IowaComputerGurus Inc. Company Website

Segregation of Duties: DNS, Domain Registration & Hosting

Mitchel Sellers — Wed, 09 May 2012 18:51:00 GMT

Managing risk is an important subject for any business and to continue our series of discussions around risk management strategies for web assets I want to spend a bit of time regarding DNS and domain registrations. In Computer Science there is a common term, Separation of Concerns, that defines architecture recommendations for software development with a focus on modularity in design. When looking at your Domain Registrations, DNS Entries and hosting it is important to employ a similar strategy to avoid potential risks in the future. This post will investigate the types of risk that you can be exposed to and our recommendations on how you can mitigate the risks.

Managing a Disaster and Protecting Your Assets

Mitchel Sellers — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 05:28:00 GMT

Over the past 24 hours we have assisted a large number of customers with server disasters, mostly stemming from a series of Windows Updates that went horribly wrong. I blogged about the main issue on my personal blog today under the title, Windows Updates, Monitoring, and ASP.NET Oops!. If you have not yet read this article, I strongly recommend you check it out as well as continuing with this article. By most accounts that type of an issue would be considered a disaster with sites being down and resources unavailable to perform their regular duties. Today's excitement prompted a lot of questions regarding the concept of true disaster preparedness and what levels of protection a customer needs to ensure their assets are properly protected.

In this posting I will review the concept of Disaster Recovery Planning as we see it here at IowaComputerGurus. Our goal here is to educate, to ensure that in the unfortunate case of a disaster that minimal data, if any, is lost.

Balancing Need for Help and Security

Mitchel Sellers — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 05:15:00 GMT

It is a regular occurrence for us to receive requests from people that are experiencing extreme issues. It could be a single site that is down, a whole server that is having problems or any combination of other issues. While we totally understand the urgency behind each of these requests, it is amazing the types of security risks that users will put themselves into, just to get help. In this post I will outline our "best practices" recommendation for balancing the line between security and the urgency for help.

Secure My Install Module Released

Mitchel Sellers — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 08:45:00 GMT

A while back I blogged here about the process of Securing User Passwords in DotNetNuke and talked about the importance of setting up sites to use Hashed passwords rather than Encrypted. The other day I asked on Twitter if there was interest in a utility module that would handle the conversion process for users. Response was almost immediate and unanimous that it was a good item. Therefore without further delay I am proud to announce that we have done just that.

Securing User Passwords in DotNetNuke

Mitchel Sellers — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 19:34:00 GMT

If you have been paying attention to the news in recent months you have most likely heard of a few cases where user information, such as Usernames and Passwords, have been exposed from some high visibility websites. Some of the more current leaks were with Gawker and Mozilla. For those that are unfamiliar the situation is pretty simple. These sites store user login information, usernames and passwords, that allow users access to their systems. Their systems were then breached and malicious users were able to get access to the information. Why is this something that I am blogging about in relation to DotNetNuke? Well without a bit of configuration your site could be at risk, should a malicious user get access to your system. This article will discuss a bit around how/why there is a risk and how that relates to DotNetNuke, then it will progress into an overview of the default configuration of DotNetNuke and the recommended changes to the system.

DotNetNuke 5.x and Beyond - Best Practices Updates

Mitchel Sellers — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 02:18:00 GMT

Almost a year ago we published to this blog our first whitepaper, "DotNetNuke Performance Best Practices", in that time the document has been downloaded over five thousand times and we have received numerous e-mails with feedback regarding the contents of the document, the basis of our recommendations and suggestions on how to expand the document.

A lot has happened in the DotNetNuke world in this time, DotNetNuke corporation has landed Venture Capital funding and they have really ramped up the development efforts on the product and have been rapidly introducing new features and modifying the functionality that has been existing. Not all of it has been the most smooth translation and I blogged about our thoughts with this in my blog post titled "DotNetNuke Growing Pains and You, How to Cope" which sparked a large amount of conversation.

Due to all of these changes we decided that it was time to release an updated performance best practices guide that covered the specific differences that have been introduced by the 5.x platform. You can visit the "White Papers" section of this site to download the newest version.

