My HOSTS file has been repeatedly losing my local websites that I’ve added there manually and I finally figured out what the problem was.. After getting the BSOD for the first time on this computer today, Vista told me the problem seemed to be with my anti-virus software. I checked online to see if there was any kind of problem with Norton 360 and the windows HOSTS file and it turns out it deletes all “malicious” entries in case they are just that– malicious.
It turned out to be a simple fix: In Norton 360 go under Virus and Spyware Settings > File Exclusions:
And in the section “Which disks, folders, or files to exclude from risk scanning“, enter the location of the HOSTS file, which is generally \windows\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS
On another note, you’d think that they’d figure that more computer-savvy people use their software as well as ones who aren’t so savvy. You’d figure they could at least add a more custom set up, or tell you what files it monitors so you could know ahead of time, instead of going crazy trying to guess what the heck is going on later on. Maybe make our lives a bit easier? Maybe I’m crazy. Who knows.
Internet
server, Software, Vista
While I was starting to set up my server, I had come across a few sites saying that MySQL wouldn’t work with Vista’s User Access Controls turned on. So I decided to skip all the trouble I went through with setting up Apache last time and just turned off the UAC. As they promised, or at least made no claims against, MySQL worked just fine. Well recently I turned UAC back on, and I started running into “permissions” problems when I was altering tables or where the data files had to be renamed.
It turns out that some permissions were removed from the folder that MySQL stores data in. Even having that folder right under the root of my drive (as opposed to the Program Files folder), these permissions were applied to this folder apparently only because of Vista’s UACs. I’ve fixed the problem now by giving USERS full permissions for the whole MySQL folder, while I keeping UAC on.
Technology
server, Vista
Although I went on about how great I think Vista is, it’s been one hell of a pain in the ass for setting up a development server. I took the WAMP (I guess?) approach and started on my Apache-MySQL-PHP set up yesterday, and still haven’t worked out all the kinks. Now I’m no server-genius, but this is the third server on the third computer I’ve tried to set up, and the only one that’s caused me a problem. My journey began like this.
Day 1: Apache and PHP - I started with the standard installations to get the very basics down. I installed Apache on my computer with the oh-so familiar installer. Everything worked great (I got the “It Works!” screen when I went to http://localhost/. Alright, time for the PHP. After finally finding the right download for PHP 4.4.8 (to mimic my online setup), I had PHP 4 with the dll for Apache 2.2 I had to download (done this before). So it was time to hook it all up.
I went to the Apache configuration, as normal. Added a line to include the php module, load index.php, and add the application/x-httpd-php (.php extension) file type. I saved it all up, and then went to my htdocs directory to test it. I created a simple index.php file on my brand-new local server with the line <?php phpinfo(); ?> and let it rip.
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Internet
server, Vista
