This post has been very popular, so I have updated and re-posted it.

If you would like to purchase your own set of videos to view on your computer just send me an e-mail and we can arrange to get you a copy.  I have priced it right!

It has been a while since I have posted something that I would consider a tutorial.  I came upon this set of tutorials on the operation of cPanel.  Now I'm sure some are wondering, "What is cPanel".  These cPanel Video Tutorials will help you learn.

cPanel is the web hosting control panel that is widely used by web hosting companies.  It provides a graphical interface that enables the user to manage all aspects of a website.  cPanel is a commercial product and has a website here:  http://www.cpanel.net.

cPanel can be very intimidating to new webmasters.  It has a lot of functionality that takes some time to learn.  Sometimes it is scary to just dive in because many of the functions are a bit cryptic once you get in, and you must be careful so that you don't break your website. 

This set of videos is pretty useful, and covers what I would consider all the basics.  It does take some time to view them as most are around 4-5 minutes long.  They are in flash format, so you will need to have flash enabled in your browser (should not be an issue nowdays).  I also have the video links open in a new window.  It should not trigger your popup blocker, but if it does you may need to adjust your browser settings. 

In addition to these instructional videos I suggest you visit cPanelGuide.net as I consider it the foremost authority on all of the features of cPanel and the details behind their operation.

Now on to the Video Links!  

Video #1: Logging to cPanel®
In this video I'll walk you through the ways on how to login to your cPanel® account.

Video #2: Setup Email Accounts
This video will show you how to create and set up your email accounts.

Video #3: Outlook Express™
This video will show you on how I configure my email account with Outlook Express™.

Video #4: Yahoo™ Email
This video will show you on how I configure my email account with Yahoo™ Email .

Video #5: Change Password
This video will show you on how to change your password.

Video #6: Update Contact
This video will show you on how to update your contact information.

Video #7: Style
This video will show you on how to change the skin style of your account.

Video #8: Web Mail
This video will show you on how to setup, configure and use your Web Mail account.

Video #9: Forwarders
This video will show you on how to forward your email to another different email address.

Video #10: Autoresponder
This video will show you on how create your autoresponder accounts.

Video #11: Default Email
This video will show you on how to change your default account email.

Video #12: Mailing Lists
This video will show you on create and manage your mailing lists.

Video #13: Backups & Restore
This video will show you on how to backup and restore your databases.

Video #14: File Manager
This video will show you on how to work with your website files using File Manager.

Video #15: File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
This video will show you on how to use the ftp tool to transfer your files between your server and your computer.

Video #16: Sub-Domain
This video will show you on how to create your own sub-domain.

Video #17: Add-on Domain
This video will show you on how to add your own add-on domain.

Video #18: Parked Domain
This video will show you on how to create a parked domain.

Video #19: Redirect
This video will show you on how to redirect your website links to other different links.

Video #20: Password Directory
This video will show you on how to protect your directories and folders of your site.

Video #21: MySQL Database
This video will show you on how to create and manage mySQL Databases.

Video #22: Error Pages
This video will show you on how to change your error pages so that they will create profit for you.

Video #23: Fantastico™
This video will show you on how to work with Fantastico™ to install scripts easily.

Video #24: Crons
This video will show you on how to create your cron jobs.

I am positive you will not be able to view all these videos in one sitting.  You may not even want to view some of them as they are very basic.  I found the file manager (#14) quite useful.  Also the videos that deal with Domain manipulations (# 16, 17 and 18) will help you navigate some tricky functions in cPanel.  I also recommend #21 because sooner or later you will need to create SQL Databases. 

These videos are good quality and have decent resolution so you can see what is happening on the screen at all times.  Let me know what you think.  If you are interested in a copy of the entire video package for yourself or your website send me an e-mail.

Enjoy the show!

-Loren

My readers and friends know that I am a part time educator as well as a technology geek.  I came upon this online tool and found it interesting because it satisfies both of my passions, education and technology. While I was doing Graduate work in the area of Post Secondary Education I participated in many discussions about how to teach. 

A large part of the challenge of teaching is connecting with the students and building the relationships.  As a Post Secondary Educator I am teaching young people who are NOT part of my generation.  I need to understand their worldview in order to make my teaching style and methods effective.

