Windows Server 2003

At some point in your web development or web programming career, you will find yourself faced with the task of having to go on to a web server, perhaps Linux Apache or Microsoft IIS, and need to do some system tasks such as adjust some security settings, etc.

But what if you’ve never read or taken any education in regards to a web server?  You could find yourself in a situation where you can cause more harm than good.

Here’s an example.  A client of mine had a stack of servers co-hosted at a location.   The servers were delivered pretty much as-is with some basic virus software on it and Windows Server 2003.  I took over one of the three servers and the other developer took on the other.   We discovered tonight after a hack attempt, that the other developer had never disabled the local Admin account…big whoops.

So for those of you who would like to pass Networking/Server Support 101…here’s what you do.  Go to Computer Management under the Administrative Tasks location on the Start menu.  Next, click on users, and then you’ll see in the right hand pane a list of users.  Now this is very important, make certain you have created a new user or updated an existing one…let’s say johnsmith, and added her/him to the Administrators Group.  If you don’t do this you could find yourself in a heap of trouble.  Ok, now that you’ve done/verified that, right click on the Administrator user and click Properties.  In the dialogue, check the “User is Disabled” checkbox.  This will essentially disable this user and you may avoid a low level attack on your web server as a result.

Be careful though, there’s a lot to networking and support in these systems, so be very sure to double check everything you do not only with a site like this one, but others as well…there’s always new information coming out every day about hack attempts and you’ll want to make sure that you are up to date with the information that will keep your information safe and secure as possible.

Until next time…happy coding.

Doug.