How to host a domain / website on your own?

If you’re a developer/blogger who is tech-savvy and just plain adventurous, you might feel confident enough to host a domain/website on your own. That’s right, in your basement (if you live in a part of the world where most people have one) or maybe just in your own bedroom. If you think a hosting company like us wouldn’t even want to broach the topic with you–you’re mistaken! We are as geeky as some of you are and appreciate those with a taste of adventure.

If you’re in the group which isn’t sure exactly how to host a domain or website on your own, let’s explore this:

A few steps on how to host your domain or website:

1. Register a domain name

There are several websites that could choose to register your domain name. You will also realise once you visit a good domain registration website is that a domain with a .COM extension is not your only option.

2. Code your website

If you’re in a hurry, you could customize an existing template from WordPress. If you have more time on your hands or are determined to code your website from scratch, using PHP is a good way to go-considering WordPress is largely built on PHP.

3. Find out what your IP address is

4. Point your domain name to the IP address of your computer

Get a static IP address to your machine within your network. A static IP address is an IP unchanging number that identifies your machine within the network. Your router stands between your machine and the rest of the internet. Give your router the IP address for which you are opening up the port to be accessible by the rest of the internet.

5. Find out if your ISP supports hosting

You may have issues here based on your bandwidth quota. You don’t want to find out that your internet connection has been suspended because of one harmless experiment!

6. Ensure your computer at home can support hosting

The machine you decide to host your domain/website on will have to be running 24X7 and will need to be kept cool to avoid overheating and crashes.

7. Ensure your computer is secured

Make sure you have the latest updates to your OS and security features

8. Download the AMP software

AMP is the shortened version of the Apache, Mysql, PHP web stack. Here’s one you could try if you’re a Windows user. It’s called WampServer.

9. Follow the installation instructions in the link above

10. Copy your website’s source code into the WampServer root folder

11. Start your AMP server

Your website will now be live!

Reasons to host your own domain/website:

Good reasons:

◈ For learning and fun!

It is a good experience and introduces you to a whole new world. You could dive from hosting to programming to web design and the world is your oyster. Another reason you learn a lot is that by hosting a domain/website you are free to make whatever system changes you like.

◈ Not-so-great reasons:

You have an idea and just want to test it out:

A risky move. If this idea involves a sample group of customers–first impressions are of utmost importance. A self-hosted website (as cool as it was settling it up) is unlikely to do justice.

You think hosting is expensive:

This is a huge myth.

So, finally-here’s where you may face some bumps:

◈ Uptime

Your computer needs to stay on at all times. If your computer reboots, shuts down, is hacked or has no power connection, your website will be unavailable.

◈ Performance and visitor experience

Even if you have a high-speed connection from your ISP, it will not be near enough to match the speed a good hosting company can provide. Considering the stats on how long visitors wait for a website to load (less than 3 seconds), self-hosting is not a good idea for a serious website.

◈ Security

There are numerous potential security threats to websites and the machines they are hosted on-including yourself. You could corrupt or delete essential files with fatal consequences. With regards to online threats, you’ll need everything from security certificates, firewalls and malware removers to be completely secure. These are all paid services and you might as well get a good deal with a hosting company.

◈ You will not be able to host high traffic websites

The bandwidth your ISP provides you will definitely not come close to what you will require with a website with a lot of visitor traffic. Only with a hosting company can you get the right deal to match your website requirements.

◈ You will dedicate almost all your time to your website

This would involve monitoring your website, maintaining your machine’s hardware and ensuring your server software is up-to-date.

◈ You will need to pay huge electricity bills

As we mentioned before, your machine will need to be running 24X7.

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Why Do We Need cPanel?

cPanel is the industry standard and leader when it comes to web hosting management software. Most people will even ask for it when they are looking for a hosting provider for their websites. But the reality is that most of them really do not understand what cPanel is and why they need it. Some even think that cPanel is a type of hosting service like VPS (Virtual Private Server).

What is cPanel?

cPanel is a web-based control panel that is used for managing your web hosting service accounts. It provides you with the tools that you need in order to successfully create, administer, and manage your websites using your favorite web browser.

The software allows you to set up email accounts, create FTP accounts, setup up CDN’s, create domains and sub domains, and plenty of other things that you need to successfully run your websites.

Basically, cPanel is a handy tool that you need to ensure that your web hosting experience is as comfortable as it can be. Because without it, managing a website will be stressful and difficult at best.

Why Do We Need cPanel?

Now that you have a basic knowledge of what cPanel really is, the next question in your mind would probably be why we need it and why can’t we use other web based control panels to manage our sites.

The answer to that question is simple. We need cPanel simply because it is the best web based control panel in the market. No other web hosting management software has even come close to the features and functionality that it provides.

To get a better understanding of what we are talking about in this article, here are 3 of the reasons why cPanel is the best hosting management software in the market today.

cPanel is Easy to Use

cPanel uses a clear-cut and simple interface that is a dream to work on. Every type of users, from newbies up to veterans, will definitely be happy with how easy website tasks are done using cPanel’s interface.

Editing your website, creating databases, managing Cron jobs, and allocating space for your pages can be done in minutes. Every task that you require can be accomplished through the click of the mouse. It is so simple and easy to use that everyone can master it in a short period of time.

Installation in cPanel is a Breeze

cPanel developers have made sure that installing and uploading files, plugins, and other applications using their software can be done by every type of users, even those that have no technical training or background.

cPanel’s dashboard is user-friendly and walkthrough information and built-in tutorials are readily available and accessible to everyone.

cPanel is Safe to Use

When you use cPanel, you are practically risk-free. The software is developed to make sure that users can’t do anything that can cause significant damage to their websites or servers, no matter what they click on.

The 3 features stated above are enough reasons why you need cPanel as your preferred web hosting management software. Choosing another would simply be counter- productive and unwise.

