Keeping your WordPress website safe

Posted on January 3, 2017March 23, 2018 by Gail Eddy in backup, Tips, Wordpress

Hacking Your WordPress Website

Do you have a WordPress website? I’ve recently noticed an uptick in the number of attempts to access our website from random IP addresses from around the globe. I’m pretty confident that our site is secure, but I’ve been wondering how secure YOUR website is. Many times when we set up a new site on WordPress, we use the login “admin” because it seems easy. The problem is that someone who might be trying to hack into your account will try that first. If you have a less-than-secure password, BOOM, they are in!

Common User ID’s

Here is a list of User ID’s which you should change:

Admin
Root
Test
Guest
Info
Adm
User

Secure Passwords

I’ve talked about using secure passwords before. Most recently I provided some tips to create a really strong password. But, WordPress goes one better, giving you an option to let them create a really strong password for you. Use their tool! Then write it down, or save it in a secure file.

Backup Your site

You spent a lot of time creating your website. What would happen if your site was hacked? Remember to back it up so that if the worst happens, you spend minimal downtime. This article reviews the seven best WordPress backup plugins

Let’s keep safe out there!!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fifteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more on our website. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area as well as remote service throughout North America.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years. We like the free 2-3 day shipping and the online streaming. I haven’t tried the Kindle lending library yet. I’ll try that next! Prime is normally $99/year, but you can try it for 30 day for free by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial (Yes, we’ll get a small commission when you sign up.)

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How To: Internet Searching Tips

Posted on December 27, 2016November 30, 2019 by Gail Eddy in Google, Tips

Internet Searching Tips:

More than once I have been extremely frustrated trying to find something on the internet. Internet searching either gives WAY too much information or info that isn’t relevant. Most of the tips I will share with you I’ve picked up bit by bit. I’m hoping they will help you.

Exact Match:

When you use quotation marks, you only search for what is inside the quotes. For example:

Coffeehouses “live music”

will bring up all the coffeehouses that have live music.

Exclusion:

When you use the minus sign, you’ll exclude that information from your search. For example:

“Scottish Novels: -“Outlander”

will bring up information about many novels that occur in Scotland except the Outlander series.

Wild Card:

When you use the asterisk with another word or phrase, you’ll get lots of different options. For example:

Hollywood *

will provide results like “Hollywood Bowl”, “Hollywood Blacklist”, and “Hollywood movies”.

Specific Web Site:

Do you want to search within a specific web site? Use “site:website”. For example:

“Jerry Lewis” site:nyt.com

will bring up articles relating to Jerry Lewis on the New York Times site.

Have you used Google’s Search Tabs? Underneath Google’s search bar, there are a number of options. For example:

WEB NEWS IMAGES VIDEOS BOOKS MORE SEARCH TOOLS

News:

If you are looking specifically for a news story that occurred in the last 24 hours, follow these steps:

Firstly, Enter your search terms in the search bar.
Secondly, Click on the News tab.
Third, Click on the Search Tools Tab
Last, Click on “Anytime” and select “24 hours” from the drop-down menu

Images:

If you’re looking for an image, enter a description in the search bar and then click on the Images Tab. If you want to fine-tune your search, then you can add other criteria. Click on “Search Tools” and then, select the color, type of image, usage rights, etc.

Location:

If you want to find something in a particular location, click on “Search Tools”, then click on “Location”, then type in where you would like to search. For example:

“Hot Springs” California

will bring up a list of all the hot springs in California.

You can also print out this cheat sheet from Google:

Have you used any of these Internet Searching tips? Are there other tips you use? Please share them in the comments below!

Conclusion:

Using these Internet Searching Tips will save you time!

Information about Geek For Hire, Inc.

I’ve created a Free Report on what to look for to protect yourself from “phishing” scams. Click here to receive it!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PCs for the past eighteen years. Angie’s List and the BBB rate Geek For Hire very highly. You can find more on our website, or give us a call 303-618-0154. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3 support) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area as well as remote service throughout North America.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years. We like the free and fast shipping. With Prime, we have access to online streaming too. Prime is usually $119/year, but you can get a free 30-day trial by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

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Year End Technology Tips

Posted on December 20, 2016March 23, 2018 by Gail Eddy in backup, Technology Tips, Tips

It’s the end of the year. Here are some Technology Tips of things that you should be doing!

