Tag Archives: web
Just What The Heck Is Spyware, Anyway? (Page 1 of 2)
What Is Spyware? It goes by different names. Spyware, adware and malware are some of the more popular monikers. It really doesn’t matter what you call it, though. The bottom line is that you don’t want it on your computer. First of all, let me state for the record that I think the internet is a wonderful thing. I think a majority of people would agree that the World Wide Web has made life for all of us a little more convenient. Whether it’s reserving a hotel room, buying music online, checking the local weather or any number of thousands of useful sites (did I mention email?) we all have gotten a little bit spoiled with having all this information right at our fingertips. That being said though, sometimes we seem to get a little complacent and let our guard down. We forget that the internet has a seedy side full of ways for unscrupulous people to con honest (if not a little niaeve) people out of their money (or worse!). In this article, I’ll cover a few of the pitfalls that many people tend to have trouble with.
Adware: This type of malware is designed to do one thing and one thing only. Get you to buy something. Once this type of software has infected your computer, you will start getting a lot of pop-up ads. Sometimes these ads are the pop-under type. Pop-under’s get by any pop-up blockers by generating an ad without stealing the focus from the web page that your viewing. You usually won’t even know it’s there until you close your browser and see the ad (or ads) displayed on your desktop. Generally, this type of malware is little more than an annoyance, but sometimes multiple instances can cause major slowdowns in your PC or even cause system crashes. Adware is usually bundled with some other “free” software such as free desktop wallpaper, icons or screensavers. It may or may not be disclosed in the end-user license agreement (EULA) of the free software, but even when it is, most people never read those agreements anyway. If you want to protect your computer from this type of malware, you should ALWAYS be suspicious of free software.
Spyware: Spyware does exactly what it’s name implies. It spies on you. Well, actually it spies on your web surfing and purchasing habits. The information that is collected is usually then sold to unscrupulous vendors who target you with spam email. Again, this type of marketing is usually just an annoyance, but anytime your privacy is compromised (especially by some sleazy dirtbag who will do anything to make a buck) there is cause for concern.
Trojan Horses: Sometimes simply known as “Trojans”, these, in my humble opinion, are the worst offenders. If you know the story of the Trojan War, then the name given to these vicious baddies will make perfect sense to you. Here’s the way it works: You are happily surfing along the internet, minding your own business, when all of the sudden a banner pops up and cheerfully anounces that you have won a FREE IPHONE (or a free laptop computer, or a free vacation, etc.). All you have to do to claim this generous prize, it seems, is to “CLICK HERE!”. Trust me on this one, do not ever, EVER, “CLICK HERE!”. BIG MISTAKE! What you’re doing with that click, is allowing malware to be downloaded to your computer that will make your life miserable and, as an added bonus, you’ll never get your free prize.
Why Do You Need Access to Support from Your Web Hosting Provider? (Page 1 of 2)
With most hosting providers, tech support comes as a standard as part of the hosting package; however, the standard and quality of the tech support provider is often what defines a good or bad web host. For many business owners, they leave the technical side of the website up to the web designer. They therefore don’t necessarily understand why having reliable tech support is so important. If, however, you are a smaller business, you may have had the need to call the support desk in which case you will know how valuable it is to have a helpful and friendly voice on the other end of the line.
Day and Night Accessibility
Your web host should have a support desk that is accessible 24/7. You should be able to reach them by email or telephone at any time of day or night. Many people may ask why the 24 hour accessibility is important. Your website is accessible around the globe 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If clients browsing the web try to log onto your website and it’s down, they may think you are no longer in business or they may simply get frustrated when they can’t access web pages. That just creates a bad impression of your company. Customer expectations are so high these days with technology making websites ever more efficient that if a website is not working properly, they usually just go onto the next company. If there is a problem with your website, no matter how small, you need to be able to fix it right away. Usually, you need to be able to contact the web host to find out if it is a server problem or a problem just with your website. This is why it is important for them to be accessible 24/7.
Technical Expertise
Even for many web designers, there are times when they need to consult the expertise of web hosting providers. Your web host service provider can glance at the server on which your site is hosted and troubleshoot to see if there are any problems. This can save you and your web designer many hours of hassle trying to find the problem on your website. A good web hosting provider will also have advanced technical expertise. They can give you advice when needed and help you find solutions to any hassles you are experiencing with your website. This expertise can prove to be very valuable when you are trying to decide what hosting package best suits your needs and if you need to upgrade your website at any stage.
Website Maintenance
For most types of hosting packages, your web host service provider is responsible for maintaining the server on which your website is hosted. This means that they check and make sure that all the operating systems of the server are functional. This is important to your website because, without proper maintenance, the website can slow down and become problematic. Part of the maintenance is to ensure that the anti-virus protection is current and active. This is particularly important if you have a shared hosting package. A virus that gets into one website can infiltrate other websites on the shared server if the server is not properly maintained. If you suspect that you may have a virus or spyware on your website, you can contact the web host support desk and ask them to run some diagnostics. Their superior knowledge and systems should be able to help you pinpoint the problem.
Efficient Methodology For Developing Your Websites Visibility
Finding new and effective methods for making your web pages visible and popular has become enormously difficult since the World Wide Web turned into such a competitive jungle. Being the owner of a website means that you need to be on top of your game when it comes to being noticed online and improving the popularity of your web pages. There are a number of approaches you can adopt to help yourself along the way.
Top quality hosting is one of the most noteworthy factors to keep in mind, because if your website is unable to handle the amount of traffic that may come its way and keeps crashing, then you will never have the opportunity of being popular in the first place! The hosting industry has exploded in recent times and as a result, there are copious amounts of companies which offer hosting and who will tell you they are the very best you can have. You should aim to find a company that has a good deal of experience and which also has a strong reputation.
A further strategy to employ is the optimisation of your web pages because this is the only way in which you will ever be truly successful online and be able to accomplish the high ranking you are aiming for with the search engines. You should go out of your way to learn as much as possible about search engine optimisation (SEO). The whole subject of SEO is enormous and at first may seem overwhelming, but when you have understood what is required you will soon reap the benefits. You should make sure that the content of your web pages is aimed at site visitors, not just search engines and that you have the most effective keywords for your particular niche, but writing for your visitors is important too because you should aim for them to return to your pages later.
WhenOnce you believe you have achieved the best content and keywords, you should then start to think about link building. When it comes to this, the search engines value sites and their pages based upon the number of inbound links they can find. You should search the Internet for directories where you are able to submit your website details so that it points back to your site, or you might want to think about exchanging links with other website owners who are associated with the same activities as your own site and company.
Next, you should consider social media optimisation, which might include promotional activities such as videos, RSS feeds, blogging and social news. When doing so, make sure the content on your web pages or blog is relevant to your particular topic or niche and also that it is up to date. Try visiting similar websites, joining in discussions and then leaving comments and posts. Open up a Facebook or MySpace account, or consider signing up to Twitter. When doing so, make sure you include outbound links to your web pages when visiting such social media sites.
Make an effort to involve visitors to your site by making the content of your pages relevant to them. For example, you could have a contest that will engage visitors whilst not necessarily costing much money. People are competitive and like to compete this is human nature. Engage your visitors using other methods too such as starting a forum so that they can leave their comments, as people like to give vent to their opinions. If you allow people to do this, then it will increase the possibility of them returning to your pages. The discussion might even attract interest from other websites.
Investing in good website design is much more important than many people believe. Having a outstandng design will help to impress any visitors to your site. Keep the pages relatively simple, without making them too fussy, as white space helps to give a clean feel to your site and make the navigation user friendly so that visitors can easily find what they want from your site.