Ah… August. The month without any holidays. Not even silly holidays like Arbor Day or Sweetest Day.

August is also a the month when nothing is happening at Geek Niche. Well… there’s always things happening here, but it’s going to be a quiet month, a month of introspection, a month when the world will be at peace and dollar bills will rain from the sky.

Or not.

It is true, however, that August should be a quiet month around here. The server migration took a lot out of us. A serious wrench was thrown in the works when we discovered that some of the basic programs had internal inconsistencies. I apologize very sincerely for any problems this may have caused you, and I want to thank you again, on behalf of all of us here, for being as kind and understanding as you were.

The new server is humming along nicely, and all the tweaks and glitches should be taken care of now. If you notice any problems, please let me know. I’ll make sure the guys with the know-how are notified right away.

With the upgrades, you should notice a few changes. Your Plesk control panel will look a little different–and not just because we installed a new theme, either. There’s some new options available to you. And a couple new applications in the Ap Vault.

Just a few tips on using Plesk:

• You can use the “Directories” button to password protect directories on your site. This means you can have sections which are private, or only accessible to the people you decide to let in–such as a “members’ section”. When you password protect a directory everything inside that directory–including subdirectories–is protected by that password.
• Want to know how well your site is doing and who’s coming to see you? Click the “Reports” button, and select “Web Stats”. A new window will open up with a listing of information by month. Click on the month you want to see and a volume of new information is available to you. This includes where people are coming from, what browser they’re using, what search terms find your site, and which pages are being viewed the most. It’s a great way to find out if someone is stealing (hot-linking) your pictures, or if you’ve your site is being linked from other sites
• Want the mail from your site to be redirected to somewhere else? Go to the “Mail” button, select the address you want to be redirected, and click the “redirect” button. Just fill in the address you want it to go to, and you’re done.
• Too much spam getting through? You can do something about it. Again, click the “Mail” button, and select the e-mail address you want to filter. Click the “Spam Filter” button up above. You’ve got a few options, now. Lower the number of “hits required” and less spam will get through. You can have Plesk automatically delete what it thinks is spam or just mark it with a tag of your choice. The Blacklist is for addresses that you want to automatically delete messages from–regardless of their “spam rating”. The Whitelist is for addresses you want to always show up in your mailbox–even if they look like spam. Click on the “training” button and you can tell Plesk which e-mails in your box are spam and which are real. Plesk will remember these, and learn from what you tell it, so less and less spam will make it through.

Take some time to poke around and see what Plesk can do for you. And if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

–
M Blaze Miskulin
President
Geek Niche, Inc.