I recently decided sto give OpenX a shot for managing my advertisement inventory. I primarily use Google AdSense, but I wanted to be able to rotate through other ads when the opportunities are available. I had played a little bit with OpenX back when it was phpAdsNew but never got too far into a full implementation. Looking at the screenshots, documentation, and features, OpenX looked like a very good option.

After getting the current version (2.8.5) installed, unfortunately, I encountered a problem as soon as I logged in for the first time. After logging in I was directed to a dashboard page, which was one of my key reasons for trying OpenX again, and it failed to load, showing the following error: "Dashboard Error: M2M authentication error – password invalid (code: 823)." (You can also see the screenshot above). Fortunately, there is an extremely easy fix.

After a few Google searches I was able to find out that the error was occurring because I had used Fantastico to install OpenX, and this was not the first time I tried. I had forgotten that I had installed and uninstalled OpenX once before. Because I had installed it once before, it failed to create a valid m2m password the second time OpenX was installed. The invalid m2m password was causing the authentication error on the dashboard page.

The Fix: Simply go to http://(your path to OpenX)/www/admin/regenerate-platformhash.php

It seems too good to be true, but it is really this simple. I followed that one step, and it worked like a charm. The next time I opened the dashboard I was able to see it without any problems. (See screenshot below of working dashboard). I hope this helps!

Dreamweaver CS3 is a great tool for web developers. It has tons of bells and whistles that help make developing a lot faster and easier. Despite the great things I have to say about it, there is one problem that I experienced while using it with Windows Vista (I have included a screenshot above). The problem lies in the FTP function that allows you to remotely edit a file on your web server. When trying to access a file, whether it is saving, opening, or reading a directory, I would get this no response error. After dealing with this for too long, thankfully I found that there is an easy fix.

I was able to fix this by changing the FTP timeout value in the preferences. Apparently when Dreamweaver is installed, it sets this value to 2 seconds. That turned out to be too short for me. I have seen other people with this issue, and I believe the 2 seconds was too short for them as well. All you need to do to change it is go to the "Site" preferences and make the change. I changed mine to 30 seconds and haven't received the error since.

In the toolbar, go to Edit > Preferences > Site and change the "FTP Time out" (screenshot below).

I hope this helps and is able to take care of the problem as easily as it did for me.

The Problem

Here is a quick tip on how to fix an all too common error when using WordPress on a shared host. I have been using WordPress for a while now, and I was comfortable with how it works and operates, until yesterday. When trying to edit a post I received a "403 - you are forbidden to access post.php" error. I was obviously worried and frantic to get it working again so I could continue writing posts. After some searching on the Internet I found what I thought may be a solution.

The Background

It is normal practice for hosts to utilize strict security measures and lock down their servers. In a lot of cases they use the mod_security restrictions with extremely high filters. This causes a problem with access rights when using Apache's mod_rewrite. The mod_rewrite versions of posts for WordPress are so much cooler than the default addresses ("?p=22"); therefore, most installations end up using mod_rewrite.

The Solution

Fortunately, the solution is incredibly easy to implement. All you have to do is add the 2 lines of code, located below, to the mod_rewrite section of your .htaccess file. The first 2 lines should be the following:
SecFilterEngine Off
SecFilterScanPOST Off

I hope this helps save a lot of time for anyone with this problem. This is a problem with an easy solution, fixable in just minutes!