1. You already have SSH access to your remote host. For security sake, you might want to setup a public/private SSH key to secure your SSH connection.

2. The remote host is in a fresh state. No additional software have been installed or any other user has been created.

Get Started

1. Open a terminal (if you are using Windows, use Putty) and SSH to your remote host.

2. The first thing to do is to update your remote host so that it is running the latest version of all software.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

3. If you are logging in as the root user, it is best to change the default password for the root user and also create a new user account. It is not a good practice to log in as the root user. Once the new user account is created, you will administer the remote host with this account.

Change the password for the root user.

passwd

Create new user account.

adduser username   #replace "username" with your own your user name.

It will prompt you to enter your user password and info.

Add the new user to the “sudo” group.

adduser username sudo

Once this is done, you will need to exit the current SSH session and re-login with the new user account.

4. Install LAMP Server. There is no Synaptic or Ubuntu Software Center here, so we have to install everything via the terminal. While you can install a whole bunch of files here, an easier way is to use the tasksel package.

sudo apt-get install tasksel
sudo tasksel install lamp-server

During the installation, it will prompt you a few questions.

Once the installation is done, go to your web browser and type in the domain name (or IP address) associated with the remote host. If you see the “It Works” screen, you are on track.

9. Secure MySQL

mysql_secure_installation

It will prompt you a few questions:

• Change the root password? – If you have set a secure password previously, you can safely type ‘n’.
• Remove anonymous users? – Type ‘y’.
• Disallow root login remotely? – Type ‘y’.
• Remove test database and access to it? – Type ‘y’.
• Reload privilege table now? – Type ‘y’.

That’s it. You have successfully setup a web server in the remote host.

Optional Stuff

Here are some optional stuff you can install/do:

1. phpMyAdmin

PhpMyAdmin is a frontend GUI that allows you to configure and setup database easily. Since it is accessible via web interface, many people feel that it is unsecured and could be the loophole for hackers to brute-force into your database.

Here’s how to install:

sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin

Open a browser and go to http://your-ip-address/phpmyadmin. If you see the phpMyAdmin page, your installation is successfully. If not, you will have to add an extra line to the Apache conf file.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Add the following line to the end of the file.

Include /etc/phpmyadmin/apache.conf

Save (Ctrl + O) and exit (Ctrl + X).

Restart Apache

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

2. Configure Apache

There are tons of things that you can do with Apache. I won’t discuss the detail here. Check out this Apache tutorial for the instruction.

3. Install FTP server

If you need to access your remote host via FTP, you will need to install a FTP server. There are several FTP software that you can use. Here, we will be using vsftp.

sudo apt-get install vsftpd

Don’t forget to add the current user to ftp group.

sudo adduser username ftp

4. Install Webmin

Webmin is a free web-based control panel for administrators to manage their servers without having to go into the command line.

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the following to the end of the file:

deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib
deb http://webmin.mirror.somersettechsolutions.co.uk/repository sarge contrib

Import the GPG key:

wget http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc
sudo apt-key add jcameron-key.asc

Install webmin:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install webmin

Once installed, you can access webmin in your browser at the URL https://your-ip-address:10000/.

A Little About RivetTracker

RivetTracker is a Bittorrent tracker written in PHP. It’s based on PHPBTTracker and includes detailed statistics, user management, browser-based configuration “wizard”, and plenty more. Since it’s PHP, RivetTracker isn’t necessarily dependent on any specific platform. This is the full list of requirements as stated by the RivetTracker website:

• A webserver, Apache is a great one.
• A recent version of PHP.
• The MySQL Database.

In short, it needs a LAMP server to operate (WAMP or MAMP server will also work). In this guide, we will be using Ubuntu 9.10, Apache 2.2.12, and PHP 5.2.10 as a reference.

Prerequisites

If you intend to run this tracker on a professionally hosted server, it should have all the necessary software installed.

If you intend to run this on your own server, you have to follow the article here to install a LAMP server in your system first before proceed.

During the installation of LAMP server, it will prompt you to create a root user, take note of the name and password you choose as we’ll need it later.

Note: Make sure you have installed the LAMP server successfully and verified that it is working before you proceed.

Installing RivetTracker

You can download the tarball from the RivetCode website and save it in your home directory. Extract the tarball (simply right-click on the tarball and select “Extract here“). You should now have a folder full of RivetTracker’s files, mostly in PHP form.

Rename the folder to “tracker” (without the quote)

Next, we are going to copy the tracker folder to your Apache web server. In your terminal:

sudo cp -R ~/tracker /var/www/

Setting Up RivetTracker

To begin the setup, open a web browser and point the URL to http://127.0.0.1/tracker/install.php.

We’ll be proceeding with the second option, letting RivetTracker create the needed database automatically.

In the field where it asks you for your admin username and password, enter the one that you have created earlier while setting up the LAMP server.

If you’re running RivetTracker on a commercial server, you may be able to use your usual login for that host. If not, you will need to contact your web host regarding MySQL access before you can proceed.

Main Configuration

If all went well in the last step (it should have clearly indicated the problem if not), you’ll get a message indicating the database was created successfully, and you’ll see the main configuration page.

