Peter Vatistas

Here is a very cut and dry list of my preferred web hosts and colocation facilities. Over the years I have been through my share of web hosts; below you will find web hosts I’ve personally used and/or currently use along with the services I know they do best.

Managed Dedicated Servers
FreeBSD & Linux Servers: Choopa
Windows Servers: Rackspace, LanLogic

Unmanaged Dedicated Servers
FreeBSD & Linux: Limelight, Servers for Less, WebAir
Windows Servers: ServerBeach, Limelight

Colocation Facility
Limelight, Cave Creek Hosting

Virtual (Shared) Servers
WebAir, ATCI Hosting

Exchange Servers
LanLogic, Rackspace

Game Servers
Dedicated & Shared: GameServers

Thats it! Simple and to the point. I hope this list helps you in your desicion for choosing a web host. None of the web host links I provide above are affiliate or partner links, I do not make a penny if you sign up. Just remember me when your adding links to your website.. WWW.PETER-V.COM!!!!   LOL!

BTW, I want to hear what you think about these hosts as well as who you host with and why you like/dislike them.

Good luck!

Owning a business can be difficult, especially when it comes to technology implementations and expenses. I always try to find the best possible solution for my specific needs at the lowest possible price available. I’ve had a lot of experience with VOIP devices and servers like Cisco and Altigen but I really didn’t like spending thousands or tens of thousands when I can spend nothing.

Trixbox CE is the most flexible PBX system available today and best of all its FREE. Trixbox CE is an open telephony platform that combines the best of the open source telephony tools into one easy-to-install package. Based on an enhanced LAAMP (an open source bundle of Linux^®, Apache™, Asterisk^®, mySQL^®, and PHP), the Trixbox^® dashboard provides easy to use, Web-based interfaces to setup, manage, maintain, and support a complete IP-PBX system.

Trixbox CE 2.4 comes stocked with hundreds of features including:

• Unlimited Extensions
• TDM/SIP/IAX Trunks
• Remote Extensions
• Voicemail
• Fax Support
• Voicemail to Email
• IVR Menu System
• Ring Groups
• Call Queues
• Conference Rooms
• Follow-Me
• Time-Based Routing
• Music On Hold
• Paging and Intercom
• Web Access to Voicemail
• Admin Status Screen
• Package Manager (for easy updates)
• Phone Provisioning Tool
• Network Settings Tool
• Enhanced CDR Reports
• Echo Cancellation - OSLEC (Open Source Line Echo Cancelation)

Trixbox CE 2.4 is based off of:

• CentOS 5.1 kernel
• Asterisk 1.4
• FreePBX 2.3
• Web MeetMe 3

Best part about Trixbox CE is many Aastra, Polycom and Cisco VOIP phones are compatible! Here are some screenshots of the Trixbox CE 2.4 administrative interface:

Trixbox Links:

Trixbox Certified IP Phones

Trixbox Certified Servers and Interface Cards

Click here to download Trixbox CE

If you haven’t done so already, download and install the AdminPak specific to your domain controller:

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Administration Tools Pack

Windows Server 2003 R2 Administration Tools Pack

Once installed you’ll need to register the DLLs for AdminPak to run properly; why Microsoft hasn’t written AdminPak for Windows Vista blows my mind but I digress. Here’s the play by play:

Start > All Programs > Accessories > Right-Click Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator.

Copy the list below and paste it into the command prompt windows:

regsvr32 /s adprop.dll
regsvr32 /s azroles.dll
regsvr32 /s azroleui.dll
regsvr32 /s ccfg95.dll
regsvr32 /s certadm.dll
regsvr32 /s certmmc.dll
regsvr32 /s certpdef.dll
regsvr32 /s certtmpl.dll
regsvr32 /s certxds.dll
regsvr32 /s cladmwiz.dll
regsvr32 /s clcfgsrv.dll
regsvr32 /s clnetrex.dll
regsvr32 /s cluadmex.dll
regsvr32 /s cluadmmc.dll
regsvr32 /s cmproxy.dll
regsvr32 /s cmroute.dll
regsvr32 /s cmutoa.dll
regsvr32 /s cnet16.dll
regsvr32 /s debugex.dll
regsvr32 /s dfscore.dll
regsvr32 /s dfsgui.dll
regsvr32 /s dhcpsnap.dll
regsvr32 /s dnsmgr.dll
regsvr32 /s domadmin.dll
regsvr32 /s dsadmin.dll
regsvr32 /s dsuiwiz.dll
regsvr32 /s imadmui.dll
regsvr32 /s lrwizdll.dll
regsvr32 /s mprsnap.dll
regsvr32 /s msclus.dll
regsvr32 /s mstsmhst.dll
regsvr32 /s mstsmmc.dll
regsvr32 /s nntpadm.dll
regsvr32 /s nntpapi.dll
regsvr32 /s nntpsnap.dll
regsvr32 /s ntdsbsrv.dll
regsvr32 /s ntfrsapi.dll
regsvr32 /s rasuser.dll
regsvr32 /s rigpsnap.dll
regsvr32 /s rsadmin.dll
regsvr32 /s rscommon.dll
regsvr32 /s rsconn.dll
regsvr32 /s rsengps.dll
regsvr32 /s rsjob.dll
regsvr32 /s rsservps.dll
regsvr32 /s rsshell.dll
regsvr32 /s rssubps.dll
regsvr32 /s rtrfiltr.dll
regsvr32 /s schmmgmt.dll
regsvr32 /s tapisnap.dll
regsvr32 /s tsuserex.dll
regsvr32 /s uddi.mmc.dll
regsvr32 /s vsstskex.dll
regsvr32 /s w95inf16.dll
regsvr32 /s w95inf32.dll
regsvr32 /s winsevnt.dll
regsvr32 /s winsmon.dll
regsvr32 /s winsrpc.dll
regsvr32 /s winssnap.dll
regsvr32 /s ws03res.dll

