Archive for the ‘Geeky’ Category

Make Gmail Your Lunarpages E-mail Client

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

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We ran this article in our newsletter this week.  In case you missed it :)

Did you know that you can use Gmail as a POP3 e-mail client? This way you can both send and receive mail as you@yourdomain.com through the Gmail interface.

If you have ever found yourself wanting to use Gmail more, but did not want to abandon your professional looking e-mail address this is the tutorial you have been looking for. We’ll share with you how you can setup Gmail to both send and receive e-mail to your non-Gmail e-mail address.

How to Receive Your Lunarpages E-mail in Gmail

Here is how you can add your e-mail account to Gmail.

From within Gmail, click on the Settings link, at the top of the page. Next, click on the Accounts and Import link.

Add a POP3 E-mail Account to Gmail

Now, you will want to click the button labeled, “Add POP3 email account”. That should pop up a new window where you can input the information about the e-mail account.

  1. Provide your e-mail address (you@yourdomain.com). Click the button labeled, “Next”.
  2. Next, give your user name, password, POP server (yourdomain.com or mail.yourdomain.com). There are other settings to choose from, but lets ignore them for now. Click the button labeled, “Add Account”.

Now, when you go to Settings &gt Accounts and Import you should see your e-mail account listed under Check mail using POP3. If you click the edit info link beside your account, you can then edit the other details we skipped before, such as:

  • Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server
  • Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail
  • Label incoming messages
  • Archive incoming messages (Skip the Inbox)

So now Gmail is acting as the e-mail client looking for e-mail from yourgooglename@gmail.com and your hosted e-mail account. That covers receiving incoming mail from both accounts. What if you need to send mail as you@yourdomain.com?

How to Send E-mail in Gmail from Your Lunarpages Address

Here is how you can send mail using your personal e-mail account, rather than your Gmail e-mail address. From within Gmail, go to Settings, and then Accounts and Import. Under the Send mail as: section, click the button that reads, “Send mail from another address”.

Send Mail in Gmail Using Your Domain E-mail Address

This will pop up another window, where you can input your information.

  1. Give your name, as you want it to be seen as the sender when somebody gets an e-mail from you.
  2. Give your e-mail address you wish to send from, such as the one you setup using the previous steps above (you@yourdomain.com). Now, click the button labeled, “Next Step”.
  3. You then have the option to send mail one of two ways:
    + Send through Gmail (easier to set up)
    + Send through yourdomain.com SMTP servers (recommended for professional domains)
  4. You will then be e-mailed a message at this address to verify you are able to use it. To perform the verification click “Send Verification”. They will then send an e-mail to you@yourdomain.com with instructions on how to verify your address.

Once you complete the verification process, you should then be able to send mail as you@yourdomain.com too.

Now you have yet another option when it comes to picking which e-mail client you wish to use, out of the many choices there are out there today. Using Gmail with your Lunarpages POP3 hosted e-mail account gives you the ability to use the flexibility of Gmail with the reliable e-mail service you know and love here at Lunarpages.

Tip: Once you have set your e-mail up this way, you can enable a button on Gmail’s main interface that will let you manually check for new POP3 mail from your domain. Just go to the Google Labs section of Gmail, and enable the “Refresh POP Accounts” Gmail Google Labs feature.

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don’t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Amy

What is Your Twitter Score?

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

what is your Twitter rank?

Everything else has a score measurement system, why not Twitter?  Ever wanted to know how you rank on Twitter?  Now you can find out for yourself using Twitter Score!  This fun online service will tell you your score on Twitter, depending on your follower, rank, friends and updates.

As an example, we did a quick testing of @lunarpages to see how we score.  Right now we have a 6.55 out of 10, which puts us above average.

Is this important?

Not so much.  It is more for fun than anything else – to see how you rank in the world of tweeters out there.  Want to know who is on top right now?  Check out the top Twitter scores here.

Here is a little more about how the scoring system works from the developers:

Twitter Score bases scores of Twitter users on three factors: friends, followers and frequency of updates. Based on the quantities of all three scores, a score between 0.01 and 10.00 is produced.

In order to make the scoring fair, the bottom 30% of those scored are offered a handicap, and the top 10% of those scored are weighted down to make the playing field level.

What does your Twitter Score say about you?  Let us know in the comments after you go check out twtscore.com.

