Internet Tech
March 20, 2011
Many current websites operate differently than a static webpage you may be used to seeing on many free website sites. A static webpage is one that has all the information stored on the code for the page itself but more dynamic and active pages all use database driven information stored in a SQL database.
An SQL database is a collection of data that is called upon by the code of a webpage and the needed information is placed on the page dynamically. This means the page is easily updated through a separate interface, usually an admin panel and added into the database. When it is needed, it is pulled up separately from everything else and displayed.
Normally it is called MySQL and you can find it in the control panel for your web hosting service. Now, if you don't know how to use MySQL that's okay because most website packages that use SQL databases will do all the work for you in creating and setting up the database information.
The most common website that uses SQL databases are blogs. If you have ever used a blog you will understand this. The site is a static design layout that is completely devoid of information until you go into the admin section as add a post. That post information is stored in a SQL database table until it is needed.
Once you publish that post, it will appear on the page. Now, the great thing about this is that if you have a problem with the site itself and it gets all messed up, your content is safe because it is stored somewhere completely different from the code for the site. You can back up the database so you have a copy if something happens to it.
If you don't know how to manually change tables or information in the SQL database that's fine, you should just stay out of it. The website programs will have ways to optimize the database as well as back it up for you.
So, if you are looking for web hosting, make sure your package includes an SQL database and that it is the most recent version of MySQL. If you aren't sure, ask a site representative and they can let you know which version it uses.
Mark
April 12, 2010
Hackers are EVERYWHERE! Hackers, script kiddies. They are out there and they are trying to get at you. Here is just one of our server logs from one of our dedicated servers.
--------------------- SSHD Begin ------------------------
Illegal users from these:
Invalid/none from 15degrees-north: 4 Time(s)
Invalid/none from adms: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from adnan: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from agos: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from alessa: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from alessandro: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from alf: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from alfredo: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from allumin: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from alton: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from amas: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from amei: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from amina: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from anti: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from anwar: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from appl12i: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from applmgr: 16 Time(s)
Invalid/none from applprod: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from armm: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from at: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from at1: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from aushilfe: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from av: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from av1: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from babu: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from bacsagro: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from bafps: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from banco: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from biotech: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from bit: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from bit1: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from bit2: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from bit3: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from bonebrake: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from bpi: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from bswm: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from bushra: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from car: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from caraga: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from cassa1: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from cassa2: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from cicione: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from cinzia: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from club: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from cosmos: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from daea: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from dan: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from darmes: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from darnnel: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from dasusr: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from davide: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from daweb: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from db2as: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from db2eldok: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from db2fenc1: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from db2fenc2: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from db2fenc3: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from db2inst1: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from dbhatt: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from delta: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from dmitry: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from drew: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from ellen: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from emran: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from ennio: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from evgeny: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from evilde: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from federal: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from felice: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from fida: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from fjs: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from fos: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from fpa: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from fra2: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from franc: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from franci: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from frank: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from franz: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from froilan: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from ftp-test1: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from ftp-test2: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from ftp-test3: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from ftp-test4: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from ftptest: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from g4l: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from gabriele: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from gatti: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from ge: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from ge1: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from genero: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from genof: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from geometra: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from gianluca: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from giuseppe: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from goulibo: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from grazia: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from heidi: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from hennlich: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from host: 4 Time(s)
Invalid/none from host.15degrees-north.com: 2 Time(s)
Invalid/none from huabo: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from hvcc: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from imistemp: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from infra: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from it1: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from itcaf: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from itcph: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from ja: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from janson: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from jarek: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from jersey: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from jing: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from jw: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from kamuser: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from komat: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from kplus: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from kurt: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from ldc: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from legname: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from leszek: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from lidong: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from lisa: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from liu: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from liujun: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from lj: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from luana: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from luca: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from lucca: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from luciana: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from luciano: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from luigi: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from luzern: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from mako: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from marcing: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from mariap: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from marilena: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from mark: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from markh: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from massimo: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from matth: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from mav: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from mca: 16 Time(s)
