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Using a CDN at home for free!

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +1200

Cloudflare are nice enough to provide a free tier to their CDN service which is perfect for those of us that still host websites at home. The free teir provides some basic benefits - DDOS protection and caching. Check out the details here - https://www.cloudflare.com/plans/#overview

If you utilize their tunneling solution, you’ll also be able to host websites behind a dynamic IP. You’ll no longer need a static IP. This means the traffic goes like so;

Brave Browser - another non-ad web alternative?

Wed, 24 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +1200

Brave is a web browser that has been about for while, but i only happened across it when it made its way onto the android platform.

It presents another concept which supports web content creators without subjecting viewers to horrendous ads, both in their content and in their speed detriment.

Check their site out here - https://brave.com

Crypto mining failed me (see coin hive here), ads are annoying and more and more likely to be blocked via various plugins and tools. The Brave browser blocks all ads by default and builds up a profile on where you are spending your time on the web. Contributions are then made to the various sites if they are registered to the “BAT” system, which is a way of rewarding the content providers.

time to disable coinhive - hysteria ensues

Mon, 29 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +1300

See my previous post here - /2017/10/13/coinhive-alternative

So the trial of coinhive and associated monero browser mining has come to an end. It seems most corporate firewalls and security appliances detect and block access to my domain just being associated with the coinhive java-script.

Even though i was being a polite net citizen and disclosing it on the site - firewalls with strict polices dont give it a chance. Several public DNS servers have also block listed the site - hopefully this will be undone soon.

moving wordpress to http2 (via https)

Mon, 15 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +1300

I just moved my wordpress site to http2 (via https). Some advice on steps to moving your site ;

Run it behind nginx + lets encrypt - offload ssl certs and get http2 performance
Setup nginx default to redirect all http -> https
update your WordPress site to correct URL (via admin / settings / general) i.e.
Run WP plug-in to change all media / links to new https links. Else you get mixed secuirty (some http, some https)
- I used - https://wordpress.org/plugins/velvet-blues-update-urls/

SSL caching and redirects in chrome

Mon, 15 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +1300

While setting up SSL reverse proxy using lets encrypt and nginx i had a few troubles with testing via googles Chrome browser.

Chrome caches some SSL responses which can be cleared by deleting your browsing data via settings or Ctrl+Shift+Del.
Chrome also caches http -> https redirects, you can see these by going to chrome://net-internals and select “HSTS” from the drop down. Enter the domain name under “Delete domain” and press the Delete button

The easiest thing to do during testing is use incognito mode. You will not need to clear the cache every time you change config or re-issue certificates.

bye bye http - hello letsencrypt

Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +1300

I’ve been a fan of HTTP and caching since my dial-up modem.

Skip to today where google returns HTTPS sites higher in its search results. Its could also be possible that you cannot trust a man in the middle HTTP cache any longer either right? :)

SSL certs have traditionally been expensive, but say welcome to lets encrypt which provides a free way of securing all of your websites. If you haven’t heard of it check it out here - https://letsencrypt.org/

steamcache for gaming

Mon, 05 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +1300

Assuming you have docker running at home, check out these two docker projects - one is the cache (powered by nginx), the other is the dns servcie (which intercepts steam calls)

When you have all three up and running you can confirm HITS to the cache by running the following against the steamcache container;

docker exec -it steamcache tail -f /data/logs/access.log

This is great if you have a gaming cafe or LAN over at your house on occasion, all steam games will be cached to local disk so that your internet pipe gets a break. ;)