Microsoft expects to release beta2 of Internet Explorer 8.0 (IE8.0) in August. As a current tester of IE8.0 beta 1, I am looking forward to beta 2 to resolve some of the bugs & compatibility issues I have run into.
Microsoft’s strategy with IE8.0 is interoperability – follow internet standards to display content by default on IE. For us website developers, this should have been the defacto way IE should have operated from the beginning, write once, run anywhere. Unfortunately this is not the case, and in order to properly render websites built for IE7.0 some modifications need to be made.
Microsoft has released some resources to help prepare us for the release of IE8.0, web site developers & owners need to start preparing and ensuring websites continue to operate normally under IE 8.0.
The scenario is that you already have a web site (http://magento.myhosting.com) and want to add a new domain name (http://www.blue.com.tc ) to your account that acts as an ALIAS to your existing site, meaning that both domains points to the same site. This process is called “Domain Aliasing” and our Community Wiki Site says the following about it:
DNS (Domain) Aliasing: DNS Aliasing allows you to host more than one domain name on a single hosting account. By typing your DNS Alias address (http://www.aliasdomain.com) in the browser, your visitors will automatically see the content on your primary website (http://www.primarysite.com).
This redirection is performed at the Domain Name Server level and does not involve any script or redirection. It’s fast, reliable, and will work with any web browser. The DNS Alias does not change your existing address or web site in any way. Additionally, since the DNS Alias is implemented on the DNS level, not only are HTTP and FTP connections forwarded to your primary site content, but also your e-mail is delivered to your mailbox on your primary domain name. For example, if you send an e-mail to joe@aliasdomain.com, it will be delivered to joe@primarysite.com.
Once logged in, you will be presented with the options below. Simply click on “Domain Name” link.
This page will let you sign-up for your alias domain name below. I will go ahead and type “blue” and click on “Search”.
Next page will show me all the available domain names, I will go ahead and choose the cheapest one as I am buying it only for tutorial purposes.
Next page is about accepting “Policy and Agreements”. Read them carefully and accept them if you agree.
Next page is about filling out domain registration information. When someone registers a domain name, information about the registrant (name, business name, email, phone number, address) is required. An example could be seen below:
If you do not want us to publish your registration info then simply click on “Please enable WHOIS Privacy on my behalf”. Otherwise check the latter.
If you select “Use my account information in myhosting.com’s database” then myhosting.com will use the info they have on file. If that is not what you want then go ahead and type your new info.
Next page will let you confirm your order. Make sure that you do not exceed your Domain Alias limit. Our basic plan comes with 5; premium plan comes with 10; and professional plan comes with 25 domain alias limit. Additional aliases will cost you $6.00/month plus $4.00/setup fee. For more info please visit our hosting plan details located at: http://myhosting.com/Web-Hosting/compare-plans.aspx
Once you place your order, you now have to wait for myhosting.com to double check your information, register the domain name then get back to you.
Once our Support Team completes their end of the work, you will receive a notification email and your alias will be ready to go.
This blog entry will look at SQL injection attacks and what you can do as website owner/developer to mitigate this type of attack.
What is a SQL injection Attack?
Too often developers/system administrators focus only on Operating System and Web Server application as attack vectors and ignore the code that a website uses. With more and more sites being dynamic and database driven, SQL injection attacks are on the rise. In a successful SQL injection attack, an attacker can compromise the data stored in the database, deface a website or execute remote code.
A SQL injection attack takes advantage of poor data sanitation during user input. When user data input is not validated for syntax, SQL code can be injected to a query and thereby compromising the system/website. This is illustrated on Microsoft’s website.
In the example, when user input is not sanitized during a logon page, a malicious user can input SQL commands such as “‘ Or 1=1 –”. As described on the MSDN website, by injecting the above code a malicious user can bypass the authentication mechanism.
How to mitigate SQL Injection attacks
SQL injection attacks can be mitigated by using better coding techniques that utilize input validation controls. In the above example, a malicious user was able to manipulate the input parameter by using a single quote. To mitigate this type of attack you can escape the single quotes by using a replace function to change ‘ to “. Additionally, limit the permissions granted to the database user the web application is running under.
Customers that use third party content management systems should endeavour to upgrade to the latest build and be on the lookout for any security hotfixes/updates from the vendor.
More information:
I was pretty happy with my Blackberry and did not have any plans to switch to iPhone but after reading more about it’s new features (such as 3G Speed; Enterprise Integration using Microsoft Exchange; and access to Application Store), my gadget-lover spirit got in charge and ordered me to buy one.
I started with calling my near by Apple Store and after the 20thtry someone finally answered. When I asked if they had iPhones on hand, she told me that they do but added that there was a 3 hour long line wait to purchase one and they couldn’t guarantee availability. She also recommended that I should check availability using Apple’s web site and then make a decision accordingly. Every Apple Store now publishes their iPhone availability on their site. They usually do this after 9pm PST.
