In my hours spent searching the web for a couple of files, I ran across this site, and I figured I&#39;d see if any of you kind folks might be able to help me out. I&#39;m looking for 3 floppy images (1.44MB) - the install disks for SCO 3.2v4.2 - N2, and M1. I have the tape, but I can&#39;t find my floppy disks, and I don&#39;t care to try and construct the system by hand. Hoping maybe someone here can help me out. (?)<br /><br />No, I don&#39;t know much chinese... I think I remember how to say maybe two words... I certainly don&#39;t know how to read it. The following is the supposed chinese translation, as <a href="http://babelfish.altavista.com" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: underline" style="color:blue">http://babelfish.altavista.com</a> gave it to me:  ( <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->  )<br /><br />在我的小時度過尋找網兩三個文件, 我跑了橫跨這個站點, 並且我計算我會看見如果任何您親切的夥計也許能幫助我。我尋找3 個懶散的圖像(1.44MB) - 安裝盤為SCO 3.2v4.2 - N2, 和M1 。我有磁帶, 但我無法發現我的軟碟, 並且我不關心嘗試和修建系統用手。希望可能某人這裡可能幫助我(?)<br /><br />現在問題是: &quot;中國傳統的&quot; 同廣東或國語一樣是嗎?<br /><br />And is the above translation actually legible, as well as understandable? (I don&#39;t even have a chinese character set installed on this system.  <!--emo&:redface:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/icon_redface.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='icon_redface.gif' /><!--endemo--> )<br /><br />Thanks.   <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->

oh,the Chinese translation is really too bad,you can post this question to sco-unix area,and any kindly guys can help you in there.<br />I think they can comprehend your meaning.

hi,lackluster,<br />you can click hereinafter to solve your problem.<br /><a href="http://www.loveunix.net/bbs/index.php?showtopic=42753" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: underline" style="color:blue">http://www.loveunix.net/bbs/index.php?showtopic=42753</a>

Hi,lackluster,thank you for your visiting~<br />there&#39;re many experts in our forum incognito ,i think they would like to give you the right answer~

<!--QuoteBegin-ancientry+2005-01-28 08:01:47--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ancientry @ 2005-01-28 08:01:47)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->oh,the Chinese translation is really too bad,you can post this question to sco-unix area,and any kindly guys can help you in there.<br />I think they can comprehend your meaning.<br />[right][snapback]433741[/snapback][/right]<br /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br />It looked really bad when I viewed it through their (altavista / bablefish) page translator, too.  <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--><br />But the chinese to english translation isn&#39;t too bad, I guess. <br /><br />Thanks.<br /><br /><br />

<!--QuoteBegin-lackluster+2005-01-27 16:17:43--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lackluster @ 2005-01-27 16:17:43)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->In my hours spent searching the web for a couple of files, I ran across this site, and I figured I&#39;d see if any of you kind folks might be able to help me out. I&#39;m looking for 3 floppy images (1.44MB) - the install disks for SCO 3.2v4.2 - N2, and M1. I have the tape, but I can&#39;t find my floppy disks, and I don&#39;t care to try and construct the system by hand. Hoping maybe someone here can help me out. (?)<br />... ...<br /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br />为了寻找某些文件，我已花了几个小时在万维网上搜索，因此偶然到了这个站点。我想应看看诸位热心人中是否有可帮助我的。我在寻找3片软盘（1.44MB的）的<span style='color:blue'>镜像</span>——SCO 3.2v4.2 - N2和M1的安装软盘的（镜像）。我有该磁带，但找不到我的软盘，且我不怕试试手工建立该系统。希望这里有人可以帮帮我。？<br /><br /><br /><br />(I tried and wrote the above and suppose that it may be something corresponding with the above quoted and the daily Chinese other than the product of the &quot;machine translation&quot;. Now I would like to go to the SCO channel of this forum to see if any person there has found this topic.)<br /><br /> <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

<!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->  <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />ancientry has had a topic in the SCO channel of this BBS, quoting what the original poster has said:<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.loveunix.net/bbs/index.php?showtopic=42753" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: underline" style="color:blue">http://www.loveunix.net/bbs/index.php?showtopic=42753</a><br /><br /> <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />

