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00:00 - 05:0005:00 - 00:00

05:00
@ewwhite I was thinking about just having a simple interface that manipulates a few of the more common features for clients. Also, it's nice, IMO, to let a client have something to see other than your monthly invoices.
Monthly reports.
Or maybe the monthly report will be enough to put some value on what they're getting.
Beat me to it!
SMTP auth is a segment that I don't see enough solid players in.
Not the ones that focus on campaign mailings and all that.
Just straight up SMTP authenticated relays. "Smart Hosts" in Exchange speak.
I'd prefer my clients to have all their outbound mail point to a sanitizing service.
I set some clients up to use my mail servers as SMARTHOSTS.... only for specific domains out of their Exchange systems.
As it is, I always make their firewalls block all outbound port 25 communication except from their email server, if they have one on site.
basically to get around SORBS
05:03
Seriously, SORBS can bite a land mine.
but when your client's client's outsourced cloud email service uses SORBS...
>_<
I just get annoyed if a client gets a system infected and they start spamming through Outlook or whatever they use back up to the email server.
So I like that smarthost / smtp auth protection.
Or, (this one is fun), if a client attaches something that they don't know is infected.
"OHAI I HEARD YOU LIKE LOLCATS SO HERE'S A POWERPOINT WITH LOTS OF THEM!!"
>_<
(CC'd to 500 people)
Or... wait for it... "Did someone buy American Airlines tickets?! Because here's the itenerary zipped up that I just got!!!" forwards to GAL
Shoot, the 300 doesn't have per domain settings. I'd probably want the 400 just for that alone.
No SNMP on the 300 either.
I'm a bit OCD with SNMP sometimes.
you can hack your 300
get to the CLI and enable it
but I'd recommend the virtual appliance anyway
@ewwhite Ah, good point. I always forget about that. That way I can get mahself a nice DL360
As pretty as any Apple product:
licks monitor
Eh, I like 380's
05:11
@WesleyDavid its got 2" hard drives.
bah
But I did get a deal on 360's when I was refreshing my colo setup
2"
@voretaq7 something something it's not the size of your disks murmer murmer motion of the ocean mumble mumble
I miss the 320s. That thing rocked. I think the equiv is now in the 100 series
Hmm... maybe it's dead and gone.
The DL320? I sold some G6 DL320's
..at some point... but they're single socket
They had 12 drives up front and two in the back. Nice for home grown NASs
Oh, the DL320s
yeah, long gone
the replacement is a DL180 with the 12 LFF option
And there's a rear cage option for it.
or a 25 SFF disk option
NAS in a box.
05:16
@ewwhite pretty much
@ewwhite Spensive though. The larger drives were cheaper.
I should buy this... ebay.com/itm/…
DL980 OR DIE!!!
@ewwhite Let's get in a bidding war.
Oh, I don't bid on eBay :) you have to harass the seller when they're desperate...
"Oh, that Nexus 5010 didn't sell for $6k? I'll offer you $4500."
Fun how quick a 980 can hit a quarter mill
I never see them. Chopper3, probably...
05:21
So you use the virtual barracuda?
I sold a lot of the physical units.
but started using the virtual
(as a trial... the trial expired - leaving an expiration date of 2037)
Do you prefer it just because you get to use familiar hardware?
@ewwhite Bah! =)
and I would have purchased it, too...
It's faster. If you look at the Barracuda's newest OS, it runs in RAM
@ewwhite Wait, and you're still getting updates?!
Yes.
until 2037
05:23
splort
All margin, baby. =P
I suppose you're not going to mention it to 'cuda? =)
it makes up for all of the units that were bricked in January 2012 because of an old spamassassin bug
Ouch. Bricked as in box-em-up-and-ship-em-back?
well, the virtual is personal... but for clients, I made them all renew their hardware.
Sucktastic.
bricked, as in... unusable
3
Q: Barracuda tagging email with 'date grossly in the future.'

JasoomianI have a Barracuda 300. Granted it's running on some old firmware and the Energize updates are quite outdated. I'd like to update them, but, not my financial decision to do so. Starting around the first of the year, our Barracuda began tagging a rather large amount of emails (that were normall...

