AOL's Ugly Webhosting Shutdown

AOL could take a lesson from our lame-duck President and go out in style.

In its favor is the fact that AOL email can now be collected via IMAP. Yeah! (No folks, I don't use AOL myself, but I still have clients who believe they'll lose contact with the world if they close their AOL accounts.) But on the negative side of the ledger is the way the Information Technology Specialists that populate AOL's decimated Virginia offices have phased out their webhosting services.

Once upon a time, every AOL subscriber got "free" software, dial-up access, and "free" webhosting at http://members.aol.com/Screenname. Over time, that free software became bloated adware, laden with network problems, and PC "maintenance" tools that slowed user's machines down to a crawl. Meanwhile, the dial-up service that propelled AOL's growth became a Model T, found only in extreme backwaters.

Today, the software's been discontinued. No loss. AOL as ISP is history. No problem. AOL no longer charges for its "services," having long since morphed into an ad-supported business model. Nothing for nothing. And as of 10/31/2008, AOL's webhosting has shut its doors.

And there's the rub. AOL didn't just shut down the servers and disappear. That wouldn't have been nice, but it wouldn't have been awful either. And AOL didn't offer subscribers with websites on their servers a forwarding service. That would be the professional thing to do. No, the folks at AOL decided to send all links to Hometown Has Been Shutdown (HHBS).

The problem with that is twofold. People who have the old AOL address for a website won't know if it's moved or defunct. And if they use a search engine to locate a moved website, the results page will continue to show the AOL address, leading folks back to HHBS. Round and round we go ...

Dear AOL. I know it's probably too late and/or too much trouble to provide the folks who paid the bills all those years with forwarding for moved websites. But it wouldn't be hard to deliver an error 404 page for removed websites. That's the standard protocol and would eventually get search engines to drop the defunct AOL website URLs. Delivering a live and changing page (HHBS is a live blog with comments) causes search engines to maintain the erroneous listings.

So, dear AOL, if you can't provide forwarding, and won't follow WWW protocol by delivering error 404 pages, how about writing the search engines -- heck there are only a handful left -- and asking them to stop indexing any URL that includes members.aol.com or users.aol.com or hometown.aol.com?

Geez, if Bush can do it gracefully, so can AOL.

FTP Client: FileZilla

Like many website designers, I used and relied upon Ipswitch's WS_FTP file transfer software for many years. It's the "industry standard." It's modestly-priced -- now about $55 -- shareware that's frequently updated, versatile, and secure. And over the years, I tried other freeware and shareware file transfer clients, mostly for clients with less rigorous needs, and found them slow, lacking features, or just plain ponderous.

Recently, faced with rebuilding my primary desktop and another Ipswitch paid upgrade pending, I decided to sample the alternatives again. I looked at CuteFTP, SmartFTP, Core FTP, and for a while even used FireFTP, a Mozilla Firefox add-on. All were suitable for limited-duty. But none satisfied this old nerd's hunger for a speedy, well-behaved, small footprint FTP client with just enough features and security.

As you know from the title of this post, that was then. FileZilla is now. It's well-supported (wikis, forums, bug and feature requests) open source software that's lightning fast to load and to function. Hey, fast is important when you're updating more than one or two files at a time. It's frequently updated with security patches, bug fixes, and small new features. That's like tweaks, not bloat. It's intuitive for both right- and left-brained types. It never crashes. And did I mention, it's fast?

Three things I especially find helpful in FileZilla:

• Cross platform support means I can use the same client on pretty much any machine I'm working on.
• Easy to use site manager makes adding a new site simple, selecting an existing site, simpler.
• Remote file editing so I can do quick fixes for a client on the fly.
• Drag and drop support is built-in, not quirky like some, and not slow

If you try FileZilla and find yourself loving it as I do, don't forget to support it. It's free to use, but not a throwaway. It's a thoroughly professional project whose developers deserve to get paid for their efforts.

Google Chrome

Google has taken its eye off the ball with its too-hasty release of the Chrome browser. While its handling of each tab as an independent entity is just what's needed in an imperfect Web 2.0 world --and hopefully will be emulated by IE and Firefox developers -- Chrome falls short of implementing the usability that has long attracted users to Google products.

Because of a non-compliant proprietary JavaScript engine, Chrome does not work with many websites that IE and Firefox handle gracefully. For shame!

But the deal-breaker for me is that Chrome doesn't work with the widely-used Roboform password manager. Yes, Chrome offers to save passwords. But I've got literally hundreds of site-specific passwords and (a) I need portability from browser to browser and PC to PC, and (b) I'm not trusting my passwords even to the worthies at Google.

Chrome is clean, and quick. But without Roboform, it's stupid.

