The A-Z of Domain Registration and Web Site Hosting

The first decision when you’re planning a Web site is picking out the best domain and using the most appropriate registration for your particular niche. This is not commonly an uncomplicated process. For whenever you try to pin down the most suitable domain hosting you’ll probably realize that investigating the company with the help of reviews may be an essential step

Continue Reading November 21st, 2009

Web Hosting Provider Offers Hosting Managed Control Panel

EPhost, a web hosting provider, announced late last week that it has officially launched a managed hosting control panel which shows a streamlined interface plus other new upgrades from the previous control panel system by the company.

Clients can easily use the strengthened control panel to manager their online sites, set up open-source Web-based applications and back-up or restore databases and web sites.

The single-login system by the platform makes it possible for users to perform seamless website and billing management and access to advanced technical support.

Aside from the aforementioned features, the new control panel makes it possible for users to install open source applications like DotNetNuke, Wordpress, customer login for website management, centralized management of domains bought through Ephost, web hosting affiliate program, ability to restore or back up individual databases or entire website and account credit card security.

EPhost President Joe Rebis said that the new control panel has several improvements made to keep up with the continuing trend in the hosting managed industry. He added that they are optimistic the new system meets the customers growing need for secure systems.

Rebis said that the new system can be extended to online web hosting offerings to Linux-based accounts and even offer enterprise services such as Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SharePoint.

November 17th, 2009

The Newbie’s Steps to Launching Your Site

Picking out a appropriate domain and determining the best Web registration are the first things to think over when you are launching a site. But it can really be an annoying decision making process. The most dependable method of making sure that all your requirements are met is to conduct some pain-staking research of domain hosting companies by checking out some available reviews.

Continue Reading October 16th, 2009

Optometric Equipment – Things You Ought to Know

You’ll find that you need more than experience and knowledge to make a decent living in opthalmology. The quality of your work will in no small part be determined by the ophthalmic instruments you pick out to work with, which makes the choices you make paramount. The required equipment can be purchased refurbished, remanufactured, new, or used. Tonometers, exam stools, treatment cabinets; all these and still more need to be scrutinized individually to ensure the best for your requirements…

Continue Reading October 13th, 2009

The Playstation Portable Handheld Console Includes Functions like Films in a Cool Package

Sony has managed to sell many millions of PSPs in just about every country in the globe. The PSP transformed the handheld console world on its release with the high quality graphics and processor power it had in such a small unit. There are thousands of video games available on the PSP. The hottest game now is Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. The PSP is available in a choice of different colors relying which market you live in. Our favorite is the deep red PSP. The PSP has a 4.3″ TFT LCD screen. The memory storage is 32 MB core memory, 4 MB embedded DRAM and the Memory Stick duo.

There are loads of movies available on the PSP. PSP movies and television shows are stored on Sony’s proprietary Universal Media Device. You can choose to view the films on the PSP’s built in screen or alternatively connect it to a TV and use the PSP as a movie player. Movies that are available for the PSP include Spiderman 3. The Playstation Network also gives you access to movies and television shows. Picture shows can be leased and acquired.

Skype’s primary use on the Playstation Portable is for voice calls. With Skype it is possible to hold phone meetings with multiple folk. It is now also feasible to hold video calls using Skype. Many folks also use Skype as a electronic messaging service. You can also use Skype for handling voicemails. Other functions include diverting Skype calls to your mobile phonephone or landline phones.

You can also subscribe to the LocationFree TV service. The LocationFree television service requires a base station to be bought and installed alongside your house entertainment equipment like a DVD or television or multimedia centre. When you are travelling you can get access to LocationFree television when you’re in range of a wireless hotspot which connects you to the LocationFree service over the Net.

The PSP also allows access to the TiVoToGo service. The TivoToGo service requires a Tivo box plus a once a month subscription. The TivoToGo PC software is used to convert the shows into a format OK for the PSP. You can immediately synchornise and transfer your PSP with your TiVo content so that it is ready when you’re. The memory stick may also be used to move the shows from your PC to the PSP.

September 16th, 2009

The Importance of Backing Up

In this computerized digital age, making backups of your critical data has become a crucial necessity.

You’ve probably heard the old cliché: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This couldn’t be a more accurate statement when it comes to backing up and saving your valuable data.

When your hard drive fails will you be prepared? It’s not a matter of “If the drive fails”, but more so “When the drive fails.”

