God am I tireds....
Posted 02-17-2008 at 03:41 AM by TeddyB
I'm sorry for not being current with my post as of late...
I went through a bit of a depressive state for a few weeks, and as of the past two, I have been just hammering it. I started by attempting to break my depression by looking for a couple of scripts to organize myself more efficiently. I have been wanting to set up a good scheduling/Organizer/Calendar script. I also wanted it to manage to do's and notes. and Have also decided I wanted to download a new Mail Client, I was using Mozilla mail for a good time about a year ago when it corrupted on me, I really liked the ability to check the various boxes from one single location. But now I wanted to manage it all from the server. I started by looking for the Email Script. I figured any Email client worth it's weight would also have calendar and scheduling functionality built in. Well I spent three to four days unsuccessfully trying to find a good mail script that managed multiple Email clients from one user login. all I could find was a script called Mailbee that did what I wanted. but they wanted $250 for it, and I'm just not gonna be able to pull that one off. So after like I said about four days of mind numbing research, I concluded that I was being too unproductive and needed to move on to another project temporarily.
I picked up at the Schedule / Organizer Script, and via cross references found that Groupware often contained Email clients, and so I started to investigate them. The groupware is generally designed to allow multiple users to work together on a given project, and contains project management and group assignment tools. But who said you had to think inside the box here??? I have settled on the group-office script which I absolutely love. (http://group-office.com) They have both a Community (OpenSource) version as well as a Professional version which cost. I am using the Community version myself, are we surprised? It has all the features I was looking for and then some. The Email client allows you to manage unlimited Email accounts through a single log-on, It handles POP3 as well as IMAP. Though the folders function is an IMAP only thing. It has message notification abilities too, it can give you a sound, a popup, both, or neither, as you desire. It has an addressbook, Scheduling/calendar functions, To Do's, which is designed very well, a modular design, as well as a number of features that may prove to be useful as time goes on. I figure I can use the Modular design to add features for managing my online membership and shop functions as I need too, as well as I have considered the concept that I may wish to add a Clock, Stopwatch, Timer type script.
One drawback I have discovered is that I have been rather neglectful when it comes to managing my Email systems as of late. My default Email address for the ehostingpro.net domain has over 200,000 spam messages in it!!! messages of that volume make it very difficult to manage. I have found that the Horde webmail client crashes with em, but does allow me to delete and purge them a handful at a time. and Unfortunately I can't delete the default mailbox. I have since changed it up so that box isn't getting any bigger, I am eaking away at the 200k of messages.This has also inspired me to make some changes in my Email management. I found some information counseling against using generic box names such as Contact, Sales, Admin, Webmaster, Info, ect. these are addresses that spammers will target right off. I just create these and turn them into blackholes, so that any messages sent to them ate automatically deleted. I also created a separate account to send orphaned messages to (Messages where the Email account doesn't exist) There is a possibility that a customer can misstype your address and so having a real box to collect these things is a good idea, I'm only blackholeing boxes that arn't anywhere near real box names and would be popular spamtraps, that way those messages don't end up in the way. Also by creating a separate account for this, I would at least have the option of deleting the box altogether, an option I wish I had in the first place. alas it seems a bit late for the ehostingpro.net domain, the spam being received on that domain is just brutal. I have had to take more aggressive solutions with that one.
I also have implemented some new functionality into my site. First I have started using Images for my company sensitive data. human eyes can read the data, but it isn't so easy for a bot. I also have successfully implemented a Mailto encryption system. It encrypts the mailto addresses and required either JavaScripting abilities or passing a logic question to enable the links, a good 98% of users will not even notice this one, all recent browsers have this capability, though some disable JavaScripting, and others like Cellphones simply don't have it. again those would be given a logic question to pass. I have in mind to also implement an updated form mail script here soon, I have one picked out that will both encrypt the Email address as well as require the users to verify digits off of an image to post through it. It also has some other nice features. I haven't had issues with the mail form being spammed yet. but It's an older script I have been using for years and it seems only prudent.
