Hosting Software News & Commentary

Contribution Options

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:40:52 +0000

Perl. This site isn’t terrible, and degrades well enough without CSS enabled, but it still uses tables for layout and is built for the tiniest of resolutions. I think updating the underlying code (no tables), fixing some of their type, wrapping the page content in a centered container and making the whole site even 100 px wider would help. I doubt they’re going to change the camel. Of these three possibilities, I’m leaning toward this.

Apache/. I think the problem with a lot of open source sites is that they embrace “default” styling (blue underlined links, bulleted lists, white background), probably to show how “geek” they are. Apache’s main page is a good example of this, but some of the sub-projects are pretty decent. It’d be interesting, and probably beyond the scope of what could be accomplished in this class, to apply one identity across all of the apache sub-projects. Realistically though, updating the main Apache page or one of the more horrible sub-project pages would be a possibility.

Linux. Here’s another gem. This page is littered with mid-90s web weirdness. Where are these colors coming from? Check out the random centering and mixed bold/serif/sans. The possibility of getting them to change it is slim to none, but… maybe.

Python And Django

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:31:06 +0000

I’ve gone through part of the Django tutorial. I installed the latest copy of Django, Python, and MySQL on my desktop (windows environment) and followed the tutorial through the first three sections. I’ve started to become familiar with the data models and the admin interface.

At the moment I am liking Django’s admin interface that is created by default a little bit more than the scaffolding that can be used with Ruby on Rails. As far as compairing Ruby and Python I still don’t know enough about either language to make a decision.

More to come.

CPanel Hosting FAQ

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:08:58 +0000

General cPanel Hosting FAQ

Q. Could someone tell me how i can disable open_basedir in php.ini. For one of my customers for there site .

Ans: Don’t edit it in PHP.ini - log into WHM, security center, openbase protection, tick your customer’s username.

Q. Can the Cpanel and FTP passwords be different? This is important as I want to give clients access to Cpanel but not to FTP

Ans: If you have access to cPanel you have access to the full account via file manager, and you also have the ability to make new FTP accounts. cPanel is the mother of all access in a sense. You can give access to FTP and NOT cPanel by setting up a custom FTP account, but it doesn’t really work the other way around. Technically it’s possible if you disabled all of the features via WHM, but that would defeat the purpose of cPanel really.

Q. I am new to cpanel web hosting and I am wanting to know if i can set up my site using Dreamweaver CS3? How do i edit other pages in my website. I found out how to edit my home page but cannot find other pages within my site. Where would these be located?

Ans: You can setup a Site within Dreamweaver using ftp and be sure to set the document root to public_html within the site’s ftp settings in Dreamweaver.

Q. I have problems with the bandwidth of my cpanel, I want to know whether the bandwidth is reset monthly ?

Ans: With regards to the bandwidth quotas for account, yes, bandwidth used is reset to 0 at the beginning of a month.

Q. How can I change the theme of a CPANEL for any user from backend. Which all files do I need to edit ?

Ans: From WHM go to modify an account area.

Q. I am currently running CPanel under a VPS and would like to run DNS only on my main server (so that if the cpanel server goes down I still have the dns running). I am wondering tho, is DNS Only free to use if you have a Cpanel VPS licence on another server. And also, how tightly does DNS only integrate with the OS. I mean, if I want to remove it later is it possible or would I be looking at a rebuild.

Ans: DNSonly is completely free, and you can install it on either a dedicated server or a virtual private servers.

Q. Is it easy to uninstall at a later date or does it integrate as tightly with the OS as the full Cpanel does (i.e. when you want to uninstall CPANEL they recommend you just rebuild the OS, i would prefer not to do that if I want to uninstall DNS only at a later date).

Ans: I’d suggest if you want DNS only, then set it up on a VPS on the server, that way if you don’t want it, then you just delete the VPS.

Q. Is there a way to setup an addition/custom admin user with equivalent rights as root?

Ans: You can setup a “Master Reseller” account and give him full rights for most things.

Web Hosting : Hostname

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:08:28 +0000

Q. Can somebody explain the WHM Hostname feature? I am a bit at loss here as the instructions in WHM say that I should use a hostname that I “will not be using for any account”. Does that mean that I should not use my regular domain name?
E.g. if the server’s main website will be example.com (i.e. I will need a example.com account, won’t I?), should I use a random hostname that has not DNS registry? Or should I use something like host.example.com?

Ans: You will want to use the suggested format, such as

When you set this hostname, plan for expansion incase you add more servers in the future. So might not be such a great idea.

EDIT: And in answer to the “my domain name” thing, you will want to use the main domain on the box. For example, we have pfXX.abc123.com, with X representing the server number.

Captioning Article And Examples

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:00:28 +0000

We’ve got a great article on the Adobe Developer Center: Captioning Flash video with Captionate and the captioning-supported FLVPlayback component skins

by Michael Jordan, who added support for caWe’ve got a great article on the Adobe Developer Center: Captioning Flash video with Captionate and the captioning-supported FLVPlayback component skins

by Michael Jordan, who added support for captioning to the set of ActionScript 2.0 FLVPlayback video component skins. This is an eight-page article, and by page three you’ll have captions. Pages four through eight provide more in-depth information for developers who want to make additional modifications to the user interface.

The beauty of the skins is that they complement the built-in ActionScript 3.0 FLVPlaybackCaptioning component that comes with Flash CS3 and allow authors who want to publish video files to support Flash Player 8 to add captions with ease, and provide an accessible interface to control the video for keyboard and screen reader users at the same time.