Thats it! Just exit command prompt and AdminPak should now be fully operational within Windows Vista.

OpenDNS is a fantastic free service for filtering phishing sites, adult sites, and pretty much anything else you can think of.  It also does perform DNS lookups faster than any site that I have seen to date.  It is easy to admin and you can control your entire enterprise with this service.  Best of all it’s free.

One feature I love about OpenDNS is how I can globally set shortcuts to use a short word for a long address. There’s nothing to install and it works how you want it to, no matter which browser you’re using. Add, remove or change your OpenDNS shortcuts at any time.

OpenDNS provides you with the tools to see what’s happening on your network, coupled with the tools to take action. For example, discover that myspace.com is the most frequently visited site on your network, and then block it with a single click.

“Free yourself of DNS-related Internet outages with our zero-downtime global network. Eliminate DNS as a problem source on your network. Using OpenDNS means fewer support calls and headaches, letting you focus on more important issues.” 

Click here to read more and sign up for OpenDNS.

The other night I was organizing all my files, pictures, and music on my computer and I realized if I were to lose even one folder I would be screwed. Normally I run backups every night using an external drive but I never really checked it. I decided to check my backup drives to make sure everything was working properly and the data was there, it wasn’t.

Now just so you know, at one time or another my backup drives were working properly and when I needed to restore any data it was not that hard. For some reason my main backup drive had failed and then data was lost but fortunately for me I still had everything on my main drives. That got me thinking, what is the best and easiest solution out there for backing up my data without worrying about replacing hard drives or making sure everything is running properly. I am an IT guy by day, I don’t want to be an IT guy at home.

A few hours later I found the solution I was looking for and it was a bit overwhelming. I posted my question for a remote backup solutions in many forums, blogs, as well as emailing my IT friends and colleagues; almost everyone said “Mozy“. So I went to the Mozy website and signed up for their MozyHome Free account, 2GB’s of storage! Here is a few features Mozy offers to all their customers, free and paid:

* Open/locked file support: Mozy will back up your documents whether they’re open or closed.
* 128-bit SSL encryption: The same technology used by banks secures your data during the backup process.
* 448-bit Blowfish encryption: Secures your files while in storage, providing peace of mind that your private data is safe from hackers.
* Automatic: Schedule the times to back up and MozyHome does the rest.
* New and changed file detection: MozyHome finds and saves the smallest changes.
* Backs up Outlook files: Disaster-proof email protection.
* Block-level incremental backup: After the initial backup, MozyHome only backs up files that have been added or changed, making subsequent backups lightning fast.
* MozyHome currently supports Windows 2000, XP, and Vista, and Mac OS X 10.4
* MozyPro supports Windows 2000, 2003, XP, and Vista.

Those are some pretty slick services and support for no up front or monthly charges. Whats really cool is their software that is installed on your computer. The application itself runs in the background and has a very small footprint with regards to your memory (RAM) and CPU utilization. Another cool feature is how you can set the amount of bandwidth you want it to use during backups. Because I have a cable modem I set that puppy as high as it can go but for anyone out there who has DSL or less you can throttle it to whatever you need.

Whether your looking for a backup solution or not, Mozy is the only free, full-featured remote backup service. Get peace of mind - click here to try Mozy today.

A couple years back I signed up for Microsoft’s free beta version of Office Live which at the time I thought was pretty slick. Now after seeing what else is out their in regards to an online “Office” environment I knew that Office Live was not anything special. Google Apps is definitely the way to go for an online office environment and its very compatible with many general application including Office 2007/2008 and Mozilla Thunderbird (using IMAP).

