Michael wrote:

After failing to install on two different machines that were running Windows, I realized that one machine had a bad hard-drive, and the other bad memory. So I've collected the good parts into one machine and installed CentOS with SME. This was the fastest install of Linux I have every seen, 15 minutes done, configured, and running, web and email server. It is a very secure config, no GUI -- just a server.

One problem: MySQL and Telnet can't be accessed remotely, ports not open, allow/deny files, something. I've searched the internet and hacked around for hours, can't get these services to work remotely.

Anyone here have experience with the SME/e-smith admin tools?

By default SME doesn't install Telnet on port 23, only ssh on port 22. So I ran a yum install for telnet, manually started it. I get a response from port 23, but connection refused.

Mysql does come installed with SME, however local connections only. I can run mysql client on the command line on the SME.CentOS server, queries work fine, but not remotely.

I am using Windows Vista as a client workstation, Programmer Studio (Whisper Technology) that requires a generic telnet server, and the freeware version of Toad to connect to the MySQL server.

Any help to weaken the security on SME to allow remote telnet and MySQL connections will be very much appreciated!

SME server has their own lists for their products ... just keep in mind that since they have modified their products, information you get that is accurate for centos may not be accurate for SME server.

Michael wrote:

After failing to install on two different machines that were running Windows, I realized that one machine had a bad hard-drive, and the other bad memory. So I've collected the good parts into one machine and installed CentOS with SME. This was the fastest install of Linux I have every seen, 15 minutes done, configured, and running, web and email server. It is a very secure config, no GUI -- just a server.

One problem: MySQL and Telnet can't be accessed remotely, ports not open, allow/deny files, something. I've searched the internet and hacked around for hours, can't get these services to work remotely.

Anyone here have experience with the SME/e-smith admin tools?

While the code is mostly the same as the underlying Centos, the configuration and tools are so different that the question won't even make sense to Centos users. SME server does all normal administration through web forms that store your entries in a database, then use perl scripts to rewrite the config files, and the forms often combine several concepts for simplicity. For things that need network security, the scripts often rewrite iptables settings and hosts.allow and hosts.deny files - and to change it you need to adjust the perl templates that build these files.

By default SME doesn't install Telnet on port 23, only ssh on port 22. So I ran a yum install for telnet, manually started it. I get a response from port 23, but connection refused.

You probably need to add something to the templates that build the iptables and hosts allow/deny files.

Mysql does come installed with SME, however local connections only. I can run mysql client on the command line on the SME.CentOS server, queries work fine, but not remotely.

Same here.

I am using Windows Vista as a client workstation, Programmer Studio (Whisper Technology) that requires a generic telnet server, and the freeware version of Toad to connect to the MySQL server.

Can it use putty or something with ssh instead?

Any help to weaken the security on SME to allow remote telnet and MySQL connections will be very much appreciated!

It's probably easier to start with a stock Centos than to customize an already heavily customized appliance-like distribution, but perhaps someone has already done it. Look through the contributed downloads on http://www.contribs.org and ask on their forums.