What Does That Error Message Really Mean?

Surf the 'Net for about 10 minutes and chances rate very
high that you'll encounter an error of one kind or
another.

Whether the error message pops up on your own computer or
on a website loaded in your browser, knowing what the
error means can help you solve the problem much faster
and avoid hours of frustration (especially in a situation
where nothing you do will solve the problem).

The following represent some of the more common error
messages you may encounter while surfing the Internet and
what (if anything) you can do to correct the situation.

Error: 404 File Not Found

This means the web server cannot find the file or web
page you tried to pull up in your web browser.

Almost nothing you can do will correct this situation.
Try hitting your web browser's "Refresh" button to see if
the page will load. If not, email the website operator to
let them know of the problem and then move on.


Error: 500 Internal Error

This error usually occurs when you fill in a form on a
web page (contact form, shopping cart, feedback form) and
click the submit button.

This means the server or the script handling the form on
the server has a major problem. Again, there's nothing
you can do so just email the website owner and move on.

By the way, resubmitting the form a dozen times, banging
your hand on the keyboard, and yelling at your monitor
won't fix the problem!


Error: 408 Request Timeout

This error usually occurs when you try to download a huge
file or large web page and, for whatever reason, the
connection times out.

Simply hit your browser's "Refresh" button and it should
pick up the download again where you left off.

If not, contact the website owner and inform them of the
problem or check back later.


Error: Host Unavailable

Grab a cup of coffee on this one and fall back to reading
the newspaper.

You can try hitting your "Refresh" button a couple of
times, but, for all intents and purposes, this means the
server has gone down.

Try again in a few minutes on the off-chance you tried to
access the website just as the owners were restarting the
server or temporarily disconnected it from the Web.

If this doesn't work, the phone rates your best course of
action to contact the website owner since it's a safe bet
their email won't work either.


Error: Unable to Locate Host

This message usually means one of three things: the web
server is down; your Internet connection is dead; you
typed in the web address incorrectly.

To correct the problem, first try retyping the web
address into your browser's address bar. If that doesn't
work, try surfing over to another website to make sure
your connection is live.

If you can't load any websites, contact your Internet
service provider (ISP) for technical assistance.

As a general rule, if you encounter an error while
surfing the web, try these steps in order to fix the
problem:

1. Click your Web browser's "Refresh" button.

2. Verify that you typed in the correct URL (web address)

3. Close down and restart your Web browser completely.

4. Contact the website owner to alert them to the problem
or request help.

5. Contact your ISP for help.

Read more »

Tiscali Broadband

What Is ?

The name for Tiscali Broadband comes from a village in Sardinia. Tiscali Broadband is part of Tiscali Spa. Their headquarters are located in Cagliari, Italy. Tiscali is a provider of broadband in most of Europe, but they have the most subscribers in the UK. Tiscali is currently fourth in the rank of largest ISPs in the UK.

Tiscali has broadband connections at 1Mbps, and 2Mbps. They also give you a free connection and modem. Another perk is that they will allow you to download as much content as you would like, as they have no limit cap like some other ISPs.

The reputation of Tiscali as an ISP is not very good. The customer service with Tiscali has suffered along with all the other ISPs who lower their package costs to attract customers. Tiscali's call center, which is located in India, is expensive, inefficient and downright frustrating to use. They offer little real advice, and emailing Tiscali does not seem to work, either. Tiscali sends automated responses that do not solve your problem. People who don't believe that there are problems with Tiscali customer support quickly find out that it is a major problem. The email accounts at Tiscali are so loaded down with spam that this creates downtime and connection speed issues.

With BT opening their Local Loop phone line network, other ISPs now have the option to use their own equipment instead of BT's. This has been good for the other ISPs, because they can provide ADSL service cheaper and have a faster connection than in the past. This is how Tiscali has been able to have such competitive prices. Tiscali has set up their own line at each telephone exchange. The problems arise when a number of local residents try to use this small line, which is split among all of them. BT and the other services that continue to use their equipment have the advantage of using larger lines that are connected to the BT network. Tiscali's choice to set up their own equipment has a result of subscribers finding their connection is slow and their download speeds are also very limited. The speed of the connection for Tiscali subscribers is directly related to how many other subscribers are using the local Tiscali network. Tiscali plans to address this issue in the future, but many customers have become frustrated with Tiscali and moved to other broadband providers.

