BSD DevCenter Articles

Puffy and the Cryptonauts: What's New in OpenBSD 4.3 by Federico Biancuzzi
Another release of OpenBSD is imminent, which can mean only one thing... Federico Biancuzzi must be out with his virtual microphone interviewing all the major players to put together a roundup of what's new and interesting in OpenBSD 4.3. Read how a nasty little bug in DHCP was caught and fixed, and all the new features you can expect on May 1st. 04/29/2008

What's New in FreeBSD 7.0 by Federico Biancuzzi
After much anticipation, FreeBSD is approaching a milestone release, 7.0. As with all major happenings in the BSD world, Federico Biancuzzi, our man in the streets, has interviewed dozens of major contributors to put together this report on what's new and hot. 02/26/2008

Puffy's Marathon: What's New in OpenBSD 4.2 by Federico Biancuzzi
OpenBSD 4.2 is being released today, and as our faithful BSD interviewer can attest, there's a ton and a half of new features to marvel at. Federico Biancuzzi interviewed 23 (!) of the OpenBSD developers and has this massive report to share. 11/01/2007

Subversion for BSD With All the Bells and Whistles by Jeff Palmer
Subversion is one of the leading source control systems in use today, but there are a bewildering assortment of add-ons and optional functionalities that you can integrate with it. Jeff Palmer recently implemented a full-blown SVN site on BSD, and has provided a step by step guide. 09/27/2007

A BSD Rootkit Primer by Federico Biancuzzi
We've all heard about Windows Rootkits, but open source operating systems aren't immune either. In this edition of Federico Biancuzzi's periodic BSD Interview series, he talks to Joseph Kong, author of Designing BSD Rootkits about creating and defending against rootkits. 05/31/2007

OpenBSD 4.1: Puffy Strikes Again by Federico Biancuzzi
OpenBSD 4.1 has recently been released. It includes improvements to spam fighting, SMP, porting to new platforms, and much more. As usual, Federico Biancuzzi has sought out some of the most influential OpenBSD developers for a discussion of what you'll find in 4.1 05/03/2007

Making NetBSD Multiboot-Compatible by Julio M. Merino Vidal
The i386 boot process is as crufty as you'd expect from decades of stagnation. Booting your OS could be much easier--that's why the GRUB hackers developed The Multiboot Specification. Julio M. Merino Vidal explains why Multiboot exists, what it can do for you, and how he modified the NetBSD kernel to work with it. 03/01/2007

Inside PC-BSD 1.3 by Dru Lavigne
iXsystems' recent acquisition of PC-BSD hasn't slowed the development of the desktop-capable FreeBSD distribution. Version 1.3 is out and available. Dru Lavigne talks with PC-BSD developers about the new release and their plans to continue to make an effective, efficient, and usable free desktop operating systems. 01/25/2007

Greylisting with PF by Dan Langille
Greylisting--delaying mail delivery briefly per the SMTP RFCs--is an effective way to reduce the amount of incoming spam. While many greylisting solutions require customization of your SMTP server, OpenBSD's PF can do it too. Dan Langille shows how to use the powerful packet filter to identify and pass legitimate mail, delay and divert potential spammers, and throw in some OS fingerprinting to ward off certain zombie clients. 01/18/2007

Fun with Xorg by Dru Lavigne
Xorg includes several useful utilities and features that almost no one knows about. You can accelerate your display, nest one X server in another, distribute your session across multiple monitors on different machines, and watch a session on another machine. Dru Lavigne explains. 12/07/2006

Why iXsystems Bought PC-BSD by Dru Lavigne
PC-BSD is a distribution of FreeBSD intended to make installing and maintaining a poweful and free Unix system easy. iXsystems is a vendor of powerful computer systems built on free Unix systems. The latter recently acquired the former. In an interview with BSD guru Dru Lavigne, the principals of both groups explain why the new collaboration makes a lot of sense. 10/23/2006

Sharing Internet Connections by Dru Lavigne
Protecting your computer when you're online is good. If you have multiple computers in your home or small business, protecting all of them is also good--especially if you can share your internet connection. Dru Lavigne demonstrates how to allow other computers to use the network safely with a FreeBSD or similar Unix system and fwbuilder. 10/05/2006

Confessions of a Recovering NetBSD Zealot by Federico Biancuzzi
Charles M. Hannum is one of the founders of the NetBSD project. He recently posted to the NetBSD list that the project has "stagnated to the point of irrelevance" and gave suggestions for improvement. As you might expect, this provoked strong reactions. Federico Biancuzzi recently interviewed Hannum about the past, present, and potential future of NetBSD. 09/14/2006

Using IPFW Rulesets with BSD Firewalls by Dennis Olvany
The IPFW firewall comes with FreeBSD, but its documentation isn't entirely clear. Dennis Olvany demonstrates how to create and maintain IPFW rulesets to keep you secure but also to prevent network outages during updates. 08/24/2006

Building a Desktop Firewall by Dru Lavigne
By now, many internet users know that they need a firewall to protect their computers while they're online. Knowing that doesn't convey the knowledge of how to create and maintain a firewall. A nice GUI firewall builder called fwbuilder makes it possible to set up a working firewall in ten minutes--on Linux, *BSD, and Mac OS X. Dru Lavigne shows how it works on FreeBSD. 08/03/2006

Using DesktopBSD by Dru Lavigne
A few user-friendly distributions of FreeBSD have appeared lately. DesktopBSD is a user-friendly variant of FreeBSD 5.5 that is suitable even for Unix novices. Dru Lavigne walks through the installation and use of DesktopBSD to provide a modern, powerful workstation. 07/13/2006

Using PC-BSD by Dru Lavigne
A few user-friendly distributions of FreeBSD have appeared lately. PC-BSD is one suitable for the corporate and home desktops, even those of users unfamiliar with Unix. Dru Lavigne walks through the installation and configuration of PC-BSD to provide a modern, powerful workstation. 05/11/2006

OpenBSD 3.9: Blob-Busters Interviewed by Federico Biancuzzi
Every six months, the OpenBSD team releases a new version of their OS. OpenBSD 3.9 is here. Federico Biancuzzi recently interviewed the core developers about new features and improvements, as well as their principled stand against shipping binary-only blobs in place of actual drivers. 04/27/2006

Building a FreeBSD Build System by Bjorn Nelson
Keeping a single BSD system up to date is relatively easy. Keeping a whole business full of servers fresh with patches and new applications and updates is more work--unless you take advantage of the ports system. Bjorn Nelson walks through the design and implementation of a build system usable to push fresh binaries to as many servers as you have. 04/13/2006

Virtualization with FreeBSD Jails by Dan Langille
Consolidating several small machines into one powerful one has advantages in administration and resource usage. It also has implications for security and encapsulation. FreeBSD's jails feature allows you to host multiple separate services on a single machine while keeping them securely separate. Dan Langille shows how. 03/09/2006

