Kevin Pirnie' Articles

By: Kevin On: December 10, 2019

Posted In: Development Hosting Hosting Linux nGinx Plugins Security Security Server Management Software Ubuntu Wordpress development hosting linux nginx ubuntu web hosting wordpress wordpress security

Like most good hosting support folks, security tops the list of my priorities. While a good firewall, and true Web Application Firewall are the best means for helping with this, sometimes shared hosting services will not change the configurations they have in place to support the necessary security for a Wordpress website. In steps the iThemes Security plugin.  iThemes acts like a WAF, in that it can detect (via a vast network) bad bots, known hackers, and most known vulnerabilities in Wordpress. I will lay out what I use on all of the sites I manage hosting for (note, this number as of today, is in the thousands), as well as enabling the necessary configuration needed to allow iThemes to do it's thing when you… Read More

By: Kevin On: March 7, 2019

Posted In: Development Hosting Hosting Linux nGinx Security Security Security Server Management Ubuntu centos form security hosting nginx security ubuntu

Wow!  It's been a little while since I have had the time to post another article.   Well, here I am again, back at it.This time, I will show you an optimal way to keep your site secure utilizing a bit of nginx configuration.  You will need to do some work before implementing this, so please do not attempt to simply copy/paste this and expect it to work out of the box. # Default security headers add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubdomains; preload"; # enable, cache, and preload subdomains add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN" always; # generally only allow SAMEORIGIN frame sources add_header X-Xss-Protection "1; mode=block"; # protect against Cross-Site Scripting add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always; # no sniffing allowed! add_header Referrer-Policy "strict-origin"; # protect agains cross-linking add_header X-Download-Options "noopen"; #… Read More

By: Kevin On: November 8, 2013

Posted In: Hosting Linux Server Management Software Ubuntu hosting linux shell scripting ubuntu web hosting

Well kiddies time for another installment into my mind. :) Today I am going to tell you how I managed to install Windows 2008 R2 Server on a virtual machine on my Ubuntu Server.  Being a developer jack-of-all-trades I needed to have a very stable environment for some of the sites I develop, but still allow myself to develop for Microsoft. Yes, I went the ways of Linux...  infinately more stable as a server environment than windows is ;) You too can still have and develop for windows even if you have a Linux box.  It's not that hard to do, but it's also not that easy, there were times when I was ready to throw my machines to the wind. Here's how I did… Read More

By: Kevin On: September 3, 2013

Posted In: Development Hosting Linux ModX PHP Server Management Software Software Source Code development hosting modx mysql php ubuntu web development

This is a neat and tidy way to have multiple TLDs for one installation of MODx. Within MODx Go to System > Contexts and Create New for each domain. Name each one using camelCase (e.g. websiteOne) as you can't use spaces here. This name will be seen in the site tree within the Manager and you will also refer to it later on. Once finished refresh the manager and they will appear down the left. Right click each one and then Quick Create > Document Here to make a home page. Add a small piece of text on each of the pages so when you test you know it's reaching the right destination. Now add content settings by clicking on each heading and add the following: site_start –… Read More

By: Kevin On: February 20, 2013

Posted In: Linux Server Management Ubuntu linux nano shell ubuntu

Since I forget about this all the time, and continually have to look it up, I thought I would post this priceless resource.   Here is how to Copy/Paste while in a Ubuntu Server Shell (or command), while using the text editor 'Nano' Use the Alt-6 key combination to copy text to the "cut buffer". Similarly, use the Ctrl-K key combination to delete text (it is cut to the "cut buffer"). If no text is marked, these two commands copy or cut the entire line of text. Use the Ctrl-U key combination to paste the text in the "cut buffer" into the file. To cut or copy specific text, you must first mark the start and end points of the text you want to select. You can do this with the… Read More