skel: contains default scripts for setting session environment.
Backup
Rule of thumb: back up all the configuration files (under /etc)
before making any updates.
Network Administration
This section primarily focuses on the Internet services
related to two major TCP/IP transport protocols:
TCP and UDP which uses abstract destination points
called ports as communication end points.
For establishing a small network, refer to this
page regarding fast Ethernet.
Netcfg: is a shell script, which invokes
/usr/lib/rhs/netcfg/netcfg.py with GUI
interface for hostname, hosts file
network interface card and routing configuration.
Networking configuration files include:
(/etc/hosts, /etc/sysconfig/{network,static-routes},/etc/network-scripts/*)
# ifconfig eth0 10.10.10.1 netmask 255.0.0.0 up #Host connected to the ISP
# ifconfig eth0 10.10.10.2 netmask 255.0.0.0 up #Host not connected to ISP
# route add default gw 10.10.10.1 eth0 #Use the host connected to
ISP as the gateway
# ifconfig eth0:1 192.168.30.128 netmask 255.255.255.0
# route add -net 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 eth0
----------------------------------------------------------
| Network | Netmask | Network Addresses |
| Class | | |
----------------------------------------------------------
| A | 255.0.0.0 | 0.0.0.0 - 127.255.255.255 |
| B | 255.255.0.0 | 128.0.0.0 - 191.255.255.255 |
| C | 255.255.255.0 | 192.0.0.0 - 223.255.255.255 |
| D,E,F | 240.0.0.0 | 224.0.0.0 - 239.255.255.255 |
----------------------------------------------------------
Subnet addressing is used by system administrators in order to
further subdivide an Internet address within an organization.
This will increase the number of subnets with the cost of reducing
number of hosts.
Classless Interdomain Routing:
CIDR provides the mechanisms for breaking networks into "subnets", and
combining networks into "supernets". It uses < prefix, length >
notation. E.g. 172.16.2.0/23
Broadcast address refers to all hosts on the network.
Traditionally all Host ID with all 1s is used as
broadcast address. All 0s refers to "this".
- Class A: comprises networks 1.0.0.0 through 127.0.0.0. The
network number is contained in the first octet. This provides
for a 24 bit host part, allowing roughly 1.6 million hosts.
- Class B: contains networks 128.0.0.0 through 191.255.0.0; the
network number is in the first two octets. This allows for
16384 (16320) nets with 65534 (65024) hosts each. Lost 2.
Note: 1 class B = 256 class C nets.
Host ID and subnet masks of all 0s and all 1s
are used for broadcasts. So you will lost 2 host
addresses. Class B uses the 3_d byte for
for subnet mask. Two subnets are lost and each
has 255. Therefore 510 host addresses are lost.
- Class C: networks range from 192.0.0.0 through 223.255.255.0,
with the network number being contained in the first three
octets. This allows for nearly 2 million networks with up to
254 hosts. Lost 2. (all 1s and 0s)
- Classes D, E, and F: addresses falling into the range of 224.0.0.0
through 254.0.0.0 are either experimental, or are reserved for
future use such as
multicast
and don't specify any network.
-----------------------------------------------------------
| RESERVED PRIVATE NETWORK ALLOCATIONS |
-----------------------------------------------------------
| Network | Netmask | Network Addresses |
| Class | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------
| A | 255.0.0.0 | 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255 |
| B | 255.255.0.0 | 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255 |
| C | 255.255.255.0 | 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255 |
-----------------------------------------------------------
Services
-
DNS server and client. The most popular
DNS server
is BIND
(Berkeley Internet Name Domain) implemented by Internet Software Consortium
To configure a dns client, you only have to update two files:
/etc/resolv.conf & /etc/nsswitch.conf
domain origin.com
nameserver 10.10.10.5
hosts: files dns
To install and configure a dns server, see
this readme for details.
- NFS: /usr/sbin/exportfs, /etc/exports
/opt h1.origin.com(ro) h2.origin.com(ro)
-
Samba: implements
CIFS protocol to provide file and print services for Windows clients.
You may also refer to
the integration of
Samba into MS-Win world.
-
Sendmail server [25]: the most popular mail transfer agent.
The latest version
may be found under
this site.
Configuration files: /etc/{sendmail.cf,sendmail.cw,aliases}
# file containing names of hosts for which we receive email
Fw/etc/mail/sendmail.cw
# my official domain name
# ... define this only if sendmail cannot automatically determine your domain
Dj$w.origin.com
- Pop3 server [110]:
Qpopper supports POP3 protocol for downloading
Internet e-mail using software clients. Qpopper does not
include a message transfer agent or SMTP support.
pop3 110/tcp # Post Office in services file
pop3 stream tcp nowait root /sbin/qpopper qpopper -s # inetd.conf
- IMAP [143]: similar to POP3 except IMAP allows allow
users to maintain mail folders on the server.
- LDAP server [389]: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is
a protocol for accessing online directory services.
Both Ldap 3.3
and OpenLDAP 1.2.7 provide
client libraries to
support LDAP feature in sendmail. Netscape has ported
DS4.11 to Linux.
- Mailing list server:
majordomo is a full-blown free
mailing list server that is written in Perl
and relatively easy to set-up, it supports moderated lists as well.
-
Wu-ftp server [21]: the most popular free file transfer protocol
server. Be sure that all the files under the $HOME
of ftp are owned by root. Two configuration files (
/etc/{shells,ftpusers}) are for determining which shells and
which users are allowed to invoke ftp command. Make sure that $HOME/ftp/etc/passwd's password
entry contains "*".
