> It is a configuration option in SSH I think
> (/etc/sshd.conf or something).

found it, /etc/ssh/sshd_config
<snip>
PermitRootLogin yes
</snip>

> If you're doing this on Slackware, I do believe that
> they prevent remote logins as well.  At least on my
> systems here at home prevent any remote
> logins as root.

slackware does prevent root logins, and as slackware
is my server i didnt enable it...


> P.S. If nobody can answer my question, I'd like to
> borrow a working set of 
> RedHat 7.0 CDs from someone. I would be happy to
> return them to you at the 
> next meeting.

yeah i just burned a the whole set (CDs 1-4) though
you probably do not need more than 1, and if you have
a high speed internet i would suggest Debian (yep i am
a new convert thanks to apt-get)

> Look into useing LDAP instead of NIS/NIS+. LDAP is
> definitly cooler than
> NIS, don't know much about NIS+ though.

LDAP? i probably heard of it, but never used it, any
good HOWTOs?

> Moreover, in cases where there is more than one
> admin, it's absolutely
> silly (IMO) not to use sudo.

nope, only me doing the grunt work...

> Well, I'm not sure how hard you looked or where you
> looked, but this is
> absolutely not true.  NIS can use shadow passwds and
> MD5 without problem.
> There are sum advantages to NIS+ (the default on
> Slackware, IIRC), but the
> administrative complexity far outways them, IMHO.  

in the howto it said that <paraphrase>NIS does not
support shadows and MD5s, NIS+ fixes that but NIS+ is
harder to use so stick with the old NIS</paraphrase>

> In most cases, you'll be fine using NIS.  Many
> people don't like it because
> it's _possible_ for someone to ypxfer your maps from
> your server, 

the question is, on my home network: why would
somebody want to do that?

> considering many users pick terrible, brute-forcable
> passwds.

(l)users gotta love them, but then again im not too
worried about security at this point...

> SCPing maps around isn't a bad solution though, and
> it gives you at least
> some authentication (as does NIS+ w/kerberos).

but SCP to /etc requires root login, 

for now i have decided to put the shadow, passwd and
hosts (i have no DNS server yet - coming soon) on a
floppy to copy them around as there is only 5
machines... not the best solution but it works out
better then SCPing files over...

ok that was a long one, thanks guy for all your help/
pointers... hopefully oneday i will get this perfected
so i can make a proposal at work to move away from the
MS stuff they are using now...

 -munir

=====
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GAT GIT dpu- s:- a19 C++ UL P+ L+(++) E--- W+ N+ w(--) K? O-- M- V- PS+ PE-(--) Y-- PGP-(---) t 5+++ X R tv-- b+++ D++ DI++ G e+ h+() r- y+ UF++
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. 
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/