Home Webserver Guide

I recently set up my home server again. I haven’t had it fully functional in quite some time as I’ve playing around with different software packages. This time around I decided to use The Uniform Server as my core and I have been very impressed. I collected a good list of links to the articles I followed to get everything running. Basically this is how it went in a step-by-step fashion:

• Signed up for a free DynDNS account and domain
• Bought an easy to remember dot com domain name at GoDaddy
• Forwarded my GoDaddy domain to my DynDNS domain
• Got my Windows XP server machine ready for use
• Assigned a static IP address to my XP machine on my home network
• Forwarded the right ports on my router to my webserver
• Opened up the right ports on my XP machine’s firewall
• Downloaded and installed DynDNS’s dynamic IP updater client
• Setup and secured The Uniform Server software to host my site
• Completed database setup and WordPress install for blogging

In addition to this, I wanted some advanced functionality. I set up Windows remote desktop so I can access the server from anywhere I have an internet connection. To secure this feature, I also installed OpenSSH. I didn’t realize until later that the SSH software also allowed me to run a secured FTP server for file transfers between machines. Sweet! For those interested, here are the articles I used to accomplish all this:

http://tinyurl.com/27l9t6 (Domain Name)

http://tinyurl.com/5mohge (Router/Firewall)

http://tinyurl.com/av55ub (The Uniform Server)

http://tinyurl.com/a9cnt (WordPress)

http://tinyurl.com/6y6ym (Remote Desktop)

http://tinyurl.com/d67p63 (OpenSSH Setup)

http://tinyurl.com/bgr5f (OpenSSH SFTP)

IIS Remote Desktop Connection

My basement network wiring is now functional thanks to a bunch of DIY cabling and a small switch I bought off eBay. This let me get my home server PC up and running. I think I will host another website from it. I have always used a VNC product to connect to my webserver in the past, but this time I decided to try Windows remote connection.

I found a great article by Tony Northrup on how to accomplish this task. It easily guides you through setting up the IIS components, changing the web TCP port (if you so desire), router forwarding, firewall exception reminder, and how to connect to a remote desktop. I ran right through it and had my remote connection up and running in no time. Now I can securly access my home server from anywhere the internets are.

Ubuntu Firefox – No Flash Sound

I recently started playing with the Ubuntu desktop again and really like it. After the install my sound was working fine, but I noticed there was no audio during flash videos (e.g. YouTube, Diggnation, etc.). I started Googling the problem and found that a component was needed to fix the problem. I searched Synaptic for the latest and greatest release of the libflashsupport module, and (after installing it) I was able to enjoy goofy YouTube videos again in all their audio glory!

Audible.com Disappointment

I listen to a lot of netcasts while driving and love my Sansa MP3 player. I have wanted to try Audible.com for a while to see what all the hype is about and got my chance today. They were offering a free Jules Verne audio book, so I said what the heck. I ran through their download manager setup and had the .aa file in my possession. It sounded great on the PC, but since I wanted to listen in my car I added my Sansa MP3 player (because it was supposed to be a supported) as an active device.

After many attempts (i.e. USB plugging, unplugging, and software restarts), the Audible manager couldn’t stay connected to my MP3 player (but my PC could) long enough to transfer the file over. I tried a second (generic) backup MP3 player I carry (not supported by Audible) and that didn’t work either. After some Googling I discovered that it is an extreme pain to circumnavigate the Audible DRM (to convert .aa files to MP3 manually/legally), so I gave up and deleted the Audible junk from my PC. I think I will try a competitor to see if they have a better structure/support for MP3 playback.

Crazy Busy Update #5

I am still here… I think. Life has been chaotic lately. Demanding school work, regular work, and a pair of sick children can make your head spin. Everything is slowly smoothing out – yea! I am still bouncing around the world of tech as well. I found a great Mac-like dock for Windows called RocketDock and it works awesome. I have been slowly working on my home projector unit and have it almost complete – just in time for football season! The case is fabricated and the internal air flow system has been figured out. I am going to give it a test run shortly. If it works as planned, a paint job will soon follow and then it will be put into full time service for the family (will post pics when I get a chance).

