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How to run SMTP on a different or additional port in Linux with Plesk

August 16th, 2007

For one reason or another some people like to run their SMTP service on a port other than the standard TCP port 25. Whether it’s to bypass their ISP’s firewall, provide a second instance of SMTP, or maybe just to be different.

This article will show you a simple way to do this on a Linux server running the Plesk control panel.

In ‘/etc/xinetd.d/’ there is a file called smtp_psa, you will need to copy this file to another filename (in this example I’ll use smtp2_psa).

In this new file, you will want to change the line:
’service smtp’ to ’service smtp2′

Once this is complete, you will need to modify your /etc/services file, and add the smtp2 service:
Simply copy/paste the existing smtp line and change the name and port (we’ll use port 26 in this example). Read the rest of this entry »

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How to restrict access to a web site folder

August 12th, 2007

Have you ever wanted to control access to a directory or file on your website?
Well, it’s actually quite simple to do this using an “.htaccess” file placed in that very directory of your website.
Currently this only works for Unix/Linux/Apache based hosts.
If you’re hosting your site with a a hosting company and you have a control panel to manage your site, you most likely have a more automated method for doing this. This article will explain how to do it manually, mainly for people with ‘root’ access to the server.

htaccess login prompt

So what is this .htaccess file?
A description of an .htaccess file as stated on the Apache website is

.htaccess files (or “distributed configuration files”) provide a way to make configuration changes on a per-directory basis.

Basically it allows you to make configuration changes to the functionality of the web server, but on a per directory basis.

OK, lets do this already.
First, login via SSH to the server hosting your website.
Change to the directory that you would like to restrict access to, or create it if it does not already exist.
Read the rest of this entry »

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How to sync data between 2 servers automatically

August 8th, 2007

Have you ever wanted to know how to easily synchronize the data between multiple servers automatically?
In this article I’ll explain how to setup 2 Linux servers to automatically synchronize data between a specific directory on each server. To do this we will use rsync, ssh key authentication, and a cron job.

Let’s call the 2 servers ‘SOURCESERVER’ and ‘DESTSERVER’ for
SOURCESERVER = Source server (the server we’re connecting from to upload the data)
DESTSERVER = Destination server (the server we’re connecting to receive the data)

Part 1 - Setting up SSH key authentication

First, we need to make sure the DESTSERVER has the ability to use key authentication enabled. Find your sshd configuration file (usually ‘/etc/ssh/sshd_config’) and enable the following options if they are not already set.

RSAAuthentication yes
PubkeyAuthentication yes
AuthorizedKeysFile .ssh/authorized_keys
Read the rest of this entry »

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Your top ten linux commands ?

August 7th, 2007

So I thought it would be fun to start a top ten list of everyone’s most commonly used Linux commands.

On your Linux box run the following command.

# history |tr '\011' ' ' |tr -s " "| cut -d' ' -f3 |sort |uniq -c |sort -nbr |head -n10

Hopefully that gives you a similar output, if so it should give you a list of the top ten most commonly used commands in your command history sorted by the most common first. The number just before the command is the number of times it has been run.

Here’s my top ten.

——————————–
200 clear
193 ls
142 vi
48 cd
45 less
45 history
41 yum
41 tail
19 cp
18 ./configure
——————————–

Post your top ten commands in the comments.

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How to setup a Linux FTP server

August 6th, 2007

This article should help you install and configure the Proftpd software on a Fedora Linux server using RPM packages for the install.

Assuming you’re using RedHat, Fedora, or CentOS, you should already have a tool called ‘yum’ installed on the server. Yum is an acronym for ‘Yellowdog Updater, Modified’ and is a very useful tool for installing and updating RPM packages on your Linux server. It will usually take care of all needed dependencies for a package(s) , sometimes saving you hours of time that it would normally take to manually download and install each piece of software.

To install proftpd use the following command Read the rest of this entry »

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How to setup Apache2 web server to host multiple sites on 1 IP address

August 6th, 2007

It’s very common these days to host multiple websites on a server using only a single IP address.
This is done with the Apache web server using ‘Virtual Hosts’.

You must first make sure that you have configured DNS to point whatever domains you wish to host on the server to the server’s IP address.

In your httpd.conf file (or a separate file that is included from the httpd.conf file) you will need lines similar to the following. Read the rest of this entry »

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How to display web servers IP address (and other info) in a web page

August 5th, 2007

This simple article will explain how you can display some commonly used information directly into a web page using the very popular PHP programming language.In order to run PHP scripts on your web site you must have the appropriate software installed and configured. Most hosting accounts will already have this available.
If the below examples do not work then you will need to install PHP support on your server or ask your hosting provider to do so.

When a web server serves data to a client there is a multitude of information available both about the server itself as well as the current client accessing the server.
This information is stored in PHP’s predefined variables. Read the rest of this entry »

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Cheap web hosting options (top 10)

August 5th, 2007

Cheap web hosting options (top 10)

With the countless number of available hosting companies out there and the varied packages each company offers it can become quite difficult to keep your brain from twisting into a pretzel when comparing all the options and making a decision on who you will go with for hosting your website.

Here is a top ten list compiled by user reviews with my friends at cheap-hosting-solutions.net that should help you narrow down your options.

Rank	Hosting Company	Price/mo	Disk Space	Bandwidth
1		$4.95	300GB	3000GB
2		$5.77	300GB	3000GB
3		$5.95	300GB	3000GB
4		$6.95	300GB	3000GB
5		$5.95	300GB	3000GB
6		$7.95	300GB	3000GB
7		$7.95	200GB	3000GB
8		$6.95	350GB	3500GB
9		$6.95	250GB	2500GB
10		$7.96	100GB	1000GB

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Web Server Basics

August 5th, 2007

This article should help explain the basics of a web server as well as the most common types of web hosting available today.

What is a web server?
A web server is a computer, including software packages, that provides a specific kind of service to
client software running on other computers. More specifically, a server is a computer that manages
and shares web based applications and data accessible anytime from any computer connected to the
internet.

What are my options for hosting a web site?
When deciding how to host your website you generally have a few options. Read the rest of this entry »

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HowtoMonster

How to run SMTP on a different or additional port in Linux with Plesk

How to restrict access to a web site folder

How to sync data between 2 servers automatically

Your top ten linux commands ?

How to setup a Linux FTP server

How to setup Apache2 web server to host multiple sites on 1 IP address

How to display web servers IP address (and other info) in a web page

Cheap web hosting options (top 10)

Web Server Basics

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