FYI Password Clarification

[awair]

wardmundy

Does this only apply to Ubuntu, or all Asterisk/FreePBX? Any more details? Does this apply only to Trunks or Extensions as well?

One final word of caution is in order regardless of your choice of providers: Do NOT use special characters in any provider passwords, or nothing will work!

From this NV article.

Background:
I have recently started auditing my personal password policy, and standardised on very long strings including special characters. This seemed appropriate, especially when connecting to a personal PBX or Mail Server from the open internet, where a VPN may not be an option.

 

[wardmundy]

Every provider has different rules. If you use special characters, you're asking for trouble. A-Za-z0-9 provides trillions of possibilities with long strings. Not sure why you'd need more.

 

[awair]

Every provider has different rules.

I guess this is the problem: some insist on special characters, some don't care, some will only let you use a 4-digit 'PIN' (thank you AT&T). I just wanted to standardise on creating new passwords without compromising...

... so while I was (bored &) offline, I ran the numbers: when you get to a 30-character password, there is a three orders of magnitude increase in permutations using special characters! I'm not sure if the difference between 10^53 & 10^56 is really meaningful.

 

[awair]

Which brings me to my 'supplementary' question. After installing Incredible, I completed only 3 tasks before going to browser-based Asterisk configuration (set root password, updated timezone & iptables for my IP addresses).

In /root/passwords.FAQ:

Password info for your new Incredible PBX server is shown below:

Asterisk-GUI admin password: password (reset immediately by logging in)
Extension 6001 password: 123456
Extension 6001 voicemail password: 123456
Extension 6002 password: 123456
Extension 6002 voicemail password: 123456
DISA password for extension 3472: 123456
Reminders password for extension 123: 123456
Conference User PW for ext. 2663: 123456
Conference Admin PW for ext 2663: 123456
Port Knocker credentials are in /root/knock.FAQ
WebMin root password: same as Linux root password

All web-based apps except Asterisk-GUI require Apache credentials.
admin account is required for the administrator applications.
To create admin account: htpasswd -b /etc/pbx/wwwpasswd admin newpassword
You can create one or more additional accounts for AsteriDex & Reminders access.

To create other accounts: htpasswd -b /etc/pbx/wwwpasswd username userpassword

What exactly are the 'Apache credentials', and why don't I have them? I am logged in to the Asterisk GUI. Is the subsequent line related?

All web-based apps except Asterisk-GUI require Apache credentials.
admin account is required for the administrator applications.

I have tried root/rootpassword & admin/adminpassword, but when I try to access the 'IncrediblePBX Apps' tab, all items (such as Google Voice) request http authentication and these two options are not accepted. I've tried a couple of different browsers, so it doesn't appear to be a caching issue.

wardmundy Did I miss a step?

 

[wardmundy]

What exactly are the 'Apache credentials', and why don't I have them? I am logged in to the Asterisk GUI.

It means that the Apache web server manages authentication to the web-based applications. You don't have them because you didn't create them.

All web-based apps except Asterisk-GUI require Apache credentials.
admin account is required for the administrator applications.
To create admin account: htpasswd -b /etc/pbx/wwwpasswd admin newpassword
You can create one or more additional accounts for AsteriDex & Reminders access.
 
To create other accounts: htpasswd -b /etc/pbx/wwwpasswd username userpassword