Deverill

Thanks for the tip, Blue. It's really interesting how things are turning out. I hadn't heard of the whole patent issue but after following some links and doing a search it sure seems like things are about to be shook up.

Thanks for the lead, and the followup caution. It seems that nothing is superior to content in the world of web-ranking. I just find it hard for my one particular site because it's charter fishing and the captain doesn't want to bother too much with it and I know almost nothing about fishing or boats so it's hard to create content and most of what I find is copyrited so that's a challenge. But then again, if it were easy he'd be doing it himself!

If you add a subdomain at the Cpanel instead of your registrar named cz you can simply create a folder under your main acct named cz and you'll see cz.crossmap.com. For an example check gto.grandslamkw.com which is simply my main public_html/gto/index.htm the browser leaves gto.grandslamkw.com in the address bar and people don't have a clue where it really is.

Yeah, many times my ideas get me deep into the pit of time wasting. That's a great idea about the API if the PR is available. If I do get a chance to mess with it I'll let you know if you do the same for me Ultimately it's about traffic and you are right that we need links from the #1 position... not that it's that easy necessarily.

No, that's not what I meant. (I do mean PageRank when I say PR though.) What I mean is if I had a website that made widgets in Kentucky I could search on "Kentucky Widget Accessories" and then of those pages returned I'd see the highest PR listed first. Now I know that a high PR tends to move you to the top of a search but here's an example. I do a charter fishing site. I put in "fishing lures" and the #1 site is a 5/10. Site #2 is 6/10. We know some of the reasons this happens but I want it sorted by PR. This is why Google as is would not be exactly what I'm looking for. Perhaps my reason would make it clear... I want to put in fishing-related searches and find the pages with the highest PR so I can solicit them for a link exchange to my site. I don't care if they are #1 or #500,000 in Google but if they have a PR of 8/10 I sure do want a link there. Now I doubt a 8/10 would be that far down the list but you never know... I just put "search engine" in Google and the #1 spot was Altavista! Then there's Lycos, Yahoo and then Google. AV and Lycos only have a PR of 9 where the latter 2 have a PR of 10. Ask Jeeves is #26 with a PR of 9 also. Go figure! Too bad Google doesn't list PR with the results it returns so a quick scan could let you see the highest PRankers. Also, I am aware that a link from a relevant site with PR 8 is not so good if no one ever gets down to that page when discussing fishing, but I need better PR and that is a quick way to boost it past the eternal 4 that it has always been. I can shoot for traffic later (Joking!)

I'd love to see a search engine or tool that would let me do a search on a string and then rank the results in PR order. It probably will never exist since PR is changing all the time but if anyone knows of a way to get this please let me know.

Believe me, after living in Key West, Florida for the past 10 years where it never snows and has never been below 41 degrees Fahrenheit, I would trade the sun for a day or two of snow. Average temps around 80 degrees gets a bit boring, but the cold makes my bones ache so I guess I'll stay here.

Here's something else for everyone to consider on the DoS issue. Please note, this is not an official TCH policy statement but rather just the comments of a user who'se been here awhile. Just because TCH can delete an account for DoS attacks and just because they have temporarily disabled accounts to take care of attacks in the past does not mean that they do or ever will unceremoniously shut you down for being in the wrong place at the wrong time! Not meant as an attack on anyone, but some of the recent posts on this topic by several people seem to assume that Head Guru will delete you if you have one little misstep. I had a situation where my website had an email address posted that would forward incoming emails to a client's non-public address. He was on AOL and when the spams started rolling in he started clicking on Report-Spam and AOL complained to TCH and then TCH shut off my domain as per their policy of zero tolerance for spamming. I could say it was not my fault, but I set up the forwarder and ultimately I was sending spam to AOL so it was my fault. I sent an IM to Rick and he told me why it was suspended and we batted back and forth some ideas and I realized that it was the mail forward. I changed my passwords (just in case) and got rid of the forward and he immediately turned my domain back on within minutes! TCH does not want to be a mean big-brother that's waiting to smack us when we're doing something. In fact, I'd bet that they would be happiest if they never hear anything from or about us and it ran like clockwork. They do, however, have the right to run the business as they see fit and we have the choice to stay or go. All things considered, losing shell access to secure the server, and not allowing add-on domains for the stability of the server, and shutting down my neighbor's site when they are dDoS'd for the stability of my site on the server sounds like a Good Thing [tm]. I hope I don't sound like I'm confronting anyone as that is not my intent - I just wanted to take the opportunity to express my views on the issues which I think are being seen from only one perspective.

