Posted by Rob Atherton on Mar 6, 2010 in
Articles Directory,
Website Hacked Yesterday, one of my website was hacked by an individual or group calling themselves z7faan-h4ck3r. The hack involved changing a couple of headings and having some stupid video on a loop.
Naturally, I was less than impressed but it didn’t actually take long to find a fix which so far seems to have worked.
The website is an articles directory created using the “Article Dashboard” software and apparently, a number of similar sites have also been hacked. This is how I fixed it:
1. Check you have the Article Dashboard software on your computer
2. Delete the following directories from your website
/admintemplates
/templates
3. Upload these two directories to your site from your computer
4. Login as admin and go to “Edit Settings”. Here you will see that Site Name, Admin Email ID, Admin Name and Admin Message fields have been changed and you’ll need to change them
5. Finally and most important, CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD !!!!
That should restore your Article Dashboard website. Like I said, it seems to have worked so far but there is a chance that there is something else hanging around that I haven’t found.
Posted by Rob Atherton on Jan 4, 2010 in
Facebook For a while now, Facebook have allowed you to change the URL of your profile or fans page to what is known as a vaniety URL.
For example: http://www.facebook.com/yourname
To change your URL is a simple process, just login to Facebook and go to http://www.facebook.com/username and follow the instructions.
More details can be found in this article: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=90316352130 so please read them before going ahead and changing your URL.
There are slightly different rules with changing URLs on Fan Pages to try to prevent URL squatting. However, if you are planning to use a Fan Page for your business, changing the URL is worth while as it can help with SEO.
Some examples of Fan Pages with a vanity URL:
http://www.facebook.com/ExplorerTravel
http://www.facebook.com/LandscapesOfEngland
Posted by Rob Atherton on Dec 21, 2009 in
Joomla Development Since I migrated a couple of Joomla sites to a new hosting company, I had run into a problem where any articles I created or amended were losing their HTML formatting and to say the least, it was driving me mad.
Thankfully, I’ve just found the solution and its fairly straightforward. If you are having the same problems, you just need to alter a couple of settings and all will be well again.
The solution is explained here>>
http://docs.joomla.org/Why_does_some_HTML_get_removed_from_articles_in_version_1.5.8%3F
Posted by Rob Atherton on Dec 15, 2009 in
Facebook If you don’t know, as of today, Facebook will automatically allow Google and other search engines to index all your information. This will allow the information to appear in the search results.
However, it is easy enough to prevent this by changing your Facebook privacy settings.
To change this option, go to
Settings
–> Privacy Settings
–> Search
–> then UN-CLICK the box that says ‘Allow indexing’.
Posted by Rob on Sep 17, 2009 in
Data Backup Don’t worry, I’m not about to spout the lyrics to some song but the subject is deadly serious.
I’m talking about your data. Your emails, those important documents you’ve been working on, those funny movie clips, your MP3s. How about the really important things – your family photos. They are your memories and part of you. Remember how you used to look back at the pictures of your kids first Christmas? How would you feel if they were suddenly gone?
Well, I’ve been there. Disc crashes are bad. Forget the expense of replacing them and the time it takes to re-install all your software again, its the things you lose that really matter. Of course, there are companies out there who MAY be able to get your data back but its really not cheap and there are no guarantees of success.
Don’t worry, there is a fantastic, low cost solution out there. For the last 18 months, I’ve been using a solution from Carbonite. All you have to do is install a small bit of software on your computer and then mark the directories you want to back up. After that, Carbonite, will auto-backup all the data in those directories to their secure servers. The initial back up can take several hours but after that, any changes are updated almost immediately so your data couldn’t be safer. Restoring any lost data is straightforward too. Its just a matter of chosing the files you want to restore and bringing them back.
The cost for this service is a steal at just $55 a year and there is no limit to the amount of data you can back up.
Disc crashes aren’t the only way you can lose data. Statistics show that 13% of hard drives fail within the first year so don’t think your brand new computer is safe just because its new. What about those files you accidently delete – we’ve all done it, haven’t we !!!
Laptops are also a popular target for thieves and only 3% of them are ever recovered. Your photos from your holiday to Greece may not interest the thief but they mean eveything to you.
If you still aren’t convinced you need a backup service, you can try Carbonite for free for two weeks. At the end of the trial, if you don’t want the software, you can just remove it from your computer.
I want to try Carbonites excellent backup service for free right now
The trial is 100% risk free and you don’t even have to give them your credit card details. So what are you waiting for !!!
