There are a plethora of file storage and file sharing services available on the web. Many of them are free for a limited amount of space (often around 2 to 5 GB). For a lot of people, this type of service is sufficient, but if you want your own file storage system, need a lot more space, do not want to pay a third party service, and already have your own web hosting account for your website, ownCloud is a free and open source option you should definitely consider.

Installation

ownCloud is a simple PHP web application that will work on most Linux and Unix servers. A typical installation server will have Apache HTTP Server and MySQL or SQLite (if you do not want to use a database server). If you are running your own dedicated server or VPS, your Linux distribution may already have the ownCloud packages in its default repository. For example, to install on an Ubuntu server, simple type:

sudo apt-get install owncloud

It will automatically install dependencies, such as Apache, PHP, and MySQL. Once the installation is complete, you can point your browser to http://yourdomain/owncloud and start the “First Run Wizard”.

To install ownCloud manually, do the following:

1. Go to owncloud.org and download the latest version
2. Extract the contents of the archive to your computer. If you have SSH access to your server, you can upload the archive first and extract with

   tar -xjvf owncloud-2.x.tar.bz2

3. Copy the extracted files to the directory of your choice within the web-accessible documents directory of your server (i.e. public_html, htdocs, etc.)
4. Set the permissions. If you have a shared hosting account, use FTP or SFTP to create a directory called “data” and set the permissions to “750″. Then, set the permissions of the “config” directory to “777″. If you have root access, you can use this command:

   chown -R www-data:www-data owncloud/

   Replace “www-data” with whatever the name of your Apache user is.

5. Point your browser to http://yourdomain/owncloud to complete the installation
6. Enter a username and password for your administrative account
7. If SQLite is detected, ownCloud will use it by default. Alternatively, you can enter your MySQL database information in the “Advanced” section.

Using ownCloud

The software for ownCloud was developed by some of the developers of KDE and is designed to work with free and open source operating systems, unlike some proprietary cloud storage services. You can use your web browser to upload and manage files, but you can also use WebDav to connect to your files directly from your desktop file manager.

In Dolphin, follow these steps:

1. Click the “Network” option in “Places” or go to “remote:/”
2. Click the “Add Network Folder” button
3. Keep the first option, WebFolder (webdav), selected and click Next
4. Give the connection a name and enter your ownCloud username
5. In the “Server” box, type your full domain name
6. In the “Folder” box, type the relative path to your owncloud installation (i.e. /owncloud/webdav/owncloud.php)
7. Check the box next to “Create an icon for this remote folder”
8. Click Save and Connect.

After entering your password, it should connect to your ownCloud folder. You can now drag and drop files just as you would with a folder on your computer. Moreover, KDE apps are all integrated and should be able to use the folder as well.

Cloud Freedom

ownCloud gives you the freedom to use the cloud on your terms however you want. You can access your files from anywhere, just as you would with a proprietary cloud service, but the files and software are yours. You will not have to worry about privacy or the safety of your data. For more information about ownCloud in general, visit the project’s website. For more detailed install instructions, including those for other operating systems and web servers, see this page.

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1. Use MSConfig

If you haven’t heard of MSConfig, get familiar with it. This tool is absolutely essential in managing many aspects of your computer’s behavior during its boot time. If you don’t know how to get to it, use the following process:

1. Press “Win + R” on your keyboard. The “Win” key is next to each “Alt” key, away from the space bar. This brings up a dialog that looks like this:

If you can’t find the “Win” key, or your keyboard doesn’t have one, type “run” in the search bar at the bottom of the Start menu and press “Enter”.

2: Type “msconfig” in the dialog and press “Enter” on your keyboard. This takes you to the MSConfig screen I’ve been rambling about. Once inside, click the “Startup” tab. If you recognize a program that you don’t think you need to start up when Windows boots, clear the checkbox next to it.

Additionally, you can click the “Services” tab to disable services you know you don’t need. You must be absolutely sure that you don’t need the services and programs that you disable, or else you end up disabling something your computer needs to function properly. The consequences might make the operating system lose some functionality, but you can usually recover from this by enabling services again using the same method in this step.

3: If you use two or more operating systems on your computer and manage the boot sequence through your current Windows installation, go to the “Boot” tab and type a lower number under “Timeout.” The default timeout for Windows is 30 seconds. This makes the computer boot faster only if you plan to leave it unattended after you turn it on.

2. Device Manager

When you see the loading screen in Windows that says “Starting Windows”, the operating system loads all of your device drivers and essential services. Obviously, disabling some of the drivers that Windows loads will help speed up the loading time a bit. To do this, you must enter the device manager within Windows 7:

1: Click the Start menu and then “Control Panel”.

2: Once inside the control panel, click “Hardware and Sound.”

