I have watched this little challenge I guess you could call it make its rounds around the Internet and wondered when it would get to me. Well it has hit (or tagged as the kids say), so I guess I will play along and share with you all. I am a pretty open book, so coming up with five things that you do not know about me is kind of hard.

1. I have always been obsessed with recording myself. When I was a kid I used to make mixed tapes of songs and do little radio DJ type segments in between. Of course back then it was only for my own entertainment. In high school I did color commentary (I was the voice of the EAW) for our backyard wrestling federation. Now I record a little podcast that a few people listen to.

2. If I had not gotten my first job in the Web hosting industry and had not gone down that path, I would probably have either turned to something more artistic or professional wrestling. I have been drawing as long as I can remember and a wrestling fan even longer. All is not lost though, because I get to live out one of my dreams through my good buddy SB-1.

3. I am totally addicted to music from Final Fantasy. One of my prized possessions is the soundtrack from Final Fantasy VI. I have always been a fan of the series, but I do have to say I think Final Fantasy VI was the best of the best thus far. I never really got into everybody else’s favorite (Final Fantasy VII).

4. I have been both a customer service manager and a customer service director for a Web hosting company. No, I still do not know what the difference is between the two.

5. I am far from being a know it all about Web hosting. In a lot of ways, I am trying my best to learn about the business every day, just like you. One of the misconceptions with this show is that I am some sort of Web hosting genius - but I wouldn’t call myself that. I am a fan. There is a lot of stuff I do know, but a lot of stuff I am still learning with the rest of you as well. The day I stop learning about it will probably be the day I retire or the day I die.. which ever of those two happens first.

Alright, so now I have to find five other folks to tag? I’ll pick the Web Hosting Finds Blog (because it is awesome), Matt Hartley (because he’s a cool dude as well), Inside ISPCON, anybody who wishes to at Lunartics, and the Web Hosting Geek (to prove to me he is still alive).

Well, as you have probably guessed by now the Web Hosting Show took the holidays off.

With having people over and just being a little burnt out and short on time; I just did not have my usual free time to get things done. Have no fears though because the Web Hosting Show will be back and better than ever next year.

The next podcast should be out and ready to listen to on January 1. Make sure you come back and celebrate the New Year with a brand new edition of the Web Hosting Show!

Till that happens, here are a few things you can do to keep yourself busy:

1. Check Out the Web Hosting Show’s Archives and Listen to Past Podcast Episodes

2. Send Me Your Hosting Questions, Suggestions and Products You Want Me to Plug, Pimp, Promote

3. Send Me All Your Christmas Presents!

Ok, so maybe that last one was tossed in there to see if you were paying attention.

I hate idiots as much as the next person, and sometimes these idiots are able to slip by the Web hosts and get Web sites. Now is this the Web host’s fault? No. No matter who the Web host is, they can not do a background check on every person that wants to host a Web site with them.

This recent story, ripped from today’s headlines though is a welcome early holiday gift to those of us who hate these morons out there in the World.

Web hosting provider HostGator has recently been asked by the Tampa-Florida office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations to drop one of the Web sites it hosts that supports calls to kill Muslim children.

Now not to get into politics, because I refuse to cover them on a podcast about Web hosting, this is just wrong and I am happy to see that HostGator has taken these folks down. Here is some more of the story I’d like to share.

Under the headline, “Love Your Kids? Fear For Their Future? Kill All Muslim Kids,” the Web site”s owner, who lives in the Tampa area, wrote, “Makes sense to me. After all, if Muslims are raising their little crumb-snatching, curtain climbing, ankle biting rug rats to strap on bombs in order to kill us, it is logically correct to assume that in order to stop that from happening we need to kill all Muslim kids. Starting now.”

This type of content on the Web should not be stood for. I know some people out there might speak up for free speech in this situation.

Hate speech is not a protected right though. Also, other people have the same right to say this type of content is just wrong.

The moral of the story is that if you see a Web site that might seem a little fishy to you, you should always try to hunt down the Web host and ask if they know they are hosting such content.

+ Check Out the Podcast This Was From! Listen to the Web Hosting Show, Podcast 89!

Now there are tons of domain name and hosting tools that you can find Online these days. One of my favorite just happens to be DomainTools.com.

They do not do everything though - which means I must use more than one Online domain name tool. One that caught my attention last week was AjaxDNS.com.