The people at KnowledgeWorks Foundation have put together a wonderful interactive tool they have called the Map of Future Forces Affecting Education. 

If you are at all interested in the challenges facing the future of educating the next generation you MUST check this out.  In some ways this tool is relevant to everyone.  We are all educators.  One does not to get a Teaching Degree Online and stand in front of a classroom, or lead an online discussion group to be considered a teacher.  Yes, we have trained professionals among us to do the heavy lifting, but in this digital age we are all helping to educate.

The Map of Future Forces Affecting Education is an intuitive tool the foundation put together to help people understand what components will shape the future of education looking forward from 2006 to 2016.  I will state up front that I do not agree with all of the Trends, Dilemmas and Hotspots that are presented.  Nevertheless I do find them all interesting.

The basic concept behind the Future Forces Affecting Education and how to navigate the online tool can be explored through this short video presentation. I challenge you to take a look at this tool and the concepts provided.  I realize that predicting the future is just that "a prediction".  If we could see clearly into the future life would be pretty boring.  This project by the Knowledge Works Foundation is a collaborative work that helps us think and prepare for the future.

Now Go Forth and explore!  Leave me some comments about your thoughts on the interactive tool and how effective you think the technology is.  I am also interested in your thoughts about the content.  What forces would you add to this list?

-Loren

http://www.theteachingbox.com

I have the code displayed in the sidebar to the right.  Stop by, check your site PageRank and grab the code to add to your Website or Blog.

http://www.theteachingbox.com/pagerank/

A great video on how to increase your website traffic using SEO and Meta Tags.

www.simplesiteprofits.com – Meta Tags, Seo, Search Engine Optimization

iDevBooks

Esa Helttula contacted me through Twitter about reviewing these useful educational tools.  In the spirit of Education and Technology it is very fitting for TheTeachingBox to give Esa a quick review and send you back to his web site to check out these Cool Apps.

The best way to introduce Esa and his site is to use his own description:

This site is about my Math Apps for iPhone. It all started when I was looking for a Column Addition app for my daughter. I was surprised to find out that there were no apps that teach the basics like column addition, column subtraction, long division and long multiplication. I had experience about designing visualizing algorithms for computer science students. I decided to use that knowledge to make great teaching and learning apps for children and everybody who wants to study math. You will find my apps by choosing the my apps -link.

The apps are quite unique.  There is a total collection of 10 apps covering such topics as:

• Long Division
• Long Multiplication
• Column Addition
• Column Subtraction

Esa is easily accessible through email or you can follow him on Twitter.  Stop by his page and give the iPhone Math Apps a try.  You will not be disappointed.

-Loren

Facebook and MySpace are the best examples.  Learn more about this HOT internet topic.

• Learn what social networking is all about
• And how you can use it to boost your traffic and make money

As with my other offerings, these videos are flash based and the links will open in a new window.

Let me know what you think about this video Series!

-Loren

Online file storage is a critical feature in todays mobile computing world.  We have large hard drives, but flexibility is important.  In my opinion SkyDrive is the best online file storage system today.

Many people have Windows Live logins for their MSN Messenger (now called Windows Live Messenger) account.  If this is true for you, head over to http://skydrive.live.com and claim your 25GB of free online storage.  I have checked around the net, and have not found any other systems that match the Microsoft SkyDrive product. 

Before I get a bunch of flame e-mails, NO I am not a Microsoft Apologist.  If a product is good, I will recommend it.  This post is just a short review on the pros and cons of this online storage product.

Pros -

• Size – 25 GB is a lot of storage space
• Free – Free is always good
• Stability – Microsoft is going to be around to keep SkyDrive from disappearing
• Flexibility – Works with the Gladinet Cloud Desktop Client to mount Drives on your PC 

 Cons -

• File Size Limit – 50 MB maximum file size (still pretty large)
• Drag and Drop interface only works with Internet Explorer
• Some people are Against Everything Microsoft so they cannot be convinced it is a good product
• Full Functionality assumes you are a PC user – I haven’t tried it on my Mac yet.

I personally use SkyDrive because of the Pros I have listed above.  The Gladinet Cloud Desktop client is great.  I use the free version, and have found it to be pretty stable.  It allows you to create a mounted drive letter on your Windows PC.  It does a good job of synchronizing and moving files in the background. 