3: Under “Devices and Printers,” click “Device Manager.” This opens a window that shows you all the devices attached to your computer. Windows has to load drivers for each one of these devices.

4: Expand any of the device categories and explore which devices you don’t use. Right-click on any device you want and click “Disable.” This tells Windows to ignore the drivers for that device. Make sure you don’t disable any devices that your computer needs to function properly, such as the network interface or display adapter.

3. Delay Services

Let’s face it: You need the majority of the services that run on Windows’ startup. If you don’t think you can brave disabling the services, you can always delay them. When you delay a service, Windows ignores the service until enough resources are free to start the service. Once Windows finishes booting, it then loads every service you delayed. To put services on hold when Windows starts, you need to access the Services dialog in Administrative Tools:

1: Access the Control Panel using the same process mentioned in the previous tip.

2: Click “System and Security” and “Administrative Tools”.

3: In the new window that opens, double-click “Services.” Once in the “Services” dialog, right-click any service you want to delay and click “Properties,” as in the image below.

4: Click the drop-down menu next to “Startup Type” and click “Automatic (Delayed).” Don’t do this to services that already have the “Manual” startup type. That just swamps your computer with unnecessary services. Check the image below if you have no idea what I’m talking about.

5: Click “OK” and repeat this as many times as you need to. Just don’t disable a service you’re not sure of.

4. Hardware Upgrades

While you might get away with some changes in your operating system configuration, you still may need to get new hardware for your PC. Suggested upgrades include new or additional RAM (memory) and a solid state drive (SSD). Both upgrades will raise the input/output capacity of your computer per second. Getting faster or higher quantities of RAM will always speed up the boot process, since Windows uses this piece of your computer overwhelmingly when booting.

The hard drive, on the other hand, is the slowest part of any computer, particularly because its functions rely chiefly on moving electrical parts instead of transistors. If you suspect that your hard drive is dragging down the speed of your computer, your only solution could be a solid state drive, which is completely built on transistors and memory cells. These drives usually perform up to twice as fast as a regular hard drive. Be aware, however, that some solid state drives might perform more slowly with algorithmic file processing/decompression than regular hard drives. You’re guaranteed, regardless, that you’ll get a faster boot/run time than a regular hard drive.

Although the processor regularly doesn’t affect boot time, it might slow you down anyway. To check this, open your task manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) while Windows boots and monitor CPU usage through the entire duration. If you constantly see the CPU usage at 100%, it’s time to get a new CPU. Note, however, that CPUs need to use the same socket number as your motherboard. You might have to replace your motherboard also in order to fit a newer next-gen CPU. If you’re not comfortable making this upgrade yourself, you’ll have to pay someone to do it. Just remember that the sooner you get this over with, the better your experience with Windows will be.

Photo Credit: flickr

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A Bit About “The Cloud”

As with many tech buzzwords, you might get a different definition of this term from each person you ask. Some might describe it as a way of scaling your computing resources to fit your needs.

Let’s say ABC Books, a local book store wants to run a site where their customers can buy books online. The “traditional” approach would be for someone to dust off a server, install an OS, run a webserver application and load their site on it.

When virtualization was becoming popular, people started using another method called the Virtual Private Server or VPS. With this method, you can have multiple operating systems running on the same machine, each with their own setup and applications.

This allows each user to have full control over their system, but without the expense of dedicated hardware. ABC Books, our example complany, would likely save money by switching to VPS, as they don’t need the server’s full power and can share the cost with other users. The “cloud” method takes virtualization even further. Since you’re already virtualizing the software, what happens if you virtualize the hardware too? The essence of cloud computing is taking a huge collection of computing resources and intelligently assigning them as needed. Take this diagram for example.

You can see that most of the portions are different sizes. ABC Books might only need a portion of one server, but Bob’s House of Free iPads might generate more traffic and need multiple servers. One of the greatest benefits of cloud computing is that you can scale your resources up and down as needed.

Let’s say a huge celebrity talks about their love of ABC Books, and suddenly the site is getting hundreds of times the amount of traffic it normally would. Their dedicated server is probably not equipped to handle that. Likewise, a VPS (though more flexible) will still need a hardware transfer or upgrade to keep up. A cloud based server, however, could just be “turned up” to handle the excess traffic. When the buzz has died down, you just reduce your resources back to normal.

Signing up for EC2

Note: The free account is indeed free, but during the signup, you will be asked for credit card information. See Amazon’s terms for details.

Log in or create your Amazon EC2 account. Unfortunately, new user registrations can sometimes remain pending for several hours.

Once your Amazon Web Services account is set up, you can access your management console by clicking the Sign In to AWS Management Console link in the top-right corner of aws.amazon.com or clicking here.

