Amahi Blog

Hot off the presses!  The ever popular binary newsreader SABnzbd is back on Amahi!  All you Usenet junkies and binary fans will be glad to see it’s return after a brief scrum with a php update.  Also new to the App Gallery is  osTicket, an Open Source support ticketing system with many great features to help streamline the support process.  And last, but certainly not least, Web KeePass!  Finally, a secure, multiuser password manager for your network.    No more racking your brain to remember that password  or sticky notes on the monitor to threaten your networks security.

As always the Amahi Team is hard at work to bring you more Apps.  Is there is an App you would like to see on Amahi?  Just click on Suggest under Applications at Amahi.org

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sabnzbd
SABnzbd is a free/open-source cross-platform binary newsreader written in Python.

NOTE: Amahi Application RPM Fusion (Non-Free) MUST be installed first.
It simplifies the process of downloading from Usenet dramatically, thanks to its friendly web-based user interface and advanced built-in post-processing options that automatically verify, repair, extract and clean up posts downloaded from Usenet. SABnzbd also has a fully customizable user interface, and offers a complete API for third-party applications to hook into.

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osTicket
osTicket is a widely-used open source support ticket system. It seamlessly integrates inquiries created via email, phone and web-based forms into a simple easy-to-use multi-user web interface. Manage, organize and archive all your support requests and responses in one place while providing your customers with accountability and responsiveness they deserve.
osTicket is designed to help you streamline support requests and improve customer support efficiency by providing staff with tools they need to deliver fast, effective and measurable support. Some of the core features include:

• Web and Email SuppportTickets can be created via email, online forms or phone (created by staff). Flexible configuration and mapping.
• Auto ResponseAutomatic reply that is sent out when a new ticket is opened or a message is received. Customizable mail templates.
• And much much more

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Web KeePass
KeePass is a free open source password manager to help you securely manage your passwords. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file.

Features and Key Benefits:

• Very strong compound data encryption
• Completely web based over totally secure HTTPS connection
• And much much more

Cheers!

The Amahi Team.

Wooohoooooooo!

Pack up your bags we’re going to the show! FLOSS Weekly that is!

One of the core members (and founder) of Amahi, Carlos Puchol (aka cpg), is the guest of the 112th show, taping tomorrow March 10th, at 1:30 PM Pacific Standard Time (live brocast link). Post your question here in this post or ask in the forums!

FLOSS Weekly is a show on the TWiT network that premiered on April 7th, 2006.  The show contains interviews with prominent evangelists and developers in the Free, Libre, and Open Source Software movement and is hosted by radio personality Leo Laporte and Randal Schwartz.

Check out the distinguished group of interviewees that we join! Kent Beck (extreme programming),  Ward Cunningham (inventor of wikis), Miguel de Icaza (GNOME, Ximian, Mono), Rasmus Lerdorf (PHP), Tim O’Reilly (OSS visionary), Guido van Rossum (Python), Linus Torvalds (Linux), and Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia). Makes one kinda humble

Most episodes feature the primary developer or developers of a particular project. This episode is about Amahi!

The format of the show is an open discussion with a live irc in parallel, with the hosts asking about the guest and the project. Typically, the host will ask about the history of the project, how the concept was envisioned, its development model and so forth.

So come on out, pull up a chair, log-on and get your listening on!

Cheers!

The Amahi Team

I feel good! … like I knew that I would … oh hey, hello!

We’re happy to share that Amahi just got chosen the Hottest Pick award by Linux Format magazine!

… there aren’t many easier ways of getting [a server] set up than installing [Amahi]

That’s what they had to say! Linux Format is UK’s largest  Linux magazine and one of the largest circulation Linux mags in the world, including bookstores and electronics stores. The March issue (LXF129) will be in the shelves in the next 2 or 3 weeks, so look for it!

In addition to this, next Wednesday March 10, at 1.30pm PST (10:30pm EST), there is a live interview about Amahi with founder Carlos Puchol on TWIT.TV’s FLOSS Weekly, one of the most popular free/open source video casts. We’re happy to be featured in this program which often brings illustrious guests. Video to be available a few hours after the live program ends. Suggest your questions to discuss!

Release time! Drum roll please …

Today we announce Amahi 5.2. The bits should be already installed in most Amahi systems by now. This is mostly a bugfix release, with a few major features taking shape, many of them contributed by a strong new team member Guillaume Boudreau (aka Mouton):

• Notably, we have started working on integrating a very exciting Drive Pooling technology called Greyhole: redundancy across drives, expandable storage on a JBOD-like architecture!
• Added an “extras” options in the shares to do a lot of advanced things, like adding quotas, running antivirus, add recycle bins to shares, add guest access, or auditing capabilities, in addition to supporting the development of Greyhole.
• Automatic support for automatic time zone setup of  PHP applications
• Automatically back up app databases when updating and of course other improvements for supporting apps
• TONS of application updates: eyeOS, FengOffice, Ampache, Gallery, etc. etc.
• The DLNA server has been updated to support M3U/PLS playlists
• AmahiTunes has been released as a new app with streaming built in right on the app
• Improvements to Dutch, Spanish, with new alpha support for Japanese
• … and many more fixes and improvements!

