Multi-Tasking

Wow, I thought I was busy before... At one point yesterday I was compressing an iso, burning a CD, troubleshooting Apache/CPanel, re-grouting the bathroom floor, painting the hallway, replacing a doorknob, and cooking spaghetti sauce...... And got it all done without burning the sauce!

The "new project" will be a spin-off of Public IP. It is part of the phase2 development of the Public IP system, and offerings. I have chosen to release it as a standalone service that can be used by anyone that offers free wireless Internet, not just ZoneCD users. This project will provide an invaluable service to all parties involved with using, offering, and promoting free WiFi access.

I expect to release the new project website in beta next week. I will post more details as the time grows nearer.

New Project Release

It's not a CD or an Authserver, but it is related to free WiFi access. As far as i know it is an industry first. Those of you that are setup and offering free wifi access will appreciate this.... So what is it? I'm afraid I can't say what it is right now... Top Secret stuff.... But i can promise that you guys will be the first to try it out.

My F*cking Head

What a day.... I don't know why I do this to myself. I actually sat at work and watched ping publicip.net -t (dos) all friggin morning. This whole server down thing has got me thinking about something though... Authservers... I was working on a High Availability solution with another hosting company, but they suck... no communication, so I am dropping them. I have another idea festering.... to early to say right now. But it is pretty big.... stay tuned.

Public IP Services

As the name implies, this project is about providing services and solutions for the advancement of public internet access. Specifically FREE internet access. It is not only about making a cool LiveCD, or a customizable Authserver... it's about helping businesses and communities implement safe, free hotspots.

So what else can be done to help? I am planning to give away web hosting space to wireless communities and organizations that support free wireless internet. I am not talking about a subdomain with ftp access, I mean hosting your domain. 20MB space, mysql access, shell access, ftp access, cgi-bin, php, and up to 20 email accounts. There is a lot more than that, but don't feel like typing it all out... You will have access to cPanel to configure a whole bunch of stuff. I am not going to put a single ad or popup piece of shit on it either... It's all yours.

You might be thinking that I have totally lost my mind... I probably have, but honestly, the cost associated with this is no where near what you think it is... Applicants for free web hosting will be approved on the individual basis.

I will post more on this later.... if you need web hosting now... shoot an email to scott at publicip dot net

Log Mailer

The last couple days, when i wake up in the morning, I'm like a kid on Christmas running to my computer to see what's in my inbox. --- Look what i got... [as my eyes brighten and widen] It's log files, just like I wanted! I hope Santa Cron brings me more tomorrow...

Enough of the corny-ness (for now), The Log Mailer seems to be working really great. The logs are being rolled and emailed @ 23:58 every night. That's the time on the ZoneCD box(UTC), not the time on the clock, on the wall... If you notice anything weird or not working as expected please post in the forum.

Holy Releases Batman >> ZoneCD 0.2-4 is packed

Well, I've been at it non-stop on this release. There are actually two releases now available for download... nox and gui. They both have exactly the same features, plus or minus a GUI. I've added a few cool features with a couple fixes mixed in here and there... Let's review the cool features in a little detail....

The Acceptable Use URL will allow you to change the link on the login page to point at your specific Acceptable Use document. Can be updated via the Customize your Zone page in Zone Control.

The Registration Form URL will allow you to use you own registration form. You may want to do this for several reasons. The best reason would be to approve users before they are allowed to use your hotspot. There is an API available that must be used to create user accounts remotely. Can be updated via the Customize your Zone page in Zone Control.

The Log Mailer program will automatically roll and email your logs. It currently allows you to receive your NoCat log, Squid log, and/or Dansguardian log, daily in an email. The Log Mailer program will also manage renaming(rolling) the logs. For example, this means that 3/22/2004 logs will only contain activity that occurred that day. The Log Mailer interface is located on the Hotspot Stats page in Zone Control.

A floppy init.sh option has been added. If for some reason you would like to run a command or start a service, you can add a shell script named init.sh to your floppy. This script will be the very last thing that executes on nox and the last thing to execute before X on LightGUI.

Pretty cool shit if I must say so myself... Here's the complete change log:

Version 0.2-4 (Released 03·22·2004)

  1) Created a no-X version and GUI version
  2) Added ability to use your own Acceptable Use Document
  3) Added Remote Registration functionality (php api)
  4) Relaxed content filter rules for Chat(PIC)
  5) Added log mailer program (cron)
  6) Added ability to run commands from floppy script named init.sh
  7) Fixed dnsmasq bug (resolv.conf re-write fix)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/publicip/
HAVE FUN!

