| What should my home page look
like? |
The best place to get some ideas is by seeing what your competitors or
other similar sites have. Do a
search on Google using keywords that you would expect to bring people
to your site -- and see what is out there. We recommend you visit
several sites and keep notes on the features you like/dislike.
It is much easier for a designer to understand what you want if you can
give them an example and then tell them what is different.
Use a good mix of graphics and text on your pages -- avoid long pages
of just text! Many people are still on slow modems, so limit yourself to
about 50K - 75K bytes of graphics per page. Your home page (the first page
people see when visiting your site) should have a catchy graphic, a
succinct paragraph on what you have to offer, and most importantly -- a
clearly laid out set of hyperlinks (the underlined text on a web page
which moves the person to another page and/or site).
Effective use of links allows the visitor to ignore material they
already know or are not interested in reading. The most common error is
not to include a consistent navigation bar at either the top or side of
all your pages. Think of your home page
as a combined magazine cover and table of contents, leading people through
the rest of your site.
| How can I create my Site? |
If you feel comfortable using a word processor -- you can probably do
it yourself! Tools such as Dreamweaver or FrontPage make it much
easier for you to create a professional site. Our servers support
use of both programs, including the FrontPage Server extensions.
We can do the site for your or
we can also recommend some of our affiliated
designers.
You definitely should contact us if your site requires
interaction with a database or an advanced shopping cart system. We can
give you recommendations and also a quote for the work -- with a
satisfaction guarantee!
| What about graphics on my page |
Realize that you cannot just take an existing product catalog, put it
through an optical scanner, and transform it into a web page. Most
magazines and "glossy" literature are printed at 1200 dpi (dots
per inch), almost ALL computer monitors can display only 75-100 dpi. You
may want to give your web page designer a 2 x 4 detailed photo of your
product and ask them to give you a "perfect" reproduction on
your page. They will be able to scan the photo in at 1200 dpi, but all
those dots are going to take up a lot more room on your monitor -- the
photo is now twelve times as large! Probably not what you wanted.
The normal technique is to present a "thumbnail" version of
your product on the web page, still 2-4 inches in size, but with much
lower resolution (has a grainy look) and smaller size, maybe only 25K
bytes. If the viewer is interested in the product the thumbnail is
hyperlinked to a much larger version of the photo (150K bytes) -- if they
are that interested, they won't mind waiting for it to load.
| What is a search engine, how do
I get my site registered? |
If advertising is the meat & potatoes of bringing visitors to your
site, the searches are gravy. If you get some activity generated, that's
fine, but don't count on it being there. There are several large Internet
Search engines such as Google and
Yahoo which have
special software that reads web site after web site and catalogs all the
information it reads in a giant database. They "score" each site
not only on what words are used, but where they appear, e.g. the words
"car security" appearing in the heading of a web page are
considered more important than the words "car security"
appearing in paragraph text. When a person enters the specific keywords
they are interested in, the software looks for matches in the database (we
are talking about millions of web pages!).
 |
Sites that use the words in their TITLE tag,
i.e. what appears in your broswer as the site name. |
|
Sites that use the words in a major H1
heading tag. |
|
Sites that use the words in the first few paragraphs. |
When
you are designing your page think about what words you think a person
would use if they wanted to find a site such as yours -- then make sure
you use those words often, in different combinations, and on the heading
of your home page. Don't emphasize the company name, emphasize the
keywords! And yes, some things never change, a site called "AAA Car
Security" will still be listed first among sites with a similar
score!
