THE BASICS - Part 1

Introduction

This chapter will make you familiar with few terms which constitute the basic knowledge required for creating or getting started with websites.

Part 1 will include the discussion about the following terms:

1. Web Hosting

2. Domains

3. Web Pages

4. Scripting languages

HOSTING

What is meant by web hosting?

Web hosting allows you to make your site available to anyone using internet. Your website can’t accessed without being hosted on a webserver.

Kinds Of Hosting

1. Free Hosting - Hosting on a shared server(i.e. many sites on one server) with all the basic features. This is what you should prefer when starting.

2. Paid Hosting

1. Shared Hosting - Similar to free hosting but may have advanced features.

2. Dedicated Server - A server dedicated to your sites, you get a server on lease and you may use it to your own wish but under some conditions.

3. VPS (Virtual Private Server) - Its like a virtual dedicated server on a big server.

We’ll discuss about “how to use” in the following chapters.

DOMAIN NAMES

Domain names are specific identity or address to your website. How do they work? We’ll discuss this in the following chapters.

WEB  PAGES

It is a document which is suitable for the internet can be accessed through a web browser when hosted on a web server. They are generally created using html and css.

SCRIPTING LANGUAGES

These kind of languages are used to add functionality to web page. They help you create dynamic sites.

What are dynamic sites?

Using only html would create sites which will be static, ie. there will be no changes in your web page unless you do it manually. When dealing with dynamic sites, you can pages oe part of pages using a scripting language. You see popular posts plugin in the sidebar of this site, it updates the stats automatically as soon as somebody comments on a post. Posts are arranged according to the decreasing number of comments automatically.

Hope you got your dynamic means.

What is meant by functionality here?

You should have seen some web sites which allow to register, login , logout, etc. and that is what I mean by functionality.

Continued in Part 2 . . . . . . .

Introduction

This is gonna  be series of tutorials which will help you become a full-fledged webmaster or will surely get you started with this.

The Reasons behind this tutorial

I have a large amount of relatives, quite a big family. There is a cousin of mine known as Shivohm Gupta who wanted me to create a website for him similar. But vow! I am not a freelancer. After I used my right of refusal, he asked me to give instructions on how too do this on his own. Instructions on IM err…… So that’s what motivated to me to right this series.

Prerequisite knowledge

You should how to use internet and your computer, of course. As we’ll start from basics, nothing is required. But if you know any kind of language like PHP, javascript, etc. well and good. Don’t know what do I mean by languages here- don’t worry, we’ll discuss about them too.

I really don’t know how long will this be but I will surely compile this in a form of ebook but later. I might create a audio version too. Remember, I might!

Part-I coming soon

What is Automattic?

For a straight answer to this, I would they are the creators of wordpress. Their projects include:

• bbPress - Forum Software
• Akismet - An anti-comment spam system capable of integration with many blogging platforms and forums.
• WordPress MU - A multi-blog community system built on WordPress.
• Ping-O-Matic - A pinging service.
• Gravatar - Globally recognized avatars
• IntenseDebate - Commenting Tools

With Wordpress 2.7 on just around the corner and 3 betas already out, wordpress 2.7 is looking big.

But today I want to write about another press which is budding under Automattic, its called Buddypress. I have tried it and have to say that it works great.

What is Buddypress?

Well buddypress is a set of plugins which transform an installation of Wordpress MU(multi-user) into a social networking site.

Features(from buddypress.org):

1. Extended profiles- The extended profile component allows site admins to create specific profile fields for site members to fill in.

2. Private messaging- BuddyPress private messaging works like internal site email. Members can message people on their friends list as well as forward and reply to received messages.

3. Interact with friends- Members of a BuddyPress enabled installation can be connected together by one member adding another as a “friend” and then the other member accepting the friendship request.

4. Groups- Groups in BuddyPress are a gathering of members, blog posts, photos and any other user generated content.

5. The wire- The wire is a place where friends and other members can come along and post messages to a specific piece of content within a BuddyPress installation.

6. Activity Streams- Activity streams aggregate all of your activity across a BuddyPress installation. All of your friends activity is also recorded so you can check what others are doing on the site.

7. BLOGS- Allowing multiple blogs and multiple users per blog is a key feature to WordPress MU. BuddyPress preserves this functionality.

8. Status updates- Status updates in BuddyPress will appear on a member’s profile page. A member can update their status as frequently as they want to.

9. Photo Albums- Members of a BuddyPress installation will be able to create their own photo albums. These albums can be shared with friends and groups.

When will this wonderful plugin will release?

As stated on the site, it should release by the end of this year, 2008.

What does all this mean?

THIS MEANS THAT YOU CAN USE WORDPRESS AS A SOCIAL COMUNITY LIKE ORKUT, MYSPACE , etc.  ENJOY!!!!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, are you ready to listen(read) to the disaster which happened to a webmaster.

