Archive for internet
Traditionally if one was to secure a web server using TLS (or previously, SSL) – then one would configure your web server to use TCP port 443 to listen for TLS requests from clients (browsers). When a browser connects to the web server using the HTTPS protocol, the server would encrypt the communications and all would be well with the world.
A problem occurs when you use name based Virtual Hosting on your web server. If you need to determine the client request before providing content from a virtual host, e.g. blah.com vs. blahblah.com, then this couldn’t be done if you encrypted the communications using TLS. Enter stage left: Server Name Indication.
According to Wikipedia:
Server Name Indication is a feature that extends the SSL and TLS protocols. It permits the client to request the domain name before the certificate is committed to the server. This is essential for using TLS in virtual hosting mode.
I’ve a need to use Server Name Indication (SNI) for some freelance IT work I perform, but colleagues shy away from SNI since Internet Explorer on Windows XP is unsupported.
Is this an issue? Are so many people still on Windows XP that it will diminish the security aspects of implementing SSL to secure input of personal data ?
One of the best places to determine OS usage trends in Australia would be from Google, but they don’t provide such data. Therefore I turn to another source of data: StatCounter. They have been providing stats to websites and business for well over 10 years, so their data should be viable.
Source: StatCounter Global Stats – OS Market Share
The chart above shows Operating system usage for 2014 in Australia. Windows XP sits at 4 percent usage at the end of 2014. For an operating system that’s now unsupported and 4 Major versions old; it just shouldn’t be considered anymore.
Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Combine Chrome (all versions) & Firefox (5+) Market Share
The second chart shows browser usage statistics in 2014. Internet Explorer 6, which doesn’t support SNI, isn’t even on the chart anymore.
Knowing the actual statistics – the usage of Internet Explorer 6 (or a lesser version) and Windows XP seems to be so minimal that usage of SNI is a viable option; especially where it gives a rise to cost saving on implementation of x509 certificates on web front ends. What do you think?
I host this blog in WordPress, and it’s a great micro CMS with all the bells and whistles. I also publish and host the XML file for a podcast of the Angry Human. It’s picked up by feed burner, and then iTunes takes the feed burner RSS feed and et voila! All the Apple listeners to the show Angry Human by David Biedny get their recent shows!
I recently had an issue where I’ve moved this site from Rackspace Cloud Sites to the Godaddy Managed WordPress sites. One of the things that was happening was the URI for the podcast XML RSS feed was returning as a 404 not found; even though it was there. Nothing I tried made this thing work, and nowhere could I find other people talking about RSS XML files published alongside wordpress not working. Even adding a new .htaccess file in the subfolder on the server to turn off URL rewrites did not work.
Another client I had recently worked with wanted some SEO optimisations, and we ended up implementing the awesome WordPress SEO plugin by Joost de Valk . One of the things I had noted about this plugin on the Godaddy hosting, was that the XML site map feature used to help bots index the site, was not working. We fixed this quite easily with a commonly known fix in the .htaccess file on the WordPress host.
I had not groked this similar error until an “Aha” moment when I realised an XML file, whether it be sitemap.xml or angryhuman.xml had been invoking the same rewrite error causing a 404 not found on a valid URI for a hosted file. Double checking and I had indeed implemented WordPress SEO plugin on this site.
The root cause: any self published XML file outside of the standard wordpress folders on a GoDaddy Managed WordPress Site – will return a 404 not found if you are using WordPress 3.9 and WordPress SEO by Yoast.
Therefore the fix in this case for my self published XML feed for Angry Human was adding this to the .htaccess:
What a difference a new router makes.
I’ve been using the old Apple Airport extreme, 2nd generation, for about 8 years now. It’s been rock solid, and provided wireless access almost 24×7 for the whole 8 years.
Lately, things have been getting flakey. Trying to control my Mac Mini Boxee on the TV was laggy – and remoting to other desktops flaky. So today, I purchased an upgrade.
I was looking at the Cisco/Linksys offerings as I use a few at work, but when using a NAS device I would have had to reformat my existing HFS+ drives. I compared the Linksys E3000 model with the new Airport Extreme, and for $50 more, it seemed the Airport just fitted right in to my mac network. Well of course it would, Apples for Apples. The last thing to convince me was the 4.5 out of 5 star rating for the Airport extreme on the Apple Store – and a review from SmallNetBuilder.
Here I am – first blog post on the new wireless network. Simultaneous dual band speeeeeed.
It was simple to setup. Plugin, configure with the Apple Airport Utility (the CD has both Mac and PC versions included) and then I plugged in my Hard Drive. It gets shared, and used across all the Macs.
Check out the speed differences, before and after:
Old Airport photo courtesy me-pawel
New Airport photo courtesy of Bj
Someone sent me an email which asked what to do since:
one of my external hard drives, the one with EVERYTHING I REALLY, REALLY WANT on it has died
