Author: Blake

Apache2 Server Signature

Blake

The following tutorial will provide you with the steps required to disable server information on folder list pages and any of the error pages. The following screenshot shows what I am talking about.

Server Info

I will be showing how I did this on Ubuntu Server 14.04.4 LTS.

This information can provide a hacker with the versions of software installed on your server. Depending on your configuration, PHP information is shared as well. Lets go ahead and get this secured.

First we want to open the apache2.conf in our favorite text editor.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Next, we will add a few lines to the end of the config.

ServerSignature Off
ServerTokens Prod

We will now want to restart Apache.

sudo service apache2 restart

On a folder page or error code page you will see the version information is now gone. Unfortunately PHP still sends version information in the page header. To turn that off we need to edit one more config.

sudo nano /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

Change the expose_php from “On” to “Off”. You will need to find the line in the php.ini file.

expose_php = Off

We can now save the file and restart Apache.

sudo service apache2 restart

We are done! Version numbers will no longer be view-able.
If you have any questions, please use the comments bellow!

Ubuntu Server static IP

Blake

Easy enough? By default, Ubuntu Server is configured with DHCP enabled but we need a static IP. The following tutorial will show you just how to do that!

Let’s open the interfaces configuration file.

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

It should look like the following.

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

DHCP is currently set but we need a static IP. The following configuration will show what needs to be changed and add.

auto eth0
face eth0 inet static
        address 192.168.1.4
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        network 192.168.1.0
        broadcast 192.168.1.255
        gateway 192.168.1.1
        dns-nameserver 192.168.1.2 192.168.1.1

In previous version of Ubuntu you needed to edit the /etc/resolv.conf and add a line. This is no longer the case.

I hope this tutorial helped!

Audio Click Xubuntu 14.04.1 LTS

Blake

I had finally had enough of a very annoying clicking noise through the headphones on my HP Pavilion dm1 Netbook. I love this machine because of its compact size and long lasting battery. The system originally had Windows 7 witch was a struggle with just an Atom processor. I fell in love with Xubuntu on this machine immediately with one slight annoyance. Every 10 seconds there was a click in the audio. This only happened when there was no audio playing. It also went away when the audio mixer was open but why waste the ram keeping it open?

Solution was simple enough. Power save kept switching the Intel sound card on and off every 10 seconds causing the click. Solution? Turn it on and leave it on! Here are the steps.

First, open a terminal window.

sudo nano /usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/intel-audio-powersave

Comment out the following line with a #.

# INTEL_AUDIO_POWERSAVE=${INTEL_AUDIO_POWERSAVE:-true}

And then add the following line below the pervious line.

INTEL_AUDIO_POWERSAVE=false

Save the file and reboot the computer. That is it, no more click!

TeamSpeak start up Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS

Blake2 Comments

This problem stumpt me for a while. I run a TeamSpeak damon on my VPS linux box. The issue with this application, is they do not create startup script in the /etc/init.d folder.

There are many TeamSpeak startup scripts but the following seems to work best for me.

#!/bin/sh
 
case "$1" in
start)
/etc/teamspeak3/ts3server_startscript.sh start
;;
stop)
/etc/teamspeak3/ts3server_startscript.sh stop
;;
status)
/etc/teamspeak3/ts3server_startscript.sh status
;;
*)
  echo "Usage: `basename $0` {start|stop|status}" >&2
  exit 1
  ;;
esac
exit 0

Now that the bash script has been created in the /ete/init.d directory we can now use “service teamspeak3 start” to start the damon but every time the server restarts we have to run this manually. We need to add Teamspeak to the system start up. The following command will add this.

update-rc.d teamspeak3 defaults

That is it. Next time your server reboots Teamspeak will start.

The Audio Chain

Blake1 Comment

As most of you know I am a huge audio file. The other day I was having a discussion with a friend of mine concerning audio chain and what he did in the studio vs what I do on live setups

As a bed room DJ I don’t see very many large venues. Most of the time I am playing house party’s. I do like to have a proper balanced setup for any gig I am performing wither it’s from my bed room to the internet or to 50 people in a house.

House parties can be tricky because audio maybe required in other rooms or outside on a patio. Some houses have built in home audio system. Most will have the power amps for each room in one location. I normally patch into this to provide listening experience in all room but also have it adjustable for each room. Not every room has to be the dance floors. Be sure to discuss this with the host of the party before tearing apart there house.

On the output side I like to have a few key peaces of gear either on the master effects chain or between the main mix and the power amplifier gear.

  1. Compressor / limiter / gate
  2. Equalizer

I normally run light compression just to normalize the audio some. I then set the gate to eliminate any added noise from the mixer (normally set low). The limiter I set appropriately to the venue and the sound system I will powering. If the venue is small but you have a powerful sound system, you might want to consider setting the limiter high to prevent deafening your crowd.

The limiter is when I save myself during DJ events. With the limiter in the chain I find I am more aware of the audio levels of the room. Have to remember, people do not want you driving the audio to the max all night. I find myself adjusting the master output just slightly. Play the good songs loud and the less popular quieter. You do want to avoid abrupt volume changes. Be sure to practice this before hand. I often use this when I want to emphasize the first drop in a song. Using this technique is where the limiter can save you from blowing speakers.

The last device in the chain is the equalizer. Some engineers would say well that’s stupid, shouldn’t it be before the compressor? Well yes and no. In my case I am running a set of vintage Rotel speakers when I’m DJing house parties. I know these speakers have bad low end without the help of an EQ. This comes back to the idea of knowing your equipment before taking it out. My equalizer is normally set to bring 30 – 60Hz up by about 1 or 2 db.

During bigger gigs, I will run the compressor through the master effects loop then the output into a crossover then out to the proper amps for that venue. The reason I run all effects through the master effects loop is so I can monitor levels using the mixers VU meters. I am able to listen to a song, set its gain based on the PPL VU and then know exactly where it will end up on the master output meter. This guarantees clean audio output to the power amplifier section.

I hope this has helped you understand what a DJ can do with out bored equipment. Remember none of that is set in stone, so experiment and let me know what you do in the comment section below.