Quick Update

I am working on some more goodies for the next release.... I am adding a Log Mailer program to the ZoneCD that will roll your logs and shoot a copy to you daily(just before midnight)as an email attachment. There will be a small interface to setup the Log Mailer on the statistic page in Zone Control.

More Customization Fields

I have added two fields to the Customize Your Zone page inside Zone Control. Both are optional.

The Acceptable Use URL will allow you to change the link on the login page to point at your specific Acceptable Use document.

The Registration Form URL will allow you to use you own registration form. You may want to do this for several reasons. The best reason would be to approve users before they are allowed to use your hotspot. There is an API available that must be used to create user accounts remotely. I still need to work on this a little more to make it secure... Meaning that if you select to use this option, the regular registration form is disabled for your account. Anyone that knows NoCat a little would still be able to submit a registration to gain access to your hotspot.

Both of these options will not be available to ZoneCD users until they have the next release(0.2-4). Why? Because your using a captive portal. NoCat will not let users view a remote website until authenticated. So, if you don't login you won't be able to see the Registration form..... But if you can't get to the registration form you can't login.... Same with the Acceptable Use... NoCat will prevent users from seeing the Acceptable Use doc, until after they login... stupid right?

I will be wgetting the appropriate domains and adding them to your AllowedWebHosts directive in nocat.conf during boot.

If you are running a morphed ZoneCD (this is for you Hervé), then edit your nocat.conf file and set the AllowedWebHosts directive to allow your website(s).

If all goes well, I will have the new release up by Monday 3/19.

ZoneCD Logo contributed by www.cecedesign.com

Many thanks to Tony from www.cecedesign.com for the logo contribution.

Server - Side

I am back to work on the server side while allowing the bugs to surface in the current ZoneCD release 0.2-3. I will be adding two fields to the Customize Your Zone page. One will allow you to link to your own "Terms of Use", and the other will allow you to link to you own registration form. I will be posting a php script, or api, to use with the remote registration form. It's pretty simple... more to come later on that...

ZoneCD Leprechaun Trap

My 6 year old had a project for school to make a Leprechaun trap.

Do Leprechauns like ZoneCD's? Will the lure of free wireless Internet
be too strong to resist? ...

A couple floppy things...

The first beta iso that used floppy overwrite(0.2-0) used a floppy disk with a /bin directory containing initialize.fw.... this is no longer needed. The content filter in open mode is controlled by the zone.id file.... If one exists, the Public class is filtered.... if no zone.id file is on the floppy for open mode configuration - no content filter. Some good floppy sample are here.... http://www.publicip.org/mirror/dists/floppy/

If you want to turn off the content filter while in captive mode (while using the public ip Authserver), you can put the default NoCat bin/initialize.fw on a floppy to overwrite the existing file.

Do not edit floppy files in Notepad!!! Use a Linux box with vi, emacs, pico/nano..... or if you insist on Windows, use a good text editor that doesn't convert the file format.... Try EditPad Lite, UltraEdit, TextPad, or EditPlus.

ZoneCD version 0.2-3 release today

This was an unexpected release. A couple problems surfaced yesterday, with the content filter not turning off in open mode(without zone.id), and open mode not working for some... The content filter fix required an edit to init.sh. To fix the Open Mode problem, I made a few changes to the NoCat files Firewall.pm, bin/gateway, and NoCat.pm. I hardcoded all occurrences of FindBin with the correct path to NoCat from root. Morphix adds "/var/tmp/trans" to the beginning of paths, which I believe would be a problem... I think it also improved performance on the gateway...

I also added .ogm and .mkv, to the blocked extension list (thanks Randy).

Browse CVS for changes.

Open Mode Floppy Bug

Aparenlty there is a problem for certain users trying to use the floppy to switch the ZoneCD to Open mode. I have got a pretty good grip on this and should have an answer by morning.

If anybody finds a bug please use the bug tracker on sourceforge to report the problem.... http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=98792&atid=637601, or you can tell me somehow and i will add it...

ZoneCD CVS

I have setup a CVS repository on sourceforge for those of you that are actively developing your own version of the ZoneCD. I have added two modules. morphix and nocat. Each module contains all the source code for the respective directory on the ZoneCD. This will be a little more efficient than downloading a 240MB mod or 270MB iso to fix one line of code when a new release is made...

