Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with web and server

Researching website options

titanium_geek — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:03:04 -0800

Researching options for all things website: hosting, domain name registration and DNS. Can you help me narrow it down? Hello Mefites, this is my first ask.mefi question. I'm writing a report for a 'professional writing' course. We will be assessed on the quality of the writing, not the content.

Scenario: you say "I would like a website for my small company."
I say: "Well, you need content (I have this covered), a domain name, and hosting."

What do I say next? I know I can google web hosting providers, but there are lots! What are the good and/or popular companies out there?

I have on the list already: GoDaddy (my own domain bought through them, looking to change.)
nearlyfreespeech.net
mediatemple

These are companies I've seen mentioned on my journeys around the web, but I'd like more recommendations please.

Help me create an RSS feed from a site updated daily

Merlin144 — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:12:24 -0800

How can I create an RSS feed from a wordpress site that doesn't add new posts, only updates the SAME post every day? Please direct me to online tools I can utilize based on specifics below. Specifics:
1. The website I want to create the feed from is: www.serveraday.com, which is updated every morning with a great dedicated server deal.
2. They update the SAME wordpress post from 6/25/2008 with the NEW information in this post each and every day. This prevents most feed creation tools, including feedburner, from updating a feed, as they think it's the same post.
3. I need to be able to set the tool I end up using to refresh on a daily basis, to capture the update on the site as soon as possible after it's posted.
4. I am not the owner of this site, just a person that wants to find great deals and share them through an RSS feed!

Thank you!!

How do I go about finding out how many servers (as a function of number of users) I will need to host my web application?

tomargue — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:33:39 -0800

I'm putting together a business model for my web application. As part of my expenditure, I need to estimate how many servers I need as a function of number of users. What's a good first step to finding this out? Depending on whether my application can support 100 concurrent users or 10,000 concurrent users, this will vastly change my estimates of server costs. I guess, in general, the number of concurrent users per virtual server will change dramatically depending on the type of web application[1], so I was wondering what the steps are to estimate number of servers required (presuming I can make a good guess of how many users will be online at any one time).

The first step I tried was load-testing my application to see how many users a single server can handle. My application is a GWT application (running on a GlassFish server) and I have actually been having a bit of trouble doing a load test due, in part, to the way GWT handles AJAX. That is, I tried jmeter, but ran into problems in the way jmeter encodes Content-Types. I was thinking if there was an easier way.

I was thinking about estimating the session size for each user then dividing Virtual Machine memory by that amount. But then, I'd also need an estimate on the CPU usage, too.

Maybe the numbers of users per virtual server doesn't change too much from web application to web application...and a "rule of thumb" exists: e.g., 1,000 concurrent users per server, or something like that. My gut instinct says such a rule doesn't exist...

[1] For those who are interested in the details, my web application is an online file manager and general life-organizer that uses hierarchical labels. At its most basic level it allows you to make to-do lists quickly: this would mean that the data exchanged between the client and server is minimal: text. But I've made it so you can also upload files, e.g., music files, and play them online: streaming data would be resource-intensive and probably hard to make a theoretical guess. That's why I'm thinking that load testing under a variety of conditions is the only true way to estimate number of concurrent users. In which case, any suggestions on how to load test GWT applications would be highly appreciated.

Am I on the right track? If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear.

How can I rewrite the image paths on my web server?

kirkaracha — Thu, 21 May 2009 17:09:12 -0800

How can I rewrite the image paths on my web server? I recently moved a site into a CMS and different web server. The images are in directories like this:
/daily/2009/05/

The web pages sometimes link to images like this:
[img src="/daily/2009/05/"]
And sometimes they link to images like this (without a leading slash):
[img src="daily/2009/05/"]

That worked fine on the old server, but the paths are different in the CMS on the new server. Can I use .htaccess or something to rewrite the paths?

ping equivalent for web servers that reports http latency?

zippy — Sun, 03 May 2009 21:57:16 -0800

The equivalent of ping for http connections? I want to the equivalent of ping for webservers. I want to type in a simple command that generates 1 or more 1-line reports on the transaction: no. of bytes, response code, and round-trip latency.

