AiHua Information Technology Site

There is no denying that it is highly beneficial to have centralized authentication and file services.  Over the years we have made a lot of strides in AiHua.  Our first server was an old box with Mepis on it that served as our file server during the spring of 2006.  Our next few systems were based on LTSP or DRBL which effectively both have centralized login’s and centralized file repositories.  It makes a huge difference when staff can login to their own desktop and files from any computer in the building.  It also allows for them to continue working at another station or with a computer/thin client that is in reserve.

When an entire company is comprised of linux/unix desktops and servers, it’s easy to set up LDAP services for authentication and NFS for centralized storage; however, windows computers are not so simple.  In the past it took some level of expertise in both unix/linux and windows machines to create an effective ldap/samba replacement for a domain controller, it isn’t overly daunting and there is a great deal of information on the internet; however, it’s still not for the faint of heart.

This is where a fantastic open source project called ebox comes in.  Ebox installs ontop of ubuntu (a free/open source linux) server editions and provides an out of the box domain controller!  It also features easy to use web interfaces to add users, groups, and computers.  It’s no one trick pony, as it also features a firewall/gateway, proxy/nat, DHCP, TFTP, jabber server, e-mail server, and VPN server out of the box.

We recommend you give it a try and replace the Windows servers around your office with this powerful solution.  If you need help setting it up or setting up a PDC on another linux distribution like openSuse, we are availible.  Follow the links to the right to contact us.

This is a quick update on using Untangle as a Gateway/Router and/or NAT.  Ours is working fantastic, even though we have very few windows instances in our office (only one windows virtual instance for RDP connections) it isn’t uncommon for guests to bring windows laptops into our offices.  Those windows boxes may or may not have proper security implementations and are thus susceptible to viruses, malicious software, and phishing schemes.  Untangle effectively protects those computers by standing as a door guard between what can be retrieved from the internet.  It also has a complete proxy suite which allows for content control so administrators can decide what catagories or individual websites are appropriate for office viewing.  The only drawback is that it requires a moderate computer for an small to medium business deployment (SMB), it realistically needs a single core processor between 1-2Ghz and memory between 1-2GB depending on the size of the office; it’s well worth the sacrifice.

The same effect can be had on less powerful computers by building solutions from a headless linux distribution; however, it takes considerable expertise to build and implement, and is not as friendly to manage.  If you’re interested in protecting your network, please contact us for information about your own networks.