Re: Cracking attempt
On Wed, 26 Feb 2003 07:33, Craig Sanders wrote: On Tue, Feb 25, 2003 at 07:19:09AM +0100, Stefaan Teerlinck wrote: There are also cheap ($100) NAT routers / firewalls available like D-Link or Netgear if you don't need a speed 10Mbps You'll have to spend $100, but it won't consume you time, it takes a lot less space, and it will consume a lot less electricity. linux gives you a lot of flexibility that a cheap router just can't provide. IMO IME, more flexibility than even a top-end commercial router provides. Also it should be noted that even IF your dedicated router device provides exactly the same functionality as Linux for routing, it's still an extra device you have to administer. Remembering the syntax of both ipchains and iptables for my regular Linux work is enough effort for me, I don't want to memorise yet another set of configuration. c) i don't know about you, but i wouldn't be inclined to trust the security of a $100 consumer-grade firewall. I agree. Use a PC running SE Linux instead. ;) -- http://www.coker.com.au/selinux/ My NSA Security Enhanced Linux packages http://www.coker.com.au/bonnie++/ Bonnie++ hard drive benchmark http://www.coker.com.au/postal/Postal SMTP/POP benchmark http://www.coker.com.au/~russell/ My home page -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Cracking attempt
On Tue, Feb 25, 2003 at 07:19:09AM +0100, Stefaan Teerlinck wrote: There are also cheap ($100) NAT routers / firewalls available like D-Link or Netgear if you don't need a speed 10Mbps You'll have to spend $100, but it won't consume you time, it takes a lot less space, and it will consume a lot less electricity. yes, that's true...but: a) $100 is a lot more than recycling an old desktop machine (free) b) $100 routers are toys with very limited capabilities and very limited configurability. if what you want to do matches exactly what the menu options allow for, then they're OK. if not, then they're basically useless. linux gives you a lot of flexibility that a cheap router just can't provide. IMO IME, more flexibility than even a top-end commercial router provides. c) i don't know about you, but i wouldn't be inclined to trust the security of a $100 consumer-grade firewall. i know from personal experience that some of dlink's cheaper products have gaping security holes (e.g. the DWL-900AP+ wireless AP has a flaw which allows anyone to flash upgrade it over the wireless interface) d) if size and power consumption is an issue, better to spend $200-$250 USD on something like a soekris net4511 board (an SBC with several ethernet interfaces, mini-PCI, and 2 PCMCIA slots - they make pretty good routers, and the PCMCIA slots make them almost ideal for mast-mounted wireless access points) and install linux on it. craig ps: yes, i have a dlink DWL-900AP+ mounted in a box (and powered by 12v AC over the ethernet cable, regulated to DC) on the mast on my roof. i'm thinking of replacing it with a soekris board. or maybe a standard desktop pc in the roof plus about 12 metres of LMR-400 cable to the top of the mast. my main problem with the dlink is that it has no routing capability, and almost no diagnostic abilitiesit's a black box that doesn't let you find out what is going on. with a linux box i could run kismet or airsnort or even tcpdump to help diagnose problems. which is another reason why linux boxes are superior to commercial routers - linux, like any unix, has available an enormous swag of useful tools. -- craig sanders [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fabricati Diem, PVNC. -- motto of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch
Re: ISP Billing Software / RODOPI
On Tue, Feb 25, 2003 at 02:08:39PM -0800, Kirk Ismay wrote: Are there other (ideally unix) alternatives? i haven't used it myself, but i've heard good things about Jet from Obsidian Consulting Group (in Melbourne, Australia). http://jet.obsidian.com.au/ i know one of the main developers. very skilled programmer. long time debian user fan. their web site says that the core parts of Jet are Open Source. what that means, i have no idea. craig -- craig sanders [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fabricati Diem, PVNC. -- motto of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch
Re: ISP Billing Software / RODOPI
