Friday, December 11, 2009

What Is A Computer Server?

In a network computer, a server is both a set of software and the host computer whose role is to respond automatically to requests sent by clients - computers and software - via the network.

The servers are commonly used in the centers of data processing, enterprises, institutions, and the Internet, where they are often a focal point and are used simultaneously by many users to store, share and exchange information. Different airlines operate from a client personal computer, workstation or terminal.

The World Wide Web, electronic mail and file sharing are some applications that make use of servers.

Uses Of Server

The main uses of a server are:

File Server (English file server) is used for storing and sharing files. The files placed in the mass storage server can be handled simultaneously by multiple clients;
The print server is used as an intermediary between a set of clients and a set of printers. Each client can send documents to print to printers connected to the server;
Server database is used to store and manipulate data contained in one or more databases and shared between multiple clients;
The mail server is used to store and transmit electronic mail. The outgoing mail is sent to the recipient’s server. The mail arrived is stored on the server and is searchable by the client;
The web server stores and manipulates the pages of a Web site and transmit the request to the client (see web browser);
The game server will and follows the evolution of a game and it brings together different players in a multi-player online games;
The application server is a generic term for a server that performs the processing of one or more software application to client / server architecture;
The proxy receives applications, control, and then transmit them to other servers. It can be used to expedite the processing of applications, or enforce regulations filtering (censorship, privacy, etc.)

Example of use on the Internet: Google web application works with about 15,000 servers to low-end divided into clusters of 40 to 80 servers in various centers of data processing in the world.

Self-hosting is for an individual to use his personal computer as a server, and make it available through his personal internet connection. The user avoids costs due to a contract with a web host. It may well have its own web server (LAMP, WAMP, etc.) and, using a dynamic DNS (in), having its own domain name. Furthermore, some hosts allocate a fixed IP address. These are subject to a surcharge.

Server Hardware

A server is a computer designed to respond to requests via a network. Miscellaneous assemblers and manufacturers such as HP, Sun and IBM sell computers optimized for this purpose.

These are typically high-end machines designed to serve many clients simultaneously. The machines are equipped with a powerful processor or multiple processors, memory and hard disk speed, high capacity, and of course, consists a network interface.

The servers run without intervention, 24 hours out of 24, 99.9% of the time. The average length of stay of servers varies between 36 minutes and 10 hours per year.

The servers can be mounted in rack 19 inches, which allows stacking. They can be equipped with devices preventing failures and loss of information, such as RAID devices: the information is copied onto multiple hard drives in order to avoid irretrievable loss in case of failure of a hard disk.

The consolidation of multiple servers in a cluster can be apportioned, and ensures that customers are served even in case of stopping a server.

A Network Attached Storage is a turnkey appliance, designed as file server. There are also devices turnkey print servers.

The servers are sometimes connected to storage networks: a set of servers is connected by a fiber network to a set of hard drives. The storage battery hard drive is divided into partitions divided between servers.

An appliance server software can run multiple servers simultaneously and to serve many users simultaneously. A server is often manipulated, and the keyboard and the screen (if any) are used primarily for maintenance, repair and control.

A database server (in 2008) has an electrical power of 200 W with an estimated power consumption of all computer servers to about (for example) 450 TWh to France and 4,000 TWh for the United States.

Operating Systems For Servers

There are many operating systems optimized for server work, particularly in families Unix, Mac OS X and Windows NT.

In these operating systems with emphasis is on computer security, especially confidentiality and availability, and the ability to perform many treatments simultaneously. The man-machine interface is often poorly developed, the servers are rarely handled.

In operating systems for server, a preemptive multitasking kernel provides the simultaneous execution of multiple processes. Each process is executed in a confined space (also called the “Sandbox”) so that the crash or unexpected behavior of this process does not affect other processes.

To ensure confidentiality, each process is attached to a user account (typically on behalf of the user running the application), and each transaction is subject to a control mechanism which will allow access or deny based permissions information, checklists or access privileges.

The servers being used by network operating system is equipped with various softwares to be used with many protocols involved, and can be used as a relay or routing. Other server software are included in the operating system.

The servers are often used to store large amounts of data. The operating system can perform automatically on regular routine tasks in “batch”. These are typical tasks of backup or archiving data.

As a minor, the man-machine interface of an operating system for server is undeveloped, and multimedia capabilities are limited: the machines often have no sound card.

The X Window System is a software man-machine interface in client-server included in almost all UNIX operating systems.

Server Software

Starting and running software is done without human intervention, it can occur when you start the computer (also called “boot”) or upon request. Nothing is displayed on the screen and the software is invisible.

A given server software can co-operate with any client that uses the same protocol. Similarly, a software client can co-operate with any server using the same protocol.

File Server

A file server responds to requests for the creation, moving, deleting, reading, modification or blocking of a file. Files are stored in mass storage server - mostly the hard disk - and handled according to customer requests.

The file servers are often included in operating systems. CIFS is the protocol of the file server and print included in Windows operating systems. NFS is a common protocol for file servers for UNIX operating systems. Samba is a CIFS server for UNIX operating systems. FTP is a protocol file server commonly used on the Internet.

A NAS is hardware / software turnkey intended exclusively for use as file server. The NAS recognizes several protocols.

Print Server

A print server responds to requests related to digital printing. The documents are placed in queues and then sent to the printers.

The applications involve manipulating queues (one for each printer): reading the content, adding or deleting documents, queuing, and priorities. The server automatically sends the documents one after another to the printer. Documents may undergo changes in format to suit the characteristics of the destination printer. PCL and PostScript data formats common in digital printing.

CIFS is the protocol print servers and files included in Windows operating systems. CUPS is a print server running on Unix operating systems. JetDirect is a range of print servers in the form of an expansion card to put in the Hewlett Packard.

Operating Systems For Servers

There are many operating systems optimized for server work, particularly in families Unix, Mac OS X and Windows NT.

The servers are often used to store large amounts of data. The operating system can perform automatically on regular routine tasks in “batch”. These are typical tasks of backup or archiving data.

As a minor, the man-machine interface of an operating system for server is undeveloped, and multimedia capabilities are limited: the machines often have no sound card.

The X Window System is a software man-machine interface in client-server included in almost all UNIX operating systems.

Server Software

A given server software can co-operate with any client that uses the same protocol. Similarly, a software client can co-operate with any server using the same protocol.

File Server

A NAS is hardware / software turnkey intended exclusively for use as file server. The NAS recognizes several protocols.

Print Server

A print server responds to requests related to digital printing. The documents are placed in queues and then sent to the printers.

UK Web Hosting Company

For businesses and individuals whose websites are aimed at a UK based audience, using a UK web hosting company is important to ensure that they receive a high search engine ranking for search terms related to their website in UK search results. Although UK basedw web hosting tends to cost more than web hosting that is based in other parts of the world, UK based web hosting if worth that extra cost for businesses and individuals who want to get their websites into the top ranks for local search terms related to the content or purpose of their website. UK web hosting companies tend to provide the same level of support and customer service that you would find provided by US based webhosting providers, although the prices for such web hosting packages may be greater and you may find that their web hosting support is outsourced to a specialist support provider for one reason or another. Anyone can purchase a UK web hosting package from a UK web hosting company, but it isn’t worth paying the extra cost if you aren’t going to be aiming your website at a UK based audience. You will also find that UK server connections may not necessarily be as fast as server connections in other parts of the world are.

UK web hosting costs more than US based web hosting because of many different factors, none of which can be changed in any way to make the cost of UK based web hosting cheaper. If you want to have your website displayed high in UK search listings if for example you are aiming it at a UK based audience, then you will probably find that paying a premium for UK based web hosting will be beneficial to you if anything. Some of the factors that can effect the cost of UK web hosting include:

VAT - a majority of UK web hosting companies include the cost of VAT within the overall price of their products, whereas some add it on top of the prices that they set out for their web hosting products - either way, VAT is something that can increase the cost of UK web hosting packages by quite a bit
bandwidth - data centres and colocation providers like to charge UK web hosting providers more for the bandwidth they use than they would be charged in the USA, and since each web hosting package needs to make use of bandwidth in order to pass traffic through, it is one of the highest costs incurred on a UK web hosting package
disk space/server colocation - server colocation in the UK costs alot more than in the USA, and since UK web hosting companies host their servers in professional UK based data centres, the cost of a UK web hosting package can rise because of the cost of colocating a server
support - if the UK web hosting company that you are using provides UK based support, then their web hosting packages are going to be more expensive because UK based web hosting support comes at a high cost.

Because these different factors can have a large effect on the price that you pay for UK web hosting, it is important that you find a UK web hosting company that can suit your needs. If you aren’t aiming your website at a UK based audience then you won’t need to consider UK based web hosting but can instead use a US based web hosting solution.

UK Web Hosting Company

VAT - a majority of UK web hosting companies include the cost of VAT within the overall price of their products, whereas some add it on top of the prices that they set out for their web hosting products - either way, VAT is something that can increase the cost of UK web hosting packages by quite a bit
bandwidth - data centres and colocation providers like to charge UK web hosting providers more for the bandwidth they use than they would be charged in the USA, and since each web hosting package needs to make use of bandwidth in order to pass traffic through, it is one of the highest costs incurred on a UK web hosting package
disk space/server colocation - server colocation in the UK costs alot more than in the USA, and since UK web hosting companies host their servers in professional UK based data centres, the cost of a UK web hosting package can rise because of the cost of colocating a server
support - if the UK web hosting company that you are using provides UK based support, then their web hosting packages are going to be more expensive because UK based web hosting support comes at a high cost.

Different methods of publishing sites using Plesk control panel..

Here’s a brief documentation on creating & publishing sites using different methods. Once you add a Domain in Plesk control panel, you can create your site content (Web pages, scripts & graphic files that compose your site) on your home or office computer & then publish it to the web server in any of the following ways:

* Through FTP connection (most common & easiest way),
* Through Plesk File Manager,
* Through Adobe Dreamweaver or Microsoft FrontPage software.

Let’s go through each of the following processes one-by-one.

1) Publishing Sites Through FTP:

Connect to the server with any FTP client program, using FTP account credentials that you specified during setup of hosting account or obtained from us in the welcome email. Ensure that the passive mode is enabled if you are behind a firewall.
Upload files & directories that should be accessible through HTTP protocol to the httpdocs directory.
Place your CGI scripts into the cgi-bin directory.
Close your FTP session as you’re done with publishing the site using the FTP method

2) Uploading Sites Through Plesk File Manager:

Log in to Plesk control panel.
Click the domain name you need.
Click File Manager in the Hosting group.
Create & upload files & directories.

Place the files & directories that should be accessible via HTTP protocol to the httpdocs directory. Place your CGI scripts into the cgi-bin directory.

* To create a new directory within your current location, click Add New Directory in the Tools group, specify the directory name & click OK.

* To create new files in the required directory, click Add New File in the Tools group, in the File creation section specify the file name, select the Use html template check box, if you want file manager to insert some basic html tags to the new file, & click OK. A page will open allowing you to enter the content or html-formatted source of a new file. After you are done, click OK.

* To upload a file from the local machine, click Add New File in the Tools group, specify the path to its location in the File source box (or use Browse to locate the file), & click OK. You can upload up to 3 files at once through three separate File Source boxes. If you are uploading an archive file (.zip or .rar), select the corresponding Upload archive & extract it check box to extract the uploaded archive contents in the folder where the file was uploaded.

* To view or edit an existing file, click its name. When editing an HTML file, Plesk opens internal WYSIWYG editor by default. If you want to edit the source code of the HTML file, click Html. To return back to WYSIWYG mode, click Design.

When you upload web content through File Manager or FTP, your control panel automatically sets the appropriate access permissions for files & directories.

* To rename a file or directory, hover on one of the icons which displays the ‘Rename’ text. Type in a new name & click OK.

* To copy or move a file or directory to another location, select the required file or directory using the appropriate check box, & click Copy/Move. Specify the destination for the file or directory to be copied or renamed to, then click Copy to copy, or Move to move it.

* To update the file or directory creation date, click Change Timestamp. The time stamp will be updated with the current local time.

* To remove a file or directory, select the corresponding check box, & click Remove selected icon. Remove Selected. Confirm removal & click OK.

3) a. Publishing Sites from Microsoft FrontPage:

Microsoft FrontPage deals with two kinds of Web sites: disk-based & server-based. In short, a disk-based site is a FrontPage Web site you create on your local hard disk & then later publish to a Web server. A server-based site is one you create & work with directly on a Web server, without the extra step of publishing. Here’re the instructions on publishing only disk-based web sites.

You can publish disk-based web sites either through FTP or HTTP. The server your account is hosted on is running FrontPage Server Extensions, hence you would publish your site to an HTTP location. For example: http://your-domain.com/MyWebSite. If your server supports FTP, you would publish to an FTP location. For example: ftp://ftp.your-domain.com/myFolder.

After publishing, you can manage your site through FrontPage Server Extensions.

To access FrontPage Server Extensions management interface:

Log in to Plesk.
Click the domain name you need.
Click FrontPage Management in the Hosting group.
According to the Microsoft FrontPage support settings of the domain, one of the following icons will appear next to Add New FrontPage Subaccount:
- Click FrontPage WebAdmin to manage a site, which is not protected by SSL.
- Click FrontPage-SSL WebAdmin to manage an SSL-enabled site.
Type your FrontPage administrator’s login name & password, & click OK.

For instructions on using FrontPage server extensions, see online help (FP WebAdmin > Help) or visit Microsoft web site.

3) b. Publishing Sites with Adobe Dreamweaver:

Before publishing a site from Dreamweaver, you need to define the site properties, that is, you need to tell Dreamweaver where your site files are located on your computer, & to specify the server to which you want to publish the site.

To define a site in Dreamweaver:
From the Site menu, choose New Site. The Site Definition screen opens.
Click the Advanced tab.
In the Local Info category, specify the following:
- Site name. This will show in Web browser’s title bar.
- Local root folder. This is the folder on your computer where all of your site files are stored. For example c:\My Site
- Default images folder. Specify the folder where your site’s graphic files are stored. For example c:\My Site\images
- HTTP address. Specify your domain name. For example, http://your-domain.com
From the Category menu, select the Remote Info item.
From the Access menu, select the FTP option. Most likely, your server supports publishing through FTP (File Transfer Protocol, commonly used for transferring files over the Internet).
- FTP host. Type your FTP host name without the ftp:// prefix. For example, your-domain.com.
- Host directory. Specify the directory on the server where your site will reside. In most cases, this is httpdocs.
- Login & password. Specify the login name & password for access to the FTP account.
- Use passive FTP. Select this option only if your computer is behind a firewall.

