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Referrer logging is used to allow web servers and websites to identify where people are visiting them either for promotional or security purposes. You can find out which search engine they used to find your site and whether your customer has come from a ‘linked site’. It is basically the URL of the previous webpage from which your link was followed.

By default, most hosting accounts don’t include referrer logs but may be subscribedd for an extra monthly fee. If your web host does not provide a graphic report of your log files, you can still view the referrer logs for your website by logging into the host server using free or low-cost FTP software, like these:

FTP Explorer: http://www.ftpx.com/
LogMeIn: http://secure.logmein.com/dmcq/103/support.asp
SmartFTP: http://www.smartftp.com/
FTP Voyager: http://www.ftpvoyager.com/

The log file is available on your web server which can be download into your computer later. You can use a log analysis tool, like those mentioned below, to create a graphic report from your log files so that the files are easier to understand.

Abacre Advanced Log Analyzer http://www.abacre.com/ala/
Referrer Soft http://www.softplatz.com/software/referrer/
Log Analyzer http://www.loganalyzer.net

You can view the files using Word, Word Perfect, txt or WordPad files even if you don’t have the right tool. This information is very crucial to your business and marketing plans and is not advisable to neglect it.

In addition to identifying the search engine or linked site from where your visitor arrived, referrer logs can also tell you what keywords or keyword phrases your client used for searching.

As referrer information can sometimes violate privacy, some browsers allow the user to disable the sending of referrer information. Proxy and Firewall software can also filter out referrer information, to avoid leaking the location of private websites. This can result in other problems, as some servers block parts of their site to browsers that don’t send the right referrer information, in an attempt to prevent deep linking or unauthorized use of bandwidth. Some proxy software gives the top-level address of the target site itself as the referrer, which prevents these problems and still not divulging the user’s last visited site.

Since the referrer can easily be spoofed or faked, however, it is of limited use in this regard except on a casual basis.

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To run any of these apps go to Start > Run and type the executable name (ie charmap).

WINDOWS XP HIDDEN APPS:
=========================================

1) Character Map = charmap.exe (very useful for finding unusual characters)

2) Disk Cleanup = cleanmgr.exe

3) Clipboard Viewer = clipbrd.exe (views contents of Windows clipboard)

4) Dr Watson = drwtsn32.exe (Troubleshooting tool)

5) DirectX diagnosis = dxdiag.exe (Diagnose & test DirectX, video & sound cards)

6) Private character editor = eudcedit.exe (allows creation or modification of characters)

7) IExpress Wizard = iexpress.exe (Create self-extracting / self-installing package)

8) Microsoft Synchronization Manager = mobsync.exe (appears to allow synchronization of files on the network for when working offline. Apparently undocumented).

9) Windows Media Player 5.1 = mplay32.exe (Retro version of Media Player, very basic).

10) ODBC Data Source Administrator = odbcad32.exe (something to do with databases)

11) Object Packager = packager.exe (to do with packaging objects for insertion in files, appears to have comprehensive help files).

12) System Monitor = perfmon.exe (very useful, highly configurable tool, tells you everything you ever wanted to know about any aspect of PC performance, for uber-geeks only )

13) Program Manager = progman.exe (Legacy Windows 3.x desktop shell).

14) Remote Access phone book = rasphone.exe (documentation is virtually non-existant).

15) Registry Editor = regedt32.exe [also regedit.exe] (for hacking the Windows Registry).

16) Network shared folder wizard = shrpubw.exe (creates shared folders on network).

17) File siganture verification tool = sigverif.exe

18) Volume Contro = sndvol32.exe (I’ve included this for those people that lose it from the System Notification area).

19) System Configuration Editor = sysedit.exe (modify System.ini & Win.ini just like in Win98! ).

20) Syskey = syskey.exe (Secures XP Account database - use with care, it’s virtually undocumented but it appears to encrypt all passwords, I’m not sure of the full implications).

