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Updating Discover Car Navigation on Mac

Today I tried updating my Volkswagen navigation to the latest available version, which can be downloaded from the Volkswagen site (in Dutch) for free, or at least for a specified amount of time after it was manufactured. Originally it used to be three years, but a blog post mentioned the updates will be available up to five years after the navigation will be taken out of production.

So I took out the current SD card from my car and made a back-up of it. Then I downloaded the correct update, unzipped it with Keka, which I downloaded just to be sure that the 7-zipped files from Volkswagen would unzip without corrupting any files.

Street names went missing after updating of Discover navigation

After I copied all of the files to the newly formatted SD card, I used Disk Utility to format it with the MS-Dos (FAT) format, I inserted it in my car and found out that the street names and road names were not showing up, but the maps were working fine.

So I did some research on Google to figure out what the hell was going on and I found out that other people using a Mac where facing the same problem. Someone mentioned an application named HiM, which can be downloaded from Macupdate, and can be used to delete hidden files from volumes created on a Mac. In my case, I simply dragged and dropped the SD card containing the navigation update into the HiM window, to delete folders like .Trashes and .Spotlight.

That did it, because after I inserted the SD card into my car, the streets were showing up as expected.

Good luck with updating your car navigation. By the way, this also applies to Discover car navigations for Audi, Seat and Skoda cars.

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Global protection of all wp-login.php files

Here’s another short post about protecting wp-login.php files on your server from Brute Force Attacks, which can drastically increase your server load. Mine was constantly up to 90% making my server completely inaccessible.

.htaccess or not .htaccess

Adding the following code to your .htaccess files is a solution, but if you have tons of sites like me, you don’t want to manually have to upload .htaccess and .htpasswd files. Instead, you want to handle this at once, globally and server-wide. Here’s how I did it:

First of all, you need to find out if your httpd.conf file is an autogenerated file, or if you can manually edit it (without it being regenerated after an update.)

Usually, modifications go into the pre_main_global.conf include file. If this is also the case for you, make sure this is included in your active httpd.conf file.

Edit pre_main_global.conf and add the following code:

<Files ~ "^\.ht">
Require all denied
</Files>

<Files wp-login.php>
AuthUserFile /var/htpass/.htpasswd
AuthName "Private access"
AuthType Basic
require user yourloginname
</Files>

Rename “yourloginname” to whatever login name you like.

Create the directory to store your .htpasswd file as follows:

mkdir /var/htpass/

You can generate a .htpasswd file here: http://www.htaccesstools.com/htpasswd-generator/, make sure to use the same login name as chosen before. Any password you want will do, also an empty password if that’s what you want.

Finally, save your .htpasswd file in the previously created directory, in this example we suggested /var/htpass/.

Assuming the pre_main_global.conf gets included as it should, the only thing left is to restart Apache. Use the following command to do so:

service httpd restart

Alternatively, you can restart Apache from DirectAdmin or WHM. Voila, you are now asked for a User Name and Password each time you access your wp-login.php file to login into WordPress.

Voila, you are now asked for a User Name and Password each time you access your wp-login.php file to login into WordPress.

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What an Ordeal – I have Crashed and Reinstalled my CentOS VPS

It’s been an ordeal last night, working until 4:30 pm, but after two hours of sleep, I am now on my way back re-installing my VPS from scratch.

When I started experimenting with Google Pagespeed (mod_pagespeed) I just took it a bit too far and wanted too much at the same time. Besides installing and tweaking the speed module, I also tried to update my server to HTTP/2 and wanted to update PHP to it’s latest version 7.1.3.

Mod_pagespeed never was the problem. I actually got it working, and set-up as follows. If you care about speed, this is just the configuration you’ll need. Before you start, make sure to benchmark your server using a tool such as https://tools.pingdom.com/ or PageSpeed Insights. Open you pagespeed.conf file with the following command:

nano /etc/httpd/conf.d/pagespeed.conf

If you are running WordPress just like I am, and also make use of PHPMyAdmin, then add the following two location dependencies to the beginning of the pagespeed.conf file:

<Location /wp-admin/>
ModPagespeed Off
</Location>

<Location /phpmyadmin/>
ModPagespeed Off
</Location>

You’ll also want to have access to the Pagespeed Admin, the Pagespeed Statistics and the Pagefeed Messages. You can do so by adding the following code to your pagespeed.conf file:

ModPagespeedStatistics on
ModPagespeedStatisticsLogging on
ModPagespeedLogDir /usr/local/apache/logs
ModPagespeedMessageBufferSize 100000
<Location /mod_pagespeed_statistics>
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine Off
</IfModule>
Order deny,allow
Allow from localhost
Allow from <OFFICE IP>
SetHandler mod_pagespeed_statistics
</Location>
<Location /mod_pagespeed_message>
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine Off
</IfModule>
Order deny,allow
Allow from localhost
Allow from <OFFICE IP>
SetHandler mod_pagespeed_message
</Location>
<Location /pagespeed_admin>
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine Off
</IfModule>
Order deny,allow
Allow from localhost
Allow from <OFFICE IP>
SetHandler pagespeed_admin
</Location>

Finally, tell mod_pagespeed which Pagespeed Filters you want enabled, as follows:

ModPagespeedEnableFilters inline_import_to_link
ModPagespeedEnableFilters flatten_css_imports
ModPagespeedEnableFilters combine_css
ModPagespeedEnableFilters rewrite_css
ModPagespeedEnableFilters prioritize_critical_css
ModPagespeedEnableFilters move_css_to_head
ModPagespeedEnableFilters move_css_above_scripts
ModPagespeedEnableFilters combine_javascript
ModPagespeedEnableFilters rewrite_javascript
ModPagespeedEnableFilters defer_javascript
ModPagespeedEnableFilters remove_comments
ModPagespeedEnableFilters collapse_whitespace
ModPagespeedEnableFilters sprite_images
ModPagespeedEnableFilters lazyload_images
ModPagespeedEnableFilters recompress_png
ModPagespeedEnableFilters convert_png_to_jpeg
ModPagespeedEnableFilters convert_jpeg_to_webp
ModPagespeedEnableFilters rewrite_images

Please have a look here how each of these filters will help to make your server faster.