Check Your WiFi Speed

Are you getting what you’re paying for? First, using your smartphone or on your computer, head over to SpeedTest. Then click on “Begin Test”. Have you signed up for the 10 Mbps plan but you’re only getting 6? Plug your computer directly to your router, then check it again. Sometimes there is a degradation of speed through the walls of your home. If it’s still below your threshold, check it again over the next few days, keeping a log. If your WiFi speed is consistently under your contracted speed (while plugged into the router), call your ISP. Tell them about your findings, then ask them to fix the issue AND request a refund for the time when they weren’t providing you with the contracted bandwidth.

Back Up Your Data

Yes, you probably should be doing this monthly. So, make the geeks happy and at least do it at the end of the year. As a result, if your hard drive happens to crash, you’ll at least have the one backup.

Change Your Password

First of all, take the time to change your password on all of your banking sites. Then, change the password on your social media sites. Finally, change the password on all of the other sites that you regularly log in to. I recently wrote a blog on creating a good secure password. You can find that here. (But, yes, you probably should be changing your passwords more frequently than once a year!)

Organize Your Files

Organize your photos by year and month. First of all, under your “My Photos” or “Camera Uploads” file, create a new folder for 2016. Then under that folder, create twelve more folders, one for each month. Next, select all the photos you took last January, drag and drop them into the January folder. Then, do that for each month. If you’re on a roll, or have time to kill, do the same for photos you took in 2015, 2014, and so on. It makes it much easier to look for the photos of your vacation in the June 2015 folder, than to search through one massive folder for those photos. For more info on organizing your files, check this blog I wrote last year.

Were these Technology Tips helpful? What else do you do at the end of the year?

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more at http://www.GeekForHireInc.com Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years. We like the free 2-3 day shipping and the online streaming. I will try the Kindle lending library next. Prime is normally $99/year, but you can try it for 30 day for free by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial (Yes, we’ll get a small commission when you sign up.)

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Movie Reviews From Computer Geeks

Posted on December 13, 2016December 15, 2016 by Gail Eddy in Entertainment, Tips

Movie Review Sites

It’s the holiday season and, in our family, we tend to head to the movies more than any other time of year. Usually it’s the Geek blockbusters that we want to see – the newest Star Wars or Harry Potter or Star Trek. If none of those appeal to us, we head online to see which new movies are highly rated. Here are some of the websites we use for movie reviews:

IMDb

The Internet Movie Database is my favorite website for movies and TV shows. It tells you what is playing in the theaters, and how other people have rated those movies. (If you create an account, you can rate movies too.) Most movies and TV shows have a complete listing of all the actors and directors. IMDb has been very helpful when I’ve forgotten the name of a particular movie but can remember two or three of the actors. What was that old movie with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan? Head over to IMDb to find out!

Rotten Tomatoes

I have been hearing about this site for years. For many of my friends, Rotten Tomatoes is their go-to site for movie reviews. Rotten Tomatoes shows ratings for new movies, movies on TV tonight, and soon-to-be released films. Their secret? The Tomatometer® is “based on the published opinions of hundreds of film and television critics – is a trusted measurement of movie and TV programming quality for millions of moviegoers. It represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show.”

Fandango

When we know we want to see a movie, now, we head to Fandango to see what’s playing, now (or in the next 20 minutes!), at our favorite theater. It gives times and descriptions.

NY Times

If it’s a Sunday that I have happened to pick up the Times, I’ll take a look at their movie reviews. What I like about them is that they’re not just reviewing the big theater movies. They’re reviewing movies at the little community theaters, the art theaters, etc. So, you hear about movies that the big sites aren’t reviewing.

Happy Holidays!

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years. We like the free 2-3 day shipping and the online streaming. I haven’t tried the Kindle lending library yet. Maybe I’ll try that next! Prime is normally $99/year, but you can try it for 30 day for free by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial (Yes, we’ll get a small commission when you sign up.)

