Category Archives: Uncategorized

Squid 3.5.7 RPMs release

I am happy to release the new RPMs of squid 3.5.7 for Centos 6.6 64bit, 32bit and CentOS 7 64bit.

The new release includes couple bug fixes and improvements.
The details about the the RPMs repository are at squid-wiki.

Tradeoffs and poop

When building a big computerized system there is a place for tradeoffs. When you pass the couple MB of disk space the information becomes sensitive and sometimes if the size is over GB it becomes even more sensitive. This is where some tradeoffs are standing.
To get the head of it we assume that a human written information is valuable enough to invest couple bucks to preserve it. The information can be notes, books, photos or other things such as videos. And as the saying states “a picture is worth a thousand words” and this is the same for stored data.
One MB can contain a lot of human readable information. And since computers are a mechanical device they tend to break one day. So in the case of 1MB, these days there are cheap ways to backup information, but when we are talking about 1GB and up it can become a big loss for one user. For a company which the data is their employes pay-check sometimes there is a need to think about the losses a bit deeper. So the basic tradeoffs in IT is integrity and availability when in many cases speed is beating these.
So what do we choose? HA or speed?
Since integrity is a must in businesses it is the first step before or with HA. In many cases somebody states: “We want speed!”.
And the answer is that it is impossible these days to max the computing systems for both Integrity, Availability and Speed! There is always a need to choose in this tradeoff and to prefer one or another.
When you choose one preference the others gets lower priority and effects the system design.
Couple MBs are really not a big deal but these days the data sizes are pretty big and this is the reality, it can be either slower or faster.

  • The above is based on lots of tests with lots of DB systems for a url filtering solution DB back-end.

This time I would recommend the next video “Learn about riak!” which can give us a little bit more about the tradeoffs in hands.

Learn about Riak! - Matthew
School is in session, Matthew “Roder” Heitzenroder of Basho is here to talk about Riak. Ever wonder how they do map/reduce or why Dynamo is cool? Don’t even know what Riak is yet?

Or a local mirror at:
Learn about riak! – Matthew “Roder” Heitzenroder of Basho

More details about the repository at squid-wiki.

To Each and every one of the RPM files in the repository there is an *asc* file which contains  MD5, SHA1, SHA2, SHA256, SHA384, SHA512, TIGER hashes.

All The Bests,
Eliezer Croitoru

Squid 3.5.5 RPMs release

I am happy to release the new RPMs of squid 3.5.5 for Centos 6.6 64bit, 32bit and CentOS 7 64bit.

The new release includes couple bug fixes and improvements.
The links to the RPMs are at the bottom of the article.

Diving tools for the WEB

The Internet is like a sea but with information and not water. Every Internet diver should have couple tools in his hands to help him with this semi speed of light flow of information.
One of couple basic things about the Internet is that it might lead you to places and information you might not want to know.
So what tools are there to help?
The first thing is a FIREWALL. Once the PC is sitting just inside the Internet there is much more risk for damage from the Internet.
So Firewall Is 1!(check)
Today most routers connect the DSL or CABLE modem to the house and there for adding a NAT and it can be treated as a better then nothing solution.
In a more security aware places such as a company\work-place there is a need to guard the digital assets of the company and there-for a proxy with lots of ACLs is there to help the “divers” from unwanted and unknown malicious “programs”(aka Viruses).

So a recommendation for a NAT-ROUTER is also from security reasons and not only the option to “share” the internet connection between couple devices.

And back to the tools:

  • Firewall
  • AntiMalware(Virus)
  • AntiSPAM
  • Time restriction
  • URL based filtering

Well all the above can be bought with some money.
But for the advanced and Hardcore users there are other requirments such as:

  • honeypots
  • port knoking
  • ZAP PROXY
  • firebug
  • sand-boxing area
  • VPN

And even with the help of all the above mentioned tools, there is always the possibility that somethings goes out of control and leave us with a lot of hope that we might not be needed to work overtime to handle the escalating situation.

Another set of tools is there for Pentesting such as archassault or backtrack.

What tools are you using daily to protect you from drowning in the water of the NET?

And just to open some of the users list eyes a nice video for parents:

Or a local mirror at:
Internet Safety Presentation – whitnallschools by Eric Gran

More details about the release at squid-wiki.
On this release I have uploaded 3.5.4 and 3.5.5 when 3.5.5 will be the default to upgrade into.

To Each and everyone of the RPM files in the repository there is an *asc* file which contains  MD5 SHA1 SHA2 SHA256 SHA384 SHA512 TIGER hashes.

All The Bests,
Eliezer Croitoru