Get the FireFox 2.0.0.1 update now :)

Labels: browsers, software, tools

One of the niggles of using Dreamweaver is that once you start using its FTP the software locks up and you can't do any more FTP work. Let's say you're downloading a full site backup and, whilst you're waiting, you want to upload some files elsewhere... well that's tough, unfortunately... you get the nag box "Dreamweaver is currenlty interacting with a server" and have to go make a cup of tea or take a walk around the block.

Well, that's why having a backup FTP programme is so damned handy and what could be better than Free FTP software?

Here's a couple of Free FTP programmes for you to try out:

• CoffeCup FREE FTP
• FileZilla

Labels: ftp, software, tools

It's always nice to know your website is ticking over, doing its job, serving the community 24/7... but what if it does go down?

Occasionally that has happened in the past, and moreso with cheap hosting deals. Even some of the best hosts have been subject to the occasional gremlin and sometimes even forces beyond their control like problems in the network infrastructure provided by a 3rd party...

I've been using a great service for a few years now and it emails me if my website drops. Seeing as I have an email address on my mobile phone I get alerts wherever I go which is reassuring.

If you want the same then I'd recommend you use siteuptime to monitor your websites 24/7. There's a FREE one site plan, a Premium 3-site plan from $5 a month and an Advanced Plan for 6-sites with even more features!

It's a great little service... for one site I get the message "skies are dark" when my service goes down and "skies are blue" when it is back online again.

Whilst we're on the topic of sitemaps, after having generated XML sitemaps for the Google sitemaps option in Google webmaster tools, how do you create sitemaps for WordPress without all the manual labour?

Well, we did a little search on the web and found the excellent Dagon Design Sitemap Generator plugin for WordPress.

The instructions are pretty simple:

1. Download the plugin as a txt file to your local server
2. Rename the extension from .txt to .php
3. Upload the sitemap plugin to the wp-content/plugins/ folder of your live WordPress site
4. Go to your admin dashboard and select the "plugins" menu item
   
5. Activate the DD sitemap plugin fron the list of your plugins
   
6. Click the "options" menu button and in the sub-menu select the "DDsitemapGen" button
7. Configure the sitemap generator.

Easy, isn't it?

Well, the only thing the instructions were a little unclear about is how to get the sitemap showing. It's not hard, but a novice might miss a trick, so here's what you do:

8. Create a new "page" in WordPress and call it sitemap.
   
9. Insert the HTML comment into the page.
10. Publish your page.

You can then use this URL to create your xml sitemap in www.sitemapspal.com, save your sitemap.xml file to your server and then point Google sitemap at it :)

Follow this next link to see the WordPress sitemap in action. The plugin also has the option to show the sitemap xml link at the foot too, which is rather handy.

The other main options are listing by category, post date etc etc, so it's a pretty handy plugin to have alongside your WP Category Order plugin.

Need a Google Sitemap generated? Don't know how to generate your Google Sitemap in XML?

Don't worry, because I just found this awesome little site that does your Google Sitemap XML for you... www.sitemapspal.com

I just entered the URL of my sitemap (http://www.22i.co.uk/sitemap.php), hit submit and the online sitemap generator spewed out a load of xml for me to cut & paste into notepad.

I then saved this file into the root of my site as sitemap.xml, uploaded it to the live site, tested the URL just to make sure (http://www.22i.co.uk/sitemap.xml) and then told Google Sitemaps to go look for it :)

Now the site is being indexed and Google will be crawling 22i very soon...