I chose to migrate everything from my Office Live account (email, calendar, chat) to Google Apps (email, chat, calendar, docs) and host my domain at GoDaddy. I quickly found that the reference material available to do such a migration was non-existent and I had to find my own way. Now that I know exactly how to do it and have successfully done so several times, here is my step-by-step on how to cancel Office Live and transfer your domain to another registrar.

First off, go to here and fill out the information to receive your cancellation email with domain registration key.

1. Now go to http://www.melbourneit.com.au/cc/godirect/
2. Enter your domain name and registry key and click on continue.
3. Click on ‘create a new account’ below the text box where you are prompted for my account password.
a)     Fill up all the information needed:
i)      Contact Information
ii)     Login Information
b)     Other Information:
i)      The Country Code is “1″ for United States (for UK it is 44)
ii)     The email address you enter must not be related to the domain you are attempting to transfer/manage.
4)     After filling up all the information, check the box that says I have read and understood the Sign up Terms and Conditions. I agree to abide by the terms and conditions, as stated there in.
5)     Click Create.  Now your account is created.
6)     On the My Account Console page, click Logout on the right side of the page.
7)     Now you will be redirected to the Melbourne IT web site.
8)     Click Manage Domain Name on the right side of the page.
9)     Type your domain and registry key.
10)  Click Enter Management.
11)  Click Transfer management to Melbourne IT.
12)  Sign in using the username and password for your Melbourne IT account using the username and password, which you created for your Melbourne IT account.
13)  Click Continue after you have verified all the information on the page.
14)  Click on My Account console.
15)  Click on the link “View/Manage domain name” under the Domain Names.
16)  Click on your domain name (customer domain name) under the Domain Name section.
17)  Click on the Unlock Domain Name.
18)  To change name server, click on Change Delegation Details under Name Server Details on the right side of the page. Here, you can change the domain name server settings for your new service provider.
19)  To obtain new authorization code in order to transfer your domain, click Retrieve Domain Name (auth info) Password (on the same page on point 17).

Now you have all the necessary information and your domain is unlocked and ready for transfer. Log into your favorite domain registrar and begin the transfer with the credentials provided using the steps above.

From here I transfered my domain to GoDaddy which took about 2 or 3 business days; when the transfer was complete I pointed all my cname & mx records to Google’s names servers. Since then I have never been happier with my email solution and full online office experience.

Good luck!

Here it is, the meat and potatoes of setting up a FAMP server (FreeBSD 6.3, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl). Keep in mind these instructions are exactly what I do step by step to setup a FreeBSD webserver. Originally when I started with FreeBSD I couldn’t find a solid source of reliable information on how to set all this up. Every time I would ask someone for some good instruction I was always directed to www.freebsd.org. I have to tell you it is extremely overwhelming for me at that time to even understand anything off of that site’s directions - as well written as it is.
Over the last few years I have come across some decent walkthroughs and tutorials but 90% of them were still either out dated or lacking 1 or 2 steps that can really jack things up. I have really tried to make this tutorial as straight forward as possible, no BS and no info that’s going to waste your time.

Before I install anything I always make sure I have the latest release of FreeBSD installed with the Developer distribution. Many tutorials out there tell you to install the bare minimum of FreeBSD with the “Minimum” distro, I recommend Developer. If you need a good step by step on how to install FreeBSD (6.2 & 6.3) then click here. Remember, instead of selecting the minimal option on the Distributions screen, choose Developer.

Once you have FreeBSD installed the steps below will show you how to setup and configure a full FAMP server. Good luck!

# cd /usr/ports/lang/php5
# make config
select: Apache
# make install

# cd /usr/ports/lang/php5-extensions
# make config
select: bcmath, bz2, ctype, curl, dom, ftp, gd, gettext, mbstring, mysql, pcre, posix, pdo, session, simplexml, sqlite, xml, zlib (also by default there are many options pre-selected including some of the ones listed here, make sure to leave those checked).
# make install

Usually after everything is done you will notice a few mysql errors appear, run this command:

# pkg_add -r mysql50-server

Now before editing any file on my system I always make a backup of it:
# cp /usr/local/etc/apache/httpd.conf /usr/local/etc/apache/httpd.conf.orig

Now let’s edit your Apache config file to get everything configured properly:
# edit /usr/local/etc/apache/httpd.conf

Change the default listen address to the IP address of your webserver.

