miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG

Absolutely agree with that - iis is not just a "little" bt buggy - it's very unstable too, even after you apply all the hotfixes. No use of it unless you plan to use asp. Nothing to beat the stability and performance boost that is gained by using the LAMP model ( Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP ). One thing if you notice carefully - is that every time Microsoft comes out with a patch to fix some security hole - it covers that one up and opens up another 100 new ones. And with every hotfix - your installed code gets bulkier and shakier. One is left to wonder why ...... or is microsoft trying to prove that it's got you in its grips for good !!!

Hi all Lets all chip in an maintain the most complete list of Linux Tutorials here. I believe there's a similar post somewhere in one of the OS Forums - admins, it would do good if you could move it in here. Thanks. Here's one for a starter - for user's migrating from Windows to Linux, the IBM Windows-to-Linux Roadmap Series: http://www.ibm.com/de-de/

Right on. Thanks I'd totally missed out on that. Will let you know once it's up.Thanks again.

Quite right - they are all for/created by FrontPage. I've removed these file:1. "_private" folder 2. All the Files and Folders that start with "_vti" 3. The postinfo.html and .htaccess from the public_html dir - basically all the files that were present when you logged in first - and it works just fine. My public_html now contains just the index.php and the subfolders for images and scripts. As for your free domain name you can try http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ - though am not sure if you can change their nameservers to that of Xisto. Otherwise the whole idea of the domain linking to your site at Xisto will fail (unless dot tk also has a domain forwarding feature).

Hi, Can't say much about it - till I know the exact error message - but try again and this time do the following in MySQL. Remove the prior database first. This might not be a solution - but this is the FIRST and FOREMOST step you should follow when you are trying to setup a forum sw. ==================== mysql> create database YourForumDatabaseName; mysql> grant all on YourForumDatabaseName.* to 'admin'@'localhost' identified by 'YourPassword'; AND ALSO mysql> grant all on YourForumDatabaseName.* to 'admin'@'10.19.168.%' identified by 'YourPassword'; ==================== Of course replace "YourForumDatabaseName" with your forum's database name (follow the naming convention nilsc has used here, by appending your name with underscore before the database name - that's like a standard for all of them) and "admin" and "YourPassword" with your admin name and password for the db. In the third line, replace my IP (10.19.168.5) with yours and make sure you OMIT the LAST SEGMENT and use a "%" in place of it. The "%" acts like a WildCard character and ensures that mysql will accept connection from any node on your network hosting your forum software, which means both your forum and mysql DOESN'T have to reside on the same machine and physically can be on two different nodes on the same network. Then try to connect from the myTopix installation page again. This happened to me in phpBB2 - the mysql access rights were configured properly - so it persistently refused to let phpBB connect. All the best

No probs You are always allowed to have th benefit of doubt. Well, if you mean "messing around with Linux" - I've seen Linux right since the beginning days - this is way back in the early 90's - my guess is around '93 - when my friend got his hands on a copy of what was Linux 0.6 or 0.7 - it hadn't yet reached the maturity to be called version 1.0. It came on 30 of those 1.44Meg floppies and was nothing short of "pull-all-your-hair-out-and-bang-your-head-as-hard-as-you-can" experience to install it on my 286 machine. I've been into computers since '89 I think. Anyways - from then on I got hold of every subsequent version of Linux and tried figuring out how to fine tune it. One drawback about Linux is that you can learn quite a bit on a standalone system - but you'd miss out on a major part of it - if you don't have a network (a small one to start with) with at least another Linux and Windows machine. Or else, you will never be ablt to explore the real power of Linux which lies in Networkin. That chance came when I joined one of my prior schools in Thailand - Webster University (http://www.webster.ac.th/). Though a very bad school for IT (rather pathetic - more of a good liberal arts school) - I managed to get a job on the IT helpdesk, which was quite fun. First few days I spent clearing up all the accumulated junk from over a 120 systems spread all over the campus and fine-tuning them. Once that was done - I was free to indulge myself in the ways of the Linux sitting in my small dark office inside the school library till the wee hours of dawn. Me and a couple of my friends who spent our time there came to be known as the creatures of the dark. It was over here that I first encountered this model of networking - all the student/staff workstations were running on '98/2k/xp and they all logged onto a cluster of linux servers which sat tight and hummed all throughout the year in another small, dark & extremely cold room right above my office. Till then I'd thought of Samba an just another Network Resource Sharing Tool which could make Linux folders visible to windows and vice-versa. I was quite amazed at what OTHER stuff it could do - and so began my explorations. I went through all the config files and man pages till I figured what all parameters were changed to achieve this model. Still, there's a big difference in KNOWING IT and KNOWING HOWTO DO IT HANDS ON. That - I didn't get a chance to, till a few days back - when I managed to set it up on the company server. So there... One word of advice here - if you start spending the amount of time I did on Linux - you are looking for intense troubled times in your social life... not to mention, GRAVE PROBLEMS WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND. And yeah, I forgot to add something about Windows Roaming Profiles which might cause a lot of problems - I've put in an extra seciton now. That should help. All the best.

