Installing Webmin On An Ubuntu Server

Remote server management is a hassle as it is and when your trying to save money in this economy by running Open Source Software things can seem very scary having to deal with terminal for things like DNS entries and Apache web-server management. Luckily there is an alternative. Now while this application is free and completely open source I must warn you there will always be situations where you’ll have to deal with a terminal session which is why I highly recommend installing OpenSSH. So what is this great remote server management utility you may ask? Ladies and gentleman allow me to introduce Webmin current version is 3.8. Installing this application is actually fairly easy and to make the actual terminal code a little easier I’ve copied the file to my server for use with this tutorial. So here goes.

To install open a terminal session via OpenSSH or the physical machine
type: sudo aptitude install perl libnet-ssleay-perl openssl libauthen-pam-perl libpam-runtime libio-pty-perl libmd5-perl
type: wget http://provisioning.jajahosting.com/webmin.deb/
type: sudo dpkg -i webmin.deb

Once The Install Has Completed Test It By Going To

https://(Replace This With Domain Name).com:10000

Now once your in the layout is very simple. You’ll notice the Navigation Panel on the left which allows easy one click access to major server services such as Apache, Bind DNS, OpenSSH, and many many more. The overall feel of the control panel is very comfortable to be honest I found it a lot easier than dealing with the terminal. The configuration files for all your services will be managed with this control panel utility however when installing Bind 9 I had some issues at first with the Names.conf file. On the top of each main service page there is a module configuration link that will allow you to control where to look for specific configuration files and which configuration files you wish for Webmin to use. This is a key point if you are switching from another control panel that may have managed those same configuration files. This way it’s easy to integrate with existing servers which is something that I have had issues with other control panels in the past. Once it’s installed dive in a look around. If you need any help or would like to see more tutorials like this please feel free to email me Support@jajahosting.com or visit JaJaHosting.com

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IT is pretty simple

So you’ve finally decided to start getting that business you’ve been thinking about into more than just an “idea”? If your anything like the majority of the current small business owners that have lined up before you there’s that little voice in the back of you head saying your not going to do it. You try to set down a plan to get this project rolling but you realize that your business is going to need a website. At this point your faced with two questions. Do you fork over the money to get it professionally done or do you try to do it yourself to save some cash? Well with JaJa Hosting you don’t have to sacrifice service for your money. Not only do we offer great reliable hosting services we work with you to help develop a strategy for your business so you don’t have to worry about all that tech babble; instead you can focus your time and energy on launching your grounds for success! We understand what it takes to get a business up and running; we know because we’ve been there. We can help with our great IT services and outstanding customer support and business integration. JaJa also works with you on developing an easy and reliable way of updating your website without all the hassle of code. With great third party integration with high profile social media networking and free flash website feed updates we can ensure that your customers will always have instant access to all the information you wish them to know. We also offer very competitive rates on Search Engine Optimization and other search engine related services to make sure that the your company is reaching the right type of potential customers. The best part is where’s based right in the greater Cincinnati area in Ohio and can offer based IT solutions for your company to improve the relationship with your clients. Let JaJa Hosting do the worrying! Visit JaJaHosting.com Remember, you don’t have to sacrifice money for quality with JaJa Hosting!

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Netbooking it!

Anybody who has been keeping tabs on new trends knows that the netbook is very popular right now. It’s selling like crazy and right now tons of companies are all trying to get in on the action. There are a lot of different options out there right now if you decide to get a netbook but tons of people get one and end up loading it up with so many applications that working on the thing is near impossible at times. Well don’t worry here’s a quick list of some key essentials everybody should know when they purchase a netbook.

First off netbooks are not regular laptops or desktops, so don’t use them so. Netbooks don’t have alot of system resources like hard drive space and memory so if you start installing applications your going to soon realize that your out of luck. Now wether you have a linux based netbook or a windows based one here’s what you should do. Install Google Chrome Webbrowser. This is a very small application that does not use a title bar and will allow everybody to see alot more of the website. Another great part about google chrome is it’s very secure and relatively new so there’s not alot of exploits out there for it. Now once you have that installed you’ll want to set up some basic accounts for some key websites

Meebo.com <This is a great website that lets you log in and use a number of different IM clients at the same time.
Lala.com <This website will let you upload all your music from your deasktop this way you can play your music anywhere you go without taking up all your hard drive space

GMail.com < Ok so maybe you already have an email but having a gmail account will enable use of google documents which is a great alternative to installing Open office or microsoft office (PLEASE DO NOT INSTALL MICROSOFT OFFICE ON A NETBOOK)

LogMeIn.com <This website will allow you to work on your home computer from anywhere you have internet access. It is free but the free account is limited in that you cannot transfer files between computers but you can still see your home computer and use it as if it were right there in front of you.

