phaqphaq

Here’s a list of my favorite Firefox plugins:

• Download Statusbar 
• Aging Tabs
• ShowIP
• ASnumber
• FireFTP

No big list after all, but essentially all I need.

It’s been almost a year now since phunsites was relaunched after a rather long time of absence.

I remember writing my first post, which expressed my doubts that I would ever find enough time to create a unique web design.

However, after reflecting about phunsites and the achievements made so far, I finally decided to climb the mountain.

A great deal of work has already been completed, including creating the new design, adding link redirects, changing article references and micj more.

But there is still plenty of work to do, which includes re-implementing the photo gallery and the media archive (changeing their original web design will be driving me crazy for sure…) and fixing some minor glitches here and there.

As you’ve propably noticed, there is also a drastic change in the site structure itself. While there was just “Phlog” (Phunsites Blog) in the past, the site will be divided into several subsites in the future.

“Phlog” was already replaced the “phaq” (Phunsites FAQ), which will however cover the same tech topics as before.
With “phersonal” (Phunsites Personal) a new sidekick covering primarily personal topics has been added to the site.

And for the inpatient ones who can’t wait for new topics on Phlog/phaq: Yes, there are some new articles underway, including the FreeBSD software RAID benchmarks promised a few days ago.

It’s time. Let’s farewell “rampart” and welcome the new ph! style. Enjoy!

In case you ever happen to be listed on a DNS blacklist you’ll propably find it useful checking for the actual DNS reply.
The point is that many popular blacklists usually provide information and database checks on their websites, however the latter one very often do not reflect current entries withint the blacklist.

So, the way to go is either using ‘host’, ‘dig’ or ‘nslookup’. Requested addresses must be specified equally as if you were actually searching for a reverse entry (PTR).

In the example given, the IP address “192.168.0.1″ (reversed 1.0.168.192) is assumed, while ‘ns.of.choice’ is a synonym for your local nameserver.

So a query for ‘dig’ might look like this (output stripped a little):

#dig 1.0.168.192.blacklist.domain.tld @ns.of.choice ANY
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;1.0.168.192.blacklist.domain.tld. IN ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
1.0.168.192.blacklist.domain.tld. 3600 IN A 127.0.0.6
1.0.168.192.blacklist.domain.tld. 3600 IN TXT “sample for typical rbl message”

The same query for the ‘host’ command:

#host -t any 1.0.168.192.blacklist.domain.tld ns.of.choice
Using domain server:
Name: ns.of.choice
Address: 192.168.1.1#53
Aliases:

1.0.168.192.blacklist.domain.tld has address 127.0.0.6
1.0.168.192.blacklist.domain.tld descriptive text “sample for a typical rbl message”
And the same again using ‘nslookup’:

#nslookup -class=any 1.0.168.192.blacklist.domain.tld ns.of.choice
Server: ns.of.choice
Address: 192.168.1.1#53

Name: 1.0.168.192.blacklist.domain.tld
Address: 127.0.0.6
1.0.168.192.blacklist.domain.tld text = “sample for typical rbl message”

You may also choose to query any authoritative nameserver of the blacklist in particular (refer to authority section or the SOA records respectively), since querying your local name-server may be not be accurate due to TTL intervals.

CompleteWhois also provides a conventient interface for searching multiple RBL’s at once.

In case you forget the password for an Areca ARC-1210 controller, the master password might be your friend ;-)

Here it is:

MNO974315743924

I’m not sure if I’m actually allowed to publish this here. However, I did never sign a NDA get it, so I think it’s ok.

This command will convert a standard openssl key / cert pair into PKCS #12 format for use with Windows’ certmgr:

# openssl pkcs12 -export -in ssl.crt -inkey ssl.key -out ssl.p12

A password must be supplied during conversion as Windows’ certmgr will ask for a credential. It simply won’t accept an empty credential.

While importing in certmgr choose PKCS #12 format (.pfx or .p12 file extensions).