If there is a weak spot in the security of any aspect of a Joomla website,
the site can be compromised, hacked into or hijacked.

Most people just turn a blind eye when hearing the words “Joomla" and "security”
spoken in the same sentence. Believe me, You don’t have to!

Securing your Joomla driven site is rather easy, if you know what, where,
and how the Joomla website must be hardened.

I’ve written two Hubs on hardening a Joomla website, there are step-by-step details provided that you can follow. If you have questions do feel free to ask. I’ll do my best to answer. Take a look at Securing a Joomla website part I

This will have an unpleasant impact on your earnings from that web page. If other pages are available Search Engines SERPs ahead of your page then
their page adverts or their affiliate links are being clicked on. The possibility of earning via PPC on their web page will obviously be higher than yours.

There can be any number of reasons why a website page loads more slowly than others.  I’ve written a Hub specifically addressing how multiple images in a web page effects it’s page load time.  There is a simple rule of thumb here, the greater the number of images contained in a web page the longer the page will take to load.

If you would like to know what you can do, explained step-by-step why not take a look at my Hub which provides details.

I would be really happy to hear if this information benefited you in anyway. If I can improve my material do leave a comment and tell me how I’d really appreciate the time you took.

If you are using ( or thinking of using ) Open source tools and technologies do take a quick look at my Open source tutorials.

Website owners who have built Joomla driven websites earlier want their Joomla site re-crafted such that the website works perfectly for the iPhone, Android and other mobile devices and operating systems.

There are multiple new smartphones are being released everyday, and website owners are quickly realizing that they need to build mobile friendly websites to tap into that section of site visitors.

Fortunately, today building a website using Joomla that is mobile friendly is definitely not rocket science.

Would you like know how?

Do take a look at my Hub –

The tutorials provide a lot of information about:

• Where such tools are obtained from?
• How they are installed and configured?
• How they are updated?
• How do these tools and technologies work together in perfect harmony
• How to use them to produce powerful, secure, scalable, maintainable, Internet driven, websites and commercial applications?
• And a hack of lot more

Currently each tutorial ( and any associated support material) can be downloaded, Free of cost. Access to some tutorials however does require registration.

Here is a short listing of the topics available:

• Apache Web Server Tutorial
• PHP Tutorial
• MySQL Tutorial
• Joomla Tutorial
• WordPress Tutorial
• Search Engine Optimization Tutorial
• Search Engine Marketing Tutorial
• OpenOffice Tutorial
• Javascript Tutorial
• DotProject Tutorial
• Moodle Tutorial
• VirtueMart Tutorial
• PayPal Tutorial

There’s mentoring available, via keyboard chat, from Mr. Ivan Bayross, an internationally recognized author and mentor. Who is Opensourcevarsity’s mentor as well.

Do login and get chatting with him.

There’s also a lively, Open Source Tutorial forum, which rounds off Opensourcevarsity excellent set of deliverables.

Do take a quick look at Open source tutorials, right now.

It’s simple enough to be used by even the most technology challenged person who love to Blog and wold like to add Google Analytics to their Blog.

Copy paste this URL into your Browser’s address bar:

http://yoast.com/wordpress/google-analytics/#utm_source=wordpress&utm_medium=plugin&utm_campaign=google-analytics-for-wordpress

Navigate across to the website and download the Google Analytics plugin to the desktop.

Next login to your WordPress Blog admin section
Generally the URL is: http://< Your Blogs URL goes here >/wp-admin

This is my WordPress Admin page, you may have an Admin page that looks slightly different but the functionality of the page should be identical.

Locate the Plugins link in this page and Click it

A drop down list of choices appears from them selecct “Add New”. This informs WordPress admin that you wish to install a new plugin to your WordPress Blog.

On Click of the link Add New, a form is displayed in the Browser via which a plugin can be installed into your WordPress Blog

Click the Search Plugin’s button. Navigate via the file Browser that pops up to where the Google Analytics plugin was download (i.e. Your Desktop)

Double Click on the plugin’s .zip file when located. This will begin the plugin upload automatically.

In a minute or two the Successful Plugin Message should be displayed in your Browser

This means the Google Analytics plugin has been successfully installed into your WordPress engine

Google Analytics plugin configuration

Locate the Google Analytics plugin in the Settings section of the Dashboard page

Click the link Google Analytics

The Google Analytics plugin setup page will be displayed in your Browser

Simply Add the Google Analytics UID which you got when you registered the Blog with Google. You do not have to do anything else.

