Since FreeBSD 7.3-RELEASE, it has been possible to automatically setup a forwarding nameserver simply by adding named_enable="YES" named_auto_forward="YES" to /etc/rc.conf. This allows you to utilize a local resolver for better performance, and decreased network traffic while still relying on the benefits of your local network resolver. When named is started, a forwarder configuration file is generated by using the the contents of /etc/resolv.conf Modify /etc/resolv.conf so that the first nameserver queried is 127.…

FreeBSD uses sha512 to encrypted passwords for user accounts. However, blowfish is available in all recent versions of FreeBSD and its easy to change the default crypt method to use blowfish instead In /etc/login.conf change :passwd_format=sha512: to :passwd_format=blf: and recreate the login capability database with the command cap_mkdb /etc/login.conf Now have each user change their password. Start with your current login. $ passwd Changing local password for {current user}.…

FreeBSD allows you to perform an instantaneous change to your system clock while the host is booting up no matter how great the difference between a machine’s current clock setting and the correct time. Use the sysrc command as root to append ntpdate_enable and ntpdate_hosts to /etc/rc.conf $ sysrc ntpdate_enable=YES ntpdate_enable: NO -> YES $ sysrc ntpdate_hosts=north-america.pool.ntp.org ntpdate_hosts: -> north-america.pool.ntp.org Finally, to verify that everything worked correctly $ grep ntpdate /etc/rc.…