10 Things That Can Go Wrong When Deploying a Website

If you are a web developer, you probably have one or more copies of the website you are developing for your client. You may be using synchronization tools available in your HTML editor. You may be using version control systems. These tools are setup to ensure the integrity of the website when it finally goes live. However, even if you have these tools and processes in place, Murphy's Law is still in effect. These are the 10 things that can go wrong when deploying a website.

1. Complications during domain name transfer.

   Plan ahead by updating the email addresses of the Administrative and Technical contacts of the domains in question. Notification emails will end up being sent to invalid addresses if these email addresses are not corrected. Each domain registrar will have different processes and procedures for transferring domains away from them. Some will make it difficult to avoid accidental transfers. For example, domains are "locked" by default. You must first unlock the domain ahead of time or you will end up in domain name transfer limbo. Educate yourself about the processes of the registrar involved.

2. Old pages do not have redirects.

   One of the consequences of redesigning a website from scratch is that the old URL's will be changed. This is expecially true if there is a change in the server side platform, or Content Management System (CMS) platform. If it is important for the client to preserve pages that have already been indexed by search engines, make a list of these pages. Then for each page, create a 301 redirect so that search engines can properly re-index the new URL's of these pages.

3. Scripting interpreter version is incompatible.

   If you have a staging server for development, the version of the interpreter may be different from the version installed in the production server. If the version difference is only a minor upgrade, chances are the scripts will continue to work. However, if the version difference is major, for example, PHP 4 vs. PHP 5, many functions may throw warnings or in some cases, errors. Decide which version you should develop in ahead of time so that the staging and production servers are as similar as possible.

4. Incompatible database format.

   There may be cases where you have developed database tables in a certain format in your staging site only to change it to something different in production. If you did not test the application for these changes, you may be faced with format incompatibilities. Such incompatibilities may be caused by the collation, for example, if the staging database tables were in "Swedish, case-insensitive" and the production database tables were in "utf8". Another formatting incompatibility is the database type (MyISAM vs. InnoDB). Make sure that both databases are using the same format on the staging site and the production site.

5. Client authentication issues.

   If your website requires logins on the application or data layer, make sure that the salt hashes are updated as intended. The salt is one of the inputs in creating a one-way function in encryption. Some developers like to keep the salt the same on development, staging, and production servers, while others like to make these different. For the later, you must ensure that any password hashes are re-generated where necessary, otherwise, the logins will no longer work.

6. Google robot crawl errors.

   When upgrading a static page to a page handled by a CMS like Wordpress, make sure that it continues to be crawled by search bots. There are some plugins that will make the page render in a browser, while at the same time, throw Status 404's in the HTTP headers. Use Google Webmasters to find out what Googlebot really sees, or other HTTP header sniffer tools to disguise your connection as a different client. Additionally, some CMS's have the ability to block access to a site that is still in development. A common mistake developers make is forgetting to turn it back on after deploying to production.

7. Email transmission problems.

   Systems admin tasks often get buried under the overwhelming work involved in deploying large websites for the first time. It should be noted that systems admin tasks should come ahead of any web development task because if the production server is not configured properly, many functions will not work as intended. Email configuration should be one of the first tasks to configure and test. If you have forms that send and receive emails, make sure you test them ahead of time. Check that DNS MX records have been configured properly.

8. Data integrity issues.

   No one should be deploying data-driven websites while it is live. Doing so can cause data integrity issues caused by half-executed queries. Make sure that you always have a full backup before upgrading any database. This can be quite challenging for extremely busy websites, so a suitable time of the day when it is not as busy should be agreed upon with the client to carry this out. In most cases, the website may have to be taken out of commission during the upgrade, so an announcement must first be sent out ahead of time. Consult with your database admin to determine the best approach.

9. Web server permission problems.

   Again, systems admin tasks should never take a back seat to web development tasks. Make sure that proper permissions have been set to files and folders on the development site. See to it that sub-domains are resolving properly, database connection strings are correct, and passwords updated where necessary.