I am about to add a couple more blog mirrors to the net aswell, The first is on http://linuxquestions.org I am already a member there, and noticed that the site has profile and blog funtionalities. And that site deals directly with my line of business, so I'm all over that, I had a second location in mind, but for some odd reason I am drawing a blank on exactly where it was. maybe it'll come back to me...
The Primary Blog script on http://savepccorp.com will be going down for a few days starting either late Sunday night or sometime Monday. I have found that I am getting some spaming of the comments feature and am implementing a new blog script. This will take a whole lot of work to do, the layout configuration on these things takes forever, but I don't think I will be of interest to spammers afterwards. The script will require JavaScript as well as Cookies to be enabled on the browser, something that again most users have anyway but most bots can't do, and quite separately will also require validation of an image based code to post. The Image Code also expires after a set period of time to prevent brute force attempts and such, these are actually two separate plugins I hope will play nice together. Together I think will be quite enough to thwart spam bots, or at least make them look for easier pickings. and if that isn't enough, I am also implementing a validation feature, meaning no comments will post to the blog until I approve them. With the notification features and my new found Email client, there should be no real delay for end users. but it makes it a waste of time for a spammer to post to the blog anyway because their garbage will never see the light of day, and I'm sure as hell am not going to be reading their tripe.
I think it is a shame that I have to work so hard to protect my site and myself.. I have spent Countless hours making my websites. and I go out of my way to make these sites unique and beautiful. Too many designers out there show no care for their work, they just pump their stuff out as if from a press. and the uber lazy ones, with half functional sites in the first place, they are the ones that literally come in and Paint Graffiti all over the thing I have worked so hard at building up. Like a beautiful park in the center of town, they can't let something good exist, they have to destroy it. I guess to mask how lame they are. These new features ultimately don't eliminate their ability to harass me, but there are enough people out there to harass, I'm hoping to play on their general Laziness and make them decide that it's better to pick on somebody smaller than them, after all, that's what their good at....
I went through a bit of a depressive state for a few weeks, and as of the past two, I have been just hammering it. I started by attempting to break my depression by looking for a couple of scripts to organize myself more efficiently. I have been wanting to set up a good scheduling/Organizer/Calendar script. I also wanted it to manage to do's and notes. and Have also decided I wanted to download a new Mail Client, I was using Mozilla mail for a good time about a year ago when it corrupted on me, I really liked the ability to check the various boxes from one single location. But now I wanted to manage it all from the server. I started by looking for the Email Script. I figured any Email client worth it's weight would also have calendar and scheduling functionality built in. Well I spent three to four days unsuccessfully trying to find a good mail script that managed multiple Email clients from one user login. all I could find was a script called Mailbee that did what I wanted. but they wanted $250 for it, and I'm just not gonna be able to pull that one off. So after like I said about four days of mind numbing research, I concluded that I was being too unproductive and needed to move on to another project temporarily.
I picked up at the Schedule / Organizer Script, and via cross references found that Groupware often contained Email clients, and so I started to investigate them. The groupware is generally designed to allow multiple users to work together on a given project, and contains project management and group assignment tools. But who said you had to think inside the box here??? I have settled on the group-office script which I absolutely love. (http://group-office.com) They have both a Community (OpenSource) version as well as a Professional version which cost. I am using the Community version myself, are we surprised? It has all the features I was looking for and then some. The Email client allows you to manage unlimited Email accounts through a single log-on, It handles POP3 as well as IMAP. Though the folders function is an IMAP only thing. It has message notification abilities too, it can give you a sound, a popup, both, or neither, as you desire. It has an addressbook, Scheduling/calendar functions, To Do's, which is designed very well, a modular design, as well as a number of features that may prove to be useful as time goes on. I figure I can use the Modular design to add features for managing my online membership and shop functions as I need too, as well as I have considered the concept that I may wish to add a Clock, Stopwatch, Timer type script.
