Update your Website’s Software regularly
I am following the Google walkout news from the Chinese market for the past few days. Will others online properties follow suit too?
Essentially the hacking seems to have happened because of a zero-day flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
This just shows how important it is for everyone to patch their computers.
However, there is another patch which most webmasters forget to do and that is to patch their online softwares. Be it CMS’ like Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal or any other software that you use online, it is extremely essential that they are patched to the latest build. From my early days as a developer I have observed how software flaws have been picked up by hackers. They simply run a search on google for websites running a particular software by keying in certain standard URLs that are unique to the software and then hack into the website – defacing the homepage, deleting core files, dropping their own files or even stealing the database.
To add to one’s misery I have also observed that users often install a CMS and don’t backup the entire installation. Reason being the size of the installation is often too large for a backup; this is a major error. Because if your site is hacked, you have to restart building your website from scratch. Trust me, this is really disheartening and time consuming.
As a webmaster these are some of the key points you must adhere to
1. Patch your software
a. You can subscribe to your software’s newsletter that updates you when a new patch is available.
b. You can add a feed from your software’s website to your feed reader warning you when a software update has been posted.
c. Use Fantastico in the first place when you start installing known software. Fantastico will automate updates relieving you of updating your software from time to time.
2. Backup Backup Backup
Seriously! Need I elaborate on how important backing up is? Use your site’s control panel. If you are hosted with WebCynergy, simply head to www.YOURWEBSITE.com/cpanel and run an entire backup of your site. You can download this backup and keep the copy with you for a hay day.
If you would rather concentrate on your business or your website was developed by a few developers and you are no longer in touch with them, simply contact us. We will maintain your website by patching and updating your software from time to time for a small annual maintenance fee. How about that? 
Host safely.
Read MoreUnlimited Hosting – is it for real?
Is there anything like unlimited in this world? Even the air we breathe is finite! Perhaps the only thing close to unlimited would be space.
Then how do people develop this craze for unlimited hosting? When you search for unlimited hosting in your favourite search engine, you come across a myriad of websites that promise to host unlimited content at the cheapest price possible. Frankly speaking in my early days, when I started Web Designing for a few clients and had to choose a host, I fell for the unlimited bug too. From my experience in web hosting and designing for over 10 years these are a few things I have learnt:
1. There is nothing like unlimited. Even unlimited food is restricted to how much you can eat. Some eat less and others eat more. But no one eats unlimited!
2. Other than a very select number of websites (and I mean really select and reputed ones) all other unlimited hosting plans are possibly pyramid schemes which crash someday.
How does this pyramid crash?
a. There is a master seller who sells a few large capacity servers to resellers.
b. Now these resellers have the option to resell space to someone again or rent the space out to end customers.
c. Somewhere in this reselling chain come a few scrupulous people who just want to make a fast buck! These are generally college kids who need to pay for their daily expenses or other miscreants.
d. From a limited but large space rented out, someone along the chain brings in the concept of unlimited space to both resellers and clients alike. Each sub-reseller then again assigns unlimited space to his clients without knowing who his parent seller is or is there really an unlimited hosting. And so the chain follows.
e. Someday the buck has to stop. Someone pulls the plug somewhere. And then the entire chain collapses.
How does this hurt you as a client?
1. Simple. You loose your money! Worse still, you would have paid a low rate for unlimited space for a 5 year contract. And you loose it all!
2. More than your money, you loose your files. Perhaps you do not have a backup too!
3. You loose access to your emails and your clients think you just went kaput as they are unable to access your website for a few days till you don’t move to another host.
At WebCynergy we do not encourage false marketing. We charge you what we think is the right price to run the business efficiently and support you. We charge you in different slabs depending on the space you need. We believe this approach is more ethical than marketing something that does not exist. If you believe that we are your right partners, we would encourage you to try out WebCynergy’s hosting – please click here to check our plans. Happy hosting with WebCynergy!