Tip Top mail deliverability

Recently I`ve started digging into mail server settings and the need for tighter security. Some of the findings are startling ! I have found that not having the settings described below can cause issues with sending and receiving email. As of February 2024 Google are going to make a major change to email deliverability. Google Email sender guidelines . This may impact your mail delivery if it is not tweaked to take account of SPF, DMARC and DKIM settings (fairly easy to update)



Mysql Maria DB fields don’t have default value

When upgrading to MariaDB I found some queries were getting rejected due to field value not being NULL. On mysql this was not a problem as I had intended if no data then I`m happy with the query.



STRIPE Card Payments

We are currently working on Card payments using Stripe . We have been very successfully taking Paypal payments for a number of years. In fact we have taken over 32,000 transactions in the last 15 months (at Dec 2021)



Archive the Internet

The internet started in earnest around the mid 1990`s. About that time CompuServe and Aol provided email systems to help people communicate. In the early 1990`s bulletin boards were all the rage allowing easier communications across the globe.



Verify your domain DNS settings

Your website and email are identified by a domain name. behind this is an IP address. The IP identifies through the system where the domain is situated. I have some hints below that can be used to verify that your domain is setup correctly.



Web site backup

We run regular backups of our website using a utility called `wget` This replicates the website files and any files that have been uploaded (for example PHP, JPG, MP4 files)



Web site security and hackers

Unfortunately this morning we had an attack on our myclub website. A break in occurred on my username which allowed a user access to the system. This was quickly detected but caused us to change the system password.



DNS server settings lost

We had an experience this evening with DNS server settings where our website DAFC.net mysteriously changed. This had the effect of taking our domain offline and pointing to an unsafe server.