How Do We Load Websites? Finding the server A DNS request is made initially. DNS is like a giant phone book that takes a URL and turns it into an IP. You dont have to remember the IP of websites. The IP address uniquely identifies each internet connected devices, like a web servere or your computer. They are formed of 4 groups of number, each 0-255 (x.x.x.x) and called an octect. Loading some content Once the browser knows the servers IP, it…
How websites work When you visit a website, your browser makes a request to a web server asking for information about the page you’re visiting and will respond with data that your browser uses to show you the page; a web server is just a dedicated computer that handles your requests. There are two major components that make up a website: Front End (Client-side)…
Understanding MySQL What is MySQL? In its simplest definition, MySQL is a relational database management system (RDBMS) based on Structured Query Language (SQL). Database: A database is simply a persistent, organized collection of structured data. RDBMS: A software or service used to create and manage databases based on a relational model. The word “relational” just menas that the data stored…
Understanding SMTP What is SMTP? SMTP stands for simple mail transfer protocol. It is utilized to handle the sending of emails. In order to support email services, a protocol pair is required, comprising of SMTP and POP/IMAP. Together they allow the user to send outgoing mail and retrieving incoming mail, respectively. The SMTP server performs three basic functions: It verifies who is sending…
Understanding NFS What is NFS? NFS stands for Network File System and allows a system to share directories and files with others over a network. By using NFS, users and programs can access files on remote systems almost as if they were local files. It does this by mounting all, or portion of a file system on a server. …
Understanding telnet What is telnet? Telnet is an application protocol which allows you, with the use of telnet client, to connect to and execute commands on a remote machine that’s hosting a telnet server. The telnet client will establish a connection with the server. The client will then become a virtual terminal – allow you to interact with the…
Understanding FTP What is FTP? File transfer protocol is a protocol used to allow remote transfer of files over a network. It uses a client-server model to do this. It relays command and data in a very efficient way. How does FTP work? A typical FTP session operates using two channels: A command channel A data channel The command channel is used for transmitting commands as well as replies to those commands, while the data channel is used for transferring data. FTP operates using a client-server protocol. The client initiates a connection…
Understanding SMB SMB – Server Message Block Protocol – is a client-server communication protocol used for sharing access to files, printers, serial ports and other resources on a network. Servers make file systems and other resources available to clients on the network. Client computers may have their own hard disks, but they also want access to the shared file systems and printers on the servers. The SMB protocol is known as a response-request protocol, meaning that it transmits multiple messages between the client…
Introduction When a computer runs a network service, it opens a networking construct called a “port” to receive the connection. Ports are necessary for making multiple requests or having multiple services available. For example, when you load several webpages at once in a web browser, the program must have some way of determining which tab is loading which web…
Forewords In this blog series I will write down my notes from the courses I take from TryHackMe. This series is from the Complete beginner course where I will go through Network security, Web App security, different tools I use etc. I recommend anyone wanting to learn pentesting or defensive security to subscribe to TryHackMe….
When using NGINX as a reverse proxy with wordpress and having enabled SSL, you will have to force wordpress to forward HTTP to HTTPS. First, setup your wordpress website and NGINX reverse proxy with SSL. You will notice that CSS will not load when you visit your domain, instead of localhost. Add these lins to…
Backup gives you a peace of mind! Sometimes backing up your files is enough, but other times, backing up your entire operating system is necessary. If you get a boot error and you have to reinstall your operating system, its easier to restore it from backup with all the programs and settings you had. Rather…
If you are running Plex, you’ve noticed that transcoding takes up alot of CPU power. Specially if you’re transcoding 4K videos, which you shouldnt do anyway. Plex removes tone mapping when transcoding 4K HDR, so your movies or TV shows will look bland. Now you want to offset some of that transcoding to your Nvidia…
Prerequisite Ubuntu 20.04 Ansible installed Ansible is a great tool to automate IT infrastructure. In my case I use it to manage my Linux hosts. Instead of typing one command on each host, I can send one command to multiple hosts, using something called playbook. Ansible playbook is a set of instructions that you send…
Prerequisite Ubuntu 18.04 nginx running A domain – Example.com Let’s Encrypt certificate In this blog post we will configure your website and securing it with SSL using NGINX as a reverse proxy, forwarding traffic to your backend web server. For the sake of simplicity lets that you are you are running wordpress website with IP…