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Different Methods to Develop Websites/Blog Sites with cPanel Tools

Wordpress definitely isn’t really only application you can utilize to develop a blog site. In a normal cPanel web hosting strategy, you can utilize the tool to set up rather a couple of various software application applications to produce your blog site.

It’s the CMS content management system that I utilize for many of my sites — including my blog sites. If you’re going to be developing a Static Website/Blog, I ‘d definitely suggest you think about utilizing WordPress.

Here’s a take a look at 10 software application applications offered from the majority of cPanel hosting strategies that you can utilize to produce your blog site:

Dotclear

This tool concentrates on offering an easy to use technique of developing a beautiful Website. Of specific interest are Dotclear’s claims Webpages are organically enhanced for SERP and that Web application will remain quick even with big amounts of information.

Textpattern

Textpattern is CMS choice — Utilize to develop numerous kinds of sites from blog sites to business websites. If you’re a Website Developer that has to manage all elements of CSS and HTML, in that case, Textpattern might be your application of option.

Serendipity

Serendipity is a php based CMS that permits you to develop an easy blog site or a more advanced website through plugins and styles. In addition, Serendipity utilize it for business applications. It likewise supports numerous databases.

WordPress

CMS- WordPress represents about 23% of all websites online. Numerous site owners like that WP is very simple to learn and publish the blog. Numerous complimentary styles are offered to tailor the appearance for the blog/website and it can be boosted utilizing a few of the lots of plugins offered from the Wordpress

LifeType

LifeType is platform that concentrates on assisting a multi-user, multi-blogging environment. Other notable function with LifeType is: LifeType is the first mobile application with smooth integration for posting to and accessing content on PDA, Mobiles.

PivotX

PivotX is not just used as a blogging tool, it can also likewise used utilized complex complicated Sites Furthermore, you can preserve numerous blog sites with a simple one setup.

b2evolution

b2evolution is an exceptionally popular option to WordPress which enables you to produce not just an easy blog site, however likewise an advanced site that consists of things like online forums, Images, and online E-Books. b2evolution most likely has one of the most benefits we have actually seen consisting of: less 3rd celebration plugins required, integrated analytics, incorporated e-mail project management, and simple numerous blog site management.

Nibbleblog

Another option to WordPress if you’re trying to find an easier UI and user friendly medium is Nibbleblog. While Nibbleblog is having insufficient features, it’s still an effective tool for producing blog sites.

Pixie

The concentrate is on simpleness — the objective being that any person can utilize it. Rather of setting up the exact same kind of bundle for everybody, Pixie enables you to define exactly what kind of site you desire to develop, whether that’s a blog site, or an organisation website

Once again, while WordPress is the number one for Blogging, keep in mind there are numerous options in case Wordpress simply isn’t for your Website

cPanel Web Hosting

cPanel is without a doubt the preferred hosting control panel. Apart from tools mentioned above, you likewise get to numerous handy functions for Web application setup, e-mail, file management, databases, and more. Few of our advised cPanel Web hosting plans, take a look at our post on the very best cPanel Web hosting.

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Domain Parking

Domain parking refers to the registration of an internet domain name without that domain being associated with any services such as e-mail or a website. This may have been done with a view to reserving the domain name for future development, and to protect against the possibility of cybersquatting. Since the domain name registrar will have set name servers for the domain, the registrar or reseller potentially has use of the domain rather than the final registrant.

Domain parking can be classified as monetized and non-monetized. In the former, advertisements are shown to visitors and the domain is "monetized". In the latter, an "Under Construction" or a "Coming Soon" message may or may not be put up on the domain by the registrar or reseller. This is a single-page website that people see when they type the domain name or follow a link in a web browser. Domain names can be parked before a web site is ready for launching.

Parked domain monetization

Domain parking may also refer to an advertising practice, more precisely called "parked domain monetization", used primarily by domain name registrars and internet advertising publishers to monetize type-in traffic visiting a parked or "under-developed" domain name. The domain name will usually resolve to a web page containing advertising listings and links. These links will be targeted to the predicted interests of the visitor and may change dynamically based on the results that visitors click on. Usually the domain holder is paid based on how many links have been visited (e.g. pay per click) and on how beneficial those visits have been. The keywords for any given domain name provide clues as to the intent of the visitor before arriving.

Another use of domain parking is to be a placeholder for an existing web site. The domain holder might also choose to redirect a domain to another website it has registered, either through URL redirection, domain cloaking or by pointing it as an alias of the main domain, although if this is done by the ultimate registrant, the domain is then in use, rather than parked.

Expired domains that were formerly websites are also sought after for parked domain monetization. A domain that was used as a website and is allowed to expire will still maintain most of its prior inbound links. These types of domains usually attract their largest amount of visitor traffic initially after being claimed from the domain drop lists. As website operators and search engines begin to remove the former inbound links, the traffic to the parked domain will begin to decline. The process of re-registering expired names is known as dropcatching and various domain name registries have differing views on it.

On domains with a 'one-click' implementation, a click on a keyword is not necessary to generate ad revenue. The ads are targeted based on the domain name. Domains with 'two-click' implementations require a click on a keyword or a keyword search to generate ad revenue.

There are several companies that actively cater to domain name holders and act as middlemen to serve advertisements on parking pages. The parking pages are propagated automatically on a domain holder's web property when they either change the name servers or forward the URL.

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The Benefits of Parking a Domain Name & What Small Business Owners Should Expect From DNS Hosting

There are two ideal times to think about parking your domain name…

If you are developing a project and you need to buy a domain name, but you are not ready to start using it just yet and also if you are able to get a good domain name on sale or with a coupon that you are going to use for later.

Of course, there are other reasons to park a domain name, but these are the most popular.

Basically you are going to have some information on the domain instead of it just sitting there blank.

You don’t have to do any work to get this information on the site and you don’t have to worry about people finding and seeing nothing is there.

This is a great alternative to putting up an “under construction” page, which can become very annoying to visitors.