Dude, NONE OF THIS IS COPIED. These are from my personal installation experiences after wading through thousands of man pages, converted into step by step instructions. Besides you are MISSING OUT the whole point here - this is for networked systems and not about making partition each others partition visible on the same local system with Win-Lin dual boot.

Howto: Setup and emulate a Windows NT Domain on Linux and make Windows 2000/XP log on =========================================================================== HI all, I'm back with another Tutorial in the Linux series. This time we're going to with an issue that is very common in everyday networking and is implemented almost everywhere in some form or the other. The primary issue here is to make two DIFFERENT Operating Systems talk to each other over the network and synchonize and share files without letting off any hint about the complex protocols involved in between. Windows 2000/XP are used by most home users as standalone workstation. Those who have cared to venture into Windows Networking and tried out the Host to Domain logon model would have an idea where I'm getting at. Normally, a windows workstation would only log onto a domain that is being served by a server called Primary Domain Controlled or PDC in Windows Networking terms. Following this model if we have a machine running a Windows Server behaving as the PDC and several Windows Workstations which allow individual users to log onto this server - what we get is a massive sharing of resources by all these workstations at a One Pass Authentication, i.e. Whatever shared resources are attached to the server (printers, tape drives - any kind of peripherals) - are made available to EACH workstation as soon as the user logs into the domain. One DOES NOT need to enter a separate set of login credentials (username/password) to access each of these shared resources as it happens when you setup a simple bus network using multiple windows workstations. Fortunately for us, we have something called SAMBA on Linux, that is capable of emulating Windows Domains and can let users running Windows log onto this emulated domain using their login credentials for Linux. In turn, they reap the great benefits of a Linux Server (security, high uptime & stability etc.) while being able to work on all their favourite applications on Windows. The home drives that are created on Linux for each user (usually in the /home/ folder are directly mapped on as an extra Physical Drive Letter (say, H:, I:, J: ... whatever you choose it to be) on your Windows machine - and whatever you save into this drive gets automatically transferred to your home drive on the Linux Server. The origin of the name SAMBA is from SMB which stands for Server Message Blocks - a protocol used to share files between different Operating Systems with relative transparency. Find out more about SAMBA @ https://www.samba.org/ My experimental platform is exactly the same as what I'd used for setting up the Domain Name Server on Linux. Today I successfully managed to setup this Windows Domain on Linux and here I am sharing a little more of my adventures on taming the "Linux Beast". However, unlike the DNS configuration - this was a pleasant breeze. The process is very simple and surprisingly can be accomplished in a very few steps. Besides, the only configuration file that we have to edit is smb.conf that resides in the /etc/samba/ directory. Requirements (for this experiment) =================================== a. A Server running on Linux - that has the smbd or Samba Daemon up and running b. A Windows XP/2000 Pro Workstation - physically connected to the server =================================== If you are unsure about the smbd service, check with service --status-all | grep smb - this shoudld return you a message like smbd (pid 5831) is running.... If not, you can fire up the service by simply typing smbd -D. Step 1 - Editing the /etc/samba/smb.conf file This is the one and only file used for configuring the Samba Daemon and there are only a few parameters that you have to edit. Open this file in your favourite editor. Right near the beginning you'll find a section called [workgroup] =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= # workgroup = NT-Domain-Name or Workgroup-Name workgroup = asterix =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The default smb.conf will contain some other name as the name of the workgroup - I set it to "asterix" for my system. Feel free to change it to whatever you like - but keep it less than 15 characters. It can contain Alphabetic characters, Numbers and Underscores ONLY. Scroll down a little below till you find this line: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= # Security mode. Most people will want user level security. See # security_level.txt for details. security = user =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The line "security = user" might be commented out with a "#". If so, just remove the "#" at the beginning. Go a little further down again and find the line: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= # You may wish to use password encryption. Please read # ENCRYPTION.txt, Win95.txt and WinNT.txt in the Samba documentation. # Do not enable this option unless you have read those documents encrypt passwords = yes smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Once, again, the encrypt passwords = yes smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd lines are likely to be commented. Remove the comments. You can choose an alternate location for the samba password file, but leaving it where it is wont harm in any way. A little further down you'll meet another large block of commented out statements. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= # Browser Control Options: # set local master to no if you don't want Samba to become a master # browser on your network. Otherwise the normal election rules apply local master = yes # OS Level determines the precedence of this server in master browser # elections. The default value should be reasonable ; os level = 65 # Domain Master specifies Samba to be the Domain Master Browser. This # allows Samba to collate browse lists between subnets. Don't use this # if you already have a Windows NT domain controller doing this job domain master = yes # Preferred Master causes Samba to force a local browser election on startup # and gives it a slightly higher chance of winning the election preferred master = yes # Enable this if you want Samba to be a domain logon server for # Windows95 workstations. domain logons = yes =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Uncomment the line "local master = yes", "domain master = yes", "preferred master = yes" and "domain logons = yes". If any of them equate to "no", set it to "yes". The "os level = 65" is usually set to a much lower value, but setting it to 65 gives a big performance boost according to man pages. Right in the next block, you'll find these statements: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= # if you enable domain logons then you may want a per-machine or # per user logon script # run a specific logon batch file per workstation (machine) ; logon script = %m.bat # run a specific logon batch file per username logon script = %U.bat =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Both the "logon script = %m.bat" and "logon script = %U.bat" and commented out. I am using a logon script on per user basis - so that's the one I uncommented. A word about logon scripts here. This logon script will reside on the Linux Server itself, but it is actually a MS-DOS BATCH FILE. It's not directly run by Linux, but dished out to the Windows workstation once the login credentials are settled. This logon script may contain any number of commands, ranging from commands to map your Linux HOME DRIVE to a logical windows drive and/or synchronizing your workstations CLOCK with the Server's Clock. We'll come to this later on towards the end of the tutorial. If you uncomment the "logon script = %m.bat" line, then your logon script's name has to be WindowsNameOfYourWorkStation.bat. If you are using per-user basis like me, then you'll have to create a copy of this script with the name of every user that intends to log onto your domain. As you can guess, the %m and %U variables expand to take on the machine name and user name respectively. DONOT, under any circumstances uncomment BOTH. That could lead to a lot of confusion for the Domain Controller. More later. Towards the bottom end of the file you are going to find a large section dedicated to mapping different shares between Windows and Linux. Find the following section named "netlogon": =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= # Un-comment the following and create the netlogon directory for Domain Logons [netlogon] comment = Windows Network Logon Service path = /home/netlogon ; guest ok = yes writable = no public = no ; share modes = no =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= In my default .conf file, the comment was different and I changed it to the "Windows Network...." - you can modify it to whatever you feel like. Next the line "path = /home/netlogon" - uncomment this and set the path to point to whatever directory you want to keep your logon scripts in. Set "writable" and "public" to "no". Comment out "guest ok = yes" and "share modes = no". THAT'S IT. Save the file and quit. Step 2 - Setting up Machine Account & User Accounts in SAMBA All the Windows machines that will log onto the Linux Domain are required to have an entry corresponding to their Windows names, in the samba database. The machine names as well as the user names are to be added to a group called "smbuser" which doesn't exist on its own. So first create this group: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= shell> groupadd smbuser =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Next, we create an entry with the name of the Workstation that is going to hook onto this domain controller. Find out the Windows name of your system (Desktop > My Computer > Right-Click > Properties > Network Identification TAB > Properties). In the dialog box that comes up you'll find a field called Computer Name. That is the name of your machine. In my case the windows name of my workstation IS "WorkStation". So I used that here. Replace it with yours. This name (it was "Workstation" in my case) added with a "$" sign at its back is going to be your machine name in samba. So "Workstation" becomes "workstation$". Next use the following command to add this to Samba. Note: The name that you find on your Windows system might contain MIXED CHARACTER CASING - but for Linux, convert the whole name to LOWERCASE and then add the "$" sign. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= shell> useradd -g smbuser -d /dev/null -s /bin/false workstation$ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Next, add this windows client to the samba password databse. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= shell> smbpasswd -a -m workstation =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Note, that this time we DO NOT INCLUDE the "$" at the end of the computer name. The option -a tells samba to add the client name and option -m specifies that this name is the name of a computer and NOT a user. Next, what we are going to do is CREATE user accounts in Samba, which will be used to login from the Windows machines. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= shell> useradd -g smbuser -d /dev/null -s /bin/false microscopicearthling =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= One word here - notice we are alloting a null directory and null shell to the users and the machine name - since these users won't need shell access & can login directly from windows. If you already have some users setup in your Linux Server, you can skip this step and add the user directly to the samba password database. If that case the samba user will inherit the home folder that had been created while creating the user account. Say, I have an existing user acount called "someone". I'll use the following command to add him to the samba db. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= shell> smbpasswd -a someone =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Notice that I've removed the "-m" option, since this is an actual USER that we are adding. For any other user, replace the "someone" with the corresponding username. You can change the PASSWORD that the user will use, by using: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= shell> smbpasswd someone =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= But make sure that the user has been added to the samba db through the step right before this - or else "smbpasswd" will spit out some error message like: Failed to find entry for user someone. Failed to modify password entry for user someone Another important point: the user you are adding to the samba db - has to exist as a valid user of the Linux Server, i.e. the user has to have an active account on the server created with the command "useradd". Only then, he can be added to the samba db as a remote logon user. Next, add the user "root" into the smbpasswd db the same way: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= shell> smbpasswd -a root =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Step 3 - Configure the netlogon.bat - LOGIN SCRIPT file Recall that while we were editing the smb.conf file, we came across a line: "path = /home/netlogon" towards the end of the file. Switch over to this directory now. The directory wouldn't be created automatically, so you need to change to /home and create one called netlogon in it. Now enter this directory and fire up your editor. Create a file called "netlogon.bat" that will server as a template for all users. Whenever you add a new user to the samba db, you have to make a copy of this file as that username.bat So for a new user, "someonelse" we'll simply copy over netlogon.bat as someonelse.bat. The contents of the batch file will be as follows: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= net use H: /HOME NET TIME \\getafix /SET /YES =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The first entry maps your Linux Home folder as a DRIVE named H:\ in Windows. So whatever you save in drive H: gets saved directly to your home folder on the Linux Server - and the files/folders - all acquire the strong security settings that Linux offers. Thus no one else should be able to view your files - unless you set their attributes such that they get shared with others in your group or domain. The second line, sets the TIME of your Workstation by syncing it with the time of the server. The \\getafix is the hostname of my server. Replace it with whatever your Linux server hostname is. Save the file and quit. Step 4 - Restart smbd The Samba daemon needs to be restarted so as to load the new configuration options. Simple step, just do: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= shell> smbd -SIGHUP =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Step 5 - FINAL Step: Make your Windows Workstation join the Linux Domain Once again do Desktop > My Computer > Right-Click > Properties > Network Identification TAB > Properties. The lower part of the dialog box should comain two fields with radio buttons namely, Domain and Workgroup. Normally, you'd see some random entry in the workgroup field - usually from the settings that you had specified during windows installation. Click the radio button beside the DOMAIN and enter the name of the domain that you'd specified in your smb.conf file right at the beginning using the clause "workgroup = asterix". In my case, I entered asterix as the domain name here and clicked OK. There will be a short delay, after which you'll be asked to enter a pair of login credentials that has authority to join the samba domain. Use your root/password combination. After another short wait, you'll be informed that your workstation has successfully joined the domain and that you should restart your computer for the changes to take effect. Upon reboot, you'll see a completely different kind of splash screen that you've never seen before in standalone mode. It'll tell you to press Ctrl-Alt-Del to login and thats what you should do. Next, you'll be presented the standard login screen. Click on the Options and you'll see one more dropdown list titled "Log onto:" - click on that and you'll be presented with TWO options. One is the name of your Windows machine - which will be selected by default. If you use this - you'll log on locally - as you'd do on a standalone sytem. The OTHER one is the name of the Linux Domain that you just joined. Select that and enter the username/password that you had created for yourself or "someone" in the samba password db. That's it - you should log into a windows normally - but beware you wouldn't find most of the icons on your desktop that you normally have when you log on locally as an administrator. You'll be presented with a bare minimum set of icons, determined by the windows access rights that you've specified for your system. Most of the common applications will be there in the Start Menu though. To log back in locally, just log out and switch the "log onto:" option to your local machine name. When you click on My Computer you should see another drive called H: which as I said before is mapped onto your home folder on Linux Server. =========================================== WARNING: I had to come back and add this part - I believe it's very necessary to know what you are heading for when you setup a login process like this. Windows 2000 and XP have something called "ROAMING PROFILES" which basically means that whatever you save on your Desktop - all your files, icons & registry and windows settings propagate to the Linux server when you log out and gets saved in your home folder. WHen you log back in these setting migrate back to your local windows system and take effect - creating the exact desktop state you'd left it in. This ensures all the personal preferences of every user using these systems remain intact. While the feature sounds good - it's a HUGE DRAWBACK from networking perspective - as it can create immense bottlenecks. These profiles are not small in size by any means - each profile is at least 4-5MB in size. When the network is small and consists no more than 10 computers - this is pretty all right to have enabled. But when you consider the a network of nearly 150 computers (like my school network) - with over 500 users logging in and out several times a day - you can imagine the amount of traffic this generates - just by downloading the profile when you log in and uploading it back when you log out. This alone can bring the whole network down in a matter of days. SOLUTION: Turn off the Roaming Profiles in Win2k/XP on your windows workstatoin when you use this model. The performance gain achieved is thousand folds better than clogging the whole network just trying to save your icon settings. You can do so by opening the Start Menu > Run > and typing gpedit.msc in there - in both Win2k and XP. This will bring up the Group Policy Editor. Follow this route: Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuratoin > Administrative Templates > System > Logon. This brings you to a panel on the right where you can turn off the roaming profile. In XP it is very easy. There will be an option called Only allow local user profiles and Prevent Roaming Profile Change from Propagating to the Server. Enable these two and your job is done. For Windows 2000 - you have to look around in the same panel and have to enable/disable a combination of options to disable to roaming profile as a whole. More on Win2K later. Have fun....and all the best =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= LINUX: What Windows will NEVER BE =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Try setting up a linux cluster with distributed processing. You can setup your dream 10 cpu system using 10 different computers connected over the network, this way...

