Tryangled Solutions web designing tips tricks

1. (TiVo Desktop users only) If you are unable to make connections to the TiVo service using your network connection, you can use TiVo Desktop to check the connection between your PC and your DVR. From your PC or Mac, try to access Music & Photos on the DVR. If you are able to access Music & Photos, the problem is likely with your router or Internet service provider, since the connection between your computer and DVR is working. Check your network and router settings and contact your ISP if necessary.
2. (TiVo Desktop users only) If you have a software-based firewall such as Black Ice, Norton Internet Security, or McAfee Personal Firewall installed on your PC, it may be necessary to adjust your settings to allow the TiVo Server to broadcast the beacon signal to your DVRs. For more information on which ports need to be open, go to What network ports and IP addresses do I need open when using my TiVo DVR?
3. If you assigned a Static IP address to your DVR, check that its IP address is correct and is unique on your network. Also, confirm that the first three sets of numbers of the DVR’s IP address are the same as those of other devices on the network. (for example, if your computer’s IP address starts with 192.168.1, then the DVR IP address must also start with 192.168.1.)
4. Verify that the Domain Name System (DNS) server is functioning properly. From TiVo Central select Messages & Settings > Settings > Phone & Network > View network diagnostics.

If the DNS resolution test says “Failed”, try to access several web pages using a computer on the same network. If the computer is unable to access the web pages, there may be an issue with your Internet Service Provider’s DNS server. Contact your ISP for further troubleshooting assistance.

5. Update the firmware on your network equipment. If your home network includes a router, home gateway, or wireless access point, it may need a firmware update. You can usually find any updated firmware at the customer support web site for the manufacturer of your hardware.

1. If you are seeing a network error message, click here to view the list of network error messages and what they mean.

NOTE: A home network is an interactive system. Be aware that in some cases, an error message can be misleading because it points to a condition that may be related to what is wrong, but the DVR cannot accurately detect the root cause of the problem. For example, the DVR might display a message that a network adapter can’t be found, when the real problem is that there is no signal coming from the router.

2. Check the adapter connection.

If the Last Status on the Phone & Network screen says, “Failed. No network adapter,” make sure the USB cable is properly connected to the TiVo DVR and the adapter, and make sure the adapter’s lights are on. If the lights are on, try these steps, in order, until a network connection is established:

1. While the Phone & Network screen is still displayed, unplug the USB cable from the back of your DVR. Wait 30 seconds and then plug the USB cable back in. Make sure the cable is pushed all the way in; sometimes lights on the adapter turn on before the USB cable is pushed all the way in.
2. Unplug the end of the USB cable connected to the adapter. Wait 30 seconds and then plug the cable back in to the adapter.
3. Disconnect the adapter from the TiVo DVR again. Wait 30 seconds and then reconnect it to see if the MAC address appears.
If you have another adapter or USB cable available, try that adapter or cabling.

NOTE: For a wired setup with a Series2 DT, Series3, or TiVo HD DVR, unplug the ethernet cable and plug it in again, making sure the connector is firmly seated.

3. Check the physical connections of the entire network. Ensure that all network equipment is receiving power and that all cable connections for routers, hubs, access points, and computers in the network are working. Verify that the link light is lit on all devices connected to the network.
4. Verify that your network adapter and router are compatible.
* Verify that the network adapter you attached to the DVR is supported. The only wireless network adapter supported by any HD TiVo DVR model is the TiVo Wireless G Adapter. For a list of wireless and wired adapters supported by Series2 DVRs, go to Which network adapters work with my TiVo DVR?
* If you attached a wired adapter to a Series2 DT or an HD TiVo DVR, remove it and plug the Ethernet cable directly into the DVR.
* Verify that your wireless access point or router supports the type of wireless adapter you purchased. For example, if you purchased an 802.11g wireless adapter, make sure that your router supports the 802.11g wireless standard. Check the documentation for your router if you are not sure.

The design of components can go a long way in determining how much a game is enjoyed. A good game does not necessarily require good components but they certainly don’t hurt. Imagine playing Chess with flat, cardboard counters. It’s still the same game but would it be as enjoyable an experience?

