You cannot be at your desk 24/7 even if you are the best system administrator the world has ever known. You also cannot predict when your server will need attention or where you will be when it does. We live in an age where mobile devices are as common as clothing, so it is only natural that web servers should be accessible from mobile devices as well.

Enter: Webshell, a cross-platform mobile SSH tool that allows the user to access a remote server on a computer, iPhone, or any other mobile device that has a web browser. Webshell is written in Python and therefore runs on any Unix-like system, including Linux, BSD, and Mac OS X.

Webshell supports multiple terminal emulations, UTF-8 enconding, including chinese/japanese glyph support, a virtual keyboard for iPhone users, customizable appearance, and maintains all of the security of SSH since it still operates over SSL/TLS. Webshell is free and open source software (GPL) and available for download from the project’s website.

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One of the most well-known Internet companies, Verisign is planning a major upgrade. After the upgrades, Verisign’s hardware will be capable of handling 4 quadrillion requests per day from computers trying to access .com and .net top-level domains (TLD) for which Verisign is responsible.

According to ken Silva, the Internet giant’s CTO, these upgrades are crucial to ensuring they can keep up with the rapidly increasing Internet traffic and the occasional spikes caused by malware, attacks, and malicious bots. In 2007, Verisign spent $100 million to increase their capacity until 2010. This next round of upgrades reflects the fast-growing nature of the Internet.

In addition to providing access to .com and .net domains, Verisign is also renown for selling SSL certificates. What is not clear from their announcement is what the upgrades will entail exactly and how long these latest upgrades will sustain the rapidly expanding cyber-universe.

Source: Associated Press

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You would be wrong to think that a company like Microsoft with billions in profits doesn’t care about data center construction costs. The company, which has previously been accustomed to spending $500 million and up on new facilities, will now try to reduce construction costs on new facilities to $250 million.

Microsoft will be able to meet its target while still maintaining the power and speed needed because of advances in efficiency and scalable technology. New data centers will consist of a wall-less open-air structure full of server-packed containers. They’ll be “containerized” so to speak.

As more computing juice is needed, more containers can simply be shipped and added to the mix. This ease of expandability significantly cuts down on up-front costs.

Source | Data Center Knowledge

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While speaking at an ICANN international meeting in Nairobi this week, Rod Beckstrom criticized the security of DNS, saying it “can stop any time.” Furthermore, he went on to state:

The domain name system is under attack today as it has never been before. I have personally consulted with over 20 CEOs of the top registries and the top registrars globally, all of whom are seeing increasing attacks and complexity of attacks and who are extremely concerned,

While Beckstrom is perfectly accurate in his statement, to those with a vested in interest in certain start-up extensions and developing ccTLDs, them is fightin’ words. Specifically, Chris Disspain, chairman of the Country Code Name Supporting Organization (ccNSO) council, called the ICANN CEO out on the comment.

As a representative of the various companies that run ccTLDs for many governments, Disspain is worried that Beckstrom “could cause great concern among governments regarding how elements of critical Internet resources are operated and managed in their countries.” In other words, the ccNSO chairman is worried about how this could affect his associate’s for-profit operations running ccTLDs.

Source | Computer World
Photo | Flickr

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Auto-renew is a great way to make sure a valuable domain doesn’t expire, but for most domains, we usually want to renew them year-to-year. Unfortunately, auto-renew is also a clever trick played by many registrars, especially Go Daddy, to take your hard-earned money.

When you register a domain, check to make sure auto-renew isn’t enabled. It’s not at all uncommon for this to be enabled automatically in hopes the customer will forget about it and let those domain renewal fees pile up.

Even worse, often times the renewal price isn’t the same as the registration cost! For example, Go Daddy will often offer .info domains for $0.99 or $1.99, but when it comes time to renew, charge the normal fee of $9.99. This limitation is always clearly stated, but registrars with special deals like this are hoping you leave auto-renew enabled. Watch out!

