VPN Setup With LT2P & IPSEC
For anyone who's tried to setup VPN it is without a doubt a "black art". The information given by most sites on the net is incomplete, incorrect and sometimes just plain stupid. We setup VPN a while back at work with PPTP and after an initial learning curve managed it relatively easily. We quickly learnt that PPTP is not a very secure method to use and started to setup a L2TP/IPSec connection, this is where the fun really started!
CrashPlan Online Backup on QNAP TS-210 NAS
Installing CrashPlan on my QNAP TS-210 NAS in headless mode means that I have an instant online backup of all of my archive data stored on my NAS drive. CrashPlan keeps revision history of all my files, allowing me to recover my NAS to a state at any date should I lose data or overwrite something.
Converting CVSNT to Linux CVS
Today at work we swapped from using CVSNT on a Windows server machine to using CVS for linux on a QNAP NAS storage box. All appeared to be working fine until I checked out a file that was committed as a binary file. I quickly realised that half of the repository was corrupt (i.e. all binary files). After a little bit of research it was clear that CVSNT and CVS for linux are not directly compatible any more as they store the fact that a file is binary in a different format.
In each repository file there are entries that specify file formats, cvs comments, versions, etc. In amongst these is a flag that specifies the file type.
A file specified as binary in CVSNT has a line reading (where the space is actually a tab):
kopt b;
A file specified as binary in CVS has a line reading (where the space is actually a tab):
expand @b@;
Bootable USB Drive
If you need to boot of a usb drive in order to install an operating system then follow these steps on a Windows machine in order to make the drive bootable.
C:\Windows\system32>diskpart
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 149 GB 0 B
Disk 1 Online 3834 MB 0 B
Disconnect from a network share in Vista
Vista recently kept refusing to allow me to login to my NAS share because it was already connected with another user/session. I resolved this by forcing the connection to be disconnected.
From the command prompt enter:
Squid: Transparent Cache
This is my step by step instructions for how I setup Ubuntu server as a transparent Squid web cache.
Note: This post is by no means a definative guide on setting up a server, or squid, but is just the steps I took in getting it working in its most basic form.
- Install Ubuntu Server 9.10
- Logon to the server and login as root
- "sudo su"
Ubuntu Server: Up and running
I've spent a few days reading up and have managed to successfully (and fairly pain-lessly) setup Ubuntu Server 9.10. So far I have setup a clean install, installed OpenSSH and Squid and setup routing so that the Squid Caching is transparent to clients using the box as a gateway.
The server is setup with only one network card with 2 subnets, the system forwards requests on the HTTP port to the Squid port and provides a transparent cache. Requests coming in from either subnet pass through the server correctly however that is no isolation between the two networks.
Next I want to setup a 2nd network card and firewall between the two networks. I also want to setup Apache/PHP and serve an admin GUI for the system.
Step-by step configuration to follow....
Linux
For many years I have meant to really get to know Linux and how to set it up in a server environment. For one reason or another I have never got round to it.
I have decided to get my act together and attempt to setup a server box to replace my cable router and wireless access point, installing any other useful services like file sharing and website caching. As I progress I'll update this blog and eventually compile a page of my findings and usage notes.
Apache & PHP Setup
A page I have imported from my old site is my very quick and simple guide for setting up Apache with PHP on windows. Please visit the page here.
VPN Setup using L2TP & IPSEC in Windows 2003
I have added a page describing how I setup VPN using L2TP & IPSEC at my workplace in a Windows 2003 environment. Please visit the page here.
