Webmaster

Webmaster

Webmasters are practitioners of Web communication. Typically, they are generalists with HTML expertise who manage all aspects of Web operations. On a smaller site, the webmaster will typically be the owner, developer and/or programmer, in addition to the author of the content.

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Update: Best Free Online Banking

WaMu Reincarnation!

Man I was bummed about WaMu folding, they had the best banking site I’ve seen, and I’ve worked on a few myself. And of course the biggest reason to love WaMu was that they actually paid YOU to borrow your money to lend to other people. Can you even imagine that level of decency existing in the world? It’s been taken to such a low level by Chase I almost forget how to spell it.

So I picked up my October issue of Wired to try and forget about such tragedies, and on the first page I flipped to was a 1/3 page advertisement for a bank that didn’t beat around the bush at all. No fine print of any kind, just loud and clear message that they will pay you to be their banking customer. I wasted no time and quickly checked out the site, and within 5 minutes of landing on their homepage I was a customer, and a very happy one. Even the name of this bank makes it clear they are not in the Microsoft Family Business with Chase and the other corporate pirates.

· money  ·  RSS | 12:12 AM

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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…

· Firefox  ·  RSS | 8:14 PM

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Optimizing Servers and Processes for Speed with ionice, nice, ulimit

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.

· ionice  ·  RSS | 1:41 AM

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Windows Optimization – Intense Part II

If you ever wanted to know the best way to defragment and speed up your Windows-Based PC, I mean you really wanted to know, here is the 2nd part to my article on Windows Speed Optimizing that details the process I have found works really well. Definately not a quick process, and certainly not the best ever, just my best ever and one that you only have to do once to get the benefits.
This article has a lot of incredibly useful (and FREE) tools I recommend, which you can grab and use without reading the article..

· HD Tune  ·  RSS | 9:42 AM

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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  ·  RSS | 3:23 AM

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Protecting Files with Advanced Mod_Rewrite Anti-Hotlinking

If you have files on your site that you don’t want indexed by malicious search engines, grabbed and leeched by malicious spammers, or stolen and made available elsewhere, you can use mod_rewrite to drastically reduce or totally reduce that activity.

· hotlinking  ·  RSS | 1:09 AM

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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!

· caches  ·  RSS | 9:20 AM

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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.

· Awesome Wordpress  ·  RSS | 1:59 PM

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PHP and AJAX shell console

Ever wanted to execute commands on your server through php? Now you can. I’m calling this file (see below) shell.php and it allows you to run commands on your web server with the same permissions that your php executable has.

· tools  ·  RSS | 9:01 PM

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Advanced Htaccess – SSI, 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.

RSS | 4:02 AM

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Ultimate Htaccess Tutorial for .htaccess files

This is not an introduction to .htaccess… This is the evolution of .htaccess… The BEST, the ORIGINAL, the NEWEST, and the most HIGHEST, FLYEST .htaccess tricks I can find.

Originally known as the “Ultimate .htaccess Guide”, its changed over the years by adding new .htaccess tricks and .htaccess examples to it.. I also add my favorite .htaccess links, the best .htaccess articles on AskApache, the coolest .htaccess experiments, the Web’s best .htaccess hacks, and update this article on the regular.

· htaccess file  ·  RSS | 9:05 AM

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Chmod, Umask, Stat, Fileperms, and File Permissions

Unix file permissions are one of the more difficult subjects to grasp.. Well, ok maybe “grasp” isn’t the word.. Master is the right word.. Unix file permissions is a hard topic to fully master, mainly I think because there aren’t many instances when a computer user encounters them. I’ve done a lot of research on it the past couple weeks… and now here’s everything I’ve learned so far.. cuz you guys AskApache Regs Rock!

· Permissions  ·  RSS | 6:16 AM

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.htaccess trick to show Alternate CSS file based on IP

This past week I updated my sites apache.css file for a site-redesign. I wanted to make changes to the .css file that only I could see, so that my regular traffic and site-visitors would still see the old version. Here’s the elegant solution I came up with using .htaccess and mod_rewrite that works so well I’m sharing it with all you wonderful and incredible people reading my blog :)

RSS | 5:17 PM

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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.