Specify the following settings:

To ensure that you specified the correct login & password, & that Dreamweaver can connect to the server, click the Test button.
To save the settings, click OK.

Now to publish your site:

Open your site in Dreamweaver.
From the Site menu, select the Put option (or press Ctrl+Shift+U simultaneously), this will make the files to be published over the server.

Getting Started with Web Hosting Business

Platform and Control Panel Choice

The platform on which you are going to base your first reseller hosting package or server is an important choice, since it can affect the final choice of prospective customers because of their needs; the control panel which you choose to provide your customers with can also affect your ability to gain customers - this is because some might be more familiar with one control panel which they have used in the past rather than the one that you have chosen to provide them with. In terms of the platform which you choose to base your web hosting packages on, you are limited to two options which are used by most of the main players within the website hosting industry - these are Windows and Linux; Windows is a commercial operating system which you can only use upon the purchase of a license from its manufacturer, Microsoft - Linux on the other hand is an open source operating system which requires no paid for license to allow you to run it, which means you are able to install it on as many computer as you want without the need to pay for any licenses what-so-ever. Platforms and operating systems you should check out include:

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and 2008 - http://www.microsoft.com/servers/default.mspx
CentOS Linux - http://www.centos.org/
Ubuntu Linux - http://www.ubuntu.org/

There are many different web hosting control panels out there on the market for you to choose from, although your final choice normally boils down to what your web host is able to provide you with since their prices are normally a lot cheaper than if you were to buy a license for a piece of control panel software direct from the supplier; this means that although there may be many different control panels for you to choose from, you are in a sense limited by your web host since they will most likely be unable to provide you with every control panel. When choosing a control panel on which you are going to base your web hosting packages, you should check out all features of the control panels which you are testing - this means that you should always check out the client and reseller panels as well as the administration panel to ensure that you get a good idea of how easy the control panel will be for your customers to use, as well as for the customers of customers to use in terms of resellers; you should also get other people who aren’t so computer ’savvy’ to test out the same control panels as you, since this ensures that the control panel which you choose to base your web hosting packages on is usable for all people. In most cases, the control panel which you choose to base your web hosting packages upon is chosen in relation to the operating system on which you want to base your web hosting packages, since some control panels are only able to work with one operating system whereas others come in multiple versions so that they can be run on most well known operating systems; for example cPanel has been designed for use on Linux distributions only, although a version for Microsoft Windows 2008 is currently in development, and Plesk is a control panel that has been designed for use on both Microsoft Windows and Linux website hosting platforms - this means that you can use the control panel for either operating system. There are many different web hosting control panels on the market, although the main ones which you should take a look at include:

cPanel - http://www.cpanel.net/
Parallels (Formally SWSoft) Plesk - http://www.parallels.com/en/products/plesk/
LXAdmin - http://lxlabs.com/software/lxadmin-sse/

The actual choice of operating system on which you are going to base your web hosting packages can be affected by the skills which you have to administrate a server, in the case that you have opted to go for either a virtual private server or a dedicated server; this is because administering a server can be a complicated task at the best of times, which means that if you don’t have the necessary skills to administrate the server which you have purchased, you might not be able to provide your customers with good service, since it means that if a problem does occur with the server, you won’t be able to fix it. Although your web host might provide support for their virtual private server and dedicated server hosting packages, the support provided might not cover all issues - this might be because it is limited to upgrading third party software that is provided, and that the support staff are not obliged to fix any internal problems with the server; this means that you should try and get your server administration skills up to scratch before embarking on purchasing a hosting package which would provide you with a dedicated environment.

Billing Systems

One of the main components of a successful web hosting business is a web based billing and account management system, so that your customers are able to pay their web hosting bills online and so that you are able to manage and view your customers details as well as packages that they have purchased through a web interface with ease; this means that if you have a numerous amount of customers, you can easily manage them online and contact them quickly and easily as appropriate, if needs be.

Most web host billing systems are not just billing systems, for example some have help desk systems built into them, and as mentioned before, you can also use them to easily manage your customers - even if you happen to have millions of them; this means that you can have an all in one system where you can meet your customers needs in both the areas of support and management. A support help desk system within a billing system allows your customers to open ‘support tickets‘ which are then assigned a unique id so that you are able to manage them easily, and are able to refer to tickets quickly if a customer was to quote you the ticket’s unique id via some other method of communication, such as over the telephone. Most support ticket systems allow correspondence for any ticket via 2 methods - email and a web interface; most systems employ a technology known as ‘email piping‘ which collects the emails from a specified email inbox and them processes them to be displayed within the web interface which should be provided - ticket replies from staff members are emailed back to the email address of the person who opened the ticket and replies from the customer are piped through to the web interface, the web interface itself shows the correspondence between the two parties in order so that you can quickly read through the correspondence if you have the need to.

All good web host billing systems incorporate a large range of payment gateways, so that you can are able to use the payment gateway of your choice to receive payments from your customers for the web hosting services that they have purchased from you - this process is a lot quicker than having to process old fashioned types of payment such as personal cheque; when looking for billing systems, you might also discover API systems for third part fraud detection systems - these are in place to safe guard the security of both your business, and the potential victims - these systems normally mark certain orders as fraud if they are believed to be fraud.

If you are starting out in the web hosting market, then you should always consider buying a license for a piece of billing software that you are able to pay for on a monthly lease, since this means that you are not loosing any money on your billing system if your web hosting business was to fail for some reason or another - if funds do not allow for a monthly lease then you can easily consider a free alternative, although the features of these can be relatively limited when compared to those of their commercial counterparts. As is the case with control panels, you and others should always test both the client and administration side of any web host billing system before you purchase anything; this is because it will allow you to gain the feedback of others apart from yourself which you can then use to help you make your final decision about which web hosting billing system you are going to use for your new web hosting company. You should also consider the installation service for your chosen application which is most probably provided by the company from which you purchased the application; this is because you can ensure that a full and secure installation of the application concerned has been done, to give you peace of mind - it also means that you can have the application installed for you in the situation that you don’t have the necessary knowledge to carry out the task. Although there are many different web hosting billing systems, the main ones which one should have a look at include:

WHMCS - http://www.whmcs.com/
ModernBill - http://www.modernbill.com/
PHPCoin - http://www.phpcoin.com/

Marketing Your Web Hosting Business

Once you have the basics of your new web hosting business laid out and operational, you need to start promoting it where possible so that you can start receiving new customer sign ups, which in turn will help boost your business’s income and customer base. There are many different ways in which you can market and promote your new business in the beginning - some of these options being ones which you have to pay for, and others which are free but require your hard work and will power to ensure that they produce the results that you want; an example of a paid for method which you could use to help promote and market your new web hosting business would be you buying an SEO package from either your web host or from another specialist to ensure that your business’s website gets listed and indexed by all the major search engines on the internet, an example of a free method would be you optimizing your own website so that search engines will give it a higher page rank, and in turn send more visitors to your website through the use of key word searches.

