VPS & Dedicated

There are a lot of free FTP clients out there for the Mac, but my favorite is Cyberduck. Boasting a great user-interface and support for a wide variety of protocols, it’s a good alternative to the popular but expensive Transmit 3. The open source software has a number of features …

Few issues with dedicated servers are more important than security, and no security software is overlooked more than firewalls. Most people expect firewalls to work the way they want them to without any effort. While that is impossible, there is a free software firewall solution available that makes installation, setup, …

Everything that goes into a server— from the the case itself to the power supply to the hard drive— tends to be more expensive than desktop computer parts. Why is this? Servers operate under more stressful conditions than consumer PCs and are expected to be more reliable, so server-grade parts …

Question: How do I change my MySQL root password on my dedicated server? Answer: If you have never set the password for MySQL, the server will allow you to connect as root without any password at all. This is obviously not secure and needs to be fixed. Consider it an …

Question: I want to troubleshoot a PHP script. How do I run it from the command line? Answer: In order to successfully run PHP from the command line, you will need to install PHP as CGI. In many Linux distributions, there will be a package in the repository that allows …

When something goes wrong with a web host or server, customers are always anxious for their support queries to be answered. While good support takes time, how long should a user have to wait? The idea of “good support” varies greatly from host to host. Some respond to tickets in …

Question: How do I find out what programs are running on my server? Answer: Linux and most Unix-like operating systems have a convenient command that allows you to view running processes in a variety of list styles. The command is called “ps”. To quickly see every process running on your …

Question: How do I move an entire directory filled with files on my Linux server? Answer: While moving physical files can be quite a task, moving files in Linux is very easy. If you have SSH access to your server, you can move files with a simple command called “mv”. …

Dedicated servers generally come standard with a 7200 RPM hard drive, but many providers offer faster 10,000 RPM or even 15,000 RPM hard disks for an additional fee. Are these high-speed drives worth the money? In most cases, no. While faster hard drives do translate to faster read and write …

No matter how stable your Linux installation is, no matter how much you invest in security, reliability, updated software, and system monitoring, something is eventually going to go wrong. On a virtual private server or a dedicated server, responsibility to fix it usually falls on you. If this were your …