 01:29:45 PM EST

Conquering Samba File Permissions Hell
Going all control-freak on a Samba share and trying to finely slice-and-dice file permissions is the path to madness. Charlie Schluting has some sensible ideas on managing file permissions on your fileserver.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 03:44:00 PM EST

Build Your Own PBX With Asterisk and Linux
Building your own corporate phone system using the Asterisk open source telephony suite could result in massive cost savings for your company, and setting up a test box to hone your Asterisk skills costs nothing but time. Paul Rubens gets you started on this sophisticated open source iPBX.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 04:01:03 PM EST

eyeOS: Your Own Private Linux Cloud that You Control (part 1)
Cloud computing is a relativity new computing concept where resources are provided via the Internet instead of on the local computer or network. It's virtualization over the Internet. Eric Geier introduces eyeOS, the do-it-yourself cloud that keeps control in your hands.
Monday, September 21, 2009 10:52:45 AM EST

More Tips and Tricks for GNU Screen
Juliet Kemps shows us more cool things to love about Screen. Cutting and pasting, monitor a window for output, mirror another session, lock the screen and more.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 10:56:07 AM EST

Building Your Own Linux Kernel, part 1
There are a lot of reasons to customize your own Linux kernel: better performance, bugfixes, try out new features, and earn valuable geekcreds. In this new series Akkana Peck introduces us to the fundamental steps of building a Linux kernel.
Thursday, September 24, 2009 02:07:20 PM EST

eyeOS: Your Own Private Linux Cloud that You Control (part 2)
Last week Eric Geier introduced us to the open source Web OS project, eyeOS. We installed eyeOS, and today we'll continue by configuring our network and setting up the office file support. Plus we'll learn how to get our files onto eyeOS, create users, and configure other system settings.
Monday, September 28, 2009 11:18:12 AM EST

Advanced Tips for Search-and-Replace in Linux
With regular expressions you can perform some mighty fine-tuned search-and-replace in text files, such as changing all the US-style date references (09/22/09) to UK style,(22.09.2009). Juliet Kemp open her vast tips and tricks toolbag to share a number of useful and excellent examples.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 12:11:39 PM EST

Upgrading a Motherboard in Linux: Kernel Panic
Replacing a motherboard on a Linux system is usually a 30-minute chore, but sometimes things go haywire. Carla Schroder tells a tale of kernel panics and kernel transplants.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009 09:57:30 AM EST

Building Your Own Linux Kernel, part 2
Customizing and building your own Linux kernel, rather than sticking with the kitchen-sink distribution kernels, means you can add new experimental drivers, get rid of drivers you don't need, fix mistakes created by your chosen distro, and make a lean, mean and fast kernel. Akkana Peck continues her series on kernel building.
Thursday, October 8, 2009 11:12:49 AM EST

Install DD-WRT On a Linux PC
DD-WRT not only converts those little consumer broadband routers into mighty Linux networking powerhouses, it also runs on any old PC. Eric Geier shows how.
Thursday, October 15, 2009 03:15:52 PM EST

Linux Remote Networking Tips and Tricks
Linux has all kinds of great networking abilities built-in; Carla Schroder shares some tips and tricks for navigating multiple computers at home or in an office, and keeping your files where they belong.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 01:27:41 PM EST

Build a High-Powered Ubuntu Linux Workstation (part 3)
In this final installment of Paul Ferrill's series on building your own high-powered Linux workstation, it is time to install the operating system. Or actually several operating systems, putting a whole computer lab in a box.
Thursday, October 15, 2009 05:29:52 PM EST

Stumbling and Sniffing Wireless Networks in Linux, Part 1
Discovering and analyzing wireless networks requires a lot of sniffing and stumbling. Eric Geier shows how to stumble and sniff with Linux.
Monday, October 19, 2009 11:27:27 AM EST

More Linux Remote Networking Tips and Tricks (part 2)
In part 1 we learned some neat tricks using OpenSSH and SSHFS for fast remote logins and file sharing. Today in Part 2 we learn how easy it is to configure OpenSSH to use secure public key authentication instead of a password login.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 01:41:05 PM EST

Building Your Own Linux Kernel: Tricky kernel options (part 3)
In the first two parts of this series we learned how to build a custom Linux kernel. But there are so many options it's easy to get lost. Today we'll clarify some of the more important places where it's easy to go wrong.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:32:09 AM EST

Stumbling and Sniffing Wireless Networks in Linux, Part 2
In Part 1 we learned some basic network sniffing and stumbling with SWScanner on Linux. Today Eric Geier shows us some more excellent network discovery and probing utilities: KwifiManager, tcpdump, and Wireshark.
Monday, October 26, 2009 11:13:22 AM EST

Google Says Hot Is Better, and 4 Other Ways to Reduce Hard Disk Failures
Surprisingly, running hard disks warmer rather than colder makes them last longer, and putting new disks in a nursery makes all of them happier. Paul Rubens shares these other simple tips for getting the most out of your hard disks.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 01:43:32 AM EST

Dual-Booting Linux And Windows: Easier Said than Done
Despite claims by advanced users, confusion abounds when trying to run two OSes. Matt Hartley offers some possible solutions.
Friday, October 30, 2009 12:04:49 AM EST

Using Temporary Tables to Speed Up MySQL
If you're fetching several resultsets that contain a lot of common data, it can make sense to obtain a single resultset that has all the data that's required, store it in a temporary table, and then select from this temporary table as needed.
Friday, October 30, 2009 12:32:00 AM EST

How to Crimp Your Own Ethernet Cables
It isn't very difficult to crimp your own CAT5 cabling. You can repair and re-use old cable, cut cable to exact lengths, and save money. Aaron Weiss shows how, with lots of good pictures.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 10:56:08 AM EST

