BSD News
by Brett Taylor, David Brownlee, and Ejovi Nuwere

Walnut Creek CDROM set the record of transferring 417 gigabytes of files in one day, surpassing Microsoft Corporation's record of transferring approximately 350 gigabytes of files per day during the Windows95 release. Microsoft used more than 40 server machines to achieve the previous record, while Walnut Creek CDROM used a single 200MHz Intel Pentium Pro processor running FreeBSD. Read More

Desktop BSD
by Philip Salzman

FreeBSD is quite possibly the finest desktop OS I have ever used. I run everything on it, from software to listen to my audio compact discs (using cdcontrol or xmcd), to chatting on IRC using one of the array of clients I have installed. I also use it for word-processing (XEmacs), graphics (The Gimp), games, browsing the web, and an almost infinite number of other activities. Read More

Security Tip of the Month
by Jan Koum

Use Secure Shell instead of telnet, ftp, rsh, rlogin and many other insecure protocols. Secure Shell (SSH) can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/unix/security/login/ssh/. SSH supports many kinds of encryption protocols for your session to prevent data (including passwords) from traveling through the network in the clear text. It can also do compression for those of you with modem lines and neat port forwarding. It is compatible with libwrap (tcp wrappers), kerberos, s/key and many other protocols. SSH is very easy to install and use. Ports and packages are available for some BSD systems. Read More

Memoirs of a Unix Bigot
by Gary Kline

It is hard to believe that some companies still follow the Massive Program Paradigm: They build everything into separate, bloated masses of stand-alone code that are nearly impossible to debug. While the Ph.D.s that these corporations hire are strung out trying to figure what the hell went wrong, Unix-trained hackers are saving the day.

Creating new programs out of building blocks serves well in writing code for longer, more difficult projects -- say a tty or disk or printer driver -- or coding in entirely new realms, such as Xlib, or using the Xt Intrinsics packages. This genius is what Brian, Dennis, and Ken wrought; BSD played a major part in the earliest days of Unix. Read More

Strengthening Your System by Removing Unneeded Services
by Gentry Bieker

Many administrators out there on the internet run services that they don't really need, don't know about, or just don't care about. I find it almost funny to see people out there with IMAP, Pop-2, and Pop-3 services running on a server that will probably never see a piece of mail. The bottom line is just this: If you don't use it, why do you have it running? Read More

Newbie's Corner
by Chris Coleman

Let's face it, security and privacy are big issues. Users of your system are going to want to know that their files are safe from prying eyes. They want to be protected automatically and comprehensively, with each new file protected as it is created. Incorrectly set permissions on a file may allow unwanted access, cause programs to function improperly, or deny access to legitimate users. Read More

The Answer Man
by Gary Kline, Dirk Myers, and David Leonard

Have a question on how something works or why something isn't working? Read More

Under the Hood
by Ignatios Souvatzis

Traditional BSD kernels have only supported mapping IP addresses to Ethernet 6-byte MAC addresses (and the FDDI and Token-Ring lookalikes).

However, when dealing with other types of addresses like ARCnet, AX25 packet radio, etc. with a different length, more general aspects of the ARP mapping have to be implemented. This paper reports on the one-to-N mapping developed for NetBSD. Read More

The Answer Man
by Todd P Whitesel

Have a question on how something works or why something isn't working? Read More

Dæmon's Advocate
by Wes Peters

Welcome to the inaugural Dæmon's Advocate. This month, I will introduce myself and give you some idea what to expect from this column. Next month my ``better half,'' Greg Lehey, will do the same. While we don't expect to follow a set formula, you will at least be forewarned of some of the topics I may choose to disgust, er, discuss. Read More