For example, I would like to ask the tool to 'ping' my server once a minute for five minutes:

webping http://www.example.com/foo -i 60 -c 5

and see something like

1200 bytes (200) from www.example.com: seq=1 time = 240ms
1200 bytes (200) from www.example.com: seq=2 time = 240ms
1200 bytes (200) from www.example.com: seq=3 time = 240ms
1200 bytes (200) from www.example.com: seq=4 time = 240ms
300 bytes (404) from www.example.com: seq=5 time = 1500ms

Is there such a thing for linux/os-x? If not, is there a way to get what I want out of wget (shell / python munging of wget's STDOUT perfectly acceptable).

Web design 101

nicolin — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 05:36:16 -0800

How can I learn to create a website, a server, get the tools themselves ? I've been asked to create a website for a non-profit organization. I don't know much about designing websites (I've tried dreamweaver a few years ago) which means that I have to learn almost everything about it. Could you provide ideas, links, advice about creating a website from scratch ?
I don't need a thorough course to be able to become a designer, I just need the survival kit, including where to get free tools, how to set up a server.
Thanks !

My application requests an XML file and I need to plan how to host that file so it's always available and zippy

Your Time Machine Sucks — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 05:17:36 -0800

Please give me some input on web hosting planning for a small XML file which might get a lot of requests. I'm working on an application which allows the user to load an XML file. The XML is less than 2K and will probably be loaded once per usage session, which could happen a few times a day. I can't speculate about how many users there will be, but the outcome that I need to (over)plan for is the one where there are metric fuckloads right out of the gate.

How would you host this file to make sure it is always reachable and zippy? Would you trust one single hosting company to host it? Which one/which plan? Which hosts would you avoid like the plague? Or would you put your eggs in multiple baskets and have a couple of hosts which the app can try in sequence to see if they are reachable? I'm willing to pay for bulletproof uptime and reliability, doesn't have to be a cheapass plan, but it might not be cost-effective to pay for a hosting plan oriented towards customers who need huge amounts of bandwidth or root access rather than the ability to handle lots of simultaneous low-bandwidth requests of one dinky file.

Thanks very much for your input!

How can I study the server load/impact impact of my PHP scripts in a shared hosting environment?

jorlando — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:35:39 -0800

How can I study the server load/impact of my PHP scripts in a shared hosting environment? The hosting company isn't very helpful. I want to be proactive and not wait for a call that my scripts are causing trouble. Also want a website that isn't slow and unresponsive. The server is Apache2 w/PHP5

I'd like to learn in general terms about it but the specific case I have is as follows:

I'm building a website that does a lot of thumbnailing using phpthumb(). I send an AJAX request to the server to generate thumbnails and return a list of SRC tags. This puts a certain load to the server. phpthumb() caches the thumbnail so the load happens only once

I want to also have PHP look up and return the dimensions of the original image using getImageSize. This is additional load and caching wouldn't happen. If I do the lookup 100 times/second would it overwhelm the server?

Is it something I should be concerned about? I have no idea about how my scripts might affect the server. The site gets about 15k hits per day and is growing.

Thanks

Web Hosting With Generous Bandwidth Limits

jimmyjimjim — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:53:26 -0800

I need web hosting, and my needs are pretty narrow. I don't need fancy tools or applications, everything I'm doing is pretty much text. I don't need hand-holding or customer service. But what I DO need is to not have to worry that if any of my domains (I've got five or six) go viral, I'll be socked with $$$$ bandwidth overage bills. That happened to me once a long time ago, and I still have trauma scars. I realize that no hosting service can offer, like, infinite bandwidth. At a certain point, service would either cut off or else overage charges will cut in. But are there any web hosting outfits out there known to have particularly generous bandwidth limits, and reasonably priced overage charges beyond those limits?

Can I combine htaccess and session variables from other systems?

jpoulos — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:03:34 -0800

Web server question. Can I combine htaccess and session variables from other systems? (more inside) OK, bear with me here--I'm a page developer, not a server admin. I've got an apache system that uses htaccess and a .db file to grant access to particular directories. I've also got a set of users who aren't in the .db file, but will be logging in to another system (salesforce.com) and trying to access those restricted areas. Is there a way to allow the first set of users to continue logging in as always, but to allow a session variable that is established on the salesforce.com site to be passed, allowing this second set of users to access the area without having to log in again?

Apache2, mod_php, suexec security confusion.

odinsdream — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:58:46 -0800

Apache2 security theory; mod_php versus CGI php and the use of suExec: What is the non-theoretical problem with running Apache2 with mod_php and thus without using suexec on a dedicated system? I'm setting up a typical LAMP environment. I've used phpsecinfo to evaluate my current environment and implemented all of the recommended changes except for two, Group ID and User ID.

