The latest update of WP Net Price Calculator™ empowers online colleges to tailor the tool to their specific needs. This feature allows them to eliminate questions that are not applicable to virtual institutions, such as room and board expenses.
WP Net Price Calculator™ is a user-friendly plugin for WordPress that helps colleges comply with section 132 of the Higher Education Act of 1965. By simply placing [wp-net-price-calculator] on a page, the plugin can be easily set up, with no additional coding required. Its flexible configuration options make it a highly versatile solution.
The plugin’s form is fully responsive and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We continuously update the plugin to ensure its accuracy, given that the expected family contribution (EFC) calculation changes yearly. By making a small yearly payment, you can keep the plugin up-to-date and precise.
If you are feeling adventurous and are comfortable on the command line, try setting one up yourself. You need a server that is not in your own home of course! Not much point in that. You don’t want a managed server either. You need full control of this puppy. I looked around and found that Digital Ocean provided just the thing I was looking for. I was able to spin up an Ubuntu 18.04 server droplet and set up the VPN using their very clear instructions.
You still have to trust that they are not farming your data too and they might be. They are not selling themselves as a VPN provider so they may not be geared to collect and sell your data. Just don’t go breaking the law, you will most surely get caught.
You can’t watch Netflix through it so don’t expect to. Neflix can detect your VPN as many people have made this move and Netflix has flagged many Digital Ocean servers.
To set up a droplet and get started with your own VPN click here.
It is important to keep your WordPress installation updated for many reasons. Security is at the top of the list. Updating your plugins, themes, and core files to the latest versions is the best thing you can do to avoid security problems with your website. In fact having your website fully updated is the single most important factor in preventing malicious activity.
WordPress comes with a feature called automatic updates built in. When you first install WordPress minor core automatic security updates are set by default. This means that any updates to the core files of WordPress will be automatically updated when they are released. This is a great for security reasons and peace of mind. If there is a security patch released the patch will automatically install without you having to do anything at all.
The default automatic updates are only the bare minimum of what is possible with the WordPress automatic update options. There are other update features that come with WordPress that are not turned on by default. You can turn these on programmatically or you can download a plugin that will allow you the flexibility to set all the options available. The program I wrote and use is called L7 Automatic Updates.
L7 Automatic Updates allows you to choose which plugins you want to update and which ones you don’t. This is a handy feature that I use on many sites I have inherited.
Keeping all of your plugins, themes, and core files updated to the latest versions not only keeps your site running smoothly, it is the greatest security measure you can take.
Security is a complex topic. There are many different ways a would be hacker can compromise a website. Often the server on which Wordpress is installed has been compromised. On a shared server environment this can lead to many websites being “hacked”. This can be hard to detect and often hosting companies will not disclose this kind of information because it affects their reputation.
The most common reason for a WordPress site being “hacked” is an out dated version of the software. With version 3.7 (currently 4.3.1) came automatic updates. Wordpress has settings that allow you to choose what level of automatic updates you will allow.
There are four levels of automatic updates:
“By default, every site has automatic updates enabled for minor core releases and translation files.” WordPress codex.
For people who are not comfortable editing the config.php file in a WordPress install it is best to install a plugin to make changing the settings easy for you. The plugin I use is called L7 Automatic Updates. It is a free plugin that provides all the options a regular user would want to use.
With your site automatically updated to the latest version of WordPress your website is secure. When the next bug release or security flaw is discovered your site will be protected as soon as the patch is released.
WordPress is an open source project which means that the code that runs it is freely available to scrutinized by everyone. At first this may seem like a bad idea because you are exposing the inner workings of the system to would be hackers. But it has been proven that this kind of exposure lets the code be inspected by many, many people who can and do report their findings to the WordPress organization, which creates a patch and can deploy it in a matter of hours.