10. Invalid server configuration.

    There are many configuration parameters that may have to be updated on the production site. Such configurations include file size limits. If the web application allows users to upload files, make sure that a suitable file size limit is set in the server configuration. Certain ports may have to be configured to be open or port-forwarded. Some settings are have a different setting while being developed, for example, while being developed in a local machine. After deployment, these settings must be updated to the production server's proper values.

There are thousands of things that can go wrong during deployment and this article only covers 10 of them. This does not even include many unknowns that mysteriously show up during deployment. To be on the safe side, make sure that you have a plan to prepare, execute, test, and roll back. You can also deploy in stages where you are only deploying a portion of the website. You can also deploy in iterations, or deploy in parallel so that you can "flip the switch" when it is ready. Avoid mistakes, but make sure you have enough time to correct them if you still make them by backing up your data, having proper support, and an a roll back plan.

My Review of NetBeans IDE PHP - and Comparison to DreamWeaver

Someone asked for more details about why I like NetBeans, so here's my detailed review of NetBeans IDE 6.9 + PHP and how it compares to Dreamweaver (CS4). I have been a Windows + Dreamweaver user for 10 years.

For personal reasons, I have started evaluating some of my development efforts in Ubuntu 10.10 + NetBeans PHP 2 months ago. So far so good. It scans your folders for class/parameter/function definitions and creates a custom auto complete library. It is open source with lots of open source plugins. It does not crash like DW likes to do once in a while. It supports advanced Subversion commands (if you're familiar with TortoiseSVN, the menu items looks like that).

The search feature is very fast (or is it because I'm running Linux?). Color coding and error hints have been very accurate even when intertwined in HTML and PHP, but sometimes, it is too critical, for example:

<div> </Div>

will show up as an error because of the capital D. I love auto termination of common symbols like test (brackets), {braces}, and 'quotes'.

My dislikes include the lack of a WYSIWYG editor plugin that looks like Dreamweaver's 'Design View or Split View'. FTP functionality pales in comparison to DW's more intelligent FTP and synchronization system.

Well it has only been a couple of months. I will post a more updated review in the NetBeans IDE in the future.

Sending HTML Email and Newsletters to Your Clients

Writing a newsletter can be a very beneficial part of your marketing campaign. It gives you the opportunity to promote products and services, gather feedback and intelligence, or just to stay in touch so that you remain within their radar. In this article, I will discuss issues that you need to be aware of so that you can decide whether your organization needs a newsletter campaign.

The first thing you need to be aware of is that for most of your clients, they are already receiving dozens of newsletters every day. How can you maintain constant contact with your clients without being a pest? Make sure that there is value in each one. Put yourself in their shoes and read over your newsletter. What is in it for you? Compare your newsletter to a similar campaign and identify what makes yours better.

Send your newsletters only to those people who will appreciate them. This means that these people must have had the opportunity to opt in to receive your newsletters. It is far more effective to have a targeted list of 100 interested recipients than to blast 100,000 emails to people who don’t want it. Not only is Email blasting a poor strategy, but in many states and provinces, it is illegal.

It wasn’t that long ago when sending and receiving HTML emails was such a cool thing to do. But only in a matter of months, this was abused by virus and adware authors. Today, Email clients disable HTML support by default. Many “fundamentalists” still prefer to only receive plain text email. So if you are only sending HTML emails, these recipients will only see the source code. So when creating your HTML newsletters, make sure that you have 2 versions: an HTML-formatted version, and a plain text version.

Spammers have abused the Internet from the day it was born. Almost every Email client nowadays has a built-in spam filter which can identify tell tale signs of a Email spam and automatically moves them into the Junk mail folder. Some Email clients allow users to automatically chuck spam into the trash. Before sending out your newsletters, review it for obvious signs of spam. There are numerous tools on the web to validate your newsletter before sending it out.