<!--QuoteBegin-Solitudinarian+2005-01-29 13:48:24--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Solitudinarian @ 2005-01-29 13:48:24)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin--><!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->&amp;nbsp; <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />ancientry has had a topic in the SCO channel of this BBS, quoting what the original poster has said:<br /><a href="http://www.loveunix.net/bbs/index.php?showtopic=42753" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: underline" style="color:blue">http://www.loveunix.net/bbs/index.php?showtopic=42753</a><br /><br /> <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--><br />[right][snapback]433941[/snapback][/right]<br /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br />I just replied there, quoting the url of what I said <span style='color:blue'>before</span> the above <span style='color:blue'>piece</span> of the message of mine.<br /><br /> <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->我尋找3 個懶散的圖像<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br />It may mean &quot;I am looking for 3  <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo--> <span style='color:blue'>lazy and loose pictures</span> <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo--> .&quot;<br /><br /> <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />

<!--QuoteBegin-Solitudinarian+2005-01-29 05:33:44--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Solitudinarian @ 2005-01-29 05:33:44)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin--><br />(I tried and wrote the above and suppose that it may be something corresponding with the above quoted and the daily Chinese other than the product of the &quot;machine translation&quot;. Now I would like to go to the SCO channel of this forum to see if any person there has found this topic.)<br /><br /> <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--><br />[right][snapback]433939[/snapback][/right]<br /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br /> <!--emo&:haha:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/haha.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='haha.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />The translation still looks bad- it doesn&#39;t look much like english (using bablefish).  <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> But I&#39;m aware of the difficulties. My previous girlfriend was from Taiwan and spoke mandarin. Sadly, in all the time we were togetherr, I didn&#39;t learn much chinese. <br /><br />I used the english-to-chinese &quot;traditional&quot; translation in my first post. Here it is using chinese-simplified:<br /><br />在我的小时度过寻找网两三个文件, 我跑了横跨这个站点, 并且我计算我会看见如果任何您亲切的伙计也许能帮助我。我寻找3 个懒散的图象(1.44MB) - 安装盘为SCO 3.2v4.2 - N2, 和M1 。我有磁带, 但我无法发现我的软盘, 并且我不关心尝试和修建系统用手。希望可能某人这里可能帮助我(?)<br /><br />Sending it through the translator again, back to english:<br /><br />&quot;Passed in mine hour seeks the net 23 documents, I ran stretched across this stand, and I calculated me to be able to see perhaps if any your kind waiter could help me. I seek 3 sluggish images (1.44MB) - the mounting flange am SCO 3.2v4.2 - N2, and M1. I have the magnetic tape, but I am unable to discover my floppy disk, and I not nicely attempt and construct the system to use the hand. Hoped possible some person of here to be possible to help me (?)&quot;<br /><br /> <!--emo&:haha:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/haha.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='haha.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />And for everyone who who is &#39;with me&#39; so far, whose native language is chinese...<br /><br />You are awesome.

Aha&#33; the biggest problem of the &quot;machine translation&quot; is that of &quot;floppy image&quot;. There is a distance between the meanings of the two words in the &quot;technical term&quot; and those in daily English. <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> The most frequently used meaning in Chinese for that of &quot;image&quot; is &quot;picture&quot;; as for the image of a floppy disk, hard disk, partition or CD-Rom, the word meaning something like &quot;mirror&quot; is used more often in Chinese, and it was what I said above as &quot;镜像&quot; when I tried to reorganize the translation.<br /><br />If, informed with the words meaning &quot;lazy and loose pictures&quot;, some people may start looking for photos  <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->   <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> instead of the images of the floppy disks.  <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />I did mention this topic in the SCO channel of this BBS and I also have noticed the increase of the number about how many times the related topic there has been read.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->懒散的图象<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br />Again it means &quot;lazy picture&quot; <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> , but I believe many people here know what the English words &quot;floppy images&quot; mean. <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />As for what you asked about &#39;&quot;中國傳統的&quot; 同廣東或國語一樣是嗎?&#39;:<br /><br />&quot;中國傳統的&quot; means &quot;of Chinese tradition&quot; and I guess you mean &quot;Traditional Chinese&quot;. If it means something about the characters, then there is not so big difference except that a traditional Chinese character can be more complicated than a simplified Chinese character; if it means something about the writing style, then there is very very big difference between the traditional Chinese writing and the modern Chinese writing.<br /><br /> <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />As for &quot;廣東或國語&quot;, I guess you mean &quot;Cantonese or Putonghua (Mandarin)&quot;.<br /><br />Cantonese is a dialect in Guangdong Province, China. Many people in Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Macao use Cantonese. The pronunciations of Cantonese are somewhat difference from those of Putonghua, but regardless of so many dialects in China, people in China write with the same characters (though there is the difference between traditional Chinese characters and simplified Chinese characters) and normally of the modern Chinese style  <!--emo&:P--><img src='style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo-->  .<br /><br /> <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

