Archive for December, 2009
Top 5 reasons websites load slow
Slow loading websites are still the number one reason why people leave a website before buying, here are some flags for what might be slowing down your website.
The top 5 reasons a website loads slow:
- The amount and size of resources on the web page like widgets, link lists, images, videos. The browser has to rethink for each item so it is better to use a similar theme for each web page.
- Images and Videos that are not properly optimized and re-sized is a very close second. There is free tools online if you do not have a program to compress your videos and images.
- The database search executed while the site loads. Static pages always load faster then database driven web pages so try to use as many static web pages as possible. Most blogs have a plug-ins to make their pages static just for this reason and because static websites is more reliable then a database driven site.
- Flash driven sites are known for lagging and sometimes crashing browsers, try to only use flash for videos, tutorials, banners, headers, and examples. Full flash sites will put you in the lowest loading speed category quick.
- Overloaded servers can cause site slow downs. If you have a dedicated server you might want to keep your high resource sites to about 5 to server around there the speed of the server can be effected. Also contacting DWHS to have us look over the server for free is a good way to make sure the server is as fast as possible. Be careful with mass budget hosting, they tend to overload their servers to make up for their cheap costs.
Inside DWHS Inc. Website Hosting – Pilot 1
This is an introduction to Charles Yarbrough and some basic tips on running a safe dynamic website.
How much data are you using?
How much data are you using for common tasks? We have done some averages and estimates and this is what we came up with for the average internet usage session.
ACTIVITY ESTIMATED SIZE – EACH ACTIVITY**
Email (1 page without attachments) 30 KB
Web Page Look-up 200 KB
Web Browsing/Viewing Video Clips 3 MB
Download music 5 MB
1 Full-length (2 hours) movie download 1.5 GB
Email port 25 26 587
Email port 25 - This is the standard outgoing email port. 99% of the time it will be fine and set in your email program by default.
Email port 26 - This is simply a alternative to port 25 and works the same. It exists because some ISP’s do not allow outgoing email which we believe unless advertised bluntly is bad business conduct. So we have set up a second port for people to get around their misleading ISP’s.
Email port 587 - Is yet another attempt to block email from users. Like most spam blocking attempts blocking all ports for email other then port 587 really does nothing other then create confusion for regular users of the internet. But if you need port 587 then DWHS can open this by request.
Inside DWHS Inc. Website Hosting
This is a inside look at Charles Yarbrough building a 8 CPU Xeon server from scratch for a dedicated server customer.
Using Google Public DNS
Google now offers free DNS resolves, they claim this will speed up the entire internet. These new DNS servers will replace your ISP’s domain name servers. You can also simply use them as addiotnal resolvers and keep your current DNS as the primary. DNS basically stores what every domain name’s IP is. Here is the full page: Google DNS
Adding them is easy and we recommend giving it a try:
Microsoft Windows
DNS settings are specified in the TCP/IP Properties window for the selected network connection.
Example: Changing DNS server settings on Microsoft Windows Vista
1. Go the Control Panel.
2. Click Network and Internet, then Network and Sharing Center, then Manage network connections.
3. Select the connection for which you want to configure Google Public DNS. For example:
* To change the settings for an Ethernet connection, right-click Local Area Connection, and click Properties.
* To change the settings for a wireless connection, right-click Wireless Network Connection, and click Properties.
If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
4. Select the Networking tab. Under This connection uses the following items, click Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), and then click Properties.
5. Click Advanced and select the DNS tab. If there are any DNS server IP addresses listed there, write them down for future reference, and remove them from this window.
6. Click OK.
7. Select Use the following DNS server addresses. If there are any IP addresses listed in the Preferred DNS server or Alternate DNS server, write them down for future reference.
8. Replace those addresses with the IP addresses of the Google DNS servers: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
9. Restart the connection you selected in step 3.
10. Test that your setup is working correctly; see Testing your new settings below.
11. Repeat the procedure for additional network connections you want to change.
Mac OS X
DNS settings are specified in the Network window.
Example: Changing DNS server settings on Mac OS 10.5
1. From the Apple menu, click System Preferences, then click Network. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
2. Select the connection for which you want to configure Google Public DNS. For example:
* To change the settings for an Ethernet connection, select Built-In Ethernet, and click Advanced.
* To change the settings for a wireless connection, select Airport, and click Advanced.
3. Select the DNS tab.
4. Click + to replace any listed addresses with, or add, the Google IP addresses at the top of the list: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
5. Click Apply and OK.
6. Test that your setup is working correctly; see Testing your new settings below.
7. Repeat the procedure for additional network connections you want to change.
Linux
DNS settings are specified in /etc/resolv.conf in most distributions.
