SITES - USEFUL & INTERESTINGWe've decided to continue this section as a "regular feature." If you have a site you'd like to recommend, let us know by e-mail.
Luminous LandscapeIf you're interested in digitial photography, you'll be interested in this site. It's owned and operated by one of the world's premier landscape photographers and contains a lot of useful information and tutorials like lens reviews, camera reviews, how to adjust RAW camera files, colour theory, and even histograms and MTF charts. |
WellStyled Webdesign WorkshopIf you've ever built a website or if you're considering the possibility, this site is a good resource. Even if you're going to have someone build a site for you, you may want to check out this site. It's got an excellent colour scheme chooser tool. Click here to try it out. |
Computer History MuseumDid you know people "programmed" automated weaving looms with punchcards as far back as the early 1800s? Punchcards were used in the US 1890 cenus to record and tabulate results. Drop by this online version of the physical museum to follow geeks and their toys through history Fascinating! |
The Canadian Geographic AtlasThis site is worth visting just for the cool relief maps of Canada, which you can zoom into and out of and pan across to your heart's content. There's a children's section and you can quiz yourself about Canada's regions. This is a great site about a cool country. |
Thrifty FoodsPretty much everyone on Vancouver Island is familiar with "The smile's in the bag for you." We're proud to say we host the Thrifty Foods website. Check out their site for specials, recipes, and nutritional information or create an online shopping list you can print for your next trip to Thriftys. |
Victoria School of WritingDo you have a blank page sitting in front of your face and you can't put the right words on it? Maybe the Victoria School of Writing can help. This Islandnet.com-hosted site offers courses in all sorts of writing for everyone from the "just-for-fun" beginner to the serious writer. |
Artwood Design (Canada) Ltd.This Islandnet.com customer has done some amazing millwork design and construction here in Victoria, Alberta, and even Japan. Check out the staircase they built here and shipped to Nikko, Japan, where the staircase was assembled by craftsmen. |
Please note that the information contained in this newsletter and other newsletters published by Islandnet AMT Solutions Group, Inc. (Islandnet.com) is for information purposes only. Islandnet.com is not responsible for damages--monetary or other--that may result from the use of information contained in any Islandnet.com newsletter. Customers must verify information for themselves.
Unless otherwise noted, all the material contained in this newsletter is copyright 2004 - 2010 © AMT Solutions Group, Inc., all rights reserved.
WE'RE CONSOLIDATED!
As of July 1, 2005, the HighSpeedPlus.com and Islandhosting.com websites point to the Islandnet.com website and Helpdesk system.
Most customers should notice little, if any, change.
Most changes customers will notice relate to the Islandhosting.com and HighSpeedPlus.com Control Panels. Most functions available through the HighSpeedPlus.com and Islandhosting.com Control Panels have moved to the Islandnet.com website and Helpdesk. Those few functions still accessed outside the Islandnet.com website and Helpdesk system will still be available to customers. Please review the article immediately below for information on which functions have been migrated and which ones remain available via the old Islandhosting.com and HighSpeedPlus.com Control Panels.
Merging of our three services allows us to better serve customers and provide them with even more reliability.
If you have any questions, please e-mail us at "support@islandnet.com."
SOME THINGS HAVE CHANGEDAs outlined above, most customers will not notice any difference at all with our services consolidated. However, Islandhosting.com and HighSpeedPlus.com customers--particularly those who deal with some website issues--will notice some changes.
The old Control Panels for HighSpeedPlus.com and Islandhosting.com are available via a link from the Helpdesk. That said, the information below outlines which functions are available and from where.
For all customers, this function is now available via the helpdesk at the following URL:
https://helpdesk.islandnet.com/cgi-bin/ms2/admin/
accountstatus
For Islandhosting.com customers, this information is still available via the old Control Panel here:
https://www.islandhosting.com/cgi-bin/ms2/admin/cp
For HighSpeedPlus.com customers, this information is available at the following URL:
https://helpdesk.islandnet.com/cgi-bin/ms2/admin/
accountstatus
For all customers, this function is now available via the helpdesk at the following URL:
https://helpdesk.islandnet.com/hostman.php
For HighSpeedPlus.com customers, this function is still available via the Control Panel
https://www.highspeedplus.com/cgi-bin/ms2/admin/cp
For Islandhosting.com customers, this function is still available via the Control Panel:
https://www.islandhosting.com/cgi-bin/ms2/admin/cp
For Islandhosting.com customers, this function is still available using the Control Panel:
https://www.islandhosting.com/cgi-bin/ms2/admin/cp
For all other customers, this function is available using the Helpdesk File Manager:
https://helpdesk.islandnet.com/cgi-bin/ms2/admin/fm
All customers can access this function using the Helpdesk at the following URL:
https://helpdesk.islandnet.com/hostman.php
This functionality has been removed. You can no longer download raw log files and select a web stats package.
You can now select raw logs as your statistics package. If you choose this option, raw log files will be stored in your account and you can retrieve them for offline analyzing. To store raw log files in your account you can use the following Helpdesk URL:
https://helpdesk.islandnet.com/hostman.php
This is now available via the helpdesk at the following Helpdesk URL:
https://helpdesk.islandnet.com/cgi-bin/ms2/admin/
phistory
If you have any questions, please e-mail us at "support@islandnet.com."
