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An AskApache Plugin Upgrade to Rule them All

apache-server-statusSo 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.

WordPress

.htaccess Plugin Blocks Spam, Hackers, and Password Protects Blog

.htaccess security plugin 2

Well what can I say, other than this is sooo DOPE! Here is a list of the modules this plugin (version 4.7 unreleased) will automatically detect. I compiled the list myself using every module included with any default Apache installation for ALL the versions listed below, 1.3 to 2.2+

Want to know something else I'm including in this plugin? For each and every module that is detected, this plugin can then detect ALL of the modules .htaccess Directives! For instance, RewriteRule, AccessFileName, AddHandler, etc.. are each a directive belonging to a module that is allowed to be used from within .htaccess files.

Talk about sick.. these tricks have the diamond disease!

WordPress

htaccess HTTPS / SSL Tips, Tricks, and Hacks

Apache has the best SSL/HTTPS support and can be controlled by the httpd.conf file or other HTTPD server configuration file. This htaccess tutorial has htaccess example code to make it easy to secure and use HTTPS and SSL with Apache.

Htaccess

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.

Htaccess

Securing php.ini and php.cgi with .htaccess

If you have a php.cgi or php.ini file in your /cgi-bin/ directory or other pub directory, try requesting them from your web browser. If your php.ini shows up or worse you are able to execute your php cgi, you'll need to secure it ASAP. This shows several ways to secure these files, and other interpreters like perl, fastCGI, bash, csh, etc.

Htaccess

Advanced .htaccess Tricks for Securing Sites

This is all new, experimental, and very very cool. It literally uses .htaccess techniques to create several virtual "locked gates" that require a specific key to unlock, in a specific order that cannot be bypassed. It uses whitelisting .htaccess tricks to specify exactly what is allowed, instead of trying to specify everything that isn't allowed. Also, by setting specific cookies/tokens after successfully passing through a gate, we can then require the exact cookie/token from the previous gate, which stops an attacker from skipping or bypassing gates.

Htaccess

WordPress Plugin for Apache .htaccess Security

Askapache Password Protect Security Features

  1. gzip's previous .htaccess file and sends it as an attachment to the logged in users email account along with password user setup.
  2. Now also works for sites running on SSL (PHP version >4.3.0)
  3. Rewrote the security module code in the form of snort, nessus, and mod_security rules and signatures
  4. Added a *real* check to see if mod_rewrite is installed
  5. Added Modules that remove directoryindexes
  6. Much more on the way..

WordPress

Optimize a Website for Speed, Security, and Easy Management

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

Log all .htaccess/.htpasswd logins

htaccess htpasswd with phpLearn how to log and debug usernames and passwords used to login to a htaccess basic authorization protected website using php. This article is BOSS and will show you how to fully take control of this aspect of security using php and .htaccess, I don't believe you will find instructions to do this anywhere else on the net.

Htaccess

Preload flash .flv files into browser cache

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

Fsockopen Magic

Fsockopen PowerPHP'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

mod_rewrite Fix for Caching Updated Files

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

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.

SEO

Advanced WordPress wp-config.php Tweaks

The bottom line for this article is that I want to make WordPress as fast, secure, and easy to install, run, and manage because I am using it more and more for client production sites, I will work for days in order to solve an issue so that I never have to spend time on that issue again. Time is money in this industry and that is ultimately (time) what there is to gain by tweaking WordPress.

Note: I spent no time on readability, this is primarily a read the code and figure it out article.. This is for advanced users looking for a reference or discussion and for those of you looking to advance. Feedback would be great if you make it that far..

WordPress

A better way to use PDF files online

.htaccess and php example serves .pdf files to give visitors the choice to open in an external program or save to disk without having to open it in the browser

PDF Before and after Fix - Firefox

PDF Output Broken FirefoxPDF Plugin Not Used Firefox

Htaccess

Elite Log File Scrolling with Color Syntax

Scrolls the latest log entries for multiple log files to the current screen or to any other monitor or TTY in color using syntax highlighting, making debugging easier and saving a lot of time for multi-monitor workstations.

Linux

Redirecting RSS to Feedburner

FeedBurner, the best syndication company in the worldFeedBurner is so RAD! I love it. Here's an alternative method to redirect scrapers and feed requests to your feedburner url, in my case, I use Branding by feedburner, which is so hot, taking advantage of CNAMEs in your DNS record.

Htaccess

Upgrading to DreamHost Private Servers

DreamHost PS gives you your own "virtual machine", protecting your CPU and RAM on your physical machine for faster websites. Here's what I like and dislike about DreamHostPS, and some of the issues and solutions for migrating.

Hosting

Debug apache log files from php

Secure phpinfo.php with .htaccess, Now instead of getting a 404 error you will see debug information which will help you find out what the problem is.

PHP