web hosting

The Benefits of VPS Hosting

Seemingly out of nowhere, VPS has become the preferred hosting solution for small to medium sized businesses.  VPS stands for Virtual Private Server, a solution that effectively bridges the gap between the limitations of shared hosting and the flexibility of dedicated server hosting.  A VPS is created by virtualization software which partitions a single physical server to form multiple servers within it.  Each virtual server is completely independent of its neighbors and functions like an actual networked server.  What makes VPS hosting so popular is that it provides control at a level similar to a dedicated server at a price not to far removed from affordable shared hosting .

Here are some of the benefits that come along with VPS hosting:

Stability: Unlike shared hosting, the traffic and activities of other VPS customers will not adversely affect your operation.

Performance - Having your own allotment of resources allows you and your visitors to enjoy faster load times.

Dedicated Resources - VPS hosting provides you with more disk space, CPU and RAM.

Flexibility - You have the freedom to choose the operating system and software you want to install on the server.

VPS Features

The features and services of VPS hosting vary depending on the provider.  Although the ones you will need all depends on personal requirements, here are a few you may want to look out for:

Root Access: Root access will grant you with complete control over your VPS account from configurations to software installations.  All of the actions can be handled from the interface of your control panel application.

Management and Support: Similar to a dedicated hosting account, VPS hosting calls for you to manage your own server .  However, there are many companies that provide support and management services to assist with administrative tasks.  This feature is invaluable if you lack technical savvy.

Server Monitoring: A good VPS provider will actively monitor its network and hardware your account relies on.  This ensures the physical security of the server and also helps defend against virtual threats such as hackers, malicious software and DDoS attacks.

Multiple Domain Hosting: Although shared hosts offer multiple domain hosting, most of them do not provide enough resources for you to do so and still enjoy a smooth performance.   Many VPS providers offer plans that allow you to host multiple websites without suffering performance issues.  In most cases, you can set up separate email accounts and allocate specific resources for each individual site.

Managed Data Backups: As with any hosting solution, a VPS plan should offer a way to backup your data.  Because anything could occur within the provider’s network, it is recommended that you choose a service that allows you to manually backup your own data to assure that it can be restored at any time.

VPS hosting offers an inexpensive way to get many of the features, resources, control and flexibility of a more costly and complex dedicated server.  With the technology increasing in popular, prices are dropping rapidly, assuring that you can find a reliable VPS solution that meets your hosting needs.

Browsers Aiding in Website Attacks

Website attacks are on the rise with intruders using an array of hacking techniques from cross site scripting to SQL injection.  Although careless development and insecure applications play a major role in a site’s vulnerability, the typical web browser is a contributing factor as well.

Despite the fact that several improvements have been made, none of the top web browsers are completely secure.  Because of this, many web security experts are projecting that website attacks will continue to be an issue.  The combination of enhanced functionality and the lack of adequate security implementations have left a number of browsers vulnerable to sophisticated attacks.  Some researchers are saying that the increasing number of exploits is the direct result of Web 2.0 technologies and advanced web hosting features.

Evolution in Technology Opens Doors to Further Threats

Things were fairly innocent in the early days of the internet when static pages were prevalent, before technologies such as JavaScript and Active X came into play.  Today’s World Wide Web is dominated by dynamic web-based applications and complex server-side scripting languages, factors that enable browsers to be used in various ways to exploit websites.  Gary McGraw of Cigital, a software security company, agrees that these feature-rich designs have made browsers far less secure, stating that they are structured more like complete operating systems.

This past September Google released Chrome, its new web browser which was immediately faced with stiff competition in the form of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Opera.  While internet users have a wide variety of browsers to choose from, the options are still limited in terms of security, including Chrome.  Experts contend that the browser war of who can out do one another in the feature department is what ultimately leads to these security vulnerabilities.

