Cloudflare DNSSEC with IONOS API
It seems a general thing that if your using IONOS as your domain registrar enabling DNSSEC in Cloudflare is frustratingly difficult with the main recommend w...
Recent posts
Netlify APEX DNS Setup
Netlify has several options for the apex DNS record of a domain. The apex of the domain is the domain itself. For example howson.me is the apex of this site....
My Apple Wallet Review
I got an Apple Wallet for Christmas. Overall i’m really happy with it. Reading about the wallet online I noticed a pattern that there are a number of issues ...
Fixing Apple Watch Vodafone Error 2004
How to fix Apple Watch Error 2004 on Vodafone UK
Turning 2020 Samsung Washer Music Off
How to turn off the cycle completion chime on a Samsung 2020 washer with slimline control panel.
DrayTek Vigor 130 and Google Wifi
This guide explains how to get a DrayTek Vigor 130 and Google Wifi working together.
Windows 7 USB Physical to Virtual VMWARE Fusion
I have an old Windows 7 machine that needed virtualing for a family memeber. I wanted to virtualise it however becasue the host hardware was dead. They were ...
VMWARE Fusion 11.x to 11.5 Free Upgrade
How to update VMWare Fusion to 11.5 for free
Packard Bell Butterfly Recovery
I was given an old Packard Bell EasyNote laptop by a family member they wanted recycling. On closer inspection while over 9 years old and on Windows 7 the ma...
Fixing a Mac Mini that only works by resetting PRAM.
This guide explains how to fix a Mac Mini which only works when resetting the PRAM. This guide was written for the Late 2014 Mac Mini.
Setting up DNSSEC on Gandi Live DNS
Gandi launched a new platform called Live DNS a couple of years ago, it has been improving all the time. Is is part of their V5 upgrade. While Gandi have now...
Sophos for Linux 9 E-mail Alert Configuration
How to setup e-mail alerting with Sophos for Linux using the command line.
Ubuntu Firewall - Filter by ASN
I use Uncomplicated Firewall (UFW). Its a friendly version of iptables for people with simple needs. Additional information here. I configure SSH to use keys...
VMWARE Windows 98 Sound Fix
This method has been tested on VMWARE Fusion 8 as well as 10. Full credit to dada78641 and poentaEosei. My Windows 95 version of this guide can be found here.
Ubuntu Live Patch Linode Quick Tip
Canonical, the commercial arm behind Ubuntu have made the Livepatch Service a few years ago. This allows you to live patch your kernel without rebooting. It ...
Recover Microsoft Office Installer when you purchased it through HUP
If your employer has a volume license agreement then you may have bought office for your home computer through the Home Use Program (HUP). Sometimes getting ...
Using PowerDNS with Gandi Live DNS to enhance resilience
Recently I wrote about using Gandi LiveDNS. Another feature available is to use your own DNS server to slave Gandi’s DNS for extra resilience. This guide exp...
Joining the NTP Pool
This morning I setup a NTP server and added it to the UK pool. While as the graph shows it has been rising…
Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 with VMWARE ESXI 6.5 or 6.7
When I setup ESXI 6.5 I found one of my network cards was not found. I could see that ESXI was aware of it by listing the adapters from the command line:
Quick tip - Apticron - Handy hints and tips
Apticron is a great tool, it will automatically e-mail you an alert if you have outstanding packages that need upgrading on a *nix systems. Some useful tips ...
Outlook.com Premium - Bring your own domain don’t pay $10
Outlook.com Premium is Windows Live Domains in new clothes with a bit of modernisation. Its not a criticism mind, its a great service for consumers who wish ...
Quick Tip: Firefox stuck in a update loop on MacOS
I had a issue where I could not get FireFox to update
Reset a forgotten OS X Password
If you forget a password in OS X there is an easy way to reset it.
DNSSEC and PowerDNS
I’ve been running PowerDNS for a couple of months now including DNSSEC. Here is how I set it up and how to avoid the pitfalls I fell into.
CAA Records
Put simply Certification Authority Authorization or CAA is a special type of DNS records that allows you to inform a certification authority if they are allo...
Secondary DNS with Hurricane Electric
Hurricane Electric based in the US provide a number of services to the internet. They are probably best known for Tunnel Broker however they also offer DNS h...
Setting up SSHFP records
SSHFP Records are DNS records that allow you to publish fingerprints of your servers so they can be verified using DNS lookups when you connect to them. This...
Picking a CPanel Provider - some considerations
CPanel is a very popular web hosting control panel. It allows you to manage a linxu, apachem PHP and MySQL server stack effortlessly and allows web hosting p...