There are also special parts of a page, not normally visible, called
META tags, which must occur inside the HEAD tag. These allow the web page
designer to tell the search engine what description to display and what
keywords are important about this site -- a very useful tool. For the NAME
part of the META tag you would use "keywords", for the CONTENT
part you would give the words specific to your site. Use the word
"description" when you are supplying the text you would like to
see the search engine display in its report, e.g. if you were listing
rooms for the olympics:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="We offer a wide selection of
rental rooms for folks going to the Olympic games">
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="olympic room rental sale">
<TITLE>Olympic Room Rental</TITLE>
</HEAD>
But remember, unless you have a unique product with unique keywords,
you're probably get lost in the jumble -- again, your advertising of the
site is important! We highly recommend pay-for-click
advertising as a search sponsored link (below)!
| I registered my site, but it
doesn't turn up in searches. Sponsored links? |
Please allow about 2-4 weeks for the search engine's database to be
updated. To determine if your site was cataloged do a very specific
search based on your content -- if your site shows up then you know it
was cataloged, but that you just don't score well for normal searches, (see
faq above). If your site does not turn up, contact the search engine staff
directly, most have "mailto" links from their home pages, and
let them know. Many times they manually increase your score and/or double
check to make sure your site is cataloged.
One of the most effective ways of promoting your site is by buying
"keyword combinations" with the major search engines. That will make your
site come up as a sponsored link and give you a more prominent position.
The two major places you should go for such information is
Google Adwords (for Google
searches) and Overture (for other
major search engines). They both offer reasonable pricing and very
good statistical reports to let you know how effective your ad campaign
is.
There
is a conflict between what is a "good" home page, and what looks
"good" to a search engine. Some engines increase your score
based on the percentage of words on the home page that match the search
criteria, e.g. user is looking for "used cars", and your site's
title is "Used cars", and in your HTML text you have only the
words "used cars", nothing else. This DOES NOT always make for a
good home page.
We coined the word "Entry Page" to describe a web page that
will look good to a search engine, but just has a link to your real
"home page". This allows you to have several entry pages, each
emphasizing different keywords, but still keep a single home page.
Remember stick to 3-5 words you think a user might enter when looking for
your site, and order is important, e.g. "web site
hosting" is different than "hosting web site".
For an example you can look at the following pages (we recommend you
create the pages in "pairs", the only difference being the
amount of readable text). Note the use of keywords, the only difference
between the pages being the amount of paragraph text (some search engines
do key on that). We also used graphics to display the "follow the
link message", so as to further reduce "extra" words on the
page.
entrance1.html : keywords (web site hosting)
-- minimal text.
entrance2.html : keywords (web site hosting)
-- regular text.
These are not our REAL entry pages, we keep counters on each of the
pages, it allows us to know which wording was effective and to then make
adjustments.
AT ALL SERVICE LEVELS you are free to create these types of pages on
your own, place them on your site, and then list them with the search
engines (we recommend it!). For those of you who may need help you can
also have us do the page for you (we just need your input on the text to
use).
The
importance of having your own domain name (that part of the address just
to the left of the ".com") cannot be overstated. It does not have
an impact on your search engine scoring, which is concerned with page
content, not the address, but it is a prestige item. Having your
own domain does cost more, but it projects a bigger company image.
It allows people to send you email using your domain name. This
has to be balanced against advertising dollars for a small firm just
starting out.
| How do I increase activity at
my site? |
Just having a web page (http://www.mycompany.com/) does not guarantee
millions of people all over the world are going to visit your site. The
primary means of bringing people to your site will be your paid
advertising! Print advertising, small classified ads in the back or
magazines targeting your audience, can be very effective!
You should use your web site address or URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
in the same places you would put your address or phone number: business
cards, stationary, and print advertising. One of the powers of the web
page is its ability to augment your present advertising, i.e. your web
site can contain photographs and many pages of material on your company,
all you need to do in your print ad is generate enough interest in the
reader to visit your site.
We also highly recommend you buy keywords and
become a sponsored link with the major search engines. The prices
are very reasonable and you can see dramatic results.
| What can site statistics tell
me? |
We
have some valuable reports to help you better understand what your website
is doing. For our BUSINESS and PREMIUM customers the info is update daily
and available
"on-line" by visiting your web site:
http://www.your-site.com/.logs (follow the
link for example stats)
HIT REPORT/REQUEST REPORT:
This report shows you the number of requests/file at your site. This is
VERY useful in determining what visitors are doing, and how deeply your
site is being penetrated. Check the percentage of people loading your home
page, versus the number of requests for other pages at your site. If you
are getting at least 50% of your visitors to load another page you are
doing pretty well in presenting your message. If you are getting a lot
less people to load another page you may want to rethink your home page
layout. It ALWAYS pays to have others visit your site and give you some
feedback.
