Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-08 Thread David Brodbeck
Ryouga Hibiki wrote:
> PS: Unless you know that there's a way to change a package without
> modifying the integrity of these (MD5SUM), is that possible?

I *think* it's been shown that it's possible to create two different
files that have the same MD5 checksum.  Exploiting this would require
creating a *meaningful* file with the same checksum as the original,
though, which is much more difficult.

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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case? (getting OT)

2007-04-07 Thread Carlos E. R.
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The Saturday 2007-04-07 at 10:14 +0100, G.T.Smith wrote:

...

> BTW I did initially attempt to download with the SuSE images with
> bittorrent and abandoned the attempt when I discovered that I had
> something like 60 open connections to various locations and the data
> throughput was crawling with a completion estimate of a couple of days!
> This could be due to bad datalinks, bad data or bandwidth throttling by
> the ISP, but it was beginning to have an impact on using the machine for
> other purposes.

It is only fast at the beginning, when there are a lot of torrent 
downloaders, and the available "classic" mirrors are also too busy. As to 
the open connections, you can configure a lower limit. For instance, I 
used:

btdownloadcurses --spew 1 --max_upload_rate 25 --max_allow_in 12 file.torrent

which allows only 12 incoming connections, as my output bandwidth is only 
30, and those 60 would get only a droplet from me.

- -- 
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   Carlos E. R.

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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case? (getting OT)

2007-04-07 Thread G.T.Smith
John Andersen wrote:
> On Friday 06 April 2007, G.T.Smith wrote:
>   
>> Checksums as it has been already pointed out provide no security, only
>> a  guarantee of the integrity of the source files, and as such are
>> essential for technologies such as bittorrent to work. However, checksum
>> + datasource checks can be gimmicked (though in the instance of
>> bittorrent such gimmickry is unlikely to work).
>> 
>
> So which is it Graham ?
> You seem to want to come down simultaneously on every side of the issue.
>
> If you cut/paste your checksums from the web page and they match
> the bittorrent downloaded ISO, it proves that all of the contributing
> servers from which your bittorrent was served, were secure enough for the job 
> at hand within the accuracy of the checkum methodology.
>
> Each packet (or what ever the data block is called) is check summed in the 
> bittorrent client, and the whole iso can (and should) be checked.
>
> There is virtually no opportunity to insert a rogue data block (with
> a virus) that was not on the original iso and get away with it. 
>
>   
John,

Why should there be sides? If in an intelligent discussion Limes become
Limen (frontiers become walls) one would question whether the discussion
is still intelligent! Both sides have valid points. and BTW have you
ever heard of a dialectic ?

The packet based checksum used by bittorrent is determined on
publication and included in the initial download response, which also
points to initial known mirrors. However, one can extract the contents
without reference to the checksum (this seems to be implied on their
website), and mirrors can point to mirrors of mirrors (and so on ad
infinitum). This mechanism is possibly a bit vulnerable, not from bad
guys injecting bad code into the image (initially) but bad guys
inserting bad packets into mirror copies in a form of DOS attack. Such a
checksum approach is only valuable it is usable, and if someone can
render it unusable ..

BTW I did initially attempt to download with the SuSE images with
bittorrent and abandoned the attempt when I discovered that I had
something like 60 open connections to various locations and the data
throughput was crawling with a completion estimate of a couple of days!
This could be due to bad datalinks, bad data or bandwidth throttling by
the ISP, but it was beginning to have an impact on using the machine for
other purposes.




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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-07 Thread Zhang Weiwu

G.T.Smith 写道:

I think you are rather hoping you can set it up and leave it if
people start using it and it becomes popular they will need support and
unless you have plenty of time it will be wise to consider who has
access, how you monitor that access, how you stop the resource being
compromised (security), and how you are going to assist the user community.
  
Unfortunately (for me) G. T. Smith said the truth: I even didn't realize 
myself that I was thinking how to save MY time doing this. I always want 
to have students who are interested to help administration, hoping that 
would reduce the work. This small project have little funds and we need 
to use existing resource.


