First, what are the key differences between POP3 and IMAP?

POP3 is a transfer tool
POP3 is really an email transfer protocol.  Think of it as downloading messages from the server and moving them to your PC.  They are initially stored on the server, then your email software downloads them locally to your computer and removes them from the server.  Now only your PC has your email messages.  Any new messages will arrive at the server and wait for your PC to pick up and move the next batch.  With POP3, your “inbox” is effectively stored on your computer.  That typically means that only one computer can be used to manage your email, and you can even work with your email messages while you’re offline.

IMAP is like a looking glass
IMAP is different from POP3 in that it lets you look at your inbox on the server.  All of your interactions are done live over an active Internet connection, and you manage your messages as they exist on the server itself.  The benefit is that you can then manage your email from multiple computers since the messages are maintained on the server and not pulled down to any one computer as with POP3.  It does require an Internet connection, however.  So offline email management is not possible. Today, with always-on broadband access, this is usually not a concern.

I do email from one computer only
POP3 is perfect for you.  As your computer picks up email from the server, it is then stored on your computer and removed from the server.  Only one copy of your email exists then on your computer.

I sometimes do email from two computers (e.g., workstation and laptop)
POP3 at both computers might be right for you, provided your configure your email software to leave messages on the server after they are transferred.  That way, you can get the same email on both computers.  This puts the responsibility on you to manually delete and remove messages on the server, otherwise they may continue to be stored there forever.  If one of the computers is your primary email workstation and the the other is for occasional checking for new messages (e.g., a laptop while traveling or at home after work hours) then your primary email computer can automatically remove messages from the server after transferring, but your secondary should leave messages on the server.  In this way, you can go back to the primary computer (e.g., at the office) and download the messages you might have already seen when you were on your laptop.

I do email from two or more computers (e.g., PC and mobile phone)
You’re an IMAP candidate. This includes anyone who also does email from their mobile phone (yes, that’s a computer, too).  It is especially important that if you are an IMAP candidate that all of your email account settings on all PCs and mobile phones are set up to use IMAP.  If any one of them uses POP3, you’re going to have problems unless you configure the POP3 account to leave messages on the server.  Even still, then, you might as well use IMAP.

Known issues and warnings
Taking a line from the movie Ghostbusters, don’t cross the streams.  Mixing POP3 and IMAP between computers and phones while accessing the same mailbox can sometimes cause a conflict that renders the server’s inbox inoperable, requiring your email service provider to reset it for you.  Bottom line: use IMAP always on all systems when you check mail from multiple devices.

Outlook is a poor IMAP client. Unfortunately, with the ability to easily synchronize contacts, calendars, tasks, and notes, Outlook is about the only choice for email if you have a smartphone.  But due to Microsoft’s horrible implementation of IMAP, you’ll have to deal with its design flaws.  One persistent problem that is widely reported but has never been fixed is that Outlook cannot properly handle changes to your server’s inbox that take place behind the scenes (e.g., when your mobile phone checks for new messages).  Outlook will bring up an alert stating that the connection to the IMAP server has been lost.  An annoying side effect is that this causes Outlook to reset any flags you placed on messages, such as deletion.  This is not a problem with all other IMAP clients, such as Mozilla Thunderbird or Apple Mail.

Unlike POP3 users, IMAP users need to be especially cautious about storing email on the server.  IMAP excels at this capability, but it can cause you to incur extra storage charges because the server, not your computer, is where all your messages are kept unless you know how to get around this.  For long term archival of email, it is recommended that you create a local collection of mailboxes (e.g. in your Personal Folders data file in Outlook) into which you move messages from the server.  While this will cause them to be removed from the server, it will avoid storage fees.  Using IMAP folders on the server is fine otherwise as long as you are aware of the potential cost.  Also keep in mind that if your Internet connection is lost, you can’t get to your IMAP folders on the server.  So important messages probably should be manually moved or copied to local personal folder storage on your computer.

IMAP Typical Use Scenario
You’ve read some messages in your IMAP inbox and now you delete them.  Unlike POP3 where they will just disappear into the Deleted Items folder, they are simply flagged for removal (Outlook shows them in a struck-out style).

