TRACERT

Traceroute is a small program that follows the route a packet takes from your computer to any Internet host. As it moves, or “hops” (some folks also prefer to call it a “hub”) from one router to the next along the network path, it measures the time taken for the data packet to traverse between your computer and that particular hop in milliseconds. Traceroute works by sending out packets in an incremental order to the Time To Live (TTL). This counter, which is present on every single IP packet is then decreased by each router that touches the packet, and the packet is then rejected when the counter reaches zero (0). This counter is used to stop packets from being forwarded infinitely in a routing loop. When the counter gets to 0, the router sends a TTL Exceeded message back to the source IP so that the station knows packets are being rejected. A traceroute looks for those responses and uses it to build the list of hops it displays, with the 3 numbers you see being the return results from 3 test packets sent for each TTL. Generally, a traceroute report shows the website’s name and IP address of each hop, plus three samples of the time, measured in milliseconds, it took to reach that hop and get a response. It also counts the number of hops between your computer and the host you are tracing to. Each hop is displayed on its own numbered line.

Steps for windows are as follows.

(a) Click on “Start”, then “Run”

(b) In the text box you see type “cmd”. Click on “ok” when done.

(c) In the command prompt, type tracert yourdomainname.com

(d) Press enter.

On a Linux machine, the command is traceroute domainname.com

Lets look at a sample traceroute report

traceroute to google.com (64.233.187.99), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets

1 OVZ5 (**.***.***.***) 0.050 ms 0.034 ms 0.031 ms

2 ge-3-43_ge-3-46.lion.bsh.mhd.as29131.net ( **.***.***.***)) 0.708 ms 0.660 ms 0.659 ms

3 10ge-1-4.tiger.thn.lon.as29131.net (**.***.***.***)) 1.896 ms 1.563 ms 1.490 ms

4 78-33-11-213.no-dns-yet.enta.net (78.33.11.213) 1.260 ms 1.219 ms 1.180 ms

5 72.14.198.46 (72.14.198.46) 72.068 ms 1.204 ms 1.270 ms

6 209.85.252.40 (209.85.252.40) 1.370 ms 1.339 ms 209.85.252.42 (209.85.252.42) 1.264 ms

7 72.14.238.248 (72.14.238.248) 1.549 ms 72.14.236.216 (72.14.236.216) 69.104 ms 69.812 ms MPLS Label=126510 CoS=5 TTL=1 S=0

8 66.249.94.235 (66.249.94.235) 101.951 ms 89.042 ms 209.85.252.166 (209.85.252.166) 89.360 ms MPLS Label=382031 CoS=5 TTL=1 S=0

9 66.249.94.235 (66.249.94.235) 89.057 ms 72.14.238.138 (72.14.238.138) 86.629 ms 86.582 ms

10 72.14.236.15 (72.14.236.15) 88.120 ms 88.108 ms 72.14.238.138 (72.14.238.138) 104.223 ms MPLS Label=674605 CoS=5 TTL=1 S=0

11 216.239.49.222 (216.239.49.222) 99.338 ms 216.239.49.226 (216.239.49.226) 95.546 ms 95.031 ms

12 jc-in-f99.google.com (64.233.187.99) 88.383 ms 88.245 ms 64.233.174.117 (64.233.174.117) 95.398 ms

The above output indicates that it took twelve hops to reach the website www.google.com.

When using traceroute, examine each line of data. If the report indicates that all hops after a certain point are taking 200 or more milliseconds to complete, that point on the network path is likely experiencing congestion problems that are creating high latency. However, it is not unusual for some hops to show high latency values, yet not be experiencing any problems. Several traceroutes in a row must be run in order to accurately show the condition of the network.

8 * * *

9 * * *

10 * * *

11 * * *

12 * * *

If a sample could not be taken at all, traceroute will show an asterisk. If all hops beyond a certain point show only asterisks, then there may be an outage at that location. Note that some routers are programmed to block IP packets originating from traceroute utilities, so they will always show an asterisk. Traceroute may or may not be able to trace past that point, but this in itself does not indicate a problem.

If you do have a very high millisecond rate between each hop or if samples cannot be collected because of which the traceroute times out, then contact technical support for help.

