Everything installed and working : The journey begins...

Hello all, I decided to join the forum as I am very curious about your response !

This is my first thread here (and almost the first ever) so if I'm violating some secret forum code regarding too basic question, wrong placement of thread etc. - sorry ! - will fix on request

First some info :

Status : ISPconfig installed and working on fresh Debian Sarge install, as instructed by this guide : http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_debian_sarge

PC : PIII 450 , 256 RAM, 100 Mbps NIC, static IP
Gateway : D-link DI 624 rev C router
Connection : 4Mbps full duplex fibre (not sure it's relevant, but had to brag a little, was a nice change from modem... I have a dynamically assigned IP from my ISP, but my router has a DDNS option I think will prove useful..

Experience : Capable off setting up LAN wired/wireless in windows/linux.

Goal for ISPconfig server : sharing files via FTP (NOT samba or nfs) with LAN consisting of Debian sarge desktop machine (wired), XP desktop (wired) , Debian/win98 laptop (wireless) and via internet when travelling (Kenya to be precize).
Hosting 5-10 mail accounts in a secure manner, along with a personal website. As for MySQL I don't need that at this point.

* I'm just curious on how you ppl would go about this, I've never set up any webserver or FTP server before, but I decided to dive into it, and when I clicked the ISPconfig link in the beforementioned guide, I was sold. The concept seems to good to be true If any ISPconfig developer reads this : THANK YOU! I'm into trying and testing my way around in ISPconfig, hopefully I wont brake anything by the time someone replies (hopefully).

Anyway, I excpect it to be a learning process, if someone in here wants to drop my a little warnings/advice/thoughts on this situation, I greatly appreciate it !


Mvh. SAR

EDIT: I seem to miss this file : /home/admispconfig/ispconfig/lib/config.inc.php

...which I see referred to alot in the forum..

EDIT2 : also, browsing ISPconfig from the server machine or LAN seems seriously slow..

EDIT3 : learned alot I's say..the hard way, I'll be back when reinstalled everything.
Had to install phpmyadmin and no I'm not allowed access to ispconfig either by ip or hostname. My guess is I most have mistyped something following the guide afterall.

 

Ok, I think I don't have to comment your problem 1 and 2 since you're doing a re-install...
During the installation, when asked for a hostname and a domain, you enter something that actually points to your ISPConfig system. Alternatively, you can leave the hostname empty and enter the IP address as domain.
Also note, that you have to use this hostname/domain combination when you try to connect to ISPConfig. Otherwise you'll have the problem that some images don't display properly.

No secret forum code, except that we're always trying to be friendly instead of starting flamewars like in other forums... So - welcome!

 

Thanks, Good to be welcome


I think (hope) I found the problem, following the installguide I was asked to test SMTP-AUTH and TLS by typing "telnet localhost 25"

this returns the following error :

telnet:could not resolve localhost/25: Name or service not known

During my first install I now recall taking this as good since telnet is not that secure.... but looking closer at the screen picture in the guide I see that that error didn't belong there...

My guess is that telnet is not running, and then I remember that earlier (as instructed by the guide) I had typed "update-inetd --remove telnet"

Any connection here ?


Thanks for your reply !


EDIT, PLEASE READ : apt-get reported that the package "mysqladmin" didn't exist, so I installed package "mysql-admin" instead. Have a blown it ?

 

heh...was to tired yesterday, I tried telnet ipadress 25 instead and all work out as expected... although this shows there is some resolving issue at least now I can go on installing.. (btw: hosts and resolv.conf is good) I'll be back ...

EDIT:

New Question : ISPconfig installed, running the "default" kernel 2.6.8-2-386.

Is it to late (since ISPconfig is compiled) to update to kernel 2.6.8-2-686 ?
...in case I do, do I have to compile/install ISPconfig again ?

 

I hope someone can give a little info on remote management of my ISPconfig server!

I have no problem accesing it from the web or ssh from the LAN, but hungry for more knowledge I would like to know if I could "forward" the screen output to another pc on the LAN ? In a secure manner of course. The server stands in the basement without screen so an option like that would be great !


oh and again... last post about kernel(s) is really troubling me, google didn't help me on that one it seems..

 

No, you can compile a new kernel.

 

Why do you need that when you have SSH?

 

Frankly, I dont As stated, I'm hungry for learning more, these past days has taught me alot, simply want to expand my experience in linux networkink.


and Falko : thanks for the replies ! (new kernel duelly on the way...)

 

New kernel in place , have some security questions :

At this point I'm using ssh when I need shell access to the server, typing simply ssh "servername" and entering a password (not phrase). This can of course be paranoid, but I think it's not... doesn't this mean that anybody with a username/password guessing script that got hold of my ip could "eventually" get access ?

Is there a way to make it more secure ?

 

Of course, as always. Therefore you shouldn't use easy-to-guess passwords such as "hello".
You could use private/public key authentication instead. This is partly described here: http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_rdiff_backup

 

Seems like what I'm looking for, I only want that server to be accessible by ssh from one other pc here at home.

During install of ISPconfig RSA and DSA keys and the "snake oil" certificate was made so I guess I'm already pretty close here..


Thanks again !

 

ok...I just realiced that those keys, certificate is od course for ISPconfig and apache if I'm not mistaken....have some reading to do

EDIT: didn't see your last post there Falko