Weave Your Own Web – Web
Weave Your Own Web
A. Raymond Randall
Many elementary school children know the miracle of Charlottes Web. Weaving the words "Some Pig" into the center of her web, Charlotte keeps Wilbur from the frying pan. E.B. Whites story provides some fascinating guidelines for web spinning.
Charlottes wisdom assures Wilbur about what matters. On the one hand, when Wilbur tries creating his own web, she instructs, "You cant spin a web...and I advise you to put the idea out of your mind." Wilbur lacks "spinnerets, and ... know how". She also informs Wilbur, "...you dont need a web." However with some "know how", every webmaster may weave a "terrific" web. A spider called Charlotte offers wise suggestions.
Have a plan.
Wilbur had no plan to save himself from the butcher, and when first asked, Charlotte did not have much of a plan. She does suggest the importance of "working on it", and in her case, "hanging head down...thats when I do my thinking". Dont suggest you turn yourself upside down, but do suggest taking time to ponder YOUR plan. When Wilbur asks if he can help, she says, "Ill work on it alone". I am convinced that you must design your own plan when weaving your web. Stay away from templates and pre-made web site designs. Generations of web designers preceded Charlotte; she mimicked the structure, but not the content. Her choices evolved from her unique and distinctive plan.
Have a purpose.
Charlotte promises keep Wilbur from ending up as a holiday meal. She concentrates all her energy toward this one thing: saving Wilburs life. Every web site has to have a clear cut purpose. Whether a site provides a specific message like "Terrific Pig" or a sites directory offers vast resources and information. Essentially you, the web master, must own the purpose with passionate determination. Spider webs provide entomological evidence that what you create lives from you and feeds you.
Have patience.
Wilbur worries who can blame him. Web masters worry too. Charlotte gives Wilbur practical advice. "Get plenty of sleep, and stop worrying". Nothing wears down commitment more than worry. Ive done it for months wondering if the efforts made will produce the results wanted. Daily checks of stats and Google Adsense & ClickBank revenue reviews wear you down if the rewards accrue slowly. Charlotte knows better, she could wait "hour by hour...deep in thought". Finally, an idea or a fly would show up.
Charlottes lessons pass on to generations of web weavers. Each of them understands one essential and inalterable lesson, "...we are going out into the world to make webs for ourselves". I am not suggesting you reject or ignore skillful helpers; I am suggesting that the decision of what your web represents remains yours. Always weave your own web.
About The Author
Ray Randall serves clients as a registered investment advisor with Ethos Advisory Services, Essex, Massachusetts http://www.ethosadvisory.com. and coordinates the developments at Echievements . Ray holds a Masters Degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Hamilton, MA. You may email him or call 877-895-3756.
rayrandall@echievements.com
Free Program Removes Spyware not Detected by Premium Security Scan – Spyware
Free Program Removes Spyware not Detected by Premium Security Scan
Ed Zivkovic
What is Spyware
Spyware monitors your surfing habits and sends the data off to some remote server in cyberland. Your computer can get infected with spyware easily by visiting a web page or installing a software program. Kazza is a classic example of a free software download riddled with spyware. More info here: http://compactURL.com/sdft
Spyware Detection Alert
Every week I do a full system scan with Norton Internet Security Professional.
This version of Norton is the top of the range when it comes to detecting all manner of viruses including Trojan horses, spyware, scumware, joke programs and other programs which can cause harm or pose a security risk.
It is an excellent program and I believe my computer would be dead and buried if it was not for Norton.
My most recent scan detected a Trojan Horse called Download.Trojan. This little meanie will attempt to go to the originators site and download more Trojans, worms, viruses and execute them. Scary stuff but Norton nipped it in the bud before any problems were created.
Also, every day Norton detects threats contained within my incoming emails. It immediately removes the threats by either fixing the infected files or deleting infected emails. This can be a reason I can be accused of not answering emails. Bad luck I say to that.
Ever since I have been running Norton, I have not been scanning with Ad-Aware. I recently discovered that Anti-Virus programs, as good as they are, sometimes fail to detect all threats from a computer. So I did a full scan with Ad-Aware and was surprised to discover even more spyware on my system. So now I will also be scanning once a week with Ad-Aware.
Free Spyware Removal Software
Ad-Aware is so good and yet it is free. It is available from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/
There is more good free spyware detection programs available here: http://www.spybot.info/en/index.