Network Filtering by Operating System by Avleen Vig
Some operating systems are better networking citizens than others. Depending on your network, you may want to prioritize traffic from certain machines over traffic from other operating systems--especially when the latest Windows worm strikes. Avleen Vig shows how to use pf, altq, and Squid on FreeBSD to shape your bandwidth with respect to the systems you run. 02/16/2006

Running Commercial Linux Software on FreeBSD by Michael W. Lucas
One intriguing feature of the BSDs is their ability to run binaries for Linux distributions. This can be very useful for running commercial software. Michael W. Lucas demonstrates how to configure and use the Linux compatibility layer on FreeBSD. 01/12/2006

Building Binary PC-BSD Packages by Dru Lavigne
Several BSD-based distributions have emerged recently--and a few are relevant to and accessible by end users. One such is PC-BSD, whose innovations include a binary package installation system. Of course, that requires people to build binary packages for it. Fortunately, as Dru Lavigne demonstrates, doing so is both easy and addictively fun. 01/05/2006

Inside NetBSD's CGD by Federico Biancuzzi
Security-minded laptop users live in fear of theft, not only of their computer but also of their precious secret data. NetBSD's CGD project is a cryptographic virtual disk that can protect sensitive data while acting like a normal filesystem. Federico Biancuzzi recently interviewed its author, Roland Dowdeswell, on the goals and implementation of the system. 12/21/2005

Using Software RAID-1 with FreeBSD by Dru Lavigne
Disk space is cheap, and putting multiple disks in a computer is relatively cheap. Taking advantage of redundant disks to protect against hardware failure is invaluable. Though some RAID solutions require special hardware, FreeBSD 5.0 and later support software RAID. Dru Lavigne shows how to configure and enable disk mirroring. 11/10/2005

Building Detailed Network Reports with Netflow by Michael W. Lucas
You can trace every packet on your network from source to destination, if you really want to. Having all of this information is useless unless you can actually find what you need to know. Netflow not only helps record traffic information but also can help you report on just the types of packets you want. Michael W. Lucas demonstrates. 10/27/2005

OpenBSD 3.8: Hackers of the Lost RAID by Federico Biancuzzi
Every six months, the OpenBSD team releases a new version of their OS. It's time for OpenBSD 3.8. Federico Biancuzzi recently interviewed the core developers about new features and improvements, as well as ongoing struggles to find support from hardware vendors. Here's what to expect when you upgrade. 10/20/2005

Lightweight Web Serving with thttpd by Julio M. Merino Vidal
Apache httpd is full of features and abilities, but sometimes it's too heavy for simple sites or static pages. In some cases, a simpler, lighter web server is a good alternative (or addition). Julio M. Merino Vidal demonstrates how to install and configure the simple, fast, and powerful thttpd to serve simple static and generated content very quickly. 10/13/2005

Running Cyrus IMAP by Francisco Reyes
As laptops and mobility become more effective and prevalent, your job as a system administrator is to provide users with easy, secure access to their data. IMAP is one way to allow users to receive email wherever they go. Cyrus IMAP is a popular server, but installation and configuration is a bear. Fortunately, Francisco Reyes has the answer in this tutorial on installing and configuring Cyrus IMAP with Postfix. 10/06/2005

Using FreeBSD's ACLs by Dru Lavigne
The standard Unix permissions scheme works fine if you have simple needs, but juggling groups and users can grow unwieldy very quickly. FreeBSD's Access Control Lists give you more control over who can access files and directories. Dru Lavigne explains how to enable, understand, and use them appropriately. 09/22/2005

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08/11/2005

Building an OpenBSD Live CD by Kevin Lo
Linux isn't the only operating system that boots and runs off a CD. OpenBSD does as well. Kevin Lo uses his for didactic purposes, but this is a good example for taking your desktop or firewall along with you. Here's how to build and customize an OpenBSD installation on a CD. 07/14/2005

The Month in BSD: April 2005 by Sam Smith
OpenBSD prepares for 3.7; FreeBSD gives a status report; NetBSD picks up streaming backups; DragonFly releases 1.2; and Apple releases Tiger. It all happened in April 2005, as Sam Smith reports. 05/05/2005

Tales of Rescuing Old Hardware by Mikhail Zakharov
If you're careful, you can often pick up viable hardware from companies throwing out machines too old to run the latest and greatest Windows software. This is viable for free Unixes, if you can get past the installation. Mikhail Zakharov walks through a tale of exploration, discovery, and patch-writing to install NetBSD over NFS through the serial port of a Pentium I-era Toshiba notebook. 05/05/2005

The Month in BSD: March 2005 by Sam Smith
ETech happens, OpenBSD goes after Adaptec for documentation (not "support"), NetBSD works with Xen, and DragonFly plans a big release. It all happened in March 2005--Sam Smith summarizes the BSD news. 04/07/2005

The Month in BSD: February 2005 by Sam Smith
February is the cruelest month, yet Theo wins an award for activism, DragonFly ponders backports to FreeBSD, and Apple revamps some hardware. Sam Smith summarizes the BSD news for February. 03/03/2005

FreeBSD Tips and Tricks for 2005 by Dru Lavigne
The nice thing about F/OSS is that it grows too fast for anyone to keep track of everything new. In her second annual exploration of new things she missed the first time around, Dru Lavigne discovers installed FreeBSD logos, CLI dialog boxes, rescue utilities, more articles, a run-level GUI, saved ports options, and RSS readers. 02/17/2005

The Month in BSD: January 2005 by Sam Smith
FreeBSD 4.11 comes out, NetBSD 2.0 wins a performance contest, OpenBSD lands on Sharp's Zaurus, and DragonFly BSD discusses SMP. Sam Smith reports the BSD news for January 2005. 02/10/2005

The Month in BSD: December 2004 by Sam Smith
OpenBSD switches to GCC 3, NetBSD releases 2.0, FreeBSD meets its donation mark, and DragonFly BSD starts to implement journaling. Sam Smith reports the BSD news for December 2004. 01/24/2005

The Month in BSD: November 2004 by Sam Smith
OpenBSD fights firmware license shenanigans, FreeBSD releases 5.3, and Europe holds a convention. Sam Smith summarizes the BSD news for November 2004. 12/02/2004

Inside EuroBSDCon 2004 by Federico Biancuzzi
European BSD fans recently had the opportunity to meet and talk during EuroBSDCon 2004. Federico Biancuzzi was there. Here are his thoughts from the conference and ideas on how to improve conferences for the rest of the European BSD community. 11/24/2004

The Month in BSD by Sam Smith
OpenBSD 3.6 is released, NetBSD has a new logo, and FreeBSD 5.3 is delayed. Sam Smith reports on October's BSD news. 11/04/2004

