Why GNU/Linux Rocks

[mattarios]

Always waned to get around to learning linux and all of its power. Never had the time, I always used Windows which I know can be ridiculously annoying.

I will say 7 is much better than past operating systems they have released but it would be nice to learn Linux seeing how powerful it is.

[sgreger1]

Hey all, so I am currently renting a dedicated server for something I am doing but that function is only taking up a small amount of the available space/bandwidth, and I was wondering if there were any cool things I can do with it since I have it at my disposal and it's not being fully utilized. Namely my goal here is just to increase my proficiency with using linx from the command line only, so any project that accomplishes that goal would be beneficial even if it isn't particularly usefull for anything at the moment, as I don't need an rsync server or anything but would like to try some sort of project just to learn how to do it.

It's got a 100Mbs connection, a 1.2ghz processor with only 2GB of ram, and is running Debian 6 on it.
It's got 1TB of space, and I am only currently using a little over 200GB of that space, leaving about 790GB left over after accounting for overhead.

It is currently hosted on the French web host OVH, the guys who host wikileaks, so it's relatively secure, and I only access it via SSH.


I have a guy that handles most of the sysadmin stuff on it (security etc), but everything else is run by me and I have SUDO privaledges etc so I can do pretty much anything I want. Right now, aside from the main purpose I bought it for, I have folding@home running on it for team Snuson but that's about it. With a 1.2Ghz processor and 2gb of ram it ain't exactly a supercomputer but it is up 24/7 and has a great connection speed.


So, any ideas on what else I can use it for?? It doesn't have to necessarily be for any specific purpose, I just mainly want to learn more about linux from a server-side prospective. I am working on getting better with linux on my Fedora install at home so I already have that covered. If anyone has any cool ideas about what to use it for it would be appreciated!


So far from googling I have seen that most people will use it for either hosting a web page (I have a web page I am working on but have a seperate shared host for that, not expecting too much traffic), and then I have also heard of people using their dedi's to host an IRC channel or a game server but I don't really need either of those at the moment.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

[Los ßnus]

Hey all, so I am currently renting a dedicated server for something I am doing but that function is only taking up a small amount of the available space/bandwidth, and I was wondering if there were any cool things I can do with it since I have it at my disposal and it's not being fully utilized. Namely my goal here is just to increase my proficiency with using linx from the command line only, so any project that accomplishes that goal would be beneficial even if it isn't particularly usefull for anything at the moment, as I don't need an rsync server or anything but would like to try some sort of project just to learn how to do it.

It's got a 100Mbs connection, a 1.2ghz processor with only 2GB of ram, and is running Debian 6 on it.
It's got 1TB of space, and I am only currently using a little over 200GB of that space, leaving about 790GB left over after accounting for overhead.

It is currently hosted on the French web host OVH, the guys who host wikileaks, so it's relatively secure, and I only access it via SSH.


I have a guy that handles most of the sysadmin stuff on it (security etc), but everything else is run by me and I have SUDO privaledges etc so I can do pretty much anything I want. Right now, aside from the main purpose I bought it for, I have folding@home running on it for team Snuson but that's about it. With a 1.2Ghz processor and 2gb of ram it ain't exactly a supercomputer but it is up 24/7 and has a great connection speed.


So, any ideas on what else I can use it for?? It doesn't have to necessarily be for any specific purpose, I just mainly want to learn more about linux from a server-side prospective. I am working on getting better with linux on my Fedora install at home so I already have that covered. If anyone has any cool ideas about what to use it for it would be appreciated!


So far from googling I have seen that most people will use it for either hosting a web page (I have a web page I am working on but have a seperate shared host for that, not expecting too much traffic), and then I have also heard of people using their dedi's to host an IRC channel or a game server but I don't really need either of those at the moment.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Learn to set up a LAMP server if it interests you. Learn MySQL database, it's pretty easy and fun. Learn PHP and make your own dynamic web site with MySQL database driving it from behind.

hmmm, you could use it as a SSH proxy to get around pesky work firewalls. I am. Also this is good for public wifi. SSH proxy encrypts all traffic through your ssh session (putty for you) and will allow you for more secure browsing at the cafe, airport, parent's house, wherever.

You could try and set up an openvpn server on it so you can be more secure with your browsing and not get throttled for torrenting (legal of course).

Set up a mail server on it and a BIND9 DNS server too so you can host your own email like sgreger@yourdomain.com

Run an internet jukebox with ampache and listen to your tunes anywhere you want.

Set up SAMBA so you can connect to a file share with Windows.

