[Per user speed is limited by apache?]

I've seen ISPs and web host providers to limit the speed of downloads. 100kbps sounds to be very slow alright. I'd advise testing with another client computer and see what speeds they get at. It could be your ISP, or the web host provider.

 

I've seen this before and have had to use a muti-threaded downloader to get full download speed.

[Need some pointers re apache caching]

Are you sure its not just the web client doing the caching? By default apache shouldn't cache anything.

 

I suggest you use a number of different browsers (opera, chrome, firefox, ie) and delete any temporary internet files often.

 

-steve

[SSL setup problems causing me bad health]

what does the following show:

netstat -tap

 

what does the following show:

iptables -L

 

-steve

[SSL setup problems causing me bad health]

I take it there is no firewall involved?

 

I see you done a nmap. Can you do a telnet yourdomain 443 from a remote computer and see if port 443 is open.

 

If I were you'd I'd go back to setting up a self-signed ssl cert and get that working first.

Although its not for fedora take a look at:

http://wiki.kartbuilding.net/index.php/Apache_2_%26_SSL_-_PHP4_-_MySQL_4.1

 

exerpt of what you need to try:

mkdir /etc/apache2/ssl

cd /etc/apache2/ssl

openssl req -x509 -days 365 -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout hostkey.pem -nodes -out hostcert.pem

cat hostkey.pem >> hostcert.pem

mv hostcert.pem apache.pem

 

<VirtualHost *:443>

//insert code as Normal; same as above

SSLEngine On

SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.pem

</VirtualHost>

 

-steve

[Just got a dedi, Apache is running but I can't pull up the test page]

Can you do the following test:

 

telnet ipaddress 80

 

I know you said you checked the firewall, but I'd check again.

Do a "netstat -tapn" on the server and check to see if apache is actually running and if it is using port 80.

 

-steve

[setting cron job timing]

How about something as simple as the following in a crontab:

 

./script1.sh && ./script2.sh

 

Script 2 will wait until script 1 finishes.

 

-steve

[Mask URL / Rewrite?]

You could use frames, but they are messy.

 

-steve

[sub sub domains]

And does      ping iphone.admin.yoursite.com    work?

 

If so, it sounds more like the webspace setup side and permissions.

 

What control panel do you use for setting up web accounts and web space etc?

[Home Backups]

I suggest you get a low power server with efficient hard drives to keep electricity usage down.

 

Old servers and HDDs chew up electricity.

 

*steviewdr has a daily rsync to a 1TB external usb drive.

 

-steve

 

 

[sub sub domains]

Yes of course.

You need to set your dns firstly.

 

If you have a dns control panel, login and add a sub domain. However type "iphone.admin"  in. It should be respected.

Then after you save, try and go ping iphone.admin.yoursite.com. Note it could take a few min for dns to update.

 

-steve

[What's choking the server?]

You should be logging mysql slow queries.

 

Add or uncomment the following line in your my.cnf:

log-slow-queries        = /var/log/mysql/mysql-slow.log

Then watch that file.

 

As I mentioned earlier, munin would be very very useful. It will graph for you mysql connections in a 5 minute period.

 

-steve

[Mail server is on web server]

I don't see any issues. I don't think you will require a separate mailserver. Just make sure its setup properly.

 

You'll want to keep an eye on RBLs for your mail server.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNSBL

 

I don't forsee an ISP blocking your mail server, unless you are sending spam emails or if they hit a honeypot.

If you keep an eye on your mail.info log, you can see if emails are bounced back and if so, what message/error is bounced.

 

-steve

[What's choking the server?]

If you think it could be mysql, then this could quite possibly be the case.

 

Google for mysqltuner.pl and mysqlreport.

These scripts will report mysql slow queries and if you have enough memory set for mysql in mysql.cnf.

 

 

I HIGHLY recommend you install munin and munin-node.

There are centos, debian packages etc. etc.

See: http://brage.sunsite.dk/munin/dotsrc.org/munin.dotsrc.org.html

http://www.gnegg.ch/2009/01/monitoring-servers-with-munin/

 

-steve

 

[Possible DoS attack? and how to prevent?]

See: http://wiki.kartbuilding.net/index.php/Apache#mod_evasive

 

To prevent the db server from falling over, I suggest you limit the number of connections allowed from a mysql user. I limited mine to 10 simultaneous connections per user. This helped a LOT. In my case the db server didn't fall over, and after a few minutes sorted itself out.

I also suggest you look at what web pages are accessed and what mysql queries are been made. It could be the type of mysql query been made. Also did you see if there are any mysql slow queries? (assuming your using mysql).

 

-steve

[Moving a lot of files]

mark: rsync has --inplace and --partial switches which can pick up transferring large files from where it left off.

 

-steve

[whats the directory above htdocs]

AuthUserFile needs to be a full path on the server. I.E. /home/user/private/.htpasswd

 

To find the full folder path, create the following file:

phpinfo.php

with the following:

<?php

echo phpinfo();

?>

 

Put this folder in the htdocs folder and go to the file via your web browser and look for the full path. Then when you know the full server path put this in your .htaccess file.

 

-steve

[Moving a lot of files]

rsync would be better to transfer a large number of files from one server to another.

 

For example, you can run rsync again, and it will check if any files have been modified (since you started the initial copy) and copy them to the new server.

 

There are quite a few switches you can use with rsync. I typically use the following on the new server:

rsync -avz user@server:source destination

 

e.g.

 

rsync -avz user@oldserver:/home/user /home/

 

-steve

[Server time keeps resetting one hour early]

For ubuntu, debian go:

 

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

[Path in Documentroot for Virtual host.]

Have a go at creating a symlink or junction point.

 

See: http://sburke.eu/blog/2010/04/symlinks-in-vista/

It is the same in vista and Win 7.

This should work for you.

 

Post back here if it works.

 

-steve

[autostart python script]

You can use a @reboot in roots crontab. You can also edit /etc/rc.local and add in your script there to run.

 

-steve

[procmail: Piping to a PHP script.]

Make sure the top of your php file is like:

 

#!/usr/bin/env php

<?php

echo "hi";

?>

 

-steve

[Building website on windows localhost, will it work on linux server?]

Make sure you don't mix capital letters and small. Windows treats them the same, linux doesn't. Also, I'd recommend avoiding spaces in filenames.

 

-steve

[Max CRON jobs/hour]

How long is a piece of string? Is it a 386 computer or a Dual CPU server?

 

If its a shared host, there may be limits regarding number of cronjobs.

AFAIK there is no limit to the number of cronjobs you can run.

 

-steve

[php from linux terminal]

Well the following in a htaccess file worked fine for me.

 

php_value upload_max_filesize 100M

php_value post_max_size 100M

 

I know its a hack. But it worked fine for me to allow people upload up to 100MB files.

The only other way would be to have a local client app developed using java etc to allow them to upload large files and to give a status of it.

 

-steve

[Can't write file to a created folder]

Is the test folder been created successfully by the php script?

Can you verify that the php script chmods 777 the test folder?

 

How are you getting php to make the folder test?