Pink Webs :: FAQ's

Why don't you make websites all in flash? What is validation and do I need it? Look below for the answers to the common questions people have about the web.

Is the web secure? How do I avoid scams?

One thing that often scares people about the web is all the stories of scams and security flaws. Of course the web is not infallible and it would be foolish to think it was but neither is it as dangerous as people think and there are a few simple rules you can follow.

One of the things that people often fall victim to are email scams. For this reason we instruct all clients to do a very simple check. You receive an email from us from name@pinkwebs.com.au. Do a 3 simple checks.

Does it have the .com.au part on the end? If it only has .com or has .net.au or ANYTHING other than .com.au on the end then ignore it.
Does it have the pinkwebs part AFTER the '@' symbol? If you receive an email and it's from pinkwebs@john.com then it is a fake. The pinkwebs part is before the '@' symbol and is actually coming from www.john.com and not from Pink Webs.
Does it ask for information or mention things which it shouldn't? Does it have our logo? We will never ask for your credit card details, passwords, personal information or send marketing emails to you. If we are going to send out emails asking for information or telling you about companies it will be because we have arranged it with you in advance. EG. If you are wanting to know more about SEO (see below) then we may email this information to you if you have requested it.

Basically if you recieve an email which you believe is from us and a scam then please let us know. If we become aware of any scams we will send out an email to warn you about it. Generally the web is no less safe than the rest of the world. These steps can help keep your information in the right hands.

What about Search Engines?

This is one of the first questions people ask. "How do I get at the top of Google?" In short with time. This is actually a very complicated question and there are entire companies who's sole business is to help you get at the top of Google. Basically it's about careful wording and links. The more people who link to you the higher you'll be. It's much more complicated than that but you get the idea.

Pink Webs does a limited amount of SEO. SEO means Search Engine Optimisation and we limit the amount of time we spend on that for two reasons. SEO is not our specailty and it takes too much time which gives us less time to work on your website. Therefore if you really do want the expertise of an SEO expert then please contact us and we will make arrangements for you. If you don't want to spend that time or money on it then be patient. The longer a website is up the more credit it gets. Time helps a lot.

What is validation and do I need it?

Validation is a way of ensuring that the code used to built a website is up to the industry standards. Because technology is always changing a standard was created for people to work to. Validation can be done to varying degrees and different web designers have different ideas about what is important.

Validation to some degree can increase web traffic. This is done because following certain standards will help users read a website. For example someone who has poor eyesight will be able to make the text on a site bigger in order to read it or a blind person will be able to use what is known as an audio browser to browse the web. Audio browsers read out the text on the screen and a website which doesn't validate won't work as well in these areas.

What are the pros and cons of Flash?

Flash is an animation like program which is often used to make very complicated sites. For example the harry potter website is made almost entirely with flash and there is no doubt that flash is just that, flashy. However there are some drawbacks. For users with dial up or slow internet connections flash sites can take a very long time to load and some users will just give up. Another problem is that those who use audio browsers (see above question) can't read ANY of the text on a screen if it's done in flash. It is for this reason that Pink Webs doesn't use much flash in their websites.

That said flash can be used in small amounts to increase the professional look of a website. Headers at the top of a page or portal pages* often use flash and this can be a great compromise.

*Portal pages are introduction pages which are viewed before entering a website. They can be very catchy but have been over used in the past so they have been used more sparingly in recent times.

What is a CMS?

A CMS or Content Management System allows a user who doesn't know any web code to be able to change the text on their page. If you can type and press a 'save' button then you can alter the text on your page and more (depending on how fancy the system is. There are dozens of CMS systems on the web out there. Some require you to buy them, some are free. Some are very complicated and some are very simple. The CMS used by Pink Webs has been made from scratch and can allow a lot or just a little control over a website. It can be purchased for a flat rate and added on to your website. You can choose how much control you wish to have.

Training and guides are included when the CMS is chosen at Pink Webs and support is also given. Of course the public side of the website is completely normal but it can save a lot of money if you have content which changes very frequently.

What is the difference between hosting and a domain name? Do I need both?

To have a website online you need 2 main things. First of all you need a place to store it and secondly you need an 'address' which is yours and no one else so people can find you.

The place where your website is stored is called hosting. The files which make up your website are stored on a computer somewhere (it could be almost anywhere in the world) and then they are there when you want to look at them.

A domain name is your special address. People need to be able to find you and this is the reason no two website addresses are the same. You rent an address so that people can find your site and there are hundreds of options for this. Below are some of the extensions which are used. Different extensions mean different things and these are part of what makes your website unique. www.hello.com and www.hello.net are two different addresses.

.com - usually for commercial. These are usually the cheapest but are the hardest to get because a lot of them have already been taken.
.org - this is an organisation. Usually non-profit.
.edu - these are educational sites. Often schools and universities have these.
.net - these are network sites. However often the general public uses them as there is no restriction and less of them are taken than the .com domains.
.gov - these are goverment websites.
.au - adresses with .au on the end are Australian websites and within the .au extension you can have all of the others as well. eg:
- .com.au - these are usually Australian businesses. To register one of these domains you must have an Australian ABN which related to the web address you are registering. Usually rented out in 2 year sprints.
- .org.au - these are generally Australian non profit organisations.
- .edu.au - these are reserved for schools, universities and other educational sites. They are not available to the general public.
- .gov.au - these are government websites. They are restricted to local, state and federally approved websites
- .id.au - these are websites for Australian individuals.

