Dynamic Templates And The Navbar

If your blog is published to a dynamic template, neither you or your readers will have a navbar, when your blog is being viewed.

The navbar, found on blogs which use a non dynamic template - when selected by the blog owner - has a number of reader friendly icons and links.

Dynamic templates have a "menu bar" 1/5 of the way down the page - which provides a combination of the Pages gadget, and limited navbar functions. At the far right end of the menu bar, you'll see 2 tiny icons - when you are properly logged in as the blog owner.

• New post, the "pencil" icon.
• Home, the "home" icon.

Blog administrators have limited navbar functions, on a blog that's published using a dynamic template.

Blog administrators have limited dashboard access using menu bar icons.

The menu bar, just below the dynamic template title section, has the "New post" and "Home" links.

There's the menu bar, just below the Title / Description.

At the far end of the menu bar, the "pencil" and "home" icons.



You'll see the "pencil" and "home" icons - when you are logged in to Blogger, as the blog owner.

Blog readers have no navbar icons, in the dynamic template menu bar.

If you're not logged in to Blogger, you get no menu bar dashboard access.



If you never logged in to Blogger, or if you have a problem with a filter blocking access to the login cookie, you won't have any dashboard access.

If you can't access the dashboard using icons, you'll be able to login - just use a bookmarked link.

https://www.blogger.com/home

If you have a cookie filter problem, you may have to login again, to access the dashboard for your dynamic template blog.

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A #Blogger blog that uses a dynamic template won't have a navbar, with easy access to the dashboard, and a convenient login / logout link. Dynamic templates provide a menu bar, which is a combination of a miniature Pages gadget and navbar.
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Protect Your Online Life - Prevent Blog Loss

We've been seeing a few queries recently, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, suggesting very subtle account attacks going on.

Some reports are about accounts locked (and blogs temporarily offline), because of "suspicious" / "unusual" activity. Other reports are sadder - and mention blogs now owned by another person. When we're able to identify the new blog owner, too many look like intentional hackers.

Temporarily offline - or permanently stolen - both are stories that you do not want to tell. Fortunately, both stories can be prevented.

If you know the risks, and you can protect yourself and your Blogger account, you can be simply irritated by the ongoing hacking attempts.

I, personally, am no stranger to semi successful hacking. This blog has been taken offline twice, since Blogger / Google started their hacking mitigation program ("suspicious" / "unusual" account activity detection).

Once the activity takes place, and is detected, your account will be locked, and your blogs taken offline - though you may not see the two conditions as connected. However, if you protect yourself, you can treat an attack as a mere nuisance.

Consider what details are used, by Google, in requesting backup authentication.

When Google requests additional identity details, after you have successfully provided your account name / email address, and your password, they will ask for demographic details such as:

• Any passwords that you have used previously.
• What services (such as GMail, Google+, YouTube) have you used - and when did you first use them.
• How recently did you use a given service.

They appear to request these details randomly, in an effort to keep the hackers guessing.

Observing that these details are sometimes requested, it would make sense to have a 2 part policy.

1. Don't reveal these details, about yourself, online.
2. Take a few hours, whenever you have time - research, and record these details so you will have them when they are useful.

If you travel frequently - or if your Internet service makes you appear to move around your immediate neighbourhood - you may need these details sooner than you would expect.

If your Internet service changes, giving you a new email address - or if you change jobs, graduate from school, move and have different / new Internet service - prepare for the change. The first time you login, after a change, have the details needed, where they can be conveniently retrieved.

You may see this notice - even when you did nothing wrong - if your account is disabled for "suspicious" / "unusual" activity. Google code can be fickle, at times.

Here's hoping that you don't suffer from high blood pressure or chronic indigestion.



Google 2-Step Verification is a better way to protect yourself.

Google 2-Step Verification uses any of several options.

• A physical USB key, registered by you before trouble starts.
• Backup, one use authentication codes, retrieved by you before trouble starts.
• An authentication code generator, installed on your smartphone / tablet, registered by you before trouble starts.

Note the requirement "before trouble starts". After you get the "Your account is now locked" advice, and see your blogs now offline, it may be too late.

I, personally, see the "suspicious" / "unusual" activity notice - or receive "Please provide additional proof of identity" - several times yearly. Using my USB key, inserted into the computer, and tapping the button, I am generally back online within minutes.

If you're lucky, you may need neither additional details, or 2-Step.

Not everybody will need either proof of identity. I suspect a large proportion of the world population will go through life without ever seeing the "suspicious" / "unusual" account activity warning.

And if I convince you to do any or all of this, you never need to do it - and you come to me in 5 years and call me a wanker or worse, for wasting your time - I'll smile and at least know that you are not one of the people in the forum.

My blog is offline and I had to spend time figuring when I setup my GMail and YouTube accounts!

or

Help me! My blog is missing from my dashboard - and it's throwing spam at my readers!

I really prefer being called a wanker (or worse).

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Some Blogger blog owners are reporting new instances of "suspicious" / "unusual" account activity - some successfully executed, and blogs stolen. The sad part is that much of this can be avoided, by advance owner action.

Researching backup authentication details, and / or use of Google 2-Step Verification, can allow the owner of an attacked Blogger account to growl, and respond - and possibly have the account and blog(s) back online in minutes or hours. But the work has to be done before trouble starts.

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McAfee WebAdvisor Blocks Blogger / Google Scripts

We have several blog owners, trying to use Blogger - and seeing warnings from McAfee WebAdvisor.

When I try to log out, I am getting a risky connection warning.

Whoa! Are you sure you want to go there?

I cannot log out of blogger.

The blog owner needs to log out from her current account.

"! Warning: Trouble ahead"

"Whoa! Are you sure you want to go there?"

This looks scary - but keep it in perspective.



If you're going to use Blogger / Google, you have to trust Blogger / Google.

Look carefully at the URL, in the advice. Is it a genuine Blogger / Google URL?

If you want to use Blogger - such as logging out so you can use a different account - you have to use the Blogger pages and scripts. You may have to instruct McAfee that you trust that URL.

You, and other McAfee customers, have to help train McAfee.

If you trust Blogger code - and as a Blogger blog publisher, you should - you need to train McAfee to not block Blogger code.

Start by clicking on "Accept the Risk", and follow instructions. Hopefully, that will send feedback to McAfee, informing them that they are reporting a false positive detection.

If you read the McAfee WebAdvisor instructions (wherever they may be), you may also find a site whitelist or similar filter setting - and you may need to add "blogger.com" and "google.com" to your whitelist. This, too, may provide feedback to McAfee.

This is one more episode in the Internet security process.

This is simply one more case of overly aggressive security. And that, like most general paranoia, is not necessarily bad - if you can keep it in proper perspective.

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McAfee Webadvisor is currently advising blog owners, who try to logout from Blogger, that the logout webpage at "accounts.blogger.com" may be "risky". Since we know that Blogger Engineering is not going to intentionally cause risk for their customers, the McAfee warning is most likely a false positive - but the message, in the McAfee warning, will not leave people in a relaxed state of mind.

Blog owners may have to use the "Accept the Risk" button, and inform McAfee that they are displaying a false positive alert.

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