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don’t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Amy Armitage

Scroll Clock

Monday, April 19th, 2010

Web Dev's Perfect Clock

See what you can do with a little imagination and some unique server side tools?  The Scroll Clock keeps perfect time, and also shows off what you can do with MooTools (a compact JavaScript framework).  Seen any other neat sites like this?  Leave them in the comments!

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don’t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Mitch

Most Popular Hosting Posts of 2010 (…so far)

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Best of 2010

Since today is Friday, and things are pretty calm here in the Lunarverse – I thought today would be a perfect day to take a look  back at some great guides, links, tips and tutorials of 2010. 

Wait, what do you mean 2010 isn’t over yet? Well, then let us look at the best of the best articles posted in 2010 on the Lunartics blog (…so far).

10 Best Google AdSense WordPress Plugins

Are your web site advertisements not performing like they should?  Would you like to have more control over your Google AdSense ads and how they are displayed in your WordPress powered web site?  I have searched the Web for the ten best Google AdSense related plugins.  We have plugins here that will help you manage your ads better, put them in better places, offer other adverting opportunities and much more.

Fun “Guess What I’m Drawing” Game

Looking for a fun way to spend a few extra minutes of your day?  If you are looking for an escape from your Monday morning blues – give Gartic a try.  This web-based drawing game is a lot of fun.

Get Free Google AdWords Credit!

Did you know that Lunarpages is giving to its customers upwards of $50 to $100 in free Google AdWords credit?  If you have never tried advertising your business or web site on Google, and you are Lunarpages client – you just lost your last excuse not to at least try it out.  You can now reach a global internet audience using Google AdWords and your Lunarpages web hosting account.

Is Google Down?

This is the sentence that we all dread to hear ask.  Is Google down?  Now, you can always pull up Google in your browser, and check for yourself – however I have a better place for you to check and see what problems are going on with Google.

5 Most Popular .htaccess Tips and Tricks

There are tons of things you can do from the .htaccess file inside of your web hosting account.  From redirecting the users to controlling who can get in and who can get out, it is a very useful file to have on your hosting account.  To help out the new web hosting clients and to act as a reminder to the old pros around here, I thought I would go through five of the most popular .htaccess tips I know.

Free Layouts from Open Web Design

For general free web site designs, you can do no wrong at Open Web Designs.  This web site highlights some of the best free open source web design layouts on the Web.  With well over 3,000 to choose from you are bound to find the right layout for your next web site project.

UnderCon – Perfect WordPress Pre-Launch Page

Are you working on launching or maybe even re-launching a WordPress powered web site?  If so, you might want to slap up a quick “under construction page” to keep people happy until the final version of the web site is ready.  UnderCon, a great theme for WordPress will help you do that with style.

10 Most Popular Joomla Security Extensions

Joomla is one of the most popular content management systems out there.  Being the most popular does have it’s price though, you have to pay more attention to security related issues.  To help you out, I thought I would find then of the most popular security related extensions for the Joomla CMS script.

Use Gmail With Your Domain’s E-mail Account

I have a rather wacky e-mail setup, due to the fact that I have so many accounts to manage.  With that in mind, I found the perfect solution for my e-mail needs, and hopefully it will work for you too.  Did you know that you can use Gmail as a POP3 e-mail client?  This way you can both send and receive mail as you@yourdomain.com through the Gmail interface.

Lunarpages Takes On Tough New York Times Web Hosting Questions

The New York Times recently asked some very interesting questions as it pertains to what people should be looking for when it comes to finding the web hosting service that is right for them.  As a web host, I thought I would tackle some of the questions they brought up one on one.

Double Save Your Work to a USB Drive

Nothing kills your will to live faster than losing a lot of work you have been spending hours upon hours creating it.  Not that I am bitter about my own paste experiences or anything.  With that thought in mind though, I thought it might be a good time to introduce you to Back4Sure. 

What would you like to see more of on the Lunartics blog?  Leave a comment and let us know.  We would love to hear your suggestions and feedback.

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don’t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Mitch

Most Popular Hosting Posts of 2010 (…so far)

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Best of 2010

Since today is Friday, and things are pretty calm here in the Lunarverse – I thought today would be a perfect day to take a look  back at some great guides, links, tips and tutorials of 2010. 

Wait, what do you mean 2010 isn’t over yet? Well, then let us look at the best of the best articles posted in 2010 on the Lunartics blog (…so far).

