More articles by Carla Schroder
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Horror Stories of IT Management By Carla Schroder | Article Published February 1, 2011 There's plenty of finger pointing about problems, but who's really at fault? Tech Staff with Only One OS Need Not Apply By Carla Schroder | Article Published August 6, 2010 In today's heterogenous data center environment, data center staffers definitely need to be familiar with more than one OS. TEO Linux Netbook: Ultra-Sturdy By Carla Schroder | Article Published May 21, 2010 Made by ZaReason, the TEO Linux netbook runs Ubuntu out of the box and offers easy-to-use portable computing. ZaReason's Linux Netbook Strategy By Carla Schroder | Article Published September 10, 2009 Linux PC maker ZaReason -- with its Terra A20 -- targets a tough but growing market. Leaving Ubuntu for PCLinuxOS By Carla Schroder | Article Published June 24, 2009 A Linux expert finds the 'Buntus aren't dependable enough for a busy life, so she's taking her distro business elsewhere. Four Linux Apps Worth Downloading By Carla Schroder | Article Published May 26, 2009 Linux downloads for audio, document creation, video security and Web site building. Linux for Newbies: the Ubuntu Path By Carla Schroder | Article Published May 6, 2009 Getting started with Linux isn't that hard, especially if you opt to begin with the Ubuntu distribution of Linux. A Linux Meltdown (With a Happy Ending) By Carla Schroder | Article Published April 22, 2009 When the going gets tough, the tough use the command line. Linux Desktop: Seven Sweet Apps By Carla Schroder | Article Published March 24, 2009 A noted Linux expert reveals what apps rock her world. Netbooks, Linux and the Lenovo S10 By Carla Schroder | Article Published March 18, 2009 A look a the netbook world, focusing on the Lenovo S10 netbook and open source software. Linux-Based HyperSpace: 30 Second Boot By Carla Schroder | Article Published March 4, 2009 The Linux-based HyperSpace takes about 30 seconds to come up from a cold boot, so it's almost an instant-on system. Spideroak: Secure Offsite Backups For Linux By Carla Schroder | Article Published January 26, 2009 A good offsite backup strategy is not sending boxes of unencrypted tapes home with your party-hearty college intern. Carla Schroder reviews the Spideroak online backup service to see if they offer something better, more secure, and more convenient. Making KDE's Konqueror Obey You By Carla Schroder | Article Published January 16, 2009 KDE's Konqueror file manager and Web browser is a powerhouse loaded with useful features. However, sometimes it takes a bit of digging to unearth treasures and to figure out how to make it do what you want. Tech Writing Tips From the LinuxPlanet Pros By Carla Schroder | Article Published December 29, 2008 People who write good howtos and documentation are the finest people there are. Tina Gasperson, Bruce Byfield, and Carla Schroder share some tips on improving your writing skills, and building a body of work to be proud of. Why Does Microsoft Get a Free Pass on Malware? By Carla Schroder | Article Published December 5, 2008 Windows worms and Trojan horses infect the entire US military, it seems, and Carla Schroder wonders why this isn't a huge scandal? Why does Microsoft always get a free pass despite causing billions of dollars of damages? Other musings include corporate rootkits and security vendors looking the other way. Conquering Character Encoding Chaos With GNU Recode By Carla Schroder | Article Published December 4, 2008 Carla Schroder introduces us to GNU Recode and convmv, two great little utilities for converting character sets. Free as in Freedom, Not Free as in Freeloader By Carla Schroder | Article Published November 26, 2008 Ask not what Linux can do for you-- ask what you can do for Linux. Carla Schroder cuts through the misconceptions that plague Free Software and reveals what it's really about. Tip of the Trade: QEMU By Carla Schroder | Article Published July 16, 2008 Hungry for an open source virtualizer that is a full-meal deal? Consider tasting QEMU. Sidux, a Great Alternative to Ubuntu, Part 2 By Carla Schroder | Article Published July 15, 2008 Last week we introduced ourselves to Sidux, which makes Debian Sid implementation a bit friendlier. Although there were a number of reasons why a user might prefer Sidux to Debian Sid, or Ubuntu, or some other Debian derivative, they apparently were not clear to a number of readers. VoIPowering Your Office: VoIP Appliance Power-Shopping, part 3 By Carla Schroder | Article Published July 14, 2008 After backtracking to factor in some costs we neglected to consider in parts 1 and 2, we proceed to examine Fonality's PBXtra solution. VoIPowering Your Office: VoIP Appliance Power-Shopping, part 2 By Carla Schroder | Article Published July 10, 2008 The second in our ongoing series. This week's stars: SIPxchange ECS and a trio of offerings from RockBochs. Sidux, a Great Alternative to Ubuntu