All about Money

This begs the question: If we aren’t reading these and it’s illegal, why are they continuing to send them out? The answer is simple: money. Sending out messages in this manner costs the sender less than it costs the impacted parties. Its simple economies of scale, as the number of spam emails sent out increases, the cost per message decreases.

Most email users check their accounts multiple times throughout the day. This gives spammers the opportunity to send multiple messages. Many of these messages appear to be legitimate emails allowing them to slide past spam filters and become more difficult to sort.

The Math behind Email Spam

The cost per message for a sender is the charge for the internet connection plus the time expended to actually create the message. On the other hand, the cost per message for the recipient is the charge for the internet connection and mailbox charges, plus the time to process the mail.

Spamming Methods

Some spammers do not pay anything for sending out emails by hijacking resources that belong to other users. Also, there are many software programs available that make spamming emails an automated process. Other spammers do not use mailing lists, they simply assault a target domain sending emails to all those on that domain name. This is accomplished by sending the same email to all possible letter combinations.

Scams

There are many email scams that appear in user’s inboxes everyday. These include winning money in a foreign country and all the user has to do is send a small check. Others involve messages from banks requesting account information or credit card information. Furthermore, some claim the user has won a prize and must click a specific link to claim the prize.

Conclusion

Consequently spam is an effective method of extracting personal information or reaching users because it’s cheap (or free) and large groups see the message. Since spammers are becoming more creative, many of the messages look interesting and legitimate. Most email systems offer some type of spam blocker. Unfortunately this doesn’t work 100% of the time. A good rule of thumb, if you don’t know who the email is from delete it.

Related posts:

• September 23, 2011 – A Look at Various Anti-Spam Packages
• September 4, 2011 – Spam Assassin – Your Savior From Spam
• June 29, 2011 – How to Conduct a Background Check for Web Hosting Providers
• April 13, 2011 – Using Captcha Scripts to Prevent Spam
• March 2, 2011 – The Release of the February 2011 Email Security Report
• January 13, 2011 – Why Reliable Web Hosting?
• October 4, 2010 – The Disadvantages Associated With POP3 Email
• August 24, 2010 – 3 Tips for Preventing Excessive Hosting Spam
• June 7, 2010 – Issues to Consider when Implementing Anti-Spam Systems
• February 16, 2010 – How to Prevent Spam Attacks – Protecting Your Inbox

1. POP3 Email Accounts – An example of a POP3 email account would be “yourname@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.

Related posts:

• October 18, 2011 – coLinux: can Linux and Windows co-exist?
• December 17, 2009 – The Power of Cube Panel
• August 28, 2009 – Five Reasons to Choose Unix Hosting
• April 23, 2009 – Choosing a Hosting Platform for Your Business
• December 17, 2008 – The Advantages and Disadvantages of Ensim
• January 3, 2012 – Battle of the Giants: Linux and Windows Compared
• October 13, 2011 – A Comparison of the Most Popular Linux Distributions
• September 22, 2011 – How And When To Offer SSH Access To Your Customers
• September 14, 2011 – Linux Web Hosting – What Makes it Click?
• January 25, 2011 – 4 Crucial Aspects to Consider When Choosing a Web Hosting Plan

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.

Related posts:

• December 7, 2009 – Top Three Control Panels to Consider When Choosing a Web Host
• May 1, 2009 – Free Control Panel Software for Your Server
• April 28, 2009 – Plesk: The Multipurpose Control Panel
• October 13, 2008 – Control Panels: cPanel vs. Ensim
• January 21, 2010 – Parallel’s Plesk: Flexibility and Functionality
• December 17, 2009 – The Power of Cube Panel
• February 27, 2009 – Control Panel Options for Resellers
• February 13, 2009 – cPanel Then and Now
• November 3, 2008 – A Control Panel for Your Dedicated Server
• October 28, 2008 – Pairing Control Panels and Platforms