I have a server at my house that I will use for a media swap between my friends. What security programs should I load? What measures should I take to be sure no hackers get into the sensitive files of the os?

I am running win98, with apache and php loaded.

Any help would be nice,
dbzgod

I don't mean to sound like a m$ basher, but if you are concerned with sevurity, you should really rethink the decision to use win98. If you're set on using it, at the very least setup a personal firewall like zonealarm, and lockdown every port on that machine that does not need to be open.

-Dan

I dont mind sounding like a M$ basher....

If you have been using an open win98 box on the internet without a firewall the only security you have is fdisk.:bawling:

At least he is using Apache.. Take the advice above and make sure every port that you do not need is closed, if not someone may close them for you by wiping the drive.. :(

For advice, obviously you are hopefully running DSL or Cable for this server. I would highly recommend purchasing a NAT/Firewall/Router solution. This way you can run your server using a private ip. Again as suggested above only allow certain needed ports to be able to access the box inside..

If your friends have static IP's you could always only allow those IP's in, thus eliminating the chance of hackers getting in, unless of course they spoof one of those IP's.

I wish you the best of luck..

I have zonealarm installed for a firewall. It is a cable modem. I have heard that locking down all ports not in use is a good idea but I am lost on how to do it.

Could someone explain to me how to close all ports that dont need to be open. Also How could I only allow certain ip addresses to get onto the box.

Thanks for your help,
dbzgod

If you check out the security forums at http://www.dslreports.com you will find the info there as there is always port questions being asked on a variety of popular firewalls. You will also find up to date news on many exploits, in fact a lot of first notifications appear there, along with loads of info about zonealarm and locking it down.

Tiny firewall is quite good to.

It's been a lon time since I used zone alarm, so I don't remember how it works exactly. But I seem to remember it had an auto feature that would auot block any ports that you were not actually using. At any rate what services are you running besides apache? It will be a lot easier to tell you what to block if we knew what you were using.

-Dan

apache, php, mysql, ftp, and I think that is all. I will check to see if there are more but those are all I can think of.

Then all you need open inbound is port 80, 21. and 3306.

-Dan

make sure you patch win98 and load all the MS security updates.

Originally posted by dbzgod
I have zonealarm installed for a firewall. It is a cable modem. I have heard that locking down all ports not in use is a good idea but I am lost on how to do it.

Could someone explain to me how to close all ports that dont need to be open. Also How could I only allow certain ip addresses to get onto the box.

Thanks for your help,
dbzgod

I think it is possible to go into ZoneAlarm and assign specific IP's to pass through the Firewall and block all the others. I can not give you specific steps as I have not used this in quite sometime.
It should be under the Security tab if I recall correctly though..

Originally posted by dbzgod
What security programs should I load?RedHat Linux :D

I would love to but I dont have any cd rom drives. I have tried many in the past weeks and they all dont work. The system is broke in that manner :)