Why Vista Gets a Bad Rap

I know, it's cool to bash Microsoft. And sometimes, it's appropriate. Windows ME was truly bloatware, and Internet Explorer didn't really shape up until the competition showed the way. But Vista is a worthy extension of XP, and all it gets is grief.

As an old gray beard who's been a geek tweaking PCs since before the words "geek", "tweak", and "PC" took on meaning, I'm amazed that the armchair techies -- whose jobs depend on the existence of Gates, Microsoft, and Windows -- can find nothing to like in Vista.

And then it hit me. Every negative comment or review about Vista carps about (a) cost and activation, and (b) UAC -- User Account Control. And that's because they're techies, not end users!

Techies have multiple computers and like to switch systems and play. Software that's not free and not authorized for multiple machines, is a pain for techies, who are notoriously clever but impecunious.

And techies, almost by definition, are continually downloading, installing, configuring, and reworking new software -- all conditions that trigger the UAC pop-up in Vista. For a techie, UAC is a toothache that smarts with every chew.

But for the great mass of users -- one machine, and very infrequent technical changes -- Vista is fast, fun, sexy, safe, and stable. Would they like it to be free? Sure, but what a silly idea. In the real world, users expect to pay for their cars, their combs, and the computers, including the operating system.

Now that it's out of the starting gate and over the speed humps, what's not to like about Vista?

Network Solutions Scam

As if you needed another reason to avoid the high-handed, high-priced offerings at Network Solutions (NetSol), here's another quirky NetSol scam masquerading as a service.

Catherine Palmiere is the President of Adam Personnel and Adam Temporary Services, one of New York City's premiere employment agencies and staffing services. Catherine asked me to register a new domain name for her company and point it to the Temps page on her primary website. She suggested www.adamtemporaryservices.com and www.adamtemps.com.

We decided on the latter, which I promptly checked for availability. To my surprise, it was taken. Looking further, I noticed it had been "taken" just moments before her email to me. Wow, what a coincidence. But wait, lighting struck twice! The other domain, too, was taken. And guess who had 'em both: Network Solutions, LLC. Both were "registered" for one year, with nameservers set to reserveddomainname.com.

It turns out the domains are actually available, but with a catch. The domain records say "This Domain is available at NetworkSolutions.com, 13681 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 300, HERNDON, VA 20171 US." You can't directly register these domains with another registrar, say GoDaddy or Tucows, unless you fork over fees to a go-between or domain name broker. But you can register them directly at NetSol -- and pay their inflated fees.

In case you haven't guessed yet, what happened here was that Cathy at Adam had checked availability for these domains on the NetSol website and NetSol immediately registered the names. Since Cathy has a NetSol account and was logged in when she checked availability, this sort of made sense. She's their customer and reserving the names for her made sure she'd have them available.

But wait. NetSol will also let me -- or you or anybody -- register those names, as long as we do it through NetSol. So maybe the preemptive, protective reservations weren't for Cathy's benefit, but for NetSol's. To test this, I used a no-cookies PC to check the availability on the NetSol website (without logging in, of course) of a silly domain name, viz. cranberryham.com. I don't know if cranberry ham is Kosher or not, but I do know that (a) I'm not a NetSol client, (b) I researched the domain first elsewhere, and found "no registered match", then checked at NetSol, and (c) as of today, it's now reserved by them for a year*! And that ain't Kosher for sure.

The problem here is simple. It's called conflict of interest. The company which issues domain names -- in the public's interest -- shouldn't be allowed to register, reserve or otherwise control any names other than the ones it needs for its own website and email. It's time to get the fox out of the henhouse. And let the cranberries propagate without grafting or layering.

* Although the record shows an expiry one year after the creation date, the "registration," is probably set to expire in five days. After all, NetSol is tricky, not stupid. Registrars can create a registration, then delete it within five days at no cost. The five-day grace period was designed to allow them to fix mistakes without penalty. The scam is they're using it to penalize clients!

P.S. Others have discovered and commented on this Networks Solution scam as well.

Philadelphia: Brotherly Love and Great Appraisers

The Philadelphia Chapter of the American Society of Appraisers (ASA) asked me to take over and make over their ailing website. Makeovers are hard -- the originals are usually flawed technically, weak on navigation, and lacking in search engine optimization -- but I agreed because the Philadelphia Chapter is a wellspring of professionalism and enthusiasm.

The Chapter is home to several ASA Regional Governors, including business valuation appraiser Mark Penny, the current Governor, and also has spawned at least two ASA International Presidents. But more importantly, it boasts nationally recognized appraisers like Samuel F. Luceno (real estate) and Shirley S. Swaab (personal property), appraisers noted both for their appraisals and for mentoring. In fact, the Chapter has won the annual ASA trophy for Best Mentoring Program three times in the past six years. Now that's Brotherly Love!

