Set up VPN Server on Raspberry Pi

VPN servers are a great way to make sure your connection is secure and safe specially when you are connected to open or shared Wifi network. This tutorial will show you how you can set up your own VPN server at you home on Raspberry Pi, so all your connections on remote devices go through this server as if you were connected to your home Wifi.

The software that I am using – Softether – is a free and open source server that allows you to set up multiple VPN protocols. We will only be setting IPSec protocol that uses secure and encrypted connections for your VPN. Continue reading Set up VPN Server on Raspberry Pi

Come On Apple!! A book? Seriously? Apple’s newest product!

With the holiday season, Apple makes sure you have a product for everyone in the family that you can spend all your money on. iPhone is too advanced for your elder family member? No problem, Apple got a book that you can buy for $300. No I did not miss a “.” after the 3. The book does cost three hundred dollars!!

This will give me one more reason not to like Apple and Apple products after Steve Jobs. The irony is that this book is dedicated to Steve Jobs.

Ok now to the tech specs of this book, or whatever….

  • Topic: Designed by Apple | the first of its kind
  • Size: 6.5 x 9.25 inches | 27.75% bigger
  • Color: White, we could also paint it black and rose gold for another $100
  • Weight: 155g | 33.23% lighter
  • Battery life: Indefinite | 40% longer battery life

This the absolutely the BEST book Apple has ever created!!!

Privacy.com: the VPN for credit cards with [unlimited] IP’s

With all these security breaches nowadays including passwords and credit card numbers being leaked/stolen, it is important to be cautious about where you type important information online.

I personally do not trust the security of many websites, and feel like I should not allow them to process or store my credit/debit cards. Unfortunately, sometimes I have to do that.

In addition to taking the risk and rely on your bank or credit card company to reimburse for transactions made on your compromised card, there is in fact a way to protect yourself!

Privacy.com does just that and more… Continue reading Privacy.com: the VPN for credit cards with [unlimited] IP’s

How to configure a mail server

This tutorial will give you instructions about how you can configure a mail server on Linux (same works for other platforms) that will not be treated as a spam by major email providers.

This will not show you how to install the mail server and assumes that you have one already installed. For some tutorial on how to install a mail server check out these resources: Continue reading How to configure a mail server

VerifyEmail – PHP class to validate email address

Email address is an essential part of any web from. We are almost always required to enter an email address for anything that we sign up for; contact form, account creation form, subscription form, etc. In a lot of cases it does make sense to require a valid email address. It is often required for communication and for security purpose, other times it is sole purpose is to market a certain product(s) (what you can call spam).

For this reason, a lot of users instinctually enter a bogus email address just to finish the process. While I don’t blame users for doing so, I also provide this class that allows developers to validate an email address and make sure it actually can receive emails. Continue reading VerifyEmail – PHP class to validate email address

VPSDime (free) Offloaded MySQL – Whats the catch?!

VPSDime is a great affordable VPS solution for many users. They offer servers starting at $7.99/month with 6GB of RAM. This is the lowest price out there.

On the top of that they offer (free) offloaded MySQL with initial setup fees of $1. This service gives you up to 20GB of MySQL storage to use for databases hosted on their giant MySQL (actually MariaDB) server. Continue reading VPSDime (free) Offloaded MySQL – Whats the catch?!

Athan System with raspberry Pi

The athan (or Adhan) is a special Islamic call to salah (prayer). A mu’athin calls athan from the minaret of a mosque to announce every prayer and worship event. According to Islamic custom, the athan is also the first thing that a newborn baby should hear. You can say the words in English, Arabic, or any other language that is meaningful to you.

Prayers in Islam are 5 times a day. Those times vary, so does that athan for them.

Since I am Muslim, I have created an athan “clock” that calls the athan 5 times a day. I use a Raspberry Pi and a speaker connected to it to play the athan sound.

I called it a “system” because it does more than just playing the sound at certain times. Here are all the functionalities it does: Continue reading Athan System with raspberry Pi

8.5 hours of SOT on Android!

I love Android phones but I don’t always enjoy the short battery life that I get on my phones. I hate that I have to charge my phone at least 2 times a day if I want to use it the way I want (always browsing the web, checking Facebook, watching Youtube, and have some background tasks running all the time)
I do not run heavy games or apps that require a lot of processing power so I thought I could use the flexibility of Android to get more hours from one charge. Continue reading 8.5 hours of SOT on Android!

How I automatically notify my family that I am close to home (most likely parking the car)

Introduction

For many reasons I find it very useful to let my family know that I am getting very close to the house. Mainly because my wife would be able to unlock the door (if she is close by and knows that I will be coming up stairs carrying a lot of grocery bags)

So I thought about a way to do that and I came up with this plan:

  1. Have something running on the Raspberry Pi at home listing to a trigger of some kind to play a sound when I get close.
  2. Use Tasker app to trigger a call to the server based on my phone location

Continue reading How I automatically notify my family that I am close to home (most likely parking the car)