Month: March 2026

Run Your Own IRC Server

~ Tom's IT Cafe ~ Leave a comment

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.

Continue reading “Run Your Own IRC Server” →

The Operator’s KVM Bible

~ Tom's IT Cafe ~ Leave a comment

When the enterprise behind one of the widespread hypervisors was acquired:
many sysadmins decided to move on.

  • Most of them chose a Linux-based open-source alternative.
  • Many of them migrated to the Microsoft ecosystem.
  • They chased the same workflow, the same features they had before.

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.

  • A carefully configured host OS for KVM can reduce the attack surface compared to feature-heavy hypervisors.
  • The libvirt API enables secure automation and configuration management.
  • KVM can host Linux, Windows and BSD virtual machines as well.
  • It ships an ecosystem of mature tools for the operators in charge.

KVM is not a downgrade. It’s a sideways step.

Continue reading “The Operator’s KVM Bible” →