The Library of Congress is using the skins for their online exhibition on the MacDowell Colony, but they aren’t using Captionate - they have a DFXP XML file from MAGpie. These skins also support external caption data in DFXP. We have our list of caption vendors who create DFXP caption files, including Caption Colorado, Automatic Sync Technologies, the Media Access Group at WGBH for developers who don’t want to caption video themself.

As always, I’m interested in any feedback on the skins or the article, but first go check out the MacDowell Colony videos!

Ophcrack Live CD - Crackeando ContraseÃ±as De Windows En Minutos

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 05:35:25 +0000

El live CD de Ophcrack de cÃ³digo libre, es una herramienta capaz de recuperar la contraseÃ±a de una cuenta de Windows. EstÃ¡ diseÃ±ada para ayudarte a recuperar las contraseÃ±as perdidas de Windows.

DespuÃ©s de descargar la .iso de 462mb y se quemarla en un CD; nada mÃ¡s reiniciar tu ordenador y arrancar desde CD (live CD), el Ophcrack se cargarÃ¡ y estarÃ¡ automÃ¡ticamente dispuesto a mostrarte todas las contraseÃ±as que vaya encontrando.

Si os lo querÃ©is descargar para probarlo, podÃ©is probar en su espacio Ophcrack dentro de Sourceforge, o probar el l0phtcrack (aka LC5) desde algÃºn mirror si la anterior no estÃ¡ disponible, que lo dudo.

FÃ¡cil, sencillo, y para toda la familia

AMD Radeon HD 3200 / 780G

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 05:33:56 +0000

Last year AMD introduced the flagship 790 Chipset series as part of their Spider Platform for use with the Phenom processors and Radeon HD 3800 graphics. Until earlier this month when AMD introduced the 780 Series, missing was any chipset with integrated graphics capabilities supporting these first AMD quad-core processors. Now we have AMD’s 780G and 780V Chipsets, which are designed to be the mainstream solutions to the 790FX, but they pack the best integrated graphics processor (IGP) ever created by the combined ATI/AMD engineering talent. Since its launch at the CeBIT trade show, the AMD 780G has received rave reviews for its vehement performance due to its graphics core that’s derived from the AMD RV610. The benchmarks available on launch day were only for Microsoft Windows operating systems, but this morning we have the Radeon HD 3200 Linux results from the AMD 780G. Is this IGP a crown jewel on Linux?

Be A Command Line Superstar: SSH Tunnels

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 05:31:33 +0000

So here is my situation. I want to work at home. Or on the road or from anywhere except school. But the problem is that i have about 3 different lab machines at school that I have to do work on. But not only are they at school, they are also not accessible to the outside world. The only way to connect to them is through gateway machine. So i could first ssh to the gateway and then from there ssh to the server that I need to connect to. That works reasonably well, but it is a pain, and what if i need to copy files?

This is where ssh tunneling comes in handy. What tunneling does is it first creates a connection to a host/gateway - this is the tunnel. Now what you can do is make another connection through that first tunnel connection to some other host. It’s just like tunneling under a castle wall. This comes in handy for my situation where I need to pass traffic through a gateway. But another very powerful use is as an all-purpose tool for encrypting otherwise unsecure network protocols (e-mail, ftp, web traffic, etc.). Remember that all traffic through an ssh connection is encrypted. this includes tunnels. My main use for tunnels however is for bypassing gateways, so let’s see how it’s done.

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Be A Command Line Superstar: SSH Basics

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 05:31:33 +0000

ssh is far more powerful than most people who use it on a regular basis realize and it really should be a staple in the diet of any serious software/web developer. I will cover it’s basic usage and then go over some more advanced examples that I have been using for my current work.

If you are already familiar with ssh and just want to learn about ssh tunnels, read the next post in the series about SSH Tunnels

Before going on, I must mention that as far as I know none of this will work in windows. Also, for any of it to work you must have an ssh client installed on your computer (you probably do, but if you dont then check out openssh.org.) Also, the host you are trying to connect to must have an ssh server running and you must have permission to use it.

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Be A Command Line Superstar: Intro

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 05:31:10 +0000

So i’ve decided that while I want to be able to share some things from my life on this site, I also want to write some useful content. Maybe even live up to the name blogger some day.

It is safe to say that I am a linux command line junkie. I was raised on DOS and windows 3.1 (i didn’t have a computer that supported windows 95 until windows 98SE was released) and when I got experienced enough to realize that they both sucked i tried linux. The first time I installed linux on my family computer it was slackware version maybe 2 (i dont actually remember what version it was) and came on about 12 floppies that I had to download with my 14.4 modem. Some of the people reading this might not even know what a floppy or a 14.4 modem are but that’s ok. Back in those days the command line was pretty much the only useful way to interact with your computer, so that is what I learned. Now you might say the command line is outdated, but i would disagree. While GUI’s have gotten faster, smarter and better looking then ever before the command line is far more powerful due to the control it gives you and the speed with which you can get things done. Unfortunately, the command-line is a dying art - there are many computer power users out there who have little to no experience with it. I hope those people find this useful.

Now if I were being logical, the first in a series of command line interface (CLI) tutorials that I write should probably cover the essentials: man, cp, mv, rm, etc. But i’m not being logical. I am going to write about ssh because I have been using it an awful lot lately and that is what I want to do. And this is my blog. After that I will go back and write about the essentials and re-order them.
Without further ado here it is,

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