http://forum.codecall.net/blogs/morefood2001/ CodeCall is where developers can come to share programming ideas, articles, questions, answers, tips, tricks, source code, and other topics related to programming languages such as C++, Visual C++, C#, Visual Basic, ASP, ASP.NET, Java, and more. en Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:49:09 GMT vBulletin 60 http://forum.codecall.net/images/misc/rss.jpg http://forum.codecall.net/blogs/morefood2001/ http://forum.codecall.net/blogs/morefood2001/178-shell-hosting-providers-review.html Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:00:00 GMT My final part of my hosting blog is going to talk a bit about irc hosting providers.  I have had a few shell hosts and thought I'd share my opinions about them.I will be talking about serverorigin, shellfx, outlandz, and sh3lls.  First, the worst shell company that I can talk about is serverorigin. (serverorigin.com)  A friend of mine had them before I did and warned me not to sign up because their support quit answering questions and he kept getting billed for his shell although he tried asking them to cancel it.  Unfortuantely, I didn't take the warning and got them based on other good reviews I found on google.  It took them a week to get me a login, and when I requested a cancellation, no response.  To make a long story short, Paypal got my money back.  Unfortunately, they didn't quit trying to bill me, so paypal put a stop on their account from billing me, and I got 10 threatening emails from server origin claiming they were going to the collections agency, but i responded with please cancel my account and no response, just another email saying I owe them money.  Finally those quit.  I can't stress enough to not get a Server Origin shell!Up next is outlandz.  Once again, for podnet, we thought we would get an irc shell from this company who is the best rated shell company currently.  We did get the shell and had frequent ping outs and server reboots .  Within a month, we got our money back and didn't go back.  I would not recommend them for anything vital.Sh3lls (sh3lls.net) is probably the best shell hosting company that I know of.  I had an account with them for a year hosting an eggdrop irc bot.  It rarely pingged out, and I have nothing bad to say about them.  Their support responded within 6 hours to most problems that I had.  I would go back to them again if I needed to.Finally, shellfx (shellfx.net).  When I got my vps from vpslink, I needed room for a java bot, but couldn't host it because java bots require a lot of RAM.  Because of this, I went to shellfx and requested a custom account.  For the price of their normal irc shell, I am allowed to run this java bot.  It pings out once in a while, but not frequent enough to say so.  Overall, I'm very happy with their service and would recommend them also.Thats all I have for my final installment of hosting services that I've tried.  Hopefully this helps you make the right choice in hosting! ]]> morefood2001 http://forum.codecall.net/blogs/morefood2001/178-shell-hosting-providers-review.html http://forum.codecall.net/blogs/morefood2001/177-vps-hosting-reviews-part-2-3.html Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:00:00 GMT Today is my installment for Virtual Private Server Hosting.  I have been hosting with VPS machines now for approximately 2 years and overall, I am very satisfied with my service overall.  Hopefully this will give you an idea about what to look for in hosts.I am going to review: amerihosting, vpsempire, cheapvps, vpslink, vpsville, vpsrepublic since I have had all of these at one point or another.  I am also going to explain xen vs openvz vs virtuozzo vps platforms and run over some other providers that you might like to know about such as control panels.This time I am going to start with vpsrepublic (vpsrepublic.com).  When they existed, they were a very cheap host located in LA, and they had good service and uptime.  I only had them for a few days before they told me they wouldn't let me install ubuntu to my vps, so I dropped them.  I went back there today and they have disappeared, so obviously, they were a short term host.  Average price was 5 bucks for a vps.Next up, I am going to review vpsempire.  (http://vpsempire.com/).  