HTTP/2 Protocol

After reading this article on Yoast, I became interested in the HTTP/2 Protocol, mod_http2, which can be used for performance optimization. Upgrading to HTTP/2 should speed up your web server significantly, and so I found this step by step tutorial on how to set-up HTTP/2 on your server or VPS. Have a look for yourself, but sure to know what you do as this has caused major problems for at my first attempt to get HTTP/w working. By all means, I have spent hours getting everything to work, so be really careful!

Once you have everything running smoothly, have a look here for a list of HTTP/2 test sites and other methods to see if it works as it should.

LetsEncrypt

I am just posting this here for future reference:

  1. https://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=641&in1=letsencrypt&in2=1 (This one makes DirectAdmin secure.)
  2. https://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=648
  3. https://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=15

If you have updated Apache to work with HTTP/2, make sure to configure the correct web root path in the httpd.conf file.

Don’t forget to enable SNI, which is an extension to the TSL Protocol, in DirectAdmin, this will allow you to use multiple certificates for one IP address. You can do so as follows:

grep -q 'enable_ssl_sni=1' /usr/local/directadmin/conf/directadmin.conf || echo 'enable_ssl_sni=1' >> /usr/local/directadmin/conf/directadmin.conf

Credits: https://www.transip.nl/forum/post/prm/4543 (This is a Dutch written article.)

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Installing Fail2ban on CentOS

Here’s a short tutorial for those of you looking to install Fail2ban on an existing CentOS server or VPS.

First of all, you will have to determine which CentOS version you have, with the following command after starting an SSH session using a terminal window:

cat /etc/centos-release

The response will probably be something like this:

CentOS release 6.8 (Final)

Now that we know the CentOS version is 6, we will have to get the latest EPEL yum repository, using the following command:

rpm -Uvh https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-6.noarch.rpm

Next step is to install Fail2ban with the following command:

yum install fail2ban

When prompted Is this ok [y/N]: please type y and then hit enter.

This may take a few minutes, so sit back and relax waiting for the installation to finish.

The reasons you might want to protect your server or VPS using Fail2ban is because you are experiencing too many false logins attempts for WordPress, Proftpd, Exim2 or sshd4/sshd5 for example. To do so you will have to create the following local configuration file, using an editor such as nano:

nano /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

(Don’t have Nano? You can install Nano with the following command: yum install nano.)

Here is how to set-up an sshd jail to catch failed login attempts to SSH:

[sshd]
enabled = true
port = ssh
filter = sshd
logpath = /var/log/secure
maxretry = 3
findtime = 3600
bantime = 86400

Here is how to set-up an exim jail to catch failed login attempts to Exim:

[exim]
enabled = true
port = smtp,465,submission
filter = exim
logpath = /var/log/exim/mainlog
maxretry = 3
findtime = 86400
bantime = 31536000

Now that we have created these jails, and saved our configuration file (ctrl+x) we have to restart our server or VPS with the following command:

service fail2ban start

If everything went as expected you should get the following response:

Starting fail2ban: [ OK ]

Using Fail2ban to block login attempts to WordPress

If additionally you also would like to protect your server or VPS from failed login attempts to WordPress, you should first create a filter.

Your filters are located here: /etc/fail2ban/filter.d/

Create a new filter named wordpress.conf using Nano as follows: nano /etc/fail2ban/filter.d/wordpress.conf

Copy and paste the following code into the newly created wordpress.conf filter file:

# Fail2Ban filter for wordpress
#

[INCLUDES]

before = common.conf

[Definition]

_daemon = wordpress

failregex = ^%(__prefix_line)sAuthentication failure for .* from <HOST>$
^%(__prefix_line)sPingback error .* generated from <HOST>$

ignoreregex =

# Author: John Doe

Now that you have created the wordpress.conf filter, you will need to add a new rule to your jail.local file which you have previously created:

[wordpress]
enabled = true
filter = wordpress
logpath = /var/log/secure
maxretry = 3
findtime = 86400
bantime = 31536000
action = iptables-multiport[name=wordpress,port="80,443"]

Finally, you will have to restart Fail2ban using the following command: service fail2ban restart

If everything went well, this is what the response should look like:

Stopping fail2ban: [ OK ]
Starting fail2ban: [ OK ]

Congratulations, your server or VPS is now protected against scum trying to make your life miserable!

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How Google Spoiled my Fun with the Panda Update

OK, since I kind of promised when I wrote my last post nearly a year ago, to write a new one a little bit sooner – which I didn’t, I am going to start by saying that I’m not going to make any other promises again. The affiliate life is like a roller coaster ride, even worse, a roller coaster ride but in the dark, as you’ll never know which turn will be coming up next.

One month you’re celebrating and thinking of buying that new Audi, the next one you’ll be set back to where you were before. And usually, this goes along with the amount of time and money you are willing to invest into your sites. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m still far better off being on this crazy ride than working as a corporate slave from nine to five –  besides making better money, I can honestly say that freedom is what makes being an affiliate so great.

