How To Use Squid Proxy Cache Server To Control Internet Access

by Balakrishnan Mariyappan on September 1, 2010

Squid is a proxy caching server. If you are Linux sysadmin, you can use squid to control internet access at your work environment.

This beginners guide will give a jump-start on how to setup squid on Linux to restrict internet access in an network.
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Top 10 Open Source Bug Tracking System

by Ramesh Natarajan on August 31, 2010

All IT projects needs a bug tracking (or issue tracking, or defect tracking) system.

Sure, we need a bug tracking system for a software development project. But, what about a sysadmin team, dba team, network team? They all need some help to track their work, and issues of their system, database and network.

I’ve listed 10 open source bug tracking systems, that you can experiment, and choose based on your taste and requirement. This is not a comprehensive list by any means. I’ve used all the systems listed in the top 5, and I strongly recommend that you choose one from the top 5 list.
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Linux cpio Examples: How to Create and Extract cpio Archives (and tar archives)

by Balakrishnan Mariyappan on August 26, 2010

cpio command is used to process archive files (for example, *.cpio or *.tar files).

cpio stands for “copy in, copy out”.

cpio performs the following three operations.

  • Copying files to an archive
  • Extracting files from an archive
  • Passing files to another directory tree

cpio takes the list of files from the standard input while creating an archive, and sends the output to the standard output.
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Packet Analyzer: 15 TCPDUMP Command Examples

by Sasikala on August 25, 2010

tcpdump command is also called as packet analyzer.

tcpdump command will work on most flavors of unix operating system. tcpdump allows us to save the packets that are captured, so that we can use it for future analysis. The saved file can be viewed by the same tcpdump command. We can also use open source software like wireshark to read the tcpdump pcap files.

In this tcpdump tutorial, let us discuss some practical examples on how to use the tcpdump command.
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How To Be Productive and Get Things Done Using GTD

by Ramesh Natarajan on August 24, 2010

Do you need more time to do the things that you enjoy? Of course, you do. For geeks there are tons of technical projects to mess with, but we don’t have enough time.

Over the years, I’ve tried few time management and productivity systems. While they all helped me grow, there is something in those system that didn’t go well with my working style and thinking.

Few years back, I came across David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD), immediately it just felt right for my working style and thinking. I cannot imagine my life without GTD anymore.

GTD is not about telling you what software or tools to use to become productive. GTD is a productivity framework that you can tweak it to match your working style.

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How to Send SMS Using Email to Major US Cellphone Carriers

by Ramesh Natarajan on August 20, 2010

Are you always sending SMS to your friend’s cellphone from your cellphone? Did you know that you can SMS to someone using email?

This list is extremely helpful, if you are outside US and would like to SMS someone in US, you can just send it as an email.
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Can You Make It? Compile C Programs on Linux Using Make Command

by Balakrishnan Mariyappan on August 19, 2010

When you install any software from source, you typically execute commands like — “make”, “make install”, “make clean”, etc. Have you wondered what all these make commands are really making? Sure, we know that it is trying to compile and install the software. But, why make? What does it really do?

For compiling a single C program, cc command is very helpful. For compiling multiple C programs, Make utility is very helpful.

Also, C programmers and sysadmins will find it helpful to automate the compilation related tasks using make utility. In this article, let us review how to use make command.
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UNIX / Linux: 2 Ways to Add Swap Space Using dd, mkswap and swapon

by Ramesh Natarajan on August 18, 2010

Question: I would like to add more swap space to my Linux system. Can you explain with clear examples on how to increase the swap space?

Answer: You can either use a dedicated hard drive partition to add new swap space, or create a swap file on an existing filesystem and use it as swap space.
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