They started last March I believe and had very cheap prices (5 bucks a month for a decent chunk of space and resources).  My original reason for going with them was for a backup irc server just incase the main one went down.  It worked great for the first week, then they got sold out to cheap vps.  Cheap vps rewrote the irc rules, so I kept them for the remainder of the month, then left.  Overall, while I was with them, I had no downtime and no complaints.  If you are looking for a test server, perhaps they are your ticket, but I'd give them another year before trusting them with any kind of real tasks.Onto cheapvps (http://cheapvps.co.uk).  Cheapvps is based in the uk with 2 datacenters, one in the US and one in the UK.   John and I have a joint vps in the US Chicago datacenter for our virtual sandbox to test new unix programs and administration procedures.  For 10 bucks a month (after a promo), we get 20GB of storage, 256MB of ram, and ubuntu.  So far I have not seen downtime (it is monitored) and its incredibly easy to backup and reinstall the operating system (centos, fedora, ubuntu, etc) via hypervm.  So far, we have had this server for a month with no complaints.  If you want a cheap server for storage or as a backup solution, I'd highly recommend cheapvps.  Now lets cover the irc servers.  Vpslink and vpsville both allow irc on their vps machines.  I am going to start with the lesser of the two, vpsville.  Vpsville (www.vpsville.ca) is based in canada.  They offer cheap vps machines for the terms they have for them.  You are allowed to host a private irc network on their vps machines, and that is why I got them.  In the time I've had them, I have had little downtime and no complaints.  Their support is excellent, responding within 5 minutes to most of my problems (look before for a description of what they support).  Vpslink (vpslink.com) hosts 2 vps servers for podnet in 2 separate data centers.  For the terms of their service and the time they've been around, they looked like the best bet for hosting podnet's irc server.  vpslink gives no burst ram and offers both xen and openvz unlike most providers so you have a choice.  Xen is much more stable compared to openvz, and I will explain the differences later.  If you go with vpslink, I recommend getting above 128MB of ram because they include no burst ram for openvz, and the xen swap space is very slow.  Overall, I'm quite happy with vpslink.Finally, for the past 3 years, I have been hosting my web hosting service with amerihosting (amerihosting.com/openvz.php).  Amerihosting does not publically put their openvz page out on the web because they only offer it via forums.  Their support response answers most questions (even ones that are software related) within a couple of hours.  I started with lxadmin hosting, but later got a cpanel license to make my life easier since lxadmin's email and dns didn't work half the time (I'm not sure why either).  Overall, I'm very satisfied with Amerihosting.Onto VPS platforms.  There are 3 major platforms for vps machines,
Openvz, Xen, and Virtuozzo.  I have had little experience with
virtuozzo, so I will just note that its a shareware solution (you have
to purchase licenses) and it easily integrates into plesk and helm. 
Virtuozzo supports windows server unlike Xen and Openvz. 

Xen is a platform that completely isolates your vps from the main
server.  You get your own virtualized hardware and hard drive, along
with swap space.  Unlike openvz, its completely separate from the host
server, so you can upgrade kernels, etc on it.  Because of this, it is
impossible to oversell the host server.

Openvz is my preference for hosting.  Openvz doesn't completely isolate
the guest operating system.  Instead, the guest shares the linux kernel
and hardware of the host with other guest machines.  Because of this,
ram can be shared back and forth and allow for burst ram, eliminating
the need for swap space incase your server runs out of memory.  This
however allows the host to oversell the server and use your memory for
other people.  Vpslink doesn't oversell their servers, so they allow no
burst ram.  I like this because my website doesn't need a full 512MB of
ram except for maybe 1 second of the day, so instead of getting a
memory full error, it works.  I also like how the linux kernel is
updated for me on this platform.

