One of the times you would use this is if you want to send previous emails to a new person in your team without them having to search through long email trails to try to piece together what you are talking about.

The separate emails that you forward will be more self-contained and it will be easier to understand where one ends and the next begins

You can read all the technical details at Release notification of the forward as email feature from Google

Summary: There are three ways to forward an email as an attachment.

As always there is more than one way to achieve the same result and the one you choose will depend on how you prefer to work.

First: Drag an email into the compose window in order to forward it

Use this method if you regularly use the compose window for new emails rather than when replying

Second: Choose the email to forward via the menu in the compose window

Use this method to attach emails that you may not have on-screen to drag

Finally: Without the compose window open you can select the email and then ‘forward as attachment’ from the main menu

If you don’t already have the compose window open then you can select any emails you want to forward and select forward as attachment from the main menu. The compose window will then open with the emails already attached and ready for you to write the body of the introductory email and select who you are sending it to.

Sometimes it is the smaller changes that can make a big impact on your day to day productivity.

The post G Suite – adding an email from an email appeared first on Peoples Geek.

The fundamental difference is who is hosting your WordPress website and controlling what you can and can not do with it. WordPress.com is a commercial organisation who will host and install your WordPress site on their servers. WordPress.org is a site where you can download the free WordPress software for you to use anywhere that you like but does not offer hosting or other commercial services.

You can only download the WordPress program from one place: WordPress.org

If you download and install WordPress yourself then you can only download it from WordPress.org. This is the website of the WordPress foundation that supplies the free WordPress program to anyone who wants to use it.

You can download the software and then you will need to install it on a web server supplied by your hosting provider. (Or, more simply your hosting provider almost certainly will offer to install it for you).

If you are downloading WordPress from WordPress.org then you need to also have your own hosting provider.

Once installed, you are completely free to customise it in any way that you see fit. You are only limited by your imagination, and your technical skills (or the skills you hire).

You can create a limited WordPress website at WordPress.com

WordPress.com is a site which is managed by Automattic who are the founders of WordPress. They will allow you to create a website on the platform they run but you will never have the level of flexibility that you have with a website that you install on your own hosting.

WordPress.com ARE your hosting provider in this case.

One of the great things about having WordPress.com as your hosting provider is that they look after all the upgrades and other technical aspects of your website. The downside is that they place substantial limitations on what you can do with your site. You can pay to have some of these limitations removed by subscribing to a paid plan and there are 3 to choose from.

Should I use WordPress.com or install my own WordPress?

The right answer really depends on what you want to do with your website.

If you…..

•  Want to have a simple blog and don’t mind advertising appearing on it, then the free WordPress.com version may be all you need. For some people the simplicity of a WordPress.com website will be a big attraction.
• Are just starting and don’t know if you have the discipline, then a WordPress.com blog may be a good way to test your resolve with no upfront cost
• Need to monetize your site, then you will almost certainly be better off with your own hosting and a download from WordPress.org
• Run other services, or do anything out of the ordinary, then a WordPress.org installation will be what you need.

Whichever decision you make, it is better to get started than to do nothing. While it is possible to move later it is worth thinking about your longer term goals as you get started.

In case you are wondering, I use BlueHost and a download from WordPress.org myself and I do recommend them. Have a look at my post on how to easily start your own website today.

So – get out there and get started!

The post The difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org appeared first on Peoples Geek.

Smoke alarms keep your property safe and an up to date theme and plugins keep your website site safe. All things go out of date and stop working, batteries, plugins and themes. Make sure your theme and plugins are supported.

In Australia (and many other countries) the fire department reminds us to check our smoke alarm batteries twice a year when we change our clocks for Daylight Savings. Do a quick check of themes and plugins in the WordPress repository on the same day.

Working on a new client site recently I found that the theme was causing errors so naturally, I went to check if there were updates. Unfortunately, the theme has not been updated in more than two years and the website for the author of the plugin no longer exists.

I am advising my client to change themes as part of the current work that we are doing and it will mean her site gets a refresh as well as support for the latest versions of WordPress and

A good security plugin like WordFence lets you know that plugins are out of date or abandoned but It does not seem to do the same for themes so add this simple check to your annual routine. Visit the repository and check the last updated date.

