Category Archives: Server Stuff

More SSH Security Tricks on Media Temple DV 4

The following tricks require root access to the DV 4 server. More specifically, each trick requires editing the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file. Change the SSH Port SSH is usually on port 22 and attackers know this so they will attack the server … Continue reading

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SFTP-only Accounts With Media Temple DV 4

We all know FTP is borked. It’s insecure and we should all be using SFTP. The problem with SFTP on MT is that when it is set up the ftp user account can still access the server via FTP and … Continue reading

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Media Temple Fixes Usability Issue

Back in March I blogged about a poor experience I had with Media Temple’s sign up form for their DV service. The checkout was unclear about when my credit card was going to be charged and I felt this was … Continue reading

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Setting Up a Cron Job on Media Temple DV 4

I needed to set up a cron job for a client today on a Media Temple DV 4 server. I hadn’t set one up on a DV 4 server before but I figured it would be straightforward like setting one … Continue reading

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Setting up Subdomains on Cirrus Tech Hosting

I recently started developing a web application for a client that asked that everything be hosted in Canada (they’re Canadian). That meant finding a Canadian host that was similar to Media Temple, my preferred but American hosting company. I settled … Continue reading

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Installing Sphinx on Media Temple DV 4

On a recent project a client asked for a search engine. Since their site was a mix of static and dynamic content I decided that using a MySQL full-text index wouldn’t cut it. Also, I wanted to experiment with the … Continue reading

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Storing Files Above the Web Root on Media Temple DV Redux

My earlier post about storing files above the web root on Media Temple was written for their DV 3.X hosting package. MT have since upgraded their service offering to DV 4 and the process for enabling above web root storage … Continue reading

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Sub-domain changes on Media Temple DV 4

Media Temple recently rolled out the fourth version of their DV hosting package and with the new version number comes a new version of Plesk and a change to the way subdomains are handled. In the old days, on DV … Continue reading

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Storing Files Above the Web Root on Media Temple DV

Updated: I have written an update for this post for Media Temple’s DV 4 offering. We developed a web app recently that allowed users to upload JPEG images to the server. Best practise for uploads says that uploaded files should … Continue reading

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