Buying domain names, a definitive guide

Are you in the market for a domain name?

No doubt there are hundreds, no, thousands of domain providers out there. So, how do you choose? Can you choose a domain name provider based squarely on price? Let’s see, do you select your car on price? Or your home on price alone… I didn’t think so.

It’s not just about the domain name. What about all the gubbins that you would expect to come with your domain name? In fact, you might not even know what you might need with your domain name – so how does that work?

You need to find a domain name provider that will supply all the features you need – and more, ready for when you eventually work out what to do with your domain.

Let’s explore what features you may require with your domain name.

Make sure the domain is registered in YOUR name

As a minimum you want to reserve the domain name for immediate use or for use in the future should you find the time. Well, all domain registrars meet this requirement – or do they? Well, no they don’t. Many domain name providers will register YOUR domain name in THEIR name. How does that work? Well, they just do and so when it comes to having control over your domain name you simply find it is limited – simply because it isn’t really YOUR domain name. Only choose a domain name host that registers the YOUR domain name in YOUR name.

Ensure you have the freedom to choose any web host

Once you have your domain name you do not want to be tied to a single host as this could negate any saving you make on your domain name. Besides, you should have the choice right? Well, many domain name providers will NOT allow you to change your domain name servers to point to another host. This would tie you in to using that particular domain provider should you need a Web Hosting account in the future. You need to keep your options open. Only choose a domain provider that allows you FREE and UNLIMITED changes of your domain nameservers. This guarantees that your domain name can be used with any web host without restriction or cost.

Can your domain name point to your free web space?

Do you have free webspace provided by your ISP? You probably do, so why buy a hosting package if you already have webspace? Check with your ISP/Broadband Supplier and find out how to upload your new website to your free webspace. So now all you need to do is point your domain name to your free webspace. This usually uses a feature called “web forwarding”. Ensure that web forwarding is supplied as standard with your domain name, you’d be surprised how many domain name hosts charge extra for this feature.

Is your domain name email enabled?

While you are pondering the use of your domain name, wouldn’t it be useful to redirect any email sent to your domain name to your everyday email address? This is called email forwarding and again, is often an extra charge on your domain name after you have purchased. Read the small print before your select your domain name host.

So, to summarise….

Find a cheap domain name host that meets the above criteria and you can’t go far wrong with your domain purchase.

Should you have difficulty, let me save you some time. Here is a UK based domain name provider that meets all of the above criteria and more…Cheap Domain Names –

https://www.keenweb.co.uk/

Protect against WordPress Pingback Vulnerability

How to Neutralise a Pingback DDOS Attack

The WordPress Pingback Vulnerability is used to maliciously attack your WordPress site via the Pingback service.
If the attack is heavy enough then not only will your site be seriously slowed if not inaccessible) but your server will also be overloaded with requests thus risking your shared hosting account altogether.

This type of attack is usually instigated via a botnet of many hundreds (if not thousands) of different IP addresses so a simply blocking the IP address of the attacker is not practical.

If you are under attack right now then there are actions you can take to minimise (if not nullify) the effect of attack.

Disable the WordPress XMLRPC Service

We can do this by adding a “deny” to “xmlrpc.php” in your .htaccess file. This will disable the your WordPress site from participating with the pingback requests.

Add the following to the top of your .htaccess file:

<files xmlrpc.php>
order deny, allow
deny from all
</files>

The attack will now have less effect on your server load.

Once the attack is over, you may remove deny code if you need XMLRPC services active on your WordPress site. There’s a 95% chance you can leave it there with no noticeable effect at all.

Blocking the DDOS Attack using CSF

If you use CSF, you may still want to block the IP addresses of the attacking botnet. It’s quite easy to do.

Here is a bash one-liner that will do the job for you in real-time:

tail -f /var/www/vhosts/yourdomain.com/logs/access_log | grep "\"WordPress/" | grep -v "POST " | awk '{print $1}' | while read IP; do /usr/sbin/csf -td $IP 7d BlockPingback; done

There is some satisfaction in having the IPs permanently blocked. You can add the resulting IP block to your deny files on all servers and accounts.

It does make sense as all the attacking WordPress sites are clearly compromised and will no longer be a problem (for you at least) if permanently blocked from your server.

What is the difference between monitoring with a “slow ping” and a “service ping”?

- Service ping is the normal, default, one ping per 5 minutes that expects an echo reply within 1 second. If more than one ping is missed, an alert will be issued.

– Slow ping will wait 5 seconds for a reply, allowing servers that are optimized for non-network tasks more time to process the request.

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