MySQL- Get Database size
A quick tip on getting the size of all MySQL databases:
Secure WebDav in Windows 7
When adding webdav in Windows 7 it may feel completely alien. The correct syntax if mapping using This PC (formally called My Computer) is:
Longview with Varnish
Linode’s Longview service gives you a great insight into how well your server is running. The standard automatic install fails when trying to set Nginx monit...
YouView Control on Bose Solo 5 Sound Bar
I recently got a sound bar for Christmas. Looking online it looks like you can’t programme the BT YouView box with the Bose universal remote. You can control...
Setting G Suite Relay up in Ghost
Setting up a Google WorkSpaces (formally GSuite and prior to that Google Apps) is easy in Ghost. Simply configure G Suite to allow the IP address of the serv...
Lets encrypt change e-mail
A quick tip, if you need to change your Lets encrypt e-mail you can do it with certbot using the following command:
How to fix thin print driver install failure in Windows 2000 when using VMWARE
When working with Windows 2000 you may notice that you can’t install the thinprint drivers and you get an error saying “RUNDLL Error loading tpvmmon.dll the ...
Fixing Windows 10 with BootCamp - when it won’t install and you’ve tried everything
I use a Mac Mini Late 2014 which has a fusion drive. I hit a common problem where it refuses to install windows using boot camp saying either:
Vmware Fusion to Hyper-V Disk Conversion using a Mac
Today I wanted to convert a virtual machine from VMWare Fusion to Hyper-V using a Mac. There is talk of doing it on Windows but nothing on a Mac. The process...
Easy way to check for cached credentials
You can run the following command to make it easy to check for cached credentials.
Setting up Sophos Antivirus for Linux
Most people use ClamAV for their server anti virus, some still question the need to have antivirus on their servers. On that point, its true there is very fe...
Upgrade Garage Band for free if you have Mavericks
This quick guide assumes you have a valid license for OS X Lion and iLife.
Protecting your domain
A lot of people own a domain either for business or personal use. Few people stop to consider the security of their domain. When you think about it though if...
Sophos UTM Backup and Restore from the command line
You can easily restore a backup of your Sophos UTM from the command line by using the following command:
Unlock Ghost Accounts without resetting the password
If you remember your password but the account is already locked you can unlock it at the database level. I have demonstrated this using MySQL.
Clear SSH Key Cache in OS X
Sometimes you can clear a key in OS X however it will hold onto it in memory. This is due to OS X holding onto the keys with a time to live forever unless th...
VMWARE Sound fix for Windows 95
I know Windows 95 is over 21 years old but I had some legacy software I wanted to try out. When using VMWARE Fusion or workstation there are well documented ...
Opening Lotus Word Pro files
My wife had a load of old stories she wrote in Lotus word pro in the late 90’s. She had them on a floppy disk and never thought she would see them again. Aft...
Quick Tip - Tomato - Creating a Guest Wifi Network
Creating a guest wifi in Tomato is easy. Just follow these screen shots: To begin:
Norton ConnectSafe
Please note as of November 2018 this service has been retired Not many people realise but Norton ConnectSafe is a free service (even if you don’t use Norton ...
Expanding Varnish to Serve Mutiple Languages
Varnish is often used with PHP or NodeJS. On my server I run both applications simultaneously. Its possible to run NodeJS and PHP applications through Nginx,...
VMware Windows 2000 Virtualisation
I have been virtualising an application that only runs on Windows 2000. I hit a number of problems including missing files when I try to install VMware Tools...
Moving a Nessus 6.x Installation
Today I had to move a Debian based Nessus installation on a physical Machine to a virtual one. After a bit of head scratching I came up with a method. I cou...
Fixing Disqus comments when using Cloudflare
Most people when they find Disqus does not work with Cloudflare due to rocket loader just turn it off. By default its on automatic. There is a solution though.
Easy way to add Strict Transport Security in Apache
Here is a easy way to add HyperText Strict Transport Security Headers to Apache. Simply edit .htaccess and add the following line:
Ensuring Cloudflare SSL / TLS is secure
You may have seen online some articles talking about if its secure. Scott Helme wrote a really good article. Here is a easy to follow method to ensure its as...
Recovering D-Link 868L Firmware
I previously had DD-WRT running on my router however I wanted to roll it back. There is a little known trick built into most modern D-Link routers that allow...
Postfix Smarthost with Debian Jessie
After running a mail server for a number of years I got fed up of managing spam and unreliable delivery for system mail. Expanding my recent of use mailgun f...
Expanding Ghost Hunter Search Engine
The ghost blog has a search engine which works by using the RSS feed to find entries. As I have starting writing more prolifically I realised that the blog s...
