VPS & Servers articles

VPS & Servers 420 First steps with your VPS A VPS is a server of your own: you choose the operating system and you have full root access. That also means the...
VPS & Servers 423 Connecting to a Windows VPS with Remote Desktop A Windows VPS is reached with Remote Desktop instead of SSH. The rest - how the server is delivered and what's your...
VPS & Servers 512 Common VPS and Cloud errors: SSH, memory, disk and reboots On a VPS the machine is yours: the system, the services and the firewall obey your orders - and your mistakes. These...
VPS & Servers 692 Managed or unmanaged VPS: which to choose and who does what Two VPS with the same processor, the same memory and the same disk can be priced very differently. The difference is...
VPS & Servers 238 Reinstalling or changing your VPS operating system On shared hosting the operating system is not your choice - and just as well, because it is not your problem either....
VPS & Servers 317 Streaming Server: first steps with SonicPanel A streaming server is not a website with music on it. It is a machine built for one job: delivering live audio to...
VPS & Servers 253 Where to find your VPS or dedicated server IP address You bought a VPS or a dedicated server and you are missing the address to connect to. It is the request we get most...
VPS & Servers 224 I have lost SSH access to my server: the four usual causes The server answers ping, but SSH gives Connection timed out or Permission denied. In the overwhelming majority of...
VPS & Servers 268 Which operating system to choose for your VPS or server When you order a VPS or a dedicated server you choose the operating system, and the list is long. The choice matters...
VPS & Servers 241 Keeping your VPS or dedicated server secure: the six that matter On a shared hosting plan the machine is ours and we are the ones keeping it shut. On a VPS or dedicated server, the...
VPS & Servers 187 VPS, Cloud or Dedicated: how to choose All three give you what shared hosting cannot: resources that are yours alone and administrator access to the...
VPS & Servers 131 Your first session on a new Linux VPS: the commands to type, in order You have just received the VPS address and password and do not know what to type first. The answer is a fixed order,...
VPS & Servers 112 How to create an SSH key and log in to your VPS without a password An SSH key is two files: the private key, which stays on your computer and never leaves it, and the public key,...
VPS & Servers 103 How to create a user with sudo on your VPS and stop logging in as root Root can do anything, so a mistake of yours, or a program’s, can wipe everything. The normal practice is to create...
VPS & Servers 88 How to add swap to a VPS that keeps running out of memory Swap is disk space the system uses as spare memory when the RAM fills up. It does not make the server faster: it...
VPS & Servers 94 How to set the time zone and keep the clock correct on a Linux VPS On Linux, the command in charge is timedatectl. Run it with nothing after it and you see three things: the local...
VPS & Servers 101 Setting up the ufw firewall on Ubuntu without locking yourself out ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall) is Ubuntu’s simple firewall: it shuts everything coming in and opens only what you tell...
VPS & Servers 89 Installing fail2ban on a VPS to stop SSH password guessing A server with SSH open receives, day and night, automated password attempts from all over the world. fail2ban reads...
VPS & Servers 98 How to update a Debian or Ubuntu VPS, and turn on automatic security updates A server that is not updated piles up known security holes, and the updates already released are the cheapest...
VPS & Servers 94 How to install nginx on Ubuntu and serve your website from a folder On an Ubuntu VPS, you install nginx with sudo apt install nginx, create a site file in /etc/nginx/sites-available/...
VPS & Servers 98 How to install Apache on a VPS and set up a virtual host On Ubuntu or Debian you install Apache with sudo apt install apache2, write a site file in...
VPS & Servers 111 Nginx or Apache on a VPS: which web server to choose For an ordinary site either one will do, and the deciding factor is what your application expects and what you...
VPS & Servers 128 How to host several websites on one VPS A VPS has one IP address and can serve as many sites as its memory and processor can carry. The web server picks...
VPS & Servers 90 Redirecting HTTP to HTTPS and www to the bare domain in nginx or Apache On a VPS you choose one canonical address (for example https://yourdomain.tld) and send everything else there with a...
VPS & Servers 99 Certbot renewal failed or the certificate expired: how to find out why If the browser warns that a certificate has expired on a VPS using certbot, the automatic renewal either did not run...
VPS & Servers 103 A service will not start on my VPS: reading systemctl status When a service fails to start, the answer is in two commands: systemctl status service-name and journalctl -u...
VPS & Servers 109 How to run your own program as a systemd service that starts at boot For a program of yours (a Node.js app, a Python script, a bot) to start with the server and come back by itself if...
VPS & Servers 169 Where are the logs on a Linux VPS: journalctl and /var/log On a Linux VPS the logs live in two places: in the systemd journal, read with journalctl, and in files under...
VPS & Servers 109 My cron job does not run on the VPS: the usual causes When a cron job does not run on a VPS, the cause is almost never cron itself: it is the environment it runs in. cron...
VPS & Servers 116 No space left on device: finding what fills your VPS disk The error No space left on device means one of two things: the space has run out, or the inodes have (the number of...
