[PLUG] Unneeded programs running on startup

["George Langford, Sc.D." <amenex@amenex.com>]

Hello fellow PLUGgers !

Discovered a logging file under /var/spool/mail called "root".
Seems it's been running since long before I ordered my Linux
PC.  And it's still watching my efforts ...  Several Linux
programs seem to be running (anacron, crond, tripwire, sshd,
sgi_fam, sendmail, and logwatch appear in the file).

So I probed further.  I looked at "Service Configuration" and
found that the following files run on startup:

anacron, apmd, atd, autofs, crond, gpm, iptables, isdn, 
keytable, kudzu, linuxconf, lpd, netfs, network, nfslock,
ntpd, pcmcia, portmap, random, rawdevices, reconfig, sendmail,
sgi_fam, sshd, syslog, webmin, wine, and xinetd.

Some of these are clearly not needed for my computer:

	apmd, pcmcia, xinetd, webmin, ntpd, portmap ...

I haven't been able to find out much about:

	atd, sgi_fam, sshd ...

Which ones of these are left over from a previous incarnation
of my Linux PC (either the machine or the hard drive) and can
be safely jettisoned ?  How do I do that ?  If I stop them
under the Service Configuration menu and then save the changes,
will they stay stopped ?  Or will they come back to life a la
Windows ?

After searching on each of these and briefly reading what I
found, I get the uneasy feeling that my machine is blabbing
all over town ...  especially with all the mail messages
that the log says it's been sending.

Until I hear more, I think I'll just unhook the Linux PC's
modular telephone plug ...

Best regards,
George Langford
amenex@amenex.com
http://www.amenex.com/
http://www.georgesbasement.com/

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