Hacking BSD, Part 2 by Dru Lavigne
Last week's excerpts from O'Reilly's BSD Hacks offered a few administrator tricks -- finding files easily, and managing disk space without reinstalling. This week's excerpt provides administrators and users alike with a hack on how to get the most out of FTP using macros and scripts. 06/17/2004

Hacking BSD, Part 1 by Dru Lavigne
In these two excerpts from O'Reilly's BSD Hacks, learn a few administrator tricks: make it easier for your users to find files in Unix, and add more temporary files or swap space without having to repartition. 06/10/2004

The Making of BSD Hacks by chromatic
Dru Lavigne, the author of BSD Hacks, and chromatic wanted to use open source tools to write and edit the book, so they turned to PseudoPOD and Subversion. chromatic writes about how they used these tools to collaborate, write, edit, and produce the book in record time. 06/03/2004

Hiding Secrets with Steganography by Dru Lavigne
Bad guys in the movies all keep their wall safes hidden behind paintings. Is there a metaphor in there for your sensitive files? Dru Lavigne explores steganography, or hiding secret messages in images or sounds, with the outguess and steghide utilities. 12/04/2003

Printing for the Impatient by Michael W. Lucas
While Unix has roots in document formatting and layout, configuring printers has always required more black-arts arcana. This hasn't been helped by the appearance of low-cost commodity WinPrinters. Fortunately, tools like Ghostscript, gimp-print, and Apsfilter make configuring printers much easier. Michael Lucas demonstrates quick and dirty -- and working -- printer configuration. 11/06/2003

Improving User Passwords with apg by Dru Lavigne
The biggest security weakness in any system is usually its users. One line of defense is choosing and enforcing a good password policy. The automatic password generator port can help your users create -- and remember -- effective passwords. Dru Lavigne demonstrates its use and configuration. 10/30/2003

Adding System Calls (an OpenBSD Example) by Kevin Lo
Kernel programming sometimes feels like a dark art where application programmers should never venture, but sometimes it's the right way to solve a problem. (Oh, and it's also very interesting.) One of the easiest places to start is by adding a new system call to a kernel. Kevin Lo explains how and why, with the OpenBSD kernel. 10/09/2003

Diving into Gcc: OpenBSD and m88k by Miod Vallat
Until recently OpenBSD's m88k port used an aging version of the GNU C Compiler, gcc. When an upgrade prevented the port from even compiling, the compiler had to be fixed. How do you track down errors in a compiler, where processor-specific optimizations rule and the debugger doesn't work? Miod Vallat explains the detective work required to fix gcc for OpenBSD's m88k port. 10/02/2003

Expanding Small NetBSD Systems by Michael W. Lucas
Now that you have NetBSD installed on your palmtop, what will you do with it? Customizing and enhancing the installation can be tricky, but what if you had access to much more disk space? Michael Lucas explains how to enhance your palmtop experience with NFS support, so you can build and install software. 09/25/2003

Cleaning and Customizing Your Ports by Dru Lavigne
One of FreeBSD's biggest benefits is its ports collection. It seems like magic, but a little maintenance can make it work even better for your system. Dru Lavigne explains how to keep your ports collection clean and how to customize individual ports. 09/18/2003

FreeBSD Jails by Mike DeGraw-Bertsch
A common security breach involves exploiting one application to gain access to another. Keeping separate applications separate can limit the potential damage. Mike DeGraw-Bertsch explains how FreeBSD's jails can help secure necessary applications. 09/04/2003

portupgrade by Dru Lavigne
One of FreeBSD's biggest benefits is its ports collection. Perhaps the most important ports utility is portupgrade. Dru Lavigne demonstrates how you can get the most out of your ports collection. 08/28/2003

Postfix: A Secure and Easy-to-Use MTA by Glenn Graham
While Sendmail runs half the mail servers in the world, there are smaller and easier-to-use mail transfer agents (MTAs). Network administrator Glenn Graham demonstrates how Postfix gives you most of the power with a fraction of the pain. 08/21/2003

FreeBSD Access Control Lists by Daniel Harris
The Unix permissions model has worked for decades due to its flexible simplicity. It's not the only approach, though. FreeBSD 5.0 supports Access Control Lists, which allow for more flexible permissions. Daniel Harris explains what ACLs can make easier. 08/14/2003

Ports Tricks by Dru Lavigne
One of FreeBSD's biggest benefits is its ports collection. You can go years without learning more than just make install clean, but there are dozens of features built into the ports tools. Dru Lavigne demonstrates several of these tricks to simplify your life. 08/07/2003

SMTP Proxies by Dru Lavigne
Now that you know all about proxies, you're ready to install and use an SMTP proxy. Why would you want to? To make your life easier. Dru Lavigne explores messagewall, a flexible SMTP proxy. 07/24/2003

The Essence of OpenBSD by Cameron Laird
A thousand open source projects quietly produce excellent code under the radar. What goes on in these projects? How do new people join? What motivation is there? Cameron Laird and George Peter Staplin interview several core OpenBSD developers. 07/17/2003

HTTP Proxies by Dru Lavigne
Now that you know all about proxies, you're ready to install and use an HTTP proxy. Dru Lavigne explores Squid and Middleman, two effective and powerful HTTP proxies. 07/03/2003

Changes in pf: Packet Filtering by Jacek Artymiak
OpenBSD's packet filter has really grown up. Since its introduction in OpenBSD 3.0, it's become an advanced tool for networking and security. In the third of four articles, Jacek Artymiak explores new options for packet filtering with pf in OpenBSD 3.2, after NAT and redirection have taken place. 06/26/2003

Proxy Terminology 101 by Dru Lavigne
You're probably reading this page through a proxy right now. You might be saving bandwidth, sharing an external IP address, or being protected from work-unsafe material, but could you tell a reverse proxy from an arp proxy? Dru Lavigne explains what these and other terms mean in preparation for installing and running proxies. 06/19/2003

Configuring a TFTP Server by Dru Lavigne
TFTP, the Trivial File Transfer Protocol, is ideal for devices such as routers and network-booting machines. With only a bit of EEPROM space and few utilities, how can you upgrade? Dru Lavigne demonstrates how to configure TFTP to serve hardware images. 06/05/2003

Palmtop NetBSD by Michael W. Lucas
"Of course it runs NetBSD." NetBSD's fantastically portable, but that doesn't make it supremely easy to install on oddball hardware like a Dreamcast or a palmtop computer. Michael Lucas demonstrates cross-installation with the HP Jornada 728. 06/05/2003

DHCP on a Multi-Segment Network by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne previously covered DHCP and its terminology and setting up a simple DHCP server. On a larger network, subnets and relaying make things a little trickier. This week she explains how to configure DHCP for a large network. 05/15/2003

Changes in pf: More on NAT by Jacek Artymiak
OpenBSD's packet filter has really grown up. Since its introduction in OpenBSD 3.0, it has become an advanced tool for networking and security. In the second of four articles, Jacek Artymiak presents a sample NAT and DMZ ruleset that is easily customized. 05/08/2003