Hey Darq, I was the same a week ago... wondering about going with a blog. I wanted somewhere I could chronicle my writing adventures. I saw this thread and went out and grabbed Movable Type and it's great. It was easy to follow their instructions to install and it's easy to use. I'm going to be looking at customizing it as I get time but it was pleasantly easy to get started.

Hey Jason, welcome to the forums! I just wanted to let you know that "Head Guru" is the owner of the company. How many other hosting companies this size gives a personal reply from the owner? The price drew me to TCH, the uptime reports really got my interest, the forums sold it to me. I've not been happier anywhere else.

Doggone it! See what happens when I post in public after about 10:30PM! I missed the last line of the POST by Mitch that says: 1,000 apologies Rob! It's still a grand tutorial though!

A cookie is a small bit of data you can put on a visitor's computer if they have their browser set to allow it. You can only read what you have written... you can not read other cookies placed by other web sites, nor can you read something you did not put there in the first place. To use a cookie to track uniques you would simply add a cookie to their computer that says "Been there - done that" and then every time someone comes to your site check for the cookie. If you see it then they're a repeat. If not then they are either unique or they erased your cookie or it was never accepted in the first place. There are tons of tutorials on cookies out there. Just go to google and search for something like "cookie tutorial php". I recommend PHP because it has some stuff built in to make it pretty easy to use cookies and it's a pretty easy language for anyone starting out new to web page programming. You'll have to look through the tutorials and see which make sense to you. I look at them sometimes and go "huh?" and then go to the next one I find and say "Oh, why didn't they say that!". Ask away! That's what we are all here for! I only ask that you break separate topics up into separate posts in the most appropriate sections so it stays clear. We don't need to confuse the issues and get all mixed up. Oh yes, one last thing. Credit where it's due - the tutorial was written by Mitch (Cerealkeeler)... and a grand tutorial it is! Thumbs Up

Hi Siggiegirl and welcome to the family! Great site! How did you get the mouse to draw all that for you ... was it the power of cheese?

Simply out of curiousity, what do you desire shell access to do that is not as easy with ftp and/or cpanel? After reading your post I feel like I'm missing something because I don't see a real need for it. (And I'm usually a command line junky!)

You are exactly right about the DSL router. What happens is that you are set up on your local network as one address and then when you hit the internet proper it translates that address to whatever the provider is using. There are some addresses that are for internal use only. For instance, at my workplace all our computers are 10.10.x.y which can not be connected to by the outside world. This way my company, Ford Motor Company, your company, etc can all have addresses without having to make up billions of combinations. Internally it doesn't matter to the internet what your address is... just so long as it can send packets to your router and get them to you. When your data hits the router it goes through your provider and uses one of the hundreds or thousands of addresses assigned to that provider. The routers all take care of the address translations for you so you don't have to think about it. Note, if this is the case you may have a different address when you reboot your router or even at random times. The provider has the right to change your address at will unless you have what is known as a "static IP" and that usually costs extra. Hope it helps!

Thanks for that quote and the comments! I just ignorantly believed that a program that's getting rankings is like a browser so what's the harm. I knew the submissions were bad but didn't think it was so for the ranking stuff. You are right, of course, that for Google to single out a particular company is pretty telling of their attitude about it. I guess I'll delete that sucker now and not risk it. Do you or anyone know of a good way to find site ranking? "I'd hate to have to go to google and enter my search term and count 1...2...3... ... 1,355, 1,356 AHA! I'm at 1,356 which makes me on page ... oh shoot! page 1... page 2... " Of course after about page 2 or 3 it doesn't matter. Maybe we can start a good thread about SEO tools available that help out. I know the link popularity ones come to mind immediately as do the "what's my best keyword" tools.

Hi gang, I own Web Position Gold 2 and have heard many many conflicting things about it. Everything from it will let you walk on water to it will get you banned from every search engine in existance. My questions are: 1. Does the reporter cause any harm? I had one nationally renowned SEO pro tell me that automated queries were risky and I could get penalized for using them. 2. The page generator is probably bad to use because it is aimed at cheating the SEs. Right? 3. Submitter - automated submissions should never be done, right? 4. Page Critic - is it worth the anual renewal fee? How good is their advice really? I'm not really too interested in their other features. Well any comments are welcome. Thanks!

That's disappointing, but very good to know. Thanks!

Another option may be PNG. They are ok on modern browsers and do pretty good job of compressing. It may be a middle ground between lossy and small and lossless and huge.

