Apache

  • 500 Internal Error when saving an article - reloaded

    After solving couple of times the "500 Internal Server Error" problem as described in a previous post, I received another complaint from one of my clients I host:

    "I also cannot save the articles and here is the error I got
    500 - An error has occurred!"

    Easy cake - I was thinking, but after checking his account, discovered, that all settings described on that article (namely the collation settings in database) where correct.

  • Create your next Joomla site locally with Ampps

    Like the majority of web developers I develop my websites and services locally before Ipublish them on the Internet. This makes sense in a variety of ways, from saving a lot of bandwidth to faster updating or improved security.

  • Enhance your security with .htaccess rules

    One of often overlooked security (and not only) resource for any Joomla site is under your fingertips! With each Joomla install (even from the old Mambo days) you have a file named htaccess.txt in your site's root directory. In most cases is never touched, and left as is - most weekend webmasters don't even know what is for. A few are using it to help Joomla or the specialized SEF URL builders to make those pretty SEF URL's for their site. And that's pretty easy - in most cases it's enough to rename it to .htaccess, and you are set. But there is much more power hidden there...

  • File and folder permissions

    This is a key security issue, but unfortunately many of the Joomla site-owners need guidance on this.

    First, let's see what you should know:

    Joomla is a typical LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) application, even if runs on many other platforms too. The entire access rights "philosophy" is relying on the native environment's settings.

  • GoDaddy's Joomla blues

    A while ago I wrote a tip about problems geting SEF URL's work on 1&1-s servers. Back then I didn't realized, that the problem is the same - or at least fairly similar - on GoDaddy's servers too. Not everywhere, I have a site running on GoDaddy with sh404SEF without any need of tweaking the .htaccess file, but recently I had issues with another site.

    So, the trick above solves the problem, but what is the cause?

  • Increase the available memory for your page

    Did you added something to a perfectly working Joomla site, and you suddenly have a blank age instead your site? Chances are that you hit the memory limit allowed to you on your server. Memory limits help to keep scripts from running out of control or using up all of your free memory. This value is generally carefully set by your host's SYSADMIN to let the hosted sites to run smoothly without bottlenecking each other by overusing this precious system resource.

  • Increase your Joomla site's SEO score with sh404SEF

    If you think, that is enough to build a nice site with a great content to have lots of visitors flowing to your site you're wrong. There are millions of webmasters trying to do the same. And Google and other search engines simply can't find, index and sort all of these sites, and show them to your potential visitors. So you need to do a little more to help these search engines - and to help yourself!

  • Joomla Site Statistics

    Are you a good webmaster willing to see how your site are performing? Or you're a web developer in need to show to your client how their brand new/re-branded/tweaked/SEO/SEM mastered site is performing? If the answer is yes, you may already know, that web statistics is a powerful resource. And there are a lot of Joomla packages to help you. So, why you are reading this, instead of grabbing one and using it?

  • Leverage browser caching

    One of the most easy ways to make your Joomla website faster is to leverage Joomla browser caching. This is one of the high priority tasks recommended by Google to make your website load faster.

  • Move your config file outside of webroot
    This is a core hack. Files you change as described on this page will be overwritten during updates of Joomla!

    This tip explains how to move your configuration.php file outside of your webroot as well as making it unwritable by the server. That makes it nearly impossible for someone to corrupt or gain access to the information in the file.

  • Other usual hacker tactics

    There are numerous other tactics that can be used to break into a computer system, and these usually involve discovering weaknesses or loopholes in the server software's defenses. When a programmer writes software that runs on a web server, he tries to make sure that the software cannot be abused - but it can be very difficult to foresee every eventuality; vandals and hackers are always pushing software to the limit and trying out operations which the software was not designed to handle, in an attempt to discover a way in.

  • Protect yourself from clickjacking hack

    Clickjacking is a browser security issue and is a vulnerability across a variety of browsers and platforms. A clickjack takes the form of embedded code or a script that can execute without the user's knowledge, such as clicking on a button that appears to perform another function. The hacker installs an invisible layer over the existing site, hijacking the user's clicks. The suspicious-less user will perform this way actions they never intended to, from apparently inoffensive ones, as following someone on Twitter, to really nasty things, like password, credit card information theft, and anything else you might (not want to) do on a webpage.

  • Server Settings

    Joomla specifies certain settings that are recommended for proper functioning of the system. A list of the recommended and actual settings is displayed when you install Joomla. One of the recommended settings is to have 'Display Errors' switched on. This is very useful when developing and debugging a site, but there is a security vulnerability in PHP (not Joomla, but the language in which Joomla was written) which may allow cross-site-scripting attacks when the display errors option is enabled, if you have a script which produces an error.

  • Stop image hotlinking

    When other people link to your images directly this can put an unwanted, additional strain on your servers - it is not just an annoying, unfair practice to use your intellectual property.

    That practice is called image hotlinking and you can disable it by adding some code to your .htaccessfile.

  • The 301 redirect

    Just upgraded from a static site to Joomla? Or just reorganised your content? And, of course, you don't want to loose your existing Google PageRank and your external links...

    What you can do?

    301 redirect is the most efficient and Search Engine Friendly method for webpage redirection. It's not that hard to implement and it should preserve your search engine rankings for that particular page. If you have to change file names or move pages around, it's the safest option. The code "301" is interpreted as "moved permanently". This is the solution Google recommends for webmasters to keep their ratings.

  • Turbocharge your Joomla site

    Over the years spent in web page building and maintaining (since 1995, when published my very first webpage on a self-hosted SCO Linux box) a lot of information has been collected, settled down and at the end the best and most important tricks helping to make a website became fast and stable in the same time where surfaced. Despite the fact, that I wrote about this subject several times, it's a subject wich never looses his actuality.