Taking the relatively small amount of time, and resources to make a backup can save you and perhaps even your company potentially thousands of dollars in disaster recovery costs, loss of revenue and downtime.

Having backups of critical information is a must.

Data is simply Digital Information. Once this information is “lost” or inaccessible due to a hard drive failure, you quickly realize the value of that information.

Make Backups. Then verify the contents of your Backups, and Make Backups of your Backups.

If however you do find yourself in a quandary with a failed hard drive. Do not panic.

Here are some tips:

• *Any* sounds emitting from your drive is not a good sign. Power down immediately.

• Do NOT run scandisk, CHKDSK or any other disk checking utilities, as this could make matters seriously worse.

• Avoid powering the computer on and off. The clicking sound from your hard drive that you may be hearing, could lead to a grinding sound. Far less optimistic for successful recovery.

• NEVER, EVER listen to a computer “Guru” friend who says: “I can fix it!” Hard drives are delicate mechanical storage devices, and the inner workings and mechanics should always be left to a trained, experienced data recovery engineer. The hard drive is one of the few components of a computer that actually still has moving, mechanical parts.

If you do happen to find yourself with this type of unfortunate situation, ECO Data Recovery has been recovering critical data since 1987. Their highly skilled engineers have the ability, the “know how” and the proper techniques to get you and/or your business back on the speedy road to recovery.

Brian Cain
ECO Data Recovery
4115 Burns Rd.
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410
1-800-339-3412
561-691-0019
http://www.ecodatarecovery.com
brian@ecodatarecovery.com

May 10th, 2009

If You Stand Alone, You Stand Alone: Reciprocate or Lose Trying

There’s an endless supply of tools available for webmasters to help make their site a success; of these a powerful and effective one is reciprocal linking. Reciprocal links have been around a long time. Since before the wild-wild-west was won. Unfortunately, they are an often overlooked or under-used method these days. How many times have you searched for a link partner to find that many websites do not even have a links page? Of those that do, few have an area on their website that actually welcomes you to request a link trade. It seems these websites are just islands unto themselves. They miss the beauty of the World Wide Web’s strange, yet brilliant web linking system.

Perhaps it’s because it takes so long to build a quality website and the owner is not at all interested in promoting anyone else’s enterprise. Or maybe it’s just too much work. Maybe they are in a hurry to see immediate profits. Therefore instead of putting in the effort and taking the necessary time to build a web presence, they look to search engines to solve all their troubles. Some may think that linking to another website is making it easy for their hard-earned visitor to leap over to another website. While that may be correct, it is also true that the other website’s visitors are jumping over to their website in return.

Little do they realize that reciprocal links would give them a big boost in the search engines. When calculating a website’s page rank, link popularity is one thing that is considered by search engines. While it is accurate that one-way inbound links are given more weight. Reciprocal links do aid in reaching a higher page rank too.

However, a critical mistake can be and has been made by many a newbie webmaster. That is trading links with every website that is willing to return the favor. Search engines take a dim view to indiscriminate linking. Therefore assuming you have a dieting website linking with a pet or travel website; well that could be detrimental to your scoring. For instance–for your site, you would be wise to start trading links with health food, exercise or vitamin websites for maximum benefit.

By creating a tightly knit link directory of complimentary websites, you would be encouraging your visitors to see your website as a valuable resource for browsing their favorite topic. As a result, these visitors will bookmark the website providing you with plenty of free return visits.

There is even an additional advantage for you if you have limited time. That is when a search engine robot has indexed your link partner’s website; it locates your link and then crawls over to your website. This may happen before you have a chance to submit the website directly to that particular engine. It’s like getting free website submissions!

As a webmaster, you not only need to keep your website updated and fresh. You should assure its success by developing a healthy traffic-producing plan. Certainly it is important to stay abreast of all the latest techniques of creating traffic. However, it is equally important to remember some of the time-tested methods like reciprocal linking to achieve this goal.

