SEMiSLUG Notes

12 May 1998

Question & Answer Sessions

What is the relationship between Usenix and SEMiSLUG?

Wait for the highly-anticipated "History of SEMiSLUG" page.

Syslogd: does it really drop messages? If so, is there a more robust version (or replacement)?

Gabe is playing with syslogd; he will fill us in later.

Using Linux as a firewall with a cable modem and tracking data; someone is pinging the entire subnet. Suggestions to deal with this ping flood?

Get MediaOne to put "NO IP DIRECTED BROADCAST" in their routers. If they don't sound cooperative, try posting a few comments to NANOG about their competences.

Use Network Flight Recorder to log the pings; it's good at this sort of thing.

Has any one got any experience/opinions regarding GFS? It would be nice to sync home directories on a portable machine.

CODA's a good package for this. Try looking for it at cmu.edu. MobileIP is another option.

Becky needs some examples of vmstat output during a crash. So far, she hasn't been able to get the machine to crash. She's editing a book and wants examples of "at rest," "heavy load," and "ready to crash." Got any suggestions?

Try running multiple copies of StarOffice on a machine with 32 meg. Play fork/malloc games.

Customers have some 64K leased lines. Recently, the lines have been looping. As soon as Ameritech tests it, the problem goes away. Ameritech says this is happening often lately, but it's not their problem; "it must be other hardware." (a) Has anyone actually found a way to get Ameritech to look at such a problem and get them to admit it's the lines? (b) Has any one else had a similar problem?

"I hate Ameritech." -- more people than I can keep track of.

Ask SCS if he has any suggestions. Ask Mike Wayne, too. Post a question on NANOG.

Any more info on xDSL services?

Nothing concrete, but things should start happening Real Soon Now. SDSL (1.5 Mb) has a 10000 ft. limit.

How far spread is MediaOne "two way" in Ann Arbor?

Parts of south AA are rumored to have it.

Other than Netscape, does anyone have any suggestions for converting HTML to PS (on a unix box)?

Look at SGML tool kit(s). Ask Becki for more info.

Any opinions on sane staffing levels for 150 HP-UX boxes and 250 NT boxes? How much would they cost?

Minimally, 2-3 for HP-UX; 4-5 for the NT boxes. 5 unix, 10 pc would be better.

What _is_ an HP-362? And what's with this "Rocky Mountain BASIC" it runs?

68020-based. Rocky Mt. BASIC _is_ the OS.

Any body hiring?

Sun's still hiring.

Why VMware?

It's a cool (really cool) program that will let you run virtual machines on your Linux box. Troy really likes it. It's $300 for a commercial version from www.vmware.com. There's supposed to be a $99 personal version available.

You should have a dual processor with 128Mb RAM for the best effect.

Presentation

Firewalls: Gauntlet looks neat. Several people like Firewall One. Redhat has a nice walk-through available; it may be Redhat-specific, but is worth a look.

That's about it. Let's take a break.

Rumor & Innuendo (No names, please)

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