Unfortunately, I’ve seen a good amount of friends  and clients who have WordPress sites that have been hacked.  I wrote a post about it in December after 2 clients came to me for help, but one of them had to go the professional route to get her site clean.  So very frustrating!

After some research, I thought it would be useful to list a few WordPress great maintenance tips to help prevent hackers from accessing your site, or at the very least, help you restore it if it happens to you (UGH).

1.  Don’t use the default “admin” username. If you’re doing a fresh install, there should be a box to uncheck the “default” and create another username.  If you have been using “admin” as your username, you can create a new administrator and delete admin, OR if you would prefer to edit it, you can do so via phpMyAdmin through your host.  Added to this, regularly change your password and keep it complicated!
2.  Delete unused themes. I’ve seen many bloggers keeping themes installed and they can be a way for a hacker to insert the spam code into your site.
3.  Keep everything updated. WordPress, themes, plugins….everything.
4.  Back up your site regularly. This may be what helps restore your site if you ever get hacked.  You can use a plugin or do it manually through FTP access.
5.  Use the free Sucuri scanner plugin or even a paid subscription (full disclosure, this is an affiliate link).  Sucuri seems to be the most recommended so far, but use whatever you’re comfortable with. Regular scans are encouraged though.

My favorite tips so far are from wptavern.com and are for more advanced (or adventurous) users:  move the wp-config.php file, edit the “Secret Keys” within wp-config.php, and even make your dashboard accessible only to certain IP addresses within the .htaccess file.

I hope that this is helpful!  Have a tip to add?  Comment below!

Nicole K

As you may know, I was really hoping this post would be about the new Walt Disney World MyMagic+ system.  We missed random testing in our resort by 1 month!  Darn!  We did use RFID cards, the park WiFi, and the My Disney Experience app which was nice but I’ll talk about that in a future post.  Instead, I’m going to tell you how Disney cast members saved our trip.

We started with 2 near perfect days at Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom after a long but fun 2 day drive down to Orlando.  My 30th birthday was the next day and the trip looked to be going into the BEST TRIP EVER category.  The night we came home from Animal Kingdom, I didn’t feel right and spent a couple hours nervously wondering if I had gotten food poisoning.  I had in fact gotten sick and that night and my birthday were spent in our room recovering.  I slept most of the time while my husband cared for our sons and he even lied to me that our infant boy was ok when he was having a less severe version (thankfully) of what I had.

Somehow, we still convinced ourselves that it was food poisoning and ventured into Hollywood Studios the next day.  We were very wrong and my oldest son and husband had their turn coming.  But it was way worse for them and they ended up in the ER together for meds and fluids.  Seeing my 3 year old getting an IV put in was so very sad.  We were supposed to be on rides or taking pictures with Mickey.  My poor boys.

Fortunately, the trip to the ER helped immensely and it was the best thing we could have done for them.  We were told to watch our 3 year old’s temperature and bring him back if he had a fever because his white blood cell count was very high.  Well, he got a fever.  We spent the next afternoon/evening in the ER again.  It all turned out ok and it was just his body fighting off the virus, but it was a little scary for a while there with all the tests going on.

At this point, I didn’t care if we ever made it back into the parks but my husband was determined to redeem this trip.  The next evening after a day of rest, we headed back to Hollywood Studios and made a beeline for the Disney Jr. Live Show.  We were 3 minutes late and this is where the first little bit of magic happened.  I looked at the cast members and told them about our last 4 days, how we missed so much and it was our last chance for our son to see the show.  They immediately told us to follow them and we were taken through the back into the show that was already in progress.  Our son ended up not being up for it and we left early, but it was so nice to have a break given to us.  We had a few more disappointments that night but we were celebrating our 12th dating anniversary and tried to keep positive.

We named the last day “Redemption Day” and headed to Magic Kingdom.  We stopped a cast member and started asking him about strategies for seeing as much as we could and explained what had happened.  He started explaining how he had been there 20 years and he wanted to make the rest of our trip as magical as possible.  Out came a booklet with “coupons” we could use to get absolute VIP entry into any attraction we wanted to.  He hands us a few of them made out to us and a current FastPass for the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin ride and I give him a huge hug.

