Category Archives: Server Information

Huge Music Addition

Well, I got the blog’s emailing notices fixed in time for the year-end music uploads.  (About 25GB)  As such, now the emails will be coming from tunezmeister, so you may have to add that to your address  book, if it’s picked up as spam.  So, Here it is, the music titles that I’ve added in this update.  As always, they will be in New for awhile.  This update includes the 2020 albums from Blue Öyster Cult , Wishbone Ash, and  ACDC!   I’ll list the bootlegs first…

Bootlegs:

Budgie – 1974-02-11 – Live at the Marquee, London, UK
Budgie – 1974-03-09 – Live at Global Village, London, UK
Budgie – 1974-03-23 – Let The Bird Out Of Its Cage! (Live Northampton, PA, USA)
Budgie – 1974-09-12 – Örebro Concert Hall, Örebro, Sweden
Budgie – 1976-12-04 – Live In Concert (St.Louis, USA)
Budgie – 1977-11-12 – Second Whisky, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Budgie – 1978-02-25 – Manchester Apollo, Manchester, UK
Budgie – 1978-04-22 – 3rd Night, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Budgie – 1978-04-22 – Dodge City (Live at Electric Ballroom and The Whiskey, Los Angeles, CA, USA)
Budgie – 1978 – Budgie Live 78
Budgie – 1981-06-18 – The Marquee, London, UK
Budgie – 1981-12-13 – Nightflight In Guildford (Guildford, UK)
Budgie – 2005-10-20 – Little Puddles – Live @ Mr. Kyps
Budgie – 2009-04-24 – Olsztyn, Poland
Cactus – 1971.06.26 – Gilligan’s, Buffalo NY CD1
Cactus – 1971.06.26 – Gilligan’s, Buffalo NY CD2
Cactus – 1971.07.05 – Bronx Youth Center, Bronx NY
Cactus – 1971.10.18 – Auxiliary Studios, Rochester NY
Cactus – 1971 – Ultra Sonic Studios, WLIR FM Broadcast, Hempstead NY
Joe Satriani – 1987 – Surfing With The Alien
Van Halen – 1974.11.xx – Gazzari’s, Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA [SBD]
Van Halen – 1974 – 1976 Demo Daze
Van Halen – 1976.05.29 – Pasadena, CA
Van Halen – 1976.06.15 – Hilton, Pasadena, CA
Van Halen – 1977.10.15 – Pasadena On Fire
Van Halen – 1977.10.xx – Six Flags Magic Mountain, Valencia, CA

And, the rest:

ACDC – 2020 – Power Up
Ace Frehley – 1987 – Frehley’s Comet
Ace Frehley – 1988 – Frehley’s Comet, Second Sight
Ace Frehley – 1988 – Live + 1
Ace Frehley – 1989 – Trouble Walkin’
Ace Frehley – 2006 – Greatest Hits Live
Ace Frehley – 2009 – Anomal
Ace Frehley – 2014 – Space Invader
Ace Frehley – 2016 – Origins Vol. 1
Ace Frehley – 2018 – Spaceman
Ace Frehley – Kiss – 1978 – Ace Frehley
Badlands – 1989 – Badlands
Badlands – 1990 – Live In Boston
Badlands – 1991 – Voodoo Highway
Badlands – 1998 – Dusk
Blackjack – 1979 – Blackjack
Blackjack – 1980 – Worlds Apart
Blue Öyster Cult – 2020 – The Symbol Remains
Brownsville Station – 1970 – No BS
Brownsville Station – 1973 – Yeah!
Brownsville Station – 1974 – School Punks
Brownsville Station – 1975 – A Night On The Town
Brownsville Station – 1975 – Motor City Connection
Brownsville Station – 1977 – Brownsville Station
Brownsville Station – 1978 – Air Special
Budgie – 1971 – Budgie
Budgie – 1972 – Squawk
Budgie – 1973 – Never Turn Your Back On A Friend
Budgie – 1974 – In For The Kill!
Budgie – 1975 – Bandolier
Budgie – 1976 – If I Were Brittania I’d Waive The Rules
Budgie – 1978 – Impeckable
Budgie – 1980 – If Swallowed, Do Not Induce Vomiting
Budgie – 1980 – Power Supply
Budgie – 1981 – Nightflight
Budgie – 1982 – Deliver Us From Evil
Budgie – 1997 – The Best Of
Budgie – 1998 – Heavier Than Air, Rarest Eggs
Budgie – 1998 – We Came, We Saw
Budgie – 2002 – Life In San Antonio
Budgie – 2004 – The Last Stage
Budgie – 2005 – Radio Sessions 1974 & 1978
Budgie – 2006 – The BBC Recordings
Budgie – 2006 – You’re All Living In Cuckooland
Cactus – 1970 – Cactus
Cactus – 1971 – One Way…Or Another
Cactus – 1971 – Restrictions
Cactus – 1972 – ‘Ot ‘N’ Sweaty
Cactus – 1996 – Cactology, The Cactus Collection
Cactus – 2004 – Barely Contained, The Studio Sessions 1972
Cactus – 2004 – Fully Unleashed, The Live Gigs 1972
Cactus – 2006 – V
Cactus – 2007 – Fully Unleashed, The Live Gigs Vol. II, 1971
Cactus – 2010 – Ultra Sonic Boogie, Live 1971
Cactus – 2016 – Black Dawn
Camel – 1969 – Underage
David Byron – 1975 – Take No Prisoners
David Byron – 1978 – Baby Faced Killer
David Byron – 1995 – Man Of Yesterday, The Anthology CD 1
David Byron – 1995 – Man Of Yesterday, The Anthology CD 2
David Byron – 2006 – The Lost Songs Vol. I
David Byron – 2006 – The Lost Songs Vol. II
David Byron – 2008 – That Was Only Yesterday, The Last EP 1984
David Byron Band – 1981 – On The Rocks
David Byron Band – 2003 – Lost And Found, 1980-1982
David Byron – Rough Diamond – 1977 – Rough Diamond
David Byron & The Byron Band – 2008 – One Minute More
Fuzzy Duck – 1971 – Fuzzy Duck
John Lennon – 1969 – The Plastic Ono Band – Live Peace In Toronto
John Lennon – 1970 – Plastic Ono Band
John Lennon – 1971 – Imagine
John Lennon – 1972 (1986) – Live In New York City, 1972
John Lennon – 1973 – Mind Games
John Lennon – 1974 – Elton John & John Lennon – Live At Madison Square Garden
John Lennon – 1974 – Walls And Bridges
John Lennon – 1975 – Rock ‘n’ Roll
John Lennon – 1996 – The Complete Lost Lennon Tapes Vol 1-22
John Lennon – 1998 – Wonsaponatime, Selections From Lennon Anthology
John Lennon – 2004 – Acoustic
John Lennon – 2006 – The U.S. vs John Lennon
John Lennon – 2010 – Power To The People, The Hits
John Lennon – 2020 – Gimme Some Truth
John Lennon with Yoko Ono & The Plastic Ono Band – 1972 – Sometime in New York City
John Lennon & Yoko Ono – 1968 – Unfinished Music No. 1 Two Virgins
John Lennon & Yoko Ono – 1969 – Unfinished Music No.2, Life With The Lions
John Lennon & Yoko Ono – 1969 – Wedding Album
John Lennon & Yoko Ono – 1980 (1984) – Milk And Honey (1984)
John Lennon & Yoko Ono – 1980 – Double Fantasy