21) Microsoft Telnet Client = telnet.exe

22) Driver Verifier Manager = verifier.exe (seems to be a utility for monitoring the actions of drivers, might be useful for people having driver problems. Undocumented).

23) Windows for Workgroups Chat = winchat.exe (appears to be an old NT utility to allow chat sessions over a LAN, help files available).

24) System configuration = msconfig.exe (can use to control starup programs)

25) gpedit.msc used to manage group policies, and permissions

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Ever wonder what makes a disc bad? Here’s why they vary in quality, and why you should worry about the discs you’ve entrusted with your data.

Burning CDs and DVDs is the easy part.

Knowing your data will be there when you go back to it days, months, or even years later–well, that’s a bit harder. Not all discs are created equal, as Fred Byers, information technology specialist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, can attest.

Byers is part of a team heading up an independent study of DVD media quality. Based on the first wave of testing results, the situation is murky at best.

“We’ve found the quality varies, depending upon the type of dye used to make the write-once discs and [on the] the manufacturer,” reports Byers. Even discs from the same manufacturer, with the same brand, can test differently, Byers adds. “But there was more of a significant difference when you compared discs between manufacturers,” he explains.

DVD Media Quality: The First Tests

In the first phase of testing, completed late last year, NIST focused on the most popular media: write-once, single-layer DVD-R and +R discs. Rewritable discs will be tested in the second phase, slated to start this fall. An interesting footnote to the study’s methodology: NIST uses media purchased off store shelves and via Web sites; and while researchers are tracking the media by brand, they are not tracking the specific factory source of the media tested. For example, a given manufacturer’s discs could originate from different production lines, which could account for a variation in disc quality by the same manufacturer.

Hearing that there’s a difference between the generic, unbranded 100-spindle value-pack of media purchased online and the branded offerings you might find on a Best Buy store shelf is not surprising. After all, as David Bunzel, president of the Optical Storage Technology Association, points out: “With a generic product, there’s no consumer recourse. It’s buyer beware.”

If a disc isn’t properly manufactured, the consequences can be dire. At best, the disc will fail immediately during the burn process; this is a best-case scenario because then you know from the start that the disc is faulty. At worst, you may get an abundance of errors during the burn process. These errors won’t interrupt the burning process, and since write-once and rewritable DVD media have built-in error correction to compensate for scratches and other abnormalities on the disc (as do their CD cousins), any errors will be virtually invisible to you. You’ll only know they’re there if you use a disc diagnostics program, such as those offered by Ahead Software or Plextor. Nor will these errors affect the playback of the disc–initially.

Down the road, however, such invisible-to-the-eye errors can reduce the effectiveness of a DVD’s built-in error correction so that if some other issue develops on your disc, such as a scratch, you could end up with an unreadable disc when you go back to it months or years later.

But what would cause such a wide disparity in media quality between branded discs from the same vendor?

“We don’t know why it’s different–it could be a different dye, it could be a different manufacturing process,” notes Byers. “Manufacturers are constantly trying to improve their dye formulas–in theory improving the disc.”

Nonetheless, at the same time, competitive forces are driving manufacturers to find ways to economize on production costs. And cost-cutting measures can result in discs that don’t perform as well as those generated during an earlier production run, either in terms of failing outright or not burning at the maximum possible speed on a given DVD drive. “It varies over time, as the output changes,” Byers says.

Brand Disparity

As for the disparity between brands that NIST found, the distinguishing factors come down to quality control and the dyes used in disc production. Declining to name names, Byers points out that “some manufacturers make their own discs, and some purchase them from someplace else–which opens you to variations in the manufacturing plant, or changes in the source [of that media].”

Vendors like Maxell and Verbatim manufacture discs on their own production lines, as do Asian manufacturers CMC Magnetics, RiData, Taiyo Yuden, and others; other name brands contract with a third-party manufacturer to produce discs to their own specs; and still others just buy third-party-produced media wholesale, without imposing their own set of quality controls on the media production.

The intricacies of disc production and quality control aren’t the only variables that seem to affect media. More surprising is the number of discs that seem to have a propensity for specific hardware.

