Hey everyone,

Que – How to install Frontpage on Plesk Control Panel ?

Ans -

Plesk 8 supports FrontPage and to have it installed on a linux vps with plesk reloaded, do the following:

login to vps as root

wget ftp://download1.swsoft.com/Plesk/Ple…586.rpm.tar.gz

tar zxf psa-8.0.1-centos4.2.build80060713.16.i586.rpm.tar.gz

rm f psa8.0.1-centos4.2.build80060713.16.i586.rpm.tar.gz

cd psa-8.0.1-centos4.2.build80060613.20.i586.rpm/dist-rpm-CentOS-4.2-i386/opt/fp/

rpm Uvh frontpage5.0-72psa.centos4.2.i586.rpm

and remove the psa-8.0.1-centos4.2 directory later. Once installed, login to Plesk and go to Servers – Components information and check if Frontpage is present.

Best Regards,
Shane Bewick
Enjoy

Restoring mail configuration

Mchk is an internal utility intended for use by Plesk Control Panel. However, as administrator, you can use it for restoring the Qmail and Courier-imap configuration by internal Plesk database when needed. By default mchk is running in the background mode, to execute it in the foreground, use the -v option.

Example: /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/mchk -v

NOTE
You may not wish to restore SpamAssassin settings for mail accounts, as it requires running Perl interpreter. To speed up restoring use the—without-spam option.

Regards,

Alex

The term “search engine” is often used generically to describe both crawler-based search engines and human-powered directories. These two types of search engines gather their listings in radically different ways.

Crawler-Based Search Engines

Crawler-based search engines, such as Google, create their listings automatically. They “crawl” or “spider” the web, then people search through what they have found.

If you change your web pages, crawler-based search engines eventually find these changes, and that can affect how you are listed. Page titles, body copy and other elements all play a role.

Human-Powered Directories

A human-powered directory, such as the Open Directory, depends on humans for its listings. You submit a short description to the directory for your entire site, or editors write one for sites they review. A search looks for matches only in the descriptions submitted.

Changing your web pages has no effect on your listing. Things that are useful for improving a listing with a search engine have nothing to do with improving a listing in a directory. The only exception is that a good site, with good content, might be more likely to get reviewed for free than a poor site.

“Hybrid Search Engines” Or Mixed Results

In the web’s early days, it used to be that a search engine either presented crawler-based results or human-powered listings. Today, it extremely common for both types of results to be presented. Usually, a hybrid search engine will favor one type of listings over another. For example, MSN Search is more likely to present human-powered listings from LookSmart. However, it does also present crawler-based results (as provided by Inktomi), especially for more obscure queries.

The Parts Of A Crawler-Based Search Engine

Crawler-based search engines have three major elements. First is the spider, also called the crawler. The spider visits a web page, reads it, and then follows links to other pages within the site. This is what it means when someone refers to a site being “spidered” or “crawled.” The spider returns to the site on a regular basis, such as every month or two, to look for changes.

Everything the spider finds goes into the second part of the search engine, the index. The index, sometimes called the catalog, is like a giant book containing a copy of every web page that the spider finds. If a web page changes, then this book is updated with new information.

Sometimes it can take a while for new pages or changes that the spider finds to be added to the index. Thus, a web page may have been “spidered” but not yet “indexed.” Until it is indexed — added to the index — it is not available to those searching with the search engine.

Search engine software is the third part of a search engine. This is the program that sifts through the millions of pages recorded in the index to find matches to a search and rank them in order of what it believes is most relevant

Search for anything using your favorite crawler-based search engine. Nearly instantly, the search engine will sort through the millions of pages it knows about and present you with ones that match your topic. The matches will even be ranked, so that the most relevant ones come first.

Of course, the search engines don’t always get it right. Non-relevant pages make it through, and sometimes it may take a little more digging to find what you are looking for. But, by and large, search engines do an amazing job.

As WebCrawler founder Brian Pinkerton puts it, “Imagine walking up to a librarian and saying, ‘travel.’ They’re going to look at you with a blank face.”

OK — a librarian’s not really going to stare at you with a vacant expression. Instead, they’re going to ask you questions to better understand what you are looking for.

Unfortunately, search engines don’t have the ability to ask a few questions to focus your search, as a librarian can. They also can’t rely on judgment and past experience to rank web pages, in the way humans can.

So, how do crawler-based search engines go about determining relevancy, when confronted with hundreds of millions of web pages to sort through? They follow a set of rules, known as an algorithm. Exactly how a particular search engine’s algorithm works is a closely-kept trade secret. However, all major search engines follow the general rules below.

Tune apache with php & mysql

Use following links to refer to HOW TO TUNE APACHE for plesk server.

http://forums.ev1servers.net/showthread.php?s=897e8dd8f1b35f0a5c2bd704ac7b0053&threadid=38027

http://forums.ev1servers.net/showthread.php?s=897e8dd8f1b35f0a5c2bd704ac7b0053&threadid=9895

Enjoy .. Alex

Hey everyone,

Problem :

When a user attempts to access their log folder of a domain which uses MSFTP as the FTP server they receive an access denied error message.