- Apache [80]: the most popular
Web server. See
Enterprise Integration Servers for details. In the November 1999 survey,
Netcraft received responses from
8,844,573 sites.
Developer | October 1999 | Percent | November 1999 | Percent | Change |
---|
Apache | 4355658 | 53.67 | 4847992 | 54.81 | 1.14 |
Microsoft | 2023591 | 24.93 | 2145461 | 24.26 | -0.67 |
Netscape | 627571 | 7.73 | 653800 | 7.39 | -0.34 |
Traditionally, all the X Window System files are stored
under /usr/X11R6/{bin,lib,man,doc,include}.
Configuration information are detailed under this link.
Miscellaneous
- Gnome control-center: to bring up Gnome
control-center window, click on the footprint icon. You may
select Settings -> Multimedia -> Sound to enable sound service.
You may have to
reconfigure your kernel to recognize the sound card on your system.
To paly CD, bring up xplaycd under graphics mode (i.e. X11).
- control-panel: GUI tool for
general system management such as lilo,
system clock, printer, sound, network, kernel, SW packages installation
and uninstallation.
Note: For configuring parallel port printer, make
sure that the kernel is configured properly. dmesg |grep -i lp
should show which lp port is configured. If no text displayed, remake
kernel with parallel port printer support under the menu of character
device.
If you are running Gnome, click on the foot print of Gnome
panel. Select AnotherLevel -> Adminstration -> Printer Tool.
Click 'ignore' about when an error message appears.
Select 'Add' -> Local Printer -> OK -> OK -> Select Input Filter
-> OK -> OK.
For printing different file formats (such as postscript)
under Unix, you need to install
apsfilter. Apsfilter contains a SETUP shell script
for install and configuring printcap file based upon
a wide selection of different
printers.
CUPS is a web tool for configuring printers including unsupported
printers. Software may be found
here
For HP printers, check this
web site. Apsfilter does not come with a
GUI tool for installation and configuration.
Apsfilter will create a
printcap file which is a cryptic text configuration for printer.
-
Zip driver also works well under Linux.
Be sure to select built-in in the following items when making
a new kernel (get 2.2.14+):
General Setup -> Parallel port support
SCSI support -> SCSI low-level -> IOMEGA parallel port (ppa - older drives)
IOMEGA parallel port (imm - newer drives)
ppa/imm option - Use slow (but safe) EPP-16
ppa/imm option - Assume slow parport control register
-
Webmin: Web interface for general system management regarding
tweaking
DNS, sendmail and system reboot.
- Reset system clock: /usr/bin/date -> /sbin/hwclock --systohc [--utc]
One may also use rdate and xntpd to set date from remote host.
- modem: avoid PCI winmodem.
- ppp (point-to-point protocol): for exchanging
IP frames (and others) over a serial link; which is
the standard protocol for connecting to ISPs.
The kernel has to be configured with
ppp module or loaded via "insmod" if you don't want to
recompile the kernel. Refer to this
how to for PPP hook up.
For ADSL
connection, you need
install PPPoe client.
For connecting to worldNet with linux, refer to
this page. There are many other free
ppp tools to make life easier.
There are casese that you may
have to use the latest version of
ppp daemon.
- wget: is a neat tool web pages download. For
retrieving a whole web site, you may enter "wget -r http://www.some.com".
The "r" option stands for recursive retrieval. You may also specify what
type of files should be rejected (such as "gif" files.). Once your system
connects to an ISP, you may kick of wget as a batch job without
running X server at all. The next day, you may start up X and netscape
to surf web pages retrieved overnight.
-
IP Masquerading is a way to share one single
phone line (or DSL/Modem Cable) to the Internet.
You need to set up a private network with a hub/switch (or two modems)
and designate a Linux box running as the gateway which connects to
the Internet via ISP. On the rest of the systems, you need to
configure a default gateway with the IP address of the Linux.
This can be accomplished by
using the 'network' icon under Win/NT or Win98 to configure default
gateway. For other linux boxes, add
an entry such as GATEWAY=IP_ADDRES_OF_THE_LINUX_BOX into
/etc/sysconfig/network or use netcfg to define default gateway.
You then run this
script or
this one
on the gatway (the Linux box connected to the ISP. You have to adjust).
the IP address in the script.)
- rdist: for maintaining same copies
of files on multiple hosts.
r host -l remuser rdistd -S
rdist -P /usr/local/bin/ssh -f myDistfile
A sample rdistFile:
HOSTS = ( herHost root@hisHost )
FILES = ( /usr/games /usr/lib )
EXLIB = ( Mail.rc aliases aliases.dir aliases.pag crontab
sendmail.cf )
(${FILES}) -> (${HOSTS})
install -oremove,chknfs ;
except /usr/lib/${EXLIB} ;
${FILES} :: /usr/local/lib/timestamp
notify me@workOnly;
References:
FAQs
T/TCP: TCP for Transactions
NTFS
Linux Docs
Linux HowTo
Basic Administration
Network Linux System Administration links
Printers
Samba
and networking at home
Printer
Printing Summit
LinuxPR
IDE CD-Write
Linux & NT Admin
Remote Administration
Starters for Linux
Journaling Filesystems
JFS
Sendmail on a Firewall
Lpr
PPPoe
Samba
Tripwire
Samba 2.2
DNS
DVD
Samba
Xine
ProcMail for mail filtering
Configuration files
XOSL
Samba
Amanda
KmyFirewal