VPS & Servers 95 Out of memory on a VPS: what the OOM killer is and what to do When memory and swap run out, the Linux kernel picks a process and kills it to save the system. It is called the OOM...
VPS & Servers 108 How to see what is using CPU, memory and disk on your VPS Five commands that ship with the system tell you the essentials: uptime (load), top (who uses processor and memory),...
VPS & Servers 100 Copying files to another server with rsync, safely rsync copies folders between two computers over SSH and, on later runs, sends only what changed. It is the most used...
VPS & Servers 128 Running a mail server on your VPS with Postfix: why it is hard, and the alternative Installing Postfix takes minutes; getting the mail to reach other people’s inboxes is the real work. A new mail...
VPS & Servers 122 Linux file permissions on a VPS: chmod, chown and Permission denied A “Permission denied”, or a 403 on a website, is almost always one of two things: the file’s owner is not who the...
VPS & Servers 83 SELinux or AppArmor is blocking my service: how to tell, and what to do SELinux (AlmaLinux, Rocky and others in the Red Hat family) and AppArmor (Ubuntu and Debian) are security layers...
VPS & Servers 110 Upgrading Ubuntu to the next LTS release without breaking the server To move from one Ubuntu LTS release to the next without reinstalling, you use do-release-upgrade, after updating...
VPS & Servers 93 How to change the SSH port without locking yourself out The rule for changing the SSH port is a single one: open the new port before you close the old one, and test in a...
VPS & Servers 87 How to publish a website on Windows Server with IIS On Windows Server the web server is IIS (Internet Information Services). You install it as a server role, create a...
VPS & Servers 114 Making Remote Desktop on a Windows VPS safer A Windows Server with port 3389 open to the internet is probed by automatic programs every day, guessing passwords....
VPS & Servers 63 WireGuard on a VPS: your own VPN, step by step The short answer: WireGuard is a simple, fast VPN you can set up on a Linux VPS in a few minutes. It connects your...
VPS & Servers 65 logrotate on a VPS: stopping log files from filling the disk The short answer: logrotate is the program that, every day, takes the log files, keeps the old ones compressed and...
VPS & Servers 83 Rate limiting in nginx: slowing down bots and password guessing The short answer: nginx has a built-in request limiter. You define a “zone” that counts requests per address and a...
VPS & Servers 109 Keeping a command running after you close SSH: tmux and screen The short answer: when you close the SSH window, or the connection drops, the system ends the programs that were...
VPS & Servers 93 SSH shortcuts: the config file, and copying files with scp The short answer: instead of always typing ssh -p 2222 -i ~/.ssh/key user@203.0.113.10, you can give the server a...
VPS & Servers 97 Editing and searching on a server: nano, grep and find for beginners The short answer: on a VPS there is no mouse and no windows, but three tools solve almost everything a beginner...
VPS & Servers 98 Your first hour on a new Windows VPS: updates, users, firewall and backups The short answer: a new Windows VPS is ready to use but not ready to expose. In the first hour there are six things...
VPS & Servers 76 Remote Desktop will not connect: the usual errors and what each one means The short answer: the error message almost always says what is missing. There are two groups: it does not reach the...
VPS & Servers 91 Upgrading Ubuntu to a new release on a VPS without losing the server The short answer: updating packages (apt upgrade) and upgrading to a new release (for example, from one LTS version...
VPS & Servers 90 Uptime Kuma on a VPS: watch your sites from a server of your own The short answer: Uptime Kuma is a free program that checks every minute whether your sites are up and warns you (by...
VPS & Servers 78 Vaultwarden on a VPS: your own password manager, and what you take on The short answer: Vaultwarden is a free server, compatible with the Bitwarden apps, where you keep the team’s or the...
VPS & Servers 80 Gitea on a VPS: your own Git server with Docker Compose The short answer: Gitea is a light, free Git server, with a web page like the well-known services’: repositories,...
VPS & Servers 80 Choosing a control panel for your VPS: what to decide before you install one This article is for people with a VPS or a dedicated server with root access. On shared plans the panel is cPanel,...
VPS & Servers 74 HestiaCP and VestaCP on a VPS: what the panel gives you and what stays your job This article is for people with a VPS or a dedicated server with root access. On shared plans the panel is cPanel,...
VPS & Servers 59 Webmin and Virtualmin on a VPS: a server admin tool and a hosting panel, explained This article is for people with a VPS or a dedicated server with root access. On shared plans the panel is cPanel,...
VPS & Servers 61 CyberPanel, aaPanel and CloudPanel on a VPS: free panels and the questions to ask first This article is for people with a VPS or a dedicated server with root access. On shared plans the panel is cPanel,...
VPS & Servers 67 Running a VPS without a control panel: what the panel did and how you do it by hand This article is for people with a VPS or a dedicated server with root access who work from the command line. A panel...
VPS & Servers 71 First steps with VoxStream: signing in and getting your radio on air The short answer: after payment, our team sets up your station by hand and sends you an e-mail with the details:...