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5 Navigation Apps To Get You Where You’re Going

Posted on December 6, 2016December 5, 2016 by Gail Eddy in Tips, Travel

I got our first GPS way back in 2005. (Way before smartphones and Navigation Apps!) It was the perfect gift for Chris so that he could easily find his way to our customers homes and businesses. In the past ten years, GPS and mobile navigation in general has changed tremendously. Now, Smartphone apps include traffic problems, construction detours, and multiple alternate routes. It’s nice to be out there with your iPhone, Android, or other smartphone, so you’re able to get where you’re going with minimal issues.

Navigation Apps

My favorite app is the one that came with my iPhone. It’s simply called “Maps”, so I use it on all of my road trips. There have been a few times when it has steered me wrong, but mostly it is right on. One issue I have with it though, is that it is a battery drainer. So for long road trips, I keep my phone plugged in and charging when I have the Map app running. Another issue is that it doesn’t allow me to take a prettier back road without telling me to “make a U-Turn”!

Other Navigation apps that people like include:

Google Maps

This is what I use at my desk computer to help plan road trips. Firstly, it synchronizes nicely with Google Calendar. Secondly, I like that it shows me local businesses who have a Google listing. However, the smartphone app doesn’t show accidents or construction, so I don’t use it on the road. Available for iPhone, Android

Waze

This is a highly rated app and not only gives you info on Traffic, but also upcoming Hazards, as well as Gas Prices, etc. When I downloaded it I noticed some problems right away. First of all, it won’t give you directions to a location more than 999 miles away. Also, you have to drive at least 100 miles with Waze on before it will tell you where the cheap gas is. So, while others rate Waze highly, it gets a pass from me! Available for iPhone Android Windows

Komoot

I wish I’d known about this app before my kids started and finished the Appalachian Trail. Techlicious writes “This navigation app from a German startup covers an exhaustive range of North American bike paths and mountain trails, with topographic maps for hiking and biking routes near you. Its database is built from open-source info as well as user-submitted data to suggest trails for different fitness levels.” Available for Android & iOS

CoPilot

I haven’t used Co-Pilot, but I like that you can download your map ahead of time. Consequently, you’ll save on data. Techlicious writes “A full-fat nav app like CoPilot is a good idea if you’re overseas, for instance, and don’t want to use roaming data or depend on Wi-Fi stops to update Google Maps.” Available from copilotgps.com

Which of these apps do you use? Are there others that that I didn’t include? Let me know your favorites in the comments below!

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8 Tips For Determining Fake News Sites

Posted on November 22, 2016November 18, 2016 by Gail Eddy in Click Bait, Facebook, Malware, Social Media, Tips, Virus

Over the last week or so, I’ve been hearing more about “Fake News” websites. I’ve been aware, for a while, of websites that seem more biased, but I hadn’t been aware of websites with actual fake news. An off-shoot of this issue is that these websites sometimes include malware. Several of our customers got a virus in the week leading up to the election from clicking on those types of “news” stories.

Have you read any of these news stories? Many of them surround the impact fake news has had on Facebook and other Social Media. For example this article from the NY Times, or this one from the Washington Post, or this one from CNN .

What to watch out for:

Does the site have a lot of “click bait”? That’s a web site with pop ups that you have to click through before you can read the actual content. This is different from the sites which make you watch an advertisement before you get to the actual story. Click bait will take you to another site entirely.
Can you verify the news item with a reputable source? If it’s real news, there should be something on one of the national news websites like CNN, NYT, MSNBC, USA Today, or even the Financial Times. If it’s a local news stories, an NBC, CBS, ABC, or Fox local affiliate should have information.
Does the URL for the website seem odd in some way? For example a url that ends with ” .co “, or ” .su “, or ” .ru “.
Does the headline match the story?
When a news story seems too fantastic to believe, I head over to Snopes to see what they have to say. From their website, Snopes: “began in 1995 as an expression of … interest in researching urban legends has since grown into what is widely regarded by folklorists, journalists, and laypersons alike as one of the World Wide Web’s essential resources.”
Is it on a list of “fake news” websites? There are several of these lists floating around. Here is the one published by USA Today.
Is it satire? Several websites are satire, which is not fake news. Satirical sites which come to mind include the Onion, and the Borowitz Report.
Check the date. Is it a recent news event, or something from months or even years ago that is being re-purposed as new news?