If it is more than two years ago this is a good sign that the theme is abandoned and you will see an extra warning. I suggest contacting the them author to see if it is going to be updated and if not then plan for a change (and after two years your site might be due for a nice refresh in any case)

Start by going to the WordPress repository at https://wordpress.org/themes/ then search for your theme – A ‘not found’ result probably means that it is abandoned and has been removed. You can still try to search by putting the theme name in the URL directly and this may give you more information. In any case it is time for a change!

Make sure when you gain or lose an hour that you don’t lose out on site security through out of date themes.

See you when the clocks change!

Brian (Your “People’s Geek”)

The post Change your clock, check your theme is still supported appeared first on Peoples Geek.

I have ‘bitten the bullet’ and decided to move my email to GMail, actually I will be moving everything over to G Suite which is the rebranded Google Apps for Business. So why would I do this you ask?

This is not something that you undertake lately as moving email this can be a pain if you are are already firmly established. But, with good planning I it will be a relatively smooth process – not hard or complicated but most likely a little tedious in places. Follow along with this and the next few articles to make your move painless.

If it is going to be tedious then why change to GMail?

In short I need the spam filtering, advanced filtering, tagging and automation. Google and GMail are brilliant at all of these.

As you can imagine I keep track of a large number of things in the industry and many of these come as email updates or offers. I tried auto filing them with my standard email but it takes too many clicks to file something after it is read and as a result my inbox was filling up. With GMail I will be able to auto tag emails and leave them in my inbox until I have read them and then they can be processed and filed with one click.

GMail also has a very effective spam filter and I have seen the number of spam messages I am receiving has gone through the roof.

Why tedious you ask?

I have been using Google for my business needs for some time as the collaboration features are excellent. I come from a long background of life in the Microsoft world so when I say this it is with experience of both sides (Microsoft Apps on the desktop and recently Office 365 as the cloud offering).

The reason I am expecting this to be a little tedious is that I have an existing (free) Google account that I registered with the email domain I want to use for my GMail address – it gives me all the wonderful tools from Google but not the email so I kept my email through my BlueHost account and it has all been working like a dream.

So why tedious? Because I will need to move all of the documents that are owned under my old Google account over to the new G Suite account with GMail and then change the ownership of these documents so that I do not need to keep referring back to the old account. Luckily there are not too many of these and it is not difficult – just time consuming. (I might reach out to my development team to see if we can create a script to manage this as it will then happen automatically, so keep your eye on this series of articles to see if it is an advantage to you too)

Email features I need to replicate

• Forwarders – I use these as an ‘alias’ on my account so that I have the benefits of a separate email account but not the overhead. For example I use domain.xyz@peoplesgeek.com for clients who want me to keep an eye on their domain registration so there are a number of these. [Solution will be to use alias and filters in GMail to achieve the same result]
• Multiple Email accounts – I will need to convert some email accounts to an Alias. This is something I have been meaning to do for a while. Again this is not hard but something to make sure is done or they will show up as bounces once I move over.
• History – all the existing emails in my inbox and filed emails will need to be moved over to the new account but I don’t want to lose how they are filed so this will have to be dragged across one IMAP folder at a time.
  • Luckily I realised that I can set up my email to look at the old account for as long as I need it so there isn’t any risk of losing incoming emails as I switch over and I can do the migration of the old emails any time I like.
• Backups – My email is currently backed up by my host and also by my local backup from my computer. Now I will need to rely on Google (and probably keep a regular snapshot locally as well but that will be the subject of a different article)

Stay tuned for a step by step process that you can replicate and move your email to one of the best providers available. Learn from my experience so it is easy for you!

Brian ( your “People’s Geek”)

The post Moving my email to GMail / G Suite appeared first on Peoples Geek.

This new attack uses the easy setup wizard against us by connecting your WordPress setup to the hacker controlled database. It then becomes their WordPress site and they can use it to attack any other sites on your hosting account.

Here is how the attack works and four easy ways to stop them using it on your new WordPress website.

How does the WordPress Setup Hack Work?

The way that the hackers do this is they scan for the standard URL:

<yourdomain>/wp-admin/setup-config.php

and if it returns a SetupWizard then they know they are in the window between uploading your WordPress files and finishing the initial setup.

Here is what you see when WordPress is already configured if you type this URL:

In this case you are safe from this attack.

But if you have not yet started the setup then you see this familiar screen and you are vulnerable to the WordPress setup hack. (Note in this case there is a custom subdomain in the red box so I would not be found as easily).