Tiscali has a Pay As You Go and unlimited dialup access that runs at 56kbps. Their service for this is currently cheaper than BT's. There is also a package that includes a mid-band speed of either 150kbps or 256kbps. Tiscali offers email, web space, and exclusive downloads and video channels with all their accounts, whether they are dialup or broadband.

Tiscali offers good prices, which is why they are the fourth largest broadband provider in the UK. Their top three packages are very similar to BT's. They also manage to stay close to their competitors in terms of speed and price.

The only thing that is considered reliable about Tiscali is that they are one of the cheapest options for broadband service. However, subscribers must put up with the poor reputation they have earned with their bad customer service and speed problems.

Read more »

Tips to Build Your Email Address Database

WHY BUILD YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS DATABASE?
Gaining your customers' email addresses will:

• Provide an additional channel for reaching your customers
• Increase the ROI of your marketing investments
• Significantly reduce your customer acquisition and marketing costs
• Allow you to easily measure the impact of your marketing campaigns
• Increase your customer participation and retention rates

With ongoing postal and telemarketing pressures impacting marketing budgets for many organizations this year, email marketing could become the "silver lining " for many marketers.   But how do you create a successful email marketing campaign if you do not have a substantial email database?  That question may be one of the largest Internet related challenges facing companies this year.
Research shows that the majority of organizations have email addresses for less than 10% of their postal files.  So how do you level the playing field and start to add quality permission - based email addresses to your database?
Here are some tips that you can use to cost effectively build your email address database and increase your customer participation and retention rates: 

START TO ASK FOR IT!  
Every communication or touch point with a customer should start or end with a request for an email address.   By utilizing the four points below, you should be able to add email addresses for 5% to 10% of your postal file over the course of one year.
1.  Direct Mail Collection
Think about how much time and money you spent for copy and design on your last new direct mail piece.  Most companies have started to ask their customers for their email address information within these mailings.  This is a great step forward. However, companies need to look at one major improvement if they want to increase their email address collection rates. 
To date, most requests for email address information have been pushed, shoved or jammed into whatever white space remains.  It should be no surprise that the success rate has been less than stellar.
To improve on these efforts, you need to provide your members with a reason to release their email addresses to you.  E-newsletters, purchase confirmations, petitions, and special discounts and offers are but a few of the benefits that will encourage your members to come on board.
2.  Web Page Collection
Many companies have an email address collection function in place via the web.  To improve your sign-up rates, add text below the email request box that informs your visitors of the special email benefits that they will receive (i.e. e-newsletters, purchase confirmations, delivery updates, etc.) upon registering.  You can also utilize a pop-up link to inform users of these special benefits.
Finally, your email address request function should be available on your home page. Don't make your users go and look for it.  Every click away from your home page reduces the chances of your users taking an action and providing you with their email address information.
3.  Existing Email Database Collection
Don't forget to ask the members of your existing customer base for email addresses of their friends, family and associates.  Viral marketing is a powerful tool to use and is extremely cost effective!  You could ask them either to provide you with additional addresses or simply to pass on your newsletter, email specific offers, or other information to others they feel have similar interests.
4.  Telemarketing Collection
Don't assume that your telemarketing agents are asking for email addresses from potential customers.  Ensure that your agents have an updated script, which outlines the previously described benefits to potential customers of providing their email addresses.
The suggestions above are a great start!  Yet they really should be viewed as a secondary plan for building your email database.  To exponentially and expeditiously grow your email database, please read on!

EMAIL APPENDING  
Utilizing an email appending service enables you to add email addresses for up to 25% of your postal file, all within 3-4 weeks.
Email Appending - is the process of adding an individual's email address to that individual's postal record in side your existing database.  This is accomplished by matching the postal database against a third party, permission based database of postal and email address information.
Best Practices - Email Appending is not a prospecting tool. The DMA (Direct Marketing Association) and its interactive arm AIM (Association of Interactive Marketing) have guidelines in place that dictate that email appending only be used to append email addresses to your existing opt-in postal record house file.
The Process - Your opt-in postal file is securely transferred to an email appending provider, who will do an initial gross email address match of your file against its opt-in database of postal and email address records.  Your appending provider will then send these matches a permission-based message prepared by you.  All bounces and opt-out requests will be removed from the list.  At that point a valid permission-based email address file of your customers will be delivered back to you. 
Cost - Less than the price of a postal stamp!