If you plan to develop many domains in the future and you want to purchase them now for a bulk discount or to take advantage of a coupon you have, then you want to park them until you are ready to use them. This is relatively inexpensive, and it’s a good way to make a little money while you are working on other projects.

7 Benefits of Domain Parking

1. Conversions

When you park a domain name you will be able to convert sales very easily because of the targeted ads placed on the domain name. The best part is you don’t have to do anything in order to get these sales except own the domain name and park it.

2. Income

The major reason to use domain parking while you are waiting to develop the site is for income. The domain name does you no good if it is just sitting there empty. You need to be making something from it and many domain parking companies will offer you a nice percentage of the profits they make. Even if this just covers your expenses it is better than losing money on a domain you are not ready to use.

3. Very Little Set Up

Parking a domain is very easy and you will not have to spend hours upon hours trying to set up a website to make a little money. All you have to do is sign up with a domain parking company and let them do the rest.

4. No Contract

Since you own the domain name and you may be using it for a website in the near future you don’t want to commit to a year of parking or even longer. Most domain parking companies have no contract and you can work with them on a day to day or month to month basis. This gives you the ability to move or develop the domain whenever you are ready to do so.

5. Makes your Domain More Valuable

Since there will already be traffic coming to your domain with parking your domain will become more valuable to you when you are ready to use it. The search engines can find a parked domain and will actually index it. This is not the case if you just leave it blank.

6. No Real Maintenance

With domain parking you can literally set it up and forget about it until you are ready to develop the domain. You just sign up for an account and let the company parking your domain do the rest.

7. International

The final thing you benefit from with a parked domain is that anybody across the world can find your domain and access it.

Domain Parking is Not a Waste of your Time

Considering you may only pay a few dollars for your domain name you may be thinking parking it is going to be a waste. What if you spend 10 minutes signing up for a domain parking account and you end up making 5 times what you spent on the domain name. This would make it worth it and you can make much more than this.

It is a good way to start generating some revenue right away from any domain name and it is a solid way to start getting some traffic. When you decide to develop the domain name you can go directly from parked to live and the traffic will still come in. There are only benefits to using domain parking.

What to Expect out of DNS Hosting

DNS hosting is short for domain name system hosting, which is used by many of the domain name registrar sites.

This is where you keep your domain name until you get your own hosting to use for it. There are other types of DNS hosting as well, which are free DNS hosting and Dynamic DNS hosting, which are much different from each other.

With some of the companies that offer DNS hosting you have the ability to modify or even create DNS records for your domain name and with others you do not.

It just depends on the service and what they are willing to allow you to do. Not all of these services will give you the support you really need and not all of them support a large amount of DNS records either.

Many times you can get free DNS hosting that will provide you with what you need for second level domains that are currently registered with other sites that don’t give you free or flexible DNS hosting. These free services will often support TXT, NS, MX, A, and CNAME records, which allows you to do many things you may not be able to do with other services.

The Different Types of DNS Hosting

1. BIND

BIND is a type of DNS hosting that is used most for experimentation. BIND serves as the base with DNS protocol extensions for the implementation of a DNS server. This is a completely free system and this type of DNS hosting is also ported to many different operating systems. It is available for Windows and functions with some of the variant UNIX systems as well.

2. NSD

The NSD DNS hosting is a very simple type of hosting and it is not going to be hard to explain at all. It stands for Name Server Daemon and it is known to be very high performing. This system is a very dynamic system that operates as an open server. This means you can customize it to do whatever you want it to do.

3. MyDNS

If you are using UNIX, then MyDNS is the free server for this system. You do not have to worry about the inclusion of a resolver library or a recursive name service either. This is a design that is set up for optimum organization with many zones and resource records. It also has long to carry out dynamic tasks on the DNS data.

4. RBLDNSD

The RBLDNSD DNS hosting is a very small protocol daemon and it is exclusively designed for Name-Listing services and for DNS based IP listings. This is not for everybody and it only addresses problems with these two things.

5. NS/ANS

The abbreviation is for Name Server and Authoritative Name Server and these are commercial servers. This is meant for organizations and it is going to perform at the maximum levels. It is from Nominum and it is a preferred type of DNS hosting.

Knowing a few things about DNS hosting and a few types can help you to sort out this mess when you need this type of hosting. It is not something that you always want to be worried about, but when you know that DNS is a translation service to make computer names readable for humans, then you have a bit of an idea of what it is for.

A Few More Things to Understand about DNS Hosting

The major thing you need to know about DNS hosting is how to change your DNS servers.

This is what you will typically do when you purchase a domain name and your hosting is not with the same company you get it from.

This is not a hard thing to do, but before you do it you will want to make sure you have the hosting you are trying to get.

You do not want to get free hosting like the Google web host and you do not want to go with the cheapest website hosting you can find either.

It is necessary to go with a hosting company from the top 10 web hosts, especially if you are going to be going with a cheaper type of hosting. You will need to figure out the type of hosting you need as well.

It is necessary to research the different types of hosting like ColdFusion hosting, the PHP hosting, the Joomla hosting, the Windows hosting, and all the other different types of hosting before you choose. Getting the right hosting for your project is very important and once you have the right hosting you can work on changing your DNS servers.

So to change your DNS servers you will need to log into your current hosting account and get the name servers that you have for your hosting. This is going to be information you are going to enter in the name server section of the registrar you purchased your domain from. They have a domain name management section and you just simply change them in this control panel.

It is very easy to do this and for most people this is going to be the only thing they do that involves DNS hosting. You will not have to worry about it for much of anything else and it will only take a couple of hours for your domain name to be set up to be used with your new hosting. This is all you need to know about DNS hosting.

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Domain, Web, and Email Hosting Explained

A lot of confusion (understandably) exists about how domain, web, and email hosting works and what the difference is between them.  Most online services these days offer all of these services, so is it really necessary to understand the differences?  Just like there are carpenters who can do perform all aspects of a small project themselves (rough carpentry, painting, finish carpentry, flooring, etc…), you typically hire specialists when undertaking serious construction projects.  Similarly, many hosting providers have their own specializations and you can get the most for your money by selecting the services that best meet your needs.