05:32
@ewwhite Well that's not cool.
for awhile, I was urging people to get $100 used Barracuda 300's off of eBay
those all broke with the 2012 bug
@ewwhite Coincidence?!
Meanwhile in a Barracuda HQ back room:
"We've got to stop all of these low price old gen units!"
yes...
@ewwhite Do you bother with the "Barracuda Networks Instant Replacement" or the premium support packages?
Never.
2 companies ago, I did a major move to Exchange...
05:36
@ewwhite Huh, okay. See, I'm a sucker for the replacement warranties on just about anything.
and I found a 2.5 year-old Barracuda sitting in the back of a closet...
so I ran its serial number and reset it to default...
it was a 300, and it had the instant replacement.
so my predecessor paid something like $5500 for it...
@ewwhite Yikes. 3-year then?
and I was only able to use it for 6 months before re-uping the contract.
and at that time, I decided to scrap the instant replacement
oh, I always buy 3 year on new units
just no instant replacement
@ewwhite So 3-year energize updates, but not the replacement
Or is there a less intense replacement warranty you're talking about?
right
if it fails, you call it in and they send you a new unit
instant replacement is just overnight shipping... still a hassle
05:40
yeah
I hate how Barracuda says "300-1,000 active email users"
That tells me nothing. At least ironport tells me how many messages per second based on a given size.
Unless I'm missing something in the deeper documentation
it's just a guideline
anywho, more RAM will help
most 300 units are lightly loaded
@ewwhite Can you mod the units? Add RAM?
yes
for instance, my wife's company has a Barracuda 200 purchased in 2009
it can barely run the current OS
the explanation from Barracuda support is that the hardware is too old
but running regular updates meant that we were getting the current OS.
they had nothing to indicate that the new OS couldn't run on 3 year-old hardware...
but sometimes you get inventory with old hardware...
closer examination shows that the unit is SWAPPING heavily
so the real fix is more RAM
voids warranty...
@ewwhite -.-
Of course.
Voids the warranty, but that doesn't mean the energize updates stop and all that, so... are you comfortable letting it hang with no warranty?
the warranty doesn't do much
you still get your updates
I just had my wife pay $1000+ for more updates...
only to realize that Barracuda wasn't going to do anything about the hardware
05:51
@ewwhite So how is their support organization?
Are they good to deal with?
Or do they treat you well only if you're a major customer (which is normal I guess)
Or do you really not even have to deal with support?
so-so support.
Ive called in 10 times....
I guess that's always a bonus if the product is so good you don't need them
sometimes they need to clear logs, fix bugs...
the units open a reverse ssh tunnel to their support address
front line to get a ticket, then you're passed on or get a call back
I think they're Seattle-based
they usually fix the issue
@ewwhite That'd freak me out.
I don't like how SonicWall units are so tied into SW's infrastructure.
you control the tunnel connection
05:53
OR should I say SonicDell.
DellWall?
SonicWell
If the Barracuda's do outbound email as well, it's not apparent.
they do
In a recent (2 years or less) firmware update, the inbound and outbound was merged
I mean, they're offering cloud email security. So, there goes independents getting in on the action.
@ewwhite Okay,cool. So it's not like a redheaded stepchild feature.
all you have to say is CLOUD
I could tell 10 of my clients that I'll manage spam for them
once their physical units die
as a consultant, you're trusted slightly more than the cloud
05:57
@ewwhite CLOUD!!!
@ewwhite Yeah, you're basically selling yourself more than just the hardware.
yep... "I know how to make your mail solution work"
One thing I've thought of is that, sometimes it's hard for an internal IT department to get capex funds to get something new in. But monthly opex funds are easier to come by. So, I've thought about becoming a hosted appliance vendor.
When I have to call up the IT departments at Kroger and other seemingly large companies and explain why their Exchange settings are messed up, or why there's a blacklist issue...
calling on behalf of my clients.
so many people have misconfigured mail systems
Want a barracuda 300? Cool, rent one from me monthly for $150 a month.
@ewwhite Oh yes. I'm strongly considering focusing on email systems. It's such a black box for some people and places, which mystifies me. It seems so simple at the base of it all.
even Exchange, out of the box, is a tricky solution
certs, rDNS, SPF, AND you need a spam filtering solution on top of it
06:00
@ewwhite To me, it depends on the architecture. If you've got mailbox roles here, hub transports there, edge servers there... yeah.
Exchange and SSL certs can chew on the same landmine that SORBS does.
GPO to disable spam filtering on the client, Receive/Send connectors...
How many places even have proper DKIM and SPF records
I don't bother usually... only SPF and the right DNS entries.
rDNS is a big one for most places. So simple and usually so wrong.
"I'm in my GoDaddy DNS control panel and don't see how to set up an rDNS record." facepalm
Step away from the computer.
Put the mouse down and place your hands behind your back.
Do not make any sudden movements.
Special case... AT&T refuses to add rDNS entries for an IP block if they do not control the forward DNS.
06:06
@ewwhite Woooow. Never dealt with ATT IP addresses. That sucks.
so rather than delegate all DNS to them, I find some minor domain owned by the client..
and give that to ATT
that works, but it's a hassle
@ewwhite So it doesn't have to be the same domain that the mail is coming from? Meaning, if mail.widgetworkshop.com is the mail server, you can give a minor domain of dorkyhulahoops.com to ATT and then mess with rDNS?
Bah!! That's strange.
just so ATT doesn't have to deal with orphaned IPs/records. They don't even put stub rDNS entries by default
06:09
Shewt, now I want to register dorkyhulahoops.com.
Any thought on the barracuda archiving solution?
I wouldn't touch
I use MailArchiva
The Enterprise (commercial) edition is great
the free version uses the same engine...
it's decent...
but based on java, uses Apache Lucene for search
compresses and deduplicates
I liked Nearpoint by Mimosa at my last employee position
and is encrypted...
06:15
but, they got snarfed up by someone else
Who even uses the IM firewall. I usually laugh at those, but I guess someone's buying them.
Never been near any place that even considered something like that.
I needed something for my old London office
financial regulations
so, we bought something from a company called Facetime :)
(terrible name)
Changed name to Actiance
@ewwhite So from terrible-name to hideous-name.
At least you can remember the first one. =)
Apple Facetime
made it impossible to google
Yeah yeah, but... still. Actiance. The heck does that even mean.
Sounds like a prescription drug for arthritis
"Ask your doctor if Actiance is right for you!"
"Side effects may include but are not limited to explosive diarrhea, sudden blindness, tooth decay, facial paralysis, ruptured eardrums, brain hemorrhaging, and flaming death."
A'ight. Bed time.
Thanks for talking!
06:50
yep
07:00
0
Q: How can i protect my web site with cisco Asa Firewall 5520 And do url,web filtering?

