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Ramblings, thoughts, warnings, info and comments pertinent to the Internet and Inland Pacific Consulting and their clients. |
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5/9/2008
If you are not automatically redirected to our new site within 10 seconds you can click on the above link.
Sorry for any inconvenience. 4/22/2008It's been more than a year now since the three top contenders in the Search industry have agreed on a method for listing sites in their respective search engines; and other search engines have been invited to use the same method.
What are sitemaps?
Sitemaps are an easy way for webmasters to inform search engines about pages on their sites that are available for crawling. In its simplest form, a Sitemap is an XML file that lists URLs for a site along with additional metadata about each URL (when it was last updated, how often it usually changes, and how important it is, relative to other URLs in the site) so that search engines can more intelligently crawl the site.
Web crawlers usually discover pages from links within the site and from other sites. Sitemaps supplement this data to allow crawlers that support Sitemaps to pick up all URLs in the Sitemap and learn about those URLs using the associated metadata. Using the Sitemap protocol does not guarantee that web pages are included in search engines, but provides hints for web crawlers to do a better job of crawling your site.
Is your site 'search engine friendly'?
If you haven't added the new XML SiteMap to your web site your ranking in search engines may suffer or many important pages you would like to have indexed may simply be passed by because webbots and crawlers can't find them. There are other things that you can do to make sure your site is search engine friendly such as using heading tags that match content, etc.
For more information on site maps or tips on improving your site rankings shoot us an email. 4/18/2008
Blind Americans demand Web access; Target fights back.
Retailer Target is being sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act because their website is not accessable to the blind. You can read the full article here and it should be an eye-opener.
In light of this lawsuit many other online retailers are quietly upgrading their sites to be compliant with the Act and avoid problems themselves.
Is your website in compliance? If you would like to know, contact Inland Pacific Consulting and we can give you an assement of your site and let you know what you need to do in order to prevent any potential problems with non-compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and make sure your site is accessible to all people that want to view it.
The last few weeks have found me in Vista hell with the fires being distinguished just yesterday...what a relief.
Vista has a new security 'feature' called User Account Control (UAC), which is designed to prevent novice computer users from accidentally doing anything on their computer that might compromise security. UAC causes several pop-up warnings to appear when a user opens certain programs which advise the user that a potential security risk could be incurred if they continue with this action and requires them to either click "I know what I'm doing--Allow" or "Oops--I'm not sure I should be doing this--Deny". (You might have seen these annoying pop-ups featured in a recent TV ad for Apple computers.)
You have the ability to turn this 'feature' off, if you feel you know what you are doing, which fortunately is a good thing, because it seems Vista thinks almost everything you do on your computer is a potential security threat, and it is REALLY aggravating to continually get these pop-ups.
Here is where the problem arises. I use QuickBooks for my accounting. QuickBooks has the ability to download automatically billed credit card charges from your bank--however this feature will not work if UAC is turned off. This is just one of the many compatibility issues between QuickBooks and Vista--even though they market their product as being totally Vista compatible.
So, normally during the week, I would keep UAC turned off to avoid the pop-ups and turn it on at the end of the week to download the payments that were received during the week; and immediately turn it off again after the payments downloaded. (Turning UAC on and off requires a reboot--just to make the whole process of turning it on and off even more annoying.)
Well...it turns out that Microsoft didn't know that if you turn UAC on and off more than one time it corrupts the operating system's registry, removing all of the user permissions. This means that most programs already installed on your computer will continue to run, but no new programs can be installed. I'm sure there are other bad things that having a registry with all permissions removed will cause, but I haven't been fortunate enough to discover them.
Income Tax time came, and I downloaded and installed TurboTax (A popular Income Tax preparation program made by the same company (Intuit) that makes QuickBooks. A nice feature in TurboTax is the ability to import all of your financial data from QuickBooks to give a great head-start in entering all of the necessary data for your tax returns.
TurboTax installed without a hitch, but when I went to import my data from QuickBooks, I kept getting errors. So, I went to the support site and followed all of the instructions, as this was seemingly a 'known' issue with TT and QB on Vista. The final instruction, if none of the previous three suggestions worked, was to uninstall and reinstall QuickBooks...and now the nightmare begins.
