Back to Newsletters DAVROM CONSULTING Newsletter - Issue # 09 - Dated: Wed Apr 17 10:09:50 EST 2002 From the desk of David Clark Welcome to issue 9 of the newsletter - I trust these continue to be of benefit to readers and are not just another piece of e-mail to trawl through - we will continue to try and keep them small in content. For this issue I have put in a HTML link at the top to see if people prefer reading the HTML web page rather than the e-mailed text. We keep all back issues on file as HTML as well. There are a few Linux based magazines that are normally at your local newsagent that are worth reading - even if just to keep up with product offerings based around Linux itself. Two that I often get hold of are: Linux Magazine and Linux Journal. These are US publications and there is one from the UK called Linux Format. The price tag is "a bit steep" (circa $15-18 AUS) but well worth the read if you are after latest bits and tech tips. This month we cover the Stallion ePipe and you will find information on this versatile and powerful product both in the newsletter and at our website. I would like to thank the reader for their time in reading this newsletter. David.M.Clark Stallion ePipes for your Internet Gateway Your flexible Internet Gateway solution - this is a term that I use to describe the Stallion ePipe range and I have enjoyed working with these versatile network devices for some time now. In a nutshell, ePipe provides you with secure modem dialup and/or cable/ADSL access to the Internet or acts as a gateway between offices. The ePipe removes the need to install PC based Internet gateway servers and offers mapping of known TCP/UDP ports such as 25 (SMTP), 80 (HTTP) to specific servers within your network as well as NAT (Network Address Translation). The primary feature of ePipe is their ability to provide a secure VPN tunnel (Virtual Private Network) via the Internet which allows remote offices to connect to the main head office via cable/ADSL connections. If bandwidth (speed of your link to/from the remote location) is of a low priority, then dialup modems can be used instead and you can add more modems to the serial based models to help spread the bandwidth load over several links to the Internet (i.e, additional modems share the bandwidth/load thus improving performance). You can also use the ePipes for straight dialup and cable connections between offices without using the Internet. The ePipe comes in a variety of configurations but the most suitable model for most offices would be the 2242 which provides you with a cable/ADSL connection, but also has 4 serial ports for modem dialup access. This model allows you to start out using dialup connection and when cable is installed, simply plug it in and activate that part of the link. There is the ability to utilise the dialup modems for Internet connection (or remote ePipe dialin support) in the event the cable link goes down. For those who are familiar with the Stallion EasyServer II, the ePipe has a similar configuration on one of its models where you get 8 serial ports for legacy devices such as dumb terminals, printers and modems - but you also get an 8 port 10-Base-T hub built into it as well. This makes it versatile for those sites that only want modem dialup to the Internet to be shared amongst a few PCs or have the ePipe dialup the main office and act as a dialup gateway. The key advantage of the ePipe is that there is no Operating System to install, maintain or patch and there is only one piece of hardware - the ePipe itself. The host of additional features the ePipe offers are too many to mention in a single article but if you need a secure Internet gateway that runs independently of the rest of your office network, the ePipe is an excellent choice. For more information and pricing on the ePipe, please got to: http://www.davrom.com/stallion/epipe.html or contact DAVROM CONSULTING on the contacts provided in this newsletter. Another awesome product from Stallion Technologies - a good Australian produced product with the main office right here in Brisbane. tcpsend for Xerox and Kyocera printers For the later part of last year and up until yesterday, I have noticed a lot of customers installing Kyocera and Xerox laser printers for network printing. While my favourite remains to be the HP range for network printing (HP actually pioneered network printing), Xerox in particular has bundled a versatile multi-function network device which is a network printer, a fax and a photocopier. While these same options are available from HP and other vendors, Xerox seem to be in more sites I support. Kyocera also offer another alternative to the laser printer range. As far as the networking part for both the Xerox and the Kyocera, they offer the standard UNIX LPD (Remote Line Printer services) facility - but being a SystemV spooler boy for the last 15 years under SCO (Xenix to OpenServer), I still like to use network interface scripts similar to the HP JetDirect software to print to the Xerox and Kyocera printers. This means I am not using LPD but SystemV printing (LPD is implemented whenever you specify that you are adding a remote printer to OpenServer). My reason for this is that I find SystemV printing easier to administer and modify - and easier to diagnose if things go wrong. There is a GNU product called "tcpsend" that I use at all sites where printing to network devices is required and I even use "tcpsend" to print to HP JetDirect devices as well on OpenServer. "tcpsend" also works well with Stallion ePipe/EasyServer II server printing and works on any network device that use TCP/IP port printing. Tech Tip Your e-mail footer/signature has now become your electronic business card and so it is vital that you put your contact information in your e-mail messages so people "know how to contact you". Most e-mail readers refer offer a facility for you to create and/or modify one your e-mail signature. Most e-mail readers these days are GUI based so attaching graphics is possible (Vcard, HTML based etc) but I still prefer to use plain old text so no matter what e-mail reader is used, they have all my details with each message they receive. Here is my standard e-mail signature as an example which is a regular text file in my UNIX $HOME directory called ".signature" and I have told Netscape Messenger that this is my signature file to attach to all messages: ---------------------------------------------------------------- As always, I remain at your service. Kindest Regards, David.M.Clark DAVROM CONSULTING Pty Ltd (SCO Master ACE/Trainer/CUSA) Postal: PO Box 1644, Sunnybank Hills, 4109 E-mail : david@davrom.com Mobile: 0418-763124 ICQ: 16595618 http://www.davrom.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------- At one stage I even included a "comment of the day" and some ASCII based pictures as part of it but now have toned down the content these days. Remember, thou shalt use thy signature footer. Back to Newsletters 
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