Security & Access articles

Security & Access 1,245 I have lost SSH access to my server: the four usual causes The server answers ping, but SSH gives Connection timed out or Permission denied. In the overwhelming majority of...
Security & Access 1,283 Keeping your VPS or dedicated server secure: the six that matter On a shared hosting plan the machine is ours and we are the ones keeping it shut. On a VPS or dedicated server, the...
Security & Access 958 How to create an SSH key and log in to your VPS without a password An SSH key is two files: the private key, which stays on your computer and never leaves it, and the public key,...
Security & Access 900 How to create a user with sudo on your VPS and stop logging in as root Root can do anything, so a mistake of yours, or a program’s, can wipe everything. The normal practice is to create...
Security & Access 829 Setting up the ufw firewall on Ubuntu without locking yourself out ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall) is Ubuntu’s simple firewall: it shuts everything coming in and opens only what you tell...
Security & Access 918 Installing fail2ban on a VPS to stop SSH password guessing A server with SSH open receives, day and night, automated password attempts from all over the world. fail2ban reads...
Security & Access 958 SELinux or AppArmor is blocking my service: how to tell, and what to do SELinux (AlmaLinux, Rocky and others in the Red Hat family) and AppArmor (Ubuntu and Debian) are security layers...
Security & Access 821 How to change the SSH port without locking yourself out The rule for changing the SSH port is a single one: open the new port before you close the old one, and test in a...
Security & Access 1,314 Making Remote Desktop on a Windows VPS safer A Windows Server with port 3389 open to the internet is probed by automatic programs every day, guessing passwords....
Security & Access 868 Rate limiting in nginx: slowing down bots and password guessing The short answer: nginx has a built-in request limiter. You define a “zone” that counts requests per address and a...