After the system has installed a README file will be generated which contains passwords and some brief advice on using the installed systems. You can read this with the following commands:
ssh username@domainname -p 2222 emacs ~/README@@ -334,9 +338,9 @@ To exit you can either just close the terminal or use CTRL-x CTRL-c follo
To improve ssh security you can generate an ssh key pair on your system and then upload the public key to the Freedombone.
@@ -346,7 +350,6 @@ On your local machine:ssh-keygen
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
ssh username@domain -p 2222
You can also access your system via the Tor system using an onion address. To find out what the onion address for ssh access is you can do the following:
ssh username@freedombone.local -p 2222
freedombone-client
freedombone-client --ms yes
ssh username@address.onion -p 2222
-Syncthing provides a similar capability to proprietary systems such as Dropbox, and also is well suited for use with low power single board computers. You can have one or more directories which are synchronized across your various laptops/desktops/devices, and this makes it hard for you to ever lose important files. The manner in which the synchronization is done is pretty secure, such that it would be difficult for passive adversaries (mass surveillance, "men in the middle", etc) to know what files you're sharing. Of course, you don't necessarily need to be running a server in order to use Syncthing, but if you do have a server which is always running then there's always at least one place to synchronize your files to or from. +Syncthing provides a similar capability to proprietary systems such as Dropbox, and also is well suited for use with low power single board computers. You can have one or more directories which are synchronized across your various laptops/desktops/devices, and this makes it hard for you to ever lose important files. The manner in which the synchronization is done is pretty secure, such that it would be difficult for passive adversaries (mass surveillance, "men in the middle", etc) to know what files you're sharing. Of course, you don't necessarily need to be running a server in order to use Syncthing, but if you do have a server which is always running then there's always at least one place to synchronize your files to or from.
@@ -449,15 +446,14 @@ Freedombone provides Syncthing shared directories for each user on the system, p
Install syncthing:
curl -s https://syncthing.net/release-key.txt | sudo apt-key add - echo "deb http://apt.syncthing.net/ syncthing release" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/syncthing.list sudo apt-get update @@ -474,7 +470,6 @@ In another terminal log into Freedombone:-@@ -494,7 +489,7 @@ Select Show device ID and copy the long string of letters and numbers shossh username@domainname -p 2222-Open a non-Tor browser and enter http://127.0.0.1:8384/ as the URL. You should now see the minimalistic user interface. Under Remote Devices select Add Remote Device. In the Device ID field paste the string you just copied (CTRL+v). The Device name can be anything. Under Share Folders with Device check default (or whatever folder you created on your local machine), then save. +Open a non-Tor browser and enter http://127.0.0.1:8384 as the URL. You should now see the minimalistic user interface. Under Remote Devices select Add Remote Device. In the Device ID field paste the string you just copied (CTRL+v). The Device name can be anything. Under Share Folders with Device check default (or whatever folder you created on your local machine), then save.
@@ -506,9 +501,9 @@ Now wait for a few minutes. Eventually you will see two messages appear within t
Install Syncthing and Connectbot from F-droid.
@@ -539,12 +534,12 @@ Now wait for a few minutes or more. Eventually you should receive two notificatiAn easy way to play music on any mobile device in your home is to use the DLNA service. Copy your music into a directory called "Music" on a USB thumb drive and then insert it into from socket on the Beaglebone.
@@ -554,7 +549,6 @@ ssh into the system with:ssh myusername@mydomain.com -p 2222
su attach-music@@ -585,18 +578,17 @@ The DLNA service will only work within your local home network, and isn't remote
To log into your GNU Social site first obtain your username and password from the "microblogging" section of the readme file.
ssh username@domainname -p 2222
cat README
exit
@@ -619,23 +611,22 @@ GNU Social has a clutter-free mobile user interface which can be accessed via a
One important point about GNU Social is that although direct messages (DMs) are treated as being private their security is quite poor. If you want real communications privacy then use other systems such as XMPP+OMEMO/OTR, Tox or email with GPG. GNU Social is primarily about fully public communications.