<!--QuoteBegin-Solitudinarian+2005-01-29 14:23:36--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Solitudinarian @ 2005-01-29 14:23:36)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->If, informed with the words meaning &quot;lazy and loose pictures&quot;, some people may start looking for photos&nbsp; <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->&nbsp;  <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> instead of the images of the floppy disks.&nbsp; <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br />Yes, I was thinking about tyring to do a translation myself, using an online dictionary- I really think I could probably do a better job than bablefish. Simplified chinese to english through their translator seems to be much better than english to chinese. However, I still have to do a little work to my computer so I can see the characters properly. It helps when you can atleast see what your are copying and pasting to a wiindow.  <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />Yes, I was wondering what the difference between &quot;traditional&quot; and &quot;simplied&quot; were- the answer was semi self evident after playing with the bablefish translator. Thank you for further explanation.<br /><br /><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I did mention this topic in the SCO channel of this BBS and I also have noticed the increase of the number about how many times the related topic there has been read.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br />Hopefully someone has a set or knows of a set... I didn&#39;t think it would be so hard to find those disks.<br /><br />It&#39;s really a matter of nastalgia, or rememberance. SCO 3.2v4.2 really isn&#39;t good for anything as far as I&#39;m concerned, but I&#39;d like to build a system with it just for the fun (?) of it. I&#39;m currently working on getting an NCR Tower 32/200 up and running with a newer hard drive, and some &quot;upgrades&quot; in mind. The most up-to-date system I own is an ASUS A7V motherboard with an AMD 1000 CPU... I guess I like to stretch the life out of things. <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->

<!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> I have the nostalgia for which the best proof is that I am still using a PII 300 computer <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->  with the Intel AL440LX main board, at home, regardless of what I am using at my working place. <br /><br />I tried to give the full play of all its potentiality because it is the set on which I have run so many versions of Linux and FreeBSD and about which I have had so many memories about how I messed up the os by compiling applications or the kernels.  <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />The mainboard only allows ATA 33 hard disk transmission mode, but so far an operating system on it is running no more slowly than that on a 1G CPU with the unreasonable hardware configuation, because I use 384M RAM (the maximum the main board allows) and a hard disk of 8M buffer, knowing that nowadays any operating system requires large memory for more room for improvement, that the technical parameter of the CPU doesn&#39;t but the bottle neck does always count and that the capacity of a computer depends on the most <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:blue'>undesirable</span></span> device it has.<br /><br /> <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br /><br />

<!--QuoteBegin-Solitudinarian+2005-02-01 03:35:57--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Solitudinarian @ 2005-02-01 03:35:57)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin--><!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> I have the nostalgia for which the best proof is that I am still using a PII 300 computer <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->&nbsp; with the Intel AL440LX main board, at home, regardless of what I am using at my working place.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br />Nice.  <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />I have only one older i386 system left- I really wish I had kept all my systems... it&#39;s an ASUS P/I-P55T2P4 board with an AMD K6, 128MB mem, and a 500MB IDE disk. I use it as a firewall (SmoothWall). <br /><br /><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I tried to give the full play of all its potentiality because it is the set on which I have run so many versions of Linux and FreeBSD and about which I have had so many memories about how I messed up the os by compiling applications or the kernels.&nbsp; <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br /> <!--emo&:haha:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/haha.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='haha.gif' /><!--endemo--> Yeah- I know how it goes. I still remember well, the days of running linux on 386s and 486s. With X even.  <!--emo&:haha:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/haha.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='haha.gif' /><!--endemo--> You would have to wait 5 minutes just for the first screen draw&#33; I can still hear the swap disk thrashing away in my mind.  <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> My first linux box was a 386/16 with 8MB mem. and a 245MB hard drive (I paid $300 for the drive). How exciting that was, getting my first linux box running. Slackware loaded off of floppies. Fall of 1993.<br /><br />I never really got into FreeBSD, though, at home. Used it a time or two in the workplace.

