SSL stands for “Secure Sockets Layer.” Secure Sockets Layer is a protocol designed to enable applications to transmit information between each other securely. SSL is the most widely deployed security protocol used today. In today’s Internet focused world, we typically see SSL in use when a web browser needs to securely connect to a web server over the insecure Internet. For example, in the case of a browser, users are alerted to the presence of SSL when the browser displays a padlock. This is the key to the success of SSL, as the users know the site is valid and secure and it is an incredibly simple experience for end users.

How does SSL work?

SSL works by the sharing of encrypted keys, or passwords. The keys are created in pairs, one a public key and one a private key. When the keys are traded in a particular manner between two parties, this protocol assures the parties in communication they are transmitting with one another and not a hacker or phisher. It also assures the data being transmitted is not intercepted by someone else.

What happens when my web browser connects to a secure website? (SSL)

1. The browser requests that the web server identifies itself.

2. The server sends the browser a copy of its SSL cert.

3. The browser checks whether it trusts the SSL cert, and if it does it sends a message to the server.

4. The server sends back a digitally signed acknowledgement to start an SSL encryption session.

5. Encrypted data is now shared between the server and the browser.

SSL’s importance in E-commerce

When a customer visits a store they can see who they are dealing with. They can see the person and the product and make a decision on payment. When a customer visits your website they have no way of knowing who they are dealing with or who owns the ecommerce website from which they are about to buy. They are exposed to all the risks associated with sending data over the internet.

Using an SSL cert on your website enables a web browser (your customer) to communicate securely with your website and assures the customer of these three key issues:

1. That the website really is who it claims to be.

2. That credit card numbers, etc are encrypted and cannot be intercepted.

3. That the data sent and received cannot be tampered with or forged.

LetsHost.ie offer SSL certs from €89.99 + VAT per year. For more information on these GeoTrust SSL certs, please visit http://letshost.ie/hosting/packages/sslcert

So how does it work? Every computer on the internet is given a specific number called an IP address that
can uniquely identify that computer on a network. For example letshost.ie will resolve to 78.137.164.40 and google.ie resolves to 209.85.143.104.

DNS effectively acts as the phone directory of the internet mapping computer-readable IP addresses to
human-readable domain names. One could easily argue that the Internet would not have reached such levels of popularity if websites advertised on the internet were of the form http://123.321.12.23. This is just too
hard for humans to remember.

Nameservers hold a lot of information regarding a specific domain such as where to route a connection so
that the webpage is displayed or where to route email.

A domains “A” record governs where a domains website can be found. An A record is entered as an IP address so that when a nameserver is queried it looks down through the “phone book” until it finds the domain and and then redirects the user to the appropriate IP address. The same is true for the MX (mail exchange) record which directs a domains email.

Lets take the domain Letshost.ie as an example…
Letshost.ie uses the nameservers ns1.dnsireland.com & ns2.dnsireland.com
When you type letshost.ie in to your internet browser the .ie of TLD (top level domain) directs the connection the .ie root nameservers (IEDR). The root nameservers show that letshost.ie is currently using the following nameservers:
ns1.dnsireland.com & ns2.dnsireland.com

These nameservers contain the A and MX records (possibly alot more) for letshost.ie
The A record points to where the website is being hosted, 78.137.164.40 in this case.
The MX record routes email to a specific server antispam.letshost.ie which has an IP of 78.137.164.25

As you can see the DNS zone record for letshost.ie can direct traffic to differnt locations depending where the service is located. A subdomain bogota.lethost.ie can be set up and pointed to a server in Bogota to serve Letshosts customers in Colombia for example.

Changes to a domains nameservers will not happen instantly. These changes take time to propagate out to all the internets routers. The algorithms that are used by routers to direct internet traffic pass these changes of IP addresses to each other. It can take up 24hours for a domains to fully propagate throughout the internet.

With .ie domains you have virtually no cybersquatting, less cybercrime and minimal poaching of domains.  You get Higher Search Engine Rating with .ie domains and greater Security.

Registration is Simple. If the domain is for Business use, all you need to provide is an RBN/CRO or Registered VAT Number. If you dont have any of these, dont worry, you can provide a letter from your Bank Manager Solicitor or Accountant confirming you are a Sole Trader along with a document from yourself outlining your connection to the domain.

If the domain is for Personal use, all you need to do is send in a document outlining what the domain name means and what it will be used for along with a copy of your Passport or Driving Licence.

Following the IEDRs announcement of registering the 150,000^th .ie domain, they have launched why.ie, a site detailing further why to go .ie. Please visit https://www.why.ie/ for more information.

