April 2007 Archives

Over the last couple of weeks our developers have been working closely with both Realex and our bank to integrate 3D Secure / Verified by Visa.

If you want to know more about how the verified by Visa / 3D Secure system works there is a lot of information about it available on the Visa site.

Put simply 3D Secure offers cardholders an extra layer of security which should help mitigate issues with phishing and other threats.

In order for your card to work with 3D Secure your bank must first be enrolled with the system.

So how does this affect orders placed with our site?

In practice only a very small change will occur.

Previously you gave us your credit card details (over a secure connection) and we passed it over to Realex, who in turn verified it with your bank and passed the information back to us.

Now if the card used is enrolled in the system you will see a number of new screens.

The first screen, which you can see below, is fairly self-explanatory.

The next screen also resides on our servers. As our system has to "talk" to Visa's servers there can be a slight delay during which time you will see the progress screen below:

When you are finally passed over to the 3D secure site hosted by Visa (or the MasterCard equivalent) you will see something like this:

If your card has already been enrolled you can enter your password to authorise the transaction with the merchant (ie. us) and you will then be passed back to our website to finalise it.

If the card is enrolled the password MUST be used, so this should help reduce fraud.

If you notice any issues or have any queries about the new system please let us know

I just got back from Mullingar a couple of hours ago where I was a guest of the Westmeath County Enterprise Board and the IIA.

The event, which was entitled "Using the Internet and Blogging to Increase Sales", was highly enjoyable and featured a great panel:

• Maryrose Lyons - who gave a talk on content and layout
• Me - I gave a talk on all aspects of blogging (admittedly I was bit short on time!)
• Brian Greene gave some fantastic examples of Irish businesses that have started blogging
• Maggie Bowen - who rounded the event up with a talk on using the 'net to increase your bottom line

The event was held in the Mullingar Park Hotel on the outskirts of Mullingar and was very well organised.

Kudos to both the IIA and Christine Charlton and her team from Westmeath County Enterprise Board.

If anyone wants to see my presentation you can download it here. It's in Powerpoint format, but will work fine on Open Office (I converted it from OO to PP this morning)

Our 1850 is out of order this morning so please ring our "normal" number:
+353 59 9183072

Sorry for any inconvenience!

Are you spending too much on domains and hosting?

Do you feel that you are getting ripped off?

If you check out the pricing of domain names with some of the other Irish providers you will get a nasty shock.

Why on earth would anyone want to spend over €80 per annum on a .ie domain?

Or what about spending over € 20 on a .com?

That's madness - plain and simple!

Look at these prices and make up your own mind:

• com domains - €8.25


• co.uk domains - €4


• .eu domains - €9.99


• .mobi domains €15


• be - Belgium - €15


• pl - Poland - €20

Security should not be an afterthought and when you flaunt it too much you will end up regretting it.

While a hosting provider can do their utmost to make their network and servers as secure as possible there are limits.
Our clients want to be able to use technologies such as PHP, Ruby on Rails, Perl, ASP etc., and there are many fine open source (and commercial) software solutions out there to help them make the most of their online presence.
Unfortunately there are also plenty of nasty people out there that will try to take advantage of any possible security holes that may exist.
That, unfortunately, is life.

Here at Blacknight our technical team work very hard to ensure that the network is as secure and resilient as possible, which is why we offer a fully firewalled network to both our shared, dedicated and colo clients.

On our shared servers our team keeps a very close eye on all the relevant security bulletins and will act proactively wherever necessary.

Of course no matter how much we may do issues will still arise.

The most common issues stem from weak passwords.

If your password is a dictionary based word or a string of numbers then it is simply too weak and can be cracked.

If you cannot trust yourself to come up with a strong password then why not use the ones our systems generate for you? They're completely random and usually quite long.

If you are using software from our auto-installers you check from time to time that a newer version is not available. Most of the software available via the control panel is upgradeable, though this will depend a lot on how much customisation you have done.

If you need help with your security then why not contact us to let us know?

Although I normally don't talk about what other companies are up to here, the RegisterFly situation is of such gravity that it would be silly not to. It also affects a small number of our clients.

If you haven't been following the news in the media (both online and offline) let me summarise it for you very briefly.

RegisterFly were an ICANN accredited registrar. However, unlike the bulk of ICANN registrars they had never been accredited directly, as they actually purchased an existing registrar ie. they got their accreditation through an acquisition.

Whether all the details of what happened internally will ever come to light or not is doubtful, but ICANN's briefing document(PDF) is quite revealing.

In essence the company had issues both technical and business related which led to a large number of complaints. ICANN finally pulled their accreditation, but then the registrars (domain owners) faced the problem of moving their domains elsewhere.
You can follow the saga as it unfolds on the ICANN blog

As one of the sponsors of the IIA conference we are able to offer our clients a reduced rate on the tickets.

Simply email events@iia.ie quoting "Blacknight rate" for details

Just over 12 months ago the European TLD - .eu - was finally launched to the public (landrush) after several months of restricted releases for trademark holders etc.,

A large number of .eu domains were registered during the month of April 2006, so a large number will, naturally, be due for renewal this month.

If you want to hold onto your .eu domains then simply pay the renewal fees. If you do not pay the fees the domain(s) will not be renewed and someone else will be able to register them.

If you haven't got a .eu domain, then why not try for one today? At Blacknight our pricing is highly competitive - at a mere EURO 9.99 ex-VAT!

I've been invited to blog on the Irish Internet Association's blog over the coming weeks.

I'm not 100% sure what I'll be talking about, but you can expect random meanderings on industry topics!