FreeBSD Made Easy

FreeBSD

From Zeroed to X.org, this tutorial explains the basics of everything you need to get FreeBSD updated and in full swing in a short amount of time.

The basics of setting up X.org and getting it running with a Window Manager.

The basics of installing FluxBox and configuring it.

The Generic Kernel is compiled with a large number of modules that are probably not needed on your system. In this tutorial the process of adding and taking modules out of the kernel to create your own customized kernel is explained.

Performing a Make World updates your FreeBSD "world" to the latest version.

The ports collection is stored locally on your system so it is necessary to update it from time to time using CVS. The source files are also updated in this same way.

The ports collection makes installing, upgrading, and removing software extremely simple. In this tutorial you will be shown how to use and manage the ports collection.

An overview of setting up tasks to run at specific times.

An overview of FreeBSD, where important files are stored for those who are new to it.

A collection of misc tips & tricks that can save hours of frustration.

How to set up an NFS server, and connect to it as an NFS client.

The basics of getting your BSD box on the network. Setting the DNS server, DHCP, and assigning multiple ip addresses.

Generate a Certificate of Authority using OpenSSL for creating your own SSL certificates.

A step by step guide to getting FreeBSD up and running on this type of laptop, and setting up the Atheros 5212 wireless card.

The worst thing about FreeBSD 6.x is the ASCII boot logo that just says FreeBSD by default instead of showing Beastie like in 5.x. Learn how to quickly change that here.

SSH tunnels are able to securely bypass firewalls and allow you access to a remote network as well as protecting your information on its way out.

Web Hosting on FreeBSD

Installing Apache from the ports, configuring the httpd.conf file for virtual hosts and password protected directories, opening additional ports, and setting up the log files.

The basics of getting a MySQL server up and running on FreeBSD.

A tutorial on installing PHP from the FreeBSD ports for Apache and MySQL. What you need to add to the httpd.conf file and which of the PHP5 ports to choose.

phpMyAdmin is an extremely useful tool for managing a MySQL, it allow you to perform queries, create new tables, add databases, backup existing ones, and much more.

Awstats is a very powerful open source package for analyzing apache web server logs and mining the data to show you exactly where your traffic is coming from and where they are going.

An indepth analysis of the log files is great, but sometime you just want to see what is happening on your web sites at the moment. In this tutorial we will go over some of the ways and show you how to set them up.

Apache allows access to directories to be restricted unless overridden by a valid user name and password. Here you will see how to set it up in your config file, how to create the .htaccess file, and how to generate the password file for it.

Performing regular backups of your MySQL database server is important. You never know when a server could crash and all your information could be lost. In this tutorial we will show you the basics of backing up and restoring your database using mysqldump and phpMyAdmin.

Generate your own SSL certificate and secure your Apache web server using it.

Mod Deflate is built into Apache and can reduce your bandwidth by 60-80% with mod_deflate, but is not enabled by default.

Munin graphs the performance and vital statistics of your machines over the day, week, month, and year, showing you spikes and trends in traffic and server load.