Frequently Asked Questions

How can I best supply text, images and other files to Chirp?

Text content should be supplied in one of the following formats:

• Microsoft Word
  
• RTF
  
• Plain Text
  

If you use Microsoft Word to write content for the website you need to disable the 'Smart Quotes', 'AutoFormat as you type' and 'AutoCorrect' features. That will save time and hassle when it comes to converting your text to HTML format, and avoid problems where the website displays question marks or other strange characters in place of punctuation.

You should also check whether the editor you use has an option for using Unicode (UTF-8) which is the character encoding used on all our websites.

Graphics should be supplied as:

• JPEG (JFIF) or TIFF for photos
  
• GIF or PNG (with optional transparency) for logos
  
• Photoshop (layered) format for website designs
  

Data to be imported into your database should be supplied as:

• Spreadsheet format (eg. Excel)
  
• Tab-delimited text
  
• Comma-separated-variable (CSV) format
  

We can handle other file formats (except for Microsoft Access and other proprietory database formats) on request, however, the options listed are the most efficient.

What is the process involved in putting together a website?

The basic steps to launching a website through Chirp Internet are as follows:

Creating a template:

• determine the site structure and navigation options (e.g. Home, About Us, ...);
  
• design a graphics template for the website that will apply to all pages;
  
• convert the graphics to an HTML/CSS template;
  

Populating the website:

• create new webpages from the template and populate with supplied text and graphics;
  
• design and populate a database for dynamic content (e.g. news, events, products);
  
• develop an administration interface to allow you to manage the data and associated files (e.g. categories, products, photos, orders, ...);
  
• develop and test the public interface;
  

For e-commerce sites

• integrate a payments or recording system for orders;
  
• install secure key if required;

How long does it take to build and launch a website?

The timing is really up to you - how quickly you can supply/upload the necessary content and provide feedback during testing. We are quite capable of producing a fully functional website inside a week, but prefer to spread the process over a longer timespan to allow time for testing and 'finessing' of the interface.

How do I find my latitude and longitude for use with Google Maps?

You can use the map on the Chirp website to find your coordinates. Just double-click on a location to zoom in and the coordinates will appear underneath the map viewport. If you're not in the Canberra region then you can also search for an address in Australia or elsewhere.

Another method is to use the Google Maps website and, when you've centred the map at the right position, use the "Link to this page" option and in the URL that appears you should be able to find the coordinates after the text 'll='.

Related Links:

• Canberra and surrounding regions map
• Google Maps

What formatting options are available using the Chirp CMS?

You can use most simple HTML tags including bold, italic, underline, big and small. All the heading tags are also available: H1, H2, etc. One level of 'nested' tags is allowed (eg. an underlined word in an italic sentence).

Other tags that have a similar syntax will also work and you should consult your HTML reference to see what other tags are available.

Any email addresses or website addresses (starting with http or https) will be automatically converted into active links. You can also provide text for these links by using the following format:

• http://websiteaddress/[click here]
  
• username@websiteaddress[send us an email]
  

Note: there is no space between the URL or email address and the first square bracket.

Finally, you can create a bulleted list by starting each line with an asterisk and space (i.e. '* '). Other characters such as those used in Word for bulleted lists will not always be recognised. An asterisk without a following space will also not be converted to a bullet-point.

Related Links:

• Guide to updating dynamic content (PDF)
• The Bare Bones Guide to HTML

What do you mean by 'template'?

Site Template:

All websites developed by Chirp use a template that forms a container for your content. Each template is made up of a header and footer that contain the page content, and can reference a style sheet that determines how your content is to be formatted.

One of the benefits of using a site template is that if you want to change the website graphics or navigation links then that can be done in one place rather than having to edit a file for every single page. Similarly, using the style sheet, it's possible to change the styles (colour, size and other formatting) of headings, links, tables and other HTML elements.

Page Template:

As outlined above, each page of your website makes use of the 'site template'. The content area of a page can also be a template, including editable placeholders for headings, text and images. Here you can find more information on templates and the link below will show you an example of the template used for this website.

Related Links:

• Chirp's site template

What should I consider when uploading files to my website?

When adding PDF, Word or other types of files to your site you need to be aware that they will be indexed by search engines and appear in search engine results. That means that someone can access a PDF document without having gone through your website.

With this in mind, you should ensure that any files that you upload to your website include both your organisation and website details. This will make it easier for people to put the information in context, and encourage people to explore the rest of your site.

