5 Most Important Features of Shared Web Hosting Explained

Shared web hosting is the most popular hosting solution purchased from hundreds of web host companies all over the world. The sheer size of the huge market of shared solutions often causes problems to customers since most people purchasing shared plans are new to web technologies, and usually do not know what to pay look for when choosing a good hosting package.

How to Choose Proper Web Hosting Package

Web hosting is a complex of functions and hardware features; thus, you need to understand some technical processes in order to find for a proper solution. The system is not complicated at all—you just have to keep in mind that the abundance of unlimited features awarded by a certain web host does not mean that their shared plan is exactly what you need. Of course, it would be great if you could just consult a web master who would explain what features you will need for this or that online project. If you don't have that option, read on to understand some key facts about shared hosting plans and choose a proper solution.

Key Features of Shared Hosting

Here are five most relevant features included into shared hosting packages:

The Essentials: Disk Space & Traffic

Let's start with the basics. When you want to host a website on the web, you need some disk space that will be used for things like different code files, databases, and media. That's when you need a certain amount of disk space. Logically, the smaller your website is, the less importance this feature has. Now that you have hosted some files and made them into a website, you will want users to access that data. That's when bandwidth comes in. Imagine a tunnel: the wider the tunnel is, the more information can pass through it. Bandwidth works the same way. Many web hosts offer unlimited bandwidth but restrict traffic speed, which can also influence the performance of your website. Pay attention to bandwidth and traffic speed when searching for a good shared plan. Again, the bigger your website will be, the more disk space you will need. Additional hard drive security is very good, but typically this feature is not included in shared packages.

Uptime

Uptime is the time when your website works online and when users can access the site without any problems. It is usually measured in percentages from the total expected uptime (twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week). Of course, it depends if your website has to be online one hundred percent of the time.. Normally, if you purchase shared hosting, your project is not too big, so you don't really need 100% uptime. In such cases, the level of 98% is common. When choosing a hosting plan, do not pay much attention to what companies say about their uptime-- they only use best servers for their company website while you may get a worse one. Still, if you want to know the actual online rate, use some independent web projects to measure this number for you; likewise, you can check out some forums or ask you friends for advice. You also have to pay attention to different security features included in the plan, which will ensure better safety for your server. Be aware that most web host companies do not include pricey security options into cheap shared plans (for example, your server will be more secure if the package includes RAID, server backup, manual server restart, advanced network architecture, or other similar services).

Support

Support is extremely important. If you are new to web hosting, support will be your eyes, hands, and everything else. That's why we advise that you browse the web and check different reviews for information about support of your web host candidates. Also browse through forums where users discuss web hosting to give you an insider’s review. Why is support so important? When making your first steps in hosting management, you will have many questions, and many of them will require immediate answers--that's why the working speed of customer support is so crucial.

Pre-Installed Apps

Many web host companies include so many additional features into their shared plans that it's becomes a giant mess. They will offer some unlimited options, pre-installed apps, extra-fee services, and the like. Concentrate on the pre-installed apps, which are special widgets that help you create a website quickly and manage it more efficiently. One of the most basic apps is the control panel. If your shared plan includes a control panel, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Life gets much easier with one, as you will be able to control the most complicated server processes through a very convenient interface. The most popular control panel is cPanel, but some web hosts of will offer you an alternative — Zpanel, Webmin, Virtualmin, or even their own customized control panel (which is not always so good as it sounds). Now, most control panels have some apps and add-ons pre-installed, so you can switch some important functions on with only one click, like eCommerce tools such as payment instruments or shopping carts. You can also have a CMS like WordPress or Joomla available for quick automatic installation. Note that all those extras are only reasonable if you need them. If you have someone make you a promo website or a portfolio, most of those features are not necessary.

