A Technical Guy’s Blog

Map your SSH server as a Windows drive letter over SFTP with ExpanDrive.

ExpanDrive acts just like a USB drive plugged into your PC

Many domain name service providers irresponsibly use their own contact information during the registration of a domain name for their customers. The incorrect information used in the registration of a domain name causes dispute on the domain name ownership.

Yet, many domain name owners are not aware of this. You don’t want to end up like what is happening to sex.com domain name dispute which causes 6 years to settle in a court.

This is one of the email sample I have wrote to MyNIC. Might be of useful to you if you are writing one to them, use this as the template.

MyNIC has appointed resellers to manage the registration, billing and renewal of their domain name. MyNIC is no longer dealing directly with end users. Back to the question, what is the pre-requisite to become a MyNIC reseller?

In short, each reseller needs to commit to certain number of domain name registration per month. Well, meeting the target is one thing, but how many of them are reliable?

Dealing with domain name business is not a short term hit and run business. Yet, many domain name service providers never seems to get this right. Check out posts I have written earlier Domain Name Ownership and What is Your Rights as Domain Owner?. The two posts are inspired by my bad encounters with IPXcess and KLHost.

Both of them are ignoring messages regarding domain name registrar transfer despite many attempts to contact them. I have tried both email and contact us form in their website, no one reply me at all. Yet, it is too easy for them to put the word ‘leading of…’. Shame on them!

If you need help to register your domain name, drop me a message pin@1.com.my

The owner of a domain name is stated as in the Registrant section. Bear in mind, this information can be changed by anyone having access to your domain name manager. Anyway, the proof of conduct of the use of this domain name as your corporate website, will be uphold by your Registrar always. When a unauthorized change of Registrant, Registrar can revert back the ownership of a domain name to the original and rightfil owner.

In short,

1. Owner name must be stated in Registrant and Admin Contact section.
2. Owner must have access to the email used in Admin Contact
3. Request the access to the domain name manager of your domain name

Related:
What is Your Rights as Domain Owner?

Poedit is free cross-platform gettext catalogs (.po files) editor, used by translators to perform side by side translation. Using the gettext command, text content from a website can be extracted and save to a .pot file. The .pot file serves as the master copy of all the text content. It will be used to compare with an existing .po file and to update it if there is any changes to the web content. Then, a .mo file will be generated by Poedit.

Poedit main interface

To download Poedit and find out the benefit of using it, check out http://www.poedit.net/

The program is perfect if only singles words such as name of Country, etc, can be auto translated by Google Translators. Well, it can save the time of translators for sure!

An add-on was developed to solve this problem. This stand alone program check through a .po files and retrieve translated text from Google and update the .po file automatically. You can save at least 20% of your time in translation.

To find out more about Google Translator, check this out http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

The program snapshots:

The interface of Auto Translate System for Poedit

The program shows you the status of query Google Translators

If you are interested in the program, please post your comment here.

Maxis or Celcom give you a free USB 3G modem when you sign up their 3G wireless broadband. Anyway, the single USB dongle allows only one computer to go online. What if you wish to share this Internet connection with your friend, without the hassle of bringing a switch or a router with you? Is there a quick way?

1. The PC with newer WIFI card should become the Host

Check the type of wireless card you have

2. Both PCs must have same Wordgroup name (Control Panel > System)

3. Host PC connects to Internet with USB modem or LAN Cable

4. Client PC connects to Host PC using Peer to Peer or Ad Hoc WIFI

Ok, you are ready now! Proceed with this two step-by-step guide now!

How to configure Internet Connection Sharing in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306126

Note: Setup Internet Connection Sharing in the Host PC. When you share a connection (the network that connects to Internet), you will be prompted for what is your Home Network Connection. Choose your Wireless adapter in this case. This is because your peer to peer network is setup on WIFI.

Set up a wireless network without a router
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/setup/adhoc.mspx#1

Note: Setup Host PC first. Make sure you set a password for the peer to peer connection. After Host setup done, setup the Client.

This article is useful to:
Sharing Maxis wireless broadband 3G
Sharing Celcom wireless broadband 3G
Sharing Streamyx Internet Connection without Router or Switch or Hub
Connecting your PC to 3G Phone / iPhone to share Internet Connection
Ad Hoc Setup Tutorial

Ok, I admit, I just need a quicker way to mount my pendrive. My problem is, I always forget the correct command and it really takes a while to learn if the pendrive is sda or sdb or sdb1, etc. See, it is confusing :)

1. Copy a new file (test.txt) in your pendrive using your Windows machine.

2. Insert the pendrive to your Linux machine.

3. Create a new folder /usb

4. Type mount -t vfat /dev/xxx /usb. The trick here is, xxx can be replaced by sda, sda1, sda2, sda2, sdb, sdb1, sdc, etc…

5. After successful mount, go to /usb and check if you can see the file test.txt. If you can see, it is the right mount. If not, use umount /dev/xxx and then you can try again. When umount, make sure you are not in /usb folder, otherwise it will show busy sign.

