Category Archives: Software

ProxMox server configuration

HowTo, Hypervisors, IT, Software, , , , ,

Proxmox logo

I recently had the pleasure of configuring ProxMox server on an old Intel NUC mini PC. For those that aren’t aware ProxMox is a virtualisation platform, in the same line as Hyper-V, or Nutanix, or VMWare. The only main difference is that you can get a fully functional version of ProxMox for free, yes you read that correctly, for free! It’s Linux (Ubuntu) based, so what’s not to love!

Due to the Broadcom takeover of VMWare and licensing cost hikes, a lot of large organisations are migrating over to ProxMox, which overs a fairly seamless transfer process.

As it turns out, the install of the ProxMox hypervisor or host, was slightly more involved as the graphics drivers on my particular NUC were slightly difficult. After much Googling, and hunting I was able to find the steps required. The errors that I had encountered were related to Framebuffer errors. The install was successful by using “text mode” installation and switching afterwards. A useful YouTube video was discovered to assist with the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6fRTpmmuHs

The following ProxMox forum discussion also assisted with the error – https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/generic-solution-when-install-gets-framebuffer-mode-fails.111577/

From my experience, also worth using a USB3 stick for installation.

Kudos to the Home Automation Guy who’s setup guide for ProxMox assisted me with the initial setup. It also linked through to the community scripts, where a PVE Post Install script was linked. The location has changed and is now available here: https://community-scripts.github.io/ProxmoxVE/scripts?id=post-pve-install&category=Proxmox+%26+Virtualization

This is quite honestly a treasure trove of scripts and you can knock your socks off with what you want to run there.

Even considering the problems I had with the initial install, the overall configuration only took 4hrs – for someone that hadn’t touched it before I would say that’s good going! Management is via web console and via terminal (SSH). It’s super quick and efficient. The hypervisor is currently running a single Linux VM hosting Lyrion Music Server, for more information on my endeavours you can visit our entertainment personal blog.

I’ll put some more points here when I recall them, but so far my experience with ProxMox has been great! Go and take a look 🙂

The best WordPress Plugins for your Site!

Software, Websites, WordPress, , , ,

WordPress Plugins

We last posted about WordPress Plugins here in 2017 so it’s time to do a refresher.

This is great if you’re setting up a site for the first time, and want to have everything safe and secure so you can maintain your site worry-free.

  1. Askimet Anti-Spam – This is the GOAT of all plugins. Something you should have enabled on any WP site to prevent unecessary spam. If anything, it’s the first plugin you should have activated to protect your site from the get-go!
  2. JetPack – another out the box must have. Additional layer of security for your site.
  3. Classic Editor – If you’re not a fan of the new style Gutenburg and prefer editing your posts and pages using the TinyMCE editor, this is what you’re looking for.
  4. Contact Form 7 – a simple and no frills contact form for your site with CAPTCHA integration. On every site we configure we implement this over the standard out the box contact form. Reduce spam, and stay secure.
  5. Really Simple SSL – activate SSL on your site in the simplest way possible. This does require your site to have a valid SSL certificate applied, or active Let’s Encrypt functionality (all our new hosting packages feature this out the box).
  6. Site Kit by Google – great new plugin developed by Google to get your site linked in to Analytics, AdSense, and Search Console. Improving by the day with new features and functionality.
  7. UpdraftPlus – Backup/Restore – nothing worse than making changes to your site and / or it getting hacked and you not having a backup. Schedule automated backups for your site’s database and files on a regular basis.

There are several others that we use, so if you would like to know more please do get in touch or comment on this post 🙂

If you would like help getting these setup and working on your own site, get in touch with us through our contact form.

Time to get a Password Manager – 1Password tested!

HowTo, Software, , , , , , ,

1PasswordLogoWe’ve used 1Password for quite some time (around 5 years, if not longer) so thought a post here to talk of its merits was justified.

If you’ve not heard of a password manager before, in short it’s an application that helps you generate strong and random passwords and makes it easy for you to save them and use them for any web site or service you may use. They hold your details in an encrypted database that not even the developers have access to. If you get locked out you have lost your passwords, which is why many services offer an emergency access code that they recommend you print and keep in a safe and secure location.

Many password managers integrate well with many popular operating systems (Windows, Mac, and even Linux) and all the popular web browsers, and phones. The idea being that you can access your secure passwords wherever you are and even when you don’t have internet access.

1Password syncs with your Cloud Account using the 1Password Families subscription which allows 5 members of your family to use the service across platforms.

We all know that one person who has the same password for every account they use. When you think about it, that’s one password that a hacker needs to guess and voila, they have access to your email where they then can see all the accounts you may use and gain access to as well. Once they’re in they can probably make orders with your Amazon account, and other web shops where you have your card details saved.

Not wanting to scare you here, but the same time give you an insight of what so many people do…

You can take a trial of the service by following this link https://start.1password.com/sign-up/family?l=en

We’re in no way affiliated with 1Password and not being paid for this post. We just love the software and recommend it for your password manager too!

WebSite Showcase – Club 85 revamp

Hosting, Websites, WordPress, , , , ,

We have recently had the pleasure of taking on the revamp of the Club 85 music venue web site. This project has been in the pipeline for a while and has taken a lot of planning. The site is built upon WordPress which is a very versatile platform that has now moved on from the web blog platform it started out as. The old web site was based solely around the gig calendar so this was the plan for the new one.

We have utilised a platform provided by ModernTribe called Events Calendar which is an all-in-one calendar and ticketing solution to allow the venue the full scope of end to end scheduling and ticket sales. Due to Covid-19 the calendar is looking a little bare right now but will eventually be populated.

The website itself is still waiting on a colour scheme and logo which will be coming soon but for the time being the main aim was to go live with a web site and take ownership of the domain which we now have. This will allow the management to focus on bookings and day to day business.

The contact form has been configured to allow easy contact for bookings and management respectively.

The image gallery is currently linked to the club’s Instagram account but will eventually be transitioned into a separate gallery where guest photographers can upload their own images.

Simplicity was key for the brief

You can visit the new site at the usual address: www.club-85.co.uk

Best WordPress social media sharing plugin!

WordPress, , ,
JetPack logo

We’ve used a lot of plugins, but most tend to become unsupported or have problems when WordPress updates. Since testing a WP multisite install on one of our sites, the JetPack plugin is the one that seems to work the best for us so far. And to be fair, the free option is the one we stick for for the majority of ours and customer installs, as it does what we need it to do.

The description of the plugin is quite self explanatory: Jetpack enables you to connect your blog to a WordPress.com account to use the powerful features normally only available to WordPress.com users.

In laymans terms, if you are hosting your own WP installation, then installing the JetPack plugin enables the features you would normally only get through a WP hosted site (where you create a site through them directly at https://wordpress.com/ but for a custom domain and any other features you will have to pay).

The main features of JetPack free are to provide site stats, anti-spam protection and also protect your site from malicious login attempts. These alone are reasons to use the plugin!

Another feature of the plugin are the social media sharing tools including the automatic posting of new posts to Twitter and Facebook. This works really well and works well on multisite without any problem either where others won’t.

JetPack is now supported and maintained by WordPress directly so you can rest assured that this won’t drop off the face of the Earth any time soon 🙂

For more information on the plugin check out http://go.frantik.it/jet

And if you’re looking to create a website we’d love to host it for you http://go.frantik.it/host