Another factor that always comes around to mess things up when things seem to go well is good old G. Most of you know that I have been hit pretty hard by the Google Panda update last year and that I am still struggling and stuck with lower rankings for my main site www.pokerforfree.org today. I hate to say it, but Google is doing a lousy job!  The SERPs are filled with thin affiliate sites, where mine has grown to a very decent resource with great content, including:

  • a comprehensive World Series of Poker guide,
  • an ongoing European Poker Tour guide, which includes my best page of the site, the yearly EPT Grand Finals coverage,
  • a completely new Poker Rules section, with well written in-depth guides,
  • and much much more… in fact, still adding as we speak.

For anyone who doesn’t understand the impact of the Panda update, the following graph reveals everything.

This actually means that it takes much more, to recover from the Panda update than just locating and rewriting a bunch of bad pages. The examples I outlined above are just a small portion from what has been ‘fixed’. I literary spent thousands of dollars to improve the quality of my site, with the result I am aiming for still lacking. One thing I have to admit though,  frankly most of the content on my site sucked, so it should have been penalized in the first place. But it’s time to reward good sites, with great content, not just sites with a shit load of links!

To continue on the subject, other things I did in my best effort trying to recover from the Panda update, was moving the Italian version of Poker For Free to its own domain www.giochipokergratis.co, and as well the German version to www.kostenlospokeronline.de. The reason to move these sections was that I suspected them to have a negative impact on the total quality of my site. Unfortunately, it didn’t make a difference, or not yet at least.

Furthermore, I also bought myself a license for a free poker game, which I am hosting on one of my own servers. It’s pretty cool actually since I was able to create custom tables and card decks, and it would be even cooler if there were any active players, but with a limited amount of traffic, the only thing I can do is keep dreaming.

Of course, all the trouble came during the aftermath of dealing with the douche bags from Stickyeyes, but that chapter is closed and I’m not going to touch it again. (Alright, for the sake of it, one more time: Stay away from dealing with Stickyeyes. They do more harm than good, or if your budget is sky-high, they will certainly abuse it by taking much more than needed! In fact, I’ll do the same for half the price if you want me to!)

Finally, I have been examining my site inside out and tried to fix any flaws that could possibly have a negative impact on SEO. For example, I fixed a bug that redirected non-existing pages to my File Not Found page, without generating a proper 404 header. Instead, I am no longer redirecting pages, but parsing the content and a 404 header right on the spot. So no more Soft 404’s in Google’s Webmaster Tools soon!

Hereby I am concluding this post with a short message for anyone who would like to add a free poker game to their site. I’ve developed an API for my free poker game, to use it throughout my own network, and could offer this to the public. If you’re seriously interested and think you have the audience for it, please get in touch with me. I can definitely use some players!

Thanks for reading, and ’till the next, when I’ve finally recovered from Google Panda. (I know… just wishful thinking.)

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There’s a Whole Lot to Write About

WOW, has it really been that long since I wrote my last post on Pursuing Success? Almost six friggin’ months! And I was so determined to post more frequently….. oh well… guess that’s what my life looks like, like a roller coaster.

At least this gives me something to write about since so many things have happened since my last post. I remember being all excited moving pokerforfree.org to Rackspace – it’s still there, but I recently got a Virtual Private Server, or VPS, at myhosting.com. All together it comes down to Rackspace being more expensive, and dirt slow. I still have to move everything over but didn’t find a spare moment yet.

Let’s see what (the fuck) happened after moving my site. It didn’t rank any better, I can tell you that, in fact, I lost about 60% of my traffic, but I will get to that later in this post.

Take my Advice for Granted!

Most who know me have heard I terminated my contract with Stickyeyes.com, the self-proclaimed SEOs from Leeds, United Kingdom, which have a booth at most iGaming Shows to lure unexpecting affiliates into their scam with nasty contracts.

Yeah, you got that right, Stickyeyes.com are scammers. I have paid them a total sum way over $30,000 over the course of a year, and all I got was a bunch of excuses why my site would not rank any higher. First time I got suspicious was when my friend Alon told me about my link on some site that was offered to him from some Indian guy for $5 a year, a link which was a premium link according to Stickyeyes.com. Of course, they had an excuse for this specific link, but the fact of the matter is that over time more links like these would show up.

I also talked to more of their customers, and everybody I spoke to had the same story: Stickyeyes.com are worthless. Someone else I know told me he heard my budget was too low, so I guess their bigger clients pay lots more and get stolen from lots more too, without them knowing of course as they retain their top rankings anyway.

Past January, at the London Affiliate Conference, I stepped up to Paul Hill, the one actually responsible for making me sign the contract after we met for the first time at the Budapest Affiliate Conference in September of 2009. I asked him man to man about my site failing to rank better after spending that crazy amount of cash, and his answer was that it was something technical on my site, but he wasn’t completely sure. He told me he was going to find out and get back to me personally – obviously I am still waiting. But wait a minute… if it really was a technical issue on my side, WHY THE FUCK DIDN’T THEY TELL ME SO?!?

Ok, enough ranting about Stickyeyes.com, I guess I needed this. I can go on and on about my negative experience with them, but let me end with giving you some free advice. Have you ever considered, or are considering doing business with them, take this for granted: Don’t do it, or you’ll be sorry.

Post Stickyeyes.com Adventures

So what happened after the Stickyeyes.com debacle? First of all, I ended up paying some more months, as they keep you to your end of the contract, which means a three months termination period. Of course, they only did the bare minimum of work, if at all. After these three months went by, they took down most of the links they created, and you know what that means, right? Yes, you are abso-fucking-lutely right: My site dropped from rank #7 to rank #12, for “free poker” that is.

So the drop in rankings meant the loss of some like 4,000 unique monthly visitors, but if that wasn’t worse enough, Google came with the Panda algorithm update, also known as the Farmer update, that basically ruined my good mood and positive look at the future. Pokerforfree.org dropped from 20,000 unique visitors to less than 10,000, and that means I lost half the revenue my baby was generating. Ending this part of the post, the Panda/Farmer update bounced my site from rank #12 to rank #26, for “free poker” in Google.com.

