
Chapter 10. Security
Entering 2 would only allow two users to connect at any given time. If a third user tried to connect, he or she would receive an error message and
would not be able to connect until one of the other users disconnected. If, on the other hand, you entered 0 , no PPTP connections would be allowed.
After you enter a number and press Save, the server should be ready to accept PPTP connections.
To connect using PPTP, the protocol must be installed on each remote Windows client. Typically, this is done through the Network Control Panel
(you may need to have your original Windows installation CD available). After it is installed (a reboot of your Windows system may be needed), you
can create new connections through the Dial-Up Networking panel by entering the external IP address of the server you wish to connect to. Once
you’re finished, you should be able to initiate a PPTP connection by double-clicking the appropriate icon in the Dial-Up Networking window. When
you then open up your Network Neighborhood window, you should see your server workgroup listed there.
Note: Your connection to the Internet needs to be established first before you initiate the PPTP connection. This may involve double-clicking one
Dial-Up Networking icon to start your Internet connection, then double-clicking a second icon to start the PPTP connection. To shut down,
disconnect your PPTP connection first, then disconnect from your ISP.
Warning
To protect your network, the SME Server V5 with ServiceLink enforces the use of 128-bit encryption for PPTP connections, rather than
the 40-bit encryption provided in earlier versions of Microsoft’s PPTP software. If you are unable to establish a PPTP connection to your
server, you should visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ (http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/) and download the appropriate
update. Due to the dynamic nature of Microsoft’s web site, the page may appear differently depending upon the version of Windows you
are using. In most cases, you will want to look or search for Virtual Private Networking or a Dial Up Networking 128-bit encryption update.
You may need to install the 40-bit encryption update first, and then install the 128-bit encryption update. Note that with Microsoft’s
ActiveUpdate process, if you are not presented with the choice for this update, it is most likely already installed in your system.
10.2.3. FTP
Another way to upload or download files to and from your server is to enable a protocol called FTP, or "file transfer protocol". This screen enables
you to set your policy for FTP. Note that allowing liberal FTP access to your server does reduce your security. You have two options that you can set
here.
FTP user account access: Private FTP access allows only people on your internal network to write files to your server. Public FTP access allows
users both inside and outside your local network to read or write files on your server, provided they have an account and password. If, for example,
you want to be able to update your web site from home using FTP, you would choose the "Public" setting. We strongly recommend you leave this as
Private unless you have a specific reason to do so.
FTP access limits: This allows you to set an overall site-wide policy for FTP access. The setting you choose here will override all other FTP
settings on your server. For example, if you choose "Disable public FTP access" here and then later configure an i-bay to allow public FTP access
from the Internet, such access will be forbidden. Note that one of the choices here allows you to completely disable any use of FTP.
10.2.4. telnet
telnet has traditionally been one of the tools used to login remotely to other systems across a network or the Internet. This screen gives you the
options to control the use of telnet as a means of connecting to your server. Telnet can be useful in that it allows you to login remotely and diagnose
problems or configure settings. However, when you use telnet, all user names and passwords are transmitted without any kind of encryption,
dramatically reducing the security of your server. For that reason, we strongly recommend the use of ssh as described above.
Note: Because telnet has been and continues to be widely used to date, we are providing the ability to use telnet for remote access. However, as
ssh usage increases, it is our intention to remove telnet access from future releases of the server.
Telnet access: This can be set to "No Access", "Private" or "Public". Because of the inherent security weakness mentioned above, we strongly
recommend that you leave this set to No Access (the default) and instead use ssh as described above. If you do need to enable telnet access, we
suggest that you enable "public" or "private" telnet access only when absolutely necessary, and disable such access when it is no longer required. If
"public" access is enabled, a red warning will appear at the top of every server manager screen.
Note: Because of these security concerns, we do not allow administrative command line access (connecting as ’root’) using telnet. Please use ssh
instead.
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