It’s amazing how often I hear “oh I wish I knew that” or “Oh no I was told xyz”.

I spend a lot of time answering emails from people who are confused about information they are given and it seems that increasingly people are being given incorrect information about hosting, domain registration and design. To help break down these issues I will be in the next few weeks addressing some of the common misunderstandings and misconceptions.

Sadly this misinformation often leads to people spending exorbitant amounts of money for something that should be very affordable, buying products they do not require or even being left with a site that is not good for SEO or readers that has cost them a small fortune.

If there is something you would like cleared up or there is something that has you totally confused then leave a comment here or email admin [at] littleherohosting.com and we will include it in our posts.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

LEST WE FORGET.

To my Grandfather & all our servicemen who fought for our country & freedom we say Thank you

When people are moving hosts a common question asked by people moving hosts is how will I know when my domain propagation is completed or when will it be able to be seen from the new host’s server.

Information regarding site locations is recorded on DNS tables or nameservers. These records are updated by Internet Presence & Service Providers to reflect the addition and changes of site locations. The update of these records is referred to as propagation.

Nameserver or DNS changes usually take 24 to 48 hours to start working and not everyone will see the changes at the same time. While you may see the change your neighbour may not. DNS propagation is based on multiple factors like your location and ISP and is not something anyone has any real control over.

If it loads in your browser, it has propagated to the name server that your ISP routes requests through.

There are a few ways to check which server your domain is resolving to for yourself:

Ping:

How to perform ping checks in Windows, Linux and Mac OS?

Here are instructions on how to perform a ping check on different operating systems:

•  Windows:

1. Open Start menu
2. Click Run
3. Type cmd and press enter
4. In the command prompt type ping domain.com and press Enter

Reply from IPADDRESS: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=56
Reply from IPADDRESS: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=56
Reply from IPADDRESS: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=56
Reply from IPADDRESS: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=56

You can also use ping with an IP, i.e. ping 1.2.3.4

• Linux:

Open a terminal window and type ping domain.com

• Mac OS:

Go to the Applications folder > Utilities > Network Utility > ping and specify a domain or IP.

Alternatively, you can open up Terminal, type ping domain.com and press Enter. You can also use ping with an IP, i.e. ping 1.2.3.4

Online Tools:

Other tools you can use to check on a wider scale ate:

http://viewdns.info/propagation/

http://www.osischool.com/concept/communication/DNS_Propagation_Checker

DNS Zone check: http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/DNS_check_domain_propagation_checker

Easter Long Weekend Sale!

Would you like HALF PRICE hosting?

Here at Little Hero Hosting & Little Hero Designs we love a sale so this Easter long weekend we are having a super sale.

Purchase any hosting package, & receive it for half price, thats 50% off when you use the promotion code Easter at checkout!

No matter what term you sign up for over the next 4 days you receive it for HALF PRICE!

If you’ve been considering a website but never took the plunge, this is a great opportunity for you to get started!

Don’t forget our domain specials:

.biz & .org domains are currently just $6.95 for 1 year! Normally $9.95 for a year.
.com.au .net.au .org.au .id.au – $29.95 for 2 years, unbeatable value!
.com .net .info .name just $9.95 for 1 year
.me just $25.00 1 year

*Other extensions available

Have you always wanted to migrate your blog from blogger or WordPress.com to Self-hosted WordPress?

This weekend only we are offering HALF PRICE migration!*

• Under 150 Posts +$85.00 $42.50
• 151-300 Posts +$125.00 $62.50
• 301-500 Posts +$150.00 $75.00
• 501-800 Posts +$175.00 $87.50
• 800+ Posts +$200.00$100.00

Promotion ends Midnight 9^th April 2012.

* Migration includes:

• Migration of all posts
• Migration of Comments (unless using Intense Debate)
• Migration of all images onto server and posts updated with new image source
• Updating of all internal URL’s to reflect new server
• Auto redirection of URL’s

To order a hosting package please go here - Use code Easter when finalising your shopping cart ordering to receive your discount. 

To order Migration please see here (discount will be deducted when invoiced)

Terms
*Only 1 discounted hosting package per customer
*Only 1 discounted Migration per customer
*Discount is not carried over after the promotion ends & prices will return to regular prices at next due invoice.