In order to illustrate how these all work together, I’m going to describe the process of registering a domain to sell my new world-changing invention; the “widget,” of course.

Domain Registration

The first step in the process of setting up a domain is registration.  This is done through ICANN-accredited registrars, who collectively maintain the shared registration system (SRS).  There are over 500 companies that offer these services and some of the larger ones are Network Solutions, Go Daddy, and Register.com.  Quite simply, the registrars will let me know whether “JonsWidgets.com” is available and, if so, register it in my name.  As it turns out it is available, but this point all I’ve done is reserve the right to use a the domain name.

Domain registration process

DNS Hosting

Now that “JonsWidgets.com” is reserved, the next step is to get the domain listed in the “Internet phone book,” also known as the Domain Name Service (DNS).  When you’re browsing the Internet, domain names are a convenient way for humans to remember sites and email addresses.  However, we all know that computers only understand ones and zeros, so everything must eventually be translated into a number.  Every computer on the Internet (both browsers and servers) has what is known as an IP address – it’s a unique number that identifies that particular machine on the network and works very much like a telephone number.  Every time you type a domain name into your browser, the first thing your computer must do is to perform a DNS lookup to find the address of the server for which it’s looking.

How DNS lookups work

These days, nearly all of the domain registrars offer DNS hosting services.  As soon as you register a domain name, the registrar will typically create a DNS listing that points to a common page indicating that the domain is “parked” but that a web site doesn’t yet exist.

Web Hosting

OK, now it’s time to talk web hosting.  So far, all we’ve done is secured the domain name and pointed any browsers to a generic “Under Construction” type of page.  The first question is, “Who should I use as a web host?”  Selecting a web host should be the result of finding the best match between the requirements of your site and the hosting company.  This is largely dependent upon the technology  that will be used in developing your site.  Here are two main considerations:

◈ Environment: Linux vs. Windows

Most hosting packages are offered in either Windows or Linux based hosting environments.  LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP) is a commonly used collection of open source software that offers inexpensive web hosting.  Windows hosting is generally a combination of Windows Server, Internet Information Server, SQL Server and ASP.NET technologies that are more expensive to license and, therefore, generally cost a little more for hosting.

◈ Add-On Applications

There is a growing list of applications that web hosting providers offer and in many cases they’re free!  Two of the more popular categories of add-ons are blogs and content management systems.  I’ll cover both of these in more detail in future posts, but these technologies make it incredibly easy (and cheap) to build powerful, professional looking web sites without anyone having to write a single line of computer code.  If you plan on using on of these for your site, it’s important to choose a provider that specializes in hosting that particular application.  The service and performance will typically surpass those of a provider that specializes in either something else or nothing else.

Email Hosting

Email hosting is similar to web hosting in the sense that it needn’t necessarily be hosted by either your registrar or web host providers.  This is another case of selecting the host that makes the most sense for your particular situation.  Using myself as an example, several of my domains’ email accounts are hosted by Google’s Gmail service.  This is configured by making a change to the DNS records for your domain.

Screenshot of the DNS control panel from one of my GoDaddy accounts

You can see that email routing is also controlled by entries in the DNS records.  This is how it is possible to direct different types of domain traffic to different servers.  In the screen shot above, in fact, you can see a few entries (called CNAMEs) that create sub-domains that direct traffic to completely different servers and/or services like email, calendar, shared documents, etc…

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Top 6 Free Web Hosting Control Panels To Manage VPS/Dedicated Servers

No matter how you slice it, there is basically nothing as sensational as a tool that does it work. And when such a tool is offered without a price tag, it goes from sensational to heavenly.

Let’s take a look at the web hosting control panels (or admin panels) which you can use to manage your VPS or dedicated server. And yes, they are completely free to set up and use.

These days, control panels are popular because they help webmasters interactively manage the environment of their web project. Couple that with how easy they make experts useless.

In fact, a complete novice can efficiently administer his server and manage more than one site…powered by a few clicks.

Top Six Free Web Control Panels

The table says a lot but you need more to help you decide: this or those. Now, let’s carefully look at each panel and discuss its pros and cons. And do keep in mind that the list is not in any specific order.

1. ISPConfig – Top Multilingual Panel With Statistics

Developed by ISPConfig UG, this is a widely-used open source control panel under the BSD license. It implements a web-based interface to enable the typical panel tasks—mainly for Linux users.

For one, it is your best option if you’re looking for a multilingual panel. This could be handy in a couple of situations and the languages are a mouth-watering 22 in total. In addition, it delivers an easy, user-friendly interface to manage multiple servers based on login levels: reseller, administrator, client, or email user.

And for Apache or Nginx users, ISPConfig is specifically made to manage VPS servers. The developers combined PHP with MySQL to develop an impeccable panel…and they release updates frequently.

Features

➠ Web and email domains management: YES
➠ Web-based virtual servers management: YES
➠ Database systems management: YES
➠ Multiple servers from one control panel management: YES
➠ Great flexibility; integration with another control panel: NO
➠ Support for IPv6: YES
➠ Management of DNS: YES
➠ Management of emails: YES
➠ FTP administration: YES
➠ Availability of website statistics: YES
➠ Multilingual (multiple languages): YES
➠ Management of command line: NO
➠ User-friendly web interface: YES
➠ Logfile reporting and access: YES
➠ Direct access to server logs: YES
➠ Presence of built-in plugins: NO
➠ High extensibility with Python: NO
➠ Authentication of LDAP and 2-factor: NO
➠ Availability of firewall for maximum security: NO
➠ Availability of numerous modules for the utmost configuration: NO
➠ Mirrors and Clusters configuration: YES

Visit ISPConfig

2. Ajenti – Top Customizable Panel With Speed, Performance

Ajenti is another open source web control panel. While others host VPS servers almost impeccably, Ajenti does the job with more efficiency. Most admins prefer it because of its relatively faster remote access and higher performance.

