How to Unzip Certain File Extensions?

It is good practice that you back up your website files to your laptop/PC from your server often. I did that pretty often; but the problem is the backup file ends with .tar.gz. I use windows XP home edition which only allows me to unzip files ended with .zip. I have no clue of how to open files ended with .tar.gz. So I searched the Internet and found a couple of useful freewares:

• IZArc - it is a freeware supporting many archive formats such as 7-zip, a, ace, arc, arj, b64, bh, bin, bz2, bza, c2d, cab, cdi, cpio, deb, enc, gca, gz, gza, ha, img, iso, jar, lha, lib, lzh, mdf, mbf, mim, nrg, pak, pdi, pk3, rar, rpm, tar, taz, tbz, tgz, tz, uue, war, xxe, yz1, z, zip, and zoo.
  


• ExtractNow - it is a simple utility that allows you to extract file extensions ended with zip, rar, iso, bin, img, ima, imz, 7z, ace, jar, gz, lzh, lha, tar, sit archive formats.


• Zipeg 2.4 - it is a Free utility for Windows to extract files ended with zip, rar, arj, 7-zip, tar, gz, bzip2, cpio, lzh and more ...


• 7-Zip - this Free utility allows you to pack and unpack archive formats such as follows:
  * Packing / unpacking: 7z, zip, gzip, bzip2 and tar.
  * Unpacking only: rar, cab, iso, arj, lzh, chm, msi, wim, z, cpio, rpm, deb and nsis.


• ZipItFast - it is a freeware and supports almost all compression formats including zip, exe, tar, cab, gzip, lha, ace, rar and over 20 additional formats.

Occasionally we all run into problems of how to unzip certain file extensions. I use IZArc to extract most file extensions that I've encountered. It does pretty good job. You may also check out the others. Let me know what you think.

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Domain Registrars to be Considered For Your Website

In order to make a website work, you need a domain and a host. Most hosts offer promotional plans that allow you to have one Free domain for lifetime. I always take advantage of that. However, host like HostGator does not offer any Free domain. You may wonder why people still like to use it, right? That is because people go after its reputation of being reliable, fast, and good customer supports. With $7.95/month plan, you can have unlimited hosting space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited domains allowed, unlimited subdomains, addon domains, and parked domains, unlimited FTP accounts, and unlimited MySQL Databases.

If you choose HostGator as your host, then it comes down to the decision that you have to buy a domain from a third party domain registrar. Otherwise it will charge you $15/year for a domain. According to some Internet experts, it is wise to have your domain and host service separated. For your convenience, I searched the Internet and listed some of the third party domain registrars here:

• 1&1.com - Starts from $8.99/year with Free private domain registration included. The minimum contract term is 24 months. Coupons or promo codes are not offered for this site.


• Doster.com - Although Doster.com offers $15.95/year for most of the domain extensions, you can buy one domain get one Free with them. Just enter coupon code: GETONEFREE at check out.
  


• Dynadot.com - Current sale for .com is $9.25, .org is $7.75, .biz is $6.99, .mobi is $9.99, .info is $3.50, .us is $ 6.99, .cn is $2.99, .net is $9. 25, and .co.uk is $8.99. Find coupous and promo codes here: Dynadot.com Coupon Codes.
  


• GoDaddy.com - Although it might be the best choice for you so far, you have to buy five domains in order to get its Free privacy registration. Otherwise you have to pay $8.99/year for that. A lot of the times it offers coupons and promotion codes so check these three sites out before checkout: NamePros.com, GoDaddy Coupon List 2008, and GoDaddy Coupon Code.
  


• HostBandit.com - Costs $11/year for most of the top domain name extensions. No coupons and promo codes are offered for this price.
  


• NameCheap.com - it offers $9.69 so far with Free privacy registration included. If you want to buy a domain from NameCheap.com, here are the coupon codes for you.
  


• Misk.com - $10/year for.com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .us, .co.uk, and .org.uk. I can't find any coupons or promotional codes for any of these domain extensions here.
  


• MyDomain.com - $9.95/year for domain extensions such as .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .us, and $7.99/year for .mobi. Check out Coupons and promo codes here.
  

These are the third party domain registrars that I can find so far. If you know any of your favorite ones out there, please share them in the comment section with us.

How to Transfer Your Joomla! Website to a New Domain?

Not long ago I transferred my Joomla! website to a new domain but in the same host. I don't know it is wise decision of doing that or not. Anyway my plan is to use my old domain for something else. So I transferred my old domain site manually to a new domain. Here are the steps I've used to accomplish that.

• Install a new version of Joomla! Package if you can. The newest version is Joomla! 1.0.15 and this is the version I am using right now. To do that, I first downloaded Joomla_1.0.15-Stable-Full_Package to my laptop/PC. If you are using other Joomla! version, then you can search the Internet for it, download it to your laptop/PC, and then install it. The idea is to have a fresh installation so that everything is working properly.
  


• I then unzip Joomla_1.0.15-Stable-Full_Package file that I've downloaded earlier and upload them to my root directory of my website server using FTP.
  


• Next type your website's url in your browser. For example I have to type mine like this: http://www.internetoutput.com, hit enter, and it will automatically redirect me to the Joomla! installation page.
  


• If you see everything is green, then you are ready to go to the next step. If not you have to fix those file permissions before you can proceed. Basically you need to log in to your FTP account. On your server site right click on the folder whose permission you need to change. Scroll down to find Properties, click on it, change file permission to be 0777, and click on OK. Repeat this process till all folders' permissions are set to be 0777. I use Windows XP home edition. If you use something else, your screen properties might look different than mine.
  


