Interests

This is the place where we can list potential topics that the group is interested in presenting for upcoming meetings.

Linux as a router/gateway appliance


• Either using a pc or replacing the OS on a Linksys router with a Linux OS. We could also expand this out to include using Linux as a firewall, Intrusion Detection, Intrusion Prevention, VPN Server, Web Proxy, Content Filtering, to name a few services that often get bundled into a Linux router/gateway implementation.

• ClarkConnect, IPcop, MonoWall, pfSense, SmoothWall, Endian, Gibralter

NAS (Network Attached Storage)

• Network-attached storage (NAS) is hard disk storage that is set up with its own network address rather than being attached to the department computer that is serving applications to a network's workstation users. By removing storage access and its management from the department server, both application programming and files can be served faster because they are not competing for the same processor resources. The network-attached storage device is attached to a local area network (typically, an Ethernet network) and assigned an IP address. File requests are mapped by the main server to the NAS file server.
  

• OpenFiler, FreeNAS

Virtualization

• Operating system virtualization is the use of software to allow a piece of hardware to run multiple operating system images at the same time. The usual goal of virtualization is to centralize administrative tasks while improving scalability and work loads.
  

• Xen - The powerful open source industry standard for virtualization
  

• VirtualBox

VoIP (Voice over IP)

• VoIP (voice over IP) is an IP telephony term for a set of facilities used to manage the delivery of voice information over the Internet.VoIP involves sending voice information in digital form in discrete packets rather than by using the traditional circuit-committed protocols of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). A major advantage of VoIP and Internet telephony is that it avoids the tolls charged by ordinary telephone service.
  

• Asterisk - The Open Source PBX & Telephony Platform
  

• Trixbox

PVR or DVR Home Media Center


• MythBuntu - A community supported add-on for Ubuntu focused upon setting up a standalone MythTV based PVR system.

File Servers


• Samba - Samba is an Open Source/Free Software suite that has, since 1992, provided file and print services to all manner of SMB/CIFS clients, including the numerous versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems.
  

• NFS - Network File System. A distributed file system where data is held on a central server and served to end users so it appears as if it is on the local system. This allows data sharing across multiple platforms without copying. It is the most common distributed file system in use on Unix/Linux systems.

Email/Collaboration Servers

• Open-Xchange, Zimbra, Scalix