It comes pre-installed with modern tools like text editor, code manager, terminal access, and file manager. All these improve the efficiency of web management. And you can easily manage and configure servers such as Samba, Squid, Munin, etc.

With its user base counting millions, users can also install packages and utilize its virtual emails—which comes with the auto-configuration of EXIM 4 and Courier IMAP, enabling easy usage of DKIM, DMarc and SPF.

In addition to supporting a wide variety of operating systems, you can similarly set up Python, Ruby, PHP, and Node.js applications. Accompany these with its lightweight and modular architecture.

Features

➠ Web and email domains management: YES
➠ Web-based virtual servers management: YES
➠ Database systems management: YES
➠ Multiple servers from one control panel management: YES
➠ Great flexibility; integration with another control panel: NO
➠ Support for IPv6: No
➠ Management of DNS: YES
➠ Management of emails: YES
➠ FTP administration: YES
➠ Availability of website statistics: NO
➠ Multilingual (multiple languages): NO
➠ Management of command line: NO
➠ User-friendly web interface: YES
➠ Logfile reporting and access: YES
➠ Direct access to server logs: YES
➠ Presence of built-in plugins: YES
➠ High extensibility with Python: NO
➠ Authentication of LDAP and 2-factor: NO
➠ Availability of firewall for maximum security: NO
➠ Availability of numerous modules for the utmost configuration: NO
➠ Mirrors and Clusters configuration: YES

Visit Ajenti

3. CentOS Web Panel – Easy Setup And Integration With CentOS/CloudLinux

The centos-web panel is an open source and freely available hosting control panel. It supports CentOS/RHEL 6.x and CloudLinux distribution. It simplifies web hosting management by providing many advanced features and modern panel with full control. The installation is super easy with a few clicks.

In the term of security, the panel has the best Linux Firewall (CSF firewall) along with features like live monitoring, IP access control, automated backups, and complete database management. In addition, it provides file system lock feature that makes your website even more secure against the hackers.

CentOS web panel facilitates features such as MySQL with phpMyAdmin Panel, postfix, dovecot mailboxes and Roundcube web interface for emails.

Features

➠ Web and email domains management: YES

➠ Web-based virtual servers management: YES

➠ Database systems management: YES

➠ Multiple servers from one control panel management: No

➠ Great flexibility; integration with another control panel: Yes

➠ Support for IPv6: YES

➠ Management of DNS: YES

➠ Management of emails: YES

➠ FTP administration: YES

➠ Availability of website statistics: YES

➠ Multilingual (multiple languages): NO(only English Language supported)

➠ Management of command line: NO

➠ User-friendly web interface: YES

➠ Logfile reporting and access: YES

➠ Direct access to server logs: YES

➠ Presence of built-in plugins: YES

➠ High extensibility with Python: NO

➠ Authentication of LDAP and 2-factor: NO

➠ Availability of firewall for maximum security: YES

➠ Availability of numerous modules for the utmost configuration: NO

➠ Mirrors and Clusters configuration: YES

➠ SSH through control panel web-interface: YES

Visit CentOS-WebPanel

4. Virtualmin – Top Virtual Panel With Authentications, Mobile UI

The truth is, Virtualmin is a supercharged version of Webmin—which is also on this list. Its source is open and widely used all over the world, with thousands of downloads and active users. Written in PHP, it perfectly supports UNIX operating systems, Linux distributions, and BSD extensions.

Moreover, Virtualmin is available in three product versions: Virtualmin GPL, Virtualmin Professional, and Cloudmin Professional. As expected, the first is free and open source while the last two are commercial. Regardless of which you use, Virtualmin is perfect for domain hosting and virtual servers like OpenVZ and KEN.

To reiterate, this is closest you can get in comparison with cPanel and Plesk.

Features

➠ Web and email domains management: YES

➠ Web-based virtual servers management: YES

➠ Database systems management: YES

➠ Multiple servers from one control panel management: YES

➠ Great flexibility; integration with another control panel: YES

➠ Support for IPv6: YES

➠ Management of DNS: YES

➠ Management of emails: YES

➠ FTP administration: YES

➠ Availability of website statistics: NO

➠ Multilingual (multiple languages): NO

➠ Management of command line: YES

➠ User-friendly web interface: YES

➠ Logfile reporting and access: YES

➠ Direct access to server logs: YES

➠ Presence of built-in plugins: NO

➠ High extensibility with Python: NO

➠ Authentication of LDAP and 2-factor: YES

➠ Availability of firewall for maximum security: NO

➠ Availability of numerous modules for the utmost configuration: NO

➠ Mirrors and Clusters configuration: YES

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5. Webmin – Top Web Panel With Modules, Maximum Security

Webmin is a web-based version of the Virtualmin panel best known for its flexibility. It originally supports UNIX and similar systems while recent versions support Windows.

In comparison to others, Webmin is written in the high-level, dynamic Perl programming language. Similar to Virtualmin, Webmin is both open source and commercial. And like others, Webmin is used for the basics but its extensibility is an addition which helps admins manage multiple tasks.

Also, Webmin is known for its wealth of modules and excellent interface geared towards efficient file, domain, email, and server configuration.

Features

➠ Web and email domains management: YES

➠ Web-based virtual servers management: YES

➠ Database systems management: YES

➠ Multiple servers from one control panel management: YES

➠ Great flexibility; integration with another control panel: YES

➠ Support for IPv6: YES

➠ Management of DNS: YES

➠ Management of emails: YES

➠ FTP administration: YES

➠ Availability of website statistics: NO

➠ Multilingual (multiple languages): NO

➠ Management of command line: NO

➠ User-friendly web interface: YES

➠ Logfile reporting and access: YES

➠ Direct access to server logs: YES

➠ Presence of built-in plugins: NO

➠ High extensibility with Python: NO

➠ Authentication of LDAP and 2-factor: NO

➠ Availability of firewall for maximum security: YES

➠ Availability of numerous modules for the utmost configuration: YES

➠ Mirrors and Clusters configuration: YES

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6. ZPanel – Top Multi-Platform Enterprise Panel With Multiple Software Packages

ZPanel is one of the easiest panels to use. It is compatible with, virtually, all operating systems and this makes it the choice for Windows and macOS X users. In addition, the panel runs on Apache, MySQL and PHP. (This, we must admit, is impressive.)