Shirley Swaab is a good example of what I like to call the DaVinci principle -- the fact that the efforts of a single person can make a world of difference. Ms. Swaab, who is a well-respected appraiser, is also a noted collector of decorative and fine art items. Year after year she lectures, teaches, and conducts hands-on seminars, bringing items from her own collections for participants to pass around and examine. She's a perennial on the Maine Antique Digest circuit, and of course, at ASA both nationally and locally. How many speakers do you know who have people wait-listed for their next engagement?

It's axiomatic that every project takes at least twice as long as expected. The ASA Philadelphia makeover was no exception. But it was fun. The Chapter has a treasure trove of newsletters, articles, Q&A items, strong appraisers, rich seminars, and a long tradition. That made it interesting. The hard part was honoring our self-imposed commitment to keeping the site online throughout the makeover with no "under construction" signs, dead links, or missing pages. Done, but fun. Looking for a business valuation, gems & jewelry, machinery & equipment, personal property or real estate appraiser in Pennsylvania, New Jersey or Delaware? Take a look at ASA Philadelphia!

Getting the (E)Mail Through

At its best, email is fast, fun and tremendously productive. But email, like the weather, is largely unpredictable. That's because it depends on the Internet, which belongs at once to everyone and no one. In short, no one's in charge of making sure email gets through.

While there are no delivery guarantees, it is possible to tilt the odds in your favor. Here are some tips in order of importance.

Address Book. Most undelivered email fails because of a bad email address. Although email addresses are not case sensitive, everything else about an email address must be just right. You can avoid typos and misspellings by addressing email from verified addresses in your address book. This also prevents common substitutions, e.g. name@com for name@org or name@edu, and incorrectly transcribed addresses, i.e., my friend Michael spells his name Micheal; was that Coles, or Kohls, or Coals? Remember, even the owners of email addresses misspell them. Don't click on Reply to send an email. Use your address book!

Sidestep SPAM Filters. Today, most hosts filter inbound email to quarantine or delete SPAM and viruses. Some hosts, notably AOL and Hotmail, are notoriously aggressive, generating a high percentage of false positives. Even Big Blue (the famous chess-playing IBM computer) can't outwit SPAM filters. The best solution is an end-run around the filter: ask your contacts to add your email address to the list of accounts whose email will be accepted without filtering. This may be called a Friend's List, Contact List, White List, Acceptance List, etc.

You Get What They Paid For. Some email accounts are more equal than others. Many users have so-called free (meaning ad-supported) email accounts. Others pay. You can't sex them by looking at the email domain. For example, I have an email account at hotmail.com which is free, and an account at yahoo.com, which I pay for. It won't surprise you to learn that email to my paid Yahoo! account gets through virtually all the time, with intelligent SPAM filtering, virus and spyware protection. Email to my Hotmail account is pokey, unreliable, and likely to wind up in the SPAM bin. The best defense against a pokey recipient is to join the fray. If you're having difficulty getting through to a recipient who uses AOL, open an AOL account and send from there. Intra-ISP transmission is fast, and subject to few rejections and misclassifications.

Don't Play in Traffic. Just as there are good and bad times to go to the mall, cross a busy street, or call a help desk for service, timing counts when sending email. As you might expect, first thing in the morning is a busy time for email, and Monday mornings are generally worst of all. Your email is more likely to get through quickly and with the least likelihood of loss if you send it later in the day, and in the middle of the week. Need more timing info? Check out the Internet Traffic Report .

Size Counts. Size counts in two ways. Large emails automatically receive a low priority and are delivered more slowly than small ones. And some emails, usually with large attachments, may be accepted on your end but turned away or just deleted on the receiving end. In general, emails less than 10 MB in size will get through -- eventually.

Makeup Matters. The makeup of your email -- how it looks and what it contains -- matters. Not only do the Intenet routers assign a lower priority to email with attachments, but many receiving ISPs, including AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, Earthlink, and Yahoo!, check incoming mail for viruses and spyware, and machine-read email to filter for SPAM, and to place contextual ads.

HTML-formatted email and email with attachments that can harbor viruses or run spyware -- including *.doc, *.html, *.exe, *.pif, *.swf, *.com, *.bat -- will be processed more slowly, and sometimes mistakenly rejected or deleted. NB: AOL is infamous for deleting inbound email without notifying the sender or the recipient. Emails that include URLs, viz. website or email addresses, may also be misclassified. If your email address is not in your recipient's Accept List, makeup with care! Your best bet is short, plain-text email with no attachments.

Consider The Alternatives. Email is free. You can't pay anyone to guarantee when or if it's delivered. Important communications need to be sent by postal mail or a parcel delivery service. For quick and easy communication with a friend or collaboration with a business partner, consider Instant Messaging (AOL, Yahoo!, MSN, Google, ICQ all offer free, and generally reliable services) or text messaging (Short Messaging Service). When it comes to communications, we can all take a lesson from the under-30 crowd.