5 ways Artificial Intelligence is Improving the Web Hosting Industry.

When asked about, what is Artificial Intelligence? We hear an answer it’s a ‘Sofia’ – a humanoid robot. Can you believe this robot is able to display more than 50 human expressions?

Sophia is a first robot who has received a citizenship of a country and is a first non-human who has got a title of ‘United Nations Development Programme’s first ever innovation Champion’.

Now, you may think what Artificial Intelligence (AI) means?

-> AI means creating some intelligent machines that behave like a human.

Did you know?

Actually, you are using Artificial Intelligence in your daily life.

We will see some such examples:

(1) Smartphones:

Are you reading this article on your smartphone? If yes, that means you are already knowingly or unknowingly interacting with the AI. You use smart assistance like Siri, Alexa or Google assistant which are based on AI. Have you ever thought how your mobile phone captures such stunning portrait pictures with a single lens? Well, it’s Artificial Intelligence.

(2) Cars:

Cars these days are at least semi-automatic and soon they will be fully automatic by the implementation of AI in it. Driver-less cars and flying drones are also great inventions on AI.

(3) Social Media Feeds:

If you say, that you haven’t handled or had a drive of full-automatic cars yet, then how about handling social media, that you use daily. Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram or other social media platforms are using AI to deliver you feeds like notifications which are created using AI.

(4) Video Games:

Video games are one of the earliest inventions of AI. When you play games like Counter-Strike or PUBG, you use a couple of AI-powered robots.

(5) Online Ads and Travel, Navigation:

When you display advertisements on online platforms then these platforms use AI to track your usage statistics. Also, while traveling to unknown places, you may use Google maps to reach your destination. AI tells all the routes across the globe to your Google Maps.

Never knew we are already half occupied by AI, isn’t it?

As we have seen the usage of AI is making our lives easy, similarly, it is also improving the web hosting industry. The capability of AI enables it to find out the potential malware or threats and makes you aware of the same.

Many top companies are now using Artificial Intelligence to help their clients get the best of the services.

Let’s see 5 ways how AI is improving web hosting industry:

1) Improving Security:

With the unknown malware getting generated daily, the website owners are becoming more cautious about their online business. Even, cyber-criminals are trying all their ways to crack the algorithm just to gain access to the victims’ network.

Artificial Intelligence is an important tool that is helping web hosting companies to respond quickly against the threats. By using advanced Firewall technology, they are able to identify the encrypted patterns and threats these patterns can cause. So, as soon as such bugs are identified, AI alerts the company and customer about it before any major harm. AI also helps you with some of the time-consuming jobs like analyzing and processing data that too with more accuracy.

2) Improving Domain Performance:

AI understands the pattern in which the data is getting coded and decoded. It analyses them and adds new patterns to them. AI can forecast about how well the domain names and individual URLs can perform. Hence, companies can use AI to research such domain names and URLs which can give them high traffic and conversion rates. This increases the productivity and ROI of the web host customers.

3) Improving Accuracy:

Using AI makes the tedious tasks simple and does it with maximum accuracy. For the smooth functioning of websites with heavy traffic and unexpected fluctuations, AI is used which assures you that the site performance will not get hampered. You can also train AI to perform real-time actions such as giving the chat responses, sending automatic messages, delivering telephonic messages or calls, etc. This will help to minimize the less priority human work so that they focus on their important work.

4) Data-driven reports:

All the higher authorities of the company, customers and clients should get a report generated by using appropriate data. The numbers and figures should be used in such a way that they make well-guided reports. AI reports can match the past and present data and accordingly explain the changes occurred. For e.g., If the total revenue of the company in 2017 was 60 crores and it has grown to 90 crores in the year 2018, then AI generated report should include the factors behind this growth. It also shows us to identify our brand’s loyal customers, according to their purchase rate, recurring rate and the cost of purchasing products, which helps in building a good relationship with them.

5) Self-updating and improving systems:

In the digital field, it is very important to keep your website and other digital data updated so as to advertise to your audience. This increases your constant maintenance work, ensuring that all the online accounts need to function in a favorable way. Using AI into such web hosting systems can decrease the work of repairing and maintenance as the systems get updated themselves. The updated system allows the smooth workflow to all the digital platform users.

Still, Artificial Intelligence has not able to cope up the human level but it is growing rapidly in the hosting business.

