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Responsive Design

Ugh. Two words I hate the most. YES I KNOW this site is not responsive. You know why? Because I don’t WANT it to be. Yes you have to zoom in on your phone. I really don’t care. This site looks the same on every device and I like it that way.

I detest it when I go to a site in a browser (on my Mac) and get the mobile experience. SO MANY companies do this. Even the taqueria site does this because the template sucks. But it was a massive job to beat that template into submission, so I leave it. I detest a site with infinite scroll (at least the taqueria template doesn’t do that). That seems to be the ultimate goal in “responsive” design: infinite scroll. I HATE IT. I will NOT comply. It is shit design and I won’t do it. (And: get off my lawn ya whippersnappers!)

I’m just waiting for the web design standards to shift again and leave the infinite scroll and hamburger menu (those ubiquitous three lines stacked like a burger that reveal the menu when clicked) crap behind. You should NEVER EVER see a hamburger menu when surfing on a computer. NEVER. It is a specific design tic for phones and has no place in a full fledged computer browser. Yet I see it often. GROSS.

You should NOT see two different sites when you surf there via phone or computer, IMO. Nor should you see a mobile site with infinite scroll and hamburger menus when on a computer. The site should look MOSTLY the same no matter what you use to view it, but most sites do not. Which is why this site will continue to be as it is for the foreseeable future. I just don’t have the time to tear it down and start from scratch. The Atahualpa theme was updated (half assedly, the theme is mostly dead) to be more “responsive”, but to install it, you have to pretty much start from scratch and/or rewrite half the CSS by hand. NOPE. I just hope the damn theme keeps working with WP updates. ::fingers crossed::

So, you’ll just have to deal with zooming in on your phones to read my site. I do not care. I am happy with the layout and the content prints beautifully (recipe printing), which are my main concerns. I’ll redo it one of these days, but probably not for a while. So, thanks for enduring the horror of a non responsive site for me. LOL Of course I know that most of you just read this on FB anyway, so whatever. Enjoy!

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Bot Attacks and Slacker Hosts

First off, let’s be clear: ALL HOSTS ARE SLACKERS. To some extent, anyway. They promise to help you defend your site(s) against hacking and bots, but they never, EVER do. We left Zweeko because their servers couldn’t reboot and our sites would be down for hours at a time – and they would just say “no worries!”. Yeah. We moved to Siteground, which has been a huge improvement, but they offer no more support or ACTUAL help than Zweeko did. But at least with Siteground the sites crash and are rebooted in minutes rather than hours.

If you have old sites with URLs that have been in service for 20 years like ours, you WILL be a target for bots and hackers. If your site performance is never good and your host shrugs their shoulders, it’s probably bot attacks that are slowing things down.

So, we put up with constant outages for about a year. We’d ask for help and Siteground would just offer the same old bullshit answers: Tweak your robots.txt file! Write a special root file that will block bots! Don’t use WordPress! DO use WordPress! Upgrade your account! (That last one is a standard. Better to sell more services than actually FIX a client’s problems!)

They never once recommended a plugin that might help. NEVER. And Siteground actually says in their marketing: “We eat WordPress for breakfast!” I beg to differ.

Anyway, the point is, never expect a host to do anything more than take your money and try to take MORE of your money.

And another thing to never rely on your web host for: your EMAIL. Just don’t. Use Gmail. What we do is set up email addresses with our URLs then forward them to a Gmail account. That way, there is spam filtering and you have far more control of your email. These days, NO ONE looks at your email account – other than to judge you for using AOL, Yahoo or the other old ass crappy ones. Heh. I’ve got many email accounts and I’ve never had anyone even realise it when I accidentally use a different one on a reply. We skipped using host email all together with Player One; its email is playeroneatl at gmail dot com. MUCH simpler. Also, when you change hosts (and you will), your email will still work since it is independent of your URL. Same thing goes for registering your URL. Use a separate registrar (I use namecheap.com) from your host. That way your domain registration doesn’t have to be moved when you change hosts (and you will change hosts). Protips, people! Protips!

We struggled with bot attacks for years, but I think we’ve finally found a plugin that actually helps: StopBadBots. We installed in across all our WP sites and have had only a one or two outages in a month, which is amazing. I also installed Blackhole for Bots, but that one requires some robots.txt file fiddling, so it’s not plug and play like StopBadBots is. I highly recommend StopBadBots.

