A little clarity.
A useful perspective.
Thoughts on building, running and looking after your corner of the web.
Real investigations, considered decisions and practical reading on websites, hosting, DNS and networks.
Behind the fix.
And beyond.
Explore design choices, recognise changes worth investigating and plan the next step with care.
A hacked WordPress site. A redirect loop. Two investigations.
Beyond the fix: unauthorised accounts, integrity checks and a separate rewrite conflict—and why a recovery needs more than one definition of done.
7 November 2026 · By SpidrwebVideo calls keep dropping, but the speed test looks fine
Inside a shared-site UniFi network investigation: bandwidth controls, Ethernet pause frames, VLAN checks and why a Wi-Fi extender was not the first answer.
6 November 2026 · By Phil LankesterBefore you delete that DNS record, find out what it does
A DNS move is a good time to understand the records you have. It is a poor time to remove the ones you do not recognise.
3 November 2026 · By SpidrwebYour website works. Your uptime monitor says it doesn’t. Who’s right?
Different requests can get different answers. Before changing the server, find out what the check actually measured.
3 November 2026 · By SpidrwebMore PHP workers won’t always fix a slow WordPress site
A worker-limit warning tells you something is busy. It does not, by itself, tell you why—or whether a higher limit is the right answer.
3 November 2026 · By SpidrwebCustom vs free vs premium WordPress themes: which should you choose?
The right foundation depends on what your website needs to do, who will maintain it and where you want to take it.
Originally published 10 January 2023How to check if your WordPress site has been hacked
Unexpected changes deserve attention. Here are ten things to investigate—and how to start without jumping to conclusions.
Originally published 3 December 2022WordPress malware clean-up: a considered recovery plan
A considered recovery plan, including a real follow-up investigation where a redirect conflict needed a separate repair.
Revised 7 November 2026