I have managed a couple Sonicwalls. I generally use them since I have been using them since the beginning. Support sucks beyond recognition but you generally don't need them.
I played with Fortigate when they first came out. Back then the sales story was that they were using a ASIC to do malware scanning. They were aggressive getting into the market and were more than happy to loan me gear. Of course being local and having been referred by their investors probably helped.
I set up some on my home cable modem and pumped bit torrent traffic through them. They crashed pretty regularly. I'm sure that has changed but they really didn't like heavy loads. I put in a SonicWall for comparison and it had no trouble with the traffic.
The low end SonicWall (TZ170?) feels underpowered to me, the UI is slow, but seems to work well as a firewall.
I always like to buy the antimalware package and I haven't had a spyware infection at a client where they have purchased it. The antivirus has as many false positives as it does hits but generally it doesn't block anything I care about. They claim to use the clam database but clam blocks things that they don't. Still, having *all* streams scanned, not just email, is reassuring. I also have them block java, ActiveX and packed executables. It blocks IRC by signature as well as port which should throw alerts if a client gets a typical bot.
I have not used the standard OS in years. No experience, sorry.
You are probably OK with any of them. PIX, Fortigate, WatchGuard, NetScreen (do they still exist?), SonicWall, or whatever. Each has quirks so once you choose a brand you should stick to it but they are all appliances. None are head and shoulders above the others.
I love CheckPoint (I used to be certified but I let it lapse) but if you don't know why you need CheckPoint you don't need CheckPoint. Back in the day it was a lot more reliable, in my experience, running on Sun than on the Nokia appliance. I liked the idea of the appliance but the three I worked with were all a little flaky.
Have fun and don't put too much trust in your firewall.
Both Linux and OS X have numerous unpatched vulnerabilities. I have recently switched to a Etch A Sketch®. There are no reported vulnerabilities and it reboots in seconds.
This looks like a good place to put in my 2 cents worth...
Spend some time thinking about your strengths and weaknesses and plan your business accordingly. If you are a into small businesses then stay there. Enterprise is a very different animal than small business. If you are going to play in the enterprise space then you need to hire experts in big boy games.
Have you asked yourself questions like "Why am I willing to take on the new clients?" and "How am I going to provide better value than the other guys?"
Frankly deciding to switch from SMB to enterprise sounds like a bad idea. It would be like a star gymnast deciding to play pro football. Just because you are good at one sport does not mean you will thrive in another.
Many years ago I called Logitech because I couldn't find the driver disk that came with my trackball and I couldn't find the download on their ftp site.
The tech refused to talk to me until I told him if I was running Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 on my Mac. I think that is my favorite since you would expect a tech to at least know that Macs don't run Windows.
There was also the Dell script monkey who wanted me to reinstall Windows on a machine that locked in BIOS before he would send a repair person out.
I expect users to me ignorant but I (still, don't ask me why) expect a little competence from professionals.
Dan from the "We think so you don't have to" department.
I make my living supporting computer users. I know my way around Macs and Windows. When I started using linux a few years ago I tried several distributions and settled on SuSE. In retrospect that was a poor decision. In most businesses I see Red Hat. YaST is so easy to use I never learned how to administer a box. I wish I had spent my early months learning Red Hat so I would be better able to help my clients.
I eventually switched to debian to get access to more applications. I'm severely coding impaired and even basic tweaks to get a program to compile under SuSE are beyond me. I have been using debian for a couple years now.
I have a chance to buy, for very little money, a laptop-from-hell. It is a Acer TravelMate 342T. They worked well enough with Windows 98 but they are a nightmare under W2k. They would regularly lock up for 30 seconds to several minutes. Sometimes they would just die. After about 30 seconds running libranet 2.7.1 OSS would chew up 100% of the CPU then get killed. Once OSS was dead it is rock solid. I plan on using it to watch TV. Not having sound is a drag.
This laptop is flawless under SuSE 9.1. It is noticeably faster than stock libranet. I took libranet to the 2.6 kernel and KDE 3.2. SuSE 9.1 seems about the same as, speed wise, as libranet with 2.6 and 3.2 but the machine would seldom run for more than a minute with libranet before locking up hard. No doubt due to my ever-so-very-leet skillz doing the updates.