Reliable Geeks @ http://www.reliablegeeks.com

Jaikob Mateo is a an Internet consultant (Geek) and a voracious student of human nature.
Jaikob fashions himself after the Watcher in the Marvel comic series. His heroes are Superman, Dare Devil, the Fantastic Four, Spiderman, and most members of the Justice League. His employment history led him to manage thousands of employees. This provided him with endless opportunities to pursue his near-obsessive fascination with human nature and persuasion. Jaikob claims he used to have super powers but when he informed his therapist she took them away. He is still fighting to get them back. For more articles visit his Blog at: http://reliablegeeks.blogspot.com/

April 23rd, 2009

We Have Come Along Way in Our Exploitation of Transportation

We sure have come along way since the horse and buggy or the first Model T that left the assembly line. We have attempted to build unbelievable transportation items and prototypes for instance; the Spouse Goose, jet powered bullet trains, under water autonomous vehicles and those X-Planes. Speaking of which if you have been to all the aviation and space museums you would have to be impressed with what we have achieved so far in air transportation, but we cannot stop here. Joint projects with NASA, US Military, DOT R and D and private corporations have built and tested many fascinating prototypes.

Having been to every aviation museum in the country, you have to be amazed at our progress in this century. Here are just a few of the museums we have been to;

http://www.aircraftwashguys.com/action.shtml

and look at these jet trains;

http://www.aircraftwashguys.com/tours13.shtml

down the street from the R and D, Department of transportation Center in Pueblo Colorado run by Bechtel. It is essential that we should continue research on all types of new and improved methods of transportation such Magnetic Levitation Trains, Hyper-Sonic Aircraft and space craft, Pelican type super transports, Mega-Cargo Blimps, Air-Cushioned Trains, Self Driving Trucks, Smart Cars, Pilot-Less Trains, UAVs, Underwater Unmanned Vehicles, RLV-Reusable Launch Vehicles Space Craft, Road Surface Safety Materials, Warning Systems and Smart Traffic Controls. All of these emerging technologies have been worth the research dollars.

We’ve come a long way in a short time and we must continue to press on and seek our human destiny thru the innovations and research to propel the human race. Think about it.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

April 18th, 2009

Repair Your XP – Re-Assemble Your Files!

Most Windows users will notice that as time goes on their system seems to get slower and slower. This in not an illusion! This system slowdown is real and can be quite annoying. But there is something you can do which should be a part of your routine maintenance. I will first try to describe the problem.

One thing that causes your system to slow down is that as files get stored on your hard drive, your files may have to get broken up and saved in fragments and are scattered all over your hard drive. This can happen for various reasons which we won’t get into here, but needless to say it takes longer to read these fragmented files when your system needs them.

Most users of Windows XP and other systems can easily ‘repair’ these problems. Normal and routine maintenance can resolve most of these types of PC speed issues. There is a utility called the ‘Disk Defragment utility which is built right into the operating system which can correct this kind of problem. This utility will ‘defragment’ the files on your drive. This term is given to the process of scanning the file system and rejoining the split files back into consecutive pieces. In this lesson we will use the Disk Defragment utility and defragment your hard drive. Let’s get started.

Defragmenting is one of the easiest ways to increase the performance of your PC. The frequency of which you should do this will directly depend on the amount of usage. The Disk Defragmenter Utility will reorganize these fragmented files into contiguous files thus increasing your hard drive’s reliability and performance.

This utility can be opened a number of different ways. The most common way is this: Click on the ‘Start’ at the bottom left of your screen. Then click on each successive menu option:

Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Defragmenter

After the ‘Analyze’ button has been clicked, the Disk Defragmenter program will tell you whether it thinks your files need ‘Defragmenting’. If you want to go ahead and do it, simply click the Defragment button.

If you’re an average PC user, the standard Disk Defragmenter utility will do a good job of keeping your drives defragmented and help to maintain peak system performance.

The important point is that whatever product you decide meets your level of need, it doesn’t do a bit of good unless ththis is done on a regular basis. Make it a part of your regular system maintenance.

Copyright 2006 Tony Buel

Author:
Tony Buel
http://www.xp-repair.com

April 8th, 2009

Hard Drive Crash? The Essential Data Recovery Report

Your worst nightmare just became a horrifying reality. You keep hearing that little voice in your head mockingly shout “you should have backed that stuff up” The voice keeps echoing throughout your head as you perform a quick inventory all of the important information that you just lost…..your client database, a years worth of e-mail, your entire inventory database, even your family photos.

Even worse, you’ve got a deposition in two-weeks and key information needed to help win the case were also lost. You quickly call a service technician and have them come over to check the computer out, only to hear the worst news of all….your data has been lost. When a hard drive crashes, it’s too late to worry about what you “should have done.”

