Wordpress + Fantastico Dangerous?

[JonTuckerUSA]

I have been using wordpress for a bit of time but never tried Fantastico. I'm now launching a new venture that will require many wordpress sites to be launched, so I've started using fantastico on liquidweb.com hosting. It's amazing easily to get a blank wordpress site up in a matter of seconds.

My question is:

Is it bad or dangerous to install wordpress using fantastico? I know this sounds a bit odd, but I have a family member that also does a bit of wordpress and she mentioned off-hand that she doesn't like to use fantastico on her sites because it's "bad". we weren't in a position to talk more about about it at the time, but I wanted to learn more before I launched tons of sites with fantastico this week.

Please let me know if you've had / heard of any bad experiences using fantastico to install wordpress. I've done it with 5 sites this morning (in the last hour) on liquidweb.com and it's been 100% amazing.

Hope all you US warriors had a great thanksgiving = )

[Ricky Parker]

Yes it is dangerous.

The other day the sucka' pulled a knife on me and I was like, "come on bro I thought we were good."

Ok, back to reality...

I have used fantastico to install every last one one of my WP installs for a few years now. And have never had an issue.

Maybe ur friend was playin with the voodoo?

[JMPruitt]

I have never had a problem using fantastico. I currently have about 10 wp blogs all set up with Fantastico. Like everything else, it is up to personal experience. I have never installed one manually, so I can't say if it is better or worse. However, It is easy and quick.

[mr2monster]

The only thing you need to watch for with fantastico is that when you log in you go to Settings > Privacy and change it to "I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archivers"

Fantastico sets blogs as private by default, so you have to change them if you want them to show up in the almighty Google.

[shibbeymon]

I've used fantastico to install all my Wp sites and have never had a problem. As you've noticed it's rediculously easy.

[joshril]

I found this...

3 Reasons NOT to Use Fantastico For WordPress

I use Fantastico for the most part as well, and I have never had a problem.

[Ricky Parker]

Originally Posted by joshril

I found this...

3 Reasons NOT to Use Fantastico For WordPress

I use Fantastico for the most part as well, and I have never had a problem.

That dude prolly' dabbles in a lil' voodoo on the side.

I've upgraded and backed up and even played beer pong with my WP install and never had an issue.

[shaddai]

Is using fantastico bad? I don't think so. Files are files & how they got there doesn't really seem to matter. You just have to understand there are things to watch with ALL wordpress installs.

Sometimes the server admin doesn't keep up with the latest version of wordpress, so when you get your install done, the first thing to do is check the version & update it if necessary...which may mean ftp'ing all the files up there anyway if there's security concerns with WP permission on the server admin end.

The other thing is most fantastico user's think 'hey, it's up! Let's go' when they've given no thoughts to security & securing the site from people with less than genuine intentions. Start by reading through this and completing those processes. By the end of that, your setup is more secure than 90% of every other install out there.

Todd

[kaido]

Fantastico is great 1 click installation damn can it be any better?

[ShaneRQR]

I've also used Fantastico for all my blog installations and haven't had any problems. Apart from the fact that the blog is set to "private" as mentioned above.

[warriorkevin]

Using wordpress ot install shouldn't be a problem, jsut know that some scripts that can be installed using fantastico may have security vulnerabilities that are exploited and leave your server/site open to hacking.

[Null-11]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using Fantastico to install Wordpress. I've used it many times before and I'll be doing it in the future as well. There's no differece at all in the installation except for the fact that you save a heck of a lot of time. There is no difference in the coding so Google will rank you the same whether you use it or not. With Fantastico you're good to go!

In that "3 Reasons NOT to Use Fantastico For WordPress" article the guy says:

While install of the blog part I can understand – Upgrade of WordPress through Fantastico is an ABSOLUTE EVIL!

I would agree with that EXCEPT now wordpress can automatically update itself. You just go into the control panel and click 'update.' Problem solved.

I'd also like to point out that most people that say Fantastico is bad are selling Wordpress installations.

Summary: Use Fantastico and save hours of your valuable time.

[Avdo]

Originally Posted by Null-11

I would agree with that EXCEPT now wordpress can automatically update itself. You just go into the control panel and click 'update.' Problem solved.

I'd also like to point out that most people that say Fantastico is bad are selling Wordpress installations.

Summary: Use Fantastico and save hours of your valuable time.

Agree..Who ever it is who invented fantastico, post reply here, I wanna thank you

[bid357]

I have used Fantastico before and I didn't have any problems with it, except for the upgrade part, which has now been fixed as mentioned earlier.

Though I do still do manual installs of my blogs because I like to have full control over the installation because I do customize some of the files.

But if your not OCD like me then Fantastico is fine.

[KenJ]

Fantastico is not the problem

Wordpress can sometimes be a problem. You need to secure it and back it up. There are weirdo's out there who think it is fun and fine to hack into your wordpress blog.

[JonTuckerUSA]

Warrior forum is AMAZING. I posted this in about 30 seconds early today (about 1 hour ago I think). did some work and came back to check on my question before leaving the office. my questions are now answered.

Thanks warriors

Originally Posted by mr2monster

The only thing you need to watch for with fantastico is that when you log in you go to Settings > Privacy and change it to "I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archivers"

Fantastico sets blogs as private by default, so you have to change them if you want them to show up in the almighty Google.

I've heard of this before but it 100% slipped my mind on this batch today. Thanks SO MUCH for reminding me. I woulda felt dumb starting to do any offsite SEO and then wondering months down the line what happened; )

Originally Posted by joshril

I found this...

3 Reasons NOT to Use Fantastico For WordPress

I use Fantastico for the most part as well, and I have never had a problem.

will be reading through this in detail tomorrow. thanks = )

Originally Posted by shaddai

Is using fantastico bad? I don't think so. Files are files & how they got there doesn't really seem to matter. You just have to understand there are things to watch with ALL wordpress installs.

