Web Server Monitoring Goes to Australia

January 31, 2006, Plymouth, Minnesota -- Dotcom-Monitor has just added Sydney as its newest web server monitoring location, bringing executive class monitoring to Australia.

"Companies need to know how their web sites respond to customer usage," says Vadim Mazo, CEO of Dotcom-Monitor. "Adding the Sydney monitoring station means they will now be alerted if their web site is inaccessible or slow to Australian customers."

The Sydney's monitoring station is a robot that visits a company's web site, simulating a human visitor, and performs various functions, including surfing, form-testing, shopping cart usage, etc. Performance speed, accessibility and response times simulate a human user's experience.

Companies depend on remote web server performance monitoring to respond quickly to emergencies (such as an order form no working), as well as to plan for long term upgrades to ensure maximum satisfaction for customers. It is estimated that $20 to $40 billion is lost each year from users who abandon slow loading web sites.

Global web site monitoring secures customers world-wide

Global marketers understand that web sites respond differently in different parts of the world due to trans-Atlantic connections, bottlenecks, the quality of local connections, etc. "Just because a web site performs well in New Jersey, does not mean a customer in Sydney or London benefits from the same performance," Mr. Mazo says. "Monitoring your web servers from Sydney will tell you if you need to make changes to better serve your Australian market."

While only 13% of U.S. home users still use sub-56K Internet connections, that number is much higher in less developed countries, meaning web sites optimized for U.S. customers might not perform well overseas.

Sydney is the tenths monitoring station in Dotcom-Monitor's global network. The other five sites are:

- London, UK - Minnesota, USA - New York, USA - California, USA - Florida, USA - Calgary, Canada - Colorado, USA - Frankfurt, Germany - Honk Kong, China

Dotcom Monitor is an executive class website monitoring company, offering top performance services above and beyond the norm in the industry. Since 1998, its goal remains to protect the reputation and profitability of online business by bringing together monitoring, reporting, notification, escalation and analysis in the combination best suited to a company's needs.

About Dotcom Monitor: Dotcom Monitor is an executive class website and network monitoring company, offering top performance services above and beyond the norm in the industry, including website load stress testing introduced in 2004 (offered by very few monitoring companies). Since 1998, Dotcom Monitor has been protecting the reputation and profitability of businesses online by bringing together monitoring, reporting, notification, escalation and analysis in the combination best suited to a company's needs. Visit the website at www.dotcom-monitor.com or get more details about website monitoring services at www.dotcom-monitor.com/web-site-monitoring.asp. Get information on network monitoring at www.dotcom-monitor.com/network-monitoring.asp.

Johan Jacobsson is a marketing and SEO consultant at Dotcom-Monitor.com, a web-server monitoring company.

Update Your Entire Website Instantly Using Server Side Includes

Imagine my plight... I have 100+ pages on my website and I have to change my e-mail address and the copyright info on all the pages. The reason...

My mail box is over-flown with junk mails.

My only option is to edit all my web pages offline and then upload each one of them again, not to mention countless errors I make in the process.

100+ pages is still a small website. Imagine what it will be like if my website had 1000+ pages?

Sounds scary right?

If you would like to avoid the kind of mess I'm in right now, you have one option. Start using "Server Side Includes (SSI)"

In technical jargon, Server Side Includes are directives which you can place into your HTML documents to execute other programs or output such data as environment variables and file statistics.

If your only intention is to manage your website more effectively and painlessly, it is more than enough if you learn one "Directive" of SSI - the "Include" directive.

In simple terms, SSI Include is a line of code which you can use in your HTML documents to include contents from other documents. In other words, change just one file (the Include file), and your ENTIRE SITE is instantly updated!

The basic syntax of an Include directive is:

Where PATH_TO is the "VIRTUAL" path to include file on your server.

Here's how to include your copyright info and navigation links using SSI Includes...

First, you need to check with your server administrator whether your server supports SSI or not. Most servers support them.

Second, you need to rename all your HTML files with extension .shtml

-----SIDE BAR-----
You can start with one file and if everything goes fine, rename rest of the files. -----SIDE BAR-----

To keep things organized, you can create a directory at the root level called "includes" to house all of your included files. Now create a HTML document with only your copyright and navigation links. Copy everything that is between the BODY tags of this document and paste it in a new file.

Save this file as nav.html or any name you like with extension .htm or .html. You need not save this file with .shtml extension. Now upload this file to your "include" directory which you created for housing SSI Includes.

To include copyright info and navigation links in a HTML document in your SITE ROOT, place the following code where you want the copyright info to be seen:

Now if you want to include copyright info and navigation links in a HTML document in a folder UNDER your site root, the code will change to:

...and so on.

If you want to change or edit your copyright info or navigation links, just edit and upload your nav.html file and the change will be reflected in all the documents (using the "Include code") instantly!

You can also create your website headers/footers using SSI Includes.