If you are an Emacs user it's also possible to set up GNU Social mode as follows:
mkdir ~/elisp
git clone git://git.savannah.nongnu.org/gnu-social-mode ~/elisp/gnu-social-mode
sed -i 's|"http"|"https"|g' ~/elisp/gnu-social-mode/gnu-social-mode.el
@@ -714,9 +705,9 @@ And as a quick reference the main keys are:
If you have the GNU Social microblogging system installed then it's also possible to share things or services between groups or with particular users. This can be useful for sharing items within a family, club or in a local sharing economy. Sharing things freely, without money, reveals the social basis at the root of all economics which money normally conceals or obscures.
@@ -743,20 +734,20 @@ The "catalog" button then allows you to search for shared things within tBoth Hubzilla and GNU Social try to obtain certificates automatically at the time of installation via Let's Encrypt. This will likely mean that in order for this to work you'll need to have obtained at least one "official" domain via a domain selling service, since Let's Encrypt mostly doesn't seem to work with free subdomains from sites such as freeDNS.
On first visiting your Hubzilla site you'll see the login screen. The first thing you need to do is register a new user. The first user on the system then becomes its administrator.
@@ -770,25 +761,24 @@ On first visiting your Hubzilla site you'll see the login screen. The first thinIRC is useful for multi-user chat. The classic use case is for software development where many engineers might need to coordinate their activities, but it's also useful for meetings, parties and general socialising.
The easiest way to use irssi is to connect to your system, like this:
ssh myusername@mydomain -p 2222
HexChat (formerly XChat) is compatible with proxying via Tor and so provides the best security when connecting to your IRC server. It will allow you to connect to your IRC server's onion address.
@@ -810,7 +800,6 @@ First install HexChat and set up its configuration file.sudo apt-get install tor hexchat mkdir -p ~/.config/hexchat echo "# By default, HexChat based IRC software, when started-up, or run for first time, @@ -925,7 +914,6 @@ Now look up the onion address for your IRC server-@@ -978,9 +966,9 @@ Click close and then connect.ssh username@mydomainname -p 2222
If you are an Emacs user then you can also connect to your IRC server via Emacs.
@@ -990,7 +978,6 @@ Ensure that tor is installed onto your local system:sudo apt-get install tor
(setq socks-noproxy '("localhost")) +(setq socks-noproxy '("localhost")) (require 'socks) (require 'tls) -(setq socks-server (list "Tor socks" "localhost" 9050 5)) -(setq erc-server-connect-function 'socks-open-network-stream) -(setq erc-autojoin-channels-alist +(setq socks-server (list "Tor socks" "localhost" 9050 5)) +(setq erc-server-connect-function 'socks-open-network-stream) +(setq erc-autojoin-channels-alist '(("myircaddress.onion" "#freedombone"))) (erc :server "myircaddress.onion" :port 6697 :nick "yourusername" :password "your IRC password")
By default the IRC server is set up to require a password for users to log in. The password is the same for all users. If you want to change or remove the password:
ssh myusername@mydomain -p 2222
A well written article on the state of XMPP and how it compares to other chat protocols can be found here.
In mid 2016 Gajim became the first desktop XMPP client to support the OMEMO end-to-end security standard, which is superior to the more traditional OTR since it also includes multi-user chat and the ratcheting mechanism pioneered by Open Whisper Systems. To install it:
su -c 'echo "deb ftp://ftp.gajim.org/debian unstable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gajim.list' sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get -y install gajim-dev-keyring @@ -1081,7 +1065,6 @@ If you wish to make backups of the OMEMO keys then they can be found within:-@@ -1092,15 +1075,14 @@ If you wish to use OpenPGP to encrypt your messages then go to Edit/Accounts<~/.local/share/gajim
-The Profanity shell based user interface and is perhaps the simplest way to use XMPP from a laptop. It's also a good way to ensure that your OTR keys are the same even when logging in from different laptops or devices, and it also means that if those devices later become compomised then there are no locally stored OTR keys to be found. +The Profanity shell based user interface and is perhaps the simplest way to use XMPP from a laptop. It's also a good way to ensure that your OTR keys are the same even when logging in from different laptops or devices, and it also means that if those devices later become compomised then there are no locally stored OTR keys to be found.
ssh username@domain -p 2222
/otr gen
/otr start otherusername@otheruserdomain
/otr start
/otr question "What is the name of your best friends rabbit?" fiffi
/otr answer fiffi
/otr myfp
/otr theirfp
Jitsi is the recommended communications client for desktop or laptop systems, since it includes the off the record (OTR) feature which provides some additional security beyond the usual SSL certificates.