If you have the necessary funds to do so, then you can consider using certain PPC (pay per click) programs to help get adverts for your new business placed on participating publisher websites; most PPC programs deploy adverts on publisher websites based on keywords which you enter when creating the advert, as well as the category which the webmaster of the publishing site has decided to place their website in - this means that your advert will be targeted at people who are on websites most likely looking for web hosting, which ensures that the right people will be sent to your website and will hopefully in turn purchase a web hosting package off you. SEO can play a big roll in the amount of visitors which you receive to your website, this is because the more SEO friendly your website is, the higher the page rank search engines will give you. A higher page rank means in the terms of most search engines that your website will appear higher in the results for certain key word searches. Main different companies run PPC programs, although the main ones which are used by many include:

Google Adwords - http://www.google.com/adwords/
Yahoo Overture - http://www.overture.com/
AdBrite - http://www.adbrite.com/

Basic SEO involves the editing of content on your website to ensure that it is as keyword rich as possible - the more common key words which you decide to use within your content, the more subjects and searches that search engines will link your website to; other basic SEO techniques including the building up of back links to your website from other websites of a similar subject - this will help since it will mean that people who are looking at web hosting related websites might actually be looking for web hosting - and when they see a link to your website, they will most likely click and if they like the look of your packages and prices, will buy their web hosting off you. In some cases you can also do link exchanging with websites of a similar subject to yours; this process involves the placing of a link to your website on that of another website, and then you will link back to the other website involved. Although you might be tempted to purchase a program or plan from another web host which claims to increase the amount of traffic to your website, you should always be cautious when looking at these plans and should never spend too much money on things such as this; this is because all these plans do in most cases is submit your website to other search engines which it might not already be in - although this may sound good at first, it might not give the increased amount in visitors which it claims to provide. If you don’t have the necessary knowledge for SEO, nor the funds to splash out on a special package then you could always hire a professional who might be able to do it for you at a cut rate.

Conclusion

In conclusion, with the use of the correct domain name you can help make your business’s name memorable for your customers; this in itself can help you out since it means that if your name is memorable, then it will be easier for your customers to refer their friends and colleagues who need web hosting to your business. You should also now know to consider the client side of a control panel when you are testing it and deciding whether to use as part of your web hosting business or not; by putting yourself in the customer’s shoes and getting the opinions of others on certain things can help produce the best results for your business, and can make your customers happier with the service which they are receiving.

Even though you might be putting yourself in the customer’s shoes, you should still consider how usable the administration side of an application or control panel is for you; this is because you will be using the administration panels day in and day out if your business is to be successful, and it is because of this that you should ensure that you can easily familiarize yourself with the applications and control panels which you will be using. Marketing your web hosting business is one of the most important tasks that you will ever carry out; this is because the amount of customer which you receive to your business will depend on how well you market your website, and whether you carry out a good level of SEO - this will mean making sure that your content is keyword rich, and that you have a large amount of back links so that people can find your business from other websites, and so that search engines give you a higher page rank.

Creating a MySQL Database and MySQL User

If you run a PHP based dynamic website which needs to utilize a database, then you will most likely consider using a MySQL database to store the data which your PHP based application will need to access and use to ensure that it is able to run effectively and efficiently. MySQL is an open source database platform, which means it is free and is one reason why you will find it as part of almost any Linux based website hosting package; it is installed as part of cPanel which means that you will find it included with almost any cPanel based website hosting package.

If you create a MySQL database, then you will need to create a MySQL user so that your PHP applications are able to access your MySQL database so that they are able to delete and add new data to the database. In order to create a MySQL database, you will need to choose the ‘MySQL Databases’ option from the databases category. You will then be taken to the following page:

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The only piece of information that you will be required to enter is the name of the database that you want to create. Once you click ‘create’, you will be taken to a page which should confirm that the database has been successfully created. However, once you have created a database, you will want to create a MySQL user to allow your PHP and dynamic web applications to access the database.

In order to create a MySQL database user, you will need to return to the MySQL databases homepage. You will then need to scroll down to the MySQL users section:

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You will then be required to enter the following information in order to create the user account:

username (circled red) - this is the login that will be used in order for your scripts to access the database
password (circled green) - you should apply a password to the user account, otherwise hackers might be able to find a way into your database.

Once you click ‘create’, you should then be redirected to a page which should hopefully confirm that the user account has been successfully created. In order for the user account to be functional with the MySQL database that you have just created, you will need to scroll down to the section labeled ‘Add User to Database’:

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You will need to select the user account that you want to assign, then the database to which you want to assign the user account. Once you have done that, you should then be redirected to a page confirming that the user has been successfully assigned to the database.

With the use of MySQL databases, you should be able to make your website more dynamic in the way that it functions since you will be able to store the content and data that it requires in one central location; this means that users will be able to have a more interactive experience with your website - this means that you are able to provide your website’s visitors with a range of new services based around a database. cPanel allows you to manage any MySQL databases that you create with ease; you can use the web based third party PHPMyAdmin application in order for you to manage your databases via an online interface from any internet connected location, meaning that you are able to manage your cPanel MySQL databases from almost anywhere in the world.

Creating a MySQL Database and MySQL User

In order to create a MySQL database user, you will need to return to the MySQL databases homepage. You will then need to scroll down to the MySQL users section:

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You will then be required to enter the following information in order to create the user account:

username (circled red) - this is the login that will be used in order for your scripts to access the database
password (circled green) - you should apply a password to the user account, otherwise hackers might be able to find a way into your database.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Getting Started With cPanel Control Panel

cPanel is the control panel of choice for many web hosts to allow them to provide their customers with Linux based website hosting solutions, and with the launch of the Windows version, Windows based website hosting solutions. cPanel is well known for its loading speeds, since it is very fast when compared to other control panels that are in the same market as it is; the key to its loading speeds is down to it system architecture - for example unlike other control panels, cPanel doesn’t rely on any databases meaning that it has no database application to slow down it down. cPanel provides many features that can be confusing for people who are new to the concept of web hosting, and who have never used a control panel before to manage any aspect of a website or website hosting package; the main aim which most people have is to get their website online and to get the email services for their website configured to that they can start using their new domain and website hosting package - this might be confusing for some at first since there are several different purposes involved with setting up both features, although on further inspection it can be easy for someone with little technical knowledge to achieve their main aim.

If you are an advanced user with a respectable amount of technical knowledge, then you might want to consider customizing your shared hosting environment as to ensure that your custom applications can run without the need for a more expensive hosting solution such as a VPS Server or a Dedicated Server, both of which carry price tags that can be substantially different than those for basic shared website hosting packages. cPanel provides tools and features that you can utilize to manage your hosting account effectively, since it gives you the ability to manage the contents of your web space online which means that you can easily upload and download files that you host from any internet connected location that allows you to connect to cPanel via the cPanel port.