Creating an Instance

Once your account is activated and you’re able to access the AWS Console, you’ll probably want to start by creating server instance to run some software.

The first thing you’ll be asked to do is decide on a base platform. The Amazon Linux is a good bet if you’re looking to demo the service.

The next page lets you set some details regarding your instance. You’ll probably want to leave these settings as they are, seeing as how the free tier only supports the Micro instance type, and Availability Zone should make no difference at this stage.

The next page, Advanced Instance Options, should be left at defaults unless you have a specific reason to do otherwise.

The last step of your Instance Options is the one where you choose tags. This step is optional, and nothing will be broken if you specify no tags, but it’s recommended to at least apply a value to the Name key to make this instance easy to identify.

The next step is to create a key pair. Instead of passwords, EC2 uses cryptographic keys to identify users. If that sounds confusing don’t worry, it’s really not that complicated. The first step is to name and generate a key pair, then download that to your computer. I’d recommend saving it to ~/.ssh/.

Once you’ve got the keys saved, you’ll need to make sure it’s private. You cannot skip this step, as SSH will refuse to use a publicly viewable key. It’s quick and easy to set this, just open your Linux or OSX terminal and type:

chmod 600 ~/.ssh/MyEC2Key.pem

and to actually use it to connect, go with

#You will of course have to wait until your instance is actually running
ssh -i ~/.ssh/MyEC2Key.pem root@your-ec2-dns-address.com

Finally, you’ve just got to open a hole in the firewall for your app. The dropdown list contains several common network options such as SSH, DNS, and of course HTTP. If you want to enter a custom port, here’s your chance.

Once you review and launch your instance, you’re set! You can now use SSH as indicated above to connect to your public DNS (highlighted in the screenshot below).

Conclusion

From here on out, it’s your “server” to deal with as you wish. Applications can be installed and removed however you see fit. The service is can be tailored to exactly the application you have in mind – anything from a web server to VPN gateway to a place to host your files. Good luck and have fun on the cloud!

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Note: The exact step-by-step procedure can vary from one OS to another. Whenever possible we will include details enough to work everywhere, but it’s possible your system may not behave exactly as indicated here. Additionally, Minecraft is still in development and is currently in Beta 1.4. Some of this information may change over time.

Basic Server Startup

While there is a Windows-format .exe file to run the server, all platforms can use the .jar file identically, therefor this guide will cover the .jar method. You will of course need a working Java installation on the machine which will be running Minecraft. For best performance and stability, Linux users are encouraged to use the official Java runtime instead of an open alternative.

If Java is installed and the .jar file is downloaded to an appropriate location, open up your command prompt/terminal to the location where you saved the .jar file. You’ll want to make sure the file is in its own directory, as it will generate several other files and directories the first time it is run.

To launch the server, enter the following command (all OSes):

#The -X options are recommended memory settings for improved performance
java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui
#The "nogui" option can be omitted if you'd like a GUI,

At this point, the server will generate the needed config files as well as a base world for players to join.

Configuring the Server

You may be tempted to load up the client and play right away, but at this point, nothing is configured. Shut down the server and take a look at the .jar file’s directory again, and you’ll see several new files.

Most are pretty self-descriptive. But for the sake of being thorough, here’s a summary:

• world – Directory containing map data
• banned-ips.txt – List of IP addresses specifically banned from connection
• ops.txt – List of Operator (admin) names
• server.properties – Main server configuration file
• banned-players.txt – List of banned players by name
• server.log – Server’s log file
• white-list.txt – List of players specifically allowed via whitelisting

The one we’re most concerned with is server.properties. This file holds pretty much all the configuration options the server allows. The default one looks something like this, but with comments added for clarity.

#Changing this will generate a new world folder with this name
level-name=world
#Toggles whether or not The Nether is active on this server
hellworld=false
#Enable or disable mob spawning at night
spawn-monsters=true
#Whether or not to verify logins.  Better security if left to 'true'
online-mode=true
#Enable or disable cows, pigs, etc
spawn-animals=true
#Maximum number of concurrent players
max-players=20
#Bind to particular IP.  It is STRONGLY recommended this be left blank in most circumstances
server-ip=
#Whether or not to allow players to harm eachother
pvp=true
#If you want to be able to reproduce your level, you can specify a seed number
level-seed=
#Which port to bind the server.  Take note of this, you'll likely need it later.  
server-port=25565
#Whether or not to enable whitelisting.  See link in section above for details on whitelisting.  
white-list=false

External Access

If you’re attempting to run this on a home broadband connection, you likely have a few extra steps you’ll need to take before anyone but you can access your server. First, you’ll need to know if you need port forwarding. In short, anything running as a server on your computer binds itself to a certain port number. That way, any data coming into that computer labeled with that port number will be routed to the correct program. If you’re behind a home router, the router must be made aware that you’re running a server so that all incoming data on that port goes to the right computer.

