Apparently, WordPress versions earlier than 2.8.4 are under attack. Upgrade today, folks.

If you’ve got a pretty recent version of WordPress, login to your admin panel and expand the “Tools” section. Click on “Upgrade.” That should clue you in on whether or not you are using the most recent version. Recent versions have a one-click upgrade option, but it doesn’t work with all hosting configurations. If yours doesn’t, you’ll have to go through the whole fun-tastic upgrade process.

Lorelle’s covering the issue more thoroughly, and she’s got a list of other articles referencing it, in case you’re interested. (And thanks to cj Madigan for alerting me over the weekend. This definitely isn’t breaking news, so if you haven’t upgraded yet, it should be a priority.)

Heading to Boulder for some high-style fun

I’ll be traveling on Wednesday and Friday, so it’ll be quiet here this week. However, traveling always inspires lots of profound tweeting, so we can keep in touch there. If you happen to be in Boulder, don’t forget to let me know so that we can hang out at the clothing swap. I’ll be in Nashville when I get back from Boulder, so…Nashville friends? We should hang, too.

See you guys back here next Monday! In the meantime, upgrade and be happy.

So your site is down. That sucks, man. Let’s just take a moment and breathe deeply. Big, calming belly breaths. Maybe do the Dance of Shiva. (I have no clue what that is, but the picture has a girl with a lot of arms. I think having lots of arms must be calming.)

Now, let’s work on this for a moment.

First, you need to figure out if your site is down for everyone or if it’s just you. Enter your site’s address into downforeveryoneorjustme.com, and you’ll get the answer lickety-split.

If it’s just you…

Have you been working on your site in the last 15 minutes?
Yeah? Lucky you. You have one of those sensitive hosting companies that bans you from your own site for refreshing it too many times. (I have one of these companies, too. The thrill!)

It’s actually a nice feature so that spam-bots can’t crash your site by continually refreshing it and/or leaving comments or submitting forms. It’s protective, really. But also annoying.

You can try asking your hosting people if they can add your computer’s IP address to a “do not block” list. Your IP address is simply a number that is assigned to your computer and your computer only. It’s like a web address for your computer (click that link up there to find yours). My people wouldn’t (or couldn’t) unblock mine. But I can’t see why it would be a huge deal.

OR you can wait 15 minutes to get back on your site. That seems to be the going timeframe for being blocked.

OR (if you don’t mind the annoying, sometimes disgusting ads), you can access your site through an internet proxy. These sites are designed to keep your IP address private while you’re browsing, so they’re useful for getting into a site that is blocking your IP address. The ads are questionable, but sometimes you’ve just gotta get to your site.

Oh. You haven’t been working on your site?

It’s probably:

1. Your connection at home. Re-start your modem. Re-start your wireless router. Try getting to your site on another computer if you have one.
2. Your internet service company. Call ‘em up and tell them what you told me. Your site is down, it’s down only for you, and your modem and wireless router are not the problem. Enjoy the (not) calming elevator music while you wait.

If it’s down for everyone…

Now you can start thinking bad thoughts about your hosting company. (!@#$!@#$!) But first, let’s take a minute to assess the situation.

First, try logging in to your hosting control panel. Sometimes your host will leave messages for you about your site’s status if they know about an issue.

Next, if you use Wordpress, log in to your administration area. Go to your plug-ins section. Do you have 15 or more plug-ins activated? De-activate whichever ones you are not using. Your host is probably going to blame your plug-ins and/or the inefficiency of your database.

Finally, call your host and ask them what’s going on with your site. You are now armed with enough information so they can actually give good service. Usually, hosting providers aren’t the enemy. It’s just hard to communicate with them if you don’t know what the heck they’re talking about.

(And side note? You do NOT have unlimited bandwidth or unlimited server space. No matter how hosting companies advertise it, there are limits. And believe me, you’ll know when you’ve hit them.)

Is it possible to buy another domain name, for example, www.SpanishForkFitness.com, and have it point to my CLASSES page, as well as my original domain name?

