Bunch of newbie questions

[griffinn]

Hi, I've just got a "The 96" account at vm3, and I'll set it up by starting from a Debian testing (minimal) distro some time this week. A couple of questions before I start:

For network configuration, should I just hardwire the static IP into /etc/network/interfaces or is there a dhcp server on the local network I can use?

[edit: Just found out how /etc/network/interfaces is already set with static IP. I assume I should just keep this setting and not change anything?]

To keep time, do I need to run my own ntpd?

Which TCP/UDP ports are filtered?

What packages are installed in a Debian testing (minimal) distro?

For the ssh package (assuming it's already installed when I deployed the distro), have fresh rsa/dsa keys already been generated for me or should I generate my own (to make sure my machine is using a different set of ssh keys from other people who deploy a Debian testing distro)?

[edit: Just found out ssh is NOT installed in a Debian (minimal) distro so this is no longer an issue. But this may still apply to other distros available.]

Sorry for the many questions, but it's probably better to ask them all at once than to spam the forum with several threads. :o

[matta]

Hi,

You answered most of your questions.

1) Time is kept in sync on the host via ntpd or ntpdate, no need to do it inside the VM also.
2) Search the forum... the list was posted before, it's mainly IRC and ports that have been used for large exploits / hacker botnets.
3) The best way to figure it out is to install it and see (the beauty of Teknic!).

[RabidLamb]

[QUOTE=griffinn]What packages are installed in a Debian testing (minimal) distro?[/QUOTE]
root@host# dpkg -l | less

Also, I found that SSH was indeed pre-installed in the Debian Testing (minimal) image. I'm glad it was too, as I can't get into the console.