10 Best Google AdSense WordPress Plugins

Are your web site advertisements not performing like they should?  Would you like to have more control over your Google AdSense ads and how they are displayed in your WordPress powered web site?  I have searched the Web for the ten best Google AdSense related plugins.  We have plugins here that will help you manage your ads better, put them in better places, offer other adverting opportunities and much more.

Fun “Guess What I’m Drawing” Game

Looking for a fun way to spend a few extra minutes of your day?  If you are looking for an escape from your Monday morning blues – give Gartic a try.  This web-based drawing game is a lot of fun.

Get Free Google AdWords Credit!

Did you know that Lunarpages is giving to its customers upwards of $50 to $100 in free Google AdWords credit?  If you have never tried advertising your business or web site on Google, and you are Lunarpages client – you just lost your last excuse not to at least try it out.  You can now reach a global internet audience using Google AdWords and your Lunarpages web hosting account.

Is Google Down?

This is the sentence that we all dread to hear ask.  Is Google down?  Now, you can always pull up Google in your browser, and check for yourself – however I have a better place for you to check and see what problems are going on with Google.

5 Most Popular .htaccess Tips and Tricks

There are tons of things you can do from the .htaccess file inside of your web hosting account.  From redirecting the users to controlling who can get in and who can get out, it is a very useful file to have on your hosting account.  To help out the new web hosting clients and to act as a reminder to the old pros around here, I thought I would go through five of the most popular .htaccess tips I know.

Free Layouts from Open Web Design

For general free web site designs, you can do no wrong at Open Web Designs.  This web site highlights some of the best free open source web design layouts on the Web.  With well over 3,000 to choose from you are bound to find the right layout for your next web site project.

UnderCon – Perfect WordPress Pre-Launch Page

Are you working on launching or maybe even re-launching a WordPress powered web site?  If so, you might want to slap up a quick “under construction page” to keep people happy until the final version of the web site is ready.  UnderCon, a great theme for WordPress will help you do that with style.

10 Most Popular Joomla Security Extensions

Joomla is one of the most popular content management systems out there.  Being the most popular does have it’s price though, you have to pay more attention to security related issues.  To help you out, I thought I would find then of the most popular security related extensions for the Joomla CMS script.

Use Gmail With Your Domain’s E-mail Account

I have a rather wacky e-mail setup, due to the fact that I have so many accounts to manage.  With that in mind, I found the perfect solution for my e-mail needs, and hopefully it will work for you too.  Did you know that you can use Gmail as a PỌ e-mail client?  This way you can both send and receive mail as you@yourdomain.com through the Gmail interface.

Lunarpages Takes On Tough New York Times Web Hosting Questions

The New York Times recently asked some very interesting questions as it pertains to what people should be looking for when it comes to finding the web hosting service that is right for them.  As a web host, I thought I would tackle some of the questions they brought up one on one.

Double Save Your Work to a USB Drive

Nothing kills your will to live faster than losing a lot of work you have been spending hours upon hours creating it.  Not that I am bitter about my own paste experiences or anything.  With that thought in mind though, I thought it might be a good time to introduce you to Back4Sure. 

What would you like to see more of on the Lunartics blog?  Leave a comment and let us know.  We would love to hear your suggestions and feedback.

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don’t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Mitch

Monitor Lunarpages via Google

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

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Want to take our blog (your favorite web hosting blog, Lunartics!) with you to Google Reader or the iGoogle homepage?

It is easy to do.  It is also free for both Lunarpages and non-Lunarpages clients!

The first step would be to visit this link here:

That in turn, will give you two more choices.  You can choose to see our newest tips, tutorials and features on the iGoogle homepage or in Google Reader.  Alternatively you can skip this step by using one of these two links:

Now you will be able to monitor all the cool new tutorials, tips and more we post here every single day.

Subscribe via Really Simple Syndication – You can easily subscribe to the Lunarpages blog by taking the RSS feed and plugging it into any service that accepts them.  There are dozens of RSS readers, widgets and more around the Web to use too. 

I have a question for all of you now, how do you subscribe to this site?

&copy Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don’t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Mitch

Better Desktop Organization (with Wallpaper)

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

Organize Your Desktop Icons

Looking for a way to organize those desktop icons?  Look no further than this great wallpaper. You can grab the wallpaper used here.  Anybody else have a unique wallpaper they use to organize their desktop icons?  Feel free to share in the comments!

