Tech Otaku

Subnetting: A Visual Representation

Steve

Networking

28-minute read

S

In general, the computers and devices that make-up networks are each assigned an IP address. The IPv4 address 192.168.75.0 is written in dot-decimal notation, a series of 4 decimal integers each separated by a period for clarity. For computers, this human-readable format is stored in binary with each decimal integer represented by 8 bits or 1 byte commonly referred to as an octet. The 4 decimal integers of an IPv4 address are therefore represented by 4 octets totalling 32 bits.

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Getting Cisco Packet Tracer 7.1 to Run on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Steve

Linux

4-minute read

G

The desktop version of Cisco Packet Tracer (CPT) is currently available in three flavours: 32-bit and 64-bit versions for Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 and a 64-bit version for Linux. There is no macOS version so I decided to install the 64-bit Linux version of CPT (7.1.0.0222)¹ on Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS running on VMware Fusion (10.1.1).

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Changing How WordPress Displays Comments

Steve

Web Development

3-minute read

C

Comments in WordPress are displayed using the wp_list_comments() function. This function takes many arguments. One of these is callback which takes the name of a defined function that in turn determines what and how comment data is output. If no callback function is given, wp_list_comments() uses a built-in default function.

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mysqli::prepare Fails Using ALTER TABLE in a Statement With Parameter Markers

Steve

Web Development

3-minute read

m

Part of a project I’m working on requires re-setting a MySQL table by deleting most – but not all – rows. In PHP I’m using mysqli::prepare to prepare the MySQL statements.

$id = 5;
$query = $conn->prepare("DELETE FROM table WHERE id>?");

 

 

The MySQL statement includes a parameter marker – denoted by ? – which is then substituted for the value of the $id variable using mysqli::bind_param.

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Fixing XML-RPC Disabled Errors After WordPress 3.8.2 Update

Steve

Blogging

2-minute read

F

Several Desktop blog-editing applications use XML-RPC to allow you to manage your WordPress blog. The one I use is MarsEdit.

XML-RPC functionality has been turned on by default since WordPress 3.5 so after updating to WordPress 3.8.2 I was not expecting MarsEdit to report that XML-RPC services are disabled on this site.

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Securing WordPress Login Using HTTP Authentication

Steve

Blogging

5-minute read

S

Having spent some considerable time and effort cleaning this site after it had been hacked I was determined to make it as secure as I possibly could in an attempt to prevent it happening again.

This is a WordPress site running on an Apache server so one of the numerous measures I implemented was to use HTTP Authentication to password-protect the wp-login.php file.

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Resetting MAMP’s MySQL Root User Password

Steve

Local Server

3-minute read

R

Those of you familiar with MAMP will no doubt know that MAMP’s MySQL root user password is set to root by default and changing it is not as straightforward as it perhaps should be.

I’ve previously described a way of successfully changing the root user password providing, of course, that you know the current password. If you’ve forgotten it, this method will not work and a way of re-setting the password is required.

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Recovering Lost Jetpack Stats in WordPress

Steve

Blogging

4-minute read

R

Many of you will be familiar with the Jetpack plugin. I use Jetpack’s Stats module — previously the WordPress.com Stats plugin — to record and display this site’s page views.

Several Jetpack modules including the Stats module require a connection to an account at WordPress.com where your self-hosted WordPress site is given a unique ID. This unique ID is associated with the site’s domain name. If you change an already connected site’s domain name and reconnect it to your WordPress.com account it is given a new unique ID.

Herein lies the source of a problem I had recently which resulted in the apparent loss of all this site’s stats.

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Collapsible Sidebar Lists Plugin for WordPress

Steve

Web Development

2-minute read

C

A previous theme I used for this site incorporated For some while this site’s been using the collapsible sidebar lists I described in this post. This method requires manually adding PHP and Javascript to the theme’s code. All a bit clunky really.

I’ve finally completed a plugin which provides the same functionality, but in a far more convenient way. The collapsible lists currently displayed in this site’s sidebar are generated by this plugin.

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Masking a Username in a WordPress Permalink URL

Steve

Blogging

2-minute read

M

Like countless other WordPress users I’ve been logging into the installation’s back-end using the admin username I created on day one.

Having read about the recently publicised botnet that uses the admin username for brute force attacks I thought it was time to beef-up my blog’s back-end security.

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