Killing the Damn Panda!

Everybody who knows me well also knows I am a fighter, not a quitter. I have never learned the meaning of giving up, hence I decided to pump all my funds into Poker For Free to enhance the quality of the site’s content. If Google’s really became this smart as they try to make us think, it should also be capable of figuring out that I am now only doing things that are valuable to my visitors.

First of all, I decided to make Poker For Free a real free poker site, not just a site where visitors can find a free poker bankroll. I acquired the pro license for a poker platform, which is fully hosted and controlled by nobody else but myself. I completely integrated it into Poker Club – pokerforfree.org’s members’ zone. Unfortunately, my free poker game doesn’t have much traffic yet, as Aweber.com, which by the way are great for newsletters, didn’t allow me to import my existing member base of more than 8,000. In the meantime, a couple of hundred new members have signed up for the free poker game already, but I still have to find a way around to let my former members know about it, without the risk of being seen as an e-mail spammer.

Furthermore, I improved the site’s structure, and all of the sudden it came to my attention why Google has been so harsh on me. I had many pages in the first layer of the menu that didn’t make any sense – they were indeed of very low quality, and not valuable for my visitors at all. So I told my writing team to take care of this. Elizabeth – she’s one of the best writers you can think of – has taken care of the European Poker Tour pages, and Ken has written a comprehensive Guide to Winning Poker, as well as written an in-depth World Series of Poker section. I estimate the site now has 50-some newly created, or rewritten pages of 1,000 words on average, and the end is not in sight yet. Take that Google!

My current rankings are a tad better, but still, nothing to brag about. The Panda hunt, however, will go on, as I believe I still have some trump cards in my pocket!

Fortunately, my business doesn’t solely rely on Poker For Free anymore. I can still support my entrepreneurship. Remember some posts ago that I was going to move into my new office? Well, I have in September of 2010, and frankly, I am enjoying and loving every single moment of it. Working from home, or going to work makes such a difference. Efficiency and productiveness must have doubled, to say the least – or at least as long as my brother in law Theo doesn’t pay me to visit for espresso out of my full automatic Saeco espresso machine.

Time for a Much Needed Break

Even I need a break away from everything every now and then, and to be honest, everything could use a break away from me too. So, I agreed some time off with my girlfriend on Wednesday, booked my flight on Thursday, and left for the States on Saturday.

I booked business-class seats using up 50,000 air miles to spend a week with my best friend Terry, his wife Ada and their newborn daughter Maya, in DC, my second hometown. Boy, I friggin’ love that place, though I hated the day after we went to Ozio on M street drinking with the fellas. We had a great night, on which I met my Scottish friend Paul who’s now an assistant coach next to Joe Wootten – yes Morgan’s son – at Bishop O’Connell High in Virginia, one of the nations top basketball programs. My man Greg-a-lirous also came over to meet me, and so did Kenny and Ron – which I already met earlier in the week when we went to the driving range for some swings. That’s actually as early as they told me about Crown Black, that it was going to be really nasty, but I never thought it was going to be this bad. Boy, did I suffer the day(s) after… Oh and Ron, if you happen to read this at some point, please don’t ever participate in American Idol – but please do keep singing for us, as that was fucking hilarious!

On my way back the Dutch customs made me open my case after I told them I had nothing to declare. Fortunately, they guy bought my story and I was free to walk with about 21 Kilos (like 45 Lbs.) of new goods worth almost as much as $2 grand!

Even though I am not telling half of what I did during my stay in DC, it was just long enough to get the much-needed rest, but I have to admit that I was dying to see the loved ones who came to pick me up at Schiphol. ‘Till the next time!

A New Project, Bigger and Bolder than Ever Before

My latest project is quite amazing. I joined ventures with Andrew, someone I have been working closely together with lately. I believe he has all the skills that I have lack off. I think that this project could turn out to become my/our biggest ever, not only because it covers all gambling niches, i.e. casino, poker, bingo, and sports betting, but mainly because of our joint partnership.

Can’t wait to launch this sucker with a big bang, probably somewhere next week, as the domain is already getting some traffic. I don’t like to post the URL on this site, as you never know if there’s anyone willing to sabotage it after this post, but please feel free to poke me privately and I’ll tell you all about it.

What’s More?

After spending nearly two hours on something that doesn’t generate any revenue, I am going to keep the conclusion pretty short. The Donar semi-quarter series against Eiffeltowers Den Bosch are tied 1-1, but we have home court advantage. My guts tell me that Donar will come to their senses and advance to the finals, not losing another game.

Today I picked up going to the gym, after a two weeks period of rest. I was surprised to see that I was still bench-pressing the same amounts of weights as before, although I am pretty sure I will suffer from severe muscle pain either tomorrow or the day thereafter.

Finally, I can’t tell if I will post again any time soon. I might, or not, but if you like to read my blog, just make sure to subscribe and you don’t have to miss out when I do. However, I do believe my blog could use a new look and feel, so I might at least update the theme sometime soon.

Cheers!

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Changing Hosts – Cloud Hosting at Rackspace

So, my current host, where I have a reseller account for ages, are acting link a bunch of bitches, after I’ve e-mailed them about a serious issue I encounter while loading my sites. It looks like something’s messed up with the server, as I frequently get prompted a message if I want to download a PHP file. Now, as I am not accessing any PHP files directly – I’m talking about random files which just make up the site, or even files that make up WordPress for that matter, and since PHP are not meant to be downloaded at all, I asked them how this could be, and if there was any chance that this would happen to others (my sites’ visitors) as well. Well, well, these ignorant scumbags told me that it ain’t their problem but mine, as no other clients noticed them about this. IMO, what seems to be the case is that their PHP set-up is hesitating and that it randomly treats PHP files as plain text files, but only every now and then. The PHP file, by the way, is completely blank if I confirm to download it.

