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Date:         Sat, 31 Mar 2007 12:25:36 -0500
Reply-To:     John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Subject:      [NVC} Personal Servers on a home PC
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

This topic has little to do with Vanagons except that it may enable us all to have a bit better means of communications - particularly or materials that are large in size.

I have for some time wanted to be able to send large files several gigabytes in size over the Internet but due to the various constraints on the system and services provided by ISP's, I could not. Email attachments had to be very small, and other programs like Pondo, Google Talk, etc, though offering larger file transfers, were still restricted in size. --- and incredibly slow. So, I began studying about servers, and discovered personal servers. It turns out that Windows XP has a built in Server that when activated works reasonably well, but for best performance an computer security, a separate server software is in order. I chose a free program called FileZilla.

I searched for it on the 'Net, downloaded and installed it. Now, if I have some big humongous file to share with you, I send you an IP Address, User ID, Passcode, and you can log in on my machine and download it to your PC.

Control over the server is a security issue and is important. Many servers that get a high volume of traffic are often set up with the user being "anonymous" and no password. But for me, that is not safe. So every person invited to log onto my computer must have a user id assigned by me, and a password assigned by me. With those assignments you can log on, and can go only to a very specific folder where the posted file will be. There is a log file built so that I can capture the complete login and transaction. If I want to watch as it takes place, and I don't like what is happening, I can simply disconnect. you, the server or both. with a click of the mouse. Very handy. And, if I want to know where you are, all I need do is copy your IP Address from the transaction log file, go on the internet, and use any one of the free IP Address geo-location programs, and I can pinpoint exactly where your computer is located by Latitude and Longitude right down to the seconds --- then I can target my missile to that location and send a hard message!!!! I am joking of course - but that really does work - locating the physical geographical location of any give computer connected to the Internet. In some ways it's a bit spooky.

While trying to work the bugs out of my personal server system, I discovered attempts by unauthorized persons to log on. Of course without proper User ID and Passcode, they were unable. They did leave their IP Address however, and I looked up their geographical locations and targeted my missiles. Again I am joking!! But I got log-in attempts from Brazil, Shanghai, China; New Delhi, India; Amsterdam, Netherlands. In looking at the log file, it would appear that they were using automated software to locate servers and attempt to log in. These are the turkeys that give reason to NOT having an Anonymous login, but a User ID and Passcode log-in.

Anyway, I just thought I would put this out there this morning. This is one more way we can get more out of our computers, that can also have benefit for our list members.

Give it a try.

If you give it a go and have any questions, just ask. I'm no IT, but I will try to answer as best I can.

Enjoy,

John Rodgers 88 GL Driver


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