Many can be left at the defaults, but there are a few that you’ll want to make sure to check:

• Make tracker hidden: Will force a login to view torrent list
• Persistent MySQL connections: Probably a good idea if you’re running this on your own server
• Upload and Admin user accounts
• Title on index.php statistics page: This will be the main header text on the front page
• Enable RSS feed: RivetTracker can send out feeds about new torrents
• Main website url
• HTTP seeding rate: In short, the amount of bandwidth to sacrifice to HTTP seeding
• HTTP seeding count: How many files to seed at a time
• Timezone

When ready, save the configuration. If the installer throws an error saying that it can’t save the config file, don’t panic. Just save the config.php file with the handy button, and manually copy it to the /var/www/tracker folder (you will need to have root permission).

Delete the install.php file

Now that you are done with the installation, you will need to remove the installer file to prevent someone from accessing it and use it to reconfigure your tracker.

sudo rm /var/www/tracker/install.php

Setting Permissions

To add new torrents and RSS feed, we need to change the permissions on the torrents and RSS directory:

sudo chmod 777 /var/www/tracker/torrents
sudo chmod 777 /var/www/tracker/rss

Note: Setting the permissions to 777 is a TEMPORARY solution. Securely setting permissions for writeable data on web servers is beyond the scope of this guide, and it is highly recommended that you look into that before deploying your tracker live.

You are good to go

Until this stage, if everything go smoothly, you should be able to access your tracker site now. Point your browser to your tracker’s address (http://127.0.0.1/tracker/)

Now’s a great time to test out those users you set up. The first has the capacity to upload but not delete, so let’s upload. Click Add Torrent to Tracker Database and you’ll be asked for a login. Enter the credentials of the uploading user and you’ll be knocked back to the main page where you can go back and get upload screen.

Note: Your tracker URL when creating torrents will be your tracker’s full address, ending with announce.php, such as http://127.0.0.1/tracker/announce.php

Once you’ve got the torrent file entered, the other options can normally be left at defaults. As long as you’ve got the permissions set on the torrents directory in your site’s root, and the torrent file has your tracker URL, you should be all set.

If you need to remove a torrent, you can do so by logging in as the administrative user and clicking Admin on the main page. You’ll find many other useful things there as well, such as additional statistics and configuration settings.

Now, you can go brag to your friends that yeah, you run your own torrent tracker, but really it’s no big deal.

iSofa is a Mac application that turns your Mac into a Web server. You can then access the web server from your iPhone/iPod Touch and remote control your Mac from your iDevice. it makes use of the Mac inbuilt web sharing feature and the automator scripts to achieve the effect. The concept is simple, the implementation is simple and the user interface is great.

Download and install iSofa.

Once it is installed, it will show a window showing the IP address that you can access from your iDevice.

Click OK. Your Safari will now pop up showing the iSofa admin page. This is where you can configure your iSofa’s iPhone interface. You can upload a background wallpaper, set a password for the connection, the IP/port for your Mac to listen to etc.

If you have make any changes to the connection IP and port, you need to restart the Web sharing service. Go to System Preferences -> Sharing. Turn off the Web sharing and turn back on again to restart it.

Next, on your iDevice, launch the mobile Safari. Browse to the IP address given to you earlier. You will be able to connect to the iSofa main page.

In the event that you cannot connect, it is probably due to the firewall measure that you have put in place. To solve this, go to System Preferences -> Security -> Firewall. Check “Set access to specific services and applications”. Make sure Web sharing is listed is in the box below.

Refresh your iPhone mobile Safari. You should be able to connect to your iSofa admin now.

There are several things that you can remote control with iSofa. For example, you can play iTunes music.

You can browse files on your iPhone.

You can also set alarm for your Mac.

Other features include

• Keynote Remote
• VLC Remote
• DVD Player Remote
• QuickTime Remote
• FrontRow Remote
• Screen wake up
• Screen sleep
• Screensaver launcher

iSofa background customization

Optionally, you can also customize the background of the iSofa interface to your liking.

Go to iSofa Gallery. Browse through the collection of wallpapers and find the one that you like one. Download it to your desktop.

In your Mac iSofa admin page, re-upload the wallpaper. Now, refresh your browser in the iPhone. The wallpaper will change.

Conclusion

Considering that it is free (with Creative Common license) and allows you to remote control plenty of stuffs from your iPhone/iPod Touch, I think that iSofa is a great app to have. It might not aid you in productivity, but it sure can allow you to laze in your bed while enjoying the music/video playing from your Mac. And yes, it saves you the effort to get out of your bed to shut down your Mac.

What uses do you have for iSofa and what other features do you hope to see in the future version?

If you have a huge collection of music and would like to build a media streaming server to manage your collection, then Jinzora is the right one for you.

Jinzora is a Web based media streaming and management system. It is supported in various platforms and it allows you to access your music collection from any devices over the Internet.

Installing Jinzora in Ubuntu

Pre-installation

Before you can install Jinzora, you must set up a Web server first. If you have not done so, follow this tutorial to install LAMP on your Ubuntu machine.

