Control Apache’s public server information

By default Apache displays information about itself in the server signature included with reply headers and sometimes auto-generated pages. This information can give away important clues, like the exact version number of a module or Apache itself.

While obscurity never increases security since exploits can be attempted on the service regardless, knowing exact version information and running modules certainly provides a potential hacker with useful clues and eases the task.

How to configure IPSec/L2TP VPN server in CentOS 6

I had to look for an alternate VPN system to use when I need to dial back to my home network while on the move to access my media library or when I require a trusted connection or a whitelisted IP.

The next best thing (and least complicated to set up going from PPTP) is IPSec/L2TP, which has built-in support in most current operating systems (including Windows, Linux and Android). Due to its double-encapsulation nature (L2TP performs the tunnelling of data and IPSec provides the encrypted channel), L2TP/IPSec has a more complex setup and configuration procedure, both for the server and the client.

Enabling PHP 5.6 and Opcache on CentOS 7

CentOS is a conservative server operating system, choosing stability over features. Because of this the major versions of PHP it usually includes are several numbers behind the current release.

However, there are plenty of good third party repository out there that provide newer releases for these packages.

Setting up password-less SSH authentication in CentOS

There are times when typing the same password over and over again gets cumbersome, or odd instances where typing a password isn’t even possible.

These are the cases where password-less login – also known as public-key authentication – is the solution.

DVB-C TV on Raspberry PI with LibreELEC/Kodi

There are plenty of TVs to chose from and nowadays they all know DVB-C so why go through all the trouble of building a TV player with a Raspberry PI?

Well… because it’s fun and because of the freedom of being able to watch your favourite TV channel on any of your devices – even when away.

Enable hibernation in Xubuntu 16.04

Ubuntu (and its derivatives – Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Kubuntu) normally come with hibernation disabled by default, mostly due to possible hardware compatibility issues.

Re-enabling it is not a simple thing to do, despite logic dictating the opposite. Start by testing out whether or not your system is capable of hibernation…

Automatically restart Webmin/Virtualmin in case of failure

Running out of memory sometimes happens on swap-less VPSes, and it seems Webmin (together with its twin, Virtualmin) are among the first processes to die in out-of-memory cases.

Setting up a little script to check for and restart Webmin if it is no longer running is a pretty simple (workaround) solution – but should never replace the proper procedure of adjusting the settings or upgrading the VPS to avoid running out of memory in the future.

Directory listing failed in FileZilla with ProFTPd on Virtualmin

Everything appears normal in the FTP server’s log:
fr01-srv proftpd[5591]: 192.168.0.1 – USER testuser: Login successful.

However, in Filezilla things are different:
Error: Connection timed out after 20 seconds of inactivity Error: Failed to retrieve directory listing

Handy Linux commands to administer IPs and routes

Using basic network commands comes very hand when one needs to debug a networking issue, to fix a problem or to simply try out a couple of things.
This post is in no way an exhaustive list of Linux network-related commands, but tries to include a couple of the most basic ones and explain what they do.