Maybe it’s the dull words ‘statistics’ and ‘analytics’ that put Web site owners off. But which of us doesn’t want to know about our visitors?
In my third tutorial on cPanel for beginners, I show you how to access this fascinating information. (For a full list, look at the Articles and Tutorials contents page on the main Web Costa Blanca site.)
Have you ever encountered an HTTP 406 (“Not Acceptable”) error? I hadn’t, until this afternoon. I didn’t even know such an error existed. Now I know at least one way to fix it.
An HTTP 406 error tells whoever is using your site that it can’t handle a particular request. It can find the file—otherwise it would issue a 404 error—but the file falls outside the limits of what it is prepared to accept.
After much searching, I found that this means it has problems with the MIME type—or the language of the file. Or maybe the file is malformed in some way.
My file was a PHP file, delivering standard text/html after PHP pre-processing, so there could be no problem with the MIME type. It was in a huge set of similar files which had no problems. I rewrote code, checked brackets, etc., etc.
Then I checked whether it was even being called. It was a secure file, with an immediate relocation to a simple site 403 file, if the caller had no right to be calling it. When I tried to access it without permission, I just got the 406 error again. Which meant the file hadn’t even been passed to the PHP pre-processor.
OK. Experiment of last resort. When saving the file in the first place, had I let in a weird character into the file name or its extension? (I have to use a Spanish keyboard.) To find out, I renamed the file, extension and all, making sure I pressed only the right keys.
I uploaded the newly named file, after changing the links in the rest of the setup. Suddenly, everything worked like a dream. If you ever encounter an HTTP 406 error, see if this fix works for you.
I have written a second cPanel tutorial, on setting up e-mail accounts. (I’m trying to write the tutorials in the order that cPanel beginners are most likely to find useful.)
You can find my second cPanel tutorial in the Articles and Tutorials section of the main Web Costa Blanca site.
Many of my Web hosting clients neglect cPanel. And I haven’t been able to find a guide or a set of tutorials on cPanel which I thought would be suitable for beginners. So I’ve taken on the job myself.
You can find my first cPanel tutorial in the Articles and Tutorials section of the main Web Costa Blanca site.
I’ve been to Germany more than once. I found the people there charming and friendly, from lorry drivers and waitresses to teachers and business people. Even here on the Costa Blanca German women are often a delight. So why do German men here tend to be such poor ambassadors for their country?
I’m not just talking about the way that, as soon as there’s any sun, they take off their shirts to show us all their beer bellies. I’m talking about unawareness and downright rudeness. German men will barge in front of you, bump into you, cut you off in their cars, you name it. More than once I’ve been waiting at a supermarket lift with my shopping trolley, only to have a German man come up and thrust his trolley into the lift in front of me, as soon as the doors began to open. When about to pay at a petrol station, I’ve had a German man walk in to the shop and try to pay before me.
The German for ‘good manners’ is gutes Manieren. You might not know the expression. Nor, it seems, do some German men on the Costa Blanca.
The most recent Web site I have designed may seem to contradict my last post, in which I call for text to be readable. The site is for the UK leaflet display company, Leaflet Display Solutions. There is a call-out box on each page which has a background colour of deep blue, and a foreground (text) colour of dark yellow.
This is clearly less of a contrast than the black text on a white background which is predominant on each page. However, it passes the Colour Contrast Analyser test—I mentioned this online tool in my last post. The test results say, “The difference in brightness between the two colours is sufficient. The threshold is 125, and the result of the foreground and background colours is 148. The difference in colour between the two colours is sufficient. The threshold is 500, and the result of the foreground and background colours is 561.”
What is more, these are the site owner’s brand colours.
Most important of all—at least to my eyes—is that the call-out boxes add a bit of life and contrast to the design. Do you agree?