I am posting after a couple of days and this is due to some odd things happening to me. Well, I was in the big trouble. I lost my ubuntu partition while resizing it. I lost a lot of data which included the file with passwords to sites. I still don’t have my cpanel’s password but have requested a new one. I had also lost divyun.com’s password but subsequently found it in a draft in my mail box, today. And that’s why I am able to blog today.

So I lost more than 40 GB of my files and I am having bad days. And this is not it. click here to read futher. =>http://divyun.com/oddworldofmine/my-life-has-become-hell-due-to

Well they were out a week ago, but I came across them today.

Since 2006, Packt Publishing has been organizing “Open Source CMS Award” for the best and deserving CMS.

The Award was split up into two main stages. The first being the nominations followed by voting. Nominations were open back in July 14 2008. Anybody was allowed to nominate a CMS. After a mother, the nominations were closed on August 25. Then, the Judges chose the finalists on the basis of the most number of nominations received and also on number of other factors including performance, usability, accessibility, ease of configuration and customization, scalability and security. Voting Began on 1st of September and ended a month and half later on 20 th October.

They had the following categories:-

1. Best overall CMS. -> The overall winner.

2. Most promising Open Source CMS. -> CMS which has the potential to become the best.

3. Best Open Source PHP CMS. -> The Best CMS written in PHP.

4. Best Other Open Source CMS. -> For CMS written in a language other than PHP.

5. Open Source MVPs. -> It is a new category introduced for the Most Valued People from Open Source Content Management Systems.

Note: The Category “Best Open Source Social Networking Content Management System” has taken a back seat this year.

Now its time for the winners:

1. Best overall CMS.

1. Drupal - Won this second time in a row.

2. Joomla! - Was the winner in 2006.

3. DotNetNuke - Replaced last year’s runner up CMS Made Simple for the third position.

2. Most promising Open Source CMS.

1. SilverStripe

2. CMS Made Simple

3. ImpressCMS/MiaCMS

Replaced MODx, TYPOlight and dotCMS who this last year.

3. Best Open Source PHP CMS.

1. Drupal - Defeated Joomla this time.

2. Joomla!, CMS Made Simple

e107 out of the list this year.

4. Best Other Open Source CMS.

1. Plone - Was the 1st runner up last year.

2. dotCMS

3. DotNetNuke

Mojoportal and Silva out of the scene this time.

5. Open Source MVPs.

A long list of 24 personalities including Wordpress’s Matt Mullenweg, etc. Refer here http://www.packtpub.com/article/open-source-cms-most-valued-people-announced.

Well, this one is gonna be a really short one!

If your domain registrar doesn’t provide you with dns facilities then the best option is to use a service like editdns.net.

You’ll get the rest of the info here. http://hostingfu.com/article/redundant-and-free-domain-name-service-editdns-everydns

Sorry for such a long title.

What you see written up there is pretty much true but unpopular. Most of the times webmasters tend to just change the nameservers which take days to propagate,and this becomes pain in their butts. Now written below is a faster way to do it.

The answer is A records. Yes, they usually take only few minutes or sometimes hours to take effect worldwide.

What are A records?(from Wikipedia)

They return a 32-bit IPv4 address, most commonly used to map hostnames to an IP address of the host.

How to implement them?

First of all, check whether your host provides you with Dns facilities. If they don’t, you should try editdns.net.

Steps:

1. Note the shared ip address of your hosting account. If you use cpanel then the ip address written on the fronpage. If you don’t use cpanel, then just do a dns lookup of your host’s nameserver and get its IP address. You can use network-tools.com for this.

2. Add the following three A records to your domain:

(a) yourdomain.com - ip address you noted in the above step

(b) www.yourdomain.com  - same ip address (without this record www.youdomain.com won’t work)

(c) *.yourdomain.com - same ip address (without this you won’t be able to create sub-domains using your hosting account. “*” means a wildcard entry)

You are all done and your domain will be working in a few minutes or very rarely hours.

Advantages of using A records:-

1. Faster propagation of domain.

2. You have control of other records like MX, CNAME, etc. instead transferring your controls to your host.

3. Gives you ability to use services like google apps, live domains, etc. to the full extend.

Disadvantages:

1. You won’t be able to use email accounts at your host till configure your MX records or you always have option to use google apps whcich is free.

2. Just one as far as I remember

Note: You need to use AAAA records if the ip address is IPv6.

Enjoy!

Well Oh my google! instead of god! Pagerank can be faked. I knew this before but came across this again.

Now, how is it done? and how to check a website for fake PG? Here are answers to such questions!