The key point I am trying to get across to everybody is chances are anything you would normally do on a computer can be done on a website instead and that’s what netbooks were made for. Netbooks would not exist if people did not depend on the internet as much as we do. If you follow that one rule chances are you’ll be able to impress alot of poeple with your netbook because at any given time you’ll only have 1 program running and netbooks can handle that. You wont have issues with the screen being so small that you cannot see a window because internet browsers shrink everything down for you and lets face it getting frustrated at a netbook can be a bad thing if your the type of person who likes to beat up computers when they start to run slow.

As a side note anybody who feels comfortable with upgrading their operating system I would higly recommend using Windows 7 on your netbook. I’ve been running it since June and I cannot tell you how amazing it is. My netbook was actually faster than my friends desktop which is currently running XP and lets just say he’s not running XP anymore =P

Windows 7 (So easy your girlfriend can use it)

So as you all know I’m a huge computer buff. I am changing computer crap more frequently than women change outfits. This can be a huge annoyance if you have someone living with you though. For instance my girlfriend (and kudos to her she’s actually pretty computer literate) often comes home to everything on the desktop completely gone and a new operating system that she now has to navigate through. Now when we originally moved in together I was running Windows XP and she told me there was no way in hell she would ever use Windows Vista (can’t say I blamed her) but alas part of my job is knowing how to work with every operating system Microsoft offers and in turn I had to get Vista and give it a shot. She was hesitant at first but eventually found her way through it and used it on a regular basis. Now we’re at Windows 7 and to my surprise I think she’s actually better navigating this than she was with XP. I’m not saying she knows how to go in and add network share permissions to homegroup only but alas she wouldn’t have to call someone out if she wanted to. They’ve really made this new operating system “user friendly”. I am shocked on a daily basis with how out and in the open everything is. Want to share a folder with your network easy right click on a folder click share then click homegroup. Want to access your desktop computers files from your laptop? Easy connect and then click the network button on the bottom right click join workgroup type in your password and your done. I mean they’ve finally made it possible to network computers without wanting to shoot yourself or wondering “why the hell can’t I see this computer!!!”. On a side not though been having some issues with games recently but alas it’s expected considering it’s still in beta. More updates to come sorry about the lack of posts been really busy with work and stuff =(

Windows 7 Control Panel

I left you off last with a brief overview of the Windows 7 desktop. Now lets get into some of the good stuff. Now if your anything like me (which if your reading this blog you probably are) you will agree that the ability to easily navigate the control panel in windows 7 is a big issue. It seems like ever since XP they have been trying harder and harder to make take you in this giant loop in order to accomplish anything with their category views. For the average Joe this can be useful but when we just want to get something done we don’t want to be taken through what seems like a support script. With Windows 7 this isn’t as big of a deal. I think they have finally come to terms with the fact that people who go into the control panel know the control panel. So they have cut down on the extra bull crap in exchange for a much more robust category view.

Now if your still just not feeling it which I can fully understand they have put a very easy to use drop down menu in the top right corner where you can choose to view as either large icons or my personal favorite small icons.

Now talk about robust these options are all available right out of the box and pretty much allow maximum customization as far as I’m concerned. Now aside from a few options you will most likely look at this and say “wow looks like vista’s options” but there’s a little more to it. See the trouble shooting control panel option? Yeah that’s a pretty new feature which has the potential to really save a lot of IT Geeks many annoying calls. This seems to be a pretty useful tool but alas we will dig into that a little later. You’ll also notice a couple other new options such as the Action Center, Location And Other Sensors, RemoteApp and Desktop Connections. Now while the rest of these options look the same I assure you Microsoft has completely revamped these tools to not only be more efficient but also to be in your face with all the options so you don’t have to dig to far to do what you want! That’s it for now be sure to subscribe for more updates.

