What is a CDN

A CDN is a global network of caching servers and smart DNS routing that delivers your content and media to your users from the closest possible location. The result is the fastest possible load times, better Google rankings and less load on your servers!
When US visitors view my blog, images are served from the UK, making it a long way from the visitor to the server. By implementing a CDN, edge servers located all around the world serve those images from the nearest location to the visitor. Dediserve is running on the OnApp CDN engine, and has over 60 locations all around the world at the time of writing.

Let’s get started – Setup the WordPress CDN resource

First of all, in order to setup CDN for your website, you’ll need access to your DNS records. I’ll cover the process with cPanel, but it should be as easy with any other hosting control panel, otherwise just ask your host to add the records to your zone.

I’m assuming you’ve already ordered your Dediserve CDN service so from within the Client Area, navigate to CDN, and click on Add new resource.

On the next page, specify the WordPress CDN hostname (eg. cdn.yourdomain.com), the origin domain (eg. www.yourdomain.com), select the Edge Groups which you want to cache your data and click on Create CDN Resource. I’m just using the Global option there, but you can select anything according to your needs. For example if you only have visitors from the US, and your server is located in LA, you can create a CDN resource for USA Central, and another one for USA East Coast.

Now note the CNAME, we’ll going to add it to our DNS Zone settings.

I’ve repeated the same steps 2 times more, to create media1.georgetasioulis.com and media2.georgetasioulis.com to better parallelize downloads across hostnames.

Add the CNAME records

If you’ve got cPanel just continue reading, otherwise skip this part and either use your control panel’s DNS functionality, or contact your host to add the CNAME for you.

Login into cPanel and click on Simple DNS Zone Editor.

On the Add a CNAME section, type the name (in my case cdn.georgetasioulis.com.) and CNAME from Dediserve. Here’s the complete list of my CNAMEs.

Wait!

Now we’ll just wait for the DNS changes to propagate around the web. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to 12-24 hours, depending on the TTL configuration of your DNS records.

Configure W3 Total Cache

I assume you’ve already have W3 Total Cache installed and configured for Page/DB Caching, so now just enable CDN and check the Generic Mirror option.

Next, click on the CDN tab, and configure the General settings as below (or you can make your own adjustments of course)

…and add the CNAME(s) you created on the previous steps.

Click on Save all changes, head over to the General tab and click on Empty all caches and you’re done!

Final thoughts

Implementing a WordPress CDN solution is very easy, and offers a huge speed improvement especially on users on different continents than the one your webserver is located. My front page now loads in 2s (from all 3 checkpoints) according to Pingdom Tools Full Page Test compared to 4s (from Amsterdam) and 5-6s (from the two USA checkpoints) before.
Dediserve also offers very competitive CDN pricing, charging a flat monthly fee of 4,95EUR plus 0,05EUR per GB. That’s 3-4 times cheaper than other Pay as you Go CDN providers like MediaTemple or SoftLayer (0.15/GB and 0.20/GB respectively).

Thanks for reading, if you were looking for a CDN solution for your WordPress blog, I highly recommend Dediserve, and in case you come up with any issues feel free to post a comment here (or you can always contact Dediserve’s top notch Support department )

By combining information from a few forum posts and knowledge base articles from their website, I finally found a way to do it.

1. Download their license key update utility
2. Unzip the contents of the file to the root directory of your Centova Cast web files (eg. /var/www/ or /home/[username]/public_html/)
3. Launch the script in your broswer: If Centova Cast is installed at http://radio.domain.com then you should launch http://radio.domain.com/licenseupdate.php
4. Copy the license key of your newly purchased license from your Centova Cast Client Area and click the Update Key button.
5. SSH to your server and run the command below:
   

   /home/centovacast/system/runascc/runascc exec ccmanage reissuelicense radio.domain.com

   
   (replace radio.domain.com with your FQDN you used when purchasing your license)

You should receive output similar to the following:

INF License reissuance forced; renewing license information (this may take a few moments) &#8230;<br />
OK Key updated; new renewal date: 2012-03-07 10:13:39

New Analytiks v1.5 submitted. This is the most advanced version ever

December 8, 2011 10:13 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@analytiksapp

Analytiks App

The developers of @analytiksapp just tweeted that they have submitted Analytiks v1.5 to the App Store, so I guess it’s a matter of a day or two until it’s available on our iPhones. I just can’t wait for the new release! Bellow is a preview of one of the new features; an infographic generator based on your Google Analytics stats. If you still haven’t got the Analytiks on your iPhone, go grab it from the App Store now. Some of the best well spent $0,99

PS: I’m in no way affiliated with Analytiks, just a happy user.

root@myserver [~]# munin-run mysql_connections
DBD::mysql::st execute failed: Unknown table engine 'INNODB' at /etc/munin/plugins/mysql_connections line 958.

