Online security is a crucial issue that constantly worries website owners, especially if it’s a high-traffic website that handles a lot of personal and financial information. All the major hosting plans in India offer a degree of protection with bundled security measures. VPS (Virtual Private Server) Hosting is one of the most secure hosting solutions. VPS Servers offer your website a safe hosting environment with virtual isolation. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t need extra security.
VPS Hosting in India is preferred for its balance of speed and performance. Most website owners simply go with the default security of their VPS Hosting server, and it is enough in most cases. But for those websites that deal with sensitive data, additional security is a must. One such common and cost-effective security measure is installing a firewall.
Here’s how to install a firewall in VPS Hosting.
Protecting your VPS Hosting with a firewall
Even if you are using the best VPS Server, a firewall is necessary to keep the intruders out. A Config Server Firewall (CSF) is an advanced firewall service for a VPS on Linux. Let’s take a step-by-step look at installing it on your VPS.
- Update your software
Make sure that all your system software is updated to their latest versions. This is necessary to ensure that your hosting is operating at its optimum. Run the following command in your hosting’s command prompt:
yum update
This will update all your system software to the latest versions.
- Download the firewall
First, navigate to your server’s root directory with the following command:
cd /root
Once here, you can download the Config Server Firewall from its official website. Download the firewall just before you install it so that you get the latest version. Use the following command;
wget https://download.configserver.com/csf.tgz
Your server will have downloaded a compressed archive file. The next step is to unpack it with this command;
tar -zxvf csf.tgz
- Start the installation process
Navigate to the new directory that was just created;
cd csf/
Run the installation script with this command;
sh install.sh
It will install the Config Server Firewall on your server. CSF is like any other service on the server and can be controlled using init scripts. Here are three basic init commands that will show you how to start, stop and restart the CSF.
/etc/init.d/csf start
/etc/init.d/csf stop
/etc/init.d/csf restart
Now let’s start the configuration process.
- Configuring the firewall
Let’s begin configuring the firewall. You can allow or block certain IP addresses from accessing your VPS with following commands;
- To allow an IP address: csf -a <IP Address>
- To block an IP Address: csf -d <IP Address>
In the commands above, just replace <IP Address> with the actual IP address you want to allow or block.
Finally, if you want to reload all the rules, use the following command;
csf -r
That’s it! You have set up a firewall to protect your VPS Hosting. It is now better-secured against hacking attempts and other threats like malware and spyware.
Apart from installing a firewall, there are multiple other ways in which you can secure your VPS Server. Check out the following videos for 4 ways to secure your VPS –
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