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A Complete Guide to cPanel Web Hosting

In this article, we are going to learn about cPanel web hosting which is popular among various web professionals.

What is cPanel Hosting?

A control panel that manages your Linux-based hosting service is called as cPanel. One of the best things of cPanel is that, it enables even the non-technical people to manage the complete web hosting without the need of any technical skills. cPanel is used by many for basic and everyday tasks such as email administration and management.

Many web professionals prefer cPanel web hosting due to it’s user-friendly interface. cPanel hosting makes it easy to create email accounts, reset passwords, setup email forwarders, etc. Other popular cPanel hosting features include setting up domain parking which allows you to redirect one domain name to another domain name or add multiple domains with which you can host several domain names under one hosting account.

Features of cPanel Web Hosting

When web hosting comes with cPanel, it covers several features such as security, file management and app installation.

1. Manage FTP Accounts

File Transfer Protocol or FTP is a protocol that enables users to upload and download files, create or delete them, organize your files in folder and allows you to change the file permissions. cPanel web hosting makes it easy for you to manage all this with the help of FTP accounts. An FTP account will get created within the cPanel automatically, after you sign up for cPanel web hosting. It is possible to create several FTP accounts without giving the access to unknown users. With cPanel, you can decide on the level of access to be given to a particular user by assigning that user to a specific directory.

2. Strong Database Support

MySQL and PostgreSQL support cPanel. Both of them are structured query languages that are widely used to collect information from databases. cPanel web hosting fortifies your website with a solid database management system.

Additionally, you can use the cPanel for configuring remote access to MySQL databases. This helps to access the MySQL databases via the external hosts.

3. Add Multiple Domains

Want to add multiple domains? cPanel web hosting allows you to add multiple domains and edit the zone files of the domains by modifying their records. In case you want users to browse your website with a different domain name, it is possible with the help of domain aliases in cPanel. Along with creating domain aliases, it is possible to redirect a particular web page to another domain using the Redirect feature. Moreover, you can also add sub-domains with cPanel web hosting.

4. Manage Your Emails Easily

Managing your emails becomes easy with cPanel web hosting as it offers plenty of options. It is possible to create, edit and remove email accounts with cPanel. You can modify password, set the mailbox quota and configure your mailbox with your preferred client such as Outlook. It is also possible to configure your emails with your Gmail account. You are provided with a mailing list option that helps to send emails to multiple users easily. Emails can also be filtered as per your requirement and you can also forward emails to the people you want.

5. Get Detailed Website Stats

cPanel offers detailed statistics on different variables such as number of site visitors, pages viewed, viewer’s IP address, most viewed pages, visitors that returned to the site, operating systems of the visitors, browsers, site ranking, etc. These statistics help the site owners to make adjustments for meeting the needs of users and work towards making their website SEO friendly.

6. Softaculous for Installing Applications

cPanel web hosting offers Softaculous script installer that helps users to install applications with just a single click. Users can install more than 400 applications with Softaculous. These applications include WordPress, Joomla, Magento, Drupal and many more. cPanel web hosting has become popular among many web professionals as it has everything for everyone.

7. Secure Your Website with Cloudflare

Cloudflare, a content delivery network is included in cPanel web hosting that secures and accelerates websites. After getting an access to Cloudflare through your cPanel, your website traffic gets routed via a global network that speeds up the web pages delivery for the visitors that browse them. You also stay protected from DDoS and other attacks with Cloudflare.

Many users also enable Port 80 apart from the Cloudflare, which helps to block spams and secure themselves from attacks as well. With this, the cPanel web hosting becomes a highly secure hosting option as compared to other types of hosting.

Advantages of cPanel Web Hosting

When it comes to managing your website, cPanel web hosting contributes to be a complete package as it offers security, control as well as freedom. Apart from the salient features offered, cPanel web hosting also offers long-term benefits. Let’s check them as below:

1. Complete Control on Applications

You get complete control over the software and hardware applications with cPanel web hosting. It allows you to shut down your server from a remote location and reboot your operating system, if required. Additionally, you can select any Linux based hosting plans, ranging from shared, VPS, reseller or dedicated. If you select VPS hosting, along with cPanel you get Web Host Manager (WHM) while if you select reseller hosting, you get WHMCS with the cPanel.

