Uncertainty of IT security and Internet User

According to a recent study Online Wellbeing Survey by F-Secure revealed that even users from US, Canada, UK, France and Germany don’t feel that their PCs and their email are safe from malware. While most internet users in the US, Canada, the UK, France and Germany have security software installed on their PCs, many remain unsure about IT security, according to the study.

Figures produced by F-Secure suggest that many consumers are unsure that their email is free of malware and other threats, while few people realise how frequently their security software’s antivirus definitions need updating.

On average, just under one in five (19 per cent) of respondents had an understanding that antivirus definitions had to be updated on a regular basis the whole time the day.

“It’s concerning to see that so many consumers believe their antivirus definitions are up to date while not understanding how regularly they need to be updated,” stated Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer at F-Secure.

However, research recently published by Get Safe Online suggested that internet users in the UK are becoming increasingly aware of the need for IT security, with more than 90 per cent of people and an even greater proportion of small businesses having installed anti-virus software on their computers.

The users from Germany were most well-informed though; even though they were most leery of E-Commerce websites packages and online banking, they understood best of all respondents how often antivirus definitions need to be updated.

27 Free Tools for Webmasters

Free and commercial software recommendations for FTP, image editing, and website development, as well as links to online tools to help with designing and promoting your website.

Software - Free

• AceFTP Free - Free FTP program.
• FTP Surfer - Another free FTP program.
• Google Toolbar - Integrates a Google search box into your browser, along with other useful features like a pop-up blocker and a PageRank estimator.
• PhotoPlus - Free image editing software. Great for resizing photos and creating graphics.
• The GIMP - Free image editing program. Powerful but a bit of a learning curve.
• Xenu’s Link Sleuth - Great little free program to check for broken links on your entire site.

Online Tools - Design

• Color Scheme Generator - Find triads, tetrads, and analogical color schemes. Produces normal or web-safe colors.
• ColorMatch - Create color themes based on a single starting color.
• EasyRGB - Tool to find color harmonies.
• FavIcon from Pics - Make a quick favicon.ico file from an image. Put this file in your root directory so when people bookmark your site they see your logo.
• Lorem Ipsum Generator - Create realistic dummy text to help you lay out a page.
• Lynx Viewer - See your site as it looks to search engines with this text-only browser emulator.
• WhatTheFont - Identifies a font based on a sample image, provided it is large enough and of good quality.
  

Online Tools - Promotion

• Link Popularity Checker - Check your link popularity on several major search engines and compare your results with other websites.
• Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool - Find the popularity of keyword phrases. An invaluable tool for SEO.
• Submit page to Google - Add your webpage for inclusion.
• Submit page to Yahoo - Add your site to Yahoo’s search engine.
  

Scripts and Programming

• Hot Scripts - A huge repository of free and commercial scripts written in many languages, including CGI/Perl and PHP.
• Master.com - A suite of free remotely hosted tools - a site search engine, a downtime checker, and more.
  

Stock Photos

• iStockphoto - Very inexpensive stock photos. You can also become a contributor and get free downloads.
• Stock.xchng - Free stock photos, many of very high quality.
  

Online Tools - Misc

• Check Domain - A simple and straightforward whois.
• Copyscape - Find sites that are copying your content.
• DNS Stuff - A compilation of many DNS lookup tools.
• Quick Character Counter - Calculates how many characters are in a block of text. Neat condensing function.
• Remote Website Tester - Useful if your site is down - sees if it’s just you or if another location cannot connect either. Displays the HTML of your site if it can connect.
• Wayback Machine - See how a domain looked in the past, if it was archived.

Professional Directories

• Portland Web Guide - Proud to Be PDX
• Portland, Oregon Web Design Services - from Marketingtool.com

Boost Your Business: Choose affordable web Packages suiting your need

When thinking about having a website for your business, choosing a website package is one of the most important factors. As there are various kinds of website packages and offers available by web development and designing firms, opting for the most suitable and affordable website packages may be the key for success of your business – remember that you need to look at the web companies portfolio to ensure that even though affordable, you are not compromising on quality. Here are some types of website packages which may help you.

