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

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

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

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

Great free scanner program https://www.naps2.com/

Simple and worked straight-off with my elderly canoscan Lide100

Such a great plugin to open up gmail when you click on ’email to’ in a program (in my case foxit phantom pdf)

https://www.affixa.com/

Spent a while trying to sort out SSL certificates for my websites as fed up of chrome reporting ‘not secure’ beside the address bar. (basically changing http to https for the web address) I didn’t know that SSL certificates can cost 40 quid upwards a year.
I’m with Tsohost. I followed a very simple guide here for installing a free SSL certificate that is fine for small sites without any e-commerce like mine – the free certificate is called ‘Let’s encrypt’ and can be installed from your tsohost control panel with a few clicks.
You can also check your site’s status at whynopadlock.com which has a really neat feature in the results bit for ‘force https’ – click on the more info bit of this and it gives you the code to copy/paste into your htaccess file to force all traffic directed at http to https for your site

Great little plugin to search and replace all my http://gcs3.co.uk addresses to https://www.gcs3.co.uk and make the site padlock friendly!

Top tip #1 – don’t turn off DHCP server on your draytek router then reboot it. I couldn’t connect to it and ended up factory resetting it and starting from scratch. All because I have setup a mesh wifi network that runs off a different subnet and I thought having 2 devices controlling DHCP was bad. Also sharp learning curve in setting up double NAT rules on draytek router and tp-link deco mesh.

Top tip #2 – check your router config backups work. I found out the hard way after the draytek factory reset when my recently saved config failed to restore……

Just had a drive die in my microserver and wasn’t sure which one it was

This was helpful! Drivebay numbering