By Carla Schroder | Article Published July 7, 2008 Sidux announced a brand-new release on June 26, Sidux 2008-02, so we're going to kick the tires and take it for a drive, and see what sets it apart from other children of Debian. Tip of the Trade: Linux Easter Egg Fun By Carla Schroder | Article Published July 2, 2008 All work and no play is dull, so let's have some summer fun with apt, cowsay and more. VoIPowering Your Office: VoIP Appliance Power-Shopping, part 1 By Carla Schroder | Article Published July 2, 2008 This is the first in a series of guides to all-in-one VoIP solutions. Today: Asterisk (the ancestor), Switchvox (the offspring). PulseAudio Tames the Linux Audio Zoo, Part 2 By Carla Schroder | Article Published June 30, 2008 After encountering a number of problems on both Kubuntu Gutsy and Hardy and debugging them, this week's PulseAudio series entry will be Fixing *buntu. This may be useful to users on other distributions as well because it covers permission problems, ALSA problems, and init problems. PulseAudio Tames the Linux Audio Zoo, Part 1 By Carla Schroder | Article Published June 23, 2008 A number of distributions include PulseAudio as an option, but brings with it a few woes as well, and has a lot of users asking "How does adding Yet Another Sound Server to Linux help anything?" Carla Schroder fills in the blanks. Tip of the Trade: Assign Multiple Addresses to a Network Interface By Carla Schroder | Article Published June 18, 2008 Still using ifconfig and route commands? Today's network environments require functionality beyond their capabilities. Consider using the ip command, which is part of the iproute2 suite of TCP/IP networking utilities, and is trying to muscle in. Tip of the Trade: OpenSolaris liveCD By Carla Schroder | Article Published June 11, 2008 Want to test drive OpenSolaris but don't want to deal with the convoluted installation? OpenSolaris liveCD from the OpenSolaris team streamlines the process and brings a raft of add-ons from the GNU/Linux world. VoIPowering Your Office: Driving the Big Green trixbox, part 1 By Carla Schroder | Article Published June 11, 2008 What started life as Asterisk for amateurs is now available as a flashy plug-and-play VoIP appliance. Here's a first look. Become A System Rescue Guru With Linux, Part 2 By Carla Schroder | Article Published May 30, 2008 Part 1 of this series dealt with how to rescue a failing hard drive by copying files to a second local hard drive. Carla Schroder walks through network rescues, Windows machine rescues, and fixing the MBR in the final part of the System Rescue series. Become A System Rescue Guru With Linux, Part 1 By Carla Schroder | Article Published May 29, 2008 One of Carla Schroder's favorite Linux features is its endless adaptability as a cross-platform rescue tool, and her favorite rescue Linux of all is the excellent Gentoo-based SystemRescueCD. In this series, you'll learn how to set things right when things on your PC go awry. Tip of the Trade: Specto By Carla Schroder | Article Published May 29, 2008 This excellent little Python script can monitor changes throughout the network and report back on all manner of events. And you probably already have it -- Specto is included in most Linux distributions, including Fedora and Debian. Tip of the Trade: Web Console By Carla Schroder | Article Published May 21, 2008 Need universal server administration? Forget Webmin. Web Console is a fast, light-weight AJAX-based interface that facilitates execution of desired commands. Tip of the Trade: Gibraltar Security Gateway By Carla Schroder | Article Published May 14, 2008 Gibraltar Security Gateway offers solid-as-a-rock security at several price points. The code for the open source solution is available as a free download and as a free-for-personal-use edition for up to five network devices. GRUB vs. the Inodes: Who Needs a Bootable System, Anyway? By Carla Schroder | Article Published May 5, 2008 Users of GRUB legacy, which is version 0.97, are getting bitten by an e2fsprogs incompatibility that renders their systems unbootable. e2fsprogs is the utilities package for the Ext3 filesystem, so it doesn't affect other filesystems. Resident expert Carla Schroder explains the problem and details some fixes to get affected systems back up. Tip of the Trade: Vyatta By Carla Schroder | Article Published April 30, 2008 Looking to save on networking costs? XORP-based Vyatta makes it possible to replace expensive gear with commodity hardware at a fraction of the cost. FreeSWITCH, a Second-Generation Open-Source Communications Platform By Carla Schroder | Article Published April 29, 2008 Here's a relative newcomer: scalable, multi-function server software that can go far beyond merely managing VoIP phone calls. Benchmarking Linux By Carla Schroder | Article Published April 28, 2008 The Phoronix Test Suite is for testing hardware performance under Linux. It's still young and incomplete, but it's worth getting acquainted with. Tip of