A Note on Terminology: O’Reilly Press publishes many books with the word “Hacks” in the title, such as Google Hacks, Online Investing Hacks, and Flash Hacks to name just a few (to name a few that need reviewing, that is!) The word “hacks” is used to refer to a clever trick or other sly maneuver that is not so obvious to a rank beginner in the field, like a Hint from Heloise for the computer world. It emphatically does not refer to how to trespass on other peoples’ networks, or how to commit hardware vandalism or computer sabotage, otherwise known as a “crack”. That is a use of the word “hack” which is not covered in this series of articles. Perhaps an article on “Computer and Network Security” would make a go of that use of the term.

So there’s all this stuff on the Internet, and more being added every day. Any one of us can fire up a browser, go to a search engine, and find material associated with just about any string of keywords we can think of. But – did you ever think to yourself: “How did this stuff get here? And how can I put my stuff out there? How can I join the party, and not just watch through my browser window?”

To get right to the point, the browsers on our computers at home draw up the webpages we see by copying information off a computer where the master copy of that webpage exists. That computer, which serves us the webpage info, is called a server. A server is an information storage and delivery computer sitting on a live internet wire 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, except for maintenance and emergencies, ready to dish out the goods if and whenever anyone should ask. Servers aren’t just passive stacks of webpages, though, they do data processing and computations, usually involving logging the particulars of the information requests they receive.

“Why would I want to get a server?” you might ask. If you live as part of a large family, you might consider getting some space on a server somewhere (“Don’t Panic”. Trust me: more details later at the right time.), maybe name it “grannyskids dot com, and take all your old family photos, important or otherwise interesting family historical documents, a family tree, a newsletter or small journal, and maybe even a restricted set of e-mail addresses that only get e-mail to and from each other (No spammers allowed, in other words). What you would have is a way for a far flung family to keep in touch with each other, even if they don’t all own their own computers! By surfing at libraries, a cyber-café, or even a public computer lab like the four online PCs we have down here at the APCO learning center at Crossroads Mall (hint, hint) you and your loved ones can check in every month or three and see what’s cookin’ at the home front.

OR (deep breath, here) your Scout troop, garden club, business or other professional association, church, hobby group, neighborhood association, small or medium sized business, or any other group of folks might want to get into the act, and even without fighting over the rights to “Mr. Big-shot dot com” you can get something out there and establish a presence on the web that helps folks keep each other apprised of the situation.

“How do I get a server?” That ‘more later’ I promised? Here it is. You go to a web hosting company, which operates one or more servers that host, or hold data up to the Internet so everybody can get at it. You rent space from that company, and register a domain name for it which names it pretty much whatever you want. Then you can take info from your home PC and up-load it to the server space you now own. You can store whatever you want to there: webpages, documents, daily journals, pictures, sounds, movies, and even software. A Safety Tip: don’t put any stuff out there that isn’t completely legal to give out for free. Your own photos, writings, and such are fine. Public Domain stuff is also fine, like a digital camera snapshot of the Mona Lisa or other . Don’t put up copies of anything someone else is trying to make money off of, such as current magazine articles, copyrighted drawings or photographs. This is because of legal issues such as patents, copyrights, licenses, and trade secrets. Material in the Public Domain is always ok to give out for free, however you want.

“So How Much does all this cost?” You can register a domain name for five or ten bucks a year. From merryoldlandofoz dot com (nobody’s taken that one yet), to ihatebroccoli dot com. I am chicken to recommend specific companies to do this in an article for a nonprofit organization. But the miracle is you don’t need to, exactly, it just makes the process easier for your users. If you don’t register a domain name, your hosted space is a string of four numbers such as 123.234.34.7 for reasons that go deeper into the internet details than I want to for this article. Believe me, it has already overgrown what I had originally intended by far! After registering your domain name, or deciding to tough it out without one, you can rent a few megabytes to store your stuff on, which costs from five dollars a month on up. Hosting companies are cheap and plentiful, ‘cause they’re holding all the webpages and other things people are browsing on every day. Large information companies like CNN, Yahoo, and Microsoft run their own banks of servers, called “server farms”, but don’t try to rent directly from them, “they ain’t sellin’”.