For detailed information/examples of the IEDR registration policy, please visit http://www.letshost.ie/domains/domain_irish_domain_names.php

Image via Wikipedia

Malware is on the increase – and it’s not just your desktop PC that’s at risk of infection.

We all know how vital it is to keep our desktop computers up to date with the latest patches, updates, virus definitions and so on. But many forget that their webserver, and the software that runs on it, could also be prone to exploit and attack by unsavoury cyber-hackers.

Irish website owners need to be vigilant that their sites aren’t being compromised by unscrupulous hackers and malicious code.

We take care of most updates for you

At LetsHost the security of our servers, and your website, is a top priority. We’re constantly vigilant, and follow industry best practice when it comes to our server security set up.

All relevant patches and security updates are applied to all of our server software as soon as they become available, and we stay up-to-date with the latest security news, upcoming threats and solutions, giving you peace of mind.

There are, however, a few steps you, as a hosting customer, can take to help us make your website even more secure.

1. Choose a secure account/FTP password: this is the number one route by which any hosting account is compromised. Use a long enough password (at least eight characters) with a mix of capital and lower case letters, numbers and special characters. Don’t make it easy for them.
2. Keep your software up to date: there is a lot of software out there that makes running your website a lot easier – content management systems like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal, for example. Periodically these projects will release software updates, many of which contain security patches for vulnerabilities discovered in the code. APPLY THESE UPDATES DILIGENTLY as soon as they’re released to help keep your site secure.
3. Choose third party content wisely: if you choose to share third party content (widgets, ad-placements, etc.) on your site, make sure they are coming from a reputable source, and that you’re happy the code you voluntarily drop into your site is only doing what you expect it to do.
4. Look out for suspicious activity: everything that happens on your webserver is recorded in your server log files… make a habit of scanning them periodically for anything that looks suspicious or out-of-place – such as redirects or links to IP addresses or domains you don’t recognise.
5. Keep an eye on Google Webmaster Tools: if Google indexes your site and finds malicious code it will typically flag the offending pages as potentially dangerous to users. It will also flag those pages in Google Webmaster Tools for the afflicted domain, letting you know which pages on your site are compromised (look under “Diagnostics > Malware”).

What if my site has been hacked?

Having well maintained servers like LetsHost’s, and applying diligent account management practices, will help keep your hosting account malware free, but hacking can still happen.

If it happens to you the best thing to do is to take your site offline as soon as you notice a problem, and follow this advice on removing malware from Google’s Webmaster Central blog, or contact the LetsHost Support team for advice and assistance.

Well, there might not be an app for that… just yet – but here’s a handy YouTube video courtesy of those lovely people at Wiley Publishing who created the iconic “For Dummies” series of books.

All of your LetsHost email accounts support both IMAP or POP access, and your server for both incoming and outgoing mail is mail.yourdomain.com (where “yourdomain” is a primary or add-on domain associated with your LetsHost Irish hosting account).

Your username is the e-mail address you want to access (replace the @ with a + if you have problems logging in), and your password is the one you specified when you created the e-mail address in cpanel.

You’ll find lots of information on setting up new e-mail accounts and e-mail settings for IMAP, POP and SMTP access in the LetsHost Support FAQ/Knowledgebase.

Want more iPhone tips and tricks? You’ll find iPhone for dummies over on Amazon.

What is a TLD

A TLD, or Top-Level Domain, is basically the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System that assigns human-readable addresses to specific resources on the internet.

Back in the formative years of computer networking individual computers were recognised by a unique number. Computers still use these complex number patterns to uniquely identify specific resources on the internet (they’re called IP addresses). But while computers have no problem with complex numeric addresses, as the internet grew people needed a much easier and more meaningful way to memorise locations on the network. The result is the Domain Name System that we know and love today.

In practice the TLD is the last portion of a fully qualified domain name like www.letshost.ie (where the TLD is .ie). Top level domains typically come in two “flavours” today — the generic or category level TLDs, which consist of three or more letters and include the popular .com, .net and .org domains; and country specific domains that typically (but with a few notable exceptions) consist of the two-letter ISO country code for that country.

Why choose a .ie domain for your business?