• Refresh your installation screen. The files whose permissions you've just changed should be green now. So click on Next to proceed.
  


• Read the GNU/GPL license and click on Next to proceed.
  


• Now in the new screen, you will be asked to enter Host name, Mysql user name, Mysql password, and Mysql database name. So now you have to log in to your host account and create a new database. Come back here, enter the required data, and click on Next. If you are not sure of how to create a new database, check out this video: Video tutorial for creating MySQL database and user in cPanel.
  


• Joomla! will ask you to confirm that whether the required data are correct. Click OK to go to the next screen.
  


• If you've entered everything correctly, the next screen will ask you to enter the name for your site. Do so and then click on Next.
  


• Then the new screen will ask you to enter your url, the path to your domain on your server which is provided already(you should leave it alone. If you got so far, it should be correct), your email that you want to use for your new website, Admin password (you must remember it because you need it to log in to your admin back end), and click on Next to proceed.
  


• A new screen will say, "Congratulations! Joomla is installed."
  
  
• Now log in to your host account again, find phpMyAdmin from your host's cPanel and click on it. A new screen will open. It will allow you to backup (export) your old domain's database to your laptop/PC. Since I use hostmonster.com as my website host, it is so easy to fulfill it. For more details, please read MySQL Tutorial.
  


• Open and edit your old domain's database in Notepad before you upload (import) it back to replace your new domain's database. For example, I have to replace the old database name airlinet_joom1 with the new database name airlinet_joom. All the old urls have to be changed to be the new urls. For example: all http://www.mycoolonlinestores.com have to be replaced with http://www.internetoutput.com. After you've done that, save it, and upload the amended database to replace the new database using phpMyAdmin on your host's cPanel.
  


• Download configuration.php file (it should be in your root directory) to your laptop/PC, edit the following lines, and then upload it back to your root directory:
  
  $mosConfig_absolute_path = '/home/hostlogin/public_html/';
  $mosConfig_cachepath = '/home/hostlogin/public_html/cache';
  $mosConfig_db = 'hostlogin_joom1';
  $mosConfig_password = 'passwordfordb';
  $mosConfig_smtphost = 'localhost';
  $mosConfig_user = 'hostlogin_joom1';
  
  where you have to change hostlogin to be your host's user name, joom1 to be your new database name, passwordfordb to be your new database password. In my case I even have to change home to be home1. You can also find out your absolute path on your host's cPanel.
  
  Some people may use add-on domain for a website. In that case, they need to update the absolute path as it is. For example: they need to update $mosConfig_absolute_path = '/home/hostlogin/public_html/sub-folder'; instead of $mosConfig_absolute_path = '/home/hostlogin/public_html/'; where sub-folder could be any name that they've created in their server.


• The final step is to redirect all your search engine traffic to your new website. This is the ugly part that most people don't like. For more information, please read Redirect Using 301 or 302?.
  

Oh! One more thing that I need to mention here. After I successfully transferred my old domain site to my new domain, none of the plug-ins (extensions) worked. I have to install all of them again to replace the old ones; but installation is pretty easy if you have save a copy of each one. I hope I did not confuse you because there are plenty of information here to be digested. If for any doubts or any thoughts, feel free to ask/share them here with us.

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How to Edit Rules and Help Pages in Joomla!'s FireBoard?

Last week I talked about How to Set Up FireBoard for a Joomla! website? Then I came to the problem of how to edit Rules and Help pages in FireBoard. I am using Joomla! 1.0.15 for my website. So in order to make Rules and Help pages work in Joomla!'s FireBoard, you need to do a couple of things listed below:

1. Log in to your Joomla! admin area.
2. Click on Static Content Manager/New.
3. Edit your Rules file and save it.
4. Find out your Rules ID number.
5. Now on the main menu click on Components/FireBorad Forum/FireBoard Configuration.
6. Scroll half way down to find Rules Content ID and enter your Rules ID number there.
7. Scroll all the way to the top and save your change.

For the Help page you just have to repeat the similar steps as above, just make sure in step 6 you find Help Content ID and enter your Help ID number there which you should have found out from step 4. I have just created both Rules and Help pages in my website's forum for the FireBoard, and they both work beautifully. If you have any related issues, feel free to drop your words.

How to Set Up FireBoard For a Joomla! Website?

I've just installed a forum for my Joomla! website using FireBoard. It is a fully integrated forum solution for Joomla! No bridges and no hacking are needed. I've been thinking to add a forum to internetoutput.com for a while. Adding a forum to your blog/website is the best way of letting your visitors to convey their thoughts, ask questions, and get answers. If you have a Joomla! site, then it is pretty easy to implement it.

• Download com_fireboard_v1.0.5RC2_b817_2008-10-27 to your computer/laptop and don't unzipped it.
• Log in to your Joomla! admin interface.
• Click on Installers/Components in main menu.
• Browse com_fireboard_v1.0.5RC2_b817_2008-10-27 file you've just downloaded earlier.
• Hit Upload Files & Install button to upload it.
• If you succeed, it'll said "Upload component - Success ... [Continue...]"
• Go to Components/FireBoard Forum in main menu and configure it the way you like.

That is all. Here is the site: Home Based Online Business Opportunities - Forum. Check it out. What do you think?

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