Category: Internet

Link: How to Create Own Online Shopping Store Using “OpenCart” in Linux

In the Internet world we are doing everything using a computer. Electronic Commerce aka e-commerce is one one of them. E-Commerce is nothing new and it started in the early days of ARPANET, where ARPANET used to arrange sale between students of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

These days there are some 100’s of E-Commerce site viz., Flipcart, eBay, Alibaba, Zappos, IndiaMART, Amazon, etc. Have you thought of making your own Amazon and Flipcart like web-based Application Server? If yes! This article is for you.

Opencart is a free and open source E-Commerce Application written in PHP, which can be used to develop a shopping cart system similar to Amazon and Flipcart. If you want to sell your products online or want to serve your customers even when you are closed Opencart is for you. You can build a successful online store (for online merchants) using reliable and professional Opencart Application.

Full article here:
How to Create Own Online Shopping Store Using “OpenCart” in Linux (Tecmint)

Link: Hola VPN Sells Users’ Bandwidth, Founder Confirms

The operator of 8chan says the bandwidth of millions of Hola users is being sold for reuse, with some of it even being used to attack his site. Speaking with TorrentFreak, Hola founder Ofer Vilenski says that users’ idle resources are indeed utilized for commercial sale, but that has been the agreement all along.

I don’t endorse the use of this type of service in the first place, but since I know that many people use services such as this to bypass geographic restrictions on content, I think that you should know what you are getting into if you use this particular service.

Full article here:
Hola VPN Sells Users’ Bandwidth, Founder Confirms

Link: Access Google Authenticator on the Desktop

No longer are you limited to using your smartphone to use Google’s two-step authentication. There are many apps that you can use easily on your desktop to help keep your accounts more secure.

Keep in mind, though, that using a two-step authenticator app is less secure on your computer. Anyone who has access to your desktop can get your security key and log into your account. But if you don’t own a smartphone, using a program on your computer is better than nothing.

To use any of these apps to secure your accounts, you need to make sure you go through the usual process to enable two-factor authentication on Google or activate any other services that need two-factor authentication. Instead of entering the key into a mobile app, all you do is to enter it on your desktop.

Full article here:
Access Google Authenticator on the Desktop (Make Tech Easier)

Link: 5 Scribd Alternatives to Host Your PDF Files

As you probably know, Scribd is a popular document-hosting website, and if someone wanted to share a PDF file online, chances are they would upload it on Scribd. However, its interface and restrictive features, like paywall and required sign-up to download files, have been making a lot of people unhappy. Since Scribd is modifying its business model to become a “Netflix for books,” maybe it’s time to consider some Scribd alternatives. Luckily, there are more than enough to choose from. Some are simple and offer only basic file upload, while others provide a complete PDF hosting and reading experience.

Full article here:
5 Scribd Alternatives to Host Your PDF Files (Make Tech Easier)

Link: Is Google Alerts Dead? Here Are 5 Google Alerts Alternatives for You

Is Google Alerts officially broken?

Some of its users might have been experiencing problems with Google Alerts lately. Many of these people are complaining that they either don’t receive as many alerts as they have in the past, or none at all.  And nobody is really sure what is causing these issues. Nonetheless, it’s still a hassle, especially when you rely on Google Alerts.

If you’re sick and tired of waiting to see if Google Alerts gets any better, try some alternatives.  While they might not be perfect, it’s worth trying them out so you’re not totally relying on Google Alerts.

Full article here:
Is Google Alerts Dead? Here Are 5 Google Alerts Alternatives for You (Make Tech Easier)

Link: How to Block Ads on Adblock Plus Paid Whitelist

Adblock Plus is a widely used free browser add-on for controlling the ads shown on web pages. For some time the add-on has employed a whitelist that allows certain kinds of ads to pass through and to be displayed. Google has previously been reported to be paying to get its ads displayed. Now, it has just been reported that a number of large companies such as Microsoft are also paying to be whitelisted. However, the paid whitelist can be circumvented. Here is how to configure three common browsers to block ads that are whitelisted by Adblock Plus.

Full article here:
How to Block Ads on Adblock Plus Paid Whitelist (Gizmo’s Freeware)

How to set up an alternate SIP port (other than 5060) using Webmin

One problem that some VoIP users are experiencing these days is that they have trouble connecting to their home Asterisk, FreeSWITCH, YATE, or other software PBX server, but only when using certain ISP’s.  One suspicion is that certain ISP’s that offer their own VoIP or traditional landline service attempt to mess with packets using the common SIP port 5060, hoping customers will think that VoIP is unreliable and will subscribe to the company’s overpriced offering instead (see this thread at BroadbandReports.com).

