NetMAX Newsletter - September 2004

1. [New!] NetMAX 5 Is Out!
2. [Technical] Firewall: How to block SSH access
3. [Updates] NetMAX SpamBouncer Patches
4. [Press] NetMAX Review in HP World Magazine
5. [General] Let's Hear From You

1. NetMAX 5 Is Out!

NetMAX 5 is still the NetMAX you use and love, but we've added even more features and a Red Hat 9-based Linux operating system to give you more stability, security and hardware support than ever before. We launched the NetMAX 5 product line in September, so if you haven't already looked into upgrading, check out the newest additions to the NetMAX family:

• NetMAX 5 now offers an entire line of NetMAX pre-installed network servers, from the inexpensive Magnia SG20 to the powerful HP ProLiant series! Check the NetMAX Store:

www.netmax.com/order/BuyStuff.cgi

• NetMAX now offers Remote Server Monitoring Services provided from the experts at NetMAX Support! Get more details:

www.netmax.com/products/monitoring_service.html

As always, owners of previous NetMAX products are entitled to discounted upgrades to NetMAX 5. NetMAX 4 products will remain fully supported, including any security updates or patches issued, until October 7th, 2004 (30 days). NetMAX 4 products will still function properly after this date, but no further security updates will be issued for the retired version. If you have questions about our upgrade policy or would like to read it in detail, visit the NetMAX Support pages:

www.netmax.com/support/contact_support/policy_upgrade.html

2. Firewall: How to block SSH access

In these last few weeks, the NetMAX team has noticed a significant increase in the number of SSH access attempts made to our own machines, as well as those of our customers. The good news is that there are no known vulnerabilities in openssh on NetMAX 4.06 or NetMAX 5, and no known cases of actual compromise. The bad news is that seeing those "Attempted ssh from [some IP address in Korea]" in the Alerts page is at the least a little annoying.

If you do not need to access your NetMAX via ssh over the Internet, then you can simply create a firewall rule to block traffic with the following characteristics:

Rule type: INPUT
Action: DENY
Protocol: TCP
Source: Any
Destination: IP addresses of this NetMAX Server
Destination Port: ssh

That should take care of things. You can optionally enable logging of the blocked traffic as well, but this is not required. For more information on NetMAX firewall configuration, please refer to:

www.netmax.com/fom/fom.cgi?_highlightWords=firewall&file=306

3. NetMAX SpamBouncer Patches

A patch has been posted for users of the NetMAX E-Mail Powerpack that updates SpamBouncers's known spamming domains list, and also adds new URL blocking capability. NetMAX recommends that all existing E-Mail Powerpack users download and install this patch to enable the new features and increased filtering effectiveness.

This patch is available for both NetMAX 5 and NetMAX 4 installations, and can be found on the NetMAX FTP site:

ftp.netmax.com/pub/L2.4Pv4.06/RPMS/SpamBouncer-4.06-2.i386.rpm

ftp.netmax.com/pub/L2.4Pv5.0/RPMS/SpamBouncer-5.0-1.i386.rpm

Users can also simply use NetMAX Package Management to download and install these updates.

4. NetMAX Review in HP World Magazine

The press coverage of the new NetMAX 5 product line has been overwhelmingly positive, and reviews keep coming in... next up, the November issue of HP World Magazine is featuring their in-depth review of Cybernet Systems Corporation's NetMAX! Watch for the article, and in HP World Magazine's words, "see what it has to offer that others don't!"

5. Let's Hear From You!

We would very much like to hear from you -- especially about how you use NetMAX and Linux in your business, and how we can make NetMAX better suited to your needs. Contribute your input to the NetMAX Forum at:

www.netmax.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi

or to our general NetMAX contact form at:

www.netmax.com/partners/contacts.html

Let us know about your likes, dislikes, and general comments. We are especially interested in the type of additions to NetMAX that you would like to see as we continue to develop the NetMAX line.

Thank you!