Example: Changing DNS server settings on Ubuntu
1. Edit /etc/resolv.conf:
sudo vi /etc/resolv.conf
2. If any nameserver lines appear, write down the IP addresses for future reference.
3. Replace the nameserver lines with, or add, the following lines:
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4
4. Save and exit.
5. Restart any Internet clients you are using.
6. Test that your setup is working correctly; see Testing your new settings below.
If you are using DHCP client software that overwrites the settings in /etc/resolv.conf, you will need to set up the client accordingly by editing the client’s configuration file.
Example: Configuring DHCP client sofware on Ubuntu
1. Back up /etc/resolv.conf:
sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf.auto
2. Edit /etc/dhcp3/dhcpclient.conf:
sudo vi /etc/dhcp3/dhcpclient.conf
3. If there is a line containing domain-name-servers, write down the IP addresses for future reference.
4. Replace that line with, or add, the following line:
prepend domain-name-servers 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4;
5. Save and exit.
6. Restart any Internet clients you are using.
7. Test that your setup is working correctly; see Testing your new settings below.
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To test that the Google DNS resolver is working:
1. From your browser, type in a hostname, such as http://www.google.com. If it resolves correctly, bookmark the page, and try accessing the page from the bookmark. If both of these tests work, everything is working correctly. If not, go to step 2.
2. From your browser, type in a fixed IP address. You can use http://18.62.1.6/ (which points to the website http://eecs.mit.edu/) as the URL*. If this works correctly, bookmark the page, and try accessing the page from the bookmark. If these tests work (but step 1 fails), then there is a problem with your DNS configuration; check the steps above to make sure you have configured everything correctly. If these tests do not work, go to step 3.
3. Roll back the DNS changes you made and run the tests again. If the tests still do not work, then there is a problem with your network settings; contact your ISP or network administrator for assistance.
Password protected membership site
We get a lot of people asking how to do a password protected membership site. We have a free tool to in your cpanel to manually add and remove members. This is a great free tool in your cpanel but most people want to be able to automate the process or take payment. First if you want to do high risk payments, you need to contact Verotel.com or ccbill.com and have them process the payments and set up the membership area. They will take care of everything like managing the billing, members, and paying you.
But if you just want a members area and do not need to take payments OR want to do just take paypal payments for low risk customers then we have the best solution.
Locked Area of a simple script that allows members to sign up:
Then either pay for access or just get free access. The member then can manage their account from a control panel.
Also you can view, manage, and change the options of members from your admin section:
If you want this, the basic version is free. We can even install it onto your website for $20. Contact us here if you want to install the password protected membership script for you. We can just bill your account on file for this. Of course you can install it yourself, it’s not that hard.
The paid version is $80 plus $20 to install and includes these options:
- PayPal Subscription Payments
Link your registration system with PayPal Subscription Payments and charge a recurring fee for accessing your member’s area. The system supports US Dollar, Pound Sterling or Euro as currency, and allows you to charge any fee for any duration of membership as you require, for example, $4.95 per 30 days or £15 per 90 days.
- Automated Account Expiration
Should a user not pay their recurring membership fee, the system will automatically expire the account and suspend the users member’s area access. When this occurs the user will be sent a notification including instructions of how to renew their membership. The system is entirely automated and requires no administrator intervention.
- Admin Validation of Registrations
This facility allows you to validate registrations before the user receives access to the member’s area. This means you can verify the user and ensure they are allowed access rather than them automatically receiving access to the member’s area.
- Email Address Validation/Activation
This facility ensures your users always enter a valid and active email address. The software will send a validation link via email during the registration process, the user must receive this email and select the link in order to continue the registration process. If a valid email address is not entered, the user will not receive the validation link and will not be able to activate their account.
- Ten Custom Form Fields
Locked Area Pro supports up to ten custom form fields rather than the three available in Locked Area Lite.
- Improved Login, Failed Login and User Statistics
The failed login system will catch any failed member’s area logins so you are aware of attempted hacks, this information can then be viewed in the administration panel in a convenient statistics system. A variety of additional statistical information is also available in the Professional version.
- Backup System
Simply select one button in the administration panel and Locked Area Pro will automatically backup all important user and statistical data including the main member’s area database and log file. Backups are stored with a timestamp for your convenience and can be restored in a matter of seconds.
- .htaccess and .htpasswd Recovery
Just incase you have a problem with your .htaccess and .htpasswd files, with one click these can be regenerated. This is vital incase of accidental deletion or corruption.
Free joomla template
As you know Joomla can be installed on your website with one click from the Fantastico section. Here is a free template in case you want to change the look of your Joomla script.
Just click the image to download, have fun!
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