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How disabled users access the Internet
In 1995 a new era of accessibility for disabled people began. The Disability Discrimination Act was passed, stating that: “It is unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person by refusing to provide any service which it...
Internet Conferencing - Advantages
Nobody works in complete isolation. In virtually all lines of business, contact with other people will be required in some capacity. Whether it is meeting with clients or colleagues; presenting new ideas or products; or giving or receiving...
Kill The Messenger (Service)
You are familiar with the software applications that you run on your computer, but you may not be familiar with the dozens of programs running in the background on your computer. These programs, called "services" handle tasks like event logging,...
Protective Software for Shareware Users
Shareware and freeware users have a solution to the multiple spyware problems they run into with Paretologic's Xoftspy Spyware Remover.
Sources from the company said their product is for anyone who surfs the internet or shares their internet...
X-Cart: Shopping Cart Software
There are some common problems that every shopping cart owner
face like the ecommerce solution is suitable for the business or
not. The features of software should match the software of
business. These types of problems are faced by various...
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Web Surfing: 404 Errors
We've all received an error like the one shown below:
File not found - requested URL not found on this server
It's annoying, especially when you've searched for something and found what looks like the perfect site. At least the description exactly matches your needs. You click and boom, a 404 error appears. Whoops. What happened to that perfect site?
There are several reasons why this error occurs. I guess the thing that you need to remember is the internet is very fluid. In fact, it changes constantly. Sometimes a site is changing while you are looking at it. I can remember several times I was examining a site and returned to a page that I had seen only moments before and found it to be different! That can be very unnerving, to say the least.
So what sometimes happens is a webmaster changes his site around and obsoletes links. If he's a rank amateur, he'll break links within his own site. This does happen sometimes, but any webmaster worth his salt is constantly checking and rechecking his site to be sure it works and works well. After all, the only way to test something is to use it. And the only way to see if a site really works is to surf it.
More often, someone has linked to a site and that site changes. Since it can be difficult if not impossible to determine who has linked to a site, links break.
Now, really good webmasters never ever delete a page on their site. What they do is create redirect pages. Thus, if I have a page called "barbi.htm" and I want to delete it, I will modify the page to tell the visitor it no longer exists and redirect him to another page in my site. This way I will not loose traffic simply because I've deleted or renamed a page.
This constant checking of one's own web site will also catch another common error: misspelling a hyperlink. When I create a hyperlink, I either browse to the target using my web editor, or I cut and paste the link directly out of Internet Explorer. I never type the hyperlink in myself, which
reduces the possibility of error greatly!
Also common is the webmaster who does not understand that many servers are case sensitive. This means that "Richard" is not the same as "richard". You will see this sometimes if a webmaster moves a site from a server which is not case sensitive (VAX/OpenVMS) to one that is (Unix).
Sometimes a site simply moves to another host. This frequently happens when a site outgrows it's host. I know of one site that had to move several times because it's bandwidth demands became huge! According to the webmaster this site was getting tens of thousands of visitors every day, and all of them were downloading tremendous amounts of pictures. He was booted off one server with no notice and no backup and had to rebuild his site from scratch! This kind of event will certainly cause 404 errors!
More rarely, a webmaster has been in the process of uploading his site when his upload software crashed. This may leave broken links for a short time until the problem is fixed.
Generally an ISP will provide, at least for a short time, a redirect page to a new site. You will see this as a "My site has moved. If you are not transported in 10 seconds click here" message.
And of course some sites simply shut down. This is actually getting more rare as it's often more expensive for an ISP to delete old data than it is simply to prevent updates.
Search engines are notorious for their broken links. You have to remember th at most search engines only examine web sites every month or so (sometimes the delay is as long as six months). Because of this, all of the above problems can occur, leaving broken links.
About the Author
Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets. This website includes over 1,000 free articles to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge. Web Site Address: http://www.internet-tips.net Weekly newsletter: http://www.internet-tips.net/joinlist.htm Daily Tips: mailto:internet-tips@GetResponse.com
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Tucows Downloads - Download Freeware and Shareware Software |
Download freeware, shareware, and demos. Maintains over 45000 software titles that are tested, rated, reviewed and ready to download. |
www.tucows.com |
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Free Software Downloads and Software Reviews - Download.com |
Download shareware, freeware and Demo software for PC, Mac, Linux, and Handhelds categorized into categories, plus software reviews. |
www.download.com |
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Computer software - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
This includes application software such as a word processor, which enables a ... Application software is often purchased separately from computer hardware. ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
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Shareware.com - Search for shareware programs and free software ... |
Search for shareware programs from more than a dozen downloadable software directories. |
www.shareware.com |
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Jumbo: Free & Shareware MP3 files, Games, Screen Savers & Computer ... |
Source of free and shareware computer programs and utilities for PC and Mac. Evaluate software and read product reviews. Download games and screen savers. |
www.jumbo.com |
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Computer Software in the Yahoo! Directory |
Browse categories featuring sites devoted to computer software, including shareware and freeware download sites, operating systems, desktop customization, ... |
dir.yahoo.com |
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IEEE Software |
IEEE Computer Society's magazine covering all aspects of software, including software engineering. |
www.computer.org |
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Free Downloads on ZDNet | Shareware, Trialware, Evaluation Software |
ZDNet's Software Directory is the Web's largest library of software downloads. Covering software for Windows, Mac, and Mobile systems, ZDNet's Software ... |
downloads.zdnet.com |
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FSF - The Free Software Foundation |
Free software is a matter of liberty not price. Think of "free" as in "free speech". |
www.fsf.org |
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Apple - Software |
Software products for your digital life. ... The perfect addition for professional review. QuickTime Broadcaster. Encoding software for live events. ... |
www.apple.com |
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Open Directory - Computers: Software |
In Partnership with AOL Search. about dmoz | report abuse/spam | help. the entire directory, only in Computers/Software. Top: Computers: Software (38471) ... |
dmoz.org |
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freshmeat.net: Welcome to freshmeat.net |
About: The Web browser is probably the most frequently used software today, ... Web professionals can use the software for functional testing and regression ... |
freshmeat.net |
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Software - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF) |
Listing of the GNU software packages. |
www.gnu.org |
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Sun Software |
Get enterprise-class software--Solaris 10 OS, the Java Enterprise System, ... Sun Java StorageTek Software reduces cost and complexity with a single, ... |
www.sun.com |
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Internet Real Estate.com -- owns and operates a portfolio of the ... |
SOFTWARE.COM · SWEEPSTAKES.COM · PHONE.COM PODCAST.COM ... Software.com | Sweepstakes.com | Phone.com | Podcast.com | Shop.com | Safety.com ... |
www.internetrealestate.com |
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Joel on Software |
A weblog by Joel Spolsky, a programmer working in New York City, about software and software companies. |
www.joelonsoftware.com |
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Amazon.com Software: Computer & video games, business, accounting ... |
Online shopping for computer & video games, business & office productivity software, software from Microsoft, Apple, Adobe & more; accounting, antivirus, ... |
www.amazon.com |
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IBM Software - Home Page |
IBM home page for all of its software products, including Lotus and Tivoli, with keyword search, category browse and AZ product names. |
www.ibm.com |
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Opera web browser: Homepage |
Copyright © 2006 Opera Software ASA. All rights reserved. Skip navigation. Opera Software ... Copyright Opera Software ASA . All rights reserved. ... |
www.opera.com |
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Google Directory - Computers > Software |
Search only in Software Search the Web ... Software Categorized by Letter: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ... |
www.google.com |
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