Invalid/none from mediabank: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from medina: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from mei: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from meili: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from melanie: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from mercuri: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from midas: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from miles: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from morpheus: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from mrdp: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from mrodrigu: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from mstr: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from mtaylor: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from mths: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from mttp: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from music: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from myoung: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from nabcor: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from nafc: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from nagios: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from nda: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from nia: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from nla: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from nmis: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from nnc: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from nut: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from ora: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from oraprod: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from oubiwann: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from pasqua: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from pasquale: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from pca: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from pcic: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from peggy: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from pfda: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from pierino: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from pqs: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from privoxy: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from prova: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from quagga: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from radiusd: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from raffa: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from rahim: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from ranga: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from reid: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from rmes: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from root2: 10 Time(s)
Invalid/none from rosanna: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from rosario: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from rossella: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from ruhina: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from samira: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from santino: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from savina: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from sax: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from scaballa: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from services: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from seuser: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from shahriar: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from shamim: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from shawn: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from siderurg: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from sios: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from sky: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from smsc: 16 Time(s)
Invalid/none from spencer: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from spider: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from sshuser: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from steve: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from stru: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from sue: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from suresh: 16 Time(s)
Invalid/none from sylvia: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from takagi: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from tanla: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from terry: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from thomas: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from tim: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from tmca: 16 Time(s)
Invalid/none from tomek: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from tracy: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from umberto: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from user: 10 Time(s)
Invalid/none from utility: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from weblogic: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from wengxk: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from www: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from yamada: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from yarn: 8 Time(s)
Invalid/none from zoe: 8 Time(s)
invalid/none from unknown: 1886 Time(s)
Received disconnect:
11: Bye Bye
::ffff:203.198.166.17 : 1872 Time(s)
::ffff:211.239.121.186 : 48 Time(s)
---------------------- SSHD End -------------------------
------------------ Disk Space --------------------
/dev/sda7 2.0G 304M 1.6G 16% /
/dev/sda1 1012M 46M 915M 5% /boot
/dev/sda8 41G 3.5G 36G 9% /home
/dev/sdb1 147G 6.3G 133G 5% /backup
/dev/sda6 2.0G 38M 1.9G 2% /tmp
/dev/sda2 9.9G 4.0G 5.5G 42% /usr
/dev/sda5 9.9G 2.2G 7.3G 23% /var
###################### LogWatch End #########################
Can you see how many times and with how many user combinations someone has tried to access this server? They never give up! However they will NEVER get the password to this server because we use roboform pro and get it to generate passwords of 20 characters that look something like this
$46cPLiyGe3lzw2#3k48
Even I dont know what my passwords are as robo form stores them all for me in a secure Blowfish encryption. Nice. We have also tightened up the security on our servers by limiting the amount of invalid logins from an IP amongst other things. On my personal laptop and work computers we run the following protection
AVG Internet security for the firewall and also anti virus protection
MalwareBytes for extra protection
Super Anti Spyware
We also use encyption of our FTP client Cute FTP and on the servers we lock FTP access in the control panel and only unlock it for an hour at a time.
Do all the above and you will pretty secure.
Mark
July 12, 2006
Hi All
Well My mission of let's setup some new web-hosts has taken some interesting turns :) 3 of the web hosts I tried to create an account with have responded to my emails. Here they are below :)
-------------------------------------------------------
Jumpline.com
Dear Mark,
The order did not pass our verification checks. The IP address that you ordered from did not match the order address.
You can resubmit the order from correct location of the IP or change the address on the order. We can have the order setup for you right away once it is resubmitted.
-------------------------------------------------------
So Essentailly because I am in Dubai and my card is registered in the UK they wont play with me! Either that or I can fly back to the UK and setup from there and then fly back (perhaps not eh)
-------------------------------------------------------
IPowerweb.com
Oh this one is good :)
Dear Valued IPower Customer
Thank you for contacting the IPOWER Billing Team and for your recent web hosting order. Unfortunately we are unable to process your order at this time due to verification. Due to the high number of fraudulent orders we are receiving, we have found it necessary to verify that the legal cardholder has placed the order. To proceed with the activation of your account, please fax a legible copy of the credit card listed on the order (sides are required; front and back), as well as a copy of the cardholder's identification (driver's license, passport etc.). Finally, be sure to note the domain name(s) on the fax for immediate resolution. Our fax number is (602)307-5438. ( or you may scan .JPG copies of the requested documentation, attatch, and reply)
We do apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please know that these measures are taken to ensure your protection as a consumer. All credit card information provided to IPOWER is confidential. Also if you are unable to fax the verification you can scan the copies of your identification and make them into jpeg files under 1mb and email this information to billing@ipowerweb.com
If you do not wish to fax your information, you do have the option of us sending us a check or money order. Our billing address is listed below:
-------------------------------------------------------
So they will play with me but only after I have faxed over all the stuff they ask for, hmmm so much for the instant actiavtion mentioned on their site then huh!!! Not only that but this is for WEB HOSTING!! Anyone would think I am trying to order enriched uranium!
