Beware of Inferior Webhosts...

What Every Web Site Owner Should Know Beware of Inferior Webhosts... If the provider does not have enough bandwidth your site will load slowly. If the provider does not have redundant connection your site will not load if there is a problem with the Internet connection. If the provider does not have adequate security; your site may get hacked. *This is not always the cause of hacked sites. See the chapter on security. If the provider’s security is too restrictive your Web applications may not work properly. If the provider does not have adequate backup; you could lose the site altogether, so make sure you have your own. These are just a few of the possible calamities that can happen.. After the blood, sweat, tears and money that you have gone through to get your site up, a smoothly running Web host will make all the difference. Hopefully, you will just pay the fees and never have to worry about the host. You will know you have a good Web hosting company if you never have to think

ALL HOSTS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL

What Every Web Site Owner Should Know ALL HOSTS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL Now that you know a little bit more about Web hosting, it is time to think about actually choosing a Web host. Services offered range from simple web hosting with no features, to comprehensive packages including templates, a marketing plan, search engine submission, and more. Sometimes this can be confusing for a prospective Website owner. Too many choices can lead to what may not be the best decision. Therefore, one of the most important things to consider is reliability. Regardless of what else is offered, or how great the deal is, if your Website is down half the time, it’s not worth it. After reliability, email is probably the next critical feature you should consider. Before you sign up with a hosting company, you can check to see if their mail servers appear on any black lists (Just visit my Website to find out how to do this.). Additionally, most Web hosts offer protection against spam. It will also allow you to add email addresses that you want to make certain you receive email from to a white list. Spam filtering is a balancing act. The higher the security, the less spam will get through, but the greater the probability that legitimate email is filtered along with the junk mail. Depending upon how important you consider your email, will determine your “comfort level” regarding spam filtering. Personally, I prefer a Web host to allow all non-virus email through. I can configure my own spam filter.

Web Hosting Pt 03 Advanced Hosting Features

What Every Web Site Owner Should Know Beyond the Basics (Web Hosting Pt 03) There are many other more advanced web hosting options and features that you may need. Your Webmaster should know which features he will require. Chances are he will have a Web host that he uses routinely. By using a single Web host he will be familiar with the control panel and features of that particular provider. This will save time and prevent issues regarding compatibility. On the other hand, he may be a reseller (which is common) and have a vested interest in selling you the most expensive package you can afford. As long as you know what you are getting into you are in good shape. A little knowledge can go a long way to save you money in this business. In any case, a few questions up front can go a long way to making your Website a success. If you simply ask him if he has any special needs or preferences, if he has a Webhost that he has good experiences with and if he is affiliated with that Webhost. WHADDYA MEAN “WHAT ‘S MY PASSWORD?”... WHAT PASSWORD? From time to time, a Website owner wants to transfer a Website from one company to another. Frequently, the owner does not have the registrar or the FTP login information. The Registrar login information is needed to administrate the domain name and the FTP login information is necessary to transfer the files to and from the Web host. Usually, this is not a problem. However, if the original Webmaster can no longer be contacted, there can be trouble. There can be no transfer until account access has been restored. If the owner is not listed as the administrative contact, proving ownership of the domain name may be difficult. In most cases it can be squared away, but it is rarely fun and easily avoided. All you have to do is write down your information in the “Important Info” Appendix at the end of this book. Bottom line —Make sure that you are listed with the registrar as the administrative contact and you have all account information BEFORE you need it and keep the login information in a safe place. MAKING THE CHOICE Choosing a Web host is an important step and should be done carefully. If you choose a substandard service your Website may be unacceptably slow and/or unreliable. The quality of Web hosting services varies a great deal depending on the provider. A Web host provider can range from a person with startup hosting business consisting of a Web server in their garage, running Windows 98® on dial up, all the way up to Billion-Dollar-Companies running state-of-the-art data centers and everything in between. There are pros and cons either way. Smaller hosting companies are typically less reliable, while large hosting companies are generally too restrictive and it can be difficult to work with/around their security. Hopefully, you will find a host that offers great services without being too restrictive. If you visit my website www.EverMoreTech.com I have included a list of reliable web hosting providers, what they offer, and a tool in which you can compare them. You’ll also find updated lists of the type of hardware that should be expected from any decent web host. This will include how much how much bandwidth and how much web space is the average offered. HEY LOOK, IT’S A CLUE! Beware of Inferior Webhosts... If the provider does not have enough bandwidth your site will load slowly. If the provider does not have redundant connection your site will not load if there is a problem with the Internet connection. If the provider does not have adequate security; your site may get hacked. *This is not always the cause of hacked sites. See the chapter on security. If the provider’s security is too restrictive your Web applications may not work properly. If the provider does not have adequate backup; you could lose the site altogether, so make sure you have your own. These are just a few of the possible calamities that can happen.. After the blood, sweat, tears and money that you have gone through to get your site up, a smoothly running Web host will make all the difference. Hopefully, you will just pay the fees and never have to worry about the host. You will know you have a good Web hosting company if you never have to think about it after you make your decision

Domain Registrars Pt 2 Choosing a domain name & Taking the plunge!

