Re: water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.

[will trillich <will@serensoft.com>]

On Wed, Apr 11, 2001 at 10:02:34AM -0400, Kevin Stokes wrote:
> I thank you and the others who have helped me, for friendly well-written
> explanations.   I have saved these messages in my Linux-help mail folder,
> but I pity the next poor guy who just wants to login remotely to his newly
> installed-linux.   I have wasted hours of my time, and probably at least 40
> minutes of yours....

s/wasted/invested/

When i started on debian, i blithered regularly at this list,
appalled that anybody could possibly expect a bloke off the
street to know that 'grep' meant 'find files containing...' and
that 'vim' would 'edit text files'. you are not alone.

You're just the loud one at the moment. :)

I've spent DAYS banging my head against various obstacles here
and there, only to find out how simple the solution is, once i
know what to look for -- usually after someone here points me in
the right direction (after everyone rolls their eyes). Thing is,
after an investment of that magnitude, I UNDERSTAND FULLY the
situation and it never gets in my way again.

Once your sshd works (and it's complicated, much more than
telnetd) you'll probably be able to get it working on your next
install in a matter of minutes. 

--

And then, you can write a newbiedoc about your experience,
covering likely gotchas and hurdles, to save the next poor soul
from a similar fate.

	http://sourceForge.net/projects/newbiedoc/

--

quickie alternative that'll get me flamed in no time:

	apt-get install xnietd telnetd

then munge /etc/xinetd.conf:

	[snip]
	service telnet
	{
		socket_type     = stream
		protocol        = tcp
		wait            = no
		user            = telnetd
		group           = telnetd
		server          = /usr/sbin/in.telnetd
		bind            = 192.168.1.1
	}
	[snip]

and bind it to ONLY YOUR INTERNAL NETWORK INTERFACE.  that should
be reasonably secure, but SSHD is ultimately a better deal, hands
down.

(and /etc/init.d/xinetd restart to see your changes.)

-- 
americans should never read anything so subversive as what's at
http://www.salon.com/people/col/pagl/2001/03/21/spring/index1.html

will@serensoft.com
http://sourceforge.net/projects/newbiedoc -- we need your brain!
http://www.dontUthink.com/ -- your brain needs us!