Ask Felgall

A few weeks ago I attempted to install XAMPP and when I couldn’t get that to work I tried WAMP5 which didn’t work either.

In both cases the install ran with few problems and it was only when I went to create the databases I needed using phpmyadmin that I struck problems. More recently I did separate installs of Apache, PHP, mySQL, and phpmyadmin. This also had the same problem with phpmyadmin when I got to that stage.

The big difference between my attempts with the two integrated products and the later separate installs is that in the latter case I was able to run tests in between installing each compoment in order to more closely identify why there was a problem. In fact the testing that I did showed that there was no problem whatever with the Apache, PHP, and mySQL installs and that only phpmyadmin had a problem.

In each of the three different attempts I actually reached the same point before striking a problem. The difference (and what enabled me to track down and fix the problem) was that in installing each component separately I had narrowed down where the error could be. With the XAMPP and WAMP5 installs I had no idea whether the reason that phpmyadmin wasn’t working was because of a problem with Apache, PHP, mySQL, or something else. The separate installs proved that it was something else.

At the time I wrote about XAMPP and WAMP5 a few weeks ago I was rather annoyed at being unable to get either install to work. Now that I know that the flaw is actually in phpmyadmin, I can now say that either XAMPP or WAMP5 would be an easier way to install these products all in one go provided that you have your security set such that phpmyadmin will run. After allowing for the problem that I had which stopped any install of those products from working until I fixed it, I can now say that if I had not had the problem with phpmyadmin then the WAMP5 install would have run perfectly with no additional customisation of the configuration files being required. XAMPP makes for a nicer final install than WAMP5 bit did need some minor changes to the php.ini file as it made assumptions about everything being installed to the C: drive (which was not where I was installing it).

I am not going to reinstall XAMPP now that I know why I couldn’t get it to work before but only because I have already installed all of the components of it that I need (some of which are more recent versions than in XAMPP).

Just about everyone has their computer attached to a network these days. If you don’t have a local network to connect your computer to then you probably still have it connected to the world’s biggest network - the internet.

I don’t claim to be an expert on networking computers together but I have had some experience with networking several computers together on my own network which was made slightly more complicated than most of you are likely to experience due to the large number of different operating systems I have on my various computers.

To share what I havve found out in networking my computers and connecting them to the internet (first via dialup and now via ADSL) I have a selection of pages on setting up a home network, peer to peer processing, servers, and dial-up.

Networking

Not everyone wants to create their own web site. For those who don’t but who still want to use the web, there is a section on my site which deals specifically with browsers and email programs and how to configure and use them.

Some of the information applies to all browsers while other information in this section is specific to a particular browser. There are separate sections for Internet Explorer/Outlook, Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox/Thunderbird, and Opera. I don’t have a Safari section yet but I guess it is just a matter of time before I add that too.

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Of course as always, if you can’t find an answer to your question on the site, you can always use the “Ask Felgall” form to email me your question which I will answer if I can.

Browsers and Email

To use most server side scripts you need a database. How you actually set up your database depends on what hosting you have. If your host only provides you with one database they may have set it up for you already.

If you have to set up your own database and your hosting uses cPanel then there is a simple wizard tool available to help you set up your database. This short tutorial shows you how to use it.

Creating a Database Using cPanel

While my Password Protected Area script provides the basic code to create your own membership area on your site, it still requires some knowledge of PHP in order to be able to configure your actual pages if you want to do anything more than just provide basically static pages that are only accessible once your visitor has logged on.

I probably receive more questions about using this script than I do about the other PHP scripts that I wrote and so I have now put together this list of answers to Frequently Asked Questions to help potential purchasers out in determining if the script will do what they require.

Password Protected Area FAQ

I will be teaching computer classes at the local Community College again next year. For anyone who lives in Sydney, Australia who might be interested in attending one of my classes, the list has now been updated to include those classes that I will be running at the Macarthur College in term one next year.

In the Classroom

One problem a lot of web newbies have when creating their first web pages is that while the pages display perfectly okay on their computer, the images don’t appear once they upload the pages to their site. There are about half a dozen common errors that newbies make in the way they create and load their first web pages that use images. In this article we look at what those common mistakes are and how to fix them in order to get the images to display./p>

I’ve Uploaded My Images but they Still Don’t Appear

I am continually finding forum posts where web newbies are asking how to stop people from being able to view the source of their web page. The answer of course is don’t put it on the web.

Any web page that is on the web no matter how you have encrytped in order to try to “protect” the source needs to be decrypted by the web browser in order to be able to display the web page. There are at least a dozen different ways that your visitors can access the source of your web page including the version of the source after their browser has decrypted it. It is possible to block some of these ways of accessing the source but some of them can’t be blocked.

As there is always at least one way to access the source of any web page regardless of what blocks you apply, it is pointless even trying to block people from accessing your source. Not only are you trying to lock the barn door after the horse has already escaped but the barn doesn’t have any walls.

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