Free Bonuses

Finally, we get to the sweetest thing about shared plans. Since the market of shared web hosting is so big, different companies try to attract more clients by offering free bonuses. Some of them will offer a free domain name, website transfer, site-building tools, or some other nice features. Of course, this great and convenient, so the more free bonuses you get, the better the deal. When it comes to free bonuses, the main item that needs your attention is the so-called “renewal fees.” What happens here is that the company will grant you the first year of domain usage free, but later on you will have to pay yearly fees. As always, examine the user agreement thoroughly if a company offers you free features. Choosing a shared package is very subjective. You have to spend some time considering the requirements for your website so that you know what features are priorities and what features are non-essentials. Remember to keep pricing and reliability at the forefront.Your web host must have a good reliability-price ratio.

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The Difference Between Cloud Services & Hosted Services

It seems as if everyone has their own definition of cloud services and hosted services. In truth, hosted and cloud services are very similar — both are off-premises and are accessed through an Internet connection. While some believe that these services are essentially the same, experts argue that cloud services are more interrelated with other web-based offerings. When it comes down to it, the main difference between hosted and cloud services is multi-tenancy.

What Is Multi-tenancy?

According to Gartner, "Multitenancy refers to the mode of operation of software where multiple independent instances of one or multiple applications operate in a shared environment. The instances (tenants) are logically isolated but physically integrated. The degree of logical isolation must be complete, but the degree of physical integration will vary. The more physical integration, the harder it is to preserve the logical isolation. The tenants (application instances) can be representations of organizations that obtained access to the multitenant application (this is the scenario of ISV offering services of an application to multiple customer organizations)."

In other words, multi-tenancy implements the sharing of resources and costs among a large pool of users and allows infrastructure to be concentrated in locations with lower costs, maximizing peak-load capacity and improving utilization and efficiency in systems that are often only used up to 10 to 20% of the time. Hosted services generally do not offer the same cost efficiencies, elasticity, or reliability as cloud services. 

The cloud provider benefits of multi-tenancy are amplified by only having to support a single version of software, the uniformity of its hardware environment, and its efficiency. The general rule is that if a solution is not multi-tenant, then it isn't a cloud solution, and won't have the same benefits.

What Are Hosted Services?

Hosted services are technology services offered by a provider hosting physical servers that are removed from the customer’s premise. A hosted service provider owns and oversees infrastructure, software, and administrative tasks at a private location. The hosted service system is available to clients, typically through a direct network connection that uses the Internet (VPN, Remote Desktop, etc.). There are three main elements of hosted services: 

◉ Software as a Service (SaaS)

◉ Platform as a Service (PaaS)

◉ Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

These three combined encompass software, network capacity, and the equipment used to support operations such as storage, hardware, servers, and networking components.

What Are The Benefits of Hosted Services?

Hosted services are generally very secure and provide a wide range of services, data warehousing, off-site backup, and more. When thinking about hosted services in the real-world, you actually come across them most days. Some examples of common hosted services include:

◉ Virtual server hosting

◉ Security

◉ File hosting

◉ Website hosting

◉ Email

What Are Cloud Services?

Cloud services are a subset of hosted services. Hosted services, even those accessible using the Internet, cannot be referred to as real cloud solutions unless they have been built to capitalize on the collaboration and interconnectivity that is a fundamental part of the cloud. Cloud applications are web-enabled, meaning, instead of being based on physical hardware, they are based in a shared virtual environment managed by a cloud-hosting provider. Only server installation and a device with an Internet connection are needed for cloud services. Many line-of-business (LOB) applications are adding cloud services to their offering. Cloud servers can be constructed to provide varying levels of performance, security, and control to configure to your business’s needs.

What Are the Benefits of Cloud Services?

Cloud servers allow your business to optimize IT performance without the overwhelming costs associated with the purchase and management of fully dedicated infrastructure. These cloud servers are the ideal fit for businesses of variable demands and workloads. The most significant benefit of cloud services compared to hosted services is the scalability of solutions while remaining relatively affordable for most businesses. When selecting cloud services, the expenses related to the equipment and maintenance of the data center or colocation facility are spread across everyone within the facility.

