Server Servers - linux & network how to’s

This guide will show you how to quad boot microsoft xp, vista, mandriva and ubuntu linux. There are many possible ways to quad boot four operating systems, but there is also a easy way in booting two microsoft os and two linux distros on the same machine.

To start this off, you will first want to partition space with your xp install cd, leaving free space at the end of the hard drive. You will use this free space to setup up partitions for your other os. After you have installed xp, you will then want to partition space with your vista install dvd and then install vista on your machine. After you reboot your pc, you should now a new menu that pops up before your os boots. This boot menu should allow you to boot into either xp or vista.

After you have install both of your microsoft os’s, you are now ready to begin installing your linux distros. The easiest way I found to setup the quad boot is by installing mandriva first, since ubuntu pretty much kicks ass and is really easy to use. When I install mandriva, I set up a partition for:

• /
• /boot
• swap

At the end of the installation on mandriva, you should be asked where you want to install the boot loader. You should get two options; install to the master boot record or install to the root partition. You should choose to install the boot record to the root partition. The reason you need to install the boot record to the root partition is because you will be using ubuntu to master boot record.

Once you have installed mandriva you will now install ubuntu, setting up your partitions the same as you did during the installation of mandriva. Like I said before, you will install the boot loader to the master boot record. After you have completed the ubuntu installation and your pc reboots, you should now be able to quad boot your computer.

This guide can also be modified to boot other microsoft os’s and other linux distros. One thing to remember when installing your microsoft os’s is to always install the older microsoft os first. Backward compatibility will allow the newer os to recognize the older os, but the older os will not recognize the newer microsoft os. For instance install in this order:

• Windows 3.1
• Windows 95
• Windows 98
• Windows ME
• Windows 2000
• Windows Xp
• Windows Vista

Another important hint is to always install you microsoft os’s first and your linux distros last. And when you install you linux distros, make sure that you install the boot loader to the root partition on your 3rd os and install to the master boot record on the 4th os.

Boot Record for quad boot

• Install Xp to master boot
• Install Vista to master boot
• Install mandriva to root partition
• Install ubuntu to master boot

Boot Record for 6 - etc boot

• Install Xp to master boot
  Install Vista to master boot
  Install mandriva to root partition
  Install red hat to root partition
  Install other linux os to root partion
  Install ubuntu to master boot

Torrentflux-b4rt is great program to turn a old computer you have laying around into a torrent server. Torrentflux-b4rt is look other torrent programs you may have used in the past, but this program is meant for linux and can be accessed using a ip address. Since torrentflux-b4rt runs as a web ui, the greatest thing about torrentflux is that it can be accessed from other computers on your local area network and from you, while you are on the road. I personally used torrentflux-b4rt to download torrents, since I am not always at the same computer in my house.

The following directions will show you how to install torrentflux-b4rt on Ubuntu 8.04, but can be used for other linux distros with minor changes. The first thing that you are going to want to do is login in under su.

su

After you login in under su, you now are going to have to install a basic lamp system for your linux pc. A lamp system is simply mysql and apache, which will allow you to access your torrentflux-b4rt from a web page.

apt-get install apache2 php5-mysql libapache2-mod-php5 mysql-server

After you have installed the lamp system, we can begin to download and extract the torrentflux-b4rt program.

cd /var/www

wget http://gunblade.fakap.net/doc/torrentflux-b4rt_1.0-beta2.tar.bz2

tar xjvf torrentflux-b4rt_1.0-beta2.tar.bz2

This command will change the torrentflux-b4rt name into a more easier to remember name.

mv torrentflux-b4rt_1.0-beta2 torrentflux

We also need to install a few more programs.

apt-get install php5-cli php5-gd phpmyadmin zip unzip unrar libxml-dom-perl libxml-simple-perl libthreads-shared-perl libhtml-parser-perl transmission-cli libdigest-sha1-perl

After you have installed the above packages, point your web browser towards http://IP/torrentflux/html/setup.php to being the installation process of torrentflux-b4rt.

Click on the next button.

Once you have selected MySQL for your database type, point another browser window toward http://IP/phpmyadmin and login under root and your root password, so that you can create a new user for your torrentflux account. Once phpmyadmin opens up, you need to click on priviledges and then on add a new user. You should now have a window that resembles the picture below. All you have to do is fill in the boxes on the top of the screen and hit the check all button under global priviledges. Make sure you remember the username and password, since this will be your login information for torrentflux-b4rt.

