I see a very spirited discussion has developed regarding the Webmin module for squidGuard. ;-)
While I take neither side, I have to report that I have had similar experiences with those parties that have written and shared their disappointment that the module didn't work for them. As for my experience, while some functionality would have been at least somewhat heartening, nothing worked. For me, blacklist management is the big enchilada. I am deploying SG at sites where people can barely plug something into a web form and press submit. While I, myself, am quite comfortable with tweaking the conf file manually and stabbing in changes with diff files, there are those people that simply are unable to do this. Open Source is a double-edged sword. It appeals to the masses with its "power to the people" philosophy, but the majority of the masses have no exposure to it, and hence, are often lost when they follow the (sometimes meager) instructions and don't get the expected result. Webmin, as I see it, is aimed at these people. For folks who are experienced with the way Linux does things, Webmin is nice, but it's really not necessary. It's web-based. It's point and click, to a large degree. It's supposed to be easy. People without Linux saavy comprise Webmin's target audience. It is /not/ people who know who to tweak CGI scripts so that a "broken" module will work. My experience was that it didn't work at all. Yes, I got the pretty links and the "set your path" form, but when clicking on any link in the module proper, all I got was a chumming hard drive and a steadily increasing system load. When I made the mistake of choosing the "Blacklists" link, the box became progressively unresponsive. My SSH session ceased to respond. I went to the console and even the desktop was frozen. The box, for all intents and purposes, became absent of functionality. Luckily, it wasn't too far a walk or too critical a box to have to power-cycle. :-) Nevertheless, I think the module has great promise. In the meantime, I'll have to stick writing my own front end for managing the blacklists (software that would probably spurned more stridently than the Webmin module has been by some on this mailing list!). Yes, it's disappointing that I couldn't get it to work. Whether it's beta or not, it's Open Source-- which means it /will/ get fixed. I must agree, however, that the site where the module is distributed does not have sufficient documentation. Unless you know how to install Webmin modules, you'll be sitting clueless at the prompt until you figure it out. Documentation is the Achilles heel of many an Open Source programmer. I am often guilty of the same. Cheers, Henry