Simplicity is what we aim for! It’s your network and Amahi  makes it easy to keep it that way. No complex setup, no graduate degree, and no other software installation is needed. We’re thrilled that Amahi has been recognized in this way by a well known magazine!

Now, one of the things that we don’t do enough is to thank you, the community. You have been with us through thick and thin, always diligently reporting what works and what doesn’t, made contributions, improved documentation, and most of all you have continued to share and evangelize the amazing features of Amahi. So from the bottom of our hearts, thank you!

Dorothy never thought she ever have to go through Oz without any of these! Dorthy told all of the Witch’s knowledge in her own top-shelf blog engine (WordPress) and used her web based console (MindTerm) to change the Witches magic to that of the greater good of the munchkins in the land of Oz when she crash landed!

Later using her own media server (DLNA) she would be better able to entertain not only the Tinman, The Cowardly Lion, and the Scare Crow but also the Great Wizard of Oz on her Big screen TV in full 1080P!

Now, we know that Dorothy never thought of any of that as she was traveling down the yellow brick road. But if the character of Dorothy had known about all that in 1900 when L. Frank Baum had written the story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz she would have! 

Read on for more on our latest one-click applications (and these are big ones)!!

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WordPress
WordPress is one of the most powerful personal publishing platform, and it comes with a great set of features designed to make your experience as a publisher on the Internet as easy, pleasant and appealing as possible. We are proud to offer you a freely distributed, standards-compliant, fast, light and free personal publishing platform, with sensible default settings and features, and an extremely customizable core.

WordPress has a templating system, with widgets, as well as themes that can be easily installed. WordPress also features integrated link management; a search engine-friendly, clean permalink structure; the ability to assign nested, multiple categories to articles; multiple author capability; and support for tagging of posts and articles.

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DLNA
Amahi DLNA Server is a media server. It’s the Amahi port of the great MiniDLNA, which is a media server with the aim of being fully compliant with DLNA/UPnP-AV clients.

This server is Open Source software developed by a NETGEAR employee for the ReadyNAS product line. So if you are looking for a NAS, please consider ReadyNAS first!

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MindTerm
MindTerm is small, portable and secure. It contains an very powerful and easy to use SSH client that provides advanced features such as tunneling support, GUI-based file transfers as well as support for HTTP and SOCKS proxies.

The MindTerm client also includes an integrated terminal emulator. It has the ability to run both as a standalone application and as an applet. It may be used free of charge for personal use as well as in some commercial situations where you have fewer than 25 users.

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Cheers!

The Amahi Team.

One of the more frequent requests we get is to put an email server in Amahi. We have an email server in the works (and we’d like to give it a memorable name, BTW, so chip in!), and the team is updating it for the latest Amahi release.

We thought we’d review an interesting book called “Linux E-mail. Setup, maintain and secure a small office e-mail server,” which is apropos for this type of endeavor:

• Linux E-Mail. Setup, maintain and secure a small office e-mail server
• Ian Haycox, Alistair McDonald,  Magnus Bäck, et. al.
• ISBN:978-1-847198-64-8, second edition
• PAKT Publishing, 353 pages, softbound (direct link from PAKT)
• Overall: 8 out of 10

First, as someone who has handled his email server for many years, I can honestly say, email is hard. Or it has become harder and harder over the years. Bounces, authentication schemes, spam, blacklists, retries, timeouts, mutiple accounts per user, security, forwarding, etc., etc.

My advice is: DON’T DO IT!

That probably is not much of a deterrent for the more entrepreneurial of you. Admittedly, running a local and outgoing-only server is easier (and actually manageable, for a small volumes of email) than an incoming email server.

Let’s get on to the book review!

The book is for junior to mid-level system administrators and has 10 chapters, starting with the basics. Chapter 1 covers the basics of the mail-related protocols like SMTP, POP, IMAP, setup basics like DNS and backup servers. Chapter 2 is entirely dedicated to Postfix, configuration and settings. Postfix is my preferred mail transport agent (MTA). The chapter is fairly complete with inbox format, spam settings, use of blacklists, access  controls, with various tips on troubleshooting, which come in very helpful.

Next, on the other side of things, the book covers IMAP/POP access for clients, explaining the various tradeoffs nicely, as well as how to configure the desktop clients (Chapter 3). Chapter 4 covers web-based clients, focused mostly on the very popular SquirrelMail, covering installation and configuration. Of course, when we have it in Amahi as an app, it will be one-click install, and pre-configured, of course.

The focus of Chapter 5 is security. This chapter is fairly comprehensive covering SASL/TLS and rate limitation, and it’s really intended for advanced users. However, I was disappointed that it does not cover email signing, which is a must for even medium volumes of email (we know first hand by running the Amahi email services).

We’ll gloss over two chapters dedicated to procmail (which makes “filters” easy), a personal favorite. Suffice it to say that it’s pretty complete coverage. The next two chapters are on spam protection and antivirus. The part on spam protection with SpamAssassin is quite detailed, with three methods and client configuration, though personally, it “just works” for me, without too much configuration as I use a text based client (mutt). Completing the book is the last chapter, about backing up your system. This chapter includes information on more than just email backups. However, the emphasis is in backing up and restoring the email system.

Overall, a great book on running an email server, if you really want to do that (or just have to do it)