Similarly, if photos or other images are important to your business, you might want to consider adding a watermark or digital copyright information so that they also can be identified when accessed via search results.

How do I add links from my website to other websites?

When adding links to your site it's important to use the correct format, and to use the shortest address possible. Many websites have very complicated addressing systems that change over time - so linking to individual pages is pointless. Others invoke a 'redirect' from the entry page which can also confuse things.

Some rules:

• All addresses must start with http:// (or https:// for secure sites);
  
• The website URL may work with or without the "www.", but it's good practice to include it by default;
  
• The website URL should end either with a '/' (eg. www.chirp.com.au/) or a page address (eg. www.chirp.com.au/contacts.html)
  

After the URL can come a 'path' to an HTML page or other file. If the URI (the URL followed by the path) ends with one of the following (or something similar) then it can usually be omitted:

• index.html
  
• index.htm
  
• default.htm
  
• index.php
  
• index.asp
  

Always check that the link still works after being shortened!

With a site that uses a redirect it's sometimes difficult to know what to use. Here are some examples which you can view by clicking on them. In each case we have used the shortest/simplest address:

• www.bbcnews.com/ (BBC News)
  
• www.canberratimes.com.au/ (The Canberra Times)
  
• www.yellowpages.com.au/ (Yellow Pages)
  

If you want to have the link appear as text rather then displaying the address you can add label following the instructions in the FAQ on 'formatting options'.

What image format should I use for uploads?

The best formats to use are GIF, TIFF or JPEG (JFIF). Some other file formats are supported but provide no advantages over these three. The software we use does not support bitmap (BMP) files and if you upload bitmap images they will appear as garbage.

As the WWW is an electronic medium, all images need to be supplied in RGB (red-green-blue) format and not CMYK (cyan-magenta-yellow-black) as that if the format used for printing.

How are the images I upload being resized?

When you upload a photo or other image to your website using our content management system, it will be automatically re-sized to fit within a predefined width and height.

For example, if the dimensions have been set to 100 x 100 pixels, then a photo that is square (width equal to height) will be re-sized to exactly 100 x 100 pixels. A tall, narrow image however, would end up with a height of 100 pixels, but a smaller width. Similarly, a wide image would end up with a width of 100 pixels but the height would be less. If the uploaded image is already equal to or smaller than the target dimensions then it will not be modified.

In some cases, the images will be padded (with a background colour) so that the final files all have the same dimensions and can be laid out more easily'.

If multiple files are created (eg. a thumbnail, preview and full-size image) then the process is repeated with differing target dimensions. In most cases we also set a maximum image size of 640 x 480 pixels. Uploading anything larger than that will simply make the upload and conversion process slower.

By default the conversion will use a JPEG quality of 70%, but this can be customised on a pre-application basis if the compression causes problems.

Why are my images showing as negatives?

If you upload JPEG images formatted using the EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) standard then resizing can result in the images appearing on your website with the colours inverted (i.e. as negatives).

The solution is to use a graphics program to convert the files to the standard JFIF (JPEG File Interchange Format) before uploading.

EXIF is popular in some cameras because it is essentially a 'digital negative', but the web-standard has always been JFIF.

Related Links:

• JPEG Image Formats

What is an RSS Feed and how do I use it?

RSS or News Feeds are just a way for people to 'subscribe' to information from your website. All the news items you add to the website appear automatically in the RSS Feed with links back to the website.

This way people who are interested can follow your news without always having to visit your website all the time. They can subscribe to your RSS Feed using a website, feed aggregator, web browser or mail client.

Further reading:

• RSS in Plain English (video)
  
• News feeds from the BBC
  
• What Is RSS? RSS Explained
  
• What Is RSS? on USA.gov
  

You can give people the address of your RSS Feed or they can find it themselves in their web browser Location bar when they visit your website, though that's not implemented yet in all web browsers. You can also add an icon to your homepage or news page to show that you have a feed.

Related Links:

• Chirp Internet RSS Feed
• G'day Pubs RSS Feed

What do the numbers mean in my monthly traffic reports?

The most important statistics for your website are:

Visits: this is the number of people who have visited your site. These number are not exact, however, as if someone returns to your site after being gone for a few hours they will be counted a second time.

Page Views: this is the number of HTML pages that have been requested. This is much more meaningful than 'Hits' or 'Files' as it only counts actual pages that are viewed - not graphics or other associated files.