* Tigris & Euphrates tilesMake tiles smaller than they spaces they’re placed on. If your game includes playing tiles onto spaces such that they’re next to each other, it’s better if the tiles are slightly smaller than the spaces they’re placed on. This means that they can be slightly bumped and moved without disturbing all the others. Good: Tigris & Euphrates (Hans im Glück); Bad: Streetcar (Mayfair Games).
* Use highly contrasting/distinguishable colours for player pieces. This is a bit tricky as many people suffer from (one of several forms of) colour blindness. So, there’s no list of colours that will be guaranteed to be easily distinguishable for everybody. Further, the particular colours available to you (as determined by your parts manufacturer) can vary widely so it’s a really good idea to ask for samples to determine that the blue and green are not identical (as an example). With this in mind it’s almost never a good idea to include both orange and red as player colours.
* Use shapes as well as colours to distinguish pieces. A fair percentage of the population have trouble distinguishing certain colours, even colours that many other people see with a high degree of contrast. Adding different shapes or graphics can help tremendously, even for those of us who do not suffer from colour blindness. For example, every city in Trans America has a unique shape corresponding to the five colours. Ursuppe is another example that uses different shapes in addition to colour to distinguish the players’ amoebae. It’s also important to use graphics in a way that helps differentiate colours. An example of a poor design is Schotten-Totten in which there are nine cards in each of six colours. Each card has a picture of a Scotsman, from a feeble codger for the 1’s to a great strapping lad for the 9’s. It might seem that pairing the picture with the value to be a natural choice. However, it does nothing to help those who have difficulty differentiating colours. A superior method would be to pair the picture with the suit (so that all the red cards show the strapping lad for example). This would allow a colour blind individual to distinguish the suits from each another. Zirkus Flohcati employs just such a method and is far more useful as a result.

Databases are most useful when it comes to storing information that fits into logical categories. For example, say that you wanted to store information of all the employees in a company. With a database you can group different parts of your business into separate tables to help store your information logically. Example tables might be: Employees, Supervisors, and Customers. Each table would then contain columns specific to these three areas. To help store information related to each employee, the Employees table might have the following columns: Hire, Date, Position, Age, and Salary.

Introduction

This page contains a testimonial of my extremely poor experiences with a particular web host, drawing upon these experiences to highlight ten basic rules for choosing a web host. The aim of the page is to help prevent you from making the same mistakes I did.

So what is a web host? A web host is a company which provides a valuable service on the Internet: the physical storage and distribution of website pages on behalf of website owners. Basically they provide the hardware and software, and website owners provide the information. For a certain fee, the web host agrees to rent website owners space on their server, and the accompanying bandwidth they provide for Internet users the world over to download web pages from their server.

I threw this page together as another resource on TweakGuides.com to help out potential webmasters in perhaps choosing a web host more wisely than I first did. A wrong choice can have terrible consequences for your website and its reputation. Keep the following in mind if you’re considering purchasing web hosting services on the Net.

Ten Basic Rules

Suffice it to say, Oktagone.net is the web hosting company which kicked off the creation of this page. Their absolute lack of professionalism, and the (almost irreparable) damage they did to TweakGuides.com still makes me angry, and it’s been quite a while since I escaped their clutches! We will use Oktagone to neatly demonstrate what makes a truly terrible web host.

The basic story goes like this: I was looking for a web host in April 2004 for my new site TweakGuides.com. As with most websites, things start out small, so I didn’t want to invest in a dedicated server package costing hundreds of dollars per month. I just wanted some cheap but reliable shared web hosting (that is my site would be on the same server as many other websites, lowering costs). Oktagone was recommended to me because they were cheap and supposedly reliable. Basic Rule Number One - Never rely on one or two pieces of advice when purchasing hosting services. Aside from the fact that people may not really know what they’re talking about, nothing replaces decent research when choosing a web host. Some unscrupulous hosting companies even resort to joining forums under pseudonyms and then giving their own services glowing testimonials to con unsuspecting potential customers (though I am not suggesting Oktagone.net did this).

So I joined Oktagone in April 2004 and instantly noticed the unprofessional setup - they had no formal billing system. You had to PayPal your monthly fee to them, without any way of checking your account balance, the actual service you had purchased, when your next bill was due (or overdue) etc. In fact at one point I upgraded my service (and paid extra) yet still got the old service for a month or two until I noticed the difference in my bandwidth allowance. Basic Rule Number Two: - Never rely on a web host which can’t even automate or administer the most important aspect of a business: billing and payments!

