To make backups or not to make backups? #update

Through my provider I received some more info about the problems on on5mf.be. After some research the conclusion was that the control panel for ALL of the websites I manage had been hacked. Someone could log in at a level even higher than mine and change settings without even getting those in the log.

But, thanks to the help of my provider, all problems have been solved and the security has been tightened.

To make backups or not to make backups?

A few days ago I received the dreaded email from Google with the title: “Malware notification regarding on5mf.be”.

I won’t write all the not so nice words that I wanted to shout at that moment ๐Ÿ™‚

But pretty recently (only 3 weeks ago) I had started making backups of my websites (this site but also my company websites www.geldhofhout.be and www.wisatrans.be) and see, this now pays off!

OK, I agree, it didn’t work at first but after the third try I could reinstall the last backup of the site and it was back up and running!

A look at www.stopbadware.org gave me some hints to tighten the security of the site a little further so hopefully we’re up and running again for a long time.

2 weeks…

Only 2 weeks left before my actual provider shuts down this site!

Because this provider is getting to big for me (*) I decided to move the site to a new one. But… now I need to find the time to move this whole WordPress thing to the new provider.

But, don’t worry, on5mf.be might be offline for a little while but it will be back and then maybe the mystery about the new transceiver will be solved ๐Ÿ™‚

First things first, the EPC BPSK63 QSO Party tomorrow! But who decided to have a contest from 0000 utc till 2359 utc? Got to be at the office at 0800 AM on monday (and that’s 0700 utc…)

(*)to big as in bad service, to big as in to expensive, to big as in ‘press 1 for dutch, press 2 for swahili, press…’ etc.

 

Not even 12 hrs after my last post I already got the following comment through the form (left hand side of this page):

   Being shot at????
   Attacked by a dog???
   Details please!!!
   Plenty stuff to update your site :-))

Yes I’m fine, thanks for asking ๐Ÿ˜‰

So here’s the story, a few weeks ago I bought a new MTB (with the black frame), and, of course, like all children with new toys, now I go riding frequently.
Last week, while riding on one of the official MTB-routes near my home, a Jack Russell came and bit me repeatedly in the back of the leg. As the dog ran faster than I can ride (I still need lots of practice), I stopped my bike and defended myself. The dog came back something like 3 or 4 times and every time I kicked it. Finally the dog gave up… I don’t think it’s gonna make puppies in the first few days ๐Ÿ™‚

Now for the shooting thing… last sunday I was riding my bike on a public (paved) road when, from my left hand side, I heard someone firing a shotgun. A few fractions of a second later I heard the lead shot whistle a few meters over my head. Apparently the shooter missed because almost immediately he pulled the trigger again. And this time he didn’t miss (me). Some of the pellets hit my helmet and 2 or 3 hit me in the arm. Luckily the distance was big enough so they didn’t break my skin but they left me with a nice little bruise.

As you can guess I was not really happy so I turned the bike and went to look for the shooter(s). I found the 2 hunters at the other side of the small hill and they weren’t even aware they hit me. As I expected they didn’t believe me when I told them until I showed them the bruise. I guess their teacher never explained any ballistics to them during their hunting course. As far as I know, even when you shoot up, your bullet or shot shell comes back to the earth sooner or later…

During the discussion they even said I shouldn’t go riding on that (public) road on a nice sunny day [sigh]. Finally after I threatened to call the police they started apologizing and decided to try and hit the pigeons they were after in a safer direction.

Lesson learned from the previous post: if you want comments about your website, write something about shooting on it ๐Ÿ™‚