DEV Community: Faisal Rehman

Best Payment Gateways in 2020, 6 Smart Ways for Devops and Start-Up Freelancers to Get Paid

Faisal Rehman — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 08:21:55 +0000

There are hundreds of payment gateways available for developers, shoppers, and freelance start-ups. These payment gateways help you to send and receive payments and if you are a developer, you can automate this process. Every payment gateway has APIs that can be integrated into your e-commerce business. Either you are working on your own online store or working as a DevOps engineer for any firm, you can integrate these payment processors to accept credit cards and get payments.

What are Payment Gateways?

In simple words, a payment gateway helps to make sending and receiving payments smoothly. It is recommended to understand the basics of the payment gateways if you are going to launch your next e-commerce business. Payment gateways play a key role between your credit cards and bank accounts. These are men in the middle if I say in more plain English. PayPal is loved by everyone and it's the world's leading payment processing platform.

If you are a freelance developer and working on freelance jobs from home, you must have basic ideas about payment gateways and how they work. Additionally, you should have ideas about merchant accounts, credit card processors, and the right payment platform for your client.

In this article, I'll show you the best payment gateways in the world. So let's get started!

i) Stripe API

It's the best payment API and one of the leading credit card processors in the world. If we are talking about PayPal competitor these days, the answer would be Stripe. It is a highly secure API integration platform trusted by thousands of developers, freelancers, affiliate marketers, and small business owners. Just to remind you, it's a bit technical process to integrate Stripe with your online e-commerce platform. If you are a developer, you can simply integrate it with your online store. If you are a small business owner, you might need to hire a freelancer to get the Stripe API integration done.

ii) Apple Pay

If you are an Apple user, you're gonna love this payment gateway. It works with leading credit card processors like American Express, Master Card, and VISA. Apple Pay lets you integrate with stores and apps using contactless payments. Furthermore, you can pay for your Apple subscriptions, for instance, Apple Music and Apple News.

Apple Pay works like a charm, download and install the Apple wallet app. Connect it to the bank and complete the verification process. After your account is verified, you are ready to send and receive payments through Apple Pay.

iii) Dwolla

Dwolla is a way different payment gateway that uses electronic infrastructure to process your payments. Simply, a Dwolla account is an alternative to your bank account. In other words, a Dwolla account is directly connected to your bank account. If you live in the United States, I'd strongly recommend to give it a try and experience its interesting features. It only works in the USA but I hope it will expand the network to countries around the globe.

Another interesting feature is using Dwolla's twitter hashtag #dwolla to send and receive payments. Isn't it interesting?

iv) Due

Due.com offers a wide variety of features including e-cash, invoicing, and credit card processing. You can also use it as a digital wallet to make global payments. Furthermore, if you are using Stripe and PayPal in your e-commerce store, you can integrate the Due.com payment gateway with both payment processors.

You've ever heard of it? If not, learn more about it at Due.com.

v) Square

Square could have been at the top in popular payment gateways but unfortunately, it works only in a few countries. However, Square is not just a payment gateway, it is a complete financial solution. Square offers a range of features like invoicing, gift card processing, and shopping cart integrations.

If you are in Canada where Square works and planning to launch a coffee shop or a small SaaS business, Square will ship the relevant hardware to you as well. It means Square also provides the most suitable hardware for your business.

vi) Shopify Payments

Shopify payments plans are a bit expensive to be honest— starting from $29/month. However, when we get to know the amazing features of Shopify, the price worth it a lot.

If you are going to launch a store on Shopify, Shopify Payments accepts credit cards directly. If you are not satisfied with this payment processor, no worries, you can start taking payments through Apple Pay or American Express.

Finally, I'd recommend trying a 90-day free trial before you start accepting payments through Shopify Payments.

Good luck!

Best Affordable Linux Hosting: Which one to choose in 2020?

Faisal Rehman — Sun, 23 Aug 2020 11:33:13 +0000

COVID-19 drastically changed everything and honestly, nobody was expecting such a huge economic impact. Even Fortune companies faced a real downfall in sales and the revenue graph fell with a bullet speed. You might have heard old people talking— "O man! I am 60 and I've never seen such pandemic in my entire life." Businesses went down, small startups got collapsed and hundreds of thousands of people were laid off. The whole world got locked down in their homes and that was the only way to stay safe.

Due to Corona Pandemic, we've witnessed a huge boost in the E-commerce business. Online stores and Ecommerce websites revenue got up to 46% of growth in sales. According to Forbes, U.S. and Canadian e-commerce markets saw a massive growth of 129% as of 21st of April. It will grow more as still people don't feel comfortable going to the malls and markets for shopping.