If you are getting penetration, but not enough customers, you may want
to review your product and prices, i.e. folks got your message, they saw
your product, they understood what it was, and just don't want to buy
it! At this point you need to rethink product/price.
REFERRER REPORT:
This report tells you WHERE people are coming from that are visiting your
site. CAVEAT: not ALL browsers report this information. This will tell you
how well you have been indexed by the various search engines, and what
types of searches are being done. For BUSINESS and PREMIUM subscribers,
the minimum number of referrals a site has to make before appearing
defaults to 5. Contact us and we can lower/increase the number to an
appropriate level.
| I have a site, but no
business, should I quit? |
If
you have done the following:
|
Promoted the site through
search engines, directory listings, on-line classifieds, print
advertising (small classified ads in the back or magazines targeting
your audience can be very effective! |
|
Gotten some frank feedback on your site from other
people in your field, family, and friends. |
|
Examined your site statistics to
see if you are getting visitors. Adjusted your site as necessary to
insure your home page generates enough interest for people to visit
the rest of your site. |
If you have done these items, and it may take some time -- you may want to
consider closing the site, i.e. folks got your message, they saw your
product, they understood what it was, and just don't want to buy it!
| How can people contact me
after viewing my site? |
Always make sure you at least have an E-Mail button on your pages
(called a "mailto" link. This allows a visitor who wants more
information to press a button, have a form pop up on their monitor with
YOUR address already filled in, and send you a quick message. You should
still list a phone number, but most queries will come via E-Mail.
Forms- you may want to use a form if you wish to collect some specific
information from people visiting your page. You have two options when
using forms on your page -- and they differ in what happens when the users
presses the "Submit" button on the page.
1) Using a "mailto" action: This is the simplest method for
you to collect data. When the user presses submit the data in the form is
sent directly from the Broswer to your E-Mail address. The user DOES NOT
get any visual feedback that anything has happened, but usually they know
by the delay that occurs.
The message arrives to you as one LONG line of text, not pretty, but
readable. For an example of this type of form see: http://www.thebook.com/mailto_form.html
2) Using a "cgi" script: This is the most complete approach.
When the user presses submit the data in the form is sent from the browser
to a special program we have available on our server. This program takes
the data, formats a NEAT mail message and sends it to you -- it also sends
a NEW html page to the browser which clears the screen and prints a
confirmation message.
The message arrives to you as formatted text. For an example of this
type of form see: http://www.thebook.com/cgi_form.html
Our web site control-panel can help you
automatically create such a form.
| Is there an easy Web Page
editor you recommend? |
If you feel comfortable with a word processor there are some very
capable web editors you can use to create your web site. Dreamweaver
is very popular on the Apple platform and FrontPage for Windows.
Check here for more info.
| How can I accept credit cards
over the web? |
Over 85% of all web transactions are paid for by credit card. You MUST
be a credit card merchant, we cannot process credit card transactions for
you. Be sure to shop around when looking for a merchant account, compare
all the rates (especially "batch" rates, application/setup fees,
and any special hardware/software you may be required to buy).
Once you are a merchant we can help you by providing SECURE web service
so that the credit card holders information is always transmitted in
encrypted form. The complete service is $10/month, examine
our web page for complete details.
| How can I setup a reply/order
form, page counter, forum, online auction, or autoresponder? |
To read more about these services, check here.
To use one of our "wizards" to help with setup, go to our Site
Control Panel.
| How much tech support can I
get? |
We
support hundreds of sites and attempt to provide timely support to all our
users; however, as part of normal support we cannot: debug a CGI script,
explain UNIX commands, explain how CGI works. We do provide you with
access instructions giving you the necessary path and login information so
that you can manage your web site and CGI scripts. You can also try our
Script Check CGI wizard, available via our Site
Control Panel. This Script Check CGI wizard will search your areas on
the web server and fix many common errors with CGI scripts. This wizard
works only with Perl scripts at this time.