I'm sure that a competent person could get any distribution running better than I have this machine going but for an incompetent person SuSE is a godsend. I put in the CDs and it works. No tweaking required. SuSE reminds me of Macs 15 years ago. Macs enabled people who are not smart enough to use computers to use computers. SuSE does the same for linux.
The downside of SuSE is that packages are not as available as they are for other distributions. I would like to use VideoLAN to watch TV. Under debian I type apt-get vlc and I'm done. SuSE does not seem to have a rpm for VideoLAN and, so far, I have not been able to get it working on my own.
That was what drove me to debian last time. For this computer SuSE is perfect. The 2.6 kernel allows a PIII 500 to display MPEG2 streams without breaking a sweat. Something I never got close to with W2k. For a person who just wants a computer that works with normal applications SuSE is wonderful. For a Mac/Windows admin who just wants to run amap or dsniff SuSE can be frustrating.
I'll suggest CommuniGate from Stalker too. It's a really nice package. Amazingly robust and an easy install.
The webmail is unbearably ugly out of the box but it is easily skinned and the EudoraLook system is fantastic.
They have a MAPI connector and their LDAP is alleged to play well with others. The calendar supports iCal and vCal. They have pretty good clustering support. It is a fairly powerful package that scales down well.
Plus the user community is kind and helpful. Good stuff.
The downside of CommuniGate is the administration interface. The program has a lot of features but finding and configuring them is not always easy.
For five users I would go with nothing. Outsource it. Why maintain a server for five people unless you want to use that server as a learning environment. If it is a learning environment do you really want to use a production machine?
I use a different email address for each company I deal with. I can say for certain that I have never given anyone permission to send anything to the address I got the message to.
I posted the spam on my web site. I tried to paste it here but it failed the lameness test. I have changed the email address but nothing else. Sorry if your browser renders it.
WORM is of course Write Once Read Many. Many years ago there was a short lived company named "Low Down" who produced the "Low Down SCSI WORM." I loved that.
And of course who could forget NBT's "reversible, half-ASCII, biased encoding" (as in RFC 1001/1002) for name resolution.
Who has them for sale? I tried the first three reseller links on Proxim's web page and none of them had 802.11a stuff listed. Or rather no one has Proxim's 802.11a stuff. Several people have Intel's.
CDW Insight
The ability to print from my PDA (or cell phone, or whatever is holding my contacts) is a good thing.
Like printing directions as you leave a office. Especially someone else's office. Consultants, salespeople, FTRs, and a bunch of other people often need to print on foreign networks.
I currently do exactly this from my Palm and laptop.
Since Bluetooth has a short(er) range it reduces security problems. Such as those pointed out regarding goatsexers harassing public printers.
*If* Bluetooth makes it as a standard (which I doubt) printers are a logical item to have that capacity. So that they can join your PAN when you need them.
Remember that a device can have more than one interface. Ethernet for the fixed devices and Bluetooth (or IrDA) for the mobile.
I am looking for something that is supported by more utilities. Net Stumbler, sniffers, AirSnort, WSA, and that sort of thing.
I would also *very* much like a removable antenna. I do wireless consulting and the ability to put different antennas on my laptop during a site survey is sweet.
Cheap is also good:-)
My old Aironet 4800 has been a workhorse for a long time, but it is a bit of an oddball. None of the cool tools support it.
Thank you for the nice piece of prose. Good information, and good writing, are rare in these forums.
A technical analyst was recently discussing a product his employer is funding. It is a standalone box that provides high speed wireless connectivity to a fairly large area. He said 2-3 placed on top of buildings could cover the business areas of San Francisco (financial district, SOMA, half way up Market.) Client units are designed to be cheap an disposable.
This is a technology developed by and for the military. I assume a battlefield area network. He described it as shipping silicon now, in a hardened military package, and market ready in 6 months. I have also seen a number of business plans that would only make sense if broadband wireless was available to mobile units.
Could it be that someone knows the infrastructure at 128k is going to have no value in a year? If so it would make sense to kill the company quickly and harvest any value.
I'm sorry to se it go. I'm sending this from under the stars using my Ricochet. I absolutely love it.
There is nothing like having a highspeed connection to a foreign network when you are locking down a machine. Plug a hole, run an attack. Plug another hole, poke it again.