So, admins can conveniently and effectively use software packages like Apache Web Server, RoundCube, Webalizer, phpMyAdmin, FTP Jailing, PHPSysInfo, hMailServer, Postfix, DoveCot, and IMAP.

When you assess these features, regarding ZPanel as the best enterprise control panel is not an overstatement.

Features

➠ Web and email domains management: YES

➠ Web-based virtual servers management: YES

➠ Database systems management: YES

➠ Multiple servers from one control panel management: YES

➠ Great flexibility; integration with another control panel: NO

➠ Support for IPv6: YES

➠ Management of DNS: YES

➠ Management of emails: YES

➠ FTP administration: YES

➠ Availability of website statistics: NO

➠ Multilingual (multiple languages): NO

➠ Management of command line: NO

➠ User-friendly web interface: YES

➠ Logfile reporting and access: YES

➠ Direct access to server logs: YES

➠ Presence of built-in plugins: NO

➠ High extensibility with Python: NO

➠ Authentication of LDAP and 2-factor: NO

➠ Availability of firewall for maximum security: NO

➠ Availability of numerous modules for the utmost configuration: NO

➠ Mirrors and Clusters configuration: YES

Note: Zpanel is no longer updated after being acquired by Hostwinds. There is no new release after Ubuntu-12.04 & CentOS-6.4. You may face the incompatibility issues on latest versions of operating systems.

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Drupal vs Joomla: In Search of the Best CMS

While WordPress powers a whopping 24% of all websites on the Internet, it’s certainly not the only open source content management system (CMS) available. In fact, there are two highly effective software platforms, Joomla and Drupal, that warrant great attention when considering a CMS for your website.

With Joomla raking in over nearly 50 million downloads and Drupal housing more than 1,000,000 elite websites, these powerhouses are worth investing the time to see which platform will best serve your business and site goals.

Although each CMS provides the basic functions of adding, deleting, publishing, and storing various types of content, each tool has different strong points and weaknesses which should be explored prior to making your final decision.  The purpose here is to provide a comprehensive overview of Drupal vs Joomla to give you clarity for your next (or current) business website. 

Joomla

Joomla is becoming an increasingly popular content management system.   Actually, after WordPress, it’s considered the world’s most accepted CMS, currently supporting over 3 million websites.  Joomla has the power of being extended to provide state of the art functionalities. It has been presented with the Packt Open Source Awards multiple years in a row, making it highly credible to be used as a CMS for your web application.

When it comes to complexity, Joomla places somewhere between simple WordPress and comprehensive and advanced Drupal.  Using Joomla means that there may be a slight learning curve particularly for beginners, yet webmasters are usually very happy with the features it incorporates.

There are many advantages including better architecture as compared to other content management systems.

The Advantages:

◈ Simple to install
◈ Knowledge of CSS, PHP, or HTML is not required
◈ Manage users with various permission levels without switching tabs
◈ E-commerce made easy
◈ Several thousands of free extensions available for increased functionality and interaction for your site
◈ Amazing support with programmer tools and tutorials for users
◈ Advanced administration panel offers many functions for complete optimization
◈ URLs generated are SEO friendly thus better positioning in search
◈ Update installs are easily done through web browser
◈ Application framework makes it effortless for developers to create sophisticated add-ons
◈ Highly strong and active community support

The Disadvantages:

◈ Although simple to use, beginners may initially be intimidated by the multitude of functions and possibilities…there is some learning involved
◈ Some of the plugins and modules are paid
◈ Limited adjustment options particularly for advanced users
◈ May experience compatibility issues with some of the plugins, requiring some PHP knowledge to get the functions to work properly
◈ Limited access control list (ACL) support

The Challenge:

The structure may seem complicated and you may have to go through a learning curve before you master the layout system.

Brands that Use Joomla:

◈ IKEA
◈ Greek Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs
◈ IHOP
◈ Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
◈ University of Notre Dame – Alliance for Catholic Education

If you have some experience with CMS systems and you’re looking for something more than WordPress, but you’re still intimidated by Drupal, Joomla might be a solid option.

Drupal

Currently over 1 million websites run on Drupal, widely known to service entities like governments, higher education institutions, NGO’s, and global enterprises.  This CMS proudly services The White House and prides itself on its top-notch security element.  Its incredibly powerful and comprehensive framework is suitable to house virtually any type of website.

The beauty about Drupal is that it was designed especially for search engine optimization.  Placing high value in security, reliability, and flexibility, this CMS is indeed the cream of the crop.  Its large robust community is also highly responsive to inquiries and concerns.

This CMS is definitely for the advanced with developer expertise…it is not for all users like Joomla.  Installing Drupal for your next project will require an experienced web developer on staff (or a contracted one).  Using Drupal is indeed a great choice with the ability to create amazing looking sites.

Here are the advantages, the disadvantages as well as the challenges users may experience with Drupal:

The Advantages:

◈ Top notch enterprise-level security
◈ Great ability to handle large amounts of content and data
◈ Lots of functionalities including advanced menu management, polls management, graphics modification tool, and users management
◈ Built for high performance
◈ Advanced control over URL structure
◈ Pages load faster because of its defaulting caching features
◈ Features countless modules, themes, and extensions
◈ Ideal for community platform sites that require complex data organization with multiple users
◈ Supports multiple site stakeholders (admin, editors, logged in users requiring customized content, private groups, etc.)
◈ Very clean, professional look
◈ Flexible with lots of versatility
◈ Stable and scalable
◈ Downright powerful platform!