Business Continuity Backup Strategies, DotNetNuke and You

Mitchel Sellers — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:34:00 GMT

A majority of the time when working with a business there is a strong focus on keeping things working, and leaving working items as they are. However, when it comes to ensuring that business can continue as usual it is important to make sure that not only you have processes in place for backups, but backups alone are not going to do everything for you. It is important to test/validate the backups and also to ensure that you are taking backups at all times that are necessary. Below we will discuss our stance on these two topics.

Selecting a Hosting Provider: The Business Side

Mitchel Sellers — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 07:52:00 GMT

In the past few weeks on my personal blog I have published articles on "Selecting a DotNetNuke Hosting Provider" as well as "Shared, Virtual Private Server, Dedicated or Cloud Hosting". Between these two articles the topic of hosting selection has been pretty well discussed, however, based on questions/comments that have been provided to us since the publishing of the articles we felt that it was necessary to expand on the topic a bit more. The previously mentioned articles discuss the basic needs for hosting based on a systematic approach, although 100% valid this approach might not be the best "true decider" when it comes to selecting a hosting provider.

When working with a business website you have additional items that are to be considered when it comes to hosting a site. If a site is truly a "business venture" it isn't just as simple as selecting a plan that meets your traffic needs, you have other considerations to think of. This article focuses on these additional considerations and helps to point out potentially unidentified risks with the various levels of hosting.

Website Uptime

Although a basic requirement for a hosting plan, uptime considerations are something that are often overlooked, or at least not fully considered when selecting a hosting plan. In the case of a dedicated or VPS hosting environment the uptime of a system is most commonly controlled by the uptime of the network in which the environment is hosted. However, with a shared hosting environment it is quite possible that other items could impact the performance or availability of your website. For example what happens if another site on the shared system has high traffic and causes an outage?

For some websites this might not be a big deal, but what if you are a technology company, or some other company that is based on being "always available"? A small site outage can cause a big issue when it comes to business reputation.

Load Handling

In addition to uptime requirements different hosting environments offer varying abilities to handle "higher than normal" loads. Sure, that site you are setting up might only have 100-200 visitors a day, but what happens if you get un-intended publicity? What happens if you hit the front page of Digg, or similar?

If on a shared hosting environment it is highly probable that under excessive load situations you will simply get shut down and your site will not display to users at all. In other environments if the system is overloaded you might see slow downs, but overall the sites will most likely stay available, unless we are talking about massive traffic increases.

Spam Flagging/Email Gray listing

When working on that next business idea, shared hosting might seem like a great idea, it is low cost, and you can get up and running quickly, but one thing that is very common with shared hosting is for a hosting provider to share an IP address between hundreds of sites. What does this mean to you? Typically it doesn't have a major impact, but lets say that for one reason or another, one of those other shared hosting sites sends a massive number of e-mails, and triggers email gray or blacklisting. In many cases, this gray/black listing process is done on an IP basis and not on a domain basis.

What does this mean? Well it means that in a shared environment with a shared IP address other sites activity can prevent or delay emails from your system. In some cases this might not be a big deal, but at minimum it can cause a large amount of hassle and wasted time as you research why emails are not getting through.

Conclusion

We hope that this article has helped shed a little bit of a different light on the selection of a hosting provider and helps to identify the "big picture" that comes into play when working to setup a new business venture. Feel free to post feedback below, if you have specific questions please use our forum, or feel free to contact us.

OpenForce Connections 2009 and IowaComputerGurus

Mitchel Sellers — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:41:00 GMT

We would like to bring some attention to the 2009 OpenForce Connections event that will be occuring November 9-12 in Las Vegas. This event has been a must-attend item for us in years past and 2009 is shaping up the same way. This year Mitchel will be presenting on the topic of DotNetNuke performance and we will also have a booth in Expo hall along other DotNetNuk module vendors.

So regardless if you are a current, past, or potential customer or a user of our free modules/content we are looking forward to being able to meet many people at the event. Last year was full of many great conversations and networking opportunities. Don't delay and register now.