We recognize some users need more help and we do provide Consulting
Services (which are paid, current rate $40/hr, min charge $20). One of our
staff can then install/debug a script for you, and leave you with detailed
usage instructions. If we are debugging a script and find that the problem
is at our end, "no charge". Most common scripts can be installed
in an hour or less. If you are a NEW subscriber we can offer you custom
setup at a more economical rate!
If you find yourself in a position where one of our support staff must
actually read or execute your script to answer a question, you may be
asked to okay a consulting charge. We normally find that after a few
"settling in" questions, almost all sites run with little
intervention from us.
Please consult the following when attempting to troubleshoot a problem.
It represents our "top 6" list:
- SERVER ERROR -- these messages are almost always a PROBLEM in the
execution of YOUR cgi script, i.e. a "bug". PLEASE do not
email us regarding a server problem until you have done a thorough
check of your script -- ESPECIALLY if this is the first time you are
trying to use it.
- BE CAREFUL about editing a file in DOS/Windows and then transferring
it to the server in BINARY mode. Use "ASCII" mode for all
PERL script files!
- The path to the script was wrong in the action field, should be
<action="/cgi-bin/your-domain/script.pl"
METHOD="POST">
- The script was not readable/executable by the web server, be sure to
"chmod ugo+rx script.pl"
- The script was attempting to write a data file, but couldn't find
it, remember the UNIX path to your files is:
/pub/comwww/your-domain/.... for your HTML area
/pub/cgi-bin/your-domain/... for CGI material
REMEMBER - The servers are CASE sensitive to filenames! image.GIF is NOT
the same as image.gif
Credit Card Payment
When
you give us your Credit Card Number you are authorizing us to make only
ONE transaction for the amount you authorized. We do NOT continue to use
your card number against future invoices without your express permission!
Quarterly Invoicing Procedures
We have made some changes in your quarterly statements. The most
important of which is an accurate "Due Date". You should expect
to receive your invoice, via E-Mail, app. one month prior to your current
service expiration date. The Due Date will be approximately 15 days later.
If we have not received payment on the Due Date, you will receive another
reminder via E-Mail. If we have still not received payment you will
receive a termination notice 3-5 days prior to service cut off. If no
payment is received, service will cease and you may be responsible for
setup fees to restart service.
We also offer you a way to pay, via SECURE transaction, on the web --
just try http://www.thebook.com/pay.html
Invoices by Mail
Due to the unique nature of our business and our desire to keep
subscriber costs low -- we do not normally invoice by US Mail. If
you must be invoiced by mail, please contact us, there will be an
additional $5 charge for each invoice generated.
| How do I access my site after
my account becomes active? |
For our BUSINESS and PREMIUM domain service levels, a server
welcome guide is sent via e-mail when the account becomes active. This
guide outlines accessing the server directly with a unique login/password,
server directory paths, important contact information, and more.
Our Site Control
Panel also allows you to update your contact information with us,
check your most recent invoice and also resource utilization on the
server.
| How do I set up my POP mail? |
POP,
short for Post Office Protocol, is a way to allow a user on a machine
which is not always connected to the Internet to get E-mail.
A machine which is on the Internet always, called a POP Mail server,
will take your incoming mail and hold it in an account on the server.
Later, at your convenience, you can access the Mail server with special
POP mail software. Almost all E-mail programs support POP, and even your
Netscape browser has a built in POP Interface.
When you check your E-mail with POP your machine remembers the last
time it got mail from the server, and just asks for mail that arrived
since that time.
You should configure YOUR POP software so that mail
on the server is deleted after it is read. Accumulated old mail on the
servers is periodically deleted at approximately 30 days.
How do I use it?
When configuring your POP software here are the common questions you will
be asked (along with the answers!). Occasionally we do add hardware and
change machine configurations, we will notify you if the
"answers" change.
- Incoming Mail and/or POP3 Server?
Ans: MAIL1.THEBOOK.COM
- User Identity -- most mail programs allow you to control what
"from" address other people see when you send them an E-mail
message.
Ans: you@yourdomain.com
- POP3 Username and/or login?