Haha&#33; Some people said that for a firewall, a 486 PC running a minimized FreeBSD from a floppy disk would be enough. I never try it because I don&#39;t have the time for compiling such a mini kernel that requires especially careful configuration.<br /><br />The first Unix-like operating system I used happened to be a FreeBSD whose installation CD was attached to a book I bought. Some people say it is &quot;rock steady&quot;. I have been informed that this BBS happens to be running on a FreeBSD. <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />Well, from my experience, I have found that on the same hardware configuration, FreeBSD runs the most effectively among the different operating systems I have used so far. However, it was very troublesome trying to enable the support of Chinese characters in its early versions, at least the kernel had to be recompiled. <br /><br />A couple of years ago, a crush of the FreeBSD caused by the kernel I had improperly compiled also reminded me of the risk of a power failure to a FreeBSD:<br /><br />I (had to) pressed the reset button (a &quot;manual power failure&quot; <!--emo&:P--><img src='style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo--> ) to find that so many files were reported as damaged and that the X could not be started, which also reminded me of the consequence of a power failure. From then on I use Linux more often, but still keeping in mind the effectiveness of FreeBSD.<br /><br /> <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />

<!--QuoteBegin-Solitudinarian+2005-02-01 16:52:57--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Solitudinarian @ 2005-02-01 16:52:57)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Haha&#33; Some people said that for a firewall, a 486 PC running a minimized FreeBSD from a floppy disk would be enough. I never try it because I don&#39;t have the time for compiling such a mini kernel that requires especially careful configuration.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br />Yeah, sure- there&#39;s a bunch of these type of distributions already built out there... floppy size, even. I didn&#39;t see the point of being quite so restrictive for this situation... I&#39;m not pushing SmoothWall, but the distro size is only 34MB. Pretty easy on disk. Or you could use a cdrom-only <br /> distribution. All ya really need is iptables and a few other basic utilities. I wanted a little bit more, though.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: underline" style="color:blue">http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/</a><br /><a href="http://www.coyotelinux.com/products.php?Product=coyote" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: underline" style="color:blue">http://www.coyotelinux.com/products.php?Product=coyote</a><br /><a href="http://www.jimweller.net/jims/lfw/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: underline" style="color:blue">http://www.jimweller.net/jims/lfw/</a><br /><br />Bunches of images already to go... obviously, it helps if your hardware is already supported, otherwise you get to go back and recompile... but getting a floppy sized firewall going shouldn&#39;t take long.<br /><br /><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->The first Unix-like operating system I used happened to be a FreeBSD whose installation CD was attached to a book I bought. Some people say it is &quot;rock steady&quot;. I have been informed that this BBS happens to be running on a FreeBSD. <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br />That&#39;s what I usually find... people tend to gravitate to one or the other, depending on what they started out with.  <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->  Or so it seems.<br /><br /><a href="http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?host=www.loveunix.net" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: underline" style="color:blue">http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?host=www.loveunix.net</a><br /><br />Looks like somebody can&#39;t make up their mind.  <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->

I am now having terribly busy days and that&#39;s why I reply in the midnight of my time zone. <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />To the best of what I can think of about the floppy size, regardless of the personal interest of challenging the limit, I guess it&#39;s because of some security reasons. A floppy can be physically switched to be read only, so, they start the firewall or the gateway with a so-read-only floppy, and once there is intrusion or attack or something like that, they just reset the machine to boot from the READ ONLY floppy again. A 486 PC may not or does not have to have an optical drive, so be it, a floppy disk, aha&#33;&#33;&#33;  <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />At the same time I also see the feasibility of a live CD-ROM, for the same purpose, with more data available, and with even greater certainty that no intrusion or attack can write anything to it  <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> , so I agree that unless so thin a 486 PC has to be used, there is no need to purposely restrict the situation.  <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br /><br />A couple of days ago I tried the Knoppix Linux, the Linux running from a bootable CD-ROM without using the hard disk, pretty good&#33;<br /><br /> <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br /><br />