On Wed, 2003-02-26 at 17:41, Craig Sanders wrote: On Tue, Feb 25, 2003 at 02:08:39PM -0800, Kirk Ismay wrote: Are there other (ideally unix) alternatives? i haven't used it myself, but i've heard good things about Jet from Obsidian Consulting Group (in Melbourne, Australia). http://jet.obsidian.com.au/ i know one of the main developers. very skilled programmer. long time debian user fan. their web site says that the core parts of Jet are Open Source. what that means, i have no idea. *cough* blurb Jet plays in the same territory as Rodopi, Platypus et al. The system's written in python and Zope, and there is a core component that is Open Source, although not actually being pushed as such right now. Basically, the ratings engine is intended to be made publically freely available (and packaged up for deb etc) as soon as we have time to devote to putting the development infrastructure in place to manage OSS involvement. The other half of Jet is commercial, and provides web interfaces, management systems, and interfaces to various other packages such as Radiator, proprietary accounting packages, etc. Oh, and you get full source code to all of that anyway, just not under an OSS licence. /burb If you're interested, drop me a line. If you're interested in helping make the core rating bit publically available, definitely bug me about it - I'm keen to do this, I've just been wibbling for a long time. The OSS bit will do tracking of user balances, automatic issuing of invoices, and various other things - but it lacks a web interface and a certain amount of polish. Provisioning is handled by means of hooks that provide for calling external scripts at various points in the process, so there'd be some coding to do to integrate it with whatever you've got - but we're happy to help where we can... KevinL -- Senior Consultant Obsidian Consulting Group Phone: +613 9355 7844Fax: +613 9350 4097 http://www.obsidian.com.au/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: ISP Billing Software / RODOPI
Hello Kirk On 25 Feb 2003 at 14:08, Kirk Ismay wrote: Finally, one thing I've been considering is to use SQL-Ledger (http://www.sql-ledger.org/) as a core accounting system and re-write my recurring billing and provisioning programms as add on modules. I can't promise that I'd be able to do this, but if there are interested co-developers / potential users email me off list. I'll use those as an argument to not abandon our in house code and open-source the project. Thank you all for your time and input. We are also looking at this route. Currently we run a Windows based system for generating recuring invoices and tracking customer payments. We use SQL-Leger to keep the books. Monthly totals from the Windows system are carried across into SQL-Ledger manually. The SQL-Ledger replaced a commercial Windows accounting package. Since we changed, we have never looked back. In terms of usability and flexibility, SQL-Ledger is tops! Now we are rewriting the Windows stuff with a postgres back end and python cgi interface. This will make calls to the SQL-Ledger API to generate the recurring invoices. The invoices, statements and payments will be handled by SQL-Ledger. (Currently our Windows app does that). My guess is that everybody has their own specific requirements. Our focus is on the business market. We do not have a direct interface between our accounting system and our radius servers. We don't use traffic statistics to generate invoices and we do not have an on- line interface for customers. We also do not take credit card payments. So we wont be looking at any of these features soon. I suspect that we will be stretching SQL-Ledger's abilities, but I have every confidence that we can deal with any shortcommings that bother us. Development on SQL-Ledger is very active and most of the limitations are already being addressed. If there are others working on similar projects, I would be happy to co-operate. Regards Ian - Ian Forbes ZSD http://www.zsd.co.za Office: +27 21 683-1388 Fax: +27 21 674-1106 Snail Mail: P.O. Box 46827, Glosderry, 7702, South Africa -
Re: debian friendly unmanaged hosting joints?
Hi, Am 11:17 2003-02-18 +0800 hat Jason Lim geschrieben: Actually, IS there a list for marketing Debian services/products and similar? Sort of like a place where companies offering Debian-related things can post to? Sincerely, Jason [EMAIL PROTECTED] debian-consultants@lists.debian.org Michelle
Re: Cracking attempt
On Wed, 26 Feb 2003 07:33, Craig Sanders wrote: On Tue, Feb 25, 2003 at 07:19:09AM +0100, Stefaan Teerlinck wrote: There are also cheap ($100) NAT routers / firewalls available like D-Link or Netgear if you don't need a speed 10Mbps You'll have to spend $100, but it won't consume you time, it takes a lot less space, and it will consume a lot less electricity. linux gives you a lot of flexibility that a cheap router just can't provide. IMO IME, more flexibility than even a top-end commercial router provides. Also it should be noted that even IF your dedicated router device provides exactly the same functionality as Linux for routing, it's still an extra device you have to administer. Remembering the syntax of both ipchains and iptables for my regular Linux work is enough effort for me, I don't want to memorise yet another set of configuration. c) i don't know about you, but i wouldn't be inclined to trust the security of a $100 consumer-grade firewall. I agree. Use a PC running SE Linux instead. ;) -- http://www.coker.com.au/selinux/ My NSA Security Enhanced Linux packages http://www.coker.com.au/bonnie++/ Bonnie++ hard drive benchmark http://www.coker.com.au/postal/Postal SMTP/POP benchmark http://www.coker.com.au/~russell/ My home page