IN SUMMARY
The first step of any successful email marketing effort is to build a permission-based email address list of your customers.  The simplest, quickest and most cost-effective way to do this is through email appending, which will enable you to add email addresses for up to 25% of your postal file.  Secondary efforts of email address collection via focused direct mail, web, viral and telemarketing practices are also important and will enable you to add email addresses for an additional 5% to 10% of your base on an annual basis.
Best of luck in building your email address database.  As many companies have already learned, the ROI and cost savings to be achieved will far exceed your expectations.

Read more »

The Linux File System

Permission is granted for the below article to forward,
reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website,
offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long
as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the
resource box below is included.
-----------------------------------------------------------
The Linux File System

By Stephen Bucaro

Linux uses a whole different file system philosophy than
Windows. Windows automatically assigns a drive letter to
every partition and drive it finds. But Linux makes every
partition and drive a subdirectory of the root (/)
partition. If you are a Windows user, you may get confused
when you try to use Linux.

No matter how many partitions, hard drives, or floppy
drives your computer has, the Linux File Manager displays
everything in a single directory tree under the root
directory indicated by a slash (/). Every partition or
drive is "mounted" onto the directory tree, and appears in
File Manager as a subdirectory.

Linux needs at least three partitions to work, the root
partition, the /boot partition, and the swap partition.
The root partition is mounted at startup. The root
directory itself doesn't contain any files, just
subdirectories. The /boot partition contains files used to
boot the system. The swap partition is used as "virtual
memory".

When the operating system needs more memory than there is
available in the system's RAM, it can use disk space to
emulate memory. As the system operates, data is swapped
back and forth between RAM and the swap partition. The
swap partition doesn't have a mount point because it's a
system file and is never accessed directly by the user.

Note: Linux, the Internet, and the rest of the computing
world use forward slashes to form directory paths. Only
Windows uses back-slashes to form directory paths. The
back-slash also represents an ASCII escape character,
resulting in all kinds of bugs in Windows programs.

In Windows you just insert a floppy disk into the drive and
it's accessible. With Linux, before you can access devices
such as a CD ROM or a floppy drive, you have to "mount"
the drive. For example, to mount the floppy drive, insert
the disk into the drive and then select Main Menu |
Programs | System | Disk Manager. The "User Mount Tool"
utility will appear. In the "User Mount Tool" click on the
"Mount" button to the right of /dev/fd0.

Note: Linux abstracts every device attached your computer,
including the hard drive and floppy drive as a file. Files
in the /dev/ folder are equivalent to device driver files
in Windows. Linux provides device files for most common
devices, but if you install an uncommon device, you may
need a special device file.

After mounting the drive, you can access the floppy disk.
Before removing the disk, you have to "unmount" the drive.
If you find yourself frequently mounting and unmounting
drives, you can right-click on "Disk Manager" in the menu
and select "Add this launcher to panel".

When you installed Linux, information about devices on
computer was stored in the file /etc/fstab. If the device
that you want to mount was not configured during
installation, use the LinuxConf utility to configure the
device before you mount it.

For example, if you wanted to configure a floppy drive to
access DOS floppy disks, insert a DOS floppy disk into the
drive, then log in as root and open LinuxConf - Main Menu
| Programs | System | LinuxConf. In the LinuxConf window
Config tab, click on "+" next to "File systems" to open
that branch. Under "File systems" click on "Access local
drive". The "Local volume" windows appears.

In the "Local volume" window, click on the Add button. The
"Volume specification" window appears. In the "Partition"
text box type /dev/fd0. Then click on the drop down button
for the "Type" text box and select msdos. In the "Mount
point" text box type /mnt/floppy. Click on the "Accept"
button. Then click on the "Mount" button.

Note: To mount a partition or drive you have to use an
existing subdirectory as the mount point. By convention,
drives use the /mnt/ subdirectory as the mount point.

