By admin | December 28th, 2008
Today there was a major disruption in Internet traffic affecting our network and many other sites in the USA such as Amazon S3, Facebook and more. It looks like the primary cause of the problem was with the Level(3) Internet backbone.
As of 2:45PM EST it seems that things have stabilized. If you are still having problems, please open a support ticket.
By admin | September 24th, 2008
Buildasearch.com is a new website that lets anyone quickly build their own customized search engine. By signing up for a free account, users can quickly configure and customize their own search engine that can be used to search a predefined list of websites.
Besides just harvesting the power of big search engines, Buildasearch.com lets users easily customize the look and feel of their search engine. An easy-to-use AJAX web interface allows users to tailor the search engine’s color scheme and logo to blend in with an existing website. When it comes to integrating the search engine, a webmaster can either link to it on Buildasearch.com’s server or use a sample PHP API to include it on a standalone website.
Buildasearch.com is powered by a FreeBSD VPS provided by RootBSD. “The RootBSD service has been excellent, and the Xen-powered VPS has handled our site’s load very well,” said Diego Montalvo, creator of Buildasearch.
By casey | July 31st, 2008
Along with the release of FreeBSD 7 last year came the birth of FreeBSD 8 in the development stage. Its planned release is the 2nd quarter of 2009, but here is a quick overview of what we know is in the works for the new version.
(1) A rewrite of the TTY layer (traditional UNIX interface), making it easier to maintain and extend.
(2) An increase in the kernel memory limit to 6GB.
(3) The introduction of “lightweight” kernel threads that consume less low-level resources.
(4) procstat, a process inspection utility useful for debugging.
(5) Text dumps that extract commonly needed information in the event of a kernel panic as well as reduces trash by not storing the actual dump file.
(6) A new version of the ULE scheduler with additional functionality and performance improvements.
(7) The implementation of “superpages” after an analysis of known issues and a plan for effectively using these large-sized memory pages.
(8) DTrace, a tool developed by Sun, to help debug and profile operating systems.
(9) The network stack visualization project intends to maintain multiple independent instance of networking state, allowing for complete independence between network jails.
(10) A substantial increase in bandwidth due to ECMP routing.
(11) Improvement to the Berkeley Packet Filter, allowing increased efficiency in memory copy operations.
(12) An NFS lock manager in the kernel to improve synchronized file access.
(13) Support for booting from GPT partitions.
(14) bsdlabel extended to a limit of 26 partitions.
(15) User-controllable CPU/IRQ binding and CPU-thread binding with support for CPU sets.
So stay tuned! It looks like FreeBSD is only getting better, and by this time next year we may have even more security and better performance.
By chrisp | July 30th, 2008
The command line interface for FreeBSD can be intimidating and cause many users excessive consternation. So why not take FreeBSD to the next level and get moving in a more mouse-driven interface. It’s quick and simple and there are several graphic user interfaces (GUI) available for the operating system.
By casey | July 26th, 2008
You may have heard of something called “TrustedBSD” in your discussions of FreeBSD security features. But what is it? A part of the operating system? An application? Something new? Actually, TrustedBSD is a project, started in 2000 with the goal of providing a set of trusted operating extensions for FreeBSD.
It consists of a set of kernel and user-land extensions targeting the evaluation criteria from Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation and the Orange Book (a Department of Defense Document that sets standards for community security). Trusted operating systems have requirements above and beyond those of normal operating systems, including that of extensive documentation.
Many features of TrustedBSD that have matured over the past eight years have already made their way into the operating system, as well as those of others (for example, the TrustedBSD MAC framework was used in Apple OS X). Some of the key features being worked on are: access control lists, mandatory access controls, security event auditing, extended file system attributes, the NSA’s FLASK/TE implementation from SELinux to FreeBSD, as well as the development of OpenBSD.
These features should improve the overall security and usability of FreeBSD. Improvements to system privilege will reduce the risk associated with common system management functions. Access control will overall be more discretionary and fine-grained. Also in the works is event auditing support–a system to monitor security events and notify administrators in the case of irregularities.
The project is still under development. For access to documentation as well as some code, visit www.trustedbsd.com.
By casey | July 23rd, 2008
Whether or not you are new to the world of VPS’s (perhaps you read our entry a few days ago, “Why VPS?”), you may be wondering what the advantages are of a FreeBSD-based VPS. There are great reasons why many experts in virtual hosting, like RootBSD, have made this choice.
FreeBSD is a free operating system descended from UNIX. Though it is not exactly like UNIX, it does have compliant internals and system API’s. FreeBSD is different than Linux in that all device drivers, userland utilities, the kernel, etc., are all contained in the same source code tracking tree, whereas with Linux they are all developed separately and packaged in various different ways. So what makes FreeBSD particularly good for a VPS?
(1) Software Flexibility. A standard installation of FreeBSD includes standard UNIX utilities and commands as well as the FreeBSD ports collection, which gives access to over 17,000 free software packages that have already been customized for the FreeBSD environment. FreeBSD users will have everything at their fingertips to run web, email, and database server environments. FreeBSD also has excellent third-party software support, so you will be able to pick the applications that suit your needs.