Enough ranting… it’s really not important anymore! In fact, I am so happy to stand where I am standing momentarily.

Long story short, they keep ignoring there is a problem, and I ended being fed-up with them. So I am in the process of changing hosts, hence I contacted my best buddy (<- notice your first link love) for advice. He pointed me to Rackspace, who have several kinds of hosting products, for very reasonable prices. After some investigation, I ended up with a Rackspace Cloud Server account, which I will describe in-depth as this blog continues.

What I am going to do from here, is describing how I am going to move PokerForFree.org to the new Cloud Server. This means that I will go through each step of the process and write about everything that comes along until the site has been moved and runs smoothly. I’ll be straight, it’s will be a true challenge, as most of the work is done in a Terminal (Unix Shell), and I really have no experience at this moment. Hopefully, at the end of this blog post, I will 🙂

Setting up a Cloud Server

So yesterday night after we came back from a Donar, who got upset by Galatasaray (Istanbul, Turkey) in the final seconds of the game, I went to the Rackspace Cloud website and created an account. As this was post research, I knew exactly what I was looking for: a Linux Cloud Server, Fedora 14 to be precise. I chose the cheapest, starting at $11 a month, but as it is completely scalable, and paid by the hour, you can upgrade at any time you want. (Any time? Yes, any time…)

So what I got is 256 MB of RAM, and 10 GB space – that’s plenty for just one site I guess. This goes together with a private IP address and all the freedom I need.

After a few minutes, I received the verification e-mail containing my root user name and password, and I was set to go. As at this point I really didn’t have a clue, I contacted support – which are around 24/7 through live chat and phone. Curtis, the Rackspace representative, helped me get started by pointing out some Linux set-up guides and telling me the basics of working with the Terminal on my Mac. Before you knew it I was logged in at my own instance – it felt like a victory!

All of this together brings me to this very moment. I am about to continue setting up my Cloud Server. I am going to take you live through the next steps, bear with me…

Cloud Server Step by Step Guide

Step 1 – First you will have to log-in, hence you’ll have to use the following command in my Mac Terminal:

ssh root@123.45.67.890

Obviously, I rather keep my IP address to myself. When you log-in from a certain location for the first time, you will get a warning, which you can simply ignore by typing ‘yes’. An RSA Key Fingerprint will be added to your local computer so that your computer becomes authenticated.

Step 2 – The first thing you want to do when you’re logged-in is changing your default root password.

passwd root (You will then be prompted for the password of your choice.)

Before we start with the hardcore work that is needed to set-up the Cloud Server as a host, we will have to customize it a little bit.

Step 3 – With the following command, we will be able to set-up a package of tools called development tools which come together with Fedora release 14.

sudo yum groupinstall 'Development Tools' (Answer ‘y’ when prompted in Terminal.)

sudo yum install links (Answer ‘y’ when prompted in Terminal.)

Are you still following me, you ol’ nerd? Well then, there’s only one more step to take before we get to the most important part of this Cloud Server Set-up Guide.

Step 4 – The following command will install the Screen application. Honestly, I have no idea what I am talking about, except that it’s used to allow virtual terminals to be opened in one console. If you follow the link you will find an in-depth Screen Tutorial.

sudo yum install screen

After actually playing around with the screen command, I found out that it lets you switch between instances of Terminal, but using one single console.

Now, after reading some more I found out that we needed to update the software between Step 2 and 3. As it doesn’t seem to hurt, we will be doing it now by using the following command.

sudo yum update (Answer ‘y’ when prompted in Terminal.)

Securing a Cloud Server

To keep douche bags, a.k.a. hackers, outside we want to secure our server as much as possible. Fortunately, there’s a build-in Firewal for Linux called iptables, which is pretty straight forward setting up.

Setting-up iptables on Fedora 14

If you are setting up a new Cloud Server at Rackspace, it is wise to have a look at the current firewall rules. What we want to accomplish is opening ports 80 (regular) and 443 (secure), which are closed by default. You can use the following command to have a look at the current iptables settings.

sudo /sbin/iptables -L

Let’s assume that you are setting-up up a Cloud server from scratch, just like me. That means that we want to get rid of the default settings. Use the following command to flush/delete them.

sudo /sbin/iptables -F

Here’s a default set of commands to install the proper iptables settings to open up the ports I just mentioned. Copy them as a whole and paste them into your Terminal.

sudo /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
sudo /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i ! lo -d 127.0.0.0/8 -j REJECT
sudo /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
sudo /sbin/iptables -A OUTPUT -j ACCEPT
sudo /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
sudo /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT
sudo /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW --dport 30000 -j ACCEPT
sudo /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -p icmp -m icmp --icmp-type 8 -j ACCEPT
sudo /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -j REJECT
sudo /sbin/iptables -A FORWARD -j REJECT

At this moment I decided not to discuss the meanings of each of the commands, but I might get to it in an upcoming post. If you really need more information as we speak, I suggest you visit this page.

There’s actually one more line that should be added. As we need to be able to access the server over SSL, we need to keep port 22 open. You can use the following command. The ‘-I’ makes sure that it will be added to the top.

sudo /sbin/iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT

Finally, you will need to save them, so they also remain intact when you’ll reboot your Cloud Server. Use the following command to do so.

service iptables save

Setting up an Apache on a Rackspace Cloud Server

In this part, I will try to explain how to set-up Apache on Fedora. Installing a basic set-up of Apache is really nothing to worry about. Please use the following command to install Apache together with the most common options (httpd and SSL).

sudo yum install httpd mod_ssl (Answer ‘y’ when prompted in Terminal.)

