August 2008 - main

recommended commercial hosting companies?
by mbm 23 Jan '09

23 Jan '09

The recent discussion about mail access via ssh and ssh tunnels prompts me to ask about list members' experience of commercial hosting services. I have long since ceased to have any direct responsiblity for publicly accessible servers and my only network is now my home system. As I have said in earlier posts, I don't run 24/7 servers on that network and my only public servers are those provided by my (limited, home user) 1and1 contract. However, I have recently been playing with egroupware and a few friends and colleagues have asked if I could make the poc system I have built at home available on a public server. 1and1 provide good, reliable, fast, mail, DNS and web services, but they also offer virtual servers for the home user at around 15 UKP pcm. The other likely looking candidate is fasthosts who are a lot cheaper, have no traffic cap, but have different limitations. What I am looking for is a good quality commercial provider offering the following: root ssh/sftp access to a linux server apache/mysql/php/perl (preferably with no limit on the number of mysql databases, but I'd settle for 5 rather than the typical 1). ssl certificates for the webserver personal DNS management ideally local email server not too many restrictions on the outbound traffic (e.g. I'd like to be able to ssh out as well as in...) Any recommendations? TIA Mick --------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a Microsoft free zone. Please do not send me Microsoft Word Documents. For some reasons, see: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html http://www.goldmark.org/netrants/no-word/attach.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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Xorg.conf or nVidia problem
by paul 05 Sep '08

05 Sep '08

Hi all I'b be grateful for help with the following problem When my new install of Ubuntu 8.04 boots the screen changes resolution instead of sticking with the 1152x768 I'd like it to. I'm using the GeForce4 MX 4000 & a single monitor ADI GD-790. The Splash screen appears normally but the Nvidia logo & log-in screens appears magnified - what should be only the upper left corner covers the whole screen! Luckily the log-in box is still visible so I log-in and the screen returns to the correct 1152x768. my Xorg.conf file is below. the lines starting ##### i've removed which improves things a little. # nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings # nvidia-settings: version 1.0 (buildd@vernadsky) Thu Jun 5 09:26:53 UTC 2008 Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "Layout0" Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0 InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer" EndSection Section "Files" RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb" EndSection Section "Module" Load "dbe" Load "extmod" Load "type1" Load "freetype" Load "glx" EndSection Section "ServerFlags" Option "Xinerama" "0" EndSection Section "InputDevice" # generated from default Identifier "Mouse0" Driver "mouse" Option "Protocol" "auto" Option "Device" "/dev/psaux" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" EndSection Section "InputDevice" # generated from default Identifier "Keyboard0" Driver "kbd" EndSection Section "Monitor" # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid Identifier "Monitor0" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "ADI GD-790T" HorizSync 30.0 - 110.0 VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Videocard0" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce4 MX 4000" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Videocard0" Monitor "Monitor0" DefaultDepth 24 option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True" option "Composite" "Enabled" ##### Option "TwinView" "0" ##### Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-0" Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0; 1152x768 +0+0" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection cheers paul Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

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SSH - something I don't understand.
by Barry Samuels 02 Sep '08

02 Sep '08

My SSH is set up to work via a key only i.e. no logins. I can use SSH from my laptop to connect to my desktop over my home network with no problems however if I try it via the Internet, when away from home, I get 'access denied (Publickey)'. Would there be a known reason for that? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Re: [ALUG] What to do after being hacked?
by Sagr 01 Sep '08

01 Sep '08

Thanks to MJR, Wayne, Adrian, Dan and others who offered advice. We have now finished rebuilding my friend’s server and now the dust has settled and the anger and frustration has died down we have to admit it has not been a totally bad experience. It provided us with a good excuse, and opportunity, to reinstall everything from the ground up and made us realise what an enormous collection of no-longer-used scripts he had collected on his old machine; they were very handy at the time he installed them but he had forgotten to remove them once the need had passed. I guess it has taught us, through experience, that just because my friend updated his operating system nightly we should not assume that EVERYTHING is updated and safe as old, no longer unused, no longer supported, scripts installed for a particular one-off task and then forgotten about can easily be overlooked but become an easy target for hackers. I have a separate question about our experience but I had better start a new thread for that. Thanks to all for your wise advice, Sagr.