Greetings everybody, Any freak like me here who listens to really hard electronic music - specially the psychedelic & goa genre ? If anyone does we could exchange quite a few Gigs of such music.Regards

Two systems:Server---------P4 3.0 Ghz w Intel MotherBoard1GB DDR-Ram2 x 80 GB Seagate Barracuda on Software RAID 1 (Disk Mirroring)GeForce 4 Ti 4600 - Video CardOnboard Intel Sound CardOS: Redhat Enterprise AS 3Development WorkStation-------------------------------P4 3.0 Ghz w Intel MotherBoard512MB DDR-Ram80 GB Seagate BarracudaATI Radeon VIVOCreative 5.1 SB Live7-in-1 Flash Card/Memory Stick ReaderMagTek Miniwedge Magnetic Swipe Card ReaderMicrosoft Wireless Keyboard and Optical MouseOS: Win2K Pro

Guys, Try CoreFTP Lite - (http://www.coreftp.com/). Even this is free and extremely fast, with a very small footprint. Supports sFTP too. Have fun

Thanks a lot - that helped. Dunno how I missed out on it

Anybody using their own domains with Xisto here like me ? When you create email addresses for your domain - receiving is no problem - you can connect to 110 directly by using your own domain name. But SMTP is missing. How do you send out mails using the email client ? Does anyone know a list of free smtp servers on the net ? I don't want to use my ISP's SMTP.Thanks

Hehe.. I'd go along with nil. I myself add in at least 5-6 more hits to the view count - coz not only I do seem to suffer from temporary amnesia at that point but need to gloat over what I posted & feel happy about it - quite a few times lol

Hey cool, I'm waiting - I'd definitely like to see a separate subforum on Linux - where I could put up loads of more tutorials ;)Regards

Dude, I don't indent to be rude here... but for one, GUI stands for Graphical User Interface and do not insult my fav OS by calling it Lunix - it's Linux, only Linux & nothing but Linux ... more later Welcome to the Linux world !!!

Hi all, Why is it that everytime you view your own post, the view count shoots up ? Not that it matters, but shouldn't it NOT increase if you keep viewing your own post ?? Maybe till some new post has been added to the same topic ? What do you all say ?Regards

Yaah, This is a web/ftp/mail - all thrown in server that I'm using for development of distributed apps. But my whole point was to try and get it ready to be hooked onto the net with as little hitch as possible when the time comes. So I descended upon this long & wandering journey, which I don't see any end to. I guess, more of such adventures on taming the linux beast are about to come Thanks again NilsC & musichere...

Linux, only Linux and nothing but Linux. The initial task of configuring it from scratch is pretty daunting - but people who are remnants of the MS-DOS days (though you hardly had to tweak around with dos) shouldn't find the command line interface too hard. Flip side about Linux is it's man pages - while highly informative to an advanced user, the white-on-black page after page of cryptic commands and options do get to you after a while. Best startegy I believe is to tackle one new command a day and spend the rest of the day fiddling around with all it's options. DO NOT BE SCARED - even if you manage to do a rm -rf * on the root partition . Consider your system is overdue by one fresh installation (Taking into account the number of times I had to install Windows every week - this is a breeze). And as a learning user - do not OBEY the warning about running software as "root". It's bull..... It gets to be a pain the wrong place in you keep switching between normal user and root user using "sudo" but running as root and screwing your system up has got an altogether different FUN in it . Believe me, you'll stand a much wiser man at the end of the day. Besides - now with so many new open-source applications being launched on the net everyday, the gap between lin & win is bridging out very fast. You are already able to run linux binaries on windows and vice-versa using the Cygwin libraries and WINE(Windows Emulator) respectively... though the binaries that they are able to run are by far very few. Whatever it is - a very good start for something as diverse as lin & win. Even though my sw development platform has been Windows & .NET so far (believe me, I still am an avid fan of VS.NET) but I hate the platform it runs on with PASSION - I found Glade 2 on linux recently and am quite happy with it. I have a feeling within the next few releases - it would give Visual Studio quite a run. Even the graphics capabilities of linux has increased thousand folds since I remember it last - at least with Fedora Core and Redhat Enterprise. There's hardly anything missing out in the new GNOME interface - including almost all the elements that you see as a part of your Start Menu in Windows and much much more. I think, Fedora Core is a MUST TRY for everyone. If you are a web-developer and run a test-server at home to simulate a real world model - using IIS is out of question. First of all - the damned thing is so unstable and buggy, that it's not even funny. Besides most of the popular scripting languages run without a hitch under Linux. the AMP (Apache, MySQL, PHP) combination in Linux is pure fireworks. Just a little knowhow on how to manipulate these 3 - Space is the Limit !!! Ah well... I could probably sing praises about linux till the wee hours of dawn, but I'd better put a stop here & be back with some more later As I can see my prime motto in life is changing into gaining Linux Converts... who needs to have a religion anymore ?? Best Regards

