Friday I had some consulting in the morning. Definitely a lot of fun. It was for this private school, religious I believe but fun. They've got a nice little network going but it looks like they're out-growing it. They've got this tangerine iBook running their proxy server, a little funny, but I think we'll be upgrading that with either Squid or OpenDNS. Only spent an hour there, basically just going over things, so there's some research to be done but it'll be fun.

Did some work from home in the afternoon, got a bunch of emails out and did some web work. I was going to go out and get some dinner, either from the pub or form that new Thai place, but I ended up having some delicious army food. Haha

I was going to go riding this morning but it's pretty crappy out, raining. I do think it's going to clear up so probably this afternoon I'll hit up the barn. I ordered a new saddle pad last night along with some muzzle/ear shavers. I can't wait to use them, pretty up my horses face haha

emilie will be home today, I don't think we're going to do anything tonight, might get take-out from the Thai place. I really hope tomorrow is nice, because I want to go riding with Emilie. We'll see though.

Have a love day everyone!

This is a report I wrote to get into the Cisco Networking class instead of going to normal high school. It's kinda funny, old school :)

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Computer Report
Jimmy Brancaccio 6.02.03

First off I would like to mention that this started off as four pages and it was still a work in progress. The other night, I totally forgot it was on my hard drive and I formatted it...so now you're getting a much slimmed down version of that.

Over the course of my life I have been using computers for more then half of it, I have used many different operating systems, many different applications, tons of different pieces of hardware so here's a brief overview of what I have encountered in my computer life.

Operating Systems:

>> Microsoft Windows 95 -- This was my first operating system. I didn't get to know it too well like I know other operating systems.

>> Microsoft Windows 98 and Windows 98se -- These have become quite familiar with me because the PCs in my school run on this operating system for the majority.

>> Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional & Advanced Server -- I used both of these for my server at home for 5-6 months.

>> Microsoft Windows ME -- One of the WORST operating systems I have ever used. Way to buggy and I got way to many BSODs. I wouldn't recommend this operating system to anyone.

>> Microsoft Windows XP Home & Pro and Media Center Edition -- These are a much better OS then Windows ME. I ran these operating systems for a while on my normal computers.

>> Microsoft Windows 2003 Standard & Web Editions -- These are my current operating systems that run both my servers and my normal computers on the LAN.

>> Mandrake -- This is the first distribution of Linux I had ever used.

>> Gentoo -- Still working on installing this distribution of Linux and maybe I will have gotten it by the time you read this.

>> College Linux -- This is the 3rd distribution of Linux that I have used. I guess it could be the 2nd since I haven't really gotten Gentoo installed.

>> Microsoft Windows Longhorn -- This operating system isn't even in alpha build yet, but I snagged a copy to check it out. It's much like XP right now.

Hardware:

I have used way to much hardware to tell you right now. I use IDE HDDs, SCSI HDDs, Ethernet cards, motherboards, sound cards, video cards, tape drives, CD-RW drives, optical mice and the list goes on.

Networking:

I have a LAN at home so it was mandatory for me to lear how to maintain and install one. I have no big books explaining the TCP/IP Protocols or the OSI layers. I just read articles on the net and the manuals provided with my networking stuff. I run a fileserver and webserver so since I am on a LAN I have configured my router to send the right port requests to the right computers. (i.e. port 80 requests get sent to the webserver computer). Also learning how to setup wireless internet connection was something I learned since some of the computers on my LAN are connected to a wire-less router for internet access and file sharing.

Servers:

Just thought I should make this it's own category because it's what I mainly do each day of my life. I run about 5 or 6 different servers here. I have a FTP server, webserver, radio station server, Counter Strike MP server, MP3 server and an IRC server. They were all setup and configured by me. I could go into much more depth but I am running out of time. They all run on Windows 2003 though. I would love o move them ll onto Linux but I have not enough knowledge to do that right now.

- It's 7:30am, I just set up this new server last night. It's called WASTE. It was written by Justin Frankel, the man who brought you WinAMP and several other applications. WASTE is much like IRC, and IM and file-sharing combined all into one. Well when I went to bed about 8 hours ago there was about 7 or 8 people connected to my server, when I woke up about 10 minutes ago and checked, there was about 400 people connected sharing files and chatting...amazing isn't it? I am still learning about how this WASTE network works...

