WebMe Website Design & Development

What does Unlimited hosting mean at WebMe?

2010-02-12T14:48:00.002Z

A lot of web hosting companies, including ourselves, make bold claims about offering unlimited web hosting features such as unlimited web space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited databases etc. We see a lot of discussion on forums about what this actually means and questioning how anything can really be unlimited when no one (not even Google or Microsoft) can have an unlimited number of servers to draw power from.

What we mean by unlimited is that we have so many resources at our disposal and we have invested so much money in to our infrastructure that our customers never have to worry about hitting a limit because the allowance available is so large it won't ever be stretched to breaking point.

Unlike other web hosts our business model is not based around running servers at capacity to wring every last cent out of the bottom line. Why? Because this ignores the unpredictable nature of internet usage. If one customer has a sudden and dramatic spike in traffic it could bring the entire shared server down, affecting hundreds of other customers. We just don't think it's worth the risk.

With this in mind, we build in extra capacity in to a server and don't allow any server to get even near maximum capacity so that no customer can drain a server's performance levels. The same goes for bandwidth, database servers and mail servers.

Pressure mounts to abandon IE6

2010-02-02T19:21:00.002Z

There is currently a No10 petition demanding that the Government move their departments away from using the outdated Internet Explorer 6 web browser.
The browser is almost 10 years old and has numerous security flaws and fails to render web pages properly which is a real burden for web developers who still have to support the browser to maintain backward compatibility.
The No10 petition can be found here and it is advised that anyone with an interest in the Internet or security of our valuable data sign it to try and bring things up to date in this Country.

Shopping websites 'could be breaking law'

2009-12-19T10:17:00.003Z

Which? claims thousands of internet retailers may be breaking laws that protect customers.
It said too many online sites were ignoring the rules.

Which? is warning retailers to make sure they comply with what are known as the Distance Selling regulations - such as tie to return sold goods.

If you are running an online retail business it is vital that you are aware of the laws that you are bound by.

In general you are required to:

give potential customers certain information in advance, such as your name and address, the goods you are selling or the services you are providing, the price (including all taxes), delivery cost, delivery arrangements, and customers' right to cancel
send customers an order confirmation giving information such as your postal address and cancellation arrangements
allow customers a seven working day cooling off period during which they can cancel their contract with you.

The final point above is where most retailers slip-up.

Customers have seven working days, from receiving the goods, in which to cancel the order.

They then have a reasonable amount of time to return them.

Providing cancellation was within that period, consumers are entitled to a full refund.

That means no site should charge an administration or re-stocking fee, unless the purchase was cancelled outside the seven-day period.

Retailers are also bound to refund any postage and packing fee on the original delivery.

However, depending on the conditions, the retailer may not be liable for the costs of sending the goods back.

Full information can be found at the Office of Fair Trading website.

How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell

2009-12-08T14:38:00.002Z

It's good to get a little light relief sometimes and something that really tickled us in the office this week is the following: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

We give all of our customers the ability to change the content of their site using our free Content Management System but it is best to try and maintain some consistency within the site if you can restrain yourself.

How to add days, weeks, months to any date in PHP

2009-11-30T15:51:00.004Z

How to add days, weeks, months to any date in PHP

$date = date("Y-m-d");// current date

$date = strtotime(date("Y-m-d", strtotime($date)) . " +1 day");
$date = strtotime(date("Y-m-d", strtotime($date)) . " +1 week");
$date = strtotime(date("Y-m-d", strtotime($date)) . " +2 week");
$date = strtotime(date("Y-m-d", strtotime($date)) . " +1 month");
$date = strtotime(date("Y-m-d", strtotime($date)) . " +30 days");

To subtract just use - instead of +.

In PHP>=5.3.0 you can use the DateTime functions.

Keeping your PC safe

2009-10-30T10:17:00.004Z

In this day and age it is vitally important that you keep your PC secure and safe. Fortunately this can be accomplished without cost.
Here are three tools that will help keep your PC safe and secure for free:

AVG Free Virus software - Free anti virus software from firm AVG. This is a great piece of software with on-access file scanning, email scanning and web site scanning - informing you of potentially dangerous websites with an icon in search results.
Spybot Search & Destroy - A spyware scanner and also a dangerous website blocker. It can automatically prevent bad cookies and images using it's built in Immunisation functionality. You can also use it to prevent system settings being changed without your knowledge.
Windows Firewall - Does the job it's supposed to and comes for free with Windows.

