WordPress launched 'WordPress 2.3.3.' Classifying the release as urgent, it has been launched to counter a security bug discovered, "If you have registration enabled a flaw was found in the XML-RPC implementation such that a specially crafted request would allow a user to edit posts of other users on that blog. In addition to fixing this security flaw, 2.3.3 fixes a few minor bugs," went the official statement.

You have two options for the download, either download the fixed version of xmlrpc.php and copy it over your existing xmlrpc.php or you could get the entire release from the official download section here.

There's also a warning that, there is a vulnerability in the WP-Forum plugin that is being actively exploited at present. In case you are using this plugin, remove it until an update is available from its author.

You might want to keep your accounts secure, and it's a good idea to make use of strong passwords and change them at regular intervals. Further, even while you update WP and the plugins, refresh your passwords.

ICANN 's all set to move forward to completely do away with domain tasting. Domain tasters are frequently accused of taking advantage of loopholes in the registration process and mint millions out of it, without actually paying anything for it. They pull this stunt by amassing a large number of domain names they think the customers are looking for.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), now wants to effectively end domain tasting and in lieu of that start charging an annual ICANN fee on registrar domain registrations.

"Domain tasting has been an issue for the Internet community and ICANN is offering this proposal as a way to stop tasting,…Charging the ICANN fee as soon as a domain name is registered would close the loophole used by tasters to test a domain name's profitability for free." said Dr Paul Twomey, ICANN's President and CEO.

The statistics by themselves portray the state of affairs as dismal, and tasting has seen an exponential growth since 2004. "In January 2007, the top 10 domain tasters accounted for 95% of all deleted .com and .net domain names — or 45,450,897 domain names out of 47,824,131 total deletes," ICANN estimates.

ICANN domain tasting entails "the use of the Add Grace Period to test the profitability of a domain name registration. The AGP is a five-day period following the initial registration of a domain name when the registration may be deleted and a credit can be issued to a registrar."

One of the ways to eliminate this kind of exploitation being talked by ICANN is to not to refund the charges levied by ICANN on a domain transaction. It is hoped that this practice would curb and control misuse of domain tasting in large numbers.

While it sounds like a good move to achieve the objective, there are a couple of questions hovering in the minds of folks, such as if a customer makes a mistake in registering, would there be some kind of a support provided to the customer?

Further, wouldn't it lead to a hike in prices to register a domain, etc. Since, the move is still in the proposal stage answers to all the questions might not be evident. While the move seems to be in the right direction, it now on remains to be seen, how the proposal actually gets implemented and how it overcomes various questions being raised at it?

While ICANN is there to protect the interests of the industry, it might not be fair to classify all webhosting companies under the same head. Perhaps, the answer lies in self-regulation by webhosting service providers. Candid Webhosting for sometime now, with the objective of providing friendly and customized solutions to the clients.

Candidwebhosting.com acknowledges your full rights over your domain, visit the domain registration section FAQ.

Do you run a WordPress blog? Do you know how you can protect your WordPress installation? In this post we cover three simple but effective ways to protect the installation as suggested by Matt Cutts.

First off, you need to secure your “/wp-admin/” directory. One option is to lock down the directory “/wp-admin/.” This enables only selected IP addresses to access your directory. For instance, if you use a .htaccess file you can put it in the following manner “/wp-admin/.htaccess.”

Here's how Matt's directory looks like:

Picture Credits: Matt Cutts

The file's instructions convey that only IP address 64.233.169.99 in addition to a couple of other which you permit can access /wp-admin/, the rest cannot.

Second, create an empty wp-content/plugins/index.html file. This can help you prevent a leakage of information about the plug-ins you run. A hacker can exploit you if he or she finds out that the plug-in you run is an outdated one.

Finally, it is worthwhile to subscribe to the WordPress Development blog as whenever WordPress fixes a security flaw or even when they release a fresh version they announce it on the blog. As soon as you see a security fix launched, download the patch or else the consequences could be serious.

