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User Databases and DNS - Today at 09:49:16 am

One of the DNS systems in the DNS cluster managed to get corrupted information from the update.

What this means is, all the dns names were pointing to the wrong server.

No problem, found it, fixed it, tested it...

Sometime later that same bad information was propagated to the other good systems... of course after I checked and after I was asleep.

I manually forced a cleanup and update - all user databases are available and working away properly.

Sorry about the inconvenience.


Quietly Working Away - November 07, 2008, 08:43:16 am

CWahi is growing - I'm very pleased with our signup rate and the people coming to see the sites we now host - may are very cool.

I have been furiously working away behind the scenes. Lots of planning on changes that are going to go in, in the new year. Things that people have asked for (domain support) and some other little surprises.

Don't take silence for laziness. It just means you don't see the changes in a obvious way. You just see them in the "It just works" way :)


Zend Optimizer and eAccelerator - October 15, 2008, 09:34:52 am

Support for Zend Optimizer and eAccelerator has been added to *all* accounts. This should help people use scripts that are Zend encoded, and also improve the speed of scripts overall.

Enjoy!


.htaccess Support Addition - October 13, 2008, 03:26:35 pm

.htaccess files now support the allow/deny/order directives so that you can allow or deny access to files or folders completely - for example, to ban access to a config file called config.php

.htaccess:

<Files "config.php">
Order Allow,Deny
Deny from All
</Files>


Enjoy!


PHP Tweaks and Upload Update - October 06, 2008, 09:54:46 am

phpinfo() has been removed from the banned function list. The reason for it being present has been removed and will allow more scripts to work.

I am working on the next upload function issue - permissions on the resulting file. Uploads using PHP *do* work, but the files end up with the server ownership. I am looking at a patch to clean that up so everything works the way you expect.


More PHP Goodness - October 02, 2008, 02:19:04 pm

I enabled PHP caching for all account types.

Thanks to some of the members with software installed, I had good test pages to check out the improvements with (thanks Chris!). Joomla went from being sluggish to quite snappy!

Now on to the next items on my  To Do list!


Major PHP Improvement - October 01, 2008, 01:22:18 pm

Uploads and file based session handlers now work! The file uploads and session files will go to the
appropriate temporary folders.

The PHP security patch that is generally accepted for this kind of setup had one very small bug - but it was big enough to mess up a lot of things. I fixed it (and will submit it back to the community) and it corrects the error messages of the sort:

PHP Warning:  somefunction(): open_basedir restriction in effect. File(../../modules) is not within the allowed path(s): (VIRTUAL_DOCUMENT_ROOT) in /www/users/u/s/e/username/somepath/somefile.php on line 21

Now on to the next issues that prevent some PHP scripts from working.

Most other free hosts that offer PHP do not allow uploads and some, sessions :)


.htaccess File Support - September 26, 2008, 06:04:52 pm

We have added .htaccess support for creating password protected directories.

The .htaccess file is protected from outside viewing. As well, we have support for a secure directory called .data that you can place user passwords in.

To protect a directory named foo in account mooo

mooo/foo/.htaccess

AuthName        Moo
AuthType        Basic
require         valid-user
AuthUserFile    /www/users/m/o/o/mooo/.data/users

You have to put the full path to the user file. I've named it users in my .data folder.

mooo/.data/users

user:$1$qN7RZ...$WktjS2dzi58wE8sMKzgHP.

You asked, we provided :)


We DO Have FTP! Honest! - September 26, 2008, 04:01:09 pm

Mea culpa.

I think that's Latin for "I just shot off my own foot and ow, it really hurts".

We do have ftp. A user just quit thinking we didn't. It turns out the ftp information was missing in the My Account tab. I've re-added that.

What gets me is that people quit BEFORE asking in the forums about things.

Like the few people who leave because there is no .htaccess file support. There are enough people asking for it that I am looking at adding it - most want it for private folders, and that has been on my to-do list for a while.

I understand that there may still be some features missing that are wanted, but if you don't tell us what you want by posting in the forums, how can we know? Come on in and chat with us - we're easy to get along with.


Fixed Mysql Database Information - September 24, 2008, 09:03:13 pm

The database name was missed from the database information display. Fixed! Would be useful information I guess.

Surprised not many more people noticed it  ???


More PHP Function Changes - September 24, 2008, 12:53:42 pm

The eval function has been re-enabled and the register_shutdown_function and register_tick_function has been disabled.

This should allow a LOT of third party software to suddenly start working (like Joomla and other forum software).

In fact we are looking for people to attempt to install third party software and detail what they needed to do to get it working. Providing feedback in the forums with errors you encounter is a sure way to get my attention to help get stuff working.

