In a remote little town called Cathcart, not much more than a single stop street on the N6 between Queenstown and East London, ActionOnline created a wireless network covering the whole town. The network is managed from a Suse 11 (Linux) server. The whole of Cathcart High is also connected on the wireless network, and they have their own Linux server for controlling the computers in their lab.
Our main aim with these types of ‘Community Networks’ is to provide censored Internet to the clients connected on the network. With Cathcart’s network we have also kept the client connections to businesses, the school and the teachers working at the school. With the network being a more ‘closed’ network, we started experimenting with new ideas …
One such idea is for teacher living in town now being able to connect to their computers at school. With connect we mean see their desktop at work while being at home, be able to print at work while be at home, and vice versa. All this is being made possible by the ACTION-BOX (called Dionysus in the picture) and its child-servers called Freya, Demeter and Cyclops. You can read more about these servers here:
·        ACTION-BOX (Ideal for small businesses)
·        ACTION-BOX FOR SCHOOLS (Similar server just customized for schools)
[CATHCART BLUEPRINT - JUNE 2009]
Having an ActionBox installed on your network will not only allow you to see what other PC’s are doing on the Internet, but it will also reduce your bandwidth usage by caching regular websites. As an employer it’s important to know what your employees spend their time on while you are not in the office. Although we have a standard deployment plan for the ActionBox, every network’s requirements are different, and we customize the server to meet the requirements per network.
THE SERVER HARDWARE & SOFTWARE
Most people would think servers are these special, huge computers with a black screen waiting for DOS-like commands to be entered. They are in most cases, but in our case we build the ActionBox servers from a normal desktop computer, at a fraction of the price a proper server machine would cost. Depending on your network size, additional network cards are installed on the server. The other advantage is that the server hardware is easily upgradable.
Then instead of loading a commandline interface, we load SUSE 11 as an Operating System on the servers, so you get a graphic user interface that looks very much like Windows XP, but it's Linux. Advantage is that you will not be completely lost when you sit behind the screen ... you will have a Start button and also a desktop with shortcuts or icons to the frequently used programs.
Now we understand that you will not always be sitting down behind the server's screen, and therefore we configure complete remote access and administration of the server for both you as the client, and ourselves as administrators for support purposes. So although you have a Linux server, it will be completely integrated into your existing Windows network.
CONTROL AND PROTECTION INSIDE AND OUT
The purpose of having an ActionBox in your network? It can be summarized as 'having control and protection over your Windows PC's inside and outside' You will have control over the Windows PC's Internet & network access while your network is being protected from the outside Internet connection.
Without a server through which your PC's connect to the internet, they are vulnerable to outside attack if the Windows PC does not have it's own firewall installed and configured. With the ActionBox you can have 50 computers connected to the Internet, but from the outside you see only one connection, the ActionBox. This is also the reason why in Cathcart's case we have more than one ActionBox on the network, because the ActionBox protects and excludes the computers connected below it from the outside world. The server placed your Windows network into a DMZ, or demilitarized zone, where they are save from 'outside' access(indicated by FREYA and DEMETER in the Cathcart Blueprint above)
Then being able to see what you cannot see now, such as the flow of data in your network, security vulnerabilities on your Windows PC's and Internet usage of individual PC's ... that all is made possible by the ActionBox applications.
You don't need a degree to be able to understand the reports or features of the ActionBox. When you install a ActionBox in your network, we provide you wih the training and support you will need to be able to take control over your computers on your network. We offer 3 different support packages, depending on your requirements, so you will not be alone, but you WON'T need sombody fulltime to manage your network.