VPS & Servers 63 Switching from SonicPanel to VoxStream or back: what changes and what to take The short answer: you choose the panel when you order. If you later want to move from SonicPanel to VoxStream, or...
VPS & Servers 120 AAC+, MP3, FLAC or OGG: audio formats and quality on each streaming panel The short answer: the format decides how the sound is compressed; the quality (the bitrate, in kbps) decides how...
VPS & Servers 73 Scheduling your radio on VoxStream: playlists, time announcements and jingles The short answer: on VoxStream your radio runs itself with the AutoDJ, which plays whatever is on the schedule when...
VPS & Servers 60 VoxStream shows and short segments: what they are and when they fit your radio The short answer: shows (Programas) and short segments (Programetes) are ready-made VoxStream content that drops...
VPS & Servers 58 Going live on SonicPanel and VoxStream: BUTT, Mixxx or SAM with server, port and password The short answer: to go live you need a broadcasting program (the encoder) on the studio computer, and three...
VPS & Servers 57 DJ accounts on SonicPanel: permissions, the live DJ widget and automatic recording The short answer: on SonicPanel each presenter or DJ can have their own account, with the permissions you give them....
VPS & Servers 54 Putting your radio player on your website: the player options on each panel The short answer: both panels on our Streaming Server give you a ready-made player to copy into your website....
VPS & Servers 54 Shoutcast or Icecast on SonicPanel: the differences and which to pick The short answer: on SonicPanel your station can run on a Shoutcast server (version 1 or 2) or an Icecast server....
VPS & Servers 61 Broadcasting your radio on YouTube and Facebook with Live Stream Streaming Ultra plan only. Live Stream to YouTube and Facebook is part of the Ultra plan and is not available on Pro...
VPS & Servers 62 Relay, broadcast recording and studio camera: what each streaming panel does The short answer: these are three advanced features, and each panel has its own. A relay makes your station...
VPS & Servers 38 Installing cPanel and WHM on your VPS, step by step The short answer: cPanel installs with one command, as root, on a freshly installed AlmaLinux 8 or 9. You need a...
VPS & Servers 36 Installing Plesk on your VPS, step by step The short answer: Plesk installs with one command, as root, in around 15 minutes. Of the systems you can order, use...
VPS & Servers 35 Installing Webuzo on your VPS, step by step The short answer: Webuzo (by Softaculous) is a multi-account hosting panel that installs with three commands, as...
VPS & Servers 34 Installing HestiaCP on your VPS, step by step: a free panel with e-mail The short answer: HestiaCP is a free, open-source panel, with no licence, that installs the web server, PHP,...
VPS & Servers 41 Installing CloudPanel on your VPS, step by step: a free panel for PHP, Node and Python apps The short answer: CloudPanel is a free control panel, with no licence, built for PHP sites (WordPress included),...
VPS & Servers 38 Which control panel to install on your VPS: cPanel, Plesk, Webuzo, HestiaCP or CloudPanel The short answer: it comes down to three questions. Do you need mailboxes on the server itself? Will you have...
VPS & Servers 28 cPanel or Plesk on your VPS: the differences that matter The short answer: both are paid and do the same job: sites, e-mail, DNS, SSL and backups. Choose cPanel if you want...
VPS & Servers 34 cPanel or Webuzo on your VPS: the differences that matter The short answer: both are paid and are organised the same way: one panel for the server administrator and another...
VPS & Servers 27 cPanel or HestiaCP on your VPS: the differences that matter The short answer: HestiaCP is free and light, and gives you sites, e-mail and DNS on a Debian or Ubuntu VPS; cPanel...
VPS & Servers 29 cPanel or CloudPanel on your VPS: the differences that matter The short answer: choose cPanel if the server will hold several accounts, with e-mail and DNS in the same panel, or...
VPS & Servers 28 Plesk or Webuzo on your VPS: the differences that matter The short answer: both are paid and both do sites, e-mail, DNS and reselling. Choose Plesk if you want the full WP...
VPS & Servers 25 Plesk or HestiaCP on your VPS: the differences that matter The short answer: both give you sites, e-mail and DNS on the same server. Choose Plesk if you will have customers or...
VPS & Servers 27 Plesk or CloudPanel on your VPS: the differences that matter The short answer: choose Plesk if you want one server that does it all: sites, e-mail, DNS and accounts for clients,...
VPS & Servers 30 Webuzo or HestiaCP on your VPS: the differences that matter The short answer: both give you sites, e-mail and DNS on the same server. Choose Webuzo if you need resellers,...
VPS & Servers 27 Webuzo or CloudPanel on your VPS: the differences that matter The short answer: both run Node.js and Python apps as well as PHP; the difference is everything else. Webuzo is a...
VPS & Servers 26 HestiaCP or CloudPanel on your VPS: the differences that matter The short answer: both are free, need no licence and run on Debian and Ubuntu. Choose HestiaCP if you want a...
VPS & Servers 24 Free or paid control panel on your VPS: what the licence buys you The short answer: paid panels (cPanel and WHM, Plesk, Webuzo) come with a vendor behind them, updates that arrive on...