There are various ways to enable an alternate SIP port on the server (in addition to the usual port 5060) but if you are using Webmin to manage your firewall, here’s an easy way, in just three steps:

Step 1:

If you use Webmin to manage your firewall, then you already know how to get to the Linux Firewall page.  So go there and select the Network Address Translation (nat) table in the dropdown at the top of the page.  Then when the page changes, click the topmost Add Rule button (in the Packets before routing (PREROUTING) section):

SIP Port Forwarding 1

Step 2:

Now you should see this page. The items you need to change are indicated by the red ovals.  The Destination TCP or UDP port is set to 7654 in this example, but don’t use that.  Pick your own unique port; just make sure that it’s not used by anything else on the server already.  And yes, you really do put the alternate SIP port you want to use in the Destination setting; it may not make intuitive sense but that’s just how it is.  Avoid using ports in the range 10000 through 20000 because those are used for RTP traffic, and avoid ports below 1024 because those are protected ports that are reserved by the system.  There are also other ports you should avoid (those used by other software on your system) but if you don’t know how to find ports in use on your system, a bit of time with a search engine will lead you to several pages that show you how to detect already active ports.  It can vary a bit depending on your operating system, and it’s beyond the scope of this article.

SIP traffic is UDP only, not TCP (there may be rare exceptions but most software PBX’s use UDP by default).  If by some very odd chance you are using TCP for SIP traffic (why?!?) then you will need to specify that under the Network Protocol item.  Also, note that the incoming interface is set to eth0 in this example – Webmin will usually show the correct one by default, but you want to select the interface used by incoming SIP traffic if you happen to have more than one.  Don’t forget to click Save when you’re finished.

SIP Port Forwarding 2

Step 3:

After you have saved the page you should be back at the page you came from, and it should now show your new forwarding rule.  If it does, just click Apply Configuration at the bottom of the page to make it active:

SIP Port Forwarding 3One other thing you might need to to is add a rule on the main Linux Firewall page allowing incoming traffic on your selected alternate port, if you have a restrictive firewall that blocks most traffic by default.  Try it first without doing that, but if your clients can’t connect on the alternate port, just be aware that you may need to do that before they will be able to connect.  For more security, you can enable access to your SIP ports only from specific IP addresses, if your remote clients are at fixed IP addresses.

Now you should be able to change the port number on your SIP endpoints from the default 5060 to your alternate port.  Of course I can’t guarantee it will always work, but if you try it and suddenly find that your SIP connections become far more reliable, you might want to leave a comment, and mention the ISP that you suspect might be messing with SIP traffic.

By the way, if you are NOT using Webmin to manage your firewall, and have iptables installed, then all you should need to do is enter these two lines from a command prompt (replace 7654 with your chosen alternate port).  But I strongly caution you NOT to do this if you are using Webmin to manage your firewall:

iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -p udp --dport 7654 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 5060
/etc/init.d/iptables save

Link: Creating and Setting Up Your Own Forum Using phpBB

phpBB is one of the most widely used free discussion board scripts. This free and very powerful application is easy to install and administer. It allows flexibility in terms of design and organization.

phpBB is a free flat-forum bulletin board software solution that can be used to stay in touch with a group of people or can power your entire website. You can create a very unique forum in minutes using the extensive database of user-created modifications and styles database containing hundreds of style and image packages.

phpBB is open source, licensed under Version 2 of the GNU GPL. True to its name, phpBB was written in the PHP programming language. phpBB 3.1 has the added benefit of being built upon the Symfony framework.

The objective of this article is to provide you with an understanding of installation and configuration of phpBB.

Full article here:
Creating and Setting Up Your Own Forum Using phpBB (Unixmen)

Link: 25 Useful Apache ‘.htaccess’ Tricks to Secure and Customize Websites

What is .htaccess?

htaccess (or hypertext access) are the files that provide options for website owners to control the server environment variables and other parameters to enhance functionality of their websites. These files can reside in any and every directory in the directory tree of the website and provide features to the directory and the files and folders inside it.

Full article here:
25 Useful Apache ‘.htaccess’ Tricks to Secure and Customize Websites (Tecmint)

Link: Google Drive No Longer Offers Web Hosting [Workaround]

….. Google has recently upgraded the Google Drive interface for everyone and, according to the support page, the web hosting feature is no longer available in the new Google Drive. You can still create public folders inside Drive but the option to publish that folder as a website is gone.

The good news however is that is still very much possible to host sites on Google Drive through Google Scripts without you having to write a single line of code. Here are the steps involved:

Full article here:
Google Drive No Longer Offers Web Hosting [Workaround] (Digital Inspiration)