First to clarify the truth in this, a quote from wikipedia:

False or spoofed PageRank

While the PageRank shown in the Toolbar is considered to be derived from an accurate PageRank value (at some time prior to the time of publication by Google) for most sites, it must be noted that this value is also easily manipulated. A current flaw is that any low PageRank page that is redirected, via a 302 server header or a “Refresh” meta tag, to a high PageRank page causes the lower PageRank page to acquire the PageRank of the destination page. In theory a new, PR0 page with no incoming links can be redirected to the Google home page - which is a PR 10 - and by the next PageRank update the PR of the new page will be upgraded to a PR10. This spoofing technique, also known as 302 Google Jacking, is a known failing or bug in the system. Any page’s PageRank can be spoofed to a higher or lower number of the webmaster’s choice and only Google has access to the real PageRank of the page. Spoofing is generally detected by running a Google search for a URL with questionable PageRank, as the results will display the URL of an entirely different site (the one redirected to) in its results.

Direct link => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank#False_or_spoofed_PageRank

Amazing right! a 302 server head and done, you have PR 10.

Another way of doing this is from http://www.monetizers.com/fake-pr.php

Faking Pagerank

Sites fake PR by looking for the Googlebot, then redirecting it to a high PR site, like Yahoo.com. Google sees that users actually land on Yahoo.com and the PR Bar in turn reflects the PR of the Yahoo.com rather than your site.

Here is an example of what Fake PR code looks like:

/* insert a cloaking script here to detect whether the visitor is
Googlebot */
if (Googlebot) {
echo ‘‘;
exit();
}
else {
echo “

My PR10 page!

“;
}
?>

So its not that difficult fake a PR.

Now where did it all start from?

It was started by SEOdarkteam. This trick doesn’t work anymore but is worth reading. http://seoblackhat.com/2005/07/26/how-to-fake-a-google-page-rank-10-or-any-pr-you-want/. I don’t know how but their demo at http://www.pr10.darkseoteam.com still works.

So how to check a site for fake pagerank?

use Google’s cache. It always shw the real PR.

Don’t get scammed. Check for fakes before buying links on a site wth high PR.

While wandering on web, I came across a site which helps you calculate your sites’s value or rather say, price. I searched for similar kind of sites, and was surprised to see the values they all show for divyun.com.

Here are the results.

1. http://websitevaluecalculator.com/

2. http://www.sitevaluecalculator.com/result.php?domain=http%3A%2F%2Fdivyun.com

3. http://www.websiteoutlook.com/www.divyun.com

4. http://www.cubestat.com/www.divyun.com

$2,483.46

Awkward right! All of them show different values. :O

Values vary between $78 to $2730 which amounts to a difference of $2652. An this is huge.

Now the question of the day:

Which one of them shows the correct result or is the most accurate?

Can’t say.

What are these based on?

They are based on ranks and stats from google, alexa, etc.

If you know the answer then mail me at “IKnowThis at Divyun dot com”.

Ubuntu 8.10 will be releasing in two days from now, ie, on 30th October.

What is Ubuntu?

Ubuntu is a Linux[debian]-based operating system. It is free and open-source under GNU licence.

It is the best operating system around. “Windows being the worst.” It is developed by a big community and is being improved each and everyday. It comes packed with a multiple softwares which makes it ready to use, just after its installation. Installation is pretty easy, and the live cd makes it easy to try.

What is a live cd?

Live cd is operating system packed in a cd which boots when cd is inserted. No need of installation. So in ubuntu’s case, it is try before you install.

Features[from http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-8.10-desktop]

3G Support

For constant connectivity public WiFi has limitations. Improvements to the network manager in Ubuntu 8.10 makes it simple to detect and connect to 3G networks and manage connectivity. This connectivity is delivered through an inbuilt 3G modem, through ‘dongle’ support, through a mobile phone or through Bluetooth. It is a complex environment that Ubuntu 8.10 simplifies through a single interface and the auto-detection of many of the most popular devices.

Write Ubuntu to and Install from a USB Drive

Ubuntu has been made available to users as an image for CDs and DVDs to date. But CDs and DVDs are slower, less portable and less convenient than USB sticks. Now, a simple application in Ubuntu will allow users to write Ubuntu to a USB drive, even a modified version of Ubuntu with their data on it, so it can be carried everywhere to plug in and use on any machine.

Guest Sessions

In a world of ‘always on’ pervasive computing it is more likely that users lend their computers to colleagues or friends at conferences, cafes or at parties so they can check email, etc. Guest sessions allow users to lock down a session easily so a guest can use the full system without interference with programs or data.

BBC Content

Starting the media players within Ubuntu (Totem Movie Player and Rhythmbox) launches a menu of selected content from the broadcaster that is free to air. This is a mixture of video, radio and podcasts and available in high quality, much of it playable using non-proprietary codecs. Content is constantly updated via the corporation’s stream and will vary dependent on location, though some content will be available for every user.

Latest Gnome 2.24 Desktop Environment

The GNOME desktop environment project releases its latest version which is incorporated into Ubuntu 8.10. New features include a new instant messaging client, a built-in time tracker, the latest Ekiga 3.0 video and audio conferencing tool, improved file management and toolbars plus better support for multiple monitor use with the ability to set screen resolution by monitor.

For Ubuntu 8.10 server edition’s specifications: http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-8.10-server