What Every Web Site Owner Should Know Choosing A Domain Name & Taking The Plunge! Now, if you are ready to take the plunge, it is time to visit a Domain Registrar and pick out a domain name. There is no time like the present and your domain isn’t going to register itself. The sooner you get started the better. The competition for domain names is a lot like the land rush in the early days of this country. There are still many good domain names to choose from, but every day that goes by, hundreds of thousands of new domain names are registered. The sooner you start the better chance you will have of getting a domain name you are happy with. Not to mention; the longer a Website has been in existence (and the length of time it is registered for) is a factor that determines how high Google will rank your pages. Just visit www.EverMoreTech.com/DomainName (URL Coming Soon) for a list of registrars, user’s experiences & ratings of their services, prices and links. Of course, I encourage you to leave your own opinions. You will also find a tool on my site that will allow you to see if your desired domain name is available or not (most registrars will have similar tools). One last thing before you go rushing off to buy your first domain name; take a few moments to think about it. Chances are, if you are in a popular field, there may not be much to choose from, but if you are clever, you should be able to come up with something that you are happy with. When you are choosing a domain name here are a few things to keep in mind; Keep it short. The longer the domain name is, the greater the chance that your potential visitors will make typos, misspellings, or simply be too lazy to type ThisIsMyReallyCoolDomainName.com. Avoid tricky spellings, homonyms, puns, or other gimmicky names. Unless this is really a prominent part of your business branding, I caution against using alternative spellings and or substituting characters (i.e. using the number 3 as a substitute for the letter E, this is known as "Leet") unless your target audience is a young cyber-literate group such as gamers. Using alternative spellings can cause confusion and be difficult to tell someone over the phone. While it may be unavoidable, try to keep that sound alike letters such as S & F, B & V, or D & T etc … to a minimum. When you are trying to give your Website address (particularly over the phone), or someone needs to jot down your e-mail address, it can be a challenge to make sure they get it. Use a .com TLD if you can. I try to use .com where ever possible. The .com top level domain is the most recognizable and will generally be the default when someone types in your domain name without it into a search engine. Keep it simple Allow for growth —if you choose BooksBooksBooks.com you are limited to books, whereas if you go with something more general such as; BooksAndMore.com you have room for growth if your site takes on a new direction previously unforeseen. If your site is specific to an industry and will not change, you may want to disregard this, but that is up to you. When possible, get something that is easy to remember. This is important. How many times have you sat down to the computer and could not think or a particular website’s name? Write down 30 good names. Then, cross out ten. Number the remaining 20 and visit a registrar to see if any of your favorites. If at first you don’t find one that you are thrilled about, or none of your favorites are available, then relax, and try again. If you can’t decide between a few different domain names, you can get them all and simply point, or forward all of them to your Website. Most registrars (not all) will allow you to forward a domain name for free. Of course, realistically, there are countless sites and about a bijillion names have been registered. You may be in a very competitive industry and there may only be slim pickin's so get what you can. You have to feel it... Once you have the domain name that is right for you; GRAB IT! More than once I have waited to buy a domain name only to find it was taken by the time I made up my mind. With that said; be careful checking out.Some Registrars attempt to sell you everything from so-called traffic boosters to the kitchen sink on your way to the credit processing page. JUST GET THE DOMAIN NAME! I do not recommend purchasing the add-ons particularly the $1.99 hosting package … I will talk more about Web hosting in upcoming posts.

How Browsers Work

What Every Web Site Owner Should Know HOW BROWSERS WORK So, what exactly is a browser anyway? While that may seem like a stupid question, obviously it is what you use to get on the Internet, but, have you ever really thought about it? Of course, you know what it is basically, but what about a little more in-depth? How do they work and why? These are just a few of the major questions people have, but don’t want to ask. So, let’s break this down: When you open your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc ...) and visit a Website, this is what happens: 1. When a user, we’ll call him Joe, opens a browser, he is launching a very powerful program. Even though you might not think of your browser as a program, it is exactly that. 2. Joe types www.EverMoreTech.com into the address bar and presses Enter. 3. The request for that Web page travels out over the DNS system. 4. Eventually (actually, at light speed) it reaches the Web hosting server that actually hosts the web page. 5. The hosting server processes the request and then breaks the file into millions of small data packets and sends them back over the Internet to the Joe’s computer. These packets are then rebuilt and placed in all of the correct order on Joe’s machine and sent to his browser. Now, here’s where the fun begins; the web page that you see is not what was sent over the Internet. Actually, a simple text file containing HTML source code was sent. This source code is the equivalent of an architect’s blueprint. Your browser acts similarly to a house-builder and interprets these “blueprints” and assembles the Web page accordingly. Any images, graphics or other files that may be needed are then downloaded. However, just as builders are not created equally, browsers have differences as well (see the Tech Note). Currently, the most popular browser is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (there are several versions in parentheses). A rival browser, Firefox, is gaining market share quickly. This is significant because; the browser builds the Website based on the blueprints provided by the web server and there may be significant differences in the results. When you are deciding on a Webmaster, be sure to consider this and make sure that cross browser compliance is included! Nerd Note! If two builders are given the same set of blueprints, the structures that they build could be quite a bit different, this is due to differing interpretations of the blueprints.. Likewise, different browsers will assemble Web pages differently. Some browsers conform to web standards and some do not. Standards Based Browsers all produce the same overall results, while Non-Compliant Browsers do not necessarily conform to the “rules” of Web design. This is known as cross browser compatibility. You should make certain your site looks presentable in any of the major browsers.