5 Important Tips to Choose a Good Web Hosting Provider

Here is your first bit of web host buying news, and it is not good: unless you happen to have some very sophisticated web tools at your disposal, you cannot be sure of your web host’s hosting services. However, just like buying any service, there are ways to avoid getting ripped off.Here are a few things you need to consider when buying web hosting:

A free web host comes at a cost
This is a burningly accurate statement which you ignore at your peril. Your first thought may be that if you use a free website service, then you have nothing to lose. But, what you in-fact have to lose is any and all the time and money you invest into building, developing and maintaining your website.

Most free services install adverts onto your website, which is going to cost you some credibility. Others will make it so that you cannot leave the host once you are on there, so you will have to leave your website where it sits and start a new one if you want to leave the host. Some free services have a very poorly maintained server, which is going to be hacked frequently, which means that anything you upload is not safe.

Be careful when reading reviews
If you are not at the stage where you are cynical about everything you read online, then please send five dollars to this site. If you are already cynical about everything you read, then be careful when it comes to hosting reviews.

Ideally, if you want to find a good hosting service, the you need to start looking at hosting reviews. But, do not look at the positive reviews because they are written by the hosting company. You need to look at the negative reviews. Think about it, when you pay for a service and they do their job, do you go online and write a good review about them? No, you do not. So, why would you believe all of the good reviews online?

You need to look at the bad reviews. You need to look for consistency within the negative reviews. For example, if you were buying a microwave and several negative reviews mentioned that its paint flakes off, then you may draw that conclusion that its paint probably flakes off. You need to do the same thing with the hosting service and look for consistencies throughout the negative reviews.

The distance selling laws apply
The people selling you hosting services should not be able to lie to you. If they say that they install the latest and most advanced virus checkers on their servers, then they have to by law, otherwise you can sue them. If they say that they give you a massive bandwidth amount, then they have to give you the amount they quoted.

This is because the distance selling laws allow you to sue the people who lie and mis-advertise to you. However, the laws do not apply across the world. If you are dealing with a company in the European Union, or with Canada, or in America itself, then the distance selling laws apply. If not, then people can lie to you about their hosting services and there is nothing you can do about it.

Concentrate on disk space and bandwidth
These are the things that are going to affect your website the most directly and in the most positive or negative manner. It is up to you to find the amount of disk space and bandwidth that you are going to need for your particular website. You really need to check to see if your host offers an upgrade service where you can buy more bandwidth or disk space.

If they do not then you need to look upon them with great suspicion, as it may mean that they are selling-on their own bandwidth and disk space, which is not going to be ideal for you. Plus, if you cannot upgrade then you risk having a popular website that you cannot expand, or that only a limited number of people can visit at one time.

Call their technical support staff
The bad hosts have great sales staff that answer right away, and terrible support or complaints staff that leave you on hold for a long time. Call the support or complaints staff to see how long it takes before you talk to a person. Also, do not go for a host that charges you more than the standard phone call rate for any sort of technical support.

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How To Trace An Email

What is an email header?

Each email you receive comes with headers. The headers contain information about the routing of the email and the originating IP of the email. Not all emails you receive can be traced back to the originating point and depending on how you send emails determines whether or not they can trace the email back to you. The headers don't contain any personal information. At most, you can get the originating IP and the computer name that sent the email. The originating IP can be looked up to determine from where the email was sent. IP address location information DOES NOT contain your street address or phone number. It will most likely determine the city and the ISP the sender used.

How do I get the email header?

Each email program will vary as to how you get to the email options. I'll cover the basics...the rest is up to you.

• Outlook

Right click the email while it's in the inbox and choose Message Options. A window will open with the headers in the bottom of the window.

• Windows Live Mail

Right click the email while it's in the inbox, choose Properties, then click the Details tab.

• GMail

Open the email. In the upper right corner of the email you'll see the word Reply with a little down arrow to the right. Click the down arrow and choose Show Original.

• Hotmail

Right click the email in the inbox and choose View Message Source.

• Yahoo!

Right click the email in the inbox and choose View Full Headers.

You can see that no matter the email program, the headers are usually just a right click away.

I've got the header, now what?

Usually the first IP listed is where the email originated. There are exceptions to this. You'll have to look at the information logically to deduce the originating IP.

Can any email be traced?

Yes and No. For example, someone who sends an email to your hotmail account shows in the X-Originating IP section of the headers. However, someone who sends you an email from GMail can ONLY be traced back to the GMail servers.

