Archive for the ‘Cpanel Hosting’ category

Article: Linux, Cpanel, and PHP Hosting

October 24th, 2009

Introduction: It doesn’t matter what type of website you are setting up. Sooner or later, you must make a decision on the type of hosting platform that you would like to use.

It doesn’t matter what type of website you are setting up. Sooner or later, you must make a decision on the type of hosting platform that you would like to use. That means you will have to choose the type of server that you site will be hosted on (Windows or Linux), the control panel (Plesk, Cpanel, HELM), and programming language. Let’s explore these options.

1) Type of server.

You can choose between a Windows machine, or a Linux machine. Windows has become more competitive in recent years with the release of a more user friendly control panel. The features have also been greatly improved. You will want to choose a Windows environment to work in if you are mainly using Windows related products, services, and programming languages. For instance, if your entire website is developed using ASP.NET, then you need to have a Windows server.

The other type of server that you can use is a Linux server. A Linux server has been known to be more robust and reliable. Since Linux is an open source OS, you can expect hosting to be more affordable. In fact, the OS is so powerful that almost anything can be done on Linux servers. This is an immensely powerful OS and is most suitable for programming languages like Perl or PHP.

2) Admin control panel.

Even for the same OS, there are several control panels available. Customers have been complaining for years due to a lack of user friendly control panels. However, the control panels have stabilized during the past couple of years. Today, HELM is the leading control panel for Windows, and Cpanel is the leading control panel for Linux servers. Both control panels offer sophisticated features. You can use file managers to manage files, create databases, create email accounts, read emails online, and more.

3) Programming languages.

Your final buying decision depends a lot on your choice of programming language. Of course, the development environment has a lot to do with the developer’s background and experience. If PHP is the preferred language, then a Linux server with Cpanel as the control panel would be the ideal combination. Although Windows support PHP, you still want to avoid using Windows to run a PHP powered site. That’s because there are still some features that you can’t really run on a Windows machine. For instance, you cannot create cron jobs on a Windows server, but you can do so easily on a Linux server. A cron job is an automated command that is issued to the machine at regular intervals. It can be created manually in Cpanel, or using a script.

It appears that PHP is winning market share because the programming language is open source, easy to learn, and doesn’t require any complicated software. In other words, almost anyone can pick up and programming language. In fact, if you start hiring freelancers, you realize that many PHP programmers are self-taught. They just pick things up as they work on various projects on the Internet.

Consider the pros and cons carefully before signing up for a hosting account.

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Article: Choosing Blog Hosting For Personal or Corporate Blogs

October 23rd, 2009

Introduction: A blog is a very effective communication tool. Many individuals and businesses are using their blogs to reach out to consumers. Traditionally, blogs are meant to be personal online dairies. But today, blogs are open to the general public and used to acquire new readers and customers.

A blog is a very effective communication tool. Many individuals and businesses are using their blogs to reach out to consumers. Traditionally, blogs are meant to be personal online dairies. But today, blogs are open to the general public and used to acquire new readers and customers. It would be silly not to jump on the bandwagon because a blog is easy to setup and contrary to popular belief, it’s easy to maintain as well. But first, you need to find some hosting for your blog.

There are three types of hosting that you can consider.

1) Free blog hosting.

These are free blog hosting accounts that you create at a website. The website offers you a free blog, which means that you don’t have to pay a single cent to have a blog created. Unfortunately, there are some downsides for this type of hosting accounts. For example, most of these services don’t allow you to have your own domain name. That means your blog is hosted as a sub folder, or as a subdomain on the website. That doesn’t help if you are looking to brand your blog.

In addition, there are a whole bunch of rules and policies that you have to follow. Some free hosts don’t allow you to host ads, and some even limit your usage.

2) Windows hosting.

Before you create a blog, you have to determine that blog platform that you are going to use. There are a few out there on the Internet that are available for free as they are open source software. The most popular among the bunch is Wordpress. Wordpress runs on PHP. So you have to ensure that you server supports PHP for the software to run correctly.

It used to be the case that a Windows server cannot run PHP scripts but that have changes now. You can now install a Wordpress blog successfully on a Windows machine. However, since Windows was not built to support PHP in the first place, you may experience some bugs. For instance, you can’t use Mod Rewrite to create search engine friendly URLs if your blog is hosted on a Windows machine. In addition, users have complained that a Wordpress blog tends to run slower on a Windows server.

3) Linux, Cpanel hosting.

For Wordpress to run correctly, this is the most appropriate type of hosting that you should look for. Cpanel is an admin control panel that you can use to install your blog. You don’t have to pay extra for the use of the control panel. It should be provided with your hosting account. Just login with the username and password provided and you will be able to access Cpanel.

Once in, look for an icon labeled as “Fantastico”. This little feature allows you to install a Wordpress blog with a few simple clicks. Simply choose your admin username and password, click install, and it’s done! You may then access the Wordpress admin area to configure and customize your blog. Make sure that you enable Permalinks so that your blog has search engine friendly URLs.

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Article: How to Choose a Reliable Web Host For Your Internet Business

October 14th, 2009

Choosing the wrong web host can be disastrous if you are looking to setup an online business. Your online business is supposed to be online 24/7. If your host goes down for some reason, that means you are not earning any revenues. The question is, can you afford to have your host go down? How much revenue will you be losing if that happens?

To prevent potential loss of revenue, the best thing to do is to choose a reliable web host from the start. Here is what usually happens when someone chooses a web host.

1) They read reviews online.
2) They check out the pricing.
3) They check out server specs.
4) Finally, they compare package features, specs and pricing before making a commitment.

However, note that such information is only superficial. In other words, you can’t really tell how reliable a hosting company is based on such information alone. Given 2 servers with the same specifications and pricing, how do you choose? The reliability of the service then depends on the skill level of the IT professionals.

A hosting company with competent IT professionals behind it will always plan ahead. Critical software and patches are always installed on time to prevent future problems. Maintenance and upgrades are done on a regular basis to minimize downtime. Keeping the servers online will be the priority of the hosting company.

In many instances, problems tend to arise in the shared hosting environment. In such an environment, hundreds of customers may be hosting thousands of sites on a single server. The challenge is to keep the server running in an acceptable condition even with the huge number of sites hosted on it.

For sites that consume minimal resources, that shouldn’t be too big of a problem. However, some webmasters install scripts that consume huge amounts of resources – and they don’t even know it! To make things worse, some scripts are automated and they create additional scripts that hog resources on the servers. It’s only a matter of time that the server goes under.

Fortunately, the hosting industry has evolved to a stable stage. Many smaller companies who have failed to overcome these challenges have gone belly up. These are companies that lacked the technical skills to cope with the technological demands of running a hosting company.

The more professional hosting companies have developed highly sophisticated software that deal specifically with such problems. For instance, checks are ran on a regular basis to see if there are any customers abusing their hosting accounts with too many unnecessary files. Customers who are hogging too much resources are then asked to take action to reduce the server load. Otherwise, their account may be temporarily suspended.

If you are in a hurry, ask around in hosting forums to see which are the more reliable companies. Spend a little time reading what others say about their experiences about various companies.

Finally, before you make a purchase for any hosting package, make sure you source for discount codes. These are coupon codes that are normally available in hosting review sites. Before checking out, you will be prompted for the coupon code. Simply enter the coupon and enjoy a discounted rate for your hosting.

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