Search Engine Optimization & Web Hosting Solution

Several years ago, when I was actively playing Age of Mythology online, I met a guy who called himself Nemesis. I only know that he was from North Dakota. He knew more about web hosting more than I did at the time. He was hosting a website through his home computer. He mentioned that he purchased his domain at http://cheap-domainnames.com. And he recommended it if I ever needed to buy domains. A few years after, we needed to register a domain of our own. So we went to cheap-domainnames.com. The price of a .com domain was US$8.10. (See Screenshot 01.) (Umm… Actually, I thought it was under US$8.00.) Anyway, how much are we paying for the same domain now? Well, we are paying $2.09 more. (See Screenshot 02.) Right, second-year price increases…

Screenshot 01 - Source: MacHouse

Screenshot 02 - Source: MacHouse

Screenshot 03 - Source: websitespot.com

They seem to have changed their main domain to websitespot.com. Looking at their price list, prices are quite affordable. One .com domain costs only US$6.95. (See Screenshot 03.) Whoa… I’m going to buy more .com domains today! Not that fast… That’s just a first-year price. They won’t tell you what a 2nd-year price will be. Following years, you will be actually paying as much as US$10.19 as shown in Screenshot 02. So that will be a 31.8% price increase.

So who is behind the website at http://cheap-domainnames.com or http://websitespot.com? According to WhoIs information for websitespot.com, registrant’s name is shown as David Lalumendre. (See Screenshot 04.) But there is something odd about this profile. Registrant’s address is in Kansas City, Missouri. The phone number is shown as 480-264-2500. 486 is not an area code used in Missouri. I lived in Kirksville, Missouri for 3 and a half years. There are two area codes used in Missouri. One is 816, and the other number is 314. (more…)

ビデオ・チュートリアル：海外格安ウェブ・ホスティングを使う IPOWER - 03 ネームサーバーの設定

さて前回のビデオでは、「MacHouse Domains」でのドメインの購入の仕方を説明しました。それも購入したドメインをアド・オン・ドメインとして使うがためのことです。このビデオ・チュートリアルではそのドメインをIPOWERでアド・オンとして使うための設定を説明します。 (more…)

ビデオ・チュートリアル：海外格安ウェブ・ホスティングを使う IPOWER - 02 ドメインの購入

このビデオではドメインを購入する方法を説明します。実際、ドメインの購入はIPOWERのウェブ・ホスティング・プランとは直接関係ありません。じゃあ、何故ドメインの購入の仕方をわざわざビデオで説明するのか？ビデオ・チュートリアル第三・第四でその購入したドメインをアド・オンとして使うからです。購入したドメインをアド・オンとして使うにはネームサーバーを設定しなければなりません。そしてネームサーバーを設定するにはドメイン業者がサポートする設定パネルの使い方を知らなくてはなりません。

最近は無料のドメインをくれるウェブホスティング会社が多いようです。実際、IPOWERと契約すると無料のドメインが1ついてきます。待てよ。もうドメインを一つをもっているのなら、何故ドメインをわざわざ購入しなくちゃいけないのだろう？ウェブ・ホスティング会社はあなたに無料ドメインを使って欲しいんですよ。現在のウェブ・ホスティング会社に愛想が尽きて他のところにウェブサイトを移そうと思っても無料のドメインを一緒にもっていくことができません。だから自分独自のドメインを購入して使っておけば、いつでも簡単に引っ越してできるという訳です。

もうこのウェブサイトを長い間知っている方がいるのなら、当サイトで最初に使っていたドメインは「MACHOUSEJ.COM」だったのをご存知では？そのドメインは最初に引っ越しをした時に古巣に置き去りにせざるをえませんでした。さて現在はどうでしょうか。当サイトでは「MHVT.NET」ともう一つ「MHOUSE-J.COM」を使っています。実際、このどちらも引っ越しを前提としているためアド・オン・ドメインとして使っています。じゃあ無料ドメインは使っていないの？持ってはいるものの、全く使っていません。
(more…)

ビデオ・チュートリアル：海外格安ウェブ・ホスティングを使う IPOWER - 01 契約をする

これからの数日間、マックハウスでは先日使い始めたIPOWERの海外ウェブホスティング・プランの使い方を、ビデオ・チュートリアルを通して日本人の方々に日本語で説明していくつもりです。何故IPOWER？それには幾つかの理由があります。以下に簡単な理由を挙げてみます。