Mailing list marketing is a competitive market. There are hundreds of companies competing to get your business. They offer tools that will save time and money in managing your newsletter campaign. They offer hundreds of free templates that automatically generate HTML and plain text versions, list management tools and reports to measure your results, opt-in systems, viral capabilities to entice your clients to forward your newsletters to their friends, spam validation, and more. Most of them will have a “free version” or a limited time trial version. So try them out to find out if their services can help your organization manage your newsletter campaign.

Tips on Targeting While Using Framesets

When using framesets on a website, the most common problem is getting the links to open in the correct frame. This is called targeting and is set by using the target attribute of the anchor tag by giving it a "target" to open their links in. In most websites that do not use frames, you will notice that the target assigned is usually "_blank", "_new", "_parent", "_set", or "_top". In a frameset, the target is usually the name of the frame.

Consider the following piece of code:

<frameset rows="50,*">
<frame src="/frame1.html" name="nav">
<frame src="/frame2.html" name="main">
</frameset>

There are two frames in the above frameset. The first is called "nav" and the second "main". Try to imagine that the nav frame (frame1.html) is used for navigation, and all links inside it should opened within the main frame (frame2.html). To do this, you would give the links in frame1 the target of "main" as follows: <a href="/page2.html" target="main">. However, what if you don't want to add the target to every link on your navigation page? You can have a global setting for targets by setting a default target in the HEAD of your document, called the "base" target. You simply add the line:

<base target="main"> 

within the head of the frame1.html page, and all links will then open in the main frame.

Using Frames and Noframes

One of the most misunderstood sections of the frameset tag is "noframes". In reality, this tag allows people with browsers that do not support of have frames enabled to still view your page. In a typical frameset, the HTML looks like this:

<frameset rows="50,*">
 <frame src="/frame1.html" name="nav">
 <frame src="/frame2.html" name="main">
</frameset>

The code above will render a web page with two frames: the top being 50 pixels tall and the bottom being the rest of the page. This would make a nice top navigation bar frameset with the branding, banner, and navigation in the 50 pixel frame. However, if one of your viewers comes to your site and is using a browser that is not support framesets, or has disabled support for framesets, they will get a blank page. So much for the chances of them returning to your site. To make it viewable by them you need to add four more lines of HTML like so:

<noframes>
This site is framed, but you can <a href="/frame2.html">view a non-framed version</a>.
</noframes>

Notice that because you are pointing to the content portion of your frameset (frame2.html) in the noframes section of the page, your site becomes accessible. Always keep in mind that while you may be using the latest version of your favorite browser, your audience may not want to continually download the latest software. Their machine may not support it, or they may not have room to install a 20+ Meg program on their hard drive, or they may be using a mobile phone, etc. Adding four lines of HTML is a simple solution.

You know how pleased I am with your company. I recently opened my own business and knew that an important element of marketing my business is to have a web presence. I am not a technical person, nor do I have much experience with the web (other than surfing). I had no idea what I wanted or needed, other than 'a website'.

Avoid Using Pop-up Windows

I hate pop-up windows and I know a lot of people who share the same sentiment. Even browsers are aware of this and automatically block pop-up windows. The only reason a why site would have pop-ups is because the site owner is thinking of his/her own interests rather than the readers. We all know that when we are browsing, most of us hate pop-up windows. Why is it that suddenly when we switch places and become the site owner, we lose our ability to see through the users' eyes. Let us remember to put ourselves in their shoes.
Pop quiz: Which of these reactions to pop-up windows is a visitor more likely to have?

        (a) "Oh wow! A popup window! I love sites with popups! I will make certain to bookmark this site and visit often. I will also certainly click the ad or links in the popup because I love them so much."

        (b) "@#&$! Whoever made this website obviously has no respect for me as a visitor. When I leave here I will never come back."

Pop-ups should be used sparingly and only when necessary. For example, if your website requires a user to enter additional information before downloading a file from your website. Another example is if you need to control an element on a web page and the only way to do it is by opening a pop-up window. In both of these cases, the pop-up window must automatically close. I hate having to close 10 pop-up windows  after visiting a web site.

