Alternative Registration form for WordPress Registers and Logs in a user immediately, no emailed password- user chooses.This is an insecure method due to no email validation, but still pretty sweet!
read more | digg story
31.5.08
Upgrading to DreamHost Private Servers
From:Problems migrating to DreamHostPS
Here are some issues I experienced during migration and the solutions I’ve used.
During this process it is important to note how helpful the DreamHost Support Staff were in putting up with my sometimes overly technical and detailed support requests. Thanks John, Brian, and Robert R!
PHP and HTTPD processes hogging all memory
Unlike on shared hosting accounts, where DH technical people have set up a very robust system, it appears they are missing the expertise of a past employee or something because this new setup is not as robust.. YET!
For instance I started out my account CPU and memory at the MAX (2300 MB / 2300 Mhz) but my sites were all still taking forever to serve content, simply because instead of on the shared servers where user processes and HTTPD instances are more controlled, this account seems to not have very well-thought out limits on it. So if 100 people asked for a page on my site, this server loads up 100 HTTPD processes under dhapache user and loads up 100 processes for the custom-compiled php.cgi I am running. This sounds like a cool thing but in reality it takes up so much of my memory that my bash shell login under SSH runs out of memory and won’t even let me do a simple ps, and it just keeps serving 503’s to anyone else who requests something on my site. DH will have to fix this soon or someone will launch a DDOS attack that will cripple them, unless a googlebot does it first!
Solution
I contacted support and received a very friendly and prompt reply suggesting a bad script and offering to setup a process watcher and killer, which I accepted. Eventually I located the problem to be anErrorDocument 500directive in my .htaccess that was pointing to a php file instead of a static .htmlNo crontabs or cronjobs
None of my crontab files were moved to my new server and in fact I was receiving permission denied just to access my crontab.
Solution
I contacted support and they installed new crontabs for me and offered to copy my old ones.Static IP Changed for site with non-DreamHost DNS
One site uses DNS from Network Solutions, so when my site was migrated and got a new static IP address, my site went down. It would have been nice and should be expected that in this situation DreamHost would alert you that the change is going to happen so you can update your DNS without your site going offline.
Solution
Logged into my Network Solutions account and updated the DNS for my site to point to the new Static IP.SSH Hosts, Authorized Keys Broken
Some of my sites and user accounts use passwordless SSH to make some things work, and all of these were made useless when I moved to my new private server.
Solution
- Logged into my user accounts with SSH
- Deleted the old files in folder .ssh
- Created new keys and added them to other accounts
- Logged in to new accounts to add to host files
Old Server and Static IP References in Site Files
I have some pretty technical and complex cgi’s, .htaccess files, shell scripts run by cronjobs, php scripts, etc., on some sites and shell accounts, and many of my files contain code to the Static IP and/or dreamhost server, either for access control or for faster connects by connecting straight to an IP instead of having to perform a DNS lookup. So when both the Static IP’s and dreamhost server changed it broke all my files.
Solution
Basically I knew I had to search all of my files and replace the old IP with the new IP. I also had to search files relacing the old server with my new server. To make life simpler, I wrote a simple shell script that I run from my account while logged in using SSH that does this automatically with the added feature of asking me if I would like to make the replacement for each file it finds, which is nice because I don’t want to replace this for old log files and misc stuff.dreamhostps migration shell script
#!/bin/bash
# Version 1.0 by AskApache 5/29/2008
shopt -s extglob
renice 19 $$
OLDSERVER=208.113.183.103
NEWSERVER=208.113.134.190
FIXFILES=$(grep -R -l -i $OLDSERVER $HOME/!(Maildir|logs|backups|source|tmp|doit|php5|php526|ip_abuse) 2>/dev/null)
for thefile in ${FIXFILES[@]}; do
if [ -f "$thefile" ]; then
echo -e "\n\n\n\n"
echo "___________________________________________________________________"
echo "Name: ${thefile}"
echo "Type: $(command file -b ${thefile})"
echo "Size: $(command du -hs ${thefile}|awk '{ print $1}')"
echo "Matching Lines:"
grep -i --color=auto $OLDSERVER $thefile
echo -e "___________________________________________________________________\n"
echo -en "Replace occurances of $OLDSERVER with $NEWSERVER? [y/N] " ; read -n 1 ans
case "$ans" in
n|N) echo -e "\nSKIPPING..."; ;;
y|Y) echo -e "\nREPLACING..."
cp $thefile $thefile.b1 &>/dev/null
cat $thefile.b1 | sed "s/${OLDSERVER}/${NEWSERVER}/g" 1>$thefile
rm $thefile.b1 &>/dev/null
echo "DONE"; ;;
esac
fi
done
exit 0
29.5.08
15.5.08
Firefox popup- page redirected new location, resend form dat
If you see this message in Firefox."This web page is being redirected to a new location. Would you like to resend the form data you have typed to the new location?"
