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by Teri Robnett
(published in Brainstorm! February 2004)
What
if your web designer was incapacitated (what we refer to as the "hit
by a bus" situation)? Would you know what to do to keep your web
page up and running? If this question concerns you, fill out our checklist
with the necessary information and keep it in a safe place.
To start off, you must know where your web site
is hosted. Write down the name and phone number of your host (where
your domain resides) along with a contact person, if possible. In order
to get into your web site to make changes, your designer will need the
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) information which includes location, username,
and password. Your host should be able to provide you with this information.
Another item to know is who has registered your
domain and where. There are many places on the Web where you can register
domain names such as Register.com, Network Solutions, and many others.
These registrars will have you set up a username, password and sometimes
a customer account number, which you will need in order change, transfer,
or renew your domain. Wherever you register your domain, be sure you are
listed as the authorized registrant; otherwise the domain is not really
owned by you. People have lost their domains due to incorrect or out of
date registration information.
Get a feel for how your web page works. You
don't have to know all the technical details but it's helpful to know
what language your website uses and if it's dynamic or not. If your web
site is dynamic, there is a good chance that it will be using a database
to store information to present the content of your web site. Should this
be the case, you will need to know what type of database the web site
uses and yet another set of usernames and passwords.
Be
sure that whoever designs your web site includes comments in the code
so that other programmers can tell what is going on behind the scenes.
If they do not make comments, the code must be very straightforward to
accommodate anyone who might be changing or updating the code later.
Finally, get a copy of what's on your web site in case there are ever any problems. If your site is changed or updated
frequently, be sure to get updated copies on a regular basis. We know
people who have been able to recover a lost web site without starting
from scratch because they had a backup copy.
After
having all of these items, you can feel secure that there will be little
downtime or unexpected costs if something should happen to your web site.
Store the information about your site along with the backup copy in a
secure place.
We've
included a downloadable checklist to record your web site's information in PDF format for your convenience.
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