Hands-on Web Hosting Blog

People often purchase a server with a single drive, and hope that nothing goes wrong with it.  When you’re putting your business online, you really should be a with a host that offers RAID on their servers.  The last thing you want to have happen is for the hard drive to fail, but with RAID, you can usually skate by with a drive failure as another drive is already on the system with all the information (Except in RAID O).

When choosing a dedicated server, it’s also recommended to have RAID.  For the few extra dollars a month that it costs, it’s worth every penny when you don’t have to stress about your website offline and all your hard earned work gone. Read more…

Hosting made easy with cPanel

While not necessarily a cPanel Bug, since so many of our customers are cPanel users, it was best to fit the issue here.  Basically there is an issue with SpamAssassin since the roll over of the date to 01/01/2010.

Spam Assassin has an issue in that it automatically sets the spam score to 3.19 for any mail that is sent (or received) during the 2010 year.  This issue has already been addressed on all Hands-on Web Hosting Server through an automatic server update, but if you’re running your own server or a VPS machine, you may want to sit up and take notice of the commands needed to resolve the issue. Read more…

Painless cPanel Web Hosting

Web Hosting with cPanel and WHM

cPanel is a Unix-based web hosting panel that provides a graphical interface designed to simplify the process of web hosting. The simplicity stems from the automation of tools such that the user can easily navigate through the control panel without much problem. It makes use of a 3-tier structure that makes it easier for the users (whether administrators, resellers, or consumers) to control the many aspects and functions of the website just by using a standard web browser. It is simple yet not many web hosting companies are offering such service. Companies that offer cPanel web hosting are enjoying brisk business because more and more people are finding the benefits of a simplified web hosting graphical interface. The popularity stems from the simplicity accorded to a rather complicated structure at the backend. This means that even those who are new to the web hosting realm can easily make use of the interface and have a website running in no time. However, not all web hosting companies know how to properly implement the system, that is, they do not know to optimize it.

The good thing is that established web hosting companies are now offering cPanel web hosting services that will help clients get the most of the intuitive control interface. Since cPanel can function as a dedicated server or virtual private server, there is legroom to customize it based on the needs of the companies. What’s more, cPanel supports popular platforms such as Linux, Red Hat, and CentOS, among others. Customization is essential so as to align the functions of the website to the objectives of the company. This means that regardless of the type of website, cPanel can be tailored-fit to meet the requirements of the site, whether it be a blog, an online shop, a forum, etc.

Before signing a deal with a chosen webhost, it is important to first review the service offerings. The basic items to look for are the disk space, bandwidth, backup services, email, databases, dedicated IP addresses, and SSL.  There is a need to evaluate these categories based on the requirements of the website. It is important to match the needs with the offerings, otherwise, problems and technical issues may arise along the way and it may be too late to address the issues midstream.  Once these factors are considered, the cPanel web hosting aspect of the service should be carefully evaluated to ensure that there will be an understanding that all requirements will be met once the system is put in place. Reliability is a big requirement when considering getting the services of a web hosting company. Needless to say, the companies should only deal with web hosts whose reputation precedes them. It is easy to be swayed by low cost services and products, but once the downtimes rear their ugly heads, the business runs the risk of losing money because of lost opportunities that could have been converted into profits had the web hosting infrastructure been carefully evaluated in the first place.

For more on good deals and great pricing on web hosting check out http://www.handsonwebhosting.com

Are you using Linux on your home or work PC’s?  Maybe you’re using them for web hosting?  If you haven’t updated to the latest Kernel in the past couple of days, your kernel may be vulnerable.

The exploit affects ALL Linux Kernels since 2001.  Red Hat, Ubuntu, SuSE, rPath, Pardus, MandrakeSoft, Generic Linux Kernels, Conectiva, Slackware, Debian, CentOS – you name it, it’s vulnerable!

Discovered by members of the Google Security Team (Travis Ormandy an Julien Tinnes) all versions of Linux since 2001 are susceptible to the “Linux Kernel ‘sock_sendpage()’ NULL Pointer Dereference”.  Basically this means that someone can map to the Zero Address and bypass mmap_min_addr which can allow a hacker to execute shell code which will then grant that user root shell access.