The other commonly quoted value, Hits is misleading as it includes not only all Page Views, but also every request for an image, style sheet, embedded media or downloadable file. As most pages contain images (buttons, photos, banners, etc.) this can give an inflated measure of traffic to your website.

Finally, you should be aware that all reporting programs use different definitions of 'hit', 'visit' and even 'page' so comparing results between them can be extremely difficult. You are much better off just watching for trends to develop in the aggregate data (the monthly reports) rather than focussing on the day to day performance.

Related Links:

• More on Hits/Pages/Visits
• Webalizer.org

What is that User Agent?

The User Agents section of the report tells you about the programs being used to access your site. These range from the basic web browser to advanced data collection agents. Click the link below for a listing of User Agents that we have so far identified.

Related Links:

• Directory of User Agents

How do I make my site appear in search engines?

Each search engine has it's own way of determining which sites to 'spider' and add to their 'index'. Some let you submit your website online, while others want you to pay for this service. Generally you only have to concern yourself with the major search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Live) and not with the hundreds of smaller sites that very few people use.

If your site is properly built and optimised for search engines then the major players will come of their own accord, so you don't need to pay or take other steps to appear in their search results. A single link from our portfolio is enough.

Related Links:

• Google Search
• Yahoo! Search
• Live Search

How do I improve our websites performance with search engines?

We have developed our own search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques which ensure that your website appears as high as possible in search results. We provide custom tools that let you analyse where traffic is coming from and will advise you on steps you can take in terms of content and advertising.

The first and most obvious step is to have your website address appear every time your company or organisation is mentioned, including business cards, letterheads, email signatures, tv, radio, newspapers and other media.

You should also ask people and organisations you work with to link from their website to yours, and you can link to them in return. The larger this 'network' of sites becomes, the more the major search engines will like your website and send more traffic your way.

In terms of content, it's essential that all of the text on your website is unique, relevant and accessible. That means avoiding duplication of text content and avoiding flashy graphics in favour of 'text' content which can be read and indexed by search engines.

For more detailed information, contact us or download the PDF file linked below.

Related Links:

• Guide to promoting your website (PDF)

What are 'META tags' and which are important?

META tags allows you to insert information into the HTML code of a web page where they can be read by search engines, but not seen by web browsers. The most important META tags for your site are "Description" and "Keywords", though the latter is no longer referenced by Google because it's too often abused.

Description: When your site appears in a search engine's result list, this is the text that appears. It should describe the page in question using up to 200 characters.

Keywords: The purpose of the keywords list is to increase the probability of your site being found when those words are entered. They should be relevant, and realistic.

Other META tags

The Dublin Core standard is just one of many that try to encourage the addition of meta information to websites. In our opinion, it is not a useful practice to follow the DC or other standards as they are NOT recognised by any of the major search engines. They could, however, be useful in a corporate intranet environment with it's own 'META' search engine.

Related Links:

• Web Design Guidelines: Use Meta Tags

Do you block any search engines from indexing our website?

At any given moment there are hundreds of search engine 'spiders' (or 'robots') crawling the web. All this traffic can have a detrimental impact on server load and response times if too many agents are indexing too many sites at one time.

We allow the most important spiders free access to the server - that would be Googlebot (Google), Slurp (Yahoo!), msnbot (MSN and Live) and webwombat (Web Wombat). We block other spiders if they exhibit 'bad behaviour' - ignoring instructions in robots.txt or making an excessive amount of page requests. They can be blocked on a temporary or permanent basis.

The types of agent most likely to be blocked are:

• spiders for search engines that don't yet exist;
  
• spiders for non-English search engines; and
  
• any that are simply not well-behaved (see link below).
  

These settings can be changed on a per-site basis so please let us know if you want to allow (or block) a specific spider to have access to your website.

Related Links:

• Guidelines for Robot Writers

Is my browser standards compliant?

Your choice of software may be out of your hands. However, if you do have control over what software you are using you should consider upgrading your browser. Doing so will improve your web experience, enabling you to use and view sites as their creators intended.

The following browsers support numerous web standards including CSS, XHTML, and the DOM (a universal means of controlling the behavior of web pages):

• Netscape v7 or higher (all platforms), Mozilla Firebird (Windows), Camino (Mac OS X), Galeon (Linux GNOME Desktop) or other browser stemming from the Mozilla.org project.
  
