The power of the internet.

 

The internet is the wild frontier of our time. It’s constantly being explored, improved and is always evolving. While that brings us much good, it also requires us to constantly update to keep everything working properly.

We have millions of developers and coders across our planet trying to improve on all aspects of the web. From how the web works to how web browsers handle the codes. From the tools we use to build websites to all the plug-ins we use for functionality in our websites. With millions of people working on all these aspects that means we constantly have updates for everything, many a day. If you own a smart phone you are familiar to updating the operating system and  all your apps.

With all this development, different solutions get created. Sometimes 2, 4 or many more solutions for the same problem. Like in the evolution of video there was VHS, DVD, Blueray and now just simply streaming video. In the world of internet technologies get pursued and dropped too.
In the big picture this is good because we can do a lot more for a lot lower of a cost than 10 years ago.

Hackers and malware

 

One of the main reasons we need constant improvements is in attempt to minimize or eliminate the code loopholes hackers exploit for their evil.

How does this all effect us and more importantly your website?

 

The changes haven been constant and increasing. WordPress is no longer “set it and forget it”. This means it is no longer viable to host a WordPress websites without maintenance and security.

WordPress is the largest web system out there. It account more more than a quarter of the web. For this reason hackers choose to focus on it.

Today to keep a wordpress site clean and running smoothly and properly, with little down time regular maintenance is required.

Why do they hack?

 

With one hack hackers can instantly access thousands of sites at once. All they need is one person to fall for their trap to make it worth while.

After they have found a way in they place malware on your website. For example they place a webpage that looks like an official big company web page, a bank or a FedEx type company. The hackers now email with fake FedEx email accounts asking the victim to update their info. The link will lead to the fake FedEx page now sitting on your website. The victim that follows the link will now be filling in a form that goes straight to the hackers. They are now free to use this information in the next step of their plot. This is but one example.

How do we stay secure?

Updates
Keeping everything up to date makes it harder for hackers to find loop holes. As soon as they do the developer will be creating new update. So we update.

Security software
In addition to keeping everything up to date we place a security system on the server. This monitors and sweeps all your files for breaches and malware.
Even with these two steps we can’t achieve absolute protection. Government and banks get hacked. But we will avoid most attacks.

What makes up a WordPress website?

When someone types your website name on their computer the internet brings them to your folder on the server that is hosting your website. In that folder is the following :

a wordpress frame work
This is the core  or operating system your website works on.

Theme
On the wordpress core lives a theme. This is the code that shows visitors the face of your website. This is your text, photos, logos, graphics and design your see on your webpages.

Database
This is a code file that records all the data from your website. It is where the content of your website lives in text and code format. Whenever you add text to your website this is where it’s recorded.

Plugins
Plugins provide most of the functionality to your website. Tools, forms, gallery systems. etc etc. Plugins allow us to have a lot of functionality without the cost of building code from scratch for each function. This turns  $20K website into a $1K website.

Visiting your website goes something like this:

When someone visits your website they are asking to see your website. this pulls up the theme. The theme then asks the core what content it needs to show in the theme? When someone then wants to fill out a form that triggers the plugin codes to be pulled into the theme of your website. This all happens as close to instant as possible.

What is the internet?

 

When you connect several computers together that is a computer net-work, like in an office or so. When millions of computers across the globe got connected  that’s the inter-net.

The internet is simply a collection of millions of computer servers connected across the world.  The illustration shows each computer server as magenta rectangular shape, they are shown symbolically connected by the orange color. Each server contains millions folders. Each Folder is a website. Each folder contains all the files that make up that website.

When we get on our computer or phone you dial into this system, the internet, to look at all the files on there. To be able to find the folder you want all the folders are cataloged with a name. This is a web domain (web address or URL), like www.mywebsitename.com

On your computer you will go on a web browser (safari, explorer, chrome or firefox). To find what you are looking for you can either type the web address directly or you can do a search in a search engine (google, yahoo). The results of such a search will yield all possible web domain names that might contain what you are looking for.

what you need to be online.

 

hosting – So for you to have your website online you need to rent space on a server. This is called hosting, you do that at a web hosting company.

domain name – You need to register the domain name you want. mygreatsite.com  You do that at web domain registrar. This domain name will point at your folder at the hosting server.

security and maintenance – You need maintenance and security to prevent your website from being hacked and or broken.

SEO (search engine optimization) – SEO allows you to show up in search engine searches.