The fix is very easy – upgrade the kernel!  If you have YUM installed on the server, running a simple “yum update” will pull in the latest version of the Kernel that you’re running (provided you’re not excluding it in your yum.conf file).  At that point just restart the machine and you’re back in business.

Details to the exploit can be found on the following URLs:

• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/36038/references
• https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=516949

Hands-on Web Hosting has already patched all shared hosting servers, VPS machines and dedicated servers under the server management program with us.  If you have a dedicated server with Hands-on and run into problems applying the necessary upgrade, just drop us a note in our helpdesk for further instruction: http://support.handsonwebhosting.com

I received a phone call today from a potential client who asked the ultimate question – “What’s the BEST web hosting package?“.  He didn’t ask which one was right for him, he just wanted the best and for me to not beat around the bush giving him examples of what is better under what circumstances.  The fact of the matter however is that there is no BEST web hosting package, heck, there’s not even a BEST Web Host out there, it’s all relative.  The correct question would have been – “What’s the best web hosting package for me?”

What’s the best car?  What’s the best shoes?  What’s the best piece of meat?  It’s all relative as to what it is that you want to do with it.  What’s good for Bob may not be good for Joe, and just because both of those guys like something, it doesn’t mean that Mary is going to like it!  So let’s have a look at what makes up the best web hosting package for the various people.

If you’re running an online store, you will want to not only choose a host who knows how to secure a server for online transactions, but also one that is reliable, and preferably one that knows about the software that you plan to run.  X-Cart and Magento are two of the popular software stores that we get requests on, and each has their own quirks.  X-Cart is a memory hog, so if you don’t have a server optimized for it, you’ll find the store running slow, and sometimes failing.  Magento on the other hand requires certain modules to be installed on a server in order to operate correctly.  MOST hosts do not have those modules installed, so you’ll want to be with someone who knows about the product.   Can the software work on a small hosting package?  In most cases, yes.  But if you decide to put 100+ products online, you’ll probably want to have a server that can keep up with those demands, and more often than not a $5.00/month package can’t keep up.

If you’re running an online store, get a hosting package that is geared for eCommerce hosting.  Also, see if you can get a host that monitors their servers and doesn’t overload their servers with clients.  Remember, the more clients on a machine, the less resources you have for your site.  Here at Hands-on, we generally have no more than about 20 eCommerce packages on a single machine, whereas other hosts may put up to 1000 customers, and then shut you off because you used too much CPU or too much memory.

Free hosting generally isn’t good for most people, but there are some that it can work for.  Small organizations on a budget, even some church websites will run just fine on a small package.  Be aware of advertising – the last thing you want is your organization devoted to children being sponsored/advertised with Adult XXX pictures and sites.

The small UltraLite hosting package that we offer is usually a good fit for just about everyone from a blog to a picture site and even some online stores.  The budget and standard packages are generally the same package, but with more space and bandwidth.

Mini eCommerce hosting is a great step into the online commerce world in that it allows you to have an SSL Certificate installed on your site (needed for encryption of sensitive information – passwords, credit card information etc).  The eCommerce package is the final step prior to having your own server.

VPS or Virtual Private Servers are your next step up from the eCommerce package and the step before getting your own machine.  You can do pretty much everything that a larger dedicated computer can do.  Customize modules, control the environment and even do reselling of hosting if you wanted to.  Once you outgrow this package, the Dedicated Servers are your next step.

Dedicated Servers take on a whole new set of problems and solutions in that you can run multiple machines so that you never have a site offline.  You can position servers at various parts of the country or the world so that your users get the information as fast as possible.  Multiple machines also means faster processing of information.

So what’s the right hosting package for you?  My personal recommendation is to always start small and build your way up to the larger products.  There’s no point in spending $200/month on a dedicated server when $36.95/month can accomplish the same tasks!  The more traffic you get, and the busier your site becomes, then the faster the machine you need, and you’ll need to move from a low end dedicated server to a high end server.

If you need help making a decision on what direction to go, feel free to contact any of our sales agents and they’ll help you evaluate your needs and system requirements and help make a decision for you.  Any hosting company that says “this is the best package” is likely not taking YOUR needs into consideration.

More information on Hands-on Web Hosting can be found at http://www.handsonwebhosting.com