10 Things to remember when selecting a dedicated server

1. Choose either a bandwidth package that you can change or one that allows for cheap overages. If niether of these are an option, overbuy or underbuy bandwidth to game the system a bit. Every host is different and it's almost always in your favor to either overbuy or underbuy and worry about the rest later.
2. If you put VPS software on your server, such as OpenVZ and just create a single node, moving your server later on is as easy as migrating the container.
   
3. 
   

A bit of information about Apache

Apache HTTP Server is an open source HTTP web server for Unix platforms (BSD, Linux, and UNIX systems), Microsoft Windows, and other platforms. The author claims the name was initially chosen as a catchy name in order to be original, but the most widespread interpretation (which almost immediately surfaced) is that the name comes from the fact that when it was developed in early 1995, it consisted of changes in the code to the most popular HTTP server of the time, NCSA HTTPd 1.3 and was therefore "a patchy" server. It would later be rewritten from scratch and no longer contains any NCSA code.

Apache features highly configurable error messages, DBMS-based authentication databases, and content negotiation but has been criticized for its lack of GUI tools to aid in its configuration.

Initially, Apache was the only viable open source alternative to the Netscape web server (nowadays known as iPlanet). It has since evolved to rival (and probably surpass) almost any other Unix based HTTP server in terms of functionality and speed. Since April 1996 Apache has been the most popular HTTP server on the Internet; in May 1999 it was running on 57% of all web servers. In May 2003 this percentage increased to 62%.

Apache is redistributed as part of various proprietary packages, e.g., the Oracle database or the IBM WebSphere application server. It is also supported in some way by Borland in the Kylix and Delphi development tools.

The Apache HTTP Server is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the auspices of the Apache Software Foundation.

Apache has other powerful features included in a large set of modules, including mod_perl, an authentication module (.htaccess) as well as a web proxy module and an extremely useful URL rewriter (also known as a rewrite engine) called mod_rewrite. Apache logs can be analysed through a web browser using free scripts such as awstats.

Apache is the web server component of LAMP. Running the mentioned combination with Microsoft Windows is called WAMP.

How to create a .WAR archive

If you've worked with Java, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Java Web Archives (WAR) are the heart and soul of a Java web applications. With Linux Web Hosting, you can deploy your war archives with the following steps:

• Upload the files to a folder in your account through FTP
• Login to your account via SSH (I'll have to write up how to use SSH)
• Use cd (folder) and ls commands to navigate to the folder you have your Java files
• Execute the following command, replacing MyWebApp with the name you'd like for your .WAR archive

jar -cvf MyWebApp.war *

(this says "create (c) the new file MyWebApp.war (f) using everything in this directory (*) and list files as you add them (v)")

• You're done!

A few things about ASP.net and mod_mono

• Mono supports all of ASP.NET 1.1 and most of ASP.NET 2.0 (currently missing WebParts and a few other small features of 2.0).
• ASP.NET code blocks start with <%, and end with %>
• ASP.NET is not the same thing as ASP. Files ending in .aspx will work, those ending in .asp will not.
• Check here if you don't know where the path to your Mono binary is: /usr/bin/
• Does mono run on Linux? Yes.
  

What runs my webserver?

Apache runs my webserver! It's the best Linux Web Hosting program out there! It's secure, easy to use, and often comes preinstalled in most Linux Distros!

It comes standard with most Ubiquity Hosting plans. I highly recommend using it regardless of what version of Linux you use.

About .htaccess

Here are a few things to keep in mind about .htaccess files:

• There are no tags to enclose them. No start tags, no end tags.
• Upon uploading your .htaccess file, it will affect everything in that directory and in deeper directories, so be careful.
• The file is usually hidden in the Linux Shell. If you're new to this, you might want to find it via a program like WinSCP or by FTPing and enabling the viewing of hidden files in your FTP client.
• Error 500 can often be explained by a bad .htaccess file. If you get this error while working on your .htaccess file or shortly thereafter, check to make sure everything is correct.
• .htaccess files override the rules set forth by .htaccess files in higher directories.
• This is how you write a comment:
• # Lines starting with a pound symbol are comments!
  


• This is how you do a 301 redirect:
  
  • redirect 301 / myotherpage.cgi
    
  
  


• The commands in your .htaccess file are called "directives"

Installing scripts with Fantastico

• Click on the blue Fantastico De Luxe icon in cPanel
• Click the script you want to install on the left
• Click the New Installation link in the box on the right
• Type in a few pieces of information about how you'd like to configure the script
• Click Install!

Check Fantastico's site for the latest list of software supported, but here's a reasonably accurate list:

Blogs:
b2 (Disabled) (website)
b2evolution (2.4.5) (website)
Nucleus (3.32) (website)
pMachine Free (Disabled) () (website)
WordPress (2.7.1) (website)

Classifieds:
Noah’s Classifieds (V8 (3.2.0)) (website)

Portals/CMS:
Drupal (6.9) (website)
Geeklog (1.5.1) (website)
Joomla 1.5 (1.5.9) (website)
Joomla (1.0.15) (website)
Mambo Open Source (4.6.5) (website)
PHP-Nuke (7.9) (website)
phpWCMS (1.1-RC4 Rev. A) (website)
phpWebSite (0.10.2) (website)
Post-Nuke (0.764) (visit site)
Siteframe (3.2.3) (website)
Typo3 (4.2.1) (website)
Xoops (2.3.1) (website)

Customer Support:
Crafty Syntax Live Help (2.15.0) (website)
Help Center Live (2.1.7) (website)
osTicket (1.3.1) (website)
PerlDesk (4.012.2) (Commercial, needs license) (website)
PHP Support Tickets (1.9) (website)
Support Logic Helpdesk (1.2) (website)
Support Services Manager (1.0b) (website)

Discussion Boards:
Invision Board (Disabled) (website)
phpBB (3.0.4) (website)
SMF (1.1.7) (website)
YaBBSE (Disabled) (website)

E-Commerce:
CubeCart (3.0.17) (website)
OS Commerce (2.2 Release Candidate 2a + buySAFE) (website)
Zen Cart (1.3.8a) (website)

FAQ:
FAQMasterFlex (1.51) (website)

Guestbooks:
ViPER Guestbook (Disabled) () (website)

Hosting Billing:
AccountLab Plus (2.8 r14) (Commercial, needs license) (website)
phpCOIN (1.4.4) (website)

Image Galleries:
4images Gallery (1.7.6) (website)
Coppermine Photo Gallery (1.4.20) (website)
Gallery (2.3) (website)

Mailing List:
PHPlist (2.10.9) (website)

Polls and Surveys:
Advanced Poll (2.03) (website)
LimeSurvey (1.72) (website)
phpESP (1.8.2) (website)

Project Management:
PHProjekt (5.2.2) (website)
dotProject (2.1.2) (website)

Site Builders:
Soholaunch Pro Edition (4.9.3 r17) (Commercial, needs license) (website)
Templates Express (website)

Wiki:
PhpWiki (1.2.11) (website)
TikiWiki (2.2) (website)

Other Scripts:
Dew-NewPHPLinks (2.0.1.0b SEF w/Thumbshots) (website)
Moodle (1.9.4) (website)
Open-Realty (2.5.3) (website)
phpAdsNew (2.0.11-pr1) (website)
PHPauction (3.2) (website)
phpFormGenerator (2.09c) (website)
phpLinks (Disabled) (website)