Re: [Nolug] Often overlooked technique for that extra bit of added security

On Saturday 11 January 2003 12:10 am, Ron Johnson wrote:
> On Fri, 2003-01-10 at 22:59, Andrew S. Johnson wrote:
> > On Friday 10 January 2003 10:47 pm, Ron Johnson wrote:
> > > On Fri, 2003-01-10 at 22:08, Andrew S. Johnson wrote:
> > > > On Friday 10 January 2003 08:03 pm, Ron Johnson wrote:
> > > > > http://www.hackinglinuxexposed.com/articles/20020611.html
> > > >
> > > > One of the reasons I rescued an AlphaStation 400 from the junk bin at work.
> > > > It will make a nice server as soon as I get some drive space for it.
> > >
> > > Used SCSI drives are pretty cheap nowadays...
> > > http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/workstations/retired/a400series.html
> >
> > That's the one. Actually, used SCSI drives are pretty expensive on a $/GB basis.
> > I think I'll be able to do better with an IDE-RAID card and some drives. The trick
> > is getting a card that I can configure after bootup, since this box doesn't have a
> > video card. Real servers have serial consoles : )
>
> I thought the BIOSs on these type cards were written for a particular
> processor family (typically x86).

The AlphaStation 400 shares a motherboard with the Celebris P90's. The
CPU is on a daughtercard, and there is a jumper on the motherboard
to tell it what processor it has. This one has 3 PCI slots and 4 ISA slots
(one shared), and it originally came with WindowsNT 3.1 (or 3.51, I'm
not sure which, since it was here before me). I added two SMC-1211TX
network cards, based on the RealTek 8139 chip, that I bought for 9 bucks
each last month, and they work fine with RH 7.2, even in a FTP install from
floppies. Right now, it only has a 1 gig and a 540 meg 50-pin SCSI drives,
so that is why I'm looking for more storage.

>
> Yes, SCSI disks are cheap on a $/GB basis. However, the maximum
> internal storage is only 17.6GB, so you wouldn't be paying much,
> anyway.
>
> BTW, not only do real *servers* have serial-port consoles, but
> real storage controllers have serial-port consoles! There's nothing
> like plugging a spare VT510 into your balky HSZ80 because your
> AlphaServer 4100 won't boot...

If I would have been thinking, I would have rescued the HSZ40 or the
HSZ50 from the salvage pile. At least there would have been some
2 and 4 gig drives to go along with it. If I remember right, they bought it
in '97, so it wasn't really all that old. I used Hyperterminal to configure it,
since the VT220's are getting harder to come by at work.

Andy

>
> --
> +------------------------------------------------------------+
> | Ron Johnson, Jr. mailto:ron.l.johnson@cox.net |
> | Jefferson, LA USA http://members.cox.net/ron.l.johnson |
> | |
> | "Basically, I got on the plane with a bomb. Basically, I |
> | tried to ignite it. Basically, yeah, I intended to damage |
> | the plane." |
> | RICHARD REID, who tried to blow up American Airlines |
> | Flight 63 |
> +------------------------------------------------------------+
>
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Received on 01/11/03