Browse
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/publicip/

CVS anonymous access commands
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/publicip login

Examples to download modules(directories)
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/publicip co nocat
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/publicip co morphix

Morphix base 0.4-1d - not for the ZoneCD

I just tried to compress another iso with 0.4-1d base... X failed again.... I am giving-up on this base.

THE END

Let's keep it clean...

It is becoming apparent to me that I might be on to something here.... Public IP's open source project went live the end of January 2004. Since then 245 ZoneID's have been registered. Not a huge number, but that number may progressively grow as the project gains popularity. Many people that register are only "checking it out" for any number of reasons. It's also possible that hotspots will not work-out for some people, or maybe they give-up trying to get it setup.

Regardless of the reason, I will end up with a shit-load of garbage records in the db if I don't perform some routine maintenance and house cleaning. I would like you all to help me decide when the slackers get their account deleted and get removed from the database. I have setup a poll in the forum to tally the votes. Please participate.

http://www.publicip.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=64

QikiWiki

I am starting a Wiki to allow users to document their experiences http://www.publicip.net/wiki/. I created a topic in the forum for help using the Wiki. If you have the time please help! I think documentation is always better when it's not written by the programmer. It has more of a users perspective.

Version 0.2-2 released in "stable"

It's done. The new iso is up for grabs. This version should fix problems for those of you that have had problems with DHCP or Eth1 failing to come up during boot.

Version 0.2-2 (Released 03·13·2004)

    +Fixed Eth1/DHCP Bug Again
    +Added Floppy Disk option for NoCat configuration
    +Removed Webmin from startup

Thanks to all of you that provided feedback on the initial floppy release.

I cleaned up the init script so the boot is a little leaner and only loads what is needed. What is needed depends on the presence of a floppy disk and it's contents. I will work on getting some docs together to explain the floppy override feature.

Got Chroot?

I still have not figure out what got hosed on my box that is breaking the new iso's i compress. It's been four days of compressing, downloading, burning, and booting.... easily made about fifty coasters. I have been to the edge of sanity and back...

The good news is that i think i have a workaround figured out until the boys at morphix can tell me what happened... I am using a second file system and chrooting to that one to work on building the new iso's, so far - so good. With any luck, the next release(0.2-2) will be up by tomorrow. After that release is up, i might try the new base from morphix again... but remember that's what started my trouble...

The ZoneCD is a Sourceforge project!

http://sourceforge.net/projects/publicip/

It took about two months to get the project approved. I will be working-in some of the cool project features available from sourceforge... I will also be setting up the iso's on their server.

Surrounded by trouble

Seems like everywhere i turn there's trouble.... Not just me, but other people... a lot of unexplainable weird shit going-on.

Right now, the download/devl server is down because of a bad RAID controller... will be back up soon.

I am still struggling with compressing the new iso. The CD boots fine and the gateway works, but X fails....

mkisofs pos

Sorry for the delay in the next release. Believe me no one is more disappointed than me. I spent the whole night making friggin coasters. Nothing sucks more than staying up til 1am when you have to be up at 530am, without making any progress.

The new mod's are complete and are ready to be built into iso's. The problem i am having is somehow related to multiple variations of mod's and bases that i have been compiling and testing... some weird memory or cache thing is causing errors during compression. At least i know that now... so i can get on with fixing that... will update later....

Not sure about the 0.4-1d Morphix base...

I am hoping to put two iso's up later tonight for the next release with two bug fixes and a few performance improvements. The first(0.2-2) will be built on the current base, the other(0.2-2d) will be built on the latest morphix base. I am not sure about the 0.4-1d Morphix base, seems a little flaky to me... but for those of you that are experiencing hardware issues, this may be a cure...

Virus causes delay...

Things kinda slipped on development for the last of couple days due to a virus infecting my system. I spent a good 24 hours vomiting, and dealing with writhing stomach pains, due to a friggin stomach virus...(did i trick ya?). It wasn't just me either, my wife and three daughters were puking(and shitting) their brains-out as well. Not a pretty sight... needless to say there was vomit(and a little baby poop) everywhere.

I am feeling better now, and was able to get back into development today. I have addressed a bug found in the last beta release that caused errors when the system had no floppy drive. The next release will also use the newest base from morphix(0.4-1d). This will enabled more usb support(future devl) and hopefully improve some hardware compatibility issues...

