NOT a typo.. 30x is measurable, well-documented, and easily tested. This is what open-source is about. I haven’t had time to post much the past year, I'm always working! So I wanted to make up for that by publishing an article on a topic that would blow your mind and be something that you could actually start using and really get some benefit out of it. This is one of those articles that the majority of web hosting companies would love to see in paperback, so they could burn it.
Optimization tmpfs
There are a total of 57 HTTP Status Codes recognized by the Apache Web Server. Wouldn't you like to see what all those headers and their output, ErrorDocuments look like?
Htaccess 403 404 500 503 Htaccess mod_rewrite PHP RewriteCond RewriteRule
If you examine the preferences dialog of any modern Web browser (like Internet Explorer, Safari or Mozilla), you'll probably notice a 'cache' setting. This lets you set aside a section of your computer's hard disk to store representations that you've seen, just for you. The browser cache works according to fairly simple rules. It will check to make sure that the representations are fresh, usually once a session (that is, the once in the current invocation of the browser).
Optimization
The goal is to add the HostGator server to be an exact mirror of the s.askapache.net domain, then to add that server as a 2nd A record to my DNS zone. That way half the visitors to the size will be taking up resources and bandwidth on the HostGator server instead of mine.
Round Robin A records in DNS are intended to evenly distribute queries between each host of the same name. Using some tricks straight out of a hackers toolbox we can verify if the distribution is taking place. (It is.)
Optimization DNS HostGator Rackspace Round-Robin WiredTree
mod_rewrite is very useful in many situations. Yet some behaviors were not so obvious when I started to mess with it. After many testings, I understand it much better, now. Having said that, I do not pretend to know it perfectly. I also make mistakes.
Htaccess
Apache .htaccess Directives and Loaded Modules allowed on DreamHost Apache Server 2 Setups.
Hosting
2 awesome ways to implement caching on your website using Apache .htaccess or httpd.conf. Both methods are extremely simple to set up and will dramatically speed up your site! Htaccess Cache Cache-Control ETag Expires Header Headers Htaccess mod_expires mod_headers
Apache server performance can be improved by adding additional hardware resources such as RAM, faster CPU, etc. Optimization
Just wanted some bandwidth-free music for the home page~
Web Design
Web Developers sometimes use file.ext?v=004 as a version control system to force visitors to use updated files. This is terrible. Instead link to apache-003.css and set it to be cached forever. When you change the file you just change the links to apache-004.css. That eliminates millions of bandwidth and resource robbing If-Modified-Since requests. You only need Apache with mod_rewrite, and 1-10 minutes!
Htaccess Apache HTTP Server Cache Caching Htaccess httpd.conf
There are so many WordPress plugins out there now that I wanted to post my favorite 3 plugins for speeding up a WP-Powered blog. These are the 3 plugins that I install for pretty much all of my WP-Powered sites, which I run about 300 now. They work together to provide a very optimized blog for speed.
DB-Cache Reloaded does something entirely different, it saves the mysql queries that are made to the WP-database, as well as the mysql results to static files, and then through php serves those cached-files instead of re-querying the mysql database. Most mysql databases are stored on separate servers, and although many are on the same local network there is a limit to how many queries, and how many connections can take place.
So DB-Cache Reloaded basically makes WP-Super Cache work alot faster when generating the cache files, and DB-Cache Reloaded helps in a number of areas un-related to WP-Super Cache, like in the admin panel. And DB-Cache without WP-Super-Cache is a joke because it still uses the application-level and php for everything. Gotta use both (or just WPSC).
WordPress Cache Web server wordpress
.htaccess is a very ancient configuration file for web servers, and is one of the most powerful configuration files most webmasters will ever come across. This htaccess guide shows off the very best of the best htaccess tricks and code snippets from hackers and server administrators.
You've come to the right place if you are looking to acquire mad skills for using .htaccess files!
