SEO Style Tips

But first, I’d like to introduce you to Dan Floersch of BleedingBaseball.com.

We selected Dan’s question on the blog post “What is Your Biggest Challenge?” and we’re providing a more detailed answer that you can also use.

He sells a baseball trivia book and says his biggest challenge is finding his target audience online.

Here are our 10 most effective targeting strategies in a blueprint customized for Dan’s needs.

However, these strategies will work for any business-so as you read this blueprint, think about how you can make these strategies work for you.

Targeting Tip 1: Just Say No to Lists

“Should I be accessing baseball related e-mail lists?” Dan asked us.
Our answer is an unqualified “No.”

They’re too expensive and there’s little chance that people who have never heard of you will respond to an unasked-for email from you. On top of that, you run the risk of getting slammed with spam complaints.

Targeting Tip 2: Grow a List of Keywords Using the Google Keyword Tool

Everyone who is trying to reach an audience online should know about the Google Keyword Tool.

This handy free tool allows you to explore the exact words and phrases people are typing into Google when searching for information. Be sure to look for “long-tail” keywords that clearly represent people who are interested in what you offer but don’t have a lot of competition.

Dan, we plugged these five keyword phrases into the Google Keyword Tool:

· baseball trivia
· baseball quizzes
· baseball facts
· baseball book
· baseball history

… and we came up with a list of 124 associated keywords, many of which would be perfect for you to use in your SEO and paid search efforts. Here are some particularly good ones for you
to start out with:

Keyword

Global Monthly Searches

Approximate CPC
(Google Adwords)

• Baseball trivia
• 9,900
• $0.26
  • Baseball quiz
  • 2,400
  • $0.25
    • Baseball trivia questions
    • 1,000
    • $0.l7
      • Baseball quizzes
      • 390
      • $0.16
        • Baseball trivia facts
        • 140
        • $0.14
          • Baseball facts and trivia
          • 140
          • $0.15
            • Easy baseball trivia
            • 140
            • $0.21
              • Baseball trivia for kids
              • 320
              • $0.18
                • Baseball trivia quiz
                • 140
                • $0.15
                  • Kids baseball trivia
                  • 320
                  • $0.19
                    • Baseball trivia and answers
                    • 1,000
                    • $0.16
• • • • • • • • • • • • Baseball trivia questions and answers
                      • 1,000
                      • $0.18

If you were to successfully target just these twelve keywords, you would be able to put your product in front of 18,790 people who you’re probably not reaching right now-and that’s huge.

You can grow this list huge by adding team-specific, league-specific, and player-specific keywords as well, such as “Babe Ruth trivia,” “Boston Red Sox trivia,” and so forth.

A good keyword list should have at least 100 keywords on it.

Targeting Tip #3: Run Google AdWords ads

Google AdWords is the fastest way to get your product in front of people who are actively searching for what you offer.

Start by experimenting with the keywords in the list above. Make sure your ads lead directly to landing pages that give searchers exactly what they’re looking for–preferably in the form of a compelling downloadable freebie.

For example, if you’re going to run an ad targeting the keyword, “baseball trivia questions,” link to a page that offers a free eBook titled something like, “49 baseball trivia questions that even the most die-hard fans can’t answer.”

Targeting Tip #4: Run Facebook Ads

Did you know you can create Facebook ads that target people based on the interests on their personal profile?

This means you can use Facebook ads to promote your downloadable freebie only to people who have identified themselves as baseball fans. It’s a great way to grow your fan base!

To save money on your ads, make sure they point to a custom tab on your Facebook Page rather than to your website.

Targeting Tip #5: Become Active on Facebook Pages/Groups Related to Your Interest

Dan, simply enter “baseball” into the search bar at the top of Facebook and start looking for pages to like and groups to join.

Use your “Bleeding Baseball” account to interact on the pages you like but don’t overtly promote your book-instead make interesting comments that make people want to engage with you. If they feel like they know you personally, they’ll be more interested in your book.

Targeting Tip #6: Become Active on Industry-Specific Forums and Blogs

To find forums and blogs that appeal to your target market, go to Google and do a search on terms such as “baseball + forum,” “baseball + blog,” and “baseball trivia + blog”

Be sure to offer fun and helpful comments on the forums and blogs you like best. Take the time to listen and give people what they really want. Then be sure to link back to your site via your post signature.

Targeting Tip #7: Find Your Audience on Twitter

Go to Twitter and do searches to identify people who are interested in baseball. Follow them and chances are good they’ll follow you back, if they see you offer fun baseball-related tidbits of information instead of a constant barrage of promotional messages.

When people follow you, send them a personal message thanking them. Relate to them on a personal level and they will be more likely to be interested in buying your book.

Targeting Tip #8: Write Short Articles and Post them on Popular Sites

Dan, this should be easy for you as you have a whole book full of interesting content to work with.

Create a series of short 400-700 word articles and approach the owners of popular baseball blogs and websites to see if they would be interested in publishing your article. Make sure you include a link back to your site in your “About the Author” blurb. This is a great way to introduce yourself to a larger audience.