Ans: The username which we gave you for POP access, NOT the email
address! Example:
You want incoming E-mail for info@yourdomain.com to be stored in a pop
account. We will assign a username of something like
"p_theb01" and also give you a password -- it is NOT the
word "info"
Some programs, like Eudora, want:
"p_theb01@mail1.thebook.com"
- POP3 Password?
Ans: The password we gave you for the POP login name, again, NOT the
password we gave you for general access to your web site.
After getting it setup, we STRONGLY recommend sending some test
messages, read your mail, and make sure you feel comfortable with the
access. This will also confirm that we have set the account up properly
and that it is working!
Enjoy!
| Do I have access to my own
Anonymous FTP site? |
Yes,
this is an item that must be setup by our staff (no extra costs). Your
site would be ftp.your-company.com, which allows you to make files
available to your customers for download. Your users may also anonymously
upload files to this site.
| How do I start using secure
processing, what is SSL? |
If you are a domain service subscriber, you may setup your site for
secure service through our Site
Control Panel
A complete description of secure services is beyond the scope of
this guide; however, we can try to give you a simple explanation.
First - the use of "https" causes your browser to send the
request to a different web server from a normal "http" request.
This is the "secure" server.
Second - the service is "secure" because instead of transmitting
data between your browser and the server as plain text (where
potentially someone who had tapped your connection could read it), the
data is encrypted with special coding only your browser and the secure
server understand. Anyone else intercepting the transmission would see
gibberish.
Third - just doing the encryption is NOT enough. For how do you know that
your browser is really connecting with the "secure" server, e.g.
evil space-aliens have taken over your ISP and are intercepting ALL your
transmissions.
Fourth - verifying that the secure server is really the one you want is
done through verifying a "certificate". This is a complicated
process, but third-party companies issues certificates (which are also
encrypted) so that companies (secure servers) can prove they are who they
say there are. This is why you must use the name
"secure1.thebook.com", for this is a certified secure server.
You can also have a secure server for your own domain. Click here
for details.
| How do I change my
default 404 Page Not Found? |
|
You can change
your default 404 error page in a .htaccess file.
ErrorDocument 404
/path/to/error.html
or
ErrorDocument
404 /cgi-bin/your-site/error.cgi
Here is a sample .htaccess File
.htaccess
|
| How do I disable Directory
Browsing/Indexing |
|
You can disable
Directory Browsing/Indexing with a .htaccess directive
Options -Indexes
Here is a sample .htaccess File
.htaccess
|
| How Do I disable Spelling
Correction |
|
You can disable
Spelling Correction with a .htaccess directive
CheckSpelling Off
Here is a
sample .htaccess File
.htaccess
|
| How do I password protect
certain areas of my website? |
Password
access allow you to CONTROL who can see your files on the basis of what
directory they are in. You can give people passwords, and then change them
on a periodic basis -- unlike trying to hide the file names -- with
password control, the visitor must know the password, OR they can't see
the file. You may password protect any directory (excluding log
files--this must be done by our staff) using our "Access Protection
Wizard" under the Site Control Panel.
The files that our "wizard" creates for password protection are
described below (for informational purpose only--don't worry if you don't
understand everything).
When a broswer makes a request for a file from your site. The web
server first checks for the presence of an access control file in the
directory -> .htaccess
If this file is present, the server checks the file to see which login
names are allowed and where the password file is located. For example, the
file contents would be:
AuthUserFile /pub/comwww/your-domain/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName Subscriber your-domain
AuthType Basic
<Limit GET>
require user thebook
require user sysadmin
</Limit>
The AuthUserFile describes the location of the password file, which
would normally be in a directory YOU control. The AuthName describes the
prompt you would like the broswer to use when asking the user to enter the
login info. The "require user xxxxx" line(s) describe which
login names will be acceptable.
Below, we go into detail about how to set these files up. We also
recommend the following tutorial, http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/docs/tutorials/user.html
STEP 1: Creating the file
Using the above example, you can cut and paste to a new file all the lines
between the "===". Using Windows95, highlight the text by
clicking and dragging. Then click the right mouse button and choose COPY.