QuickBooks uninstalled and seemingly reinstalled without a problem--until I tried to open the program. It started to open as usual and then just quit. No errors, no warnings, the splash screen appeared, as if to taunt me, then just disappeared!
This now started my odyssey with support--both Microsoft Support and QuickBooks support. Weeks went by, we tried this, and we tried that. QuickBooks blamed Microsoft, Microsoft blamed QuickBooks. And all this time, I had no convenient way to open my financial program to pay bills, make bank deposits, basically no way to run my business.
To make a long story short, Microsoft was starting to get more people experiencing this behavior, as was QuickBooks, and QuickBooks support sent me a link to a third party web site that was able to supply a fix for the problem, even before Microsoft and Intuit were able to pinpoint the problem.
I still don't think that Microsoft has gotten the word out on this yet, as it has not been addressed in service pack one for Vista, nor have I seen a patch being pushed out in automatic updates.
What a relief to finally have my computer working normally again--even though I am forced to have UAC turned on continually if I want to download credit card payments, but after the past several weeks, having to endure these pop-up warnings don't seem all that bad.
Here is a link to the site with a more thorough technical explanation of the problem and the fix should your computer be experiencing this issue: http://www.brianpeek.com/blog/archive/2007/11/29/weird-vista-registry-issue.aspx.
Meanwhile DO NOT TURN USER ACCOUNT CONTROL ON AND OFF!
2/19/2008Recently the amount of spam that we have experienced on our servers has sky-rocked to the point of slowing down delivery or legitimate email.
We have taken the following actions to curb the influx of spam and reduce the load on our spam filters:
1. Changed the SMTP port from 25 to 587. (Notifications were sent out with instructions for making this change to your email client.)
2. Added additional RBL (Real-time Black List) lists to check mail against.
3. Once mail has been blocked by the RBLs that we have implimented, we are then blocking those offending IP addresses at our server to reduce the load off of our spam filters.
This should help to return delivery back to normal as we fine tune and tweak the new settings. As with all technology, it is not perfect. If you experience any problem receiving email from a sender you know is legitimate, let us know and we will see if it is the result of any blocking we are doing, and then make the necessary adjustments to allow that sender's email to bypass our spam checking.
Additionally, it is a good practice to add all of the important email addresses to your white-list on our server. This will assure that those addresses bypass filtering and assure their delivery.
JK 2/9/2008I just wanted to alert you all to a scam that is currently making the rounds.
The scam works this way: unethical companies monitor the publicly accessible WHOIS database and obtain your contact information as well as your domain expiration dates. Using this information, they mail you an official looking document, months in advance of your renewal date, encouraging you to renew the name now to protect yourself from losing your domain name. When you renew the name by paying the invoice, the domain is not only renewed, but your domain is transfered to the unscrupulous Registrar. (I have personally received three of these solititations in the past three weeks for various domains I own or manage; and I can assure you the look very legitimate!)
There are a number of ways to combat this practice:
- Enable WHOIS Privacy.
This is the absolute best protection, stopping the scam dead in its tracks as there is no way for the scammer to contact you directly. (Contact us if you need help doing this.)
- Lock your domain. A locked domain can't be transferred, again, preventing the scam from working. (Again, contact us if you need help with this.)
- Remember, we (Inland Pacific Consulting or VisitUsAt.com) are you domain registrar reseller and will be the only one notifying you regarding anything with your domain names.
- When in doubt, give us a call before acting on any suspiscious looking mail or email you receive about your domain names.
Thanks for your continued support of Inland Pacific Consulting (VisitUsAt.com)
10/20/2007
Are free email services worth the cost?
The answer seems to be yes and no, depending on your needs and expectations.
"What cost? Free email services are free, aren't they?" Here are some of the costs I associate with free email services:
- Spam - free email services seem to receive a disproportionate amount of spam. There are various theories about why, but the fact is you'll get more spam with a free mail service than with a regular ISP.
- Deliverability - free email addresses also seem to send a disproportionate amount of SPAM. Even though you don't send SPAM, it still impacts you. When spam filters see your email as coming from the same service as lots of SPAM, it's a strike against you, and can quickly cause your email to be blocked.
