for keeping track of my digital experiments

I logged into my blog today and found the usual players in the blog spam market, filling up my Akismet quarentine area. For the past couple of days now, it seems like the same guys have been hanging out on my blog. If they really wanted to make some money, they should post legitamate comments with one website link, or just contact me directly and make some money doing different things … but that’s another story.

So anyway, I’ve gotten so sick and tired of these same folks posting on my blog that I decided to investigate. Low and behold, it appeared that the spammers are no longer cracking into unix/linux machines much, but are instead brute-forcing their ways into Windows machines. Why someone would want to run a Windows box as a dedicated server is beyond me.

I decided to investigate the Windows Server brute-forcing methedology for myself. And thankfully one of the first hits I got was this helpful video about tsgrinder, tscrack, and rdesktop. In the video they don’t show where to get the first two programs, roboclient or probets. You can find more information and the downloads on the Hammer of God website (downloads).

Well hope things work out for the best. ;-P

Counter Strike server setup procedure on Debian linux – January 7th, 2008
Based upon – http://www.cstrike-planet.com/tutorial/1/5 – Props to whoever wrote it!
IT IS ADVISABLE TO RUN THE VARIOUS INSTALL PROCESSES AS ROOT! Edit: You can actually run all of these from a regular system user account.

handy tip – to measure current directory size: du -h

This setup procedure assumes that you (the installer) currently possess:

1. knowledge of how to use a command line text editor in linux (vi, nano, etc.)
2. knowledge of how to use apt-get or yum to install dependencies
3. a preexisting linux installation, and root access on said box (you are able to login as “root”)

I’m doing this installation on a Debian Etch (4.0) minimal installation within a VPS. You do not necessarily have to install a separate Counter Strike dedicated server on a separate VPS. All you have to do is setup the Counter Strike dedicated server to run on different port/IP addresses. So let’s get going!

1. Create an install directory and dl the installer
   • mkdir srcds (the directory for Counter Strike: Source dedicated server)
   • cd srcds
   • wget http://www.cstrike-planet.com/dls/hldsupdatetool.bin
2. Make the installer executable and execute it
   • chmod +x hldsupdatetool.bin
   • ./hldsupdatetool.bin
3. Agree to the terms and conditions by typing “yes” and “steam” will be created in the same directory
4. Now run the steam installer that will dowload a new version of HLDSUpdateTool
   • just to be on the same side, why not make it executable (if it isn’t already) – chmod +x steam
   • run steam: ./steam – it took about 10 minutes for it to update. all depends upon the steam server loads.
5. We are now ready to download and install Counter Strike Source. be sure the trailing dot stays in the command! It is there so that the install goes into the current directory.
   • ./steam -command update -game “Counter-Strike Source” -dir .
   • the install size is ~ 1.1GB uncompressed
6. The server is now ready for various customizations. I’ll be writing more on that later …

This next installation method is for the Counter Strike 1.6 linux dedicated server
Based upon – http://www.cstrike-planet.com/tutorial/1-Linux-Install-CS-16/6

1. Repeat steps 1-5 in previous installation but in different root directory. so instead of “srcds” let’s put the installation in “hlds”. Step 2 of the previous method should this time be:
   • mkdir hlds
   • cd hlds
2. Run the various steps outlined above, and now to install the cstrike1.6 linux dedicated server.
   • ./steam -command update -game cstrike -dir .
   • the install is ~ 360MB

Q and A time
Q: How can I keep hlds running while I am not logged into the server with SSH?
A: Start your dedicated server with screen: screen -S hlds ./hlds_run . And then when you want to access the running server process once logged back in: screen -r hlds.

Q: How many CS virtual servers can I get on one machine?
A: see – http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=743585

Q: What does the “tickrate” have anything to do with anything? What is it?
A: see – http://www.counter-strike.com/tickrate.php

Q: Where can I get cheap vps/dedicated server hosting to try this out on?
A: You could pick up a VPS from webkeepers.com or check out ThePlanet’s bargain bin: https://www.theplanet.com/servers/outlet.aspx.

OpenVZ setup procedure followed – January 6th, 2009
host machine – 1.5ghz Pentium 4 (i386), 1GB ram, 40GB hard disk drive
host os – CentOS 5.2
for more detailed installation information see: http://download.openvz.org/doc/OpenVZ-Users-Guide.pdf

This installation of CentOS 5.2 is on a i386 machine, be sure to substitute in for a 64-bit machine if you have one. Following most/all of the instructions will give you an OpenVZ CentOS 5.2 host with browser-based administration of your VPS(es) with vtonf. This cookbook assumes running knowledge of how to edit configuration files via “vi”, using yum to install dependencies/software, and how to install via tarballs (.tar.gz).

1. Install latest CentOS distro on physical server (at the time of writing this, it was 5.2)
   • minimal install only requires disc 1 – “CentOS-5.2-i386-bin-1of6.iso”
   • choose your mirror: http://isoredirect.centos.org/centos/5/isos/i386/
   • partition setup note: 5GB for root filesystem, 1.25X-2X size of RAM for swap, rest of space for /vz (the VPS nodes and OS templates)
   • During the category/task selection, deselect all package categories, and choose the “Customize now” option at the bottom of screen. During the customized package selection, deselect everything. This will allow for a “minimal” install with only disc 1.
2. Configure static ipv4/ipv6 address(es) – /etc/sysconfig/network/
3. Setup dns nameservers – /etc/resolv.conf
4. Run an update: yum update
5. Follow hotwo: http://www.howtoforge.com/installing-and-using-openvz-on-centos5.2
6. Download VTONF – http://vtonf.com/downloads.html
7. tar xzvf on the archive you just downloaded and cd into the created directory
8. Follow on screen instructions to complete setup
9. If you wanna go crazy with the customizations get into the “/etc/vtonf/” directory and check things out
10. To allow connections to vtonf from IPv4/6 addresses other than through the localhost, modify the code block within “/etc/vtonf/vtonf.conf” so it looks like the below code block. Note the second line!

    fastcgi.server = ( ".php" =>
( "*" =>
( "socket" => "/tmp/vtonf.socket",
"bin-path" => "/usr/local/vtonfphp/bin/php",
"max-procs" => 1,
"bin-environment" => (
"PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN" => "4",
"PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS" => "10000"
),
)
)
)

11. Remember to modify the OpenVZ host IPTABLES rules so that it allows traffic to the VPS nodes. I just turned mine off (service iptables stop; chkconfig iptables off), because I got an external firewall/router in my home LAN.

That’s it you are good to go to start reselling VPSes to clients!