How to Setup a Linux Web Server

I welcome your questions and comments. Email me at y2kLeader@gmail.com.

Notes:

Since the writing of the book, it has become much more complicated to send email from a home server because of all the black hat hackers. My upcoming book "How to Setup a Raspberry Pi Web Server" has a solution. I am providing you free an excert from that book. You can view or download the PDF file by clicking here.

If you are having trouble using the FTP, you probably need to change the user of the /var/www folder from "root" to "john" (or whatever your linux server login is).
At the linux server command prompt, type: sudo chown -R john /var/www
There is a space between chown and -R. There is a space between -R and john. there is a space between john and /var/www.
If the newer versions of the Linux Server that you downloaded from the ubuntu.com website isn't working for you, try the older versions from the links below.

The top of page 137 reads:
designate with a single backslash “ \ “ without the quotes. To create the file type:
sudo nano \WrightDDNS
It should read:
designate with a single forward slash " / " without the quotes. To create the file type:
sudo nano /WrightDDNS
Thanks to Inge Vabekk who pointed out the error.

Downloads

Ubuntu.com Download Site
Putty.exe (https://www.putty.org) (Putty SSH Client)
WinSCP (FTP Software)

Menu

WrightDDNS from pg. 136 index.html with guestbook from pg.176

Guest Form HTML Code addguest.php

Visitor Counter HTML Code Visitor Counter PHP Code

WrightDDNS from pg. 136
Highlight the code below and copy it. Save it into the root directory a file named "WrightDDNS". Note: Page 139 shows you how to launch this program, HOWEVER you must use "sudo" without the quotes. So the command at the end of your crontab file shoud read: "1 0-23 1-31 1-12 1-7 sudo bash WrightDDNS" without the quotes. The book forgot the sudo command.
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url=https://dynamicdns.park-your-domain.com/update domain="yourdomainname.com" host="@,www" password="f94393d37a2304nr7b40b3reac6db143d" email=youremail@gmail.com oldip=$(<ip.txt) wget http://ipecho.net/plain -Oip.txt sleep 5 ip=$(<ip.txt) if [ "$ip" != "$oldip" ]; then echo $url"?host="$host"&domain="$domain"& password="$password"&ip="$ip echo "Your new IP address is "$ip \| mail -s "IP Address Update" $email fi

index.html with guestbook from pg.176

Highlight the code below and copy it.
Savie it as "index.html" in the /var/www directory.
Note: The paypal button HTML on this page (lines 19-29) must be changed and replaced by your own paypal button code if you are going to use it.

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<HTML> <head> <style> .myborder {border-style:solid;border-width:2;border-color:black} </style> </head> <body> <center> <h1>English to I-Kiribati Dictionary</h1> <h2>by Michael Wright</h2> The English to I-Kiribati Dictionary has 52,000 entries. It is the most comprehenisive dictionary ever made of the I-Kiribati language. I hope you enjoy the book. If you have any comments questions please email me. <p> <img src=ekcover.jpg height=300> <p> <form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick"> <input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="ABCD1234"> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_buynowCC_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!"> <img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1"> </form> <p> <h2>Guestbook</h2> <form action=addguest.php method=post> <table> <tr> <td>First Name</td> <td><input class=myborder type=text size=20 name=firstname></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Last Name</td> <td><input class=myborder type=text size=20 name=lastname></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Email</td> <td><input class=myborder type=text size=20 name=email></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan=2 align=center>Comments<br> <textarea class=myborder name=comments cols=40 rows=4> </textarea> </td> </tr> </table> <p> <input type=submit value="Click to save"> </form> </center> </body> </HTML>

Guest Form HTML Code

Highlight the code below and copy it.
Save as it's own web page or embedded into another html page such as index.html.

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<h2>Guestbook</h2> <form action=addguest.php method=post> <table> <tr> <td>First Name</td> <td><input class=myborder type=text size=20 name=firstname></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Last Name</td> <td><input class=myborder type=text size=20 name=lastname></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Email</td> <td><input class=myborder type=text size=20 name=email></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan=2 align=center>Comments<br> <textarea class=myborder name=comments cols=40 rows=4> </textarea> </td> </tr> </table> <p> <input type=submit value="Click to save"> </form>

addguest.php

Highlight the code below and copy it.
Save it as addguest.php in the /var/www directory.