To remove your flagged-for-removal messages, you need to purge them.  In Outlook, for example, use the Purge items under the Edit menu.  In newer versions of Outlook, you can configure it so that switching IMAP folders will automatically purge flagged messages.  You can also configure your email software to purge them when you quit the program.

If you want to move a message out of your IMAP inbox and into a mail folder for longer term storage, you need to decide if you want to store it on the server or locally.  Create folders on the server or in your Personal Folders local storage on your PC and then drag the message from the inbox into the appropriate folder.  This may flag it for deletion in the inbox, so as described above, you’ll want to purge your inbox of flagged messages.

Please take a moment to read about a few updates to our service effective January 1, 2008:                       

1. NO CHANGE IN PRICING for all web, email, DNS, disk storage, network traffic, and other hosting services!  Note: in the Spring of 2008, we will be dropping our least popular, low-end service plans by upgrading customers to the next level. Very few are affected and will receive more details.
2. MONTHLY FINANCE CHARGE (late fee) on overdue balances is 1.75% or $5.00, whichever is greater.  As always, we grant 30 days from the date of your last statement before assessing late fees.
3. HOURLY FEE is $125 for all professional services, consulting, design and programming, billed in 15-minute increments.
4. ONE-TIME FEE for POP3 mailbox setup/change is $10 per mailbox.

After five years of unchanged services and pricing, these adjustments allow us to continue providing the high-quality work that you have come to expect from DTL Networx.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

I hope you are blessed with much peace, joy, prosperity and contentment this year.

Morgan Davis

You used to be able create shortcuts on the desktop that would directly open a remote folder via FTP with no intervention. With an open FTP folder window, remote file management was a breeze because it acted like a folder on your hard drive.  This article shows you how to recover this helpful feature.

Drag-and-drop FTP windows are possible using the extended FTP URL syntax that includes a username, optional password, and the server’s address.  Example:

ftp://user:pass@ftpsite.com/directory

Unfortunately, giving an extended FTP URL to IE7 only displays a listing of the folder in “read-only” mode.  You then have to click the Page menu and choose Open FTP Site in Windows Explorer.  That fails because IE7 doesn’t pass forward any user/password credentials in the URL. So then you have to completely retype the URL again. What a drag just to get the old drag and drop mode.

But I found a workaround to preserve the simple shortcut-like behavior we used to enjoy. It works because we completely avoid the browser.

Instead of using Internet Explorer, you use Windows Explorer (the file navigation part of the Windows operating system). To do this, create a batch file and name it something like ftpsite.bat with two lines:

@echo off
start explorer ftp://user:pass@ftpsite.com/directory

(Of course, replace the components of the FTP URL as appropriate.)

Run the batch file by double-clicking it.  At first, nothing will seem to be happening.  After 5-10 seconds it should eventually open up the FTP site in a window like you used to see in IE6. For the security conscious, if you leave out the :pass part (the password) it will prompt you to enter a password.

You can still open extended FTP URLs without having to create a batch file by going to Start -> Run and typing or pasting the FTP URL in the Open box and clicking OK. Basically, as long as you avoid IE7 and use Windows Explorer itself, the extended FTP URLs are honored.

This workaround is compatible with IE6, Windows XP, and Windows Vista.  Since it doesn’t involve the web browser, it also works for users who have non-IE browsers installed as their default.

Literally, I saw tons of red, and bright yellow and white mixed in for that ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise look. (Put on your peril-sensitive sunglasses and check out the original site.) For a professional law firm, this wasn’t just cheesey. It was cheeseburger! 

Junk food ingredients, not the packaging, are what kill you, and the innards of this site were in bad shape. When I discovered that the original designer used Microsoft Word, a tool for cooking up indigestible, fat-ladden pages, I really began to see red. If you build sites by hand, like I do, simple changes to sites like this become a supersized job.

Clearly, this was a site that Ronald McDonald built.  But being the (Burger) King of Perfection, I needed to have it my way. So I made a decision to spend those same hours redoing the entire site. The original “condiment scheme” gave way to a richer-looking design.  Plus, it’s built on DTL’s standards-compliant PageWorx foundation.  So it’s accessible, efficient, and easy to extend and maintain.

