Anytime you set a clean fresh FreeBSD install or just any other operating system you must update it. This should be the first thing. If you are a bit security aware (read paranoid) you can first set up the firewall rules and then update the system to the latest release where you have all the […]
How to update FreeBSD with freebsd-update
A brief introduction to SSL/TLS certificates
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and it an old implementation of a crytographic protocol. TLS, or Transport Layer Security, is a new one. They are both used to have privacy in the communications between different parties. They are used to secure email, web browsing, instant messaging, etc These protocols work in a complex way […]
How to secure FreeBSD (server minimal edition)
This is a very simple and easy to follow guide on securely administer your FreeBSD server. That said I am not a security expert although I’ve gained some knowledge as time goes by. Not pretending to be the definitive guide this article is an introduction on how to secure FreeBSD in which I will tackle […]
How to export a MySQL database.
You are your website editor, owner and now administrator. You want control over the whole process and you are migrating from a managed site. Or you are a versed user on unix-like environments and you are just willing to export your database. This is a simple post on how to export a MySQL database. If […]
How to install WordPress on FreeBSD
You can find information about how to install WordPress on FreeBSD somewhere else since there are many tutorials around explaining it. However I thought mine would be a bit more interesting to you. Read on. As you should be aware (and hopefully you already are) installing WordPress requires a stack of other software. Typically you […]
A word on Spectre and Meltdown
As professionals and many aficionados know, early this year some widespread vulnerabilities were found on Intel CPU’s as well as on AMD’s. It was a bit later discovered the flaws also affected some RISC architectures such as Power and ARM. Everybody went nuts and the world seemed to be tumbling because of two CPU vulnerabilities […]
How to replace a disk on a ZFS mirror pool
It’s happened to me, it’s happened to you, it’s happened more than one million times and it will still happen in the future. You run out of disk space or a disk fails. Nowadays you are using ZFS, and instead of having a fancy RAIDZ, because you still don’t need it, you are using a […]
How to configure Apache HTTP as a reverse proxy on FreeBSD
Apache HTTP as a reverse proxy consists on setting an Apache HTTP server as a frontal access for one or multiple backend servers. In the recent years many have started using NGINX as a reverse proxy since this piece of software really shines for serving static content an acting as a cache server. This doesn’t […]
SSH keys
SSH or how to remotely control a UNIX system in a secure manner. The SSH keys is a secure method to interact with a UNIX system remotely. They are also used to transfer data between different systems. Using clever cryptography anyone can use them. As their name state it is a pair of keys, one […]
How to install software in FreeBSD with pkgng
The pkgng is the package management system in FreeBSD. It is used to install applications, and specific modules, libraries, etc. Nowadays you can select in between more than 25.000 thousand. Yes, twenty five thousand. The syntax to use is very intuitive and simple. As you may be already aware software comes in two forms. Source […]