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don′t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Mitch

How to Run Any OS From Within Windows – Part 2

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

How to Install a Virtual Machine OS

Yesterday I showed you how to get a virtual machine setup from within your current operating system using Sun VirtualBox.  Now, if you have not skipped ahead of me in the process I am ready to share with you step number two.  Now that our virtual machine is ready, it needs an operating system.  Today, we will go through each step you need to take to get an operating system installed on your new virtual machine setup.

Start the New Virtual Machine

Now that you have your virtual machine up and running, time to start it up. In the left sidebar of Sun VirtualBox, you should see your virtual machine you created.  Double click the name to turn it on.

Turn on Your Virtual Machine

Once you do, a new window will pop up giving you another setup wizard to help you get the operating system installed.  Hit the button labeled, “Next” to continue.

Setup the VM's Operating System

Select the Operating System’s Source

In this next screen, you will be asked to provide the source of your installation.  Now if you are installing Windows, you could tell the wizard to look in your CD drive for your Windows install disk.  If you have downloaded a Linux .iso image and you have it on your local machine, you could use that too (or burn it to a disk, then use it).  Once you have found the source you are installing from, hit the button labeled, “Next” to continue.

Select the OS Boot Source

Finalize the Boot Source Selection, and Install Your OS

Now you are all done.  You have selected the source you are going to install your operating system from.  The virtual machine will think of this as it’s boot source, and past this point you would install the operating system as you would do with any other regular PC.  The only thing that is different is that this is a virtual machine that lives within your actual machine you use every day.

Finalize the OS Boot Information

Final Sun VirtualBox Setup Steps and Tips

To finish things up, here is my own install of Ubuntu 9.10 I did using these same very steps I have shared with all of you. Now I can use Ubuntu from within my Windows Vista install to test my various web sites, see how they look in a different OS,  and also play a little more with Linux to see what I can learn on my own.

Ubuntu Running Inside Windows

If you get stuck in the process, or you want more help when it comes to installing your own virtual machine from within your own computer’s operating system, I have gathered together a few resources that will assist you.

Also, if you missed it – here is part one of our How to Run Any OS From Within Windows tutorial series.

Alternatives to Sun Virtual Box for Virtual Machine Creation – Sun VirtualBox is not the only program you can use to get a virtual machine setup and running.  There are also several other choices out there such as Parallels, VMWare, Apple’s Bootcamp, and Virtual PC from Microsoft.

Setting up an alternative operating system to us, from within a virtual machine is a fun and informative process to go through.  Not only are you becoming more familiar with how to install other operating systems out there, but you are giving yourself another virtual workspace to get your job done.

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don’t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Mitch

How to Run Any OS From Within Windows – Part 1

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Beginner's Virutal Machine Tutorial

What if you could test practically any operating system from within your current computer setup?  By setting up a virtual machine inside of your current computer, you can do exactly that – and the best tool to use to get this done is Sun VirtualBox.  I am far from being any sort of operating system geek, but even I was able to get Ubuntu up and running from within my Windows Vista machine, so anything really is possible.

So why would you want to run a virtual machine from within your own computer?

Well, there are a number of reasons. 

  • To Test Your Web Site in Multiple Environments
  • To Play with a Different Operating System, without Ruining Your Current Setup
  • To Raise Your Geeky Street Cred

So then, how do you get started?  First things first, you must go to the Sun VirtualBox web site, and pick up the latest version of their software. They have versions available for Windows, Mac and Linux.  Once you get it up and running, you can click the New button from the program’s interface to start the program’s wizard up that will guide you through the rest of the setup process.

Name Your New Virtual Machine

First, you have to give your virtual machine a name, and decide what operating system you wish to install.

How to Name the Virtual Machine

Base RAM for the Virtual Machine

Next, it will ask you how much RAM (memory) you wish to allocate to the virtual machine, best to leave it now to the level it sets as default. You can always tweak it later if needed.

How to Select RAM for the Virtual Machine

Setup the Virtual Machine Hard Drive

After that, select a hard disk image to be used as the boot disk.  Once again, I would suggest to go with the defaults it suggests for now, and you can tweak things later if needed.

Setup Virtual Machine Hard Drive

Dynamic or Fixed Storage Types

Time to create your new virtual hard drive disk for your virtual machine to use. For the hard disk storage type you can select to dynamically expand your storage or set it to a fixed storage size, that does not grow.