- JMD COMPUTER INDIA

Source: http://www.whatismyip.com/faq/how-to-trace-an-email.asp

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Router Support

A lot of users in the What Is My IP Forum will ask us for help with their router. Unless it's one we specifically own, our help will be limited. The links below are to provide users a way to find their users manual on their Routers Manufacturer's site. If you've still got questions, you can ask them in the Router Configuration Forum.

• Belkin
• Buffalo
• D-Link
• Linksys
• NetGear

- JMD COMPUTER INDIA

Source: http://www.whatismyip.com/faq/router-support.asp

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What Is MAC Cloning?

MAC cloning can only be done at your router providing it has those capabilities. Most ISPs assign their IPs based on the MAC address in your equipment. If the MAC address of your router is 00-11-22-33-44-55 and you connect to your ISP, the DHCP server records your MAC and assigns an IP. If you disconnect from the ISP, you lose your IP address. The next time you connect, the DHCP server sees your MAC, looks to see if it has assigned an IP address to you before. If it has and the lease time has not expired, it will most likely give you the same IP address you had before disconnecting. Why clone a MAC address? New MAC address most likely equals new IP. How to clone your MAC and if your router has this feature is dependent on the router itself. You’ll need to find the instructions on the manufacturer’s website. Check out our Router Support page to get started.

- JMD COMPUTER INDIA

Source: http://www.whatismyip.com/faq/what-is-mac-cloning.asp

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What is a MAC address?

A MAC address is a physical hardware address assigned to each device that has the capability of connecting to a network. The internet is nothing more than a large network. The MAC address is something that is assigned in the chip on the device and is not something the user can change.

- JMD COMPUTER INDIA

Source:http://www.whatismyip.com/faq/what-is-a-mac-address.asp

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UNIX IP Commands

Display Current Config for all NIC's: ifconfig

Display Current Config for dc0: ifconfig dc0

Assign multiple IP's: ifconfig dc0:0 192.168.1.2

Assign second IP: ifconfig dc0:1 192.168.1.3

Disable network card: ifconfig dc0 down

Enable network card: ifconfig dc0 up

Assign IP/Subnet: ifconfig dc0 inet 192.168.1.2 netmask 255.255.255.0

Assign Gateway: route delete default && route add default 192.168.1.1

You MUST be at the ROOT user to make/save any changes. You will need to save your changes in the /etc/rc.conf file. Network cards are referred to as dc0, dc1, dc2, etc based on their position on the PCI bus.

Special thanks to Romanov Sergey Vladimirovich from Moscow for the UNIX command.

- JMD COMPUTER INDIA

Source: http://www.whatismyip.com/faq/unix-ip-commands.asp

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Linux IP Commands

Display Current Config for all NIC's: ifconfig

Display Current Config for eth0: ifconfig eth0

Assign IP: ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.2

Ping: ping -c 3 192.168.1.1

Assign multiple IP's: ifconfig eth0:0 192.168.1.2

Assign second IP: ifconfig eth0:1 192.168.1.3

Disable network card: ifconfig eth0 down

Enable network card: ifconfig eth0 up

View current routing table: route "or" route -n

View arp cache: arp "or" arp -n

Assign IP/Subnet: ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.2 netmask 255.255.255.0

Assign Default Gateway: route add default gw 192.168.1.1

Trace Route: traceroute www.whatismyip.com

Trace Path: tracepath www.whatismyip.com

DNS Test: host www.whatismyip.com

Advanced DNS Test: dig www.whatismyip.com

Reverse Lookup: host 66.11.119.69

Advanced Reverse Lookup: dig -x 66.11.119.69

You MUST be at the ROOT user to make/save any changes. Linux users, your distribution will determine the location of your network config file which will need to be updated and saved in order for the changes to remain in effect after rebooting. Network cards are referred to as eth0, eth1, eth2, etc based on their position on the PCI bus.

Special thanks to Gergely for the Linux commands!

- JMD COMPUTER INDIA

Source: http://www.whatismyip.com/faq/linux-ip-commands.asp

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What Is DHCP?

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

In simple terms, DHCP determines if your IP is static or dynamic.

DHCP is controlled by a DHCP server. Your router can be a DHCP server...and if you're on a home network, it most likely is your DHCP server.

I know this might be confusing because the word dynamic is in the term, but just because you have DHCP enabled on your computer doesn't mean you can't be assigned a static IP. DHCP enabled on your computer simply means you're letting a DHCP server assign its IP. Having it enabled DOES NOT mean it's a DHCP server.

A true DHCP server (not your Linksys router) gives the LAN Admin a ton of control with IP assigning.

