I had the ultimate privilege of attending SMX West, the Search Marketing Expo in San Jose, CA this past week. It was an amazing experience packed with tons and tons of great knowledge. I am pretty sure I witnessed something there that will probably never happen again in this lifetime: Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam Team and Duane Forrester, Senior Product Manager with Bing’s Webmaster Program on stage together talking about SEO.

If you want your website to rank well, Cutts pointed out the top things that can get your website in trouble.

1. Too many doorway pages. If you are generating too many pages to target one unique phrase, it can sometimes lead to duplicate content which is a big NO, NO.

2. Autogenerated content. This practice speaks for itself… and Cutts shared an example of absurd auto-generated content  -a serious question is answered entirely by quoting a Freak Nasty song (which Cutts recited to a gleeful crowd). Autogenerated content is even worse when site owners use pictures of the Google web spam team. (This seems to happen more often than one would expect.)

3. Keyword stuffing- black hat SEO 101, and no website should practice it, ever.

4. Gibberish content- avoid it at all costs. If your content doesn’t read well and sounds robotic, overly stuffed with keywords, you have a major problem. His example of this was a Korean website, that even though it was in a different language, you could easily tell that it was stuffed with keywords.

5. Hacking- not necessarily the websites fault, but you will be penalized by Google if your website falls prey. Cutts said that 90 percent of penalizations are related to black hat practices, but a lot of spam reports are also related to hacking. “Keep software up to date,” Cutts suggested. He also said, “Fetch as Googlebot is your friend – it’s an easy way to see if your site got hacked.” Keep an eye on your Webmaster Tools and sign up to receive email alerts so you will quickly be notified when something goes wrong.

In closing, Cutts said, “Be excellent to each other! Be excellent to users and search engines and give people content they want.”

Duane Forrester of Bing also had a similar message. He said, “If your content is the best thing since sliced bread, you’re going to rank well. We are focused on what searchers are engaging and how we can deliver them better results.”

So, my take on it? Content is not only king but also queen and ace. If your content rocks, your website ranking will rock too! What are your thoughts on content and SEO?

What is recursive DNS? Every website on the Internet needs to have at least one authoritative DNS server. Authoritative servers are where that websites records are kept. The more authoritative DNS servers your website has, the more redundant it is. To understand exactly what recursive DNS is, let’s explain what exactly DNS is.

In order for a website to be accessed via its URL, i.e. www.noip.com, the website needs DNS. The Domain Name System performs like a phone book. If not for DNS you would need to know the phone number or IP address of every single website. DNS acts like a phone book by pointing a URL to the websites IP address for you. This means you don’t have to know the IP address of every website. How frustrating would that be? I can barely even remember my own phone number, let alone the phone number of every single website that I want to visit.

Anyway, the place where the phone numbers of the websites are kept are the authoritative DNS servers. Each website has at least one and if you want the website to be fully redundant, (meaning if one server has issues or downtime, your website will not be affected) they often have more – that are all located in geographically redundant locations. When you type www.noip.com into your browser, your computer queries the recursive DNS provider. If the recursive DNS server has the answer cached, then it gives that answer if it doesn’t have the answer cached, the recursive DNS server then queries the authoritative DNS server. The authoritative DNS server returns the correct answer and the website is loaded.

Although it sounds quite confusing and time-consuming, all of this happens in milliseconds. Questions or comments? Leave them in the comments! Also, click Like to share this with your friends!

Yup, that really invasive online privacy bill CISPA was reintroduced in the House of Representatives yesterday…. We talked about this bill a few months ago, but for those that aren’t aware, we will touch on the reason why you should really write or call your State Representative and tell them that you are opposed to CISPA.

Gregory T. Nojeim, Director of the Project on Freedom, Security & Technology at the Center for Democracy & Technology said:

“CISPA is deeply flawed. Under a broad cybersecurity umbrella, it permits companies to share user communications directly with the super secret National Security Agency and permits the NSA to use that information for non-cybersecurity reasons. This risks turning the cybersecurity program into a back door intelligence surveillance program run by a military entity with little transparency or public accountability. Members should seriously consider whether CISPA — which inflamed grassroots activists last year and was under a veto threat for these and other flaws — is the right place to start.”

This bill could mean that everything you type into your web browser could be monitored and quietly sent off to the government, without a warrant. We are not against going after cyber threats, but the scope of this bill is so broad that it oversteps the freedom of the innocent.