Just make sure you keep these products up to date once you have installed them and you should have many trouble free years using the internet.

Internet Watch Foundation Awareness Day

2009-10-14T10:04:00.002+01:00

Today is Internet Watch Foundation Awareness Day.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) was established in 1996 by the UK internet industry to provide the UK internet Hotline for the public and IT professionals to report potentially illegal online content within our remit and to be the 'notice and take-down' body for this content. We work in partnership with the online industry, law enforcement, government, the education sector, charities, international partners and the public to minimise the availability of this content, specifically, child sexual abuse content hosted anywhere in the world and criminally obscene and incitement to racial hatred content hosted in the UK.

If you see any illegal content (specifically Child sexual abuse content hosted worldwide and criminally obscene and incitement to racial hatred content hosted in the UK) on the internet then report it via their website: www.iwf.org.uk

How to test your website in all versions of Internet Explorer

2009-09-29T15:57:00.004+01:00

As a web development company we completely understand and acknowledge that due to the distributed nature of the Internet and its users we cannot assume that everyone is using the latest version of their web browser.
A classic example of this is Internet Explorer; take up of IE7 and IE8 has been relatively slow, indeed many large organisations are still using IE6 and refuse to budge.
Because of this it is, sadly, important that your website still looks and works OK in an older browser; the problem is how do you install IE6, IE7 and IE8 on the same computer in order to test them?
Fortunately the great chaps at DebugBar have developed an all-in-one tool that enables you to do just that, enter: IETester.
This handy little tool enables you to view separate browser tabs that are rendering as if they are either IE5.5, IE6, IE7 or IE8. Great for testing your website.

Another tool that gives you an idea of whether your website is looking good or bad in browsers that you simply do not have access to is BrowserShots.
Simply enter the URL of your website and it will generate screen shots of your site in a whole host of different browsers and Operating Systems.

Microsoft Exchange Server too Expensive?

2009-09-24T15:56:00.003+01:00

If you are on a hosted mail system like Microsoft Exhange Server you may find that the costs are running away with you.
Fortunately there is a cheap, and just as effective, alternative: Google Apps Premier.
For just $50 a year (at the time of writing) you can have all of the functionality of Exchange Server.
Transition is made very easy by the Google Apps Sync application, and from within your WebMe Domain Control Panel you can make all of the necessary DNS changes with just a click of a button.

Access experts-exchange.com answers without registering

2009-08-21T16:32:00.004+01:00

We've all experienced it; you search Google for an answer to your question and there in the top couple of results is the answer! "Oh joy" you think, someone has asked the exact question that I have asked. You click through only to be presented with:

"View the Solution FREE for 30 Days - after that you're gonna have to pay!"

This sort of thing is most commonly associated with a very good resource (experts-exchange.com).

What they've done is allow the search engine to index the answer but they deny the browser the answer.
So how do you get the answer you want without registering?
Simple - become the search engine.
If you use Firefox/Flock/Seamonkey/Songbird then you can get a great extension called "User Agent Switcher" by Chris Pederick.
With this extension installed simply go to Tools->User Agent->Search robots->Googlebot With this set as your User Agent you can now click on the Experts Exchange link and view the answer.

Change your User Agent back to the default when you've finished.

You can get User Agent switcher from here: http://chrispederick.com/work/user-agent-switcher/

'Fake UK sites' trick consumers - Use FlagFox

2009-08-01T09:45:00.003+01:00

There was an article published on the BBC news site today about the number of co.uk websites that are setup by Chinese organisations to con UK surfers into buying non-existant goods. The Beeb suggest a few things to prevent the unwary surfer from being caught out by these sites: They advised people to reduce the risks of being duped by:

Searching for any user reviews of the site;
Double clicking on the padlock symbol in the corner to reveal details about the company that registered the site; and
Trying to connect the site to the real world by finding phone numbers or UK addresses.

Another great method is to use FlagFox (http://flagfox.net/). This plugin for FireFox gives you a little flag icon in your search bar letting you know where in the world the site is hosted. Great for finding the true geographical location of a website.

Original article here.

