Server Servers - network diagrams

There are many reasons that you might want to setup port forwarding, or open a port up on your 2wire router. Some of these reasons your might open a port is because you are running certain specialized software application on your pc, such as utorrent, a http server, ftp, etc. In my example I will focus on a few main programs that require a specialized port to be open, in order for the application to run well. The first that you are going to want to do is open a web browser and locate the default gateway screen for you 2 wire router. You can usually locate the default gateway screen at ip 192.168.1.254, but if you for some reason have changed your router’s default gateway, then use that ip address. If you have forgotten what your default gateway ip address is, then open command prompt and type in "ipconfig", then look for the ip that is next to Default Gateway. If you are using linux, then open a terminal window as root or su, then type in ifconfig, then look for gateway. After you have accessed the 2wire default gateway screen you should have a window that appears similar to the one below.

Once you have accessed your default gateway screen for your router, you will then want to click on the firewall tab at the top of the screen. After the firewall summary screen opens, you will then click on the firewall settings tabs to begin setting up a open port on your 2wire dsl router.

Once the firewall setting screen opens you can then add a open port to your specific pc. Under step 2 you will see a list of predefined applications that have already been created for certain video games, servers and telephony(voip) services. Since in my example we are opening a port for utorrent, we are going to manually configure port forwarding for one of my pc’s. To be opening a port for utorrent, click on "add new user-defined application" you can find the link just below the list on the left side of the screen.

Once you click on add new user-defined application, you should have a window that resembles the one below. Within this window you should now be able to enter a name for the application that you are opening a port for. Underneath the application name, you know have the choice of either tcp or udp, and then you would enter a port number or a port range that you want to open up.

For security reasons, you should only open one port, unless the application specifies other wise. The more ports that you have open on you router, the more doorways you open for hackers and viruses to enter your home network. Since we are opening a port for utorrent, you are going to want to click on the tcp box and then enter the port number that utorrent gives you, in my example I am opening up port number 51225. After you have entered you port number, click the add definition button. Once you have added the definition, you are going to then click on the back button.

After you have clicked the back button, you should now be at the edit firewall settings screen. All you have to do now is select your computer from the list that is listed under 1. After you have selected the computer that utorrent will be hosted on, all you have to do is find the recently created user defined definition from the list under number 2. After you have located the utorrent port forwarding application simply click on the add button, which should assign the utorrent port forwarding application to your computer. After you have completed the above steps, you should be all set, now your utorrent program should download and upload at a faster speed.

If you are having trouble trying to install at&t yahoo dsl on your linux os, then hopefully this guide will show you how to set up at&t yahoo dsl on your linux pc. In my guide on how to setup att dsl, I will be using Mandriva linux, but this tutorial show also apply to many other linux distributions. Also in my tutorial on installing at&t yahoo dsl on a linux os, I will be using a 2wire 2700hg-b wireless router, but this guide should also work for other 2wire routers that at&t ships out.

The first thing that you must do to install at&t dsl on your linux machine is setup up your ethernet adapter to connect using dhcp. In the mandriva linux distro, you would go to:

1. Menu
2. Tools
3. System Tools
4. Configure your Computer

Then once the window below appears, you would then click on the Network and Internet tab on the left side, then click on setup a new network interface.

Once you open the “setup a new network interface” tab, click ethernet and click next.

Then select your nic card from the list and click next.

Select automatic Ip BOOTP/DHCP

Now you would put a check mark next to Get DNS servers from Dhcp and a check mark next to Assign host name from Dhcp address.

After you have completed the above, you should now have a working ethernet adapter on your linux distro. The next thing that you are going to want to do is begin to register your at&t yahoo dsl account on your linux pc. To start registering your account, all you have to do is open a web browser. I recommend using Konqueror, if you are using KDE as your desktop; I had problems with mozilla firefox. After you open your browser, you should have a windows that resembles the one below.

The next thing that your are going to install at&t yahoo dsl on your linux os is type in https://sbcreg.sbcglobal.net/ into your web browser. This should open a web page that shows the current at&t members agreement. All you have to do now is click on the “I Agree” button, to continue the registration process of your At&t dsl account

After you agree to the terms, you should now be able to input your telephone number and begin setting up your new email and membership account and password. Note - Make sure you remember this information, you are going to need this information later on.

