You may remember a bit back, I talked about Google Apps and how they are now available on all the of the SoVeryAPT Servers via the cPanel. Well, they’re still there and fairly easy to follow through, but if you’re perhaps not a technically mind soul, you might be thinking “it would be really good to get these working with my domain name, but I don’t really understand how.”

If that’s you, then I’m now able to help set up Google Apps for you. If you’re not quite sure what Google Apps are, it’s essentially a collection of tools to unite your digital life, be that your calendars, document storage, e-mails or something else, it is a central focal point in this new age of “The Cloud” (or as it used to be called, the Internet! lol).   If you would like to know more about Google Apps, then take a look at www.google.com/a

Google are of course just one provider of such services, but it all links together so well that this is the main solution I have chosen for SoVeryAPT itself (I say main solution as I do use a few solutions to make sure that I have various abilities for my clients to connect in with me).

Anyway, getting back to my point, if you, like a number of people, haven’t set it up because you’re not sure then I can now help!  For a one-off fee (starting at £25 – see my prices page for more detail) I can set you up with a Free Google Apps account where you can have up to 10 users (though in reality, this would be 9 users as one of those would be taken for a login for myself to help trouble shoot in the future).  This would get your e-mail working through Google, give you instructions on how to set up you various mail clients to use in conjunction with Google and also get custom redirection set up on your domain name so you don’t have to go remembering long-winded addresses.

If this is something that might interest you, then why not drop me a line for further information.

P.S. I would like to point out that I can only guarantee a complete set up if you are either a client of SoVeryAPT already, or that you are happy to grant me access to your various domain settings that I need to access, but drop me a line for more information on it all.

So, some exciting news!

Those of you who already know about GoogleApps, or use GMail for your e-mail services, will know just how useful the GoogleApps can be.  So now, you can integrate your own domain with GoogleApps right from your cPanel with ALL of our hosting plans.

This is great for clients who currently use a forwarding address to their GMail accounts and send using a masked e-mail back out, as now you can simply collect all your e-mail direct from your GMail account as if it was sent there in the first place.

So this is what you get:

GoogleApps for Mail - Let Google handle your mail. Take advantage of massive storage space, powerful spam filtering and excellent mobile platform integration.

GoogleApps for Documents - Create, edit and store documentation online, with real-time collaboration. (Web-based documents, spreadsheets, drawings and presentations that let users edit the same file at the same time so you always have the latest version.)

GoogleApps for Calendar - Organize your business efficiently and manage your events online. (A web-based calendar application that enables people/employees to work together efficiently and helps minimize costs and IT hassles.)

If you want any more information, click through to your cPanel (www.yourdomain.com/cpanel) login and click on the GoogleApps Icon (it looks like a little Jet Engine with Wings) and see what they offer!  Of course, at anytime if you find they’re not for you, there is an option to opt out of it all and revert the settings back to defaults.

http://db.tt/171hPkh

That’s right, I’m just doing a bit of a plug for the online file sharing, sync and backup solution, Dropbox.  ”Why?” might you ask, well it’s simple really, it’s just a really good way of either sharing files with someone else (great for collaborating on projects) or simply having files you need readily available to you on any computer.

I started using it just to collaborate on a few things with a good friend of mine, Andy Gray (which by the way, if you’re into cycling at all, check out his blog www.icyclelite.com .. some really good stuff on there), but from there I’ve used it for all sorts.  It will be one of the places that my clients will be able to get my WordPress Instructional from to allow them to better manage their sites, but it’s also a place that I can easily share a folder for my clients to send through information to me for new projects.

I work, part-time, in a school as a Network Technician (looking after computers and the like) and though I have access file stores in school, sometimes, with restrictions that can be found in educational establishments – for good reason at times, I might not be able to access certain files that make my job easier, not because there’s anything wrong with the files as such, but the odd bit of profanity or undesirable advert on a website can easily get you blocked in a school, so this means I can access information at home and save it to my Dropbox to use in school.

There are loads of different uses for it, and there are apps for phones and mobile web access etc, as well as a rather neat offline sync application which runs on Windows, Mac or Linux and allows you to keep a local backup of your files and folders that you store on Dropbox so that even when you’re not connected to the net, you can have access to them.

So go on, check it out, it’s a great tool and resource!

Well, it would appear that spammers have decided to really start targeting WordPress sites at the moment in terms of content SPAM.  Thankfully, WordPress being WordPress, by default these comments and such are stored as pending so they have to be approved or trashed by an administrator on the site, but wouldn’t it be nice if you could simply have less SPAM coming through in the first place?

If you think so, then take a read..

There are many different ways to cut down on SPAM to a WordPress site, one of the simplest ways is to make use of Akismet which is built into each and every WordPress site.  To do this though, you will need to either pay a monthly fee if you site isn’t just a personal blog.  For low traffic, single sites this starts at $5 / month, but raises dependant upon the traffic your site receives and the number of sites you are planning to install it on.  You can view more on the Akismet Signup Page.  The Akismet option is available to all my clients, personal blogs I will make use of the free key, all others I will charge accordingly, but what if you simply can’t afford it?

Well, for those sites that don’t fall within the “Personal Blog” remit of Akismet, I have found that the SI CAPTCHA Plugin is the next best thing.  With various levels of integration it works beautifully to produce CAPTCHA Images (those little images where your asked to enter the text in a box before you can submit a form on a website) and, if you have an Akismet Key Installed, it works in conjunction to help further reduce the amount of SPAM that you get through to your site in the first place.

SI CAPTCHA is another one of those plugins that I install on my clients websites as part of the basic package as I know myself, there is nothing worse than spending most of your time cleaning up SPAM from a site before you even get started on doing the rest of your blogging and updates.

There are of course MANY difference CAPTCHA Anti-SPAM plugins for WordPress, but these are 2 that I’ve found to work brilliantly, so I thought I would share them with you.  If you have found others that work as well though, please do get in touch and let me know as whilst these plugins are constantly developed, the spammers are equally determined to catch them out and work on ways to get round them, so the more options there are available to people the better, but for now, these are doing just brilliantly.

So, new name, new look, new business cards .. even a new printer to add to the collection to ensure that I always deliver the best results!

Andy

Well, I’ve spent a good part of the day writing instructions for WordPress so that new (and indeed existing clients) of mine who use WordPress to power their sites can get the most out of it.

So, this is a video Derren posted a link to on Facebook, and I found it rather amusing, so thought I’d use it to test out my new TumBlog set up.

So, here it is, at long last, my new website.

You would not believe how long it takes me to design my own stuff, but I’m quite happy with the end result.

Over the next week or so I’ll be putting up some more detail about the services I’m offering, which will include my new managed hosting solution. (It’s designed to get you online faster without all the usual worries).

Keep your eyes and ears peeled for that and I’ll be sure to post up more soon.

Thanks for visiting
Andy