HTML, DHTML & Javascript Resources
Cloned from Poole Kitefliers Website

visit the Web Design Group   Click here to go to Arachnophilia website Valid HTML 4.0! Click here to check


External links on this page
have not been verified for years!
HTML Tutorials FTP & ADSL HTML Validators Graphics Hit Counters + Guest Books Search Engines
Domain Names HTML Resources & Refs PHP Scripts DHTML Javascript HTML News Groups
Keep it Clean Report Violations Spam & Viruses PC House-keeping Windows XP Tweaks Miscellany

Tutorials - (Beginners please start here).
If you want to understand how your web page works, and get your head around HTML...
Pagetutor.com - Super Tutorials on HTML, Tables, Forms & Frames + loads of goodies ... RECOMMENDED
W3Schools.com - School for HTML, XML, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, DHTML, VBScript, ASP and more.
Easy HTML tutorials - A step by step guide to creating your first web page + Advanced Table Tricks.
WebReference.com - The Webmaster's Reference Library: Web Site Design Tips and Tutorials
Cascading Style Sheets reference - Everything you ever wanted to know about Style.

WYSIWYG HTML Authoring Tools
If you don't have the time or inclination to learn HTML, and just want a reasonable website, these are probably the best programs.
As far as I know, there is only one FREE program available, Microsoft Front Page. If it rings your bell, then fine.
If you check the source code it produces, you should be able to see why I do not like it. (nothing personal, Bill)
Check out the registration fee to be paid after the free trial period on these other programs - then you will see why a lot of people do HTML "the hard way".
HomeSite 5.5 - from Macromedia.
Dreamweaver - from Macromedia. Fireworks FAQ
Xmetal Author - from SoftQuad - 30 day free trial.
Blogger! - if you want to make a splash the quick and easy way.

HTML Editors + FTP  --  Back To Top Of Page
OK - so you learned something about HTML, now get stuck in and start doing it.
First Page 2000 - a fine FREE HTML editor (includes HTML Tidy) + loads of resource links ... RECOMMENDED
Arachnophilia - another very good free HTML editor + automatically converts text files to decent HTML.
HTML Tidy - Clean up your Web pages with HTML TIDY - works on Word & Excel generated HTML (part of First Page 2000).
HTML-Kit - a full-featured text editor designed to help HTML, XML and script authors to edit, format, lookup help, validate, preview and publish web pages.
Coffeecup.com - HTML Editor Version 8.6 Rated 5 Cows from TUCOWS... must be good! (shareware)
Smart FTP - FREE utility to upload your HTML, Windows / IE like user interface, Drag & Drop.
Check Your Connection Speed - its useful to know just how fast your ISP connection is.
Broadband Availability Checker - Check what ADSL services are available in your area ... RECOMMENDED
Find your best DNS server - download this app and run it to test available DNS servers and compare them to the one you are currently using.

HTML Validators - very important  --  Back To Top Of Page
If you wrote all your own code, or if you used a WYSIWYG utility, you still need to do this regularly.
1 - FIND & FIX BUGS:- Netmechanic - Check your HTML code and links for FREE. ... ESSENTIAL
2 - DEEP CLEANSE:-Web Design Group - Validate your code strictly - even on your PC for FREE (can check whole website) ... RECOMMENDED
3 - CROSS-CHECK:-W3C HTML Validation Service - as above (but single files only) + CSS Validator ... RECOMMENDED
4 - TUNE UP:-Dr. Watson - a comprehensive service, analyzes HTML, verifies links, counts words. Can also check spelling, search engine compatability & site link popularity.
Stickysauce.com - Webmaster development resources
brokenlinkcheck.com - check for dead & incorrect internal & external links - FREE!
htmlhelp.com/tools/valet - another great page from htmlhelp.com

