******************************************************************

                   The Sys Admin Newsletter
                          News for the
              July 2003 issue of Sys Admin Magazine

******************************************************************
                            CONTENTS

1. Note from the Editor
2. Highlights of the July issue 
3. Call for Papers
4. Subscription Information
------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsored by PROGNOSIS from Integrated Research
=============================================================
New release - PROGNOSIS 7.07 now available

Whether it's monitoring transient processes (without process-
Accounting overheads), or analyzing file space utilization 
and growth, PROGNOSIS delivers in-depth, real-time management 
of UNIX, Linux, Windows and HP NonStop - all via a single, 
intuitive interface. Run a FREE TRIAL NOW.

http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaa9NfaaYwUOa2sokSb/
------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:

AEleen Frisch, author of Essential System Administration wrote an 
excellent series of articles for the O'Reilly & Associates Web site 
last year describing a few of her favorite tools. She says, 
"In general, these tools can make your job easier no matter what 
Unix operating system your computers run." On the list are the Amanda 
backup utility, LDAP, GRUB, and the Nagios monitoring package.  
Frisch's article on Nagios (formerly known as Netsaint) takes an 
in-depth look at Nagios and provides screenshots and annotated 
configuration files detailing key points. You can find out more 
about this useful tool from Frisch's article or from the Nagios 
Web site.

Sincerely,
Amber Ankerholz
Editor in Chief

------------------------------------------------------------------
FREE 14-day Evaluation:  
NeedTEXT Shell is the industry-leading solution for
remote network monitoring from a wireless handheld device. System
administrators can use all of their standard command-line utilities, 
such as SSH, ftp, top, etc. directly from a RIM BlackBerry, to 
diagnose and fix problems from anywhere, at any time.
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaa9NfaaYwUPa2sokSb/
------------------------------------------------------------------

	The July 2003 issue contains:

Securing Wireless Campus Networks by Clark Gaylord and Steven Lee  
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaa9NfaaYwUQa2sokSb/
The authors provide implementation details for a wireless access 
control setup, as well as a design for user-level access based on 
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).

Date Arithmetic with the Shell by Kyle Douglass and Ed Schaefer  
Schaefer and Douglass survey various tools for acquiring the number 
of seconds from the Epoch, and present several techniques for 
performing date arithmetic and date comparison.

Clusterpunch: Distributed Cluster Resource Monitoring 
by Martin Krzywinski 
Krzywinski describes Clusterpunch, a distributed execution system 
developed to provide administrators and users with a means to measure 
the computational availability of cluster nodes.

Monitoring Latency with Smokeping by Bill Kramp  
Kramp discusses the Smokeping tool, which complements the traditional 
ping utility and uses pings, http requests, or SMTP requests to the 
server or network service to collect latency information.

Testing an iptables Firewall from within the Host 
by Edward L. Haletky  
Haletky shows how to configure an iptables firewall host with 
User-Mode Linux, so it can test its own external firewall rules.

------------------------------------------------------------------
LINUXWORLD CONFERENCE & EXPO  - EARLY BIRD SAVINGS!

LEARN how companies have achieved higher profits and increased 
their productivity by utilizing Linux
PARTICIPATE in LinuxWorld's world-class education program and 
benefit from interactive training in the all-new Hands-on Labs!
DISCOVER the latest innovations and technologies from the 
hottest companies around
HEAR the latest developments and updates on the state of open 
source at our analyst roundtable discussion
ATTEND exciting keynote addresses from Hewlett-Packard, 
Sun Microsystems, Red Hat, IBM and Oracle
Register today!   
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaa9NfaaYwURa2sokSb/
When Registering, enter priority code LSUR
------------------------------------------------------------------
	
	COLUMNS

Questions and Answers by Amy Rich 
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaa9NfaaYwUSa2sokSb/

The Simplicity of Sockets by Randal L. Schwartz 
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaa9NfaaYwUTa2sokSb/

The Truth about Tapes, Backups, and Restores by Peter Baer Galvin 
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaa9NfaaYwUUa2sokSb/

------------------------------------------------------------------
***  SPECIAL ONLINE OFFER FROM SYS ADMIN  ***

For a limited time you can subscribe to Sys Admin at a discounted 
rate AND receive a complimentary Sys Admin back issue CD-ROM 
containing every issue of Sys Admin from 1992 through 2001! Sys 
Admin is the only magazine devoted to UNIX & LINUX systems 
administration.  With Sys Admin you'll get solid, technical 
information full of ways to improve the performance and extend 
the capabilities of your system. SUBSCRIBE TODAY at: 
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaa9NfaaYwUVa2sokSb/
------------------------------------------------------------------  
     CALL FOR PAPERS  

Enterprise Administration
We're looking for practical, high-end discussions of storage, 
clustering, security, and advanced networking solutions based 
on your expertise and insights.

Open Source
We're looking for original uses of classic tools such as Apache, 
Samba, and MySQL; custom solutions built from open source components; 
and descriptions of useful open source utilities.

Scripting
Describe how you improved your life with the perfect Perl, shell, 
PHP, Python, or Tcl/Tk script.

We suggest that if you are interested in contributing, you first 
submit a proposal to us. If the proposal seems appropriate, we’ll 
ask you to submit a manuscript. If the manuscript is accepted, 
we’ll edit it, print it, and pay you for it. For more detailed 
information, refer to the author guidelines. Please address requests 
for guidelines, proposals, and manuscripts to: 

Rikki Endsley
Sys Admin
1601 W. 23rd St., Suite 200
Lawrence, KS 66046
voice: (785) 838-7555
fax: (785) 841-2047
email: rendsley@cmp.com 

------------------------------------------------------------------

     Newsletter Subscription Information

Please feel free to share this newsletter with interested parties
via email (not on bulletin boards).  To subscribe, see:
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaa9NfaaYwUWa2sokSb/

Email comments to: aankerholz@cmp.com