As for a vps control panel, I recommend staying away from lxadmin because it is still in development and I never had luck with email nor dns with it.  I would highly recommend getting a cpanel license.  Remember that with cpanel, it will run on 256MB of ram, but you will use burst ram frequently, so I'd also recommend 384MB of ram or more to prevent this.  I do not like using burst ram.Windows on a vps is a thought I never thought I would try, however about a year ago, I got a VPS from vpsisland.com.  That VPS was the slowest vps I ever used and therefore I would not recommend getting one from vpsisland unless you add a lot of ram and guaranteed resources.ADDITIONAL COMMENT added on November 10, 2008:About a month ago, I found this hosting offer from www.3dgwebhosting.com that gave a low range windows vps for 12.50 dollars per month.  I decided to give them a try to see if windows has changed much (not to mention I was thinking about changing my personal website over to ASP).  Although plesk was slow (and I ended up having them remove it), the vps was really fast overall and their customer service was excellent.  I would highly recommend them to anyone who needs a windows VPS! ]]> morefood2001 http://forum.codecall.net/blogs/morefood2001/177-vps-hosting-reviews-part-2-3.html http://forum.codecall.net/blogs/morefood2001/176-shared-hosting-providers-reviews.html Sun, 24 Aug 2008 04:00:00 GMT Today I suppose its time to give a thorough analysis of my experience with different hosts.  I have had several hosting providers in my 5 years in dealing with hosting and isps.  This is part 1 of my hosting service series!Back in 2004 when I was first looking at hosts, there weren't many hosts around, so I had 4 choices that I found, all of which I have used.  They included Yahoo, IPowerWeb, 3ix, and Bluehost.  Later on, I have also tried or seen host gator, host monster, webhostingbuzz, reyox, anhosting, a2b2, dot5hosting, and godaddy.  Perhaps the worst host out of the above hosts is Godaddy.  John a month ago ordered a godaddy hosting account with linux due to no TOS restrictions on file storage space.  We were looking for an off site ftp service.  Godaddy has a custom control panel that is in a secure section of their site, so over a sattelite link, the ssl connection will make their control panel very slow, on top of the already slow speeds of the control panel.  Once into the control area, they give you access to only your public html directory, and allow very limited control of your account.  FTP accounts are server wide, so they need to approve your account additions which takes a lot of time.  I also suspect that godaddy oversells their servers excessively due to the slow speeds.  I would never recommend them.  John requested money back, and luckily got it back after  7 days and a lot of verifications.Yahoo is very similar to Godaddy for hosting.  They hosted a client's site of mine for 3 years before I transferred them to my server.  Yahoo has their own custom panel, server wide ftp accounts, and very limited control over your account.  I managed to get the files off the server for this client via ftp, however ftp timed out frequently and it was very hard.  There was no online file manager to make and download an archive unlike godaddy.  I would not recommend Yahoo in the least.Next up is IPowerWeb.  IPW has been around the longest that I am aware of.  IPW uses VDeck for hosting.  Its very windows like and overall, I like IPW's hosting.  It was very easy to add / remove ftp, email and domain accounts.  I have not used windows through IPW, however I hear that windows is also great through IPW.  I only have one small complaint, and that is that their human verification system takes days to get your account set up, support times are roughly 3 to 5 hours via email and 30 minutes via phone.  I might recommend IPW under the right circumstances. (Ipowerweb.com)Dot5Hosting is a reseller of Ipowerweb hosting.  Their service is also great, however support times and speeds are not as great as IPW's, however are very acceptable compared to other hosting companies.I have seen Host Gator through a friend of mine.  (hostgator.com).  HG seemed to be a good quality host for the cost, and they had relatively fast support times.  They used cpanel, so most hosting requirements were easy to meet.HostMonster like HG, I have only seen through a friend's account.  Like HG, it has relatively fast support and good speed through the cpanel management system.WebHostingbuzz (webhostingbuzz.com): I was with them for 3 months on their budget plan.  I could not complain about their speed, support times, or cpanel interface.  They had support responses within 5 minutes, and they had speeds up to 20Mbps.  However, I found out why they can do that for so little, they scan their servers very frequently for accounts that don't link files to their website's main page through any other pages, etc.  They deleted my account for one image that wasn't linked to a page, which was there for no more than 2 days without a link.  I would not recommend them because of this unless you are careful.  I also got no refund for my year prepay. I also have tried Anhosting (anhosting.com), and I was satisfied with them enough to where I recommended them to John.  During my time with them, I had 10 minute responses to support tickets, a cpanel interface, and great speed that likely matched 20Mbps.  However a few weeks ago, John was cited for not linking his files to a page, and he had roughly 30GB of files, so I'm uncertain about how I'd recommend them.  I'd say they are ok, but don't store files on their site.A good friend recommended BlueHost to me years ago (bluehost.com).  