“One thing we’ve found in compatibility testing [of DVD-R and +R media] is that it’s a relationship between a specific brand of media and the manufacturer of the hardware,” observes Byers. “There was no one drive that played every single type of compatible media, and there was no one media brand that played perfectly in every drive.”

And, he adds, sounding as frustrated as any consumer might, “You can’t say there’s a clear, delineated set of reasons as to why.”

A Grading System?

One of the most common questions I hear is, “What’s a good brand of media to buy?” DVD and CD media are so commonplace nowadays that it’s easy to forget the complexities that go into producing them. And if anything in that production process is off, it could, in time, affect the integrity of the data you’ve burned to a disc.

“It’s very tough to answer that kind of question, because there are so many variables,” says Byers. “You don’t get 100 percent yield when you manufacture these discs. We can talk about the materials that produce a good disc, but it also has to do with the manufacturing process. So, just to say the materials to look for doesn’t necessarily relate to it being a better disc.” The same is true vice versa.

So how can you know that the media you’re using will last you for the duration, so those archived photos will still be there when you go back to a disc 20 years from now–or more?

For the moment, you can’t. All DVD and CD vendors make vague claims about disc life expectancy being somewhere between 60 and 100 years–when the discs are treated with care and stored properly.

But NIST’s Byers is seeking to change that. At an OSTA meeting in San Francisco this week, Byers is proposing an industry-wide grading system to indicate disc quality.

Byers is motivated by the desire to see a uniform mechanism in place to guide institutions and individuals who’ll be storing data, music, videos, and images for long periods of time. “They need to be confident in their purchasing, so they can plan for their strategies in storing their information,” Byers says. “Long-term storage has different meanings: For some, 30 years might be enough. For others, 50 or 75 years might be archive, or long-term, quality.”

Longevity

Under Byers’s proposal, a series of tests would be developed to determine whether a DVD would last for a given number of years. “If you were to purchase a disc in a store with a grade that indicates it has passed a test to last X number of years, it removes a lot of uncertainty for the consumer, and it can save some expense in premature migration [to a new storage technology], or loss of data because they waited too long [and the disc was no longer playable],” he says.

Although some archivists–both individual and professional–are concerned about whether today’s digital storage mediums will be readable 50 or 100 years from now, Byers believes the bigger concern for users will be when to migrate their data to the next technology, “before the existing technology is obsolete.”

The Disc Rot Myth

Media obsolescence isn’t the only thing people fear after committing a personal library’s worth of data to CDs and DVDs. But some worries–namely, fear of disc rot–are not fully warranted.

Like a bad seed, the myth of disc rot self-perpetuates, cropping up every now and again as a sudden and mortal threat to your copious collection of prerecorded and self-created discs.

The myth was once rooted in fact. It is true that back in the 1980s, with the first generation of prerecorded audio CDs, the edges of the discs were not always sealed properly, which allowed moisture to get into the disc. Replicated, prerecorded discs use aluminum for the reflective layer; when moisture came into contact with the aluminum on prerecorded discs, explains Byers, it in turn oxidized, causing the aluminum to become dull. “That’s where the term ‘rot’ started,” he says.

But that problem was quickly identified and overcome. “The manufacturers learned what was going on, so now the edges of discs are sealed with a lacquer,” according to Byers. Though the problem is typically associated with CDs, Byers notes that the potential for interaction with oxygen is the same with both CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs.

The so-called rot issue does not apply to recordable discs. For one thing, recordable optical media do not use aluminum; instead, they use silver, and very rarely gold, or a silver-gold alloy, for the reflective layer. “If the silver comes into contact with sulfates [i.e., pollution, or high humidity], it could affect the silver, but the likelihood of that is less than the likelihood of moisture coming into contact with the aluminum on prerecorded discs,” says Byers.

