Technical | The Affordable Web Guy

Website Security Isn’t Optional

Take A Proactive, Defensive Position When It Comes To Keeping Your Systems Safe Small Business Insights: Security Protecting your small business website design can't be an optional, add-on feature and that's why we trust Sucuri with our own website. The Sucuri Firewall (WAF) protects your small business website from software vulnerability exploitation attempts, brute force attacks and distributed denial of service (DDoS) disruptions. Enjoy the peace of mind knowing that Sucuri will provide you protection against website attacks 24/7/365. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Mitigation DoS /DDoS attacks have increased in popularity. They are easy to employ and highly effective. Often, the attacker [...]

BetaTWGMay 16th, 2019|Technical, Web Design Services|Comments Off

Winning The Domain Lottery

When A Domain Was Caught Up In A Bidding War AKA: The Good Old Internet Gold Rush Days Back in the mid-1990’s (or more fondly, “ancient times” as we know the internet ages at the same pace of a dog), I had a fine civil servant’s job in Sonoma County, CA. And like everyone else I’d found myself quite amused by the new internet and my Mac Performa (rockin’ the 4 megs of RAM, baby!). To get perspective on just how long ago this was, my co-worker Sue did a little moonlighting as a realtor agreed with me that [...]

BetaTWGMay 6th, 2019|Internet Marketing, Technical|Comments Off

Why We Don’t Offer Email Accounts

Looking For A Company Email System? Run, Don't Walk From Accounts Tied To Your Hosting Small Business Insights: Email Any self-respecting website designer that includes hosting as a service likewise offers email accounts as well, right? That's just how things are done. I mean not only email accounts, but unlimited email accounts with unlimited storage. And a free dessert. And a ride home after the show. At The Affordable Web Guy, we've decided to not offer email accounts and here's why. The big boys do it better and we can't match the services, scope, and scale of major players [...]

BetaTWGMay 1st, 2019|Technical, Web Design Services|Comments Off

A CloudFlare Out

Is CloudFlare A Myth? Small Business Insights: Technical I’ve bounced back and forth on Cloud Flare’s free CDN (content delivery network) service for the better part of a year. Every now and then, I’d configure a website with Cloud Flare and the best of intentions. It is after all supposed to protect websites from downtime and add a layer of additional protection from malware. And of course, as its primary function, it promised faster page loads by way of the CDN and cached images/files. The reason I’ve bounced to and from CloudFlare was that sites using the service seemed [...]

BetaTWGDecember 19th, 2015|Technical|Comments Off

Joomla: My Recent Descent Into Hell

Making Sure Software Is Up To Date: "Set It And Forget It" Is Foolish Small Business Insights: Technical I recently secured a small project helping a fellow small business owner to update his existing website. That's right, as a WordPress fanboy I stepped up to the challenge of Joomla. Now everyone knows that the expression "It's not that hard" often turns out to be famous last words. Just as it's not that hard to replace a carburetor on your car IF you know how to do it. The same applies to plumbing, electrical work and so on, and so on. It's [...]

BetaTWGJune 5th, 2015|Internet Marketing, Technical|Comments Off

Apple Victimized By Its Own Success

What Happens When The Bar Is Raised...High Small Business Insights: Technical Originally posted in 2010 Like millions of others, I spent a portion of my day struggling to find a worthwhile feed/stream from the iPad debut. At one point I found myself on a website listening to audio being piped in via cell phone with the corresponding video relying on a video feed from ANOTHER website. And even then, the website with imagery was relegated to frequently updated still images from the event. It was pathetic. I was pathetic for watching it for as long as I did. But [...]

BetaTWGJanuary 27th, 2010|Pop Culture, Technical|1 Comment

AT&T UVERSE: A 2 Minute Review

Speed Matters: In Search Of High-Speed Internet Outside Of A Major Metro Small Business Insights: Techincal Originally posted in 2009 For literally years I looked forward to the UVERSE network upgrade that inched slowly-ever so slowly-toward my Little Rock suburb. I checked 'availability' about once a month (using an online tool) and even called in from time to time trying to glean even the most modest pearls of information. Have you ever seen an AT&T truck with the semi-rhetorical marketing slogan "Ask Me About UVERSE"? Well not once, but twice I did when coming across a technician in my [...]

BetaTWGAugust 22nd, 2009|Ramblings, Technical|13 Comments

When Databases Attack! Netflix Personalization Vs. Simple Common Sense

It's clear that my NetFlix account is taking WAY too many liberties with what I see or don't see featured under their "New Releases" heading. In other words, I'm missing new releases unless I take the time to seek them out. After a few visits that left me scratching my head about obvious omissions and then finally taking two minutes to actually compare my percpetions and reality side by side, my greatest couch potato fears were realized. It was in fact true--of the top 10 rentals (for that week, via IMDB), only one appeared on my NetFlix New Releases home [...]

BetaTWGMay 20th, 2009|Technical|0 Comments

Javascript Disabled: Is That Really A Common Problem?

Creating websites that perform and present content correctly and uniformly across various browsers and operating systems is one the primary responsibilities of any self-respecting web designer. And to any web-dude or dudette that doesn't make that end-game a primary focus of their process I say, shame on you. There, consider yourself rebuked. I can only assume that now you now feel the bitter cloud of humiliation hovering over your “IE only” code. You see, it is my obsession to seek out (and hopefully become literate with) the latest and greatest tricks, tools and clever code collections of script snippets [...]

BetaTWGApril 5th, 2009|Technical|4 Comments

2000domain(.net)-When Registrars Go Bad

If you've ever registered a domain, there is a high probability that you're dealing with folks in a far off, perhaps even exotic location. Australia, India or perhaps even as far off as Philadelphia. Allow me this short history: I don't know if this makes me "old school' (I'm not "OG"...you know, "Original Geek"), but while I didn't begin my internet experiences on a hacked Commodore 64, I do recall the painstaking days of domain registration and management that involved returning delicately prepared text-based emails. It was a nerve-wracking process where a misaligned "X" could result in an error of [...]

BetaTWGFebruary 25th, 2009|Technical|5 Comments