a day in the life of wayne ward….

what ive noticed so far is smoothwall is pretty closed off and full of features which aint bad updates can be run from inside the gui
without having to download packages to my computer and upload them in. It also offers three options on install closed – open or half open, half open being the default which sounds ok but need to read more into! it has some strange plugins i never seen in ipcop such as sip filter and im filter – which if enabled you can live watch peoples conversations in a console LIVE! talk about snooping! also has a browser based console which could be handy i suppose?.. all the clam engine updates with the update manager and it looks like daily updates are under the hood ill have to poke into this a tad more! snort has been changed you now have to get a code from snort.org which you get after a free sign up and then you enter it when you enable it then it pulls down the latest snort rules. the web proxy has a transparent mode which will build itself into port 80 8080 so you dont have to put proxy settings into all the web browsers! saves hassle and you get a pop3 proxy. all this is passed through clam antivirus and spamassasin. The graphs for useage are live and very nice to look at and very detailed graphs on cpu / memory usage. Ssh is enabled by a tick box and then you have to ssh in using -p 222 switch to access the server, i see you can hack a config file and change this the standard 22 port i dont see much point. I have looked at some of the addons and some look pretty good – ill just leave this as it comes out of the box and install on site and see how it performs then ill expand on top of that to requirements. Ill update this later… Also you can sign up for free to get email updates on packages and the free version is restricted to one processor and I think a gig of ram.

The ipcop basically has the same install as smoothwall as it was a branch from it. I noticed it never asked if i wanted open / closed or half closed so i expect its open?? Its seems very cut down and the packages out of date – infact it was pretty useless till i added the copfilter package were a gained a extra tab with clam & various proxies and monit which emails you problems. The update system could see what needed updating but i had to update the packages manually. Now with ipcop each section has plenty of configurable options which was a bit over the top and if you change something you can quiet easily kill the box. I set this up in a virtualbox with two nics and ran though it for a few days – i then tested it on the box and it was fine – when i came to install on site and use it – it died three times and just ran like a pile of crap? I noticed there are a lot more addons and its very configurable a lot more than smoothwall – but i also noticed as you start adding the functions its starts getting real hungry – i think ill pass on this for a while and come back and try when its a tad better…… ill update soon with some more linux firewalls im testing and the results of the smoothwall in corporate use…

id go for smoothwall so far…..

Im just moving service providers and phone provider and have a 20 day switch over – so I purchased a mifi adapter which I blogged about below. One of the problems stated was it wont let email relay out for my domain name. So ive had to use webmail provided to me from my hosting company. The choices i have are Horde – SquirrelMail and RoundCube. Ive always used horde as being a kolab user it comes bundled with it.. horde it pretty lean and has other features including mail – tasks and its very configurable probably a bit over the top for someone who isnt very technical – one of its good points is a white list and blacklist for killing spam now SquirrelMail on the other hand is very cut down and very lean it comes with address book and you can see your imap folders, you can add a signature and thats about it! id say not very nice to look at but does the job fast. Roundcube now this is basically the same as squirrelmail very cut down with the same features address book and signature and access to imap folders, no tasking or calendars but it looks great – i like the option Focus browser window on new message! so if your looking for lots of features go for horde if you want cut down go for squirrelmail if you want it more pleasing on the eye without all the tasking and other productivity addons roundcube is great. Check out the main sites for more info:

Horde
SquirrelMail
RoundCube

Tonight I started by picking up new member phil for 19.50 to get to the brit for 20.00. When we arrived but no other members were present I said to phil andy is usually here before me so carried on to the bar and got the usual pint of cider and phil a J20.. Not much longer had we sat down andy arrived with another new member dave! which was a surprise as I never knew we had another member showing! We talked about what dave and phil used and phil talked about working for IBM and showed us his brail laptop which was quiet interesting. Phil talked about programming and embedded linux which was quiet interesting and we talked about programming on the multi platform game second life – which the client can be downloaded for free and installed on linux – mac and doze.
The conversation strayed of to items not usually covered by the group but hey were all up for different things and were all pretty open minded people! Next month is the lancaster lug xmas bash which will be held on the second wednesday of the month and ill be putting on some free grub for the lads!! so again we can just go with the flow! next year we can look at getting it back online again with some demos etc!!!!
But the group is still going strong and thanks to all that turned up
Im just looking forward to the xmas bash now hoo hoo hooo!!

im working on caravansforexport.com – they basically export touring caravans worldwide – im just building business in australia and new zealand – spain portugal and poland next.
They have quite a good range actually of over a hundred caravans in stock which is pretty good and the export price is very competitive. Check them out here www.caravansforexport.com

I was looking at a wifi dongle to take onsite with with me incase I need internet connection, one thing I hate about a dongle is that they can easily snap I cant tell you how many I have fixed over the past year. Anyway I decided to drop my phone connection and service provider for another setup and I wanted to set it all up with a new number which is going to take 21 days and maybe some down time! aaghh! so I took the plunge and have the dongle for backup. Now the dongle cost me £50 from the 3 shop on a deal – the dongle is called mifi, nice slick little box. What I like about the box is it plus into the mains and it takes a charge so you can take it out with you if required, the functions are great – you get a power button – wifi button and a internet button, so if you want the kids of at a certain time and dont know how to setup access times just take this unit to bed with you and switch it off when your ready!!! easy!
This box says up to five wireless connections which is the usual amount of laptops in a house nowadays. I basically unpacked inserted the sim card – inserted the battery – plugged into the mains – switched on and switched on wireless and internet on the side buttons – looked for wireless connections on the mac – entered wireless key – opened my browser – inserted www.three.co.uk – went to my account added the top up voucher code and I was away!!! ive been using it for three days now and the internet speed is great for emailing and browsing. The top up was £15 for 3 gig which should last a month as long as you dont start downloading. The only thing I have to moan at is I cant send emails from my mail client as its stopping on the domain so I have to use the webmail to send emails which isnt bad but just a tad annoying when im paying for bandwidth – but hey this is the kind of world we live in! I would advice the general punter with a few laptops dotted in the house without the cost of a land line go mifi

check it out!!

if your car gets a tad hot and you decide to remove the cap if you think you have released the steam and pressure by letting some steam out think again!? use a towel or something incase the top blows off – I never did the day before my holiday and received second degree burns and it burnt like hell!! I kept my hand in cold water (not ice cold thats not good) for three hours which killed the burning pain the next day – trust me it works !! and don’t burst the blisters this only creates infection just cover the damn thing with witch-hazel cream and a fresh bandage every day and keep it clean and it will heal well!! Dont ever take risks like this the day b4 your holiday like a dumb ass like me!!
:-O