HOWTO: Setup a Local Domain Name Server (DNS) for your Intranet ==================================================================== Experimentation Platform: ------------------------- Intel P4 3.0Ghz (Intel MB) 1 GB RAM 2 x 80 GB HDD on RAID 1 (Disk Mirroring) - alloted entirely to Linux OS: ------------------------- Linux - Redhat Enterprise AS Server v3 Note: a. I was trying to setup the system so that later on when my server goes online, I don't have to modify much to make my nameservers work with the internet - so I used my registered domain "microsys-asia.info" and an internal IP: "10.19.168.5" - as the server IP. In future when my server goes online, all I've to do is modify this IP and all will be good. So throughout the tutorial you'll find reference to this domain and the IP used. For your own case, just change to domain to whatever you feel like and choose a suitable IP to go with. b. Another standard I've followed is - all console input/output are marked between a pair of CONSOLE tags - they'll appear in a yellow bordered box with black nackground and yellow text. Make sure the following services are up & running - coz they'll be the ones affected most due to the dns setup: a. httpd b. ftpd c. MTA (Mail Transport Agent) like Postfix, Sendmail etc. You can see a list of running services using: CONSOLE shell> service --status-all | less Right, lets get to business now. Once your system is setup and running, either login as "root" or use any other login and use "sudo" to get root access. Step 1 - Checking the NIC Card Functionality Make sure your NIC (Network Interface Card) or Ethernet Card is up and running. You can check this with - CONSOLE shell> ifconfig This should display information about your primary NIC (called "eth0" and the local loopback interface called "lo"). It'll be somewhat in the following format: CONSOLE eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0D:88:39:D2:69 inet addr:10.19.168.5 Bcast:10.19.168.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::20d:88ff:fe39:d269/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:24633 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:32779 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:2843295 (2.7 Mb) TX bytes:3524410 (3.3 Mb) Interrupt:225 Base address:0xb800 Notice my NIC MAC Address on the first line & my IP and Subnet Mask in the second line. Step 2 - Configuring the "hosts" file This file resides in the "/etc" directory and contains the localhost entry (a special entry that must be present) and any other entries that you care to enter. In fact this file alone can act like a simple DNS, if you compile a huge list of matching IP and domain names here. Each entry will take on this form: "IP address" "Fully Qualified Domain Name (FDQN)" "alias" The hosts file will look like: CONSOLE 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost 10.19.168.5 getafix.microsys-asia.info getafix This file should contain at least those two lines - the localhost is a neccessity as well as your server IP and hostname.domainname. As for the spaces in between the fields make it a point to use ONE TAB STOP for each. "getafix" here is the name of my server or its hostname (which you can set using the "hostname" command - Usage: hostname NameOfYourHost). Alternatively, you can set your hostname by editing a file called "network" located in the "/etc/sysconfig/" directory. CONSOLE NETWORKING=yes HOSTNAME=âgetafix.microsys-asia.infoâ Step 3 - Generating a rndc key-pair Here's what the linux man pages say about "rndc": As you can see, the rndc key's are much required to control your nameserver. Here's how to generatethe rndc keys. There's a file called "rndc-confgen" located in the "/usr/sbin/" directory. Simply run the file "rndc-confgen": CONSOLE shell> rndc-confgen It will give you an output similar to this: CONSOLE # controls { # inet 127.0.0.1 port 953 # allow { 127.0.0.1; } keys { "rndckey"; }; # }; # Start of rndc.conf key "rndckey" { algorithm hmac-md5; secret "RN5xaE0Yr7ar1v0sPugf2g=="; }; options { default-key "rndckey"; default-server 127.0.0.1; default-port 953; }; # End of rndc.conf # Use with the following in named.conf, adjusting the allow list as needed: # key "rndckey" { # algorithm hmac-md5; # secret "RN5xaE0Yr7ar1v0sPugf2g=="; # }; # # controls { # inet 127.0.0.1 port 953 # allow { 127.0.0.1; } keys { "rndckey"; }; # }; # End of named.conf Carefully notice the "commented out" block of code (the lines with the starting '#') in the SECOND HALF of the block - from "#Use with the..." till "#End of named.conf". Save this output into another file. You are going to need it SOON. If you are using a terminallike PuTTY to access your server your can simply drag your mouse over the desired area and highlight it. Then open a blank file in "vi" and right-click the mouse. That'll paste your code in the file. Save and exit. Step 4 - Editing "/etc/named.conf" We're going to step into some messy editing now. In your "/etc/" folder there is a file named "named.conf". Open the file in vi or whatever editor you are using. CONSOLE shell> vi /etc/named.conf You're going to face something similar to this: CONSOLE options { directory "/var/named"; // Uncommenting this might help if you have to go through a // firewall and things are not working out. But you probably // need to talk to your firewall admin. // query-source port 53; }; controls { inet 127.0.0.1 allow { localhost; } keys { rndc_key; }; }; zone "." { type hint; file "named.ca" }; zone "localhost" IN { type master; file "localhost.zone"; allow-update { none; }; }; Between the "option { }" section, after the "directory" clause insert the following: host-statistics no; fake-iquery no; version "Bind"; //This reports just Bind and not it's version to any would be hacker recursion no; Now delete the "controls {" clause entirely, and in its place insert the rndc-confgen OUTPUT that you had earlier saved. Now scroll down below the section titled zone "." { till you reach the ending brace "};" after the zone "localhost" IN. Make sure you UNCOMMENT the lines starting at key "rndckey" { till the ending brace }; right before # End of rndc.conf. Put a blank line after it. Now on a fresh line add in the following: CONSOLE zone "microsys-asia.info" IN { type master; file "microsys-asia.info.zone"; allow-update { none; }; }; You should put in your own domain in place of "microsys-asia.info" within the quotes after "zone" and between the quotes after the "file" clause. Make sure you keep the ".zone" part after it. Below this insert another similar block but with a few modifications: CONSOLE zone "168.19.10.in-addr.arpa" IN { type master; file "reverse.microsys-asia.info.zone"; allow-update { none; }; }; This is how you figure out what to include after the "zone" between the quotes. Say my IP here is: 10.19.168.5 First, I'd write it backwards i.e. 5.168.19.10 and then chop off the leading 5. leaving me with just 168.19.10. To that I add, .in-addr.arpa giving me a string 168.19.10.in-addr.arpa - which is my reverse resolution zone. As for the part beside the file clause, you can copy it from the zone above and just add the word reverse. in front of it. That should do. Now the last bit of editing for this file.. Check if there are any more zones below this. There should be one like: CONSOLE zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" IN { type master; file "named.local"; allow-update { none; }; }; Do you notice any similarity here with the zone that you just created ? This is indeed the reverse lookup zone for your local loopback interface or localhost(127.0.0.1). If this zone is missing from the file, just copy the above section and paste it - NO MODIFICATIONS NECESSARY. Besides this, the last line in the file should be: include "/etc/rndc.key"; - if this line is missing, blindly insert it