Any questions please email admin@littleherohosting.com

Last week I had one of those “do as I say, not as I do” moments with my 8 year old daughter, resulting in me being on the receiving end of one of those looks that only 8 year olds can impart so impeccably.  She was flitting from one activity to another and not really getting much done in terms of getting ready for school.  I told her to focus on her before school “to-do” list and once that was done, then she could focus on something she enjoyed until it was time to go.  I said this as I was preparing lunches, while listening to another child learn to read, checking on the progress of her siblings, occasionally checking the emails on my phone and popping out to put discarded laundry in the washing machine.  Hmmmm.

Now I must confess to reading blogs about lifestyle and organization in the same spirit that most people watch Masterchef… with a combination of awe, inspiration and longing.  I always internally decree that this is the week that I will be just like that… but somehow it never comes to fruition.  The “do as I say, not as I do” moment was when I knew something had to change.  The bitter fruit always falls before the ripe.

Remember when Apple and Blackberry were simply fruits?  No, me either.  Which is why I recently made the decision to turn off the laptop, put my phone in a separate room and focus on the children and getting things done for large chunks of the day.  I have read before about the inefficiency of checking your email several times per day… the time waiting for the screen to load, then waiting again after you accidentally press the wrong icon and need to wait for it to reload, then heading back to the page you wanted in the first place.  Then you are completely absorbed in your emails for a moment.  And while you are there you may as well check in with Twitter and Facebook, right?  I timed it the other day.  A “quick check” of my phone took 7 minutes.  And then my mind was occupied by how to respond to those pressing matters while the toast slowly turned to charcoal in the toaster, setting off the fire alarm.  Again.

By allocating specific times that I can work on my computer undistracted and governed by “to do” lists, I have found that I’ve been getting more done in less time… and spending less time floating aimlessly around the blogosphere.

Now, just to clarify, this will be my one and only foray into the field of lifestyle blogging because there are people out there doing a much better job than I could ever hope to do.  And if I hadn’t been obsessively reading them for so long, then I wouldn’t have been so inspired to make the changes that I have.  “He that would have fruit must climb the tree”, as Thomas Fuller would say.   And continue to climb I will do, with my favourite lifestyle bloggers holding the ladder.

But for now I’m going to celebrate by baking apple and blackberry muffins.   Preferably from a packet mix.  But if not, I’ll give the real deal a shot because my confidence is bolstered and I now seem to have more time.  Besides, I love the symbolism of letting apples and blackberries be nothing more, or less, than sweet fruits every now and then.

The Bling Buoy is written by Misha - A buoyant blog you can cling to as you navigate the waters of life! 

Website – http://www.theblingbuoy.com/

FaceBook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Bling-Buoy/260528073971777

Twitter - @TheBlingBuoy

Do you struggle with technology like Misha? Do you find yourself still on an electronic device or social media a few hours after the “quick check”?

For me I find that I can’t just simply turn everything off and walk away because there is always someone needing support or a crisis averted and I’m “on call” most of the time.

What are your strategies for managing social networking, business needs or reading blogs? 

If you would like to guest post for LHH like Misha did then please fill in the contact form here

.biz & .org domains are currently just $6.95 for 1 year! Normally $9.95 for a year.

Don’t forget our great price on 2 Australian extensions .com.au .net.au – $29.95 for 2 years, unbeatable value!

TLD are currently just $9.95 for 1 year, these include .com .net  .info

There are other domains including New Zealand and UK extensions.

A great time to register a domain with these extensions, transfer to LHH or renew!

Check your domain now! http://www.littleherohosting.com

Exiting news!

We have lined up 2 guest posters to write on our blog and we can’t wait for you to read them.

Would you like to join them, do you have something you’d like to write for us as well?

We are looking for guest posters to write articles on our blog and bring attention to subjects that are interesting, informative or maybe even just a good laugh. If you think that you can write an article that we would love to read and share then please fill in the form below and we’ll let you know how it would fit in.

It can be about business, blogging, technology, or anything you would like to get some exposure for. Maybe you’re a “Mummy or lifestyle Blogger” and want to write a piece about your online life. Maybe you’ve worked in IT or tech support and have some funny customer support stories to tell, or perhaps you are a business consultant or work in PR and have some great tips to share.