Graphics  --  Back To Top Of Page
Netmechanic Gifbot - reduce the size of your graphic files for quicker download ... RECOMMENDED
Microsoft Design Gallery - excellently organised database of clip art to download.
GrafX Design - Digital Graphics and Web Graphics Tips, Techniques and Tutorials + Graphics Links
Favicon.co.uk - In Internet Explorer 5.0 and above, customize the Icon next to your bookmarked web site URL.
Xara - Web Graphics Software, 3D and lots of other good stuff.
Safe Web Colours - for colour deficient vision.
Flamingtext.com - a great site for web graphics - see their on-line button generator (with mouseover option) adds text to their buttons

Hit Counters & Guest Books  --  Back To Top Of Page
There are loads of these to be found, most are pretty naff, but these are OK if you must have one:-
Hit Counter - Digits.com - easy to set up and use - a choice of different size graphics, as I have used here, and here, and here.
Guest Book - GuestBookDepot.com - also easy to set up and use - if you don't like the default graphic, change the link to go to "/guestbook.html" and use a text link (as I have done here), or any graphic you like.

Search Engines & Keywords  --  Back To Top Of Page
If you don't have any <meta> keywords or description, how is anybody going to find you? They may not be critical to search engines, but they sure seem to help!
MetaSpy - (from MetaCrawler.com) - see the search strings people use in real time!
Wordtracker.com - Discover the most popular keywords now being used - LIVE listing!
AgentWebRanking Suite Freeware - Analyses of Web site's search engines position (free download).
Webseed - Check your ranking on the 15 most popular search engines (only 1 free trial per URL).
How AltaVista Works - Learn how to get a good rating.
Webpositionadvisor.com - Search Engine Advisor.

Domain Names
Easily.co.uk - Check for and register free domain names (good price, based in UK). ... RECOMMENDED
Free Parking.co.uk - Check for and register free domain names (cheapest, based in USA).
Nominet.UK + WHOIS query - check the registered owner of any .UK website.
Internic + FAQ + WHOIS query - International domain names .COM etc.
What country is that URL? - Check it out .AC through to .ZW - all listed here

HTML Resources  --  Back To Top Of Page
MSDN Online Web Workshop - DHTML, HTML & CSS
W3.ORG WWW + HTML Tools - A whole bunch of HTML utilities.
The_HTML_Goodies_Home_Page - A Treasure Trove of Useful Stuff
Yahoo Listing - of HTML Guides & Tutorials.
Siteowners.com - extensive webmaster resources
Internet Related Technologies - a non-profit making online developer site that covers Internet Related Technologies that are cross-browser as well as operating system and platform independent
CSS Pointers Group - a useful source of information, examples and links to other external resources.
InternetTrafficReport - check out the state of the Net before any major download.

References  --  Back To Top Of Page
HTML 4.0 - Document Type Declaration - from Web Design Group.
The HTML Guru - a visually stunning website - heavy on graphics, but takes your breath away!

PHP Scripts  --  Back To Top Of Page
FormToEmail.com - Positively the most useful utility I have found in a very long time - converts website <FORM> input into Emails in a reliable, spambot-proof and non-scary way. ... HIGHLY COMMENDED
- Charles Sweeney will answer your email queries patiently and helpfully - even if you only use the FREE version - what a star!
- NB - watch out for ISP's who insist that CGI and PHP scripts are put onto a different part of your web space from your HTML code (e.g. Plus.Net) - giving this error message "cannot display page FormToEmail.php".

DHTML  --  Back To Top Of Page
Beginner's Guide to DHTML - David Gardner makes it look easy!
Dynamic Drive - DHTML code library - all sorts of goodies to paste into your website.
Website Abstraction - DHTML + JavaScript technology center

Javascript  --  Back To Top Of Page
Javascript Form Validator - great stuff, as used with PHP script (above) to ensure valid details entered ... RECOMMENDED
Web Authoring Resouce Center - California Polytechnic State University
Gamelan - A Developer.com Site for Java Articles, Tutorials, News, Discussions, and More
Freewarejava.com - the place to find free Java applets, tutorials, references, Java books, and more!
Website Abstraction - Welcome to THE JavaScript technology center!
IT and communication - Yucca's free information site.