After you have setup your new at&t account, what you are going to want to do is set a password on your router. To set a new password on your 2wire router, open a web browser and type in 192.168.1.254 which should open the default gateway. If successful you should now have a window that looks like the one below. Now all you have to do now is create a password for your router and click the next button.

After you have set the password on your router, the default gateway page for your 2wire router should now appear. Once you see the default gateway page, click on “Run System Setup Wizard”.

The next thing that you have to do is input a activation key code into your 2wire router. For a list of activation codes for your 2wire router.

After you activate your 2wire router, you are going then have to set a time zone for your router. After you set your time zone, the set up connection info windows should open. Once you see the below window, you will then input the username and password you created earlier.

Just fill out your personal information into the forms and click the register button.

As long as the server is up and running, you should have now completed in registering your 2wire router. After you see a window that looks like the one below, all you have to do now is reboot your web browser. After you close and then reopen your web browser, you should now be able to surf the internet. If you have troubles, try reboot your linux pc. If you are still having trouble, here are few hints: Web browser displays page not found - There is a problem with the way you set up your ethernet connection. Try re setting up your dhcp settings on your ethernet adapter, so if you automatically set you ip, dns and hostname.

Many people trying out linux for the first time keep asking what is the best version of linux os to use. To answer this question, there really is no such thing as the best version of linux. When it all comes down to it, linux is linux! The only major thing that changes among the different linux distros is how you install programs and the amount of programs that distro offers.A more specific question to ask however, when it comes to choosing what you believe to be the best linux distro is what is the linux distro going to be used for. For example you might be setting up a server, or possibly a security auditor, or more likely you are setting up a windows desktop replacement. You are going to find many mixed opinion when it comes to what people think the best version of linux is. The best way to find a good version of linux is try out a linux live cd, which will allow you try a version of linux without installing the os. Another good way to try linux without install is by install linux onto a flash drive, then reboot and boot from usb.

What I am going to offer is my opinion, and my opinion only on what I think is the best version of linux. When it comes to a desktop replacement I choose Mandriva, for the main reason that it is really easy to use, especially if you never have had experience with linux before. Another reason I choose Mandriva linux is because it has a wide variety of drivers that will support hardware on your computer. The next best linux distro for desktop replacement in my opinion is Ubuntu. Now if I was choosing a operating system to use in making a server, then I would choose unix, but if I was using linux I would probably choose a form of red hat linux, such as fedora or centos. Ubuntu server edition is also another good version of linux to use for a server distro.

In conclusion when it comes to choosing a version of linux. The only thing that I can recommend it test, test and test. Sooner or later you will find a version of linux that you will be comfortable with.

If you are reading this document, you probably are looking on how to set up your new at&t 2wire dsl router. Throughout this document I will be using a 2wire 2700HG-B wireless router, but this tutorial will also apply to other routers that 2wire provides at&t with. The first thing to do when setting up your 2wire dsl router is plugging the dsl filters into all your phone jacks, where you plan having a telephone. On one of the dsl filters, you should see a dual filter that reads Phone and DSL/HPNA, on the side that says DSL/HPNA plug a phone line into this port, then run the other end of the phone line into the phone port on the back of the 2wire dsl router. After you have connected the phone line, plug a ethernet cable into port 1 of the router, then connect the other end of the ethernet cable into your pc. Once you have made the connections between your pc and the router, and the router and the dsl filter; plug in the power adapter into the router, then plug the power adapter into the wall outlet.

Once the 2wire dsl router powers up, you should see a green light next to power, ethernet, and dsl. Once you see these lights turn green on your 2wire router, the next that you would do is open a web browser. Once you open your web browser, you should see a windows that resembles the one below. Once you see this window, press the next button, which should then ask you to download the 2wire dsl setup tool.exe.

Once you have installed the 2wire dsl setup tool, the 2wire gateway authentication screen should open, simply select the yes button.

Once you have authenticated you 2wire router, you must set a password to your router. I recommend setting a password with upper and lowercase, with a few numbers. This password will come in handy if you are trying to change settings on your 2wire router, by typing 192.168.1.254 into your web browser.