Ever print to a network printer? Ever wonder how that printer keeps its network assignment? Probably through DHCP. Each network device has a MAC address. You can assign a static IP at the DHCP server to a specific MAC address. This allows the network printer to always get the same IP even after it reboots and without assigning the IP at the printer. If you print the network configuration at the printer, it will probably tell you that DHCP is enabled and no static IP is assigned. That's because the IP assignment is handled at the DHCP server.

Your ISP has a DHCP server. They can assign IPs by modem MAC addresses. When your modem comes online, it communicates to the network indicating it is looking for an IP address. The DHCP server listens to this communication and starts talking to the modem. The modem then transmits its MAC address to the DHCP server. At that point, either an IP has been reserved for the modem or one is assigned at that time. Hence cloning your MAC address to get a new IP from your ISP.

Routers and DHCP - Under the General Setup or LAN Setup tab in your router, you'll see a settings option for DHCP. You can control how many IPs are assigned or to enable/disable the DHCP server portion of the router. If you disable it, you'll have to statically assign IPs to each computer, or have a DHCP server or your network. This goes for wired and wireless. Any connection on your network has an IP address.

There's a lot more to DHCP than this, but this is a basic explanation.

- JMD Computer India

Source:- http://www.whatismyip.com/faq/what-is-dhcp.asp

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IP Address Management

What is IP Address Management or IPAM?

By breaking down and assigning your internal IP block into segments allows faster troubleshooting when monitoring the network and seeing an erratic IP. Because you’ve segmented the IPs out, you’ll know exactly which segment it’s coming from and can narrow down finding it faster.

Why manage IPs?

Easily track when network monitor software shows errors. If you’re logged on locally to a User’s computer and you’re mapping batch file didn’t run and you need to get a file from one of your servers you don’t have to know the server name, you can simply type \\192.168.1.x to get access to the server you’re needing the file from.

In the scenario I explain below, we’ll have 1 External IP, 5 servers ((Static) 1 handles DHCP (2k3)), 10 printers (Static), 200 wired PCs/users (DHCP).


There are several different ways to set up exact scenarios. This scenario will explain IP Address Management (IPAM) for a small network using my experience and knowledge.


For ease of use, we’re going to say that this is in a brand new facility where no IPs have been assigned and you, as the LAN Admin, have just been told your internet connection is in place and ready to use (this is where the single external IP comes from).


You already know how many devices will be connected to your network in the beginning so it’s now time to lay out a plan. Since most everyone is familiar with the 192.168.1.x IPs, I’ll stick with those. Technically, your first IP is 192.168.1.0 and your last is 192.168.1.255 which gives you 256 IPs. I don’t know of anyone that uses 192.168.1.0. Since we’re human, the first number to us is 1. To a computer, the first number is 0. I don’t think .255 is useable so really, you have 254 IPs available. Your 5 servers should get your first 5 IP addresses and assign them statically even though you can control static assignment in DHCP. You don’t want there to be any chance of these servers losing their IP addresses so you don’t want them to depend on DHCP for IP assignment.


Server 1 also happens to be your DHCP server: 192.168.1.1
Server 2: 192.168.1.2
Server 3: 192.168.1.3
Server 4: 192.168.1.4
Server 5: 192.168.1.5


You have to account for growth so leave .6 through .9 open for future servers whether they’re physical or virtual, they’ll need an IP.


You have 10 printers that will be used by multiple users. IPs in the next segment of the block can be statically assigned at the printer or via the DHCP server…your choice. Every office has a “main” printer/copier/fax. Give it 192.168.1.10. If you think far enough in advance and know that Group 1 will use printer 1 then assign printer 1 192.168.10.11, printer 2 for Group 2 would get 192.168.10.12, etc. all the way through .19. In my experience, if there’s any one piece of equipment you’ll add to your network more than any other, it’ll be a printer. Somebody in one of those groups will get tired of walking 15 feet to the printer and suck up to the boss to get their own printer. Then, people within 5 feet of that person will want to share with them so they don’t have to walk 15 feet to get their stuff either. So that printer will need to be on the network vs. just connected directly to the complainers PC and shared. Lucky you. By the way, remember at the beginning I said this was a brand new facility….hopefully, the people that ran the network drops put in 2 cables at each requested location. Otherwise, you’ll either need to run a cable or take the easy way out and install a 5 port switch. Trust me when I say leave plenty of IPs open for future printers. I would assign .10 through .29 for printers. This gives you 20 IPs for printers so you’ll have 10 IPs free after installing the initial 10 printers.


