Are you sick of spam? We’re reducing email spam now!

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Christopher Erk

This week we are rolling out some new updates to our mail server which will help reduce the amount of spam being received by our customers. We’ve recently noticed an increase in spam over the last few months and decided to take action. This update will include a new settings panel in cPanel called “MailScanner Configuration”; here you can fine-tune how you want to handle a message when it is detected as possible spam. We went ahead and configured this for you and you should already be seeing a reduction in the amount of spam received.

You may start to see some emails come in that start with {spam?} or {Disarmed} but this is just the new spam blocking system working. You can delete these emails if they are spam or treat them as you would a normal message. If you have any specific questions or would like us to make some changes to your account, please contact us or open a support ticket.

We are always striving to improve the quality of service at TrevNet Media – and no one hates spam email as much as we do!

Heartbleed Vulnerability Update

Posted on April 14, 2014 by trev_admin

The Heartbleed Bug is a serious vulnerability in the popular OpenSSL cryptographic software library. This weakness allows information to be stolen that is protected, under normal conditions, by the SSL/TLS encryption used to secure the Internet. SSL/TLS provides communication security and privacy over the Internet for applications such as web, email, instant messaging (IM) and some virtual private networks (VPNs).

Services at TrevNet Media

We have been asked multiple times over the last week regarding our hosting infrastructure, your data, and our managed hosting servers. All of our effected servers have been updated and the security hole has been patched. Due to the nature of this security bug, it’s not possible for us (or anyone else effected) to tell you if your passwords may have been compromised since no data is logged. We can, however, assure you that all of our managed servers running OpenSSL have been updated since April 9th.

Heartbleed Explained

The problem affects a piece of software called OpenSSL, which is used for security on popular web servers. With OpenSSL, websites can provide encrypted information to visitors, so the data transferred (including usernames, passwords, and cookies) cannot be seen by others while it goes from your computer to the website.

Heartbleed exploits a built-in feature of OpenSSL called heartbeat. When your computer accesses a website, the website will respond back to let your computer know that it is active and listening for your requests: this is the heartbeat.

Check out this article to read more about how it works.

Source: http://xkcd.com/1354/

What you should do

If you want to be on the safe side, we would recommend that you reset your passwords on any accounts you have with our services where you connect with SSL. While we don’t know if any data was stolen while any of our systems were vulnerable, it’s a possibility.

Over 60% of the internet was effected by this bug; this includes many popular sites you most likely use, or have used. Check out this list to get up to date. It includes websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, GoDaddy, Netflix, Hulu, and more.

The Year of the Hack!

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Heather

Some are calling 2013 “The Year Of The Hack”; it’s more important than ever to take the necessary steps to ensure your site is secure. Since 2008, almost half a million WP sites have been reportedly hacked and this number is sure to rise as WordPress gains more in popularity. Close to 19% of the world’s websites are powered by WordPress. By not keeping all of the plug-ins and themes associated with your site up to date, you could be potentially leaving it vulnerable to an attack.

Tips to reduce the risk of being hacked:

Keep software and all plug-ins updated

Remove all plug-in and add-ons not in use

Make security a priority when choosing a web hosting company

Use proper file permissions on your server

Use strong, varied passwords and don’t store them locally

Regularly scan your PC for malware

We are in an era where everywhere you turn, you hear stories of the latest hack, and it’s no secret that WordPress has received plenty of bad publicity regarding the topic. Recently, stories about hackers laying a massive, global siege on WordPress sites across the Internet have been everywhere. The main focus of these hacks was exploiting the default “admin” accounts and over 90,000+ IP addresses were involved in the attack. From this, companies scramble with their tail between their legs trying to patch up the security holes they swore never existed.

It should be made a general rule when owning a WordPress site to continuously stay current on the latest updates. Hacking aside, there are several additional benefits to keeping your website fresh and up to date. To put it another way, think about a car; you know the over-all cost of maintenance it is far less than fixing a problem should it occur. Keeping your website up to date, like your car, will be far less expensive in the long run and will give you more “mileage” out of your site.

Inspiring Work Spaces

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Heather

This past week we had a contest across multiple social media channels asking people to submit pictures of their offices, work spaces, or simply the view from their perspective while working. In turn, the prize for the most “liked” picture would be an amazing custom designed TrevNet T-shirt.

We had some great responses from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Not only did we see pictures of your average indoor offices but we saw perspectives from military personnel, work-from-home professionals and some pretty creative perspective shots.

We are glad the winner wasn’t left up to us because it would have been hard to choose the best one. To give you an idea what amazing entries we had, check out all the submissions below:

Looking at all these offices got us thinking. You all need to decorate! Inspiration is hard to find so we figured we would help you out with some inspiration. Here are some great office spaces we found that would make anyone want to redesign:

And the Winner Is:

After a week of submissions, and 7 days of waiting (wait, a week is 7 days, right?)…the picture with the most likes, shares, comments (and views, but really – likes are the only thing that count here) is – drum roll please – Justin Willemsen!! Justin’s photo was posted to Facebook so, Justin, we will be contacting you via FB to get your information and send you your prize. Check out Justin’s amazing photo below; what an awesome shot. You got skillz, son.

And Just because we are feeling super generous…

The picture with the second most likes will also be getting a prize! At a very close second, The Cupertino Soap Company Posted their work space view on Instagram and received quite a few likes. Check out how creative they got:

Thank you to everyone who sent us their photos, it was awesome to see how everyone works, what inspires people and just how different everyone’s work environments are.

What is your ideal work space look like? It’s not too late to send us a photo or drop us a comment. Keep an eye out for our next freebie; what would you like to see next?

Website Launch: Aqui Cal-Mex

Posted on October 2, 2013 by Heather

My my my Aqui, don’t you look fabulous! It’s our pleasure to announce the launch of Aqui’s new website. Working with our client we wanted to come up with a design that’s soothing, fresh, artistic, and, of course, eye catching. We were given the challenge of keeping the original logo, colors and background images from their old site, and we built up from there. The final result was a very happy client and another design we’re proud to add to our portfolio.

More About Aqui

Aqui is uniquely known for their natural, wild, organic menu, and let’s not forget their “feet tingling” Industrial Strength Margaritas™, Swirls™ and new Martini Swirls™. Starting back in 1994, A renowned chef, known for creating innovative inspired California cuisine, and an experienced fast food operator joined together. The fast food operator gave the chef a simple challenge: “Create fine dining food using the flavors of the Southwest, Asia, California and Latin America. We will match the food with gorgeous decor and fill the place with art. Then, we’ll add order-at-the counter service to make it hassle free. And above all, we will make it affordable.”

And on April 11, 1994, the first Aqui Cal-Mex restaurant was introduced in Willow Glen. In all, Aqui now has four locations in the San Jose Area. Each has its own unique flavor, with one of a kind custom artwork from local artists.

about the Development and Design

The bulk of what makes this project great is its foundation. We worked very closely with the team at Aqui Cal-Mex to come up with a design both unique and appealing to their taste. At Aqui, it’s all about the spectacular food, and we had to make that front and center. Every page at aquicalmex.com has a unique design tailored to the content for the given page. We wanted to make sure visiting the website was just as much of an experience as it is when you visit one of the Aqui locations to grab a bite to eat.

Developing Aqui was an absolute blast! The team here loved the opportunity to actually taste the food while we were developing the site. There’s nothing quiet like coding a food menu for Aqui while eating the food at the same time. Don’t worry, we keep our keyboards clean here at TrevNet. One of the challenges for coding this website was giving each page that fresh look, so as you’re browsing the website, you don’t get bored. We were able to do this and still deliver the content the customer may be looking for when visiting the site.

While we’re on the topic of the menu pages at Aqui Cal-Mex, let’s point out some of the features here. We know the menu can seem intimidating, especially when you’re not sure what to get! So we added a “jump to” menu button that lets you go right to a specific type of food on the menu.

We’ve got a multi-column menu with nice clean text in an organized list. Thanks to WordPress, we were able to easily set up this page so the team at Aqui Cal-Mex could keep it up to date. You can be sure that any time you visit the website to look at the menu, you’ll see the latest and greatest!

One of the pages we had a lot of fun developing was the Experience Aqui page. This page is an interactive design that allows you to navigate the site in a different kind of way. Simply mouse over over the pictures and get a quick textual description, click it and it will take you to the specific page!

When you’re ready to head over to one of the Aqui Cal-Mex Locations, check out the location page. We absolutely love the Google Maps integration with the page. On this page, you can click on each location to get more information, or just use the map at the top. If you need to see what the restaurant hours are or maybe some extra information when finding it, clicking on the location will show a modal with more information.

It’s Mobile Ready!

A large portion of the traffic at the Aqui website is coming from a mobile platform. Whether that be from your phone or a tablet, we wanted to make sure the website looked great! The whole site was developed to be a responsive design, which means the website and its content will adapt to the size of the display and render only what’s needed, depending on the platform. For Aqui Cal-Max, we really had the ability to be innovative with with the website on a mobile platform like the iOS or Android powered smart phones. We created a pull out (via tap) sidebar menu that lets anyone easily browse the site.

In Closing

One of the perks we had experienced when designing for this client is the delicious food they provided us as inspiration for their site. Ever since, we’ve been hooked. If you haven’t been to Aqui yet I suggest you add it to your list of places to try; it really is an experience you have to try for yourself. After many visits we have never been disappointed. With fresh food, affordable prices and an amazing atmosphere, now accompanied with a awesome new website – Aqui is going places!