2. Get Pre-Installed cPanel

In cPanel web hosting plan, you get pre-installed cPanel with the same. This saves your time spent in installing any other control panel. Also, it helps in monitoring the performance of your website. In case you plan to update your hosting plan and upgrade the resources, you can also keep a track on the number of resources used in terms of disk space or speed, etc. This enables users to monitor their resource usage for a particular server.

3. Backup and Scalability

When cPanel is included in your web hosting plan, your data remains safe. One of the significant benefits is that you can take the backup at any time since cPanel is integrated with backup features. Additionally, you can scale cPanel as per your hosting plan.

4. Cost-Effective as Compared to Windows

cPanel license isn’t that costly as it is for the other platforms. This is one of the reasons for people preferring cPanel rather than other control panels. cPanel web hosting is a hosting that includes right applications that are combined together to offer robust management of your website. All the features added in cPanel web hosting are included by keeping in mind different needs of different web professionals.

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Domain Name And Hosting Selection: What You Need To Know?

Let us help you with the complete guide to getting started with your website. The very first step you’ll need to follow is deciding your domain name and later determine which web hosting service is best for the website.

Stay tuned to learn more about it.

Choosing a Domain Name

Selecting your domain name is actually a delightful experience, if you know how to pick the best one. It’s not necessary to use your business name for your domain.

Explore It On Your Own

Do a research to find which domains are available. As you might already know, there are millions of websites that are live. So, it is obvious that the domain name you wish to buy may not be available unless you buy it from the current owner of the domain at a huge price. But don’t worry! You still have a number of options. Use a domain name finder to see if your domain is available.

While you plan your domain name, ensure that you consider your target audience. What is their search pattern, what keywords/ phrases do they use? Try to include one or more keywords into your domain name to get your rankings on top.

It Should be Easy to Remember

Make sure that your domain name is easy to remember and simple to pronounce. Else, people may forget it very soon and not be able to find it easily. Try and avoid more than three words in your domain name. The lesser the better. Do not use words or phrases that have more than one spelling or meanings. There are more chances that they will get misspelled.

Also, avoid using hyphens or special characters as it may create confusion.

Domain Extension

Majority of people think that the “.com” domain is all that they need. However, if you really find it difficult to grab a .com domain with your brand name you can also consider buying other extensions like .shop, .biz, .us, .info, etc. But before that, make sure that the domain extension suits the type of online business you have. As an example, think of .org sites- it is mostly for non-profit organizations, or .shop is mostly for online shopping sites.

Domain Trademark Issues

Avoid using domain names that are already protected by trademark. If you pick a domain that contains a word or a phrase which has trademark already then you may fall into a trouble.

For example, if your web address includes the word “Microsoft” in its domain name, it will cause for breaching upon the brand named Microsoft. Not only this but also if your domain name has a similar spelling to that of trademarked material, it may put you in a mess.As a result, your domain name will face trademark infringement and it may cause huge losses.
It’s better to avoid choosing any such domain names that will cause trademark issues.

Domain Privacy

While you register your domain name, you have to provide your name, address and phone number. This information is publicly available to anyone on the internet. The spammer/ hacker may misuse this information for domain hijacking, phishing attacks, spam calls/emails and SMS, identity theft, domain related spam, etc.

Thus, it is important that you opt-in for domain privacy protection that helps you mask your actual contact details. Most of the web hosting providers offers WHOIS privacy that will safeguard your contact details and only domain registrar information will be available.

SSL Certificate

An SSL certificate keeps your entire sensitive data safe by encrypting all the information that is exchanged on your website. Installing an SSL certificate on your website builds a seal of trust and validates that your website is secure and that your visitor’s information is safe.

When your website has an SSL certificate, a green padlock appears in the web browser and your website URL begins with https. The HTTPs is the secured version of an HTTP protocol. The ‘s’ in the https indicates that your website is secure.

Where to Register Your Domain?

Once you finalize your domain, the next step is to buy it from a domain registrar. It’s recommended that you buy domain and hosting from the same provider as this will make it easy to manage the domain and website all at one place. Some providers will also allow you to transfer existing domains you already have.

Tips to Choose a Hosting Service

Just buying a domain and building your website is not enough, you’ll have to buy web hosting to make it available on the internet.
Not all types of web hosting are the same. There are different types of hosting services available.

Majority of web hosting providers are available in 3 categories:

◈ Shared Hosting – As the name suggests, in shared hosting, many websites can be hosted on a single server. Thus, they share the same resources on that server. This is a very commonly used type of web hosting and is cost effective too. It is most suitable for small to medium sized websites.