TIP OF THE MONTH - SECURING YOUR E-MAIL Ever want the same security for your e-mail that you get when you connect to a secure webpage? Well, it's available on Islandnet.com, Islandhosting.com, and HighSpeedPlus.com. Moreover, it's easy to setup.
You have two options available. The first option is the simplest--use our web-based e-mail interface. If you've never used it, you might want to try it, as it has a truckload of features--in addition to the security of our secure server. You can use an online address book, view and send attachments, use a spell checker, and even read e-mail from other servers (i.e. read e-mail you normally recieve from another provider).
How do you use the secure server? That's easy. Look at the top, right-hand corner of the page where you'll see a small lock icon just below the word "Islandnet.com." If the icon appears unlocked, you're not using the secure server. If you click on it, you'll notice the icon appears locked. That means you're now using the secure server. Anything you do while logged into the Helpdesk and the lock icon appears locked is secure.
The second option is to setup your e-mail program to connect using "SSL" (Secure Socket Layer) encryption. This is slightly more complicated but not much more. The abbreiviated instructions below tell you how.
In Outlook, go to "Tools->Accounts->Properties->Advanced->Server Port Numbers." There will be two options under "Server Port Numbers"--"Outgoing mail" and "Incoming mail." Both "Outgoing mail" and "Incoming mail" will allow you to select "This server requires a secure connection (SSL)." To enable SSL encryption, check the checkboxes for both and click "OK."
In the "Advanced" tab of the account setup check the "This server requires a secure connection (SSL)" checkboxes, and set the port numbers to the appropriate values. Warning: while the POP3 checkbox will automatically change the port number from 110 to 995, the SMTP checkbox will keep the port number as 25. You must manually set it to 465.
In Mozilla Thunderbird, go to "Tools->Account Settings->Server Settings." In the section called "Server Settings" check the checkbox beside "Use secure connection (SSL)" but leave "Use secure authentication" unchecked. Click "OK" and you're done.
In Eudora go to "Tools->Options->Checking Mail." Near the bottom of the dialogue box, under "Secure Sockets when Sending" select "Required STARTTLS." Then go to "Sending E-mail" and under "Secure Sockets when Sending" select "Required STARTTLS." Click "OK" and you're done.
If the above instructions are not detailed enough or if you're using an Apple computer, please call our tech support at 383-0096.
Once your e-mail program is setup to connect to our servers using SSL encryption, your e-mail is protected by the strongest encryption commercially available on the Internet.
It still pays to be careful though. When sending or receiving an e-mail, it's important to remember that the person on the other end may not be using SSL.
NEW FEATURE - GEOIP, WHAT IS IT AND WHAT'S IT DO?In a nutshell, GeoIP is a function that determines what geographic area is associated with a particular IP address. ("IP" stands for "Internet Protocol" and an IP address is a series of numbers such as "199.175.106.253" which corresponds to a particular computer on the Internet.) But what's it good for?
Glad you asked! On Islandnet.com you can do two things with our GeoIP function.
First, you can use it with our PEP ("Personal E-mail Management") e-mail system to filter messages originating from different geographic areas of the world. Say, for example, you don't have any contacts in China but you're getting a lot of spam from addresses originating there. You could insert a line in your "mailrule" file that looks something like the following:
delete if x-geoip contains "China"
The above line would delete any e-mail messages originating in China.
For more information on using PEP, click here.
The second thing you can do with this function is display certain PHP or HTML code or images depending on where a website visitor resides. For example, if you operate an online store and you deal in both Canadian and American currency, you could automatically display prices the appropriate currency-- US dollars for American customers or or Canadian dollars for Canadian customers.
For information on using the GeoIP lookup function on your webpages, click here.
PHP UPGRADE TO VERSION 5 Consequently, we will continue to offer the most recent stable version of PHP 4 for the use of Islandnet.com customers. When a truly stable version of PHP 5 is available, we will notify customers before making the switch.
In the meantime, customers can still test and use PHP 5 if they wish. We have installed a second version of web server software on servers with PHP 5 on them instead of PHP 4. To test your PHP code under PHP 5.0.4 instead of PHP 4.3.11, add ":8080" to your domain name. This tells the browser to connect to port 8080 instead of the default port 80.
For example, if you normally access your site with "http://example.com/index.php", using "http://example.com:8080/index.php" should load the exact same page but via the test server with PHP 5.
NOTE:
NEW PLANS ARE HERE!
Wow! Customers can now choose from eight different packages--ranging from $4.95 per month to $129.95 per month. You can add a high speed connection to any package (provided you live on southern Vancouver Island or the mainland). Moreover, all of our packages include more of just about everything--disk space, bandwidth, e-mail addresses, and more.
Click here to check out our new pricing structure.
NSF FEES - A REMINDER Please note that a non-sufficient funds fee of $20.00 now applies to all credit card transactions where the credit card is declined because insufficient funds are available. The fee *does not* apply if the card is declined because of another error--incorrectly entered number, expiry date, et cetera. The fee also *does not* apply where a customer attends our office to make a payment and their card is declined in our reception area.
This policy is to cover the added cost of having to manually review account information where payment is made online and / or where a credit card is used for recurring billing but declined for insufficient funds.