Simply Click the Update Google Analytics Settings and your Done. Google Analytics has been setup for your Blog

Easy as pie.

The Apache Http Server, commonly referred to simply as Apache.

Apache is a web – server notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web and in 2009 became the first web server to surpass the 100 million web site milestone.

Apache was the first viable alternative to the Netscape Communications Corporation web server (currently known as Sun Java System Web Server), and has since evolved to rival other Unix- based web servers in terms of functionality and performance.

Apache is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the auspices of the Apache Software Foundation. Apache is characterized as free software and open source software.

Downloading Apache 2.2.11

Web Site for Apache 2.2.XX downloading setup file – http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi

(Download all the appropriate setup files and save then to a folder on the hard disk.)

Installing Apache

Run the setup file of Apache and click Next

Click Next and the Apache License screen will be show.

Click Next and a screen will be displayed which contains information that should be read prior the install process starting.

Click Next and choose ‘Typical’ as the type of setup.

Network Domain – any name can be given

Server Name – any name can be given

Administrator’s Email Address – should be a valid email address

(If apache server fails, then Apache sends a mail to the Administrators email address)

Ensure that the – For All Users, on Port 80, as a service – Recommended – Radio Button is Selected

The Path to the folder where Apache will be installed is displayed. Change this if you wish. Then Click Next.

The Apache installation process begins.

The installation completes

The Apache control icon will be displayed in the Window’s task bar. Its the first icon in the image below, with the tiny green triangle.

To Restart Apache any time you need to simply double click this icon and from the Apache service monitor select ‘Restart’

Testing Apache

Open any Browser and type http://127.0.0.1 in its address bar.

The pages shown in the diagram below shold be displayed in the Browser window. Apache has been successfully installed

Apache is ready for use

I’ve designed, coded, tested and debugged various commercial applications, generally delivered over an Ethernet backbone, but now increasingly being delivered over the Internet.  I’ve enjoyed all I’ve done so far from the very successful applications to the occasional application that has flopped dramatically for one reason or the other.

I’ve had a web presence seemingly forever.  I never took my web presence seriously earlier, but now I’m looking at leveraging  this to generate niche revenues for myself.  I’m convinced its possible and the entrepreneur in me has kicked in strongly.

Prior my desire to stream money via the Internet, I’d never looked at Search Engine Optimization  (or Search Engine Marketing) seriously.  I’d got several quotations from different service providers all willing to do SEO for my Website and Blog for a price, and some of the prices I got quoted took my breath away (which perhaps triggered my curiosity and entrepreneurial spirit).  Hence, I began my journey of discovery of SEO.

What a journey it is (the journey is not over yet).  I’ve never had so much amazing (much of it seemingly either black magic or pure B.S.) thrown at me during any journey of SEO discovery and I’ve made quite a few of these in my technical odyssey which is till date ‘Work in Progress’.

That was until I met two young people Sandeep and Priyanka.  Together they run the SEO Training Institute at Mumbai and I count myself very lucky to have met them.  They gave me the low down on SEO and introduced me to SEM using a simple, easy to understand  approach.  Sandeep’s mobile number is +919769123589 and Priyanka’s mobile number is +919920045488. Do give them a call if you are in a similar situation as I am.  They taught me well and I’m plugging them openly in this post.

Sandeep and Priyanka are not the only thing that happened to me in SEO, I discovered the Keyword Position Monitoring Report Service and I discovered the KPMRS blog.

The KPMRS blog is truly amazing. It delivers a ton of very valuable SEO information using simple, easy to read, language.  There’s nothing shrouded in mystery in any of the posts on this blog.  The blogger’s passion, skill and in-depth comprehension of the subject is immediately visible.  I really want to share this gem with anyone who reads this post.

Do go over to the KPMRS Blog and read. You’ll be happy that you did.  I’m steadily growing my knowledge and skill in SEO simply using this one resource.  Once I’m done I’m going to apply all the knowledge I’ve gained to move my website and Blog upwards in search engine pages (not that they are doing too badly now).

I’m totally confident I can and I will.

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Step 1: Change the default password.

Each router comes with a default Login ID and Password.  Normally the routers default Login ID is ‘Admin’ and the Password is ‘Password’.  Pretty original don’t you think?  Anyways, the first step in securing your WLAN, is in changing the Admin password to any other strong password.  A strong password is one that is at least 10 characters long and contains a mix of upper case and lower case alphabets, numbers and special characters.  Eg. Ivn!12;rOss

Step 2: Change the router’s default ip

Each router is assigned a default ip address which normally is 192.168.0.1.  When setting up the router change this ip to any other ip.  You can stay within the series, such as 192.168.0.XXX i.e. the last value should be changed to anything you like form a single digit to three digits.

Step 3: Disable the router’s DHCP service.

DHCP enables remote computers to connect to the router and obtain an ip address assigned by the router.  As far as is possible assign static ip’s to all the computers on your network.  If you need to have DHCP to make life easier for you  then restrict the number of computers on your network by limiting the number of DHCP ip addresses that the router can create to 5 from its default of 50 assuming of course that you only have 5 computers connecting to your network.

Step 4: Restrict the network mode.

If you computer can use WiFI ‘N‘ or ‘B/G‘ restrict the router to use any one network mode only. This can help prevent some computers from automatically joining your network. While this is not 100% effective it can help deter the casual snooper, especially if you use the newer ‘N‘ standard.

Step 5: Change the router’s default SSID.

The SSID is the name of the network.  This often reveals the name of the house or office from where the WiFi signal is coming which can allow hackers to zero on your physical location. Change the SSID to a random name.

Even better is disabling the SSID broadcast altogether. This makes your WiFi router invisible to laptops and cell phones which automatically scan for WiFi hotspots.  Hopefully, if hackers do not even know that your network exists they will not bother to break in. This is just common sense, prevention is much better than cure so to speak.

Your computers and cell phones that need to access your WLAN can be passed the SSID of the router manually when they are being setup so they can communicate with the router and connect to the WLAN.

Step 6: Opt for WPA2 or PSK security instead of WEP.

WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) keys can be cracked relatively easily hence opt for WPA (WiFi Protected Access) which uses 64 bit or 128 bit encryption.  PSK’s are Pre-Shared keys which provide stronger security than WEP or WPA.  The encrypted key is shared by the router and your WiFi devices.

Step 7: Enable the router’s MAC filter.

Enable MAC (Media Access Control) address filtering to restrict or authenticate a particular computer on the network. A MAC address is a unique physical address assigned to a network card to uniquely identify the network card.  No two network cards have the same MAC address anywhere in the world.  (Pretty amazing isn’t it ?). The  can use the network card’s MAC address to authenticate it.

If any unregistered computer tries to join the network, i.e. a computer who’s MAC address has not been manually registered with the router, it will simply be prevented from doing so.

Step 8: Use the router’s firewall.

Enable the router’s firewall if it has this feature. Usually router’s use SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) which reviews the packets of data entering your network.

If the router has an Internet filter enable this too. Enabling the Internet filter rejects anonymous Internet requests and keeps your network from being pinged.

Step 9: Disable remote administration

This maybe a great convenience if you are constantly administering the router / network from afar but this is an excellent window of opportunity for hackers.  If you have to use remote administration keep this facility ‘On’ only for the period of time that its essential to have.

Step 10: Switch of the router when not in use.

This may sound a bit silly, but is quite sensible.  If the router is not used at night switch it off.  If you are going out on holiday switch it off.

Step 11: Disconnect the Internet when not needed.

If you do not need to be connected to the Internet constantly, simply unplug the ISP’s connection to the router.  The network will still work but it will isolated from all potential hacking.

Step 12: Position the wireless router carefully.  Place it in the center of your room or office.  The WiFi router broadcasts like a sphere with the strongest signal at the router location.

Hence, the signal strength of the router will be the weakest at the circumference of the sphere.  This could help prevent the router from being accessed by the neighbours or from the street outside.

C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2

Apache’s index file, which is displayed when http://localhost is typed into a Browser window and the Go button or the Enter key is pressed, resides in:

C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs

If you do not want Apaches default index page to be displayed when http://localhost is typed in a Browser’s address bar and the Go button or the Enter key is pressed, simply create your own HTML file, name it index.html and place this in:

C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs

Now if you enter http://localhost in a Browser’s address bar and press Go or the Enter key your HTML page will be rendered in the Browser’s window.

This is an indication that Apache is working perfectly.

Having said that, it’s definitely not good practice to place all your website’s resources within the folder that Apache uses for its own resources i.e.:

C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs

It’s good programming practice to keep your website’s resources separate from Apache’s internal resources.

