Tag: Firewall

Migrating from one Plesk installation on your VPS server or Dedicated server to another server is easy with the Plesk Migrator Tool! The Plesk team has done a great job creating an easy-to-use interface for migrating entire installations of Plesk to a new server. If you need to move files, users, subscriptions, FTP accounts, mail and DNS servers setup through Plesk, this guide will help you successfully navigate the process and come out victorious!

Installing vsftpd allows you to upload files to a server, the concept is comparable to that of Google Drive.  When you invite specified users to your Google Drive they can create, delete, upload and download files all behind a secure login. Vsftpd is excellent for company’s looking for an alternative to Google Drive or for anyone who wants to create a robust server. This “Very Secure File Transfer Protocol Daemon” is favored for its security and speed, and we’ll be showing you how to install vsftpd on an Ubuntu 16.04 LTS server.

 

When connecting to a server, many aspects  can cause your connection to not complete correctly. Here are some aspects to check before jumping to conclusions.

One of the simplest goals of server security is keeping administrator credentials private. There is no better way to achieve this than through strict firewall rules that only allows specific IPs to authenticate. However, there are some situations where it is necessary to open a login prompt to the broader Internet. In this case, the only thing barring anonymous internet users from unauthorized access is your password. The stronger your password, the better off you are, but even the most cryptic passwords can be guessed given enough tries.

VNC (Virtual Network Computing) is a method for sharing a remote desktop environment. Allowing you to remote control another computer or server over the Internet or local network as if you were sitting in front of it. Keyboard and mouse strokes from your computer are relayed to the remote computer/server. There are many different kinds of VNC software available today. Several are cross-platform and add additional features, such as chat or file transfers. VNC is often used for remote technical support and remotely accessing files.

Remote Desktop Protocol (or RDP) is the most common method of gaining administrative access to a Windows server. RDP is available on all versions of Windows server and a client (called Remote Desktop Connection) is included with all versions of Windows desktop operating systems. Clients are also available for Macintosh operating systems from Microsoft in the iTunes store and for Linux desktops with applications like FreeRDP. Connecting to your server via RDP allows you full control of the server desktop environment, just as if you were sitting in front of the server’s monitor and keyboard. Depending on your permissions and settings, you can copy and delete files, change file permissions or settings, and even print documents from the server.

A few configuration changes are needed as part of the basic setup with a new Ubuntu 16.04 LTS server. This article will provide a comprehensive list of those basic configurations and help to improve the security and usability of your server while creating a solid foundation to build on.

Broken down into two parts our article’s first section hits on “how to whitelist IPs or URIs,” for people who are somewhat familiar with ModSecurity but want to know further about the process. Our second section examines why we configure ModSecurity and how to prevent the security of the server from getting in the way of our work. If you have a Fully Managed Liquid Web server reach out to our Heroic Support team for assistance with whitelisting!

Basic Firewall Rules

In a firewall rule, the action component decides if it will permit or block traffic. It has an action on match feature. For example, if the traffic matches the components of a rule, then it will be permitted to connect to the network. It is essential to consider the potential security risks when modifying a firewall rule to avoid future issues. Following best practices for configuring firewalls can help you maximize the effectiveness of your solution.

On an Ubuntu server the default firewall management command is iptables. While iptables provides powerful functionality it’s syntax is often seen as complex. For most users a friendlier syntax can make managing your firewall much easier.