09September

read

Fix the DIAG blinking led with Cisco RV042G router

If you experienced a blinking DIAG led on your Cisco router, you will have to reinstall a firmware using a dedicated procedure.

Download the latest firmware

You will find it on Cisco Support Website.
In my case, for a Cisco Small Business RV042G, the firmware can be found here.

Send it to your router using tftp

TFTP stands for Trival File Transfer Protocol. It's a FTP like protocole which allows a client to get from or put a file onto a remote host.

The file that will be uploaded will be automatically installed. To do that:

open a Terminal
go to the folder were you downloaded the latest firmware

Now type the following command

$ tftp 192.168.1.1
tftp> mode binary
tftp> put RV0XX-v4.2.3.06-20150319-code.bin
Sent 26284032 bytes in 11.5 seconds

Don't forget to send a mode binary before you put the file to the router. Otherwise, it won't install correctly.
A few seconds later, the router will reboot and will be accessible with its default URL.

30August

read

Generate a self-signed SSL certificate

Show Comments Thomas VIAL

There are a lot of tutorials to generate a SSL certificate, like this one, or this other one. But you will see that there are a few steps to respect in order to make it work properly.

When I released my docker mail server, I wanted to create an easy way to do complicated things. So I wrote a tool to simplify the process of self-signed ssl certificates. This tool is built-in docker mail server.

How can I generate my self-signed certificate?

You just need to have docker installed on your computer. Just type the following command line:

docker run -ti --rm -v "$(pwd)":/ssl -h mail.my-domain.com -t tvial/docker-mailserver generate-ssl-certificate

Don't forget to change mail.my-domain.com to your real Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN). You will be asked some informations about your name, company, location... When asked, sign the certificate.

It will generate some files needed for your SSL configuration (postfix, nginx, apache...).

mail.my-domain.com-key.pem (private key)
mail.my-domain.com-req.pem (public key)
mail.my-domain.com-cert.pem (certificate)
mail.my-domain.com-combined.pem (private key + certificate)
demoCA/cacert.pem (certificate authority)

Now you need to configure your daemon to use this certificate and you have a fully SSL secured connection available.

26August

read

GZip compression with official nginx docker image

Show Comments Thomas VIAL

For a better experience, I wanted to improve the performance of this blog. I combined/minified css/js files, but I saw that these assets were not compressed.

# Call without gzip
➜  ~  curl http://tvi.al/assets/js/tvi.al.min.js\?v\=8419b36904 --silent --write-out "%{size_download}\n" --output /dev/null
119887

# Call with gzip
➜  ~  curl http://tvi.al/assets/js/tvi.al.min.js\?v\=8419b36904 --silent -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate" --write-out "%{size_download}\n" --output /dev/null
119887

The size remains the same.

It was strange because I worked with my configurations files before I move to docker.

I thought that the official nginx image was compiled without gzip module. But it is:

$ docker run nginx nginx -V
nginx version: nginx/1.9.0
built by gcc 4.9.2 (Debian 4.9.2-10)
built with OpenSSL 1.0.1k 8 Jan 2015
TLS SNI support enabled
configure arguments: --prefix=/etc/nginx --sbin-path=/usr/sbin/nginx --conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf --error-log-path=/var/log/nginx/error.log --http-log-path=/var/log/nginx/access.log --pid-path=/var/run/nginx.pid --lock-path=/var/run/nginx.lock --http-client-body-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/client_temp --http-proxy-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/proxy_temp --http-fastcgi-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/fastcgi_temp --http-uwsgi-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/uwsgi_temp --http-scgi-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/scgi_temp --user=nginx --group=nginx --with-http_ssl_module --with-http_realip_module --with-http_addition_module --with-http_sub_module --with-http_dav_module --with-http_flv_module --with-http_mp4_module --with-http_gunzip_module --with-http_gzip_static_module --with-http_random_index_module --with-http_secure_link_module --with-http_stub_status_module --with-http_auth_request_module --with-threads --with-stream --with-stream_ssl_module --with-mail --with-mail_ssl_module --with-file-aio --with-http_spdy_module --with-cc-opt='-g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2' --with-ld-opt='-Wl,-z,relro -Wl,--as-needed' --with-ipv6

As you can see, --with-http_gzip_static_module is here.

