The Forget Button
Strategies for Remembering Login Credentials Updated for 2026: we first wrote this in 2012. The tech has changed, so we rewrote parts of it for today. Updated Oct 2026 · First published May 23, 2012 Strategies for...
Read more →Why Should We Upgrade our Site?
When we first wrote this in 2011, the question was about moving off Joomla 1.5. The versions have changed, but the question hasn't. Today, Joomla 4 no longer gets security fixes (they ended October 14, 2025), and Joomla...
Read more →100% Guaranteed!
The previous blog post about our websites being up 99%+ of the time leads to another discussion. We had a prospect who wanted to host with a different outfit. This group guaranteed 100% uptime. We can't guarantee that,...
Read more →What's Up and What's Down?
Back when we wrote this, we rented two servers at 1and1.com to host our clients' websites. (Our hosting has changed since then, but the lesson hasn't.) One of them had just passed a major milestone: being up without...
Read more →Backing Up on Square Wheels
One of the things we try hard to do is not reinvent the wheel. That's why we use Joomla! instead of writing our own Content Management System, why we search hard for off-the-shelf components before we write our own. For...
Read more →What Cheap Web Hosting Really Costs You (and What to Look For)
Years ago, a prospective client asked us about a “screaming deal” on hosting. A few dollars a month. Would we still support his site there? Updated for 2026: we first wrote this in 2010. The tech has changed, so we...
Read more →Hosting Issues
We try to host most of our clients' websites. We started doing this because we tried using a service that claimed to offer 'custom Joomla hosting' packages. After two days on that service and horrible website load...
Read more →Time to drop the 'www'
What's your website's address? Ours is 3by400.com. Note that I don't put a 'www' in front of it. Why? I believe it's now passè. We all know it's the 'World Wide Web'. I suggest dropping the 'www' because: It's just more...
Read more →Choosing Good Passwords
Choosing a good password is always a problem. The essential tension is that a good password should be easy to remember, yet hard to guess. Most people err on one side or the other. Most people choose passwords that are...
Read more →PCI Compliance for Everyone
If your business handles credit card payments, you need to be concerned about the rules and regulations of safeguarding the sensitive cardholder data. I was reminded of this the other day when a charge for $9.95 showed...
Read more →The Black Art of Black Lists
Today some email from one of our servers was blocked at a user's site. The logfile said that our IP address was on their blacklist. Odd, I thought, since we don't send out much email and certainly don't send out spam. I...
Read more →Removing a Past Employee Mailbox in Google Workspace
It happens to us all...whether in good situations or bad, your company will lose employees. If those employees are client-facing, not only do you have to worry about filling their spot, you also need to make sure client...
Read more →E-mail Marketing Tips
If you utilize e-mail marketing to prospective customers, make sure you don’t become an offensive spammer. There are a few simple rules to follow that can make a difference between happy customers and angry spam...
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Dot Con Artists
Several months ago, I wrote an article with information from the FTC about SPAM regulations. Since then, I’ve found their web site to be a treasure trove of information about Internet fraud. As problematic as SPAM and...
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Making Your Website Easier for Older Visitors
We once wrote about tech gadgets made for seniors. Big-button phones. Simple email devices. Most of those products are gone now. The idea behind them isn’t. Updated for 2026: we first wrote this in 2007. The tech has...
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Domains Held Hostage
For some companies, web sites are a nicety—they exist as a brochure but don’t really drive business. Other companies depend upon their web sites for sales and new client generation to such a large degree that their...
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Got Spam?
I find that spam—not the spiced ham in a can variant, but the deluge of unsolicited commercial e-mail—has become the topic of many of my conversations of late. It’s always evident when a new spamming tool becomes...
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