-Jitsi can be downloaded from https://jitsi.org/ +Jitsi can be downloaded from https://jitsi.org
@@ -1216,9 +1191,9 @@ You can also see this vide
The default XMPP client in Ubuntu is Empathy. Using Empathy isn't as secure as using Jitsi, since it doesn't include the off the record feature, but since it's the default it's what many users will have easy access to.
@@ -1236,17 +1211,17 @@ Click on Advanced and make sure that Encryption required and Ig-Tor Messenger is a messaging client which supports XMPP, and its onion routing enables you to protect the metadata of chat interactions to some extent by making it difficult for an adversary to know which server is talking to which. You can download Tor Messenger from torproject.org and the setup is pretty simple. +Tor Messenger is a messaging client which supports XMPP, and its onion routing enables you to protect the metadata of chat interactions to some extent by making it difficult for an adversary to know which server is talking to which. You can download Tor Messenger from torproject.org and the setup is pretty simple.
Install F-Droid
@@ -1268,7 +1243,6 @@ From the menu select Manage accounts and add a new account.Jabber ID: myusername@mydomain Password: your XMPP password Hostname: mydomain @@ -1282,22 +1256,21 @@ Then select Next. When chatting you can use the lock icon to encrypt your
Tox is an encrypted peer-to-peer messaging system and so should work without Freedombone. It uses a system of nodes which act as a sort of directory service allowing users to find and connect to each other. The Tox node ID on the Freedombone can be found within the README within your home directory. If you have other users connect to your node then you will be able to continue chatting even when no other nodes are available.
Log into your system with:
ssh myusername@mydomain -p 2222
In addition to voice it is also possible to do text chat via mumble. The security of this is pretty good provided that you do it via Plumble and Orbot on mobile, but compared to other options such as XMPP/Conversations or Tox the security is not as good, since the mumble server currently doesn't support forward secrecy.
Within the software center search for "mumble" and install the client then run it. Skip through the audio setup wizard.
@@ -1338,9 +1311,9 @@ Click on "add new" to add a new server and enter the default domain name for theInstall F-Droid
@@ -1375,24 +1348,24 @@ Selecting the server by pressing on it then connects you to the server so that yFreedombone also supports SIP phones The username and domain is the same as for your email address, and the SIP password and extension number will appear within the README file in your home directory. Various SIP client options are available, such as CSipSimple on Android and Jitsi on desktop or laptop machines. Ideally use clients which support ZRTP, which will provide the best level of security.
ZRTP appears to be the current best standard to end-to-end encrypted voice calls, combining good security with simplicity of use. When the initial cryptographic negotiation between phones is done at the start of a call a short authentication string (SAS) is calculated and displayed at both ends. To check that there isn't anyone intercepting the call and acting as a man in the middle - as stingray type devices try to do - the short authentication string can be read out and verbally confirmed between the callers. If it's the same then you can be pretty confident that the call is secure.
Add an account. Under General Wizards choose Expert and enter the following details:
@@ -1448,9 +1421,9 @@ If everything is working the account should appear in green with a status ofFrom the menu select Manage accounts.
@@ -1503,9 +1476,9 @@ Select the Security tab. Under SRTP Key Exchange select ZRTPThe way that RSS reading is set up on Freedombone gives you strong reading privacy. Not only is there onion routing between you and the server but also between the server and the source of the RSS feed. The only down side is that many RSS feeds are still http only, and so could be vulnerable to injection attacks, but it's expected that more of this will go to https in the foreseeable future due to a combination of growing recognition of security issues and systems like Let's Encrypt which make obtaining certificates much easier.
@@ -1517,15 +1490,14 @@ The way that RSS reading is set up on Freedombone gives you strong reading privaSee the control panel for the RSS reader onion address.
ssh username@domainname -p 2222
-To set up the system open http://rss_reader_onion_address/ and log in with username admin and the password obtained either at the beginning of the install or from the README file in your home directory. You can then select the Actions menu and begin adding your feeds. +To set up the system open http://rss_reader_onion_address and log in with username admin and the password obtained either at the beginning of the install or from the README file in your home directory. You can then select the Actions menu and begin adding your feeds.