Broadband Providers Speed Tests

2009-07-28T09:44:00.003+01:00

An interesting article was posted on the BBC news website today about UK broadband speeds which revealed "Nearly one fifth of UK broadband customers on an eight Megabit per second (Mbps) connection actually receive less than 2Mbps."
The research also showed that "less than 9% of users received more than 6Mbps."
So what's the point in advertising speeds of up to 8Mbps when the chances are you can't get it? Well it's a sales gimmick. One thing you can do though is compare the speeds of different providers so that you are with the best for your needs.
The BBC had a useful comparison on this also, showing Virgin Media as the fastest provider (however, their coverage is mainly limited to urban areas).

HOW UK ISPS COMPARE
	...is slower than...	...is faster than...
All services at 8Mbit/s except Virgin Media at 10Mbps
Source: Ofcom
AOL	O2, Orange, Plusnet, Sky, Talktalk, Virgin Media
BT	O2, Virgin Media	Tiscali
O2	Virgin Media	AOL, BT, Tiscali
Orange	Virgin Media	AOL, Tiscali
Plusnet	Virgin Media	AOL, Tiscali
Sky	Virgin Media	AOL, Tiscali
Talktalk	Virgin Media	AOL, Tiscali
Tiscali	BT, O2, Orange, Plusnet, Sky, Talktalk, Virgin Media
Virgin Media		AOL, BT, O2, Orange, Plusnet, Sky, Talktalk, Tiscali

Original article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8171074.stm

Z-Index Maximum and Minimum Values

2009-06-18T15:08:00.003+01:00

Quick answer to a query we got asked the other day.
Does the css property z-index have a maximum value?

The answer is yes.
The maximum value for z-index is 2147483647.
The minimum value for z-index is 0.
Occasionally you may see a negative z-index e.g. z-index:-1, this is not supported by all web browsers however.

It's also worth noting that z-index only applies to elements which are positioned using position: relative or position: absolute.

Shrink long URLs - Making large website addresses small

2009-05-11T21:06:00.005+01:00

There are many tools out there to shrink long website addresses and turn them into small URLs.
We have just launched our own here: mini2u.com.
If you have a long website address, but a limited amount of space to post it (e.g. Facebook status or Twitter tweet) simply copy the address (URL) into the box on Mini2U.com and it will generate a tiny URL for you.
Coming soon: hit counter - count how many hits your Mini2U URL receives.

DSN-Less Connection to MySQL in ASP

2009-03-24T19:51:00.001Z

To access a MySQL database in ASP you can use the following script:

Function getDBConn()

Set conDB=Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
 conDB.Open "Driver={MySQL ODBC 3.51 Driver};" & _ 
      "Server=mysql.myserver.net;" & _
      "Port=3306;" & _
      "Option=131072;" & _
      "Stmt=;" & _
      "Database=mydatabase;" & _
      "Uid=myname;" & _
      "Pwd=mypassword"
End Function

Remember to change the Server address to the address of your MySQL database; also you will need to change the Database, Uid and Pwd parameters as appropriate.

PHP Connection to MySQL

2009-03-24T19:46:00.002Z

To access a MySQL database in PHP you can use the following script:

<?php
$dbhost = 'mysql.myserver.net';
$dbuser = 'myname';
$dbpass = 'mypassword';

$conn = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass) or die 
('Error connecting to mysql');

$dbname = 'mydatabase';
mysql_select_db($dbname);
?>

Remember to change the Host address to the address of your MySQL database; also you will need to change the dbname, dbuser and dbpass parameters as appropriate.

ASP Server Variables

2009-03-24T19:27:00.003Z

We have decided to remove our Resources section in order to keep all useful code snippets and tips in our blog so we will post some of the content of those pages here.
The first one is the ASP Server Variables table:

The table below shows the Server Variables available in ASP and example values.