I googled a lot and found I am outdated: FTP protocol can do encoding 
conversion. There is a new RFC2640 specified how to do this. I think 
vsftpd can save me a lot of maintenance for being secure and simple, but 
I found vsftp does not follow this RFC. After I read the RFC I go to 
vsftpd source, features.c and add one line of code to make it complaint 
with the new RFC (so much of goodness of opensource). So now if Windows 
user use standard complaint FTP client (FileZilla or smartftp, later I 
didn't test only heard of), they can get the filenames in correct encoding.


Security: as long as the server is not compromised, the file integrity 
is not my concern, because other campus services also have this problem 
(integrity) for years and they even offering .exe file for downloading 
(from a Windows server, oh, let's just hope they have patched 
everything), here I only got audio files, I am sure there will not be so 
much compliance.


The solution would be offering vsftpd server as well as NFS client. Most 
users will only use FTP, so I guess it's easy to control access (plenty 
of options in vsftpd.conf for controlling access). The Linux library and 
laboratory computers can use NFS share. I am pretty sure NFS share will 
not be a traffic problem because Linux users are still only a very very 
small percentage.

There are other issues, your network support people may not be too happy
if your archive stuffs the network if it gets popular, you may need to
look into things like multi-casting and QoS with them. You may and your
users may not be to happy if it the server collapses under the load.
Your solution needs to take into account how many people are expected to
use the resource, how often, and from where. While 100G may not seem a
lot,  100 people accessing 100G is an awful lot of data moving around
wires.

  

I am thinking about possible solutions:

 1. FTP -> can handle heavy load, can do bath upload, not
random-accessible, auto-charset conversion not supported;
  


Hmm. usually hard work for the user. PUTTY in the Windows world does
offer a fairly simply command interface. Using cygwin on windows
machines to setup the machines up as a X terminal is a further route.
  

 2. apache -> batch download not easy for users, handle charset
conversion nicely, not random access
  


Web is really down to how you setup the web access, it is up to you how
easy for the users to access the data and how it is presented. External
access becomes a viable option. Plenty of search options, and support
pages can be setup. Probably easiest solution because you will have
minimal security concerns, and only one thing to look after.
  

 3. NFS -> I don't know any free-as-in-beer Windows client software
for it and I don't know if that client software can do charset
conversion; for Linux clients it's perfect;
  


NFS within a university environment is a security no-brainer. I believe
NFS can be made to work under cygwin though I have not tried this myself.
  

 4. Samba -> I don't know if charset conversion is easy with it. If
a SuSE client connects to it, can suse client select which
charset to use without forcing user to use commandline? And how
about windows, can windows connect to the samba share and do
charset conversion automatically?
  


For raw file store access within the institution is OK. External access
usually a no-no. Sorting out authentication may be an interesting
experience if you are within an AD environment. Samba performs most of
things a domain server, you can set up the server end to use specific
character sets but the interaction with client may a bit odd if client
is configured for something different.
  

 5. DC++ -> looks very nice for charset conversion, I also tried it,
nice. But I don't know if there are Linux server-end software.
Need to check.

  


If it is peer to peer access is what is required e-Mule/e-Donkey is
another option, and there are other options. Personally do not use and
do not recommend P2P, security is down to the weakest link and P2P is
somewhat like unprotected sex... you never no what you are going to
catch. P2P solutions do need careful thought about security.

  

I 

Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread John Andersen
On Friday 06 April 2007, G.T.Smith wrote:
> Checksums as it has been already pointed out provide no security, only
> a  guarantee of the integrity of the source files, and as such are
> essential for technologies such as bittorrent to work. However, checksum
> + datasource checks can be gimmicked (though in the instance of
> bittorrent such gimmickry is unlikely to work).

So which is it Graham ?
You seem to want to come down simultaneously on every side of the issue.

If you cut/paste your checksums from the web page and they match
the bittorrent downloaded ISO, it proves that all of the contributing
servers from which your bittorrent was served, were secure enough for the job 
at hand within the accuracy of the checkum methodology.

Each packet (or what ever the data block is called) is check summed in the 
bittorrent client, and the whole iso can (and should) be checked.

