MySQL : mysqlnd cannot connect to MySQL 4.1+ using the old insecure authentication

PHP 5.3 / Mysql 5.5 / FreeBSD   You get the error message: Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Premature end of data (mysqlnd_wireprotocol.c:553) in C:\directorya\directoryb\dbconnect.phpon line 57 Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: OK packet 1 bytes shorter than expected in C:\directorya\directoryb\dbconnect.php on line 57 Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: mysqlnd cannot connect to MySQL 4.1+ using the old insecure authentication. Please Read More…

FreeBSD clock frozen

OS : FreeBSD 8.2 Hypervisor: VMware ESXi 5.0   The clock on our FreeBSD webserver suddenly stopped. This appears to be a bug in in ESXi 5.0. To fix this: If the time counter is using HPET then change this to ACPI sysctl kern.timecounter.hardware=ACPI-safe Note: The setting doesn't persist after a reboot so make sure Read More…

Check an SPF record from your own server (CLI)

OS: FreeBSD/Centos From the CLI type nslookup Then press Enter -> and type the following set type=txt  Press Enter -> Finally enter the domain name you want to check (eg gmail.com in this case) gmail.com Output: Server: 127.0.0.1 Address: 127.0.0.1#53 Non-authoritative answer: gmail.com text = “v=spf1 redirect=_spf.google.com” Authoritative answers can be found from: gmail.com nameserver Read More…

The SSL password dilemma when starting Apache

OS: Linux Software: Apache 2.x Dilemma: You have set a passphrase on your SSL certificate. Upon starting Apache the default behaviour is interactively type the password in. This obviously has an impact on boot and when you need to automatically restart Apache. If this doesn’t fit your model then there are 2 options: 1) Remove the Read More…