The result: The client loves the new look, and I know it’s good for you.  Pretty tasty for short-order cooking, and proof that not all fast food is junk food, even on the web.

These DTL email tips can keep you, your computer, and your mailbox happy. Ignore them at your own peril.

1. Ask and Ye Shall Receive.
   People get spammed because they give their address away. If recklessly disclosing your email address has turned your mailbox into a rubbish bin, consider starting over with a new address, then heed the rest of this advice.
2. Protect One, Abuse Another.
   Maintain one email address that you defend with your life and share only with trusted souls. Freely use a second address when shopping online or signing up for newsletters. Trash your abused address as needed and get a new one. Free email services are perfect for this.
3. Keep it Off the Web.
   Never post your email address on a web site (businesses do this all the time on contact pages). If you need a contact link, encode it using DTL’s Mailto Encoder tool.
4. Beware of Web Forms.
   Many web sites ask for your email address to access special features. Sometimes an address is optional. Omit it or enter something bogus. Beware of pre-checked boxes that opt you into a mailing list.
5. Don’t Trust Anyone.
   Got an attachment from someone you don’t know? Delete it. Got an unexpected attachment from a friend? Confirm with them first before opening it.
6. Don’t Be a Legendary Fool.
   That message your friend sent imploring you to forward it to everyone you know was an urban legend. Don’t fall for it. It’s a great way to look foolish and lose control of your email address to complete strangers — folks who, if they become infected with a virus, have you in their address lists. If you must blast an email to lots of people, put their addresses in the Bcc field.
7. Watch What You Send.
   Do not include your email address in your electronic signature. It can be easily spread around by others via forwarding. When forwarding a message from someone else, you can protect their address by removing it from your message.
8. Know the Executable File Extensions . . .
   . . . such as .EXE, .COM, .SCR, .BAT, .VBS, and .PIF. If you get one of these files by email, don’t open it. A ZIP archive containing a file with one of those extensions probably has a virus. Attachments with dual extensions (like OPENME.PDF.EXE) try to fake you out. The last extension matters. To see it, use the Folder Options control panel to uncheck the “Hide extensions for known file types” item.
9. Never Respond To Spam.
   If your bank sends monthly statements you’d rather not receive, it’s OK to click the “Unsubscribe” link. But if you have spam in your mailbox from some unknown source, don’t reply or click on anything in it.
10. Stay Up to Date.
    Visit Microsoft Update regularly to apply critical security updates. If you use anti-virus software, keep it updated (but don’t bet your life on it). If you use Outlook, upgrade to Office 2003 for better security and spam blocking and make sure to keep it updated, a step many Office users neglect.

I spend a lot of time helping customers rid their systems of adware and malicious software. Despite maintaining their Symantec subscriptions, they still get infected. Yet, in over 15 years of heavy email usage without any virus software on our computers, my wife, two teenagers, and I have never been infected. DTL’s BlockSmith system does a good job of rejecting virus-ridden email. But good education and common sense beats the best software any day.

(Originally published July 2005)

Their improved, standards-compliant site leverages design elements produced by Ras Graphics, and was the final piece in the company’s total identity makeover. But what was most important for San Diego RV Center team was the ability to easily make simple changes to the site’s content. So DTL built a content management system. They also needed a way to list RVs on consignment, so we built a self-service tool for easily managing vehicles, descriptions, and photos using an ordinary web browser. The web site consistently presents the information as if a professional web designer built the pages. San Diego RV Center found that when you’re steering megabuck RVs onto the information superhighway, having a custom-tailored, “no stress” content management system is the only way to avoid design accidents.

Travel safely. Travel in style.

The site features a series of representative project photos on the home page using a non-Flash transition effect, photo galleries, custom contact forms for clients and general contractors, a mailing list form that rewards subscribers with a valuable downloadable booklet of tips, and more.

The entire site is, of course, fully web standards-compliant using valid XHTML 1.1, CSS, and is based on DTL’s PageWorx page-generation system that simplifies maintenance and updates.

If you’ve noticed that the web has recently gone wacky when using Internet Explorer, you can blame litigious companies, software patent lawyers, and even Microsoft for ruining a good portion of the web overnight.