Cloud services offer on-demand utilities, multi-tenancy features with seamless uninterrupted scaling, and features that are sure to meet your business’ needs to adapt and help you meet the demands of your client base.

Cloud Services vs. Hosted Services

When it comes down to cloud services vs. hosted services, there is no right or wrong answer when selecting one. It’s up to the organization to evaluate their needs and wants to select the best service. Today’s cloud services and hosted services have something to offer to everyone, so take your time to ensure you select the right service for your company.

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What is DNSSEC?

Understanding DNS

Understanding DNSSEC first requires basic knowledge of how the DNS system works.

The DNS is used to translate domain names (like example.com) into numeric Internet addresses (like 198.161.0.1).

Although this address system is very efficient for computers to read and process the data, it is extremely difficult for people to remember. Let’s say that every time when you need to check a website, you should remember the IP address of the machine where it is located. People often call the DNS system the "phone book of the Internet".

To solve this problem, a numeric IP address was attached to every domain name. The website addresses we know are actually domain names.

Domain name information is stored and accessed on special servers, known as domain name servers, that convert domain names into IP addresses and vice versa.

The top level of the DNS resides in the root zone where all IP addresses and domain names are kept in databases and sorted by top-level domain name, such as .com, .net, .org, etc.

When the DNS was first implemented, it was not secured, and soon after being put into use, several vulnerabilities were discovered. As a result, a security system was developed in the form of extensions that could be added to the existing DNS protocols.

Domain name system security extensions (DNSSEC) are a set of protocols that add a layer of security to the domain name system (DNS) lookup and exchange processes, which have become integral in accessing websites through the Internet.

Advantages of DNSSEC

DNSSEC is aimed at strengthening trust in the Internet by helping to protect users from redirection to fraudulent websites and unintended addresses. In such a way, malicious activities like cache poisoning, pharming, and man-in-the-middle attacks can be prevented.

DNSSEC authenticates the resolution of IP addresses with a cryptographic signature, to make sure that answers provided by the DNS server are valid and authentic. In case DNSSEC is properly enabled for your domain name, the visitors can be ensured that they are connecting to the actual website corresponding to a particular domain name.

How DNSSEC Works

The original purpose of DNSSEC was to protect Internet clients from counterfeit DNS data by verifying digital signatures embedded in the data.

When a visitor enters the domain name in a browser, the resolver verifies the digital signature.

If the digital signatures in the data match those that are stored in the master DNS servers, then the data is allowed to access the client computer making the request.

The DNSSEC digital signature ensures that you're communicating with the site or Internet location you intended to visit.

DNSSEC uses a system of public keys and digital signatures to verify data. It simply adds new records to DNS alongside existing records. These new record types, such as RRSIG and DNSKEY, can be retrieved in the same way as common records such as A, CNAME and MX.

These new records are used to digitally "sign" a domain, using a method known as public key cryptography.

A signed nameserver has a public and private key for each zone. When someone makes a request, it sends information signed with its private key; the recipient then unlocks it with the public key. If a third party tries to send untrustworthy information, it won’t unlock properly with the public key, so the recipient will know the information is bogus.

Note that DNSSEC does not provide data confidentiality because it does not include encryption algorithms. It only carries the keys required to authenticate DNS data as genuine or genuinely not available.

Also, DNSSEC does not protect against DDoS Attacks.

Keys used by DNSSEC

There are two types of keys that are used by DNSSEC:

The zone signing key (ZSK) - is used to sign and validate the individual record sets within the zone.

The key signing key (KSK) - is used to sign the DNSKEY records in the zone.

Both of these keys are stored as "DNSKEY" records in the zone file.

Viewing the DS record

The DS record stands for Delegation Signer, and it contains a unique string of your public key as well as metadata about the key, such as what algorithm it uses.

Each DS record consists of four fields: KeyTag, Algorithm, DigestType and Digest and it looks like the following:

We can break up different components of the DS record to see what information each part holds:

◉ Example.com. - domain name that the DS is for.

