Top 10 services running on my RaspberryPi

Hi friends, I believe you are all aware about Raspberry Pi, if not then please feel free to read my previous blog which talks about setting up a RPI 

I have got so fascinated by the Raspberry Pi 3 (RPI3) that I have made my mind to buy RPI4 as well.

Owning a Raspberry Pi opens a Gateway to numerous opportunities and few of them are IOT, Hacking, Home Automation, Development box, etc.

There are so many softwares and Operating Systems that the market has to offer for RPI.

Below are the top 10 essential services that I have installed on my RPI.

1. WebServer - This is the first service that one can try on a Linux server. It can be a simple Apache server or an Apache server installed with PHP Utils and Wordpress, backed with MySQL server to give a full fledged website experience to the users. By default the web server runs on Port 80.

$ sudo apt-get install apache2

2. Transmission - It is a light-weight Torrent client which can be easily accessed via web interface. Even this service can be protected with a password so that only the intended users can access and manage the torrents on your RPI. Trust me managing your torrents and creating rules on them was not so easy before installing this service. By default this service runs on Port 9091.

$ sudo apt-get install transmission-daemon

3. Samba Server - It is a Network File Sharing service. This file sharing service utilizes SMB/CIFS protocol. As SMB (Server Message Block) protocol is widely accepted in Windows. This server can be used to create a NAS server for your home file sharing between connected devices.

$ sudo apt-get install samba samba-common-bin

4. XRDP - It is a VNC server which uses the Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol to provide graphical login on remote machines. By installing this service on the RPI, you can connect its Graphical interface via any VNC client. No monitor is required, hence savings on the resources. By default, Xrdp listens on the port 3389.

$ sudo apt-get install xrdp

5. RpiTX - It is a general radio frequency transmitter for Raspberry Pi which doesn't require any other hardware. It can transmit frequencies from 5 KHz up to 1500 MHz.

The most basic application can be setting up a home FM station or to annoy someone by interfering their FM signals in a very close vicinity.

RPiTX is capable of transmitting a recorded IQ file directly. This makes copying things like 433 MHz ISM band remotes significantly easier. One application might be to use RPiTX as an internet connected home automation tool which could control all your wireless devices.

$ git clone https://github.com/F5OEO/rpitx.git

6. OpenVPN - This is the best open source VPN solution for RPI. It proves amazing when you are outside your home and you have to connect to your home's network from your mobile phone to download a file on your NAS server Or you want your partner sitting in some other continent to be a part of your network for some project related work. By default OpenVPN uses the Port 1194.

$ curl -L https://install.pivpn.io | bash

7. PiHole - It is a DNS Server for blocking Ads in your network traffic. You can access the Pi-Hole Web Admin interface at http://192.168.1.2/admin

Its recommended not to install any other service on the RPI if you are running Pi-hole, as its configuration might cause some issue with it. By pairing your Pi-hole with a VPN service on other RPI, you can have ad blocking on your cellular devices on the go by connecting to the VPN.

$ curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

8. Virtual Radar - The RTL-SDR dongle attached to the RPI can be used to locate the position of the aircrafts. Automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) is the technology with which the aircraft use to broadcast their whereabouts every second. There is a software called as Dump1090 which can be downloaded and configured on the RPI has the capability of translating the ADS-B signals collected from RTL-SDR dongle into useful information about the aircrafts. 

The Dump1090 software will tune the RTL-SDR to receive the signals on 1090 MHz frequency.

Run the below command and open the browser to see the realtime flight status --> http://192.168.1.2:8080/

If not able to get anything clear the cache. Hit refresh.

$ ./dump1090 --interactive --net --net-beast --net-ro-port 31001 &

9. Portainer - It is a web based management UI for Docker hosts. Portainer runs as a lightweight Docker container on your Docker host. It’s a great tool for managing Docker containers graphically from the web browser. Prerequisite: Docker should be installed on RPI.

Run the below command to get the Portainer console up and running on the Port 9000.

$ sudo docker run -d -p 9000:9000 -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
-v portainer_data:/data --restart always --name portainer portainer/Portainer

10. Mosquitto - This is a Pub-Sub Broker service which works on MQTT protocol. The MQTT protocol is a "Internet of Things" connectivity protocol. Designed as an extremely lightweight and reliable publish/subscribe messaging transport, it is useful for connections with remote locations where a small code footprint is required and/or network bandwidth is at a premium. By default the broker will start listening on the Port 1883.

$ sudo apt-get install mosquitto