I also had an issue with email enquiry form spam, so I configured the plugin (Contact Form 7 by Miyoshi) to work with Akismet Anti Spam plugin (standalone from Jetpack), which seems to work quite well.

If you don’t already, go NOW and turn on Askismet for comment spam and Jetpack (Askismet is included in JetPack, but we also use the standalone plugin) for WordPress. Make sure to configure JetPack’s settings to turn ON “Brute force protection” and turn OFF “login with any wordpress account”. Always check your settings for any plugin you use with WP.

Then go get Wordfence. This plugin is very thorough and really helps with bots that try to log into your WP site. You’ll need to get an API key and you’ll need to take some time to configure all the sections, but it is REALLY worth it. The plugin will tell you how to get the API key and they offer lots of documentation. I will advise that you tweak the Rate Limiting Rules pretty tightly. GET WORDFENCE!

Also install Heartbleed Control plugin, to stop the heartbleed exploit, which will run up site hits.

If hosts would actually offer decent WP support, I don’t think WP would be such a pain in the ass. WHY they won’t simply suggest a plugin rather than all the bullshit über complicated rewrite crap is beyond me. But *I* will recommend what is working for us.

As with all things technical, things evolve, so this info is not forever, but for right now, August 2017, these things are working. Hopefully they will continue to work for the foreseeable future! And I hope that they might help others who struggle with site performance issues while running WordPress!

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Hosting Company Reviews

Since we have so many sites (9 as of 2017), we need Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting. We’ve had reseller accounts which make every site a separate account and we’ve had standard VPS. I tend to prefer just standard VPS because you can admin all the sites from one control panel. I’ve written about our experiences with these hosts, but I decided to condense our experiences into one post for Google and for my reference. (Chronological, scroll down for CURRENT.)

HERE is the current list of EIG hosts to AVOID. Trust me. AVOID.

We’ve had VPS type hosting for a decade+ and we’ve had several hosts. First, let me give you my opinion on the hosts we’ve had; their pricing, their uptime and their support. Those are the three main factors that everyone looks at when trying to find a decent host. Nowadays, things like SSL certificates and ddos attack prevention also factors in. I’m just going to review the last three hosts we’ve had: InMotion Hosting, Wiredtree Hosting and Zweeko Hosting. We are now on Siteground. I am not linking to these hosts, because I don’t want to hear any whining from them about my negative reviews.

InMotion Hosting (inmotionhosting.com)
We were with this host about 4-5 years ago. They were fairly new at the time and things started off great, as they always do when a host is new and hustling for clients. We had a reseller VPS account that was around $50/mo. The first coupla years was good, when I called I got the owners on the phone and they helped me with lots of technical stuff. As they grew, they had a handful of support people who were trained and did a good job. But somewhere around the 3-4yr mark, they started buying other companies and expanding, but they didn’t expand the tech support team. Then they started hiring support staff that wasn’t trained. The support degenerated into the usual bullshit excuses when our sites were down: it’s WordPress, it’s not enough RAM, it’s Bigfoot, etc. What was happening was our sites were getting ddos attacks and it was killing the server. Things kept escalating until our sites were hacked and the support people had NO IDEA what to do. They actually blamed us for the attacks and tried to tell us that there was nothing they could do to fix the SERVER HACKS. Uh, isn’t that the definition of a host’s JOB? I don’t recommend IMH if you need good support. We started looking for a new host and ended up with the next one.

WiredTree Hosting (wiredtree.com)
We were with WiredTree for about three years. They were very solicitous and moved all our sites from InMotion for free – even tho they usually charge for that many sites. We had about 15 sites at the time. We had a reseller account with these guys and it was about $60/mo. The biggest issue with WiredTree support is that they really loved to use geekspeak when answering tickets, which is annoying when a) you are not a server geek and b) you just want a straight answer in ENGLISH. Their service was actually pretty good, it was the support that was annoying. They also had a habit of fixing things, but never telling me what the problem was in the first place. I want to know what is going on, but I don’t need to know how to build a watch when I ask for the time. They did not have the ability to tell me what an issue was in non-geek terms. They also charged out the ass for an SSL Certificate, which I was interested in putting on our sites, but did not due to their exorbitant fees.