To access the RSS reader from a mobile device you can install a Tor compatible browser such as OrFox. It will try to automatically change to the mobile version of the user interface. Remember to add the site to the NoScript whitelist, and you may also need to turn HTTPS Everywhere off.
@@ -1558,9 +1530,9 @@ A note for the paranoid is that on mobile devices you get redirected to a differIf you are an Emacs user then you can also read your RSS feeds via the Avandu mode.
@@ -1570,8 +1542,7 @@ Add the following to your configuration, changing the address and password as ap(setq avandu-tt-rss-api-url "http://rss_reader_onion_address/api/" +(setq avandu-tt-rss-api-url "http://rss_reader_onion_address/api/" avandu-user "admin" avandu-password "mypassword")@@ -1582,11 +1553,10 @@ If you don't already have Emacs set up to route through Tor then also add the fo- -@@ -1595,22 +1565,21 @@ And ensure that the Tor daemon is installed:(setq socks-noproxy '("localhost")) +(setq socks-noproxy '("localhost")) (require 'socks) (require 'tls) -(setq socks-server (list "Tor socks" "localhost" 9050 5)) +(setq socks-server (list "Tor socks" "localhost" 9050 5))-sudo apt-get install tor
Github is ok, but it's proprietary and funded by venture capital. If you been around on the internet for long enough then you know how this story eventually works itself out - i.e. badly for the users. It's really only a question of time. If you're a software developer or do things which involve the Git version control system then it's a good idea to become accustomed to hosting your own repositories, before the inevitable Github shitstorm happens.
-A Git hosting system called Gogs can optionally be installed. This is very similar to Github in appearance and use. It's lightweight and so well suited for use on low power ARM servers. +A Git hosting system called Gogs can optionally be installed. This is very similar to Github in appearance and use. It's lightweight and so well suited for use on low power ARM servers.
@@ -1618,7 +1587,6 @@ Navigate to your git site and click the Register button. The first user r
sudo username@domainname -p 2222
sudo su export GO_VERSION=1.5 sed -i "s|DISABLE_REGISTRATION =.*|DISABLE_REGISTRATION = true|g" /home/git/gvm/pkgsets/go${GO_VERSION}/global/src/github.com/gogits/gogs/custom/conf/app.ini @@ -1642,15 +1609,14 @@ This will stop any spam accounts being created by random strangers or bots. You
Log into the system with:
ssh username@domainname -p 2222
sudo su control@@ -1677,6 +1642,83 @@ Return to the home page
+Everyone except for advertisers hates adverts. Not only are they annoying, but they can also consume a lot of bandwidth, be a privacy problem in terms of allowing companies to track your browsing habits and also any badly written scripts they contain may introduce exploitable security holes. +
+ ++You can block ads for any devices connected to your local network by installing the pihole app from Add/Remove Apps on the administrator control panel. This may help to improve overall performance of your devices by not wasting time downloading unwanted images or scripts. +
++Once you've done that then ensure that your system has a static local IP address (typically 192.168..) using the option on the control panel. You will also need to know the IP address of your internet router, which is usually 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.254. +
+ ++When that's done select About this system from the control panel and see the IPv4 address (ignore the /24 part). You can use this as a DNS address in two ways: +
+sudo chattr -i /etc/resolv.conf +sudo nano /etc/resolv.conf ++
+Comment out any existing entries with a # character and add: +
+ +nameserver [IPv4 address from the About screen] ++
+Normally resolv.conf will be overwritten every time your reboot, but you can prevent this with: +
+ +sudo chattr +i /etc/resolv.conf ++
+If you can access the settings on your local internet router then this is the simplest way to provide ad blocking for all devices which connect to it. +
+ ++Edit the DNS settings and add the IPv4 address which you got from the control panel About screen. Exactly how you do this will just depend upon your particular router model. You may also need to set the same address twice, because two addresses are conventional. +
++You can configure the block lists which the system uses by going to the administrator control panel, selecting App Settings then choosing pihole. You can also add any extra domain names to the whitelist if they're being wrongly blocked or to the blacklist if they're not blocked by the current lists. +
+