Great Circle Associates Internet Tutorials ========================================== Great Circle Associates is proud to offer an outstanding lineup of one-day Internet tutorials from leading experts, including: * Building Internet Firewalls, by Brent Chapman * Creating a World Wide Web Site, by Dan Klein * Internet Essentials for UNIX System Administrators, by Steve Simmons * Introduction to Internet Technology, by Bill LeFebvre These tutorials are available for in-house presentation to your organization. Later in this message, you'll find detailed information about each of these tutorials, as well as pricing. To schedule a tutorial, or for more information, please contact Great Circle Associates: * Email info@greatcircle.com * WWW http://www.greatcircle.com/ * Toll-free (800) 270-2562 * International +1 415 962 0841 * Fax +1 415 962 0842 Building Internet Firewalls Tutorial ==================================== What is the Threat? ------------------- There are many benefits to connecting your site to the Internet, but there are risks as well. Today's Internet security threats range from curious prowlers to well-organized, technically-knowledgeable intruders that could gain access to your site's private information or interfere with your (or your clients') use of your own systems. The number and sophistication of these threats grow each year, just like the Internet itself. While it's a good idea to make your workstations, servers, and other systems as individually secure as possible, this is not sufficient to defend your site from attack. Without the ability to protect your entire network at its connection point, your defense is only as strong as its weakest link, and securing each and every system is a complex and cumbersome job with no guarantee of success, because of the variety of different operating systems, releases, vendor patches, and administrative domains. However, by analyzing and defending against threats at your site's point of connection to the Internet (or a parent organization's WAN) you can take advantage of most Internet services, such as the World Wide Web, electronic mail, and anonymous FTP, while at the same time limiting your risk of intrusions. What is a Firewall? ------------------- An Internet firewall is a security mechanism that allows limited access to your site from the Internet, allowing approved traffic in and out according to a thought-out plan. This lets you select the services appropriate to your business needs, while barring others which may have significant security holes. The tutorial covers firewall architectures and variations, as well as both theory and practice of packet filtering and proxy systems, and includes an in-depth look at a sample firewalls configuration. If you are considering the purchase of a commercial firewall product, this tutorial will teach the concepts and mechanisms behind firewall products and help you make the best choice for your site. Throughout the tutorial, the emphasis is on practical and useful material, including examples, case studies, and war stories. The Building Internet Firewalls Tutorial will provide information and insights valuable in any TCP/IP networked installation, ranging from single-system sites to large enterprise networks with thousands of nodes. Each tutorial participant will receive a comprehensive package of materials, including a full copy of the tutorial presentation, reference information, and a copy of the O'Reilly & Associates book Building Internet Firewalls. Who Should Attend ----------------- The intended audience for this tutorial includes network managers, system administrators, information systems managers, and others who are considering implementing an Internet security firewall or are maintaining an existing firewall system. This includes persons at sites planning a firewall system between an organizational wide-area network and site networks with special security needs or sensitivity. The tutorial materials assume that all attendees understand basic Internet networking principles including IP addressing and routing, differences between TCP and UDP, and packet encapsulation. Topics Covered -------------- * Introduction o Why Internet firewalls?; Security strategies * Building Firewalls o Firewall design; Bastion hosts; Packet filtering; o Proxy systems; Configuring Internet services for o firewalls; Authentication and inbound services; o A sample firewall configuration * Keeping Your Site Secure o Security policies; Maintaining firewalls; o Responding to security incidents * Resources o WWW pages, FTP sites, mailing lists, newsgroups, organizations, conferences, papers, books About the Author ---------------- Brent Chapman is a consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area, specializing in the networking of UNIX systems. He has designed and built many Internet firewall systems for a wide variety of clients, using a range of techniques and technologies. He is the co-author of the book Building Internet Firewalls (O'Reilly & Associates, September 1995), and is manager of the Firewalls Internet mailing list. Before founding Great Circle Associates, he was operations manager for a financial services company, a world-renowned corporate research lab, a software engineering company, and a hardware engineering company. Brent holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley. Further Information ------------------- Please send email to "info@greatcircle.com" or call Great Circle Associates at 800/270-2562 (international +1 415 962 0841). Creating a World Wide Web Site Tutorial ======================================= The World Wide Web has become the most popular feature of the Internet, and organizations of all sizes (and even individuals) are eager to participate. To get your site on the Web, you'll need to understand how to set up a Web server, organize and author Web pages, and build the scripts and forms appropriate to your site's plans. This tutorial will examine everything you need to create a complete Web site, including server configuration, HTML authoring, image handling, and scripts. After an introduction to the fundamentals of the Web, we begin by explaining how to configure your Web server. The server that is used as an example is NCSA's httpd, a powerful, freely-available server for UNIX systems. Users of other servers will find this section useful from a conceptual standpoint, since most of the general features are common to most servers. A brief comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of servers will be offered as well. The