◈ Dedicated Server – A dedicated server gives you complete access to the server. Also, the resources on the server are bind only for your site. Means, no other website will be using the same resources like yours. Dedicated hosting provides complete security and flexibility and is ideal for websites with high traffic.

◈ VPS Hosting – In VPS hosting, a physical server is partitioned in many virtual servers. You are assigned with one partition of that server which can be used for hosting your website. So, you get a dedicated environment and resources for your website.

◈ Cloud Hosting– Cloud hosting is a form of hosting where a website is hosted virtually on a cloud server. It automatically scales any web application in real-time to meet the needs of your project.

Once you decide which web hosting type is apt for you, do a research for some of the best web hosting providers in the market. Note that web hosting provider plays an important role in rankings of your website. If you are keen on getting more traffic on your website then choose a web hosting provider wisely instead of choosing them just because of the price.

Price Factor

Most of the web hosting providers will provide huge discounts, if you are a new customer, but renewal rates will be comparatively higher. Ensure that you ask them each and every cost related to your website, which features require-one-time payment only and which features you might need to pay in the future. This way, you’ll never be interrupted with your hosting service nor by any surprise bill payments in your inbox.

Plan How You Will Build Your Website

If you don’t have programming skills for building a website, neither want to overspend by hiring a developer, you can always choose a web hosting provider that provides a reliable website builder with their web hosting plans. These website builders are easy to use as you simply need to drag-and-drop content and images to build your website.

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The Importance Of Good Web Hosting Protection

More businesses are moving towards having an online presence to conduct their operations. This has necessitated an influx of demand for good web hosting, as more content and business are being moved onto a digital platform. Good web hosting companies have a long history of serving customers with minimal hiccups and maximum uptime.

Of course, there are a number of security concerns that happen in the world of web hosting. Obviously, since we deal with so much sensitive data in our day-to-day lives, it can become difficult to keep track of all the security threats that we face constantly. Especially with online businesses or websites, things like payment information and sensitive customer information demand a high level of security and protection when it comes to their web hosting.

There are a number of difficulties and necessities that arise with the question of good web hosting. Is your hosting secure? Do you know the details of your web host’s privacy policy? How many different servers is your data hosted on, and what kind of security architecture is in place to keep that data safe?

All of these questions become pertinent when we start to consider the difficulties that revolve around secure web hosting. Understanding these difficulties, and how we can employ our necessary information and strategies to protect ourselves, is the name of the game. There are a number of strategies we can use to protect ourselves, even with a good web host in place.

The first and most essential step is to educate yourself on these risks and methods and be ready to learn new things about how web hosting works, and how you can take steps to protect yourself even further.

The Need For Security, And Ways To Protect Yourself

Good web hosting services can provide certain levels of security when it comes to hosting your data. This includes not just customer data, but also your business’ sensitive data and your own payment information. However, even with good knowledge and good web hosting in place, there are certain steps that must be taken when dealing with certain types of sensitive data.

One of the biggest areas of importance is payment data. It’s important to note how your own payment data and your users’ data are handled. You should also understand how many companies you deal with to manage and process user data. You need to know all the companies handling your users’ data, as well as how secure their processes are, in order to effectively communicate that to the end user.

With all that being said, there are a number of easily implemented security solutions that can be integrated into a variety of business structures and hosting plans. If you’re willing to keep your security concerns in mind going forward, we can go over a few of the most important methods right now. There are a few different popular methods for easily adding protection to our web hosting, and many of them can be implemented easily and effectively.

One of the most effective methods is a Best Practices Policy. Having all of your employees and business dealings properly trained makes every aspect of your business easier, and security is no different. Another effective method is to use software solutions to protect your web hosting traffic.

Understanding The Risks Involved

The first and best way to protect yourself is to understand the risks. With web hosting, the main security concerns are the spread of malware, the hosting of illegal content, the vulnerability of the system to attacks, and the level of encryption or other security methods in place to protect your data.

Other concerns include the loss or theft of user data, including payment information or identifying documentation. This can be especially concerning based on the privacy laws in your country of operation, and it’s always a good idea to fully understand your legal obligations as a business.

In regard to the theft of data or the spread of malware, understanding how network security works in general can also be a good idea.

