Random Newbie questions

[vincentr]

Hi,

This is my first post, I've only just installed amahi and got it up and running (it went pretty smoothly) and started playing with it. I have to say i quite like it! But i have a few general questions that i hope people can clear up for me:

Security/updates
1) How secure is fedora 10/amahi (assuming you have a secure root pw)? I assume i do not need to worry about any malware getting on the HDA?Does fedora 10 have a software firewall built in?

2) how do i update amahi/fedora? Am i right in thinking amahi automatically updates itself? What about fedora 10, do i need to manually log in and do yum update (if so how often)?

3) Applications installed do not (yet) update themselves, is that correct?the only way to update is uninstall/reinstall newer version?how do you know when a new version is available?

Backup
1) the PBA application, when booting via the network, stalls at Insert: and from what i've read this indicates very old or very new hardware (in my case, most likely very new as its a Dell Xps M1330 bought 2 months ago i was attempting to back up). Is this application going to be updated to support more modern hardware?

2) what do most people use for full-disk backing up (that is free!) other than PBA? Any suggestions for incremental file back ups (other than windows 7 built in back up software)?

torrents

1) I have transmission installed (created the share \\torrent also), however when i go to the page and click 'open' to add a torrent, nothing happens. In fact i cant seem to do anything, like go to preferences. Am i doing some wrong? I assume its the latest version of the app i've installed

2) i have torrent flux installed, and can search for torrents and start them, but it doesnt actually start. It just seems to say 'connecting to peers' but doesnt do any downloading. I left it for about 10mins and no change. Any ideas?


Logging in Headlessly

1) how do i log in to the HDA headlessly to do things, like yum update etc? I want to be able to now remove the monitor/keybpard/mouse that is attached and stick the HDA somewhere out the way.

Thats all the questions i can think of just now! your help is appreciated

thanks

v

[moredruid]

Security

1) How secure is fedora 10/amahi (assuming you have a secure root pw)? I assume i do not need to worry about any malware getting on the HDA?Does fedora 10 have a software firewall built in?

quite secure by default. especially if you don't open it up to the internet. malware usually gets in through browser leaks. yes there's a software firewall in linux.

2) how do i update amahi/fedora? Am i right in thinking amahi automatically updates itself? What about fedora 10, do i need to manually log in and do yum update (if so how often)?

Fedora you'll need to update manually once in a while (or script it), amahi keeps itself up to date AFAIK.

3) Applications installed do not (yet) update themselves, is that correct?the only way to update is uninstall/reinstall newer version?how do you know when a new version is available?

newer versions are announced. you can see the announcements on your dashboard.

Backup

1) the PBA application, when booting via the network, stalls at Insert: and from what i've read this indicates very old or very new hardware (in my case, most likely very new as its a Dell Xps M1330 bought 2 months ago i was attempting to back up). Is this application going to be updated to support more modern hardware?

possibly, not sure if it's going to be replaced with something newer or updated.

) what do most people use for full-disk backing up (that is free!) other than PBA? Any suggestions for incremental file back ups (other than windows 7 built in back up software)?

not sure of course what other ppl have but you can try Amanda, BackupPC or Bacula (community edition).

Torrents

1) I have transmission installed (created the share \\torrent also), however when i go to the page and click 'open' to add a torrent, nothing happens. In fact i cant seem to do anything, like go to preferences. Am i doing some wrong? I assume its the latest version of the app i've installed

not sure if you're doing something wrong but I couldn't get transmission to work properly either... switched to TorrentFlux without 2nd thoughts.

2) i have torrent flux installed, and can search for torrents and start them, but it doesnt actually start. It just seems to say 'connecting to peers' but doesnt do any downloading. I left it for about 10mins and no change. Any ideas?

check if your firewall (in the router) properly passes the traffic through to your system.
also make sure you don't have a dead torrent (try a torrent from fedora or other linux distro)

Logging in Headlessly

1) how do i log in to the HDA headlessly to do things, like yum update etc? I want to be able to now remove the monitor/keybpard/mouse that is attached and stick the HDA somewhere out the way.

download putty on your windows box, and connect through ssh to your hda. as long as the hda is powered on and has a working connection (and presuming your client has too ) you should be able to login and do maintenance.

[vincentr]

thanks moredruid for the response i have few more questions, when you say amahi/fedora is quite secure, especially if you dont open it open to the internet, what do you mean by this exactly?do you mean setting up like vpn etc?

I noticed in fedora10 that the software firewall isn't on, should this be enabled (and would it interfere with amahi?)?

I got putty working no problems, thanks for that

as for transmission, no idea why that wont work, but torrentflux now works - i think it must of been a dead torrent i was using before (although when i tried it on my laptop with utorrent it worked fine.....strange). ANyway it works.

thanks again

v

[moredruid]

with open to the internet I mean a public website/mailserver etc. VPN is different in this because you have to authenticate before you can get onto the internal network and that is being used by companies all over the world.

[SirShaggy]

with open to the internet I mean a public website/mailserver etc. VPN is different in this because you have to authenticate before you can get onto the internal network and that is being used by companies all over the world.

moredruid, you have answered nearly all of my questions in about 6 different post's you replied to. I too am new to Amahi and had many questions before my
actual install took place. I decided to read through the forum to look for answers before I asked any questions. You have done the Amahi community well. I just wanted to say thanks and keep up the GREAT work replying to us newbs! It is appreciated.

SirShaggy

[moredruid]

wow *blush*
thank you!

[vincentr]

cool, thanks again moredruid, much appreciated!

v

[Lincee]

yes, moredruid rocks
and he doesnt even drive a volvo!