Though quite serious, the security issues associated with today’s popular web browsers are not attributed to a lack of effort.  Some say that developers are doing all they can but when considering the fact that website attacks such as cross site scripting and cross site request forgery are typically the result of design, these flaws tend to be much harder to fix than bugs found in software code.  Observers suggest that the vulnerabilities are not going to disappear entirely but do stress that browser developers can do more to enhance security.

In general, development teams only have a little time to address browser vulnerabilities before the hacker community is able to discover them.  Developers are being encouraged to practice browser security just like those who make other software products.  This is extremely important as the major web browsers literally have hundred of millions of users.  One solid approach towards website security is standardized authentication, something that would need to be addressed by system administrators.  Another recommendation is for browser developers to design products that alert users when they are being directed to intranet zones such as localhost or RFC1918 as attackers are increasingly targeting internal devices.  Security firms have also predicted that the manner in which data is handled when requests are made between a browser and website should play a critical part in future designs.

Determining Your Niche Market

If you plan to start an E-commerce business, one of the first things you need to decide on is a niche market.  A niche market is simply a group of consumers you are targeting that have specific needs or interests.  Because these consumers generally partake in similar activities, they are more likely to demand similar products or services.  By focusing on a niche market, you can find a way to discover and meet those particular needs.  In this article we will provide you with a few easy ways to select a niche market and begin your venture with E-commerce.

Place an Emphasis on the Product Before the Marketing Plan

When deciding on a niche, it is better to first settle on a market that has specific needs and then develop products or services to fulfill them.  So many people have failed at online business because they focused solely on marketing a product before finding someone who is actually looking for it.  This failure is typically the result of an insufficient demand or the fact that one or more competitors already have a stronghold over the market.

While the internet is prevalent, it isn’t the only medium where niche markets are important.  Several companies have gained success by establishing a market and then catering to that specific niche.  Microsoft develops operating systems and other software products based on the needs of PC users.  Adidas manufacturers footwear targeted for the athletic population.  These examples demonstrate how important it is to choose a niche market and then focus your marketing efforts around it.

Selecting a niche market doesn’t have to be a difficult task.  You can begin by focusing on a  market that ties into your area of expertise or interest.  Although the internet allows you to branch out and try many things, it is much easier to succeed with something you are passionate about.  This reduces the learning curve and the frustration that comes along with starting a business.  Instead of viewing it as tedious work, you are more likely to find your E-commerce as fun and hopefully prosperous.  You should also perform deep research in the market you are looking to break into.  This involves checking out competitors to get some ideas on the demand for certain products and services.  Additionally, you need to learn how consumers go about finding these items online such as what keywords they enter into search engines and so forth.

Where to Find Your Audience

Depending on who you are target, your niche market just be waiting in a forum, chat room or newsgroup based on something you specialize in.  By monitoring the activity in these sites, you can determine the needs of your niche market and discover what is in high demand.  This form of social networking can be quiet valuable to your business.

Settling on a niche market is the first critical step towards establishing an E-commerce business.  This is what sets the model for how your business will operate and develop into the future.  By taking a little time to figure out exactly what consumers are after, you can market your products or services accordingly and increase the probability of succeeding.

Domain Keys in the Fight Against Phishing

Anybody with an email address is likely to have countless amounts of phishing messages in their inbox, and they may not even realize it.  This type of threat usually doesn’t come at you with the attention-grabbing headlines of advertising spam or the unbelievable plots attached to the fraudulent messages carrying Nigerian scams.  In many cases, a phishing message doesn’t look much like spam at all, even though it is a well crafted plan to steal your money.  Believe it or not, a large number of people have fallen victim to this clever scam so it is important that you know how to recognize and avoid it.

What is Phishing?

Phishing is a sophisticated scam based on social networking.  Unlike other attacks where intruders rely on vulnerabilities in a server or website application, these scam artists would prefer that the system remain intact.   Instead, they look for vulnerabilities in the actual person themselves, hoping they can find someone who is trusting enough to believe the alarming message in their inbox and respond or follow the provided link.