<!--QuoteBegin-Solitudinarian+2005-02-03 17:39:07--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Solitudinarian @ 2005-02-03 17:39:07)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I am now having terribly busy days and that&#39;s why I reply in the midnight of my time zone. <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />To the best of what I can think of about the floppy size, regardless of the personal interest of challenging the limit, I guess it&#39;s because of some security reasons. A floppy can be physically switched to be read only, so, they start the firewall or the gateway with a so-read-only floppy, and once there is intrusion or attack or something like that, they just reset the machine to boot from the READ ONLY floppy again. A 486 PC may not or does not have to have an optical drive, so be it, a floppy disk, aha&#33;&#33;&#33;&nbsp; <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br />True. Very good reasons for running a firewall/router off of read-only media. PCMCIA flash cards would work, as well. USB device, maybe? Network boot? I view my own firewall as nothing more than a cheap lock. Easily broken by someone who is determined. Probably enough to keep honest people honest. I might rework that box, though- you kind of got me thinking. I&#39;m wondering what my absolute minimum configuration could be that would still satisfy my needs. Ideally, I&#39;d like to have a smaller case and minimal noise. Minimal power consumption, too. We have several devices that are on all of the time. I really just hastily put it all together in order to have NAT. I&#39;ve never spent much time with the OS itself, either.<br /><br /><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->A couple of days ago I tried the Knoppix Linux, the Linux running from a bootable CD-ROM without using the hard disk, pretty good&#33;<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br />I must admit that I have not been keeping up with the linux world very much. I have heard of Knoppix, but haven&#39;t even looked to see what it is.  <!--emo&:redface:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/icon_redface.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='icon_redface.gif' /><!--endemo--> Will have to check it out- I have seen it mentioned more than once... I&#39;ve been entertaining myself with other things.

Very nice discussion <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> But how can we store logfile if we run a firewall on a readonly filesystem? maybe we can route it to another box, then this routing will bring another potential vulnerability to the system.<br /><br />A readonly FS can certainly protect a system, but only works in a limited way, because just the FS or disk is protected, other components such as memory, cache or daemons are still writable and exposured in dangerous...

<!--QuoteBegin-Saruman+2005-02-05 12:53:02--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Saruman @ 2005-02-05 12:53:02)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Very nice discussion <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> But how can we store logfile if we run a firewall on a readonly filesystem? maybe we can route it to another box, then this routing will bring another potential vulnerability to the system.<br /><br />A readonly FS can certainly protect a system, but only works in a limited way, because just the FS or disk is protected, other components such as memory, cache or daemons are still writable and exposured in dangerous...<br />[right][snapback]435450[/snapback][/right]<br /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br />After a sleepless working night and a sleepless working day, I am replying with half-posting and half-sleeping hands, but what you said is always a waking and awakening question. <br /><br />It&#39;s possible that a live os running from a read-only media may also create a ram-drive for storing files, but what&#39;s the significance if the logs were stored in the ram-drive but the situation does not allow them to be printed or permanently stored in another way? and what&#39;s the significance if the logs can not be used for auditing and tracking? (Hey wait&#33; Intruder&#33; I have to save the log and print it before I reset the machine.... <!--emo&:unsure:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='unsure.gif' /><!--endemo-->  <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> )<br /><br />Some people are using a read-only floppy disk or live CD and at the same time some other writable media such as a floppy (another and a writable one), usb storage or even a hard disk (interesting that a hard disk should be used this way <!--emo&:P--><img src='style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo--> ) for the same machine and for the necessary writing and/or logging, and now I can imagine a typical and interesting operating system where the os in a very very small and economic disk writes the files in a very very large and expensive disk in a very old machine driven by a slow CPU. Well well well, that&#39;s nothing about economy now but still something about security and/or experiments. <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />I have no idea if I am right that: It&#39;s possible to configure and recompile the kernel of an operating system like that and restrict the functions and power of the operating system, making it something NO more than a firewall or a gateway.<br /><br />Network security is a never-ending story where a &quot;wall&quot; is what some hope to be protecting and some other hope to be breakable.  <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> Regardless of all the possible precautions, none can be careful enough, and that&#39;s network. <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->

<!--QuoteBegin-lackluster+2005-02-05 07:15:16--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lackluster @ 2005-02-05 07:15:16)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->... ... I have heard of Knoppix... ...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br />I only took about 2 hours trying it and I will try to find the time to use it more, tomorrow, maybe. <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br />

