Liberty Systems & Software

Background

I first came across HP's A5500 switches when i started looking at configuring VRRP and distributed trunking to provide routing redundancy for the core of a client's campus network using two ProCurve 5400 switches. I found that i could get a new pair of A5500s for around the same price as the software license upgrade on the 5400s (multicast routing, distributed trunking, and OSPF cost extra), and they came with a much broader range of features.

Just a quick post today - here's a great article from Cory Doctorow on his computing experiences with Ubuntu and Lenovo ThinkPad X series.

Last week i made some fairly significant changes on a client's production firewall/routing cluster during our maintenance window.  The next morning there were reports of file server drives not connecting correctly and inaccessible web sites.  Because all wireless-to-wired and Internet traffic goes through this cluster, the firewall changes were the obvious culprit.  Looking at the logs it turned out we had run out of space in the connection tracking table:

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One of my clients had some very interesting Internet traffic statistics last week.  We came in Thursday morning and found that overnight we had downloaded over 700 GB of data from our ISP (UQ SchoolsNet).

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To install on CentOS 5.5, follow these steps:

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I have to deal with a lot of different software in my various roles.  Lots of it is good, but there's always the odd software package that makes me want to run ahead of it with a loud, clanging bell, shouting "Unclean! Unclean!"  Here are a few such packages which i've encountered lately:...

CSO Magazine recently released a bunch of really useful security resources. Check them out:

• 10 essential (and free!) security downloads for Windows
• Five free penetration testing tools
• Five steps to successful and cost-effective penetration testing