!!! The Internet Launchpad !!!

Protect your email – and your friends too 

Here is a simple computer trick I learned that is really worth knowing.

As you probably know, when a worm virus gets into your computer, it is programmed to head straight for your email address book and sends itself to everyone there, thus infecting all your friends and associates.

This trick won’t keep the virus from getting into your computer, but it will stop it from using your address book to spread further, and it will alert you to the fact that the worm has gotten into your system.

Here is what you do:

First, open your address book and click on ‘New Contact’, just as if you were adding a new friend to your list of email addresses. In the window where you would type in your friend’s first name, just type in ‘A’.

For the screen name or email address, type in AAAAAAA@AAA.AAA

Now, here’s what you have done, and why it works: The name ‘A’ will be placed at the top of your address book as entry #1 …

This will be where the worm starts in an effort to spread to all your friends.

When it tries to send itself to AAAAAAA@AAA.AAA, it will be undeliverable because of the phony address you entered. If the first attempt fails (which it will, because of the phony address), the worm goes no further and none of your friends will be infected.

Here’s the second great advantage of this method: If an email cannot be delivered, you will be notified of this in your In Box almost immediately. Hence, if you ever get a notification that an email to AAAAAAA@AAA.AAA cannot be delivered, you know right away that you have the worm virus in your system. You can then take steps to get rid of it. Pretty slick huh?

If everybody you know does this, then you need never worry about opening mail from friends.

DO IT NOW and pass this on to all your friends!

 If you want to succeed online, then you really must have a website of your own                    And to get your site up on the web, you need a web host.

Now, you could get a free website and free hosting, but most free services then make their money by advertising on your website. You don’t want that.

The reality is that, for your long term success on the net, you want to invest in good quality web hosting and a good autoresponder service (such as Aweber). The good news is that you can get both for under $30 a month. Now that’s not much to pay for your own international business, is it?

I will write about autoresponders in another blog post. Right now, lets look at …

What you should expect from a web host

SQL (Structured Query Language) is the database language used by most web hosts. Just make sure you don’t end up with one of the few exceptions. Because you will need it when, for example, you want to set up a membership site. (And  soon you will probably want to have your own membership site!)

Next, make sure that your web host supports PHP. Don’t worry about what the letters stand for. Just know that this is a programming language that helps your website run more smoothly than one relying on HTML.

Ideally, you want a hosting package that offers unlimited disc space and bandwith.

Disc Space:You want plenty of disc space so you don’t have to worry about how much stuff you put on your site. I recommend 10 Gb. But you could start with 500 mb and upgrade later.

What exactly is Bandwith?

Well, everytime someone visits your website their computer downloads the header, pictures, text etc. All these downloads are added up during the month to determine how much bandwidth you have used.

If you exceed your limit, your website is likely to be shut down until you pay for more bandwith, or until the start of the next month.

Bandwidth is generally measured in Gigabytes. (1gb = 1,000 megabytes). You want a lot of gigabytes- 50gb minimum. Fortunately, you can get generous packages at reasonable rates.

Now, before long, you will probably want to have several websites. But you don’t want to be paying an extra monthly hosting fee for each one. You don’t have to! Just make sure your host allows you to have several, or ideally unlimited, add-on domains on your hosting account.

Finally, I recommend that you check that your host uses the most popular Control Panel, cPanel. This enables you to create databases, set up email accounts, upload files, password-protect directories, and so on.

What Hosts Do I Recommend?

www.hostgator.com  You may have read my criticism of Hostgator elsewhere, but the fact remains that this is one of the most successful and best value options available. Yes, it would help if you are fluent in mumbo-jumbo. However,to be fair, they do have a 24/7 helpline. Their support gets mixed reviews, but I can imagine their staff have a hardtime dealing with a lot of exasperated and probably irritated customers!

www.bluehost.com Now,I have not used this service myself, but their long list of awards speaks volumes … rated Number One Web Host and notably Best Support. What’s more, they have packages from just $6.95 with a free domain too. Got to be worth checking out.

But wait …

www.prohostmanagement.com They have packages from just $6 a month. But, particularly if you are a newbie, or a bit of a technophobe, look at their Unlimited Package! They offer a much more pro-active service than others. This includes monthly one-on-one and on-call website management for all of your websites. Need help with edits or tweaks? Website Marketing? They will work with you personally on your websites each month. That alone must be worth more than they are charging. And I am sure you will find Adam Spiel, the man behind the business, very helpful indeed.