You are also given the ability to view the amount of visitors that your website has received in any period of time; this can be done via the use of a third party program known as ‘AWStats’ which most web hosts provide as standard with their shared cpanel website hosting accounts, this means that if you want to see if an advertising campaign that you have put into practice is working or not since if it was you should be able to notice an increase the amount of visitors to your website.

Other management tools include ‘PHPMyAdmin’ which you can use to manage the MySQL databases that you have created in your cPanel hosting account; PHPMyAdmin is a web interface that is accessible through cPanel which means that you are able to administer your MySQL databases from any internet connected location without the need for any type of desktop database management program. As standard with most control panels, webmail applications are included to allow you to view and manage your emails from any internet connected location; however, unlike other control panels, cPanel give you a choice since both the Horde and SquirrelMail webmail applications are included to allow you to remotely check your email. Other advanced features of cPanel allow you to create and manage custom email filter rules, meaning that you can easily keep out spam that is being specifically targeted at you and your website; this type of configuration is not normally achievable with other control panels, and cPanel also allows you to create custom SpamAssassin rules to ensure that you receive as little spam as possible.

If you are new to using cPanel, then with the use of this article you will be able to upload your new website and configure it so that visitors can start coming, and will also be able to create and configure email accounts for yourself and your colleagues so that you can start communicating electronically; if you have a dynamic website that is based on PHP, then you will also be able to create a MySQL database from scratch - screenshots have been provided to make the learning process even easier.

Getting Started With cPanel Control Panel

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

What Are The Managed Dedicated Web Servers And The Unmanaged Dedicated Web Servers?

Web hosting is the most important feature of any website on the internet. Now-a-days, there are many web hosting service providers who provide this service free of cost. There are two types of web hosting services, using the managed dedicated web server and the unmanaged dedicated web servers. You need to know what these managed web servers and unmanaged dedicated web servers are, and then you can decide which one suits better for your business or other type of website.

The physical web server on which you store your web data without sharing the web server with any other website is known as Dedicated Web Servers. A dedicated web server works like a normal processor which has storage facility, processor, and memory. This is a kind of low cost web hosting service. Dedicated web servers are mainly used by individual who understands how the dedicated web server works, and why is it required. Nothing on the web server is shared with other websites in dedicated web servers. This can also be used by the companies that need large websites and a lot of internet bandwidth.

Normally, these types of web servers have variety of important functions compared to the usual shared web hosting servers. These types of web servers are usually faster as it takes very little loading-time when compared to other shared web servers. It is not a bad idea to have these web servers if you are planning a large website or are a large company.

Dedicated web servers are not built for web novices and even for the use by semi-experts who are still not completely aware of the dedicated web server’s required expertise. If you have built the website for personal use, then you need not have this type of dedicated web server. These types of dedicated web servers are normally used by large companies or by the very big websites that needs large disk space for storing important content, multimedia components, games, bulletin boards, etc. Some of the important projects like customizing operating system and installing programming services need the dedicated server web service.

The unmanaged dedicated web servers are not that costly when compared to the managed dedicated web server. Your web host service provider will install all the necessary tools. However, you will need to handle all the technical support and maintenance of the web server. There is no one to support you if in case you face any web server-related problems while handling the server. In this case, your web host owner will not help you in upgrading software or maintenance, or there could be additional costs for these type of additional services. Your web host will only help you if there is any hardware or database related problem. Also, you need to pay your web host when they help you in if the web server needs resetting.

In case of the managed dedicated web servers, the web host takes care of all the maintenance issues, installation issues, and the technical support of the web server. If there is some problem with the web server, you can just contact the web hosting company’s customer service or their help department and you will get instant help in all such cases from you web host service provider.

However, while choosing the managed dedicated web server, you need to keep some important things in mind. You need to check if the managed dedicated web server service that you are choosing is a professional organization. You also need to check whether they provide you the instant support and are able to give you the required solutions when you are in some related problem.

You need to check out the terms and conditions of the web server provider and see if they meet you requirements. You also need to check the web tools that they provide along with the web server memory, bandwidth allocation, disk space, and the price at which they provide all these things.

So, before choosing whether the managed dedicated web server or the unmanaged dedicated web server is important for your site, you need to see which one actually supports your website requirements. The managed dedicated web server is useful to you if you do not have the supporting web expert personnel, or if you are not skilled enough to do the required technical work on your website.

To be on the safe side, before finalizing the contract be very sure that you have understood the policies concerned. This will help you continue smoothly in your work with the managed dedicated server or the unmanaged dedicated server operations.

Virtual Web Hosting Server and Service

Virtual web hosting is usually cheaper than the dedicated web hosting service. The virtual web hosting server, also called VPS, or Virtual Private Server, or Virtual Dedicated Server, is slightly slower that the fully dedicated web hosting server, as the VPS host many websites on a single server. In this type of web hosting service, even the IP address is shared.

In virtual web hosting, your website may be linked with some rouge websites which may hurt your website when that rogue website does unethical things and is banned. With that site banned by the search engines, it will affect your website too if your site shares the same IP address as that other site.

Usually, web servers have an operating system that helps in controlling it. However, virtual web server formed by partitioning a physical server in many servers in specific way so that each partition is a server in itself. These partitioned servers can have independent operating system of each partition.

Each partitioned virtual private server can also be rebooted independently. The physical server that contains all the VPS first boots in the normal way. This physical server then uses a program to boot each VPS inside a virtualization environment that is similar to an emulator. All these VPS are not directly accessed to any hardware on the physical server, so they are booted or started from a disk image.

VPS lies between the shared web hosting servers and the dedicated web hosting servers. Hence, VPS is costlier than the shared hosting, but cheaper than the dedicated hosting service. The VPS is generally slower because VPS produces some limitations as the random access memory (RAM), disk space, and processor time are shared by the virtualization clients use the single physical server with so many independent virtual operating systems being sun simultaneously. Hence, the dedicated hosting service is the answer to all these limitations for the serious users who need complete physical resources of the web server.

The VPS is also called the dynamic dedicated server as the VPS runs virtually, that is, without accessing the operating system of the physical web server.

What Are Virtual Web Hosting And Dedicated Web Hosting Server and Service?

To understand how virtual web hosting service or dedicated web hosting service will help your website, we must first understand some basic principles of web hosting. Selecting the best web hosting is the most important step in your website’s success on the internet. Selecting a web hosting service for hosting your website is definitely a very tough job. Out of many web services available for you to select, the most important are the virtual web hosting service and the dedicated web hosting service. For choosing the right web service, you just have to do research on the internet to know which web hosting service suites your website the most.

What Is Managed Web Site Hosting?

Managed web site hosting and web site hosting have really become significant features of any online business. A web hosting solution is very important for building a good web site. However, when you want to host your website on a web server, you need to do research on the internet about which type of web hosting solution suits your website the most. You also need to check whether the web host you are choosing is reliable or not.

Managed web site hosting is a type of web site hosting plan in which you are provided all the technical support by the hosting service. Your web host takes care of all the installation of web files, all the necessary web tools, and the related maintenance of your web site. If you face any kind of difficulties, you can contact your web host any time. They will take care of all your problems and provide you instant help. That is, in the managed web site hosting plan, your website hosting service provider takes care of some of the responsibilities, which lets you concentrate more on web development.

There are several benefits of using the managed web site hosting service.

