Network Security / SRP

[Patrick Dahiroc <patd@dahiroc.net>]

hi all

i'm trying to make my system as secure as possible, in light of recent news of networks getting broken.  the first thing i did was to turn off services spawned by the inet daemon that i don't use.  currently the following are the only ones running - i didn't turn them off since i don't know exactly what they do:
	discard
	daytime
	time
	saft    ?? What is this used for? is this like ftp?
	cvspserver  ?? is this safe to turn off?

i dont quite know what discard, daytime, and time do is it safe to turn these guys off?  i run nntp - does nntp rely on daytime and time?

in general is it better to use tcpserver than the inet daemon.  i run qmail which uses tcpserver and i'm planning to have sshd be spawned by tcpserver.  i've read the tcpserver is better than inet - does anyone have any opinion on this?  are there any draw backs to removing the inet daemon completely?  if i can turn off the services i've listed above i would not have any use for inet.

has anyone have any experience with SRP - Secure Remote Password.  is this similar to ssh.  i've also looked at FreeS/WAN and it looks like a very good solution to network security.  is anyone using this now and how is it working for you?  while reading about FreeS/WAN i also came across DNSSEC - DNS Security - featured in Bind-8.2.2p5, which i am using.  exactly what is this feature and how do i take advantage of it?

thanks
pd