Putting server on the internet or not

[Scot L. Harris]

On Wed, 2005-12-14 at 13:05, Bob Chiodini wrote:

> Edward,
> 
> I have to agree with Scot.  If you are a home user, lock everything down
> behind a firewall.  I opened up SSH and IMAPS while I was traveling
> earlier this year and within 2 hours I was getting hammered by machines
> on the internet trying to access my machine via SSH.
> 

For home users one of the cheap Netgear or Linksys routers/firewalls do
a good job.  If you want to learn more, setting up a separate box as a
firewall can be good but you will need to spend more time researching
and monitoring such a system than one of the cheap devices mentioned
above.

Search the list for several threads discussing ssh security.   (disallow
root login, limit the users that can connect, use strong passwords, use
keys if possible, consider using different port than 22 for ssh)  This
is true regardless of using a firewall or not.


> I'll bet Scot has a generator though.  Judging by his IP address, I bet
> he was without power a lot during last hurricane season :-)

This year they missed us here.  But last year the generator did come in
handy for a few weeks.  Have had one for several years.  But my ISP was
down at the same time so no network connectivity.  There for about a
week there was also no land line phones or cell phone access as well. 
:)

Those with generators, I also recommend installing a transfer switch. 
This allows you to provide power to specific circuits in the house
without stringing extension cords all over and without back feeding the
power grid.