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A mostly 'just thinking aloud' question about web security etc.
by Chris Green 12 Jan '20

12 Jan '20

I have been looking at making some web pages of mine *slightly* more private recently. There's nothing seriously important on them, just some addresses (that people could find elsewhere easily enough) and some other similar sorts of bits and pieces. However, while I was doing this, I wondered about the "passwords are in clear when using HTTP" thing. If I go to my web site 'out there' and type in a password who/what/where/how will it be seen? Yes, I realise if someone has wireshark running on my LAN they will be able to see it (but my house is reasonably secure!) and, presumably, anyone monitoring packets whizzing around between me and the remote site would be able to see it. However there's a *lot* of packets flying around out there, how would anyone pick out any relevant bits? The remote end is 'mine' too in that it's a virtual server in France (Gandi Internet) so that is moderately secure too with no general access. Obviously anyone with access to the systems at either end of this transaction could see what's going on but then if they have that sort of access getting at a web page password is not going to get them any more access than they have already. This isn't bank access or accessing a big business/selling web site where snoopers might expect to get useful/valuable information so why (and how) would any sort of snooping work? What does the team think? Am I being too un-paranoid? (N.B. the passwords I use for moderately [in]secure web sites bear no relation to the ones I use for secure stuff) -- Chris Green

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 9th January
by Viperfang 06 Jan '20

06 Jan '20

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 9th January at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 12th December
by Viperfang 09 Dec '19

09 Dec '19

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 12th December at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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(G)Rsync
by Phil Thane 07 Dec '19

07 Dec '19

Hello Lugs, I've recently re-installed everything on my home server and now can't connect with Grsync* from my wife's (18.x Mint KDE) PC. Mine (Mint 19.1 Cinnamon) works fine with essentially the same command (different source and destinations). On mine a dialog box pops up asking for the password for the destination. On hers it doesn't it just fails and the error message says it can't make a directory (which it can't without the password). So how do I make it ask for a password? She is a 'user' on the destination device and I did chmod 0777 on her /home/username/Backup directory so it should be available. *GUI for Rsync. Typing it all out by hand doesn't work either. -- Phil Thane www.pthane.co.uk Tweet @pthane 01767 449759 07582 750607

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Warning: the ECDSA host key for '...' differs from the key for the IP address '...'
by Mark Rogers 06 Dec '19

06 Dec '19

I have just received: Warning: the ECDSA host key for '...' differs from the key for the IP address '...' .. when trying to SSH to a web server I manage. I expect these kind of warnings if I've changed IPs, or reinstalled SSH, or reinstalled the OS, but I'm not aware of having done anything that could provoke this warning. Googling just gives me endless ways to fix the problem by removing the cached key, but I'm finding precious little advice on what to do if the warning has no obvious cause. Suggestions? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 6th December.
by Viperfang 03 Dec '19

03 Dec '19

Quick heads up about this months Norwich 2600 meeting, more info at http://www.norwich2600.co.uk

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rsync
by Phil Thane 18 Nov '19

18 Nov '19

I'm sure this is trivial but I don't know where to look... My wife's PC uses Grsync (gui for rsync) to backup to my server. I've recently put a new HDD in the server and re-installed everything, including a new SSL cert via Certbot. Now her Grsync refuses to connect because the certificate has changed. I guess sudo apt purge grsync then re-install it would do it but is there a more elegant method? Some config file I can edit or delete? -- Phil Thane www.pthane.co.uk Tweet @pthane 01767 449759 07582 750607

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Question about PCIExpress slots and SSDs
by Chris Green 15 Nov '19

15 Nov '19

I have a Fujitsu Esprimo P910 system to which I am thinking of adding a bigger SSD. It already has a 128Gb SSD for the OS but that is just an 'ordinary' 2.5" SATA one that I simply connected to a SATA interface and thus it runs at maximum 600MB/s. The motherboard has unused PCIExpress slots as follows:- PCI-Express 3.0 x16 1 x (312 mm / 12.29 inch) Full height PCI-Express 2.0 x4 (mech. x16) 1 x (312 mm / 12.29 inch) Full height PCI-Express x1 1 x (312 mm / 12.29 inch) Full height PCI (32-bit / 33 MHz) 1 x (170 mm / 6.7 inch) Full height Now I know I need an adapter to plug a 'PCIExpress' NVME SSD into one of these slots but they're not all that expensive, e.g.:- https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adwits-Express-PCIe-based-Adapter-Factor-PCIe-x16-… So, if I get something like the above (alternative recommendations welcome) will I be able to get a fast[er] NVMe SSD and have it "just work" or are there BIOS and OS ramifications? I'm currently running xubuntu 19.04 with a 5.0.0 kernel. -- Chris Green

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 14th November
by Viperfang 11 Nov '19

11 Nov '19

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 14th November at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Looking for new[ish] desktop machine as my main machine
by Chris Green 10 Nov '19

10 Nov '19

I'm thinking that I ought to replace my current desktop machine with something a bit faster and (maybe) less power consuming. My current desktop is a Fujitsu Esprimo P910 with a small (128Gb) SSD and several spinning hard disks. This machine stays on all the time as it's my mail server that I ssh into to read my mail whci it receives using SMTP. So I'd like to get something at least as economical (power wise), the P910 which idles at about 22 to 24 watts So requirements for new machine are:- Idle power consumption less than 20 watts or so I5 to I7 sort of performance, 6th/7th generation? Larger SSD, e.g. 512Mb, though 240Gb would probably be enough. Prefer wholly Intel hardware/chipset, especially the graphics, to be sure it works well for Linux. Space for several hard disk drives, so a laptop isn't going to work, and anyway I want a big screen (currently 24"). Any ideas and suggestions? -- Chris Green

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