Dennis Clayton Design, Development & Communication Solutions» API http://claytond.com Web Development, Hosting, IT Consulting, Technology Solutions Sat, 12 Nov 2011 22:55:13 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Rackspace Cloud Servers now Openly Beta Testing Windows Server 2003/8 http://claytond.com/2010/02/02/rackspace-cloud-server-now-beta-testing-windows-vps-machines/ http://claytond.com/2010/02/02/rackspace-cloud-server-now-beta-testing-windows-vps-machines/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:10:54 +0000 Dennis Clayton http://idude.org/?p=530 As I’ve stated in the past, I’ve used a lot of different hosting providers and still have services remaining at most of them in some capacity.  With Rackspace Cloud (formerly Mosso), I still have Cloud Files CDN service on standby in case I need it.   On 2-2-2010, I got an email notifying me that they have started offering Windows VPS for beta testing.  This is very exciting for me as it was one of the main features I wanted in Slicehost (which I still have 1 256mb Slice).

I setup a 512mb Windows 2003 Server to test. So far it seems to be quite excellent and fast. On speedtest.net, I got 67mb down, 27mb up. Not bad. It looks like the Windows 2003 Servers are running under XEN and the 2008 are most likely under Microsoft’s Hyper-V.  The new machine I setup did have SP2 on it, but was unpatched otherwise.  First thing I did was update everything.  The Windows Firewall is completely closed off by default at least.

I’m definitely going to keep testing it on Rackspace, but it would be nice to have one control panel and have them available via Slicehost.com as well. Even it if is an extension to the Slicehost control panel accessing Rackspace Cloud’s API. Better integration of the Slicehost offerings with the Rackspace Cloud services would help both entities since they should be one big happy family now. ;-)

I almost wish they would merge completely and integrate all the features from both sides of the house.  I’m sure that’ll happen in time as the old loyal power users move off to Linode (I moved 4 VPS to Linode) and it’ll have the least impact, churn-wise, if done smoothly.

My setup, if anyone is interested, is the following:

  • 1x256mb Slicehost VPS running Cherokee/MySQL hosting ~25 sites.
  • 3x360mb Linodes + 1x540mb Linode.  3 Servers are dedicated to individual customers, the other is for more sites I maintain.  Mostly running Cherokee/MySQL or Apache/MySQL.
  • 1x1024mb CrystalTech VPS  running Windows 2008 for hosting email and websites for a number of customers
  • 1x2048mb SingleHop Server running Windows 2003 for a few sites that wouldn’t work correctly under 2008 for a number of reasons.  This is an Intel ATOM based Server w/ 320gb HDD.  Not bad for $99.
  • 2xMedia Temple Grid accounts for customer sites that need higher scalability.

If the Rackspace Windows VPS works out well, I’ll probably move the stuff off SingleHop since the Rackspace pricing is much better for me and SingleHop’s server is overkill memory and HDD wise for a few relatively basic websites and apps.

But I will say SingleHop’s services have been EXCELLENT in the year or so I’ve been using them.  No complaints at all, 0% downtime that I, or my monitoring software, have observed.  Good customer service and GREAT prices for dedicated servers.  I just don’t need dedicated servers at the moment.  If I did, SingleHop would be the place I’d go for both Linux and Windows dedicated.

CrystalTech has also been extremely reliable and fast, but the pricing is way too high, in my opinion.  $149 (including backups) for a 1024mb VPS w/ 60gb HDD when I can get a dedicated for not much more at SingleHop.

I’ll post more on Rackspace Cloud as I start using it more.

]]> http://claytond.com/2010/02/02/rackspace-cloud-server-now-beta-testing-windows-vps-machines/feed/ 4 Utilizing Akismet Spam Blocker in a PHP Contact Form http://claytond.com/2008/05/14/utilizing-akismet-spam-blocker-in-a-php-contact-form/ http://claytond.com/2008/05/14/utilizing-akismet-spam-blocker-in-a-php-contact-form/#comments Thu, 15 May 2008 01:33:42 +0000 Dennis Clayton http://www.idude.org/?p=181 I have a contact form on my company’s website that I have had serious problems with in the past… The past being before I implemented Akismet into the code.

