OpenBSD PF Developer Interview  On the eve of OpenBSD's 3.5 release, users and administrators gear up for new features. Federico Biancuzzi interviewed six leading OpenBSD developers responsible for PF, the powerful packet filter, on new features and goals.   [BSD DevCenter]

Big Scary Daemons
Mail Server Filtering  Free operating systems are immune to the latest Windows viruses, but that fact doesn't keep our inboxes clean. If your BSD or Linux box receives mail for other clients, filters can help them, too. Michael Lucas demonstrates how to use MIMEDefang, SpamAssassin, ClamAV, and Sendmail to filter unwanted mail.   [BSD DevCenter]

FreeBSD Basics
Interesting New Ports  Perusing the Freshports list is a great way to find interesting and useful new FreeBSD ports. Dru Lavigne explores how to prune unused ports, expand your fortunes, improve your English, and harden your system's security.   [BSD DevCenter]

An Interview with OpenBSD's Marc Espie  As with FreeBSD's ports and NetBSD's packages, OpenBSD's ports system is a compelling reason to use it. Its designers and maintainers are, too often, unsung heroes. That's one reason Federico Biancuzzi sat down to interview OpenBSD's Marc Espie. And along the way they discuss security, licensing, and future plans for the system.   [BSD DevCenter]

FreeBSD Basics
Hiding Secrets with Steganography  Bad guys in the movies all keep their wall safes hidden behind paintings. Is there a metaphor in there for your sensitive files? Dru Lavigne explores steganography, or hiding secret messages in images or sounds, with the outguess and steghide utilities.   [BSD DevCenter]

Big Scary Daemons
Homemade Embedded BSD Systems  BSD runs nicely on older PCs, but they can be noisy and time-consuming to set up. Worse yet, the hardware may be at the end of its life. Is there a better alternative to dedicated (and closed) hardware devices? Michael Lucas demonstrates using BSD on a low-power, low-fuss Soekris box.   [BSD DevCenter]

Big Scary Daemons
Printing Clients and Servers  Though plain-text configuration files often work nicely, some Unixisms are terse -- printcap printer configuration comes to mind. They're not as bad as they seem, though. Michael Lucas explains how to configure printers and print clients, even printing to multiple printers on separate networks.   [BSD DevCenter]

Big Scary Daemons
Printing for the Impatient  While Unix has roots in document formatting and layout, configuring printers has always required more black-arts arcana. This hasn't been helped by the appearance of low-cost commodity WinPrinters. Fortunately, tools like Ghostscript, gimp-print, and Apsfilter make configuring printers much easier. Michael Lucas demonstrates quick and dirty -- and working -- printer configuration.   [BSD DevCenter]

FreeBSD Basics
Improving User Passwords with apg  The biggest security weakness in any system is usually its users. One line of defense is choosing and enforcing a good password policy. The automatic password generator port can help your users create -- and remember -- effective passwords. Dru Lavigne demonstrates its use and configuration.   [BSD DevCenter]

Adding System Calls (an OpenBSD Example)  Kernel programming sometimes feels like a dark art where application programmers should never venture, but sometimes it's the right way to solve a problem. (Oh, and it's also very interesting.) One of the easiest places to start is by adding a new system call to a kernel. Kevin Lo explains how and why, with the OpenBSD kernel.  [BSD DevCenter]

Diving into Gcc: OpenBSD and m88k  Until recently OpenBSD's m88k port used an aging version of the GNU C Compiler, gcc. When an upgrade prevented the port from even compiling, the compiler had to be fixed. How do you track down errors in a compiler, where processor-specific optimizations rule and the debugger doesn't work? Miod Vallat explains the detective work required to fix gcc for OpenBSD's m88k port.   [BSD DevCenter]

Big Scary Daemons
Expanding Small NetBSD Systems  Now that you have NetBSD installed on your palmtop, what will you do with it? Customizing and enhancing the installation can be tricky, but what if you had access to much more disk space? Michael Lucas explains how to enhance your palmtop experience with NFS support, so you can build and install software.   [BSD DevCenter]

FreeBSD Basics
Cleaning and Customizing Your Ports  One of FreeBSD's biggest benefits is its ports collection. It seems like magic, but a little maintenance can make it work even better for your system. Dru Lavigne explains how to keep your ports collection clean and how to customize individual ports.   [BSD DevCenter]

FreeBSD Basics
portupgrade  One of FreeBSD's biggest benefits is its ports collection. Perhaps the most important ports utility is portupgrade. Dru Lavigne demonstrates how you can get the most out of your ports collection.   [BSD DevCenter]

Postfix: A Secure and Easy-to-Use MTA  While Sendmail runs half the mail servers in the world, there are smaller and easier-to-use mail transfer agents (MTAs). Network administrator Glenn Graham demonstrates how Postfix gives you most of the power with a fraction of the pain.   [BSD DevCenter]

FreeBSD Access Control Lists  The Unix permissions model has worked for decades due to its flexible simplicity. It's not the only approach, though. FreeBSD 5.0 supports Access Control Lists, which allow for more flexible permissions. Daniel Harris explains what ACLs can make easier.   [BSD DevCenter]

FreeBSD Basics
Ports Tricks  One of FreeBSD's biggest benefits is its ports collection. You can go years without learning more than just make install clean, but there are dozens of features built into the ports tools. Dru Lavigne demonstrates several of these tricks to simplify your life.   [BSD DevCenter]

FreeBSD Basics
SMTP Proxies  Now that you know all about proxies, you're ready to install and use an SMTP proxy. Why would you want to? To make your life easier. Dru Lavigne explores messagewall, a flexible SMTP proxy.   [BSD DevCenter]

The Essence of OpenBSD  A thousand open source projects quietly produce excellent code under the radar. What goes on in these projects? How do new people join? What motivation is there? Cameron Laird and George Peter Staplin interview several core OpenBSD developers.   [BSD DevCenter]

FreeBSD Basics
HTTP Proxies  Now that you know all about proxies, you're ready to install and use an HTTP proxy. Dru Lavigne explores Squid and Middleman, two effective and powerful HTTP proxies.   [BSD DevCenter]

Securing Small Networks with OpenBSD
Changes in pf: Packet Filtering  OpenBSD's packet filter has really grown up. Since its introduction in OpenBSD 3.0, it's become an advanced tool for networking and security. In the third of four articles, Jacek Artymiak explores new options for packet filtering with pf in OpenBSD 3.2, after NAT and redirection have taken place.   [BSD DevCenter]

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