Set up WEBDAV so you can have a web-disk for backing up and the such.

Set up Subversion (SVN) and play around with an awesome open source version control software. Then set up Trac to get a web interface to it.

Mine for bitcoins using the processor (slow as hell)

Learn to code in C. Most linux distros come with GCC installed so you can compile fairly easily.

Install webmin and play with that, it's like CPanel but free. albeit, it is kind of linux "cheat mode" but it is useful. Once you figure out the CLI better, you won't need this.

Set up a forum using phpBB and run your own online community.

Set up a Teamspeak3 server and talk with your friends and family across the globe VOIP for free.

Set up a game server, counter-strike, bf3, whatever and have fun playing on it.

Set up a minecraft server for you and your friends.

Set up a Bittorrent server and piss your host off

Install elinks or lynx and be a 1337 D3WD with CLI based web browsing.

Host a mirror image for your favorite distro.



The list goes on.

[devilock76]

+1 on a lot of that stuff.

Ken

[sgreger1]

Learn to set up a LAMP server if it interests you. Learn MySQL database, it's pretty easy and fun. Learn PHP and make your own dynamic web site with MySQL database driving it from behind.

hmmm, you could use it as a SSH proxy to get around pesky work firewalls. I am. Also this is good for public wifi. SSH proxy encrypts all traffic through your ssh session (putty for you) and will allow you for more secure browsing at the cafe, airport, parent's house, wherever.

You could try and set up an openvpn server on it so you can be more secure with your browsing and not get throttled for torrenting (legal of course).

Set up a mail server on it and a BIND9 DNS server too so you can host your own email like sgreger@yourdomain.com

Run an internet jukebox with ampache and listen to your tunes anywhere you want.

Set up SAMBA so you can connect to a file share with Windows.

Set up WEBDAV so you can have a web-disk for backing up and the such.

Set up Subversion (SVN) and play around with an awesome open source version control software. Then set up Trac to get a web interface to it.

Mine for bitcoins using the processor (slow as hell)

Learn to code in C. Most linux distros come with GCC installed so you can compile fairly easily.

Install webmin and play with that, it's like CPanel but free. albeit, it is kind of linux "cheat mode" but it is useful. Once you figure out the CLI better, you won't need this.

Set up a forum using phpBB and run your own online community.

Set up a Teamspeak3 server and talk with your friends and family across the globe VOIP for free.

Set up a game server, counter-strike, bf3, whatever and have fun playing on it.

Set up a minecraft server for you and your friends.

Set up a Bittorrent server and piss your host off

Install elinks or lynx and be a 1337 D3WD with CLI based web browsing.

Host a mirror image for your favorite distro.



The list goes on.

Wow that is an swesome list!

hmmm, you could use it as a SSH proxy to get around pesky work firewalls. I am. Also this is good for public wifi. SSH proxy encrypts all traffic through your ssh session (putty for you) and will allow you for more secure browsing at the cafe, airport, parent's house, wherever.

I am interested in this one. I wouldn't dare try to circumvent the firewall at work since I would probably mess it up and get fired though. Can't they tell if you are doing this, wouldn't it require installing software on the work ocmputer (Putty at a minimum)? However, can you explain a little more about how an SSH proxy works. If I set one up, would it make it so that if I were on computer A and wanted to encrypt all of my traffic through the SSH session, I would just log ont o the internet, connect to the SSH proxy and then all of my data is encrypted and no one can listen in on it? That sounds like the leading contender here. Could others do the same, like for example if I set it up for a family member, could they use the SSH proxy to encrypt their traffic? Who is able to see the traffic in a scenario like this, just the web host of the server?

You could try and set up an openvpn server on it so you can be more secure with your browsing and not get throttled for torrenting (legal of course).

I looked into OpenVPN but couldn't quite make sense of what it did. How exactly does it make browsing more secure? I don't get throttled for any of the legal torrenting I do because all of that legal torrenting is done on the server in question and then I sFTP it down to my computer once the file is finished.

Set up SAMBA so you can connect to a file share with Windows.

This one looks cool too, I hadn't heard of SAMBA before. So is my understanding correct that it allows me to set up shared folders than can be accessed by both Windows and Linux computers? Sort of like drop box in a way?

Set up a forum using phpBB and run your own online community.

This is another leading contender. My website though is not meant for a wide audience and probably won't get much traffic so not sure if there would even be need for a forum, but would be a cool thing to learn how to implement phpBB.

Install elinks or lynx and be a 1337 D3WD with CLI based web browsing.

