Re: missing/non-functional identd service?

[csmall@gonzo.triode.net.au]

Pete Templin typed:
> 
> Hi there.
> 
> I've been learning about PGP, and was in the process of taking a look at a
> few public keys, when I ran into a small stumbling block.  You see, I was
> fingering bruce@master.debian.org when I ran into a small obstacle:
> 
> tcsh> finger bruce@master.debian.org
> [master.debian.org]
> 
> Debian Linux 1.1  Copyright (C) 1993-1996 Debian Association, Inc. and
> others
> 
>                  Your site has been rejected for some reason.
> 
>          This may be caused by a missing RFC 1413 identd on your site.

I get this too at work, but to make it even worse it is via a firewall.  I
might write a bodgy script to get around this.

RFC 1413 is identd.  It is used to work out who on a machine "owns" that
connection, which means it is next to useless on a firewall.

Now we also, temporarily, have a problem on the firewall; its address cannot
be reverse resolved (ie IP address -> hostname>.  Does this security thing
balk due to that too?

I don't have the same problem when I connect to my own machine as I have
identd running here.

> Is this a configuration error I need to fix, a package I haven't
> installed, or something else?  It would seem best if Debian systems could
> at least finger Debian systems, right?

I'd say you would need identd, try telnetting to 127.0.0.1 ident and type
anything and see what happens, if you get something coming back like ERROR :
INVALID REQUEST then you have identd running.

  - Craig
-- 
  // /\   |  | |  Craig Small VK2XLZ     @home: csmall@gonzo.triode.net.au
 ||==||===|==|=|  [44.136.13.17]         @play: csmall@gonzo.vk2xlz.ampr.org
  \\ \/   |  | |  finger csmall@triode.net.au for PGP key!


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