WTB Training in setting up specific programs on a linux VPS

[Topazan]

I've been running a linode for a couple of years now, so I understand the basics of server administration, but quite a lot of programs and other things still give me headaches.

My plan is to set up a new VPS to provide various services to me and my friends.  I intend to have the following:

-an email server, so I can set up email accounts and receive mail @ my domain name.
-a VPN program, so my comrades behind the bamboo curtain can get their youtube on.  (Finished, thanks to Luceo)
-an XMPP server  (Finished, thanks to J.P. Larocque)
-a bitcoin lite-client server, such as electrum.
-a Diaspora pod

I'm looking for a experienced person to walk me through the process of compiling (if necessary), installing, and configuring these programs, as well as provide general advice and knowledge concerning security and best practices.  Please note that the job is to train me until I can do these things, not just to do them yourself.  As such, the applicant needs to be patient and a good communicator in addition to possessing the technical knowledge.

I suggest we arrange live sessions to be conducted through XMPP, IRC, or Skype, and payment can be hourly.  I'm going to be busy with work for at least a couple of weeks, so the training will take place at a later date.  If you're interested, please provide your qualifications and hourly rate.  

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[Topazan]

If you have experience with just one of these programs that's fine too.

[Luceo]

I can help you set up OpenVPN and Electrum.

Never done the others but afaik I could probably help with Diaspora too.

Which distro are you using?

[Topazan]

I haven't obtained the VPS yet, but when I do it will probably be some version of ubuntu.

I'm very glad to see your interest.  What shall we use for real time chat?  Either XMPP or skype will work best for me.

[Luceo]

PM me your Skype and I'll add you on there. ^^

[jack-o-lantern]

I won't teach you how to install and configure programs, the best way to learn that is to actually try it yourself. But if you can't get a hold of anyone willing to help, I can configure your VPS for a reasonable price.
Just putting it up there in case your business with Luceo doesn't work out.

[Topazan]

"If I teach you you won't learn as well, so I'll just do it for you instead."? 

Unfortunately, as I state in the first post, I'm looking for instruction, not service. 

Nothing personal, but I'd like to suggest you work on your sales pitch as well.  The attitude you display in this post is not the attitude I'd want a person I hire to have.

[Tril]

I can teach you email service.  PM me when you're ready.

[berniemadoff]

I can help you with email on a postfix basis, VPN and the electrum server. Available on IRC all the time.

Please be aware though that your provider needs to be able to allow you to set an rDNS for E-Mail and you will need a box with the appropriate kernel modules for VPN(pptp for PPTP-based VPN, tun/tap for OpenVPN)

[Topazan]

I can help you with email on a postfix basis, VPN and the electrum server. Available on IRC all the time.

Please be aware though that your provider needs to be able to allow you to set an rDNS for E-Mail and you will need a box with the appropriate kernel modules for VPN(pptp for PPTP-based VPN, tun/tap for OpenVPN)

How do I know if I have these things?


To all:  What kind of hourly rates are you expecting?  What kind of experience do you have?

[Tril]

I work at an ISP and deal with email issues every day. I also operate the free hosting for free software projects at bespin.org. I can help setup exim, postfix, qmail, courier or cyrus (postfix preferred). I recommend dovecot for remote mailbox access using IMAP or POP3.  I can help setup webmail applications.  I assume you're not using Windows, but I can also assist with SmarterMail.  What OS were you thinking to install on your VPS?  I work best with Debian, CentOS, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD.

Spam fighting is the tricky part of this: depending how aggressive you want to get, and how much spam you get, you may spend a lot of time setting up and tweaking spam fighting tools. You can optionally setup a virus scanner, a website for users to manage their spam and filters...  It's easy to setup a mail server and hard to setup a perfect spam filter.  You can spend a little or a lot of time tweaking your mail server, but your users may complain more or less. 

The amount of ongoing effort will depend on your users.  You want your users to choose strong passwords and have good security on their computers to prevent their email from getting compromised and used to send spam, which may blacklist your server's IP from e-mailing to certain destinations.  You'll likely be asked to assist your users with missing emails in one direction or the other, by searching the e-mail log files.  If you limit their mailbox sizes, you'll need to help them clean out the mail when it fills up.  If you don't limit sizes, and they neglect their e-mail, it may fill up the entire drive as well as take up extra CPU and memory when they access it.

For teaching, I tend to be non-linear when presenting things: I'm good at answering questions, not so much at giving step by step instructions to achieve a task.  We can go on voice chat and you can log into your server, and try to tackle the setup and ask me "what next" and I can help you just fine.  Just don't expect me to know what is next before we get there.  It will depend on what you're thinking and what difficulties you run into.  I'm not sure you want to pay BTC for this, so I suggest we try it out first for free and if we get everything you want done in one session we'll call it good, then if you need more sessions we'll work something out based on how it went.

[mb300sd]

I can walk you though VPN, either openvpn or (easier for your clients) pptp. I have 8 years experience with MS Exchange, but I doubt it helps much with a linux mail server. Configuring DNS for proper email routing and anti-spam is fairly easy.

[Luceo]

Was a pleasure to work with explaining the OpenVPN install process. Look forward to do business again.

[J.P. Larocque]

I'll be happy to help you learn how to install and configure ejabberd (IMO the best XMPP offering that I've tried so far).  I only have experience installing it on Debian, which Ubuntu is based off of, so if you went the route of an Ubuntu VPS we should be good to go.  Because ejabberd is written in Erlang, installation from scratch might be a bit tricky, so I would first need to bring myself up to speed if you did go a different route.

As for Electrum, as far as I know it's all GUI.  It's unusual to want to run GUI programs on a VPS, since VPSes are usually used just as servers.  This leads to the question, are you planning to run a remote desktop environment on the VPS?  If so, then by all means, you shouldn't have any trouble setting up Electrum (it's actually simple enough with the provided executable bundle that I'll walk you through for free as a trial).  And if you need help getting the GUI stuff working on a remote Ubuntu system, I'll teach you about vncserver, which dishes up a virtual desktop environment with no local display hardware needed at all.

I've been a Linux programmer, sysadmin, and tinkerer for over 10 years.  My experience with ejabberd isn't in a professional capacity; I simply run a personal XMPP server for my own domain.  I've got it operating with IPv4 and IPv6.  Through my ejabberd instance, I have access to chat with users on AIM, Yahoo, and IRC via XMPP transports, which are adapters to other chat networks--other XMPP transports for other networks are also available.  Therefore, I'd love to communicate over XMPP (my ejabberd server hardly gets any use!), and I'm also available to chat via IRC or telephone--whichever works best at the moment.

I'll be sending you a private message shortly about my rates and scheduling.

[Topazan]

My apologies for leaving this thread unanswered for so long.  I'm in the process of sending PMs now.

[J.P. Larocque]

Had a successful transaction.  Topazan communicated well, understood my explanations, and paid promptly.  Thanks!