Targeting Tip #9: Grow Your Site Content with a Blog

Dan, I see you don’t have a blog on your site. I would put that on your “to-do” list right away. Having a blog is a great way to grow a site full of valuable content that’s optimized for your best keywords, so it appeals to the search engines as well as your human visitors. Plus, it’s a great way to encourage repeat visits.

Targeting Tip #10: Include an Opt-in on Every Page of Your Site

Dan, your site visitors are some of the most targeted people you can find-and yet you’re not making any effort to stay in touch with them if they don’t immediately buy your book.

Studies show it takes a minimum of 6-7 points of contact for someone to be comfortable enough to make a purchase online. We recommend you help your visitors over that hump by encouraging them to sign up for your downloadable freebie and then using email to grow a strong relationship with them over time.

Bonus Tip: Use Email to Close the Deal

At strategic times of the year-the beginning of the baseball season, Father’s Day, the end of the regular season, the final series of the World Series, and Christmas-promote your book to your mailing list. Give them an exclusive subscriber’s discount and you’d be surprised at how many of them will take you up on your offer!

I hope these strategies have given you a better idea of how to reach your audience online and convert them into buyers. If you have any questions, let me know.

All the best,

Watch “The world will end on May 21 says Christian group” on YouTube….. funny

Posted from WordPress for Android

SEO Guidelines

While SEOs can provide clients with valuable services, some unethical SEOs have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways. Practices that violate our guidelines may result in a negative adjustment of your site’s presence in Google, or even the removal of your site from our index. Here are some things to consider:

• Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue.Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:
  

  “Dear techsupportbase.net,
  I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories…”

  Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for “burn fat at night” diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.

• No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a “special relationship” with Google, or advertise a “priority submit” to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or by submitting a Sitemap and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.
• Be careful if a company is secretive or won’t clearly explain what they intend to do.Ask for explanations if something is unclear. If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or “throwaway” domains, your site could be removed entirely from Google’s index. Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it’s best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to “help” you. If an SEO has FTP access to your server, they should be willing to explain all the changes they are making to your site.
• You should never have to link to an SEO.Avoid SEOs that talk about the power of “free-for-all” links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that don’t affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines — at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive.
• Choose wisely.While you consider whether to go with an SEO, you may want to do some research on the industry. Google is one way to do that, of course. You might also seek out a few of the cautionary tales that have appeared in the press, including this article on one particularly aggressive SEO: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002002970_nwbizbriefs12.html. While Google doesn’t comment on specific companies, we’ve encountered firms calling themselves SEOs who follow practices that are clearly beyond the pale of accepted business behavior. Be careful.
• Be sure to understand where the money goes.While Google never sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results. Some SEOs will promise to rank you highly in search engines, but place you in the advertising section rather than in the search results. A few SEOs will even change their bid prices in real time to create the illusion that they “control” other search engines and can place themselves in the slot of their choice. This scam doesn’t work with Google because our advertising is clearly labeled and separated from our search results, but be sure to ask any SEO you’re considering which fees go toward permanent inclusion and which apply toward temporary advertising.
• What are the most common abuses a website owner is likely to encounter?One common scam is the creation of “shadow” domains that funnel users to a site by using deceptive redirects. These shadow domains often will be owned by the SEO who claims to be working on a client’s behalf. However, if the relationship sours, the SEO may point the domain to a different site, or even to a competitor’s domain. If that happens, the client has paid to develop a competing site owned entirely by the SEO.Another illicit practice is to place “doorway” pages loaded with keywords on the client’s site somewhere. The SEO promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords. More insidious, however, is that these doorway pages often contain hidden links to the SEO’s other clients as well. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a site and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include sites with unsavory or illegal content.
• What are some other things to look out for?There are a few warning signs that you may be dealing with a rogue SEO. It’s far from a comprehensive list, so if you have any doubts, you should trust your instincts. By all means, feel free to walk away if the SEO:
  • owns shadow domains
  • puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
  • offers to sell keywords in the address bar
  • doesn’t distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear on search results pages
  • guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
  • operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
  • gets traffic from “fake” search engines, spyware, or scumware
  • has had domains removed from Google’s index or is not itself listed in Google

  If you feel that you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.

  In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on “File a Complaint Online,” call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to:

  Federal Trade Commission
  CRC-240
  Washington, D.C. 20580

  If your complaint is against a company in a country other than the United States, please file it at http://www.econsumer.gov/.

SEO

Google Instant & SEO

From the moment Google Instant was announced back on September 8 there have been forum chats, blog posts, articles and podcasts discussing the ramification of this new technology. Some have called it the “Death of SEO” which others (myself included) have proclaimed this a step forward and an opportunity for SEO’s, not a threat. And then of course there’s those who don’t even know there’s been a change at all, let’s call them “the vast majority”. In this article we’re going to discuss the pros and cons of Google Instant as it pertains to SEO’s and to website owners as well as cover some of the reasons that this new technology may not have as large an impact on search behavior as some may fear/predict.

But first, let’s cover the basic question …

What Is Google Instant?