Today data recovery is a multi-million dollar industry. The number of data recovery firms out there seems to exceed the number of fast food restaurants for the entire planet. These companies specialize in helping their clients retrieve data on anything from hard drives to flash-roms. In the following report, we will discuss what data recovery really is; the different types, the costs, and what you can realistically expect when it comes to getting your data recovered.

What To Do In The Event Of Data Loss?

Around 44% of all data loss is caused by hardware failure. It’s important to make sure that you immediately shut your system down if you suspect that hard drive has crashed. Don’t even try to go through the shutdown procedure, just pull the plug from the wall. Do not try to run off the shelf data recovery software or drive utilities. Many times these applications will assume the drive is functioning properly and will increase the risk of permanent data loss.

Types Of Hard Drive Failure

When we discuss data recovery in this report, we will primarily focus on issues surrounding hard drive failures; since these types of failures are most common. There are really two primary forms of failure in a hard drive, logical and physical. Logical failures are usually a result of file-system corruption. This can occur due to a virus, accidental deletion of key files or registry components, and in some cases even electro-static discharge. In most cases where a logical failure has occurred, the drive is still recognized by the system BIOS, but it will not boot. In most cases, your data should still be intact on the drive, even though it may appear to be inaccessible.

If the system BIOS does not detect the presence of the hard drive, then chances are a physical failure has occurred. Physical failures can result from a wide variety of causes. There are really two sub-categories for physical hard drive failures; mechanical and electronic. Mechanical failures usually result from a failure of the spindle motor. Spindle motor failure can result from excessive heat due to a bearing failure. The increased heat resulting from the bearing failure will expand the drive shaft and therefore seize the spindle motor. Suddenly, your drive will become inoperative. Occasionally, you will get a warning that something bad is about to happen. You may hear a loud whining, a grinding noise, even high-pitched screeches. If anything like this starts to occur, BACK UP YOUR DATA IMMEDIATELY.

Another physical issue that sometimes rears its ugly head is an electronic failure. If you look at a hard drive you will notice a circuit board on the bottom. This board is basically the brains of the drive, and it is where the computer interfaces to the hard drive. An electrical failure can occur unexpectedly at any time. Even brand new hard drives are not totally immune to having electrical failures. Sometimes it’s just a faulty component, sometimes it’s improper installation (i.e. electro-static discharge, grounding out the board, damaging circuitry during installation). It’s important to also keep your system clean and well ventilated, since excessive heat can damage the electrical components on the drive. If you have a system that is in a somewhat contained area, you may look at adding an additional 80mm fan to cool the internal components of the system, especially the hard drive. No other component of a computer works as much as the hard drive, and therefore it is vitally important not to overlook it when cooling issues arise.

How Is My Data Recovered?

One of the most often asked questions that customers ask is, “how do you get my data back?” Well, it’s really not black magic or rocket science. It’s just a matter of having the right tools and the knowledge necessary to know what to do, much like a surgeon performing heart by-pass surgery. Many prominent data recovery facilities have a large array of hardware, software and tools for recovering data.

Generally speaking when a hard drive is received by a data recovery firm, the first thing they do is evaluate it, and determine what recovery solution will be necessary. If the drive failure is a logical issue as mentioned earlier, then a scan of the drive will be performed to try and repair the file system corruption. Sometimes a partition can be repaired and the drive restored to the status that it was before the failure. If this is not possible, then a very low-level scan will be performed that essentially searches every sector of the hard drive for files. Once the files are located, they can then be copied to the media of choice, i.e. a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or another hard drive. Logical recoveries can take up an enormous amount of time, especially if the drive is on the verge of physical failure. It’s not uncommon to allow for one day of scanning and a day for recovering the found files.

If the drive has suffered a physical failure, then the recovery procedure is quite a bit more challenging. As mentioned above, there are really two sub-categories of physical failure; mechanical and electronic. An important element in recovering data from a physical failure is having the necessary parts to get the drive functioning again. Unfortunately with hard drives if you have a 20GB Maxtor Hard Drive for example, then you will need another identical 20GB Maxtor Hard Drive for salvaging parts. In cases where the electronic circuit board has failed on the hard drive, then you have to have the exact same circuit board on hand in order to retrieve the necessary circuit components for replacement. Many times you cannot even exchange circuit board for circuit board. These repairs generally require soldering skills and a thorough knowledge of electronics to be successfully completed. You will most likely hear “Class100 Clean Room” thrown around a lot when talking to data recovery professionals. Simply stated, a Class100 Clean Room maintains exceptional air purity, and contains less than 100 airborne particles larger than 0.5 microns in each cubic foot of air. This is vital in protecting sensitive internal components of hard drives. Anytime a hard drive is having an invasive procedure performed on it, a Class100 clean room or better is needed.

