FTP Server on Ubuntu 5.10

Found a very helpful howto on Ubuntu's Forum on how to set up a ProFTPd server, cheers:

Here is the Tutorial

Got my ftp server up, now I can do some constructive web building…

Here is another nice link for Setting your Apache server up for multiple websites and showing how to host website at home with Dynamic IP/DNS.

Last but not least:  Here is a webpage with all the networking tools you will need to check your web hosting connections:

DNSStuff 

Set up NTFS Partition as Windows Shared Folder on a dual boot Linux

This is not a new thing for some people, but still want to share my excitement for being able to do this at home, I am able to share the Windows XP NTFS partition on my AMD64 Ubuntu 5.10 Breezy with other machines as a Windows Network shared folder (thanks to Samba!). Here is what I did:

1. Set up automounting for the Windows partition:
• In /etc/fstab, the line in which the partition is mounted is similiar to below (depending on your hardware setup):
• /dev/sda1 /media/WinDrive ntfs defaults,nls=utf8,umask=0222 0 0
• Now, mount the Windows partition by “mount /media/WinDrive
2. Install Samba if you haven’t: “apt-get install samba” and set up the firewall to accept the traffic (strongly suggest you to figure out how to block traffic with iptables):
• The strategy of my iptables.rules is to block all access except the ones explicitly stated in other ruels, so I added two lines to allow LAN access to Samba:
• -A INPUT -i eth0 -p tcp -m tcp -s 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0 –dport 137:139 -j ACCEPT
  -A INPUT -i eth0 -p udp -m udp -s 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0 –dport 137:139 -j ACCEPT
• Reload iptables: “iptables-retore “
3. To set up the folders to share, the easiest way is to use the Ubuntu’s tool in “System”, “Administartion”, “Shared Folders” to configure it. Also you can go thru the man page of smb.conf to find out more about it. If you are able to mount the Windows partition, you should be able to choose it for sharing.
4. To disable the password login, I modify the smb.conf to have these two options in [global] section changed:
• security = share
  guest ok = yes
• You may want to test to make sure the configuration file is not messed up: “testparm /etc/samba/smb.conf”
5. Reload Samba: “/etc/init.d/samba restart”
6. That should be it, enjoy~

File & Media Server

I run across another blog and the guy built a Linux Media Server where all the digital content are stored in this server accessible from anywhere within his LAN. It is not a brand new idea, and I have been thinking about this, but also been slacking and relying on Windows Home Network setup. The fact is, I don’t really want to stick to Windows and I have been a fan of Linux for the past 3 years, but Microsoft has made things work the way I can find excuses to slack.

So here I am looking at my hardwares at home to make a decision on how the set up should be:

1. Desktop with AMD64 200GB-150GB(NTFS), 50GS(ext3)

2. Server with Celeron 80GB-10GB, 30GB, 40GB

3. Laptop (Windows)

4. Laptop (Linux)

I am tempted to set up the AMD64 as the server, but I will also need to keep a windows machine accessible to my dear Fiance whose preference is still with Windows (my bad). The windows Laptop is accessible, but two month ago our cat tip over a water cup down and the flooding made some keys on the keyboard broken. So that becomes a no-no option. Also, the AMD64 is my windows machine for games, so I will need to use the capacity to keep my games…

Second option is to use Celeron as file server, though I am not sure if it can sustain the traffic. But here is the plan:

1. to set it up with FTP, NTS, SMB services so files can be accessible for any service, with authentication and access control for outside the LAN.

2. Get a USB keyboard and mouse set to get the Laptop accessible.

Ok, time to get busy.