• Opera v7 or higher (Windows, Linux)
  
• Apple's Safari (Mac OS X)
  
• Konqueror (Linux KDE Desktop)
  
• Microsoft Internet Explorer v6 or higher (Windows) or v5 or higher (Macintosh)
  

(source: www.webstandards.org/)

Why does my website appear 'broken' in certain browsers?

Our sites makes use of the widely available CSS standards. These are now supported by the latest versions of most browsers (see previous FAQ). Using CSS allows us to build sites that load faster, adjust better to different browser settings and resolutions, and display on devices such as hand-helds and mobile phones.

The most problematic browser is Internet Explorer for Windows which completely misinterpreted large sections of the CSS specification. MSIE 6 corrected some mistakes, and version 7 a few more, but we'll have to wait until version 8 for a true standards-compliant browser.

If you're using Windows we suggest upgrading to the latest version of Internet Explorer or switching to an alternative browser such as Firefox which is free to download, or Safari from Apple.

Related Links:

• Internet Explorer
• Firefox
• Safari

Why can't I access secure pages on my website using Internet Explorer?

Following a recent security upgrade some users are reporting problems accessing secure sites on two of our hosted sites. The problem can be resolved in your web browser by "enabling SSL3.0 and TLS1.0".

In Internet Explorer this option can be found under: Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced -> Security.

How do I trigger Access Keys in different browsers?

If you're using our 'template' CMS then you know that "E" is the Access Key to enable editing, but how you trigger it is different in different browsers. Here's a summary covering the current versions of major browsers.

Windows browsers:

• Internet Explorer - Hold Alt, press access key, release, press Enter
  
• Firefox - Hold Shift and Alt, press access key
  
• Netscape - Hold Alt, press access key
  
• Opera - Hold Shift, press Escape, release, press access key
  

Mac browsers:

• Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari (Mac) - Hold Ctrl, press access key
  
• Safari 4 - Hold Ctrl and Alt, press access key

Why do some PDF Files not download?

There appear to be wide-spread problems for some Internet Explorer (Windows) users relating to the downloading of PDF files. As far as we can determine, the problems occur when using Acrobat Reader 5.0 and having it set to display PDF files inside the web browser by default.

Some of the things you can try to get around this are:

• Make sure that you have the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (see link below);
  
• In Internet Explorer it may be that the browser cache is full. You can empty the cache using: Tools > Options > "Delete Temporary Internet Files";
  
• Instead of clicking the PDF link or image, right-click and choose the "Save As..." option to save the file to your hard drive. You will then need to open the downloaded file by double-clicking.
  
• To make this the default action you can turn off "Web Browser Integration" (v4.x) or "Display PDF in Browser" (v5.x) in your Acrobat preferences;
  
• You can also try unchecking the "Allow Fast Web View" option: Prefs > General > Options > Allow Fast Web View;
  
• Finally, Microsoft suggest this problem can be fixed by choosing to "Disable Ratings" in Internet Explorer, or changing your "Safety Level" from High to Medium. This would make your browser less secure which we don't recommend.

Related Links:

• Adobe Acrobat Reader

Why am I receiving emails from people I don't know?

They are most likely spam or virus-infected emails being sent from computers that have been compromised by the "Blaster" or "Sobig" worm or their latest descendant.

To date, email viruses affect only Windows machines and not Apple or Linux/UNIX computers. Windows users should always be running a firewall and up-to-date anti-virus software to avoid infection.

The viruses in question have a number of ways of 'faking' an email address. They can attach your name, to a random domain, or a series of random names to one of your own domain names in the hope of by-passing any spam/virus filters in your mail program.

These emails are NOT coming from Chirp as we have no computers running Windows.

If the From: address appears to come from chirp.com.au or another of our hosted domains, then it is because an infected computer has used the domain in question when faking the emails you're receiving.

For more information on email spam and how to avoid being swamped, please read this article.

Related Links:

• US-CERT Current Activity
• Symantec Security Response

Why are some emails to us or to Chirp being blocked?

We are blocking 10,000 emails per day using various DNS black-lists (sorbs, njabl, spamhaus/zen and spamcop). These are publicly available databases which identify servers that are sending, or likely to send, spam or virus-infected emails. You can find out more information about each list on their website.

In each case when an email is blocked the sender will receive a notification which includes a link to a website where they can find out why email from their ip address has been blocked and, in most cases, have an opportunity to remove themselves from the relevant database.

e.g. Rejected spam server 123.45.67.89 - see http:// www.sorbs.net /

Anyone who's emails are being blocked by our server will also have problems sending email to other destinations that use the same or similar black-lists. It's their responsibility then to take steps to avoid or correct this.