I’ll explain what happened and why in a minute. It has a bearing on the design of your web site, and is one more reason to avoid using Flash and Flash-based navigation if possible.

A case against …

First, if you weren’t aware of several reasons for avoiding Flash on your site, let’s briefly review:

• Flash content requires a third-party plug-in that may not be available for all web browsers and devices (cell phones, PDAs, etc.)
• Pages with Flash objects initially take longer to load than their non-Flash counterparts.
• Flash introductions slow down entry into your site. (Which is why the necessary “Skip Intro” link is often clicked before the animation completes.)
• Navigation is difficult or impossible for handicapped users who rely on keystrokes or software that reads web pages aloud.
• You cannot use your browser’s controls to increase or decrease text size for easier reading.
• Right-clicking doesn’t work the way you expect it to.
• Your browser’s back button generally doesn’t work.
• You cannot bookmark individual pages in an all-Flash site.
• You cannot always select and copy text.
• You cannot search for text found in Flash items.
• You cannot automatically translate text to other languages.
• RSS readers cannot grab the text content within Flash pages.
• Content is generally constrained to a small area to accommodate low-resolution displays.
• Passages of text are relegated to small scrolling boxes that don’t adhere to common navigational controls (such as your mouse’s scroll wheel, arrow keys, etc.).
• Flash objects are not easily resizeable to make the best use of available space.
• Printing pages can be challenging.
• Search engines cannot read and index text, critical for including your site in search results.
• Flash sites tend to be noisier and become annoying when there is no mute option.
• It’s difficult to integrate a content management system for do-it-yourself updates.
• Revising content or design requires a Flash developer to make even simple changes for you.
• Changing Flash content yourself requires investing in an expensive authoring package.

OK, so that wasn’t so brief. I promise that the next section will be shorter.

A case for …

Flash looks cool and has applications for entertainment sites.

Pay up and wreck the web

But a high “cool factor” may no longer justify the latest strike against Flash navigation on any web site. As a web site owner, it’s important that you understand why.

In April 2006, under requirement of a $521M patent lawsuit leveled by Eolas Technologies, Microsoft released an automatic Windows update requiring Internet Explorer users to click once to activate Flash and other ActiveX controls before the usual interaction takes place. The update also visually changes the appearance of sites when the mouse is moved over these elements.  Items become bordered by a thick gray line and a tooltip appears asking users to click to activate the control.

The effect. The effect.

This is what causes web sites that use Flash navigation to seemingly misbehave in IE, making users click twice on buttons, menu items, embedded movies, and links before they take effect. Once activated, the Flash elements become usable until a new page is loaded, and then the activation clicks must be done again, and again, and again . . .

Whether the patent claim is right or wrong, Microsoft apparently felt it was better to pay damages and release a patch with annoying side-effects, rather than license the technology from Eolas. Unfortunately, this decision now changes the everyday behavior of countless web sites, negatively impacting their owners and developers, and more critically, affecting millions of web users.

Flashback: It seemed neat at the time

Flash web sites were the rage in the late 90s and early 2000s. They were the product of graphic designers who effortlessly used the Flash authoring software but lacked professional web development and programming skills. Using the off-the-shelf package, entire “all-Flash” sites could be built by an artist without having to dabble in any HTML programming.

The results absolutely wowed clients who enthusiastically, and perhaps ignorantly, whipped out their checkbooks. The growing list of reasons against Flash remained unknown to them until now.  Literally overnight, they discovered that their sites no longer work like before.

A patch for the patch

Thanks to an automatic Microsoft patch buried in a critical update that cannot be uninstalled, web sites laden with interactive Flash items have become frustrating to use. For some corporate applications that use Flash or ActiveX controls, the debilitating effects can prevent users from operating business-critical systems.

The backlash from corporate users prompted Microsoft to release a compatibility patch that temporarily restores Internet Explorer to its previous behavior. Unfortunately, the patch is good only until June 2006, giving Flash application developers and web site owners a frantic month to overhaul their sites with alternate technologies or workarounds.

So maybe this time they’ll listen

Good web developers regularly must educate clients against inappropriate and gratuitous use of Flash on web sites, a common mistake. And yet some customers use it anyway (because “it’s so cool”).