Google instant is a technology that allows Google to predict what you are looking for as you type. They are referring to it as ‘search-before-you-type” technology (catchy). Essentially – as I type a phrase (let’s say “buy shoes online”) as soon as I get to “buy sh” I start seeing results for “buy shoes”. As soon as I’ve entered “buy shoes “ (with a space after shoes indicating I want more than just the 2 word phrase) I start seeing results for “buy shoes online”.

Technologically this is genius. Google is now serving likely billions of additional search results pages per day as each query has multiplied results that apply to it. Well … I suppose we all wondered what the Caffeine infrastructure update was all about didn’t we? But what does this do in the real world?

Why Google Instant Isn’t A Big Deal

Alright, obviously it is a significant technological enhancement in search but the way some react you’d think the whole universe was about to be turned on it’s head. There are two reasons why that’s not the case.

I find it unlikely that many will notice right away that the change has occurred and further I find it even less likely that the majority will use the feature. You see – the major hindrance of this enhancement isn’t in the technology – it’s in the users. Only those who touch type and can do so without looking at their keyboard will be affected. If the user looks at their keyboard while typing then they wouldn’t even notice the results coming in ahead of their actual search.

This will only affect users who are searching in instances where the shorter or predicted terms match the users end goals. For example, if I am searching for “buy shoes online” and get as far as “buy sh” the top results are sites which clearly suit the needs of a searcher for “buy shoes online” and thus – this may work to the detriment of sites who rank well for “buy shoes online” as they may well lose traffic. In the case of a site targeting, oh – I don’t know – “seo consulting” there will likely be little affect if any. The searcher, looking for an SEO consultant, will find once they’ve entered “seo” that they are presented with Wikipedia and Google – sites that, while informative, don’t offer the services (or results) desired and thus – the searcher would be less affected. Once they proceeded on to enter the “seo c” the searcher would be presented with the results for “seo company” but I’m prone to believe that if the searcher wanted those results – they would have searched for it. For this phrase I’m confident we’ll see little in the way of negative affect from Google Instant.
So we’ve discussed why Google Instant isn’t a big deal, now let’s discuss …

Why Google Instant Is A Big Deal

On the other side of the coin lies the reasons why Google Instant brings forth a revolution in search technology. Followers of the Beanstalk blog or my radio show on WebmasterRadio.fm (Webcology) will know I’m not one to love everything Google does but in this case the immediate affects and long terms affects may well be significant and at the very least – one has to appreciate the brilliance behind the effort. In this section of the article we’re going to cover the three important perspectives involved with the launch off this (or any) Google product. They are:

The Searcher – we’ll look at the pros and cons from a searcher perspective. It’s this aspect that will dictate whether the feature will matter at all.

Google – we’ll look at the positive affect on Google. Of course – this aspect is of paramount importance for this feature to be kept.

SEO’s – I’m of course incredibly interested and have spent much of my analysis time determining the pros and cons to SEO’s (admittedly – there’s more than a bit of self interest here).

So let’s begin …

Google Instant And The Searcher

This is sort of a win-win for Google from a searcher perspective. One of two things will happen for the searcher. Either they won’t notice the change or won’t be affected and thus – Google will be exactly where they are now OR they will notice the change and will select results quicker and find the feature helpful. As I noted – it’s a win-win. There isn’t much of scenario from a searcher perspective where the searcher will be negatively impacted and if they are – they’d simply revert back to past searching patterns. From the perspective of impact on the user – Google has it made with this feature. Their worst-case scenario is that they’re exactly where they are now.

Google Instant From Google’s Perspective

Any feature added to any corporate system must serve a single primary function – it must make it’s developer money. We’ve already seen that the feature itself can’t really negatively impact the searcher but can it make Google money? There are two ways that this can happen:

Improved loyalty and marketshare, and

Increased revenue directly from the initiative
Fortunately for Google – they’re going to win on both fronts here and when we see the Q3 earnings and moreso in the Q4 earning Google reports we’ll begin to see how significant an impact this change will have for them – mainly in the second of the two monetary reward methods noted above. And here’s why …

We’ve already covered the improved loyalty this can have on the searchers. Anything that makes my life easier and makes my quest for information faster will make me more loyal. At worst – Google will see my behavior stay the same but for many, the search experience will become faster and more effective – especially once the technology is improved by user behavior to a degree that people trust it more. Overall there will be a net gain in the experience – we’ve only to wait to see how large that net gain is and how it translates into marketshare. The big win is in the second point.

For anyone who’s every bid with AdWords you’ll know that for the most part – bids for generic terms are more expensive than bids for very specific terms. If I’m bidding on “shoes” I’m going to pay more than I would for “shoes online”. So let’s view the world where I start showing the results (and paid ads) for “shoes” while someone is searching for “shoes online”. And what if that person sees the ads that was written and bid on for “shoes” but relates to their query and they click on it. Google just made more from the paid ad click. Maybe only pennies but multiply that by billions of searches per day and you’ve got a significant increase in annual revenue.

