Post date: Jan 18, 2011 12:37:34 PM
devio.us provides free OpenBSD accounts for people meeting certain conditions. If you are a student, or have a project, or webpage, you can probably get a basic account for free. However:
You will not get an account if your sole purpose is to:
Run an eggdrop/bnc
Compile 'nmap' and scan the internets
Be an elite hacker
Tunnel traffic so you can access Facebook from work
This isn't a virtual machine; you will have a user account on a single devio.us system.
PuTTY or other terminal program
Create SSH keys with MSYS or puttygen.
Go to the sign-up page.
Enter your info:
First and Last Name (no obvious fake names)
Email address
Username (your website will be http://devio.us/~username
Unix shell: bash, tcsh, zsh, ksh, csh
"How did you hear about us?"
"What will your account be used for?"
This is the deciding factor for whether you will get a free account or not.
Click "Submit". It may take hours or days for your account to be approved (or rejected).
If approved, you will receive an email with your:
account name
account password
database name
database user
database password.
If rejected, you will receive an email with an explanation.
In a standard terminal, such as MSYS + mintty:
ssh username@devio.us
Check the SSH fingerprint and enter "yes"
In PuTTY, create a new session with these settings:
Host Name: devio.us
Connection type: SSH
Saved Sessions: devio.us username
Click "Save" button, then "Open".
Check the SSH fingerprint and click "Yes".
Enter the account name and password from the approval email. I recommend you use copy/paste for the password, because sometimes O's look like 0's, and l's look like 1's.
After successful login, you should see the devio.us message of the day.
On your devio.us account, run these commands:
mkdir $HOME/.ssh
touch $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys
Append the contents of your local public key id_rsa.pub file to authorized_keys on devio.us.
If you're using PuTTY instead of MSYS or a native terminal application, you must configure it.
Run putty.exe
Select the saved "devio.us" session and click "Load".
Go to "Connection" > "SSH" > "Auth".
Uncheck "Attempt authentication using Pageant" and "Attempt keyboard-interactive authentication".
Click "Browse" and select the PuTTY private key id_rsa.ppk file you generated.
Go to "Session" again.
Click "Save".
Click "Open"
Enter your devio.us username and passphrase (if needed).
Start Filezilla.
Go to "File" menu > "Site Manager".
Click "New Site" and enter a description for devio.us.
Enter "devio.us" in the "Host" field.
Change "Server Type" to "SFTP - SSH File Transfer Protocol"
Change "Logon Type" to "Normal" or "Ask for Password".
Enter username and password.
Enter a comment in the "Comment" field.
Click "OK".
Use the "Site Manager" menu (under "File") to select devio.us.
If all went well, you'll see a file listing in the "Remote site" section.
By default, other devio.us users can see your username and "real name" in /etc/passwd.
Change or anonymize your visible "real name" by running:
chfn
Create a .plan file explaining what you use your devio.us account for:
vi $HOME/.plan
Check other users' information:
finger username
Change your password:
passwd
HTML files are stored in public_html under your HOME directory. Use FileZilla to transfer files here.