News Groups + FAQ's  --  Back To Top Of Page
HTMLHelp BBS - another fine resource from Web Design Group - and not one "FLAME" in sight! ... RECOMMENDED
Alt.html NewsGroup + FAQ File
C.I.W.A.H. NewsGroup + Web Authoring FAQ + Frequently Encountered Problems: HTML - by Web Design Group
C.I.W.A.S. NewsGroup + CIWAS stylesheet authoring FAQ - News Group FAQ Index. (comp.infosystems.www.authoring.stylesheets)
comp.lang.javascript NewsGroup
Netscape.Communicator Newsgroup - Netscape Official Help Site
BE WARNED... If you post a question that has already been asked a zillion times, and the answer is in the FAQ section of the N/G, or among current topics, you will regret it!

Help To Keep It Clean  --  Back To Top Of Page
R.S.A.C. - Submit your own website for a rating - it's worth it! ... RECOMMENDED
Safe Surf - Making the Net safe - look at their website rating system.
NSPCC Internet Safety - NSPCC teamed up with O2 to help you keep children safe when they're using the internet, social networks, apps, games and more.
Childnet.com - Childnet International sponsored website giving advice to parents and children on teenage safety on the internet. How to avoid sexual abuse on the web.
Advice on child welfare, how parents can better protect their children. What industry, governments and police can do.
Understand the issues and the simple safety steps you can take to help keep children safe.
The Ultimate Parent Guide For Child Internet Safety - Some very sensible guidelines on protecting your kids on line.
Net Nanny - filtering software - Limits access to inappropriate material, prevents threat of Cyber Strangers, denies misuse of personal information.

How to Report WWW Violations  --  Back To Top Of Page
Content Violation Reporting Form - Geocities & Yahoo have this sensible form, if any of their members cause offence.
Virgin.net Support - report any Virgin.Net violations here.
Freeserve.com Support - report any Freeserve violations here.
Hotmail.com Support - report any Hotmailcom violations here.
Anti Child Pornography - join the world-wide fight against this filth - report offending websites here.

Spam, spam, spam, viruses, pop-ups, beans & spam...  --  Back To Top Of Page
0spam.com - At last, a FREE solution that seems to really work! Automatically puts ALL incoming mail into a junk folder, and deletes it unless the sender confirms by hand, which adds the sender to a "white list". ... RECOMMENDED
DMAconsumers.org - List your Email address with the email Preference Service. Should stop spam from members of Direct Marketing Association.
Mail Washer - You can "wash" away the junk before downloading your mail. ... RECOMMENDED
Hijack This - Excellent utility produces a technical report of everything installed on your PC, and you can then post that report to a free support forum, where you will find the most helpful and patient people on God's Earth.
FREE Guide on Spyware & How to Remove it
What on Earth is a Joe Job? - Find out how your email address can be hijacked and appear to send junk mail - then see what to do about it!
www.spamcop.com - The place to send samples of offensive spam to begin the search and terminate process.
SPAM - What to do about it and similar E-junk.
Junkbuster - if you are sick and tired of "pop-up" browser windows.
Javascript-Popup-Filtering Junkbuster - a patch to modify Junkbuster to your own taste.
UK Telephone Preference Service - make sure your phone number is no longer available to "JUNK CALLS"
Adaware - Download this utility (free for personal use) and scrub your PC clean of spyware, malware and other nasties. ... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
AVG Free edition - This industry standard anti-virus program is completely free for personal use. ... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Registry Sweeper Pro - For a quick tidy-up of duff registry entries - limited to 3 registry fixes at a time if you don't register and pay - suits me fine!
SpywareWarrior.com - If you want to know more about Spyware (and how to fight it) the forums on this site are well worth the time.
Ewido Security Suite - This will dig out spyware and nasties that Adaware, Spybot, Norton and AVG all missed. AMAZING - but use with care!
Spy Sweeper - even better than Ewido - got rid of Zlob virus on my PC when Ewido could only detect it but not remove it ... BEST OF THE LOT (but not quick & creates a lot of tmp files & incessant nagging if you do not purchase.)
Panda's online virus scan - does what it says on the tin.

