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Date:      Tue, 07 Aug 2001 14:08:58 -0800
From:      Brian Raynes <brian_raynes@dnr.state.ak.us>
To:        Karun <karun@dambiec.com>
Cc:        freebsd newbies <freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: What I plan to use freebsd for. Was (Re: FreeBSD Books)
Message-ID:  <3B7066FA.7A012000@dnr.state.ak.us>
References:  <Pine.LNX.4.10.10108071719230.10791-100000@lcd.efn.uncor.edu> <3B705769.D1BD0924@dnr.state.ak.us> <3B70589E.D6B2553A@dambiec.com>

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Karun wrote:
> 
> I'm planning to use a computer running freebsd, as a server for my adsl
> modem and also for dambiec.com, which the ip is updated using a dynamic dns
> client. The server will have to keep attempting to connect to the internet
> when it is disconnected and update the ip for the domain once reconnected. I
> also plan to use a firewall on the server, and apache as well as an email
> server.
> 
> Karun Dambiec

FreeBSD can do that type of mission well.  I'm not actually sure on the
dynamic dns, I don't have adsl yet.  The regular userland ppp client
handles that and I think it includes the pppoe client.  You'd have to
ask a question about that on freebsd-questions.  I've never needed a web
server at home, but it will not be much different than linux and I have
set that up at work for an internal help request server.  It wasn't too
bad, for an complete apache newbie, like myself.

I personally liked OpenBSD for setting up a firewall, but I'm not sure
what their support for adsl is like, except that they have support for
pppoe.  Again, I don't have it yet, so I haven't looked that hard at
it.  OpenBSD recently dumped IP Filter from their current branch, but
the last release, 2.9, still includes it as the packet filter.  FreeBSD
has support for IP Filter, but defaults to IPFW.  From things that I've
read on packet filters, I preferred the stateful inspection of IP
Filter, but FreeBSD docs do not really cover it much - you'll have to
look to IP Filter's own how-to and docs to figure out how to configure
them.  However, they're pretty good, so it shouldn't be too hard on Open
or FreeBSD.

As to your earlier book question, Ted Mittlestaedt's book might be just
the ticket, but I haven't yet read the portions on apache or dsl
connections, if there is a section on dsl even???  Except for the adsl
stuff, most of the tasks you mention are best covered by other general
Unix books, IMO.  Apache, the Definitive Guide, published by O'Reilly
and Associates, will probably provide more useful info than the FreeBSD
docs on Apache, except for possibly the location of certain files.  I
haven't looked at O'Reilly's Sendmail book, but I've been told it is
good.  A book that covers lots of Unix stuff, including Sendmail, would
be Unix System Administration Handbook by Evi Nemeth, et al.  The latest
version has information specific to Red Hat Linux and FreeBSD, I bet it
would be a great book, I have the previous version and it is very
practical and useful in general.

Hope that helps,

Brian Raynes

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