ip
Rewiring Your Optimum Cablevision Connections
Jan 31st
- Image via Wikipedia
Cable modems need a strong signal in order to operate properly. The more splitters you pass through successively degrades the signal strength (-3.5dB/splitter). For a while internet service was working fine, but then I would loose the external ip address every no and then. I then investigated the wiring in the house, and it turns out there was silly decisions made. There was a splitter in the basement going to nowhere, with at least 25 feet of cable. I removed the splitter and put in a direct coupler, but the problem persisted. I then moved the modem to the other line split off the main. This required reworking of the entire network and the implementation of a network switch. The minimum amount of splitters, the modem must pass through, is two. The first splitter provides service to downstairs and upstairs. The second splitter provides television to my father tv and the modem. I replaced the second splitter in the sequence, and am moving toward replacing the splitter sending signals to downstairs and upstairs. If I replace the main splitter, which is located outsite, and the problem persists, I will be calling Cablevision for the installation of a completely separate main line coming into the house; this will bypass all splitter and give the maximum signal strength possible.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=98679f20-c6c8-4314-a1c8-ad0331c3296e)
Lock Down IP Addresses – SSH and Else
Jan 26th
If you know the IP addresses that will be connecting to your machine, lock them down. Use the hosts.allow file as follows.
sshd : localhost : allow
sshd : 192.168.3. : allow
sshd : 192.168.1. : allow
sshd : ALL : deny
Using sshd : ALL : deny and listing various allow rules blocks everything other than the allowed rules. Therefore using sshd : IP : allow you will be able to connect to the machine from that IP only and everything else will be rejected. This procedure will substantially increase the security of the server.
Yahoo Domain Hosting 3X the Price
Oct 9th
Originally when I started buying domains from Yahoo the cost was around 10$ per year. Then it went up to 13$ per year. Now with the recent financial crisis around the world, Yahoo has decided to tripple their yearly fees TO 34$ yer pear. I am either cancelling my domains at warp speed, or contemplating transferring them to Go Daddy for a fraction of the price. Technically I can host them from my house, but I get nervous with the dynamic IP address provided by Optimum online. I haven’t had an IP address change in a long time, and for all practical purposes without the modem being offline for a long time the IP address rarely ever changes. Overall I am going to cancel as many domains as I can, thus eliminating many of my websites. I am going to remove the websites that do not receive many hits, ect… I will keep my main website, which I plan to have my entire life. I also will keep this domain, because I have many websites consolidated into it, as well as this blog which I cherish as a means of venting and documentation. Maybe I will transfer some domains to Go Daddy, I have a couple of things to think about before the critical date that Yahoo wants payment before it stops hosting the domains.
DOS and Brute Force Prevention Using Fail2ban
Mar 16th
Dealing with dos and brute force attacks can be a daunting challenge. You can manually adjust your firewall to block particular ip addresses, but why not automate the process? What if a program can monitor your authentication, and other log files for suspicious activity? In these log files is a tremendous amount of info about failed login attempts, and how many times an ip address connects to your web server. Using this information a program can automatically adjust your firewall to block the offending ip addresses. Fail2ban does just this. The program automatically monitors the log files of many programs. Most important is apache, and ssh. http://www.fail2ban.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
iPhone Settings Rundown – Instant VPN Configuration
Mar 8th
iPhone Configuration Step 1: Click the settings button Step 2: Click the general options menu Step 3: Click the network menu Step 4: Click the VPN menu Step 5: Click the settings menu JanusVM works with PPTP, therefore use this tab. In the server section add the external ip address of your home machine. If you have a domain name pointing to your external ip address you can also enter that here. If you have a router you will have to use “port forwarding” to forward port 1723 to the ip address of the local machine running JanusVM. In JanusVM option 4 allows you to create users, and passwords. Configure JanusVM according to your liking. Back to the iPhone. Step 6: In the account section add the username that you configure in option 4 of JanusVM Step 7: For “RSA SecurID” turn it off. Step 8: In the password section add the password you set in option 4 of JanusVM Step 9: JanusVM requires your iPhone encryption level to be set to “maximum” Step 10: Set your iPhone to “send all traffic” through the VPN Remeber, to configure JanusVM you will actually have to boot the virtual machine first. The list of option are automatically displayed once fully booted. I recommend using a static local ip address; if you choose dynamic you will most likely get a different ip address each time you boot JanusVM. This will be a pain, because you will have to adjust the “port forwarding” option in your router as per the local ip address of your JanusVM instance. If anyone has any questions just post a commend. I’ll help get you running ASAP. 
Bridge and Default Eth Same IP
Dec 8th
When configuring your network, bridges, and taps you want your default Ethernet card to have the same static ip address as the bridge you create in /etc/network/interfaces. Doing so you will have internet access on the host and guest systems. Within the guest system configure the interfaces to be one numerical value higher in order to avoid conflict with the host.