The move is a huge win for Google but it does come with a theoretical downside and that is annoying the businesses that are paying for the ads. The argument I’ve heard is that if businesses find that the cost of their campaigns is increasing higher than the ROI that they might get annoyed. Fair enough BUT I would argue – what are they going to do about it? As long as Google maintains the first consideration (the searcher) then the advertisers have no choice. They can drop their bids but at worst – they’ll level off to what they were paying for the longtail phrases. Again – worst case scenario, Google will find themselves where they are today.

Google Instant From The SEO’s Perspective

So let’s assume for a moment that Google Instant is here to stay. Based on all the ways Google and the searchers can win and the limited situational permutations by which they could only come out even I’d say that’s a safe assumption. Given this, what’s happens to SEO’s and those optimizing their own websites?

For one thing – we can’t assume that research we did up to and before the 8th will be relevant down the road. I have already scheduled to redo keyword research in a couple months to see what industries and search types have been most (and least) affected by this change. The main reason for this is that I have a strong suspicion that specific industries will be more prone to being affected by the change based mainly on search types (such as the “buy shoes” vs “seo consulting” example above) and demographics. A Linux developer site is more likely to have a demographic off touch typers who can type without looking at the keyboard than say a life insurance site with a more scattered and thus less technically proficient overall demographic.

So in the short term – life is going to be very interesting for the SEO and website owner while we figure out which industries and phrase types are most affected. In a few months when we see the trends and which phrases are being affected and how we’ll likely have to make adjustments to many campaigns. The downside for may business owners will be that for those who’s campaigns focuses on searches for longtail phrases – they may find the search volumes for their phrases decrease and a shift to more generic (and generally more expensive to attain) phrases is necessary. Only time will tell what the best moves are there and we may not know what exactly will shift and how for a few months yet and even then – we’ll then know the trends, not where things will settle (if anything in online marketing can be referred to as “settling” anymore).

If there is a segment that should be concerned about the situation it is small business owners with limited organic or PPC budgets. Google Instant – because it puts preferences to more generic phrases – clearly favors businesses with larger budgets. How much so we’ll know after we’ve had a chance to see how the search volumes shift. For SEO’s this presents two opportunities and for business owners who do their own SEO – it offers one. And here’s the good news for those.

For SEO’s you’ll find two new opportunities, The first is that there will be a shift to more generic terms in search volumes. This means that there will be stiffer competition for more competitive phrases. If this sounds like a bad thing it’s not. If you’re a skilled SEO who knows how to get the job done it means you’ll have more access to larger volumes of traffic without the added efforts required to rank for a wide array or phrases. Rather than needing to rank for 10 or 20 phrases to get traffic you’ll be able to focus in more and reap the same rewards in the way of traffic. On top of that – SEO’s will be able to charge more for the rankings as fewer phrases have a higher value. A win-win for SEOs and a win for business owners who either do their own SEO or have talented SEO’s on staff.

The second opportunity will come in the form of improved clickthrough rates though I’ll admit – at this point that’s just a theory (noted with a hint sent to Gord Hotchkiss to run eyetracking tests on this theory). If I type while looking at my screen and I’m entering in “buy shoes online” and I rank organically or via PPC for both “buy shoes” and “buy shoes online” I would hypothesize that searchers who complete the phrase “buy shoes online” who had the site (or ad) for “buy shoes” appear and then the same site appear for the full query will have a tendency to click on the familiar. This same principle has been witnessed in sites appearing in both paid and organic results who have an increase in their organic clickthrough rates. This will present opportunities for both PPC and organic marketers to improve the traffic to sites by ranking for specific phrases meant to both attain traffic on their own but also to improve traffic for the other. I would suggest that down the road we’ll be hearing of this phenomenon when conducting and discussing keyword research.

Conclusion

There isn’t much to conclude that hasn’t been discussed above. Virtually every party wins or at worst, breaks even with the introduction of this technology. The only victim appears to be small businesses without the budgets to compete for the more generic phrases but even they may win with a shift away from these phrases by the larger companies. It may well occur that while the search volume shift heads in favor of large companies with larger budget – that the lower hanging fruit, while reduced in it’s search volume, may fall too in the competition levels making it more affordable. Larger business may focus like snipers on larger phrases and smaller business may well be presented with the opportunity to go after more, less search phrases that aren’t worth targeting for larger companies – at least organically.

But only time will tell and of course – we have much data to collect and many algorithmic updates to come between here and there.

Over coming Internet connection Problems

Have you ever come across a problem using your home / friends network, where you would normally just connect and of you go???

For example: you take your laptop or mobile phone home or to your friends house and try and connect as usual to the network. usually there are other systems on the network, like a PS3, wii or another. Well an average user would check to see if there was a problem with the network security key and run a windows / linux diagnostics check if this problem arises, but what the average user should be aware of is the IP Routing (RIP) method used in all connections! This is stated below, in the last blog.

