Friday, June 4, 2010

The system-config-firewall

secuThe firewall rules in the kernel can be configured by using iptables since 2.4 kernel. There are number of tools for configuring the firewall like command line tool, Shorewall, and a number of other GUIs. The default firewall configuration tool in Fedora systems is called “Firewall Configuration”, which can be accessed from Systemà Administration à Firewall in GNOME or from command line via, “system-config-firewall”.


This GUI allows you to set which services are allowed to be accessed via the Internet using a very simple interface. It defines a set of trusted services to be configured. To allow access, you simply need to check the box next to the entry. Each entry lists the service name, the port and protocol, and any additional iptables modules it uses. So if you wanted to allow Samba access to the system, you would check off the box next to the Samba and Samba Client service as in figure below.

The Oracle effect on Sun Microsystem VARs

The new policies introduced by Oracle in terms of “Oracle hardware support” for Sun servers are creating tensions among Sun VARs. The new policies from Oracle are “sinking” the customers as told by some VARs.

One Sun Microsystems systems integrator commented that it was getting pretty bad. The maintenance renewals and services are 3 times what they had in terms of price. Oracle also revoked the prepaid discounts and other flexibilities. Now Oracle charges 12% of the Sun hardware cost per year but in the past it depended on the hardware type and the multiplier was roughly 5% 0r 6%.

"Before this year, a customer buying a Sun 5240 server got three years of support for $3,800, including a discount for paying for the three years at once," this partner said. "That same box will now cost $7,699 to support for three years, a customer told.