Need advice on home security

fmaster

n00b
Joined
Mar 1, 2010
Messages
18
hi,

So I am a developer who is learning django. I have setup a django server on my home server(laptop) to test my code. I ssh into the server and start and stop the server as needed. I also opened up port 80 to allow friends to checkout my web app.

Last weekend I forgot to turn of the server and was gone for the weekend. When I came back I saw there were numerous requests on my server which looked like they were searching for apache/php vulnerabilities. That freaked me out.

So I thought now would be a good time to setup astaro home. I am all about the small form factor/ low power consumption so I try to do everything I can with a laptop rather than desktop. I wanted to buy a cheap atom based laptop to setup astaro home then add either a PCMCIA or USB nic.

After some googling, it seems astaro doesn't recognise either PCMCIA or usb nics.

So now I am faced with 1 of 2 choices:

1) Get a cheap used core 2 duo laptop + either a usb or pcmica nic. Then run linux + astaro in a VM

2) Try something different that has similar functions as Astaro.

Option 1 seems like a kludge that may not work well.

Please keep in mind I am a developer/programmer and I am not really interested in network security so simpler solutions would work better for me. Thus, I was hoping to setup astaro home on a laptop (don't have the space to conveniently put a tower in my small apt).

Thoughts or advice?

Thanks
 
Well, if you are leaving that server open with port 80, that server should be in a DMZ. Installing a Astaro/Untangle/Pfsense solution, in the end you are going to be forwarding port 80 in. With a DMZ, that server sits "outside" of your network, leaving your network protected.

Also remember, some ISPs do not allow port 80 to be open unless you have a business account, etc. They will decrease bandwidth, etc. - has happened to me before I upgraded.
 
Thanks for the tip, putting the server in a dmz maybe the way to go.

However, I also wanted astaro because of the other features it provides including vpn, virus scanning and web filtering. I am not opposed to choosing something else other than astaro that provides similar functionality.

I figured now would be a good time to take the leap and make everything at home more secure.
 
Thanks for the tip, putting the server in a dmz maybe the way to go.

However, I also wanted astaro because of the other features it provides including vpn, virus scanning and web filtering. I am not opposed to choosing something else other than astaro that provides similar functionality.

I figured now would be a good time to take the leap and make everything at home more secure.

Sorry, but untangle does it too, remember tho astaro limits u to 50 useable ip addresses.
 
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