Maybe you are a LHH/LHD client and would love to spread the word about what you do. Perhaps you run a not for profit organisation and want to spread the word?

Guest posting can be a great way to increase your exposure!

If you’d like to post for us fill in the form below and we will let you know how we think you could fit in.

For those who write we will happily link back to your website, write a mini profile about you (and business if you have one) and shout out your post to Social Media including Facebook and Twitter.

Guest posting is for anyone, not just our clients so send us your ideas!

We look forward to hearing from you all.

*(denotes required field)

First Name: *

Last Name: *

E-Mail Address: *

Your Website

Please use http://www format

Subject you want to write about *

When could you have a post ready by? *

Anything else you would like to add? *

CAPTCHA Code: *

We have been doing a lot of writing lately about site protection and security and for good reason. Increasingly we are being contacted by people who are concerned that their site has been compromised and asking us if we can look into it for them. We are being contacted by a few clients but the majority are non LHH/LHD clients. Thankfully we have been able to help them secure their sites but it can be a long, tedious and expensive process so we have come up with an exciting solution.

If you own a website of any kind then you need to think about the security of yourself and those that visit your website. As we recently posted whatever the hack and its effect, it’s a scary time and heart in your mouth scenario.

So you are thinking that it can’t happen to you. Think that your website cant be hacked, then think again. It is highly likely that your website has been hacked or at the very least it is able to be compromised.  I am sure that you have Security on your home/business pc, so why not have it on your website, afterall your website is what potential clients will see and take a first impression from..

Speak to Michelle from Little Hero Hosting about Sucuri. It is a monitoring service which reports on you website about changes to DNS, whois, SSL and any website changes as well as malicious coding which could leave your site compromised or exposed.

Can you really afford not to be monitored, I’m not taking the risk!

Mark Bradbrook, Owner of My IT Guy Australia with over 20 years in the IT industry with an IT Security Focus.

Little Hero Hosting has partnered up with Sucuri to give site owners peace of mind, for a small amount per year your site can be monitored and any security threats fixed without you having to worry about anything.

Tina from www.tinagray.me recently found herself with a hack on not 1 but 2 of her sites. The first we were able to clean manually but the second we couldn’t find the malicious coding anywhere. We set Tina up with one of our security plans and the issue was resolved in less than half an hour!

This is what Tina recently had to say:

You know how TGDM was hacked the other week? And the lovely Michelle from Little Hero Hosting fixed it all up for me while I was in the corner rocking in a foetal position?

Well she has now partnered up with Sucuri to offer bloggers affordable security scanning and I signed up. What this means is that TGDM gets scanned every three hours for any malware. It doesn’t mean that my blog will never get infected again. But it DOES mean that if any malicious code is found, it will be removed quickly without it compromising my files and plugins.

Definitely worth it, I think. Especially since my blog IS my business.

With LHH & Sucuri your site is scanned every 3 hours and checked for malicious code, if a threat is found the malicious code is removed quickly and safely. If your site is clean fantastic, we will then continue to monitor your site with scheduled scans are run every 3 hours and if any compromise is found we will remove the offending code and clean your site.

Security scanning is available for any site, a blog, shopping cart, database, CMS. If your site uses  HTML, CSS, PHP, WordPress, Joomla then it can be scanned and cleared.

After my blog was compromised last year I was very worried about unauthorised changes and/or being hacked again, the thought of losing all I worked so hard for these past 2,5 years was on my mind all the time. The internet can be a scary thing and sadly there are many nasty people out there who enjoy ruining other people’s hard work. I had no idea what to look for and even though I try to take all the necessary precautions you never know what goes behind the scenes.
When I head about Little Hero Hosting and Sucuri I straight away liked it, knowing my website is being checked every 3 hours is very reassuring. It is a worry off my mind knowing Sucuri picks up on any little thing that shouldn’t be there. Sucuri is very affordable, imagine what it would cost you to get help from an expert if your website was hacked. It could take hours, even days for it to be repaired (if at all) and that would mean a costly bill. I’d rather pay a few dollars every month and not have to worry at all. – Simone - Hip Little One

As an opening special we have dropped the prices down from our already low prices. Normally priced directly through Sucuri at $89.99 for one site per year but we have secured lower prices.