Still with me? Port forwarding can be tricky but here’s a summary of how to get the job done. If it’s not enough, here’s a great site devoted entirely to helping with this task.

For starters, we’ll need to know the IP address of the Minecraft server. There are a dozen ways to do that graphically depending on your OS, so here are two ways that’ll work on any major OS from the command line:

#Windows
ipconfig
#Linux/OSX/Any UNIX-type
ifconfig

On home networks, it’ll likely start with 192.168.x.x. Take note of this as the server’s IP. Your router’s IP is likely very similar, but replace the final number in the set with a 1. For example, if ifconfig showed you 192.168.1.50, your router’s IP is likely to be 192.168.1.1.

Now that we’ve got the server IP and a good guess at the router’s IP, open a new tab in your web browser and enter the router’s IP into the address bar (once again, likely 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1). Chances are you’ll face a login screen. If you don’t know the password, try using the factory login.

Once you’ve got logged into your router, look around for NAT, Virtual Server, or Port Forward settings and enter the IP and port of your server as required.

Once again I highly recommend PortForward.com if you run into any trouble.

Dynamic DNS

Most home broadband users have a dynamic IP address, meaning it changes every so often. For people to be able to easily access your server, you’ll need to have a good name they can always access instead of an ever-changing IP. That’s where dynamic DNS comes in. When you sign up with a (often free) dynamic DNS provider, they give you a name like myserver.dyndnsprovider.com. You run a small client program on your server that connects to the provider every so often and informs them of any changes to your IP. Whenever someone accesses the name, they forward the request to your current IP.

There are several such providers out there, but this author has always had good luck with No-IP.com. Signup is quick and free and they provide client software for every major OS.

Additionally, some routers and modems have built-in support for many popular dynamic DNS providers. It may be worthwhile to check your device before trying to install local client software, as it could save you a lot of headache.

Conclusion

It may have taken a little bit of time, but hopefully at this point you’ve got a solid server up and running. Setting up any server can be a hassle. This one, at least, is all but guaranteed to keep you and your friends entertained for quite some time.

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As popular as it already is, Minecraft is still in the Alpha stage of development. The information here is based on Minecraft Alpha 1.2.5. At this point, anything and everything is subject to change.

Finding Your Minecraft Data

Quite a few of the things we’ll do here today will require you to know where the application data is stored. Keep in mind, I don’t mean the location of the Minecraft exe/jar file, I’m talking about the location where it stores your saved worlds and other data.

On Linux, it’s in /home/YourUserName/.minecraft

On OSX, it’s in /Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/minecraft

On Windows, it can be access quick and easy by putting %appdata% in your file manager address bar. You should find a .minecraft folder.

For the rest of this post, I’ll refer to this location as the “data directory”.

Texture Packs

The recent updates to Minecraft have made this quick and easy, but for those who are new I’ll touch on it a little bit. After you’ve logged in, you’ve got the option to manage textures and skins. To install a pack, all you’ve got to do is drop the ZIP file into the data directory’s texturepacks subdirectory. That’s it, you don’t even have to unzip it.

Migrating Operating Systems

If you need to run Minecraft on a new OS but don’t want to lose your carefully crafted world, there is hope. You might at first think of simply copying the entire data directory, but I can speak from experience when I say that it doesn’t always work.

Instead, start by launching the game at least once on the new OS, so that it generates a data directory, then copy only the saves and texturepacks directories from your old install. This will give you all your prior worlds and textures (assuming there are no version conflicts or other nasties).

Running a Server

Now that there’s something of a Survival Mode for multiplayer, there’s a lot more reason to want to run a server. You can download the server application here. This jar file contains the full server for all platforms, and can be run like just about any jar file with

java -jar minecraft-server.jar

I’d recommend that once you start the server, you let it run for a minute or two while it generates the necessary files for your game. After that, quit the server without logging in. This is so that you can first edit the (recently generated) server.properties file to set your game options.

Once that’s done, start the server back up, launch your game client, and select multiplayer. Enter the IP of the server. Assuming you’re running both game and server on the same computer, you can just enter 127.0.0.1 for the IP address.

Bridges

Most Minecraft players encountered the difficulty of building bridges pretty early on, and I still see a lot of new players asking about them. The problem is this: you can only add a block by anchoring it on the face of another block, but what if that face is pointing away from you? Currently the only solution (short of loads of scaffolding) is to rather dangerously step out toward the end of your bridge, and as soon as the slightest sliver of the face shows, place your block.

Update: A reader pointed out that holding the shift key and walking backwards toward the end of your bridge is a much faster and safer way to build out. As long as you’re holding shift, you will not fall off the end.