Only use pop-up windows if it adds value to the user's experience. Having these on your website is one sure way to drive traffic away.

The Importance of Contrast on a Web Page

An important part of web site design is Contrast. This is because it often means the difference between a web page that looks great and a web page that is hard to read or causes your eyes to strain. Often times it can be hard to decide what colors work well in contrast to others. The color chart below should help show you different colors and how they contrast or don't contrast well as foreground and background colors.

Be aware however, that contrast is more than just how bright a color is compared to the background. You will notice that some of these colors are extremely bright and show up vibrantly on the background color - such as blue on black. But I labeled it as having a poor contrast, because while it appears to be bright, the colors make the text difficult to read. For example, if you were to create a web page in blue text on a black background, many of your readers would have eye strain in no time.

		Background
		Red	Orange	Yellow	Green	Blue	Violet	Black	White	Gray
Foreground	Red		Poor	Good	Poor	Poor	Poor	Good	Good	Poor
	Orange	Poor		Poor	Poor	Poor	Poor	Good	Poor	Poor
	Yellow	Good	Good		Poor	Good	Poor	Good	Poor	Good
	Green	Poor	Poor	Poor		Good	Poor	Good	Poor	Good
	Blue	Poor	Poor	Good	Good		Poor	Poor	Good	Poor
	Violet	Poor	Poor	Good	Poor	Poor		Good	Good	Poor
	Black	Poor	Good	Good	Good	Poor	Good		Good	Poor
	White	Good	Good	Poor	Poor	Good	Good	Good		Good
	Gray	Poor	Poor	Good	Good	Poor	Poor	Poor	Good

What is the Difference Between XHTML and HTML

Many webmasters still create web pages in various standards of HTML. There is no pressing need to switch to newer standards because support for these will not cease to exist in the near future. While there is still wide browser support for older standards, there are benefits to switching to newer standards like XHTML. So what is XHTML anyway?

XHTML 1.0 was released over 11 years ago, making it pretty “old” by today’s fast-paced standards. It stands for Extensible Hypertext Markup Language, which extends the version of the widely used HTML that was taught to us back in the infancy of the World Wide Web. It is an application of a more restrictive markup language called XML, and because of this, XHTML documents need to be well-formed unlike HTML which requires more lenient parsing.

What is the difference between XHTML and XML? There is only one glaring difference: XHTML must be well-formed XHML while HTML does not need to be. This is where most lazy webmasters draw their complaints from. I mean why should they fix something that isn’t broken? What is the benefit of XHTML over HTML?

XHTML future-proofs all the websites you create in XHTML. Its notation, though strict, is well-formed and has improved interoperability with existing and future markup languages. XHTML allows HTML to be more extensive by being interoperable with other XML subsets like MathML, SMIL, or SVG. There is no way you can do that with plain old HTML.

Additionally, once you learn to write your code in XHTML, it becomes second nature for you to write your code properly instead of being lazy. For example, tags that do not have opening and closing tags must be explicitly closed as follows:

HTML way: <br>
XHTML way: <br />

Browsers have long spoiled lazy web designers. Paragraph tags (<p>) can be left unclosed and they would still display properly in most browsers. There was also a “flexibility” of whether or not to use quotes within attributes like:

<option selected=”yes”>
<option selected=’yes’>
<option selected=yes>

Some required elements are not treated as such in traditional HTML like the HEAD or BODY tags, and the browser spoils the designer by automatically adding these for them when it parses the code. XHTML forbids these practices.

Once you learn to write your code properly, you are not only future-proofing the website, you are also future-proofing your skills.

 

Displaying Your Company Icon in the Browser's Address Bar

Favicons make your website more distinguishable visually. Don't know what a favicon is? When you go to http://www.wikipedia.com, you will notice that in your browser's address bar, Wikipedia's icon is displayed. This is called a favicon. They appear in the address bar, in tabs, and in your bookmarks (favorites). Using favicons is another way to brand your site.

