The services provided at drop.io are much more than just your standard free file hosting. The describe themselves as “enabling users to create simple and private exchange points called ‘drops’ to help share information”. Unique to this type of service, it has no signing up you have to do and no “accounts” to keep track of.

To create a new drop, you just…

1. Navigate yourself to the web site, drop.io
2. Name the drop, drop.io/yourname
3. Password protect it, if you wish to keep it private
4. Set how long you want to keep it active (1 month to 1 year)
5. Setup permissions for other users to view only, view and add content or view, add & delete content

Then you are done! You can also add to each drop via the web, e-mail, a phone or via their special widget. This is a really unique service that you should keep in mind next time you want to send files to your business partners or friends. It takes the traditional free file hosting, stands it on its head and does something different.

I like drop.io.

Would you like to grab 5GB of free file hosting space from Microsoft? Last week Microsoft publicly launched their Windows Live SkyDrive service which will give you that 5GB of storage at no cost at all. This is a ‘bit of a surprise because during the test period they were only providing 1GB of space and it was only expected to increase to 2GB of space after it was launched.

To grab you free space, you must have a Hotmail or Live address, then login to the SkyDrive web site.

The file size limit per file you upload is 50MB so that still gives you a lot of room to work with. Internet Explorer users can install an upload tool to make working with the service a little easier. You will be able to upload right from the browser. For us Firefox users, we will just have to hope somebody develops an extension that will do the same.

For Microsoft, here is what I need to use this service on a day to day basis:

• Give me a upload/download tool that is not just for Internet Explorer
• Drop the plug for all the other “Live” services at the top

Go give SkyDrive a test drive for yourself at skydrive.live.com.

This week marks a big mile stone for me and for you. This podcast marks the 3rd year the Web Hosting Show has been around, creating podcasts week after week to help you learn more about and get more out of the web hosting industry. In previous years I have had bigger celebrations but this year I’d like to tone it down a ‘bit.

I often get asked a few general questions about this show and how I do things so I thought this week’s show would be a perfect time to answer some frequently asked questions.

When and how did this podcast start up?

This podcast was a project I wanted to do after writing Lockergnome’s Guide to Web Hosting. After that eBook was finished, I needed something to spend my time on - and with podcasting still being an infant those days, I thought I would try to put together a weekly show. Three years later, I have yet to find a reason to stop yet.

Who are you to tell me about web hosting?

I’m just a guy who has a passion for the web hosting business. I’ve been described as a cheerleader by some, but personally I don’t think I look that good in a skirt. I started in the hosting industry back in 2003 - working as a level one support guru. Then I worked my way up to becoming both a customer service director, then manager. In late 2004 I was fired from my day to day hosting duties and decided to give freelance writing a shot. From there till 2006 I wrote about the hosting industry and worked for several Online juggernauts till I came back to customer service work at Lunarpages in September of 2006. I guess if you wanted to consider that a “day job”, my role there is the forum mod and “sales guy”.

What advice do you have to give other podcasters?

If anybody else out there wanted to do what I do about any topic out there under the sun, I would tell them to just give it a shot. You’ll never know if your any good unless you stop being afraid of failure and get of your rear end and try. I have been far from successful at everything I have done (everybody has a bad idea from time to time) but get an idea, grab a mic and talk. If the listeners come, they come. If they don’t then you at least can say you gave it your best shot.

What is next for the Web Hosting Show?

Well, with 400 to 500 episode downloads a month I am happy to say the Web Hosting Show’s audience continues to grow day after day, and podcast after podcast. As an example, here is my feed stats from day one to the present:

I want to keep doing what I’m doing, hopefully do it well.

Creating a htaccess file is not exactly what I would call a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. You have to search the Web for the right “code” to slice in there (if you don’t know it by heart) and also you run into the problem of getting the special code wrong or pointing into the wrong spot.

htaccessEditor.com solves the problems and pains with creating your own htaccess file by giving you an easy step by step wizard to creating your own Online. The only work you have to do is select the parameters on the left and fill in the empty text boxes. Once you are done, copy and paste the code into your own htaccess file, upload it and you are done.

