What is Digest Access Authentication?

Digest access authentication is a method a web server can use to negotiate credentials with a web browser. It uses encryption to send the credentials over the network which is safer than the (basic HTTP authentication - see my previous blog post) that sends plain text.

As many of you already know, a few weeks ago I had the honor of speaking about the challenges of mobile website performance with Rob Foley of Akamai Technologies and Nathan Holthaus of Your Electronics Warehouse at Internet Retailer's Mobile Commerce Forum.

First it was PCs. Then the Web. Now it’s mobile. Every developer is concerned about which skills will matter in the next wave. Which platform should they bet on to be relevant? All of them, says Shawn Wildermuth.

We know that embedded software and hardware development teams don't always see eye to eye. They may not even be sharing the same tool to help one another improve the quality of their products by staying in synch when issues are found and changes are made, whether it's a cell phone no one wants to see come back for a retrofit, or a pace maker that shipped with a critical defect.

Systemax, which ranked as last quarter's fastest online retailer, retained the title in Q3, even slightly improving its website speed. On average, Systemax.com users had to wait a mere 0.62 seconds for the site to load, down from 0.64 seconds in Q2, and a big improvement over the site's 1.77 second response time in Q3 of last year.

A recent survey of over 400 businesses in finance, retail, telecommunications, education, government and manufacturing conducted by TRAC Research found that organizations lose an average of $21,000 per hour during website outages and $4,100 per hour during website slowdowns.

Do you have questions about load testing? Then don't miss your opportunity to submit those questions to two software industry veterans who will be sharing the answers during the following live Webinar event:

How honest are you when someone asks, “What was it like to work at that company?” Do you share the unvarnished truth, or do you keep your personal opinions to yourself?

The results of SmartBear's Q3 social networking website performance benchmark are in! Would you be surprised if we told you that once again Facebook ranked as the fastest?

Greetings all:

The second annual Internet Retailer Mobile Commerce Forum is just days away, and we're busy preparing for what's sure to be a crowded, busy and interactive show. What will driving event attendance and discussion?

Recognizing that so many websites today are built in part or entirely in Flash, we sought a way to help developers (and those responsible for their Web properties) determine whether the Flash or other images on their site are being displayed to website visitors as anticipated. The result is Image Validation, available now to all AlertSite Website performance monitoring customers.

Our users know that we build software for developers, testers and IT operations people to help them get their jobs done faster and more efficiently. Our priority has always been to make our users happy by giving them the features and usability that make their jobs easier. And the positive result for the employers of our users? Better value and happy employees. So everybody wins!

Any desktop application can be quickly turned into a secure Web server using standard, well-tested open-source components. While others have probably experimented with this technique, which requires only a conventional browser with no plugins, it apparently has never been documented publicly before. This article includes all the code you need for your own installation.