911 – “My website is down!”

No one is happy when the day begins with a customer calling to say they get an error message when visiting your website.  A visitor may see a message indicating that the website is not found, the domain is available for purchase, a database cannot be accessed or that the website is offline. Here are the most common reasons websites don’t display and how to avoid it.

• The hosting or domain fees have not been paid
  If you catch either of these issues quickly, you may be able to remedy them by simply paying the bill.  Many web hosts and domain registrars set you account to renew automatically.  If that is the case, your credit card information may not up to date.
• The host server is down
  The easy solution is to contact your hosting company or by checking with your IT group for internally hosted sites.  A professionally hosted site should have redundant servers and be able to get your site live quickly.  If you continue to experience downtime and if the downtime is over an hour, look for another hosting solution.  Sometimes shared hosting environment are prone to downtime so consider upgrading your hosting plan to a VPS or dedicated account.  Sometimes a new hosting company is appropriate.  Look at our hosting recommendations  if you need to consider that option.

• Your visitor is inside a restricted network
  It is not unusual for visitors who are inside a firewall to loose access to your site because the security settings or workstation settings have changes.  Sometimes public wifi networks have similar issues.  So ask your visitor if that may be the case.I attempted to access the internet in talking to a potential client from their office and could not access many public websites because of this.  (Needless to say, I didn’t gain that client.  It is hard to tell a client that their IT is poorly configured.)

• Something in the basic website code failed
  This may be because of an incorrect edit to these files.  Occasionally files become corrupted because of many unknown reasons.  These reasons include corruption on the host servers and read/write errors from accessing files.  These types of issues are unpredictable.  If your host does not provide a good backup, plan look for another host.  Regardless of your host, you should have a backup process that stores backups apart from the host server.  Akeeba provides a good backup option within Joomla.  Check with your developer to see what options are available for your site.
• Someone “hacked” or maliciously interrupted your website
  Just as viruses can find their way onto your local computer, websites can be compromised too.  Public and internally websites should be protected in a variety of ways.  If you have a Joomla site, check our recommendation.  Many of the principles also apply to websites overall.

How you recover from a hack or virus depends in part on your host’s security measures.  Some hosts quarantine websites they detect as compromised.  Your first steps are to check the date of your locally stored backup and then seek assistance if you are unsure what to do.

Black Friday 2011: Hosting Deals Too Great to Resist!

If you don’t sleep late from over-consumption of turkey, you have to check out these incredible Black Friday deals on website hosting! These companies have gone all-out to make you their next new client. So log onto your computer and steal yourself some great deals!

FatCow Holiday Hosting Special!

• Begins: after Thanksgiving
  
• Ends: 11/27/11
  
• Deals: The promotion is for 65% OFF their Basic Hosting plan. No promo code required.

FatCow is 100% wind generated electricity, so a 100% green choice for hosting! They are considered one of the best hosting options for Joomla. Sign up for FatCow hosting >

Hostgator Black Friday 2011 Deals!

• Begins: 12 am CST on Friday, November 25, 2011
• Ends: 11:59 pm CST on Friday, November, 2011
• Deal: 50% off EVERYTHING the entire day!

This includes ALL accounts. You could get hosting for $.99 per month! We’re very happy with Hostgator for our Joomla accounts, and we’re certain you will be too! Buy hosting with Hostgator >

Interactive Online Black Friday Special!

• Begins: 11/25/11
  
• Ends: 11/27/10
  
• Deals: The promotion is for 1 year of hosting for $9.95 on our Shared Hosting Service.

If you’re wondering which host to choose for Joomla, read our blog post What is the Best Hosting for Joomla to make your choice.

2011 Black Friday Deals for Joomla Extensions, Templates & Hosting

Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year in the United States. The day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday is often an indicator of how the Christmas shopping season will fare. Retailers often offer deep discounts to entice shoppers into their stores.

Joomla developers are jumping on the bandwagon and offering some amazing deals on Joomla Extensions, Templates and Hosting.

Visit the Joomla 2011 Black Friday Deals page for a list of all the deals! They include specials from:

• iPage
• RSJoomla
• JoomlaShack
• Joomla-Monster
• Template Plaza
• TechJoomla
• CorePHP
• DTH Development
• Joomplace

Worried Your Joomla Site Might Get Hacked?

Joomla is not invulnerable even though it is a robust content management system. Any website, not matter how it is constructed or secured, is vulnerable to hacking attacks. Because Joomla has standards about the way it works, in some ways it gives a road map to hackers looking for a way in.

Landau Design has created a comprehensive Squidoo lens that provides information on how to secure your Joomla website to prevent hacking. If for some reason your Joomla site got hacked, we also provide information on how to repair a Joomla hacking problem.

Please read 15 Ways to Secure Your Joomla Website and take the steps to prevent hacking attempts!

What is the Best Hosting for Joomla?

This is a question we are often asked. What is the best hosting company for Joomla websites? We have tried at least half a dozen, and what we have found is there are certain criteria that you must consider when making a decision. Unfortunately we cannot say we have found one company that is aces at everything, but we have found several that have come really close.

We do not have a server where we provide hosting for our customers. Instead we have them set up their own hosting accounts with a service. In this way our customers have dominion over their website. Since we aren’t the hosts, we have tried many companies to find the best fit for Joomla optimization, Joomla security as well as customer service.

When choosing a host for Joomla, you cannot just choose anybody. Hosting requires a certain set of parameters in order for the site to run properly and to ensure Joomla security. This is why it is important to choose a company that specializes in optimizing their servers to host Joomla websites.

What do we think?

Here is our assessment of companies the we have used. This assessment is based on actual experience with these companies. Please don’t be upset if we’ve left your company off the list. If you’re not on the list, it’s because we haven’t tried you yet. Email us, and we’ll be happy to give it a go. In the chart below we’ve graded some of the services provided to give you an idea of how well they perform for us. In cases where there really isn’t a measure of service (i.e. unlimited bandwidth), we just wrote yes/no.

What host do we use?

If you’re wondering what host this blog is on, it’s hosted on Interactive Online. Our company website, Landau Design, is hosted on Hostgator.

What host do you use for your Joomla site, and how do you like them?