Domain Name Life Cycle

Domain Names go through a specific life cycle. It is important to know about the life cycle of a domain name, and especially when the Domain Name belongs to you. Each day some 20,000-domain names are released to the public. Normally, while registering for a particular domain, one can select the time period in terms of years, for how long the name should be active. The most desired domain names are secured and 're-registered', within the very first hour. During the life cycle, a domain name passes through some stages, like Available, Active, Expiry, Redemption Grace Period and Pending Deletion.

In the first stage, the domain name is available to the public and when it is selected, it becomes active for say one to ten years. After, that period is over; the domain name enters the expiry period that ranges normally from zero to forty-five days. During this period, the current registrant can still apply for renewal. This time period can be more or less depending on circumstances. The record usually reflects the status 'On-Hold' during this grace period. If required, the registrar has the full authority to delete the domain name. If during this grace period, current registrant hasn't renewed the name, the domain enters the next stage of the life cycle, called 'Redemption Period', where another thirty-day time is allotted for current registrant to re-store the domain name. After the end of this period, the registry places the registration in what is known as Pending Deletion status, and approximately after five days later the domain name is released for purchase by the general public, normally on a first come, first served basis.

Data is being transferred, each time you download a file The chunk of data depends on the size of the file. If you download a web page that is 1 kilobyte (1,024 bytes), or 1 KB, in size, it means 1 KB of data has been transferred. If 100 people access that same web page, then 100 KB of data has been transferred.

Bandwidth basically is the bunch of data (files located on your domain that are viewed by visitors, email, file transfer protocols that can be send/received by your web server. You can understand how important this factor is when buying a web hosting plan or leasing a web server. Generally speaking, the more bandwidth you have, the more visitors can visit your web site.

How to determine how much bandwidth is needed

To determine how much bandwidth you need per month, you will need to have a look at your web site statistics. Visitors per month times avg. data transferred per month per user = Amount of Bandwidth used per month. Bandwidth is usually measured in MB or GB. It is not very important to get the exact number of visitors. An approximate number will be sufficient for calculating the monthly bandwidth usage.

Whereas the accuracy of the numbers in the first part of the calculation was a rather unimportant factor it plays a big role in the second part of the calculation. Finding the average files transferred can be difficult if your web site is very large, since it has to be done for every single page. To find the size, add up the size of every image on the page and the size of the page of every single page on your web site. To make life a little easier for you it is recommended to use the following loading time test tool. Once you've obtained that number add 25% - 33% to that number to give your web site room and allow it to grow.

Term Meaning Number of Bytes

• KB Kilobyte 1,024
• MB Megabyte 1,048,576
• GB Gigabyte 1,073,741,824

Bandwidth is the term used to measure the amount of data being transferred from your web space. This does not directly relate to the number of 'hits' (views) a web site receives. One single hit to a web page that is 100 KB in size uses the same amount of bandwidth as 100 hits to a 1 KB page.

You will want to be wary of any host offering a certain amount of 'hits'. Always look for a bandwidth allotment when looking for a host.

How much do I need?

Let's imagine we give three people, Jack, Martha, and Kris, each a $1,000 gift certificate to a shopping mall. They can spend that however they wish and take as many different trips to the mall as needed to spend the money.

Martha is a 'value for money' shopper. She buys a lot of small items over a period of time, making many trips to the mall.

Kris makes fewer trips than Mary, spending around $100 each time purchasing quite a few items each trip.

Jack is an impulsive spender. He buys a new stereo system and spends the whole $1,000 in one trip.

If the $1,000 is an amount of bandwidth, with the shopping mall being the web server, here's what it would boil down to. Martha's site would be a smaller web site with very few graphics, but lots of traffic (hits). Her site wouldn't use a lot of bandwidth per hit. Kris' site would have a lot of graphics and other overhead, so hers wouldn't take as many hits to use up her bandwidth. Jack's site would offer a large file for download, probably a shareware program or video file. His site would use a lot of bandwidth with a single hit.

So what does this mean

The above example shows us that there is no defined number of hits available to a given amount of bandwidth - it depends on what is being downloaded for each hit. Obviously, the larger the download, the more bandwidth is used, and thus the less hits you can have for that amount of bandwidth.

How much bandwidth a site will use depends on many factors. You have to consider what kinds of files people will be downloading, along with how many people will be downloading them.

What About Unlimited Bandwidth?

There is nothing called unlimited bandwidth.

