Boy did you guys opened up on me! Ouch! I guess I should have expected it. It was late when I wrote it and I wanted to go to bed, so let me revise my statement a bit. My comment "I hate reading manuals" means I'm the type of guy that sets up first and what ever I "need to know" or if something doesn't work, I read about it afterwards. If I become really interested in something...then I'll read up on it. Basically, you all can't tell me that you can't recommend certain "critical" areas that I should examine first and that the only way to get setup is by reading the whole manual. ???? I don't need to know about load balancing or other things that a "home user" would care to know about to get up and running. I just want to be up and running and get some "advice" about critical areas of security. I received some helpful advice from other folks so I'm sure its out there. If at a later time I decide to become more advanced, then I'm sure I'll have to read up on it. As an example, I just want to publish pictures of my carpet. (It's really nice carpet). I can do it know, but how can I keep folks out of my other directories? I've seen you all answer these types of questions before. I really do appreciate the input I've received and will receive...including the RTFM parts. Here's one for example....having to always change, add or modify pages or images as root is rather a pain. I understand why I need to, but it's still a pain. If I were to change the path from /srv/www to /home/tom/public_html would this cause any security issues? Again, I know in order for me to get all the information anyone would ever want to know about Apache, I should read the manual....but I just want to test and slowly increase my knowledge. I just want to play around right now and I'm sure there are simple tips that can be given to an Apache newbie. (I think). Thanks to all again! Tom -----Forwarded Message-----
From: Tom Nielsen <tom@neuro-logic.com> To: SuSE English <suse-linux-e@suse.com> Subject: Re: [SLE] Running a webserver from a home machine...how? Date: 07 Jun 2003 23:15:44 -0700
On Sat, 2003-06-07 at 22:29, Derek Fountain wrote:
The downside is security. Once you have an entry point into your box from the outside world, especially with a static IP address, you need to understand exactly what that entry point allows and what abuse it might get put to. In other words, you need to read up on Apache and ensure the config is set as you need it. Don't just assume SuSE have set up a secure config which meets your needs.
If you just want to serve static pages and photos, make sure you don't allow PHP, mod_perl or any other of the other abusable things to be accessed from the outside world.
I really, really, really hate reading manuals!! I could stress that more, but I don't have enought time. Most have too much information that would apply on an enterprise level rather than a home user/newbie. Is there a "crib notes" version that I can look at some where? I've always had a static IP, but no reason for anyone to look at it. Thanks for the info! Tom - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tom Nielsen Neuro Logic Systems, Inc. 805.389.5435 x18 www.neuro-logic.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tom Nielsen Neuro Logic Systems, Inc. 805.389.5435 x18 www.neuro-logic.com