ChimenaWell i got on my small organization Newtwork a cisco asa firewall 5520.And im quiet net to asadas injust finished my SNAF course And need time And experience? My quation is; How can i protect my web site with This security appliance? In termos of configuration ? I basically just got the basic co...

manuel?
 
4 hours later…
10:37
ouch
TRIED to clean that up. A case of polishing a turd, really
 
4 hours later…
14:27
Some mod kill with fire:
0
Q: Crack WPA2 with oclHashcat-plus, is it possible?

HLFHCan we crack quickly WPA and WPA2 with oclHashcat-plus (http://hashcat.net/oclhashcat-plus/) after recovery of a 4-way handshake with aircrack-ng and BackTrack (http://www.backtrack-linux.org/downloads/) ? Thans in advance !

 
3 hours later…
17:52
DevOps...
0
Q: maintenance/installation of ruby gems/ruby on rails on Linux in general and Gentoo

khaosI am currently looking into Ruby/Ruby on Rails as an alternative to Python/Django. My main problem is that it is rather unclear what the best practices are when it comes to installing Ruby gems and/or Ruby on Rails projects on a Linux with a general dist or Gentoo in particular. In Gentoo the de...

18:30
Tempted to put up an answer indicating that he should hire a professional. =)
@Adrian do it!
 
1 hour later…
19:53
Done. Not one of my best, but I don't have a half-hour to put into a narrative with the kids at home.
0
A: maintenance/installation of ruby gems/ruby on rails on Linux in general and Gentoo

AdrianAs far as Best Practices, I'd suggest hiring a SysAdmin to perform these functions and monitor your equipment. You needn't hire such a person full-time as there are many system administrators who offer these services on a contract basis for a certain number of hours per month. Failing that, I as...

