Internet | Technology Bloggers

How to choose a domain name and a host

12th November 2011 20 Replies Christopher Roberts

If you want to set up a website or a forum, it can be a process which takes a lot of time. Setting up a blog is usually a bit quicker thanks to blogging platforms, of which there are many free ones on offer.

If you are self coding your blog like I did with my old technology blog, it will probably take just as long as a website to set up. However if you are going to use a blogging system to do all the hard work for you, like Blogger, WordPress, Typepad, Movable Type, Drupal etc. setting up your blog is likely to be a lot quicker.

WordPress prides itself on its famous ‘5-minute installation‘ but before you get there, and this is the same for any type of site, you need to choose a URL (domain name) and host.

Some places offer you free URL’s, like WordPress(.com) and Google Sites, however they often restrict the control you have over your site – for example you may not be able to have ads on the site, or you may not be able to edit themes.

Assuming you want to have a unique URL/web address, then you have the challenge of choosing your URL, and where to host it.

Deciding upon a URL

Choosing a URL can be very hard, however my best advice is to go with your brand. If you are setting up a computer review blog, and it is called ‘ComBlog’, then try to find a URL with ComBlog in it.

Some people would say work out what keywords you want to show up in the search results for, and choose your domain taking those into account, e.g. freecomputerreviews.net; yes such domains may help you in the short term, however once you are established, I think that a branded domain is always best.

Going back to the ‘ComBlog’ example, domains like ComBlog.com and ComBlog.info would be great for your site, as they are short – therefore easy to remember and simple enough to spell.

The type of hosting

The next step is choosing what type of hosting you want. Do you want Windows or Linux? If you just want to run a simple website, I would suggest a Windows powered domain, however if you want to run something like WordPress or many other blogging platforms, you will need a Linux server.

Your host

After that you have to choose who is going to host your site. If you have a server at home/work and that is running 24/7 (as if it goes down, so will your site if it is hosted there) then you could host it there. However for more bandwidth, space and security, you probably want to get someone else to do it.

The problem is, who to choose! You could go to individual hosts websites, and try and work out which one is best for you. Alternatively, you could go to a web hosting comparison site, like Web Hosting Search. Such sites can offer you a very detailed overview of different hosts and what they can provide. They also contain users opinions – helping you further to choose the right company.

One useful tool that such sites offer (specifically Web Hosting Search) is a WordPress hosting comparison. This can help you find hosts that offer WordPress hosting – if that is what you are looking for.

Things to check

Before choosing your host, look at what they are offering you. Are your emails free, and can you have as many addresses as you like (e.g. talk@ComBlog.info, hello@ComBlog.info, John@ComBlog.info etc.)?

Also, how much traffic can your site receive each month? I recommend that you have it unlimited (or as high as possible) as there is nothing worse than your host cutting you off because you are too popular! This happened to Chadrack, owner of WebIncomeJournal.com not so long ago.

Also how reliable is your prospective host? Is your site likely to go offline a lot, or do they have a 0 down-time policy?

Some hosts offer you your domain free if you host it with them, so do look out for offers 🙂

Are you looking to set up a website? What is your advice to those who are, or if you are, is this helpful?

Are Antivirus and Firewall Sufficient for Good Security?

10th November 2011 19 Replies Alan

Whenever people talk about computer and internet security, they talk about malware which consists of virus, trojan, worms, spyware and many more. When they come to talk about the solution for those threats, the solution is to get an antivirus and firewall to do the work.

The question now is, are they sufficient for a good computer and internet security? I would say ‘No’. It is very irresponsible to put the blame into that awesome software when you become a victim of malware infection. I believe that software like antivirus and firewall are there to help you in achieving good security, but not creating some sort of plasma shield to you.

The reasons why you have a poor security

As I said, you can’t blame the software for being too poor as the reason that you to get infected. Part of the reason why you are infected can be several below.

You are too careless when handling incoming links from email

Incoming links from emails especially from an unknown sender are usually malicious. They don’t lead to valuable site but either phishing site or malicious site. If you happen to land on a malicious site, your computer will most probably infected with virus, trojan, or worm the next minute.

If you don’t update and patch your operating system, the wounded area is the target for hackers

Sad to say, there is no such thing such as perfect software. Software is always 95% complete where 5% is the section for bugs and vulnerabilities to exist. It is the matter of time whether those vulnerabilities are found.

If the creator happened to find those vulnerabilities before the bad guys, they will still able to patch the wounded area. So if you don’t update and apply the patch, you will the one targeted by hackers to exploit your vulnerabilities.