tutorial continues with an overview of HyperText Markup Language (HTML) -- the basis for Web documents -- including a discussion of both the current version, HTML-2, and the increasingly-popular HTML-3, as well as Netscape extensions such as tables and backgrounds. Differences between the two HTML standards and numerous "gotchas" will be pointed out. You'll learn how to author HTML efficiently and effectively, getting the most from the powerful new additions while maintaining backward compatibility. In addition to HTML authoring, you'll learn how to create interactive Web pages, including forms, CGI scripts, and creating dynamic documents. The tutorial also includes an overview of other Web site issues including publicity for your new Web pages, security and privacy, legal issues, statistics-gathering, and server maintenance. Each tutorial participant will receive a comprehensive package of materials, including a full copy of the tutorial presentation and reference materials. Who Should Attend ----------------- The intended audience for this tutorial includes anyone who plans to set up a new World Wide Web site, maintains an existing Web site, or will be developing Web pages or Web-related scripts. The tutorial materials assume that all attendees have basic experience as an Internet user as well as some basic knowledge of UNIX system administration and UNIX commands. Topics Covered -------------- * Setting Up a Web Site o Requirements - line speed, connection type; 24x7x52 uptime; Hot backups, flexible name service; Conflicts between privacy and publication of data; Legal issues and liabilities * Configuring Your Web Server (NCSA httpd) o Basic configuration; Standalone vs. inetd; The "root" of your pages; User web pages; Security concerns; Executable files; Throttling system load; Simulating multiple hosts; Planning for future growth * Overview of HTML o HTML-2; HTML-3; Netscape extensions; Multi-client compatibility issues; Performance considerations * Image Files o Types of files (gif, jpg, xbm, mpg); In-line animation; Image tools; Imaging issues; Performance issues * HTML Writing Utilities * CGI Programming o How CGI works; Fill-in forms; Dynamic documents; Image maps; CGI examples - perl, csh, C; Performance issues - server load * Publicizing Your Site and Pages o What's New indices; Search engines; Web crawlers; Newsgroups; Links * Hiding Your Site and Pages o Cleanly removing pages; Restrictions via firewalls and inetd.conf; Restrictions with httpd; Security through obscurity, hidden directories; Multiple servers per machine, different ports * Gathering Statistics o What you can collect; How you can process it; What to look for; Managing logfile overload; Sample scripts About the Author ---------------- Daniel Klein is Vice President of the Internet Business Pages, a service of LoneWolf Systems specializing in Internet advertising and providing World Wide Web presence. He has been using the Internet since 1974, and has been involved with UNIX since 1976. Dan has taught a wide variety of UNIX-related topics since 1984, and is also the tutorial coordinator for the USENIX Association. He was the program chair for the Winter 1990 USENIX Conference, and has served on the program committee for numerous USENIX, EUUG, and SUUG conferences. Further Information ------------------- Please send email to "info@greatcircle.com" or call Great Circle Associates at 800/270-2562 (international +1 415 962 0841). Internet Essentials for UNIX System Administrators Tutorial =========================================================== The Issues ---------- This tutorial will teach you how to deal with the new service, support, and technical issues you will face as an Internet-connected site. We look at these issues from technical, social, legal, and political points of view. When you connect your site to the Internet, many support issues that were once simple may become complex. Besides the challenge of choosing a service provider and connection model, you will need to understand, set up, and manage a number of Internet services appropriate to your site's mission. This will often mean identifying, diagnosing, and fixing (or working around) problems that you have no direct control over, as well as educating your user community about the technology and culture of the Internet. When planning your connection, you'll be faced with a number of start-up issues in making sure your Internet addresses, domain/host names, and network routing are set up properly. This may involve working with your service provider and other outside resources. Once your connection is up and running, the focus shifts to setting up and maintaining Internet services for your users (and outside customers or the public), including electronic mail, the World Wide Web, FTP, and more. These services have technical, legal, and organizational implications that this tutorial can help address. The Focus --------- The focus of this tutorial is not on how individuals can use specific Internet services, but rather how a whole site can make the most of its Internet connection, and provide Internet services in a useful, secure, and cost-effective manner with a minimum of problems. Throughout the tutorial, we focus on actual examples and scenarios that will be applicable to both small and large installations, and adopt an analytical approach to solving Internet problems -- including understanding how connections and services work, diagnosing problems, and coordinating with an outside administrator on getting both ends of a problem fixed. Whether your site is just a few systems, or a company-wide network with many servers and nodes, many of the support and service issues are the same, and the practical examples and expert advice will make this tutorial useful. Each tutorial participant will receive a comprehensive package of materials, including a full copy of the tutorial presentation and reference information. Who Should Attend ----------------- The intended audience for this tutorial includes system administrators, network managers, and operations/support staff at sites with Internet connections, or who are planning a connection in the future. The tutorial materials assume that all attendees have basic experience as an Internet user, and some knowledge of Internet protocols (TCP/IP), as well as a good grasp of UNIX system administration basics. Topics Covered -------------- * Welcome to the Neighborhood o You're facing a new culture; Good news and bad news * Who Runs the Internet? * Valid Names and Addresses o Getting an IP address