There is virtually no opportunity to insert a rogue data block (with
a virus) that was not on the original iso and get away with it. 

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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread Randall R Schulz
On Friday 06 April 2007 13:39, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> The Friday 2007-04-06 at 12:41 -0700, Randall R Schulz wrote:
>
> ...
>
> > I was merely addressing the point that running someone else's
> > software is an act of trust. Such trust must be based on true
> > identities and not something forgeable.
>
> But the OP wants to distribute audio files, not programs.

So? That does not fundamentally alter the security analysis.

If the audio is a message telling you where to meet to hand off your 
copy of some top-secret documents you're leaking, you probably want to 
know you're getting the right message.

If it's your new favorite mix tape, then I don't think it's a very big 
deal if someone swaps their's for yours.


> --
> Cheers,
>Carlos E. R.


Randall Schulz
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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread Carlos E. R.
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The Friday 2007-04-06 at 12:41 -0700, Randall R Schulz wrote:

...
> 
> I was merely addressing the point that running someone else's software 
> is an act of trust. Such trust must be based on true identities and not 
> something forgeable.

But the OP wants to distribute audio files, not programs.

- -- 
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   Carlos E. R.

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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread G.T.Smith
Carlos E. R. wrote:
>
> The Friday 2007-04-06 at 20:41 +0200, Anders Johansson wrote:
>
> >> Should I remind you that SuSE/Novell uses torrent to distribute the iso
> >> images of the distribution? Indeed, the "virus" that SuSE
> distributes is
> >> the one I have installed in my system, alive and running - it is called
> >> "opensuse linux"!
> > That doesn't change the fact that bittorrent in itself doesn't have
> security.
> > It also doesn't change the fact that a checksum is not a security
> feature. It
> > only helps you ensure that what you get is what the other side sent.
> In the
> > end, you're still stuck with the question "do I trust the sender".
> Bittorrent
> > doesn't help you with that
>
> And that's way more than what ftp does: I normally get what the other
> side
> sent, with no integrity check. The same as any other file transfer
> protocol, be it ftp, http, samba, nfs... you name it, I have to trust
> what
> the other side sends. With torrent at least integrity is checked.
>
>
> You are missing the point: torrent, in the way that Novell uses it to
> distribute opensuse, is as secure as can be. It is they who post the link
> with the checksums, and it is they who put the seeds. We don get those
> from out there in the wild.
>
Bittorrent relies on replication on mutliple source servers so that the
client can obtain  data from multiple sources. To some extent it
sidesteps the bandwidth and server load issues, but there is the
potentially dangerous assumption that the source servers concerned are
securely maintained by people of good intention. (There are also a few
domestic router/modems that choke under the number of open connections
that bittorrent can accumulate but that is a separate issue).

Checksums as it has been already pointed out provide no security, only
a  guarantee of the integrity of the source files, and as such are
essential for technologies such as bittorrent to work. However, checksum
+ datasource checks can be gimmicked (though in the instance of
bittorrent such gimmickry is unlikely to work).

If should also be noted Novell have resources that most individuals do
not have to monitor the distribution and flag possible problems.

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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread Randall R Schulz
Carlos,

On Friday 06 April 2007 12:25, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> The Friday 2007-04-06 at 11:59 -0700, Randall R Schulz wrote:
> > That's what cryptographic identity certificates are for. One would
> > hope that if BitTorrent is going to be widely used to distribute
> > critical resources such as software it would be endowed with the
> > ability to propagate and verify these signatures.
> >
> > Or does BitTorrent already incorporate certificate validation?
>
> Tell me, when I download opensuse, using http, for instance, do I get
> such cryptographic certificates? I believe not. Not even if download
> from the novell site.

That's the point. It seems like something that needs to be incorporated 
into file distribution software in order to secure our on-line software 
distribution networks.


> However, you can publish the torrent initial link in a secure
> webserver (https), which means that you get the download site links
> and checksums from a certified source. The ensuing torrent download
> is thus certified.