The tool provides code for just about every htaccess tweak, tip and service you could need. It covers error pages, access restrictions, redirects, default pages and more. There is one more service that does this sort of thing out there if htaccessEditor.com doesn’t do the job for you. The .htaccess file generator has a ‘bit of an uglier interface but it too will get the job done.

TIP: If you browse to htaccessEditor.com and see a bunch of funny text - click on the drop down box in the upper right side of the page and select “English”. That one scared me a few times.

It is not only my birthday, but it is your birthday too. The Web Hosting Show has been rocking the web hosting industry for three year now, and hopefully for many more years to come.

No surprises, no special guests no fluff will be here today though. I am just going to do my job and give you a grade A podcast you will soon not forget.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 143!
Running Time: 13 minutes | File Size: 5.96 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode of the Web Hosting Show.

• The Web Hosting Show is 3 Years Old!
• Neat and Unique File Sharing with Drop.io!
• Microsoft Gets into Free Hosting with SkyDrive?
• Quick and Easy .htaccess Creation Online!
• Your FAQs About this Podcast and Myself, Answered?

For three years now this podcast has been delivering you the best of the best that the web hosting business has to deliver to you. I am honored and truly privileged and honored to be that voice that has rocked the hosting world for oh so long.

There has been lots of talk about web hosts offering and clients needing upgrades to PHP 5. For those of you who might be outside the loop, let me first explain what PHP is. PHP is a framework that works on your hosting server’s side of things. It is a programing language that allows web developers to create content that dynamically interacts with databases.

Now the main reason you would want to upgrade to PHP 5 is that development for PHP 4 ceased at the end of 2007. You will no longer get updates for it, unless they are security related. Critical security updates for PHP 4 will be provided till August 8, 2008. So this is another good reason why a move to PHP 5 might be a good idea.

Where are the advantages of PHP 5 over PHP 4? Well without getting too geeky on you there are a number of improvements that just make it more robust, faster, more secure and easier to work with. What was wrong with PHP 4? Well, nothing really - it is just getting a little long in the tooth. PHP 4 you have to remember was released back in 2000. Think of it as a pair of old shoes you really love. the laces might be lost and your holding the heel on with duct tape but you can still put them on your feet and use them. PHP 5 would be the pair of sneakers you always wanted.

There have also been several public movements to help lead the charge to PHP 5, one of the more popular ones was the GoPHP5.org project that shared information about PHP 5 and kind of helped push a lot of web hosts in the right direction when it came to supporting the most recent stable release of PHP 5.

The name of the game is evolution. As with any technology, we need to move forward as soon as there is a solid stable release because in doing so we can continue to make things bigger, faster, better and stronger.

There are many server monitoring services out there, but not many have ways for you to easily take in and read that information on your own. One of the few that do is WebSitePulse. They provide a Firefox addon that will give you a brain dead simple way of keeping a watchful eye over your own domains.

Here is a little more about the extension from the developers:

The WebSitePulse Current Status extension provides an easy way to keep an eye in real-time on the status of your servers, websites and web applications when you are using the WebSitePulse monitoring service.

The WebSitePulse extension is broken off into two components. The sidebar will display all targets and their current status. To get more details, all you have to do is click on the name of the target in question.

At the bottom it will also give you a counter telling you when was the last time it was refreshed.

The second component would be the status bar icon which indicates if everything is alright. Here you pretty much play red light, green light. Red is bad and green, well… green is good. You can then right click the status bar icon to customize the extension’s settings.

You will need to also login to WebSitePulse.com and create a free account to use this tool. This current status addon for Firefox does a good job at doing real time status tracking. If you are interested in keeping a watchful eye over your server, it might be worth checking out.