So where is the problem?

Well I found that adding gzip_http_version 1.0; to nginx.conf solves the problem (default value is 1.1).

# Call without gzip
➜  ~  curl http://tvi.al/assets/js/tvi.al.min.js\?v\=8419b36904 --silent --write-out "%{size_download}\n" --output /dev/null
119887

# Call with gzip
➜  ~  curl http://tvi.al/assets/js/tvi.al.min.js\?v\=8419b36904 --silent -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate" --write-out "%{size_download}\n" --output /dev/null
34441

As you can see, the asset is now gziped and lighter.

25August

read

Simple mail server with docker

Show Comments Thomas VIAL

docker
mail

A few months ago, I started a migration of an old Linux server to a MacMini, running Debian Jessie and all its services in Docker containers.

It was really easy for DNS or Web Server. But a mail server is really more complicated:

it uses a bunch of daemons (imap, smtp)
it also needs additional services (anti-spam, anti-virus...)
configuration can be tricky
security is very important

Why don't you go with Google?

I'm running my mail server at home since 2005, and it helped me a lot to understand how internet works :

mail protocols (smtp, imap)
security, open relay and firewalls
dns, spf
antispam

The other reason is that I have 500+ aliases on my personal account, one for each web site I have an account, and I really want to keep this feature, which is currently limited to 30 aliases with Google Apps.

Do not reinvent the wheel

I had a look to some docker images, but most of them where more complicated than I expected, and also using *SQL databases.

I wanted something:

simple to install
versionable, only based on config files that can be pushed into my git repository
easy to deploy using a single command line

Here comes docker-mailserver

I released tvial/docker-mailserver on the docker registry.
I also released the source code on Github.

I personally use this image every day on a multi-account/domain/user server.

How does it works?

To be simple, this image is based on convention over configuration concept. Of course, if you need something more specific, it's also possible.

The mains files are:

postfix/accounts.cf to manage users and passwords
postfix/virtual to manage aliases and forwards

And that's it.

Start you container using docker or docker-compose and you have a running mail server with:

postfix
courier-imap
amavis
clamav with automatic updates
spamassassin
ready for SSL and LetsEncrypt
opendkim and opendmarc

One more thing?

Yep. You can also:

add specific spamassassin rules into spamassassin/rules.cf
generate a self-signed certificate using a dedicated tool (which can be tricky...)

You're welcome

Please have a look to the detailed README on Github.

You're also welcome if you want to improve this docker image. Just open an issue, we'll talk about your idea, I'll help you and merge.

Oh yeah! #docker mail server just reached 200 #github stars! Thanks you guys and feel free to contribute - https://t.co/bnZM0CkL0i
— Thomas VIAL (@tvial) 24 Février 2016

And big thanks to @docker for this Tweet:

From this week's #DockerWeekly @tvial explains how to create a simple mail server with @Docker: http://t.co/n1of1KKNKM
— Docker (@docker) September 12, 2015

21August

read

RC711, You have lost my trust

Show Comments Thomas VIAL

Most of us are not afraid to buy online. It's now something we do at least one time a month (or a week). I'm pretty sure that we all had a problem with a damaged article, a lost parcel, or something like that.

It's a not a big problem if the company that have made business with you is a minimum professional. Most of them take care of their customers because they want to sell again to their customers in the future.

But they're not all serious companies

Let me tell you what happened to me before Christmas 2013...

As a quadcopter fan, I wanted to buy from an online store in Hong-Kong. It's not a problem for me to buy in Hong-Kong because I did it a lot of times, and even when the parcel is lost, the seller usually sends another one, like any seller would do in Europe or United States.

So I found a new store named RC711. They had the stuff I wanted to buy and great prices (it was very expensive in Europe at this time, prices are lower today).

I placed 2 orders the same week on RC711 web store:

The first containing a DJI FlameWheel F450 Quadcopter Kit + NAZA-M V2 GPS
The second with a Futaba T8J

The F450 arrived 10 days after, early december.
The Futaba never came to me.

If someone from RC711 come here, I'm talking about order #214501.

First, contact RC711

I supposed that, in the Christmas period, the delivery can be slower than usually. So I waited a few days before contacting the shop.