ZoneCD v0.2-0 Floppy Override

OK... It's up for grabs!

I am releasing this in beta, please notify me ASAP if something isn't right.

http://www.publicip.org/mirror/dists/beta/ZoneCD_0.2-0.iso

md5sum = de4be2426e676bd8b353e9f74a3d872c ZoneCD_0.2-0.iso

This version has one change. Floppy override. Any file or directory stored on the floppy will be copied over to the nocat directory. The actual /usr/local/nocat directories and files included in this version are here to browse http://www.publicip.org/mirror/dists/floppy/nocat/. Below is the command issued to copy the files from the floppy to the ZoneCD...

#cp -Rfv /mnt/floppy/* /usr/local/nocat/

Here are a few different setups with floppy examples to use/modify to get started:

Headless: This is the simplest of all floppies. Just create
a file named zone.id and type your ZoneID on the first line. This will stop
the ZoneCD from asking for your ID during boot. http://www.publicip.org/mirror/dists/floppy/headless.tar

---

Open: This floppy allows the gateway to run in nocat's Open
mode. It contains the conf file, htdocs, and bin directory. NoCat servers the splash
page right from the ZoneCD. Edit the splash.html in the htdocs directory to
modify your splash page. Be sure to include and images in the image directory
inside htdocs. Initialize.fw must be replaced to switch of the content filter.
Since no communication with publicip.net occurs, no ZoneID is required for
this configuration.
http://www.publicip.org/mirror/dists/floppy/open_no-id.tar

---

Open w/Filter: This is the same as above minus the bin directory with initialize.fw. The ZoneCD's default initialized.fw file is used to enforce content filtering. A ZoneID is required for this configuration to enable the filter block page. http://www.publicip.org/mirror/dists/floppy/open_filter.tar

---

To get started, simply extract the contents of one of the tar balls to a floppy disk make edits and boot-it-up. REMEMBER: Check the computer's boot order, make sure CD-ROM is the first boot option, then floppy next.

If you have your own Authserver setup, you can edit nocat.conf to point it at your server. No example here... if you already setup an Authserver you should know what to do.

Please ask questions for clarity and help.

Still working on modelessness

The boot prompt can be a real pain-in-the-ass.... I write test shell scripts that work in bash, but fail during boot. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I have this nailed... I will update later.

Modeless ZoneCD

I have begun the development of a modeless ZoneCD. What I mean is that the CD can be made to operate in any "NoCat" configuration. The ZoneCD will read from a floppy disk to copy customized files to the system. During boot time, if no floppy is found the ZoneCd will function the way it works now(enter ZoneID). If a floppy is found (cool part) it will copy all the files on the floppy to /usr/local/nocat.

This means that if you have a floppy and just put nocat.conf on it, it will replace the default nocat.conf, thus enabling you to make the gateway run in open mode, change authserver... anything you want. The gateway will be totally customizable.... Including the splash page for open mode....

Look here for an example of the floppy i used in testing... http://www.publicip.org/mirror/dists/alpha/open/floppy.tar This example changes the gateway to open mode, and replaces the logo and network name on the splash page. I will post more working examples once completed.

If you choose to use the Public IP Authserver you can make a single file called zone.id with just your ZoneID in and you will never need to enter it again.

You will need to check you computer's boot order to make sure CD-ROM is the first choice....

Eth1 Bug squashed

I consider the Eth1 bug to be squashed... I am going to release 0.1-6 in stable later today... There is also a change for blocked extensions for the content filter, and dhcp startup...


Version 0.1-6 (Released 03·02·2004)

+ Fixed Eth1 Up Bug
+ Explicitly start DHCP Server on Eth1
+ Added/Updated .zip, .tar, .gz, .sea, .sit, .sh, & .rm to blocked file extension list

Eth1 Bug

A couple of users have reported that Eth1 fails to come-up during boot which causes the DHCP server to fail... If you have experienced this bug please try this iso:

http://www.publicip.org/mirror/dists/alpha/ZoneCD_0.1-6.iso


md5sum= a03238bd6d82bfdc964af110627e8392 ZoneCD_0.1-6.iso

We're not gonna cluster

I am going to have to delay the clustering... For now, I will setup a DNS fail-over. I already have the fail-over server setup and have done a little testing(some of you may have been subjected to DSN issues) . I will need to test a little more...

I am looking at getting a server cluster at The Planet... I will update on progress.