◉ 3600 - TTL, the time that the record may remain in cache.

◉ IN stands for internet.

◉ 2371 - Key Tag, ID of the key.

◉ 13 - algorithm type. Each allowed algorithm in DNSSEC has a specified number. Algorithm 13 is ECDSA with a P-256 curve using SHA-256.

◉ 2 - Digest Type, or the hash function that was used to generate the digest from the public key.

◉ The long string at the end is the Digest, or the hash of the public key.

All DS records must comply with RFC 3658.

You can always use the DNSSEC Debugger in order to find out if there are any issues with the domain name settings.

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What Are Domain Name System (DNS) Resolvers and How Do They Work?

DNS resolvers play a key role in converting Web links to IP addresses, acting as a link between your computer and the Internet's DNS infrastructure. A DNS resolver is a local server that stores a central database of DNS nameservers and manages DNS requests for all the clients on your network. With DNS resolvers, your computer does not need to store addresses for multiple online nameservers, a process which is difficult to manage effectively.

How DNS Works

DNS systems allow network clients to convert Universal Resource Locators, or URLs, into IP addresses. This is a key part of network operation, as computers and other devices generally need to know each other's IP address in order to communicate over a network. When you provide your computer with a Web link, the computer issues a DNS request asking for the IP address that corresponds to that address. The DNS then responds with the corresponding address, allowing the computer to communicate with the server that hosts that site.

Role of Resolvers

A DNS resolver is a server that acts as a “first port of call” in the DNS process. When a network client contacts a resolver, that resolver contacts multiple authoritative nameservers -- the servers that actually hold the IP address information -- in order to get the necessary IP address. DNS requests may involve nameservers all over the world.

Increased Efficiency

DNS resolvers increase the efficiency of a DNS system. Without resolvers, every computer on a network would need to be provided with the addresses of several authoritative nameservers in order to resolve addresses. In addition, each computer's server list would need to be kept up to date individually. Using resolvers means that all the clients on a network have access to a central list of authoritative nameservers, reducing the management time needed to keep the system current.

Performance Benefits

Some DNS resolvers cache the results they send to clients. This means that if another client requests the same IP address at a later time, the resolver can provide that IP address directly without having to contact any external nameservers. Storing results locally improves DNS response time and helps to reduce network load, because certain DNS results do not need to leave the local network in order to be fulfilled.

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What is Free Website Hosting?

As the name suggests, free website hosting is a free non-paid web hosting service. There are many web hosts who provide subdomains to anyone who want to make website. Some of such popular free web hosts include Blogger and Wordpress. When you make your websites with these free website hosting services, your website gets such name as yoursite.blogspot.com and yoursite.wordpress.com. If you want to get a website with a domain name that doesn’t include any external site’s name, you must buy domain and then get web hosting which is usually a paid service. However, there are many web hosting companies that provide free web hosting with some or the other products/services that you buy from them.

Benefits of Free Website Hosting

There is this single biggest advantage of free website hosting and that is- it comes free without any cost. Now if you are amazed at why these free web hosting companies let you make a website free of cost then you may rest assured that they do not make any loss in this business. When you make your free website with them, they use your websites to place advertisements, banners and other forms of advertising media to earn revenue. Sometimes, the revenue from advertisement is shared with the owner of the website and sometimes it’s not. For example, when you get free web hosting from blogger and if you use their AdSense service, you get a share in the revenue generated from the advertisements that they place on your websites. On the other hand, when you make a free website using wordpress, you do not have any control on the placement or revenue generated from your free hosted website. The situation is altogether different when you get website hosted through paid web hosting service. You have full control over your website and it’s your decision whether you want to place advertisements on your site or not and if yes then the whole of the revenue generated from the website advertisement banners come to you only. There are many other differences between free and paid web hosting services.

