Reading Linux Email book

I’m reading a new book about Linux mail servers,
Its basically a Hands on training book for easily installing a full linux email server for the office,
The book is filled with helping screenshots and a step-by-step procedures to install the server and make things work,
some of the apps the book covers are: Postfix, Courier, Procmail etc…
Ill add a full review when I’m done reading – it looks nice so far.

Technorati Tags: Hardware, Linux, sendmail

I Like Good Linux Lists On The Morning

Lists are the magic word for SEO and link bait, and they catch the eye.

Well I sometimes bite too so here is the latest Linux links list I have fallen for:
15 Power tools for Linux that you cant afford to miss,
I havent checked all the links in the page yet, but I will.

And you should probably check out the whole blog,
It looks very promising and fun to read.
from their description:
Penguin Inside is a blog about Linux and Software Guides, How-TOs, Reviews.
The blog is dedicated to Linux Desktops.

Another Good list is from Smashing Magazine:
50 Beautiful Flash Websites , and thats a beutiful list of 50 stunning flash websites,
A couple that i liked the most are:

e-Content Solutions

and v5 Design

Technorati Tags: Command line, desktop, Hardware, Linux

Apache Active Directory Authentication

Apache server is a strong web server that can serve great open source application like Mediawiki which is a great solution for information sharing,
but what if you want to use Mediawiki to share information only for the local office active directory domain members?
Or even only to members of a specific group in the active directory?

In Apache you have a specific module called mod_ldap which allows you to use the Active Directory as an authentication server for your users,
so you can create a secure wiki branch for each department users.

To setup the apache server to use Active Directory as access manager you will need to make sure the mod_ldap was compiled with the apache server and that these lines are in the httpd.conf file:

LoadModule authnz_ldap_module modules/mod_authnz_ldap.so
LoadModule ldap_module modules/mod_ldap.so

If you have a Windows server installed with the xampp install of apache and mysql, you will have the module pre-compiled into the apache server,
however testing that it’s loaded can be done with:

C:\xampp\apache\bin\httpd.exe -t -D DUMP_MODULES
the output should have these lines:
authnz_ldap_module (shared)
ldap_module (shared)

Once you have the mod_ldap modules loaded you can add to the apache configuration file the user authentication support:

Any Authenticated user from the Domain:

<Location /Finance_Wiki>
Require valid-user
AuthType Basic
AuthName “Finance Wiki Access”
AuthBasicProvider “ldap”
AuthLDAPBindDN “CN=proxy_user,OU=sub_group,OU=main_group,DC=some,DC=domain,DC=com”
AuthLDAPBindPassword “proxy_user_pass”
AuthLDAPURL “ldap://pdc.some.domain.com:389/OU=main_group,DC=some,DC=domain,DC=com?sAMAccountName?sub?(objectClass=*)”
</Location>

The AuthLDAPBindDN and AuthLDAPBindPassword settings are for setting a user that will allow the apache server to browse the Active Directory structure,
the user created for this should have the minimum rights possible in the domain.

This specific apache configuration will allow any user from the domain to share the /Finance_Wiki folder, but if you want to allow access for a specific group you need to add this configuration line:

require ldap-group CN=groupname,OU=group.container,OU=main_group,DC=some,DC=domain,DC=com

This is the part that will require the active directory authentication for a specific group.

This way you can prepare a wiki branch for each group in your company to securely share internal files.

Technorati Tags: apache, Command line, desktop, Linux, windows, xampp

Computer Jokes

I found these bunch of old geek jokes in this post today,
that combined with the red wine glass  had for lunch made working in the afternoon impossible

the couple I loved the most were:

Unix is user friendly. It’s just very particular about who its friends are.

and another unix joke – a true classis:

Technorati Tags: Command line, funny, Linux

Linux Video TimeLine

I’ve found this nice site today that shows youtube videos and flicker images timelines by keyword searches,
for example this great Linux youtube videos timeline you can see in the image above.

From this timeline I found this nice linux video youtube flick - about “I’m a mac”
(pc, mac and linux enter a bar…)

Technorati Tags: funny, Linux