Setup the Storage Type

Virtual Machine Hard Drive Space

Now, you will need to decide how big the virtual hard drive will be.  I would keep this under 10 GB, so you do not use any disk space that you might really need for your actual computer.

Storage Limits in the Virtual Machine

Final Virtual Machine Setup Steps

After that, confirm your settings are correct and hit the button labeled, “Finish”.  Your virtual hard drive disk will then be created for you.  Once it has been created, then you will be asked to confirm your creation of your new virtual machine.  Click the button labeled, “Finish” for it too, and you will almost be well on your way to virtual machine land.

Create the Virtual Machine

As you can see, this is a pretty easy process to go through, as long as you don’t get freaked out by making a few geeky decisions. In my next article, I will be showing you how to get the operating system installed for your brand new virtual machine.

&copy Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don′t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Mitch

Twelve Hosting Days of Christmas

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Christmas, Web Hosting Style!

I am finding myself in more of a holiday mood, the closer and closer we get to Christmas.  So what happens, when you mix the Christmas spirit with the likes of the web hosting world?

Here you have, the Lunarpages rendition of a holiday classic, The Twelve Days of Hosting Christmas.  Enjoy!

On the first day of Christmas,
my web host sent to me
A website package in three different flavors!

On the second day of Christmas,
my web host sent to me
Two Starter plans,
And a website package in three different flavors!

On the third day of Christmas,
my web host sent to me
Three awesome affiliate offers,
Two Starter plans,
And a website package in three different flavors!

On the fourth day of Christmas,
my web host sent to me
Four Windows hosting plans,
Three awesome affiliate offers,
Two Starter plans,
And a website package in three different flavors!

On the fifth day of Christmas,
my web host sent to me
Five XEN virtual private servers,
Four Windows hosting plans,
Three awesome affiliate offers,
Two Starter plans,
And a website package in three different flavors!

On the sixth day of Christmas,
my web host sent to me
Six resellers a-selling,
Five XEN virtual private servers,
Four Windows hosting plans,
Three awesome affiliate offers,
Two Starter plans,
And a website package in three different flavors!

On the seventh day of Christmas,
my web host sent to me
Seven dedicated servers a-hosting,
Six resellers a-selling,
Five XEN virtual private servers,
Four Windows hosting plans,
Three awesome affiliate offers,
Two Starter plans,
And a website package in three different flavors!

On the eighth day of Christmas,
my web host sent to me
Eight domain registrations a-redirecting,
Seven dedicated servers a-hosting,
Six resellers a-selling,
Five XEN virtual private servers,
Four Windows hosting plans,
Three awesome affiliate offers,
Two Starter plans,
And a website package in three different flavors!

On the ninth day of Christmas,
my web host sent to me
Nine e-mail plans dancing, sending,
Eight domain registrations a-redirecting,
Seven dedicated servers a-hosting,
Six resellers a-selling,
Five XEN virtual private servers,
Four Windows hosting plans,
Three awesome affiliate offers,
Two Starter plans,
And a website package in three different flavors!

On the tenth day of Christmas,
my web host sent to me
Ten Business plans e-commercing,
Nine e-mail plans sending,
Eight domain registrations a-redirecting,
Seven dedicated servers a-hosting,
Six resellers a-selling,
Five XEN virtual private servers,
Four Windows hosting plans,
Three awesome affiliate offers,
Two Starter plans,
And a website package in three different flavors!

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
my web host sent to me
Eleven Basic plans, basically,
Ten Business plans e-commercing,
Nine e-mail plans sending,
Eight domain registrations a-redirecting,
Seven dedicated servers a-hosting,
Six resellers a-selling,
Five XEN virtual private servers,
Four Windows hosting plans,
Three awesome affiliate offers,
Two Starter plans,
And a website package in three different flavors!

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my web host sent to me
Twelve Quicksites rocking,
Eleven Basic plans, basically,
Ten Business plans e-commercing,
Nine e-mail plans sending,
Eight domain registrations a-redirecting,
Seven dedicated servers a-hosting,
Six resellers a-selling,
Five XEN virtual private servers,
Four Windows hosting plans,
Three awesome affiliate offers,
Two Starter plans,
And a website package in three different flavors!

From everybody at Lunarpages, I’d like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours!  Be sure to stop by our holiday thread over on the Lunarforums, or drop in  comment to spread your own seasons greetings to everybody!

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don′t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Mitch