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Computer users with dynamic IP addresses often have to contend with the reality that their internet identity can literally change without warning. For average Internet use, this is not a problem, but if you ever need to host something from home (even a private server that only gives you password access), you will need some support for dynamic DNS.

Dynamic DNS notifies the user’s domain that the IP address has been changed and needs to be updated. When someone remotely connects to the domain, they will get the right computer, even if the IP address changes regularly. The Linux command called nsupdate is a utility that allows the user to update a DNS zone without having to manually edit the zone file.

“nsupdate is a fantastic little utility that enable quick and secure DNS zone updates. Setup is quick and painless, and use is fairly intuitive for anyone remotely familiar with DNS, and skilled enough to admin their own Linux system.”

Read the full article
Photo Source: Flickr

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A game server is a computer connected to the Internet that hosts multiplayer games for a particular game or multiple games. While some multiplayer games only have official servers, many allow community gamers to host their own games. There are two types: 1. temporary servers that any user can setup to host a particular tournament or match, and 2. a dedicated server that is always live and always available for connections.

The common tendency of a gamer who wants to hosts multiplayer games is to setup a normal PC box in their home with a regular DSL or cable line. Although this may work for temporary servers or small to medium numbers of connections, gaming on a larger scale can be taxing on an ill-equipped PC and a a home network.

In such cases it might behoove the gaming host to get a dedicated line and server-class computer to host their games. The other option is to purchase a hosting account for a dedicated server. The server can either be an un-managed server with a free Linux distribution or a customized gaming server that has been setup for that specific purpose. Either way, the eventual result is higher quality gaming and more enjoyment for the players.

Photo Source: Flickr

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To handle its millions of video views per day, YouTube has thousands of servers. But what if you want to start your own video sharing site? A Webhostingtalk.com user asked today:

Hi i would plan to make something like YouTube (video sharing site) but restricted only for my members. Basically if let’s say there are 1000 users every day streaming videos on my site, how much bandwidth do I need and how big the server has to be considering this isnt just regular site but video sharing site for members?

Unfortunately, the answer isn’t simple. Videos take up more bandwidth than CPU or memory, so you will need a server with a lot of bandwidth. How “big” of a server is needed depends on the site’s traffic and size of the videos.

For a site just starting out, I’d probably rent a basic server and upgrade later on once I had a better idea of my needs. If the site grew to a large size, however, multiple servers with tier-1 dedicated bandwidth connections would be needed. Without a powerful connection, users wouldn’t be able to stream video. This sort of infrastructure is very expensive, explaining why video sites need to display so many ads to make ends meet.

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There are a number of WHOIS privacy services out there. One popular competitor in the market is WhoisGuard. Offered free for a year at Namecheap or for a nominal fee, how is it different from other WHOIS proxy services?

Similar services include Domain Privacy at Namesco and Domains by Proxy at Go Daddy. Despite the differences in terminology, each service is exactly the same thing. There are no differences in the depth of privacy offered or the the methods used. Each company simply replaces your WHOIS contact data with theirs and in the event you are contacted using the data, lets you know. Your name, address, real email, and phone number are always kept hidden.

Even if a registrar offers a service like WhoisGuard for free, I would look at the yearly price of the service because generally it’s only no-cost for a year. At only £4.99 ($7.50 USD) per year, Namesco’s Domain Privacy is the cheapest I’ve found.

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When you register a domain, you may notice that a so-called “ICANN fee” is charged by your registrar. At 18 cents per year per domain, it isn’t a lot, but adds up if you have a lot of domains.

The administrative fee is charged to all .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .name, .jobs, .mobi, and .asia registrations. It is used to pay for the day-to-day operations of ICANN. It used to be quite a bit less, but has increased drastically over the last decade.

Is the fee fair? Every time you register or renew a name, you’re funding Rod Beckstrom’s $750,00 salary and $12.48 million travel budget. I think ICANN has a right to raise funds for its operation, but many domainers have criticized the charge because it gives the organization much more money than it realistically needs to operate. Unfortunately, registrants don’t have much say in the matter. Don’t like it? Then stop registering domains I guess.

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