How do I protect myself from this attack?

Here are four suggestions on how you can protect yourself from this WordPress setup hack. The attack relies on the attacker being able to scan and find the setup-config.php file. If they can’t find it then the attack will fail.

The first two do not require you to do anything special, the third uses your host CPanel to protect you, and the last one requires some changes to your site that may be complicated for beginners. My recommendation is number two or three which provide a balance of protection and ease of use.

1. Don’t delay in setting up your site

This attack uses the time between uploading your files and running the setup. The smaller you keep this gap the less likely you are to be attacked but remember the hackers will be using a computer program so then only need a fraction of a second if you are unlucky enough to be found.

So do not delay when uploading your WordPress files to your server and do not upload the files until you are ready to commence.

Set up your database before you upload your WordPress files to help minimise this delay.

This method is not really protection but it ensures you minimise the period you are exposed.

2. Install WordPress in a non-standard directory

I always suggest installing WordPress in a subdirectory of your root domain that is non-standard and unique. You can still easily configure WordPress so that this subdirectory is not in your URL (ie your URL does not need to be yourdomain/subdirectory)

This does not guarantee safety but it would prevent a new site being scanned for this attack. In the screenshot above you can see in the red box that I have even done this on my local computer by installing in the subdirectory /wppgsas/

This means that any scan for the standard URL will return a 404 error and the hacker will move on to the next victim.

(For a tutorial that includes this please see my tutorial on setting up a new WordPress blog properly)

3. Use temporary directory protection on your site

Most hosts will allow you to put a password on your site – this will prevent a scanner from finding the setup-config.php file. Once you are done you can remove this protection from your CPanel.

Once you have set up your site you can remove this protection using the same CPanel controls.

4. Change your .htaccess file so only you can access your site

If you are more technically inclined you can edit the .htaccess file so that only the IP address of your computer can access the site. Add this code to your .htaccess file and add the IP address for your computer.

order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from <your-computer-ip-address>

When you are done you can remove these lines and allow access to the world again. See the article from

If you have an existing site then I would change this to a redirect to a static maintenance or coming-soon page so that returning visitors know that something is happening.

A clean site is a safer site

The people most at risk from this attack are those who have uploaded files and then not completed the setup. Check your hosting account now and make sure you do not have any WordPress installations uploaded that are not configured and delete them if they are not needed.

For further reading and some more detailed analysis of the attack the team at WordFence have a great article on how this attack is trending.

Stay Safe!

Brian (your People’s Geek)

The post Install promptly to protect from the WordPress setup hack appeared first on Peoples Geek.

What are video credits and why do I want them?

Video credits and lead-ins are the ‘cover/closing pages’ if you like, where you brand the video so it is easy to recognise. And the viewer can easily find the owner of the video if they want more.  I am starting to create video content now so this advice came for me at the perfect time. I had already decided on a really short lead in but ending credits was a new area to consider.

They add perceived quality to your video

Having a lead in and also a close out on your video is expected and ensures your brand is well positioned. People love the consistency and will easily associate the video with your brand. Mine will be a simple animated logo and a title for the video you are about to watch.

They link back to your site

Always includes some sort of link back to your website in videos you create. The video credit is the most common place to do this. Then if the video is shared by someone else, the viewers can always find their way back to you. An alternative to video credits at the end is to have your web address as a watermark.

They give credit

Duh! I know that seems obvious but you often need to have some acknowledgement added to the end of a video – particularly if you have used music or other elements that need attribution or you have a working relationship with someone that requires acknowledgement

• You need them for contractual or attribution reasons
  • A partner you are working with may want their logo included in the video credits
• You need them for attribution of the work of others
  • The use of royalty free music or images often requires that you mention the source in the credits

How can video credits be a problem then?

This is where the time and attention part comes in. Your video will be listed with the full duration INCLUDING any lead in or credits that are included but these are usually seen as low value or ‘skippable’ content by most consumers.

Your lead in and credits could easily add 30+ seconds to your clip, that might take some users over their limit. For me, taking a full 5 minutes to watch a YouTube clip seems a long time – but 4 and a half somehow seems OK.

Vimeo has just published a nice overview of how a good lead in grabs the viewer’s attention and also ideas and examples of how to handle the credits. I like the idea of simply telling the viewer that the credits are on the website. After all, isn’t the intention for most of us to bring the viewer to our website?

