November 14, 2008

Get ready for Internet Explorer 8

Microsoft is currently preparing to release a new version of its Internet Explorer web browser. Version 8 is set to be released for all Windows users towards the end of 2008, meaning that web masters may have some work to do now to ensure that their websites will display correctly in the new browser.

How IE8 affects your website
With IE8, Microsoft has enhanced how the web browser displays and renders websites. Previously, the company had been criticised for not complying with internet standards for HTML and CSS; the languages used to create websites. Within the latest version, however, the company claims to have massively improved web standards support, bringing Internet Explorer in line with web browsers such as Firefox, Opera, Safari and Google Chrome.

This brings a problem: your website may break in the new version of Internet Explorer. Luckily though, there’s an easy fix that you can put into your HTML:

The easy fix
Somewhere between your <head></head> tags of every page on your website, insert the following snippet of XHTML:

< meta http-equiv=”X-UA-Compatible” content=”IE=7″ />

This tells Internet Explorer 8 to build your website exactly how it did in IE7.

The advanced fix
For the most part, your website will only break if it doesn’t adhere to web standards. If you hand code your website, we always recommend developing your site using CSS and XHTML standards to ensure that your website is future proofed.

Find out more at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956197 

Filed by Fasthosts Product Management at November 14th, 2008 under Linux Hosting, Windows Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, Hosting Information, Hints & tips | No comments

March 25, 2008

Quick tip: Fasthosts “Roaming SMTP” feature

BT have just announced that, for security reasons, they are now preventing BT Yahoo! Broadband users from sending emails from software such as Microsoft Outlook and Thunderbird, when the “From” email address is not a BT Yahoo! email address or a “validated alternative email address”. Last month, Sky stopped the use of their SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) servers to send emails.

Both of these changes have meant that many Sky and BT Yahoo! broadband users have been unable to send email until they change their SMTP settings, or in the case of BT Yahoo! customers, go through a process of validating their email address.

We’d like to take this opportunity to remind customers that Fasthosts provides a useful ”Roaming SMTP” feature with our Advanced and Microsoft Exchange mailboxes.

Fasthosts Roaming SMTP enables you to send email using your PC software, regardless of your broadband provider (so it’s great for laptop users!). If your broadband provider stops the use of their SMTP servers, you won’t be affected if you have a Fasthosts Advanced or Exchange mailbox using our SMTP settings.

Standard POP3 mailboxes can be upgraded to Advanced mailboxes easily (and instantly!) using Fasthosts’ award-winning control panel. New Advanced and Exchange mailboxes can added to any Fasthosts web hosting or email hosting package.

Find out more about the range of mailboxes we offer, and read our email software setup guides for more details on using our SMTP servers.

Experience the Fasthosts advantage
Some big-name email and web hosting providers don’t provide their own SMTP servers. Their customers have no choice but to use the SMTP servers provided by their broadband provider (which makes things a bit tricky for some BT and Sky broadband users now). Fasthosts provides a business-grade email hosting infrastructure with SMTP plus advanced virus & spam protection, from as little as £1.25pm!
Get up and running with Fasthosts email today

Filed by Fasthosts Product Management at March 25th, 2008 under Linux Hosting, Windows Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, Hosting Information, Resellers, Hints & tips | No comments

February 29, 2008

New Microsoft Exchange Webinar videos

Microsoft have provided a complete Exchange sales training Webinar, currently available to Fasthosts resellers only, to compliment the existing Exchange sales toolkit. Providing essential information to help increase Exchange email sales, the Webinar comprises 8 downloadable videos, covering topics including opportunity drivers and targeting customers, plus overcoming common objections and competing with on-premises solutions.

Fasthosts resellers can now download the Webinar videos from the reseller portal.

Filed by Fasthosts Product Management at February 29th, 2008 under Linux Hosting, Windows Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, Hosting Information, Resellers, Hints & tips | No comments

Come back for some more reviews

Some Good Hosts