web hosting

phpWCMS for Easy Content Management

When equipped with the right CMS, you can build a website that is fast, feature-rich, easy to deploy and manage.  A user-friendly system will help you effectively separate content from the website layout and allow inexperienced community users to publish their own material.  If you have a site that requires frequent updates but do not want to spend hours upon hours making the necessary changes, a CMS like phpWCMS can make your life much easier.

What is phpWCMS?

phpWCMS is an open-source, web-based CMS scripted in the widely used PHP server-side programming language.  Like many open-source software applications, it uses a MySQL database to store all website data with the exception of converted images and uploaded files.  phpWCMS is divided into a frontend and backend.  The frontend is for presenting the site while the backend is only accessible to registered administrators and users.  With backend access, members of your community can login and modify template settings, manage their own content and much more.  The learning curve for phpWCMS is much shorter in comparison to other systems, making this software ideal for beginner and intermediate users.  Ease of use and user-friendly features often make it the preferred choice over comparable systems like Typo3.

As a cross-platform application, phpWCMS runs efficiently on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X operating systems.  In addition, the backend translates into 13 different languages including English, Danish, Dutch, Italian and Swedish.

phpWCMS Features

The phpWCMS software is extremely rich in terms of features.  Below we have listed some of the most notable:

Unlimited page layouts - The built-in, customizable Page Layout Wizard allows you to mix and match elements to create as many page layouts as you want.

Unlimited templates – The Template Editor features support for custom HTML headers,  JavaScript onload functions and CSS stylesheets that enable the creation of unlimited themes.

Simple content management - Building your site is made easy with numerous content parts.  You articles and blog posts can have summaries, redirections and other parts that distinguish it from the layout.

Multiple WYSIWYG editors – The phpWCMS HTML editors give you the ability to build your site with little to no programming knowledge.  In addition, such a wide variety ensures that your creation looks good in popular web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera.

Multiple content parts - Content comes in many different variations and phpWCMS is able to support many.  The software handles images, articles, multimedia files, newsletters, custom search forms, sitemaps, guestbooks and more.

Although phpWCMS is loaded with an array of useful features, it does not support a great number of add-on modules and therefore, it is not as flexible as more robust content management systems.  For this reason, it is recommended for small to medium sized websites.

Where to find phpWCMS

As an open-source application, phpWCMS is free to use and can be downloaded from the official project website.  In order to enjoy the benefits, you will need a web host that supports the software.  Because the system has become extremely popular, it is becoming easier to find.  phpWCMS is now offered in many web hosting packages as a one-click installation through control panels like cPanel and Plesk.

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.

Do You Need Dedicated Hosting?

Has your online business grown to the point where it exceeds the offerings of a shared hosting environment?  If so, it might to time to upgrade to dedicated hosting.  Often referred to as a dedicated server, dedicated hosting is a solution where you have the entire server to yourself.  The hosting provider monitors the hardware, routing equipment and network connectivity while granting you control over the server software.   Though more complex and expensive than shared hosting, leasing a dedicated server gives you the unparalleled flexibility and control needed to run a thriving business that experiences a high volume of web traffic.

Because of its highly technical nature, many online business owners elect to outsource the administrative tasks of their dedicated servers to experienced IT professionals.  Despite the costs and complexity, dedicated hosting can serve numerous benefits to your business, especially if you have the resources required to maintain the server.  Below are just a few of many advantages you will enjoy with this advanced web hosting solution.

Faster Server Response

One of the biggest knocks on shared hosting is slow server response time which is the direct result of sharing the machine and associated resources with other customers.  In this hosting environment, the performance of your site could suffer drastically if another site experiences a sudden boost in traffic.  This spells bad news for your business when potential clients stop by and are greeted by pages that take forever to load.  With dedicated hosting, you have the server all to yourself, allowing you to plan for traffic levels and any other scenarios that may impact server response time.

Flexibility

What most business owners love about dedicated hosting is the flexibility it grants.  In a shared hosting environment, you are limited to the operating system, software and technologies provided the web host.  A dedicated server allows you to choose your own operating system be it Windows or Linux, as well as customized software applications that best suite your business.

Scalability

Scalability is what you need to support the growth of your business.  Whereas options for upgrading are limited on a shared server, dedicated hosting allows you to scale up or down at any time.  With this hosting solution you can increase the amount of storage space, RAM processors and even purchase additional bandwidth to support an increase in web traffic.

Security

Security is one of the biggest reasons to consider dedicated hosting.  Try as they may, a shared hosting provider can never guarantee the security you get with your own server.  A dedicated server will be as secure as you make it as firewalls, virus protection and other security mechanisms can be installed.  The security of your applications and client data should be of the utmost importance if you are running a business.

Conclusion

Aside from all the benefits, you should also know that dedicated hosting isn’t suited for everyone.  For instance, if you are running a small business with low to medium traffic, a shared server is probably the best option.  After establishing your business to a point where it requires more flexibility, only then should you consider moving up to dedicated hosting.