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<?php //get the data from the posting page $firstname=$_POST['firstname']; $lastname=$_POST['lastname']; $email=$_POST['email']; $comments=$_POST['comments']; //check form fields for content and accuracy if ($firstname==""){ $e="You did not write your first name.<br>"; } if ($lastname==""){ $e=$e."You did not write your last name.<br>"; } if ($email==""){ $e=$e."You did not write your email.<br>"; } if (strpos($email,"@")==0){ $e=$e."You did notput the @ symbol in your email.<br>"; } if (strpos($email," ")!=0){ $e=$e."You cannot put spaces in an email address.<br>"; } if (strpos($email,".")==0){ $e=$e."You must put a period in your email address.<br>"; } if (strlen($email)<3){ $e=$e."Your email address is too short.<br>"; } if (strlen($e)>0){ echo $e."<P>"; echo "You must click the back button to re-enter the data."; exit(); } //check for illegal characters $breaches=securitycheck($firstname); $breaches=$breaches+securitycheck($lastname); $breaches=$breaches+securitycheck($email); $breaches=$breaches+securitycheck($comments); if ($breaches > 0){ echo "You entered ".$breaches." forbidden character(s).<P>"; echo "\, #, &, = , < , > , % , semicolons, apostrophes and quotation marks are not allowed.<P>"; echo "Click on the back button and try again."; exit(); } //open the MySQL database $server = "localhost"; $dbusername = "guest"; $dbpassword = "sunshine"; $database="guestbook"; $con=mysql_connect($server,$dbusername,$dbpassword); $db_found=mysql_select_db($database,$con) or die (mysql_error()); //check to see if there is already a record for that email $sql="select * from guests where email='".$email."'"; $result=mysql_query($sql) or die (mysql_error()); $records=0; while ($rs = mysql_fetch_assoc($result) ) { $records=$records+1; } if ($records > 0){ echo "There is already a guest record with that email.<p>"; echo "Click <a href=index.html>here</a> to return to the main page."; exit(); } //create a new record $t="'".$firstname."', "; $t=$t."'".$lastname."', "; $t=$t."'".$email."', "; $t=$t."'".$comments."'"; $sql="INSERT INTO guests (firstname,lastname,email,comments) values (".$t.")"; $result=mysql_query($sql) or die (mysql_error()); //send an email to them as confirmation $to = "y2kleader@gmail.com"; $subject = "mywebsite.com Registration Confirmation"; $message = "Thank you for registering at mywebsite com."; $from = "mywebsite.com"; $headers = "From:" . $from; mail($to,$subject,$message,$headers); //screen output echo "Thank you for registering.<p>"; echo "Click <a href=index.html>here</a> to return to the main page."; //security check function function securitycheck($mystring){ $total=0; //check for sql injection first $str = strtoupper($mystring); if ($str=="OR 1" || $str=="SOMEDATA"){ $total=$total+1; } //check for character injection $c=array(";","#","&","=","<",">","%",chr(34),chr(39),chr(134)); for ($x=0; $x< sizeof($c); $x++){ if (strpos($mystring,$c[$x])>0){ $total=$total+1; } } return $total; } ?>

Vistior Counter HTML Code

Highlight the code below and copy it.
Paste this in your index.html file after the body tag.

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<iframe src=counter.php style=width:200; height:30;border:0></iframe><p>

Vistior Counter PHP Code

Highlight the code below and copy it.
Save it as counter.php in the /var/www directory.

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<?php //counter.php written by Michael Wright //open the MySQL database $server = "localhost"; $dbusername = "guest"; $dbpassword = "sunshine"; $database="counter"; $con=mysql_connect($server,$dbusername,$dbpassword); $db_found=mysql_select_db($database,$con) or die (mysql_error()); $sql="select * from counter"; $result=mysql_query($sql) or die (mysql_error()); while ($rs = mysql_fetch_assoc($result) ) { $visitors=$rs['visitors']+1; } echo "You are visitor #".$visitors; //update the visitor counter $sql="UPDATE counter SET visitors=".$visitors; $result=mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error()); ?>