-------------------------------------------------------
Startlogic.com
They have not responded to any of my emails after 4 days now so god knows what they are doing!
-------------------------------------------------------
My conclusion! hmmm thats a tricky one Just use UK based hosts I guess as the American ones appear to becoming increasingly paranoid. Check this, monitor that, protect this, protect that. protect YOU from yourself. Yep Ive said it before but George Orwell was right.
Mark.
March 15, 2006
Here is a great site you can use for website research purposes. It's called Talk Digger and will help you to find, follow and display conversations evolving around a subject (URL).
It works like this: If you want to know who is talking about you, copy the URL, paste it in the TalkDigger search box at TalkDigger.com and hit “Dig it!” Cool
Mark.
March 7, 2006
Never again :) For many reasons we decided to move hosts. Simple I thought NOT! It has taken over a week with no small amount of heartache transfering databases, Blogs and applications over. Anyway all appears to be well now and running smoothly (at last).
Mark.
February 1, 2006
I had to laugh the other day. I was at my good friend Jon's house and he mentioned that his grandad has a new mobile phone. The funny part is that he keeps his numbers on the back of the phone of a small piece of paper that is taped on :)
I think I can see a product that could be marketed to the older generation that struggles with technology. A notebook perhaps!
Mark.
April 18, 2005
Where are we heading? Well this is certainly one view that might interest you somewhat!
EPIC
What are your thoughts on that?
Mark...
April 14, 2005
Well I would'nt normally rave about a humble keyboard! But I just picked up my new Logitech Di Novo bluetooth keyboard and multimedia pad (with mouse) and it's so nice I had to rave about it.
I have always been a bit of a Microsoft man where keyboards and mice are concerned but not anymore. Considering the only way I can interact with my PC is through a mouse and keyboard then for me it has to not only look good but also feel good too, and boy does it feel good :)
Mark...
March 25, 2005
Now here is a subject thats close to me heart :) Having built no less than 3 robots from scratch I know a fair bit about the subject.
However This post is about another type of Robot altogether, our little spider bots that roam the net 24 hours a day. More specifically this post is about the robots.txt file and why you should have one.
Search engines will look in your root domain for a special file named "robots.txt" (http://www.15dn.com/robots.txt) The file tells the robot (spider) which files it may spider (download). This system is called, The Robots Exclusion Standard. The reason you want a robots.txt file is so you can exclude certain files/directorys from being spidered and indexed. Now why would you want to do that? Well essentially it will prevent pages that you dont want people to see popping up somewhere in a search engine. This is my robots.txt file here at 15dn
User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /15dn Subscribe Pages/
Disallow: /Aff/
Disallow: /arp3/
Disallow: /Banners/
Disallow: /BonusBooksGiveAway/
Disallow: /Corey4StepsDownloadBin/
Disallow: /emailTemplate/
Disallow: /Flash/
Disallow: /FreeToSellDownLoadBin/
Disallow: /Funny/
Disallow: /Linkpage template/
Disallow: /MailMerge/
Disallow: /movabletype/
Disallow: /Spam/
Disallow: /wusage/
Disallow: /En/
Disallow: /Templates/
User-agent *
means all robots and then you can see the directorys I have disalowed below that line. The tutorial Here walks you through creating a robots file for yourself.
Of course only spiders that adhere to the robots.txt standard bother to read the file. Malicious robots dont bother and will still try to harvest email addresses etc from your site even if you disallow those pages in your txt file.
Mark...
PS
Have a great Easter weekend
January 26, 2005
News Just in is that Google is Dropping RSS in favour of Atom.
For me it makes no difference to be honest because my feeds are piped through FeedBurner and FeedBurner suports ALL the formats. But I can understand that the RSS community would be miffed at that descision!
Essentialy its all about control :) Google is just flexing its muscles. But it does go to show just how fast internet technology moves!
Mark...
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