PowerDNN Facilities and PowerGrid Review

Mitchel Sellers — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

For quite some time now Tony Valenti from PowerDNN, has been telling us that we should swing over and take a tour of their operation. They are headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, which is only a two-hour drive from Des Moines. After what has to be almost a year now, we found the time and met with Tony and a few of his staff members on Saturday August 22nd. After touring their operation both on the data center and support side we were impressed with what we saw; the following is a recount of some of the highlights that we thought would be good to share.

Background

First of all to set the background, PowerDNN is one of our recommended hosting providers, and it just so happens that this site, as well as all other IowaComputerGurus branded sites are hosted on a dedicated server through PowerDNN. We additionally have a number of clients that use various levels of hosting services from PowerDNN.

Therefore, with this in mind, we always like having a good idea of who we are working with and how they run our business since our reputation is on the line if we recommend a hosting provider because many people lean towards IowaComputerGurus for recommendations on other vendors, hosting providers and other professional services. Therefore, with such an opportunity to look “behind the scenes” we jumped at the chance.

Data Center Tour

The first part of our visit involved a tour of the actual data center facility. Now for me this was the first time I’ve been back inside of a data center since I was a very little kid. So in a lot of ways it was like being a kid in a candy store, all of that technology and complexity in one small place. Upon arriving at the facility after a little hiccup with directions I was impressed with the massive generators outside for backup systems. After ID verification and being issued a badge, we were granted physical access to the facility and Tony proceeded to show us the first set of their servers.

The first area, consisted of rack-after-rack of servers, all in my opinion very well organized and secured. I was impressed at the level of neatness and order within each of the cabinets, not to mention the impeccable labeling and naming conventions, where any server could quickly be identified. Tony proceeded to explain that all newer servers were actually in a separate section of the data center, and even more neat and orderly than this area.

We proceeded to the other half of the datacenter, where as Tony promised the servers were even more neatly arranged. We spotted the IowaComputerGurus server on the rack and now can associate a true physical location with all of our hosting. Overall, their network strategy and topology was quite impressive as they put a lot of effort into managing traffic to ensure that both backups and content can flow without limiting each other.

PowerGrid/PowerCache Demo

While still at the data center Tony prepared to demonstrate the true item that we were looking for our of the visit: a demonstration of the PowerGrid and PowerCache systems that they have been talking about. The demonstration was with the big setup that Tony mentioned on the DotNetNuke form about “Is DotNetNuke Scalable?”. Now, we work with many customers that have DotNetNuke configured in a web-farm environment, most commonly these setups include multiple web servers that access a centralized file share for web content. With proper configuration, this method works just fine, , however, in an environment that requires high availability, it introduces a single point of failure to the system.

A while back, when Tony explained that their PowerGrid/PowerCache setup did not utilize this method I was intrigued as their solution appeared to be fully redundant, and they promised to have a replication strategy that would work to quickly replicate and keep copies of content in-sync between the different web servers. For this, there were three items that were demonstrated, the actual physical file sync from server to server, cache synchronization, and SQL Server failover.

Physical File Sync

The first part of the demonstration involved a demonstration of how they configure file moves from server to server. To demonstrate this they used a remote desktop connection to two of the 8 web servers in the configuration. Tony then created a file on the first web server; by the time he saved the file, and ALT + TAB’ed to switch to the other server the file was already present. A very impressive file sync process to replicate across all file servers. Although very good for regular content upgrades I did pose the question regarding the installation of modules, and other items, that if completed on only 1 server that might cause problems if replication was not 100% instant. For this it was recommended that items be done during a maintenance window to reduce the risk of any potential issues. Although a very minor issue considering that sites needing this type of architecture will not be deploying module updates mid-day anyway!

Cache Synchronization

Next up for the demonstration was how PowerCache actually worked to maintain the cache between servers. In our experience this has been by far the hardest part of a web-farm configuration with DotNetNuke, as the default providers each have their own advantages and disadvantages. For this demonstration Tony navigated directly to two different web servers as well as brought up a diagnostic screen that showed the specific items being handled by PowerCache. He deleted a page from the one web server and right away refreshed the other browser window that was pointing to one of the other servers - instantly the content updated, just like you would want it to be. Very impressive, very responsive, and best of all, hands off! He proceeded to also show what happens if there is a temporary connection issue between servers. Each server continued to function as you would expect, until the connection was restored then all cache items were updated and normal operation resumed. Again, a very smooth transition and seamless to end users.

