Linux/server related observations

Access count 61

When ftp'ing through a firewall, you've got to use pftp (passive mode ftp), or ftp -p.

named might not work right away after a reboot, and might need to be restarted. Symptoms are that browsers seem to hang when trying to view documents on the server (they are trying to look up domain names and the domain name server isn't answering).

The Redhat 5.0 adduser command leaves the Name: field blank in /etc/passwd. For some reason this causes finger to not print out mailbox information correctly. The solution is to use chfn on each new account, and put a name in there. chfn = change full name.

For mail forwarding, the .forward file should be chmod'd 644 so the "Mail forwarded to ..." works on external fingers, if you want that.