@Adrian upboat. Gentoo does not belong in an environment without a systems TEAM
much less an environment without a systems PERSON
It truly amazes me how many try to build a business based on a hobby distribution. Spend all your time fiddling with widgets and geegaws instead of building profitable services.
@Adrian bein a jerk, like a boss
1
Q: Adding RAM to a virtual machine without restart

Lord Loh.Could anyone suggest me a hypervisor that permits adding RAM to a running virtual machine without restarting the guest OS. Is this even possible? Can this be done on xen? I have never found any documentation for such a thing.

@LucasKauffman needs to put the nuke image into his answer. The Q is closed, so I can't any new ones....
So many bad questions, so few votes per day.
I need to start tweeting some of my less-sarcastic answers...
20:13
@Adrian That'll get your Klout up double-quick
I'm so Twitter-clueless that I have only the vaguest idea what Klout is on about. And mostly that it's something of a ridiculous joke.
All these Plesk/CPanel questions irritate the blazes out of me.
@Adrian Why is that
Genius alert:
0
Q: Why is iptables command throwing errors?

jiniI typed the following on my Debian system: iptables --list And got the following: libkmod: ERROR ../libkmod/libkmod-index.c:816 index_mm_open: magic check fail: b007fa57 instead of b007f457 iptables v1.4.13: can't initialize iptables table `filter': Table does not exist (do you need to insmod...

@Adrian will add it :p
@Adrian do you have a link to it?
20:30
@Joel To me at least, those "tools" smack of a certain degree of "make my problem go away for me".
@LucasKauffman Providing backup
HAHAHA
@Joel ty ^^
@LucasKauffman twitter.com/#!/akuepker
time to do addition & subtraction flashcards with the girl-child. back later gents.
20:34
@Adrian Enjoy child-rearing!
meh
I'm starting to get bored here
so @Joel what u up to today?
2
A: Allow access only to specific request

JoelRun Apache on a non-standard port, like 8574. This first step will eliminate 99% of the "noise" you're expecting from robots and scripts. The specific piece of configuration you want in Apache is mod_authz_host. It'll let you filter requests for access based on a variety of factors that Apache t...

Trying to answer this question without writing a book. which I believe makes it a good candidate for deletion
@LucasKauffman I'm also writing a blog post about the Cowboy Hat Contingency and doing some trivial Java GUI homework
20:49
@Joel cowboy hat contingency o.O? I loved my GUI course of java :p
@LucasKauffman I'll explain it all in the article, but it's the tendency of management to keep systems simple so that they can "put on a cowboy hat" and fix it themselves if it comes to that
@Joel cool
@LucasKauffman in general or just today ?
@LucasKauffman Is that even interesting to read? ;_;
@Iain I meant here at my internship :p
@Joel I'll tell you after I finished reading it
@Iain our project is finished and we're stuck now for testing, we got almost the whole week off, but really don't know what to do. At first we went out and explored the city and did some sight seeing, but now it's just ... meh
21:04
@LucasKauffman ah, right
@Iain if you check my reputation graph, you can see when I had increase and decrease in boredom :p
21:27
Any ideas on how to SEO my name??
21:57
@Joel according to SEO from the past few years, lots of meta tags
@MarkHenderson The problem right now is that the first result for my name is some assclown who got a ticket in Arizona
Getting good organic results is fairly difficult, especially for something as common as a name
Our software, we get most impact from paid links, but that's technically not SEO, that's paying to appear at the top :p
(otherwise known as rape)
@MarkHenderson I can't imagine paying for AdWords is terribly expensive for my purposes
It can be a little bit expensive depending on how many impressions vs clicks you get
We pay about $7/click at the moment
We get a lot of impressions but not many clicks
22:36
Got a bit sententious with this one, but "Reboot it" is still a crappy answer.
@Adrian, what guess — blind or not? I'm just curios. — poige 2 hours ago
Makin' out like a bandit today with the rep
23:27
@WesleyDavid - what's with all the Windows hate in your Ghetto IT flickr group? :(
00:00 - 05:0005:00 - 00:00

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