If and when you run across a host claiming to offer Unlimited Bandwidth, you will definitely want to find out what their meaning of unlimited really is (or better yet, just turn and run). No host can really offer true unlimited bandwidth. If you could get unlimited bandwidth for around $20.00 a month or less, why isn't Yahoo or Microsoft hosted there?

You will find that there is no such thing as unlimited. Somewhere, you should find a statement describing what is meant by the term. Usually it will fall under one of three categories:

Your site must 'qualify' for unlimited bandwidth
A lot of hosts do this - if your site uses less than, say, 5 gigs per month, it qualifies for unlimited bandwidth. As soon as your traffic goes above that you no longer qualify for the unlimited bandwidth and are either charged for the excess or forced to move your site. In other words, it's unlimited as long as you stay within the limits.

Restricted bandwidth
This is where a host allows you all the bandwidth you want, providing that you do not offer mp3, zip, tar, exe, and a number of other file types that are usually larger than standard HTML and graphics. Or they may limit the amount or size of files you can have on your web space. Or they may limit the types of pages you can have, such as "no image galleries." Further, they usually require that all files stored in your space be linked only from your own pages. This means that you must use all of your files, graphics, etc, only on your web site, and cannot allow other sites to link to them (other than linking to your HTML).

Absolute lie
There are some hosts that simply advertise things that they cannot offer. They say things like "We won't penalize you for your success," but once your site does become too popular, you find that your account has been deactivated. A lot of these hosts will have stipulations buried in their Terms of Service that don't relate to bandwidth, but that they can easily snag anyone on. These are little backup plans they use as an excuse to deactivate an account, usually without refund, for whatever reason they want to. This way they are not known for kicking sites off for bandwidth reasons, but rather for a TOS violation. But word does travel…

Luckily the hosts that fall under # 3 usually do not last unless they change their policies before too many people become aware of their business practices.

Why do they do it?

Hosts use false advertising because other hosts do it. They figure that the majority of consumers do not understand how little bandwidth they really need, and will never know that it is not really unlimited. For the most part it is true that most people do not understand bandwidth - they see a limit at one host, and another host with no limit, and they figure better safe than sorry… Unfortunately, there are those who do use it and learn this lesson the hard way.

Statistically, most sites use less than 500 MB per month, which is 1/2 of one gig. Unless you are offering software or music or video downloads or are just very popular, you shouldn't have to worry too much about bandwidth. Just keep in mind that if a host falsely advertises unlimited bandwidth, who knows what else they are lying about or what other tricks they might pull? We recommend that if you see a host making this offer, you don't even consider hosting with them. Don't support this dirty trick, and don't risk your time and money on a host that obviously isn't trustworthy.

How can bandwidth be saved?

There are a number of ways to save bandwidth. A general advice is to keep all files on your web site as small as possible.

To reduce the size of your pages you have to remove unnecessary tags from your code. WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) programs like Dreamweaver have a clean HTML function.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is also an effective way to save bandwidth. It is designed to reduce HTML file size by attributing values for any HTML element/command at the beginning of the document.

Once that is done you have to go to the next step, optimizing all graphics and pictures. It is important to know that graphics (vectors) have to be saved as .gif files and pictures as .jpeg files. If you don't own a picture program like Fireworks or PhotoShop then you can optimize your pictures for free at NetMechanic.com.

Your dial-up visitors will thank you for optimizing all your web pages.

Following these steps will ensure that your site is moved as quickly as possible, while also minimizing (or even eliminating) the need for any site downtime. Below are the details that you will be likely to know.

From your existing web host,

If you are using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to move your site:

• Your existing site's IP address
• Your FTP user name
• Your FTP password

If you are using FrontPage to move your site:

• Your FrontPage user name
• Your FrontPage password

From your domain registrar

• Your domain log in details (if required by your registrar)

From your new web host (In this case will be Candid Web Hosting)

If you are using FTP to move your site:

• Your new site's IP address
• Your FTP user name
• Your FTP password

If you are using FrontPage to move your site:

• Your FrontPage user name
• Your FrontPage password

A list of the name servers your new site will use (usually two) email. If your previous web host allowed you to receive email addressed to a user at your domain (such as tom@my.domain or harry@my.domain) and your new web host (read Candid Web Hosting) also offers this service, you will need to create an email account on your new web host for each of the email accounts on your old web host.