Configuring a DHCP Server by Dru Lavigne
In her previous article, Dru Lavigne introduced DHCP and its terminology. This week, she explains how to configure a DHCP for a small and reasonably simple network. 05/01/2003

Introducing DHCP by Dru Lavigne
On all but the smallest TCP/IP network, it's handy to configure network information for computers automatically. That's what DHCP does. It's easy to act as a DHCP client, but configuring a server is a little trickier. Dru Lavigne introduces DHCP and explains what you need to know to setup a simple DHCP server. 04/17/2003

Staying Current with NetBSD by Michael W. Lucas
Open source never stands still. Even the flexible and mature BSDs are continuing to evolve. In this article, Michael Lucas looks at the NetBSD upgrade process, demonstrating the most common steps to stay abreast of the current source code. 04/10/2003

File Integrity and Anti-DDoS Utilities by Dru Lavigne
tripwire's not the only file integrity utility. Dru Lavigne explores aide and yafic, tools for making sure your system is clean of intrusion, and introduces utilities to detect DDoS programs. 04/03/2003

IRIX Binary Compatibility, Part 6 by Emmanuel Dreyfus
With IRIX threads emulated, it's time to emulate share groups, a building block of parallel processing. Emmanuel Dreyfus digs deep into his bag of reverse engineering tricks to demonstrate how headers, documentation, a debugger, and a lot of luck are helping NetBSD build a binary compatibility layer for IRIX. 04/03/2003

Checking System Integrity with tripwire by Dru Lavigne
In a secure system, everything has its place. If something's out of place, you'll know it. Dru Lavigne explains how tripwire, the file integrity utility, can monitor your system for anomalies. 03/20/2003

Hackers Meet Soldiers by George Peter Staplin
OpenBSD has a well-deserved reputation for fanatical security. Why is the U.S. military funding it? What do you get out of it? Cameron Laird and George Peter Staplin investigate. 03/13/2003

NAT with pf by Jacek Artymiak
OpenBSD's packet filter has really grown up. Since its introduction in OpenBSD 3.0, it has become an advanced tool for networking and security. In the first of four articles, Jacek Artymiak examines recent updates to pf. This week, he looks at Network Address Translation. 03/06/2003

Avoiding Trojans and Rootkits by Dru Lavigne
It's a sad reality that connecting to the Internet puts your computer at risk. Of course, there are several ways to mitigate that risk. Dru Lavigne explains a few good habits to reduce the danger and introduces tripwire, an open source file integrity utility. 03/06/2003

Creating Systrace Policies by Michael W. Lucas
The systrace project is spreading from Open and NetBSD to other free Unixes. Having introduced systrace in a previous column, Michael Lucas demonstrates how to write a systrace policy from scratch -- or use an existing one. 02/27/2003

PAM by Dru Lavigne
Last time, Dru Lavigne introduced one time passwords. Rather than an all-or-nothing approach, most free Unixes support several different authentication methods. This time, Dru explores PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules), which allow you to govern how users log on and authenticate themselves. 02/20/2003

chrooted ntpd in NetBSD by Emmanuel Dreyfus
Recently, support was added to the NetBSD Operating System to run the Network Time Protocol Daemon (ntpd) under an unprivileged user ID in a chroot jail. In the second of two articles, Emmanuel Dreyfus explains the changes required to allow ntpd to do its magic while chrooted. 02/13/2003

One-Time Passwords by Dru Lavigne
You've replaced telnet with ssh. You've instituted password-checking utilities, and you rotate passwords monthly. Still feeling paranoid? Dru Lavigne's got the answer -- one time passwords. This alternate authentication method for FreeBSD means your security won't be jeopardized even if someone sniffs your password. 02/06/2003

Systrace Policies by Michael W. Lucas
NetBSD and OpenBSD have an interesting new system policy manager called systrace. With the proper policies, system administrators can control which system calls can be made and how. Michael Lucas explains how this works and how to understand -- and write -- a good policy file. 01/30/2003

Securing Systems with chroot by Emmanuel Dreyfus
Recently, support was added to the NetBSD Operating System to run the Network Time Protocol Daemon (ntpd) under an unprivileged user ID in a chroot jail. In the first of two articles, Emmanuel Dreyfus explains buffer overflows -- a typical Unix security flaw, then explains a chroot jail and the motivation for running a program in it. 01/30/2003

Odds and Ends by Dru Lavigne
The end of year holidays bring a chance to reconnect with friends, family, and Unix. At least, they do in Dru Lavigne's household. The FreeBSD columnist shares a few odds and ends on getting to know Unix better. 01/23/2003

Patching OpenBSD by Jacek Artymiak
The nice thing about software is that you can patch it to fix problems. The tricky thing about software is that you have to patch it to fix problems. Your systems are only as secure as your patching strategy allows. Jacek Artymiak explains how to apply patches to your OpenBSD machines. 01/16/2003

Emmanuel Dreyfus Interview by chromatic
A recent update of the NetBSD Mach and Darwin binary compatibility page left several people wondering if OS X apps now ran nearly-natively. Emmanuel Dreyfus, one of the leaders of the project, has graciously agreed to an interview. What's this binary compatibility and what does it mean? 01/09/2003

Cryptosystems: Debugging IPSec by Dru Lavigne
You've learned about cryptosystems. You understand VPNs. You've installed IPSec. You'd like it to work. Take heart, Dru Lavigne's final installment of "Cryptosystems" explains how to debug IPSec. 01/09/2003

Cryptosystems: Configuring IPSec by Dru Lavigne
VPNs make it possible to have secure networks on top of the insecure public Internet. Having explained the concepts, Dru Lavigne's newest Cryptosystems article demonstrates how to configure IPSec. 12/26/2002

Downloading Files from Behind the Firewall by Jacek Artymiak
Securing your network often means saying "no" to some user requests and "try this instead" to others. Instead of punching holes in your firewall, can you educate your users to use better tools? Jacek Artymiak describes effective downloading utilities, and strategies to promote them. 12/19/2002

IRIX Binary Compatibility, Part 5 by Emmanuel Dreyfus
How do you emulate a thread model on an operating system that doesn't support native threads (in user space, anyway)? Emmanuel Dreyfus returns with the fifth article of his series on reverse engineering and kernel programming. This time, he explains thread models and demonstrates how NetBSD emulates IRIX threads. 12/19/2002

VPNs and IPSec Demystified by Dru Lavigne
How do you allow remote users to access resources on your network securely over an insecure connection? With a VPN. Never fear, Dru Lavigne's latest Cryptosystems column explains the concepts and terminology behind the technology. 12/12/2002

Cryptosystems: Configuring SSH by Dru Lavigne
Cryptosystems are handy, but they're not for everyone right out of the box. In her second article on SSH, Dru Lavigne explores some of the more common configuration options for clients and servers. 11/28/2002