Differences between Free and Paid Web Hosting

Here are some major differences between free and paid website hosting services. It will give you a better understanding about what is free web hosting service and whether it’s worth to opt for such free hosting for websites?

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Advertisements on your website are controlled by the web hosting company that provides you with the free web hosting. It can use pop-ups, banners or any other advertisement on your site on which you do not have control. If also you have partial control, you may only decide what size of banner would be displayed where on your site. You won’t have control over what advertisement you will show on the website. On the contrary, when you avail paid web hosting, you have full control over your website and no outsider can decide anything for it.

Customer support is missing for free website hosting. Something which comes free cannot be asked to come with value added services. If something goes wrong with your website, there’s no customer support for websites made with free hosting. On the other hand, paid web hosting services not only give technical support to the customers but they also provide them with help guides, tutorials etc.

Low bandwidth and lesser data transfer capacity makes free website hosting vulnerable to greater downtime whereas paid website hosting gives you optimum bandwidth and data transfer for maximum uptime. You also can’t upload more images or videos when using free web hosting service as you don’t get enough disk space.

However, you can have best from the both worlds if you are ready to pay a little amount for any service that a web hosting company offers. For example, we offer a good web hosting package which comes with free online website builder and you have to just pay nominal rates. You get web hosting free along with many other facilities and services like email ID and free Google Adwords credit that you may use to advertise your website. This offer is better than any free website hosting service as you get full control over your website at practically very low cost! So, why wait!

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How to Set up Email on My own Domain

Custom email may seem like a small dot in the ocean with regards to branding your business, but it’s undeniably important. What do we say about first impressions? They count. In just one glance, you can make a meaningful impact on your, clients, customers and/or acquaintances. As a general rule of thumb, use a custom email address to give your business legitimacy, whereas a standard (e.g. @gmail.com) email is more appropriate for your personal stuff.

Creating a custom email address is similar to how you go about building your website. First, you need to pick an email platform to use, then install it to your custom domain. Let’s imagine Jamie’s bike shop. Shop owner Jamie wanted to distinguish himself from his rivals with a professional email address.

To set up a custom email address that matched his domain, Jamie would pick an email host. An email host will arrange that Jamie can email from jamie@jamiesbike.shop. Each host will offer a slightly different set of features, a different interface to access emails (a webmail client), and a range of prices.

Can I Host My Email on My Own Server?

Email hosting and web hosting are similar in the sense that neither has to be hosted by your registrar or web host providers. Emails can be routed to different servers and the routing is handled by entries in the DNS (Domain Name System) records.

By updating DNS records, it’s possible to direct different types of traffic to different servers. Making entries to CNAME records for example will create sub-domains to route traffic to different servers and/or services such as calendar, email and shared documents.

If you choose to host your own email, you’re going to need… a server. The fun doesn't stop there. Your server needs someone who knows how to manage it, so you'll want extra staff. Probably someone with an IT degree. And that's not all. You also need to consider:

◉ The expense of hardware
◉ Limited network capacity
◉ Storage limits
◉ Software licenses

The responsibility of backing up your email data. In addition to the labor costs involved in all this, these are just a few of the reasons that most businesses opt for the services of a professional email host, as opposed to running their own in-house server.

There are many challenges linked to in-house servers, including insufficient security, failed backups, difficulty syncing messages across multiple devices (desktop computers, tablets, and cell phones). These are things which can spell disaster for a business. Luckily, there are many alternatives available to avoid the challenges mentioned above.

There is a lot to be gained from choosing a hosted email provider rather than managing this yourself. With the number of options available today, there is a good fit out there for any size of business. It wouldn’t cost much to launch, but the time it takes to set one up, and effectively managing the console are the obvious reasons for subscribing to a service, instead of launching an email server of your own.

With a hosted email service, you don’t need to purchase any hardware, and it’s unlikely that you will have any software to set up. Setting up email hosting with a hosting provider is easy, you just need basic computer literacy and should be able to set the server up without much trouble.

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