You are the owner of your computer, not the administrator

Many of us think that being the owner of the computer means being the administrator as well. But do you know that Microsoft did not design it this way for us? There is an option to create a Standard User and there is User Account Control (UAC) so that we will use our computer in the way that we don’t have full privileges to do everything, same goes to the hacker.

By having a strict UAC, you will realize that every single time you run an application that might affect your System files, you will be asked for permission. The benefit here is, if a hacker tries to run an application to harm your system files, I bet you will know it as well when your UAC pops up.

My verdict to poor security

Having a bad security does not mean your antivirus is not efficient enough or your firewall is not solid enough. At times, it is the user who lacks of experience in handling computer threats. As a result, it is important to always stay alert whenever you are browsing the internet.

If you want to learn more about security, you can grab my copy of eBook for free on how to Build Your Own Security.

WordPress Security Tips – Safeguard Your Blog

8th November 2011 18 Replies Jonathan

I recently came a cropper to a hacker on a WordPress Blog I was setting up – luckily I’d backed everything up, but what if I hadn’t? Well, I’d have likely lost everything.

Now the hacking was partly my own fault for not putting the right measures in place. This got me wondering about how many other webmasters fail to implement basic security measures that could save them a lot of trouble in the future.

So without further ado lets look at my top WordPress security tips. I’ll also point you in the direction of a few WordPress Security plugins that I’ve discovered that do a great job of adding that second line of defence.

Don’t Use Admin as a Username

Let’s start simple – the default username in WordPress is “admin” – don’t use this! It’s the first username that all hackers will try, and allows them to a launch a brute force attack, which simply means a bot that tries multiple attempts at guessing your password.

This is probably one of the most common types of hacks out there and it still works. As a second line of defence I’d install a handy plugin called Login Lockdown, basically it records IP addresses of all failed login attempts, if a lot are cropping up in a short time frame it bans all IP addresses from that range. It also goes without saying use a strong password.

Change the WordPress Table Prefix

This involves changing another WordPress default that makes it harder for a hacker to attack your blog via a SQL injection. The table prefixes are defaulted to wp_ – they are easy to change in your wp-config.php file prior to installation.

However, if you have a site that’s already installed and you’re trying to secure that – I recommend using the WP Security Scan Plugin to do so. Remember to take a backup before you change anything – it’s good practice! The WP security scan has a number of cool features (such as removing the WordPress version in the source code) so it’s definitely worth installing.

Don’t forget to use secret keys

I have a friend who works for a hosting company – and he revealed it’s amazing how many people forget to use secret keys. Now if you’ve installed WordPress via Fantastico or some other quick install tool that your hosting company provides they should automatically include these.

The hashing salt keys make your password even more secure. To make sure you’re using them – visit https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1 to generate your keys, and then put them in your wp-config.php file – you’ll spot them easily.

Secure your wp-admin folder

I missed this out when installing my blog and it’s another security tip that many webmasters fail to implement. The wp-admin folder is very important and if a hacker gets into that then they’re going to cause some serious damage.

This involves using a .htaccess file to prevent access. You have two options here – you can prevent access by only allowing certain IP addresses (which isn’t ideal if you have a dynamic IP or work form multiple locations or on the move) or you can use a .htpassword file.

To use the IP address method simply create an .htaccess file and paste in the code below (switching the xxx for your IP address) then upload it to your wp-admin folder:
AuthUserFile /dev/null AuthGroupFile /dev/null AuthName "Access Control" AuthType Basic order deny,allow deny from all #IP address to Whitelist allow from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
You can add multiple lines of IP addresses if you want. If your site has multiple writers posting – like Technology Bloggers or accepts guest posts then it’s unlikely this method is viable.

If that’s the case use the .htpassword method – there’s a useful tutorial here: htaccess Files and WordPress Security.

Keep WordPress up to date

This seems obvious but a lot of people forget to upgrade their WordPress. Maybe through fear of breaking something or perhaps just laziness.

The majority of WordPress upgrades are made to increase security and patch up known vulnerabilities. So backup your install and upgrade to the latest version when they’re available.

Keep regular backups

Sometimes no matter how many security measures you have in place, a hacker it still able to get through, maybe through a plugin that contains an exploit.

In this case, you have to take regular backups as the last line of defence. Perhaps through the use of a plugin, or via your host. You can schedule them to run on a daily basis and then be emailed to you.

Having to restore a backup is probably a worse case scenario, but believe me, it’s far easier than having to re-setup your entire blog and redo blog posts from Googles cached pages.

What are your favourite WordPress security methods? Are there some great plugins that I’ve missed? Please let me know in the comments section below.

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