Linux Remote Networking over the Internet (part 3)
Remote Linux PC access over the Internet requires extra security precautions. Today we lock down the OpenSSH server more tightly, get through a firewall without opening the LAN to the world, and decide if we want password authentication or certificate authentication.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 01:48:22 PM EST

Character Sets in Linux or: Why do I See Those Weird Characters?
What the heck does “ mean? Why do we see these, and what can be done about them? Akkana Peck explores the mysteries of character sets and encodings.
Thursday, November 12, 2009 10:50:06 AM EST

Simpler, Faster, Stronger: MySQL Optimization Tips
It can be tempting to throw hardware at MySQL performance problems, but there are ways to tune your SQL database so that it doesn't always need more power. Sean Hull gives some excellent tips on simplifying, strengthening, and speeding up your MySQL database.
Friday, November 13, 2009 10:47:29 AM EST

Stumbling and Sniffing Wireless Networks in Linux, Part 3
In this third and final installment of how to survey the airwaves with Linux tools, Eric Geier shows us more tools for network surveying and discovery, deep snooping, and intrusion detection and alerting.
Monday, November 16, 2009 11:22:33 AM EST

Configuring Strong Wi-fi (802.1x) Authentication in Linux
Setting up proper wireless encryption is easier than ever on Linux. WEP is broken and has been for a long time, but WPA and WPA2 are still going strong. Eric Geier shows how to configure your Linux client to connect to a proper wireless encryption and authentication server to set up a secure wireless connection.
Monday, November 23, 2009 11:15:25 AM EST

With Windows 7, Only Half of Samba Stops Working
Bringing Windows 7 clients into your Linux network is exactly what the fine Samba server is made for. But every Windows release comes with new interop roadblocks, and Windows 7 is no exception. Charlie Schluting shows how to get past the latest ones.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009 12:43:39 PM EST

Mastering Characters Sets in Linux (Weird Characters, part 2)
In Part 1 Akkana Peck talked about Unicode, character sets and encoding -- how accented and special characters are transferred in email and web pages, and why you see funny characters. But can you fix it when it goes wrong? And if you're a programmer, how should you be handling all these encodings?
Wednesday, November 25, 2009 09:55:05 AM EST

Make Your Own Holiday Cards with GIMP
It's the holiday season! Regardless of which holidays you celebrate, it's a good time to connect with relatives and absent friends. GIMP is a great tool for creating your own custom holiday cards; Akkana Peck shows how to do this using your own images.
Thursday, December 10, 2009 11:49:48 AM EST

Configuring Strong Wi-Fi (802.1X) Authentication in Linux, Part II
As the weaker forms of wireless encryption fail, migrating to stronger encryption protocols becomes more urgent. Eric Geier shows how to configure Linux clients to use strong encryption to connect to wireless networks.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 11:32:04 AM EST

Printing Your Custom GIMP Holiday Cards
You've made your beautiful custom holiday cards with GIMP, and now you're ready to print them. What's the best way? Your own inkjet printer at home, or farm the work out to someone else?
Thursday, December 17, 2009 12:10:50 PM EST

Fixing Your Holiday Photos With GIMP
Redeye, wrong exposure, blemishes, and other defects can afflict your holiday photos. But despair not, for GIMP can fix them. And here's a little secret: it's easy. Akkana Peck shows how.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009 10:03:24 AM EST

Linux-powered Packet Fence Protects Your Network
Packet Fence bundles many useful and powerful network protection tools into an attractive, integrated package. Such as network access control, monitoring, intrusion detection, VLAN isolation, DHCP fingerprinting, and captive portal. Eric Geier introduces us to this protective powerhouse.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009 10:55:47 AM EST

How to Upgrade a CPU, part 1
Upgrading a CPU is pretty easy, and usually takes just a few minutes. The hard part is figuring out which to buy. In part 1, Carla Schroder sorts out how to pick one that is compatible with your existing motherboard.
Monday, January 11, 2010 02:25:21 PM EST

Upgrading a CPU (part 2)
There is a right way to remove and replace your computer's CPU, and several wrong ways. Carla Schroder shows the right way, and how it isn't very difficult.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010 03:08:32 PM EST

Print Beautiful Custom Calendars in Linux With Photo Calendar
Santa didn't bring you any calendars this year? Feeling a creative urge? Try Photo Calendar for creating and printing your own beautiful custom calendars.
Thursday, January 14, 2010 12:01:41 PM EST

7 KOffice Tips and Tricks
OpenOffice gets all the attention, but Linux gives you several excellent office suites to choose from. KOffice is fast, powerful, and has a nice clean customizable interface; Eric Geier shares some tips to help make your KOffice experience as great as possible.
Thursday, January 21, 2010 09:57:29 AM EST

Personal Finances on Linux with KMyMoney
Linux users have several good personal finance managers, like KMyMoney, which has matured into a feature-full, easy-to-use application. Eric Geier covers automatic updating, check printing, plugins, and other useful features.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 10:48:23 AM EST

Make Pretty GUI Apps Fast with Python-Qt
KDE users love the look of all those pretty applications. The key is the toolkit KDE uses: Qt. Akkana Peck uses a poker game to show how quickly you can create a nice-looking graphical application.
Thursday, January 28, 2010 11:59:08 AM EST

5 Linux Speed Tips
There are many ways to do the same tasks in Linux, which is a lovely thing because it means we can tailor our workflows to suit our own personal needs. Here are five of Carla Schroder's favorite speed and efficiency tips.
Monday, February 1, 2010 04:04:27 PM EST