Establishing a Linux TCP/IP network requires two components of hardware: the network interface card (NIC) and the network medium. As with most things in life, you can opt to go for an inexpensive card and medium or spend lots more money for full-featured items. As the amount you spend increases, you get more functionality and benefits, although usually with diminishing returns for your dollar. Before deciding on the type of network interface cards to use (unless you already have some), you should decide on the type of cabling the network will use so the connectors on the network interface card can match. 10Base2 and 10Base-T are really the only two cables that you’ll want to consider. The alternatives are much more expensive or require special hardware.

Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition fills many of the same roles as Standard Edition and adds features primarily geared toward improving reliability and scalability. Enterprise Edition supports a maximum of eight processors, which is double Standard Edition’s capability. Enterprise Edition also supports Address Windows Extensions (AWE), providing an extra gigabyte of memory to applications by reserving only 1GB for Windows, rather than Standard Edition’s 2GB/2GB split between the operating system and applications.

Enterprise Edition also supports Windows Clustering, allowing you to build failover clusters with two nodes. The Cluster Service allows you to create clustered file shares and clustered printers and supports clustered applications, such as SQL Server Enterprise Edition and Exchange Server Enterprise Edition. The Cluster Service even enables you to cluster applications that aren’t specifically designed for clustering, provided they meet certain criteria spelled out in the Windows online documentation.

Log files track the activity on a computer so administrators can see who has used the computer, what they did, how long they stayed connected, and where they came from. Since a log file can also record the activity of an unauthorized intruder, much like a surveillance camera can record a burglar breaking into a store, hackers look for the log file as soon as they get access into the computer. Script kiddies often delete the log files to prevent the administrator from seeing exactly what they did on the computer. Unfortunately, deleting the log file reveals the presence of an intruder as blatantly as using a stick of dynamite to get rid of a surveillance camera. The moment an administrator notices that someone has deleted the log file, he or she immediately knows that a hacker must be on the system.

Most news media (newspapers, television and radio stations, and magazines) are owned by corporations that rely on other companies to place advertisements and help the media pay their bills. So what are the odds that a newspaper will run a story criticizing a major advertiser, or run a story exposing the media’s corporate owner? More importantly, what news company is going to risk raising the ire of its own government, when doing so could jeopardize that company from attending any future government press conferences that their competitors will surely attend? If you think that any of the news sources listed in this chapter are free from any bias, influence, or censorship, it’s time to rethink your perception of how the news media really works. Every year, Project Censored (http://www.projectcensored.org) offers their top ten stories that the news media conveniently ignored, that inevitably turn out to be major environmental, political, or social disasters that make a prominent corporation or government look corrupt, exploitive, or just plain incompetent.