Friday, April 19, 2013

Cisco ASA VPN Users and RADIUS Authentication with Active Directory

I've been busy writing a tutorial and producing videos on how to authenticate Cisco ASA VPN users with RADIUS connected to Active Directory. Here's a link to the tutorial: http://www.soundtraining.net/i-t-tutorials/cisco-tutorials/82-cisco-asa-vpn-radius-authentication

I've created two videos on the subject. The first one is about installing and configuring RADIUS on Windows Server 2012:

The second one is about configuring RADIUS authentication for VPN users on the ASA Security Appliance:

For More Cisco ASA Configuration Information

Pick up a copy of my configuration guide The Accidental Administrator: Cisco ASA Security Appliance, available through Amazon and other resellers.

Please Leave a Comment 

If you find this tutorial helpful or if you notice something that needs to be corrected, please leave a comment.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

A rant about Ubuntu, the OS that makes you appreciate Windows

There's a lot to love about Linux, but not so much to love about Ubuntu, at least not the more recent versions such as 12.10. One of the things to love about Linux is that it builds on its history. In other words, what you learned last year is still relevant this year. Perhaps my biggest complaint with Microsoft operating systems is that every few years, it seems you must toss out all you learned about, say Windows NT 4.0, and replace it with new information about, say Windows 2000 or Windows XP, or now Windows 8. The more I work with Ubuntu, the less it seems like Linux and the more it seems like Windows. Instead of embracing and working to improve the existing desktop environments of either Gnome or KDE, Ubuntu created Unity, a non-intuitive, non-functional weak excuse for a desktop environment. Not only that, but Ubuntu fights really hard to keep you from getting to a clean (no X) shell. Oh, it can be done, but it requires adventuring deep into Dante's inferno to get there. At least with Windows, when you update it, it doesn't usually break things beyond repair. I've spent the past 18 hours (minus 8 for sleeping) trying to fix a problem with the graphics drivers since I ran a routine upgrade to my new Ubuntu system. Just getting under the hood to a command prompt is a major undertaking in Ubuntu 12.10. I finally solved it after finding some obscure procedures on Igor Ljubuncic's blog (http://www.dedoimedo.com/). (Igor, thank you so much!) Seriously? I'm now thinking about setting up my laptop with good, ol' CentOS 6 and Gnome or KDE. Arghhhhhh! Even Slackware is easier to administer than Ubuntu. (I'm resisting the urge to come up with smarmy sounding names for it!)

Ubuntu team, I wonder if anyone is giving any thought to simplicity and ease of use for sys admins or is it all about promoting the Unity desktop at any cost?