Watch What You Click!

May 13th

Posted by tengrrl in Explanation

It’s time for a reminder to be careful when you click on links that people share. Recently Naive_One came to #help because he had clicked on a link A_Bad_Guy shared (names changed to protect the innocent). A_Bad_Guy used his server logs to get Naive_One’s IP address and attack his network. Unfortunately for Naive_One, there was nothing GeekShed staff could do. It was Naive_One’s poor judgement in clicking the link that caused the problem.

The morale of this story is clear: If you don’t know the person well or don’t recognize the link, don’t click on it. The link you click can give someone else information about your machine or it may cause your machine to download spyware, malware, or a virus that corrupts your system.

Usually it’s safe to click on these links on GeekShed:

  • Links to the GeekShed website.
  • Links shared by network staff.
  • Links to well-known sites, like Wikipedia or Jupiter Broadcasting.

Unless you know the person who shares the link, it’s best NOT to click on shortened links, because you cannot tell where they will take you. A bit.ly link might take you to Wikipedia or it could take you to a malware site. There’s no way to guess just by looking at the URL.

Finally, let me share a reminder from the GeekShed Terms of Service:

GeekShed is not responsible for the content you may transmit or receive. Due to the real time nature of IRC, we cannot monitor or police the exchange of data. To protect yourself, we highly recommend that you run a current antivirus program and never click on links from people you do not know.

So click safely, and make sure you keep your machine and network protected!

 

—posted by Tengrrl/Bunny

 

, , , ,

Can I Link Two Channels?

Mar 10th

Posted by Allan in Tutorial

One question that is routinely asked in #help is how a channel owner can forward users from one channel to another. They usually ask this because they have changed channel names, and there is no other method available to regular users (as opposed to those with access to the IRCd configuration files); however it is also useful if the group that the channel is used by is hosting an event, and to keep the main channel manageable, want to limit it to only X amount of people, and have users that join after that go to an overfill channel.

In any case, linking two channels together is very easy, as it only involves setting two channel modes – the first sets a limit of X people that can be in the channel, and the second sets the channel to send people to after X people have joined the main channel. Also, you are not limited in the number of channels that can be linked together, with the exception that a channel can only forward users to one channel. #Chan1 can forward to #chan2, which can forward to #chan3, etc.
l = Channel may hold at most of users [o] (This mode is a lowercase L, not a capital i)
L = Channel link (If +l is full, the next user will auto-join ) [q]
So if I wanted to forward my channel #Inara to #Adria, I would do the following: /mode #Inara +lL 1 #Adria. If I wanted to always have the channel set like that, so that nobody could change it, I would use chanserv’s mlock option, and do: /msg chanserv set #Inara mlock +lL 1 #Adria.

If you are linking an old channel to a new one (i.e. you’ve moved channels), the number must be 1, and there must be someone in the channel for it to work (note: botserv bots do not count. It can be a bot that you run though). If you have linked a primary channel to an overfill one, the number can be anything equal to or greater than 1.

NOTE: Linked channels do not share the same permissions, you will need to add people to the aop/sop/hop/vop lists in each channel.

Should you have any questions about linking channels, feel free to leave a comment here, or to join #help and ask in there.
, , ,

Can I link a server to GeekShed?

Nov 7th

Posted by Phil in Explanation

GeekShed is not linking any servers at this time. If our server status changes, we will update this post to let you know that we are linking servers again.

In the event our needs change, servers linked to GeekShed must fulfill the following requirements:

Hardware
  • 1GHz+ CPU
  • 512MB+ RAM
  • 3GB available hard disk space
  • 100Mbit FD NIC
  • Currently 60+ days uptime
Network
  • 10mbit downstream
  • 10mbit upstream
  • 1 spare IP that can be dedicated to GeekShed
  • Firewall allowing unrestricted connections to and from TCP ports 843, 1494, 1755, 4400, 4401, 6660-6669, 6697, 7029 and 7070
  • The server must allow both inbound and outbound connections
  • You will also be asked to host a 100MB file (create it with dd if=/dev/zero of=/path/to/100mb-zero.bin bs=1MB count=100) for download with http, sftp or scp to test throughput
  • Server owners must be aware that their server will suffer from frequent denial of service attacks (DDOS) and servers hosted with ISPs sensitive to DDOS will not be accepted
Software
  • The following libraries must be installed:

    • openssl
    • zlib
  • For Linux, all -dev packages for installed libraries must be installed.
  • A full toolchain, including gcc, binutils, coreutils, etc. If you cannot compile software, we can’t use the machine right now.
  • Full SSH access (including sftp and scp)
  • If the server has a restricted firewall, we must have the ability to add ports to it promptly, not wait around for 30 days for an email tag to get them allowed.
  • Server owners should be prompt in updating for security updates and updating the system itself.
  • FreeBSD 7+ and Linux 2.6+ kernels have priority – Windows servers will NEVER be accepted.
  • Must be able to run a small C file via a super-server daemon on port 843 – This typically requires root access or co-operation from the server administrator
  • Have hard and soft FD limits greater than or equal to 2048 (ulimit -Hn ; ulimit -Sn)
Network Staff

Server owners will rarely be given an O:Line on their server. Server owners must earn their position on the network staff team, like everyone else. Server donations, however, will be considered as a positive when considering new staff. Please do not ask to link a server simply because you want to be network staff!

 

—updated by Tengrrl/Bunny on 2014/07/01; originally posted by Phil on 2009/11/07.

, , ,