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If you've spent any time managing a web site, you are undoubtedly familiar with the dreaded Alexa rankings. It's common knowledge that these numbers are fairly useless since they depend on the end user having the Alexa toolbar installed. Obviously, not everyone has this. To make matters worse, Alexa only …

Anyone who has ever done anything remotely "interesting" with a run-of-the-mill broadband router is undoubtedly familiar with the concept of port forwarding. In the case of some applications (<acronym title="Peer-to-Peer">P2P</acronym> comes immediately to mind, but the <acronym title="Real-time Transport Protocol">RTP</acronym> part of <acronym title …

I recently installed Microsoft Windows XP Pro in Parallels Desktop on my iMac. After going through the usual motions of updates and tweaks, I set up my user account so that I wouldn't be using the built-in Administrator account. After rebooting the virtual machine, I noticed that on restart, I …

Until recently, I used websites to convert PNGs or JPEGs into ICOs for me. My method was pretty simple: Google for "convert PNG to ICO" and use the first site that came up.

I've recently decided that this method is bogus. Creating a 16x16 favicon.ico is incredibly simple, as …

When working in an office environment, it's very easy to gather multiple administrators into one office and show them how a task is done. If, on the other hand, your administrators are spread out, these impromptu meetings are nearly impossible. GNU Screen (in multiuser mode) can solve all your problems …

I wrote recently about using Subversion over SSH. A minor annoyance with that setup is the need to enter your system password at least once, and sometimes multiple times depending on the action you are taking. There are also times when a remote system needs to access another system via …

If you've ever needed to set up a Subversion repository, you know how long it can take to get WebDAV working with Apache before you even get to the repository set up. Although WebDAV is the best overall protocol for Subversion repositories (it doesn't require real users on the system …

If you've spent any amount of time in Cisco networking with Catalyst switches, you've probably run across a port that is in err-disabled state. The most likely place to find this is in the output of show interfaces status. A switch port can end be error disabled if the software …

For those new to Cisco networking, it is often difficult to remember that changes to a Cisco network device are applied immediately. After all, it seems reasonable to assume that changes should need to be applied, just like clicking the 'Apply' button on a Netgear wireless router. Unfortunately, that is …

Although this site isn't about job searches, the fact of the matter is that most network and system administrators have an interest in getting paid for their efforts. (Personally, I didn't get into Cisco networking for the glamorous parties with Paris Hilton, but maybe you did?)

J.D. at Get …

Ars Technica recently discussed the effect YouTube has had on the popularity of P2P networking. According to a study done by Ellacoya Networks, HTTP traffic has surpassed P2P protocols as the dominant form of Internet downloads for the first time in four years. Considering my recent discussion of the top …

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Currently, I use mysqldump to backup several large MySQL databases amounting to millions of rows of data. During the dump process, tables get locked for reading. 99% of the time, this system works just fine.

Ever so often (perhaps every 50-100 dumps), a read lock will hang on a table …

Robin Gareiss of Nemertes Research has a put together a nice list of questions for potential WAN providers. Most of the questions are focused on non-technical issues like billing and customer service. In fact, the most technical question in the list is

• How many classes of service do you provide …

John Chow, Evil Genius, is once again up to his evil ways. This time, he's giving away an LG 24" wide-screen LCD monitor! As John knows, in order to make money, you have to spend money. This contest is sponsored by BlueFur, who not only hosts John Chow dot Com …