Controll

[lars at larsshack.org (Lars Kellogg-Stedman)]

> 	Here are some more questions.  How would the serial connection
> work?  Does this involve the null-modem i've heard mention of before?

Whether or not you need a null modem cable[1] depends somewhat on the
equipment you're attaching.  I need a null modem cable to go between my
Sun and the VT220.
 
> 	About the ssh server, is this an accepted way to do things?

It's reasonable accepted; a lot of admins are in the position of needing
to administrate machines remotely; one doesn't always have a physical line
to the system in question.  For instance, here at work I'm responsible for
a machine room full of servers -- I'm using a single computer (with a
multiport serial board) as the console for all these systems, and I
connect to that system from outside the university using ssh.

I'm reasonably confident in ssh's security.  I've started playing with
IPsec VPNs (using FreeS/WAN for Linux); if folks are interested I'd be
happy to go into this in more detail.

> stuff is sketchy at best.  My firewall is 192.168.0.1, and my primary
> desktop is 192.168.0.2.  What's to stop someone else who also has
> their firewall on a 192.168.0.x network from getting into mine?

Your firewall box has, in theory, two addresses -- one (the 192.168.x.x
address) on your internal network, and the other a "real" ip address on
your external network.

Your firewall should be configured such that any packets coming from
OUTSIDE that have a source address matching your INSIDE network are
rejected.  

Rather than duplicating existing work, I'll just point you to the Linux
firewall and security site at:

  http://www.linux-firewall-tools.com/linux/

> successfully open an ssh client to athena.  But how much harder is it
> to setup an ssh server?  As you can see, I'm a far cry from an admin,

Setting up a server is generally trivial.  If you're on an RPM based linux
distribution, there are RPMs available for both openssh and ssh -- check
rpmfind.net.

Hope this helps,

-- Lars

-- 
Lars Kellogg-Stedman <lars at larsshack.org> --> http://www.larsshack.org/


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