A few Simple Free Tools to Boost Productivity
Notepad++ http://notepad-plus-plus.org/: Use this nifty little editor to replace not only Windows Notepad but it can also double as your php and html editor.
Notepad++ PHP Editor
Setting Notepad++ as your default editor in FileZilla.
Open FileZilla > Edit > Settings > File editing > Use custom editor
browse to the notepad++.exe program file then click OK to save.
Set Filezilla Editor
ClipX http://bluemars.org/clipx/: super simple little clipboard history manager. Copy links, urls, text and more without the need to immediately perform a paste operation. Installs to your system tray to make it super easy to replay prior copy operations for pasting.
Clipx Clipboard History Manager
Sorta Free Tools (if you use Windows)
Snipping Tool: Use the built in snipping tool in Windows 7 to capture screen shots of webpages. Click on start and type sn in the search box, then click on the Snipping Tool under Programs.
NOTE: For Windows XP you can get the snipping tool by downloading the Microsoft Experience Pack for Tablet PC which can also work with Windows XP. Make sure XP Service Pack 2, .Net Framework 1.1 and Media Player 10 are installed
Windows Snipping Tool
Sorta Free Tools (if you use Microsoft Office OneNote)
OneNote Screen Clipping Tool
OneNote Screen Clipping: If you have Microsoft Office with OneNote installed you have access to another free screen clipping tool. Right click the OneNote icon in the System tray to access the pop-up menu.
Click “Create Screen Clipping” and drag the selection tool around your target. When you release the mouse button, your screen clipping will be automatically pasted into a OneNote unfilled note. Just select the image in the note, right click and Save As a png file.
Give these free tools a try, you just might say “how did I ever do without that?”.
Topics: Free Tools | Give Your Two Cents »
WordPress 3.2 – What's required?
WordPress 3.2
was supposed to be released by the end of June but that obviously hasn't happened yet. Each new release may bring it's own bugs as well as incompatibilities with applications and plugins. So, when it is released, it may prove wise to wait a bit before installing.
WordPress 3.2 critical requirements:
- PHP version 5.2.4 or higher
- MySQL version 5.0 or higher
You can contact your host to find out what versions of PHP and MySQL are running on your server. Or log in to control panel and look for Account Information>Program Versions. I'm on Hostgator and this info is located in the lower left sidebar. Clicking on the Click to View link to the right of Program Versions will display your MySQL version along with your PHP version and some other info as well. If you're lucky, you'll have the minimum versions and you won't need to do anything. In which case you can ignore the following.
One thing to take note of – the version of PHP shown on the server may not necessarily be the latest version available on the server. After a call to HG support, I discovered that PHP version 5.3.6 was available not just 5.2.17 as displayed in control panel.
(NOTE: If you hate the techie/geeky stuff, you can skip to the last paragraph)
Always make sure you have multiple backups before proceeding with any upgrades to WordPress, PHP or MySQL.
To activate the later version of PHP required adding this one line to the .htaccess file located in the root of the domain I wanted to upgrade:
AddType application/x-httpd-php53 .php
Once this was done I created this simple text file called test.php in my text editor to verify the installed php version. I put the following code in a blank text file and saved it as test.php
<?php
// Show all information, defaults to INFO_ALL
phpinfo();
// Show just the module information.
// phpinfo(8) yields identical results.
phpinfo(INFO_MODULES);
?>
That's it. Make sure it's saved as test.php and not test.php.txt
Use
sftp or cpanel/file manager to upload it to the root of the domain you want to test then enter the domain address in your browser address bar: e.g. http://www.mydomain.com/test.php
The php version will be displayed at the top of the screen. In my case this came back as PHP Version 3.5.6…..Hooray!
Now test your site to make sure there are no problems. If you do encounter errors, just edit your .htaccess file, remove the line you added and save the file.
IMPORTANT: Once you're done testing DELETE the test.php file. This will keep prying eyes shut.