The time frame for recovery is generally 5-10 business days for physical issues and 2-4 days for logical issues. Sometimes if components are not readily available, then it may take weeks to complete the recovery. Some firms offer expedite service and you definitely pay for this added attention.

What About Data Recovery Software

This is one area where you really do get what you pay for. Try to stay away from software in the $20-$60 range, since these utilities are generally very limited in what they can do. Also make sure that you NEVER and just to emphasize, NEVER EVER get data recovery software that writes anything at all to the damaged disk. You run the risk of overwriting data that may otherwise have been recoverable, but will be lost forever. If you are fairly computer savvy, then there are a few good data recovery software solutions available.

What To Look For When Shopping For Data Recovery

There’s an old saying, “you get what you pay for.” In most cases this is true. However, just because a company with a fancy website quotes you $3,500 for data recovery, does not mean that they are any better than a company that quotes you $1,500. Also, try to stay away from companies that want to charge $50-$300 for evaluating your drive. There has been a movement in the data recovery industry over the last couple of years to offer a number of free services. Most reputable data recovery companies will evaluate standard IDE drives free of charge; so don’t let the word “free” this or “free” that stop you. The data recovery market is quickly becoming saturated, and a company does not necessarily cheapen itself or lack expertise by offering free evaluations.

You will find as you shop around for data recovery that prices vary greatly. You will get quotes that range from $300 to $5,000 for standard hard drive recoveries. It’s not uncommon to literally get quotes that have at least a $1,500 high/low spread. We shopped one prominent data recovery company where we gave them specific indicators of a physical hard drive failure. We were eventually quoted a price range of $600 to $2,900 for the recovery. Many times this is a bait and switch type tactic. They get you to send in the drive with the low-end $600 price, then they let you know it’s going to cost $2,100 for the recovery. You end up being well under the $2,900 high-end price, but well over what other reputable companies would charge. Since most customers won’t go through the pain of having the drive sent back, only to have to send it out to another company, these bait and switch companies end up making huge profits off of unsuspecting customers.

Try to find a company that will give you an up front cost for either a logical or physical recovery. Most companies will be able to tell you within a couple hundred dollars the cost of a recovery. However, don’t misunderstand a company that gives you a price for two different procedures. For example, some companies will give you a price if the failure is logical and a price if the problem ends up being physical. We called one firm and were told that if the drive had a logical failure the price would be $400 and if it ended up being a physical issue the price would be $1,600. This is not a high/low spread as mentioned in the earlier example, this is simply quoting a price for two different types of recoveries.

On average you can expect to pay anywhere from $400 to $600 for logical recoveries, and $1,200 to $2,000 for physical recoveries on standard IDE hard drives. If you have RAID drives, SCSI, etc. depending on the configuration prices can be as high as $15,000. Remember, backup backup backup backup backup!!

Can My Data Be Recovered?

In most cases the answer to this question is yes. On average, the success rate for data recovery professionals is about 75-85%. However, there are times when the data is just lost, either due to extensive damage to the platter or unavailability of replacement parts.

How Do I Get Started?

If you have a hard drive that has crashed, the most important thing you can do is contact a data recovery professional immediately. Make sure you aren’t being charged an evaluation fee if you have a standard IDE hard drive. Most companies only charge evaluation fees for complex RAID and network server drives.

It is important to do your homework, call and talk with the companies. When you find one that you feel comfortable with, give them a chance. Your hardest job, may be finding data recovery firms that actually have someone available to answer the phones. Ask questions and be sure to have the following information available:

Size of the drive

Operating system (i.e. Windows 98, Windows XP, etc.)

Situation of failure (what happened just before the drive stopped working)

Is the drive recognized by the computer or not

Good luck in getting your data recovered, and make sure you always backup your important information on a daily basis.

Author: Greg Duffield
Company: ACS Data Recovery
Toll-Free: 1-877-646-0546
Website: http://www.acsdata.com
E-Mail: greg@acsdata.com

March 15th, 2009