Naughty Husky � web developer

Inkrainbow/Pocketbloke Hackers

Björn — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:12:48 +0000

Very recently I have been getting quite a lot of sites hacked by guys who leave an include in files like js and php files. This include calls a script from their own servers located at inkrainbow.ru and pocketbloke.ru.

I’m not entirely sure exactly what the script does, but it seems that they get into the sites via FTP. Which means that my PC must have been infected by a trojan which has been sending them my details. I have so far spoken to another developer and have also seen a comment on another blog post about the same guys, here, which suggest that the trojan targets Filezilla specifically and that way gets all the saved login details to your sites. If you follow that link to Nate Stillers blog you will get some good advice on what to look for.

What I have been doing up until now is just to download all images and template folders, delete the entire installation, then re-upload the images and template folders to the CMS systems. Then I go about changing all the FTP login details as well as the admin login details on the systems themselves.

So far I have had WordPress, Joomla and just plain html sites hacked. I have also downloaded a nifty little application called UnHackMe, which helps with detecting rootkits and trojans which your normal anti-virus won’t pick up.

Hope this helps someone as I have not seen many posts so far about these guys. I you have anything to add, please comment here or on Nate’s Blog post.

*Edit 19 August 2010* Nate developed a script that you can upload to your site and it will scan your entire site for this malicious code, find it here.

Convert mailto links to htmlentities

Björn — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 12:43:15 +0000

As a web developer we all know that sticking mailto: links on a site without any protection is a big no-no, because of spam harvesters.
Unfortunately from time to time you get clients that insist on this. I’ve noticed that some web developers insert the mailto: link by converting the whole link to htmlentities. I used to have a site bookmarked where you can insert the address and it will automatically give you the code to copy and paste into your site, but could for the life of me not find it the other day.
So I started Googling once again for something similar and came across this neat little function which you can insert in your own site and it will convert all email addresses where the function is called.
It’s available in PHP and ASP. Many thanks to the developer. You can get it here: Obfuscate Mailto.

Joomla! 1.5 – Dreamweaver Extension

Björn — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 11:57:34 +0000

Joomla! 1.5 has arrived. The stable version was released on 22 January 2008. If you are a web developer, you must have come across Joomla! before.
The big thing is of course, customising Joomla!. It is fairly simple if you understand how the template system works.
Before the new version came out I used an extension for dreamweaver which helps you to insert all the code snippets in your template.
Now that the new version came out I was worried that it will be a problem to figure all the code snippets out again.
Fret not. This guy developed a Dreamweaver extension for the latest joomla! release. Just follow this link: Joomla! 1.5.X Templatebuilder Dreamweaver extension.

Windows Vista

Björn — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 13:19:07 +0000

So I spoilt myself with a brand new laptop. Being into web development, I have been warned by my fellow developers to steer clear of Windows Vista.
My new laptop came with Vista, but I had the option to change it to XP. I thought, what the hell lets take the plunge. Eventually everyone will upgrade anyway. Being a designer and developer, my greatest concern was for software compatability.
First things first. Having heard that Vista is quite power hungry, I made sure I had a minimum of 2 gigabytes of RAM.

So far I have been quite impressed. I am glad I did go for the 2 gigs RAM. I am actually considering upgrading to 4 gigs, however I think for the average end-user, 2 gigs should be quite sufficient.

Yes, in a way it is quite similar to XP. Things have been moved around quite a bit. Once I found where everything has been moved to it was not too hard to setup. I am running the Business Edition. Lets just say I like to force the OS to do my bidding, which is not so easy with the Home Edition.

I have found switching between applications to be quite a charm. Then again, that might be just because I got quite a powerful machine. The 3D windows switcher is quite charming, even though in functionality it’s not much different from the normal ALT + TAB trick.
What is quite a nice feature is the live preview when mousing over the tabs in your taskbar.

The only problem I have experienced so far and still have not found a solution to is that my cellphone won’t wortk on Vista. I have tried all kinds of different drivers and none work. I have even contacted the Motorola support staff as well as the developers of their software, Avanquest, but have just run into a dead end. I can count on my fingers though the amount of times I have had to use my 3G so hopefully an answer will popup before I run into the urgent need for it.

Over all. I am quite impressed with Vista. Developing in PHP and MySQL, I haven’t run into issues yet. That said, my server is set up on a desktop machine, so I cannot vouch for an actual Apache, PHP and MySQL setup running on Vista.
All my designing software worked from the word go without a single hiccup.
I have run into a few small bugs, but I am sure they will all be sorted out in the first Service Pack.

So don’t be put off by all the critics. Take the plunge, you’re going to have to in due course anyway.

Web Designer vs. Desktop Publisher

Björn — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 21:50:25 +0000

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a web designer. I live in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. My company’s name is Black Alsatian.
Yes this post is in a way to shamelessly punt my own business, but it is also in the hope that someone would read it before getting a web designer to build a website for them.You can just do a search on Google for web designer, and literally millions of results get returned. Yeah working on the web, we all try to get our piece of the pie.
The unfortunate thing is that there are so many of the guys out there, proclaiming themselves as web developers, but in fact they don’t know much more than what they can accomplish in Adobe Dreamweaver^TMor Microsoft Frontpage^TM.

Yes, there is actually a bit more to it than just making the website look pretty. I have been shocked by some of the work I have seen by guys here in PE.

Yes fine, so you have a website, it looks damn nice, but, how about the following:

how long does it take to load (keeping in mind, there ARE still people using dial-up connections)
how long does it take to load between pages
can you find your website on Google (not by typing the domain name, but by searching for your particular product or service)
do you have one of those animated Adobe Flash^TM intro pages?

If you are stuck with any of the above, you need to seriously have a chat with your web designer. It means your site is not doing what it’s supposed to do.

Pages taking long to load, means either the graphics aren’t optimised properly or the coding behind it is not to standard, or both!
Taking long to load between pages, see the above.
Can’t find your site on Google? There are actually companies that specialise in just optimising your site for the search engines. It’s called Search Engine Optimisation. These companies can charge you phenomenal fees, but if your web designer is worth his buck, you shouldn’t have to take this measure.
It is never a good idea to have a Flash^TM intro page. Even though Google now claims to be able to read Flash^TM files, it’s still a fairly new technology. There are ways to optimise it, but it’s still no guarantee.

So, in short, things to look out for, websites for R100 per month or R1000 setup, R200 per month thereafter. These guys normally just take the same template and re-use it over and over. That’s how they manage to do it for so cheap, because they don’t put the time into it.

If you are in the market and unsure, contact me and we can have a chat. I might even convince you to not get a website at the end of the day. I do web design as well as web hosting.
Happy internet marketing!