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Re: [ALUG] Digital Ocean
by Jonathan McDowell 21 Nov '16

21 Nov '16

On Thu, Nov 17, 2016 at 09:57:01PM +0000, Mick wrote: > Now Tor operators tend to be a suspicious, sometimes paranoid, bunch, > but given that DO now has a substantial proportion of the Tor network > on its ASs that suspicion may, just may, be justified. I still use DO > because I get huge bandwidth for bugger all money (15 dollars a month, > compared to the 12 quid I (happily) pay Bytemark for my > mail/webserver). But I would not, and do not, use DO for anything I > care about in personal terms (such as mail, or XMPP messaging). I've got a single VM with DO that handles my parents' email (so running exim/dovecot/roundcube and little else). Not had any issues with them (and in terms of the traffic stuff you mentioned and I snipped I suspect that people like me hardly using their allowance are averaging out with people like you using a lot. Bandwidth in well connected datacentres has got scarily cheap). Like you my personal stuff (such as the machine which hosts this list) is with Bytemark. > Most importantly from my (admittedly somewhat paranoid viewpoint) the > VM allows me to choose my own kernel to go with the OS of my choice. > DO don't do that. You get to "choose" one of their kernels underneath > your installed OS. This has changed; when I started I was limited to the DO provided kernels, but my Debian VM with them is now using Debian provided kernels I installed - they've got a "grub" option in the web interface now which then boots a kernel from the VM image. J. -- Revd Jonathan McDowell, ULC | You want me, but it scares you.

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Re: [ALUG] VPN
by Mick 19 Nov '16

19 Nov '16

Sorry all. Typo in earlier email. Should be itldc see https://itldc.com/en/ --------------------------------------- (This is a copy of the earlier mail sent from my phone. That phone's email client seems to upset the list mail server.) Mick

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Re: [ALUG] VPN
by Mick 17 Nov '16

17 Nov '16

I too use DO. I even use them for my Tor node and my tails mirror. I used to use them for my whonix mirror as well, but whonix now fund all their own mirror structure so they don't need volunteers any more. But, and this is a big but, despite the fact that they have data centres all over the place, they are a US company. Furthermore, there is a certain lack of clarity about their funding. It is not at all obvious how they can have grown as rapidly as they have or how they can afford to finance the network bandwidth they use on the income they get from VM rental. As an early adopter I was "grandfathered" in to their new commercial contract. That contract is supposed to limit network usage (check the DO site for details). Bandwidth costs money. As a grandfathered user I get unlimited bandwidth. My Tor mode regularly chews through 6 to 7 TB of data a month - and I actually limit that node. What is less well known, but gets discussed on the Tor mailing lists, is that /none/ of the supposedly capped contracts are actually bandwidth capped at the moment. So you can get a VM for $5 which has unlimited network access. That is not a commercially viable arrangement and it strongly suggests that funding is coming from somewhere unknown. Now Tor operators tend to be a suspicious, sometimes paranoid, bunch, but given that DO now has a substantial proportion of the Tor network on its ASs that suspicion may, just may, be justified. I still use DO because I get huge bandwidth for bugger all money (15 dollars a month, compared to the 12 quid I (happily) pay Bytemark for my mail/webserver). But I would not, and do not, use DO for anything I care about in personal terms (such as mail, or XMPP messaging). So, if you want to use a server for a VPN, I'd personally recommend against DO. I am currently playing with a server in Sofia owned by ITDLC. They are a European supplier with servers in Bulgaria, the Ukraine, the Czech republic and the Netherlands. All looks good so far. The server I have is pretty fast, appears to be stable and most importantly is outside both the UK and US control. It cost me just over 3 quid for the month. Most importantly from my (admittedly somewhat paranoid viewpoint) the VM allows me to choose my own kernel to go with the OS of my choice. DO don't do that. You get to "choose" one of their kernels underneath your installed OS. Apart from my dislike of that model This can, and does, lead to the absurd position where you cannot actually install Openvpn because the tun kernel module won't load because of inconsistencies between the kernel you think you have and the one DO has actually loaded. Of course, all of this is probably moot because all VMs are subject to total surveillance by the owner/operator if they so choose. But, and this depends on your threat model, I feel a little happier with a VM that at least looks and feels "secure" to me. DO doesn't give me that warm feeling. (Bytemark do. In fact I feel very warm about them. But they don't give enough bandwidth at the price point I can pay to let me do all I want to do.) Mick (Please excuse top posting. On my phone, not at my desk. And yes, I know that K9 avoids that.......)On 17 Nov 2016 10:06, Laurie Brown wrote: > > On 16/11/16 20:17, Mick wrote: > > Bev > > > > Rent yourself a VM somewhere outside the UK (but not in the US). Set > > up openvpn on that box. Ubuntu handles that perfectly well. The VPN > > will hide all activity from your ISP so they can't log it. Better > > yet, for anonymity, use Tor. In fact you could combine the two so > > that your ISP can't even see that you are using Tor. > > > > Happy to help if necessary. > > Agreed. > > I can highly recommend Digital Ocean, who have data centres all over the > place. The Dutch one typically give me speeds of over 400meg. > > Their base server is $5 a month and is perfectly adequate for the task. > It takes about 1 minute to set up an Ubuntu VM (with SSD disks) and not > too long to install OpenVPN. > > If you do decide to go for DO, then use my referral link and you'll get > $10 in credit immediately (2 free months!). To be open, if you do use my > link, after you've spend $25, they credit my account with $25 as well. > You can cancel at any time. With 2 free months you have nothing to lose > by giving it a go. > > https://m.do.co/c/7cd7395ed31b > > Just to be clear, I have been using DO for a very long time, and I would > recommend them even without any incentive. > > Cheers, Laurie. > > PS. Their API is very Ansible-friendly. > -- > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Laurie Brown > laurie(a)brownowl.com > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above!