Enduring Myth

The term rot has persisted, however inaccurately, as a means of identifying a plethora of problems with optical discs. “If you get a faulty disc and see a problem that you can visually see, you call it rot, but it could be the way the disc was manufactured,” says Byers. “Or if it was subjected to extreme moisture and that moisture came into contact with the aluminum, it could be that the reflectivity has changed. It’s not really rot, it’s oxidation of aluminum. It should be a rare event on a disc, unless it’s defective.”

Beyond the realm of defective discs, improper handling can cause otherwise good discs to go bad. Since there’s little protection between the label side of a CD and the data layer itself, “scratches on the label side can scratch the metal, and that will ruin the data,” says Byers. It’s not an issue for DVDs, though, since the dye layer is sandwiched between two plastic layers.

Byers observed a similar problem occurring with press-on labels: “For long-term storage, we recommend not using press-on labels on CDs; when these start to dry up, they can peel the metal right up, damaging data.”

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A Tutorial for those willing to Learn

Contents
1. Introduction
2. The Binary System
3. Converting Binary to ASCII (Text)

Introduction:
We’ve all seen binary code. We’ve come to think of them as a bunch of ones and zeroes in long strings…
010010101010101001101011

But these ones and zeroes can also represent decimal numbers. First off, I will show you how to read these numbers as the decimal numbers we’re used to in our daily life. Then, I will show you how to use those numbers and your keypad to translate them into text. Note that your computer doesn’t use the decimal system, so technically, when it converts binary to text, it doesn’t go through the process I will show you. This is just a divertive way of explaining you how the binary system works.

The Binary System:
Here’s a simple example of binary:
10101

Let’s think of the example above as empty slots:
_ _ _ _ _

First off, you read binary from right-to-left. It’s just the way it’s designed. The first slot from the right represents a value of one, the second from the right a value of two, the third from the right a value of four, the fourth from the right a value of eight, the fifth from the right a value of sixteen, and the cycle continues by multiples of 2. This will never change.

By putting a 1 or a 0 in those slots you are either saying you want to corresponding value that’s attached to that slot or you don’t. A 1 means yes, and a 0 means no. For example, putting a zero in the first slot from the right, but a 1 in the second slot from the right means you want a two, but not a one:
_ _ _ 1 0

As such, the number above equals to a decimal value of two.

As an example, let’s say you want to represent eight in binary form. Well, thinking about the slots, you want the first slot to be 0 because you don’t want a one, you want the second slot to also be 0 because you don’t want a two, you want the third slot to also to be 0 because you don’t want a four, but you want the fifth slot to be 1 because you want a value of eight. As such, eight in binary form is:
1 0 0 0 (or simply 1000 without those underlines)

Now it is important to note that the amount of zeroes that precede the first value of one from the left is unimportant. So for example:
1 0 0 0 is the same as 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 (1000 = 000100)

To get it cleared up, here’s another example:
0 1 is the same as 1

Exercises: What do the following equal in decimal terms?
a) 100
b] 000100
c) 100000
d) 0010

Answers:
a) 4
b] 4
c) 32
d) 2

If you got the answers above right, then you pretty much understand the basics of binary.
Let’s now understand how to get the corresponding decimal values to the numbers which are not multiples of 2.

To get the total value of a binary number, add the values corresponding to each slot. So, for example, three in binary would be:
11

The above corresponds to three because if you add the total values of all the slots, that is to say a one from the slot to the right, and a two from the second slot to the right, then it equals three.

As another example, let’s say you want to represent 5 in binary terms. Then you would need a value of one to be added to a value of four, and you would not want a value of two:
101 [Reading from the right: 1(one) + 0(two) + 1(four) = five]

Here’s an additional example:
001011 [Reading from the right: 1(one) + 1(two) + 0(four) + 1(eight) + 0(sixteen) + 0(thirty-two) = eleven)

Exercises: What do the following equal in decimal terms?
a) 11011
b] 110
c) 010101
d) 10110

Answers:
a) 27
b] 6
c) 21
d) 22

If you got the above questions correct [without cheating], then you essentially understand the binary system. Understanding the binary system was the hard part. What follows is pretty easy.

