Matt Lestock

Madhak, I myself run PFsense because I've encountered it before. But thanks for reminding me about ClearOS, it's something I've wanted to check out but have never gotten around to. There are other systems out there like Vyatta and even smoothwall which is another fork of monowall. As far as why I chose PFsense, I really just wanted a lightweight system that could provide great uptime, reliability, and speed. For my home use, the ClearOS software has a lot of modules and addons that I just wouldn't need. That being said, the communities behind these products are often just as important as the software itself. PFsense is less frequently updated than ClearOS probably but that's because it has a pretty specific purpose out of the box. So if you have a great community there's near limitless things that you can do with the solution. The one thing I really quite like about ClearOS from what I can see is it's a low technical entry into the small / medium businesses that don't have the money, technical knowledge, or ability to deploy cisco or juniper like solutions but want some of the advanced features that those deployments offer. The app marketplace provides an extremely low entry point in getting advanced features for free or a small subscription fee. Again, that could be a big seller to certain individuals and companies. As far as security, ClearOS just like PFsense is an open source solution. Which means there is a governing body who must approve all changes to the code before a package gets released to the public. Now if you're pulling code and files directly from SVN, and depending on what their SVN publishing settings are defined as, there's always a possibility that someone could have tried to hide some code somewhere that gives you backdoor access, but to be honest with you I've only really ever heard of 1 or 2 backdoors making it into an actual release package on sourceforge. So you should be ok. Again, those are my thoughts on the matter, feel free to take them all with some salt ;) Matt

Having been a windows centric systems admin for a number of years I can confirm that most of the largest companies in the world rely in large part on Windows systems. Why? I think it's because of the interoperability of all of the various different systems that are available. You have your directory services which provide authentication (user accounts) Email is obviously the life blood of most companies these days Granular file sharing Internal messaging The list goes on and on Another reason you don't see a lot of hybrid shops is because operating one is extremely difficult to achieve correctly. So if you have active directory for users already, it makes sense to use at least some of the different servers that integrate with it. I currently work in an organization that uses linux and windows for web hosting functions and it's quite a pain in the ass setting up certain rules for linux servers which aren't required for their Microsoft counter parts. Now don't get me wrong, there are definitely extremely large, and I'm sure Fortune 500 companies that use only linux, but they're extremely few and far between. Ultimately you'll go where the money leads, and in my professional experience, there's always going to be a need for qualified people who know their way around a microsoft system.

It's hard to believe that it's been over 6 years since I met the crew at Hak5 over my game server sponsorships, and had no real intention of joining the show. Time really does fly!

I haven't had a use for the airmarshal service yet, but after deploying them to a small hotel earlier in the year, the entire product line really is something to behold. I deployed 10 initially, and through monitoring usage and the deployment, opted to throw 2 more into a dead zone that was being detected. Coupled with their free device management platform for mobile devices, and having everything running from a single console is pretty awesome. Matt

While logon scripts have been around for ages, I really like the ease of management that adding shares per group policy provides. That way you don't have a bunch of scripts to edit in the event there are users who only need access to certain shares. Ultimately the choice is up to you, but normally something easy like setting up shares per OU is a great entry into doing more with Group Policy.

Telot, it really is a great little device, especially for free. I just wrote up another post that I'll link to from here explaining some issues I had with a previous router running DD-WRT and why I ultimately went to a PFsense with Meraki setup. http://forums.hak5.org/index.php?/topic/28061-in-the-market-for-a-new-router/#entry215811 Definitely let me know if you have any questions.

This is exactly what I've done, I used to have a Netgear WNDR3000 that I installed DD-WRT on. And while it worked, it was flaky with the wireless at times. Requiring a reboot or a wait it out method before the wireless signal would come back. Finally I got fed up enough to convert an old 3.0gHz Dell Optiplex SFF that I had laying around into a PFSense box. It was by far the best decision I've made for the internal network at my house in a while. This is the connection quality from the PFSense box - http://www.speedtest.net/result/2413062881.png Instead of using a built in wireless card in the PFSense machine and opting to make that the Orange interface I opted for the free Meraki MR12 from the webinar like you. So far it's been absolutely rock solid. You're not going to be able to install things like Jasager on it, but for a stable access point, it really can't be beat and the feature set is pretty impressive as well.

Appears it's a manual on how to use the Pineapple. Not sure what a book is going to accomplish that a PDF wouldn't, but meh I guess that's just me.

Why don't you just activate Windows Deployment Services under the server's role settings? I had a WDS server imaging new systems inside a half hour with no issues. Windows 7 is more difficult to setup, but XP is a breeze. Check http://thommck.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/installing-windows-xp-over-the-network-using-windows-deployment-services/ for more info. Since you're using 2008 R2 there really is no reason not to use what's built in.

I've used a bunch of different PBX solutions in the past, hell I've done 3CX segments on Hak5 for those that remember. But I too have had luck with pbxinaflash and if you want to take the time, the asterisk installs are always an option for 0 cost.

Kaseya is a great solution if you're using the other MSP features they provide. I personally have used the shit out of Kayako, and love it. It's by far one of the more full featured solutions on the market. It's a little costly, but if you can justify the cost it's simply one of the best available.

I've used Vipre enterprise before. Great central administration, and multiple policy groups accompanied with low system usage is what won my vote. GFI bought Sunbelt Software and have been pretty good about requests from users. I'd give that a look too.

Hey everyone, Just wanted to throw a message up letting you know that yes, I've started another creative outlet with Wess and a good friend of ours, Mike. The idea is to be a community / user group of people who love technology. We're hoping to be able to get people invovled with things like blog posts, content submissions, video submissions, and even live internet radio broadcasts. The show itself is less informal than that of Hak5, but we feel this gives us the opprotunity to go deeper into the topics you guys care about most. So we urge you to sign up at the website, and when you do, you're automatically a contributor in wordpress so that you can begin creating content not just for us, but for everyone else who enjoys the same shit you do! We had a great live show last night, drinking, getting to know our community, and building a new PC because we could haha. Check us out! http://thenewtech.tv Thanks! Matt Lestock

That's a hell of a nice bike dude! Don't pancake it! ;)

Lookin good Deags! who are you using for your IPV6 tunnel?