A famous comment says, “War is just another form of politics.”

If you are lucky and diligent about protecting yourself, you probably will not see evidence of that battle. But your web site – all web sites – are under contant attack.

There are men (it’s almost exclusively men, because women are not allowed to attend school in many of those countries) whose delight is hacking into web sites solely for the purpose of changing the home page to an ugly and noisy rant against something they hate. The tools they use are commonly available all over the Internet.

They are able to do this because, contrary to what you may think you know, just about any web site can be either entered and tampered with or even taken over. All that’s needed is time, the right tools and a blind determination that is not limited by time or money.

In the past year alone, successful hacks have happened repeatedly to the web sites and internal computer systems of NASA, the US Department of Defense, Microsoft, – and just about every major business and government in the world.

(Ask Iran what happened in 2011 to the computer network that manages their nuclear bomb-making-materials factory.)

It is scary, but not at all unusual, that our own hosting servers, like everyone else, are attacked repeatedly every hour, every day. Fortunately, we have strong systems in place that are constantly monitored and updated. That diligence is why you pay us to host your web site. That’s where a lot of that money goes.

But we cannot protect you from yourself.  The site owner is the most vulnerable chink in our defenses because we cannot see or control the things a site owner can do. If you leave a door open or a window unlocked, or turn off your home alarm system, the local police department only learns that after your prenises have been burglarized after an entry.

The problem with web sites is, you can’t be expected to recognize what an unlocked system looks like or how to relock it.

So, from time to time, we will write here – and post links to other Internet news stories – on how to protect your web site on any hosting company’s server.

Here are two articles we HIGHLY recommend to all web site owners.  Click on a title to read it.

• Facing the Pain of Passwords
• How to Make Strong, Easy-to-Remember Passwords

Joe Harkins, founder of BuildingHosting.com click for the closeup

We BUILD and HOST web sites for clients of all sizes and types all over world. The list in the right sidebar is just a small sample. Click on one.

Building a good web site means we spend whatever time it takes to understand what you do, how you do it, what your special needs are, what resources and skill you have to maintain and promote the web site, what you want your web site to do, define metrics that monitor that performance, and so on. We’ll ask a lot of questions and float a lot of suggestions before we give you solid estimates of time and cost.

No charge for that. See “How We Work” for details.

click to enlarge

All development work is based on a Written Proposal*- We begin your project only after you approve a written, detailed formal proposal and contract that:

• spells out every aspect of the project,
• defines the technology we will use,
• lists the resources we will use,
• spells out who will do what, such as create graphics, install texts, etc.
• establishes objective performance criteria,
• includes links to similar work
• includes links to verifiable references
• spells out a site management training plan
• sets firm deadlines and
• sets a firm price and terms

All web development is collaborative. When we start a project we establish a private, password-accessible web site on our development server, just for you. Designs, suggestions, samples and concepts are posted there for your review and feedback as they are developed. Your approval or change order is  requested at every step before we go to the next one.

We also establish an Online Project Manager (OPM) that monitors every step of the project, every email, every To-Do, every Milestone, every suggestion and every approval until the project is completed in accordance with the formal written proposal. You participate at every step.

This assures both of us that the finished product is exactly what is in the written proposal and contract, not just our opinion of what you should accept.

We are professional. We will finish what we start for the price we agreed upon. No hidden extras or surprises or charge-backs, ever

Until you put your final approval in writing, the job is not done.

*IMPORTANT NOTE: we do not charge for informal analysis or research or suggestions or estimates. You are under no obligation and will never be billed for discussions or informal estimates.

However, a formal written proposal is something we do not write without certain expectations. A formal written proposal is the functional equivalent of a set of architect’s blueprints for a building or an engineer’s specifications of a bridge. It is professional work that takes hours of knowledge and experience. When our written prposal is completed, any well-qualified web developer could follow it to a good result.

We create a formal written proposal only on your assurance that you are ready to go ahead with the project that has been defined in the informal discussions. It is the written version of a verbal agreement already established. If you do not proceed promptly with the project after we do the specification work, in good faith, of writing the formal proposal, you will be charged a price equal to 50% of the total value of the project it describes.

If you want a formal written proposal, but without making a commitment to award the project and finance it, with the freedom to use it as a biddable document or for inviting RFQs from suppliers, please tell us beforehand and we may create it for a price and terms to be negotiated.

Regarding payments, we accept payments by major debit or credit card.

Wait – WAIT. I said puh-ZAZZ not pizza.  (At least it’s genuine Chicago style.)

Well, Grasshopper (or Biff or Tadpole or Pilgrim), let me ask you a question.

You came to this web site for information about building and hosting web sites, right?

Do you notice that you can see what we offer, right here in front of you, without delay and without jumping through more than three links? Did you notice there is no “page loading . . .” screen?

What you are experiencing has a fancy name “Optimal Information Delivery.” In simple terms, what you want to know, as fast as possible.

To accomplish that we don’t waste your time on Flash or pizzazz. And we think that’s what your customers want when they come to your web site.  That doesn’t mean your site must be visually dull. Take a look in the column to your right at some of the sites we’ve built for restaurants, or shopping carts or B2B.