BSD Disk Images by Michael W. Lucas
One of the best features of the free Unixes is customizability. The boot process is no different. In the latest installment of Big Scary Daemons, Michael Lucas demonstrates how to create disk images in OpenBSD and how to create your own custom boot floppy. 11/21/2002

The SSH Cryptosystem by Dru Lavigne
OpenSSH encrypts sessions between two machines, making packet sniffing much more difficult. In the second of a series on Cryptosystems, Dru Lavigne explores the default configuration of OpenSSH on FreeBSD and demonstrates how to enable key pair encryption. 11/14/2002

TRUSTSECURE 2002 Report by Jacek Artymiak
TRUSTSECURE 2002, the Polish IT security conference, brought together some of the brightest minds in security today. Jacek Artymiak was there. In the latest installment of his Securing Small Networks with OpenBSD column, he summarizes the highlights and puts on his prediction hat. 11/14/2002

Cryptographic Terminology 101 by Dru Lavigne
No matter how good your internal security, your data isn't safe if it's sent externally as plain text. To protect your sensitive information from prying eyes, you need cryptography. Dru Lavigne's latest column gives a crash course on this field's vital terminology. 10/31/2002

Simple Things to Improve Your System's Security by Jacek Artymiak
Jacek Artymiak returns with a grab bag of simple ways to enhance the security of your system. These techniques apply to OpenBSD in specific, the BSDs in general, and most Unixes. 10/31/2002

Playing Audio and Video Files with FreeBSD by Dru Lavigne
In the last of her multimedia series, Dru Lavigne explores utilities for enjoying common Internet audio and video formats under FreeBSD. 10/17/2002

IRIX Binary Compatibility, Part 4 by Emmanuel Dreyfus
Emmanuel Dreyfus tackles the chore of emulating IRIX signal handling on NetBSD. 10/10/2002

DVD Playback on FreeBSD by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne delves into the world of DVD playback and tests four applications from the ports collection to find one that suits her needs. 10/03/2002

Who Has Which Files by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas tackles the problem of unmounting a busy filesystem. Determine who the culprits are who are holding the files open using fstat. 09/26/2002

Using Sound on FreeBSD by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne continues configuring a multimedia workstation by demonstrating how to get sound working, and looking at some of the sound-related ports in the ports collection. 09/19/2002

IRIX Binary Compatibility, Part 3 by Emmanuel Dreyfus
Emmanuel Dreyfus shows us some of the IRIX oddities, the system calls that you will not see anywhere else. 09/19/2002

Sudo Aliases and Exclusions by Michael W. Lucas
The hardest part to using sudo is configuring sudoers, its permissions file. Michael Lucas shows how to simplify sudo maintenance and clean up your sudo configuration using aliases. 09/12/2002

Turn FreeBSD into a Multimedia Workstation by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne explores the world of FreeBSD on the desktop by rebuilding the system from source and installing all of the common desktop components. 09/05/2002

Eliminating Root with Sudo by Michael W. Lucas
As the system administrator, you're stuck between deciding to hand out the root password or doing everything for your users. A third solution is sudo. This article shows you how to implement sudo, which you may already have, since it is integrated into OpenBSD and Mac OS X and is an add-on package for just about every other Unix-like operating system out there. 08/29/2002

IRIX Binary Compatibility, Part 2 by Emmanuel Dreyfus
Emmanual Dreyfus shows us how he implemented the things necessary to start an IRIX binary. These things include the program's arguments, environment, and for dynamic binaries, the ELF auxiliary table, which is used by the dynamic linker to learn how to link the program. 08/29/2002

Managing Advanced PF Logs by Jacek Artymiak
Jacek Artymaik shows us how to implement a Perl script that reads pf logs from the pflog fifo pipe, archives logs on the monitoring firewall, and sends them to another fifo pipe so that log analysis software can pick them up for analysis. 08/22/2002

Archiving with Pax by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne finishes up her series on archivers with pax, a versatile utility that can create both tar and cpio archives. 08/22/2002

Using Groups to Eliminate Root by Michael W. Lucas
Strategic use of groups can eliminate the need to give the root password to people, but still allow them to do their job. 08/15/2002

IRIX Binary Compatibility, Part 1 by Emmanuel Dreyfus
This article details the IRIX binary compatibility implementation for the NetBSD operating system. It covers creating a new emulation subsystem inside the NetBSD kernel as well as some reverse engineering to understand and reproduce how IRIX internals work. 08/08/2002

Securing FreeBSD by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne shows us several ways that we can increase the security level on a FreeBSD box. 08/08/2002

Securing Remote PF Firewall Logs by Jacek Artymiak
Jacek Artymiak shows us how to improve the security of remotely logged firewall logs and how to calculate how much storage space we need to keep a reasonable amount of logs for convenient analysis. 08/08/2002

Archiving PF Firewall Logs by Jacek Artymiak
Jacek Artymiak tackles automating the transfer of logs from the firewall to one of the workstations connected to the internal private network segment. 07/25/2002

Installing OpenBSD 3.1 by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas relates his experiences installing OpenBSD. 07/25/2002

Understanding CPIO by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne explains the art of using cpio to archive a list of files generated by the find or ls utilities. 07/11/2002

Understanding FreeBSD Disklabels by Michael W. Lucas
A disklabel is a file at the beginning of a disk that indicates where each BSD-style partition begins and how many disk sectors it occupies. 06/27/2002

Securing Small Networks with OpenBSD, Part 5 by Jacek Artymiak
On a busy network, your firewall logs could quickly fill up your hard drive or be deleted by log file rotations. Jacek Artymiak shows how not to let this happen. 06/20/2002

Securing Small Networks with OpenBSD, Part 4 by Jacek Artymiak
Jacek Artymiak covers pf log file analysis. 06/06/2002

Backing up Files with Tar by Dru Lavigne
In a previous article, Dru Lavigne introduced the concept of archivers. In this article, she demonstrates the usage of the tar archiver. 05/23/2002

Dual-Booting FreeBSD and FreeBSD by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas explains how he dual boots FreeBSD-Current and FreeBSD-Stable. 05/16/2002

Understanding Archivers by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne introduces the concept of archiving and explains which archiving utilities are available, as well as some of the differences between them. 05/02/2002

Securing Small Networks With OpenBSD, Part 3 by Jacek Artymiak
In the third installment of our series on OpenBSD networking, Jacek Artymiak examines pf rules and potential sendmail problems. 04/25/2002

Testing FreeBSD-Current by Michael W. Lucas
Running FreeBSD-Current isn't for the faint of heart. Michael Lucas explains who should be testing it and how they can be effective testers. 04/18/2002

