Archive for the ‘Online Additions’ Category
Monday, March 8th, 2010
This weekend, I wrote yet another article, Linux Mail Server Software- A Comparison of Popular Mail Transfer Agents. I wrote this article, since many of my clients often ask me what the best Mail Transfer Agent, or MTA would fit their needs best. Although the article brings up some good points, it doesn’t get into a great amount of detail (as articles rarely do) about the different features of the many available MTAs. Here are some additional points:
- Qmail’s license is not an open source license, but instead is licensed under the public domain. As such, it does not come with a copyright license, which may restrict the ability to distribute Qmail.
- Postfix is easier to extend, with support for Sendmail’s milters. For instance, enabling DKIM support for Postfix is trivial.
- Although Postfix is faster at sending large volumes of email than Exim (“out of the box” configuration), You can easily improve Exim server performance.
- I’m still trying to figure out why Sendmail is still used on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (and why it is still the most popular MTA)- Sendmail is definitely going the way of the dinosaurs- with it’s cryptic configuration, and security nightmares.
- Zimbra, while not a fair comparison against the others, excels in group collaboration. I’ve never had a client disappointed with it’s feature set, or performance. While not the best solution for a high volume mail server, Zimbra is very good at making email easier to use, and more powerful (without that dreaded Exchange).
I’ll stop short of recommending a “one size fits all” solution- in the end, it all matters on YOUR needs, not the software itself. There is no true winners or losers- just different solutions. As always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions about which solution meets your needs better.
Here is the article:
http://linuxconsultant.info/tutorials/linux-mail-server-software.html
Tags: Linux Mail Server Software, Linux MTAs
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Monday, January 25th, 2010
It’s amazing all of the small stuff that you overlook when you develop and build a website. You think of functionality, cross browser compatibility (my websites are unique in that Firefox is the dominant browser), but rarely does it cross anyone’s mind to check for W3C compliance. Well, you can now rest assured-http://linuxconsultant.info is now fully W3C compliant.
Why not take the plunge, and check for W3C compliance on your site, using the W3C Validator? You might be surprised at it’s results (as I was on my site).
Eventually, I might enforce W3C compliance on all of my sites. A good thing about checking for W3C compliance is that you also learn how to write proper XHTML. A common mistake that I’ve made on about 90% of my web pages has been with using capital letters for tags (A, BR, P, etc), which is apparently against XHTML standards. I’ll be the first to say that I’m not a great web designer- but tools like this can help anyone be better at making their own webpages (or more importantly, making them cross browser compatible, and standards compliant).
So, enjoy your browsing experience at http://linuxconsultant.into, as it’s now fully W3C compliant!
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Sunday, September 20th, 2009
I wrote a new article this weekend that describes the most important features to consider when choosing a web host. Too often, I’ve seen clients that have been drawn into a cheap web host provider, only to find out that the network performance is horrible. Needless to say, poor network performance results in lost sales revenue, frustrated customers, and the stress of switching web hosts. To prevent my clients from making a poor choice when choosing a web host, I wrote this article.
One of the major resources noted in this article is Netcraft’s website. Netcraft provides a great web host comparison chart for free that is updated monthly. Netcraft compares response time (network performance) and uptime (network reliability) when it ranks the top web hosting providers. Finally, these results are tallied into a top 10 and top 50 web host table. This makes it trivially easy for anyone to compare web host providers. Simply put, there is no better resource available for comparing different Internet websites or web host uptime, and network performance, than Netcraft.
Hopefully, this article will help out a client or website visitor in their choice for a web host. Nobody likes a slow web hosting provider, and if you think slow website performance is bad- try SSHing into a slow web host sometime!
Here is the article:
http://linuxconsultant.info/tutorials/choosing-a-web-host.html
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Sunday, August 2nd, 2009
I wrote a new tutorial this week, called 5 Linux VPS Performance Tips, which I believe can help quite a few of my clients. This short tutorial shows the top 5 ways that a Linux System Administrator can increase the performance of a Linux server, just by following 5 easy tips. Too often, I’ve seen a client run a bloated MySQL installation that eats over 200 MB of RAM- RAM that they are renting from a VPS host at a premium price. In fact, following the tips in this tutorial can save 30-50% on a VPS hosting bill! Don’t take my word for it though, follow the instructions in this tutorial, and see the difference in memory usage for yourself.
Here is the tutorial:
http://linuxconsultant.info/tutorials/5-linux-VPS-performance-tips.html
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Monday, June 29th, 2009
I wrote a new article this weekend comparing and contrasting shared and dedicated hosting. Often, my clients are confused as to the impacts that a hosting platform can have, as far as performance is concerned. Many clients do not realize that a shared host typically has poor network performance at peak times, compared to a dedicated server. However, shared servers do have their appeal. Read the article for more information:
http://linuxconsultant.info/tutorials/shared-vs-dedicated-hosting.html
Tags: article, dedicated hosting, shared hosting
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
I wrote a new article today that gives some best practices for the old problem of access controls, and what to implement on a Linux server. Often through my work, a client will give out the root password to every coder, consultant, and admin that touches the server. Sometimes the client will change the password at random intervals, but usually this is not the case.
I wrote this article to make others more aware of the large threat that this poses to server stability and security. As outlined in the article, sometimes these access control restrictions are set in place not only for security reasons, but also for stability issues (in the event of an errant script).
Here is the article:
http://linuxconsultant.info/tutorials/access-control-restrictions-linux-best-practices.html
Tags: linux security, user account control
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Monday, June 15th, 2009
I wrote a new tutorial on my website about how to easily secure your Linux server today. The article is designed to point out the more common security flaws present in most of the servers that I work on (all of them easily fixed), in the hopes that more “administrators” and “consultants” will advise their clients to implement them.
I’m not trying to be “that guy” that makes it seem like most admins are lazy- but most admins do overlook basic or moderate security steps. They usually also cry out against strict security guidelines by saying that security breaks applications. While this is true for a novice, most seasoned administrators know what to not do when securing a server.
I can’t complain too much though I guess, since admins like this give me great job security!
Here is the article:
http://linuxconsultant.info/tutorials/6-steps-to-a-more-secure-linux-server.html
Tags: linux, quick security, server, server security
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