One drawback I have discovered is that I have been rather neglectful when it comes to managing my Email systems as of late. My default Email address for the ehostingpro.net domain has over 200,000 spam messages in it!!! messages of that volume make it very difficult to manage. I have found that the Horde webmail client crashes with em, but does allow me to delete and purge them a handful at a time. and Unfortunately I can't delete the default mailbox. I have since changed it up so that box isn't getting any bigger, I am eaking away at the 200k of messages.This has also inspired me to make some changes in my Email management. I found some information counseling against using generic box names such as Contact, Sales, Admin, Webmaster, Info, ect. these are addresses that spammers will target right off. I just create these and turn them into blackholes, so that any messages sent to them ate automatically deleted. I also created a separate account to send orphaned messages to (Messages where the Email account doesn't exist) There is a possibility that a customer can misstype your address and so having a real box to collect these things is a good idea, I'm only blackholeing boxes that arn't anywhere near real box names and would be popular spamtraps, that way those messages don't end up in the way. Also by creating a separate account for this, I would at least have the option of deleting the box altogether, an option I wish I had in the first place. alas it seems a bit late for the ehostingpro.net domain, the spam being received on that domain is just brutal. I have had to take more aggressive solutions with that one.
I also have implemented some new functionality into my site. First I have started using Images for my company sensitive data. human eyes can read the data, but it isn't so easy for a bot. I also have successfully implemented a Mailto encryption system. It encrypts the mailto addresses and required either JavaScripting abilities or passing a logic question to enable the links, a good 98% of users will not even notice this one, all recent browsers have this capability, though some disable JavaScripting, and others like Cellphones simply don't have it. again those would be given a logic question to pass. I have in mind to also implement an updated form mail script here soon, I have one picked out that will both encrypt the Email address as well as require the users to verify digits off of an image to post through it. It also has some other nice features. I haven't had issues with the mail form being spammed yet. but It's an older script I have been using for years and it seems only prudent.
I am about to add a couple more blog mirrors to the net aswell, The first is on http://linuxquestions.org I am already a member there, and noticed that the site has profile and blog funtionalities. And that site deals directly with my line of business, so I'm all over that, I had a second location in mind, but for some odd reason I am drawing a blank on exactly where it was. maybe it'll come back to me...
The Primary Blog script on http://savepccorp.com will be going down for a few days starting either late Sunday night or sometime Monday. I have found that I am getting some spaming of the comments feature and am implementing a new blog script. This will take a whole lot of work to do, the layout configuration on these things takes forever, but I don't think I will be of interest to spammers afterwards. The script will require JavaScript as well as Cookies to be enabled on the browser, something that again most users have anyway but most bots can't do, and quite separately will also require validation of an image based code to post. The Image Code also expires after a set period of time to prevent brute force attempts and such, these are actually two separate plugins I hope will play nice together. Together I think will be quite enough to thwart spam bots, or at least make them look for easier pickings. and if that isn't enough, I am also implementing a validation feature, meaning no comments will post to the blog until I approve them. With the notification features and my new found Email client, there should be no real delay for end users. but it makes it a waste of time for a spammer to post to the blog anyway because their garbage will never see the light of day, and I'm sure as hell am not going to be reading their tripe.
I think it is a shame that I have to work so hard to protect my site and myself.. I have spent Countless hours making my websites. and I go out of my way to make these sites unique and beautiful. Too many designers out there show no care for their work, they just pump their stuff out as if from a press. and the uber lazy ones, with half functional sites in the first place, they are the ones that literally come in and Paint Graffiti all over the thing I have worked so hard at building up. Like a beautiful park in the center of town, they can't let something good exist, they have to destroy it. I guess to mask how lame they are. These new features ultimately don't eliminate their ability to harass me, but there are enough people out there to harass, I'm hoping to play on their general Laziness and make them decide that it's better to pick on somebody smaller than them, after all, that's what their good at....
