:: Starting the New Year off with a BANG! ::

SQL Slammer:
I hope you and your web hosting provider were able to avoid the quickest spreading worm in internet history. Even Microsoft was not able to avoid it within their internal network.

Fortunately We (CyberNet Solutions) were well prepared. When the first DOS (Denial of Service) Buffer Overflow was released in Summer of 2002, the patch was applied. Unfortunately applying the patch for SQL Servers at that time was a complex and cumbersome process. One that many chose not to go through, from either lack of resources, or lack of technical ability. A week prior to the SQL Slammer worm being released in the wild, Microsoft came out with Service Pack 3 for SQL Server 2000 which included the fix for this particular Buffer Overflow vulnerability. This as with most all of their service packs was straight forward to install, and most people tend to wait until these types of patches are available before they apply the patch.

So why did so many people end up victim to the worm?

• A number of things stand out for me, the first being that many people install the software and do not keep up with the patches, until it is too late.
• They usually think, it will happen to someone else, and not me.
• another popular falacy is "I am only running a small web / database server, and don't use it for personal services", so how will it find me?
• The list keeps going on, you pick the one that sounds like the over worked systems administrator that is running your systems.

What ever the reason, it is time that people stay on top of things, and use as many automated utilities to keep up to date as they can. (within reason of course) Many of the good  "FREE" utilities are staying informed, subscribing to a good discussion list such as DShield.org, Regularly visiting Windows Update (for users of Microsoft Windows operating systems) and a good up to date Anti-Virus software program that automatically downloads and updates the virus definitions. And last but not least, a good hardware firewall. (Especially those home users with broadband Internet with Cable modems or ADSL)

Ok, enough of my ranting .... on to the reason why you signed up for this newsletter. Web design tips, tricks and promotion ideas.

DESIGN: Don't use large graphics at the top of your site.

Do NOT have a 80KB (or even larger) image at the top of your page. Users will hit stop before even letting the site load. Always try to ensure that some meaningful content appears quickly, so that users have something to read while your fancy graphics are loading.

DESIGN: You *can* create a line that runs vertically from the top of your Web page to the bottom - with CSS, it's easy!

To produce a line that will go from the top of the page to the bottom, use the following CSS:

BODY {
BACKGROUND: url(/images/sideswipe.gif) #c30 fixed repeat-y;
MARGIN: 0px; COLOR: black
}

A gif image is used with three dotted lines in it. The effect is applied by repeating the image down the y-axis of the page (repeat-y).

It's important to keep in mind that when you develop a Website, you have to cater to the widest possible audience... not everybody has the same browser you do, with the same graphics settings, or the same operating system. It might look great on your screen, but it might look lousy on somebody else's.

Try to test your pages to see how they look with:

a different size screen

a text-only browser (or images turned off)

a different colour resolution

a different browser with a minimal feature set

DESIGN: Designers: is your 'leading' out of control? Relax! CSS saves the day.

Designers who migrated from print to the Internet have always been upset by the lack of control that can be applied to text spacing and line spacing, or 'leading'. Here are a couple of CSS tricks to give you a little more control.

Large chunks of test set to 10 pt or 12 px is easier to read with line spacing of about 120% To emulate this in HTML, put the text in a P or DIV element then set the line-height to 13 pt or 17 px. The syntax will look like this:

P STYLE="line-height: 13pt; font-size: 10pt"

DESIGN: Is there too much space around your bulleted list? It's not hard to fix!

When using a bulleted list, the element has its own top and bottom margins, which are more than one line space. To keep the list in close association with the text above it, I usually set the top margin to 5 pt. The syntax is:

UL STYLE="margin-top: 5pt"

If the UL follows any other element, like a P> or an H? element, I'll set the bottom margin of these tags to zero. Here's what the code for a 3 point list would look like:

P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0pt"Here is a list:
/P UL STYLE="margin-top: 5pt" LI STYLE="font-size: 10pt" text/LI LI STYLE="font-size: 10pt; margin-top: 3pt" text /LI
LI STYLE="font-size:10pt; margin-top: 3pt"text /LI /UL

This is especially helpful when text with in the LI> wraps to a second or third line. Have fun!

DESIGN: Colored tables using CSS hover effects make excellent navigation bars.

Colored tables such as those used on http://www.bergbb.com/ver2/ make excellent navigation bars. Not only are they quick and relatively painless to create, but they load much quicker than graphical menu bars do.

DESIGN: Thanks to search engines, every page on your site is a potential entry point. Don't let users get confused

Here's an issue that is commonly neglected when designing the navigation for a site. Thanks to search engines, every page on your site is a potential entry point. When designing your site take into consideration that not all of your visitors will come through the front page, and make sure it’s easy for them to understand were they are, and were they can go.

DESIGN: Too many ads can ruin a site's look and put off visitors.

Don't overload your site with banners and icon advertisements. Try to stick with a maximum of two 468 by 60 sized banners on each page, and perhaps a couple of small 88 X 31 icons as well.

DESIGN: Graphical backgrounds can be fun, but usually lead to an unprofessional look.

Be wary of using background images on professional Web sites. Unless you're very confident of your design skills, it's usually best to stick with either a white or a black background. Save the fuzzy clouds for your personal Web site.

DESIGN: When creating forms avoid using the mailto: type to save yourself some headaches.

When creating forms avoid using the mailto: type to save yourself some headaches.

Many people don't have a mail server set up in their browser because they use a 3rd party email program such as Eudora Pro. Those people won't be able to use your mailto: form.

A good alternative if you need to put a form on your site and are not able to use a CGI form submission program is a free form submission service like that offered by http://www.response-o-matic.com/.

Please forward all newsletter suggestions you would like to see in future editions to  we will do our best to follow up on the most popular suggestions in future issues as time and resources permit.

Regards,
Tim Watts, CyberNet Solutions
http://webdesign.cybernet-images.com
Phone: 604.817.4789