For several months I've been providing a free advertising word cloud for FriendsWhoCare subscribers and have been using Word Stormer.
Unfortunately this free advertising page came under attack by some hackers and it took a couple of weeks to get things straightened out and working again.
It was because of this attack, the assistance I received and how Word Stormer performs after I made some modifications to prevent future hacking that I decided to test Word Brander and write this comparative review for the 2 php word cloud scripts.
Since both scripts are written in php and the basic design of the cloud page and the submit a word phrase are very similar, I will only list the major differences.
Differences Between Word Stormer and Word Brander
- Word Stormer allows word submitters to enter any number of words in a single submission while Word Brander provides the cloud owner to administer the maximum number of words that may be used in a single submission.
- Both use PayPal for payments, Word Stormer always sends the submitter to a PayPal payment page while Word Brander only sends submitters to a payment page when a payment is actually due. In other words, Word Brander does not send submitters to a payment page if the cost is 0.
- Word Stormer provides a color palette for selecting the submitted words color while Word Brander lists a few color choices and allows the submitter to enter the hex code for a color not on the list (no palette available).
- Word Stormer provides a way to send email to word submitters while Word Brander does not.
- Word Stormer allows the cloud owner to limit the number of words on the cloud while Word Brander does not.
- Word Stormer allows changes to the site design through the admin area and Word Brander does not.
- Word Stormer is a larger script which takes more hosting space and understanding of how the script works.
- Word Stormer does not allow the cloud owner to submit words except through the cloud submission page while Word Brander allows the cloud owner to submit 1 word or a list of words through the administration area.
- To get Word Stormer to function properly, 2 of it's folders must be given 777 permissions. Word Brander does not require any changes to the its folders' permissions and none of them are set to 777.
- Word Stormer costs more and the affiliate program pays less than Word Brander.
As you can see from the above list, these 2 php scripts provide similar but different capabilities.
Now as for why my word cloud page was hacked into.
According to the technical support on my web host, folders with 777 permissions are an open invitation to hackers and once 1 finds that door, they post it to hacker forums so everyone can have a good time at the site owners expense.
With that information I contacted technical support for Word Stormer and asked if there was a fix for this security hole and here's a copy of their reply:
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HI Susan
Sorry to hear this. Unfortunately there are no more updates to the script at this time. We have not developed it any further. You could get a php programmer on elance or one of the freelance sites to ammend your own personal version if you wish, but there is nothing else we can do at this time about people hacking on your server.
Many thanks and all the best to you.
Alison
Customer Support
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Needless to say the response from Word Stormer was less than expected.
Fortunately the technical support for my hosted account was much more helpful and worked with me to find a somewhat working solution and since it was free and easy, I'll share it with you.
If you're using a php script and have some folders with 777 permissions and get hacked into you can do what I did with Word Stormer and see if it will work for you too.
- Delete the entire script, including the database if it uses 1. This will remove all the hackers files and changes.
- Re-install the script and the database but do not change any of the folders to 777 until you are ready to go in to the scripts administration area.
- When you're ready to use the scripts administration area, change the folders that state they need 777 permissions to work to 777. Do your administration and then change the folders to 755 permissions. Your space will be open to hackers while you've got the folder set to 777 but it should only take a few minutes to do your administration.
After doing the above with my Word Stormer script the cloud page has not been hacked. Also, I am now able to make changes through the admin area without changing permissions and although I sometime get an error page when I make a change, the change does actually get made proberly.
The only other problem I've encountered with Word Stormer is that some of my subscribers do have some difficulty making submissions. I will be investigating this further but do not know what causes this problem yet. (1 subscriber thinks it may be an interaction problem with MS Vista.)
My recommendations:
- If you want an easy to install word cloud script, know how to edit php files that only contain html code, and don't require the capability to email your word submitters then I recommend Word Brander. Since I've not had a problem with this script I can not comment on their technical support.
- If you want a cloud script where it's easier to make changes to the page design, allows you to email your submitters, provides either some flaky administration or a security issue and no technical support then you can try Word Stormer.
- If you don't want to mess with either of these you can just submit a word on my free advertising word cloud page and let me worry about the problems.
To Your Success,
Susan
P.S. Comments about either of these products or my review are welcome.
Tags: wordstormer, word stormer, wordbrander, word brander, wordstormer review, wordbrander review, word cloud, free advertising
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