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General Astroberry and Pi password questions & question on potential WiFi interference.

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I read where you should change your Pi password due to potential Linux Trojans. I saw where you change the base Pi password (sudo passwd pi) and I also changed the Astroberry password in the Raspberry Pi configuration box, which was set to Astroberry. 

However I have some questions on the WiFi login. I right-clicked on the network icon and got the box to configure them, and saw a generic WiFi connection, as you can see in the composite below. I have no idea why that other config is there, I don't recall ever making that. Is it safe to simply remove it? Also, just to confirm, this is where the WiFi login for the Astroberry is set, so when I login via WiFi I have make a new connection in my VNC Viewer app on my laptop with the updated password, correct? A web browser would also take this new password, correct?

Besides improving the security of the system, I plan to go shooting with a friend I've helped set up an Astroberry server on a Pi 4. We need to change our Astroberry logins from default to be different. However our Pi's will be in close proximity to each other, is there any potential for WiFi interference from one Pi to the other? I noticed there were Band settings for 2.4 and 5 gig, plus auto, would that be of any help? 

Thanks
 
2 years 4 months ago #77314
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There are a number of passwords that should be changed:

1. The astroberry linux user (sudo passwd)
2. The astroberry Samba (Windows share user) (sudo smbpasswd astroberry)
3. The VNC User (can't think of the command to do this off the top of my head)
4. The Astroberry Hotspot password and SSID - change the "astroberry" SSID to ensure you can identify which Pi is which, change the password for privacy

The existing "Wireless Connection" is for connecting astroberry to an access-point, you won't use it unless you have an existing wireless network. Also safe to remove it if it is confusing for you (it's easy enough to create another one should you get an access point).

With regards to interference on Wireless, this is different for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz.

2.4Ghz - There are a limited number of channels, ranging to 1-11 (in some countries 1-13). However these channels overlap, to ensure that your networks do not overlap, choose numbers that are well apart from each other, or set it to Auto, and allow the Pis to determine the channels themselves (they should do this to avoid interference, but it is worth checking that they have done that.) 2.4Ghz tends to have more range, but is usually slower than 5Ghz.

5Ghz - There are more channels at 5Ghz, and less overlap, and if you are located close, and within line of sight between your laptop / tablet and the Pi then this should be preferred. Recommend that you allow the channels to auto select here, pretty unlikely they will interfere with each other.

Hope that helps.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Phil
2 years 4 months ago #77321

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Thanks for your reply.

In the WiFi channels, the band defaults to 2.4 gig for the Astroberry, and the channel says default. Does default in the channels setting mean automatic? There is an auto setting for bands, but not for channels.

Is the Samba password also defaulted to astroberry? Does the sudo smbpasswd astroberry command put you in the change password mode? How critical is it to change Sanba and VNC?

Thanks again.
Last edit: 2 years 4 months ago by Phil.
2 years 4 months ago #77361

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I'm unsure about the WiFi channels, suffice to say that 5Ghz is preferred and I would not normally expect the default settings to cause interference with other wifi networks. Unless you are in a very remote spot you can't really be expected to check and control what other Wifi networks there might be in your vicinity, to the channel setting is not something you are expected to need to change. If you start to get bad throughput then you might want to investigate further, and the channel would be something you might look at as part of that investigation.

If you leave the wifi password as the default, then I would recommend that you change all the other passwords. If you put a strong password as the wifi password, then the main point of access is protected, and what you set as your other passwords is not really all that important.

If the system is unsecured, then the samba password (which defaults to astroberry) could be used to view and change any of the files in the astroberry home folder, so it is important to protect that access. Similarly the VNC password is what gives access to the GUI desktop, so leaving it as default on an unsecured system would mean anybody can make any changes that can be done on the desktop.

In short, you can get away with just changing the Wifi password, but it is best to have security in depth in general, so I'd recommend setting all the passwords, in any case, most people use a reasonably strong password that they can type without thinking pretty quickly, whereas "astroberry" is pretty awkward to type in.
2 years 4 months ago #77367

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