What is "Matthew1471"?
Matthew1471! is an alias for Matthew James Roberts (or "Matthew Roberts" for short) used online when providing technical knowledge, PHP applications and other technical solutions. A full copy of my CV (with contact details) can be requested online.
Server Information
All of my websites are all hosted on my home web server. My ISP permits web servers (or any other server) so long as the bandwidth requirements do not impede their network's ability to function normally. The server is currently a 3.40 GHz Intel® Core™ i5-3570K powered system running Windows® Server 2016 Datacenter Edition with 16GB of RAM.
Website Involvement
I am currently involved in the following websites: https://matthew1471.co.uk/ (also https://matthew-roberts.co.uk/), https://blogx.co.uk/.
History
I learnt a significant amount of computing knowledge by keeping up to date with events in the computing industry. Originally I started learning the web scripting language ASP (Active Server Pages) by reading and modifying an open source forum known as "Snitz Forums". After a short amount of time I then discovered I was able to develop my own applications from scratch. The syntax of VBScript (which is also used in logon scripts) is very similar to the language Visual Basic. I used my knowledge of VBScript and experimented with desktop programming to make a few useful applications.
Several years ago I decided to create a dedicated machine known as "SERVER" to share the printer, the Internet and files over the network. Today this has evolved into a Windows® Server 2008 R2 Active Directory Domain Controller with an Apache webserver, Group Policy, DHCP, DNS, VPN, RDP, SMB, Shoutcast, ISA Firewall, SSH, Roaming Profiles and a Redirected Profiles setup that is automatically backed up and defragmented weekly. This has provided me with some interesting challenges. Many assignments and personal files are stored on my server and I often am too far away to easily fix faults. This led to having to learn about remote management technologies. Today, the network has 21 devices (1 virtual machine & 3 workstation computers).
Of course computing is not just about the technology, while at University I kept up to date on key industry issues such as the environment by regularly reading publications from the British Computing Society (BCS). My department (via MSDN AA) assisted me with keeping up to date by providing me with the latest software from Microsoft such as Windows® Vista.
Main Skills
I have expanded many of these acronyms, simply position your cursor over a bolded acronym and it will expand:
Programming Languages :
Web Programming : PHP, HTML, XHTML, XML, JavaScript, JSP aka. Servlets, ASP VBScript
Desktop Programming : C# .NET, Visual Basic (6 & .NET), Delphi (up to .NET), Pascal, NSIS, Basic, Java, VBScript, Trivial amounts of C & C++
Device Programming : Android, .NET Micro Framework, NSBasic/Palm, PDAT
Server Management: AD, Mail Server (SMTP(S)/POP3(S)/IMAP(S)), IIS, Apache HTTP Server, MySQL Databases (V5.0 - 8.0), GPO, DNS, DHCP, ICS, RRAS, ISA, Shoutcast, IRC, FTP, Telnet, SSH, SFTP, SIP/IAX aka. VoIP, RDP / TS, VMWare Server/Workstation, Oracle VirtualBox, Microsoft® Hyper-V, PerfectDisk, Norton Ghost, Microsoft® Backup, QoS, OpenVPN, UniFi Controller, EdgeRouter.
Operating Systems
Windows Client : 3.11/95/98/ME/2000/XP Home & Professional/Vista/7/8/8.1/10
Windows Server : 2000/2003/2008 (inc. R2)/2012 (inc. R2)/2016/2019
Linux / Unix : Debian 8, OS X Leopard, Ubuntu (inc. Mint, Backtrack & Kali), RedHat 8, Knoppix, CentOS (RHEL Clone).
PDA/Phone : Android 2.2 - 9.0, Palm OS (Both <> V4), Windows Mobile 2003, Symbian S60 V3
Other : HP iLO as part of ProLiant Servers, BeOS, DOS 6.2, Cisco IOS and NX-OS, MikroTik RouterOS & SwitchOS
Note: I am of course familiar with a great many desktop applications but it would not be useful to list them here.