too. Now save this file and quit the editor. Step 5 - Creating the "forward" zone database Recall the filenames that we specified for our forward and reverse zones in Step 4 ?? file "microsys-asia.info.zone"; file "reverse.microsys-asia.info.zone"; These files must be created for the zones to read them and function properly. They aren't generated by default. We are going to create these files now. The default directory for the zone files (on a typical linux system) is "/var/named/" or any directory that was specified as the <DNS ROOT> using the "directory" clause in the "named.conf" file. If you can't recall scroll back to the beginning of Step 4 and you'll notice it right there: options { directory "/var/named"; Anyway, use your editor to create two blank files in the directory "/var/named/" - a. "microsys-asia.info.zone" & b. "reverse.microsys-asia.info.zone" Now open the first file, "microsys-asia.info.zone". Insert the following lines into the file, modifying wherever necessary and replacing my microsys domain & ip with your own domain and ips. CONSOLE $TTL 604800 ; Information about "forward" domain microsys-asia.info $ORIGIN microsys-asia.info. @ IN SOA ns1.microsys-asia.info. webmaster.microsys-asia.info. ( 2004042601 ; serial 86400 ; refresh 7200 ; retry 1209600 ; expiry 604800 ) ; minimum ; Define name servers for this domain IN NS ns1.microsys-asia.info. ; Define Mail Exchanger for this domain IN MX 10 mail.microsys-asia.info. IN A 10.19.168.5 ; Define name to address mapping for this domain ns1 IN A 10.19.168.5 www IN A 10.19.168.5 ftp IN A 10.19.168.5 mail IN A 10.19.168.5 ; Loopback domain localhost IN A 127.0.0.1 One word about this file - notice the trailing dot (".") wherever I've specified a domain name - DO NOT MISS THE DOTS OUT AT ANY COST - OR THE WHOLE THING WILL COLLAPSE. In the third line beside, "ns1.microsys-asia.info", notice the "webmaster.microsys-asia.info". This is in actuality the webmasters email address. Its really webmaster@microsys-asia.info but in here the "@" is replaced with a "." The numerical values within the paranthesis can be modified suitably. They are mostly time specifications converted to seconds. The line: ; Define name servers for this domain IN NS ns1.microsys-asia.info. sets up the nameserver for you. It means we are declaring ns1.microsys-asia.info as your nameserver. Don't forget to replace my domain with yours after the ns1. and don't forget the trailing "." either. If you have more than one nameservers, insert similar lines below and instead of "ns1." put "ns2." and so on. Example: IN NS ns2.microsys-asia.info. Next is your Mail Exchanger which is utilized by the Mail Transport Agents to forward mails to the correct domain. ; Define Mail Exchanger for this domain IN MX 10 mail.microsys-asia.info. The number 10 means we setting a priority of 10 to the mail server. Since we only use one mail server the priority has no effect. The next line: IN A 10.19.168.5 The "IN A 192.168.1.200" means we are declaring a host (with no hostname, so it means microsys-asia.info) and it's IP is 10.19.168.5. Any queries on just microsys-asia.info will resolve to that IP. Its useful when you configure your web server to load microsys-asia.info OR http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/.'>http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/. They both point to the same thing and will return the same web site. If you have an external ISP alloted IP you can replace this by it to hook your server up to the net. Otherwise, just use your internal IP like me. The rest of the entries mean we are declaring hosts: ns1 = ns1.microsys-asia.info If you have more than one nameserver - it should get listed here along with its ip. www = http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ ftp = ftp.microsys-asia.info mail = mail.microsys-asia.info Since they all share the same IP, each of those services will run from the same machine. If you have the mail server running on a different machine then you should substitute that machines IP address in place of 10.19.168.5. Now save this file and quit. Step 6 - Creating the "reverse" zone database It's time to setup the reverse lookup zone for your IP. Open the blank file "reverse.microsys-asia.info.zone" that you had created and insert the following lines: CONSOLE ; Information about "inverse" domain 168.19.10.in-addr.arpa. @ IN SOA ns1.microsys-asia.info. webmaster.microsys-asia.info. ( 2004042601 ; serial (d. adams) 86400 ; refresh 7200 ; retry 1209600 ; expiry 604800 ) ; minimum ; Define name servers for this domain IN NS ns1.microsys-asia.info. ; Define name to address mapping for this domain 5 IN PTR ns1.microsys-asia.info. Notice how the IP has been reversed and placed, as I taught you earlier. We had always truncated the last segment ".5" from the IP before adding it in as the reverse address - that's what is mentioned in the last line - the beginning digit. If you last IP segment is some other number, replace the 5 in the last line with that. Now save the file and quit. We are almost done. Step 7 - Creating the "reverse" zone database for localhost You don't really have to edit this file - it is created by BIND by default and placed is your DNSROOT, i.e. the directory containing the zone files, "/var/named/" in this case. Look for a file called "named.local" It should contain exactly the following lines: CONSOLE $TTL 86400 @ IN SOA localhost. root.localhost. ( 1997022700 ; Serial 28800 ; Refresh 14400 ; Retry 3600000 ; Expire 86400 ) ; Minimum IN NS localhost. 1 IN PTR localhost. If the file is missing - just create one with the same name and insert the lines above. Save and quit. Step 8 - Editing "/etc/resolv.conf" Open your editor again and load the file called "resolv.conf" in your "/etc/" directory. Insert the following lines: CONSOLE domain microsys-asia.info nameserver 10.19.168.5 search microsys-asia.info Of couse, replace the domain and ip with your own. Notice, only your first nameserver is being specified here and listed against its IP. The "search" clause tells the server to dig into the system if it can't find the first nameserver and try to track the other ones. Also if you have more than one nameservers, you should list them serially here with multiple nameserver clauses, like: nameserver xx.xx.xx.xx nameserver yy.yy.yy.yy nameserver zz.zz.zz.zz and so on... Save and quit. Step 9 - Restarting "named" or the DNS Server We are more or less done. All that remains now is to restart the name daemon to load the modified configuraiton info. Execute the following command: CONSOLE shell> service named restart Alternatively, you can use: /etc/rc.d/init.d/named restart You should see something like: CONSOLE Stopping named: [ OK ] Starting named: [ OK ] If you see bthis - we are ALL SET and ready to go. If you get an error message saying, "rndc: connect failed: connection refused", IGNORE. It doesn't really matter till you are hooked onto the outside world. Step 10 - Final Step: Check your nameserver Use the tools named "nslookup" and/or "dig" to check if your nameserver is resolving properly. CONSOLE shell> dig microsys-asia.info OR shell> nslookup microsys-asia.info On my system, dig reports: CONSOLE shell> dig microsys-asia.info ; <<>> DiG 9.2.3 <<>> microsys-asia.info ;; global options: printcmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 21513 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;microsys-asia.info. IN A ;; Query time: 1 msec ;; SERVER: 10.19.168.5#53(10.19.168.5) ;; WHEN: Thu Feb 3 03:12:27 2005 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 36 This means all is WELL and we are DONE. Have fun and if you need clarifications on any part, please don't hesitate to post here and I'll try to make suitable ammends to the tutorial and reply to your posts as well. Best of luck & Cheers