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more on our website. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years. We like the free 2-3 day shipping and the online streaming. I haven’t tried the Kindle lending library yet, but I’m tempted! Prime is normally $99/year, but you can try it for 30 day for free by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial (Yes, we’ll get a small commission when you sign up.)

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5 Tips for Smart Shopping

Posted on November 15, 2016November 14, 2016 by Gail Eddy in Tips

More people will be shopping in the next few weeks with the holiday season coming up. While I always recommend shopping at your local small businesses, not everything is always available there. There are certain ways to shop online which help save your wallet.

One thing I’ve recently become aware of is selecting some things you want, place them in your “basket”, and leave. This only works if you’ve logged in and the retailer knows your email address. Over the next few days you may receive emails with coupons for a percent off, or special offers related to the items you’ve already selected. My most recent experience netting me a coupon for 20% off!
Check to see the best price for items you’re considering. One alert site for Amazon is Camelcamel. Other sites for more retailers include SlickDeals, Gottadeal, and Dealnews. For electronics try Pricewatch.
Add a shopping app on your smartphone to help you find the best prices when you’re away from your computer. Tom’s Guide has recommended several apps.
Find coupons that give you dollars or a percentage off of your purchase. Some good sites for online coupons include CouponCabin, Coupons, and Retailmenot. And, there is also Groupon. One thing I don’t like about Groupon is that you purchase the product or service ahead of time and may forget about the expiration date. Several of my friends have made a Groupon purchase and never got to use it!
Just use Google if you know exactly what you want. Enter the brand and model number and Google will tell you which companies are selling that item.

Do you have online shopping tips that you use? Let us know!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more on our website. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.

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I’m Addicted To My Phone!

Posted on November 8, 2016November 7, 2016 by Gail Eddy in Entertainment Apps, SmartPhones, Social Media, Tips

Does anyone else wonder if they spend too much time on their phone? Too much time using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media sites? I know for me there have been times when I have picked up my phone to (gasp!) make a phone call. After I enter my passcode, it opens to the last screen I had active. If it is Facebook, I’ll check my notifications, completely forgetting about that call. Does that ever happen to you?

It turns out it is designed that way. From this month’s Atlantic Magazine article “Tristan Harris believes Silicon Valley is Addicting Us To Our Phones”:

“Messages, photos, and “likes” appear on no set schedule, so we check for them compulsively, never sure when we’ll receive that dopamine-activating prize. (Delivering rewards at random has been proved to quickly and strongly reinforce behavior.)”

Even I remember that from my Freshman Year Psych class!

And who even knew there is an “Information Overload Day”, let alone an Information Overload Research Group? They state that:

“Information Overload causes people to lose their ability to manage thoughts and ideas, contemplate, and even reason and think. It has resulted in work days that never seem to end, completely destroying work/life balance.”

Tips:

What can you do to help yourself be more present and not focus so much on your phone and social media?

Set up a schedule for using your phone to check email and social media. Set a timer to limit your time to ten or twenty minutes. Keep your phone turned off otherwise, except when you are expecting a call.
Change your notifications so that you don’t receive an alert whenever you receive a new email, or Facebook message, or when someone has liked your Tweet. (With my iPhone I receive an alert whenever I get a new email to my business account. I’ve set it up so that I do not receive alerts for new personal emails.)
Remove some (or all) Social Media apps from your phone and only access them from your computer.
Ask everyone to put their phones in the center of the table during meals.
Charge your phone at night in a different room, not right next to your bed.

I hope these tips are helpful!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more on our website. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.

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3 Tips to Creating a Secure & Strong Password

Posted on November 1, 2016December 16, 2016 by Gail Eddy in Entertainment Apps, Hackers, Tips

Last week, I wrote about the DDoS attack which occurred on October 21st. That attack shut down many websites and apps, especially for users on the East Coast. I recommended that you use a very secure and strong password. Please don’t use one of these most common passwords!