The reason for doing this is because within a short period of time after you have transferred your domain, email will stop being directed to your old web host, and will instead get directed to your new web host. If your new web host is not configured to accept mail at the same addresses as your old web host, the email may not be able to be delivered, and will be returned to the sender. Configuring your new email accounts in advance of transferring your domain name allows you to avoid this situation, and ensures that no mail is lost.

Moving your site using FTP

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is provided by web hosts nearly universally and you will almost certainly have FTP access to both your existing and new web hosts. FTP is perhaps the most desirable mechanism to use when moving your site because it allows you to avoid the need for any site downtime.

Using FTP to download your site

If you do not already have a copy of your web site on your home or office computer, the first step in moving your site is to download a copy from your existing web host. At the end of this process, you should have a folder on your computer containing your entire web site, and using your web browser to open any of the `html' files contained in this folder should display the page correctly.

Using FTP to upload your site

Once you have verified that you have a working copy of your site on your home or office computer, you are ready to upload your site to your new web host. you now need to connect to the FTP server of your new web host, and log in using the user name and password details which they have provided.

Moving your site using Microsoft FrontPage

If you have previously used Microsoft FrontPage to publish your web site, it is advisable that you continue to do so, as many of the FrontPage specific features will not work if you upload using FTP.

Domain name transfer

Before transferring your domain name, it is advisable to set up email accounts with your new web host which correspond to the email accounts on your old web host. Section 2 contains more information on this. If your site makes use of a database, it is also a good idea to transfer its contents across before transferring your domain name. Appendix A contains further information on databases.

Although "domain name" and "web site" are often used interchangeably, the domain name of your site is independent of the site itself. The real address of your web site which your computer sees will be a number of (at most) 12 digits, such as 192.168.1.1. Most of us have trouble remembering more than a few of these numbers, so for convenience, domain names are used when referencing web sites.

Transferring your domain name involves modifying your domain name record (controlled by your domain registrar) so that instead of pointing to the address of your web site on your old web host, it points to the address of your site on your new web host. This sounds daunting, but in reality is quite straight forward.

It is likely that you will be able to transfer your domain name by visiting your domain registrar's web site. If you are unsure of who your domain registrar is, you can find out by visiting a site such as http://www.icthus.net/CGI-City/demo/ccwhois and doing a whois lookup on your domain name. Once you have done this, you will be presented with a page of information about your domain name, including the name of your domain registrar. If the web site of your domain registrar is not listed here, you should be able to find it by searching for the name of the registrar with your favorite search engine.

Once you have found your domain registrar's web site, you will need to modify the settings for your domain. While the exact procedure for doing this will vary between different domain registrars, it would normally involve filling out a form containing your new domain settings. During this process, you will need to provide the name servers which were given to you by your new web host, and you may also be required to log in using the details which you would have been given by your domain registrar when you first registered your domain name.

If you have any problems transferring your domain name, your domain registrar should be your first point of contact. They will be able to provide you with specific information on how to transfer your domain to your new web host.

When we run up against the "World Wide Wait," we tend to think that we're waiting for the requested page to download. But there is something that happens before the download even begins. The server on which the requested site resides must acknowledge the browser's request to view the site. In other words, if this were a telephone call, response time would be the number of rings before the telephone is picked up.

Slow response time can be just as annoying to potential customers as five, eight, or 10 rings. To avoid turning visitors off, learn how response time is measured and how it can be improved.

How Response Time is Measured

Response time is a product of server performance. Therefore, the tools that track your server activities are the tools that measure response times. Your ability to access and interpret response-time data will depend upon your server model, i.e., where your site resides.

What Your Web Host Can Tell You. If you use a hosting service, response-time measurements should be part of the data available to you. In fact, aggregate response-time reports for hosting services, whether issued by the service or an independent reviewer, are a great way to evaluate a potential host.

Make sure your host or host candidate compares favorably in side-by-side response-time reviews, and that they can make response-time figures for your own site available to you on demand.

