I hope you are having a nice time reading articles here at Icethunder.net, although I know I have started to get a little lazy over the last couple of weeks, but this will change!

Icethunder has a new look and this scheme has been adapted at some other places as well [e.g. Twitter.com/icethundernet]. I hope you will enjoy this new look and I am looking forward to many more articles.

Have a nice day and do not forget to follow Twitter and Facebook as many hosting and domain registration companies now tend to post special offers right there!

Ramhost.us has proved to be a reliable company. They managed to work the things out pretty quickly + they were able respond to  my silly [sometimes] trouble tickets in time. Thanks and good luck!

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Due to some issues after server maintenance I will not update the blog ’till Tuesday 22-9-2010 to not loose anything, or make the things worse [as one article is already missing, but I should have a back up somewhere  ]

Good luck to ramhost.us in their effort to get everything back to normal state!

Thank you for visiting

Icethunder.net would like to thank Hawkhost.com for their great service while we were hosted by them. It was a very nice stay without any problems or issues.

Key things I liked about Hawkhost:

• Helpfull staff
• Support does not discard your email when you send it to the wring department. They send it to the right person and even notify you about your mistake
• Set up times are great
• The server and everything around is OK
• Icethunder recommends Hawkhost.com for their professional and great level of service

A more detailed review will follow shortly Have a nice day!

The other option is to watch and listen to my podcast. Currently there are none, but they will be during summer to offer you even more ways how to stay tuned in

Until than have a nice day and see you next time!

1. Check hosting forums as many hosting companies tend to offer new specials at the beginning of a new month. It’s is always good to know what specials are around right at the beginning of a month. It gives you more time to evaluate all offers and choose one fitting your needs.
2. It’s is not only about hosting forums, but it is also very valuable and clever to also subscribe to news feeds, blog updates, Twitter updates and even join the Facebook site of some web hosting companies. This way you will be ready for everything. You will know all regarding the company and you will be able to react in an appropriate manner.
3. Always look for places to learn something new. It may not seem as a very effective way to be a part of  a hosting forum, but you would be surprised how many things you can learn this way. You can learn lots of stuff, that might prove very useful in a few days or months. You don’t need to be very active. it is enough to be a member and read only those thread you regard as valuable to your online project

I hope this helped you a little bit and I gave you something to thing about in June! Have a nice day and see you next time!

Regular user point of view

A regular user just log’s into his account from whatever Internet connection and computer he may have at his disposal and does not care that much about security. He just wants to log in to his accounts and check whatever he needs to check. He does not care, but the same regular user is very unhappy when someone has stolen his credit card information or misused his personal data.

After something bad happens to his personal data he blames everyone, but not himself most of the time, but security online starts right where you sit. It’s your responsibility to thoroughly check if your computer does not have any virus, trojans and other kinds of malware. I would say a firewall is a must and regularly updates of the operating system should not be underestimated!

There is a difference between having an anti-virus installed and actually using it for scanning for malware. You should perform at least weekly scans and I would highly suggest at least a “smart scan”, before you perform any financial transaction on the web.

At first it might look like a waste of time, but you never know when this could save you a lot of time, money and nerves!

The security point of view

Everything you are sending over the Internet is sent in  the form of so called “packets”. These packets carry lots of information, and I will not go into the details, but I have to tell you, that they are formatted in a certain way. For the purpose of this blog I just need to show you one important thing.

There are two widely used protocols to access web pages. The first one is HTTP. It’s an insecure protocol and all you send trough HTTP is send in plain text. You log in trough a web site like “http://www.domain_name.com”, which does not use SSL, and you’re sending your data in plain text. Password and username are easily intercepted by a possible attacker!

The second one is HTTPS and the last “S” stands for  “Secure”. What this protocol does before actually sending your data over the wire is, that it encrypts the data and only the other side intended to receive this data is able to decrypt it and to read it. The HTTPS is widely used while communicating with your bank, or wherever you enter your personal information and credit card info.

I would recommend you to always make sure your hosting company uses HTTPS during your sign up, sign in and while you are entering any sensitive information. This way you and your data stay secure while on the Internet

Have a nice day and good luck!

Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

1. Always check your VPS and perform daily updates

It’s because you never know what could go wrong!!! Some time ago it hit even me. I performed daily updates, tried to secure my VPS as good as I only could, but then I had to go out for work for a few days and in this short time my VPS got hacked. It’s not a very pleasant feeling when you can’t log in to your server

The only solution I was able to think about is to reinstall the whole operating system as quickly as possible and perform even better security measures. Make sure you do not leave your server without a guardian who watches it whether it’s OK if you know you will not be able to care about it for a few days.  Daily back up are a must I think, but I will mention i here as well. The damage the attack had on me was not big as I use the server only for testing purposes, but it could  be bad. The worst thing is, that you are responsible for the server and if it’s used in an unlawful way, than it’s a problem you could possible face

Why did I reinstall the whole thing?

If you even get hacked and you are not an admin of a production system, than it’s a pretty good thing to reinstall the whole VPS server. If you have back ups than it’s no problem at all By only scanning the PC and checking the firewall you could miss something and it could lead to even more problems. It’s only good to don’t touch anything if you know what you are doing and you are a very experienced administrator!

That’s all for today! Have a nice day and see you next time here at Icethunder.net!

I hope you have found some interesting and usefull stuff here. As this is a blog and not a review or how to web site it’s not possible to publish all the articles at once. But if you are patient enough I am sure I will provide the whole picture and than this blg will be far better and on a higher level then most of the “how to” or “review” web sites

Thank you all for visiting and good luck on your way to find the best hosting package! Have a nice day and see you at Icethunder.net.

Until then try to look into the different categories and find what you are looking for!

From what I have learned:

• You should not start with a VPS unless your projects really needs this kind of environment.
• If you think your project needs a VPS right from the start make sure you order a Fully Managed VPS if you do not know how to configure and secure a web server or if you don’t have an administrator to do it for you!
• Basic management and/or Unmanaged means nearly the same: You will need to do all the securing, setting up and configuration alone! Buy this sort of plan only if you know what you are doing! To read a quick tutorial is not enough!!!
• Always read the Terms of Service and Service level agreement!!! It’s even more important than by shared hosting! You are responsible for the virtual server! There might be high fees for re-installation or technical assistance with unmanaged VPS in the ToS!
• Do you wanna go the VPS way alone and despite all the aforementioned problems? Than start learning LINUX!!! Debian and CentOS are what  have fond to be mostly used [Ubuntu, Fedora etc. are popular too]. Debian is stable and very mature. CentOS, on the other hand is more up2date, but don’t forget they both use different package managers and most importantly you will have to use a CONSOLE / TERMINAL and no GUI to help you! Knowledge of Gnu/Linux is thus a must!

After searching for the right VPS in the last couple of weeks I can say, that you can never say how valuable forum posts really are! There are people out there ready to help you. They are ready to give you their opinions and many times it’s really good to ask questions before you make the wrong decisions or assumptions. It’s not good to just blindly believe in what one review site tells you. Always try to ask and you will get a better and bigger picture!

In the coming weeks I will write some article with my experience and hopefully they will be useful to some of you. This blog still stays a shared critique hosting, but I will start to implement VPS hosting news, review and critique, too! Hopefully you will like this new style.

The other news is that in a couple of weeks [sometime in MARCH] Icethunder.net will get a new design! Until than do not forget to write your comments to the articles and/or ask questions about topics or things you would like to see answered discussed. Have a nice day!

Hi there

I think you already realized I have not posted anything for quite a time, but don’t panic I did not decide to stop, but I am currently involved in 2 other projects and thus I have to prioritize and shift my attention between all of them. It should not take too long though and in a couple of days [Sunday or Monday] I should return to full time Icethunder.net

Until than I would like to tell you to really look carefully before you decide to sign up with a specific company, but at the same time you should not be too paranoid. Maybe you think you are not paranoid at all, but believe me, even I catched myself in a paranoid mood in recent days while searching trough tons of VPS plans to fit one of the projects needs… . It’s always good to be careful, but even being careful does not mean you should freak out and search for evidence for days… Sometimes it’s good to make quick decisions, but think before you make them if they are worth th risk!

Have a nice day!

PS: ICETHUNDER.NET should be back after some hard work on other projects, with tons of new stuff and new ideas on the Valentine’s day! Don’t forget to take a look!