RIP is the easiest way to correct this problem, and all you have to do is use the Metric Value stated in the routing.PRINT, this is done as follows:

If you are using Windows, go to the start menu and type “CMD” (with out the “ ”) and right click on cmd and select “Run as Administrator” when the window pops up type “route PRINT”. this will show all the IP Addresses (destinations), Subnetmasks, Gateway’s, Interfaces, and Metric values, like the one shown below;

===========================================================================
Interface List
23…00 1f e2 d0 d6 ff ……Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter
12…00 1e 68 8d 5c c4 ……NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
1………………………Software Loopback Interface 1
15…00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft 6to4 Adapter #2
11…00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft Teredo Tunneling Adapter
16…00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft 6to4 Adapter #3
14…00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft 6to4 Adapter
17…00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft 6to4 Adapter #4
18…00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2
19…00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #3
20…00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft 6to4 Adapter #5
===========================================================================

IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:

Network Destination	Netmask	Gateway	Interface	Metric
127.0.0.0	255.0.0.0	On-link	127.0.0.1	306
127.0.0.1	255.255.255.255	On-link	127.0.0.1	306
127.255.255.255	255.255.255.255	On-link	127.0.0.1	306
169.254.0.0	255.255.0.0	On-link	169.254.149.192	281
169.254.149.192	255.255.255.255	On-link	169.254.149.192	281
169.254.255.255	255.255.255.255	On-link	169.254.149.192	281
224.0.0.0	240.0.0.0	On-link	127.0.0.1	306
224.0.0.0	240.0.0.0	On-link	169.254.149.192	281
255.255.255.255	255.255.255.255	On-link	127.0.0.1	306
255.255.255.255	255.255.255.255	On-link	169.254.149.192	281

===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
None

IPv6 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
If Metric Network Destination      Gateway
1    306 ::1/128                  On-link
1    306 ff00::/8                 On-link
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
None

Now you will be able to see the persistent route through the network to your computer, mine is highlighted in yellow to show you an example of this, (mine has another route which you should ignore because i am host a web server through the local host 127.0.0.1). Look at the far right hand side column and you will see that Metric is consistent in all of them, which is …… yes 281.

Now take this value and place it in the network connection properties’ metric section, this is located;

Right click the network connections at right hand side of the task bar at the bottom of the screen,  then click the connection in question and then once the window opens select “properties” then select by double clicking “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPV4) , next go to the “advanced” button at the bottom of the diaglog and click it. It will then show the Metric section at the bottom, un tick “auto Metric and input your metric code value from before to the input filed, like to one shown below.

And now you will have a fully working internet connection! 🙂 this will only take a few minutes to complete and once you get your head found it you will never have any problems, but if you do, just drop me a line.

Happy Hunting

IP Routing Explained

IP Routing

We now take up the question of finding the host that datagram’s go to based on the IP address. Different parts of the address are handled in different ways; it is your job to set up the files that indicate how to treat each part.

IP Networks

When you write a letter to someone, you usually put a complete address on the envelope specifying the country, state, and Zip Code. After you put it in the mailbox, the post office will deliver it to its destination: it will be sent to the country indicated, where the national service will dispatch it to the proper state and region. The advantage of this hierarchical scheme is obvious: wherever you post the letter, the local postmaster knows roughly which direction to forward the letter, but the postmaster doesn’t care which way the letter will travel once it reaches its country of destination.

IP networks are structured similarly. The whole Internet consists of a number of proper networks, called autonomous systems. Each system performs routing between its member hosts internally so that the task of delivering a datagram is reduced to finding a path to the destination host’s network. As soon as the datagram is handed to any host on that particular network, further processing is done exclusively by the network itself.

Subnetworks

This structure is reflected by splitting IP addresses into a host and network part, as explained previously. By default, the destination network is derived from the network part of the IP address. Thus, hosts with identical IP network numbers should be found within the same network.[1]

It makes sense to offer a similar scheme inside the network, too, since it may consist of a collection of hundreds of smaller networks, with the smallest units being physical networks like Ethernets. Therefore, IP allows you to subdivide an IP network into several subnets.

A subnet takes responsibility for delivering datagram’s to a certain range of IP addresses. It is an extension of the concept of splitting bit fields, as in the A, B, and C classes. However, the network part is now extended to include some bits from the host part. The number of bits that are interpreted as the subnet number is given by the so-called subnet mask, or netmask. This is a 32-bit number too, which specifies the bit mask for the network part of the IP address.

The campus network of Groucho Marx University is an example of such a network. It has a class B network number of 149.76.0.0, and its netmask is therefore 255.255.0.0.

Internally, GMU’s campus network consists of several smaller networks, such various departments’ LANs. So the range of IP addresses is broken up into 254 subnets, 149.76.1.0 through 149.76.254.0. For example, the department of Theoretical Physics has been assigned 149.76.12.0. The campus backbone is a network in its own right, and is given 149.76.1.0. These subnets share the same IP network number, while the third octet is used to distinguish between them. They will thus use a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0.

Figure 2-1 shows how 149.76.12.4, the address of quark, is interpreted differently when the address is taken as an ordinary class B network and when used with subnetting.