There are essentially two types of phishing.  One approach involves a scam artist sending you an email and purporting as a representative of an institution you do business with.  This could be any type of company from a bank to someone pretending to be affiliated with PayPal or eBay.  They will inform you that there is problem with your existing account and that your login credentials are needed to fix it.

The second approach is similar yet distinct from the method above.  A phony representative attempts to alarm you by stating that there is a problem with your account.  However, they don’t ask for you to respond with your login credentials, but simply follow the provided link so they can either verify your personal information or correct the problem.  After clicking the link, you are not redirected to an official online banking or PayPal website, yet a rogue site that looks strikingly similar, so much that distinguishing it from the real deal might be difficult.  Upon entering the requested information, you are essentially handing over the keys to your valuable assets and possibly your identity.

So, what role will DomainKeys play in the fight against phishing?  As a product owned by Yahoo and integrated into its web-based mail system, the technology will help to protect you against email scams in the following ways:

Website owners register their Domain Name Servers with the DomainKeys system from which emails are required to be transmitted from a registered server.

DomainKeys incorporates an additional header to message, identifying the sender’s domain name server to verify where the message originated.

The message is then verified by the web-based mail system which analyzes the header to ensure that it originates from where it claims.  If the header isn’t validated, the message is automatically sent to a spam folder.

Yahoo has been working to push DomainKeys as a standard for web-based anti-phishing for sometime now.  With Gmail recently picking up the technology, it’s very likely that it will become standardized in the very near future.  Unfortunately, internet criminals are quite persistent and seem to find a way around the most efficient security mechanisms.  Whether you use a free web-based mail system by Yahoo, Gmail or through your own website, the best advice is to never respond to a suspicious email or click on any links.  If a message appears legitimate, contact the company personally and speak with an official representative.  This will determine if someone was trying to bait you with a phishing scam.

The In’s and Out’s of Domain Names

Domain names are what allow internet users to easily navigate without having to remember IP addresses.  Instead of typing in a long number, you type in a name that is usually much easier to remember.  Domain names are generally referred to by their TLDs (top-level domains) with the most common being .com, .net and .org among others.  The name to the left of the TLD is considered a second-level domain with the levels going as high as third, fourth and so on.

In the Beginning

Domains first surfaced back in 1985, starting with only six.  The popularity of today’s internet and World Wide Web has lead to several types of domains, many of which are still intended to identify certain entities and make it easy for users to find specific content.  When introduced by the World Wide Web, both .com and .org where intended for different purposes. .com was intended to represent commercial entities while .org was to be used by organizations.  The second-level domain was meant to identify a specific entity or business with the third-level usually specifying the location of the host server.  The high demand of .com resulted in a number of non-commercial entities seeking to own website addresses under this TLD.

Domain Abuse

Domain names have been a hot commodity for sometime and are widely abused.  Cyber squatting is one such exploit which describes someone trying to generate traffic to their site by leveraging the name of a well known company.  While laws have been set in place to protect prominent internet companies, another ploy known as reverse domain hijacking emerged and brought forth a slew of new problems.  Reverse domain hijacking refers to a company or individual claiming a domain as their own trademark when someone else actually has legal rights to it.  Despite the internet’s growth and the phenomenon behind domain names, there is still no one organization designated to govern this huge system.

Because domain names have been around for years, many of the good ones are no longer available.  This has caused many people to resort to complicated names or those that don’t necessarily suit their business.  It has also lead some to register unique domains by taking the name of any existing third-level domain and adding different symbols to mimic popular companies.  This is a strategy often employed by scam artists and malicious code writers looking to compromise visitors.

Availability

Domain names are widely available these days, typically sold by companies known as registrars and even web hosting providers.  The price for a domain varies from company to company but the cost is significantly cheaper than past times.  Well known domain registrars such as GoDaddy may sale domains at anywhere from $5 to $10 per year while a web hosting company might offer a free domain and registration for purchasing a monthly plan.

With so many companies offering service, buying a domain is easy, though you may not always get the name you want.  If you have something clever it mind, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to secure it now before its no longer on the market.