PHP and ASP.NET are the two main scripting languages used by web developers. PHP is a multi-platform open-source language whilst ASP.NET is a single platform language built and owned by Microsoft. Both of these languages are packed full of features and add-ons for both are available so that you are able to extend their framework to build feature rich applications. Although PHP is open source, it has a large active community which is there to support users of the language; ASP.NET is a product of Microsoft meaning that there is a large amount of online documentation and other community forums where you can get support.

PHP

PHP is a language which has been around since 1984 and powers many of the world’s websites. It is free and is known as ‘open source’ software meaning that its source code is available for download, at no cost. It widely used in conjunction with the MySQL database engine, but can be used with others such as Oracle and SQLite. PHP is generally easier to code in than ASP.NET, since it has more functions built in than its rival; however, ASP.NET has built-in AJAX functions which is something that PHP lacks. Since PHP is open source, there is a number of applications that are available for free based on it, most of these applications are commonly used and are very powerful; also, there is a greater number of community forums and blogs where you are able to find information regarding PHP since it is open source.

PHP is a dynamic language since there are several different types of database that you are able to connect to, including: MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL and in some cases, Microsoft SQL Server. You are also able to edit the source of the language if you wish to speed it up or install custom modifications so that it is able to run as per your requirements; again, this is because it is open source - although ASP.NET is a free language, it isn’t open source meaning that you are unable to edit its source.

ASP.NET 

ASP.NET is a language based on classic ASP - both languages are owned and were created by Microsoft. Although it is a free language, it isn’t open source meaning that you are unable to view or edit the source code of it. Also, it is very limited in what database types you can use with it - Microsoft only invented it to work with Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL Server databases, although developers can use it with MySQL databases with the help of third party components. Classic ASP, ASP.NET’s forefather, was created back in the mid-1990s and is the base which ASP.NET has been built on. One thing which annoys many ASP.NET developers is the fact that Microsoft is forever releasing updates to the system, and in its course, changing things along the way meaning that in some cases, developers have to keep on learning the changes as well as the new components and functions which are being added.

Ecommerce is the collective name given to online shops, or any online practice where products are sold. Many businesses are slowly opening there own eCommerce stores - in other words, an online shop; if you are a business wanting to setup one then the process of doing so can be a complex one. You can either choose to use an existing eCommerce store system, or you can develop an in-house one; there are both free (open source) and premium (paid) eCommerce store solutions available, before you choose a system you should be aware of all your needs as well as all the different systems which fit your needs. Before beginning, you should identify all your needs within an online shop so that you are able to make informed choices.

Universal Needs

Once you have identified your needs, you will then need to identify the available eCommerce solutions which are able to fit your needs; there are universal needs which you should always take into consideration; there are: end-user accesibility, administration accessibility and search engine optimisation. Making sure that your shop is accessible for the end user is of the utmost importance, since you could be easily sued if a disabled person, or anyone for that matter can’t find their way around your shop with ease. In order to make your shop successful you want to make sure that the systems you look at are good with SEO; SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ and is the processed involved with optimising a website to gain traffic from search engines. You want to make sure that the administration interface is easy to use and navigate, to that colleagues or employees can find their way around it as well, thus allowing them to add products and administer the shop as well.

Looking at Solutions

Once you have worked out all your needs and have found the systems which suit them, you will need to start looking at the different types of systems which are available to you. Free and premium systems are all available with different features, although many add-ons are normally available for free systems; if you are a new shop and aren’t expecting to earn much when starting off, you should consider using a free system as many of them can be quite powerful and should suit your needs for months, or even years to come. If you are going to be running a shop receiving thousands of visitors, or are going to be listing a large amount of products, you should consider a premium system since they are normally more scalable than free systems and should serve your needs for as long as your business is running. The following is a list of free eCommerce systems which you should take a look at:

• OSCommerce - http://www.oscommerce.com
• Magento - http://www.magentocommerce.com

Premium systems to look at:

• Actinic - http://www.actinic.com
• CactuShop - http://www.cactushop.com

Every web host uses some sort of web-based billing system to ensure that their customers are able to be notified of new invoices, be able to pay them online as well have the ability to edit and update their contact information; there is a market for web host billing systems, although some companies prefer to build their own in-house solutions. Some of the current market leaders include ModernBill, ClientExec and WHMCS; all these systems contain multiple features, but all vary greatly from each other. Choosing a billing system can be a hard task because almost every system has many features and gateways built into it; however, if you work out which features you need then choosing a system can be made easy. The core features of most systems include automatic WHM account setup, automatic domain registration and invoice generation if a cron is used.