So the answer is that security virtually identical to what could be 
achieved by directly incorporating certificate support into BitTorrent 
itself can be achieved with existing mechanisms. That's good.


> To duplicate that feat with http you require all mirror servers to
> use https. And FTP? No way.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not suggesting there's anything in any way 
superior to BitTorrent, at least for popular downloads (below a certain 
threshold of demand, BitTorrent is slower 'cause there aren't enough 
copies to satisfy retrieval requests in a timely manner and direct 
retrieval is preferable for the end user).

I was merely addressing the point that running someone else's software 
is an act of trust. Such trust must be based on true identities and not 
something forgeable.


> --
> Cheers,
>Carlos E. R.


Randall Schulz
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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread Ryouga Hibiki

From: Jan Karjalainen To: opensuse@opensuse.org
Subject: Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?
Date: Fri, 06 Apr 2007 20:42:47 +0200

Which protocol does that, I'd like to know...
In the end, you have to trust to source, right?
Unless it's source code, then you can check out the code for yourself.
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Greetings,

use Bittorrent for the transfer but use zip, rar or other tool to password 
protect your package, so your package is protected against curious people 
and by the integrity check you're certain that you have received your 
package.


Its a weird discussion, your should know =/

Carlos A.

PS: Unless you know that there's a way to change a package without modifying 
the integrity of these (MD5SUM), is that possible?


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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread Carlos E. R.
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The Friday 2007-04-06 at 11:59 -0700, Randall R Schulz wrote:

> That's what cryptographic identity certificates are for. One would hope 
> that if BitTorrent is going to be widely used to distribute critical 
> resources such as software it would be endowed with the ability to 
> propagate and verify these signatures.
> 
> Or does BitTorrent already incorporate certificate validation?

Tell me, when I download opensuse, using http, for instance, do I get such 
cryptographic certificates? I believe not. Not even if download from the 
novell site.

However, you can publish the torrent initial link in a secure webserver 
(https), which means that you get the download site links and checksums 
from a certified source. The ensuing torrent download is thus certified.

To duplicate that feat with http you require all mirror servers to use 
https. And FTP? No way.

- -- 
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   Carlos E. R.

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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread Randall R Schulz
On Friday 06 April 2007 11:42, Jan Karjalainen wrote:
> ...
>
> > That doesn't change the fact that bittorrent in itself doesn't have
> > security. It also doesn't change the fact that a checksum is not a
> > security feature. It only helps you ensure that what you get is
> > what the other side sent. In the end, you're still stuck with the
> > question "do I trust the sender". Bittorrent doesn't help you with
> > that
>
> Which protocol does that, I'd like to know...
> In the end, you have to trust to source, right?

Of course. But there's a separate issue, and that is the matter of 
knowing that the provider is who them claim to be. Piggybacking malware 
on the name of a trusted source is a viable means for injecting an 
exploit, if the distribution system does not preclude such 
misrepresentations.

That's what cryptographic identity certificates are for. One would hope 
that if BitTorrent is going to be widely used to distribute critical 
resources such as software it would be endowed with the ability to 
propagate and verify these signatures.

Or does BitTorrent already incorporate certificate validation?


> Unless it's source code, then you can check out the code for
> yourself.

True, if you're a good enough programmer and have the time. For 
practical purposes, virtually all users must trust someone else to 
certify that a given piece of software if free of deliberately added 
vulnerabilities. And that does not reflect bugs with security 
impacts--they're a separate issue--nor does such a professional 
certification constitute a guarantee.


C'est la vie.


Randall Schulz
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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread Carlos E. R.
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The Friday 2007-04-06 at 20:41 +0200, Anders Johansson wrote:

> > Should I remind you that SuSE/Novell uses torrent to distribute the iso
> > images of the distribution? Indeed, the "virus" that SuSE distributes is
> > the one I have installed in my system, alive and running - it is called
> > "opensuse linux"!
> 
> That doesn't change the fact that bittorrent in itself doesn't have security. 
> It also doesn't change the fact that a checksum is not a security feature. It 
> only helps you ensure that what you get is what the other side sent. In the 
> end, you're still stuck with the question "do I trust the sender". Bittorrent 
> doesn't help you with that

And that's way more than what ftp does: I normally get what the other side 
sent, with no integrity check. The same as any other file transfer 
protocol, be it ftp, http, samba, nfs... you name it, I have to trust what 
the other side sends. With torrent at least integrity is checked.