Tools You Can Use to Measure Response Time. Unless you're pretty adept at scripting languages, you'll want to leave this one to the hosts and the third-party services. If you're up for a technical challenge, you can follow the instructions given in "Web Performance Measuring Tools and Services," a respected book on the subject, for creating a response-time monitoring application.

How Third-Party Services Can Help. When it comes to measuring response times, a monitoring services can be a savvy investment. Most such services would present complex server-response data to you in an easy-to-understand (usually graphic) interface. Now many free tools are available online. What's more, you can often measure your site against others in your industry to see how your response times compare. Click here to access some free tools and resources to check your site's response time.

Troubleshooting Response Time Problems

You know the feeling of dialing a telephone number and then listening it ring after ring on the other end. With every ring you become more tempted to hang up, especially if you're calling a business. Likewise, potential customers grow more likely to surf over to the competition with every second they spend waiting for your page to respond to their browser.
So if your response time is routinely more than one to two seconds (industry average is around 0.8 seconds), you need to take steps to reduce the wait.

Pinpoint Server Problems. If your response time is not what it should be, you almost surely have encountered server problems. You will need to tackle the situation with the help of your in-house server expert or your hosting service. If you detected slow response times through a third-party service, your Web team or hosting service may not have the same data.
Make sure they have the response-time reports, then follow up with reports from the same third-party source to make sure your problem has been remedied.

Prepare for Traffic Fluctuations. - Traffic spikes don't always cause a complete site failure; sometimes they just make the server respond more slowly to requests. Though the effect is different, and slightly less severe, you'll want to review the traffic considerations presented in conjunction with downtime for possible sources of response-time slowdowns.

Troubleshooting response time issues is well worth the effort. If customers cannot access your site quickly and easily, they will be much less likely to purchase your product.

Individual web sites are ideal for businesses that offer a single product or service, or for businesses with a small line of related products and/or services. But if a business becomes diversified and needs to continually add more web pages and/or sites to enlarge its Internet presence, it's time to consider the pros and cons of a domain.

Whats a domain:

A domain is like a town or city waiting to be built. You can start with one or two web sites and add new sites as often as you wish. Your domain can be as diversified as your business, with as many pages as you could possibly want or need.

With a domain, you can also get into the very lucrative Internet services business and sell web sites and related Internet products and services from your domain.

Benefits of having own domain:

You can do almost anything you want to with your own domain, and the potential for making money increases as you add new sites and create new streams of income. Everyone who has a business or who is a distributor for a network marketing company is a potential customer for a web site (and possibly other related Internet services) on your domain.

When you consider the number of people you know personally who own businesses or are distributors for MLM companies, you can begin to see the potential for making money with your own domain!

A domain can come in any size, and you can get additional space if and when you need it. With a domain, the sky is literally the limit as far as the potential for making money is concerned — with time, commitment, hard work, and the right information, you could become a cyberspace millionaire!

Pros and Cons of having domain name:

Now that I've told you about all of the goodies associated with having your own domain, I want to share some of the drawbacks with you as well. You need to know about both the pros and the cons of having your own domain before you can make an informed decision as to whether a domain is right for you.

Frankly, a domain isn't for everyone. A web site is like having a single piece of developed real estate which must be promoted to have value. But a domain is like having acres and acres of undeveloped real estate which must be developed and promoted, otherwise it is worthless.

Domain has to be developed:

Having a domain gives you a measure of freedom and flexibility that you can't have with a web site, but you have to work a lot harder to make money with a domain. For instance, when I say that a domain has to be developed, I mean that YOU have to develop it! YOU have to master a web page editor like FrontPage or Dreamweaver that will enable you to create your own web pages.

YOU have to learn how to create hyperlinks connecting pages to other pages, e-mail addresses to pages, order forms to secure servers, autoresponders to pages, etc. You should know how to use the advanced active elements to bring animation to your pages.

You should learn how to use Image Composer to create unique graphics. You should learn the basics of HTML — sooner or later you will need it. I'm speaking from experience here — it's more than a notion!

Your investment of time and money will be much greater with a domain than with a web site. If money is no object, you can always hire someone to develop and manage your domain for you, but you will still have to spend a great deal of time promoting it.