To copy files to and from the mounted floppy disk, drag
and drop them to and from the directory /mnt/dosfloppy
just as you would any other directory.

Read more »

Making Sense of ISP Provider Choices

Choosing an ISP provider can be an overwhelming and confusing task. How do you make sense of all the thousands of plans that are available to ensure that you make the right choice for you and your family? What do you need to look for in an ISP provider that will guarantee that you get the maximum value for your money and a smooth connection?

When choosing an ISP provider you need to look for one that has a long track record with customers and provides software upgrades periodically. This will show you that they are concerned with increasing the ease and quickness of your connection and internet surfing. The long track record will give you that feeling of stability and consistency of using an established ISP provider that you can trust, rather than some cheap fly-by-night provider that will only offer you disconnections or no connection when you need it.

You also need to read the fine print of the contract. Can you stay online for periods of time or will it automatically cut you off of the internet after a specific time period? How many email addresses are allowed for each account? If there are not enough for everyone in your family that needs to have one, then this may not be the plan for you. Do you have to stay with this ISP provider for a specific period of time or can you terminate the provider at any time without a penalty?

Customer service can be a very important tool for you if you have any internet problems. Is their customer service line toll-free? Is it open 24/7? Check on their quality and response by calling to ask questions about their internet service.

You need to check access numbers if it is a dial-up service to ensure that there is a local number you can use for your service. If you travel, you want to make sure there is a wide variety of area codes available or, even better, a toll free number for you to use when traveling.

The most important thing is to research different companies and compare them side by side to see which company is right for you and your family. The cheapest provider will not necessarily give you the best internet experience. Don't base your choice solely on price or you may experience more internet disruptions and disconnections than smooth service. Whether you choose AOL, Juno, Earthlink, or one of the other thousands of ISP providers available, make the best choice for your intended internet experience to get the best deal for you money!

Read more »

Help Keep the Computers on Earth Clean and Healthy

“Aaaaaahhhhhh! I’ve been invaded by a virus!” Getting a virus means getting sick and no one in their right mind wants to be ill. Well, now that computers have become our close friends, it’s a shock to learn that foreign bodies too can invade them with malicious intent. No, your computer doesn’t get a runny nose or diarrhea. This is a sickness that stops your friend from functioning properly, sick in bed, incapacitated.

Well in Nature viruses occur from a power outside of our control. But, with computers it’s different, humans, mean or ignorant humans are creating these viruses. Why? Usually these are disgruntled people who want to wreak some havoc on others or companies that they feel have done wrong to them. In any case we have to be in the know and prepared to deal with these debilitating scourges.

There are many ways to approach the protection of your computer. First of all there’s the step of awareness. Be aware of how viruses are transmitted. You can catch them from a disc but in most cases it is through your email system. Check your email carefully. Be very wary of anything that has an attachment. Check whom it’s from and look at the title of the mail, is it something you were expecting? Even if it’s from someone you know, be careful as their computer could be infected and the virus being transmitted without their knowledge.

Next, read the cover message, you can’t catch the disease without actually opening the message. Look at the name of the attachment; remember viruses are written to entice you. Beware of free offers and generally anything from people you don’t know, as well as messages that sound irrelevant to your contact’s usual style. Delete them straight away. Delete, delete, delete. This will ensure you of a lower risk of infection. You can even send the message back to the sender without opening it to make sure it is valid.

Now for the heavy protection: Virus scanning and virus protection software, and rescue discs are all readily available and easily utilized. Some are free, and others are obtained for a very small charge. Most software manufacturers offer subscriptions for updating services, which automatically download protection to the latest viruses.

There are two main types of virus scanning software: one searches through your entire computer files looking for recognizable viral signatures, the other scans your incoming and outgoing emails. Alerts will show you when a file needs to be erased or repaired. If you do receive a virus that none of the software can repair you can send a copy of it to a company like Symantec who will be happy to develop a cure for it.

The main message here is not to get too worried about your good friend Mrs. PC getting ill or sick. The humans are on top of the case and they seem much better adapted at fixing their technology than they are at beating the viruses that attack our physical bodies. If only we could cure human virus and illness as easily as we solve the problem of computer sickness.

Read more »