For more information about Australian domains visit the AuDA.

Pink Webs does offer small hosting packages for those having a website built or redesigned by us. Whilst we don't generally offer hosting to the public please contact us and we will try to come to an arrangement which suits you.

Pink Webs can also register domains for a fee however if you wish to register a .com.au domain then you must have an ABN number which related to the website address you want to register. Eg. You cannot register 'ilovedance.com.au' if your ABN business is 'Shoes Galore' becuase the two are totally different. If you are unsure what is permitted and what is not then please contact us.

What are Sub domains?

Sub domains are little extra websites put up in order to create mini websites without paying for extra domain names and registration fees. Eg. This website is pinkwebs.com.au. At some stage a billing section of this site may be set up and to make things simpler then we could use billing.pinkwebs.com.au. Sub domains are useful because you can allow people access only to their specific sub domain and not the rest of the site.

You mentioned a TIFF file, what is it and what are the other image types?

There are many different types of image files on the web. On our Prices & Packages page we mentioned a TIFF file and that is just one type of an image file available. JPG is another which many people have heard of. Certain images also allow transparency to varying degrees. Below is a list of the different files and a little bit about them.

TIFF - TIFF stands for Tagged Image File Format. Whilst most images are compressed each time they are saved TIFF files are not which means you can save them over and over without losing any image quality. The downside to this is that they are often must larger files and so they take much longer to appear on a web page and a lot more space on a computer.
JPG/JPEG - This stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. JPG files are coloured images which are similar to TIFF files but are much smaller. They are often the types of image files used for digital photographs however if you save a single photograph several times (on top of itself) the image quality will gradually get worse and worse. This is because the image is compressed further each time (imagine taking a picture of a sculpture but squashing it a little each time).
BMP - Windows Bitmap file. BMP files are similar to TIFF files in that they end up being quite large.
PNG - Portable Network Graphic. PNG files come originally from the program Fireworks and have become popular because of their high quality transparency. However that transparency was not supported in IE6 (the transparent parts became grey) and they end up being quite large files.
GIF - Graphic Interchange Format. GIF files are different to some of the other files because they don't have as large a colour range. This makes them good for simple images such as shapes but not good for photographs. On the other hand they do end up being quite small and they support a limited degree of transparency in IE6.

What are browsers and why do you check so many? Why not just use Internet Explorer?

Browsers are what you use to view a webpage. There are more browsers than people know and for the last 10 years or more there has been a war of sorts among the browsers. Most people know about Internet Explorer with the big blue 'e'. Internet Explorer is just one of the many browsers available and because it came with just about every computer which used Windows it had most of the market share which meant most people used it. Internet Explorer 6 (also known as IE6) was what most people used.

In the past 5-8 years that has begun to change. There are now more browsers than you can count and each has its own pros and cons. Below is a list of the most common browsers and the pros and cons about them.

Internet Explorer 6 (also known as IE6) - IE6 is the most commonly known of the browsers. For this reason it was what a lot of web developers built their sites to work in and so for a long time many sites only worked in IE6. A drawback of IE6 is that in recent years developers have been trying to cater to all browsers and some flaws have appeared. PNG transparency's turn grey and some have pointed out security risks.
IE6 can no longer be downloaded from microsoft however some people offer it as a standalone* program so that websites can be tested. One of the sites it is available from is: http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE
Internet Explorer 7 (also known as IE7) -IE7 is the latest piece of work from Microsoft. A new feature of IE7 is that it has tabs so that you don't have to have 20 windows open at once. IE7 fixes some bugs (such as the issue with transparency) however many web developers have expressed frustration with it as it seems to act differently with certain things and this has caused bugs in sites which worked perfectly well before. Some people have said it's better to stick with the devil you know rather than the devil you don't.
Firefox - Firefox is the popular browser created by Mozilla. The current version which is out is 2.0 however from when it was released back in ???? it has become more and more popular. It was Firefox which first had tabs and one of the reasons for it's popularity are the extensions which can be created by almost anyone and downloaded for free. Everything from music to tools for web developers can be added in to Firefox. It is these extensions which have made it a favourite with developers and users alike. A downside with Firefox is that many websites were made for IE and therefore do not work as well. However with developers trying to cater to all browsers Firefox is becoming more and more popular.
Opera - Opera is another browser which has become more mainstream. Although it doesn't have even 1/2 of the Firefox market share it does have a loyal following. A con about Opera is that it can have similar bugs to those found in IE6.
Safari - Safari is the browser which comes with a Mac computer.For a long time it was impossible to view this browser any other way however Mac is currently working on Safari 3 which is supposed to work for windows as well as mac computers. This may open up the market for them and make viewing websites with Safari a lot easier.
Flock - Flock is a little known browser however it has great potentional. It has been developed by Mozilla and advertises itself as a social browser. It is possible it will become popular among the younger market because it has features built in which make the social sites such as myspace and youtube easier to use.
Netscape - For those who have been browsing the web for a long time they may remember using netscape. It was one of the earliest browsers around and has since dropped off the radar of users. However it is still available and is no longer the dinosaur people tend to imagine. Netscape 9 is available to download and is seen as a pretty normal browser with nothing especially good or especially bad about it.

They are the most common browsers. For more information about the percentage each one holds visit http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp. The 'browser war' continues and with so many available and being used it is especially important that web developers check their websites on as many as possible. Pink Webs does this to assist you can reach the greatest number of people possible.