Post Your Servers v3: Holy Motherload of Knowledge - Hardware & Software

[QUOTE=Nightscout;50522637]So I'm at University and would like to play online with some friends on our own server. I'm considering just renting one, but I'd like to be able to rent it for a smaller period of time than a month. That doesn't really seem to exist at the moment. I was considering buying my own router, since I can't just go port-forwarding the University one. My reasoning is that it will eventually pay for itself when I can host listen servers whenever my friends and I want to play something in particular online. I also will have the option of hosting different games as opposed to signing up for a dedicated of specific game. Is that a logical solution? Or am I better off just dropping 8 bucks for a rental? Better yet, is there a service to pay for the use of the server, but allows you to configure it for any game you want? I know a small amount when it comes to servers but I'm sure you all know better than me.[/QUOTE] University router? You might need to make sure the infrastructure actually allows for this. (Some networking setups don't actually directly connect you to the internet, not quite sure if you have a shared IP pool or anything alike - in Denmark there are no routers delivered by universities, which is why I'm curious. I think you need to be a bit more specific on what kind of load it needs to do. If it's small stuff you could just open and close a DigitalOcean VPS if you really want to be on the cheap (you can back it up so you'll keep the data)

Yeah sorry if that was vague. The University apartments have WiFi internet access. Trying to mess with the ports on the routers they have installed for the buildings would be just plain wrong and stupid, not to mention in order for somebody to do so they'd need to get their hands on the admin password for it. If I bought my [I]own [/I]router and hooked it up to the available Ethernet, I'd be able to port forward it for my needs, yes? Any recommended models and brands? (preferably on the less-costly side).

[QUOTE=Nightscout;50522637]So I'm at University and would like to play online with some friends on our own server. I'm considering just renting one, but I'd like to be able to rent it for a smaller period of time than a month. That doesn't really seem to exist at the moment. I was considering buying my own router, since I can't just go port-forwarding the University one. My reasoning is that it will eventually pay for itself when I can host listen servers whenever my friends and I want to play something in particular online. I also will have the option of hosting different games as opposed to signing up for a dedicated of specific game. Is that a logical solution? Or am I better off just dropping 8 bucks for a rental? Better yet, is there a service to pay for the use of the server, but allows you to configure it for any game you want? I know a small amount when it comes to servers but I'm sure you all know better than me.[/QUOTE] You don't get a public IP from your university router so you're still dealing with the university's blocking the ports. And you'll have a double NAT, not good. Many universities also have policies against residents plugging in routers.

[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;50509612]but what does it do[/QUOTE] things ya know

[QUOTE=birkett;50508947]Use Cloudflare. Most don't realise that it works great as a DDNS service.[/QUOTE] Care to elaborate?

[QUOTE=Van-man;50525435]Care to elaborate?[/QUOTE] They have a publicly accessible [URL="https://api.cloudflare.com/"]HTTP API[/URL] to update DNS records. Because of this, it can be used in pretty much any language to update your domain with your public IP. I do this myself by getting my public IP from my router (i reverse-engineered the router API, then made a script to log in, get the public IP and log out again). Other people like to use public "what's my ip" services, i like to do it the reliable yet somewhat more advanced way.

[QUOTE=Nightscout;50522829]Trying to mess with the ports on the routers they have installed for the buildings would be just plain wrong and stupid, not to mention in order for somebody to do so they'd need to get their hands on the admin password for it.[/QUOTE] Glad you understand that if you play stupid games you will win stupid prizes. I had two friends in college receive disciplinary action for trying to circumvent the university's network security. Apparently they didn't understand that the same guy who configured the networks also wrote the curriculum for the security classes. Of course Nessus and Meterpreter aren't going to get you anywhere, ya dolts.

[QUOTE=Killervalon;50508670]If you have movies on it you could use Plex. (Plex + Chromecast is godly)[/QUOTE] Sandstorm is also a great one to use. Me and my co-workers use Plex + Sandstorm to share all of our media with each other. Sandstorm allows us to allow upload our music to a central location, and Plex lets us stream that library to mobile devices. Sandstorm actually has TONS of different uses though. It's worth checking out for a lot of situations.