This is caused because the error message is changing between versions and the mysql_ plugin for munin hasn’t been updated in order to recognize it.
The fix is pretty simple, just open /usr/share/munin/plugins/mysql_ with vim on line 958 (hint: vim +958 filename) and replace as bellow.

Original code

    if ($@) {
 	        if ($@ =~ /Cannot call SHOW INNODB STATUS because skip-innodb is defined/) {
 	            $data->{_innodb_disabled} = 1;
 	            return;
 	        }
 	        die $@;

Fixed code

    if ($@) {
 	        if ($@ =~ /Unknown table engine 'INNODB'|Unknown storage engine 'innodb'|Cannot call SHOW INNODB STATUS because skip-innodb is defined/i) {
 	            $data->{_innodb_disabled} = 1;
 	            return;
 	        }
 	        die $@;

Save the file and you’re good to go

Install Munin via WHM

cPanel -> Manage Plugins -> Check “Install and keep updated” -> Save

Configure named

Login to you server via SSH, open /etc/named.conf and add the highlighted code.

logging {
/*	If you want to enable debugging, eg. using the 'rndc trace' command,
 *	named will try to write the 'named.run' file in the $directory (/var/named").
 *	By default, SELinux policy does not allow named to modify the /var/named" directory,
 *	so put the default debug log file in data/ :
 */
    channel default_debug {
            file "data/named.run";
            severity dynamic;
    };
    channel b_query {
            file "/var/log/bind9/query.log" versions 2 size 1m;
            print-time yes;
            severity info;
    };
    category queries { b_query; };
};

Save the changes, and restart named

[root@dns1 ~]#/etc/init.d/named restart
Stopping named:                                            [  OK  ]
Starting named:                                            [  OK  ]

Configure the bind9 plugins

First you’ll have to create the symlinks to the two bind9 plugins:

ln -s /usr/share/munin/plugins/bind9 /etc/munin/plugins/bind9
ln -s /usr/share/munin/plugins/bind9_rndc /etc/munin/plugins/bind9_rndc

Now open the file /etc/munin/plugin-conf.d/cpanel.conf and add the following code to the end of the file.

[bind9]
user root
env.logfile   /var/log/bind9/query.log

[bind9_rndc]
user root
env.querystats /var/named/data/named_stats.txt

Wrapping things up

Finally restart munin-node, run rndc stats and try munin-run bind9 & munin-run bind9_rndc to see if you get proper output like this:

[root@dns1 ~]#/etc/init.d/munin-node restart
Stopping Munin Node agents:                                [  OK  ]
Starting Munin Node:                                       [  OK  ]
[root@dns1 ~]#rndc stats
[root@dns1 ~]#munin-run bind9
query_A.value 55
query_AAAA.value 30
query_ANY.value 1
query_other.value 0
[root@dns1 ~]#munin-run bind9_rndc
query_recursion.value 0
query_success.value 49
query_failure.value 0
query_nxrrset.value 23
query_referral.value 0
query_nxdomain.value 0

What you’ll get

After leaving it run for at least 30 minutes you’ll see something like this

(Optional) Errors you might encounter

If you receive the following error

[root@dns1 ~]# munin-run bind9
Died at /etc/munin/plugins/bind9 line 74.

you need to create the bind9.state file like this:

touch /var/lib/munin/plugin-state/bind9.state
chown munin:munin /var/lib/munin/plugin-state/bind9.state
chmod g+rw /var/lib/munin/plugin-state/bind9.state

and try running munin-run bind9 again.

iOS 5.0.1 definitely fixes the battery issue!

November 3, 2011 7:21 pm via FacebookReplyRetweetFavorite

@iMZDL

iModZone Downloads

In a previous post I mentioned that after installing the GM (i.e. final) version of iOS 5, I’ve seen my battery life percentage drop below 20% in a matter of a few hours. Now after upgrading to beta 1 on Thursday and beta 2 yesterday, and I can confirm that the battery issue is now fixed
My iPhone 4 now easily goes over 24+ hours after a full charge with everything enabled! (3G, WiFi, Location services etc.)

Wicked!!

Play video. Watch till 1:18. Say WOW!

Here’s how it’s done:

1. Open Safari and click on Safari in the upper left hand corner.
2. Click Reset Safari.

3. Restart Safari. This will resolve most problems. If this does not solve the problem, proceed on to Step 4.

4. Open up a terminal window and enter

chflags nohidden ~/Library/

to make the user Library directory visible.
5. Click on the hard drive icon located on the desktop.
6. Go to Users > [username] > Library > Safari folder.
7. Delete all files except “Bookmarks.plist”.
8. Then go to Users > [username] > Library > Preferences.
9. Find com.apple.Safari.plist, com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist, and com.apple.internetconfig.plist and delete them (ignore any file you can’t find).
10. Safari should now be fully reset to factory defaults.