#Listen 12.34.56.78:80
To:
#Listen 192.168.1.10:80 (example, use your machines IP Address)

Change the email address of the ServerAdmin to your email address or the address of the person in charge on this server:

#ServerAdmin you@your.address (use your email address)

Change the ServerName option, if you don’t have a fully qualified domain name please change this to the servers IP address:

#ServerName www.example.com
To:
#ServerName 192.168.1.10 (example, use your machines IP Address - for internal, intranet implementations)
Or:
#ServerName www.peter-v.com (example, use your domain name if you have one and your going to point DNS to that machine)

# Add a DirectoryIndex option:
DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm index.php3 index.php4

# In the AddType section add the following for PHP:
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .htm .html
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps

Now exit and save, your all done with Apache.

# echo ‘/usr/local/sbin/apachectl start’ >> /etc/rc.local

Now let’s configure MySQL:

# cp /usr/local/share/mysql/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf
# echo ‘mysql_enable=”YES”‘ >> /etc/rc.conf

# /usr/local/bin/mysql_install_db
# chown -R mysql:mysql /var/db/mysql
# /usr/local/share/mysql/mysql.server start

If the command: # /usr/local/share/mysql/mysql.server start doesn’t work or fails, try this command:
# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/mysql-server.sh start

# /usr/local/bin/mysqladmin -u root -h Hostname.domainname.tld password ‘YourPassword’
# /usr/local/bin/mysqladmin -u root password ‘YourPassword’

Example:

# /usr/local/bin/mysqladmin -u root -h webserver.peter-v.com password ’secret’
# /usr/local/bin/mysqladmin -u root password ’secret’

Now let’s install Perl DBI and DBD Support (which many apps need that run using Apache and MySQL):

# cd /usr/ports/databases/p5-DBI && make install && make clean
# cd /usr/ports/databases/p5-DBD-mysql50 && make install && make clean

Reboot.

That’s it, your all done and now you’ve got yourself a FAMP Webserver.

Tips:

If at anytime in this tutorial a command doesn’t work, try rebooting first. Sometimes after installing certain applications or components it is required to reboot before being able to utilize it. After a quick reboot it always works.

I would love to hear your comments and if you have any suggestions or issues with this tutorial please leave a comment, thanks!

A few of you wanted to know where you could find Apple’s OS X Leopard Server wallpaper, well here it is (click image for 2560 x 1600 Leopard Server wallpaper):

MailEnable provides robust IMAP, SMTP and POP3 services for Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 systems. Simple to install, with powerful administration software that means your mail server will be up and running quickly. The standard edition is FREE, contains no spyware or adware, for both personal and commercial usage, with no time or user restrictions (TONS OF FEATURES). I use MailEnable for the majority of my email servers and I am 100% satisfied with ease of use, performance, stability, security, and the list goes on.

To give you an idea of my experience with email servers (so you can better understand how good MailEnable) I have 3 email servers for either specific business requirements or unique technology needs. The first server I have is a Microsoft Windows 2008 Server running MS Exchange 2007, another one is a FreeBSD server running QMail, and the third one is MailEnable on a Microsoft Windows 2003 box. All three of these email servers are great but one is very expensive and at times very difficult and temperamental (Exchange). Qmail on FreeBSD runs like there is no tomorrow, never any issues and reliable as all hell but also can be a pain if you are someone who doesn’t know Unix very well.

MailEnable seriously meets every need and expectation I have for an email server. It is highly configurable, much like Exchange, but it doesn’t cost a dime. There are 2 paid versions of MailEnable in addition to the killer free one, both strapped with many more options and unique features but as advanced as my needs are with all aspects of my computer life, MailEnable does just fine.

Here are just a few things the FREE version of MailEnable has to offer (god I sound like a salesman - I assure you I won’t make a single penny off this post, I seriously like MailEnable a lot!!)

Mail Protocols - MailEnable Standard Edition provides robust, stable and fully functional POP and SMTP mail services supporting unlimited users and domains.

Administration - The Administration application allows configuration of mail services via an easy-to-use and familiar Microsoft Management Console application. Administrative features include mailbox quotas, redirections, auto-responders, import/export users, create groups and much more…

List server - Includes a fully functional list server allowing you to subscribe or unsubscribe members and provide information mail outs or discussion groups.

Security - Extensive security measures and authentication methods protect your mail server from unauthorized access. Features include SMTP Authentication, Integrated Windows Authentication, Relay control.

Control panel integration - MailEnable integrates with several different third party control panel software products.

Diagnostic Reporting - Standard Edition includes advanced diagnostics via a comprehensive Diagnostic Reporting Utility which assists in quick diagnosis of issues and speedy resolution. Features extensive logging in W3C file format to easily determine faults.

Anti-Spam - MailEnable Standard has several inbuilt features to help eliminate spam. anti-spam features include PTR record checking, DNS blacklisting, auto-banning of IP addresses and much more. MailEnable is a standards-compatible mail server it can be used with a large variety of third party anti-spam software.

Here’s some screenshots:

Click here to learn more about MailEnable and download.