- Roundtable - muug.ca

Last day for nominations!
by Adam Thompson 28 Sep '10

28 Sep '10

Reminder - today is the last day for nominations to the Board! If you don't have your nominations papers in by midnight, you cannot stand for election at the AGM next month. (N.B. Historically, the Elections Committee has accepted electronic notices of nomination, provided the signed paper copy is forwarded to us promptly. So if you'd like to stand for election, get ONE OTHER CURRENT MEMBER to nominate you ASAP!) -Adam Thompson athompso(a)muug.mb.ca athompso(a)athompso.net (204) 291-7950 [if you have any last-minute questions before midnight, I suppose]

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Re: [RndTbl] Roundtable Digest, Vol 69, Issue 11
by Brock Wolfe 21 Sep '10

21 Sep '10

I prefer the DROP packet by IP ADDRESS solution. Simple and to the point. Worked really well for me on abusive crawlers from china and russia. 8-) Brock On 9/18/2010 12:00 PM, roundtable-request(a)muug.mb.ca wrote: > Send Roundtable mailing list submissions to > roundtable(a)muug.mb.ca > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > roundtable-request(a)muug.mb.ca > > You can reach the person managing the list at > roundtable-owner(a)muug.mb.ca > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Roundtable digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. slowing httpd access to cgi-bin scripts (Gilles Detillieux) > 2. Re: slowing httpd access to cgi-bin scripts > (Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson) > 3. Re: slowing httpd access to cgi-bin scripts (Sean Walberg) > 4. Re: slowing httpd access to cgi-bin scripts (Tim Lavoie) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2010 16:08:00 -0500 > From: Gilles Detillieux<grdetil(a)scrc.umanitoba.ca> > Subject: [RndTbl] slowing httpd access to cgi-bin scripts > To: MUUG Roundtable<roundtable(a)muug.mb.ca> > Message-ID:<4C93D8B0.2010708(a)scrc.umanitoba.ca> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > Every once in a while, some doofus points a web crawler at our web site > and, ignoring the disallowed areas in our robots.txt file, starts > crawling through some of our cgi-bin scripts at a rate of 4 to 8 hits a > second. This is particularly annoying with some of the more processor > and disk intensive CGI programs, such as man2html, which also happens to > generate lots of links back to itself. > > Is there anything I can set up in Apache to throttle back and slow down > remote hosts when they start hitting hard on cgi-bin? I don't want to > do anything that would adversely affect legitimate users, nor make > important things like the manual pages hard to find by removing any > public links to them. But when a client starts making 10 or more GET > requests on /cgi-bin in a 5 second period, it would be nice if I could > get the server to progressively add longer and longer delays before > servicing these requests, to keep the load down and prevent the server > from thrashing. > > I'd appreciate any tips. > > Thanks, > Gilles >

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slowing httpd access to cgi-bin scripts
by Gilles Detillieux 21 Sep '10

21 Sep '10

Every once in a while, some doofus points a web crawler at our web site and, ignoring the disallowed areas in our robots.txt file, starts crawling through some of our cgi-bin scripts at a rate of 4 to 8 hits a second. This is particularly annoying with some of the more processor and disk intensive CGI programs, such as man2html, which also happens to generate lots of links back to itself. Is there anything I can set up in Apache to throttle back and slow down remote hosts when they start hitting hard on cgi-bin? I don't want to do anything that would adversely affect legitimate users, nor make important things like the manual pages hard to find by removing any public links to them. But when a client starts making 10 or more GET requests on /cgi-bin in a 5 second period, it would be nice if I could get the server to progressively add longer and longer delays before servicing these requests, to keep the load down and prevent the server from thrashing. I'd appreciate any tips. Thanks, Gilles -- Gilles R. Detillieux E-mail: <grdetil(a)scrc.umanitoba.ca> Spinal Cord Research Centre WWW: http://www.scrc.umanitoba.ca/ Dept. Physiology, U. of Manitoba Winnipeg, MB R3E 0J9 (Canada)

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MUUG Board Elections - FINAL CALL for Nominations
by Gilbert E. Detillieux 21 Sep '10

