Amahi Forums

Even though I've used Ubuntu (not Fedora) for about a year, I'm mostly a Windows guy and I want to get this thing right.

I recently re-installed my Amahi home server from the ground up (i.e. I re-installed Fedora 9 AND Amahi) and I now have a server with about a terabyte of space over 3 drives. I haven't set up any users or custom shares yet. I fought through hardware problems and I'm now ready to move the box to my closet to run headless.

But before I do, here are a few questions:

1) What is the best way to install updates? There are several Fedora updates that need to occur. When I installed Amahi before (about a month ago), the automatic updates to the OS caused issues with my Amahi user permissions. However, I seem to remember there being an update of Amahi that fixed this. Is it safe to allow the automatic updates to run now?

2) What's the best way to restrict access to the http://hda/setup screen? I don't think any other family members will do anything on purpose, but I don't want someone accidentally deleting shares. I'm OK with them getting to the wiki and calendar, but not setup. Should I use .htaccess to limit who can get there?

3) I'm not excited about the machine running as "root" the entire time. Will it cause issues if I keep the machine running as another user with less permissions?

4) Any firewall recommendations?

5) TightVNC (from my XP machine) doesn't seem to want to connect to my Amahi box using localhost.localdomain:0 as the address. I'm sure I'm missing something easy here. Any ideas?

This is a terrific product. I love the functionality and the simple interface. Props to all the developers.

1) What is the best way to install updates? There are several Fedora updates that need to occur. When I installed Amahi before (about a month ago), the automatic updates to the OS caused issues with my Amahi user permissions. However, I seem to remember there being an update of Amahi that fixed this. Is it safe to allow the automatic updates to run now?

it should be however, it's not guaranteed. we only recommend you do the security updates, for stability.

2) What's the best way to restrict access to the http://hda/setup screen? I don't think any other family members will do anything on purpose, but I don't want someone accidentally deleting shares. I'm OK with them getting to the wiki and calendar, but not setup. Should I use .htaccess to limit who can get there?

you can do it with htaccess, yes. we plan to add a login screen there, but that will take a bit to happen.

3) I'm not excited about the machine running as "root" the entire time. Will it cause issues if I keep the machine running as another user with less permissions?

what do you mean running as root the entire time?

once you create users, you should just use them to login. definitely try to not login as root.

4) Any firewall recommendations?

a $30 router!

amahi is not meant to be a firewall/router. it's mean to run in a trusted network environment.
it doesn't mean we will not support it in the future.

if you know what you are doing well, you can do it, on eth1 (eth0 is used for amahi).

we do know some people use the popular ipcop. shorewall is also a popular choice for firewall.

5) TightVNC (from my XP machine) doesn't seem to want to connect to my Amahi box using localhost.localdomain:0 as the address. I'm sure I'm missing something easy here. Any ideas?

hmmm. should be see the VNC guide on the wiki.

This is a terrific product. I love the functionality and the simple interface. Props to all the developers.

thanks, for my (small-to-medium) part!

the real kudos go to the community (yourself included, as the instigator and chief guru in the forums!) for all the contributions!

You need not be logged in to your Amahi machine unless you are specifically doing something on that machine (i.e. updates).

cpg & relrobber-

Thanks for your help. Here's a quick status update:

1 - I found a command line way to install updates that didn't seem to mess with the users or share permissions. I'll say this one is solved for now.
2 - I haven't done htaccess on the setup folder just yet, but it's good to know that a login feature might be coming. The rest of my family isn't tech savvy, so I will cross my fingers and back up religiously until it's solved.
3 - I meant the server running as "root" while idled. I will just leave it at the login screen until updates are needed. Thanks relrobber!
4 - Firewall - I meant using Fedora's firewall, but if my router will suffice, I'll be happy with that.
5 - TightVNC - Actually, I used "HDA:0" and it worked like a charm. Thanks cpg!

The server is now running in the closet and I have multiple machines using it now. Thanks for everyone's help!

np