The first step in doing this is to create your 'favicon.ico' file.There are numerous tools out there on the web. Just go to google.com and type in 'favicon generator'. These generators will allow you to create your favicon from scratch, or you can upload your company logo from a file saved on your computer.

To use favicons, you place a file called 'favicon.ico' in the root folder of your site. You may have to refresh your browser, or clear its cache in order for your favicon to appear. Enjoy!

Using Loren Ipsum for Visual Demonstration

Readers will get distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. While you are deciding on a website layout, it is hard to visualize what it would look like when you finally fill the pages with text. In publishing and graphic design, it is often necessary to use text placeholders to populate the pages temporarily. 'Lorem Ipsum' is a long-established method of doing this and here we have provided you with usable snippets for you to use.

1 Paragraph

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam rhoncus imperdiet justo, sed interdum sem sagittis nec. Suspendisse erat arcu, pellentesque et tincidunt non, vestibulum ut libero. Sed vehicula leo non dolor adipiscing aliquet. Sed tristique blandit elit sit amet tempor. Suspendisse non ligula nec lacus pulvinar sollicitudin quis a turpis. Ut ultrices pellentesque lacus, et laoreet quam volutpat at. Mauris tortor urna, tincidunt sit amet commodo eu, luctus nec dolor. Aliquam id velit vel mauris lacinia auctor non et ante. Ut condimentum tempus pellentesque. Nunc ac dapibus risus. Curabitur hendrerit viverra lectus, sit amet faucibus nisi luctus et. Nulla facilisi. 

5 Paragraphs

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec sit amet magna at felis ultrices bibendum. Donec nisl dui, fringilla ac fermentum eu, mattis at elit. Fusce rutrum viverra luctus. Praesent sodales scelerisque purus, a accumsan diam accumsan id. Aliquam nec eros vitae diam adipiscing vulputate. Sed vitae eros orci, ut mattis neque. Mauris lacus sem, mattis fringilla pretium in, placerat sit amet diam. Aliquam fermentum tortor sed metus vehicula suscipit. Vestibulum et metus ac arcu sagittis sollicitudin. Nunc nunc lorem, ultricies vel interdum ut, ultrices sed erat. Duis hendrerit mattis arcu, sed fermentum sem venenatis vitae. Ut in semper mauris. Nullam molestie dapibus sodales. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer nisl risus, dignissim nec molestie ac, commodo et sapien. Aenean leo augue, facilisis sit amet sollicitudin vel, commodo quis lacus. Duis aliquet quam consectetur quam semper rhoncus. Mauris vel ipsum risus, quis elementum magna. Phasellus dignissim justo non magna congue dapibus.

Ut euismod, odio vitae dictum blandit, elit sapien elementum leo, ut cursus lectus nunc sed sem. Quisque venenatis, risus et egestas congue, tellus sem suscipit ante, et imperdiet dui mauris non velit. Mauris sollicitudin sem vitae enim accumsan sit amet malesuada mi ornare. Phasellus risus est, facilisis ornare fringilla a, aliquet eget velit. Maecenas eleifend diam sit amet sapien lobortis quis pulvinar erat porttitor. Suspendisse quis justo massa. Fusce semper, metus in fermentum auctor, orci erat pharetra felis, ut cursus sapien risus lobortis augue. Nullam in eros arcu, vel elementum mi. In ac odio sit amet augue pellentesque vestibulum vel at mauris. Nam mollis porta sem, in dictum neque sagittis et. Aliquam condimentum bibendum lorem et aliquet. Integer magna enim, dignissim id varius fermentum, mattis vel lectus. Nunc dapibus aliquet pulvinar. Aenean sodales elit nec metus auctor porta. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Maecenas blandit, quam sed blandit pulvinar, justo nisl viverra ante, sit amet semper justo libero vitae justo. In tempus elit eget sem vehicula vehicula. Pellentesque rutrum tellus sed massa lacinia congue. Integer in dapibus justo.

