Tutorial

Securing your WordPress blog in less than 5 minutes

April 12, 2010 19:53 pm by Jal

Security of your blog and thereby your hard work is extremely important. Like all web 2.0 systems, WordPress too is susceptible to attacks. I guess you already know how much important it is to have a robust security for your online content. Here is a quick tutorial to secure your WordPress blog in less than 5 minutes.

First, get a FTP client like FileZilla and configure it with your WordPress blog.

Changing Permissions

This is the most primitive yet effective solution. Once you have setup your blog with the FTP client, you now have to change the permissions of certain folders in it. If you are using FileZilla, you can do this by just right clicking the folder and selecting ‘File Attributes’

Now you need to put in some numeric value (shown by an arrow in the above picture) for the different folders.

Folder	Numeric value
Root folder (usually public_html)	755
wp-admin/index.php	644
wp-admin/js/	755
wp-content	755
wp-content/themes/	755
wp-content/plugins/	755
wp-includes	755
.htaccess	644

Using empty HTML to hide plugins

Make an empty HTML file, call it ‘index.html’ and place it in wp-content/plugins folder. This will prevent listing of plug-ins you are using on your blog.

Using Login Lockdown & WP Security Scan plugins

Download and install Login Lockdown plugin. This will lock your administrator login for a definite amount of time after a predefined number of failed login attempts. Simple yet highly effective.

Also, download and install WP Security Scan plugin. This plugin will scan for any security loop holes in your wordpress installation and will help you rectify them.

Strong password with these characteristics

Finally choose your WordPress administrator password wisely. Make sure you includes ALL of the below parameters:

» 8 characters long.

» Must include a combination of uppercase and lowercase characters.

» Must include special characters (!, @, #, $, %).

» Must include a number.

» Must not be dictionary word.

» Must not include information related to you. For eg. your birth date, your car number, your middle name, etc.

So these are some quick security measures to ensure a considerable amount of protection. If you too have come across a nice security tip for WordPress blogs, do share here.

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3 quick ways to check if a website’s down or not

March 25, 2010 17:46 pm by Jal

Just a few hours ago, our site TechExplorer.in was experiencing some server-side issues and hence was down for a few minutes. That led me to make a quick post on what ‘you’ do to verify that a particular website is actually dead or not.

I will list down the 3 quick ways to check a website’s status.

» This one’s way simple. Go to DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com (well, that makes sense ;) ). Enter the URL of the site in question and click the ‘or just me’ text-link. Results will be immediate.

» Second is the very well known ‘Ping’ method.

Open ‘Command Prompt’ (Press + R > type ‘cmd.exe’ > press ‘Enter’).
In the Command Prompt window type, ping <website’s URL> and press enter. For eg. ping google.com
If you get a ‘Request Timeout’ error then the website’s having issues. Else you’d get a ping-back reply from the website’s server.

» Third is the most information rich ‘tracert’ (Trace root) method. It additionally tells you exactly ‘where’ the problem lies.

Open ‘Command Prompt’.
Type in tracert <website’s name> and press enter. For eg. tracert google.com
You will get the list of intervening network servers starting with your own router/modem followed by your local ISP.
If you see a * symbol instead of the time in milliseconds, it indicates a problem with the associated server. The first 2 entries are usually your home routers / modems. The next one is your Local ISP, followed by many intervening networks that exist between your ISP and the website’s hosting server.

The ‘tracert’ (Trace root) method is extremely useful for webmasters while for the casual users, there’s always DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com.

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How to: Overlay an image / logo on a video

January 27, 2010 18:30 pm by Jal

Quick tutorial

Recently I had to revamp a video of a family function with some overlaid text and images and I used VirtualDub after a long time. Thought this would be really helpful for anyone who wants to overlay an image / logo on a video and want it to be done really quick. So follow these simple steps.

1) Open the video file in VirtualDub [Download VirtualDub].

2) Setting ‘Compression’ parameters first:

Go to ‘Video’ > ‘Compression’.
Select the Xvid MPEG-4 or H.264 Codec.
Press OK.

3) Now click ‘Video’ > ‘Filters’. In the Filters window, click ‘Add’ button.

4) Here, select the option ‘logo’ from the list and click OK.