All that is required is that you create a separate folder, anywhere on your hard disk and place your website resources within that folder.

For example: d:\mysite

Now all that remains is that Apache needs to be informed that the folderd:\mysite is where you’ve loaded all your website’s resources.

You do this by creating a Virtual Domain under Apache and binding this domain to the folder where your website’s resources are placed.

To create a virtual domain you have to make changes within Apache’s httpd.conf file.

Apache’s httpd.conf file is resides in:

C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\conf

Navigate to that folder and the first thing to do is to make a copy of Apache’s httd.conf file and save this within Apache’s conf folder i.e. httpd_copy.conf.

This way if you’ve made some errors when adding a virtual domain to the httpd.conf file and Apache stops working, all you have to do is to overwrite Apache’s httpd.conf file with the copy you’ve made, then ensure that the file is re-named httpd.conf and Apache should start up again.

NOTE: In case you do not keep a copy of Apache’s httpd.conf and you’ve damaged the original httpd.conf file you have to re-install Apache from scratch, to get a working copy of Apache web server.

Now open the httpd.conf file in your favorite ASCII editor, (Notepad would do just fine). Scroll right down to the end of the httpd.conf file and you will notice Apache’s virtual domain example.

The code there should look something like:

#NameVirtualHost *:80

#VirtualHost example:
# Almost any Apache directive may go into a VirtualHost container.
# The first VirtualHost section is used for requests without a known
# server name.
#
# ServerAdmin webmaster@dummy-host.example.com
# DocumentRoot /www/docs/dummy-host.example.com
# ServerName dummy-host.example.com
# ErrorLog logs/dummy-host.example.com-error_log
# CustomLog logs/dummy-host.example.com-access_log common
#
#

The NameVirtualHost and VirtualHost directives are what we are interested in.

Simply copy the whole lot from # NameVirtualHost to and paste this below the original code.

Then delete the # which appears before each entry as shown below.

Please notice the section where the # are not deleted.

NameVirtualHost *:80

# VirtualHost example:
# Almost any Apache directive may go into a VirtualHost container.
# The first VirtualHost section is used for requests without a known
# server name.

ServerAdmin webmaster@dummy-host.example.com
DocumentRoot /www/docs/dummy-host.example.com
ServerName dummy-host.example.com
ErrorLog logs/dummy-host.example.com-error_log
CustomLog logs/dummy-host.example.com-access_log common

Next:

Change
NameVirtualHost *:80

To read as:
NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80

Notice that the # has been deleted
And
The local host ip 127.0.0.1 has replaced the * in this entry

Now let’s take a look at the XML segment.

ServerAdmin ivan@ivanbayross.com
DocumentRoot d:\mysite
ServerName www.mysite.com
ErrorLog d:\mysite\errors\errorlog

Notice that the:
ServerAdmin has a legitimate Email ID bound to it.
DoumentRoot has the physical path to your websites resources
ServerName can have any name bound to it, I’ve chosen www.mysite.com
ErrorLog has the path to where Apache can keep its error log file

NOTE: Do not forget to create the folder d:\mysite\errors. Then using Notepad create an empty file named errorlog within this folder. Please notice the absence of any file extension.

Save the httpd.conf you’ve been editing and re-start Apache.

To restart Apache simply right click on the icon in the task bar and a popup window will appear as shown in diagram 1.

Diagram 1

Click on Open Apache Monitor and a popup window will appear as shown in diagram 2

Diagram 2

Simply click the Restart button. If all is well Apache will startup perfectly.

There’s a few more steps to be carried out to check is you’ve created the Virtual domain correctly, they are:
Making an entry in the hosts file.
Using the file Browser navigate to the folder C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
Within this folder there will be a file called hosts.

NOTE: If you have never used the hosts file ever before then you will find a file called hosts.sam or hosts.tmp in this folder. Copy this file to a file named hosts and you are done. Then edit the contents of hosts as indicated below.

# Copyright (c) 1993-2006 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a ‘#’ symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client

NOTE: Between the ip and the site name you must use the Tab key.

# For example:
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0. www.mysite.com

Save hosts and exit.

Finally place a unique index.html file within the folder d:\mysite. Now when you enter the URL in the Browser address bar: http://www.mysite.com Apache will display the contents of the index.html file you’ve place in the folder d:\mysite.

If all this works perfectly then you can build the rest of your website within the folder d:\mysite