Copyright (C) 1999 by Steve Litt. All rights reserved. Materials from guest authors copyrighted by them and licensed for perpetual use to Troubleshooting Professional Magazine. All rights reserved to the copyright holder, except for items specifically marked otherwise (certain free software source code, GNU/GPL, etc.). All material herein provided "As-Is". User assumes all risk and responsibility for any outcome.
It's very easy to make a Linux replica of your ISP (if your ISP uses Unix). The instructions are in the November 1998 issue of Troubleshooting Professional Magazine (URL in this issue's URL's section). Developing on the replica is 2-10 times faster than trying to develop even over telnet. On your private machine you can take diagnostic actions, like chmod'ing something 777, that you wouldn't dare do on your production or ISP server. You can reboot the machine. You can experiment in any way you choose. Only after understanding the nature of the problem do you need to consider a solution acceptable to your ISP.
All the same tools listed in this issue are equally valuable when troubleshooting on your own Linux ISP replica.