Go to Jinzora and download the latest stable release for Linux/MacOS. (The current stable version is Jinzora 2.7.5)

Using Archive manager, extract the Jinzora2 folder to your home.

On the terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal), copy the Jinzora2 folder to the root of the Web server

sudo cp jinzora2 /var/www
sudo cp -r jinzora2 /var/www

Run the configure script to change the file permission

cd /var/www/jinzora2
sudo sh configure.sh

Next, install the required files.

sudo apt-get install php5-gd
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Change php.ini setting

Some of the default setting in the php.ini did not meet the requirement of Jinzora2. We have to change it in order for Jinzora to work.

gksu gedit /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

Search for

memory_limit = 16M      ; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume (16MB)

and change to the value to 64.

Search for

max_execution_time = 30     ; Maximum execution time of each script, in seconds

and change the value to 300

Search for

post_max_size = 8M

and change the value to 32

Search for

upload_max_filesize = 2M

change the value to 32

Save and close the file. You are now set to install Jinzora

Installing Jinzora

Step 1:

Open your browser, point the URL to http://localhost/jinzora2

You will be greeted with Jinzora Welcome screen

Below the page, click the ‘Proceed to Requirements‘ to continue the installation.

Step 2:

Jinzora will now check your system to see if it meets the minimum requirement. Since we have installed the necessary files and do the required configuration in the pre-installation, you shouldn’t have any issue in this step (or see any fields in red).

Click the ‘Proceed to License‘ to continue.

Step 3:

This will bring you to the license agreement page. Check the box and click the ‘Proceed to Install Type‘.

Step 4:

Under the Installation Type dropdown box, select Standalone.

Under the Jukebox Mode, choose Streaming Only. If you plan on running a server side Jukebox utilizing MPD, select Jukebox & Streaming (We won’t be covering that in this tutorial).

Click ‘Proceed to Main Settings‘ to continue.

Step 5:

Here is where you configure your Jinzora account.

Set up the admin login credential.

Under the ‘Backend‘ dropdown box, select Database.

Under the ‘Frontend‘ dropdown box, you can choose how the Jinzora looks like in the web browser. This is not a permanent setting and can be changed later on. For a start, just select ‘Slick’.

Import Settings define how Jinzora handles your media tracks. If you have been diligently organize your audio files in proper folder order, select ‘Filesystem‘ under Data Structure. On the other hand, if you have carefully enter the meta data for each tracks, but all the tracks are jumbled up in one folder, select ‘Tag data’ under Data Structure.

Under the Media layout, select how you want Jinzora to display your media files – by Genres, Albums or Artists.

Once done, click ‘Proceed to Backend Setup‘ to proceed

Step 6:

In the backend setup, enter your MySQL username and password in the ‘Database User‘ and ‘Database password‘ fields (this is the same data as the one you entered when you install LAMP on your system).

Give your database a name (In this case, I labeled it ‘jinzora2′. You can give other name though). Make sure that the Database Server is set to ‘Localhost‘, Database Type is ‘MySQL‘ and Create database is set to ‘True‘ (This is important! If you did not set the Create Database to True, Jinzora will not create a database and the whole installation will fail).

Click ‘Proceed With Backend Install‘

Jinzora will proceed to install the database. If everything is fine, it will show the Create Database successful screen.

There is nothing much to do in this page. Click ‘Proceed to import Media‘

Step 7:

In the Media Directory field, enter the file path to your media files. If you are not sure, click the ‘browse‘ button to locate your media folder. If you keep your media files at more than one location, don’t worry, you have a chance to import them all in the next step. Right now, just select one of the locations.

Click ‘Import Media’.

Depending on the number of media files you have, this importing process might take a long time.

If you still have media files scattered in other locations, enter the file path and click ‘Import Media‘, else, click ‘Proceed to Save Config‘.

Step 8:

You have come to the end of Jinzora installation.

Click ‘Proceed to launch Jinzora‘ to launch Jinzora.

Step 9:

Before you launch Jinzora, it will ask if you want to share your annonymous stats. This is purely optional. If you are kind enough, select the ‘Share annonymous stats’, else select ‘No, thanks‘.

Click ‘Launch Jinzora’. Don’t worry, we are getting there.

Post Installation

You will now see the Jinzora login screen. Login with your username and password.

In the next screen, you will see an error message requesting you to remove the Install directory.

Now, back to your terminal, type the following:

sudo rm -R /var/www/jinzora2/install

Once done, refresh your browser. You should be logged in to the Jinzora home page.

On the left pane lies all the configuration options. You can change the look and style of Jinzora via the Interface and Style setting located at the bottom of the left pane.

Access your Jinzora Web Media server from other computer

If you want to access Jinzora from an external terminal, either in a cybercafe or with your mobile PDA, you can reach it by pointing the URL to http://your-ip-address:8888/jinzora2. You will have to enable the 8888 port to make this works. If you are not sure how to enable the 8888 port, check out www.portforward.com for detailed instructions.

More installation options:

Install Jinzora in Windows: Lifehacker

Install Jinzora in Mac OSX: SimpleHelp