The Disadvantages:

◈ Upgrades need to be completed with developer knowledge
◈ Not user friendly
◈ High learning curve
◈ Requires technical expertise
◈ Hiring a web developer to install is more expensive than a Joomla installation
◈ Premium themes and plugins (modules) cost a lot more than WordPress

The Challenge:

It is very difficult to install…you will likely need an expert.

Brands that Use Drupal:

◈ The White House
◈ University of Oxford
◈ The Weather Channel
◈ Bruno Mars
◈ Verizon
◈ The Economist
◈ Fox
◈ Forbes
◈ New England Patriots
◈ NBC
◈ Rutgers University
◈ Twitter
◈ Australian Government

Drupal is an advanced CMS system offering plenty of functions that make it possible to create simple or advanced websites, blogs, discussion boards, social networking pages, etc. However, it does require experienced knowledge of PHP and HTML languages as well as CSS.  For those with at least basic knowledge of these languages, there’s a very good technical support to guide them through the process.

How to Choose the BEST CMS for Your Business

Being clear on your business goals, objectives, and intentions is the first step towards selecting a CMS that is optimal for your business.  This clarity will guide you as to what type of website is congruent to your needs while better serving your unique target audience.

Joomla is also a good option for small to mid-tier e-commerce stores or for building a community or a network with a membership features, newsroom, forums, articles, input from external authors. If you want something more powerful for large projects in which stability, scalability, and power are essential, or for more enterprise use, then consider Drupal.

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Internal vs. External: What’s the Best Choice for Intranet Hosting?

With our years of experience in web hosting, we’ve found that intranets can be a challenge. But before we discuss hosting intranets any further, let’s define “intranet” in layman’s terms, because even this old term seems to have morphed into various definitions over the years.

What is an Intranet?

Traditionally, an intranet is thought of as a private and restricted internal Web-based site and/or network that is only accessible to users within an organization.

Since intranet traffic is limited only to an organizations users, they are often hosted internally, within the company’s private network, but this is not always the case. Intranets are quite often hosted externally in companies that don't have the IT staff or infrastructure to run them internally (some consider an externally hosted intranet a contradiction in terms, preferring to call it a “secured Internet site”). There are many companies who have a lot to gain from an intranet but neither have nor want the overhead that comes from hosting it internally.

Internal vs. External: What’s the best choice?

So what's the big difference between internal and external intranet hosting? I want to share an analogy that that I read some time ago, since it hits the nail on the head:

The difference between internal and external intranet hosting is like the difference between buying your own house or renting an apartment. As a homeowner, you're responsible for all repairs and improvements. Whether you decide to do this work yourself or contract it to someone else, you're basically responsible for everything yourself. However, when you rent a home, all you need to do is call your landlord to have something done.

So you want or need a new Intranet, but you are unsure if you want to host it internally or externally. To decide whether to host internally or through a hosting provider, you’ll need to ask yourself two important questions: “How important is my Intranet?” and “Do I have the infrastructure in place?”

Internal hosting needs

Don't mistake a simple Windows or Linux server with a pre-installed Internet Information Server (IIS) or some other software for an intranet infrastructure. When hosting an intranet, you need to address issues such as (but certainly not limited to):

◈ The security mechanisms, such as firewall and proxy servers, that need to be in place to protect the network from external threats.

◈ Internal security mechanisms and policies, user authentication, and access control lists (ACL) to define multi-level, granular user access to view and update intranet resources.

◈ System availability, backups, data and server redundancy, hardware architecture, and disaster recovery (DR) procedures. All of these have an impact on the bottom dollar and your IT staff.

◈ The number of systems required: Web front end, search server, SQL backend, staging, load balancing, development servers, scalability, and DR.

Benefits of External Hosting

Many factors will impact your decision on whether to host internally or externally. For instance, hosting externally would be a good option in the following cases:

◈ Companies which currently don’t have their own intranet infrastructure set up and simply need to find a quick home for their system where all of the security and network infrastructures are already in place.

◈ Smaller operations which lack a dedicated IT staff, licensing, additional backup space, internal bandwidth, or time.

◈ A company which has power issues in their facility and wants a guaranteed uptime for a geographical office disbursement.

◈ Companies which want to focus on software and content. External intranet hosting allows developers and content owners to focus solely on the development and design of the intranet and its content, not infrastructure issues.

◈ Companies which want to make a smaller initial investment. External intranet hosting is the best option for those who don't have enough money up-front to invest in new hardware and software to host their intranet in-house.

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Plesk or cPanel: Which is the Best Control Panel?

One of the most important features of your web hosting service is your control panel – the tool that enables you to administer your website. Whilst there are many control panels available, including a range of own-brand panels developed by web hosts, the two most popular ones are Plesk and cPanel. They are, essentially, the Android and Apple of the control panel market. In this post, we’ll compare both applications so that if you are given a choice over which one to choose, you can make a more informed decision.

Originally introduced back in 1996, cPanel is a much-loved platform used on millions of websites and is frequently included in many Linux shared hosting packages as well as being used for dedicated servers and cloud hosting. For those who have access to their server, cPanel often comes with WHM (Web Host Manager) a sister program that acts as a server administration interface.

Plesk was launched in 2001 and, like cPanel, has come to be a dominant force in the control panel market. The most recent version, Plesk Onyx, which has over 100 extensions, is available in three versions, Web Admin, Web Pro and a special version for web hosts.

OS compatibility

cPanel was developed to work on Linux servers and is currently incompatible with Windows. It is, however, compatible with CentOS, CloudLinux and RedHat Linux distribution based operating systems.

Originally developed for Windows, for which it is the world leader, Plesk can also be used on a wider range of Linux OS, including Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Red Hat Linux and CloudLinux.

In many cases, the control panel you use may be dictated by the operating system you (or your host, in the case of shared hosting) run on the server.