3. Converting Binary to ASCII (Text)
ASCII is essentially the letters, numbers and symbols that are stored in our computers through the use of fonts. When the keyboard relays the buttons you pressed, it sends in a code which is then converted to the ASCII equivalent of “k” or “5” or whatever key you pressed.

Here’s an example of a message “hidden” in binary text:
0100100001100101011011000110110001101111

Now there are only so many letters, numbers and symbols stored for ASCII. Having sets of 8 digits for their binary equivalent is more than enough to represent all of these letters and the like. As such, all strings that represent text like in the above are separated into bits of 8 for simplicity:
01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111

Okay, so our example message was separated into 8 digit strings. The decimal value for each of these strings in the example was calculated for you.
01001000 = 72
01100101 = 101
01101100 = 108
01101100 = 108
01101111 = 111

The result was 72,101,108,108,111. Now, there is something called the ASCII table. It essentially corresponds to the binary numbers from yore to the equivalent letters/symbols/numbers. But since we found the decimal values of these binary strings, we can use a major shortcut.

By pressing ALT + [The Number], you will get the ASCII equivalent of that number. For example, by pressing the ALT key and at then (while keeping it down) the numbers 72 in any text editor, you will get the corresponding “H” to show up.

Let’s do so for the entire example message:
72 = H
101 = e
108 = l
108 = l
111 = o

So the entire “hidden” message translates to “Hello”.

Exercise: Decode the following message
010000110110111101101110011001110111001001100001011101000111010101101100011000010111010001
101001011011110110111001110011 00100001

Hint: The first step on your way to decoding the message (separated into bytes for you)
01000011 01101111 01101110 01100111 01110010 01100001 01110100 01110101 01101100 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 01110011 00100001

PS. Please note that this is the information as I’ve come to understand it. As such, it’s somewhat easier to understand, but it may not necessarily be accurate. In other words, if another source contradicts what has been indicated here, that source is probably right.

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Windows XP has a vast number of configuration dialogs, but some adjustments can be performed only by directly editing the Registry. Frequently, tips involving Registry tweaks include stern warnings to back up the Registry before making any change. The Windows XP Backup applet can back up the Registry along with other elements of the System State, but the resulting data file can occupy hundreds of megabytes. You’re better off saving a system restore point each time you’re about to edit the Registry. Better still, you can use Regedit to back up only the Registry keys that will be changed.

Click on Start | Run and enter Regedit to launch the Registry editor. To back up an individual key you plan to edit, navigate to the key and right-click on it. Choose Export from the menu, and save the key to a REG file. Open the REG file in Notepad and insert a few comment lines that describe the source and purpose of the tweak. (To create a comment line, simply put a semicolon at the start of the line.)

Now go ahead and make all the changes to Registry keys and values specified by the tip you’re applying. Any time you add a new key or value, make a note of it with another comment line in the REG file. When you’re done, save the REG file and close Notepad.

If later you want to undo this Registry tweak, just double-click on the REG file and confirm that you want to add it to the Registry. This will restore any deleted keys or values and will restore the original data for any values whose data was changed. Note that this will not remove new keys or values that were added; that’s why you need to make comments about such changes.

Right-click on the REG file and choose Edit, which will open it in Notepad. Check for comments about keys or values that were added, and if you find any, use Regedit to delete them. You can delete the REG file itself once you’ve completed this process

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Actions are automatically saved to the Actions Palette folder in the Adobe Photoshop or Adobe ImageReady CS Settings folder. If this file is lost or removed, the actions you created are lost. You can save your actions to a separate actions file so that you can recover them if necessary. You can also load a variety of action sets that are shipped with Photoshop.

Note: The default location of the Adobe Photoshop CS Settings folder varies by operating system. Use your operating system’s Find command to locate this folder.

To save a set of actions:

1. Select a set.
2. Choose Save Actions from the Actions palette menu.
3. Type a name for the set, choose a location, and click Save.

