What is Secure Live?

Most add-ons and plugins in general are specific to a particular CMS.  This is not the case with a diverse security tool known as Secure Live.  Secure Live is a robust combination of a software tool and a real-time, live monitoring service that provides added security for content-rich websites.  Though primarily used to beef up the security of Joomla websites, it also offers modules for other open-source applications, including e107, Magento and WordPress.  Secure Live also supports most site based exclusively on the PHP programming language and plans to offer support for the Drupal CMS in the very near future.

Key Features

The biggest draw to Secure Live is that it provides critical security services such as blocking, alerting and even reporting when your website has been attacked.  It offers the ability to monitor an entire network of sites as a single unit, accurately and quickly updating each individual client as new attacks are identified.  Here are some of the ways Secure Live helps you respond to attacks on your CMS:

- Sends notification of attack to the serve administrator.

- Captures information that can help track down the attacker.  This includes geo-tracking, attack strings and other important details that could possibly be used to identify the perpetrator.

- Notifies Secure Live security staff about the attacks.  The staff then files a report and sends evidence of the exploit to the appropriate parties so they can take action against the attackers.

- Sends alerts to all Secure Live client applications to automatically modify security settings in case the attacker attempts to exploit other systems.

Conclusion

Secure Live isn’t necessarily cheap, but an adequate security system shouldn’t be.  All it takes is one pesky hacker to put you in a situation where you are forced to pay fines and suffer legal repercussions because your website was compromised.  Although Secure Live is not an all-in-solution that will put an end to your security concerns, it is a premium product that gives you what you paid for and then some.  It is a very sophisticated system that can help you act fast enough to shut the bad guys down and keep them out of CMS.  The best thing about Secure Live is that it can grow right along with your site as threats evolve and become more severe.

]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/11/09/enhanced-cms-security-with-secure-live/feed/ 2 http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/09/03/textpattern-the-text-friendly-cms/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/09/03/textpattern-the-text-friendly-cms/#comments Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:38:12 +0000 CommunicateBetter http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=505 In World Wide Web years, TextPattern is a mature CMS that has been around in alpha and beta versions since 2001 and finally distributed under the GNU GPL in 2004.  The product has been dramatically improved over the years and the most notable enhancements yet can be seen in the latest version release, TextPattern 4.20.  If you need an easier and more efficient way to manage your content, the features of this open-source CMS tool may be of interest.

Word Processing-Like Environment

One of Textpattern’s key features is Textile, an intuitive syntax that allows you to easily convert plaintext into well structured rich web content.  Often nagging elements such as hyperlinks, tables and image tags can be created with one or two markers, making it closer to working with ordinary text as opposed to complex code.  When you are ready to publish your content, Textile takes all marked copy and automatically converts it to clean, valid XHTML.  In addition, all articles you compose in Textpattern can be viewed in plaintext, XHTML or a rendered preview.

Versatile CSS Editing

Textpattern offers full support for CSS, offering two modes that allow you to customize and enhance the presentation of your site in different ways.  Manual CSS mode lets you to create or edit any CSS data directly from the administrative interface.  This enables you to quickly edit styles without dealing with the hassle that often results from uploading via FTP.  You can create your style sheets from scratch or by using one of many compatible WYSIWYG editors.  Automatic CSS mode is an advanced feature that utilizes an organized interface to make CSS parameters more comprehensive and manageable.  CSS can really enhance the performance of a website and Textpattern allows you to harness all the power of this optimal design technology.

Link Friendly

There are quite a few CMS tools that offer power and ease of use, but lack the features needed to easily increase visibility via the search engines.  This isn’t the case with TextPattern as the software excels in SEO-friendly pages and link management.  You can store an unlimited number of links in an unlimited number of categories anywhere you want on your site.  It also makes it simple to add news links through the built-in editor or a Javascript book marklet, which displays a popup window to use where ever you may be on the web.

Add-on Functionality

Although Textpattern is not supported by nearly as many plugins as open-source products like Joomla and Drupal, the platform is very extensible.  All available add-on components can be installed and maintained in a straightforward manner.  Once you have incorporated them, they can be easily enabled or disabled through the administrative interface where you can also access help and parameters used by supported plugins.

Conclusion

Textpattern is an open-source CMS product that is free to download and use.  The software requires PHP 4.3 or higher, MySQL 3.23 or higher and the Apache web server.  Its developer also strongly recommends the use of a Unix operating system, although it states that the software will “probably” work on any platform that supports PHP.  Being a free and user-friendly tool, you may want to check your system requirements and give Textpattern a test drive to see if it meets your needs before giving up your preferred CMS.