Figure 2-1. Subnetting a class B network

It is worth noting that subnetting (the technique of generating subnets) is only an internal division of the network. Subnets are generated by the network owner (or the administrators). Frequently, subnets are created to reflect existing boundaries, be they physical (between two Ethernets), administrative (between two departments), or geographical (between two locations), and authority over each subnet is delegated to some contact person. However, this structure affects only the network’s internal behaviour, and is completely invisible to the outside world.

Gateways

Subnetting is not only a benefit to the organization; it is frequently a natural consequence of hardware boundaries. The viewpoint of a host on a given physical network, such as an Ethernet, is a very limited one: it can only talk to the host of the network it is on. All other hosts can be accessed only through special-purpose machines called gateways. A gateway is a host that is connected to two or more physical networks simultaneously and is configured to switch packets between them.

Figure 2-2 shows part of the network topology at Groucho Marx University (GMU). Hosts that are on two subnets at the same time are shown with both addresses.

Figure 2-2. A part of the net topology at Groucho Marx University

Different physical networks have to belong to different IP networks for IP to be able to recognize if a host is on a local network. For example, the network number 149.76.4.0 is reserved for hosts on the mathematics LAN. When sending a datagram to quark, the network software on erdos immediately sees from the IP address 149.76.12.4 that the destination host is on a different physical network, and therefore can be reached only through a gateway (sophus by default).

sophus itself is connected to two distinct subnets: the Mathematics department and the campus backbone. It accesses each through a different interface, eth0 and fddi0, respectively. Now, what IP address do we assign it? Should we give it one on subnet 149.76.1.0, or on 149.76.4.0?

The answer is: “both.” sophus has been assigned the address 149.76.1.1 for use on the 149.76.1.0 network and address 149.76.4.1 for use on the 149.76.4.0 network. A gateway must be assigned one IP address for each network it belongs to. These addresses—along with the corresponding netmask—are tied to the interface through which the subnet is accessed. Thus, the interface and address mapping for sophus would look like this:

Interface
Address
Netmask

eth0
149.76.4.1
255.255.255.0

fddi0
149.76.1.1
255.255.255.0

lo
127.0.0.1
255.0.0.0

The last entry describes the loopback interface lo, which we talked about earlier.

Generally, you can ignore the subtle difference between attaching an address to a host or its interface. For hosts that are on one network only, like erdos, you would generally refer to the host as having this-and-that IP address, although strictly speaking, it’s the Ethernet interface that has this IP address. The distinction is really important only when you refer to a gateway.

The Routing Table

We now focus our attention on how IP chooses a gateway to use to deliver a datagram to a remote network.

We have seen that erdos, when given a datagram for quark, checks the destination address and finds that it is not on the local network. erdos therefore sends the datagram to the default gateway sophus, which is now faced with the same task. sophus recognizes that quark is not on any of the networks it is connected to directly, so it has to find yet another gateway to forward it through. The correct choice would be niels, the gateway to the Physics department. sophus thus needs information to associate a destination network with a suitable gateway.

IP uses a table for this task that associates networks with the gateways by which they may be reached. A catch-all entry (the default route) must generally be supplied too; this is the gateway associated with network 0.0.0.0. All destination addresses match this route, since none of the 32 bits are required to match, and therefore packets to an unknown network are sent through the default route. On sophus, the table might look like this:

Network
Netmask
Gateway
Interface

149.76.1.0
255.255.255.0
–
fddi0

149.76.2.0
255.255.255.0
149.76.1.2
fddi0

149.76.3.0
255.255.255.0
149.76.1.3
fddi0

149.76.4.0
255.255.255.0
–
eth0

149.76.5.0
255.255.255.0
149.76.1.5
fddi0

…
…
…
…

0.0.0.0
0.0.0.0
149.76.1.2
fddi0

If you need to use a route to a network that sophus is directly connected to, you don’t need a gateway; the gateway column here contains a hyphen.

The process for identifying whether a particular destination address matches a route is a mathematical operation. The process is quite simple, but it requires an understanding of binary arithmetic and logic: A route matches a destination if the network address logically ANDed with the netmask precisely equals the destination address logically ANDed with the netmask.

Translation: a route matches if the number of bits of the network address specified by the netmask (starting from the left-most bit, the high order bit of byte one of the address) match that same number of bits in the destination address.

When the IP implementation is searching for the best route to a destination, it may find a number of routing entries that match the target address. For example, we know that the default route matches every destination, but datagram’s destined for locally attached networks will match their local route, too. How does IP know which route to use? It is here that the netmask plays an important role. While both routes match the destination, one of the routes has a larger netmask than the other. We previously mentioned that the netmask was used to break up our address space into smaller networks. The larger a netmask is, the more specifically a target address is matched; when routing datagram’s, we should always choose the route that has the largest netmask. The default route has a netmask of zero bits, and in the configuration presented above, the locally attached networks have a 24-bit netmask. If a datagram matches a locally attached network, it will be routed to the appropriate device in preference to following the default route because the local network route matches with a greater number of bits. The only datagram’s that will be routed via the default route are those that don’t match any other route.

You can build routing tables by a variety of means. For small LANs, it is usually most efficient to construct them by hand and feed them to IP using the route command at boot time. For larger networks, they are built and adjusted at runtime by routing daemons; these daemons run on central hosts of the network and exchange routing information to compute “optimal” routes between the member networks.