You are missing the point: torrent, in the way that Novell uses it to 
distribute opensuse, is as secure as can be. It is they who post the link 
with the checksums, and it is they who put the seeds. We don get those 
from out there in the wild.

- -- 
Cheers,
   Carlos E. R.
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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread Anders Johansson
On Friday 06 April 2007 20:42:47 Jan Karjalainen wrote:
> Which protocol does that, I'd like to know...

None, that's the point.

> In the end, you have to trust to source, right?

Exactly

> Unless it's source code, then you can check out the code for yourself.

If you want to get really picky, that doesn't help either

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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread Jan Karjalainen

Anders Johansson wrote:

On Friday 06 April 2007 20:35:44 Carlos E. R. wrote:
  

The Friday 2007-04-06 at 19:55 +0200, Anders Johansson wrote:


bittorrent does have security: the initial seed or link inlcudes
checksums.


Indeed. You can be absolutely sure that the virus you receive is
identical to the virus that was sent

A checksum isn't security, it is fault protection
  

Should I remind you that SuSE/Novell uses torrent to distribute the iso
images of the distribution? Indeed, the "virus" that SuSE distributes is
the one I have installed in my system, alive and running - it is called
"opensuse linux"!



That doesn't change the fact that bittorrent in itself doesn't have security. 
It also doesn't change the fact that a checksum is not a security feature. It 
only helps you ensure that what you get is what the other side sent. In the 
end, you're still stuck with the question "do I trust the sender". Bittorrent 
doesn't help you with that


  

Which protocol does that, I'd like to know...
In the end, you have to trust to source, right?
Unless it's source code, then you can check out the code for yourself.
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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread M Harris
On Friday 06 April 2007 13:35, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>  Indeed, the "virus" that SuSE distributes is
> the one I have installed in my system, alive and running - it is called
> "opensuse linux"!
... preach it bubba... !



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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread Anders Johansson
On Friday 06 April 2007 20:35:44 Carlos E. R. wrote:
> The Friday 2007-04-06 at 19:55 +0200, Anders Johansson wrote:
> > > bittorrent does have security: the initial seed or link inlcudes
> > > checksums.
> >
> > Indeed. You can be absolutely sure that the virus you receive is
> > identical to the virus that was sent
> >
> > A checksum isn't security, it is fault protection
>
> Should I remind you that SuSE/Novell uses torrent to distribute the iso
> images of the distribution? Indeed, the "virus" that SuSE distributes is
> the one I have installed in my system, alive and running - it is called
> "opensuse linux"!

That doesn't change the fact that bittorrent in itself doesn't have security. 
It also doesn't change the fact that a checksum is not a security feature. It 
only helps you ensure that what you get is what the other side sent. In the 
end, you're still stuck with the question "do I trust the sender". Bittorrent 
doesn't help you with that

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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread Carlos E. R.
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The Friday 2007-04-06 at 19:55 +0200, Anders Johansson wrote:

> > bittorrent does have security: the initial seed or link inlcudes
> > checksums.
> 
> Indeed. You can be absolutely sure that the virus you receive is identical to 
> the virus that was sent
> 
> A checksum isn't security, it is fault protection

Should I remind you that SuSE/Novell uses torrent to distribute the iso 
images of the distribution? Indeed, the "virus" that SuSE distributes is 
the one I have installed in my system, alive and running - it is called 
"opensuse linux"!

:-P

- -- 
Cheers,
   Carlos E. R.
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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread Dave Howorth
On Fri, 2007-04-06 at 19:13 +0800, Zhang Weiwu wrote:
> Recently I need to start a small project to distribute about 100GB
> megabytes of audio files to local university campus. I'd like to post my
> requirement hoping I can get some insightful recommendation on what
> software/technology to use to distribute these files.

