Web servers

Question: I have been setting up my own server, and a lot of help documents refer to the 127.0.0.1 address. What is 127.0.0.1? Answer: 127.0.0.1 is the standard ip address assigned to the lookback network interface in IPv4. Because it is a standard, all server should conform to it, and …

There are many web-based Whois search tools and even some desktop ones available for free use, but with the “whois” command on your Linux server, you can use it to perform more complex tasks and even automate the process. For example, you can type: whois internetblog.org.uk It will return the …

SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer and is the underlying technology that enables a website to use the HTTPS protocol. Why is this important? A website with an HTTPS URL provides website visitors with a secure connection for private transactions. It is essential for any type of online sales or …

Question: How do I restart Apache HTTP Server on a Mac OS X server? Answer: Linux other Unix-based servers, you can start and stop Apache from the command line. If you are familiar with Redhat-based systems, then you are used to logging in and then using “su” to become Root. …

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 …

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 …

Yesterday, we took a look at a web application security testing tool, and there are many other tools like it available both for a fee and for free. But there are not many tools available that actually test the web server itself and even fewer that are designed to test …

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 …

This week we have learned about several different server-ready operating systems. But what should you do if you need to run multiple operating systems? Should you fork out the cash for multiple servers? It really depends on your needs, but if you know you will not need an entire dedicated …

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 …