Depending on the size of the network, you’ll need to use different routing protocols. For routing inside autonomous systems (such as the Groucho Marx campus), the internal routing protocols are used. The most prominent one of these is the Routing Information Protocol (RIP), which is implemented by the BSD routed daemon. For routing between autonomous systems, external routing protocols like External Gateway Protocol (EGP) or Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) have to be used; these protocols, including RIP, have been implemented in the University of Cornell’s gated daemon.

Metric Values

We depend on dynamic routing to choose the best route to a destination host or network based on the number of hops. Hops are the gateways a datagram has to pass before reaching a host or network. The shorter a route is, the better RIP rates it. Very long routes with 16 or more hops are regarded as unusable and are discarded.

RIP manages routing information internal to your local network, but you have to run gated on all hosts. At boot time, gated checks for all active network interfaces. If there is more than one active interface (not counting the loopback interface), it assumes the host is switching packets between several networks and will actively exchange and broadcast routing information. Otherwise, it will only passively receive RIP updates and update the local routing table.

When broadcasting information from the local routing table, gated computes the length of the route from the so-called metric value associated with the routing table entry. This metric value is set by the system administrator when configuring the route, and should reflect the actual route cost.[2] Therefore, the metric of a route to a subnet that the host is directly connected to should always be zero, while a route going through two gateways should have a metric of two. You don’t have to bother with metrics if you don’t use RIP or gated.

Notes

[1]

Autonomous systems are slightly more general. They may comprise more than one IP network.

[2]

The cost of a route can be thought of, in a simple case, as the number of hops required to reach the destination. Proper calculation of route costs can be a fine art in complex network designs.

Hacking Facebok

Facebook hack #1 : How to see people’s big display picture (avatar) ; You’re looking for somebody you know,you find somebody who looks like the one you are looking for but you’re not sure if he’s the one you’re looking for since you cannot see his face very well and his profile can only be seen by his friends.To see his bigger picture(The profile we’re testing on is my profile):

• Right click his picture and click properties.
• You will see a URL referring his picture like > http://profile.ak.facebook.com/profile5/597/103/s749469284_362.jpg

Now you wonder i made “S” bold in the URL,because “S” is initial of SMALL ,which means Facebook shows his small(avatar) picture.

• Now we change URL to this http://profile.ak.facebook.com/profile5/597/103/n749469284_362.jpg

“N” means normal picture ,When you change “S” to “N” you will see a bigger picture.

• Now change “S” to “Q” to see smaller picture.
• http://profile.ak.facebook.com/profile5/597/103/q749469284_362.jpg

Facebook hack #2 :How to see people’s old display pictures ; This facebook hack may take a few minutes to see ,first you need to have Flashget on your pc,open flashget and click File tab and then click “Add batch Download” and ;

• Enter your friend’s display picture url to URL section like below http://profile.ak.facebook.com/profile5/597/103/s749469284_(*).jpg
• Change numbers according to your friend’s picture number http://profile.ak.facebook.com/profile5/597/103/s749469284_362.jpg if it has 3 digits like my avatar url then let it search from 0 to 999 , if it has 4 digits then enter from 1000 to 9999 etc. then wait for downloads.

Facebook hack #3 How to see people’s limited profile without adding as a friend ; You cannot see people’s profile if its limited to public.But :

• Send a message like “Hello” to the one you want to see his/her facebook profile and wait for his/her reply.
• When he/she replies to you you can see his/her facebook profile.

Facebook hack #4 Facebook fools you hackers not to get flooded : Lol.Yeah.Check the example below ,both url shows same thing ;

• http://photos-b.ak.facebook.com/n749469284_362561_3566.jpg

• http://photos-b.ak.facebook.com/webmaster/v183/217/67/749469284/n749469284_362561_3566.jpg

• http://photos-b.ak.facebook.com/webmaster/labs/blogspot/dot/com/n749469284_362561_3566.jpg

As you see Facebook creates fake folders to fool hackers.

I’m sure theres lots of hacks which are waiting for to be explored,is’not it shocking that a website that worths billion dollars is wack at security and cryptology.

Static FBML CSS: Internet Explorer (all versions) and other browser

With Internet Explorer you have only two options in applying CSS styles to your Static FBML application tab:

• Calling an external stylesheet using, for example:
  <link href=”http://yoursite.com/styles/layout.css” rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” />
  Of course, you need to upload the CSS file to your server (or some Web-accessible server). NOTE: Add this string to the end of your external stylesheet call to force Facebook to refresh the version it has cached (example): <link href=”http://yoursite.com/styles/layout.css?v=10.0” rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” />
• Putting the CSS styles inside the HTML mark-up, i.e. inlining the styles, for example:
  <div style=”font-size:14px; margin:0 auto;”>

Although inlining the styles has appeared to always work with Static FBML application-tab pages, using calls to an external stylesheet seems to be only recently supported. I tested our HyperArts Static FBML Page, calling an external stylesheet, and it’s working fine. (If anyone does notice an issue, please let me know!)