Use a Strong Password! Not these Common Passwords Source: http://i.imgur.com/FImcPiG.png — The Most Common Passwords
Source: http://i.imgur.com/FImcPiG.png

How to create a Strong Password:

It occurred to me that you may need some guidance to create a really secure and strong password. Here are some tips:

First, the more characters in your password, the more secure it will be. According to mSecure, a four-character password can be cracked in under a minute, while an eight-character password can be cracked in five months. A nine-character password can take up to 10 years to crack. Notice I said “up to”. Just using lots of characters doesn’t work if the password is easy to guess. That’s why you also need:
Next, think Complexity. Using a eight-character password like “password”, “Password”, or even “PasswØrd”, is too easy to guess. Even a nine-character password like “password1” is relatively easy to crack. The same goes for “Admin”, “administrator”, and “12345678”. These are common passwords that a lot of people use. In order to make a password more complex, add symbols, capital letters, and numbers. Using symbols or numbers in exchange for letters makes the password easier to remember. For example swap out your “o” for an “Ø”, your “a” for “@”, or your “e” for a “3”. You can even use a password generator like passwordsgenerator.net to generate a truly unique password. I like this one because I can set the number of characters and whether or not I can use special characters like @#%& for a particular website. Above all, when you go to enter your log in credentials:
Finally, you must remember that very strong password! Some ideas include a favorite book, your best friend’s name from second grade, or your grandparent’s street address. Just remember to add some additional complexity to make it even more secure. For example, “Newport” can become “517Newport”, “NewpØrt”, or “Newport100”. If you must write down your passwords, keep it in a secure place. I use a password protected spreadsheet.

Please make it a point to use a secure and strong password on all of your internet connected devices. Change it today!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more on our website. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.

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DDoS? And Why YOU May be to Blame

Posted on October 24, 2016October 24, 2016 by Gail Eddy in Hackers, Internet Service, Malware, Printer, Tips

Last week, many websites and apps were severely compromised, especially on the East Coast. Apps like Twitter, Reddit, Spotify, AirBnB, and Netflix slowed to a crawl or were shut down altogether. A DDoS attack was launched against Dyn, a New Hampshire company that provides DNS routing.

Level3 Outage map on 24Oct16 Screen Shot by Geek For Hire, Inc. — Level3 Outage map on 24Oct16
Screen Shot by Geek For Hire, Inc.

What did you just say?

DDoS = A “Distributed Denial of Service” occurs when hundreds of thousands of messages are sent to specific internet addresses with the intent to overload that service and shut it down. (In this case, the intent was to take down Dyn in order to affect many websites and not just one.)
DNS = The Internet’s Domain Name System translates the URL’s we enter, like www.google.com, into “the numerical IP addresses needed for the purpose of locating and identifying computer services and devices.” (From wikipedia)

In the past, most DDoS attacks were focused on a particular website. Last Friday, the attack was focused on a company which the NY Times calls “one of the Internet’s giant switchboards”, which had a devastating impact.

So, how is this MY fault?

Do you have a surveillance camera on your front door? A wireless printer? A “smart” refrigerator”? All of these are connected to the internet with their own numerical IP address. The “bad guys” can run through a list of IP address to see which addresses can easily be compromised. Once they’ve identified these devices, they can use them to add to their arsenal to send the messages that create the attack.

I still don’t get it. How is this MY fault?

Do you use a password on all of your internet connected devices? Is it secure? A password of “admin”, “123456”, or “password” is NOT secure! Have you ever been out looking for free WiFi, and something like “HP-M475-5E3F78” was presented as an available WiFi that you could connect to? That is what happens when someone does not put a password on their printer. There are literally millions of WiFi connected devices in the US. How many of those are vulnerable to participating in these types of attacks?

Please make it a point to use a secure password on all of your internet connected devices. Change it today!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more on our website. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.

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Category: Tips

Keeping your WordPress website safe

Hacking Your WordPress Website

Common User ID’s

Secure Passwords

Backup Your site

How To: Internet Searching Tips

Internet Searching Tips:

Exact Match:

Exclusion:

Wild Card:

Specific Web Site:

More:

News:

Images:

Location:

Conclusion:

Information about Geek For Hire, Inc.

Movie Reviews From Computer Geeks

Movie Review Sites

IMDb

Rotten Tomatoes

Fandango

NY Times

5 Navigation Apps To Get You Where You’re Going

Navigation Apps

Google Maps

Waze

Komoot

CoPilot

5 Tips for Smart Shopping

3 Tips to Creating a Secure & Strong Password

How to create a Strong Password:

DDoS? And Why YOU May be to Blame

What did you just say?

So, how is this MY fault?

I still don’t get it. How is this MY fault?