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In Linux the Ext2 and ext3 file systems space is categorized into blocks, which are further organized block groups. There is particular data structure for each group which defines it and contains valuable information, called group block descriptor. The data structure is assigned to each block groups so as to access it and it also includes inode bitmap, inode table and blocks bitmap location information. The task of Group descriptors is to take consecutive places and collectively form group descriptor table.

If there is a corruption in group descriptors, the whole file system is taken as damaged. Corruption usually results as a result of unexpected system shutdown or virus attack. In case they are corrupt, system may not boot at all or show errors like:

“EXT3-fs error: ext3_check_descriptors / group descriptors corrupted”

To each block group, table of group descriptors is placed just after the copy of superblock. To avoid Linux Data Recovery needs while file system corruption, group descriptors for each block group are duplicated. While normal run, system uses only first copy of group descriptors.

The user can use fsck and go for a repair of file system corruption in such cases. But this command cannot remove errors in case of extensive damage. Then, the last solution remaining with the user is to recreate whole file system by formatting the drive. But prior doing this, the user needs to backup all the required data.

The backup must be complete and in a proper manner. After the completion of backup, the user should check for its status. Also, it is recommended to check if backup contains all required files. However if backup is found to be incomplete or unproductive, we can use Linux Recovery applications to extract lost data.

Linux Data Recovery software scans and recovers lost data from the affected media. These applications carry out Data Recovery using powerful scanning algorithms.

Although are so many applications are available for Linux data recovery but the software provided by the Stellar i.e.; Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is one of the most powerful and easy to use Linux Recovery software. It can be used for ext2, ext3 and ReiserFS file system based disks. This Data Recovery Linux software has graphically rich interface. It offers efficient scanning and safe data restoration options. The application can be used for most of Linux distributions for Linux Data Recovery.

Linux is an “open source” operating system originally developed by a engineer from Finland named Linus Torvalds. Linux was released under an early version of the GNU “General Public License”, or GPL, by which any user that wanted to work with Linux was free to do so. Though it has evolved considerably over the years, it has yet to eclipse the popularity of Microsoft’s Windows operating system at the consumer and small business level- which is dominated by “desktop” computer sales.

Sun, IBM and HP all have produced servers that utilize Linux – and it is in the server – database environment that Linux has thrived since its inception. The two major software companies that have produced successive versions of Linux software are Novell and Red Hat, both of which have taken an open source (free) operating system and equipped it with a variety of software packages tailored to various requirements, in order to create proprietary products.

While Linux based systems drive some cell phones and can be found in ordinary PCs, the primary competition between Red Hat and Novell has been in the “enterprise space,” that segment of the software universe which focuses on linking business users to databases. Now, Red Hat has announced its intention to move into the “business desktop” market with a new series of adaptations. According to Red Hat, “This will be a more comprehensive offering that will target markets like the small and medium-sized business [SMB] sector and emerging markets. Part of this strategy is to get the desktop more to the masses than our existing client is getting today.”

In the war of press releases, Novell claims to have made these strides already, and that what Red Hat is defining as desktop functionality is really an expansion of business functions – which Novell claims to have achieved already. And indeed, a spokesman for Red Hat notes that the company has “no plans to go and sell this offering at Best Buy… [for]…the mass consumer market. Customers will be able to download it and get a Red Hat Network subscription on the Web for it, which is what we feel is the distribution wave of the future anyway…”

So how do home users that venture into the Linux world feel about it? Many of them who have blogged about it feel that it’s the greatest operating system out there but it is not ready for mass consumption simply because too many ancillary software elements and computer appendages aren’t adapted for it. One self described “geek” who uses Linux, Windows Vista AND XP finds Linux to be a great operating system for browser use, but a simple task like hooking up a printer to a Linux driven PC can be a real challenge.

He adds, “If you’re accustomed to watching DVDs, Windows Media or QuickTime files on your computer, then you’re in for a challenge. Most Linux distributions (at least the major ones anyway) don’t include this functionality by default because the codecs (software that displays the various encoded video file formats like Windows Media) aren’t free. In many cases they’re downright illegal. The same situation exists with MP3, arguably the most popular format for audio (notably audio you rip from your CD collection).”

It’s a great operating system, but plug-and-play functionality for home computers isn’t there yet. And neither Red Hat nor Novell have any intention of invading the home consumer “space.” For now, they’re content to battle it out by expanding their business-based products.