What will the consequences of this bill? Companies acting as “big brother” may over monitor our online activity, making criminals out of all of us. What effect would this bill have on the Internet experience? Leave your comments below and don’t forget to send a message to your Representatives asking them to oppose this bill.

A massive snowstorm has begun to hit the east coast and some cities are expected to get upwards of 2 feet of snow. Just like anything, you don’t really realize how much you rely on certain things until they no longer work – like electricity, cell service, or even your heat! (What do you mean I can’t heat up my frozen burrito in the microwave?! Oh and we all know how annoying it is when the power is out and we still try to flip the light switch when we walk into a room. doh.)

When such a massive storm is predicted to hit, everyone usually runs out and buys lots of water and non-perishable foods to keep them fed and comfortable during what could be a long time without power.  So, while you are busy doing things like that, why would you ever want to worry about the redundancy of your website and if it will “weather the storm”? (pun intended) Like electricity and heat, a website managed DNS is something that people typically don’t think twice about until there is a problem with it.

Managed DNS should be the last of your worries. The experts at No-IP are constantly monitoring and updating our network to ensure that our users never have to suffer any downtime, whether it is caused by mother nature, errors caused by changes to network configurations, hardware faults, or even wiring issues – if your domains managed DNS is configured right, your website will be up, 100% guaranteed.

Now get out there and build a snowman or something 🙂

Check out these helpful Managed DNS articles too:

Is Your DNS Diversified?
Why you Shouldn’t Wait For an Outage to Think about Managed DNS
What Is DNS? 

We are proud to announce that just this morning we hit 15 million users of our free dynamic DNS and managed DNS! We are the industry leaders in free dynamic DNS and one of the very few left. We pride ourselves in our company culture and our amazing and awesome support, when you call us, we answer!

Since 1999, our users have been spreading the word about No-IP and our awesome services that we offer. We wouldn’t be where we are today if it weren’t for all of you, so thank you! Thank you for choosing No-IP as your dynamic DNS and managed DNS provider!

We know… CES is SO last week, but we are excited to share some of the sweet stuff that our Business Development team saw there!

CES was a great experience.  Not only did we get to meet face to face with many of our partners and users it was a great opportunity to see what companies are really trying to get out there and meet the people.  This is a quick list of some of the more notable exhibitors that we visited:

Most Innovative
iPhone Multimeter (iDVM)
Redfish Instruments 

A digital Multimeter that communicates with your iPhone, allowing you to measure, record and share your test results.  Currently no Android version available, but I’m sure that is right around the corner.

Most Useful
Computer Eyewear (Gunnars)
Gunnar Technology Eyewear

Aside from improving your ‘cool’ factor with your co-workers these innovative glasses make an immediate and dramatic difference.  Who would have guessed that staring at a computer screen for 10 hours a day isn’t great for your eyes?  It is one thing to read that in a report from the Vision Council, but it is something entirely different to experience it for yourself.  From the moment I put the demo pair on, I felt this tension on my forehead disappear.  I flipped them up and it was back, put them back on and it was gone.  There is a very interesting description of the principals at work at thevisioncouncil.org, but you really something you need to experience yourself.  The first thing I did upon my return from CES was to order a pair – essential gear for everyone who stares at a screen all day.  Every computer should come with a pair included.

Most Unchanged
Ethernet Over Power

Taking the idea of the connected home to the next level, Ethernet Over Power essentially turns any wires in your house (power, phone, cable, etc.) into an ethernet cord, instantly giving you wired internet access to your entire home.  I was blown away when I first learned about this technology 12 years ago, but what surprises me today is that 1) the technology hasn’t caught on and 2) the technology doesn’t seem to be any further along than was over a decade ago.  Perhaps one is the symptom of the other, or maybe we just don’t need MORE wired connections in our homes.  Whatever the case may be this is an interesting technology that seems to be looking for its niche.

Most Real Estate
iPhone Cases

There were literally ACRES of iPhone cases: blinged out, leather bound, protective, waterproof, shock proof, bullet proof.  If you can put your IPhone in it, it was there at CES.  Two notables… Head Case offers a bottle opener case along with an app that counts how many bottles you have opened (and calls you a cab when you have hit your limit).  PureGear was also a standout with the way they have struck a great balance between design and phone protection – attractive, slim cases that are tough where they need to be.

Most Timely
Brand Agnostic (nearly) Home Device Controller

The MiCasaVerde smart home gateway is Dynamite!  It makes it possible to integrate and control over 700 Z-Wave protocol devices from different manufacturers.  They are also going to be adding Zigbee & X10 protocols soon.  The gateway handles the intra-device communication, and their innovative software allows you to thread and weave the inputs and outputs from your different devices into complete ‘Scenes’ (i.e. when my front door opens turn on my entry lights, open my blinds and change my thermostat).

 Routers

Of course, I’ve always got my eye out innovative, small routers and the show did not disappoint.  The power that can be packed into ever smaller devices is amazing.  The WR702N from TP-Link was quite impressive and their newest micro-router, the TP-Link is the Halo TL-WR706N packed a big punch.  Also, the Premiertek AP2403 was a show stopper with a footprint that is smaller than a business card and a profile just big enough to plug in an RJ45.

All in all, No-IP had a blast at CES. Did you attend CES? What were your favorite new product releases?

We recently had a user ask us if an email forward is the same as an email alias, so are they? Well no, but they are similar.

An email alias goes to another email address that is in the same domain.

An example of this would be emails that are sent to yourname@example.com, could also go to yourname-something@example.com. You could give an email like this out if you want to easily filter email, filter email lists you have signed up for, or other purposes.

yourname-something@example.com is an alias of yourname@example.com

An email forward is when you setup email from one domain to forward to another domain. So, if you have a Gmail, Yahoo, or other free mail account, you could have those emails forwarded to your work email, or an email on a domain you own. This would essentially consolidate all of your email accounts into one, eliminating the need to check numerous accounts a day.

yourname@gmail.com could forward to yourname@yourdomain.com

We offer both services with our POP3/IMAP service. Starting at only $9.95 a year, you can easily setup email for your very own domain name.

Do you have email aliases or forwards setup? How do you use them? Do you find them helpful? Let us know in the comments and share this if you enjoyed it.

We are a connected society, email, cloud, photo sites, social media, everything we do seems to be on the internet these days. So, what happens when all of your important data is online in the “cloud” and one of those services goes down? I myself, rely heavily on Google. Google Docs, Gmail, Youtube, Picasa, Blogger, etc, if something were to happen to my account, say someone hacked into it and sent a bunch of spam emails or something, they could easily shut down access to all of my accounts, in one swoop.

What can you do to safeguard yourself and your accounts against this though?

1. Backup your important online data once a week. If it’s important to you, back it up! Considering installing a NAS storage device on your home network for easy backups, wirelessly. Having two copies is even better in case something happens to the first copy.

2. Make sure your passwords and security questions are strong.

3. Diversify your cloud solution. If you rely heavily on one solution and it goes down, your kind of screwed. Be sure to note who your provider is using for backups too, most rely on a major provider that seems to have issues from time to time…

4. Backup your emails. You can back them up using Thunderbird, iMail, or any other email application.

5. Finally, test your backups by trying to restore a file. This will let you know how easy (or hard) it will be to recover a file. It will also ensure that you have everything set up properly.

Have you ever lost important documents or accounts online? What did you do to resolve the situation? Do you currently have a data backup solution? What is it? Leave your comments below and as always, be sure to share this if you liked it!

Last week, our web developer learned a hard lesson, 3 times. He was away on vacation, and one of our favorite things to do at No-IP is to play pranks on our fellow co-workers when they are out of the office for an extended period of time. We brainstormed ideas and finally decided to mess with his computer a bit.

The only issue was that his computer was locked and we didn’t have the password until we looked at his password hint and realized it was the actual password. UH REALLY?! Anyways, we took it easy on him and decided to only update his DNS host, so when he tried to visit Reddit, it went to Digg, and when he tried to go to Google, it went to Bing. He came back from vacation and quickly realized something was awry. Did lesson learn right? WRONG.

Later that day, we decided to move all of the developers into the conference room for a few days so they could easily discuss and hash away at a big project. Jokes had been made about password security and network security, and everyone thought that he would wisen up and make the necessary changes. Turns out, he didn’t. His password was still the same one that we had hacked the day before. All jokes aside, we told him it was very important to choose a strong password and to keep it to himself.

He headed home for the night and we decided to see if we could hack his password again. After he assured us all that quote “we would never guess it”. We checked out his password hint and our brains instantly started turning. 10 minutes later, we had hacked his password. It was the same exact one, with a more subtle hint. We all stood in shock as we realized that we had just hacked his computer for the 3rd time and that he was too lazy to change his password!

The next day he changed his password and admits that it was stupid to be so blase about it. Strong passwords are very important to network security, online account security and so much more! We haven’t tried to hack his computer lately, but hopefully, he has learned his lesson. What are your tips for creating strong passwords? Check out these 10 tips for choosing strong passwords.