block; Getting a domain name; o The domain name system * E-mail o E-mail addresses; Mail exchangers; Mail gateways * FTP and Anonymous FTP * World Wide Web Services o HTTP servers; CGI scripts; WWW clients; Web pages * Security o Host-based; Filter-based; Firewall-based; Proxy-based; o FTP; Telnet; Mail * Dealing with Outside Administrators o Being a good neighbor; Go along to get along; o Returning favors; "The Flame" * Legal and Ethical Issues o Cultural changes in your organization; o International law; Privacy considerations/ECPA; o Attempts at content control; Copyright law About the Author ---------------- Steve Simmons is a consultant in the Great Lakes area, specializing in installation and support of TCP/IP networks, and training relating to those issues. He has been a system and network manager since 1978, dealt with global mail systems since 1985, and managed Internet systems since 1988. Steve has been chairman or on the program committee of many of the LISA conferences, and has been both a board member and president of SAGE, a professional society for UNIX and Internet network managers. Further Information ------------------- Please send email to "info@greatcircle.com" or call Great Circle Associates at 800/270-2562 (international +1 415 962 0841). Introduction to Internet Technology Tutorial ============================================ The Introduction to Internet Technology Tutorial provides the beginner with a complete overview of the workings of the Internet, and how to connect your local network. A few years ago, the public was introduced to the concept of an "Information Superhighway", a revolutionary way to access a wealth of information and interact with people around the globe from a home or office computer. Since that time, there has been exponential growth in the number of people obtaining connections to the global network: the number has more than doubled every year. The backbone of this network is something called the Internet, a collection of interconnected networks all using the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). As more organizations and individuals get connected, it will become increasingly important to understand and take advantage of this technology. This course serves as a basic introduction to the inner workings of Internet technology, showing both how the protocols work and how they are used to create Internet applications and services. The course concludes with basic information on choosing and working with an Internet service provider, and some words of wisdom about Internet culture and standards of conduct for network participants. One of the cornerstones of the Internet Protocol Suite is platform independence. The information in this course is applicable to all types of computer systems, including PCs, Macintoshes, and UNIX systems. No single platform is emphasized or excluded. The Introduction to Internet Technology Tutorial serves as an excellent precursor to other Great Circle Associates courses. Each tutorial participant will receive a comprehensive package of materials, including a full copy of the tutorial presentation and reference information. Who Should Attend ----------------- The intended audience of this tutorial includes system administrators, managers, developers, analysts, security specialists, or anyone who has the desire or need to understand more about the inner workings of the Internet. This course provides foundational material for other Great Circle Associates tutorials. Those who wish to take other GCA tutorials but have no experience or understanding of the Internet protocols should consider taking this course first. The course materials assume some basic user-level knowledge of computers and local-area networks. Topics Covered -------------- * Internet Overview * History of the Internet * Fundamentals o Encapsulation and layering; Internet Protocol (IP) layer model; IP addresses * Packet Routing o Basic, static, dynamic; Routing protocols; Subnetting * Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) o IP, ICMP, UDP, TCP, ARP/RARP; o IP over serial lines: PPP and SLIP * Domain Name Service Overview * User-Level Protocols o SMTP and electronic mail; NNTP and Usenet News; o FTP and Anonymous FTP; Telnet; Gopher; Archie; o WAIS; HTTP/HTML * The World Wide Web * Service Providers: How to get on board * Internet Culture and "Netiquette" * Future of the Internet About the Author ---------------- William LeFebvre is a computer systems engineer in the Decision and Information Sciences division at Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, Illinois. He has been involved with Internet technology since 1981. For several years he was the moderator of the electronic mailing list "Sun-Spots" and was the original founder of the its companion list "Sun-Managers". William has been teaching classes about the Internet and UNIX since 1990 for organizations such as Usenix, Sun Expo, and the United Kingdom UNIX Users Group (UKUUG). After receiving his Master of Science degree from Rice University, William spent 5 years as the computing facilities manager for the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department of Northwestern University. Further Information ------------------- Please send email to "info@greatcircle.com" or call Great Circle Associates at 800/270-2562 (international +1 415 962 0841). Pricing ======= The price for a private presentation of any of our one-day tutorials is US$3000 plus travel and lodging costs (airfare, hotel, local transportation, meals, etc.) for up to 8 students. Additional students cost US$250 each. For example, here is what a private presentation of a tutorial for 15 people would cost, assuming US$800 travel/lodging costs: Item Qty Each Total ---- --- ---- ----- Base tutorial fee (8 people) 1 $3000 $3000 Additional students 7 250 1750 Travel & lodging 1 800 800 ----------------------------------------------------- Total $5550 Educational institutions (accredited colleges, universities, etc.) are eligible for a 20% discount on the non-travel/lodging portion of the fee. The educational institution price for a private presentation of any of our one-day tutorials is US$2400 plus travel and lodging costs (airfare, hotel, local transportation, meals, etc.) for up to 8 students. Additional students are US$200 each. For tutorials outside the USA and Canada, there is a US$5000 minimum (exclusive of travel/lodging costs), travel/lodging costs will be for business class accomodations, and customers should plan for an extra two days of accomodations for travel and jetlag.