Find out what Scumware is here: http://www.scumware.com
Symantec has an Online Virus Encyclopedia which after a little browse, should be enough motivation for anyone to get some kind of anti-virus and security program installed on their computer. Find the entire A-Z known viruses encyclopedia here: http://compactURL.com/qhdf
Conclusion
Do a full system scan at least every week. Download the latest Anti-Virus definitions as soon as they become available. Use more than one program to ensure all threats are detected and removed immediately. Always enable your anti-virus and security program to scan all incoming and outgoing emails.
If you do not have the very best anti-virus protection, do not complain if your emails get no response. I allow my anti-virus program to delete all infected emails along with any attachments.
Copyright 2004 Ed Zivkovic
About The Author
The author, Ed Zivkovic owns his own website which contains articles with all sorts of tips for work at home webmasters. Here is the site: http://www.ezau.com
Network Monitoring for Serious eCommerce – Spyware
Network Monitoring for Serious eCommerce
David Leonhardt
In the real world, businesses come in every size, from self-employed entrepreneurs like me to mega malls like Wal-Mart.
On the Internet, companies come in every size, too, from a stand-alone ebook sales page with webmaster and owner all in one, to 300 pound gorilla like Amazon, with over a million pages requiring the entire population of a small country to serve as webmaster.
If your site is a single page, it is its own network. But if your site is any bigger, and you have plans to grow, it is a network or is fast becoming one. You need network monitoring.
Most ecommerce webmasters are at least somewhat familiar with website monitoring. Many use a website monitoring service or software to keep track of "uptime" and "downtime".
At your local shopping mall, serious business requires more than just knowing when the front doors are open and when they are closed. Serious ecommerce needs to know more than just when the site is accessible. That is what network monitoring is all about.
Chances are, your e-business owns one of the following, or uses one of the following remotely:
DNS servers: These are used to translate your site name, like www.mycompany.com, to the numbers called "IP addresses" that computers understand. If DNS servers are not working properly, end-users will not be able to find your site and will get an error. Usually only an external or remote monitoring service will detect such a problem.
An FTP server: File Transfer Protocol servers are used to help you exchange files with remote users. If you use FTP, a monitoring service can make sure it is always up and running.
POP3 and SMTP servers: These are used for exchanging emails. If you are using email, chances are you are using SMTP and POP3. If your SMTP server is down, everyone who sends you email will receive an error, stating that your mail server is down and cannot accept incoming email. To say that the impression this leaves your customers is bad would be an understatement. If your POP3 server is down, you will be unable to retrieve email from your mailbox. Once again, only external monitoring will prevent such a problem.
Firewalls: Many businesses use firewalls to protect their internal network from un-authorized traffic, such as spyware, viruses and sabotage by competitors. Furthermore, a firewall is your first line of defense. If your firewall goes down, your whole network may actually become inaccessible from outside. In other words, if you host your own web site and mail servers, those will become inaccessible to the outside world if your firewall goes down. Once again, remote network monitoring is required to detect that a problem exists and quickly get it repaired.
Internet connections: Users come to your network from multiple backbones, depending on the company they use to connect to the Internet and their location. It is important to ensure that your connection performs well for each user. A remote monitoring service can ping your networks from multiple locations around the world, thus testing most major routes to your web server or network. Before hiring a network monitoring service, check to see that they have both your customer geography and the Internet backbone layout covered.
Very few websites of any size and functionality are anything less than a complete network, and many networks rely on servers in different parts of the world.
A good network monitoring service can ensure, as a base, that all servers are properly functioning, that data can be sent to and received from each server, and that each function sharing the server responds as required. An advanced network monitoring service can even remotely monitor the temperature of your servers.
What you need to monitor depends on how extensive your network is. A network monitoring expert can help you determine what needs monitoring. If you own the servers, or are remotely hosted on dedicated servers, you most likely need everything monitored. If your site is hosted on shared servers, you might need fewer functions monitored.
About The Author
David Leonhardt is a freelance writer and SEO consultant. Contact him at
http://www.SEO-writer.net
He wrote this article for Dotcom-Monitor:
http://www.dotcom-monitor.com
Read more on network monitoring:
http://www.dotcom-monitor.com/network-monitoring.asp
Read more on website monitoring:
http://www.dotcom-monitor.com/website-monitoring.asp
david@seo-writer.net