web hosting

The Importance of E-commere Software to Your Business

The e-commerce software forms the foundation for any online store.  It is this application that shapes every aspect of the customer’s experience from browsing the items they want to actually purchasing them.  This is why it pays to find a solution that perfectly suits your business.  There are several programs on the market, and this can make choosing one considerably difficult.  The good thing is that you do not have to spend hours upon hours evaluating every product on the market.  All you need to know is what features are the most critical to the success of your online store.

Easy Item and Category Management

It is important to know that e-commerce systems range from simple shopping carts to fully integrated solutions that can help you build an entire website.  While the functionality you require all depends on individual needs, features like image resizing, comprehensive listings and the ability to copy those listings to multiple categories will make it much easier to get your storefront up and running.  Another useful capability comes from integration features that allow you to import product listings from an existing store into your new setup.  For example, you have some programs that let you import product listings from your current store, a spreadsheet or the location of your choosing.

Extensive Customization

The last thing you want is an online storefront that looks just like what everyone else has.  This is when an e-commerce software package that offers customization comes in handy.  There are some applications that allow to customize your store through a variety of pre-designed templates.  Others allow you to use development technologies such as HTML, CSS and PHP to change the look and feel of your store.  These programs generally require that you have a certain level of technical skills in order to make the modifications.  In either scenario, an e-commerce solution that enables customization can help to ensure you have an online store that is uniquely your own.

Integrated Shipping Calculators

The ideal e-commerce software will not only calculate your order totals, but also accurately calculate the shipping and handling charges associated with those orders.  To ensure flexibility, you may want to opt for something that gives you multiple ways to determine shipping.  For example, you may choose to charge for shipping based on the total of the order, or do so based on the weight of the item.  Another consideration that deserves attention is making commonly used shipping channels such as UPS, USPS and FedEx available to your customers.

Not all e-commerce software is created equal.  Then again, neither is every storefront.  Online stores differ greatly and so do the individual requirements of the merchants who maintain them.  Regardless of how feature-rich and powerful it may be, there is no single program that makes the perfect solution for everyone.  It is all about accessing your needs and understanding what it takes for your business to be successful.  One of the best approaches you can take is evaluating a few products, determining their value, and then selecting one that best suits your requirements.

Freehostia – Free and Paid Hosting Company

Offering web hosting services for over five years now, Freehostia is slightly different from the rest.  A new customer can start out with a free web hosting account to try out the services and move up to a paid account accordingly.  Sure, there are a few hosting companies out there that offer similar free accounts, but Freehostia does it without forced advertising.

Accounts offered

Freehostia offers five different account levels – Chocolate, Watercircle, Lovebeat, Wildhoney and Supernatural.  These plans range in pricing from free to $9.95 a month.

Chocolate – 250 MB in disk space, 6 GB bandwidth, 3 PHP3/IMAP e-mail accounts, 1 MySQL database, 10 MB database space – free

Watercircle – 500 MB in disk space, 12 GB bandwidth, 100 POP3/IMAP e-mail accounts, 2 MySQL databases, 25 MB database space – $2.95 a month

Lovebeat – 12000 MB in disk space, 150 GB bandwidth, 300 PHP3/IMAP e-mail accounts, 8 MySQL databases, 60 MB database space – $4.95 a month

Wildhoney – 35000 MB in disk space, 400 GB bandwidth, free domain name, 15 MySQL databases, 90 MB database space – $7.95 a month

Supernatural – 90000 MB in disk space, 900 GB bandwidth, free domain name, 50 MySQL databases, 120 MB database space – $9.95 a month

1-Click installer

Elefante is offered with all accounts (even the free account).  The Elefante installer is a software platform that enables web site owners to quickly install a variety of programs with a single click of the mouse button.  Over 40 PHP scripts are offered in categories such as wikis, blogs, CMS, e-commerce and more.

Some of the more popular blog software offerings are Movable Type, WordPress, and b2evolution.  The CMS programs within Elefante are a bit more impressive of a list – Drupal, Mambo, Moodle, Joomla and eight other popular CMS programs are available.  In the category of e-commerce, Elefante offers osCommRes and osCommerce.  All in all, Elefante is a great added feature to all Freehostia accounts.

Support

Freehostia has a customer care department at work 24×7.  All hosting customers (with the exception of those using free hosting) can expect to receive an answer within 1 hour of contacting the support department.  Free hosting customers are not completely disregarded but aren’t given priority – expected support answer waiting time is 6 hours.

The hosting company offers video tutorials, FAQs, a knowledge base and a ticketing system for support as well.  The online contact form is easily found within Freehostia’s support area.  While not the most expansive of support areas, Freehostia offers a good solid range of options when one is in need of assistance.

Conclusion

With most free hosting accounts offered by web hosting businesses requiring that advertising be present on all web pages, it’s nice to find a company that not only offers ad-free accounts for no charge but also gives free hosting clients the standard features one would expect from a paid service.  Add in the ability to upgrade to accounts that are very economical, Freehostia is a web hosting service worth checking out.

Introducing HMS Panel

HMS Panel is an all-in-one control panel designed for Linux server platforms.  A multi-server solution, it offers a number of advantages to both the web hosting provider or the customer who needs a more efficient way to manage their dedicated or virtual private server.  HMS Panel is secure, easy to use and loaded with an arsenal of features that will surely come in handy for administrators at all levels.  Here is the rundown:

Complete Domain Management

HMS Panel provides a complete system for managing domains.  Users can add domains and sub-domains to the IP address of their choosing whether it is located on or off the server.  Wildcards can be added so that all sub-domains for a particular domain point to a specific IP address.  You can also modify domain zone files along with CNAME records, A records and MX records.

Email Management System

Web hosting customers on the client side benefit greatly from features such as HMS Panel’s robust email management system.  Users can easily create email accounts and customize their communications with forwarders, catch-all addresses and auto-responders.  While customers have access to their messages via the control panel interface with SquirrelMail, they can also integrate Microsoft Outlook Express or their preferred mail client.

.htaccess Management

HMS Panel offers a robust .htaccess management tools that can be used to apply various settings to directories within a particular domain.  This includes error handling with custom 401, 403, 404, and 505 redirects, IP and domain blocking, file and directory redirects, hotlink protection, directory browsing and much more.  The .htaccess management console utilizes AJAX technology, making it a dynamic and very flexible system.  While this system is very convenient, experienced administrators also have the ability to modify .htaccess via the standard control panel interface.

Web Application Management

Similar to most control panels on the market today, HMS Panel is integrated with a facility that enables customers to perform one-click installations of various pre-installed software applications.  The software management console makes it easy to incorporate programs such as WordPress, phpBB, phpAdsNew, Gallery, Drupal and osCommerce among several others.  These applications are mainly available due to user request, but the HMS Panel control panel offers the ability to install many more third-party scripts.

Advanced Security

HMS Panel was developed with advanced web technologies and security mechanisms.  The software utilizes sophisticated API authorization to ensure that server communications remain protected.  By leveraging an enterprise-grade authentication system, HMS Panel is able to better assure that web applications and network security features are properly configured.  The software also uses process isolation, a technology that allows administrators to isolate web applications from one another, making it so that potential issues with one application do not affect others running on the server.

A Complete Control Panel Solution

Now on version 3.5.1, HMS Panel is quickly evolving to be one of the most remarkable control panels on the market.  It has all the basic capabilities offered by other panels with a few qualities that make it stand out from rest.  If you are in search of a new control panel for your server, give HMS Panel a shot with the free 30-day trial license.

Closer Look at the FreeHostia Control Panel

Some web hosting providers choose to use commercial control panels such as cPanel and Plesk, while others elect to build their own custom software in-house.  FreeHostia is a hosting provider that takes the latter route, utilizing its own solution for managing servers and websites.  This software is similar to popular control panels such as cPanel in many ways.  The major difference is that the FreeHostia panel offers end-customers a billing system, advanced domain management tools and other key features other panels are lacking.  Here is a brief overview on FreeHostia’s hosting automation software.

