FW: [Malvern] Recommendations for File Servers

[Ian Pascoe]

Been doing a bit of the ol' surfing this evening and browsing through
SourceForge - am I completely off the mark or are most of the Firewalls set
up to be run as dedicated distros - as per Darren's and Stuart P's earlier
descriptions?  I can't find anything that inspires confidence in a single PC
scenario.

I have also spent a bit of time researching OpenVPN, and I have a techy type
question.  If a firewall is set up to handle PPTP (one of three different
VPN protocols) will this mean that it won't work with an SSL / TSL based
one?  I'm guessing the answer is yep but I want someone to tell me I'm
right, please!  When finances permit I will probably even buy the book!

Lastly, and this is totally off the wall, but I know that Rik does DVD
backups, Stuart P does it to external drives, and Phil being posh sends it
off to the nether regions, but would anyone think that setting up a Malvern
LUG backup VPN a worthwhile thing?  ie those who have file servers or spare
space on large Gb drives allow storage of other peoples data in user admin
segmented areas?  Personally, I don't much think of this idea but it is
technically possible and it would mean that you have remote backup.

So why mention it?  Dunno, probably too much of being a Dad this half term
week!

Ian

-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Pascoe [mailto:ianpascoe at btinternet.com]
Sent: 22 October 2006 21:53
To: Malvern at mailman.lug.org.uk
Subject: FW: [Malvern] Recommendations for File Servers


Thanks Guys - appreciated but nurgle!

I understand all that has been said, and the reasons why a 2 box route into
a network is advisable, but this seems somewhat over the top for a working
PC and file server.  Apart from which I haven't the room for a 3rd machine.

I have to admit I am also slightly worried, if I understand correctly, that
those machines within the inner network are not as well protected as they
could be.  Surely if one machine got infected, somehow, then without the
internal software barriers up the virus etc could spread without check?

However, I agree about the wireless bit and with a bit of furniture moves I
can have the whole lot hard wired.

No one has mentioned anything about running the server without mouse /
keyboard attached, nor buypassing the log ons on boot up.  Can this be done?

OK, I think my game plan is going to be:

1.  Load Ubuntu server on with Smoothwall and an AV and maybe LAMP too just
cos I can
2.  Use Samba as the internal access to the file server
3.  Get a USB external drive to act as backup and physical transport

And now for the totally daft question

Could the set up be done from my standard PC - this is so that I can have a
bash myself without having to rely on one of you guys - might need help
anyway but got to ask the question.

Ian



-----Original Message-----
From: malvern-bounces at mailman.lug.org.uk
[mailto:malvern-bounces at mailman.lug.org.uk]On Behalf Of Darren Beale
Sent: 22 October 2006 21:02
To: Malvern at mailman.lug.org.uk
Subject: Re: [Malvern] Recommendations for File Servers


On 10/22/06, Andrew McKenzie <a_j_mckenzie at hotmail.com> wrote:

> For a file server I can not recommend freeNAS enough

Good find, I'll have a play, thanks.

Ian: FYI IPCop forked from Smoothwall some time ago (4+ years IIRC)
and they aim to do the same thing but Smoothwall pimp a commercial
version too. I have not used it since circa 2001 so have no idea which
one is 'better'. When I was using them both back around that time they
were pretty much identical so I stuck with IPCop because of the 100%
GPL vibe.

D

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