New Server and Staff Member

Phil — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 10:16:12 +0000

Today, GeekShed has welcomed another server to its array and another staff member to its ranks. We are pleased to announce the linking of a new server, based in Kent, England, named Andromus. This server has been donated by Kyle, who, after many years of service to GeekShed has been asked to join our staff team. This is never a decision taken lightly (see can I be an oper on GeekShed for info) and we wholly believe that he will be a great asset to the team. Kyle is based in Australia and has much experience running IRC networks. Feel free to come chat to him in #help on irc.geekshed.net.

New Server

Phil — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:19:45 +0000

Corey and CoreyRants.com have donated a new server to the GeekShed family. This server goes by the name Equinox and is located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This should provide lower latency connections for our Northern, Central and Western Canadian users. The server is still undergoing testing and will be added to the round robin sometime next week. For now, you can connect to it at equinox.geekshed.net.

Can I link a server to GeekShed?

Phil — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:41:14 +0000

GeekShed is always looking to broaden the range of servers it can offer its users. We already have servers in America, Canada, the UK and mainland Europe. At the present time, we are looking for servers in:

Western and central Canada
Central USA
South America
Oceania
Africa
Asia
Central and Eastern Europe

Servers linked to GeekShed must fulfill the following requirements…

Hardware

1GHz+ CPU
512MB+ RAM
3GB available hard disk space
100Mbit FD NIC
Currently 60+ days uptime

Network

10mbit downstream
10mbit upstream
1 spare IP that can be dedicated to GeekShed
Firewall allowing unrestricted connections to and from TCP ports 843, 1494, 1755, 4400, 4401, 6660-6669, 6697, 7029 and 7070
The server must allow both inbound and outbound connections
You will also be asked to host a 100MB file (create it with dd if=/dev/zero of=/path/to/100mb-zero.bin bs=1MB count=100) for download with http, sftp or scp to test throughput
Server owners must be aware that their server will suffer from frequent denial of service attacks (DDOS) and servers hosted with ISPs sensitive to DDOS will not be accepted

Software

The following libraries must be installed:
- openssl
- zlib
For Linux, all -dev packages for installed libraries must be installed.
A full toolchain, including gcc, binutils, coreutils, etc. If you cannot compile software, we can’t use the machine right now.
Full SSH access (including sftp and scp)
If the server has a restricted firewall, we must have the ability to add ports to it promptly, not wait around for 30 days for an email tag to get them allowed.
Server owners should be prompt in updating for security updates and updating the system itself.
FreeBSD 7+ and Linux 2.6+ kernels have priority – Windows servers will NEVER be accepted.
Must be able to run a small C file via a super-server daemon on port 843 – This typically requires root access or co-operation from the server administrator
Have hard and soft FD limits greater than or equal to 2048 (ulimit -Hn ; ulimit -Sn)

Network Staff

Server owners will rarely be given an O:Line on their server. Server owners must earn their position on the network staff team, like everyone else. Server donations, however, will be considered as a positive when considering new staff. Please do not ask to link a server simply because you want to be network staff!

If you are interested in linking a server to GeekShed, come and talk to us in #help on irc.geekshed.net.