Text mode browsers

Here's a great posting by andi payn on lots of text mode browsers:

As othes have mentioned, there are many choices--but you probably just
want to know which one to use, and how to get started.

You probably want elinks. Install it from /usr/ports/www/elinks. Run it
like this: 'elinks http://www.google.com'.

If you want a graphical browser that works without X, and you have
SVGAlib set up, you might want links' graphic mode. Install it from
/usr/ports/www/links, and run it like this: 'links -g
http://www.google.com'. Or try wb0, or w3m-img. There are a few better
options out there, too, but none have been ported to FreeBSD.

Here's a brief survey of each of the choices:

telnet (or nc, or w3c, wget, or curl): If you can speak http and read
html, you can talk directly to the server, if you really want to.

www: If you're stuck with a console without curses/ANSI support--or it's
1989--this is pretty spiffy; otherwise, stay away.

lynx: The first decent text browser; you want the ssl-patched version.
But you probably want elinks instead.

links: Essentally lynx plus frames, tables, image maps, ssl, cache
management, background downloading, etc. You want 2.1, not 0.98. Or,
better, elinks.

elinks: Links enhanced with even more cool features.

links -g: Adds inline images to links. Works in SVGAlib as well as X.

wb0: A graphical browser for SVGAlib, which sometimes works better than
links -g, although it's not nearly as complete.

netrik: The only real alternative to the links family for text browsing;
not as good (especially since it doesn't quite get cons25 or xterm), but
if elinks won't work with some site, try netrik.

w3m: This is what web browsing would have been like on an Apple ][ or
C=64. It does look nice, but it's low on features and has a weird
interface.

w3m-img: This is w3m with inline image support.

emacs-w3m: If you believe that the editor is the operating system, and
never leave emacs, you can run w3m from inside emacs.

w3: If you really love emacs, wouldn't you rather use a web browser
built in emacs-lisp?

retawq: Quite cool in some ways, but not complete, not exactly designed
for novices, and not up-to-date on features. Oh, and dark blue on black
can be a bit hard to read.

surfraw: Not a web browser itself, but very handy for text browsing.
Instead of navigating to the Webster dictionary site and filling in the
forms to look up "free," just type "webster free" and it'll launch your
favorite text browser with the answer.

PicoBSD

A very small FreeBSD (3.0-current) distro. It fits on a single 1.4mb floppy! Very useful for booting from if there are problems.

PicoBSD, the Small BSD.

Wireless FreeBSD

Some links on FreeBSD and wireless networking:

• 
  Wireless Networking
  


• Sys Admin Magazine
  


• My wireless LAN - FreeBSD Bridge
  

Open files?

A couple of ways to find out what files are currently opened on your system:

In the base system, there is fstat :
FreeBSD Hypertext Man Pages: fstat

You can also list information about open files by using lsof found in ports/sysutils/lsof : Port description for sysutils/lsof

Checking connecttions

I always wondered how to check to see if anyone is currently using either ftp or http. Sometimes, if my DSL modem light is blinking furiously, I like to see what's going on. Early on in my server days, I noticed a problem once and it turned out some hackerz had slipped into my ftp site and were using it to trade malware! So I keep a close watch these days.

Anyway, I recently came across two methods that I think do this:

$ netstat -anf inet

and

$ sockstat

They both show current connections, and who is using them.

fwbuilder

More in the firewall vein; here's a tool to help you build your firewall rules, by far the most complicated part of using a firewall - fwbuilder. It supports ipfw out of the box, and also purports to support ipfilter. Gotta get started on this trip myself.

Description for ports/security/fwbuilder

A note by Phil Payne on using fwbuilder:

One quirk, when using fwbuilder with IPFW, the divert to natd isn't
supported so I'm installing the rules with a little script that inserts the
natd rule appropriately.

---
#!/bin/sh
.fw    # Installs the rules generated by fwbuilder
ipfw delete 1       # delete the check-state rule at 00001
ipfw add 1 divert natd ip from any to any via  # add new
divert rule at 1
ipfw add 2 check-state    # re-add the check-state 2
---

ipfw.HOWTO

I still haven't decided what firewall, if any, to use. Yeah, I know, I should have one, but I don't. I think there are pretty much 2 choices with FreeBSD - ipfw (explained in the FreeBSD docs) and ipfilter. Here's a good link to get you started if you go down the ipfw road:

ipfw-HOWTO