LAMPdocs: Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP

Do you know Snap.com? If you don’t I’d encourage you to visit it as their tools make web much better. Even if I don’t like Ajax and Javascript tools, that often overload sites, I consider having site screenshots is a very good idea. But… where to take these shots and how to do them? If you try to do this manually, you’ll have to press print screen, then to run paint, then save the image, then rename it… Hard work, isn’t it?

If you want this for one site and want to see what’s shown to user in different browsers, then browsershots.org will be great for you. This service allows to take screenshots with different browser - this is the most comprehensive tool related to page screens I’ve seen on the Web.

There is also a Windows software that allows to do this. It’s Thumbnail Grabber. Thumbnail Grabber is a free utility for creating thumbnail screenshots of web pages in JPEG format. You can choose web page size (width and height) and thumbnail image size (in percent of the web page size). The program can batch process URLs and domains from a text file that makes it extremely useful for sites that have reviews or galleries, etc.

Now the process of Image creation is very simple. All you have to do is to have a list of web pages to crawl and Thumbnail Grabber will do everything for you. Nice that it doesn’t capture any browser elements, so your screenshots are clear and look great

I hope you know what is Google sitemap and what it is used for. If not, you might want to read about it at Google site. There are a plenty of services and scripts that allow to create a sitemap for your site and it is not so hard to create your own script for this (maybe I will show you the code some later). When it is created, you are welcome so submit it to your Google Webmasters section. But it is important to check it against errors before submitting and it is a good practice to have it valid.

You may need to study sitemap protocol specifications. Some characters should be escaped before putting them in an xml file. But how to check whether your sitemap is valid or not?

I am using an online service that allows to check the sitemap without uploading it - all you need is just to have it on your server.  Let’s go to the page of Free Google SiteMap XML Validator and check our sitemaps. If something is wrong, you will receive a message where even number of error string will be shown.  I greatly recommend you to study that web site - t has lots of useful information on sitemaps, more than I can write here.

Now you can be sure your sitemaps are valid. Smart IT Consulting also allows you to submit your sitemaps, so I consider it’s a great resource.

Most of us rely on a single antivirus software that is installed on the PC. No matter it is free or paid, you rely on its security and check all the incoming data using it. For example, CDs and USB flash drives are checked when they are inserted, e-mail attachments are scanned, etc.

There is an online service that gives us the possibility to check suspicious files with different antivirus scanners. You will surely not install all these software at your PC, but you don’t even need it: Virustotal will scan yout files.

The list of supported antivirus software is impressive:

AhnLab (V3)
Aladdin (eSafe)
ALWIL (Avast! Antivirus)
Authentium (Command Antivirus)
AVG Technologies (AVG)
Avira (AntiVir)
Bit9 (FileAdvisor)
Cat Computer Services (Quick Heal)
ClamAV (ClamAV)
CA Inc. (Vet)
Doctor Web, Ltd. (DrWeb)
Eset Software (ESET NOD32)
ewido networks (ewido anti-malware)
Fortinet (Fortinet)
FRISK Software (F-Prot)
F-Secure (F-Secure)
G DATA Software (GData)
Hacksoft (The Hacker)
Ikarus Software (Ikarus)
Kaspersky Lab (AVP)
McAfee (VirusScan)
Microsoft (Malware Protection)
Norman (Norman Antivirus)
Panda Security (Panda Platinum)
Prevx (Prevx1)
Rising Antivirus (Rising)
Secure Computing (Webwasher)
BitDefender GmbH. (BitDefender)
Sophos (SAV)
Sunbelt Software (Antivirus)
Symantec (Norton Antivirus)
VirusBlokAda (VBA32)
Trend Micro (TrendMicro)
VirusBuster (VirusBuster)
PEiD (PEiD)
pefile (pefile)

So when you have a file you can’t trust, you are welcome to check it with all antiviruses. Hope it will save you from malware.

This time I will tell you some services for pinging your blogs. Here it is; though it is not the most complete list, I hope it will help you to add your blogs to search engines.

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://rpc.qwikping.com
http://rpc.britblog.com
http://rpc.tailrank.com/feedburner/RPC2
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc/
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://ping.fakapster.com/rpc
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://api.feedster.com/ping.php
http://bblog.com/ping.php
https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast
http://pingqueue.com/rpc/
http://ping.blogg.de/
http://rpc.britblog.com/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.wpkeys.com/
http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx
http://signup.alerts.msn.com/alerts-PREP/submitPingExtended.doz
http://www.imblogs.net/ping/
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://www.rssfwd.com/xmlrpc/api
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de

Usually Wordpress does the ping automatically, but not all blog search engines are pinged.

Here is the data you need to send to these services:

<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<methodCall>
<methodName>weblogUpdates.extendedPing</methodName>
<params>
<param>
<value>The &amp;nbsp; Space in Paulo</value>
</param>
<param>
<value>http://nbspsaopaulo.example.com/</value>
</param>
<param>
<value>http://nbspsaopaulo.example.com/content.html</value>
</param>
<param>
<value>http://ilovesaopaulo.example.com/index.rss</value>
</param>
</params>
</methodCall>

If you decide to create your pinger (I will show you how to do this some time later), this data will be extremely useful.

Your site uptime is a very important criteria of web server administrator’s qualification. Most hosting service providers promise 99,9% uptime and it is often true, but you are always welcome to check it by yourself. I will tell you about two online services I like and I highly recommend to use this kind of online service. It is also free and includes e-mail alerts, so you will always know whether your site is online or not.

The first service is called Alertra.com. I’ve been using it for about 4 years and I am very pleased with their service. For a free check all you need is to enter your site URL in Spotcheck field and wait some time. Several servers from around the worl;d will be queried and in less than a minute you’ll get the whole report on your site uptime and speed. Yes, it also shows the time that is needed to load your site from China, Germany, UK and USA. Nice, isn’t it?

If you like this service you can order a subscription for a very small fee. Subscription allows you to monitor HTTP, MySQL, SMTP, ping and many other stuff you might need examining your server. This may be greatly useful when you have an overloaded site, or a huge MySQL database. Highly recommend this service as I never had any problems with them. A plenty of alert selections will deliver the uptime information to wherever you need!

The second one is very nice too. I’ve discovered it some time ago. Its name is Host Tracker. It uses even more checking points than Alertra and its information seems to be accurate too. I didn’t test them much but I think you can rely on them too. Subscription plans are also available and there is a free trial too so you can try their services before purchasing.

Hope this article is useful for those who are looking for website monitoring services. Have a nice day!