User interfaces

Whilst both offer very easy to navigate control panels, the Plesk interface is more in line with the standard software layout that most people are accustomed to. Very similar to the WordPress admin panel, it has its main menu down the left-hand side and when an item is selected, its contents appear in the main panel. A further set of feature boxes are located on the right side of the screen. For ease of use, icons are used for each of the main features.

The cPanel interface is laid out differently. The left-hand menu is missing and, instead, the features are grouped into sections which you access by scrolling down. Like Plesk, each feature has an icon to help you identify it. The cPanel interface also has some customisation options to make things easier to find.

With regards to how the panels are organised, cPanel groups its functions under the headings of preferences, mail, files, logs, security, domains, databases and software services whereas Plesk divided its functions into areas such as statistical and resource usage, users, mail, websites and domains, applications and statistics. Surprisingly, the WHM control panel, which is separate to cPanel, has the standard interface with the left-hand menu. In this sense, it is more like Plesk, than cPanel.

Plesk and cPanel both enable users to have command line access. cPanel provides command line and API-based access, the latter enabling interaction with third-party apps. Command line access from Plesk comes via its not so succinctly named ‘Panel Action Log Command Line Access Tool’.

Performance

cPanel developers have worked hard on raising its performance over the years, and it’s is generally accepted that it is the fastest loading out of the control two panels. This has been achieved by reducing the amount of RAM that cPanel needs, meaning that it performs quicker page loading, account creation and other operations.

Features and tools

There are a standard set of server and account management tasks that every user needs and you will find that both Plesk and cPanel enable users to carry these out. For example, both can be used for:

➥ App installation

➥ Scheduling backups

➥ Database management

➥ Running FTP

➥ Configuring DNS settings

➥ Managing email accounts

➥ Server logs

➥ Resource reports (e.g. availability, storage and bandwidth)

➥ Maintaining user accounts

➥ Traffic data and analytics

➥ File management

Out of the box, Plesk comes with build in support for a wider range of apps and extensions, however, cPanel also enables lots of apps to be added, too.

Web security features

Web security is essential today and both cPanel and Plesk provide a wide range of security tools to protect users. cPanel, for example, includes tools such as IP address denials, auto installation of SSL certificates and password-protected directories whilst Plesk’s security suite includes tools like active directory integration, in and outbound spam filtering for email and fail2ban intrusion prevention.

Management on the go

Both cPanel and Plesk have developed smartphone apps that enable you to connect with and manage your server and website while you are on the go. There are also a variety of third-party apps you can use.

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Cloud Hosting Vs. File Servers: A Pros And Cons Analysis

With cloud computing well into the mainstream and steadily replacing roles currently filled by traditional server architecture, it’s time to ask the big question: can cloud hosting replace traditional file servers for storing and sharing files between employees in your organization? Serving, sharing, and storing files was probably the very reason many small and midsize companies built out their intranet infrastructure in the first place, and may still be the only reason that many companies have a server in their office or are renting server space. And as the workforce became more mobile, these servers took on the additional duties of sharing your internal files with employees on the road or working from home, even though they may not have always been designed for those functions.

Cloud hosting, on the other hand, was born from a networked world with sharing, collaboration, and mobility being key considerations from the very beginning. Despite only being a relatively recent technological innovation, cloud computing has leveraged these strengths to quickly start eating away at the share of file hosting and file sharing duties of traditional server setups. Still, many companies are still hesitant to trust their files and security entirely to a third party where they may share space and resources with other companies, or entrust their proprietary data to some nebulous “cloud”. So which is better for your needs? What are the pros and cons of legacy file sharing servers compared to the newcomer cloud storage?

Traditional File Servers: Pros And Cons

File servers have been the mainstays and workhorses of the business world practically since business networking has been a term. There are a significant number of pros to keeping your files on an internal (or externally managed) server that you control. The biggest pro is ownership. While you may not own a rented server, if you are on shared hosting for example, you still control all of the contents of the server without doubt, and a hosting company cannot simply pull the plug on you, erase your data, or otherwise compromise the integrity of your data. This is even more so if you actually host your own file server on–premises or in a colocation space.

Another advantage of maintaining your own file server is the ability to configure it as much as you want, within certain limits (depending on your server type–self–hosted, shared, or dedicated). This gives you options about how you want files served, how credentials will be assigned, where people will be able to access files from, etc. This gives you flexibility and allows you to set things up in a way that is unique and specialized for your organization.

The major downside of having a traditional file server for sharing is the inflexibility and difficulty in maintaining such a server. Whether you host the server on–premises, have a shared hosting account, or a dedicated or co–located server, it is difficult to scale up and down as demand rises and falls. In fact, it’s impossible to do so dynamically in real time. That means during slow periods, you may be paying for way more server than you need, while during especially busy periods you may find that you are running out of bandwidth, RAM, or storage space. On top of that, unless you use a managed server, you will also have to be responsible for your own security and maintenance.

Cloud Storage: Pros And Cons

Cloud storage has pros that are the exact opposite of traditional servers. In order to utilize public cloud servers for storage and file sharing, you will be giving up a large portion of control in exchange for smooth operations. Public cloud storage allows you to not have to worry about buying server space, maintaining security, provisioning file space, or any of the other tasks that owning a server usually entails. The cloud storage provider will be responsible for security, for determining how access is granted, and where people can access the server from. You also gain flexibility. Many cloud storage services allow you to ramp services up and down to keep up with real–time demand. In fact, some will even do the automatic provisioning for you.

Downsides of a cloud storage and sharing solution are the loss of control that such a solution entails. You also have to worry about the cloud storage provider becoming a victim of cybercrime attacks. While most cloud service providers are much more security savvy than most small business IT teams, they are also much more likely to be seen as targets by hackers and other malicious elements.

Ultimately, each solution to the problem of file sharing and storage has its own pros and cons. Which works best for your business largely depends on your needs and your capabilities: a file server for companies with an IT budget to spend but a need for privacy, extra security, or their own special server build, or cloud storage for companies that don’t mind giving up a large measure of control in exchange for costs savings in IT management and technology.

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