Water and Lava Control

Liquids in Minecraft are somewhat odd and can take some practice to manipulate. The most important thing to know is that both are effectively infinite, as long as they’re flowing downhill. The trick to both is to know that you can partly control the depth and angle of the flow by stacking (and optionally removing) blocks below the surface. The screenshots below should demonstrate.

With lava, where you can’t easily see or access the blocks below, I suggest dropping gravel into the lava which will act like the screenshots above, from the bottom up.

This is, of course, only a portion of what can be done in this original and innovative game. If you’ve got a Minecraft construction worth showing off, let us know in the comments.

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Setup Overview

It’s important to note that there are four pieces involved in a running game of DAoC:

Server: The game server (in this case, Dawn of Light) which accepts logins and coordinates all game activity. This includes combat, weather, AI, and virtually all other game actions.

Database: All the actual content, from players to equipment to quests, is stored in the database. It’s very important to realize the difference between the server software (Dawn of Light) and the database it reads from. When you need to change an aspect of the game, you change it here. Just about everything you will need to edit will be found here, such as XP rate and NPC locations.

Client: Presuming you intend to actually play on your server, you need the actual Dark Age of Camelot game. Fortunately this is a free download at DarkAgeofCamelot.com. You do not need the 14-day trial account, you can skip registration and download the client only.

Portal: When you launch the Camelot game, it would normally attempt to connect to the official servers. Clearly this isn’t what we want. DOL’s developers include a Portal with the package, it’s a small desktop program that lets you manage and launch custom servers.

Configuring the Server and Standard Database

The Dawn of Light server software includes a database that does not live up to the official servers, but provides enough data for an enjoyable game. Alternate databases will be discussed in the next section. The server and db can be downloaded together (or individually) here.

Before launching your server, you’ll want to run the DOLConfig application (as Administrator, if necessary) to set some basic server setup done.

You’ll want to pay particular attention to Game Type and IP. Your game type will determine if and how various RvR settings will be implemented, such as the keeps and towers in the frontiers. Your IP is the address the server is monitoring for connections.

IMPORTANT: If you set this to your localhost address (127.0.0.1), your local client will connect fine, but other computers will not. Make sure you use a real IP (like 192.168.1.10, or whatever yours might be).

On the Database tab, you’ll probably want to set the type to MySQL, with settings similar to the screenshot below. I should note that if you downloaded the all-in-one DOL package, the connection test might fail, as MySQL is not launched until you start the server. If you simply cannot get SQL connection working, you can try using XML as your database, though you may encounter performance and configuration problems.

Configuring the Client

Download: As noted above, the client can be freely downloaded from DarkAgeofCamelot.com. Expect the download to take a while. A long while.

Rollback: Normally, you’d be able to install the client, launch the portal (coming up next) and you’re ready to go. The only problem is that the current release of Dawn of Light does not support the latest release of the client software. This means there’s one extra step – the rollback. We’ve got to downgrade the client a little bit to make it fully compatible. The DOL forums keep up on rollbacks and the current thread on the topic is here.

Dawn of Light Portal

To launch your game to a custom server, you’ll need the Portal. It’s a small Windows application and its purpose is to let you find, manage, and connect to custom servers. It can be downloaded here, and installs much like any Windows application.

To set up connection to your local server, click the Custom Shardsr button. Next, right click any of the blank white space and add a new custom server.

If the dot is red, that means that either the server software is not running (launch Dawn of Light as Administrator) or that the portal has incorrect server settings. If the dot is green, you can create any username and password you wish, and log in. The server will save that information for future logins. If you want your friends to be able to connect, make you you forward port 10300 to your game server.

Alternate Databases and Advanced Config

If the builtin database is not enough for you, there are a few alternates. A few projects have sprung up dedicated solely to growing a massive DOL database. A quick search of SourceForge.net will bring up several examples, such as this and this.

If you want more server options than DOLConfig provides, there is a table in the database that holds several values for user adjustment. Install any SQL client you wish (SourceForge is a friend here as well) and open the DOL database to the server properties table. Each item will provide a description of the setting and a default value.

Conclusion

DAoC is a little bit dated by current MMO standards, but it’s still a whole lot of fun for those who know the game. DOL still has a way to go before it’s fully live-like, but even the standard built-in database is enough for an enjoyable game among friends. With Dawn of Light, you can once again begin breaking down towers and lasting that nasty Lurikeen who keeps stabbing you from behind.

Oh and for all you old-schoolers:
Currin, 50 Scout Alb/Guin/Divinity

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• a local server application (we recommend XAMPP since it is the easiest to use and it works for all platforms)
• a copy of the WordPress software (download it from WordPress.org
• a copy of your existing WP blog database
• a FTP program (We will be using Filezilla, but you are free to use your favorite application)

Let’s get started.