So how should I do video credits the right way then?

The Vimeo article suggests dropping them completely and adding a link back to your website where the credits will be given. This has the advantage that your overall video length is shortened – and you link people to your website.

Keep the lead in and the credit time to a minimum so that you keep your video short and sweet. When video credits are done right they add to the visitor experience and to your website visits too. If possible your lead in should be something that captures the viewer’s attention and curiosity quickly.

The tools for video have come a long way since I first started but it is never too late to go back and repurpose video you have done in the past. The best way to get experience is to simply create your own video now.

Have fun but think of your viewers and the competition for their attention.

The post How to do video credits right and not turn off your viewers appeared first on Peoples Geek.

But change is coming – in two parts

In honour of a late spring in the UK the site has also sprung a new look. The new look and other updates are coming in two phases:

First: A smaller update

A smaller update to align the site structure with the latest best practice from security and current WordPress features. The site has become mobile friendly and the flow of new content will start again. (I admit I have been a bit embarrassed at the state of the site to draw attention to it with new material – I apologise for that)

Second: More stuff and a new structure so you can find it

There will be a review of the structure and some new products and service offerings. So you can expect to see new and exciting things on offer that will aim to make your online world a better place.

Stay up to date by subscribing

Make sure you subscribe to the newsletter using the form on the right. You will be the first to know about each step. As a bonus, I am planning a special advanced release of one of the new products that will be exclusively released to people who have signed up first. Make sure you see this before anyone else! Who knows, you may be one of my highly valued reviewers and have your name in lights too.

More Services, More Products, the same People’s Geek service and support. Check out the latest article and see how easy it is to create your own website – safe in the knowledge that you always have support available: Easily start your own website today

The post New Year, New Season, New Look appeared first on Peoples Geek.

This tutorial will take you through the steps of getting yourself up and running all within about 20 minutes.

We will cover:

1. Choosing your hosting and opening an account
2. Opening your website or blog software and installing it
3. Writing your first post and seeing your site ‘up in lights’ on the internet

Afterward, there are also a number of optional tutorials that you can work through should you want to do something out of the ordinary but I think you will be delighted at how simple the process can be.

So grab yourself a coffee and we can have your site up and running quickly – the lovely thing is that if you change your mind about how you want your site to look later it is an easy process to change – so let’s get going.

Choosing your hosting

While there are a number of different options I always recommend Bluehost to my clients and I use them for my hosting as well. Follow my special link when you purchase your account and I will include a bonus download of my ‘best free tools for getting the most out of your blog’ as an extra.

Follow this link to the Bluehost home page

Click ‘get started now’

 These are your options – I suggest ‘plus’ as it gives you options to run other websites and test areas later.

Choose your free domain name (included in the package) enter the domain name for your new website and click next.

Now you will fill out the basic details and select the services to go with your account.

 Enter your address details and scroll down.

  Choose any of the optional extra’s you need – you can always come back to this later as an add on so don’t feel that you need to worry about this too much at this stage.

 And finally enter your payment information and you are all done!

You will receive email confirmation and confirmation on the screen of your new account details. It may take a few minutes for your new website to be ready to install your blog.

Installing your WordPress software

The easiest way to install WordPress is to use the built-in tools from Bluehost. This simplifies the process for you by doing almost everything for you.

I would suggest installing in a subdirectory as this is more secure and it also gives you a much cleaner and more manageable result in your Bluehost account. This may not mean much now but it will set you up better for the future if you decided to run another site or have a test site for playing in private later on.

Use the instructions from your welcome email to log onto your bluehost account. You will see the welcome and CPanel screen. This is where we can install WordPress using the wizards supplied to do most of the work.

  This is your CPanel which controls all the different aspects of your account. Don’t worry about it too much just yet as there will be other tutorials on using it if you need more.

 Scroll down to ‘install WordPress’ under the website section and click the icon circled above.

 This is the welcome screen. Click ‘Get Started’

 Choose the domain name you wish to use to install WordPress. In this example, I have used ‘www.iPadWorker.com’ but use the domain name you selected when you signed up. I always suggest using a subdirectory which can have any name. I usually pick ‘wp’ PLUS the initials of my site ‘ipw’ in this case.