Database Failover (SQL Server Mirroring)

When talking about a fully redundant setup, PowerDNN demonstrated almost all of the parts necessary with load balancers, dual web servers with all content local, the final piece was a SQL Server configuration that supported failover. For this their solution is to use a SQL Mirroring configuration with a primary server, a hot failover server and a witness server to manage the toggling between primary and secondary. For this Tony demonstrated a total shutdown of the SQL Server process on one database server, the other server came online right away and the entire DNN installation continued to function as one would expect. Quite impressive, and no visible downtime, although they noted that a 10-15 second lapse might occur, but a simple refresh of the page would resolve the issue.

Overall Thoughts

For the sake of brevity we will cut the story off here, we additionally toured the PowerDNN offices, which were very nice, but not over done. Overall though we had a great tour and demonstration and I have to say that the solutions they showed us do provide for a very unique, redundant, and easy to manage DotNetNuke solution for large scale implementations. In fact, we are looking to move one of our web farm customers from their current host over to a PowerGrid configuration with PowerDNN.

Feel free to share you feedback below, if you have any specific questions feel free to post those as well, or e-mail Mitchel directly at msellers@iowacomputergurus.com.

Mitchel Sellers Added as DotNetNuke Core Team Member

Mitchel Sellers — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:46:00 GMT

Today DotNetNuke Corporation sent out another issue of the Community Newsletter, in the founders message they announced the details of the much anticipated DotNetNuke Core Team re-arrangement. Part of this announcement included the addition of myself as a DotNetNuke Core Team Member. This has been something I've been working for quite a while. I have a vested interest in helping DotNetNuke grow and hope that this assignment will grant new opportunities to contribute.

What Does This Mean?

The true extent of what this means is yet to be fully realized, however, I hope to start contributing more to the DotNetNuke core. One key focus that I've expressed as a desire is the ability to assist with developer API documentation to help make the API easier for new developers to understand how it work with it.

As more information is fleshed out, look for information on the blogs here, MitchelSellers.com, and DotNetNuke.com.

DotNetNuke Module/Extension Development Best Practices

Mitchel Sellers — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:12:00 GMT

Over the past few months IowaComputerGurus has fielded more and more questions surrounding the "how" part of DotNetNuke module/extension development. Along with these questions have been requests for "best practices" and other general information that if followed will help developers create solutions that work well within the DotNetNuke platform.

After fielding numerous requests for code reviews and one-off recommendations on how to develop stable modules we have decided to start a new Best Practices guide. With this post we would like to present our DotNetNuke Module/Extension Development Best Practices guide. This document is a living guide and is based on items experienced during the creation of the 200+ modules that have been created since the formation of our business.

We would like to stress greatly that this is a working document and we are openly soliciting community feedback on items to add to the document to help provide a consistent resource to the community. If you have suggestions feel free to share them here, or e-mail Mitchel directly at msellers@iowacomputergurus.com

Custom Module Customer Testimonial

Mitchel Sellers — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:42:00 GMT

We just wanted to take a moment to share a testimonal letter we received from a recent customer. He was looking for a custom developed DotNetNuke Module.

"I was recently looking for a specific DotNetNuke module and couldn’t find it anywhere. I then began to look for companies who custom built modules. This was getting into unknown territory for me. After researching, I landed on the Iowa Computer Guru’s web site. I really wasn’t sure what to expect as I had never had a module custom designed before. In retrospect, writing the Iowa Computer Gurus was the best move I could have made.

ICG contacted me within an hour of writing them and within 5 days, I already had a custom module installed and working on my page. From the clear and constant communication, to the detailed contract, to the final product, the service and experience was first class!

The module installed perfectly the first time and works exactly like I had specified without any revisions. I was given a date of completion and the module was completed well in advance of this date. I couldn’t believe how easy it was.

It’s not every day that you find a company that communicates clearly, understands your needs easily, and delivers quality products in advance of deadlines, but I’m telling you that the Iowa Computer Guru’s provide this level of service.

If you need a service that they list on their web site, look no further. Email them. You’ll be glad you did. You’ll get service that you can’t put a price tag on.