The rest of the day was a dream.  We left Magic Kingdom for a few hours and went to an amazing dinner at The Yachtsman.  Then we headed right back and stayed until close at 1 am, going on all the rides we wanted to go on and more.

We were checking out the next morning when I got a call from the front desk that there was a package waiting for us.  Here’s where I broke down and cried.  Our 3 year old, Cole, was in the ER when we were supposed to be at The Pirates League for his appointment to be made into Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  We had canceled too late but they happily took off the automatic charge for missed appointments.  And they did way more than that.  When I picked up the package, it was the whole entire Jake outfit with accessories and a note from the “Captain” wishing Cole well.  They also included a Jake doll for him.  I lost it in that gift shop, let me tell you.

Disney Magic exists.  And it saved our trip.

Giggles, Gobbles, & Gulps

Magazine Basic created by c.bavota

Header, blog badge, signature, social icons, & Social Networks graphics designed by Nicole

The game was so easy to play, there were different levels ranging from Beginner to Difficult.  There were also different modes of play, such as Clear the Jar, Free Play, Fixed Time, and Race the Clock.  I had a ton of fun playing Clear the Jar and trying to beat my previous times.  The concept of the game is quite simple- drop the marbles into the jar and try to get at least three in a row, or at least touching.  The more you eliminate, the more points you get.  As you progress through different bowls, the game gets more challenging.  The first bowl has no rim, but, once you start playing with rimmed bowls, you just don’t know where the marble is going to land if you get too close to the edge.

With the free version of the game, you get three bowls to play.  For just $1.99, you can upgrade within the app to 9 bowls.  I see myself playing this game for a long time so I decided to upgrade and I am not disappointed.   To find your next favorite iPhone/iPad game, visit Big Fish Games online catalog.

- Tricia K.

Big Fish Games provided me with a free gift card to facilitate this review.   All opinions are 100% my own.

Destiny Laughed

Template provided by Blogger

Background, header/logo, blog badge, signature, menu & social icons designed by Nicole

I had a lot of fun playing with the HTC One X+ and highly recommend it and other HTC phones.

Remember:  HTC provided me with a free HTC One X+ in order to participate in Troop One X+ and facilitate all reviews.   All opinions are 100% my own.

We’re headed to Disney World again!  This time, I used my 30th as an excuse to plan a trip to WDW in March.  The excitement, scraping & saving, and researching has done a great job of distracting me and getting me through our loss of our 8 year old dog, Truffle.  I’m finally starting to feel more normal and looking forward to the rest of 2013.

The planning of this trip is definitely different from our last one.  First off, we LOVE Bridget at Pixie Vacations and she helped a lot at the beginning of the planning.  But we had our heart set on Animal Kingdom and kept looking at ways we could afford it.  Only a stroke of good luck allowed us that option.  We searched Mouseowners.com for DVC (Disney Vacation Club) owners who were renting out their points and actually found someone with points expiring March 30th.  With the expiration so close, they were willing to negotiate with us and we got an incredible deal of $8/point.  I would write a whole DVC post but so many people have already done that, so I’ll just link you to one to learn more.

We won’t be flying this time because Cole is now 3 and the cost is more than we can afford.  We purchased a new (to us!) car this past summer with 3 rows and a DVD player and thought it would be a great time to try a road trip with our two boys.  So we’ll be driving down this time around and stopping part of the way down and back to sleep.

I ended up using TripIt again and still love it for keeping our reservations in order.  And I’ve made all of our ADR (advanced dinner reservations) already.  All that’s left is our tickets!

One thing I wasn’t aware of on our last trip until we were there was the PhotoPass service.  There are photographers all over the parks and you hand your card to them to scan so that any pictures they take of you are uploaded to your account.  They can be at locations with characters or randomly throughout the parks.  What’s makes this so great is that moms that are normally not in the pictures (like me!), can now be in all of them.  And you don’t have to carry a camera around if you don’t want to.  AND the pictures are professional quality.  AND they’re all included!  If you order before you go, you get a pretty nice discount off a CD or the plus package.