AAAaaiiieeeee! Oh, it's you dsdemmin! I didn't recognize you in costume! I guess Musicfrisk is thinking like me that DMOZ on some schedule dumps its database to other search engines for inclusion. Your reply sounds like that doesn't happen but rather the other SEs just spider DMOZ and get it that way. True? If it is then anyone could claim to power the famous SEs... even the little link farm some spammer has! The following quote is where I got the idea, especially the term "powers [others]". Is this just marketing hyperbole?

I just got a spam e-mail from a place that said I could have Top Search Engine Listing in 72 Hours. Guaranteed. I thought I'd take a minute to let everyone know what I found out... just for the fun of it. Call it a Public Service Announcement if you will. They claim they can get me listed on over 35 search engines in 72 hours or less guaranteed. Now, the cheapest variant on the theme lists engines such as Overture, Hotbot, About, MSN, Looksmart and "many others." When I looked at the full list I'd never heard of any of the others so they probably aren't worth much, but I figure "Hey, the others look good," even though I didn't believe them for a second! Call me cynnical. There is a testimonial on their site that says, in part: "In less than a week I found my site listed on many search engines as well as the #1 position on one of them! I nearly fell off my chair! The immediate results I have received are impressive! ... …the most honest and forthright people I have tried to date. You are not only tried, but trusted in my book! Dena Lynn Stefani, Dena's Attic" The funny thing about this is that I went to Google and searched for Dena's Attic and found only 3 links: 1 to the advertiser where I read the 'testimonial', 1 in Spanish that I didn't bother to translate but the only reference to Dena was in the cached page, and one to another email promotion site with the only reference being in the cached page. This means that even those 2 sites don't list it anymore, but they used to. I tried to go to the site they referred to but it is no longer there. So much for high page rank eh? Out of curiousity I went to hotbot's submit page and followed the links to the Lycos InSite search engine submission program. It seems that they do offer 72-hour submission to multiple search engines and refreshes at $20/yr setup and as low as $13.88/URL sumbission costs. The other guys that spammed me wanted $59.95 for this! Ok, to wind down this long message I just wanted to say to everyone that search engines are not terribly obvious but if you desire to learn and look around you can find out everything you need to do a fine job yourself. You may not get top placement because SEO experts like dsdemmin spend hundreds (thousands?) of hours perfecting their skills, but you can get listed! If someone is willing to get you a certain listing for a given price you can bet there's a cheaper way to do it yourself! Besides, they say "Top Search Engine Listing" making you believe you'll get a high rank, especially with the testimonials. What it is literally saying is you will get a listing with the top search engines, even if it is at position 32,767. Anyway, I just thought I'd share what I'd found and remind us all that too good to be true - is, and that all spam e-mail is sent by people looking to take your money in one way or another - most are not legitimately either.

I don't know how long, but usually from what I found on Google the sites go from DMOZ to [www2 and www3].google.com as a staging area and then in 3-7 days they get over to the "real" google.com site. You can go to each of those sites and search for +mydomain.+com to see if it's there.

Great point Dorsey! As you know, AOL has a bank of IP addresses that any person could be coming in on at any given time. if 5 people come in on the same AOL IP address it will appear to Awstats to be a repeat visitor and not 5 unique visitors. One thing you could do is to drop a cookie on their machine and use that to count unique visitors versus repeat visitors. It is not perfect either because they could have cookies turned off or they may have cleared them out between visits, but it may get you closer than ip counting. Other than that I can think of no foolproof way to do it although there are packages that use combination of things. I suppose you could use IP and user agent for example to identify some of these false-repeats if the 2 visitors are using different agents. Still, most on AOL will be using AOL's agent. Another problem is that AOL may have locally cached your site's pages and when a user requests your site they may get it from AOL's cache and not from you at all so you'll never see that hit. Yet another issue is that at my workplace, for instance, we use NAT so we are not accessible from the outside world unless extreme measures are taken to do it on purpose. This means if all 500 of our users go to your site they will all appear to come from the same IP. There's a good bit of info at: www.pdxperts.com/article-tracking.html It appears from some brief investigation that it is assumed impossible to get a precise count because of these issues. All you can do is get close and there are some tools you can use to help (that are probably expensive) or maybe you can find or write some that suit your needs relatively cheaply. Best wishes.

That's interesting, Borfast. When I tried mine IE automagically converted the '@' to the '%40'. I wonder if there's a setting or something. Anyway, HOORAY, it works!

The format for this is ftp://user:password@domain If you have a user named 'user' and the password is 'password' and your domain is abc.com then the link would be: ftp://user@abc.com:password@ftp.abc.com/ USERNAME_HERE PASSWORD@SITE NAME Remember that the username to the account above is not 'user' but rather 'user@abc.com'. Hope it helps.