Protect Yourself, part 2

How do you protect your new WEB site from an unscrupulous designer or host? Part 2

How do you protect your new WEB site from an honest designer or host who goes out of business?

You protect your web site much as you protect your family, your business or your organization:

you protect your good name, and

you protect your possessions.

Protecting your possessions

The best way to protect your internet possessions, is to get access to, and keep a copy of, the files which make up your web site. The cost of hosting your site is fairly modest, but think of all the hours that have been spent over the last year creating and arranging the content. What a catastrophe to have to start from scratch again!

What we are talking about here is disaster recovery. Your host is probably doing a backup daily, to protect you from equipment and software failures. Your copy is for the catastrophe when your host disappears.

To get a copy of your files, you will need to delve into the world of FTP. FTP is a set of internet rules (called a protocol) for moving and copying files across the internet. If you are queasy about this, find a computer-literate helper. There are shareware programs that make the process easier, they work something like Windows Explorer. One such program is CuteFTP.

You will need to "log-in" to the computer (server) that hosts your site. This is a security precaution so that unauthorized persons can not alter your web site. You may have been given the user name and password when you created your site. If not, get it from your host or web site designer. They may be reluctant to give it to you... Insist (though you can promise them not to change anything on your own)!

With the server name, user name, password and FTP program, you can connect to your web site. Then simply download the whole thing, lock, stock and barrel to a folder on your local computer. Repeat this from time to time, at least monthly or when your site changes.

Hopefully, you will never need to use it. But you will sleep better at night, knowing if your designer or host goes belly-up, that you can give the new designer a large head-start!

One final note. Some designers use an "authoring" program to create your site. The authoring program then creates the HTML files for your web site. You can be even farther ahead, in disaster recovery, if your designer will E-mail you the source document from the authoring program. You may have to buy the program, or find another designer who uses it, but the new designer will gain much more control over the site (which is why the original designer used the authoring program in the first place.) Your designer may get his nose bent out of shape, but you can ask!

Last Month: Protecting Your Name

Next Month: Payments by E-mail

If you are looking for an honest WEB designer and host,

specializing in church and ministry web sites,

please consider VeroNed.