IPCop / LAMP Project

I mainly chose to work alone because no one else who didn't already have a partner was interested in Linux.  Stacey was going to work with Mackie, and she isn't real into Linux, so I couldn't work with her.  Kyle already had a partner so I didn't work with him either.  If I had to do another project where I got to pick a partner or work alone, I would probably pick a partner since you have someone to help get the work done.  Having a partner is nice because you aren't on your own for everything.

I'm not really sure what steps I would take to make the project easier on me.  It already is pretty easy since I have some Linux experience.  If it were to be easier, I would probably try to do less stuff each week but for now it's pretty much perfect.

I'm still not fully sure what I'm going to be doing for my presentation at the end of the year. I am thinking about making video tutorials to go along with my PDF tutorials, but I'm not sure yet. For the IPCop part of the presentation, I will be talking about the different kinds of setups that IPCop supports as well as talking about the features that it has. I will probably also show everyone the admin control panel that IPCop has and show them what you can do with it.

For the LAMP part of the presentation, I will be talking about the history of Linux and what LAMP stands for. I will pass out copies of my PDF tutorials, which show how to install and configure Linux. I might also pass out a paper with some common Linux commands as well. I think I might also show them what the Apache, PHP, and MySQL config files look like, just so they can get an idea of how complex some of this stuff can be.  I also plan to show PHPMyAdmin, and explain the purpose of it. Finally, at the end of the presentation, I will show them phpBB and Drupal and the various things that you can do with them.

The Linux commands that I have been working with have been pretty easy so far. Some of the commands I've been using so far have been yum, ls, nano, tar, make, and make install. These are all pretty easy to use because they are just commands. As long as you know what they do, all you really have to do is execute them.

As I progress with this project, I'm sure I'll run into some commands that I don't know exactly how to execute. There are multiple places you can go for help though. One is by looking at the manual page for that specific command. To view the manual page for a command, you simply execute man <command name here>. For example, if you wanted to look up the ls command, simply type man ls. Below you will find a picture of what a typical man page looks like. Another way to go for help is post on a forum. You will find that many people in the Linux community are more than happy to help you.

A man page for the ls command.

Forums can be a very useful tool when you need to find information or solve a problem. One positive is that they allow you to find information fast. You can use the search feature on most forums to look for existing posts to see if someone has already talked about the thing you are looking for. If you can't find anything related to your problem, you can start a new post and have people reply to it if they know the solution to your problem. Another positive is that they connect you with people doing the same project as you, or experts in that field.

They also have some negatives. Spam is a common problem among various forums. Many times, bots will come to the forum and post spam messages in order to increase their search engine rankings. Another negative is that you sometimes have to put up with rude people. Many times people won't even bother helping you, but simply say "Use the search feature!" This can be a problem especially if you already tried that and could not find anything relating to your problem. Another negative is that the responses to your threads might be inaccurate, and not be of much help to you. You might be better off doing a Google search, rather than posting on a forum to find specific information.

Here are the forums that I joined:

• IPCop Support Forum
• Linux Forums
• Linux Questions
• Fedora Forum

            I did not have to change my timeline much, as I have stayed on task throughout the past 3 weeks. This week, though, I had to push back writing the assignments and finishing up IPCop, since we had less time due to the Career Building assignment Champ assigned while he was gone. I have been writing status updates next to each item in my timeline to give me a better idea of what I'm currently doing, what I finished, and what I still need to do.

            During the entire project, I have only encountered a few problems (which I forgot to mention in my previous posts). When I first got started with IPCop, the first beige box that I chose started giving me all these random bios errors right after I installed IPCop. I was forced to swap that machine with another one. Another problem I faced was that my computer was only getting a network speed of 10 mbps. I wasn't sure if this was caused by one of the NICs in the IPCop machine, or the switch. I eventually narrowed it down to the switch, which only supported 10 mbps. I ended up just ditching it and plugging IPCop directly into my other desktop machine, since I wouldn't be sharing the connection with anyone else.

            Next week I will be finishing up IPCop and moving onto LAMP. All in all, IPCop has been very interesting. I have always wanted to setup my own Linux based firewall and finally figured out how to do it. I have also setup an IPCop machine at home and enjoy messing around with the different features that it has to offer.