Category: Internet Stuff

Internet updates, reviews and technology

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I got myself an affordable Linux VPS account with RapidVPS

After doing some surveying and looking around the internet for a decent Linux VPS service provider, I finally settled with RapidVPS.com.

What is VPS ?
Virtual Private Server (VPS) is similar to Dedicated Server, except it runs on the same machine as other Virtual Private Server, this made possible by virtualization technology. Because it is similar to Dedicated Server in its own respect, you’ve full authority on VPS as to install any operating system that you like, root access and your own IP address. Having root access means that you’re free to install any software and administer your server as you see fit.

Why do I need VPS?
I need VPS because I want to have a cost-effective server that can run 24/7 for my software and web services since shared hosting solutions have very limited option for customization and expandibility.

I could use my personal computer for the same purpose, but given various factor (electricity bills, reliability, 24/7 uptime, hardware support, unreliable Streamyx ISP), I would rather use RapidVPS as it is the most cost-effective solution.

Why Do I choose RapidVPS?

  • Affordable price, no setup fees
  • Easy to upgrade
  • Service uptime and reliability
  • Excellent customer support
  • Offers various popular Linux operating system including latest release of Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, Fedora Core, Gentoo

However those who want to host IRC-related software (servers, eggdrop, bnc,psybnc, etc) might be dissapointed because RapidVPS has a strict no-IRC policy on its server.

Other than that, I would recommend RapidVPS anytime if you’re seeking to get a decent VPS solution.

[tags]vps, linux, server,dedicated service, rapidvps,ubuntu,debian[/tags]

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Secure your computer from viruses and other threats

GNU/Linux users are blessed with a system that is not vulnerable to virus threats present in Windows operating system. This is because computer viruses can disrupt your computing experience by affecting your computer speed and performance.

Some computer viruses present more threats than others, these viruses target your document files and infect them, spreading to other system in the process. The virus may destroy your document files afterwards by making them unusable for later usage.

Users of Windows operating system might need extra protection by investing in installing anti-virus software to better protect their files from the threats of malicious programs and viruses. For those who wants to be better protected, can get Norton 2007 download on the internet.

You might also want to shield your computer by installing Personal Firewall from unintended network access that might compromise your system. Computers that is not protected by firewalls are vulnerable to network attacks and exploitations.

Modern personal firewall has customizable feature that can allow users to select a list of applications that are allowed to access the internet. A rule of thumb, do not allow any application to access internet unless necessary (like Windows Media Player)

As a summary, personal computer security is not a subject to be taken lightly. You are advised to backup your data frequently and exercise caution when downloading executable programs from the internet.

-paid article-

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PayPerPost – an Innovative way to blog and get paid

Finally, I’m glad that my blog was accepted in PayPerPost, a relatively new service which allows your to earn money while blogging. PayPerPost is a truly innovative way to spread buzz across the internet.

How do you earn money by blogging? Simple, all you need to do is register your website with PayPerPost and awaits them to accept you. To make sure that you can earn continuously, you must make sure that you checked categories that most suited you. Writing for the sake of getting the money alone won’t do much good to your visitors and blog.

I love PayPerPost because they give you the freedom to choose from a number of reviews/buzz (called: opportunities) to write about, this way you can handpick which opportunities that is better suited for your style and way of writing and remember theme consistency is important for your blog.

And yes, PayPerPost works both ways too, if you have a product, services or something that you want people to talk about, then you can sign in as an advertiser. You can select the amount of payment you like to pay bloggers, write in some specifications and let them talk about your products and you’ll have your ads on blogs in no time.

So go ahead and try PayPerPost now

[tags]blogging,blog,payperpost,earnings[/tags]

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How to setup OpenDNS using Ubuntu

opendns.gif

Here’s is the step to setup OpenDNS for your Ubuntu desktop :

  • From Desktop, goto System and Administration
  • Select Networking, a dialog will appear
  • Select DNS tab
  • Click Add and put the OpenDNS ipaddress
  • Click close and you’re done!

Here’s the screenshot of the dialog


What is OpenDNS ?

OpenDNS is a free DNS resolution service provided as an alternative to to using your Internet service provider’s DNS servers. One of the advantage using OpenDNS is its intercepts phishing attempts, when a user tries to visit a phishing site. The list of phishing website is constantly updated from Phishtank which is also run by OpenDNS.

I personally use OpenDNS when my ISP DNS service seems to fail at times, though some people speculate that OpenDNS resolution might be slow compared to my ISP’s, but personally, I hardly notice any delays at all. Read about OpenDNS at its website or from wikipedia entry.
[tags]opendns,ubuntu,dns.linux[/tags]

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Putting up Ubuntu favicon.ico

After being annoyed looking at all those 404 messages when IE tries to access this website /favicon.ico, i finally decided to put one up.

For those who don’t know, favicon.ico is that small (typically 16×16) icon that appeared beside the address bar. Since my blog is mostly centered around Ubuntu, I’ve chosen to put up an Ubuntu logo.

How to put up favicon.ico

Find a nice icon in png or ico format , make sure it look nice at 16×16, upload it on your website.

Put this line on your header (between <head> tags)

<link rel="icon" type="image/x-icon" href="/favicon.ico" />

If you’re using a png image, replace type with “image/png”. I haven’t personally test this with Internet Explorer much, but I doubt Internet Explorer doesnt support other icon format than .ico.

If that’s the case, you might benefit from png2ico

You can download the ubuntu favicon.ico here.

Find more information about favicon

[tags]favicon,png,ubuntu,firefox,browsers,web[/tags]

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owasp php filters – help sanitize php variables

Internet is full of spam bots, autosubmitters, malicious users and worms that can compromise the security of your website at any given time, therefore you should be suspicious of any data you receive via GET/POST variable in your system.

Among the nasty things that could happen to your system when you don’t filter your data is, SQL injection, Script Injection, Email abusing and Remote Execution the attacker could deface your website or even wipe your entire database if you’re not careful with it.

One of the way to filter your data is to use preg_match to write regex rule for the variable that would be accepted.

However I find writing preg_match sometimes can be tiring, and that’s why I use owasp php filters to simplify the work for me. It consists of one function sanitize(), that take the variable that you want to filter and an option.

The option may be any of this value PARANOID,HTML,INT,FLOAT,LDAP,SQL,SYSTEM and UTF-8 that filters the type of data accordingly. For example if you want your variable to contain only floating-point number, then you can code it like this :

< ?php

require('sanitize.inc.php');

$var=100.50;

$float = sanitize($var,FLOAT);

?>

I isn’t much, but surely it will simplify your php coding a bit more, the other option is self-explanatory save PARANOID, which means that the variable will contain only alphanumeric character after sanitize.

SQL is handy if you want to include the variable value inside an SQL statement, this will avoid the risk of the notorious SQL injection which will affect the security of your data.

you can download OWASP PHP filter here

[tags]php,security,filters,mysql,sql,sql injection,injection[/tags]