To start this project off we are going to need a dedicated server. So i built one to fit inside a 1u case, once that was complete i flashed my favorite Linus Distro (Debian) onto a flash drive and plugged it in and booted from it. Installed a graphical version of Debian in case i needed to do anything in the GUI environment but ironically so far i haven't touched the GUI at all and have been able to do everything via a SSH bash environment. We are also going to need to harden this server and lock it down. I hardened my SSH connections to this server by these precautions:

1. Disable logging in as root 2. Configure SSH to use a random port and not serve over port 22 3. Lockdown logins by forcing logins with a public/private keypair instead of passwords, and disable password logins completely.

After hardening SSH i decided to do a few basic linux configurations to harden the server further.

Disable icmp replies to any icmp echo requests to the server