I present to you my first purchased server box, I shall name it The Admiral Kuznetsov [IMG_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/5vq0mnl.jpg[/IMG_thumb] [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/e971YYX.png[/IMG] [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/XZvoj0M.png[/IMG]

[T]http://i.imgur.com/OItbqPN.png[/T] So my ssh was acting really sluggish yesterday and after checking the auth logs I found this. Looks like I've had multiple Chinese IPs trying to brute-force their way in. Ended up changing my ssh port and installing fail2ban just in case, but this is definitely a first for me.

I haven't had too much experience in dealing with hosters/support, but I would try bringing this up to them and see if they can do anything on their side. Fail2Ban helps the firewall stay updated on IPs to block, but they still can attempt to connect.

[QUOTE=FrankPetrov;50560969]I haven't had too much experience in dealing with hosters/support, but I would try bringing this up to them and see if they can do anything on their side. Fail2Ban helps the firewall stay updated on IPs to block, but they still can attempt to connect.[/QUOTE] They'd probably just laugh in your face, because [I]every[/I] internet-connected computer sees this. Just don't use bad passwords and you'll be fine. Fail2ban does help keep the log spam down, though.

[QUOTE=DrTaxi;50563125]They'd probably just laugh in your face, because [I]every[/I] internet-connected computer sees this. Just don't use bad passwords and you'll be fine. Fail2ban does help keep the log spam down, though.[/QUOTE] Better yet, use SSH keys and disable password auth.

[QUOTE=deadeye536;50564447]Better yet, use SSH keys and disable password auth.[/QUOTE] Pretty much what I'm doing at this point - also changed the port from 22 to another unassigned port, and I haven't had an attempt since. Any other general security tips for keeping your server locked up tight?

[QUOTE=Falstad007;50566811]Pretty much what I'm doing at this point - also changed the port from 22 to another unassigned port, and I haven't had an attempt since. Any other general security tips for keeping your server locked up tight?[/QUOTE] Uncomplicated firewall is a simple and awesome way to lock down open ports (assuming your provider doesn't already offer a firewall). Just make absolutely sure that you whitelist your ssh port. I don't use it, but if you accept a lot of user content, consider ClamAV (even if only for those who download the file later). This is default on most distros, but make sure you prevent the root user from logging in directly to ssh. On Ubuntu, I enable unattended upgrades for security releases. If you want to go overkill, you can repartitioning the box so you can mount directories like /tmp with flags like nodev, noexec and nosuid. You can also try out auditd and aide if you want a taste of FIPS compliance. Past that, there are many more considerations you could make depending on the applications running on it.

New toy just arrived!! [T]http://puu.sh/pKqsb/6b91e38ef4.JPG[/T] [T]http://puu.sh/pKqrY/291debfc00.JPG[/T] [T]http://puu.sh/pKqs2/9d635c3f8c.JPG[/T] [T]http://puu.sh/pKqs7/8c7dd6659f.JPG[/T] Gonna put this bb to work at NeuroTec soon but first I gotta find some RDIMM memory for it.

Just quickly wondering, what would even be the benefits of choosing actual server hardware rather than desktop hardware? [t]https://f.lewd.se/V2NMjv_mstsc_2016-07-01_09-47-03.png[/t] I run a few things such as a minecraft server for an old classmate, my mom's IP camera get's streamed through Ustream here, and it runs an OpenVPN server in a Ubuntu VM.

[QUOTE=Merijnwitje;50626964]Just quickly wondering, what would even be the benefits of choosing actual server hardware rather than desktop hardware? [t]https://f.lewd.se/V2NMjv_mstsc_2016-07-01_09-47-03.png[/t] I run a few things such as a minecraft server for an old classmate, my mom's IP camera get's streamed through Ustream here, and it runs an OpenVPN server in a Ubuntu VM.[/QUOTE] Redundancy and Reliability, unless you gotta change out the CPU/RAM you will not have to take it down for maintenance. Also 101C = BEEP BEEP RED FUCKING ALERT I would look into that CPU temp because that's going to burn out your system doing that 24/7.