In managed web site hosting service, the internet connection that you get is excellent and is more powerful as it makes use of the dedicated web server’s policy of complete unhindered net connection to the sole web site it hosts. In managed web site hosting, you do not have to share the web space or the bandwidth and connectivity with any other web site. This makes your web server much faster than any other type of web hosting.

Managed web site hosting can be considered to be more user-friendly than the unmanaged type, because the website is provided with its own web server, but the server’s control, the root-access in the Linux environment, or the administrator access in the Microsoft Windows environment, is managed by the hosting company. The website owners can use the file transfer protocol (FTP) or any such application to upload their files to the web server.

In the managed web site hosting, the website owner is not given the full control of the we server as it can cause problems to the configuration server, hence the control is kept with the web hosting company to prevent this sort of server mismanagement. Even the web server in the managed web site hosting plan is just leased to the customer and not sold out-right.

Managed web site hosting offers you a top-class data and site security, database management, and all the other necessary web tools. This service also offers to create back-ups of all the content present on your managed web site hosting server.

Managed web site hosting server is monitored daily which keeps your web server in good condition. This also makes sure that all your web pages are updated and all the links are directed to the correct web page. It also manages the network and all the web tools and applications that are used by the website owner.

If you are using some other web server and wish to manage your web site from your home, then you will need to invest a lot of money in a dedicated web server and all the related tools and applications. The web hosting servers are very costly and needs specialized care at all times. Also, you need to hire professional support and technical staff to set-up the web server and maintain your web site. You need to pay these IT professionals a lot of money for their services and you will also need to call for their help very often for the maintenance of the web server. So, this becomes very expensive to you, and therefore, the managed web site server plan is the cheaper and better option.

All the web site hosting service providers offer different features and web tools to their customers. For example, the bandwidth and the connectivity, the web space, the efficient web tools, scripts, and excellent service is bundled as a plan and offered at attractive and affordable prices.

Web site owners, who host their web sites on their own dedicated web servers, often go through lot of down time. Making use of a managed web site hosting dedicated server, offered by a top hosting company solves this problem to a great extent and you will almost never have to worry about the down time. This is simply because the web host server is always carefully monitored professionally by the technical staff of the web host.

Dedicated web server hosting services usually provide many different types of the web server’s managed support. These types are:

Fully Managed web site hosting server - Includes monitoring, updating the software and providing new installers, server reboots, important patches for the security, and even the operating system upgrades are provided by the hosting company.
Managed web site hosting server – This service will include medium level of website management, will offer the monitoring of the web server, will update the applications, and will give you a limited amount of customer support. Customers are allowed to perform only specific tasks.
Self Managed web site hosting server – This service will include normal server monitoring and will offer some web server and web site maintenance. Customers will have to do most of the web site and server operations and related tasks on the leased dedicated server.
Unmanaged web site hosting server – The service provider will provide very little or almost no service (apart from the security). Customers will need to perform all server and site maintenance, take care of all upgrades, install patches, and also look after the web security.
This managed web site hosting allows you to concentrate more on your online business and the plans are available at affordable prices.

How to choose the right business web hosting package for your business?

This is the million dollar question in the minds of every web entrepreneur. To get the answer to which business web hosting package is the best for your business, there are more questions that need to be answered first. For example:

Do you wish to have many websites hosted in different web hosting accounts?
Do you wish to have many hundreds of websites hosted on one single web hosting account that saves a lot of money?
Do you wish to be a reseller of web hosting plans by purchasing the reseller web hosting account and make money by selling hosting plans to others while also having a part of that hosting account used for your website or websites?

The answer to the first question above is simple. You will need to purchase your web hosting account from different web hosts. The different web hosts will allow you to have different IP addresses and become country-specific or region-specific. This will help in a special way if you are an internet marketer and target specific regional markets for selling your special products.

For example, if one product sells well in UK, you can have the .uk domain and host the website on a UK-based web server. If another product needs to be US-based to target the US market, then you can host your website on a US-based server. This way, you can two different websites targeting those regional markets by using the local web servers based in those countries and also make use of the best web hosting services in those different countries.

The answer to the second question above is simply to have a feature under the shared web hosting called the add-on domains. This feature of add-on domains is offered by a lot of web hosting services now-a-days. You can now have unlimited add-on domains in your hosting account and that too with the payment of only the hosting account. You can freely add as many add-on domains and target as many different niche markets by creating different types of websites for each of the niche markets. This feature gives you the ability to expand your marketing strategy inexpensively.

The answer to the third question above is to purchase the reseller web hosting plan from your web hosting service. This way you can host as many websites under different domain-names and different niches by purchasing the reseller web hosting account. To do that under the Linux environment is to use its Web Host Manager and set up many accounts for your different websites, or just create different plans and sell them to many different customers.

The Web Host Manager under your Linux-based reseller web hosting account allows you to create, modify, and delete the different accounts or packages. With the reseller web hosting service that you purchase, you can create different hosting plans for different prices, create disk spaces, bandwidth limits for each type of the hosting plan, and can decide how many web hosting account you want to sell to your customers. Of course, you too can have as many niche websites hosted on your reseller web hosting account and create exciting sites to target a lot of niche.

Becoming a reseller web hosting service provider can be very beneficial. Selling web hosting plans is a profitable online business. You can make a lot of money through this reseller web hosting service. The reseller account also provides unlimited e-mail accounts and allow you to have unlimited domains and sub-domains. You will first need to check with many different web hosting services to know what their reseller web hosting plans include.

In the shared web hosting service, you have no control over the web server and its resources, while if you purchase a Virtual Private Server (VPS) account, or the Dedicated Server account, you can manage the web servers and can support multiple domain hosting. Obviously, these types of servers will cost more than the shared web hosting service.

The Virtual Private Server (VPS) and the Dedicated Server can be extremely beneficial for your business, so check which hosting package suits your business more. The dedicated server, while not an inexpensive choice, allows you complete freedom to change many parameters, have the complete use of the bandwidth and connectivity, and a huge amount of disk space just for your own business website or multiple websites. You can also install many useful softwares on a dedicated web server that can help your websites prosper.

So before you purchase the web hosting account, do a complete research to find out which hosting plan suits your business. Choosing the right web hosting package for your business is a task that requires research and planning that fits all your business or personal requirements.

VPS Hosting vs. Dedicated Server Hosting

dell poweredge server spec

If you are a business running a mission critical website or are an individual who is hosted websites on behalf of others and needs to be able to guarantee a certain amount of reliability, then you will most likely be considering a method of server hosting in order to use a web hosting service that is able to meet your needs and requirements. Server hosting services are designed for those who need a dedicated environment in which they can host their websites, and also need a greater amount of reliability since with server hosting services your websites are unlikely to be affected by server performance or the performance of other users websites. Although VPS hosting and dedicated server hosting have their similarities, the two different forms of web hosting are still different in many ways including how they respond to certain commands as well as overall server performance. Server hosting is able to provide you with greater uptime than if you were to use shared web hosting services, meaning that if you are hosting your business websites on a shared hosting package, there could be many advantages to be had if you move over to server hosting services. If you are also after greater performance, then you can even consider server hosting such as VPS hosting if you have a low budget.