Towards the end of our tenure there, our sites were again suffering with ddos attacks that would bring down the server. They did nothing about these attacks. They didn’t even offer or use Cloudflare, which is pretty standard these days. They blamed us for the attacks, with the usual excuses: it was WordPress, it was not enough RAM, it was Bigfoot, etc. They talked me into an upgrade to SSD ($65/mo) and they SWORE that would do the trick, but alas, it was just their lack of giving a shit that was the issue. Much arguing ensued and they didn’t even refund the last month that I paid for and didn’t use. I felt swindled by WiredTree and I don’t recommend them. I was bitching about WT on Twitter, looking for a new host and that’s when the owner of Zweeko offered to move all my sites for free to his center in London. He was a sweet talker and convinced me that he’d take care of us. Beware a strong sales pitch…

UPDATE 1.31.17: WiredTree has been acquired by LiquidWeb. Don’t waste your time with it.

Zweeko Hosting (zweeko.com)
So Feb 2015, we moved to the brand new company Zweeko in London. They moved all the sites and put me on a standard VPS (not reseller, which is what I prefer) and all was good. They are $70/mo. They have us on SSD servers, nicely tricked out, and they use Cloudflare for all sites at the enterprise level. They also offer SSL Certificates for $18/yr, which is a very good price (NOT as of 2017. Now good hosts offer free SSL.). Unfortunately, despite the nice hardware, it wasn’t long before the outages began. As early as two months after we moved to Zweeko, we had server issues. At this early time, the owner was always on Twitter and he’d get things up again right away. But that, of course didn’t last. He got some tech people to run the place and he was off to travel around the world hustling big businesses to host. When he left the asylum to the inmates, support became nonexistent.

The outages started to become regular, about once a month the sites would be down for a couple of hours. Apparently they have no monitoring software at Zweeko, since they never knew when our server was down. Rather than fix the issues which were ALL on their side, all they could figure out to do was restart the server. Nothing was getting fixed, they would just restart.

One time, they insisted it was my WordPress configuration (WP is the whipping boy for hosts across the land!) and they went into my WP and fiddled with the plugins to make my site work. This is NO BUENO. They also could not tell me what they did, I had to go in and ferret out their stupid plugins, which I removed immediately with no discernible detriment, proving that they had no business in my WP install in the first place.

The latest incident was a couple of months ago. Our sites were down for NINE HOURS on a Sunday and they did NOTHING about it. Absolutely NOTHING. I put in a ticket and the B team support people apparently didn’t know what to do, so they just left our server down for the A team to fix on Monday. THEY JUST LEFT IT DOWN. I was apoplectic with rage and demanded to know why our sites were left down despite a ticket. Of course, they had nothing to say. Apparently the support people at Zweeko are not trained well enough to THINK and actually solve problems. All they know to do is what is written on their support software screen and if it’s not there they are like “WHATEVER!”. I was given a little reimbursement for the downtime, but NEVER got reimbursement for any of the myriad other times THEIR server failed.

For these reasons, I do NOT recommend Zweeko. They are pricey and they do not have strong support.

UPDATE 11.25.16: The owner of Zweeko is bugging me to take down this post. I will not. It is an accurate depiction of my experience at Zweeko. Since the outage in July, they have straightened up and given me the credit I demanded. We’ve had no big issues since July. There have been a couple of hiccups, but overall, the service has been OK. It’s still pricey, but it’s solid for now. I don’t recommend them if you have lots of sites or are not very well versed in web server issues, however. Their support team is still weak and they will do things without explanation.

THE END 1.30.17: The owner of Zweeko began to troll my personal FB page and started bugging me (see above). Twice in the last 2-3 months, we’ve not been able to get into CPanel due to Licensing issue errors. This tells me that they are either not paying their fees or they are overusing the licenses. The server has also been slow, which is the usual log problems that they’ve never, in over a year, fixed. So I called out the owner for trolling my FB (where I was looking for a new host and discussing the SHIT service I’d gotten at Zweeko) and he then pitched a fit like a small child and threatened to delete my sites – he gave me 72 hours to move. And then he sent another yammering email calling me a horrible person because I called him an asshole… Well, if the shoe fits! Fortunately for us, I’d already begun prep to move to our new host: Siteground.

Siteground (siteground.com) 1.30.17
I’ve got two clients on Siteground already, so I’ve been monitoring what’s up. No issues whatsoever. They have CHAT support like a grownup company and their support people are trained. I’ve never had a bad experience with these guys. They are in Bulgaria, but don’t let that put you off. Their English is perfect and they TAKE THEIR TIME with you. I was on chat for 45 minutes with one of their guys discussing the move and deciding which service to use. EXEMPLARY support.