 Complete the form and make a note of the password or type your own in there but make sure it is a strong one. Then review and tick the checkboxes and click install.

 WordPress is installing – it is that simple

 After a short time, you will see the complete indicator and you can click ‘view credentials here’ link

 Go to the installed directory and you can log into your new website. Normally it will be something like <your domain>/subdirectory/wp-admin.

Use the userid and password that were entered in the previous step and which will also be sent to you in an email.

This is the dashboard screen you will see after logging in.

Go to the settings section and we are now going to remove the subdomain from the ‘site address’ and this will mean that it does not display in the URL of your website. 

There is one more step where we have to use the CPanel to copy a file – this may seem a little tedious but trust me that it will make your life easier later and your site more secure.

In CPanel find the File Manger icon and click.

Move the the subfolder where we installed WordPress and locate the file called index.php – we will copy this up to one directory level higher (sometimes called the root folder)

Now you have to add the subdirectory name into the file in the positon indicated. This may seem more difficult but it is only needed once and you will be miles ahead of most site owners.

Now you can go to your domain name without the /subdirectory and the site will display correctly.

Writing your first post

Now it is time to write your first post.

When you log onto the administration area you will see the menu for Posts and Add New. Click this on the menu.

All you need to do is enter the title of your post then the content. After that you can just press publish and your post will be live. You can view it via the ‘View Post’ link that appears when you publish the post or simly go to the front end of your site.

And here you are with your post live and visible to your visitors. You are live on the internet – congratulations!

How to get your bonus…

Sign up using this link to the Bluehost home page and forward me a copy of your Bluehost receipt to bluehost@PeoplesGeek.com

The special link will pay me a small commission to enable me to continue to deliver great content for you. It will not change the price that you pay for your hosting service.

Please let me know any feedback you have on the tutorial or if there are other subjects that you would like covered.

Wishing you success,

Brian (People’s Geek)

The post How to start your website appeared first on Peoples Geek.

A brute force password attack happens when a program tries to guess your password by simply trying lots of different possibilities – and making educated guesses.

This is even more important at the moment as there is evidence that the number of attacks per day may have more than doubled.

Luckily, or unluckily the site owners who are most likely to be impacted are those who have been ignoring simple advice for a long time – and will probably ignore this advice too.

Make yourself ‘lucky’

Luck is almost always about simple preponderation. If you take note of the following then you are way ahead of 99% of people and probably safe from the current password attack.

Basically – don’t use the default user name and choose a good password. One of the most commonly attacked names is ‘admin’. Your user names should not be obvious or easy to guess.

The simplest way to defend yourself against a password brute force attack is to not use a well known user name or password, if you do this then you are more protected than 99% of people. Make that luckier than 99% if you like.

How to check user names on your WordPress site

The first thing to do is make sure you don’t have a commonly used user as an administrator. Do this now:

1. Log into the administration area of your site.
2. Choose Users from the menu and look at the list of user names and the access they have.

If you see one called Admin then you are at risk – mitigate this risk by setting up another account as the Administrator and either delete the old admin account (reallocating any posts associated with it) or change the role of the account to something safer like subscriber or none. Personally I’d delete the account.

Don’t get sucked into too much hype

One of the things to be aware of when reading latest news is that it is often sensationalised to get you to read it.

Matt Mullenweg, a founder of WordPress, has written a great article reminding people that you can just do something simple but some of the advice being given is more designed about selling products than keeping you up to date and safe.

Take some simple advice

The simple solution is often the best – or at least a lot better than doing nothing. The reason these brute force attacks work is that people don’t change things once they are set up and they choose common settings or defaults.

Be a bit different – make yourself ‘lucky’

Do not use admin as your administrator name, and do a simple check of your site now.

The post The brute force attack scare appeared first on Peoples Geek.

These advanced options include filters to limit your results to a date range, a type of file, or some very specific system values.

One of the most useful options I found was the ability to turn on ‘Natural Language’ for your searches which eliminates the need to remember complicated rules when you type in a search.

For a great introduction to Advanced Windows Search have a look at this Microsoft article on Advanced Tips for Searching in Windows.

A good filing system will go a long way to helping you here, but there will always be those one or two things that are misfiled or accidentally saved in the wrong place.

Once you do find that file don’t forget to move it to the right location to make it easier to find next time.

The post Get the most when using windows search appeared first on Peoples Geek.