<!--QuoteBegin-Saruman+2005-02-05 04:53:02--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Saruman @ 2005-02-05 04:53:02)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Very nice discussion <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> But how can we store logfile if we run a firewall on a readonly filesystem? maybe we can route it to another box, then this routing will bring another potential vulnerability to the system.<br /><br />A readonly FS can certainly protect a system, but only works in a limited way, because just the FS or disk is protected, other components such as memory, cache or daemons are still writable and exposured in dangerous...<br />[right][snapback]435450[/snapback][/right]<br /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br />Networks are inherently vulnerable. As well as computers. <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--><br /><br />Cisco (and others) has been building routers for years without hard drives... you can log the activity or not- it&#39;s up to you. <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--><br /><br />Providing services such as telnet or ssh, spewing a log out in clear text... whatever- will always introduce another possible avenue for an attacker, and that&#39;s why &quot;one size&quot; does not fit all. In any given environment, it&#39;s always going to be a matter of &quot;calculated risk.&quot;<br /><br />Lots of internet related applications require that &quot;holes&quot; (direct access to certain ports/services) be made in a firewall in order to function the way they were intended. That, in and of itself, presents a security risk. <br /><br />I run a risk just by having my computers on- surely, if someone wants to know what&#39;s on my computers bad enough- they will find a way. In the case of government- they can just knock the door down and *take* my computers. <br /><br />Ofcourse, the question about log files is valid, and like all things, you have to decide what risks you are willing to take. And there are lots of possibilities. For instance, instead of sending logging information over the network, you could send it to another computer over a hard wire ( a serial line, maybe). Or you could dump it to a large ram disk. A 1G USB ramdisk could work, depending on the hardware used. You could have a hard drive installed for strictly logging, as Solitudinarian mentioned. You could send it to a printing daemon and put them on paper.<br /><br />Myself, I&#39;d probably just dump the logs to an internal disk, as I don&#39;t have a logging facility available to take care of network devices, all of the time. Assuming that the data is important enough to me that I want complete logs. Ofcourse, there is something to be said for sending the log messages to another computer, but again, it depends on the situation. In a typical corporate environment, I&#39;m inclined to send the log messages to another computer via a LAN.<br /><br /><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I have no idea if I am right that: It&#39;s possible to configure and recompile the kernel of an operating system like that and restrict the functions and power of the operating system, making it something NO more than a firewall or a gateway.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br />Sure it is. Is linux a purpose built OS for such a use? Definitely not. But it can be made to work acceptably well for such a use. I would suppose that uClinux on purpose built hardware could work  very well. It&#39;s also worth keeping in mind that most &quot;firewalls&quot; are quite often applications running on full blown operating systems. Some of which are quite expensive. <br /><br />In a previous life, I managed Checkpoint firewalls, which ran on Solaris. I always found it to be quite a chore to strip those boxes down so that they weren&#39;t such easy targets. To be honest, if I had been given a choice at that time, I would have used linux instead. From my own point of view, it&#39;s easier to build a stripped down linux box than it is a stripped down solaris box. I would imagine the same could be said between *bsd and solaris. And it would have been soooooooo much cheaper (cost effective <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> ).

<!--QuoteBegin-lackluster+2005-02-11 07:57:41--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lackluster @ 2005-02-11 07:57:41)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Networks are inherently vulnerable. As well as computers. <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--><br /><br />Cisco (and others) has been building routers for years without hard drives... you can log the activity or not- it&#39;s up to you. <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--><br />... ...<br /><br /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br /><br />Logging is important for a firewall. I guess even the providers of firewall products would naturally enable the logging, at least for proving that the product is actually doing something&#33;  <!--emo&:grin:--><img src='style_emoticons/default/grin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />Because of the scalability of Linux, a *Linux operating system can be made so small as the &quot;you-see-linux&quot;. I also heard of a wrist watch running a Linux  <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->  and I wonder whether it is supposed to be a computer-like wrist watch or a wrist-watch-like computer.  <!--emo&:P--><img src='style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo--> <br /><br />A professional and commercial firewall can be very expensive, especially when it refers to &quot;the configuration of especially selected hardware plus especially configured software&quot; where, regardless of the hardware, the software can also be a carefully configured BSD. Non-IT organizations may depend on them and the technical support from the providers. Specialists may hope to further configure them for better adapting the actual situation, in such a case it is similar to configuring a BSD or Linux for the hardware given and sometimes they may naturally compare the price performance ratio between the preset configuration sold by the providers and the DIY configuration (to be) achieved by them.<br /><br />I happen to be testing the Knoppix Linux again and this is the snapshot:<br /> <!--emo&:)--><img src='style_emoticons/default/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->