web hosting

Free Hosting Is Not Always The Best Choice

With the economy hitting not only the individual but also businesses, many are looking toward free web hosting services to house their online site.  For monetary reasons, this looks great on the surface.  But going free is not always the best choice and may, in fact, cost your business money in the long run.

Ads

While a company may offer hosting at no cost, they are by no means not making money off of your site.  Nearly all free hosting offers will involve advertising placed on your pages.  These will be completely out of your control.  Some companies try to gear ads toward being relevant to the site topic but this isn’t always guaranteed.  Add in the very real fact that your competition may be placed on your web site and this can equal a loss of revenue for you.

No control

Another downside to hosting for free is a severe lack of control.  Most free hosting companies do not offer a control panel or an ftp access account to allow administration of a web site.  This means you cannot make page changes on the fly or add in programs that may be needed by your business.  If you are a retail business, this means no ability to add in a shopping cart or software that helps you control your inventory.  Putting a bit of tracking coding is not an option unless you can have access to the page coding.  Even attempting to change the look of your web site can be an issue.  Some free hosting sites will give you access to templates and a few will even allow some minor changes made to backgrounds.  But, all said, you are very limited to what you can do within your own site.

Support

Support is another problem with free web hosting.  You’ll be limited to perhaps some online forum areas to ask your questions but you won’t have numbers to call, ticket support systems or one of many options offered by paid hosting.  If your business site isn’t working, this can end up costing you a lot of money.

Affordable solutions

Paid hosting these days really doesn’t put a huge dent in your pocketbook.  Some hosting companies run specials on a regular basis and you’re sure to find one that will fit your budget.  You can find hosting from as low as $3-$5 a month, depending on what your business web site requires.  Many of these companies also give a lot of great features for your money – including unlimited web space, unlimited bandwidth and a huge assortment of easy to install programs to get your site up and running quickly.

What it boils down to

When all is said and done, you need to ensure your business is hosted with a company that you can rely on for support and also one that gives you the needed tools to ensure your online site is a success.  This is one time when you do not want to “tighten your belt” or “pinch pennies.”  Do a bit of research and find a good, solid hosting company with a price you can afford.

VPS Web Hosting – Do Your Really Need a Control Panel?

Control panels are certainly a vital element in today’s web hosting operation, helping to transform complex tasks into simple processes that can be handled by users of varying skill levels.  The vendors that distribute these products and the hosting industry in general have no trouble pushing the software on the market, but critics are now questioning whether control panels are truly necessary in the VPS environment and what value they actually provide.

Potential Issues

In terms of performance and security, industry leading control panels such as cPanel and Plesk are not always what they are cracked up to be.  These powerful applications consume a great deal of resources and often force customers to upgrade their packages to continuously thrive in a VPS hosting environment.  This consumption is due to HTTPD processes ran by web servers like Apache that make a VPS more susceptible to performance issues and less able to handle exploits such as DOS (Denial of Service) attacks.  Though very useful, cPanel and Plesk are both resource hogs that are more likely to reduce the overall responsiveness and performance of web applications, leading customers to upgrade to more costly packages they do not necessarily need.  In addition to this, even simple tasks such as creating email account and managing databases are slow and lagging processes that generally take too long to complete.

Alternative VPS Control Panels

cPanel and Plesk are ideal for shared and dedicated hosting arrangements but could result in more problems then you bargained for when using them with a virtual private server.  Two more efficient control panels you may want to consider for your VPS hosting solution are DirectAdmin and LxAdmin as both are incredibly lightweight and consume notably less system resources than cPanel and Plesk.  This essentially means they are far more responsive, faster and likely to give you a better performance than the leading products.  A number of tests are increasingly showing that they are also more stable and secure than the competition.

Many observers are stepping out to the make the claim that cPanel’s days as a VPS control panel are numbered, attributing this to the fact that is the most resource leeching solution.  Due to its mass popularity and widespread use, it is also among the highly targeted by hackers, which presents numerous potential security risks to your hosting environment and sensitive data.  For this reason, you may want to carefully consider utilizing this control panel with your virtual private server.  Unless you have a robust VPS plan with a lot of RAM or absolutely require automation, it might be worth the risk to install a glamorous commercial product.