Implementing A Best Practices Policy

Even if your business only consists of yourself, it can be a good idea to actually consider a policy for best practices, which will allow you to execute your business dealings with a certain amount of regularity and predictability. This has a wide range of security applications, especially if you have employees who need to be given different levels of access to certain materials.

In the fields of web development, online business, content writing, and a wide range of other emergent online practices, keeping your employees trained to ensure security in all aspects of your business is important. Web hosting is no different. You should be just as careful to scrutinize your own employees (or yourself) just as you do the hosting companies you deal with.

Implementing a regular policy will also help you to gauge how adaptable and open to accommodation other businesses are that you deal with. If a company you expect to deliver secure web hosting ends up falling short of your expectations, you can easily identify that problem and take action if you have a policy in place to set expectations on both sides.
There are many VPN companies that offer large-scale VPN benefits suited for protecting online businesses of all kinds.

Things To Consider For Your Security Needs

There are a number of security considerations you can take in regard to your practices in order to keep your hosting orderly and secure. One good thing to consider is the actual content that you will be hosting on your website.

If your website is going to be a storefront or representative advertisement where you control all the content, this will be less of an issue. However, if your service will be hosting content that is created and uploaded, or commented on by other users, then there is the possibility of copyright infringement, or other illegal content hosting that you will need to be aware of.

For this reason, you must have good measures in place on your website in order to mitigate the possibility of illegal content being featured. This can affect things like news site comment sections, blog comment sections, and anything that allows users to post their own information or content. If you’re providing this kind of service, it’s important to consider a solution to this issue. You cannot expect your web host to protect you from this kind of vulnerability.

Malware distribution is also a large concern in the same vein. Just like allowing users to post on your website opens you up to hosting illegal or copyrighted content, it also means that you could potentially facilitate the spread of malware or spyware. Understanding your risks and obligations as a business, as well as what kind of options you have for dealing with them, is always an important first step.

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Introducing HMS Panel

HMS Panel is an all-in-one control panel designed for Linux server platforms. A multi-server solution, it offers a number of advantages to both the web hosting provider or the customer who needs a more efficient way to manage their dedicated or virtual private server. HMS Panel is secure, easy to use and loaded with an arsenal of features that will surely come in handy for administrators at all levels. Here is the rundown:

Complete Domain Management

HMS Panel provides a complete system for managing domains. Users can add domains and sub-domains to the IP address of their choosing whether it is located on or off the server. Wildcards can be added so that all sub-domains for a particular domain point to a specific IP address. You can also modify domain zone files along with CNAME records, A records and MX records.

Email Management System

Web hosting customers on the client side benefit greatly from features such as HMS Panel’s robust email management system. Users can easily create email accounts and customize their communications with forwarders, catch-all addresses and auto-responders. While customers have access to their messages via the control panel interface with SquirrelMail, they can also integrate Microsoft Outlook Express or their preferred mail client.

.htaccess Management

HMS Panel offers a robust .htaccess management tools that can be used to apply various settings to directories within a particular domain. This includes error handling with custom 401, 403, 404, and 505 redirects, IP and domain blocking, file and directory redirects, hotlink protection, directory browsing and much more. The .htaccess management console utilizes AJAX technology, making it a dynamic and very flexible system. While this system is very convenient, experienced administrators also have the ability to modify .htaccess via the standard control panel interface.

Web Application Management

Similar to most control panels on the market today, HMS Panel is integrated with a facility that enables customers to perform one-click installations of various pre-installed software applications. The software management console makes it easy to incorporate programs such as WordPress, phpBB, phpAdsNew, Gallery, Drupal and osCommerce among several others. These applications are mainly available due to user request, but the HMS Panel control panel offers the ability to install many more third-party scripts.

Advanced Security

HMS Panel was developed with advanced web technologies and security mechanisms. The software utilizes sophisticated API authorization to ensure that server communications remain protected. By leveraging an enterprise-grade authentication system, HMS Panel is able to better assure that web applications and network security features are properly configured. The software also uses process isolation, a technology that allows administrators to isolate web applications from one another, making it so that potential issues with one application do not affect others running on the server.

A Complete Control Panel Solution

Now on version 3.5.1, HMS Panel is quickly evolving to be one of the most remarkable control panels on the market. It has all the basic capabilities offered by other panels with a few qualities that make it stand out from rest. If you are in search of a new control panel for your server, give HMS Panel a shot with the free 30-day trial license.

