We’re often asked where do we get WordPress plugins. Everyone knows you can search the WordPress Plugin directory (Admin) but the results are misleading and don’t always provide full results. Fine if you know the plugin, but if you want the “best” plugin, the reality is the best plugins cost money. The Lite version does […]
What happened to eBay Plugins: phpBay & phpZon?
We used phpBay and phpZon for many years and suddenly in 2020 discovered they were gone. A little research revealed phpBay and phpZon have been abandoned by its authors. phpZON vanished in 2018 and I suspect the final straw for phpBay was eBay withdrawing products feeds in September 2020. From what I hear Wade Wells […]
iThemes WordPress Security Webinar – Free
iThemes (free) WP security webinar to help you make sure you’ve locked down your website: Getting Started with WP Security for 2020. Getting Started with WP Security for 2020 Our friends at Cloudflare recently revealed that hacking and phishing attempts have been up by 37% and, on some days, they are blocking between four and […]
#1 WordPress Plugin: Cache Plugin
Of all the plugins recommended for WordPress, the Number #1 plugin at the top of the list is a Cache Plugin. For a minimal amount of work the benefits are massive to bothe website owner and the hosting server. Faster web pages Less drain on server Increase page rank on search engines What is caching? […]
Stop Contact Form 7 Spam in WordPress
After a flood of spam originating through our WordPress Contact forms with No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA, we needed a fix. This excellent article by barn2.co.uk shows 6 Ways to Stop Contact Form 7 Spam in WordPress The 2 we liked and are now trying are: 1. Quiz Simple quizzes are becoming a popular way to combat […]
Could not copy file: wordpress
WordPress 4.9.1 is available! Please update now. You can update to WordPress 4.9.1 automatically: I ran the update and got his message: Unpacking the update… Verifying the unpacked files… Preparing to install the latest version… The update cannot be installed because we will be unable to copy some files. When I googled the error I […]
Best WordPress Security Fix
How we locked down our WordPress web sites, but in one move drastically improved server performance. Keeping in mind that the most common attack against WordPress is brute force passwords, then why not stop it in it’s tracks by blocking access to wp-admin. By blocking all access to WordPress Admin except to known IP Addresses, […]
How important is website security?
As a host as well as a developer we see both sides of website security when it comes to attack and defence. An idea of the level of attacks still taking place, we see a (monthly) report published by security expert Wordfence, WordPress Attack Report. WordPress Attack Report This report contains the top 25 attacking […]
Wordfence Security Audit Service
I read this morning (May 2017) that Wordfence (security) has launched a WordPress Security Audit Service. Long overdue, it is a must for any WordPress owner who values their security. Here is the announced by Mark Maunder, Wordfence Founder/CEO. Wordfence Launches WordPress Security Audit Service This morning I am very excited to announce that Wordfence is […]
Plugin: I’m not a robot CAPATCHA
There is not a internet user anywhere that likes seeing a CAPTCHA at the bottom of a form. In 2016, we started seeing “I’m not a robot” simple one TICK verification and immediately fell in love. It’s so simple and most importantly, works every time with a simple click by a human. How it works […]
The BEST WordPress Security Plugin of all time
Having read forums, Googled for hours, I wanted to know: What is the best security plugin? What is the best security plugin to deal with Brute Force attacks? What WordPress security plugin is best to block comment spammers? WordPress is the most popular blogging platform in the world with millions of websites using WordPress as […]
WPMU DEV
When I first found WPMU DEV, I was impressed. On the surface, here is a service born and managed in my home city of Melbourne offering 100+ plugins, themes and support for WordPress. My first major disappointment was the cost. Having done my “due dilligence”, the contact page shows Australian contact information leading me to believe […]
WordPress Admin Protection
This post explains how WordPress owners can lock down and fully protect their website, and improve server performance. It is achieved by denying access to WordPress Admin by allowing only known IP Addresses to access the area. All Ripefruit hosting clients with WordPress are fully protected If a client sees a 404 or 500 Forbidden […]
Fixing WordPress Speed Issue
One of the negatives about open source software like WordPress is that it becomes an easy target for hackers and spammers. We were experiencing speed issues as a result of high loads on our server with several services struggling to cope. We identified that a number of WordPress installations were receiving a lot of traffic to the admin login […]
Unable to create directory uploads
You are in WordPress trying to upload an image, and get the dreaded message… Unable to create directory uploads ~ ~ ~ Is its parent directory writable by the server? Dismiss Errors Error image-file-name.jpg I am very pleased to say, I have found a setting that FIXED it for us. Hopefully it will fix it […]
How to remove Comments from WordPress
How to remove Comments from WordPress in 3 easy steps… I searched everywhere including StudioPress but could not find how to remove the Comments | Speak Your Mind functionality from my wordpress web site. When I finally did find it, I muttered.. it was so easy, I can’t believe I forgot it. Go to the […]
WordPress is Damn Good!
How good is WordPress? Damn good! Alright, I know we bang on and on about WordPress software, but it is seriously good. The team here at Ripefruit Media recently completed our new web site (you’re looking at it) using WordPress and StudioPress Themes plus a bunch of Plugins. We hope you like it. We reckon […]
Hacked WordPress | What Next?
Unfortunately, hackers love targetting WordPress websites. They are trying to get in via your WordPress Admin area. The reality is, hackers already know two key elements about your login: where to login (ie www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin) your username (admin)* * Now, how did we know your username was ‘admin’? By default, it is the username assigned during […]