All right - problem solved. Don't bother any more. I figured it out today after a loooong session of tweaking around with the values. Maybe I'll chalk up a tutorial on it. Thanks all the same...:)P.S. - Ya - I went ahead and wrote up a tutorial on it - it's posted in the Howto's section now. Have fun.

If you are using anything later than mandrake 9 - it does select the windows partition and automounts it during the installation process. Other windows partitions have to be added on later though by modifying the file "/etc/fstab". Mandrake, SuSe etc are good for home users and standalone desktops - but utter **** if you are trying to run even a local server with 3-4 clients. If you ever get to that consider using Fedora Core or Redhat Enterprise. oh and about using common windows app files (word, excel etc.) - make sure your linux distro contains OpenOffice - that will handle all of them fine

Ya - named.conf exists, so dose resolv.conf and the named.local too...Let me tell you what I did step by step:1. First ran rndc_config_gen to generate the rndc keys2. included the generated key in the named.conf file and for say my own domain, xxx - created a zone in named.confzone "ns1.xxx" { type master; file "/var/named/ns1.xxx.db";}; and a reverse zonezone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" IN { type master; file "named.local"; allow-update { none; };};3. Modified the file /var/named/ns1.xxx.db to contain:$TTL somevalue;ns1.xxx. 14400 IN A myServerIPlocalhost. ns1.xxx 14400 IN A 127.0.0.1 - umm.. after that I kind got lost and saved he file and tried to do nslookup/dig on my domain .... didn't quite work out. I'll go through the page you posted and let you know... It'll be quite helpful though, if you can give me a sample of your named.conf, resolv.conf and the zone file and your domain name - maybe I can go through the params and figure out what to do...Thanks

Hi, I've ended up in a dumb stupor having spent a good deal of time - trying to spot the config option from where I can change the page header banner where it says: =============yourdomain.comA _little_ text to describe your forum============== in the big bold black...And another place right below the phpBB logo, which says: yourdomain.com Forum Index .... How do I change these ?Thanks