Free Service Finds Broken Links

5/30/97 - HUNTSVILLE, AL -- It's the webmaster's biggest headache: finding broken links in their site. With the Web constantly changing, maintaining the links on even a small site can be a big job. Now a new online service claims it has the solution.

NetMechanic ( http://www.netmechanic.com ) is a free online Web site maintenance service. The service is a collection of Internet robots launched from a Web page interface. Users visit NetMechanic's site, enter the URL of their home page, and send a robot to wander through their Web pages. When the robot has finished testing each link in the site it sends an email report to the user.

The service will check sites of up to 200 pages.

"Our goal is to put Web site maintenance tools into everyone's hands," says Tom Dahm, spokesman for Monte Sano Software, LLC, the developers of NetMechanic.

Comparable software products such as Microsoft's WebMapper and Site/technologies' SiteSweeper retail for around $250. "At that price only corporations can afford these tools," says Dahm, "And when you think about it, it's the small sites that really need maintenance. I know lots of home pages that are nothing but lists of the author's favorite links."

Monte Sano Software, which develops custom Internet applications, created the site to showcase it’s robot technology. "We’re a startup," says Dahm, "We had to do something dramatic to get noticed." The company plans to sell enhanced versions of its software and class libraries based on its robots.

In addition to testing links, another of NetMechanic’s robots performs HTML validation. "We're one of the few validation services that has moved up to version 3.2 of the HTML standards," says Dahm. "A lot of other services are still only testing HTML 2.0."

Dahm also claims that NetMechanic's take on validation is different from other services. Whereas most validators check documents only for adherence to the HTML standards, NetMechanic also offers tips on using different HTML tags. "We think of our service as an expert system," says Dahm, "It's like having a professional designer look over your shoulder while you code, "

For example, NetMechanic's HTML validator advises users to use META tags with keywords in the heading of their documents. Many search engines use META tags when indexing a site's pages.

Monte Sano Software, LLC, is an Internet software development firm based in Huntsville, Alabama. For more information contact Tom Dahm at (205) 461-9857, email pr@montesano.com, or visit the company’s Web site at http://www.montesano.com.

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