The main pupose of a server hosting service is to allow you to expand your website operations, since many move up to server hosting from shared hosting simply because their websites have outgrown the limits that are in place on shared web hosting packages. There are many advantages with using a server of your own instead of a shared or reseller hosting package, and the main of these advantages is to ensure that you receive a better web hosting service which is what you need for your websites. Web hosting providers also strive to ensure that you have a good server hosting experience. Such server hosting advantages that you may notice could include:

reliability - the performance of shared web hosting servers can be compromised by the users that they are hosting, which in turn can affect the performance of other user’s websites; server hosting services on the other hand provide you with a dedicated environment, but VPS hosting services can be affected by the performance of other VPS hosting servers hosted on the same node, but only slightly
dedicated environment - with the use of a dedicated environment, you are able to install any programs of your choice without affecting the performance of other user’s websites, it also allows you to carry out custom configurations if you need to ensure that any websites that you are hosting are able to function correctly
dedicated resources - with server hosting, you are given your own dedicated resources which are unable to be used by any other users - with VPS hosting you will find that the CPU is shared amongst all the VPS servers hosted on one node, although the resources that you are given with dedicated server hosting are yours to use only and no-one else can use them.

The mix of more reliable web hosting services as well as having your own dedicated environment and resources means that your websites are unlikely to be affected by the performance of other websites which would otherwise be hosted on the same server as yours in the case of shared web hosting services. At the end of the day, all most people want from their web hosting package is reliability and a good amount of uptime so that visitors are able to pass through as they wish; a web hosting package with true reliability is only possible with server hosting services.

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Although VPS hosting is designed as a form of server hosting, it is priced to allow those who are unable to afford a dedicated server to purchase something similar which should cover their requirements; the pricing of VPS hosting also tends to be just slightly more than that of shared and reseller hosting. It’s not only the pricing of VPS servers which sets them apart form dedicated servers, but in terms of resources the CPU of the hosting node is shared amongst all of the hosted VPS servers - however, although the other resources such as RAM and disk space are guaranteed.

VPS servers tend to be of a lower specification that dedicated servers since the specifications of a VPS server are determined by the physical resources of the hosting node as well as how many VPS servers a web hosting provider wishes to fit onto a single hosting node. Dedicated servers on the other hand can be configured to any specification you want, high or low; there are many different options available for dedicated servers than there are for VPS servers - for example, you can have multiple hard drives in a dedicated server. Dedicated servers can also take a lot more RAM than VPS servers can, and also allow you to upgrade any of the resources that you have to higher amounts at any time.

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When purchasing either VPS servers or dedicated servers, web hosting providers will expect you to have at least some knowledge on how to manage a server. Because of this, both VPS servers and dedicated servers are available with different levels of support meaning that you are able to purchase a server hosting package based on your specification requirements as well as support requirements. However, it should be noted that servers which come with a low level of support are going to be cheaper than servers which come with high levels of support for obvious reasons. There are three main different levels of support available, which are:

unmanaged server hosting services - unmanaged server hosting services normally come in the form of unmanaged dedicated servers, and mean that you are expected to have full knowledge on how to manage a dedicated server and that you are only provided with support for any network problems that may have been created on the side of the dedicated server host that you have chosen to use
semi-managed services - semi-managed servers regularly come in the forms of VPS hosting and dedicated hosting, and although you are expected to have some knowledge on how to manage a server, you can still call on your web hosting provider’s support team to carry out certain tasks for you on your VPS server or dedicated server
managed hosting services - for businesses and individuals who need to be guaranteed a certain amount of uptime, managed hosting services are important since it means that a support team can take full control of their VPS server or dedicated hosting server, meaning that the support team concerned can be contacted if the server owner wants any modifications or tasks to be carried out on their server.

If you choose the right kind of VPS or dedicated server which comes with the right level of support for you, then you will find that your server is more reliable than any other form of web hosting that you may have used in the past such as shared hosting or reseller web hosting. Support is normally provided by the web hosting provider that you choose to use, and is normally in the form of the support team that they employ.

support person2

The choice of whether you purchase a VPS hosting server or dedicated server at the of the day is down to your needs and requirements, as well as you feel that you are able to get what you need out of your chosen form of server hosting. Although VPS hosting may have its advantages if you are moving over from a form of shared hosting, there will come a point where you will have to upgrade to a dedicated server because you can’t upgrade your VPS server anymore.

If you are just an individual with a few websites to host then by all means a VPS server will be more than enough for you, but if you want to achieve the best amount of uptime available and are after high server resources, then your only choice will be a high specification dedicated server. VPS hosting does tend to provide you with a majority of the advantages that come with dedicated server hosting but at a much lower price; but dedicated server hosting on the other hand will allow you to achieve the highest amount of uptime available - the main reason being that you are unable to be affected by the performance of other users websites and servers.

In conclusion, VPS hosting services and dedicated servers have their differences but the choice on whether or not one is more suitable for your needs than another is yours and yours only to make. Server hosting services are the most reliable forms of web hosting available when compared to shared and reseller web hosting packages, but if your needs don’t extend as far as needing server hosting then you would be better off purchasing a higher end shared web hosting package that will still be able to cover your needs.

Ubuntu Web Hosting

Ubuntu, like CentOS, is a popular Linux distribution being used by many web hosting providers and businesses who like to use Linux as part of their IT infrastructure. However, unlike CentOS, Ubuntu is also available as a desktop Linux distribution meaning that some businesses choose to use it both on their web hosting servers and on their desktop machines. Like a majority of Linux distributions, Ubuntu is free to use therefore meaning that you can use it on as many web hosting servers as you with without having to pay a penny in license costs, on the other hand you could use a Windows server operating system instead and be forced to pay licensing and support fees.

Ubuntu web hosting provides users with a reliable form of web hosting since Ubuntu is still actively maintained meaning that there are regular patch releases and updates available to ensure that it is a secure operating system to use both server and desktop wise. Ubuntu is available as an operating system for a majority of VPS hosting packages, and can normally be installed on your dedicated server for you by request. Since Ubuntu is based on Linux, it means that there is a large number of existing programs available that can be made to run on Ubuntu desktop machines and servers with some modifications.

Since Ubuntu has a fairly nice GUI and specialist tools, it is liked by many multimedia designers who specialist in video design and music production. Ubuntu can also be easily updated which helps you as the end user ensure that your installation of Ubuntu is as secure as possible. Programs and packages that you have installed on your Ubuntu installation, along with the operating system itself, can all be updated using the ‘apt’ updater and installer. ‘Apt’ comes installed as part of a standard Ubuntu installation, the reason being that Ubuntu is based on the Debian sourcecode which ‘apt’ is based on.

Since Ubuntu is based on Debian sourcecode, it is one of the most secure and reliable Linux distributions around; this is because Debian itself is very secure and reliable and has been seen as the leader in the open source Linux distribution industry for a long time. In web hosting it is important to use a secure and reliable operating system since you want to ensure that your servers aren’t going to face any periods of downtime because you have chosen to use the wrong operating system.

