Domain Names - What Are They? 

A domain name is an address on the Internet. For example:

www.upsdell.com
www.upsdell.ca

The prefix 'www.' is traditional, but isn't always present: depending on how the server is set up, the 'www.' may be required, optional, forbidden, or replaced by something else. For my upsdell.com domain the 'www.' is optional.

The main part of the name ('upsdell' in the above example) may have only the letters a-z, the digits 0-9, and a dash, with no dash at the beginning or end, and may not exceed 63 characters. Exception: in June 2003 an Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) standard was issued to allow international characters from 350+ languages in domain names.

The suffix (e.g. '.com') is called the TLD (Top Level Domain). There are conventions about TLDs:

• .aero is for the air-transport industry.
• .arpa is for Internet infrastructure purposes.
• .asia is for Asian sites.
• .biz is for businesses.
• .cat is for the Catalan language community.
• .com is for businesses.
• .coop is for coöperatives.
• .edu is for US institutes of higher education; earlier .edu was also for non-US institutes.
• .eu is for those in the EU.
• .gov is for US government sites.
• .info is for information suppliers.
• .int is for international treaty organizations.
• .jobs is for the international human resource management community.
• .mil is for US military sites.
• .mobi is for mobile devices.
• .museum is for museums.
• .name is for personal sites.
• .net is for network-related organizations.
• .org is primarily for charities and non-commercial or non-profit organizations.
• .pro is for accredited professionals, with sub-domains .cpa.pro for accountants, .eng.pro for engineers, .med.pro for doctors, .law.pro for lawyers, etc.
• .tel is for accessing communications devices (not yet available).
• .travel is for the travel industry.
• a 2-letter country code — e.g. .ca for Canada — is for a designated country. Some nations precede this with a sub-domain name identifying a region or a type of site: e.g., in Canada addresses of government sites for the province of Ontario end in .on.ca; in the UK addresses of commercial sites end in .co.uk.

Additional TLDs will likely be approved in the future. This is now being considered: .post.

Additional TLDs consisting of international characters will likely be approved in the future.

Choose your name very carefully. It shouldn't be someone's trademark in the USA or your country: the trademark owner could make a claim to your choice. To protect a domain name from such a claim, you could trademark the domain name or the name from which the domain name was derived.

It may be wise to register several names: the name you prefer, plus similar name that you don't want others to have; e.g., if your preferred name were bestbuys.com, it may be wise to also register bestbuys.biz. The cost of this is small, typically US$35 each year for each name. If protection of your domain name is especially important - as it would be for major corporations - it would be wise to register a wider range of domain names: e.g., with domain names ending in .biz, .com, .info, .net., .org, and also those ending in country codes (such as .ca) for any countries in which you do business.

Domain Names - What Names Are Available? 

Use this form to discover which domain names are available: enter a name to check it.

Remember to end the name with .com, .org, .net, or whatever. Also, as discussed above, note that only letters, digits, and dashes are allowed. Example: TheNameYouReallyWant.com .

Pages - How Are Their Widths Set? 

Some people wonder why pages have margins on the left and right, instead of using the full width of the browser window.

This is done to make the text easier to read. Research suggests that people can read more easily when lines of text are neither too long nor too short: very long lines are especially hard to read if lines are close together. My modern sites therefore normally set a maximum to the page width, where the maximum depends on the user’s preferred font size: people who prefer smaller fonts get narrower pages and wider margins; people who prefer larger fonts get wider pages and narrower margins; in both cases a given line of text will have about the same number of words no matter what the font size is, and therefore are equally easy to read.

Photos - What Do I Send? 

This gives tips for ensuring the best results with photos you send me for your website. With the best results, the photo will look good when it appears on the website, and its image file will be small enough that it loads quickly. If you send me a poor quality photo, the quality of the image on the website may be poor, or the image file may take longer to load than it should.

You can send me photo prints, image files from a scanner, or image files from a digital camera:

• Photo prints: if you choose to send prints, please note:
  • Photo paper: make sure photos are on glossy, photo-quality paper; the paper must not have a matte, scratched, or pitted surface, and should not be defaced by such things as paperclips or staples. [1]
  • Photo quality: send photos with fine detail, lighting, and colour. Much quality is lost when a web image is made from a photo, but the loss can be minimized if the photo quality is high. [2], [3]
  • Photo size: send photos that are notably larger than they will appear on your website. A photo that is too small must be enlarged, which lowers quality.
  • Negatives and slides: I cannot process negatives or slides.
• Scanners: if you choose to scan your photos and send files instead of prints, please note:
  • Resolution: scan photos at a resolution of at least 150dpi; I often scan at 300dpi.
  • File format: send files in a non-lossy format, e.g. EPS, PNG, PSD, or TIFF files: not as JPEG files. If you can only send JPEG files, make sure you create them with minimum compression / maximum quality. When in doubt about the file format, contact me first.
  • Media: you can eMail files to me, but to send many files, or huge files, it is best to send them on CDs or on 100M ZIP disks.
• Digital cameras: if you choose to send files from a digital camera, please note:
  • Resolution: use your camera's highest resolution.
  • File format: send files in a non-lossy format, e.g. EPS, PNG, PSD, or TIFF files: not as JPEG files. If you can only send JPEG files, make sure you create them with minimum compression / maximum quality. When in doubt about the file format, contact me first.
  • Media: you can eMail files to me, but to send many files, or huge files, it is best to send them on CDs or on 100M ZIP disks.