With the following commands, we will customize our web server.

sudo mkdir /etc/httpd/conf/custom (The ‘mkdir’ command creates the directory – in this case ‘config’.)
sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf/custom/servername.conf (The ‘nano’ command creates a file – in this case ‘servername.conf’.)

We will now have to give our web server a name, which will be stored in the config file we have just created.

ServerName 123abc (It goes without saying, but ‘123abc’ shall be replaced with whatever the choice of your server’s name is going to be. Hit CTRL-O to write the file, and CTRL-X to return to the command-line.)

The final step in this setting-up Apache on Fedora guide is editing the main Apache configuration file. Execute the following command to open the file that you’ll need to edit.

sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Scroll down to the far bottom, or hit CTRL-W to search for ‘*.conf’, and find the line where Include conf.d/*.conf is written. Replace this line with the following, correct path, to the custom config file created above.

Include /etc/httpd/conf/custom/servername.conf (Save and exit the file.)

Congratulations! You have set-up a basic instance of Apache on Fedora. The only thing left is checking if the httpd service starts up automatically by using the following command.

sudo /sbin/chkconfig --list httpd

Your desired result is: httpd 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

After each and every change, it is wise to test if our config file is free from errors. Use the following command to do so.

sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl configtest

If everything is alright, we can now restart the web server with the following command, which will gracefully restart Apache on Fedora for us.

sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl graceful

If everything went well, at least it did for me, you will now be able to access the server in a browser. Open a browser of choice (as long as it isn’t Internet Explorer – avoid at all costs) and enter your Cloud Server’s IP address. You will see now see an empty index page since we didn’t upload any files yet. I guess I can say I now understand some more about working in a Unix Shell, and setting up Apache, as well as making it accessible, but secure. I will definitely review this Cloud Server Guide during the following days, and probably end up extending it some more, or adding a few images. The next step, however, is setting up the individual modules for Apache, as there are many of them that I’ll need before I will be able to physically move Poker For Free.

If you appreciate this guide and have become interested in Rackspace’s Cloud Servers, please use my affiliate link: http://www.rackspacecloud.com/1724.html.

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Moving Around, Literary

I have been moving around, and moving out, in the past few weeks.

First of all I have finally switched gyms, almost four weeks ago already. From Fit For Free, the dump I used to go, I now became a member of the luxury Plaza Sportiva, really nearby from where I’m residing. Being a member of Plaza Sportiva comes with tons of advantages; it’s nearby (I already mentioned that, didn’t I?), it has Fitlinxx, it’s nearby (didn’t I say that before?), you can actually take a shower without having to pay for it, and for those who like it, they have Saunas and Turkish Steam Baths as well, and finally it’s really nearby (hmmm…). NEARBY aye!!! So, I start bringing Mauro to school, then bring Dante to pre-school, and only 5 minutes later I find myself enjoying a nice hot cup of coffee before I start my daily workout.

During the first week, I had a consult with a PT (Personal Trainer), and we determined quarterly goals and three different routines; chest and shoulders, back and arms, and lower body (legs ‘n stuff).

The three months goals we’ve determined are:

  • Reduce body fat percentage from 16.4% to 15%
  • Gain strength with 10Kg lifting weights (Bench Press 70Kg)
  • Extend Chin-Up repetitions to 5 x 10 with a wide grip (Currently only able to do 3 x 10 with a front grip)
EnGenius M35
EnGenius M35

Reducing the body fat percentage will most probably be the easiest of all, also because the basketball season has begun, and I have been practicing twice a week over the past three weeks. It’s been really great to be back on the court, especially after the groin surgery that kept me on the bleachers for almost whole the previous season. I have to admit though, that my body starts to act up a bit, and that I’m considering to cut one of my weekly fitness sessions, probably the one on Fridays. However, as long as I can walk, just the thought makes me feels like I’m cheating.

And there’s been more moving around, as September 1st I received the key to my new office. Good news for my competition, as I have been painting, thus not working on regular stuff, for a little bit over two weeks. Everything is done, and I have to say that the place, sizing approximately 28 m2/300 square feet, looks really nice and clean. Extra locks have been added to the outside door too, and this week the alarm system will be installed as well – rest me to move over my valuable hardware.

Best story of the year, I am using the same Internet connection like the one I have at home -> my neighbors’ unprotected WiFi Router. KIDDING of course. Hey, what were you thinking, I am not THAT cheap! Anyway, after doing some proper research I’ve bought myself a new EnGenius M35, a multifunctional Access Point that gives me enough range to save me the additional costs from setting up a new connection. This alone will save me about €500/year. I’m considering to get myself another one of these suckers which I can set-up as a Repeater, that way I can have – hands down – the best possible WiFi signal I can get over there.

My former in-house office is now turning into an indoor playground for our spoiled kids. Sometimes I wish I was one of them, looking at all the toys kids have these days, not even talking about the game consoles. Fwiw, we have the XBOX 360 and the Nintendo Wii (thanks to Greg who drew my business card out of a hat at CAP Barcelona a couple of years ago), but they are both collecting dust, as fortunately, Mauro is still unaware of what they actually are. He’s just one happy kid with his second hand Mac he got when he was only three, so I wait telling him what consoles are until we can actually play NBA Live together.

In-House Office
My Former In-House Office

The bright reader has noticed I haven’t been able to do much business wise the past few weeks, however, I managed to do the regular things. There’s one thing that has been bugging me, and that is my site DepositPoker.co.uk. No matter what I try, I can’t get Google to give me any respect and have it indexed. It’s really frustrating, and I even posted about a possible Google penalty at PAL. Even Michael Martinez from SEO Theory chimed in, and I have followed some of the suggestions he advised taking. Hopefully, I can tell you good news about the site in my next post!