Midnight Oil – 1978 – Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil – 1979 – Head Injuries
Midnight Oil – 1980 – Bird Noises
Midnight Oil – 1981 – Place Without A Postcard
Midnight Oil – 1982 – 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1
Midnight Oil – 1984 – Red Sails In The Sunset
Midnight Oil – 1985 – Species Deceases EP
Midnight Oil – 1987 – Diesel And Dust
Midnight Oil – 1990 – Blue Sky Mining
Midnight Oil – 1992 – Scream In Blue, Live
Midnight Oil -1993 – Earth And Sun And Moon
Midnight Oil -1996 – Breathe
Midnight Oil – 1997 – 20,000 Watt R.S.L
Midnight Oil – 1998 – Redneck Wonderland
Midnight Oil – 2000 – The Real Thing
Midnight Oil – 2002 – Capricornia
Midnight Oil – 2006 – Flat Chat
Pat Benatar – 1979 – In the Heat of the Night
Pat Benatar – 1980 – Crimes of Passion
Pat Benatar – 1981 – Precious Time
Pat Benatar – 1982 – Get Nervous
Pat Benatar – 1983 – Live From Earth
Pat Benatar – 1984 – Tropico
Pat Benatar – 1985 – Seven The Hard Way
Pat Benatar – 1988 – Wide Awake In Dreamland
Pat Benatar – 1989 – Best Shot
Pat Benatar – 1991 – True Love
Pat Benatar – 1993 – Gravity’s Rainbow
Pat Benatar – 1997 – Innamorata
Pat Benatar – 2003 – Go
Pat Benatar – 2005 – Greatest Hits
Poison – 1986 – Look What The Cat Dragged In
Poison – 1988 – Open Up And Say… Ahh!
Poison – 1990 – Flesh & Blood
Poison – 1991 – Swallow This Live
Poison – 1993 – Native Tongue
Poison – 2000 – Crack A Smile… And More!
Poison – 2000 – Power To The People
Poison – 2002 – Hollyweird
Poison – 2006 – Seven Days Live, 1993
Poison – 2006 – The Best Of Poison, 20 Years Of Rock
Poison – 2007 – Poison’d!
Poison – 2008 – Live, Raw & Uncut
Poison – 2009 – Collector’s Edition
Poison – 2010 – Nothin’ But A Good Time, The Poison Collection
The Marcus King Band – 2014 – Soul Insight
Widespread Panic – 1988 – Space Wrangler
Widespread Panic – 1991 – Widespread Panic
Widespread Panic – 1993 – Everyday
Widespread Panic – 1994 – Ain’t Life Grand
Widespread Panic – 1997 – Bombs & Butterflies
Widespread Panic – 1998 – Light Fuse, Get Away CD 1
Widespread Panic – 1998 – Light Fuse, Get Away CD 2
Widespread Panic – 1999 – Til The Medicine Takes
Widespread Panic – 2000 – Another Joyous Occasion
Widespread Panic – 2001 – Don’t Tell The Band CD 1
Widespread Panic – 2001 – Don’t Tell The Band CD 2
Widespread Panic – 2002 – Live In The Classic City CD 1
Widespread Panic – 2002 – Live In The Classic City CD 2
Widespread Panic – 2002 – Live In The Classic City CD 3
Widespread Panic – 2003 – Ball
Widespread Panic – 2004 – Jackassolantern
Widespread Panic – 2004 – Night Of Joy
Widespread Panic – 2004 – Uber Cobra
Widespread Panic – 2005 – Live At Myrtle Beach CD 1
Widespread Panic – 2005 – Live At Myrtle Beach CD 2
Widespread Panic – 2006 – Earth To America
Widespread Panic – 2008 – Free Somehow
Widespread Panic – 2010 – Dirty Side Down
Widespread Panic – 2010 – Live In The Classic City II CD 1
Widespread Panic – 2010 – Live In The Classic City II CD 2
Widespread Panic – 2012 – Wood CD 1
Widespread Panic – 2012 – Wood CD 2
Widespread Panic – 2015 – Street Dogs
Widespread Panic – 2016 – 2016 Halloween Compilation
Widespread Panic – 2016 – 2016 New Years Compilation
Widespread Panic – 2016 – Arkansas Music Pavilion
Widespread Panic – 2016 – Civic Theatre
Widespread Panic – 2016 – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Widespread Panic – 2016 – The Joint At Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Widespread Panic – 2016 – The Wiltern
Widespread Panic – Panic In The Streets CD 1
Widespread Panic – Panic In The Streets CD 2 – Live From The Georgia Theatre
Wishbone Ash – 2020 – Coat Of Arms