Note [1]: a common error is to send photos on matte paper; such photos produce subtle but visible distortions when scanned.

Note [2]: it is especially important for skin tones to be accurate; I can adjust skin tones, but need to know what they should be.

Note [3]: I can correct many lighting and colour problems.

Printing - Why Don't Pages Print Properly? 

A common problem when printing web pages is that background colours and images are not printed, resulting in blank patches on printed pages.

This happens because many browsers don't print background colours and images unless configured to do so. This can save money by using less ink or toner, but this can also result in printed pages that lack important content or that look bad. For example, if the web page has white text on a dark background, and the browser does not print the background, the browser will print white text with no background, and on white paper the text will be invisible.

You can, however, instruct your browser to print background colours and images, which will fix this problem. To do so:

• Firefox: click 'File', 'Page Setup', 'Format & Options', then check the checkbox labelled 'Print Background (colors and images)'.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer: click 'Tools', 'Internet Options', 'Advanced', then check the checkbox labelled 'Print background colors and images'.
• Mozilla: click 'File', 'Page Setup', 'Format & Options', then check the checkbox labelled 'Print Background (colors and images)'.
• Netscape 4: click 'File', 'Page Setup', then check the checkbox labelled 'Print Backgrounds'.
• Netscape 7 or later: click 'File', 'Page Setup', 'Format & Options', then check the checkbox labelled 'Print Background (colors and images)'.
• Opera: click 'File', 'Print options', then check the checkbox labelled 'Print page background'.

ICRA - What Is It? 

ICRA is the Internet Content Rating Association, the successor to RSACi.

Many are concerned with objectionable content on the Internet. To meet this concern, websites can be rated with ICRA regarding factors such as objectionable language, nudity, sex, and violence.

ICRA also makes a plug-in that is used by some commercial products -- e.g. the Anti-Defamation League's HateFilter -- to enable parents to block unwelcome sites.

For some details about rating a site, read the Browser News page dealing with this subject.

Here are more sites where you can learn about dealing with objectionable content:

• Anti-Defamation League: offers free software to help block hate sites.
• Cyber Patrol: sells software to block sites.
• CYBERsitter: sells software to block sites.
• Electronic Frontier Foundation: works to protect fundamental civil liberties, including privacy and freedom of expression with the Internet.
• GetNetWise: a public service to help you make good choices when using the Internet.
• Net Nanny: sells software to block sites.
• Safe Internet: a Microsoft site to help you use the Internet safely and securely.
• SafeSurf: rates web sites.
• Stay Safe Online: a Microsoft site to help kids and parents make good choices when using the Internet.
• SurfWatch: sells software to block sites.
• WRAAC.org: offers free parental control toolbars.

Your Updates - Why Aren’t They There? 

Sometimes clients may notice that updates to their sites do not appear, or do not appear in a timely fashion.

This may happen because of an error on my part, or because I was unusually busy. But this may also happen if the client’s browser is displaying old versions of your pages, so clients should check for this before contacting me.

Why would a browser display an old version of a page? This happens because of “browser caching”: to display pages as quickly as possible, browsers maintain a cache — called Temporary Internet Files by Microsoft — which holds recently read files from sites; and when someone returns to a previously viewed page, the browser may get the files for the page from its cache (which it can do very quickly) rather than from the website (which can be slow). Ideally a browser would check the dates of the files on the site, and use the files in its cache only if they are up to date, but browsers do not always do this. As a result, a browser may show an old version of a page, or worse, a version which has both old and new elements.

To make things worse, there may also be caches on the Internet: when someone views a page, the files for the page may be saved in an external cache, somewhere on the Internet, or even in several places on the Internet; and if someone views the same page afterwards, the browser may get the files from an external cache instead of from the website, so again it is possible for the browser to show an older version of a page, or a version which has both old and new elements.

Some browsers use their cache much more because this enables them to load pages more quickly than other browsers. Also, some browsers have options to control how much they use their caches, and the default is often to use them much more. Finally, some ISPs (Internet Service Providers) — for example, AOL — use external caches much more. As a result of all of this, some browsers are much more likely to show old versions of pages.

If, therefore, an update does not appear when expected, a client should try to force their browser to read the latest version of the page from the website. To do this:

• Try to reload the page. Browsers typically offer a button, or a menu command, or a keyboard command, to reload the current page. Some browsers even offer two types of reload functions, one which simply loads the page again, and another which loads the page without using its cache. Use the best reload function your browser offers. If the updates do not appear, try several times.
• If the update still does not appear, empty your browser’s cache. All browsers offer a function to do this: and remember than Microsoft refers to its cache as the Temporary Internet Files. Then try to reload the page again: because the cache is now empty, the browser will have no old files to use, so the browser should show the latest version of the page unless there is external caching, e.g. by your ISP.
• If the update still does not appear, repeat the previous step several times: this will reduce the chance that an external cache is still providing old versions of the page. which is especially likely with some ISPs, e.g. AOL.
• If the update still does not appear, try another browser.

If after all of this, the updates still do not appear, contact me.