Logo filter selection

5) You will see a window like the one shown below. Here you can specify the image to be overlaid on the video and some related options.

Logo filter properties

If your image contains Alpha channel (i.e. transparency values) then check mark ‘Enable per-pixel alpha blending using alpha channel’ to retain transparency.
X, Y offset values let you better position the image on the video.
Use ‘Show Preview’ button to see the preview of the video with the image overlaid on it.

6) Once you are done playing with the settings, click OK a couple of times to close the ‘Filter’ windows.

7) Finally, click ‘File’ > ‘Save as AVI…’

This method is very efficient, time saving and does not require bulky software.

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Stop users from running specific applications in Windows

January 20, 2010 18:52 pm by Jal

As a security measure, there are times when you need to stop access to certain programs to other users. In Windows, using the Local Group Policy Editor, you can specify which all programs you want to prevent from running. This is very useful if you are administering an Internet lab in school and colleges or running an Internet café. Here’s the work around:

1) Press + R to open the ‘Run’ dialog box. Type ‘gpedit.msc’ and click ‘OK’.

2) The Local Group Policy Editor window will open. In the left pane, navigate to ‘User Configuration’ > ‘Administrative Templates’ > ‘System’. Now in the right pane, double-click ‘Don’t run specified Windows applications’.

Local Group Policy Editor

3) In the window that appears, click the ‘Enabled’ radio-button and then click ‘Show…’ button under ‘Options’.

Don't run specified Windows applications window

4) In the ‘Show contents’ window, specify the executable file (.exe) of the programs you wish to prevent from being executed. Finally, click ‘OK’.

Show Contents window

You’re done! The programs specified here won’t run until you ‘Disable’ the setting in step 3) or you remove the program’s .exe from the ‘Show Contents’ window.

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Facebook: Show your Status Updates to only specific people

December 12, 2009 11:03 am by Jal

By now you must be well aware of the fact that Facebook has recently tweaked the ‘Privacy Settings’ which lends you more control over your content on the popular social networking site. As soon as you log in to Facebook, a pop up is shown, urging you to re-set your privacy settings (if you haven’t).

What most users miss out is that you are now granted much more customizability in terms of making your content available to only those whom you wish. Today I am going to show you how you can show (or hide) your status updates to specific people irrespective of them being in your friend list. Assuming you have already set the new ‘Privacy Settings’, here’s what you need to do.

» Log into Facebook, write a new status update and click the small ‘lock’ icon below.

» In the menu, click ‘Customize’.

Facebook - Status update privacy control

» A pop-up window will appear where you can specify who can view your status update. Start writing the name of a contact in the boxed below. Keep in mind, unless you check-mark ‘Make this my default setting’, the setting will be restricted to your current status update only. Finally click ‘Save Setting’.

Facebook - Status update privacy control

» You are done! I know. The first thing you’ll do is to write ‘I hate my boss’ and hide it from him. ;)

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Force Windows Live Mail to always minimize to system tray in Windows 7

November 16, 2009 7:32 am by Jal

Sometime ago I showed a simple trick how you can minimize Windows Live Messenger to system tray in Windows 7. Based on the similar trick, I am going show you how you can set Windows Live Mail to always minimize to tray.

1) Right-click on the Windows Live Mail icon and then click ‘Properties’.

2) In the ‘Windows Live Mail Properties’ window, click the ‘Compatibility’ tab. Here, set the ‘Compatibility mode’ to Windows Vista. Click OK.

Windows Live Mail Properties

3) Run Windows Live Mail and you will see its icon in the notification area (system tray). Right-click its icon and choose ‘Hide window when minimized’.

Windows Live Mail notification icon settings

Now whenever you minimize the Windows Live Mail window, it won’t appear in the super bar and you can make it appear again by double-clicking its icon in the system tray.

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Get real-time notification when your website is viewed

November 4, 2009 0:17 am by Jal

I am sure this will excite the hell out of you especially if you are a beginner and have just started a blog or a website. There are a lot of statistical analysis tools for websites available out there that does pretty much the same job so I am not going to discuss the charts here. I want to show you how you can get ‘real-time’ notification when somebody views your blog or website right on your desktop. Something like this: