Posts tagged free software
Monitor traffic on your WordPress blog with Jetpack
0If you run a blog, regardless of the subject matter, it’s important to know some key facts about your readership. What articles are they viewing, how did they get to your site in the first place, what are people searching for on search engines that brings them to your site? Without knowing these things, you could spend days at a time producing content that isn’t going to bring you any additional traffic, which is a waste of your time and effort. (more…)
Take quick screenshots in Windows with the Snipping Tool
0Most people will be familiar with using the “Printscreen” key on a keyboard to take a screenshot of their PC. But there’s a little known feature in Windows Vista and 7 that allows you to quickly and easily take a screenshot of a certain area of your screen which you can then copy to the clipboard, or save as a file to send on to other people. (more…)
Get a global avatar with Gravatar
0If you spend much time on blogs or forums on the Internet then you’ve probably noticed that most people appear “faceless”. This is because they have no avatar associated with that website, maybe they’re not regular visitors, or maybe the website doesn’t allow you to upload a personal avatar.
In the latter case, the website might use a third party tool to display avatars; Gravatar.
The premise of Gravatar is quite simple; when you leave a comment on a website or a blog you usually have to give an email address. If Gravatar is used on the website then that email address is checked against a database and if it exists the photo associated with that address is shown.
There are a couple of main reasons for doing this:
- Smaller websites and blogs don’t have the fan base to rely on readers to register an avatar with them, by using Gravatar they become part of a massive pool of websites where users only need register once (with Gravatar) in order to have their own personal image show every time that they use one of these sites.
- A lot of websites simply don’t want to keep a database of images for all their readers. Image files take up space on their web server and generate extra bandwidth because they will be loaded every time someone views that web page.
So, by using Gravatar you can do your part to make sure that an image file will display on websites when you leave a comment, read on to find out how.
First of all, head over to Gravatar’s website:
Click “Get your Gravatar today”, and on the next page enter your Email address:
You’ll then be sent a confirmation email to your account, open this and click on the link within it and you’ll be asked to enter a username and password for your Gravatar account:
Enter an account name, and a password, and then click “Signup”. Providing no one has your username already your account will be created and you will see the following screen:
From here you can upload the image files from your computer that you want to use as your avatar.
You can also add multiple email addresses to one Gravatar account, so if you use more than one email address there’s no need to have more than one Gravatar account.
Once you’ve uploaded your image you should find that it appears next to any comments that you leave on websites that use the Gravatar database. Check out the comments area below this article to see how Gravatars will display on compatible websites.
Apple WWDC 2011 Coverage – iCloud, iOS 5, Lion!
0Apple has unveiled a whole load of new technologies at this years World Wide Developer Conference in San Francisco, California.
There’s a whole lot of information provided in a keynote speech that stretched over 120 minutes, but the important facts are these: (more…)
Sony turns on PSN Store – immediately falls over
0Sony have finally turned on the PSN store after missing their deadline of “the end of May”.
Sony fans around the world rejoiced as access was granted to the store via PS3 and PSP consoles, only to complain just as loudly when they were denied the free game downloads they were promised. (more…)
Create Photo Slideshows With Windows Live Movie Maker
0If you want to be able to share your photos with friends and relatives then what better way to do it than with a video that will play on any Windows PC
It’s a great way to ensure that your audience will be able to enjoy your pictures, without the need to turn flick through a ton of individual photos on their PC’s. (more…)
WIN a free copy of Portal for PC and Mac
1To celebrate the release of Portal 2 we’re giving away a free copy of the original Portal for PC to a lucky reader.
Portal 2 follows on from the 2007 original, part of the Orange Box set that featured the Half Life 2 games and Team Fortress 2.
The newest outing features an extended single player campaign as well as an all new multi-player campaign which allows pairs of players to work together to complete puzzles.
Lets not forget where it all started though; Portal holds a special place in our hearts and every Portal 2 owner should at least try it, if they haven’t already.
So, we’re giving away a copy of the original Portal via Steam. The winning entrant will be contacted via Email for their Steam user ID so that the game can be sent to your account.
To win, all you have to do “Like” our Facebook page via the button below, then supply your name and Email address via the form.
