Web Hosting

Question: I have spammers sending multiple email messages to my mail server. How can can I limit the number of emails they can send in a given amount of time? Answer: This is a trick that many spammers and malicious hackers will use to flood your server with their nonsense. …

OpenVZ is a free and open source virtualization solution for Linux. Here is an easy guide to installing OpenVZ on Redhat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, or Fedora. Note: It is recommended that you use an ext2 or ext3 file system if you want per-container disk quota. 1. Add the OpenVZ YUM …

Problem: Apache HTTP Server on a web hosting system will undoubtedly run multiple virtual hosts. Each of those virtual hosts logs its activity in a separate location making it impossible to effectively monitor each log and each virtual host for errors or security issues. Solution: Use mod_status to monitor Apache’s …

As we have mentioned in previous posts, a virtual private server (VPS) is an isolated instance of a larger operating system running in an enclosed environment. In Linux it is normally in a chrooted environment, where the root directory / is not available to the server user, but that user …

Nginx (pronounced “Engine X”) is a lightweight web server that offers speed and flexibility without all of the extra features that larger web servers like Apache offer. Although it is a free and open source application, CentOS does not offer the latest version in its default YUM repository. To install …

cPanel is best known as a graphical web hosting control panel. Since it is web based, however, there may be times when a system administrator may prefer or may need to execute commands from the Linux shell, either locally or remotely via SSH. Fortunately, cPanel comes with a host of …

Question: What is CNAME? Answer: A CNAME or Canonical Name record is a type of record found in DNS that allows the user to specify an alias for a domain name. For example, you can create an alias of domain1.com with domain2.com. More typically, however, it is used to create …

The WordPress.com blog hosting service suffered a two-hour-long outage today. The downtime had nothing to do with the WordPress CMS, but instead rendered the 10 million sites using its free blog hosting service unavailable. The cause of the outage is still being investigated, but right now it seems as though …

At one time, managing a website meant manually updating dozens of HTML pages or using some type of local site management software like Netscape Composer, Microsoft Frontpage, or Adobe Dreamweaver. There are now a plethora of content systems available that include web-based backends. Pages are now actually dynamic representations of …

Many web hosting companies offer free script and CMS installation. In most cases, the installation is automatic and done through the host’s control panel system. For example, users of cPanel might have an option for Fantasico De Luxe, which installs a number of web applications, such as Joomla, WordPress, and …