Server Variable	Description
ALL_HTTP	Returns all HTTP headers sent by the client. Always prefixed with HTTP_ and capitalized
ALL_RAW	Returns all headers in raw form
APPL_MD_PATH	Returns the meta base path for the application for the ISAPI DLL
APPL_PHYSICAL_PATH	Returns the physical path corresponding to the meta base path
AUTH_PASSWORD	Returns the value entered in the client's authentication dialog
AUTH_TYPE	The authentication method that the server uses to validate users
AUTH_USER	Returns the raw authenticated user name
CERT_COOKIE	Returns the unique ID for client certificate as a string
CERT_FLAGS	bit0 is set to 1 if the client certificate is present and bit1 is set to 1 if the Certification authority of the client certificate is not valid
CERT_ISSUER	Returns the issuer field of the client certificate
CERT_KEYSIZE	Returns the number of bits in Secure Sockets Layer connection key size
CERT_SECRETKEYSIZE	Returns the number of bits in server certificate private key
CERT_SERIALNUMBER	Returns the serial number field of the client certificate
CERT_SERVER_ISSUER	Returns the issuer field of the server certificate
CERT_SERVER_SUBJECT	Returns the subject field of the server certificate
CERT_SUBJECT	Returns the subject field of the client certificate
CONTENT_LENGTH	Returns the length of the content as sent by the client
CONTENT_TYPE	Returns the data type of the content
GATEWAY_INTERFACE	Returns the revision of the CGI specification used by the server
HTTP_<HeaderName>	Returns the value stored in the header HeaderName
HTTP_ACCEPT	Returns the value of the Accept header
HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE	Returns a string describing the language to use for displaying content
HTTP_COOKIE	Returns the cookie string included with the request
HTTP_REFERER	Returns a string containing the URL of the page that referred the request to the current page using an <a> tag. If the page is redirected, HTTP_REFERER is empty
HTTP_USER_AGENT	Returns a string describing the browser that sent the request
HTTPS	Returns ON if the request came in through secure channel or OFF if the request came in through a non-secure channel
HTTPS_KEYSIZE	Returns the number of bits in Secure Sockets Layer connection key size
HTTPS_SECRETKEYSIZE	Returns the number of bits in server certificate private key
HTTPS_SERVER_ISSUER	Returns the issuer field of the server certificate
HTTPS_SERVER_SUBJECT	Returns the subject field of the server certificate
INSTANCE_ID	The ID for the IIS instance in text format
INSTANCE_META_PATH	The meta base path for the instance of IIS that responds to the request
LOCAL_ADDR	Returns the server address on which the request came in
LOGON_USER	Returns the Windows account that the user is logged into
PATH_INFO	Returns extra path information as given by the client
PATH_TRANSLATED	A translated version of PATH_INFO that takes the path and performs any necessary virtual-to-physical mapping
QUERY_STRING	Returns the query information stored in the string following the question mark (?) in the HTTP request
REMOTE_ADDR	Returns the IP address of the remote host making the request
REMOTE_HOST	Returns the name of the host making the request
REMOTE_USER	Returns an unmapped user-name string sent in by the user
REQUEST_METHOD	Returns the method used to make the request
SCRIPT_NAME	Returns a virtual path to the script being executed
SERVER_NAME	Returns the server's host name, DNS alias, or IP address as it would appear in self-referencing URLs
SERVER_PORT	Returns the port number to which the request was sent
SERVER_PORT_SECURE	Returns a string that contains 0 or 1. If the request is being handled on the secure port, it will be 1. Otherwise, it will be 0
SERVER_PROTOCOL	Returns the name and revision of the request information protocol
SERVER_SOFTWARE	Returns the name and version of the server software that answers the request and runs the gateway
URL	Returns the base portion of the URL

To access Server Variables in ASP we use:

Request.ServerVariables (server_variable)

A better way to handle POST and GET in PHP

2009-03-06T23:09:00.003Z

To handle POSTed and GET variables in PHP is a bit of a pain. You've got to check that they are actually set, that they are not null and then, read the value. We use three functions to handle this. Why three? Well, one of them (validateParam) can be used in multiple situations. Here's the code:

function validateParam($param, $default = "") {
if (!isset($param) || $param=="") {
 return $default;
}
return $param;
}

function doGet($param, $default = "") {
if (array_key_exists($param, $_GET)) {
 return validateParam($_GET[$param], $default);
}
return $default;
}
function doPost($param, $default = "") {
if (array_key_exists($param, $_POST)) {
 return validateParam($_POST[$param], $default);
}
return $default;
}

Now all you need to do is call doPost("var_name", "default") or doGet("var_name", "default") and don't have to bother about isset(), etc. Hope this helps when processing these.