There are host of other cool things you can do with SSI. For more info on SSI, you can visit the following sites:

http://www.useforesite.com/tut_ssi.shtml http://wdvl.com/Authoring/SSI/Intro/index.html http://www.bignosebird.com/ssi.shtml

Vishal Rao publishes an informative e-zine: iNet Profits. Subscribe to his e-zine and get his free e-mail course: "11 Killer Strategies To Explode Your Online Profits", by sending a blank e-mail to => sub@inetprofits.par32.com

Web Hosting Server - What to look for

As with any service, the question of what to look for in server hosting packages depends largely on the goals you have. If you have a company in need of a server host, your needs are naturally going to be much different than if you are an individual looking for a server host.



To get a basic understanding of what to look for in server hosting packages, you should first understand what is meant by server hosting. On a very basic level, computers simply communicate with other computers in order to get information delivered to your screen. In order to view any Internet page - including this one - you either ran a search or typed in an Internet address and the page appeared. In order for the page to appear on your screen, your computer communicated the request to another computer. In this situation, your computer is called a "client" or "user" computer. The other computer is called the "server" computer. A server host is a company that provides some services for those server computers, usually in the form of housing the computers, maintaining hardware and sometimes even maintenance of programming.

If you have a company and are in the market for server hosting packages, you first need to make a list of your specific requirements. Amount of space, services and speed are probably among the most important aspects of what to look for in server hosting packages. As you decide what you want from your server host, you should consider not only the current needs but also the future needs of your company. Do you expect to expand some day? Are you going to need a bigger website with more features at some point? Sometimes, web hosts limit users to "static" websites, while others allow for interactive sites. Remember that an interactive web page will typically require more space but will be more likely to draw visitors to stop by again.

Especially if you have no one on staff who is computer savvy, server maintenance, website design and other services might be an important part of what to look for in server hosting packages. It could be a great benefit to you if you can describe what you want and be handed a finished project, ready to start serving customers. Remember that your business will not likely stay exactly the same and you might find yourself in need of additional services - interactive website design, increased security or greater flexibility in e-mail accounts. Finding a server hosting pack from a company that can provide any services you might need is important for a fledgling company. It's also a good idea to assure yourself as much as possible that the company you choose to be your server host can keep pace if your company does grow.

As you consider other things to look for in server hosting, remember that you are the customer and the company you are considering should have great customer service. You should read reviews on many of the major server hosts, and you can likely find others who are using that server host and will attest to the reliability (or unreliability, as the case may be) of the company's dedication to solving problems in a timely manner. After all, even the best hosting in the world isn't going to benefit you if you can't get problems solved.


Brian Thorn is an avid internet enthusiast who writes easy-to-understand articles about web hosting. Also check out: cheap web hosting package, internet service provider hosting and email domain hosting.

Update Your Entire Website Instantly Using Server Side Includes

Imagine my plight... I have 100+ pages on my website and I have to change my e-mail address and the copyright info on all the pages. The reason...

My mail box is over-flown with junk mails.

My only option is to edit all my web pages offline and then upload each one of them again, not to mention countless errors I make in the process.

100+ pages is still a small website. Imagine what it will be like if my website had 1000+ pages?

Sounds scary right?

If you would like to avoid the kind of mess I'm in right now, you have one option. Start using "Server Side Includes (SSI)"

In technical jargon, Server Side Includes are directives which you can place into your HTML documents to execute other programs or output such data as environment variables and file statistics.

If your only intention is to manage your website more effectively and painlessly, it is more than enough if you learn one "Directive" of SSI - the "Include" directive.

In simple terms, SSI Include is a line of code which you can use in your HTML documents to include contents from other documents. In other words, change just one file (the Include file), and your ENTIRE SITE is instantly updated!

The basic syntax of an Include directive is:

Where PATH_TO is the "VIRTUAL" path to include file on your server.

Here's how to include your copyright info and navigation links using SSI Includes...

First, you need to check with your server administrator whether your server supports SSI or not. Most servers support them.

Second, you need to rename all your HTML files with extension .shtml

-----SIDE BAR-----
You can start with one file and if everything goes fine, rename rest of the files. -----SIDE BAR-----

To keep things organized, you can create a directory at the root level called "includes" to house all of your included files. Now create a HTML document with only your copyright and navigation links. Copy everything that is between the BODY tags of this document and paste it in a new file.

Save this file as nav.html or any name you like with extension .htm or .html. You need not save this file with .shtml extension. Now upload this file to your "include" directory which you created for housing SSI Includes.

To include copyright info and navigation links in a HTML document in your SITE ROOT, place the following code where you want the copyright info to be seen:

Now if you want to include copyright info and navigation links in a HTML document in a folder UNDER your site root, the code will change to:

...and so on.

If you want to change or edit your copyright info or navigation links, just edit and upload your nav.html file and the change will be reflected in all the documents (using the "Include code") instantly!

You can also create your website headers/footers using SSI Includes.

