Biache is my proxy server. That is the computer
that is currently serving up this exact page. She got her name because
she is she was a bitch to get up. People who know me from my high school
days, know where the term "biache" came from. Some people have a problem
with the fact that the word bitch is, by some, considered to be a bad word.
Well, I agree. However, thats just the way that things just worked
out, unfortunately. Plans are in the works to eventually fix this,
however that involves me shelling out some money, which is something that
I have not had do to for this yet.
Biache is a Cyrix 166 running Debian Linux. People
who know Cyrix know that they did what AMD does today. An AMD XP 1800+
runns at 1533MHz. Well, the Cyrix 166 runs at 133. The only difference
here is that a AMD 1800+ has 3600 BogoMIPS where as my Cyrix has approximately
75. The computer has 64MB of PC-66 ram (2x32M) (Yes, the expensive
stuff), a 6 Gigabyte hard drive, a no name 56K V.90 ISA jumperable modem,
and an antique legasy card to work my Hewlett Packard Desk Jet 695C and read
the UPS, a 150VA cheapo from BestBuy. The only valuable part of the
computer is a 3COM 905B TX with PXEBoot (which I never use) that I picked
up for about $5 at the Timonium BRATS hamfest. (Go Hamfest!) Andrew
Curtis (great friend) donated (more like I rescued it from the trash) the
CPU, motherboard, and case which had a 150W AT power supply. The rest
I got at computer shows or hamfests. I'd say that in all, I've spend
about $50 on the computer as a whole.
On the software side of the computer, cheap is also a predominant
theme. The computer runs Debian Linux with a couple pieces of experience
and TLC from me. The computer runs two copies of Apache, one for standard
HTTP requests and one that uses the SSL socket plugin. It is also a
transparent caching proxy server. It runs a 500MB Squid cache, a 512KB
named DNS cache, wwwoffle - an offline web cache, and junkbuster in that
effect. It uses the IP state machine to create a multi state firewall
based on Linux V. 2.4.19 iptables that keeps it pretty secure. I recieve
about 12 hack attempts daily, and have been able to fend off every one of
them for the past year. In addition to a strong firewall, I also run
snort for network intrusion, tripwire for file sytem checksumming, and a
log checker that scans all 60 system logs for annomolies on an hourly basis
and mails the system administrator with it's findings.
In addition to being a webserver and a proxy server it is a mail server
runnig Horde, wu-imapd, solid-pop3d, and the Exim MTA. For local mail
acces, mailx and pine are available. It is also a UPSd server for my
packet node which shares the same UPS, and a remote X server capable of serving
X, VNC, and VNC-java. Additionally, it does some basic network management
VIA dhcp, and some clustering. It also acts as a netbios wins server
and uses samba's nmbd to answer wins requests for clients on the local network.
I don't use SMB to much, instead I use NFS. Biache serves a portion
of the filesystem via NFS as well, and acts as a translation between NFS
and SMB using common public shares, and allows me to centralize some of my
key files that are accessed between my 7 computers. For one of
those computers, a laptop, it is also a bootp server. The laptop uses
PXEboot to fetch and download the second stage bootloader, etherboot. Etherboot
then loads a slackware linux kernel and the laptop runs diskless, mounting
it't root partition VIA NFS from the proxy as well. Biache also acts
as a CVS server for me. I work for Patton Electronics and frequently
need access to my source code when I am not at work, to work on in my spare
time. The CVS server allows me to access version control anywhere in
the world, and the python based web interface provides a relatively secure,
yet easy to access method of accessing my work on any platform.
In Biache's future include possible use of the ht://dig site search, as well
as CVS support VIA e-mail. Allowing me to check in files using the
web mail interface, or any pop3 / imap client., and check out via web tarballs.
Also, I'd like to learn how to better use the MySQL database that I
have installed. (MySQL is used by Horde and ViewCVS) Other developments
are in the future, such as a DNS server, and a registered domain.
Some people wonder how I can do all this on a simple 56K dial up line. Well,
this is how: I use CompuServe classic (a 24.95/mo ISP) as my gateway.
I use my system as it's own ISP. I use pppd to initiate a dialup
connection and keep it alive. CompuServe has sufficient IP addresses
so my address does not change during a dialup session. CompuServe has
a relyable RAS system, so I get fewer dropouts. A typpical dial up
session can last up to two weeks. If the connection goes down, pppd
dials back up and re-establishes the connection. For DNS, I use the
DNS client provided by NO-IP.com. This client reads the address associated
with my ppp0 device every 3 minutes, or so, and compares it with the last
known good value. If it changed, it notifies the NO-IP.com root servers.
Those servers then propogate the address change. When a DNS client
requests a name form the NO-IP server, they respond authoritative, with a
lifetime of 3 seconds so most DNS caches won't cache it. Instead they
request the lease on every access. Thank goodness NO-IP.com has root
servers in NewYork, Dallas, and LosAngeles, as well as several other sites
around the world. Bottom line, if my connections goes down, it should
take less than 15 minuntes to propogate throughout the internet, resulting
in a very short down time.
So, what's the deal with the Labs? The labs, or what labs I have left,
were originally written in Sun Microsystem's StarOffice v 5.2. StarOffice
has an html export option. However, due to limitations in HTML, an
imperfect html export algorythm, and limitations in many web browsers, the
labs are usually less than perfect. Therefore I do not indend to use
the web based labs for a grade. Instead, I use Biache's print server
capabilities to print the page dirctly from StarOffice. The labs are
intended for reference only, and to show the progress that the labs have
made over the years. Also, I hope to reduce the number of lost labs,
as a year ago, I lost a whole semester full of labs, my most devastating
loss ever. Have fun browsing through the labs. Again, if you
don't understand anything, feel free to let me know. I can be reached
at webmaster@biache.sytes.net.
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