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Re: [ALUG] VPN
by Laurie Brown 17 Nov '16

17 Nov '16

On 16/11/16 20:17, Mick wrote: > Bev > > Rent yourself a VM somewhere outside the UK (but not in the US). Set > up openvpn on that box. Ubuntu handles that perfectly well. The VPN > will hide all activity from your ISP so they can't log it. Better > yet, for anonymity, use Tor. In fact you could combine the two so > that your ISP can't even see that you are using Tor. > > Happy to help if necessary. Agreed. I can highly recommend Digital Ocean, who have data centres all over the place. The Dutch one typically give me speeds of over 400meg. Their base server is $5 a month and is perfectly adequate for the task. It takes about 1 minute to set up an Ubuntu VM (with SSD disks) and not too long to install OpenVPN. If you do decide to go for DO, then use my referral link and you'll get $10 in credit immediately (2 free months!). To be open, if you do use my link, after you've spend $25, they credit my account with $25 as well. You can cancel at any time. With 2 free months you have nothing to lose by giving it a go. https://m.do.co/c/7cd7395ed31b Just to be clear, I have been using DO for a very long time, and I would recommend them even without any incentive. Cheers, Laurie. PS. Their API is very Ansible-friendly. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Laurie Brown laurie(a)brownowl.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: [ALUG] VPN
by Mick 16 Nov '16

16 Nov '16

Bev Rent yourself a VM somewhere outside the UK (but not in the US). Set up openvpn on that box. Ubuntu handles that perfectly well. The VPN will hide all activity from your ISP so they can't log it. Better yet, for anonymity, use Tor. In fact you could combine the two so that your ISP can't even see that you are using Tor. Happy to help if necessary. MickOn 16 Nov 2016 5:32 p.m., Bev Nicolson <lumos(a)gmx.co.uk> wrote: > > So the IP Bill has gone through Parliament so soon all the websites we > visit will be logged. Yay. Anyway, various commentators say 'get a > VPN'. so I wanted ask whether the one that comes with Ubuntu for network > management is OK? I have to say, I know next to nothing about this hence > my question. > > > Bev. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above!

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VPN
by Bev Nicolson 16 Nov '16

16 Nov '16

So the IP Bill has gone through Parliament so soon all the websites we visit will be logged. Yay. Anyway, various commentators say 'get a VPN'. so I wanted ask whether the one that comes with Ubuntu for network management is OK? I have to say, I know next to nothing about this hence my question. Bev.

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WiFi autochannel oddness???
by Bill Hill 14 Nov '16

14 Nov '16

Hi, I've got a WiFI router ADSL thingy on one side of the house (by the phone socket). At certain times of the day I have trouble getting connected from the far side of the house. I can usually see 6-10 other SSIDs, so was guessing this was someone nearby having their device on and colliding, but only sometimes. So I left this running on a RasPi: while true; do ( date "+%Y%m%d%H%M" ; iwlist wlan0 scan | egrep "Channel:" ) > $(date "+%Y%m%d%H%M").log ; sleep 300 ; done Well, now I've got some data: for ((i=1;i<14;i++)); do printf "Channel:%02d = " $i ; ( grep "Channel:$i" *.log | wc -l ) ; done And the results: Channel:01 = 1504 Channel:02 = 26 Channel:03 = 0 Channel:04 = 0 Channel:05 = 0 Channel:06 = 741 Channel:07 = 0 Channel:08 = 0 Channel:09 = 0 Channel:10 = 0 Channel:11 = 223 Channel:12 = 0 Channel:13 = 0 I know channels 1,6&11 are the non-overlapping ones, but isn't this a bit...skewed???!? (Now off auto-selected Channel 1, thanks Netgear, and manually set to Channel 9). -- Red to red, black to black, switch it on, but stand well back.

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nut upsmon comms issues
by Mark Rogers 14 Nov '16

14 Nov '16

Anyone here got more experience of UPS monitoring than I have? I have a UPS configured and working, however it periodically loses communications. I'm not too concerned about that - the server is due for replacement in the next couple of months anyway - but the comms errors are generating emails that I'd like to tweak so they're not filling my inbox. My inbox is filled with COMMBAD emails, followed within seconds (under a minute, usually) by COMMOK. So I'd like to put a delay on the triggering of a warning. The parameter that looks right is NOCOMMWARNTIME in /etc/upsmon.conf, but it defaults to 300s (5 min) anyway; I upped it to 600s (10min) with no change. I think on re-reading the man pages that this affects how often the warning is sent once triggered, not how long after detection the first warning gets sent. The emails get sent to a dedicated "systems" mailbox that should only get stuff that needs action, so getting a COMMBAD/COMMOK pair every few hours is quite frustrating. But turning off monitoring altogether seems like a bad "fix". Any 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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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 10th November
by Viperfang 07 Nov '16

07 Nov '16

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, 10th 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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New member introduction
by Pete Dowdell 06 Nov '16

06 Nov '16

Hello! I joined the list last week. Here is an introduction, as asked: My name is Pete, I am a web developer. GNU/Linux servers are crucial to my work. I also use Ubuntu as my main O/S on my personal machines. I really like Linux! I have mainly joined this list as I am planning to come to Norwich this coming Thursday and meet some ALUG people in the pub. Looking forward to meeting you all then - I hope I have my dates correct! (I do, right? ;) Cheers, pd

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