After you have set a password for your router, click the next button to begin registering your 2wire router with At&t.

After you have registered your router, read through the agreement then click I Agree button.

After you have accepted the agreement with At&t sbc yahoo dsl, you need to create a username and password for your dsl account. To begin setting up your new username and password enter you land line telephone number that you have received from At&t.

After you have created your new username and password, there will be another progress screen, then click the finish button.

After you have completed the about steps, close down your current browser and reboot your computer, this will resolve any network problems. After you pc reboots open you web browser and being surfing the internet with your at&t 2wire dsl router. If you are interesting in changing router settings, open a web browser and type in 192.168.1.254 into the URL address bar. Once you have clicked the submit button and window resembling the one below should appear. The password that you created earlier for you 2wire router, will be the one you use here when changing setting on your 2wire dsl router.

A common question asked when setting up a router for a home network is what would be faster, wireless router or wired internet router. The answer to this would be a wired ethernet connection. The main reason a wired ethernet internet connection is faster is because the connection runs in full duplex mode at the speed of 100Mb/s or at 1000Mb/s. Wireless internet connection on the other hand can run at 11Mb/s using a 802.11b router, and 54Mb/S using a 802.11g wireless router. Due to recent technology advancement in wireless technology, the latest version of wireless routers released would be the 802.11n, which can run at 300Mb/S.

The main reason that a wired ethernet internet connection is faster then a wireless router connection is because wireless only runs at half-duplex mode, which is means that only one device can transmit or receive packets of information at a time. To put this in perspective, if you are using a cb radio, you can either talk or you can listen, but never at the same time. On the other hand, a ethernet wired connection uses full duplex mode , which can send and receive information at the same time. A good example of full duplex mode would be if you are using a telephone, both parties can talk and listen at the same time. Another reason a wired internet connection is a faster connection, then a wireless router connection is due to noise degradation. Noise degradation is when a noise or signal losses strength after a certain length of distance, this in return causes more bad packets of information to be sent or received. When a network linked device receives a bad packet of information, this device will ask for same information to be resent, until it has the correct information. On top of this another problem with wireless internet is the wave band that wifi connection use. The wireless standard currently used the 2.4GHZ band, which happens to run at the same wave length as other appliances in your house, such as cordless phone or microwave. A simple solution for this problem is to buy a cordless phone that runs at a higher wave length such a 5.8Ghz or placing your wireless router away from such devices.

In conclusion, you now know why a ethernet wired connection is faster then a wireless router connection. But you must ask your self one question before you jump into setting up your own network. First of all, what is more practical and what type of services do plan on running on your network. For example it might be pretty difficult and expensive to hard wire your house, especially if you are trying to run a ethernet cable from your router in the basement to a pc in a upstairs bedroom. You also have to look at what type of services you are plan on running such as a gaming, web browsing, media download and upload. To put this in simple terms, if it requires a high amount of bandwidth such as pc gaming, media server streaming high definition or running a server, then a wired connection would be the best. But if you are using pc for checking email, web browsing and other tasks that the majority of people do everyday on their pc, then a wireless connection would be the most practical.

Just a word of warning, I don’t recommend paying bills online from wireless connection. Even thought their have been recent advancements in the types of security used for wireless connections, anything can be hacked. “If it was designed and built by a human, it can be hacked by a human.”

Have you searched all over the internet looking for a way to allow you to use your wireless network card with your pc. Well lucky for you there is a program called ndiswrapper. Ndiswrapper is a program that will allow you to use a windows driver for your wireless device on a linux based operating system. I can’t promise you that all wireless adapters will work with your linux distro, so if your about to buy a wireless card, please check the list of known wifi cards to work below. The first thing that you are going to want to do to get your wireless network card to work on your mandriva linux distro is to download a windows driver from the list of cards supported. If you can’t find a driver that is in the list, you can also try searching at the manufacturing web site, yahoo or google. If you are searching at a search engine try typing in the model number of the wireless card + driver, for example “F5D9050 driver”. For the best results, try using a windows xp driver for your wireless device. For my example I am using a Belkin Wireless G Plus MIMO ver 3001, with a model number of F5D9050. After you have downloaded the driver for you wireless adapter, you might need to extract or unzip the file. What you will be looking for is a file with the extensions of .INF. More then likely your file will end with the file extensions of .EXE, so this means you must extract this file some how. In my example I have unzipped my driver to /home/administrator/Drivers. To extract a file named setup.exe, open a terminal and log in as su, then type:

After you have unzipped your windows driver install program, you now need to associate this windows driver with your wireless device. To configure you wireless device in mandriva linux go to:

1. Menu Button
2. Tools
3. System Tools
4. Configure your Computer
5. Then click the Network and Internet tab on the left
6. Finally click set up a new network interface (LAN, ISDN, ADSL, …)

Click on wireless

Choose the selection for a windows driver with ndiswrapper

Now select the .inf file that you extracted or unzipped earlier and select ok.

If everything has gone ok so far, then you should have a screen that resembles the one below. All you have to do now is select the wireless network that you are trying to connect to and type in your security key for your wireless router. For security reasons always use some sort of security key on your wireless router(s), I recommend WPA2, but WPA will work. WEP keys are really weak and can be broken within minutes, with the right software.

After you have entered you security key, you will probably set the device with dhcp and allow you to manage this device, since this might be a laptop and will allow you to easily configure your wireless device will you are on the road, such as connecting to public hot spots such as McDonald and coffee houses.

This tutorial will show you how to install webmin, which is a user friendly program with a gui. That will allow you to administer many different types of servers, such as ftp, apache, dhcp, mysql and many other type of servers. In this tutorial I will be using Mandriva 2008.1 i586 power pack distro, but this tutorial should work with previous mandriva releases and other linux distro’s using urpmi package management.

For other releases of linux please refer to Webmin.net for further information. Before we install webmin on our linux server, we must first configure mandriva media sources for the latest version and updates for mandriva and webmin. To configure mandriva for updates first click on:

1. Menu Button
2. Tools
3. System Tools
4. Configure your Computer
5. Login as Root
6. Configure media sources install and updates

After you follow these steps, you should now have a windows that appears like the picture below. Now click on update sources only and the full update sources, selecting a mirror that is nearby.

After you install the update and full sources, you should now have a windows that looks like the image below.

After you have added online media sources, you are going to want to remove the cd-rom sources from the media source list. The reason you are going to want to remove cd-rom media sources, since this will allow you to be able to remotely update your server. After you uncheck the cd-rom media sources, your media source list should resemble the image below.

Installing Webmin using mandriva software management

To install webmin using the software management program provided by mandriva, first open the program by going to:

1. Menu
2. Tools
3. System Tools
4. Configure your Computer
5. Install & Remove Software
6. Now make the first two drop down box read all and type in webmin into the search bar
7. Then check the webmin file, then press apply.

Install webmin with shell or terminal

1. Open a terminal or shell prompt
2. Type: su
3. Type: Root password
4. Type: urpmi webmin
5. Select “yes” to install any dependencies.

This is how the install process should look like.

After you have installed webmin, you now need to start the program. To start webmin in mandriva, open a terminal and login in as su. Then type in “webmin start”.

After you have started webmin, you can now start using webmin by opening a web browser and typing in one of the following:

1. https://ipaddress:10000 (<– You can find your ip address by opening a terminal as root and typing “ifconfig” should be under inet addr. Use this option if you are administering your server remotely.)
2. https://localhost:10000 (<– Use this option if your are administering your server locally.)

After you have located your webmin program, all you have to do now is accept the certificate.

To log into webmin, type root for the user name and then type your root password for the password.

That is it, you are all set. I recommend updating webmin by selecting Webmin Configurations, then go to webmin updates.

Have you just purchased a business dsl plan from At&t, which includes 5 static ip addresses and would like to learn how to set them up to avoid paying a $200 charge. The first thing that you are going to want to do is find out what your default gateway ip address is on your 2wire dsl router. The easiest way to find your default gateway ip is to go to the cmd prompt and type in “ipconfig”. You can find the command prompt by going to the start button -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Command prompt. After the command prompt window opens, this is where you will type in ipconfig. (See Example Below) Once you type in “ipconfig” you should see some results, this is where you will find what your default gateway. For example my default gateway is 192.168.1.254

The next thing you have to do is type you default gateway address into a web browser, such as internet explorer or firefox. After you type your default gateway ip address into your web browser, you should get a screen that looks like the one below.