Akismet is a service provided by Automattic (the creators of WordPress) and is an excellent API based spam blocking system. I’ve been using it for quite a while on my blog and rogue spams hardly EVER make it into my comments. Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of only 1-2 out of thousands make it through.

I will post both the basic code for a contact form as well as the Akismet PHP5 Class (from Alex) and the include file I created to utilize the PHP5 Class.

Here is the basic form (named contact.php), with the PHP code on top, that I use.

<?php
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == “POST”)
{
include ‘akismet.php’;

$to = “YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS“;
$subject = $_REQUEST["Subject"];
$message = $_REQUEST["Message"].”<BR><BR>”.$_REQUEST["Phone"].”<BR>”.$_REQUEST["URL"];
$from = $_REQUEST["Email"];

$headers = ‘From:’.$from.”rn” .
‘X-Mailer: PHP/’ . phpversion() .”rn”.
‘Content-type: text/html’.”rn”.
‘Date: ‘.date(”r”).”rn”;

mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);

echo “Message Sent!”;
die();
}
?>
<html>
<head>
<title>My Contact Form</title>
</head>
<body>

<form action=”contact.php” method=”POST”>
<table align=”left”>
<tr>
<td align=”right”>Your name:</td>
<td><input name=”Name” type=”text”></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align=”right”>Website:</td>
<td><input name=”URL” type=”text”></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align=”right”>Your email:</td>
<td><input name=”Email” type=”text”></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align=”right”>Subject:</td>
<td><input name=”Subject” type=”text”></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align=”right”>Message:</td>
<td><textarea name=”Message” style=”width: 224px; height: 83px”></textarea></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align=”right”>Your phone:</td>
<td><input name=”Phone” type=”text”>(Optional)</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td> </td>
<td><input name=”Submit” type=”submit” value=”submit”></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>

</body>
</html>

contact.php includes the code I created to use the Akismet PHP5 Class mentioned earlier.

Here is the code for the akismet.php. Be sure to change the $WebsiteURL variable to your website address and $APIKey variable to the API key you already have. If you do not have one, signup for a WordPress.com account and you can get one free.

<?php
//Akisment PHP5 Class from Alex (http://www.achingbrain.net/stuff/php/akismet)
include ‘Akismet.class.php’;

//ENTER YOUR API KEY ON THE LINE BELOW!
$APIKey = ‘YOUR_API_KEY‘;

//Enter your web site address below. This is used as a parameter in the API call to Akismet…
$WebsiteURL = ‘YOUR_WEBSITE_ADDRESS‘;

//Call to check for valid API Key…
$akismet = new Akismet($WebsiteURL, $APIKey);

//Check to see if your API key is valid, if not, it will tell you so and stop.

if($akismet->isKeyValid()) {}else{echo “Your API key is NOT valid!”;die();}

if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == “POST”) {

//CHANGE the $_REQUEST items to match your form field input element names

$akismet = new Akismet($WebsiteURL, $APIKey); //
$akismet->setCommentAuthor($_REQUEST["Name"]);
$akismet->setCommentAuthorEmail($_REQUEST["Email"]);
$akismet->setCommentAuthorURL($_REQUEST["URL"]);
$akismet->setCommentContent($_REQUEST["Message"]);
$akismet->setPermalink($_SERVER["HTTP_REFERER"]);

//IF THE MESSAGE IS FOUND TO BE SPAM, A MESSAGE WILL BE DISPLAYED. Customize as needed.

if($akismet->isCommentSpam()) {
echo “For some reason, your message was flagged as a possible SPAM message.”;
die();
}
//IF THE MESSAGE MAKES IT TO THIS POINT, IT IS VALID AND THE SCRIPT THAT CALLED THIS
//FILE WILL CONTINUE PROCESSING THE INPUT ACCORDINGLY…

}
?>

Click here to download a ZIP of the three files used in this example.

If you have any questions, leave a comment here and I’ll do my best to answer in a timely manner…

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