Managing Gandi NodeJS Applications
Gandi run NodeJS applications using forever. When updating your application with any change, such as adding a new theme, it won’t work until the application ...
Gandi and Ghost SMTP settings
Although all the information is out there using Gandi’s simple hosting, its scattered and despite the name not that simple or obvious! Here is a code snippet...
Netgear ReadyNAS Security Tips
Here are three ways to improve the security of your Netgear ReadyNAS generally. That is not to say that the ReadyNAS is insecure these tips improve it even f...
Avoiding ReadyNAS Time Machine Problems
Often when using network attached storage (NAS) devices that are not official Apple Time Capsules errors seem to appear. Although I don’t have absolute concr...
Fixing Ghost / Nginx Redirect Loops
In Ghost (0.7.4) if you try to deliver your whole website over TLS (a.k.a SSL) you often get a redirect loop as below:
Setting up Ghost with Gandi Simple Hosting
The Gandi guides on using NodeJS and MySQL seem to be outdated and it fails on Gandi simple hosting without some tweaking. Here is a simple guide on how to d...
Simple way to clear Linux History
A really simple way to clear terminal history in either linux or mac is to use this command:
Yubikey with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
I have recently got a Yubikey. A yubikey is a security token. A yubikey is a security token. There are two variations. One is a simple U2F (universal second ...
Changing a Primary Domain in Google Apps
Until fairly recently it was impossible to change your domain with Google Apps for work (formally known as Google Apps for business). Its clunky but its now ...
Wordpress Visual Editor not displaying properly in Nginx
I have decided Ghost is not for me and recently gone back to WordPress. A guide on coming back to wordpress to follow. One weird issue I found was the visual...
MySQL Root Password reset
There are loads of ways to reset a forgotten MySQL root password. Here is my favourite method.
ProFTPD - Allow login without shell / SSH Access
If you use ProFTPD in either traditional FTP mode or in the fairly new SFTP mode (not to be confused with FTPS) then you read a lot that its not possible to ...
OS X - Mail accounts that won’t delete
Sometimes there are mail accounts OS X’s mail app that won’t delete. This is usually you have multiple accounts with the same provider. In reality its simply...
Using Mailgun to send System Mail in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
After running a mail server for a number of years I got fed up of managing spam and unreliable delivery for system mail. Expanding my recent of use mailgun f...
Apple Keyboard with Mac & Apple TV
If you have a Mac in close range to Apple TV and you want to use the same bluetooth keyboard with both it can be a bit of a pain. If you have a mouse connect...
Kali 2.0 on Windows & Mac
I have been playing with some penetration testing tools lately. The most common distribution is Kali Linux. If you are just getting started with Kali Linux I...
OS X BootCamp Windows 8 to Windows 10 Upgrade
Today I installed bootcamp. It did not go as smoothly as expected. Although Apple’s support documentation at the time of writing just said follow the upgrade...
Adding a swap partition to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
After trying to upgrade Ghost to the latest version I found NPM (the package manager for node) kept crashing and simply said killed. After much head scratchi...
Google Chrome Site Testing
After some development work today I found a really useful way to check Chrome with all Security Restrictions turned off. Of course this should never be used ...
Moving from WP-Cache to Varnish
Today I have transferred my Wordpress sites from WP-Cache to Varnish. The reason was simple. I wanted to reduce the complexity of caching. Using varnish allo...
Remove Varnish Headers
A quick tidbit which is great from a security point of view is to remove the versions of software you are running. If you use varnish this is easy to do. thi...
Ghost with MySQL
I have recently been trying ghost as an alternative to Wordpress. Although I still run a fair few wordpress sites and can’t see it replacing times where you ...
Banksy Does New York
I watched a really interesting programme on Sky Arts. Called Banksy Does New York. http://www.sky.com/tv/show/banksy-does-new-york
Getting an A+ on SSL Labs using LEMP
When it comes to securing a website in transit encryption is an important part. Secure Socket Layers or SSL is the technology that enables this. If Ivan Rist...
MVHR Heat Recovery Maintenance
A guide I wrote on how to clean the Vent-Axia heat recovery system. Vent-Axia MVHR Cell Maintenance
Wd Mybook Live Time Machine Repair
ß— layout: single title: WD MyBook Live Time Machine Repair permalink: wd-mybook-live-time-machine-repair date: ‘2013-09-12 20:00:00’ tags: western-digita...
WD MyBook FTPS setup
Before you begin you need to make sure FTP and SSH are enabled on your live book. Doing this is well documented here so I won’t go into it. I also posted thi...