This blog is an ongoing project by Mike Maddaloni, president of Dunkirk Systems, LLC, to archive the myriad of tech tips and resources he has collected along his 10+ years as a Web developer.
It seems installing an SSL certificate is much more time consuming and laborious than the application process for getting one, including providing all sorts of business documentation to prove who you are!
Some SSL providers offer better instructions than others. When I am looking for information on installing SSL certs, one site typically gives me all the help I need, SSL Shopper. For example, this article on how to use SSL certificates with Exchange 2007 was extremely helpful when I was not getting the support from my “managed” server vendor.
SSL Shopper is an independent SSL comparison site, and not a provider of SSL certs themselves. If you need help installing a cert, in my opinion they are the best place to start. I’d welcome your thoughts if they are helpful for you, or if you have another source of information - please post it in the comments.
Wondering why you can’t do wildcard host header binding in IIS7? I was too, and I dound this great article on wildcard host header binding and subdomains in IIS7 at Dirk.net In short, you need a dedicated IP address for the site if you want to do it. With the shortage of IP addresses, it’s probably not likely for a small Web site. The post also references this forum thread on IIS.net on the topic, with a pretty lame response from someone at Microsoft. Here’s to it being added in the future!
Ninite is a free service for PC users which allows you to select multiple applications to install on your PC. I have not used this myself as of this posting, but I am going to try it out.
The Cost of Downtime Calculator is an interesting tool to calculate how much money your company could lose during system failures. For most of us, this would be Internet access. This will more than prove you should go to a coffee shop when your access fails!
If you ever encounter issues or errors when upgrading your version of Mozilla Thunderbird and you just happen to have a Logitech Quickcam, it may not be a coincidence. Try unplugging your camera and shutting down its software and retry the install and it should work. Trust me on this! I had looked up this issue in the past and cannot find the referencing documents when I was making this post, but I can verify it works!
BrowserHawk is a server-side (and now hosted) application for detecting everything about the visitor to your Web site – the platform, browser, resolution, etc. I have used this tool in the past and it is well worth the cost to learn everything about your users. You can use this detection information to determine what is presented to the Web visitor. It works with most all Web scripting languages.
We heard from the folks at Broadband Speed Checker about their service and they asked us to check it out and if we would add it to sourcegate. After trying it out, we felt it would be well-worthy of this service to pass it along.
Do you need to know what your IP address is to the outside world? Here are a couple of tools to help. One is WhatIsMyIPAddress.com and the other is whatismyip.com. I know – how clever. Choose the one that works for you.
It seems installing an SSL certificate is much more time consuming and laborious than the application process for getting one, including providing all sorts of business documentation to prove who you are!
