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Next time you check your e-mail through a web page, or look at your bank balance online, or enter your credit card number into a web page look carefully at the address in the Address Bar.
You should notice that those pages usually have a slightly different address: it starts with https, instead of http. Notice the extra 's' in there. The 's' is for secure, and means that information is encrypted when it passes between your web browser and the server. That should prevent any casual eavesdropper from grabbing your confidential information on the way through.
Another indicator of a secure web page is a padlock. If the padlock is closed, then your page is secure. You may have to look around a bit at the edges of your browser, but check to see the padlock is closed when you're sending confidential information.
Macintosh and Windows browsers:
If the padlock is not closed, it's like talking on an old telephone party-line where anyone can 'listen in'. If the padlock is closed, they can't — but you still need to be sure you're talking to the right place. Even bad guys can have a secure site.
Remember: don't just click on links in an email. To visit your bank or another site where security is relevant type in the address, or follow a trusted bookmark.
[August 2005] Some websites use "frames" as a way to keep some information in front of visitors' eyes all the time while the rest of the information changes. This can cause a lot of problems for visitors though. Find out why you might be better to choose another method.
Imagine you're designing a website. You feel that whichever page a visitor is on they should be able to see the name of your organisation and that they should have access to the navigation (links between pages). These are both excellent goals.
Then someone says: I know! We'll use frames! We can fix our organisation's name in a frame at the top and we can fix the links in a frame on the left. Then we can put the individual pages in a frame on the right and that's the part that will change when the visitor clicks on a link.
It all sounds good, doesn't it. Except that unless this is handled with a very high degree of skill and expertise you've now probably just made your website harder for people to use and to bookmark, and reduced the ability of search engines such as Google to catalogue your content. If your web designer is skillful enough to create frames correctly then s/he should also be skillful enough to achieve the ends you want without using them.
The first big problem is that your visitor can't bookmark individual pages on your site. They spend half an hour finding a fantastic resource, add it to their Favorites and when they use that Bookmark to visit again they are taken to the front page instead of the page they thought they'd added to the Favorites. That builds bad will.
Another organisation wants to link from their website directly to a fantastic resource on your site. If they link directly to the page and visitors click through to your site they will almost certainly not see the frames. This leaves the visitor stranded, not knowing who the site belongs to or how to navigate around. This breaks the web.
If they link to your front page then the visitor has to find their own way to the fantastic resource. This makes the web less useful.
Nearly everybody wants the search engines, such as Google, to list their site, and ideally, at the top of the list. Unfortunately search engines often have difficulty with frames, meaning your site may not be listed or it may be lower ranked than it could be.
Google supports frames to the extent that we can. Frames tend to cause problems with search engines, bookmarks, emailing links and so on, because frames don't fit the conceptual model of the web (every page corresponds to a single URL).
Your website probably has valuable information about your organisation and its activities and services. By using frames you can almost guarantee that some people will be unable to access that information. Some newer technologies and most software used by blind people have a lot of problems with frames and the visitor may be unable to get at the information you've so painstakingly crafted.
After reading this Tip you want to be sure your site doesn't use frames. How can you tell?
Visit your website and click on a few links to other pages on your site. Does the address in the Address Bar change? If not, that's your biggest clue. Talk to a web designer urgently about overhauling your website.
Past Website tips are all available on CommunityNet Aotearoa.
Do you work with groups that would benefit from using CommunityNet? Do your board, staff, and volunteers need information?
This new brochure is designed to help people find the information and resources they need on CommunityNet. It is being distributed to all DIA regional offices, and will also be available soon from libraries and Citizens Advice Bureaux. If you would like some to distribute, please email katarina.rangi@dia.govt.nz with "CommunityNet Brochure request" in the title line, full contact details including postal address, number of brochures needed and a brief note on how you will use them.
Also, if you have their email addresses, why not forward them this newsletter?
The accessibility test in June suggested a number of minor changes. Most of these are now under test. Details and the test report will be published under www.community.net.nz/About.
Visits have been increasing every month for the last year. We're now getting nearly 3 times as many visits as a year ago.
In July 2005 there were 53,533 visits (last month there were 45,421).
Send in your free community advertisement at: www.community.net.nz/About/Submit/default.htm.
Miraz Jordan, Webmaestro.
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Panui and CommunityNet Aotearoa are guided by an Advisory Group drawn from community organisations and are published by Department of Internal Affairs, PO Box 805, Wellington. Phone: 04 4957200. Email: information@community.net.nz.
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