I just checked my email and saw quite a few concerned emails from people wondering where I was. jail? 6 feet under?! I’m here and doing fine. Posting will resume as usual tomorrow, starting with some exciting SiteRose Beta information. This will be your first chance to get your hands dirty with some of the SiteRose features.

The beta information will be open to only a few people, so you might want to sign up so your chances of getting in are better.

See you tomorrow!

You can sign up for the SiteRose beta forum at http://enaresh.com/forum. Stop by and introduce yourself.

We also have a brand new preview screenshot of SiteRose up on the forums. It’s a backup feature - SiteRose can automatically backup your website for free. Check it out, and post your thoughts

This preview was released to the RSS subscribers a day in advance. Sign up for email updates here with FeedBurner.

McColo reportedly had servers used in email spam, botnets, fake security software, and even hosted 40 child pornography websites.

Leo Laporte, on his weekly syndicated radio show, discussed the closure and suggested that a federal law be passed requiring internet service providers to verify that all emails sent have a return address belonging to a customer. While I don’t agree with this because of my Libertarian views, I think ISPs should implement this voluntarily. It would greatly reduce the load on their network - both because spam emails would be harder to send, and their incoming mail servers would have less email to deal with.

Check Your Spam Folder

Check your spam folder, but be careful not to open any spam emails. How many spam emails do you receive weekly? I receive about 14 spam emails a day which works out to about 100 spam emails weekly. However, I never get spam in my inbox. Gmail does a pretty damn good job of blocking it.

Post your spam stats in the comments. Do you get spam emails in your inbox? Who’s your email provider?

Preventing Spam

While we’re on the topic of spam, here’s a few good tips for reducing the amount of spam you get.

• Don’t Open Spam - Some spammers use images in spam emails that call home when the image is viewed. This means that spammers can figure out which email addresses are active, and which keywords/subject lines are attracting more readers.
• Use Alias email addresses when registering for “shady” websites. Use services like Sneekemail.com or use an easy instant disposable gmail address
• Refrain from posting your email address publicly online without obfuscating the address. I don’t usually follow this rule, mainly because spam isn’t that big of an issue to me. Also, I’m pretty sure spam bots can figure out that “naresh [at] enaresh.com” probably means “naresh@enaresh.com”.

Have any other tips for reducing the amount of spam you receive? Post a comment.

Unlike other CDNs (Content Delivery Networks), CloudFront requires no contracts, and appears to be quite cost effective - you pay per GB of storage and transfer, not a set price that doesn’t change based on your usage.

Ok, but what does this mean for me?

This might mean a bit more to you than you’d think. If you’re a podcaster, owner of a social network site, or own a website that hosts quite a few videos, mp3s, or other streaming media files, this might be something you want to look into. CloudFront caches files across their network of servers and delivers your media from the server closest to your user.

Shaun, a reader of eNaresh, could use CloudFront for his podcast WantFriesWithThat to host the episodes. Rather than hosting the MP3s on their web server, they could migrate to CloudFront and provide blazing fast downloads of the episodes for very little cost.

Tutorials.eNaresh.com is the place to go to view a complete listing of tutorials here on eNaresh. I’ve added the most recent tutorials and each tutorial I write will appear there. I’m working on a few other community oriented features for this section that will be added in the coming days.

Requesting Tutorials

There’s a new system for requesting tutorials. Rather than emailing me suggestions, just go to tutorials.eNaresh.com and enter your request in the textarea on the right side of the page. I’ll try to write a tutorial for every request I receive.

Eleven2? Why Are They Sponsoring You?

Eleven2 is sponsoring eNaresh because donations for hosting didn’t come in like I had hoped they would. A big thank you goes out to Leslie Michel and Cyrus Kafai Wu for their donations. To keep eNaresh alive for the foreseeable future, I had to seek a sponsorship.

I Need Your Feedback

I haven’t beta tested this feature at all. If you don’t like the way something looks, or you have a few suggestions to make it look better, please post a comment.

A Few Other Updates

I’ve implemented the bonus feature for the RSS feed. I’ll start posting bonuses for RSS subscribers sometime soon - maybe even tonight. More Info.

Also, the about me page has been updated. It now has my up-to-date contact information (new phone number), and has my advertising and freelance rates.

I’ve also added an “Online Presence” page which shows my Flickr, Twitter, and Last.fm.

IRCNode’s website isn’t back up yet, but the IRC network itself is doing well. Just connect to irc.ircnode.org or use the Mibbit Web Client. Be sure to come hang out in #lobby.

The Tutorial

As with all my tutorials, I put the instructions inside the code as comments. The instructions are preceded by two back slashes (//) and are generally found below the line they are explaining.

If you have any problems with this tutorial, please post a comment or email me at naresh@eNaresh.com.

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<?php
	set_time_limit(0);
	// This script *might* take a while, so disable the time limit.
 
	$socket = fsockopen("irc.ircnode.org", 6667);
	// We'll use fsockopen to connect to the IRC network.  The second parameter is the port number.
	// Change irc.ircnode.org to the IRC network you want to conncet to.
 
	sleep(3);
	// Wait 3 seconds for the script to connect before setting the bot's nick name.
	// If the script doesn't work, try increasing this nunmber.  3 seconds seems to work well for most networks though.
 
	fputs($socket,"USER Counting eNaresh.com eN :eN Bot\n");
	// Give IRC some information about the bot.  Required for connecting.
 
	fputs($socket,"NICK [Counting]\n");
	// Tell IRC that the username should be [Counting].
	// This bot doesn't connect to any channels, but needs a nick name
 
 
	while($data = fgets($socket, 128)) {
		// For each line of data, execute the code inside the brackets.
 
		$ex = explode(' ', $data);
 
		if($ex[0] == "PING"){
			// If the IRCd PINGs, be sure to PONG.
			fputs($socket, "PONG ".$ex[1]."\n");
		}
 
		if(strpos("$data", "Current Local Users"))
		{
			// This script looks for the text "Current Local Users".  If the line contains this text, the code
			// inside these brackets will be executed.
 
			$first = explode("Current Local Users: ", $data);
			// Separate the message from the IRCD after "Current Local Users".
			// Everything before "Current Local Users: " is in $first[0]
			// Everything after "Current Local Users: " is in $first[1]
 
			$last = explode(" Max:", $first[1]);
			// Separate message again.  The number of local users is directly after the text "Current Local Users: ",
			// so we use $first[1] as the string to separate.
 
			$last[0] = $last[0]-1;
			// Subtract 1 from the number of users, so we don't count the bot.
 
			echo '<strong>Current Chatters:</strong> ' . $last[0] . '<br />
			<strong>Maximum Chatters:</strong> ' .  $last[1];
			// Display the data
 
			fclose($socket);
			// Close the socket.
 
			die();
			// Kill the script so it doesn't keep trying to get data.
			// The bot will disconnect from IRC.
		}
	}
 
	fclose($socket);
	// Close the socket.  Just in case the number of current chatters never shows up.
?>

I’d only use this code on a CRON job and save the data to a MySQL database, because it takes a few seconds to run. If you don’t have CRON jobs, email me (naresh@eNaresh.com), and I can set it up on my server.

This will be a short post, sorry. I posted last Friday that I got a job with an organization called CoPIRG. I started on Monday and have been working since then. Last night I sprained my ankle on someones crappy porch, which is why I’m not working today.

My hours have been 12:30-10PM. To get there by 12:30, I have to catch the bus at 10 AM, which left no time for posting. Also, I left my laptop at my mom’s house a few days ago.

So, I’ll make up the tutorials I missed tomorrow. I’m quitting that miserable job because I got a better one already.

What’s going on the feed?

I’ll be posting SiteRose video previews, SiteRose beta information, bonus tutorials, code snippits, and other goodies. They’ll be going directly to the feed, and will not be added to the site.

You can subscribe to the RSS Feed with an RSS Reader, but the easiest way to enter your email address in the “Subscribe By Email” box in the sidebar

There will still be previews, tutorials, etc posted here on eNaresh, RSS subscribers will just get a few extras and get previews before they’re added to the site.

Cyrus Kafai Wu requested that I write an admin control panel for the ban system posted yesterday. Here you go, Cyrus.

The Code

As always, read the comments. Keep this page in a password protected directory or at least out of the public eye.

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<?
	mysql_connect("localhost", "DB USERNAME", "DB PASS");
	mysql_select_db("DB NAME");
 
	if($_GET[unban])
	{
		// If there's a ?unban= in the URL, the code inside these { } will be executed.
		// This part is for unbanning visitors.
 
		$unban = mysql_real_escape_string($_GET[unban]);
		// Clean the variable just in case...We don't want the wrong person finding this page and doing SQL injections
 
		$delete = mysql_query("DELETE FROM `banned` where `id`  = '$unban'");
		// Delete the ban from the database.
 
		echo "That IP has been unbanned!";
 
	}elseif($_POST['ip'] && $_POST['reason'])
	{
		// The form has been submitted.  Let's ban the user based on the submitted form info.
 
		$ip = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST[ip]);
		$reason = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST[reason]);
		// Clean the strings just in case...SQL injection = bad.
 
		$ban = mysql_query("INSERT INTO `banned` (`id` ,`ip` , `reason`) VALUES (NULL , '$ip', '$reason');");
		// Add the ban to the database.
 
		echo "IP Banned.";
	}else{
		echo "<form method=\"post\">
		Ban This IP: <input type=\"text\" name=\"ip\" /><br />
		Reason: <input type=\"text\" name=\"reason\" /><br />
		<input type=\"submit\" value=\"ban\" name=\"ban\" />
		</form><h3>Current Bans</h3>";
		// The above shows a form for adding a ban.  
 
		$get_bans = mysql_query("SELECT * from `banned`");
		// Query the database for all current bans.
 
		while($bans = mysql_fetch_array($get_bans))
		{
			// Create an array for each ban and display the line below.
			echo $bans[ip] . ' - <a href="?unban=' . $bans[id] . '">Unban</a><br />';
		}
 
	}
?>

There you have it, Cyrus. If you have any problems, post a comment

This tutorial was requested in the comments a few days ago. It’s a PHP script that will allow you to easily create daily backups of your website. It does require that you are on a linux web server.

The “tar” command in linux allows you to create .tar archives of your directories. We’re going to use that command in conjunction with the “system” PHP Function.

The Code

As with all my tutorials, the instructions are included inside the code so even the copy and pasters can learn a thing or two. They’re inside the code as comments, or lines preceded with two backslashes.

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<?
	$your_email = 'naresh@eNaresh.com';
	// Change the above to your email address.  This is used to send emails informing you of the status of the backup.
 
	$directory = '/home/ragsites/public_html/enaresh/wp-content/themes/Mark';
	// Change this to the path of the directory you wish to backup.  To backup the directory this file is located in, simply change it to a period.
 
	$backup_file = '/home/ragsites/backups/backup' . date("MdY") . '.tar';
	// The location where the backup will be saved.  Keep this out of your public_html folder, if possible.
	// In my example filename, date(MdY) adds the date in this format to the filename: Nov092008
 
 
	if(system("tar cvf $backup_file $directory"))
	{
		// Attempts to backup the directory using the "tar" linux command.
 
		// Inside this set of brackets, the backup was successful.
 
		mail($your_email, 'Backup Complete', 'A backup of "' . $directory . '" has been created.  It has been saved at "' . $backup_file . '"');
		// The above line sends an email similar to:
		// A backup of "/home/ragsites/public_html/enaresh/wp-content/themes/Mark" has been created.  It has been saved at "/home/ragsites/backups/backupNov092008.tar"
	}else{
		// The backup failed!  Send an email saying it failed!
		mail($your_email, 'Backup Failed', 'Your backup of "' . $directory . '" failed!');
	}
 
?>

Run this code with a CRON job for best results. I wouldn’t run it more than once a day unless your files change very frequently. Don’t have CRON Jobs? Send me the URL of this file on your server along with how frequently you want to backup, and I’ll configure my server to trigger backups at intervals of your choice. naresh@eNaresh.com