I’ll update this as we get into Siteground, but I can tell you so far: everything is peachy. We are on the $80/mo VPS system. We did have to pay to have our sites moved, but whatever. They all work and everything is great. So far, so good.

Other Hosts To Avoid
One of my clients was using Bluehost for their WP site. They’ve been there about a year. The database blew up and WP was unusable, so I contacted support. After much back and forth, they finally admitted that the server was having issues and it would be fixed. But of course, they would not tell me WHEN. So this went on for a few days and they continued to lie, blame WP and put me off, meanwhile the site was up, but WP was hammered. Bluehost is a flaming piece of shit. DO NOT USE THEM. At this point, I started doing research for a new host, both for my client and for myself.

I asked the hive mind of Twitter to give me host recommendations and I got a couple of lame ones. Then this company Webhosting Ninja (www.webhosting.ninja and @ninja_hosting) said I should check them out, so I did. I did not like their plans, so I said “thanks, but no”. Then they started attacking me, assuming that *I* used Bluehost (my CLIENT does) and told me I was an idiot for not switching to them. Ninja Hosting is clearly run by a bunch of misogynistic nerd hey-bras and I DO NOT RECOMMEND THEM.

Sources for Host Reviews
But I found @HostReviewHell (www.reviewhell.com) during this, so it was worth it. This site has tons of useful info! I especially like the list of EIG hosts to AVOID (Bluehost is one).

I found Siteground (https://www.siteground.com/) on this site and I decided to try them out with my client’s WP site. So far, so good. Siteground is out of Eastern Europe (you can choose your server location, I chose Chicago), but they seem to have their shit together. They offer chat, email and phone support (I love chat support!) and it’s always manned from what I can tell. They moved my client’s site with no issues and we were up and running the next day. (Proving that it WAS Bluehost’s fucked up server that hammered WP, NOT US.) We’ve been with Siteground for a few weeks and I’ve no complaints. They offer Cloudflare with all packages and they use CPanel (a MUST).

UPDATE 11.26.16
I have put two clients on Siteground and had complete success. The first install was better than the second, but overall, I’m pleased. They have very fast CHAT support (thank the gods) and despite this being an Eastern European company, all the employees seem to be fluent in English. Siteground will be my goto if Zweeko drops the ball again like they did a few months ago. Done and done! LOL

UPDATE April 2024:
We left Siteground fairly quickly, a couple of years, I think. They suffered the usual declining support quality that hosts suffer after a few years. We moved to Kualo and have been there ever since. They are SOLID. The support is really good, which is important when shit goes sideways and you’ve got a bunch of sites. They are not the cheapest, but I’ve had hardly any issues with their hardware. The support team is always ON IT. I’m kind of shocked to still be on Kualo after all these years. My only picky complaint is that you cannot update CC info, you have to delete, then wait for an invoice. It’s idiotic. But other than that, they are a very solid host.

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Virgin Mobile USA Support Tips

In light of the truly sucktastic service we’ve gotten from Virgin Mobile USA this week, I felt I should write a post in the hopes that it might help others who use VMU but can’t get things to work. Most of this post has to do with iPhones in particular, since that is what we have experience with, but I’m sure a lot of it will help with any device you have using the Virgin (which uses the Sprint network) service. This post is about USA service only. BTW, Sprint is dying and it will take VM with it. I wouldn’t advise spending a lot of dough on a phone with either of them. It’s a shame, we’ve used VMU for over a decade. I’ll miss them, shitty customer service and all. :(

Basic Virgin Mobile FAQ:

– Virgin Mobile shares bandwidth on the Sprint network in the US. This used to be a good thing, now, not so much. Sprint is dying. America is the land of the oligopoly and eventually there’ll be just AT&T for phone and satellite TV, but for now there is Verizon (CDMA network) and AT&T (GSM network). VM uses the CDMA network. That means the phone must be CDMA. You cannot use a CDMA phone on a GSM network or vice versa. Here is an article about bringing a phone to Verizon, FYI.

– NO, VMU will NOT be getting [insert iPhone model] back in stock. Every VSU employee will tell you “Yes! It’ll be any day now!”, which is a lie. The front page of their site is a lie. The fact is that VMU buys their iPhone stock and then it sells out. Their inventory is finite. Just buy a phone off of eBay. Which is generally not a problem, just make sure it’s a VMU phone with a clean ESN. If it’s a 5 series, you’ll need to also buy a new card for it (it is a UICC card, which is just a newer generation SIM card).