Then there were the outages…long and short. Sometimes only a couple of hours, sometimes a day or two. Basic Rule Number Three: - Never ever rely on a web host which has “mysterious” outages frequently, always promising that it is “just a glitch”. Your website relies on a smooth and consistent presence on the Internet to be successful. Would you frequent a supermarket or a bookstore which had odd trading hours and/or which regularly closed down without any word of why? Unreliable web hosts can cause irreparable damage to your website’s traffic. Of course if you actually earn revenue from your site, this can be even worse - you will lose income, sometimes for days a time, and you won’t be able to do a thing about it since the web hosting company controls if and when your site comes back online.

After many months of problems with Oktagone, there was a relatively stable period during which my site flourished. I topped 200,000 unique visitors a month, millions of hits and a reputable presence on the Internet. I thought things were good because I didn’t have any hosting problems to damage my growing reputation. I now know this was the calm before the storm. Oktagone had a final blow lined up for my site: Oktagone was actually a reseller - that means they bought services from another company, and resold it at a profit. It turns out Oktagone did not pay their own bills for two months in a row, so the main company simply shut down all their servers. I suddenly found my site was offline and inaccessible without a single word of warning, without any explanations. It remained offline for around two days, until which time I found this thread on the WebHostingTalk Forums, detailing the debacle which had befallen all of Oktagone’s US-based customers. Within a day of the thread appearing, Oktagone sent out an official email saying that the problem was due to a “power outage in New York”, and that a technician was on the way to resolve problems within 36 hours. Needless to say this was a blatant lie, and Oktagone’s owner later admitted - when confronted with the facts by the reseller on WebHostingTalk Forums - that he had simply not paid his bills and the servers had been shut down.

So some more things to note: Basic Rule Number Four: - If your host goes down for more than 24 hours, start getting very worried. This is not normal, and if you have had no warning, and no explanation, it is even worse. At this point start shopping for another webhost immediately. That is precisely what I did on the 2nd day. Basic Rule Number Five: - If you do receive a story about why your site is down, try to corroborate it with other people on the same host. Use the WebHostingTalk Forums for example to search for and/or post a question on whether the web host is down and why. Don’t trust the web host to tell you the truth about the situation, and don’t just sit and wait. Basic Rule Number Six: - Once your site is down for several or more days, don’t wait - switch your host. Simply put, if your web host hasn’t taken steps to protect against long outages by having appropriate emergency backup systems, then you need to get away from them ASAP. In Oktagone’s situation, their outright lying was bad enough, but the fact that they left some of their customers offline for over two weeks (!) means that I will never trust them again, especially given they still maintain the same owner.

I was very lucky to get away from the situation relatively unscathed. I shopped around for, and quickly found another cheap (but more reliable) host called HostingOnNet.com. I was able to do so thanks to some simple precautions: Basic Rule Number Seven: - Always back up your website regularly to your own PC. I made daily backups of every page, picture and file I uploaded to my site onto my hard drive, so my backup was literally up-to-date and readily accessible. Others hosted on Oktagone were not so lucky, and had to rely on the generosity of the reseller to turn the servers back on for a while so they could backup their data. Incredibly, during this period Oktagone actually went out of their way to prevent customers backing up their data, which was thwarted by the reseller which owns the servers.

However one of the most important tips is a common mistake made by people new to web hosting: Basic Rule Number Eight: - Never register your domain name through your web host. This is the single biggest problem Oktagone customers ran into. Those that had also purchased their domain name through Oktagone couldn’t switch to another web host with their existing domain names. Why? Because the Oktagone Domain Name Servers were offline, meaning that the addresses to which the domain names pointed to couldn’t be changed! This meant that some sites were down for a week or two or more with no recourse whatsoever. Luckily I had registered TweakGuides.com through another domain name seller than my web host (Godaddy.com), a very smart thing to do and strongly recommended.

