Messinet Secure Services

Messinet Secure Services is an ever-changing virtual classroom in which I learn about the GNU/Linux platform and all the services it can deliver. These services are the technological incarnation of an idea centered around keeping my family in touch with each other and technology.

About Messinet Secure Services

Introduction

In 2001, my IBM Thinkpad R30 running Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional failed me. I was trying to get IIS up and running to serve a website and encountered blue screen after blue screen, as well as spurious shutdowns with data loss. I resolved to investigate the possibility of “Linux,” an operating system I had only heard about at the time. After much searching, I found www.linux.org and browsed through the list of distributions, eventually settling on Red Hat Linux, as it seemed to be well supported and user friendly.

Red Hat Linux 9 installed on my laptop without a hitch and I was sold! I pushed this laptop to the limit for the next five years using the Fedora Linux line of operating systems. I retired the system in January, 2006, when the hard drive ground to a halt.

Meanwhile, I created Messinet Secure Services and began to learn about the GNU/Linux platform, the Open Source Initiative and perhaps most importantly, the mission of the Free Software Foundation. I started to embrace the cause and configure some basic services such an email server and a web server. I initially offered these basic services to my family members, as they were the only population I could ever imagine depending on something I created. I also knew that they would not be using my services for “mission-critical” applications and could understand if a service was unavailable due to an upgrade or configuration error on my part.

Over the years, I have added several GNU/Linux based servers, workstations, virtual machines, and containers–none of which use proprietary software.

Mission Statement

As I continued to learn, I also unveiled the Messinet Secure Services mission statement:

Messinet (mess-EE-net) Secure Services is an ever-changing virtual classroom in which I learn about the GNU/Linux platform and all the services it can deliver. These services are the technological incarnation of an idea centered around keeping my family in touch with each other and technology.

Hardware

Messinet Secure Services employs geographically distributed, Dell PowerEdge rack-mount servers. These systems provide core services to several fixed workstations, laptops, mobile devices, and an array of virtual machines.

Connectivity

Messinet Secure Services is connected to the rest of the world via a static dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 business class cable internet link via Comcast and a static IPv6 tunnel-based link via Hurricane Electric.

Services & Software

Messinet Secure Services provides secure services for its users supported by the following array of freely-available open-source software. All of our systems run Fedora Linux with SELinux in enforcing mode.

Contact the Webmaster

Anthony Messina amessina@messinet.com
Messinet Secure Services Owner, Creator, Developer, Webmaster, et al.