– YES, a used iPhone 5 and up WILL require a new UICC card. Do not listen to the VMU employees that tell you otherwise. NO you do NOT need a card for a 4 series phone. Actually these require NO CARD in the slot. All iPhones require a card from series 5 onward. You can buy these on ebay, too. They are labeled Sprint, T Mobile, Boost and VM.

– VMU has really horrible support. Which is probably why you’re here. It will not get better, so it’s something you must make peace with. Hopefully something in here will help you.

– Don’t even bother with trying to use the website to swap phones. Just suck it up and call.

– The Twitter people (@VMUcare) suck just as much as the phone people. Don’t bother.

– If you have a “support” person who clearly does not understand what you are calling about, just say goodbye and call back. You may have to do this many times. Be prepared to spend a LOT of time on the phone. You simply have to persevere and keep cycling through support people until you find one that has a clue. No way around it.

– There is a glitch in the VMU system that will render your iPhone 4 series unable to send/receive calls when you update the OS. Virgin support is apparently unaware of this and cannot help you. But I can. Simply call ##873283# and your phone service will be restored. I am not sure if this applies to 5 series (or 6 series) iPhones. I’ll update this when Nick updates his 5c. **He did have to call this number to turn on phone service on the 5c after he got the card working. This seems to have been worked out with iOS 10+. I’ve not had to use the # since iOS 10 on my 5c OR my new 5s.**

How to buy a new iPhone and get it activated with VMU:

– Go go eBay and look for phones specifically labeled Virgin Mobile. Make sure they have a clean ESN – which means they are not stolen and/or bricked.

– If you are buying a 4 series iPhone, you’ll need to REMOVE the SIM/UICC card that might still be in it. My phone had been used with TMobile, apparently, there was a card in the slot. I know this because when I called to activate the phone, it kept giving me an “incompatible SIM card” error. Of course the “support” person in Philippines did not know what this meant. I am a nerd, so I knew to pop out the card, but the “support” dude kept telling me I had to take the phone to Apple. Yeah, NO. 4 series iPhones do NOT need any card in the slot to work with VMU. Ignore whatever else you’re told, just pop out the old card and then call VMU to activate. You can google how to remove a SIM card, it’s a snap.

– If you are buying a 5 series phone, you’ll need to buy a NEW SIM/UICC card for it. They sell those on eBay, too. Once you get your new phone and the card, this is where the fun begins. And by fun, I mean soul sucking hell. :( You’ll have to call VMU to get the phone and its card activated. The problem is that most of the “support” people don’t know how to do this. They will attempt to activate the phone w/out activating the card, which, of course will not work. It took my husband FOUR DAYS to find a support person who could understand this issue and activate the UICC. Once the card was paired with the phone’s id#, all was well – BUT you’ll probably have to call the super secret number (##873283#) to get phone service working (no longer w/ iOS 10). **I got a good support guy who got my 5c working in minutes. That is rare!**

Those are the biggest issues with iPhones and VMU. They won’t get any better. My advice is to go with another provider if you’re just setting up cell phone service (TMobile, maybe?). As I said at the top, Sprint is dying and with it, Virgin Mobile USA. We assume another provider will buy up the bandwidth and service (Verizon most likely) but the heyday of good VMU service is gone. We’ll stick with VMU until it dies. I, personally, love my $30/mo unlimited text/talk and 1gb data. It works for me and I can deal with spotty support. I don’t need a lot of hand holding.

Do not get into a contract with any provider. Just buy the phone that will work with one of the two networks and then shop providers. Like I mentioned, there are only two networks in the US and AT&T (GSM) is dominant. Their non-contract division is called Cricket. Even tho I detest AT&T, I think Cricket is the best choice for non-contract. If you have a Virgin/Sprint phone and want to switch, your only choice is Verizon – which may or may not take your phone. TMobile is still around and they offer good deals. I’ve no idea how they are service and support-wise.

Cell phone service is as screwed up as broadband and TV in the US. It won’t get any better. Just try to find the best deal you can and don’t be afraid to change if you’re not happy. I think too many people in the US are afraid to change their providers. In addition, make sure to support efforts to break up and/or regulate our broadband, TV and cell services. The reason American services are so bad is due to the government being paid off by monopolies and oligopolies that collude to keep prices high and service low. You must speak out about this to your US House Reps and Senators. American cell service sucks because we let it suck. Remember: we are a third world country when it comes to broadband/TV/Phone services.

Good luck with your cell phone service! I hope something here may have helped.