Sometimes the server admin doesn't keep up with the latest version of wordpress, so when you get your install done, the first thing to do is check the version & update it if necessary...which may mean ftp'ing all the files up there anyway if there's security concerns with WP permission on the server admin end.

The other thing is most fantastico user's think 'hey, it's up! Let's go' when they've given no thoughts to security & securing the site from people with less than genuine intentions. Start by reading through this and completing those processes. By the end of that, your setup is more secure than 90% of every other install out there.

Todd

Thanks for the giving me the security info. I've got some time tomorrow and will be reading through this and making sure my sites are up to par.

[VegasGreg]

Originally Posted by joshril

I found this...

3 Reasons NOT to Use Fantastico For WordPress

I use Fantastico for the most part as well, and I have never had a problem.

This was posted in January of 2008. Not really accurate anymore.

[VilPietersen@]

Fantastico, unless I'm mistaken is simply a platform that installs wordpress onto the domain it is on, surely there is no problem with that!!

The only thing you have to do when you install it is to change the privacy settings, but that's it!!

[gbd]

There's a fellow at Expert WordPress - Create A Blog who believes that Fantastico installs an unsecured version of Wordpress. He also offers a free "secure" version of wordpress. Worth noting is that Willie Crawford provides a testimonial on that page...

[Craig Desorcy]

I'd much rather install Wordpress by hand.

I get to control some security settings this way.

If you've studied up on Wordpress Blog Security,
you'll know your database table prefix should not
be wp_

Also, Wordpress does not need FULL access to the
allocated database but with Fantasico, it'll get it.

With a manual install, I get more control.

Craig

[Goatboy]

I've never heard anything bad about fantastico except that some servers will have an older version that will install an out-of-date version of Wordpress. So, the first thing I did after setting up a new site was to check the WP version and update if necessary. It hasn't been necessary yet.

I have heard rumors that fantasico is unsafe, but when I tried to pin those rumors down I couldn't find anything solid. So I take them to be similar to many of the urban legends that seem to make the rounds of my email box.

[warriorkevin]

They aren't rumors and it is not necessarily fantastico that is unsafe.

Some of the community scripts like nuke, etc are unsafe. One of the main reasons is that the community contributes to the code base and often that code is not security checked.

If your server is not secured and you install these things, you run the risk of problems.

The reasons are that there are KNOWN exploits for many of these scripts and people create spiders, etc to search for the exploits.

WP is pretty insecure depending on what you do. Just download a bunch of free templates and plugins without checking them and you are bound to find something that is already compromised.

Hackers produce and modify lots of free templates and plugins and release them. They search for the hidden signatures, (often with hidden links that are set to show up to google etc, but not to a normal browser) and they have you.

I know it is true because I have seen people here post about it and I downloaded templates and found strange javascript and encoded text that had strange links in them. Sometimes the exploits are designed to occur after posting or editing a post.

Just beware. Fantastico makes it simple to install, which by nature isn't always using the most secure methods. But ingeneral I don't think there is anything wrong with the installer, jut beware of what you install.

[michellegreen]

Whether you use Fantastico or install manually, it's good practice to backup regularly.

I've used Fantastico for all of my WP installs for all of mine and my client's sites, and I've never had a problem.

[MaryT]

I recommend to NOT use Fantastico, as you can get into trouble the day you want to upgrade the wordpress versions or plugins, suppose in 6 months the new Wordpress.org 3.0 come with tons of new features and a some plugin to install, in some case it will just become a geek quest to upgrade u to impossible missions

i talk from experience of upgrading from wordpress 2.4 to 2.8 and the fantastico install messed up, ending up hiring a geek to fix that was unecessary trouble

the ones installed manually didn't have any problem when upgrading

my 2 cents
Mary

[andyphillips101]

I think there had been some problems with hacking in the past and I dare say there will be WordPress sites hacked in the future, however the main point of this should be to take regular backups of your site.

This is more important than anything else. There are a number of reasons why you could loose your site and hacking come way down the list.

WordPress is still the top CMS for most uses and will continue to be for some time. With popularity comes the higher chance of some one wanting to hack sites such as WordPress.

But let's face it, 99.9999 of the blogs out there aren't worth hacking (I'm including myself in that) and Fantastico is just a script installer.

It would be interesting to find out if any on the forum has been hacked!

Over to you

[Brian Alaway]

Fantastico works well but one thing it lacks is that it doesn't track versions. Not a problem if you've just got a few blogs but as they grow it would be nice to get a quick snapshot in one place that shows all current installed versions. I tried Host Gators QuickInstaller and it's just as easy as Fantastico. And it installs W3 Total Cache by default which I like and use. It also shows all installations in one click, whether they're WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc. Unfortunately it doesn't track versions either.

WP-Twin seems like a good solution if you're just replicating your own sites. Unfortunately, if you wanted to use it to quickly build a base template site for clients to then be customized, each client needs a copy too.

[Myles Sinclair]

Guys, this thread is a year old!

[M Thompson]

Damn grave diggers..can't you let threads lie in peace..

[Oxbloom]

I sincerely had no idea there *was* any other way to install wordpress.

[NeilPM]

Since this was BUMPED :P

Originally Posted by Oxbloom

I sincerely had no idea there *was* any other way to install wordpress.

Download the zipped file, upload to your ftp . Also I don't think fantastico is dangerous, its on cpanel, and it just makes it more faster to install and much convenient.

[Mar]

I have space on a server which uses softaculous as a script installer instead of fantastico; the only perceptible difference is that the softaculous upgrades for wordpress are usually a day or two ahead of fantastico - but now that I've posted this, I'm guessing that things will change

Mar