Tips and Tricks Archives

How to Download a File From a Server to Your Desktop Using SSH

October 24, 2020 by Jeff Wilson

An SSH session is like a portal into another machine. If you’re used to working with Windows, you’ll know how easy it is to transfer files from one location to another. Just drag and drop! No text commands, no authentication, none of that.

However, sometimes you will need to download a file from SSH to your local desktop, such as if you are using one of our Linux VPS servers. And there’s no simple command from within the SSH terminal itself to do this. The two environments are too far apart. However, we have a dedicated tool called “SCP” which stands for “Secure Copy” that’s made for precisely these kinds of situations.

Magento Tips & Tricks for Better Performance

October 21, 2020 by Jeff Wilson

While the Magento architecture is very flexible and powerful, it requires more resources to maintain this flexibility. However, it does not mean that Magento can’t be responsive. We’ll show you what to look our for, as well as some tips and tricks to achieve the best performance from your Magento server.

If you set up and optimize your website properly and invest in quality web hosting, you can achieve a high-performance Magento store. However, that doesn’t tell the whole story. We’ll also show you what you should focus on when choosing a Magento hosting provider.

Improving Server Security (Firewall, Tools, Rules, and Tips)

October 1, 2020 by Jeff Wilson

Securing your server from any kind of attacks is a key part of any web hosting provider or system administrator. You should implement a strong security policy to minimize risks and keep your data safe. There are several tips and tricks to improve your server’s security and protect it from malicious attempts to enter.

In this tutorial, we will show you some useful tips and tricks to secure your server.

How to Create and Run Cron Jobs on Linux

September 9, 2020 by Jeff Wilson

Cron is a scheduling utility in Linux distributions that can be used to executes tasks at specified intervals. It allows you to run almost any commands or scripts at a specific time and date, or at a recurring interval.

Cron is a very useful tool for a system administrators to automate repetitive tasks of any sort, such as system updates, sending emails, checking system resource usage, creating backups, and so on. Realistically, anything that can be automated can be added to Cron so that it executes without any user involvement.

Cron runs in the background and constantly checks the /etc/crontab file, and the /etc/cron.*/ and /var/spool/cron/ directories. Each user has their own separate crontab file.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to create and run Cron jobs on a Linux VPS. The same steps should work on almost all Linux machines, regardless of whether it’s a server or a desktop computer.

Bash Script Examples

September 7, 2020 by Jeff Wilson

In this tutorial, we will explain the most common bash operations while also showing you a few bash script examples.

A Unix shell program interprets instructions and programs in the form of commands. These commands are either directly entered by the user, or they can be run in sequence from a file (called a shell script). An important distinction of bash scripts when compared to other coding languages is that they are interpreted and not compiled. When you write a shell script and then run it, it’s interpreted by your operating system, with no compilation required.

Bash scripts are a versatile and handy tool that most system administrators love using to simplify their workflow and automate repetitive tasks. With scripts, you can do almost anything that you can do using a normal shell environment.

How to Add a User to a Group on a Linux Server

September 1, 2020 by admin

User groups play an important role in any Linux operating system and its distributions. Groups make it easier to manage larger amounts of users, giving you the ability to give all of them the same security and access privileges.

For example, files and devices may be granted access based on a user’s ID or group ID. Groups allow you to set a file’s permission for the entire group instead of setting permissions for each individual user. Overall, this makes managing permissions for your server’s users a very simple and straightforward process. Let’s show you how to add users to groups on a Linux VPS.

How and Why to Change the Default SSH Port on Linux

August 27, 2020August 22, 2020 by Jeff Wilson

In this tutorial, we will show you how to change the SSH default port in Linux, and go over why changing this default port is a good idea. IMPORTANT: Before we go any further, you should understand that this is not a solution that will prevent or deter a determined hacker to attack your SSH service. It is merely a measure to help you avoid the thousands or automated bots running all the time scanning vast ranges of IP space searching for standard SSH ports being open. Preventing a determined hacker from brute-forcing your SSH service is beyond the scope of this article.

SSH, also known as Secure Shell, is the most widely-used protocol for connecting to and managing Linux systems remotely. SSH offers strong encryption and authentication along with excellent customizability, and using SSH gives you the freedom of accessing a remote machine. You can run services and software as if you were physically using the machine, no matter where you are.

By default, SSH runs on port 22. Since this is common knowledge, this port often becomes a target for brute force attacks. Because this provides full access to your server’s OS, people with malicious intent will often target port 22 more than any other port. Changing the default SSH port will prevent automated attacks that don’t spend the time to rotate ports when targeting a Linux Server. To protect your server from a brute force attack, you should change the default SSH port to something else.

How to Speed Up WordPress and Boost Performance on an Ubuntu 20.04 VPS

July 6, 2020 by Jeff Wilson

WordPress is one of the most popular open-source content management systems around the globe. It’s one of the easiest blogging platforms to get started with, as evidenced by over 35.2% of all websites being powered by WordPress. If you are already a web master or a blog owner, then speeding up and boosting the performance of your website should be one of your top priorities. In this tutorial, we will show you some useful tips to speed up any WordPress website, as well as explain why it’s important to do so.

How to Select or Choose the Best Hosting Services

May 23, 2020January 16, 2020 by Jeff Wilson

Web Hosting is a service that allows individuals and organizations to publish web pages or sites to the Internet. A web hosting or web host supplier is a company that offers the services and technology needed to view a web page or website on the Internet. Sites are hosted or kept on superior, high-performance computers called servers. Your hosting service decides how your business will be perceived by your clients, and incorrect choices can cause the site to be unresponsive, slow, or worst of all – cause a lot of downtime. Because there are so many hosting providers to choose from, deciding on a hosting service is easier said than done.

How to Easily Remove Packages Installed From Source in Linux

May 23, 2020October 31, 2018 by Jeff Wilson

In one of our previous articles, we’d shown you how to install and uninstall software in Linux outside the regular package managers. In that, we also saw that well-constructed software comes with built-in uninstallers. This way, you can remove the packages as easily as you install them.

Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. There are plenty of packages out in the wild which don’t allow for clean removal. Sometimes you have no choice but to use a package like this because you need the functionality. However, there is a solution to the problem. In this article, we’ll show you how to use the software called “stow” to easily remove packages installed from in Linux.