Viruses & Hoaxes  --  Back To Top Of Page
Norton Virus Checker - Check if a "TELL EVERYBODY YOU KNOW" virus warning is genuine or hoax (usually a hoax)
Cross-check viruses and hoaxes at these genuine anti-virus websites: - Symantec, Mcafee, Network Associates Inc & Sophos

I have recently (2009) taken to watching advice about dealing with viruses and spyware on Yahoo Answers
I have read nothing but good reports on the following anti-virus and anti-malware uitlities
www.malwarebytes.org ~ Malwarebytes is a site dedicated to fighting malware. Malwarebytes has developed a variety of tools that can identify and remove malicious software from your computer.
www.avast.com ~ Complete protection against viruses and other forms of malware with built-in anti-spyware detection. It’s available to download as a free trial for 60 days in 30 language versions.
superantispyware.com ~ Detect and Remove Spyware, Adware and Remove Malware, Trojans, Dialers, Worms, KeyLoggers, HiJackers, Parasites, Rootkits, Rogue Security Products and many other types of threats.

System File Checker (SFC) ~ after removing a nasty virus, you can be left with damaged or missing system files. Read up on SFC, and when you are happy, bring up a system (DOS) prompt and run the command sfc /scannow - have your Windows CD handy, and be patient, as it may take an hour or two!

Spybot +AV for Home PC Users ~ costs €11.99 per annum - best value PAID AV program

CAUTION - Unlocker is what you will need if you are prevented from deleting a file that you are 100% sure is bad. It is easy to use, but will let you delete ANYTHING and so is entirely at your own risk!

House-keeping   --  Back To Top Of Page
PCPITSTOP.COM ... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
This is your actual one-stop online FREE PC tune-up service that detects most of the things that make your PC run slow - just click on the key below "New Members" - then if you want to keep a log of your PC performance, "Create A Free Account" otherwise "Don't Create An Account" then click "Let's Go!"

N.B. You can download various free utilities (for example) that will tell you which drivers are out of date - BUT... you will have to pay for utilities which update the drivers for you. Likewise other free gizmos will report various other problems in some detail, but the bottom line is that you either pay for the full utility, or else "do it the hard way" and hunt the Internet to find updates for yourself (which is what I do).

Email... Have you ever gone to check an Email account and found there is so much stuff waiting to come into your "In-tray" that the whole thing just takes forever?
With POP3 mail accounts, it can happen, and you get so tired waiting for all the mail to arrive that you click on "Cancel"... only to find that next time you log on, all those messages are still there?
Chances are that most of that clutter is junk mail, and if (like me) you have to pay for time on-line, to download and check it, you can get quite annoyed...
If you don't want to install Mail Washer there is another way to check your mail and then delete anything that you do not want arriving in your "In-tray".
I found a website where you can access all your POP3 mail accounts and check your mail without having to download every message first - the secret is that you only download the HEADERS on this website, then if you want to open the message to read, you click on the header, and only then does it download the whole message. Check it out for yourself   Mail2Web.com
P.S. Don't forget to regularly empty the Trash folder on your Email program!

Temporary Files... did you know that when you start a Windows session, it creates dozens of temporary files on your hard drive? Usually you don't even notice this, as they all get deleted when you close Windows.
But... (there's always a but)... if you exit from Windows incorrectly, these files stay on your hard drive.
For example, if your PC locks up and you have to press "Reset"...
or if "somebody" just turns off the PC without closing Windows down properly first...
- these files are usually not very large (some may even be zero bytes), but over a period of time, you can amass hundreds of them on your hard drive, and then it is worth deleting them.

Great News!! - here is a completely reliable and FREE program which can do it all for you.
Easycleaner
Registry Clean and Unnecessary Files are completely safe
BUT... Do not delete duplicate files unless you know what you are doing!
CCleaner by Piriform - not only finds junk files and Registry keys that Easycleaner missed, but can also wipe free disk space.
Defraggler by Piriform - a great defrag utility that lets you choose which files to defrag.