Enjoy!

System Information

A lot has happened since the end of the year, so let me try to catch everybody up to date….

Around Nov 2019, the Fedora Linux server sustained a system hard drive crash.  No big deal, right?  This is why I have spare hardware and backup sets and drive images.  To prevent, or minimalize the loss of data.  So, I couldn’t find any spare 250GB drives, so, I installed a 320GB drive as the boot device and restored the image.  The current Fedora OS at the time was F31, so, I figured that I would upgrade the server to current while I was at it.  The upgrade from F28 to F30 went fine, but that’s as far as it would go.  Awhile back, Fedora stopped supplying live 32 bit images, but would upgrade an existing 32 bit image.  That ended with F31.  The server was a HP D530 @2.8GHz, with 4GB of ram, and was 32 bit only, so I ordered a couple new servers.  I’m not really upset over that, as the existing D530 has been running 24/7 since September 2010.  Not a bad run for a server: 9 years.

I picked up a pair of HP Elite 8300 Convertible Mini Tower computers at a great price, both came with 8GB Ram (Expandable to 32GB).  The CPU is a quad core i5-3470 running at 3.2GHz (32/64 bit).  It has been running since Jan 2020 and rarely runs at less than 98.5% idle, with a load usually of 0.1. The four cores of the CPU usually hang out at about 80 degress Fahrenheit, and trying to push the CPU doesn’t get the temperature to move at all… The server usually never even touches the swap, instead staying within the 8GB of memory, so putting another 8GB into it isn’t really a priority.  I performed a fresh F31 install, and restored the KRAB server, and many more items.  I also had suspended auto backups for a few months, but the auto backup rotation is now up and running and the full backups run much faster now that the system is 64 bit with more memory.

On a side note, my friend, Duck Landes and I worked on, and got set up a KRAB radio relay.  He also expanded his existing four channels and added a couple more besides the relay.  The URL for the server is: quackhouseradio.net.  There, you will find the following channels:

QH1: Bootleg Rock and Blues, Duck’s Live Broadcasts
QH2: Bootleg Blues and Old Time Radio
QH3: History
QH4: Bootleg Concerts and KRAB Live Broadcasts
QH5: Horror
QH6: Old Time Radio
KRAB: KRAB Radio Relay

The streams are as easy as going to the correct channel, and just clicking on the winamp or media player icons.  (In the case of KRAB, you can either do that, or click one of the two listen buttons in KRAB’s left frame.) If you chose that method, it should ‘fall back’ to KRAB server, if  QHR server becomes unavailable.  The KRAB server URL is krabradio.net, fyi.

So, this all has kept me fairly busy since the coronavirus pandemic started, but keep your eyes open for an upcoming 10GB music upload that I am working on….

Server connectivity issues have been resolved

Over the past few months, there have been a variety of issues plaguing my server(s) and network.  These problems have come and gone, making arriving at a solution very difficult.

I have a fairly unique networking setup, utilizing a main router flashed with an open source firmware. This router is wireless bridged to another similar router, extending the wireless umbrella’s range.  The bridged router only handles wireless duties, and operates as a print server.  All of the servers are directly connected to the main router.

Initially, it seemed as there were dns issues, that I thought were entirely Frontier’s fault.  They seemed that they were, a few service calls were placed, and they eventually found a bad wire out at the pole.  Things seemed to get a bit better, but they were still tweaky.  

I tried a variety of things: reflashed and reconfigured the router, replaced the router with the backup router, even replaced the power brick.  The router was found to be running under extreme load, somewhere around 1.5 or so, with 4096 Active IP connections (100% — maxed out).