Content and/or other value provided by our partner, HTC.

Techmomogy needs to have gadgets though.  I cannot wait to use my HTC One X+ in the parks to check in on Facebook and show off pictures of what my family is doing as we’re experiencing everything.  An added bonus for this trip is Disney has the “My Disney Experience” app on Android which includes maps, wait times for rides, park hours, character meet times, and more!  I am really looking forward to trying this out and reporting back.  I’m also planning on bringing our Kodak Playsport again for even more pictures and video.  It’s waterproof and rugged, so I don’t have to worry about breaking it throughout our adventures.

To add even MORE to all of this is the possible addition of the new FastPass+ system.  We aren’t sure if it will be there when we visit, but this tech family is ready and willing to test it all out.

I would love to bring back information for anyone with questions, so comment below and I will take note for a Q&A post when we get back! 

HTC provided me with a free HTC One X+ in order to participate in Troop One X+ and facilitate all reviews.   All opinions are 100% my own.

I got a chance to try out Redbox Instant by Verizon during the past couple of weeks and I wasn’t blown away.  Here’s why:

1. The movies are pretty much the exact same available on both Netflix and Amazon Prime.  Why pay twice for the same service?
2. The service is only available on smartphones (iPhone and Android), tablets (iPad and Android), and computers.  That means no access via my Smart TV or Bluray player which is how I primarily watch streaming content anyway.  I truly think it was a bad idea to launch Redbox Instant without available apps on devices connected to TVs.  Connecting my computer to my TV is so 2 years ago.
3. The 4 included credits for rentals from their kiosk is a nice touch except they’re only for DVDs.  So I once again miss out on my preference, which is to watch a Bluray version of whatever movie I rent.

I feel like this service could have done a better job of really standing out from the competition but for right now, they’ve missed that opportunity.

Memoirs of a Modern Day Wife

Genesis Framework

Background, header/logo, blog badge, signature, & social icons designed by Nicole

Ask Ashley

The Blissful Blog by Muku Studios

Background & header/logo designed by Nicole

The new HTC One X+ is a powerful Android phone that just came out for AT&T.  I’ve been using it for a couple weeks now, and this phone is sweet.  It packs in a QUAD-core processor, 64 GB of storage, the latest Android OS, and an 8 MP camera.  It’s a superstar phone and it could be yours!

Content and/or other value provided by our partner, HTC.

You have various chances to win, so take advantage!

• Tell me how you will use your new phone! Leave a comment below with your answer.
• “Like” Techmomogy on Facebook. Leave a comment below telling me that you did so.  If you already “like” me, you’ve earned that entry!
• “Follow” Techmomogy on Twitter. Leave a comment below telling me that you did so.  If you already “follow” me, you’ve earned that entry!
• Tweet this giveaway and tag @Tech_mom_o_gy!  Leave a comment below telling me that you did so.  (ETA:  Daily Tweets and therefore daily entries permitted)
  
• “Follow” Techmomogy on Pinterest.  Leave a comment below telling me that you did so.  If you already “follow” me, you’ve earned that entry!
• Pin this giveaway and tag Techmomogy!  Leave a comment below telling me that you did so.  (ETA:  Daily Pins and therefore daily entries permitted)
  

Content and/or other value provided by our partner, HTC.

Winner will receive an HTC One X+ optimized for AT&T (Service is not included).  Giveaway is only open to US residents.  Entries will be accepted from today, January 25th, at noon EST until Friday, February 1st, at noon EST.  One winner will be chosen at random via “And the Winner Is” WordPress Plugin.

Winners will be contacted via email and will have 24 hours to reply.  If no reply is received, winner will forfeit prize and a new winner will be chosen.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

HTC provided me with a free HTC One X+ in order to participate in Troop One X+ and facilitate all reviews as well as a free HTC One X+ to give away.   All opinions are 100% my own.