From: malQRMassimilation@gmail.com   
      
   For the most part, I'm back in business, or at least able to start   
   getting back.   
      
   Recap: Last Monday, the Cable TV company here in Burnsville, North   
   Carolina was taken over by new owners, and I found out that I couldn't   
   use ssh to log in to the Telecom Digest's home machine, which is   
   in Cambridge, Massachusetts.   
      
   The new CableCo turned out to have very bad customer service, and even   
   worse salesmen: I got hung (hanged?) up on four or five times, even   
   while asking them to quote a price to remove the block.   
      
   I tried the free version of ProtonVPN, without success, and I'll get   
   back to that.   
      
   A long-time reader told me that I could get an "Shell In A Box"   
   account from Panix in New York, and I was able to log in to the   
   Telecom Digest server by using one of Panix's web-based shell   
   interfaces. There were some glitches, but nothing serious: the web   
   browser wouldn't pass through the Cntl-N and Cntl-W commands I'm used   
   to using for the-one-true-editor, but I got a digest out and started   
   planning how I would avoid the situation I was in, going forward.   
      
   I got a call from Alexis Rosen, the owner of Panix, who told me that   
   they verify every new account, since they'd had some users who signed   
   up with stolen credit cards and sent spam until they were found out   
   and kicked out.   
      
   It turns out that Panix will allow ssh on port 443, which is usually   
   used for https traffic, and so Alexis said I could tunnel port 22 over   
   to the TD server, using port 443 to get past the port blocking at the   
   new Cableco.   
      
   So, with my Panix options available, I decided to back up the back up:   
   along about Thursday, I paid ProtonVPN the $10 to get their "plus"   
   service, which will allow port forwarding, and found that I could then   
   log into TD central without needing to use a browser, which simplified   
   operation a lot.   
      
   I got a call back from the office of the Governor or North Carolina,   
   which is the place I had called on Monday to ask if the state   
   regulates Internet Service Providers. I had left the message with the   
   "Press" office, which I'm still amazed I'm entitled to use, but it   
   took a while to get a call back. I was talking to a state employee   
   about the problem with ssh blocking, and I realized, during the call,   
   while I was trying to duplicate the original failure messages, that   
   port 22 wasn't blocked anymore.   
      
   It's amazing how things just sort of happen during an election year,   
   you know? I don't know if, or who made the call, or anything, but I   
   left a message and ssh started working again.   
      
   Now, here's the backstory you haven't heard before:   
      
   The Telecom Digest was using a version of Ubuntu Linux which is no   
   longer supported, so our benefactors at CSAIL, which is the Computer   
   Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at M.I.T., had created   
   a new virtual machine for us, with Ubuntu 22.04 loaded on it, and had   
   just told me that machine was ready to use when CableCo cut my cord.   
      
   I had hoped that being able to log in to the new machine would allow   
   for a smooth transition from the old server to the new one, but I   
   fat-fingered something and put the old machine off-line. Sigh.   
      
   CSAIL is a busy place, and we're guests there, so I try to not bother   
   them with small stuff. This, however, was flat-on serious: I had   
   broken the old machine, and the solution that was decided on was to   
   move the data over to the new server, and shut the old one down. Ergo,   
   there I was, trying to remember how to install Apache2 and PHP and   
   maybe even MySQL: in other words, I wanted a LAMP server, so that I   
   could install WordPress and (hopefully) use it as a Content Management   
   System and streamline some of the Digest's processes and backups and   
   other stuff.   
      
   Well, the new server turned out to be really good at delivering error   
   messages: I had found a LAMP HOWTO and was on the first step -   
   updating the existing software - when the machine kicked out several   
   pages of warning about things being defined in more than one place and   
   lots of other stuff I had never - or at least, never remembered -   
   seeing before.   
      
   I bit the bullet and put on the sackcloth and the ashes and the Dunce   
   cap, and asked CSAIL to provide help. It's the weekend, of course, and   
   I really do try to be a good guest, so there might be something in a   
   day or two, but I can't push them.   
      
   So, we've moved, temporarily, to a virtual host in the server I rent   
   from prgmr.com, and use for testing TD updates and ideas, for my blog,   
   for a WordPress instance, and various other projects and volunteer   
   activities: telecomdigest.net. I'm doing things manually that I had   
   semi-automated on the "old" machine, and that's just the way it is for   
   now, so I'll ask your help and your patience while I navigate my way   
   back to being comfortable between my current rock and my   
   waiting-for-Godot hard place.   
      
   My profound thanks to my long-time reader who recommended Panix and   
   helped me to set it up, but who asked to remain anonymous, to Garrett   
   Wollman of CSAIL, and to John Levine, who handles our email spam   
   detection and other essential things at Taughannock Networks, and to   
   Alexis Rosen at Panix: they all put up with a newly minted   
   septuagenarian who knows too much about Mother Bell and too little   
   about getting along with others.   
      
   Bill Horne   
      
      
   --   
   Russion proverb: "Instead of a thousand Rubles, have a thousand friends!"   
      
   (Please remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)