I use WP-SpamFree in addition to Akismet to prevent spam on my web site. I saw big drop in spam after I installed this. But recently I thought if there is anything wrong with this plugin and disabled it for a while and the spam comments went up immediately. I have re-enabled it since. Look at this image of Akismet spam status. That spike is when I had the WP-SpamFree disabled.

Look at the image here.

Ok, the link that came in the email was: https://www201.americanexpress.com/cards/apply/jsp/includes/CostcoDualExecutive-1500.jsp

So, I changed it to https://www201.americanexpress.com/cards/apply/jsp/includes/CostcoDualExecutive-750.jsp and it shows me to spend only $750. Amazing.

This setup is required to get the DNS queries for our domain to reach the DNS servers at zoneedit for name resolution.

Log-in to your 1 & 1 control panel. Click on the package link. Click on the manage domain option.

Select the domain name (check mark) and then click on the down arrow next to DNS and select “Edit DNS settings”. Set the general settings to DNS under domain data. For basic DNS settings, select “My name server”. In the advanced DNS settings type one of the name of the DNS server provided by zoneedit from our previous step in the primary name server option. Select “My secondary name server” for secondary name server option. Now enter the name of second DNS server name provided by zoneedit in the 1st secondary name server box. Leave 2nd and 3rd secondary name server names blank.

Click OK. It will take a while to propagate this setting. We will continue with other settings while this is being updated. When the update is complete, the status will show as ready in the domain overview page of the administration tab.

Computers on the Internet connect to each other using IP address. For someone else’s computer to connect to your server, that computer need to know the IP address of your server. Your domain name is usually associated with one IP address and that IP address can be the IP address of your server. DNS servers keep the information of what is the IP address of a domain name. Usually domain registrar allows you to specify a different DNS server than their own DNS server for your domain name.

We will use zoneedit as our DNS service. As of this writing, it is free for the first 5 domains. Signup here for free. Make sure to read and understand the terms and conditions.

Setup for one domain is called a zone at zoneedit. Log-in and add a zone. Once you add zone with your domain name, zoneedit will give you two name servers and their IP addresses. 1 & 1 accepts only the names. So, note them down. Use a password with upper and lower case letters and a few numbers in between. Avoid special characters because we will be using this password to update the information dynamically. Note down the password.

Click on the name of the zone (domain name). Click on Aliases (CNAME). In the box titled “Alias” type “www” and the box titled “Actual Name” type your domain name. The whole line should read like www is another name for your-domain-name. Click the “Add New Alias” button to create the alias. This will help others access our server by typing http://www.your-domain.ext.

If you have a static IP address, go ahead and specify the IP address under IP Addresses (A). If not we are ready for updating the IP address dynamically when ready with server setup.

I use 1 & 1 as my domain registrar for this website. One of the reasons why I use 1 & 1 is, they have free private registrations. This means that you can buy a domain name without exposing your personal information like name, address, phone number etc. Depending on what type of website you are planning to create, you may want to keep your registration private. For example, some people blog about their work without telling who they are.

Let us say you want a domain with your name your-name.com. You can check the availablity of the domain name here.

The check comes back with available domain names and suggestions. Choose one or search more. When ready click continue which gives you the purchase options.

Since we are planning to host our site from home, select the Instant Domain option which costs only the yearly registration fee. That fee depends on the extension you selected. Lowest is $8.99 but first year may be cheaper.

Once you sign-up and pay, the domain name is yours for the period of registration. If you do not want to loose the domain name because you forgot to renew, you can setup automatic renewal. You get renewal notices from 1 & 1 by email as well.

It can take up to 48 hours before you can start using the domain name. But in the mean time you can start working on other steps.