- Customer Service - for all intents and purposes, there is none. This is truly a case of "you get what you pay for". While there might be web forms and email address that will accept your question, your chances of getting a response are pretty much proportional to what you paid: zero.
- Limits and Restrictions - With most free services you must read your email through their web interface. If you want to move, forward or download your email, contacts or other information, the process is cumbersome, if it's even possible at all.
In short, I wouldn't suggest a free email service for anything that you consider important or anything that you want to keep long term.
Here's a guide: If your email account disappeared today, along with all the mail and contact information it contains, would it be an inconvenience or a catastrophe? If you answered catastrophy, then you need to stop using your free account now!
If your email is actually important to you, then spend a little each month to get a "real" email account from a regular ISP or mail service. Depending on the provider, each one of the 'costs' I list above will at least be diminished, if not eliminated.
Another 'hidden' cost of using a free account for your business is the lack of professionalism and sense of permanence portrayed to clients and prospects by an email address that does not reflect the name or domain of your company.
What is the place for free email? Free accounts are perfect when you don't really care what happens to them. They're great when you need to supply an email address to a company that you think may spam you later. Or if you need or want to remain anonymous or otherwise separate that email from your important stuff. Or for leaving as a contact address on a website that will probably get harvested for spam someday.
In other words, free email accounts are perfect throw away accounts. If you get something important that you want to save on one of those accounts, just forward it to your real email account, and you're safer.
JK 10/13/2007
Do you work with clients on projects that rely on a schedule? Do you have on-going conversations via email with clients that you find hard to keep organized? Is it ever necessary for you to deliver documents--either contracts, proposals, drafts of projects or letters that you need to collaborate on? Would you like to be able to survey your clients to get their opinions on your service or current trends?
These are but a few of the capabilities that are available in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.
Imagine being able to post your client's project schedule on-line as a gant chart. Assign the different phases of the project to those people that are responsible for them. Then, as the different phases of the project are completed, those responsible can login to the site and update their areas of responsibility as they are completed. Imagine also that your clients could also login to the schedule at any time to see exactly how the project is progressing. Every person involved with the project now has access to the schedule and everyone is kept in the loop. You as the project administrator can see exactly what needs to be done and are now in complete control. This is only one of the many powerful features of Windows SharePoint Services--and the only tool you need to implement this tool is your web browser and an Internet connection. No additional software to buy, no programs to learn--simply login and get to work. Here are some links to a great demos.
I will be outlining additional features of Windows SharePoint Services in other articles, but if you would like a free 30 day trial to see first-hand how WSS can benefit your company, give me a call. 323-463-8300 and I'll have you set-up within 24 hours.
JK 10/9/2007I am sometime amazed that I am still caught up by a bargain or the possibility of saving some money. There was a lot of buzz going around for awhile regarding Go Daddy--a domain name registrar that sells both retail and wholesale--both domain names and other services that are in competition with our company.
So, I decided to try them to see if they could possibly be a provider for us and our clients and purchased an SSL certificate from them. And of course, I got what I paid for. An inferior certificate and poor service, not to mention unauthorized renewals on my credit card.
First, from the technical side, the certificate once installed, would not be recognized unless additional root certificates were installed on the server. Without this extra installation, pop-up warnings would be generated to anyone viewing a page protected by the Go Daddy certificate.
So, that was it. I decided if their certificates were not automatically recognized by the major web browsers by default, it was not a good sign and I decided not to pursue Go Daddy for any of their services.
Now, 11 months later, I get an email from Go Daddy telling me they automatically renewed this certificate and charged the credit card I had on file with them.
I was surprised to say the least. I am very careful to never check any boxes that ask if I want to have my credit card information left on-file; and I am equally careful to never check any boxes that would authorize any automatic renewal of service. So, either they had these options extremely well hidden, or they just kept this information and auto-renewed a service I hadn't been using for almost a year.
It gets worse...
