Hostname and (Apple) Mail Server Dependencies

My Mac Mini with OSX Server had this thing that the hostname (as displayed in the Terminal app) would change after a reboot. Something that annoyed me tremendously. Thankfully there are several (Terminal) commands to change the hostname (back) to its 'original name'.

Since I wanted to change my hostname PERMANENTLY, I used the following command:

sudo scutil –set HostName new_hostname

This worked perfectly. Or so I thought.

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Microsoft Internet Explorer and IP Addresses in Certificate SAN

A fairy long title, but it describes exactly what this post is about. Once again a post about a Microsoft product and the way it works (or rather doesn't work) with your average Internet standard.

This week I was busy with RADIUS, 802.1x, PKI and the protection of websites with SSL encryption. For the implementation of 802.1x, I needed a PKI environment, so I used the Microsoft Certificate Services for that purpose. Along the way, I needed an SSL certificate for an internal website, but this particular website needed to work properly based on different FQDN's and or IP addresses without throwing warining or errors regarding the SSL connection.

The way to do this is to add Subject Alternative Names (SAN) to the certificate. This enables you to access the website in different ways, e.g.;

• Access a webmail host from the internet based on its official FQDN (https://webmail.somedomain.com)
• Access the same webmail host from the inside of the corporate lan based on its internal name (https://webmail.acme.local)
• And access the host from legacy DNS-unaware software on its IP address (https://192.168.1.254)

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Where can I find the iTunesHelper App?

The iTunesHelper application is used to automatically detect iPod's/iPad's and iPhones, when you connect these to your Mac. The application launches iTunes, and (if configured) synchronizes stuff. Very handy, but it can be quite annoying.

E.g. I have an iMac (main 'PC' around the house), and a MacBook. All the synchronization stuff is done on my iMac, and I don't sync anything on my MacBook. But when I attach my iPhone to my MacBook for Internet access (tethering), it launches iTunes and wants to synchronize with an empty iTunes. Something I definitelly don't want.

This feature can be turned off by removing the iTunesHelper application entry from the Login Items in your account settings, but turning it back on is something completely different. I accidentally removed it from my iMac, which wasn't supposed to happen....

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