> Are we talking about the same wwc that routes all your packets to
> florida and back -- even if you are on the west coast?
Nope.
1 90 ms 331 ms 100 ms NRP1-ge-0-0-0.TK.ESR.SJO.intnet.net [206.112.99.6]
2 90 ms 141 ms 80 ms 206.112.99.30
3 170 ms 171 ms 70 ms 63.66.208.26
4 100 ms 80 ms 70 ms 63.66.208.9
5 90 ms 90 ms 151 ms POS11-0-0.GW2.SFO4.ALTER.NET [157.130.197.133]
6 120 ms 170 ms 201 ms 129.ATM3-0.XR1.SFO4.ALTER.NET [152.63.51.130]
7 161 ms 140 ms 160 ms 291.at-1-0-0.XR1.SAC1.ALTER.NET [152.63.50.29]
8 91 ms 180 ms 100 ms 0.so-0-0-0.XL1.SAC1.ALTER.NET [152.63.53.237]
9 160 ms 130 ms 170 ms POS6-0.BR6.SAC1.ALTER.NET [152.63.52.249]
10 150 ms 141 ms 110 ms 204.255.168.70
11 160 ms 170 ms 141 ms core3-core5-oc48.sjc2.above.net [208.185.156.65]
12 541 ms 250 ms 210 ms core5-sjc2-oc48-2.sjc1.above.net [208.184.102.205]
13 280 ms 851 ms 1172 ms main1-core6-oc12.sjc1.above.net [208.185.175.250]
14 240 ms 791 ms 731 ms www.above.net [207.126.96.163]
I used to go to Flints back when old man Flint was there. I think it has gone downhill since he sold it to his kids.
Have you tried:
Rudy's Bar-B-Que Pit
4712 3rd St
San Francisco, CA 94124
(415) 282-4539
Best BBQ I've had in California.
The usual warnings about the neighborhood. This one makes me a little nervous, but I haven't had a problem beyond things getting thrown at my car. Probably because of the amount of foot traffic.
I'll be sure to try Bobby's. What makes BBQ Cajun?
You may be 20, but you have 4 years of experience. Experience *does* matter.
Even two years ago (I'm 32) I lacked the experience to be effective in the business world.
Life is (too the extent that any metaphor is accurate) much like a calm sea. It looks simple, and as long as you only perceive the surface it is. As you experience more you realize that there is a lot of complexity hidden beneath the surface. There are currents and critters down there that can drastically alter any equation.
With four years experience you now know that the "best" solution is often not the best for this situation. There are other forces at work.
While I know that an OpenBSD is a better SMTP relay than Exchange I might recommend Exchange into a 100% NT shop. Sure Exchange sucks, but their admins know how to deal with it. Suggesting a *nix solution would make me look like an idiot to people who see the bigger picture.
Young people tend to lack experience and therefore say things that label them, in the eyes of their superiors, as fools. From their limited viewpoint they may be correct, but they miss (or dismiss) facets that we have to take into effect.
Of course there is always discrimination. A mediocre person will cling to whatever they attributes they posses to try to raise themselves above their superiors, both in their own eyes and in the eyes of others. Age, gender, race... All are factors that the mediocre can cling to in the face of brutal reality.
But people in the 'victim class' are wrong to blame everything on prejudice. Often people are judged on who they are, not what they are.
This is a complex topic and I seem to be rambling. I should get back to work. I just wanted to add the experience of a senior (in the business sense) techie who is constantly having to undo the work of people who are more skilled than I am but don't get basic business concepts.
Slashdot Mirror
MacOS 8.6 forever. I love iCab.
I have managed a couple Sonicwalls. I generally use them since I have been using them since the beginning. Support sucks beyond recognition but you generally don't need them.
I played with Fortigate when they first came out. Back then the sales story was that they were using a ASIC to do malware scanning. They were aggressive getting into the market and were more than happy to loan me gear. Of course being local and having been referred by their investors probably helped.
I set up some on my home cable modem and pumped bit torrent traffic through them. They crashed pretty regularly. I'm sure that has changed but they really didn't like heavy loads. I put in a SonicWall for comparison and it had no trouble with the traffic.
The low end SonicWall (TZ170?) feels underpowered to me, the UI is slow, but seems to work well as a firewall.