Ok so what happened in this situation. What was the permanent damage through all this melodrama? For starters I had a lot of concerned people trying to contact me during what was a peak period in my site’s usage wondering what had happened. Yet of course because my site was physically offline, they couldn’t email me. I couldn’t put up any form of notice to tell them why TweakGuides.com was now inaccessible. Two days of this was bad enough, but two weeks would have broken my site’s back. Some unscrupulous people had already tried during earlier outages to rip off my guides and host them on their own sites with the explanation “TweakGuides.com is no longer online, so we are ‘archiving’ their guides.” Gee, how generous of them - all without my permission of course. I lost a few dollars as well because I’d paid in advanced, and despite assurances of getting a refund, to date Oktagone has not returned a cent, nor responded to my emails politely requesting a refund. This is despite the fact that I did not use one day of the months’ hosting I paid for, and that they had already said they would pay me a refund (in principle) on the WebHostingTalk forums. Another telling sign of what kind of people run these sort of businesses, and my Basic Rule Number Nine: - Never pay in advance for hosting, even if it entails a large discount. You may find you lose all your money if/when the host goes down forever, and/or if they decide simply not to refund you. Consumer protection agencies may help you recover your money, but for small sums below a few hundred dollars you’re going to spend more money trying than the amount you’d ever get back. Pay for your hosting by the month, and do it through a Credit Card so you can always cancel the payment if need be, or turn to the Credit Card company’s fraud protection mechanisms to prevent losing large amounts of money.

The whole experience was very unpleasant, and for a site like TweakGuides.com which is still firming its reputation around the Net, one which I would have gladly done without. I hope the information above helps you decide on an appropriate web host. I personally did a fair bit of research before finding another host after Oktagone, although being placed in a pressure situation (i.e. my site was already down for two days) didn’t help. My final rule is simple Basic Rule Number Ten: - Don’t wait until something bad happens - if you’re not happy with your current host, start researching for a better host straight away. Even if you decide to stay with your current host, at least you will have some options in case some emergency comes up and you have to switch at short notice. Never make the decision in a pressure situation as you’re likely to just switch to another poor quality host.

Well, that’s pretty much it from me. I got to tell my story, and hopefully provide ten basic tips at the same time! Hope you found it handy.

Hosting services limited to the Web:

* Free web hosting service: is free, (sometimes) advertisement-supported web hosting, and is often limited when compared to paid hosting.
* Shared web hosting service: one’s Web site is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. A shared website may be hosted with a reseller.
* Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a provider. Resellers’ accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a colocated server.
* Virtual Dedicated Server: dividing a server into virtual servers, where each user feels like they’re on their own dedicated server, but they’re actually sharing a server with many other users. The users may have root access to their own virtual space. This is also known as a virtual private server or VPS.
* Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user typically does not own the server. Another type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for Dedicated plans. The user has full administrative access to the box, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated box.
* Managed hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, they are allowed to manage their data via FTP or other remote management tools. The user is disallowed full control so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the user to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems. The user typically does not own the server. The server is leased to the client.
* Colocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the colo server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service. In most cases, the colocation provider may provide little to no support directly for their client’s machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most cases for colo, the client would have his own administrator visit the data center on site to do any hardware upgrades or changes.
* Clustered hosting: having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization. Clustered Servers are a perfect solution for high-availability dedicated hosting, or creating a scalable web hosting solution.
* Grid hosting : this form of distributed hosting is when a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.
* Home server: usually a single machine placed in a private residence can be used to host one or more web sites from a usually consumer-grade broadband connection. These can be purpose-built machines or more commonly old PC’s.

Some ISPs actively attempt to block home servers by disallowing incoming requests to TCP port 80 of the user’s connection and by refusing to provide static IP addresses. A common way to attain a reliable DNS hostname is by creating an account with a dynamic DNS service. A dynamic DNS service will automatically change the IP address that a URL points to when the IP address changes.

Some specific types of hosting provided by web host service providers:

* File hosting service: hosts files, not web pages
* Image hosting service
* Video hosting service
* Blog hosting service
* One-click hosting
* Shopping cart software

Choosing the right hosting company is a must in achieving top search engine rankings for several reasons. First, you want to choose a reputable company that has 99.7% uptime or better so that when the search engine spiders and robots make it to your website, your website will be up and operating. If you hosting company tends to have a considerable amount of downtime, then these spiders and robots may just visit your website when it is down and not come back to it for weeks or months.

This is a huge price to pay for being cheap! In this case, being cheap will cost you more money. It is better to choose a hosting company will give you, say 100mb of disc space for your site (most websites come nowhere near to this size and if they do, they are either a major mega website or they have not been optimized for size or speed properly) and the most bandwidth you can get - 30 or 40 gigs, for instance.

If you go with a cheaper hosting site you may get only 10mb of disc space for your site and 1gig bandwidth. The problem with this scenario is that if you go over the disc space or bandwidth limitations, your hosting company will most likely charge you lots more dough. Sometimes a cheaper hosting company will shut your site down if immediate payment is not made. Once again the search engine spider or robot may just pass your by. So it is better to buy more than you need and not have to worry about limitations.