Bluehost continually upgrades their service to bigger and better plans, and their ceo posts on his own blog and the forum.  Support times range from 10 to 15 minutes, while live support is generally quicker through their main website page.  My friend hosts a huge website, and allows me to store 10GB of my own files there also.  His entire account in cpanel shows 45GB of disk usage and its been that much now for the past 2 years.  Bluehost does not monitor their servers for disk usage unless someone else complains.  Bluehost uses cpanel and only the latest hardware.  I would recommend bluehost for a high end, affordable host with lots of features.  They even installed a custom php extension for us within 12 hours!a2b2 hosting is my main backup storage host.  I just got an account through them because of affordable backup space.  So far I have not had any complaints, however at this this point, I can't decide in favor or not of them.Back in 2005, when I wanted an affordable windows host, I turned to reyox.  Reyox was a great host, centered in Jacksonville, Florida.  I actually was invited into their facility to see my server while I was in Jacksonville.  Their support was very quick and friendly.  Their network was also fast.  Their main downfall was that they used Helm.  Helm is a windows control panel, and I had a lot of trouble using it to manage files, and I also had trouble with my reseller billing system that they set up for me.  I'd recommend them first if you want cheap windows hosting.  Much of their website has changed since I used them. (reyox.com)Finally, last but not least, my favorite host.  I started with 3ix.org for their price (who can beat 1 dollar a month today)??  (3ix.org) has always had 1 dollar hosting, although their plan was upgraded from 500MB in 2004 to 10GB today.  Their site however is mainly unchanged.  Their support times range from 1 hour to 6 hours, and this isn't bad for their price.  Phone support is nearly instant, but I hope you can understand their broken english.  Overall, their cpanel interface is great, and I still have 2, 1 dollar accounts with them for stuff that I'd rather keep off from my dedicated technology.  I'd strongly recommend them to any beginner with registration services from godaddy.  Domain Registration Time: Yahoo and godaddy are also domain registers.  I strongly recommend their domain services.  Another domain provider that uses a godaddy interface is fxdomains (fxdomains.com).  I also like dnsexit (dnsexit.com) because they offer free dynamic dns with an updater software so you can host from home.  Ipowerweb also provides very cheap domain registration, however I moved my domains from them because their domains take 3 days to set up (on top of the 48 hour propogation period) since they human verify every order.  However IPW does have a nice, quick domain panel through their tucows reseller account.Thats all I have to say about hosting for now.  I have tried other hosts too but I can't remember their names, and their service sucked (response time spiked to infinity frequently!).Up next, I'm going to blog about vps hosting, look for that tomorrow :)  Overall, I recommend looking at a vps before hosting on shared hosting. ]]> morefood2001 http://forum.codecall.net/blogs/morefood2001/176-shared-hosting-providers-reviews.html http://forum.codecall.net/blogs/morefood2001/175-setting-up-windows-server-2003-domain-controller-dhcp-server-dns-server-wins-server-share-internet-connection-through-wireless-router.html Sun, 17 Aug 2008 04:00:00 GMT Setting up Windows Server 2003 as a Domain Controller, dhcp server, dns server, wins server, and share an internet connection through a wireless router.Since I am a system admin, every so often, I am required to perform a new server installation that won't screw up my existing network.  Since I thought others might benefit from knowing how to do this, I might as well blog about it.  I am going to also make this able to share a local connection to the internet via a usb verizon modem (already installed and connected).I am assuming that we have a brand new server 2003 installation with symantec antivirus corporate installed and fully updated to service pack 2.  Also, we are going to have the server connected to a new network, so perhaps pick up an old router and plug the server into its lan port.  Make sure the router has ip 192.168.0.2 and has dhcp turned off.Now on the server, goto control panel > network connections> local area network (the one that the router is on), goto properties of tcp/ip.  Set ip to: 192.168.0.1 and subnet to 255.255.255.0, gateway should be 192.168.0.1, and the dns server should be 127.0.0.1.  Click ok to any messages and get back to the desktop.  The network setup is now complete.Goto start>all programs>administrative tools>manage your server.  Click on Add or remove a role.  At this point, your windows server cd should be in the cd drive.  click next to the screen and wait on the wizard.  Click custom configuration since a typical config will mess up your ip / remote access settings.   Select Domain Controller (Active Directory), and click next.  Click next to run the wizard.  Click next in the wizard (gotta love Microsoft), click next again to the information, then select domain controller for a new domain, and click next again.  We want a domain in a new forest so click next.  the full dns domain name should be one that you want.  It can be an internet domain or a local domain.  For this, I recommend using a local domain, so I put in buffalo.matthouse.local. Click next, then you should see the netbios name.  