Christmas coming, I really wanted to play like a kid with my X-Mas Gift! So I contacted RC711 and had an answer 10 days after:

Dear Sirs,

Thank you very much for your email!

We have sent a enquiry to Deutsche Post. We will contact you when we got the reply

Should you have further question, please do not hesitate to contact us.

And that's what I did few weeks later because they did not came back to me. The gave me the same answer.

I also contacted DeutschePost, French Post and customs. They don't have the parcel.

Conclusion: Parcel is lost.

Point of no return

We're now in March 2014, with a 5 months old order...
Of course, I bought my Futaba from another store in January.

I decided to ask for a refund. No answer.
I tried again. Still no answer.
And again and again for the next months.
Tried online form, email, Facebook page...

Order #214501 has been made in november 2013... Now I just want to be refunded as I asked for the last weeks. Please ask...
Posted by Thomas Vial on Tuesday, February 11, 2014

In the meantime, I contacted again DeutschePost via Facebook.
They answered the same day, shared informations to me via email very quickly, and told me that the parcel was lost, and they've refunded RC711.
They also sent me the receipt as a proof.

Conclusion, RC711 got my money (€234,66) and the refund from Deutsche Post.

From this, I never had any answer to my emails.

It seems that I'm not the only one having problem with RC711

I already made the payment of a phantom 3 via transfer to the HSBC bank and no one to answer me,much ado'm very angry
Posted by Alexandre Rodrigues on Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Very unhappy customer. I paid a lot of money for a helicopter advertised as in stock when it wasn't. Only to get a...
Posted by Michael Phelan on Friday, April 17, 2015

Order #248561 6 April 2015Is it possible to have an update regarding this order. Currently the status is saying...
Posted by Didier Jarillot on Tuesday, April 14, 2015

order #238100 2014/09The product you have purchased in September 2014 it was observed still. It is not even sent a confirmation message reply. Please explain why.
Posted by InSuk Kim on Tuesday, April 14, 2015

What I learnt from this

I payed with Paypal, and you have to know that you have a 45 days protection. So, if you are on 43rd or 44th day, even if you think that your item will arrive today, open a dispute.
In my case, I was too late.
Edit: since 2015, it's now 180 days!

I also learnt that having business internationally, especially with Hong-Kong is fine if you really trust the company you are working with. I had a look to the social reputation which seemed fine in 2013. As you can see in this post, it doesn't seem to be the case anymore. Have a look to their Facebook page for recent comments.

I don't think RC711 will do anything now, and that's why I wanted you to be aware of my issue.

If you had a problem with this store, leave a comment on this page and on RC711 for future buyers.

Conclusion

RC711 had a lot of solutions:

Send another item
A Refund
A Voucher

They chose to forget me.

What a customer asks first when having trouble, is a good communication and regular updates.

Even the best e-merchant could face a lost parcel or any other delivery or product issue... But what will make you being a good e-merchant, is your Customer Care and After Sales Service.

Having the same issue?

you can leave a comment here
and rate RC711 on Trustpilot

Show Comments Thomas VIAL

If you experienced a blinking DIAG led on your Cisco router, you will have to reinstall a firmware using a dedicated procedure.

Download the latest firmware

You will find it on Cisco Support Website.
In my case, for a Cisco Small Business RV042G, the firmware can be found here.

Send it to your router using tftp

TFTP stands for Trival File Transfer Protocol. It's a FTP like protocole which allows a client to get from or put a file onto a remote host.

The file that will be uploaded will be automatically installed. To do that:

open a Terminal
go to the folder were you downloaded the latest firmware

Now type the following command

$ tftp 192.168.1.1
tftp> mode binary
tftp> put RV0XX-v4.2.3.06-20150319-code.bin
Sent 26284032 bytes in 11.5 seconds

Show Comments Thomas VIAL

There are a lot of tutorials to generate a SSL certificate, like this one, or this other one. But you will see that there are a few steps to respect in order to make it work properly.

How can I generate my self-signed certificate?