After you have filled in the above forms, click on the go button. You have now created yourself a user name and password for your torrentflux-b4rt account.

Once you have created yourself a username, go back to the http://IP/torrentflux/html/setup.php page and fill in the information for your MySQL database. All you have to do to is fill in the forms, with the user account information you created on the http://IP/phpmyadmin page.

After you have created the new database, you now need to chmod a few files to 777. There are a few ways to chmod these files. One way is to use webmin, which is displayed below. Or you can also chmod the files under the command window.

chmod 777 /var/www/torrentflux/html/inc/config/

After you have completed the install you should have window like the one below. Notice there are a few programs that are not installed, but you torrentflux-b4rt server will work perfectly fine without the other programs.

The last thing that you have to do in order to access your torrentflux-b4rt account is to delete /var/www/torrentflux/html/setup.php.

rm /var/www/torrentflux/html/setup.php

http://IP/torrentflux/html/login.php

Webmin is a great tool to install if you would like a gui based program to help manage your server. This guide will show you how to install and setup webmin ver 1.441 on a ubuntu 8.04, but will work for other versions of ubuntu linux. The first thing that you are going to want to do is login under su.

su

cd /opt

mkdir webmin

cd webmin

wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin-1.441.tar.gz

tar xzvf webmin-1.441.tar.gz

After you have issued the following commands, you should now have the latest webmin source program downloaded and extracted into the /opt directory. After you have the webmin program extracted you are going to want to install a few other pieces of software to allow you to connect to webmin under SSL.

apt-get install openssl perl perl-modules libpam-runtime libauthen-pam-perl libnet-ssleay-perl

After you have installed the above software, issue the next few commands, which will startup the install process.

cd webmin-1.441

./setup.sh

During the install process, all you have to do is press the enter button a few times and answer the questions. Just choose a port number, a user name and password and select yes for SSL and start webmin at boot time. To access the webmin page, open up a web browser and type in your ip and the port number. For instance:

https://192.168.1.1:10000

192.168.1.1 = Ip address

10000 = port number

If you don’t know what your ip address is, go to the konsole and type in

ifconfig

root@homeserver:/opt/webmin/webmin-1.441# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:16:76:5c:33:0c
inet addr:192.168.1.1 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::216:76ff:fe5c:330c/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:17891 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:22347 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:15784214 (15.0 MB) TX bytes:2786847 (2.6 MB)
Interrupt:21 Base address:0×1200

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

In this article you will learn how to setup your very own ubuntu internet gateway / router.  The ubuntu gateway / router will act exactly like any other router that you can purchase at the store, except your linux box will have more functionality and extra security. What you will need to build your ubuntu gateway:

• Extra computer
• (2) Ethernet cards
• Switch
• Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server Edition
• Putty

This article will explain how to setup a fresh install of Ubuntu 8.04 server edition, configuring a dhcp server for a local network,while a including a firewall from the nasty internet. The first thing that you are going to do is a fresh install of the Ubuntu server edition, but selecting only Open SSH server during the software installation section of the Ubuntu install. After the installation completes and your pc reboots, you are then going to want to set a root password (su).

sudo passwd root

After you have a set a root password, login into root by typing the following command:

su

After you are in super user mode (root) we are then going to want to update our Ubuntu Bistro. Type the following commands to update the os and other programs.

apt-get update

apt-get upgrade

After your computer updates, restart it.

reboot

Setup Network Cards

vi /etc/network/interfaces

In the example below my eth0 represents the network interface that connects to the internet and the eth1 interface connect to switch. The switch then connects to all of your other networked devices, such as your gaming system and other networked devices. I added the following code into the /etc/network/interfaces file:

auto eth1

iface eth1 inet static

address 192.168.10.1

netmask 255.255.255.0

network 192.168.10.0

broadcast 192.168.10.255

/etc/init.d/networking restart

The next following step is not required, but I like to set a hostname for my gateway, all you have to do is install apache and you could have your own personal intranet or web server.

