Vanity Plate

Take a Break

Okay, I’m going to take a break at this moment from the regularly non-scheduled blogging of Networking and Linux to share something still Linux related.  My new vanity plate.

I’ve always toyed with the idea of getting a vanity plate, but I did not want something too ordinary or obvious.  I wanted something unique, yet still relevant to something a portion of society could relate to or understand.  I did have a few ideas, but they were taken, such as 127001, which would be the IP address 127.0.0.1 which is the localhost or loopback IP address translating basically to “this device”.

Well I recieved my plates in the mail yesterday.

My Vanity Plate

SUDO MV.  For those new to Linux, SUDO is the command given to allow superuser (root) privileges to do whatever it is that regular users do not have access to.  It could be configuring system files, to modifying another users files.  It’s the SUPER USER.  The MV is “move”.  So as my car traverses the data bus known as the highway (not informational nor super) it is being moved by the Super User.  Oh yeah!!

Yes, it’s the little things in life that add up to something big.

To illustrate the point of SUDO a little more I’ve attached a comic from xkcd that was some of the inspiration for my choice of plates.

And that is how things take place in Linux.  There are times I try to run a command or edit a file and I’m denied.  It is then I need to use SUDO.

Tip: If you type a long command and are denied due to needing superuser ability, type “sudo !!“.  The double exclamation points insert the last command.  Try it, you’ll like it.

The Goal

Here is my goal.

Now keep in mind, if you’re working on your own network, mine is likely overkill for most, yet not enough for the more technically astute.  However if your network is simple, there’s still information here that can be of benefit.

I have a Cisco 1811 router which I obtained as a used item, yet it’s still functional.  This I will use to connect to the Internet via DSL and then ALL other devices will connect with it.  This is a good thing because it is capable of doing a lot more than what a basic residential router can do.  i.e. VLANs, GRE tunnelling, etc.

I do have the need for wireless connectivity for a Laptop, Nintendo Wii and a DS.  For that I have a Linksys wireless router.  Of course, be sure to enable the wireless security on your own wireless connections.  A few years back I drove through a neighborhood with NetStumbler loaded on my laptop and within 10-15 minutes time had detected 80 or so wireless signals with 80% of them unsecured.   The last thing you would want is someone doing something illegal on your internet connection because it will be linked back to your connection.

Also attached to my network (where the 8 switch ports on the Cisco1811 will come in handy) are 2 desktop computers, a printer and an XBOX.  I have a spare computer which is going to come in handy with this project in that it will have Linux on it for running various servers.  I have another old PC that will also have Linux on it as well.  Your old computers can still be useful for something.

One of these Linux boxes will be an Apache server for serving up web pages from my network.  I do not intend on running a domain from this, but rather just have a place for accessing files I might need remotely, or for sharing with friends and family.  It will have any easy way to access the information, but will have a degree of separation from my network for security purposes.

The Linux box inside the network (VLAN 1) is going to have other services running.

Nagios is a good service for monitoring the status of the network.  It can monitor the network connections of all the  devices you need to keep your network operational.  It could keep track of whether ALL devices are connected and on, but you would need to keep ALL devices powered on then.  Otherwise it will show alot of downtime when the device is turned off, giving the impression that there’s a problem on your network.  It can even e-mail you or in many instances text message you of any problems.   You can also have it keep track of services running on your Linux servers, again notifying you of any trouble.

Cacti is another service that can monitor SNMP messages from your routers and servers, giving you a graphical display of things such as processor usage, memory, bandwidth of each interface, etc.  (If you’re interested in that.  I will be, so you can visit again at that time that I delve into it.)

Apache will need to be installed on this machine, due to the fact that both Nagios and Cacti provide details via web interface.

Squid Proxy Server is another server that hopefully I can get installed and working properly.  I was successful a while back, but they have since changed things in the configuration, so I’ll be starting anew.  A Proxy Server will cache web data when computers on your network visit sites on the Internet.  So my more regular websites will be served faster since alot of the data won’t need to be downloaded from the Internet again but rather from my local Proxy and it’ll cut down on my bandwidth, due to the same reason.  Since my ISP has a bandwidth cap, this may come in handy.  We’ll see.

One more note on Squid, is the ability to setup a 3rd party service that creates a database which can be updated regularly that blocks web sites that you chose by category.  Once Squid is setup and working, that will be the next task to tackle.

A Mail server is also in order for notifications.

As shown in the planned layout, the network will be divided into 2 VLANs where VLAN1 will have access to the server in VLAN 2, but VLAN 2 will not have access to VLAN 1, keeping out anyone who may try to compromise the server.  This is where having a Cisco router/switch will be an asset.

If you’re curious about the device above the printer, that is a Network Attached Storage.  It’s a great place to store files that you can then access from the other computers on the network.  It stays on, therefore when you want to listen to an mp3 you have, you don’t have to make sure that the PC that has the mp3 file on it is turned on, you just need to access your NAS through your network.  I may eventually move this service to the Linux server with an additional hard drive and create a file server on it instead.

Plans are subject to change as we go along.  Every day it seems I find something else new and useful.

Technopotomus is born

Why Technopotomus?

One day I spent countless hours trying to find the right words to describe my domain name.  It was a hard battle, as every time I found a word or combination of words, someone had already owned the domain name.

I was using a thesaurus to find even lesser used words.  I was scouring the web for ancient artifacts or historical places that could have some relevance to what I wanted my site to be about.   Places like the Walls of Babylon.  As strong as those were for some time, they were breached overnight, therefore I did not want to have that associated with Network Security.

So as I was trying to work the word Tech/Techno/Compu into the name, even trying to marry one of them with an animal, I was finding that many others had the same idea over the past years and have secured them.

Although, many were taken, some were not in use.  Some of these had no content, in fact were not really in existence on the web, but they were owned.  Some for a later purpose, but some for profit.  One of them was for sale for $7500.   It wasn’t even all that great of a domain name.  But I suppose if someone chose their business name first and then just HAD to have that name, they can haggle for it.

I did find another that was setup in 2002 and had not been updated since then.  It actually just had links on it another domain name that had information regarding the wedding and reception of a couple.

So here we are.  I did get to use one of my preferred suffixes and an animal (or part of one).  Since Technopotomus rolls off the tongue as easily as Hippopotamus does I figured it was a decent choice.

You may notice it is misspelled, however the correctly spelled domain is . . . yes you guessed it.  Taken!

Now regarding my  mascot. If any of you are familiar with Linux, you’ll notice  resemblance to the mascot of that OS, Tux.  It is no coincidence.  Since I was going to be discussing a lot of Linux material here, I figured I’d give my technopotomus a familiar feel.