So, this brings me to a major concern about your online business. Are you ready for that? Are you going to launch your online store or a startup blog? This is the time to focus on e-commerce domain and build an online empire that'll last longer and generate massive leads. Therefore, if you are certain about niche, the next big thing is a web hosting platform.

Let's talk about it more!

What is web hosting?

A web hosting is a service that brings up your website live over the internet. Whatever your business is, if you want to bring it online, you'll need hosting. Gladly, there are a number of popular web hosting companies that offer affordable Linux hosting with outstanding uptime and robust performance.

Why people love Linux hosting?

Because, it's cheap, secure and easy-to-use with blazing loading speeds. Therefore, if you are planning to launch your first tech blog, a website or an e-commerce store, you need to choose a great web hosting company that offers best web hosting services at an affordable price.

Best Linux Hosting

There are a number of Linux only hosting providers and for techies and bloggers, I'd personally recommend Bluehost. Its the best web hosting company in the world that is built for bloggers and tech gurus. The hosting giant promises 99% uptime guarantee and in the first year, you'll get a free domain and an SSL certificate. Additionally, if you want to learn WordPress, there are excellent tutorials on Bluehost's blog. More importantly, WordPress is just 1 click away because its 1-click install.

Most of the features that Bluehost offers are unlimited. You'll get hotlink protection, FTP and SSL access and servers with latest hardware. Additionally, you can create unlimited email accounts and install free web scripts. Launching a website is too simple and quick because of its free drag and drop builder. In case of any issues, the support team is always available via Live chat to fix your site's issues right away.

Finally, it's the choice of every developer, tech guys and startup bloggers. Indeed, it's the best Linux hosting that you will never regret.

Linux Socket Monitoring

Faisal Rehman — Wed, 19 Aug 2020 03:00:42 +0000

A socket is just like a port which is used to receive and transmit information in the network. Here we will discuss two types of sockets that are important in view of Socket Monitoring in Linux
Environment.:
 Internet Sockets
 Unix Domain Sockets
Internet Sockets are related with the reception & transmission of information in an ip-based network like Internet. Unix Domain Sockets are also called as inter-process communication sockets, similar to the internet sockets but without internet protocol.

What is LSM?
LSM stands for Linux Socket Monitoring. This tool is designed to track & monitor changes in the
Internet and Unix Domain Sockets. It is also a port monitor. There is a very simple working scenario of Linux Socket monitoring tool that it compares the current sockets with the new server sockets. Whenever new ports are activating, there is a simple and configurable alert system (via emails), also whenever the ports given in the files of “dat” directory are changed by some body, we will receive the alert emails.
There is a simple way of installing LSM which is given in the following steps:

Firstly download the source package of LSM in the /usr/local/src directory using the wget command as: wget http://www.rfxn.com/downloads/lsm-current.tar.gz
Untar the source package as: # tar –xzvf lsm-current.tar.gz
There will be a script available for installation of LSM and it will be installed by running it: . /install.sh Now for getting email alerts we will have to make some configuration in the conf.lsm file in /usr/local/lsm directory. # cd /usr/local/lsm # vim conf.lsm and change the USER option which is set to root (by default) to your wanted email address as: USER=abc@example.com When we install LSM on our system, it generates the base comparison but it is recommended to generate the files again by running the following command: # lsm –g If we want to compare the current sockets with the new generated comparison file of sockets we will have to run the following command: # lsm –c It will tell us in case of any change of socket comparing to the comparison files. The comparison files can be deleted with: # lsm –d

Testing LSM:
First step after installation of LSM is to generate the comparison files, once these files are generated, every change in the sockets will be compared to that file in the future.
In order to test the functionality of LSM, let us change any port in the netserv.list file which contains the information regarding the internet sockets, let’s say the SMTP port or socket which is 25 and we change it to any other like 29, and then for by comparing we will find the result.

Similarly if the changes found in unix domain sockets, it will also inform us about that and an email
will be sent to the address that we had given in the conf.lsm file in the /usr/local/lsm directory.
The executable file of LSM is placed in the /usr/local/lsm and also in /usr/local/sbin/ directory.