Conclusion

We are not telling you to refrain from using cPanel or Plesk as both are on top of the control panel market for obvious reasons.  However, in many situations, going with a lighter product or performing command line administration will allow you to get the job done in a faster, more efficient and secure manner.  Fortunately, there are several control panel applications specifically designed for the VPS environment, better assuring the optimal performance and adequate security you need to thrive with your web presence.

Top Four Reasons to use Cube Panel

Created by software company Biztology, Cube Panel is a control panel application that provides the ultimate in automation to simplify the process of managing a server or website.  Though overshadowed by more popular options such as cPanel and Plesk, this control panel is very capable and a worthy competitor on the market.  If you are currently considering a control panel for your server, this article will give you four reasons why Cube Panel makes an excellent choice.

1.) Powerful and Intuitive

While the software is loaded with a host of features, the Cube Panel interface is simple and refreshingly intuitive.  Similar to cPanel, the main page is where you will find the most essential features and virtually everything you need.  There is a small column to the left of the page that gives a brief overview of your statistics as well as information on resources such as email accounts, FTP accounts and MySQL databases.  Whether it is composing mailing lists or installing SSL certificates, Cube Panel makes sure it can all be done with ease.

2.) Cross-Platform Solution

Unlike cPanel, Cube Panel not only supports the Linux operating system, but Unix and Windows platforms as well.  And unlike Plesk, it does so with maximum efficiency to give you the best performance possible.  This factor alone gives it a considerable advantage over some of the most popular control panel programs.

3.) Integrated Data Backup Functionality

Losing the important data on your server can result in major headaches and detrimental ramifications for your business.  Cube Panel makes this a less likely scenario by providing a built-in utility that enables you to backup every piece of data.  All you have to do is click the “Backup copies” button to launch the Backup Management feature.  From here, you can instantly create a single copy of your website, or choose increments based on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule.  Cube Panel makes it simple to protect your data and easily restore it directly from a user-friendly interface.

4.) Extensive Domain Options

Cube Panel’s domain features serve as a great benefit to the hosting customer.  Its domain options are divided into two separate pages: Domain Permissions and Domain Limits.  The Domain Permissions page gives you an overview of the features specific to your web hosting account.  This includes what type of server-side programming support you have, where you stand in regard to FTP access and so forth.  The Domain Limits page displays all the services and resources specific to your account.  For example, it shows the total number of email accounts you are able to create, how much disk space is available to you, bandwidth allotment and much more.  These features allow you to easily keep track of your account and determine when upgrades are required.

Conclusion

The selling point of Cube Panel is simplicity.  Even though it provides many useful features, the mere design of the software makes for convenient navigation and great performance.  Although a license will cost you around a $100, you can test out it for free with Cube Panel Lite,  a limited version that still lends a great deal of power to server administrators.  Keep your eyes on this control panel because it could be a major player in the very near future.

Common E-commerce Hosting Terminology

Choosing an e-commerce hosting plan can be extremely difficult for two reasons.  One is because there are so many options available to you.  The second is all the confusing terminology and technical jargon a hosting provider will throw at you.  This article will aim to clear up some of that confusion.

Affiliate Program – An affiliate program refers to a revenue sharing program where webmasters can earn commission by generating leads, traffic or sales of a web hosting service.  If you feel that have signed up with a respectable hosting provider, you may be interested in their affiliate program to earn some extra cash.

ASP - Active Server Pages is a technology that allows developers to create dynamic, database-driven websites.  The web server processes the ASP code and then translates it into HTML for your visitors to view.

Auto Responder – An auto responder is an automated program that can be configured to acknowledge the receipt of an email, and automatically sends a reply to the sender.  This is an effective tool for keeping base with clients when you’re away from the desk or on vacation.

Backbone - A backbone refers to a single high-speed line or a series of connections that enable a pathway to a network such as the internet.  The more backbones or the higher the capacity, the higher level of availability your site will enjoy.

CGI Scripts - Common Gateway Interface scripts are small programs installed into a web server.  They are designed to perform specific tasks and enable functionality that a simple HTML document cannot.