“Ok, I have my server space. What Now!?” Well, webpages are written in a simple layout language called HTML, and we have free and frequent courses on it down here at the Alamo PC Learning Center at Crossroads Mal on Fredericksburg, so that’ll take care of the webpages themselves. Also, lots of people know this HTML, so its actually more work deciding what you want to have on the site and how you want it to look than it is getting it ready for the machines. That takes care of the raw material of the webpages, but how about the pictures? Well, Digital Photography classes are free and frequent down here at the … yep, you guessed it!

“How do I get files from my PC over to the server so the rest of the folks on the Internet can get at ‘em?”
“How do I make the server do what I want?”
“What if I change my mind?”

Wow! You sure are impatient. Maybe I should teach a class myself! Until then, there is a book about how to set up and handle the basics of an internet information server, and how to work with it.

But first a few words about the philosophy of software engineering and marketing!

I love Microsoft. It’s that simple. I have worked as a bottom-of-the-totem-pole computer tech everywhere form the basement of the Supercomputer Computational Research Institute at FSU, to the backroom mom and pop computer shops in some pretty amazing neighborhoods in “Greater” Los Angeles. In my opinion, Mr. Gates and company have done a world beating job of putting together the Microsoft Windows package of software, which will install and run on practically any kind of computer hardware you can fling together. I know by direct experience – I have paid my rent doing this stuff. The reliability of MS Windows has grown steadily better over the years and it is a fine suite of programs that make computers do what we want them to do.

BUT. There are many aspects of automating, customizing, and securing Windows machines that have been slow and difficult to adapt to one particular kind of individual: The Tinkerer. If you’re the kind of person that fixes even anything on your own car, mows your own lawn, and swears at or just glares at the Internet sometimes, then having more convenient personal control over the details of your machine just might fit more comfortably to your mental style. For one, I like Legos and Erector sets more than I like jigsaw puzzles. It’s not that I hate jigsaw puzzles; I like ‘em just fine, just like I like Microsoft software, but I just naturally gravitate towards the systems that give me more of a sense that it is an “open ended toolbox”. Like Linux, for instance.

Now that I have honored the fine products and services over at Microsoft, I guess its time to “throw a bone” to the Linux companies. The software is so reliable that machines running very early versions of it have run for years without needing a reboot or a fresh re-installation. It is lively, flexible, and customizable to your heart’s content, and it’s easy, safe, and convenient to do so. It has a reputation of being a little intimidating to people who are not computer or software experts, but that hasn’t been true for years. Whereas only a dyed-in-the-wool Tinker would even want to mess with this stuff, most versions of Linux will install as easy as you please onto a very wide variety of hardware, even if you’ve never peeked inside your computer just to see what’s there. I know: I’ve done it myself just to see how easy it is. The vast majority of it is usable in much the same way, using the much the same skills as the software you already use, whether it’s MS Windows, or the Macintosh. There isn’t very much difference in the way the user addresses and activates the software. It’s all starting to look pretty much the same. The software itself is cheap, cheap, cheap! You can download and burn a cd install disk for free from non-profit foundations or companies that give away the software for free and make money from help desk support, business consulting, and add-on software services. You can also buy an install disk for under $100 loaded with programs that will seem very familiar to you in the way that they operate, plus all sorts of goodies. If you fancy yourself a red hot tinker, you can even find totally new programs reflecting some of the latest, most interesting, and most powerful developments in computer science, and download , install, and run that stuff yourself, and take your computer education and your home or business software to whatever extent in whatever direction you decide on.

To cool off and come back to earth now, we should realize that places like e-Bay, Google, NASA, and Amazon all use Linux based servers both to run the day to day business of managing their websites.

“How might one do the same for one’s own website?” There is a book called “Linux Server Hacks” by Rob Flickenger, and published by O’Reilly Press (the tinkers’ friend!).

Buy this book from

It is written in classic “cookbook” style – not a lot of theory, but it has a collection of 100 practical tips, tricks, and advice to help you get started. It’s not an introduction to Linux, nor is it a book on how to run a server, but after a book on each of those subjects, this one is the one to read next.