You can save the set anywhere. However, if you place the file in the Presets/Photoshop Actions folder inside the Photoshop program folder, the set will appear at the bottom of the Actions palette menu after you restart the application.

Press Ctrl+Alt (Windows) or Command+Option (Mac OS) when you choose the Save Actions command to save the actions in a text file. You can use this file to review or print the contents of an action. However, you can’t reload the text file back into Photoshop.

To load a set of actions:

Do one of the following:
* Choose Load Actions from the Actions palette menu. Locate and select the action set file, and then click Load. (In Windows, Photoshop action set files have the extension .atn.)
* Select an action set from the bottom of the Actions palette menu.

To restore actions to the default set:

1. Choose Reset Actions from the Actions palette menu.
2. Click OK to replace the current actions in the Actions palette with the default set, or click Append to add the set of default actions to the current actions in the Actions palette.

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Is it disturbing to you when every other Web page you visit has a different font size?. One web page’s font is too small, and another web page’s fonts are too big… Well here’s a way to fix that and set each web page’s fonts to just the size you want.

In Internet Explorer, select: Tools-Internet Options, choose the General tab, click the Accessibility button, and check Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages (the wording varies depending on your IE version).

In Netscape 6 and 7, choose Edit-Preferences, select Fonts (double-click Appearance if you don’t see ‘Fonts’ listed), and then either check Use my default fonts or uncheck Allow documents to use other fonts, depending on your version (the wording of these choices also varies).

Now all Web page fonts should be of uniform size on all pages.

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Installing Apache on Windows, why? Because let’s face it Windows is easy, and well Apache sure beats using IIS. This tutorial is meant for the person who would like to set up there own little web server. It’s not meant for the IT Person running a fortune 500 company. But hey if you want go ahead.

Instalation:

First thing you need is to download the webserver. Now for windows
users your gonna want to go download the .exe . The apache website is www.apache.org Your gonna wanna head to the apache
binaries sections for Win32 I believe it is at http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/binaries/win32/
There you will be able to download a version of apache.

Now before you download it you gonna want to make a folder. This folder is
where your gonna server your root directory. Now if you don’t want to do
this it’s ok. You can use the default path if you want. Put usually this helps
in setting up other things like php, and MySQL. Most people do is they create
a folder in the C:\ directory called WWW or somthin. You can name it whatever you want.

Ok so have downloaded the Apache Web Server. Your ready to go with the setup.
No the version I have downloaded was apache_2.0.36-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi This
was a newer version and supposedly supposed to be more secure. The first screen you get when your in the setup is The welcome screen we don’t care much about that
but owell so hit next. The next screen is the terms and service. And yes
your going to agree to the terms duh. The next screen is some documentation.
I never really read it but if you want go ahead and do it. Once your done
hit next again. Know we see a screen that says enter a network domain. Erase what is ever in there and type localhost. Now the next box says
Servername, erace what is ever in the box and put in localhost.
The next is Administrators e-mail address. Go ahead and fill that in.
But make sure to change it. Now there are 2 little radio buttons.
Pick the one that best suites your needs. Now that we got that all
filled out. Hit Next and you’ll go to a screen that asks you which
type of install you want to do. Then hit next.

If you wanted to server out of your one special folder. Change the
file location of were your gonna install apache. Or just leave it at the default path. Click install and it should be on
it’s way. Once it’s done installing hit the finish button.

The test:
First were gonna check to see if Apache installed correctly.
This is how we do it. Open up Internet Explorer and type in ” http://localhost” . If everything went smooth then you should
be seeing a message that looks like this” Seeing this instead of the website you expected?” Yippee!!!
Apache is working. See now wasnt’ that really simple. Ok now were gonna
do some fun stuff.

Alright now that we got or test done lets move on to changing some of this
stuff that apache did on default. In Internet Explorer if you installed
on the deafult path. Make your way to C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2
This is your Main Apache Directory were you can find everything. If you want
take a short break and run around. There are some cool things there. Don’t
worry if you don’t understand what’s in these files just yet.

