Section 2.1. Hacks 1019: Introduction

2.1. Hacks 1019: Introduction

Networks are the backbone of most computing today. Even small businesses depend on internal networks of desktop computers and servers to deliver services such as email, file and directory sharing, access to internal and external web servers, and so on. For the system administrator, this means that you typically need to connect to different types of systems during the course of a day to perform different types of administrative tasks.

If your network is composed solely of Linux systems, you can use standard command-line tools such as ssh or telnet to connect to remote systems and get most of your work done, but let's face itit's a graphical world nowadays. There are lots of great administrative tools out there that make it easier to do complex tasks that could easily be derailed by a typo in a long command line. And if you also administer Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X systems, you'll need access to graphical tools that run on those systems, too.

This chapter primarily consists of hacks that make it easy to establish graphical connections to remote machines from a desktop system, enabling people to run graphical packages that are installed on those remote systems without leaving their chairs. It also provides a hack that tells you how to use Webmin, a centralized, web-based system administration utility that enables you to access multiple server resources from a single system and browser.

The hacks in this chapter aren't just for system administrators: they're for anyone who needs to use graphical interfaces on multiple machines. Even if yours is a Linux shop, chances are that your users will occasionally need access to Windows machines to update project plans, requirements documents, spreadsheets, and so on. You could give everyone a Windows system "just in case," but that isn't reasonable or cost-effective. Instead, why not just allow users to connect to a remote Windows system or Windows Terminal server on those rare occasions when Windows software is actually necessary? Similarly, if people need to check their personal email while they're at work, you could configure their mail clients to support additional mail profiles, leave the mail on the server, enter personal passwords, and so on. Many businesses don't mind this sort of thing, but people may (and should) object to having copies of personal mail and authentication information on machines that aren't theirs. Using hacks such as "Access Systems Remotely with VNC" [Hack #10] and "Secure VNC Connections with FreeNX" [Hack #17], people can remotely access their home systems and check mail there. No local copies of personal mail, no local passwords…no problem.