You can have a full-time job and promote a web site, but don't even think about getting a domain if you have a full-time job — a domain IS a full-time job, and then some!

Perhaps you think that I regret having purchased a domain. Nothing could be further from the truth! I am very proud of what we have accomplished with our domain, and I look forward to the challenges ahead with joy! In truth, I have enjoyed every moment that I've spent creating, defining, designing, redesigning, and promoting this wonderful property we call Candid Web Hosting. But I am very ambitious and I am no stranger to hard work — how ambitious are you?

If you are ambitious enough and determined enough to take on the challenges of developing your own domain…and if your business is diversified enough to warrant having a domain (or if you want to sell web sites and related Internet services)…and if you have the money and the time to commit to a domain, a domain could be the best investment you ever make.

But before you take on this huge challenge, evaluate the needs of your business with care, and consider both the pros and cons of having your own domain.

The following list of questions is designed to help you decide when, and if, a domain would be right for you:

1. Does your business offer a single product or service, or a small group of related products and/or services?

If your answer is "yes," you really don't need a domain. A web site is sufficient to promote your offer on the Internet.

2. Is your business very diversified, or is it constantly growing or changing?

If you answer is "yes," your business interests might best be served by a domain. Keep in mind that when you purchase a domain, you will be pretty much on your own. You will either have to learn how to develop and manage your own domain, or you will have to pay someone to do it for you.

3. Are you new to the Internet?

If you're new to the Internet, it would probably be wisest to start with a web site unless you want to sell web sites and related Internet services. You can use an inexpensive web site to learn about Internet marketing first hand, and then later, if the needs of your business warrant it, you can graduate to a more expensive domain.

4. How soon do you want to start doing business on the Internet?

If you are ready to do business on the Internet NOW, your new web site could be up and online in a few days, depending on how long it takes you to approve the web site's design. But developing your domain could take weeks or months, depending on how many pages need to go up, and depending on how quickly you learn to use the software needed to create your own web pages.

5. How much money do you want to make with your Internet presence?

You can make a lot of money with a web site if you have a good offer, your web site is well located, and you are willing to promote it… But you can make a fortune with a domain if you have the right information, a huge amount of ambition, a lot of time, more money, and the wherewithal to develop, promote, and maintain it. Your business should be diversified enough to warrant the space you will pay for, and/or you should be selling web sites and related Internet services.

6. How much time do you have to spend on your Internet presence?

Developing and promoting a domain takes much more time than just promoting a web site. If you have a full-time job, don't even think about getting a domain unless you are a seasoned "netpreneur."

7. How much money do you want to spend on your Internet presence?

A web site is considerably less expensive than a domain. You can purchase a one-page web site for a whole year for less than $200.00 from many web hosting services.

Initial Cost

A domain can cost anywhere from about Rs.5,000 ($100.00) a year (not including the Rs.349/$8.50 fee required by InterNIC to register your domain name) on up, depending on how much space you need.

In addition, you will have to purchase the software needed to create web pages, unique graphics, and so forth. (Some of the software can be downloaded for free, but expect to pay between Rs.5,000/$100.00 and Rs.80,000/$400.00 for software.)

You will also need an e-mail software package such as Outlook. If you want your order forms on a secure server, you might have to pay more for this.

Let me do everything myself:

Even if you are willing to learn the skills needed to develop and manage your own domain, you will probably need to hire a consultant from time to time to help you over the rough spots. (Expect to pay anywhere from $30.00 to $100.00 an hour for a good consultant.)

You may need a faster processor and other computer hardware, such as a scanner (Rs.4,500/$100.00 and up). If you want professional design assistance with some or all of your web pages, you could pay as much as Rs.1,000/$25.00 per page or more for this service.

In a nutshell:

In other words, if you decide to purchase a domain, your initial outlay will probably be around Rs.20,000/$500.00, regardless of the size of your domain. (WARNING: Stay away from the so-called "model home" sites with the fancy bells and whistles — you could end up paying thousands of Rupees/dollars for things you can get on the Internet for free!)

Now that you know about some of the pros and cons associated with having a domain, you are in a better position to make an informed decision as to whether or not a domain right for you at this time. You can check out the availability of domain names and register new domains at here.