Linux is a free, Unix-type operating system that the majority of web servers run on.
One morning I switched my work laptop on, running Ubuntu 14.04, and found that I had completely lost all network connectivity. No ethernet LAN nor Wi-Fi connection, and no Gnome network manager icon. It turned out to be one of those peculiar things that seem to “just happen” from time-to-time in the Linux world. Read …
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Over the years I’ve used many different hosting solutions. From shared hosting, a dedicated server, to several VPSes. These all came with a graphical control panel, most often Plesk, from which the server could be administered. The downside was the cost of the licence. So a little while ago I took the plunge and purchased …
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I recently needed to search and replace some text in a large number of PHP scripts. Back in my Windows days I had a lightweight freeware programme that was perfect for the job. But what to do on Linux? The answer was to combine grep and sed. But don’t forget to watch out for Git!
It’s arguably a good idea to move your SSH listener off port 22. This is a quick and easy way to reduce hacking attempts and one of the first things you can do to further secure your server.
Use come command-line fu to analyse your website log in real-time and find out which IP addresses are making the most requests.
Node.js is an increasingly-popular JavaScript runtime that can be used to build server-side applications. Installing Node on Ububtu 14.04 via APT isn’t quite as straightforward as it could be, as the version in the default repositories is 0.10.25, dating back to early 2014.
I recently found that I needed to change a number of directory and file permissions recursively. Simple, you say? Not when the directories and files need different permissions applying.
After using Ubuntu 14.04 for a little while I got a worrying message from the Software Updater saying “Not enough disk space. The upgrade needs a total of x M free on disk ‘/boot’. Please free at least an additional xxx k of disk space on ‘/boot’. Empty your trash and remove temporary packages of …
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Shortly after setting up a fresh installation of Apache, I uploaded a website, only to find that none of the JavaScript was loading. It turns out that Apache helpfully provides you with a common JavaScript directory but if you’re not using it you may need to turn it off.
I found that moving from a Windows box using Outlook Express for email, to an Ubuntu box using Thunderbird was a little tricky. The export/import features took a bit of figuring out due to having multiple identities set up in Outlook Express.