The Central Ohio Linux User Group

Ohio's Oldest Linux User Group

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Welcome, to the Central Ohio Linux User Group (COLUG) web site. COLUG meets to discuss our common interests: Linux system setup, the various GNU, BSD, and Open Source branches, computer networking, system maintenance and administration, use, security, software development, and computing anecdotes, largely in a Posix/Unix™ context.

COLUG has been meeting monthly since July 1995. COLUG discussions are also held via the mailing list. Anyone interested in Linux or Free and Open Source Software ("FOSS") is welcome to participate; there are no dues, fees, or formal process of attaining membership for either the participation in the mailing lists or attendance at the meetings. Meeting presentations are free to attend and are archived. Some of our members are Assurors and perform no-cost CAcert Verifications at meetings.

Stated another way:
Question: This sounds neat. I want to join the group. What is the procedure for this?
Answer: To attend a meeting - show up. To join the mailing list - sign up.

We are an unincorporated association, operated not for profit, with a principal purpose of educational mission [which falls under the description of federal IRC 501(c)(3)]. We are proud of the increase in knowledge which this form of education as to the Open Source alternative offers to proprietary approaches, which this focus has represented over the years.

After review of this website, please direct any questions about COLUG to colugx@colug.net.

Information about the presentation plans of the next meeting may be found in the most recent post to C.O.L.A. here.

Announcements

June 2009 COLUG Meeting

Date: Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Time: 1:00 pm to whenever
Location: FreeGeek Columbus booth at ComFest
Topic: We're going to take a break from nitty-gritty tech and have a more social get-together at ComFest!

This summary and the meetings detail page are always the best and authoritative source of information on the upcoming meeting. They are not updated until at least the 18th of the month, immediately preceeding the meeting. When the meeting information on the webpage is updated an announcement is also sent to the mailing list.

The updates are done by volunteers. If you would like to help in the planning or announcement process, please send an email to the address above.

The site is actively maintained, and seeks to be a useful portal for the Open Source community. We house several Open Source projects and mailing lists.

If you or your company are in the GNU/Linux/Open Source market, and want to effectively reach that segment, please consider sponsoring a COLUG meeting. Send an email for more information.

Preview content from a past presentation

COLUG meeting - October 2002

The notes from the Owl River Company presentation to the October 2002 COLUG meeting by R P Herrold.

We met at a locally owned coffee house, which has an 'open' wireless access point. After less than ten minutes walkthrough, from the pre-meeting posts (1, 2, 3, and 4), all the units present -- NetBSD, FreeBSD, Red Hat Linux 7.3 and 8.0, and yes, even a Windows 982E -- were connected either to the shop's access point, or a backside wireless link; some attendees jacked in across a non-routed, wired private subnet on a 'victim' box running Red Hat Linux 8.0.

The web form down this link (view source) has no real userid or password -- it is structured for easy 'sniffing' with embedded tracer deadbeef markers. An annotated trace of a real 'sniffed' conversation, a pointer to a chart on the OSI stack, and a 'further reading' link.

Attendees were led through some simple tcpdump and ethereal tracing; some sniffed from their local units; others ssh'ed in to the 'victim' box, and popped a tcpdump and ethereal window back through their connection; others connected to a vncserver, either with vncviewer or the web