Video DownloadHelper Firefox Add-on

I really wanted to pull some great visual tutorials off the web for offline viewing, but the usual online video grabbing sites couldn’t latch on to the embedded video. I researched Firefox add-ons that might work and found the Video DownloadHelper. It functioned wonderfully and was super simple to use. Give it a try if you are looking for such a utility to augment your web activities.

Cool Portable RSS Reader

I have been using the Wizz RSS add-on for Firefox for a few weeks now and it does an okay job. I’ve noticed that the feeds don’t always update correctly and sometimes there is some major lag. I cruised by Lifehacker today and saw an article about the portable NFReader application.

It is super lightweight, portable (perfect for a thumb drive), minimizes to the system tray, and is very easy to use. I gave it a whirl and found that the feeds update very fast and are accurate. While it is pretty basic, NFReader does its job extremely well. It is my new RSS feed reader of choice and I love it!

Fiesta Online – Nice Style

I haven’t really gotten into MMORPGs that much, but I thought I would give the newest free programs a try. First on my list was Fiesta Online. It installed easily and the launcher auto updated itself. That was very nice and convenient. Getting into a server was smooth and painless as well, but it should be noted that there is a noticeable lack of character customization available.

The one thing I noticed right off was Fiesta’s fun and beautiful stylized graphics. It is like a cross between anime and a living comic book. Very cool. Just like Team Fortress 2, it shows that you don’t need cutting edge graphics to have a good game. Speaking of gameplay – Fiesta is very streamlined and simplistic (which I appreciate). There is the usual MMORPG grinding, but the folks I met while playing have all been very nice and fun to hang with.

Overall, I like the style and feel of Fiesta Online. Unlike other free MMORPGs, I have actually had a desire to come back to it and keep exploring. While character creation is limited, Fiesta does have an online store where players can purchase in-game items that specialize the look and feel of their avatars. I might just have to give that a try.

Firefox 3 Add-on Assistance

I migrated to Firefox 3 and realized my newly found MinimizeToTray program was not updated yet for the new browser version. After searching the Add-on reviews/help section, I thought I found the answer – but it didn’t work. I then found the following post from the Ultimate Chicken on how to get old Add-ons to work in Firefox 3 (slightly modified/extended for my blog post):

1. Save the .xpi file to your desktop
2. Rename the .xpi extension to .zip
3. Extract the contents of the .zip file
4. Open the newly extracted folder
5. Grab the install.rdf file and put it on your desktop
6. Delete the extracted zip folder and its contents
7. Open the install.rdf file with a text editor (Notepad)
8. Change the Mozilla Firefox entry from 2.0.0.* to 4.0.0.*
9. Do a plain save so the file retains the .rdf extension
10. Go to your desktop (updated install.rdf and original .zip s/b there)
11. Drag and drop the install.rdf file over the .zip file
12. Click yes to overwrite the old install.rdf file
13. Rename the .zip extension back to .xpi
14. You should now be able to install the .xpi in Firefox

Hopefully this will work for you if you are in the same sitaution.

Lighttpd Versus Apache2

Do you run a LAMP or a LLMP? When I jumped into the server realm I thought that Apache was the natural/right choice to use for my webserver. I found out that this isn’t necessarily true as Apache has some worthy competitors. A very popular one is called lighttpd and it is freely available for download and use. If you run an Ubuntu server like I do, lighttpd is in the repositories and is an easy install/setup.

After reading some blog and forum entries on the Apache versus lighttpd issue, I stumbled across someone who had actually taken the time to speed test different file size transmission rates on both webservers. It turns out that lighttpd can serve pages faster than Apache2. In some cases it was much, much faster. Therefore, I decided to change my LAMP to a LLMP. To accomplish this I had to remove Apache2, install lighttpd, and then configure CGI correctly. As you can see by the following entries, the change was simple and painless for me.

In the terminal, I ran through these four commands:
1) sudo aptitude remove apache2.2-common
2) sudo aptitude install lighttpd
3) sudo lighty-enable-mod cgi
4) sudo /etc/init.d/lighttpd force-reload

If you decide to go this route, you can test to see if lighttpd is now working. All you have to do is open your web browser (hopefully Firefox) and go to your localhost address (http://localhost/). You should see the lighttpd hold page instead of the Apache2 ‘It Works’ page. If so, you are golden! Happy lighttpd serving.