Terms and Conditions
This competition is open to all readers . Employees of Tech Made Easy are forbidden from entering this contest. Strictly one entrance per individual. You MUST be a fan of the Facebook page on 05/06/11 for your entry to count, all entrants who are not fans of the page will have their entries discounted. Successful entrants will be informed via Email by 06/06/11 and must respond via Email within 5 working days or their prize will be forfeit. Tech Made Easy will not provide your name and Email address to any other party, nor will you be added to any mailing lists. The closing date for submissions is midnight on Sunday 5th of June, 2011.
How To Map to Your Home Network With DynDNS
0If you want to access resources on your home network from elsewhere on the net then your best bet is to get a static IP address from your Internet Service Provider. Once you have this then you have a permanent address for every device that uses that connection, with a little bit of configuring.
The problem is that most ISP’s in the UK still don’t offer a static IP address as an option for home customers. That doesn’t mean that your ISP won’t, so before continuing with this guide it’s best to check with them. Go ahead, I’ll wait……
No joy? Ok.
Well, all is not lost, there is another way to ensure easy access to your home network via a fixed address, using a free service called DynDNS.
DynDNS?
DNS stands for Domain Name System, and it’s the building blocks of how all the different computers and servers stay connected while on the net. The “Dyn” stands for Dynamic, meaning that the service can maintain a steady DNS presence even when your home computer has a dynamic IP address.
In order to implement this, you’re going to need either a router (or other network device) that supports DynDNS directly, or a piece of software that will sit on your Windows PC. For the former it’s best to refer to the instructions that came with your device, but for the Windows version, read on.
Setting up a DynDNS Account
The first step is to register a free host name with DynDNS here, this will be the address that you type into your web browser (once we’ve finished) to access your home resources. DynDNS are in the habit of changing the layout of their website, but at the moment it looks like this:
In the “Hostname” field you’re free to put in any word or phrase you’d like, and you can select from a list of pre-defined domains from the drop-down box. In the IP Address box, enter your public IP address as shown below the field (greyed out above), then click “Add To Cart”. You’ll then be prompted to setup a new account, as below:
Enter your personal details and then click “Create Account”, DynDNS will send you an Email with a link included that you need to click on to confirm your registration. Once you’ve done this your free account will be in good standing and you can view the status of your hostname through the website.
Configuring your Client
The next step is to configure a piece of client software on your PC or Mac that will communicate changes in your IP address to the DynDNS servers. To do this, download the latest version of the software for your OS from the link below.
[box type="download"] DynDNS Client Software[/box]
The software runs more or less the same across all platforms, in this instance I’m using a Windows PC but the software is pretty similar in terms of functionality for Mac and Linux machines.
I’ll assume that you can handle the installation of the software, there is nothing out of the ordinary except it trying to get you to install some additional software in the windows version. Just remove the tick from the box for this and continue with the installation.
Once the installation is finished, you should be able to open the software and see a window like this:
At this point, enter the username (not your email address) and password that you registered with DynDNS, your domains will then be listed in the window:
Next, select the tickbox for the hostname that you want to synchronize with your computer and then click “Apply”, if done correctly you should see the green “Status: Good” message shown above.
Your DynDNS hostname is now linked to your computer.
Uh….. Now What?
All we’ve done here is setup a link so that your home computer is associated with a hostname. What that means is that if I were to go to a web browser and type:
Http://techmadeeasy.dyndns-web.com
Then the web browser would look for some sort of webpage or service that’s sitting on my home network.
Which at the moment is nothing.
There are a few more steps that will need to take place before anything meaningful happens:
- “Port Forwarding” needs to be setup on our home router, so that requests from other peoples web browsers will be sent to the right computer on our home network.
- Some sort of web server needs to be setup on the computer.
- A website needs to be setup on that web server.
Once these three steps are completed the following will happen:
- An internet user will type your hostname into their web browser.
- The request will be forwarded to your home router (because of DynDNS)
- Your router will decide to forward that request on to your web server (your home computer).
- Your home computer will receive the request and send the files for your website to the internet user.
- The user will be able to see your website, whatever it is.
We’ll be looking at how to conduct these steps in future articles, specifically looking at using your home PC as a “web server” and then how to setup simple websites and blogs on it that other internet users around the world can view.