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How to Protect an Apache Web Server from DDoS

Apache or Apache HTTP Web Server is one of the most popular servers due to robust software, strong security, exceptional performance and its economical value. Also it supports several popular programming languages including Python, Perl, MySQL and PHP. Additionally, all Unix, Linux, Windows and OS operating systems support Apache.

What is a DDoS Attack?

A Denial of Service or DDoS attack is an attempt by a malicious user to make system resources unavailable. This is accomplished by sending a mass number of packets to the server causing it to overload and lock up. Hackers generally target sites like banks, root name servers and credit card payment gateways.

A frequent attack method occurs when the perpetrator externally attacks the server so that regular traffic is left with little or no response making it unavailable. This results in the computer or server being reset or the communication between users and the equipment fails.

Preventative Measures

Luckily there are a few methods to stop these attacks. Many web hosting providers utilize a Proxy Shield that can handle a DDoS attack up to 4GB per second. This is one of the most effective security measures available to date. It is also one of the most expensive so only large corporations can afford them.

To handle smaller DDoS incidents, hardware and software firewalls will generally do the trick. These stop the DDoS attack in the initial stage so little information is lost and the equipment can function normally.

Preventative Measures for an Apache Web Server

There is a specific method to stopping a DDoS attack on an Apache Web Server called mod-evasive. This is a module configured specifically for the Apache web server that can stop even the hardest hitting DDoS attacks, can be used for traffic detection, work with firewalls and send abuse reports.

This measure creates an internal table of IP addresses that will deny any single IP that’s blacklisted, that’s attempting to access a page numerous times or that’s launching more than 50 simultaneous connections per second from the same line. This technique eliminates attacks from a single-server attacker to a highly distributed attacker.

Mod_evasion has a built-in scaling capability with a cleanup procedure. Due to the design, only scripted attacks are recognized and blocked so that legitimate requests remain in tact and functional. A user can even click the reload button numerous times in a row and the system will identify that it isn’t a threat.

Security has been an issue in the computing industry for years. With hackers becoming more insightful with workarounds, combating their methods is proving to be more difficult. This security measure adds an extra level of protection to those utilizing an Apache server.

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Bursting Five Managed Hosting Misconceptions

More small and medium sized companies are thriving due to the benefits of managed hosting. However, with the popularity has come various myths about this service that have done nothing but confuse interested customers. To keep you in line with the facts, this article will debunk five of the most common misconceptions about managed hosting.

1.) Managed Hosting is a Completely Outsourced Solution

The way some describe it, managed hosting is a type of service that completely alleviates you from server administration and daily management tasks, a fully outsourced service that does not require you to lift a finger. In most cases, this isn’t true. While you typically get far more automated assistance than offered by a dedicated hosting provider, the level of managed services all depends on the price, package and host you select. Even when signing on for a fully managed contact, you will still be responsible for design, promotion and the basic administration of your site.

2.) Only Inexperienced Users Need Managed Services

Many have the misconception that managed hosting is strictly designed for businesses and individuals who lack the abilities needed to maintain a web server. This comes from the fact that managing a dedicated server requires a certain level of technical skills, which is the reason that several choose to outsource these tasks to another company. Be that as it may, managed hosting can benefit all types of customers, even those who are well versed in administration and know their way around a web server.

3.) Managed Hosting is More Reliable

Almost all companies will promise you a respectable uptime and reliable service. The same holds true for managed hosting providers. Although you have your own server, there are still many incidents that could possibly result in service interruptions and downtime. The reliability you get from a managed hosting solution all depends on the company you choose. If they have taken the time to build a stable infrastructure with redundant systems, downtime should be a very rare occurrence.

4.) Managed Hosting is More Secure

One of the biggest misconceptions you can fall into is automatically assuming that a managed hosting provider will keep your server secure. Most companies take the necessary steps to detect and prevent common threats such as malware, intrusion, DDoS attacks and other exploits. What you should know is that no server or web hosting system is ever 100% protected. Different strains of malicious software are released on a frequent basis and hackers grow more sophisticated everyday. This is why it is so important for both you and your managed hosting provider to make security a priority.

5.) Managed Hosting is Cost Prohibitive

In general, managed hosting is more expensive that your typical dedicated server plan. However, it can also result in tremendous cost savings for your business. These savings are obtained by the fact that you don’t have to make any costly upfront investment on hardware, software or infrastructure. You can also spare yourself from having to hire a professional IT team. At the very least, you can keep staffing expenses to a minimum. Over the long run, managed hosting can be far more cost effective than leasing a dedicated server.