I know I promised to write a comprehensive guide on how to implement a new and better-converting design into an existing site with decent amounts of traffic, but you have to take a rain check for it for the time being. It is highly exceptional that I write, and usually, at this time of the day, I don’t feel like going in depth too much. At some point, however, the day will come…

Today I’ve spent some time chatting with Jan Teilhof aka “Newjabber”. He’s a fellow affiliate, forum member, and even a semi-professional poker player, but most of all a proud father and a nice fellow to chat with. He gave me some great advice, which I will most definitely give a try, and if right probably will save me several hundreds of dollars every month. On my turn, by random occasion, I helped him discovering a malfunctioning affiliate link. On the other hand, he also left me with a dilemma, as he showed me one of his niche sites… ah, I should rather keep my mouth shut as I just came up with a marvelous idea, which I will have to talk to Jan about first. In each case, he should profit from my idea, or I will leave it alone because I am definitely not that kind of guy.

It’s almost midnight, so I’m calling it a day now. Not sure when the next post will be… I guess when the time is right. See ya then!

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Back with a Vengeance!

The summer is nearing its end, and the ‘good times’ are coming. Just like most other gambling affiliates, I suffer badly during the months of July and August – less traffic, less rake, and so on. During the 2009 summer I lost about 50% of my income, which scared the crap out of me, but thankfully this year, mainly because of investing a fair amount of money into SEO, I managed to keep a stable income. Fair to say, I hate the summer just as much as I love it!

Thursday we came back from our family vacation. This year we’ve spent two weeks in Estepona (15 km from Marbella) South of Spain. This is also the region we are planning to move to, at least in our dreams (until I convince Lydia that there are plenty of decent schools for our children). The climate is very good all year round, the Spanish people are really friendly, and life over there seems to be a real bargain compared to the Netherlands. And let’s not forget, with a possible government ran by Geert Wilders’ party… who wants to be here after all.

Anyway, the vacation was rather good, although the hotel could have been much better for a four-star hotel. The room was nice, the hotel looked nice too, including the poolside, but these douche bags were charging us for about everything you can think of! If you ever think of going to Estepona, think again before booking the Pierre et Vacances – Calendonia Golf Resort.

Three weeks before leaving I decided to do what Tim Ferriss says, the author of the 4-Hour Workweek. I decided to focus on projects that are currently generating the most of my income, to make even more with them, instead of putting my energy into newly launched projects. So I redesigned Poker For Free, the site got a complete overhaul. While I was doing so, I was split testing the homepage to see if the new design outperformed the old one, and it did. So after working day and night for three weeks, I decided to put the site live just before flying to Spain. Quite a risk, but I was so excited that I didn’t want to wait. Fortunately, it didn’t turn out to be a bad decision.

While I was gone I used my iPhone to periodically check my e-mail and my statistics, and was happy to find out that Poker For Free’s traffic went up by 50%!!! Of course, this had nothing to do with the new site, but all with the $20,000+ which I invested in SEO over the past 8 months. With my site performing so well, I couldn’t wait to get back and work, but on the other hand, I was really enjoying the time off with the family – so I let it rest.

As Pursuing Success is my personal and marketing blog, it’s about time that I should write something interesting about affiliate marketing, right? So my next blog will be about the new Poker For Free, and what I did prior to merging hundreds of pages into the new site. That’s a promise! But for now, I will keep it a little bit more personal though.

While in Spain, I kept going to the gym every other day while Dante went to bed for his siesta. Since I started working out in February, it has become one of my favorite pass times. I managed to lose 7 kg already (my current weight is 82 kg), but I think that it must be at least double as much in fat effectively, as I gained quite a bit in muscles too, obviously. I am now proud to announce that I have a Four-Pack, and it won’t be too long before I get to that much admired Six-Pack!

August 18, 2010 – I’m continuing where I left off 10 days ago, and of course many crazy things have happened in the meantime. God, don’t you love the affiliate life! One of the things that worries me is PokerStars. They are so big and powerful, and think they can keep screwing affiliates… over, and over again. And the shittiest thing about it is that I have just reinstalled them on Poker For Free, as a service to my US visitors, about 40% of my total traffic. Want to know why I don’t feel comfortable with my recent decision to continue working with PokerStars, please have a look at this PAL thread: PokerStars Partners are Fucking You Over. Read, or scan it, but you will get the point.

Before I left to the South of Spain, I received an email from Barry with Heaven Affiliates. One of my domains, pokerheavenreview.com, infringed their registered trademark, and he politely asked me to take it down, either by handing over the control to them or redirect it to another domain. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t try to get something out of it, and asked them for a compensation of $250. Unfortunately, they denied it, but in a very decent matter, so I let it rest and told them I would take it down after I got back from vacation. So today I finally moved my Poker Heaven mini-site to its new location, and 301 redirected the old URLs. The new location, DepositPoker.co.uk, is a site I bought from a guy at the forums, which I already wrote something about in one of my previous blog posts.

During my daily workouts sessions at the gym, I have given some special thought to my next blog post. As you could read earlier in this one, my next post will be about redesigning an existing website with reasonable amounts of traffic. I think I might have found a few ideas to come with an interesting article, and with the transition of PokerKamers.nl the other day, the Dutch equivalent of Poker For Free, I also managed to refresh my own memory a little bit. I am actually looking forward to writing it, but I have some other really important things on the agenda first, such as the translation of the almost 3,000 words counting Poker Crusher Review. I shouldn’t be making any more promises, except to my kids!