It is also generally a better idea to purchase your domain name at a different place than you have host your website. Some web hosts will do both, but the problem is if you wish to change hosts some website hosts will charge you a hefty transfer fee for you domain name and may take more time than desirable for the transfer. Having your domain name hosted separately gives you more flexibility.

Free hosts can cost you when it comes to search engine rankings. If you have a company like geocities host your website, most likely your website is called www.geocities.com/yoursite.html or some variation. This is not optimal for two reasons. First, if you exceed your bandwidth for the month, this host will shut down your website and put a fancy little splash screen in place of your website stating you have exceeded your bandwidth.

So, if you website is popular, which most likely is your goal, you will spend more time with your website down to customers and search engine spiders and robots. Second, search engine spiders and robots generally give more weight to your homepage than to your subordinate pages. In this case, your homepage is actually geocities.com and your main page is a subordinate page to this homepage. Most search engines will give your subordinate homepage less weight than someone else’s homepage at yoursite.com.

<form>
<p>
This program lets to find out what mysql version your current hosting is running on.
You need to enter correct databaes parameters in order to get desired info.
</p>
<b>db host: <b/>
<input type=”text” name=”db_host” value=”localhost”>
<hr size=1 width=”25%” align=left>
<b>db username: <b/>
<input type=”text” name=”db_user” value=”">
<hr size=1 width=”25%” align=left>
<b>db password: <b/>
<input type=”text” name=”db_pass” value=”">
<hr size=1 width=”25%” align=left>
<hr size=1 width=”25%” align=left>
<input type=”submit” name=”submit” value=”submit”>
</form>
<?php
/*
1) enter db user/pass: host = localhost
2) view results
scenario:
1) show form
2) try to login
3) if OK -> show version
4) otherwise tell incorrect db user/pass combination
Freeware for comercial or non-commercial use.
no warranties!
*/
$submit = empty($_REQUEST['submit']) ? 0:1;
if ($submit) {
$db_host = empty($_REQUEST['db_host']) ? “localhost” : $_REQUEST['db_host'];
$db_user = empty($_REQUEST['db_user']) ? “” : $_REQUEST['db_user'];
$db_pass = empty($_REQUEST['db_pass']) ? “” : $_REQUEST['db_pass'];;
if (         empty($db_host)
|| empty($db_host)
|| empty($db_host) ) {
die(”<font color=’red’>Missing fields.</font>”);
}
$link = @mysql_connect($db_host, $db_user, $db_pass);
if (!$link)
die(”<font color=’red’>Can’t connect.
Please check your data.</font>”);
$qry = “SELECT VERSION()”;
$result = @mysql_query($qry);
if (!$result) {
die(”<font color=’red’>Query error: ” . mysql_error() . “</font>”);
}
$ver = @mysql_result($result, 0);
print “<font color=’green’>MySQL version: <b>$ver</b></font>”;
@mysql_free_result($result);
}
?>

If you are hosting large files such as videos, podcasts, or large photo archives is transfer overages. Hosting services often provide a fixed amount of overall transfer with their hosting plans. A plan may include only so many MB of transferred data. After your account has reached that amount, you will be charged for any extra data that is transferred. Depending on the host, this could be as much as $1/MB.

At that rate, a single download of a 20MB file after you’ve reached your limit could cost you $20 extra on your hosting bill!

Usually, the higher the transfer limit, the more costly your hosting plan will be. Some hosting services offer plans with no transfer limitations, which can be quite costly, but certainly less costly than paying for transfer overages on a high-traffic site.

Have you wondered whether WordPress can handle high-volume traffic? Think of creating a high-traffic site or generating volumes of writing? Think that something you write might get enough attention to get “slashdotted” or dugg by digg, or some other high-traffic-generating site. Wonder if WordPress can handle the sheer volume of traffic or fail. Can WordPress handle all these situations?

The simple answer is “Yes,” but this is a conditional yes. There is a lot you need to consider and understand before you decide on WordPress as your publishing platform, and if you expect high traffic volumes. Running WordPress on basic shared hosting will not be sufficient for truly high-traffic sites.

Before selecting WordPress for your high-traffic site, you will need to check the following to ensure your site is ready for the anticipated traffic: The site server and it’s software, upon which WordPress is dependent, needs to be sufficient for the traffic you anticipate and expect.