IT Procurement Scam Elevancehealthus.com

We got an inquiry for procuring equipment for ElevanceHealthUS.com for a Michael Hodgins. When we put the domain in the browser we were directed to a Elevancehealth.com web page. The “US” at the end of the domain was dropped. We did a “whois” search on the domain and discovered the domain without the “US” went to the company in Illinois. This was correct. When we searched the other the domain was registered in Iceland.

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JCH Optimize Can’t Log Into Administrator

While building a Joomla 5 website we wanted to see how the build was performing and ran it through Google’s Page Speed Insights. The site did pretty good, but we added the component JCHOptimize to see if we could get even better. We didn’t get much better so we uninstalled the component for now. Well suddenly we could no longer get into the administrator area.

To fix this we followed the error message link which brings us to this page.

https://docs.joomla.org/J4.x:FatalError

Since we couldn’t reach the Administrator area we needed turn on the debugger and set error reporting to the maximum. We had to go to the CPanel, change the permissions on the config file, and edit the configuration file. Once saved we saw that JCHOptimize had lingering modules in the Administrator half of the website.

Once we deleted these folders we were able to access the backend again.

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Joomla 5 Link Featured To The Article

We were ready to ditch Joomla! when we needed to show “Featured” articles on the home page with intro text and intro image, but then link to the full article. What the default mode is show the article in the same spot as the blurb. This did not work for our layout. This is a “no-brainer” in WordPress, so we were disappointed with Joomla! for not having be easy.

We got is working and it was easy. It did take some “Joomla! Smarts” to figure it out, but as often with Joomla you will need a “hidden” menu. It is hard to link to anything in Joomla if there isn’t a menu item. We do like this because you need content for the page, you need the page, and then you can link to it. Which really does make sense, because there is no point of putting a link to something when there really isn’t content.

Here is what we did:

  • Created two “categories” for the articles called simply “Posts” and “Pages“.
  • The home page link was set to “Featured Articles”.
  • Created a “hidden” menu which is a menu that just resides in the backend just to be able to create the right URL.
  • Made a new menu item and set it to “Category Blog” and the category was “Posts“.

That was it, and the site was working the way we wanted it to.

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Domain Name Services – Domain Scam

We received a letter from Domain Name Services letting us know our domain was going to expire in a few months and they can “Transfer” and “Renew” for us.

This means they basically want to steal our domain. They probably want to sell it back to us at a high price.

Please be aware of this this scam and protect your domain. Your domain name is critical. It not only controls your website, but your company email address. It is essential for a company to have their domain in their email address but it is another way to verify a communication is valid. Sending business emails with an “@gmail” account raises flags.

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DIVI Theme Builder Won’t Load

Working on an existing DIVI site we needed to change a few things in the custom footer area; however, the page builder would just spin. We cleared the cache in DIVI and the on the server, but nothing worked. A search on the web got us our answer.

The solution was “Permalinks“. We had to set them back to “plain“. We cleared out the cache in DIVI and on the server. We set the permalinks back to “Post”. After that the builder was working!

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IT Procurement Scams

We get these from time to time, but we have never written about it. We just want to do IT work and fix stuff, so we find these annoying and just want to put a warning. They often come from “State” agencies who need equipment. Often the information is slightly skewed. In the last case we noticed the email address had an extra letter “d” to the domain. Here is what their emails look like. We highlighted the things that tipped us off.

We get these about 4 or 5 times a year, and sometimes waste our sales teams time running it down.

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Windows 10 End Of Life

Windows 10 has been super stable for a long time, but all good things must come to an end. Windows 10 will reach its end-of-life on October 14, 2025. We first noticed an issue last November when one of our older machines wouldn’t boot. It turned out to be an outdated TPM issue with the motherboard. This was the first sign we had that Windows 10 Security was going to require more current hardware.

What does this all mean, and what are my options?

Windows cannot continue to secure their operating system without the proper TPM being on the computer. There are 4 options currently available.

  • Purchase Extended Support from Microsoft – This will extend updates and support for one additional year. The cost is less than $100. You will still need to purchase new equipment later on.
  • Purchase new equipment – This will be your best option. You won’t need to change anything in one year. Your systems will be safer. Probably resulting in lower overall costs.
  • Don’t connect this machine to the Internet – Attacks typically happen over the Internet.
  • Change Operating System – Linux is a free operating system that can bring life to an old machine. Not used in business environment.

We would recommend an audit of your systems. Our techs have been gearing up for the move to Windows 11, and know what to look for in hardware to ensure the machine can move to 11.

Contact us via our website or call us at (410) 290-1591.

Joomla Smart Search Not Showing Results

We were testing out some Gantry Particles for a Joomla! website, and one of the “header” particles came with a search field. When we started using this particle’s search no search results were returning. We were getting results from the default search module until we started using the search in the particle. Somehow the search component was no longer working.

This lead us down the path of how exactly does the search component working in Joomla!, and why doesn’t it just work? Frustrating to say the least.

Our issue was resolved by the following process:

  • Go to Components >> Smart Search >> Index
  • Click on “Options” in the upper-right and set your desired options
  • Then click the “Index” button.

This should resolve your issue. Let us know if this helped you…

WordPress Updating failed. The response is not a valid JSON Error

While helping a new customer out with their WordPress website we were getting the error “Updating failed. The response is not a valid JSON“. We haven’t seen this error before, but it a very common one. The error would happen when we would try to make even just a small text change. We couldn’t do anything till this was fixed.

There were a ton of solutions out there on the web, but this just wasn’t fixing our issue. The customer was using Godaddy’s Ultimate Managed WordPress hosting. We tried flushing the cache, but this didn’t help. We tried changing the permalinks, but the error Updating failed. The response is not a valid JSON prevent us from changing the permalinks.

We tried all the fixes suggested and nothing worked. We finally called Godaddy tech support and they were blaming the cache. We cleared all the cache and waited till the next day to give the hosting time to clear out. The next day we came back and the permalinks had changed away from “custom”. Now we could make the changes and the site was running better.

Godaddy didn’t say they flushed the cache, but something changed. Maybe we just needed to wait till the Content Distribution Network (CDN) cache was cleared.

Our best advice for this issue is to use a “Private Browser” window. This seemed to work the best.

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Godaddy Managed WordPress FTP Access

Taking over a customer’s Godaddy Managed WordPress website we wanted to access their “All-in-one-migration” backup files. The website site wouldn’t let us download them due to permissions issues. We dug around in the account and found the process we needed. Here are the steps.

  • Go to your GoDaddy Product Page
  • Next to “Managed WordPress” select “Manage All“.
  • Select the site you want to use and go to the “Settings” tab.
  • Under “Production Site“, find SSH/SFTP login and select View or Change. Copy the “Hostname” for use in your FTP program and “Create new login“.
  • You can also access the files in the “File Browser” in the “Settings” menu.

The “All-in-one-migration” backup files are located in the “wp-content > ai1wm-backups” directory.

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