by WebKeyDesign | Jan 19, 2006 | Networking
Recently I had to help a friend get his RDP working on his home computer. He has Qwest DSL and just one computer connected directly to an Actiontec 54 Mbps Wireless DSL modem. For some reason these modems have a confusing interface. To get the port forwarding to work, you need to setup your PC with a static IP address first and then configure the Actiontec to forward to this internal IP address.
In the Actiontec web interface, go through the Advanced Setup and then when you get to the Port Forwarding screen, click Advanced in the lower right corner. The screen that comes up will say Advanced Port Forwarding. On this screen, at the top section add your ports and your internal IP address and then click Add. This will keep the setting and you will have restart the modem. This is the only way I got the modem to keep the settings.
If you still have problems after this and you have confirmed that the Actiontec retained your port forwarding settings, check your computer to make sure that you do not have a software firewall blocking the ports.
You might also look at troubleshooting ports on DSL and DSL router forwarding ports problem for more tips.
by WebKeyDesign | Jan 19, 2006 | WebKeyDesign
Back in May of 2005, I had this idea that I should start a web design and hosting business as a hobby, because I was really bored with my life and needed something challenging again to pick me up. I am positive some of my friends were skeptical and in some respects I agreed with their points, but hey I always preach to others that you can do whatever you want if you put in the effort. Well it’s now 2006 and WebKeyDesign is now more than six months old and so what exactly happened and what did I learn?
Google As Your Partner
If you have any kind of business, from a coffeeshop to an online business such as mine, then you really need Google for everything. Although I would like to think that in the future Yahoo and MSN Search will be as helpful and as important, for the time being Google is my most important search engine. From bringing plenty of visitors to WebKeyDesign.com, to allowing me to show my business in Google Local, to providing me with free tools like Google Sitemaps, Google really has a lot to offer small businesses. If you do one thing, learn all you can about what Google can do for you.
Business Decisions Are Costly
Most of the time I researched for weeks before I spent any money for the business and executed pretty well. However for some decisions I ended up going for it and it cost me. This happens to any business and let’s face it, there are going to be times when all the research in the world is still not going to tell you anything. Sometimes the only choice you really have is to take a chance, or play it safe and never experience any growth. Even if you lose money from a business decision, the least you can get out of the experience is what not to do next time you have a similar choice.
The Right Customers
There are always going to be people who need your services, but not everyone who asks you for help will be a right customer. What I mean is that being helpful and assisting non-customers is a great way to promote your business, so even if you do not get a paying customer from answering someone’s questions, you at least build a relationship that can hopefully lead to other customers. In certain instances helping out becomes a wrong customer. Some people are going to be rude or perhaps a drag on your time, in these cases you really do need to walk away from the situation and do it in a friendly manner. Undoubtedly many relationships do not work out and in business it is the same thing, you cannot work with some people and the sooner you find this out, the better your business will run.
Read More Books
Since starting the business, I have been hanging out at the library more and more. The stack of books that I go through has expanded ten fold. I have picked up books on every facet of my business, from accounting, to computers, to marketing, to more marketing. In the last month I have scaled back the book reading and now invest 40% of my reading time to business reading, and the rest to casual reading. This has happened mostly because I have found which books I like and can use, and which ones do not work for me. Now I concentrate more on the books I know are of value to me, and give myself a break by reading for pleasure. The idea is to find a comfortable balance between your business and your personal life.
Owning Your Business
The one thing that really sticks out to me after doing this is how much more respect I now have for other business owners. There is a lot of stress with having a business and anyone who can live with such pressures and still maintain their composure is truly unique.
by WebKeyDesign | Jan 16, 2006 | Firefox
While I use Firefox 1.5 on Windows as my default browser, on Mac OS X, Firefox just feels unfinished compared to Apple’s Safari. In Windows world, Firefox has leaped frogged the current IE in terms of features, (with stability being reasonable for a third party browser) which makes Firefox a no-brainer choice. However Apple’s Safari is a new browser and while it may not have actual extensions, it still has quite a feature list and it is comparable if not faster than Firefox.
The more annoying problems with the 1.5 release are web site issues. Forms which do not work at all on Firefox work just fine on Safari. I should be fair and say that I have had some issues with Safari along the same lines, but Firefox 1.1 had no such issues. Firefox’s own developers admit that the OS X version of 1.5 was less than stellar:
Firefox 1.5 was a major milestone on all platforms, but it was not quite what it could have been on Mac OS X. We just didn’t have the resources to test for and fix bugs fast enough when release time rolled around. However, not delaying the release was a decision that I was happy with because it was the right thing to do, even if it meant less-than-great Mac OS X support. Firefox 1.5 was still a major upgrade in terms of Mac OS X support, and nothing to be ashamed of.
The problem was that expectations were quite high for 1.5 and on the OS X platform, the expectations did end up being a bit too high. This leaves most OS X users waiting for 1.5.1, or even the 2.0 version, at a time when the Mac world is in drastic change with Intel processor changes. To make matters worse or better depending on what your opinion is, Microsoft has dropped IE for OS X completely. This leaves only Safari and Firefox (and of course Mozilla).
While 1.5 seemed to take forever to be released, Firefox as a whole is moving to more updated releases and stability is still a main focus for the developers. Eventually Firefox will be more competitive on OS X, and perhaps Safari will start changing as well to keep up with some of the ideas the Firefox developers are integrating into their modern browser.
