# Some server-questions

## Karsten1973

Hi,

maybe you can help me with some server questions:

a) I've been to cheap to buy real server hardware. So my homeserver runs on a normal PC. The mainboard has integrated graphics. I read somewhere that I should install X so it could enable the powersaving of the graphics chipset. True? So far I have ssh into a shell.

b) Proxy. I would love to prevent my employer looking over my (virtual) shoulder. But my computer at work is a Vista with Internet Explorer and very very restricted access, not even working USB ports. Is there a solution for calling up my servers address in the Internet Explorer (using SSL) and then entering the real URL I want to visit there, using my server as a proxy, maybe showing the page I want to visit in a frame or iframe? 

Thanks for any ideas or help!

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## DawgG

a.) i don't know.

b.) i guess not - it depends on your emploxyer's internet access configuration.

you want an encrypted tunnel to your external proxy - just setting it up to listen on port 443 for browser-to-proxy-reqs will not do the job.

if your employer is sensitive about this stuff you might want to be careful. if there is a local proxy in between you and the web that allows connect to port 443 you can set up your external proxy and connect to it thru an ssh-tunnel (let sshd listen on 443 and the external proxy only locally). use putty on windodze for the connection (i think it runs without installation)

if there is no port restriction you can u can connect putty directly.

in both cases use putty for the tunnel and connect your local browser thru it, there's tons of tut on that.

be careful if you want to keep your job  :wink: ; also, even with windoze there are ways to prevent this kind of tunneling with or without a local proxy.

GOOD LUCK!

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## krinn

 *Karsten1973 wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I read somewhere that I should install X so it could enable the powersaving of the graphics chipset. True?

 

i don't know really if you could, i suppose if the driver handle that, it could, but the real question would be

is your powersaving save more power than an idle graphic card ? Because a graphic card running under the small load of handling a text isn't the same as running under X (a graphic environment)

So if :

power eat in text mode > powersaving under X it might be useful.

Else you'll just install X to eat more power to add powersaving that will still eat more power than running idle in text mode

to make it clearer, let's see dummies number:

card under X : eat 30w, under text mode : eat 3w, under X + powersaving eat only 8w

in this case adding X + powersaving will in fact eat more power than idle in text mode.

If you really just want install X for enabling powersaving, you should first google to find power consumption under the 3 cases to pickup the best choice.

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## Karsten1973

Thanks for your help!

I'll take the advice and try to google the relevant data for the graphics chipset.

Re: Tunneling

Most Ports are closed, I can only use ports for websurfing. Also: I tried to install a mobile version of firefox and it was not able to connect to the internet. There is a proxy somewhere which has to be used. My "tunnel" needs to be able to do that.

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## DawgG

 *Quote:*   

> I can only use ports for websurfing

 

if you really can use them for internet-access (which i doubt) you might be able to squeeze an ssh-connection thru them, what about dns? internal/external or with proxy? find out in your windoze ip-settings; then try sth like 

```
telnet gentoo.org 80
```

 or sht same thing with an external ip you know has an open port 80.

if you use a "normal" http-proxy you should be able to find that out in the internet exploder settings; you can try and configure putty to go thru that. there are some settings which can prevent that, but if you are lucky the proxy-admin hasn't configured them. i think the best settting is always to use ssl in the connection because the proxy has to allow a direct connect in this case. (i use an im-client at work in that way, putty works, too)

if there is a "transparent" proxy at work i think you are out of luck, but might try the same way.

(i administer a couple of squids and it is quite easy to shut off this kind of stuff - if you have to and do not forget that there are other proxy-"aware" applications than browsers and other proxy-"enabled" protocols besides http(s).)

GOOD LUCK!

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## Karsten1973

I can't even see the tab where the Internet Explorer Network Settings are changeable.

The command telnet isn't available.

I can use the ping command, but ping does not get an DNS resolution. I doubt that tunneling will work. Can I do the work on my server, using apache etc and securing the the connection between work and my server via ssl?

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## cach0rr0

have you tried accessing your box at home via SSH? 

If you can do that, the rest is history; not much of anything you can't do over an SSH tunnel, completely encrypted. Can even tunnel VNC over SSH, and just browser the net from your desktop at home. Or, set up a proxy at home, and tunnel the proxy port back to your desktop at work, configure firefox to connect to the tunneled proxy port

but that's all for nothing if you cant SSH to your box at home. For some reason most people (companies) still leave this open.

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## Karsten1973

Okay, I'll check again. Have to reconfigure the firewall at home, so I'll post later when I was able to access my server from the outside.

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## Karsten1973

Or, easier and faster: Does anyone know an adress where I can check? I dont't need a username/password, I just need some url with a ssh server running to see if putty asks for a password.

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## cach0rr0

i would imagine forums.gentoo.org is probably running sshd

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