Re: Edu Howto Followup

[Daniel Moore <mooreds@whitman.edu>]

Hello, Daniel.  

Like Mark Harvey, I would recommend Redhat, and using XDM in order to
login.  I looked around on the internet and came up with some
interesting documentation.  Hope this helps.

Here are a couple of articles about setting up linux.
While these articles refer to a business setting, they can probably be
adapted to a school.

This page talks you through installing Red Hat 5.0.  I'm not sure how
much has changed from 5.0 to 5.2, in terms of installation. 
http://www.pcquest.com/may98/redhat.html

When you get a bit further along, here are two interesting articles:
how to tweak linux to be a better desktop:
http://www.pcquest.com/sep98/linux.asp
how to set up a web server:
http://www.pcquest.com/may98/webserver.html

Looking at hardware, I'd check the Hardware compatibility HOWTO at,
among other places:
http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO.html

Security-wise this page is pretty good and recent:
http://ltlug.beritrans.com/security/
this section on tools was especially helpful:
http://ltlug.beritrans.com/security/Keep_safe_Programs.html

and I'd check redhat's errata page:
http://www.redhat.com/support/docs/errata.html

www.rootshell.com has common exploits too.

I don't know how close the security tools come to locking down the
system in the way you want, but a proper umask will probably help
things also.

Setting up a network:  nfs seems like it might be the best choice, but
I understand it has some security problems.  I believe there is an NFS
howto (http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/NFS-HOWTO.html).   It is a
year old, but still probably works.

I find the HOWTOS to be a wealth of information.  I think you can
install them from the Redhat CD, or find them on the web at:
http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/

Dan
--
"Computers let you make more mistakes faster than any other invention 
in human history, with the possible exception of handguns and tequila."
    Mitch Radcliffe