We don't have the option of turning off email filtering as that has resulted in the past in emails from our server (and all our clients' websites) being blocked because of the content of emails that we relay for clients.

Please Note: After an email passes through our server it can still be blocked by your ISP or Webmail provide based on content, or classified as spam by your mail client. In those cases there will not always be a notification sent back to the sender.

Can't access a website?

The most common reasons for a website to become inaccessible are problems with:

• the connection from your computer to your local network or to your ISP;
  
• the connection from your ISP to the Internet; or
  
• the Domain Name System (DNS) settings for your domain.
  

Before reporting a problem to us, you should confirm that:

• you can access the Internet, including at least one website that you haven't been to recently;
  
• you can access another website hosted on the same server (the Chirp website for example if your website is on our server); and
  
• the website is inaccessible from another computer, preferably one at a different physical location and using a different ISP - phone a friend or colleague to check.
  

If noone can see your website then there could be a problem with the DNS. The DNS Report website will let you generate a report for any domain name, showing nameserver and mail server details and highlighting any problems that need addressing.

After following these steps you'll be able to provide us with the information we need to identify and correct the problem.

Related Links:

• DNS Report

Seeing errors when trying to use a website?

Our websites use a wide range of technologies, all of which can generate errors under certain circumstances. The most common sources are:

PHP

A PHP error occurs when a page is not coded properly, or when it encounters a situation that hasn't been tested for. This type of error shows up most often when a site is being developed or upgraded. The errors are logged and will be promptly addressed.

SQL

An SQL error occurs when a query sent to the database (inserting or extracting data) contains invalid values. These errors are the most serious and are reported to us immediately.

JavaScript

JavaScript runs in your browser after the page has loaded. It's used mostly to provide an interactive interface, and to check form input values for missing or invalid values. Each browser has it's own 'engine' for JavaScript and they're not always equivalent.

What information should I include when reporting an error?

The most important information to include when reporting an error is:

• WHEN did the error occur - your local time AND your location or local timezone? This enables us to check the server logs for messages;
  
• WHERE did it occur (which website, which page/URL)? If you were 'logged in' then we may need your username and password in order to investigate;
  
• WHAT was the error message and what form did it take? Can you identify whether it was a: JavaScript, PHP or SQL error (see previous FAQ);
  
• WHAT were you doing when the error occured? Please be as specific as possible. If you were uploading a file or image then please provide a copy with your bug report. If we can re-produce the error then it will definately be fixed;
  
• WHICH browser and operating system are you using (e.g. "Internet Explorer 6 on Windows" or "Safari 2.0 on OSX")? Some JavaScript errors and page layout problems are browser-dependent. A page can look fine in one browser, but broken in another. You should always have at least two browsers installed - expecially if you use Internet Explorer as your main browser.

Related Links:

• Download FireFox browser

My website doesn't look right in some browsers

A 'visual' problem with your website could include:

• unsightly gaps between text or images;
  
• overlapping content;
  
• pages that scroll horizontally; and
  
• generally anything that looks out of place.
  

When reporting this please provide a screen capture showing as much of the browser window as possible to help us in identifying the problem.

Our HTML and CSS code complies with W3C standards, but not all web browsers are standards-compliant. In particular, Internet Explorer has a hard time following standards and can often 'mangle' a page that appears fine in other browsers.

In those cases the HTML and CSS code needs to be adjusted so that the site renders properly in all browsers, including Internet Explorer.

An important thing to remember about the WWW is that every browser and platform will display a given page using it's own rules. What you see isn't necessarily what we see or what your users see when accessing the website.

Why do we need a CAPTCHA and can you make it easier to read?

A CAPTCHA is a graphic displaying a short code or phrase (in our case a series of five numbers) that needs to be entered before an online form can be submitted. The purpose being to prevent automated agents (spiders or robots) from submitting the form.

Without a CAPTCHA it will not be long before your form is being submitted hundreds of times by robots or spambots hoping to exploit your website or database for their own purposes.

Unfortunately we can't do much about making the CAPTCHA easier to read in the short term. The one you're seeing is the 3rd version we've created. The first two were easier to read, but because of that were cracked by spammers after a few months so had to be retired. We hope to make some improvements for the next version.

If accessibility is important we can also display an email link alongside the form (protected from spammers using encryption) or pursue other options, including the use of third-party visual and audio CAPTCHA services.