CAUSE :

MSFTP uses Windows NT users for user permissions. It is the permissions provided to the NT user that allow or restrict access to the Windows file system. For a user to be able to access a folder NT FTP account needs the appropriate permissions. By default this account is domain.com

However a new security “enhancement” of Windows 2003 is to remove inheritance for log folders such as W3SVC folders. As this folder is created without inheritance the domain.com NT user is not given the correct permissions on this folder, thereby restricting access via FTP.

RESOLUTION :

The server administrator can add the relevant permissions to the W3SVC folder however IIS may revert the permissions to as they were previously whenever a new log file is created.

The other solution is to use a non NT reliant FTP server such as Gene6 or Serv-U (Both of which are supported by HELM).

Best Regards,

Shane Bewick

Enjoy

cat /etc/psa/.psa.shadow (This holds psa admin password)

/etc/rc.d/init.d/psa stop (This stops Plesk and everything it runs.) #/usr/local/psa/mysql/bin/safe_mysqld—skip-grant-tables & or

/usr/bin/safe_mysqld—skip-grant-tables & (This starts up MySQL, bypassing the grant [password] tables.)

/usr/local/psa/mysql/bin/mysql mysql (You’re now in a mysql command line.)

use mysql;

FLUSH PRIVILEGES; (This flushes everything out – too long to explain.)

SET PASSWORD FOR admin=PASSWORD; (Type that exactly as above, where ‘your-password-here’ is.

exit (You exit the mysql command line and return to root.)

killall mysqld or

/etc/rc.d/init.d/mysqld restart (Shuts down the mysql daemon.)

/etc/rc.d/init.d/psa start (Starts Plesk back up, which restarts the mysql daemon which has your new password in it.)

Have fun!

Alex

Hey everyone,

There are times when it is necessary to host a domain on a dedicated IP. This could becuase you want to install an SSL certificate or becuase of the sites requirements. Either way it is possible to set the site to be hosted on a dedicated IP from within the Helm interface.

Firstly you will need a spare IP address hosting nothing else. This IP will need to be already set-up on your server. You will now need to log in to Helm as the Admin. From the main menu select

System Settings > IP Address Manager

You will now be presented with a list of IP’s and servers already set-up in Helm. Click the Add New button to add a new IP address. You will now see the following :

In the External IP Address enter the IP address you will be using for the dedicated website. Leave the last box (after the to) blank. This is used for entering a sequence of IP addresses. Only enter an IP address in the Internal IP Address if you are hosting with a NAT system and all your external IP’s are translated to internal IP’s. Select the Server the website is hosted on that requires the dedicated IP from the drop down menu. Click Save.

Once added click in the IP Management link at the top of the screen below the header.You will now be presented with a list of IP’s already in Helm, this time containing the IP address you have just added. Click on the IP address you have just added in the list, you will now see something similiar to the following :

Check the box Static IP Address box and click Save

You have now made this IP address available for use as a dedicated IP. You can add many more IP’s leaving them unassigned in Helm for future use as dedicated IP’s of you want.

Now we have to change the website in question to a dedicated IP. In the Domains Search box in the left hand pane enter the domain name you want to host on a dedicated IP. Helm will search and then display this domain (the domain must already exist in Helm). You will now be able to see all the icons available for managing this domain. Click the Web Site Settings icon. You will now see something like this

The drop down menu Change To will conatin a list of IP addresses that you have set to Static IP Address in the IP Management section. Simply select the IP address you want to use and then hit Save. The domain is now using a Static IP.

NOTES

There are some important points to note with the way Helm has created the site on the static IP. Helm makes the relevant DNS entry changes. It also adds the dedicated IP to the sites Host Headers. However the old host headers with the shared IP will remain. This is becuase it can take some DNS servers many hours to update their records therefore requests will still be sent to the shared IP. Helm does it like this to prevent the domain from being unavailable while the static IP propogates.

Best Regards,

Shane Bewick

Enjoy

What do the key words represent?

Key words – these are the words that the users enter in a given search engine to find services or products you offer. It is extremely important to know what key words they will use. Selecting the appropriate for your activity keyword is the first thing you have to do because all other strategies are built on their right choice.

How to select the appropriate for you key words?

Key words that will work best for you means to describe exactly what you offer and meanwhile to be well used by users. If your website is ranked number one in the search engines results, after using key words that nobody uses, your work will be useless.

1. Don’t count just on you when selecting the appropriate for your business key words. The users might have a completely different view about what to insert in the search engines to find you.




2. The best choice will be if the selected word isn’t so competitive and has a very good popularity.




3. To understand the way Wordtracker functions, use it’s free version, although its paid version offers much more functions.




