Email Protection using SPF, DKIM, DMARC

Email Protection using SPF, DKIM, DMARC

, , , , , , , ,

Tired of having your emails go into client junk / spam folders? You can increase the deliverability of your emails while protecting your brand and clients using free tools to create SPF, DKIM and DMARC records. With these free records in place, you can help block phishing, ransomware, and spam messages.

Email service providers like Gmail and Office 365 are increasingly sending unauthenticated emails to spam or rejecting them outright. This article will show you how to add an SPF, DKIM and DMARC record to your domain to help prevent this while keeping most malicious actors out. Note, this article is only intended for my personal use and comes with no guarantee of any kind.

 

Read more

How to Bypass a Paywall

, , ,

If you come across an article or website which shows a paywall, the following website will assist you with bypassing the paywall: https://12ft.io

Alternatively, you can simply append the web address to the end of the 12ft.io URL as demonstrated below:

EXAMPLE: https://12ft.io/thewebsite.com/article-with-paywall

 

Conclusion

I hope my article on bypassing any paywall has helped you. I welcome your thoughts, questions or suggestions regarding this article.

You may support my work and future improvements by sending me a tip using your Brave browser or by sending me a one time donation using your credit card.

Let me know if you found any errors within my article or if I may further assist you by answering any additional questions you may have.

 

Windows Logo

Stop Windows from Spying, Collecting Data

, , , , , ,

Using a free network monitoring tool such as WireShark we can see that several discrete and background connections are made without our request when simply accessing our computers.

In this article I provide a few simple hosts file entries to help increase our privacy.

 

Read more

Windows Logo

How to Verify a File Hash on Windows

, , , , , ,

To ensure that a file has not been tempered with or was corrupted during a transfer or download we can verify the checksums with tools built into Windows.

This is a crucially important for security purposes, especially if you install software from a source other than an official site. If the file has been changed it could contain malware that spies on you or takes your data hostage, for instance.

The checksum verification tool you use is also important which is why I recommend using the built in Windows PowerShell and certutil tools.

In this article I provide simple and quick Windows commands to verify MD5 and SHA256 checksums.

 

Read more

Windows Logo

Remove Microsoft Authenticator Greyed Out Account

, , , , , ,

Recently used my Microsoft Authenticator to access an email address on my mobile phone which I only needed temporary access to. After which I removed the email account from Outlook on my phone only to have it remain (greyed out) within Microsoft Authenticator.

To remove the greyed out account from Microsoft Authenticator I had to go to my phones’ “Settings” then “Accounts and backup” followed by “Manage accounts“. To my surprise, even though I deleted the email address from Outlook, the email account was still there. Once I removed the email address and reloaded Microsoft Authenticator the greyed out account was gone.

Conclusion

I hope sharing my experience on how I successfully removed an unwanted, greyed out account from Microsoft Authenticator has helped you.

You may support my work by sending me a tip using your Brave browser or by sending me a one time donation using your credit card.

Let me know if you found any errors within my article or if I may further assist you by answering any additional questions you may have.

 

Windows Logo

Synchronize Microsoft Authenticator Between Devices

, , , , , ,

WARNING! The instructions herein are for my own personal use to jog my memory since I keep forgetting to take my memory pills. These instructions may be wrong and may cause you to lose all of your stored two factor authentication codes. This will obviously prevent you from accessing your two factor authentication enabled accounts. Do not attempt to synchronize your Microsoft Authenticator between devices using this article. Now back to jogging my memory.

 

Read more

Apache Logo

Restrict Server Access by IP using Apache .htaccess

, , , , ,

There may be some situations when you want to restrict or redirect your website traffic by IP address. To accomplish this simply add the following lines of code to your website’s .htaccess file (assuming your website is on an Apache webserver):

 

Read more

WordPress Content Management System Icon

How to Fix WordPress File and Folder Permissions

, , ,

I recently completed and uploaded a client’s web site to their server. Upon doing so the WordPress website generated an Internal Server Error 500. Checking the .htaccess file and other server settings everything checked out. Looking into their servers error log I discovered a soft error relating to file and folder permissions.

Sure enough, the uploaded project had all sorts of incorrect permissions set. I believe this was caused by an issue with the compression program I was using to archive the project into one file for  easier uploading to their server.

Making sure your WordPress installations’ file and folder permissions are set correctly is critical to keeping your WordPress site safe. Not only for security, but if the file and folder permissions are incorrect, you’ll run across any number of issues importing media, creating posts and so on.

Fixing WordPress File & Folder Permissions

There is no “push button” fix for this issue. However, the following solution is simple enough without the use of any plugins and only requires about 5 minutes of attention. You will want to use an FTP client (such as FileZilla) for this. It should also go without saying that you need to have a recent full backup of your website, just in case you push the wrong button(s).

When you’re ready, fire up your FTP client and log onto your web server and follow the instructions below.

 

Read more

WordPress Nulled Themes and Plugins

How to Install a Nulled WordPress Theme or Plugin

, , , , ,

The process of installing a “nulled” theme or plugin (one that has had its licensing requirements or copyright removed) on your WordPress web site is simple, you begin by never doing it! Yes, the title was click-bait but keep reading.

I understand the lure of using a pirated WordPress nulled theme or pirated WordPress nulled plugin completely. Many times one isn’t sure if particular theme will suit a project or if a plugin will function as needed. No one wants to waste money purchasing a theme or plugin that they end up not using. Especially since there are literally thousands of them out there. Which is why some look for nulled versions of themes and plugins, but is it really worth it?

 

Read more