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What to do after being hacked?
by Sagr 31 Aug '08

31 Aug '08

A friend of mine recently had a visit from "The Audisoft Hacker Team of Chilean Defacers" who, apart from replacing his website with graffiti, placed a c99shell backdoor in an obscure directory. His visitors were kind enough to display their hacker alias names on the graffiti and, looking at log files, we have discovered the time the attack occurred and the IP Address from which it came also, after having a poke around his backup files, think we know the application they hacked to gain entry. So what do we do now? I suppose theoretically he should report it to some authority but neither of us knows to whom, nor do we suspect they would show the slightest interest even if we did. The backdoor has been placed in an obscure location which would only be known by the original hackers and associates they have told. It would be impossible to guess or stumble upon accidentally. We are therefore confident that anyone who visits this backdoor has illegal intentions. So what would ALUGers suggest we do? Being in mind anyone who tries to accesses the backdoor has illegal intentions, and from log files we notice most are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, we have had all kinds of evil thoughts about replacing the backdoor with some kind of infected software... but this would bring us down to their level and possibly also be illegal. It would however be interesting to replace the backdoor webpage with some software which is capable of more detailed logging of visitors. What would more experienced ALUGers do if they were in our situation? Is there any specific piece of logging (or other) software ALUGers would suggest we replace the backdoor with as it is still receiving visitors? Sagr. PS: The application the hackers used to gain entry was an old piece of software he had forgotten was still on his website and so we haven't bothered to put it back on.

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Nokia N810 - any experience?
by Chris G 31 Aug '08

31 Aug '08

I'm looking for some sort of GPS/PDA set up for logging walking/cycling and to provide directions for when I'm riding my motorbike. One suggestion is the Nokia 810 which is Linux based so that's an extra plus. Does anyone here have any experience of this device? For a start how big is it, I can't see this information in any of the adverts. -- Chris Green

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How to automatically check for changes to a website
by Sagr 29 Aug '08

29 Aug '08

As ALUGers may be aware; a friend of mine recently had his website defaced by hackers. This has made me realise how seldomly I, myself, actually check my own website to see if it is still as it should be. Bearing in mind my own website is quite static, only being updated once a month or so, checking it would seem an ideal task for automation. I would guess I am not the only person on the planet who doesn’t have time to regularly check their website for defacement and was wondering if any experienced ALUGers could recommend a ready made script which I could run on my home server which would enable me to compare my live website (on a remote commercial webhost) with a stored image of it (on my local server) a couple of times a day. Do other ALUGers bother to check their own websites for defacement regularly? If so what tools do you use? Sagr.

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IPTables and Me - they don't mix.
by Barry Samuels 29 Aug '08

29 Aug '08

My setup: Debian Testing (up to date) Kernel 2.6.24 My router has a firewall with the SSH port open. I run a FireStarter software firewall, which blocks SSH access, on my computer together with Knockd. Knockd runs a script which adds or deletes an IPTables rule to allow SSH access. The knockd script part works insamuch as it adds the required rule. The problem is that the firewall on my computer still blocks SSH access. This is so that I can access my computer when away from home and that's the only time I can test or try it consequently it's all rather long winded. SSH access is by key only and login is prohibited. First I added a rule to allow SSH access using the FireStarter GUI interface then I had a look at an IPTables listing to see what it had generated. I used that rule in my knockd script. The next time I went away I found that it didn't work - I still couldn't get access. The last rule I tried I had modified myself after reading the man pages and that didn't work either. So I'm now stumped. This is my last effort: iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 22:22 -m state --state NEW,RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 22:22 -m state --state NEW,RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT I don't know whether the UDP rule is required but I thought it wouldn't do any harm. If anyone can point out what I'm doing wrong I'd be most grateful. -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Mobile Linux, more thoughts and questions
by mark fernandes (IFR) 28 Aug '08

28 Aug '08

<UNLURK> I've got an Asus EEEPC (701) which I use with a 3G Mobile Broadband USB dongle (HUAWEI E220). I just used the add network wizard and followed the prompts and voila! it was setup. Works quite well (even on the train - Useful when stuck on Norwich to London line!). I have had minor problems with random disconnects but I suspect that this is to do with mobile coverage and contention. Works well enough for casual web-browsing and e-mail (which is what I use it for). Suspect may not be up for beefier things like iplayer etc. :-) Hope that this is helpful, Mark </UNLURK>

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Mobile Linux, more thoughts and questions
by Chris G 27 Aug '08

27 Aug '08

Having looked at the Nokia N810 (reviews etc.) I've decided it probably doesn't offer the mix I really want. In particular it lacks phone capability (i..e. it has no SIM) so I'd need to carry a phone as well as the N810 which seems a bit silly. So I'm still kicking ideas around, I'm after GPS ability (for logging and for motorbike), a mobile phone and mobile computing which, for me, essentially boils down to being able to make an ssh connection through the mobile phone data connection. A browser for Googling would be nice but is less essential. I think this probably looks like several devices with a mobile phone and a data connection at the centre. Does anyone here use a mobile phone data connection with an Asus EEEPC, is it easy to set up and usable? If it was then it gives me a much nice keyboard for ssh than any keyboard on a smartphone or whatever. Alternatively a smartphone (like a Treo 680) with ssh installed would work too, much more difficult keyboard but more portable. Any other ideas, comments, etc. regarding getting a "terminal on a mobile phone" that's usable, portable and cheap? Once I've decided the neatest solution to the above I can add a GPS logger easily enough and I suspec the motorbike GPS navigation just ends up as a separate device. -- Chris Green

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