· security  ·  RSS | 8:45 PM

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SEO Secrets of AskApache Part 2

This is part II of the Advanced SEO used on AskApache.com Series and describes how to control which urls are indexed by Search Engines and how to move them higher up in Search Results.

· indexing  ·  RSS | 5:44 PM

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Mod_Rewrite Variables Cheatsheet

We’ve figured out what mod_rewrite variables look like, a cheatsheet of the actual value.

· Cheatsheet  ·  RSS | 1:05 AM

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Online Tool compares Packer, JSMin, Dojo, and YUI Compressor

· optimize  ·  RSS | 10:12 PM

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Pimp out your FeedBurner Count

I’ve had a lot of people ask about the FeedBurner FeedCount image on AskApache. Specifically how to set it up with custom messages and different colors each page view… It is pretty sweet..

· feedburner  ·  RSS | 4:50 AM

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Fsockopen Power Plays

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.

· Power  ·  RSS | 7:42 AM

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SEO Boost from Google 404 Plugin

1 minute Install!
Turns every 404 Not Found error into a SEO traffic generating event! Now you have many unique users with unique IP addresses and cookies searching your blog on all of the Google Indexes… Sweet!

«Take My 404 for a Test-Drive

RSS | 11:11 AM

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Adding Akismet Anti-Spam Protection Anywhere

Wouldn’t you love to have Akismet Anti-spam protection for non-wordpress forms and pages?

· antispam  ·  RSS | 11:14 PM

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Mod_Security .htaccess tricks

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!

· SecAudit  ·  RSS | 2:17 AM

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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.

RSS | 9:31 PM

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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..

RSS | 3:42 PM

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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.

· fsockopen  ·  RSS | 11:18 PM

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Faster POST and GET Form Submissions

Just a very brief look at speeding up form submission by delegating the processing and bandwidth to your server, not your client.

· multipart  ·  RSS | 10:21 PM

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Skeleton .htaccess file for Powweb Hosting

If you have a Powweb Webhosting account, you will appreciate this simple skeleton .htaccess file for use on their systems.

· powweb  ·  RSS | 5:05 AM

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SetEnvIf and SetEnvIfNoCase Examples

SetEnv, SetEnvIf, and SetEnvIfNoCase directives conditionally set environment variables accessible by scripts and apache based on HTTP Headers, Variables, and Request information.

· SetEnvIfNoCase  ·  RSS | 1:36 PM

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Best Free Online Banking for Web Professionals

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past 10 years managing my money online, and I want to let you all know my two favorite free online banks, Etrade and WaMu.

· checking  ·  RSS | 5:18 PM

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CSS Background Image Sprites

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!

· pictures  ·  RSS | 8:47 AM

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Apache HTTPD Google CSE

Apache Documentation Google Custom Search Engine is a great place to go looking for mod_rewrite, .htaccess, and other Apache HTTPD related topics.

· apache  ·  RSS | 3:28 PM

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Login to Google AdSense using PHP

Demo php cURL code, that automatically logs into Google AdSense, using cookies and post fields with the POST method.

· cookie  ·  RSS | 10:43 AM

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Speed Tips: Use Multiple SubDomains

To make your site even faster, serve certain content from different subdomains. The reason this works is amazingly cool!

RSS | 7:50 PM

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Speed Up Google Analytics with urchin.js

Update: This article is a bit dated, to get the newest and latest Google Analytics Speed Tips, check out the 3 part update about Hosting, Cookie Domains, and JavaScript Loading and Failproofs

Ever notice that sometimes your sites take a while to load all the way because google’s urchin.js file is taking forever? You may recognize this problem when you see something similar to this in your browsers status bar “Transferring data from google-analytics.com...”

Time To Setup?
4 minutes I got tired of seeing that all the time and so I set up an automated cronjob that runs every 12 hours and downloads the latest version from google, and saves it to my website directory, then I reference /urchin.js instead of http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js.. and my site loads a lot faster!
Take a look at the source for this page if you want to see what is going on (look at the bottom)
There are 2 pretty major things that you accomplish by hosting urchin.js locally

You Enable persistant connections
You ensure that the correct 304 Not Modified header is sent back to your site visitors instead of reserving the entire file.

