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The LangaLetter
A free email newsletter from Fred Langa
Week of 11/30/97
Great New Resource!
I'm still getting email on the column I wrote some time
ago about web-hosting services; the #1 question is "What web-hosting
service did you use for http://www.langa.com,
Fred?"
The reason I didn't name names in the article is because my choice wasn't particularly scientific and I didn't want to make it seem like I was endorsing a particular vendor. But with that many people asking the same question, I guess it's time to come clean: I shopped around some, visited a bunch of host sites, and ultimately chose Hiway (http://www.hway.net). With the initial investment so low, the risk wasn't great, and I felt comfortable making the choice after only a couple hours of research. But note---this isn't some cozy, under-the-table endorsement deal of the sort the drives product mentions in some other columns: I'm a regular paying customer of Hiway, just like everyone else there.
In any case, it's worked out fine---I only have a few minor complaints about Hiway. (They don't offer a list-serve, for example, so I'm doing LangaLetter by hand. They say they'll add a list server soon, and that will save me the couple hours every Sunday I now spend rebuilding Eudora mailing lists....)
When I launched www.langa.com, there were "only" several hundred hosting services online. Today, just a couple months later, there are over 6,000! Therefore, it's gotten that much harder to choose a host.
I'll have more information on a solution in an upcoming issue of Windows Magazine, but let me give you a sneak peek: check out http://www.webhostlist.com. It's a free site that rates and ranks web hosting services. You can search and sort their database by whatever features and functions you deem most important (price, speed, support, etc.), and easily compare and contrast offerings from different web hosts. Each week, they also figure out who's the top dog overall among web hosts in a 'top 25' list; this cuts down the 6,000+ possible choices to just the best of the best and is a huge time-saver in itself.
As of today, Hiway is rated #1 (which makes me feel better about my seat-of-the-pants way of choosing a host), but their ranking could change. If you're at all interested in having a website professionally hosted, check out www.webhostlist.com --- they're definitely worth a bookmark!
FrontPage98
One of the reasons I chose Hiway was that they were among the first web
hosts to jump on the FrontPage bandwagon. FrontPage is a web authoring
and site management tool that I personally like a lot, mainly because I
find it saves me more time than other tools I've tried. In fact, I built the
initial versions of www.langa.com using
FrontPage97, and then switched to the free public beta of FP98 when it was
available. But it turns out I shouldn't have mixed the versions
because I ended up with a bunch of muddled pages over at my site---even if they
looked OK, the underlying HTML was, in two words, butt ugly.
But I've had an evaluation copy of the final version of FP98 for a couple weeks now, and should have my entire site recoded in "pure" FP98 later this week (I'll post a note on the site when the newly-coded pages are up). That should help with the site performance, as well as make it easier to maintain. The HTML version of this week's newsletter also is being done in "pure" FP98 (that is, a brand-new template, with nothing carried over from FP97). If you're into web coding, you might want to do a "view source" and notice the differences from last week to this week. There's some funky stuff going on in the HTML, but at least it's very easy to generate 8-).
Funky? FP98 still handles some page elements weirdly, and tends to "over-tag" page elements (i.e. generate more HTML tags than a moderately-skilled human coder would; more than are really needed). But it's very easy to work with. It should be in stores now, and could be a good choice if you're looking for a complete authoring/site-management tool.
User Tips re: IE4
The IE4 controversy just won't quit, and I suspect we'll
have a lot more to talk about soon. But in the meantime, let me share a couple
reader tips with you in case you missed them in the flood of messages over at http://content.techweb.com/winmag//bbs/columns/
.
The first one is a bug-report---and work-around!---I hadn't heard before:
From:dsherman@iwaynet.net
Fred: Here a problem with WP 8 and IE 4
It has been reported and verified that after installing IE4, the file open dialog searches the floppy drive on opening and also causes other strange behavior in the file open dialog box.
I have found a work around until either MS or Corel fixes this problem. The fix is as follows:
1. Click on TOOLS and select SETTINGS
2. Select FILES
3. Uncheck the box for "Use enhanced file dialogs"
4. Click APPLY, then OK, then close the SETTINGS boxThe next time you access the file open dialog, you won't have any of those problems anymore.
This is a work around for this problem and MS and/or Corel should fix this problem so that the enhanced dialog box will work.
Thanks dsherman! WordPerfect has a lot of fans, and I'm sure they'll appreciate this tip.
The other is the ATI tip mentioned by
several readers on the WinMag site, but worth repeating again because it affects
so many users: If you have an ATI card that's giving you IE4 trouble, run
SysEdit, and in the [Display] section of System.Ini, add this
line: DevBmp=0
In a "worst case" test, I tried this on an ancient ATI VGA
card that's easily 5 years old (I had it stuffed in a drawer at home).
It worked even on that fossil hardware, allowing it to run IE4! If you're having
ATI problems, I urge you to give this simple fix a try.
I've also asked the ATI product managers exactly what the tradeoffs are---what you lose with that setting---and if they have new drivers that avoid this problem. As soon as I hear from them, I'll let you know.
There were many other reader tips in the incredibly active IE4 discussions of the last 2 weeks; you can still access those discussions at http://content.techweb.com/winmag//bbs/columns/ .
Speaking of the
WinMag Site...
We're rapidly approaching "showtime" for BrowserTune98,
with the specs being set in concrete---please stop by http://content.techweb.com/winmag//bbs/columns/
this week and let me know exactly what you want to see in this newest version!
HotSpots!
I tried all kinds of tricks to get the animated logo to work with
IE4---this IE4 Java problem is one thing that definitely will
be tested for in BrowserTune98---but to no avail. I ended up replacing the cool
animated logo with one sure to work on IE4. (Sigh.) Please check it out on
the HotSpots page ( http://content.techweb.com/winmag//flanga/hotspots.htm
) and let me know what you think!
This week's lineup:
Sunday: Goes to show you can find anything
on the net. (Yuk!)
Monday: For those who don't read the LangaLetter, the link to www.webhostlist.com
mentioned above
Tuesday: A great collection of software bug-fighting resources
Wednesday: Good resource on high-speed web surfing
Thursday: Great web-site testing tool! (and it's free!)
Friday: Pass the Kleenex.
Saturday: Some days, the whole web feels like this.
Always Looking for
More HotSpots!
The HotSpots mailbox is always open! Whenever
you find a great site, could you take a second and tell me about it? It'd just
take a minute--- email your favorite URLs to hotspots@langa.com No
explanation is needed---just paste the raw URLs into the body of the mail
message, ideally, 1 URL per line. I'll sift through them and queue 'em up for
possible inclusion as future HotSpot. Thanks!
With the holiday, it was a short week last week. See you next week,
and I'll have lots more to report!
Fred
( fred@langa.com )
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