I always like to buy the antimalware package and I haven't had a spyware infection at a client where they have purchased it. The antivirus has as many false positives as it does hits but generally it doesn't block anything I care about. They claim to use the clam database but clam blocks things that they don't. Still, having *all* streams scanned, not just email, is reassuring. I also have them block java, ActiveX and packed executables. It blocks IRC by signature as well as port which should throw alerts if a client gets a typical bot.
I have not used the standard OS in years. No experience, sorry.
You are probably OK with any of them. PIX, Fortigate, WatchGuard, NetScreen (do they still exist?), SonicWall, or whatever. Each has quirks so once you choose a brand you should stick to it but they are all appliances. None are head and shoulders above the others.
I love CheckPoint (I used to be certified but I let it lapse) but if you don't know why you need CheckPoint you don't need CheckPoint. Back in the day it was a lot more reliable, in my experience, running on Sun than on the Nokia appliance. I liked the idea of the appliance but the three I worked with were all a little flaky.
Have fun and don't put too much trust in your firewall.
Dan
Both Linux and OS X have numerous unpatched vulnerabilities. I have recently switched to a Etch A Sketch®. There are no reported vulnerabilities and it reboots in seconds.
I signed up for an account just so I could block him. If only I had known earlier. I could have had one of those cool four digit numbers.
This looks like a good place to put in my 2 cents worth...
Spend some time thinking about your strengths and weaknesses and plan your business accordingly. If you are a into small businesses then stay there. Enterprise is a very different animal than small business. If you are going to play in the enterprise space then you need to hire experts in big boy games.
Have you asked yourself questions like "Why am I willing to take on the new clients?" and "How am I going to provide better value than the other guys?"
Frankly deciding to switch from SMB to enterprise sounds like a bad idea. It would be like a star gymnast deciding to play pro football. Just because you are good at one sport does not mean you will thrive in another.
Good luck,
Dan
What he said. Best Internet in Mt View. In the fishbowl.
Dan
Many years ago I called Logitech because I couldn't find the driver disk that came with my trackball and I couldn't find the download on their ftp site.
The tech refused to talk to me until I told him if I was running Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 on my Mac. I think that is my favorite since you would expect a tech to at least know that Macs don't run Windows.
There was also the Dell script monkey who wanted me to reinstall Windows on a machine that locked in BIOS before he would send a repair person out.
I expect users to me ignorant but I (still, don't ask me why) expect a little competence from professionals.
Dan from the "We think so you don't have to" department.
Anyone know about Ciphire?
https://www.ciphire.com/
Microsoft's Charity License Program is amazingly cheap.
Last time I ordered 2003 server was $128 and Office Pro was $90.
When you consider lost time do to futzing MS might be cheaper. Of course when you consider MS's hardware requirement it might be cheaper.
Dan
I'm browsing at +3 so I'm not sure how many people have already suggested it but you really should give Stalker a call and talk about Communigate
Dan
I make my living supporting computer users. I know my way around Macs and Windows. When I started using linux a few years ago I tried several distributions and settled on SuSE. In retrospect that was a poor decision. In most businesses I see Red Hat. YaST is so easy to use I never learned how to administer a box. I wish I had spent my early months learning Red Hat so I would be better able to help my clients.
I eventually switched to debian to get access to more applications. I'm severely coding impaired and even basic tweaks to get a program to compile under SuSE are beyond me. I have been using debian for a couple years now.
I have a chance to buy, for very little money, a laptop-from-hell. It is a Acer TravelMate 342T. They worked well enough with Windows 98 but they are a nightmare under W2k. They would regularly lock up for 30 seconds to several minutes. Sometimes they would just die. After about 30 seconds running libranet 2.7.1 OSS would chew up 100% of the CPU then get killed. Once OSS was dead it is rock solid. I plan on using it to watch TV. Not having sound is a drag.
This laptop is flawless under SuSE 9.1. It is noticeably faster than stock libranet. I took libranet to the 2.6 kernel and KDE 3.2. SuSE 9.1 seems about the same as, speed wise, as libranet with 2.6 and 3.2 but the machine would seldom run for more than a minute with libranet before locking up hard. No doubt due to my ever-so-very-leet skillz doing the updates.
