Our main goal is to provide customers with a highly reliable platform to serve web content to the entire world. Our extensively customized and hardened set of Linux images are a deriviative of Red Hat Linux running kernels with modified security settings and custom bug fixes. We chose the Linux based operating system to provide for your security and stability demands, and are constantly improving the images we install. For more general and advanced information on Linux visit the free archives at The Linux Documentation Project Website. Here are some of the specifications of our network and a general overview of the average server we have to offer:

The Data Centers

The Network

• Multiple fully redundant DS3 (45 MBps each)
• Multiple fully redundant OC3 (155 MBps each)
• Connectivity to 6 Internet Backbone Networks

The Hardware

• Single, Dual, or Quad Pentium III/IV/Xeon
• 512 Kb to 4 Gigabytes of RAM
• 100 to 750 Gigabytes of disk space

The Software

• Custom Linux 2.4.28 with Security Enhancements
• Red Hat System V based images
• Apache version 1.3.33
• PHP version 4.3.10+
• MySQL version 3.2.3 to 4+
• Perl version 5.6.1

The Staff

• 24 Hour Technical Support
• 24 Hour Administrator Duty
• Multiple Points of Contact

Quick Links

Monstercontrols

• General Information
• Site Map

Linux Web Hosting

• Introduction
• Overview
• Environment
• Settings and Configuration

Essential Information

• Your Home Directory
• SSH - The Secure Shell
• Symbol Reference
• Command Referemce

Accessing Your Email

• General Information
• Eudora
• Outlook Express
• Outlook 2000/XP
• Netscape Communicator

All software packages are custom compilations optimized for the servers on which they run. We also offer versions of Fedora for dedicated servers as well as any other Operating System you wish to have installed on a server. Don't hesitate to speak with one of our CSR's about the latest news!

To offer an efficient and unparalleled web-based content management system our developers have recently release version 7 of our proprietary and highly innovative MonsterControls.

Each customer gets their own MonsterControls control panel that is available in the document root of their domain. For example, http://mydomain.com/monstercontrols would be what to type in a web browser to log in. The user name and password for MonsterControls can be whatever you like and is to be set when your order is complete and your domain is available by name on our systems.The user name and password can be reset at any time by logging in via FTP or SSH and removing the monstercontrols_pass file in your main users home directory. Your main user will be the domain name without the top-level extention, such as .com or .org. So if your domain name is "mydomain.com" then you should set your monstercontrols user name to be "mydomain", and the password can be whatever you like. It is highly recommended that you use a password that is C-2 compliant, that is a password which conatains at least 8 characters consisting of upper case, lower case, symbols and numbers.

Introduction

Education, free thinking, and forward movement of technology are all behind what is known as the Open Source Movement, and this allows us to concentrate on bringing you the best stability and uptime without having to license expensive software that cannot be modified or supported in many ways to suit the ever changing demands of the IT Industry. Perhaps the best thing about it all is the amazing amount of documentation available on the internet for all levels of Linux users. At the time of this writing, google.com has over twenty-three million results for the key words "Linux Tutorial".

Overview

Environment

Disk quotas are a method of controlling a user's disk usage and keeping tabs on those who exceed those limits. If one of your users does find themselves with too much email to even be able to log in and check the mail, you can use MonsterControls to temporarily raise their quota until it is reset by the server at midnight. This will allow the user to log in and delete some of the offending mail. When the main user goes over quota all functions related to creating files cease, including session files, or 'lock files' as they were referred to above, because the main user is the owner of the domain and all of it's files. This policy for shared hosting accounts is in place to make sure that nobody can adversely affect another domain's functionality by inadvertently filling up the disk. Here are some tips you can use to avoid filling up any quotas:

• Delete unused content on a regular basis.
• Use the settings of your email client to delete mail from the server.
• Monitor your user's disk quotas and suggest plans of recourse for avoiding spam.
• Remove the default catchall in monstercontrols or point it elsewhere to avoid too much errant mail.
• Place sensible resitrictions on domains that spam through your MonsterControls webmaster tools interface.
• If you have the need for high volumes of mail beyond 10 MB you may considering using a low end dedicated server for your purposes.
• If you have the need for more disk space, large database demands, or related server wide changes, a dedicated server is the way to go.

Settings and Configurations

Your Home Directory

This is the directory you will find yourself in once you SSH or FTP into the server. Notice that there is a link called "www" that points to a folder elsewhere on the fileystem:

This is the point of reference from which you will need to configure your FTP client, DreamWeaver, and other web publishing clients. Typically all you need to reference is the /www/domainname in your client configurations, but your mileage may vary.

When you add user accounts with monstercontrols by default they are granted full shell access which includes access to email and FTP. Assigning these privleges to your users is why the passwords for email, FTP, and SSH are the same for a given user. Monstercontrols however maintains it's own password file which can hold entirely different login information and is separate from the actual user database on the machine. Each user under your domain that has FTP or SSH access will automatically have a home directory:

Here they will be able to store files and if you have granted them full shell access (SSH) they will be able to use tools on the server to help in managing content, or otherwise use the server in any way you can. The only difference is that users of your domain cannot directly write files to your document root. In order to have files placed on your actual website you must grant users the login name and password of the main user.

Anonymous FTP access works much the same; you have a link in the main user's directory:

This allows for people to upload to the server anonymously and for you to be able to browse through anything they upload to see if you want to add it to your site. This would be an example of an alternative to granting someone full access to your domain name login.

