web hosting

Seven Basic Ingredients of Unix Hosting

Though often overshadowed by the market dominated Windows and Linux platform, Unix remains a widely used platform and a popular option for web hosting.  This article will introduce you to seven features commonly found in Unix hosting plans.  Though basic, these features are very important and should not be underestimated.

1.) POP3 Email Accounts – An example of a POP3 email account would be “mailto:yourname@yoursite.comyourname@yoursite.com“.  Most hosting companies will provide you with a large number of email accounts to use for yourself or distribute to your employees.

2.) Webmail and SMTP – As soon as your website goes live, email will likely become your main source of communication.  The tool you need to make this an easy process is a webmail program such as Horde or Squirrelmail.  This process can be even faster when downloading your messages to email clients such as Microsoft Outlook or Eudora.  However, in order for this to work, you need a Unix hosting solution that supports messaging protocols such as IMAP and SMTP.

3.) Spam Filter - It doesn’t matter who you are, no email user is immune to spam messages.  In this day and age of the internet, having a reliable spam filter is a must.  These applications are installed on the web server where your site resides and typically offer features such as blacklisting, whitelisting and greylisting to mitigate spam.  The more flexible filters will allow you to make configurations to tag spam and have it delivered straight to a quarantine folder to keep it from cluttering your inbox.

4.) FTP Accounts - FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a method that allows you to upload your files and maintain them on the server.  A Unix host that supports this protocol usually provides the ability to create a certain number of FTP sub-accounts.  This allows you to provide your clients and users with access to password-protected directories, which is very useful for sharing files in a more efficient and secure manner.

5.) Backup Utility - While most web hosts perform automated backups on a regular basis, you should never put the fate of your website in their hands.  There are many ways to backup your website data, but the easiest way is with a utility specifically designed for this task.  Most of today’s control panels come included with built-in utilities that allow you to easily backup your site in minutes.

6.) Web Stats – Analyzing your visitors and traffic can play a crucial role in the success of your site.  Popular web stat software such as AwStats and Webalizer run on the back-end of the server and can provide you with detailed reports on your statistics.  This can give you the knowledge to make the needed adjustments or additions that increase traffic and boost sales.

7.) PHP and MySQL – Similar to Linux, almost all Unix plans come with support for PHP server-side programming and the MySQL database server.  These features are generally provided for no extra costs and can give you the power to create a dynamic, data-driven website.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Ensim

Control panel software is a main fixture in today’s web hosting packages.  These programs are very important as they give you the ability to manage the essential features of your account from adding domains and creating emails accounts to setting up FTP accounts and performing web-based backups.  While cPanel is efficient and rightfully the leading the control panel software, this program is platform specific and can only be used in certain environments.

Ensim is one control panel available for Windows and Linux platforms.  This powerful software is able to cover a wide range of hosting needs from reseller and dedicated server accounts to providing solutions for small businesses and large enterprises.  Although Ensim does offer benefits over popular applications such as cPanel and Plesk, it does have a few drawbacks as well.

Advantages

The Ensim control panel gives you a well designed professional interface.  There are separate sections dedicated to various components for managing your hosting account.  Although most of  the essential features are made accessible on the screen, they are integrated nicely and serve as more than eye candy.

Unlike many control panels, Ensim supports a wide range of operating systems including Web and Standard versions of Windows along with Linux-based systems such as Fedora and RedHat.

Additionally, Ensim offers the same interface for all levels of control.  This enables familiarity for anyone that needs to use a control panel with a combination of root, reseller, end-user and mail user capabilities.

The Ensim control panel is powered by in-house software and doesn’t rely on third-party solutions.  One inclusion is Ensim Power Tools, a program that is comparative to the Fantastico script installer found on cPanel accounts.  Another Ensim tool is the built-in spam filter that performs well with the pre-installed webmail utility.  New versions also include comprehensive reporting tools for viewing critical resources and web stats.

Disadvantages

Despite its professional appearance, one of the biggest knocks on Ensim is that the interface is incredibly difficult to skin.  You can however, incorporate logos for your brand with relative ease.  In this regard, cPanel offers more extensive branding as Ensim has very few skins available.

Another disadvantage of Ensim is that it isn’t as widely installed as cPanel, a factor that presents challenges to the reseller.  This could be a turn off to potential clients who are not aware of the software and its capabilities.  Additionally, end-users may find the interface more difficult to navigate than the simple, yet user-friendly environment of cPanel.  Despite its professional structure, the newer versions of Ensim appear to be more geared for the experienced webmaster.  Fortunately, the software does offer tons of documentation to help you get more familiar with navigation and all the essentials.

Conclusion

As you can see, Ensim does have minimal drawbacks along with a plethora of features that make it a solid choice for web hosting.  The advantages greatly outweigh the disadvantages as this control panel has the ability to do what others can’t.  Whether you are looking to dabble with shared hosting or something more flexible such as a VPS, the Ensim software can provide the tools needed to effectively manage your business.