Aenean venenatis nisl sit amet felis semper pulvinar. Sed eget velit neque. Etiam mattis commodo mauris aliquet varius. In eu felis magna. Sed risus odio, eleifend non mollis vel, vulputate quis urna. Mauris in ante magna, non posuere nisi. Etiam dapibus consectetur tortor aliquet viverra. Nunc egestas blandit urna nec dictum. Praesent nisi nibh, pulvinar a congue id, laoreet et diam. Ut feugiat vulputate vehicula. Curabitur vel nisl quis magna consequat vehicula. Phasellus fermentum, nibh a molestie pretium, erat sem dictum sapien, vel accumsan diam augue et lectus.

Nullam quis enim leo. Aenean faucibus fringilla consequat. Vivamus pulvinar, tellus in elementum volutpat, ipsum risus bibendum augue, at porta nulla magna sed mauris. Phasellus aliquet, diam sit amet aliquet pharetra, velit erat molestie lacus, et volutpat metus magna in sem. Duis dictum felis nec ante porta pretium. Quisque pretium placerat ipsum, in tempus nunc molestie tempor. Vestibulum vestibulum varius sagittis. Suspendisse magna orci, tempus quis laoreet at, dignissim in massa. Suspendisse quis lobortis nibh. Phasellus faucibus, turpis ac vestibulum consectetur, sem purus rutrum erat, eu tristique magna magna at ligula. Phasellus at enim eget urna vulputate rutrum. Vestibulum adipiscing sodales nibh at pharetra. Pellentesque interdum, lectus quis feugiat volutpat, dolor libero laoreet enim, ut commodo nibh velit a velit.

Etiam eget interdum elit. Etiam hendrerit elit id ipsum accumsan pulvinar. Curabitur venenatis bibendum pulvinar. Nulla vulputate commodo lacus, eget condimentum nisi cursus sed. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque vulputate nunc a dui rhoncus non viverra risus semper. Sed nec massa urna. Sed id ante neque. Ut iaculis hendrerit libero nec hendrerit. Ut ultricies, nibh sit amet placerat mattis, nisl lectus commodo metus, et vehicula ipsum justo vel sem. Mauris pulvinar elementum ante, sit amet dignissim mauris luctus ac. Duis feugiat molestie sollicitudin.

Enjoy!

Validating Your HTML and CSS Code

Before you or your users encounter a problem with your Web design, you should validate your Web design for possible errors. Many web site problems could have been prevented if the Web design have been validated in the first place. The sad part of it is that many people are not doing this on a regular basis. Many webmasters tend to ignore to validate their Web design using their web design tools or online tools available. For your advantage and benefit, validate your HTML, CSS, and other Web file types with the HTML validators available. You may check the Internet for HTML validator, CSS validator, XHTML validator, RSS and Atom validator and P3P validator. Below are some validators that you can use:

1. W3C is very popular and many websites even place their validation logo within their website. Just go to http://validator.w3.org/ and enter the URL of the website you would like to validate.
2. WDG HTML Validator is similar to W3C's validator but it also supports batch mode. Go to http://htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/ and enter the URL of your website or try other options.
3. NetMechanic is a commercial product which validates your website for HTML and CSS formatting and for server-side errors. They have rearranged their website so just go to http://www.netmechanic.com/ and look for the free trial link.
4. MOMSpider is a perl program that validates links within and out of your website. It must be installed in a webserver that supports Perl. Go to http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/websoft/MOMspider/ for more information.

As your website grows, it is important to periodically validate your website for markup and server-side errors. After finishing your first validation, add a reminder on your calendar to check again every 3 to 6 months, depending on how much information changes on your website.

Confusing Yet Common Website Terms

For years, we have come across new clients that get confused by the most commonly used terms in the website design industry. In this article, we will try to clear up the confusion in some of them.

