Hosting Move Update
Our move to hosting at SiteGround is progressing well. We are still working on the best backup processes to use.
One item to bring to your attention is that some links to documents or images that existed before the move may not show as “secure” with a padlock or https in the address bar. For example, if you have a records page with links to minutes or other documents and click on the link to the document, the page that appears may or may not show the https or padlock. This is not much of an issue as long as the document does not have private information. This could be important if you have a members only pages requiring a password and want these pages to be as private as is practically possible. If you have links that don’t load with https or a padlock, but want them to, visit the page for editing and click on the link, then click the pencil icon, and find the beginning of the URL (address). Add an “s” after the “http” and Apply (down-left icon) the edit. Finally, “Update” the page. Visit the page and click the link to confirm the document now loads with the padlock.
Optional further explanation of the paragraph above but only needed if you want more details:
An important incentive to move our network hosting to SiteGround a couple weeks ago was to obtain SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) which encrypts (jumbles) transmission of site pages. When SSL is implemented, https (instead of http) or a padlock should show in the address line of your browser. For most of our network pages, encryption is probably not highly important because the pages are public anyway. But when logging in, for example, passwords could be stolen without SSL. This is especially important when using a public WIFI such as in a coffee shop.
Several settings at the hosting service and a plugin (hidden from you) are utilized to implement SSL. An additional option to get all previous links to load with https is to run a search and replace routine on the database and replace each instance of http with https. But this sometimes creates more problems instead of less so we do not plan a search and replace unless we find a strong incentive exists.
Network Planning
Karen Reynolds and I have initiated a discussion with UW Extension Lakes (Eric Olson) on how to maintain our network long-term. We plan another discussion in September. As mentioned in the past, ideally we would like to find another techy volunteer to eventually take over that side of the network management. We also continue to explore hiring a professional web business to do these techy tasks. Karen plans to take on more of the overall network administration over time, including membership and finance aspects.
Facebook Group
Six members are continuing to practice using the LakeKitTalk Facebook group that Mike Bohn organized to help each other with their site issues. If anyone is interested in participating in this practice activity, please use your Facebook account to send a request to join the group LakeKitTalk.