vi /etc/host

echo homeserver.gateway.2wire.net > /etc/hostname

/etc/init.d/hostname.sh start

hostname

hostname -f

Once you have completed the following above, you can use putty to access your linux machine from your windows based pc. This will allow you to copy and paste the following code, to speed up the process of creating your linux gateway. The first thing that you must do to use putty to configure your Ubuntu gateway, is set a static ip on your windows machine, since we don’t have a dhcp server installed yet. Set a static ip address for Microsoft Vista.If you don’t want to use putty you can just type out the rest of the code, putty just makes it easier. Once you have chosen your terminal program that your are going to use, again login under root. It is now time to install some software, that we will need to setup the gateway.

apt-get install dhcp3-server bind9 vim perl libnet-ssleay-perl openssl libauthen-pam-perl libpam-runtime libio-pty-perl libmd5-perl

Enable packet forwarding

vi /etc/sysctl.conf

# Uncomment the next line to enable packet forwarding for IPv4

net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

Install Webmin

Webmin is anther good program to use to configure you ubuntu gateway and other server programs that you might use. If you use webmin, you will be able to easily configure you server, using any web browser you choose.

cd /opt

mkdir webmin

cd /opt/webmin

wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin-1.430.tar.gz

tar xzvf webmin-1.430.tar.gz

cd webmin-1.430/

./setup.sh

During installation you will be asked a few questions, just press enter a few times. The only thing that you want to change is the port number, user name and password and also say yes to SSL.

Configure dhcp

Network address - 192.168.10.0

Netmask - 255.255.255.0

Address ranges -192.168.10.100 - 192.168.10.200

After you have entered the the above click on the create button. You should now see a icon that reads 192.168.10.0, click on this new icon and then click on the Edit Client Options button.

Subnet mask - 255.255.255.0

Default routers - 192.168.10.1

Broadcast address - 192.168.10.255

DNS servers - 192.168.10.1

After you have the above into the client options windows click the save button twice, which should return you to the main Dhcp server window. Inside the dhcp server screen, you see a button called Edit Network Interface, click this button and select eth1 then click save. Now click on the Start Sever button, if you see no errors, you are good.

Configure firewall

Input:

Accept if input interface is lo

Accept if input interface is eth0 and state of connection is ESTABLISHED,RELATED

Accept if input interface is eth1

Forward:

Accept if input interface is eth0 and output interface is eth1 and state of connection is ESTABLISHED,RELATED

Accept if input interface is eth1 and output interface is eth0

Setting a static ip for your vista machine is a real simple task. The first thing you must do to set a static ip address for you microsoft vista pc is go to your control panel and click on network and sharing center icon. Once you click on the Network and Sharing Center icon you should have a window that resembles the one below, you need to click on the Manage network connections located under Tasks on the left side of the screen.

After you have clicked on Manage network connections you should have a window that looks like the one below. **Note - You might have more then one connections under this window, all you have to worry about is selecting the right network connection that you will be using. (Example - Ethernet , wifi.) Once you have located the adapter that you will be using. right click on the network adapter connection, and click properties.

Once the Local Area Connection Properties window opens, select the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IP) as seen below and click on the properties button.

Inside the Internet Protocol Version 4 properties window, you will set your static ip address for your pc. In my example I am using the following:

Ip address: 192.168.10.200
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway: 192.168.10.1

Preferred DNS server: 192.168.10.1
Alternate DNS server: 192.168.1.254

You can also use the following DNS server addresses provide by Opendns.com, to improve you internet browsing speed.

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Are you looking for a cheap way to boost your wifi signal or help find more wireless access points with your pc. A simple way to boost your wireless signal is by mounting a wireless adapter to the focal point of a satellite dish. The best way to the find the focal point is by putting the wireless adapter on the dish and moving it around slowing, until you find the highest signal focused onto a single wireless access point.

Another great way to boost your wifi signal is by putting your wireless adapter into a soup can.  This type of rigged contraption will transform your wireless adapter into a great directional wireless adapter.  I was able to more then double the amount wifi networks that I discovered around my apartment.

There are many reasons that you might want to setup port forwarding, or open a port up on your 2wire router. Some of these reasons your might open a port is because you are running certain specialized software application on your pc, such as utorrent, a http server, ftp, etc. In my example I will focus on a few main programs that require a specialized port to be open, in order for the application to run well. The first that you are going to want to do is open a web browser and locate the default gateway screen for you 2 wire router. You can usually locate the default gateway screen at ip 192.168.1.254, but if you for some reason have changed your router’s default gateway, then use that ip address. If you have forgotten what your default gateway ip address is, then open command prompt and type in “ipconfig”, then look for the ip that is next to Default Gateway. If you are using linux, then open a terminal window as root or su, then type in ifconfig, then look for gateway. After you have accessed the 2wire default gateway screen you should have a window that appears similar to the one below.

