Iptables-tutorial explained
Filed under: Frozentux.net, Iptables, Linux, Netfilter
So, time to explain whats happened to the iptables-tutorial, it’s been rather dead for a long time now. This is kind of meant as an explanation on what and why things has gone downhill with it, but also kind of a try to define for myself what went wrong back then.
By now, it’s almost 8 years since I started writing on it. It all started as a short term project, a real tutorial if you wish. Due to the demand, I was rather amused at keeping it up, writing more material and so forth, but with time it took more and more effort to keep up to date and to add all the material I wanted in it. While the tutorial was at it’s high, I had 25 000 unique visitors per month on the main iptables-tutorial site alone, and all that traffic generated questions, and lots of them. At times, I received 70+ e-mails with questions per week, which required hours of attention. Also, Apress contacted me at this time asking me to write a book on iptables for them.
Having that burden on top of a project that was originally intended to have fun, learn and to get more experience makes a project much less appealing. Also, at the same time, me and my then girlfriend broke up, leaving me in devastation. In a sense, I lost my muse at the same time as I was the least interested in writing. I spent several weeks trying to get somewhere, but didn’t manage to get 2 pages out of me. This is where I dropped the tutorial the first time. I pretty much went MIA.
Either way, after a while (a bit over 2 years to be precise), I decided to give it another try. I had for a long time wanted to start writing again, and got around to it as I had the time and will. To make a long story short, I got too much to do with school and work and life in general for a while, but managed to get version 1.2.0 out before this happened. Another year later, I managed to get 1.2.1 out, and finally 1.2.2 which was the first printed version at lulu.com. Due to several minor problems, which turned out to become pretty large problems imho, I later decided to pull down the print version while getting my life together again so that I could focus on what needed doing again.
This is where the iptables tutorial is at this time and date. I’m not really sure what I’m hoping to accomplish with this post really, more than generally give people an idea what’s been going on around the iptables-tutorial and try to explain why it’s been … well, not keeping up with developments in iptables and netfilter.
I’m not exactly certain what will happen in the close future with the iptables tutorial. I’m currently working on a few other projects which are better defined and that should hopefully be possible to “finish” properly.. Ie, once I’ve done them, they should stay done. Once those projects are done, I might get back to the whole iptables-tutorial.
Keeping promises
Well, I did. I did write today again. Hah! 🙂
All work and no play makes jack a dull boy,
All play and no work makes jack a mere toy.
Working again, working on a report of some kind, how to do an embedded linux project properly. It’s hard to define. I know how I would love to have it, but defining it in words is not. I know it should not be hard, but it is. A paper that is very good imho, Tips for planning an embedded Linux project. It gets all the errors down that we made, but it doesnt really define what makes a embedded Linux project great, or even good for that matter.
I also read anatomy of a hack earlier, it’s some interesting stuff, but I’m not sure this is what I would give out to people who really needs it. I’ve tried handing that short thing to a few relatives, we’ll see if anyone of them gets it.
Also, this is the real kicker today, I love Ted Dziubas writing, it’s the best tech stuff I’ve read in quite a while :-). For an example, read his Cloud computing: A catchphrase in puberty.
I’m turning into a real blogger, ain’t I? 😛
Iptables-tutorial 1.2.1 released
It’s time again for a second release of the iptables-tutorial. This consists mostly of bug fixes, updated/improved images, and improved printable formats and rewritten introduction to the tutorial. A lot of work has been done to the print quality of the tutorial since I am planning a release of the tutorial in bookform. The current version is at a major print on demand site right now, and I have ordered a first copy for proofreading. Once this is done, I am planning version 1.2.2 to be released. This should be in 2-3 weeks, maximum. Once this is done, I will contact everyone who has signed an interest in the bookformat. I'm sorry for delaying this for such a long time, but now it is finally happening!
Iptables-tutorial 1.2.0 released
The iptables-tutorial was previously released on the 20th of July for beta testing. Since no mayor objections has been raised, here is the final version! I hope that people will enjoy reading this version containing
100+ new A4 pages, 5 new chapters, and humonguous amounts of uPdates and fixes. Please take the time to report any rough edges that you find!
Netfilter workshop 2003, Budapest
Just got back from the netfilter workshop in Budapest, and there is most definitely a lot of interesting things going on right now. In short, <A
HREF="http://sourceforge.net/projects/nf-hipac/">nf-hipac/hipac</A> looks extremely interesting, so does pkttables and the current development on the connection tracking systems. It was a couple of days filled with information. Hopefully there will be a protocol of some kind up at <A
HREF="http://www.netfilter.org">netfilter.org</A> soon with more details.
Nebraska CERT conf 2003 presentation
I attended the Nebraska CERT conference 2003 after a lot of troubles getting there. The presentation has been added under the presentation tab. Overall, the conference was really good, and if nothing else, it was worth attending only for the excellent food they served. My only resignation must have been the troubles I had with security while entering the states, and with United Airlines. United Airlines kept delaying the flight from Chicago to Omaha for 10-15 minutes during 7 hours, and finally cancelled it. They where unable to get me another seat for 2 days, so I winded up driving by car together with 12 others for 8 hours through the night. Big kudos to the people I went with! Of course, a big military boot to UA for being a nightmare.
Updated Ipsysctl-tutorial
Updated version of the ipsysctl-tutorial released. For further information about what has happened, look at the ChangeLog. The biggest changes are fixed PDF and PS versions of the document, fixed some static links in the chunky.tgz and html.tgz packages and added proper ID tags to all sections in the document.
Updated iptables-tutorial
A new version of the iptables-tutorial has been released. This version has moved most, if not all, external links to the other resources chapter, as well as all links to scripts to the example scripts chapter. This was done for cleanliness of the tutorial. It also contains a lot of updates to some of the matches and target explanations, and the .tgz packets have been improved for the downloaders.
Modified/added stuff on iptables-tutorial frontpage
Filed under: Frozentux.net, Iptables, Linux, Netfilter
The iptables-tutorial frontpage has been modified to some extent. Mainly added upcoming translations, and translations already available. If anyone would be interested to make a translation, they are more than welcome to contact me. Also, I would like to thank everyone who has signed up their interest/non-interest in a printed copy of a book of the iptables-tutorial. Everyone who has signed their interest, and e-mail address will shortly receive a mail letting them know more about this. Everyone who has signed up a non-interest and e-mail address will receive a thank you mail for their participation. I will however, continue to keep the interest page open.
Added Miscellany section
A miscellany section has been added, containing lots of junk and other stuff that I am no longer developing, or that I have written previously. If anyone is interested in using any of the code, they are welcome to. This could mainly be looked upon as a junkyard of more or less useful scrap.