Apache, Hosting, Htaccess, Optimization, Security, SEO, Web Development, WordPress .htpasswd 301 Redirect Apache Apache HTTP Server Cache Hosting Htaccess Htaccess Software HTTP Headers httpd.conf HyperText Transfer Protocol mod_rewrite Redirect RewriteCond RewriteRule SSL
Use the Apache module mod_deflate to compress your static .css and .js files, speeding your site up like crazy!
Htaccess compression Htaccess mod_deflate mod_gzip SetOutputFilter
The following is just a quick but detailed reference of some of the commands I used to successfully uninstall cpanel permanently. This is for advanced users of the shell. If you run a single one of these commands without fully understanding it, you will probably kill your server, lose everything on it permanently, not have a website or email for weeks.. So backup everything. FIRST. You should also contact your hosting provider support - but be prepared for some MAJOR negativity.. cpanel makes things very easy for web-hosting companies, and you are less than a drop in their bucket.
Hacking bash cpanel linux whm
This is a big update from the last time I looked into this, when I enumerated 57 Status Codes that Apache 2.x was capable of handling. This list contains 83 Status Codes recognized by Apache. I compiled the latest 2.4.4 Apache in order to view the actual codes sent by a live server.. very cool. You can read about the newest HTTP Status Codes in RFC 6585.
Net Apache cURL ErrorDocument Htaccess HTTP HTTP Headers Redirect Status Code
Fast, HTTP Protocol, protection. If you are reading this article, you already know enough about the benefits of making sure your site can handle HTTP Protocol Errors. This is a nice single php file with no dependencies or requirements, will work on anything. Optimized for minimizing bandwidth and resource-hogging connections from bots and spambots.
<?php
ob_start();
@set_time_limit(5);
@ini_set('memory_limit', '64M');
@ini_set('display_errors', 'Off');
error_reporting(0);
PHP ErrorDocument HTTP PHP
Time-dependant rewriting uses mod_rewrite and apache server time variables to display different files depending on the time, while the URL stays the same. An often requested implementation of this is to display a different home page or image depending on if its morning, noon, or night.
Htaccess
While playing around with the Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE) we discovered an amazing number of open embedded devices on the Internet. Many of them are based on Linux and allow login to standard BusyBox with empty or default credentials. We used these devices to build a distributed port scanner to scan all IPv4 addresses. These scans include service probes for the most common ports, ICMP ping, reverse DNS and SYN scans. We analyzed some of the data to get an estimation of the IP address usage.
Hacking
To prepare for several upcoming articles on AskApache that are focused on optimizing Servers and Sites from a server admin level, here is an article to introduce the main tools that we will be using. These tools are used to optimize CPU time for each process using nice and renice, and other tools like ionice are used to optimize the Disk IO, or Disk speed / Disk traffic for each process. Then you can make sure your mysqld and httpd processes are always fast and prioritized.
Optimization CFQ Idle linux Linux scheduler Load Nice RAM Scheduling algorithms
Sometimes there is an urgent need for creating an exact duplicate or "mirror" of a web site on a separate server. This could be needed for creating Round Robin Setups, Load-Balancing, Failovers, or for just plain vanilla backups. In the past I have used a lot of different methods to copy data from one server to another, including creating an archive of the whole directory and then using scp to send the file over, creating an archive and then encrypting it and then sending that file over using ftp, curl, etc., and my persistence at learning new ways to do things has paid off because now I use rsync to keep an exact replica of the entire directory on an external server, without having to use all the CPU and resources of other mirroring methods.
Security rsync ssh
Ok I just came back up to write the intro.. I'm trying to keep it short to avoid getting bogged down by the coolness of each step. Here is what goes on. When I logon to my XP machine at work, I bring my usb key and plug it in first. On logging a window pops up first and it's a password prompt to mount my encrypted drive leonardo. It also checks a keyfile that is located on my usb key, but all I do now is type in my password. That causes my encrypted folder to be accessible to me like a normal drive, and it autoruns a startup batch file.
