SUDO – sudoers Config File
Student under Criminal Investigation for Allegedly Sending Email
Trace Email Back to the Sender
Locate the sender of an email and their geographical location, including messages sent through anonymous email services like Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail.
SPF Records on DreamHost
Here are the steps that I take to get an SPF Record going on DreamHost
v=spf1 mx ip4:64.111.100.0/24 ip4:66.33.201.0/24 ip4:66.33.216.0/24 ip4:208.97.1 32.0/24 ip4:208.97.187.0/24 ip4:208.113.200.0/24 ip4:208.113.244.0/24 ip4:64.18.0.0/20 ip4:74.125.148.0/22 include:aspmx.googlemail.com include:_spf.google.com ~all
HOWTO: Uninstall CPANEL over SSH
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.
Mirroring an Entire Site using Rsync over SSH
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.
Free DNS Services
Fast and Easy Custom WordPress New User Registration
Registering on a WP blog requires entering a username and email then checking your email for an auto password.
Too much work to put your users through?
This uses just email and password and does it all.
Web Development Glossary
Firefox Add-ons for Web Developers
Advanced Web Development by AskApache is a Firefox Collection I created since I'm always trying new Addons out and using multiple computers and I wanted a quick and easy way to install my favorite's and keep a running list. Firebug, YSlow, LastPass, and Web Developer are the only ones I always use regularly.
I like the idea of the last.fm but it's not as powerful as the site, which is awesome. Lately listening to Kings of Leon Radio...
THE Ultimate Htaccess
.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!
DNS Tracer
3 Ways to Serve PDF Files using Htaccess Cookies, Headers, Rewrites
FYI, using the Mod_Rewrite Variables Cheatsheet makes this example, and all advanced .htaccess code easier to understand. This demo lets you set a cookie with 1 of 3 values, then you just request the pdf file with a normal link click and get 1 of 3 different responses. This is accomplished with a nice bit of .htaccess code.
Set PDF Viewing Mode - Make a selection, then click the view pdf button.
Inline Download Save As View PDF using selected mode »
SSI in Htaccess for ErrorDocuments, DirectoryIndexing, SEO

3-Part article covering practical implementation of 3 advanced .htaccess features. Discover an easy way to boost your SEO the AskApache way (focus on visitors), a tip you might keep and use for life. Get some cool security tricks to use against spammers, crackers, and other nefarious sorts. Take your site's error handling to the next level, enhanced ErrorDocuments that go beyond 404's.
Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
Adding Akismet Anti-Spam Protection Anywhere
Wouldn't you love to have Akismet Anti-spam protection for non-wordpress forms and pages?
About AskApache
Questions I Ask Web Hosting Companies, Before Buying
The following is a transcript of a chat I had with a company called tektonic, and at that time I was looking for a cheap linux host to use for some redundancy/failover operations. I generally contact a new hosting company like this every few months.. I like to have options available in case of some kind of failure or network attack, so it's always a good idea to have a few ace linux servers in your back pocket.
If you've read any other articles on AskApache, you can see a certain obsession towards optimization, speed, and security -- so that is the purpose of the following questions.
Mod_Status tricks to View Apache Module Directives
Quick and easy method to get a list of all Apache Modules currently loaded, a list of all the directives each module provides, a list of currently used directives, etc... These directives can be used in httpd.conf and/or .htaccess files so it is definately useful to know which ones are available and which ones are currently being used.
Sending POST form data with php CURL
CURL Guide for sending POST data form request with PHP and CURL
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COMPUTER SECURITY TOOLBOX
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.Faster POST and GET Form Submissions… Shazam
Just a very brief look at speeding up form submission by delegating the processing and bandwidth to your server, not your client.
The Latest and Greatest php.ini
Grab the latest php.ini developmental version and discover new or previously hidden php runtime configuration settings... ahead of everyone else!
SEO with Robots.txt
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.Faster Form Submission and Processing with fsockopen
Part II: Example illustrating how to speed up GET/POST form submissions. Uses fsockopen to initiate a server-side background request to process the submitted data, so that the result page of the form is displayed to the client lightningly quick.
Blocking Bad Bots and Scrapers with .htaccess
Want to block a bad robot or web scraper using .htaccess files? Here are 2 methods that illustrate blocking 436 various user-agents.
Compete Search Analytics officially opened to the public! It rocks!
I just received an email (I'm a VIP) from the Compete Search Analytics Team announcing that they are officially open to the public! Normally this would have 0 effect on me, I'm not into SEO tools, but this online resource is incredible!
IP Blocked by stateful Firewall, now what?
Awk Tutorial and Introduction
While researching a unix/linux tool awk I came upon one of the most thorough and helpful tutorials I've ever seen devoted to a particular topic. It's old-school just the way I like it. I contacted the author, Bruce Barnett because I just HAD to have this article for my readers, who are predominantly running solaris/unix/bsd/linux and he kindly gave permission.
An AskApache Plugin Upgrade to Rule them All
So my blog as been rather quiet for almost a year now, and very few updates if any have been released for my Password Protection PLugin, my Google 404 Plugin, and definately not for my AskApache CrazyCache plugin, which I will be releasing last... So for all of you who've helped me out by sending me suggestions and notifying me of errors and sticking with it... Just wanted to say sorry about that, and thanks for all the great ideas.. Well, I've been sticking with it as well believe it our not. I manage to get free days once in a while, and then its time to jam.
htaccess Tricks for Webmasters
Some of my favorite htaccess examples from some of my favorite .htaccess tutorials. These cut-and-paste ready htaccess code snippets are very useful for website and server administrators.
Apache SSL in htaccess examples
SSLOptions +StrictRequire
SSLRequireSSL
SSLRequire %{HTTP_HOST} eq "google.com"
ErrorDocument 403 https://google.com
Some of the Ins and Outs of using SSL Connections with Apache.
Auto-Login to Google Analytics to impress Clients
Google Analytics for your clients sites is a no-brainer, it ROCKS! I have 100+ client sites running Analytics and all of them have trouble-free (no password or username to remember) access to their site reports. Thanks to the method in this post, my clients couldn't be happier..
Convert Image Base64 Encoder
Internet Census 2012 – Port scanning using insecure embedded devices – Carna Botnet
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.
Fix Linux Users Home Permissions with a Cron Job
As a security nut myself, and also a Linux admin, one of my biggest pet peeves is when I've taken the time and care to segment all the users on a server into separate home directories, and then some developer comes along, logs in as root, and changes the ownership of files. Other things can cause this, like Apache, PHP, Mutt, etc.. So I've always used a cron job that executes daily (and on demand) which automatically fixes all the permissions back to what they should be.
Multiply your DreamHost Referrals
Learn how to make YOUR DreamHost promo codes work much better for YOU! This is not about promo-codes, this is about a simple method you should implement.
AskApache Debug Viewer Plugin for WordPress
The story behind this plugin is sorta wack, but in a good way :). While doing tons of security research on permissions, authorization, access, etc.. for the Password Protection plugin (still being worked on), I needed to have unheard of debugging capabilities while working on the plugin on the various websites, webhosts, and test servers that I use to test in different environments. So I hacked together a bunch of php code that helped me debug, actually I pretty much went overkill and tried to get as much debugging info as programmatically possible, and it ended up being so much code that I took it out of my Password Protection code and made it its own plugin.