What’s cool now is when I get to rebuild someone’s old Flash web site into one that adheres to web standards, implements similar visual effects in something less problematic (like CSS or JavaScript), and is inherently highly optimized for search engines for increasing site visitors.  Building the site properly allows it to work faster, reach more people, become more usable, and achieve business objectives better which has a direct return on investment.

The point is that you can resist eye candy for coolness’s sake, avoid this can of worms, end up with a better web site all around, and take it to the bank.  Now that’s cool.

Switch browsers

It’s worth mentioning that this problem does not affect non-Microsoft web browsers (Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc.). At least not until Eolas eventually goes after them, too.

Ten performance-boosters you should use

1. Compression. By adding these lines to the .htaccess file in your web directory, you can save 50% to 80% of the time and bandwidth needed to deliver your pages:
   

   AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .html
   php_flag zlib.output_compression On

   This causes the server to compress HTML content as it is sent. Check your results using this compression tester.

2. Optimize Images. Use a good graphics program like Adobe Photoshop or ImageReady. Size your images appropriately, then use the Save For Web feature. Depending on the image, certain image formats will yield better size vs. quality ratios, so try them all, reducing colors or quality levels as needed.
3. Use Text for Text. Avoid graphics for text information. Aside from slowing down your site, depicting text in images can have several negative effects: visually impaired users cannot scale type size or have graphics read aloud, search engines can’t index the text, copy and paste won’t work, and it can look poor when printed.
4. Style with Style Sheets. A cascading style sheet (CSS) can eliminate tons of old-school FONT tags and other unnecessary markup elements. The ability to precisely position items through CSS virtually eliminates inefficient and tedious TABLE tags.
5. Embrace XHTML. Once you’ve separated content from presentation using CSS, you might as well code your pages in standards-compliant XHTML. Sites that use the XHTML and CSS combo are about one third the size of ordinary HTML sites and enjoy many other benefits.
6. Link to Reusable Items. Style sheets and JavaScript code used throughout your site are best stored in separate files loaded from each page. This not only eliminates redundancy but greatly simplifies site management.
7. Trash Meta Tags. Long lists of keywords and descriptions are wasted as their META tags are no longer used by search engines. Include a rich mix of important keywords in the content of your pages and you’re far better off.
8. Don’t Be Wordy. Pages with loads of text are ignored in our short-attention-span world. Choose words sparingly so your pages will load faster and might even be read.
9. Optimize Links. Use relative references in hyperlinks (don’t include the “http://www.yoursite.com” part). When linking to index pages, link to the target file (e.g., “dir/index.html”) or to the directory (e.g., “dir/” and don’t omit the trailing slash). This eliminates extra transactions between the browser and server.
10. Simplify Effects and Navigation. Sites composed solely of Flash or large Flash objects can take a long time to load. Many Flash effects can be done more efficiently with JavaScript. Old-school navigation rollovers relied on heaps of JavaScript and multiple images. They can be done more easily with CSS sprites.

It’s easy to juice up your site with these powerful techniques. Before and after applying these tips to your site, check your pages using this speed analysis tool. Visitors with slow connections such as modems and mobile devices will notice significant gains. Users with faster connections will appreciate the increased responsiveness. Plus, if your site is heavily trafficked, you can avoid or reduce extra bandwidth fees. It’s all good!

“We have a lot of hands-on knowledge and experience with our products, but we were out of our league in bringing it all to the web,” says DePriest. “We selected DTL and Ras Graphics to develop our corporate identity and design a site that was easy to use without all the typical noise you find on most shopping sites. These guys really came through.”

Although some products are restricted to police and military, most are available to the general public. The site had to present an engaging style, copy that expresses NPS’s unsurpassed customer service, and provide a broad selection at competitive prices.

NPS’s extensive ecommerce site is built using an integration of custom pages designed by DTL and an open source ecommerce engine. The entire site is fully web standards-compliant using valid XHTML 1.1, CSS, and is based on DTL’s PageWorx page-generation system that simplifies maintenance and updates.  DTL also created automated mechanisms for inserting, sizing and optimizing product images.

“We’re adding dozens of new products and variations every day,” says Debra DePriest, who does most of the online catalog management. “DTL’s tools give us a huge time and quality advantage over our competitors.”