If you’re an Irish business, a business selling into Ireland or targeting a largely Irish audience, having a .ie domain makes sense for a number of reasons:

• Trust: it’s a small word, but one that’s invaluable to your online business. In common with many ccTLDs the IEDR, Ireland’s Domain Registry, requires individuals and business entities to meet certain criteria confirming their eligibility before they are allowed to register a .ie domain. Anyone from anywhere can pick up a generic .com, .net or .org, but there’s a widespread perception among Irish internet users that a .ie domain is somehow more intrinsically trustworthy.
• Instant local identity: any Irish internet user seeing a .ie domain immediately recognises that this is a business operating in Ireland, and knows instantly that the products, services or information outlined on the website are likely to be relevant to their particular needs. That can have a very positive impact on things like the number of people clicking through to your site from search engine results pages (SERPs), and helps to ensure that the traffic you do get is more targeted (i.e. interested in Irish products and services).
• Improved local search visibility: a .ie ccTLD will help search engines to determine that your site is Irish, and is likely to be of interest to internet users looking for Irish content. It is one of the factors that search engines use to deliver more relevant local search results to their customers, lending more weight to .ie pages in Irish search results, which again drives more targeted search engine traffic to your website.

As an approved .ie reseller, LetsHost can manage all of your .ie domain needs. Coupled with one of the most comprehensive, feature-rich and reliable hosting solutions in Ireland today, we offer the perfect package for all your Irish domain registration and hosting needs.

Creating a new e-mail address

Creating a new e-mail address in your LetsHost hosting account is very straightforward:

1. Log in to your letshost control panel (typically accessed through http://cpanel.yourdomain.com, where “yourdomain.com” is the primary domain associated with your LetsHost web hosting account).
2. Under “Mail”, click “E-Mail Accounts”.
3. In the text box before the @ symbol type the name you’d like to use for the new e-mail account
4. In the dropdown selection box after the @ symbol select the domain you’d like the new e-mail address assigned to (if you only have one domain registered it will default to that)
5. Type and confirm a password for your new e-mail account (or click the button to generate a random password)
6. Set a storage quota for your new mailbox… (default is 250MB, or check “unlimited” if you’d rather)
7. Click “Create Account”

That’s it… your new e-mail account will be created and will appear in the list of e-mail addresses immediately below the “create account” form.

Configuring your e-mail software

Your LetsHost hosting account offers the option of auto-configuring the popular Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail software for Microsoft Windows operating systems, and the Mac Mail software that’s bundled with MacOSx.

To access the autoconfigure option simply find your new e-mail address in the e-mail account list and click on the “more” button. You’ll see options for accessing web-mail for the account (allowing you to check and manage your e-mail through your web browser) or to configure your desktop e-mail client. Choose “configure e-mail client”. You’ll be taken to a page explaining the different auto-configure options, with links to launch the relevant software to configure your e-mail client to work with your new account.

If you use different e-mail software, or would prefer to configure your e-mail client manually, you’ll find all of the relevant information listed under the “Manual Settings” heading. Setting up e-mail accounts on different mail clients will vary slightly, but broadly follows a standard process that will look something like this:

1. Launch your e-mail software and select the menu option to create a new account
2. Enter your name, your e-mail user name (in the form youre-mail+yourdomain.com — replacing the @ of your e-mail address with a +)
3. Enter the password you chose when creating your e-mail account
4. Enter the incoming and outgoing mail server settings as outlined under “manual settings” on the “configure e-mail client” page in the LetsHost Control Panel
5. Save your new account settings

Once you’ve saved the account details you’re ready to send and receive e-mail from/to your brand new e-mail address.

Well, if you want people to visit your site, you’re going to have to let them know it’s there. Whether you’re using your LetsHost account to host your personal blog or as the hub of your online retail empire, if you want to attract the right people to it then you’re going to have to promote it. Here are five basic pointers on how you can start to drive more quality, targeted traffic to your website.

1. Do your homework: before you do any sort of online promotion (and in most cases before you even build your website) it makes good sense to spend some time researching your potential audience. Who are they, how do they use the internet, what are they looking for online, and does your site deliver?
2. Search engines are your new best friend: despite the burgeoning popularity of social media websites, and their undoubted potential for sending online visitors your way, for the vast majority of businesses the best source of qualified web traffic will be major search engines (especially Google). Make it easy for search engines to find and index your site correctly. Google has a great SEO Starter Guide that outlines the basics of search optimisation best practice.
3. Concentrate on quality content: ultimately the success of any website hinges on content that a) ranks highly for relevant search terms in search engine results pages (SERPs), and b) delivers what the visitor is looking for once they arrive on the page. Think carefully about your content, what search terms you want each individual page to rank for, and what your visitors are going to be looking for when they arrive… then make sure it delivers.
4. Spread the word, online and off: how many e-mails do you send out in a typical week… quite a few, probably. Now, how many of those e-mails have a clickable link to your website prominently displayed at the foot of the message. Set up an e-mail signature to make sure a link to your website goes out with every e-mail you send. Likewise, make sure every piece of business stationary, from your letterhead and business card to your off-line marketing collateral, company vehicles and signage, all feature your web address.
5. Engage with your audience: we mentioned social media sites briefly, and they’re certainly a great way to tap in to what your customers are talking about online. They’re also a fantastic way to build your reputation as a helpful and authoritative source of  information in your field of expertise. Engage productively with the relevant online communities… wherever your customers congregate online… and before long people will start to see you as the “go-to” person when it comes to the products or services you provide.

We’ve barely managed to scratch the surface of the wonderful world of online marketing here… but look out for future articles where we’ll be delving into specific digital marketing topics in a bit more detail.

Modern digital storage media are, by and large, very reliable and robust, but occasionally things can go wrong, so it pays to take regular backups of your most important files.

How do I make a backup

That depends on what you want to back up, and where you want to back up to. Here’s a brief run down of some common backup scenarios.

1. Backing up your PC

Most modern operating systems, including recent flavours of Windows, Mac OSX and popular desktop Linux distributions, come with file backup options built in. There are also plenty of free and paid third party backup solutions… take your pick.

While the interfaces for individual backup products vary, the process is broadly similar:

• Select the files you want to back up and set a backup destination
• Run a manual backup / set an automated scheduled backup
• Keep the resulting backup files in a safe place
• Repeat frequently

If something bad happens, these programs normally let you restore a complete backup set, or choose the specific files that you’d like to recover.

2. Backing up your website(s)

Backing up a web server usually involves several steps:

• Select the files you want to back up
• Package the files into a single archive file (e.g .ZIP) on the remote server
• Download the resulting file to your local machine using an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) or your CPanel file manager.
• If you use databases (like MySQL) on your server, you’ll need to remember to back those up separately.

That’s a fair amount of work, and requires some technical know-how, so here at LetsHost we’ve implemented a system that makes things much easier. Every LetsHost Complete Plan hosting customer has the industry leading R1Soft Continuous Data Protection enabled on their hosting account. The system automatically takes four daily snapshots of everything in your account (files and databases) and lets you selectively restore any of your data through a simple web-based interface. Just click on the “R1Soft Backup Restore” option from the “Files” menu in your control panel.

(NB. LetsHost provides the R1Soft service as a reliable and convenient backup / restore solution for its customers, but we still recommend that you keep independent local backups of your most important data)

3. Remote online backup services

Regular local backups are much better than no backups at all, but storing important data in the same physical location as the original files is fraught with risk. That’s where secure, automated online backup services like LetsHost’s brand new PC Backup service come into play.

PC Backup is a secure “set it and forget it” backup solution. For a small monthly fee (starting at just €20 for up to 50GB of storage) we’ll automatically keep your most valuable data secure by seamlessly encrypting it and copying it to your own remote storage account. You can relax, safe in the knowledge that LetsHost is looking after your critical data for you.

Make sure your vital business information is safe… examine your backup solution, and contact us for information on how PC Backup can help keep your data secure.

- Information on the threat itself
- Info on how to clean your PC
- Info on how to clean your website

Information on the threat:

One aspect of gumblar’s existence is how it can use FTP details stored on your PC to upload malicious code to your web presence in order to spread itself further. Some FTP programs such as FileZilla apparently store passwords in plain text and as such can be exploited quite easily. The issue is not a server side issue.

Links with further information:

- http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid14_gci1357912,00.html

- http://www.webpayments.ie/blog/Gumblar-What-is-it-How-to-I-remove-it-.html

- http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/support/gumblar.htm

Information on cleaning your PC:

- http://www.xp-vista.com/remove/gumblar

- http://www.malwarebytes.org/ (Referenced as being a good tool for identifying an infection)

Cleaning your website

1 – Change FTP password via Cpanel
2 – Do not store the FTP password in any profile etc
3 – Replace existing website with last known ‘good’ backup
4 – Change Cpanel / FTP password again via Cpanel

To avoid being re-infected we recommend running antivirus software such as AVG or Avast. We also recommend upgrading your browser to its most up to date version and running anti malware software such as that available from http://www.malwarebytes.org/. You may also want to ensure Google does not have your website listed here: http://stopbadware.org/home/reportsearch as a potential unsafe website. This can lead to issues with your search engine rankings.

Please note: External links are provided for your convenience and Letshost.ie cannot be responsible for the content / software etc on these sites.