1. 未だマックハウスではIPOWERのウェブ・ホスティング・プランを使ったことがなかったから。
2. 年間で59ドル40セント（日本円に換算して6,360円）って本当なの？安かったので大して損をすることもない。
3. 一体、IPOWERでは幾つのサブドメインを使える？3・5・それとも？

もちろん、一番の理由は未だ使ったことがないからです。それともう一つ、どうしても試してみたかった大きな理由が3番目の、サブドメインの数を確かめることです。以前マックハウスではStartLogicのPro Logicを使っていましたが、この時にサブドメインの数で詐欺にあっていることに気づきました。その会社のウェブサイトでは、無料でサブドメインを5つ使うことができると語っておきながら、実は3つしか使えない。幾つ使えるのかと訊いてみれば、無数使えると答える、嘘つきホスティング会社。

その当時、StartLogicが導入していたコントロール・パネルがvDeck 2.0です。それがIPOWERとどう関係しているって？IPOWERとStartLogicは同じ親会社の下で運営されています。しかも以前確認した時のIPOWERのサポートしているコントロール・パネルもvDeck 2.0でした。しかしIPOWERに当時確認した時は、無料で使えるサブドメインの数は3でも5でもなく、無数だとのこと。結局、マックハウスでは自分たちの目で無料で使えるサブドメインの数を確認することにしたのです。

さて、これから紹介するビデオ・チュートリアルではIPOWERの「PRO PLAN」というウェブ・ホスティング・プランを通して海外の格安レンタルサーバの使い方を説明していきます。もちらんIPOWERのレンタル・サーバを宣伝するつもりはありません。別にIPOWERから広告代を貰っている訳ではありませんし。どうぞお好きなものをお使いください。「IPOWERのレンタル・サーバってそんなにいいの？」知りません。まだ1週間程度しか使っていないので。ただマックハウスでは過去3年間で4種類のウェブ・ホスティング・プランを使っています。もう色々使い慣れているので、どこのものを使っても経験があれば特に問題は起きないはずです。

年間数万円も払うのはバカらしい、そう思う日本人の方々にこれらのビデオ・チュートリアルを通して海外のレンタル・サーバを紹介しています。もちろん全ての操作は英語ですし、問題が起きた時に問い合わせをする時にも英語の知識が必要となります。ですから全く英語が苦手だという方々には向いていません。でも英語も少しわかるし、海外の安いレンタル・サーバを使ってみよう、と思う方々に対してはマックハウスもこれからできるだけサポートしていくつもりです。 (more…)

The following video tutorial shows how to set up add-on domains at IPOWER. We often advise webmasters not to accept free domains from web hosting companies. They want you to have free domains so that you will be stuck with them for the rest of your website life. Actually, accepting a free domain is not exactly a bad idea as long as you don’t use it. Simply, buy a domain somewhere and bring it to your web hosting company. In this case, you will be using an extra domain as an add-on or parked domain.

All you have to do is to enter the control panel provided by your domain registrar and designate nameservers. What are your nameservers? If you have accepted a free domain, finding your nameservers is quite simple. Or you can just ask your web hosting company.

In this tutorial, we are going to use a domain registered at MacHouse Domains. We want to use this domain as an add-on at our website hosted by IPOWER. (more…)

TOKYO (MacHouse) - What is the most popular game website? IGN or GameSpy? Whichever it is, they both must be making quite a lot of ad revenue every day. As for IGN, the daily number of unique visitors fluctuates between 0.6 and 0.8 million according to, Alexa’s Traffic Details. (See Screenshot 01.) Well, we are only talking about IGN today because their website has become a major target of profile spam recently. You can find spam user profiles at the following URLs.






http://blogs.ign.com/larrylevasseur/2007/10/02/67857/ (See Screenshot 02.)
http://blogs.ign.com/Student-Loan/2008/07/09/95292/
http://blogs.ign.com/philvgordon/2008/03/12/83695/
http://blogs.ign.com/charlesbojanen/2008/03/14/83835/
http://blogs.ign.com/robertlnebel/2008/04/01/85550/
http://blogs.ign.com/lorrieacclark/2008/04/22/87440/
http://blogs.ign.com/partner55346429/2008/05/06/88882/
http://blogs.ign.com/catherinemponder/2008/05/22/90597 (See Screenshot 03.)
http://blogs.ign.com/christamstewart/2008/05/22/90599/






The creation date of one spam profile is October, 2007. So this blog is unlikely to be regularly attended by a care person. Or he or she must be doing a hell of a sloppy job.