Liz Rosenbaum, LizRosenbaumFitness.com

Yep. Entirely possible. I’m going to use one of my domains registered at GoDaddy.com as an example of how to re-direct a domain name to point to any page that you want. (For example, I used to have MaTweeps.com re-directing to http://sjoystudios.com/MaTweeps–which is where I built the actual site. That way, I could use MaTweeps.com in all of my email signatures, but I didn’t have to have it hosted on its own server.)

Let’s start this thing.

1. Log in to your GoDaddy account (or whatever domain name registrar that you use).
2. Hover over “Domains” on the green navigation bar at the top of the page.
3. Click on “My Domains” (the first item on the list, under “Management & Renewals”).
4. Click on the domain name that you want to point to another site.
5. In the first row, second column, under “Forwarding,” click on “Domain is not forwarded.”
6. On the “Forwarding” tab (which you should be on automatically), check the “Enable Forwarding” box.
7. Type in the site or page that you want the domain name to be forwarded to (ex: http://sjoystudios.com/matweeps”).
8. Choose either “301 Moved Permanently” or “302 Moved Temporarily”, depending on if you plan to forward this domain name forever, or if it’s only for a little while.

It could take up to 12 hours for the domain name to start forwarding, but most likely, it will start in the next couple of minutes. If you’re using it for a big campaign, you’ll want to forward the domain a few days in advance to be sure that it’s working right.

Thanks for the question, Liz! Ask anytime.

You need/want/must have a website. What do you do first? Let me give you a hint…it starts with r…e…g…i…s…t…e…r…

Register! Good job! Give yourself a cookie. Register what? Well, your domain name, of course. Here are the most commonly asked questions we get asked about this process.

1. How much does it cost? It will vary, but usually a domain name costs around $10 a year. If you want private registration, you will have to pay an additional yearly fee.
2. What is private registration? All domain name owners are registered in the Whois database. Basically, if you don’t have private registration, your name will be listed, along with your address. The only real hassle for us is the junk mail that we get because of it. At least twice a week, we get mail from people telling us that they will “register our domain name with the top search engines for the low, low price of $35 per month!!!!!!!!” This is such a rip-off, and I pray that no one ever ever pays for this.
3. My host is offering me a free domain. Isn’t that cool? Well, yes and no. If you love your host and you trust them completely with your web existence, then sure…go for it. Reputable hosts should not be a problem. But let me present a scenario, just for the sake of being a pessimistic stick-in-the mud.

Let’s say you order a hosting package (more on that in another article), and they give you a free domain name. It’s yours to keep, no strings attached. Score for you! And then let’s say that you have a problem. Perhaps your website is down for a whole day, and you are unable to reach anyone (BIG problem.) Or perhaps they have a snarky customer service department and you no longer want to do business with them. You decide to go elsewhere.

Say you order hosting from somewhere else. In normal circumstances, you would then go to your domain name registrant and switch over the DNS records to point to your new host. But what if your host manages your domain? See where the problem could lie?

I have heard horror stories of vindictive hosts freezing access to a domain for days. I would hope these are just stories, but really there’s no way of knowing what kind of hoops you will have to go through to manage your domain before signing up for your hosting package. And if you are on less than sunny terms with those people, then you might be in for a ride.

Bottom line: order your domain name from someone other than your hosting provider. It’s only around $10 a year, and it keeps your bases covered in case you want to switch hosts later on.

4. How do you register a domain?

Registration is a pretty simple process. Currently, I host all of my domains over at GoDaddy. That way, they’re all in the same place. Ordering domain names is pretty much like ordering any other product online. You search for it, make sure it’s available, add it to your cart, and check out. That’s it! There’s no magic complicated process for registering a domain name. It’s pretty straightforward.

So don’t be afraid…go ahead and order that domain you love. Even if you’re not ready to use it today, it’s good to get it registered so that someone else doesn’t snatch it up before you do. I personally have 8 domain names registered in my name, both for current projects and future ones. This is not normal, but it should reassure you in case you are feeling a little strange about registering a domain name without a clear plan for its use.