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
9.5.08
SEO detailed Robots.txt
Very detailed tutorial dealing with the robots.txt file. Shows examples for google and other search engines. Wordpress robots.txt and phpBB robots.txt sample files.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
1.5.08
WordPress Plugin for Apache .htaccess Security
New Security features incorporated by the AskApache Password Protection WordPress Plugin
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
28.4.08
SEO Secrets of AskApache.com
Non-SEO related Server research has turned up some nice SEO techniquesAll websites are hosted on servers, mostly Apache, and that is the primary topic of this blog. During the past year of this blog, my research into non-seo areas has turned up some very valuable SEO techniques.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
User:Cduke250 - DreamHost
27.4.08
Apache Wicket - Home
Apache Wicket - Home: "Welcome to Apache Wicket
With proper mark-up/logic separation, a POJO data model, and a refreshing lack of XML, Apache Wicket makes developing web-apps simple and enjoyable again. Swap the boilerplate, complex debugging and brittle code for powerful, reusable components written with plain Java and HTML.
* Check the feature list
* Read some Wicket buzz, some Wicket blogs or Planet Wicket
* Find out why you should use Wicket
* Check out some selected examples in detail or see them and many more in live action
* Take a look at our live component reference
* Go and download Wicket.
Wicket is released under the Ap"
With proper mark-up/logic separation, a POJO data model, and a refreshing lack of XML, Apache Wicket makes developing web-apps simple and enjoyable again. Swap the boilerplate, complex debugging and brittle code for powerful, reusable components written with plain Java and HTML.
* Check the feature list
* Read some Wicket buzz, some Wicket blogs or Planet Wicket
* Find out why you should use Wicket
* Check out some selected examples in detail or see them and many more in live action
* Take a look at our live component reference
* Go and download Wicket.
Wicket is released under the Ap"
26.4.08
Introduction to Named Pipes
"A very useful Linux feature is named pipes which enable different processes to communicate. "
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Hardening Wordpress with Mod Rewrite and htaccess
not a perfect way to secure your wordpress installation (because of various reasons / factors), but at least it’s going to harden your wordpress better than anything else
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
24.4.08
Mosaic User Authentication Tutorial
Mosaic User Authentication Tutorial: "http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/docs-1.5/tutorials/user.html
Mosaic User Authentication Tutorial
Introduction
This tutorial surveys the current methods in NCSA Mosaic and NCSA HTTPd for restricting access to documents. The tutorial also walks through setup and use of these methods.
Mosaic 2.0 and NCSA HTTPd allow access restriction based on several criteria:
* Username/password-level access authorization.
* Rejection or acceptance of connections based on Internet address of client.
* A combination of the above two methods.
This tutorial is based heavily on work done by Ari Luotonen at CERN and Rob McCool at NCSA. In particular, Ari wrote the client-side code currently in Mosaic 2.0, and Rob wrote NCSA HTTPd 1.3.
Tutorial Contents
* Introduction
* Getting Started
* General Information
* How Secure is it?
* Basic By-Password Authentication: Step By Step
* Multiple Usernames/Passwords
* More Examples
* For More Information
Getting Started
Before you can explore access authorization, you need to install NCSA HTTPd 1.0a5 or later on a Unix machine under your control, or get write access to one or more directories in a filespace already being served by NCSA HTTPd. Other HTTP Servers also support access authentication, and so"
Mosaic User Authentication Tutorial
Introduction
This tutorial surveys the current methods in NCSA Mosaic and NCSA HTTPd for restricting access to documents. The tutorial also walks through setup and use of these methods.
Mosaic 2.0 and NCSA HTTPd allow access restriction based on several criteria:
* Username/password-level access authorization.
* Rejection or acceptance of connections based on Internet address of client.
* A combination of the above two methods.
This tutorial is based heavily on work done by Ari Luotonen at CERN and Rob McCool at NCSA. In particular, Ari wrote the client-side code currently in Mosaic 2.0, and Rob wrote NCSA HTTPd 1.3.
Tutorial Contents
* Introduction
* Getting Started
* General Information
* How Secure is it?