But if that scares you, here's how to do a manual tidy-up... (print out & do it later, as you must not have any programs running when you do this.
There are 3 types of temporary file - you need to search for and delete one type at a time.

1. On your PC desktop, click on Start, then Find, then Files or Folders
Where it says "Named", type the following into the search box   *.tmp
Check the "Find" utility is set to look in (C:) drive
And if there is an option to Include subfolders, make sure it is ticked.
Click on Find Now and wait.....
When the search has finished, it will show (at the bottom of that window) how many files it found
Select all of them by pressing Ctrl + A then just press Delete
(this only moves them to the Trash Bin, so there is no fear of deleting something vital)
2. Repeat the above procedure, but put   ~*.*  in the search box.
3. Repeat the above procedure, but put   *.chk  in the search box.
(these files are created automatically by Scandisk each time you reboot after a faulty shutdown.

To be on the safe side, do not empty your Trash Bin just yet... wait a few days to make sure that all your applications still run normally, in case you deleted something vital!

Windows XP Tweaks  --  Back To Top Of Page
There has been so much written on this topic, that it makes my head spin - so here are my personal favourite geeky links - enjoy!
tweaks.com/windows-xp - This is a treasure house - just remember to make a System Restore point, and/or Registry Backup before you start to play! - Ditto for the following links...
Mark Sanborn has written a huge amount of good stuff (BIG respect): 10-reasons-why-i-hate-microsoft-windows and what-to-do-after-a-fresh-install-of-windows-xp
and turn-off-unnecessary-windows-services - N.B. Disabling "Protected Storage" means MS Outlook does not store your password(s).

www.softpanorama.org/Windows/startup_and_shutdown.shtml - does what it says on the tin - unless you actually LIKE waiting for windows to start up, or shut down!
Tom's Hardware Forum - If you gotta problem, who you gonna call? (not GhostBusters)
MajorGeeks.com - Another well organised and very helpful technical forum.
AMD Support Forums - and my personal favourite AMD Processors Forum - where I am trying to understand some of the mysteries of the Phenom quad-core CPU.
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us - I love my Nvidia graphics cards and here you can find updated drivers automatically (use with caution on non-Nvidia mobo drivers)
How to remove CTFMON.EXE - get rid of that annoying "alternative user input" process.
Prefetch cleanup - Opinions are divided as to whether this tweak has much effect - I vote yes.

- watch this space - more to come when I remember them!

Misc.
Can my PC run a particular game or program? Click HERE to visit System Requirements Lab!

What software updates does my PC need? Click HERE to find out with Filehippo Update Checker.

What RAM upgrades can my PC take? Try the System Checker at Crucial and at Orcalogic

Which Nvidia Gforce Graphics card to choose? Compare them HERE

How can I protect myself if I try P2P or torrent sites? Peerblock could be the answer (successor to PG2)

Multimap.com - add an interactive link from your website to this great mapping utility.
HumanClick.com - Free interactive chat facility for your website ... RECOMMENDED
Computing.Net - Technical Support Forums, Novice Section, Drivers (DLLs etc), IT Info, Linux and more.
How to keep an idiot busy - Another useful little lesson from Joe Barta
Form Mailer CGI - A much better way to handle a website form, than using <mailto:>
Screen Saver Heaven Spotlight - Screen Saver Archive of 1000+ screensavers (e.g. Titanic Sinking & Gladiator)
Digital Blasphemy.com - A stunning collection of wallpapers for your PC - amazing artwork!
Careware - probably the best idea ever seen on WWW - the concept behind Arachnophilia.
How do I Get Rid of the Welcome to Netscape Messenger Page?
Computer Stupidities - if computers confuse you, take heart - there are people out there who know less than you!
Mike Lin's Startup control Panel - great utility for Win 2000 espcially (where you don't have MSCONFIG).