Ever notice how HOT your router gets?  (Especially if has wireless built into it.)   Linksys routers “look” like they can be stacked, but the heat build up is so much it will just ruin your router.  How does it ruin it?  Well, heat is the enemy!  You’ll notice you have to go over and reset your router more frequently by unplugging it and replugging it back in.  (these are just the first signs of a router going bad, you can get by for years doing that if you need to but it’s a pain!)

Solution:  Simply go get a small netbook cooling pad and set your router on top of that.  I use the powered USB type and simply plug it into my desktop.  The heat on the bottom of the router is cut WAY down.  It’s not even hot to the touch.

If your wondering where I got this from, I purchased it from: Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0026QT2NW/ref=oss_product

$10.00 to save a $180.00 router.  Well worth the money and the frustration of returning it!

James

Some pictures…

If your like me, maybe you have multiple email accounts that you pop regularly into your outlook 2007?  You also have a laptop?  Did you “flirt” with Exchange?  I have.  The problem with exchange is it was designed for folks that have “one” email account.  If you only have “one” email account, then maybe exchange is the way to go for you?  But what about those folks that have “multiple” mail accounts going into outlook 2007?  Yes, what about that?  Doesn’t work so nicely if your trying to sync with a laptop.  You start getting duplicate emails and all sorts of issues because Exchange was apparently NOT designed for people like you and me with multiple mail accounts.

So you have other ways of syncing your data?  You may have already discovered that Google can sync your calendar quite nicely.  It does.  Then you wanted to sync your contacts?  Not so easy.  How about your sent folder?  Wouldn’t it be nice if you sent an email on your laptop that same “sent” email appeared in the sent folder on your desktop?  How about a sent email on your desktop showing up in the sent folder on your laptop so you have all your data all the time?  Well, I discovered some software that does just that.

Here’s the link:
http://www.syncing.net/

You can download a 30 day trial and check it out.

You can even sync folders on your desktop with a folder on your laptop.  Drag and drop that spreadsheet into that folder and it appears on your laptop.  Make changes on your laptop and it’s now on your desktop perfectly synced.  The url above is not a “referral” url.  I don’t get anything for this.  I’m just so happy to have found a solution I’m willing to spill the beans!

This software is syncing all I need it to sync.  Very happy with it.  Don’t need it to sync my Inbox, just all the “other” stuff.

Got a blackberry?  I gave up on Google calendar and Contact’s sync.  I sync my blackberry with my desktop or laptop now.  I can sync with either computer now that both desktop and laptop are synced.  YES, it would be nice to have some software that would sync my calendar and contacts on my blackberry but I have yet to find anything that will do that yet.  This is where Exchange does great.  Either way, the money saved is worth the extra 2 minutes it takes me to manually sync my blackberry.    If you have an iPhone, I believe there is a syncing.net app that works good for you.

James

Spammers send out their email harvestor bots all the time.  If you put your email address on your website as a link in clear text, you will begin to get “spam”.  Given enough time, a LOT of it.   Email encoding can help a lot.  Ultimately, not putting your email address on your website is the best solution and stick with feed back forms that incorporate captcha images or math captcha.  A simple script by Craig Dansie, author of the Dansie Shopping Cart, can be found here: http://www.dansie.net/mail.html

It’s free.  Nice huh?  If you would like Craig Dansie to install it, he can do so for a very modest fee of 35.00 USD.

If you wish to put your email addresses on your site, here are a few helpful links to help you do it “securely”:

http://www.addressmunger.com/
http://www.stevedawson.com/emailencode.php
http://script-smart.com/resources/email-encoder/index.php

Be spam free before you have to pay a fee to be free!

James

Using wsftp (my favorite and recommended ftp client software) I simply right click on the file or folder I wish to chmod.  This brings up a menu.  I go down to properties…

I can then choose to chmod it… 

755

666

777

Connect to your VPS server via SSH, su to root, and run the following command:

# mkdir /usr/local/certs

# cd /usr/local/certs

# openssl genrsa -des3 -out yourdomain-name.key 2048

You will be asked to provide the information you gathered earlier. Most of the questions are self explanatory, except that common name refers to the domain name that you want to use when accessing your site using SSL (ie domain.com, www.domain.com, cname.domain.com, or *.domain.com).