Windows 7 Review

Now, I am not normally one to go bragging about anything Microsoft (come to think of it I have never wrote a single good review for them); but alas, they have finally made something worth talking about!  I’ve been keeping a close eye on Windows 7 since the beginning.  At first, I was mainly trying to put them down for releasing Windows Vista and Windows 7 so close together.  Let’s face it, people don’t like change and to me it felt like they were just changing too much too fast.  It seemed like a good opportunity for Linux to finally take a little more of a lead in the operating system market.

So, let’s start at the begining.  Obviously, I have been keeping a close eye on Microsoft Windows 7 for a while now and didn’t see anything that really sparked my interest.  I was invited to try, however did not attempt to test the beta.  Then, a couple of weeks ago, I found out that they have released their official Windows 7 RC.  To my surprise they were leaving the RC up until June of 2010.  So, with the nice time frame included I decided to give it a shot. Now, I read that it runs pretty decent on netbooks which if you keep up on my blog you would know I have a sleek HP Mini 1030NR.  Running anything other than Linux on this machine just slows it down to a crawl due to the Intel ATOM processor and small 16GB SSD.  But to my complete surprise, not only did Windows 7 install without any driver complications…but it was actually faster than any other OS installation I have ever loaded.  It took a total of about 20 minutes to completely install and let me tell you it runs better than any OS I have ever put on this little netbook of mine!

Onto the new stuff.  As far as functionality goes, if you’ve been using Windows Vista the user interface will seem pretty normal. The biggest noticeable change made to the desktop is the task bar.  There is no more fumbling with large rectangles with giant names.  You can now just hover over a specific icon and see all instances of this program in real time.  YES!!!  REAL TIME!!! Something found only in Linux!  Let’s see, the start menu is pretty much the same as Vista with a convenient search bar.  Something new you will find is a pretty cool new feature called the action center.  This is basically like the Windows security center, but is much more user friendly and to be quite honest, a lot less annoying.  I think Microsoft has finally realized that when people are not running anti-virus software they don’t want to be notified every 5 minutes about this.  So, they put the “Turn off messages about Anti-Virus” option right in the action center.  No more opening properties or anything like that, Windows 7 has been made to be right there in your face with everything, which is nice.  I can finally stop having to hunt to find out how to fix stupid little details about my system!

I will review more features as I dig into them and test more and more.  All in all though, right out of the box I am very happy with the ease of use and added features that take no time to set up and run very smoothly on a low end netbook.  Finally a version of Windows I would actually pay for!

The Windows 7 Desktop

Adobe AIR is like magic!

If I’m anything like the countless number of PC users you know how frustrating it can be to change operating systems. You have to make sure all your programs are cross compatible and if they aren’t you have to either spend countless hours figuring out how to port it or just give up all together. I understand this frustration. I’m a PC/Linux/MAC user and I always need a specific machine for something which gets very frustrating. Well not anymore. Drum roll please I would like to introduce you all to a great application called Adobe AIR. While it’s not an emulator or virtualization application it does offer cross compatibility across all OSs. So what is Adobe AIR you may ask. Well basically it’s like a mini OS. There are thousands of applications made for Adobe AIR and as long as it’s installed on your PC you can rest assured that it will work on your device. From twitter clients to micro management utilities it’s got a range of great applications that can be very use full. So what does Jeymz recommend? Well I think if your looking to switch OSs and a specific application is not available try looking up an Adobe AIR equivalent that you can use to replace your application. Plus have I mentioned it’s free? Free is good in this crappy economy which is a added bonus to this amazing application!

