Server Sitters Tech Corner

ubuntu disable pointer can be controlled using the keypad

Paul — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 12:03:48 +0000

This has to be one of the most annoying “features” of ubuntu. Your computer rests or you restart it and some of your key pad numbers cause the mouse pointer to move instead of entering in numbers. I battled with it for a while and the solution is to go to:
System – Preferences – Keyboard – Mouse Keys – Uncheck – Pointer can be controlled using the keypad

However, uncheck that box and then apply the following fix which will permanently disable it. This fix simply stops it from resetting:

sudo vi /usr/share/X11/xkb/compat/complete
and comment out two lines:
augment “mousekeys”
augment “accesx(full)”

Actual File:
// $XKeyboardConfig$
// $Xorg: complete,v 1.3 2000/08/17 19:54:34 cpqbld Exp $
default xkb_compatibility “complete” {
include “basic”
augment “iso9995″
//augment “mousekeys”
//augment “accessx(full)”
augment “misc”
augment “xfree86″
augment “level5″
};

Save the file and you will have achieved victory over the keypad!

Duplicate emails in Outlook

Paul — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:22:11 +0000

They probably have a corrupt POP3UIDL.DBX file. Close outlook and delete that file. It will be recreated when you re-open outlook.

Please follow these steps on YOUR pc.

1) Click on “Start”

2) Highlight “Search”

3) Click on “For files or folders”

4) Search for “Pop3uidl.dbx”

5) Delete this file

This should correct the issue.

The .dbx file is a database file of downloaded emails. If this becomes corrupt it can cause duplicate emails or make old emails appear to be unread.

Count port connections

Paul — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:20:46 +0000

Here are some handy one liners that will allow you to check the number of connections to a port:

#check port 25
netstat -an | grep “:25 “| grep ESTABLISHED | awk ‘{print $4″\t”$5}’ | sort -n -k1

#check port 80

netstat -an | grep “:80 “| grep ESTABLISHED | awk ‘{print $4″\t”$5}’ | sort -n -k1

#check port 110

netstat -an | grep “:110 “| grep ESTABLISHED | awk ‘{print $4″\t”$5}’ | sort -n -k1

#check port 587

netstat -an | grep “:587 “| grep ESTABLISHED | awk ‘{print $4″\t”$5}’ | sort -n -k1

Here’s another great command that checks for the number of times an IP is connected to the server:
netstat -an|awk ‘{print $5}’|cut -d “:” -f1|sort|uniq -c|sort -n

sendmail attachment size limit

Paul — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 03:09:51 +0000

To increase the attachment size limit in sendmail you have to locate and update the sendmail.cf file. It’s usually stored in:
/etc/mail/sendmail.cf

# maximum message size

O MaxMessageSize=20000000

change it to what you want

restart sendmail
:
service sendmail stop
killall -9 sendmail

service sendmail start

hsphere recreate zone file

Paul — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 03:07:40 +0000

To recreate a specific zone file in hsphere:
Login to the cp server

su -l cpanel

java psoft.hsphere.tools.DNSCreator -m creation_method -[dz] -z domain.com

this will switch to the cpanel user and the following line then tells the DNSCreator to recreate the zone file for domain.com

How to use dig – DNS

Paul — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 03:05:12 +0000

Here are few examples of how to use dig from within SSH to query a nameserver:

dig domain.com @NS2.hostname.COM mx
This will query or ask ns2.hostname.com what the mx record is for domain.com

dig domain.com @NS2.hostname.COM
If you remove the mx it will simply reply with the A record for domain.com

curl disabel curl host verify

Paul — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 03:03:06 +0000

curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);

curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);

What is PPC – pay per click

Paul — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 03:02:05 +0000

Almost ALL of the major search engines now charge per visitor (pay-per-click) that they send to your site. All you have to do is visit their site or the site in control of providing their listings and setup an account. Then you add money to your account and choose a series of key words that you would like linked to your site such as: web hosting, hosting, internet, etc…

Then throughout the day/week/month you bid against other competitors on the rate you’re willing to pay. Each time a visitor goes to the search engine and searches for one of your keywords your link is displayed in accordance with your bid. For instance if one company is willing to bid/pay $0.50 per visitor their listing may be number on and if you were to bid $0.49 per visitor your link would follow right after theirs and so on. This allows you to control exactly where you are placed in the search engines at any given time and the bids are managed in real-time. Even the world’s largest search engine Yahoo.com – manages it’s first 3 listings for almost every keyword or combination of keywords this way. To rank within the top 3 listings at Yahoo.com you would have to establish an advertising account with Overture.com which is the search engine that controls Yahoo’s top listings.

Here’s a listing of some of the other popular pay-per-click search engines.

http://findwhat.com (now http://miva.com)

http://epilot.com

http://kanoodle.com

http://sprinks.com

http://pageseeker.com

http://bay9.com

http://sprinks.com

http://about.com

http://yahoo.com (http://overture.com)

ColdFusion Flash Forms

Paul — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 18:08:57 +0000

Enabling Flash Forms – via coldfusion

Setup a virtual directory that maps from the domains home folder to the system CFIDE folder -

Open IIS

Find the site

Enter the domain.com folder

Right Click –> New –> Virtual Directory – Click Next

Alias – CFIDE

Click Next

Path: Browse to the system CFIDE folder for coldfusion

Select CFIDE Click OK

Click Next

Permissions: Read, Run, Execute

Click Next

Click Finish

Restart IIS

Block access to files by extension

Paul — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 18:07:45 +0000

It’s often required to block access to files in a folder by the file extension. For example – customer has an outdated version of oscommerce that they refuse to upgrade. It requires the images folder to have the permissions 777. The only thing that should be stored in the folder is images. To ensure a script kiddie doesn’t upload php/html files and run them we’ll often add the following to the .htaccess file within the folder:

order deny,allow

deny from all

order deny,allow

deny from all

order deny,allow

deny from all

order deny,allow

deny from all

order deny,allow

deny from all

This stops script kiddies from uploading hacking scripts and then loading them in their browser.