The Domain Name System (DNS) is a critical internet protocol that translates domain names into IP addresses. This allows users to access websites and other resources using human-readable names instead of complicated numerical addresses. While there is a plethora of information about DNS available online, here is a brief overview of the key concepts.
DNS operates using a network of servers that store lists of domain names and their corresponding IP addresses. When a user types in a domain name in their browser, the browser sends a request to a DNS server to retrieve the associated IP address. The browser then uses the IP address to connect to the website.
To speed up this process, browsers will store a local copy of DNS records for websites that users have visited recently. This allows the browser to retrieve the IP address from the cache instead of having to query a DNS server every time the site is accessed. However, cached records eventually expire and must be refreshed.
There are two reasons why changes to DNS settings can take time to propagate throughout the system. First, cached records may persist in the browser or on intermediate servers, delaying the retrieval of updated records. Second, DNS records are stored on multiple distributed servers around the world, so changes may take time to propagate to all the servers. Therefore, it is important to be patient when making changes to DNS settings and to take caching into account when troubleshooting DNS issues.
For more information check the Wiki 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.
Plugins are small programs that are easily added to Wordpress to expand it’s functionality. By design WordPress is delivered in a “bare bones” state. Rather than have WordPress come with all the possibilities available, many of which a person would not use, the software lets you add what you need resulting in a much leaner and faster website or blog.
WordPress has over 41,000 free plugins to choose from. The popularity of WordPress gives the user a larger number of options when it comes to adding the custom functionality you are looking for.
From WordPress.org:
“Plugins are ways to extend and add to the functionality that already exists in WordPress.”
“The core of WordPress is designed to be lean and lightweight, to maximize flexibility and minimize code bloat. Plugins then offer custom functions and features so that each user can tailor their site to their specific needs.”
If you want to know more about how plugins work and where to get them try WordPress.org.
There are many reasons to use WordPress as your content management system. Security, reliability, usability, popularity (41,000 plugins), its flexibility, and its long standing history with a great group of dedicated volunteer developers at its core.
For small to medium sized companies WordPress is a perfect solution. It gives companies the ability to make minor updates to their site internally. Which can save money and time.
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.