Dorky names aside, when you enter in your domain name or server’s IP address it will provide you with several options. The options included are DNS lookup, WHOIS lookup, ARIN IP lookup, HTTP header check, spam blacklist check, ping, or DNS traversal check.

All handy things to have when you want to check out the health of your domain name over IP address.

For the Web hosting customers out there, this provides you a tool which will give you more information to share with your Web host. Hopefully - having this information off the bat when something on your account is going screwy will help the Web host get your problems fixed faster.

For the Web hosts out there, this is yet another handy link to have in your toolbelt. Ajax DNS offers a lot of options and has them all featured on one Web site. All you need to do is type it in once (your IP address or domain name) and allow the Web site to do the rest of the work for you.

+ Check Out the Podcast This Was From! Listen to the Web Hosting Show, Podcast 89!

Both Ping! Zine and the Web Host Industry Review feature Online versions now of their respected paper magazines. Now this is a great thing for everybody because no matter where you live or how you like to get your content, it can now be done easily.

Personally I like the paper magazines, because it allows me to spend a few minutes away from the computer, but if you want to save trees or would rather get your content in digital delivery - here is how you do it.

The Web Host Industry Review

For the Web Host Industry Review, you just need to visit TheWHIR.com and click on the link that says “WHIR Print Magazine”. Now from there you can fill in your information and sign up for the paper version. That much is not too hard to figure out.

Now if you want the digital version of the magazine, look for the link that says “Current Issue” towards your right. You can also scroll down the links for “Digital Back Issues” if you want to read more than one issue of the magazine.

Ping! Zine

Now for Ping! Zine, first point your browser towards PingZine.com. To get the digital version of the current issue, click on the “Current Issue” link on the left side of the Web page. From there you will be brought to a Web page that tells you all about the current issue and allows you to download it to your PC.

To subscribe to the paper version of Ping! Zine, all you need to do is click on the “Subscribe” link on the left side of the Web page, and then fill in your information. It could not get any easier than that.

As you can see, it is not too difficult to get either paper or digital versions of either of the Web hosting world’s two leading publications.

+ Check Out the Podcast This Was From! Listen to the Web Hosting Show, Podcast 89!

Oh my goodness, the trees are going to die. The birds are going to stop singing. Google has started to sell domain names!

It seems like a lot of folks out there in the Web hosting industry are claiming that because of this - the sky is going to fall. Personally, I do not see what the big deal is about it.

The argument is that if Google registers your domain names - then they will own your soul. No wait, I did not mean it that way. It would mean that they could hold search engine placement over your head though.

Would Google domains do better in Google than regular ones?

Now why is none of this going to happen? It is because Google does not want to be the controller of the Internet. Google wants to be the fast food of the Web hosting industry. A few months back we were told that their page builder and movement into the hosting industry was going to be a big deal. Was it? No. They threw up a WYSIWYG editor and left it at that. Not exactly the most in-depth hosting environment. I have a feeling the domain name registrations are going to be handled much in the same way.

If Google really focused their efforts on domain name registration, it would be more of a threat. Right now though, it sounds like they are not undercutting prices and are not offering anything folks can live without. From what I have read so far, they are reselling domains from GoDaddy and eNom. For $10 a pop, and only offering “.com,” “.net,” “.biz” and “.info.” domain extensions - there is no deal here. I can get it cheaper by going to GoDaddy and eNom themselves.

To read more about this topic, here are a few good resources to check out:

• WHIR Blogs - Google Offers $10 Domain Registration
• TechCrunch - Google Starts Selling Domains
• Lunartics - Reasons for Not Buying a Google Domain

To make this a success, Google will have to find something better than the “Google Apps for Your Domain” to package this with. Unless people just pay because it is Google (and some people will) I doubt they are really going to make any real dent in the market. Google needs to offer a better deal or get out of the way - because they are just cluttering the market and not making it any more competitive.

+ Check Out the Podcast This Was From! Listen to the Web Hosting Show, Podcast 89!

Go Digg the Web Hosting Show Podcast!

Come on, do I really have to say anything else? I noticed this neat new feature on Digg.com a little earlier today and I do have to say I like it. Here you can digg your favorite episodes of the Web Hosting Show, or just the podcast in general.

Now I do not expect to get past four diggs or so - but you are always welcome to try to prove me wrong. Are we Web hosting freaks and geeks going to let ourselves be beat out again?

I am just a lonely web hosting soldier in the Online war, you guys and gals are the army so I will let you make the call.