When you have entered all the data, your CSR will be shown. It is a good idea to save the CSR by copying and pasting it into a file on your local computer. You will need it when you are ordering your SSL certificate from the Signing Authority’s Web site. The following is an example of a CSR. Note that the CSR includes the lines with BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST and END CERTIFICATE REQUEST.

—–BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST—–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==
—–END CERTIFICATE REQUEST—–

In the directory where you ran the openssl command you will also find a new file called privkey.pm. This is your private key which you will need at a later time. The following is an example of a private key. Note that the lines containing BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY and END RSA PRIVATE KEY are part of the key.

—–BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY—–
Proc-Type: 4,ENCRYPTED
DEK-Info: DES-EDE3-CBC,BCC23A5E16582F3D
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—–END RSA PRIVATE KEY—–

Ordering a Signed Digital Certificate
The ordering process for obtaining a signed digital certificate is different for each vendor and certificate type. There are, however, some things that will remain the same throughout all of them. The following is a list of useful tips for ordering your certificate.

At some point in the ordering process, you will be asked for a Server Type or the Server Software you are running. You will need to select Apache-SSL or Apache with OpenSSL.
Once you have obtained a signed digital certificate, you need to install it and set up SSL to use your certificate and private key instead of the default.

When you got your certificate, you most likely saved it to a file on your local computer. You will need to copy the file onto your Virtual Private Server via FTP. Be sure to copy the file using ASCII format to avoid corrupting the file. Copy the file to the /usr/local/certs/ directory with the name ssl.cert.

If your signing authority provided you with a Certificate Authority file, you should also copy it to the /usr/local/certs/ directory.

Once the certificate is on your server, get the Private Key, which you generated at the same time as you generated the CSR, and confirm it is in the /usr/local/certs/ directory with the name ssl.pk. Make sure to keep a copy of the Private Key in a different location as well so if you make a mistake you don’t lose your Private Key. You may want to create a directory on your Virtual Private Server and store a copy of both your Private Key and the Certificate until you are certain that the new certificate is working properly.

Connect to your server via SSH, su to root, and run the following:

# cd /usr/local/certs

# openssl rsa -in ssl.pk -out ssl.pk

The openssl rsa command removes the default encryption on your key, and makes it useable by the Apache Web Server. You can tell if your Private Key has been decrypted or not by looking at the file. When your key was generated, the first few lines should have looked similar to the following.

—–BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY—–
Proc-Type: 4,ENCRYPTED
DEK-Info: DES-EDE3-CBC,BCC23A5E16582F3D

hfWyPkea3gnVCHCZJ/zgQpCH9RZF7WjYXGYohdbfkJY0ETLwXaqjvnNHQlLomwIt

After decrypting your key, the key should have changed to look similar to the following.

—–BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY—–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—–END RSA PRIVATE KEY—–

You now need to create a PEM file that contains both the certificate and key. To do this, run the following commands:

# cd /usr/local/certs

# cp ssl.pk example.com.pem

# cat ssl.cert >>  example.com.pem

Edit your /www/conf/httpd.conf file to look for your certificate file by adding the following command:

SSLCertificateFile /usr/local/certs/example.com.pem

Once you have added the certificate directive to your /www/conf/httpd.conf file, you need to run restart_apache to make Apache start using the new certificate.

Check to make sure the new certificate is working by connecting to the domain your certificate is set up to use via HTTPS. For example, if your domain name were www.example.com, you would type the following into your browser’s location bar.

https://www.example.com

If the page loads without any errors, find the lock icon on your browser and click on it (depending on your browser you may need to double-click). This will bring up the certificate information or a window that lets you view certificate information. Check to see that the certificate is using the correct domain name and has the correct information.

If you intend to use your SSL certificate with E-Mail as well, you will need to make links so that the POP and IMAP will be able to find the file as well:

# ln /usr/local/certs/example.com.pem /usr/local/certs/imapd.pem

# ln /usr/local/certs/example.com.pem /usr/local/certs/ipop3d.pem

That’s about it.  Enjoy.