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Question: Which Linux services should be enabled at boot on a server? Answer: Most Linux distributions come with more than what you need. They are designed to not only work on servers but also desktop computers, laptops, netbooks, and in some cases, even smaller mobile devices like phones. Because of …

To interact with your web hosting account and services, chances are good you will have to use a control panel. This software comes in many shapes and sizes (the most common is cPanel), but all will let you perform administrative functions like set up email and FTP accounts, manage DNS, …

A site map is a single document that links to all other documents within a website. Essentially, it provides an overview of all of the site’s content. Over the years, as website sizes have increased, sitemaps have become instrument in search engine optimization (SEO). Google introduced a tool called Google …

Any security-minded system administrator has heard of cross site scripting (XSS). It might even keep you up at night, but there are steps you can take to identify vulnerabilities in your websites and deal with them. One method of finding vulnerabilities is to use fuzz testing (the insertion of random …

Question: How do I find out how memory is used by a particular process in Linux? Answer: On a Linux server, a nifty little command called “pmap” will do just what you want. The command string that you will need to enter as root is: # pmap -d PID But …

Apache HTTP Server gives you the flexibility to decide where you want to store the web-accessible files for your websites. Most operating systems have their own unique directory structure for their default web server installations, but even those can be changed. The Apache default document root is /usr/local/apache/htdocs. To change …

In an effort to cut costs and keep up with the times, the The US Census Bureau has announced that it will utilize cloud computing in its future operations. Since each census takes 10 years to plan, the new technology won’t be used in 2010, but instead for data processing …

So far we have covered Linux, Windows, BSD, and Solaris. Another server operating system worth mentioning is Mac OS X Server. Although most tend to think of OS X as a desktop OS, there is a server version that has the same Unix-like structure and stability as other BSD distributions. …

Cookies are very important for dynamic websites. They allow you to set parameters for user interaction. With cookies, your website can remember visitors and show them appropriate data, ads, and even specific pages. By default, cookies only last for a single browser session. With the CookieExpires Apache directive, you can …

According to Michael Robertson, a digital music expert, iTunes will soon have a feature that allows users to back up all their music to the cloud: An upcoming major revision of iTunes will copy each user’s catalog to the net making it available from any browser or net connected ipod/touch/tablet …