Once you have accessed your default gateway screen for your router, you will then want to click on the firewall tab at the top of the screen. After the firewall summary screen opens, you will then click on the firewall settings tabs to begin setting up a open port on your 2wire dsl router.

Once the firewall setting screen opens you can then add a open port to your specific pc. Under step 2 you will see a list of predefined applications that have already been created for certain video games, servers and telephony(voip) services. Since in my example we are opening a port for utorrent, we are going to manually configure port forwarding for one of my pc’s. To be opening a port for utorrent, click on “add new user-defined application” you can find the link just below the list on the left side of the screen.

Once you click on add new user-defined application, you should have a window that resembles the one below. Within this window you should now be able to enter a name for the application that you are opening a port for. Underneath the application name, you know have the choice of either tcp or udp, and then you would enter a port number or a port range that you want to open up.

For security reasons, you should only open one port, unless the application specifies other wise. The more ports that you have open on you router, the more doorways you open for hackers and viruses to enter your home network. Since we are opening a port for utorrent, you are going to want to click on the tcp box and then enter the port number that utorrent gives you, in my example I am opening up port number 51225. After you have entered you port number, click the add definition button. Once you have added the definition, you are going to then click on the back button.

After you have clicked the back button, you should now be at the edit firewall settings screen. All you have to do now is select your computer from the list that is listed under 1. After you have selected the computer that utorrent will be hosted on, all you have to do is find the recently created user defined definition from the list under number 2. After you have located the utorrent port forwarding application simply click on the add button, which should assign the utorrent port forwarding application to your computer. After you have completed the above steps, you should be all set, now your utorrent program should download and upload at a faster speed.

If you are having trouble trying to install at&t yahoo dsl on your linux os, then hopefully this guide will show you how to set up at&t yahoo dsl on your linux pc. In my guide on how to setup att dsl, I will be using Mandriva linux, but this tutorial show also apply to many other linux distributions. Also in my tutorial on installing at&t yahoo dsl on a linux os, I will be using a 2wire 2700hg-b wireless router, but this guide should also work for other 2wire routers that at&t ships out.

The first thing that you must do to install at&t dsl on your linux machine is setup up your ethernet adapter to connect using dhcp. In the mandriva linux distro, you would go to:

1. Menu
2. Tools
3. System Tools
4. Configure your Computer

Then once the window below appears, you would then click on the Network and Internet tab on the left side, then click on setup a new network interface.

Once you open the “setup a new network interface” tab, click ethernet and click next.

Then select your nic card from the list and click next.

Select automatic Ip BOOTP/DHCP

Now you would put a check mark next to Get DNS servers from Dhcp and a check mark next to Assign host name from Dhcp address.

After you have completed the above, you should now have a working ethernet adapter on your linux distro. The next thing that you are going to want to do is begin to register your at&t yahoo dsl account on your linux pc. To start registering your account, all you have to do is open a web browser. I recommend using Konqueror, if you are using KDE as your desktop; I had problems with mozilla firefox. After you open your browser, you should have a windows that resembles the one below.

The next thing that your are going to install at&t yahoo dsl on your linux os is type in https://sbcreg.sbcglobal.net/ into your web browser. This should open a web page that shows the current at&t members agreement. All you have to do now is click on the “I Agree” button, to continue the registration process of your At&t dsl account

After you agree to the terms, you should now be able to input your telephone number and begin setting up your new email and membership account and password. Note - Make sure you remember this information, you are going to need this information later on.

After you have setup your new at&t account, what you are going to want to do is set a password on your router. To set a new password on your 2wire router, open a web browser and type in 192.168.1.254 which should open the default gateway. If successful you should now have a window that looks like the one below. Now all you have to do now is create a password for your router and click the next button.

After you have set the password on your router, the default gateway page for your 2wire router should now appear. Once you see the default gateway page, click on “Run System Setup Wizard”.

The next thing that you have to do is input a activation key code into your 2wire router. For a list of activation codes for your 2wire router.