Cache

The term "cache" is also pronouced as "cash" but we are usually not talking about money. It is a collection of files stored in your computer by your browser collectively called "cached files". The first time your browser accesses a website, it has to download all of the files and objects from the web server. It then saves these files in your hard drive (cached) so the next time the same website is visited, it no longer has to download the same files and objects, effectively resulting in a faster browsing experience. So don't be afraid the next time we ask you to "clear your cache."

Cookies

Cookies in the web design world are not edible. Like cache, this term refers to text files that are stored in your computer. They usually contain key/value pairs used to remember your settings. Most of the time, information stored in cookies are sensitive information, like usernames and passwords. Again, there is no need to be concerned about your diet when we ask you to "clear your cookies."

Domain Name

Domain Names (mycompany.com) refer to the alphanumeric equivalent of an IP address (123.45.67.89). The term "domain" is sometimes used to  mean the same thing. Before there were domain names, you had to type a web server's entire IP address. Domain names made it a whole lot easier to remember server names. Additionally, domain names played a huge role in the conservation of IP addresses as there is a finite number of usable IP addresses available. Multiple domain names can be hosted using the same IP address.

Download/Upload

Many clients use the terms download and upload like they mean the same thing, but there is a difference. To make it easier to remember, imagine that the Internet is a mothership floating in the sky. To get a web page from it, it must send it DOWN to you. For you to send a photo to it, you must send it UP. Therefore, when you download music, you are at the receiving end. When you are uploading a picture, you are sending something.

IP Address

This is one of the very first terms taught in Internet 101. An IP Address is a unique identifier of a server on an IP network. To send and receive data to and from a server, the IP Address must be known. They are numeric separated by three dots like this: 123.45.67.89. The world wide web industry has done a great job abstracting IP Addresses by using domain names that it is no longer vital to know what your server's IP Address is.

Server/Web Server

A server also known as a web server is a term used that refers to a computer that us powered on 24 hours a day. Its job is to serve web page requests by web browsers. When you visit a web site, the web page you are seeing was given to you by a server that may be located hundreds of miles away from you. Without web servers, you cannot have web sites.

Web Design Basic Tips

Experienced web designers know a thing or two about web design because they have been burned at least once. For business owners wishing to create their own websites, you can avoid getting burned by following the tips below:

1. Make your images small in file size. In today's broadband throughput, keep them below 24 KB per image. Slow loading pages can turn your users away. Optimize your images using your favorite image manipulation program.
2. Re-size your images so that it fits the content. Don't add unrelated photos to your website just because you can. Your images should support the text content, or adds to the visual appeal of your layout.
3. Do not use images that constantly blink, rotate, move around, or flash on every single page. Use them sparingly. If you have to have these images on your website, put them in the splash (opening) screen. There have been many studies that show that flashing graphics are distracting to users.
4. Implement traditional and easy-to-read layouts. Newspapers and magazines are easy to read and that is why many people still subscribe to them. Avoid using more than 2 frames on one page. Avoid a layout where you have to scroll to the right to read everything on the page, unless you want to be "different". These types of layouts are fun, but they can drive your readers away. 3-column layout are popular on web sites and newspapers is because it works.
5. White space is a function of your layout and encourages readability of your pages. Be aware of the whitespace on your pages and how it affects how the content is viewed. Whitespace is just as important in a web layout as it is in a paper layout.
6. Only use 2 to 3 different fonts. If you want to avoid making your Web site look like it was built by a non-professional is to use 7 different fonts sprinkled all over the website. Use sans-serif type fonts for paragraphs because they are easier to read on a monitor compared to serif type fonts.
7. Stick to using standard font families like Verdana, Geneva, Arial, and Helvetica. Not everyone will have your fancy-looking font unless you convert it to an image.
8. Test your pages in at least 3 of the most popular browsers. Just because it works in your browser does not mean it will work across all browsers. Avoid writing web pages that work only on the most modern browsers unless you are designing one for a controlled intranet.