Archive for the 'Tech' Category

How to unzip a file on a server via SSH

Published by Tiposaurus on August 13, 2012 in SSH and Web Hosting. 0 Comments

It can save a lot of time to upload a single file to your web server then extract it, rather than extracting to your own computer and uploading the contents.

Assuming you've managed to upload the file to your server (e.g. using FTP), and connect via SSH to a unix server (PuTTY is a good client), follow these steps to extract it.

  1. Navigate to the directory containing your file.  Use the command cd (change directory), for example: cd MyDirectory. You can use ls to view the files in each folder.
  2. Use the unzip command to extract: unzip MyZipFile.zip. Type unzip by itself to find out more about it, including various options for using it.
  3. If you want to move the files you've just extracted, you can use the mv command. If the files have been extracted to a subfolder and you want them out, try mv MyZipFile/* . (the dot indicates the current folder).
  4. Finally, you can delete the zip file if you don't need it anymore by rm MyZipFile.zip.

Can the Virgin Media Superhub be wall mounted?

Published by Tiposaurus on June 9, 2011 in Virgin Media. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Virgin Media issue a new 'Superhub' with faster broadband. While older routers could be mounted on the wall, the new Superhub can't be due to the curved shape, and since the connectors are on the back, rather than one of the sides.

On the plus side though, it replaces the need for a separate cable modem, so saves a bit of space.

Web Hosting Terminology

Published by Tiposaurus on June 7, 2011 in Web Hosting. 0 Comments

This article will define what various terms used by web hosting companies mean. It's not possible (and sometimes insulting to the reader) to cover everything so this will just cover the most commonly used and important terms.

Bandwidth (or Transfer or Data Transfer)
Bandwidth is the amount of traffic that is sent (and recieved) by your website. It is usually measured in gigabytes (GB), where 1 GB = 1024 megabytes (MB), and it is usually allocated on a monthly basis, for example you could have 5GB/month of bandwidth, which means that there is a limit of 5GB of files that can be downloaded from your site within a month. Bandwidth is only a concern if you host a lot of files, for example images or movies, as webpages are usually small file sizes.

Colocation Server (or Colocation Hosting)
This is similar to Dedicated Hosting (see below), except the server is owned by a customer and they pay the colocation hosting company to host the server for them - that involves paying a charge for bandwitch which the hosting company provide, the physical space which the server takes up and the power that the server uses. With this set up the customer is responsible for their hardware.

Control Panel
This is a web page with a usable interface which the customer can connect to when they want to tweak their hosting settings, view the transfer statistics, or utilise other features provided with their hosting.

Dedicated Server (or Dedicated Hosting)
This is a server which is owned by the hosting company which they will rent out to you for a monthly fee along with an allotment of bandwidth which you can use with it. This means that you get a whole server to yourself to use for what you desire, this is needed for scripts which use a lot of server resources (for example large message boards, for one of which I pay for a dedicated server). As a customer, you would have full control over the server and could change the configuration as required, a facility not available when you have to share a server with others. With a dedicated server, the web hosting company is responsible for the hardware as they own it, not the customer.

Disk Space
This is the amount of space on the server that you have to upload your files on, it's usually measured in MB or GB.

MySQL
This is a type of database (as is PostgreSQL) which allows the customer to store and retrieve information on the server. A lot of scripts require that a database is present to function.

Reseller Hosting
This is similar to Virtual Hosting (see below), but the customer is given the ability to create small hosting accounts of their own, which they can then give or sell to people if they desire. It usually allows the customer more features, bandwidth and diskspace than with normal virtual hosting.

Scripts (eg PHP, Perl, ASP)
These are server side scripting languages which allow the customer to use already written scripts, or write their own, which provide additional features for the website and increased interactivity (for example message boards and content management systems).

Virtual Hosting (or Shared Hosting)
This is where a webhosting company puts many customers' webpages on the same server - so the server resources are shared amongst all the customers using it. This means that applications which cause a high server load are not suitable, and if one customer uses one then other customers will suffer.

Dedicated Servers: A Summary

Published by Tiposaurus on June 7, 2011 in Web Hosting. 0 Comments Tags: , .

What is dedicated hosting?
This is a server which is owned by the hosting company which they will rent out to you for a monthly fee along with an allotment of bandwidth which you can use with it. This means that you get a whole server to yourself to use for what you desire, this is needed for scripts which use a lot of server resources (for example large message boards, for one of which I pay for a dedicated server). As a customer, you would have full control over the server and could change the configuration as required, a facility not available when you have to share a server with others. With a dedicated server, the web hosting company is responsible for the hardware as they own it, not the customer.

What are the advantages of it?
You can do anything you like on it that you like (although most hosts have acceptable use policies which state that illegal content is not allowed, and in some cases they prohibit connecting to IRC). This means that you can login to the server, set up programs as you desire, then run them without having to worry about the effects on server resources for other people. You can run games servers (for games such as Half-Life, etc), IRC servers or bots, or just run a web server which uses a lot of resources (and with a special setup which isn't found in shared hosting).

What are the disadvantages?
The main disadvantage is the cost, which will put many people off getting one. The cheapest seem to come at about $50/month, and the most expensive cost thousands of dollars each month. The price can be reflective of the quality (such as the cost of running - or your host renting a space in - the datacentre, the hardware in the server, the technical support provided by your host and so on), alternatively it can just be an over inflated price for what is a poor quality product. It's important to compare the prices and packages offered from several companies before coming to a decision, also you should ask your friends if they have any opinions on the matter, and research information about the hosting companies and datacentres - are the constantly offline due to DDOS attacks? do they have a poor record of customer service?
Another disadvantage is the added responsibility involved in keeping the software on your server secure, for example you may have to update builds of apache, control panel software, etc as security holes are found.

Is it for me?
That depends, if you want to a game server then you'll need one - but it may be easier for you to buy one from a dedicated games server comapny, they know their stuff and would probably be able to install and configure the servers for you. However they would place restrictions on what you could do with the server and maybe the setup.
If you want to run a small IRC server, bot or bouncer then you would probably be easiest paying a smaller fee to hire one of those from an IRC or shell provider company, also you don't have to worry about restrictive datacentre AUPs which prohibit IRC use.
If you are starting a small web forum or site then you probably won't need one initially, wait until it grows and you can determine if you need the server to ensure further growth is ok.
Otherwise you could possibly look into getting one, you could even email hosting providers asking what package they think your site would require (although take their replies with a pinch of salt, they could try to sell you stuff you don't actually need).

Virgin Media Broadband Speed Caps

Published by Tiposaurus on July 26, 2007 in Virgin Media. 0 Comments

This is slightly old news now, but Virgin Media have started capping broadband speeds during peak times. If you go over the limit (which varies depending on package) between 4pm and midnight then you'll have your download capactity at least halved, with upload similarly crippled.


I'm on their 4Mb service, which means that if I download over 750MB between those times, my download is halved to 2Mb and upload set to 192Kb for four hours. What's annoying is that the four hours doesn't end at midnight, so if you hit the limit at 11:55PM, you'll be capped until 3:55AM. What annoys me about this scenario is that it isn't so much a means of traffic management, more a punishment for exceeding their limits.

A further annoyance is that it doesnt take into account how much you use on other days. I am almost certainly within what they'd consider to be the top 5% for usage, however if I was just using the service one night to download a large file, and merely checking my email on other occasions, then I would be at a disadvantage because of this.

I suppose ultimately it doesn't matter - nothing I download is of that great an importance that I need it instantly. I just found it frustrating that my download speed halved last night while downloading stuff from their newsgroups.
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