Getting path and location details in Javascript

2009-01-16T10:26:00.011Z

A couple of quick tips for you to get path information for your page in JavaScript, assuming that the URL we are manipulating is http://example.com/test/test.php?i=1&b=2#3 To get the complete URL use:

location.href

returns http://example.com/test/test.php?i=1&b=2#3

To get the hostname use:

location.hostname

returns example.com

To get the path of the current URL including the script use:

location.pathname

returns /test/test.php

To get the current URL excluding the script use:

location.hostname+location.pathname.substr(0, location.pathname.lastIndexOf("/"))+"/"

returns example.com/test/

Now to get passed parameters from the QueryString:

location.search

returns ?i=1&b=2

To get just the anchor or hash part use:

location.hash

returns #3

Finally to get the protocol use:

location.protocol

returns http:

Get Current Directory Function in PHP

2008-12-29T23:36:00.003Z

Something that many people ask for is an extremely simple piece of code and that is "How do I get the current directory in PHP?" Well, we use a function to do this and the code is as follows:

function getDirectory() {
 $f = getcwd();
 return substr($f, strrpos($f, "/") + 1);
}

The PHP function getcwd() returns the current working directory and path. The following line simply strips the path and returns the name of the current directory. Instead of using getcwd() you can also use dirname(__FILE__) so the code could be rewritten as:

function getDirectory() {
 $f = dirname(__FILE__);
 return substr($f, strrpos($f, "/") + 1);
}

Domain Renewal Group Scam

2008-11-20T14:15:00.002Z

Some of our customers have reported that they have received a letter from the Domain Renewal Group or the Domain Registry of America stating that their domain needs renewing. The company are using the WHOIS database information to get information on customers. You may pay 2-3 times for your domain registration or you could even lose ownership under some conditions. We only send postal notifications of domain name renewal if you have specified that you wish to receive postal invoices in your account control panel.Most of these postal letters that come in the mail are more or less SCAMS to get people to agree to what they think is a renewal, but is in fact a high-priced TRANSFER to a company that may not be trustworthy. We will always renew your domain name for you unless you advise us not to. If you receive any of these letters then please ignore them.

Send ctrl+alt+delete to Remote Desktop

2008-08-11T10:33:00.001+01:00

A common question that we get asked on our managed servers is "How do I send Ctrl+Alt+Delete to my server via a Remote Desktop session?" Well the answer is very straight forward: Whilst in your Remote Desktop session simply press Ctrl+Alt+End.

Careful with your Comments in IE

2008-06-16T20:28:00.003+01:00

Small tip today. Be careful where you place your HTML comments in Internet Explorer. Placing comments before you begin your HTML content can cause strange layout rendering. For example:

<html> <head> ....

This is wrong and can cause all sorts of layout issues. Always make sure your comment is in your HTML content.

XML Sitemap Generator Script in PHP for Google and others

2008-06-05T20:20:00.004+01:00

We develop a lot of websites and quite rightly the owners want their site to appear in Google as quickly as possible. One way to speed up this process is to use Google's sitemap tool.
Google accept sitemaps in various formats, one of them being XML.
Now if you have a site, or develop websites, that quite often have new content and pages being added to them it can be a pain to create a new sitemap each time. For this reason we have taken a nice little script developed in ASP by Francesco Passantino and rewritten it in PHP.
To use this script, simply place it in the root of your website and tell Google where it is in the Add Sitemap section of Google sitemaps.
The script will generate a valid XML sitemap that will dynamically update whenever new pages are added or pages are deleted.

Version 1.0 can be found here. This is for PHP5 only, we also have a PHP4 version which can be found here. To use the PHP4 version you will need the strripos PHP4 script from here.

Random Password Generator in PHP

2008-05-27T17:07:00.003+01:00

Today we thought we'd share our random PHP password generator code with you. This function returns a variable length password comprised of upper and lower case characters with numbers. Simply pass the desired password length to the function.

function RandomPW($myLength) {
 $strPW = '';
 //These constant are the minimum and maximum length for random
 //length passwords.  Adjust these values to your needs.
 $minLength = 6;
 $maxLength = 20;
 
 if ($myLength == 0) {
  $myLength = rand($minLength, $maxLength);
 }

 for ($X=1;$X<=$myLength;$X++) {
  //Randomize the type of this character
  $Y = rand(1,3); //(1) Numeric, (2) Uppercase, (3) Lowercase
  switch ($Y) {
   case 1:
    //Numeric character
    $strPW = $strPW.chr(rand(48, 57));
    break;
   case 2:
    //Uppercase character
    $strPW = $strPW.chr(rand(65, 90));
    break;
   case 3:
    //Lowercase character
    $strPW = $strPW.chr(rand(97, 122));
    break;
  }
 }
 return($strPW);
}