surefire

The best route is to send a ticket to the help desk.

I spent all day yesterday rewriting the code from scratch. Why? It needed it...bad. The older versions were based on the code of others that I serious hacked and improved... but you could tell it was held together with scotch tape. Don't get me wrong, the code worked... but with TCH going to SMTP... and just to clean the darn thing up and do it RIGHT... I started over from scratch. The result is my first shot at OOP (Object Oriented Programming) and I think it's a major improvement. First, it uses SMTP to send the autoreply and the webmaster info. Second, it gives a ton of feedback if you set the testing variable on. Third, because it is a class, it should be easier to add bells and whistles to the code moving forward. Fourth, the code will soon give you the ability to send html emails and track your statistics (I doubt that one will be free... but maybe) Fifth, I've tested the code with the error reporting turned all the way up so the code should be very clean. In fact, the error reporting in the final product is all the way up so I know it's clean. Sixth, it should work with globals turned off or on, safemode turned off or on. None of this matters to TCH members. But it matters to me since 2,800 people have downloaded it in just a few weeks. One thing that's missing in this version is the file upload for attachments. If you need that functionality... then stick with version 1.7 for now. I'm rewriting the attachment code and I'm hoping to do it in a way that's a little more secure. I'm sure 2.0 Beta isn't perfect.. but it should be much easier to use and TCH members definitely shouldn't have much trouble with it. You can download it here And please give it a positive rating if you like what it does

I've noticed that several of my sites are moving in and out of the index. And when they're in, they're MUCH lower down on the rankings than they have been before the dance began. I've gone from concern to confusion as to how in the world Google would stand for (what I consider) 'weird' results for several days. Not that my opinion matters to Google... but if we are to assume that the current results do not reflect what the results will be after the dance... it doesn't seem to make sense. Why wouldn't they run the dance behind the scenes and show the new results when finished? I don't really care. Just seems silly. Anyhow, it seems to me that the lesson to be learned is: Don't depend on any ONE way of aquiring new customers or depend on any ONE website for your income. Over the next several months, I'll be doing whatever I can to make Google just one piece of my marketing mix, rather than the key factor.

I agree that it's not a good idea to have the info emailed to you. But before you figure out how to make the form, you should have an idea of where this data is going and how you'll protect it once you get it. SSL protects data 'on the wire' meaning that no one can grab the data stream and steal it as the information is passed from the client's browser to your server. But once it hits your server (website) are you going to store it in a database? (Bad idea) Or email it? (Almost as bad) I'm assuming that you have a merchant account if you are looking to get clients to enter credit card numbers. Most providers have a form you can put on your site or a set of protocols you can follow so that the information is safely transmitted THROUGH your site SECURELY to the authorization site. The authorization company will hopefully put security measures in place to protect the client. Then they can email the transaction report to you and send a receipt to your client by email. Neither one has to have (they probably shouldn't have) the CC info on it. I would strongly urge you to ask your merchant account provider how they suggest you process cards online. I would also suggest getting your own SSL certificate installed at TCH (so you look more professional). If those ideas don't suit your needs, why not try paysystems?

Thanks, Scott. Some of the Google-watching forums out there throw out some pretty wild theories. It's always good to hear from someone who knows what they're talking about.

Once you create a form, you need to have the information sent to a page that can interpret the variables and do something with the data. This is done through the first line of the form tag like so <form name="form1" method="post" action="/dir/somepage.php"> That .php ending could very well be .asp, .cgi, .cfm or even .htm if you know what you're doing. But the page it references must have code that can perform some sort of action and email you the results. There are three alternatives: Post the information to a third party site and have them send you the email Get some code that's already written and put it up on your site Write (or pay someone to write) custom code for specifically what you want done It just depends on your level of knowledge and how unique your results have to be. I would be willing to bet that you just want to get emailed the results and so option two could be accomplished with a very small amount of effort. (Option one is really for those who are just WAY over their heads and want a quick solution... and that's not necessarily bad.) So I would go to hotscripts.com and look up a piece of code that will do this to your liking, or you could use a piece of code I wrote that others at TCH have really enjoyed http://www.totalchoicehosting.com/help/id65.htm Hope that answer helps.

That's a great way to restrict parts of your site to one or two users. Well, actually, it can be done for as many as you want...but would get tedious entering hundreds of users into .htaccess via CPanel. If you are looking for automated membership scripts then you should probably check out the ones recommended by TCH on the help pages (I think it's called Amember) or if you are feeling adventuresome, you could check out this part one of a three page series on doing it yourself with a class available for free: Dev Shed - Pat User

No, this isn't a commercial. Firebird is a free browser (opensource) that is distributed by Mozilla. I started using it about six months ago and can't say enough great things about it. Version 0.7 came out recently and I can already see big improvements. If you want a list of reasons why you should switch, visit Mozilla Firebird My two favorite reasons: it automatically blocks popups, and you can browse several pages at once with tabs rather than new windows.

Good stuff, Scott. I just printed out those searches. I could've used them yesterday

Great info. I'm thinking that a safety deposit box might work too.

