MS Synctoy – great piece of software – deprecated and not available in windows 11 but still works fine – downloaded version 2.1 x64 from majorgeeks.com and it works a treat. You do need .net framework 3.5. I find it useful for preparing drives and content for a forthcoming NAS acquisition……
Author Archives: admin
Docker and Unifi controller setup
This is what i used to finally sort out migrating controller from windows to raspberry pi docker
https://www.disk91.com/2023/technology/networks/install-unifi-controller-on-raspberry-pi/
It was all a bit of a mare after i tried to move the unifi controller from windows to a docker image running on rpi – could not get the access points to be seen so i could adopt them.Tried all the methods like set-inform etc to no avail. Ended up very frustrated and deleted the docker image and used another one to set it all up from scratch, including SSHing into the access points and factory resetting them. This worked ok via the guide above.
Windows RDP stuck on ‘please wait’
Bit of an odd one this – intermittantly RDP session seems to get stuck and I can’t login remotely and end up stuck on the ‘please wait’ screen – After some searching this useful guide from Eric on learnmicrosoft forums allows a workaround!
Windows PC – RDP Client mehtod- save the RDP connection to a “.rdp” file and edit the configuration through MS ‘Notepad’ to add a configuration line that will disable NLA login method and force Windows Login
- Open MS RDP (Start->type “mstsc”->Enter) and type in the IP address you want to connect to
- Click the “Options” button at the bottom and Click “Save” to save your connection as a “.rdp” file. Remember where you saved the file.
- Click Start, type Notepad, Hit Enter
- Click File, Open, traverse to the “.rdp” file you saved in 3 and open it.
- Scroll to the last line and hit enter to add another line.
- Add the following to turn of the Network Level Authentication: “enablecredsspsupport:i:0”
- Click File, Save to save the “.rdp” file
- Click Start, type “File Explorer”
- Traverse to the directory which contains the “.rdp” file
- Double Click the “.rdp” file
- Connect, see Windows style login screen.
- Enter your credentials and get past the “Please Wait” screen
Note: After adding this configuration line, when you double click the “.rdp” file to connect, it will connect to the Windows PC and then display the login page where you will have to manually type in the User and Password. Unfortunately, it will save the User for next time you connect but not the Password
Using private dns on android devices
Recently changed to virgin media for my internet and then found i could not access my website at https://www.gcs3.co.uk at all, but if i switched off my wifi and used 4G or used a VPN I could connect no problem. After some faffing about I changed my wired pc to use google DNS rather than virgin media DNS and followed the guide here https://www.androidpolice.com/use-preferred-dns-server-android-tutorial/ so my wireless devices used google DNS rather than virgin media DNS. All works ok now. Really not sure what happened locally to cause this issue in the first place……release renew and flushing DNS didn’t fix the issue
Massgravel
massgravel github m*crosoft-activation-scripts
very very useful
Chrome not offering to save passwords
Free SSL update
Previously i had posted about using zerossl which was ok until I realised I needed an SSL cert for a 4th domain and had already used the 3 domain limit. Fixed this by using a free let’s encrypt SSL generator on punchsalad
Punchsalad has been a little glitchy recently so i have also tried SSLfree which has worked well for me. After verifying I owned the domain it generated the certificate as a big downloadable txt file – use the first of 3 certs as the certificate and certs 2&3 as the ca-bundle.Then add the private key and install the certificate
sorted for 90days at least…..
update – can use html verification and filezilla for all domains except gcs3 – use DNS verification for this
update #2 – downoad the details then copy/paste rather than trying to copy/paste from punchsalad. Don’t need to fill the CA-Bundle field either
update #3 – remember to use wildcards *.site.com, site.com
Contact Forms 7
This is a simple contact form for your website. I am using it alonside the Flamingo plugin to save messages. If you want to prevent spambots then use a recapcha plugin for it – I am using the Google service which requires a gmail address https://www.google.com/recaptcha/admin/create
Free SSL certificates
Really useful service from zeroSSL for up to 3 free certificates – only 90 days validity though. Verify you own the domain and then download and install your free cert
I use cPanel – https://help.zerossl.com/hc/en-us/articles/360060119773
pros- free and takes 5 mins to do, gives your site a browser padlock
cons – i need to do it every 3 months per domain
I had been using letsencrypt which had an autorenew feature with my hosting provider but new hosting doesn’t support this, hence zeroSSL
W10 reinstall on new SSD
Just upgraded laptop HDD to a speedier SSD and reinstalled Windows
Some useful things – Rufus
How to get the uptodate Windows version for Rufus to create the bootable USB – here
Massgravel MAS on GitHub
Job done