So, I rolled my sleeves up, started by enabling the built in firewall in the router, moving the main server out of the DMZ, and port forwarded required ports to it.  This all allowed me the ability to actually start checking the router’s configuration, but it would still periodically overheat and reboot on its own.

So, then, I was able to manage to get ssh enabled in the router, and connected to it via putty ssh client, so as to ease the webgui load…  Using the netstat command, I noticed an absolute flood of connections from one of the ancillary servers.

I tracked it down to a bit of malware that somehow got on one of the servers.  (No idea how, as I don’t surf the internet from there, or collect email.) All I can imagine is that on one of the rare occasions that I ran a web browser there, I clicked on an infected link.  What was going on was a piece of malware called cron64/tsm.  It sets up house in .bashtemp and .X19-unix directories, so as to pass casual scrutiny.  So, I cleaned everything, and the router is behaving much nicer now, as the router has been online for just about 48 hours WITHOUT a spontaneous reboot. 😉

The router’s load average is running around .15 now, occasionally going up to about .45.  The Active IP connections have dropped from the maxed out 4096 to around 200.  Things are back to working as they should be.

Now, what is cron64/tsm?  It’s a bitcoin miner.  They are fairly easy to get infected with, so I should take this time to spread the word….

BitCoins and crypto currency – these are the talk of the town. In December 2017, the value of a single BitCoin crossed $19,000 to nearly touch $20,000. It had been steadily increasing and analysts are comparing the Bitcoin run to the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. This has induced cyber criminals to find out ways to surreptitiously steal/mine Bitcoins, and miner viruses are one such tool.

Bitcoins are created as a reward for a process known as mining. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and used as a worldwide payment system. The anonymity associated with the cryptocurrency has led to it being used for criminal, fraudulent and illegal activities. It is widely used in dark web transactions, drug trade, etc…,

Though predominantly used for nefarious activities, Bitcoins are being accepted by certain businesses and organizations for products, and services and can also be exchanged for other currencies, though to a limited extent.

BitCoin mining is a record-keeping service that is done using computer processing power. Bitcoin transactions are recorded in blockchains, which functions as a public ledger. The consistentency and completeness of the blockchain is maintained in an unalterable state by miners, who repeatedly verify and collect newly broadcast transactions – this is called as a block.  Cyber criminals infect vulnerable computers with BitCoin Miner Virus to steal computer processing power. This drastically affects the performance of the system. Hence, users must be able to detect and remove BitCoin Miner virus.

Symptoms of BitCoin Miner Virus:
Overusage of CPU and GPU
Overheating of system
Drastic slowing down of system
Sustained mining could break your PCs hardware.

How is the BitCoin Miner Malware Spread
The BitCoin miner malware are spread through numerous methods, such as email attachments, and embedded in compromised websites. This malware is also found embedded in Trojan Horse viruses. It has also been spread across Windows networks by exploiting the EternalBlue vulnerability.

How to Detect BitCoin Miner Virus
It is very difficult to detect the BitCoin Miner Virus as it is a fileless malware. Traditional antivirus solutions, and most modern virus protection software are NOT capable of detecting fileless malware. You may attempt manual removal, however, it requires considerable technical skill as you have to interact with registry entries such as ActiveScriptEventConsumer, EventFilter, IntervalTimerInstruction, AbsoluteTimerInstruction, and FilterToConsumerBinding. This is quite complicated and sensitive, and incorrect handling could brick your system.

Antivirus and Virus Protection Software
An efficient Antivirus solution that can detect and block fileless malware is what you need. Traditional solutions detect malware based on virus definitions, and hence they cannot detect fileless malware. The Comodo Antivirus which is a part of Comodo Internet Security and Comodo Advanced Protection solutions provides protection against all types of malware including fileless malware such as BitCoin Miner Virus. Comodo Antivirus provides cloud-based resilient default deny protection to block all unknown files including zero-day malware. All unknown files are automatically contained in a sophisticated virtual container where they are allowed to execute and their behavior is observed. This container combines a virtualization of COM interfaces, Disk, Registry, and Memory. The unknown file believes that it is making changes to the real environment, however, it is making changes only to the virtual system. The behavior of the file helps decide if the file is good or malicious.

