July 2010 Web Server Survery

In July 2010 there are approximately 205,714,253 websites active on the internet. According to www.netcraft.com the servers they run on are broken down into the following:

Apache running on Linux continues its domination of the online server market mostly because it's free to use, followed secondly by Microsoft's IIS. Google, a late starter in web server software is slowly making ground thanks mostly to it's popular blogger site.

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Click Here for our Microsoft IIS Hosting Plans

Point to Point Protocol Cheat Sheet

CHAP is a one way authentication method. CHAP uses a 3-way handshake process to perform one-way authentication.

Using CHAP in both directions creates a 2 way authentication. So that means there is a 3 way handshake in both directions.

Read more: Point to Point Protocol Cheat Sheet

Stealth Launches Smallest Mini PC to Date

Stealth computers located in the USA has launched their smallest mini PC to date. It utilises Intel's Mobile Core 2 Duo Processors and is barely larger than an iPhone measuring (4.0" x 6.1" x 1.45") It provides high CPU performance, I/O connectivity, graphics performance and hard drive space typically found in large PC systems. It can also be optionally fitted with a solid state hard drive.

These PC's run on 12V DC so can be a good solution for use in cars or remote places. It could also be fitted inside a briefcase for the purpose of demonstrating pheripheral devices.

The dimension in metric are: (102mm x 155mm x 37mm)

What is Cloud Computing?

When talking about cloud computing the word 'cloud' can be thought as meaning 'internet'. So what does internet computing mean? It sounds exciting but really it just means that you are outsourcing your processing power and storage to third parties who happen to be connected to you over the internet. Not surprisingly the main players of the internet; Google, Microsoft, HP, AT&T are also the main providers of cloud computing.

Read more: What is Cloud Computing?

OSPF Cheat Sheet

OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) is an interior gateway protocol. OSPF version 2 is the latest version and is described in RFC2328

Unique ID

Each router in an OSPF network needs a unique ID. The ID determined by the highest IP address on any logical interface. The highest IP from a loopback interface is chosen. If there is no loopback address set then it will use the highest address from any active interface. If no interfaces are up then it cannot obtain an ID.

Read more: OSPF Cheat Sheet

IEEE Network Standards Cheat Sheet

802.1Q - Encapsulation protocol used for trunking

ISL - Cisco Encapsulation protocol used for trunking

Wireless:

• 802.11 - 1-2Mbps
• 802.11a = 54Mbps
• 802.11b = 11mbps
• 802.11g = 54mbps
• 802.11n = 600mbps

Spanning Tree Protocol Basics

The nature and purpose of a switch is to forward packets out of all the ports that are in the same VLAN.  When the switch is powered up it goes though a process to block ports that would cause a loop. This is called Spanning Tree Protocol. First all ports are blocked for 20 seconds, they then listen for 15 seconds, learn for another 15 seconds and finally forwarding begins.

Read more: Spanning Tree Protocol Basics

How to get a forum started using Kunena Discussbot

Getting a forum started can take a long time if it starts at all. No one really wants to write in a forum if they see no previous posts. However I've come across a plugin called kunena discussbot which works with the forum software called Kunena. It works by allowing users to post comments after articles and those comments are actually handled and stored in the forum. So if you write enough articles and get enough traffic, its an easy way to get a forum started. This particular website is just new so there isn't anything in the forum yet.

I've just installed Kunena 1.6 which is still in Beta version and tried to install the discuss bot however it seems it no longer works with the new version. So I've gone back to Kunena 1.5 and now it's working as it should. See the demo below. Then all you need to do is update the CSS to match the colors of your site and its ready to go.

----update 24/12/10------

Today I installed the latest version of Kunena 1.6 which is no longer in Beta. They also have a native Joomla 1.5 version of the discusbot now which means I can run Joomla in native mode again. Nice. Only downside I can see with this newer plugin is the option to allow guests to comment has been removed. So people need to sign up to the site just to write a comment!! Hope they fix that soon.

Setting Up Email on Your iPhone

I've had a few people ask me how to set up email on their iPhone's so thought I'd put this guide together. The problem is that if you use a POP account and you open email on your PC, the emails by default are downloaded off the server and the iPhone then has nothing to look at. So this guide shows you how to configure your mail client to leave a copy of emails on the mail server so your iPhone can also see those emails.

Most people use Outlook as their email client so thats what this guide is based on. Open Outlook and click - Tools - Email Accounts. Select 'View or change existing email accounts' and click next. Highlight the pop server that you are using, it should already be highlighted by default, and click the change button. Then click 'More Options'. Click the advanced tab and you'll see a screen like this.

Read more: Setting Up Email on Your iPhone

An Easy Way To Work Out Subnets

Understanding subnetting is crucial when working with networks. When studying for my CCNA exam I needed an easy way to be able to work out any subnetting question. I ended up working out the following subnet chart. If you can memorise this, you'll be able to work out any question they can throw at you.

Read more: An Easy Way To Work Out Subnets