Installing WordPress in your local server

I won’t go into much detail here since we have previously written plenty of articles on this. Check them out:

How To Install WordPress MU In Windows Localhost (With XAMPP)

Setup a PHP/MySQL Environment on Windows The Easy Way

How to Install and Test WordPress on Your Mac

Note: Resume this tutorial only after you have installed WordPress in your local server.

Backing up your live WP blog

You will need to get a backup copy of the database of your live WP blog. This can be achieved in two ways: plugin or phpMyAdmin.

Plugin
There are several plugins that can backup your database. My favorite is WP-db-backup plugin. You can also use WP-DBManager plugin.

Install the WP-DB-backup plugin and go to Tools -> Backup in your WordPress dashboard.

Check all the tables name.

Select “Download to computer” and click “Backup now!”.

The backup process will begin and it will prompt you to download the sql file when it is done.

phpMyAdmin
Login to your web host cPanel and click on the phpMyAdmin icon.

In the left pane, click on your WP blog database.

Click the Export button.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page. Check the box “Save as file“. Also check “gzipped”. Click Go.

Restoring the database in your local server

Start your local server. Open a browser and go to “http://localhost/phpmyadmin”. Create a new database.

Next, click on the “Import” button.

Navigate to the location where you save the database file. Click Go.

This will import your WordPress database to your local server. If your database file is more than 2MB, you might need to increase the “upload_file_limit” variable in the php.ini file.

Configure the wp-config file

In your file manager, go to the WordPress folder within the htdocs folder. Open your wp-config.php file in a text editor and change the following:

//unless you have changed the setting, else the default will be as follow
define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress'); //change this to the name of the database you have created earlier
define('DB_USER', 'root'); 
define('DB_PASSWORD', ''); //no password by default. Change this if you have added password during installation
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost'); //99% you won't have to change this

You need to add in another 2 lines:

define('WP_HOME','http://localhost/wordpress');
define('WP_SITEURL','http://localhost/wordpress');

That’s it. You have successfully cloned your live WP blog to your local server. You can login to your dashboard via the link “http://localhost/wordpress/wp-login.php” and make changes to your test site.

Note:

1. To make the permalink work properly, you will need to regenerate the permalink structure in the Permalink setting page and edit the .htaccess file)
2. For better compatibility, you might want to replace your wp-content folder in the local server with the one in the live site.

Image credit: thatcanadiangirl

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About half a year ago, we decided to move out of our shared Hostgator account and migrate to ServInt. Not that Hostgator is no good, it just that MakeTechEasier has grown rapidly over time and we need to get a bigger server to host our site. In my opinion, Hostgator is one of the best shared web host company around and I would seriously recommend them for those who just started blogging.

On the other hand, we switched to ServInt because there were many good reviews about them. But somehow, things just doesn’t go well for us. The server is slow and sluggish. Can you imagine that it takes five mins just to save a post? And the staffs aren’t too helpful in solving my issues too.

This time round, we make a switch to Knownhost and it was the best decision we made this year.

Our experience with KH

Fast and stable server: The server performance is speedy (Josh can swear by that). There is no downtime.

Super Fast Response Time: Most web hosts take at least 1 hour to answer your ticket and if the issue require higher technical expertise, your ticket will be forwarded to the respective department and you have to wait for another few hours to get your ticket answered. For KnownHost, the response time is almost instantly. Whenever I submit a ticket, I will surely get a response within 10 mins. And in most cases, my issues are settled within 30 mins.

Amazing customer support: Kate, William and many other friendly staffs who are always trying their means to help you.

Managed VPS is superb: Even know we have the knowledge and skill to adminster a server, it is always great to have someone who is taking care of all the stuffs for you 24/7.

With all said, here’s is a much faster and more stable MakeTechEasier.com, thanks to KnownHost. If you are in need of a new host, Knownhost is definitely the one.

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There are two main type of web hosting: Shared hosting and VPS/Dedicated hosting. Shared hosting means that the site is hosted in a shared environment and share the same IP address as hundreds (or even thousands) other sites. In shared hosting, the administrative control given to the user is usually very limited, so there is practically no way to manipulate the DNS feature. On the other hand, VPS/dedicated hosting gives the users absolute control over their servers and they can play around with the DNS feature to reduce the downtime. Let’s take a look below at how we can reduce the downtime for these two hosting environments.

Note: This tutorial assumes that you are using cPanel/WHM for your site hosting.

Migrating site in a shared hosting environment

1. Back up all the files in the old server. You can easily do this with any FTP programs. If you are running a dynamic site (like WordPress), remember to backup your database as well (via the PhpMyAdmin->Export)

2. Set up the new server. Copy all the files from the old server to the new server. Pay extra attention to keep the file structure intact. For dynamic website, set up a new database (with the exact same name and password) and import the whole database in. Again, make sure that the database structure is intact.

