SFTP/SSH question

[brandon7861]

Yeah, it's really not that hard. It's just different than the point and drool experience most people are used to. The trick is getting proprietary systems to talk to the home server when they're hardcoded to talk to the company's servers. The crowd over at futo.org may have some helpful tricks/advice about that.

I just watched one of Louis's videos putting a bounty on ring. Good stuff!

 

[enine]

Welcome to the party, brandon. lol. Thats what I'm thinking right now. When I started this post, I honestly didn't know what ssh even was, just that it was encrypted. Now, I am remotely controlling my home computer and making music play when I'm not home just to mess with Tiffany. Cool!

It just occurred to me... With the millions of upset ring doorbell customers and the usual home camera systems requiring a china server, this could be pure gold. I am now realizing that I can turn junk computers into private home automation and security systems. Anyone with a static IP could plug this in, configure a few things, and have a totally private system that doesn't require a distant server like Ring NightOwl and the like.

I feel like I am very close to an unlimited money supply with this (and its stupid simple, I could make this a single setup script to run on a fresh ubuntu install). edit: been wanting to know how to do this most of my life and always believed it was hard. Sorry for nerding out lol, I'm just excited.

Just don't try to use windows for those internet exposed home automation things, they get owned pretty quick.
It's really easy to do this with small SBC's like raspberry pi.
I've ran my own server for years first using Owncloud on an raspberry pi (1) and later Nextcloud. All my stuff is backed up and synced to my own server instead of someone else subscription.

 

[brandon7861]

Just don't try to use windows for those internet exposed home automation things, they get owned pretty quick.
It's really easy to do this with small SBC's like raspberry pi.
I've ran my own server for years first using Owncloud on an raspberry pi (1) and later Nextcloud. All my stuff is backed up and synced to my own server instead of someone else subscription.

I'm done with windows. It does too much stuff in the background.

 

[brandon7861]

Been going at this all weekend and I think I am getting it dialed in. I figured out how to add a html site to the server and certs so now i have an https site with a decent domain name (translation, i can access it from the work computer that IT has locked down).

I also added an uploads page so people on the net can upload stuff directly to me if needed. For security reasons, those uploads are not accessible on the website, just the back end. I added a password prompt too because it is wide open and I don't want random people uploading illegal stuff. I also gave it an upload status bar. I then made scripts to change the allowable file types, file size limit, timeout and upload password so i dont have to dig in config files to change things.

I am currently playing on a laptop and i will be turning it off tonight, so here is a screenshot of my very first html page. I know some of you can do this stuff in your sleep, but I'm sure excited about it. Pretty soon i will have a legit website and no idea what to use it for.

.

 

[brandon7861]

I think Im doing pretty good for not being a coder. My uploads page just got better. It normally sends web uploads to that users sftp account, but now i have a checkbox that puts it in the https unlisted folder instead and provides a download URL. Now the uploader can choose whether it goes to their storage or out on the internet.

I am thinking about adding an audio stream to 38LSB on here. Need to figure out the best way to do it.

 

[brandon7861]

Ever have a link or note on a phone and need it on your computer and use a gmail draft to nobody to access it from the other device? No more of that nonsense for me. I can copy and paste between any device on the internet now. I still need to add limits so it don't get spammed, so until then its behind a bad excuse for a login. Also need to add "remove" buttons for the individual entries, change the clear button to a delete all, and maybe evolve it into a bookmarks and notes thing where each user gets their own clipboard.

edit: just realized I made a chat app lol

 

[brandon7861]

Ok, this was a real PITA, but now I have a pointer record with the ISP and configured my server to forward emails. This gives me unlimited aliases @upnorthradio.net that redirect to my gmail (or wherever I send them) and I can give everyone a different one so I can see who sells my data when the spam messages start coming in. The address used will tell me who sold it.

The next problem is reputation. Since I am a new source of emails, gmail puts mine in spam. Edit: now I need to set up SMTP so I can reply with the same address. Once I do that, I may need some people to semd a couple emails to help build reputation for the domain so gmail keeps things out of spam.

 

[TM86]

DM me the address and how many emails you want over what time span. I'll just send memes or other stupid shit.

 

[brandon7861]

Give me one more day. In my excitement having the forwarding working, I forgot to set up SMTP to be able to reply from the same address. As is, the server just forwards emails to my gmail, there are no actual mailboxes. Once I get home tonight, I will set that up.

 

[Nomadd1776]

Not exactly radio related, but I want to use it with members here. Here's my current setup:

I have a linux computer running zorin os, and up until today, I had a basic SFTP set up with just my username and password between the root directory and the rest of the world. Up until now, I have only used it for transferring files between my phone and computer. I checked my log and noticed hundreds of attempts to brute force the pw every second (thankfully none successful). I know its common to see that, but this is unknown territory for me so I asked AI what to do and was told to eliminate the user/pw stuff and go with rsa keys only. So I did that. I can now make dedicated user folders and give that user their own rsa key and passphrase.