This virtual containerization, which is unique to Comodo, is the only antivirus solution that can detect and remove the BitCoin Miner Virus.

The moral of this story is that if you aren’t using Comodo Internet Security, you should be.  It’s available for Windows, Mac and Linux….  And, it’s free.

Server Upgrade and Migration Complete.

Well, a couple months ago, the server’s Fedora 28 250GB system drive suffered a crash. Unfortunately, in the process, I lost the last few blog posts due to the automatic blog backup cron had quit working. So, I worked on fixing that little issue and moved forward, accepting that minimal loss as acceptable.

After I replaced the system hard drive, and restored the image, I decided, that since Fedora 28 had recently gone EOL, it would be a good time to upgrade to Fedora 30, since Fedora 31 had recently been released. Now, would be a good time to remind everybody that Fedora had recently ditched yum for everything, including installing individual packages, in favor of dnf.

Starting with Fedora 22, the yum fedup had been replaced with dnf system upgrade, which is a much cleaner method to upgrade a Fedora system. The first things to do, are to fully update the system, and insure that you have the dnf system upgrade plugin. I’lll go over the commands required below:

$ sudo dnf update
$ sudo dnf -y install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade
$ sudo dnf system-upgrade download –releasever=30 –allowerasing
$ sudo dnf system-upgrade reboot

By the way, if you have upgraded from an old Fedora version, you probably need to enable your user to use sudo, by editing the /etc/sudoers file. If you have installed from a fairly recent release, by default, your user has root sudo access, and the root account is disabled. Unless you really know what you are doing, don’t enable the root account, and instead use sudo. 😉

The process above tends to take quite some time, but after it was finished, and I checked the server to make sure everything was working properly, I decided to upgrade the server to the current release, Fedora 31. I used the same commands, replacing 30 with 31, and didn’t need to install the dnf plugin, since I had previously done that.

That was when I discovered that the day that I knew would eventually get here, had arrived. Back in Fedora 25, you could no longer download a 32 bit version, however, you could still upgrade an existing 32 bit version. Now, as of Fedora 31, you could no longer upgrade an existing 32 bit version. Since the current server was put into service back in 2010 (It was a HP D530 Convertible Mini Tower). It was only a Pentium 4 32 bit cpu running at 2.80 GHz, with 4GB of ram….

So, I had to order some hardware. I decided on a pair of HP Elite 8300 Convertible Mini Tower boxes. (i5 running at 3.2Ghz with 8GB ram, expandable to 32GB) I managed to get a pair of these at about $165 each. Both had 500GB drives with Win10 Pro on them, and DVD burners. I really didn’t want such a large system drive, so replaced it with a 320GB Sata drive, and started preparing the 4TB Storage and 4TB backup drives. I also install 2 Sata hot swap bays into the two unused 5.25″ bays, to make upgrading the storage drives easier in the future. (I’ll go over how to prep a Linux drive in a later post…)

I then installed fresh, Fedora 31, and started migrating all the user accounts. (If I neglected anybody, please let me know) I also migrated all web content, including the blogs. There have been other things that Fedora has ditched along the way like MySQL in favor of MariaDB and rc.local support, which is nice to have for people that have been in the Linux game as long as I have. I think I started with RedHat 4.0 Linux back in late 1996, and Unix way before that. 😉 (I’ll cover how to install and set up MariaDB, enable rc.local file support, and the proper way to use systemctl in a post soon.)

Another thing. You will probably notice some speed up of things, and attribute it to the new, faster 64 bit server. Well, partially. In moving things around, I discovered that pulling the server out of the router’s DMZ, and forwarding specific ports and port ranges helped things out dramatically. So, for the moment the server is almost fully set up, but all the core services should be running fine, to include ftp, http, music stream, etc. If anybody has any issues, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. 😉

Also, keep your eyes peeled for a large music update to celebrate this. 😀