Based on my conversation with the Apple Store lady, I got the feeling that they had enough iPhones for anyone that is ready to wait couple of hours but they didn’t have enough selections.
Next morning I was in line (7thperson) in front of Emeryville, CA Apple Store 8am in the morning. Apple Stores open at 10am so I was thinking that 2 hours of chilly, foggy wait was ahead of me but suddenly they opened up the doors to the store. Apparently, to control the demand, Apple Stores were unofficially opening up early. That was good news.
But as I mentioned before, they had limited availability. They only had White, 16GB iPhones available. That was OK for me as I liked the white version more than the black anyway. My only disappointment was about the price. I found out that the only way to get the $299 price ($199 is for 8GB) was, I either had to be a new AT&T customer or hadn’t done any recent changes to my AT&T account. As I added a new phone number to my account a month ago, this voided my discount and I ended up paying the full price of $499 + tax = $540.
I spent close to 30 minutes in the store. First 10 minutes was related to rejecting the $60 extended warranty and choosing a belt buckled case for my new iPhone. Rest of the time was spent on registering the phone with AT&T.
AT&T asks you to sign up for a $30/month unlimited data plan. This goes on top of your voice plan. Most likely you will also be interested in a SMS plan which starts at $5/month for 200 SMS messages. Otherwise you end up paying $0.20/msg.
Once arrived in my office, I started the registration and configuration process using iTunes. iPhone requires iTunes to operate so make sure that you have it installed, updated and ready to go before plugging in your iPhone.
Once you connect your iPhone to iTunes, configuration process automatically pulls your email account settings from your email application (Outlook, Outlook Express and more). This is very convenient for non-techies.
Currently I do have 3 email accounts: One is a mail2web Exchange Account, the other is a regular myhosting.com email account and a gmail account. For Exchange accounts, iPhone can wirelessly sync your Emails, Contacts and Calendar information using the Push technology. If you are not familiar with it then I recommend that you read the following blog posting.
Not everyone has an Exchange Account; if that is the case, you can easily get started by signing-up for a Mail2Web’s Free Microsoft Exchange Email Account. I guarantee that you will love the wireless syncing with your iPhone. Imagine entering a new contact on the go and it automatically gets synced to your Outlook.
Setting up myhosting.com email account using iPhone 3G
If you already have your myhosting.com email account setup in your email program then iTunes will pull your account information automatically. In my case it didn’t bring the password, so I ended up entering it once for each account.
If you want to set up your email account manually then touch “Settings” button on the “Home Screen”.
On the Settings window, touch “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” option.
If you have other accounts setup then you will see them all in this window. To continue, touch “Add Account” option…
“Add Account” window will present you all the options you have. In our case we will continue with touching “OTHER”. New account window will ask you the following:
Name
Email Address
Password
Description
Then it will ask for POP3 and SMTP information which are labeled as Incoming and Outgoing Mail Server.
This page will give you all the necessary info that you will need in order to setup your account.
This is how you setup your myhosting.com email account using iPhone 3G. Once you are done you can access your emails simply by touching Mail button on the home screen…
Setting up Mail2Web Microsoft Exchange Account using your iPhone 3G
Our next step is to setup our Exchange Account with iPhone. To do this simply touch “Microsoft Exchange” button on “Add new account” window.
You will need your mail server name, username and password. In order to access this information, simply login to your control panel at:https://support.mail2web.com
Once logged in, click on “Business Exchange” link…
On the next screen, click on “GO” button (End-User Management) for the user you want to setup the account.
Next, click on “View ActiveSync Settings” link for the selected user.
This window will give you all the information you need to setup your account. The only part I would pay attention is that, in iPhone enter the username as: domain\username
I hope that you will find this guide useful. I am sure I forgot to mention small details here and there so keep the comments coming. If you already own an iPhone or planning to buy one then visit our Community Portal located at http://portal.myhosting.com and share your experiences or ideas…
The folks over at Wordpress have released the latest version of their blogging product, aptly labeled “Tyner” (named after a Jazz Pianist, not the Cleveland Indians outfielder). Myhosting.com’s one click install version of Wordpress has been updated to this version as well.
Notable changes to this version of Wordpress include a Wiki-like tracking of edits, word count, theme preview and image captioning. For a full list of changes and more detail about the update, visit the Wordpress blog here.
Here is a video related to the changes in Wordpress 2.6:
Wordpress can be installed on our Linux-based hosting platform, which is included with our Basic, Premium and Professional accounts. You can install Wordpress either manually or using our easy to use application installer. For those who have already installed Wordpress, here is a handy guide on how to update your blog.
Happy Blogging!
Ricky
Software Developer
SoftCom Technology Consulting Inc.
I was pretty happy with my Blackberry and did not have any plans to switch to iPhone but after reading more about it’s new features (such as 3G Speed; Enterprise Integration using Microsoft Exchange; and access to Application Store), my gadget-lover spirit got in charge and ordered me to buy one.