Screenshot of Externally Linked ImageThe last topic, before I call it a day and visit my brother in law for a cup of coffee, is something I discovered while exploring my site’s statistics. I noticed a lot of hits coming from two specific freeroll forums. I am not mentioning their URLs on purpose, because I believe password thieves are about the lowest scum of the affiliate industry you can get. Back to the point, it came to my notice that the hits from these specific referrals were occurring because of an externally linked image causing a 404 error, an image that was deleted when I launched the new Poker For Free site. Today I gave them a Dutch treat, and replaced my image with a new one telling their visitors: “Type pokerforfree.org in your address bar.” I don’t know, and honestly, don’t care if I actually get any traffic off it, I just had some fun doing it. Next time you steal from me, or whichever hard working affiliate, think again bitch!

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Mixed Feelings

Today was the day Argentina was playing the 2010 FIFA World Cup quarter-final game versus Germany. Where I would usually cheer for Argentina, I kept my fingers crossed for Germany today, as this game would mean the difference between climbing to the first place in the PAL World Cup Pool, or falling further behind to Niko de Jonge. Niko, a young aged internet entrepreneur from Canada, who was first on the ladder up ’till now had Argentina win over Germany, and I picked it the other way around. I now have a five-point lead and have to say it must get really awkward if I am not going to end up with the win. With three more games to come, there are 2 x 16, and 1 x 32 points to earn, but with Brazil out – favorite to many ones – the only real threat is the Netherlands losing from Uruguay in the semis, plus Spain winning it all. I remain unbeatable in any other case and will strike up a fair amount of money.

Netherlands Team '74
Netherlands Team ’74

Of course, you should never count yourself a winner too soon, but looking forward to the new office I will lease as of September 1st, any additional cash is more than welcome. And of course, we’re all looking forward to a final where the Netherlands beats the crap out of Germany. I might have been just one year young in ’74, but our revenge will have a darn sweat taste.

So, again there’s been a lot of time between my last post and this one. I just didn’t have a moment any time sooner. It’s past midnight now, and even though I have planned a Sunday morning session at the gym tomorrow morning, I decided that I didn’t want to go to bed just yet. One thing that writing entries on Pursuing Success helps me with is making me think about the things that currently keep me busy, and that’s exactly what makes me focus on the right things tomorrow and the days thereafter.

Let’s start with a few business updates. You might have read in a previous blog that I am working on something big. Well, I am still working on it, and this, in fact, could become the biggest thing I’ve done to date. Thank goodness I am not into this all by myself, as this is something I am setting up with my friend, my basketball teammate, and my workout buddy Shandell. We both have completely different backgrounds, and especially that’s what intrigues me about this project, which by the way has nothing to do with online gaming. Unfortunately, I am not in the position to undisclosed the details yet, but once I am I will be dedicating a separate post to it.

Furthermore, the affiliate business has been level the past few months, and quite frankly, that’s not what I expected after injecting almost 15,000 euro into SEO over the past 6 months. Caffeine seems to be the troublemaker, and I hope that we can surpass this dang problem in the upcoming couple of months, say the summer. The whole situation has given me a lot of stress, as I had to come up with all kind of funky ideas to generate extra cash to keep paying the respectable fees to Stickyeyes.

Internet Gambling SitesThe biggest news from the past few weeks must have been the acquisition of internetgamblingsites.net, an exact match domain for a phrase which I was targeting since the time I was still working together with fellow entrepreneur John Holloway, who owns OnlinePoker.org. I was delighted when I found it up for sale and didn’t hesitate to buy it. I had a bargain buying it from Jim a.k.a. Poker Prop for just $175!

So I created a completely new website and moved (yes, I 301’ed all the old locations to the new ones) over the good old English version of Casino Warehouse since I never got the .eu domain to rank well. Together with this move I decided to drop all casinos that I was promoting and were performing (way) under the limit… shocking to say, almost all Playtech casinos. As I had so much left-over content I created another new website to store it. With some more content that I got in exchange for links, I had a new casino portal done in the matter of a few hours: CasinoWarehouse.net. Opposite to Internet Gambling Sites, now GamblingSites.co, which is going to end up as one of my main sites, this reincarnation of Casino Warehouse will function as another one of my supplementary sites.

There’s always more to tell about my projects, take iDEAL Poker, for instance, another one of my numerous forgotten treasures. I have teamed up with my buddy Alon and his Colleagues from Reef Media to make this one work, without the need to spend tons of money to make it rank myself. Can’t say too much about the deal, but this is a typical win-win situation.

Last but not least I acquired another pair of websites – Deposit Poker, and Deposit Bingo. The former owner moved to Dubai where gambling is against the law and needed to get rid of his sites asap. I was lucky to pick them up for just $150. However, Weycrest (stay away from this crap UK hosting company) was pretty screwed up and that’s why, after finally being able to transfer the domain names, I eventually received the contents of both sites in chunks, which I had to assemblage myself. Not a very difficult job, but still a little bit time-consuming in my overwhelming schedule. The site as we speak is far from ready, no call to actions and such, but in the meantime, I am just letting it age in peace.

Despite the fact that business has been great – don’t get me wrong, it is far from going bad, but nothing more than steady – I can’t complain about my personal life. I am still going to the gym about five times per week, and am still loving every bit of it. When I am walking down the street, I feel really good, and when I look into a mirror I can see the results of working out consistently for a straight half a year. Healthy wise could be much better though, as my back has become a serious problem, and even my neck starts to act up a lot lately. After all kinds of treatments, I now have an appointment at the hospital next week. Several specialists are going to examine my back, and hopefully, they are able to diagnose what’s causing the tremendous pain and come with some sort of a recovery plan.

Enough for now! Time to get some sleep, but before I am going in, and since it’s only football that matters these days, I would like to share a quote from manager Bobby Robson – which hopefully applies to me one of these days!

“He’s very fast and if he gets a yard ahead of himself nobody will catch him.”

Bobby Robson