Who should attend: System and network administrators who want to keep abreast of the latest developments in emerging areas.

What you will learn: Latest practice in some hot-topic areas.

Tcl/Tk programming is deceptively simple. You can put together a "Hello, World!" program with just a few lines of code. But when you start to develop serious applications that require a few thousand lines of code, things can get out of hand.

Overwhelmed by the rapid change in the system administration field? Need to learn some useful skills quickly? This tutorial is a potpourri of learning about hot topics that will make you more effective in your role as a system administrator. Specifically, we'll be covering the following:

Squid cache - The squid internet object cache is a very high-performance proxy caching system for web clients. When deployed correctly, it can drastically improve the performance of your network and reduce the need to purchase external bandwidth. We'll talk about how to implement this hierarchical tool at your site in a practical manner.

Security packet filtering primer - All too often these days, you hear about firewalls. But what does it really mean, and how do you set up a packet filter list to implement a basic one? We'll teach you the dos and don'ts of creating a tough packet filter, and talk specifically about how to apply one in an environment using Cisco routers.

Samba - Being invaded by PCs on your network? This system can help you integrate both existing and future UNIX file-sharing and print-sharing systems with PCs on your network - without pain! Learn how to plan, configure, and manage integrated PCs with Samba on your network.

Bind 8.x - BIND, also known as named or the DNS server, has been changing to keep up with the times. Have you? We'll cover the recent changes that have been made in BIND, as well as how to set the newest version up in your network.

6bone - Ready or not, here it comes. It's time to start testing applications at your site that use the "next generation" IP protocol, IPv6. Learn how you can set up a test bed and connect to the "6bone" to begin learning about IPv6 in a hands-on manner before it's too late.

WAN performance - Practically every site these days has a WAN - whether it be for Internet or Intranet. How do you measure the performance you are getting from your WAN? We'll introduce you to the basics of practical WAN performance monitoring.

Trent Hein is chief network architect at XOR Network Engineering. He worked on the 4.4 BSD port to the MIPS architecture at Berkeley, and is co-author of the UNIX Systems Administration Handbook.

Evi Nemeth, a faculty member in Computer Science at the University of Colorado, has managed UNIX systems for the past 19 years, both from the front lines and from the ivory tower. She is co-author of the best-selling UNIX System Administration Handbook.

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