There are host of other cool things you can do with SSI. For more info on SSI, you can visit the following sites:

http://www.useforesite.com/tut_ssi.shtml http://wdvl.com/Authoring/SSI/Intro/index.html http://www.bignosebird.com/ssi.shtml

Vishal Rao publishes an informative e-zine: iNet Profits. Subscribe to his e-zine and get his free e-mail course: "11 Killer Strategies To Explode Your Online Profits", by sending a blank e-mail to => sub@inetprofits.par32.com

Dedicated Hosting Servers

Dedicated hosting servers are specialized computer servers or storage units that are stationed somewhere away from or at your office. They are extremely helpful in that they can hold and operate datat that you need for a given website or application, without slowing anything else down. One can understand the significance of the cyber technology that has become a crucial part of our daily lives. There has been a major increase in the number of Websites. Jobs that were dependant on the physical presence of the customer or the client in an office or service center can now be done over the Internet. Dedicated servers offer faster processing and more disk space and RAM than shared hosting. A dedicated server not only allows an individual or user to customize and individualize settings for their unique requirements, it also augments all kinds of Web-based works with faster delivery and maximum performance.

There are many Web hosting providers who have quality operating system servers to ensure the proficiency of your business and the necessary programs to run it. The most trustworthy are those who provide a Linux operating system. For the past few years there has been a gradual shift from Microsoft Windows operating systems to Linux. This is because Linux has a certain number of advantages compared to Windows. For one, Linux is far less likely to be infected by a virus. Getting a Linux operating system can be of immense benefit to the concerned individual who wants to set up his or her own business on the Web.

Dedicated Hosting provides detailed information on Dedicated Hosting, Dedicated Web Hosting, Dedicated Hosting Servers, Dedicated Web Server Hosting and more. Dedicated Hosting is affiliated with FTP Site Hosting.

Dedicated Servers ? Backup And Recovery Strategies For Web Hosting Companies

What kind of backup recovery strategy should a company have for its dedicated server? Web hosting companies have been debating this architecture since their existence began. It is really a question pondered by the whole IT community. There are many right solutions, dependent on your company?s ability to handle downtime. The correct solution for you will factor in the amount of redundant protection you need against the overall cost.

Before we discuss the different options for backing up and recovering your dedicated server, we should mention that the server hardware, data center, and fiber connection are all critical to reliability. This article is specifically focused on strategies to backup and recover your server?s data.

At a minimum, you can create a partition in your hard drive and backup your server weekly or monthly. There is no cost to this kind of solution, but the downsides are obvious. If your hard drive crashes, you will lose your backup as well. This kind of solution is only recommended if you can afford to lose all of your data, which most web hosting companies cannot.

Next, you can contract a remote backup service to set up offsite backups. These backups can be run daily, weekly, or monthly. The cost of this solution is around $30-$50/month depending on the web hosting provider. This option gives you a solid backup in case your hard drive crashes. The downside is that recovery time will take 6-12 hours or more depending on how much data you have. The data has to be manually copied over, and this is a slow process. If you can afford the cost, this solution is part of an overall backup system, but it is not recommended as your only solution.

The next backup option is to have a second hard drive installed on your server and have it set up to do daily, weekly, or monthly backups. Most web hosting companies that provide dedicated servers will charge between $15-$30 for a second hard drive. This is a nice compliment to the previous solution if you have the budget for both. The recovery time is faster then a remote backup. But unlike a remote backup, if your dedicated server or the datacenter are down, then you cannot access the backup. For most small web hosting companies this is not a problem. If their entire server or datacenter are down, they have larger issues to worry about. We recommend this as a complimentary option with a remote backup.

Next, a web hosting company can use mirrored RAID drives. This option will cost $50-$80/month more, but it provides the fastest possible recovery in case of a hard drive crash. You can just reboot using the mirrored drive, and you are back in business. The cost is a little higher, but this is a nice luxury. The downside of this option is that if your server is unavailable, then you still cannot reach your data. Additionally, if the hard drive becomes corrupted it will also corrupt your backup. This is why we recommend mirrored drives as part of a larger solution that includes other backup systems.

Finally, there are mirrored servers. This entails the largest cost and is really not necessary, except for those web hosting companies that can tolerate no downtime at all. In this scenario, if the server itself dies you can have another server ready to take the load. In fact, if your company is large enough, you might already need this kind of solution for performance. Some websites require multiple servers to handle the performance, and it is load balanced across them. In this case, if a server dies the system still runs. This is the best solution but it is not always necessary. And, of course it is costly.

We recommend a weekly remote backup to provide you with a fail safe version. Even if the datacenter burns down, you will have a copy of your data. To this we would add either mirrored RAID drives or a second hard drive, depending on your hosting company?s needs. If you are more worried about recovery time from hard drive crashes, which is the most frequent hardware problem with dedicated servers, then go with the RAID drives. If you are more worried about the hard drive getting corrupted, go with the second hard drive.

We hope this article provides you with the information you need to adequately back up your dedicated server!

Rodney Ringler is President of Advantage1 Web Services, Inc., which owns a network of Web Hosting Informational Websites including http://HostChart.com, http://ResellerConnection.com, http://FoundHost.com, http://ResellerForums.com, and http://HostingKnowledge.net. Rodney has over 15 years industry experience from programming to internet marketing.