After you activate your 2wire router, you are going then have to set a time zone for your router. After you set your time zone, the set up connection info windows should open. Once you see the below window, you will then input the username and password you created earlier.

Just fill out your personal information into the forms and click the register button. As long as the server is up and running, you should have now completed in registering your 2wire router. After you see a window that looks like the one below, all you have to do now is reboot your web browser. After you close and then reopen your web browser, you should now be able to surf the internet. If you have troubles, try reboot your linux pc. If you are still having trouble, here are few hints: Web browser displays page not found - There is a problem with the way you set up your ethernet connection. Try re setting up your dhcp settings on your ethernet adapter, so if you automatically set you ip, dns and hostname.

Many people trying out linux for the first time keep asking what is the best version of linux os to use. To answer this question, there really is no such thing as the best version of linux. When it all comes down to it, linux is linux! The only major thing that changes among the different linux distros is how you install programs and the amount of programs that distro offers.A more specific question to ask however, when it comes to choosing what you believe to be the best linux distro is what is the linux distro going to be used for. For example you might be setting up a server, or possibly a security auditor, or more likely you are setting up a windows desktop replacement. You are going to find many mixed opinion when it comes to what people think the best version of linux is. The best way to find a good version of linux is try out a linux live cd, which will allow you try a version of linux without installing the os. Another good way to try linux without install is by install linux onto a flash drive, then reboot and boot from usb.

What I am going to offer is my opinion, and my opinion only on what I think is the best version of linux. When it comes to a desktop replacement I choose Mandriva, for the main reason that it is really easy to use, especially if you never have had experience with linux before. Another reason I choose Mandriva linux is because it has a wide variety of drivers that will support hardware on your computer. The next best linux distro for desktop replacement in my opinion is Ubuntu. Now if I was choosing a operating system to use in making a server, then I would choose unix, but if I was using linux I would probably choose a form of red hat linux, such as fedora or centos. Ubuntu server edition is also another good version of linux to use for a server distro.

In conclusion when it comes to choosing a version of linux. The only thing that I can recommend it test, test and test. Sooner or later you will find a version of linux that you will be comfortable with.

If you are reading this document, you probably are looking on how to set up your new at&t 2wire dsl router. Throughout this document I will be using a 2wire 2700HG-B wireless router, but this tutorial will also apply to other routers that 2wire provides at&t with. The first thing to do when setting up your 2wire dsl router is plugging the dsl filters into all your phone jacks, where you plan having a telephone. On one of the dsl filters, you should see a dual filter that reads Phone and DSL/HPNA, on the side that says DSL/HPNA plug a phone line into this port, then run the other end of the phone line into the phone port on the back of the 2wire dsl router. After you have connected the phone line, plug a ethernet cable into port 1 of the router, then connect the other end of the ethernet cable into your pc. Once you have made the connections between your pc and the router, and the router and the dsl filter; plug in the power adapter into the router, then plug the power adapter into the wall outlet.

Once the 2wire dsl router powers up, you should see a green light next to power, ethernet, and dsl. Once you see these lights turn green on your 2wire router, the next that you would do is open a web browser. Once you open your web browser, you should see a windows that resembles the one below. Once you see this window, press the next button, which should then ask you to download the 2wire dsl setup tool.exe.

Once you have installed the 2wire dsl setup tool, the 2wire gateway authentication screen should open, simply select the yes button.

Once you have authenticated you 2wire router, you must set a password to your router. I recommend setting a password with upper and lowercase, with a few numbers. This password will come in handy if you are trying to change settings on your 2wire router, by typing 192.168.1.254 into your web browser.

After you have set a password for your router, click the next button to begin registering your 2wire router with At&t.

After you have registered your router, read through the agreement then click I Agree button.

After you have accepted the agreement with At&t sbc yahoo dsl, you need to create a username and password for your dsl account. To begin setting up your new username and password enter you land line telephone number that you have received from At&t.

After you have created your new username and password, there will be another progress screen, then click the finish button.

After you have completed the about steps, close down your current browser and reboot your computer, this will resolve any network problems. After you pc reboots open you web browser and being surfing the internet with your at&t 2wire dsl router. If you are interesting in changing router settings, open a web browser and type in 192.168.1.254 into the URL address bar. Once you have clicked the submit button and window resembling the one below should appear. The password that you created earlier for you 2wire router, will be the one you use here when changing setting on your 2wire dsl router.