HP Mobile Internet Experience

As your well aware I recently received a new HP Mini 1030NR. I bought the netbook at Bestbuy and it came with windows XP Home edition preinstalled. Now you have to really make it easy for me to even use windows… let alone Home edition of anything. I just don’t like and stripped down versions because they always just end up causing problems later on down the road. In example I set up the laptop and oh wait Home can’t connect to a domain… Well crap I’m fucked when i set this up for work… Okay what about networking with vista ultimate… It’s total crap. So I plug in my external DVD drive and start installing XP pro. Well the drivers suck for one… The HDD is only 16GB and I have the old version of XP pro so every service pack I install I can see my music collection shrinking. Then it hit me,.. UBUNTU!!! HP makes a remix of Ubuntu called MIE. This specific remix is geared more towards use with a netbook. One major problem with netbooks running windows XP is their small display. People don’t want to have to operate an entire OS via a 8.9 inch screen. They went to be able to sit back without having to be 3 inches from the screen to read what they just typed. The MIE remix fixes this. It offers a very easy to use home screen with all the essentials right there at the start. You have your mail section your web section and your media section, for music and photos. It offers all the essential applications without the extra crap that just takes up hard drive space. While the OS itself is smaller than windows XP it’s still nice to get as much extra room as possible. The drivers are all loaded and setup great. To put it simply I have never had linux work so well with all my hardware like it works with this laptops built in devices. Webcam, Mic, Audio, Touchpad, Even video are all set up right after installation. It’s got a great user interface that has everything you need just one click away. They worked alot to hide the fact that you are actually using linux but it is very easy to open a terminal and start configing your system to what you want.

MIE Homescreen

MIE Homescreen

Hardware Monitor

Lala.com is the iTunes of tomorrow

When it comes to music I’m your man. Wether it be listening to music in the car or in your bathroom I can set it up. Here’s the problem I always have with any type of MP3 player or IPO; Hell even with laptops, you have to select the music you want to transfer and half the time your like “what where is that one song I love” and guess what. You didn’t transfer it. Well Lala.com fixes this. It’s an online media player that can actually play whatever music you decide to add to it. Yes that’s right WHATEVER MUSIC YOU HAVE!!! One download of their music mover app to your main library desktop and bam all your music is now accessable via the internet wherever you go. Use it on your phone on your laptop on whatever. Even if your at work go to their website and listen to your music. Lala.com also sells their music but it’s very cost efficient and very secure. Using paypal they add your funds and you can either download the MP3 or just add it for 10 cents to your online library. Oh did I mention you can listen to the entire song once for free before you choose to buy it? Well you can. Lala.com is pushing the envelope with their new outlook on mobile media management.

I’ve gone netbook crazy!!!

So this actually may come to everybody as much of a suprise but I have never owned a new laptop. Once when I was in high school I received a hand me down gateway laptop with under 64MB of ram (which for the time still was not good) and the battery was dead which basically meant it had no laptop advantage anylonger. Anyways I’ve always wanted a laptop but could never wrap my head around carrying a giant laptop everywhere I go. The macbook air seemed like a pretty good one but lets face it I like my windows made machines and honestly the reviews on it weren’t all that great. So anyways the girlfriend and I went to best buy to look at T.Vs and of course I just have to go look at the computer section (it’s what I do). While looking around I saw that best buy now has an entire section dedicated to netbooks. For me a netbook it actually a pretty good idea for the most part all I want to do with my laptop would be surf the web stay in touch with work via emails and of course blog to my heart’s content. As far as gaming goes I’m not much of a gamer but I do enjoy playing spore sometimes. Anyways I finally decided I WANT ONE!!! Yesterday I researched my brains out looking for which ones were good vs. bad and features, upgradeability etc. Now I originally had my eye set on the HP 1030N mainly because of the nice keyboard this unit had. That to me is one of the biggest drawbacks with the netbooks out there today is you get a mini keyboard but your gonna need some type of a pointer to ensure accurate typing (especially with giant fingers such as mine). Turns out the system had some really good reviews. The website (and HP Tech Support) said that it was only upgradable to 1 GB which is what it came with so that was a drawback but alot of the reviews I read said they upgraded to 2 GB. So I decided to give this netbook a shot. I went and bought the unit at best buy total was about $370 after tax. Then I went to Microcenter and bought a 2GB stick of DDR2 RAM and an external DVD/RW drive. most netbooks do not come with any type of optical drive. Got home installed the memory and bam it worked great. The 16GB SSD drive is a decent amount for me but I have an external WD Passport also so that helps. The touch pad takes a little getting used to mainly because of the left and right click button positioning but overall it’s not to complicated. The unit (to my suprise) was able to run the spore game (on low quality of course). The unit gets a little warm when running for any extended period of time but the battery life on this little sucker is amazing. The webcam is a little lacking but if you change the settings around it’s managable. Overall I am very pleased with this unit and wont be getting anything new for a long time.