The Ghost Operator's Signal
Small and medium businesses are in a difficult position concerning technology and computers.
Most of you are in survival mode to be able to operate.
Probably an acquaintance or relative helps you – or a small company suggested by them.
A major system upgrade.
A risky configuration change.
Testing a new application.
On traditional filesystems, recovery usually means restoring from backups.
Sometimes it requires reinstalling the system entirely.
OpenZFS provides tools for managing risk.
Snapshots, dataset properties, compression, and encryption can be managed directly by the filesystem.
OpenZFS is more than a filesystem.
It is a filesystem and volume manager designed to simplify storage administration.
The classic system administration changed a lot in a decade.
Virtualization and container technology went through a remarkable improvement.
They have a stable place in the systems:
FreeBSD Jails don’t compete with containers.
They don’t substitute virtual machines.
Jails just fill a gap.
Do you feel that Linux is sometimes too loud?
Systemd. Timers. Kernel updates.
Centralized systems are risky. Cloud are computers you don’t own.
Do you want to avoid the Big Tech pipelines?
Set up your own private XMPP chat system over Tor on FreeBSD.
Matrix as a hidden service over Tor can increase privacy.
You already learned during our “hidden service” series:
that Tor is not an invisible cape. It’s not full-anonymity.
Using Tor you can maintain better privacy and OPSEC.
It’s a better protection against metadata leaks if you use it carefully.
The world is changing fast.
Yesterday’s mistake becomes today’s data leak – and tomorrow’s compromise.
Privacy is not a default setting.
It’s constant configuration and calibration.
You know how to install an IRC server as a Tor hidden service.
You’ve seen the modern features and modularity of the XMPP protocol.
A Tor hidden service protects both the server and the user.
This setup is designed to reduce exposure of IP addresses and limit metadata leakage.
It does not protect against compromised endpoints or user mistakes.
IRC with InspIRCd and Anope works well as an internet-facing service.
Your domain name, the TLS certificates and SASL authentication make it secure.
Cloaking hides your address from other users.
But what about IRC Operators and Network Admins?
They can see the addresses/hosts the clients connect from.
As an IRC Operator you can increase the trust in your services.
You will learn now how to run InspIRCd as a Tor-only hidden service.
Continue reading “Run IRC As A Tor Hidden Service (Inspircd + Anope)”
XMPP or Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open communication protocol.
It has been actively developed since it was introduced in 1999.
Over time, a large part of its user base migrated to centralized cloud platforms.
IRC is a simple, reliable, text-based protocol.
Matrix is a robust but more complex protocol with higher resource requirements.
XMPP sits between them, closer to IRC in simplicity while offering more modern features.
In this article you will learn to install a private, non-federated XMPP server.
Continue reading “XMPP – The Middle Ground Of Instant Messaging (Prosody)”
If you care about privacy, you probably already know the Matrix protocol.
The federated structure of the decentralized network loosely resembles IRC networks.
Matrix ships with spaces, rooms, user management, and much more.
Most of you don’t host it because of its complexity.
I break it down to simple, actionable steps.
You saw the simplicity of Ergo Chat.
Now you think about how to build a modern, modular IRC server – like in the old days.
Together they form the base of a stable and reliable communications service.
In 2026 IRC may not be the primary comms channel, but it’s perfect for secondary/backup.
Want a private comms channel without relying on Discord or Slack?
IRC is alive, and you can run your own today.
A small, well-configured IRC server gives you privacy, control, and minimal attack surface – all in a few commands.
Some people think that IRC is dead.
Some of them don’t even know what is it.
They’re young, grew up on modern comms.
IRC is the protocol that laid the foundation of modern chats.
Networks used large footprint ircd daemons for the base.
They registered services daemons for channel and nick retention.
TLS settings were rare and uncomfortable.
SASL authentication was hardly set.
Then new developments appeared.
The old technology got a modern revision.
Windows Subsystem for Linux: a practical way to run Linux on Windows.
Run Linux GUI applications – through WSLg.
There are situations when a powerful Linux desktop is not given.
In this case WSL can provide some Linux tooling and flexibility.
Operators don’t break. We bend – we adapt.
Continue reading “The Operator’s WSL Bible”
Sensitive information is everywhere:
Names. Password hashes. Emails.
Financials. Customers. Quotes.
Configurations. Passwords.
Every company has their own threat model.
Yet – everyone should protect their most sensitive data.
Continue reading “The Operator’s LUKS Bible”
When the enterprise behind one of the widespread hypervisors was acquired:
many sysadmins decided to move on.
Only a very few operators dared to rework their processes and architecture.
KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machines) is part of the Linux kernel.
It is a stable and fast hypervisor.
libvirt API enables secure automation and configuration management.KVM is not a downgrade. It’s a sideways step.
Automation and configuration management are not just about comfort.
They provide security, auditability and operational freedom.
For this reason Tom’s IT Cafe provides an Ansible role that:
The role focuses on a small, auditable code base with strong security.
Tom's IT Cafe 