Finally, we have 200 PCs that will all be hardwired to the LAN and will each need an IP. Starting at .30 going through and including .254 gives you 225 IPs. I’d start my scope in DHCP at .40 through .254. That gives you 215 IPs for users (15 extra) and that also leaves 10 IPs open at the lower range (.30 through .39) for device growth. One thing I didn’t mention yet was managed switches. They’ll need IPs. You can do those at the high end of the spectrum so they’re “out of the way”. Maybe assign them .254, .253, .252, etc. depending on how many you have.


IPAM can get pretty deep especially if you’re dealing with 100’s of PCs and devices. This is where subnetting comes in. I’ll go into further detail in another article, but just for gee whiz this is the tip of the iceberg on subnetting:


For example, 192.168.1.1 with a subnet of 255.255.255.0 is not on the same network as 192.168.2.1 with a subnet of 255.255.255.0 even though they both might be in the same building. However, if you change the third octet in the subnet to 0 like this 255.255.0.0 now 192.168.1.1 with a subnet of 255.255.0.0 and 192.168.2.1 with a subnet of 255.255.0.0 are on the same network. The 255 is sort of a true/false in simple terms, but can get pretty complex if you’re trying to keep networks separate. I’m not a subnet guru by any means, but if you Google subnet calculator you can get a pretty good appreciation for its complexity.

Source: http://www.whatismyip.com/faq/ip-address-management.asp

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What is Web Promotion? Web Promotion tutorial

Consider you have created a personal website with some useful information for others to see. This website will be useful only if other people visit your website. How to make other people visit your site. This article discusses about how to promote your site.

How can you make your website address known to everybody. To your friends and relatives it is possible to tell your website address directly to them. You may even distribute notices in your town. But how to tell your website address to the whole world. This is where the Search Engines come in handy.

Almost everyone uses Search engines to search for information or products in the Internet. Then the search engine will display a list of website results based on the searched keyword. If your website is in this result returned by search engines then people will visit your website from around the world.

There are at present billions of websites today. In each website there will be atleast ten pages. Some websites will have many pages. So the website you create is just one of these so many websites.

Therefore when the search engine returns results, if your website is not listed in the first four pages of the results then chances of people visiting your site is less. So you have to create your site such that it appears in the first four pages of the search engine results. For this you need to optimize your website for search Engines. This is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization). To learn SEO techniques, first you need to understand how search engines operator.

How does Search Engines identify and index your website.

Search engines use programs such as Spider, Web Crawlerm Robo, Bot etc for finding and indexing websites. These programs will keep searching for new websites and read the content of the pages in the websites and understand what these pages are about and index those pages accordingly.

It may take some time for the search engines to find your website. If you cannot wait for the search engines to find you then you can tell the search engines about your website and the search engines will send its spider program to crawl your site and index your pages based on their content.

Use of Meta tags in your web pages is one of the most easiest and effective method to tell search engines about your webpage and its content. Those who know HTML language will know about HTML Tags. If you are not familiar with thest tags then below are some tips on using meta tags in your web pages

How to use Meta tags?

The meta tags contain attributes such as 'Name', and 'Description'. The Name attribute can take values such as 'Description' or 'Keywords'. While the 'Description' attribute will have details about keywords and description.
Assume that you do Real estate business and you have created a webpage regarding this. The tips given below will explain how you can effectively use the Meta tags in your webpage.

<META NAME=Description Content="Singapore Flat Sales, Flat at Singapore in reasonable price, the best flat seller in Singapore, Most reliable Flat seller in Singapore, CDMA approved flats in Singapore, Individual Luxury Duplex Bungalows in Singapore, Luxury Type Independent House in Singapore, Uniquely Designed House in Singapore, Independent House designed by experienced Architect">

As you can see the description tag uses the most relevant keywords of your webpage and describes the content of the page for search engines to describe your webpage in search results and also for indexing.

<META NAME=Keywords Content='' Flats, Houses, Bungalows, Chennai''>

The keywords meta tag is to list the keywords in your webpage.
You can add your website for search engines to crawl your site. For this you need to submit your site details to search engines. Some of the most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo and MSN. You can use the links given below to submit your website.

Yahoo: http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request

Google: www.google.com/addurl.html

MSN: http://submit.bcentral.com/msnsubmit.htm

Other than search engines, you can also submit your site to directories such as DMOZ and Yahoo directory. You can visit www.dmoz.org to list your site under appropriate directory.

You can also generate money from your website. Now the easiest and hottest internet marketing method is by using google adsense.

 

Source: http://www.allpctips.com/internet/webpromotion-tutorial.htm

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