For this, I am going to enter MATTHOUSE, but use this as your domain identifier for windows 98 machines, etc.  The folder locations are fine, so continue by clicking next.  click next to system volume and the next screen. At this point, we want to install and configure dns now, so leave that selected, and click next.  Now you can make your server compatible with windows 95/98, I highly suggest you select only 2000/2003 domains (the default) because it still seems to work fine on windows 98 for file sharing (I have never verified actual domain logins).  Now you can enter a password for Active Directory Restore Mode.  This is the password that will let you back up / uninstall the active directory controller.  enter this password and hit next and next again to the confirmation.  Then wait a few minutes then click finish, then click restart now, it should restart the server.When the server restarts, you will notice it takes forever to prepare network connections.  This is normal since active directory is built to handle high traffic and sets up your network card each time to perform at its maximum throughput.  Once it gets to the login screen, hit ctrl alt del and login.  Click finish to the wizard.  Now go back to the manage your server screen unless it automatically comes up.  Now click add or remove a role again.  click next, and select wins server.  click next again.  Now click finish. In the manage your server box, click add or remove role and click next.  This time select: DHCP server and click next.  In the wizard that pops up shortly after, click next, give your network address range a name, like Matthouse Addressing, and description like IP Address Range for Matthouse.  Click next.  Start IP can be between 192.168.0.3 and 192.168.0.254 (the total addresses given out).  Typical routers have a default range of 192.168.0.100 to 192.168.0.200, and since i intend on less than 100 clients, i will make this compatible and select start ip at 192.168.0.150 and end at 192.168.0.254, which will ensure enough addresses for my network and not conflict with a router if one is accidently added.now it will ask you for any exclusion ranges, since we planned ahead, there are none so click next.  Select a duration for computers to have addresses for, I kept it at 8 days, but you can go anywhere from 1 minute to 999 days.  If a computer has an address and it expires, it will simply renew that address with the server, so a low expiration time won't hurt your network.  Click next, and say you want to configure options now.  The router used by clients is going to be your gateway to the internet, and since its this computer, type in 192.168.0.1 and click add, then click next.now for dns servers.  Since this computer will be your primary dns server, type in 192.168.0.1 and click add, then click next again.  Net bios will be up now, this is your wins server, since this is your wins server, enter 192.168.0.1, click add, then click next.  Click I want to activate the scope now, click next then click finish.  Then click finish again. Now we need to configure some stuff.  First, lets configure dhcp to work so network computers can be connected to our router and get a valid address from the server.  in the manage your server screen, click manage this dhcp server.  expand your server by clicking the +.  Notice how the red is there.  Right click your server, and click authorize.  Now exit the screen, and reclick manage dhcp server and expand it again.  Now it should be green.  We can exit the window.Now click on manage dns server.  expand, then right click the server, click properties.  Now goto forwarders.  Add the following ip addresses (from opendns, a great dns service), 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220.  After you add both, click ok then get out of the dns panel.  You can also exit manage your server at this time.  Now we want to goto start>all programs>adminstrative tools>domain security policy.  goto account policies, and password policies.  change enroce history, max age, min age all to 0, min length to 4, and change complexity to disabled.  you can also change lockout policies also.  This way in active directory, you can enter a password like fish (my first password ever lol).  Now when you add a windows computer or share, your login is now controlled through active directory, meaning you log into a domain and access data on the domain.  From this remote profiles and desktops are possible, along with simple windows desktops that appear the same on every computer in your network.Now to share your internet connection.  This is perhaps the easiest step.  We simply want to goto the control panel > network connections and select your internet connection (like verizon's celluar modem connection in this case), goto the properties tab and share this connection.  It will change your ip settings around for your local network.  Connect the verizon internet connection and try plugging in a computer into your router and it should have internet access, and in the address bar of my computer: \servername should ask for a login (use your admin login for now until you set up one in active directory), and you will see your server's administrative shares.Now you can do other administrative tasks, stay tuned as I consider writing an addon for setting up file and printer sharing with active directory security groups.  I will also be writing about how to set up Internet Information Services 7 for applications sometime in the near future. ]]> morefood2001 http://forum.codecall.net/blogs/morefood2001/175-setting-up-windows-server-2003-domain-controller-dhcp-server-dns-server-wins-server-share-internet-connection-through-wireless-router.html