The Online Shop Designer Blog

Over the last few months 2 of my clients have had the security of their hosting accounts breached by spammers inserting scripts to activate illegal mass mailing campaigns. The result was that the server administrators had to immediately put the hosting accounts into suspension until the offending scripts were removed. In other words the websites were temporarily, but completely, out of action.

On this occasion it was fortunate for those involved that their web facilities were not actually destroyed, which meant that I was as able to remove the scripts and re-enable their websites. The outcomes could have been very different however, as I don’t think either client had a current backup.

To manage this situation I suggest that clients do one (or both) of the following:

1. Ask TOSD to change your hosting account’s password to something more complex and secure. It’s FREE – just submit a Support ticket.
2. Take out a Support Agreement with TOSD for just $5.00/month (payable annually). As well as ongoing help and advice with your website applications, a Support Agreement includes automatic, scheduled, monthly offsite backups so that in the event of a catastrophic failure of your web facilities a recent backup will be at hand. And restoration can take as little as 15minutes. Compare that to having to re-create you website and all its content from scratch

It is a fair question, but unfortunately one that is often surrounded by misplaced assumptions.

Is it the web host? Surely they do backups and can restore a site if there is any problem.

Is it the the web designer? Surely they can simply re-instate it from a copy of the original.

Is it the owner? Surely they would realise the value of their online investment.

Unfortunately, so often the bare truth is that it is none of the above. Quite simply, no one is taking the necessary steps to ensure that a website is protected from either accidental or intentional harm. Let’s look at these situations one at a time:

• Web Hosts are responsible for providing the servers (computers) that host a web site. In most common situations a server is configured to host multiple accounts, or websites, that each belong to different owners. To use an analogy, a server can be thought of as a building full of rooms that are rented out to different tenants. The web host’s responsibility is to maintain the server as a viable platform for all the users who share it. To guard against system failure (for example a hard disk crash or faulty power supply) web hosts back up the entire server and all its contents. In the event of such a failure, the server can then be repaired and all user accounts restored to full operation. The important thing to realise is that the web host’s backups are of the whole system, not individual user accounts. If they do a restore, then they must restore all user accounts. They will not do that for a problem that has occurred to just one account, because it would affect all users on the same server.
• A web designer will usually have a copy of the application files that are associated with a web site, however that only addresses a small part of the problem. The most valuable (and difficult to replace) part of a web site is the data that has been added since it was initially created. And in most cases that is stored in a database – not the file structure. The normal situation is that web designers have nothing to do with a web site’s data (content) after the site is handed over to the owner. So they do not have a copy of any content that has been added since that time.
• Which brings us to the owner. Clearly they have the responsibility for their web site’s content, and they would certainly like to think that it was secure, but unfortunately, from an owner’s perspective,  the steps to be taken to set up a reliable backup regime are often either too confusing, or just forgotten.

In the end small business owners must accept that it is their responsibility to secure their online data. In many cases the most efficient and effective way to do this is to establish a professional support agreement that looks after the entire process on a scheduled basis.

The Online Shop Designer (TOSD) can provide just such an arrangement. In fact it is all part of the service

If you have any further queries regarding Support Agreements or online backups please leave a comment or contact us.

There are several versions of Outlook currently in use but the general setup procedure is outlined below. Note that these instructions are for setting up email accounts to access TOSD servers. They also show how to set up your Outlook to both send and receive email via your domain’s hosting account. An alternative is to receive email from your domain’s hosting account,  but to send it via your ISP. In that case you will need to provide you ISP’s details in Step5.
Step 1. Select [Tools] / [Email Accounts ...] from the main menu.

Step 2. Select ‘Add a new email account’ … then click [next].

