Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0

The Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 (Web PI) is a free tool that makes getting the latest components of the Microsoft Web Platform, including Internet Information Services (IIS), SQL Server Express, .NET Framework and Visual Web Developer easy. The Web PI also makes it easy to install and run the most popular free web applications for blogging, content management and more with the built-in Windows Web Application Gallery.

Not going to test it but it claims to setup a PHP environment too. Personally I would recommend WAMP for setting up a PHP environment in Windows.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/web/Downloads/platform.aspx

Fixing FastCGI timeout error in IIS (PHP)

Received this error on a slow running PHP script on my server:

The FastCGI process exceeded configured activity timeout IIS

How I resolved it:

1. Goto %windir%\system32\inetsrv\fcgiext.ini
2. Locate the ActivityTimeout parameter and copy it into the [php] section of the ini file
3. Make sure the ActivityTimeout parameter is uncommented out
4. Change the number to whatever you want (units are seconds)

(by default ActivityTimeout is set to 30 secs)

7 ways to track your web traffic for free

Awstats
Awstats is a log file analyzer type of web statitics reporting tool. This means the data displayed will be the most accurate and complete than some of the other methods listed. Awstats can provide all the expected information (page views, visitors, hits) plus it can give you bandwidth used, and filesizes of downloads.


CrazyEgg
One of the first to offer Heat Maps which shows where your user are clicking on your website. This alone makes Crazy Egg worth checking out.


FuseStats
Another website offering Heat Maps, which is a color overlay so you can see where your users click, on top of the standard web stat information. They offer a free account, which is why I added it to the list, which can be used for very low traffic websites.


Google Analytics
This, in my opinion, is the gold standard for client side web tracking (not a server log analyzer). Google Analytics provides some of the most powerful tool for tracking your visitors, analyzing your websites traffic flow, checking on goals for your visitors and general overall information provided. Plus they are constantly pushing out new features and I'm sure real-time tracking isn't far behind.


HiStats
Another great option which provides a very user friendly interface (and quite appealing) and provides a hit counter which can be added to your website so your visitors can see how many visits you get. Oh, did I mention they provide real time tracking? Very nice option.


StatCounter
A very popular web stats choice where a small piece of code is embedded in your web pages that handles all the tracking for your visitors. Not as reliable as Awstats but easy to setup, not tied to a server (so you maintain your history) and you can access your stats at anytime from any computer.


The Hit Counter
Looking for a simple, simple to install (2 steps) hit counter for your website? Then The Hit Counter what you need. They have made the creation of a custom hit counter as simple as it can be.

Distance Check now has active city lookup

Distance Check gives you the approximate driving time between two zip codes. A new active city lookup feature now makes the tool even easier to use. What it will do is give you a drop-down of zip codes matching any town or city as you type in the zip code field. So now you can either type the city code or start typing a town or city and Distance Check will find the zip code for you.

Tell me what you think.

Link:
http://distancecheck.com/

All about URL rewriting

A few sources for good information and help on rewriting URLs.

• Mod_Rewrite Wizard: Using this tool you can transform long dynamic URLs into short static URLs. Enter your dynamic URL and click Start.
• An Introduction to Rewriting: The Apache server’s mod_rewrite module gives you the ability to transparently redirect one URL to another, without the user’s knowledge. This opens up all sorts of possibilities, from simply redirecting old URLs to new addresses, to cleaning up the ‘dirty’ URLs coming from a poor publishing system — giving you URLs that are friendlier to both readers and search engines.
• mod_rewrite Tips and Tricks for Apache .htaccess: A nicely compiled list of tips and tricks.

Also check out my blog post 'See what htaccess can do for you'

How They Hack Your Website: Overview of Common Techniques

When you consider that you can go to Google right now and enter a search string which will return you thousands of usernames and passwords to websites, you realize that this dark science is really no mystery at all. You’ll react similarly when you see just how simple a concept SQL Injection is, and how it can be automated with simple tools. Read on, to learn the basics of how sites and web content management systems are most often hacked, and what you can do to reduce the risk of it happening to you.

Methods Discussed:

• SQL Injection
• Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
• Authorization Bypass
• Google Hacking
• Password Cracking

Link:
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-cms/...

Step by Step: Configuring SSL Under Apache

With a secure web server, clients can connect to your server secure in the knowledge both that it is who it claims to be and that the transaction is well-encrypted so their data is safe. The best way of doing this is with Apache 2, the leading Linux web server software, and Secure Sockets Layer, a secure communication protocol. Transport Layer Security (TLS) is the successor to SSL, but they work in basically the same way. I'll refer from here on just to SSL.

Link:
http://www.onlamp.com/...

Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 Manager

Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 Manager is an administration UI that provides end users and administrators with a way to remotely manage IIS 7.0 servers.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...

Know your hosting server with phpSysInfo

phpSysInfo is a PHP script that displays information about the host being accessed. It will displays things like Uptime, CPU, Memory, SCSI, IDE, PCI, Ethernet, Floppy, and Video Information.

Link:
http://phpsysinfo.sourceforge.net/

How To Configure the CGI Script Timeout Value in IIS 5.0 and 6.0

One of the most common questions people seem to ask when attempting to run some form of CGI application or script (such as PHP or Perl) on an IIS 6.0 server is “How do I change the default CGI script timeout value ?“ Quite often this is because they are trying to execute a relatively long-running script in an application and they are seeing the following error message.

Link:
http://www.iisadmin.co.uk/?p=7

FastCGI Extension for IIS 6.0

The FastCGI Extension for Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 enables popular application frameworks (such as PHP) to be hosted on the IIS web server in a high-performance and reliable way.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx...

What Software Powers Nine of the Largest Sites?

Have you ever wondered what software powers sites like YouTube, Flickr, and MySpace? Wonder no more because Pingdom has the scoop! The results are located in the table above, and as you can see Linux, Apache, and MySQL are among the most popular tools. In the end this is how the stats play out:

Link:
http://.../what-software-powers-nine-of-the-largest-sites/

Learn Apache mod_rewrite: 13 Real-world Examples

Link:
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/apache-mod_rewrite-examples

Guide to Applying 301 Redirects with Apache

Utilizing the power of the apache module mod_rewrite, however, we could match specific patterns for entire folders and redirect them to their new URLs without having to go through every PHP script. Also, several of our pages were static HTML and it was not practical to use javascript or META tags for redirection.

Addition Redirect options can be found in my 301 Redirect Help page.

Link:
http://.../guide-to-applying-301-redirects-with-apache