I noticed the other day that my users sending mail via an authenticated SMTP account would still get blocked as spam. I would prefer that this not happen.

By default, Postfix does not add a header which identifies mail as being received by an SMTP authenticated account. Thus, this inbound mail is as the mercy of the standard Spam Assassin rules.

An easy fix is to add the below line to your main.cf file.

smtpd_sasl_authenticated_header = yes

This will ensure that Spam Assassin can determine the proper source of the email and treat it differently.

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Here is a great chart that compares the following phones…

iPhone4 (ATT)
Droid X (Verizon)
Droid Incredible (Verizon)
Evo 4G (Sprint)
Google Nexus One (Unlocked)

Click Here

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At work, I use a Dell enhanced keyboard that has several special function keys plus a volume control.

Up until today, I was unable to use the volume control with my Apple Macbook Pro.

Found a cool shareware ($20) program that allows you to custom map special keys and customize mice also. Now I have volume control.

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As most everyone knows, my home website, plus a few others are hosted at my house using Comcast’s commercial cable modem service for the internet path.

Problem is that this design presents a rather obvious single point of failure. Comcast has been reliable, but does go off line occasionally. So, when it is down, websites are offline, DNS is inactive and email gets kicked back to the users.

I’ve been looking for a cheap (key word) & good solution to host secondary DNS, backup mail MX and just a second home for some services.

Problem is that I am not willing to spend upwards of $100 a month to rent a stand alone server from someone like 1and1 or other hosting provider.

So, I’ve been looking for a virtual hosting solution. Basically, a full root access linux box, but it’s a virtual host (think VMWare). The hardware is shared with other users, but as long as the host is managed correctly and it’s not over crowded with users, it should be a great solution.

A virtual hosting solution is advantageous because it’s cheaper. But, the price is still going to end up being around $40 a month for something decent.

I follow a few “tweeters” for the android platform and a tweet passed across the other day about this website called tdrevolution.com. They claimed to offer decent virtual servers at “too good to be true” pricing. The “too good to be true” wording is mine, not theirs…

I’ve purchased a $20 a month server. It’s super responsive and the stats are rather impressive for the price. 50Gb storage, 600 month transfer, and 512Mb (1204Burstable) memory.

I had a few snags when I first placed the order and that gave me a chance to work with their support crew / owners. Chris Soyar’s helped me get things straightened out asap. Great guy!

These guys have a great business. Make sure to check them out and get a server for yourself.

Time will tell how peppy the server stays as it starts to get more users. Chris is using OpenVZ to handle the virtualization and it can do a pretty good job of making sure the CPU does not get “hogged” by a single user. Chris also claims that they will ensure that the host servers to not get over loaded. Not something that you would hear the guys over at 1and1 say.

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Residual Security

Google has it defined as a term belonging to the securities / financial market. But, I think it’s a worthy term to use for the IT / data security world.

A company will start out with the best of intentions. They will place a focused view on security by investing in personnel, hardware, policy and procedure. Things will be good and security will be tight. After a period of time, security becomes just another line in the budget and presents an opportunity for cost savings. Thus, the budget is reduced and the bottom line to the company becomes better.

The point at which this happens up to the point of the next breach or significant incident would be what I would call “residual security”. Security hardware, policy and procedures once managed and kept in practice start to fall by the way side. No longer are patches applied to firewalls, intrusion prevention devices and other safety barriers or monitors. No one is directly responsible any longer which leads to decay in the effectiveness of the installed infrastructure.

Security has come full circle. Company life is great. Why did we ever need that security “stuff” in the past. Thank goodness we figured out what a waste it was and we can spend the money on better things now.

I veiw the end point of residual security as the point of the next major breach or security compromise. At that point, it would seem that the cycle would start all over again.

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snmp-server ifindex persist

Why?

Link: Here

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Auto-MDIX (automatic medium-dependent interface crossover) is a computer networking technology that automatically detects the required cable connection type (straight-through or crossover) and configures the connection appropriately, thereby removing the need for crossover cables to interconnect switches or connecting PCs peer-to-peer. (Copied from Wikipedia)

Wikipedia Link
HP Site

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http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2795.txt

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Check out Fluid, a free site specific browser that will allow embedding within your OSX desktop.

To embed your favorite webpage, create the new web application using Fluid. Choose the web site you want to have active.

Open it up and choose preferences…

Window Style set to “Chromeless”
Window Level set to “Embed on Desktop”
Window Shadow set to “Off”

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