Securing Small Networks With OpenBSD, Part 2 by Jacek Artymiak
OpenBSD switched from using IPFilter as its default firewall to PF, or Packet Filter, as the new default. Jacek Artymiak explains how to make a smooth transition from ipf to pf. 04/11/2002

System Panics, Part 2: Recovering and Debugging by Michael W. Lucas
In Michael Lucas' last column, he showed us how to prepare a FreeBSD system in case of a panic. In Part 2, he explains how to get some useful information if you do suffer a system crash. 04/04/2002

IPSec Certificate Basics by Mike DeGraw-Bertsch
Learn all of the basics necessary to use X.509 certificates for authentication in IPSec on a FreeBSD box. 04/04/2002

System Panics, Part 1: Preparing for the Worst by Michael W. Lucas
System panics are an admin's worst nightmare. They are difficult to diagnose and often harder to fix, requiring developer intervention. The more information you have available, the easier it is to recover from a panic. Michael Lucas shows us how to prepare a FreeBSD system in case of a panic. 03/21/2002

Find: Part Two by Dru Lavigne
The find utility can do more that just locate files. Dru Lavigne shows us how to make it delete files, create file archives, and much, much more. 03/14/2002

BSDCon 2002 by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas reports on what was hot at this year's BSD conference, from kernel internals and FreeBSD's PC Card system to documentation translations and BSD at work in clinics. 03/07/2002

Securing Small Networks with OpenBSD, Part 1 by Jacek Artymiak
Small networks are often more vulnerable than large ones because they lack the money to implement good security. Artymiak Jacek explains how to secure a small network on a tight budget. 02/28/2002

IPv6, Meet FreeBSD by Mike DeGraw-Bertsch
Mike DeGraw-Bertsch takes us through the configuration of IPv6 on FreeBSD. 02/22/2002

Finding Things in Unix by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne introduces us to the some of the powerful features hidden in the Unix find command. 02/21/2002

Understanding NFS by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas introduces us to the world of network filesharing for Unix. 02/14/2002

SETI@home by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne introduces us to the world of collaborative computing by explaining the SETI@home project. 02/07/2002

How to Become a FreeBSD Committer by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas commits code and explains how to create an SSH key. 01/31/2002

Browsing through the Ports Collection by Dru Lavigne
FreeBSD Basics columnist Dru Lavigne explores some of her favorite utilities, including nat, pkg_tree, and gutenbook. 01/24/2002

Contributing to BSD by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas shows what it takes for non-coders to contribute to BSD. 01/17/2002

Filtering Spam with Procmail by Dru Lavigne
Unwanted e-mail sent by advertisers is annoying and sometimes offensive. Dru Lavigne explains how to add a spam filter to procmail to keep this e-mail out of your inbox. 01/10/2002

Finding Help on IRC by Michael W. Lucas
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is somewhat like computer geek CB radio. Michael Lucas gives a few pointers on getting started, as well as sharing his own experiences connecting to the FreeBSD help channel. 01/03/2002

The Back Road to Browser Plug-Ins by Michael W. Lucas
Looking for web browser plug-in support on FreeBSD? Michael Lucas shows how he got things running. 12/13/2001

IPsec Tunneling Between FreeBSD Hosts by Mike DeGraw-Bertsch
IPSec encrypts data at the IP packet level, so insecure applications can be encrypted while travelling over the Internet. Mike DeGraw-Bertsch shows us how to set it up. 12/10/2001

Procmail Basics by Dru Lavigne
Tired of sorting though spam and virii in your inbox? Well, you don't have to any more. Dru Lavigne shows us how to set up procmail to filter and sort all of your email. 12/06/2001

Cleaning Up Ports by Michael W. Lucas
Managing third-party applications on your BSD server or desktop can be quite daunting, especially because open-source projects are upgraded frequently. Michael Lucas introduces us to some utilities that can keep this from becoming a nightmare. 11/29/2001

Understanding the Automatons, Part Two by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne discusses the rest of the Periodic scripts. 11/21/2001

Stable SMB by Michael W. Lucas
SMB has recently improved to the point where it is reliable enough for use in production settings. Michael Lucas tells you how to use SMB to access a Windows share from your FreeBSD workstation. 11/15/2001

Understanding the Automatons by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne explains scripts that are run automatically by your system. Understanding these scripts can be the key to keeping your system tuned and secure. 11/08/2001

The Price Quote of Freedom by Michael W. Lucas
When proposing a free software solution to upper management, it is important to put together a realistic appraisal of the costs involved. Michael Lucas walks you through the process and helps you find hidden costs. 11/01/2001

Using the vi Editor by Dru Lavigne
The vi editor is a very powerful, inherent part of Unix. Dru Lavigne teaches us a few useful tricks with it. 10/25/2001

Selling BSD by Michael W. Lucas
When arguing for building corporate solutions on BSD, you can cite reliability and ease-of-use, but the commercial solutions spend a lot of money creating that exact same image. With BSD, the burden of proof is on you. Michael Lucas looks at how to prove yourself to managers and present your case. 10/18/2001

Accessing a Cisco Router by Dru Lavigne
When you first purchase a Cisco router, you'll need to access the router via its console interface from a serial interface on your computer. Dru Lavigne shows you how to do this from FreeBSD. 10/11/2001

Dealing with Full Disks by Michael W. Lucas
Are your hard disks getting full? Michael Lucas helps us track down and recover lost disk space. 09/27/2001

Running Windows Applications on FreeBSD by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne illustrates how to set up and configure a Windows emulator on FreeBSD. 09/21/2001

Ripping MP3s by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas takes us on his quest to turn CDs into MP3s on his FreeBSD machine. He shows how to tackle problems encountered when working with free software. 09/13/2001

CVS Mirror by Michael W. Lucas
Running a cvsupd server isn't an easy task, but here's some help to make it simpler. In this edition of Big Scary Daemons, Michael Lucas continues his series on CVSup in Big Scary Daemons. 08/30/2001

Multi-Platform Remote Control by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne shows us how to use vnc for administrative remote control of FreeBSD and Windows computers. 08/23/2001

CVSup Infrastructure by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas explains CVSup and the infrastructure required to distribute the FreeBSD source code globally. He also relays information on the use of CVSup from its creator John Polstra. 08/16/2001

Useful Unix Utilities by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne browses the BSD ports collection and introduces several helpful utilities, including several from the "net" and "sysutils" sections. 07/19/2001

Monitoring IPFW Logs by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne shows us how to monitor ipfw logs and more importantly how to deal with what we find. 07/05/2001

Controlling User Logins by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas explains how to restrict shell access to a system using as few system resources as possible. 06/28/2001

IPFW Logging by Dru Lavigne
Firewalls can potentially block huge amounts of traffic. Dru Lavigne shows us how to fine-tune our firewall logs to reveal the traffic that concerns us most. 06/21/2001