Once you have opened the configuration screen for your 2wire router, you are going to want to click on the broadband link tab The broadband link tab is located near the top of the screen.

Once you have accessed the broadband link tab, you are going to then click on Advanced setting located within the broadband link tab. Within the advanced setting window, you are going to change your username slightly. What you are going to want to doing is change USERNAME@sbcglobal.net to USERNAME@static.sbcglobal.net. Then click the save button. (Refer to the picture below)

After a few minutes your router should be done configuring itself from its normal dynamic ip to a static ip. What you are going to want to do now is configure your router, so you can assign different static ip addresses to your different network devices. The first thing you are going to do is click on the Home Network tab, located at the top of the screen.

You are going to then click on the Advanced Setting tab located within the Home Network tab. Once you are on the advanced setting page, locate the Bridge Network setting and click enable. For the subnet mask I used 255.255.255.248. After you click save, you are then going to want to click on Edit Address Allocation tab.

Within the edit address allocation settings page you are able to assign different static ip address to your different servers, pc and other networked devices.

Once you click save on the edit address allocation tab, you are going to now have to configure each device to receive a static ip address. On a windows based pc, simply go into the command prompt window and type in “ipconfig /release” then type in “ipconfig /renew”. If you are using Vista, you are going to have to run command prompt as administrator.

If you are looking to make your own home media server, then you have just found the right page. There are many different ways to setup up a media server, and also a lot of different devices that will allow your network device to receive streaming media from the media server. The media server program that I will discuss in this post is call Tversity, which is like Windows media center, but only on steroids. Before I go into the technical mumbo jumbo, I am going to explain why Tversity is one of the best media server programs for a windows based pc. The main reason I like tversity is because it is free, and just happens to be compatible with devices such as the Sony ps3, xbox 360, directv h-20, and other DLNA compatible devices. For a full list of tversity compatible devices.

The first thing you are going to want to doing before setting up your media server is to uninstall all codecs that are currently on your media server pc. Codecs are pieces of software that encode and decode media streams, while using a compression ratio that will shrink the overall size of the file, without losing quality of audio and/or video. A few types of codecs are wmv, aac, mp3 etc… The reason you are going to want to uninstall all the codecs is because the preexisting codecs could cause you problems later on when you are trying to watch or listen to your media. Anyways after you have uninstalled all the codecs on your media server pc, what you are going to do is install a codecs pack, which will translate your media that will tversity to play your media files. I found out through trial and error that the best codec pack to uninstall is CCCP, or Combined Community Codecs Pack. When you install the cccp, keep everything at it’s default setting.

After CCCP is installed the FFDShow setting window will open, inside set your FFD Audio setting to 2/0/0 - stereo or 2.0 stereo, then click next.

The reason to do this because if you download .mkv files, you will be sure there won’t be problems with the audio.

After you install the combined community codecs pack, you are going to want to download and install the tversity program. Again just keep everything at it’s default setting and complete the tversity install. Once tversity is install go to START -> run and type in “services.msc”, in vista you can find it under start -> Start Search.

Once services.msc opens, find TversityMediaServer and right click the file and go to properties.

Once the tversitymediaserver properties opens click on the Log On tab and then click This Account.

For the user name, type in ./USERNAME, ” This is the name you use when you log onto your pc that tversity is installed on. After you set the user name for the log on account, click the apply button and close the properties window. Now you are back at the services.msc window go to the tversitymediaserver file and right click the files and click restart or start.

After you have done this you should be ready to setup the tversity program. Once you open the tversity program you are going to want to add media files into your media server library. To add files all you need to do is click the green + sign and add the folders and files that you want to be able stream.

Once you have added the files into your library, I find that it is good to restart your tveristy program. To restart the tversity program, find the icon for tveristy in your task bar tray and right click it, then click on “restart sharing”.