For static website

3. Go to your domain registrar and change the nameserver to the new server. That’s it. The DNS will take 24-48 hours to propagate. During this period of time, your site will be unstable, oscillating between the new and old server, but since it is a static website, so your visitors won’t see any differences. Avoid making any changes during this period of time.

For dynamic website

4. You will need to configure your site to point to the database at the new server (some web hosts don’t allow remote access to their database, so check with your web host before you begin). Open your cPanel in the new server. Scroll down until you see the icon Remote MySQL. Click on it.

Enter your domain name in the field and click “Add Host“.

Log out of cPanel. In your old server, open your database configuration file (for WordPress, it is the wp-config.php file). At the field where it asks you for database hostname detail, change it to the IP address of the new server. In WordPress:

/** MySQL hostname: Change 123.456.789.000 to your new server IP address */
 
define('DB_HOST', '123.456.789.000');

Save and upload to the old server.

5. Go to your domain registrar and change the nameserver to the new server. That’s it. While the DNS is propagating, your visitors will see content from the old server. However, as the database is pointed to the new server, all changes make on the site will be updated in the new server. Once the migration is done (24-48 hours time), your new server will be up and running with all the changes make during the migration.

Migrating site in a VPS/Dedicated hosting environment

Before we start, it is assumed that all users have root access to their servers and both the old and new servers are running cPanel/WHM.

1. Log in to the WHM in the old server. On the left panel, scroll down till you see the “Edit DNS Zone” link. Click on it.

2. Select the domain that you are migrating.

3. Look out for this field where it shows the domain name and the IP address.

Change the 86400 (or 14400) to 300. Save the changes.

What you have just done is set the TTL (Time To Live) value to 5 minutes so the DNS client will only cache the information in that record for 5 minutes (the common setting are 24 hours and 4 hours). Now you have to wait for 4-24 hours for this TTL value to propagate, depending on the original value.

4. Meanwhile, you can backup your old server and migrate all your files and databases to the new server. Test the new server to make sure that everything is working fine.

5. When you are ready to migrate the site, log into your old server WHM again. Go to the DNS zone page. This time, change the IP address to the new server’s IP. Save the changes.

What you have just done is to set this as a relay and point it to the new server.

6. Go to your domain registrar and change the nameserver to the new server. That’s it. In as little as 5 minutes, your new server will be up and running. As in all cases, the DNS will take 24-48 hours to propagate, so meanwhile, keep your old server intact (do not delete any files or terminate the service) until the DNS propagation has finished.

Let us know in the comments if this is useful to you.

Image credit: EJP Photo

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If you have a website of your own, you would be fairly used to using various FTP clients to transfer files to and from your hosting space. I personally use Filezilla for this activity. What I do not like about most FTP clients is the interface and the number of sections that are there in front of a user. While the designers are trying to show all that is happening in the background when you transfer a file to a remote server, this transperancy is not always required.

At times like these, I like to switch over to an interface that is familiar and uncluttered. Nautilus, the file manager for the Gnome desktop can also be used as an FTP client without having to install any additional software to your system. Nautilus provides an easy way to connect and exchange files via FTP and makes the process as simple as a copy paste that you may be doing day in and day out.

Getting started with Nauitlus is easy. The File menu provides the option to “Connect to Server”. The connection dialog provides the options to establish various types of connections like Public FTP, FTP with Login, SSH, Windows Share and a few others. For a normal hosted acocunt you would probably have a FTP login which you would have provided to your FTP client.

Choosing the option of FTP (with login) allows you to specify your Server, Port, Start Folder and User Name to connect to the server. There are no cryptic fileds and you can also add this connection information as a bookmark in Nautilus so that you dont have to enter this information the next time. The bookmark will appear under the Bookmarks menu in Nautilus.

The connection is established as soon as you click on Connect after entering your password. You can also specify the validity of your session by choosing to let the system remember your password.

Your default directory is shown in the normal Nautilus file browsing window. All the actions like Copy, Cut, Paste can be carried out the same way as you have been doing them on your machine locally. The benefit of using Nautilus as your FTP client is that you can use the Tabbed Browsing feature of Nautilus even while working on your remote server. This allows you to browse multiple sections of your server and carry out file operations in each section simultaneously. Which is a functionality that I miss in normal FTP clients like Filezilla.

The performance provided by Nautilus is as good as any FTP client in terms of speed of browsing the remote server. The added benefits of tabbed browsing and a clean and familiar interface are a bonus that you will enjoy.

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One of the best things about the PHP/MySQL stack is that they almost seem to have been made for each other, ie. if the configuration is correct. A lot of people, though, end up moving on to other things when they can’t configure the stack correctly.

