I have five web names associated with Springfield, Missouri, and the 417 area code.

417Dining.com
417Restaurants.com
SpringfieldMoDining.com
SpringfieldMoRestaurants.com
RestaurantsInSpringfield.com

Contact us if you have an interest in any of them.

I know it’s an old subject, but I just ran into it. If you’re with Suddenlink, and your browser goes to the search when you type in a known good url, or goes to a search when you hit a “Next Page” inside a news site or something similar, here’s how you fix it:

The Suddenlink redirect page is a function of the DNS servers.  Essentially, when an “invalid” URL is placed into the address bar, before it would return a page that stated “this is an incorrect address”.  Since Suddenlink updated the DNS server so that whenever an Invalid URL is placed into the address bar, it returns search results to help you better get to where you needed to go.   It is the results being sent back to your computer from the Suddenlink DNS server.  For more information on how DNS servers work, please refer to this link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System
Most browsers have a bypass option that would automatically do a web search instead of just saying “this page is not available”, essentially in this same function as stated above with the Suddenlink default search, which is what sounds like you want to get back to using.  In most cases, you should be able to click on the link in the upper right-hand corner of the Suddenlink default search redirect page that says “Preferences” or “Why am I here”.  Once you click on that, you should be able to “opt out” of the service, which will disable that function of the DNS server, essentially reverting it back to the way it was before.
If this does not work, then most likely there is a communication error, usually because the web browser you are using has stored information for this search setting.  As far as clearing that setting, I have seen a full reset on the browser clear whatever is stored, then after selecting “disabled” from the preferences page, it stuck.  But what specific change needs to be made, I unfortunately am not aware.  If all else fails, since this is controlled through the DNS servers, you can always change what DNS servers you wish to go through.  There are a few that are free of charge, and you are completely allowed to use them.  The most popular ones that I know of are going to be at these links:
http://www.opendns.com/
http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/
Both of these sites have instructions on how to set this up.  Unfortunately, this is out of our scope of support when it comes helping set up, so from this point forward, you will need to consult these websites with setup and troubleshooting if any issues were to arise in the process or afterwards.

I personally find it deplorable that they do this when you know you have a good link. If it was just a search engine for broken links, ok, but it’s not. Suddenlink should cease this practice.

Your company data and documents need safe off-site storage. Without it you may be subject to catastrophic losses of information.  Imagine what would happen if all of your information was stored at your business site, or home, and there was a fire, tornado or theft?  Could you replicate all your tax documents, receipts, customer lists, accounts receivable, banking records, customer lists, vendor information or general information?

There are many different ways to accomplish this task. Don’t get caught flat-footed, let us help you begin the process of securing your data.

Websites, once up and running, don’t necessarily take a lot of ongoing maintenance, but skipping it can cost you dearly.  Backups need to be run on a regular basis.  Content need to be reviewed and optimized for search engines. Comments and users need to be approved or deleted.  Keywords and Metatags need to be reviewed and edited. Links need to be reviewed and tested. Employees need to be given email addresses and permissions for the backend of the site to be able to add content.  They also need to be removed when those permissions no longer benefit the company, or you.

With ongoing maintenance plans, these can be handled without burdening you or your companies current work flow.  Higher level plans will give you access direct lines of communication for late evening or weekend issues.

You don’t have to have a website to get personalized email addresses for you or your company.  Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo, or other email addresses with generic “@abcxyz.com” endings do not give you the personalization or trust that you can get with tailored email addresses.  We can help you with your email and with best practices for sending and receiving them.  You want it to be fast, seamless and organized.  Get away from the 500 emails in your inbox.

Integrating your SmartPhone with your email accounts brings your communication that much closer to home.

Need a domain name (web address/url).  That’s easy. Go here:

This will be in your name with your control and you set the password.  One of the biggest mistakes I see in new websites is letting your webmaster actually own and control your url.  That can be really dangerous.

Do you need a hosting server for your website? Aggravated with the one you have and want to move your site? We use both Hostgator and GoDaddy servers.  This gives us several advantages over “local” or in-house hosting.  They have vast arrays of servers, keep all the security updates current, have 24/7 monitoring and support and are not subject to local weather and power issues.

If standard templates are too “cookie cutter” or don’t have the usability you would like, customizing is the answer.  By working in the site and template’s code you can add just about any usability you would like to your site.  Would you like people to be able to contact you by clicking a button? fill out a form and send it to you? upload documents to you? make payments or donations? see your schedule? buy products or services? comment on articles? leave feedback? The possibilities are nearly endless.

We can help you with templates you like, or design you one personally.

Many websites are now built using open source code.  This has quite a few advantages.  One of them is ready made templates, designs, that work seamlessly with your site.  You can change you sites look in just a few minutes.  Templates can range in price from free to several thousand dollars depending on what you need and how much customization you would like.

Currently, we use WordPress a great deal.  This site is built with it using the Thesis theme.  With Thesis, you can change your fonts, font sizes, font colors, background colors, column orientation, column widths and more, in minutes.

We can install WordPress and Thesis and train you on how to manipulate them, or handle them for you.

You can use your SmartPhone to update your website, Facebook, Twitter and Google applications, bringing control of business or personal communications to your fingertips at all time.

Need help setting it all up? Let us help.