[oclug] The power of OSS/GNU/Linux

[Shad Young]

About half an hour... But

It took me about two years to learn enough about Linux to be able to install
it *chuckle*. Actually the docs for it are very good. If you are having
trouble understanding them it may be due to the use of jargon like ad-arpa
etc. The way I learned was to first get a clear understanding of domains,
and domain name servers and their configuration. I have never attempted to
setup Qmail without running my own DNS services.

Understanding Domains then related clearly back to mail, as I now understood
what routing, and virtual meant. Now... That being said... I learned about
DNS when I began to configure Apache for the first time. Before making a
server available to the world, I first built a local network out of
loop-back devices and the basic Caching Name Server from RH, then configured
Apache to use this. Once I understood the local domain, I then desired the
ability to run multiple domains on the same host. This necessitated the use
of BIND and properly configured zone files.

After all that and about two years I finally felt ready to handle a mail
configuration. It took months of reading and asking questions about this and
that here on the list before I got it working as I needed.

So my friend, I would get a coffee and comfortable chair and get ready for
long hours of reading, and then post, post, post your questions here (or on
the Qmail mailing list) and we will attempt to help you out as best we can.
:) . I am sorry if this sounds like a RTFM blow off, but with mail, there
are too many issues like security, spam and open relays to be done
incorrectly. You could find yourself in serious trouble if it gets out of
control, the least of which is the blacklisting of your domains..

Cheers
Shad
_______________________________________________________________________

Have an article, story or essay you want to publish online? We need content.
Ascendant: food for the thinking mind.  http://www3.sympatico.ca/sberaud
_______________________________________________________________________
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sandy Mac Donell" <sandymac1 at rogers.com>
To: <oclug at lists.oclug.on.ca>
Sent: Monday, October 07, 2002 7:02 PM
Subject: Re: [oclug] The power of OSS/GNU/Linux


> Hello Shad,
>
> How long did it take you to setup Qmail?
>
> Sandy
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Shad Young" <shad.young at sympatico.ca>
> To: <oclug at lists.oclug.on.ca>
> Sent: Monday, October 07, 2002 6:51 PM
> Subject: [oclug] The power of OSS/GNU/Linux
>
>
> > I had an opportunity to engage in a debate with a fellow about the power
> of
> > Linux the other day. After I had begun to outline the virtues of the
Linux
> > environment I began to recall the enormity of what one machine could do.
> >
> > The machine:
> > unbelievably a K6 233 with 64 MB EDO RAM
> > 7 Gig Quantum HDD
> > 2 realtek 10baseT
> > Cheapo hub.
> > no video card (except during setup of X)
> > no keyboard
> > no mouse
> >
> > Services:
> > Red Hat 6.2 with Kernel 2.2.6
> > Fully configured Apache 1.3/CGI/Perl/PHP with a dozen websites averaging
> > 10,000 hits a month
> > BIND running 10 or so domains.
> > Qmail with 30 accounts
> > MySQL with webmin for a web forum
> > exported X for remote administration (sorry I am a gui person)
> > KDE 1
> > full development suite
> > six online games in active development
> > 2 on-line games operational with 10 to thirty players at any given time
> > 24 active accounts for developers and programmers with 2 or three logged
> on
> > at any given time.
> >
> > all that and my users were constantly amazed at its speed. Recompiling
> their
> > game modules usually took minutes; and this from guys who developed in
> > windows on 1 gig Athlons at home. (game runners would complain about the
> lag
> > when recompiling a kernel, but that's about it).
> >
> > I was going for an OCLUG record uptime and was on day 303, when our
> favorite
> > Catholic evangelist logged on and used Netscape (I forgot to uninstall
the
> > stock version) which had an enormous memory leak. Nothing I tried would
> get
> > this machine to respond as it filled up the memory and 512 megs of swap
> > space and began to loop. My girlfriend thought I had hurt myself when I
> > screamed in despair after I realized a hard shutdown was required. It
took
> > literally an hour to respond to one keystroke as it swapped and swapped
> and
> > swapped ROFL. I could have killed you Francis ;).
> >
> > I would also like to thank Olaf Baumann and obone.ca for providing me
with
> a
> > development platform and host for my current project. It is giving me an
> > opportunity to learn about Debian in the process.
> >
> >
> > Cheers
> > Shad
> > _______________________________________________________________________
> >
> > Have an article, story or essay you want to publish online? We need
> content.
> > Ascendant: food for the thinking mind.  http://www3.sympatico.ca/sberaud
> > _______________________________________________________________________
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > oclug at lists.oclug.on.ca
> > http://www.oclug.on.ca/mailman/listinfo/oclug
>
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