I have recently been trying out a number of content management systems (CMSes) on a server with Apache + FastCGI (PHP) as a backend, and Nginx as a frontend (reverse-proxy). Of these (WordPress, Joomla, MediaWiki, and Drupal) the only one to encounter any difficulties was Drupal (version 7). Installation Issues A number of content management… Continue reading Drupal Oddities
Category: Computers
Things dealing with the wonderful world of IT – software, hardware, cloud computing, or anything else that might fit.
Streaming Media from Cloudfront
As with many AWS products, Cloudfront helps to level the playing field a bit – allowing the individual to have access to the same technologies available to large corporations – of course, that doesn’t always make it cost effective, but it is still pretty cool. The focus of this article is how to leverage the… Continue reading Streaming Media from Cloudfront
Using Telnet with an SMTP Server
Despite having been around for a long time, telnet is an invaluable tool for testing a mail server. It allows one to pinpoint errors in the process – some which are not logged – and to quickly validate that things are working. Moreover, it enables one to get a better understanding of what their mail… Continue reading Using Telnet with an SMTP Server
Merging Videos of the Same Type
While modern computers have greatly advanced in their ability to handle video editing, it remains one of the slowest commonly performed operations. Within the realm of video editing, common tasks include: splitting a video (e.g. into two files to fit onto a disk) merging a video (e.g. combining two videos into a single file) splicing… Continue reading Merging Videos of the Same Type
Using Wireshark to Debug FTPES through vsFTP
Using Wireshark to Debug FTPES through vsFTP While vsFTP is lightweight and has a relatively good track record, the verbosity of its logs is lacking. Without having an error logged, it can be considerably more difficult to find and resolve the problem. This issue is compounded when using an encrypted connection. After recently enabling FTP… Continue reading Using Wireshark to Debug FTPES through vsFTP
Configuring vsFTPd to use TLS
A typical FTP session, will send login information unencrypted. It is a fairly simple matter to configure vsftpd to use SSL/TLS and encrypt connections. You can either create a self-signed certificate for this purpose, or use an existing third-party issued certificate. Generate a self-signed certificate Firstly, we generate the private key (in this case, 2048… Continue reading Configuring vsFTPd to use TLS
Setting up SSL Login on WordPress
I decided that I wanted the login for this site to be over SSL/TLS, instead of unencrypted – at this time, I decided against having the admin area also running under SSL. This article describes how to accomplish the following: Preparation of private key and certificate signing request (CSR) Obtaining a free SSL certificate (from… Continue reading Setting up SSL Login on WordPress
Limiting brute-force attacks with IPTables
Update: a more comprehensive, tiered version of the procedure below is outlined in Escalating Consquences with ipTables. The material below is, however still applicable, and forms the basis for many more advanced implementations. For the past few weeks, I have noticed that the scale of attempted intrusions, on ssh, pop3, and ftp ports has increased… Continue reading Limiting brute-force attacks with IPTables
FileZilla’s Quickconnect List
My preferred FTP client has, for a long time, been FileZilla. To connect to a FTP account, I generally select the account from the Quickconnect menu, as I am sure many others do. However, I find that sometimes on connecting to a new FTP account, I might mistype the information, or (as recently occurred), if… Continue reading FileZilla’s Quickconnect List
Website Optimizations, Part 2
While a significant portion of the content of this site is geared towards optimizations and efficiency, I think that summing up a few of those ideas in a single article can be helpful, and will follow nicely from the previous article on Website Optimizations. The major focus of the last article was content as opposed… Continue reading Website Optimizations, Part 2
Basic Diagnostics for Hibernate and Sleep
(This article is written with particular reference to Windows operating systems, especially Windows 7, although, some points are applicable to other operating systems as well). The current state of a computer is almost entirely dependent on the state of the computer’s RAM. That is to say, that the data stored in memory tells the computer… Continue reading Basic Diagnostics for Hibernate and Sleep
Partitioning Basics
One of the necessities of a multi-boot setup is partitioning, but the uses of partitioning go far beyond its application to multi-boot setups. The act of splitting a drive into multiple logical parts is known as partitioning; each part is called a partition. A physical drive refers to the actual, tangible device, while logical drives refer… Continue reading Partitioning Basics
AWS Instances with EBS Root Volumes
While instances backed with EBS-root volumes do cost a bit more than the equivalent instance-store images (there is a cost for I/O), they have certain advantages – persistence and ease of replacement being notable. This article will focus on the latter. As a quick side note before proceeding, it is possible to add ephemeral storage… Continue reading AWS Instances with EBS Root Volumes
VirtualBox fails to start
Some of my recent exploration of virtual machines in VirtualBox led me to using a beta version of version 4. After an unsuccessful removal of a virtual machine, VirtualBox continually crashed (error relates to qtcorevbox4.dll) as soon as the interface appeared, and reinstalling the program did not resolve the issue. In order to continue using… Continue reading VirtualBox fails to start