Those are awesome suggestions. Both seem to confirm that an external drive might be the way to go. Although the price tag on that external drive you pointed out, Mike, does seem a bit pricey but I think if I understood the difference between it's bells and whistles and the others that I've seen for half price then I'm sure I'd see the value... I'm just not convinced I need the Ferrari of external hard drives. Thanks for the input! You guys are great. If anyone else has something to add... I'm all ears. (Or eyes)

I'm much more proficient with scripting and coding than hardware, so I'm looking for advice or confirmation that I'm headed in the right direction. I have a need to backup my computer files at least daily. These include huge mysql database files and dozens of large websites that take up too much space to go on a zip 250. I've been doing monthly backups to CD media but now I need to go to daily backups. Maybe even twice a day. So I'm looking for a solution that is quick automated relatively safe from power surges (in that order) I'm gravitating towards an external hard drive. This way, I can unplug the system if I suspect lighting is approaching. I'm looking at $110 to $160 depending on the size. Do any hardware pros out there have better ideas for me? Thanks.

Yes it is. But it's a quick solution to get you up and running and then you can tweak and improve your system later by building (or hiring someone to build) a script that does the same. I'm the king of analysis paralysis but I've been healing myself by taking the motto : Finish it now, fix it later.

Glad to be back.

Thanks Andy. That did the trick. Rock Sign I'll press my luck and ask: Is there is a way to ftp securely?

Along a similar line... I know that at one point there was a thread on using SSL to access Cpanel. At the TCH FAQ page it says But that doesn't seem to work for me. I'm sure there's a brain dead easy way to login to Cpanel using SSL.... can someone point me to the thread or remind me how. Thanks.

About a year ago, I tried to hire three different programmers off an elance-like site. I didn't even go with the cheapest but got burned every time. Folks who said they could do what they couldn't, folks who tried to deliver stuff that wasn't what I asked (and hoped I wouldn't know the difference)... deadllines that came and went... on and on. Needless to say, I don't like working with strangers over the internet on scripting projects. Since then, I've learned how to do the scripting myself. But now I'm short on time and thinking of hiring help again. I will put an ad in the paper and contact professors at local colleges to see if there is someone local I can find. If that doesn't work, I'll contact other web design firms and farm it out. When I hired these foreign strangers over the internet, I even tried to use an escrow account. It worked pretty well but I had to have a come-to-Jesus chat with one of these programmers so they would finally admit they couldn't deliver and they would release my money back to me. Go local. It's a lot harder for someone to BS you when the conversation is eyeball to eyeball and you know where they live.

1automationwiz.com is set up to do this. Be prepared for a sizable monthly fee. I forget what I used to pay... $45 per month maybe. But everything is automated.

Or you could send them a bill for your web design. I think the legal approach is the only one that is going to get any results.

Mozilla just released a new version of the Firebird Browser... 0.7 For anyone who hasn't tried it yet... you really should see what you're missing.

One of the best suggestions I've heard on this topic was to request links as if you were hoping to get real traffic from the site and Pagerank didn't exist. If that were the case, you'd focus your time and energy on sites that were relevant to your site and had lots of traffic. You'd prefer a few awesome links rather than a bazillion random links. Sort of like building a content rich site first, and letting search engine rank happen as a direct result of doing a good job. That's not the way it always works in the real world, but sometimes it helps to look at things a little differently.

Isn't anyone concerned about getting banned for this? I would think that if a competitor reported your site and showed Google your css file, you'd be screwed. Don't pass go, don't collect $200.

I had developed just such a tool only to read the Google info about automated querying. You'd probably get away with it for a while but getting banned from Google could be disastrous if you need them. I'm very glad to see DsDemmin and others on top of the situation and up to speed with the potential consequences.

This is a great trick that I've known about for some time but I've never used because of this from Google's page for Webmasters Dsdemmin knows his stuff so listen to what he has to say... I've just always sided on the conservative side since I'd hate to be banned.

I don't know of an off-the-shelf program that does this... but basically what you need is a program that's driven off a database. Whether that's an excel spreadsheet, or Access, or MySQL online, doesn't matter too much. I'd do it by zip codes. Not as automatic as being able to ask it to find everyone within a certain radius... but almost as good, I would imagine. Once you have the database, the rest is pretty much a question of preference. There are plenty of online services that will send the emails for you. They're not free... but you don't ever have to worry about being wrongly accused of spam and losing your website too. Anyhow, say you collected the info in an excel spreadsheet. Whenever you wanted, you could upload the list, sort by zip, and send out the email. If you have a website you could have fans sign up and get some simple code to put the info into an online database so the work is done for you. But if most of the data collection is done at the shows, then someone is going to have to input the data. I don't see any way around that. One way to avoid the manual labor would be to offer something of great value but little cost to you in return for signing up on the email list. What about a tape of the concert they just attended (or mp3). If not the whole concert, maybe just a song or two. On the signup form you just need to make sure you require the zip. I wouldn't require the whole address, but I'd ask for it. Sounds like you need name, email, and zip. Everything else optional. Even if you don't know what software you'll ultimately use, it all comes down to a database. How you build it and what you use to send out the emails can be figured out later.