9+ Character Names

A name of anywhere from 3-16 letters is legal for email accounts, FTP accounts, and telnet accounts and may include upper and lower-case letters, numbers and hyphens. There is no limitation for file names on the server but spaces are not normally used on Unix systems and may cause problems.

WUsage and Access Logs

To count accesses, there is a directory called wusage in your www directory. To access it, just log on the Internet and with your web browser, go to:

http://www.yourdomain.com/wusage

You will see a webpage with statistics for your domain for the previous week. If you are a brand new domain, you won't see any statistics there yet. If you go to the link from that page leading to Weekly Reports, you will see a much more detailed report, including pie charts, graphs, etc. These reports are automatically generated for you once each week, and are stored in one place so you can compare weekly statistics easily.

If you would like to see domain names in your stats rather than just IP numbers, put an empy file in your wusage directory called dns (no extensions). This will act as a switch and reverse authentication will be activated for the domain.

In your home directory, you will see a file called access-log. You can download this file and open it in any word processor to see exactly what files were accessed, what domain the visitor came from, the dates and times of each visit, etc.

SSH - The Secure Shell

Secure Shell access is what we provide as an ecrypted alternative to Telnet. Those familiar with Telnet or the DOS command prompt may find this to be a very convenient and powerful way to administer your site. The login for your SSH, FTP, and Email are the same. There are many free SSH clients out there such as PuTTy which are easy to configure and require no special knowledge to connect to the server. SSH is what we use to log in to the servers to administer them. MonsterControls uses an interface with the server to issue complex commands on a very low level to provide for the automation of many tasks that can be accomplished by usage of the Linux command line. Here is a quick overview of the Linux command line usage most users will find helpful.

You can get a free ssh client here. Just type in your domain name and go!

The command line provides for a way for you to issue commands to manipulate files, directories, and just about anything else on the server you have access to. For the complete online help manual for any Linux command all you have to do is type "man commandname" at the shell prompt to view all the usage for the command with examples in most cases. This is a standard feature of any Linux installation. The standard usage of a command is to type the command name followed by 'arguments' to provide extra functionality specific to that command.

Note that some ISP's may block your connection to your mail server in efforts to curb the SPAM generated by virus or spyware infected Windows PC's. You can tell if your ISP is doing this if you are able to recieve mail but not send mail. In most cases you will configure your mail client to use your ISP's SMTP server (port 25) rather than your domain's. If this is the case please contact your ISP to find out what SMTP server they want for you to use. Typically the problem can be resolved by quickly taking a look at a mail client you may have configured for any email addresses with your ISP and subsituting their own SMTP in place of yours in the following configuration.

Eudora

1.) Download and install Eudora
2.) From the Menu bar select "tools" and then "options"

3.) Select "getting started" in the options Menu

4.) In "Real name", enter the name you would like to see when sending e-mails
5.) In "Return Address", enter the email address (or alias) you wish to send mail from: name@yourdomain.com
6.) In "Mail Server (Incoming)", enter your domain name
7.) In "Login Name", enter the User name of your account
8.) In "SMTP Server (Outgoing)", enter in yourdomain
9.) Click OK
10.) Click on the "checking Mail" tab
11.) Enter your domain name as the mail server and enter your username in the login name section. You may also want to select the save password box

Testing your e-mail:

1.) Select "Check Mail" under the File menu
2.) Enter your password into the Password Window that pops up, then click on the "Proceed" button
3.) Eudora will check to see if you have email

You can now send a test email message to yourself and then check to see if it gets returned to you. If you checked "Save Password", Eudora will not prompt you again for your password after the first time.

Note: Your default email address is yourdomain@yourdomain.com This is where all of your email will be sent to, unless other configurations take priority (such as autoresponders and redirects).

Microsoft Outlook Express

1.) In the Menu bar click on "tools" and then "accounts"
2.) Click on "add" and then "mail"
3.) In Display Name, type your name. Click "Next"
4.) E-mail address: enter yourname@yourdomain.com Click "Next"
5.) My incoming mail server is a "POP3"
5.) Incoming Mail (POP3 or IMAP)server: Enter your domain.com
6.) Outgoing Mail (SMTP) server: Enter yourdomain.com
7.) Click "Next"
8.) POP account name: User Name Password: Your Password Click "Next"
9.) Internet Mail Account Name: Your can name this whatever you would like. It can always be changed later
10.) Choose your connection type depending on your connection method.
11.) Click "Finish"

Microsoft Outlook 2000/XP

1).In the Menu bar, select "tools" and then "accounts" (98/2000). Or, "e-mail accounts" (Win XP)

2.) Select add a new E-mail account

3.) Select "POP3" and click "Next"

4.) Fill in all information. Enter your name, your e-mail address, your username and password. Both the Incoming and outgoing mail server will be your domain name unless your ISP blocks outgoing mail, in which case you should use their outgoing (SMTP) mail server
5.) You can then select "test account settings". Microsoft Outlook will then test the configuration for your POP e-mail account
6.) You are now ready send and receive e-mail and add more accounts if needed.

Netscape Communicator

1.) From Netscape Composer select "edit" and then "mail/news account settings"
2.) Select "New Account"
3.) Select ISP or email provider and click "Next"

4.) Enter your name and e-mail address and click "Next"

5.) Select POP as your incoming mail server. Then enter your domain name for both the incoming and outgoing mail server
6.) Click "Next"

7.) Enter your user name for your account.
8.) Enter any name that you would like to call this account. Example: "My Mail Server"
9.) Click Next
10.) Verify all account information and click "finished"
11.) You have successfully configured Netscape Composer to be your email client