E-commerce websites:

Fully functional affordable E-commerce websites Packages are available. If you would like to take your business to the next level and sell your products via the internet, you can go for setup your entire online shop, with shopping basket and secure purchasing. The world is a big place and there is no reason not to appeal to customers outside your area. Take advantage of this “Multi-Million Pound Market” - Online Shopping

Affordable Dynamic Websites:

Affordable complex websites, which have an administration area where the website “owner” can manage the website them self. These websites can be designed to take online bookings, view availability, list events etc….

Content Management Systems:

Affordable Content Management System (CMS) which can be incorporated into your website once the design has been completed. You can log into the Content Management System (CMS) and update your website. The Content Management System (CMS) will allow you to add or remove pictures, change text, change text colours and sizes.

Business Packages:

whether you are a new business looking to have a new image designed, or a large company that feels like they need a new look, making sure that your website, logos and stationery all compliment each other.

Brochure Website:

Brochure Website is a 3 Page web site designed for the smaller businesses or perhaps businesses that do not have a shop window like Tradesman and Mobile Hairdressers for example. Your website can consist of Home Page, Contact Page and a Products or Services page.

Usability of Website: Ensure your site Functions Optimally

Even an excellent web design alone only is not enough, if the contents on your website are not easily reachable. So it’s very important to design a website with keeping in mind Usability of it so that it can function optimally.

The first method is to make sure the print of your content is appropriate. If you have large blocks of text, make sure to use CSS to space out the lines consequently. The longer a single line of text is, the greater the line-height of each line should be. Also, make sure the font size of your text is big enough to read easily. Some sites have 10-pixel-tall text in Verdana font; while that may look neat and tidy, you have to really strain your eyes to read the actual text.

Make it easy for visitors to find content that they want on your site. If you have thousands of articles on your site and a certain visitor wants to find one single article from that pile, you have to provide a feasible means to enable visitors to do that without hassle. Be it an SQL-driven database search engine or just a glossary or index of articles that you have, providing such a feature will make sure your visitors can use your site with ease.

Ensure that your site loads fast if you do not want to lose visitors. Most internet users will leave a website if it doesn’t load completely within 15 seconds, so make sure the crème de la crème of your website is delivered to the visitors as soon as possible to retain their attention.

Last of all, test each and every link on your site before it goes online. There is nothing more effective in tarnishing your professional image than broken links, so be very careful about that.

E-commerce: The Dominating age of business on web

The world of ecommerce is filled with attractive technology and considerable possibility. The move from a brick and mortar store to online sales may feel like being exported to a foreign country. You may not understand every issue involved in developing a winning website, but you can adapt. The end result may well be a long-term business opportunity derived from a worldwide customer base.

Anyone who wants to set up an online business should be familiar with terms such as online shopping websites and ecommerce websites. There are a large number of solutions to choose from to boost up your online business.

Today, most business owners are looking to develop and/or expand an existing global customer base. E commerce is the key to business development. A well-designed website can become a good business. It can reflect your business and deliver you the right opportunities. Thus, using technology in a positive and strategic way can generate a successful income for your business. E-commerce Packages can yield magnificent results. The process begins with web design and development.

Web design is the art of designing a website with superior graphics, animations, content, keywords and crawler-based search engines. Best Web designers may do the content by themselves or hire-out a professional content writer. Web designing, through superior software, can assure easy optimization of a website and generate huge traffic. The software is created with respect to the needs of a business Packages. Website designing can also be outsourced to an agency specializing in it.

Technological advances have allowed a series of potential revenue streams in the world of ecommerce. Certainly the technological revolution has allowed brick and mortar commerce to open its doors to international clients. And while this is a rather large tip on a rather large iceberg it’s not the sum total of available online wealth.