* Basic By-Password Authentication: Step By Step
* Multiple Usernames/Passwords
* More Examples
* For More Information
Getting Started
Before you can explore access authorization, you need to install NCSA HTTPd 1.0a5 or later on a Unix machine under your control, or get write access to one or more directories in a filespace already being served by NCSA HTTPd. Other HTTP Servers also support access authentication, and so"
gzip and cache your site with .htaccess
Speed up your site and save bandwidth gzipping your files and optimizing cache HTTP headers.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
23.4.08
Altaway Technologies, Inc : Mainframe-class virtual machines
Altaway Technologies, Inc : Mainframe-class virtual machines: "1 - Introduction to .htaccess files
2 - FileTypes
3 - Handlers
4 - URL Rewriting
5 - User authentication
6 - Host-based access control
7 - Directory indexing
Introduction to .htaccess files
Your Web directory and its subdirectories can contain per-directory configuration files called .htaccess files. Whenever Stronghold (our Web server) receives a request for a file, it first looks for a file called .htaccess in that directory and its parent directories. If one is present, Stronghold considers the configuration directives within it before responding to the request. A .htaccess file works like this:
* A .htaccess file must be a plain text file and contain no special formatting elements. Use a text editor to create your .htaccess file. If you create it with a word processor, be sure to save it as plain text.
* A .htaccess file contains a list of configuration directives and nothing else.
* If a .htaccess file contains any other information, it must be commented out in order to prevent errors
* A .htaccess file must be saved in the top directory to which you want it to apply. The directives apply to that directory and its subdirectories.
* If a subdirectory contains a .htaccess file, it overrides the .htaccess"
2 - FileTypes
3 - Handlers
4 - URL Rewriting
5 - User authentication
6 - Host-based access control
7 - Directory indexing
Introduction to .htaccess files
Your Web directory and its subdirectories can contain per-directory configuration files called .htaccess files. Whenever Stronghold (our Web server) receives a request for a file, it first looks for a file called .htaccess in that directory and its parent directories. If one is present, Stronghold considers the configuration directives within it before responding to the request. A .htaccess file works like this:
* A .htaccess file must be a plain text file and contain no special formatting elements. Use a text editor to create your .htaccess file. If you create it with a word processor, be sure to save it as plain text.
* A .htaccess file contains a list of configuration directives and nothing else.
* If a .htaccess file contains any other information, it must be commented out in order to prevent errors
* A .htaccess file must be saved in the top directory to which you want it to apply. The directives apply to that directory and its subdirectories.
* If a subdirectory contains a .htaccess file, it overrides the .htaccess"
WordPress .htaccess
You can do many custom configurations for your site with the use of the .htaccess file. This is a plain text file that should be placed in your home directory on your site to achieve a variety of effects.
Included in this page are many directives you can use to do things like serve a custom .html page when a user types in a nonexistent page on your site rather than the default 404 error message.
To use these features, you will need to create a file named .htaccess in a plain ASCII editor, such as Windows notepad. Insert a line for the directive you wish to use from the list below. When you are finished, upload the file to your home directory. This is the root directory on your site (above the /www).
If you wish to password protect a directory, please use our web form under the 'password protection' link on http://help.mindspring.com/webhelp/
Apache directives
- Action
- AddDescription
- AddEncoding
- AddIcon
- AddIconByEncoding
- AddIconByType
- AuthDBMUserFile
- ErrorDocument
- Redirect
- RedirectPermanent
- RedirectTemp
- XBitHack
- Add Mime Types
Action
Syntax: Action mime-type cgi-script
This directive adds an action, which will activate cgi-script when a file of content type mime-type is requested. It sends the URL and file path of the requested document using the standard CGI PATH_INFO and PATH_TRANSLATED environment variables.
Syntax: AddDescription string file file...
Syntax: AddEncoding mime-enc extension extension...
Syntax: AddIcon icon name name ...
AddIconByType should be used in preference to AddIcon, when possible.
Syntax: AddIconByEncoding icon mime-encoding mime-encoding ...
Mime-encoding is a wildcard expression matching required the content-encoding.
Example:
Syntax: AddIconByType icon mime-type mime-type ...
Mime-type is a wildcard expression matching required the mime types.
Example:
Syntax: AddType type ext
Context: .htaccess
The AddType directive allows you to add a mime type to your site.
Example:
Syntax: AuthDBMUserFile filename
See also AuthName, AuthType and AuthDBMGroupFile.
Syntax: ErrorDocument error-code document
In the event of a problem or error, Apache can be configured to do one of four things,
- behave like NCSA httpd 1.3
- output a customized message
- redirect to a local URL to handle the problem/error
- redirect to an external URL to handle the problem/error
would match most common Internet graphics formats.
permanent
- Returns a permanent redirect status (301) indicating that the resource has moved permanently.
Syntax: RedirectTemp url-path url
Syntax: RedirectPermanent url-path url
Context: directory, .htaccess
16.4.08
Virgin & BT react to Internet revolt
Virgin tries to calm the Internet revolt against them since their CEO stated that "net neutrality is bollocks" while BT reacts by saying their view is radically different and they welcome all Virgin customers who left because of the issue for a 'neutral' service.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
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