Is My Blog Down for Everyone or Just Me Site Checker!

Have you ever tried to load your site or blog only to find it was down? Then you contact your service provider only for them to tell you that your site is up everything is running as normally. Your service provider tells you that the problem is with your connection or computer. Now you need a way to confirm what they are saying. There are a number of free  services that can check your site for you.

http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/
http://www.checksite.us/
http://downorjust.me/

Go to either or all of these checking sites and enter your sites or blogs URL and submit it. The checking site will confirm wether or not your site is running or not and report to you.

How to copy and save an image from a flash website.

Lets say there is an Adobe Flash website with an image that you want to show to your graphic artist. This image is the type of image you are after for your website. With a normal website you could just right click on a photo and you would have the option to either copy the image or save it so you could send the image to your artist. But since it’s an Adobe Flash website, right clicking gives you two choices “Settings” and “About Adobe Flash Player” so you are unable to copy the image you so desperately want. Well there is a way to get the image you are after.

Below are the instructions for you to copy and save a flash image. Before you copy an image and use it you should consider any copyright implications. However if you are only using it as an example of the type of thing you are looking for you should not have any problems.

How to
1.    Load the site with flash that you want to get an image from.

2.    Find an image that you want and centre it on the screen, move the curser out of the way to one side or the top or bottom of the screen.

3.    Then Press the Print Screen key on the keyboard.
    a.    The Print Screen key is usually the next button to the right of F12 button, labelled something like ‘prt sc’.
        i.    What it does is copies the entire screen as it is  at the moment you press it, so make sure the cursors’ is moved away from the picture that you want.

4.    Then load MS Paint.
    a.    To find MS Paint click Start> then run your mouse over the All Programs menu item.
    b.    Then move your mouse over the Accessories menu item.
    c.    On the Accessories menu that opens click the paint menu item to run the paint program.
    d.    When the paint program loads click Edit> Paste>.
        i.    Then click the select button on the side bar.
            (1)    Usually the top right button that looks like a dotted square.
            (2)    This will allow you to draw a box around the section of the image you want to keep.
            (3)    You will have to practice to get it in the write place.
        ii.    When you have the box around the section of the image you want to keep press Ctrl and click C to copy the section of the image you want to keep.
    e.    Then still in paint, select File> New>
        i.    when asked if you want to save click no. The image will close and a new blank canvas will open.
    f.    In the new canvas select Edit> paste>
        i.    You will now have the image you want.
        ii.    Then click File> Save>
        iii.    Then select the folder you want to save the image in.

 

Have your Jetpack and use Better WP Security too

Jetpack header logoRecently I started using Jetpack for amongst other things the Publicize feature. Publicize
automatically share your site’s posts on a range of social media networks when you publish a new post. The time this saves makes Jetpack a worth while plugin on its own. Not to mention all of the other features you get when you install Jetpack.

Jetpack PublicizeAfter I installed and configured Jetpack to connect to wordpress.com and Publicize to my social media sites I published a Post and sure enough a post was sent to my social media sites. The next post which was after an update of Jetpack was not so successful. The post on my blog was fine but no publicization of my article to my social media sites. So commenced the reading, reading, reading, reading, reading, reading…

Then I came across the Jetpack Troubleshooting Tips page which states;

Jetpack Troubleshooting Tips
3. Check your XMLRPC file. You can do this by going to your web site URL and adding “/xmlrpc.php” to the end (without the quotes). When it loads in your browser, you should see “XML-RPC server accepts POST requests only.” on a line by itself.

If you see this message, but it is not on a line by itself, a theme or plugin is displaying extra characters when it shouldn’t. See points 1 and 2 above for debugging steps.If you get an 404 Error Not Found message, contact your web host. They may have security in place that is blocking XMLRPC.

4. Check the Known Issues list and make sure you aren’t using a plugin or theme listed there.

I ran the test for my self. I simply went to my home page and added “/xmlrpc.php” to the end of the URL in the address bar of my browser window (without the quotes) and sure enough I got a 404 error page, not the “XML-RPC server accepts POST requests only.” on a line by itself. So I clicked the Known Issues list link and the words Better WP Security immediately jumped off the page because I have the Better WP Security plugin installed. The Known Issues page states;

Known Issues
Known Issues
WordFence, Better WP Security, Login Security Solution

These plugins block access to your site’s XML-RPC file. This file is used by Jetpack to connect to WordPress.com, and must be accessible at all times. You will consequently need to deactivate these plugins to be able to use Jetpack.

My first thought was “I am not going to deactivate a plugin that provides the amount of security that Better WP Security provides with out first running some tests”. I then went over to my wordpress dashboard and the Better WP Security plugin and had a good look around. I had not had a look at the Better WP Security plugin for a while and did not remember all of its features.

Better WP Security - Various Security TweaksQuite quickly I found what I was looking for on the Tweaks screen which ststes;

Remove EditURI header
Remove EditURI header

Removes the RSD (Really Simple Discovery) header. If you don’t integrate your blog with external XML-RPC services such as Flickr then the “RSD” function is pretty much useless to you.

Warning: This feature is known to cause conflicts with some 3rd party application and services that may want to interact with WordPress.

Better WP Security Header TweaksI uncheck the checkbox and clicked Save Changes. Then I ran the “/xmlrpc.php” test again. This time it was successful I got “XML-RPC server accepts POST requests only.” on a line by itself.

Now to test if my posts are once again being published on social media networks I will post this Article but if it does not work I will continue searching for the answer and post it here as an addition to this post.

Google Analytics VS Awstats or Webalizer

Who will be the winner?

First things first

Analytics is the study and analysis of data that has been collected. In the case of web analytics that is easily achieved because of the extensive amount of data that is written to log files or sent to a third party server (in the case of Google Analytics) each time the server takes any relevant actions.     Google Analytics block graph, Google Analytics, Analytics, Business analytics, Awstats, Webalizer, web analytics, data, Technological Approaches, collecting web analytics data, patterns of behaviour, JavaScript on each page, JavaScript, Log File Analysis, Log File, Log Files, web browser, ip address, visitors, visits, visitor behaviour, data collection, the server, the network, and bandwidth usage,
AWstats logo, Google Analytics, Analytics, Business analytics, Awstats, Webalizer, web analytics, data, Technological Approaches, collecting web analytics data, patterns of behaviour, JavaScript on each page, JavaScript, Log File Analysis, Log File, Log Files, web browser, ip address, visitors, visits, visitor behaviour, data collection, the server, the network, and bandwidth usage, The Webalizer, Google Analytics, Analytics, Business analytics, Awstats, Webalizer, web analytics, data, Technological Approaches, collecting web analytics data, patterns of behaviour, JavaScript on each page, JavaScript, Log File Analysis, Log File, Log Files, web browser, ip address, visitors, visits, visitor behaviour, data collection, the server, the network, and bandwidth usage,

 

Update wordpress – WP Maintenance Mode – Internal Server Error – solution

The problem

After updating your WordPress and/or WP Maintenance Mode plugin your site is running normally for a period of time eg between 6 and 18 hours. Then at some random time all that any visitor is able to see is an Internal Server Error message. To anyone trying to get to your site, your site appears to be broken. For more information open the section on Server Side Errors in my article, Where to find Apache response codes and how to determine their meaning.

Internal server error, Update wordpress, WordPress, WP Maintenance Mode, Maintenance Mode, Maintenance, Mode, Internal Server Error, site, broken site, Plugins, Plugin, Support