I can address only one of the issues, and that is security. I have installed
PMFirewall in the past, but now use Linux-Bastille. It is a free firewall and
has a very nice gui for configuration. It will explain a bit about what each
of the selections are about and advise what is the best thing to be done,
although some choices may not fit your setup, in which case you can elect not
to take the advice. Anyway it seems to be thorough and lets you know a lot
more about what is going on than does PMFirewall. Current release is stable
and is a final release candidate. Take a look at the website and then you
can decide, http://www.bastille-linux.org/ Enjoy
On Saturday 07 April 2001 22:21, you wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've just installed Linux Mandrake 7.2. It's early days yet, but
> after years of frustration with that other poor excuse for an OS, I'm
> really looking forward to a stable, sensible environment. All is going
> well so far, but I do have a couple of concerns, mentioned below. I very
> much appreciate any advice from the list.
>
>
>
> -- Harddisk Optimise Danger --
>
> During the installation, I selected 'Use harddisk optimisations',
> even though there was a warning about possible data corruption in some
> cases.
>
> Is there a real risk of data corruption ?
>
> If there is corruption, will it be immediately evident, or might my
> file system suddenly disappear 6 months down the track ?
>
> In case its relevant, my system has a Quantum Fireball Plus LM 15GB
> disk and a Pentium III 733MHz processor on a Gigabye GA-60XM7E (Intel
> 815E AGPset) motherboard.
>
>
>
> -- Internet Security --
>
> Another concern I have is internet security, an issue I
> unfortunately know very
> little about. I use the internet throught a dialup connection (PPP) and
> browse/download with Netscape. I don't forsee any additional needs in
> the near
> future.
>
> I simply want to ensure that no one can "snoop/mess with" my system
> while I'm online. I've read a couple of earlier mail's on the subject
> and I will try the pmfirewall configured with all the defaults (except
> external interface which I'll set to ppp0), in conjunction with
> portsentry. I hope this will do the job ?
>
> I am not altogether sure what command line arguments I should pass
> to portsentry or what mode to start it in. Also, can I automate the
> process of starting portsentry, so that it will be running whenever I
> make a PPP connection (I understand that pmfirewall does this somehow) ?
>
>
>
>
> -- Wheel Mouse --
>
> I have a Trekker Wheel mouse, but haven't been able to configure my
> system to recognise it. The mouse works fine, as a two-button mouse,
> under the default configuration, but I've found the wheel/third button
> very useful under Windows. Does Linux support the wheel, and if so, how
> might I configure the system to use it ?
>
>
> If there are any other important first steps I should take after a
> fresh installation, I'd like to hear of them. I think updating the RPM's
> might be something to look
> into, but I want to be sure of my internet security before I spend too
> much time
> downloading.
>
>
> Thanks for any advice,
>
>
> regards,
>
> Charlie.
--
Dennis M. registered linux user # 180842
