Implementing https

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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

don’t turn off DHCP!

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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……

Winrar extraction path history

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Found a way to clear the extraction path history in winrar that had screwed up a little after i changed some drive mappings

Run the registry editor (start | run program | regedit) and browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ WinRAR \ DialogEditHistory \ ExtrPath. Clear all the entries in here.

 

worked a treat

Draytek Vigor 2860ac

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My existing vigor 2820 is showing its age and he wireless has become increasingly flaky. After being nagged by the children I found out that the config of the 2820 series can be backed up and imported into a new vigor 2860! With a rather complicated existing network setup I thought this would save me loads of hassle. And it did. It took less than a couple of minutes to import the 2820 config settings into the new router and everything worked first time. The 2860 has a built-in vdsl modem so that is the next challenge to remove the crappy BT vdsl modem and configure this instead. Well done Draytek for making it straightforward!

Fixing my freezing acer aspire v5 122p

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My mini laptop starting freezing recently to the point of being unusable. Seems an update to the AMD graphics driver has caused the issue and i’ve managed to fix it using the guide below – thanks to user LutherGaylord

The problem is the new AMD graphics driver, which gets installed automatically by Windows Update.

It is not compatible with Windows 10 on this laptop; it makes the computer utterly unusable.

But there is a solution:

(1) Tell Windows to stop installing hardware drivers along with updates.

Control Panel —> System and Security —> System —> Advanced System Settings —> Hardware —> Device Installation Settings

“Do you want to automatically download manufacturers’ apps and custom icons available for your devices?”

Select “No” and then click “Save Changes”.

DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP, or Windows will re-install the rogue graphics driver after every reboot.

(2) Uninstall the current graphics driver.

Device Manager —> Display adapters —> AMD Radeon HD 8250 —> Properties —> Driver —> Uninstall

(3) Install AMD graphics driver 15.200.1060.0 (17 Aug 2015)

Here is a direct link:
http://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/Driver/VGA/VGA_AMD_15.200.1060.0_W10x64_A.zip?acerid=635753732668194923&Step1=NOTEBOOK&Step2=ASPIRE&Step3=ASPIRE E5-521&OS=ALL&LC=en&BC=ACER&SC=PA_6