Step 3. Select ‘POP3′ … then click [next]

Step 4. The following screenshot shows the fields filled out for Jane Smith. Jane would have been provided with the following information from TOSD to set up the incoming (POP3) account:

Email account: info@mydomain.com.au

POP3 server: mail.mydomain.com.au

Username: info+mydomain.com.au (note the use of the ‘+’ . . . not ‘@’)

Password: 123456

Outlook email account setup

Step 5. In addition TOSD would have supplied the following details to set up the outgoing (SMTP) account:

SMTP Server: mail.mydomain.com.au

Username and Password: as per the POP3 settings

Authentication: Yes

Port: 26 (not the default 25)

Follow these additional steps to set up the outgoing mail:

• Click [More settings ...]
• On the [Outgoing Server] tab check ‘My outgoing mail server (SMTP) requires authentication’ and ‘Use same settings as my incoming mail server’
• On the [Advanced] tab set the outgoing server (SMTP) port to 26.
• Fill out the information in the [General] tab. The first field is just a friendly name by which your account will be known when you use Outlook. It could be ‘Home’ or Work’ etc. The Reply address is the address emails will be sent to when recipients of your emails click ‘reply’
• Click [OK] to save

Note: If you would like to send mail through your ISP then you will need to use the Server, Username and Password they provide.

When you are back on the main Email Accounts screen (shown in Step 4) click the [Test Accounts Settings ...] button. All tests should receive a tick.

Step 6: Click the [Next] button then [Finish] to save your settings.

Note: If you have multiple accounts set up in Outlook (e.g. a work account and a personal account) you can select which one to send from when you create an email. The selection is a drop down box next to the send button. Select the desired account before clicking send!

See also:

• Setting up an email account (and click on the Outlook link to watch a video)

To help kick start your small/micro business in 2009 The Online Shop Designer (TOSD) has just released SmartStart, a very comprehensive solution priced at just $599.00 AUD (inc GST).

Given that the package includes a website with a choice of professionally designed layouts and colours, delightfully simple Content Management System (CMS) facilities, a solid range of interactive features, unlimited page creation, 12 months hosting and a FREE domain name . . . SmartStart delivers amazing value.

Is SmartStart the ultimate small business web site design solution?

Visit the SmartStart demonstration site now and see for yourself!

Site Panel CP is a commercially available application that runs on your PC and allows you to do either a manual backup of your entire hosting account, or, in conjunction with Windows Scheduler, a fully automated scheduled backup. It is the perfect way to protect your online investment.

In the event of an online failure (either of the application files or associated databases) it is a simple thing to restore you entire site via your hosting account’s cPanel restore facility. Note that Site Backup CP can only be used in conjunction with hosting accounts that use cPanel for their administration. This is the case with all hosting accounts set up by TOSD.

Setting up a manual Backup set with Site Backup CP.

Step 1:
Visit  http://www.tech-pro.net/site-backup-cp.html to download and install a trial copy of Site Backup CP. When you are satisfied with it you can register it. After installation make a note as to where the program was installed for later use. It will be something like: “C:\Program Files\SiteBackupCP\backupcp.exe”  Finders_Complete

Step 2:

Run the application and from the first window click ‘Add’ site and fill out the site URL and cPanel login details – contact TOSD if you are not sure of these. Click OK to save.

Step 3:

Now ‘Add’ a Backup set. This is where you tell Site Backup CP what you want to backup, and where to back it up to. If you are not sure of your database names contact TOSD. Note that the Home directory refers to all application files – the databases will usually hold all website content. For a complete backup you will need to check the Home directory and enter all associated databases. Aliases and Filters are associated with your hosting account’s email setup. Check these also.

After you click OK to save you will be able to do a manual backup by selecting a Backup Set clicking the  ‘Backup’ button.

Setting up an automated scheduled backup with Site Backup CP

To set up a scheduled backup select a Backup set, click ‘Schedule’ and fill in your details (below).

Step 1:

Note 1: In order to set up a schedule you will need to have a Windows User account and Password. (if Windows prompts you to enter a password on boot up, you have one)

Note 2:  depending on your Windows setup this may or may not work! If it doesn’t it will generate the following message::

This is not a problem – simply open the Windows Scheduler (Control Panel / Scheduled Tasks) and proceed as per Step 2 below.

Step 2:

Go to Windows Scheduler (Control Panel / Scheduled Tasks) and click ‘Add Scheduled Task’. Select the application to run from the drop down list (in this case CP Site Saver) and then decide how often you want the backup to run. Click ‘Next’.

Step 3:

Select the time of day and the other details. These will vary depending to the frequency you chose in the last step (daily, weekly, monthly etc)

Step 4:

When the Wizard has completed you may need to open up the Backup schedule set (just double click on the icon in Windows Scheduler), go to the Task tab and check the Run and Start in entries. In the above example the Run entry was: “C:\Program Files\SiteBackupCP\backupcp.exe”  Finders_Complete