Until 11pm Fri 16th March 2012 AEST we will be selling packages for:

$50 annually or $5.00 Monthly

After Friday prices will be reverted back to our normal discounted price of :

$60 annually or $5.50 Monthly

Multiple site discounts are available for those wanting to protect 3 or more sites so please email to enquire.

After seeing how many blogs had been hacked into recently, I was worried for the safety of my own.
My blog is a space that holds stories (and pictures) of my children and the thought of losing those to an insidious virus planted in my code, or simply just being locked out of my blog, was frightening.
Now I feel like my blog, and the information stored there about my family, is safe. The regular scanning and monitoring means that even if by chance something or someone does get into my blog, it will be picked up and rectified quickly. Daisy - Daisy Roo and Two

As part of our opening special we are holding a competition as well.

To win a years worth of FREE monitoring simply do the following:

1 Leave a comment below
2. Follow LHH on Networked blogs -> link to the right here
3. Follow LHH on Facebook
4. Leave us a message on our Facebook page.

Competition is open to both existing and non existing LHH clients.
Competition closes 11pm Fri 16th March 2012 AEST
Winner will be randomly drawn by www.random.org
Winners will be announced on the LHH Facebook page and Little Hero Hosting’s Blog

If the winner has already purchased a plan the year will be added to their next invoice date.

To order your LHH & Sucuri package go to Order Form & click product add-ons to order. To read more about our security plans go Here

I wrote an article on backing up your website but had a lot of requests from people asking how to back up their blogger blogs.

Amazingly a lot of people tend to think that their blog hosted on Google Blogger/Blogspot doesn’t need to be backed up because it isn’t self hosted, however this is far from true. A few months ago Trish from My Little Drummer Boys went to post and found that Blogger had completely “killed” her blog. It was gone, nowhere to be seen. After a lot of stress and panic Trish was able to get her blog back but wow did you realise that according to their policies they can make your blog offline if you go against their policies!

The other reason of backup is Blogger template. If you are blogging on Blogger/Blogspot then you would probably know that in order to keep up to date with a fresh looking template you need to make a lot of tweaks and changes to the template during the course of blogging and with single error your blog template can cause all kinds of chaos.

Below are the simple steps to follow to back up your blogger/blogspot blog:

Backing up your posts and comments:

1. Go to your blogger/blogspot dashboard

2. Go to settings ->Basics

3. Click on the EXPORT BLOG button. You will be given the option to download your blog.

4. Click the download button and save the file to your hard drive on your computer. The file will be saved as a xml file. It’s always a good idea to include the date of the backup for future reference.

Backing up your template:

1. Go to your blogger/blogspot dashboard

2. Go to Design -> Edit HTML

3. At the top look for the link that says Download Full Template

4. Click the download button and save the file to your hard drive on your computer. It’s always a good idea to include the date of the backup for future reference.

If you are looking for information on how to backup other sites please see here and here

Recently I wrote a blog post on how important backing up your website is and there was a huge response both on the blog and emails with clients and non clients not realise the importance of backups or even how to back up.

Below is a guide geared towards Little Hero Hosting customers who we provide with cPanel which has all the tools available for them to successfully backup their website. A lot of other hosting providers also use cPanel but I have seen variations of the backup system. The below steps should work for most people though.

Before you learn how to backup it is essential you have an understanding of your website structure.

Files – as suggested this contains all the files, folders and images from within your public_html folder. Your sites files HTML, PHP, CSS such as home page, theme/design are also kept here.

MySQL or Database – your MySQL contains everything to do with data collection for your site if using blog, forum, directory or community software. The MySQL holds all the posts, comments, and settings.

The main points highlighted previously are:

• Backing up is the clients/site owners responsibility

• While Little Hero Hosting does daily and weekly backups, these backups should not be relied on to restore your data unless in an emergency as they are scheduled and may not contain all of your latest changes.

• Backups should be done BEFORE any major changes are made

• If using WordPress do NOT use plugins to run your backups.

Backing up on cPanel and types of backups:

Full Backup – Using this tool creates a full backup of your account (including mail, files, databases, etc), unfortunately at this time cPanel only allows Hosting providers to restore this backup for you.

