Help with your server and website : Web Services Group

What is Java?

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:34:00 +0000

Java is an entire programming language resembling C or C++. It takes a sophisticated programmer to create Java code. And it requires a sophisticated programmer to maintain it. With Java, you can create complete applications. Or you can attach a small group of instructions, a Java “applet” that improves your basic HTML.

Running Java in a browser requires the Oracle Java runtime to be installed. This can be downloaded from http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp

Java should not be confused with JavaScript, which is commonly used to enhance the browsing experience through more interactive pages.

What is NSLOOKUP?

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:33:26 +0000

NSLOOKUP is a utility that enables a user to look up an IP address of a domain or host on a network.

This facility is offered to customers through the ‘Web Diagnostics’ section in your Web Services Group Control Panel.

What are cookies?

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:33:02 +0000

A cookie is a simple name-value pair stored by a browser, often a session ID.

The main purpose of cookies is to identify users and possibly prepare customised Web pages for them. When you enter a Web site using cookies, you may be asked to fill out a form providing such information as your name and interests. This information is packaged into a cookie and sent to your Web browser which stores it for later use. The next time you go to the same Web site, your browser will send the cookie to the Web server. The server can use this information to present you with custom Web pages. So, for example, instead of seeing just a generic welcome page you might see a welcome page with your name on it.

What is PING?

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:32:36 +0000

PING is a utility that determines whether a specific IP address is accessible. It works by sending a packet to the specified address and waiting for a reply. PING is used primarily to troubleshoot Internet connections.

This facility is offered to customers through the ‘Web Diagnostics’ section in your Web Services Group Control Panel.

What is WAP?

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:32:03 +0000

WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) is a communications protocol that allows mobile phones and other wireless terminals to access the Internet. WAP uses an XML (eXtensible Markup Language) syntax called WML (Wireless Markup Language).

WAP webpages can only be viewed by WAP enabled mobile phones and WAP compatible web browsers. Current Web browsers such as Internet Explorer and Netscape are not yet able to view these pages. You will need to use a specially configured browser to see WML webpages.

We have installed the necessary software on our web servers to enable WML and WMLScript to be served from our web hosting accounts. All WAP content must be named with the appropriate extension as follows.

Extension Content Type
.wml – WML Source
.wmls – WML Script
.wbmp – Wireless Bitmap

What is JavaScript?

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:31:26 +0000

JavaScript is a web scripting language used to make web pages more interactive by allowing pages to change without having to reload the page – it’s entirely client-side, so compatibility is with the browser rather than the hosting platform. Internet Explorer typically interprets JavaScript differently from other browsers for historical reasons.

JavaScript is different from Java – JavaScript does not require the Oracle JRE to run.

What is ‘Traceroute’?

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:30:59 +0000

Trace (also known as Traceroute or TRACERT in Windows) is a utility that traces a the route that IP (Internet Protocol) packets take from your computer to an internet host, showing how many hops the packet requires to reach the host and how long it takes to reach each router. If you’re visiting a Web site and pages are appearing slowly, you can use traceroute to figure out where the longest delays are occurring.

The original traceroute is a UNIX utility, but nearly all platforms have something similar. Windows includes a traceroute utility called tracert. In Windows, you can run tracert by selecting Start->Run then typing “cmd” into the ‘Open’ field box, and then entering tracert followed by the domain name of the host. For example:

tracert www.pcwebopedia.com

Traceroute utilities work by sending sequential IP packets with incremental time-to-live (TTL) fields. The TTL value sets a maximum number of hops the packet can go through before it is rejected as an ‘expired’ packet. When this happens, the last router which received the packet returns a ‘TTL expired’ ICMP packet, which reveals the router’s IP address, and by comparing the time when the packet was sent out and the time the ‘TTL expired’ packet came back an estimated time to reach that router can be calculated.

By sending a series of packets and incrementing the TTL value with each successive packet, traceroute finds out who virtually all the intermediary hosts are.

This facility is offered to customers through the ‘Web Diagnostics’ section in your Web Services Group Control Panel.

Notes:

- The time quoted – RTT (round trip time) – is the time it took the packet to reach the router in question, plus the time it took the router to send an error message back. Since the route back might not be identical to the route to get there, this value is not necessarily equal to double the time it took the packet to reach the router.

- Don’t worry if one or two of the middle hops show:
2 * * *
…or similar, as that often just indicates a router configured to not reply via ICMP.

- The main number you should be concerned with is the RTT for the last hop. Anything under 60 ms is fast, and anything under about 300ms is perfectly usable.

- Windows tracert.exe and UNIX traceroute differ in that tracert.exe sends ICMP echo packets, while traceroute sends UDP data packets, see below.

- RTT is not an indication of transfer speed or available bandwidth, although a router under bandwidth pressure is more likely to drop ICMP packets or provide very slow replies to them.

What is Linux?

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:30:08 +0000

Linux is a UNIX-like operating system that was designed to provide personal computer users a free or very low-cost operating system comparable to traditional and usually more expensive UNIX systems. Linux has a reputation as a very efficient and fast-performing system.

Linux’s kernel (the central part of the operating system) was developed by Linus Torvalds at the University of Helsinki in Finland. To complete the operating system, Torvalds and other team members made use of system components developed by members of the Free Software Foundation for the GNU Project.

What FTP details does Joomla require?

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:29:04 +0000

If you wish to set up Joomla to work with your FTP server, you will need the FTP details:

Server : ftp.yourdomainname.com
Username: yourdomainname.com
Password: FTP/eXtend password
FTP Root: /

How do I run scheduled tasks (CRON) on my account?

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:28:37 +0000

Scheduled tasks (also known as CRON jobs) can be setup in Web Services Group. This feature (where available in your account type) allows you to enable a program to run automatically on the server, you can set your program to run every hour, daily, weekly or monthly. We allow up to 3 CRON jobs per account, a CRON job cannot be run more than once an hour maximum.

To setup a scheduled task simply log into your Web Services Group Control Panel, select ‘Web Tools’ and follow the instructions for ‘Scheduled Tasks’.