The option that <em>doesn’t</em> work with Internet Explorer is using the style tag to embed your CSS rules:

 

<style type=”text/css”>
.some-class { margin:0; font-size:14px; }
#some-id { margin:0; font-size:14px; }
</style>

 

Although the above works in most other browsers, Internet Explorer ignores the contents of that tag.

If at all possible, you should choose the option to call an external stylesheet. You have much greater flexibility in applying — and making changes to — your CSS using a stand-alone stylesheet.

Read more: http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/category/web-coding-html-css-javascript/#ixzz0dYqppB5E

OLPC Plans Super-Thin, Super-Cheap Tablet

The nonprofit group One Laptop Per Child wants to produce a touchscreen tablet computer by 2012 that will cost less than $100. OLPC released its device roadmap this week, which includes two upgrades to the original XO computer, as well as lofty plans for a new 8.5-by-11-inch tablet device called the XO-3.

The XO-3’s specs

The design for the XO-3 is ambitious. The tablet would be about 0.24-inch thick (half the thickness of the iPhone), with an 8.5-by-11-inch screen, a virtual keyboard, no buttons at all, and a folding ring for easy carrying. It would be made entirely of plastic, and is designed to be durable and waterproof.

The device would use Palm Pre-style induction charging, so it would use less than a Watt of power, according to Forbes. There’s no word on software, but the XO-3 would have an 8-GHz processor.

As if those specs weren’t enough of a lofty goal, OLPC’s founder Nicholas Negroponte told Forbes the XO-3’s “less than $100” target price would be $75–the same number OLPC wanted to hit with its earlier two-screen tablet concept called the XO-2, which has now been scrapped in favor of the XO-3.

Lofty Ambitions

OLPC hopes it won’t have to develop the XO-3 alone, and that computer manufacturers will take the lead in developing the device. To that end, OLPC will work on the XO-3 as an open platform that any manufacturer can take over, according to Forbes.

Still, the hardest part for the XO-3 may not be its lofty specs, but its $75 price tag. The original XO fell far short of its $100 price point at $199, and that was for a mere rethinking of existing laptop designs and components. The XO-3, by comparison, would have a more powerful processor than most laptops available today (assuming the 8-GHz spec is not a typo), require significantly less power consumption and use many technologies that are still prohibitively expensive.

Take, for example, Plastic Logic’s Que e-reader, which is a real device that has similar hardware specs as the XO-3 concept. However, Plastic Logic has been reluctant to reveal the price for the Que, but it’s become clear the all-plastic, super-thin e-reader will not be cheap. Then there’s the JooJoo aka CrunchPad tablet, which was planned on hitting a $200 price tag, and is now selling for $500.

The XO-3 sounds like a great idea, but it’s doubtful OLPC will be able to make its dreams a reality by 2012. But the group doesn’t necessarily have to get all the way to its goal. Negroponte told Forbes if OLPC only achieves half of the XO-3 concept, the resulting device could be a game changer with far reaching consequences.

Other OLPC Plans

In addition to the XO-3, OLPC announced two updates to the original XO laptop:

XO 1.5 – The XO 1.5 is the same industrial design as the XO 1.0. Based on a VIA processor (replacing AMD), it will provide 2x the speed, 4x DRAM memory and 4x FLASH memory. It will run both the Linux and Windows operating systems. XO 1.5 will be available in January 2010 at about $200 per unit.

XO 1.75 – The XO 1.75, to be available in early 2011, will be essentially the same industrial design but rubber-bumpered on the outside and in the inside will be an 8.9″, touch-sensitive display. The XO 1.75 will be based on an ARM processor from Marvell that will enable 2x the speed at 1/4 the power and is targeted at $150 or less.

WordPress

Now the title will probably prompt many to think, we already have this option, it’s called WordPress Mu and Buddypress.

Those two options are great, but it doesn’t really fit with the idea of a community blog. WordPress Mu and Buddypress are built for multiple users authoring multiple blogs…

I really hate having to use Movable Type as a reference, but in this instance they actually have a solution that I would like to see implemented with WordPress.

For those not familiar with MovableType, upon initial install you have the option to install a regular blog, forum, motion, and community blog. The forum and motion are irrelevant to this idea. The community blog is the primary focus.

MT’s community blog allows for user’s to register and post topics. WordPress allows this as well, but it leads users to the backend which as many of you know can be daunting for someone who isn’t accustomed to it. Images are allowed as well on both platforms, however MT handles image upload a lot more simply, choose a file upload and you can call that file to be displayed anywhere. WordPress has a few extra steps that I wish we could bypass for this instance.

I forgot to mention that in MT users have a simple profile page which shows their action, granted I’m not even looking for something this complex, a simple profile page which show posts contributed is a great starting point. This can all be done via front-end. Very simple and focused for average users.

People may ask why don’t I just use MT than? Simple answer to that, MT is hard to theme for, community support is very limited, and I have enough belief something like this can come to fruition for WordPress.

I really should stop posting late at night, it’s hard enough for me to articulate my thoughts when I’m wide awake.