Configuring and deploying VPN remote access solutions can be a complicated and time-consuming, not to mention expensive, exercise. For companies looking to provide a simple, inexpensive, secure remote access solution to staff, then an SSH-based VPN may be the answer.

Terminals is a feee, open source, connection manager application that is ideal for network administrators who remotely control a wide variety of machines via Microsoft Terminal Services (Remote Desktop), VNC, Telnet and SSH, incorporating all of these protocols into a single client, enabling secure password storage and multi-tabbed connection management.

Drupal (http://drupal.org) is the open source content management platform that this blog site was created using. It provides a quick and easy means of deploying multiple blogs, forums and rss feeds all on the same site, with individual user logins and user-customisable preferences.

Installation

In this example I used the free Linux distribution CentOS (www.centos.org), version 4.7

Install a base configuration of CentOS including the Web Server and MySQL Database Server roles

Piwik http://www.piwik.org is an open source web analytics application, similar to Google Analytics, but more customisable and wholly controlled by you.
A single Piwik installation can monitor an "unlimited" number of web sites and will display both graphical or tabular information on such elements as

• Number of hits
• Referrals from search engines
• Those keywords entered into the search engine to be referred to your site
• Hits by server time
  

OpenGoo (http://www.opengoo.org) is an open source web-based collaboration 'portal', offering users access to Notes, Emails, Contacts, Calendar, Documents, Tasks and Events folders. More information can be found on the OpenGoo web site but for small businesses or even home users or students it is potentially a very nifty tool indeed.

If you want to provide a secure instant messaging capability to your remote workers, enabling them to exchange messages in real time from their mobile devices to office-based staff on their desktop PCs, then here is one solution.

OpenFire, developed by Ignite Realtime (http://www.igniterealtime.org/projects/openfire/index.jsp) is a free, opensource instant messaging platform based on the XMPP (or Jabber) protocol. The server software is available for Windows, Mac and Linux platforms and there is a wide variety of clients available for all platforms, including Windows Mobile and Symbian.

An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server is a simple way of allowing users to exchange large files which are too big to send via email, and which can be accessed from virtually any web browser of FTP client. Multiple user accounts can be created on the same FTP server, and different permissions assigned to each user.

Install a base configuration of CentOS (http://www.centos.org), including the FTP and Web Server options. Strictly speaking the Web Server role is not required, but it is easier to add user accounts using Webmin than at the command line, which requires the web server role.

Scalix have released a beta version of their connector software for the BlackBerry Enterprise Server solution. The Beta must be registered for before you will be able to download it, but registration is free and takes a few moments.

Prerequisites

• The Connector can be used with both BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) and the BlackBerry Professional Software (BPS), but both must be version 4.1
• Only the Exchange version of BES / BPS is supported. NOT the Lotus Domino or Novell Groupwise versions
• Version 5.0 of the BES is not currently supported
  

Hylafax (http://www.hylafax.org) is a Linux-based IP fax solution: connected to a phone line via a modem, the software receives faxes and sends them via email to a predefined address as either PDF or TIFF attachments; users can also add a printer to their Windows or Mac desktop and send faxes directly from their desktop applications simply by entering the recipient's fax number.

There is a very handy utility on the SourceForge web site called the iTunes Agent which enables you to synchronise your iTunes music library with virtually any MP3 player – the only prerequisites are that it support the M4A format used by iTunes, and that when connected to your PC it be listed as a drive within My Computer.
The software is only available for the Windows platform currently.

Download the software from http://ita.sourceforge.net

Once installed, the software will be added to the Programs folder on the Start Menu. Launching it will add an icon to the system tray: