Zugg Software :: View topic

Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2004 5:41 am

Well, after a *very* stressful weekend, it looks like most of the site is working again. I think Dale at Wolfpaw was having an even worse weekend than I was since he was in the middle of dealing with several systems with problems each time I called to bug him about something else on the zuggsoft.com site.

But now we have the entire site on a dedicated linux server. So, we are no longer sharing the linux server and we are no longer using any Windows systems.

I've moved the DNS hosting for both zuggsoft.com and emobius.com over to WolfPaw. The emobius.com domain is still having some troubles, so there might be some dead links on the site that point to that domain. Hopefully once everything propogates over the next few days it will get better.

I've had to learn a lot about linux over the past few days. Today I was trying to convert my backend ASP script that handled PayPal orders into PHP. The problem was that the code I used to send a reg code into the eLicense database was written as an IIS module and was a Windows DLL file along with ASP script. Well, obviously I just had to start from scratch.

Fortunately PayPal had an example of a backend script in PHP. Then I had to write some new PHP code to handle the eLicense database. Then I had to get mail working from PHP.

In doing this, I found that PHP didn't have several of the optional extensions installed that I needed. In particular, I needed the CURL and DOMXML extensions. Dale was busy so I was on my own.

Root access to a linux server can be a dangerous thing Wink

I found some instructions on the web about running ./configure to reconfigure the options in PHP. Took me a while to learn the directory structure and even *find* this file.

All of the linux instructions on the 'net seem to assume a great knowledge of linux sysadmin. They say stuff like "put this in your PHP directory" when they *really* mean "put this in the /lib subdirectory of your PHP root directory". Or, they say "now rebuild PHP" when they really run "make".

And they don't tell you that before you do a "make" you need to do a "make clean" first. Then "make". Then "make install".

Then, of course, you have to restart apache. Well, that took another while to figure out how to do properly. Fortunately I had learned a bit about the Apache server the previous day when I screwed up the server trying to install the new SSL certificate.

Oh yeah...last year I bought 3 years of SSL certificate because I was tired of renewing it each year. Turns out that GeoTrust doesn't offer any way to transfer a Windows cert to a Linux box. You have to BUY a NEW certificate. So, that's about $200 down the drain. Once I bought the new cert and tried to install it on the server, I followed the directions from the GeoTrust site, not realizing that Dale has a custom Apache configuration that is more secure. So, I ended up overwriting his server and messed up the server till he could fix it.

Dale was probably dreading answering the phone over the weekend. Always wondering what I had screwed up next. I was a bit of a "high maintenance" customer I'm afraid.

But once I got the extensions installed for PHP, rebuilt PHP, rebuilt Apache, installed the SSL cert, set the options for Server side includes, finished writing and testing the PayPal scripts (which required me to get a 2nd Paypal account just to test it...grrrrr again). I think it's finally working now.

I'm going to use PayPal as my backend for the rest of the online order page after I get home next week. I leave tomorrow to visit my father in-law. It's a horrible time to leave, but he got non-refundable tickets for us via his frequent flyer miles, so we have no choice but to go. I'm taking my laptop and getting a room at a hotel with free Wi-Fi so I should be able to monitor the site.

So, as I'm rushing around tonight to get packed and get my laptop set up, I end up dropping my laptop right on my toe! I could have sworn it was broken (my toe, not the laptop), but apparently it's not. Both the toe and laptop appear to be functional. But that's not what I needed tonight.

I hope this trip isn't too stressful or else I'm going to be a complete wreck (actually, I already am). Sleeping in hotel-room beds isn't going to help. We'll see how much time off I need once I get back next week.

Wizard Joined: 10 Oct 2000 Posts: 1551 Location: Australia

Lucky about the laptop! Toes... meh they're replacable ;)

Poor Zuggster, it's been a rough week for ya.

I'm a bit like you, know enough about linux to be dangerous, and therefore are rather high maintenance to the poor person who hosts my MUD... hehe :) I told him to change root password after I realised how dangerous I could be ;)

Overall I really like the way linux operates, SSH-ing in and stuff, just gotta remember all the commands.

Try'n havva happy trip though :)

Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2004 2:09 am

I'm here in Houston with a network connection that is good enough to surf the site. I'll try to keep an eye on it and fix whatever I can. Now that www.emobius.com is back in the DNS server, I've changed the site configuration back to what it was last week, so the portal and forums should work better now.

Man, how do people live with this humidity though? 90 degrees and 90% humidity is a bit tough coming from the dry 60 degree climate of Colorado.

Wizard Joined: 10 Oct 2000 Posts: 1551 Location: Australia

Yeah, humidity sucks.

Even if you're used to hotter days, like say 40 celcius, then you go somewhere with like 30 celcius days and 90% humidity you end up feeling hotter and yuckier than if it had just been a 40 celcius day.

And thus air conditioners were born. Heh.

Magician Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Posts: 459 Location: USA

I could never live in such dry places that have single digit humidity... I'd dry up and fly away =) (I grew up with tempatures in the 80-90's with 80-100% humidity)

Newbie Joined: 20 Jul 2004 Posts: 8

Aw, Houston rocks... even with the humidity! (I grew up here)

Did live in vegas for a while, hotter, but tons drier.

Hope your trip goes well, that you survive all the Astros mania, and thing get better all around.

-Dana

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 12:57 pm

Heh. old post. i know (i think anyway)

anything over 23c is too hot for me. haha