Lol, lynx is so oldschool. I'll probably install that just for fun. 90's to the max.


Thanks for the list man, this has given me lots of great ideas!

[Los ßnus]

Wow that is an swesome list!



I am interested in this one. I wouldn't dare try to circumvent the firewall at work since I would probably mess it up and get fired though. Can't they tell if you are doing this, wouldn't it require installing software on the work ocmputer (Putty at a minimum)? However, can you explain a little more about how an SSH proxy works. If I set one up, would it make it so that if I were on computer A and wanted to encrypt all of my traffic through the SSH session, I would just log ont o the internet, connect to the SSH proxy and then all of my data is encrypted and no one can listen in on it? That sounds like the leading contender here. Could others do the same, like for example if I set it up for a family member, could they use the SSH proxy to encrypt their traffic? Who is able to see the traffic in a scenario like this, just the web host of the server?



I looked into OpenVPN but couldn't quite make sense of what it did. How exactly does it make browsing more secure? I don't get throttled for any of the legal torrenting I do because all of that legal torrenting is done on the server in question and then I sFTP it down to my computer once the file is finished.



This one looks cool too, I hadn't heard of SAMBA before. So is my understanding correct that it allows me to set up shared folders than can be accessed by both Windows and Linux computers? Sort of like drop box in a way?



This is another leading contender. My website though is not meant for a wide audience and probably won't get much traffic so not sure if there would even be need for a forum, but would be a cool thing to learn how to implement phpBB.




Lol, lynx is so oldschool. I'll probably install that just for fun. 90's to the max.


Thanks for the list man, this has given me lots of great ideas!

SSH Proxy. You would have to put the putty.exe on your work computer or even on a thumb stick. Since putty doesn't install, they would have to be looking for it running to find it. Here's how I use it:

Start up putty, configure it to set up a SOCKS proxy, save the profile and then connect to your server. You then need to configure your web browser to connect to that SOCKS proxy via the port. Basically, it takes all web traffic through the browser and sends it through the SSH tunnel with putty. Then the SSH server sends that request out like it's coming from the server and returns you the result. So your company/random hacker would see garbled up nonsense instead of a transparent TCP / UDP packet showing your passwords/ credit cards/ whatever else isn't encrypted. (NOTE: SSL as in https is encrypted so if you are on a site with HTTPS most likely you are secure and whoever is watching can't see what you are transmitting)

what an encrypted packet looks like in a packet sniffer:

you can check this link out for a tutorial http://oldsite.precedence.co.uk/nc/putty.html I haven't used this one in particular but it looks like how I set it up. I use port 8080 and use firefox with a plugin called foxyproxy to let me tell it to not use the SSH tunnel for certain web sites like work domains and to use it for other sites like this one.

VPN is Virtual Private Network. It is encrypted like the SSH Tunnel (maybe not so much) but it lets you send ALL traffic through it and access computers on that network like you were on the same LAN as them. It is mostly used for people who work at home to establish a secure link to work computers and servers. Similarly to the SSH Tunnel, all your traffic is routed through the VPN server and then back to you. Anyone sniffing your packets would see garbage.

I've never got OpenVPN set up properly every time I try to make a tunnel connection I **** up and lock myself out of the server. So I kinda gave up on it.

SAMBA is linux's version of WindowsFileShare like if you were to go to yoru network places and look for computers on your network, you may be able to access their shared drives. This just allows linux to easily interface a network mapped drive or printer for you to use easily. if "\\servername\C$\yourfolder" looks familiar this is WFS or SAMBA at work.

[shikitohno]

Depending on the distro, you could also use it to help out the linux community by mirroring repos. I think the entire Arch [core] repo is something like 26GB. You'd need to set it up properly so that your security blunders don't enable someone else's system to be corrupted, and you'd need to update it regularly, but once it's up and running, much of this could be automated. It wouldn't take up a whole lot of that space to mirror the [core], [extra] and [community] repos, wouldn't require much of your time once properly set up, and could give back to the community in a pretty good way by helping ease the strain on other mirrors.

I'm sure there are other distros out there than seek for mirrors, but I just know that Arch is pretty easy about someone setting one up and getting it involved in things.

[lxskllr]

You could setup an i2p router. It doesn't require a whole lot resources, but helps promote anonymity on the web...

http://www.i2p2.de/intro.html

[sgreger1]

Great ideas shiki/lx. I was planning on running a mirror for some of the distros but hadn't looked into it too much. On other forums this was highly recommended because I guess they really get bogged down sometimes. I think this is going to be my first project since it would help the most people. I will have to read some tutorials on it later and hopefully I can figure it out tonight. 29GB is no big deal.

