Month: September 2017

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LLL and Updates!

(Didn’t keep this up, I’m afraid.  Old news.  Nothing to see here.)  Blogging about geeking is going to be less frequent, as I devote my extra-curricular geeking to Linux Learners NorthWest or Linux Learners Lancs, which ever name I settle on.  The first meet will be two weeks on Wednesday, 11th October 2017.  I’m working on the website and first meet content this weekend.

I like how Linux Learners Lancs rolls along the lips à la alliteration of ells.  And it abbreviates to LLL too.  Northwest is a little more inclusive for Cheshire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester but people should only feel restricted by how fay they will travel.  I always thought of Yorkshire as being an eastern collection of counties, but did you know that the most western part of North Yorkshire is as far west as the most western part of Blackburn with Darwen?  And only ten miles from Morecambe Bay?

If I go for Linux Learners NorthWest, I’d need to register another domain, for the cost of a take-away pizza.

So anyway, open to all 😃.  Come from Windermere, Sheffield or Wrexham if you can be bothered!

Last night I upgraded WordPress.  It tried to upgrade automatically from 4.5.1 to 4.5.2 (I think they) but failed because my permission settings were too tight.  I like how it tells you which files it couldn’t change during the failed upgrade, so you can correct them.  One thing that flummoxed me briefly was WordPress asking for ftp settings on one of them and not on others (I run three presently, but only this one with any real content as yet).  The reason for this was, my WordPress config file didn’t have a particular command set so it assumed my WordPress files and my Operating System were in different locations.  Hence, WordPress was configured to be updated by ftp, or some such nonsense.  I have ftp disabled on my server anyway by having never opened the ports.  So far, it has only ever needed to fetch files by http, and if necessary, I can SSH files up to it, or even go via NextCloud.

Back-ups were made by means of Amazon’s virtual server system.  A single snapshot was taken of the OS partition (I have three partitions, OS with home folder and websites, NextCloud data and swap).

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Security

Yesterday, I hardened my security. File ownership and permissions tweaked in all my WordPress installs.  Prior to this, my site might have been hackable.  Not that it was hacked, because I’ve also installed some security plug-ins for WordPress that confirm that all WordPress files are identical to the original download.

This plug-in also firewalls known hacker attempts somehow.  I don’t quite get how it does since a hacker need only change their IP through a VPN.  I wonder if the hacks are coming from bots so the bot builder doesn’t bother hiding the IP behind a VPN. But it has been a fascinating insight in to what goes on as soon as a domain is registered and a website is active on it.  The hackers descend.

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New Meetup.com group soon

I think I’m going to host a Linux aficionados group. At the same place as the WordPress meetup group met last, not the local uni like last time, but a prototype production lab and meeting hub in Blackburn, Lancashire that’s open to the public weekly, Wednesday evenings for clubs and Friday and Saturday for technically minded folk.

So I’ve registered the domain linuxlearnerslancs.co.uk and plonked WP on it. And maybe in just under 3 weeks time, I’ll have a club. I’d be its leader?? Quote the obvious Groucho Marx witticism.

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I love Linux, I do.

I like IT. A lot. I like computer games. I like PCs and websites and networking and wireless, processors, GPUs. But I love Linux.

It ain’t perfect (what is?) but it has its strengths. Here’s not the place to extol its virtues, though. The point I am making is that it exists. I’m glad you can choose to run your hardware with an operating system comprised of the efforts of multinational corporations and hobbyists. I’m glad that it is ubiquitous, even though users don’t see it on their android phones, viewing websites hosted on Linux servers, watching Netflix on Smart TVs.

I feel a little bit chuffed every time someone comes over. Where I work, supporting home users, I occasionally make the suggestion if they’re wondering what to do with older equipment, but my most eager convert is a blind user in her fifties.

It’s not my first choice for operating system and the only reason for that is Gaming.

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Rip it up and start again

So, whilst trying to get my server configured for email using the two similar recipes laid out here and here, I decided to do over, again. This time…

  • I discovered a bug in Amazon Web Services, or an easy to misconfigure option. I firewall blocked ports 80 and 443, the two ports necessary to host a website.
  • I found a way to introduce files in to nextcloud without having to upload again (put them in place, set the owner and permissions, run a command).
  • I opened my mail ports to the world early in my set up of the mail server and, half way through, when I was encouraged to go through log files, I saw page upon page of failed log in attempts from hackers. I closed the ports and I believe they continued, which is why I reloaded again.

    Bring on the paranoia! 

    Oh well.