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Maintaining Redundancy at a Colocation Facility

Colocation facilities are buildings that house the networking equipment of a business that can choose to have the facility manage the servers or they can monitor it themselves. Unfortunately if the facilities are inadequate, the result is damaged equipment and downtime which leads to lost business. The best features of a colocation facility are redundancy and capacity.

An Overview of Redundancy

Redundancy is the ability of a system to distribute the load from a failed system across the remaining pieces of equipment without any performance issues or overload. One major issue with colocation facilities is there is no industry standard, regulations or rankings. As a result, it is often difficult to detect the quality of the redundancy systems.

Redundancy Calculation

Redundancy can be calculated with the formula n+1 which indicates that a system is meeting its optimal capacity plus one unit. For instance, if two UPSs are in the overall power system, each should be running at 50 percent to balance the load. If one fails, the other system can maintain the load. If there are three UPSs then each manages 33 percent of the load and if one fails, they each handle half of the third.

In an ideal situation at a colocation facility, systems will be paralyzing redundant with many units running at the n+1 setting with each unit being able to manage the remaining load if all other systems fail.

Powering Redundant Servers

The most important aspect of redundant servers is power. Without it, the equipment will not work thus creating downtime. Power outages can stop the cooling systems (potentially resulting in equipment damage), fire suppressant systems and Internet connections which can be disastrous for the customer.

How to Maintain Redundancy

To maintain redundancy at the server level it is important to keep the colocation facility powered with generators in case of an outage, ensure the generators can handle a large power load and inspect circuit breakers and switches regularly. Switches tend to be the most common point of failure.

The basic premise is that colocation facilities should have backups of everything; backup and redundant servers, backup generators, backup of the backup generators, backup cooling and backup Internet connections. Although it may seem excessive, the clients that rely on these facilities to operate their business expect the best and close to 100 percent uptime. Maintain redundancy at a colocation facility takes a great deal of work to be secure.

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Domain vs URL: Understand the differences

They look very similar. But, many people may be confused between a Domain vs URL. In this article we will explain their difference and show some examples, to clarify these concepts.

What is a domain name?

Firstly, a domain name (RFC 1035) is an internet resource name. It locates an organization or other entity on the Internet. In general, a domain name is an address via which internet users can access your website. The Domain names are assigned as per the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System (DNS protocol). Any publicly accessible name in the DNS is a domain name.

To access any web-based service a user needs to use a valid domain name.

Examples of domain names: want2host.com, google.com, yahoo.com

What is an URL?

URL stands for the Uniform Resource Locator (RFC 1738). It is a unique identifier that is used for locating the files on the internet. It’s a web address, that we use to identify a specific resource on the network.

The URL contains:

◈ Protocol: usually HTTP or HTTPS
◈ Subdomain: usually www
◈ Domain name
◈ Path + internal page
◈ GET parameters

The Elements Of  an URL

http://                          www.                              want2host.com                      /p/top-10-hosting.html

Protocol                   SubDomain                         Domain Name                              Path + Page

Examples of URLs:

http://www.google.com/

http://www.yahoo.com/login/index.php

http://www.gmail.com/login/?active=1&inbox=0

Domain name vs URL. How to extract the domain name from the URL

There are differences between URL and domain names. The URL is a string of information providing complete address of the web page on the internet. Whereas domain name is a part of URL which is a user-friendly form of IP address. We use the URL for identifying a particular web page.

For example, http://www.want2host.com/index.html is a complete URL. “www.want2host.com” is the domain name.

Moreover, the subdivisions of URL are done on the basis of the method, hostname (domain name), port and path. However, the domain name is a subdomain, domain and top-level domain,

What is a subdomain?

Simply, subdomain or also referred to as a child domain is domain name with a prefix. It is basically part of the main domain name. For example, www.want2host.com is a URL and “www” is the subdomain.

The organization of domain names (by countries)

Each country organizes its domain names according to a hierarchy. So, the Internet domain names come in four major types.  For instance, they are top-level domains, second-level domains, third-level domains, and country domains. These domains are further segregated into the subsections so as to provide information about the various given domains.