It’s just a thought. Maybe, becoming a target of spam comments may not be so bad as we always think. Our ad revenue might increase by 200% by accepting spam posts. Is that why IGN doesn’t delete these spam profile?
(more…)

When we had our first host ever with StartLogic several years ago, the control panel was vDeck 2.0. It was not a bad control panel. We just didn’t like the fact that we had to contact StartLogic each time we wanted to create a subdomain. And once it was created, the name could not be changed. The worst part of StartLogic is or was its fraudulent scheme in making it look like one could get an unlimited number of subdomains with no extra charge. Is it actually 5? No. One could virtually use only 3 subdomains with no extra charge. Each subdomain must be manually pointed to a folder. And StartLogic concealed the fact that they allowed their hosting customers to use only 3 folder-pointings.

We left StartLogic after one year. And we then went to HostMonster where they supported XP Evolution 10.8.1 at the time. It was a totally different experience. You don’t have to ask HostMonster to create a subdomain. You can delete it if you don’t need an existing subdomain. Lunarpages also supports cPanel. And you can create any number of subdomains.

How about IPOWER? We knew they supported vDeck 2.0 before. That’s was not a good sign for us. By the way, StartLogic and IPOWER are owned by the same parent company. It’s no offense to IPOWER, but does IPOWER also adopt the same fraudulent folder-pointing scheme?

We asked IPOWER a long time ago, and they said they gave out an unlimited number of folder-pointings with no extra charge. Wait, do you have to contact IPOWER each time you need a subdomain?

There are a few questions for which we wanted answers badly. So we signed up with IPOWER several days ago to seek the answers for ourselves. We wanted to know

1. if we have to contact IPOWER each time we need a subdomain. Or does their control panel let us create one at any time?
2. how many subdomains IPOWER lets us create with no extra charge. 3, 5 or more?
3. how good vDeck 3.0 is in general. Does it come with an automatic script installation function like Fantastico?

I can tell you that we are actually amazed with vDeck 3.0. I would say vDeck 3.0 is as good as cPanel 11.18.6 and even better in some aspects. If you don’t like vDeck, that’s probably because of the way individual hosting companies like StartLogic handle it. It’s a fine control panel. We certainly see nothing wrong with it. (more…)

TOKYO (MacHouse) - Yesterday, we reported the existence of one website distributing a suspicious file titled scan.exe. This file is distributed at the website hosted through the domain of antivirxp08.com. It’s the final destination after visiting a spam webpage installed at the website of an European organization called EnR. As our main operating system is Mac OS, we had security expert Sophos to analyze the suspicious file distributed at antivirxp08.com. According to the Internet security company, the file titled scan.exe contains malware, which they call Mal/TibsPk-D.

Furthermore, we also reported yesterday that the website hosted at the domain of logistransol.com has become of a victim of website hacking. As a result, it distributes a suspicious file titled watch.exe. We’ve also had Sophos analyze this file. And they have determined that watch.exe contains a Trojan Horse derivative, which they call Mal/EncPk-DA. (more…)

TOKYO (MacHouse) - For many WordPress blog users, WordPress Support is a shrine, THE place to visit and exchange information. WordPress Support is also THE place for some career spammers who may call themselves SEO experts. One notorious one is from India. This guy posted a spam comment back in March 22 to advertise a web hosting company called Webhostingpad for affiliate money. (See Screenshot 01.) How do we know that the spammer is from India? We simply contacted the web hosting company and asked affiliate’s identity.

There was another spam comment posted at WordPress Support till just a few hours ago. It said






Shabana Indian Restaurant in Busan South Korea

www.indiancury.tk (See Screenshot 02.)






Again, a keyword is India. How about the spam comment posted in May 8 about the junk website found at the domain of totallyfree4u.com? (See Screenshot 03.) You may not see Indian involvement with this spam operation at WordPress Support. But the registrant of the domain actually points to… India…

Screenshot 01 - Source: WordPress Support

Screenshot 02 - Source: WordPress Support

Screenshot 03 - Source: WordPress Support

How about the spam comment posted at WordPress Support in March 12 to advertise the website of an search engine optimization company? (See Screenshot 04.) The title of the spam post was ’seo company india.’ And the SEO website in question is located at http://seoservices.co.in. Again, a keyword is India… (more…)

TOKYO (MacHouse) - An organized cyber criminal group has been using hacked websites to distribute malicious files for the past several weeks. They were using fake PornTube content to attract adults and get them to run possibly virus-infected Windows files till recently. This time, there is no fake PornTube content involved.

This time, spam content with the ‘Click here to see movie’ screen comes with a webpage titled news.html, not main.html or r.html. (more…)