My question is whether or not a setup like this is secure enough to give random people access to one of these limited folders. My motivation is to have a private (non-cloud) way of sharing large or unallowed files (like cad drawings that must be zipped here).

How important is it to obscure my IP address? Seems there are already people trying it, so how much worse can it get? Do I need to run this through a VPN too?I have a static IP and so-called "unlimited" data and want to make use of it, I just want to be safe. Maybe the best thing would be a dedicated computer and not use my desktop, IDK.

Thanks!

The main thing, is making sure your other ports are secure from both the firewall on your computer and your router/gateway. Being you are familiar with Linux, you can do something similar to the setup I am running. I have a Nextcloud server running that I use not only for a private/personal cloud to automatically sync my and my families pictures from our phones, but I also have the capability to use it for file sharing, uploading, downloading, as well as a chat server and many other features. One nice feature, is you can create a specific URL for download of a single folder or file, you can also do the same for uploads into your server. If your not a Linux master (like me) the easiest way it to run the Nextcloud snap, I run mine on Ubuntu server 22.04 and have been for years. I also have mine running from a custom URL with SSL certs so it can be accessed easily from browser on the net.

 

[brandon7861]

DM me the address and how many emails you want over what time span. I'll just send memes or other stupid shit.

Ok, so I have the temporary email set up at mydomainisnotspam@upnorthradio.net (lol) and that directs to my gmail. And now when I reply in gmail, I can tell it to send as mydomainisnotspam@upnorthradio.net instead of my gmail address.

That took way too long to figure out. This wasn't supposed to be a serious project and if I had to do it again, I would not.

 

[19wrc333]

Doing email right, isn't simple, contrary to what most people might think.
You only have one MX server setup in your DNS, which isn't recommended.
It means that if that server is down for a longer time then email will end up getting lost.

To test your email configuration have a look at:

Newsletters spam test by mail-tester.com

mail-tester.com is a free online service that allows you to test your emails for Spam, Malformed Content and Mail Server Configuration problems

www.mail-tester.com

and send them a test email (follow the steps at the URL above)

As for getting your IP to be accepted as a valid IP address..
You need to send non spammy emails for that in a certain volume. For a single email user that might be very difficult to achieve. The mail server also needs to be a certain age. It's common for email providers to "warm up" mail servers before actively using them for customers. As it takes a bit before the server is accepted as legit and not just a spam server.

Also check:

Network Tools: DNS,IP,Email

DNS and Network troubleshooting and diagnostic tools integrated into one sweet interface.

mxtoolbox.com

(you're not on a black list I did feed it your IP address)
There's also a "Test email server" option in there and that one looks also A.OK.
Well done! No open relay.

DMARC also OK.
Haven't checked DKIM (sorry too lazy for now, but the mail-tester website does check that for you - among others)

edit: SPF is good too.

Looks like you're all set!

 

[TM86]

As promised, email sent.

 

[brandon7861]

Doing email right, isn't simple, contrary to what most people might think.
You only have one MX server setup in your DNS, which isn't recommended.
It means that if that server is down for a longer time then email will end up getting lost.

To test your email configuration have a look at:

Newsletters spam test by mail-tester.com

mail-tester.com is a free online service that allows you to test your emails for Spam, Malformed Content and Mail Server Configuration problems

www.mail-tester.com

and send them a test email (follow the steps at the URL above)

As for getting your IP to be accepted as a valid IP address..
You need to send non spammy emails for that in a certain volume. For a single email user that might be very difficult to achieve. The mail server also needs to be a certain age. It's common for email providers to "warm up" mail servers before actively using them for customers. As it takes a bit before the server is accepted as legit and not just a spam server.

Also check:

Network Tools: DNS,IP,Email

DNS and Network troubleshooting and diagnostic tools integrated into one sweet interface.

mxtoolbox.com

(you're not on a black list I did feed it your IP address)
There's also a "Test email server" option in there and that one looks also A.OK.
Well done! No open relay.

DMARC also OK.
Haven't checked DKIM (sorry too lazy for now, but the mail-tester website does check that for you - among others)

edit: SPF is good too.

Looks like you're all set!

I am aware my emails will get lost if the server is down, Lost plenty of them getting it set up. I did this mainly as a curiosity. Someone on QRZ asked how to do this and I though, now that would be fun to try, so I did. DKIM is working too, that was probably the hardest part.

I have no immediate professional needs for this and I figure I will only use it for when I need an email to sign up for some non-critical service like a document download. Anything important will get my direct address. Good to fix the reputation thing though, if I can, eventually.

test results: