I've had some experience of using joomla to create an intranet for work use. Have now been asked if I will redesign the internet website. I don't mind this side of things because the current site was created with joomla.

Where I fall down on is hosting and security.

The current site url redirects to another website which hosts several GP websites (eg gpsurgery.co.uk redirects to xxxxx.co.uk/gpsurgery3). That main domain has been attacked and hacked and now is nonfunctional. Now would be a good time for me to intervene and create our own website without the redirect.

What I need advice on is how to stop the redirecting, and info on hosting/payment/security for the website. I'e done a geocities website before in HTML but I like the fanciness and relative simplicity of CSS through joomla and I now have more experience with joomla than HTML. I don't know about hosting, or finding out who owns gpsurgery.co.uk or how to ensure details are correct. I also have no idea on whether to ensure it is via business or personal payment set up nor which is best. And I don't know anything about securing the website and what happens/what to do if it gets attacked or hacked.

Advice, suggestions, ideas are all welcome, particularly pointers towards free sources of information from which to learn.

I might do a very basic website in html for announcing flu vaccines, and repeat prescription hotline stuff but it will probably look similar to the geocities stuff with scrolling text, animated gifs and anything else that comes to mind!

The WHOLE Internet?!? (8+0

Mark

Yup. First to go will be X404!

Look at Wordpress rather than Joomla if you can. Joomla seems to get hacked a lot more.

To prevent hacking you need to ensure passwords are secure and you're not running vulnerable plugins you also need to ensure you've got an adaptive firewall in place to stop bruteforce attacks, to clean up after an attack you need to know the product well so pick either something simple (like HTML where you can just delete the site and reupload clean code) or a CMS that you know well (or can get help easily on).

or pay someone else to do it, it's easier.

I can personally recommend asking Sas for help with the hosting. Cheaper than the big names (at least st start with) & he knows what he's doing.

I also second the recommendation of Wordpress.

I'm familiar with joomla and I back things up so would be happy to just re-upload the site if it needed to be replaced.

Will have a look at wordpress.

I doubt we'd specifically get hacked but then again, the main website that hosts several other gp surgery websites was hacked.

I've since found out that we own the domain name for the surgery which redirects to another site as stated above. Need to find out who hosts it and the hosting plan paid for. I've also found out that we could register for a free .nhs.uk account.

Use one of the many "who is" websites to find out more.

I did last night but had completely forgotten everything by this morning.

Our surgery URL is hosted at www.streamline.net
This redirects to another website hosted at www.netcetera.co.uk

I have no idea what streamline are like as a hosting company.

Well reviews of streamline.net are pretty scathing and I've managed to access the account to have a look. Turns out we're paying £60/yr for hosting and then £24/yr on top for "live chat" (I suppose that means live chat support with streamline).

The renewal is for the end of the year. I have approx two months to register with another domain name (don't like the current one), and build a website. Happy for it to be very rudimentary at the moment but would be looking to upgrade to better features in the future.