Identifying Your Needs

Identifying your needs is important when looking for a web host billing system; many systems have many features so it is important you know what you want when you are looking. Most web hosts require a billing system which has features such as a helpdesk, knowledgebase, downloads section and a client area where a client can manage things such as packages and invoices. You should also make sure that the systems you look at allow for styling and customisation so that you can change the design to match your site; if you choose to stay with the default design then clients are going to be more cautious about entering their personal details. You should also take security into consideration when choosing a system; some systems have known vulnerabilities, and warez copies are also available meaning that a hacker could easily hack a system by take advantage of one of the vulnerabilities, or by finiding a vulnerability in the package themselves; security should be something that is at the top of your list whilst looking for a billing system as you should always consider the confidentiality of the data which it will be storing. All web host billing systems come at a cost, but there are a few which are free as long as you don’t remove their coopyright notice from the footer of the pages; the following is a list of free web host billing systems:

• PHPCoin - http://www.phpcoin.com
• Adore 2.0 - http://freedownloadscenter.com/Web_Authoring/Automated_Web_Publishing_Tools/Free_Billing_Software_from_Adore.html

The following is a list of the most popular premium web host billing systems which are worth a closer look at:

• ModernBill - http://www.moderbill.com
• WHMCS - http://www.whmcs.com

The Final Choice

You should make your final choice based solely on your requirements; you don’t want to end up buying a package with not enough features, or one too feature packed you don’t know what you’re going to do with half of it. There are some features which all systems come with which can be easily waived, these include helpdesks and built-in knowledgebases; most hosts have another system for support features, such as Kayako or SupportTrio. When trying out billing systems, most web hosts only trial the administrator panel and not the client panel; your final decision should always be based on the client since you want to make sure that you keep your clients happy; it is for this reason that you should always trial the customer control panel as well to see if it is easy to use, if you find it easy to use then your clients will most likely find the same, which should keep them happy. If you are to use the built-in support solutions then you should always make sure that it is easily accessible from the client control panel; you should also ensure that you have email piping and cron jobs setup so that you are able to support your clients in a organised and respectful manner.

CMS stands for content management system; these are systems where you are able to create and modify web pages on the fly since they are database driven applications, most of the best known CMS solutions are open source meaning that they are free. By using a CMS you are able to create and edit the content on your website with easy from any internet connected location; with most CMS applications, add-ons are available allowing you to extend your system to cover many different functions. All systems come with a default design, but theming a CMS to suit the design you want can be done easily through the use of templates. You should only use a CMS if the content on your site needs regular updates, or if your site is a rather large one with alot of content; if you have a small website then a CMS will be of no benefit to you in anyway, it could become an annoyance in certain situations, for example if you’re not going to update your content regularly then you could end up forgetting the administrator password.

Choosing a CMS

Choosing CMS can be either an easy task, or a hard one; the decision of where it is easy or hard is based upon your requirements. If you have fairly simple requirements, for example what operating systems it can run on and whether it is XHTML compliant then you could be in for an easy search since there are CMS solutions available which will run on any operating system, and if the chosen system’s default template isn’t XHTML compliant then you can easily code yourself a custom template which you can make XHTML compliant if you wish. However, if your requirements are much more strict then you could end up having to pay for a premium CMS, or face a hard search for an open source CMS that fits your requirements.

There are universal factors which you should also take into consideration, such as whether the systems you are looking at are SEO friendly and how secure they are. SEO friendly CMS systems will convert your pages to friendly URLs such as ‘http://www.my-cms-site.com/new-article/cat-falls-down-drain-after-slipping-off-tree-branch’, in that case the CMS has taken the article title o ‘Cat Falls Down Drain After Slipping Off Tree Branch’ and converted it into a URL which search engines will consider friendly - these types of URLs can end up with a search engine such as Google giving you a higher rank. Security is also a big factor concerning CMS systems; open source systems are remarkebly insecure since they are available to anyone meaning that a hacker can easily get a copy and find the exploits within, once they have found the exploits they can then go on to targeting websites based on the system concerned; SQL injections are also easily executed on open source systems.

The following is a list of open source CMS systems which you should consider trying out:

• Joomla - http://www.joomla.org
• PHPNuke - http://www.phpnuke.org
• Drupal - http://www.drupal.org

You will find that all of the ones listed above are powered by PHP and MySQL; these two systems are used in most open source CMS, and both are available on most operating systems.

Installing a CMS 

Installing a CMS can be a very easy task; all you have to do is download the system, upload it to your web space via FTP, setup a blank database and then set permissions on some files to ‘777′ - thats the technical part done. Most systems have specially built setup wizards ready made to make the installation as easy as possible. There is also a range of open source CMS available for instant installation from the CMS category within Fantastico, if you are on cPanel based website hosting. The following is a list of free guides which you can use to help you install some of the most popular open souce CMS:

• How to Install Joomla - http://www.joomlatribune.com/joomla-tutorials/how-to-install-joomla-cms.html
• How to Install Drupal 5 (Videocast) - http://www.lullabot.com/videocast/installing_drupal_5
• How to Install PHPNuke - http://www.trap17.com/index.php/how-install-php-nuke_t22493.html
• How to Install Mambo - http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/mambo/mambo_installation.htm

Forums are online communities where people can join to become members and discuss topics with other members of the forum; forums are normally divided up into different ‘boards’ (also known as message boards) which are basically different categories where threads and topics can be opened. Many people would like to start a forum on their website simply because they know it will give their website an active community where all visitors can chat and discuss topics related to the website or any other subject that the webmaster wishes for them to discuss; however, starting one can be daunting business because of the many factors involved, such as the choosing of forum software and the skinning of the chosen package to match the existing website - also, many people with new or small websites don’t have the sufficient knowledge to market their forum, meaning that it isn’t fulfilling its potential.

Choosing Forum Software

Choosing the right forum software for your website can be hard because there are so many to choose from - some free, some premium. The quality of free forum software is often as high as premium software, the only difference being the type and quality of support that is receieved; free forum software if often supported by an active community of volunteers whereas its premium counterpart is supported by paid and trained individuals who are normally also available via phone support. The type of software you pick in the end is down to your requirements; if you run a small site with not many visitors then you should only really go with a piece of free forum software such as PHPBB; if your website receives a large number of visitors then you will most likely need a piece of premium software such as vBulletin which is scalable to a large number of visitors. Examples of free forum packages to get you started include:

• PHPBB - http://www.phpbb.com
• SMF - http://www.simplemachines.org
• MyBB - http://www.mybboard.net

Examples of premium forum packages which can scale up to a large amount of users include:

• vBulletin - http://www.vbulletin.com
• Invision Power Board - http://www.invisionpower.com

Marketing Your Forum

To make sure that your forum is successful you should take steps to promote to ensure that as many people as possible know about. You could try and utilize PPC programs such as Google Adsense or Yahoo Overture. If you already have a client base or a mailing list with many subscribers, then you could use that to email people who are signed up to let them know about your new forum; they will most likely join up and if the topics discussed are of high quality and interesting to read, they will most likely refer your forum to their friends who inturn shouls sign up. Link exchanges with other companies/websites is also becoming a popular way of promoting forums amongst other types of website; the more link exchanges you do, the more incoming links you will have, and the more incoming links you have the higher your Google PageRank will be. By having a high Google PageRank, you are more likely to be in the top pages and sections of search results meaning that you will get more visitors the higher your page rank is. The following is a list of PPC programs and link/banner exchanges which you should look at:

• Google Adsense - http://www.google.com/adense
• Yahoo Overture - http://www.overture.com
• Adbrite - http://www.adbrite.com
• UK Link Exchange - http://www.uklinkexchange.com
• Link Exchanged - http://www.linkexchanged.com

Conclusion

If you use the correct forum software which is applicable to the amount of visitors you receive and the type of forum/website which you will be running, along with the use of good SEO should make your forum successful. When building incoming links you should always aim for exchanging links with websites which are the same or similar to your website, so that the people who follow the links are more likely to be interested in your website.