the Trade: Grsecurity By Carla Schroder | Article Published April 16, 2008 The venerable Grsecurity is one option for closing Linux security holes. Power Management on Linux, Part 1 By Carla Schroder | Article Published April 14, 2008 Power management on computers has three parts. Servers, desktop machines and laptops usually need different power management schemes; there isn't a one-size-fits-all. Corraling Linux Hard Disk Names By Carla Schroder | Article Published April 7, 2008 The Linux kernel is a restless beast, and must continally evolve and change. Especially in ways that mystify end users. Carla Schroder guides you through the new nomenclature in this tutorial. Tip of the Trade: psad By Carla Schroder | Article Published April 1, 2008 Turbo-charge your intrusion detection with psad, the port scan attack detector. The Bad Guys Will Cut Off Your Fingers By Carla Schroder | Article Published March 31, 2008 Linux has always supported Thinkpads pretty well, though the onboard modems and sound are chronic trouble spots. In this article, Carla Schroder focuses on her Lenovo T61's integrated fingerprint reader, to see what is involved in getting it to work on Linux. Tip of the Trade: SATA Storage Servers By Carla Schroder | Article Published March 26, 2008 SCSI drives may be the toughest and most reliable, but oftentimes SATA drives are equally good. From price point to form factor and feature options, they offer a plethora of advantages. Creating a Contacts Database in OpenOffice By Carla Schroder | Article Published March 24, 2008 The steps for setting up any mail-merge document in OpenOffice are easy; the one potential challenge is creating your contacts database in the first place. But the good news is Base can import data from most other databases, spreadsheets, text-delimited files, and email address books. Tip of the Trade: ZFS on Leopard By Carla Schroder | Article Published March 19, 2008 Coming soon to a Mac near you -- the power of ZFS for Mac OS X Leopard is now in beta. Choice Open-Source VoIP News Nuggets By Carla Schroder | Article Published March 12, 2008 There have been a number of interesting events in the VoIP universe recently; we look at a choice sampling. Better Linux Sound Managment With ALSA, Part 2 By Carla Schroder | Article Published March 10, 2008 Last week we learned how to configure soundcards for playback with ALSA. Now we're going to use ALSA for recording, and learn how to test our sound system. Tip of the Trade: IP Address Management By Carla Schroder | Article Published March 5, 2008 IP Address Management has historically been restricted to Windows shops and organizations willing to pay in the five-figure range for the integrated network discovery tool. This is changing, now that three recent prefab open source IPAM apps have hit the market. Better Linux Sound Management With ALSA By Carla Schroder | Article Published March 3, 2008 ALSA, the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture, is a good tool for managing your Linux sound devices. It's good for managing multiple sound devices, and it works in all Linux environments including other Window managers, or no X Windows at all. Tip of the Trade: OpenSSH Speed Tips and Tricks By Carla Schroder | Article Published February 27, 2008 Using public key authentication is a great way to make SSH transfers more secure. Transferring SSH identity keys can be a royal pain, however. Fortunately, ssh-copy-id, a slick utility included with OpenSSH, simplifies the process. Webcams in Linux, Part 1 By Carla Schroder | Article Published February 25, 2008 Webcams are everywhere these days: they're standard on a lot of laptops, LCD monitors are starting to incorporate them, and decent standalone USB webcams can be had for less than $40. In this two-part series we'll set up a Webcam on Linux, and then use it to perform a number of amazing and fun tasks. Krazy Kubuntu Annoyances By Carla Schroder | Article Published February 16, 2008 "I'm running Kubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) on one of my main workstations. As with its sibling Ubuntu, it's an endlessly-entertaining blend of really nice stuff and really irritating stuff..." VoIPowering Your Office: Waiting For Videophones By Carla Schroder | Article Published February 15, 2008 Video telephony—an application we've been anticipating for decades—is now available for free over IP connections. VoIPowering Your Office: The Looming SPIT Threat By Carla Schroder | Article Published February 6, 2008 The conditions aren't yet right for massive IP-based phone spam; that's why now is the right time to deal with it. Fonality Partners with Dell for Turnkey VoIP By Carla Schroder | Article Published January 31, 2008 Customized hardware/software bundle will support businesses with as many as 150 phone users. OpenOffice Alternative: KWord 1.6 By Carla Schroder | Article Published December 10, 2007 An overview of the open source KWord 1.6, which touts itself as a "complete word-processing