Rotating Log Files by Michael W. Lucas
Log files collect data and grow in size. If you don't tend them, they will fill up all available disk space. Michael Lucas explains how to easily manage log files with newsyslog. 06/14/2001

BSD Firewalls: Fine-Tuning Rulesets by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne helps us fine-tune our firewall rules. She uses DHCP as an example, steps through its requirements and shows how to implement the appropriate firewall rules. 06/01/2001

System Logging by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas explains how syslog can be used to centralize system logs for a variety of servers. 05/17/2001

BSD Firewalls: IPFW Rulesets by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne explains how to create IPFW firewall rules. 05/10/2001

BSD Tricks: CVS by Michael W. Lucas
Most open source projects use CVS to coordinate the efforts of the thousands of volunteer developers. Michael Lucas shows us how to get started using CVS. 05/03/2001

BSD Firewalls: IPFW by Dru Lavigne
Building a firewall? Dru Lavigne gets you started with an IPFW firewall on FreeBSD. 04/25/2001

BSD Firewalls: IPFW by Dru Lavigne
Building a firewall? Dru Lavigne gets you started with an IPFW firewall on FreeBSD. 04/25/2001

Setting up Wireless Cards on FreeBSD by Michael W. Lucas
Tired of tripping over Ethernet cables stretched across the house? Michael Lucas show us how to configure wireless Ethernet cards on a FreeBSD laptop. 04/19/2001

Scanning Your Network by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne shows us how to use nmap, a port scanning utility, to secure Unix servers and workstations. 04/18/2001

Wireless Networking by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas gives us an overview of wireless networking in FreeBSD. 04/05/2001

Examining ICMP Packets by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne explains how ICMP packets control messages sent between routers and hosts. 04/04/2001

IP Packets Revealed by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne finishes up her series on IP packets with a detailed analysis of the packets captured in the previous article. 03/28/2001

FreeBSD Gaming by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas takes us on a tour of what's available in the way of games for FreeBSD. 03/22/2001

Capturing TCP Packets by Dru Lavigne
Want to capture network packets? Dru Lavigne shows how simple the process is and explains how to analyze the captured data. 03/21/2001

TCP Protocol Layers Explained by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne explains how to read IP packet headers. 03/14/2001

Submitting Changes by Michael W. Lucas
Every BSD project actively seeks out user contributions. Michael Lucas tell you how to get your work noticed and accepted by committers. 03/08/2001

Understanding Filesystem Inodes by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne finishes up her explanation of hard drives and Unix filesystems by explaining how inodes fit into the picture. 03/07/2001

Understanding Unix Filesystems by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne explains the basics of Unix filesystems. 02/28/2001

Changing FreeBSD Documentation by Michael W. Lucas
If you want to update FreeBSD's documentation yourself, you must first have all the right tools. Michael Lucas shows you how to use FreeBSD's DocBook format. 02/22/2001

Dividing Your Data by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne walks through the process of setting up partitions in FreeBSD and helps you divide your data into logical storage units. 02/21/2001

Monitoring Unix Logins by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne exposes the contents of wtmp, utmp, and lastlog, the files that record who is logged in to your Unix system. 02/14/2001

The FreeBSD Documentation Project by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas introduces us to the FreeBSD documentation project and helps us install a local copy. 02/08/2001

Securing BSD Daemons by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne shows us how to secure daemon processes by turning off the ones we don't use and using TCP wrappers to limit access. 02/07/2001

Understanding BSD Daemons by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne introduces the basics of FreeBSD network connections. 01/31/2001

Modifying a Port by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas continues his developer's tour of the BSD ports collection and shows us how to contribute to the project. 01/25/2001

Cracking Passwords to Enhance Security by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne shows us how to crack passwords and explains how it can help enhance system security. 01/24/2001

Establishing Good Password Policies by Dru Lavigne
Everyone knows secure passwords are important, but what makes a password secure? Dru Lavigne gives us some tips on creating secure passwords, and shows how to implement a password policy that requires users to create passwords securely. 01/17/2001

Adding a User to FreeBSD -- Part Two by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne explains what really goes on when a user gets added to the system, including all the copied and modified files. 01/10/2001

Fine Control of Ports by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas continues his developer's tour through the ports system and explains how to set the more common variables. 01/04/2001

Adding Users to FreeBSD by Dru Lavigne
Adding users to your Unix system is one of the most important things you can do after the initial setup. Dru Lavigne takes us through the steps of adding a user to a FreeBSD machine. 01/03/2001

BSD Ports Collection Basics by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas takes us on a developers tour through the BSD ports collection. He introduces how the ports collection works and identifies some of its key components. 12/21/2000

A Look Through the Ports Collection by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne looks through the ports collection for interesting and obscure applications. 12/20/2000

Accessing MS-DOS Filesystems by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne shows us how to access MS-DOS filesystems from BSD using the programs mtools and mfm. 12/13/2000

BSD Tricks: Unprepared Disaster Recovery by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas takes us through every network administrator's nightmare -- a server crash. He documents an actual crash and tells what he did to get things back online. 12/07/2000

The System Startup Daemon: init by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne steps us through the boot process on a BSD system and explains the init daemon. 11/29/2000

Discovering System Processes Part II by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne takes us deeper into the realm of system processes and explains interprocess communication and signal handling. 11/22/2000

BSD Tricks: Linux Compatibility, the Hard Way by Michael W. Lucas
BSD provides very advanced Linux compatibility. Michael Lucas embraces this concept and explains how to run BSD and Linux at the same time. 11/16/2000

Discovering System Processes by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne introduces us to Unix system processes in part one of a two-part series. 11/15/2000

OpenBSD as a File Server by David Jorm
David Jorm shows us how OpenBSD makes the perfect file server for cross-platform client networks, including Windows, Macintosh and Unix as well as for complex internetworks. 11/14/2000

Where the Log Files Live by Dru Lavigne
Join Dru Lavigne as she wades through man pages and deciphers cryptic config files in a hunt to find the Unix system logger and configure it into submission. 11/08/2000

Laptops, PC Cards, and FreeBSD by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas shows us how to connect a BSD laptop to the network using a PC Card NIC. 11/02/2000

An Introduction to Webmin -- Part Two by Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne continues her tutorial on using webmin and takes us step by step through the administration screens. 11/01/2000

OpenBSD Kernel Compilation and Optimization by David Jorm
Recompile your OpenBSD kernel to achieve optimum performance. David Jorm walks us through the process and shows us basic speed hacks. 10/31/2000

An Introduction to Webmin by Dru Lavigne
In the first of a two-part series, Dru Lavigne introduces the Webmin server. Learn how to configure and view information about your FreeBSD computer, all through a web browser. 10/25/2000

BSD Tricks: Introductory Revision Control by Michael W. Lucas
Use built-in revision control to track changes made to files and control editing by multiple users. 10/19/2000