Partial Backup – These backups can be made by yourself at anytime, and you can also restore them yourself any time you need. You can only grab a copy of the individual facets of your accounts, being able to make backups for the following options:

• Home Directory Backup

• MySQL Database Backup

• Email Forwarders

• Email Filters

How to create a full backup on cPanel:

1. Go to ‘backup’, under the “Files” header in cPanel.
2. Underneath where it says “Full Backups”, click on the link that says “Generate/Download a Full Backup”
3. Select which method you wish to use, whether you want to copy the backup directly to another ftp server, or if you wish to generate the backup in your home directory of your account with us. If you don’t know which to choose here, the first one (Home Directory) is usually the best choice
4. Enter an email address.
5. Only answer the other two questions if you are backing up to another FTP server.
6. Press ‘Generate Backup’.

You have now successfully backed up your full account on cPanel. cPanel will email you when your backup is complete.

*Note: You cannot use a full backup to restore your site via the cPanel interface. The file must be downloaded and decompressed prior to restoration. Once the file has been decompressed, you will be able to upload and restore individual pieces of your website contained within the full backup.

Create a partial backup:

To back up a portion of your site:

1. Select Backup from the first page.
2. Select the portion of your site to back up by clicking Home Directory, MySQL Databases, or Email Forwarders & Filters.
3. Click the appropriate link or button on the following page to store the required information to your computer or web server.

To restore a portion of your site:

The Backups page also allows you to store individual pieces of your site. It is possible to download and store the entire /home directory, the SQL database(s), as well as email forwarders and filters by clicking the appropriate links under the Partial Backups headings. This method will download the backup file(s) to your computer, saving them to a specified directory.

1. Select Restore from the first page.
2. Select the portion of your site you would like to restore by clicking Home Directory, MySQL Databases, or Email Forwarders & Filters.
3. Select the file from your computer that should be used to restore the portion of your website that you have selected.
4. Click Upload to finish the restoration process.

System Backups created by Little Hero Hosting

We run system backups weekly and daily which you can download from your cPanel.

Under the backup tab you will see options for downloading the most recent backup made at daily, weekly intervals.

Backup via FTP:

Creating a backup using FTP will not backup your MySQL or database. It will only copy your websites files.

1. Download and install a FTP client such as Filezilla http://filezilla-project.org/download.php
2. Navigate your pointer to FILE >>> Site manger
3. Fill in the following information which you will have received in your hosting welcome email.

HOST: [ Your FTP host name (normally your domain name ]
USER: [ you can find this information inside your cPanel. It is located top right under account information ]
PASSWORD: [ The same as you cPanel Log-in ]
PORT: [ This number by default is always 21 ]
Don’t worry about the rest, default settings work fine.

4. Once you are logged in you will see a divider, on the left hand you will see a title called “local site:” and on the right you will see the title “remote site: ”
5. On the left side navigate to the folder you wish to store your files.
6. Under Remote Site locate the folder titled ” Public_html ”
7. Click and drag the entire folder into your Local site (your hard drive) or right click & pick download and wait for the files to download. Depending on the size of your site this may take quite awhile to complete.

Script Installers:

Little Hero Hosting has Softaculous installed within our cPanel Hosting control panel. Softaculous is a script installer that enables users to create backups of their applications.

Follow the simple steps below to backup using Softaculous

1. Login to your cPanel and look for the Softaculous icon listed under Software/Services
2. Select All Installations
3. All your installed applications will be listed. You must then choose the application which you intend to backup.
4. Tick the backups you wish to perform
5. Hit the Backup button
6. Keep the screen open until the backup finishes.

Steps to restore a Softaculous backup

Following is the procedure to secure a backup in Softaculous

1. Login to your cPanel and look for the Softaculous icon listed under Software/Services
2. Look for an option titled “Backups and Restore” and click it
3. You will be presented with a list of all your available backups. Choose the application which you intend to Restore.
4. Hit the “Restore” button.

Points to remember:

• A backup is like your sites insurance policy.

• If you are changing your site daily back up DAILY

• Do not rely on plugins to backup if using WordPress

Creating Backups for your website is a mundane and boring task but essential. It’s better to spend 5-10 minutes backing up than to lose months or years of data!

This is part 3 of our series on backups and security.
Part 1 can be found here
Part 2 can be found here

*Edit, I’ve been asked how to back up blogger blogs so I’ve written a post that will be published tomorrow 29th Feb. Post can be found here