and simple desktop publishing program." gOS: Undocumented Enlightenment By Carla Schroder | Article Published December 6, 2007 gOS, the hot new Linux distribution, is generating a lot of buzz because it comes with the Everex Green PC, sold at Wal-Mart for $200. Does it live up to the hype? Linux Backups For Real People, Part 1 By Carla Schroder | Article Published November 7, 2007 Everyone knows they should make regular backups of their data. But hardly anyone is as diligent with backups as they should be. Part 1 of this two-part series covers external backup media, and bending udev so that backup devices will have persistent names. Measure Network Performance with iperf By Carla Schroder | Article Published February 13, 2007 Raw bandwidth doesn't tell the whole story on network performance. iperf provides you with a handy tool for tracking metrics critical to voice and video performance. Measure Network Performance: iperf and ntop By Carla Schroder | Article Published February 6, 2007 iperf and ntop can give you handy, readable information on where the traffic is flowing on your network. Linux Admins Tips and Tricks: Discover, Map and Store By Carla Schroder | Article Published December 21, 2006 Who's online, what's on the net and where's your stuff? This month's tips and tricks offer nmap insights, network maps, spy games and secure remote file access with sshfs. Giving VoIP Traffic the Green Light, Part 1 By Carla Schroder | Article Published June 27, 2006 VoIP call quality isn't always what it should be. Sometimes it is plagued by jitter, echo, lag—even dropped calls. In this three-part series, learn how to prioritize your VoIP traffic to get the best quality with Linux. Fill Linux to the Brim with Xen By Carla Schroder | Article Published February 3, 2006 Virtualization is hot, and newcomer Xen should be on your radar. Queue Up Linux Printing By Carla Schroder | Article Published January 11, 2006 If you're considering switching to Linux for your networked print services, there are a few things you'll need to keep in mind. Part one. Groovy Gadgets For Network Gurus By Carla Schroder | Features & Trends Article Published January 10, 2006 Flush with holiday cash? Start your own season of giving with these tech treats for networking nerds. 2005: Were the Grownups in Charge? By Carla Schroder | Article Published December 30, 2005 From rootkit debacles to the rise of a Linux distribution surrounded by people you wouldn't mind talking to -- 2005 was a year to remember. Groovy Gadgets For Network Gurus By Carla Schroder | Article Published December 19, 2005 Stuff your favorite networking nerd's stocking with these tech treats. The Ultimate Career Challenge By Carla Schroder | Article Published November 30, 2005 No money in open source? Says who? Three career paths worth considering from a cube or your own home office. Is Linux Kernel 2.6 Primed for the Enterprise? By Carla Schroder | Article Published March 4, 2004 What does the newest Linux kernel have that 2.4 doesn't? With a long list of features, it offers something for every administrator, but that doesn't mean it's ready to take its place on your network. Is Linux Kernel 2.6 Primed for the Enterprise? By Carla Schroder | Article Published February 20, 2004 What does the newest Linux kernel have that 2.4 doesn't? With a long list of features, it offers something for every administrator, but that doesn't mean it's ready to take its place on your network. The Linux Kernel 2.6 upgrade discussion begins in Part 1 of our two-part series. USB Pen Drives: Large, Portable Storage in a Tiny Package By Carla Schroder | Article Published December 22, 2003 Carla Schroder looks at why these little devices are taking the networking admin world by storm, and also offers tips for making them work on Linux with hotplugging support. Wireless on Linux, Part 2 By Carla Schroder | Article Published September 23, 2003 For the harassed, overworked network admin, connecting clients without having to run new cabling is so much fun it feels wrong. Carla Schroder shows Linux admins how they can overcome a few obstacles so that they too can join in on the festivities. Realtime Black-hole Lists: Heroic Spam Fighters or Crazed Vigilantes? By Carla Schroder | Article Published February 24, 2003 In the continually escalating and increasingly frustrating battle against spam, email administrators are resorting to increasingly draconian measures. Carla Schroder reports on one such measure, the use of Realtime Black-hole Lists (RBLs) to head off spam before it ever reaches your mailserver. Sysadmin Tales of Terror By Carla Schroder | Features & Trends Article Published February 19, 2003 The biggest challenge a system administrator ever faces is inheriting a networking mess: taking on a new job, or a new client, with a computing infrastructure that has grown without rhyme or reason. What's the hardworking sysadmin to do in this situation? |
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