Bit of an odd one this – intermittantly RDP session seems to get stuck and I can’t login remotely and end up stuck on the ‘please wait’ screen – After some searching this useful guide from Eric on learnmicrosoft forums allows a workaround!

Windows PC – RDP Client mehtod- save the RDP connection to a “.rdp” file and edit the configuration through MS ‘Notepad’ to add a configuration line that will disable NLA login method and force Windows Login

1. Open MS RDP (Start->type “mstsc”->Enter) and type in the IP address you want to connect to
2. Click the “Options” button at the bottom and Click “Save” to save your connection as a “.rdp” file. Remember where you saved the file.
3. Click Start, type Notepad, Hit Enter
4. Click File, Open, traverse to the “.rdp” file you saved in 3 and open it.
5. Scroll to the last line and hit enter to add another line.
6. Add the following to turn of the Network Level Authentication: “enablecredsspsupport:i:0”
7. Click File, Save to save the “.rdp” file
8. Click Start, type “File Explorer”
9. Traverse to the directory which contains the “.rdp” file
10. Double Click the “.rdp” file
11. Connect, see Windows style login screen.
12. Enter your credentials and get past the “Please Wait” screen

Note: After adding this configuration line, when you double click the “.rdp” file to connect, it will connect to the Windows PC and then display the login page where you will have to manually type in the User and Password. Unfortunately, it will save the User for next time you connect but not the Password

Recently changed to virgin media for my internet and then found i could not access my website at https://www.gcs3.co.uk at all, but if i switched off my wifi and used 4G or used a VPN I could connect no problem. After some faffing about I changed my wired pc to use google DNS rather than virgin media DNS and followed the guide here https://www.androidpolice.com/use-preferred-dns-server-android-tutorial/ so my wireless devices used google DNS rather than virgin media DNS. All works ok now. Really not sure what happened locally to cause this issue in the first place……release renew and flushing DNS didn’t fix the issue

massgravel github m*crosoft-activation-scripts

very very useful

Previously i had posted about using zerossl which was ok until I realised I needed an SSL cert for a 4th domain and had already used the 3 domain limit. Fixed this by using a free let’s encrypt SSL generator on punchsalad

After verifying I owned the domain it generated the certificate as a big downloadable txt file – use the first of 3 certs as the certificate and certs 2&3 as the ca-bundle.Then add the private key and install the certificate

sorted for 90days at least…..

update – can use html verification and filezilla for all domains except gcs3 – use DNS verification for this

update #2 – downoad the details then copy/paste rather than trying to copy/paste from punchsalad. Don’t need to fill the CA-Bundle field either

update #3 – remember to use wildcards *.site.com, site.com

This is a simple contact form for your website. I am using it alonside the Flamingo plugin to save messages. If you want to prevent spambots then use a recapcha plugin for it – I am using the Google service which requires a gmail address https://www.google.com/recaptcha/admin/create

Really useful service from zeroSSL for up to 3 free certificates – only 90 days validity though. Verify you own the domain and then download and install your free cert

I use cPanel – https://help.zerossl.com/hc/en-us/articles/360060119773

pros- free and takes 5 mins to do, gives your site a browser padlock

cons – i need to do it every 3 months per domain

I had been using letsencrypt which had an autorenew feature with my hosting provider but new hosting doesn’t support this, hence zeroSSL

Just upgraded laptop HDD to a speedier SSD and reinstalled Windows

Some useful things – Rufus

How to get the uptodate Windows version for Rufus to create the bootable USB – here 

Massgravel MAS on GitHub

Job done

Great free scanner program https://www.naps2.com/

Simple and worked straight-off with my elderly canoscan Lide100

Such a great plugin to open up gmail when you click on ’email to’ in a program (in my case foxit phantom pdf)

https://www.affixa.com/