Unless somebody comes up with a killer app that does everything, I think
I'd separate the search requirements from the distribution requirements.
And sadly, you may need to separate the character set requirements as
well - I hope somebody knows of a complete solution.

I don't have many thoughts on the search or character set issues. On the
distribution side, you might also want to look at rsync and bittorrent.

Cheers, Dave

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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread Anders Johansson
On Friday 06 April 2007 19:50:51 Carlos E. R. wrote:
> The Friday 2007-04-06 at 14:07 +0100, G.T.Smith wrote:
> > If it is peer to peer access is what is required e-Mule/e-Donkey is
> > another option, and there are other options. Personally do not use and
> > do not recommend P2P, security is down to the weakest link and P2P is
> > somewhat like unprotected sex... you never no what you are going to
> > catch. P2P solutions do need careful thought about security.
>
> bittorrent does have security: the initial seed or link inlcudes
> checksums.

Indeed. You can be absolutely sure that the virus you receive is identical to 
the virus that was sent

A checksum isn't security, it is fault protection

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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread Carlos E. R.
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Hash: SHA1


The Friday 2007-04-06 at 14:07 +0100, G.T.Smith wrote:

> If it is peer to peer access is what is required e-Mule/e-Donkey is
> another option, and there are other options. Personally do not use and
> do not recommend P2P, security is down to the weakest link and P2P is
> somewhat like unprotected sex... you never no what you are going to
> catch. P2P solutions do need careful thought about security.

bittorrent does have security: the initial seed or link inlcudes 
checksums.


> > Thanks for any comments!
> 
> The thing to remember in the University environment you have a lot of
> talented individuals, and will regard any shared resource as fair game
> to so you need to think paranoid. It may be a war zone in the outside
> internet world but it can be like living in the middle of armageddon
> within a University.

X'-)

- -- 
Cheers,
   Carlos E. R.
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Re: [opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread G.T.Smith
Zhang Weiwu wrote:
> Dear list
>
> Recently I need to start a small project to distribute about 100GB
> megabytes of audio files to local university campus. I'd like to post my
> requirement hoping I can get some insightful recommendation on what
> software/technology to use to distribute these files.
>
>  1. It must be accessible from Windows linearly (e.g. FTP protocol),
> better also random access from Windows is also supported (e.g.
> samba). We must not require Windows user to install for-fee
> software in order to get the content.
>  2. It must be accessible from Linux randomly, with no client side
> tool (e.g. nfs) or free (as in beer) client side tool.
>  3. Both Linux and Windows user should be able to batch-download,
> e.g. download a whole folder and its sub-folders;
>  4. It must stand relatively heavy load;
>  5. It better can provide user a search feature so that user can
> search with keyword in file name, or even better, in mp3/ogg
> tag.
>  6. It better handle character-set difference in nice manner. e.g.
> HTTP can handle character-set difference because charset info is
> in HTTP header and charset conversion is done automatically; FTP
> cannot handle character-set difference in very nice manner, user
> have to configure their FTP client to do charset conversion, and
> most Windows FTP client software I know of do not support
> charset conversion.
>   
I think you are rather hoping you can set it up and leave it if
people start using it and it becomes popular they will need support and
unless you have plenty of time it will be wise to consider who has
access, how you monitor that access, how you stop the resource being
compromised (security), and how you are going to assist the user community.

There are other issues, your network support people may not be too happy
if your archive stuffs the network if it gets popular, you may need to
look into things like multi-casting and QoS with them. You may and your
users may not be to happy if it the server collapses under the load.
Your solution needs to take into account how many people are expected to
use the resource, how often, and from where. While 100G may not seem a
lot,  100 people accessing 100G is an awful lot of data moving around
wires.

