Informed Networker Blog

Tonight I attempted to make the move to our new server. Unfortunately, things didn’t go so smoothly and two hours later I had to roll back the changes and admit defeat. A lot was learned that will help when I attempt the move again (most likely this weekend), and some of the prep work doesn’t need to be done again.

On a more positive note Azza Alameh has joined us as a Junior Editor. She has studied English Literature for three years and is now in her first year of study in Journalism. We’re looking forward to her contributions to the site.

I’ve been sick since Friday (its now Tuesday). I’m much better now, though the coughing and sneezing continues. In any case, this put a bit of a monkey wrench in my work habits…But some progress has been made and I am looking forward to even more over the next several days. Here are some recent highlights:

• Removed vsftp and replaced with proftpd on VPS.
• Installed a test run of Pligg 9.9.0 - which was successful - on VPS.
• Eric Brown, our new Junior Editor, is doing a knockout job adding new stories.
• I am in the process of moving our DNS Servers to DNSMadeEasy, which offers highly available, geographically distributed DNS servers at extremely economical prices.
• I am in the process of hiring two or three additional Junior Editors and am currently in negotiations with two. Hoping to have more information on this matter soon…as quite honestly, the number of tech. stories in sheer volume is overwhelming.

Continuing work on deploying the new VPS. Tonight included:

• Installing mysql 5 (database backend).
• Installing webmin and phpmyadmin (web-based gui management for web and sql).
• Installing vsftp (ftp server).
• Installing webalizer (statistics).

You might be wondering what’s happening over here at Informed Networker. Perhaps you have even noticed the slowdown in postings. Well, here is the short and long of it:

• I’ve purchased a VPS with Slicehost and deployed Ubuntu 7.10 Gusty Gibbon Server. I’m currently in the process of deploying Apache, PHP, and MySQL. I’ve also been making changes to iptables to lockdown the server. Yeah, yeah, I know its not a physical machine - but right now we are on a shoestring budget and most of the money is going elsewhere…
• I’m hiring Junior Editors (if interested visit the jobs page). This is an independent contractor position that pays dirt (I’ll admit) and requires commitment. Essentially the Junior Editors’ job is to help provide a steady stream of stories while I immerse myself in the Linux world (which if you haven’t been following, I’m mainly a Windows admin.) and the PHP/MySQL world (yes, I’m a .NET and SQL Server guy as well).
• PacketTrap has been awesome and decided to sponsor us for at least this month. So say hooray for them, as they are (knowingly or unknowingly) bankrolling a lot of these changes. If you haven’t already - go download their software, its free. You can also encourage your boss or yourself to help bankroll the site by visiting our sponsors page and advertising with us.
• We’ve deployed openAds to handle ad distribution on Informed Networker.
• I am excited about what Informed Networker will become with your participation. A central source that allows for quick browsing (and optional in-depth reading) on the latest news and articles - a compelling one-stop shop for IT Pros.

I’m mainly a Windows Network Engineer personally and while I’ve dabbled with Linux in the past, I’ve never really embraced it. With Informed Networker being written with a LAMP stack in mind it seemed time for me to take the leap and start working with Linux.

I have an old 700 Mhz machine with 768 MB of RAM with Windows 2000 installed. I downloaded Wubi and installed Ubuntu 7.04. Once this was completed I enabled Remote Desktop and installed TightVNC on my Windows Vista laptop - then I remoted in. Once in I began by ensuring all the software was updated and then by installing the rest of the LAMP stack - Apache, MySQL, and PHP. In addition I added Webmin for configuration management and phpMyAdmin for handling the MySQL databases. Now its late and I need to get some sleep, so hopefully tomorrow I will begin actually installing Pligg in this test environment.