Admin Tool beta: --host option info

[-SF-]Shockwave shockwave at clanshortfuse.com
Mon Sep 9 20:46:35 EDT 2002


Hello all,

If anyone participating in the beta test is using the --host option on the command line for the server program, I recommend that you do so with caution.  Specifying an Internet accessible address for this command line option exposes the admin tool to the Internet and that isn't necessarily a good thing.  Since the admin tool doesn't employ passwords or encryption of any kind, anyone attempting to connect to the IP address and port specified will be granted full access to the game server.  Because of this, I strongly recommend that you use the default setting of "localhost" because it will keep your server much more secure.

I originally added this option to allow administrators to specify internal IP's for multi-homed systems.  If you do decide to use the --host option, only specify an IP address that is either limited to a non-public pool or not routed to the Internet in any way.  If you require remote access to your server, use a client utility that employs the SSH2 protocol to connect to the game server.  Once connected, your communications traffic will be encrypted and you are free to use local addressing to run the programs.  Linux has an SSH client pre-installed, but if you are using a Windows PC you will need to download a utility like PuTTY to accomplish the same thing.  It's free and available here:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

My father once told me, "A little paranoia goes a long way."  If you're just a little paranoid about the potential danger of using this option, I'm sure it will go a long way towards keeping you out of harm's way.


Shockwave
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