Even if you chose not to install the Gladinet driver you can drag and drop files using Internet Explorer.  Maybe there will be some sort of Firefox Plugin in the future, but I wouldn’t hold out waiting for one. 

For the Anti-Microsoft folks out there, actually SkyDrive is a winner, the problem with many "FREE" programs and services on the internet, is that you are at the whim of the company.  So many of them just disappear overnight, or are purchased by another company and phased out.  Nevertheless I do warn people not to trust these free online file storage systems, make sure you have a local backup Just In Case.

I recommend you surf over to the SkyDrive website and give it a try.  Let me know what you think about this online storage product.  Any tips and tricks you can give are appreciated by myself and the other readers.

-Loren

Update - There are persistent rumors that Google is going to do something similar to SkyDrive, but nothing yet.  I have looked at some clever work arounds to store files on your Gmail account, but they are just that "workarounds" and not really online file storage.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO as it is widely know is a key concept that all webmasters and bloggers need to understand.  TheTeachingBox is proud to present a 5 Part Tutorial series on SEO. 

I came across these videos a while back, and thought that they would be a good fit for Technology and Education.  Granted SEO Optimization is a bit more on the advanced side, but everyone could learn from these videos.

As with my other video series, I will present the 5 videos one at a time so that you are able to focus on the content and think about how you will implement the information on your own website.  As we cover each of the videos, I will make sure to include the links to all previous videos so that you can easily go back and review.

The presentation of these video tutorials is well done, and I was able to learn a quite a few tips on how to make my Blog Posts pop to the top of the online Search Engines.  They are all in Flash (.swf) format and will open in a new browser window.  You should have the latest flash viewer to watch them, but if not, your browser should prompt you for the appropriate plugin download.

Search Engine Optimization – Video 1

In this first video you will get an introduction to the Top 10 On Site SEO Fundamentals and how to implement them on your site.  They include the types of HTML formatting, and content you need to make your pages and posts search engine friendly.  The running time for this video is around 24 Minutes. 

In this tutorial I learned about the Traffic Travis tool for Keyword Research and SEO.  He spends almost half of the tutorial talking about it.  It is free and could prove to be a very valuable tool in your webmaster arsenal.

The author of this video knows his stuff, and gives evidence.  Let me know what you think about this series in the comments, or send me an e-mail.  What are your favorite SEO tips and tricks?

If you are interested I can make the set available to you.  They are in .swf format and the .zip files are still quite large.  Drop me an e-mail and we can work something out.

-Loren

Enjoy the Video!

-Loren

The first installment was popular, and here is Video #2 in the Tune Up Your PC Video Tutorial Series.

As with the Introduction Video, this again is a basic introduction into the concept of these three evils that can infect your computer.  I believe the author does a very good job of describing this threat, what it does, and how to deal with it.  

He talks about Keeping Spyware out of your computer and mentions my personal favorite program (Spybot Search and Destroy).  I have had great success with this program, and best of all it is FREE!.  He also mentions Spy Sweeper as a good tool.  To be truthful,  I was not impressed with Spy Sweeper when it first came out a few years ago, but I have read good things about it of late, so I would recommend it if you want to head down the Pay route for Spyware protection.

So without further delay, here is the Link to the Video:

Spyware, Malware, Trojan Horses

Have you experienced un-necessary popups that come out of nowhere when you are simply surfing the web?  Or has your Internet surfing experience slowed down to a crawl?  It’s possible it is your connection, but if it used to be fast and now it’s slow…the problem is likely to be spyware, malware, or some sort of trojan horse.  Now, while you don’t need to know those technical terms, these types of security attacks, generally run behind the scenes on your computer, w/o appearing to you.  Their job is to spy on your, your important data, and what you type, and send it back to the hacker.  So while you can speed up your computer by removing them, you will also protect your personal data.

In order to keep you interested, and coming back.

Here are the Six Video Topics:

1. Introduction
2. Spyware, Malware, Trojan Horses
3. Antivirus and Firewalls
4. Speeding it up:  How to speed Vista up
5. Speeding it up: Internet Browsers and Internet Cleaners
6. Speeding up:  Start Up Programs, Defragging, Buy More RAM

Sit Back and Enjoy!

-Loren