web hosting

cPanel Then and Now

cPanel is an award-winning control panel you will find offered in numerous web hosting plans.  Its web-based Graphical User Interface is designed to provide users with the ability to handle website administration with ease, a reason why this control panel is preferred by many novice users.

Owned and distributed by cPanel Inc., the software is intended for the use of commercial web hosting companies, meaning it requires the purchase of a license.  However, cPanel is available for certain entities at discounted prices.  For example, non-profit organizations such as educational institutions can obtain a cPanel license for a reduced cost and sometimes free.  Dedicated and managed hosting companies can also purchase licenses at a reduced price when installing the control panel with their operating system.  cPanel is platform specific and runs on the Linux operating system.  Some of the variations it supports include CentOS, Fedora, Mandiva, Red Hat and SUSE among others.

Brief History of cPanel

The cPanel software was originally designed for Speed Hosting, a web hosting company that is now defunct.  Speed Hosting eventually merged with Web King, another web hosting provider that began using the software.  From there, the new company moved its servers to VDI, (Virtual Development Inc.), a web hosting company that is no longer around as well.  An agreement was made and cPanel was only made available to customers hosting with VDI.  It was not until 1999 that cPanel became a significant force on the control panel market.

1999 marked the release of cPanel 3, a version that offered many new improvements, including the addition of WHM (Web Host Manager).  Version 3 underwent a few upgrades including bug fixes and a facelift that gave it the default theme we all know today.  Because of internal conflict between VDI and original developer Nick Koston, the software was divided into two separate control panels – cPanel and WebPanel, with the latter being used by VDI.  Koston went on to work with other web hosts before deciding to focus solely on cPanel.   Now on version 11, cPanel is stable, reliable and the most widely used control panel on the market.

cPanel Features

cPanel offers a great level of control to the end-user, allowing you to handle various operations such as managing files and FTP accounts, administering PGP keys, adding domain names and much more.  The software also supports a number of third-party applications, the most popular being Fantastico.  With Fantastico, you can install a wide variety of programs such as WordPress, phpBB, Drupal, Tiki Wiki, Joomla and more than 50 others.

cPanel sets itself apart from many web hosting control panels with the ability to manage applications independent of the operating system.  For example, it can be used to automatically apply upgrades to software packages like PHP, the MySQL database server and Apache web server.  This functionality helps web hosting companies make sure that packages are always up to date and remain compatible with cPanel.  The power and simplicity of this control panel makes it a number one choice for server administrators and end-users alike.

ResellerChoice Offers Perks to New Clients

To meet growing demands, web hosting provider ResellerChoice, is currently running a sale for new customers.  The company recently debuted a special offer for 20% off its entire line of Windows hosting packages.

Rob Conley of ResellerChoice says the company’s goal is the same as it has always been – deliver its customers feature-rich Windows hosting solutions attached with the maximum uptime and responsive support.  ResellerChoice specializes in a wide range of unique hosting services that allow customers to effectively brand their name into the environment.  Some of the packages up for grabs include ASP.NET hosting, dedicated servers, Hyper-V VPS, Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange hosting.   Along with variety and reliable service, new customers also get the added benefit of a 20% discount when entering the “20OFF” code with their purchase.

ResellerChoice offers Windows web hosting solutions designed for small to large sized businesses.  The company also delivers services to suit the needs of Windows developers and web designers.  Making a commitment to reliability, ResellerChoice provides each of its customers with the following:

• Advanced security features
• Nightly data backups
• 24/7 customer service and technical support
• 99.9% uptime guarantee
• Maximum service level agreement
• 30-day money back guarantee

ResellerChoice is a leading provider in Windows reseller hosting solutions.  Its discounted packages include:

Small Business Domain Paks: Regularly starting at $9.95 per month, these entry-level plans come include with programming languages such ASP.NET and PHP as well as databases like MS SQL and MySQL.  When using the discount code, these packages are as low as $7.96 a month.

Enterprise Domain Paks: These solutions offer all the features from the Small Business Domain Paks with the addition of Microsoft SharePoint Hosting.  Regularly $19.95 a month, Enterprise Domain Paks start from $15.96 with the 20% discount.

