Monthly Archives: %sJune 2017

Best Domain Registrar 2017

Working as a web developer you encounter domains that are registered on various domain registrars. Some clients are on Google Domains, GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc. In my opinion the best registrar to use in 2017 is NameCheap.

They are a well known domain registrar founded in 2000. They made a name for them early on by allowing you to register second class TLD (.club, .info), etc.  I personally use NameCheap on a daily basis, their DNS servers are fast, support is great, friendly user interface for managing your domain names. To me it’s important that a registrar provides top class security as well. I’ve turned on 2 Factor authentication (more commonly known as “2FA”) to keep my account secure. Whenever I login there is a prompt for me to enter in the 2FA code, this is sent via an SMS text message.

As I mentioned earlier the support services are great, you can contact them via live chat, support ticket or phone.

So how much does a .com domain cost? As of June 28th 2017 it costs $10.88 for a .com domain registration for one year (this also includes the free whois guard protection for 1 year).

Visit Namecheap

 

 

By |June 28th, 2017|General Web Development|0 Comments

Visual Studio 2017 Preview 3 is out

Preview 3 of Visual Studio 2017 is out, learn more about this update at: https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/news/releasenotes/vs2017-preview-relnotes

By |June 27th, 2017|Coding|0 Comments

Azure Automated Login via Service Principal

In order for this setup to work you must be an administrator for your azure subscription:

  • Create a new application registration under Azure Active Directory.
  • Generate a key for the application.
  • Assign the application to your azure subscription(s).

The community has put together an excellent how to document which will walk you though the 3 steps mentioned above, this can be found at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/resource-group-create-service-principal-portal

After performing all 3 steps, you should gather the following information:

  • Tenant ID/Directory ID: This is found under the Properties blade of the Azure Active Directory
  • Application ID:  This is found under the Properties blade of the Register application
  • Secure Key: This is found and generated under the Keys blade of the Register application

After you’ve gather all the information, plug it into this script and execute it. I’ve tested this on Azure Powershell version 4.0.2. To get your version of Azure Powershell execute the following:

Get-Module -ListAvailable -Name Azure -Refresh | Select Version

Here is the script to authenticate your service principal:

$key = '' # Found under Azure AD -> Application -> Keys
$applicationId = '' # Application ID - Self explanatory 
$tenantId = '' # This ID is found under Properties for the Azure Active Directory

# Create credentials
$pass = ConvertTo-SecureString $($key) -AsPlainText -Force
$cred = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist $applicationId, $pass

# Authenticate
Login-AzureRmAccount -Credential $cred -ServicePrincipal -TenantId $tenantId

 

By |June 6th, 2017|Azure|0 Comments