For organizing the domain names for countries, each nation in the world is designated a top-level Internet domain. Each of them has a unique two-letter alphabetic code. Basically, each country has a specific entity, responsible to their top-level domains (TLD’s).

When we consider domain vs URL, only the domain name may have a relation with a specific country. So, the URL is not “country-sensitive”.

Some examples of country-specific TLD’s:

◈ Brazil – .br

◈ Italy – .it

◈ Portugal – .pt

◈ Mexico – .mx

◈ China – .cn

◈ Russia – .ru

◈ India –  .in

Examples of international TLD’s (domain extensions not related to a specific country):

◈ .com

◈ .net

◈ .org

◈ .info

◈ .biz

◈ .blog

What are the differences between HTTP and HTTPS in the URL

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a protocol. In other words, it’s a set of rules and standards.

Moreover, the hyper-text exchanged using HTTP goes as plain text. Thus this protocol is not secure and is susceptible to interception. Whereas, on the other hand, HTTPS is a secure protocol. It works in conjunction with TLS/SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate. The certificate, then, is to ensure the authentication of the flow of information between the browser and the server.

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Shared Hosting vs WordPress Hosting: Which One Should You Use?

When creating a website, one of the most important decisions you’ll make is what type of hosting plan to purchase. If you use a platform like WordPress, you’ll need hosting in order for your website to be available online. What’s more, selecting the right option is vital.

Two of the most popular choices for first-time website owners are shared hosting and WordPress hosting. Shared hosting is a type of low-cost plan where you share space on a server with other sites. WordPress hosting (which can be shared or not) means that the server comes optimized with the specific platform in mind.

In this post, we’ll talk you through your main hosting options, and explain how to find a plan that suits your needs. Let’s get started!

An Introduction to Shared Hosting

Put simply, a web hosting plan is a service that enables you to rent space for your website on a server. This is what gets your site online, and enables people to visit it. There are many different types of hosting plans available, however, and each one differs in terms of price and potential benefits.

One of the most common options is a shared hosting plan, where a single server is split between multiple websites. This is in contrast to dedicated hosting, where a single site has a physical server all to itself. Shared hosting is a popular choice for new and smaller sites, largely due to its low cost (often $5 per month or less).

While price is the primary benefit, there are some potential downsides to this kind of hosting. You’ll have to share resources with other websites, for example, which means your performance can suffer if those sites get a lot of traffic. Security can also be a concern, although a quality provider will offer additional protections.

What’s more, a standard shared hosting plan is not your only option. You can also opt for something more specific to the platform you’re using.

The Differences Between Shared Hosting and WordPress Hosting

As the name suggests, WordPress hosting is web hosting that has been optimized for the needs of a WordPress website. It’s important to understand that this isn’t a type of plan in the same way that shared hosting is. WordPress hosting can be shared, dedicated, or something else entirely.

What matters is that WordPress hosting better meets the performance and security needs of sites built using the platform. You may also get access to platform-specific features such as pre-installed sites, automatic WordPress updates, and dedicated WordPress support.

The details of your plan will depend on the provider you choose, of course. In addition, many hosts also offer both managed and unmanaged WordPress hosting plans. Unmanaged plans leave site optimization and server management up to you. A managed plan is slightly more expensive, but provides you with a lot more help keeping your site running smoothly.

How to Decide Which Type of Plan Is Best for Your Site

Both traditional shared hosting and WordPress hosting are viable options, making it difficult at times to choose the right one. However, directly comparing the two can make the decision easier.

Especially when you’re first starting out, one of the main criteria to consider is cost. As previously mentioned, shared hosting is about as cheap as it gets. This makes it a perfect option for those setting up new websites and blogs.

However, you’ll find that shared, WordPress-specific hosting plans can be almost or just as affordable as more platform-agnostic options. For that reason, it’s well worth looking into a WordPress hosting plan for most sites. A WordPress plan will be carefully designed to address the needs of your specific site, which is a significant benefit.

If you have the budget for it, you may also want to look into managed WordPress hosting. While these plans are often pricier, you’ll have a more efficient and secure site that’s taken care of by platform experts. This is an especially strong option for those completely new to WordPress, as well as business owners who don’t have the time or expertise to handle performance and security concerns personally.

Ultimately, there’s no one ‘correct’ choice of hosting for every website. You’ll need to assess the individual needs of your business and site. However, most WordPress users will be better off with a plan that takes their specific needs into account, whether that’s a shared option or something more powerful.

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