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Choosing a Web Host Provider >>
Troubleshooting Hosting Problems
"For people who make websites" - A List Apart Magazine explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.
HTML Validator is a Mozilla extension that adds HTML validation inside Firefox and Mozilla. The number of errors of a HTML page is seen in the form of an icon in the status bar when browsing. The details of the errors are seen when looking the HTML source of the page.
The extension is based on Tidy and OpenSP. Both algorithms were originally developed by the Web Consortium W3C. Both algorithms are embedded inside Mozilla/Firefox and makes the validation locally on your machine, without sending HTML to a third party server.
The extension is based on Tidy and OpenSP. Both algorithms were originally developed by the Web Consortium W3C. Both algorithms are embedded inside Mozilla/Firefox and makes the validation locally on your machine, without sending HTML to a third party server.
This project aims to create an archive of user contributed clip art that can be freely used.
Starting at the beginning, this reference explains everything you need to know about using core JavaScript. It assumes you have the following basic background: a general understanding of the Internet and the World Wide Web and a good working knowledge of HTML. An excellent resource.
Edit your images on the fly online with Splashup, a web-based image editor that integrates with Flickr, Facebook, and Picasa. Splashup offers up a surprising array of image editing tools, far beyond the usual crop of resize and contrast-- you can also edit multiple images, play with filters and layers, use a variety of brushes, and more. Splashup is one of the best image editors in a long line of image editors; i.e., Picnik, Pixoh, and Resizr, to name just a few.[Lifehacker Annotation]
This website will let you:
- Create an XML sitemap format that can be submitted to Google to help them crawl your website better.
- Create a Text sitemap to submit to Yahoo.
- Create a ROR sitemap, which is an independant XML format for any search engine.
- Generate an HTML site map to allow human visitors to easily navigate on your site.
Clearspring's free Launchpad widget builder lets you easily turn your website's content into a widget which site visitors can use to place your content on all the major social media sites (MySpace, FaceBook, Google, hi5, Live, Yahoo, Wordpress, Blogger, etc.). The service also provides tracking and analysis.
This site features online text and html changing, modifying, converting tools designed to save you time making web pages or preparing text for web publication. If you've ever needed to capitalize sentences or convert line breaks to <p> or <br /> then this site can save you needless manual labor. There are other useful tools as well, like the one to uncompress html to make it readable and the ones to uppercase or lowercase text. Basically, the most common tasks that someone who works in an office or does freelance web development might encounter. Most of the tools have been created using javascript so you should be able to change large amounts of text as the processing is done on your computer instead of being limited by a server script.
The reliability of your host provider's servers should be a constant concern to you. After all, you rely on their reliability to keep your business running. How can you tell just how reliable their servers are? Read this article and find out for yourself.
A very active forum for discussions about web hosting (dedicated, managed, and reseller hosting, co-location, virtual private server, and much more).
Dan Lemnaru created this website to help you find a wide selection of independent reviews and comments to help you pick the right hosting company. This site will help you quickly find actual customer comments about specific hosting companies as well as reviews.
Useful Resources
View all resources
Editor Favorites
- A List Apart
- HTML Validator Firefox Plugin
- Open Clip Art Library
- Core JavaScript Guide: Version 1.5
- Splashup
- XML Sitemaps Generator
- Clearspring Launchpad
- Text Fixer
Other Resources
Links to Consider
As a do-it-yourself webmaster relying on shared hosting you will invariably have times where your website appears to be unreachable or suffering from latency or other performance problems. Here is a quick guide for troubleshooting.
Trouble reaching a website or performance issues with a reachable website can usually be attributed to one of the following:
Note also that there is a useful website called Down For Everyone Or Just Me? Keeping in mind the discussion above, you might save some time by using this site first. Just type in the address of the site in question to find out if it's really down for everyone or just you. If it's just you the above discussion will then be more useful.
Trouble reaching a website or performance issues with a reachable website can usually be attributed to one of the following:
- Your PC. To verify this, try accessing your site from another computer if possible. If not, try clearing the cache and then close and re-launch your browser. Alternatively, try a different browser (e.g., IE vs. Firefox). If you are using a firewall or proxy server, check those settings as well. Finally, you may want to re-boot your PC.
- The DNS system. If you have a dedicated IP address, try using it to access your site. If you are able to do so then the problem is somehow connected to the DNS system, which is controlled by your web host provider. And, speaking of DNS issues, Lifehacker and the How-To Geek show you how to Clean Your DNS Cache to Fix Browsing Problems.
- Your ISP. There are a couple of quick ways to test whether any problem lies with your ISP or not. First, try to access your site from a different path. One convenient way to do this is through a proxy server. There are several free services out there. One is called megaproxy. On that site you can enter your domain name and it will try to access it. If it successfully reads your site then there is a good chance that the problem lies with your ISP.
- Your Hosting provider. Many web host providers have a network news site where any problems or maintenance issues are displayed. Always check this before calling for support.
Another way to test whether the problem lies with the browser or not is to use the ping command. I am not sure about Macs, but with a PC, choose the command prompt program item from the Accessories folder under the Programs menu (alternatively, choose the run option from the start menu and then type
cmd.exe). Within the command window type ping domain name (e.g., ping yahoo.com). This will tell you if your computer is able to reach the domain. If so, the problem is probably your browser.
A second quick test you can run from your computer is called a trace route. I am not sure about Macs, but with a PC, choose the command prompt program item from the Accessories folder under the Programs menu (alternatively, choose the run option from the start menu and then type
cmd.exe). Within the command window type tracert domain name (e.g., tracert yahoo.com). This will show you the route being used to go from your computer to the website's hosting data center. Based on where, if any, a timeout or slow time occurs you can get an idea of which part of the Internet connection path is responsible for the problems.
Note also that there is a useful website called Down For Everyone Or Just Me? Keeping in mind the discussion above, you might save some time by using this site first. Just type in the address of the site in question to find out if it's really down for everyone or just you. If it's just you the above discussion will then be more useful.
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