Providing these how-tos will also result in rewards :)


Next on my To do - September 23, 2008, 02:10:55 pm

There are 2 items on my to do list right now that came about from people that have already quit. They gave us feedback and we take it seriously.

The members section is going to be completely revamped. I am going to create a control panel with icons which people are more used to seeing. Similar items will be grouped according to function and information that is important will be presented on the page.

A lot of information will now be 1 click away as opposed to a couple.

At the same time, the opt ins for the Site of the Week and Members Directory will be added. This will allow you to tell us that you want to be included in one or both systems. This means many other people can find you and your site, and possibly even result in you being chosen for the Site of the Week and having an appearance on our main page!

Please log in and tell us what else you want. We can only build what we know people have asked for!


User MySQL Databases! - September 23, 2008, 01:49:13 pm

They are finally here!

You asked for MySQL databases and we gave them to you.

All you need to do is log in, click on Databases on the top tab and you will have your database installed.

Originally, databases were going to be reserved for enhanced accounts only but we decided to give them to everyone.

The Free accounts have a smaller database and a small, single text link ad will appear in their ad bar - the same size as the other text. This will help support the databases and the links are done in such a way as to take up only a little space on your page.

Database upgrades (size and connections) will be available when the reward system is put in place.

Enjoy!

Now on to the next thing!


Do you have what it takes? - September 19, 2008, 02:00:19 pm

Do you have what it takes to be Site of the Week?

Login and check out our current SOTW nominees in the forum, and get your vote in!

When YOUR site is ready, throw your hat into the ring and get noticed too.

Site of the Week winners get permanent listing on the http://sotw.cwahi.net website, in our Winner's Circle in the Forum, tons of publicity, and "Kukui's" too! (points that you can "spend" here at CWahi)

What are you waiting for?!



Additional Referrer Tracking - September 14, 2008, 12:12:39 pm

We added more referrer tracking. If someone comes by your CWahi page and clicks on the link to see CWahi and joins, you get the referral!

No muss, no fuss, no code!

This is *only* valid for the link bar at the top of your site.

For enhanced members and anyone that wants to place links inside their site, you still need to user referral codes as such:

http://www.cwahi.net/?referrer=[username]

Where [username] is your cwahi username :)

Have a great weekend!


Good to See! - September 13, 2008, 08:54:11 pm

Well, I'm tickled and pleased with what I'm seeing.

I am working on making a safe, secure php environment and even allowing some of the features that have been considered security risks (like mail() and currently file uploads). What is pleasing me is that my methods are working.

The only people that seem to be quitting are the ones that create an account and ignore the warning about leeching scripts and so forth, attempt to set one up, and are thwarted.

This shows my my system is doing what it should as I move it to being more usable for all of you.

So please, come in, enjoy. Tell me what you want!


PHP File Uploads - September 13, 2008, 04:59:57 pm

Working on making them happen and in a secure way so that you don't have to worry about other users, etc.

I am going through the disabled function list and knocking off the ones that are used most often.

Following the mysql deployment, I am going to work on installing some of the most common php scripts and resolve issues with installation, paths and security so that we can do 1 click installations, or for those more savvy, provide you with the how-to's to avoid installation pitfalls.

Included in that is a list of sites for these scripts to connect to for updates.


WANTED: Feedback - September 13, 2008, 10:28:44 am

I really want to improve CWahi for everyone. I have gotten some feedback, but very little overall. Does this mean you are happy or just being silent?

I am working on getting secure mysql ready for everyone. I have further tweaked php to be even more useful (and I am working on 2 ideas to make things like file uploading and so forth work safely).

Tell me what you want!

Log in and give me feedback in the Feature Suggestion Forum by clicking here: http://www.cwahi.net/members/forums/index.php/board,19.0.html

I want to know what you want!


WANTED: PHP How Tos - September 11, 2008, 12:45:35 pm

I have been watching the php error logs and seeing people attempt to install software and then eventually give up due to various reasons. One of the biggest reasons is pathing - include paths etc.

So, if you have installed some PHP software and have it work (and yes, some require a database and those are coming), PLEASE submit a how-to to the forums!

The easier we make this place to use, the more people will use it, the more we can create and give, etc.

I have a to-do list that goes up to my belly button (and I'm 6'2" so that's tall) that includes some layout and useability changes for the site. So I can use all the help that anyone provides.

Submissions will be rewarded with Kukuis! (yes, that is ALSO on my to do list)


Get your vote in! - September 10, 2008, 09:40:29 am

The first Site of the Week is underway, and there are some great sites to look at.

Remember you have to login to get to the forums!

Cast your vote today!



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