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Posts Tagged ‘Control Panel’

It is becoming more popular for hackers to try to brute force attack your Joomla administrator to gain access to your administrator. Using this method they bombard your admin form with thousands of usernames/password until they find the right combination. Since Joomla doesn’t let you choose the admin username when installing they already know the username, this makes it twice as easy. If you want to add additional security, and who doesn’t, it is fortunately very easy.

#1: Change the admin username

The first thing to do is change the default admin username. First login to your control panel (often cPanel) and go to your database editor (normally phpMyAdmin), then select the Joomla database and browse to the jos_users table. The original user is user id 62, so edit that entry. Pick a username other than “admin”. Doing just this step will stop almost any chance of being hacked since most will just try the default username.

#2: Choose a better admin password

Now you’ll need to have an admin password that is difficult to guess. You’ll want to have at least 8 characters with a mix of lower case letters, upper case letters, numbers and special characters.

#3: Use .htaccess protection

With .htaccess protection there will be 2 logins needed to get into your Joomla admin. BuyHTTP’s Joomla hosting accounts are protected by a firewall that automatically blocks would-be hackers after 5 failed login attempts. .htaccess protection can be enabled by logging in to cPanel (or your hosts control panel) and clicking the Password Protect a Directory button. You can then select the “public_html/administrator” directory to protect, and add users who you want to be able to login.

These few, easy steps will exponentially increase the security of your Joomla installation.

In the event of wanting to host another website with a different domain name, what can you do? The best you can do is to pay another monthly fee for another hosting account. It can get pretty expensive after a few months, especially if the new site doesn’t work the way you intended it. However, there are companies that offer Multi Domain Hosting services.

In a sample scenario: you decide you would like to open an online store that is different from your existing web address. You buy the new domain for the store, and take your time constructing the site offline on your computer. How will you host the site without buying a new hosting subscription? Take a look at your web host’s services to see if they are already capable of hosting unlimited domains.

If your existing website has Unlimited Domain Hosting, then you can add your second domain to the account. All it takes is an FTP account that is supplied by the webhost provider. Many providers require a sub-folder that is created within the root folder of your current website.

If your host features cPanel, it will be easier to set up the website by following instructions from both the webhost and the domain registrar. This is done by redirecting the domain’s DNS server address to the host’s DNS server from the control panel on the registrar’s website. After a few hours or more, visitors can now access your new website as if it were a totally different website. Also, if your host has unlimited space and bandwidth, you will not have to worry about accumulating bandwidth that will render both of your sites unavailable.

Hosting multiple domains may also be a good source of minimum income by providing users hosting for a fee. This is not recommended for a Share Hosting account as there are some limitations between you and your customers in case of a problem, unless you are hosting websites between close colleagues for small projects. Getting a Reseller account is the best way to host domains for other people with custom limits on Disk Space and Bandwidth usage.

If you do not have a Multiple Domain webhost, there are several hosts to choose from that offer Unlimited Domain Hosting. Some cost no more than $7 a month, or more depending on what the host offers such as cPanel and Fantastico. There are also hosts that require a setup fee, though many of them do not.

Now that you know that it is possible to have more than one website with Multi Domain Hosting. If you have a spare domain sitting around, then why not put it to use without having to pay for addition hosting? Especially if it becomes a success as a business, you will give yourself a pat on the back for not having to pay a lot more.