Finally if we want no comparison files then these files can be deleted with the help of the following command:

lsm –d

Apache Server Configuration [Basics]

Faisal Rehman — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 07:51:53 +0000

Apache is a world's leading web server that can easily be configured and maintained. Let's talk about some of its features:

 Apache is a web (HTTP) server that is written in C and it runs on the Default port ‘80’, it
handles mainly static pages.
 The default port of Apache Web server can be changed as:

cd /etc/httpd/conf

vim httpd.conf  There will be an option for Listen which is set to 80 by default, here you

can add the port of your own choice and after adding it Restart the httpd service using the
following command:

service httpd restart…………… (i)

 Apache can be started and stopped using the ‘start’ & ‘stop’ keywords instead of restart in
command (i).
 There is another way to start & stop the apache service as:

cd /usr/sbin  This directory contains a script for apache shown as:

apachectl start (or stop)

 The main difference between Apache & Tomcat is basically Apache is a web server
whereas tomcat is an application server. Apache is written in C & Tomcat is written in Java.
Apache handles mainly the static pages & Tomcat is dealt with dynamic pages (JSPs) & it
is formally known as Servlet Container.
 Apache can run on multiple ports, if you want to add more ports on which apache should
listen, go as:

cd /etc/httpd/conf

vim httpd.conf  Now here you can add number of ports under the “Listen” option and restart

the apache service.
Listen 91  Now apache will also listen on port 91.
 Httpd.conf is the mother file for Apache web server and all the configurations regarding
apache are done in it.
Apache Logs:
There are two types of Apache logs:
 Access logs
 Error logs
In order to view the apache logs go to the following direcotory:

/etc/httpd/logs

The tail –f command can be used to view the logs. In case of any error or issue, the error logs will
help you to check where the problem is. There is a best feature of apache that it saves the logs in
archive with their specific dates, for example error_log-20100519, now this archive contains all the
logs till 19 th of May 2010.
Apache Document Root:
It is the directory from where Apache web server serves the files and pages. The default Document
Root is located as:

/var/www/html

We can confirm the location of Apache Document Root with the help of following command:

/grep –i ‘DocumentRoot’ httpd.conf

If you are not present in the directory where the httpd.conf is placed then you will have to write the
above command as:

/grep –i ‘DocumentRoot’ /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Any how the Document Root can also be changed as we want, by editing the configuration file of
httpd, there will be the option available for Document Root which is set to /var/www/html by
default, change here the Document Root here like /opt/faisal and restart the httpd service and
check the document root again.
But it will not show the contents and files of that document root unless the path of Directory which is
also set to /var/www/html by default in httpd.conf, hence change it also and restart the httpd
service and check in the browser, hopefully it will be showing the contents of that document root.
Virtual Hosting:
Virtual Hosting is a method to host more than one domain names for a single IP. For example let
say we want to host two domain names like:
(i) www.example1.com
(ii) https://www.softwarespice.com
Now both of the above domains can be hosted easily using the method of Virtual Hosting over IP,
let say locally at 127.0.0.1 and in the web browser both URLs will have the same output.

In order to make a virtual host, go to /etc/httpd/conf and in the httpd.conf file, there will be a tag
for Virtual Host(if not then you will have to add it yourself).
Before creating a virtual host, let us discuss the types of Virtual Hosts. There are three major types
of virtual hosts:
i. Name-based Hosts
ii. Port-based Hosts
iii. IP-based Hosts
The most commonly used hosts are name and port based. It is strongly recommended that a
separate file should be made and all the necessary configurations are done in it and then finally
include that file in the httpd.conf file. For example we have made a file named http123.conf and
made some configurations in it and that file is saved in /etc/httpd/conf/http123.conf. After that
include that file in httpd.conf as:
Include /etc/httpd/conf/http123.conf (and then restart httpd service).
In order to do port-based virtual hosting, firstly include that port in httpd.conf file across Listen
option.
Example:
An example of name and port based virtual hosting is given as:
<VirtualHost *:91>
ServerAdmin webmaster@www.example1.com
DocumentRoot /www/docs/ www.example1.com
ServerName www.example1.com
ErrorLog logs/ www.example1.com -error_log
CustomLog logs/ www.example1.com -access_log common
</VirtualHost>
In the above virtual host the domain name www.example1.com is running on port 91,also define that
host in /etc/hosts file.

Alias:
An Alias is a name that Web Browsers use to access that directory as it is shorter than the original
path. We can create an alias for a command or for a very long path. For example, if we want to
create an alias for the path /etc/httpd/conf then:

alias apache=‘cd /etc/httpd/conf’

Whenever we will type apache in the shell it will move us to the conf directory as apache is the
alias name for the above conf directory.
Now we are going to create alias for a long URL, for example for the below URL;
http://www.example1.com/httpd/conf/abc/xyz/mmm/yyy/uuuu
Instead of writing the whole path we will create an alias as:
As we have already created a file http.conf and included it in the mother file of apache i.e.,
httpd.conf so we will write the alias in http.conf as:
Alias /uuuu /etc/httpd/conf/abc/xyz/mmm/yyy/uuuu (and restart the web server).
Now we will move directly to the contents of uuuu if we just write the alias name after the Domain
name as:
http://www.example1.com/uuuu