Programming:

>> C++ - I have very little knowledge of this language as I took a course in it 3 years ago and I think I have forgotten everything I learned.

>> DarkBASIC -- As it says it's a BASIC programming language. I didn't enjoy it very much.

>> PHP -- I am just learning this right now. I have some scripts up to use.

>> Visual Basic -- I took a course on this language last year and I am okay with this language. I have several applications made but it's nothing that's to special.

This past weekend, I got to try out some of the new features that come in Mac OS X Leopard Server. First lets back up a bit to Tiger Server.

OS X Tiger Server is the first piece of server software I've used from Apple. I come from the world of Linux where most of the configuration is done by hand, you have to edit your own application configuration files. There's no pretty GUI or buttons to click on. Tiger Server saved a lot of time because all I had to do was type a few things in, click 'Go' and I could have a very resourceful server. In just a matter of minutes, I could be running a web server, file server, DNS server, VPN server and more! Apple really made Tiger Server easy to setup and manage. Thy provided some really great tools too.

With Leopard Server they've made it even EASIER to setup and manage. I think Apple has really extended the potential of Leopard server, they making is so Leopard Server has a place in the home as well as large companies. They continue to provide some really awesome tools to manage it and it includes loads of new and cool features.

When I setup Leopard Server, I did a fresh install (no upgrade) so I am not sure if some of the things I am talking about will apply to people who choose to upgrade from Leopard Server.

Upon boot up after you install Leopard server you can choose what type of server you want. There are three options, Standard, Workgroup or Advanced. Each of the three types just had a bit different configuration in which services it uses and sets up for you. While I think this is great for people who like things done for them, I prefer to configure each service by hand (I guess that's the Linux-side of me coming out). People who really just want the easiest way to manage their server should probably choose either the Standard or Workgroup configurations. This will also allow you to use some of the new and nifty tools that Apple has included with Leopard Server. Unfortunately when you use the Advanced server type you loose the ability to use some of those tools (you can still use Server Admin, Workgroup Manager and command line utilities though). I am torn between letting Apple do all of the hard stuff so I can use the new tools (using the Workgroup server type) or just using the Advanced server type and handling everything myself. I'm still deciding but I have to say I think it's great Apple is making their server software usable by most anyone with some experience in computer and networking.

So after choosing the type of server you want, Apple will go about and work its magic, setting up the services and configuring them for you.

For my tests I choose the Workgroup type, so I got the iCal service, web server, iChat service, Mail service, Time Machine backup service, the Open Directory service and a few others. I have a feeling most people will choose the Workgroup type, because it includes a lot of services while still being able to easily manage it.

One of the new management applications that comes with Leopard Server is called Server Preferences. It looks very similar to System Preferences, but it allows you to easily manage the services on your server. Over the last 2-3 years I've gotten very used to using Server Admin and Workgroup Manager to manage all my services and users, so if I choose to use the Workgroup server type on my live server, I'll have to get use to doing everything through the Server Preferences application. It's definitely a great tool for people who are new too OS X Server.

A few of the things that I am really looking forward to actually using is the wiki server, the iCal server and possibly the Time Machine service.

I run a couple wikis (think of Wikipedia.org but on a much smaller scale) so I would love to move them into this service. I have a few shared calendars that need to actually be editable by more then just one person, so the iCal server will surely help with that problem.

The last thing, Time Machine backup service sounds really interesting but at this point I don't know enough about how it works to rely on that as my only backup service. It sounds really great that client machines can backup to the server rather then a local disk. It saves me from having to buy multiple external drives for each client, instead I can just point them to the server and use that as my backup location. I guess I'll just have to do some testing!

In the few days I spent playing with Leopard server, I have to say that I am really impressed with how easy Apple has made it for someone to setup and manage a fully featured server. They include some great tools and some really new and much welcomed features.

Here's a few PDF files that I found quite useful when setting up Leopard Server, check them out cause they're very useful.

Getting Started with OS X Leopard Server
Installation Setup & Worksheet