Thanks again!

Clint Patterson
Freelance Web Designer"

Thanks Clint! I'm glad that were were able to be of service!

DotNetNuke Performance Best Practices Guide

Mitchel Sellers — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 04:20:00 GMT

One of the most common questions that I have been asked over the past 1-2 years is; "How do you make DotNetNuke perform well?". Over the past few months I have given a few presentations on basic configuration elements and how you can tune DotNetNuke for the best performance possible. I will also be giving a presentation on the topic at OpenForce in Las Vegas this November, however, that presentation will have a few new items that have yet to be discussed.

After sharing all of this information I decided that this would be a perfect candidate for the first "Best Practices" guide to be made available from this site. Therefore without further discussion I present version 1.0 of our "DotNetNuke Performance Best Practices".

Be sure to share your comments/experiences/feedback here on this post. Additionally if these recommendations have had a specific impact on your site and you are willing to provide information for a case study, please e-mail me at msellers@iowacomputergurus.com.

DNN SEO Case Study Part 2

Tom Kraak — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:47:00 GMT

Well, somehow “a week or two” turned into 10 months since I posted part 1 of this case study. Since then, DotNetNuke 5.1 brought a minor improvement to DNN’s XML sitemap implementation and has grown more web standards compliant, but other than that the points discussed so far in regards to SEO still apply. With that in mind, let’s refer back to my DNN SEO quickstart guide and pick up where we left off.

Local Search

While software development companies are at the forefront of reaching far beyond their offices, it’s still worthwhile to get listed in the local directories of Google, Yahoo and Bing as Mitchel has done for ICG. Many potential clients use local qualifiers such as state, city or town when searching for products and services and a local listing is an easy way to capture that traffic.

Search Engine Friendly Skin & Navigation

Mitchel went the extra mile and invested in a professionally designed and developed skin, which has paid for itself in no time with increased traffic through higher ranking pages and increased brand awareness. As the skin forms the foundation for solid on-page DNN SEO, I recommend CSS based layouts over HTML tables, a spider-friendly menu provider, and semantic containers all marked up with valid (X)HTML and CSS.

Search & Human Friendly Urls

IowaComputerGurus.com runs iFinity Url Master, which provides rich Url rewriting and redirecting capabilities for DNN websites. The module enforces SEO best practices such as short, human-readable Urls, 301 redirection of non-www to www or vice versa, as well as custom Url rewrite functionality for dynamic pages created by the blog.

Fresh & Unique Content

“Content is king” may have turned into a cliché, but without giving Google and company something fresh and tasteful to chew on, none of the above on-page SEO factors will make big strides on their own. For that very reason, Mitchel recently added this blog. Now it’s a matter of covering link-worthy topics and crafting smart post titles without losing track of the target audience: people, not search engines.

This concludes my “real world” application and implementation of DotNetNuke search engine optimization techniques and best practices. For more coverage of the subject, visit my blog and download the DNN SEO webinar hosted by DotNetNuke Corp. And as always, Mitchel and I hope you join the discussion via the comments below.

Customer Service and Customer Retention

Mitchel Sellers — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:00:00 GMT

One of the big things that IowaComputerGurus has done over the years is to create a network of service providers and product vendors. This has allowed usto provide a full range of service, including items outside of our functional area. The process that we follow to select these vendors for recommendation is a farily complex operation and at minimum includes our usage of their services. We do not believe in simply linking to products/companies unless we not only believe in the products offered, but in the ongoing support that is provided. Why is this important? Why are we blogging about this under a "Customer Service and Customer Retention" blog?

A Business Website's Impact on Potential Customers

Mitchel Sellers — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:09:00 GMT

Recently on Twitter we noticed a discussion regarding another DotNetNuke vendor and how their website was not based on the DotNetNuke platform. The discussions that followed came to a very clear conclusion, the act of dogfooding the technology you work with is very important. For example, a company that "specializes" in DotNetNuke solutions and uses Joomla to manage their corporate website portrays a conflicted image, either intentionally or not. We have noticed this since the beginning of our company and have taken a unique approach to the management of our website and I thought it would be nice to share a bit on how we see our website impacting our potential customers.