Most operators of pornographic Web sites will take their traffic anywhere they can get it. Often, that means registering domain names that are just a few transposed letters off from a popular site such as Yahoo! Users who mis-type the address then find themselves looking at material they probably

didn't want on their screen. Another cheap trick porn sites will use to generate traffic is taking over any popular domain name once the registration lapses. The practice is known as "porn-napping," and a growing number of education sites have fallen victim to it, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. In some cases, the operators offer the domain for sale in hopes that its original owners will rescue it.

"Any number of active sites have been taken over simply because the folks behind them don't realize [the rights to] their domain names have expired," says Art Wolinsky, technology director of the Online Internet Institute. "E-mail and regular addresses change, and expiration notices don't always reach the right people. Domains are simply bought up from under them ... It's sleazy, but it's perfectly legal."

Thankfully, avoiding such a cyber-headache isn't that tough. Domain name registrations typically come up for renewal every two years, so make sure someone is double-checking your site's status with the registrar on a regular basis. If you switch to a new domain name, keep the old one registered until most of the traffic to it disappears, and alert search engines to the change. For more tips on avoiding "porn-napping," visit http://www.educyberpg.com/Technology/SECURITY burydeadeddot.html, and http://oii. org/html/porn-napping.shtml.