Apache Webserver
Start
May 2019
Technologies
HTML, CSS, JS, Linux
Type
Website and server
Last updated
Dec. 2023
View Source
My personal website started in a very early form in and around April or May of 2019. In its earliest form it was hosted on a domain I registered for free. This free domain expired after a year and was quickly replaced with a malware site. At the time when I owned danube.ga there was no malware on it, but instead the first site was a quick and dirty recipe book that I made as a school project. This recipe book was used as a placeholder to park on the domain as I developed my HTML and CSS skills. As I learned more, I made a few revisions to the recipe book, but it was quickly replaced. Soon after I replaced the site with another quick and dirty site, this time to display some python code I had written.
A screenshot of a portion of the Biography website I had made about Konrad Zuse

Then once I decided I learned enough HTML and CSS I displayed the first real website I ever made, a short Biography of Konrad Zuse. The website is nothing special and it is noticeably clear that it was made by a beginner, but I still has a certain sentimental value to me being the first real page I ever made fully just using HTML and CSS. This was one of the projects for my grade 10 ICS2O course. Soon I created a terrible landing page that was only ever intended to be a temporary solution to function as an interim page to select from a few of my projects. This hideous page then stuck around for the next 3 years... Now one could select from a few projects including the original Konrad Zuse biography, as well as a return of the python code collection. Additionally, I would then add more projects to the temporary landing site as I made more.

Eventually when the first domain expired, I got another free domain that would then eventually also turn into a malware site. The new domain danube-river.ga then hosted the same temporary landing page that the old domain had. After another year, this domain expired again and was turned into a malware site, even though I again elected auto renewal. Though I guess that is the kind of service a free registrar delivers. This led me to purchase my first real domain on February 4th. I first tried to buy a domain similar to what I had previously such as danube.com or danube.ca but they were not available. Then I wanted to see if the German equivalent of danube was available, and it was. This led me to donau.ca and I bought it immediately. Since then I have transitioned the site to one that fits my name better as it can now be found on www.lkrampitz.net

Throughout the entire history of the webpage and domain the one constant has been the webserver. My webserver has always been my trusty Raspberry Pi 3 B+ that I bought back in and around April or May of 2019. Currently the Pi is running Raspbian 11 Bullseye, a fork of Debian. The little micro-computer takes care of all way webhosting needs. It primarily runs the Apache 2 HTTP Server Project as the host of the various web pages. The little Raspberry Pi also runs a few other services such as certificate generation and renewal for the TLS certification. This ensures clients can connect over port 443 using the HTTPS protocol instead of just HTTP. to the lkrampitz.net domains, and various sub domains. Also running on the Raspberry Pi, I have a Plex Media server, and an OpenVPN VPN server. All the maintenance on my personal Raspberry Pi 3 B+ is conducted remotely. The micro-computer is run in a headless mode without any display, mouse, or keyboard attached. The only connection to the hardware is power, and an ethernet cable. Using either a VNC client or SSH I remotely access the server. Then I can run and perform any maintenance I need to. The beauty of this system is that since I am also running a VPN server on this Raspberry Pi. Therefore, I can connect to the VPN from anywhere and then use VNC like I normally would to connect to the server. This allows me to perform maintenance from any stable internet connection. This is a neat feature that I have made quite a bit of use of.

An image of my personal Raspberry Pi 3 B+
As of writing on June 24th, 2023, I am currently in Niedersachsen, Germany and make heavy use of the remote access to update the website, and webserver even from here. This Raspberry Pi has been a great tool and learning experience. Having a server that exclusively runs Linux is a really terrific way to make yourself learn Linux. I would say I have become fairly proficient at interfacing with the OS using either a CLI or a GUI. I am nowhere near an expert, but I can navigate the environment fairly well, and know enough to allow me to google my way to an answer.
A screenshot showing the view when using a VNC client to remote access the Raspberry Pi.
The view when using a VNC client to remote access the Raspberry Pi. Shown open is the terminal with some recently run commands.
A screenshot of the development environment used to create the latest and current version of the website.
The development environment used to create the latest and current version of the website. The main dev tool being VS Code.

Over the lifetime of www.lkrampitz.net and related ancestor domains the site has seen various revisions. Over the past few years, I have occasionally saved backups of the source for the website resulting in some snapshots of the previous revisions. Many of these versions of the site are quite crude or primitive and are not representative of my current abilities. For preservation and archival purposes, I do though, still want to make these versions available.

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