A recent number of attempted break-ins to a few machines I manage has had me thinking again about the overall security of the machines, and how to get a better handle on what’s going on. This isn’t something new – anyone managing internet-facing systems ought to be aware of the dangers, and how to mitigate ...
Using NFS between two machines on the same network is usually free of hassle, so the default behaviour – on Linux, at least – is fine and can be left as it is. However, in a commercial setting (such as the ones I manage in my day job) it’s often the case that the machines ...
Update: I’ve not tested myself, but the comment from Sombunall below points out that package names for the TFTP server and the DHCP server have changed since I wrote this post! It’s often the case that there’s no easy way of installing a machine that doesn’t have any removable media. For instance, I have an ...
The standard network tools ifconfig, netstat and route will be familiar to anyone with more than a passing interest in UNIX or any of its derivations. Linux is no exception, and if you hop on to your nearest Linux machine, you’ll find these installed. However, for the past few years ifconfig and its ilk (often ...
Just a quick one, this… If you install Likewise Open on Debian Squeeze, you may notice that it doesn’t start on boot-up. The reason is because the new dependency-based boot sequence doesn’t like the init scripts Likewise provides. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to fix. First, make sure you have chkconfig installed (apt-get install chkconfig if ...
IPv6 is nothing new – it was finally standardised back in 1998 in RFC 2460, and virtually all operating systems have supported it now for at least 5 years, so most people are in a position to give it a try. If you’re one of the lucky ones, your ISP might provide native IPv6 connectivity ...
Historically, if you wanted to use Active Directory to authenticate users on a UNIX box, you were pretty much limited to using LDAP. This works fine for some people, but it’s not particularly elegant – especially if you’re having to create users home directories all the time, which negates some of the point of centralising ...