Good luck

Yes, imagine you throw your faulty car to the workshop, and telling them:

‘My car is broken, please fix it…’

Well, that is what we encountered most of the time, when we are dealing with technical support of our services. In few cases, we are unable to figure out where goes wrong if it is not specific…!

You can find a lot of tutorial on setting up Samba from the Internet. I found this can be of useful for your debugging purpose when you have this error ‘network path not found’.

Selinux can block your Samba connection too

During setting up, we disabled firewall but still have problem connecting from our Windows desktop to Samba server, until we find that Selinux is blocking it. Disable it and try again, it works :)

According to MyNIC, a Technical Contact can be defined as:

This is the person who maintains the domain name’s primary name server, secondary name server, resolver software and the domain name database files. This person keeps the name server running. He/she also answers all queries regarding technical matters, and interacts with technical people in other domains to solve problems affecting the domain name. Only the contact person listed in your Registration form will receive e-mail notification from MYNIC when the registration is completed

Perhaps, some are confused. The Technical Contact here doesn’t mean that someone who happen to be the technical staff in your company. One should at least understand how DNS works and able to manage all the Zone file when assigned as a Technical Contact.

It is important to find someone who is reliable and those who is not on hit-and-running business. The support from the person listed in the Technical Contact is important. It has lot to do with your website and email services!

The most common error is where one listed as the Technical Contact, but doens’t hold any access to the DNS servers registered under the domain name.

I came across this thing called Tor when I was reading an article about how Malaysia Bloggers use it to post and manage the MalaysiaToday Blog anonymous.

“Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. It also enables software developers to create new communication tools with built-in privacy features. Tor provides the foundation for a range of applications that allow organizations and individuals to share information over public networks without compromising their privacy. ”

Check this out if you are interested to learn more!

My customers used to tell me they have problem with their email. This is how they describe their problem:

‘I have some little problem with receiving email…’

This is cracking our head as we need a little bit more info to debug too :)

A hacker is someone who tweaks things to their purposes. A cracker is a low-life who attacks other people with malicious intent. There is a big difference.

Check this out ‘Collective effort restores DavidAirey.com‘!

My first domain is it-lodge.com, registered on 1999. Perhaps, I have also registered websitesolution.com.my and could be even earlier, but it was all done and managed by Asia Pacific Net.

One thing I’m sure - PageRank (PR) has really nothing to do with how long a domain name was registered. The website it-lodge.com has PR1 because it was not updated for long.

The challenge of getting it-lodge.com done, mainly because I was required to setup the website and all its pointing to our own web server. It was a Xitami server installed in a Windows platform, sitting on a HP server.

It was all new to me. I used a Public DNS Service called Granite Canyon (I’m happy that I can remember the name still). There are no nice interface for me to edit the zone file in their DNS server. It was all done manually from setting A to MX records.

Then, comes the Xitami server that never seems to work. I configured it in blind. Lucky, the whole projects was funded under the research projects by my mentor, Dr. Lee Yee Loon. He is the head of research of UTHN. It was how I managed to learn all this, with his support.

The IT-Lodge project meant to be a Research Portal to bridge researchers and industrial people. We don’t have Blog those days. But, Dr. Lee’s ideas of sharing inspiring us until today.

I bought a new Linksys ADSL modem (AM300) to replace the faulty modem came together when I signed up my Streamyx Corporate ADSL package with fixed one fixed IP address.

It was indeed a nightmare. It is definitely not a plug-and-play task. TM’s technician wasn’t turn out too after filing the support ticket. Over the last 24 hours, I called my friends, stranger’s phone number which I found from some don’t-know-what forums, asking their helps. Many articles I found online are not updated and this only add to my confusion and more time to restart my modem with random and unsure settings.

The following are steps which I have confirmed and I really hope that it can help someone out there. I am using Linksys AM300 (yeah again, never listed in the list of Streamyx Supported Modem). Who cares, if you are using Dlink, Aztech or any other ADSL modems - I am sure they work too!

1) Call 1300-88-9515 Streamyx Support (they require some verification like your company address and ROC, etc. I must admit, their call centre are supportive). Request for your username and password. This is crucial, you don’t want to bang on wrong login just in case. My account was registered since year 2005. I am not sure if the new Streamyx Fix IP Package are changed to xxxx@streamyx, but I am sure (confirmed by their call centre) my username is xxxx@tmnet (1001% sure). Also ask for your IP addreses. They will tell you two IP address, with only last digit different. Eg 60.49.166.105 & 60.49.166.106.

2) Unpack your new modem (forget about the bundled quick start CD). Connect your new modem to your PC, instead of the router. For Linksys AM300, enter 192.168.1.1 in your web browser. Use the default login admin/admin to access the web admin. Remember to enable DHCP in your PC, or you will not able to access the web admin.

3) I have circled (in grey) those fields that you need to change. If you are using different modem, please make sure you have chosen PPPOA (Not PPPOE), LLC (not VC), VPI 0 (Must), VCI 35 (Must). Your modem IP is the one with smaller number (in my case, it is 60.49.166.105), and enter Netmask as 255.255.255.252 (if Streamyx gives you 5 fixed IPs, chances you need to modify this).

