Internet Archive Wayback Machine... And How It Saves Copies Of Closed Down Websites

I've written about and used the Internet Archives Wayback Machine many times in the many forums from hobby to computer tech forums that I participate in on a regular basis but I've been seeing MORE and MORE websites shutting down in the past two years so I wanted to write this short article to inform people of how the Internet Archive Wayback Machine (IAWM) works so you can find information from any of your favorite websites that have gone away.

There's a couple of ways to get to the IAWM.

http://archive.org/ - The home page for the Internet Archives, then on that page, right near the top middle, you'll see a section about the Wayback Machine, where you can enter a URL (website address aka a link) into the field and click Enter or click the "Take Me Back" button and it will bring you to a page of dated links for every snapshot that the Wayback Machine has concerning that website URL.

The other ways to get directly to the IAWM page is:

http://www.archive.org/web/web.php  or the advanced search page, http://web.archive.org/collections/web/advanced.html.

Here's how it works...

I use to publish articles on a free Yahoo website called GeoCities but Yahoo decided to close down GeoCities in 2009 so folks no longer have access to their web pages unless they know about the Wayback Machine.

Here was one of my original GeoCities links (which no longer work)...

http://www.GeoCities.com/LennyVasbinderPI/Politics_Start

Of course, clicking that link brings you to a page saying the site no longer exists.

Now, if you go to the IAWM and copy/paste or type that URL into the blank field and click "Take Me Back", it will bring you to this page, http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.GeoCities.com/LennyVasbinderPI/Politics_Start, where you will see a series of dated links where the Internet Archives Wayback Machine took snapshots of my web page between 2002 and 2006, which would have been the last time I updated that site since I started using Blogger Blogspot's to post my blogs/articles since then.

Other websites that have been archived include many of the articles on MSN Groups when Microsoft decided to close them down in 2008.

For my fish keeping hobby, at least three LONG-TIME very good websites have shut down in the past two years, http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/, http://www.plecofanatics.com/ and http://www.plantgeek.net/ but most, if not all of their articles and many of their forum threads are preserved on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

I never did use AOL (aka AOHell to many) but I know that AOL shut down millions of web pages in their "home town" section, at least I think that is what it was called, and many AOL members complained viciously when they lost all of their web pages, online photo albums (which reminds me that Yahoo shut down Yahoo Photo Albums a few years ago when they bought out Flickr.com), etc... so hopefully, any of those folks that thought they lost everything might be able to find some of their data and/or pictures using the Wayback Machine.

All that said, some websites prevent search engines from crawling their pages and for those websites, the IAWM may have also been blocked from crawling the website which means all data may be lost forever in those cases.

I'll probably be adding to this article from time to time so check back... or if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a "Comment" below (click the Comments link at the bottom of this article, if the Comments box isn't already open).

Lenny Vasbinder aka GoldLenny in fish forums

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You can click on the Comments link below to open the Comments section to leave your comments.

Software, Spreadsheets And Other Technology

I"m starting off this article with a couple of PAID versions of software but if you read down a little, you will also see a FREE version of software as well as some Excel Spreadsheets that are FREE.

Sea Apple Aquarium Lab - $24.95 U.S.

If anyone wants to try this program for free for 30 days and then the cost for keeping it would be $24.95, they should probably go to the software creators website, http://www.aquariumlab.com/.

From the AquariumLab website:
Aquarium Lab is a complete aquarium tracking software package for Windows Vista and XP, that will help you maintain healthy aquarium conditions
Monitor Aquarium Readings: pH, Temperature, Calcium, Alkalinity...
Track Aquarium Livestock including fish, corals, plants and invertebrates
Track Water Changes
Track Food and additives
Project manager and Calendar
Monitor Electrical costs and power consumption
Free 30 day Trial. Buy as low as $24.95
(END SNIP)

Aquariogest - $41.00 U.S.

AquarioGest Software presentation
AtlasDiscover Fish, Plants and Invertebrates Atlas illustrated with more than 670 professional photos.Aquariums managementComplete aquarium manager : watervalues, tasks scheduler and electrical equipments.Fish managementPurchase, birth, decease, sale, breedings and cares for each fish of your aquarium.Plants and Invertebrates managementFollow the growth of your aquatic plants and manage the invertebrates population.Water tests logsLog your water tests, significant indicators, graphs and alerts.Aquarium budgetControl all your expenses and follow the electric consumption of your equipment.Tasks planningPlan all your maintenance tasks to never forget them.Aquarium logbookNote all events of your aquarium.Assistants / WizardFind easily new fish, plant or invertebrate - Aquarium volume calculator - Backup tool - Tools of aquarium calculations & conversions - Units settings...
(END SNIP)

AquaLog - FREE

If you want a free program that does some or possibly all that this Sea Apple one does, you can use Aqualog for free - http://joejaworski.com/aqualog/. Besides being available on the creators website, it is also found on reputable download sites like CNet's Download.com http://download.cnet.com/AquaLog/3000-2130_4-10027868.html

From the Aqualog website:
Aqualog is a Microsoft Windows application that can be used to monitor and log any number of marine, reef, or freshwater aquariums. It is designed for both hobbyist and professional use, providing a convenient way to track water test results, maintenance items (such as water changes and chemical additions), and to keep an annotated log of observations. Click the image to the right to see a screen shot of the main AquaLog screen.

AquaLog is Open Source. You can download the fully functional version below free of charge. You do not have to register, give out your email address, or send any money to use it.
(END SNIP)

Excel Spreadsheets - FREE

These two spreadsheets have been set up by other fish keepers, including the second one that I have modified. I have uploaded these two files to my FileFront page so you can download them for free.

http://www.filefront.com/14247047/Water-Test-Log.xls/

http://www.filefront.com/14247059/Aquarium-Water-Test-Log---Modified-by-GoldLenny---2nd-draft.xls/

Below is a SNIP from my blog page on Fish Profiles And Compatibility Charts -

Here is a download chart in Excel/Spreadsheet format that has tons of information about fish, compatibility, etc.:

http://www.klsnet.com/fish.html or http://www.grizzlyrun.com/petedu/fishchrt.xls

Sorry.. the above two links no longer work but I did download these files a while back and I now have them hosted on my FileFront account so you can download them here....
http://files.filefront.com/13416948 (ODS file for Sun's Open Office)http://files.filefront.com/13416958 (XLS file for MS Excel)

(If you don't have MS-Excel, you can download a viewer from MS or if you want a FREE full service MS-Office type suite, go to Sun Micro's http://www.openoffice.org/ and download their full suite which will allow you to create, view and edit MS-Office documents.)

This page has a few downloadable fishkeeping related programs... mostly Freeware... and includes two programs under the Software Column of links, for Fish Compatibility named "Can I Keep It?" and "More Can I Keep It?". I haven't checked these out yet but they were recommended by an advanced member of fishforums.net. There are also some other fish related freebie programs on the site. I'm not sure if this is Neal Monk's site but I see "nmonks" in the URL and he has been writing articles for a while about fish. http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/software/index.html

If you know of other free or paid software that will help fishkeepers do a better job, please post a comment below with the information or send me an email - goldlenny@gmail.com

Lenny Vasbinder a/k/a GoldLenny in the forums