SEMiSLUG Notes
9 July 1998
Question & Answer Sessions
- Radius servers -> which version is good? Who's using them? What hardware
is recommended?
- MERIT requires MERIT Radius. Livingston works best with Livingston's
radius. Others, you'll probably need to hack to get them to work
well. Things mostly depend on what routing hardware you're going to
use.
- How do you convert mpeg to Real Video?
- Odds are, this is going to be a lossy conversion whatever you do.
- Automount removeable media under linux?
- There should be a vold equivalent out there somewhere. Using
mtools is also an option. No definitive answers offered, so a
search of various linux archives may be in order. Try visiting
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/ and looking around.
- Where did Troy get his cool t-shirt?
- He works at Borders. He gets lots of cool t-shirts that way.
- Okay, how about Paul's t-shirt?
- Send him e-mail and ask again.
- Anyone with experience running gated and BGP4 together?
- If so, talk to Mike Wayne.
- Has anyone place with Ace2 from HP/UX?
- Ace2 is HP/UX's big-collection-of-network-code that causes things
to break if you install the CD. If you installed patches, it
makes them go away.
- Any one have colocation space for Becki?
- Msen is a possibility. World Wide Net perhaps.
- Why did Becki download the WHOLE site?
- She tried to search the NANOG site for 'radius' using OmniWeb, and it
downloads an entire site in order to search it.
- Can Troy add a question?
- Yes.
- Wireless networking -- where do you get it?
- For a building to building (50 yds.) solution, try BreezeNet(?). Ask
Mike Wayne to look through his notes. There are solutions out there.
- Does any know of any scripting tools for NT that are like Macro Recorder
for the Mac?
- There's probably something out there. It's worth a quick search
on the Web.
-
Presentation
MJO Speaks about NANOG (http://www.nanog.org/)
The North American Network Operators Group gets together 2-3 times a year
to talk about network things. MERIT sponsors the group.
- Van Jabobsen was there, talking about "random early dropping routers."
Talked about some neat experiments, but nothing's been implemented.
(The path being tested got more bandwidth, so the need for better
routing went away.)
- Microsoft is implementing IP quality of service in NT. They swear it
won't be a little box you click on to select IP quality of service.
They're claiming user-level service bandwidth tweaking within a
network. Sort like a quota system.
- Microsoft seemed to talk more about money issues than technology.
(Negotiation, contract management, etc.)
- Microsoft lobbied for a change in the ethernet spec that will allow
better tracking of billable packets.
- Vern Paxton talked about "how to track the health of the Internet."
MJO and Mike Wayne both fell asleep, no there's not a lot to say
about a potentially interesting topic. ftp://ftp.ee.ldl.gov should
have more info.
- Avi Freeman (http://www.netperf.net) talked about performance issues.
Netperf aims to be a more reliable testing/reviewing authority than
Boardwatch, et al.
- Someone talked about how to set up your network to prevent your routers
from being used for smurf attacks as well as how to protect yourself
from them.
- The FBI showed up. "If you ever think you'll be in a situation where
you may have to deal with the FBI, get to know your local FBI people
ahead of time." It's helpful to know their procedures in case
you're in need of their intervention (i.e. your system is under
attack). They stressed that they're trying to hire clueful people.
There were a lot of other presentations that were ISP specific, which MJO
used to go an socialize, so there's not much to report there. "This
was like an SF con, but more geeky."
Nanog's web site has the slide from various presentations. Stan ???
has very good notes available.
"Solaris is a source for mistakes, not for inspiration." -- Van Jacobsen
Rumor & Inuendo
- Officially, SPAM is bad, and [NETWORK NAME DELETED] will fine you for
doing it. Unofficially, they encourage it, since they're making so
much money from fines for sending SPAM.
- In the BIOS world, Phoenix is buying Award.
- ANS is not selling any T1's. They're not allowed to.
- Win98 doesn't recognize DVD devices. It seems to have trouble
recognizing all sorts of devices.
- ISDN service (BRI) in Ann Arbor is tapped out. No new service for
many months to come. "No estimated date of availability." -- Ameritech
- Someone is putting in a huge NOC (OC48) in the area, but no one is
sure who owns it. (Ameritech Advanced Data Services supposedly owns
it, but their phone is disconnected.)
- The kitchen is still open at the Arbor Brewing Company.
- Worldcom is going to sell MFS.