PLiKhost Web Blog

If you are mostly familiar with Windows computers, you may find the way your Linux dedicated server uses memory to be odd or even alarming. When I first started using Linux on a server, it was a bit disconcerting to see Linux use up all of the available RAM. This is much different than the [...]

ImageMagick is a powerful software suite that gives users the ability to create, manipulate, and process images in a variety of formats, including JPEG, TIFF, and PNG. It comes with a collection of command line tools for batch image conversion and many other tasks. It also serves as a frontend for a plethora of image [...]

If you stare at the list of running processes on your server for long enough, you are bound to come across the user called “nobody”. Before you call a security expert and prepare to fight off a hacker, relax. While the username “nobody” may seem suspicious, it is actually supposed to be there. On a [...]

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) servers normally require authentication. A user must login, providing a username and password, and the session will last only as long as the user stays logged in. Anonymous FTP provides users with the ability to access an FTP server without providing password authentication. At first glance, this may sound insane, but [...]

The seemingly endless number of possible mail server configurations is no surprise for most IT support personnel. Whether an organization is operating on a shoestring budget or is well-funded, mail servers are often crammed with unnecessary applications that take up too many precious resources. This dubious practice can cause the mail server to perform poorly [...]

64-bit architecture is not something new, but there are still a lot of 32-bit computers on the market. While high-end servers almost always have 64-bit Xeon, AMD64, Itanium, or PowerPC processors, when starting out, you may be faced with the choice between 32-bit or 64-bit. Which should you choose? Before you decide, you should first [...]

Protect Your Server with APF Firewall There are many firewall solutions out there, and I do not pretend to be an expert on security. Nevertheless, I can testify from experience that some solutions are easier, more secure, and more affordable than others. APF(Advanced Policy Firewall) from R-fx Networks is one solution that has worked for me. [...]

One of the important tasks you should regularly perform when managing your dedicated server, is to monitor the running processes. While the “top” command will provide you with a glimpse of the most active processes, the “ps” command can give you all of them or the specific ones you want. As an introduction to ps, [...]

I had seen a post on Twitter about a bunch of MediaTemple accounts getting infected with this virus a few days ago, and it’s no surprise that the host hasn’t done anything about it yet. When I went to a client’s website during a call, Kaspersky caught the malicious code right away. Having a little experience [...]

When running a VPS or leased dedicated server, you may find that the timezone does not match your own. You may or may not also find that your new server has the correct date. With Linux servers, you can change the date and timezone with a few simple commands. Why is this important? When you [...]