The batch file causes Portable versions of Firefox (all my bookmarks, my settings) to load, and launches Portable Mozilla Thunderbird (IMAP makes this work well), which is my favorite program (great GPG features and open-source!). Also Some Adobe CS4 software is loaded from the hard drive, like DreamWeaver. In the background, a service we created executes a PortaPuttY plink command to create forwarded tunnels from various remote servers and accounts, all using key-based encryption. These tunnels are automatically reconnected if they are disconnected, meaning you can use a socks 5 if you want or even better!
Hacking Backup encryption Microsoft Windows Secure Shell ssh TrueCrypt USB USB flash drive windows builtin command-line tools
Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that give you a very good level of anonymity, using Tor with privoxy and FoxTor for firefox gives you privacy at the touch of a button.
Software
Learn how to setup, configure, secure, optimize, and create a low-maintenance website the AskApache way. I'm piecing together all the hacks, tricks, methods, and ideas discussed throughout this blog and all across Netdom and glueing them all together to show you how to have the most optimized, crazy fastest, and best website setup I can think of.
Hosting Apache HTTP Server Caching Htaccess HTTP linux operating systems round-robin DNS technology Web Developer Web server
PHP's fsockopen function lets you open an Internet or Unix domain socket connection for connecting to a resource, and is one of the most powerful functions available in the php language.
PHP fsockopen PHP socket strace udp Unix
Just a very brief look at speeding up form submission by delegating the processing and bandwidth to your server, not your client.
PHP bottleneck cURL form fsockopen PHP snoopy
Let me show you an example that works so well I am using it right now on my site. Every page in fact. If you are a young or up and coming web developer with skills to pay the bills, lets make the future Net fast, learn about optimization and refactoring while you still have the chance.
CSS
Mod_Security rivals Mod_Rewrite in the amount of features it provides. I decided to go ahead and post what I learned about it today, even though its tough to give away such awesome htaccess and apache tricks.. Learn how to control spam once and for all, conditionally log/deny/allow/redirect requests based on IP, username, etc.. Mod_Security is so fine!
Htaccess Htaccess mod_security security
Using a CSS Background Image Sprite with the CSS background-position and background-image I can display all these icons: . I can even have them show up anywhere on the page!
CSS
Htaccess Apache HTTP Server Htaccess Redirect rewrite RewriteBase RewriteCond RewriteEngine RewriteLock RewriteLog RewriteMap RewriteOptions RewriteRule
Very nice tutorial dealing with the robots.txt file. Shows examples for google and other search engines. Wordpress robots.txt and phpBB robots.txt sample files. SEO
How I was able to preload many flash flv and swf files on one of my clients sites that has a lot of online video and relatively small traffic. Their site visitors would usually watch 3-10 videos per visit and so to make the videos load almost instantly on every page I came up with a way to preload the top 10 .flv files and the swf flv player files as soon as the visitor successfully started watching the 1st video. Of course I also setup .htaccess caching on the server so that once they downloaded the files into their cache they would never request them from the server again. I was having fun with this so its pretty funky and uses some really cool combinations of javascript, swf preloader from xml, css classes to help automate it all..
Optimization Actionscript Cache Caching Flash flv Htaccess preload SWF
An interesting post by hacker explaining how to really hack, stay anonymous, and dig in deep.
Originally Posted: 1/22/2003
Hacking
Hosting
List of mainly obscure security software geared more for the master pentester. These are mostly for unix, bsd, and mac and many are difficult to install and setup (require custom servers, inside access points, obscure libraries). Only programs that output data are included, so no actual exploits or anything. Most of these output extremely useful albeit extremely technical information. Security
Links to htaccess tutorials and howtos in the htaccess forum
Htaccess
Well, not this sites server, which has never been hacked, but a server hosted with hostgator.
Interestingly, the hacker sent me an email and left me an mp3, which I've uploaded for your listening leisure.
Do real hackers exist? Yes. Can we coexist? Preferably!
Hacking hack hacked p0wned
