On Tue, 22 Jan 2002, Jeff Hergan wrote:
>
> I was in a 'talk' session with Anton for a long time today trying to get
> him running.
> He wants the NetBSD machine to run httpd, a mailserver (POP3), and ftpd.
> He also wants the NetBSD box to run sshd for his home network.  And he
> wants to share his one, dynamic IP with two other machines.  And he has
> only one network card.  I told him he's got his work cut out for himself.
>

That was quite noble of you. You're a good man. He does indeed have his
work cut out. I would suggest getting the machine up and running on
whatever network/ISP he is using before proceeding any further. After all,
everything is moot if he has no network connectivity.

> particularly regarding the DHCP setup (I always had static IPs and I'm
> not at all familiar with it).
> Is it correct to assume that as long as the dhcp config file is in /etc
> and rc.conf has the line added (which someone suggested before:
> dhclient=YES) that it will 'just work'?

Well, it depends. I don't know a lot about DHCP, but if the network card
is recognized properly by the kernel (ie, it doesn't set the media type
wrong or something similar), then DHCP should "just work" if he sets
dhclient=YES in rc.conf and reboot. I know I know, we all say it should
"just work"...

> Also a question about sshd.  He tried to start sshd but got an
> error...uhh...damn I can't remember what it was.  But it sounded weird
> (as if that helps) and I didn't recognize it.
> Should sshd just work?  I seem to recall just typing 'sshd &' and having
> it work the last time I ran it.

Again, if he sets sshd=YES in rc.conf and reboots (I say reboot because
it's easier than explaining the proper way to start a daemon, even though
that should be revisited at some point) it should "just work". One thing
to consider is he will need a properly configured hosts file because I
believe NetBSD does some reverse lookup if I remember correct... It's been
a while since I've run into that one. You know you are having the problem
when it takes a while to log in. Back to sshd, one reason why it may not
be working is the keys may not have been generated. The startup script for
sshd checks for the keys and generates them if necessary.

> Finally, is there a way to allow telnetting as root?  I scoured the man
> pages and couldn't find anything about this.  And yes, I recognize that
> it's a grave security risk, but it will be on a closed home network, so
> it won't be a problem.

Oh jeez... I forgot. I know how to do it on some of the commercial unixes
because they allow it by default... Simple answer... JUST DON'T DO IT.
There's no need for remote root these days in 99% of the installs in the
world.

> Thanks.

No prob. It wasn't all that long ago when I was 14 (well, sheesh, it was
14 years ago....) and I do seem to remember being quite impatient...

> Jeffrey P. Hergan, Ph.D
> Adjunct Professor of Philosophy
> Saint Xavier University
> Chicago

Much obliged to reply to a Ph.D in philosophy! I'm a philosopher, know
why? Because I think I am...

Andy
(regular degree in Finance but I work on computers...)

acruhl@sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org