4) Tricky part now. Make sure you have Operation Mode (or whatever similiar) set as Router (Not Gateway). Also remember to disable NAT. Many online tutorial never explain about this.

If you are not able to access the Web Admin after saving the changes, try disable DHCP in your PC and use 60.49.166.106 (in your case, it would be the IP with bigger number), netmask 255.255.255.252, gateway 60.49.166.105 and DNS (202.188.0.133, 202.188.1.5)

In case you still have any problem, you can call my friend Aiktern (012-7073993). Or you can post your question here, and I will try to see how I can help.

Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.

We use online forms to capture leads, from enquiries to successful sales order. Have you ever wonder what if the delivery mechanism fail and the leads are not delivered to you?

See, submission are sent to you by email. What if the email agent used by your online form is not working as expected? Will you be informed if the email was not sent successfully? As online forms taking care of all the important sales conversion, it is important for you to understand how it works.

Using built-in SMTP

If your website is hosted in a Linux server (you can tell if your website ends with .php, in most case), changes you are using Sendmail as the email agent of your online forms. Sendmail do trigger Error message if a message failed to deliver for some reasons. Anyway, the messages will go to the administrator of the server, not you - most of the time.

Another problem with build-in SMTP server is, when your web hosting and email hosting are in the same server. Your web form will most likely ’smart’ enough to route the submission of online forms to your mailbox. This will cause problem if you have some changes to your Mail Exchange pointing.

Using external SMTP

Just imagine the online form is now your email clients, such as Outlook Express. Everytime, an enquiry waiting to be delivered to you, your online form will connect to a specified SMTP, authorized as usual, and get the message delivered to you. You will have more control in this case, and your email hosting service provider will most likely provide you some status report for the uptime of your email server.

If your web hosting costs you around RM200-300 a year, chances are that it’s a shared basis. Perhaps I’m wrong. Dividing the yearly price to 12 months, I doubt how an average of RM20 monthly web hosting fee is enough to cover the cost of server hardware, bandwidth, co-location and even the unlimited mailbox account offered. That is barely enough for a McD set.

Where goes wrong then?

Forget about the page-long list of feature of those web hosting plan. Look for ‘Monthly data transfer’ and ‘No of website per server’. If you can find them, chances that you are in the right direction. Vaguely still, both offering tricky measurement which sounds to me like finding a virgin in a brothel.

It would be easier to put it this way

1) First offer allows you to stay in a hotel for X amount of days in a month. But didn’t tell you the fact that another 100 people are getting the same offer, and the hotel has just one room! - Monthly data transfer

2) Second offer limits to X amount of people who get the offer, but didn’t mention about the number of days each person will stay in this one-room hotel - No of website per server

What can I do?

Find out number of rooms. In this case, it is the dedicated bandwidth assigned to each website, not server. Remember, shared basis servers host not just your website. It makes huge differences here. A shared 1Mbps for 10 websites may be slower than single website with dedicated 256Kbps bandwidth.

Find out number of days one can stay in your second offer. In this case, check out the ‘Compute Cycles’ offered. It measures how much the processing time your application required in a server. 10,000 compute cycles are roughly equivalent to the monthly capacity of a server with a server with 1.2GHz modern processor. For example, a website with only static pages consumes less compute cycles than a website with shopping cart applications.

Is your website loading slow?

I see big corporate website paying as little as RM20 a month for their online infrastructure including email & web hosting (some with domain as well). I bet this amazing offer answer to the question above.

Sorry to have sound a little harsh in the title. Trust me, if there are only two last DNS servers to use, check out OpenDNS. The nameservers are 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. Forget about our local ISPs’ DNS servers. They are geographically near you, but that doesn’t mean they are realiable!

DNS is important. A good one log you into your server without delay, resolving your web address in your web browser quicker! Yet, our local ISPs never seem to take care of this seriously. Your router, computers, servers around you require a pair of reliable DNS servers.

Change your DNS now:

1) In your Router

Enable OpenDNS in your router so every computer benefits. The OpenDNS website is kind enough to list every model of router and guide you through the process. Stop using the famous Streamyx’s DNS servers (202.188.0.133 & 202.188.1.5).

2) In your Computer

If you’re connecting to Internet directly without a router, you can enter OpenDNS’s DNS servers into your computer, instead of using ‘obtain DNS server address automatically’. This also applies to those on Wireless broadband such as Celcom and Maxis 3G, etc.

3) In your Server

For example, if you have Linux installed in your server, include OpenDNS’s DNS servers to /etc/resolv.conf. I’m using TM’s DNS earlier and my dig and host command stop responding when TM’s DNS server decided to go teh tarik…

About OpenDNS

From the way how OpenDNS manage their website, showing the uptime of their globally loacated servers - rest assure this is the last time to change your DNS!

Thanks to ChoonKeng for sharing this useful information with me. He just attended the HostingCon in the US a few weeks ago.

It is report of survey with more than 390 responces on consumer & provider trend and observations & opportunities of web hosting industries.

Web Hosting Talk 2008 Survey Results
Web Hosting Talk 2008 Presentation