Configuration

In this page I explain how the server has been configured. I will complete that information from time to time, so you can look for anounces of new additions on the blog.

Operating System

 As you could expect, I have installed a GNU/Linux as OS. Concretely, an Arch Linux. I chose this distribution because I read that it is lightweight distribution with binaries optimized for i686 (my server's architecture). On the web you can find its advantages and a comparison with other distributions.

I would like to add that it is not the first time I install an Arch Linux. I had installed and tested in on my laptop before, just to be sure I feel comfortable with it and meet my requirements. With this distribution I got again the "old feeling" of working with GNU/Linux, comprehending what is my system doing and how to configure things just editing a text file.

I'm not going to give details about the installation, because it doesn't have anything to remark. If you are interested in more details, you can visit the wiki or the installation guide.

Sharing files

I wanted to have a way of transfering files from the server to other computers connected on the LAN, such as my latop or the PC of my brother. After comparing the different solutions, I opted for the famous and simple FTP. I do not remember the exact details (I suppose that it was easy configuration), but I chose Proftpd. The installation was easy:

pacman -S proftpd

As you can see, Arch Linux uses a packet managing system similar to apt-get, called pacman.  After the installation, we have to edit the configuration file /etc/proftpd.conf. I just changed the Servename and Servertype (to standalone) variables, and almost anything else. The default configuration was good enough for my needs. Now, the users can acces to their homes via ftp, using the same username and password of its shell account.

That could be considered a security fault, because anyone could capture the FTP session (which is not encrypted), and the use the captured data to establish a potentially dangerous ssh session. In my defense, I would like to add that I'm only going to use the FTP on the local network, so you can only capture this connection if you are already connected to my network (and in this case, I suppose that I will be having bigger problems).  Furthermore, the users are only going to have films and music on their homes, not sensitive information. Finally, if you are only interested in FTP, you can disable the ssh acces to the users.

Oh, I almost forget it! In order to start the server (daemon) at boot up, you have to add it to the /etc/rc.conf fil. More details here.