21 Sep '10

Hear ye, hear ye! This is FINAL CALL for nominees to participate in the election for the MUUG board. Those elected will serve from October 2010 until October 2011. The deadline to nominate yourself, or someone else, is September 28, 2010. Instructions follow. The MUUG board is charged with coordinating the meetings and other events by the group. It's fun, and you get a role in guiding the group. All are encouraged to apply. (And a big "thank you" to those who have already done so!) ------------------------ MUUG Board Elections - Call for Nominations Every October the Manitoba Unix User Group holds its Annual Meeting, the main goals of which are to elect a new Board of Directors and to pass any special resolutions. (Aside from that, it is a regular meeting) *Any MUUG member in good standing can be nominated to run for a position on the Board.* As of this writing, the following members of the current Board have let their names stand for re-election: Sean Cody Senior System Admin. Prime Focus VFX Services Gilbert Detillieux Systems Analyst University of Manitoba Michael Doob Professor University of Manitoba Kevin McGregor Network Analyst City of Winnipeg Doug Shewfelt Systems Specialist City of Winnipeg Adam Thompson Consultant athompso.net (Montana Quiring has withdrawn his nomination.) Of course, this list is just a starting point. Any member in good standing of the group can be nominated simply by getting the support of one other member. If you feel you would like to contribute to the group by running for a board position, please don't hesitate to do so. (In fact, we'd like to see the number of board members increase.) If you want to be nominated, or to nominate someone else, send a letter to the group's postal box or deliver it in person to a current board member. The letter must contain the name, title, and employer of the nominee, along with a short (100 word or so) biography, and must contain the signatures of the nominee and one other member. The letter must be received no later than September 28, 2010, which is 14 days prior to the October 12 meeting. Although the by-laws require that the nominations be done in writing, with signatures, you can speed up the process by sending e-mail to <election(a)muug.mb.ca>, with the above information, and sending the signed paper copy later. In this case, please include the e-mail address of both the nominee and the supporter on the CC: list of the message, so that all parties concerned have a record of the communication. Nominees should familiarize themselves with the MUUG bylaws, found here: http://www.muug.mb.ca/pub/bylaws/ If you have any questions about the election or the nomination process, please contact Gilbert Detillieux, either by phone (474-8161) during business hours, or by e-mail to <election(a)muug.mb.ca> anytime. Gilbert Detillieux Election Committee Chair ------------------------ -- Gilbert E. Detillieux E-mail: <gedetil(a)muug.mb.ca> Manitoba UNIX User Group Web: http://www.muug.mb.ca/ PO Box 130 St-Boniface Phone: (204)474-8161 Winnipeg MB CANADA R2H 3B4 Fax: (204)474-7609

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Help with external hard drive recovery
by Steve Moffat 20 Sep '10

20 Sep '10

A friend of mine contacted me this morning to ask for help with an external USB hard Drive. He believes the data is intact. It just won't power on. I don't have the time or tools to help him... if you do, please email me directly and I'll pass along his contact info. (or I can get him to contact you). You can work out the $$ details with him. I'm sure he'd be willing to compensate. The data is related to his work. He is in the River Heights area. The drive is: Maxtor OneTouch Maxtor OneTouch III Turbo Edition (RAID 0/1, USB 2.0/FireWire 400/FireWire 800 (1TB)) If you'd rather just supply some hints and tips I can relay them to him. Thanks! I was going to put this on the "jobs(a)muug.mb.ca", but after reviewing some of the posts there it seems they are oriented to "positions" rather than piece work. Steve Moffat IBM Global Services sjm(a)ca.ibm.com (204)792-3245

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Re: [RndTbl] Oldest email
by Gerald Brandt 17 Sep '10

17 Sep '10

I was sure I had some stored from 85 or 86, but I can't find them. Oh well. Gerald

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Oldest email
by Montana Quiring 16 Sep '10

16 Sep '10

I started this in Twitter and Facebook and so far Dan K. holds the record for oldest email...Jan 10, 1987 Can anyone beat him? -Montana Blog and Aggregation Site: http://montanaquiring.info iPhone/Touch Apps I have bought: http://appshopper.com/feed/user/antikx/myapps

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Mac as a web server - part 2
by Mike Pfaiffer 16 Sep '10

16 Sep '10

One of those moments you get every so often. I fixed the problem without realising it... This brings up several more interesting problems. 1) Webmin is still reporting it is running from Apache 1.3 yet every other indicator says Apache 2 is running. Could Webmin be reading the information from the default configuration files instead of probing Apache directly? Could I use Webmin to point to the MAMP configuration files instead? If so would this mean Apache 2 would start by default instead of Apache 1.3? Specifically, no start-up script needed... By changing the Apache module configuration in Webmin, could I accidentally "mangle" the system? Now I KNOW everything is running, would a reinstall of Webmin be appropriate or should I go through the manual alteration I mentioned earlier? Is there a better administration program than Webmin? I suppose I could ssh in to the machine but everything is collected into one spot with Webmin. 2) I wanted to check out the system web page (http://192.168.x.y) after some changes and it no longer comes up. When I wanted to see if I could get a "<?php phpinfo() ?>" script running I renamed some file in the system area. The default web page no longer comes up. How would I get it back? Yes the files were renamed back to the way they were and restarting the server didn't do anything. Suppose I wanted a different system page. How would I set it up in MAMP? Normally I would have an index.html or index.php in the system directory. 3) As it is, all the web pages are stored under the MAMP directory. This is not such a big deal since in the preferences I can specify another location. However I might like to have different users on the machine at a later date. Is there a way to specify multiple directories? I suppose I could edit some of the files manually if I had to. Comparing this with Ubuntu server, the process should be trivial if I knew where to look. I would like to remove the "/MAMP" from all URLs pointing to the server. How? I haven't found a method of doing so yet. The closest thing I found is messing around with the hosts file and a number of problems were pointed out at that point. *** At that point I think the Mac could be said to be the equivalent to Ubuntu server... The process isn't difficult. It's just a matter of how you know where you are in the process. I'll start playing around with the Apache module in Webmin when I'm a little more awake. No need to risk making dumb mistakes. Later Mike