(2 Industry Standard. Over 30% of the Internet is powered by FreeBSD, including huge websites like Yahoo.com and Hotmail.com.
(3) Performance and Reliability. FreeBSD is a “rock solid” platform. You may recall from our previous article about the recent Firefox upgrade that one of Mozilla’s download mirrors was powered by FreeBSD with fantastic results.
(4) Looking Towards the Future. Because of the increasing success and widespread use of FreeBSD, many web hosts and software providers are scaling down their use of other operating systems and focusing on FreeBSD. It is likely that not far down the line there will be considerably more support and applications available than for other operating systems, especially in the world of VPS’s.
(5) Jails. With FreeBSD, you have the option of having a Jail VPS, which results in higher overall performance due to minimal overhead. With the jail feature, VPS’s can be created on the fly and are ideal for new users since they can be configured without complex firewall rules.
FreeBSD has long been considered the unknown giant among operating systems, but is becoming less and less unknown. As VPS’s become more popular and FreeBSD becomes the standard among VPS’s, you can expect to see it heading even farther out of obscurity.
By chrisp | July 20th, 2008
We all know the Internet can be a dangerous place and in order to be truly safe a computer must not be connected to it. But that puts an immense dent in productivity and the flow of information, so it’s not an option. Of course the flow of information is the important thing and with the proper firewall you can make sure that the data only flows how you want and to whom you want.
Read the rest of this entry »
By casey | July 19th, 2008
Whether or not you’re already familiar with FreeBSD, if you’re new to the world of VPS’s, you might be wondering why to go with a VPS provider like RootBSD rather than a dedicated, private server. If so, read on!
VPS is an acronym for “virtual private server,” which is a method of partitioning physical computer servers into multiple servers. Each partition virtually has the appearance and capabilities of a dedicated server without requiring the space and expense of a separate physical machine. Each VPS has its own operating system (in our case, FreeBSD), and programs run independently inside that system. So what are the advantages of such a system?
(1) Cost-Effective. Since multiple systems are in the same physical hardware, a VPS offers significant cost savings over a dedicated physical server.
(2) Total Access and Customization. As a VPS customer, you have root access to the system, and can therefore manipulate and configure all aspects of the server to your specifications. You can run the applications of your choosing!
(3) Enhanced Security. With traditional shared webhosting, all users share an operating system and have access to the same file system. Therefore, the potential exists for users to access each other’s information or affect the performance of another user’s system. With a VPS, there is an additional layer of security in that all users have their own separate operating systems and file systems even though they are sharing physical space on the machine.
Overall, a VPS can provide you with the freedom that comes with peace of mind, control, and knowing that you have freed up financial resources for use elsewhere. If you already have a busy website, a VPS is a great upgrade from traditional hosting without having to shell out the additional dough for a dedicated server. A VPS is also great for backing up data on your own off-site secure server. Whatever the use, a VPS is something to try–the functionality of having your own dedicated machine without the expense!
By casey | July 16th, 2008
On June 18, the Mozilla Foundation broke the Guinness World Record for most software downloads in one day when over 8 million people downloaded Firefox 3, the latest version of the popular web browser. What many Firefox users may not have realized is that with the update they acquired a number of new technologies adopted from the FreeBSD project.
One notable improvement features the memory allocator “jemalloc,” developed by FreeBSD guru Jason Evans. Firefox version 2 was known as something of a memory hog, and the update improves upon this greatly with upgrades such as a new rendering engine, but Evans’ contribution proved particularly significant. According to Firefox developer Stuart Parmenter, their tests of the browser on Windows Vista showed a 22% drop in memory usage once they turned on “jemalloc.”
Another FreeBSD technology utilized in the Firefox upgrade was the “bsdiff” binary patch system, which allows for reduced software update sizes and faster downloads for end users. In addition, the delivery of the Firefox software relied on FreeBSD as well–Internet Systems Consortium operates one of Mozilla’s download mirrors, powered by FreeBSD 7. During Mozilla’s record-breaking 24 hours of downloading, the server withstood rates of a gigabit per second. ISC referred to FreeBSD as “a rock solid platform.”
Of course, FreeBSD has a long history of being used inside other open-source projects, and this is just one example of the improvements that it can make. And just think: “jemalloc” is already a part of FreeBSD 7. If it can improve the performance of a web browser so drastically, then imagine the potential effect on an entire operating system.
By chrisp | July 14th, 2008
Virtual Private Networking (VPN) is a safe and secure way to transmit sensitive data between two networks or a remote computer and a private network that are connected by the publicly accessible Internet. It’s a great way for employees of a company to be able to access necessary information without having to actually be on the local, secure network. Windows 2000, XP, MacOS X and Vista are all able to utilize various VPN clients to connect to the private networks and some of these options will be presented. Of course FreeBSD can be both the client and the gateway server and that will be discussed as well.