You just need to have docker installed on your computer. Just type the following command line:

docker run -ti --rm -v "$(pwd)":/ssl -h mail.my-domain.com -t tvial/docker-mailserver generate-ssl-certificate

It will generate some files needed for your SSL configuration (postfix, nginx, apache...).

mail.my-domain.com-key.pem (private key)
mail.my-domain.com-req.pem (public key)
mail.my-domain.com-cert.pem (certificate)
mail.my-domain.com-combined.pem (private key + certificate)
demoCA/cacert.pem (certificate authority)

Now you need to configure your daemon to use this certificate and you have a fully SSL secured connection available.

Show Comments Thomas VIAL

For a better experience, I wanted to improve the performance of this blog. I combined/minified css/js files, but I saw that these assets were not compressed.

# Call without gzip
➜  ~  curl http://tvi.al/assets/js/tvi.al.min.js\?v\=8419b36904 --silent --write-out "%{size_download}\n" --output /dev/null
119887

# Call with gzip
➜  ~  curl http://tvi.al/assets/js/tvi.al.min.js\?v\=8419b36904 --silent -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate" --write-out "%{size_download}\n" --output /dev/null
119887

The size remains the same.

It was strange because I worked with my configurations files before I move to docker.

I thought that the official nginx image was compiled without gzip module. But it is:

$ docker run nginx nginx -V
nginx version: nginx/1.9.0
built by gcc 4.9.2 (Debian 4.9.2-10)
built with OpenSSL 1.0.1k 8 Jan 2015
TLS SNI support enabled
configure arguments: --prefix=/etc/nginx --sbin-path=/usr/sbin/nginx --conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf --error-log-path=/var/log/nginx/error.log --http-log-path=/var/log/nginx/access.log --pid-path=/var/run/nginx.pid --lock-path=/var/run/nginx.lock --http-client-body-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/client_temp --http-proxy-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/proxy_temp --http-fastcgi-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/fastcgi_temp --http-uwsgi-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/uwsgi_temp --http-scgi-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/scgi_temp --user=nginx --group=nginx --with-http_ssl_module --with-http_realip_module --with-http_addition_module --with-http_sub_module --with-http_dav_module --with-http_flv_module --with-http_mp4_module --with-http_gunzip_module --with-http_gzip_static_module --with-http_random_index_module --with-http_secure_link_module --with-http_stub_status_module --with-http_auth_request_module --with-threads --with-stream --with-stream_ssl_module --with-mail --with-mail_ssl_module --with-file-aio --with-http_spdy_module --with-cc-opt='-g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2' --with-ld-opt='-Wl,-z,relro -Wl,--as-needed' --with-ipv6

As you can see, --with-http_gzip_static_module is here.

So where is the problem?

Well I found that adding gzip_http_version 1.0; to nginx.conf solves the problem (default value is 1.1).

# Call without gzip
➜  ~  curl http://tvi.al/assets/js/tvi.al.min.js\?v\=8419b36904 --silent --write-out "%{size_download}\n" --output /dev/null
119887

# Call with gzip
➜  ~  curl http://tvi.al/assets/js/tvi.al.min.js\?v\=8419b36904 --silent -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate" --write-out "%{size_download}\n" --output /dev/null
34441

As you can see, the asset is now gziped and lighter.

Show Comments Thomas VIAL

docker
mail

A few months ago, I started a migration of an old Linux server to a MacMini, running Debian Jessie and all its services in Docker containers.

It was really easy for DNS or Web Server. But a mail server is really more complicated:

it uses a bunch of daemons (imap, smtp)
it also needs additional services (anti-spam, anti-virus...)
configuration can be tricky
security is very important

Why don't you go with Google?

I'm running my mail server at home since 2005, and it helped me a lot to understand how internet works :

mail protocols (smtp, imap)
security, open relay and firewalls
dns, spf
antispam

Do not reinvent the wheel

I had a look to some docker images, but most of them where more complicated than I expected, and also using *SQL databases.

I wanted something:

simple to install
versionable, only based on config files that can be pushed into my git repository
easy to deploy using a single command line

Here comes docker-mailserver

I released tvial/docker-mailserver on the docker registry.
I also released the source code on Github.

I personally use this image every day on a multi-account/domain/user server.

How does it works?

To be simple, this image is based on convention over configuration concept. Of course, if you need something more specific, it's also possible.

