Services available

Please use the email address on the Feedback page to contact us.

Fees and terms. Payment methods.

Website security consulting - improve your site's security

The time to think about security is before something bad happens. It's much less expensive that way.

• Custom Apache .htaccess and php.ini configurations to provide the highest level of protection possible without disabling features your site needs to function properly. Well designed .htaccess/PHP configurations provide two good layers of protection even if web applications such as your blog and forum have unpatched vulnerabilities, and they even provide some protection against vulnerabilities not yet discovered.
• Check versions and configuration settings of your blog or forum. Research vulnerabilities. Provide advice.
• Instruct about password creation and usage.
• Inspect your access logs and report the ways your website is being attacked.

Investigate "This site may harm your computer" warnings on Google SERPs

Finding the reason your site is badware-flagged is something you can very likely do yourself, but our knowledge, judgment, experience, and methodical approach can often find the problem quickly.

The first steps are done by web and email, and do not require password access to your website:

• Crawl your site, use automated method to list outlinks, check them (manually) for badware flags.
• Examine pages for injected iframes, JavaScript, VBScript, and viruses.
• Examine .htaccess, httpd.conf for malicious redirects. (You email copies of these files to us.)
• Provide advice about preventing recurrence.

FTP and Control Panel access are required for these:

• Examine files on your server, including ones not accessible by web, for difficult to find problems.
• Extend the examination to include a hack investigation (see below).

We cannot investigate rootkit infections. If a website checks out clean by every measure and a rootkit is suspected, only the server administrator (usually the webhost) has the tools and level of access required to deal with it.

Website hack investigation, repair (when possible), and re-secure

Investigating how your site was compromised and improving security to prevent it happening again is also something you may be able to do yourself, but it can be time consuming and complicated, especially if you aren't already familiar with the methods required.

For a hack investigation, we need FTP and control panel access to the site (cPanel/Plesk/other).

The long article referenced above describes the many tasks involved. In summary, the goals are:

1. Determine which part of the site was vulnerable and why the attack was successful.
2. Close the vulnerability to prevent recurrence.
3. Eliminate backdoor scripts and other avenues of re-access that may have been installed.
4. Restore the site to its previous good state. (Your active cooperation required.)
5. Change all passwords.
6. Correct additional vulnerabilities, and put into place every possible improved security measure.

Website construction, editing, conversion, validation

This site is a showcase for the fact that I have no graphic design talent or judgment or interest, but if you want a plain site that is ergonomic for users and conforms to basic good standards of usability, navigability, and crawlability, maybe I'm the right designer for you. My hourly rate is about half that of more artsy and capable designers.

• Construct a page, or entire website, to the design specifications you provide. HTML/PHP, no CMS.
• Create a template page you can copy and reuse to make the other pages on your site.
• Revise your pages to make them valid HTML, or advise you about how to do it.
• Rewrite pages to eliminate features that require the FrontPage Extensions.
• Put AdSense or Google Analytics code on pages, including SMF Forum pages.
• Create appropriate meta tags (title, keywords, descriptions) and headings.
• Rewrite website to eliminate dependence on JavaScript. Old "web builders" used JavaScript statements like document.write() for every part of the page, even plain text. These pages look blank when a visitor views them with JavaScript disabled, and Google and other search engines do not index sites built with these methods. The solution is to rewrite the site.

Website proofreading and editing

• Give your website a more professional appearance with our proofreading and editing services.
• We correct errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and usage.
• Use our services if you are creating an English language website, but English is not your primary language.

Programming

• Microsoft Visual C++
• Outsourced, freelance, temporary assistance with your projects in development.
• Documentation, user instructions.
• Convert Borland OWL/BIDS programs to MS Visual C++ and STL.
• No project too small (e.g. single-purpose command line utilities). Some projects too big.
• Customize or convert C++, C, GWBASIC, BASICA projects from this site to meet your individual needs.

Microsoft Access Database construction

• Create an Access database to your specifications.
• Customize an Access database from this site to better meet your needs.

Fees

• Our time is billed at US$25/hour plus costs.
• All work is performed on a prepaid basis. You pay in advance. We bill against the prepayment. We refund the unused portion. There is no minimum amount charged for a job. If you prepay $100 and the job only takes 1 hour, the fee is $25, and $75 will be refunded.
• The first prepayment amount can be negotiated if you want to test our quality of service with a small amount of initial work, but the absolute minimum is $100. Keep in mind that if the initial prepayment is low, it may seem like work has hardly begun before another payment is due, but it will still be due before work continues. There must be at all times a fully cleared positive prepaid balance.
• Although in some situations we may be able to give a ballpark figure about what a project might be expected to cost, we do not provide estimates. There are too many variables: client goals and specifications change, the degree of client cooperation varies, and investigations take unexpected turns. Each job is different and takes however long it takes. Our work on your site is done at the same speed and with the same care as our work on our own site.
• You can, however, specify the maximum amount you are willing to spend on a job, and we will attempt to efficiently achieve as much as we can on it within your time and budget constraints.
• We describe in detail the work performed, on email invoices issued to you.
• Invoices are generated whenever a) your balance falls to zero and additional payment is required, or b) weekly, or c) at a time interval you request. You can inquire about your billing status at any time.
• Good communication and cooperation are important. Responding promptly to requests for needed information is not only helpful, but it can reduce your costs. We will also be happy to help keep the cost down by assigning some of the tasks to you.
• When a job is finished or terminated, you will receive promptly a refund of the unused portion of your prepayment and all the work product that you have paid for.

Payment methods

The standard payment method we accept is PayPal because it's fast, easy, secure, and safe for both buyer and seller. Even if you don't have a PayPal account, you can charge the amount to a credit or debit card or issue an eCheck. PayPal handles all the details and sends confirmation emails to buyer and seller. We never see your card or bank account numbers. Our link to PayPal is on our Donate page, which handles payments for services as well as donations. Our detailed invoices document for your business and tax purposes that your payments are for services and are not donations.

Although we accept any PayPal funding source, we recommend against using eCheck, which takes 4 business days to clear your bank. Work will not start until we receive notice that it has cleared.

If you are within the United States

Payments

• PayPal.
• USPS Money Order (available at any U.S. Post Office)
• Cash (but please use a USPS Money Order instead)
• Cash transfer services (MoneyGram, eMoneyGram, Western Union. See links below.)
• Business or personal check, only from the following banks: Bank of America, USBank, Wells Fargo, Washington Trust Bank. These have nearby branches where we can cash your check in person, no clearance required.

Because of the excessively long time required for clearance and forgery detection, we do not accept: cashier's check, certified check, any non-USPS money order, business or personal check from any bank other than those listed above.

Refunds of prepayments not fully billed:

• If you paid by PayPal, refund is by PayPal.
• If you paid by any other method, refund is normally by USPS Money Order mailed to you.

If you are outside the United States

• PayPal. See if PayPal is available in your country.
• MoneyGram International (cash transfer service)
• eMoneyGram (cash transfer service)
• Western Union Money Transfer Services (Money in Minutes or Next Day only).
• You can suggest an alternative. We will need to look at it before deciding whether we can use it or not. 

Payment methods we do not accept:

• No bank-to-bank transfers.
• No money orders.
• No checks.
• Nothing that requires clearance or forgery detection. 

Refunds of prepayments not fully billed:

• If you paid by PayPal, refund is by PayPal if PayPal allows you to receive money.
• If you paid by any other method, or if you paid by PayPal but cannot receive money that way, refund is by one of the money transfer services listed above. Make sure one of them has an agent near you. You can suggest an alternative transfer service if you know one that will work better.

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Copyright ©2008 Steven Whitney. Last modified 04/05/2008.