I also eventually plan on setting up an i2P router. I am familiar with i2p but never used it, from what I gather it's sort of a distributed secure layer that fits over the existing internet, sort of like tor but completely different. I am definately planning to look more into i2p.

@LosBnus, that sounds awesome, I wasn't even aware you could congifure firefox to do that. I don't want to get in trouble but that would be awesome to mask all of the internet traffic to sites like snuson while i'm at work lol. The problem is that we use IE7 by mandate and downloading software is verboten, though they don't seem to check too often. I definately couldn't get away with running firefox on here though unfortunately. I never understood why corporations insist on running IE, is there any possible advantage to it? Firefox is less rousource hungry and more secure, it baffles me that we would be running such an old/sucky web browser for apparently no reason but maybe there is a method to the madness that I am not aware of. I am friends with the sysadmin though so I could probably get away with it if I really wanted to.

Is there any benefit to doing this at home on say my laptop? My regular computer is connected via ethernet but my other devices run off the WIFI which I know is easy to crack. It seems like running an SSH proxy on the laptops would increase the security when accessing the itnernet via wifi, especially if I was away from home on a public wifi connection.


Speaking of packet sniffing, is that something that is easy to do? What level of proficiency would one need to go to an open wifi network like starbucks and snoop on other people's traffic who are connected to the same wifi connection? It seems like most of it could be automated but I don't know if there are any programs out there that can do it.

[shikitohno]

If you can read man pages and figure out how to use a command, packet sniffing is relatively trivial to pull off. There's plenty of documentation on how to do it out there. Same with using wifi key cracking software to gain access to secured wifi points.

As far as using Firefox at work, are you guys allowed to connect personal usb drives? If so, install a copy of Firefox Portable to a flash drive at home. You can run Firefox at work, and it won't make any changes to the work system at all. Chances are, they've probably already got that forbidden if they're half competent at writing sensible policy, though.

[sgreger1]

If you can read man pages and figure out how to use a command, packet sniffing is relatively trivial to pull off. There's plenty of documentation on how to do it out there. Same with using wifi key cracking software to gain access to secured wifi points.

As far as using Firefox at work, are you guys allowed to connect personal usb drives? If so, install a copy of Firefox Portable to a flash drive at home. You can run Firefox at work, and it won't make any changes to the work system at all. Chances are, they've probably already got that forbidden if they're half competent at writing sensible policy, though.

Yah USB drives are a no-go here, they have software that stops anything from connecting to the computer. They don't seem to mind my internet usage anyways so i'm better off just leaving it alone. Definately going to set up an SSH proxy tonight though to use one my laptops when i'm out and about.

I'm more interested in cracking those damn wifi passwords. Everywhere I go there is like 5 wifi networks but they are always password protected, I know there must be some way to get around that.

[Los ßnus]

Great ideas shiki/lx. I was planning on running a mirror for some of the distros but hadn't looked into it too much. On other forums this was highly recommended because I guess they really get bogged down sometimes. I think this is going to be my first project since it would help the most people. I will have to read some tutorials on it later and hopefully I can figure it out tonight. 29GB is no big deal.

I also eventually plan on setting up an i2P router. I am familiar with i2p but never used it, from what I gather it's sort of a distributed secure layer that fits over the existing internet, sort of like tor but completely different. I am definately planning to look more into i2p.

@LosBnus, that sounds awesome, I wasn't even aware you could congifure firefox to do that. I don't want to get in trouble but that would be awesome to mask all of the internet traffic to sites like snuson while i'm at work lol. The problem is that we use IE7 by mandate and downloading software is verboten, though they don't seem to check too often. I definately couldn't get away with running firefox on here though unfortunately. I never understood why corporations insist on running IE, is there any possible advantage to it? Firefox is less rousource hungry and more secure, it baffles me that we would be running such an old/sucky web browser for apparently no reason but maybe there is a method to the madness that I am not aware of. I am friends with the sysadmin though so I could probably get away with it if I really wanted to.

Is there any benefit to doing this at home on say my laptop? My regular computer is connected via ethernet but my other devices run off the WIFI which I know is easy to crack. It seems like running an SSH proxy on the laptops would increase the security when accessing the itnernet via wifi, especially if I was away from home on a public wifi connection.