The mains files are:

postfix/accounts.cf to manage users and passwords
postfix/virtual to manage aliases and forwards

And that's it.

Start you container using docker or docker-compose and you have a running mail server with:

postfix
courier-imap
amavis
clamav with automatic updates
spamassassin
ready for SSL and LetsEncrypt
opendkim and opendmarc

One more thing?

Yep. You can also:

add specific spamassassin rules into spamassassin/rules.cf
generate a self-signed certificate using a dedicated tool (which can be tricky...)

You're welcome

Please have a look to the detailed README on Github.

You're also welcome if you want to improve this docker image. Just open an issue, we'll talk about your idea, I'll help you and merge.

Oh yeah! #docker mail server just reached 200 #github stars! Thanks you guys and feel free to contribute - https://t.co/bnZM0CkL0i
— Thomas VIAL (@tvial) 24 Février 2016

And big thanks to @docker for this Tweet:

From this week's #DockerWeekly @tvial explains how to create a simple mail server with @Docker: http://t.co/n1of1KKNKM
— Docker (@docker) September 12, 2015

Show Comments Thomas VIAL

But they're not all serious companies

Let me tell you what happened to me before Christmas 2013...

So I found a new store named RC711. They had the stuff I wanted to buy and great prices (it was very expensive in Europe at this time, prices are lower today).

I placed 2 orders the same week on RC711 web store:

The first containing a DJI FlameWheel F450 Quadcopter Kit + NAZA-M V2 GPS
The second with a Futaba T8J

The F450 arrived 10 days after, early december.
The Futaba never came to me.

If someone from RC711 come here, I'm talking about order #214501.

First, contact RC711

I supposed that, in the Christmas period, the delivery can be slower than usually. So I waited a few days before contacting the shop.

Christmas coming, I really wanted to play like a kid with my X-Mas Gift! So I contacted RC711 and had an answer 10 days after:

Dear Sirs,

Thank you very much for your email!

We have sent a enquiry to Deutsche Post. We will contact you when we got the reply

Should you have further question, please do not hesitate to contact us.

And that's what I did few weeks later because they did not came back to me. The gave me the same answer.

I also contacted DeutschePost, French Post and customs. They don't have the parcel.

Conclusion: Parcel is lost.

Point of no return

We're now in March 2014, with a 5 months old order...
Of course, I bought my Futaba from another store in January.

I decided to ask for a refund. No answer.
I tried again. Still no answer.
And again and again for the next months.
Tried online form, email, Facebook page...

Order #214501 has been made in november 2013... Now I just want to be refunded as I asked for the last weeks. Please ask...
Posted by Thomas Vial on Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Conclusion, RC711 got my money (€234,66) and the refund from Deutsche Post.

From this, I never had any answer to my emails.

It seems that I'm not the only one having problem with RC711

I already made the payment of a phantom 3 via transfer to the HSBC bank and no one to answer me,much ado'm very angry
Posted by Alexandre Rodrigues on Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Very unhappy customer. I paid a lot of money for a helicopter advertised as in stock when it wasn't. Only to get a...
Posted by Michael Phelan on Friday, April 17, 2015

Order #248561 6 April 2015Is it possible to have an update regarding this order. Currently the status is saying...
Posted by Didier Jarillot on Tuesday, April 14, 2015

order #238100 2014/09The product you have purchased in September 2014 it was observed still. It is not even sent a confirmation message reply. Please explain why.
Posted by InSuk Kim on Tuesday, April 14, 2015

What I learnt from this

I don't think RC711 will do anything now, and that's why I wanted you to be aware of my issue.

If you had a problem with this store, leave a comment on this page and on RC711 for future buyers.

Conclusion

RC711 had a lot of solutions:

Send another item
A Refund
A Voucher

They chose to forget me.

What a customer asks first when having trouble, is a good communication and regular updates.

Even the best e-merchant could face a lost parcel or any other delivery or product issue... But what will make you being a good e-merchant, is your Customer Care and After Sales Service.

Having the same issue?

you can leave a comment here
and rate RC711 on Trustpilot

Featured Posts

Simple mail server with docker

RC711, You have lost my trust

Fix the DIAG blinking led with Cisco RV042G router