Enabling ESNI in Firefox

imageFor those of you using Firefox, you can make your browsing more secure by doing the following:

  1. Update to the latest version of Firefox.
  2. Type about:config in the URL bar to get to the configuration screen.
  3. Type esni in the search field and look for network.security.esni.enabled
  4. Doubleclick this row to change it to true. What this means is: The Server Name Indication (SNI) exposes the hostname the client is connecting to when establishing a TLS connection. Doing so can compromise your privacy. Encrypted SNI keeps the hostname private when you are visiting an Encrypted SNI enabled site on Cloudflare by concealing your browser’s requested hostname from anyone listening on the Internet.
  5. Type trr in the search field and look for network.trr.mode
  6. Doubleclick on this and change it to 2 – this switches all DNS calls to be made over HTTPS.
  7. Restart Firefox (probably not necessary but do it anyway) and browse to https://encryptedsni.com then click on Check My Browser to test the browser’s security. You can visit this site with your existing browser and test it to see what’s secure and what’s not.
  8. Doesn’t require Firefox -> permanently change your Primary DNS server to 1.1.1.1 and your secondary to 1.0.0.1. On your phone, on your router, on your PC, everywhere. These belong to Cloudflare. 1.1.1.1 supports DNS over TLS assuming you are using a client (like Firefox) to take advantage of that functionality.

I use Chrome and unfortunately this functionality doesn’t exist in that browser at time of writing (although I *am* using Cloudflare’s DNS). But any steps you take to protect your privacy on the net are good steps. Might need to temporarily switch to Firefox until this stuff makes its way Chrome-side. TL;DR: Your ISP and other enterprising internet entities can see every website you look up; using these technologies allows you to shield your activity so The Man don’t see you.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year all. Guess what my new year’s resolution is? Open-mouthed smile

DeepSID: New web-based C64 .SID music player

imageA brand new web-based player for .SID tunes (Commodore 64 music) was created recently by Jens-Christian Huus, also known as JCH, a very famous C64 music composer and software author. It is located at http://deepsid.chordian.net/. The emulation is quite good and the entire HVSC (release 68 at time of writing) is available for playback.

Open Live Writer

imageMan, it’s been FOREVER since I posted on this blog! Really need to get a few things updated on it, life basically took over and I’ve found I just didn’t have the time or motivation lately. However, today I discovered a product called Open Live Writer, basically a fork of the Windows Live Writer code, and that’s what I’m writing this entry with. Looks and works pretty much exactly the same as WLW. “Open Live Writer works with many popular blog service providers such as WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Moveable Type, DasBlog and many more.”

Open Live Writer

Ad Muncher: ad-blocking utility for Windows, now free!

bigcow2I know I don’t post much on this site anymore, but I definitely have some post-worthy news today. Ad-Muncher is now free!

For those who have never used the program before, it’s something that came out about fifteen years ago and has always been a paid utility. It’s an ad-blocker, but it’s a separate utility for Windows – ie, not a Firefox addon nor a Chrome extension. It filters ALL web-based traffic in the operating system which means it works with multiple programs – RSS feed readers, Outlook Express and so on. And it’s extremely small and efficient; I assume it’s written either in C or straight-up assembler. I’d rank it as one of the greatest utilities of all time for Windows. As of October, the developer is now offering it completely free.

Everyone should get this program ASAP. It was worth every cent when it was $29.95.

AdMuncher

DropIt: file automation

imageFound a very cool opensource automation program. DropIt can be set up to monitor different directories on your file system. You then set up rules for different filetypes, such as moving MP3 files to a separate directory or compressing particular files into a ZIP. Then the program can automatically perform those actions periodically on files appearing in the monitored folder. This means you can just drop all your stuff into one folder and have the program automatically sort, compress, delete, move etc in the background. Also has a floating "drop icon" that you can quickly drag files to. Saves a bit of time and is completely free. x86 and x64 versions available.

DropIt

Aussies, please sign this. You DON’T want the Patriot Act over there. Trust me.

SymForm: 200Gb of distributed-computing data storage.. for free?

imageInteresting idea. Rather than a central cloud-based storage concept like Dropbox, SugarSync or Minus, SymForm turns the idea into a distributed computing solution. You get up to 200Gb for free, but in order to do that you "pledge" 80% uptime and a big chunk of your OWN HD storage space to the client. Then you become part of the cloud, hosting random highly-encrypted fragments of other peoples’ data. Sounds scary? To me, it’s not half as scary as storing your ENTIRE load of data in one location. Someone bombs Dropbox Central, your data is fried. Or, someone at Dropbox could pull a stunt like this (http://gawker.com/5637234/). These guys apparently have massive redundancy and parity copies – would take 33 failures on the network before your stored data starts to become unavailable. I’ll have to think about whether this is worth giving a shot. My decision will be wholly based on how much bandwidth it chews up.

SymForm

WordPress updated

Updated to WordPress v3.4.

Now on Facebook!

Decided to hook up a page on Facebook – hey, everyone else is doing it! Go like the page and we’ll see what I wind up doing with it over the coming months.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dhryland-Technology-Reviews-and-Opinions/362575500446232

Mastodon - https://mastodon.social/@dhry