Speaking of packet sniffing, is that something that is easy to do? What level of proficiency would one need to go to an open wifi network like starbucks and snoop on other people's traffic who are connected to the same wifi connection? It seems like most of it could be automated but I don't know if there are any programs out there that can do it.

back in the early days of cable modems, you used to be able to sniff (you probably still can, not sure) out all your neighbors traffic and see their emails etc. or so I'm told. Packet sniffing is easy, google wireshark and install it. Understanding what you're looking at is another story all together. For what it's worth, the US Secret Service uses wireshark. probably other agencies too. Saw a killer special on them doing stings on Credit Card skimmers. They were recording the conversations over IRC with wireshark. most likely for evidence in court.

Most decent admins can tell if you're sniffing in "promiscuous" mode, looking at other people's traffic so be careful! I use it for debugging software I don't have access to the code here at work and if I set it to promiscuous mode, the security guy comes over and yells at me lol.

As for IE, sounds like you're in a MS shop. They use IE cause it's easier for them to update and if everyone is under the same browser, if an internal website "breaks" on another browser they can say "sorry that's not supported". hell I even do that sometimes lol. I code for all modern browser compatibility but if its something stupid that I don't have control over, not my problem, the browser is "unsupported". Not sure but MS may give them an incentive to install only MS products. I know we get some kind of platinum support from them so if IE breaks something supposed to be supported, they'll help look into it.

For all the shit I talk bout microsoft, I've been on conference calls from 2pm to 4am where the actual developers of SQL Server were on the phone with us. Mind you they were helping us with software they didn't even write, just the way it interfaced with their product.They'd come and go on shifts but damn that is support! Of course, it comes at a price.

Oh yeah, and don't even think of mentioning linux, apache, or other open source shit at work. Linux is a 4 letter word around these parts.

look at this!
http://portableapps.com/ lets you put tons of awesome software on your USB drive so you don't ever have to install software on your pc. I got local admin rights since I'm a developer so IT doesn't come down on me for installing stuff but I used to use this suite when I was a lowly minion.

Oh yeah and most firewalls won't block port 22 which is used for SSH since there are legitamate reasons for its use. Just be sure not to take up CRAZY bandwidth like streaming youtube all day or else they will probably fire you. I got a reaaaaly close call with that one. So my advice to you is if you tunnel at work, keep it to yourself and don't be sharing that shit with co-workers. Your ass is on the line when they trace down that IP everyone is connecting to.

[shikitohno]

Cracking wireless passwords has its uses from time to time, but I wouldn't recommend doing it like you're talking about sgreger. It's a bad idea. All it takes is connecting to the wrong network, with a good admin who notices you, and a legal department, and you can get done for unauthorized access to a computer network. Depending on where you do it, it can potentially be a felony, and having cracked their WEP or WPA key with a tool is certainly not going to earn you brownie points with the judge.

It might be a long shot of getting caught, but I'd rather deal without lolcats than risk it, myself. Don't know what California laws are on it, but in other states you can be looking at five years in prison and five digit fines. Having cracked a password is probably going to make things a lot worse for you, as well.

[lxskllr]

Cracking wireless passwords has its uses from time to time, but I wouldn't recommend doing it like you're talking about sgreger. It's a bad idea. All it takes is connecting to the wrong network, with a good admin who notices you, and a legal department, and you can get done for unauthorized access to a computer network. Depending on where you do it, it can potentially be a felony, and having cracked their WEP or WPA key with a tool is certainly not going to earn you brownie points with the judge.

It might be a long shot of getting caught, but I'd rather deal without lolcats than risk it, myself. Don't know what California laws are on it, but in other states you can be looking at five years in prison and five digit fines. Having cracked a password is probably going to make things a lot worse for you, as well.

WPA isn't easy to crack AFAIK, and WEP is like nothing at all. I'd say your pretty safe cracking WEP, and it can be useful on occasion. You can be fairly certain a network using WEP doesn't have a good admin :^D

[sgreger1]

You can be fairly certain a network using WEP doesn't have a good admin :^D

^^^ My thoughts exactly.


I don't actually need to crack any wifi passwords but it would be cool to know, i'd likely just practice it at home on my own wifi network. It's like when I learned how to pick a lock, I never broke into a house but it's usefull to know. So if I were on my home network for example, and a guest was using their laptop on my wifi connection, is there a way to intercept their traffic and descramble it into something usefull? I know you can sniff the pakcets but it all reads like matrix text, is there some sort of software that would for eaxmple intercept an email they typed and actually spit the email back out on your end, just by sniffing their traffic? Hypothetically speaking of course. I'll research this more later.