The distribution is the most recent Ubuntu Server with the mostly-default Apache2 configuration, and the mostly-default PHP installation, with the exception of the changes recommended by phpsecinfo.

These warnings indicate that my group and user ID numbers are below 100 (33 to be specific), and therefore may be a problem. I am not sure how to interpret this.

I followed the documentation links and was about to implement SuExec when I realized that this meant doing a lot of other reconfiguration, like not using mod_php, and that meant changing a lot of other things, etc.

This is not a shared system. It will only be used to host one company's applications through several virtual hosts. The applications will be PHP-based, and most frequently will use the Symfony framework. Apache currently runs as www-data, whose shell is /bin/false. SSH access to the system is by public-key authentication only and is further restricted at the daemon level to only specific real users.

What do I need to do to run this securely? Resources, guides and real-world examples would be greatly appreciated.

getting .htaccess to do httpd.conf's job

holgate — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 03:37:58 -0800

Mod_rewrite and subdirectories and subdomains, oh my! I'm using a hosting service (Lunarpages) that maps the document root of subdomains to a corresponding subdirectory in the primary domain root (i.e. the public_html directory). Thus: sub1.mysite com has mysite.com/sub1/ as its / directory.

I've also got sub2.mysite.com, which has its document root automatically and unalterably set to mysite.com/sub2/. I would like URLs to sub2.mysite.com to be rewritten so that they go to sub1.mysite.com. A standard external redirect isn't going to work in this case, because the code in /foo/ needs to parse the incoming subdomain.

Got .htaccess, anyone?

(This is, of course, something that would take 0.3s to solve if I could get at the bloody httpd.conf.)

Free Home Chess Server

ps6000 — Thu, 08 May 2008 08:15:42 -0800

I am looking for Chess Server software to run on a home web server. I am looking for free(as in beer) chess server software for a home webserver. I want to play chess with some people, and I cannot use a public game server.

I would like the users to be able to play the game via a web interface with no installation of software.

Ideally it would have some cool admin options allowing for saved games, multiple games, and multiple users.

I would like the server to be Multiplatform or at least run on Windows.

Powerful, Web-friendly media indexing?

mykescipark — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:36:51 -0800

I work on the production team for a long-running public radio program. We have a massive archive of shows in digital format (MP3 and AIFF) which we need to collate into a powerful and highly flexible database - something like iTunes, but much more advanced. Does a program exist to do this? The program should meet the following criteria:

- Simple interface (usable by audio pros and administrative staff alike)
- Resides on a server (audio files can be shared and accessed on-demand by multiple users)
- Web-interfaceable (outside users can log on and access database via the Web)
- Streaming and preview capability (users can listen to files before pulling from server)
- Flexible indexing and search (can be searched or sorted by media type, artist, show name, etc.)
- Permissions capabilities (files are "read-only" to most, but read/write to certain key staff)
- Supports (and, preferably, generates) ID3 and other media tags

At the moment, it is strictly for internal use only, but there is some possiblity that we will convert it into a storefront in the future so folks can buy archived shows directly from the database ... but I'm not worried about that right now.

Is there a really high-powered media indexing program that can do all of these things? Or at least a significant subset of them?

Where can I find recommendations for my new server?

media_itoku — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:46:24 -0800

I've been offered funding to buy a shiny new web server. Now the Chair wants me to give her some specs/costs. How do I go about giving her a ballpark figure? This machine will be serving an online academic journal with a lot of multimedia content; it needs to be super-stable and not burn out in a hurry since this is a one-time grant. Now, obviously given my druthers I'd go nuts and get a Mac Pro and OSX Server. But, short of that, where's the best place to look for advice? Must be Mac or LAMP; no Windows.

& of course the Dean did not give me a budget amount.. we're playing Budget Chicken!

LAMP/Windows Comparisons

kirkaracha — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:27:41 -0800

I'm looking for good, neutral, non-dogmatic comparisons of LAMP and Windows for building and hosting database-backed web applications. Comparisons of cost, security, stability, and maintenance would be especially helpful.