This will copy the text to the clipboard.
Now, Click on START and RUN and type notepad in the box. This will
launch the Windows Notepad. Right click inside the window and choose
PASTE. This will insert the lines from the clipboard into Notepad. Change
"thebook" and "sysadmin" to the usernames that you
want users to enter as the usernames for the directory. Also, make the
substitutions for your-domain.
Now, click FILE and SAVE AS and enter c:\example.txt (or any file name)
This will save the file to your harddrive.
STEP
2: FTP the file to the server
Now that you have created the file, you have to place it on the server in
the directory you want to password protect. Using FTP, you can upload this
file to the directory. The easiest FTP program that we have found is
CuteFTP. This is available to download from
http://www.thebook.com/pub_ftp.html. Once you have installed CuteFTP and
started it up, you are presented with the FTP Site Manager. There are
folders with preset FTP sites. Select the Personal FTP Sites folder in the
left window and then click ADD SITE at the bottom of the right window.
Site Label: TheBook
Host Address: user1.thebook.com
UserID: (sent previously in the Site Access Instructions)
Password: (sent previously in the Site Access Instructions)
Uncheck the Auto-load Index Files option
Click OK and you have made a new entry for TheBook.
To Connect, double click on TheBook's entry. This should be done while
online.
Once connected, You will see 2 lists of files, one on the left (local)
and one on the right (remote). Right click on the left window and choose
Change dir. Enter C:\ (or wherever you saved the file) in the window that
comes up and press enter. Now you have to scroll down and locate your
example.txt file (or whatever you named it). Once you have located the
file, you have to set the destination folder on the right side. Find the
folder you want to protect and double click to open it. If this will be a
new directory, Right click, choose Make New dir... and enter the name of
your new directory. Double click on your new entry to open the folder. Now
you are ready to upload the file. First, select ASCII mode (7th button
from the right on the toolbar). Double click on the file on the left
(example.txt) to upload. And away it goes...
Now that the file is uploaded, right click on the file in the right
window and select Rename... enter the new file name of .htaccess and press
enter.
You are all ready for the next step!
STEP 3: Logging in VIA Telnet and setting the password
This next step requires the use of Telnet. Windows 95 has a built in
Telnet program. Click Start and RUN and type Telnet. This will open the
telnet program. Click Connect, Remote System, and a window will pop up.
Enter user1.thebook.com into the HOST box and click connect. This will
attempt to log into the server. The login: and password are the same as
you would have used for FTP above.
You will be at a torch% prompt.
If the password file does NOT yet exist (ie this is the first time you
are following these instructions) , you must use the "-c" option
to create the file, i.e.
/usr/local/bin/htpasswd -c /pub/comwww/your-domain/.htpasswd joe
Adding password for joe.
New password:
Re-type new password:
If the password file already exists, and you are just adding to it, you
would use :
/usr/local/bin/htpasswd /pub/comwww/your-domain/.htpasswd joe
Adding password for joe.
New password:
Re-type new password:
Type exit when you are finished to logout.
CONCLUSION
When testing this with your broswer, REMEMBER, once you enter the
password, your broswer will remember for the remainder of that session. It
will automatically supply the server with the correct information (without
bothering you).
| Finding FTP/Zip/Telnet
Software |
Some
or all of these packages are essential in maintaining your web site. After
reading the descriptions below, check this page for
utilities that are ready to download for your Mac or PC.
|
FTP software - Essential if you have your own Domain.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) software is essential to allow you to
send the files from your PC to our web servers. Most on-line
services, like AOL, already include an FTP capability. |
|
Telnet software - Rarely used, allows you to actually
login to one of our host systems. Telnet
Service is available. |
| Is my site down? (How to
check) |
We
occasionally get calls from subscribers that cannot access their web sites
and wonder if there is a "server problem". In almost all the
cases the servers are fine, but there may be an Internet problem
'somewhere' between us and you. We have a useful Network Access Check tool
under the Site Control Panel that will
help us to check the network performance between our servers and your
computer. Clicking the "Execute Test" button will send us the
output of a "Ping" and "Traceroute" command that will
help to determine where network delays may be occurring. The
"Ping" and "Traceroute (tracert)" utilities can also
be launced directly from an MS-DOS window (see description below) on your
PC. Feel free to fill out our Problems Form to
to provide us with additional information about a problem you are
experiencing.
