Back to Newsletters KEYWORDS=rpm, php, spam, blockers, rbl, blacklist, DAVROM CONSULTING Newsletter - Issue # 27 - Dated: Sat Mar 19 08:08:12 EST 2005 From the desk of David Clark Another busy month goes by and it is already mid-March - didn't I just do a newsletter? I know we want all our PCs, servers and apps to go faster but does it have to take our lifetimes along with it? Support has been a mixed bag this year with more Linux, SnapGear, SCO and also PHP scripting for web sites - and even some more issues with spam blockers. I have also upgraded my RedHat 9 desktop to Fedora Core 3 - very nice and has added some of the bits previously missing in previous releases of Fedora (like sound card support for my old soundcard). SCO are soon to release SCO OpenServer 6 and I have covered some of the product highlights in this newsletter. I would like to thank the reader for their time in reading this newsletter. David.M.Clark UNIX Quote "...the number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected..." - Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson, June 1972 Spam Blockers Re-Visited You will recall in our newsletter number 25 I covered an issue I had with the Internet spam blockers out there and having recently gone through another bout of e-mail being blocked, and in the light of some very valid feedback from readers, I have a slight change of heart. Again I found myself and my ISPs SMTP server being blocked by a spam blocker - and the problem was certainly rectified quickly by all parties - but it doesn't take away the frustration of having your valid business e-mails stopped and returned to you. After conversing at length with the Australian tech for one of the spam blockers, I must admit that I am now having a change of heart with regards to their role. In the perfect world there would be no spammers and my installation of SpamAssassin on servers would be made redundant, but the fact is spam is increasing every month and one of my old colleagues indicated having some 70000 (yes seventy thousand) spam e-mails sent to their large corporation every day (and I complain about my 5 or 10 that actually get to me in my inbox). For such corporations using the RBL servers (Realtime Blackhole List servers) would remove a lot of the wasted bandwidth placed on them were they to try and filter everything on their own. That being said you will always need to look at blocking spam at your own e-mail server level as well. Products like SpamAssassin do offer pushing e-mails back through the RBL servers as a feature that can be turned on and should be considered if you start to receive high volumes of spam. I live in hope of a spam-free Internet.... PHP - a good option for web servers Some time back a good friend and colleague in the industry pointed me in the direction of using a web server scripting language called PHP. PHP offers you the ability to enhance your web site without the need to have plugins and/or extra utilities installed on the remote PC browsers. (nothing like using my Fedora Core 3 desktop Firebird browser and have some remote website page crash out on me because I can't run Visual Basic locally). All the execution and handling of accessing data is done on the web server itself and then presents the information back to the user in standard HTML format. You can create secure logins to allow staff/remote users to gain information stored on the web server. You can create file upload portals so remote users can upload their documents, spreadsheets etc to secure folders on the web server. PHP can interface with MySql and other database engines to do on-line database enquiries and a whole host more. For those who have used and/or installed products like Squirrelmail then you have already used a PHP based e-mail portal. There is a heap of literature around on PHP scripting and if you already speak HTML, then PHP isn't difficult to add to your existing web pages. I have recently started to implement some solutions for customers based on PHP so if you would like more information and example scenarios where PHP could help you, please let me know. SCO OpenServer 6 - Beta The next upgrade in the SCO OpenServer, Openserver 6, previsously named "Legend" has entered beta testing for partners. This is great news for those wanting to maintain their server product upgrade path with the reliable SCO OpenServer platform, and be able to install it on the latest hardware with the extras like the latest versions of the MySQL and PostgreSQL databases, Apache Web server, Mozilla browser, Tomcat Java servlet container, Samba file and print services and many others. In addition, SCO OpenServer customers can use the familiar OpenServer desktop or the included KDE desktop environment. (David loves KDE) File size support has been increased to larger than 2GB for both disk based and network based files. Disk based filesystems can grow as large as 1 TB and larger network files are supported through Network File System (NFS)v3. SCO OpenServer 6 now has Multi-Threaded application support and I am hoping this feature will draw back the support from application houses such as Progress. There are a large number of OpenServer systems out there running Progress and I will keep those interested posted on any moves by Progress to endorse OpenServer 6 as a supported platform. The UNIX kernel is fully pre-emptive, and supports multi-threading for C, C++, and Java applications through the POSIX interface. SCO OpenServer 6 will maintain its product look and feel to its traditional utilities from the earlier versions so there is little or no learning curve for those already familiar with the workings of OpenServer. This coupled with support for existing OpenServer applications makes OpenServer 6 a welcome continuance to the core product that was first realeased in 1995. SCO is integrating Web Services technologies from the company’s SCOx Web Services Substrate into SCO OpenServer 6 to allow customers to bring data from legacy "green screen" applications into a Web-based environment. The SCOx Web Services Substrate saves customers from having to re-write applications or port their data to new applications, saving customers valuable time and money. We will be downloading a beta copy of the product in the next few weeks and will let you know what we find. Some newsworthy items SCO annouce the imminent release of SCO OpenServer 6 and is now ready for beta testing for partners. The first release of Fedora Core 4 is now available from Red Hat - Fedora Core is the continued open source community product from Red Hat. Red Hat has announced the headlining speakers for their first-annual Red Hat Summit. Summit 2005 will be held in New Orleans June 1-3 and will bring together the diverse people that make up the open source community. Sun Microsystems have given their Java website a facelift and have a host of java based solutions you can learn about including games: http://www.java.com Mozilla have released an updated version of their browser, FireFox, which is a powerful web browser that sits nicely with ThunderBird e-mail client if you are looking for a powerful and simple to use e-mail client. They also have release Mozilla 1.7.5 which continues the traditional all-in-one browser, e-mail, address book and irc: http://www.mozilla.org Tech Tip Ever needed to find out what rpm package a file belongs to on a Linux system? Here is a simple command to find out what rpm package a file belongs to: rpm -qf /usr/lib/libcurses.so and it returns: ncurses-5.4-13 so now you know that it relates to the ncurses package. Another useful command to list what files are in a rpm package: rpm -ql ncurses Back to Newsletters 
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