So, I immediately call the number they have listed for customer service and billing--a toll number--and am asked a series of questions by the representative regarding things like passwords, last four digits of my credit card, etc.--things I had long forgotten, as I had already terminated my relationship with them and had no reason to keep this information. Fortunately, I took a guess at the 'security code' and got it right and the representative was able to access my account.
I was then informed that he could not cancel the order on the phone and that I would have to do this on the web site. I was livid. I told them I did not have Internet access and I was again informed that logging into their web site was the only way I could cancel this auto-renewal and have my credit card charge reversed. A few explicatives were directed to that representative and I hung up.
Upon visiting the web site, I found it very confusing trying to find the cancellation section was impossible--and this is my business. I called them back.
This time, I was told that they would be able to cancel on the phone, and now 45 minutes later, my charge was reversed.
Again, the old adage "You get what you pay for." was proven true again. Cheaper is almost never better.
Buyer Beware! 10/4/2007
Just a note to let you know we will be upgrading our servers to the latest 64 bit technology in anticipation of the coming upgrade to Windows 2008 Server (Longhorn) which is scheduled for release in February 2008.
We are currently testing the pre-release version and will be migrating client web sites to the new servers as soon as testing is completed.
The benefits of upgrading are improved security, better performance and faster loading of web pages and easier trouble shooting; but for those more technicly inclined, here are a list of some of the new web server improvements in IIS 7.0
IIS7 Features
IIS7 in Windows Server 2008 offers functionality that enables Web administrators to reliably manage Web infrastructures more effectively and enables Web developers to rapidly build more compelling Web solutions.
The IIS7 release delivers five key enhancements:
- Modular architecture: IIS7 is designed to enable the IT professional to customize exactly which features are installed and running on the Web server. IIS is now factored into more than 40 feature modules that can be independently installed on the box, dramatically reducing the potential attack surface and lowering the footprint requirements of the server.
- Comprehensive extensibility APIs: IIS7 enables developers to extend the Web server in a smoother way. The core Web server features of IIS7 have been built using a new set of public Web server APIs that all developers can use to extend, replace, or add functionality to the Web server. These APIs are available as native Win32 APIs as well as managed .NET Framework APIs. Developers can also take advantage of IIS7's extensibility of event logging, configuration, and administration tool feature-sets, providing a smooth experience for customers using third-party extensions.
- Unified, distributable configuration model: IIS7 provides developers and administrators with a unified configuration system for storing all IIS and ASP.NET settings in a single XML format, and includes a set of managed code and scripting APIs for accessing configuration information for the entire Web platform. This new configuration system supports distributed configuration files, which can be stored along with Web site or application content.
These improvements have radical implications for how applications are configured and deployed. Now that Web site and application settings are no longer explicitly tied to a centralized configuration store on the local machine, configuration can simply be copied from the developer's workstation, to a test server, and then to the production Web server. Once a Web site is in production, administrators can share configuration information across multiple front-end Web servers, avoiding costly and error-prone replication and manual synchronization issues.
- Efficient administration tools: IIS7 offers a broad set of administration features that simplify the day-to-day tasks of managing Web sites and applications. IIS7 includes a new graphical user interface (GUI) administration tool, a new command-line utility, a new managed API, and a new WMI provider for automating administration tasks. All of these new administration features provide unified support for managing IIS and ASP.NET settings together.
The new GUI administration tool in IIS7 offers a new, more efficient tool for managing the Web server. It provides support for both IIS and ASP.NET configuration settings, membership users, and role data, as well as runtime diagnostic information. The new UI also enables those who host or administer Web sites to delegate administrative control to developers or content owners, thus reducing cost of ownership and the administrative burden for the IT professional. It supports connecting to remote servers over HTTP (through firewalls) and works in both dedicated and shared hosting environments.
- Powerful diagnostic capabilities: IIS7 enables developers and IT professionals to more easily troubleshoot errant Web sites and applications. IIS7 exposes runtime diagnostic information to administrators (for example, what requests are currently executing, how long they have been running, which URLs they are invoking, what client called them, and what their status is). IIS7 can also be configured to automatically log detailed trace events for requests when failures are detected. These diagnostic capabilities in IIS7 are extensible as well, so new diagnostic events can be inserted into custom modules.
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