The following paragraphs describe how you can trace the route data
takes from your machine to get to our servers. We recommend you try this
on a "good day" when everything is fine and save the results.
THEN -- when you think there is a problem -- run the tests again, and you
should be able to tell exactly where the problem is. It will also help our
staff in isolating your problem.
The internet operates by sending "packets" of information
from your local PC to the destination addresses. So when you enter the URL
http://www.thebook.com into your browser, packets are sent out over the
internet to the remote computer where the URL is hosted. The route that
these packets travel differ depending on what ISP (Internet Service
Provider) you use to connect to the internet. The packet will travel from
your ISP's computer to the next computer in the route from your computer
to the destination address, each of these links is called a
"hop". When the packet reaches the destination address, a reply
packet is generated the the remote computer, and the cycle reverses
itself. Each packet only contains about 1500 bytes of data, so there may
be many hundreds of packets used to transfer data to load a web page on
your computer.
For our Windows 95 users, you can trace the route over the internet
that your packets take from your computer to a remote computer. This
utility will time packets from each hop and will verify that your request
reaches the destination.
Windows 95 includes a utility called tracert.
| To access this utility:
|
|
1) launch the MS-DOS prompt (click START,PROGRAMS,
MS_DOS PROMPT) |
|
2) type: tracert user1.thebook.com at the MS-DOS
PROMPT |
|
3) This will generate output similiar to the output
below:
| traceroute
to www.thebook.com (206.106.158.129), 30 hops max, 40 byte
packets |
| 1 4.153 ms |
3.477 ms |
3.123 ms |
cisco-e0.Syra.NET
(204.75.204.1) |
| 2 11.2 ms |
11.526 ms |
10.811 ms |
167.152.64.1
(167.152.64.1) |
| 3 37.396 ms |
33.535 ms |
33.911 ms |
iad1-atlas.digex.net
(165.117.56.9) |
| 4 53.863 ms |
* |
53.135 ms |
f0.mae-east.verio.net
(192.41.177.121) |
| 5 102.723 ms |
196.463 ms |
* |
mae-east.verio.net
(205.238.52.150) |
| 6 49.273 ms |
48.901 ms |
47.714 ms |
torch.thebook.com
(199.1.22.230) |
|
NOTE: the times listed are culmulative, and do not represent the time
inbetween each hop. i.e. the total time to torch.thebook.com is only about
49 milliseconds.
A * represents that a packet was lost, a packet did not return within 3
seconds, or the number of hops to the destination host exceeded 30. NOTE
-- these are not necessarity "bad", some routers do not return
that type of information quickly, but still do there normal routing fine.
We suggest you try this a various times during the day to see how the
times vary based on how busy the internet is. Best times are usually in
off-peak hours, Midnight-9am.
When your packets reach the VERIO.NET, ALTER.NET, or UU.NET networks
(our major providers), then we have direct control. If there is a problem
with a router we can make a service request. If the problem is closer to
your end, you should contact your ISP and notify them of the problem.
| How do I configure
personalized E-Mail @mydomain.com? |
TheBook.Com's
offers a Site Control
Panel, which offers many site management tools. One of these tools is
Domain Email, which lets you define how you want to handle email for your
domain.
The Domain Email screen will present you with a list of current
configured email addresses listed in the format :
"incoming address" -> "outgoing address"
The incoming address is a name (ie. webmaster, info) without a domain
name speficied. The outgoing address can have 2 different definitions. If
your email will be forwarded to your existing email address, you can list
your current email address here, including the full domain name. If you
plan on having email stored on our server in a POP mailbox, then the
outgoing address would be the name of the POP mailbox you can create using
another option of Domain Email. Click here for a more
detailed explaination of POP email.
Please contact us with your
suggestions for additions and deletions of questions to this page.