Unless you like this geeky stuff and you're prepared to deal with any hiccups, I would recommend you contact support for your host to verify your situation with regards to WordPress 3.2 and let them handle any upgrades if necessary. As for actually installing WordPress 3.2, when it's released, I'll create a new WordPress 3.2 installation, load up my usual suspects (plugins) – actually I use a WordPress cloning script called
WP Twin which clones my WordPress template site in mere seconds – and I'll be testing BEFORE installing it on any production sites. Good luck with your testing and eventual roll out of WordPress 3.2.
Topics: WordPress | Give Your Two Cents »
Protect your site by following these 3 steps. In fact you’re placing unnecessary risk on your business if you’re not taking these basic steps to protect your site access and communication.
Protect Your Site Access and Communication
Protect your site with SSL (secure sockets layer):
Why you need SSL to protect your site:
To protect confidential user information, including your username and password, when using your web browser.
A secure encrypted connection where you communicate with a site using https in the url not http. Banks and other financial institutions employ this on their web sites but you should also ask yourself – Shouldn’t I be making a secure login to MY sites? Yes you should.
What’s required:
- A static IP address for your web site. You get this from your web hosting service.
- An SSL certificate. You may get this from a variety of vendors – e.g. your hosting service (Hostgator, Godaddy, Bluehost, etc), your domain registrar (Namecheap, Godaddy, etc.), other security vendors (thawte, verisign, etc) All Hostgator shared accounts have access to a free shared SSL certificate.
If you have a VPS or dedicated server and don’t know how to implement the SSL certificate, speak with your web hosting service, most will point you to “how to” instructions or install for you.
See this post if you’re on a Hostgator shared hosting account: How to setup and use your free shared SSL certificate.
Use it to:
Login to your website – e.g. to login to your WordPress administration area through your web browser. This prevents your username and password from being intercepted in clear text . Also, use it to protect financial or other sensitive data transactions where security is critical.
Protect your site with SSH (secure shell):
Why you need SSH to protect your site:
To encrypt confidential user information, including your username and password, when using remote administration programs, not limited to your web browser.
A secure way to move files from one machine to another across an insecure network (e.g. www). Provides for encrypted login and encrypted command execution. One common use is to pair it with our next utility, ftp.
What’s required:
- SSH enabled for your website. Contact your web hosting provider to enable. Hostgator does not charge for this but check with your hosting provider. Your hosting service will provide you with the port on which to connect. You will need this port when configuring your SFTP client.If you’re on a Hostgator shared account you can skip this next paragraph.
- If you want additional security by logging in using key based authentication, then you’ll need a Hostgator VPS or dedicated server account in addition to SSH client software such as PuTTY. PuTTY is a client program for the SSH protocol. For our purposes we will use PuTTY tools, either puttygen or pagaent to create “keys”. These keys are what will provide our encrypted communications. Check with your webhost for their requirements on using SSH keys. Once your keys are successfully configured and you have tested logging in, you may want to disable username and password authentication for additional security.
See this article How To Create SSH Keys and Disable Password Authentication for a step by step walkthrough.
Use it to:
Encrypt and secure communications across an insecure stream. If your site uses username and password for authentication then you will just need to confirm that ssh has been enabled for your site and use SFTP to connect.
Protect your site with SFTP (secure file transfer protocol):
Why you need SFTP to protect your site:
To protect private data over an insecure data stream (e.g. the internet).
An SFTP client program will provide a convenient but secure method for transferring files between computers.
What’s required:
A client software program that’s capable of secure file transfer – SFTP. An example of this is the popular FileZilla. YOU MUST CONFIGURE FileZilla TO USE SFTP. When used in default mode, as simply an FTP client, FileZilla is NOT secure. Other examples of SFTP client programs are WinSCP for Windows and Fetch for the Mac.
See this post on How To Configure FileZilla and WinSCP to Protect Your Site.
Use it to:
Securely transfer files, whether it’s images, video or WordPress themes and plugins to and from your website. Both FileZilla and WinSCP also provide the ability to directly edit text based files on your server as well as view the permissions of files and folders. FileZilla displays permissions in number format while WinSCP displays permissions in text format.
More info: SSL, SSH, SFTP
Don’t risk your business, you’ll sleep better when you help protect your site by following these 3 steps.
Topics: WordPress Security | 1 Comment »
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