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Mac as a web server
by Mike Pfaiffer 15 Sep '10

15 Sep '10

This is just something to keep me occupied for a while. It isn't anything serious (yet). As I said at this months meeting I have a spare G4 server sitting around. Last month I was playing around with the current Ubuntu server. I found some applications which should work as long as the revision level of the software is fine. Which is to say they worked with Ubuntu server but whine and complain about the default revisions on the G4 (OS X 10.4 desktop). It really shouldn't be too difficult to set things up on a Mac... Here is what I've done so far. After a couple of days of reading on the web I found people are suggesting upgrading to 10.5 (out of the question), or updating the software to something close to current. The suggestions are Apache 2.x, MySQL 5.x, and PHP 5.x would be good things to install. The defaults are Apache 1.3, and PHP 4.x. I don't know if MySQL is installed. Oh, and it was suggested Webmin would be good for playing around on a small scale. I tried installing the individual components separately based on what they suggested on the product web sites and had mixed success. Although PHP was in the 5.x range it wasn't near current. Apache 2.x installed but the built in 1.3 wouldn't let it run properly. MySQL just whined. Following some suggestions from the net I looked at a series of programs called MAMP and found the installation to be very easy. All the software it installed was relatively up to date. Everything ran well with a major show stopper. Connecting locally was fine but connecting through the LAN defaulted back to the old software versions. It seems MAMP and another series of programs called XAMPP only want to be run locally as a development environment. There was one web page I found about 20 minutes ago which suggested using Mac Ports to update the software. After getting into the page a little there was a hint I wouldn't have much more in the way of success if I went that route. Oh, I also made sure Personal Web Sharing was turned off in the System Preferences. Now for the request for some advice... If I were running an Intel Mac I would just install a virtual machine with Ubuntu server or something similar and be done with it. Unfortunately the G4 is a PPC and not an Intel box. Does anybody have any advice on where to proceed from here? The Mac Ports idea might be worth a look if I can somehow point the default server away from Apache 1.3 to 2.x. Running MAMP may have some merit since I can change the default port to 80. Unfortunately Webmin wants to run on a different port and defaults back to Apache 1.3. I could install *BSD but I think that's a little more involved than I want to get at this point. Like the problem I was having with PHP last year, it's probably a 10 second fix. The problem is where to apply the fix. ;-) Later Mike

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ssh host checking
by Trevor Cordes 10 Sep '10

10 Sep '10

What security will I lose by using ssh with: -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o CheckHostIP=no ? I have a script that connects automatically to dozens of linux boxen (that I control) on the internet using dsa/rsa keys. Many of these are on MTS DSL and so change their IP's frequently (often many times a week). They all have dynamic dns setup so I can always access them via a DNS domain name (rather than IP). If I use the ssh defaults of StrictHostKeyChecking=ask and CheckHostIP=yes, it mostly works as expected, but sometimes my script will hang with ssh waiting for tty input with the usual: The authenticity of host 'foo.com (141.162.215.81)' can't be established. Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? I don't mind this for new boxes where I haven't confirmed the fingerprint yet, but for existing boxes where the IP has changed, it sometimes gives me grief. I can't recall all the particular instances, but the one that just hit me was one of my MTS boxes cycled onto an IP that was previously used by a different box! Seems rather unlikely, but with DSL hanging up all the time, it's bound to happen. I see no way around this occurrence except to use the above -o options to disable all checks. So what attacks am I really opening myseful up to with those settings? Is the worst case that a MitM captures my commands? Or is the worst case that they gain my password/key and access to the remote system? What else? It sure would be nice if I could, on my local box, install a key or something from each of the remote boxen and say that I never care about what IP it has at the moment, just check the key and be happy & secure. For all scenarios assume local + remote boxes have not been compromised. Thanks!

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