4. That’s why always add to a key word, corresponding to business like yours, some additional, specific only for your business words to define and to specify the process.

You can get good keywords by using tools such as Good keywords, you can download it from:

http://www.goodkeywords.com/products/gkw/

Hi Friends,

qmail is an alternative to sendmail. Plesk servers use qmail, and it may be installed on other Linux systems as well. Here are some tips and other general information on how to use and maintain qmail.

• The author of qmail, D. J. Bernstein, has a web page at http://cr.yp.to . Links are provided here to software Bernstein has written, including qmail, djbdns (an alternative to BIND), daemontools (programs for supervising persistent processes such as network daemons), and ucspi-tcp (an alternative to inetd and xinetd).




• The most-accepted method of installing and running qmail is defined by “Life with qmail”, or LWQ. Visit http://www.lifewithqmail.org for more details. Plesk generally has its own way of installing qmail, but LWQ will still be an excellent reference even for troubleshooting qmail on Plesk servers.




• Other qmail tips and tools are available at http://www.qmail.org/top.html . Also provided here are links to searchable archives of the qmail mailing list.




• To see how many messages are currently in the queue, use /var/qmail/bin/qmail-qstat (/usr/local/psa/qmail/bin/qmail-qstat on Plesk 2.5 servers).




• For more detailed information about the messages currently in the queue, use /var/qmail/bin/qmail-qread (/usr/local/psa/qmail/bin/qmail-qread on Plesk 2.5 servers). This command is similar to the sendmail mailq command.




• qmail’s configuration files are kept in /var/qmail/control (or /usr/local/psa/qmail/control). Together these files are equivalent to the sendmail.cf file (but much easier to read IMNSHO). LWQ provides an explanation of what each of these files is for, and so does “man qmail-control”. You may need to add the qmail man directory to the MANPATH environment variable for this man page to be found; if so, the directory is usually /var/qmail/man.




• The qmail queue directory is typically /var/qmail/queue (or /usr/local/psa/qmail/queue). Do NOT manipulate the files in this directory UNLESS you know exactly what you are doing, and UNLESS qmail is not running! Otherwise, you WILL break the queue! There are several programs listed at qmail.org designed to allow safe manipulation of the queue. In particular, Charles Cazabon, the author of memtester, has also written a qmail queue repair program, available at http://www.qcc.ca/~charlesc/software/queue_repair/ .




• Cazabon’s queuerepair program is particularly handy for wiping out qmail queues of servers being abused by spammers (usually courtesy of Plesk’s “open relay” option). The general steps are: stop qmail, move or delete the queue directory, run queuerepair with the appropriate options, then restart qmail. On Plesk 5 and 6 servers, the queue directory is /var/qmail/queue and qmailrepair should be run like so: “qmailrepair.py -c -s 23 -b”. For other servers, the queue directory will most likely be /var/qmail/queue (/usr/local/psa/qmail/queue for Plesk 2.5 servers), and qmailrepair will be run as either “qmailrepair.py -c -s XX -b /path/to/queue” or “qmail_repair.py -c -s XX -n /path/to/queue”. XX is the number of subdirectories within the queue’s info and mess directories; the “-b” option is used if there are subdirectories within the queue’s todo directory, and the “-n” option is used otherwise; “/path/to/queue” is optional if the queue directory is /var/qmail/queue.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You could run qmail-clean but that takes a long while.

Here is a quick and easy way to clear all email from the queue.
This will not remove anything it should not remove. It just clears
all email from the queue safely. This is just for qmail.
( Not for use with any other email programs )

1) login to your server via ssh
2) su – 3) wget http://wepraisehim.org/qmailclear.sh
5) sh qmailclear.sh
6) done.
<supportLineBreakNewLine]—>

Regards,
Alex

Just a quick note about “Internal Server Error” problems after upgrading Apache on these Plesk machines.

You may start getting the “500 Internal Server Error” errors after doing so, and that is because the upgraded Apache has overwritten the Plesk version of “suexec”, a handy little program that allows the webserver to run CGI-BIN programs.

However, you are in luck! Plesk keeps a copy of their modified version of “suexec” around on the box.

How-To restore suexec:

1. log in as the ‘root’ user on yer box.

2. cd /usr/sbin

3. mv suexec suexec.old (or whatever you want to call it)

4. cp psa-suexec suexec

Technical Jazz:

The problem is that Apache’s stock version of suexec doesn’t allow (for safety reasons) cgi-bin programs to be execute from any but underneath the MAIN Apache document root. Which, in the case of these Plesk servers is /var/www… since all the virtually hosted addresses live under /home/httpd/vhosts…, the stock Apache suexec doesn’t allow that. Modifying suexec is something of a hobby in the unix web administration world, so this isn’t entirely odd.

BTW, you can also check the /var/log/suexec.log to see what is being suexec’ed, and what errors are happening. The error you’ll see in this case is “command not in docroot”.

Enjoy

Alex