Category Archives: websites

back to ads, sorry guys

14 Monday Sep 2026

Posted by in websites, casa azahar, technology

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I’m not sure if this will even matter to anyone, but today my WordPress.com Personal Plan expires and goes back to the regular free version, which means I will lose my azahar.me domain and you guys are now going to see stupid random automated ads throughout all the posts here. I don’t remember when they started charging to have an “ad-free” version, but I decided to pay for it because, frankly, the ads are ugly and distracting. But that was before I started up Sevilla Tapas and all the other blogs and websites I now self-host. And to be honest, I need to start trimming expenses wherever I can.

50€ a year (+ 25€ for the domain) may not seem like much, but added to all the other “small fees” I pay for various other domains, and the actually quite hefty annual fee I pay for hosting, and streaming stuff, music, and and and… yes, it all adds up. Anyhow, I am now saving 75€ a year and you are now going to see ugly ads. Sorry!

security

16 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by in internet, websites

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So now that my websites are up and running again I need to choose a good security service, so nothing like this happens again. I did a brief stint with SiteLock as an emergency measure, but in fact bought the wrong product (thanks to “advice” from HostGator) and then got a fast talking sales pitch from a SiteLock rep that kind of put me off them. So am now looking at Sucuri, which gets good reviews.

Anyone had any experience with Sucuri, or can recommend another tried and trusted service?

gator’s still got me

12 Friday Apr 2019

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So after a brief stint with SiteGround earlier this week, looks like HostGator’s still got me. Mostly because SiteGround didn’t offer enough space and HostGator was refusing to refund the money remaining on my account with them (paid up until June 2020).

However HG did agree to upgrade me to a business package at no extra cost, so what the hell. I don’t think there’s really much difference between these hosting places, and I may have had the same shitty “service” from any of them during my hacking crisis.

The place that did the data base cleaning also offers a hosting service, which they claim is much more secure than anything these big companies provide, but it also costs more than twice as much and, as I say, HostGator was not letting go of my money. So for now I will stay where I am and stay on top of things, like updates, etc. as well as adding extra security.

siteground

09 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by in internet, websites

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Fingers crossed! Spent the last couple of hours sorting out new hosting for my websites. After the HostGator fiasco when I was hacked, and after paying 800 euros for a manual data base cleaning, HG finally unblocked my websites. Except they are all a mess now, with content missing and links not working.

Enter SiteGround. I hope they will be better. I certainly felt like the guy on their chat line today was very helpful. Anyhow, it’s done. SG says they will transfer everything from HG over the next 24 hours and by tomorrow everything should be up and running properly. Whether all my content makes it is another matter. AND… still need to get a refund from HG as I am paid up with them until June 2021. It’s been a hellish month and I don’t even want to think about how much business I have lost by being offline. But hey… onwards!

spiraling down down down

15 Friday Mar 2019

Posted by in computers, websites

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Since ALL my websites were hacked on Wednesday (well, in truth they were hacked ten days ago, but I just found about it Wednesday when HostGator blocked them) I have been in a state of spiraling down… so down… because I don’t know what the hell I can do. At first my friend David came to the rescue and found a couple of dodgy things that he removed, and then I got BH to “whitelist” my sites again. But the next day it was the same nightmare and I am now almost hysterical.

It looks like I have lost a lot of content already, especially photos, and I don’t know how to make things right. And of course each day my sites are offline, I am losing money as nobody can find my tours. I get mixed advice from each help source I ask, and I honestly don’t know what to do next. My site has been taken over and the hackers are using them to run other sites, thereby overusing the CPU. If I don’t get this fixed soon my server with permanently block me. HELP???