Advanced Domain Management

The FreeHostia control panel allows you to create subdomains, register and transfer domains, change your nameservers, DNS records and much more.  These are features normally provided by a conventional domain name register but FreeHostia makes it so you can do it all from your web hosting control panel.

Extensive Website Management

Similar to cPanel, the FreeHostia control panel comes with a web-based file managed integrated within the software.  It also supports a number of FTP clients and lets you easily set up FTP accounts for your users.  The unique aspect of this panel is that it provides a facility that allows you to install SSL certificates onto your domain.

Website Tools

FreeHostia has bundled a nice variety of tools in its control panel.  One of the most notable is the Efefante Installer utility, which is similar to Fantastico in cPanel.  This tool allows you to add programs such as forums, photo galleries, blogs and content management systems onto your account with a few easy clicks.  Elefante is also integrated with a suite of marketing tools that can be used to enhance the popularity of your site and attract more visitors.

Web Analytic Tools

Once traffic starts rolling in, you can analyze those statics and the performance of your site by viewing detailed reports on your visitors.  Learn where they are coming from, what keywords they used find you, and make improvements where needed.

Built-in Support Ticket System

The FreeHostia customer support staff can be reached quickly right from your control panel.  Simply visit the Open New Ticket section, fill in the form, submit it and wait for a reply. You can also track the status of all open tickets and review prior inquires as well.

Conclusion

The FreeHostia website management software is more than your average control panel.  While it offers many of the same features and capabilities you will find in other applications, it also has some unique qualities you don’t see all that often. For example, it is one of few control panels that allows you to upgrade your web hosting package directly through the interface.  Once the addition has been paid for, the entire upgrade process is fully automated and done in a matter of minutes.  Throw in the billing system and all the advanced management tools and it becomes clearer to see why FreeHostia is the home of thousands of happy customers.

Enhanced CMS Security with Secure Live

Most people would be content by just getting through the typical work day with as few annoyances as possible.  If your job or business involves maintaining a CMS and working over the internet, you would probably welcome all the small annoyances in the world rather than dealing with the security problems that frequently occur in this environment.  Content management systems, both open-source and commercial, are major targets for cyber hackers.  This is especially true when the platform contains sensitive data such as credit card numbers, bank account information and other confidential details that could result in big trouble if it fell into the wrong hands.  If you want a peace of mind that allows you to sleep soundly at night, investigating a CMS security tool like Secure Live could be well worth it.

What is Secure Live?

Most add-ons and plugins in general are specific to a particular CMS.  This is not the case with a diverse security tool known as Secure Live.  Secure Live is a robust combination of a software tool and a real-time, live monitoring service that provides added security for content-rich websites.  Though primarily used to beef up the security of Joomla websites, it also offers modules for other open-source applications, including e107, Magento and WordPress.  Secure Live also supports most site based exclusively on the PHP programming language and plans to offer support for the Drupal CMS in the very near future.

Key Features

The biggest draw to Secure Live is that it provides critical security services such as blocking, alerting and even reporting when your website has been attacked.  It offers the ability to monitor an entire network of sites as a single unit, accurately and quickly updating each individual client as new attacks are identified.  Here are some of the ways Secure Live helps you respond to attacks on your CMS:

- Sends notification of attack to the serve administrator.

- Captures information that can help track down the attacker.  This includes geo-tracking, attack strings and other important details that could possibly be used to identify the perpetrator.

- Notifies Secure Live security staff about the attacks.  The staff then files a report and sends evidence of the exploit to the appropriate parties so they can take action against the attackers.

- Sends alerts to all Secure Live client applications to automatically modify security settings in case the attacker attempts to exploit other systems.

Conclusion

Secure Live isn’t necessarily cheap, but an adequate security system shouldn’t be.  All it takes is one pesky hacker to put you in a situation where you are forced to pay fines and suffer legal repercussions because your website was compromised.  Although Secure Live is not an all-in-solution that will put an end to your security concerns, it is a premium product that gives you what you paid for and then some.  It is a very sophisticated system that can help you act fast enough to shut the bad guys down and keep them out of CMS.  The best thing about Secure Live is that it can grow right along with your site as threats evolve and become more severe.