We’ve written about setting up a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) environment earlier on an Ubuntu machine. We’ve also talked about using OS X to install and test WordPress by setting up a MAMP (Mac OS X, Apache, MySQL, PHP) server.

So, have we been ignoring Windows over here?

No, and today we’ll tell you how you can setup a WAMP server (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP) on your Windows based machine without too much fuss.

Download and execute the integrated installer which installs the WAMP server just as you’d install any regular Windows application.

The only question that the installer asks is the address of the SMTP server that you want to use and the default email address for outgoing emails. This information is used by PHP if you use the built-in email functions. If you’re not going to make use of this, you can just ignore the SMTP settings and chose the default ones and continue.

You can now run the WAMP server from the helpful shortcut that the installer places on the Desktop.

The only thing that you’ll see when WAMP is running is a small icon in the taskbar. Click the icon and a menu pops up.

When you start WAMP for the first time, the server is in offline mode and you can select the Put Online option from this menu to get the server “Online”.

You now have a fully functional PHP/MySQL stack on your machine. Fire up your web browser and type in http://localhost in the address bar and you’ll be presented with the default homepage that’s served using the Apache web server.

WAMP also comes with phpMyAdmin already configured to manage your MySQL instance. Just point the web browser to http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ and phpMyAdmin will take away all your database management nightmares.

If you’re a PHP developer, you can just put all your scripts in the c:\wamp\www folder and then you can use the browser to access them.

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Tonido is a free software that turns your desktop into a personal server and allows you to access and share your files, media, calendar and apps from everywhere. Be it Windows, Mac or Linux, you simply install the software and have your own personal cloud server up and running in no time. Forget all the complicated stuffs you have heard about creating your own server. There are no technical skills required to set up and run Tonido. The best thing is – all the data resides in your own computer and there is no need to worry about security or even data loss (unless your own computer crashes).

Introducing TonidoPlug

On the other hand, if all your important data resides on your external backup drive and you wish to have your own cloud server running at all times without having to turn on your computer everytime, then TonidoPlug is the one for you.

TonidoPlug is the hardware version of Tonido. It is a tiny, low power, low cost home server and NAS device powered by Tonido software. It comes with its own RAM and CPU (and preinstalled with Ubuntu). All you need to do is to plug it into the power socket and there you are, a server ready at your beckoning. It integrates nicely with all the features found in the Tonido software and allows you to access your files, music, pictures from anywhere.

Setting up TonidoPlug

Once you have connected up the respective cables (there are only 3 cables that you need to connect: the power cable, LAN cable and the USB cable), power it up. On any computer that are linked to the home network, go to the URL: http://tonidoplug.com/ip. This will detect your Tonido Plug. In some cases where it doesn’t detect, you can enter the MAC address (at the back of the plug) to get it identified by the network.

Once the plug is detected, you will have to create a new profile for the Tonido. Those who already have an existing profile can use this method to import them into the Plug.

In the dashboard, you will find the exact same interface as the Tonido. The software available in TonidoPlug is as follow:

Many of these apps should be familiar to already Tonido users, (Jukebox, Photos, Search, Thots, Workspace). The newer apps are WebsharePro, Torrent, Explorer and Plug Admin.

Here’s a quick summary of these applications.

1. WebsharePro: All the power of Tonido Webshare, plus the ability to upload, setting upload quotas for users, zip downloads, viewing currently downloading lists, change thumbnail and photo slide show image size
2. Torrent: Download Torrent files to your plug and control torrents via your web browser from anywhere
3. Explorer: Web based File manager and browser that allows common file operations like rename, delete, copy files and folders and even uploads
4. Plug Admin: Manage your TonidoPlug hardware, recover Tonido Profile passwords, Manage attached USB drives, Share USB drives over the network for access, Monitor CPU loads etc

If you are not in your own home networks, you can also connect to your TonidoPlug via the public URL: http://yourprofilename.tonido.com:10001.

In addition, TonidoPlug is also a DLNA device, which means you are able to connect to your PS3, Xbox, or even XBMC software and stream music over the cloud.

The Tonido software is free to download and use, but the TonidoPlug comes at a price of $99.

Considering that most Web servers with the same hardware spec as the TonidoPlug can easily cost you up to $40-50 per month, at a mere price of $99, TonidoPlug is really a great bargain; not to mention the unlimited amount of storage device you can attach to it and the security issue that you never have to worry about. This is really a no-brainer deal.

Note 1: Thanks to Venkat for sending in a test unit for review and providing a prompt support for all my doubts.
Note 2: MakeTechEasier is not affiliated in any way to CodeLathe, the company behind TonidoPlug, nor do we benefit from any sale of TonidoPlug generated from this article.

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