When choosing a website hosting solution the first thing you should consider is the proper operating system for your system. The major hosting operating systems include Linux and Microsoft Windows. There are also unpopular solutions possible through Unix and Macintosh but you will often find less support for these platforms.

This article will focus on the popular solutions of Windows and Linux. Based on a given requirement each operating system serves their unique purpose. Comparisons below are made about important aspects of each operating system.

Security

Security is one of the most important areas within the industry. It is a common misunderstanding that windows servers contain more vulnerabilities than Linux servers. Security risks are often the fault of the administration rather than the operating system. Ensuring that your software updates and security patches as well as other tasks are always up to date is just part of a good security administrator?s job. As software evolves there will always be new security risks and this will not change. For security, look at your server management team rather than the operating system.

Access

The most common type of server access is FTP and both platforms allow this type of access. Both operating systems allow standard to advanced control panels. The major difference here is that Linux is able to support SSH and telnet access. Windows has the ability to support telnet however it is neither standard nor common.

File Types

Windows and Linux both support standard HTML, Cold Fusion and JavaScript files. At one point it wasn?t possible to use FrontPage extensions on a Linux server but it is now possible for Linux based servers to run FrontPage file types. Perl and CGI platforms are often supported by Linux rather than windows. If you need to use either of these file types on windows be sure that the software is specifically supported. PHP is commonly supported under Linux while ASP is commonly supported by Windows.

Databases

This is often where platforms can make a difference. Access databases are only supported by Windows where MySQL databases are more commonly found on Linux servers but are still supported by Windows servers. Many users maintaining their databases through access will want to run a windows server and vise versa.

There was a time where operating systems made a big difference. Currently, most platforms are supported on both Linux and Windows. Just be sure when shopping for a server that you have everything you need to fully develop your project.

If you are thinking of availing of a virtual host plan, you can choose from a dedicated server or a shared server. While there are some website developers who go for the former, there are a lot of individuals who choose to avail of a shared hosting plan. This decision to stick to the latter is due to various reasons. The general benefit that you will be able to get from your shared host is the opportunity to get low-cost services. What is more, there are several other benefits and privileges that come with your decision to go for this type of server.

Linux – Your Cheap Alternative at The Magic Host

There are various web hosting companies who offer affordable hosting plans to their clients with free setup services. One of these companies is The Magic Host, which provides operating systems like Oracle, Solaris, Linux, and Windows. Among these O.S., Linux offers cheaper alternatives. There are four Linux host plans, which are:

• Linux Host-Dwarf – which has 200GB bandwidth, and 50GB disk space, along with free domain name and setup

• Linux Host-Hobbit – 2,000GB bandwidth and 200GB disk space, along with free domain name and setup

• Linux Host-Elven – 3,000GB bandwidth and 300GB disk space, along with free domain name and setup

• Linux Host Wizard – 400GB disk space and 4,000GB bandwidth

You are not obligated to pay for set-up fees when you choose these hosting plans. Within a span of thirty days, you are allowed to get your money back if you are not contented with the services of The Magic Host.

The Magic Host – Offering You Free Setup Services and Cheap Hosting Prices

The Magic Host offers budget host plans. This type of plan is very appropriate for you when you are tied to the long terms of the previous plans of your hosting provider. If there are some terms which you are tired of, you can choose another hosting company to buy out these terms. Or else, you can also buy terms from other web hosting providers. Other than providing you the privilege to buy out other terms, you can also avail of the following from The Magic Host:

• Host your website without setup fees.

• Host your multiple websites, if you have more than one site. This service is offered without costing you.

• You can choose from various reseller terms and privileges at low prices.

When you go for the Linux Host Hobbit, there are various package features offered to you. The first is your private disk space which consists of 200GB. On the other hand, the bandwidth of the Hobbit for each month is 2,000GB. Your disk space and bandwidth are upgradeable according to your requirements. This Linux hosting plan is also comprised of triple backup. This means that your hosting provider stores data for you without asking for charges. Its multiple websites and databases are unlimited; as with its sub domains and its FTP accounts. You can avail of a free domain name throughout the whole term of your plan because you’re the registrant. Since the host plans of Linux has lesser number of accounts with a maximum number of 150 accounts, your server control is less complicated.

Linux is a cheap host which offers you reseller privileges. The first is a dedicated IP, followed by a private nameserver. There is also a WHM for the cPanel, and a WHMCS ticket and billing system. This reseller host (new) also has a rapid SSL or WildCard. You can avail of a customized design for your website. Another privilege that you can get from your Linux Host Hobbit is the submission of article or directory. You can also get an account as a Directi Reseller, along with a Directi Live Chat. What is more, you are offered with RV Skin. If you want to purchase more domains, you can do so for $6.49 per year. When you want an affiliate program, you will get a $150 signup bonus.