> I am thinking about possible solutions:
>
>  1. FTP -> can handle heavy load, can do bath upload, not
> random-accessible, auto-charset conversion not supported;
>   
Hmm. usually hard work for the user. PUTTY in the Windows world does
offer a fairly simply command interface. Using cygwin on windows
machines to setup the machines up as a X terminal is a further route.
>  2. apache -> batch download not easy for users, handle charset
> conversion nicely, not random access
>   
Web is really down to how you setup the web access, it is up to you how
easy for the users to access the data and how it is presented. External
access becomes a viable option. Plenty of search options, and support
pages can be setup. Probably easiest solution because you will have
minimal security concerns, and only one thing to look after.
>  3. NFS -> I don't know any free-as-in-beer Windows client software
> for it and I don't know if that client software can do charset
> conversion; for Linux clients it's perfect;
>   
NFS within a university environment is a security no-brainer. I believe
NFS can be made to work under cygwin though I have not tried this myself.
>  4. Samba -> I don't know if charset conversion is easy with it. If
> a SuSE client connects to it, can suse client select which
> charset to use without forcing user to use commandline? And how
> about windows, can windows connect to the samba share and do
> charset conversion automatically?
>   
For raw file store access within the institution is OK. External access
usually a no-no. Sorting out authentication may be an interesting
experience if you are within an AD environment. Samba performs most of
things a domain server, you can set up the server end to use specific
character sets but the interaction with client may a bit odd if client
is configured for something different.
>  5. DC++ -> looks very nice for charset conversion, I also tried it,
> nice. But I don't know if there are Linux server-end software.
> Need to check.
>
>   
If it is peer to peer access is what is required e-Mule/e-Donkey is
another option, and there are other options. Personally do not use and
do not recommend P2P, security is down to the weakest link and P2P is
somewhat like unprotected sex... you never no what you are going to
catch. P2P solutions do need careful thought about security.

> I am thinking perhaps combine two solutions together might be the best,
> e.g. setting up FTP server for Windows users and set up NFS server for
> Linux users. Still I a

[opensuse] best file distribution technology for my case?

2007-04-06 Thread Zhang Weiwu
Dear list

Recently I need to start a small project to distribute about 100GB
megabytes of audio files to local university campus. I'd like to post my
requirement hoping I can get some insightful recommendation on what
software/technology to use to distribute these files.

 1. It must be accessible from Windows linearly (e.g. FTP protocol),
better also random access from Windows is also supported (e.g.
samba). We must not require Windows user to install for-fee
software in order to get the content.
 2. It must be accessible from Linux randomly, with no client side
tool (e.g. nfs) or free (as in beer) client side tool.
 3. Both Linux and Windows user should be able to batch-download,
e.g. download a whole folder and its sub-folders;
 4. It must stand relatively heavy load;
 5. It better can provide user a search feature so that user can
search with keyword in file name, or even better, in mp3/ogg
tag.
 6. It better handle character-set difference in nice manner. e.g.
HTTP can handle character-set difference because charset info is
in HTTP header and charset conversion is done automatically; FTP
cannot handle character-set difference in very nice manner, user
have to configure their FTP client to do charset conversion, and
most Windows FTP client software I know of do not support
charset conversion.

I am thinking about possible solutions:

 1. FTP -> can handle heavy load, can do bath upload, not
random-accessible, auto-charset conversion not supported;
 2. apache -> batch download not easy for users, handle charset
conversion nicely, not random access
 3. NFS -> I don't know any free-as-in-beer Windows client software
for it and I don't know if that client software can do charset
conversion; for Linux clients it's perfect;
 4. Samba -> I don't know if charset conversion is easy with it. If
a SuSE client connects to it, can suse client select which
charset to use without forcing user to use commandline? And how
about windows, can windows connect to the samba share and do
charset conversion automatically?
 5. DC++ -> looks very nice for charset conversion, I also tried it,
nice. But I don't know if there are Linux server-end software.
Need to check.

I am thinking perhaps combine two solutions together might be the best,
e.g. setting up FTP server for Windows users and set up NFS server for
Linux users. Still I am not sure what's the best solution, and there
might be better solutions than what I listed that I never heard of.

* In all above discussion "charset conversion" means charset conversion
for file names, not the content. Content is in mp3/ogg format.

Thanks for any comments!

-- 
Zhang Weiwu
Real Softservice
http://www.realss.com
+86 592 2091112

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