Working With Text by Dru Lavigne
Text files are a basic part of life on a Unix system. Dru shows us how to use the standard text tools like cat, more and redirection operators. 10/18/2000

Read The Friendly Manpage! -- Part Two by Dru Lavigne
Dru continues the tutorial on understanding manpages and teaches us something about formatted text, unformatted text, compressed data, and control characters. 10/11/2000

Customizing mrtg by Michael W. Lucas
Part II in setting up BSD as a network status monitoring system using mrtg. Michael Lucas shows us how to custom tailor the mrtg reports. 10/05/2000

Read The Friendly Manpage! -- A Tutorial by Dru Lavigne
Have you been told to RTFM, but don't know where to start? Dru Lavigne explains the man documentation system in an easy to understand tutorial. 10/04/2000

Getting Cron to Do Our Bidding by Dru Lavigne
Wouldn't it be great if you could get your Unix system to perform commands automatically and then e-mail you the results? Dru explains how cron works and shows us how to read crontabs. 09/27/2000

Long-Term Monitoring with SNMP by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas shows us how to use mrtg to turn long-term SNMP statistics into easy-to-read web pages. It will even chart bar graphs. 09/21/2000

Understanding Shell Prompts by Dru Lavigne
Dru explains the cryptic configuration of shell prompts and shows us how to set them for the most common shells. 09/20/2000

An Introduction to Unix Permissions -- Part Two by Dru Lavigne
Dru continues the tutorial on Unix permissions and shows us how to modify them using 'chmod'. 09/13/2000

BSD Tricks: MFS by Michael W. Lucas
MFS lets you use system memory like a hard drive. Michael Lucas explains how to use it wisely. 09/07/2000

An Introduction to Unix Permissions by Dru Lavigne
In the first of a two-part series, Dru covers the basics of permissions on files and directories. 09/06/2000

Understanding E-Mail by Dru Lavigne
Dru takes us deep into the mysteries of E-mail in an attempt to demystify terms such as "MUA", "MTA", and "IMAP4". 08/30/2000

OpenBSD and the Future of the Internet by David Jorm
David Jorm shows us how to setup OpenBSD to use IPv6. 08/29/2000

NetBSD for the FreeBSD User: Building a NetBSD kernel by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas compiles a custom NetBSD kernel on an Alpha Multia. He details the differences a person familiar with FreeBSD might run into. 08/24/2000

Networking with TCP/IP by Dru Lavigne
Dru explains the basics of TCP/IP networking and gives examples of how to use it on FreeBSD. This also makes great reading for Linux and other operating systems that utilize the TCP/IP networking stack. 08/23/2000

Using Ethereal by Dru Lavigne
Wondering what's going on with your network? Dru explains how to use Ethereal, a graphical network monitoring package that is easy to use and understand. Learn how to capture packets and monitor network traffic. 08/16/2000

Talk the SNMP Talk by Michael W. Lucas
Michael Lucas continues the lesson in SNMP by configuring the SNMP daemon. Practical security measures are also discussed. 08/10/2000

Useful Commands by Dru Lavigne
Dru introduces several useful commands for things like scrolling through virtual terminals and checking date, time, and current working directory. 08/09/2000

An Overview of OpenBSD Security by David Jorm
David Jorm explains the default security features implemented by OpenBSD and why they are important to Internet enabled computers. 08/08/2000

Customizing the Login Shell by Dru Lavigne
Dru shows us the basics of shell configuration and explains the difference between login and non-login shells. 08/02/2000

OpenBSD in a Datacenter Scale Environment by David Jorm
David Jorm details an actual installation of OpenBSD in the wild and how it survives powering a high profile site. 08/01/2000

Walk the SNMP Walk by Michael W. Lucas
An introduction to the Simple Network Management Protocol and some of its uses as a data collection tool. 07/27/2000

Configuring and Using NFS by Dru Lavigne
Dru takes us through the basics of sharing files between UNIX computers. 07/26/2000

Experiments in SMB by Michael W. Lucas
Almost everyone has an NT or Windows system they'd like to access from BSD.The FreeBSD Project's Boris Popov has been working on Samba filesystem support, so a BSD user can mount a Windows share. 07/13/2000

Accessing Microsoft Files Using Sharity-Light by Dru Lavigne
SAMBA gave us access to Unix from Windows, but how do we get access to our Windows boxes from Unix? Sharity-Lite may be the answer and Dru Lavigne explains how it works. 07/12/2000

Mounting Other Filesystems by Dru Lavigne
Filesystem incompatibility can be a real pain, especially amongst Windows operating systems. Fortunately BSD has a few tools to handle the situation. 07/05/2000

Setting Up a Firewall Under OpenBSD by David Jorm
A tutorial on the basic components that make up a firewall and how to set them up. 07/05/2000

NetBSD for the FreeBSD User: Customizations by Michael W. Lucas
Turn a stock NetBSD installation into a usable machine. Includes basic configuration and installation of important software packages. 06/29/2000

Customizing Your Desktop Environment by Dru Lavigne
Customizing the XFCE Window Manager for the X Window System. 06/28/2000

Operating Network Services Under OpenBSD by David Jorm
Learn how to configure the basic network services for a Mail and Web Server. 06/27/2000

Building an X Server and a Window Manager by Dru Lavigne
Tips on getting the X Window System setup on a FreeBSD system. Also includes information on some of the basic Window Managers. 06/21/2000

So What Is BSDi Up To? by Joseph Scott
Daemon News interviews Mark Garver of BSDi about the relationship of BSD/OS and FreeBSD 06/20/2000

Installing OCSweb on FreeBSD by Michael W. Lucas
The OCSweb package allows users to post messages, read and send e-mail, and keep calendars, all via a web browser. Unfortunately, it only runs on Linux. Michael Lucas shows how even a non-programmer can sometimes port an application to FreeBSD 06/15/2000

Connecting to the Internet Using PPP or a Cable Modem by Dru Lavigne
Learn how to connect to the internet with FreeBSD, using either a standard or cable modem. Includes information on recompiling your kernel to activate COM ports. 06/14/2000

Introduction to OpenBSD Networking by David Jorm
Learn how to setup the basic networking features of OpenBSD and turn it into a secure Internet router for your home network. 06/13/2000

NetBSD for the FreeBSD User by Michael W. Lucas
A walk through of a NetBSD install by an experienced FreeBSD user. 06/01/2000

Bostic on the BSD Tradition by Dale Dougherty
An interview with BSD veteran Keith Bostic who is optimistic that FreeBSD can thrive. 03/24/2000

Running Linux Applications on FreeBSD by Bill Swingle
How to use Linux Binary Compatibility. 03/20/2000

20 Years of Berkeley Unix: From AT&T-Owned; to Freely Redistributable by Marshall Kirk McKusick
An excerpt from Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution, O'Reilly & Associates, first edition, January 1999. 03/14/2000