A shared host plan is offered by different hosting companies, one of which is The Magic Host. Other than this plan, this web hosting company also provides other types of hosting services. These are dedicated hosting and VPS hosting. Among the three, the most common is shared hosting since you will be able to avail of affordable packages when you go for this. This specific web hosting service allows a huge number of websites within a single server connected to the Internet. Each website within that server has its own IP address, bandwidth, and disk space which separate it from the other websites. Shared hosting is very cost-efficient since all of the individuals sharing that same server also share the whole cost for the maintenance.

The Web Hosting Plans of The Magic Host

There are various types of web host plans and services offered by The Magic Host. The hosting plans of this company include the following:

• Solaris

• Oracle

• Windows

• FreeBSD

• Linux

Among these operating systems, the most well-known is Linux. When you go for the Linux hosting plans of The Magic Host, you have four options to choose from. The first plan is the Dwarf which has 50GB for its disk space and 200GB for its bandwidth. If you require more disk space and bandwidth, all you have to do is upgrade your Linux Host Dwarf to Linux Host Hobbit. With the latter, your disk space and bandwidth are upgraded to 200GB and 2000GB respectively. On the other hand, you can also upgrade the Hobbit to another budget host when you want to have more bandwidth and space. This is possible through the Linux Host Elven, which has a disk space of 300GB and a bandwidth of 3000GB. The Elven can be upgraded to the Wizard which has 400 GB disk space and 4000GB bandwidth.

The Advantages of Linux

The Linux is an affordable hosting plan which provides you with various add-on privileges.

• For one, you can include a WHM for cPanel when you pay an extra $2 each month.

• You can add on a WHMCS license for a ticket and billing system when you settle an extra $12 for every month.

• You can sell domain when you have a Directi Reseller account. The worth of this domain is $6.49 for each year.

• If you want an additional private nameserver, the extra charge is $2 each month.

• Availing of a live chat requires you to pay off each agent with $7 each month.

• On the other hand, the SSL requires $14 for every month.

When you go for a certain type of Linux host plan at The Magic Host and you want to add on reseller features, you are not required to buy each of the features. You can take a pick among the privileges, as long as you need it. You can add these features to the general shared hosting package deal that you have availed of. With all the features that you have included with your plan, you are availing of the low costs of a great reseller package.

The general package of Linux Host Elven offers you with several features. These include the wide exclusive disk space and monthly bandwidth of the hosting plan. The space of the Elven is 300GB while its bandwidth is 3,000GB. If you want to get more space and bandwidth, you can just upgrade the Elven to Linux Host Wizard. The latter has 400GB disk space and 4000GB bandwidth. Like the other two plans, the Elven also provides triple backup with your hosting company offering you free data storage. There are unlimited multiple websites and databases, along with unlimited FTP accounts and sub domains. As a registrant, your domain name is free all throughout your hosting plan term. Compared to the thousands of accounts within the servers of other hosting plans, the Linux only has a maximum number of 150 accounts. Because of this privilege, your server is able to perform better. What is more, it is less complicated than the other virtual host plans. If you want an effective and cost-efficient hosting plan, choose the Linux hosting plan of The Magic Host.

Can you remember the 1992 Janet Jackson song entitled The Best Things In Life Are Free? You might even remember the 1956 Hollywood movie of the same name. In any case do not guarantee that you will find Damn Small Linux and our associated tutorials to be among the best things in your life. On the other hand we do guarantee that they are both completely free. Well, wait a minute. They are both free, but…

You may have to shell out some of your hard-earned cash to learn Linux. This is particularly true if you are downloading the software and running the tutorials on your home computer. Yes, you will have to pay for an Internet connection at least for the time spent downloading the files. By today’s bloated standards Damn Small Linux is really small; it weighs in at a mere 50 Megabytes. Downloading this software distribution is really quick, especially if you have a high-speed connection. And yet as we all know, sometime during the following month your Internet Service Provider will want money.

After downloading Damn Small Linux you won’t need the Internet to run it. But you may want to activate one or both of the Internet browsers that are part of the Damn Small Linux distribution. And you may want to download additional applications; there are lots of them. Because Damn Small Linux is so small you should still have scads of disk space available.