Small Business Gig Paks: ResellerChoice gives you a lot more with the Small Business Gig Paks. The major draw of these packages is the ability to host unlimited domains, unlimited email accounts and wealth of development tools.  You also get everything offered in the Small Business Domain Pak along with Microsoft SharePoint hosting.  Originally $59.95, these packages are $47.96 a month with the special coupon.

Each plans offers a variety of features including:

• Automated billing system
• Seamless integration with 2Checkout, Authorize.net and PayPal
• The latest versions of ASP.NET, PHP, MySQL and MS SQL
• An easy to use one-click application installer
• Free shared SSL certificate
• Nightly data backups/self backups
• User and Group functionality in SharePoint

About RellerChoice

Founded in 2001, ResellerChoice has made a name in the web hosting business with its powerful Windows hosting solutions.  Aside from selling advanced reseller packages, the company also offers reliable services that range from shared hosting and dedicated servers to CMS and managed hosting.  ResellerChoice designs its hosting solutions to suit the needs of Internet Service Providers and businesses of all size, helping them enjoy the best of Windows hosting and powerful Microsoft products.  The hosting provider has clients across the world with data facilities located in New York City, Seattle, Texas and Washington, D.C.

Top 7 Reasons to Drupal

When it comes to open-source content management systems, they just don’t get any better than Drupal.  This award-winning CMS has been responsible for creating a number of sites including those powered by The Discovery Channel, The New York Observer and Yahoo.  If you’re considering open-source solutions, this article will give you seven reasons why Drupal makes the best choice.

1. Search Engine Friendly – Drupal offers enhanced control over URL structure, making this CMS search engine friendly right out of the box.  Each piece of content can become customized with clean URLs that better your chances of ranking well in the search engines.

2.  Custom Content - The CCK (Content Construction Kit) in Drupal allows you to easily create various types of content.  Common examples include news stories, blog posts and tutorials.  With the Views Modules feature, you can display these content types in numerous ways.  While the average CMS requires complex coding to enable these tasks, Drupal makes it all simple as no programming experience is required.

3. Revision Control – Drupal allows you to save new versions of your web pages every time they are edited.  This gives you the ability to revert back to your old versions at any time.

4. Advanced Categorization – Drupal’s taxonomy system lets you organize and tag content with ease.  Known as vocabularies, each set of categories can be organized as certain types of content.  For instance, you could have blog content that permits free tagging while other sections can be limited to different list of categories.  When combined with the CCK and View Modules feature, this functionality makes it easy to target keywords you want to implement into your site.

5. User Management - The Drupal CMS was designed to support community-based sites, proven by the enhanced user and access control functionality it offers.  There are no limits to the user roles and access levels you can create and customize.  The best thing about Drupal is that it lets you keep advanced management features disabled and then enable them when your site grows and requires more community features.

6. PHP-based – By default, Drupal uses a PHP template theme engine, allowing you to instantly enhance the presentation of your site.  Applying themes in Drupal is easier than the WordPress environment and as long as the they are completely scripted, you don’t have to know anything about PHP to install them.

7. Excellent Community Support – Of all open-source content management systems, Drupal has one of the largest and most active communities.  You will understand how well supported the CMS is when taking a look at the long scroll of modules that have been contributed to the project.  There are many ways to get support including Drupal forums along with a number of video tutorials, podcasts and online documentation.  Drupal’s popularity gives you the assurance that this CMS will be around for a long time.

Joomla is highly functional yet lacks out of the box search engine friendliness.  WordPress is easy to use but can’t handle larger websites.  Where these systems and other platforms fail, Drupal picks up the slack with instant functionality able to satisfy a wide range of needs.

Managed vs Shared Hosting – Which Type to Consider

Before deciding on a web host, it is important to know that web hosting is available in many different variations.  Two of the most common forms of hosting are shared and managed hosting.  While quite similar, the differences set these types of web hosting apart by far.

Shared Hosting

For someone who only requires a small, basic website, leasing an entire web server just isn’t practical.  If this sounds like you, then shared hosting would be the perfect solution.  It is cost effective and specifically designed to suite the needs of small websites.  With shared hosting, the web host stores multiple websites on single server, allowing them to offer a service that is much cheaper than dedicated hosting.