I'm sure that a competent person could get any distribution running better than I have this machine going but for an incompetent person SuSE is a godsend. I put in the CDs and it works. No tweaking required. SuSE reminds me of Macs 15 years ago. Macs enabled people who are not smart enough to use computers to use computers. SuSE does the same for linux.
The downside of SuSE is that packages are not as available as they are for other distributions. I would like to use VideoLAN to watch TV. Under debian I type apt-get vlc and I'm done. SuSE does not seem to have a rpm for VideoLAN and, so far, I have not been able to get it working on my own.
That was what drove me to debian last time. For this computer SuSE is perfect. The 2.6 kernel allows a PIII 500 to display MPEG2 streams without breaking a sweat. Something I never got close to with W2k. For a person who just wants a computer that works with normal applications SuSE is wonderful. For a Mac/Windows admin who just wants to run amap or dsniff SuSE can be frustrating.
Dan
I'll suggest CommuniGate from Stalker too. It's a really nice package. Amazingly robust and an easy install.
The webmail is unbearably ugly out of the box but it is easily skinned and the EudoraLook system is fantastic.
They have a MAPI connector and their LDAP is alleged to play well with others. The calendar supports iCal and vCal. They have pretty good clustering support. It is a fairly powerful package that scales down well.
Plus the user community is kind and helpful. Good stuff.
The downside of CommuniGate is the administration interface. The program has a lot of features but finding and configuring them is not always easy.
For five users I would go with nothing. Outsource it. Why maintain a server for five people unless you want to use that server as a learning environment. If it is a learning environment do you really want to use a production machine?
Good luck,
Dan
But I got another one on Friday.
I use a different email address for each company I deal with. I can say for certain that I have never given anyone permission to send anything to the address I got the message to.
I posted the spam on my web site. I tried to paste it here but it failed the lameness test. I have changed the email address but nothing else. Sorry if your browser renders it.
http://www.computerx.com/deanspam.txt
Dan
I've always wondered.
WORM is of course Write Once Read Many. Many years ago there was a short lived company named "Low Down" who produced the "Low Down SCSI WORM." I loved that.
And of course who could forget NBT's "reversible, half-ASCII, biased encoding" (as in RFC 1001/1002) for name resolution.
:s/run/read/
HTH. HAND
Who has them for sale? I tried the first three reseller links on Proxim's web page and none of them had 802.11a stuff listed. Or rather no one has Proxim's 802.11a stuff. Several people have Intel's.
CDW
Insight
The ability to print from my PDA (or cell phone, or whatever is holding my contacts) is a good thing.
Like printing directions as you leave a office. Especially someone else's office. Consultants, salespeople, FTRs, and a bunch of other people often need to print on foreign networks.
I currently do exactly this from my Palm and laptop.
Since Bluetooth has a short(er) range it reduces security problems. Such as those pointed out regarding goatsexers harassing public printers.
*If* Bluetooth makes it as a standard (which I doubt) printers are a logical item to have that capacity. So that they can join your PAN when you need them.
Remember that a device can have more than one interface. Ethernet for the fixed devices and Bluetooth (or IrDA) for the mobile.
Dan
Kenin42,
:-)
Would you be willing to recommend a card?
I am looking for something that is supported by more utilities. Net Stumbler, sniffers, AirSnort, WSA, and that sort of thing.
I would also *very* much like a removable antenna. I do wireless consulting and the ability to put different antennas on my laptop during a site survey is sweet.
Cheap is also good
My old Aironet 4800 has been a workhorse for a long time, but it is a bit of an oddball. None of the cool tools support it.
Many thanks,
Dan
Kind of.
They both hop, but Bluetooth hops faster. That allows it to cope with Wi-Fi better than Wi-Fi copes with it.
I am hoping that we will get 802.11a or HyperLAN deployed before Bluetooth becomes an issue. If it ever does.
BTW, 802.11b does both FHSS and DSSS. No one uses FHSS since it limits the bandwidth, but it is there.
Dan
David,
Thank you for the nice piece of prose. Good information, and good writing, are rare in these forums.
A technical analyst was recently discussing a product his employer is funding. It is a standalone box that provides high speed wireless connectivity to a fairly large area. He said 2-3 placed on top of buildings could cover the business areas of San Francisco (financial district, SOMA, half way up Market.) Client units are designed to be cheap an disposable.