Like with any web hosting operating system, you need to be able to ensure that Ubuntu is going to be able to run the programs that you need to function such as control panels, web servers, and mail server hosting applications. If you want to offer your own Linux web hosting packages then you will need to ensure that Ubuntu is able to support the cPanel control panel so that you can sell of your own web hosting packages. It is important to note that Ubuntu can already support various mail server and DNS server applications as well as the Apache web server.

Because of its advanced multimedia capabilities, Ubuntu is the preferred operating system of Linux web hosting providers who want to offer their web hosting services based on multimedia programs such as FFMPEG and other freely available tools. In this case you will also find that such web hosting providers will also host regular web hosting clients on the same server since Ubuntu is able to handle multimedia requests just as well as it can handle standard web page requests. In terms of client side use, Ubuntu doesn’t appear any different that any other Linux distribution would but in terms of management it is completely different.

Since Ubuntu is a completely different operating system in terms of how it is managed, you are only likely to be able to manage it easily to begin with if you have prior knowledge and experience on managing VPS servers and dedicated servers which are based on the Debian Linux distribution. If you are a web hosting system administrator who is already managing CentOS based servers then you will find that Ubuntu is a completely different beast in its own league, meaning that you may need to do some extra research in order to be able to manage an Ubuntu server correctly.

In conclusion, when choosing a VPS server or a dedicated server you will be better to choose a web hosting company that is able to offer you a choice of server operating systems. Although Ubuntu web hosting may have its advantages, its useless to you unless you are using it on the desktop or want to use a server for multimedia processes. If you plan on using your server solely for hosting a mail server for web server then you will be better off using the CentOS Linux distribution.

Unmanaged Dedicated Web Hosting

The other type of web hosting service is the unmanaged dedicated web hosting plan. It basically provides you the required hardware, operating system, and the internet connection. The rest of the tasks, like installing the applications and maintaining the web server are your responsibilities though.

You can install yourself all the executive files and their dynamic link libraries (COM and DLL) files required for your website if you have the dedicated web hosting service. Since you are the only user on the entire web server, you are free to decide which softwares and applications your website needs and install them if you possess a dedicated web hosting plan.

Also, if you have any extra web space which you feel is being wasted, then you can even resell the unused web space anytime to any other users. This way you can prevent the wastage of the dedicated web server’s resources and make more money for you.

So, the dedicated web hosting server is the best hosting service in today’s world that has the capability to bring lots of profit opportunities for you, and a lot of power and recognition for your website. However, you need to be very careful while choosing this kind of dedicated web service.

If you are successful in choosing the right kind of dedicated web hosting service provider that suits your website, then your website and your online business will grow massively. It will then be able attract huge number of web visitors due to all the extra power-packed features that you were able to add, thus making way to lots of profit.

Managed Dedicated Web Hosting

In the managed dedicated web hosting service, the hosting service provides you all the important web tools, applications, softwares. This lets you to concentrate more on designing and development of your website. However, the managed dedicated web hosting servers are more costly, but they can really make your website more professional.

You must be very careful while choosing the managed dedicated web hosting service. While choosing this kind of dedicated web hosting server, you should check about the price of the disk space, the bandwidth that you are getting, and also how much it will cost if you go over the limit provided at any point of time. These costs may deter you from using the otherwise excellent features of the managed dedicated web server.

What do I need to consider in a business web hosting package?

The main thing that you want to be considering in any business web hosting package is the level of uptime that is on offer. Business web hosting services are designed to offer users the highest amount of uptime that is possible, but you still need to conisder the other resources that come with any web hosting account such as the amount of disk space you are getting and the amount of bandwidth that you will be able to make use of as you wish. As well having a web hosting service that is able to offer you a good amount of uptime, you need to have a business web hosting service which comes with the right resource allocations for your needs so that you are able to make the most of it. If you are a business operating a mission critical website which may for example be selling products or services, then it is important that you consider the level of customer service that a web hosting provider has to offer since the likelihood is that you will be in contact if your web hosting provider on a regular basis. In summary, the main things that you should consider in a business web hosting package or a web hosting provider should include:

The level of uptime which is on offer - this one factor is important to consider within a business web hosting service since it this will detect just how much your website is available, and of course if you are looking into business web hosting then you are going to be running a mission critical website which in most cases means that downtime will cost you money, and because of this you want to ensure that you face as little downtime as possible - in this situation it is better to go with a reputable web hosting company since such companies are normally able to guarantee you the advertised amount of uptime when others may not be able to
Resource assignments - it is important to ensure that any business web hosting package which you are looking into purchasing is able to provide you with the amounts of disk space and bandwidth you need in order to run your website successfully - because of the nature of business web hosting services as well as the websites which they host, most web hosting providers tend to offer high amounts of both but at the same time only host a few clients per a server or cluster since this means that server loads are unlikely to go high but that clients can use up their allotted resource assignments without fear of running out of either
Customer service - as a business or corporate customer, the likelihood is that you will get priority support when it comes to some issues since your web hosting provider will realize the important role that your website plays in your ability to trade and make money - most web hosting providers strive to offer a high level of customer service since the main aim for most web hosting companies is to offer good quality service since in most cases it means that customers are more likely to refer others to you which will of course in turn mean that you will have an increase in the number of orders you receive.

If you consider all of the above factors in any business web hosting service then you will be able to make the most of any business web hosting package that you purchase since such factors will ensure that your package is usable and that you are able to get value for money.

In conclusion, it is fairly easy to make the most out of business web hosting services if you choose the right web hosting provider that is able to offer you the right business web hosting package. As resource assignments and uptime are the two key factors considered by most, web hosting providers put a lot of emphasis on both of these to make their business web hosting plans more attractive to potential customers. Business web hosting services are designed to parallel the performance of top end web hosting services such as dedicated servers but at a more affordable price; this means that if you are running a mission critical website and require higher periods of uptime than can be offered by traditional forms of web hosting then business web hosting may be the way to go for you, especially if you are unable to afford the costs that are associated with dedicated server hosting. At the end of the day it is a decision which you should base on your budget as well as your requirements.

Domain & web Hosting

Friday, December 11, 2009

What Is A Computer Server?

Uses Of Server

Server Hardware

Operating Systems For Servers

Server Software

File Server

Print Server

Operating Systems For Servers

Server Software

File Server

Print Server

UK Web Hosting Company

UK Web Hosting Company

Different methods of publishing sites using Plesk control panel..

1) Publishing Sites Through FTP:

2) Uploading Sites Through Plesk File Manager:

3) a. Publishing Sites from Microsoft FrontPage:

3) b. Publishing Sites with Adobe Dreamweaver:

Getting Started with Web Hosting Business

Creating a MySQL Database and MySQL User

Creating a MySQL Database and MySQL User

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Getting Started With cPanel Control Panel

Getting Started With cPanel Control Panel

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

What Are The Managed Dedicated Web Servers And The Unmanaged Dedicated Web Servers?

Virtual Web Hosting Server and Service

What Are Virtual Web Hosting And Dedicated Web Hosting Server and Service?

What Is Managed Web Site Hosting?

How to choose the right business web hosting package for your business?

VPS Hosting vs. Dedicated Server Hosting

Ubuntu Web Hosting

Unmanaged Dedicated Web Hosting

Managed Dedicated Web Hosting

What do I need to consider in a business web hosting package?

Contributors

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