WebSockets – Varnish, Nginx, and Node.js

Like many others I have been drawn in by the appeal of websockets and their use in (near) real-time communication. As such one of my current projects uses Node.js and websockets (via socket.io). To maximize compatibility, I would, of course, like my Node.js site to run on port 80. My server, however, is not used… Continue reading WebSockets – Varnish, Nginx, and Node.js

WordPress – SSL login page without SSL admin

In WordPress (v3.3), FORCE_SSL_LOGIN will transmit login credentials over SSL, however, the login page itself may be accessed over HTTP (as opposed to HTTPS). If the login page is accessed via HTTP, the user has no (easy) way of verifying that the page is legitimate and that the credentials will in fact be sent over… Continue reading WordPress – SSL login page without SSL admin

Building an Nginx RPM on Amazon’s Linux

If no customizations are desired, a far simpler way to get the RPM, than that outlined below, is to use the nginx repository, available from nginx’s download page. After deciding to change my server stack today (based on Amazon’s Linux), I noted that, despite the current version of Amazon’s Linux being hardly a few days… Continue reading Building an Nginx RPM on Amazon’s Linux

Setting up Subversion

Subversion is a versatile version control system. This article looks at how to set up subversion on Amazon’s Linux (RHEL/CentOS derived), and the necessary setup for using it with Apache (proxied through Nginx), as well as the setup of a repository, and the use of hooks to automatically update a live (non-production) working copy. Basic… Continue reading Setting up Subversion

Setting up NodeJS

It is quite unfortunate that one only has a finite number of hours to dedicate to learning new things, for inevitably there are things we skim over, or worse yet, don’t even know exist. Today, as I was looking for efficient ways of implementing server push for a project of mine, I came across NodeJS.… Continue reading Setting up NodeJS

Drupal Oddities

I have recently been trying out a number of content management systems (CMSes) on a server with Apache + FastCGI (PHP) as a backend, and Nginx as a frontend (reverse-proxy). Of these (WordPress, Joomla, MediaWiki, and Drupal) the only one to encounter any difficulties was Drupal (version 7). Installation Issues A number of content management… Continue reading Drupal Oddities

Website Optimizations, Part 2

While a significant portion of the content of this site is geared towards optimizations and efficiency, I think that summing up a few of those ideas in a single article can be helpful, and will follow nicely from the previous article on Website Optimizations. The major focus of the last article was content as opposed… Continue reading Website Optimizations, Part 2

Nginx and W3 Total Cache

With the increasing popularity of the lightweight nginx server, the latest developer build of W3 Total Cache, includes support for nginx. As nginx does not have directory specify files (e.g. .htaccess), the settings are intended to be added to one’s nginx.conf file. Before preceding, I simply cannot pass up an opportunity to extol the virtues… Continue reading Nginx and W3 Total Cache