HostEntrepreneur

I’ve been watching the forums for a product we’re interested in… the next version is supposed to include a feature we’d have to have to be able to use the product. So I’ve been checking back pretty frequently to see when the next release occurs.  But here’s the problem… on the 2 main computers I use (home and office), both anti-virus programs consider a javascript file from tynt.com as “malicious”. I’m not really positive it is, but the fact that every page I go to in the forum pops up a warning, both claiming the code is “high risk”.

Tynt if you’re not familiar with it watches for people copying your content to another site. While in theory, this isn’t a bad thing. I trust the 2 a/v program manufacturer’s to judge safe vs. not, more than what a company is claiming they are doing (or not doing). So I’m not willing to make an exception in the a/v program for this site. This means my options are 1) stop going there – which is an option. There are alternatives to the product, and if they are unwilling to listen to the (potential) users, do I want the product? I have to wonder what’s “measures” it contains as well.  Or 2) I have to find a way to stop the annoying pop up without endangering my pc.

So here’s how to do option number 2 in this case. Since this javascript it being pulled as a linked file, it’s a normal http get request. All we need to do is get rid of the ability to resolve the hostname for it. In this case the host is wau.tynt.com   This is an XP machine so I go to c:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc  and edit the file named “hosts”, adding the line:

127.0.0.1  wau.tynt.com 

Save the file then from the command line, ping wau.tynt.com   and the address should come back as 127.0.0.1  which should ping fine as it’s the local loopback address. But any request for the file shouldn’t work, unless you happen to have a web server running on your local machine and it happens to have that file in that directory which would just plain be wierd.

Now to get the browser to pick up the change, close ALL of your browser windows and reopen them. If you typed the url into the browser window, you should get an error message that the page is not displayable.  You should now be able to surf without the annoying popup.

For Windows Vista and Win7, the fix is basically the same, but there is a gotcha on it. You won’t be able to edit the file directly as the directory is protected. You will need to copy the hosts file outside of the system tree, to say your Documents folder, edit the file and then copy it back.  When you copy it back, it’s going to complain, and ask you if you really want to do this. Since you are really meaning to change the file, it’s ok in this case. Normally, unless you’re specifically meaning to make a change to Windows like this, you’d want to say ‘No’.

There is another way to do this was well… Turn off scripting in the browser. This has an unfortunate side effect of stopping some features of some sites as well. The above is easy, and works fine, so that’s my choice (until I hear back on their thoughts about the reasoning behind using tynt anyway).

Considering how easy this is to get around, it’s really not protecting much. And it’s a major inconvenience to the users (not to mention how it looks to them)… And finding your content isn’t hard… embed your domain name, name phrase, etc. in the content portion. Then use Google’s Alert feature, http://www.google.com/alerts, to find it. I’d think twice before using it.

Recently I’ve seen a few people refer to their domain name, like “myname.com” as a “top level domain” or TLD. The short answer is that it is NOT a TLD. The term Top Level Domain has a very specific meaning, and anything you can register does not fit the definition… Per RFC 920,

The domain system is a tree-structured global name space that has a few top level domains.  The top level domains are subdivided into second level domains.  The second level domains may be subdivided  into third level domains, and so on.
…

While the initial domain name “ARPA” arises from the history of the   development of this system and environment, in the future most of the top level names will be very general categories like “government”, “education”, or “commercial”.  The motivation is to provide an   organization name that is free of undesirable semantics.

Notice their words: “top level names will be very general categories…”  Recognize the categories listed, it’s .gov, .edu and .com TLDs. There are also ccTLDs with are country specific such as .us and .ca for the USA and Canada respectively. As of this moment right now, here are ALL OF the top level domains per IANA:

AC, AD, AE, AERO, AF, AG, AI, AL, AM, AN, AO, AQ, AR, ARPA, AS, ASIA, AT, AU, AW, AX, AZ, BA, BB, BD, BE, BF, BG, BH, BI, BIZ, BJ, BM, BN, BO, BR, BS, BT, BV, BW, BY, BZ, CA, CAT, CC, CD, CF, CG, CH, CI, CK, CL, CM, CN, CO, COM, COOP, CR, CU, CV, CX, CY, CZ, DE, DJ, DK, DM, DO, DZ, EC, EDU, EE, EG, ER, ES, ET, EU, FI, FJ, FK, FM, FO, FR, GA, GB, GD, GE, GF, GG, GH, GI, GL, GM, GN, GOV, GP, GQ, GR, GS, GT, GU, GW, GY, HK, HM, HN, HR, HT, HU, ID, IE, IL, IM, IN, INFO, INT, IO, IQ, IR, IS, IT, JE, JM, JO, JOBS, JP, KE, KG, KH, KI, KM, KN, KP, KR, KW, KY, KZ, LA, LB, LC, LI, LK, LR, LS, LT, LU, LV, LY, MA, MC, MD, ME, MG, MH, MIL, MK, ML, MM, MN, MO, MOBI, MP, MQ, MR, MS, MT, MU, MUSEUM, MV, MW, MX, MY, MZ, NA, NAME, NC, NE, NET, NF, NG, NI, NL, NO, NP, NR, NU, NZ, OM, ORG, PA, PE, PF, PG, PH, PK, PL, PM, PN, PR, PRO, PS, PT, PW, PY, QA, RE, RO, RS, RU, RW, SA, SB, SC, SD, SE, SG, SH, SI, SJ, SK, SL, SM, SN, SO, SR, ST, SU, SV, SY, SZ, TC, TD, TEL, TF, TG, TH, TJ, TK, TL, TM, TN, TO, TP, TR, TRAVEL, TT, TV, TW, TZ, UA, UG, UK, US, UY, UZ, VA, VC, VE, VG, VI, VN, VU, WF, WS, XN–0ZWM56D, XN–11B5BS3A9AJ6G, XN–80AKHBYKNJ4F, XN–9T4B11YI5A, XN–DEBA0AD, XN–G6W251D, XN–HGBK6AJ7F53BBA, XN–HLCJ6AYA9ESC7A, XN–JXALPDLP, XN–KGBECHTV, XN–ZCKZAH, YE, YT, YU, ZA, ZM, ZW

So unless you somehow managed to register one of those (not a domain WITHIN one of those but one of those actual TLDs), you don’t have a TLD… It’s not open for discussion, you don’t. You have a “second level domain” according to the people who designed the dns system. Please stop telling people you do, or trying to sell a TLD. You just sound stupid to people who know better.

On the 12′th I blogged about Linux+ magazine and how I never received the magazine nor the “Tux android” they had on promotion… You can see it here: http://HostEntrepreneur.com/2009/09/12/warning-linux-magazine/

Well over 2 weeks have gone by, and I’ve have gotten a couple messages from them. Always the same. “we’re sorry… please wait…”  I can’t help but feel like I’m getting stalled for time. I payed with Paypal, and had started the dispute process in their Resolution Center. It took them a over week to respond there… and then to ask the “order number” which is a joke. Disputes are attached to the original transaction at paypal, which includes the order number. That was a week ago, and NOTHING since then.

I’m tired of this… I don’t trust Linux+ magazine anymore even if they were to send the items. This was for a 2 year subscription… I don’t want it anymore. I highly recommend avoiding this magazine. 

Pretty sure they were trying to let the clock run out. Well it didn’t work… I escalated the dispute to claim status with paypal. Hopefully they’ll be able to get some satisfaction for me.

Oct. 1, 2009 Update:  Yet another reply of “is this your address” nothingness… but finally something substantial. Tux showed up. From what I’m seeing on the shipping documents, it appears it was shipped on Sept. 21st, not Sept. 1. The never claimed they reshipped it, though they said they would if it didn’t show up.

I’ve canceled the paypal dispute hoping they come through on the rest. I have my doubts, but I can’t keep the dispute going when I received at least this piece of what I bought… Hopefully this will be the last update.

One of the best services I’ve found for finding expired domains that are cheap is http://freshdrop.net. This one site lets you search several domain dropping services at the same time and sort them based on all kinds of criteria. The only “issue” with it is that it provides so much information that it can be overwhelming. But there are a couple to pay particular attention to… The PR column is just that, Google’s pagerank. But notice the column next to it, “Fake”. This flags domains that may have suspicious pageranking going on. Realize though that once Google sees the site change, it’s likely to redo the PR anyway.

Next look at the ‘age’. Since you’ll pick up these domains on their way out, the age stays with it. It’s one way to make a site appear older than it really is… but that leads to some ethical questions that this isn’t the place to discuss.

Move on the GR and GRN – these are Google search results for the domain with and without the extension respectively. Related to those is GIDX which is the number pages in Google’s index for the domain. GBL will give you the number of backlinks on other domains pointing to that domain.

Similar to all the Google colums, there are columns for Yahoo, Altavista, Ovation, etc. And over on the right there is a very complete search filter section.  You can filter of TLD (TLD is the top level domain – com, net, org, etc. or a country like .us, .ca, etc.) as well as looking for domains with certain terms in them, or excluding, or with based on any of the columns listed. And you can do compound searches: .COMs containing “host”, excluding “adult”, with 10 to 500 Google backlinks, for example. It’s really quite powerful.

The price you see listed is on top of the regular annual registration fee, but considering they have many that start at $5 it’s quite reasonable compared to some services.

If you’re a webhost and have less than 10 employees, you may be eligible for Microsoft’s WebsiteSpark Program, http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark/. If you’ve been in the hosting business a long time, you might remember Microsoft’s Certified Hosting Partner’s program, where MS provided some support and leads for customers. This one appears to be the new incarnation of that program. 