Your Damn Small Linux costs don’t end with the Internet. I would be surprised to learn that the electricity powering your computer is free. Surely the longer your days and nights spent in front of the computer the higher your light and heat bill. Furthermore, the more time you spend on Linux the more money you may end up spending on snacks, new eyeglasses, and taxis when you miss the bus to work because you just couldn’t tear yourself away from the computer in time. I think you get my drift. But we repeat. Damn Small Linux, this website, and many of the references on the web are free. Should you outgrow Damn Small Linux the larger versions of Linux are free, or at least quite inexpensive when compared to ostensibly similar versions of Microsoft Windows.

Most people don’t run operating systems in and of themselves but rather for the applications they enable. Reason number two: Damn Small Linux provides lots of free applications as discussed in our next article.

Let’s start by mentioning a few facts that can be very disconcerting to die-hard Linux and Unix fans. Serious computer viruses appeared first in Unix systems. And arguably the worst computer virus attack in history occurred on Unix systems about twenty years ago. The good news is that the lessons learned from this attack were integrated into the constantly evolving Unix and Linux systems. Of course, to some extent they have been integrated into protecting Windows systems, and that’s also good news.

One reason that Linux surpasses Windows for virus resistance is that Linux is open source. When an attack occurs hundreds or perhaps thousands of techies start working on solutions and post them to the Internet. You won’t have to wait for an anti-virus company to come up with something.

What other factors make Linux systems more virus resistant? For a virus to take effect it must be part of a running program. Simply opening an attachment in the Microsoft Windows environment does the trick. The last time (pun intended) I opened an electronic greeting card on my Windows computer I was rewarded with a nasty virus. It took quite some time to remove it even with the aid of technical support. Linux systems won’t launch the virus unless the user reads the email, saves the attachment, modifies the appropriate permission assigning execution permission to the attachment, and then explicitly executes the attachment. Unless all these steps happen the virus remains in quarantine. While an educated Linux user could carry out all these steps unleashing the virus this unhappy state of events doesn’t occur often in properly organized systems.

Another limits virus impact in the Linux world. Ordinary Linux users don’t have permission to do a lot. Even if they unleashed a virus it usually wouldn’t go very far. Getting beyond the individual computer requires administrative power – the kind held by Root Users in Linux and Administrators in Windows. Regular users of Linux are usually not accorded root permission. In contrast, a newly installed Windows system automatically creates the first user as an Administrator. In our mind this is asking for trouble.

Just think – a regular Windows user has permission to install files that can run amok and destroy lots of good things. It seems that in Windows the operating system, the applications, and the data are inextricably intertwined. As if they were asking for trouble.

I have read that bananas are in danger. It looks like biodiversity is a thing of the past in banana-land or at least in the commercial banana world. So there is some chance that one powerful banana virus will make banana splits a thing of the past. The very diversity of Linux systems offers some protection. And it’s a LAMP onto the world as discussed in the next two articles.

Linux provides several dozens commands enabling you to control your computer to a degree that far exceeds the possibilities of Windows systems. For example, take the ls command that lists files and directories. To the uninitiated this is Linux’s version of the Windows DIR command that also lists files and directories. Both the ls and the DIR commands provide lots of switches; options that enable a savvy user to fine tune some operations. But the Linux ls command (don’t type in LS) includes multiple, powerful options that simply often do not exist in the Windows world.

For example, the ls command displays file and directory permissions. With a simple command the system administrator can block regular users from modifying or executing a file. What does this mean to you? This reduces the likelihood of a user launching a virus by opening an e-mail attachment. If the execute permission hasn’t been specifically turned on, the file won’t be executed and the attachment won’t be executed.

Another Linux function is inode. Briefly it works like this: A single file can be accessed with several names in different folders. Why would anybody want to do that? This functionality lets the system identify a given file with different natural file names for different users. Can you do this in Windows? Sort of, on the more sophisticated versions but only if you are a systems administrator or if you have been granted special permissions. Can you do this on Damn Small Linux? Yes, we’re going to cover this in one or more tutorials.

Linux is a multi-user system. Upon installation Damn Small Linux creates two users with very different file permissions. This gives you a real-life introduction to computer security. It is easy to create new users and control what they can do. Of course, Windows allows you to perform many of these activities but doing so often presents a danger of a costly error or security breach that may disable some essential computer functionality.

Linux provides multiple commands. Why would anybody want to run arcane commands when Linux, as Windows, offers an attractive graphical user interface? Let’s say that your job is to create five hundred new user accounts at the beginning of your school’s semester. Do you really want to repeat the whole click and caboodle five hundred or more times, once for each user without mentioning the extra times needed whenever you make a mistake? The answer is no.

