After the problems I was having with the USB I found out the reason for this was because of the major changes from Debian 3.1 to 4.0. I reformatted my more powerful server with the latest debian and installed the things that I needed to compile the kernel. I used this guide to help me with it but it was similar to how I compiled the kernel before. The reason for the reformat was so that it had all the software that it was going to use installed on it where as my main server didn’t because it was upgraded from Debian 3.1 Sarge. After about a total of 5 and a half hours both the servers had the latest kernel image and headers compiled for them that I later installed on the computers. After doing a quick test on them to see that the USB was working I was happen to use it. Next time I compile the kernel I will not have the server in my bedroom since it makes it fairly hard to sleep.
USB vs Kernel
Since upgrading the kernel on the main server I have found that it disabled the USB ports. This causes lots of problems since they are used for the printer and the zip drive. What I have done is updated to the latest kernel that debian provide to you and this has made some changes to the system such as changing the program that controls the USB ports. At the moment I have updated both to the newest debian kernel so that I have all the extra bits that came with it to hopefully allow the new compiled kernel to work with USB. Apart from USB the servers are working fine.
I have also been given an old computer to play around with that once I’ve had my fun I might use as a terminal station. That is a computer that is only used to access other network computers via command line. It’s a HP 712/80 running HP-UX 10.20 and I think it was made in 1994.
Kernel troubles
Yesterday I was working on both my server and upgrading the kernel for them. As I was uninstalling the old kernel I accidentally typed in the command for the wrong server. This resulted in the main server not having a kernel to boot but other than that it was fine. After working on it for about an hour and a half this morning I managed to get it to boot a kernel from a Ubtuntu LiveCD and then install the new kernel that I had compiled on the second server. Normal service has been resumed and all that is left to do is remove the Ubuntu kernel and reboot.
Logger
As of this moment I’ve decided that I will use this website to tell you about any project that I’ve been working on no matter how small it is. This way you get to find out more about me and what I can do. It also makes this website a big more interesting and helpful.
On Tuesday I decided that I will put a hit counter back on my personal website, www.cosmo1847.co.uk. I have done a hit counter before with PHP but the way they worked was to count everytime the script was loaded, meaning that when someone clicked refresh it would count them again. The way I got around this was by only loading the script when the first some one the website.
This was not what I wanted, I have progressed since then and I wanted a unique visitor counter so I would know how many people used my website. After looking about I found this guide which shows you how to make a unique hit counter using some files to store the information. Using this as a template I set about making a unique hit counter using MySQL and PHP. I used MySQL because it is more secure and as this will have to store IP addresses I don’t really want to leave them lying about in a readable format. The hit counter is now working on my personal website but it does not display the amount of visitors as I do not want them to know so I currently access via MySQL Query Browser, one of the tools I use for MySQL work.
ISP
This morning we changed our ISP from Orange (it was freeserve when we joined) to Demon Internet. The reason for the change was to get rid of all the spam that we have been getting over the years and to save money. Demon Internet is cheaper than Orange was and provided a better service with no download limits. At a later point when the server is generating income we may change to a static IP address meaning that the down time will be reduced.
Demon
I have just received an email today from Demon informing me that the our new internet package will be going live on Thursday. This will cause some disruption to the service as I will have to configure the router to connect to our new ISP. This will mean that we get a new IP address which will take black-flag.co.uk offline for about 20 minutes and cosmo1847.co.uk for an hour or two. The time taken will depend upon how long it takes to configure the router and connect to the internet.
WordPress spam
It has been brought to my attention today that there is a large amount of spam comments that wordpress has had but I do not allow comments to be seen unless I have approved them, the drawback of this is that I normally don’t notice that someone has made a comment. I am trying to get a plugin sorted out that will make you ask for an image before it will allow you to post. Until then the service will be temperamental as the MySQL database gets turned on and off.
6:30pm the same day.
I have been having problems with the counter measures I have install. What I am trying to do is get the wordpress system to ask the user what is written in a image that the server generates, this will prevent bots from being able to make comments. What I am doing now is removing all the comments from the database and closing all comments and pings for the posts, this is for all the wordpress system on this server.
Virtual Hosts
Virtual hosts allow me to host more than one domain pointing to the server and using different directories. Currently there are two pointing towards this server and I have just configured them so that both black-flag.co.uk and www.cosmo1847.co.uk now work as they did before the reformat.
Thank you for your patience
The server was meant to be up and running by this time last night. Within the past hour it has all come together with PHP5 and MySQL being brought online within the past half an hour of writing this. The server is not finished yet but Apache, PHP5 and MySQL are working so I have been able to change back to the main server. My second server has done a good job and I have been updating the homepage with news about the server update. Thank you for your patience.
Server Reformat
During the running of the server I have learned much about how programs work and the running of the server. Whilst learning to tend to make a little mess of things here and there and for this reason I am going to reformat the server to do a fresh start. This will be the first time that the server has been reformatted since October because I have found Debian GNU/Linux to be so stable. I will compile the programs and kernel from scratch to give me the latest software. If things all go well the server should be back up and working within a few hours but if they do not go well I will reformat it again and go back to square one.