Why won't they let me use Outlook?

thinktwice — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:17:04 -0800

Any particular reason a company would not allow access to MS Exchange via Outlook and/or cell phone only allow access via Outlook Web Mail? I am working for a small company and they are forcing me to use Outlook Web Mail. I want to use Outlook 2007 to manage my contacts, calendar, etc. I asked he IT guy and he says no way.
What is the point of having MS Exchange server if you can only access via IE? Moreover, I can't even change column widths in Web Mail. Or add contacts. This seems totally weird to me?

So I'll ask to community, is there any legit reason NOT to allow any employee to access Exchange via Outlook and/or phone (Blackberry/Treo)?

Pedos bad! Linking bad! Help!

miqueltegler — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 14:35:23 -0800

File this under disgusting. A pedophile site is linking to my friend's business site. They've been contacted to take the link down. Is there any other option to block unacceptable linking like this?

How can I get a list of all files in a directory on a webserver?

newatom — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 08:09:28 -0800

I think the title explains it all: I'm looking to get a list of all files in a specific directory from a web server- www.site.com/docs/. The thing is, there's an index.htm file in that directory so if I browse to it, I just get the index file. Is there any way to find out the names of all files in that directory, scripting or otherwise? I don't have access to the system other than through the standard web interface(ie: no shell, etc.) Any ideas?

Temporary free server space?

croutonsupafreak — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:57:50 -0800

How can I get free web hosting for a few days or a week, just so I can post a message explaining why my web site is gone until I can work out a new permanent server situation? My brother has been allowing me to mooch of the server he uses for his business. After a dispute with the company hosting his web presence, he's been booted from the server and my page has gone off line. My brother promises I can mooch off him again once he gets new server space set up, but it could be a few days or a week. In the meantime my URL won't load.

I have a few hundred weekly readers, a few dozen daily readers, and I'd like to pull together a temporary web site just explaining what's going on until I can re-establish the full journal on its new server. Is there any way to do this for free or ultra-cheap?

We used to host my web site from home, but after getting hacked rather maliciously I'd rather leave this stuff to professionals.

There are a lot of google hits for this kind of stuff, but I don't know how to evaluate whether any are reputable.

Protecting mah bandwidth

calhound — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 20:12:11 -0800

Website admin question: I want to put up a website with about 10000+ charts. I don't mind people copying images, but how can I protect against a site sucker barging in, scooping them up, and killing my bandwidth? I wish I could generate a bunch of static HTML pages with simple IMG tags, but I'm guessing this isn't possible. What might PHP have to offer for protecting my content from site suckers?

Redirecting with htaccess

fightorflight — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 09:33:14 -0800

Taking a site offline with .htaccess. I have a server which is running in production, but I want to take it offline for some maintenance. While I want everyone who calls at any URL to be redirected to index.html, I want admins to be able to view the site in full. I think something like this in .htaccess:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
RewriteRule [regexp to rewrite anything.php to index.html]

where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is a permitted IP address should work, but it seems not to. Any help? Even if the solution only allows access from localhost (I can run lynx on the server) it'll do fine.

Web server hardware requirements

RedMosquito — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 07:03:30 -0800

How to calculate hardware requirements for a load balanced web server cluster? The web servers will be running Windows 2003 with a back end DB server, I want to support about 1000 simultaneous connections per server. The web application is fairly AJAX intensive. Not sure how I go about determining what sort of hardware I need for the servers, any ideas or suggestions?

Generate email response from database.

Nothing — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 14:37:27 -0800

Is there a free simple web to email gateway or scriptable email responder that will run on windows server 2003? I need to generate an email report based on the subject of a recieved email (an id number) and send it back the the requester. And I need to check the requester's email address against a user database.

The website already generates the same report on a web page, but web access is not always available to my users. The report has to be generated upon request, it can't be generated on a schedule.

The mail server is the very simple one built into windows server 2003. I don't have access to Exchange or anything like that. I thought of just watching the mailbox directory and triggering a program when a message showed up, but I don't have the windows programming skills to do that.

The easiest thing would be to load the web page, save it, and send it back as an attachment. Is there an easy way to do that? The web is full of autoresponder programs for spammers that do nothing at all like what I need.

Looking for a simple web site monitoring tool

RedMosquito — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 14:48:39 -0800

I'm Looking for a simple windows-based web server monitoring tool (preferably free) that can sit and run (as a service would be nice) and ping a remote website at a pre-determined interval and just fire off an e-mail notification if it does not get a response. I checked out IPCheck but it does way more than I need. Any suggestions?