Tag Archives: security

Akismet – a vital plugin

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Ascreenshot for the Akismet plugin

Akismet is a plugin which protects your blog from spam. It’s apparently the best, and every book I read recommended it. Urgently. So I found and activated it right away.

Not that I have any spammy comments to worry about. Nobody even knows I’m here. At the moment, this blog is just me, talking to myself, in a big empty echoing space.

But the books say there are nasty spambots roaming the internet, ready to dump thousands of spammy comments on any unprotected blog they come across.  So I figured, better safe than sorry, and I put up safeguards first thing.

There are a few steps to activating Akismet — for details, check your how-to book, web host, WordPress plugin directory  or the Akismet home page. For personal websites (like our author websites) you can get Akismet for free, or choose to pay $0 to $120 for it. I chose to pay a small amount. I may be frugal, but I also try to be fair, and if the writers and developers of this plugin are providing a vital service, then I figure they deserve some payback. As writers, we know the value of intellectual property.

Follow-up, 10 months later:

I made my first post in late October. Akismet caught 37 (!) spam comments over the next 2 months, despite the fact that I did nothing, nada, zip to bring this website to the attention of search engines.

Since then, it’s caught 4 or 5 each month. And again, the website and blog were inactive much of that time, and totally unadvertised.

I did check my spam folder each day, and the flagged comments were indeed spam. Although some were cleverly disguised as compliments about my post — “I am glad to be one of many visitants on this great site (:, appreciate it for putting up..” Aw, shucks…

Bottom line — based on my experience, I definitely advise getting Akismet immediately.

I do think it’s good to check the spam folder daily, to make sure Akismet hasn’t intercepted any legitimate comments. It never has for me — but of course, I haven’t had any legitimate comments yet… When I do, I’ll report back whether false positives are a problem.

User names and passwords – a potential pitfall

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The Potential Pitfall

When I signed up with my web host, I picked out a password during the sign-up process and then they emailed me an assigned user name. I logged in. So far, so good.

But then, when I installed WordPress, the software which would manage my website, I needed to pick ANOTHER user name and password for my WordPress “administrator account.”

And then, when I activated or loaded some plug-in or other to work with my WordPress, I discovered I needed to sign up for an account at WordPress.com, the place where all the free WordPress blogs live, and which apparently handles and doles out plug-ins for everyone, whether free or hosted elsewhere. I didn’t need to set up a blog — just get an account. But that meant ANOTHER user name and password.

Frankly, I got pretty confused and discombobbled.

The Simple Solution

But I eventually figured it out. And realized it made sense. I only have one website — but if I had several different websites, then it would be best for each one to have its own security. Plus, my web host has a lot of other tools besides WordPress, and it needs its own security, too.

Maybe you handle multiple user names and passwords without breaking a sweat. But if you think you might get confused, and want to avoid this potential pitfall, keep track and remember:

To deal with your web host

Log in with —

  • your webhost username
  • your webhost password
  • and you manage it from  cPanel (or some other control panel, but I think cPanel is standard)

To manage your own website, run by WordPress software

Log into your administrator account with —

  • your administrator account username
  • your administrator account password
  • and you manage it from the Dashboard

One downside of WordPress is that — because  it is so widely used — there are lots of bad guys out there targeting every unsuspecting WordPress site they can find. One method is to guess the administrator account username and password, and simply take over.

Therefore, be sure to pick some non-obvious username for your administrator account (NOT “admin” or your own name) and a very strong password. I’ll mention further security concerns as they crop up.

To get plug-ins and other WordPress goodies

Set up a free WordPress.com account with —

  • your WordPress.com username
  • your WordPress.com password

And of course, all these accounts, regardless of their user names and passwords, need your usual email address to reach you!