Break Time:
Go take a leak, get some pepsi and somthin to eat. If you got smokes light
them up in your new found glory.

Alright so now you’ve got apache installed and your about to start dishing out
your web pages that you took so much time on to build. Head to the folder called
htdocs, this is your main folder. There should be a whole bunch of pages What i do
is i select them all and move them to another folder. The htdocs folder is the best
folder in the world. It’s gonna be one of the places you spend most of your time
dishing out content for the world. Ok so get rid of all that stuff that is in your
htdocs folder. And move all your great content inside replacing it. Alright so now
once we moved all are content inside the htdocs folder and we tested it to make
sure it was there. http://localhost remember. Now let’s get out of there. Go to
Apache’s main directory. Now just to be aware of what is going on and get a good
example of how Apache Functions head off to a folder called “conf” This is the
configuration files Apache Uses. If you ever wanted to install php and other
server side scripting languages this is where you would do it. Now you get 2 copys
Use 1 as a backup and never edit it at all. Go ahead and open the folder and open
“httpd.conf” Read it very carefully cause in this tutorial were not gonna read
about it. I just want you to know it’s there. Anytime you edit the httpd.conf file
you must re-start apache in order for it to work. Another good tip for you new people
to apache is you may notice the log files. Yes there great and make sure to make backups
of the logs they will come in handy. As security precautions. I also recommend getting
a firewall set up. There are lots of great security features that apache has but this
is a tutorial to installing apache.

Alright so now you’ve got your webpages up. But the only way people will be able to view
your pages is my typing in your ip address. This is a bumper. Lets look at some free
re-directories. www.n2v.net, This is a cool one. You sign up put your ip adress of your
new webserver in and whalla your done. Type in www. .n2v.net and it goes to your server
and brings up your super nice webpages. Now if you go to google and search for free
domain names or re-directors you should come up with alot. Many People already know
about the www.dot.tk one of the coolest things in the world. Free .tk very simple
That’s all you need. It works perfect for my webserver and I’ve got around 3,000 hits
so it’s working good. If you don’t wanna do it you don’t have to. But it just
makes it simple.

Alright that comes to the conclusion of installing Apache Win32 for WINDOWS users.
Very easy. One last thing Please Read more of the Apache
Documentation either on there website or in your Apache2
directory. If you liked reading this tutorial on how to setup Apache check my
website for others at www.bonfire.tk . Yes there will be follow ups. I’ll be
writing another apache tutorail soon so you can set up PHP. The most awesome
scripting language ever built. And also another on how to secure Apache and yes
ALL FOR WINDOWS!! .

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Allowing the root user to login directly is a major security issue, we’ll show you how to disable it so you can still login as root but just not directly, reducing the security issue.

This will force a hacker to have to guess 2 seperate passwords to gain root access.
(you do have 2 seperate passwords for admin and root right?)
What happens is you’ll first need to login as your admin user in SSH, then switch to the super user with the su command to get root.

We also will be forcing the use of SSH protocol 2, which is a newer, more secure SSH protocol
Just a couple more ways to help your server stay safe from the bad guys. If you’re using cPanel make sure you add your admin user to the ‘wheel‘ group so that you will be able to ‘su -‘ to root, otherwise you may lock yourself out of root.

1. SSH into your server as ‘admin‘ and gain root access by su

2. Copy and paste this line to edit the file for SSH logins
pico -w /etc/ssh/sshd_config

3. Find the line
Protocol 2, 1

4. Uncomment it and change it to look like
Protocol 2

5. Next, find the line
PermitRootLogin yes

6. Uncomment it and make it look like PermitRootLogin no

7. Save the file Ctrl+X then Y then enter

8. Now you can restart SSH
/etc/rc.d/init.d/sshd restart

Now, no one will be able to login to root with out first loggin in as admin and ’su -’ to root, and you will be forcing the use of a more secure protocol. Just make sure you remember both passwords!

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