It is considering that I water cooled that thing :v: Then again it's Speccy being dodgy. Checking both OHM and CPUID HWMonitor returns me temperatures of 61c

Here's our latest project at work. 28 routers, 387 switches. This picture has about 3/4 of it. [t]http://i.imgur.com/00sMZVE.jpg[/t]

Anyone here have experience building racks out of wood? I'm giving up finding more racks and I'm going to make a single wooden frame that will hold three rows of 19" devices, four rows if I were to rearrange the utility wiring to the room.

[QUOTE=pentium;50641034]Anyone here have experience building racks out of wood? I'm giving up finding more racks and I'm going to make a single wooden frame that will hold three rows of 19" devices, four rows if I were to rearrange the utility wiring to the room.[/QUOTE] [URL="https://wiki.eth0.nl/index.php/LackRack"]Tried IKEA?[/URL]

No like, I got a pile of 2x4's and 4x4's and I have an idea for the frame already drawn but is it worth it or will I run into weight and alignment issues? On top of some new-ish servers we are also talking about 900 pounds of UPS.

Depending on the equipment you may run into issues with the wood splintering and breaking over time with just a pair of screws on the front.

It would be four post so there's also places to mount at the back. I know too many stories of people two-posting servers and things getting wrecked.

I'd imagine 4 post should be solid with very hard wood. Degradation if you have to take it in and out at all would be a concern as well.

[QUOTE=Van-man;50641066][URL="https://wiki.eth0.nl/index.php/LackRack"]Tried IKEA?[/URL][/QUOTE] You know, if you can build one with enough rack space and the right height, this actually seems pretty convenient for a living room table. Throw in your game consoles and other home AV equipment, a cheap rackmount switch, a [url=http://www.canford.co.uk/Products/11-231_CANFORD-RACKWINE-Winerack-rack-mount-3U-black]rackmount winerack[/url], a [url=http://www.canford.co.uk/Products/20704/13-024_CANFORD-FRIDGE-Rackmount-13U-black]rackmount fridge[/url], an [url=http://www.model42.com/]RMV420[/url] [sp]rackmount herb vaporizer[/sp]... I'm open to more suggestions.

[QUOTE=DrTaxi;50645272]You know, if you can build one with enough rack space and the right height, this actually seems pretty convenient for a living room table. Throw in your game consoles and other home AV equipment, a cheap rackmount switch, a [url=http://www.canford.co.uk/Products/11-231_CANFORD-RACKWINE-Winerack-rack-mount-3U-black]rackmount winerack[/url], a [url=http://www.canford.co.uk/Products/20704/13-024_CANFORD-FRIDGE-Rackmount-13U-black]rackmount fridge[/url], an [url=http://www.model42.com/]RMV420[/url] [sp]rackmount herb vaporizer[/sp]... I'm open to more suggestions.[/QUOTE] I gotta be honest, I'm more surprised by the rackmounted wine-rack than the rackmounted vape.

I've heard that modern LACK's don't have as much wood in the legs anymore.

[QUOTE=pentium;50641100]No like, I got a pile of 2x4's and 4x4's and I have an idea for the frame already drawn but is it worth it or will I run into weight and alignment issues? On top of some new-ish servers we are also talking about 900 pounds of UPS.[/QUOTE] If you're going to be doing any load bearing at all you're going to want to ensure you properly cross beam. Steel L connectors ([url]http://www.fastenersplus.com/Simpson-A23Z-2-x-1-1-2-Angle-Zmax-Finish?gclid=CjwKEAjwkui7BRCf64DNtfDupgoSJAA_0LOoKjn5Tz3RUOtl6OrWc0guQIsOzJZ00X2rehjYE4_paxoCK2zw_wcB[/url]) are also very bueno for stability. Lastly, don't forget to tap before you screw and to use sufficiently long screws.