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I’ve never been consistent with my physical exercise. I know very well that I need to keep myself fit but I’ve been unable to follow a regular exercise routine (not strong enough will power, I guess…). I’m sure all of us understand the importance of keeping our body fit for it’s the only vehicle that carries us. Without a sound body we’ll be limited in many ways and it’s in our best interest to maintain and keep it fit. I joined the gym worked out for around 8 months and quit. I started jogging, 3 to 4 times a week but sometimes there’s a gap of more than 3 to 4 months. I go swimming and hiking sometimes but still think my body is not having the minimum required exercise and this time I’ve decided to try something new. I wanted to try Yoga.
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There can be situations where we need to send and receive emails without having an access to the email clients. For network and system admins using command line can be a very useful technique. We can troubleshoot the email problems in the fly. I find it very helpful in solving most of the basic email problems. You can diagnose simple problems like; incorrect login name/password, connection problem to the server, mail box full etc… . To send and receive emails without an email client you need to have access to a PC with internet connection, your username, password and pop3/smtp server name.
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New test version of Samba is available for download. You can check their Release Notes. They’ve spent 3 years in development. It’s still a Technology Preview to allow users, managers and developers to see the progress and get the feedback and support. This means it’s still not a Stable release and they’ve warned that Technology Preview is not secure.

New features of Samba 4:

Active Directory support
Built in LDAP Server
Kerberos implementation
Integration of user-friendly SWAT
New VFS (Virtual File System) features
New java script interface that can talk to samba internals
Based on LDAP-like Database

Very useful 2 Online and 2 Desktop network utilities

Online Tools:

1. DnsStuff.com
It a a very comprehensive tool that contains almost everything that you want to do with DNS. This is what DNSstuff says about itself: “We strive to be the fastest, most accurate, and most comprehensive site for DNS, domain name, WHOIS, IP address and other networking tools!”

A Firefox Toolbar is available and should be useful for network admins.

2. CentralOps.net
Some of the utilities are similar to DNSstuff but there’re few interesting tools like Browser Mirror: See what your browser reveals and Domain Dossier: Investigate domains and IP addresses, which can also do service scan. Source code is available for most of the utilities.

Desktop Tools:

1. Ethereal
A free network protocol analyzer that allows you to capture and analyze the live network data. It is the most popular sniffing tool used by network admins.

2. Angry IP Scanner
Very fast, free and open source ip and port scanner. It can scan Mac addresses and resolve net-bios names. The report can be saved in many different formats.

UWB has an article Ram Bahadur Bomjan: The Buddha Boy. The story is translated from original Nepalese article published in Kantipur Daily newspaper. It is an interesting update with almost everything possible known about the Meditating boy. The photo below is linked to it’s original source UWB.

A team of doctors observed him for half an hour and this is what they had to say:

“In a time period of half an hour the meditator inhaled three times, swallowed saliva once and moved his eyelashes” said Dr Sah. He further added that even if he eats during the night he is an extraordinary person for being able to sit in a single posture for 12 hours in a row. He thinks that Bomjan has been able to do the impossible because of the practice of Yoga. Shah says,” Investigation is necessary for this challenge to the medical world.”

Last Saturday we had fun in our annual lunch and I presented about secure mobile remote access (SSL VPN). I wanted to let everyone know that there is a better, easier and safer way to connect to the corporate network remotely.

Different sort of remote access are being used today. It’s a necessity and convenience upon which businesses are relying. VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a mature technology and many big networks are connected to each other by it. The main technologies being used for VPN today are IPSec (IP Security), PPTP (Point to Point Tunneling Protocol), L2TP (Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol) and SSL (Secure Socket Layer). If we categorize them in terms of their use then the VPNs can be of 2 types.
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Tomorrow we will be having an Annual Lunch. Our Company organizes annual lunch every year just before the Lunar New Year. It’s a fun event where everyone gathers. We have some presentations, games, lucky draw and a lot of good food and drinks. I’ll be giving a presentation about SSL VPN there and while I was preparing my power point slides, I found a speech that I wrote a year ago when I was a member of Toastmasters Club at HK Polytechnic University. I find it quite interesting to read now… and I am presenting it here as it is. I didn’t deliver the speech exactly this way but this is the material I prepared on. It’s about the question we ask to ourselves “why me?“…
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I’m sure you’ve heard about the Buddha Boy of Nepal (his name is Ram Bahadur Bomzon). If you haven’t check this BBC story or Nepali Times (the photo on the right corner looks latest and is linked to it’s source, Nepali Times, but you need to login to read the whole story). I’m very curious (of course everyone is!). A teenage boy just walks out of his home at midnight to meditate and find peace. His followers, friends and people who’ve been watching him say that he’s sitting there and meditating for more than 6 months without food and water. It just seems impossible to believe how a human can survive for such a long time without food and water. It defies all the rules that modern medicine has known. Now there’s a team of Nepalese scientists gathered to find the truth. Like everyone else I also want to know the truth but having said that deep inside me I think something phenomenal is happening here. The boy himself has never claimed that he’s a Buddha and that he’s meditating without food and water.
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If you are in Hong Kong then you should be aware that PCCW recently acquired Sunday mobile operator. And now they’re entering the mobile communication with a bang by offering a free 6 month trial of 3G service for Hong Kongers. In their website they mention:

The offer looks very attractive, I’ve already registered and if you’re in Hong Kong you can try it free for 6 months. The most compelling part is Unlimited Local GPRS use (wow…). But you’ll have to be careful terminating your service after 5 months if you don’t want to continue because they’ll be charging your credit card after 6 months for a service plan which is not fixed yet.

If your are a network or system administrator of a SME (Small to Medium Enterprise) then you’ll have to do a lot of things that go beyond the call of your duty. You need to find systems, softwares and tools, recommend them to the management, justify your recommendation and make sure everything runs smoothly. There is a never ending search for perfect systems and softwares which are of good qualities and cost as less as possible. A typical SME would need at minimum following servers in order to run their business smoothly:

Email Server
Web Server
DNS Server
File Server
Print Server
Internet Gateway (Firewall/Router/Proxy)

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