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A virtual private network (VPN) extends the resources of your local area network to telecommuter’s home, satellite offices, and far-flung sales warriors. OpenVPN is a fast, scalable, secure, and free VPN solution for Linux. And best of all, it’s easy to configure and deploy. Here’s a hands-on primer.

Stay ahead of updates with a little cron magic, courtesy of reader Paul Duncan. Run apt-get update && apt-get -fmuy –download-only dist-upgrade every night. -fmuy –download-only automatically downloads but doesn’t install all the files you’ll need to upgrade. When you next run apt-get upgrade, all the deb files are already cached locally! Run apt-get autoclean weekly to trim your cache.