Control Panel – A control panel is a software package that allows hosting providers and customers to simplify various web server tasks.  This type of application gives you the ability to easily maintain your mailboxes, files, manage domains and more even if you have little to no experience.

Dedicated Server – Also called dedicated hosting, a dedicated server describes a situation where you lease service from a hosting provider and get the entire server to yourself.  This in contrast to shared hosting, which hence, calls for you to share the server with other customers.

IP Address – An IP address is a unique numerical code used to specify hosts (computers) and networks.  Every machine connected to the internet has its own IP address.

Reseller Hosting – Reseller hosting is a type of hosting where a customer purchases service from a provider and then sells hosting package to customers of their own.  This has become a popular and affordable way for entrepreneurs and small businesses to profit from the web hosting market.

Shared Hosting - Shared hosting refers to a hosting arrangement where multiple websites are stored on a single server.  This is the most affordable and common type of web hosting there is.

Web Host – The web host is the company who provides you with the e-commerce hosting solution.  They run computers known as severs that have dedicated lines to the internet.  The purpose of a web host is to serve your pages to internet users and assure its availability.

Move Over cPanel: Make Room for Kloxo

Formerly known as Lxadmin, Kloxo is a control panel that usually accompanies CentOS Linux-based VPS hosting packages.  Offering a comprehensive web-based interface, the software enables various administrative tasks including database administration, domain and sub-domain management, email and file management, resource distribution and more.  While more robust VPS control panels like HyperVM are mainly used for general management tasks such as maintaining server resources and power control, Klox is designed for everyday administration, making it a tool you will certainly want to become familiar with.  However, because the two applications are so tightly integrated, all of Kloxo’s functions be accessed directly from the HyperVM control panel.

Kloxo Benefits

Kloxo built a reputation as a control panel that consumes very few system resources.  Lxlabs, its developers, claim that it is the lightest application on the global control panel market as the software only requires 15 MB of memory to run.  Since the program only requires minimal resources, hosting customers can get unrivaled speed and performance out of their VPS solution.  Aside from being extremely lightweight and highly functional, Kloxo also offers a 5-tier security model and many advanced, yet user-friendly features.

Kloxo Key Features

The main features of the Kloxo control panel can be broken down into five categories: General Account Management, Server Tools, Email Management, Security and System Services.

General Account Management

Domain and Sub-domain Control

DNS Template Management

Web-based File Manager

SSL Certificate Installation and Management

Resource Plan Management

Data Backup and Restoration

SSH (Secure Shell Host) Access

Device Driver Configuration

Resource Monitoring

Reboot and Power-off Control

Server Tools

MySQL and Postgre SQL database administration

Ability to Add and Delete Dedicated IP Addresses

FTP Session Management

PHP, modPHP and suPHP Configuration

phpMyAdmin Access

Web Server and DNS Applications

Email Management

Ability to Create and Delete Email Accounts

Web-based Mail Interface

Email Queue Access

Multiple Spam Filtering Applications

Security

SSH Configuration

Ability to block and delete local hosts

Watchdog application to FTP, mail and web servers

Brute Force Attack Monitoring Provided by LxGuard

System Services

Server Process Status Menu

Server Service Status Menu

Server Components Status Menu

HTTP, Mail and MySQL Logs

Cron job and Task Scheduler

InstallApp

One of the most popular features of Kloxo is a built-in model known as InstallApp.  This utility is quite similar to the Fantastico application that comes bundled with cPanel.  The major difference is that InstallApp offer more than 130 add-on programs.  Some of the software on the menu include blogs, forums, ports, customer relations applications and much more.  InstallApp allows these programs to be created with ease as it automatically creates a database and configuration for the chosen application.

Hosting with Kluxo

You can enjoy Kloxo and all it has to offer with virtually any VPS hosting provider utilizing the HyperVM control panel.  Virtualization has its complexities but Kloxo should be easy to use for anyone that is familiar with cPanel.  Most VPS administrators appreciate the panel’s many Linux friendly features while end-users find comfort in its user-friendly design.