Web servers are more powerful than the average computer used in the desktop setting.  They offer plenty of disk space as well as RAM and CPU.  The catch is that you are required to share these resources with other customers, a factor that could lead to performance and security issues. If your requirements are minimal, you should be able to find a shared hosting provider able to supply all the resources you need.  However, as your site becomes more popular, it is very likely that you will exceed the resources the web host is able to provide.  In this case, you need to either consider purchasing upgrades that supply you with additional bandwidth, storage capacity and other essential components.  If the provider is not able to accommodate your needs, it is time to move up to a dedicated server and possibly consider managed hosting.

Managed Hosting

Websites that experience a high volume of traffic and run mission-critical business operations are best suited for a dedicated server.  Unlike shared hosting, a dedicated server provides you with all the resources on the machine.  This includes disk space, RAM, CPU and guaranteed bandwidth as well.  On the other hand, a dedicated server calls for you to deal with server administrative tasks that can be very complex and time consuming.

In its purest form, having a dedicated server means you are responsible for all the maintenance.  This includes basic administration to keep the machine thriving on a day to day basis as well addressing any security issues that may arise.  Those who require a dedicated server but are not up for all the technical challenges often opt for managed hosting.

Managed hosting offers benefits to the website owner or business that either lacks the skills required to maintain a dedicated server or simply do not have the time to invest.  You can generally select the options that best suit your needs, freeing you up to concentrate on other vital aspects while the server is maintained by the web host.   When viewing it from this perspective, managed hosting is pretty much like outsourcing your dedicated server tasks to a third-party company.

Making a Choice

Managed hosting is the perfect alternative to the limitations of the shared server and complexity of a dedicated server.  Keep in mind that these benefits come with a higher price tag.  Therefore, it is very important to make sure you truly require this type of service before making an investment.

Six Important Considerations for Domain Name Registration

So,  you have finally decided that you want to make a name for yourself online.  Before you even create the website, it is best to register a domain name first.  As simple as it all sounds, registering a domain is something that calls for careful planning.  Without a strategy, you could end up regretting the chosen name and actually hinder your ability to succeed online.  To avoid those issues, we present you with six critical factors to consider.

Determine the Purpose of Your Site

Before registering a domain name, it makes sense to determine the purpose of your website.  For example, if you are a book distributor and want to sell novels online, you may want to incorporate relative terms into your domain.  If you want to brand your site, come up with something that is unique and can be easily pronounced – Google is a perfect example.

Domain Extension

If at all possible, you want to register your domain name with the popular .com extension.  While this extension is highly recommend, keep in mind that your ideal domain may not be available exactly how you want it.  When this is the case, you should get creative and think of a few combinations that will get you as close to the desired name as possible.  Some options include adding a (-) to the name, although it is not advisable to use more than one.  If you just can’t find that .com, don’t hesitate to use .net or .biz as they make the best alternatives.

Think Keywords

If you want to generate traffic from search engines like Google and Yahoo, it wise to research a few primary keywords relative to your initiative and incorporate them into your domain.  This could possibly boost your search engine rankings and drive in more traffic as well.

Length of Registration

Good domain names are hard to come by.  For this reason, we suggest registering your name for as long possible.  If you prefer to renew each year, be sure to do so on time or you just might lose it to someone else.

Domain Registrars

A domain registrar is what you need to register your domain name.  There are a several registrars to choose from and while they basically offer the same service, you will find that the price tends to range widely.  If you want to save money, you should look into a company that offers free domain registration with the purchase of web hosting service or an inexpensive registrar like GoDaddy.   In general, you should easily be able to find a respectable registrar offering domain registration for $10 or less per year.

Domain Privacy

The last factor you need to consider is the possibility of somebody looking for you on the web.  Anyone can search for domain owners on the WHOIS website.  Depending on what you have going on, you may not want to make this information accessible.  In this case, you could opt for domain privacy which will keep your domain name private on the WHOIS database.  A registrar typically charges an additional fee for this service, but you might find it to be worth the extra costs.