You get software:  Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (or R2 if available) Web Edition plus SQL Server 2008Web Edition… so you’ll actually be in license compliance, something I bet most small Windows hosts are not. You also get Visual Studio Pro, Expression Studio 2 (or 3) or Expression Web 2 (or 3) to design and develop websites. 

Plus you get Support and Training from Microsoft and the network partners, and best of all, sometime in the future you’ll get “Visibility & Opportunities” – meaning probably a directory or providers and sales leads.

You can be in the program for up to 3 years, but one thing to note,  a $100 fee is due at exit. So it’s not totally free, but pretty dang close.

What a simplistic title huh?  But lets look closer at it…

I recently was in a discussion with someone who had made a political statement about a proposed law and I didn’t agree. This isn’t the proper forum for the discussion, I have a couple others better suited for that. When I presented an opposing viewpoint, I was told that I misunderstood the “intent” of the bill. This sent me back to day one of the a business law course at a prestigious university I attended. This professor was a lawyer as well. He walked in and stated very plainly that if we remember anything then remember this “Words have meanings”.  His point was “intent” is very rarely ever considered in law. And if a lawyer wrote it, you can forget about the stated intent… the wording used will have been chosen for a very specific reason. Once a law is passed, the intent is all but irrelevant. It is the wording that we must live with, not they claimed they were trying to do.

Now to bring this back into light… any agreements you have with your customers, suppliers, or even the public in general, you need to be very aware of the wording you use. And you need to be willing to be bound to the meaning of the words. If you intended something else, you needed to state something else.  Another point to remember, a lot of times businessmen think like amateur lawyers… they’ll try to say one thing and make you think they’re saying another. Be on guard for that… This is one of the reasons we pick the providers we do… We like to work with “real people” instead.

When choosing a hosting partner, what is the most important thing to consider? Price? Feature? Disk Space? Bandwidth?  I’d say it’s none of these… the single most important feature you need to consider is partner themselves. You should be asking: Are they open with their customers? Do they treat their customers like numbers, or partners? Are they honest? Most importantly… Is this a company you are going to want to stay connected to for the long term?

All the other questions, bandwidth, price, features, etc. are details that can be addressed. None of them should factor into a decision to partner with them or not, provided none of them are out of line. But then if they are out of line with industry norms, they’re probably not going to measure up well with the other questions anyway.

Things to look for include checking that they have (and update) a customer news/announcements site or forum. You should also ask the support crew a question or two before signing up. It doesn’t have to anything special or even difficult. What you are looking for is a timely, courteous and accurate answer. One of my early customers asked a question he already knew the answer to… JUST to see if we’d be straightfoward in the answer. And they’re still a customer today.

Logical Volumes are one of the cool technologies that finally made it to Linux.  LVMs present your filesystems with a virtual (or logical) drive to use that may reside on one or more physical volumes.  Once you start working with LVMs you’ll never want to go back. How about the ability to extend or reduce their size? Or my personal favorite, the ability to snapshot a filesystem, which is like taking a picture (a snapshot) of how it looked at a point in time.  This is done through some “trickery” with a snapshot volume that holds the real writes to the snapshotted volume on a separate LVM.  You can then backup the snapshotted LVM without worrying about if changes are being made to the filesystem. When you un-snapshot the LVM, all the writes are committed to the real LVM. As far as the applications thinks, the filesystem is business as usual. And unlike splitting mirrors, you 1) keep your redundancy intact 2) its MUCH faster and 3) you only need space to hold the writes.

But there are times you need to modify a filesystem.  For example, you may need to reduce or extend a Logical Volume on a system…  Say we have a /vz filesystem and we want to reduce it to 500GB to open some unused space for something else.

1. Backup your data – this is ALWAYS step 1.
2. umount /vz
3. e2fsck -f /dev/Volgroup##/LogVol##    … where the #’s are the logical volume group and volume numbers for /vz
4. resize2fs /dev/VolGroup##/LogVol##   500GB  … same ##’s as above
5. lvreduce -L 500GB /dev/VolGroup/LogVol##  … do I need to say it?
6. e2fsck -f /dev/VolGroup/LogVol##    …. just for good measure
7. mount /vz   … or mount -a

As a long time programmer (aka “old fart”), I’m often quick to jump to writing code. But I learned a long time ago to devote most of my time to writing code that’s going to be the most beneficial to the process. That means the common stuff, or the stuff that someone else has already written WELL, should be left to others. One such case is on detecting mobile browsers. There are lots and lots of browser strings for all the different mobile browser devices out there, and it can change across versions of the device or the even versions of the software loaded on the device… Since someone else has written this, and they’ve done it well, let them… Check out the site here: http://detectmobilebrowsers.mobi/   It’s simple to implement, and clean on how it works. It’s kept separate so that updating for all the new devices means replacing a single file. I definitely approve.

When trying to develop a site for a wide range of visitors remember that Mac systems display fonts at 72dpi, but Windows uses 96dpi. This could lead to some interesting results when using specific sizes across systems. Just ANOTHER thing to keep in mind while designing for the web…