www.grootersnet.nl

The Project

The beginning

Back in 1994 I was in an international project: the main team was located in Bruxelles, and my office was in Weesp - but most of the job I could do at home. because this required quite some data exchange, the office started an UUCP connection with a Dutch Internet Service provider, and I could dial into that same machine (using the same connection) from my DOS/Windows 3.1 PC, transferring files using UUCP as well - a DOS port of this Unix protocol.

After some time I decided it was more efficient to get my own Internet connectivity - giving me the facility to use SMTP and POP - quite handy (although I had to install extra, specific software. That time, there was no TCPIP stack from Microsoft....)

Years went on.

A new PC was purchased, the old one set apart for Linux - at least, that was the idea. A laptop was added - and a network was started. The plain, old telephone dial-up was replaces by ISDN, giving faster connectivity. I started to explore the abilities of HTTP - the web.

Yet another PC was added to the network, for the kids. They too wanted Internet connectivity, so the ISDN connection was shared, but that required my presence to make the connection - until the kids found out they could also use the internal modem....

In 2000, I bought a Digital Personal Workstation; I wanted to pickup OpenVMS again. The target was to setup this system to supply web services (running OpenVMS 7.3-1, Apache and WebLogic), and to learn Java and all that was required for WebLogic. But since I got an appointment far from home (well, for Dutch standards) this projects died away silently....

So, at the beginning of 2003, I had:

An Alpha running OpenVMS 7.3-1 - with quite some disk space
A PC running Windows 2000 Pro - with not too much disk space
A PC running Windows ME - with not too much disk space either
A PC running FreeBsd (at least, installed) - with little space
A PC running nothing (would be Linux but never got it installed yet)
A laptop running Windows XP Pro - with a lot of disk space

Then came the domain, and ADSL.

Setting it up

Suddenly, I encountered the task to have my network connected continuously to the Internet - with all the possibilities - and all the risks. Since I had a network, this required some form of router (for connectivity) and firewall (for prevention).

I had to decide how to configure it all.

The only system that could, at that time, be setup as a server, was the Alpha. In fact, it already was (since VMS doesn't make a distinction between server and workstation, it's always a server...). I could of course setup a FreeBSD or Linux machine, but that proved an hard task. Linux 7.2 could not be installed on either PC (due to old (apparently no longer supported) hardware, lack of devices and disk space....) and FreeBSD was no option either since it wasn't complete. What made it even worse it that these OS's proved to be too cumbersome in configuration if you're not familiar with it.

And I know OpenVMS and had it running fine. From the manuals, it showed to be the most handsome of them all: although quite basic, setting up the system to serve the whole network looked quite simple. And, of course, there was the magnificent online HELP.

Now I could determine the tasks to perform.

The tasks

Define the network and the role of each machine
Determine setup of each machine
Setup DNS on the server
Setup DHCP on the server
Create a router and firewall
Setup each client
Setup the web server
Setup JAVA handler

Quite a list of things I don't know very much about - just VERY basic. That is: of DHCP and DNS. The rest could be quite simple.

The execution

Well, tasks 1 and 2 have been done already, just by thinking about it to define the project.
I know the network, the role of each machine and therefore, what to do. In fact, this is basic stuff.

For the rest, I needed to use a specific order.

First, I had to setup DNS (Bind). Quite nice: on the VMS machine all has been setup for IP6 (another project...) and part of that (I believe) is BIND 9. This allows dynamic updates - by DHCP for instance. For that reason, DNS would have to be setup first, then DHCP, then the clients. But before these could access the Internet, the router had to be set up as well, and I planned that to be done before DHCP (so I could access the Internet using the server). In the meantime, the shared ISDN connection could be used instead - si my PC;s would connect using that line.

Nice plan.

DNS

Looks more complicated than it is, actually. But the ins and outs should be looked at. Again: look at the manuals.

For some matters I encountered setting up DNS, click here

DHCP

Tricky. I know what it does (at least, what it should do) but not how to achieve this. So look at the manuals.

This is a bit of a log in setting it up.

Router/Firewall

Of course, I could buy a specific piece of hardware. But since there is a PC left (with a broken hard disk), why do that? A colleague found a freeware router/firewall on the internet, that could be handy - if it could be installed.

It turns out it can: it can eventually start, and even run from a floppy disk. And that's still Ok!

Ok, so FreeSco it'll be.

Whatever I encountered setting up this firewall will be in a separate document.

Client setup

The VERY EASY part. All Windows machines will have their NIC set to DHCP.

That's it. Start it - and it will get it's addresses from the Alpha.

At that time, connectivity, both internally (LAN) and externally (the Internet) were in working order. At least - it all worked.

Setup web server and Java engine

I had it setup already - on the system disk, but that would be a bad place if I wanted to setup a real VMS cluster. So I had to move it to another disk, out of the cabinet. At the same time I could reorganize the site and move data from my ISP to my own machine.

Well, it's not THAT far. This is what has been done up to now

Mail

Making the machine a mail server as well was too easy to wait, so I set it up. Greatest advantage: SPAM is largely blocked....
For external access, I already found a (strictly VMS) solution in YAHMAIL that is (beta-) tested a while. However, it's quite usable. Still, some work to be done so Outlook handles headers as if from Unix...

Here's the explanation of what I've done to get it so far.

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