The urch.sh shell script
Create a shell script called urch.sh.. this will be executed every 1/day or 1/wk, whatever you want. The following script removes the local urchin.js, then it wgets the latests version into the local directory.

#!/bin/sh
rm /home/user/websites/askapache.com/z/j/urchin.js
cd /home/user/websites/askapache.com/z/j/
wget http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js
chmod 644 /home/user/websites/askapache.com/z/j/urchin.js
cd ${OLDPWD}
exit 0;

Improved shell script
I realized right away that a more modular shell script would be needed.. I admin like 50+ web-sites and it would be stupid to have to type the same block of code 50 times, wget the same file 50 times, etc.. So this version downloads the urchin.js file into a temporary directory, then it copies it OVER the old file for each directory. So 1 GET request …

RSS | 11:10 PM

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Firefox, Firebug, and yslow are REQUIRED

A lot of the past and upcoming articles on AskApache are focused on speeding up a server or website, or just making things more efficient. I’m starting several speed tip articles that require the following 3 programs if you want to follow along, that is… if you can keep up! ;)

· yslow  ·  RSS | 4:07 PM

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Alexa Toolbar Add-On for Firefox Works!

This is the 10th anniversary of the Alexa Toolbar, July 17, 1997. Do you remember what the Net looked like back then? Netscape was the most popular browser. AOL had released it’s first Instant Messenger program in Beta. Jodie Foster’s new movie Contact was number one at the box office.

· sparky  ·  RSS | 10:55 PM

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Custom Webmaster Shell Environment

Webmasters often use SSH to remotely admin web sites and servers, learn how to make your shell colorful and powerful using my sample .bash_profile and you can be up and running in 30 seconds!

· bash_profile  ·  RSS | 2:17 PM

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htaccess rewrite, htaccess

Comprehensive .htaccess example file with advanced examples in 1 htaccess sample skeleton .htaccess file with the very best apache htaccess examples… Updated frequently based on detailed info from the Apache htaccess tutorial.

· apache  ·  RSS | 10:15 PM

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DreamHost Server IP Address List

A list of all DreamHost Servers and corresponding IP address. The dreamhost.com DNS zone is currently having troubles, so most hostnames within this zone are not resolving.

· .dreamhost.com  ·  RSS | 6:29 AM

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LFT traceroute tool

LFT: The alternative traceroute and whois tools for network (reverse) engineers.

LFT, short for Layer Four Traceroute, is a sort of ‘traceroute’ that often works much faster (than the commonly-used Van Jacobson method) and goes through many configurations of packet-filters (firewalls). More importantly, LFT implements numerous other features including AS number lookups through several reliable sources, loose source routing, netblock name lookups, et al.
What makes LFT unique?
LFT is the all-in-one traceroute tool because it can launch a variety of different probes using both UDP and TCP layer-4 protocols. For example, rather than only launching UDP probes in an attempt to elicit ICMP “TTL exceeded” from hosts in the path, LFT can send TCP SYN or FIN probes to target arbitrary services. Then, LFT listens for “TTL exceeded” messages, TCP RST (reset), and various other interesting heuristics from firewalls or other gateways in the path. LFT also distinguishes between TCP-based protocols (source and destination), which make its statistics slightly more realistic, and gives a savvy user the ability to trace protocol routes, not just layer-3 (IP) hops. With LFT’s verbose output, much can be discovered about a target network.
About
LFT (Layer Four Traceroute) is a sort of “traceroute” that often works much faster than the commonly-used Van Jacobson method and goes through many configurations of packet-filter based firewalls. More importantly, LFT implements numerous other features, including AS number lookups through several reliable sources, loose source routing, netblock name lookups, and more. LFT also distinguishes between TCP-based protocols, which make its statistics slightly more realistic, and gives a savvy user the ability to trace protocol routes, not just layer-3 hops.

LFT Home Page
LFT Project Page at Freshmeat.net

nslookup,dns,ping,whois

· lft  ·  RSS | 3:09 PM

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