You’ll want to work with a script, a custom program using Linux commands to save your sanity by automating these tasks. A good script will pick up student details from their registration files so that the data won’t have to be reentered. Whether the script is good or not depends on the skill set of the individual that composed it. But Linux offers all the tools necessary for writing good and even great scripts.

When you know how to create and manage users you may want to look into Linux Certification. That’s the subject of our next article.

ReiserFS is the Journaled file system used for the Linux operating system. For the various features of this file system like metadata- only journaling, tail packing and online resizing, it is well adopted by the users who rely on it as the repository of data references.

So the reliance indicates that how critical it is that the integrity of the file system may remain maintained and depart from any corruption issues. But on the contrary of the ideal scenario, the corruption in this file system may occur, which can force you to think about Linux data recovery solution, as all the references of the stored data get wiped out with the corruption of the file system.

The unexpected system shutdown, virus attack like problems may craft this scenario of data loss. At the time of corruption, the popped up screen may suggest you to use ‘reiserfsck-rebuild-tree’, but one should be aware of the fact that at the point of file system corruption, attempting to rebuild the tree may corrupt the existing file more harshly and thus creating the critical obstacles for Linux recovery. New entries may be introduced with the gibberish contents.

Some of the other error messages may indicate that something is going fishy with the file system and thus the proper fix is needed to be deployed. After this, the data remains inaccessible as all the entries of the data gets removed, giving you a hard drive which appears particularly empty, which in reality is not.

For data recovery Linux, only the proper mechanism is required. The data is still there on the hard drive and can be fetched out with the suitable algorithms. The Linux data recovery software can well perform this from their targeted scanning algorithms.

In case of file system corruption, the Linux recovery must not reference the file system, as this has been refreshed and thus the feature like RAW File Recovery must be there in the software to cope the particular situation.

Data recovery Linux software avail the interactive user interface to the users and are available for different file systems. With the varying set of features, these Linux recovery products maintain the integrity of the data.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery software is the most developed and advanced data recovery utility which follows the superb mechanism to scan the affected hard drive with the well-built algorithms. The software supports Ext2, Ext3 and ReiserFS file system and offers you complete and valuable Linux data recovery options.

The RAW File Recovery option of the software is valuable for the file system corruption like issues. This data recovery Linux software can recognize each file type.

Often, it so happens that small businesses struggling to make ends meet opt for shared hosting services at the beginning. But, as traffic starts to trickle in, grow and build into a deluge of customers, expanding companies experience the need to switch over to a better, faster and more powerful hosting service. While big companies may not be intimidated by the prohibitive cost of using dedicated servers, medium companies may find it difficult to bear the colossal cost. That is where Virtual private servers come in.

VPS hosting services allow companies to hire a virtual server. That means, this server will, for all practical purposes, act as a dedicated server. However, it is not a dedicated server in reality because the main server is divided into a number of partitions. Each part works as a virtual server. Thus, members are able to enjoy the same benefits as dedicated servers, while paying a fraction of the cost.

There are two kinds of VPS hosting services: Linux based and Windows based. Linux VPS hosting services are attractive because of the inherent power and flexibility of the Linux operating system. Linux VPS hosting provides an isolated environment on a server where the virtual server is able to share all the resources of the main server. Each Linux vps hosting server acts almost like a standalone server as far as the user is concerned. Thus, every virtual server can have its own applications without affecting the other virtual servers located on the same physical server. Each virtual server may be rebooted independently since it has its very own root access, IP address, users, files and processes. Each server even has its own mail and web server and control panel. This flexibility is possible because each virtual server has its own application and configuration files.

Any company that needs a dedicated hosting environment but does not have the resource to hire a dedicated server can make use of Linux VPS hosting services. Linux VPS servers are so powerful that they even allow you to run versatile applications like Asterix and Java.

Linux VPS hosting packages give the end user more power and control over their virtual servers, at significantly lower costs. In fact, companies that want to host unlimited domains, resell hosting or want to install a variety of applications can make use of the state-of-the-art features and flexibility offered by Linux.

Linux combines the concept of ease of use, simplicity, flexibility and customization. Thus, customers are able to get the most value for the money they shell out. Unlike Windows systems that show a great bias towards Windows applications, Linux lends equal support to all applications. Little wonder that many web experts believe that Linux is the future of web hosting!