Online Horizen Internet Manual
1) Uploading your
Web Site
2) Passwords & Email Security
3) Reducing Spam & Junk Email
4) Registering Domain Names
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1) How to upload your web pages to the Horizen server
Specific instructions for uploading pages are as follows -
2) Passwords and Email Security
Pls be aware that it is a recommended policy to regularly change passwords. Depending on how paranoid you are you may wish to change it approximately quarterly.
Horizen runs on a Mac server which is extremely secure and I have scripting and cgi's turned off for the ultimate in security which virtually eliminates Internet hacking. I am writing this as a reminder of current computer best practice which recommends regular changes of passwords.
To my knowledge the horizen server has never been hacked or used as a email relay station. In fact the US military now uses Mac web servers simply because they are currently the only Internet servers that have been impossible to hack. Although never say never...
I recommend password changes whenever :
1) a person leaves your company
2) every 3 months
3) after a security breach (either at horizen or your company)
Password guidelines :
1) should be 6 or more characters
2) not a dictionary word or place name
3) don't use your name, birthday, pet name
4) mix upper and lower case letters and numbers
5) change regularly
Examples of reasonably secure passwords are : e4H2k8P and aKe-9263
Email passwords can be changed in Eudora via Special/Change Password... or emailing me your new passwords and I will change them for you. If you don't wish me to know your password and don't have access to Eudora, it can be downloaded from http://www.eudora.com/email/index.html. Outlook Express, Outlook and Entourage as far as I'm aware do not have this feature.
Unsure about anything or need more info... send me an email or call anytime.
You have probably recently noticed an dramatic increase in spam or junk email over the last year or so. This is a world wide problem effecting virtually everyone with an email address. As this spam is often quite obnoxious (financial scams or sex sites) it is quite a concern to parents and also embarrassing under a wide range of circumstances. Unfortunately with the Internet being a world wide resource (even though the US thinks it owns it) any one country making laws against spam has little or no impact. It is too easy for a spammer to set up a server in a country with little or no regulation and be virtually immune from prosecution.
How do spammers get email addresses?
- from domain name records
- from web browsers as you scan their sites
- from other spammers
- from programs (called robots) that scan web pages for email
addresses
- from hacking into servers and stealing email lists
What makes them even cheekier is that they often relay their spam through other legitimate servers thereby making it harder to track down where they come from.
Here are some ideas that might help to minimise the amount of junk you get -
Use fictitious email information in your
web browser (various cookies and web based scripts can send this
info out to hackers and spammers). Tough to do if you use Netscape
to manage your email.
If subscribing to anything on the web always uncheck the box that
says can we send your email to anyone else
Never reply to any junk email or go to any web site they list
Never reply to the unsubscribe email - it doesn't work and you
have just validated your email to them
Turn of Java and Java script in your browser. Might be tough as
this could make some sites inactive.
Turn off cookies, although some legitimate sites force you to
have them on.
Have a junk email address (a hotmail/yahoo mail account is perfect
for this) for those situations where you must give out a valid
email address
Change email addresses whenever things get too bad
Never spread or pass on chain emails
There are more advanced methods using filtering
of email headers amongst other things but these are beyond the
scope of this short email. Have a look at this link for lots more
useful information -
Macintouch spam
report
There are several major attempts (legal and technical) currently underway to slow the spread of spam down although stopping it is probably the impossible dream. Hopefully these ventures will have some impact.
As more information comes to light I will let you know. If you are getting a lot of junk and you using Horizen as an ISP or domain name host, I can issue you another email free of charge. If you use another ISP then get them to change your email, although they might charge you for the privilege.
1) When registering a domain name you might find the following info useful.
How do I know if a Domain Name is available?
You can find out if the domain name you are interested in is available
by doing the following:
1. Go to http://www.melbourneit.com.au/register/
2. In the box provided enter the domain name, then select which
extension you would like from the drop down box
3. Click GO
4. On the page that gets returned you will see your domain names
that are available (or unavailable) and a check box next to the
domain names that are available for registration
com.au domain names can only be allocated to registered Australian commercial entities. In addition, there are a number of restrictions and requirements which govern whether or not a particular com.au domain name can be allocated. Select this section if you are a registered Australian commercial entity and would like to apply for a com.au domain name.
What com.au domain name am I eligible for?
Since com.au domain names are allocated according to a set of
guidelines, your first step should be to understand those guidelines
by reviewing the com.au allocation policy.
Below are examples of how the main requirements of the com.au allocation policy will affect your choice of domain name.
The domain name must be derived from your legal name. Your com.au domain name must be "derived" from you legal name. That is - all the characters in the domain name must be in the commercial entity's name in the same sequence. Characters in the commercial entity's name can be omitted from the domain name.
Example Legal name: Harry's Blue Company Pty Ltd
Examples of domain names that would be accepted for this legal name:
* harrysblue.com.au
* harrycompany.com.au
* hbc.com.au
* bluecompany.com.au
Examples of domain names that would NOT be accepted for this legal name:
* blueharrys.com.au (the order of the characters
has been changed)
* bluecompanies.com.au (new characters have been introduced)
* bluecompanygroup.com.au (new characters have been introduced)
The domain name cannot be a single generic word that represents a commercial category, occupation or industry.
* Examples of words that would be accepted:
drive.com.au (while a dictionary word, it is not used to indicate
a commercial category)
* chocolatelollies.com.au (this is 2 words and therefore not a "single word
commercial category)
Examples of generic words that would NOT be accepted:
* teacher.com.au (an occupation)
* teaching.com.au (an industry)
* mining.com.au (an industry)
* min-ing.com.au (with or without a hyphen, the word is considered
to be an industry)
* chocolate.com.au (it represents an industry category)
* chocolates.com.au (singular or plural the word is considered
a commercial category)
The domain name cannot be an Australian place name or a common abbreviation for an Australian place name.
Examples of Australian place names that would NOT be accepted
* australia.com.au
* nsw.com.au (common abbreviation for an Australian place name)
* victoria.com.au
* queens-land.com.au (with or without the hyphen it is considered
an Australian place name)
How long can my domain name be and what
characters can I use?
Internet Names WorldWide was the first registrar in the world
to offer 63 character gTLD domain names. This means that the domain
name you choose "can-have-up-to-63-characters.com".
You will sometimes find references to 67 character domain names,
this includes the dot and the letters c - o - m as an additional
four characters.
One of the advantages of longer domain names is that you can register phrases such as what-is-the-matrix-the-movie.com or puff-the-magic-dragon.net
The valid characters for use in a .com, .net or .org domain name are:
* any of the letters a to z example abcdefg.com
* any numbers 0 to 9 example 911.com
* you may also use a hyphen (-) example place-hyphens-here.com
* the domain can be a combination of numbers, letters and hyphens
example b-2- b.com
* the domain can begin and end in a number example 9to5.com
* the domain name cannot begin or end with a hyphen
* the domain name must be a minimum of 2 characters long
Do I need to have my domain name hosted
straight away?
No. If you do not yet know where you are going to host your domain
name you can first secure it and then simply re-delegate it at
a later stage (there is no fee for re-delegation).
Please note that INWW focuses its energies on providing you with the fastest, most secure registration system in the world and does not offer services such as hosting, URL forwarding or email. After having completed your registration you will need to arrange with an Internet Service Provider to supply you with these services.
Com.au domains can be hosted anywhere in the world - you are not required to host the name in Australia.
For any further information pls email me at webmaster@horizen.com.au or phone 0414 888 563