Author: sepedatua

Hey, I'm SepedaTua — a self-taught programmer and sysadmin in my early 40s, running CrushEdge to share the fixes I wish I'd found faster. I spend my days wrestling WordPress, WooCommerce, Linux servers, PHP, Python, and whatever else small-business sites throw at me. After years of trial-and-error (and way too many late-night server crashes), I document the solutions that actually work — safely, with backups first, and no unnecessary fluff. Outside the terminal, I'm a dad to four awesome kids, married to my best friend, and still squeezing in some video games when the house quiets down. If you're stuck on a problem, grab a coffee and let's sort it out together.

WD My Passport Review: Compact External HDD with Big Capacity

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If you’re running out of space on your laptop or desktop, you’re not alone. Developers, freelancers, students, photographers – anyone dealing with big files will hit that low-storage warning sooner or later. And when that happens, a simple external hard disk is usually the quickest, least painful way out. This review walks through WD My Passport – a compact external…

Fixing LEMP on Ubuntu 20.04: PHP Fails, WordPress Limits, and Nginx Gotchas

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If you’re setting up a LEMP stack on Ubuntu 20.04 and you: Followed a guide exactly, but PHP “didn’t install” or doesn’t run Have WordPress running, but uploads are stuck at 2MB Aren’t sure whether to edit nginx.conf, php.ini, php.conf, or .htaccess …you’re in the right place. This is for anyone running Ubuntu 20.04 with Nginx, MySQL 8.0, and PHP…

Initial Ubuntu 20.04 Server Setup: Safe, Simple, and Secure

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When you spin up a fresh Ubuntu server, it feels great for about five seconds. Then the worry kicks in: “I’m logged in as root… is that bad?” “Is SSH already getting hammered by bots?” “If I mess this up, will I lock myself out?” Before: you’ve got a brand-new Ubuntu box, wide open, running as root, and you’re hoping…

Initial CentOS Server Setup: Safe Basics for New Servers

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You just spun up a fresh CentOS server and now you’re staring at an IP address thinking, “Okay… now what?” If you’re running WordPress sites, small business apps, or just tinkering like I do at night after the kids sleep, these first minutes matter. A few basic steps now will make your server safer and easier to live with later….

Secure Apache on Debian 10 with Let’s Encrypt and Certbot

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If you’re running a Debian 10 server with Apache and still serving your site over plain HTTP, you’re basically shouting your traffic across the internet. That’s bad news for logins, contact forms, and anything even slightly private. This hits small business sites, WordPress installs, and any DIY server where HTTPS was put off as “later”. The good news: with Let’s…

Install and Use Composer Safely on Debian 10 (Step-by-Step)

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If you’re trying to install some PHP tool and it keeps saying “run this with Composer”, but your Debian 10 server just shrugs, this one’s for you. Before: you copy-paste commands from a GitHub README, get a Composer error, and nothing works. After: Composer is installed, verified, and you can install PHP packages and frameworks without guessing. This guide is…