This is a technology developed by and for the military. I assume a battlefield area network. He described it as shipping silicon now, in a hardened military package, and market ready in 6 months. I have also seen a number of business plans that would only make sense if broadband wireless was available to mobile units.
Could it be that someone knows the infrastructure at 128k is going to have no value in a year? If so it would make sense to kill the company quickly and harvest any value.
I'm sorry to se it go. I'm sending this from under the stars using my Ricochet. I absolutely love it.
There is nothing like having a highspeed connection to a foreign network when you are locking down a machine. Plug a hole, run an attack. Plug another hole, poke it again.
I will miss my Ricochet.
Dan
> Are we talking about the same wwc that routes all your packets to
> florida and back -- even if you are on the west coast?
Nope.
1 90 ms 331 ms 100 ms NRP1-ge-0-0-0.TK.ESR.SJO.intnet.net [206.112.99.6]
2 90 ms 141 ms 80 ms 206.112.99.30
3 170 ms 171 ms 70 ms 63.66.208.26
4 100 ms 80 ms 70 ms 63.66.208.9
5 90 ms 90 ms 151 ms POS11-0-0.GW2.SFO4.ALTER.NET [157.130.197.133]
6 120 ms 170 ms 201 ms 129.ATM3-0.XR1.SFO4.ALTER.NET [152.63.51.130]
7 161 ms 140 ms 160 ms 291.at-1-0-0.XR1.SAC1.ALTER.NET [152.63.50.29]
8 91 ms 180 ms 100 ms 0.so-0-0-0.XL1.SAC1.ALTER.NET [152.63.53.237]
9 160 ms 130 ms 170 ms POS6-0.BR6.SAC1.ALTER.NET [152.63.52.249]
10 150 ms 141 ms 110 ms 204.255.168.70
11 160 ms 170 ms 141 ms core3-core5-oc48.sjc2.above.net [208.185.156.65]
12 541 ms 250 ms 210 ms core5-sjc2-oc48-2.sjc1.above.net [208.184.102.205]
13 280 ms 851 ms 1172 ms main1-core6-oc12.sjc1.above.net [208.185.175.250]
14 240 ms 791 ms 731 ms www.above.net [207.126.96.163]
I used to go to Flints back when old man Flint was there. I think it has gone downhill since he sold it to his kids.
Have you tried:
Rudy's Bar-B-Que Pit
4712 3rd St
San Francisco, CA 94124
(415) 282-4539
Best BBQ I've had in California.
The usual warnings about the neighborhood. This one makes me a little nervous, but I haven't had a problem beyond things getting thrown at my car. Probably because of the amount of foot traffic.
I'll be sure to try Bobby's. What makes BBQ Cajun?
Dan
Xerithane ,
You may be 20, but you have 4 years of experience. Experience *does* matter.
Even two years ago (I'm 32) I lacked the experience to be effective in the business world.
Life is (too the extent that any metaphor is accurate) much like a calm sea. It looks simple, and as long as you only perceive the surface it is. As you experience more you realize that there is a lot of complexity hidden beneath the surface. There are currents and critters down there that can drastically alter any equation.
With four years experience you now know that the "best" solution is often not the best for this situation. There are other forces at work.
While I know that an OpenBSD is a better SMTP relay than Exchange I might recommend Exchange into a 100% NT shop. Sure Exchange sucks, but their admins know how to deal with it. Suggesting a *nix solution would make me look like an idiot to people who see the bigger picture.
Young people tend to lack experience and therefore say things that label them, in the eyes of their superiors, as fools. From their limited viewpoint they may be correct, but they miss (or dismiss) facets that we have to take into effect.
Of course there is always discrimination. A mediocre person will cling to whatever they attributes they posses to try to raise themselves above their superiors, both in their own eyes and in the eyes of others. Age, gender, race... All are factors that the mediocre can cling to in the face of brutal reality.
But people in the 'victim class' are wrong to blame everything on prejudice. Often people are judged on who they are, not what they are.
This is a complex topic and I seem to be rambling. I should get back to work. I just wanted to add the experience of a senior (in the business sense) techie who is constantly having to undo the work of people who are more skilled than I am but don't get basic business concepts.
Dan